Friday's Letters

Dear Friday, You are finally here! I don't think the metro Atlanta area has ever been more excited for a Friday. Or 50 degree weather. Dear Snow & Ice, You were pretty, but you have out stayed your welcome. It's safe to say you won't be missed. Dear Work, Please be gentle to us today. It's going to be a day of catch up and very angry customers. Dear Atlanta, I have never been more proud to be an ATLien then now. People from all walks of life came together to help those who were stranded. People took strangers into their homes, brought stranded motorists food and drinks, helped deliver a baby, opened up their stores to let people get in a heated place for the night, and countless other acts of kindness. This is what it means to be an ATLien. FILA. Dear Pat, Thank you for so diligently taking care of me over the past week. Not only did I come down with a severe cold on Sunday, I also managed to have some sort of a stomach virus on Monday. They way you have served me this past week has been so humbling. Je t'aime beaucoup! 

ATL and Snow

My post yesterday was lighthearted, today not so much. I am asking you to please pray for everyone who has been trapped in their cars, work, schools since lunch time yesterday. Yes, yesterday. There are people who have been in their cars for 18+ hours and there is no end in sight. All streets and highways in Atlanta are sheets of ice right now. We were told over and over again how GDOT was prepared for this storm, and we wouldn't have a remake of 2011. Some would argue this is worse. Please pray for the safety of those stranded. This means no food or restroom for 18 hours for many. Please keep them all in your thoughts and prayers today. Thank you. 

Here is what some are dealing with- 

Southern Snow Day

We are in the midst of one of the extremely rare snowstorms we get here down in Atlanta. The city is basically shut down, people are having 2+ hour drives home, kids are stuck at school because the buses can't run, and it hasn't even snowed a whole inch yet! It's beautiful and making me wish we had a fireplace. For now I'm going to enjoy some Netflix binging. Maybe we'll get to play later! Snow days are so much as an adult, but don't tell the kids that ;) 

Here is my office complex just as the snow was starting-

And our house an hour later-

It's still coming down out there! Excuse me while I bask in a winter wonderland. Winter today, 60s on Saturday. That statement alone describes the south and our weather. 

If y'all are down here, I hope you're enjoying this rare weather! If you're from out west or up north, please try not to laugh too hard ;) 

Super Bowl Food Part 1- Sausage Balls

I don't know about y'all, but I love football. I love everything about it- the food, the tailgating, the atmosphere... I could go on. Being in the south, I am all about college football. We eat, breathe and live college football down here. I'm kind of sad that it is over, but I can't wait for the Super Bowl! The Super Bowl is one of the few days I feel very okay about just letting my whole diet go. I can't wait for all the good dips and bite sized foods.

For this link up I am sharing one of my favorite dishes that my roommate and I perfected in college, Sausage Balls! These are super easy to make and they are so good. My roommate and I would crave these and just randomly make them. We took them to a lot of tailgates and they never lasted long! Most people have this recipe or one similar to it. It is so easy and doesn't take long to make!

Ingredients:
1 pound of packaged sausage (mild or hot)
3 cups of Bisquick
4 cups of grated sharp cheddar cheese
Pepper (I just eyeball how much I'm going to use)

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees before you begin making the sausage balls.

Ingredients- I forgot to take a picture before I unwrapped the sausage. Whoops!

We use hot sausage- soooooo good

Put all of your ingredients in to the same bowl and just work them all together. Since the ingredients are so dry the mixture won't all stick together like a batter would. Don't panic if it looks like it is all just looking like crumbs! You have done nothing wrong :)

All of the ingredients mixed together

Once you have worked all of the ingredients together start to form them into 1-inch balls. I just eyeball the balls and make them till they are all a little smaller than golf balls. The moisture and fat from the sausage and cheese will allow the balls to stay in the ball form.

Once you have all of them formed stick the sausage balls in the oven for 20 minutes. I usually do it for less, but our oven cooks really fast. Pat always laughs at me because he thinks I have this weird ability to just know when food is done even if the timer hasn't gone off. I really just bake by the belief that if you can really smell what ever is baking it is most likely baked all the way through or is almost done. 

Slightly brown and done :)

I hope you enjoy these! Please let me know if you try them. You won't regret it!

January over the years

And by years I mean the past 4...

Over the past 4 Januarys I have gone from girlfriend, to almost a graduate, to engaged, to finally employed, and now to wifey! Woah. It's seriously hard for me to believe that 4 years ago I was at the beginning of my last semester of college (serious frown face right here). I loved my college experience and wouldn't change a thing! Well, maybe I should have studied a little more ;)

2011
I'm getting really sad that college was 4 years ago. I miss my sweet little college town with my favorite football and baseball teams! Oh, what I would give to still be able to get student prices to games (Free- $7!!). There is nothing like tailgating in the Junction before a football game or watching a baseball game from Left Field Lounge at Dudy Noble. It's the number one place to watch college baseball. I ain't lying, people!! See-
http://www.stadiumjourney.com/news/06-18-2013/382/2013-ncaa-baseball-ballpark-rankings/

Sorry, I just loved my school so much that it's hard not to brag about it :)
Now back to the point of this post!

It snowed in MS!! It was my sweet friends first time to ever see snow! What a joy it was to see the pure joy on her face.

It snowed TWICE that January! We may or may not have been breaking a few rules by taking our pictures on the football field ;)

Back when we were dating. Some how those earrings of his have disappeared ;)

2012

We got engaged this January! I'll do less talking and let the pictures show you how great of a month it really was!

Yep, we are self proclaimed nerds. We got engaged at Harry Potter World on January 6, 2012.

This sweet friend made the trip with us and ended up making our wedding cake-

Poor Sarah had no idea he was going to propose. She did pretty good thinking on her feet with that camera though!

And because I was just bragging she made our wedding cake-

Best cake I have ever had. I'm not just saying that because it was my wedding cake. It really was. Yellow cake with a key lime cure and graham cracker strudel. Drooling over here.

Back to January 2012-

I just happened to be re-reading the 6th HP book. I had to take this picture- of course!

January 2013

We got to spend our New Year in New Orleans with some of my sweet friends from college. This Pat's first trip ever to the Crescent City. I think it's safe to say that he fell in love with it.

Jackson Square

Down by the river watching the fireworks

2014
We're married! We took it easy this New Year Eve because I had to work, but we have been busy this whole month! (It's almost February?!) Our biggest adventure so far has been Nashville-

Opryland

I hope I didn't bore y'all too much! It's crazy how much has changed over the past 4 years. I can't wait to see where we are in 2018!


This idea came from Erin over at the blog "Love, Fun and Football" Go check her out and he designs. She's working on a new design for me right now, and I can't wait for y'all to see it! She is fabulous!

Nashville- My 3rd favorite Southern city

Behind Atlanta and Charleston. Of course. If you have never been to Charleston even just for a weekend, just go. You will not regret it.

ANYWAY- My whole family went to Nashville for MLK weekend. We stopped in Franklin on our way up to have Brunch with some of our cousins. It was so. good. to see them. It had been a long time, and they were not able to make it to our wedding. It always does my soul some good to see Terri and Bill and their 4 boys. I need to break and talk about how good the Lord is for just one moment. Around this time a year ago, Bill had a massive stroke while driving his car. About 18% of people survive these strokes. He was one of the lucky few. Now, this was the first time for us to see Bill since his stroke. I literally cannot Praise the Lord enough for the provision he has had over Bills life. Bill is walking (with a walker) and has some movement back in his left side. I can tell it was so good for them to have people over to their house even for just a little bit.

My mom and our cousin, Terri

Once we got back on the road we headed to our hotel- THE Gaylord Opryland. OMG, y'all. OMG. This place was fab.u.lous. My brother's were digging it and kept telling kids they couldn't run around the hotel because it was a 4 start hotel. I loved this place because it was like a hotel in Vegas minus all of the casinos and bars. I went to Vegas with my parents in high school and loved seeing all of the cool hotels, but all that smoke and gambling? Not for me.

Room with a view! My brothers look way too old in this picture...

So I went a little picture crazy inside the hotel. Excuse the poor quality. We are in the middle of trying to save up for a new laptop AND camera. My laptop is dead and Pat's is on it's last leg...

Saturday night we went to the Grand Ole Opry, and we somehow lucked out and got to see the show in the old auditorium. They are fixing the new auditorium after breaking some things while taking down the Christmas decorations. I have to say though, I think I like the old auditorium better. Seems more like the Grand Ole Opry to me :) We got to see a great show- Connie Smith, Ricky Skaggs, Diamond Rio and Clare Bowen (from the TV show Nashville).

Pat and I at the Grand Ole Opry

Old creaky pews? My kind of place!

Diamond Rio

Clare Bowen

Inside our hotel after the show :)

Sunday we went to the Country Music Hall of Fame and just wondered around Broadway. Pat and my brothers came away the winners of the day- all three got brand new boots! A store on Broadway was selling boots for Buy One, Get Two Pairs Free- seriously!! Talk about a steal!!

Sunday night we were having trouble finding a place to eat in our hotel. There are about 10 restaurants in there and they went from all being open to only 3 being open that night. Of course he managed to talk us into the steak house and got us the best table in the house. Sigh, at least I got something good out of his talking this time ;)

Excuse my attire. We were just trying to find out if we could in the restaurant at any point. I was planning to change when they told us we could eat there if we sat down right away.

The restaurant was AMAZING. Apparently they have been voted the best steakhouse in Nashville for 8 years running. We seriously lucked out getting to eat there! The steakhouse itself is in what is supposed to be an old antebellum home inside the hotel. Gorgeous!

The hotel at night. Again, please excuse the terrible quality of pictures!

My momma :)

Todd (my step dad) and I :)

All-in-all we had a great trip! It was great to get away even for just a little bit. I have always loved Nashville, and I can't wait for my next trip!

Adventures in the kitchen

Does any one else out there love Pinterest for it's recipes as much as I do? I'll be honest, I think I spent more time on Pinterest looking at food then I ever did looking at stuff for our wedding. Now I'm always on there looking for new things to add to our line up. We're in the process of learning how to make dishes without using those dang sodium filled seasoning packets. So far we have tacos and fajitas down to perfection. So between family recipes and ones from Pinterest we have really built p a big supply of recipes. I'm planning on adding some of our own here. Hope you all enjoy them :) 

We call this Bubble Bread. You might call it Monkey Bread.

We learned how to make a fried turkey this past year. New Thanksgiving tradition for us!

Chocolate Peppermint Crinkle cookies. Holy Moly. These babies are good.

I finally learned how to make cheesecake. Now it's been requested for all of my husband's future birthday's :)

We tag teamed this one- oven baked fajitas with a homemade spice blend. So. Freaking. Good.

If any of you live in Atlanta or in the Metro Atlanta Area, stop what you are doing and go to the Dekalb Farmers Market. Right Now. We were literally kicking ourselves the first time we went. They have a wall of freshly ground spices that will make you so happy but will make you want to scream for spending so much money at the grocery store. The second tub of spice in the left tower? That's chili powder... for $0.74! Seriously!! We l-o-v-e this place. We get our fresh produce from them every week and it just can't be beat. Their prices are so insanely good and you can get the exact things you need without over buying. Go there if you live here. You won't regret it!

Life Lately

Now that the holidays are over life has really calmed down for us. I love it. I'm more of a homebody so being at home and relaxing is my thing. I'm also in this mood to purge the things in our house we don't need. We'll be making a sizable donation to Salvation Army after this weekend. 

NYE at home with some of our best friends. Perfection.

NYE dessert- Skillet S'mores

This is now what i see every morning. He is the cat lover in this relationship.

She is not a fan of our weather right now. She now moves from heat vent to heat vent in our house.

This is NOT okay. I live in the south for a reason. One of those reasons is to avoid weather like THAT.

Here's to warm weather and rain this weekend! Perfect for staying inside with my windows open and purging ourselves of things we don't need. Hooray!

Flashback Friday

The hubby and I were talking the other day and we realized that we have known each other for 10 years. Ten. Years. I swear we were 15 just last week. Time really does fly by. The best part of this is that we have some really awkward cute pictures of us from when we were in high school. Ahhh, those awkward high school years. The days of when Al would tell us that we were going to get married. The days of awkward flirting but never really fully dating. Now, I am glad we were just friends for most of those 10 years. 

Here are a couple of pictures from the days of disposable cameras-

2003- our sophomore year of high school

2005- Senior year Homecoming 

We were babies! I miss those days sometimes. Uh, more like I miss being that small. I don't think I could squeeze back into my skort (ugh) no matter how hard I tried.