2009

In 2009....

....I settled into "married life" with relative ease.

....enjoyed being a home owner and all the fun stuff that comes along with it: building book cases, painting rooms, changing out hardware, and decorating.

....celebrated Jeremy's 29th birthday

....started and maintained (with relative regularity) a work out program.

....changed jobs - TWICE!

....made new friends.

....really started to love my church and the people there.

....celebrated marriages and babies with friends.

....vacationed to Savannah with Jeremy.

....lost my grandpa.

....celebrated my 31st birthday.

....commited to running another half-marathon in 2010.

It was a good year. Not "exciting" by some people's terms, but it was a great year in my book. I'm looking forward to 2010 and all that it holds.

Merry Christmas!

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and take time to celebrate the season!

"The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with JOY!" Psalm 126:3

It's Over This Time

Dear Grey's Anatomy,

I am bored with you and will no longer be tuning in. Thanks for a great five seasons, but I just can't do it anymore. Your characters are whiney, your storylines are sometimes silly, and I'm just finding myself uninterested.

Really, it's not you (totally), it's me.

Sincerely,
Marissa

p.s. This really helps me with my Thursday night TV line up. It was getting a little crowded on the ol' TiVo.

Cars

I thought I'd share a few more pictures from "Shades of the Past." This (apparently) is one of the largest classic car shows in the Southeast. I had never been before and let me just say I have NEVER seen that many old cars in one place before. It was really cool, I have to admit. Here's my cute nephew and my cute brother-in-law checking out one of the cars - this is the ONLY one they actually got to touch, let alone, sit in!

I'm a big fan of the old trucks. They're just so cool!

I've never been much on classic cars before, althought I do think they're neat to look at, but Jeremy is INTO these things. Currently, he has a 1940 and 1950 model Chevy that he's going to restore and a chopper that he's building in the garage. It's fun and I can't wait to ride around in those cars once they're done!

Pretty Savannah

At the Cotton Exchange on River Street...

Forsyth Park

Classic Savannah...

Breakfast!

One of the best meals I've ever had was today at The Breakfast Club in
Tybee Island, GA. Denver omelette, grits, rye toast and lots of
butter! If you ever get the chance, try it, it will not disappoint!

Shades of the Past

Here are a couple of pictures from the "Shades of the Past" car show in Pigeon Forge, TN...

This is my job...

I shop for work, like, a lot. You'd be surprised how many paper
products and such a senior center goes through. This is what I bought
today. I worried that I wouldn't be able to actually push the cart out
of the store! That bag of popcorn alone weighed 50 pounds. Oh, and
there are four cases of water hiding in there somewhere, too!

Final Days

My garden is fast approaching its end and I have been severely
neglecting it this week. Today I pulled up a tomato plant overrun with
green worms - ew! The garden is full of weeds, but still producing a
good bit of stuff, see...

Easy Peasy

I love to cook, especially when the recipes are nice and easy like these two. Enjoy!

Breakfast Smoothie

In a blender, combine:

1 packet instant plain oatmeal
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup milk
1 cup frozen fruit
1 teaspoon honey

Blend all together. Mmmmmmm, good. I think I found this smoothie recipe in Woman's Day (at work, I'm not a subscriber0 and I thought it sounded good. It IS good and quite filling. Of course, you could tweak it and add peanut butter, yogurt, or maybe a liiiiitle more milk as mine turned out pretty thick, but tasy nonetheless.

No Fail Cobbler

Preheat your oven to 350.

In a 2 1/2 quart casserole place 1 stick of butter. Place casserole in oven to melt butter.

In a separate bowl combine 1 cup milk, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup SELF RISING flour and a sprinkle or two of cinnamon.

Combine the flour mixture into the casserole with the melted butter.

Here's the fun part...add any kind of fruit you like! I used about 5 fresh peaches, peeled and sliced. You can use fresh, frozen (and then thawed) or canned. Dump it on top, then put it in the oven to bake until the crust is golden brown. The flour mixture will rise throughout the dish and make a crust on top. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream and you'll have one of the best cobblers ever!

Late Summer Blooms

I Spy

See the black car, by the pay booth, to the left-ish of the parking
lot? That's J and Kurt! E and I spied them from our hotel room window
in ATL all the way from the 21st floor.

The Brodster

Love this kiddo!

New bikes!

Meet our new Huffy bikes! Macie is mine and Rufus is Jeremy's - yes,
we named them. We rode all over the neighborhood tonight - so fun!
Can't wait to try them out when we go to Savannah late this summer.

My Messy Office

I am not a "messy" person. I can't believe my office looks like this! Anyone want to play "I Spy?"

Saturday's Harvest :)

Here's what I picked TODAY!

Two cucumbers, jalapeno and banana peppers, several okra, and a handful of cherry tomatoes! Guess I better get cookin'!

First Fruits!

Here's what I picked today! A squash, banana pepper, and 2 jalpenos! Yea!

More Gardening Stuff

Maybe I'm just a teeny bit obsessed with gardening this spring, but I really love it! It's been so much fun to watch things grow (successfully) and it's surprisingly good exercise, too.

Here's some pictures of the progress so far just for you, Jonathan and Ashley :)

Banana Peppers

Teeny little Bell Pepper

Lots of clusters of cherry tomatoes

One GIANT Beefmaster!

And some pretty petunias, too!

Garden Progress!

Here's where we are so far....

Today I added a little mint garden out behind the house:

And here is what our vegetable garden looks like after about 5 weeks of growth:

Not too shabby!

The first squash of the season, starting to grow:

And the first "beefmaster" tomato:

Front Yard Fix-Ups

Our front yard BEFORE:

Ugly, ugly shrub on this end of the house was uprooted and hauled away! Boring grass all the way up to the house was tilled to make a flower bed.

Holly bush on the far end was uprooted and moved to the other side of the front door...

The lack of symmetry was improved by moving one holly busy to the left side of the front door.

And AFTER:

Added a crepe myrtle, day lilies, azaleas, and lorapetalum and transplanted the holly bush!

Symmetry! Yea! And added the wrought iron hanging for some "interest" as they say on HGTV.

Added azaleas, lorapetalum, and an althea on the end....oh, and a truck load of mulch to go around.

Much improved!

Just Don't Ask

Soapbox time, folks!

I have been married for 8 months now and I am loving it! Of course, I knew that as soon as we were married the inevitable, "When are you going to have a baby?" questions would start coming and boy, was I right. Here's the thing with me. I think it's 1. RUDE to ask that question and 2. I don't think it is ANYONE else's business when we decide to have a baby.

What if J and I decide we don't want kids (which I don't forsee happening, but still) what if we find out for some reason that we can't have kids, what if we wait 5 years to have kids. Is that a problem? Am I seriously going to have to hear these questions until I do have a baby? Is it wrong that I want a couple of years to "just the two of us?"

I know that mostly people are just asking for the sake of asking, but sometimes it really gets under my skin. Yes, I'm 30. Yes, I know that is considered "older" to us in the south - as far as marriage and children go - but my gosh, it's not like I've got one foot in the grave for goodness sake!

So folks, let's stop with all the baby questions, for everyone's sake. You never know what can of worms you might be opening.

p.s. We're most likely waiting 2 years to have a kiddo, of course, things could change, but check back with me in September of 2010, ok?

Spring!

I was so ready for spring to be here this year. Not that I don't LOVE fall and winter - because I do. But I was definitely ready for some warmer temps and time outside! J and I planted our second official vegetable garden about 2 weeks ago and it's looking great so far!

This year we planted tomatoes - Roma, Better Boy, Beefmaster and Cherry, Banana Peppers, Jalapeno Peppers, Bell Peppers, Squash, Okra, and Cucumber. We'll see how it all goes! Notice the cute little vegetable tag - thanks C!! :)

We have the cutest little flower shaped sprinkler, too and I love using it! Here's hoping we get some good results this year. Last year was not too shabby!

Ice Cream

Last night I had a dream that I was in the ice cream aisle at Walmart with a pen and pad of paper pricing all of the large gallon sized containers of ice cream in an effort to find the cheapest one.

Why you ask? I am planning a retirement party/ice cream social at work and I'm wondering how much ice cream I need to buy and how I can get the most ice cream for the least amount of money. Working for a non-profit presents challenges in the "spending" department like you wouldn't believe!!

I can't believe that my worry over how much ice cream to buy manifested itself in a dream. How weird.

Home Again, Home Again...

"Home" being Nashville. I still say that when people ask me where I'm going for the weekend and the answer is Nashville. Even though I haven't lived in Nashville since I left for Auburn back in '97. Aside from that one brief spurt in 2004, but that was during my "lost year" and I don't really count that. :) Tuscaloosa is "home" to me now. My house definitely feels like "home" but for a part of me, my parents house and Nashville will always be home. It's weird like that I guess.

Anyway, J and I are in Nashville this week. He is laying down tile in one of my parents bathrooms and I have been helping mom paint some furniture for one of the bedrooms. Always something fun going on around here, right?! Mom is re-doing what was the office into another guest bedroom and the office has moved upstairs to the bonus room. The guest bedroom is goign to be "shabby chic" with a headboard that is no joke about 150 years old - it belonged to my great-grandmother and her mother before that. It's OLD, but surprisingly in good shape. I painted it "antique lace" - ahem, white - for mom and the walls are a pail shade of pink. I told her it KIND of looked like a baby girl's nursery, but I think the end result will be super cute! Here's hoping anyway.

The major objective of the weekend was to see Dave Matthews Band at Vandy tonight. T-minus 2 hours and 37 minutes until the concert starts! Woot! I haven't seen him in 5 years and that is 5 years TOO long. Can. Not. Wait!

And how about this weather today? It's 80 degrees and sunny here in Nashville and I am loving it. I wasn't ready to let go of the upper 70's for highs quite yet, though. I need my spring time to gradually fade into summer, don't you.

Excuse the complete randomness of this post, but I really want to do a better job of keeping up with my blog, since it's kind of my way of scrapbooking my life because, let's face it, I am a horrible scrapper and will never take it up as a hobby. It's too demanding and I can't deal with it.
Off to check on the handyman.....

"New" Chairs

When Jeremy bought the house that we currently live in, the previous owner left behind the dining table and 6 chairs. Great for us, but the chairs are covered in this ugly, cream-colored fabric. The previous owners had kiddos and the fabric was pretty yucko and stained. I have been dying to re-cover them and we finally did Sunday afternoon!

Before:

And after:

I chose this really pretty paisley-ish fabric and we actually found it at Wal-Mart. Isn't it great?! I love all of the colors.

The two "arm chairs" that go at the table are going to be covered in a green fabric that goes with this fabric. Pictures to come...

Happy Easter

And Can It Be - Charles Wesley, 1738

And can it be that I should gain
An interest in the Savior’s blood?
Died He for me who caused His pain!
For me who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be That
Thou, my God, should die for me?

Amazing love! How can it be
That Thou, my God, should die for me!
Amazing love! How can it be
That Thou, my God, should die for me!

He left His Father’s throne above,
So free, so infinite His grace!
Emptied Himself of all but love,
And bled for Adam’s helpless race.
‘Tis mercy all, immense and free,
For O my God, it found out me!

Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray;
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.

No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him, is mine;
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach the eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own

Absence

I'm still around. I started a new job 2 weeks ago and things have been a little crazy since then. Getting used to a new job (with much less time sitting at a computer all day - praise God!) is kind of tough sometimes.

Last week was revival at church, so I was there three nights, then drove to Nashville on Thursday to see the fam and help host a wedding tea for my cousin, Jessica. No pictures, though. I left my camera at home - argh! Needless to say, I wasn't home much last week and had little time for the internet.

And just because I can't post a blog without a picture....

Here are a few pictures that Jeremy took at the air show in Tuscaloosa last weekend. The Blue Angels were in town and the weather was apparently perfect! There were over 120,000 people crammed into that airport - not sure how that even happened. Anyway, here's a few pictures that my camera took since I forgot to take it to Nashville with me...

Saturday with the Moore's

Stayed in bed until 10:00 today. I NEVER do that. I have no idea why I slept so long, but it was awesome. I think it had something to do with the gray rain coming down outside.

Got up, got ready, had a granola bar and decided to head out!

I begged Jeremy to take me to "Dirt Cheap" in Cottondale. I had heard it was great and it did not disappoint. It's kind of like Big Lots meets a thrift store. You know, it's closeout stuff that didn't sell at stores like Target...etc. and it comes to Dirt Cheap and gets marked down 40 - 70%. It's a mess and you have to dig through bins to find anything, but it's super fun. I got a magnetic towel hook, a picture frame from Target, a Valentine's candy dish, a purse from Kohl's, a wooden Mancala game and Jeremy got a bunch of electronic wires he was really excited about. Total: less than $50! The purse alone was supposed to be $24 and the candy dish was originally marked $12.99 and I think I got it for $3.40. Yipee!! It was super fun and definitely one of those places you have to be in the "mood" for, but well worth the trip.

Then I found some super cute "spring green" pants at Old Navy and I hit up Ann Taylor LOFT (my FAVORITE!!) and spent way too much money. But, I had a coupon for $50 off a $150 purchase, so it was well worth it. And I'm set on spring and summer clothes now - well, for a while anyway.

Then I hit the Wal-Mart for a few groceries and J is currently in the garage working on his chopper while I blog, play on the internet, and watch Toddlers and Tiaras on TLC. It sucks you in, I tell you!

I love Saturday!

Snow!

We were pleasantly surprised to wake up to snow this morning. Yeah, the weathermen were all predicting it, but it rarely comes true. We had about 2 or 3 inches by 9:30, but it was all melted by about noon. Here are some pictures of the fun. Oh, and to make things even MORE fun we had our nephew, Brody, at the house. It was super fun getting to enjoy the snow with him! We even made a super-cute snowman and named him "Brobot" - that's what Brody suggested, I didn't argue.