Joyeux Noel et lassiez les bon temps rouler!

No I don't speak French, but we had a Louisiana bayou Christmas this year. And that's Cajun (well, French) for "Merry Christmas and Let the good times roll!" See my Mom was born and raised with deep Louisiana roots down in Baton Rouge.

After fleeing the shin-high snow in MN we flew to the ATL to see his parents and family before joining mine in New Orleans and Baton Rouge for a few days. See my family loves N'awlins- the food, the attitude, the casino, etc, but especially the food and especially the French Quarter. Mom planned out our 2 and a half days around consuming some of the best seafood in the Gulf or really anywhere.

First was dinner at Mr. B's Bistro and then Pat O's in the Quarter. Mr. B's was maybe one of the best meals I'd eaten in all of 2010. Seriously. Mom, Courtney and I all got the Revellion menu- a special New Orleans Christmas tradition. It's a menu that's prixe fixe and supposedly the best they've got. Andrew got the tasty and addicting New Orleans barbecue shrimp. Don't think grill or BBQ sauce. Think deep, buttery, flavorful seafood broth with perfectly cooked and ready to peel shrimp. I had the scallops and red fish with butter sauce and some amazing gumbo (both seafood and ya-ya) complete with my personal favorite pecan pie.

Andrew and I at Pat O'Brien's

Then we woke up to Cafe du Monde with some cafe au lait and bignetes and the unavoidable powdered-sugar-covered fingers. We then headed over the the N.O. School of Cooking that Mom booked for us- we watched them cook (and then we ate) crab and corn bisque, shrimp creole, bread pudding and amazing pralines. Pecan pralines. That's "pa-caan praw-leens" in Louisiana- none of that "pee-can pray-leens" stuff.

The cooking school in the French Quarter

Watching the chef make the bisque...

and cooling some pralines

Anyway we hoped on the trolley after waking around Jackson Square, visiting the old French Market, and stopping by Harrah's Casino. (Please note: I proudly walked out of there with the same $10 I went in with. It was my first encounter with a slot machine and I battled it back to break even!) We headed to Brigtsen's for dinner past Uptown and the Garden district. Another great Revellion menu and delicious dinner.

A quick glimpse of a trolley at Lee's Circle

Before heading to see my family and stay at Grandma's in Baton Rouge, we stopped for brunch with some great friends of ours who've grown up in N'awlins their whole lives. It was great to see such sweet friends.

It was Christmas Eve and Mom had made her gumbo (chicken and sausage) that's always good and Grandma (and Court) whipped up some of her famous chicken and dumplings. Those are my comfort foods. I've never tried to make either on my own for fear that I'd be dissatisfied with every bite compared to theirs!

Andrew and I headed back to N. O. since we were flying out of there and spent the day back at Cafe du Monde, mufaletta lunch at the favorite Cafe Maspero's, and topped it off with dinner at Felix's Oyster House (a family favorite for oysters). In between all that eating we managed to walk a lot, window shop, see the a Katrina exhibit near St. Louis Cathedral, and a 4-D movie at the WW2 History Museum. Hubby loved it!

The gorgeous sky on our walk back from the movie to our hotel- Lee's Circle again

Anyway, we're back on a plane heading home with snow covered everything out the windows.

Celebrations

Time with our Minnesota family, a birthday, and our early Christmas means lots of fun and celebrating.

We had our staff training this week on Strengths Finder tests. Very interesting. Staff training means lots of hanging out with our second family up here in ole MN: our staff team. We had a Christmas party, then girls' night out, a night in with hubs (when I attempted and failed at making mushroom risotto), then dinner with Laura and dessert with Samm.

And now let me tell you about my sweet, thoughtful husband. My birthday was Friday. I got home Thursday night and outside our door was a rose and a note to get some bags packed for the next night. And he had a petit four waiting for me! Wow. A man after my heart!

After work he whisked me away to the Depot hotel on the Mississippi River in Minneapolis. It's a hotorical hotel that used to be in this old train depot. There's also an attached indoor ice rink.

Due to my love of Mexican food, Andrew found this amazing Latin restaurant on Nicollet:

We did a little shopping, saw the Holidazzle parade and had an awesome birthday dinner at Masa complete with tres leches cake. so. good. Here we are enjoying that cake!

Yum! Then my great friend Hannah came in town and after a little more shopping (thank you birthday gift cards!) and we got to hang out. I tried to show her the ropes of driving and surviving in 10 degree weather. Ha. THEN my hubby took me out to see A Christmas Carol at the Guthrie (check out that pic courtesy of a google search). He's so thoughtful (and a trooper- he's taken me so so many plays!) That was Saturday.

And here was my personal favorite character...the Ghost of Christmas Present. I laughed a lot because he was funny but mainly how awkward it was that he didn't have a shirt on under his big ole robe. Ha. Quite humorous (and weird).

Sunday we flew down to Atlanta and were met at the airport by my father in law. We had a blast at a sort of family Christmas party/hang out. Complete with parker house sandwiches, chicken salad, broccoli salad, fudge, pecan bars, apple cider, and a rowdy game of Guesstures. Which I must add the women won. Thank you very much.

snowed in

With a blizzard hitting us overnight and through most of today, we're hanging out at our place. Serious winds, heavy snow and slightly warmer temps (in the 20s instead of teens) means wetter snow all which add up to me NOT willing to brave the storm and drive. I woke up this morning to the apartment people snow-blowing the sidewalk- the winter equivalent of the landscaping guy coming in the summer. A big plow came and plowed our parking lot, which along with the snow-blower guy were totally futile since a foot of snow fell over the next few hours anyway. Even up here they're calling it a blizzard so I'm going to trust them not to go anywhere!

The snow heaped on our patio. On the far right is a gate that you obviously can't open anymore. Out our bedroom window, the snow it up to our window! It's snowed more than a 15 inches just today- so there's probably nearly 2 feet of snow on the ground!

Another view of our patio. The bow has been blowing like crazy from the snowy wind.
The view from our dining room:

All this means I've been cooped up and have another blog post this week! I thought I'd share some of our Christmas decorations I've put up over the past few weeks:

Our tree! We won't be in town as long this year and it was 10 degrees and snowing when we went looking for a tree- which means I was no longer as interested in finding "the prefect one" for our place, but rather escaping to a heater. Anyway, hubs spotted this one and we love it!

We used ornaments from last year and obviously far less with our mini tree. Matte champagne, chocolate glittery balls and antiqued glass orbs and leaves along with a few rustic snowflakes and some silvery ones too:

Here's the floating shelf behind the tree with some added greenery and pine cones:

Pre-snow I went around our apartment and "borrowed" some tree clippings :) Evergreens are everywhere so there were several types of pine and those red branches are from a northern dogwood bush. I had a couple of glass vases and tied some left over ribbon and set them flanking our fireplace.
A little centerpiece I threw together with a candle and a couple sets of potpourri/vase fillers:
Our Christmas Card display I bought a few years ago:

Moving on from the living room...I kept seeing little banners on different blogs so I de-cluttered our fridge and added this makeshift Christmas reminder:

I also added a few big bows on a metal sunburst hanging in our kitchen, a bow in on our patio, pulled out some green pillows for our couches and packed up some of the fall-colored burnt orange ones, added vintage glass votives with Christmas tree smelling candles. Unfortunately we can't remember what our stockings looked like last year or where we put them! We're also questioning if we ever even bought some last year. Ha. Either way, we'll get some soon.

On another note, here's our first houseplant! Ha, I missed the green thumb gene so I opted for this "drought resistant" blue atoll. So far...so good!

It's definitely growing, but here is a picture of what it originally looked like:

Not living in vain

It's Wednesday and I am taking it slow this week. It's been a busy semester and I'm taking a mini break. Slept in a little, brought my incredibly encouraging hubby breakfast in bed (note it's cereal not a gourmet breakfast, ha!)...

...got ready, came to Panera (and got the mac and cheese yum!) and am now journaling, listening and reading. What a sweet escape.

I'm listening to:

"It is well"

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea billows roll;

Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,

It is well, it is well, with my soul.

It is well, with my soul,

It is well, with my soul,

It is well, it is well, with my soul.

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!

My sin, not in part but the whole,

Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

So now our semester is coming to a close. Students have finals next week. We have staff training. I'm tired! This semester has been good, but as I described it to Andrew as a "plowing" season. It's felt laborious, and there have been great things happening, but lots of harder things also. From battling with the administration of the school where we minister, having lots of young believers (which is FUN but also means LOTS of hard conversations praying for convictions), to even feeling alone in the sense of having female peers with "job" stuff. I am blessed to get to do what I do. Such a blessing. I don't think I'd want to be doing anything else right now. I am looking forward to Christmas break though.

I'm reading:

Psalm 127:

"Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain."

Wish I would've read this a few weeks or months ago! In laboring on the college campus for student to grow and know Christ more, it will be hard. THat's why it's called labor! But I must know and live my life, make my schedule, set my expectations in light of the LORD doing all the work. God doesn't say not to build, not to watch, he just says it won't happen without the Lord. I easily forget to trust the Lord. I don't want any area of my life to be "in vain." Wouldn't that defeat what it actually means to be a Christian? Christ is not a compartment of my life, but the center. He touches and influences everything I do: grocery shopping, Christmas gift getting, cooking dinner, decorating our apartment, hanging out with 18 or 19 year old. I want to do it all trusting and remembering 'Unless the Lord' in all that I do.

Weekend in MN

It was hard to come back to Minnesota after a week in the much warmer South, but I'm getting used to it again. 17 feels ok! ...and that is mercy from the Lord!

We actually went to see the college we work at play in a football quarter finals game. Drumroll please...they won! 12-7. It was really exciting. And I was so warm! That's because I had smartwool long johns, fleece pants under jeans, 3 pair of wool socks, 2 pair gloves, 2 jackets and 4 shirts on. Haha. But really! It was so much fun. To watch a football game while snowing was a really fun experience.

Sunday night all the married couples (8 couples)on our staff team got together and had a combined small group. Every Sunday we meet in our normal small groups (4 couples) and talk about our marriages. We talk through our fights, walk through arguments, share fun date ideas, and really talk about life and marriage. It really is sweet community for us and encouraging that there are 3 other couples we know really well who are also striving (and failing and repenting and needing Jesus) like we are in marriage. Anyway, we had a potluck dinner and I was assigned to bring dessert. So wondering how I could feed a large chuck of people, I turned to Paula Deen. I know Andrew loves pound cake (his Mom makes a good one!) so I whipped up some of her "Southwest Georgia Pound Cake" of course adding chocolate chips for my chocolate-obessesed husband. It was so good! I didn't dare omit the 1/2 pound of butter in this one but did sub half-and-half for the heavy cream. Baby steps. Anyway, it was SO good.

We had the group of college guys hubs mentors over for dinner last night. They're great! I really have had to learn how in the world to cook for guys- especially college football players! Now as a rule I just double everything! Here was out menu tonight- mind you that we had an all day meeting so I only had a little over an hour to throw it all together: baked chicken cordon bleu casserole, roasted garlic red potatoes, sauteed corn, garlic bread, and the rest of the leftover pound cake that I made the other night for our married small group. Here's how comical the measurements were though: 8 chicken breasts, large hunk of ham, 4 cups cheese, 2 lbs corn, 2 huge sourdough french loaves, 5lbs potatoes! We do have maybe one meal left over though, which is nice!

Tonight we wanted to try some orecchiette pasta I'd bought recently. So I cooked up this recipe and added some chicken and a little cream and broth. It was a good mix up with pancetta and was overall pretty good.

In the spirit of learning to embrace living in MN, here are a few more reasons I like living in the "tundra":

1) You can go grocery shopping and your car acts as a fridge/freezer. I do actually love that I actually can go shopping and leave stuff in my car and it'd be just as cold in my freezer!

2) SEAT WARMERS. Thanks you JESUS that upon getting my car, pre-dating Andrew/even considering living north of the Mason-Dixon line, you were gracious to provide for seat warmers. They are a reminder that you love me everyday.

3) Snow is so pretty right after it falls. I often drive and feel like I'm in a winter wonderland. (The only thing is, that then it gets brown and slushy, but we're staying positive here)

Thanksgiving

All week I'd been looking forward to going down to Atlanta for Thanksgiving:

family.

70 degrees.

no snow.

Copeland's.

cornbread dressing, turkey, sweet potatoes, macaroni and cheese.

PECAN PIE.

rest.

Georgia vs. Georgia Tech.

warm weather.

And I all expectations were met. Good food, awesome time with family, warm weather (despite rain, it was certainly warmer than 15 degrees), good rest, and a Dawg win!

I got to see some of the sweet girls I used to meet up with at GA Tech and it was so sweet to hear how the Lord has continued to work in them so much! That night we got to see my parents, sister and brother-in-law. We obviously planned everything around food and went out to dinner at family favorite Copeland's. Fried catfish, biscuits, gumbo, red beans and rice! I had to use serious self-control. Not to mention how fun it was to have the whole family together. I loved getting to catch up and laugh a lot. The next morning hubs and I met Mom and Dad for lunch at Food 101 another good one! Mom and I split their fish tacos and chicken salad sandwich. So good. I also snuck a bite of Andrew's Cuban sandwich-yum!

Keeping in line with the trend of big meals, we went out for an awesome dinner with Andrew's parents that night at Dominick's in downtown Lawrenceville. Also the place hubs and I went on our second date 3 years earlier when he shared how much he liked me. Good food and sweet to reminisce with my husband and wonderful in-laws. And who knew? Larry Flynt (you know that sleezy, wheelchair bound, Hustler guy) was shot at the L'ville court house?! We ate across from it. Just a fun fact I learned.

It was great spending time with A's parents- we love staying with them. The next day was Thanksgiving! Which meant more food! We were running around getting food together. I got to make that orzo dish I keep referring to and A's mom made a turkey, homemade cranberry sauce and super good sweet potato souffle with pecans and brown sugar! yum! We spent most of the rest of the day at hub's grandmother's where there was a lot of people and even more food (multiple turkeys, fried okra, mac and cheese, green beans, tomato casserole, orzo, cornbread dressing, coleslaw, fruit salad, sweet potatoes, caramel cake, pecan pie, chocolate chip pie, snickerdoodles, etc.). It was tasty and great to meet and catch up with all the family.

Friday we headed over to Dialogue in the Dark at Atlantic Station. Dialogue is an exhibit that gives a really cool experience of being blind. You go through the exhibit in total and complete darkness and feel what its like to be in a park, grocery store, etc without sight. Really powerful. Here are a few pictures from walking around my old stomping grounds: Atlantic Station.

My in-laws!

Hubs and I

Saturday we hiked around Talulah Gorge and drove around Lake Rabun at all the beautiful homes and boat houses. Here are some pics from Minihaha Falls. And actually there are Minnehaha Falls in Minneapolis (we took my parents there in a previous post). Funny- they're pronounced the same way but spelled different.

GA's Minihaha Falls at Lake Rabun

The whole clan at the Falls after hiking the Gorge

Saturday night. I couldn't wait. 7:45 pm. Georgia vs. Georgia Tech. No clear favorite, at home in Athens, Ahh! We watched the whole game and I was so stressed at the end! But praise the Lord, the Dawgs won! And by doing so clinched a bowl game and escaped a losing record. Though this is the worst season Georgia's had in several years, Murray is promising and the defense was on. Here's a NY Times article about the weird ending of the game.

And the next morning it was time to head home. Ugh. Up early, navigating the relatively quick and easy airport lines, in the air for just over 2 hours. Then when I work up from my nap on the plane , I saw the landscape go from brown to white. The snow. It's still on the ground. Reality was hitting me. Back to snow and cold and working (well doesn't really feel like work, but I can't hang out and eat all day).

So here we are now, 2 weeks left on campus. Three weeks until flying back down to Atlanta. I'm excited to bring this semester to a close.

Recipe Catch Up

I've thankfully been able to cook a little lately too...

This week:

• Super Quick Spaghetti Sauce- good without lots of time and especially when Andrew and some college football guys came over for dinner
• Chicken Marsala- this is one of my go-to favs! We make it usually once a month.

This past weekend:

• Butternut Squash Soup- SO good. Alittle too much work for me to do more than once a year though:) Unfortunately I forgot where I put the Minnesota wild rice I bought last week (typical) so I left the rice out. Still turned out great. Lots of flavor! And I got the squash from the farmer's market last week.
• Chocolate Chip Pie- just to make my husband happy! He loves this stuff and has told me multiple times how excited he was that I made it. He's great- and easy to please:) And fyi, I only used one stick of butter (woah, still painful for me!) instead of 1 and a half.
• Instant Black Bean Soup- great for when we had our couples' small group . I spiced it up by sautéing onions, adding some pulled chicken, rice, smoked paprika, and a touch of half and half. We also had some cornbread (thank you Jiffy) to go along.

In the last few weeks:

• Chicken with Goat Cheese and Sun-Dried Tomatoes- only the best for awesome company: Ginnie was visiting :) I was inspired by this chicken + goat cheese recipe and this old favorite. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to stuff the chicken, so I seasoned the chicken with salt and pepper and browned the chicken breasts on the stove. Then I topped each with some goat cheese and sun-dried tomatoes and let them finish cooking and the cheese begin to melt. While in the oven, I made a little sauce by caramelizing some red onions and reducing the browned bits from the pan with chicken stock. Yum!
• Baked Asparagus with Brown Butter Sauce- I mentioned it before- so good!
• Double Baked Potatoes- thank you Pioneer Woman! I also mentioned this before too
• Quinoa and Brown Rice- I needed a quick side so I grabbed this bag of brown rice and quinoa mix, then I added feta, scallions, a little garlic and salt and pepper. I was inspired from this favorite orzo recipe.
• Pork Chops- based on this recipe were super tasty too! Though I usually get recipes from searching online, I actually get cookbooks from the library pretty regularly (except for the last few months) and this is from the book "Rachael Ray: 2, 4, 6, 8"

whew- catching up

Whew. It's been nearly a month! I guess that gives you a little insight into my life lately. Busy, busy, busy.

This is the first Saturday in a month that Andrew and I have both been home and haven't had any specific plans. So freeing!

But, at the same time, we've had some really fun things happen in the past few weeks that we're so glad we could be a part of. So here's my top ten from the past few weeks:

10. The crazy weather! It was nearly 70 earlier this week! No jacket necessary. And currently it's been snowing and we've got more than 6 inches on the ground!

9. Getting to catch up with Atlanta friends: girls from Tech, friends from college and friends from staff

8. Catching up with my fellow Minnesota staff wives: I get to hang out with Jen and Holly every other week!

7. Having to read more about resting: being so busy has made me realize my need to slow down and rest!

6. Friends having babies: Samm and Carmela (in Scotland) had baby girls!

5. Our first snow!

4.My hub's commitment watching Georgia games together: Andrew finding a place for us to watch the Georgia/Florida game during the craziness of the missions conference, watching GA vs. Auburn last weekend with a fire (!!)

3. Jason, Andrew's brother came in town

2. Ginnie, one of my great friends, came in town from Atlanta

1. The heart growing fonder: finally getting extended time hanging out with my Hubs!

Hunkering down for winter

A brief update of all that's been going on, on our side of the world-

• Busy season: Ministry is in full swing with meeting new freshmen girls, investing in 9 amazing sophomore girls that I love, having a football tailgate, recruiting for a women's retreat, having the retreat this past weekend, having multiple meetings, with lots of lunches, dinners, dorm visits and hanging out with students in between.
• My fabulous husband: also in a busy season, but turn it up oh 20 notches. He loves this job and is built for it and for fun likes to dream and think of new ministry ideas. Weird. Awesome, but weird. I have a shut off in my brain and need to zone out, but he's like the energizer bunny (I have to remind him to take rest and sometimes force him to!). All in all, I feel like God has His hand on us and I LOVE being married and married to this man! It really is so wonderful

I'm hunkering down for winter.

October you say? Yes, I know. I live in Minnesota.

The weather has been increasing yucky and reminds me that I can't forget that winter is coming. Yesterday it was 60-something but it had that dreary, grayish gloom that accompanies the winter. I've pulled out the boots and coat. They're predicting...ah I can't say it. S-n-o-w on Thursday. I'm praying it holds off for a few more weeks. Ok, so one perk of winter is cute boots...I'm eyeing some cute brown riding boots. We'll see (you know I don't need them, but they're cute and versatile!) I've gotten to wear by black ones and I've resisted the Uggs until it really is cold.

Today its in the 40s and rainy. But this also means good winter food.

Yesterday I got a rotisserie chicken, made this basalmic brown butter asparagus recipe and double. baked. potatoes. yum!

I used the Pioneer Woman's double baked potato recipe because I couldn't find my mother's to-die-for recipe. But Pioneer Woman isn't all about being healthy so I made a few changes- I used 6 potatoes not 8 because it's just the two of us. Then I more than halved all that unnecessary butter and used 1/2 stick, only 1/2 cup of low fat sour cream, and baked some turkey bacon instead of the "picnic" processed stuff she used. (Let's be honest though as a kid my sister and I used to down that "bacon product" stuff- I just wanted to be a little healthier and I had the time)

And later this week I'm planning to make a tasty potato soup. Another hooray for colder weather. It's my goal to find things I like about the cold...so here's to cute boots and potato soup :)

thankfulness

Whew. It's only Thursday and it's been a long week. Sweet though.

Last weekend Andrew's wonderful parents and Mimi came to visit. We went down to the Pine Tree Apple Orchard up in White Bear. It was so good! The apple turnovers and apple-pecan pie we got were super tasty!

It felt like the peak of autumn here as all the trees were changing and reds and golds came out.

Then this week it was a lot of meeting with girls, meeting new ones, following up with some, challenging others. And today, Thursday was our day of prayer and planning. Also sweet, but long. I tend to feed off time with people so a long day of silence and prayer and writing alone can be just as draining.

I really was convicted though about how much I fail to thank God. I mean there are tons of mercies, blessings, gifts that I don't even recognize as such. I was so glad hubs built in a portion of thanksgiving to our staff team's day. So, here are some of the things I'm most thankful for (no specific order):

1. My wonderful husband- thoughtful, compassionate, loving, godly, handsome and lots of fun!

2. Our sweet families- we can't get over how much we enjoy both sides of our families. we're so grateful for their encouragement and love and that we have fun with them!

3. God's faithfulness and care!- I over and over again fail as a Christian and don't get things right, I forget other things easily and so easily wander, BUT God is so sweet that He won't let me leave His hand. And when I am faithless and living out of self-sufficiency, He draws me back and reminds me to rely only upon Him.

4. Ministry- that God's opened doors to get to know sweet freshmen girls and invest more into some amazing sophomores. They are dear. And it's only by His mercy that I get to see them grow in beholding Christ (and that they do at all!).

5. Health- ah, so much that could be going wrong. Each cell, nerve, bone, ligament, organ has a billion things going on and God keeps us together. Wow. Though this could change, we know for now God's mercy and grace looks like good health.

6. Sweet friends- our staff team up here in Minnesota and my former team in Atlanta, college girlfriends in Georgia, sisters in Christ all over- are such an important part of my heart! I am so grateful for the girls who get me and love the Lord

7. Material conveniences and luxuries- Our well running cars, our great apartment that we got to decorate, we get to work together, we live near our "work", getting to cook often, etc. the list could go on

8. God's provision for our support- yes, we're so grateful for this!

9. Our salvation- we did nothing for it, but would be pretty hopeless without it! Really, I think to when I didn't know Christ and I'm humbled to have a hope that never moves, never leaves and a God who never stops accepting me and stops at nothing to love me.

i heart fall

It's fall break for us, so my wonderfully foresightful, thoughtful and overall fabulous husband planned a weekend away. We went up to Silver Bay, MN just north of Two Harbors and about an hour north of Duluth. We've got lots of pics (a win!) but they're all from the iphone (fail!) so the quality isn't great.

We spent the day in Duluth on Thursday and ate at some great restaurants: At Sara's Table for lunch and Lake Ave Cafe for dinner. So worth it. Then we drove on up to our lovely little B&B for the night. Despite some rain and colder temps we hiked the Oberg Loop and it was breathtaking! The fall colors, the views of the autumn hills and Lake Superior (which looks more ocean than lake), the crisp air! Ah! So great!

Walking around Duluth on one of the most gorgeous days we've had in a while

The bright colors that I LOVE about this season!

Andrew and I mid-hike. The leaves were unbelievable!

The drive up to the mountain we just as breathtaking

The Baptism River, which we heard from our window at the B&B

My car post hike, post rain, post 30 minute drive on muddy gravel roads. Our car looked so hard-core! This was pre-gas station car wash :)

Just a view on the way to dinner!

One of the seven lookout points at Oberg

Ow Ow! What a cutie...and so photogenic!

More pictures to come, but I've got to unpack and clean up the house

working for the weekend...

Ahh, another weekend. This week was long- good, but long. Hubs and I were on campus a lot and there were more days when we saw each other as we were heading to bed. Andrew also had a ton of administrative things to get done which ate away his time too. I was so looking forward to the weekend of getting to hang out with my best friend.

We ran some errands this morning (oil changes in our cars, looking for some new (and modest) athletic shorts-thanks to my husband, quick grocery run) then worked out. We just bought memberships at Anytime Fitness, which is I think 2 miles or so away.

The things I most looked forward to this weekend:

1. Time with my hubs

2. Surprising aforementioned hubs with a homemade breakfast (which is reserved only for the occasional Saturday morning). We had Paula Deen's baked french toast, which I obviously lightened with far less butter and it was still delicious!

Yum!

And the praline topping! (Andrew and I differ on the pronunciation, but obviously I learned the Louisiana "praw-leene" way and that's what we go with in this house!)

3. A good SEC game on a national channel. Thank you! Though it's not Georgia, most networks play multiple games on at one time. What shows depends on what region you live in. So basically we get a lot of Michigan, Perdue and Wisconsin games instead getting to watch Georgia, Alabama, Auburn or LSU play.

4. Getting a good workout in- we joined Anytime Fitness and love it. Thank you Blue Cross Blue Shield for paying us to go to the gym! I love our insurance. Wow. I've never heard anyone say that before.

5. Blog surfing. Ok, I have to be careful with this. Blogs can eat away my time. Though a little more substantive than facebook, before I know it hours have passed and I've been looking at different gray paint color schemes for a whole day. Here are the biggest culprits for me:

Pioneer Woman

Young House Love

FoodGawker

Food Network

Cooking Light

Southern Living

The Lettered Cottage

Urban Grace

Etsy

Martha Stewart

Apartment Therapy

6. Taking naps!

7. Finding new recipes. Like the Pioneer Woman's sugar cookies. They're super good!! But they're actually more of a mix of sugar cookies and shortbread cookies. I followed the recipe reducing the butter a little, but I learned that they don't change much once you pop them in the oven, so I wished I'd made them a little flatter and prettier looking!

Thank you Lord for weekends!

Seeing through eyes for India

After meeting a friend, Samm, for the best lemon bar (goey, creamy and lemony with a crunchy crust!) and some yummy coffee last week at Bread and Chocolate, I stopped by a cute little gift shop in St. Paul. It's on Grande Ave., one of my favorite people watching, autumn tree lined streets, cute shops, tasty restaurants, semi-hip without feeling out-of-places areas.

Since coming back from Delhi, I have an Indie-adar...that is India+radar. I can spot Indian patterns, people, restaurants and smells within nanoseconds of contact. Weird. Yes, I know.

Here are a few things I saw just browsing this cute little store that I knew were from India.

Like these bags

And this is a little blurry, but they're made from Sari's- one type of formal women's wear in India. And yes, they're officially made in New Delhi! Too bad these were out of my price range here and would probably be a few cents in India.

And these cute coin purses. The patterns scream "India"! They're so cute! Sorry about the blurriness. You can thank the iphone.

Here's another one in better focus.

And there has also been lots of talk about the Commonwealth Games (all the former British colonies compete against each other in different sports), scheduled to start in Delhi in a few weeks. Though India was awarded the games (I guess similar to the system for the Olympics) in 2003, they've only been building and cleaning for 2 years. That's a snippet of Indian culture- lots of procrastination with the government. Anyway, here's a few articles about the Games and if they're actually going to happen. The committee with the Games is outraged and stunned.

BBC article "Delhi Games will meet standard, says minister"

Times of India article "97% say Games bosses have tarred India's image"

On another note, why in the world are Congressmen calling Colbert to testify in a committee hearing? There must be someone out there who is more qualified! Or maybe they need a laugh to make their day a little more exciting! Read more here.