Goin' to the Chapel

We hit the road to LaGrange, Georgia this weekend to visit my family and watch my Papa get hitched! My grandmama passed away about 5 years ago and as much as we miss her, we really didn't want my grandad to stay lonesome.

Kate and I enjoying the reception

The wedding was really sweet and tons of fun, plus it was nice to see family that we only get to see a couple times during the year and meet some new family!

...and here's the happy couple!

Congrats Papa and Mrs. Lynn!

Weekend Roundup

So, it turns out that fall has been much busier than summer! It's great since this summer kind of sucked and I'm really looking forward to changing leaves and cooler temps. This past weekend we were totally lazy on Friday night, staying in and watching Couples Retreat for the 14th time on HBO. Saturday I had to work a bit, although I can't complain much, my day consisted of working at the Hispanic Festival...

...and then at the Greek Festival! Mmmm...lamb on the spit!

And Feta Fries!!!

I came home and caught up on a little football, thankfully, South Carolina beat Bama although my Georgia Southern Eagles lost to Wofford. We decided to take a last minute camping trip at the lake, so we packed up the truck and hit the road. It was really nice to get out of town for the nice and sleep with the crickets. Hopefully the weather will get just a little bit cooler and we'll be able to enjoy some more camping trips this year! Check out the view right as the sun was going down...

Next weekend, my grandad is getting married, so it should be just as busy and fun!

Wish I Was Here...

It's going to be a beautiful day in Statesboro, Georgia at Paulson Stadium. Wish I was there cheering on my team...

GO EAGLES!

Brain Dump

...Inspired by the Blue Eyed Bride and Tale of a GRITS

• I haven't blogged for a while because this was one of the worst summers I've had in a while. Except for a quick trip to Florida to visit a set of in-laws and a fabulous visit up to Columbia and Charlotte to see DMB, it was rough.
• I'm throughly ready for fall weather, gatherings of friends and fun!
• After this terribly hot summer, I've realized that summer is not as fun when you don't have a job that gives you a summer break (like all the fabulous teachers in my life) or you are trying to save money and skip vacation because you are living on 1 income.
• I'm finally ready to get back in the kitchen. I got a little bored cooking the same thing over and over this summer, which is entirely my fault since I have plenty of cookbooks. I'm hoping to make one new recipe every other week for the next few months.
• In addition to fall weather, I'm ready for fall baking season. I am anxiously awaiting cooler weather so I can use my kitchenaid mixer and bake a ton of delicious goodies in my kitchen.
• Football season is here! We are huge college football fans and try to tune in or go to as many Georgia Southern (our alma mater), South Carolina, Florida, South Florida (Matt's other alma mater) games as we can.
• I'm trying to get all of my photos and music reorganized and backed up. It makes me nervous to think about losing any of it.
• I've realized that I'm completely addicted to tv and need to start reading more books before my brain rots from overexposure to trashy reality tv and random crap.

4th of July

We went down to Gainesville, FL on a whim and visited Matt's mom and grandparents for the 4th of July. His grandparents have just been moved to assisted living and they seem to be adjusting well, which is good for everyone. The place is really cute, too! It kind of reminds me of a dorm for seniors. Everyone has their own apartment and they have all sorts of social activities. They even have cocktail hour some days! They had a photoboard set up for the 4th of July so we took a few photos for Grandmom and Grandad. Here's me and Matt's Mom being patriotic:

After Gainesville we headed down to Ocala to grill out and shoot fireworks. On the way we stopped in Micanopy (a really tiny town on 441) to try out a pizza place I'd been wanting to visit. Blue Highway certainly lived up to the hype, and if you're in that neck of the woods, I suggest you try the thick crust pizza. It was to die for. It was so good, that I got carried away eating it and forgot to take a photo of the actual pizza.

Since I grew up in South Carolina shooting fireworks, I don't mess around. This year the grand finale was 'Red, White, & BOOM'!

It was so great and much needed to get out of town and enjoy a change of scenery for a while. We've kind of been up to the same old-same old too much these days, and it was amazing how relaxed I felt just after the first hour of being on the road. I hope everyone else had a fabulous 4th of July!

Palmetto Cookies with Royal Icing

After learning that one of our coworkers was leaving Augusta to move to Charleston last week, we decided to throw her a little farewell party last night. The theme was the lowcountry, of course, and I was so excited that I had a chance to use my new palmetto and crescent moon cookie cutter.
I used store bought cookie dough, since I was a little pressed for time and put it in the freezer ahead of time to make it easier to roll out and cut cookies and once they were baked and cooled I iced them with royal icing.

Here's the recipe I used, it's super easy!

Royal Icing:

2 large egg whites

2 tsp. fresh lemon juice

3 cups of sifted confectioners sugar

Combine egg whites and lemon juice with blender. Slowly add sifted sugar and mix until icing thickens. Mine turned out a little thick at first so I added a few teaspoons of warm water to soften it up a bit.

This was my first time icing cookies with homemade royal icing and although I need to work on my technique a little bit the icing tasted delicious and I think the final product turned out pretty cute!

Now I'm on the hunt for a South Carolina shaped cookie cutter. Wouldn't those two be so cute paired together?

Twilight Fever

I still haven't seen Eclipse, which is fine by me. I enjoy Twilight, but you probably wouldn't call me a 'Twi-hard'. I certainly wouldn't have enjoyed the midnight premiere with all the 15 year olds screaming about Edward and Jacob every time they are on screen.

I did see this lovely mini van on the highway last week and had to take a photo to share. Either the kids are super huge Twilight fans and their parents support them or the entire family adores the books and movies.

If you can't read it text on the top of the van's rear window and monogram it reads: 'And so the lion fell in love with the lamb.' That's some serious Twilight love!