Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Weekend with JP's Dad

This past weekend we got to spend some time with JP's dad! He was on a business trip in Georgia for the week. He finished his business Friday afternoon and did not have to fly back to Phoenix until Saturday night so he came and spent Friday night until Saturday afternoon with us.

Friday night we (when I say we I mean JP) grilled steak, onions, corn, and asparagus. It was so good! For dessert we had tiramisu which was just as yummy!

Saturday morning we woke up and went hiking at Moss Rock. Moss Rock is our favorite new place to go hiking.

After hiking for 2.5 hours we drove to Warrior (which is about 30 minutes away) to meet my parents and grandmother, who happened to be in town, for lunch. Why did we drive 30 minutes to eat? Well, for only one of the best BBQ places in the Birmingham area!

My dad has been raving about Big Daddy's BBQ and JP had been dying to eat there. Big Daddy's is definitely a hole in the wall which usually means good food. And, yes, Big Daddy's food was very good! Although JP enjoyed the meat the best I must say my slice of peanut butter pie was my favorite!

All gone :(



A man's restaurant...

Friday, October 23, 2009

'RANDOM THOUGHTS FROM PEOPLE OUR AGE...'

I found this on the facebook page of my childhood best friend. I don't usually put this kind of stuff in our blog (yes it is OUR blog even though JP wouldn't has no desire to ever 'blog') but I thought these were all really funny because they are the things I think no one else thinks but me. In reality, the majority of people my age think/feel the same way.


1. I wish Google Maps had an “Avoid Ghetto” routing option.

2. More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can’t wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that’s not only better, but also more directly involves me.

3. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you’re wrong.

4. Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you’re going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you’re crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.

5. That’s enough, Nickelback.

6. I totally take back all those times I didn’t want to nap when I was younger.

7. Is it just me, or are 80% of the people in the “people you may know” feature on Facebook people that I do know, but I deliberately choose not to be friends with?

8. Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn’t work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ’s. We just figured it out. Today’s kids are soft.

9. There is a great need for sarcasm font.

10. Sometimes, I’ll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the f was going on when I first saw it.

11. I think everyone has a movie that they love so much, it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I’ll end up wasting 90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone’s laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I’m still the only one who really, really gets it.

12. How the heck are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

13. I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring
my groceries in.

14. I think part of a best friend’s job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

15. The only time I look forward to a red light is when I’m trying to finish a text.

16. Was learning cursive really necessary?

17. Lol has gone from meaning, “laugh out loud” to “I have nothing else to say”.

18. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

19. Answering the same letter three times or more in a row on a Scantron test is absolutely petrifying.

20. Whenever someone says “I’m not book smart, but I’m street smart”, all I hear is “I’m not real smart, but I’m imaginary smart”.

21. How many times is it appropriate to say “What?” before you just nod and smile because you still didn’t hear what they said?

22. Every time I have to spell a word over the phone using ‘as in’ examples, I will undoubtedly draw a blank and sound like a complete idiot. Today I had to spell my boss’s last name to an attorney and said “Yes that’s G as in…(10 second lapse)..ummm…Goonies”

23. MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

24. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

25. I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.

26. I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t at least kind of tired.

27. Bad decisions make good stories.

28. Whenever I’m Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning who just got the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don’t mind if I do!

29. Is it just me or do high school girls get sluttier & sluttier every year?

30. If Carmen San Diego and Waldo ever got together, their offspring would probably just be completely invisible.

31. Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I’m from, this shouldn’t be a problem….

32. You never know when it will strike, but there sometimes comes a moment during your day that you’ve made up your mind that you just aren’t doing anything productive at all, all day.

33. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don’t want to have to restart my collection.

34. There’s no worse feeling than that millisecond you’re sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

35. I’m always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

36. “Do not machine wash or tumble dry” means I will never wash this ever.

37. I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching TV. There’s so much pressure. ‘I love this show, but will they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren’t watching this. It’s only a matter of time before they all get up and leave the room. Will we still be friends after this?’

38. I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Aargh!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What’d you do after I didn’t answer? Drop the phone and run away?

39. I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

40. I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it’s on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.

41. As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.

42. Sometimes I’ll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

53. It should probably be called Unplanned Parenthood.

54. I keep some people’s phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

55. It really annoys me when I want to read a story on FOXNEWS.com and the link takes me to a video instead of text.

56.I wonder if cops ever get annoyed at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Cream Cheese Filled Pumpkin Bread

I discovered and made this recipe yesterday. JP and I both LOVE it! We have already decided we will make it for my family at Thanksgiving and his at Christmas. One cool thing is this recipe makes TWO loaves!

INGREDIENTS

Filling

8oz (1 package) cream cheese
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
1 large egg

Bread
1 2/3 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 12oz can pumpkin
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cup granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 325°. Lightly grease two loaf pans. In a medium mixing bowl, combine cream cheese, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon flour, and 1 egg; beat until smooth and creamy. Set aside.

Into another bowl, sift 1 2/3 cup flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg; set aside. Put pumpkin puree, vegetable oil, 2 eggs and 1 1/2 cup sugar in a large mixing bowl; beat well. Stir the pumpkin mixture into the flour mixture just until combined.

Pour half of the pumpkin bread batter evenly into the two prepared loaf pans. Spoon cream cheese mixture on top of pumpkin batter layer and then pour on the remaining pumpkin batter.

Bake in preheated 325° oven for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Cool bread in pans for 10 minutes; remove to a rack to cool completely.

Pumpkin bread recipe makes 2 loaves.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Potato Soup

Today was the first REALLY cold day... Ok I know a low of 45 isn't REALLY cold most places but we are in the South! This winter I am going to try my best to enjoy the cold. I don't know how well that is going to go but JP and I decided to start the cold weather off in a YUMMY way. We made this potato soup! It was so good!

INGREDIENTS
  • 3 1/2 cups peeled and diced potatoes
  • 1/3 cup diced celery
  • 1/3 cup finely chopped onion
  • 3/4 cup diced cooked ham
  • 3 1/4 cups water
  • 2 tablespoons chicken bouillon granules
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
  • 1 teaspoon ground white or black pepper, or to taste
  • 5 tablespoons butter
  • 5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 2 cups milk
DIRECTIONS
  1. Combine the potatoes, celery, onion, ham and water in a stockpot. Bring to a boil, then cook over medium heat until potatoes are tender, about 10 to 15 minutes. Stir in the chicken bouillon, salt and pepper.
  2. In a separate saucepan, melt butter over medium-low heat. Whisk in flour with a fork, and cook, stirring constantly until thick, about 1 minute. Slowly stir in milk as not to allow lumps to form until all of the milk has been added. Continue stirring over medium-low heat until thick, 4 to 5 minutes.
  3. Stir the milk mixture into the stockpot, and cook soup until heated through. Serve immediately.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Colorado

My good friend Amanda moved to Fort Collins, Colorado this summer for work. I have never been to Colorado so I wanted to go see her.

Last Saturday I flew from Birmingham to Chicago and then to Denver. After making the hour drive to Fort Collins we stopped for a late dinner at Hu Hot.


Hu Hot is a make your own stir fry place. It was so good and a lot of fun!

Fort Collins is about 45 minutes from Cheyenne, Wyoming. Because neither of us had ever been to Wyoming we had to go!
Lets just say that Cheyenne is not exactly what we were expecting. Now I grew up in Decatur, AL which according to Wikipedia has approximately 55,000 people. I consider this to be small. However, Cheyenne, not only the capital of Wyoming but also the biggest city, has 57,000.
Not only is Cheyenne small but it is FREEZING! In the beginning of October is was 32 degrees. I'm not really sure how to handle that! We walked downtown for a few minutes but these Texas and Alabama girls were not made to handle that kind of temperatures in October!

We headed back to Colorado where it was about 10 degrees warmer (which really can we call 42 degrees warm?)

We ate burgers at Smashburger and went shopping in Old Town Fort Collins. There were a lot of really cute shops!
Amanda's parents came in to town late Saturday night. They live in Dallas but were coming up to Colorado for a ministry they work with so they were going to leave their dogs with Amanda for two weeks.

On Sunday Amanda and I went with her parents to Estes Park. Amanda's chiropractor had said that you can hear the elk bugle at this time of the year. Sure enough, we heard the bugling elk. I must say that I laughed the first time I heard them because it was not what I expected!

Not only did we get to hear the bugling elk but the mountains were so beautiful! It was very cold though. It started snowing while we were there! Yes, that is right... snow in October. That is definitely a new concept for me!


I am so glad I got the chance to visit Colorado (and Wyoming). However, I think I prefer the weather of the south to this snowy October weather of Colorado! Although, 32 degrees in Colorado was much more enjoyable than the bitter 32 degrees of Alabama.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

The Triple

JP and I met three years ago today!

What were your initial feelings about going to the party?
Megan: I didn't want to go. Then I got my sweet pink converses and was more excited about the shoes than the party.
JP: I wanted to go camping instead.

What was your first impression?

Megan: He was obnoxious
JP: Better looking than her facebook picture

Did you ever think that you were being abandoned?
Megan: Yes, when he went outside after he went to the bathroom. I thought he had called one of his friends to pick him up, but really he was just sweating so bad he had to cool off
JP: Yes, when she left me to go take a picture with her friends when we first got to the party

When did you decide that you were interested?

Megan: When I had so much fun dancing. At all the other parties I didn't dance hardly at all but we danced the whole time.
JP: When she was playing with the habanero peppers at the restaurant



Thursday, October 1, 2009

The Beach

JP and I had been CRAVING the beach ALL summer! We could not go though because JP could never get time off of work. We finally were able to plan a trip for September. JP was able to get some time off and then he ended up get more time off then he imagined :)

We found this great website, VRBO, that we definitely will use again and recommend. We tried to go somewhere new to us like Seaside but all of the good places were already booked there. We decided to go to Gulf Shores and we ended up finding a condo that was only $60 a night!

We spent everyday on the beach...

Reading, Laying out, Playing frisbee and...

... playing in the waves!


We used our sweet beach bag we got from Lands End for $8 (normally it was like $36).


There were TONS of seagulls. We saw several that were miss a leg and it was really sad!

After the beach each day, we would go out and eat tons of seafood! We also got a really huge, good peanut butter pie one night. We ate good!

When JP and I were at WalMart getting food we passed the children's section and JP apparently really liked this shirt...

... he obviously couldn't wear it so he was very adamant about me getting. So I am now the proud owner of a "Gulf Shores, Alligator Attack" shirt


Overall we had an excellent trip! The weather ended up being perfect. The sun was out all day everyday, which was nice becausse we thought for sure it was going to rain the whole time.


I LOVE THE BEACH!