#Guyturns27

My favorite boy turned 27 two weeks ago, which is convenient since that means his birthday weekend fell over the holiday weekend!
                                                

Though Guy doesn't take birthday nearly as seriously I do, I still wanted to make a big deal out of it since he is pretty sure that 27 is going to be the best age.

So starting on Friday, we began celebrating. I made him his favorite desert (that I make) and we took off for a date at the Fernbank Planetarium.

               

Then after church on Sunday, we drove to Chattanooga Bend State Park for a picnic and hiking alongside the river.

 



I might have vandalized a little bit. But it seemed worth it.








After hiking we drove to LaGrange to spend the night. We ate at Brickyard Grille and Tavern in downtown LaGrange. (side note: the table looks a table made for a giant. In real life, I did not get that impression)

                    


The next morning, we drove to Franklin D. Roosevelt State Park (the largest state park in Georgia) to explore.

(Photo evidence of our pit stop at a Piggly Wiggly: Guy wanted to try to some local cuisine)

               

The park itself was impressive and we had a great time exploring some of the trails, though my favorite part was this place which overlooked the rest of the park.

 

(I could have stayed there all day with our pork cracklins, my mismatched socks and our picnic blanket.)

Happy 27th birthday, Guy. May it be the best year yet and the beginning of even better ones to come.

I love you. 

Spring 2014: An Inadequate Overview

Back on February 15, I looked ahead at my calendar and had an overwhelming feeling of excitement, followed by a tiny bit of panic (no weekends=rough end to semester)

But almost every weekend from Feb 21 to past weekend (May 26) was filled by something wonderful, which made it worth it. 

Weddings, family visits, retreats, graduations, murder mystery dinners, lock-ins, you get the idea. 

It was crazy and busy and beautiful. 

But between that and the whole PhD thing I'm still working on, there was little time left for other things like blogging...or scrubbing my shower (which in case you were wondering was the first thing I did after I turned in my last paper) 

But without further ado, here is a brief glimpse of what my semester looked like: 

Jamie's beautiful wedding weekend: the most wonderful weekend of this horribly cold winter

My spring break was busy, filled with family, birthday surprises, trips to the Zoo, Stone Mountain, Millidgeville (not pictured the NT exegesis paper I graded) 

Catie's getting married! 

Easter 2014 

Sara's got an MFA. 

 Alex has an MDiv...and a pug named Bishop. 

The brilliant Candace (and my sweet church compatriot) at the UMW Fashion Show (you read that right) 

Mother's Day Painting with the Family. 

So that was a brief brief glimpse into all the good parts of my semester. It was filled to the brim with people that I love. There was also lots of stress as the final papers refused to write themselves no matter how hard I begged and working at church as more paperwork than anyone would guess. But one year of PhD work is officially down and the summer is here with new fun adventures and schoolwork (Ich lerne Deutsch lesen.) 

Stay tuned for the next post: Guy turns 27. It involved a lot of dessert. 

Jennifer

Bedtime stories

Bedtime stories make 14 hours of driving in one weekend worth it. 

That weekend we snuck away

"Let us step into the night and purse that flighty temptress, adventure!" - Albus Dumbledore

Thanks to an amazing beautiful and thoughtful gift from my beautiful, amazing and thoughtful friend, Blair, Guy and I got to sneak away to Chattanooga for a small weekend adventure.

We were able to stay at a Bed and Breakfast in downtown Chattanooga, called the Stone Fort Inn. I made Guy take off work a little early so we get there right at 5 so that we could explore a little before dinner at their restaurant, Terra Mae Appalachian Bistro. 

Our room was gorgeous and it had a giant whirlpool tub (my favorite). Honestly, I probably would have been okay just hanging out in the room all the night, because it was that good.

But instead, we got dressed up and went to dinner and tried not to feel too out of place at a real restaurant (that you know, wasn't a Chick-fil-a).

I had the Applewood Bacon Wrapped Scallops which were pretty good, but Guy's meal definitely took the prize. He got the Appalachian Lunchable, at seen below. Yes...that is bacon in a mason jar. Something about that mason jar just made it taste better.

After dessert, we wandered around downtown for a bit. There was a free concert that night so there were a lot of people roaming around. Chattanooga slowly wins a bit more of my heart every time we go there. It might just be that I have soft spot for small cities with rivers, but whatever it is, I love Chattanooga.

The next morning we met up with our favorite Mary, to do some thrifting and to look at her new house. She then took us to eat fried food, like any good Southern host should do. We ate at this restaurant called Champy's, where I had my all time favorite lunch food, a buffalo chicken salad. To top it off, Mary told us as we were leaving about a gelato place, Milk and Honey that had just opened (be still my heart). I obviously had to take a picture so I could instagram it as I was told all the cool people do.

After that, we wandered around an antique store to keep out of the heat before heading to my parents' house to celebrate my dad's birthday (which meant more good food: roasted duck breast, four cheese risotto and strawberry pie). I'm realizing that if you're thinking all we did was eat on this trip, you would probably be right.

We were only gone for a night and we were home before we knew it, but this little escape was a beautiful and much needed adventure.

Thanks, Blair. You have no idea how much this meant to me!