Recent Reads

I'm a reader. I love, love, love reading. I love getting lost in a good story and feeling connected to characters. My Mawmaw taught me to read at a young age--I remember that the first book I read was "Hop on Pop" by Dr.Seuss. I've been going non-stop since then.

I have a goal to read 50 books this year! According to Goodreads, I've read 17 thus far! However, my tracker says I'm 5 books(11%) behind where I need to be to keep on track for 50 this year. I think I can do it though!

I thought I'd share with you a few I've read recently and enjoyed. You can check out my lists on Goodreads too for more ideas!

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

I'm almost embarrassed to admit how much YA fiction I like, but it is true--I'm a sucker for a good YA novel. I believe I first saw this book on NPR's list of the Top 10 YA Novels of 2010(I've read a few and all were very good!). This is a cute love story and very well written. Perfect for a day by the pool!

Divergent by Veronica Roth

This book blew me away. I didn't realize I was very "in to" dystopian fiction, but I've read a couple of books now and enjoyed them all. I devoured this in 3 or 4 days. To me it was like a cross between The Giver by Lois Lowery(which my husband has never read! wth?) and The Hunger Games trilogy(amazing, by the way. I read them last summer). I'm already looking forward to book #2...too bad it's probably a year away! Another amazing fact? The author is only twenty-two years old!

The Art of Racing in The Rain by Garth Stein

Oh, dog books tear at my heart. I was expecting this one to make me ugly-cry like Marley & Me did, but it didn't. It pulled at my heart strings though. It is such a sweet story about a dog's life with his family and how he see's the tragic events.

The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels by Ree Drummond

Ok, technically I listened to this book. I enjoy audio books on my long drives back to Georgia. I listened to this one on my drive home for the wedding and on the plane to and from the honeymoon! Appropriate since she tells the story of falling in love with Malboro Man and their first year of marriage. I really enjoyed it.

Dead Reckoningn by Charlaine Harris

I'm a big fan of the Sookie Stackhouse series. I blew through the first 8 or 9 a couple of summers ago. They're trashy entertainment and I'm okay with that :) I can't WAIT for True Blood season 4! I've also read her other books an enjoyed them.

Decision Points by President George W. Bush

See, not all of my reading selections can be shared with my 12 year old cousin or focus on vampires! I read this at the beginning of the year and was surprised by how interesting and intriguing it was. I'm not anti-Bush or anything, but political memoirs aren't really my thing. Some of the most fascinating chapters centered around 9/11 and the Iraq war. I will admit to skimming the economic chapters, only cause economics make my head spin.

Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin

I checked this out of the library last fall and read a couple of chapters and just stopped; I don't remember why. I checked it out again because I plan on seeing the movie and found it very cute! For some reason I keep picturing John Krasinski as Dex, but I know that's not right. I'm currently reading the sequel, Something Blue.

You can check out my Goodreads profile for more suggestions.

Do you have any good books to share?

Wedding Wednesday: The Bridal Party + Other Roles

So after laying the foundation for our April 2011 wedding, we began discussing who all would be involved with our wedding(aside from the obvious!)


Bridesmaids: 6

My matron of honor was my Delta Gamma Big Sister. This was a no brainer. She is one of my best friends. Although she lives in Wichita and couldn't be around for any of the planning, she helped as much as she could over the phone. On the day of the wedding, she was constantly by my side and helping me. She saved the day by finding my grandmother's engagement ring when it fell off my bouquet! If I'd lost that ring, the entire day would have been ruined for me.

I "broke tradition" by having two maids of honor. My best friend from high school is practically a sister to me and her family is an extension of my own. The other is another DG sister, former roommate and best friend from college.

My sister, cousin and childhood friend(and DG sister) were the remaining three bridesmaids. Some people thought it was odd I didn't pick my sister as MOH, but I asked if she'd be bothered by that and she said no, so that's all that matters.


Groomsmen: 5



J's best friend from college was his best man. He's a great guy and I really like him and love that he is such a good friend to J.

His brother, college roommate and two high school friends were the other groomsmen. The roommate flew all the way from California to be in our wedding! We really appreciated it.

We had uneven numbers and that was fine by us. He has two other friends we would have liked to have included, but they are both in the military. One is in the Air Force and was anticipating a deployment and his younger brother is currently completing OCS for the Army down at Ft.Benning. I know people stress over "even sides"--trust me, it is not a big deal.

Kids: 4

Yes, we had kids in our wedding. I have a few younger cousins I adore and I wanted them involved. The two oldest(12 and...9?) handed out programs. The only boy was our ring bearer and the two youngest girls were our flower girls. They were adorable.

Readers: 2

We had two readers. One was J's best girl friend from college and the other was one of my best friends from college. I'll post the readings in my ceremony post.

I also had a childhood friend as our guestbook attendant. We did not do reception hosts/hostesses or cake cutters.

I read a lot of horror stories about bridesmaids dropping out, groomsmen not showing up, etc. and I was shocked that this happened. We knew we could count on these people. The important thing is to choose those who are closest to you to stand up there with you or be involved in your ceremony. No need to ask your BFF from middle school who you actually haven't seen in years but still stalk on Facebook. Or your college roommate you no longer see just because you were in hers. The people we had in our wedding have been in our lives for years and we expect them to always be there.

And I have to say, we made a pretty good looking group!

All pictures in the post were done by William Massey Photography

Next Week: Attire (DRESS SHOPPING!)

Menu Monday

Congrats, you've made it through Monday! Hopefully Friday will be here before we know it. Here's our menu for this week, almost all courtesy of skinnytaste.com. I'll post our reviews on Sunday!

Monday- Low Fat Baked Ziti with Spinach

Tuesday- Healthy Baked Chicken Nuggets with Zucchini Sticks

Wednesday--On our own; we're either going to see Beauty & The Beast at the Orpheum or possibly hanging out with friends.

Thursday-Chicken and White Bean Stuffed Peppers

Friday--Pizza using Eat Live Run's pizza crust recipe.

What are you cooking this week?

Weekly Menu Review

I hope you are having a fabulous weekend! Below is a review of the recipes I had planned for last week. I'll be back tomorrow with our menu for this week!

Monday: Grilled Chicken with Spinach and Mozzarella from Skinny Taste. Rice on the side. This was good, although I cooked the chicken a little too long so it was kind of dry. I should have served this with veggie instead of rice, but oh well.

Tuesday: Shrimp & Grits via Cooking Light( Note: This isn't the exact recipe I have marked at home, but it actually looks a little more interesting! I think I have all the extras on hand to make it)Delicious, but I burnt the bacon that was supposed to go with it! Whoops. And we were out of regular hot sauce, so I just used a couple of drops of the habenero hot sauce we had.

Wednesday: Cheesy Brussel Sprout Casserole from Healthy Tipping Point. I've only cooked with brussel sprouts once before and it was a giant fail. I hope this works out. I've cooked her Santa Fe Casserole before and it is yummy! This wasn't that great. It was dry and didn't have a lot of flavor. I think I didn't have enough cheese. I also didn't have Italian herbs in a tube; those would have made a difference.

Thursday: Salmon w/Asparagus We didn't make this. I went out for drinks with friends and he went to a car show.

Friday: Enchiladas. Veggies & black bean for me, chicken & veggies for him. A staple in this household! I use squash, zuchini, bell peppers, onions and spinach. Our favorite enchilada sauce is a Kroger brand one we found. We use the pre-cooked chicken strips for his half. I used to put black beans in mine, but now I just use it as a way to shove as many veggies as possible in a meal :) And there's always leftovers, so we have dinner tonight!

Enjoy your Sunday!

Friday Ramblings

I don't have much to write about, so today you get a random collection of thoughts!

• I want to learn to coupon. Not the crazy, 39482090 boxes of Ramen noodles and 39804932 cans of dog food type of couponing, but reasonable things. If I could get a small stockpile of items like shampoo & conditioner, laundry detergent, cleaning supplies and toilet paper, I'd be happy. As my BFF in Kansas said Monday, "I just want some free toilet paper. That's all." All coupon blogs make it see so easy, but I can't wrap my head around the planning process and spending hours on the process.

• I need a new summer bag. I'm still carrying my purple leather purse from winter. I want something light, but structured and under $50.

• We are terrible about watching our Netflix movies. I've had Black Swan for two weeks now; we had Tangled for at least a month before we watched it.

• I am reading this book. I'm just a few chapters in but I already know it is going to make me cry.

Sorry for a short(both in length and substance) post today. Hopefully something exciting will pop into my head over the weekend to write about! We have busy Saturday and not so busy Sunday. I'll be back Sunday to recap this week's menu. Have a great weekend!

This is happening

image via nkotbsb.com

I bought the tickets this morning. My sister is flying up next weekend and next Monday night we're going to see the New Kids on The Block and the Backstreet Boys in concert. The worlds of my six-year-old self and sixteen-year-old self will collide.

I was a HUGE NKOTB fan when I was in 1st-2nd grade. I had a fanny pack(neon colors, of course), night gowns, beach towels, t-shirts and of course a Jordan Knight doll, complete with rat tail:

image via Google

As I grew older, they grew less popular. Then these guys came along:
Oh, yes. I was a BSB girl. My BFF was an N'Sync girl(because you had to pick one or the other), so we went to multiple concerts for both of them. I won't lie. I still run to "The Hits-Chapter 1" on my ipod. In fact, I may play it this afternoon just to get in the spirit!

I. Can't. Wait. I wonder if my sister can go home and find my NKOTB fanny pack and BSB Millennium tour t-shirt(3 sizes too big, of course, because I liked baggy clothes back then) before she flies up here. Clearly I'll need them.

Wedding Wednesday: Laying the Foundation

Wedding Wednesdays is a series where I recap all parts of planning my April 2011 wedding.

Last week I recapped our proposal. I spent the weeks following in newly-engaged bliss, buying magazines, joining TheKnot and adding wedding blogs to my reader.

One big hurdle I faced planning our wedding is the fact that Memphis is 6 hours away from my hometown, where our wedding would be. I worried about this at first--How could I possibly get it all done??--but looking back, I think this may have been a blessing. It forced me to make a decision and stick with it. It also helped me decide what was important to me in terms of the wedding and what wasn't that big of a deal.

I wasn't the first of my friends to get married. By the time our engagement rolled around, I had a general idea of what I wanted from our wedding. I saw my friends stress over the tiniest things--the exact flowers, bridesmaids gifts, who their future mother-in-law invited--and who made it seem like planning a wedding was one of the worst, most stressful experiences of their lives. I had stressful times--more about that later--but for the most part, I really enjoyed planning our wedding.

Since my friends started getting married, I've told my parents the three things I wanted for my wedding:

1) pretty dress
2)pretty pictures
3) a fantastic party with all my friends

I'm happy to say I managed to have all 3, plus stuff I wasn't expecting. I believe it is because I decided early on what I wanted and didn't waver from my choices.

My parents gave me a budget a month or so after the engagement. In the end, I went slightly over(more on that later), but it gave me boundaries for my planning. With a budget set, J and I took a few days off work before Easter weekend and went home to spend the holiday with my family and start planning our wedding!

I had a date in mind when we went down there. I knew I wanted a Spring wedding because of the color palette I had in mind. I didn't want it to be too early, but I also didn't want it to be smack in the middle of "wedding season". We settled on April 16,2011!

I knew that the ceremony would be at the church I grew up going to. It was renovated a few years ago and looks fantastic:
I snapped these pictures after the Easter service that weekend. My dad handled securing the church for us.

We looked at two potential reception venues. One was a gorgeous farm with a view of the mountains, but it was also 1/3 of our budget. The other was the reception hall at the local country club. My family has been members my whole life and I've been to numerous receptions there. We ultimately decided on the club. While I wouldn't get the outdoor, southern garden wedding I pictured from all the blog posts I'd read, I would get a great reception within my budget! It was $500 to secure the hall and in the end, that $500 went towards our final bill. They provided tables, chairs, basic white table cloths, the food and the staff, plus a coordinator(who was amazing). It was a great deal.

We also met with two photographers I had researched before hand, William Massey Photography and another local pair. I knew I wanted a mix of the popular candid/journalistic style photos and traditional, posed portraits. Both photographers do great work, but in the end we went with William Massey Photography and we are beyond thrilled with our pictures(more on those later). I wanted to book the photographer early because pictures were one of my "Big 3" important items.

We squeezed all of that into one day of planning! It was exhausting, but we did it. We knew our visits to Georgia(especially together) would be few during our engagement. We had to make the most out of each visit. By the end of the weekend, we had decided on a budget, date, church, reception venue and photographer, essentially laying the foundation for our wedding!

Next week: Picking the bridal party and other wedding party roles. Please let me know if there is anything you would like to hear about!