Confessional Friday

I was planning on writing a blog about a bunch of random, but Leslie at A Blonde Ambition is having a Confessional Friday link up. So why not, I'll link up! 

1. I confess I do love these link ups. When my mind wanders on what to write about, they help me focus. 

2. We have stayed in the new house for 2 nights now. I confess, I haven't slept well in the new bed and surroundings. I think my body thinks it is on vacation or staying in a hotel. Just not use to it yet!  

3. I confess that I all of my shoes are still stuffed in bags at the new house. :( This weekend is dedicated to finish moving everything and organizing the closet. 

4. I confess that my husband's side of the closet looks better than mine. :(

5. I confess that Chris and I behaved like an old married couple last night. We put the sprinkler out in the yard, together. Carried the trash to the curb, together. Hung up his clothes, together. Put the sprinkler and the water hose up, together. And then crawled in bed and watched tv, together.

6. I confess that I am ok with everything in number 5. :) 

Thank Goodness It's Friday!! 

New follower, new give away!

I have a new follower, Amber, who is hosting a giveaway on her blog! Free eyeliner, makeup and wait for it, PEARLS! Head over to her blog, Living in the Moment and sign up to win!

The giveaway ends July 30. Hurry!

Like Christmas Eve

You know that feeling of anticipation and excitement that you can just hardly stand! You know, like Christmas Eve? You just can't wait for tomorrow to get here! Well, tonight feels like Christmas Eve to me because tomorrow Chris and I will be spending our first night in our new house!!

*Insert picture of our beautiful front porch and door, with my beautiful blue and white hydrangea wreath that I hung this weekend. Yeah, picture that in your mind, because I forgot to take a real picture...*

But, tomorrow is the night! I am so excited! We closed on Friday and became official homeowners! Wahoo! All of our new furniture is being delivered tomorrow. And the best part is I don't even have to be there! Chris will be home from the rig, so he will be there to take care of everything! Including DirectTV when they come, and AT&T! Yay!!! I hate having to sit around and wait on appointments.

I am so thankful for everything God has provided for us! It almost leaves me speechless when I think about how fortunate Chris and I are. Sure we have worked hard to be able to buy a home, but we are so blessed to have what we have.

I have already made several trips to the new house with my car packed slap full! And there is still a lot to go! You really become aware of how blessed you are when you have to start moving and unpacking. Whew! I am just now being able to open so many of our wedding gifts!!! I can't believe how generous people were!! We are so grateful!! My two favorite gifts to rediscover: 1- the spice rack and 2- the waffle maker! Who actually owns a waffle maker?! I do!!! :)

For the past many moons, our stuff has been stored in my parents pool house. I swear we're not hoarders....

Looking to the right. 

Looking out of the kitchen.

Looking into the "kitchen"

I swear we are not hoarders!!! I will say the pinkish couch in the picture is not ours. But just about everything else is. I know it is insane, but like I said, we are not hoarders; we are just blessed! I think it may look worse than it actually is....maybe? 

We are just so ready to move from this chapter of our lives, to living and thriving in our own home! I am sure I will have many tales to tell from the new place!!

Celebrating the South - Louisiana!

Last day of linking up with Leslie at Blonde Ambition!

Today's linkup is about celebrating your region of the South. It's pretty clear how I feel about Louisiana. A fairly large chunk of my posts have to do with food in Louisiana, traveling in Louisiana, sports in Louisiana, food in Louisiana- did I already say that one?

One of my favorite posts about Louisiana was this one- Louisiana, My Home Sweet Home.  I found a "You know you are from Louisiana when..." It is hilarious because most of them are true! If you don't understand one of them, I will happily explain! 

I know our politics are corrupt, our names are weird and we have holidays for Mardi Gras- but that is what makes Louisiana what it is!  There is no place quite like home. 

Pretty much sums up Louisiana.

Celebrating the South - Weddings

Again, linking up with Leslie at Blonde Ambition, celebrating Southern. 

Ah, weddings. Weddings are a big deal in anyone's life, but in the South they can be all out epic events.

I've blogged a little about my wedding, but don't think I have shared a lot of the wedding photos taken by the pro.

In my opinion Southern weddings have a couple things in common:

• They are all full of traditions. Whether it be family tradition that you, your mom and your grandma did, or a new tradition or a local tradition. They are always present. 
• A true Southern wedding is full of laughter, charm, class and a good time. 
• Southern weddings are either 1- really short (Baptist ceremony) or 2- realllllllly long Catholic ceremony.
• Southern weddings are HOT! I don't care if it is December... it will be hot. 

My wedding was filled with lots of friends and family. We had great music playing and of course, sweet tea as our beverage.

I love looking back to our wedding day. We'll have our one year anniversary coming up soon!! 

Completed House

*Warning* Picture Overload*

Here are pictures of the completed house! Still missing a few final touches, but close enough. (Sorry for some of the funky lighting).

From kitchen, looking into laundry room.

From the laundry room, the kitchen!

Stove and microwave.

Breakfast nook. 

Pantry. Hello shelves!

Shelves and bookcase. TV will go above fireplace.

From back patio door, looking into living room, kitchen and foyer. 

Looking into Mater Bedroom

Master bathroom vanity. 

Master bath, the tub. 

One of the bedrooms. 

Hall bathroom. 

From foyer, the Formal Dining room (really, the Christmas tree room) 

From the foyer, looking in "The Office"

Looking up the stairs.

Top of stairs, looking into Bonus Room- "Man Cave" - The wires are the incomplete speakers. 

Bonus room half bath. 

From far corner of Bonus Room.

From foyer, looking into the kitchen.

Front porch.

Front porch and landscaping. 

Front door.

Wood shutters on the front of the house. In.Love.

We are more than ready to be in the new house!! Should be closing Friday! 

Celebrating the South- Game Day

Linking up with Leslie at Blonde Ambition again today! I love the south! 

Today's topic Celebrating Southern is all about Fashion and Game Day attire. I won't lie or pretend; I am not a fashion guru. I do match most days and own cute clothes, but I am not a think-outside-of-the-box-fashion-gal. SO, I'll stick with Game Day Attire, because that is one thing I DO know about! My absolute favorite thing to wear is a team jersey. I know that is not very "cute" or really all that "fashionable," but it is true team spirit! I love it and it is comfy. :) 

I dug through some old photos and found some of my favorite team paraphernalia!

I'll be the first to admit the earrings in the top left picture should be banned. Yikes.  

As you can see I really like to wear jerseys. You can't see in the pictures, but I try to pair them with different bottoms and shoes. Skinny jeans, black leggings, shorts, pinstripe shorts, brown leather boots, western boots, navy Toms- all have been worn with the jerseys.

Other fashion celebrated in Louisiana, other than game day:

• Fluer de Lis- they are taking over! I have always loved them, but they are starting to be a bit too "trendy" for me. 
• cut off shorts and boots
• sundresses
• PEARLS - never leave home without them!
• diamonds - ok this isn't a Southern thing, it's a woman thing. But still...
• The poof! But NOT Snookie style. 
• Wedges

That's all I can really think of. Like I said, I am no fashion expert, but I can usually tell what looks good and what doesn't. I am sure there are other girls out there with extensive lists on fashion do's and don'ts of the South.

Celebrating the South - Food and Beverages

So this is my first attempt at "linking up," or whatever it is called in the blogoverse. But anything declaring how fabulous the South is, is worth me taking the time to figure out. 

Leslie over at Blonde Ambition is Celebrating the South this week with posts everyday about all things Southern. Today's topic is Food and Beverages- which just so happen to be my FAVORITE things! We all know I love to eat...

Some of my favorite Southern foods:

• crawfish - obviously
• fried fish - again, obviously
• jambalaya
• Grammy's Thanksgiving dressing
• Cheese grits
• bread pudding (with the good rum sauce!)
• fried okra
• Seafood- crab, shrimp, fish, oysters
• pecan pie (and that is pronounce PE-CON, not PEA-CAN pie) 

This list really could go on and on. And now my tummy is growling and I am suddenly starving... 

Some of my favorite southern drinks:

• Sweet tea - duh
• And when it is 100 degrees outside for more than half of the year, WATER becomes a favorite beverage.

Those are really the only 2 beverages I drink. Throw in some wine here and there, but that's about it. Most men down here would chime in that an ice cold  beer is their favorite. 

Really, in the South, anything fried and made with butter will top the favorite food lists. But just so I don't seem like a total pig, I do enjoy fresh veggies from the garden grilled up real nice. 

The Market Restaurant

Friday night, Chris got called into work for a 12 hour night shift in the lab. Yuck. So that left me with mom and dad for dinner plans. After much back and forth about where we should go, we decided to try The Market Restaurant.  And we will never be returning. 

Ok, that sounds harsh, but let me explain. The food was delicious. Really it was excellent. Well mine and mom's chicken was. Dad got the ribeye, and he said it was marginal. BUT THE SERVICE WAS TERRIBLE. 

But I got of ahead of myself there. Let me start from the beginning... 

We pulled in and there were several cars outside, which there are rarely cars there so we thought this was a good sign. We walked in -t here was one person sitting at a table and not another soul in sight. No one to greet us, no hostess, no bar keeper, no nobody. So, we just decide to sit at one of the many available tables. After a good 5-7 minutes sitting there another couple walked in, this must have not been their first time, because they knew to go to a door in the back of the room and once you go through that door....there is the dining room! Ok, so we found the dining room, whew.  

We sat and sat and sat. We saw one male waiter walking around but he never stopped at our table. Eventually he did and took our drink orders....then he brought the drinks....then we got menus. Yeah, in that order. Any who, we finally ordered - me and mom chicken dish and dad the ribeye. it just became comical at some point. Our waiter seemed totally confused every time we talked to him. 

Sundried tomato and goat cheese stuffed chicken breast - Organic chicken breast stuffed with sundried tomatoes and goat cheese served with roasted garlic mashed potatoes and grilled vegetables. 

He finally told us that the other server just didn't show up and he was the only one. So I cut him a little slack, but why wouldn't he have introduced that information at the beginning of the meal? He had zero since of urgency or concern that he had 5 tables of customers. 

Another point of concern, at one point "Karen," the owner, came out of the kitchen. She walked directly passed our table to see a friend. ALL THREE of our glasses were completely empty. Not just no water or tea, I'm talking completely empty. We had eaten all of our ice as well! We were parched! She then passed our table again and walked back into the kitchen. Karen, your staff is dying out here! Fill up our glasses! 

I also saw at least 4 other employees wandering about the restaurant. None of them managed to help out our poor waiter (who never introduced himself, so I don't know his name). Well one lady did, or she tried. Clearly she was meant to stay in the kitchen because she didn't have manners. 

The menu was very small and limited, but I guess that is expected when it is a weekly menu. 

Delicious chicken and veggies, marginal steak and horrible service = no return visit. Somehow, I don't think they will be around much longer any way.

Peach Cobbler

Well, peach season is wrapping up and there's really nothing better to do with ripe, sweet peaches than make a cobbler. I am fortunate enough to live about an hour away from Mitcham Farms. Since 1946, they have been growing delicious peaches on the largest peach farm in Louisiana. They have a cute little store on the farm where they sell fresh peach ice cream and other peach stuff. I never really got past the ice cream, so I don't remember what else they have....

Any way, my mom has a delicious and super easy recipe Peach Cobbler. She's had this recipe card for 30 years!

 Super easy, super delicious and super old recipe.

1 cup flour

1 cup sugar

1 stick of butter

2 tsp. baking powder
1 cup milk

2 and 1/2 cups of peaches (or whichever fruit you'd like)

I don't know all the technical directions because I have never read the recipe, but here's how it goes...

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Put the butter in a 1 quart dish and put in oven. Butter will melt while you mix the remaining ingredients. 
3. Mix dry ingredients. 
4. Add milk.
5. Take dish out of oven and pour in your mixture. 
6. Add the fruit evenly to the dish. 
7. Cook for 45 minutes. 

Mom adds a little sugar to the peach so they get nice and juicy.

Everything in the pan!

Enjoy!

Thank me later for this little gem. 

Fish fry!

I love fish fries. A good fish fry has similar qualities of a good crawfish boil. You're just in a good mood and enjoying good food and company. 

Dad went and picked up the bad boy below, so we can start doing some serious fish fries! We fried fish last weekend, and I wouldn't say it was a disaster, but things just did not go right. So Dad broke down (really, there was no convincing needed) and bought this Cajun Fryer - which just so happens to be made right down I-20 in Homer, LA. But we picked ours up at Bass Pro.

Brand new fryer!

I believe total cook time for french fries, fish and hush puppies was 15 minutes, maybe. It only took the grease about 10 minutes to heat up and then we were in business. My favorite part- everything is cooked SO quickly, Dad doesn't have time to eat all the french fries before we actually sit down at the table! Woo! 

Looking forward to many more fish fries when Dad gets the new patio and deck built! 

Wordless Wednesday

Our first tree.

Happy 4th!

Happy birthday America!

I am so proud to be an American and appreciate so much the sacrifice of so many soldiers who sacrifice to keep our country free.

Happy 4th of July folks!