New Dawn, New Day, New Month

Hi my blogging friends, the past month has been a little bit of a bummer for us/me. I really haven't felt like writing much. We had two theater friends, both connected w/ Charleston, tragically and unexpectedly pass away.  They both have weighed heavy on my heart and I've found myself constantly thinking about them both and praying for their families.  I've also been battling a bit of the baby making blues.  I normally am so positive in this area of our life...but it's been a little harder than usual.

I am ready to nip all of these blues in the bud though and focus on God's plan, mercy and love.  My plans for my life always seem like they will be great if God would just get on board : ). But...I've learned over the past couple of years to give him the reigns and know that His plan is greater then I will ever understand and better than I can imagine.  Pray for my patience and my heart. March-I'm embracing you with OPEN arms.  Ready for brighter days and more lessons learned.

Jeremiah 29:11

¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Pinterest is mostly a happy place

I have fallen in love w/ Pinterest like the majority of my friends and internet friends.  I'm getting great ideas for crafts, updating the house, recipes and more.  For Christmas I made several projects that I had found and they turned out great! Tonight I made this stew.  It was AMAZING! I changed it up a little bit and Linds-ified it.  The Hubs loved it and I highly recommend it.

But, as can be expected from time to time, a recipe let me down. Wanh Wanh!  Do you remember Little Debbie Cakes? I loved these as a child, especially the oatmeal creme pies.

Well, I found a recipe for them on Pinterest and decided to make them.  I was very disappointed in the outcome.  They tasted fine...ok, they tasted good...but they weren't like the original creme pies.  My husband thought they were good and of course he ate them.  They were mostly like an oatmeal cookie doozie.  Like the cookie company used to make w/ 2 chocolate chip cookies and icing.  The cookie was hard, not soft like the LD cake, and I didn't even bake them as long as the recipe said.  Again, they tasted fine but they weren't the memory and experience I was hoping for. 

I just looked on google and found these recipes here: recipe 1, recipe 2, and recipe 3 (there were a ton of recipes to choose from).  They are all a little different from each other. Should I try again?Hmmmm.... I just don't know.  How have your Pinterest experiences been?   

Lins and Drew: A Love Story

1. How long have you and your significant other been together?

We've been "together" since October 15, 2000. WOW

2. How did you meet? {What's your "love" story?}

Drew and I met our freshman year of college. He says we met at Freshman orientation but I don't remember...ha! We were friends forever but didn't start dating until we were Seniors.  I had been told he had a crush on me when we were freshman...but I was oblivious and actually told someone that "Drew's the kind of guy you marry, you don't date guys like that." Niceeeee.....anyway He left VSU and went to another school our sophomore year but thankfully came back our Junior year.  We had every single class together our 2nd semester of Junior year. It was then that something started to change in me...but it took 1/2 a year for us to finally date. We started dating in October of 2000....and haven't looked back.  We both fell pretty hard and pretty quickly for each other...and, well, here we are : ). 

3. If married, how long have you been married? If not, is this the guy you hope to marry? {do tell} We've been married for 9 1/2 years...whoo hoo! We will hit the big 10 year this June 15. 

4. If you are married, where did you get married at? Big or small wedding?  If not, where would you like to get married? And will it be big or small?  We got married in beautiful church in Macon, GA and it was a semi-big wedding.(for the record it would be so different and much smaller if we were to marry now...lol). We were surround by lots of family, friends and love. It was pretty awesome...and it also feels like a long time ago! 

5. Do you have any nick-names that you call one another? Do share!

I call him Hon, Babe, and Drewbie. 

He calls me Lins, and Babe- but he only calls me that to make fun of me in response to me calling him that. 

6. Name 3 things you love most about your honey.

His morals and love for the big GOD.

His love for family and how important that is to him.

He makes me laugh...he has since the day I met him and he hasn't stopped. Most of the time it's making fun of me...but that's ok : )

7. Tell us how he proposed? Or your ideal proposal?

He proposed to me on December 15, 2001 while we were walking on the beach where I grew up. It was on St Simons Island, GA but still pretty windy and cool for Dec.  We walked forever b/c he was so nervous. By the time he proposed my nose was running and my eyes watering...I was a hot mess...but I still said yes : )and then ran to the car to wipe my face.  We finished the day by watching the worst movie ever (Vanilla Sky). It didn't matter I was on cloud 9.

8. Is he a flowers and teddy bear kind of guy for v-day, or strawberries, champagne, and rose petals?

I don't think he is either.  I don't like chocolate and as much as I love flowers he knows I'd kill him if he spent the money.  He knows I'd probably love a bottle of red wine and a kiss! I will say one V-Day he gave me an opened box of chocolates and I was thinking "what the heck!"  But inside were tickets for the Sara Bareilles concert...oh that slick man of mine!

9. Are you a sunset dinner on the beach kind of girl, or pop a movie in and relax on the couch?

That's pretty dang hard to answer...I freaking love the beach...but I love some chill time on my couch w/ my love.  How about a homemade dinner in a beach house overlooking the ocean w/ a movie and wine : ).

10. Tell us one thing you'd like to do with your significant one day. If you could do anything? Go anywhere?

I really, really want to take a big trip to make-up for our el crapo honeymoon 10 yrs ago.  I would love anyplace beachy...just to chill and enjoy each other's company. 

11. Tell us what you plan on doing on this Valentine's Day.

I have absolutely no idea. He's been doing a show for the past month so we haven't even had time to think about it. Probably I will cook at home and then we will watch a movie. 

12. Are you asking for anything this Valentine's day?

Nope...I'm pretty easy!

13. Give us one piece of advice of keeping a relationship strong and full of love.

Be humble and know when you need to ask for forgiveness and when you need to forgive.  Don't let your relationship fall in the mullygrubs. Don't be afraid to spice it up and have a special date now and then (even if it's at home). 

14.  Show us a picture of what love means to you.

There is a new man in town

Mr. Phillips hand mixer, you've served me well the past 9 1/2 years.  We've had some great times. You helped me make many a cake for the hub's birthday, muffins for breakfast and lots of treats for gatherings.

But, sadly, it's time to say goodbye. It's not you...it's me. I will probably keep you around for a while but I'm happy to say you won't get used much.  I'm sorry I'm being so blunt but I've always believed honesty is best.
Now, don't get your feelings hurt, but there is a new man in town. Meet your replacement.

Yes, it's true, I've gone all KitchenAid up in HERE! Now if you need to place blame, it's all the Hubs fault.  He just had to surprise me with this for Christmas : ).  Now, the man at the store sure did try to talk him out of it.  He tried to steer him to a jewelry store but thankfully the hubs knows me better then that.  It was a pretty awesome treat that I was not expecting.

So, thanks for the good times but life is about to get a little easier up in the Archer Casa : ).

Here's to the Ladies who Lunch

I teach on Saturdays and normally head home after my classes. Today I had plans to meet up w/ 3 of my closest gal pals from college for a Ladies Lunch.  We all live in the Atlanta area, kind of. At least close enough to meet up on a semi-regular basis which happened to be the Buford area(mall of GA area for you shopping peeps).  I've been lucky enough to have seen all of three of these ladies at different times since we moved back but this was the first time that we'd all been together since New Year's Eve of 2010.  We were missing our gals Kate(lives in LA) and Maggie(lives in Charleston) but we sent them our love!

(Andrea, Me, Kameron, Angie, Amy & Lola)

It was so great getting to see each other and catch up.  Between this group there are 5 kids and the youngest and the oldest of those joined us today.  Andrea's son, Seth, and Amy's other two, Grayson and Stella, all stayed with their daddies while we had girl time.  

(Kam cheesing for the camera.  She will be 6 in March and Lola will be 1.)   

It's nice to get together and catch up like this.  Everyone gets so busy with families, work, life etc., that we don't always get to see each other as often as we'd like.  

(Kameron had to jump in a pic w/ her "aunts.") 

(Kameron had to have her doll,Kelly, in the pic)

Love these gals and am very thankful to call them my sisters! It's nice to know who has your back : )

Thursday Thoughts

Here is what is going on in this ole brain of mine...scary, I know!

• The hubs and I started watching Breaking Bad this week....WHOA...that show is pretty intense.  Interesting premise but way too much blood for me. I definitely end up closing my eyes a lot....ha!
• I got some REALLY good grapefruit from the Dekalb Farmers Market last week. They are red, juicy, make me want to move to FL and I wish I'd bought more!  If you live in ATL go to this Farmers Market. It's a little to far for me to go regularly but it's the COOLEST place.  Veggie/Fruits/Spices/Meats/Cheese (the list goes on and on) from all over the world and VERY good prices. I highly recommend it but just so you know, you can't take pictures there....very interesting!
• Please keep a friend of mine in Charleston in your prayers.  She lost her husband last week in a car accident.  Drew and I performed in several shows with them over the years.  He was a wonderful man and is going to be missed.  My heart aches for our friend in the loss of her husband. 
• My hubs is in a show right now called My Way.  It's a Frank Sinatra revue and it only has 4 people in it.  Kind of cool b/c he gets to sing a lot.  I got to see his opening (makes up for missing his last show's opening) and I'm going again tonight with some of my closest ATL gal pals.  So excited to see him shine!
• Lately, every time I see palm trees on a tv show or in a pic it makes me want to move to FL or Cali....Maybe I just need to plant some in my backyard. 
• A family I used to babysit for moved to Seattle in Dec.  They gave us their house plants so they wouldn't have to move w/ them.  I was excited to grow our greenery in the house.  I think it was a BIG mistake for three reasons: 1. The cats keep eating and barfing them up, 2. The ficus tree has become a new litter box (thanks Artie and Harpo), and 3. The hubs thinks they are screwing up his allergies.  Well, POOP! I so liked having them. 
• The weather in Atlanta has been SO bipolar lately. It's driving me NUTS. 
• I saw New Year's Eve last weekend w/ my girl Denise.  It was a great chick flick movie. I was glad I saw it and now I want to see the Valentine's Day one...anyone see it?  Jane Fonda was going to HUGO at the same theater we were at.  She was right in front of me but I was so annoyed that she was SLOW that I wasn't even paying attention.  My friend pointed it out to me...I started laughing.  I told her how I was annoyed w/ the old lady who was dressed up like she was a movie star or something....HA...seriously! Explains a lot ; )

Hope you guys have a GREAT Friday!

When Hunger strikes...

This is what HUNGER looks like in our house when you are supposed to meet people for dinner at 6:45 or 7 and they push it to 8pm...and then 8:15pm.
                                       

  Please ignore the VERY messy bookshelf (see organization post from last night).

I asked the hubs what he was going to look like if he didn't eat soon.  I was hoping for a funny look. 

This is what I got. 

He said "I'm gonna grab a burrito from Trader Joes and throw it in the microwave."

Whatta a wise guy!

It's 7:54...I'm going to eat my hand if we don't meet them soon...will update you if said hand is missing!