She's still kicking my ass

This past weekend, well 2 weekends ago now, Mom and Jeff came to visit. I was great to see them! I got my butt kicked.

Mom likes to have projects when she comes to visit. I suggested she brought up her pressure washer and we redo the iron work on my porch. She didn't think that would be enough so I offered that if we have more time, we can work on the flower bed the runs the length of my front yard. The ended up getting here later then planned so not long after they arrived, Jeff and Bliss went to a Braves game on Saturday night. Jeff wore his Ray's shirt very proudly :) Mom and I started on the front porch then went to eat and ran to walmart. Sunday not only did we finish presure washing the porch but we cleaned out my flower bed. We cleaned out 10ish trash bags, 1 trash can and 3 truck fulls of dead bushes and crap. My poor yard. I know that this was a necassary step, but its not pretty right now. AND it kicked my ass.

That night I made Indian Dosas for this month's Daring Kitchen challenge. I wasn't sure if Bliss would like it so I wanted to make it for more then just us. You know what? We all loved it. It was great!

The next day we grabbed some lunch then Mom and Jeff left. Its too bad that I don't get to see them more, but its probably best Mom didn't stay any longer to work me. I think my body would have revolted against me.

YAY!!!

As you may remember, for our honeymoon Bliss and I went up to north GA and Chattanooga for about a week. We had a great time but it wasn't what most people would call a typical honeymoon. Hell the first night we were there, we went camping and it was so cold we both slept in long johns. Not so romantic. Regardless, we had a wonderful time.


see my blue long johns and Bliss' winter hat?


it was beautiful...just cold as hell



Because it wasn't what we had always dreamed our honeymoon would be...like a trip to Europe or Asia or anywhere that we have to fly to that isn't in the southeast United States...we have been planning that we would go on a rather big trip for our one year anniversary. We seriously talked about a few places (Curaçao, St. Lucia or Europe) but in the end realized that we still don't have a ton of money. The savings plan that we had originally planned gave way to having pay bills. We would be able to afford to go to these places, but not have the kind of trip you want to have when there. We want to be able to do stuff and eat good food and drink the night away and not have to watch every penny.

SO...after lots of long talks and looking at prices for tickets and our work schedules, we decided to go on a cruise! I know its not nearly as exotic as those other places but we get out of Macon, we go to 2 other countries, we get to eat all we want and since the price is right, we will be able to do some excursions and drink our frilly drinks with all the little umbrellas that we want :)

We'll be heading down to my mom and Jeff's house on Friday, Oct 23rd after work. Saturday we'll be departing from Tampa. Since its so close to Mom's house, she's going to bring us so we don't have to pay to park our car! YAY! Sunday, our actual anniversary is a day at sea. They know its our anniversary so we'll see if they do anything fancy for us. Monday we go do Grand Cayman Tuesday Cozumel, Wednesday is another day at sea and Thursday we get back to Tampa! We thought that 5 day would be better then 7 since the 7 day cruises get back in to port on Sunday and we would have to drive home and go to work the next day. This way, we can go home and have a few days or stay there for a night or 2 and visit.

We're very excited!!! Can't wait to get to this:


Picture Ninja

Bliss' Birthday

Yesterday was Bliss' 27th birthday. I got up in the morning and made him some cinnamon rolls for breakfast then started on the cake. It was such a good cake. It was a brownie base with chocolate mousse then chocolate cake and all topped off with chocolate ganache. Here is the recipe. I also make some vanilla ice cream to try to balance out the over load of chocolate. It was so yummy, VERY RICH, but yummy.

We went out to dinner then back to our house with some friends. Nothing super exciting, but it was a great night.

Happy Birthday Bliss!!!!









There is supposed to be a photo of him right here, but hes too busy playing a game and me uploading a photo from the server is messing with his game, so I can't. Just imagine him I guess....

Its been awhile

There isn't much going on in our lives right now. The best I can come up with is that we bought some bikes over the weekend! We've been on a couple bike rides in to the trails in the park near our house and my butt hurts to prove it.

We've been wanting to get some for awhile. We even registered for some for the wedding. We got some money for them but ended up spending it on our honeymoon. Anyways, since Bliss' birthday is the weekend, we decided to buy bikes and to make them our birthday gifts for the year. We just got some cheap ones at Walmart but they do the job.


Oh! Since its been so long I didn't realize that I hadn't talked about the 4th of July! We went back to Louisiana for the long weekend. I got sick on the way down so we stopped just north of Mobile for the night instead of driving all the way.

The first night there we went to a restaurant that is famous for its thin catfish. Its like they filleted the fillets. I'm not a huge catfish fan but it was pretty good. Bliss really seemed to like it. I had stuffed flounder. It was really good but I still wasn't 100% from the night before so that put a damper on my eating.

For the 4th, we went over to Bliss' cousin Erin's house and hung out with her family and eat some good food. She has 4 beautiful kids that were running all over the place trying to get the attention of the new people. Super cute :) When it came closer to their bed time, we went out side for the kids to do sparklers and some pop-its.

Our last night, we went in to MS and hit up the casino. Bliss and I spent the night there since we were already 1 1/2 hrs closer to home. We had never had the breakfast buffet at the casino, but it was good. We're definitely going to have to hit that again some time.


I really think that's it. We're just working. We trying to plan a trip for our anniversary but we'll see how that goes. I'll let you know.

some sad news

I'm sorry to tell everyone that Bliss' father, John, died this Saturday. Here is a copy of his obituary.

We left Friday afternoon and got to Louisiana around 12:30. We went straight to the hospital and saw Johnny. He was sedated but Bliss got to spend a little time with him and talk to the nurse about what was going on. We went to Bliss' grandmothers house for the night but got a call the next morning from his mother saying that we needed to get back to the hospital soon. When we got there, there were lots of Johnny family around. We all got to say our goodbyes then we left the room so that Bliss and his mother could be with Johnny. The doctors did everything they could for him but there was just too much going wrong. Just before noon, Johnny died.

That afternoon we went to the funeral home to get everything planned. There is SO much ridiculous stuff that people can do/buy for their dead loved ones...Bliss' cousin Erin and I were just amazed and we walked though the display area. Anyway, in with all the paperwork, Vicki had to sign something giving permission to remove John's defibrillator. Now he just got this back in December and it cost $110,000 for the hardware...not putting it in, just the device. Bliss was amazed by the cost since it really is just a battery. His phone is way more impressive and cost $199. So, as Vicki is signing this form, she explains that Bliss is a computer geek and asked the funeral director if they can have it. We all start to laugh...the poor funeral director turned bright red and laughed nervously, not knowing how to react this crazy ass family. He asked and turns out we were able to have it! We assumed that we would get it when we got the ashes in 2-3 days, but just a few min after we finished all the paperwork and planning, he gave it to us. Here it is!!!




On Sunday we ran a few errands and went though a bunch of photos looking for some good ones of Johnny. He was such a good looking man and had a great life. It was obvious in the photos that he really loved Vicki and Bliss; and even though I'm a damn yankee who came down and stole his good southern boy, I know he loved me too.

We had the memorial service on Monday morning. Bliss' cousin Erin sung, his Uncle Jack talked about Johnny's life, then another relative Kent sang to close. So many people showed up, it was wonderful. Most everyone went back to Bliss' grandmothers house after. I made a comment to Bliss about how there was so much food. His response was "This is the South, that's how we mourn". Too funny. I love that I married a man that can make jokes where there isn't anything reason to be funny. After everyone left, we went back to the house, changed and left for the casino! Johnny loved going to the casino and Vicki didn't want to be in the house so it seemed like the thing to do.

Tuesday Bliss helped out his mother doing some stuff around the house, then we did another of Johnny's favorite things, we went to Poncho's - an all you can eat Mexican restaurant.

We left today before lunch and got home uneventfully. I know it was very hard for Bliss to leave his mom, but she has so much support there, I know she will be just fine. That's about it...our extended weekend in a nut shell.



We love and miss you Johnny.

For 20 years we've been friends!!

Over Memorial day weekend, I went down to FL to see my mom and Julie. Julie is one of my bestest and oldest friends. We've known each since 1st grade but became bff's in 3rd. 20 effing years. It makes me feel old when I can very easily remember 20 years ago.

Anyway, I went to hang. Julie and I went out on Sat night. We went to a bar in Spring Hill and had a GREAT time. Ladies drink for free till 11 so we dumped a few back...then drank a little more :) Since we talked about how we had known each other for so long before we went out that night, Julie kept telling everyone that we've been friends for 20 years. Also, she kept telling me that my hair looked cute...like every 15 min she said it. She fixed it so it did look a hell of a lot better that usual.

Here's a pic of us all ready to go.




I really need to hang out with her more....

Way down upon the Swanee River

About a month ago, I was really missing my mom so I suggested we meet in the middle and have a little camping trip! The 5.5 hr drive between our houses is just too much for a weekend. We went to Swanee River State Park in North Florida. Unfortunately, the river was quickly rising so we weren't able to rent canoes. We did a little light hiking and tried to see some sites.

Here is the "balancing rock"...the river is so high, its just a rock in the water.



And here are some steps in to the water :)



The Jourdans



Jeff working on the fire



Mom on a hike



And me on a tree out over the river...I just knew I was going to fall in



The state was worried that the river would flood the road out so they were evacuating everyone Sunday morning. We got up nice and early, packed up, had breakfast at Huddle House then headed home. Since we got up early, once we got home, we unpacked the car and laid around the rest of the day.

I had a great time with my mom and Jeff and hope that we can do this again soon!!