Back to Work

Spring break has come and gone, always so quickly. I will say that I was fairly productive all week long, except for this last weekend--I did pretty much nothing to reward myself for all my hard work.

I had two goals over the break: first, to clean house and second, to paint my room (not the master bedroom but a spare room that we're making into a closet/craft room.)

I got most of the cleaning done, only lacking just a few things. I got my room painted--I just need to go back and touch up a few places. Bailey took off Thursday and Friday and we decided to tackle painting our bedroom. I was supposed to paint it over the MLK holiday but, obviously, never did. I only lack painting the trip in the bedroom. I know there were other things we worked on around the house, but I honestly can't remember what they were.

Thursday night we got the grill going and grilled some kabobs as well as some hamburgers since we had the grill going. Here's our recipe for kabobs (we got this one from my MIL). We usually eat these along some white rice. I'll also give you our hamburger recipe we got from a friend.

Chicken and Steak Kabobs

steak and chicken (this time I used about 1 lb. of steak  and 1 1/2 of chicken)

Italian dressing

medium onion

two bell peppers

Cut steak and chicken into cubes. Put into dish and cover with Italian dressing (as much or as little as you like). I usually let it marinate for at least an hour, sometimes longer.

Cut up your onion and bell pepper into about one inch pieces. 

Place all on skewers, alternating ingredients. (We make all chicken ones, then all steak ones because the chicken sometimes takes a little longer.)

Then grill them and enjoy. ( I really don't know how hot the grill should be or how long to grill them--that's Bailey's job!)

Italian dressing is a great marinade. I use it in our hamburgers, too, along with a few other things. Another really easy thing is to marinate some chicken in Italian dressing and then bake it. Super easy and yummy! I try to buy chicken in bulk and then separate it into the portions I'll use for cooking. I sometimes pour some Italian dressing into one of the freezer bags--that way the chicken soaks up the dressing as it freezes and thaws. After it thaws, put it in a casserole dish, a little fresh dressing and pop it in the oven.

As I said before, I hardly did anything this past weekend, unless you count watching America's Next Top Model for a few hours and giving myself a manicure and pedicure. Well, and we went to dinner on Saturday night with some friends of ours, but that's about it.

I'll end with picture of Lula and Wrigley. Both of them really enjoyed the nice weather last week. They got to stay outside all day long.

Not a great picture since it was taken from my phone and through the blinds. (Try to ignore the nasty sunken backyard in the background--it's a work in progress).

Busy, busy, busy.

It has been nearly 8 weeks since I last blogged. That's quite a while.

The last few weeks in the Hunt household have been rather busy. There's no way I can remember what all has happened since my last post, but I can briefly tell about the last few weeks.

Both of our birthdays have come and gone. We went to Kyoto with my family for dinner which was a lot of fun. I haven't been to a hibachi-type restaurant since prom. After dinner, a king cake was waiting on us at my parent's. My dad has had one shipped from Baton Rouge as long as I can remember, since my birthday is around Mardi Gras.

The last weekend in February I ended up going with my mom on a quick trip to Baton Rouge. (This is where I was born, as well as Olivia and William). The music minister of the church we attended there was retiring after nearly 30 years. My dad had originally planned to go with my mom but he got sick so I went instead. It was fun. I didn't remember most of the people but alot of them remembered me, or Olivia. Some of them said they remember me each year because my birthday is on Leap Day.

That same weekend, Bailey was in Oxford. He and some friends had made plans to go to the Eric Church concert.

The next weekend Bailey and I went down to New Orleans to stay with his cousin and his wife, and to go to a few of the Ole Miss-Tulane baseball games. We had a lot of fun and ate lots of good food. We got there Friday night and went to a little bar to grab a burger. Saturday we got up and rode around to see the remaining damage from Katrina. Then we went downtown and ate at Johnny Po Boys. Bailey and I split a shrimp poboy as well as a french fry poboy. Yes, that sounds crazy but it was so good. It had gravy and cheese on it--yum! After lunch we went next door to the Kupcake Factory and had a mint chocolate cupcake. Then we shopped around downtown a bit before heading to the ballgame.

After the ballgame, we went back and cleaned up before going to dinner. We ate dinner at Copeland's Social City and the food was incredible. They have lots of different appetizers and small plates (which are smaller portions of an entree) in addition to their dinner entrees. Bailey and I decided to share three different appetizers/small plates. They were: crab and shrimp spring rolls, crawfish pasta and crab-stuffed catfish. They were all unbelievably good. My favorite was the crab-stuffed catfish. Then came time for dessert. They are known for their cheesecake, that is super creamy, and their signature way of serving it which is two scoops of it in a martini glass with your choice of topping. I sampled the white chocolate strawberry and ended up getting the bananas foster cheesecake. Bailey got the fresh strawberry. All of it was absolutely delicious!

Sunday we had a lighter lunch, Subway, and then headed to the game. We ended up leaving with a few innings to go since we weren't playing too great and got on the road early. It was a really beautiful weekend and it was great to see Jonathan and Tiffany.

The following Tuesday I left for a conference in Jackson and was there until Thursday afternoon. I got to do lots of shopping after sitting in the conferences all day!

Friday at 3:00 marked the beginning of Spring Break and it's been fabulous so far! I've been trying to clean/organize all around the house. I've also been working on "my" room. I'm nearly finished painting it. Bailey and I are about to head up to Lowe's to pick up a few things for around the house. Then we (yes, both of us--he took off the next 2 days) will be able to work on some things around the house the rest of the week.

Sorry this was so lengthy! I've been gone too long. I'll really try to get better about it.

Blog Hiatus Over

I'm back, once again. I kind of took an unintentional leave from blogging. We were without our home computer for at least two weeks. We somehow got a nasty virus or something that completely took over the computer. However, I am ever so lucky to have a friend/co-worker who's husband is very computer savvy and he cleaned it up for us.

Right around my last blog post (right at a month ago), we found a sweet, sweet puppy at our church. She was incredibly thin and malnourished and it was right around one of those times when it was pretty chilly. I somehow convinced Bailey to let us take her home for at least a night or two. I took her to the vet the next morning to have her checked out. The vet said she looked to be about four months old, possibly a hound and/or boxer mix. It appeared as though she was probably dumped by someone.  We were going to think it over the next week or so, whether we wanted to keep her or not, and, of course, we decided to keep her. Neither of us could bear to give her away. So we now have two "babies"--Lula and Wrigley. We were hoping to get another dog (a bigger one) in the next year or so, so this worked out perfectly.

Lula and Wrigley waiting to come inside on one of our "snow" days.

School has been back in full swing since the first full week of January--for the most part anyways. I haven't yet had a full week due to a conference, snow days, and a holiday. And I'm really hoping this wintry mix is coming and we won't be at school tomorrow. (I love my job, but I'm just a kid at heart and love any sort of "snow" day--even if there's not a whole lot of snow!)

There hasn't been much else going on. We're still trying to work on things here and there for the house. We are currently planning/beginning to work on a room for me that's going to become a closet/craft room. I'm just trying to decide what color to paint it. I'd love any suggestions!

Our First Anniversary

We had a wonderful anniversary. We spend it mostly just relaxing and enjoying our time together. We opted not to go anywhere (out of town) since we're still settling in the house and have had so much other stuff going on.

We swapped gifts before heading to dinner. Here's Bailey's:

He got a fire pit and a scarf. The first anniversary is paper so I gave him a card too. (And, technically, paper could be burned in the fire pit).

My first gift:

I opened a box which contained these sheets of paper which say, "Happy 1 Year Anniversary, I LOVE YOU." He then told me that I could pick out a photo album--it will contain only pictures/things from our anniversary. Little did I know I had something else coming......

My surprise gift I received just before dinner.

The second band for my ring!!

I was totally surprised. I still can't believe he got it already.

We ate dinner at Texas de Brazil. If you've never been, go. They have an incredible salad bar and then lots and lots of wonderful meat. The house specialty sirloin is to die for. We ate way too much and then, of course, had dessert. Bailey had key lime pie and I tried the bananas foster pie. Both were fabulous.

It's been a fantastic first year of marriage. I am so blessed.

Well Overdue.

Here are some pictures from a few things over the last month...remember to ignore the poor quality of the photos.  We have a camera that gets the job done but doesn't have great quality. Hopefully we'll invest in a better one before too long.

Bailey and I after the Ole Miss-LSU game.

This was in my room at Thanksgiving. My students are 3rd-6th grade (most of them--the ones that made these). Our chain of gratitude is hanging about our handprint turkey.

A close-up of the turkey.

Before the Christmas Party at Felicia Suzanne's.

Of course we had to take a "family photo"--one with Lula. I intended on using this one on our Christmas card, but decided not to.

Christmas

We had a wonderful anniversary and Christmas. I'll post about the anniversary later--I don't have the pictures at the moment.

Since I never posted them before Christmas, here are some pictures of our tree and other decorations at the house.

This is an ornament that my sister gave us. A friend of hers (well, and mine too) knows someone that paints these ornaments--all individualized according to the couple based on the tux and gown, flowers, and of course the faces, too. And, mine was navy since my bridesmaids dresses were navy. You can also choose a verse for her to pain around it (it follows the swirly lines around the ornament.)

This tray is on the left side of the coffee table.

This is on the right side of the coffee table. The trees, charger, and ball ornaments are all from our rehearsal dinner/reception.

Our stockings hanging from the mantle.

The left side of the mantle. The vase with the red and silver balls is also from the rehearsal dinner/reception. The tree DOES have sequins all the way to the top...as they get higher, they become clear. I have some leftover glitter spray but just haven't gotten to spraying it yet. I have my Christmas cards sitting across the mantle. At this time, it appears I only had one that made it into the photo.

The right side of the mantle. The reindeer are from the rehearsal dinner/reception as well. I bought 2 of the 3 sets of ornaments here the day after Christmas at Walmart. I believe the others came from Marshall's.

We bought this ornament on our honeymoon last year.

"First Christmas Together" with two love birds. I actually bought this ornament the day after Christmas in 2007, right before we were in engaged in February 2008.

One of many Fusion glass ornaments we received from showers last year.

Our beautiful tree!

The topper I created. Not sure if I'm completely content with it, but I like it.

This last week has kept us busy. Bailey worked most of the week. After he got off on Monday we did some shopping with his family, like they do every year. It's always fun and entertaining. On Tuesday I baked some cookies with my sister. Wednesday I went shopping again, this time with mom. Thursday morning we had a small Christmas breakfast/party at Bailey's office.

On Christmas Eve, we went to church and then had Christmas at his grandmother's. All of her children and grandchildren were actually here this year.

Christmas morning we woke up and had Christmas ourselves. Then we went to his family's house to have Christmas with them. Next we went to my family's house to open gifts. We then went home to clean up and get ready for lunch at his grandmother's. After eating at his grandmother's we went back to my parent's and ate a bit more. Then we went home and napped.

We are very lucky that all of our family is here in our small town. It makes holidays pretty simple.

Bailey's cousins who are close to our age have been in town most of the week so we've spent a good bit of time hanging out with them. We don't get to see them often but when we do, we really enjoy it.

Saturday morning I woke up early to do some shopping with a friend. I found lots of great Christmas stuff--all on sale!! Bailey and his dad did some shopping at Lowe's and Sears.

Today's been pretty relaxing. Went to church and then had a reunion with my dad's side of the family. Outside of the reunion/church, there was a precious little puppy. She kind of resembled Lula in the face. She is terribly skinny--you can see every rib and her hips. I somehow talked Bailey into letting me bring her home for the night. Tomorrow morning I'm going to take her to the vet to see if they might know who she belongs to. I'll update later on how it goes.

Happy Anniversary

One year ago today I married my best friend.

It was perfect and absolutely beautiful, but I am a bit biased.

I'd always hoped for a Christmas wedding and since he proposed in February, we had just enough time to plan our Christmas wedding. It was simple and elegant (in my opinion). I had a beautiful bouquet of calla lillies and roses in deep red. My bridesmaids carried bouquets of white roses and daises. Bailey's boutonniere was a red rose and the groomsmen had a white daisy. The only decorations in the sanctuary, other than what is already provided by the church, were two flower arrangements (seen below), two candlelabras, and a few pew markers.

My beautiful bridesmaids.

The guys holding me up.

A real one with the groomsmen.

My bridesmaids being silly with Bailey.

And a serious one with him.

Bailey and his groomsmen.

Playing a little football with my bouquet.

With my family.

With his family.

With all the beautiful bouquets.

I saw this idea somewhere and I had to try it.

In front of the sanctuary.

My bouquet. The lace wrapped around the bouquet was from the had my mother wore with her wedding gown. The pin on it is my maternal grandmother's--it was made with her and my grandfather's ring after their 50th wedding anniversary. These two things composed my old and borrowed.

My cake. It alternated layers--buttercream and strawberry.

Bailey's chocolate cake.

They threw "snow" as we left.

Off to change and then begin our honeymoon!

Happy anniversary Bailey! This year has been incredible and I can't wait for all the years to come.