Home for the Holidays

As always we will be spending Christmas with our families in MN! Eric is already in MN and I will be flying there tomorrow. I cant wait to see family, friends and play in the snow!!!  I plan on spending of my time in MN playing in the snow....either ice skating, sledding, or just making snow angels.  I will post a few updates over the holidays but don't expect much.....until then I wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

Around Athens: College Ave

Eric and I have lived in Athens for 4 years and we have a lot of favorite places around town. I have decided to start taking pictures of some of our frequent hangouts and the popular places around Athens since we wont be here forever.

Our first stop is College Avenue. It is located right in the middle of downtown Athens. On College Ave there are several clothing stores, bars, restaurants and coffee shops.

Eric has spent A LOT of his time at Walkers Coffee Shop & Pub studying for classes, grading papers, and writing for his Ph. D. We have also watched a few football games here and watched some of the World Cups games here as well.

The Grill (below) is a popular place in Athens. Open 24/7 it serves the best (and greasyest) burgers, fries, and malts in town.

Baby its cold outside...

It is officially winter here in GA. The cold nights & days have been keeping our fireplace busy! Our cats have been snuggling up together, sleeping by the fire and sleeping on our feet at night to stay warm. I love having the fireplace going....it always makes it cozy!

I have mentioned this before but I had to share it again. Our cats love laying down in boxes, suitcases, and bags....well we left some Trader Joe's bags out the other day and it didn't take long for Rainy to jump in one. Isn't she cute!?

Athens Christmas Parade

Last Thursday we went to the Athens Christmas Parade. This year we met up with my co-worker Tracy & her family. The parade is always fun. I have several favorite parts of the Athens parade... 1. The dogs from the shelter....it always makes me want one. 2. The marching bands...especially the drums. 3. The cute kids dancing & singing. 4. All the lights! Here are some pictures from this year's parade.

My fav. float in the parade

Tracy & me

The St. Mary's Polar Express

This float was made out of all recycled products.  The tree is made of green plastic bottles.

Even Starwars we at the parade

Eric & Me all bundled up!

My favorite tree

Is it weird to have a favorite tree? Well, I have one. This is a Ginkgo Biloba tree. Ginkgo's are one of my favorite trees but this Ginkgo is amazing. It is probably on of the biggest ginkgo's I have ever seen and it is so beautiful in the Fall. I had to get a few pictures of it since this might be the last Fall we spend in GA. There are Ginkgo's in MN but they are TINY compared to these southern giants. What do you think?

Fall in Athens

This Fall has been busy for us! Between football on Saturdays, fixing up the house (painting and tiling), family here for Thanksgiving and Christmas around the corner.... we were busy. I cant believe it is already winter. It is a cold 37 here in Athens today and I am loving it! I was tired of the hot weather and I am ready for a break! Here is a small recap of what else we did this fall:

Thanks to a friend, Eric and I were able to go to one UGA game this season. We had a great time watching UGA beat Idaho State!

We have also had to rake a few times this Fall. I know I have said this before but the amount of leaves we have is ridiculous!!! 

Tile

I have always liked tile flooring and tile back splashes and tile anything....but now I have a greater appreciation for them! As you know a couple weeks ago we tiled our kitchen and bathroom floors and let me tell you, it was rough!! It took 4 times longer to do than we thought, cost almost twice as much to do....but it looks 20 times better than the crappy linoleum floor we used to have!

We started on Sat the 13th and didn't finish until the 21st. It took longer than we expected because we didn't realize all of the things you have to do when you tile. PLUS we learned that the way we thought we could do it would not work. Who knew our linoleum floor was glued down by the force of God....Who knew you cant tile directly on top of plywood flooring?...Who knew that we wouldn't have a usable kitchen for over a week?? Not us! :)

We would not have been able to do this with out the help of some friends! So here are some shout-outs... Thank you Michell & Kelly for your time, muscles, knowledge, destroying your hands and being sore for us! Thank you to Ben & Abby for the tile saw...it saved us money and frustration! And thank you to the man at Lowes that probably saved our tile floor from breaking in 2 months by telling us we needed cement board for the floor.

Well, here is a before picture (I forgot to take one so this is from when we bought the house)....

Before

Michelle & Kelly stripping the linoleum

Kelly laying down cement board

Eric screwing down the cement board

Me happy to be finally laying tile after 3 days of working on the kitchen.

Eric's job was to cut tile with the saw Ben & Abby gave us

After one nights work of tiling

The finished product!

TA DA! No more ugly linoleum!!

Thanksgiving

I know I know, I promise to post some pictures of our tiling project soon....but for now you will have to be happy with this post!

On Wednesday my parents flew in from MN to join us for Thanksgiving. They were here until last night and it was great to have family around. I cooked a full turkey day feast for the 4 of us and our friend Gabe. The food turned out great and we still have a ton of leftovers!

Saturday we spent the night watching the UGA vs Ga Tech football game at a local pub in Athens called The Royal Peasant. We were thinking of going to the game but the temp for the night was going to be 30 degrees. WAY too cold for us :) Here are some pictures we took with my dad's cell phone of us at the pub.

Whistle while you work

Here I go again....not blogging. It again has been too long! Unfortunately, this one is going to be short. We have been in the process of tiling our kitchen and bathroom and it has been going slow. We started last Friday and I think we wont be done until this weekend. Once we are done I will have time to blog all about it. Until then... have a great week!

Nothing to blog about...

Wow it has been a LONG time since I have blogged! We have done little to nothing since going to Asheville 3 weeks ago.  Last weekend Trader Joe's opened up a store in Athens. I went on opening day with a friend and I had so much fun checking out all of their wonderful food! I cant wait to go back to get some specialty things....and to get more wine! The TJ brand of wine, Charles Shaw, is surprisingly wonderful for $3 a bottle!

Last weekend Eric and I started on a few improvements on the house. We are going to list it on the market in January and we have somethings that need to be updated before we try and sell. So we re-painted our living room/dining room  and all the trim in the rooms. We had never painted that room because we like the original color but it was looking dirty and had one too many scrapes and holes in it. The color wasn't exactly what we wanted but it still looks good. Before thanksgiving we plan on tiling our kitchen and replacing our counter tops. I am excited to have an updated kitchen! I wish we would have done it a lot sooner than a few months before listing the house for sale. :) Oh well!

This weekend will be a busy one...Friday night we are going over to a friends for their annual 5th of November party. We will be watching V for Vendetta outside on a projector. It will be cold so I plan on bringing my sleeping bag!

We also will be going to the UGA vs Idaho State game with our friend Matt. He had a few extra tickets and was willing to share! This will be our first game we have been to in two years....I cant wait! GOOO DAWGS!

Maybe I did have something to blog about :)

Asheville

Last weekend Eric and I went to Asheville to get away for the weekend, enjoy the cool mountain weather, see the fall leaves and celebrate our 5 year anniversary. This was our third time going to Asheville and it was just as wonderful as the last two times.

We arrived at out B&B, The Sweet Biscuit Inn, at 6:30pm after driving 3 hours. We dropped our stuff in our room, freshened up and headed out to dinner. We decided to try out a new place that we have not been to before: Fiore's Ristorante Toscanna. All I can say is YUM! We ordered their Tuscan Stuffed Figs (Figs stuffed with basil goat cheese wrapped in prosciutto)...they were amazing! For our entrees I ordered the Gnocchi Della Casa and Eric ordered the Veal Saltimboca. 

After dinner we walked around downtown Asheville at Pack Square Park. At night the buildings look so beautiful all lit up. During our first two visits to Asheville, the city was constructing this park. They did a great job! At the top of the hill is a beautiful fountain. Down from the fountain is a lawn nicely landscaped and then two beautiful old buildings at the end with another fountain. Of course, I couldn't resist taking some pictures!

The Sweet Biscuit Inn

Saturday morning we woke up and started the morning out with a cup of coffee on the front porch. The cool weather felt great!! We then had breakfast with all the other B&B guests. The owner Angela made us walnut cinnamon french toast, served with fresh fruit & local bacon. After breakfast we went for a walk at a park. After the walk we went antique shopping. I was on the hunt for some Fiesta and sadly I didn't find anything I needed.

Where we went for a walk. I liked the bridge.

For lunch we went to the Bier Garden to watch the UGA vs. Vanderbilt game. We watched the first half before deciding to head back to the B&B. We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out on the front porch playing cards.

We ate dinner again at a new place, The Early Girl Eatery. Also very good food. I dont think you can go wrong anywhere in Asheville! The only thing you need to keep in mind when eating out in Asheville is to prepare to wait about an hour before you can sit down. If you want to have lunch at 12 then you should show up at 11. We went to dinner at 6:45 and had to wait an hour before getting a table. We were in no rush so we spent the time walking around downtown.

Sunday morning we had another delicious breakfast. We spent the morning again on the porch sipping coffee. I didn't want to leave the nice crisp cool weather for the 80 degrees that was awaiting us in Athens. We left the Sweet Biscuit Inn around 11:00 and headed back downtown to eat at my favorite place....Tupelo Honey. As always it was delicious!

One of the many tunnels we drove through.

After lunch we headed out of town and took the Blue Ridge Parkway back to Athens. We have never driven the parkway because the part by Asheville has been closed for well over a year. The Parkway was beautiful! The fall colors we so nice to see. It was tempting to stop at every scenic lookout but we would have never made it home! My pictures do not do it justice...

The windy road of the Parkway

Overall we had a great relaxing weekend. I just wish it would have been a longer trip! 

5 Year Reunion

This weekend is our 5 year college reunion from Bethel University. 5 years has flown by! Bethel was such an amazing experience for me. I met a lot of cool people, made life long friends, I met Eric there, went to a lot of fun Royals football games, traveled the world, and learned A LOT! I will always cherish the memories I have there.

I am sad because we will not be able to make it to the reunion. With Christmas in 2 months (yes that is right, Christmas is in 2 months!!) buying a plane ticket for two was not an option. I am sad we wont make it to see all of our old friends. I know it will be so much fun!        

However, we did plan a fun weekend. We will be in Asheville, NC celebrating our 5 year Anniversary. We decided to postpone our trip so we can see some beautiful fall leaves in the mountains.

Here are some pictures from WAY back during the Bethel years.

Me & Jenessa

Kristen & Me

Sarah, Molly, Jenessa, Me & Becca

Washington Farms

This past weekend we decided to check out Washington Farm's pumpkins. We have been there to pick strawberries and blueberries before but we have never been there for pumpkins. We have usually gone to Burt's Pumpkin Farm but we just didn't have time to make the drive this time.

Michelle & Kelly joined us in the perfect pumpkin hunt. Eric and I came home with one big, one small, four mini pumpkins, and two pie pumpkins.

Picking out pumpkins was fun. I really wanted a green pumpkin but I didn't think the farm would be happy with me picking one before it was ripe.
 
After going to the farm we at lunch out and then went to Michelle & Kelly's to watch the UGA game. While watching the game Kelly made a home made pumpkin pie with one of their pie pumpkins. It was AMAZING!!! And it was super easy! I always assumed making a pumpkin pie from scratch would be hard but it wasn't.
I will definitely be making it for
Thanksgiving this year!

Here is the recipe in case you are interested in trying it!

Ingredients

• 1 sugar pumpkin
• 1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch single crust pie
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk

 

 

Directions

1. Cut pumpkin in half and remove seeds. Place cut side down on a cookie sheet lined with lightly oiled aluminum foil. Bake at 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the flesh is tender when poked with a fork. Cool until just warm. Scrape the pumpkin flesh from the peel. Either mash, or puree in small batches in a blender. Increase oven temperature to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C.)
2. In a large bowl, slightly beat eggs. Add brown sugar, flour, salt, 2 cups of the pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie spice, and evaporated milk. Stir well after each addition.
3. Pour mixture into the unbaked pastry shell. Place a strip of aluminum foil around the edge of the crust to prevent over browning.
4. Bake 10 minutes at 450 degrees F (230 degrees C), then reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Bake an additional 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Remove the strip of foil about 20 minutes before the pie is done so that the edge of the crust will be a light golden brown. Cool pie, and refrigerate overnight for best flavor.

Our Harvest