Underground Adventures

FINALLY!  Andrew and I just arrived home from our Thanksgiving trip to North Carolina.  We just spent 10 hours in the car....
While I was away, I had a guest blog post published on the bakery blog. It is all about our recent experiences at work. To read more, check out the Muddy's blog!

Thumbin' My Way into North Caroline

Do you know the song Wagon Wheel by Old Crow Medicine Show?  I'm sure most of you have heard it before.  Andrew and I love the song, simply because it mentions a few of the states and cities we have lived in.  Whenever we drive back to North Carolina for the holidays, this song is usually a staple.

Well we started a new tradition this year.  Andrew heard an idea from a friend to buy a new CD, or music of some sort, whenever you go on a big trip...this way you always associate that music with your trip and it helps to create memories.  Great idea right?  I tend to struggle with remembering things, so I really love this idea!  When we went to Ireland, we purchased the new CD from Of Monsters and Men.  Today we leave for North Caroline, so we chose this CD to accompany us on our long, long drive.

Pictures to come from our trip, and Happy Thanksgiving!

Pomegranate Party

Here is what I did this morning...

I de-seeded one pomegranate, and I'm moving on to my second.  Fresh Market Pomegranates are the best!

Marge

This post is dedicated to Marge, my former roommate, and how she came to be. When I moved to Memphis, almost two years ago, I moved in with two girls named Molly and Morgan.  About two weeks after I moved in, it was Morgan's birthday.  I felt the need to get her a gift, but had only known her two weeks...what do you buy for a person who you have only known two weeks?  Well, I was meandering around an antique store on the day of her birthday and found Marge!  It was destiny.  I just knew that she needed to be apart of my life the moment I saw her.

That night, at Morgan's birthday dinner, I gave her Marge and she LOVED her!  Well actually, she thought it was a weird gift at the time, and thought I was also weird.  But now she loves Marge and can't even remember life without her.

So here is the game we play with Marge.  As roommates, we constantly hid Marge around the house for the other roommates to find.  If someone went on a trip, Marge would magically show up in their bag.  She loves to travel back and forth between our homes, now that we live apart, and she loves to celebrate special occasions!  Thanks for all the laughs Marge.

Marge was waiting for me when I got back from my honeymoon

This is the night Marge entered our life!

Dinner this past Tuesday, Morgan just got engaged!!!

The ring

The man. Jonathan and Morgan we love you!

On being a red head...

As a redhead, I have lots of thoughts about having read hair...obviously.  It would best be described as a love hate relationship.  Well anyway, my friend Neela sent me this website, which is all about tips on being a redhead!  This was one of my favorite parts of the site...great advice if you ever go on a date with a redhead.  Thanks for tip Neela!

Picture above: Neela, Lauren and me.

Date Day

Andrew and I had a much needed date day on Saturday.  We are house sitting/babysitting today and tomorrow so we thought it would be appropriate to relax and have some fun together before becoming the parents of three girls for 36 hours.

Once I got off work yesterday, Andrew and I walked to the MemFIX event--A street festival in the Crosstown area of Memphis that is going through an urban renewal movement.  The purpose of the festival was to show what the Crosstown Arts team aspires the area to look like down the road.

Beginning our walk with a picture of the shops across the street from our apartment

Our apartment complex, for those who have never seen

Ran into some friends on our walk to the festival.  The Flatgards are across the street with the stroller and our friends the Brandons are in the car

Sears Tower.  The main project of Crosstown Arts is to renovate this building, it is currently abandoned 

Paparazzi shot!  The back of our mayor, AC Warton 

Footlong corn dog

Tacos

Ran into some friends

To finish off our date night we headed to the movies to see Argo, which was awesome!  And then we went to Local, a gastropub in Midtown, to meet some friends for drinks.  It was a great date day!

Pillow Talk

Lucky for me, I worked Monday through Friday this past week like a normal person!  My regular work schedule is Tuesday through Saturday, so Andrew and I never have a true "weekend" together.  Since I had this gift, Andrew and I took advantage of going out of town, something we never get to do!  We decided to go camping, something we rarely do, but are oddly prepared for.  We own sleeping bags, a tent, a tarp and a camping grill, but never use them.  Finally we did.

We left Friday night after Andrew got off work, so the sun was setting as we drove towards Ft. Pillow State Park.  The days leading up to our trip, I started to get really scared of going camping!  Weird, I know.  I think it was because we had watched a few scary movies recently due to Halloween.  Knowing I was scared, Andrew kept making comments, fueling the fire.  About ten miles from the camp site, we passed the West Tennessee State Penitentiary!  It was this enormous facility, with buildings on both sides of the little two lane rode we were on.  I was officially freaking out.  As I was melting with horror on the inside, I tried to keep my cool.  Didn't work.  Andrew caught on, and really started to have a good time playing with my psyche.

Finally we arrived at the site, it was pitch black (even though it was only 7pm), and no other campers to be seen.  I'm going to die, I just knew a murderer from the penitentiary was going to escape and head to our campsite, the most logical and strategic hideout!  Then the ranger drove up on his nightly round and spoke to us for a few moments and we mentioned the penitentiary.  He assured us that an escapee would never come this way, let alone make it through the bluffs surrounding the camp grounds.  Likely story.  It was beginning to truly feel like a bad horror film.  As Andrew and I set up the tent and began to build a fire, I freaked out at every little noise.  It took us twice as long to set up our camp site because I was too busy spastically turning about with the flash light, freaking out when each and every leaf or acorn feel to the ground.  Are you starting to get a mental picture?

Needless to say, we lived.  We woke up the next morning, made a fire, hiked, learned about Ft. Pillow and its Civil War History, rested/napped, built another fire, cooked dinner, packed up and then headed home.  It was wonderful to get out of Memphis for a day, even though I feared for my life half the time.

Nap time

Breakfast

Boy Scout skills

Our home

Firewood organization 

S'mores

Halloween Festivities

Our Halloween week was full of various events.  We started out the week at a work party, where I was able to see some very unique costumes that my co-workers came up with.  Unfortunately Andrew wasn't feeling well, so I went solo.

Karen the crayon

A sorority girl and a sexy hobo clown?

Not sure and a roller derby girl

hmmm. Impressive right?

On Tuesday, we searched for the perfect pumpkin to carve and found this one....sadly we never carved it.  Usually we are really into carving pumpkins, but we had a disappointing holiday performance this year.

On Halloween night, we went to celebrate at the home of our friends, Jake and Christy.  They have four kids, and we had so much fun Trick-or-Treating with them and their whole family.

Boone joined us as a skeleton.  We actually kept his shirt on for a few days because we liked it so much.

Andrew and Cate

Gracie as Little Red Riding Hood

Jake hiding in the bushes, scaring people.