Happy Memorial Day!

In honor of Memorial Day and the unofficial kick-off to summer, I want to share one of my favorite summer-time staple recipes, "Mis'sippi Caviar"! I first had "Tippah County Caviar" at Newk's a few years ago and really liked this side dish. So I googled to find a recipe and like I always do I find two or three that catch my eye and I combine them to make my own. Keeping, deleting and adding items to make it unique to me and my taste.

So today's recipe goes like this:

"Mis'sippi Caviar"

Ingredients:

* 1 large tomato, diced
* 1 medium white onion, finely chopped
* 1 small red bell pepper, finely chopped
* 1 jalapeno, finely chopped
* 1/2 cup chopped green onions
* 1 loose cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
* 5-6 tablespoons of olive oil
* 3-4 tablespoons of lemon juice
* Salt and freshly ground black pepper
* 2 (15-ounce) cans black-eyed peas, drained

Directions:

Combine the first 6 ingredients in a bowl.

In a separate small bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, olive oil, and salt and pepper.

Toss all together and let marinate for at up to 8 hours in the refrigerator before serving.

Hope you enjoy this yummy recipe that you can make all summer long! Happy Memorial Day!! And a BIG thanks to all the troops that have fought for this country! :))

"How Did Your Mother Ever Survive?!"

So I can't believe I'm coming up on my 27th week of pregnancy which means, "Hello third trimester!" Wow!! Can you believe it?! Monday I go back to the doctor for my 5th visit, including the dreaded glucose test, and it makes me think back to January 21st when I went for the ground-breaking first visit...it is one I will always remember..

Since it was the very first baby doctor visit, Jonathan wanted to come along. He is going to be such a great daddy! We get there at like 8 a.m. for an appointment at 8:30, that way I have plenty of time to fill out all the fun paperwork. Then it's on to a consultation with the insurance specialist. Thank God I had Jonathan with me because all this is like Japanese to me, say what?? He's actually a licensed insurance agent and he even got a little confused. After that conversation we headed to the lab for the usual...urine test, weight and blood pressure, yadda yadda yadda. Then soon after we were seen into the exam room where we were told the doctor would be in shortly. Riiiigghhtt. You see, it must have been the day for deliveries because that waiting room was packed out and I swear the doctor didn't show up to the exam room until maybe 10:30 if not later. Now, for those of you who don't know my husband, let me explain what I went through for the next couple of hours.

Not 10 minutes after we get into that exam room he is opening drawers and cabinets, snooping through the tools and supplies and making me a nervous wreck!! Never in my life would I EVER get off the chair or exam table to snoop through the doctor's office stock!? What was I thinking bringing him along??! Then he proceeds to pull a latex glove from the box and begin blowing it up like it's a balloon!! I was apprehensive at first, but I admit I did play along for a few minutes, hitting the glove balloon back and forth with him. It was fun, but we had to stop before she walked in on it! I would have been so embarrassed had she seen that. After I ended that episode he got restless again and I exclaimed, "How did your mother ever survive?!" In which he responded, "She had snacks! Do you have snacks?" Considering I was only 11 weeks pregnant and had the appetite of a hippo, I in fact DID have snacks in my purse. Praise the Lord! Those kept him occupied until the doctor FINALLY showed up.

We talked with her for a while and then she left so we could head to the ultrasound room. But she didn't leave without telling Jonathan to not forget his souvenir (the glove balloon). Geez. So we headed to yet another waiting room where again he gets restless. Tapping his foot, speaking what I think is too loud for a doctor's office waiting room, bored out of his mind. I'm thinking, Dear God, please let this child take after me in the form of patience and rest. To my relief, and his, the nurse calls my name for the ultrasound! Yes!

Not only am I excited that we're about to meet our baby for the first time, but this gives him something to do! As soon as that image came up on the screen, we see our baby. It is just a kicking, squirming, wiggling and even sucking it's thumb! I instantly started tearing up. It was the sweetest moment I had ever experienced, especially hearing the little heartbeat for the first time. Now to my astonishment though, for the next 15 minutes, or however long the ultrasound took, I didn't hear one peep from Jonathan!! Who would've known.... I swear he passed out he was so quiet. I guess he was just in shock.

Nevertheless, I survived that first appointment with whom I thought was my husband and not an overgrown child. But considering the whole appointment took 3.5 hours, I'm glad I had some sort of entertainment! ;)

We're Having A Baby, My Baby & Me!

If you haven't heard the news already, Jonathan and I will be welcoming our first baby into the world this August! We are beyond thrilled and can't wait to meet our precious baby!!

On December 15th I took an at-home pregnancy test and to my astonishment it came out positive. I screamed and literally did one of those heel click jumps. Or at least attempted one! I was home alone and it would be several hours before Jonathan came home from work so I HAD to tell someone. I picked up the phone and called Jonathan's little sis, Katie. She had been asking to be an aunt for quite a few months so I wanted her to be the first person to share the wonderful news with. After we got off the phone we exchanged a few texts of excitement and then I asked her, "How should I tell him?" Or at least I thought I sent the text to her.... sometime later I get a text from Jonathan and he asks, "Tell who what? Who is him??" I instantly knew what I had done and wanted to kick myself. Really??! Did I really just tell my husband about our first baby-on-the-way through a text message?!?! Only that would happen to me. His next text read, "Are you pregnant?" I responded with, "I ruined it!!!" Needless to say it wasn't the most romantic way of telling him but it definitely led to a good laugh and will be a great story to tell our children one day.

Being the big "I Love Lucy" fan that I am, I always compare my life events to the hilarious antics of the best television show ever created. Lucy tried several times at telling Ricky she was pregnant with their first baby "at just the right time" and never got the chance. So she decided to surprise him at work. And this is how it went. Don't you know I will always double check before I hit "send"!!

Caribbean Honeymoon Holiday

Being the awesome blogger that I am, I am just now writing a post on our official honeymoon we took back in November. I know, I am so on top of my game. Anyways...we got the wonderful opportunity to spend a week on Grand Cayman Island this past fall all thanks to my sweet aunt and uncle. Thank y'all for the time of our lives! We will remember it always!!

We flew out of Jackson on Monday, November 1st. If you want to save a couple hundred dollars while flying, do it on a week day. Makes a difference. We had a connecting flight in Charlotte and then headed down south to the Caribbean. As soon as we landed we could hear the hip shaking music and feel the Caribbean sun on our skin. We were in heaven!!

We arrived soon thereafter at our beautiful home for the next 7 days, The Caribbean Club. We were lucky to have made it safe and sound though because the taxi drivers in the Caymans are like none other! PHEW!! We met the concierge Danielle, who became our best friend on the island, and she showed us to our private villa. Beautifully decorated with paintings and carvings by local artists, this little gem had an ocean front view and it was spectacular! After getting settled in and touring the grounds we walked across the street to the grocery store and picked up some essentials for the week. When we got back we took a leisurely stroll on the beach and cooked dinner in the kitchen of our villa. It was a relaxing first night.

Early the next morning we headed out to rent a car for a couple of days. The island is small enough to tour in one day so we didn't need the car for very long. But when the guy drove around the corner in our rental I thought Jonathan was going to have a fit. Does anyone ever watch "Family Guy"?? Jonathan drove around in this tiny car for the next two days singing, "Pimpin in a Brand New Hyundai"! Real funny but got old fast.

We took the sardine can and drove to the East side of the island where we found a neat arts and crafts shop, a shipwreck location, and an old lighthouse. After a few hours of seeing where the roads took us we headed back to the villa for lunch. Once we arrived we talked to Danielle and she invited us to go out on her friend's boat with her and more island visitors. Yes, please! So after eating lunch we headed to the North West side of the island towards Morgan Harbor, but not before making a pit stop in Hell. Yes, you read correctly, Hell. You can have your picture made with the Devil and send a postcard postmarked "Hell". Quite entertaining. We then drove over to Morgan Harbor to meet up with Danielle and her friends. They took us out on a fishing charter boat to a sand bar where we got to swim with stingrays! It was amazing and probably my favorite part of the trip! There were tons of them!! They wouldn't really bother you unless you had squid in your hand to feed them, then they would bombard you until you gave it up. I did feed one and it feels like the hose on a vacuum cleaner sucking on your hand. Very cool! The females get much larger than the males, but they are all very "gentle giants". After swimming with the stingrays we headed to a coral reef to snorkel. This was also very cool and an underwater majesty! Very colorful and full of thousands of different fish species. This was one of Jonathan's favorite parts of the trip. After a day full of adventure we headed back to the villa to get some rest.

The next day we went to the Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park. This was Jonathan's other favorite part. It was very beautiful and although we didn't get to see any, it's very common to cross paths with an endangered blue iguana. After visiting the park we had to take the rental back so the rest of the time on the island we either walked to our destination or took a cab. Most of our time was spent relaxing on the beach or at the pool. We did get out a couple of times to go shopping and out to eat. We walked a few condos down to The Ritz Carlton where we had dinner one night at one of their restaurants, Periwinkle. We had the best calamari in the world! And a yummy pizza too! We also had a delicious brunch one morning at Luca, the restaurant downstairs in our condo. And I couldn't leave Grand Cayman without some awesome souvenirs! My favorite shop was Pure Art where I purchased this beauty.

All in all we had an amazing week! I wish I had more pictures to share other than our underwater cameras, but I accidentally left our digital camera on the plane and never got it back :( I guess that just means we will have to go back one of these days and do it all over again!!

*I look like such a little girl in this photo! But this is me (pretty far out in the ocean) in front of our condo!!

*The two of us in the awesome pool!

*enjoying the pool!

*snorkelers!

*sweet stingray

*me holding one of the male stingrays, so cool!

*Jonathan holding one of the male stingrays

*tons of stingrays!!

-Amelia

Camo & Jaunkies

This is beyond late but I still wanted to share these photos. The following images are from a relaxing weekend Jonathan & I spent at the farm back in October. He spent his weekend in camo and I spent mine in jaunkies, aka pajamas. My whole family calls pajamas, jaunkies...don't ask.

*nothin' betta' than a hammock

*hammock reading

*vampires and a cell phone out of service

*I like to just call this "breathtaking"

*maroon grass

*from one angle it looked maroon, from another it glistened

*guessing these are brown eyed susans, not really sure

*if these walls could talk

*I've fallen and I can't get up

*a view from below

*sun-bathing susans

*starlight art

-Amelia

Mustard & Apples???

I love to cook! Like you didn't know that already.... but I love to cook with strange mixtures of ingredients. Things you would never imagine putting in the same recipe. Like bacon and chocolate! I'm crazy, I know. I got a great idea last week for a new sandwich recipe from Real Simple magazine. Gourmet sandwiches are one of my favorite things to make and I enjoy eating them even more! ;) My love and appreciation for delicious sandwiches stems back to the 4 weeks I spent in and around Europe. I would go back in a heartbeat if just for a sandwich. Yuum-ee.

Anyways, this is what I came up with....


Apple & Cheese Panini

wheat bread
thin sliced apple, a couple layers (gala, fuji, pink lady, any sweet apple)
thick sliced sharp cheddar cheese
thin layer of mustard
some crushed red pepper flakes
drizzled honey


Cook in a skillet with butter like you would a grilled cheese! Serve with your favorite soup or stew and garnish with more sliced apples! Enjoy!! :P

While I was preparing the meal Jonathan exclaims, "Mustard and apples??!" I told him to just trust me.... I was right ;)

Fall Cafe

As the season changes and temperatures drop, we tend to do anything and everything outside. Especially eat :) On the official first day of fall we started it out right with broccoli and cheese soup with a yummy grilled cheese. Life doesn't get much better than this. We welcomed Autumn in our backyard "Fall Cafe" with our dogs and a couple mugs o' beer. It was a splendid afternoon!

*fall cafe

*bully is always good company

*king of the rummage

*dimples so cute

*that's my hubby ;)

*this boy is SO proud of his garden

*and who would've known it would still be producing..

-Amelia

What We've Been Up To

First I will apologize for the lack of blogging, but we have been SUPER busy lately and I swear the summer just vanished in the middle of it all. So I will just give a run-down of what we have been up to since my last post.

I launched my business, Studio Milly Jean Weakleg in mid July! So far, so good!! Already have booked two weddings for the year 2011. That sounds so crazy, 2011... and I have several photography sessions lined up for the fall :))) Makes me so happy! Also, I'm getting ready for my first festival which is next Saturday, September 18th. Anyone and everyone in the Desoto County area should plan to attend this fun-filled event and stop by my booth!

*business card

I started classes with KidzArt! It is SO much fun and I enjoy every minute of it :)) even the hectic ones... for those of you who aren't aware, I am an artist instructor for KidzArt which is an after school program teaching kids the fundamentals of drawing and art. I teach Tuesday-Thursday and have 28 kids total, grades K-3. I LOVE IT!!

*student work from this week

Jonathan & I have booked our belated honeymoon! We will be headed to Grand Cayman Island for a Caribbean holiday! We are so excited and can't wait to be there. We are so fortunate to be able to take the trip of a life-time! A big thanks to my aunt and uncle for letting us stay in their beautiful villa at the Caribbean Club!!

*where we will be staying

Jonathan was awarded the "Above and Beyond" award at work! I was such a proud wife of his accomplishments and had to reward him myself with a little party. Homemade decorations and a yummy dinner of chicken ranchero calzones, his favorite :)

*great job, Jonathan!

We've been eating LOTS of veggies from the garden Jonathan planted right after we moved to Pearl. Considering we were late getting it into the ground and it was on the small side it didn't turn out half bad!

*he is the one with the green thumb, not me

I got the chance to visit Starkville for Katie's 21st birthday and had a blast hanging out with her and her friends! It's always great to be back in Vegas :))) and I just love every minute I get to spend with my new sissy!

*Katie, with her birthday present

And last but definitely not least, we've been gearing up for Mississippi State FOOTBALL!! We had a great season opener last week against Memphis, winning 49-7. So proud of our Bulldogs! We played our second game last night against Auburn but came up short against the #21 team in the nation, 14-17. We're still ringing our cowbells though and praying for success next weekend in the Swamp!

*Dan is still (and always will be) the Man!

Well that just about sums up our first summer as newlyweds! Time sure does fly by when you're having fun and we are looking forward to our first holiday season as a married couple! Fall will be here in 12 days!!! And I LOOOOOVE CHRISTMAS!!!

GO DAWGS!!!!!!!!

-Amelia

Rental Roller Coaster

You know you are loved when filthy messes are cleaned for you :D

Jonathan and I definitely experienced our fair share of trials and tribulations in the first few weeks of our marriage. Our first (rental, thank God) home would have been the end of our blissful marriage had we not been madly in love with each other. I knew he loved me, but not this much!

First of all the house had not been thoroughly cleaned and sanitized before we moved in. Just great. I hate cleaning as it is, much more if it's not my mess. But I have to give credit where credit is due and fortunately I arrived to Jackson several hours after Jonathan did so....reason #1 of why he's the best. Secondly, only half the house had been painted and you can imagine how determined I was that the rest match what had already been done. After several attempts to get the landlords to finish the job we decided to take matters into our own hands. Well mostly Jonathan's, again reason #2. Plus side: the rent check was significantly lower that month. Third, we got a FREE washer and dryer from a friend of Jonathan's. How awesome is that? That would be reason #3 if it weren't for what came next. Well it was just too good to be true. We hooked them up and then decided to run the washer to rinse it out. Can't be too cautious. In the meantime the hall toilet, which previously had a leak but since being fixed actually farted (pressure and air), was making that strange sound that I had told Jonathan about. Curiosity kicked in and Jonathan had to check it out. When he lifted that lid our lives changed for the worst. You see, the people who lived here before us had been pouring their grease down the drain even though there is no disposal. Well running the washing machine somehow caused lots and lots of pressure and resulted in both of our toilets and showers to back up, spilling greasy, *mexican poo all over the bathrooms. And this just HAD to happen at 7 o'clock on a Saturday night. We called the plumber that had worked on our leaky toilet before but he couldn't be there till 9am the next day. So we proceeded to make a pallet on our living room floor because the smell was too strong to sleep in our bed. Slumber party! Yea right, I wish it had been a party. Anyways the next morning the plumber showed up on his gleaming white horse and fixed our problem, which was about 5 or 6 inches of compacted grease at the end of our line. What came next is reason #3 of why my husband is the best. I'm a gagger. Always have been and always will be. So he sweetly volunteered to get down and dirty cleaning those nasty bathrooms. And I will love him forever for it! And to make it worse, all this went down with no a/c. Yea, we got a new one of those too, but like I said, a rental. Thank, God.

Hopefully this ride has come to an end, but I doubt it.

*our house has been dubbed "the mexican house" by our neighbors because of the previous tenants. I'm not racist people, it's just a fact.

Not Your Typical Honeymoon

Two days after we were married Jonathan and I packed up everything we could fit in the back of his truck, my dad's trailer, and my mom's jeep and hit the road to move to Jackson, MS. For three days we frantically cleaned, unpacked boxes, and organized as much as possible. Luckily we got most of it done before we woke up at 2am Thursday morning to head for Asheville, NC for our "mini honeymoon" as we like to call it. Jonathan slept most of the way so that left the driving to me....whoo hoo. You can imagine my excitement when we arrived at our destination 10 hours later. We booked a camp site at the nearby Lake Powhatan and it was absolutely beautiful. When we got there we set up "our first tent" that my sister Sarah gave us as a wedding gift, and we love it! Shortly after we decided to take a stroll around the camp site and see what we see. It was so peaceful and all the little critters were out to play. When we got back to camp Jonathan decided it was time to build a fire. Success. Weenie roasting was next on the agenda along with tic tac toe. It turned out to be a relaxing first night and that's exactly how we wanted it.

Early the next morning (if you knew my husband you would know that when I say early, I mean eeaarrllly, ugh) we headed into downtown Asheville for a fun-filled day. Little did we know the first family would be doing the same thing, well maybe not exactly the same thing, but they were there! First we went window shopping and stumbled across some really cool shops. Everything in Asheville is so.....how should I say it, hippie? Yes, that is one way to describe it. Lots of friendly, down-to-earth people who are extremely talented in whatever their trade is, whether it be musician, wood carver, tasty beer proprietor or tattoo artist. Next we decided to stop by Mellow Mushroom for some afternoon grub. I had never eaten at one before and was super excited. I love pizza! And the funny thing is I can't remember what I had but I know it was good! After lunch we ventured to find the best tattoo artist in town. Yep, that's right, I got my very first tattoo while we were there, and no I didn't faint! I got the word "peace" on the inside of my middle finger. I love it! Afterward we decided to hit up this store we passed called "Bruisin' Ales". It's one of those places where you can build your own six pack but all the beer is special. Special because you can't get it in Mississippi. Sweet. Of course Jonathan walked out of there with one pretty good sized jug. And a six pack. Of nothing but dark, heavy beer. I like my wheat beer. Ew, there was one I picked up called a "Sweaty Betty", yea take my advice and don't ever buy that beer. It literally tasted like a sweaty betty. Gross. Leaving the beer store is when we found out the first family was in town. There was a guy in front of us on the side walk carrying a box of pizza and wearing a dark suit and had an ear piece in. Jokingly I whispered to Jonathan, "He's a CIA agent" in which he responded, "Oh yea, while you were in the bathroom, the lady who owns Bruisin' Ales was telling me how Air Force One had just landed." I about peed my pants. I hope Barack and Michelle enjoyed themselves as much as we did ;)

We still had a couple of hours before the doors opened at the Orange Peel for the Railroad Earth show so we did some more window shopping and just chilled until we could get in. Once we did get in, because we already had tickets (thank you, CHAD! Best wedding gift we received), we payed a couple extra dollars to sit in the VIP section. Well worth it. Now not only were we pumped because we were there to see our favorite band on our honeymoon, but my sorority little sis and her boyfriend who had moved to Asheville the year before were meeting us there! I was so excited to see her!! About halfway into the show the band dedicated our song to us, "Right in Tune." It was the coolest! I did not want that night to end. You can listen to the whole show here.

Early the next morning, and again I mean early, we packed up our stuff and hit the road again to head home, but not before making a pit stop in Horn Lake to get even more of our stuff from my parent's house. Needless to say, we still have a lot there.... After we got back home in Jackson Saturday night we went straight to bed. But the next day we went to Lowe's and picked up vegetable plants for our first garden. Jonathan was so excited and is super proud of this 4'x10' piece of land. I'm pretty impressed myself.

We had a wonderful time on our "mini honeymoon" and plan to visit Asheville again and again, and I recommend that everyone visit at least once. Until next time, peace.


-Amelia