Homemaker in training... Pt. 2

As stated in the previous post:

Along with the many other goings-on in my life, there have been a few cooking advenutres along the way! A few weeks ago, I had two big adventures. One adventure was my first attempt at homemade spaghetti sauce (like, not Prego. And not taking Prego and adding stuff to it. Like, forreal homemade from scratch). The second adventure rwas a from-scratch red velvet cake. Both nights I had a BLAST and I will DEFINITELY be making those recipes again.

My dad's birthday was three weeks ago and his favorite cake is red velvet. So in an attempt to increase my domesticity (not sure if thats really a word?) I tricked Katie into being my assistant chef and we rolled up our sleeves and got to work! The recipe I used was is found here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/sara-moulton/southern-red-velvet-cake-recipe/index.html and was recommended by Emily.

I think Katie has more fun than she thought she would -- and she was definitely a great help!

(1) Katie couldn't get over the "chemistry" of baking -- she was amazed as the way the ingredients kept separate. (2) I was not amused by her amusement. (3) I am sure we were making some very important observations/decisions.

(4) We even made cream cheese icing from scratch! (5) The actual frosting of the cake was a little more difficult than we thought it would be... (6) Ta-da!!! So proud!

And this one is just for fun... Unfortunately, the cake and I were not always entertaining enough for Katie, so she broke out into "dancing."

I'll probably get into trouble for this.. but.. Love you!!! =)

Homemaker in training...pt. 1

Along with the many other goings-on in my life, there have been a few cooking adventures along the way! A few weeks ago, I had two big adventures. One adventure was my first attempt at homemade spaghetti sauce (like, not Prego. And not taking Prego and adding stuff to it. Like, forreal homemade from scratch). The second adventure was a from-scratch red velvet cake. Both nights I had a BLAST and I will DEFINITELY be making those recipes again.

The recipe for the spaghetti came from Lauren's mom -- after I sent a frantic email for help from everyone I know that can cook (and whose email address I had!). I don't know if it is some sort of secret family recipe that only a few people are allowed to have, so for now it will remain a secret. Unless, of course, I get permission. Then I will be GLAD to share it, because it was DELICIOUS! That night, I also found out that Kroger (and apparently most other grocery stores) sell dough so that you can feel like you are baking your own bread from scratch. Here are a few pictures from the evening!

Wedding Fever

So, after my cousin's wedding this week -- I have full blown wedding fever. Don't get me wrong -- its not that I didn't have the fever before. As Kristi said, I have pretty much always had wedding fever. However!! After going to my first wedding as an engaged guest, it made me even more excited about my own wedding than I already was. The most fun part of it is looking at what people have done and getting ideas for what to do and for what not to do! The whole time I was thinking "Is this something I want?" or "How can I do this my own way?" and very rarely "I hope this doesn't happen at mine!!" It brought out a lot of conversations between Zach and me about what we want to happen on our day. For instance, precious flower girl chose the exact perfect moment to begin crying and coughing -- while they were saying their vows!!! Ah!!! Lesson to us? Paying for workers at the church nursery -- $25/hr. The entire church being able to hear us speak our vows -- PRICELESS. =)

All in all, it was a very lovely ceremony and Candice was gorgeous! I can't wait for her to re-gain her sanity so that I can pick her brain about things I should know. For example, she had her dress fitted only THREE weeks before the wedding -- and then STILL lost another five pounds! Goodness! I am looking forward to the rest of the weddings we will attend before our own to continue getting great inspiration from our friends!!

Here are a few pictures from the family-filled weekend!

Everyone in our family wanted pictures of the current bride and groom with the future bride and groom!

LOVED the AU Groom's cake -- the blue icing turned everyone's mouth blue!!

What an attractive bunch of people =)

Spring Cleaning

So, unlike the many people who are tired of the pollen problem in Atlanta, I was one of the few not thrilled about a rainy, dark day. Especially after just getting back from glorious, sun-shine-filled, 80-degree Miami. However, inspired partly by the weather and partly by the book I am currently reading (The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin), I decided to do a little spring cleaning. In her book, Rubin first tackles her own closet in order to bring chaos and order to her life. I chose the same approach. I spent some time at Target picking out some new storage supplies (inspired by the cubes I saw in Emily's closet) and then I came home to tackle the monster task.

My before pictures:





Now, I should be very embarrassed to post those pictures. However -- I am just so proud of the way it looks after and the effort it took that I am willing to let you see just how bad it was. First, I had to get rid of all those clothes that I don't wear -- which is just about half of what was in my closet. Whether they are no longer in style, they no longer fit (thank you, post-college weight gain) or I just don't like them anymore, they had to go! This in itself did wonders. Then I had to put together my new stoarage unit:






Finally, after throwing away lots of JUNK, THIS is my beautiful new closet!!




It is amazing what a high you get just from something so simple as opening your closet and it being completely in order. I liked it so much, I moved on to the hallway and linen closets.. but I won't bore anyone with all of that. Tonight I am attempting my first try at homemade spaghetti sauce -- I'll keep you posted!!

ING! ((Long overdue...))

So this post should have happened two weeks ago, but I have been a very bad blogger lately! However -- better late than never, right? I vow to post at least once a week from this point on!

As far as the half-marathon goes -- it was amazing! I don't believe I have ever felt so proud of myself. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have not been able to train as much as I wanted because I was trying to heal my foot. That fact, plus never training on the road or with hills, had me very nervous when I woke up that morning. The longest run I did, my 10 mile run, I ran at a 14:00 pace. So, when anyone asked me how long I thought it would take me to complete the race, my goal was 3 hours. This would mean I would have to keep up that 14:00 pace, counting in the fact that I would be going up hills and dealing with my foot injury.

Luckiy, my foot did not begin to bother me until about mile 11. Actually, I felt great --well, not really great. For me, it's hard to feel great while I am running. But I felt as great as I possibly can while running!-- but I felt my version of great for the majority of the race, until the last 2.1 miles. At that point, I was ready to quit. In fact, I cried at least twice on the course; I was so ready to be done and willing to quit if it meant that my foot would stop hurting.

I was beyond proud of Katie. Although she had never run further than 4 miles at once and never run more than 2 miles without stopping, she kept pace with Zach and I for 7.5 miles!! I could not have been more impressed by her determination. Even though we split up at that 7.5 mark, she still kept up with us and finished only 8 minutes behind me!

Speaking of time -- this is the proudeset part of this post!! As I said, my goal was to finish in 3 hours. I would have been very content and very proud with that time. I just wanted to finish!! Instead, I have to say that I dominated my time goals. I finished my first half-marathon in 2 hours and 38 minutes!!! All in all, I averaged just over a 12:00 pace -- 2 minutes per mile faster than how I trained! What an amazing feeling of accomplishment. I am already trying to decide which race I will do next -- it seems I may have caught the running bug!!

Here are a few pictures from the race:

I am Woman...

Hear Me Roar!!


It is now T-minus 25 days until the ING Half-Marathon. When I tell you I am excited, I mean that I am EXCITED. First, I am excited that it is almost here. Second, I am excited that I am EXCITED! I never thought I would be excited about a race. I never thought I would begin to enjoy running. Now, I am not sure I am at the point of enjoying running, per se, however I am enjoying the accomplished feeling I get after running.

Sunday, I ran 10 miles. Did you hear me?? TEN MILES! If you aren't sure, let me spell it out for you what an accomplishment this is for me. . .

Up until this point, I have never run further than six miles, without stopping to walk, stopping to make excuses, stopping just to stop.

Up until this point, I have never even stayed on a treadmill for 2 hours -- and I was on it for 2 hours + 20 minutes.

Up until this point, I wouldn't have even attempted this run. Not even in my dreams.

Up until this point, I would have been huffing and puffing and hurting by mile 4.

But instead, at mile 4 I felt great.
At mile 5, all I could think was -- I'm really okay right now!
At mile 6, I thought -- Every step I take after this is a step further than I have ever run.
At mile 7, I thought -- I am really going to be able to do this.
At mile 8, I was really wishing it was mile 10..
At mile 9, all I could think was only fourteen more minutes!!

And at mile 10, I couldn't even tell you what all I was thinking. I thought - I have never been prouder of myself in my life. I thought - I have never done something this athletic in my life. I thought - Zach really needs to get me some water now!

Most importantly, the thought that kept running (pun intended) through my head was -- I am really going to be able to do this Half Marathon. If I can run 10 miles, certainly I can run another 3.1 afterwards. I have 3.5 more weeks of training, and then I plan on tackling one of my biggest mountains. Zach says that ever since my run on Sunday I have caught the fever. It may be true. I have been looking at other races to sign up for.

I wish I could really put in words how I am feeling about myself right now -- all I know is it's an amazing feeling.

**in other news, crazy things are happening at my school... but I'm not in the mood to talk about that right now. That will be my next post...**

Happy Love Day!

It has been quite a while since I have posted. I have resolved to do better over the coming months. I am fortunate enough that so many amazing things are going on in my life, and I want to keep track of everything. This Valentine's Day, I am focusing on not just the romantic love in my life, but all of the love. I am blessed with amazing family and amazing friends, who keep me going through the tough times. From old Auburn friends to new Atlanta friends, Zach and I have a great group of friends. I feel blessed that we have had such a difficult time choosing our wedding party, because it shows just how many important people we have in our lives.

As far as romantic love, Zachary and I celebrated Valentine's Day at home this year, choosing to make our own Surf and Turf feast! We have so much fun cooking together, and we make quite the duo in the kitchen. Zach was responsible for the "turf" and I took charge of the "surf." All in all, it was a delicious meal and we wouldn't have been able to get anything better at a fancy restaurant. Here are some pictures of our dinner :

Zachary working his magic in the kitchen (and thrilled that I was taking his picture!!)

The shrimp that I steamed in a mixture of Corona, butter and Cajun seasoning ((MMM!!))

The amazing filets he cooked!

(yes, I know I was cheesy with the table setting -- you wouldn't expect anything less!)

the GIANT chocolate-covered strawberries we bought from Kroger!

We ate like royalty and then couldn't move afterwards! Hope everyone enjoy's Valentine's Day and all the loooooooooooove in their life!!