Marvelous Monday!

These marvelous Mondays generally come after working weekends - because I have a couple of days to relax. After the scare of bad weather on Friday, we've had a beautiful and cool last couple of days. I'm hoping it will warm up a little today so I can spend a little time by the pool - I am in desperate need of a little sun (or a spray tan if that's all I can get). ha

R and I grilled out some delicious turkey burgers on Saturday night. I have to admit that I've always been a little weirded out by turkey burgers at restaurants, etc, but we decided to give it a shot and I loved the result. I highly recommend them! It was a lovely evening after work, and we got to sit out on the deck and relax and then have movie night. I do love movie night - and I appreciate that I get off work early enough on Saturdays to still enjoy the weekend a little.

Yesterday at church was palm Sunday (a perk of my job is that we don't open until noon on Sundays). It is a really cool service - and I always love Easter so I am looking forward to next weekend. That may also have something to do with the fact that it isn't my weekend to work. Here are a few of my Easter things around the house!


I love a good holiday - and a chance to decorate the house! Well, I'm off to do the Monday laundry and have lunch with a friend. I hope you all have a marvelous Monday as well!

Thankful Thursday

I'm back! We've had a pretty busy past week but we enjoyed every moment. We spent the past weekend in Mississippi celebrating R's and his grandmother's birthday. We surprised Grandmama Saturday with a birthday lunch and were able to keep it a secret that we were all in town until we showed up at her house. We had a great time celebrating the birthdays and relaxing outside and playing with the kids. I also got to play "dress-up" in a bunch of dresses that belonged to R's grandmother and great-grandmother. Amazingly, they almost all fit so I now have a closet full of "true vintage" clothing! It was a blast. Here are a couple of pictures from the weekend...

"Little Lottie" and the birthday girl

The Miller-Pound Clan

Now for Thankful Thursday

- The many blessings we have been given
- Our wonderful families and the chance to spend time with them
- Our wonderful friends
- Finding a new "fun" place to each in Troy, thanks to Leslie -a shout out to Old Enzor Lane and their chocolate crepes
- Green - I was getting tired of the drab winter browns in the yard
- Once again, my arsenal of Allegra and Flonase
- Gidget -and her ability to get along with all other puppies in the family (including R's parents dogs Riley and Sadie)
- Almost 1 full year of marriage to the best husband ever! (only 1 month and 1 day short of the year mark)
- Time with my sister this week
- My kindle - it allows me to read and read and read and never run out of books!

There are, of course, many more but I'm off to bake for work birthdays and it's friendship bread time!

Happy Birthday R!

I have a precious little friend, E, staying with me today while her Momma works so I decided to take advantage of nap time to do a little blogging!

I hope every survived last night's stormy weather! Our yard looks like a tree warzone but no damage, and every one is safe and sound. Seriously, though, that was the most amazing/ridiculous lightning I have ever seen. The storm even kept R up past his regularly scheduled bedtime. :)
Speaking of the birthday boy, R has the big 2-7 coming up tomorrow, and thanks to crazy work schuedules we are going to be celebrating a little early! Here is my creation for his birthday celebration!

R likes his cake :)


I kinda love this guy, so I found it necessary to celebrate him:)
My cake may not win any competitions but I had fun doing it!

I hope everyone has a happy Tuesday - I'm very thankful for the sunshine today after last night's storm!

Thankful Thursday

It's been a while since I've written but we've been keeping busy! We spent a wonderful weekend in Mobile/Fairhope to celebrate Ginnie and Thomas's wedding weekend. It was so fabulous to see old friends and be able to go to the Festival of Flowers in Mobile. Here are a couple of pictures from the weekend...

Roomies Reunited!

My handsome date :)


The BRIDE withe the girls

It was a beautiful wedding and reception - and so much fun to reunite with friends!

This week I am thankful for....
- Time with great friends this weekend
- Date night with R last night :) It had been forever since dinner and a movie night!
- Time with my family this weekend
- Beautiful weather and a Saturday outside
- The rain that washed away some of the pollen this week
- Once again, DVR
- A good job
- Allegra - it helps with all of the pollen
- Cinnamon Toast Crunch - I came back around to an old favorite
There is so, so much more, but I am off to clean up our lovely home that's gotten a little dusty. It, like the blog, has been neglected for the past week :)

Home Sweet Home

Well, I am (hopefully) coming to the end of our "major" home improvement posts. The inside of the house is now complete (except for the things I am going to do myself, of course). It is so nice to have a home that doesn't appear to be in the stages of building/renovation. When we bought the house a little over a year ago, I was totally freaking out about how we were going to get everything done. I was terrified that we'd go broke trying, and possible kill each other in the process. It has, however, been much more fun (for the most part) than I anticipated, and incredibly rewarding. Thanks to a VERY handy husband - who also knows when a project is out of our "specialty" level, I am no longer afraid of these projects! We didn't even really have to stress, and enjoyed having projects to do together. We were also blessed with some great folks that actually do this kind of thing professionally. They were much quicker than us, and their finished product had that professional look.
Here are a couple of pictures of the major project, our stairs...

The landing!!



The stairs completed, and much quieter :)

Gidget likes the new stairs too!

It's wonderful to have these things done and not have folks in and out of the house anymore!

The bedroom was also part of the project. With the help of my parents, we painted the walls. We then had the crown molding put in and painted, and then I painted all the other trim to finish it out. The curtains were a fabulous deal from Pottery Barn's President's Day sale, and really finished off the room.

Well, that's pretty much all the home improvement we have for now - THANK GOODNESS!!! I plan to enjoy this relaxing day off and do a little exercise as well.

I hope you all have a Terrific Tuesday! :)

O'Thankful O'Thursday

Happy St. Patty's Day everyone! I'm sitting here in my green shirt (maybe the only one I have) trying to think of something festively "St Patty's Day" to cook for dinner tonight. That may not sound as exciting as the college days of celebrating St. Patty's Day with all things green, but I guarantee I will get more sleep tonight and eat less than we did in AU. haha I specifically remember one such holiday when Kimmie and I drove back from a summer job interview in Foley just to be back for the festivities. Good times :)
Yesterday I promised some pics of our finished deck, and have been asked for some house pics so here ya go...

R and Dad did a fabulous job - view from the back door!

View from the other end of the deck! Now we just need a dining set and we can live out here :) (just ignore the paint job for the moment - that's next)

Now for Thankful Thursday
- My wonderful family and friends - especially the weekend I got to spend with family and time this week with friends!
- That beautiful deck being completed, railing and all.
- Scheduled completion of our stairs today - pics to follow once they are done
- This amazing spring weather...which inspired this table decor
- Those lovely flowers from the "first" Millers
- Confirmation into the Episcopal church and such a sweet and welcoming new church family
- A good job that allows all of these "little" house projects to go forward
- Swiffers - they were a fabulous invention and I rely on them heavily
- The Bachelor ending - now back to my regularly scheduled life - ha
- Sunshine - a good dose of Vitamin D and better for the mood than rain
- R's back feeling much, much better this week
- Coffee...I'm thankful for it every morning
- Clean sheets, they always make me sleep better :)
There are many, many more but the Swiffers are calling my name :)
I hope everyone has a little GREEN in their life today!

Adventures in Domesticity...

I have been quite negligent in my blogging over the last couple of weeks, so I plan to catch up!
We had a great weekend with my parents this past weekend. They came up for a visit and to be here for my confirmation into the Episcopal church. Friday night we grilled out some AMAZING steaks - thanks to my grillmaster. :) Saturday Dad and R did an awesome job finishing our deck railing - I will post pics soon! While they worked hard, Mom, Abby and I did some shopping. It is what we do best, after all. It was a wonderful time for relaxing and enjoying their visit.
Also, I have to give a shout-out to a recipe I found in (of all places) People magazine. It was a blueberry pie recipe that was ridiculously easy, and so delicious that I made 2 in 1 week. I had to make the first as practice to make sure it was good, and the second for our "company" this weekend. :) I may just have to make a 3rd sometime soon - only to make sure I have perfected it of course! I had never made a pie before, and I was pretty proud of it! It also gave me the chance to use the pie-birdie Mom gave me, and it made the pie look so cute I didn't want to cut it!
Well, time for a little house-cleaning and puppy-walking. Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow for Thankful Thursday (thanks Julie J) because there is so much to be thankful for!