Experiencing…

A weekend with sister.

- Melody

1. Driving.
2/3. Dallas.
4. I got a little nostalgic. Jason and had front row seats at a Mavs game here while we were dating. I even spotted the building we parked in. 🙂 One of the best days ever.
5. Shel is the best at finding restaurants. She found this one that was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives! Maple & Motor!
6. Ready to eat!
7. HA.
8/9. Yum!
10. Kari Jobe and All Sons & Daughters tour! Great night of worship.
11. Nightlife.

So last weekend I spent with my sister in her dormpartment near Dallas. I followed my parents down Friday night and we all helped her build shelves, rearrange furniture, hang things, and make it feel more like home. My parents drove back really late (yikes!) while I stayed back. We stayed up late eating ice cream, watching the Food Network, and yacking. Saturday night we made the 1.5 hour trip out to Grand Prairie for the Where I Find You tour. So. Great. The two of us are always reminded of why we have the calling placed on our lives to be worship leaders when we attend such worship filled concerts. I digress! We stayed up late again eating ice cream and a whoopie pie we bought at Maple & Motor. I made the three hour trip home Sunday and loved on my hubs before diving headfirst into some homework. 🙂

How was your weekend? Any of you at that concert, too?

Food. Good food.

- Melody

I had high hopes for food this summer. I’m sure looking at all that summery food on Pinterest had absolutely nothing to do with it, too. 😛 One of my summer intentions was to experiment more with food and cook more at home. While I’ve been pretty good at this in the past, ironically when I’m busier during the school year, we’ve fallen out of a routine with me being out of school.
Since we’ve already spent our grocery money this month and have run out of some things I’ve been trying to get a little “creative” over here with lunch. Of all things, I have a big jar of Nutella. No milk or chicken, but dangit I’ve got Nutella. Couple that with peanut butter and mini marshmallows, you’ve got yourself a mighty tasty sandwich, my friend. Oh, don’t forget to grill it like your life depends on it. And don’t put too much Nutella/PB on it unless you want most of your sandwich on your hands. Goes great with cherries on the side!

That second yummy meal was made in part by Shelby. Actually it was made in whole by Shelby. She’s made that a few times over here, the latest being our sleepover Sunday night. (post later!) Cream tomato sauce over garlic butter pasta, with mozzarella grilled chicken. Un.Believable.

Oh and that doozy at the bottom is the classic nacho. Microwaved for convenience of course. With leftover chicken and guacamole. Why did I forget about this food?

So my question is what are some quick delicious meals for two? I’m a champ at frozen pizza and carb-loaded meals but for some reason light meals evade me. Help! I kind of need to fit into my senior recital dress this fall. 😉

The long awaited surprise…

- Melody 4 Comments

First of all, you guys are hilarious. Thanks for texting, posting, and generally being the best. It’s kind of neat to know you guys care enough to check back and see what all this hub-bub has been about. Thanks for sticking it out with me, Awkward McGee. Hope you guys are just as enamored as we are… 🙂

To say I’ve always wanted a dog is an understatement. Most all of my friends growing up had dogs. Beagles, terriers, labs, great danes… My family? We’re cat people. Always have been and always will be. Smoky, Freeway, Ally, Mittens, Buster, Sophie, Pippin, Izzy, Caroline, Penny, Ike, Rusty…

But no cat could fulfill the longing to rub my face in that fur and to scratch those velvety ears. And oh! Those sad, puppy eyes! Hearing claws tap tap tap on our wood floor before that wet nose is pressed to my hand, or to see that happy tail wag when those eyes meet mine! My heart!

We’ve talked about getting a dog since before we were married, so this decision wasn’t a light one. Plus, Jason didn’t initially like the idea of having three pets. (Like we were going to turn in to some crazy pet people. Ha!) So one day I was having a dog moment, and I launched us into the ‘Dog Talk.’ We talked about it again and decided now is as good a time as ever!

I’ve always, always wanted a golden retriever, literally since I was ten. So that’s what we looked for. And on a Tuesday evening, when I was coming really close to my wits end and starting to think it would never happen, I found her. I emailed Byron, the man who had posted the ad, and when I didn’t hear anything after waiting a whole five minutes, I called the number listed. (Type A? Who, me? Okay, yeah. Me.) I made an appointment for the next day to go down and check her out.

My drove down there and made it to the man’s house, but no one was home. My heart was pounding in my ears, my stomach was in knots. This is fake! I wasted all that gas! I didn’t even get Starbucks! Shelby talked me down and made me call the guy. I was semi-relieved when he said he’d be home soon, though I was still convinced he would show up, trap us in his house, and murder us.

When he got home, we took the plunge to walk inside armed with tasers and pepper spray. To our huge relief, there were twelve golden puppies scurrying to meet us. Look at these guys!


 Byron showed us the two girls left and Shel and I took turns holding them. As soon as I picked my girl up she licked all over my face!

Look at that hilariously goofy grin. The goofy grin of a girl in love, I tell ya!

I was so overwhelmed with emotion that I wanted to walk out with her right then and there. He snapped that snazzy green collar on her though and told me to wait.

Wait we did, and today we went back to finally bring her home. Pepper!

I’ll be posting a “day of” post next week along with several photo dumps/fawning posts. I can’t get enough of her!

And that is the end of my very long blog post full of italics and parentheses overuse. 🙂
 
 

A little day trip…

- Melody

Yesterday my sister (if you don’t read her blog, I don’t even know what to say to you.) and I took a little day trip to Houston. We had lunch with my cousin (an amazing photog!), drove through downtown, and had dinner at one of Guy Fieri’s Triple D spots! Cafe Pita. Delish Mediterranean/Greek food. Yum-o! On our way home we jammed out to music, chatted about anything and everything, and sipped on coffee and mocha frappes from Starbucks. A perfect, perfect, Wednesday. 🙂

Egg Sandwiches are the Greatest Thing to Happen to Me.

- Melody

Since coming home from Chattanooga late Sunday night, I’ve been reveling in the incredibly rainy week we’re having here. I’ve been missing waking up earlier! Even though I’m off during the summer doesn’t mean I don’t need vacation from myself. Sitting around twiddling my thumbs while Jason is at work does not a sane Melody make!

Also since being home, I’ve fallen in love with egg sandwiches again. It’s meat! It’s protein! It’s a vegetable…? You can seriously put anything on eggs and it will taste good. Avocado, mayo, feta, pepper jack, lemon, spinach… where does it end!? There’s also been a lot of this:

Sleepy cats in my lap wasting away the rainy afternoons. This is my life!

I’ve also been really hard at work on that surprise I told you about here. It’s been heartbreaking, exciting, upsetting, disappointing, and exciting again. I can’t wait to tell you! But just like me, you’ll have to wait! 🙂 (…again…not a baby :P)

I’ll end with some instas of our trip around up there in good ol’ Tennessee.

It wouldn’t be The Rich Style without a feet shot. 🙂

I’ll be back later this week with a full recap of our trip!

We Made It!

- Melody

We’re here in Chattanooga, TN staying with my cousins for a week. Most of my dad’s side is here staying in the house which adds to the fun! I couldn’t post until now but Jason and I came up yesterday and got here in the evening and kind of surprised my parents. We told them Jason wasn’t able to get off work until 4 today so we wouldn’t be here until really early Wednesday morning. My parents just got here! Surprise! So here’s to a week of sleeping on an air mattress, staying up late, card games, and floating down rivers.

Have a great week!