wish-fulfilled. sally and kristi's wedding!

Last week boone and I were incredibly honored to officiate our delta friends' wedding ceremony in Oxford. The weekend was so celebratory and the brides looked beautiful...the best part of the whole weekend was the fact that these two friends began the rest of their lives together. consider this a wish-fullfilled. ;)

see more photos from the wedding here (and more to come).

Happy birthday boone!

he's 28!

be mine?

you say it's your birthday...

i've said before that birthdays should be for moms and dads...they do ALL of the work and we just get to be born. now that i have friends who have become mothers or others who are in the final days of pregnancy, i think this at least 300 times as much as I did before. 

i honor of the ones who made me exactly 29 years ago today, here's one of the first family photos from my first forty-eight hours in this world.

 

my parents have been JUST this loving and supportive every day of my entire life, so to have 29 years with these two folks has been the greatest birthday gift of my life. so, happy birthday to me...but most importantly, thank you mama and daddy. 

ava wrestles the alligator.

I'm in a few book clubs these days...one helps me make sure that I connect with some girls i LOVE at least once a month and talking about books and also life (although we have to meet using google+ and conference calls), and the other ensures that I'm reading books I wouldn't have otherwise read. case in point from bookclub #1: Swamplandia! by Karen Russell. it was beautiful, poignant, and so, so suspenseful (although it is certainly NOT a thriller). Imagine a story about Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird set in the 1990s Florida Everglades written by someone who thinks like Salman Rushdie. awesome, right?

I won't give you the gory details here or share my own review, BUT here are some places to go to read more... and some really lovely visual representations of the subject and characters. pick it up if you want something to read on the plane home or while sitting around the fire this holiday season.

from the NYT

 found here.

found here

the actual cover of swamplandia!

new worlds...

although my world right now is all about delta students, new teachers, building relationships, and our vegetable garden... over in atlanta, a close friend's world has just been altered irrevocably in an incredible way.

on tuesday anne gave birth to little, beautiful alice.

she and her honey blog here, which is where i stole these two photos. honestly, i didn't think i'd ever, EVER miss atlanta when we left, until my dear friend esta had twins. then all i could think about was how much i want to know the little ones in these super formative times, and how i'm missing parts of their lives (and will most likely miss more since atlanta probably won't be our home ever again.) and now, instead of holding this precious little one, i have to be satisfied with seeing her grow on the interweb.

with that said, THANK GOODNESS for the internet...otherwise i'd have to wait WEEKS to see alice's sweet smile.

anyway, all this is to say that i'm OVERJOYED for anne and her honey..but a little sad that i'm not there to help support and celebrate them right now. but mostly overjoyed that new life has been brought into the world and that two wonderful parents are here to nurture it!

on that note, do you live away from dear friends? how do you stay connected?

love is in the air!

here's something i ran across on a friend's gmail that she found at huffingtonpost to make your day... an original, super sweet proposal.

(if you're a crier, grab some tissues before you click on the link!)

such a special day...

in december i was honored to at officiate one of my dearest friend's wedding (or really, two of my dearest friends' wedding.) she posted some photos of the ceremony and reception last week and i've had the most fun remembering all the love and care she put into every detail... and it's been special to remember how incredibly humbling and electrifying it is to share in the blessing of a couple's decision to spend their lives together. i know that it wasn't me doing the blessing, but i got to be the vehicle. how incredible is that?

anyway, the photos are lovely...you should check them out here.

happy birthday boone.

To love is not to possess,
To own or imprison,
Nor to lose one’s self in another.
Love is to join and separate,
To walk alone and together,
To find a laughing freedom
That lonely isolation does not permit.
It is finally to be able
To be who we really are
No longer clinging in childish dependency
Nor docilely living separate lives in silence,
It is to be perfectly one’s self
And perfectly joined in permanent commitment
To another–and to one’s inner self.
Love only endures when it moves like waves,
Receding and returning gently or passionately,
Or moving lovingly like the tide
In the moon’s own predictable harmony,
Because finally, despite a child’s scars
Or an adult’s deepest wounds,
They are openly free to be
Who they really are–and always secretly were,
In the very core of their being
Where true and lasting love can alone abide. 

                               - James Kavanaugh

brainstorming boone's birthday..

cake. 

i really get excited every march to make boone's birthday cake...i really love baking for his birthday since time in the kitchen= love. anyway, it's the one time i feel totally justified going ALL OUT and spending hours and racking up a pretty significant grocery bill buying ingredients for a baking endeavor.  the first year we dated i made him an icebox cake with chocolate wafers and whipped cream, and last year i made smitten kitchen's chocolate peanut butter cake that was a huge ordeal but SO, SO worth it.

this year I want to top that. boone's favorite flavors are chocolate, peanut butter, ice cream, and caramel. here are my thoughts thus far...

1. chocolate stout cake from smitten kitchen

2. a sweet and salty caramel cake from baked.

 3. an oatmeal chocolate chip cake from bake or break...

4. ina garten's black and white angel food cake...

5. or a coconut cake (but mostly this would be more for me and because it's beautiful and less for the birthday boy.) enjoy the photo because I probably won't make it this time.

what kind of cake would you make for your lover's birthday? can you think of a great recipe (with chocolate/caramel/peanut butter) i could make for boone?

the blanket of snow...

the delta got 6 inches of snow last night...which made the landscape so beautiful this morning. it looked like everything was covered in this smooth white blanket. in fact, neko (the cat who rooms with us sometimes) stepped out of the door and pounced on the snow just like she does on the bed when our toes move under our white down comforter. 

this isn't my photo, but i took a few when boone and i went for a walk around the town. as we walked, i remembered a retreat we went on together (getting trained for a summer job) just after we'd declared our mutual affection but just before we'd actually been on a date.

that day, we walked around in the snow and through a labyrinth on this amazing methodist retreat campus outside of atlanta and learned about each other. i was DYING to snuggle up to him and hold his hand, but we hadn't even been on a DATE yet so i tried to play it cool. it was really comforting to get to walk with him last night as the flakes fell and nestle under his arm as much as i wanted. ;) the joys of having a life-long partner, i guess!

did it snow where you were this weekend?

did you get a new year's kiss?

i hope so. :) hope 2011 is a lovely year for you!

forever and ever...

here's another post from the road...
so boone and i are on our way to laurel for the wedding of a dear, beautiful friend i've had for FOURTEEN YEARS...megan. she's truly going to make the most beautiful bride and i can hardly wait to be her matron of honor since we've been talking about love, boys, and forever since we were 14 and 15. in celebration of megan and her handsome honey, here's one of her engagement photos. beautiful, right?

congratulations pretty girl!

thankfulness...

well my darlings, happy happy thanksgiving day! please know that i'm incredibly thankful for so many things this year...and one thing on my long list is you. yep, really and truly. so many of  you are real-live friends of mine who have taken care of me through thick and thin, and others of you make my day because you've decided to read my just-for-fun blog, which is really kind of you since there are so many other better blogs out there you COULD be reading.;)

so, thanks. thank you, really.

i'm also thankful for boone, for his love and patience every minute of every day. and his support through the dark, dark, difficult month of october.

and my mom and dad, who really and truly are the best parents in the world!

for the teachers of the Mississippi Delta, who work their pants off because they love their students and believe that their kids deserve excellence.

for carrie, scott, and our four beautiful nieces...for giving us the chance to see another side of the world AND giving me the opportunity to be an aunt. it's an opportunity i've ALWAYS wanted.

i'm thankful everyday that we have employment, insurance, a house, reliable cars, and food on the table (much more than we need) when so many don't have these things. and I'm thankful for the people who are working to secure this for everyone.

and all the people willing to give their time and lives to help others.

and for our new neighbors who have been a bigger blessing in our new town than they will ever realize.

for new life...new, beautiful babies with pink pink pink fingers and toes. florence and anne harrell, i'm talking about you.

and, while i'm at it...let me be serious for a moment.  i'm thankful for massaman chicken, the new harry potter movie, gypsy the stray cat who comes to visit us weekly, the interweb, beautiful grey delta days, and charlaine harris trashy novels. ;)

what are YOU thankful for?

photo from here.

wishing for a pile of leaves..

 the first time boone and I were really ever alone together was when he had a broken collarbone and couldn't drive his truck, so i gave him a lift home. as we walked to the bus (to pick up my car) we walked by the most perfect pile of crisp leaves...and the urge to kick them was really too hard to resist, so i ran over, scooped them up with my foot, and flung them everywhere. they made SUCH a great crunch sound.  but when i looked over at boone, he seemed so surprised that i got embarrassed... and then i realized that the pile had been so perfect BECAUSE some poor person had to rake to get them that way. i tried to scooch them back into place, but really..the damage was done.

to this day i look at piles of leaves and think of 3rd grade and st. john's day school and my first time alone with my honey. although it's autumn here, i really haven't seen any leaf piles... if you see one where you are, give it a kick for me, ok?
anyway, with this in mind, this weeks' posts are brought to you by the letter "l" and crisp, rust colored, autumn leaves. ;)

photos from imagespark

recently craving...

my obsession..berries, greek yoghurt, and honey


a new funky hairdo


a dog (or a mouse deer...whatever is easiest to make happen)


some peach shaved ice


a spotless, giant bathtub


a new pair of dansko clogs


a dinner party with my friends (i'm missing all of you pretty bad right now.) so i'm not sure where this came from.. if you know, tell me!


and the perfect blazer (b/c you know, i'm a working gal now)...or this rad leather jacket (just because... and it's only $1,250!!! what a steal.)

that's all, really. too much? yeah... hm. well then i'll focus on the blazer and some greek yoghurt. ;)

i've got the best daddy!

happy father's day to the best daddy in the world. :)

one year!

can you believe it?

and away we go!

we're going to singapore!!!!

for almost a month!!!!!

i know... i can hardly believe it either.
we've been talking with boone's sister and her partner about possibly taking a trip to see the two of them and their four little girls (they moved there over a year ago) since december, but without jobs and future plans it just seemed soooooo irresponsible to me. i mean, i've been full of angst about our future (nashville? mississippi? atl?) that i just couldn't see how it was a good idea to graduate, pack up our stuff and put it in storage or somewhere, and head to asia only to come home and start trying to figure things out all over again. but on the other hand i really, really wanted to get my hands on our nieces and see a part of the world not everyone gets to visit...

anyway, we've been back and forth about it for months now, but because boone's sister offered to pay for our tickets using accrued sky miles we HAD to make a decision last week. finally, finally, i realized what boone had been saying all along: that an opportunity to see our family and travel to a new, exciting part of the world for an extended period of time for nearly zero dollars was really just too good to pass up.

so, now i'm embracing "irresponsibility" and the freedom of not knowing. honestly, this is the first time in my life when i don't have a specific plan for the future... and it's scary as hell. and a little liberating. but like i said a few months ago in this post, "no matter what, at least we're in this thing together."

photos from imgspark, here, and here (but don't worry, i'll have my own photos soon!)

happy weekend...

just wanted you to know...


from ffffound