Lightning Strikes

A terrible storm hit Atlanta yesterday and pounded the city with rain. From what we heard the Atlanta airport was shut down most of the day so we were very lucky to get in last night with only an hour and half delay from Houston. We got home around 1:00 am Monday morning and saw the rain gauge had 4 inches of rain in it! Today when I went to look at the garden their was a suprise for us, a huge tree branch. We are very lucky because besides a damaged plant the tree didn't break anything (not even the brick fence.) Luckily the house doesn't have many trees over it so we should be pretty safe but that's the one downfall to these beautiful trees is that they do fall time to time.

Charleston

Fort Sumter

USS Yorktown

Since we moved multiple people told us we needed to visit Charleston, SC. Since Mark was starting wards and I was starting a new job we figured we needed to venture out one last weekend before we had to put our exploring on hold. Charleston is only 2 and half hours from Augusta so we figured we'd drive and see why it's the #2 destination for wedding behind Vegas. What a great place: the shopping on King Street is amazing and has great silver stores. The food is awesome (We had some of the best oysters, she crab soup and trigger fish at SNOB and Hanks.) The patios are to die for, most being on top of hotels overlooking the city and the view of the harbor was gorgeous. We even got in a little History seeing the USS Yorktown (remake of the ship that sank in WWII) and Fort Sumter (first shots fired in the Civil War.) We had so much fun and can't wait to go back with friends and family!

Counting Sheep

After weeks Mark and I finally have found baby's bedding! It is ridiculous how hard it is to find gender neutral bedding. We had found the perfect bedding before we left Houston only to get to Augusta and realize that it blended in to much with our walls. Since Mark knew he would busy, painting was out of the question and the great hunt continued. Luckily after fabric stores and hours on the internet we found a great lady out of Alabama who is able to put something together that we both like. This was not an easy task as I had wanted a brown and baby blue leopard print or an orange giraffe theme...I think they both were a bit to wild for Mark. We should get it by late September and I can't wait to start decorating once it gets here. While it's baby blue and green, if Baby T is a girl I think a soft pink will look awesome with it!

Blue Willow Inn (Take it to the Limit)

This weekends day trip was to Social Circle, GA to the Blue Willow Inn. One of Amy's co-workers from Fulbright gave us a gift card so we headed on our way via greensborough and Oconee National Forest.
This was a jail built in 1804 that had a trap door in the second floor to hang people with. If there is one thing I love more than vigilante justice (especially if Denzel is dishing it out in Mexico), it is corporal punishment.

Behind the Blue Willow Inn is a small shopping center that has a 50s diner (awesome onion rings and root beer floats) and they happened to be having a classic car show. Many old mustangs, cameros, a hemi cuda, bel-airs, classic trucks, hot rods, and somehow the Scarface mustang managed to sneak in there. Yes, that is a plastic M-16 holding up the hood (it had "Little Friend" on it). Yes that is the Tiger he buys during the Take it to the Limit montage. I don't even really have a witty comment but it pretty much blew my mind.

The food was a southern buffet which means fried chicken, fried green tomatoes, cheese grits, cheddar and pecan biscuits, lima beans, butter beans, gumbo, pork bbq, glazed salmon, fried chicken, collard greens, prime rib with au jous, and a bevy of pies and cobblers. So of course we ate all we could, went into a food coma, and had to keep each other awake for the 1.5 hour drive home. Good times.

Work Horse to Show Pony to Work Horse Again

For the past month I've been living the life of a show pony getting the house settled in Augusta and taking a break from work. It's been a nice change of scenery with Mark working and me getting a little time to relax. Being a show pony is great, but tough when you are on a budget. So come September 1st I'll be leaving the green pastures and returning to my life as a work horse. I have accepted an offer with Hull & Barrett Law firm to do marketing. I'm very excited and nervous all in one about the new job and Mark is ecstatic that he is getting his work horse back again. I'll keep you all posted on the adventures of the new job and look out Mark--in 25 years I'm going to do this show pony thing right!

Mellow Mushroom

The Mellow Mushroom with a little Widespread Panic music playing in the background.
Best invention ever: Baked Potato Pizza

First night out on the town

There is this amazing pizza place here in town called the Mellow Mushroom. It's a chain that is in most college towns and I think Austin even got one once we left. The music is awesome, the pizza is amazing and they have over 40 different beers and liquor too. If you want a martini in a mason jar this is the place to go. The best thing is they have a baked potato pizza (my fav...onions, potatoes, bacon and drizzled ranch dressing!) We met two of Mark's intern friends there for drinks and of course being the potato queen we stayed for pizza. It may be my favorite place in Augusta thus far!

MTV Cribs

Where the Magic Happens
Guest Bath (We are using this one now until we redo the master that has rotted flooring)

Formal living room

Our first furniture purchase here, a cute side table from an antique store downtown

View from the kitchen

Kitchen

The bar in the living room

More of the kitchen. I love the canisters that Mark got me for our anniversary. The tv isn't up and running yet, but it looks so cute there.

Pic next to the kitchen (Mark's favorite pic of the TX vs. ND game in the 70s)

The bookshelves that took Mom and I forever to get right.

Going out the french doors (That pic needs to come down on the wall)

A couple of peeps have requested pics of the house. I should start off saying that we thought we had tons of furniture living in the apartment, but once we moved we realized we didn't have as much as we thought, especially when you are filling more than 2 rooms. So we are lacking some furniture and art work, but I will give you a special sneak peak of some of the rooms that we have decorated so far. Luckily my mom made the trip to Augusta with me so I had an interior decorator to help me along the way. As we decorate more I'll keep updating and Mark has done such a great job with the yard that I will post pics this weekend of the outside of the house.

I love my handyman

Wednesday was a big day for us: we hit the 5 month mark and are half way there for Baby T to make his big debut. It was a big day: the crib came, I ordered maternity jeans online and I thought I felt the baby kick (not positive that this was really a kick or not, but I'm going to count it until I hear differently.) My brother has been telling me I need stretchy jeans for a while and I was shocked when Mark said to get a good pair! Jeans and me are not always friends (I loathe shopping for jeans) so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that these petite Citizens work. Here is a pic of Mark and the crib (it was super easy to put together,) now just to the search for baby bedding. I had bedding ready to go and then realized that it blended with the walls so I'm on the search for new ideas that won't give Mark a heart attack when he sees the cost. Mark says we just need sheets since it's just going to do the 2 p's on it, but I say only the cutest for baby T.

Fruits of Labor

I must brag on Marcus, the first weekend he got to GA he and Stacey built an amazing little garden. With the 3 inches of rain we got earlier this week the garden is really starting to take off. We've gotten our first cucumber and cherry tomato and their are many more to come our way. The herbs looks great and we already used our first bell pepper. I love gardens and one of my fondest memories is working in ours with my dad when I was growing up. Mark's decided that next year we will do it bigger and better so I can't wait.

Where is Glamour Shot When You Need Them?

Last Friday Mark and I went to get our drivers licenses. He came straight from work and I was all dolled up with hair done and make up on from an earlier morning meeting. When we got to the office we saw lots of interesting characters. Mark was laughing because I was bit overdressed compared to most people, but then again this is an id I'm going to have for the next four years. While filling out our registration I asked Mark if I was a donor if he thought that doctors would work as hard to save me if something happened. He laughed and assured me they would, so then I asked if my organs would be donated to Texas or Georgia and Mark said most likely they'd go to Georgia first, Decisions, Decisions... 30 minutes later it was picture time. Mark took a great one and of course I started laughing at some of the fellow dps customers. I guess some things never change, no matter how dolled up I get my pic always turns out funny. You would think in the 21st century they'd have it set up like glamour shots where you take four pics and choose your best one or where they have photoshop where you can edit the pic. Plus do we really need to disclose weight on our ids? Anywho these are the new Georgia Peaches.

Buy Buy Baby Part 2

So you got Amy's version of the Buy Buy Baby experience earlier. Now for Papa T's. It was a great time picking out strollers, toys, bottles, etc for Little T, but there was one thing that drove me nuts. The people who work there. Feel free to ask them advice about whatever you want and like good salesman, they suggest the most expensive version of whatever you are looking at. Every time they bring out the $350 car seat, they point out all the silly "safety" features that are really no different than that available on the still ridiculous$150 version. I understand that part of it, but here is what gave me the red ass. Every time they talk about "safety" they make it as though if you don't buy the top of the line one you are jeapordizing your childs safety and what sensible person would do that? If everything else is so dangerous, why do you sell it at all?

Spoiled

Tonight we decided to try out some bbq here in town. Locals told us of a great spot that was only open on the weekend and raved how the bbq had been served at the white house for President Carter. The bbq was good-but it didn't make our top five list. Boy have we been spoiled by Texas bbq, so we thought we'd share our favorites:

1. Salt Lick(Cole Slaw, Pork Ribs, Brisket: Sentimental to us too b/c we had our rehearsal dinner there)
2. Rudys (Banana Pudding, new potatoes, turkey, brisket)

3. Blacks (sausage)

4. Coopers/ Opies (pork chops/vinegar sauce)

5. Big Daddys (BBQ potatoes in Brenham)

The search for good bbq is still on, next month we plan on hitting some spots in Greenville, South Carolina that have been raved on.

Buy Buy Baby

We were so excited to register today, for some reason registering makes it feel like Baby T will be on it's way soon, but boy was I overwhelmed. Geeze Louise how many strollers, car seats, bottles and rockers can their be...which one is safe, easy to pack and going to make baby T look like the coolest kid ever? Luckily, their were peeps at the store to help with my questions, even though I think Mark got annoyed with them. Since our wedding registering had been pretty stress free I thought I'd let Mark take the gun and go for it. Their was something about giving Mark the gun that made me a bit nervous (I wanted to be gender neutral and had done research,) but before I could turn around Mark had already gone to town with the gun. He ended up doing a great job and getting great stuff we needed (I only had to regulate once to make sure the whole store wasn't going to come home with us.)

Humidity Shumidity

My brother was telling me how it was 107 degrees in Austin last week and felt even hotter. Being prego, the Texas heat definitely is not my friend. I was worried coming to Augusta because everyone in Georgia says August gets so hot and the humidity is horrible. While it will be 100 degrees this weekend, it is shocking how less hot it feels here than in Texas. The best thing is at night it can be 90 degrees and you can sit out on the patio and not even break a sweat. Glad one of our first purchases here was the patio set with rocking chairs, I have a feeling we will be spending a lot of time outside!

Thank God for Rheumatology

Finally the nightmare that is Night Float is over. Gone are the days of working 7pm to 9am, going straight to bed and waking up at 6pm to do it all over again. Gone are the 3am calls from nurses letting me know that Mr. X had a bowel movement and the 4am calls letting me know Mr. X's BP is high and should they give his scheduled blood pressure medicine? Now I am living the life on Rhuem. Clinic from 8:30 to 4ish, wonderful attendings, occasional lunches from drug reps, and a normal sleep pattern. I haven't been this rested since my 3 month vacation at the end of med school.

Fireworks all year long?

With all the trees here in Augusta you would think fireworks would be banned, but instead it's the opposite. They have stands everywhere and you can even buy them in the grocery store. The cool thing is you can buy and use fireworks anywhere at any time of the year. Hello sparklers, black cats, and roman candles--I will be seeing you soon.

En Fuego

Since we got married Mark and I have talked about the day we would have a house and be able to grill and sit out on the patio. Today was a big day, mom, Mark and I made a trip to the Lowes in South Carolina and picked up our first grill...a webber. We thought to celebrate we would make some grilled hot dog and boy were they delish. To our suprise Lowes also sold Stubbs charcoal and pretty cheap too so we thought we would bring a little Texas grilling to Georgia.