Callie's gonna be a Momma!

That's right! My dear friend Callie is pregnant...with twins!!! What a (double) blessing!! I am so very, very happy for her and her sweet husband, James! They will make incredible parents. They are both so patient and kind...and I've heard that those are really good qualities to have as a parent. I seriously couldn't be more thrilled for them! I'll be stalking her blog for many baby bump pics, she is going to be the cutest pregnant lady! Callie and James, congratulations! We love you dearly!!

An old pic of them when they were dating (can't wait for Halloween pics next year!)

three little birds

My cousin Emily is one of the most crafty people I know, she is truly blessed with a talent to create beautiful things. I have a lovely pillow that she stitched for us as a wedding gift and a sweet picture that she stitched for us as a shower gift and I adore them both. Which is great for me and for you (my blog readers) because she has now opened her own side business, Three Little Birds (yes, it was inspired by the Bob Marley song, love it!) which is going to display an array of crafty things that she can create. I'm seriously amazed by her talent, just go take a look at her site and I think you may find something that you want :) Congrats Em, I'm proud of you! Loves :)

the life of a dog

Oh I'm just sitting here watching my sweet dog lay on the hardwood floor near the AC and thinking what a stinkin good life she has. I often think that I would love to be a dog (that may sound weird but hear me out...). I mean, Dixie gets to stay home all day and roam the downstairs at her leisure. She gets to play with all these great toys that she has (and might I add I think she takes them for granted). She gets fed twice a day with yummy food (for a dog). She gets to run around outside and use the potty wherever she wishes (outside of course). And then whenever she feels like she needs attention she can always bug the crap out of us until she gets what she wants. She gets to cuddle (if she stays still long enough), gets rubbed and belly scratches. And she gets to nap whenever she pleases without judgement...hey, we encourage her napping. Man, what a life. I'm a little jealous of her...

yummy yummy

Yesterday was definitely the day of yummy food for me. I began the day with my Marbled Chocolate Banana Bread for breakfast then we ordered lunch from Kassab's (a Lebanese restaurant that is quickly becoming one of my fave places). I have had the Falafel platter from Kassab's which is delish but yesterday I thought I would try the Vegetarian Moussaka and let me tell you it far exceeded my expectations! It was so freaking yummy I almost passed out at my desk! For those who don't know (I didn't before yesterday) moussaka is basically a Mediterranean lasagna dish. It was layered with eggplant, peas, corn, cous cous, potatoes, cheese and other various veggies that were stuffed in there. I ate that thing so quick and then quickly regretted eating the entire thing (my tummy was a little more than stuffed). I'm going to try my own recipe but if you are ever at a restaurant that serves this you MUST try it, I promise you will not be disappointed! Oh yeah, and I also ordered a piece of baklava from Kassab's as a mid afternoon snack.

Then for dinner I made a pizza...this is what it looked like: the entire pizza had pizza sauce, mozzarella, ricotta, fresh basil and mushrooms...1/3 of the pizza had halved cherry tomatoes and the other 2/3 had lots of pepperoni. It was sooooo good! Mmmm, I forgot how much I love fresh tomatoes (we've been blessed with neighbors and co-workers who have grown some this year and want to share). I love fresh veggies and I love homemade pizza! What a yummy day :)

Surprise!

Haha, no, there are no babies on the way here (don't act like you didn't think that). However, I did have a wonderful surprise today that I was not expecting (well, isn't that what surprises are?)...I was talking to Mom this morning and we were just chatting away while in the background my Dad suggested that they come up next weekend...all I heard was chatter in the background and then Mom's silence. She then told me that he suggested that they come up (in a very excited voice!)!! So of course I asked John if it was ok (how could it not be) and he thought it was a good idea too. So Mom, Dad, and Katie are coming up to the burgh to spend Labor Day with us WAHOOOOOOOOOO!! I'm so freakin excited! Not only do they get to see the new improvements to our house (well sooner than I thought they would see them) but I get to spend a looong weekend with them!! Yay! And its already in the plans for John and Dad to go to a Pirates game Saturday night (that means fun girl time!). Man, I can't wait! I love ya'll and oh yeah...I can't wait!!!!

M.I.A.

Sorry I've been M.I.A. for awhile. Guess what we've been doing? You guessed it...more home repairs! It seems like we've become addicted to renovating this 80 something house. We finished the bathroom last Saturday (I still need to do some minor touch ups on the paint) and on Sunday I decided I might as well knock out the kitchen while we were in "fixer up" mode. So I put 1.5 coats on and decided the shade of yellow that I picked out was so bright that it was an eye sore--literally, my eyes hurt after I looked at it too long. Monday night I went to Lowe's and picked out a more golden hue of yellow and now 3 coats later I'm finally done! So that's 4.5 coats total on our kitchen walls almost as much as our bedroom (5). Now I need to finish the trim (tomorrow night's job if I'm not too pooped from work) and voila I will be done! Yes, I have officially painted EVERY room in our house except the basement. And no, the basement will not be painted during our duration in Pittsburgh, I am sick of painting. However, we have a lovely home now in all of the colors that we want and it is very rewarding to sit and look around at all that we've done. Later this week I promise that I will post pics of the updates. Also, I will post pics from the beach (a month ago, wow!). My computer (John's old computer) pooped out on me and for the time being I'm using the laptop I had in college (which acts like a grouchy 85 year old woman...so slow and temperamental--sorry 85 year old ladies) but it does not agree with our camera and USB hook up so I'll have to wait a few days for that to be fixed (cough cough...John...). Anywho, I just wanted everyone to know that we're doing ok (I know you were all oh so worried), we're just busy with home stuff...soon to be done (praise the Lord!). See ya'll soon!

things i'm lovin right now:

1. Cracker Barrel-well, I've always loved this wonderful place, however I just found one that's not too far from us and of course I made John go today and it was sooooo delicious!
2. Green onions-they smell so good and add so much flavor to dishes
3. The song Do You Realize? its originally by The Flaming Lips but I prefer this version
4. Tazo Awake tea, with a little milk and sugar
5. The Twilight series (duh), I'm currently reading New Moon (the 2nd book in the series)
6. Ikea-I made my first trip here this past week and please know that this is an understatement: I freakin LOOOOOOOOOOVE this place!!! Talk about incredible furniture and appliances for niiiice prices!
7. Magazine subscriptions-within the last week or so I've been receiving my latest month's worth of magazines (I receive Southern Living, Cooking Light and Marie Claire) and I set them aside and flipped through them all this morning, so relaxing and fun.
8. Coke Zero-when John's parents were here over July 4th, Gary had an 8-pack of Coke Zero bottles, I tried one and it was sooo good, since then I've bought two 8-packs (so much for trying to lay off of the sodas...oops). I honestly think they taste better than Diet Coke.

the boondock saints

Last night, hubs and I decided that we were way too tired/lazy to do anything except eat a make-shift meal at home and watch a movie. The meal(s), I will say were pretty darn good for make-shift...I took a fresh tomato and cut it in slices then cut up some fresh basil and put it on top of the tomato slices and then topped it with mozzarella cheese. I drizzled olive oil and garlic powder over top...guess whose meal that was...uh huh, not John's that's for sure. His meal was homemade nachos complete with taco meat, black beans, green onions, corn and cheese plus baked so they were deliciously (I'm guessing here) crispy. Anywho, now that the food description is out of the way (hey, what can I say? I'm a foodie for Pete's sake)...the movie we chose to watch was The Boondock Saints which I really, really enjoyed. It's set in Boston and its about two Irish brothers (love their accent!) who become vigilantes. I recommend it to anyone who doesn't mind actors swearing a lot (after awhile you start to ignore it) and quite a bit of killing...its not too gruesome though. Even though I may have just made you stray from the movie, it actually is really good. I highly recommend it...4 out of 5 stars.

happy anniversary Kelly's!

Today is John's parents' (Gary and Kathy), anniversary! I hope ya'll had a wonderful day celebrating all these years of marriage!

happy birthday daddy!

Today is my dad's 50th birthday! 50 years young, right Dad? My dad is an incredible man and I'm so blessed to have him as my father. He has a great amount of patience and a wonderful sense of humor (I like to think that I inherited both of those). We are both easy going, we love popcorn, Cheez-Its, naps, laughing and movies. Dad, I love you a lot and I hope that you had a wonderful birthday!

I thought I would commemorate this day with pictures from one of my favorite moments with my daddy!

happy late anniversary Ginn's!

This is a big happy anniversary shout out to my sweet cuzzie ABby and her hubby Jared! I cannot believe that (yesterday) they were married for 2 years! Congratulations, I love you both!!



(Picture cred: I took them off of Abby's facebook--the first is a lovely picture of the newly married couple and the second pic is one of my favorite pictures from their big day!)

twilight con't...

After I posted yesterday I completed the 70 pages left to read in Twilight. I then rented the movie from Redbox. Then I sat down (with many interruptions...thank you, Dixie) and watched the awesome movie! So when it was time to go to bed I read the first 50 pages of New Moon. I was warned that once you started reading the series you become obsessed and I'm here to completely validate that. If you don't want to read four 400-500 page books in two week's time, I suggest that you don't pick up Twilight. However, if you want a really great book(s) to read plllllllllllease pick it up so that I can have yet another person to join me in this obsession!

twilight

Yes, I am obsessed with Twilight. I once judged the others that were obsessed but now I have become one of them. And let me tell you, the book is AWESOOOOME! My cuzzie Emily brought them to the beach last weekend to lend to me and once I picked it up there was no going back. The story just captures you and it's hard to put it down. I have about 70 pages to go in the first book but so far I give it 5 out of 5 stars!

PS-I know this will sound sort of weird but I kinda wish I was a vampire!

megan and kyle

Two sweet friends of ours, Megan and Kyle, were married last weekend! We met them through YoungLife in college and they are such great people! I'm very inspired by both of them because their faith is so real and they're very honest people. I had the pleasure of being in a Beth Moore study with Megan (and other awesome friends) during my last year at State, and it was so great to get to know her on such a deep level, she's an incredible woman with strong faith. Anyway, they're wonderful and we love them and now they're married! Wahoo! Congrats Megan and Kyle!

(the pic was taken off facebook)