It’s been a while

We’ve been away from the blog lately, but here’s a quick recap.

We did Christmas with the Blackwell’s!

This is the paraplegic camel Charlie handicapped last Christmas

Uncle Bubbie

It snowed (ALOT!)

Our Manly Snowman

Callie made a yearbook.

The Ole Miss

Garreth got into VCU.

Charlie was just… Charlie.

And most recently, we went to see Arcade Fire and then went to New Orleans for a whirlwind weekend including a Zephyr’s game, Katie’s first bridal shower and Jazz Fest! We saw the Decemberists and John Legend and Roots play and also saw two minor celebrities and Mos Def.

ARCADE FIRE!

Excited for the Zephyrs

Zephyrs Mascot. Nutrarat?

Colin Meloy of the Decemberists

Katie's Shower

I’m finishing up my thesis and then we’ll be relocating to Richmond, Virginia soon! We’re both very excited!

Everybody loves a snow day!

So a couple days ago we were visited by real winter. Not North Mississippi rainy, cold, drab winter, but the kind with snow. We had about 6.5 inches fall at our house from about 7 Sunday night to 3 Monday morning. Charlie had seen snow before but only about half an inch. We found out today how much he loves snow. He ran and ran and ran. He also wold bite at the snow and try to attack it at different times.

Here are a few videos to share this with all of you. Hope you enjoy, and happy snow day.

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1523153240714

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1524032462694

Update.

We’ve been busy, that’s the gist of our past couple of months. Papers, the GRE, Grad applications, a great wedding, a conference, G’s birthday and Thanksgiving. Plus flooring and painting a house as well as demolishing and redoing another. Needless to say, it’s been hectic, but fun.

This is Garreth’s birthday present from me.

Watch Garreth Be Surprised!

Then we got to school and he had this:

Our good friend Alex McDaniel made this very appropriate and awesome cake for G.

Needless to say... He loved it.

So a couple weeks later, we traveled to the great city of New Orleans and it was probably one of the greatest but most bizarre trips ever. Friday night we went to a house warming party for our new and wonderful friend Andrew Williams and then later Garreth and I drug Katie to see the new Harry Potter movie!

Saturday we woke up to Katie’s news that the power on a water pump in New Orleans had gone out, leaving the city under a boil water notice. Needless to say, it was interesting. But we went off to the best breakfast place in New Orleans, Slim Goodies! sooo good.

Katie & Andrew

my silly husband.

We did some shopping and that night after we had discovered a Pimm’s Cup, we went to the House of Blues to see Iron & Wine. Very good, and of course, beignets and cafe au lait followed.

Sunday morning was interesting as well. Katie accidentally locked us in her house. But, when we did get out, we enjoyed Juan’s flying burritto. Their fish tacos are excellent!

And then….. (bum, ba da BUM!) THE SAINTS GAME!!

Now I know why season tickets are so hard to come by, the games are an incredible experience. Our seats were almost at the top of the Dome, but we saw everything! It was a great weekend and we were sad to go. I think Garreth had a good birthday month.

wonderful.

Pizzle, Anyone?

Let me start with the most interesting story of this weekend. Charlie was almost completely out of food and as Walmart is no longer carrying any all-natural dog food and PetSmart hasn’t opened in Oxford yet, we resigned to going to Hollywood Feed, a new pet store in Oxford specializing in (somewhat expensive) all-natural food for dogs. We decided on a brand for a relatively good price and were told at the checkout that we could buy these certain treats for half off with our purchase. We like to spoil our pup, so we bought him one. It was called a bully stick. It was all-natural and it seemed just fine.

We got home and gave Charlie his bully stick but he didn’t seem too interested. I took a look at the packaging and noticed that this treat had one ingredient: bull pizzles. I thought it sounded funny, but I thought, what the heck, it’s natural.

Later when we noticed Charlie had barely touched his pizzle stick, I looked at Garreth and said, “I wonder what a pizzle really is.” Of course, Garreth pulls out his trusty iPhone and after the page loads, he smiles at me awkwardly and laughs.

First off, just to show the legitimacy of this. Here is the wrapper.

This is what Garreth found:

• Pizzle is an old English word for penis, derived from Low German pesel or Flemish Dutch pezel, diminutive of pees ‘sinew’. The word is used today to signify the penis of a non-human animal.
  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pizzle
• The penis of an animal; A baton made from the penis of an oxen, once used to beat men and animals
  en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pizzle
• pizzled – Having the penis in a different tincture than the rest of the body
  en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pizzled

Needless to say, we threw the pizzle away immediately. Sorry, Charlie.

In other weekend news: We pulled up our garden, Garreth (the man that he is) cut down a tree and I (the domestic that I am) cleaned house and dehydrated some basil.  Oh, and I enjoyed some fine Louisiana fare.

the best. abita satsuma and creole tomato zapps.

a new nephew.

Yesterday was an eventful day for the Stauter family of Hattiesburg. Amanda had her 4th! Charles (Charley) Martin Stauter is the cutest. I can’t wait to meet him in a couple weeks!

His oldest sister has already started teasing him.

I now have 8 nieces and nephews!

This little-big family is adorable. I’m excited about having a new nephew and glad everything went so quickly yesterday! Pray that Amanda gets as much rest as possible and this family gets resettled in the next few weeks.

It was the third of September…

Hi.

We’re the Blackwells. But, if you’re reading this, you probably already know that. Garreth has been wanting me to start one of these for our little family since about the time we got married. This is an experiment. We’ll see if we’re interesting enough for you guys. :)

We started off this month with my sisters birthday. She’s turned 26 & we had a beautiful weekend in Hernando.

Strawberry cake + putting together a pergola + a BEAUTIFUL Sunday afternoon picnic with Nonnie and the family = best weekend ever.

If it looks good, you should have tasted it.

After the Monday holiday, it was a weird week. Plus, everybody got sick, including me and G. But the end of the week held a WONDERFUL surprise! My best friend Natalie, is getting married in October and she and her fiance Kennett are the two most creative people I know. So, Friday, we got this in the mail…

ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL! i love it. so much!

The weekend has been good so far as well. Despite feeling bad yesterday, we had a lovely dinner the the Husni family and Bob Guccione Jr. at illustrious Taylor Grocery last night. Blackened catfish, huspuppies, fried okra, potato salad and chocolate pie for me & Nick’s platter for G. Very good.

A couple great things happened today! Garreth and I found some great gifts at Amelia’s 1 year anniversary sale! (Best shopping place on the square.) We finally took advantage of Kroger’s new “Pick 6” beer selection. (I’m looking forward to my Abita Satsuma and G his Killian’s) And tonight was Greek night at the Blackwell house!

Chicken Souvlaki with Tzatziki Sauce: (for 2)

2 pieced Chicken breasts marinated in juice from 1/2 lemon, Olive Oil, Garlic, Oregano & Thyme. Marinate for maximum flavor, but you can put it directly in the pan. Cook time is about 10 minutes.

For the tzatziki: 1/2 large cucumber processed with other 1/2 of lemon and 1 Greek yogurt cup & a little bit of onion powder. So quick, fresh and good.

Put these in some pita and you’re good to go! Such a good and quick meal. It tastes amazing.

Enjoy! And hopefully you’ll have a great Sunday!

-C & G