Quarterly Review

Photo by Ari Merritt Photography

We've made it through the first quarter! Three months--how exciting is that. I really thought time would slow down after the year{s} long countdown to the wedding, but if anything it's sped up. We've started getting into a good groove with our work schedules, house maintenance, and fun time together with friends. There have been a few hard days where personalities have clashed, and understanding of each other has grown. But it is so wonderful to be able to figure out things together. CJM takes his final pharmacy exams throughout the month of August, and I think it's already proven to be a bit of a stress reliever to be present and supportive of each other together in our home through this final stressful hurtle on a daily basis.

We'll be celebrating our three months of happiness tonight, reminiscing our wonderful honeymoon with a dinner of crab cakes and gin cocktails. Maybe I should also make us three different desserts to try!

June Recipe Review

One of my goals as a newlywed is to keep it fresh and exciting...in the kitchen! For the last few years, I've lived alone and would flip flop from always eating out to eating really weird stuff at home. I never have been a consistent grocery shopper, so I knew that would become a top priority for me as wife with a very hungry husband.

I've thought it would be exciting to try at least one new Pinterest recipe each month to hopefully add some go-to meals to our repertoire. This month, I tried two new recipes: Sweet Potato & Crab Chowder, and Buffalo Chicken Jalapeno Popper Casserole. Both were easy recipes, but only one is being added to my recipe box!

via The Chef Next Door Blog

Sweet Potato & Crab Chowder is a definite yes! The combination seemed a little odd at first: sweet potatoes? I love them, but had never had them in a soup. But the Jekyll Island Club has their own version of it that I've heard is delicious, so I thought I would try this Pinterest version to get a taste of the combo before trying their recipe next! It was so delicious, and super easy to make. We used canned crab, which I'd never tried before, but I was surprisingly pleased! Besides having a hard time picking out all of the shells, it was the best bang for my buck and tasted great, not at all like what I thought canned crab would taste like. 

I followed the recipe until the very end, where I felt like adding some spice with a little red pepper to a semi-sweet soup. It ended up being the perfect addition: a little bit of heat at the very end of  each bite. This soup warmed up well throughout the week, and was extra comforting served with some biscuits and peach butter!

via ruled.me

Buffalo Chicken Jalapeno Popper Casserole is unfortunately a no, but it may just be a no for me. I forgot until after I made it that I have some weird aversion to baked chicken and buffalo sauce. I love buffalo sauce, and chicken wings, but something about the two together and made at home kind of makes my skin crawl. This recipe also called for chicken thighs which get a resounding "never again!" commentary from me. Overall, it felt like putting this together was a lot harder than it should have been, and I was just not pleased with the taste/texture/or time it took to make something that I didn't enjoy.

I love the idea of a savory low carb casserole though, as both the hubs and I try to eat as low carb as we can! I'll definitely be trying some more LC dishes in the future.

What are your favorite recipes for me to try? And follow my food boards on Pinterest to see what I might be trying next!

#noming 
Healthy
S i m m e r
Sweet Treats 

Gift from my Groom

Christopher and I chose to exchange gifts prior to our wedding, but to do so separately as to not see each other before the ceremony. I'm so glad we ended up doing this, because it became my favorite part of our awesome wedding video! 

For my gift, Christopher gave me two things: a handwritten note and a bracelet. I love love letters, and I have every one he's ever written me stored away in a mason jar. This one was extra special, not just because it was on our wedding day, but because he wrote what I've been asking about forever which was what he said when we got engaged. That moment of the proposal was such a whirlwind, that I can't even remember what he said to me! I know that is so awful {this is why you should always take pictures/videos of everything, in my opinion!} but it's true. 

 My second gift from him was a beautiful silver coordinates bracelet engraved on one side with Statesboro, where we met, and the other side with Myrtle Beach, where we got engaged. I love it! It's such a dainty little piece that I'll treasure forever. I wore it down the aisle with a bracelet that my grandmother made for me to match bracelets she made for all the little girls in our wedding party.

While we were on our honeymoon, Christopher said something in passing about having another gift for me. I remember looking at him, but not saying anything. I love presents, but don't like to think too much about them because I get really worked up and excited which can be a little distracting, and at that point we had like five more days on our cruise left! 

When we got home on Sunday to a cleaned house with rose petals on the bed, my dress displayed beautifully, and wedding memorabilia throughout the house, he presented me with another gift: a 14 karat gold coordinates necklace featuring our wedding venue. In his words, he "couldn't give it to me before the wedding, because we weren't married yet!" It was such a great surprise; I've been wanting a gold bar necklace for forever, and love that this one bears such great meaning. 

The necklace is beautiful. It compliments the bracelet perfectly! I love that I can wear them together, or wear one or the other if I'm doing more gold or silver on that day. The necklace is a shorter length which layers perfectly with some of my other necklaces for a really cool look. I think I'll plan on adding more coordinate bars of different lengths as we reach various milestones and memories.

Necklace and bracelet can be found here. Our beautiful monogrammed linen coasters, here, thanks to our lovely Matron of Honor!

Bridal Portraits 2

 After weeks of anticipation, we should be getting our wedding pictures back this week and our video in the weeks following--I can't wait! I'm ready to see how the whole day came together, and see all my friends and family who came to celebrate.

I'm also a little anxious...all those months of planning, and it comes down to just this one day! All the prep, and I can hardly remember what I, or what any of it looked like. So today I thought I'd share just a few more of my faves from my bridal portrait session before the wedding. It's rainy and humid here {thanks to the second tropical storm in as many weeks}, so hopefully this will brighten up your day, too!

Also, be sure to head over to Facebook to like my photographer's page: Ari Merritt Photography, especially if you're in the Savannah area!

Month-In Musings

It's official: our first month of marriage is in the books. Even if he claims "it's the same!" I totally think being married is way better than not. The month has flown, and we've laughed a lot and learned a lot as well!

What's Different
We see each other every day. For years, we've only seen each other on the weekends, and the occasional mid-week meet up for dinner {usually at Cheddar's...buff chick wrap, yum.}. We've also never been very good phone talkers, so actually catching up each evening is refreshing. Some days, we even have lunch together at home, which is lovely. Some of this will change as Christopher starts his real job in a few weeks and is commuting more, but it's been a great way to start off the married life.

There is honestly a lot more cleaning than I expected. Another person means more dirty clothes and dishes, and as "the clean one," it can sometimes feel overwhelming. But we've done pretty good about working together to get organized and stay on top of the house chores.

What's the same
We still cook together. This is something I have always loved: that Christopher is an excellent cook, and that it is something we both enjoy doing together. We also still grocery shop together; these are two things I hate doing by myself, so it's wonderful to have the regular company.

Our habits. Of course those don't change overnight, and I didn't expect them to! But it is funny to see them a little more up-close and personal than before.

What I did expect
A fight. Maybe that's really negative of me, but I just assumed that moving in together and figuring out life together would instigate some kind of fuss. Of course there has been a few times where we've gotten annoyed at each other, but I've seen both of us take a step back, breathe, and reevaluate how to handle the situation. It's refreshing to see how far our communication and problem solving skills as a couple has come.

What I did not expect
Having to figure out how to incorporate my phone time with friends/family. I hate coming into the house on the phone when he's already there waiting on me. It just feels rude in a way. And my commute is literally three minutes long, so there isn't much phone time in the car. Before getting married, I would spend hours a day talking to friends and family at night when I got home. I'm definitely working on learning how to balance all that.

The Bachelorette. Well, not really The Bachelorette per say. But I guess how easy it has been to spend time together every day. Again, going from doing 100% my own thing everyday to incorporating another person, 100% into my daily life...I just wasn't sure how it was all going to work out!

The first week back from the honeymoon, there was one evening where I said, "Is this what we're supposed to be doing?" as we're sitting on the couch looking at our phones. And there are nights where Christopher {my little social butterfly} says, "So what do you want to do?" and I'm thinking, "Go to bed at 8 p.m., what do you want to do?!" But we've really gotten into a great rhythm, and have enjoyed just watching TV together {like The Bachelorette...I've finally convinced him to watch it with me! And Fresh Off The Boat...go. Watch it NOW. Hilarious, and I am the mom.} and weekly dinners with friends, and working on projects around the house together.

I know we have a long way to go, and a lot to learn. I know there will be hard days and trials, and days that are just days. But I love that we both are on the same page, working towards the same goals, putting 100% into our relationship each day. We are incredibly blessed, and love being married. It truly has been great for us individually and as a couple, and I am thankful for this relationship everyday!

Week Recap: Honeymoon Cruise

In the water at St. Maarten

Hellerrrr!

I'm back! It may have taken me a full week to recover from my honeymoon, but the house is mostly clean, and I finally download the hundreds of pictures from our cruise last night, and felt the blogging buzz again!

We left for an eight day cruise the day after our wedding. We went on the Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas Eastern Caribbean tour which included stops at their private island Coco Cay, St. Thomas, and St. Maarten in the Virgin Islands. The entire trip, Christopher and I kept saying "This is so much nicer than our college cruise!" and it really was. The ship was glitzy, the stops were fabulous, and we truly had a ton of fun. We also had a beautiful balcony room, which was such an improvement over the interior stateroom shared by four college kids a few years ago!

Christopher and I love dressing up and going out for dinner and drinks, so it was wonderful to be able to do that for a week straight, even if the scale wasn't thrilled with that idea when we got home. We had some amazing food: prime rib and lobster one night, lamb the next, with as many desserts as we could handle! One of the bars on board made the absolute best Bloody Mary's, and we quickly figured out which spots made true Tom Collins', and not just gin with sour mix.

Freedom of the Seas

We loved going to the shows each night. There were a couple Broadway style productions, various comedians, an illusionist, and even an ice performance on the indoor skating rink. We did a little bit of shopping in port, but mostly relaxed on the beaches or the upper deck by the pool. We did 'casino' a little bit--I even won $40 on a slot machine on my first try!

BLT Bloody Mary 

Of course it wouldn't be a trip with me without an "urgent care" visit...I got to stop by the ship doctor for a round of antibiotics midway through the trip, but that didn't slow us down. Of course, by Saturday, we were pretty ready to come home to the pups. Sunday we got up super early to leave as soon as the doors opened, and we came home to a fully stocked kitchen and cleaned house by my wonderful mother. That was the best! 

St. Maarten

We spent our first week back home redeveloping our routines {Christopher started his final pharmacy rotation at the local hospital}, opening wedding gifts, unpacking, and doing lots of laundry. We've always enjoyed cooking in the kitchen together, so we have done that most nights during the week. This weekend we went to the Georgia Southern vs. Clemson baseball game, cleaned some more, and went bowling. I think so far, we've both had a lot of fun doing this newlywed thing!

Our Wedding Rings

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