Oh, Joyful!

23 years ago Miss Joy Elizabeth Mercer made her grand entrance onto this Earth.

I haven't spoken to Momma Mercer about this, but I'm positive it was a grand and loud entrance. Joy would have nothing less.

Joy and I met during one of the tiring, exciting, and grueling days of rush recruitment our freshmen year at A&M. After a long week, we both ended up "going Chi-O!"

{the first of many "sorority poses". my legs are def stronger because of them}

We didn't hang out that often freshmen year, but we soon came to our senses and through Pine Cove and various reasons we ended up becoming great friends and living together our last two years of college!

 {the five of us}

When I say "great friends", I mean so great that I even went with her to the infamous Hannah Montana Concert in 3D. That's right, we stood in the waiting line and everything. It was legendary. Here's a little glimpse for you...

 

In honor of your birthday, Miss Joy...here is my Thankful Tuesday post...all centered around you :)

Reasons I am Thankful {for Joy}

4. I am thankful for the love we share of things Disney. Yes, I admit it. I love Disney Channel. Maybe not as much as Joy, but oh how I love it. 

5. I am thankful for her ability to be the girl who can make me laugh at any instant moment, yet the same girl who can sit down over a good cup of hot cocoa or some beverage and have an in depth conversation of how deep and wide and long the love of our Lord is. 

6. I am thankful for Joys's energy, compassion for others, laughter, kindness, honesty, and eagerness to serve the Lord. I look forward to the path the Lord has laid out in front of her and am confident she will make His name great through it all!

7. I am thankful for the many hilarious memories and the many more to come with this lifelong friend of mine :) I wish I could write them all down here...but here's a little glimpse for memories sake: single ladies, live crawfish, black eyes due to imaginary balls, colorado sb2k9 POUNCE, sexy winks, the toe, the tennis match, christmas decorating, the mysterious zach efron, and you celebrating with Mark & I just over a month ago to the start of our new life together :)

Wish I could give you one of these today...love you!

Shrimp Spring Rolls

Have you ever gone through a "cleansing" of sorts? That sounds weird. You know what I mean though. Ok, maybe you don't...let me explain :)


Every time around the holidays (or when my whole family gets together for an extended amount of time) I tend to divulge myself into a huge collection of greasy foods, yummy desserts, large servings from restaurants and endless amounts of chips and dip. What can I say? I love queso. My mom & dad love eating out and my mom always has an endless amount of food on hand when the family is in town. I just lose control...especially when there is queso. 

So, a couple years ago my sister introduced me to "the cleanse". Basically, we spent the next few days or a good week eating really, really healthy. I'm talking green tea at every meal, snacking on cucumbers, not having carbs, but just vegetables and some meat. Paleolithic diet at its finest.

I get a bit bored with the whole thing pretty quickly. I can't live without that queso (I actually haven't eaten queso in a good month...insane)

At one point she (the sister) introduced me to these shrimp spring rolls. They use rice paper, but we didn't include that as a heavy carb such as bread. They were delicious and I even have them on non cleansing moments such as today. So, in honor of Asian Food night at our neighborhood parish this evening, here's a little how to for shrimp spring rolls.

I added a peanut satay dipping sauce. This would not have been allowed in the cleanse, but I haven't done that in a good year...

First things first. Go to the grocery store, get your ingredients, and chop em on up. Here's a shot of them:

Here's a better list of what you need, friends:

2-3 carrots, diced up

1 green bell pepper, diced up 

*Note: I would've gotten red but it was a whole dollar more

 3-4 green onions, chopped up

lettuce, shredded up

cooked shrimp, halved up

rice paper

asian food aisle. easy to find.

I pretty much eyeball everything. I had about 3/4 pound of shrimp and used about a half head of green lettuce. The add ins always vary depending on what I have in stock or what's on sale at the store. This is something you can change things up with. I usually always use  green onions, a bell pepper, lettuce, and shrimp. Sometimes I'll add some fresh herbs, onions, or carrots. Do what ya want. 

Thankful Tuesday....Post One.

Keeping up a blog is harder than I thought. I think it is because I lose things to discuss (or maybe I don't want to go deep and really chat about the things that matter)...but, we have so much to discuss because there is so much to be thankful for! So without further adieu, here begins my attempt at "Thankful Tuesday"

1. It is crazy to believe only a month has gone by since we said "I do!" I am thankful for Mark and his ability to love and serve me endlessly. This last month has been full of laughter, good food, many episodes of How I Met Your Mother, and the start to a new life here in Houston together. I have loved learning more each day about marriage, and ultimately the gospel.

“Marriage was designed by God most deeply, most importantly, to be a parable or a drama of the way Christ loves his church and the way the church loves and follows Christ.” John Piper 

We overheard a comment a couple weeks ago about wives not setting unrealistic expectations for their husbands. After overhearing that comment, Mark encouraged me to expect much out of him - to expect Christ out of him. He is to love me as Christ loves the church. While Mark is called to be Christ, I also need to give grace often because c'mon, Mark's going to sin. I am beyond thankful that Mark is a man who seeks after the Lord and is being sanctified day by day to be more like Him. I am also thankful for the grace he extends me when I lack in my ability to submit and follow Him the way the church does Christ.

{taken right after our wedding rehearsal!}

2. The oh so good smelling cinnamon bread that just came out of the oven. The endless hours of dough rising is so worth the wait.

3. This tiny, lovely, apartment home the Lord has provided us :) 

Have a great Tuesday, friends!

The Scene

In honor of the Mr. and because I just really want to go climb outside right now...check out the new movie coming out.

So, who wants to go climb? Moab? Boulder? Innsbruck? Catalunya?

Ok. We may have to settle for Reimers or E-Rock for now.

Still in?

Weekend Fun

Since day one of dating Mark, I am pretty sure I have stated how wonderful it would be to go on a picnic. We haven't gone on a picnic before.



We have gone kayaking, eaten sandwiches while battling the waters, and broken up a melon on a rock after because we were starving and happened to have one in the car.

After a dirty day of kayaking, you need the antiBac to sanitize...even though your knife was a dirty rock found on the side of the road

It didn't matter. I was starving.

Anyhow, fast forward one year and we still had yet to go on a picnic. 

Until this weekend :) Thanks hubby for showing me a good time at Miller Park. Bocce ball, yummy sandwiches and salads, wine in a nalgene, good cheese, and the Houston Ballet. It looks like Houston isn't looking to bad after all...

I'll be back tomorrow with a yummy pressed sandwich recipe that we had on our picnic! I hope everyone had a great weekend :)

The Crafting Begins!

My schedule today.

Woke up.

Hung out with the Mr.

Mr. went to work.

A good book {Kell I need to give this back to you}

Errands.

Watching this. 

And planting and crafting this.

Hope everyone else is having a great Wednesday! Off to make steak picadillo tacos and then climb :)

Mussels, not Muscles.

We had a good friend over last night. A friend who is about to get married {so exciting!!!}It was our first person to have over to eat on our brand new rockin' dining table, so we wanted to go all out on food. The easiest way to do that...make mussels. They're not too pricey, they look good, they're fun to eat, and they taste delicious. So here's another recipe for you friends...

First things first. Get the ingredients :)

two cups of halved cherry tomatoes

two shallots and a couple minced cloves of garlic