check please!

After a Josh Ritter concert Friday night (thanks to my sweet mom who made dinner and bought tickets for many many friends!)Jonathan and I headed to Chattanooga for the weekend. We ate out on Saturday night, but on Sunday we decided to cozy up in front of the TV with white chicken chili and 90's thrillers. I've always had a weakness for 90's romantic comedies, but I learned that Morgan Freeman/Ashley Judd action flicks are pretty great too.

On Monday Jonathan and I went to Aretha Frankenstein's for breakfast. It's a bar by night/ breakfast spot by day, and it's decorated like a Mary Shelley reenactment from floor to ceiling. Unfortunately, it's also crowded and while we tried to wait to be seated - two men pushed in front of us and squeezed their way onto the only open bar stools.

After waiting hungrily and not-so-patiently, we finally settled down at a pac man table. Our biscuits and omelets were completely worth the wait, but the best part of our meal was that it was free... Our pushy barstool friends picked up our tab to apologize! Their little act of kindness made our morning and made us want to secretly pick up other people's tabs someday.

That night we ate an incredible dinner of veal parmesan and apple pie at Jonathan's grandparents' house, and this morning I headed back home.

I've been snuggled up talking, eating and drinking coffee with my family ever since ;)

I hope you're break has been filled with food and cozy conversations too!

sleepovers in cosby

After much deliberation I almost didn't go to Cosby. I have so many things due this week, but in a game time decision I went and I'm so glad I did! We had a smaller group this year (17 if that tells you anything about last year), but that was fine by me. I spent more time with every one and got a full foot and a half of sleeping space on the living room carpet ;)

On Friday night we made white chicken chili, attempted a scary movie and sat by the fire. In my usual fashion I was out by 11, but I also woke up first and made pancakes... so there are good things about falling asleep early on weekends! Saturday was beautiful, and we spent it sitting and talking and playing music.

That night Jay made his famous chili, Katie Gamble brought jalapeno corn bread and we went outside to sip cider by the fire. The next morning Jonathan and I tip-toed through the maze of sleeping bodies and headed back to Athens early. I've been pouring a constant stream of coffee into my body and working ever since, but that's okay! Cosby was worth it.

get me to cosby

This is Cosby, Tenn., where wood paneling lines walls in abundance, white bean chili stews to perfection and green linoleum reigns with vigor. I wouldn't have it any other way.

For the third year in a row... oh 20-something people...don flannels and boots and curl up in Tyler's cozy mountain house. It's small, but it suits us, and it suits our obsession with hipstamatic pictures ;) We discovered that app right before Cosby last year.

I'm leaving after work today, and I can't wait for ghost's hunts, bon fires, hikes, Katie Gamble's food, I could go on and on. Happy weekend!

how 'bout them dawgs

This weekend we beat FLA, and in case you can't tell - we were a bit ecstatic. We didn't let ourselves get too excited until the final 5 minutes when Florida fans started pouring out of the stands. That sight, our win and thousands of fans chanting "Who's that comin' down the track" on repeat made our windy, high (literally the last row) seats completely worth it.

It took us an hour to get from our sketchy parking space onto the highway, but we didn't mind one bit. We picked up Chick-fil-a for the drive and came home to a cozy condo and Bridesmaids (for the second time that week). The day before we'd spend the day on the beach with a few thousand other friends reveling in our senior GA/FLA experience.

I was sad to leave and come back to a busy, busy week, but tomorrow we're headed to Tyler's mountain house for our 3rd annual Cosby trip. So a few days and a few hundred pages of reading aren't quite so bad. (Actually, they're not bad at all, because I'm very nerd-ly obsessed with my classes and what I'm reading - Changing Places and Mansfield Park - I just with I had a few more days to finish everything ;)

Happy Thursday and go dawgs!

run, run, run as fast as you can

This is my mom, Kaiti and I post half-marathon. We took a few pre-race pictures, but those were at 5:40 in the morning, so I decided to spare you ;)

I think we look pretty good for finishing 13.1 miles just moments before! This was Kaiti's first half-marathon ever, and she ran it with almost no training. My mom and I did train, and apparently our hard work paid off, because we cut our time from last year by 8 minutes! We were thrilled, and after showers, Aleve and church we treated ourselves to a big Mama's Boy breakfast.

I love my mama so much, and I'd been looking forward to this weekend for months. She came prepared with warm clothes and caffeinated goo, and her encouragement made the race enjoyable from start to finish. Well... the HUGE hill in mile 13 took away a little bit of finish line joy, but we were smiling again once our legs recovered.

**I know caffeinated goo sounds gross, but the Clif Bar mocha flavored one is so good! I had another one for breakfast post race, and I kind of want to stock up on them for late night studying.

fall in love

I'm so sorry I abandoned my blog! I promise I still love it, and I you if you read it, and to make amends I will put up a few cozy weekend pictures.

This weekend Brit, Jonathan, Tyler and I drove to Chattanooga along with many other friends for Liz and Alan's wedding. On Friday Jonathan's mom bought the four of us dinner from Nino's, and made us oatmeal butterscotch cookies (my favorite!). We were going to drive down the mountain and meet friends, but the fire pit was so toasty and we were so full and sleepy that we couldn't tear ourselves away.

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After a Saturday morning run, 2 kinds of soup, college football and more cookies, we dressed up in our wedding best and headed to Lookout.

Liz was beaming and beautiful, and Alan winked at her dad as he kissed his new wife ;) They had one of the best receptions I've ever been to - mainly due to dancing and fall-ish food. Their wedding cake was apple spice with carmel frosting, and I can't even tell you how many helpings of baked brie-apple-cinnamon yumminess I ate.

Although you can't really see them in this picture, Brit's older sister Lauren let us go through her closet and pick out two beautiful dresses for the wedding.

I need to learn a thing or two about sharing, because I'm so bad at letting my own sister wear my clothes - let alone her friends! We came home with lots of compliments and no stains, so maybe loaning sisters clothes isn't so bad after all.

running for cream cheese

In case this picture doesn't say enough, our weekend in Chattanooga was beautiful! And we took full advantage of it. We ate outside at Nino's on Friday, Lisa and I ran along the brow on Saturday, Jonathan and I took the dogs for a walk that afternoon and on Sunday we went for a post-church walk/workout... (Bob and Lisa surprised us with push-ups and planks every time we passed a bench).

I know that sounds very active, but we also spent a lot of time watching movies on the porch. I cut Jonathan's hair during Bridesmaids, and I don't recommend watching that movie while holding scissors near someone's head. He survived, but it wasn't the best haircut I've ever given ;)

On Saturday night we went to an engagement party for our friends Mark and Sarah, and got drinks with Addie, Doug and Kelsey at Urban Stack afterwards. It's a gourmet burger place, but their drinks are just as creative as their toppings - mine had ginger root sticking out of it.

Inspired by she and Bob's recent trip to Italy, Lisa made us an Italian feast for dinner on Sunday.

We ate outside, and the only thing better than homemade pasta and bruschetta was Catie and Martha's surprise visit! Martha is Jonathan's cousin, and her daughter Catie is the most adorable, imaginative girl in the world. She showed off her gymnastics moves and told us lots of stories about her friend Leo the Lion... he even stuck his toe in our bonfire.

I know this picture doesn't exactly fit in my post, but I can't write about Chattanooga without mentioning cream cheese muffins and cinnamon rolls. In addition to being tucked in the woods amidst creeks and waterfalls, Jonathan's neighborhood has a local bakery, apple orchard and farmer's market.

The Bread Basket has the softest, creamiest, melt-in-your-mouth cream cheese muffins. Jonathan and I usually split one, but after running 11.5!! miles in preparation for the Athens Half - I felt like I earned a whole one.