Weekend Warriors

Saturday morning started nicely with a yummy breakfast at one of our favorite spots on the square. Chocolate filled croissants and fresh fruit, delicious. We then headed to Home Depot for a few things to help us with our To Do list for the day. We were working on staining our basement doors and building a gate for our front porch. I used some of the stain left over from the porch project and worked on the basement doors.

{ The Before }

{ The After }

Erik built a gate for the end of our front porch. Our porch is raised above the ground so you can see underneath it and it isn't pretty so Erik built a lattice screen for the front, so he was just finishing the job with the gate for the end. He put brackets on it so if we needed to get under the porch we could lift the gate and go. After he built it, I stained it. 

{ The Before }

{ The After  }

Not bad for a couple hours. Our next weekend project is to paint our retaining wall that is my nightmare and Erik has a plan for finishing the top of it. Here it is in its current state. Shocking, I know.

© The Simple Wife

Worlds Apart

Today was a drastic change on the weather scale from last week. Last Sunday-aka 7 days ago, it was looking like this:

{ Yikes }

And today Erik and I were able to have a yummy breakfast on the back porch:

{ delicious }

Georgia weather is bizarre to say the least, but when it's pretty, it's real pretty. I had a productive day today. It started bad- forgetting to turn our clocks ahead, but then got better when Erik's tee time for golf was moved back, meaning more lazy time together. I baked some yummy muffins for a late breakfast that was set in the sun on our porch. I adorned my muffins with strawberries, Erik tried sausage, and we washed them down with OJ- a great Sunday morning treat. It was a nice and chill weekend, lots of time spent with Erik which is always great. Now for the busy week ahead...

© The Simple Wife

A Georgia Sunday

It began with sleeping in late, then continued with an episode or two of home design on HGTV. It was now time to get up and face the day. We got dressed and gathered Doc's things and headed out for lunch at the park. Because it was fairly spontaneous, we had to stop to pick up lunch on the way to the park. When we arrived we couldn't believe how many families there were. Every swing, patch of grass and trail was being stomped by little feet. It was amazing to see so many happy faces to be out in the sun. We ate our sandwiches and took a nice long walk around the park with Doc, stopping occasionally to smell the other dog patrons. It is a beautiful day. I just hope that this becomes routine very soon.

© The Simple Wife

Yes, We Are...

CRAZY that is. Mr. Grubbs and I have been living in the wilderness for the past 2 days. The two coldest days in Georgia in a long time! Friday night we headed out with two friends to the Cohutta Wilderness in North Georgia. We arrived at the Beech Bottom trail head at around 10pm that night in about 10° F. It was FREEZING!!! But we were determined to brave the cold and make it to Jack's River and set up camp. It was a cold hike and we had to cross the river a couple times. Once we had about a 5-6 foot jump from rock to rock in order to make it across but we did it and made it to camp. Things didn't start off too good because we couldn't get a fire started but eventually we got a small one but by the time we had our tents up it was out so we went to bed. It was 1:30am and 8°F.

{ Our fire that didn't last long...}

The Saturday morning we awoke wide-eyed and ready for the day after a long night of sleeping in blistering cold in our Zero Degree sleeping bags. (mine is actually -5 degrees, Mr. Grubbs is very jealous of that)  When I crawled out of the tent the fire was a roaring thanks to the guys. We had breakfast and started hunting for more firewood. 

{Our camp site and tent}

{What kept us warm and cozy!}

{We camped right next to the river.}

{Mr. Grubbs trying to break through the ice for water for hot tea and cocoa to keep us warm.}

{MMmmm...}

For lunch we decided to have a scenic picnic, so we hiked down to the Jack's River Falls. It was about 10 minutes from our camp site. The river was beautifully adorned with ice and snow from the cold weather. We set up our lunch on the rocks of the top waterfall. We couldn't get down to see the larger fall because of ice. It was amazing. And thank goodness it was now where near as cold as the previous night, but it was still below freezing.

{ The heat to cook the soup.}

{The soup}

After lunch we headed back to camp for some down time. Most of the night was spent talking and huddling around the fire. Which was then accented with some snow and sleet later in the night. We headed to bed and eagerly awaited the morning to hike home. It rained while we were sleeping so we didn't have a fire to warm us up before the hike, so we packed up and hiked out. It was an amazing trip. The cold wasn't as bad as we had anticipated, so it was very enjoyable. To see such beautiful land and to know that I was able to jump over freezing rivers, climb a mountain, and hike about 10 miles in 2 days, makes a very fulfilling weekend. We will definitely be doing it again soon.

© The Simple Wife

Thrashers Game In Pictures

© The Simple Wife

Weekend Happenings

Friday: Mr. Grubbs and I head down to ATL to enjoy dinner at TAP- I had to take him back to the place that introduced me to a burger with a side of milkshake! We met my brother Tony and his wife Ashley and his friends Kennen and Lexi. We enjoyed dinner and drinks while listening to songs by Pete Yorn, Jack Johnson and others being covered by two guys and a guitar. It was a very chill atmosphere and very much needed after a long week back in the swing of things. 

We then contemplated where to continue our beverages when they suggested another downtown bar. So we headed to said place and were abruptly greeted by a huge mass of people- SEC championship game in ATL, Gators v. Crimson Tide, YUCK! We couldn't move without inappropriately touching/offending several people so we decided to go home and end the night. 

Saturday: We slept in until 8:30am, then we slept in until 10am, and we then finally decided to wake up and start the day at 11am. Perfect. Even more perfect is the fact that I didn't even have to ask Mr. Grubbs if we could eat at my favorite lunch place in the world, he just knew I wanted/needed it and we went. After lunch we headed to REI to drool over all the cool new camping gear while dreaming of our next backpacking trip. As he finished up his daydreaming, I headed next door to indulge in the OPI buy 2 get one Free offer Mrs. Homemade Grits warned us about. 

We headed back to the house and met my brother and Ashley again for another night o' fun where we headed to a graduation party for a friend. We enjoyed surprising him and eating cake and hanging out. It was a fun night and it ended with a slumber party at the Grubbs' house for my brother and his wife.

Sunday: Breakfast with our guests at Sugar Cakes, another favorite. Chocolate croissants, OJ and the Creative Loafing crossword made a lovely morning. After which I headed off to the museum to meet some students with their families to check out some mummies and Ancient Egypt history at the Carlos at Emory. It was so rewarding to see their faces when they were meet with a real mummy.

All in all a fun, relaxing, good eating, chilling out, slumber partying, cake eating, family hanging, good time. And now time to get to bed to dream of the weekend to come...

© The Simple Wife

Sundays...

The weekends are the highlights of my week. I love sleeping in with no alarm clock, having breakfast with the husband and wearing jeans and t-shirts. Although today was a busy one. I started early with a warm cup of hot chocolate to wake me up to type a Grad school paper. Then Mr. Grubbs woke up and we had a very late breakfast together. After my belly was bursting with biscuits and gravy I started work on the porch. Sadly I still have lots to do, but I know it will be worth it when my deck is beautifully chocolate brown! We finished the day at Mom and Dad's for dinner and some Steelers football. 

Only 6 more days until the next Sunday!

Football Weekends

My GA Dawgs had the weekend off, so we had to play our own football. Mr. Grubbs plays flag football with my brother and several other friends on Sundays. Unfortunately because I am currently in graduate school, I often spend my Sunday afternoons typing papers. But this week I actually did my work early and was able to get out and mingle, so we made the flag football game this weekend a family venture- yes that means, Mr. Grubbs, Doc and I. 

First we had to haul our buns up to Lawrenceville to the field. It was a long car ride for Doc, who decided to ride shotgun with Mr. Grubbs. 

Then the boys had to stretch and warm up.

While the game was on, Doc was hamming it up on the picnic table. 

Our friend Casey brought her little one, Bella. I think Doc had the hots for her, how could he not?

Doc grew quite tired of showing off for Bella and napped until the end of the game.

The team celebrating their first win! 

{Yes you read their team name correctly, unfortunately. Boys...}

Maybe I'll be responsible and do my work to go to the next one too!

Oh, my Side Hurts

{Mr. Grubbs and comedian Joe Rogan}

Mr. Grubbs and I enjoy laughing. If he isn't making me laugh then we are laughing at someone else. It really is good for you. Saturday night we enjoyed a night out at the Punchline a comedy club here in Atlanta. We went with our friends Hill and his wife Jessica to see Joe Rogan. He was the host of Fear Factor and now commentates for the Utlimate Fighting Conference. He was hilarious. I love how he is breaks life down, and makes you realize that all of the things that we think are so important and waste much of our lives doing, don't really matter. His message, chill and live your life! I 100% agree!!!

Football Weekends

Being a Bulldog means that you have several obligations:

1. Must love the combo of Red & Black on EVERYTHING
2. Must watch College GameDay (Sports show for those of you who are lucky enough to have control of the remote on Saturdays) with the understanding that everyone hates on GA Football
3. Must be prepared to watch any SEC game at anytime
4. Must surrender any and all events on Saturday starting in September- I actually had to plan my birthday- the wonderful day in which I joined this world- around the GA game

However I actually do love football and am happy to watch it in a smoke-free place. We watched our beloved Dawgs claim victory over South Carolina, more importantly Steve Spurrier, at our home then we moved the party to Mazzy's Sports Bar for some darts, drinks and yummy bar food. My sister Ashley and I rocked the darts and I hit a couple bull's eyes, quite impressive if you ask me. I also made a rare, straight-haired appearance. It doesn't happen often, but I am thinking about doing it more, it's a good change.

Next week the Dawgs are facing Alabama, it's going to be a good one, GGGGOOOOOO DAWGS, SIC 'EM!!!! 

If you are in the ATL

And you need something fun to do this Saturday...

LowBrow Gallery is the Art gallery associated with East Atlanta Tattoo. An ol' high school art chum is an artist at East ATL, and is steadily receiving lots of the Grubbs' household income...

Holy Crap, my side HURTS

I was treated to a date night with the husband on Friday night. After a romantic gym visit, a delicious protein shake for dinner, and a well deserved shower (did I mention we are on a get-fit kick?) we made our way to the movie theater for a couple laughs. We decided to go see Ben Stiller's new movie Tropic Thunder. It also stars Robert Downey Jr, Jack Black, Nick Nolte, and a few others. It is about a group of actors who are filming a war movie, but mistakenly end up in a Vietnamese drug camp. The best part of the whole movie is the beginning scenes. I'm not going to give them away but make sure you are in your seats on time. I definitley recommend the astronomical ticket prices to see it.

P.S. We can now only use our old, cracked and out-of-date Student IDs for discounts on Thursdays. So much for trying to relive the Glory Days and save a couple bucks.

Saturday Mornings on the Square

I LIVE for Saturday mornings. They are the best time of the week. You get to sleep in with no alarm clock, and my husband and I get to have breakfast together- even if it is at 11a. We love going to eat at one of two places on the Marietta Square: Sugar Cakes or Three Bears Cafe. Sugar Cakes is a wonderful french bistro headed by a former Ritz Carlton pastry chef. They have yummy pastries and delicious quiches. I recommend the Continental Breakfast- choice of 2 pastries, fruit and OJ. Three Bears has a unique menu. Lots of organic, "granola"type food- excellent for vegetarians. I LOVE the french toast and the raspberry, white chocolate scone.

This Saturday we went to Three Bears with our little furry one. We sat and enjoyed the sunshine and the Creative Loafing Crossword. A perfect way to start the day!