in birmingham maiden voyage

so my husband, john mark, and i have officially declared ourselves novice food critics and have set out to taste what birmingham has to offer. armed with a little guide called 'in birmingham' and an empty stomach, we are going to eat, write, and eat some more. feel free to suggest places we should check out and most importantly, your favorite food item.

we started our journey, by going through the guide and finding places we had never been before. there were so many to choose from and several we had never even heard of. this was strange, what with john mark being born and raised in birmingham and all. our first choice was to go to cobb lane. there were tons of positive reviews...even from julia child herself! but given a little research we soon found that cobb lane has closed it's doors. sad. so we moved on to another place: john's city diner. my only experience with this place was as a last resort one evening when i first moved to birmingham 4 years ago...

so off we went...

we first entered the diner expecting a menu full of different sorts of malts and burgers, judging by the decor and the word "diner". we were completely wrong! the menu really blew us away and actually had many dishes that were dear to us and some that we'd never heard of. besides the mismatched decor (which leaves a lot to be desired), our dinners were yummy. we started with the cornbread, which is served to every table. if you like salty cornbread, you'd love these little concotions! next, i ordered their famous meatloaf with roasted corn grits and french fries, while john mark ordered the crispy duck with roasted corn grits and john's original slaw. delish! the meatloaf was full of flavor with loads of freshly cracked black pepper (my obession) and mushroom gravy. it's definitely not the ketchup ladden loaf of beef you're accustomed to. the roasted corn grits tasted like a lovechild of buttered grits and corn pudding, which suprisingly made a fantastic marriage. and the duck! oh the duck! it was so juicy, with loads of flavor from the honey-soy glaze. upon first glance, john mark commented he could never finish it, but instead devoured the entire half duck. next however, we wouldn't recommend the slaw. eh, you can be right all the time! also, if you are a light eater i would definitley recommend sharing because the portions are quite large. next time we go, we'd love to save room for desert. the warm double chocolate pound cake perhaps?

all in all, we give john's city diner a 7. great food, pretty good prices, and an ok atmosphere. but hey, when you're going for the food alone, john's city diner is a great option!

for more information, go to:
http://www.johnscitydiner.com/

bridesmaid dress monopoly

so the (seemingly) unending hunt for a bridesmaid dress that is decent looking and decently priced is haunting me. many a day has been spent looking online, going to shops, dreaming of my non-existent perfect bridesmaid dress. i love to shop. i love fashion. i love a good deal. and, up until now, i thought i was a master of deals. a wielder of fabulous finds. well my self-proclaimed title is being challenged by said bridesmaid dress. how on earth is it this hard to find something that doesn't look like a taffeta tent, like "two pigs fighting under a blanket"? ($10 to the first person who can tell me where that quote came from.)


here are my top 5 wishes (these girls are my loved ones after all):
1. a nice, gentle color. one that says "i stand with you" not "i shout and scream at you and take all the attention."
2. a flattering fit....for ALL body types.
3. elegant & sophisticated, but not heavy and sweat-inducing.
4. something i would actually step out of my house in and not mind if i am photo documented wearing.
5. all priced under $200.

i say, is that too much to ask???

well, if anything, i've found a niche market and i am making plans to storm the fashion world one bridesmaid dress at a time.

we're engaged? we're engaged. we're engaged!

so the time has come for me to finally "unleash my blog" (as laura would like to put it). i set up this blog knowing i would want a space to place all the happenings of my new adventure, but didn't realize the lack of time the first month of engagement would serve me. nevertheless, here i am...i mean, we are! (I am still learning how to use the “we” word.) john mark and I got engaged on march 19th and have been quickly setting our lives to accommodate our new status. It has been marvelous, exciting, surreal, nerve wracking, peaceful. We had our first marriage counseling session last week and let me tell you, the Lord knew exactly what he was doing placing us together. I am definitely shocked, but not surprised, at His faithfulness --- and counseling really showed us this!

Disclaimer: If you’d like the recount of our engagement and want to read about our wedding click here.

Hopefully in the next several weeks I will be able to journal our progress….some really thoughtful insights and some things that really just don’t matter. It’s all a part of wandering together I guess!