the worst ideas

ok, fine. i'll admit it. the picture a day thing was a bad idea. or at least an unrealistic one.  its been busy. in this week alone we've had g and mrs. g, an overnight staff retreat, and we're leaving on a mission trip to the DR. (that's Dominican Republic - not a doctor).  sooooo - there goes the image of the day. 

and yes, seriously, we're going to the DR.  you can get daily updates at www.dominicanmissiontrip.blogspot.com. So that could end up being like a daily picture, right? We'll take any prayers to want to pray on our behalf. We're REALLY excited, but, as always, its a little stressful too. Adios!!!

oh, the other worst idea was taking benadryl to go to sleep last night. a little groggy this morning.

a good excuse for cobbler

so todays pic is the FABULOUS blackberry cobbler that we made last night. yes, we. me and my sister-in-law.  i mean, blackberries are in season and pretty cheap. why would you not make cobbler? plus, there was some vanilla frozen yogurt in my freezer just begging for a companion (which i tried to give her last night in the form of a peanut butter/chocolate chip concoction - but that was a huge fail.)  i used the recipe that you can find here and it was totally simple and absolutely tasty.  let me warn you, it has to cook for an hour. so if you are like me and tend to be a little on the impatient side be prepared to exercise some self control.  (or to distract yourself with some hardcore huensch family mario kart) once out of the oven its all brown and golden and perfect.  sigh. and it looks so cute in my new little latte bowls. 

on another note: i want an internet nickname for myself. any suggestions?

It's true, there is nothing like 'em.

Despite calling Alabama home for almost 5 years(!!!!!) i have never been to the legendary Dreamland BBQ.  Well, i had never been to dreamland. Yesterday we changed that.  At the beginning of this year, i made husband man listen to me as i listed all of the things i wanted to do in 2009. The original dreamland in Tuscaloosa was one of them.  All it took was G and Mrs. G coming down for a little memorial day visit for husband man to make it happen. Let me tell you. Worth. The. Wait.  All they serve is ribs and white bread and bbq sauce (and maybe some slaw?) and that is perfectly ok. We devoured 2 slabs of ribs and then moseyed on back to the giant brick fire pit where they cook them. There were, like, 20 slabs of ribs just hanging out, waiting to be ordered. I now understand why dreamland is on everyone (and yes, i mean everyone - even the new york times) places you MUST eat. What they say is true, "there ain's nothin' like 'em nowhere."

*in the picture, i don't know that lady. she was awkwardly standing there and since it was raining i didn't feel like waiting for her to move. but that's g and mrs. g standing beneath the sign. for those of you not familiar, g is husband man's twin brother and mrs. g is, well, his wife. we like them a LOT and are thrilled that they're down here for a visit.

"did that gorilla just throw up and eat it?!"

As promise, image of the day. This is yesterday's image - four high school girls walking like giraffes through the zoo. We decided that since we were in the "savannah" and there was all this great african music playing, we should probably walk like giraffes. The girls were better at it than me - probably because most of them had the legs of giraffes. 

your first "image of the day" post. aka: 9 years in the making

So i did it! i managed to get a picture from yesterday JUST to put it on the blog. and here it is. . .

Now the explanation: this is me in my gamecocks t-shirt. it is undeniably my favorite t-shirt and THAT my friends, is what has been 9 years in the making. i bought this shirt when i bought my textbooks at south carolina my FRESHMAN YEAR. and that was 9 years ago. since then it has been worn to about 70% of the south carolina games i have attended (football, basketball, baseball, and maybe a soccer game?) and its not just a game shirt, its an everyday shirt. this t-shirt is the ONE out of my whole basket of t-shirts that fits perfectly - not too snug, not too baggy, perfect length, perfect sleeves. and honestly, all my love and wear and care are starting to show. its got the slightly freyed collar and a few mysterious stains. but its just so soft, and has the gamecocks on it. it shall never be replaced.  on to other questions. . . 

you may ask "emily, why were you wearing this particular t-shirt last night?" and i will tell you. the husband man bought us tickets to the SEC tournament! and last night carolina played the tide. and you know what? we won. and all 20 carolina fans in the hoover met rejoiced. well, as much as you can rejoice at 2 in the morning when the game was wrapped up in the 11th inning by a 4 run streak by the gamecocks.  i'm so tired right now.

so to sum it up, here's my 5 things from last night:

5. glad to see the shirt still has it

4. even at the ripe old ages of 23 and 26, sara and i will still gross people out with tmi about rotting toenails.

3. we got to see a bama coach get ejected from the game. all of you who left in the 9th missed quite a show

2. in birmingham, bama fans far outweigh the carolina fans (yes, so obvious, but seriously it was baaaad)

1. i really DO have a thoughtful husband.

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO COCKS!

guests are the bests

oh my word, it is so pretty outside. 65 degrees, sunny and breezy. it almost makes a whole weekend full of rain and cold worth it.  the weekend wasn't all bad though. in fact, it wasn't even a little bad. you know why. . . . because jay and janice and jean brown were here!!

and the bad news is that i just tried to look at my photos of us, and they're all fuzzy. boo. so just take my word for it - we're a beautiful family who isn't afraid to have spend the night parties that include all 5 of us in a tiny two bedroom apartment. huge kudos to my parents who slept on air mattresses.  

we had an awesome weekend. they came, we ate, we visited, we slept a little, ate, visited, ate, visited, ate, visited. and somewhere in there we drove around the city to show my grandmother jean the fabulous sights and sounds (and tastes) of birmingham, al.  she loved it. we loved how much she loved it.  

they also came bearing gifts. yes, mom did her typical thing and brought me little things for my home AND two BOXES full of little letters, keepsakes, pictures, etc that have been just taking up space in my old room. let me tell you, sitting with your husband and parents and grandmother and going through all the things you thought were important enough to keep when you were in 9th grade is a weird experience.  how about the notes from boys at camp? or the notes from friends about the boys at camp? plus countless yearbook pictures, prom memorabilia and some congratulatory letters from the sc house of representatives? (seriously, there were two - one on being a beauty pageant runner up and the other on winning the state SAT championship. i'm a huge nerd). it was really amazing how much stuff i threw out. 

if i were smart enough to keep my camera battery charged i would have pictures of my boxes of junk - all artsy like. but i'm not. but my goal for the next 10 days is to take at least one picture each day. yeah, i like that. one pic a day for the next 10 days. done. i said it. look forward to that.

as promised: backpacking pictures

these are courtesy of sara, staff photographer. 

Here's our backpacking crew: John, Robert, Sara, Justin and yours truly. see how fresh and clean we are? see our smiling faces and our feet full of energy and youthful vigor?

A couple miles into the hike. Gorgous, huh? And the mountains aren't bad either (yeah, get it? like i'm saying justin's gorgeous? funny? no? ok)

And now a waterfall shot of all the boys. this is day two, and we were all doing a LOT better than on day one.

And Sara and I in our classic Sara and Emily pose. we try to take these everywhere we go!

and now this guy is governor?

i'll make this short, but i felt like i needed to blog about this. i'm watching Eraser, the Arnold Swarzenager (i'm giving up on spelling that) movie from 1996. i mean, he's such a hero. in the past 10 minutes alone he's jumped out of a plane, caught a parachute mid-air, put it on, avoided getting hit by the same plane by shooting out the windshield and just now he saved himself and vivica by letting loose some alligators on the bad guys. oh, and arnold isn't the only awesome thing about the movie. they've got photon laser guns that shoot through houses and allow the shooter to watch the milk you're drinking go down your esophagus. this is just ridiculous. and the best way to spend this stormy sunday.  

also - did anyone see justin timberlake on snl last night? i have such a huge crush on him. don't worry, justin's fine with it. 

into the wild (or, "how the youth staff tried to get justin to love the outdoors")

this past thursday i had a chance to do something that i haven't done in quite a while: load up a pack with 30 pounds of stuff and march into the wilderness with my fellow youth staffers. i'll be honest, 3 weeks ago when someone threw out the idea of a youth staff backpacking trip, i put the odds of it actually happening at about 5 to 1 (does that mean i didn't think it would happen? i don't really understand odds). but it did!

our original plan was 3 days on the cumberland trail and around prentice cooper state forest. day one changed the plan a little bit. why? well, after getting started later than we wanted, finding out what we thought was 5 miles would really be 7, and then adding on 3 miles by taking some unintended detours, we were starting to hurt pretty bad. oh, and did i mention that for the last 4 miles we were racing against SUNSET?! i realized my shoes were a little small, that my knee did not appreciate a lot of down and uphill, and that my lower back does, in fact, realize that i am approaching the ripe old age of 27. sweet mercy, i haven't been in that much pain for a while. my greatest comfort was (and is) that most of my team felt the same way.  we ended up making it to the campsite just in time. we had enough light to gather some wood, filter water and set up tents but that was IT. but who cares when you have a roaring fire? or cup o'noodles? or you're in the prettiest campsite ever right next to a rushing river? someone else on the team said "i have never wanted to quit something so bad in my entire life, but i knew that i couldn't do it. there was no option besides getting to the campsite". in my opinion, that is the best and worst thing about backpacking. you sometimes have to push yourself because there is simply no other option. 

after the standard night of very little sleep - followed in the morning by a thunderstorm moving through, we re-evaluated our plan. aching bodies and a 70% chance of more storms the next night made us decide to cut the trip to one night. our second day was spent hiking 6 miles out through some of the most beautiful forest ever. stunning overlooks, waterfalls, and what seemed like half the trail turned into creeks (it was wet, people) made me almost wish we could do it again the next day then my feet reminded me that they hate me. i will now give you my top 5 highlights:

5. our campsite by the river

4. the sound of thunderstorms rolling in in the morning

3. actually making it to our campsite

2. front row seat to sara's great fall (after which she got up and acted like nothing happened, leaving behind two nalgenes IN a creek. i was already laughing so hard i couldn't tell her to come back. i mean, she acted like it JUST DIDN'T HAPPEN. that made it so much funnier)

1. my husband saying he would do it again (now, you need to know, i love backpacking. justin - not so much. he's tough, he's in shape, but he loves his indoor sports and not going 2 days without a shower. this was a very big deal.)

and hopefully there will be pictures to come. and hopefully, in those pictures, i will look awesome.