Thursday, December 20, 2007

Matt and Kristin are Engaged!!!


I think the title of this says it all! Matt proposed to Kristin last night and I am almost as excited for her as I was for my own wedding. They are a great couple and both wonderful wonderful people. I feel very lucky to have them in our life and can't wait to be her Matron of Honor!

Thursday, December 13, 2007

All Time Favorite Cookies

My mother is a good cook but she doesn't cook often. When she does, and I happen to be around, I always request a few specific recipes and this is one of them. When I was home for Thanksgiving she made me a big batch of this all-time favorite and I'm still thinking about them. She calls them Oatmeal Chocolate Cookies but I've heard them called all sorts of things: No-bake cookies, Preacher cookies, etc... So call them what you like, but make sure to set a few aside for yourself because they are a crowd pleaser!

Ingredients:
2 C. Sugar
1/2 stick butter
1/2 C. Milk
3 T. Cocoa

Cook the above items until they melt together and come to a boil.

Then add:
1/2 C. Peanut Butter
3 C. Oatmeal
1 t. Vanilla

Stir until well blended and remove from heat. Place spoon-sized drops on wax paper and let harden.

Enjoy!

11 days until Christmas?! Are you sure?!

I'm sure I'm not the only one who cannot believe Christmas is almost here! Evidence of this can be seen in my lack of posts lately as we have been extremely busy.
We had all of our best friends over last weekend for a Christmas cookout which was so much fun. Matt and I finally got the house all decorated (pictures below), and presents under the tree!
We are hosting my mom, Rick, and Lindsey at our house for a few days before Christmas so I've busy thumbing through recipes and making to-do lists to prepare for their arrival. We must really be grown up's now- we're having house guests at the Marden Bed & Breakfast!




We also finished painting our guest bedroom and it came out great! Here are the before and after pics. Please note the blue is not as bright as it looks in the picture- it's actually more of a light blue/grey color.

(before)

(after)



Friday, November 30, 2007

Turkey Day on the Coast

Matt and I were lucky enough to travel down to Orlando, FL to spend Thanksgiving with my wonderful family and friends. It was a great trip and so great to see the beach again! We are unfortunately very land locked here in Atlanta, so I've grown to really appreciate the water I used to take for granted. Here is a picture of my grandpa and I eating Thanksgiving dinner- can't beat that view!





Thanksgiving night we went to this little dive bar in New Smyrna beach with one of my oldest and dearest friends, Katie. We had so much fun. There was a band playing great music and my sister Lindsey was completely mesmerized by a vintage Pac Man game they had. This is her in the throes of victory.



Here is Katie and Lindsey:



It was the perfect trip. We got to relax, eat good food, shop, and spend time with the fam. Tonight we are getting take out Chinese for dinner and decorating the house for Christmas. Tomorrow, we are painting the guest room.
I'll post before and after pictures soon!
Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Road Trip!

Anyone who lives in the south knows what huge rivals the Georgia Bulldogs and the Florida Gators are, so when I (a devoted Gator alumni) married Matt (born and raised Bulldog fan), we knew football season would bring many annual disagreements. Since we both frowned at the idea of spending our hard earned money on the other's respective teams, we decided to become proud season ticket holders for the Clemson Tigers! Random as it may seem, our best friends as well as several of my family members are Clemson fans, so we have a great group to tailgate with each weekend, and we've really grown to love the Tiger fans.
This past weekend we made our last trip up to Clemson, SC for the 2007 football season. Unfortunately, after a long, and very cold game, the Tigers lost to Boston College. The best part of the game (in my opinion) was that they served delicious hot chocolate at the concession stands because it was only in the 40's.
Here are a few pictures from the day. Aside from the loss, it was a great way to end the season.


Matt "the Grillmaster" Marden, and our friends BW and Shannon cooking up some chili and burgers...yummm...



The whole crew!


Goodbye for now, Tiger Fans. See you in 2008!

And in the meantime......Go Gators! ;)

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Our Little White Tazmanian Devil

This is the face that sent me running out into the yard at 7:00 a.m.
this morning, barefoot, with wet hair, and IN MY ROBE!


Yes, this is our little pride and joy Cooper, who this morning was more interested in running across the street to see our neighbors than doing his business in the front yard. This is the little puffball that sent me running after him yelling "Cooper! Stop! Now!!" so that I could, ever so gracefully, retrieve him from the two nice male neighbors who had scooped him up. I'm sure those men found my distress (and lack of appropriate clothing) very amusing.
...Oh well...I guess that's one way to meet the neighbors...

Monday, November 12, 2007

Home Sweet Home

Attentive readers, meet our home, 430 Hillsdale Drive in the beautiful suburb in Fayetteville, Georgia.


Matt and I were extremely blessed when we got married as we already had a house waiting for us. It is actually the house that Matt grew up in and had been living in for about 2 years. His parents decided to move about an hour north which therefore left a great, and available, house for two very excited newlyweds!
For the past year we have slowly been working on it to make it "our own." As I quickly learned, being a homeowner is a very exciting and a very daunting task. Being the extreme type-A that I am, I have a hard time accepting that it's never going to be completely "done" the way we'd like it to be, but I'm trying to be more patient so I don't drive poor Matt bananas with all of my house To Do lists!
Below is the list of things we're looking to finish before year-end, so if you can't reach us on the weekends, this is why:)

- Replace kitchen countertops and backsplash
- Paint guest bedroom
- Paint front door red and outside shutters black
- Find and hang window treatments for guest bedroom, master bedroom, and dining room
- Paint misc. trim and to-be-installed crown molding
Wish us luck!!!

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Happy Halloween!

For our first Halloween as a married couple, Matt's brother Luke (aka my wonderful brother in law), invited us to spend the evening at his new house. Luke's sweet girlfriend Lacy made us delicious chili for dinner (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Boilermaker-Tailgate-Chili/Detail.aspx ), the boys carved pumpkins, and we all huddled together and watched a scary movie. It was a great time, but we didn't get a single trick or treater! Regardless, we've definitely done a good job of making sure all of that good candy didn't go to waste.
Matt decided to freehand a pirate design on his pumpkin, but then decided he didn't like it, so in the midst of trying to fix it, ended up with a big hole in the front of his pumpkin. I think this might have scared or confused the children, so it might be a good thing that we didn't see any.



(This is me rolling my eyes at Matt and his proud pumpkin)
And then, in the midst of the pumpkin carving, I decided to amuse myself for a bit...



Even though we didn't get to dress up (I Love to dress up!), we had a great Halloween and it was the perfect way to ring in the fall season.

Life as the Mardens...

Welcome to our blog! Matt and I thought it would be nice to have a central place to post what's going on in our life since our friends and family are spread out all over the country.

While I'm still very new to this whole "blogging" phenomenon, I'll try my best to write and post pictures as much as I can, so check back often!

© Living the Good Life. Powered by