Adventures of Tubing with a Girly Girl

 

Ever since we moved to Asheville, Justin has been wanting to go tubing down some river. Last year I told him I would do it with him and somehow time escaped us and it was fall and then winter, and still no tubing. He has had 8 days off work so yesterday we finally took advantage of the summer weather and went tubing. To be honest, I didn't really want to go tubing. I think tubing is fun in a lazy river with no wild creatures living in the water. But, I decided to suck it up and enjoy some quality time with the hubs.

The adventure started off nice, we were both in these big tubes, there were some small rapids so things were moving along quickly and it was pretty empty with not a lot of tubers. Then, I started seeing some fishes. At first I was a little freaked out and just kept my hands and feet out of the water. After a while I let my guard down a little and realized that the fishes were not going to hurt me. I was actually enjoying myself. It was a beautiful sunny day and it was very relaxing to be floating down the river. It also didn't hurt that my husband would give me a push whenever I wasn't moving so I didn't have to do any work ;) At times (actually a lot of times) I would get stuck on rocks. *Jen- recall any memories from last year? ;) Whenever I go tubing, I am always the one that manages to get stuck on the rocks.

I had told Justin that if I saw a snake, that would be the end of it and I would be done. As we were going down one of the rapids, the rapid pushed me off toward the shore with these branches hanging low into the water. Begin freak out #1. I was afraid that there could be some snakes over there that I quickly started to paddle my way away from the shore. Well- I managed to tip my tube and lose both of my flip flops. I yelled for Justin, who was behind me, for help. My sweet husband was able to recover my tube and both of my flippies! As we were getting toward the end of our journey we had major freak out #2. Justin had told me that we would get out of the river when we saw the bridge. Well- I saw the bridge and we had one little set of rapids to get through. As I was going down the rapids I spotted a SNAKE on a rock. AND- I WAS HEADING RIGHT TOWARD THAT ROCK! I quickly tried to go in a different direction but the rapid was already taking me, and I completely lost it. I yelled, "SNAKE" and started flailing, leaping and doing who knows what. I was in complete freak out mode. I fell out of my tube, lost both of my flippies again and the worst part- I no longer saw the snake on the rock. With more screaming and flailing I managed to climb on top of a rock. Justin went after my tube and recovered it once again, along with my flip flops. He came back to get me and I told him I was done. I did not set one foot in that river again. I crossed over to the shore by stepping on rocks. Since it was near the end of our journey, Justin continued the rest of the way down the river, while I walked safely on land.

 SNAKE!

That was probably one of the most ridiculous moments of my life and I probably could of handled it a lot better. But as Justin always says, I am a very delicate, girly girl. I think yesterday he got another dose as to how girly I am. Despite that tiny catastrophe, we did have a very enjoyable day of tubing and I probably, maybe would go again :)

25!

I celebrated my 25th birthday on Saturday! My celebration began with the alarm going off at 5:00 am. What crazy person would wake up at that ridiculous hour- me! But I had good reason! For my 25th birthday, my husband wanted to give me an experience that I'm sure I will never forget- he took me on a hot air balloon ride!! I was honestly a little scared to go up- but I knew that it would be worth it, and it was! It was so peaceful and calm. You did not even feel the wind blowing, it was almost like we were floating above the mountains. Since our flight was around 7:30 in the morning, we had a breathtaking view of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the sun rising. In the mornings here, there is a lot of fog, so it was really beautiful to see the mountains with the patches of fog in between them. Our pilot actually took us one whole mile up! It was definitely a birthday to remember and I am thankful that I will have that memory with my sweet husband. Enough with the talking and onto some pictures:

 Sunrise in the field that we took off from.

 Inflating the balloons. 

 There is ours!

 Happy Birthday to me!

 Going up!

 Great view with all the balloons. 

 Spectacular. 

 The ground crew.

 We made it!!

Since we were finished with our hot air ballooning adventure at 9:00, we still had the whole day to celebrate. We got breakfast at a little coffee shop and headed to the Farmer's Market. After the Farmer's Market, I thought that we were going to head home, but Justin surprised me once again. For my birthday I was wanting some patio furniture for our little patio off of our apartment- so we went patio furniture shopping. We went to about 6 different places and I found some things that I liked. I have expensive taste and all the items that I loved were way out of our price range, so we went home to think about it ;) 

After resting at home for a bit, we went to have a picnic for lunch (which turned out to be the worst picnic ever- ooopps- completely my fault!) Justin had suggested all these amazing picnic locations, but I told him that I didn't want to hike and I didn't want to drive over an hour away just to eat a picnic. It has been super hot here, and the temperatures on Saturday were making me feel very sluggish and almost sick. I had the brilliant idea to drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway and eat at one of the overlooks. Yes, genius idea. I had forgot that all of the overlooks were basically just a parking lot with no cute picnic areas. After driving for a while, and getting super hungry, I decided to just stop off at an overlook at eat. Well it was probably the worst location for a picnic- we were eating on a sidewalk with a not so great view, all the while cars were pulling up behind us. I could just imagine the people getting out of the cars were thinking, "Why on earth are these people eating here?" So it was not the best picnic in the world, but it was all my fault and I take the blame. It is actually kind of funny looking back on it, and Justin has told me we can have a make-up picnic later this week at a better location. 

The hot sun made me want ice cream so we stopped by Rita's and got some Italian Ice and frozen custard and sat around, cooled off and enjoyed each other's company.

The last part of my birthday was dinner at the Grove Park Inn! We got all dressed up and headed out to eat.

 Grove Park Inn

 Thank you Grove Park Inn :)

 LOVE him :)

Last year we had dinner at the Grove Park Inn on the Sunset Terrace and it was such a great memory for me. This year did not quite reach the bar that was set last year. They first lost our dinner reservations and then the service was pretty terrible. But, I enjoyed spending time with my amazing husband and enjoyed one of my favorite views in this area. As we were walking back to the car, they were actually shooting off fireworks- FOR MY BIRTHDAY! Just kidding- it was to celebrate their 99 years. But I like to think it was for me ;) 

On Sunday we went out and picked up my patio furniture that I decided on and we even ate dinner on our patio for the first time that night!

My 25th birthday was a very memorable day(s). Even though there were some unexpected moments (like a bad picnic or terrible service) I love that my husband and family go out of their way to make me feel special and it truly was a wonderful day(s). Thank you for all the love that was shown to me on my birthday! 

Graduation Cake

The Sweet-Toothed Wife hasn't really delivered any sweets the last few (more like 10) months. With summer officially (well after 4 teacher workdays) here, I hope to be baking up a storm :) I've been scoping out what I want to make, thanks to Pinterest, and am getting ready to finally say hello to my kitchen once again.

Two weeks ago, I did spend a couple, more like 6, hours in the kitchen baking my sister's cake for her graduation party. The color scheme was pink and green, so the party planner asked me to make a pink ombre cake. Here was the end result:

I think it turned out quite impressive. Maybe one of these days I will be in the wedding cake business ;) not!

Wednesday Flowers

Hello? Anyone still reading this thing? I don't blame you since I have not posted in over two months :( My bad! I've been out for so long that Blogger got a new look and I can't figure out how to write this post :( Well I am back and I have some exciting news...... I get to have fresh flowers EVERY.WEEK!

My husband signed me up for this local flower-share thing as I like to call it. You basically pay $115ish and you get a bouquet of fresh flowers from May-September/October every week!!! I am super excited :) Today was our first pick up and here is a look at the beautiful bouquet!

In other news, I officially have LESS than ONE MONTH left of my first year of teaching! My last day of school (with the kiddos) is June 8th! I can't believe that the end is so close and that this year is almost over! I have been busy for the past 3+ weeks assessing my students like crazy and I just finished on Monday, so now I feel like I can breath and have some end of the year fun with my kiddos :)

A Very [Late] Happy Valentine's Day!

Yes, Valentine's Day was almost a month ago, but my sweet husband out did himself again and had such a wonderful Valentine surprise that I have to share ;)

As many of you know, my husband Justin is very romantic and comes up with the best surprises/ gifts for me. Last year for Valentine's Day, Justin had "The Seven Days of Valentine" and gave me a little something for seven days leading up to Valentine's Day. I wasn't sure he was going to top that, but oh- he did!

On Monday, that day before Valentine's Day [and accidentally came a day early- way to go florist] Justin surprised me with a beautiful bouquet of pink roses to my school. This is how it went- I was in the middle of teaching and over the intercom came,
"Mrs. P- do you have an assistant today?"
Me: "No I'm by myself"
"Oh- we need to see you in the office."
Me: Fear immediately starting because I'm thinking I'm in trouble. "Well.. I don't have anyone here. I'm all alone so I can't come down."
"Ok well please stop by at some point today."

A couple minutes later, my tutor walks in the door so I ask her to cover the class so I can walk down to the office. I thought I should just get it over with, rather than agonizing about it all day. I walked into the office and this is what I found...


On Valentine's Day, as I was rushing out the door, lying with my keys was an envelope. Justin told me to open it during the day when I felt like I was getting overwhelmed and stressed out. Well, I opened that envelope at 9:24 am and this is what I saw...



How creative- Happy V"owl"entine's Day- Love it!

When I came home, Justin had a complete tea spread. The table was beautifully set with a white tablecloth, my flowers, dessert plates, platters of tea sandwiches, scones and fruit and cheese board and desserts. It was wonderful. We sat down and enjoyed all the delicious items that he made/bought!

The spread

Sandwiches, scones, fruit & cheese

Desserts...yum!
I definitely think he made the chocolate covered strawberries himself because some of the greens were stuck in the chocolate ;)

After tea, Justin had another little spread for me.

Going along with his English Theme, he wrote me a love note, that was folding up and sealed the old-fashioned way with wax. It note was in the language of Mr. Darcy writing to Elizabeth Bennett (Pride and Prejudice). He then had a little present for me, which was Season 2 of Downton Abbey. Justin and discovered Season 1 for me on Instant Stream Netflix one day while I was sick and I became quickly obsessed. I LOVE Old-English time period movies. We sat back and relaxed with a glass of wine and watched 3 or 4 episodes :)

It was a wonderful and very special night [and very relaxing- just what a hard-working teacher needs!]

Oh... and some of you may wonder what I did for Justin. It is nothing compared to what he did, but it was still special. When I woke up at 6:00, Justin had this waiting for him on my pillow.

At every hour on the 14th minute, he was to open an envelope and inside was a little note/memory that correlated to a special time that we shared during that hour. For example: 11:14 was the hour that we were married on August 8, 2009.
*Yes- I found the general idea on pinterest, but I made it more personal by having the note correspond to a memory from that hour :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine Sweets

This blog after all is called the Sweet-Toothed Wife because I like to bake, but it seems like I have not baked in more than several months. I guess it is time that I lived up to my name and tell you about some sweets that I made this weekend.

For some time I have been wanting to bake Red Velvet cupcakes. I have actually never made them, and since Valentine's Day is this week I figured it would be the perfect time to make them. My sister, Jessica, was wanting to make them as well, so we had a little baking party on a snowy Saturday. We first made Red Velvet cupcakes, regular and mini size. The recipe was from Bakerella.



A couple months ago, I discovered Pinterest. Pinterest has been GREAT in helping me find lesson ideas for teaching. I also enjoy it for looking up recipes. The other night I found this easy recipe for a Valentine treat. All you have to do is get some Snap pretzels, Hug Hershey Kisses and M&Ms. Heat the oven to 200 degrees. Place hugs on top of pretzels on a cookie sheet. Place them in the oven for 4-5 minutes until they are slightly melted. Take out of the oven and place an M&M down on top of the kiss. Cool in the freezer.

They turned out pretty cute and are a great snack to munch on!



The plates that the cupcakes are on were a Christmas present from my mom. I L.O.V.E them! They are so dainty, delicate and beautiful :)