Exploring Oxford

The Square, Oxford, Miss.

To make the most of our three-day weekend, Scott and I took a little road trip down to Oxford, Miss. It was partially educational, as Oxford was the home and inspirational hub of William Faulkner, and partially culinary, as it is home to four restaurants owned by James Beard award-winning chef John Currance. It was completely enjoyable, though, and incredibly hard to leave.

So, I thought I'd share the highlights of our weekend getaway with you, because that's what a good blogger does.

Dinner at Snackbar: When we arrived Friday night we made our first stop at Snackbar and stuffed our faces with lobster mac and cheese (me) and duck confit coque monsieur with an egg on top (Scott). Top that off with the amazing truffle parmesan fries and we were sufficiently stuffed by meal's end. 

Getting my geek on at Rowan Oak: One of the main points of the trip was to visit Faulkner's home, Rowan Oak. It's slightly off the beaten path, but we found it despite our GPS troubles. We got to explore the various rooms of the house — entering just as far as the plexiglass enclosure would allow — as well as the grounds. I thoroughly enjoyed being within the same walls that the author I've been studying once inhabited and explaining the finer points of Faulkner with Scott, whether he wanted to hear it or not.

Rowan Oak

The University of Mississippi Museum: We ventured onto other cultural pursuits after Rowan Oak, like the museum at Ole Miss. My favorite display was by Mississippi native Valerie Jaudon, entitled "White." I like the simplicity and repetition.

"Diction"

Lunch at Ajax's: After walking around the square in downtown Oxford, we stopped in for lunch at Ajax, which serves homestyle Southern cuisine. I had the best chicken and dumplings ever, while Scott opted for gravy-laden chicken fried steak. I could go for seconds right now.

Square Books: Square Books is a cornerstone of downtown Oxford. It even has two off-shoots (Other Square Books and Square Books Jr.). Inside we explored the two-story shop's stuffed shelves and signed-by-the-author specials. We picked up copies of Michael Oher's book I Beat the Odds (the football player whose story is depicted in "The Blindside") and Betty White's If You Ask Me (And of Course You Won't).

City Grocery: For dinner Saturday night, we ate at City Grocery, the restaurant which won John Currance his James Beard award. Everything was delicious, from the cornbread starter to the poshed up version of a fried pie I had for dessert. I concluded that, if we lived in Oxford, I'd be really fat. 

Overall, the only downside to Oxford was its over abundance of Ole Miss paraphernalia (which I realize is about as ridiculous as complaining about Razorback stuff in Fayetteville, but I just don't like Ole Miss). We really did have a great time, though, and Scott and I are already planning our return during football season — not to mention our menu.

Hanging out with Faulkner. No, I'm not playing footsie with him.

Intersession intermission

A little summer reading ...

Monday was my first day of grad school, and even though it's only Wednesday and I still haven't been in a proper classroom setting, I'm already feeling extremely overwhelmed and overbooked. If I can get through the next two and a half weeks, though, I'll have two of my three summer classes out of the way. Then it should be smooth sailing.

So, in the meantime, I'll be trading my nightly blogging time for frantic reading/researching/writing time until this academic storm settles. I'm sure you understand.

See you on the other side of this reading pile!

Master of the House

"Three years," Scott said, looking down at his course schedule. "That's a long time." Scott had just enrolled in Harding's Master of Business Administration program with his projected graduation date set at May 2011. Sitting there on the couch in our apartment, three years seemed like forever. Who knows what the next three years would bring. Electric cars? 3D movies? A sandwich which substituted bread for two fried chicken breasts? 

However, those three years seem to have flown by, and Saturday I found myself sitting in the bleachers of the Ganus watching Scott walk across the stage in his master's regalia, completing his three-year course of study — with a 4.0, no less! If you know me, then it's no surprise that I teared up several times.

I don't feel like "proud" — I word I've said multiple times in the past two days — does justice to how I feel toward Scott. He worked so hard, wanting to give up several times, even stooping so low as to ask my help on his homework, and yet he stuck with it and met his goal. Saturday he told me I was gushing, but how can I help myself when what he has accomplished was so gush-worthy?

Both of our graduates!

My sister Courtney also graduated Saturday, receiving her bachelor's in science. She's still got a few years of pharmacy school to go, and at the end of it all she'll be a doctor. She also had a 4.0. How you get all A's when you're taking cringeworthy classes like organic chemistry, I'll never know. But she did, and I'm so proud of her!

You can read more about graduation here as I blogged about it for the magazine — because you can never get enough graduation coverage, right?

And now for more pictures!

Scott's family

My family with the Osborne family, who are basically my second family.

Me, Courtney, Leslie and Lindsey: We've been friends our whole lives!

Hopefully in two years I'll have lots of pictures from my own master's graduation. That is if William Faulkner doesn't kill me first. 

House in progress: Easy wall decor

Vintage Arkansas football game program cards framed for our office

Filling the walls in our home has been the most difficult part of decorating. You can always put up pictures, which we've done, but I don't want the house to turn into the Scott and Jennifer shrine. How vain is it to have pictures of yourself all through your house?

One easy remedy we've discovered is framing cards or postcards. While in Fayetteville we found a set of cards with vintage football program covers on them. For a few bucks we got quite a few prints to hang in our office. We got matted frames from Target and — ta da! — all done. It was a very easy and inexpensive DIY project.

With Scott's graduation quickly approaching and several guests coming into town, we decided it was time to find something to hang in the bathroom and complete the room. We'd searched high and low for something to hang in the guest bathroom (I even requested your help here) but kept coming up empty handed. So, it was time to create our own art again. We bought this set of 100 postcards of classic Penguin book covers from Anthropologie and another Target frame.

Sifting through 100 titles was pretty fun. We edited them down to ones with funny titles, works we actually liked, and those which worked with our color scheme. In the end, the winner was Shakespeare's As You Like It because it matched and liked the illustration. Plus we thought it was a funny thing to have in the bathroom because you can be using the bathroom "as you like it" or some bathroom humor like that.  

What I'm loving Wednesday

Linked up at This Kind of Love

I'm loving that both sides of the family will be in town this weekend. Scott and my sister Courtney are both graduating Saturday and the weeks leading up to it have been a whirlwind of cleaning, preparing, list-making and shopping. And while the preparation has been less than fun, I'm excited to see everyone and celebrate Scott's and Courtney's accomplishment!

I'm loving how one other person and I ended up dressing up for book-themed Bunco last night. I was under the (apparently misguided) impression that we were to dress up as our favorite book character, so I went as Holly Golightly from Breakfast at Tiffany's. You know the scene in "Legally Blonde" where Elle walks into the party dressed as a Playboy Bunny and it turns out that it's not a costume party? I felt like that, only classier.

Note the tape on my handmade cigarette holder.

I'm loving that vacation is just over a month away! I can't wait for a week on the beach, relaxing and reading non-grad school-related books. 

I'm loving (?) that grad school starts next week. The question mark is there because it's kind of an on again, off again dilemma. I'm excited about continuing my education, but I'm terrified of going back to school. 

Bits & pieces: This article about what your choice of American Girl doll says about you; sunny days; the miracle of allergy shots; and this cover of Chris Brown's "Look at Me Now" (this girl kills Busta's rhymes). 

House in progress: Front yard flowerbeds

Scott and I had been in our house for a few months when we decided we'd do something very homeowner-y and spend our Saturday working in the flowerbeds. We pulled up seven or eight monkey grass plants, gave the bigger bushes a much needed haircut, planted new shrubs, and spread fresh mulch. It was hard work. My whole body hurt and produced this weird substance called "sweat," which means I've done this other thing called "work" — both of which are extremely rare.

Since then, each spring we've done some outdoor lawn project because we have a strange obsession with the garden section of Lowe's. When we went on Saturday, we went only to buy more mulch and a leaf blower. We left with about 250 rocks as well.

We'd toyed with the idea of a rock border around our flowerbeds, even having a local landscaping company give us an estimate, but it seemed quiet pricey for rocks and labor. However, we found some nice looking paver stones (which are really supposed to be used for a walkway) and thought they would make a lovely border. Plus they were much cheaper than what we'd discussed before.

After about three hours and one more return trip to Lowe's for more stones, our flowerbeds had a nice facelift. It's a subtle change, but I really think it freshens the front up a bit.

(And, yes, that is a concrete razorback. We're those people.)

Happy Mothers Day!

I'm blessed with two wonderful women I get to call "Mom." 

One rocked me to sleep while I cried from colic, brought blueberry muffins to school for my birthday, drove me to school when I hated the bus so much, hemmed hundreds of pants, skirts and dresses, taught me to drive, helped explain the subsequent hole in the garage wall to Daddy, taught me the thrill of a good sale with additional coupon, tried to teach me to cook, was patient with me through my sassy teenage years, taught me how to be sassy in the first place, encouraged me, squealed every time I came home, and whose kiss cured boo-boos and hurt feelings alike. And while I have been guilty of the eye roll and exasperated "Mom!" sigh in the past, the older I get, the more I value her and what she's done for me, the more I regret the eye-rolling, and the more I cherish my time with her and hate the miles between us. I am truly blessed to have my Momma.

The other did all of those things too, only for the man I married and not for myself. While most depict a mother-in-law as a woman critiquing your casseroles and house management, mine is far from that. Never once have I felt like I couldn't measure up to her standards. In fact, it's just the opposite. Sometimes I wonder if I'm as good as she says I am. Whatever the case may be, I am thankful just the same.

I hope that you all have a mom (or two) that you can celebrate this Mothers Day. I know I do!