Small Group & Atlanta

Well, I have not updated the happenings of our life recently.  In part because I have not really decided the "focus" of our blog and partly because I have been having quite a bit of neck pain after last week's trip to Six Flags.  For now, I have decided that I will just write about whatever we do (mainly on the weekends) if for nothing else to at least have a documented account for our time in Columbus as a young married couple.  I hope to continue this into our travels, our family, and so on as the years go on but no promises.  If you know me at all, you know that I prefer to work with numbers over words so it is a challenge to myself to write for fun.

I'd like to start off by mentioning that Jon and I attended our first LifePointe Group meeting at CrossPointe Church last week.  The group is discussing Paul David Tripp's book What Did You Expect and it is geared towards recently married couples and expectations in marriage.  We had some great conversations and met some awesome folks which was so refreshing!  First friends in Columbus :-) One couple actually had us over for dinner last weekend too!  The group only meets every other Tuesday for now but with Jon's workload it may be for the best.  Speaking of Jon's work, he recently got a 100 on his last quiz and was the only one in his group to do so! I married a champion.

In addition to dining at the Garcia's last weekend we took off for Atlanta on Saturday.  Six Flags was offering free tickets to active duty military so we took advantage of it for an excuse to go to Atlanta.  I do not even remember the last time I had been on a roller coaster prior to last weekend.  It had to have been at least 5-6 years ago and most likely at Carowinds in Charlotte, NC.  Jon on the other hand had just been jumping out of airplanes last month so I'm sure he was prepared!  We had a blast for the most part but given my previous neck and back injuries from the accidents last year it was probably not the smartest thing for me to do.  One ride snapped my neck pretty good (I heard pop, pop, pop!) and we were pretty much finished after that.  Oh, except for the last ride that drops you from 200 feet, I just had to ride it.  Well, long story short, I went to the doctor yesterday and was given a few meds and a referral to the chiropractor due to this fun little trip.

After our roller coaster riding, we knew there were two things we had to do before leaving Atlanta.  First, go to Trader Joe's and second eat dinner at Papi's.  We love TJ's so much we prepared ahead of time and brought a cooler with us to bring home groceries (especially loaded up on the tastes-naughty-but-is-NOT Orange Chicken)! 

Now for our delightful and delicious dinner... Papi's is a Cuban restuarant we discovered thanks to Jon's brother Tim.  We will forever love you for bringing Papi's into our lives.  It's very afforadable and very tasty food that you will wish you could eat everyday.  I usually try different meals but Jon always gets:

Authentic Cuban Sandwich - Smoked pork marinated with Papi's secret recipe, Ham, Swiss cheese, dill pickles, mustard, and mayonnaise on Cuban bread

I remember last time wishing Jon's sandwich was bigger because I wanted more of it and since I knew he was starving I decided to get my own this time instead of eating bites of his, except of course I like veggies on mine:

Papi's Sandwich - The Authentic Cuban Sandwich with Swiss cheese, lettuce, onions, and tomatoes

We also got a starter sampler of:

(1) chicken empanada, (1) papa rellena, and (3) croquettas de jamon

Oh... and to drink:

I got un jugo de guanabana and Jon got a rumchata (rum with horchata!

What a lovely time we had - it was definitely worth the pain I've felt this week; both due to my neck and withdrawls from Papi's....

Charming Columbus

I am continuously amazed at how much personality Columbus has.  This weekend, the weather was incredible!  Perfect weather for cruising around town with the top down on the Mini.  After riding around town, Jon took me for a walk in the Historic District downtown and it was the most charming neighborhood I've ever seen with a brick road that made me feel like I was in Oz and plaques displaying the local history.  After this beautiful walk (and 10 mosquito bites later) we went over to the commercial side of the downtown and peaked into a bike store where we decided to become bikers!  Well, we are going to try it out with a bike rental but hopefully my knee won't complain and Jon and I can finally participate in events together, such as the GA BikeFest.  Jon loves doing these kind of physical events and has signed up to do the Mogadishu Mile 5k Run in October but I am unable to participate in such events due to several knee injuries and multiple knee surgeries. 

Now, to point out a couple local delightful eateries in town.  Last week, our schedules worked out to where we were able to meet for lunch during the week.  It was a rare event and such a treat!  We ate at Minnie's Uptown and boy did we eat...  Southern style curry chicken, fried chicken, mashed pototoes, broccoli, green beans, and the best cornbread (in pancake shape).  Oh and of course, sweet tea, and I do mean sweet!  There should be a disclaimer on the door: "Don't plan on doing much after you eat here, and plan for another hour at the gym later in the week to burn it off." Maybe I will suggest it next time ;-) For date night, we made sure to go back to Cafe Le Rue as mentioned in my Columbus Adventures post.  Luckily we did not have plans afterwards because we were there for over two hours!  But it was a very enjoyable experience.  New Orleans food done right, and by and Indian man!  The owner is from India but has spent a lot of time in Louisiana and studied culinary both in the US and Europe - he was amiable and talked to us about his experiences and his family as Jon and I raved about our dishes:
Jon's ~ Sampler of Seafood Gumbo with Crawfish and Shrimp, Shredded Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya, & Shrimp and Crawfish Etouffe served over rice.  (We also got a free Sauteed Shrimp and Sausage on Creamy Grits because our order came out wrong - no complaints here!) 

Mine ~ Popcorm Shrimp Po-boy with Cajun Fries
The verdict?  We loved my po-boy and LOVED the cajun fries and out of Jon's sampler we liked everything but I especially enjoyed the shrimp/sausage grits and Jon's favorite was the jambalaya.  We were, of course, completely stuffed but everyone always has room for dessert!  Last weekend the owner had given us a coupon for a free order of beignets (see below) so why not, right?  WOW!  I would definitely recommend getting these every time (and taking it to go, served with vanilla ice cream!!). 

Finally, as a quick side note, I would like to brag about my husband.  Jon is in his 2nd/3rd ish week in the Captain's Career Course and during their PT (physical training) test he scored the highest PT score in his seminar group!!  BUT, he is not only in incredible physical shape, but he is also an intelligent man - he passed the Manuevor entrance exam on the first try!  I don't know how to explain this (probably because I don't really understand it myself) but Jon's branch the past 3 years has been MP and instead of going to an MP Captain's Career Course he is in the Infantry's Captain Career Course because he is now doing Special Ops so a lot of this information is new to him but repetitive for most of the guys in the course.  I made him (Whole Wheat) Beer Bread for a job well done!

Columbus Adventures

Last weekend Jon and I had a nice little restful weekend here in Columbus.  Friday after work, we went out spontaneously for happy hour!  Haha - thank you Chilis for happy hour apps and drinks.  After having delicious greasy appetizers we thought it would be a good idea to go for a walk.  We ventured over to The Landings not to far from where we live and walked around the little stores.  It is incredible all the stores located in this small area, including a natural foods store and an "adventures in living" store that had an insane amount of Georgia and Auburn gear... boy do I miss being surrounded by everything Carolina and the beautiful color that is Carolina Blue :) anyway, this store was certainly interesting with all the hiking/camping equipment, cute dresses, and Toms shoes!  If you are not familiar with the Toms brand, I strongly urge you to check out their website.  For each pair of shoes that you buy, Toms will give a pair to a child in need. AND they recently started doing the same thing with sunglasses, which I think is even more impressive, with every one pair of glasses that you buy, Toms will help give sight to a person in need.  They do this by way of medical treatment, prescription glasses, or eye surgery!  How incredible is that?  Well, after leaving Kinnucan's (the adventure store) we started walking back towards the car when a man came out from a restuarant and gave us a menu for Cafe Le Rue.  After looking at the Cajun New Orleans menu we were sold!  Too bad we weren't dressed for "date night" so we decided to return another night.

Saturday morning, Jon and I had a delightful Chick-Fil-A breakfast date and everyone in the Chick-Fil-A was completely covered in either Geogia or Auburn paraphernalia (again, insert comment about missing Carolina).  I wonder if Columbus is like this year-round or just for football season?  Either way, breakfast was so so good, per usual.  Surprisingly, we had not been to this part of town where Chick-Fil-A was yet and decided to drive around a bit and thank goodness we did because we found a Fresh Market! OH, we looked like kids in a candy shop, but it was so nice to find an organic grocery store, I was sure I'd given that life up moving to an Army town.  I have to say that walking in to that store was like a breath of fresh air. It is the PERFECT alternative when you don’t have a Whole Foods/Trader Joes in the area! All the produce looked so fresh and colorful.  We were able to get organic fruits and vegetables that are nowhere to be found at Walmart and Jon made a beer sampler pack while I found some eggplant empanadas.  PLUS, you can sample anything in the store, so clearly Jon loved that :)  I know it seems like we are lame if a grocery store was the highlight of our day but we love food and we are old people at heart.  When we moved from Fort Campbell, I was expecting to be moving to a worse place than Clarksville but, luckily, I have been proven wrong.  (Not that there is anything wrong with Clarksville, but it just wasn't for me).  I also had a biased opinion of Columbus from the short amount of time I spent here visiting Jon before we got married... I was scarred from those visits... one day I will tell of those stories...

Labor Day Weekend

Congratulations to Jon on graduating from Airborne School on September 1st, 2011!  Airborne School is a 3-week course designed to qualify soldiers in the use of the parachute as a means of combat deployment and to develop leadership, self-confidence, and an aggressive spirit through mental and physical conditioning (thank you Wikipedia).  The course consists of "Ground Week", "Tower Week" and "Jump Week," with Jump Week being the scariest (for me at least!) where Jon had to sucessfully complete 5 jumps out of an airplane.  With that said, I am extremely happy that it's over  and I even had the privilege of pinning Jon's Airborne wings on him during the ceremony.  Unfortunately, the ceremony was at 9:00 am and Donna (Jon's mother) and Tim (Jon's brother) were not able to make it but they were able to come down to Columbus later that day.  We had a great visit with them on Thursday and Friday filled with Mexican food, homemade pizza, chocolate pound cake with peanut butter glaze, brownies & ice cream, and lots of qualtiy time.  We rented Inception and watched it at the movie theater here in our apartment complex - which was awesome having a mini movie theater all to ourselves!  The apartment folks even popped us popcorn in the theater for our movie (which we were all too stuffed to eat... until we smelled it and each had a bag!)  Tim left Friday night to go pick up Amie at the airport and Saturday morning we took Donna to the airport so she could be on her way to San Antonio.  From there, we continued our extended holiday weekend to North Carolina.   

If you know me at all, you know this makes me extremely happy.  I love visiting my family, I love North Carolina, and I love quality time!  (Side note:  On our way to NC we saw a very interesting sight on the road... an alligator in the back of someone's truck...) Once we arrived in Lincolnton, we were able to spend a couple of days with my family which of course also consisted of delicious food - Mom's ceviche and chuletas, Bojangles, Costa Rican pastries from Tico Pan, and Jon's delicious French Toast.  If you haven't noticed, our families have a lot in common, we love food!  I should add that our time in NC was shared with our "adopted" Korean-but-I-want-to-be-Hispanic friend, Ed Kim.  Ed went to school with us and was in ROTC with Jon, he is stationed at Ft. Stewart, GA and my main goal in life is to find him a Hispanic wife. 

Well, after such a blessed weekend with both of our families and a long weekend of eating, Jon and I are back to healthy food this week and we have Jon's first day of his new training to look forward to: the Captain's Career Course.  More on his first days and PT test later!