Dinner Parites

David and I may still be in Starkville, but we have some other friends our age who are "still in Starkville" too! It just worked out that we had two dinner dates planned back to back with two newlywed couples. We had so much fun the past two nights hanging out and laughing over a meal together!

Tuesday night, we went to our friends Kyle and Courtnay Veazey's home for hamburgers. Courtnay and I were sorority sisters together and since we both live here, we decided a dinner date was a must! Courtnay, David, and I are all in grad school at State while Kyle works for the Clarion-Ledger from Starkville covering MSU sports. I offered to bring dessert since Courtnay and Kyle were doing the burgers and "fixings." I asked David what he wanted with hamburgers for dessert, but he didn't have any suggestions. So, I was adventurous and tried my family's infamous Homeade Butterfinger Ice Cream recipe. I just think ice cream goes with grilling hamburgers. I'm happy to say, our first attempt at homemade ice cream turned out very well! I mixed all of the ingredients, and David did a great job working the machine and putting in ice and rock salt. After a wonderful dinner grilled by Kyle, we anxiously awaited to try the ice cream. The main question was, would it have rock salt in it? It didn't and was wonderful! Success! All of us admitted we couldn't remember the last time we had homemade ice cream! We visited for awhile and before we knew it, it was 9:30pm and time to leave! We had so much fun with the Veazeys! We definitely will be having them over sometime soon.

Wednesday night was spent with our good friends Alex and Chelsea McIntosh. Chelsea and I were also sorority sisters, but didn't know each other as well. We were both Biological Engineering majors so I like to think that is what took up most of our time! Haha! We all go to church together and were in a newlywed/nearlywed Bible study class together last fall. Chelsea and I were in class together, and one day I told her "Chelsea, we left last night and both of us said, we really want to hang out with Alex and Chelsea more!" Chelsea said, "That's so funny! We said the same thing after we left last night about y'all!" Unfortunately we weren't very good at planning a time, but when classes calmed down in December we had them over to eat dinner. We had so much fun that night laughing and discussing wedding plans that I'm not sure any of us wanted it to end! We FINALLY found time to do it again last night. Chelsea cooked a fabulous meal and we had LOTS of time to catch up. I would think that Chelsea would get sick of me asking questions about her wedding and wedding planning, but I've found we both love to talk wedding planning! I think my fiance and her husband will be glad when our wedding is behind us and we can talk about something new! But until then, we'll laugh about their mishaps until we have some of our own! We had a great dinner outside--thank you weather for cooperating! I had tried a new recipe given to me by a friend called "Hugs and Chips Cheesecake." It was basically a chocolate chip cheesecake. Really easy to make and SO good! Again, like last night, we looked at our clocks and it was close to 10pm. Realizing we had busy days today, we had to leave, but we had so much fun! Alex and Chelsea--we can't wait this long between dinner dates again! We will be having y'all over again. I joked with them last night that we'd be eating on paper plates at my apartment because we couldn't open the wedding presents yet!

God just reminded me the past two nights how we may not have the same friends in Starkville that we did four years ago, but He is continuing to bless us with friends here and now. Friends who are in the same walks of life as we are. Newlyweds who have walked where we are walking now and can encourage us, laugh with us, and tell us horror stories to make sure we avoid (all of which I usually find hilarious)! This verse came to mind this morning as I was reflecting in my quiet time and thanking God for the wonderful friends He has provided. " So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing. 1 Thessalonians 5:11" We are so thankful that God is putting people in our lives right now that build us up and encourage us! It would be so easy to say, we'll make great friends three months from now when we're married and out of Starkville. I'm so glad that He has given us the joy of friends right now at this place in life! I can only hope that we are doing our job at encouraging them and building them up! So thankful for evenings with great friends!

I promise to do better at taking pictures to go along with my posts! I just simply keep forgetting!