Yummy goodness without the guilt!

Go to your pantry and get these three ingredients NOW!

Pumpkin butterscotch muffins
1 box yellow cake mix
1 can of pumpkin
~3/4 bag of butterscotch morsels

Preheat oven to 350. Mix cake mix, pumpkin and morsels in a bowl. Fill FOIL muffin papers with mixture and bake 15-20 mins. (Depends on your gooey preference...less baking time makes 'em pretty moist and gooey)
By the way, you gotta use the foil muffin papers because the mixture is so thick.

Thanks to my Weight Watchers class buddy Vanessa for sharin' this here recipe. It's only 1 Weight Watcher points value per muffin. And I already had me two of these puppies tonight. Oh yeah! 

Don't be skeptical - they don't taste like pumpkin pie.
Oh, and I hear you can do this recipe with a chocolate cake mix, too. . . I can't remember if you stick with the butterscotch or if you switch to chocolate chips. Anyhooo, if ya try it, leave me a comment and tell me how it is!

Wedding bells for Brittany

Today was a busy day. First, get the running thing out of the way. 2 1/2 miles. Done. Had to put bandaids on my heels and wear a different pair of sneaks, but I can deal. The blisters are healing, ever so sloooowwwwly. Wash car. Check. Housework (boring, but let's face it, it doesn't do itself). Check. Then it was time to get all dolled up for a wedding. My hair stylist was gettin' herself hitched today and lil ole me was invited. Aww


Meet the bride and groom: Brittany and Tim

Brittany has an identical twin and she was the maid of honor. Aww presh! (sorry, no pic)

Bridgett went with me cuz Anthony hates weddings and had plans with a friend. I knew better than to try to drag him to an out of town wedding during college football season on a Saturday afternoon anyway. LOL

Don't let life pass ya by

So the old saying goes "take time to stop and smell the roses," right? Well, at this time of year I think we should change it to "take time to stop and enjoy the fall color" or somethin' like that.

Today on the way back to work from the gym I had to take "the scenic route" so I could drive by this here tree. It's just startin' to show off its gorgeous fall colors. I took this pic with my cell phone from the car...and before you start fussing, I stopped and made sure traffic was clear.

I know we're not supposed to covet, but I sure do wish this little guy lived in MY YARD! :-)

And seriously folks, does anyone know how long these stinkin' blisters are gonna hurt me on my heels?! I tried to go running today and the pain was still there. UGH! Had to do the elliptical instead (borrrring!)...

Walk for your HEELth

Whew! I'm proud to be able to sit here and type I SURVIVED this day. It was one of those where I was constantly interrupted and had tons of little, time-consuming tasks.

On Wednesdays I usually do a yoga class at the gym at lunch, but today I couldn't go because I had to go across town to the Barrel to pick up lunch for one of our attorneys here from Chicago to prep a company employee for trial and another for her deposition. I'm not complaining about having to do that pseudo-secretarial task because A) I'm thankful for my job, and B) I'm not too good to do anything. Doesn't the Bible speak of having a servant heart?

When I got lunch delivered, my friend Kelly invited me to walk with her in a neighborhood across from the gym. I jumped at the chance because let's face it, we've had some gorgeous weather lately and the trees are just showing off these days. So off we went. Well we're both dummies because neither of us had socks. But I walk with no socks all the time around campus on breaks, so I thought, eh, whatev.

Toward the end of our 30 minute hilly walk among the nice, majestic homes and beautiful mature trees I told Kelly that my shoes were rubbing my heels pretty bad. She offered to swap sneaks (what a sweetheart), but I said nah, I'll be all right. But with every step, the burn intensified. I stopped and pulled on the back of my shoe and there it was - Blister Town and I was the mayor! Oww! I tried pushing the heels of my tennies down but ended up doing the rest of the walk barefoot. I bet I never forget socks again, huh?!

Random observation

Who cares how many licks it takes to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie pop? Today I was more interested in the cute artwork on the wrapper. So I googled... if they have Googlers Anonymous, can someone please sign me up? Cuz I google daily. And to think, before 1998 we didn't know of Google or its marvelous powers. But I digress...as usual....

Ok, so back to the artwork. Apparently there are 33 kids who appear on the wrappers. Who knew?! Here's all of 'em (courtesy of some dude's website) -

So which one's your fave? The next time you have a Tootsie pop, have a :-) on me! 

Fantabulous Fall Fun

Disclaimer: This post contains lotsa pics! You may experience short bursts of eye fatigue, and your smilin' muscles may hurt.

Saturday was the annual fall cookout at my inlaws. Of course, y'all know it's tryin' to be summer (around 90 degrees the last few days) so we didn't have the campfire. We still ate puh-lenty of good food and had a good time. And the hayride was a go. Always glad for that!

 

                    Boys will be boys....

Pickin' pears

Wouldn't ya love to know what this meeting was about?

                                                    Terry got out some pics of the ancestors...   

There was bbq, hot dogs and even some fried quail. I tried it... and as they say, "it tastes like chicken to me." Christy and I weren't too good at ladder ball, redneck golf, whatever ya wanna call it. Anthony became quite the pro at cornhole apparently. He and Stacy beat every team they played. The kids enjoyed fighting over Bryson's new puppy Sammy. The grown ups mostly sat around and talked. It was a really fun shindig, no matter what you did or didn't do...

Let me count the ways....

Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote it ...

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

Tonight I'm counting the ways (or reasons) I love my sweet hubby. Sometimes I stop and think, I realize...I'm a very blessed gal to be married to Anthony. Why?
  1. He loves me and he shows it every day
  2. He's a Christian, no matter where he is or who he's around
  3. He's cute
  4. He's sweet and genuinely kind
  5. He's talented


















  6. He's funny (and FUN)













  7. Sometimes if I haven't texted him, he'll ask me how my day is and check in with me
  8. He makes our grocery list, takes out the trash without being asked and makes sure
      Tinsley has all her feline needs met. He picks up after himself & is generally a neat freak
      (well almost).
  9. He's there for ya, when ya need him, no matter what
10. He's such a good guy that he makes me better in a lot of ways

There's more, but I won't list 'em all. I know you ladies out there would all be jealous, try to steal him from me and then I'd hafta fight ya. And that just wouldn't be pretty.

Maybe next week I'll post "our story" on this here blog. Just cuz ya might wanna know how God brought us together.  <3

Another person adopting...

Today I read a blog (it was a friend of a friend of mine who's adopting, too)...it was just heart wrenching. This couple has felt led of God to adopt a little girl from Ethiopia. Last week they went to Ethiopia for part of "the process" and you just have to read it for yourself to fully appreciate what they went through, just last week... I'd have probably ended up in the mental hospital after this ordeal.
http://www.totallycrazy4him.blogspot.com/

Of course with international adoption becoming a reality in my fam (my oldest bro & his wife are adopting 2 kids from Haiti) this is all just kinda wild, spinnin' around in my head. I'm absolutely amazed at the kindness, generosity and faith these folks obviously possess to welcome a stranger into their homes and love and accept them as their own. What a blessing to the children who would otherwise have no telling what kind of upbringing.

The closest I've been to an adoption was when Lisa & Alan went through the process. So many prayers... and when Riley came, it was pure joy & happiness. And every moment we've spent with Riley is such a blessing to us.

It's wonderful and miraculous that so many are able to conceive and have beautiful, healthy children - no doubt about that! But isn't there just a little somethin' extra special about adoptions? After all, aren't we all kinda "adopted" into the family of God when we're saved and ask Him to be our Saviour?  :-)

Pic-uh-nic recap

Maybe it annoys you that I call it a pic-uh-nic, but it's my blog and I'll be goofy if I wanna. I see a pic-uh-nic basket Boo Boo! Yes, Yogi Bear was a part of my childhood. And I turned out okay!

Anyway, I told ya Saturday was gonna be a busy day. After we finished at the carnival fundraiser Anthony and I headed to my company picnic. It was on campus, so that was pretty cool since we have a hundred acres of nice land and ponds and what not. I knew from all the emails they kept sendin' us that it promised to be a pretty big "to do." And it was.

There was a ton of stuff to do...I'll do my best to 'member most of it. Food, of course, was the first thing we scoped out. Loved the brisket. Then there was the Bingo tent. I don't know how many folks were piled into that tent, but we passed on Bingo...maybe in another decade or so we'll be checkin' that out. he he There was live entertainment. The acts were all "up and comers" and they had the same band for each act, right? Well, I'll be darn if Teddy Gentry from Alabama wasn't up there on stage an arm's distance from me playing that bass...and uh sangin'....

After that we walked around a bit to see all the sights. Found some of my coworker friends. My friend Brandi has the cutest 2 year old! Is she a Hollywood diva or what?

I forgot to mention we enjoyed a mini funnel cake-can't forget that! Mmm . . . Oh, I threw softballs at barrel targets, but I only hit one out of three. Guess I'll keep my day job. :-P Meanwhile Anthony found the corn...

We tried our hand at pitching baseballs into a target. I did WAY better than Anthony. hehe Then we shot water balloons at barrels. We didn't hit any nor did we win nary a prize. We bypassed the golf chipping game. And we didn't stop at the corn hole game. The boards were nice though - they had a Cracker Barrel logo on 'em. There was a hula hoop contest at one point, but Lord knows I wasn't about to partake in that. Um, no. On the other side there was a casino tent, bull ride, rock wall to climb, and tons of kiddie things (including pony rides). We passed on all that and hung out a little while in the tent that was full of tvs showing the football games of the day (sigh). We did one more thing though - I just couldn't resist, so we rode it....

I was being silly to my friend Kelly's little boy down below. His reaction to me was this -

We're just kids stuck in adult bodies I reckon. Kids at heart!

It was a really fun picnic, even if I came home with no prizes. I guess my prize is the memories....good times, good times.

* Adoption fundraiser success *

Yesterday I was on picture duty for the fundraiser, but I'll spare ya the whole montage of pics. First, let me tell ya it was a BEE YOU tiful day. Picture perfect! (wink, wink)

There were lots of things to do. Throw a football through a tire, golf putt, Plinko, toss the toilet paper into the toilet, cornhole bag toss, throw a dart and pop a balloon, ride a train (pulled by a John Deere lawnmower no less), go on a hay ride, spin the wheel for a prize, jump in the jumper inflatable thingy, pick a duck, toss a Mason jar lid ring onto Coke bottles, ride a horse (a real horse), throw baseballs at the milk cans and knock 'em over, get your face painted....plenty of stuff to do! 

I think Riley played every game, but this was my favorite pic of him. He's pretty special, and not just because he's so darn cute, but see, he's adopted, too. God blessed Lisa & Alan with this little sweetie in 2008! And we're thankful to get to be a part of his life, too. We like to have him come to our house and play. :-)

This little gal is Marle (pronounced Mar-lee) and our good friends Jason & Angela are in the process of adopting her. We pray for everything to move quickly, but God's time is always perfect. Marle will be 2 years old in December and is a great big blessing to her family. Isn't she a doll?!

I know Jonathan and Michelle will be thrilled when their two little ones are finally at home with them. The event raised about $2,200 so I think we can classify it as a big success.

Before I go, I hafta show ya a couple of clowns...my niece, Sasha, and her hubby Phil