Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

This is Brett and my 2nd Thanksgiving as a married couple! Today, as in everyday, I am thankful for so many things. My loving family, my cozy warm apartment, a church that has fully embraced Brett and I, a crazy cat, a full belly with plenty left to eat, my amazing husband, and wonderful friends both near and far.

Speaking of friends a couple of weekends ago my dear friend Bek and I hosted a cake pop party. What is a cake pop party you say? Well, let me tell you. There is this adorable blogger who makes the cutest little creations she calls cake pops. They are basically cake suckers that are decorated all cute for whatever season or event is close by.

For this party we didn't really have an agenda. Bek wanted to make a duck and we both knew we wanted to try the cupcakes and snowmen. The party was a success and we are going to have a Christmas cake pop party sometime in the next couple of weeks.

I hope everyone has a wonderful, safe, and loving thanksgiving. I will post cake pop picture either tonight or tomorrow - promise.

ghost and ghouls of all kinds

Last weekend Brett and I were blessed with a number of tickets to 6 flags. What better time to use them then Halloween day. Roller coaster in the morning, Fright Fest at night! It was a blast! Bek, Simon and I went earlier and rode a bunch of coasters. Then Brett, Raf, and a few of our exchange students came later just in time to ride a few rides before the Halloween festivities started. Overall a good time and hope to maybe do it again next year.

Along the same Halloween lines, I thought I would share with you all the adorable candy ghosts Brett and I made for a fall party we went to. Growing up I use to make these ghosts every year with my mom and I look forward to continuing that tradition when I have children. Here are the instructions – easiest recipe in the world.

Ingredients:

Candy/Popsicle sticks

White almond bark

Chocolate chips

Layout a sheet of wax paper spayed lightly with nonstick spray

Melt the almond bark according to the instructions on the packages.

Set down a stick and drizzle on some almond bark roughly in the shape of a ghost

Use the back of your spoon to finish shaping it.

Place 3 chocolate chips for eye

Let cool and enjoy.

See, told you it was easy!

I will also throw in a few other pictures

Brett and I with 2 of our exchange students

My man - 5am before he left for a drill weekend

1st year anniversary and getting in shape

Hello out there I am posting from Virginia. We are traveling down to a family reunion for Brett's side of the family.

Life has been pretty good for us lately. Last weekend was our 1 year anniversary. We had a completely unplanned but fantastic day to celebrate last Saturday. The plan was to visit a vineyard in NY but last minute that morning a friend of Brett's told us to switch our plans and go to this one in west/middle NJ. It ended up being a really fun tour and tasting and we bought a bottle of their famous and fantastic blueberry wine.
As we were leaving we GPSed looking for a place to grab a bite to eat and saw there was a Sonic about 20 minutes away in PA. Now we would usually not get so excited about Sonic but there are none around where we live and we had really been missing it. Sonic became our anniversary dinner and we finally were able to use a gift card a friend had given us a year ago for our wedding.
While eating Brett started messing with the GPS and found that the oldest drive movie theater in America was only 20 more minutes away. Of course we had to go. That evening it was showing UP and The Proposal. We had already seen UP but it is such an amazing movie, I had no problem seeing it again and The Proposal was not bad either.
Overall it was a great day spent having a carefree and wonderful road-trip with my husband and I don't think I could have asked for a better anniversary day or 1st year.

So what else has been happening?
Our garden is growing wonderfully. We have one tiny bell pepper, the carrots are about 2" long, and the squash have tons of blossoms all over them. Looks like we should get a pretty good crop this year.

I have started running and actually enjoy it. Something I thought would never happen. My mom had told me about this program, couch to 5k, and then about a week later my church organized a charity run to purchase a rig in Africa. We are currently involved in building wells but by getting this rig we will be able to drill a well a week! I told my friend Bek about the program and together we are training for the run. What is pretty cool is from my mom telling me about the program, and Bek and I telling everyone else, there are now people all over the world doing the couch to 5k program and encouraging each other.

Along with getting myself in shape our life group is all doing the Financial Peace University together. It is a program by Dave Ramsey that teaches you how to handle your money. He is big on getting out of debt and then never getting in debt every again. He teaches about using cash for most of your spending and never using credit cards or loans again. It should be a good class and I have already learned a lot in just our first week.

Hope everyone has a great 4th of July!

taking pictures of myself in the rear view mirror

the scary 1 lane road we took to get the vineyard

tasting some wine

who knew our trip would be so biblical

our view of the movie

new movie

I am ubber excited about a new movie that is coming out in August. It is based off of two memoirs of food people, Julia Childs who revolutionize cooking and Julie Powell who wrote and blog and book about her challenge to cook all 524 recipes in Julia Childs book in a year.

Check out the trailer :)