YUM!

Yesterday I made cookies and they were some of the gosh dern best cookies I've made in a while! We're loving them...
Here's the recipe:

1 box cake mix
2 eggs
1/4 cup of vegetable oil

Optional:
1/2 or 1 teaspoon of any flavor extract
1 cup of chocolate chips, peanuts, walnuts, etc.

Mix all ingredients well. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet. (They don't spread out very much so feel free to crowd them in there!!) Bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes.
The cookies will be soft and yummy. Best when eaten straight out of the oven.

Last night, I used yellow cake mix and added lemon extract. But I've also used white and chocolate mixes. I've never tried red velvet but I'm wanting to... The best part is that you can stick just about anything in the mix. White chocolate, butterscotch, M&Ms, whatever! If you like bar cookies more, you can press the mix into a square pan and it's a bit more like a cake. It's a wonderful, delightful, treat that won't last through tomorrow in our house!
Enjoy! And be careful - they're addicting!

Cleaning Catastrophies

So there we were... (A friend from college said every good story should start with that phrase and end with, "And that's how we narrowly escaped death!")
So there we were... I was sweeping all the tiled floors in the house. The plan was to scrub eventually blast that evil layer of scum that's built up from a solid week of rain and two very dirty puppies. It sure is amazing how dirty floors can get when puppies don't wipe their feet. I'm also amazed by how much dirt builds up in the laundry room! Anyway, sweeping. I pick up the rug in front of the front door and discover what I thought was a small earth worm that had been smushed under the rug. Panic level #1. There was a large halo of dried, nasty blood around it and a large, ugly blood spot on the rug and the mat underneath it. I was completely bumfuzzled as to how to clean the nasty booger up so I swept around it and went on my way. As I scrubbed the layer of dirt in the laundry room, I pondered how to get the tile and rug clean and germ free. When I was walking back through the living room in desperate search of yet another cleaner to cut the grime in that blasted laundry room, I noticed that the worm was gone. Panic level #2. The puppies just looked at me and smiled.
I freaked and screeched... "You ate it? You ate that dried crusty worm? Gross!!!"
More smiles.
"What if it was poisonous?!?! Are you going to die? Who ate it? Who ate the worm?"
Amazingly, they didn't answer! (But they sure were cute sitting side by side.)
I quickly grabbed my cell phone and called my parents. I was trying to imagine how in the world I would figure out which dog ate the worm before they died.
Dad answered and was slightly amused over my panic. He then explained that worms don't have blood and that it was, in fact, a snake. Panic level #3.
"A snake? I had a snake in my house? You're kidding! And my dog ate it! What if it was venomous? What if it laid eggs? What if it had babies?" Panic level #4.
Dad was quick to point out that all was well and I was freaking for no real reason and that the dogs would not die. He told me the best way to clean and disinfect the blood and I went in search of the 16th cleaner of the day - hydrogen peroxide. As I did, I noticed a "stick" on the carpet on the other side of the living room. Panic level #4.5. I bent over to inspect the stick closely only to realize it had eyes. Panic level #5!!
Dad told me to see if it was fresh and if it was mushy or stiff and if it had vertebrae. Panic level #6. I decided to forgo that bit of advice and promptly gathered a thick pile of paper towels in order to pick it up and dispose of it. (Now that I knew the puppies had only played with it and not eaten it, I wanted to make sure they didn't decide to finish it off!) As I picked it up, I swear the little booger moved and wiggled. Panic level #7. You can't imagine the screams. I only hope dad's hearing will recover.
With the snake in the trash, I decided I couldn't handle cleaning the blood right away, so I went back to scrubbing the laundry room. While there I discovered a spider that I was sure had a big sack of eggs on her back ready to explode millions of tiny spiders all over my house. Panic level #8. At this point I was thankful that I was no longer on the phone. No one will ever know the level of my girlish screams. I grabbed no fewer than 15 Kleenexes and squished the fool out of that stinker. I then ran through the house to flush him down the toilet. I then flushed four times.
So the blood is still on the floor, and the rug. It awaits the triumphant arrival of my much braver husband.
And that's how we narrowly escaped death... (Well, the puppies more so than me!)

What a wonderful weekend!

We had an amazing weekend!! After our party on Friday night, we got up on Saturday, made breakfast, and played games. It was wonderful! We spent the rest of the day lounging and enjoying time together. It was cold outside and I convinced D.J. that what we needed more than anything was to watch Elf. I know it's not Christmas, but I loved it all the same!
On Sunday we made a nice, warm fire and curled up with a nice wintery movie! (This time is was The Holiday.) After we ran out of fire wood and the fire died down, we decided to go see Toy Story 1 and 2 in 3D! I have chronic vertigo and so we haven't attempted a 3D movie before. (Vertigo makes you extremely dizzy. I usually get very sick to my stomach as a result. It's aggrivated by the weather, certain sounds and tones, and overwhelming visual effects.) However, since I love both Toy Story movies and know them by heart, we figured this would be a great one to try out. We loved it! We were amazed by the 3D effects. By the end of both movies, my eyes were very tired from having to constantly re-focus and I had a bit of a headache - but I didn't get dizzy or sick to my stomach. Woo hoo! And, we got very excited about the new 3D movies coming out. The technology has advanced so much from when they made the original Toy Story! (Random, fun fact: When they first made Toy Story back in the day, they made it in 3D. However, they had to convert it to 2D because the theaters weren't prepared for a 3D event. This makes the world's first fully computer animated movie just that much more impressive!)
It is still very cold and wintery looking outside and I'm loving it. However, the worst part of fall is still to come... It'll climb back into the 80s before the week is out! But then, come Friday, we'll have highs in the 50s once again. Oh fall, how I've missed thee!! :)

Fall on a Friday

Fall arrived on Friday. It was cold and rainy and so incredibly wonderful! At one point, I got a little bored and decided to make an apple pie. I then realized that it wasn't a good idea to have a wonderful, flaky pie sitting around when we were trying to loose weight. So I called everyone in the Community Group and asked them to come over to help us eat. The original plan was to go see a movie in the park sponsored by the city. But it was cold and had rained all day and we decided we were wimps. So several people came over and helped us devour our the pie. Sadly, they didn't make a very large dent in the ice cream. We had a WONDERFUL evening! We laughed and talked until almost midnight. It was a wonderful fall Friday... I'm so glad we're making friends and had the chance to host our first party!
I know I promised pictures, but we left the camera in Waco. So it'll be a few weeks before I can get them up. But they're coming - I promise!! :)

A new friend!

We had Community Group last night and it was wonderful. I got serveal hugs, laughed and joked like we were all old friends, and we made plans to go to the free movie in the park on Friday night! But the best part is that I talked to one gal in particular for a long time. (We were the last family to leave!) We discovered that we had a lot in common (like we're both stay-at-home wives and love to craft and create) and now have plans to go have lunch together. I'm excited about the prospects and thrilled to have a friend. Once again, I feel like things are falling into place.

In other news, Marley is still a coward. He's now scared of the kitchen. This creates major problems when it comes to time for him to eat breakfast or dinner. Or go outside. Or get a puppy treat. Or do anything but stand at the door way and whine. He's such a wienie!!

I love pretty much everything about fall. (I'm not such a fan of Halloween.) The weather, the colors of nature, the approaching holidays, the fall harvest foods... Yesterday the high was in the 60s. I got very excited about the apples on sale at Wal-Mart and bought enough to make a beautiful center piece for the table. In a few days I'll make a yummy apple treat. But for now, they're just beautiful sitting on the table!! Today, however, the high will be 89 and miserably muggy. Tomorrow, the high will return to the 60's. I'm very ready for the cold weather, but I hate the way the heat fights back and insists on hanging around.

That's the news from my neck of the woods. Not much is going on here. We're loving being together and are so glad we're not in different cities anymore... The busted lap top has been repaired so I'm hoping to get some pictures up soon. And now, it's time for a nap! I love naps...

Question

Have you ever clicked the "Next Blog" button at the top of the page? I just tried it out of morbid curiosity and was shocked with the results. Apparently, blogging is a world-wide phenomenon! I clicked that silly link several times and only came across one English site. (But even then, they were back-packing across Southern America and were currently in Cuba or Jamacia or something like that...) Just to be sure, I opened another friend's blog and clicked the same button. It took me to a crazy dude in Scotland, but that's where the English ended. Another 10 or 15 non-English sites followed. I was amazed. Does anyone else have this luck or is it just me?

Falling into place...

Since we made the final move up to Forney, I've felt like my heart was swimming in loneliness. I know I have a wonderful, amazing husband and I'm so incredibly thankful for him! And I don't ever want to live in two cities again!! :) But we don't have many friends and those we do have are more acquaintances than deep friendships. We haven't had other couples in our life that can slap us upside our heads when we're doing stupid things and cheer with us when we're something fantastic happens. We've both missed it, but I think my heart has ached a bit more...
Then there was yesterday... One of my dearest friends from college has been living in China for 5 years. Even though she and her husband returned to the States every summer for training and rest, we've never been able to connect and get together. We sent e-mails and talked on the phone once in a blue moon, but we hadn't been face to face in years! They moved back to the States in May and began job hunting somewhere in the state of Texas. Last weekend, they put in an offer on a house only 30 minutes from ours. Yesterday, she came over and we spent the entire afternoon together. There wasn't a moment of awkwardness (well, except for when I couldn't get my own pots out of the cabinet...) and our friendship picked up right where it had left off all those years ago. The time with her was like water in a desert. By the time D.J. and I took her home, my heart was soaring! It was a wonderful, blessed time with a "bosom buddy" and was more of a blessing than even I realize...
Then last night, we went to our first "Community Group" meeting. We were lucky enough to join a group that was just being formed and so it was everyone's first evening. Some have been in small groups before, others haven't. One guy is the manager of Chick-Fil-A and brought us tons of very delicious food!! :) There's a wide variety of ages and marital status. (Dating, engaged, newlyweds, married 3 years, married 12 years, married 20 years, and even a couple who got divorced and then re-married a few months ago!) It was wonderful! Everyone seemed to get along very well and we enjoyed getting to know each other. I'm excited about what God's going to do within that group... I can't wait to be a part of it!
So, in summary... I feel like things are finally falling into place! The house is coming together, we're starting to make friends, we love our church, and are starting to call it our "home". My goal was to lose 5 pounds by the beginning of October, and I've already dropped 10! (I think it's in large part to not drinking sodas anymore!) Even before we were engaged, I kept telling D.J. that I was looking forward to October. I knew that by then we would be settled into a routine and we would be in the process of making friends. This morning we were very excited to celebrate October 1st!! We have made it! We survived the insanity of long distance dating, planning a wedding, moving, and starting a life together. Now we get to live! Happy October everyone!!