Peanut Butter Truffle Brownies

Last week Randy and I had snack for our Church Group. We brought pretzel bites, I made a BLT salad and for desert, I made these YUMMY Peanut Butter Truffle Brownies. Our group didn't say much about them but Randy's co-workers, Randy, Sonia, Rachael and I LOVED them! I ended up losing 2 points last week because of them. It definitely helps that they are brownies and have peanut butter in them! Yum! I love me some peanut butter. :-)
Here is the recipe if you would like to give it a try (I did use less powdered sugar and more peanut butter) http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/peanut-butter-truffle-brownies/c5c602e4-007b-43e0-aaab-2f9aed89524c?WT.mc_id=taf_recipe_BC
**Caution: they are super sweet so they need to be cut into small squares (although that didn't stop me from eating 2 at a time, LOL)

The little things that mean so much!

Sitting outside of Panera Bread with hubby eating a bagel, drinking a Starbucks coffee and good conversation
Taking a morning walk with hubby and our little Precious on Saturday morning
Driving in mom's BMW for 6 hours on Saturday talking and listening to the radio
Eating a spicy chicken breast from Popeye's :-)
Talking to both of my sisters this weekend for over 1/2 hour
Getting a new shirt every time Sonia goes shopping (yes I am spoiled & I love it!)
Meeting new people at church and talking to friends
The excitement & joy we received from Precious when we got home on Saturday
Relaxing on Sunday and watching the Redskins game with Precious and Randy

Gainesville, VA

This Saturday, Randy and I drove up to Gainesville, VA for his buddy Steve's engagement party. It was a 3 hour drive but who cares when you are driving in your mom's BMW and seeing old college buddies. It was especially nice because Randy was able to see guys that he played baseball with in college and hasn't seen since. It was also nice for me to finally meet them too! Anthony and Liz were there with their new baby Capri, she is so beautiful and they are such amazing parents.

The picture to the right is Randy tempting to feed Steve cake for a little practice. Steve wouldn't go for it. Oh well, he will get to do the real thing with Heather on May 14th, 2011 in Myrtle Beach, SC. We can't wait! It is going to be SO much fun and since it is our wedding anniversary weekend, we are going to stay a couple days at the beautiful resort they are having the wedding at!

For Barney's birthday I got an idea to make him a golf cake since he LOVES golf! So I made a carrot cake, used green food coloring for the icing and coconut flakes (grass), crushed graham crackers for the sand traps and blue sugar crystals for the water. I thought it turned out pretty good and Barney seemed to be pretty surprised by it. Maybe I got some of Aunt Judy's creative genes. :-)

Happy Birthday Barney!

Happy birthday to a wonderful Dad! I think this is the happiest we ever see him, when he is holding Precious, his favorite grand dog. We love you Dad and look forward to spending Sunday with you!

Lesson learned the hard way

NEVER throw away trash while holding a key (especially if it is not your key!)

Here's the story.... I walk a dog for a lady in the neighborhood during the week because she works all day and can't take Daisy (dog) out to relieve herself. So every afternoon I take Daisy out for a walk. Yesterday I decided to throw the trash out before getting Daisy. As I was walking to the trash I thought, you better put the neighbor's key in your pocket cause you don't want to drop it. Well, I should have listened to myself! As I opened the trash and threw the boxes in, I heard the key fall. Woops! I should mention that we have huge trashcans because we live in a condo community. Now if you know me, you know that I will do ANYTHING to not have to touch the trash. So this was a very, very bad situation. I called Randy and he told me to put a magnet at the end of a broom (he is so smart) and try to find it because it isn't our key and we wouldn't want our key lost like that. So I put on gloves, made the contraption as instructed and with the lid falling on my head I still couldn't find it. :-( Luckily Ealena was not upset with me and Daisy only had to hold it until 4:30pm. How mortifying, embarrassing and GROSS!

Gotta see the video below

Please take a look at the video below. It is hilarious! They are all staff members at our church. I told you our church is crazy! :-) We love it though, gets us excited about God and worship!

Stuart Hodges is our Lead Pastor (the one with glasses and spiked hair)
Phil Poteat is the director of worship and production, lead singer in band (bald gentleman)
Rob Shepherd is the director of community groups and students (short dark hair)
Jamey Menser is the logistics manager & ministry specialist (blond)

Step by Step

Step By Step from Waters Edge Church on Vimeo.

Love this pic

This is a picture from May 2005. We were in Baltimore with Barney and Deb. Wow, time flies when you are in love!

You know you are married when...

Date night on Friday night consists of going to Barnes & Noble and Best Buy
There is nothing better than watching a movie in bed on a Saturday night (Iron Man 2 rocks!)
Instead of going out to eat you would rather grill at home (mainly because of the new marinade that we discovered ;-))

We had a great weekend this weekend! Saturday was kind of funky because it did not go according to plan, so Randy was forced to relax a little bit. :-) The message at church on Sunday was recognizing that the only one that needs to be 'proud' of us is God and he is 'proud' of us because we live through Jesus his son. Our church also baptized 50 people this Sunday! It was truly an incredible service and I pretty much cried the entire service. Then Sunday night I grilled outside in the rain (Randy was watching the Redskins beat the Eagles). Randy kind of trusted me with the grill and of course, I burnt a pork chop. :-( He says that he will give me another chance though. Thanks babe!

Ephesians 4:32

Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.

This is a verse from our study application last week that was very powerful for me. I know I need to work on this one. Sonia kept reminding me of that while we were watching Michael Vick play tonight. :-)

10 lbs in 8 weeks!

I have lost 10 lbs in 8 weeks! Can you believe it! I am super happy and wished I would have done this sooner, but better late than never. :-) With a change of diet, exercise and lots of will power I am striving to lose my belly and tone up my body. Luckily with the wellness challenge that Heidi and I are doing I have no choice but to eat healthy and exercise! I will admit that I do struggle with not being able to eat sweets but 1 time a week. Very hard and to be honest I lose points on that one almost every week. :-(

Quote of the day

The true secret of giving advice is, after you have honestly given it, to be perfectly indifferent whether it is taken or not, and never persist in trying to set people right. -Hannah Whitall Smith

Raincoat

It has been raining here in VA since Tuesday so we have been getting lots of use out of Precious's rain jacket. Isn't it cute? It has duck buttons by her tail and ducks on the white part. Too cute! I don't think she likes it as much as we do. Her leg always comes out of the hole and we don't notice until she walks funny. :-)

Comment of the day

Today at lunch Randy said "I need to hurry up and slow down". Is that not a sign of our culture? Especially the corporate world. :-)

Thankful for Tuesday!

Today I am grateful for.....

The power coming back on when it had been off for over 2 hours :-)
All of the rain that we are getting, we are hoping that we will see grass soon
The grilled chicken we had tonight, yummy!
Time at the gym exercising
Time that I have in order to study (got another 96% on test)
A super sweet card that we received from our friends, the Scott family
Radio station K Love, keeps me striving to stay positive
Phone call with Eve (my best friend) last night
All the kisses from my husband because he knows how much I miss home
Precious insisting on sitting in my lap as I sit at our desk (I know she can't be comfortable but she still insists on sleeping in my lap no matter where I am)
Phone call on Skype from our Papa and Dad!

Just ordered this book

Today the message was about maintaining our relationship with God. Our pastor spoke of 4 ways... 1. Read (Bible) 2. Personalize (Bible so it relates to you) 3. Do it 4. Share
I don't know about you but I have never been able to read the bible because it is very overwhelming and hard for me to understand. Well, today my hubby ordered me the book above. Looks fantastic for people like me (bible challenged). I am super excited to get it and can't wait for my year to start! Thank you hubby and THANK YOU GOD! :-)

Last weekend of September

Had another great weekend this weekend starting with Friday night dinner at Carrabba's (compliments of Tom and Eve for bday) with Randy and Sonia. Saturday I went to yoga with Sally (neighbor), lunch and shopping with Sonia and dinner at home with Randy. Today we woke up early and went to the 8:20am church service (would much rather go to a later service but the Redskins game conflicts), got Starbucks (compliments of my dad and Karen for bday), Randy and I rented paddle boats at the Newport News park and had an amazing time together (beautiful day for it!), Redskins play today and tonight I volunteer at church. What a blessed weekend we have had! Thank you God! (Forgot to mention that I fit into a pair of slacks that haven't fit me since 2007 today!) :-)

Oldie but Goodie

This was such an amazing trip to CA with my dad and my sisters, one I will treasure forever!

February 17, 2002

In God we still trust

You have got to watch this......
https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=36ddc331db&view=att&th=12b12032cb003ff7&attid=0.1&disp=attd&zw