Fetching Fall

I am so excited that it is fall, my favorite season of the year! You would think that it would be spring because I love flowers BUT the colors of the leaves are too incredible to compare. In fact, I wanted to get married in fall and Randy wanted to get married in spring and since I am not a patient person we went with spring because it was sooner. :-)

During fall we love to take drives along the Colonial Parkway up to Williamsburg and along Shore Drive in VA Beach. Today we even took Precious for a walk on a beautiful trail in Newport News to enjoy the fall scenery. The only downfall about fall is that it means the cold is coming and I am so dreading it. It seems like the longer I am on the east coast the colder it feels to me. I have become a big baby when it comes to cold weather.

This is a tree out front of our house that is amazing in fall. The leaves are so red that it stands out among all other trees in the neighborhood. Absolutely breathtaking!

Happy Birthday Karen!!!

Today is a very special woman's birthday. I would tell you how old she is turning but you wouldn't believe me and I think she would kick my butt! :-) I am so grateful for her because she makes my dad so very happy and if us girls ever need her she is always there for us.

Happy Birthday Karen! We love you!

Dad in VA

For the rest of dad's visit we pretty much stuck around the house. Sunday we took him to our church. I can not begin to tell you how much that meant to me to be able to share that with him. Our church has played such an important role in our lives this year and to be able to take dad was awesome! He seemed to enjoy it and thought the pastor made some good points. After church we went to get a new garbage disposal for Sonia's kitchen since it had conveniently started leaking last week. :-) Dad and Randy took care of installing it when we got home. For dinner dad made his famous teriyaki marinade and Randy grilled the steaks. Dinner was yummy!

Monday it was just dad, Precious and I during the day. He installed a programmable, digital thermostat for Sonia's house, relaxed for a minute or two, went to Sam's Club and he walked Precious while I walked Daisy (dog in the neighborhood that I walk during the week). When Randy got home from work we met Barney and Deb at Carrabba's and had a wonderful dinner together.

Tuesday we met Randy for lunch at a Chinese buffet, did a little shopping, relaxed a little bit and then made a big roast dinner for Mike and Ashley. I have always wanted to know how to make his teriyaki marinade and large chunks of meat in the oven so why not have him show me while he was here, right?

So that was his visit that seemed to be over way too fast. :-( Oh, and Precious took a day but once she warmed up to him she really liked him. By Tuesday night she was laying in between his legs on the bed like she does with Randy. The funny thing was the night he got here, she was not sure about him at all! If he would try to pull her close to him she would lean the opposite direction. LOL

Dad's First Day in NC

We had such an amazing visit with my dad while he was here! The days seemed to fly by and I was very sad to see him leave but so very grateful for the time he was here. I was also proud of myself for actually taking pictures while he was here. Normally I am terrible at that. :-)

Dad has never been to North Carolina, so on Saturday we took a day trip down to the Outer Banks (Nags Head and Kitty Hawk). First we had lunch at Tortuga's Lie (my very favorite place to have old bay seasoned steamed shrimp). Dad enjoyed having steamed shrimp, a Guinness beer, french fries and watching football all by the beach. After lunch we went to the Wright Brothers National Memorial and walked around there for a little while. We also walked on the beach for as long as we could stand since it was a little chilly and dad got to touch the NC beach water. On our way home we drove him through a Brew Thru (drive through beverage store) and also stopped at a Try My Nuts store. Both are a 'must' while in the OBX!

Found one!

I found a negative to losing weight...............

My belts are too big to hold up my pants that are too big!

Looks like I get to go shopping for new belts. Maybe it's not a negative if I get to go shopping. :-) Sorry honey!

Sweetest Surprise!!!!!!!!

Guess who surprised me with a visit all the way from Arizona? MY DAD! How amazing is that?!? My hubby and Sonia did a great job coordinating the visit and keeping it a secret. Sonia told me that her good friend was coming to visit for the weekend so when the doorbell rang, I THOUGHT I was opening the door for Lola. To my surprise, it was my dad! It did take me a minute to process the whole thing but once I did, I gave him a huge hug and of course I cried tears of joy. This was the best surprise ever!!!

Ron Burgundy & Veronica Corningstone

Jaclyn and Doug (right) as Ron Burgundy & Veronica Corningstone (left) from the movie Anchorman

Happy Halloween! :-)

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