Moving day

Hey gang, i’m fed up and tired of wordpress and moving my blog over to:

http://goodbadandblog.blogspot.com/

PLEASE save this new address and update your bookmarks.

Hope you’ll follow me over there 🙂

A happy heart

I AM THANKFUL FOR…

…My husband.  I’m simply so glad that God gave me David.  Being married to him brings me joy to my heart.  Every day I’m thankful for him, but especially today.

…My In-laws.  I’m very lucky that I married into such a great family.  They love the Lord and they love to cook too.  Amen.

…My Family.  My heart overflows when I think about the blessing they are to me.  I’m sad that I can’t be with them today, but I love the memories of having Thanksgiving together growing up.  Either in North Carolina or at the beach, we always had the best times.   It brings a smile to my face.

…The  food that’s in the oven.  Mmm mm mmm.  I think I just wiped a little drool off my chin.

…The really basic things.  I work with children every day who don’t have the ability to walk or communicate  or eat or even hold their heads up straight.  I heard a little boy say he was excited because for the first time he would actually be able to eat the food at Thanksgiving this year.  Wow, that makes me thankful.

…God’s mercy.  Because without that, none of the things above would matter.

Give thanks to the Lord today, He deserves all of our praises!

Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake

THIS. IS. SO. DELICIOUS.

typing in caps means it’s really, really important

This is a Paula Dean recipe (hence the word ‘butter’ in the title) I found last fall and it’s always been a HUGE hit.  It’s been described to me as “it tastes like heaven” and “the best thing I’ve ever put in my mouth.”  I know that’s putting high expectations out there, but I have faith it will deliver for you.  Please make this dessert at your next fall gathering.

Ingredients

Cake:

• 1 package yellow cake mix
• 1 egg
• 1 stick butter, melted

Filling:

• 1 (8 oz) package of cream cheese, softened
• 1 (15 oz) can pumpkin
• 3 eggs
• 1 t. vanilla
• 1 stick butter, melted
• 1 (16 oz) bag powdered sugar
• 1 t. cinnamon
• 1 t. nutmeg

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine the cake mix, egg, and butter in a bowl and mix well.  Pat then mixture into the bottom of a lightly greased 13×9″ baking pan.
3. In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and pumpkin until smooth.  Add the eggs, vanilla, and butter and beat together.  Next, add the powdered sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg until mixed well.   Spread the pumpkin mixture over the cake batter and bake 45-55 minutes.  Make sure not to over bake as the center should be a little gooey.

My mouth is drooling at the thought.

Snotty nose, pretty trees

Well since i’m home from work with the worst cold and sinus pressure known to me, I have some extra down time today to update.  As I sit here with a soup bowl filled with tissues, I will share with you pictures from my recent trip home.  Going home always brings me such restoration.  I feel very blessed to be able to say that I love being able to spend time with my parents.  Since they live half way across the country I don’t get to see them very often, and I value every second we get to be together.  Following a particularly stressful week (I turned in my first graduate school application!), I took one day off work and flew up to the mountains to see them just for the weekend.  Where my parents live is so beautiful that every time I go home it feels like a mini-vacation.  So if you’re having a long week as well, feel free to save these photos as your desktop background and stare off into the fall gorgeousness for a mini-vacation of your own!

Isn’t she adooorable? That tongue has a life of its own.

I hope everyone who reads this is healthy and happy.

Let the dance party begin

I had so much fun at my reception, it was kind of ridiculous.

“I Do”

It’s so hard to pick my favorite wedding photos, check out FB if you want to see a  more complete collection.

My shoes 🙂

Sister helping me get ready

This will be the only time you see me wear lip gloss

My cute mama!

Spying

The guys sharing a beer

Isn’t he cute? 🙂

Group prayer

About to get started!

Walking down the aisle with my daddy

Parent’s prayer

YEAH!!!

Wedding party

My beautiful sister

Reception photos to come later!

Blueberry Cake

So as I wait for the wedding photos to arrive, I’m going to share with you this tasty Summer-ish cake recipe.  I call it Summer-ish because it’s very light, contains fruit, and has no icing.  Now that’s my kind of cake.  The best part?  Since it has fruit in it, i’ve convinced myself that it’s perfect to eat at all occasions, (breakfast, snack time, etc), and not just for dessert.  Here goes:

• 1 cup + 1 Tb. flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 stick butter, softened
• Zest 1 lemon, plus it’s juice
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups blueberries
• Powdered sugar (for dusting)

1. Preheat oven to 350.  Lightly grease and flour a 9″ round pan.
2. In a small bowl, combine flour with baking soda and a pinch of salt.
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine lemon zest, sugar, butter, and vanilla until fluffy.  Add eggs and flour and beat until smooth.  Pour batter into pan.
4. In a medium bowl, combine berries with 1 Tb. flour and lemon juice.  Spoon into batter.
5. Bake for 1 hour.
6. Once it’s done and cooled slightly, dust with powdered sugar before serving.

This is seriously one of mine and David’s favorite treats I make, and I encourage you to make it for someone you love as soon as possible.

Resurfacing

Slowly but surely I am re-entering the blogging world.  So, to anyone who reads this…(Hi mom!)…i’m sorry it’s taken me sooo long.  I really do feel a little guilty.  What have I been up to?  In the past 2 months I graduated, was a part of two weddings,  had my own wedding, honeymooned for a week, moved to Dallas, and found a job.  It seems that I like to get most of my big life events over with at one time.

I guess the most important thing to tell you about is  my wedding.  IT. WAS. PERFECT.  My only complaint was that I wish it didn’t go by so fast.  I keep replaying memories from that day over and over again in my mind, like i’m rewinding a video tape.  The people, the place, the flowers, the breeze (thank you God for that breeze!)…everything was beautiful.  David and I agree that we wouldn’t have changed a single thing about it.

The whole day I felt completely calm, relaxed, and happy.  The only time I was nervous was right before I was about to walk down the aisle  (and then of course I felt the sudden urge to use the bathroom). The best part of the day was standing up there and saying my vows to David; it was pure joy.  Afterward we proceeded to an awesome reception where we had BBQ, beer, and lots and lots of dancing (oh man, you should look forward to seeing those photos).

It’s hard to put into words on here how great that day is in my mind, the seriousness of how much it means to us, and just simply how much fun David and I both had.  We feel overwhelmed with the love that the Lord has showered upon us. 

“Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.”

Get excited, because the next couple of upcoming posts will include: pictures from the wedding (I don’t know how i’m going to narrow down which ones to put up here), pictures from the honeymoon, and probably some good recipes as well!

And I promise to try to be a more dedicated blogger. Forgive me once again.

Recap

Okay for the sake of time, and since i’m currently down and out with the flu, I will just picture recap the big events that happened in the month of May.  I simply don’t have the time to write a post for each event like I had originally intended.  So deal with it 🙂

This was from out first wedding shower thrown for us by my sister.  This was for us and our college friends, and it was SO much fun.  We laughed, and laughed, and laughed some more.  The highlight of the night? Wedding mad  libs.

The next weekend we went to Houston where we had our second shower thrown by David’s family, and then attended our friend Erin’s beautiful wedding.

Then there was my graduation from the greatest place on earth, The University of Texas!

And my graduation present? Nikon D500…i’m so in love.

Then some of my best friends in the entire world got married.  Congrats Tiffany and Wayne! David and I were honored to be a part of it.

Lastly, a fun filled Memorial Day weekend with my future in-laws.

As you can see,  May was awesome.  May was filled with great things and great people.  And to all the people in my life right now…my family, my new family, my friends…I want to say the biggest “thank you.”  You’re such a blessing!

It’s not you, it’s me.

So, it’s been a looong time since i’ve blogged.  It’s kind of ironic because there’s been a lot happening that I can share with you…but it’s because of all of these events that I have less and less time to write about it.  Oh well.

Right now i’m going through finals week, so I have no time to focus on anything outside of Biology and Psychology of Language.  But I promise to resurface next week and share pictures and stories from our two wedding showers we’ve had and the other things i’ve been up to.  I’m currently accepting prayers to get me through these last two finals.  Thank you.