DQ

You will probably notice a running theme in my posts - there is a lot of mention of food. Just scroll down - my last 2 posts are about a pie and a cake. When we went on our honeymoon to Maui, we returned with 300 pictures we took and probably 250 of those were ones Scott took of our meals - and mostly the breakfast buffet. If you ask him what his favorite thing about our honeymoon was- his answer will always be that breakfast buffet. (how about your blushing bride? huh?)

So it's no surprise that possibly we might need to lose a few pounds. With spring coming and the fact that most of my warm weather clothes are just a little too tight - we decided to pursue a family diet. So for the last week and a half - we have put ourselves on Atkins and have also been up at 5 to hit the gym. (well not every day but I'm proud of the 2 days this week!) ha! I usually don't last 3 days on these diets but I'm actually doing well. I haven't been as hungry or tempted to cheat and we did a mid-week weigh in this morning and Scott has lost 11 pounds in less than 2 weeks and I've lost FIVE!

So I"m proud of us but the REAL reason for our weigh in was because I saw a commercial last night for the new kit kat blizzard at Dairy Queen and we decided if we had a successful weight loss week - this would be our weekend treat!

Snickers Pie

I made this pie for friends a few weeks ago and then for family last week and I've had a lot of requests for the recipe. It's SO good and SO easy to make. You can thank my friend Paula Deen for the recipe.

SNICKERS PIE

1 graham cracker pie crust

5 king sized Snickers bars

1/2 cup peanut butter

1 1/2 tablespoons half and half

4 cups cool whip

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F.
In the top of a double boiler, melt together four candy bars, peanut butter, and half-and-half, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Fold in whipped topping, pour into crust, and freeze for 4 to 6 hours before serving. (For a richer pie, substitute 2 cups heavy cream, whipped with 1/2 cup sugar until stiff peaks form, in place of prepared whipped topping.)
When ready to serve, top with additional whipped topping and drizzle wth chocolate syrup. Add small chunks of a snickers bar on top as well. Store in refrigerator.

These are a few of my favorite things.............

Last weekend when Scott's parents came they brought him a birthday cake from a bakery in Magnolia. Scott's mom said she had all of the important things in his life put on the cake. (She forgot the razorbacks.) ( or after this year - maybe she did it on purpose).
We ate it today and it was very good!

Happy Birthday to You!

Tomorrow is my husband's 31st birthday! Here he is pictured in our favorite place on earth - Hawaii! (where we plan to retire!) I look forward to retiring with him as much as I look forward to every day of the rest of my life with him.
Scott - I'm so thankful that God thought enough of me to let me have you as a husband. I love you more every day, week and year that I know you. I love the man that you are and the man you are becoming. Watching you grow in your relationship with Christ has made me fall in love with you all over again. You have made me a better person - especially in the last few months when you have become my spiritual leader and my accountability partner. You continue to amaze me. I love how much you love our dog and I can only imagine how much you will love our child when we have one. I can't wait to see what kind of dad you will be (one day!) I love how you can make me laugh like no one else and you are the first person I want to tell when I have any news. It's so great to be married to my best friend. There is no one on earth that I'd rather travel through this adventure of life with than you!
I love you so much - Happy Birthday!!!!!

Dinner Time!

Isabel made all the hard and complicated items

Monica and Julie cooking and smiling

Berkli and Vonda worked as a team

So tonight was the working girl's favorite past time - Pass Your Plate. (or the stay at home mom's!) I went with several friends to do meals. As always - it was fun to visit, relaxing to cook and not to clean and I came home with several weeks worth of meals and Scott doesn't have to exist on turkey sandwiches. And we all said - "AMEN!"

Family Pictures

Here are a couple of pictures from our family weekend last weekend.

Dad and Scott's Parents

Me and my beautiful niece Emily

Scott and I

My Parents

American Idol Recap

As of right now - my top 3 contestants (in no particular order) are:
1. Blake the beatboxer Lewis
He is not the best singer but he is best performer. I can't wait to see what he'll do and I love how he puts his spin on everything. (To me he's a mix of Jon Shirley and the lead singer of DC Talk)
2. Jordin Sparks - she has really stepped up - I think she's great
3. Chris Sligh - I still really like him. He's bringing Chubby back!

P.S. What was up with Jan Brady in the audience crying? And why did they keep showing her over and over?
P.P.S. PLEASE vote Sanjaya off!
P.P.P.S. I also really like Haley. I think she has a very pretty voice and is also a very pretty girl. She WOULD make a great Miss Arkansas.

Raised to walk in newness of life

We had a very busy but wonderful weekend.
I had Friday off and I spent the day leisurly cleaning the house with two visits to Wal-Mart and Sonic mixed in. Scott's parents got to our house around 6:30 and we ate pizza, visited and watched the hogs get beat.
Saturday, Scott's mom and I hit Wal-Mart while Scott gave his dad a tour of where he works. Then we ate lunch and hung around a little. My mom came in town and I took the "two Judys" to some of my favorite Bentonville stores. That night we ate some good BBQ that his parents brought and then we had a mini early birthday party for Scott.
Sunday we went to church early and met my parents there. It was a really great service. They showed a video that Scott filmed of his testimony and then he was baptized. It was pretty emotional to me but I got a laugh as he walked out of the baptistry and our associate pastor (who is a pretty thin man) said "I CAN do all things through Christ who strengthens me.......he's a big guy!" ha! Scott had been teasing him that he needed to be lifting weights that week prior.
After church we ate lunch at Copelands and then went home to visit some more. Scott's parents left around 2 and my parents went back to their hotel to rest and then met us at church last night. Then we went and had dinner at Chili's and the weekend came to an end. It was good to be with our families!

March Madness

My favorite part of Spring is here:

MARCH MADNESS!!!!!!

I love filling out my bracket (or multiple brackets) and keeping up with all the games. I can't believe the Hogs made the tourney. I hope we can at least win one game this year. I love surprise upsets more than anything. I'm taking a vacation day tomorrow (not because of the tourney - although I always say I'm going to every year so I can just stay home and watch basketball) so I will get to watch quite a bit live!

My other favorite part of Spring is American Idol and I'm glad Sanjaya at least got in the bottom 2. Hopefully he'll be the next to go. He can't stay in there much longer. I can't wait to see what the "theme" is next week.

Our families are both coming this weekend for Scott's baptism on Sunday so we should have a fun filled exciting weekend!

GO HOGS!

Spring

There's something about the first couple of warm, sunny spring days that just seem to make everything right with the world.
It takes me back to my college days when I never scheduled classes for the afternoon so as soon as it turned warm I could spend my afternoons going for walks, driving around campus with my windows rolled down drinking a big sonic drink, going to intramural sports and sitting outside to study. That was the life.
It's hard not to be happy when the weather is like this.
Thank you to whoever decided to let the time change early!
P.S. Happy Birthday to my brother! It's been a great 31 years being your sister! I love you!

Meringue

I am officially an old southern woman.
I have made my first meringue.
I'm sure it won't be the best meringue ever in the history of southern pies but hopefully it will be edible. We over going to dinner at our friends house tonight with a few other couples and I am taking two pies - a snickers pie and a banana pudding pie. One is from Paula Deen and one is from Southern Living so surely they should be good.
Excuse me - I need to put on my white gloves and go tend to my azaleas while I sip some sweet tea. :-)

Mercy Me

So last night the Stamps went to a concert. We went to see Aaron Shust, Audio Audreneline and Mercy Me at the Hammonds Center. It was a great concert. First was Aaron and I really liked him. He just sang a few songs. Apparently I'm getting old because next was Audio Adreneline and as Randy on AI would say "they were just all right for me". A little too rocky and loud for my taste but "Ocean Floor" was good.
The concert itself was a big mess. They were thousands of people there and it was totally disorganized. They had diffferent levels of tickets you could buy but when you got there - they had no clear marking of where to sit so all these people who paid a lot more for better seats unless they got there 2 hours early were out of seats. We had paid for next to the best but we could never figure out where we were supossed to be. We got near the front which was nice but before Mercy Me they wasted about 45 minutes trying to get everyone to swap out seats so that the people who paid more could sit in front. It was a disaster.
But it was worth it - Mercy Me was awesome! I could have taken 4 hours of just them.
You can take a trip with Mercy Me and Audio Adrenline to Hawaii in April where they will do a concert and you can surf with them, etc (ha!). Scott and I are trying to figure out how we can sell enough things on e-bay to raise the money to go. We figure we could get a lot for Dawson. (just kidding)

There shall be showers of blessings

I've had a rough last couple of weeks. Work is just extremely busy and exhausting right now and I just feel on the verge of a meltdown at all times. I come home every night and feel like I can barely function. This week has been kind of the peak of stress so far and then we find out today that Scott's car needs thousands of dollars of repairs and I feel just really overwhelmed.
But then I thought for a few minutes about the prayers that Scott and I say each morning about how thankful we are and undeserving we are for all that God has blessed us with. I thought about the e-mails I get from my church each week with lists of prayer requests for people who are going through terrible experiences. I thought about how I sat on the couch and SOBBED Saturday night as I watched Oprah's special on her school in South Africa and I tried to imagine how all those people live in just desolation. I told Scott Saturday night that so many times I just want to sell everything we own and go to Africa to be missionaries.
So now I'm just sitting here in the midst of my stress and frustration and thanking God that I have a really good job to be frustrated in. And I'm thankful that I have a car - to need repairs on. And I'm thankful I have a husband to calm me down when problems arise. And I'm thankful that I'm able to get up every morning and go to work. And I'm thankful for a God who meets my every need and gives me hope.

One BIG (happy) family

Scott and I have known for a while that we both need to lose weight. We work on it for a while and then we give in to pizza or mexican food on the weekends. It's no secret that we both love to eat. Well - it looks like it runs in the the family. Dawson went to the vet this morning and they told him he was fat and needed to lose weight. Looks like the whole family is going on a diet this spring!

American Idol

I realize that in life - being Pretty can take you far. I've seen it witnessed in business - attractive people get jobs they don't deserve. BUT SERIOUSLY - Antonella (or as Scott refers to her - "Salmonella") has got to go. This is ridiculous.
I sing better than her. How she made it to the top 16 out of 100,000 people - I will never know. Yes she is pretty - but this is a SINGING competition! UGH! And she doesn't even have a personality, nor is she nice.
She MUST be voted off!
P.S. I still don't like anyone enough to vote for yet but I do like Chris Sligh, Blake the beat boxer, Doolittle and the Likisha.