Magnolia, AR

I'd like to introduce you to my Maw-Maw & Pa-Paw Ray. They are the true meaning of southern charm and wit. I can't help myself but smile and laugh when I'm at their house.

My parents, along with JT and I, paid them a visit over Labor Day weekend. Of course, the greatest fall sport was making it's debut on TV... so we couldn't miss not watching college football. Funny thing is, neither could Maw-Maw or my mom. I guess it's something that's been passed down...

What's Maw-Maw looking at?

That would be her TV mounted above the fridge. Gotta love Magnolia, Arkansas.

Three generations.

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Texas Sheet Cake

I was born in Texas. Austin, to be exact. Cake is one of my favorite desserts. So it is fitting that I made this...

This is how you describe Texas Sheet Cake: Yummy-Chocolateness

Texas Sheet Cake by Paula Dean

Cake Ingredients:
1 cup butter
1 cup water
1/4 cup cocoa
2 cups sugar
2 cups self-rising flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tsp. vanilla

Frosting Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup cocoa
6 Tbsp. milk
1 lb. box powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine butter, water, and cocoa in a saucepan over medium heat. Heat until butter is completely melted. Once butter is melted, pour in a mixing bowl and add the remaining ingredients. (Be careful about the eggs, you may want to temper them before you add them to this mixture) Mix ingredients thoroughly and pour into a greased 15X10X1-inch jelly roll pan. Bake for 20 minutes. For frosting, combine butter, cocoa, and milk in a saucepan. Bring to a boil. Once mixture boils, remove from heat and pour into a mixing bowl. Add powdered sugar and vanilla and beat well. Pour on top of hot sheet cake.

*Do not prepare the frosting too early because it will harden in the bowl. I get my ingredients together while the cake is baking. Once I remove the cake from the oven, I prepare the frosting and spread it over the cake. Also, the frosting will run over the cake quickly because it is hot. Be careful not to pour too quickly because the frosting will run over the edges of the sheet pan.*

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13.1

13.1.... that's JT's first Christmas present of the year. Yes, it's true. I love Christmas so much that I start to give gifts 3 months on advance :)

13.1 is how many miles it takes to run half a marathon. It's been a desire of JT's to run one with me and this year will be the year that we accomplish it together.

On December 13, 2009 you can find JT and I running in and around Downtown Dallas in the White Rock Half Marathon.

This will be me as we get started:

This will be us training:

This will be us finishing:

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Blueberry Pie & Sunsets

For those of you who are not aware... we moved. Floors, that is. We moved apartments from #202 to #417. (Side note... update our apartment # in your address book if you already haven't done so.) Anyway... back to this blog. The McKinney's used to live on floor 2 with us, but they moved to the 10th floor. So we are no longer neighbors :(

It had been WAY too long since we'd spent time with them and their precious two girls, so this was a wonderful time we spent together, laughing, catching up, and eating FABULOUS dessert :)

This is Olivia and she makes me melt.

This is Abbey and she will make you smile ALL the time :)

Later that night we decided to go on the rooftop of our building and take some sunset pictures with some of our friends. Meet Lindy Jo & Caleb. We lead a small group with them on Wednesday nights.

Self portrait.

Gotta love the skyline of Dallas.

This is the blueberry pie that was made by Abbey and her mom, Christie, which we enjoyed after watching the sun go down. They are fabulous cooks. Yum!

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Venice Day 10

We were early to rise on our last full day in Italy. Our hotel had a wonderful breakfast waiting for us downstairs. Our bags were packed because we had a full day of sightseeing and then back to the hotel to head off towards the airport.

That morning we took a water taxi all the way up the Grand Canal only to head back down it... that's because we had a Rick Steves tour to guide us down the canal. It was wonderful to sit on the boat, listen to Rick and look around as he was pointing out palaces, local markets, and interesting homes of those famous from the past. I thoroughly enjoyed this part. I could be on a boat all day long and be completely content.

After finishing our boat tour, we caught the next boat that would take us out to the island of Murano. It is famous for glass blowing. We paid to get into the museum and then quickly discovered that the visit was by far the worst museum in all of Europe. Not really, but close enough. I did get one really cool picture though of some glass pieces from 1 century AD!

Once we returned to Venice we enjoyed one last afternoon of shopping for our friends and family back home. We also grabbed a quick bite to eat and some final sweets... Here's JT with his giant block of Milk Chocolate. Yum.

We went back to the hotel for our bags, said goodbye to Venice, and then hopped on a water taxi to head to the airport. We knew that we had an hour and fifteen minute ride to the airport...

What we didn't expect is the baton death march we walked to get to our hotel.... all because we refused to pay 20 euros for a taxi to take us there. JT and I convinced Jack that we walked this far and hard through Italy... we're not about to start taking taxis at the end. Clearly, from the photo, you can see the sweat and fuming anger has moved into hilarious laughter.

This was a fabulous way to end our trip! Haha. On a serious note, we enjoyed a great pizzeria that night and reminisced about our trip.

We are so blessed to have Jack in our lives and are thankful to have such a wonderful traveling partner. We love you Jack!

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