Can I brag? Just for a second.

My niece is precious.

YoungLives

Look! I have friends in Philly! They're great and wonderful and tonight we all went to a Dinner Gala benefitting YoungLives, an awesome branch of YoungLife that supports teen moms and their children. It focuses on Christ's love for us no matter where, who, or what we are and reaches out to teen mothers by providing necessities, mentors and fellowship.

Rachel (first girl to my left) has a huge heart for this organization and has not only helped me get involved with it by inviting me to babysit for the group's bible study with her every other monday, but she also organized our table (pictured above) at the event. Most of our table is from our church, with the exception of a few, but they're all really sweet people that don't know how thankful I am that God put them in my life when He did.

Halloween at the office

I really enjoy my job. On the list of quite a few things that I love about where I am right now, my job definitely makes the cut. The people, the work, the fun, all mushed into one little office; wonderful.


Days like today make me especially love my job. Halloween + fun CEO + plus an awesome party-planning committee (which I may or may not be a part of :) ) = One Awesome Pre-Halloween Halloween Party.


I'm sad to report that I wasn't tied to camera all day and don't have pictures of the completely haunted-house-esque entry way or the other decked-out offices, but enjoy the few that I have.  

Our CEO (Tom Cruise in Top Gun)

Best PA Friends: Germie (Cleopatra) and Janet (Jackie O)...and Mario

Mario and Luigi in my office (er, cube, but i like to call it an office)

And the winner of the Office Decorating Contest goes to.......

(complete with Super Mario Bros. theme music)

That's right, your girl won best office! I'm very proud, if you can't tell. Homemade decorations and thrift store costumes are the best. I'm not afraid to admit that I totally recycled the Mario/Luigi idea from my days with Lauren and our sophomore year halloween party (which I somehow don't have a picture of...sad face). First party in our own place. Those were the days! Great times, great memories...

But now I have new memories; not replacement memories, just additional memories :) 

Think she's a little comfy?

Chicago Marathon 2009

Playing catch-up with my posts here, if you can't tell. 

So most of you know from my previous post that I registered for and hoped to run the Chicago Marathon. And if you know that, you probably also know that I got stress fractures which set me back and made it not very smart for me to train for a marathon.

BUT my awesome Aunt, Denise, trained her little heart out and was still able to run the 26.2 miles in chicago on Sunday, October 11, 2009. And thanks to American Airlines and their fabulous deals, I was SUPER happy to be able to cheer her on in person! 

6:00a.m. Race Day

So early. So pretty.

Crazy marathoners! 

There she is; Mile 13ish -- lookin' good Neese!

And mile 26.2 is captured on video, but I'm not blog-savvy enough to know how to put that on here. Maybe one day.

Chicago is such an amazing city (for all months except the dead of winter) and I'm just so glad I was fortunate enough to make it out to hang with my Aunt and see her finish her first marathon. After watching everyone finish, I'm not so sure I ever want to run one. 26.2 miles over 4 hours is a heck of a lot of running.

We are second

...and Texas football is the bomb.

I have to be honest. I found this on Shannon's blog and absolutely stole it. Because it's so great.

I am Second: Colt McCoy

p.s. it's 9:17a.m. and OU STILL SUCKS! :)

Baby Emerick: 7 weeks and counting

Let's pretend it's last Saturday...


Today we got to celebrate my sister and the beautiful baby boy in her tummy! Kelly and the hubby, Scott, have been together for 12 years. Isn't that crazy?? Over HALF of my life. They dated for 7 and now have been married for 5, so this is one super special and much-anticipated little boy :) 


We don't know a name or anything yet, just that on or around Nov. 30th I'll be an aunt to a little Nephew! You all know how excited I get about little ones...I cannot WAIT for Baby Emerick!




Celebrating others with friends and families are the best; wedding and baby showers are my new favorite things. Which I guess is good, because at this age, I only see more of these coming in the future.

On a side note: is anyone else having trouble uploading pictures and moving them around? I can't place them and my blogs are looking ugly :( What am I doing wrong?!

Photo Dump

This is what happens when you're camera cord goes missing...they all come out at once. Too overwhelming to organize, so here.

The McKinney Wedding; August 9, 2009

Randoms

Grace Bible Church, Grace4Kids in the Park

FAMILY BEACH WEEK 2009

There you have it; the best parts of three months in a nutshell.

The End.

It's here, it's here, it's here!

Drum roll please...

After 2.5 months, $25.00, two faulty cords, two blog posts, and hours of searching, I found the right camera cord...and it works too! Thank goodness. Now the task of uploading 3 months of pictures...should be interesting.

Pumpkin for Punkin'

(title's for you, dad)

It's that time of year I find myself craving and searching for all things pumpkin. Call me crazy, but when I say all things, I mean all things; candles, desserts, coffees, beer...I even stumbled across a pumpkin-scented shampoo at Ulta the other day I was more excited than anyone probably ever should be over something like that.

It all started a couple weeks ago, as soon as the weather changes and my body senses the fall weather coming, it's like clockwork, I find myself subconsciously on baking blog after baking blog searching for any recipe using even a hint of pumpkin.

And that's when I found it.

Pumpkin Beer Bread.

Just one problem. Now I had to wait for pumpkin beer to come out...

I waited patiently for a good week, but my drive to Kyle and Steph's house in Delaware called for a pit stop at Total Wine...FINALLY pumpkin beer. But so many to choose from. After much deliberation I end up picking out the prettiest labels and walked out with a sampling of Michlob Jack's Pumpkin Spice, Harvet Moon's Pumpkin Ale, and Dogfish Head's Punkin' Ale. Jackpot. Set and ready for fall. And Pumpkin Beer Bread.

I have to say I was skeptical. Beer Bread is one of my favorite breads, but with pumpkin? Don't be turned away, friends, it was soooo good. I thought at first it might've been just me and my love for everything pumpkin, but when my coworkers devoured the rest of the loaf before 11am I decided I need to share this recipe. So easy. So Vegan. So delicious.

PA Friends-I hope this warms your kitchen, TX Friends-I hope this makes your 90-degree October days feel more like Fall.

Pumpkin Ale Bread
3 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground cloves
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
12-oz bottle Pumpkin Ale

Preheat oven to 350F and lightly grease a 9×5 inch loaf pan.

In a very large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. Make a well in the center and add in vegetable oil, pumpking puree, and beer. Stir just until no streaks of flour remain, and pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake for 55-60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and the top springs back when lightly pressed. Loaf should be light or medium gold.Turn out of the pan and allow the bread to cool on a wire rack before slicing. When cool, store in an airtight container.

Makes 1 loaf

Recipe from Twin Tables