Merry Christmas!

Wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas!!

Away I go!

By the time you read this I will be on a train on my way to Dallas! I'm going for a fun girls weekend with one of our close family friends! Will be gone through Monday or Tuesday. It all depends when I'm ready to come back home. Well I'm not going to be ready but I must come home sometime so I can get ready to leave for OKC on Thursday morning. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!! I will try to take lots of pics just depends on what mood my camera is in. I will give you an update when I get back!

Note: The true meaning of the post is not to tell you I'm going away for the weekend. It was to test the scheduled times thing so I could make sure it works!

PS~ Christmas is one week away!! Yay! :)

Baking Day-Chunky Peanut Butter Bars

Don't those look yummy?? Well the one on the left IS yummy! The one on the right is well not. If you like to eat pumpkin out of a can with oats and chocolate on top then you will like them. I didn't. Even with all that chocolate. If you do want the recipe for those then go here. Don't say I didn't warn you about them.

Now those yummy things on the left are dangerous. Very dangerous. :) Here is the recipe:

Chunky Peanut Butter Bars

1 1/2 C. Flour
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda
3/4 C. Creamy or Chunky Peanut Butter
1/2 C. Light Butter, Softened
1/4 C. Splenda Sugar Blend
1/3 C. Splenda Brown Sugar Blend
1 Large Egg
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 11.5 ounce Package Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chunks

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Combine flour and baking soda in small bowl, set aside
3. Combine PB, butter, and both sugars in large bowl, beat at medium spead until creamy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chunks. Press into ungressed 13 by 9 inch baking pan, distributing chocolate chunks evenly.
4. Bake 18-20 minutes or until center is set. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into bars.

Note: I used creamy peanut butter. Also next time I would not add the whole bag of chocolate chunks. I think it was too much.

Enjoy! :)

Starbucks Love Project

Have you heard of the Starbucks Love Project? On December 7th 156 countries joined together to sing at exactly the same time to raise awareness of AIDS in Africa. Go here to see the video. It might take a few minutes to load but it is well worth the wait. This gave me chills. It is amazing! While your there be sure to share it with friends and family.

Thankful

If you follow me on Twitter then you have probably read my tweets from a few weeks ago that we didn't have water. We ended up not having water for about 30 minutes. I was not a happy camper. In the small town that we live in the power goes off frequently(for no reason), we have brown drinking water that is supposedly safe to drink(we buy bottled), and at times the water has very little pressure or is just simply shut off for no reason. Later that day I was thinking about my tweets and how I was not happy to not have water when it hit me. There are THOUSANDS of people all over this world(some even in my own town) that don't have the money to pay for water, or just simply don't have it where they live. They also might not have electricity, food, or even a house to stay in. I don't know about you but I realized that while it may be a pain, I can live for a few minutes and even longer with no water, electricity, and food. I will survive and be just fine. While I wasn't happy that I didn't have water to wash my hair with or do the dishes with, I realized I needed to be thankful for what I did have. I have so much compared to some people that live in our world. I have a family that loves me(even through the bad times); I have water, electricity, food, a house to live in, a computer and internet, a TV with cable, and SO much more.

You may be wondering how you can help. One way to help is to sponsor a child. There are several organizations that you can do this with. Our family uses World Vision. We have sponsored a child for many years. For about $1 a day you can sponsor a child in another part of the world that is in need. Just go here to learn more and sign up with World Vision. When you sponsor a child you will get a welcome kit that includes a picture and information of your child, the option to write and receive letters(even email!) your child, annual progress reports on your child, and updated pictures. For our family it is so neat to see a new picture and receive a letter from our child. We can keep up with how they are doing in school, their favorite things to do, and more.

I realize that some of you may not be able to sponsor a child right now but you can do something. You can pray. While we may not be able to see it, prayer does amazing things!

Update!

I know it has been a while since I have posted a real post. Sorry friends! I'm back now and ready to blog again! :) Let me get you up to date on a few things:

This past Friday December 4th we had our FIRST SNOW!! I was so excited! Snow in Texas on the first Friday of December! {Insert squeal here} It wasn't much and it didn't stick but hey it was snow and still fun! :)

Today I took my last final of the year! {Insert another squeal and happy dance here} I'm super happy to have school done with for this semester! Next semester I will be taking night classes and will work during the day. I'm excited. I'm ready to work again.

Well that is the latest update. I do have one more Christmas picture to share.

Hope you are having a great week!

Caramel Pecan Apple Pie-WFMW

I got this recipe from a friend of mine. I made it at Thanksgiving and it is wonderful!! So good I didn't get a picture!

Caramel Pecan Apple Pie

7 c. sliced peeled tart apples
1 tsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. vanilla extract
¼ C. finely chopped pecans
¼ C. packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp. sugar
4 ½ tsp. ground cinnamon
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
¼ C. caramel ice cream topping
1 unbaked pastry shell ( I made my own crust)

Topping:
2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. cold butter
½ C. finely ground pecans
¼ C. caramel ice cream topping, room temperature

1. In a large bowl, toss apples with lemon juice and vanilla. Combine the pecans, sugar, cinnamon and cornstarch; add to apple mixture and toss to coat. Pour caramel topping in the bottom of pastry shell. Then transfer apple mixture to pastry shell.
2. In a small bowl, combine flour and sugar. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in pecans. Sprinkle over filling.
3. Bake at 350 for 55-60 minutes or until filling is bubbly and topping is browned. Immediately drizzle with caramel topping. Cool on a wire rack.

Note: I substituted Splenda Brown sugar and regular Splenda for sugars. I also used the sugar-free caramel ice cream topping. Instead of the pastry shell I used 2 deep dish pie crusts. Easy to make one and then save the other for later. Enjoy!!

For more WFMW tips and recipes go here!

Chegg(Textbook rentals)-WFMW

When I decided to go back to school this summer I had no idea how expensive college textbooks had gotten. I was shocked! For my summer classes I just bought my books at the college bookstore but this fall I found a MUCH cheaper place to get my books. I found Chegg! At Chegg you simply rent your textbook for the semester. They have several different rental periods for you to pick from. I went with the semester choice. This fall I saved over $123.00! That was just on two books! Chegg is easy to use. Simply find your book, pick your rental term, pay and in no time your books will be at your door! They even send you the return shipping labels. Oh and on my last Chegg order I found some freebies in the bottom of the box! :) For those of you that have bought your books and are needing/wanting to sell them back Chegg will also buy your books.

Go here to rent your textbooks and see how Chegg works for you! Be sure and use this special code to save even more! CC101919

Chegg definitely works for me! For more WFMW tips go here!

More Christmas pics

Today I was having fun with my camera and enjoying this cool weather we have!

Me and Tiger

Hmmm wonder who this is? :)

Christmas kisses!

Missy(and some color!)

Yeah I was having a little fun with black & white! :)