This Crazy Life

Before I get to the crazy life I'm living, I have GOT to share my new favorite breakfast with you....

Pumpkin Yogurt with Cheerios

I am absolutely obsessed with this creation. It is soo yummy and soo easy. I just add a spoonful of pumpkin to my yogurt and a little less than 1/2 a cup of cheerios. Why are the original Cheerios soo yummy?! I am always jealous of the little kids in Sunday school class that get to munch on them all the time. ha I'm pathetic!! Anyway, I love love love this breakfast for many reasons, but especially because it tricks me into believing that it is actually Fall. It is October right?? 

Now for the news you've been waiting for....Announcement #1- I HAVE A NEW JOB!!!! Do not think that because I am super excited that I didn't like my old job. I absolutely LOVED my job. It was a very hard decision to leave, but I felt like this is an opportunity that I cannot pass up. 

My new desk with the beautiful flowers my fabulous husband sent me! 

Me (looking a tad greasy) after the flowers made my day!

So I'm guessing you're wanting the story... Well, one of my best friends works for Genesco Sports Enterprises, a sports marketing consulting agency that works with sports sponsorships and creates effective activation strategies, and she mentioned that she would definitely need me to help for the Super Bowl this year. I know that might have been a pretty confusing explanation, but essentially they have clients like Gatorade, PepsiCo, FritoLay, Motorola, etc. and they handle their hospitality and how they are going to really use their sponsorships. I was soo excited that Brittany wanted me to help her with the Super Bowl since I have been very interested in Genesco since I started at Baylor. I thought it would be an opportunity that could really open doors. 

Less than a week later, Brittany's boss called me asking to set up an interview because she wanted me to possibly start at the end of October and work all the way through the Super Bowl. Holy Cow!! I was super excited! My interview was fabulous and she offered me the job while we were there. The only problem was that I loved my job and I didn't know if I could leave everyone at the bakery. After many many tears, prayers and discussions with Ben, my family and my boss, I decided to take the position.

I have been going back and forth for the past 2 weeks from Genesco and the bakery, but will start full-time at Genesco on November 1st. I am working on the Verizon Wireless account which just so happens to be the same account Brittany handles. How fabulous is that?!?! It's kind of hard to explain all that I will be doing, but basically we are event planning for the week Verizon will be in town for the Super Bowl and then I will be working the week of the Super Bowl as well. I will actually  move into the hotel for a week to make sure everything runs smoothly. I am soo soo excited about this opportunity and cannot wait to jump in full force!! A couple other added bonuses of the job are that I get to take an hour and a half lunch and I usually take this opportunity to take about a 2 mile walk and enjoy the sunshine AND that I get to work with one of my best friends!! It is soo nice to see a familiar face everyday! 

Brittany and me

In other breaking news....NO I AM NOT PREGNANT!!!! But, my oldest sister is about 4 months along and announced on Tuesday that....

That's right....it looks like our clan is going to remain one dominated by girls for a while! Ohmygoodness, I cannot wait for the little nugget to get here! I was still at Baylor when Annie was born (although I came in for the delivery) and with all the craziness (school, graduating, getting married, starting a job and getting settled) I feel like I still haven't had enough time with her. :( That is NOT going to happen this time around. Since I am now in Uptown Dallas for work, I will take full advantage of my close proximity to my nieces. I think one of the most fun things is to think about what she will look like and what her personality will be like. I mean have you seen Annie?!?! She could not be more adorable or more fun!!!

I could post a bajillion pictures, but I'll leave you with those. This little one just makes me smile and I cannot wait for another one to bring even more joy to our lives! 

Life really is crazy these days....God has such great plans and he just keeps surprising me. Stay tuned for all the other crazy things going on...they are never lacking. 

The First of Fall

  I am absolutely loving this weather and would be totally fine if it was like this year round. Well, maybe a couple of months where it was a little warmer so I could break out the bather and lay by the pool, but other than that I would be a happy camper. This is the time of year that I definitely miss walking to class on a college campus. This time last year I was walking EVERYWHERE at Baylor. I would walk to class, walk to Common Grounds (the most amazing coffee shop), walk to meetings at the panhellenic building, walk to intramural games and walk back home. I LOVED IT!! Not to mention this is the perfect weather to train for my half marathon. I could run outside in this all day long! 

Along with the weather, I love fall because of all the amazing things you can cook and bake. I cannot wait to make soup and all sorts of things with my crockpot. I might even have to splurge one day and make some Frito Pie!! That was one of my absolute favorites growing up! In fact, one of the things Ben asked me to get at the grocery store the other day was Fritos....I know he wants them for his peanut butter though, but that's another story. 

Anywho....I've been dying to bake a fall sweet treat and finally found some time tonight while Ben was at a meeting. I found this recipe over at Annie's Eats and knew it was the one. The combination of butterscotch and pumpkin pulled me right in. One of my co-workers has been asking me to make her pumpkin cheesecake ever since I met my parents after work at Grand Lux (apparently their's is amazing). This is no cheesecake, but hopefully this will satisfy her craving til I find a good pumpkin cheesecake recipe and a longer block of time. I substituted a few healthy alternatives for a couple of the ingredients, and was a little nervous that these might ruin the recipe, but I was soo happy with the finished product. These cookies are absolutely delicious!! I will definitely have to take most to the office or I might eat them all in one sitting. The substitutions I made were: Splenda for sugar, unsweetened applesauce for veggie oil and instead of just a cup of butterscotch chips I just emptied the whole bag. :) The applesauce substitution made the cookies so fluffy. The additional butterscotch chips overpowered the pumpkin a little, but I love butterscotch so I did NOT mind at all! 

I got a little anxious and had to peek! 

Fresh out of the oven...look at that gooeyness!!!

yum yum yum...even Ben liked these!

Pumpkin Butterscotch Cookies

  Adapted from Annie's Eats

Yield: 2 dozen cookies

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1½ tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 large eggs
1 cup Splenda
½ cup applesauce
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 tsp. vanilla extract
11 oz bag butterscotch chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. I didn't have parchment, so I used foil and it worked just fine. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda salt and cinnamon in a small bowl and set aside. Beat eggs and Splenda on medium-high until smooth and light in color. Blend in applesauce, pumpkin and vanilla until well combined. Switch the mixer to low speed and add in the dry ingredients just until combined. Gently fold in the butterscotch chips. 

Drop good-sized mounds of dough onto the prepared sheets. The dough will seem a little runny, but don't worry, it will be fine. I used a medium ice-cream scoop to scoop the dough. Bake cookies for about 14 minutes, rotating halfway through. Let the cookies cook for a few minutes before transferring to plate. 

ENJOY!!

Lately

Since I've finally updated you on what went on in my life the past few months, lets get you all caught up on what I am up to now. LETS PLAY CATCH UP!!

Now that Ben and I are back for good and have no more vacations in our near future, we are adjusting to real life. Things are busy busy busy! One of my friends asked me, "What do y'all do? Watch tv? Are you bored?" haha I informed her that we haven't had too much time to just sit down and watch tv. I mean of course we make time for the important shows like Flipping Out, The Rachel Zoe Project and now the best one on tv...AMAZING RACE. It has been quite fun getting Ben into these shows. I do endure the occasional Outdoor Channel show and we have been watching many many football and baseball games, but this is when we do have time to just sit down and relax.

Other activities in the life of Mr. and Mrs. Ben Clark include:

Enjoying friends and celebrating with them, attending weddings, birthday parties, graduation parties, visiting friends, getting involved with our church, seeing family, becoming active in new business ventures, watching lots of football and enjoying being husband and wife.

I had to wear the kiddie shows...embarrassing. 

All the boys celebrating Chris's birthday at the bowling alley! 

Pretty sure he beat me! 

We also got to go to the Brad Paisley concert with some friends. Ben is absolutely obsessed with Brad Paisley and he was in complete awe the entire show. It was a lot of fun to hear him live and I totally cried when he played "She's Everything," the song Ben and I danced to at our wedding. We also saw a lot, I mean a lot, of interesting people at the concert. What are parents thinking letting their kids out of the house in some of the clothes they wear? I mean holy moly...a bikini is not appropriate for a concert! 

OH, and Darius Rucker became my new favorite person to see in concert!!

Jenni got to come too!!!

Dear Brad, We Love You!!

We also both got to be in 2 of our very best friend's wedding. Colby was one of Ben's fraternity brothers and roommates and Emily was my roommate senior year. They were each in our wedding and we got to be in their big day too! 

The newlyweds! 

I got a little sweaty on the dance floor! 

At the rehearsal dinner...it was soo fun getting to reunite with so many Baylor friends!

Holy Moly, we were an old married couple at the wedding! :) 

Frat Bros

A couple weeks later we got the chance to celebrate Jason's (our Dupree!) graduation. He is now a Baylor GRAD!!! We had soo much fun celebrating with friends and I even got the honor of designing his cake! 

The whole crew

Jason with his parents and the cake! I adore this sweet family! 

Not pictured is the never ending game of corn hole we all played. It was a 3 hour tournament! Lots of bean bag throwing and lots of beer. 

In my world....I have been designing lots and lots and lots of cakes. I love my job!! I recently took over all of our corporate and non-profit work as well as the e-mails and am still doing the wedding and sales consulting, delivery coordinating and overseeing baking I was previously doing. It took me a couple of weeks to adjust to all of the added responsibility, but I have developed a good routine and now have a pretty good system going. I love being busy and getting to make people happy all day! Here are some recent cakes! 

Little kids birthday party cake. Theme = farm animals

My favorite: FANCY NANCY cake! 

Day at the ballpark cake

Cargo pants cake

Speed boat cake

30th birthday cake

Tennis racket cake...there were tennis ball cupcakes to go with

Baby shower cake

For a 1st birthday

Another 30th birthday cake!

Like I said...my job is fabulous!! Anywho...I also got to take a trip to The Woodlands to enjoy a weekend at the lake with some of my best friends. 

Pre-tubing

Just catching some air

There was lots and lots of tubing followed by some very sore bodies! 

Lately, our weekends have been consumed mostly by football. The Cowboys and Baylor Bears are our teams and we were even able to go to the Baylor vs TCU game in Ft. Worth a couple weekends ago. The Bears totally got their butts kicked, but we enjoyed some yummy food and margs at Joe T. Garcia's afterwards. YUMMM!!!!

Besties

Some of my favorite girlies from Baylor were able to come up for the day! 

Best friends since 9th grade!

They love me! 

And of course, we enjoyed another Baylor wedding. I cannot even tell you how many we have been to in the past 2 years. Holy Moly!!

We love to dance!!

Things seem to be somewhat settling down. We are still busy with work and friends and I am training for a 1/2 Marathon in December, but we have found we have more nights to spend together and I am getting to cook a lot more. Of course, I am loving that I get to experiment with new recipes and have friends over to the apartment for dinner. The weather has been absolutely beautiful for the past week and I am enjoying every second of it. It's just that season where things are slowing down and I intend on soaking up every bit of it! 

Second Time Around Then Back to Real Life

Speaking of real life...apparently I am having a hard time adjusting since I just cannot find enough time to blog. I guess I just haven't really found a way to balance a crazy work schedule, a social life and getting to spend time with my husband when he is in town. Ben's new job requires him to travel quite a bit right now, so when he is here I don't really want to do much else than spend time with him. Then, when he's gone, I try and keep myself busy and obviously neglect the blog. I apologize. I will try and do better about keeping y'all updated on life.

My last post was about our honeymoon in Riviera Maya and after we were home for a day, we left again for Grand Cayman. I know... what a hard life! Ben's parents were celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary and asked us to join them with Ben's sister and another family. It was amazing!! Here are some pictures of our fabulous time in Grand Cayman at the Ritz. There are also some great pics of the delicious food we ate everyday! After this post I will start informing y'all about my everyday life. There's tons going on so it's not like there is a lack of inspiration. Y'all just stay on me and I will get back to the blog world. ENJOY!

Mango bread...holy yum!

The happy couple!

How adorable are they?!?!

Sweet Tuna!!!!

Yes, I did scuba dive...NBD!!

My big supporter!

2 of my very favorite people!!

The fabulous Keys!!

Beach Bums

Sting Ray City!

At Sunshine Grill...I want to own a place like it! 

I am officially a Clark

The Whole Gang

My amazing meal in Miami

Ben's meal. How cute is their presentation?!?!

Birthday girl on our way back to Dallas. Quick stop at Barton G for dinner...yummm!!

Before I ate way too much of the dessert and felt sick the whole flight home. Oh well it was worth it!