Monkey Bread

I don't have any pictures of Monkey Bread to post with this. But, a recipe this good doesn't really need a picture. Most of you who read my blog have had my monkey bread anyway and know what it looks like.

Monkey Bread

Preheat your oven to 350

2 Cans Hungry Jack biscuits, cut into quarters
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Shake the above three ingredients in a gallon size ziploc bag until all biscuit quarters are evenly coated. Dump them in a greased bundt pan.

1 stick margarine
2/3 c. sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon

Put the above three ingredients in a small sauce pan and stir until the butter is melted and the sugar is dissolved. Keep stirring until you have it just right (it will bubble and stuff, but don't let if burn.)

Pour the melted butter and sugar mixture over the biscuits in your bundt pan.


Bake for 30-40 minutes, until biscuits are done. You will want to turn it out immediately or you risk it sticking. If some pieces stick, just pull them off the pan and stick them back where they belong...no one will know and even if they do they won't care.

I can't seem to find Hungry Jack biscuits any more so I get the big cans of Grands...usually the buttery ones.

Yum-o!

Various Ramblings

Scott and I went to Scott's parents' house for Thanksgiving. His whole family was there. We took a lot of pictures, which I want to put in a slide, but I can't right now because Scott is doing school stuff and we (well I) discovered the other day that if I am trying to upload pictures to a website, it slows down not only my internet connection, but Scott's too. That's because we share an internet connection. I thought two cords, two connections, but oh well...I can share...

Anyway...I'll post our Thanksgiving pictures of our family some other time. For now, I will just post one picture (apparently this picture was enough to cause enough drag to cause Scott to say "Are you uploading something?" I can't get away with anything :oP-) Scott's parents threw a mini birthday party for Scott and SaraBeth since their birthdays are both in November. Scott's parents got him this George Foreman grill with removable plates off of his wishlist. Yay! We used it tonight to make Stuffed Fiesta Burgers. A word to the wise: don't use a George Foreman grill to make burgers stuffed with cheese. The grill seems to squeeze the burgers...and all the cheese squeezed right out. I scraped it off the grill and onto the top of the burgers. They were still good and there was still some cheese in there...but I don't know if we'll do that again. We are still pumped about the grill. Scott is especially because he doesn't like to grill in the freezing cold.

I have some random thoughts of late.

First, our house: Our real estate agent included our house in an article in the Rockdale paper about how resales are better than new homes a couple of weeks ago. The day before the article came out, someone came and looked at our house, but we have had no one else come look at it. I think our house is really cute, and our yard is really nice! Oh well...someone who appreciates our hard work will come along.

Next are just random thoughts from Marcy:

Friday night we went to see a movie with Shana, Josh, and Andy. Scott hadn't been feeling well and we were running out of Advil Cold and Sinus, which we love, plus that will keep you awake. So, we stopped by our Kroger, which is open 24/7...yes, folks, way out here in Loganville. Anyway, we go to pick up some Advil Cold and Sinus and some Nyquil (so Scott could sleep and breathe), and there were no boxes of Advil Cold and Sinus on the shelves...just these little cards that looked like the box. So, we take our little card and our bottle of Nighttime (which is the generic brand, but my daddy always says it's just as good, and he knows about these things) up to the pharmacy counter and the poor pharmacist tells us that the federal government passed a law in September that causes anyone who sells this stuff to enter the purchasers into their federal database, but they provide no funding. So, Scott has to fill out this form with all kinds of information, including the exact time he is there purchasing this stuff...and give his birthday so that he can buy the Nighttime. Apparently, people were buying up tons of Advil Cold and Sinus because it contains Sudafed and you can use Sudafed to make Meth! How scary is that?! Did you know about this? How do people find this stuff out?

Wednesday, I had to stop by the store on the way home to get whole milk, because that's what I needed to make macaroni and cheese for Thanksgiving and I had forgotten to get it at my big grocery visit. I also needed my eye makeup remover and I had allowed myself to get into an emergency state and I am not brave enough to go to Walmart the day before Thanksgiving to save a few cents on eye makeup remover. So, I went to Kroger. I am a fan of Kroger, what can I say. So, I go to the area with all the face stuff and right next to my normal Neutrogena Oil Free Eye Makeup Remover is a pump bottle of Neutrogena foaming facial cleanser and eye makeup remover all in one. I think, "no way". I flipped the bottle over and the back of the bottle plainly states that it easily removes waterproof mascara. I think...this is too good to be true...but I bought it anyway. I hate eye make up remover. I always rub forever and still end up rubbing half my mascara off with my towel after washing my face and still get out of the shower the next morning with mascara somewhere around my eyes. So, I tried this soap stuff. I figured Neutrogena is a trusted brand, right? Well, I have used this soap several times now and it smells uncomfortably similar to the OXYclean foaming cleanser that we clean our carpet with when the cats cough up a furball and my skin definitely feels clean after I use it...but very dry. I think I might compare the ingredients on my facial cleanser to the bottle of carpet cleaner. Oh, and it got about as much mascara off my eyelashes as the eye makeup remover does, maybe a teensy bit more! So, that brings two questions to my mind. First, should I keep using this stuff if it smells like carpet cleaner? I mean, I haven't broken out and while my face initially feels dry, it isn't dry once I have put on moisturizer...no flakes or anything. And secondly...does anyone ever actually get all of their mascara off without feeling as if they have caused undereye wrinkles worse than their grandmother's? This may seem insignificant to some...but wrinkles worse than my grandmother's and a dirty face seems pretty serious to me every night when I battle with myself between which fate I must face.

So, that was a long post about nothing really...I hope you enjoyed a little look into the random thoughts I have quite often. Please feel free to let me know about the meth and the mascara/facial cleanser situation.

Happy Birthday Scott!

Today is Scott's 30th birthday! Yep, the BIG 30!!! We went to Provino's for his birthday lunch after church because Provino's gives you a free entree and free spumoni icecream on your birthday. It was really good. Scott's birthday present came much earlier this year when we bought him his Wii, so I didn't give him anything today. But, we did get to go to church and spend the whole day together. Happy Birthday Scott!

An Early Thanksgiving

Last Sunday night we went to the Stringer's for a "small group" Thanksgiving dinner. We had a great time and got to sample everyone's best recipes!

Silly Scenes With Sampson

Where's Sampson?

Here He Is!

(If you click on the pictures, you will be able to see better, then hit your "back" arrow on your browser to come back to the blog)

Football

Well, I am sure that you have all seen the tailgating and football "slide show" I have over on the right side of the blog. Scott and I have been to three games this year at GA Tech. The last one we had tickets for this season was this past Saturday against UNC. The game was at noon, so we brought breakfast foods for the tailgate. I brought sausage balls and monkey bread. The monkey bread was a big hit. I always forget how much most people like monkey bread. I will post the recipe on the blog soon. I didn't take the camera because I was tired of keeping up with it. We also ended up not sitting in our seats, but sitting with our friend Rob who has REALLY good seats on the 42 yard line. Plus, I am sure it was nice that Scott had someone he could talk football with. I enjoyed it because I wasn't worried about the drunk people that we sat next to the last time and I didn't really have to pay that much attention to the game since Scott could talk to Rob about it. Altogether, it was probably my most enjoyable tailgate and game this season. Thanks for inviting us to sit with you, Rob! This coming Saturday is the annual UGA vs. GT game. Can Tech break the losing streak they have had against UGA this year? We'll see...

Anniversary (Post 2)

Scott and I did have a great anniversary. Thanks to everyone who wished us happy anniversary on the blog, in person, by email, on myspace, or by sending a card! Scott brought me flowers to the office on Thursday. They were beautiful daisies, a mixture of yellow and white. They are still as beautiful today as they were on Thursday! I love daisies. On Friday night we went out for our "annversary dinner" to the Texas Roadhouse, which is a really good steak restaurant that opened up a while back in Snellville that we had been wanting to visit, since the one in Hiram is so good. It was fun and super yummy. I had the best steak I have had in a restaurant in quite a while on Friday night. We also had excellent service. I would definitely recommend Texas Roadhouse to anyone!

Happy Anniversary To Us!

Today is mine and Scott's anniversary! Yep, 4 years ago today (Nov. 15, 2003), we were standing on the altar getting married. It does not seem like 4 years have gone by yet. I can't imagine how quickly the next 50 will go by! Here are some of the pictures that I already had in digital format, thanks to my friend Emily and her dad, who was our photographer. He took some pictures of the ceremony using her digital camera.

Yes, I Still Have a Job

I just wanted to let everyone know that yes, Pike has filed Chapter 11 Bankruptcy (voluntarily), and yes, I still have a job. We were told that our pay and benefits will not be affected. Thank you all for asking. Thank you all for your prayers. This drought affects all of us and we need to be in prayer for all the people that are affected by it. And, PRAY FOR RAIN!

Chicken Pot Pie-Super Easy!

Scott's sister Tracy gave me this recipe, sort of. She gave me a recipe that had a Bisquick biscuit dough crust and used frozen vegetables, but I love pie crust and I like the fact that Veg-all has less little green peas than frozen vegetables. So, here it is:

Chicken Pot Pie:

Frozen Pie Crust (double)

1 can Veg-all (drained)
1 13 oz. can of chicken

1 can cream of chicken soup

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Mix the last 3 ingredients together and pour into the bottom shell. Pull the edges off the second shell and flip it over onto the top. I like the crust, so I just put the edges on top. It doesn't look as pretty, but it's good. You'll want to poke a few holes in the top too. Bake for 30-40 minutes, depending on your oven. You will want the top crust to be pretty crunchy and for the sauce inside to be bubbly. If you don't get the crust done enough, the leftovers might be a little soggy. Let it rest for about 10 minutes before serving.

Enjoy! Let me know if you try this and if you like it!

Last Weekend

Last weekend was very busy for us. On Saturday, we went to visit our friends Jeff and Adriene who recently had twins and then we went to a shower for my friend Arlene, whom I have known since elementary school. Arlene got married this past Saturday and she lives in Maryland. So, she came down for a shower with her GA friends.

Jeff and Adriene's twins, Erin and Gracie, are too cute! At nine weeks old,they are just now getting to be the size of a newborn at about 8 lbs each. Erin looks a lot like Adriene and Gracie looks a lot like Jeff. They are too sweet. We really enjoyed our visit with the family. We even got to meet Adriene's parents.

Erin is on the left and Gracie is on the right.

Arlene's shower was given by another friend from high school, Jennifer, who we all called J.K. There weren't many of us there, but we enjoyed ourselves. We painted pottery at a place called Just Kiln Time in the Marietta square. I painted Arlene and Josh a plate with their wedding date on it. I was glad to meet Josh. He seemed like a really nice guy.

In order, Me, Arlene, and J.K.

Here is a picture of the whole group.

Nosey

They say curiosity killed the cat...well, it didn't in this situation, but it did give him spots in his eyes for a few minutes! Hee hee.

Lunch with Lindsey and Ruby

Last Wednesday, I met one of my best friends, Lindsey, and her daughter, Ruby, at Moe's close to my office for lunch. Ruby will be one year old this month! I can't believe she is already turning a year old. Ruby is one of the happiest babies ever! I walked into Moe's and Lindsey was holding Ruby wearing her cute Halloween t-shirt and I said hey to Ruby and she smiled and laughed and waved at me. So cute! I left my camera at my office, so Lindsey sent me some super cute pictures of Ruby in her Halloween costumes. Lindsey's mom had gotten Ruby a ladybug outfit, but Ruby wasn't a big fan of the wings hitting her arms, so they dressed her up as a dog. So cute! It was REALLY good to meet up with Lindsey for lunch. She lives in Canton, so we really don't see each other as often as we used to when we would hang out every week almost. Well, enjoy the fun pictures of Ruby!

Halloween at Pike

For Halloween, we got to dress up at work. I was meeting my friend Lindsey and her daughter Ruby for lunch (yep, I left my camera on my desk at work, so I didn't get any pictures, but I will post some picture of Ruby once Lindsey sends me some in her costume that night), so I didn't exactly want to dress up to go out to lunch. But, several people did and I got some good pictures.

This is my immediate supervisor, Chuck. He dressed up as a pirate and walked around all day saying "ARGH!" to people. He has four sons!

This is Sherri and Toni who, obviously, dressed up as cowgirls. Sherri does AR and I have to work closely with her. She is very nice and helpful. Toni is in charge of training all the store employees. So, she knows what they are talking about when they call and ask me questions about what they do in the software and I have no idea what they are talking about. She also knows a lot about gift cards, which have been a real pain for me thus far.

This is Kymm, who also does AR. She dressed up as Foxy Brown. I think that is a character from Austin Powers. She looked really good in this outfit! She is also very helpful to me, but fairly new to the company. She is really nice.

This is Jolie. She works in HR, but the funny thing is that she lives in Loganville and teaches kickboxing and step aerobics at the gym Scott and I used to be members of. I had her classes many times! It's a small world!

There are also 6 other people in the accounting department who didn't dress up and the VP of Finance and Accounting and our admin. So, it takes a lot of people to coordinate 29 stores! I am getting used to being at a new place. I am still getting used to the work. But, I know that in time I will settle in.