"Did you find this on Pinterest?"

No.

I don't know how to work that thing so someone's going to need to show me what's up over Christmas break.  I do, however, still use StumbleUpon and it works just fine, thank you very much!

I went to Athens this past, past, past weekend to see literally all of my favorite people in one place- what a blessing to be surrounded by such encouraging and hilarious friends! I love you all more than you know!  Anyways, I figured I needed a host/hostess gift for everyone we visited but it ended up sitting in Chris' kitchen all weekend.  I'm so glad he got to enjoy the majority of it because it was DELICIOUS.

Just picture this:  Brownies, on top of Oreos on top of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.  It's the most appropriate threesome EVER.

layer 1

layer 2

layer 3

it was so thick, it needed 2 pans!

seriously, it was amazing!

Here's the recipe (which I don't feel bad stealing because literally everyone I talked to about this recipe asked if I saw it on Pinterest, so apparently it's pretty common...)

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups (12 ounces) milk chocolate chips
1 pkg Double Stuffed Oreos
1 Family Size (9×13) Brownie mix
1/4 cup hot fudge topping


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cream the butter and both sugars in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed for 3-5 minutes. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix well to thoroughly combine. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt, then slowly incorporate into the mixer until the flour is just combined. Stir in chocolate chips. Spread the cookie dough in the bottom of a 9×13 baking dish that’s been lined with wax paper and sprayed with cooking spray. Top with a layer of Oreos. Mix together brownie mix, adding an optional 1/4 cup of hot fudge topping to the mix. Pour the brownie batter over the cookie dough and Oreos. Bake at 350 degrees F for 45-55 minutes.
this specific recipe found here!

Also, meet my new best friend, Marsha the Mixer:

She was found at a garage sale and then, coincidentally, sat in a garage (ours...) for a long time and now she is mine and I LOVE her.

Welcome to the fam, Marsha!

crafty cupcakes

Recently we had a super precious office party and I decided to get ambitious and make lots and lotsa cupcakes.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the inside of the really creative one, so I stole one from this blog.  I saw the idea in a magazine a few months ago and couldn't wait to try it!

Here are my candy corn cupcakes:

nothing special, right?

wrong-o! this is the picture I stole but mine actually did look like that!
she took the bottom out of her cupcake and I took the top out.
tomayto, tomaaato

cut a pyramid shaped hole in the cupcake

fill with icing, starting with white, then orange, then yellow

give a little squirt of chocolate on top...

ta da! so delicious and so easy!
time consuming and messy, but easy.

Then I made acorn cupcakes! These were much less time consuming once all of your acorns were finished!

take a mini nilla wafer and chocolate-glue it to a hershey kiss! voila! 

I will definitely do these again! Also, someone needs to buy me a corkscrew because this is unacceptable...

delay of game

So I had the best intentions of posting this a loooong time ago, but this little blog of mine is way down on the bottom of my Priorities Totem Pole.

Here's an update on my life:

I'm in the middle of one of my student-teaching semesters (first of three...)!  I'm at a local Catholic High School with eleventh grade students.  From what I've heard about others' experiences in other schools, I'm livin' the dream and it's awesome.  Very fulfilling and rewarding! More to come about being a pseudo-Catholic...

The Homecoming Parade........ I know.

Threw Mama a surprise party for her 28th birthday... Never saw it coming!

It was a "Hat Party"... So Susan-ish

I just finished my service learning hours at a local Middle School where I had lunch twice a week with an ELL 7th grader and she was PRECIOUS.  She taught me a lot of Spanish and was really impressed that I could keep up with her when she spoke Spanish (take that, Señora Cordell...).  Her English was perfect but she has a sad backstory so please pray for her family and home life, she is so amazing!

Our office just had a bonding night/Harvest Par-tay, more from that later because the cupcakes were too cute not to share the recipe!

We are a silly bunch

I just got back from a trip to beautiful Laramie, Wyoming, to see my sweet friend Sarah!  More pictures are on Facebook, but I promise they don't do it justice!

Vedauwoo Park

Flying over the Rockies

just one of the natives

Alabama is now 8-1 after a pathetic loss to LSU last night... the game was a blast though, I couldn't have asked for more (except maybe a better kicker)!  Our day started on the quad with a crazy man in a wheel chair who invited us to some hoity-toity tailgate with an open bar (yes, please!), then we went to stand in line to get in, only to find out that our friend got in the game 15 minutes before the gate opened so we didn't have to stand with all the crazy people! Then, we had a friend bring us free drinks while we were outside of the stadium and concluded the day with some hilarious people commentating the whole game.  AWESOME.  Win or lose, we will always win the party!

precious.

priorities, people.

Now that you know all about me, here's my final Halloween craft! I only posted projects two on here, but my room was full of hot glue, fabric, etc. because I just love Halloween!  I also love sale prices so November 1st my Halloween stash doubled- $57 later and I'm set for next year!

This Halloween-y Wreath Cost me $3.  For Real.  Everything came from the Dollar Store and the structure of the wreath was just a wire hanger...

all my cheap-o materials

ta-da! 

seriously the best part of any holiday... am I right?!