Happy Fall Y'all!

I love that the weather is getting a little cooler! I decorated super early for fall, just because it is my favorite season to decorate for. Plus with orange being my favorite color, it makes it very easy!

Here are a few pics of my fall decor,

I'm still lacking a few things. But my goal was to make it feel like fall without going too overboard. Sometimes simple is better in my mind.
Happy Fall! Now go enjoy a yummy pumpkin spice latte. They are to die for!

Heartbreak City

This past week Fayetteville has been so electric. I have never in my life seen the excitement in a town like this for such a "hopeful" game. It was a true media frenzy. I mean every conversation last week was about this game. Everything was in our favor. The night before, the U of A had a pep rally that lasted into the morning hours. Staduim drive was a huge line of tents, students and cars. Students began camping out last Sunday. Everyone was calling the Hogs of course. It was awesome!

There was also lots of talk about Mallett being a Heisman hopeful. A guy at Marc's work started this website called "Mustache for Mallett" it was created to show support for Ryan Mallett while raising money for a local charity. This campaign was released last thursday and got a ton of press.
Guess whose face was the "face" of this campaign?

None other than my man!!! Haha!

We couldn't believe it. This pic was taken with the app called "stachestastic."

It even made the news. You can see the clip here:
http://nwahomepage.com/fulltext-news?nxd_id=188645
We got a good laugh and I got several texts asking me when he grew this. Umm hello, wrong color people.

Back to Heartbreak City.
We headed to tailgate the morning of the game. We were super pumped and had high hopes for our piggies! I have to say I was a bit nervous, hoping we wouldn't get stomped after this whole media frenzy.

\

Thankfully we didn't get stomped, but we did get beat by a hair. We seriously had them beat the whole time and then defeated ourselves in the last quarter. It was draining and heartbreaking. They did so well for 3/4 of the game. And poor Mallett, you know he is just beating himself up. Poor piggies. I still love them and think they will continue to have a great rest of the season!

Go Hogs Go!

Fall Celebration

The other night, my amazing friend Katie had us all over for a fall celebration. It was the perfect night to enjoy some yummy fall desserts and to get us all ready for fall! She is incredibly talented and thought out every detail to incorporate fall throughout her party.
You should definitely check the party out at The City Cradle. Leave her a comment about what you love about Katie's fall celleration and you too could win a giveaway! It really is worth looking at, especially if you need some fall inspiration!

red velvet cake

Red velvet cake has been a new obsession over the last year. Sometimes I just crave it. I think because its not super chocolaty or rich. I think it started with having a red velvet cupcake from Sprinkles in Dallas. Anyways, I was trying to come up with a fun recipe for our kick-off night for community group.
I decided to check out bakerella.com and boy I hit the jack pot. She had a recipe for red velvet cake balls.

Here is her recipe:

Red Velvet Cake Balls1 box red velvet cake mix (cook as directed on box for 13 X 9 cake)
1 can cream cheese frosting (16 oz.)
1 package chocolate bark (regular or white chocolate)
wax paper

1. After cake is cooked and cooled completely, crumble into large bowl.
2. Mix thoroughly with 1 can cream cheese frosting. (It may be easier to use fingers to mix together, but be warned it will get messy.)
3. Roll mixture into quarter size balls and lay on cookie sheet. (Should make 45-50. You can get even more if you use a mini ice cream scooper, but I like to hand roll them.)
4. Chill for several hours. (You can speed this up by putting in the freezer.)
5. Melt chocolate in microwave per directions on package.
6. Roll balls in chocolate and lay on wax paper until firm. (Use a spoon to dip and roll in chocolate and then tap off extra.)

 Only melt a few pieces of chocolate bark at a time because it starts to cool and thicken. It’s easier to work with when it’s hot.

(picture and recipe from http://www.bakerella.com/)

You can also use white chocolate. Its a little harder to work with, but very yummy. I did have to add oil to my chocolate just as you would for a chocolate fountain. It was just too thick to dip the cake in. Mine definitely did not look that pretty, but I think if I made them again I could make them look a little better! They were a huge hit and so very yummy! I would also recommend making them the day before your event, because these little suckers can be time consuming.

Whose Stuff is it?

This past weekend while I was in Little Rock we went to Fellowship bible church. I began going there in 6^th grade and have always loved it. While I have been gone from Little Rock for 8 years now a lot has changed there. The location, the pastors, and a lot of the congregation.

Every time I go visit, I always get so inspired with the teachings. I feel like they are always bringing it and challenging all of West Little Rock, which is definitely a good and needed thing. This past Sunday, the message was on “Stuff”. I was thinking Oh no, why this message, this Sunday? I love my “stuff.” The funny thing was my parents just moved a few weekends ago. After 30 years of marriage and living in the same house longer than they normally do, they had accumulated some stuff (as we all would.) So the timing of this message really made us all laugh.  

On that note, they spoke about how there is a power attached to our suff that can sometimes take hold of our hearts. We begin to feel we are the owner instead of God, when in reality we are only the steward of what He has given us. They also said that Jesus spent more time teaching about stuff than any other subject in the world. Fun Fact:  There are currently 2300 verses about stuff.

When I think about it, my stuff is so important to me. I guard it, don’t always love to share it, and hoard it for the most part. Why is giving stuff away so hard? Marc is always so, so good about giving. I know he would give everything away if I would let him. In the sermon, they stated that extreme generosity begins to happen when we become stewards instead of owners.

LUKE 12:15  Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard

against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the

abundance of his possessions."

So for now, I’m going to to work on being a good steward, because really we can’t take a U-Haul to Heaven with us.

Music Monday!

So I completely forgot last week to do this.

For today I want to introduce you to The Shins. I just recently discovered this band and I really enjoy their sound. They aren't new, just new to me!

Style: Folk-pop
Artist: The Shins
Album: Oh, Inverted World
Title: New Slang

Listen here if you would like:  http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/s/New+Slang/1Vtr0D . It's great chill music, probably not the greatest workout music. Very enjoyable though. One of my new faves for sure!

Happy Monday. Maybe this will make it a bit more enjoyable!

Sweet Moments Winner

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Number one is the winner! I used random.org and it chose number 1, which is Sarah Ward!

Congrats Sarah. Just email me your address and your prize pack will be on it's way.
Email me at mlyount12{at}yahoo{dot}com. You should all click on her name, especially if you have babies or need to buy baby gifts because she has precious things for sale and sometimes has giveaways!
 
Hope you all had a great weekend. Thanks to everyone who entered, you all are the best!

Pillsbury Sweet Moments

I'm officially obsessed with these little yummies! I found these in the refrigerated section at the grocery store the other day and was hooked. Like can't get enough. They are the perfect treat to reward myself after a long day or a hard crossfit workout. They also have brownie bowls that can be warmed in 15 seconds which also look amazing.
Well it must have been my lucky day, because myblogspark asked me to do a review and GIVEAWAY on them. Of course I wanted to share these little treats with you because everyone needs to at least try them once. They are the perfect dessert or snack.
So here is your chance to win this great prize pack from Pillsbury!

{You will receive a coupon for a free package of sweet moments along with a spa pack.}

Just become a follower and leave me a comment letting me know what kind you would choose. Chocolate caramel or chocolate fudge, brownie bowl or bite?

My favorite is this brownie bite chocolate caramel! It is the one pictured above.
Good luck. I will announce the winner on Sunday 9/12.

Happy Weekend!

Fit for Fall

I hope everyone had an amazing Labor Day. I know we did. We were able to stay home and be super productive. We went to the Razorback game on Saturday, church on Sunday and helped some friends move into our neighborhood, and then yesterday we slept in, I worked out, cleaned the house, grocery shopped and hosted a birthday party for Kara.
All fun stuff. It was our first time to stay home for labor day in quite some time, but we were due for some much needed downtime. We are usually at the lake, if only it was closer we would have gone I'm sure.

So last week I started crossfit! This is something that I did a couple of years ago with a friend in her garage. Her husband was training for the military basic training and they turned their garage into a make-shift gym. It was great. Crossfit.com posts a workout of the day and then we wold get after it. Well she ended up having to move, so of course I didn't stick with it. I guess about a year ago they opened up an actual crossfit gym here in NWA. There are 2 now, one in Springdale and one in Bentonville. The past week, I have been trying the one out in Springdale and I have been loving it. It is such an intense workout in a short period of time. Almost all the workouts can be completed in 20 minutes or less. I have been in a constant state of soreness for the past 7 days. Like really, in major pain. But it feels so great to hurt because at least I know it is doing something for me since for some reason I decided to let myself go over the past year. ha.

Anyways, if you are looking for something new other than running or the redundancy of a gym workout, you should try this a couple of times. My friend who is a runner and just did a full marathon this summer said that this workout feels harder that running for 45 minutes straight.

Here is the website: http://www.crossfit540.com/
and here is the blog where they post the workout of the day: http://crossfit-540.blogspot.com/

I'm not sure why I haven't started this until now! I am loving it and hoping to see quick results. I will let you know how it turns out. If you're in NWA and want to try it out let me know and we can go together.

Baby Martin Shower

Last Sunday I was able to help host a shower for baby Campbell Martin that will be making her appearence in a short 5 weeks. Eric and Leah are some of our great friends. We are so excited for them and their soon-to-be new addition.

Congrats you two! We can't wait to meet her!