Where Art Thou PSL

I have been soooooooo patient.  So very patient.  This hot weather is driving me crazy but I will really miss it and be complaining (sorry, but get ready for it) when I am freakin' freezin' in Jan/Feb.

I WANT A PUMPKIN SPICE LATTE, DARN-IT!!!!!  I have been googling and stalking the Starbucks official FB page but no mention of my favorite treat in 2015.  I only get a few of them this year because I am on a #VegasDiet through our trip in early November.

If you have the scoop...let me know. ;)

Let me tell you about my favorite things about fall...

Three Ingredient Pumpkin Muffins

I am really getting into this whole cooking thing.  I made these yummy pumpkin muffins and they turned out beautifully!!!!  I made 6 oversize muffins and froze them for later (well, 4 of them, I ate the other two).  The recipe was super simple and super rich.  You can only eat one at a time because it has a lot of flavor.

The recipe only has three ingredients:  1 can of pumpkin, 1 box of spice cake mix, and a 1/2 cup of water.  (The picture shows some brown sugar on top, but it just added sweetness and it just melted, so omit it)

It makes 6 oversize muffins or 12 regular muffins

Recipe:
1 Box Spice Cake Mix (do not add the other ingredients on the back of the cake mix box)
1 Can Pumpkin Puree
1/2 Cup Water

Extra stuff needed:
Paper muffin liners (optional)
Oversize muffin tin (6) or regular muffin tin (12)

Instructions:
Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees
Mix all Ingredients together in a large bowl
Add paper muffin liners to the muffin tin (optional)
Fill Muffin Tin to the top
Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes (until the toothpick or knife comes out clean)
Enjoy and say "Get in my belly"

Corn Maze at Froeberg Farm

This past weekend I went to the corn maze at Froberg Farm in Alvin, Texas with my friends from my old church. It was so much fun!! First, we all met at Mimi's Cafe in Pearland to have breakfast. I had never been to Mimi's before, but I will say it was good. It was sort of a fancy breakfast place that had a french flair to it. They even had mimosas!!! I didn't drink one though, I had wine the night before and I was trying to be good. :) We got to Froberg's and got in line for the hayride and corn maze. There are two corn mazes connected together that are a pumpkin and spider web. The pumpkin one was super easy, but the spider was a bit more complicated. We powered through though. Group pic in the corn maze! We had two kids with us, one was a 2 year old and the other one was about 7 or 8. The 7/8 year old was the line leader and was super brave with all of the 'jeepers creepers' in the maze with us. He kept telling us to tell his dad (who was with us) that there were jeeper creepers in the maze and he would jump out and scare his dad. The corn stalks were pretty see through, so you could see someone 'hiding'. Kids don't know that though! After one such 'jeepers creepers' hide and jump out session he had gotten some dirt/corn stuff on him that looked like rust. He said what is that? and I told him it was scarecrow blood that the jeepers creepers left on the corn when they drug the poor scarecrows through the maze. He was totally freaked out! <----I am going to be a great mom aren't I? :) When we were back on the hayride, going back to the main farm store, it started to rain. We took pictures in the pumpkin patch and then went shopping in the store. I got lots of veggies for this week. I have been eating salad non stop!! is great and I highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a corn maze! The whole place is kid friendly and they have more games to play too. We only went to the corn maze (it was $10), but there were other games like face painting, rubber ducky water relay, and more.

Pumpkin Carving Party

I remember carving pumpkins a few times when I was growing up, but I haven't done it in years!  My friend Debra wanted to also, so we decided to have a pumpkin carving party this past weekend.  When I say 'party' I mean the two of us.

We went to the pumpkin patch Kroger to pick out our pumpkins.  I wanted a green one for some reason and Debra got a plain orange one.  We took them back to her place and picked out the design we wanted to make.  First though, we had to gut the inside of the pumpkin and choose a design.  When I was little I remember my Mom baking all the seeds so we could eat them.  I don't remember them being very good so we didn't do that this time.  I went with the wicked theme (since mine was green) and Debra went with the cute cat theme. 

The end product!  Mine of the left, Debra's on the right.  Carving pumpkins is harder than it looks!  Mine didn't turn out so well. :/  I am still proud of it though.

Us with our pumpkins!

Right when we got done, Debra's boyfriend came over and I headed home.  For the night to prepare for my half marathon that I ran on Sunday morning! Debra also had a race the next morning for Cystic Fibrosis so they had to get up also as well.

Thanks Debra for inviting me over to carve pumpkins!!!

Monster Mash 15K Race Recap

On Saturday morning at got up at the crack of dawn early to run a 9 mile race at Sam Houston Race Park, the Monster Mash 15K.  There is actually a 5K, a 10K, and a 15K all at the same time, and also later there is a short kids Candy Corn Race a bit later.  The race was organized by Onurmark Productions, who were the same people who also put on the Bridgeland Triathlon that I did in August.  I gave Onurmark much better ratings on this event because they seemed much more prepared for the crowds.

(source)

I woke up at 5 am to make sure I was on time and also so I could eat a small breakfast before I left. I of course also had to stop at Starbucks to get a Pumpkin Spice Latte if I was going to make it anywhere that early in the morning after being out late the night before.

The race started at 7:30 am so I knew I needed to be at the race park early, but once I got there I didn't want to get out of my car.  It was so cold!  I eventually got out of my car and made my way inside to the waiting area.  Thank goodness we were able to go inside and wait before the start!

They called us to the start line, sang the national anthem, and we were off!  The course started off on the horse race track for a 1.5 (ish) mile loop in the sand, then we went in the street for two loops.  I really liked how we got to go on the same track as the horses, but I hate running in sand!  Oh well, it was fun. 

The street loop took you around back to a parking lot area, to the side down a street, to the front on the frontage road, to the side, and repeat it again (for the 15Kers).  The 10Kers only did the track loop, and one loop on the street, and the 5Kers did the track loop and went out to the street for just a little bit and came back in.

I actually felt really good the entire race, each time I passed the  finish line area I wanted to turn in, but I knew that this training run would help boost my confidence to be able to run my marathon in January.  At mile 7 I decided I wanted to go faster so I picked the next person in front of me to pass and picked up my pace until I did.  They call them 'roadkills' in running, but that sounds gross so I won't call it that.  I picked off at least 7 people for sure, but I was having a hard time running at this point since I was going so fast (for me) that I really wasn't paying attention. I just picked the next person, past them, and then picked the next one. 

I was going a lot faster than my comfort zone, but I pushed through.  I kept grunting and I am sure the volunteers at the last two rest stops thought I looked crazy, but I didn't care. LOL.  I turned the final turn back into the stadium area and had the longest run to the end ever!  It was like it would never freakin' end.  I grabbed my medal and some water and headed inside.

I finished my first 15K race in 1:46.36 at at 11:22 minute per mile pace.  I think that is pretty good!  Automatic PR baby!

Afterwards I headed to the food area and grabbed a ton of goodies.  I only ate the kolache (potato and egg), carrots, tomatoes, and drank the gatorade there though.  I saved the rest and will eat it this week (minus the chips, I am not a big chip person).

Wanna see some cool race bling?!  It's a GLOW IN THE DARK ZOMBIE MEDAL!!!!!!! I love it so much, ever since I had seen it on their FB page I couldn't wait for this race.  I actually went to bed last night and came back out a few minutes later because I forgot something and all the sudden I see something glowing on my wall (it sort of freaked me out), and then I realized it was my medal. haha.  The t-shirts were also glow in the dark tech t-shirts also.

I had so much fun at this race!  It was a great race to do as a mini-long run for my marathon training.  Hopefully next year some of my friends will want to run it with me. 

SFA Homecoming 2011

****This post is WAAAY late.  Should have been posted at the end of October.  I am such a slacker!



Over the weekend SFA held the annual homecoming weekend and I had a blast as usual.  I couldn’t go up there until Saturday morning, but there were still so many events for us to attend.  Between the football game, Scare on the Square, pumpkin baking contests, Driving Jacks Alumni night, and keg stands, it was a  jam packed exciting weekend.

My plan was to get up early, workout, shower, clean a bit, and then leave by 7 am to make it to the parade in time.  Which of those things did I do?  Well, I woke up, but not early…does that count?

On the road by 8 am and I stopped at Dunn Bros. Coffee in Friendswood to get a pumpkin iced coffee and an egg and cheese bagel.  When I got to the car the lid on the coffee came undone and it spilled in my car.  Grr.  It’s ok though, it only slowed me down a few minutes…I was determined to get to my favorite town!

I got to Nacogdoches about 11 am and met up with Krista for lunch at Clearsprings.  Clearsprings is attached to Auntie Pasta’s and I had never been there in the 3 years I went to SFA and the 4 years that I have been an alum so it was time to go.  Krista and I had fish tacos and were stuffed.  Afterwards we drove around Nacogdoches seeing all of our old favorite places and how much everything had changed.

We even drove by my old apartment to see if there was anyone living there, and it looks like there was.

 

We took some photos by the new SFA sign.  Axes up!

We headed to the game to tailgate for a bit.  We met up with old friends and I saw some people that I hadn’t seen in years.  Fun times.

We decided  that we didn’t want to go to the football game because we really aren’t fans of football, and the Driving Jacks members weren’t sitting on the grass with their letters.  We decided to head back to the hotel to check in.

The hotel we stayed in was the LaQuinta…ok so it was a motel instead of hotel, but hotel sounds better so we will go with that.  Krista got a discount from her old job so we paid about $35 less than what we thought.  Score!  We settled in our hotel room and got ready for the pumpkin baking contest and pumpkin carving/decorating contest we were judging at Scare on the Square.

Read about our pumpkin judging fun adventure here!

At Scare on the Square we ran in to my friend Amber and her son Aiden.  Aiden was some sort of car driver man.  Even Amber wasn’t sure. 

After Scare on the Square we had to book it to the Driving Jacks Alumni night meeting.  The meeting was wonderful and we got great information from them about the progress of Driving Jacks.  When I graduated (and each of us who were officers in Driving Jacks) I was hesitant to let the organization go because it had been my baby for so many years, but each year I am grateful that God has put wonderful people in Driving Jacks to carry on Amy’s legacy.

We learned all about Driving Jacks, how they have grown, what has been happening, awards that they have won, cool visitors from other cities visiting them to start their own programs, etc.

They had a cool SFA giveaway and I won a water bottle!  I can’t wait to use it at my next run.
Spencer also won a water bottle and Matt won a SFA blanket.

They also gave us some old t-shirts from past events so we can show our DJ pride.

We all went out to the stairs and took pictures as a group.  Look at our handsome mugs.

Afterwards we got to see the new Driving Jacks office and take some photos.  This is all the past Mafia game Godfather’s of years past.  I have no idea how to play that game, but I hear it’s pretty intense and it goes on for an entire week.  People hid in mini vans and jump out to ‘kill’ you, you have really got to watch your back.  These peeps are the ultimate game players, beware.

While chatting in the office my 30 under 30 list came up and we talked about how I needed to do a keg stand.  Read about THAT super fun adventure here.

I had so much fun at this years SFA homecoming.  I cannot wait to go again in the future and see how much SFA and also Driving Jacks grows.  Thank you SFA for putting on an amazing event so we can all keep in touch as we grow older!

More pictures at http://www.flamingosandfun.smugmug.com/

Pumpkin Judging 101

 

When judging a pumpkin baking contest you have to have several things.  An empty stomach, a love of all things pumpkin, and the ability to be mean and score someone really low because their pumpkin stuff tasted like crap!  Next year I plan on announcing that I am the judge and maybe I will get some bribes, but I probably won’t get any since it’s a college town! LOL.

I am friends with one of my former Hospitality professors on Facebook and she had posted about needing help with the pumpkin judging at this years Scare on the Square in Nacogdoches.  I immediately became obsessed with getting picked so I bugged her until she said yes.  I. Am. In.

I immediately recruited Britney to come along with me also, if I was going to eat the calories from all that pumpkin stuff, then I was not going to do it alone!

Krista and I got to the Nacogdoches CVB and went to the board room where they were doing the judging.  Look at all those great eats!

Hmmmm……So much work! 

Then there was an extra spot so Krista got in on the action also!

Overall, there was one I loved (it was a pumpkin cupcake with cinnamon pumpkin seeds, and a cinnamon stick) and one that I hated (an unappetizing looking/tasted pumpkin cobbler).  After we got done, Dr. Wittenbach gave me an extra cupcake!  Score!

Earlier, while we were waiting to start the pumpkin baking judging, Krista got to judge in the pumpkin carving/decorating contest.  There was a kids contest, and an adult contest.

The awesome entries:

Krista looks deep in thought!

We had tons of fun eating so much pumpkin baked goods and seeing the creativity of the Nacogdoches community.  Thank you to Dr. Wittenbach and also the Nacogdoches CVB for putting on such an amazing event.  Hopefully I can do it again next year.

Friendswood Monster Mash 5K

On October 15th I ran in the Friendswood Monster Mash, which was super close to my house, so I was super excited that I could sleep in an hour later than normal when having to start a race at 8 am.  The Friendswood Monster Mash was about 3 miles from my house at the Friendswood High School so I woke up about 6:45 am, and put on my running attire.

This race was a monster mash so naturally I would dress up in costume.  What was I?  The Good Witch of course!

The Good Witch t-shirt and a lime green tutu (have to represent Driving Jacks)

My breakfast was a scoopful of my favorite trail mix but when I got to the race they had donuts and kolaches for everyone.  Who’s strong and resisted the HUGE urge to get a kolache?  This girl!

At first I felt silly for being the only one dressed up in costume, but then I saw this lady in a stork costume and I knew that I could rock out my good witch costume!  The stork is actually a midwife student studying in Pearland so she thought it would be a good idea to dress up like a stork!  Cute!  If she would have stuck around she would have one the costume contest.  I have never done a race where I knew no one so standing around waiting for the event to start was not my idea of fun, so I found new friends to talk to.

Oh, and look who I met!  The newly crowned Ms. Texas!  I guess she is from Friendswood or something and that’s why she was there.  Not really sure.

Look at my race goody bag.  Included: T-shirt, pretzels (which came in handy on my Sunday race), travel vitamin/medicine holder, shampoo sample, tanning cream, free kid’s meal at Luna’s (I don’t think I will be using this one), Crystal Light water sample, coupon for a $.01 eye shadow from Mary Kay, two granola snack bars, free sonic hamburger coupon, and a F.I.R.S.T. bracelet.  Free stuff rocks!

The race benefited the F.I.R.S.T. (Foundation  for the Icthyosis and Related Skin types) charity for helping to find a cure for Icthyosis and also helping educate people about this genetic disease.  Thank you to F.I.R.S.T. for hosting this event (10^th annual) and for educating me on the skin disease Icthyosis; this was by far my favorite race to date (and not just because of the new P.R.).  I loved the hometown race feel.

What time did I finish? Why it was my newest PERSONAL RECORD of 34:34 ßThat is 58seconds faster than my previous fastest time!  Go me!

St Arnold’s Brewery and Spaghetti Warehouse

As a work reward trip we went to the Spaghetti Warehouse for lunch and a tour of the St. Arnold’s Brewery.  We left work about 11:30 and headed downtown for lunch.   I hadn’t been to the Spaghetti Warehouse in 15+ years so this outing was a treat!

 

 I ordered Shrimp and Crab Bowtie Pasta (super yummy) with a side salad and tons of bread.

Then it was time to drive to the St. Arnold’s Brewery!!!  They host tours Mon-Sat check their website for times.

Behind the Brewery was an old park with a swing set!  Who acted like a kid and swung on them? This girl!

We waited on the front steps for everyone to get there and saw this Tie-Dye Rolls Royce that was parked inside the building. 

The entrance to the brewery had Willy Wonka doors!  Mysterious and exciting things happen behind those doors.

St. Arnold-Saint of Breweries

You pay $7 and you get a pint class with the St. Arnold’s logo on it and 4 chips that are redeemable for free beer!  I didn’t drink any beer so I gave my chips away to my co-workers (but kept my glass).  They also had rootbeer and water, so I helped myself to that.

There were a ton of tables were you can sit and drink you beer, they also had the St. Arnold’s logo on them.

 

On the tour they started upstairs with an explanation of the process of making beer.  I got a little bored with all of the technical stuff so me and my A.D.D. self wandered off and didn’t pay much attention.  I remember them saying something about it was a craft beer brewery and there were three criteria for being one.  1.  Independently owned.  2.  Manufactor under 6 million barrels of beer per year  3.  Cannot add any additives (like corn).

This is where they do something with the beer and move it between three tanks.

Here are a few of my favorites:

St.  Elvis

St. Dude

St. Michael Jackson

They said that the average beer fermented for 10 days to 2 weeks, but the pumpkin beer (Pumkinator) fermented for 2 months!

I really liked the St. Arnold’s Brewery!  I had a lot of fun and the staff was wonderful and answered all of our questions.  It would be a great place to host an event for your company. 



Downstairs they had these big steel tubs that held more beer while it was being fermented.  The State of TX requires that they all be labeled with a name or serial number so the owner named each fermenter after his family, friends, and random people he liked.