Hot Coffee

This morning, I hit snooze 3 times and woke up at 7:35am in order to leave for work at 7:45am. I was obviously frantic as I got ready. I always drink my coffee and eat my p-nut butter toast in the car on the way to work, and this morning was a classic example. I quickly filled my thermos and shot out the door (at 7:48am, 3 minutes behind schedule) and went on my merry way to work. I confidently pushed the "open" button on my thermos like I do every morning, and 10000000000 degree coffee suddenly shot out of the straw all over the right side of my face, white shirt, and pants. You don't understand how hot it was. My face still hurts and it has almost been 3 hours. I was screaming and swerving and probably swearing. After things calmed down I was able to laugh about it and even take a picture of the cursed thermos for your viewing pleasure.

 In other news, I went to Jacksonville, FL this past weekend to run in a marathon relay to benefit breast cancer research.   5 of us drove down and stayed with some friends in Jacksonville Friday and Saturday night  and ran the race on Sunday morning. Since I was on the trip and terrible things happen to Thomas and I on trips, something terrible happened. One of our girls who was supposed to run leg 2 of the race became violently ill on Saturday night and had a stomach bug from 10:45pm until 3:45am. Not good for running, eh?? Obviously, we made her stay in bed and one girl ended up running 2 legs of the race. It was a complete blast and the race was so inspiring. I wept when I saw a breast cancer patient with no hair running the marathon and doing so at an amazing pace (way faster than any of us!)Our team completed the marathon relay in 4 hours and 11 minutes, but the 11 minutes was thanks to the relay bus driver who dropped our leg 3 runner off ONE MILE away from her starting line, so she had to sprint a mile to find leg 2 runner so she could begin her race.  We think we ran it in just under 4 hours not including the extra mile Katie had to run. Meanwhile, I had to sit on a park bench next to Jacksonville Beach for 2 hours while I waited for my leg of the race to start. I even slept on the park bench I was so bored. Overall, the trip was a success and our friend Stella is feeling much better after her traumatic stomach bug. We're even able to laugh about the bug now.

Here is a photo of our cool team t-shirts that we made. Each girl had different names of the back of her shirt of who she was personally running the race for. Sorry its a tad blurry:

And here is a photo of our team:

Recipe

Some folks said they couldn't see all of the recipe from yesterday. It shows up on every computer I've been on, so I don't know what else to do. So here is the actual link on Pioneer Woman. Enjoy.  :)

South Carolina Snow & Calorie Free Valentines

I love the fact that it snowed almost 3 inches on Friday evening and the snow was gone in less than 24 hours. It is the perfect kind of snow because its gone by the time you're starting to get tired of it! I know, I know, my sister is hating me right now because they've been under 2 1/2 FEET of snow for more than a week now. But I just can't help it! 

We happened to be babysitting my brother's kids in Anderson when it started snowing, so it was twice as fun with kids around. The little boys and Thomas had a snowball fight against the middle school boys. It was hilarious to watch Thomas make snowballs for the little ones who would then "throw" theirs at the big boys who then threw the snowballs right back at Thomas. It was quality good time. I'm proud of this picture because it looks like the signal bars on a cell phone. Get it??

We spent the night since the roads were bad and played in the snow again Saturday morning. The temperature was rising so Thomas ran around in a T-shirt like this:

Meanwhile, I wore my brother's 10 pound fishing waders and was sweating profusely under all the weight and rubber. Not a smart fashion choice. 

We fixed a wonderful Valentines dinner at our own house Saturday night and it was glorious. We've really been doing well staying away from desserts (aside from my two friends Margaret C. and Stella who come to my house and try to sabotage me with cookies and brownies). But in honor of Valentines Day, we HAD to have chocolate. So I made the most amazing, wonderful, mouth-watering chocolate recipe I've ever put in my mouth. Its sort of like a souffle.Which I obviously don't know how to spell. And it has zero calories. And no sugar. Or fat grams. 

Yeah right. 

                                  

Here is the recipe, thanks to my beloved Pioneer Woman. In my mind, she and I are long lost friends who have to cook large amounts of food that fill up large men who have been working very hard all day. I served this with chocolate ice cream, but that was only due to the fact that the store was out of coffee ice cream. Thomas and I sat on the couch and ate in stunned silence while we took in the magnificent grandeur of this dessert. I ate it in honor of my sister-in-law Keri. And my other chocoholic sister-in-law Kelly. And in honor of all of the chocoholics in America. And I enjoyed every.last.bite.

Ingredients

• 2 whole Eggs
• 1 cup Sugar
• 2 Tablespoons (heaping) Cocoa
• 2 Tablespoons Flour
• ½ cups Butter, Melted
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 300 to 325 degrees.

Beat eggs until light in color. Beat in sugar until just combined. Add cocoa, flour, melted butter, and vanilla extract. Mix gently until well combined.

Pour batter into four large ramekins or one 8-inch square baking dish. Set ramekins or pan into a larger pan halfway full of water.

Bake 40 to 50 minutes, or until upper crust is crispy and the rest of the batter is firm but not set. Toothpick should come out…not clean, but mixture should not be overly runny. If you pull it out of the oven and have second thoughts, stick it back in for ten more minutes. Enjoy. Enjoy. Enjoy.

Happy Birthday Caroline:)

     First of all: Happy Birthday to my dear friend Caroline Yarborough. I love her so much I decided to post this cute picture of her in the snow our sophomore year. She's the blonde. The other girl who happens to look miserably cold is my other dear friend Kelly Hunter, and it was HER birthday February 4th. And we had a new niece, Hannah Laura Foxworth, born February 3rd, so basically, February is a VERY BLESSED MONTH! 

      I know I haven't posted in a long time, and I'm sorry to the small handful of you who actually care. :) I have been staying really busy these days and Thomas and I have been back and forth a million times between Atlanta and Clemson. On one of my recent trips to Atlanta, this is what greeted me in the car:

Yes, it is a large man in a flannel shirt drinking from a gallon jug who happens to be my husband. Basically, the story goes like this: at the place where Thomas is working out, he read that someone his weight should be drinking two gallons of water a day. Yes, TWO GALLONS. So in order to achieve this goal, Thomas carries this gallon jug around with him and drinks one gallon in the morning and one in the afternoon. Very cool, I know. Believe me, going places in public together is only slightly embarrassing and only gets a stare from 99% of folks who see us.

The same weekend, we went to the Georgia Aquarium and the World of Coca-Cola.  Both were places we'd highly recommend and we had a blast. We especially liked the drink tasting section of the Coke Factory where Thomas tasted almost all of 60 flavors available, including one he spit out and shouted to everyone around him "do NOT drink that, it tastes like an arm pit!" Again, he received more than one look of disdain. Meanwhile, I pretended I didn't know him.

And of course, we had marvelous BBQ with some friends at a cool place called Swallow at the Hollow. We highly, highly, highly recommend it if you're ever in the Roswell area! The chopped pork was amazing. So was the mac-and-cheese. And the fried green tomatoes.

Basically, you'll need to spend about 3 hours on the treadmill before you go.