What a Week...

The past week has been a blur...Monday evening I worked on straightening up the house because Tuesday night I hosted my book club at our house while Marty went to his boy scout meetings. We had a wonderful time! Our menu included a parmesan artichoke dip (served warm), an antipasto salad for the main dish, Pioneer Woman's Olive Cheese Bread (oh so good), cesar salad, and my first ever, made from scratch cheesecake. The big hit of the night, however, was the See-Through Sangria. Oh so yummy!

Here's the recipe for the Chocolate Chip Cheesecake. (It came from a Duncan Hines Cookbook.)

1 pkg Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Devil's Food Cake Mix
1/2 c vegetable oil
3 pkgs (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 c granulated sugar
1 c sour cream
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 mini semisweet chocolate chips, divided
1 tsp all-purpose flour

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease 10-inch springform pan.
2. Combine cake mix and oil in large bowl. Mix well. Press onto bottom of prepared pan. Bake at 350F for 22 to 25 minutes or until set. Remove from oven. Increase oven temperature to 450F.
3. Place cream cheese in large mixing bowl. Beat at low speed with electric mixer, adding sugar gradually. Add sour cream and vanilla extract, mixing until blended. Add eggs, mixing only until incorporated. Toss 1/2 c chocolate chips with flour. Fold into cream cheese mixture. Pour filling onto crust. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 chocolate chips.

I just LOVE my book club! The ladies in it are always so much fun! They do my heart good.

We started the "Insanity" workout tapes this week. OH MY GOODNESS!!! They are SO hard! I've never done a workout video where the people in it are all sweaty and out of breath. They take regular water breaks and everything. Hopefully, it gets my jiggly butt in shape. (Sorry if that's too much information.) I thought I was in decent shape having done all this running for the marathon relay. It's not even the same!

Wednesday evening I helped cook at church and last night I ran to a near by town to get my driver's license renewed. It expired in June of 2009 and I had no clue until someone else pointed it out! And then I had dinner with my wonderful grandparents.

Today we're headed to OKC after work to do a little shopping and go watch my cousin play tomorrow. OU hosts Baylor at Norman so it's liable to be a pretty good game! They're calling for more snow for Sunday-UGH! I am SO ready for Spring! But, I'm supposed to go take a CHL course, so we'll see.

Y'all have a great weekend!

Picture Post

I've been telling y'all for a few weeks now that I was going to share some pictures with you.

Here's a few from the snow storm a few weeks ago.

Trying to be artistic...

The tree across the street. I know...this one is pretty self-explanatory.

Our House. *(Don't judge me by the colors of my house. I am not a UT fan. The trim is the same as when we bought it and I just can't decide what color to paint it. Black, maybe?)

My best friend from college came in Friday evening. I made chicken and dumplings and a couple of my girl friends came over and ate and then we went to see When in Rome. It was SO cute! It was only about an hour and a half long, though, so afterwards we went back to the house and played games-Farkle, Wahoo and several different card games. I turned in about 1:30 a.m., but everyone else stayed and played until about 2 a.m.

Saturday, Tara and I went for a 5 mile run. It was a little chilly when we started , but by the end we were quite toasty and we finished strong and felt amazing afterwards! My mom came to town for lunch and to run a few errands afterwards. When she left we got around and headed to The Citadelle for the "Range of Passion" event. Marty even had a good time. I think he knew more people than I did. We all went to dinner after and then back to our house for more games. We met a new couple this weekend and they're moving to town soon and I am SO excited! I think we will be fast friends!

Here's a shot of us girls...Lanie, Marie, Becky and me.

And the hubs and I before leaving the house.

Sunday we went to church and then came home, got in the hot tub and took a nice long nap before Becky had to leave. It was a simply marvelous weekend. I don't think I've had that much fun here in Small Town, USA since the 4th of July!

Here's the recipe for my cousin, Sharon's, chicken and dumplings...

Ingredients: 1 box chicken broth, 1 small can of chicken broth, 1 small can of chicken gravy, 1 bag of frozen mixed vegetables, 1/2 bag of frozen diced chicken (I use Schwans', but two can of chicken would work.), 1 onion, 1 can of homestyle biscuits (I use Pillsbury Grands), salt and pepper to taste.

Directions: Add chicken broth to stockpot on stove and bring to a boil. Then add frozen chicken. Give it about 5 minutes then add chopped onion and chicken gravy. (I cook my frozen mixed vegetables in the microwave and then add them.) Tear biscuits into small pieces and add to pot. You will need to stir or "dunk" the dumplings every so often so that they don't stick together. Add salt and pepper. When the "dumplings" start to sink some, they're done.

Do Me A Favor...Please???

Happy Friday, Everyone!!! Is anyone else glad that it's Friday? I got up early this morning and went to the local YMCA for my morning workout. We have a 5 miler in the morning...that should be fun! One of my besties is driving in from the city this afternoon and we have all sorts of fun weekend plans. I PROMISE, I will post pictures from the weekend (and past weekends) next week.

That being said, I need to ask a favor. I am a huge cheeseball and there is a local "Cutest Couples Contest" that I entered mine and Marty's picture in. (He would KILL me if he knew! haha) I need all of you to go vote for us. Just go to the address below and type "Cassi" in the search option and we should pop right up! I very highly doubt we're going to win considering that I just entered us yesterday (I had seen it on the news the night before) and there is a couple who already has 3,300 votes. Seriously, do they know that many people? I guess they're just that cute! haha

http://myhighplains.upickem.net/engine/Votes.aspx?PageType=VOTING&contestid=13599#SubmissionDisplay or CLICK ME

UPDATE: The voting closed at 2 p.m. today (2/12/10). The couple that won had over 3,800 votes!!! I guess they posted messages on Facebook, MySpace and Craigs List! No need to head on over to vote...unless you wanna see some *interesting* pictures.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and very Happy Valentine's Day!

All my love,

Results...

So, I'm afraid I may perpetually be an inconsistent blogger! I just feel like there is SO much going on.

How did you girls like the Fruit Flush? I lost a little over 4 lbs and kept it off like a week. So, it all came back. : ( But, I had so much more energy while eating just fruit. I didn't feel lathargic in the afternoon like I normally do after lunch. Now, if I could only figure out how to lose about 8 lbs and KEEP IT OFF!

I have pictures to post of all the snow we've gotten over the last couple of weeks. There's been so much fun stuff going on lately, and I didn't take pictures of any of it! The Power of the Purse luncheon at which Jenna Bush spoke at that my grandmom, mom and I went to last Friday, the Amarillo Peddler's Show, a Super Bowl party with friends Sunday night and my first game of Bunko last night.

I've been working like a mad woman again this week. And, yesterday we got some gut wrenching news about a family member near and dear to my heart. They're scheduling an appointment today to run some more tests in order to determine for sure...until then I've been asked to only tell family. But, y'all please lift up a little prayer for my family. We've all been kind of rocked by this and I feel like there's a huge dark cloud hanging over my head today.

I hope the rest of you are having a wonderful week!