MarchSnow

I have some joyful news to share about my brother, Andy!  I decided to wait a while before posting anything in this forum because, well, family first, y'all!  It's official, Andy and Christina are engaged!   I first met Christina last Christmas (Dec 2014) and immediately loved her.  She and Andy make a beautiful couple and I'm so excited about their future together! You've seen pictures of this lovely couple on our blog before, but I wanted to take a moment share a few of my favorites!  I'm just so happy and proud of Andy! Pictures just moments before and after he popped the question!  Pictures taken in NY - Summer 2015 Pictures taken in NY - Summer 2015 I love all three of you SO much!  Congrats you crazy kids!

The last couple weeks have been great!  Jordan and I have been busy as ever but the weather has been beautiful and we've enjoyed all kinds of holiday festivities.  I only have a short post for today because I need to get ready for our Thanksgiving! I have a random hodgepodge of unrelated pictures to share.   Left : I love the flexibility a laptop allows.  I work on my laptop all the time in bed.  It's comfortable, the bed serves as a large "table" to spread out papers and such, plus , Abby can snuggle near me (and happily snores).  Jordan took this picture of us girls last week.  I'm chugging through the never-ending mail while Abby snoozes nearby. Top Right: I had a wonderful lunch a while ago with my friend, Wendy.  This lady is such a sweet friend and gave me this etched wine glass as a belated birthday present!  It's perfect!  Thank you Wendy! Bottom Right: On the topic of beverages...my coworkers and I have been making fun of the Starbuck

Every Fall my company hosts a Chili Cook-off!  It started 9 years go when I first joined the company and my department at the time wanted to spice up the season while also fundraising for a local charity.  I've since moved into a different department, but I was excited to see that this year's cook off was one of the best we've ever had!  The committee did a Texas/Cowboy theme and it turned out fantastic! These are various pictures of the decorations.  Mom would be proud that they incorporated Mr. John Wayne! There was a LOT of competition this year.  The crock pot wars have varied over the years but, this year there were 20+ chilies entered! Top Left: Each entry has to come up with a creative name for their chili recipe to keep the voting anonymous.  I got a good kick out of this particular entry called "Don't Touch My Willie, Chili" and decorated with a bandanna and braids.  It's the perfect savory blend of Willie Nelson and Kevin Fowler

This week has been strange for Jordan and I.  Our work schedules are a little skewed because we made and unplanned trip to see some family in the hospital this week.  Not to worry, everyone is fine and all is well!  I had prepared this post about our Halloween festivities so you'll have to forgive my tardiness in publishing! Halloween fell on a Saturday this year, which is SO nice compared to past years.  It also happened to be the day TTU played OSU in football so we had our OSU friends, Mallory and Nathan, over for the weekend! I got a little carried away with the food... Now that the weather is cooling down, it's easier to fire up the oven to make baked goodies. Top Pictures: This is Mom's jalapeno pepper jelly served with cream cheese and triskets!  Her jelly is a fantastic blend of sweet and fire flavors and makes an excellent appetizer.   Bottom Left: I branched out a little and made green chili pinwheels for the football game.  This was basically cresc