Brownies. Butterscotch Brownies!

I met Natalie for the first time when her husband came on staff at our church as my youth pastor. It was the summer before my 11th grade year. Trent and Natalie moved to Midland from Sarepta, LA. Which happened to be where Tyler Dodds lived at the time, with his parents, attending high school. Tyler's Dad was the pastor at New Sarepta Baptist Church, where Trent was the youth pastor prior to moving to Midland. Confused yet?

God is very creative.

He is.

I had an embarrassing moment when they first moved... so embarrassing I can't relay it to you.... but it's hilarious. It included my parents and Trent and Natalie, and a conversation. And although my 16 year old self was completely mortified... that instance forever solidified our relationship. Natalie and I hit it off almost instantly, although she probably had a hard time pulling answers to questions and conversation out of my shy facade.

The summer after my 11th grade year... Tyler Dodds' came to visit.

And eventually we fell in love. Ok so it was almost instant... but whatever. There is so much more to that story.

Anyways... bringing this back to brownies. Natalie has always been my hero. She has taught me more than anyone else about hospitality and keeping a home and being a wife and mother without even trying to teach me. She has spoken and displayed being like "Mary" and not like "Martha" (from Luke chapter 10) more to me than anyone else. When I was younger and newly married, I would all but study her when we went to their house to visit (they live in the Dallas area now). My favorite thing about the way she keeps a home, is that she doesn't care if everything is perfect. And yet her house is always cozy, clean, and inviting. And it always smells AMAZING. Which makes for a wonderfully comfortable environment. She is known for her arsenal of desserts that she whips up when we are there. Simple things like Monkey bread, cake cookies, and the FAMOUS butterscotch brownies.

The first time she gave me her recipe, I copied it myself onto a 3x5 card and when we arrived home from Dallas, I all but ran to the kitchen. My brownies turned out HORRIBLY. I am not kidding... we could have used them as hockey pucks. My pride was terribly bruised and had to be healed before I tried again. Every time I made them after that... which was two more times... they turned out exactly the same. Hockey puck, hard as rock brownies. I think we threw them into the duck pond. I think. Or maybe I know. It was healing OK?!

So... when we went to visit the Brown's last month, I demanded an answer. I accused her of sabotaging this young wife... and told her we were supposed to be friends. She gave me the secret. One she thought I always knew but didn't!!

I came home to Midland and made these... perfectly... delicious... wonderful... butterscotch brownies. That don't actually taste like butterscotch at all. Just sugary, buttery heaven.

I'm going to have to revise her recipe from this (my very favorite) New Sarepta, LA Baptist cook book. It's only right. She has sabotaged the whole world.

Side note... our favorite breakfast pizza comes from this cook book. YUM!

Here is the original recipe.

And here is how the directions should read:

Microwave butter and brown sugar TOGETHER (this is the secret that I didn't know!) in a microwave safe bowl until melted. But not cooked. Stir together. In a separate small bowl whisk eggs together. Temper the eggs by adding a little of the hot sugar/butter mixture to the small bowl. You do not want to cook your eggs (I think this was another one of my mistakes. Scrambled eggs in the batter. Sick.). Once the eggs warm a bit, add them plus the vanilla to the sugar and butter. In ANOTHER bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. To the sugar mixture, slowly add the flour mixture, thoroughly combining. Pour batter into a greased 13x9 pan. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. DO NOT OVERBAKE. This is so very important. If you have a tendency to overbake... set the timer for 22 minutes! Cool in pan... and eat 5 of them at a time.

The world is a better place now.

I love you Natalie.

Bails

A Chair for Aubrey Grace

Everyone needs a chair. You know. A chair of your very own. Where you can sip coffee and work on your Bible Study or pour over the latest Pottery Barn catalogue. A cozy chair where your favorite quilt is draped over the arm just begging to be wrapped around you.

This is my chair. Trust me. It's the best.

Aubrey's great grandmother gave her the most wonderful gift this week.

A special chair of her very own.

I wish I could capture how wonderfully proud of her little rocking chair she is. But I haven't been able to. She leans over and grabs books out of her basket and then places them in her small lap and reads. It's precious. It's my favorite thing.

Love ya!

Bails

A bit of randomness...

What a week. Or month rather!

This past weekend we celebrated our BFF's Jeff and Crystal's wedding! Seriously... one of the most amazing weddings I've ever been to. Maybe it's because they are some of our best friends, or maybe because TDodds provided the wedding music. It was PRECIOUS. I cried my eyes out. I think we all did. It was beyond perfect. The whole "family" (our bestest friends) was in town and so we had a major blast spending time with all of them. Oh for the day that all of us might live in the same town again! Sigh. I did not take out my camera one time this weekend because if I had to keep up with one more thing my mind would have just exploded. Just trust me... we had so so much fun! The wedding was Saturday and after the reception we all changed into comfy clothes and then met at Carino's for dinner. We asked to be put on the patio were the 15 of us could talk and laugh without disturbing anyone else! Then we headed to our house where we kicked up the fire pit and sat around munching on smores and laughing 'til our sides hurt. We are so blessed truly.

The beautiful bride and groom... we missed you two at family dinner Sat. night!!

This is totally random... but I'm just being a random blogger. That's OK right?! This is my blog... I can do what I want!

Look at my daughter. Isn't she the cutest ever?! I bought her a pair of skinny jeans. Her forever long legs look just darling in them.

Hi sweetie. You are so precious. Not because of your skinny jeans. You just are.

I love you to the moon!

Bails

A Rant and Rave

I'm still alive.

It was touch and go there for a few days.

I know I shouldn't joke about things like that. Especially on my blog, where people read and may not really know me.

But I seriously felt like I was going to lose it or have a stroke last week.

I just knew that TDodds would come home and find me curled up in the fetal position in the kitchen, and he'd have to truck me to the looney bin.

My precious little Aubrey Grace is cutting 8 teeth. DID YOU HEAR ME?!

EIGHT teeth at one time. I did not even know that was possible. If you are a mother, you know that even cutting one tooth at a time can be torture.

I have never seen my blessed little angel child act like... like... well like she was cutting 8 teeth.

She has been so clingy and needy. I've hardly done anything, because if I release her from my grasp she dissolves into the most pitiful screaming tears. Screaming being the operative word here. It's amazing that I've washed my hair in the last week.

But when I think about her being so uncomfortable, I really think I would act the same way. If I could get away with it!

And I would probably want to watch Sesame Street, and Veggie Tales, and Baby Einstein too just to keep my mind off of my pain.

And I would probably need my Mommy and Daddy close, just to know that it will be alright.

So I'm OK.

Someday she might be too old, or embarrassed, or ashamed to come dissolve into our arms with tears streaming down her face when she's in pain.

Please Jesus let it not be so. Help me to never become a grumbler. One who turns away from You when things are difficult. Please allow us the privilege of pointing Aubrey to Your safe place. You say it's the shadow under Your wings. What a beautiful picture. The place where she will certainly be comforted and restored.

For now... although my blood pressure has to be 1000/1,000,000... I'll hold her close and pray that those teeth come in quickly and that she will bounce back to being our vibrant, bouncy, loud little toddler.

And I'll hope and beg that she'll never be too old, or ashamed to come to me.

And I'll keep running back to my Father who will dry my tears, and give me the ability and sanity to dry hers.

Love each of you,

Bails