The Ussery Update

Even though it is now Tuesday, it's never too late for a weekend re-cap! We had a nice weekend, but stayed fairly busy from start to finish. Friday night we walked in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life! It is such a wonderful, powerful experience if you ever have a chance to be a part of it. We had set a goal to raise $500 and we raised $1,040 - AMAZING! Thank you to all of you that supported our efforts. Cancer has affected the lives of people in both of our families, so it's a cause near and dear to our hearts. Our church had a team called the P.E.A.C.E Walkers with P.E.A.C.E standing for Pray Everyday - A Cure Eventually! We were there most of Friday night and to reward ourselves for our walking we went to Chili's for coffee and dessert - mmm! Saturday morning we had a few errands to run, groceries to buy and a little maintenance work to be done on the car. We spent the afternoon around the house being productive with various things. For dinner, we made a f...

We had a really nice weekend! A couple of pictures and more detail on that to come...we are looking forward to a great week ahead. GO COWBOYS! They play tonight on Monday Night Football. Let's hope tonight's game is better than the last - sheesh! We are making a homemade pizza for dinner - mmmm!! Hope you have a Happy Monday! Until we meet again... Riley

This week... Kelly is hosting the "Show Us Your Life" blog tour featuring dessert recipes - YUMMY! Like most people, I think I have more dessert recipes than any other type of recipe. It's so difficult when I need or want to make a dessert because I have too many options to chose from and I want them ALL! This recipe isn't necessarily my most favorite dessert (I simply cannot pick a favorite!!), but it's a cake that I made over Labor Day and it was quite tasty... Chocolate Covered Oreo Cookie Cake Ingredients: 1 box of devil's food cake mix 4 squares of semi-sweet chocolate 1/4 cup of butter 8oz of cream cheese - softened 1/2 cup of sugar 2 cups of cool whip 12 oreo cookies - coarsely chopped Directions: Pre-heat oven to 350. Prepare cake mix according to package directions and bake in 2 - 9" round cake pans. Cool in pans for 10 minutes. Invert cakes onto wire racks and cool completely. After cakes are cool, microwave chocolate squares and butter in sma...

Tomorrow marks the first day of Autumn - fabulous! Fall is our absolute favorite season. This weekend, I put out a few of our fall decorations around the house...nothing too much, just a few touches here and there. It helps make the house feel cozy and "fallish" (I don't think that's even a word, but it'll do). Here are a few pictures... We have a couple of pumpkins, a garden flag and a decorative fall stake going in the front yard, but I didn't take pictures of that until we get the yard work done. It's WAY overdue, but it's been so rainy for a week. Things are finally starting to dry out! We also have some cute scarecrows on a "Welcome" sign hanging on the front door. We do have a few Halloween decorations that we will add early October and then after Halloween we'll replace with a few "turkey" items for November. We already have 4 bags of Halloween candy. We've been buying a bag or two each time we go to the store so it...

Hip, Hip, Hooray...it's Friday!! We are ready for the weekend and I'm sure you are as well. A few things we are looking forward to about the weekend... Tonight is CRAFT NIGHT for the women at church so I'm looking forward to working on a few crafty projects while having good fellowship time with my sisters in Christ! Tomorrow night, we will be seeing these guys... MERCY ME They are performing at pregame concert at the Texas Rangers game - which we will be at...so we get to hear wonderful music, watch a great baseball game and eat some yummy food! It'll be an awesome, fun night! Fall is in the air (well sort of...), but we plan to put out some of our fall decorations and we'll add some Halloween decor next month. I love decorating the house for the seasons and holidays - especially these next few months! We have several things on our "To Do" list so it'll be nice to get caught up on some things. The weekends are always good for that. We desperately need...

I know that everyone has their "shows" that they love, cannot miss and look forward to each new season when fall comes around. It's THAT time of year again - all of the new episodes of our favorite TV shows are starting back - hooray! We don't have too many "can't miss" shows, but we have several programs or particular channels that we like to watch - plus sports usually take precedence over our TV. Our two favorite shows just happen to be starting tonight... Ahhhh - it's so nice to welcome back the staff of Dunder Mifflin into our living room! We LOVE, LOVE, LOVE "The Office" - it is so funny and we enjoy all of the characters. So excited for it to start back up again. "Parks and Recreation" is a new show that started mid-season last year and we took a liking to it VERY quickly. We thought we'd watch the first couple of episodes to test it out and it's really funny as well! Add those two shows with a "Weekend Update...

We want to wish our nephew, Scottie a very HAPPY 5th BIRTHDAY! We love you very much and hope you have a super duper day! Aunt Riley & Uncle John

On our way to dinner Saturday night we met with our "Dinner for Eight" group. Us and three other couples in the church meet monthly for dinner at one of our houses. The hosts prepare the main course and each of the other couples bring sides and dessert. Despite the rainy weather, it was a very nice evening. We had a tasty meal and we took sopapilla cheesecake for dessert and we had that with delicious coffee. There are currently two "Dinner for Eight" groups at church, but a possible third group forming. It is a great concept and a time of fun and fellowship. The rest of the weekend was really nice - nothing spectacular, but a good weekend as always. Friday night we went to dinner and then we each had allowance we wanted to spend. Yes, we get allowance each month...which helps us control our spending, haha! John bought a new softball bat at Dick's Sporting Goods and I bought a few things at Hobby Lobby. After that we went by Starbucks and then bought our grocer...

WHOO HOO! The NFL season kicks off tonight and we are PUMPED!! The past couple of years, the NFL has shown the first football game of the season on a Thursday night along with a pre-game concert for a big NFL Kick-Off special. Tonight is the Titans vs Steelers - should be a great game. We've made it a tradition these past few years to get pizza for this game and this year is no exception. Yummy pizza, fun game, keeping an eye our Fantasy football scores - oh joy! Sunday the rest of the teams get underway - bring it on! Until we meet again.. John & Riley

We have had an enjoyable and productive Labor Day weekend! Don't you love long weekends? We've gotten several things done around the house and around town, but we've had lots of fun and relaxed as well... Saturday was our Fantasy Football draft - we were excited to see our teams. We were both pretty pleased with the players we got. It makes us all the more excited for the football season to start. College football started this weekend so that's good and the NFL kick-off is Thursday night! We've been playing Fantasy Football for a few years and it's so much fun. John won the league championship last year and I won the year before that! He is the "Champion Cougars" and I am the "Pernicious Pixies". So intimidating! Saturday around lunch time, we went and shared an appetizer at Shenaniganz and bowled three games. John won the first two games and Riley won the third! It is such a fun place and neat atmosphere. After we finished there we ran sev...

I'm participating in BooMama's "DipTacular" - a tour of dips if you will! It's a chance for everyone in the blog world to share their yummy dip recipe. Who doesn't love a big plate of chips or crackers with some delicious dip! This is especially perfect now that football season is upon us! I have several tasty dip recipes, but this is one of our favorites (I think it's John's favorite!). We make this during football season and it's a tradition that we make it the night we decorate our Christmas tree. Here it is... HAMBURGER DIP 1 pound hamburger meat 10 oz can rotel 1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce 1/4 teaspoon chili powder 1 pound velveeta (cut into cubes) Brown hamburger meat in a large pot and drain. To the meat, add rotel, worcestershire sauce, chili powder and velveeta. Stir occasionally until all the velveeta is melted then simmer for 10 minutes. Serve with chips of your choice - we like tortilla chips or potato chips! This can also b...

This week, Kelly is hosting a "Show Us Your Life" tour of school pictures. Ahhh, school pictures! There aren't too many of my school pictures that I really love. I guess everyone feels that way to some degree. Believe me - there are some bad ones - haha! Hair issues, huge glasses, bad clothes, weird look/smile...Oh well, memories! This is my favorite school picture - I was in the 2nd grade. I think that's the last time my hair had that much curl and volume - must have used a lot of hair spray that day! Oh how I loved the 2nd grade. This is one of my senior pictures - Class of '97. I have a whole book of senior pictures, but I didn't take the time to dig them out and scan them. I graduated from Odessa High School in Odessa, Texas (the NHS is for National Honor Society if you were curious why it wasn't "OHS"). Wow - hard to believe that was 12 years ago. College graduation was 8 years ago - where does the time go? This is me now - married to t...

There is much to be happy about and celebrate this Wednesday! Here are a few reasons why... Our nephew, Noah is 1 today! We love you Noah and wish you a VERY HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY . We look forward to seeing you next month - hugs and kisses coming! My Mom texted me yesterday to say that the school supplies were on clearance at Target - WHOO HOO! If you know me well, you know that I LOVE supplies. I have so many fun supplies at work and at home. Do I need more? Not really! Will I go tonight to see if there's anything I want to buy? Absolutely!! I love it when students are back to school and have all their supplies, then what is left is put on clearance for people like me. Oh I'm so easily pleased! September is now upon us and that means fall is fast approaching - oh I love it! Cooler weather, leaves changing, pumpkins, football, baseball playoffs, cooking and baking, warm clothes, seasonal drinks at Starbucks, fragrances of fall, decorating, holidays...best time of year these next...