A MARRIED COUPLE'S KENTUCKY ADVENTURES: A Church to Call Our Own

When Alex and I first moved to Lexington one of our tasks was to find a new church. Since both of us have gone to the same church since birth (not the same as one another obviously!) it was a rather daunting task to find a new church together, especially considering we come from different backgrounds and have different preferences as well. After a little research we found a church nearby and after going for a few Sundays we decided to officially join. We loved the area where it was located, appreciated the fact that it was a large established church as well as the fact that it had a school attached which meant lots of activities and families.

We continue went to church every Sunday that we were in town, although it felt like the majority of weekends we were traveling. Due to all the traveling, including my work travel, it made it difficult to really immerse ourselves in the community of the Church. Recently the traveling has decreased a little bit so along with joining the Women's Guild, and attending yoga at the church, Alex and I were also able to volunteer together for Oktoberfest. This is a weekend festival held in the fall on the church grounds. It includes live bands, games, bingo, a casino, beer and wine, food etc. It's one of the largest fundraisers every year.

We volunteered to assist with the set up of the tents, tables and chairs etc. We went over to the church around 5 p.m. when we were "scheduled" to work. We didn't truly get started working until about 5:45 p.m. but we ended up staying until almost 8 p.m.. I happened to be the only female helping this particular day. I guess Alex and I didn't realize exactly what we were signing up for, but it was great exercise and we met quite a few people during the process. It felt so nice to be able to give some of our time and help out as well as finally meet some more people within the church.

As part of Oktoberfest they're incorporating and cake wheel and they needed submissions! I gladly grabbed a container because I love any excuse to bake. Alex and I will drop off the cake this evening on the way to our date (Wendy's and a play - first date style!) and I'm looking forward to seeing how much progress has been made since we were there on Tuesday. It seems that whenever you take a risk and put yourself outside your comfort zone you end up winning big. I'm excited at the prospect of now seeing some familiar faces on Sundays and seeing how we can get even more involved.

As we hit our one year anniversary of marriage and our one year anniversary of living in Lexington it's starting to finally feel like home. What a great feeling.

For the cake wheel I made a Pumpkin Spice Cake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting! Yummm... It's a shame I can't eat a whole piece but I stole a few tastes just to make sure it was edible (wink wink!).

Pumpkin Spice Cake:
from allrecipes.com

Ingredients
1 (15 ounce) can canned pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan. Whisk together the pumpkin, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. Set aside.
In a large bowl, mix together the cake mix and oil. Beat in the eggs, then fold in the pumpkin mixture. Stir in the vanilla.
Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool.

[I chose to bake this cake in two round cake pans for 30 minutes]

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting:This frosting is a combination of a few different recipes that I found.

2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 1/2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon
In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the confectioners' sugar. Store in the refrigerator after use.

The frosting comes out really nice with the speckles of cinnamon! You could even add a little bit of yellow and red food coloring to make it more of a tan frosting if you like to experiment with food coloring.