Moon Pie Brownies

I’m not looking forward to packing up my house, again. However, I’m pretty much a pro at packing our house by now. That’s kind of sad, it’s it.

Just a little, maybe.

We’ve been married for almost 9 years and in those 9 years we’ve called 6 different places “home”, 7 if you count the house I was living when we said “I do.”

We actually set a record in this house and spent 3 Christmas’ here! That’s more than we’ve had any any other place. FYI, show my a photo on my blog and I can tell you which house I was living in when I took it.

Every time we move into a new place I think, “This is it, I don’t want to move for a very long time. This is where we’ll raise our babies.” But of course that hasn’t happened yet.

Midway Park/Camp Lejeune, NC – We lived in a old duplex on the Marine Base. It was small and old and cramped. When we bought our new couch, I literally had to craw over a section of my couch to get from the bedroom to the kitchen. Our walls started shaking every time the Marines where at the shooting ranges for practice, our neighbors were loud and always asking us to buy them beer (they weren’t 21 yet) and there was a mile long waiting list to change houses.

I was working for DirecTV as an “at home service representative” which sounds awesome until you’re stuck in your tiny back bedroom listing to machine gun fire and people yelling at you about their TV for 12 hours a day.

Vito Ct, Richlands, NC. – This was my dream home. I loved it so much. We were in the country and Thomas had about a 45 minute drive to base while I had a 30 minute drive to my job at Starbucks. We had beautiful vaulted ceilings, an open floor plan, an amazing backyard, a two car garage, a HUGE master bedroom, a spare room, a craft room and a beautiful brand new kitchen. We were in love with everything about it. This is the house I started my blog in.

It’s where we celebrated our first Christmas together, we went through a deployment in this house, we went through the joys and struggles of Military life in this house. It was my home. I cried like a baby the day Thomas signed his papers to get out of the Military and we packed everything into a U-haul to come back to Virginia.

Timberlake Dr., Danville, VA – This was my childhood home and I called it home again when we came back from Camp Lejeune. We lived here with my parents and my brother for a few months while we looked for jobs and found a place to live.

Mt. Cross, Danville, VA – This was our first place of our own back in Virginia. We lived on a little plot of land beside our friends Jeff and Gena. It was a small place, but we weren’t complaining. We had a huge pond in front of the house where we fished in the evenings and there was a sweet little wooden swing hanging from the tree out front. While we were close to the city we were far enough out in the country where we could see the stars at night and enjoy “country living”

But Thomas fought a battle with depression after getting out of the military and his PTSD got worse while we lived here. It was rough, but we survived. Thomas was minutes from the fire department where he Volunteered and I think it helped him some. <3  We loved this little spot and while we didn’t plan to stay forever we hoped that we’d be here for a while. The day my Nana passed away we got a call as we were leaving the hospital that our landlord was selling the place and we’d either need to buy it or find a place to go soon. We chose to go.

Sam Adams, Dry Fork, VA – My sister in law found this place for us. It was about 2 minutes from her house (at the time) and she had seen a sign for it on her way to work on morning and had called for us. We were kind of in a bind and needed a place to go. We needed somewhere cheap and somewhere that would allow pets; that’s not an easy combination to find.

It was an old farm house and the landlord was willing to rent it to us for cheap and we could have our dogs. We put down our deposit, loaded up the U-haul and moved in.

We lived smack dab in the middle of a tobacco farm. When I took my walks with the dogs, I’d stroll the winding dirt roads behind our house through the tobacco fields and past the old barns. At the end of one of the roads was an even older house that was falling apart. I’m sure at one point it was a beautiful plantation house. I saw my first coyote here, as our dog Chloe was chasing it away from us one evening and I could hear those coyotes howling in our driveway every night.

 We could have bonfires, cookouts and tailgate parties and no one could hear us.  Thomas could walk out of the back door and go hunting every morning.

We were both 45 minutes from town and work, it was nice but it was costing us a lot of gas money having to drive into town everyday and if you needed to go to the store after work you knew you weren’t getting home until like 8pm to start dinner.

Old Farmhouses are old….haha, there were even a few little holes in this one,  around the added on bathroom and the living room. Plus this one had no insulation, no air and no heat. Some days I really felt like I was a part of  Little House on the Prairie or that I was living in the 1800s.

We had a wood stove in the living room and in the winter Thomas would have to chop wood every evening after work in order to keep the house warm. In the summer we blasted window units. We wore hoodies and blankets in the house in the winter and during the summer we roasted alive. Giant wolf spiders jumped out at us all the time. After two years it was time to go. I couldn’t handle it anymore.

Arnett, Blvd, Danville, VA – Our current home. The one we’re having to leave. 🙁 My sister in law found this one too. Her friend was getting ready to move and wanted to rent out her house. We got a great rent price and she allowed us to bring our dogs. We went from no a/c or heat to central heat and air and the first winter we were there I wore shorts while I was at home because I could. When it snowed that winter, I stood in my kitchen watching the show fall while wearing shorts and a tank top and I thanked God for allowing us to have heat. I have literally thanked God for this house and our heat and air every day since we moved it.

We had to do some work on the house but we were happy. Finally we were both happy and depression free. We fixed the floors, painted walls, laid tile in the kitchen and I finally enjoyed decorating our home again. We have a huge fenced in yard for the dogs to play in, we have a beautiful deck/patio that has hosted birthday dinners, girls nights and family cookouts. I’ve got an office here and my niece and god-daughters even have their own play room that holds their toys and has a big queen sized bed for them when they spend the night. I’m happy here. We have good neighbors. My sorority sister/friend Nicole’s daughter (baby Robyn) took her first steps in my living room. I’ve made countless cupcakes with my niece here. I really turned my blog into a business while I was living under this roof.

At first I wanted to live here for the next 10 or so years. I knew what colors I’d paint the nursery if we had a baby here, I knew where I’d arrange the furniture and crib. I had it all planned out. Then once we decided that we really were going to move to Wilmington in the future I wanted to at least stay here until then. But at the end of July we got a phone call that we pretty much either needed to buy the house or go. We debated, we thought about buying it. Or maybe my dad would buy it as a rental and rent to us until we left for NC again. That wasn’t in the plans though and after a lot of praying and thinking and tears, we decided to go, again.

We got approved for the new apartment downtown yesterday. I’m excited. I’m nervous, I’m actually scared to death. I have to start packing my house again and I don’t want to.

Moon Pie Brownies would be much appreciated right now. They’re the perfect combination of moon pies and brownies. Maybe they’re not an everyday kind of dessert, but sometimes you just need to sit in the floor of your house and run through your memories while eating brownies.

Right now calls for Moon Pie Brownies. We need to make some.

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Moon Pie Brownies
By: Angie Barrett – BigBearsWife.com
09/04/15    
Serves 6-8     
                                                                          (Click to Print)

Ingredients 

4 Moon Pies
1 Box Fudge Brownie Mix

1/4 cup water
2/3 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 bag of mini marshmallows
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Directions 

Pre-heat oven to 325F.

In a large bowl, mix together the brownie mix, water, oil and eggs. Mix until everything is incorporated and batter is smooth.

Pour 1/4 of the batter into the bottom of a 8×8 pan.

Place the 4 unwrapped moon pies into the pan.

Pour the rest of the brownie batter over the moon pies.

Bake brownies for about 45 minutes or until done.

Carefully remove the brownies from the oven and pour the mini marshmallows over the top. Spread them out evenly and place the brownies back into the oven for 5 minutes or until the marshmallows are slightly melted.

Remove from oven, sprinkle with mini chocolate chip and let cool.