Thanksgiving is approaching

I LOVE the holidays! Although we won't be going to Spokane for Thanksgiving (we miss you J & Mons!) I'm getting pretty excited for Thanksgiving. Last year my extended family decided to institute an annual Pie Fest and Turkey bowl. We have a family bowling tournament and then after bowling we eat ridiculous amounts of pie.. a pie fest of sorts :) Every female age 18 and over is REQUIRED to bring a home-made pie. I waited til the last minute last year and ended up with a not so impressive pie so this year I decided to start earlier.

A couple weeks ago we went to Sam's club and had a sample of some sweet potato pie and it was SO good! I was suprised because I really don't like pumpkin pie but I craved sweet potato pie all week. So this weekend I decided I ought to practice and attempted a sweet potato pie. I didn't take a picture but all those who partook enjoyed thoroughly. My best friend Lexi said it was fabulous and even had a second piece! That's saying something. Needless to say I was pretty proud, and grateful for such great ego stroking friends :) Here's hoping my second one comes out just as tasty.

ReAL Championship Game

Yes another post... it's Sunday .... it's been a solitary day, and I had a great weekend!

After I send off Brad I took my brother to the ReAL's championship game as a late Birthday present. (a BIG thanks to Matt and Emily for getting me the tickets).

We had a great time at the game screamed our guts out! And loved every minute of sitting in the predominantly Latino section who brought drums and horns and all had prepared all kinds of cheers. Let's just say it was VERY exciting! Unfortunately ReAL lost after tons of great shots and even four right off the goal posts! We'll get them next year!

After the game matt (my brother's name is ALSO matt) took me out to dinner at Sconecutters. It's been a long time since we've done anything just the two of us and I had a GREAT time! Thanks again matt!

I couldn't pass up the opportunity to get a picture of the two of us :)

Love you bro!

On the road again

On Saturday Brad left again for work although this trip is a little different from the last.

This time instead of having the parts shipped and flying Brad and his co-worker there they decided to save some cash and have them drive a truck of parts out to Ohio. That's roughly 1,800 miles or 26 hrs. Road trip anyone???!!!

The first picture I got of these two Brad was making a ridiculous face and Jeffery figured they should match so what you behold is the final master piece. Wow!

Christmas Presents

I LOVE Christmas and I love buying presents. I've been asking Brad for month what he wants for Christmas and the only things ideas he's given me are things I'd be a direct benefactor of.

His list:

A new i-pod (so I can have his old one)

Ticket to ride (an awesome board game which is also at the top of MY list)

Needless to say I was a little frustrated.

So I had to take matters into my own hands, with a little help I picked up Brad from the airprt this Friday and suprised him with tickets to the Body Worlds exhibit.

For any of you who have never heard of this exhibit see here: http://theleonardo.org/bodyworlds/the-exhibit/photo-gallery.php

Basically they plasticize cadaviers and then along with cases of organs and body parts they have
full cadaviers each showing some different function of the body in amazingly artistic poses.

My favorite was a man balancing on three balls balancing all of his organs with his free hand. (sounds gross it was A-Ma-Zing)

We grabbed lunch at the Library which was next door to the exhibit and had a great time. Sorry for the lack of pictures, we weren't allowed to take any inside the exhibit but I'll just let you know Brad loved it! This is the guy who down loaded surgeries of of i-tunes and thought they were awesome and always wanted to watch Justin's anatomy DVDs.

I was suprised how much I enjoyed it but I have to say even though it was very impressive it was pretty darn sick! Taking your beloved to see a bunch of dead bodies... apparently that's true love :)

We ended the night by heading to Emily and Matt's to play some games.. (I challenged Emily to Nertz, I got my butt kicked!) but on the way we got lost and somehow ended up at Mountain City Grill. We jumped at the opportunity and grabbed some chinese food and enjoyed some games and great food with the Rogers.

I'm changing....slowly

Ever had one of those weeks where you bomb two tests, in an attempt to shape up you seem to eat everything in view and then some, can't seem to achieve your goals, spend 20+ hours on the computer doing who knows what and some how stumble upon blogs of the beautiful women in your ward who seem so "perfect" and get lost in the rut of comparing yourself.....

Don't worry I do :) This is that week. Despite the poor time management I'm pretty proud of myself. A previous me would have broken down in tears this week but thanks to my wonderful hubby I'm learning to let a few more things roll off my back. I am learning to be patient with myself, and try to remind myself where I was 5 years ago...(a sophmore in high school for all those who are dying to know) and how much I've grown since then, and how far I will progress in the next five years.

Instead of getting stuck on all the things I do "wrong" I want to focus on a few of the things I am proud of: chosing not to be upset when brad missed his flight, making a delicious dinner on Monday and having everything cleaned up before our guests even left, playing some mean nertz, taking two tests, waking up at six to study(NOT a morning person... doesn't even run in my genes, yes I used to have a morning job- that is an evidence of true love),working out 2 times, completed D&C and Family Finance homework on time, have written all the papers for my Judaism and the gospel class and Aced the midterm!, I talked to my niece Aubrielle on the phone (didn't necessarily make me proud but needs to be included in the list of things that made me happy)

It's so easy to see what's wrong but I know it's all a matter of what we're looking for. Sometimes I just have to remind myself. This post is totally just for me but I appreciate that I have some place express myself when my loving hubby is miles from home.

Focus.. Focus

Here I am in the BYU Library going on my second hour and I've read 2 pages of material for class. Why is that? No I wasn't checking out blogs or surfing the internet. I think I could possibly win a competition in time wasting. BW left this morning for a job in Washington and I'm wishing more than anything I could have gone with him. I can't wait till Christmas. The family the fun .. (the fighting I could do without) But I'm so excited for a break to spend time with family and focus on people and not school! Thanks for lettin me rave.. and back to attempted studying.

Need I say more?

UTES 13 - Horned Frogs 10

Photos: (Bottom to top) Pre-Game; Swarm the field; on the field; Ready to strike on Nov 22.

Arghh!

Halloween.

Memories not forgotten

So there are tons of things we've done and taken pictures of but just never posted. Here are some of them in no particular order.

November 1st Fun

What a fantastic way to start the new month. (Brad is typing this post which will more than likely become blatantly obvious...) I started the day by playing basketball at the church for a couple hours. While so doing my brother in law Matt (Rogers) I have two Matt in laws; calls me and says he's got tickets to see the very first Real Salt Lake playoff game ever and in the new stadium AND the seats are right next to his and my sister's season ticket seats. When I got back from basketball I told Miranda we could go but only if she let me clean for the next three hours before we left :)

We got up there running a hair late and did a nifty drive by hand off the tickets maneuver with Matt and Emily on our way to parking. We entered the stadium only two minutes into the match and I felt like I'd just entered the quidditch World Cup, drums banging, streamers flying, (later) confetti flying, red and blue smoke bombs through the air, fireworks shooting off. I later found out this was actually the Chivas USA diehard fans who, it appears didn't really care who won they just wanted to make noise and cause excitement. I enjoyed it. As some of you may well know the match was scoreless till the 90th min. but there were many moments of pure adrenalin and excitement that had us on our feet and screaming like...like...like sophisticated adults. Miranda and I left with our two little souvenir towels for the game in the 87th min to beat the traffic. We were still in the parking lot and watched on the Jumbotron as REAL scored the winning goal in the 90th min. As I recall Miranda did a celebratory dance of sorts. Thanks Matt and Emily.

After beating the traffic and getting to Miranda's parents house to pick up her father to go to her mother's choir performance in the Tabernacle downtown we realized that in the excitement of the game we hadn't taken a single picture!! So here's the best we could do.

We quickly changed and made it downtown for the performance; which was truly enjoyable. I also had my first chance to drive Bryan's (Miranda's Dad) cool new kneeling minivan, a very sweet little machine with many a gagdet. (this is the part where I'm not sure why this is underlining everything and can't figure out how to get it off. It seems like a link thing but I can't undue it. so enjoy! Here is a picture of us at the tabernacle after the performance.

We then went out to dinner with Miranda's parents and her brother and sister in law Matt (Carroll) and Stacy at the Olive Garden. We must make mention that Bob? (not sure on the name) but the server at the downtown location with long hair back in a pony tail and facial hair is one of the best servers around. Very attentive and all that super cool stuff. Thanks Bob.

What completed the day was the Jazz winning by a hefty margin, the Utes pulling out a close win. Thanks to text updates from Matt (Rogers) and my Dad, thanks guys. BYU did also win but it's still hard to say I'm glad they did, even for the conference sake I always find myself delighting in their misfortune and hoping for the to lose the close ones... what can I say I was raise a UTE...or should I say Anti-Cougar-Running-Ute. BYU did have my semi-support until they lost. I was hoping for an undefeated showdown at the end of the season...they ruined it.

Matt (Rogers) and I have tickets to the TCU UTAH game this thursday and I will most definately be posting. I may even remember to take a picture or two this time at the actual game.