To Remember for Next Halloween...

If the pumpkins are still green next year, put them out anyway.  Actually, they're even better green, apparently.  The kids all think they're awesome, and will tell you so.

More with pictures to come tomorrow.  November is NaBloPoMo, which means a post every day for the month... we'll see how well I do at that.  Wish me luck.

Goo Goo Dolls

I love the Goo Goo Dolls. They're in my top 5 rock bands, for sure, though I'm not even really certain who else is on that list. So naturally when my buddy Ashley told me that she was going to their concert on Saturday, I told her that if for some reason they couldn't make it to the concert, we'd gladly take their places. To which Ashley responded that actually she'd just see if she couldn't score us some tickets instead, since it was a concert being sponsored by Nu Skin, her husband's employer. And sure enough, Josh, her hubby, was able to get us some tickets! So Cory and I went to the concert while my parents watched the girls (thanks so much!), and had a really great time. I took a few pics, but they're from my phone, so you'll have to excuse the poor quality. Oh, and they're mostly pictures of the screens on the walls, because that was the only way I could really see what was actually happening up there.  Anyways,  Cory and I knew all their songs but 3 (I think all 3 of the ones we didn't know were new), so we really enjoyed singing along with almost the entire concert.  What a great night.  Thanks again Ashley, Josh, Mom and Dad for allowing us a great date night!

The Stage/Lead Singer, John

Did you know they had a saxophonist?  Neither did I!  But I'd like to point out that he plays tenor, by far the most superior sax.  Or at least the most versatile.  He also played keyboards in the back.  Sweet!

Because it was a convention crowd, people were filtering out throughout the concert, allowing us to move up and get better seats... in this one you can actually see the performers!

Singing "Name," my favorite of their songs.

Proof that they do in fact have 2 singers... I'd always kind of figured they did, since they have 2 different sounds, but had never researched it.  Turns out their bassist was the original singer, but then they started having the guitarist sing, and that was when they made it big.  I much prefer the voice of the guitarist, but the bassist was a pretty entertaining guy too, so... whatever.  I'll take it all.  Like I said, I love the Goo Goo Dolls.

Seriously, such a great concert.

Things I Love To Find

So the other day I left Janey and Breanne in their bedroom for a minute while I went to do some laundry or something, and when I came back upstairs, the girls seemed to be happy in their room, so I left them there to do a few more chores. When I finally peeked in on them again, this is what I found:



I helped Janey sit up, and they continued to play for another half hour or so--I love that they are such sweet sisters, and that Janey is getting old enough to play with Breanne. I just hope that they will continue to be friends as they grow up--I know nothing about keeping sisters happy... but I'll do my best to do so. I want more of these sorts of pictures.

Two More Tags

Ok, so I've been tagged a lot lately, though it seems for the same tags over and over again, so I'm posting them both here. Enjoy learning a little more about me!

TAG #1

Here are the rules: I have to answer the following questions with one word answers and one word only! Then I must pass it on to seven others. (This was kinda hard for me...I'm not very good at being brief.) Here goes:

1. Where is your cell phone? Pocket

2. Where is your significant other? Bed

3. Your hair color? Brown

4. Your mother? Supporting

5. Your father? Comforting

6. Your favorite thing? home

7. Your dream last night? tunnel...ish?

8. Your dream/goal? stability

9. The room you're in? Bedroom

10. Your hobby? learning

11. Your fear? burns

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? comfortable

13. Where were you last night? piemaking

14. What you're not? sinister (male, round, miniscule, square, chicken, cow, father, cylindrical... were all Cory's responses (among many others) when I asked him what I'm not)

15. One of your wish-list items? simplicity

16. Where you grew up? home

17. The last thing you did? contemplated/ate (where did all these bruises come from, while eating pie)

18. What are you wearing? plaid

19. Your TV? borrowed

20. Your pet? Hazel

21. Your computer? orange

22. Your mood? amused

23. Missing someone? no

24. Your car? ghetto-ish

25. Something you're not wearing? pajamas

26. Favorite store? slickdeals

27. Your summer? gone?

28. Love someone? definitely

29. Your favorite color? orange

30. When is the last time you laughed? #14

31. Last time you cried? Primary

I'm pretty sure that since several of you tagged me, you've all mostly done this--if not, have at it! It's fun!


TAG #2

Again, I've been tagged a couple times for this one, but each time calling for diff. numbers of items--sometimes 4, sometimes 6, and sometimes 8... so I'll do whatever I feel like in that range. :)


8 TV shows I like to watch:

1. Bones
2. House
3. Supernatural
4. Smallville
5. Fringe
6. The Office
7. Heroes
8. Jeopardy

8 Restaurants I like to eat at:

1. Cafe Rio
2. IHOP
3. Chili's
4. Olive Garden
5. Macaroni Grill
6. Wendy's
7. Hire's Big H
8. Weinerschnitzel

8 things that happened today:

1. I got up when Janey woke me up at 8:00 instead of going back to sleep per usual.
2. Went grocery shopping.
3. Dropped excess off at the DI
4. Listened to Cory's phone conversations with potential employers.
5. Dressed the girls up in their costumes for a party.
6. Ate two red potatoes like apples at a party.
7. Washed a red tootsie pop out of Breanne's costume fur.
8. Contemplated where all my bruises on my legs came from...this is a regular occurence. I think they're from Janey's carseat/carrier thing.

8 things I am looking forward to:

1. Cory getting a job.
2. Getting a house with an office and a play room. (long term thinking here.)
3. Kickboxing/Aerobics in the morning.
4. Playdate in the afternoon.
5. Ward Harvest Dinner... all soups!
6. Trick-or-treating with Breanne and Janey.
7. Cory graduating!
8. Holiday food and festivities.

8 things on my wish list:

1. A good job for Cory.
2. Janey eating more solid foods.
3. Dance classes for Breanne.
4. A nicer point-and-shoot camera.
5. Paint for my bedroom, bathroom and kitchen.
6. More storage space.
7. A filing cabinet.
8. More reasonably placed power outlets.

Ok, so I like to talk about me, so I did 8 on each one... whatever. And same thing as before on the tags--most of you have done this, if not, feel free to take a stab at it, again, I think it's fun.

Church Dresses

On a happier note--don't the girls look adorable in their fall attire?




And yes, Breanne did insist on wearing the hat to church. :)

One of those days...

Today was kind of a crappy day.  I don't feel great (Janey is teething, and bringing some new issues with that...), Cory was "let go" from his job at Excel (they're massively downsizing, and let go all of their part-timers), and I found out that a good friend from my home ward was killed in a car accident early Sunday morning.  There it is.  The makings of a pretty crappy day.

I would like to say a few things about Cory's job and my friend's death, though, so here goes--

While it terrifies me that Cory doesn't have an official job right now, I feel sort of strangely at peace with the whole thing--I think this could really be a good thing for us.  It seemed like he'd kind of outgrown his old job a little bit, to me.  He was driving up to SLC every day, too, which was such a hassle.  So now he still has good references--his bosses still like him, they just can't afford to keep everyone on anymore--and he has the chance to move on to something new, and hopefully something closer to home, so maybe we could sell one car, and just work with one car again.  Cory already has a few ideas about available jobs, too, which is very comforting.  And on top of all of that, he's been doing a lot of programming for the iPhone, and has been able to make some extra money in the past, which now can help substitute for his lack of income.  So while I feel like I should be freaking out about now, as that is totally my nature, I feel like we'll make it through this.  I think Cory is so talented, and I am confident that he will be able to find a job that matches his skillset, and allows him more growth.  And maybe he can start riding a bike to work or something.  Good for his health, and our finances. :)  If you read this Cory--I love you, and I'm excited for this next big change in our lives together.

As for my friend--his name was Jessie Cline, and I can't even remember when we met, it was so long ago.  I just remember that he and I thought we were so cool because we had the same name, and even though he was 4-5 years older than me, we were buddies.  He was one of the most genuinely nice people I've ever met.  


One of my favorite memories of him revolves around our hike up to the top of Mount Timpanogos-- somehow I got to go with the young men and my dad on a 4  day backpacking trip up the backside of Mount Timp.  Jessie was so funny for the entire trip--he absolutely refused to go to the bathroom, because he would've had to go in the bushes or trees.  Maybe he did go sometime without telling anyone, but as far as I know, he really held it the entire trip.  Crazy kid.  :)  He had a pretty rough time on that hike, though--the snow was really melting, so when we'd cross it, we were often within 10 or so feet of some very swiftly moving water, and in some danger of falling into it.  The trails also get very narrow at the top, which was another danger.  Jessie pulled through, though, and when we finally got to the top, he was the first one up there.  The pics to the right are from my scrapbook (which I put together in 8th grade, so please give me a break... :).  You can see Jessie in the top left picture, when he made it to the top, and then in the bottom left picture, as well, where he is sitting on the rocks in front of me.  That was a good trip.  And please don't mock my hair--we were backpacking, and I was such an awkward girl in jr. high... I'm still a little sensitive about it all.  :)

Anyway, I guess Jessie was driving just after midnight on Sunday with three others in his car when they were hit and killed by a drunk driver.  I am deeply saddened by his loss, even though we'd lost touch over the years.  I hope his wife and family are able to find the comfort they need in this hard time.  He was a wonderful boy, and I know he will be missed by all.

Look at Me!

A couple hours after I tossed all my ingredients for stew into the crockpot, I decided we needed a little bread to go with it... so here is what I did about it:

Yeast, sugar and water bubbling up while I scalded milk, melted butter and dissolved sugar and salt on the stove...

beat three eggs, then put all three bowls of liquid together...

Added 5 cups of flour and started mixing it in...

Put another cup of flour on the counter, moved my dough onto it...


Mixed in a bunch of the counter-flour, put it back in the bowl to rise for an hour...

Shaped it into rolls, let it rise another hour...

Baked it for 12 minutes, and out came these delicious beauties!  

Yes, that's right, I made bread.  Well, actually, rolls.  With yeast.  All by myself.  Oh, except for the 5 or so calls I made to my  mom during the process... but I did it!  And I now feel much more comfortable with the process, so I hope to try out more new recipes, and experiment with the ones we have until we find something that we absolutely love, but in the meantime, these were really very very good, I thought.  Especially so with the homemade stew I had going in the crockpot while these baked... what can I say, I'm pretty much amazing.  :)

Some of us are more excited for winter than others...

Breanne's Not Half Bad...

at the photography thing.  After the pj's shoot, she wanted to take some pics.  When I told her I'd help her, she (of course) told me, "No, me help me.  Breanne help me" and took the camera away from me.  She couldn't quite figure out how to work it, so I did help her a little, but she did it mostly on her own.  And she got some pretty decent shots, too.  Gotta love Janey and Dad time.

Green PJ's

I'm pretty sure I mentioned my love for slickdeals on here recently, but seriously--so great.  The girls are wearing pajamas that I got for less than 3.00 a pair, when they were originally at least 15.00.  They're super nice, thick, warm pj's from Kohl's clearance, which I could just check out regularly myself, but why do that if slickdeals will do it for me?  I love it.

Anyways, here are the girls in some matching-ish green pj's--I can't help it, I'm a sucker for matching-ish outfits. 

This is Breanne telling us where she wanted Janey to sit...


Whispering into Janey's ear... "say cheese, Naney.  Yook at da hamera, Naney."

Janey deciding to do as Breanne says... and finally a big grin!

And what Janey really wanted was... you guessed it, her thumb... with a little blankie to hold up next to her face.  Sweet sisters.

What to do with all these cookie cutters? or Getting Breanne to eat PB'n'J

Sometimes Breanne just wants to scoop all the pb&j off her sandwich with her finger, and leave the bread. Sometimes I let her get away with this (she's still getting some of the important stuff, right?) but sometimes I worry about her getting enough to eat. So this is a new solution I came up with--a couple months ago, my grandma gave us 2 buckets of cookie cutters. One bucket was all the letters and numbers, with some punctuation, and the other was a bucket full of animals. It was really a very nice gesture, but it resulted in us having a new 100 cookie cutters that end up all over our house. So while I see the potential fun that could be had with all these cookie cutters, I also want to put them someplace... where I won't be tempted to just throw them away. Not that I ever would, but sometimes... Anyway, I decided to start cutting Breanne's sandwiches into fun shapes, to see if she'd be more likely to eat them. And guess what? She was! She ate her entire "B" and most of her "K" this day, plus the "b" holes. A minor victory for me.

Please don't mind, or even notice, all the mess in the background of these pics... I'd just received a shipment of books, gathered a bunch of stuff to take out of our house, and assembled our wagon, and it's all strewn out behind Breanne for some reason.  Oh, and we get a Sunday newspaper... this was taken on a Monday.  I promise my house isn't *always* a disaster.

Recent Deliciocities

So I'm pretty sure deliciocities (deliciosities?) is a word.  And if it's not, it should be, to describe the following produce from my garden:

I have never attempted peppers before, and was so pleased when they did so well... now if we could just use them all before they went bad!  And as for zucchini... well, I think I gave away at least 8 last week, and yet I still have 2 sitting on my counter, and 4 almost ready to pick off the vine... I'll be shredding them and freezing them for later, I'm sure.

Is this not the most beautiful thing you've ever seen?  Yes, that's right, I grew a cantaloupe.  Actually, I've grown a lot of cantaloupe--there are at least 6 in the last stages of getting ready to be picked and eaten.  And if you were wondering--yes, it was delicious.  I couldn't even wait to take a picture of the whole thing, it smelled so good, and it was the juiciest, ripest melon I've ever eaten.  So wonderful.

I am seriously so proud of how well my garden has done this year--I didn't expect nearly the results we've had. Next year I need to remember to get the peas, lettuce and spinach in the ground early, give the pumpkins, zucchini, cantaloupe and watermelon more space, move the peppers farther away from the tomatoes, get cages around ALL the tomato plants, plant the beans closer to the fence, and skip the corn, the jack-o-lantern pumpkins, and the cucumbers. I'd post a few pictures of the actual garden, but it is so overgrown, it's kind of embarrassing. I'm glad that food grows even when it's surrounded by weeds.  And I'm excited to start harvesting pumpkins, now that mine are starting to go orange. I should have at least 10 somewhere-between-a-softball-and-a-basketball-sized ones, which should be great for decorating, and boiling and grinding for pies, breads, cookies and cakes (they're the sugar pie kind). So excited. Who knew that I actually did have a greenish thumb? Not me, that's for sure! :)

And speaking of delicious foods, not that I grew these, but I blended them up--

These are my first attempts at homemade baby food for Janey--so far, we've probably tried at least 15 different baby foods, and the only thing she wants to eat are mashed fresh bananas, and mashed fresh peaches.  Fresh pears went over ok, too.  These are the remainders of the peaches and pears my grandma sent home with us, so Janey will have some good food to eat through the cold season, too.  Hopefully she likes them still, it seemed almost too easy to make her food.

Breanne Cracks Me Up

So I knew Thursday was going to be a crazy sort of day, so I wasn't planning on actually putting Breanne down for a nap, so that she would sleep in the car on our way to a book party I was throwing up in West Valley.  Around naptime, Breanne started to get a little cranky, but I wasn't quite ready to leave yet, so I put on a movie for her.  Ever since I put my wagon together, Breanne has been wanting to sit in it when she watches tv, so she got her blanket and pacifier (can you see where this is going yet?) and sat down in the wagon.  Pretty soon she decided she'd rather lay down, and a minute later, I came in the room to find this: