November

November has gone by pretty fast and all of a sudden we’re looking at two weeks left of school. We spent Thanksgiving in Centerville, UT and had a great time for the time we could be there. Bryan ended up working late Wednesday and early Friday so we couldn’t be there very long but Thanksgiving Day was a relaxing day. We went to Layton for some family pictures and then back to Dad and Karen’s for dinner.  There were about 30 people there, which means lots of food and lots of left overs.

Here are some pictures at Gordon and Karen’s having pie.

 

 

 

 

Carson, Emily, Kimberlee, and Bryan.

Karen and Dad; Kelley and Daphne.

This is some of Karen’s family: her sister and brother in-law on the left and niece and nephew and friend on the right.

They had a lot of fun playing with the nerf guns although they weren’t very good at playing baseball with them.

Parties in October

This month we attended a couple of great parties, mostly with family.  We were invited to a 1920’s murder mystery dinner-the Grand Opening of the Four Deuces, a new speakeasy, all dressed in 1920’s appropriate attire (at least what we could find).  Just before we were to start dinner a prominent guest was murdered.  Inspector, Matt Kerr, (who was there investigating a murder from the night before) took charge of the situation and enlisted us all in helping to find the murderer and thus clear ourselves.  While socializing we were trying to gather information about the murder and to further our own agenda for the evening. (We had all been given characters to play with pieces of gossip, knowledge, instructions, and money.)  During our investigating another guest was murdered, who many people had thought committed the first murder, so that threw us off the scent and only one person guessed the murders correct at the end of the game.  They gave out certificates for those with the most money: Dustin, the host; the best acting: the first victim; and the best costume: me!   It was a great night and I got to try a new meatball recipe that turned out really good. It uses apple jelly and grape juice, which I’ve never thought to use for a meatball sauce but it works.

Halloween was very busy.  Bryan dressed up as a Samurai and I dressed up as Princess Peach for a LAN (computer) party and played video games to 3:00 in the morning.  Kimberlee was voted most attractive female, Matt was voted best overall and most original and I was voted best fit (character/personality).  I had not played the games we played before and had fun with most of them.  The next day (Saturday) we stayed at Dad and Karen’s for their Halloween party and got to see lots of costumes, eat food, and play rock band.  Then on Sunday we went to the Birthday Bash at Grandma and Grandpa Gordon’s to have more treats and fun.  It was an exciting weekend we got to see lots of family and friends.

Lockout!

Bryan and I decided to go on a date to get a root beer float from A&W. We got dinner from Wendy's and since we had gone through the drive through, we sat in the A&W parking lot to eat. While sitting there Bryan rolled down his window for a time, then rolled it back up and left the keys in the ignition; so when we got out of the car we locked the keys inside. Unfortunately his wallet was also in the car and our lights were on. We would have walked home and got my keys but weren't sure the car battery would last that long so we called our friend, Nephi, and asked him to bring my keys to us. He was really nice to stop studying for his test the next day and bring us the keys. We had our root beer float while we waited for him since the coupon had been in Bryan's pocket and didn't require us to buy anything. Once we had the keys we retrieved Bryan's wallet and bought Nephi a float as well. It turned out to be a very funny date.

Oatmeal Cookies

My mom gave us a book of family home evening activities for newlyweds. This week Bryan picked out an activity to make cookies but you have to look up scriptures to figure out the ingredients. So we took turns looking up scriptures and adding things to the dough and were having a wonderful time. When we had added all the ingredients and were ready to bake them the dough was really dry, powdery. We looked at the key at the bottom (which is there to be sure you don't mistake what the ingredients are) and found it included milk. There was no measurement or scripture to tell us to put in milk, shortening and eggs were the only wet ingredients listed in the recipe.

So we knew it needed milk but not how much. We tried looking up the book online to see if there was a correction and all we found was a review of someone who had the same problem we had and still didn't know how much milk was needed. We looked up other oatmeal cookie recipes but couldn't find any consistency. So we added a little bit at a time and probably put about 3/4 cup in. The cookies turned out really great though. So if you want to use this as a family home evening activity here's the recipe. (I added the scripture and measurement for milk.)

Beat together:

1/3 cup Psalms 55:21

1 1/2 cups Jeremiah 6:20

2 Isaiah 10:14

3/4 cup Judges 5:25

Add:

2 cups 1 Kings 4:22

1 tsp song of Solomon 4:14

1 tsp D&C 101:39

1/2 tsp 1 Corinthian 4:6

3 cups D&C 89:17

1 cup 1 Samuel 30:12

Drop by spoonful onto greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 F for 15 min, but not before reading Joseph Smith History 1:37 and D&C 133:11

Key: Beat together butter or shortening, sugar (1 cup brown, 1/2 cup white), eggs, and milk. Add flour, cinnamon, salt, soda (to make them "puffed up"), oats, and raisins.

What a week!

Three weeks into school and it's hitting us hard. We started out really good, getting up at 6:30 every morning and working out 3 times a week. I stayed up with my classes for the first two weeks and then caught a bug that put me behind. Luckily one of my instructors moved a due date back a week so I'll be caught up by the end of the week. Bryan tried really hard to get all his school work done while working part time, but on Sunday decided it was too much. So he dropped his least favorite class and that has let up the stress a bit. He also got sick this weekend, although not with what I had, but he is up moving around, going to school and should be able to go to work on Wednesday. The doctor says will take a few weeks for him to completely recover so he also dropped his PE class. He's working really hard and should be able to get back on top of everything.

To top it off we were rear-ended on Friday by a USU fireman in a USU car. I was driving and stopped at a stop sign to wait for a pedestrian, then pulled forward and stopped again to check for cars. The guy behind me didn't realize I had stopped a second time and hit the gas. His car was not damaged but his license plate number is tattooed onto our bumper. Our back bumper and reinforcement bar have to be replaced but it looks like the university will pay for it. The car is still drivable, you just have to jiggle the trunk a little to close it.

On a happier note, I am taking voice lessons this semester and really enjoying it. By the end of the semester I should be ready to sing at a recital. I am also very excited to be filling out papers for graduation! If all goes well I'll graduate next May. I am also nearly finished with my research paper for work so in the next 6-9 months I should have a published paper.

Bryan has found he really enjoys his Database class which is a good sign since that's what he just changed his major to. He also likes his marketing class ok, which is his minor so we know he's on the right track. It has been a very trying week but it looks like we'll pull through.

Lime Koolaid Ice cream

At one time we bought 2 packets of Lemon-Lime Koolaid and when we made the first one it tasted like green jello. We weren't very keen on drinking green jello so it has just been sitting on our shelf for a while. I finally found a recipe that used lemon-lime koolaid. It is a sherbert ice cream recipe that only takes milk, sugar, and flavoring and is really easy. We made it this weekend and it turned out really good. The recipe is:

1 cup sugar

1 pkg (.13oz) drink mix

3 cups milk

Mix all ingredients in a bowl until sugar is dissolved. Pour into a shallow pan, cover and chill in freezer for 1 hour or until thick. Pour into a bowl and mix until smooth. Cover and store in freezer. It is best to let it sit out to soften for ~20 min before serving.

You can use whatever drink mix brand, whatever flavor as long as it's not sweetened. You can also put fruit in it if you want, I read a review of someone who had used lemonade drink mix and grated lemon peel into the ice cream and said it was really good. You can also mix flavors. Some people said they used flavored soy milk to mix flavors and then they didn't need any sugar, or only a little bit. It may not taste as good with some flavors as with others.

Camping

Last week end we went camping with our neighbors, Nephi and Hannah Williams. In the mouth of green canyon a piece fell off of the Williams’ car. The car still worked but they didn’t want to drive it more incase that would make it worse. So we packed the 4 of us and all of our stuff in our car and kept driving. We spent a while looking for a campsite but eventually the boys found the perfect one. We immediately started dinner: mashed potatoes with bacon and cheese; and meatballs and gravy. While we waited for dinner we played a few rounds of hand and foot.

Here are Hannah and Nephi cleaning the Dutch ovens. It was quite dark by then so she was holding a light for him. We stayed up late enough for the fire to burn down to a few hot coals and then hit the sack. Here are Hannah and Nephi in their tent and me setting out our sleeping bags.

The next morning Nephi started the fire while Bryan started briquettes for breakfast: Dutch oven breakfast casserole.

We had a big day ahead of us helping build an addition onto a house in Brigham for Hannah’s brother so we packed up after one last round of hand and foot.

When we got back to their car Nephi called his dad and described the piece that had fallen off. His dad knew exactly where it went; it helped hold the belt on for the idle. He also said it would be ok to drive as long as the belt didn’t come off.

So we followed them straight to Auto Zone to make sure nothing else happened.

In this picture Nephi is describing the piece to his dad and trying to see where it is from.

Despite the car trouble we had a great time and hope to do it again before it gets too cold.