Today I've been thinking about...

* Candy Corn Kisses. One of my favorite things about autumn. I need to go buy a bag!



* My quilt. I'm finally making progress on it! My goal is to have the sewing machine part done by this weekend, so I can just sit and hand sew while I listen to conference and it looks liking I'm going to be able to do it! So glad I am finally finishing my "summer quilt" just in time for autumn.

* What do I want for Christmas? What am I going to get Rog for Christmas? Only 85 shopping days left you know!

* My Sister's Keeper. I haven't seen the movie yet, but I'm thinking I want to read the book. I've heard it's really good. And I know it's a sad book, but sometimes I like sad books. Does anyone have a copy that I could borrow to read? I'm like number 26 on the waiting list at the library!

* Autumn pictures. Rog and I have never taken good pictures in the autumn leaves. Does anyone want to take some for us? There would be cookies involved.

(It's crazy all the things my mind can think of while doing mindless last-day-of-the-month accounting.)

First Home Game

of the season... for us anyway! It felt so good to be back in the Lavel Edwards Stadium. It was perfect football weather, we had good seats, we were surrounded by great friends, and we won! Seriously, what more could we ask for?



Final Score: BYU 42 - CSU 23.

Honestly

Wonderful Rachel tagged me in the Honest Blogger Tag. Here are the rules. List ten Honest things about myself and tag 10 other bloggers who I think are honest in their blogging to do the same.

1. My greatest fear is that I will never be able to have a baby of my own. It took my mom 4 1/2 years to get pregnant with me and my dad's mom had multiple miscarriages before him, so there is a good reason I have this fear. My only consolation is that they both had babies eventually. Patience. I may have to get some!

2. Growing up I hated the color brown, but now it is one of my favorite colors... Probably only second to blue!

3. I have this problem recently that I never want to do my hair. It just takes so long and I'm lazy and I would rather be doing other things. So sometimes I just let it dry and then try to do something with it to make it look halfway decent. Fortunately, I've been told that the tousled look is actually "in" right now. Thanks Lisa for making me feel better about my laziness.

4. I CANNOT make brownies. I know what you're thinking... "Surely you can take a box of brownie mix, add some water, eggs, and oil, and have brownies in less than an hour. You must be talking about making brownies from scratch." Sadly I really am talking about making brownies of any kind. I either burn them to a crisp or take them out way too soon. I can make most anything else, but not brownies.

5. I am severely allergic to horses. Once Roger touched a horse and then 30 minutes later touched my face... Suddenly I couldn't breath and I had no idea why until Rog realized what he had done. I'm also allergic to dogs and cats. I steer clear of horses and dogs, but I still love cats, especially Cuddles. Best cat ever!

6. I am the worst at keeping in touch with people. So if I don't call you or email you, it's not because I don't like you anymore I promise! I need to be better.

7. I was absolutely HIDEOUS in middle school. Those days were seriously the dark ages. I still had bangs, I had huge eyebrows.... I could go on for days, but I'll stop there. I'm sure anyone who knew me back then would agree!

8. I get super grumpy when I'm hungry. I know lots of people aren't happy when they are hungry, but I promise I'm the worst... except maybe my dad who I inherited it from.

9. I recently realized that I don't really like any drinks other than water anymore. A few weeks ago I made some Kool Aid... It seriously sat in the fridge for like 2 weeks until I realized we weren't going to be drinking it and poured it down the drain. I'll drink other drinks if they're offered to me, but when I'm thirsty I go for water.

10. I'm so done working! Haha... Another thing I inherited from my dad. I'm not much of a worker bee. Could Rog just get his big kid job lined up already, so I at least know when exactly I can stop this whole work thing (no pressure babe). I know it will be at least until the end of next April (when he graduates), but I'd like to know the exact day I can say goodbye to good old APX Alarm for good! Can you tell it's the end of the month? Closing August has been a BEAST!

I tag: Diana Hobbs, Alisha Ririe, Emily Pugh, Jocelyn Campbell, Ashley Lee, Kim Waddoups, Edda Phillips, Krista McOmber, Anna Paulsen, and Kara Kaufman.

A little bit of everything

I can't think of a title for this post, get ready for RaNdOm!

I've never been much of a tv watcher, but my list of shows that I just have to watch every week has kind of gotten to an embarrassing level recently.

Tuesday: NCIS and SYTYCD
Wednesday: SYTYCD
Thursday: The Office

I used to watch the Office with my roommate, Stacey, every week, so I've continued that. SYTYCD used to be just a summer show, but now they are having a fall season too. And it really is Rog's fault that I watch NCIS. He got me hooked earlier this year. I guess now that I don't have homework to occupy me at night, I've become a real American. At least I can TiVo them if I have other stuff going on and watch them later. How do people watch tv without TiVo?

Speaking of embarrassing... The other day I had another incident with Cliff. I was leaving work a little late and I was in a bit of a hurry to get home and watch SYTYCD with Emily and do a little crafting (yeah, I have a rough life). Somehow in my rush I locked the keys inside Cliff. Seriously?! So I called Rog and he came with the spare key to bail me out.



But one good thing did come out of it. I figured out how to do this to my hair all by myself while I was sitting there. I've done it before, but only with Rog's help.

On a completely different note... Is anyone else just ecstatic that fall is here?!? The time has come for me to start wearing sweaters on my morning scooter rides to work, the leaves are changing, I got to make stew for dinner the other night, and I got to put out our Welcome Autumn door hanging... Oh yes, I just LOVE autumn!

Finally, here is a look at my most recent craft. I decided I can't put it out until October, but that is just around the corner. Yay for Halloween!

Canning Peaches

Sometimes it's a dangerous thing for me to read blogs. Case in point, a few weeks ago I was reading over at Little Birdie Secrets and I thought to myself, self, you should can some peaches. It was at that point that I was doomed. My mind started going a million miles per hour thinking how I could accomplish such a task when I had, at that point, not one piece of canning equipment to my name. I remembered days in the fairly distant past up in Park City watching my grandma and mom busily canning peaches and I had my answer. All it took was an email and then everything I would need to accomplish my goal was mine. The peaches were purchased and on Monday night as Rog headed off to the library to study, I started my adventure.



Rog of course returned from the library a few hours later to find this.

A slightly overwhelmed, yet upbeat Chief surrounded by peeled peaches cut in halves. Not even close to being done. He, being the most wonderful husband ever, jumped right in and helped me finish my task.

Around 1 am we finally crawled into bed. Exhausted, but totally satisfied with the 11 beautiful cans of peaches that were canned with our own blood, sweat, and tears. (Fine, there wasn't any blood and actually no tears either, but you get the point.)

Oh beautiful peaches how I love you!

*Hopefully I will still be ever so delighted with my peaches when I crack open the first can tomorrow morning to make wonderful peach crisp from heaven.

Next on the canning agenda: Peach Pie Filling. Bring it on!

Viva Las Vegas

Last weekend we went down to Las Vegas for the wedding of these two love birds.



It was a lovely wedding. I almost teared up a little during the ceremony because you could just tell they were in love. We are very happy for them.

Now, to be quite honest I wasn't excited about going because it meant we had to miss the Florida State game. But it actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise... I'm sure anyone who went to or watched the game would agree. We watched the first half in the sports bar in Caesar's Palace, but then we left to eat dinner at Outback with a bunch of Roger's cousins. From what I have heard, that was also a blessing because the second half was even worse than the first. Let's just say that when the polls came out we were feeling lucky to still be in the top 25 - we came in at 19.

Anyway, dinner was probably the best part of the day. Roger's cousins are loud, hilarious, and a ton of fun. It was really only the second or third time I've been around them, so I haven't quite broken out of my shell yet. But it was super fun to just sit there and listen to them.



We stuck around long enough to watch the Bellagio Fountains in the dark and then headed back to St. George where we were staying.

It was a quick trip, but it's always good to get to spend time with family and even better when we get to spend time with both families - which we did.

Congrats to Chris and Allie!

Help Mandie

So remember my BFF Amber whose son Tyce has CF... the one we ran for in our most recent race? Well, Amber's little brother Justin has a friend who also has CF. She wants to go to dental hygiene school, but she needs our help. She is currently a finalist for the Thriving Student Achiever Scholarship. The winner of this scholarship is selected based on a popular vote. You can read her story here and vote for her here. Please take a minute to vote for her and pass the word along to your friends and family. It won't take up a lot of your time, but it could make a huge difference in Mandie's life!

Big Chief and the Buffaloes

Last Saturday we ran in the Utah Marathon Relay in South Jordan with Rob and Anna Paulsen and Bryan Martinez. Because only 5 people could run, Rachel Martinez was our AMAZING Equipment Manager. After much debate, we finally settled on Big Chief and the Buffaloes as our team name. Of course with such a sweet name, we needed sweet shirts to match... so we got together the night before the race and whipped up these babies.



They each had a buffalo with our name in it and because we were running for my BFF Amber's baby Tyce who was recently diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis (the race was supporting the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation), we wrote for Baby Tyce on them as well.



A relay is definitely the way to run a marathon! We each ran 5.2 miles which is a good length - longer than a 5K, but still short enough that you can enjoy the run! And we had so much fun hanging out with the group while we were waiting for our turn to run.



I started us out in the freezing cold, but by the time Robbie crossed the finish line 3 hours and 28 minutes after the race started it was HOT! We all had good times well under a 9 minute/mile pace. Bryan was by far the fastest at 38:37.



We'll definitely be doing more relays in the future! We had so much fun! Thanks buffaloes!

BYU Game Day Door Hanging

As promised here are the directions for the BYU game day door hanging.

You will need: a wooden B Y and U (not pictured), Mod Podge, paint (blue and white), brush, wire, pliers, embellishments (i.e. buttons, stars, etc...), letters (also not pictured), and a drill.



First paint your B Y and U (1). You don't have to do them all the same color... You could do one white and two blue or one blue and two white.

Apply the letters using Mod Podge (2). I made mine say, "game day" because I have an autumn door hanging I plan on using during the week and I'm just going to put this one out on game day, but you could make it say, "go cougs," "rise and shout," or whatever else you want.

Apply your embellishments using Mod Podge (3).

Drill holes in the top corners (4) and through wooden stars to string through the wire (5).

Cut your wire using the pliers and connect the B Y and U together (6). It worked best to wrap the wire around the brush handle if you want your wire curly like shown.

And that's it! Now you're ready to cheer on our cougars (or at least your door is)!

Photo Cube

For September's enrichment craft night we made 2 projects - a photo cube and a BYU game day door hanging. Stay tuned for the BYU game day door hanging. Here are the directions for the photo cube.

You will need: A 4x4 cube (you can buy a 4x4 and have it cut at Lowe's or Home Depot), Mod Podge, paint, brush, photos, a paper cutter, and letters (optional).



First paint your cube (1). For the sides you are putting pictures on, you don't need to paint the whole side, just the edges.

Next cut your photos to fit the sides of the cube (2) and decide how you want the photos arranged on the cube (3).

Paint a layer of Mod Podge on the back of your photo and stick the photo on the cube. Apply a layer of Mod Podge over the entire surface to seal it (4). Repeat for all photos.

If you are using letters, apply those using Mod Podge and seal that side as well (5).

And that's it (6). Really pretty dang simple.

Go Cougs!

In case anyone has been living in a cave and hasn't heard... BYU freaking beat Oklahoma 14-13 last week! (Of course we were in Disneyland, so we didn't get to watch it. But we were getting frequent updates from our BIL, Irving's phone the whole time.)

We were absolutely astonished because Oklahoma was ranked number 3 and we never thought we would beat them... we thought we would be lucky to not get crushed! As a result we moved from number 20 to number 9 in the polls. People are even talking about BYU being in the National Championship Game if we go undefeated this season! Wouldn't that be sweet... 25 years after our 1984 National Champtionship?!

And yesterday we crushed Tulane 54-3... Bringing us up to number 7 in the polls. Yes, things are looking good for the cougars this year and I couldn't be happier!

Disneyland!

I know, I know... It's been awhile. I was all caught up until we went to Disneyland. Then we got home and I was busy all week with Enrichment and our Marathon Relay... We'll see if I can make a dent this afternoon while I watch the BYU game!

In case anyone was wondering, Disneyland is still the Happiest Place on Earth! We drove down to St. George Thursday after work, got up early Friday morning to finish the drive to Anaheim, and were in Disneyland by 1:00 that afternoon. It was like being home! We rode rides all afternoon. It was very hot and humid, but we cooled off on Splash Mountain - seriously we were soaked! Then we went to the Rainforest Cafe for dinner. We ate there on our honeymoon and they sat us at the exact same table this time without us even asking. I had the most delicious country fried chicken. We also got beignets at the Jazz Kitchen and got covered in powdered sugar! We rode some more rides and then went back to our hotel room to catch some zzzz's before our 5K the next morning.



The Disneyland 5K was the primary purpose for our trip and it did not disappoint! We were debating if we should run with our camera and we were glad we did. We got so many good pictures along the way! When we finished I told Rog it was the coolest thing we have ever done. He thought that was a little extreme, but it really was AWESOME! The run started at the Disneyland Hotel, went through Downtown Disney, into California Adventure, and all over Disneyland ending on Main Street.

After the run we spent the day in Disneyland and California Adventure with Rog's family. I discovered my new favorite ride - Midway Games in California Adventure. I rode it 4 times - twice alone which is something I do not do. If you go to Disneyland, definitely go on it at least once. (It's over by the California Screamer.) We ended the night with the fireworks show. Tinkerbell and Dumbo made an appearance in the sky. I tell ya what, Disneyland doesn't do anything half out.

Sunday we went to Rog's ward in Moreno Valley that he grew up in and then headed back to St. George. On Monday we cut some wood at the Phillips Wood Shop (watch for some projects coming soon). Then we washed, vaccumed, and detailed Meg at the Ririe Car Wash, played a game of Ticket to Ride, and ate at Applebees before heading back to P Town.

It was truly a magical weekend! Thanks Mickey for letting me visit! Hopefully I'll be back soon!

Oops!

I drive our scooter, Cliff, to work practically every day. For some reason, I am horrible at checking the gas gauge (there is no gas light), but I've never ran out of gas... until yesterday. After work I decided to go to Pebbles in my Pocket and Michael's really quickly while Rog was giving blood. I did my errands and was about to pull out on State Street when Cliff just died. I looked at the gas gauge and sure enough it was on empty! I called Rog because he was less than a block away and he came over. He just thought it was the funniest thing ever. Instead of helping me, he took pictures and told me I HAD to blog about it. Luckily I was super close to a gas station, so I just rolled on over there on the sidewalk. It was incredibly embarrassing, but also really funny!

Needless to say, I've learned my lesson. I'll remember to check the gas gauge from now on!