The Instrumentalist: October 2008

10.31.2008

10.28.2008

Nap Time

Day 301-Oct 28th: This is very incriminating evidence of an afternoon nap. Was it worth it? Yes! I couldn't believe when I was at work, opening boxes, scanning, pricing, and almost falling asleep! I really, honestly, was having a hard time keeping my eyes open. I have no idea why I was so tired, I got the same amount of sleep and everything. So after work I came home and turned on Extreme Home Makeover (thanks to TiVo) and I was immediately asleep. Russell laughs at me all the time because as soon we turn on a show or movie I fall asleep. Haha, I don't know what it is, but the TV puts me right to sleep unless I am really trying to watch whatever is on.

10.27.2008

Success at the Surgeon's

Day 300-Oct 27th: So...this being day 300 means there are only 65 more days in the year! Wow...take that all of you who didn't think I would keep taking a picture a day!

Anyway....if there's one thing a trip to the surgeon will get you, it's some good reading time. They are always running behind. I got most of the way through this book I am reading for my Leadership class. It is about how to make ideas sticky. It is a good book, but very long-winded.

For those of you who don't know....I had surgery in March to remove some ovarian cysts which were supposed to be causing my pain. Turns out once they got in, most of the cysts were gone, but they found a hernia. So....in May I had another surgery to repair the hernia where they put mesh in for my abdominal wall to grow back together on (gross, I know).

Anyway, this last week I have had pain very similar to what I had before surgery, ugh, and I was convinced I would have to have surgery again. I scheduled an appointment with the surgeon. Good news though....he is pretty sure I just strained it and maybe tore some of the muscle from the mesh. So everything looks/feels fine to him and I should be better in a few weeks as long as I don't do anything crazy. Thank Goodness!

Melted Witches Recipe

Here is the much requested Melted Witches recipe - it's from the Taste of Home Halloween Food and Fun cookbook, which has many more cool Halloween treats if you can track it down at the grocery store.

Melted Witch Puddles

1 tsp water
4 drops yellow food coloring
1-1/2 cups flaked coconut
2 cups (12oz) semisweet chocolate chips
6 Tbsp shortening, divided
36 Oreos
36 Bugles
4 cups vanilla or white chips
36 pretzel sticks

In a large plastic bag, combine water and food coloring; add coconut. Shake to tint coconut and set aside. Melt chocolate chips and 2 Tbsp shortening; stir until smooth.

For witches hats, place about 1/3 cup chocolate mixture in a plastic bag; cut a small hole in a corner of the bag. Pipe a small amount of chocolate on a cookie. Dip a Bugle in some of the remaining chocolate; allow excess to drip off. Position over chocolate on cookie, forming a witch's hat. Set on waxed paper to dry.

For brooms and puddles, melt vanilla chips and the remaining shortening; stir until smooth. Place mixture in a plastic bag; cut a small hole in a corner of the bag. Pipe mixture into the shape of a puddle onto waxed paper-lined baking sheets. Immediately place a hat on the puddle. Place a pretzel stick alongside the hat; sprinkle coconut at the end of the pretzel stick.

Chill for 15 minutes or until set.

10.26.2008

Pumpkin Carving Pictures

Here's some pictures of our pumpkin carving tonight.

The Box

Soo...there are these glass canisters from Crate and Barrel that I asked for for my birthday. When we came home from doing some errands this yesterday morning we rounded the corner into the neighborhood and saw this box on our porch! Haha...you could read what it was from all the way down the street. Russell was NOT impressed by their box. I wonder what I got???

Halloweeny

Day 299-Oct 26th: Here's our sad pumpkin. He's supposed to be scared, but he looks more sad. I guess we aren't pumpkin carving experts. I never bought a pumpkin carving kit, and we really could have used a better knife to make the curves, but we made it work with what we have. Oh....and I need to remember to get tealight candles next year, because this candle is way to big, you can see it through his nose.

Day 298-Oct 25th: Tonight we went to play Fury of Dracula with Larkin, Allyson, and Rachel. We made these melted witches to take for treats! Larkin and Allyson had Root Beer with a hand and face ice cube! It was a very spooky night, but Rachel, Allyson, Larkin and I managed to kill Russell (he was playing as Dracula). We are playing more Halloween games on Thursday, but I'm not sure what treats I will make.

10.24.2008

Pour on the Stress

So this week has been really stressful. All my classes have a ton of stuff to do, and I'm really just trying to hang on and get through the semester!

Day 297-Oct 24th: Russell and I went to the National Guard Armory here in Spanish Fork and voted! We took the opportunity to vote early and not stand in line on the 4th. Standing in line is not my ideal birthday activity! Anyway, it was kind of fun, at least for me. It's the first time I have voted since I turned 18 the day after the last Presidential election. I was really excited to get my sticker, and this one lady thought that was funny. Haha. Anyway....we voted and you should too. Oh...and it took about 12 tries to get this picture where you could see our stickers and our sides weren't cut off.

Day 296-Oct 23rd: I got an email today telling me that my priority registration date for next semester is the 30th! Wow....that came really fast. I guess that's what happens when you are about to start your last semester. I was worried that the electives I want to take wouldn't be available, like this semester, but they are...and they don't overlap! So...it looks like everything will be dandy for next semester. I figured it all out tonight, and now just have to decide what time I want to take all the classes.

Day 295-Oct 22nd: Today was super, super busy. Wednesday's I basically have class from 10-5, with about an hour break in there. I woke up early to finish reading for quizzes that I have everyday, went to class all day, went to work until 8:30p.m. and then came home and studied for my Church History midterm until about 11:30. I was really tired after all of that.

Day 294-Oct 21st: Russell went to the grocery store to pick up a few things while I went to class tonight. I told him to get some Bugles for the melted witches we are making for tomorrow's game night. Well....he likes Bugles apparently, so some of them had mysteriously disappeared by the time I got home!

Day 293-Oct 20th: I finally took the time to take my application and fee for graduation and turn it in here at the ASB! It's the strangest building I've ever seen. Russell thinks they should have the Cougarettes cheering for you as you turn your graduation application in, but he felt better when I told him the girl I turned it into was really excited for me. I guess this starts the countdown to April.

10.19.2008

Nursery Time

Day 292-Oct 19th: We teach the oldest class in nursery. Today we taught about the scriptures, and I had this game where you match the pictures to the cards, like scripture memory in a way, but not memory. Anyway, there were only five cards, so I put them in the middle of the table and was trying to let each kid take a turn picking a card and matching the picture, but the whole time everyone was whining that they didn't have their own paper. Ugh. I think next week we will do the lesson entitled "I Will Share."

We do have fun in Nursery though, don't get me wrong. Once the kids were done coloring the front of their pictures today, Russell drew them dragon families on the backs. I'm sure when the Bishop looks at the back of his son's nursery picture he wonders what really goes on in nursery. They are also getting pretty good at singing songs, they even know if you skip a verse and are quite loud about telling you! They really are good kids, but sometimes they are quite a handful.

10.18.2008

Halloween M&M's

We went to Target today to grab a few things and get some candy for Trick-or-Treater's before all the good stuff was gone. We found lots of good things, but Russell found these M&M's for us too. They are Ghoulish colors! Haha. I think they are pretty fun.

Cornbelly's Corn Maze - Thanksgiving Point

When we got home from Manti today, I realized that today was kind of our last day to get up to the corn maze at Thanksgiving Point. So...we called up Caleb and Holly and off we went. We had a great time.

We went through the maze first. Caleb took charge here once he figured out where we were on his map. I'm surprised he figured out where we were, but he got us out pretty quick after that.

Here he is celebrating his victory at the exit of the maze.

We walked around and looked at everything, including a tree of pumpkins carved with all sorts of things. The pumpkins were styrofoam, but still pretty cool. They had President Hinckley, Nemo, Pooh and Tigger, BYU, and all sorts of other things, including this tiger one I took a picture of for Dad. I think he should carve one for Halloween.

Then we went through this creature. It was like a pitch-black maze of the insides of a monster. He was making scary digesting and moaning sounds while we were in him. Kinda freaky if you ask me.

And finally we found some pumpkins for carving ourselves.

It was a great trip up to Thanksgiving Point, and it made me excited to go up for the Christmas lights. We didn't get up there last year, so I hope we do this year.

There's even more pictures here.

Manti Temple Trip

Russell and I have a goal to go to all the temples. Although throughout the world might be really hard, we can pretty easily get to all those in the U.S. at some point I think.

Anyway, we decided Manti wasn't too far, and it would be fun to get out of Spanish Fork and Provo for a day. So....we made a hotel reservation (yes, there are hotel's in Manti!) and went down Friday night. We got there about 6p.m. Our hotel was about half a block from the temple, and we spend about half an hour walking around the grounds and enjoying the view.

This morning we went to a session, which was lots of fun. They have live sessions, like Salt Lake, only the painting in the rooms is even better. Like...there's a pterodactyl in the creation room!

We had a great time and think everyone should get down there, it's an amazing temple and has a lot fo history attached to it.

There's more pictures here.

It's Been a Week Again....Part Two

Day 291-Oct 18th: We called up Caleb and Holly and went up to Thanksgiving Point today to go through the David Archuleta corn maze. Turns out there's lots of things to do up there. More about that in another post too. We really liked this gigantic rocking chair though.

Day 290-Oct 17th: Tonight we drove to Manti to go to the temple on a little weekend trip. The temple was beautiful as we walked around the grounds tonight. More about the trip in another post.

Day 289-Oct 16th: Even though I was super tired when I got home from work and finished homework, I had to watch some 24. I have never seen the show, but decided to get the first season on Netflix, and it's really hard to stop watching. Russell loves the show, but never saw season one, so it's been fun to watch it together.

Day 288-Oct 15th: I switched my shift tonight and added it on to tomorrow so I could attend one of my friend's wedding receptions. It was great to see her, and I wish she were not moving to Houston now that she's married, we could use some married friends up here. It's crazy how once your married none of your single friends want to hang out. Anyway, we had some time once Russell got home from teaching so we played Fearsome Floors, a Halloween game. I'd never played it before, and for some reason was convinced the game was about elevators. Well....it's not, but it was still fun. You have to run from a monster and try and get out of the building. Elevators would be coller if you ask me.

It's Been a Week Again....Part One

Day 287-Oct 14th: My basic conducting class was cancelled tonight. My professor had some type of Junior High band competition he had to be at, so we actually got to see eachother before Thursday! After I got home from work I took the opportunity to make a nice dinner, something we don't usually have except for Sunday's, and maybe a few Saturday's. I made meatloaf, which is amazing, and we enjoyed having something nice and relaxing together.

Day 286-Oct 13th: Haha storm! There was no snow in Spanish Fork all weekend! I am sooooooooooo glad it didn't snow here, apparently it did in Salt Lake and even some places south of there. I was so glad to wake up this morning and realize the storm was past and we only got rain.

Day 285-Oct 12th: My short story draft is done! I spent about 4 hours finishing it up tonight, turned out to be longer than I thought it would. I wrote about how Russell and I met at Archiver's. If you don't know the story, you can read it on our wedding website under stories. It turned out being just over 8 pages!

Day 284-Oct 11th: I spent the afternoon making these cute invites for my sister-in-law Holly's baby shower. I found this cute line of paper by My Mind's Eye at Pebbles. I'm glad Russell decided we should go there first. I didn't like anything at Archiver's and I was planning on going to Robert's, but stopped at Pebbles first. I was looking for something less super-cute baby boy and more trendy baby boy, which I think I accomplished. I'm excited they turned out cute and can't wait for the shower to be here!

10.10.2008

For Russell

Russell is on my case to take these pictures. I admit....sometimes I just think of the picture I am going to take each day and don't actually take the picture. Then I mostly rely on Russell to remember what picture is for what day until I finally get around to taking them.

Day 283-Oct 10th: I finally bought a normal flapper the other day for our toilet, and Russell fixed it yesterday. It was wonderful to use the downstairs bathroom today and have it flush normally. And...it's great to not hear it running constantly. I'm sure we will also see a difference in our water bill now that we are not going through a whole toilet tank every half an hour!

Day 282-Oct 9th: When we went to the grocery store last week, Russell spent several minutes standing in front of the popsicle case, trying to decide which ones to get. He finally decided on these Longboard popsicles. Turns out they are like the high-class popsicles. They are $4 a box, and there are only 4 in a box! But....they are really, really good. There were tons and tons of cookies in the Cookie's and Creme, and he says the fudge ones taste like a Frosty. Haha. I haven't tried my fudge one yet.

Day 281-Oct 8th: It has started again.....Monopoly at McDonald's. We are convinced that one of these years we might win something great....other than a medium fry, so off we went to McDonald's for dinner. We did get two of the green property's, but chances of ever getting the third are slim to none I'm sure. I guess it's mostly an excuse to eat at McDonald's sometimes for a few weeks.

Day 280-Oct 7th: On Tuesday nights I have a basic conducting class. After about the second class, I realized I needed some way to mark the music in order to be able to just glance at it and look up again. So...I emailed Mr. Krager, my conductor from the University of Houston, and asked him how he marked his music. He is wonderful and emailed be back a long list of colors, symbols, etc. And it sure works! I knew he would help!

Day 279-Oct 6th: This weekend it snowed in the mountains. I love snow in the mountains, but I'm not as excited when it sticks to the ground for 6 months here in Utah. So....I have been enjoying the nice white snow laying atop the beautiful mountains in hopes that it will not come down into the valley anytime soon.

10.05.2008

Halloween Ladder

I forgot to put the Halloween ladder kit on with the the other decorations, but you can count on Russell to remember. We put it up this weekend.

Conference Weekend

Day 278-Oct 5th: Today was another day of getting up just in time for conference. I enjoyed Russell M. Nelson's talk about marriage and Brother Oswald's talk about learning how to teach. After conference was over we drove up Provo Canyon to look at the changing leaves. We walked around a bit and took some pictures, but mostly we enjoyed the view from the warm car. It snowed in the mountains this week so it was a little chilly up there!

Overall conference weekend went alright. I would have enjoyed it much more if I didn't have to do all the homework I did. Honestly, how can teachers give you a ton of homework and then sit back and say "enjoy conference"? That bothers me. Anyway, I got it all done, and even have half a page of my short story written! It's not much, but it's a start, which is more than I had yesterday.

Day 277-Oct 4th: We spent most of the day watching General Conference today. I didn't feel good, so we slept until about 9:50am and got up just in time for conference to start. During our break between sessions, we went to Home Depot to get a new flapper for our downstairs toilet which is leaking water into the bowl constantly. It's gotten a lot worse over the last few days, so I looked up online what to do and determined that our flapper was not sealing correctly. Well, it turns out Russell wanted to get a real fancy flapper that saved water, and it ended up not fitting on our toilet, so we have to take it back and get a more conservative one. Anyway, Home Depot is across the street from the Quilted Bear, so of course we went. And.....we found this skeleton! The lady had just marked him down $10, which was 30% off really! We were sold. Now he's on our front door. We are thinking about giving him a name. Any suggestions???

Speaking of conference, I think my favorite part of today was the primary choir in the afternoon session. I felt the Spirit constantly while they were singing. I guess that shows just what those little children can do.

Day 276-Oct 3rd: Today I made my first visit of the semester to the testing center. Most people don't like the testing center, it's their least favorite building on campus, but I love it. I love the whole idea that you have several days to take your tests at your convenience. This way, if you have two or three tests in classes in one week, you don't have to take them all on the same day...unless you are crazy and choose to. Anyway, maybe I appreciate it more since I spent my freshman year at the University of Houston and just had to take tests during the scheduled class period, but I enjoy the freedom of the testing center. I took my first Business Law test today and got a 92%! I'm really enjoying that class....much to my surprise.

10.02.2008

Extinct

Day 275-Oct 2nd: I believe this little tool laying by the bread box this morning is evidence that someone in our house is eating dinosaurs for lunch. No wonder they are extinct! Thanks Mom, I'm sure ours kids will love it too!

10.01.2008

Wanted: Russell

Crime: Unsolicited Sharing of Disease
Punishment: Must buy his Wife a Diamond

Day 274-Oct 1st: Don't be deceived, he only LOOKS innocent! He has been sick for like a week, and I've done my darndest to stay away from him. I CANNOT get sick, I have too much to do! I held back kisses, didn't snuggle, we don't even SEE eachother basically until Thursday nights these days, and he STILL managed to get me sick. I woke up about 1a.m. this morning to discover my throat and ears hurt. I didn't want to even think about getting up when I had to later. Of course, it has to hit me on Wednesday, when I have 4 classes and can't afford to stay home instead of Tuesday, Thursday, or Friday when I only have 1!