Feeling a Little Fall-ish!

Forgive me a moment while I brag.

My dear Watson is doing SO well in Anatomy.  People are always  cursing the class at BYU and UVU, and word on the street is that Anatomy is MUCH harder at UVU.  As it stands, people keep following my dear Watson around class saying “You’re the smartest guy we know. Please study with us and teach us everything there is to know about myology and osteology and muscles and bones and stuff.” Way to go handsome genius husband of mine. I’m quite sure he’s at the top of his class although he’ll tell you, “nuh uh, everyone is getting 90% and 100% on their tests and quizzes.”  Yeah. Right. To be clear, as long as he does his best I’m proud of him whether he’s at the top or not, but it’s kinda cool when he comes out on top of such a difficult class. What an accomplishment!

All of a sudden the mountains turned red, orange and yellow.  Literally, overnight.  I bought some Halloween Oreo’s (with orange colored cream) to celebrate the onset of fall.  My pumpkin obsession is already starting. My head is reeling with pumpkin things I want to make, and ways to decorate pumpkins. I can’t wait to buy 6 pumpkins to put on our front porch.  Okay, 6 might be too many. Okay, I guess I’ll be lucky if I actually get around to buying 1 : ).  But you can bet I’ll make some time for pumpkin soup, baked pumpkin, pumpkin spice muffins, pumpkin mousse parfait, and YES, a pumpkin pie blizzard from DQ. I may have to eat all of this myself, since I’m pretty sure eating pumpkin is not my dear Watson’s favorite thing.

We had to say goodbye to Julie at the beginning of the week : ( so sad.  It was a blast to have her here and we will miss her and Adam very much. 

I’m excited for what’s happening this weekend.  I’m glad conference comes every six months, because I really start to feel a hunger for the words of the prophet and apostles. I usually finish reading their talks about 2 months before it’s time to hear from them again.  I hope this time I will be blessed to remember well the things I learn.

I’m planning to make a delicious and beautiful cake this weekend—with vanilla cream mousse, homemade caramel and smooth buttercream frosting with pretty designs on top.  Lately, everything I make turns out ugly, so it might be delicious and not  beautiful, but we’ll see!

Pies, and Corsages, and New Cars, Oh My

Boy oh boy. I’ve been feeling quite stressed lately and haven’t been handling it very well. We have spent probably only 20% of our time at our own home the past several weeks. My dear Watson’s school work has jumped up a few notches from where it has been in the past (mostly because of Anatomy), and I’m having to stay late at work on Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s for the next several weeks.  I have a long list of things I want and need to do, but I can’t seem to find the time to do it.

My dear Watson watched a BYU Football practice in August and snapped this picture of Jake Heaps and our favorite little blondies. Just kidding, I have no idea who those kids are. Nice picture though.

Our Stake had a 40 year celebration and they put on a huge party. I signed up to bring some pies and this was the strawberry one.

We wanted Julie to experience Park City so we shopped at the Tanger Outlets and then hit up main street. There is always a lot of fun stuff to look at in PC.

Oh, here's my french silk pie. I didn't actually get to try it but I think it was probably amazing.  I tried plenty of the batter the day before, and I can't imagine whipped cream and an oreo crust made it any worse. 

Our car hasn’t been working very well lately. We got it diagnosed and they said it needed a new distributor – that’s a $200 part. So we thought, and thought, and prayed, and prayed, and decided it was time to buy a new used car.  A car that we know has the capacity to get us through our struggling years (like when we have a baby and no longer have a full-time salary while my dear Watson is in grad school). I was nervous that even if we fixed the green car it would poop out on us right in the middle of the time of our life that we won’t be able to afford a better car.  So, while we could afford it now, we bought a new car.

2003 Toyota Corolla, 107K miles, exterior looks awesome, AND it’s a manual.  It has been interesting remembering how to drive stick. There is so much to concentrate on! My focus goes more to the mechanics of driving the car, and less to the actual road rules (which is bad, so hopefully I get used to it again real quick). We have both felt like dummies as we step blindly into the world of buying a car. Neither of us have ever done it before, and we’re learning some interesting things along the way. Lucky for me, I have an amazingly mechanical husband who knows a lot about how cars run and how to fix them when they don’t. He is also really good at just taking care of his things in general, and especially his cars. 

Little brother went to homecoming last weekend and I made his date’s corsage.  I was pressed for time which in a way was good because I just dove in and gave it a go. I didn’t have time to stress about it.  It was cute, but little brother was quick to tell me that his buddy is taking a floral design class at school and he made a corsage that was much cooler. Thanks bro.

Little Brother and his Date.

I’m teaching the Family Life merit badge at BYU’s PowWow next month and I have been creating a family feud game to play during class. I have been thinking real hard about who I would choose as my teammates if I was selected to be on the real family feud.  Here’s the line-up (which has NOTHING to do with my favorites, so don’t write me out of your will or anything): My dear Watson, Sarah, Ben, and Andy.  J.  We would win, I know it—and then we’d share our winnings with the rest of the family. Right?

Who would be on your family feud team?

This is us on the way to the Rascal Flatts concert. Yeah, we might look happy but we were DEFINITELY frustrated. We were in traffic for 2 1/2 hours. 

We finally made it to the concert. Rascal Flatts were Awesome. 

Not Sure What to Call This One

You know what? I am a complainer. Sometimes I hear stories about people who walked to school, uphill both ways, barefoot in the snow and never once complained.  But that is not me. I’m not proud of being a complainer – but I’m wondering if it’s really true that those people NEVER complained.  Didn’t they probably complain every once in a while? I mean, the pioneers pushed handcarts from Missouri to Utah in freezing temperatures, they lost loved ones and contracted all sorts of illnesses, and none of them EVER complained? When I hear those stories I am both inspired to complain less, and discouraged because my difficulties are rather small and yet I still complain. Sometimes I feel like I just need to complain about something in order to help me get over it, and duh, so whoever I'm complaining to will feel sorry for me :). Maybe with age and experience I will learn to get over things quicker without having to complain and without needing to be felt sorry for.

Meanwhile, I’m still suspicious that those people who never complained actually did complain but looking back on it no one remembers.  I guess it’s good for me that no one remembers complaining in hindsight. 

“We need to break free of our old selves—the provincial, constraining, and complaining selves—and become susceptible to the shaping of the Lord.” – Elder Neal A. Maxwell (Interesting. The less I complain, the easier it is for the Lord to make out of me what I'm supposed to be.)

"I believe in grumbling; it is the politest form of fighting known." – Edgar Watson Howe (touche).

"The sun was shining in my eyes, and I could barely see to do the necessary task that was allotted me. Resentment of the vivid glow I started to complain. When all at once upon the air I heard the blind man's cane." – Earl Musselman (okay, I'm humbled).

"Those who do not complain are never pitied." – Jane Austen (Exactly).