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.