Halloween Celebrations!

Brandon and I are not really into Halloween, but we do enjoy a good excuse to celebrate fall and eat a bunch of candy! Brandon did not have any clients to see this Halloween, so we hung out all day and celebrated by making some treats. We started off with having brunch! I made some Grahamcakes (pancakes made with Graham crackers - seriously delicious - seriously!!) and Brandon made his famous pan roasted potatoes.

I made the pancakes using some fun holiday molds that I have! Pancakes taste so much better with they are in fun shapes!

Then, for dessert I made gourmet carameled apples!

I dipped the apples (Fuji was our apple of choice for this application) in the caramel, then in dark chocolate, and then rolled it in chopped toasted almonds. We enjoyed them much!

post script: I just want to make it know that even though I was wearing a BYU sweatshirt, I , in no way, support or otherwise associate myself with their team. I was mealy wearing the only hoodie that I had that matched the pants I was wearing at the particular day in time!

Go West Young Man...and Young Woman

Okay, so we have been a little less than up to date on this contraption. Anyway, we have arrived in Idaho!! Boy are things different. For starters, it actually snows here. We got a couple of inches that stayed for a couple of days just earlier this month. Moving from the Washington, D.C. metro area to here has been quite different. We are back in the land of cookie-cutter neighborhoods (see above) and a general slower pace of life.

Also, I have successfully completed my Masters thesis and was able to defend it with only minor edits. The final copy has been submitted and should now be available worldwide (who'd've thunk!?). A small celebration was held when the letter arrived from the Graduate School confirming the completion, indicating no more homework/papers for this degree. Granted, the letter was a great confirmation, it still may not feel real until I can hold the diploma in my hands at the end of the semester.

Denette put her culinary skills to work and created this amazing meal from scratch!! She made a vegetable torta with a rice pilaf. And then, for dessert, she baked a little piece of heaven in the form of chocolate layer cake.

So, anyway, I hope you were not expecting too much from this post. This town (Pocatello, Idaho-referred to by the locals as "Poky") is not exactly the tourist attraction we moved away from. However, we are adjusting to the culture shock and are very happy to discover that customer service has not been abandoned altogether just yet. Sometimes it can be a little much here, but I would rather have someone a little too eager to help me than get the look of utter disappointment at the thought of making a customer service rep. actually do their job. So anyway, here we are: the Poky Hokies.

P.S. In an attempt to make up for the seven-month dry spell, we will try to post about the major events that have happened between then and now. Wish us luck!

Fasting.......from TV

While Brandon has been doing this:

doing homework
writing his thesis

I have been doing this:

READING!!! (not just any reading, but reading in my Mary Engelbreit pj's)

Since our computer and TV are virtually in the same room, it can be a tad bid distracting for me to be watching TV while Brandon is trying to work on his thesis. In an effort to support him in his endevors I have decided to fast from TV until Brandon finishes this semester. I have been trying this new way of life for about a month now and have really enjoyed it. Being away from TV has really made me realize the tight hold that it had on me. I have to admit that the writers strike made the decision to do this much easier. I can't say that I am 100% sucessful either. I still watch the news in the morning (weather and traffic) and also at night when Brandon is not home, and every Thursday night at 9pm I proudly turn on the TV to view the best show on television LOST!! I, of course, do not feel guilty about breaking my fast every Thursday to watch LOST becuase one of Brandon's classes is on Thursday nights so he is not home! It really is lovely the way that his school scheduled worked out!

During this fast we have both noticed some big changes in our home. Branodn has been able to find the time to read all the sugguested materials for his classes (rare) while staying on top of his thesis writing and his full time job. We have also noticed that we have fouond oursleves talking more about EVERYTHING and we have also made time for FHE (something we have struggled a bit with since school started).

With all the reading I have been doing, soon I will be able to answer "yes" to everyone's question when they see our book collection for the first time "Have you read all of these books?"

side note: Along with reading, I have also started sewing again, so stay tuned for some of my recent sewing creations to make their apprearence here on our blog.

Name Dropping

I don't mean to brag but.....I am related to a pretty famous person. Watch this clip and see if you can guess who it is:



If you guessed Oprah you are wrong,
If you guessed Bette Midler you are getting closer,
It is none other than the ever so talented and super fantastic trombonist Nathan Tanouye! (in the clip he is the farthest musician on the right). Nathan is our brother-in-law and it was so wonderful to get the chance to see him on TV! Unfortunately neither Brandon or I have seen him perform live so I guess this was the next best thing.

Congrats Nathon! We are so proud!!

A Harmonica In Carnegie Hall

My brother-in-law just emailed this video to me - Thanks Jeremy! Buddy Green is a truly fantastic harmonica player. Seriously!

100 People Hitting A Drum

D~I know it has been a while since we have posted, but hopefully this will make up for it...!

A friend of mine shared this video with me. It's people from age 1 to 100 hitting a drum. It sounds a little bit odd, but the whole concept is pretty awesome! I love it!!

Fall is finally here!!

I was really worried that we were not going to see any of the trees change color because a few of the trees in front of our apartment started loosing their leaves long before any of the other trees changed color. I am pleased to say that Northern Virginia is looking beautiful and I am hoping to make it out sometime this weekend or next to take some better pictures. I love autumn and this season is so much better in a lush tree infested area! As of right now, here are just a few of the trees around my apartment complex.

Happy Autumn!!!

Guess what we received in the mail...

The Lithuanian Liahona! Brandon and I really don't remember subscribing to it, so we were both very surprised to open our mailbox and see it there. At first I thought "oh no, they messed up because we already received our October Ensign," but upon further investigation I realized that I couldn't read it, so it must be the Liahona!

I think the fact that the Church tries to give All it's members the same resources WORLDWIDE is amazing. Just thinking about how many languages the Book of Mormon is translated into is astounding! I feel so blessed and so happy to be a part of it all!

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Liahona, basically it is a selection of articles from the Ensign, New Era, and Friend all in one magazine. Some languages are printed every month, some every other month, and some only once a year. Since it had been so long since we had received one in the mail, I had forgotten how much Brandon enjoys reading them and using them to keep up on his language skills.

Dustin & Alison come to visit

Get comfortable - this post is a long one!!

(taken from the steps of Jefferson)

I really need to post some pics from our trip to Utah for Dustin and Alison's wedding (before I post about their trip to come and visit us), but these pics were on my flash drive and since we haven't posted in a while, I thought I would share these now.

Dustin and Alison came to visit us last weekend and we had a blast! They both had a pretty good idea of what they wanted to go and see so we enjoyed playing tour guide for them. Here are some of the places we went with them:

Old Town Alexandria

This is a historic part of Alexandria, VA that basically is a long street full of shops. We walked from one end to the other and stopped to look at the shops that caught our eye. Of course I had to make a stop at this really cute children's book store called A Likely Story. We also made a stop at the Gap outlet and ate some ice cream from Ben and Jerry's. If you follow old town to the end of the street it takes you to the Potomac River. When we got there we saw this really cool ferry boat.

Jefferson Memorial

(Statue of Jefferson in his memorial)

In order to get to the FDR memorial from the Jefferson memorial, you have to take a foot path along the Potomac. The view was beautiful and I just love taking pics of the architecture of down town.

(Jefferson Memorial)

(Capital Building)

(Washington Monument - left , Kennedy Center - middle , Jefferson Memorial - right)

FDR Memorial

This is the largest memorial that I have seen, and I think after seeing this one I have seen them all. You basically walk through a maze like layout and see different statues and pieces of art that commemorate the major events that were happening in our country while he was president.

National Archives

This is where they show the originals of the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and the Constitution. They also have other documents there like the Magna Carta and they also have exhibits to see.

Natural History Museum

This museum is so much fun to visit. I especially love the animals exhibit where they have a ton of taxidermied animals from all over the world.

Some garden off of the mall

Sorry, but I can remember what this garden's name is. We were trying to waste some time at the mall and we came across this really cool garden with all sorts of cool flowers and plants. There were benches everywhere and a fountain in the middle. It seemed like the perfect place to just sit and think or to read a book.

Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden

We had some fun in the sculpture garden. There were all sorts of crazy statues to pose next to. This one is my favorite.

The Mall

Again, we were trying to waste some time before we got onto the metro (avoiding the heavy traffic and wanting the pay the reduced fairs) we took some pics while the sun was setting. These are some of my favorites.

I am so glad they had a chance to come and visit us. We had a blast!! I hope we can do it again soon!!

Two of the MANY reasons why Brandon is the BEST!!!

Reason #1: Brandon took me to see the new Bourne movie, Bourne Ultimatum. It was AWESOME!!! I think there was a total of three minutes in the whole movie that were not action packed or full of suspense. We are both big fans of the Bourne movies, so this movie was one of our top pics to go see this Summer. If you have not gone to see it yet, what are you waiting for? If school didn't start next week for Brandon, we might just go and see it again - yes it was that good!

Reason #2: After 6 very long years of waiting and saving, I finally got my Kitchenaid standing mixer (how did I survive this long without one)! I was planning on getting one for Christmas last year, but I opted for the food processor instead (also Kitchenaid) because it was more affordable. As most of you know, the standard 5 quart Artisan mixer comes in about 30 different colors. I wanted something that would match all my kitchens for the next 30 years, so I went with the brushed nickel from their custom metallic series. It works out well because it matches my food processor and my tea kettle. You pretty much can't go wrong with brushed nickel. chrome, or white, although, the red or bright yellow would have been really fun! For any of you in the market for a mixer but don't want to spend a ton of money on it, Kitchenaid offers the standard white factory refurbished with a 6 month warranty for only $189 as opposed to $350 regular price. Had I known that before I bought this one, I might have considered it. Check back to see some of my new creations using my new mixer. I am also considering starting a cooking/baking blog to post some of the new recipes I try. Speaking of cooking blogs, check out Shannon's blog for great dinner and dessert ideas!