Church Talk

For the first time since Brandon joined the church he was asked to give a talk in sacrament meeting. He was assigned to speak the Sunday before Thanksgiving and the topic he was given was, being an example of righteousness. This is a perfect topic for Brandon because he was brought to the church by the righteous examples of his friends. Brandon is a great example to his non member family, co-workers and of course to me. He gave a great talk filled with examples of his life, scriptures and recent quotes by President Monson from the last general conference. I was very proud of him and also happy it was him that had to speak not me!

Dare I even bring it up?

Saturday was the big BYU vs. Utah game and we were the away team this year. Brandon, Jimmy, Geoff, Scott (Macdonald), Brooke, Bryce, Doctor Walker and I went to Indigo Joe's to watch the game. Unfortunately Max Hall, the quarterback, had a major breakdown and ended up loosing the game for us and I knew the loss wasn't going to be easy for Brandon. Thank goodness for comfort food, I ran to the store and bought a big pumpkin pie, whipped cream and cooked a big pizza to try and ease the loss. After eating a bunch of delicious junk food we felt a little better. BYU better get them next year!

Twilight

The day finally came when I could stop just dreaming about seeing the movie and actually see it come to life. After work Brandon drove me to Ontario to meet up Brooke and some friends, we waited in line for over an hour to be sure we had great seats. I am pretty easily entertained and not a big movie critic so I really loved it. Yes I know it was a little cheesy at times but overall the movie was very fun. If you haven't read the book it is amazing and a must read. Seeing the movie makes me really want to read the book again, to bad I have too many school books I have to read instead. I can’t wait to see the next movie!

Orange "Biscuits"

I decided to try to be domestic and practice making orange rolls before Thanksgiving, so I got my Aunt Carols recipe and gave it my best shot. Before I did anything else I wanted to make sure I didn't kill my yeast so when it over doubled in size I knew I was on the right track. I followed the recipe and when I had dough I let that rise for a few hours. Instead of rolling them in croissant shape I thought it would be a good idea to put them in balls (like a roll). After they baked and I sampled I was happy to know they were edible which for my cooking, isn't always the case. When Brandon got home from school around 10:30p.m., I had him try one and he was impressed they were edible but brought it to my attention that they were extremely dense and tasted more like a biscuit than a light and feathery roll.

Since I made a bunch I brought them to work with me the next day and my co-workers changed the name of them from orange rolls to orange biscuits. I thought it was really funny and a little embarrassing. I guess when I make them for Thanksgiving dinner I need to let them rise a little longer and make them into croissants. I'll let you know how they turn out; it's always a surprise when I am baking.

Sea World

On November 15th Brooke, Bryce and I went to Sea World! It was so hot and crowded but we still had a great day. We got to see the polar bears, the sharks, penguins, dolphin show and Shamu. Besides the fun shows I think we all enjoyed the shark aquarium. You walk underneath the water and the shark are swimming all around you, it is so cool.

Beach day in November

On Nov 7th I had the day off of work and so Brooke, Jimmy, Bryce and I went to the BEACH. It is still in the 90's here. I can't believe it is November and I am still able to layout on the sand. We packed a lunch and it was fun to watch Jimmy surf, play with Bryce in the sand and see a few dolphins.

Happy Halloween

Brandon's favorite holiday is Halloween and thanks to his excitement about the holiday I like it more and more. We love to watch the classic scary Halloween movies, where every house in the neighborhood goes all out decorating and celebrating the holiday together. Well, there happens to be a city about 45 mins. away from us that brought those movie sets to real life. In Redlands every Halloween tons of streets completely close off and the owners of these beautiful classic homes go over board in transforming their homes into cemetarties, pirate ships, haunted houses and much more. Crowds of people come down to admire the amazing decorations and of course to Trick-or-Treat! Brandon and I felt like we were in disneyland, we kept grabbing the camera from eachother because we wanted to capture everything we saw. It was unlike anything I have ever seen and really awesome.

This house transformed their home into a cemetary. Sorry its hard to see how cool it really is.

This is just one angle of the pirate ship house. I can't image how many days it would take to set this materpiece up and take it down.

Here is a picture of the great people I get to work with. We had a great Halloween work party with tons of food and delicious treats! Doc, Me, Dana, Cheri, Vicki

Fun with Bryce, Brooke and Jimmy

Bryce, Brooke and Jimmy are in town for the month while Jimmy does a internship at Loma Linda University. It is so fun to have them in town! They made it just in time to watch the BYU football game.

Geoff, Brandon and Jimmy getting excited to watch the football game. Go Cougars!

Even though it is the end of October it is still HOT enough to go for a swim at my pool!

Bryce is in his new glow in the dark spider p.j.'s Brandon and I got him for coming to stay with us. He points to the spider and then does "eensy weensy spider" with his fingers, its so cute. He also has a big tootsie roll in his hand.