Thankful for Fall

November.
it never seemed to be particularly special month for me, but I'd have to say that this one certainly turned out to be :)


Butternut Squash Soup

Pepperoncini. THE most amazing hoagie sandwich ever

Monterey Bay, CA

us <3

Thanksgiving with the Johnsons!

We have been so blessed our first year of marriage.
Wonderful family, wonderful friends, a nice place to live, food on the table... what more could you ask for?

Narcoleptic?

This might seem strange to you.

It all started on my Study Abroad to Jerusalem. I did not realize my capacity to fall asleep absolutely anywhere. In class on the front row (with an extremely loud, snapping professor might I add), on a miserably bumpy bus, sitting on the ground in a desert, riding a camel... I literally started sleeping everywhere. My roommates would make fun of me for it. I would too, it IS quite hilarious.
Then I came home, started back to school at BYU. The sleeping spells continued. In class, church, movies... This semester, I fall asleep EVERYDAY at around 2 o'clock in the afternoon MST. This happens to be the same time as my Doctrine and Covenants class. I absolutely love the professor, he is an active lecturer and keeps you interested, but I can never seem to stay awake. I know you may be thinking, "oh, she's just not getting enough sleep.." I am! Averaging about 8 hours every night which is more sleep than I got when I was single. It seems like I've tried everything. Food, gum, wiggling toes, singing songs, holding my eyes wide open. No. No success! I don't know how to overcome these sleeping spells... Life's a hard one when you've got even a mild case of narcolepsy...

I sympathize with this poor poodle.

Aid in the Kitchen

After realizing that the Hytop bread loaf from WinCo was practically cotton candy, John and I decided we wanted to have homemade bread. We had the hardest time deciding between a bread maker and a kitchen aid. Both are absolutely wonderful, but which would benefit us most? After many consultations with experienced users, we opted for the Kitchen Aid. I think the more difficult decision though was deciding on the color. Once we arrived at the store and saw the many color options, we had to eliminate one by one... Oh dear. After all that, we came home with our Indigo Kitchen Aid, which we paid $20.76 for after all our giftcards, coupons, and such :)
And oh how it has blessed my life...







The first bread recipe I made was my Aunt Tricia's recipe that my Mom always made and of course we loved it. The second recipe we made was from the Kitchen Aid cookbook... not so good. I'm hoping to try out more recipes. So if you have any, please share! Also, any tips on shaping a bread loaf? Our last loaf resembled a butternut squash...

November is here! I can hardly believe it, yet I can't stand the anticipation for Thanksgiving and then Christmas. Patience has never been an easy virtue of mine ;)
John and I signed up for Winter semester classes, and boy am I going to have a tough semester... Floral Design, Food Preparation, Violin, German, Writings of Isaiah, and Raquetball! Probably the most fun semester I've ever had, but that's what you gotta do for your last semester at BYU and right before Dental Hygiene School, right?