Pumpkins!

Last night Eric and I carved our Halloween pumpkins! We carved pumpkins when we were engaged but we didn't do it last year. I don't know why we didn't, but that means that this was our first time carving pumpkins married. How cute! We didn't have time to go to a pumpkin patch this time, so we got the pumpkins from the store. Not as much fun, but very convenient. Eric set up our kitchen table to make it pumpkin proof and then he cut off the tops of the pumpkins. I really don't like the inside of pumpkins, but I am happy to report that I cleaned out my own pumpkin. It wasn't so bad. It was a fun little date followed by lighting the pumpkins, putting them outside of our door and then eating a pumpkin shaped peanut butter cup (my favorite!) I like doing things like this with Eric. Thanks for setting it all up Eric. I love you!

Eric with the pumpkins:

Me with the pumpkins. Don't look too close. I was at the gym ealier:

Our pumpkins glowing outside:

PEACH COBBLER

For about two years now, Eric and I were supposed to make peach cobbler with our very good friends Kirsten and Aaron. Aaron had gotten a dutch oven for his birthday or something, and we kept talking about going, but our schedules were too busy or it was too cold. There was always something keeping us from going. Well, we finally planned on going and we actually were able to. None of us had actually made something in a dutch oven before, so I called my parents, who are dutch oven experts, and got some tips. I read through some recipes online as well to see what other people did. Before we had cobbler though, we had tin foil dinners. Those are always fun to make, and even more fun to eat. I've only done them twice, but they turned out pretty good. I would probably add a few more things next time I do it. While our tin foil dinners were cooking, we prepped the peach cobbler. Most recipes call for store bought canned peaches, but we were using home canned peaches. I canned them myself! Apparently home canned peaches have more juice in them, so I had to pour some of the juice out. Once I did that I poured some cinnamon-sugar on top, put a package of yellow cake on top of that, and then I poured some Sprite on top. Aaron heated up the charcoal, put some in the fire pit, put the dutch oven on top, and then put more charcoal on top. After about 45 minutes it was done! It turned out really good. There were a few things that I would do different next time like pour out more peach juice and pour more Sprite on top. The bottom was too juicy and the top was a little dry, but they canceled each other out. It was really good. First time success. I hope we do it again. Oh, and it was also Lincoln's first time to see a camp fire. I think he liked it a lot, which scared Kirsten. He is such a cute little kid. I think he had fun too. Let's make cobbler again guys! Next time we'll have to do it while camping though!

The tin foil dinners cooking:

Hanging out around the fire:

The peach cobbler cooking:

Eric and Aaron eating dinner:

Kirsten, Lincoln and I eating dinner:

The finished peach cobbler:

Taste Of Home Cooking School

For my birthday my wonderful Mother-in-Law got me tickets to the Taste of Home Cooking school. My friend Lisa came along with me. I had never heard of it before, so for those of you who haven't heard of it either, it is a show where a cook stands in front of a crowd of people a cooks a few recipes. While they are cooking these recipes, you have a recipe book with the recipes in front of you so you can follow along. They give you a whole bunch of cooking tips and also have a lot of prize giveaways. Unfortunately neither Lisa nor I won anything. I was kinda sad. They were giving away the things they had make and the dishes that came along with them. There was one thing that I wanted to win so bad, and when it came time to give that away, the person who won had a name that started with an "A". I was so sure it was going to be me. Anyways, the tickets that I got came along with a gift card to a restaurant at Thanksgiving Point(that's where the cooking show was at.) Lisa and I went a little early to walk around and see the vendors who were there before the show, and then went to eat at the restaurant. It was delicious! After we ate we went straight to the show. We got lucky because we were VIP's, which means we got to sit in the front row. The regular tickets are for first come first serve seats. It was nice to not have to save a seat. Lisa and I had a great time. If you ever have a chance to go, you should. Thanks Patty!

Our yummy dinner:

Lisa and I waiting for the show to start:

Our view of the stage:

The view looking back:

One Quarter of a Century

That's how old I am now! My birthday was September 22nd. It was a very fun day. The night before Eric took me out to dinner at Red Robin (I had a free birthday burger there). He invited a few of my closest friends to come which is always great. The day of my actual birthday I had to work, but it was ok because we always have birthday parties at work. The theme of my party was "The Ultimate Cake-Off" because I pretty much became obsessed with cake shows when I was sitting at home watching TV all day after my surgery. Everything we ate was a cake somehow We had cupcakes, crab cakes, corn cake(like corn bread) and then we all had a personal cake that we had to decorate ourselves. That was pretty fun. After work I went home and waited for Eric to get home from school. I got to open cards from everyone who sent them (THANKS!) and then Eric took me out to dinner at the Chef's Table. That is this pretty nice restaurant here in Provo that neither Eric or I had been to before. It was DELICIOUS! After we finished eating dinner, Eric pulled out a box from his pocket. I opened it and inside were a pair of diamond earrings! They are one carat each and so pretty! Ha, got you there. They are NOT one carat each, not even combined do they equal one. They are just little, but they are SO pretty. I love them. Eric knows how to work the jewelers to get good deals. That's a good skill to have! After leaving the restaurant we went home to eat cake. Eric had bought this huge cake but since we had hung out with friends the night before, I thought it was just going to be the two of us eating this cake. Turns out he had invited a whole lot of people over to eat cake and celebrate! It was a lot of fun to see some friends that I hadn't seen in awhile. Thanks Eric for making my 25th birthday great and to everyone who called/wrote me birthday wishes! It was a wonderful birthday.

Me and my co-workers with our personally decorated cakes:

The Birthday Girl at The Chef's Table:

A few pictures from my little party:

Eric and BYU Football

Eric has an internship with BYU Sports Communications for this semester and then next semester. For this internship he is the Sports Information Director. He sounds like a big deal! Anyways, every intern gets assigned a sport, but then they have to help out with the two major sports: Football and Basketball. This means that he gets to go to EVERY home game, sit in the press box, eat Tucanos (a Brazilian Grill), answer phones for people who call in to check on the game (ex: ESPN), go to the press conference afterward and then send quotes to people who need them. Not a bad deal I would say. So far he has had a lot of fun. Oh, and he gets parking pass so he can park right there in the stadium. Lucky guy. Here are some pictures of him before he went to the first BYU home game.


This is his press pass. If you can see in this one, our last name is spelled wrong! That happens on occasion. Our last name can be tough!

Tonsils

On September 3rd I got my tonsils taken out at the Outpatient Center here in Provo. That was quite the experience. I had been having problems with my tonsils for awhile, and they have been big my whole life, so I went to the doctor in July just to see what was going on. The doctor said I had tonsillitis and that it was my choice if I wanted to get them taken out or not. He did say that the older you get, the more painful it will be. He also said that as an adult, it would hurt much worse than if I had gotten them out as a child. Yikes! He also said that my tonsils would not get better but he couldn't promise me that they wouldn't get worse. Eric and I have pretty good insurance right now, so I just decided to go ahead and get it over with. We had to be at the hospital at 7:45AM. I don't think I actually went into the operating room until 9:30. All I remember is a doctor saying they were giving me a relaxant and then I woke up in the recovery room with very chapped lips and I was SO thirsty. After eating an popsicle and a pudding, they took me back to see Eric. I stayed at the hospital for a little while longer and then went home. I think I slept pretty much the whole day. I was on Percocet and that stuff makes you very sleepy! I was only on it for 3 days though because it ended up making me sick, and throw up. Therefore, I had to go on Extra Strength Tylenol. That stuff is not nearly as helpful! Anyways, I stayed home from work for a week and a half. Eric took great care of me. He tried to make me food that I could eat. That wasn't much. I lost a few pounds because it hurt too much to eat anything. I was craving a hamburger the whole time. Things are much better now. I only feel a little pain when I yawn now, and that actually will happen for a few months. It's weird to look in my throat and not see two large tonsils. Eric and I didn't get any pictures of this experience, but when I got back to work, my boss made me this cute candy poster. It was nice of her. I sure like candy! (So I just looked at the preview and it's really hard to read it. Pretty much it's just using candy bar names in a sentence.)