Trick or Treat

This year's halloween has been interesting.  At the daycare the kids dressed up in their costumes and went around to the different rooms trick or treating-all of which happened before I arrived.  I got the fun duty of getting them up from their naps and then giving them a mountain of cupcakes, cookies, candy, and juice and then proceed to watch them for the rest of the day.  I thought parents would come way early cause...hey it's halloween and the kiddos need to go home and get ready for their night of fun, but no-I still had five kids at five o'clock-and there were still a bunch of kids at the daycare at six thirty when we close-when do these parents plan on going trick-or-treating??? Don't they know people think it's rude when you go over too long after dark??? Oh well, there was a def sugar high but I took them all outside and ran them like a drill sergeant to take off some of the edge :)

Code and I realized something this year....Halloween isn't really all that fun without kids-especially now that I'm trying to make healthier food choices so even all the candy is no real perk.  Though we could have stayed home and watched a scary movie-we decided to focus on the more fun  light-hearted side of halloween and went over to my parents' house to see some trick or treaters.  As we were sitting down to this awesome classic halloween meal: (chili with ghost rolls and some dry-iced rootbeer)........

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The doorbell rang. I jumped up all excited to see the first cute batch of kiddos.  I walked to the door and hefted the seriously-too-big candy bowl and opened to.......a 30-something year old lady.  Yup.  Just her....no kids, and not even in a costume holding out her bucket smiling.....um....ok....no explination either-no shame.

I went back to our dinner feeling a little weirded out and let mom go to the door for the next doorbell-it was the lady again...somehow she had managed to forget while hitting up the four houses in our cul-de-sac that she had already gone to our house.  Happy Halloween to me!

So there might have been a slight lag in cute trick or treaters but we managed to play some rook and we borrowed men-in-black so I count the evening a success.

Here is my attempt to be halloweeny:

a cool wire spiderweb cupcake stand:

Fall is in the air

Nothing says fall like some good ol' football and boo pies.  The pies I must confess I got the idea from our good friends the jeppson's, and it has quickly become a part of our future family traditions.  We altered it just slightly by adding crushed oreos on top just to make it a bit more substantial, and we left out the snow flakes cause no one here in texas would get the correlation cause it doesn't snow here pretty much ever, let alone on halloween ;)

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It's that beautiful time of year when the air is crisp and the wonderful boot season begins.  On Friday Code and I had a lovely break from work and drove up to Dallas with my mom and dad for the TCU game.  We had gotten some sweet box seats for it through a family friend which almost made up for the travesty that was that game...almost, sigh.  I think the thought shared in the post game show said it all on kbyu: being plain beat is much easier to take than when you beat yourselves....which is basically what byu did.  But they fought back hard and really shut down their offense in the end which they should be proud of.  I don't know if they showed it on ESPN but my favorite part was when we got the two point conversion and while the ref was holding up his arms showing that it was good, Riley Nelson high-fived him as he ran by-that was about the only good thing that the refs did all night. 

Anywho, the food and amenities were great:

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Code and I also went to a fun murder mystery dinner last night in honor of halloween that our good friends the jackson's put on.  Nate and Andrea came as well which is always fun.  Andrea ended up being the one who killed the guy-total shocker right??  It was fun and I couldn't help but remember the first murder mystery two years ago, again put on by elise, where code and I had so much fun and I really started to think: I want to keep this guy around...crazy that two years later we (elise, drea, and me) are all married and in texas at the same time.  small world....or just a really big state...haha

I'm not sure what Code and I will do for actual halloween tomorrow-I will be surprised if kids come to the door in our complex....any suggestions?

More Than Just Dinner

Tonight for dinner Whit made me Taco Soup for dinner. It was SO delicious!! For some reason I had been craving taco soup for a long time.

I'm so grateful for Whit and everything she does for me. Especially on days like today when I'm feeling exhausted and work sucks (yeah, I said it). But these days never stay bad for long because when I come home to Whit she cheers me right up. I love her so much!!

what's new lately

Well not too much.  Cody got his treasured ipad finally which I'm excited for because I love playing monopoly on that thing plus he doesn't have to give me puppy dog eyes everytime someone mentions an ipad or he sees one.  (which btw, I never said he couldn't have one but he liked to pretend that I had to help him have stronger self control ;) so that's that.

I FINALLY finished reading moby dick which is a HUGE accomplishment for me :) (wouldn't recommend it-shrug unless you care about the anatomy of whales),and also managed to read the help in three days and it was amazing.  I got sick last weekend-it only lasted two days but code had actually taken the day off because he had to use his comp day from on-call duty so it actually worked out nicely.  He took care of me and even made me chocolate chocolate chip pancakes drizzled with chocolate syrup-I figure that's why I was only down and out two days.  I must admit I have a palette much akin to Lorolai Gilmore ;)

I visited an old friend from the mission on sunday who happened to be in town.  It was fun to see each other not on the mission and remember crazy times plus see what's new in each others' lives.  More and more my mission feels like it never actually happened....maybe because I have the memory of a senile grandma.  I can't remember many names of people/the language very well so instead, I have to remind myself that I actually did serve and once knew russian really well.

I finally found an optometrist in the area and set up an appointment-I hate that part of moving to new places: finding all the drs and dentists when you have no idea who's good.  It was my left eye that finally motivated me to make the call-I guess that's what I get for wearing the same pair of contacts for a really long time....I won't say how long-too embarrassing

All and all life is amazing and we are continually amazed at how blessed we are and are really trying to enjoy and soak up this stage of life, and this WONDERFUL cool fall weather that blew in today!  I'm sure it won't last quite yet but it's awesome for now :)

I'm a Mormon

Now I figure that pretty much everyone who reads this blog is already aware that I am a "mormon" or are  "mormon" themselves, but I just felt like adding my own testimony and beliefs to the outcry of testimonies from members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints after pastor Jeffress' comments on the question of mormons' christianity. 

First of all, "mormon" is not the proper name of our church.  It is a nick name that was given to us by the (supposed christians) that ran us out of several cities/and settlements robbing, murdering, etc all because of this notion that we are not christians etc.  Not that I'm accusing pastor jeffress of similar levels of bigotry but want to point out that we are no strangers to persecution because of our faith-this is not somehow shocking to us members-we've heard it all.  I was called a "sectantee" (phonetically spelled for ya'll) every day of my mission in Russia which is their own way of calling us (and every other christian church from america) a cult.  Why are we so quick to judge?  I would never presume to understand someone else's relationship with the savior based merely on which church they attended.  Sure we all go to different churches but even within each of our different congregations no matter the church-everyone has a very individual and personal take and relationship with Jesus Christ.

Now people gave us the nickname of Mormon because, yes, we believe in continuing revelation-that God speaks to His children and that He has never lost that ability.  Though the Book of Mormon seems new to most, it is actually quite ancient-most of it having been written by prophets of God (just as the Bible's prophets) who lived in the ancient Americas.  The book is full of testimony about Jesus Christ from prophets who lived before, during, and after Christ's life on the earth.  The actual title of the book is in fact: The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ.  It is only called the Book of Mormon because Mormon was an ancient american prophet who abridged and combined all of the records that the previous prophets and peoples had passed down for generations-all testifying of the life, role, and divinity of Jesus Christ. 

Anywho, I could go on forever.  so the FACTS of the matter: The actual name of our church is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  The church of who??? now, Jeffress said that our church was founded 1800 years after Christ's church, and was founded by a man-Joseph Smith and not by the divine thus making it a "theological cult".  Sigh, wrong again.  After all of the apostles were killed/murdered/etc. there was a period of apostasy where the authority and fulness of the gospel and church of Jesus Christ was no longer on the earth (there are prophecies about this exact thing happening in the bible btw).  Does that mean that there weren't people who tried to continue to preach and live by the principles of Christ-of course not.  Are they somehow less Christian because they no longer had the fulness of the gospel or priesthood authority?-of course not.  They did the best they could and because of their righteous efforts we now have the Bible.  So this church was not founded by Joseph Smith, but was a restoration of Christ's original church-exactly as He had it when He lived on the earth with all of the same offices, priesthood authority, and the fullness of the gospel once again.  Christ restored His church through His servant, a prophet, Joseph Smith.  But in order to make clear who is at the head of this church it was named: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the latter-day saints part is to reiterate that just as Christ's church was in ancient days, it is the same now in these latter days).

I know that Jesus Christ is the son of God and through applying His atonement, obeying His commandments, and trying my very best to emulate His example- I and any who do likewise will be able to return to our Heavenly Father and will be in every sense of the word: Christian.

Meet Ste...er...Elder Richards

This is my younger brother Stephen.  He is currently a little more than half way through his mission in Washington state- spanish speaking.

Though he wasn't always a tall and lanky lad:

I've been editing family home videos and my first opinions of Steve were dicey at best.  I admit I was a little slow to warm up to him having been the "baby" of the family for five years it was hard to relinquish the title...plus, well let's be frank I always wanted a sister, but I couldn't feel more differently about him now.  Looking back at all of those videos he was so full of energy and the rest of us pretty much lived to make him laugh-at least in the videos I have.  Though there was a rough patch with some local ducks at the park, he was a pretty brave kid and was always up for anything that the rest of us were doing, eating, or watching.  I remember getting really annoyed with him ALL the time for that reason.  I guess it's natural for older syblings to want some space from younger syblings but luckily I grew out of that phase.

yes, star wars is a pretty big deal to him and I suspect what got him excited about the film industry to begin with.  Though we will probably argue over which is better: star wars or lord of the rings til the day we die (films, soundtracks, books, directors, everything), I like that we are both geekishly into things together and that neither of us has lost the "kid" in us/the ability to be swept away into different worlds like that.  I admit that it must have been really hard for Steve growing up.  Mainly cause he was finishing up middle school by the time I left for college and was an only child at home while all his syblings who were always around before were now off doing their own thing.  I dunno...I would feel left behind and I'm sure he did too. Plus he was so young when all of us left that it would be easy for us older syblings to never stop seeing him as a little kid, but he's totally an adult and his own person.  He kept busy though in marching band (boy after my own heart)

Due to my serving a mission I got back and was able to actually be in school with him for his freshman year at BYU.  It was so cool to re-get to know him and rediscover who he had become over all the years I had been gone.  It was pretty fun to hang out with him from time to time and it was really cool for him to get to know Cody a little before he left for his mission (really the first of the family to really get to know Code).

waiting for me off the plane

I dunno...male bonding?

we sat in on one of his performances in a theatre class

having fun in good ol' houston

I know that I could be really mean to him when we were kids but I'm so greatful for our friendship and that even now with him on a mission and me off living life we are still close.  He is growing and learning so much on his mission and it's really cool to see his excitement and hunger for the work.  I can really feel his testimony of the Savior and can't wait to see where he'll go with his life once he gets home.  Basically he's the coolest younger brother a girl could ask for and I can't wait for him to get home and for all the laughs that I'm sure we're bound to have :)

Possibly TMI so don't complain-you've been warned

I would just like to say that I am in love with my OBGYN here in Houston.  Ok, let's get this out of the way: no, I'm not pregnant but I figure might was well use a dr that I can keep once we have kids rather than just a GYN.  Moving on...

So my first experience with a "women's dr" in Provo was not that impressive.  It felt like a factory-just pushing you through the line and like they didn't care about your concerns/ and their bedside manner left little to be desired-which in this particular instance is kind of important.  When you're sitting on butcher paper in an awkward paper robe you want someone to be warm and friendly.  Anywho, all the people were really friendly and they were playing ace of cakes in the waiting room-score! not to mention it's right next door to a major hospital and right down the road from where we live.  Dr. Schmidt was way nice and when I told her about my first experience said: "you poor thing!" a bunch of times which made me feel better.  I dunno...maybe my first experience was just really bad but I was really pleasantly surprised. 

That's all-you can now turn off all the uncomfortable feelings :)  But let's face it- how many guys really read this not to mention, how many guys read this who aren't already married and deal with this stuff with their wives?