I love this time of year

This time of year:
School is coming to an end for the semester and I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am about that. We have done so many group projects in my classes and there have been a couple were people just sit back and let everyone else do the work and they get the grade. I have talked to the Head of my department about doing a Masters, I'm not sure at this point, but she said she wants me to and she even invited me to teach. That means that I would get a tuition waver. SWEET.
Cute sweater weather. For being the middle of November the weather has been very pleasant up here, when the sun is out. Just cool enough to wear a long sleeve shirt of sweater.
FAMILY!! The main reason I love this time of year is family. No matter where people are or what is going on everyone always makes time for family. Since Paul and I are up in Logan we try to find a couple of days where we can just go camp out at our parents houses and visit with everyone. My parents house is really full of stuff with five people moving in these last couple of months. So this year we will probably be staying at Chad and Heathers, we'll have a mattress and a closed door and that's all I need. My family loves to spend the holidays together. Ever since I was little, mainly because my parents were still the ones footing the bill, we would all draw names and then we could only have $10 or so to spend on that person. It was great because it meant that you had to find the best possible present cause there wasn't a lot of money to go around. I think they secretly did it that way as well to help keep us grounded on what the real meaning of Christmas was. Paul's extended family on the Yeates' side does a gift exchange. The first Christmas there I noticed that some of the presents looked like they were from the year before and just re-gifted. Well we have made it our goal to find the present that will be stolen the most. The presents are supposed to be $20 so we go to the electronics department at Wal-mart or Target and find our gifts there. It has worked the last couple of years and I'm really excited to see what we can find this year.

Addendum: Apparently I offended an individual and I'm really sorry about that. I was only stating how we go about finding presents and why we chose the ones we do. I enjoy the game so much that I've even been trying to implement it into the Christmas party for my family. Again, I am so sorry about the misunderstanding. I hope you have a wonderful Holiday Season.

We are so excited to go down to SLC for the Holidays and be able to have time spend with EVERYONE. For our weekend trips down to SLC we don't have much time to spend getting to see all of our families so we look forward to seeing everyone for Christmas.

I'm going to be an Aunt again, twice

A couple of weeks ago Paul got a call from his mom and brother saying that Brandy and Jake are going to have a baby. Can I just tell you how much I love being an Aunt. When my first niece was born her and her mom lived at my parents with us all and I loved being around Bailly so much. She is such a cute and lovable girl. Since we lived together for a year and a half before my mission we got really close and even though she couldn't speak before I left she could "I wove you Minmee." That was what she said to me as I left the day of my mission. I thought that while I was gone my two sister-in-laws, whom I'm so grateful to have in my family, were going to take my place as the favorite Aunt (it was really easy to be the favorite when you're the only one, wink). Anyways I have reclaimed my spot and love every minute of it. Bailly's brother Gabe, however, has his favorite too, uncle Ryan. If you get a picture of Ryan at the same age of Gabe you would not be able to tell them apart, they look so much alike. Anyways I've diverted a little bit.

Last night Paul and I were up late watching a movie and at 12:15 a.m. my sister-in-law Heather text me and let us know that Her and Chad are expecting as well. AHHH I could scream I'm so excited. So as I'm texting her back to tell her congratulations I realize that if she just text me and I'm texting her back then we are both awake, so I just called her. They are so excited and I know they will make great parents. I could jump right out of my skin cause that means that Paul and I will become an Aunt and Uncle twice over the summer and pretty close together.

By the way, I don't know how many of you are familiar with a give-away up here in Logan called the Fully Furnished Fall. Well it goes on for about three months qualifying people by drawings and last week was the last time to enter your name in a drawing to try and be qualified. Guess what? Paul got qualified and so the final drawing is on Saturday. We will keep everyone up to date on what happens with that.

Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana

One of my favorite things to order when we go out for dinner is Olive Gardens Zuppa Toscana. It's all you can eat soup and salad and the bread sticks are great too. I make sure to go when I'm hungry so I can get as much as possible. Well for School this semester Paul and I have started to prepare bigger meals or soups on Sunday so that we can have them through the week to eat and it's so much cheaper then deciding we don't want to fix anything and just going to a restaurant. Last week Paul found the recipe for Zuppa Soup so we thought we would try it. Here are the ingredients:

• 1 lb ground Italian sausage
• 1½ tsp crushed red peppers
• 1 large diced white onion
• 4 Tbsp bacon pieces
• 2 tsp garlic puree
• 10 cups water
• 5 cubes of chicken bouillon
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 lb sliced Russet potatoes, or about 3 large potatoes
• ¼ of a bunch of kale

When we were mixing all the ingredients together I noticed just how much one large onion is, and anyone who knows me knows I don't like onions. But after putting it all together and having our house smell like Zuppa, we were pretty impressed with how well it turned out. It was so good and it was even good reheated this after noon. I recommend that you try it on a cold winter day. SO good.

Create something everyday

For the Interior Design program up here at Utah State, we have to take a seminar class. The class is only eight weeks out of the semester and one day a week. We will have designers from all around come in and present to us and we even bring in a big name once a semester or so, like Karim Rashid, Jamie Drake and Vicente Wolf. They usually give us a project to work on and when they get here we present to them and have them critique the projects. But I'm getting ahead of myself. A couple of semesters ago the guy that came to talk to us is a local artist here in Logan. I don't remember his name but he used to work for Hallmark and now does freelance. He was really great to listen to but the thing he said that stuck with me was "create something everyday." No matter the size of it, big or small, but just to create and not ever loose that. It was getting close to the end of his work day and he hadn't created anything yet and so he bent over and pulled a carpet tile up from the floor, rolled some paint on it and stamped it onto a sheet of paper. With the dried pattern of glue on the back of the carpet tile it made a unique pattern. He said it took him less then five minutes but it is one of the most used backgrounds by Hallmark.

Not that I'm looking to get my stuff printed or even sold, I try to live by that as well. Paul took the picture of the temple one morning as the sun was coming up and before the lights were turned off. I got the idea for this image from a wedding present a friend gave me, so then I overlaid The Family: A Proclamation To The World. Anyways here it is. Let me know what you think.

Portuguese

We have decided that we would like to take a vacation when either I or Paul graduates and Paul would love to go down to Brazil. The goal is that I need to learn enough Portuguese so that when we go I can understand what is being said. If we waited until I was able to carry on a fluent conversation we would never be able to go. I just want enough that I can carry on a simple conversation and don't have to sit there the whole time asking Paul "what did they say?" and be able to ask where the restroom is. Of course Paul is all for the idea and so he is VERY anxious to help me learn. He pulled out his grammar book from his mission and we now read the Book of Mormon in Portuguese at night. I can't say how many times I have read the Book of Mormon but now that I am concentrating so intensely on every single word I have gained an even greater love for it and how the Spirit can speak to us about the truth of it. I'm actually surprised at how much of it I'm picking up on too, but I'm getting the Spanish I took mixed up every once in a while. I think I'm going to make up cards to go along with the scriptures that I'm trying to re-memorize from the Preach My Gospel lessons.

P.S. Christmas is in 7 weeks. I could jump right out of my skin. I love the Holiday Season.

My Decision 08

I just thought I would share a couple of things I have found. Be sure to get out there and vote.

Obama October Surprise, Youtube.

I'm voting Democrat because I'm way too irresponsible to own a gun, and I know that my local police are all I need to protect me from murderers and thieves.
I'm voting Democrat because I love the fact that I can now marry whatever I want. I've decided to marry my horse or was it my sister?
I'm voting Democrat because I believe oil companies' profits of 4% on a gallon of gas are obscene but the government taxing the same gallon of gas at 15% isn't.
I'm voting Democrat because I believe the BIG SOCIALISTIC GOVERNMENT will do a better job of spending the money I earn than I would.
I'm voting Democrat because 'Freedom of Speech' is fine as long as nobody is offended by it.
I'm voting Democrat because when we pull out of Iraq I trust that the 'bad guys and terrorists' will stop what they're doing because they now think we're good people.
I'm voting Democrat because I believe that people who can't tell us if it will rain on Friday CAN tell us that the polar ice caps will melt away in ten years if I don't start driving a Prius.
I'm voting Democrat because I'm not concerned about the slaughter of millions of babies so long as we keep all death row inmates alive---it's inhumane to gas, electricute or drug them!
I'm voting Democrat because I believe that business should not be allowed to make profits for themselves. They need to break even and give the rest away to the BIG government for redistribution as THEY see fit.
I'm voting Democrat because I believe 'liberal judges' need to rewrite the Constitution every few days to suit some fringe kooks who would NEVER get their agendas past the voters.
I'm voting Democrat because I feel our TAXES aren't high enough yet and want them to go up so that ALL I HAVE LEFT OVER AFTER TAX IS CHANGE!
And last but not least I want to have SOCIALIZED MEDICINE ( LIKE CANADA) so that my TAXES can reach as HIGH AS 70% and if I'm lucky I'll die while waiting to see a doctor.

Halloween

I went in to work yesterday and this is what I saw. The office I work in is so much fun. Everyone know how to have a good time and let their hair down.