Polar Express

It's real! Amanda, Ben and I went to the North Pole on the one and only Polar Express (of course).

What's a ride on the Polar Express without pajamas?

When we went to California for Thanksgiving my sister-in-law Mary gave me the onsies, and they've come in handy. Shout out to Mary, thanks! :) Ben wasn't as lucky at Thanksgiving and doesn't have any pj's, so he wore my ugly party sweater, Rudolph. He got more compliments in that sweater, than I ever have.

Our ride was filled with cookies, hot chocolate, Christmas carols, Santa Clause, and the highlight of our night, Mrs. Clause. She was much more friendly than Santa!

When we drove by the North Pole their were 5 trees decorated, they need to kick it up in the lights department. If they had a comments box I had a few more ideas on how to spice up the Polar Express. The ticket taker could use a hole punch and punch words into our tickets (like on the movie), the narrator of our train could yell "Look everyone Santa!" we would look out the window and see Santa's sleigh flying in the air. Also, I think little elves should pop their heads up by the window randomly as we travel to the North Pole. Maybe the owner of the train will read this and love my ideas! Overall, it was a fun trip.

Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas! We'll be enjoying a white one.

I have been chosen

I have finally entered district 12.

I requested this book (or audio CD) way back in June, when I started my internship. I was number 31 on the list and finally my name has been chosen. Thank you Suzanne Collins for making my drive to Salt Lake pleasant, I didn't even mind that it took an extra 40 minutes to get to work due to the snow.

And the White Elephants Begin

Ben had a Christmas work party on Thursday. We all know a Christmas party isn't complete without a white elephant gift exchange. Ben's party was no different, except instead of the usual pass the present to the left 6 times and then to the right 9 times or everyone pick a present and you can steal it 20 times, this version we played incorporated BINGO! All of the presents were assigned a number and if you got BINGO you chose a number between 1 -2o and opened that present.

Not meaning to brag or anything, but I have a BINGO card picking intuition. It happened again and I got BINGO first two times in row. I selected lucky #4 and it just happened to be the biggest present there (everyone knows the biggest presents are the best) and unwrapped this beauty!

We think it's the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria, but it's up for interpretation.

Ben got BINGO second and unwrapped this ivory antique!

Literally a WHITE ELEPHANT.

In the game a present can only be stolen twice. Ben's got stolen right off, but he got BINGO again and stole it back. People were eyeing my red, velvet picture, but must have sensed my BINGO card picking intuition and knew I would just steal it back (or they really didn't like it, that's up for interpretation as well).

It was a fun night and I think we went home with some of the funniest white elephants I've seen in all my white elephant gift exchange days. Plus, I think they are going to fit right in with the other Christmas decorations.

Red is the New Green

(This is my last blog on tomatoes) My very-so-green tomatoes are finally RED!!!

I was conducting a ripening experiment and here are the results.

1. The banana in the jar with tomatoes was no good.

2. Leaving them in a bowl on the window seal to soak up the sun wasn't as efficient, it took longer for the tomatoes to turn red, but a few on top did turn red.

3. Brown bag with bananas worked well.

4. The BEST results came from putting them in a plastic grocery sack in the pantry.

I was surprised because the internet raved about putting bananas with the tomatoes, but it didn't make a difference.

I've been eating tomatoes daily. Toast with cream cheese, a little garlic salt, and tomato slices has been a common snack.

Since I have sooooooooooooooo many I've been trying to use them in whatever dish I can think of. Of course, tomato soup was the perfect recipe for all of my tomatoes. I cut up the tomatoes and got to work. I simmering everything in the pot and finished the last step of blending it all together to make it smoooooth, and right when I was going to pour the soup in our bowls, this happened........

Even got a little on Ben's chin.

Oops..

Carvtists

I forgot to post our 2nd place winning pumpkin!!

Halloween Dinner

I had a lot of fun with Amanda, preparing this dinner. On the menu was, Mashed Boo-tatoes, Mummy Dogs, Zombie Intestines, and Witch Fingers. Mmm it was SPOOKY GOOD!

Hope you had a Happy Halloween!

Dawg Mission

I had a request to get Ross a J-Dawg. So J-dawg is going on a mission. Good luck!

More reasons why I love fall

Corn Mazes! This year Cornbelly's Maze (best corn maze name I've ever ran into) at Thanksgiving Point looked like this. Not too elaborate. We're still trying to figure out how to get out.

At Cornbelly's, they had much more than just a corn maze shaped like the boy scout logo. There was a Witch who told stories, a pumpkin tree, a corn box (instead of a sand box), multiple insert-head-here photo opportunities, a left turn only corn maze, slides, tractor bikes, a haunted inside of a dinosaur, and a

jumping pillow (featured pic). Way too much fun at Cornbelly's for one night.

What do you think about this as our Halloween costume?

Also, we were trying to be neighborly and made cinnamon rolls. They ended up like this.

I forgot how much I love candy corn, until I ate them all!

Fall Fun

We went on a double date with Janet and Clark. After dinner it was CARAMEL APPLE TIME!!!

They were in charge of crushing the oreos.

Perfect green apples for the job

Ben's skinny, long apple....or a pear!

We rolled them in oreos and rice crispies, and mmm they were good, including Ben's pear!

Who comes up with these phrases?

On a completely different note, I'm sure you're wondering about the tomatoes. Yes, they are still green. We're still trying to turn them red with green bananas. I eat the bananas after their greenness has gone away and replace them with new ones. And, yes the neighbor across the parking lot was confused as she thought she saw us "picking fruit." She checked out our vacant tomato plot the next day to find nothing and then asked Ben at church if we were picking fruit the other day, because she couldn't find our picking post. (we dug up the roots and disposed of the evidence)

Harvest in Full Force

My little corner of tomatoes and carrots had become a jungle. I decided it was time for harvest. I called my crew and we got to work.

The crop

3 red tomatoes and the rest pure wicked witch green tomatoes (in the spirit of Halloween)

Lots of green tomatoes. I looked to a couple of sources on how to make green tomatoes turn red. 1st my grandma and 2nd Google.

How to ripen tomatoes: Plastic bag method - For a few or many tomatoes

Assemble plastic bags. Punch a few "air circulation" holes in each bag you are going to use.

Place 3 - 4 tomatoes with 1 banana in each bag. Depending on the size of your bag, you may be able to add more (or perhaps less). Be guided by the size of the bag, tomatoes and banana.

Store in a warm, semi-humid area away from direct sunlight.

Here suggested using an open cardboard box for getting tomatoes to turn red is suitable for numerous tomatoes. Line the box with newspaper and place a layer of tomatoes on top. Although a second layer can be added, do this only when necessary, as tomatoes are prone to bruising. Add a few ripening bananas and place the box in a cool but slightly humid area away from sunlight.

Grandma's advice: Wrap in newspaper and keep in a cool dry place.

I'll see how they progress and let you know when I have red delicious tomatoes or maybe we'll have a Halloween party with bobbing for tomatoes if nothing happens:)

Any other suggestions on how to turn these green tomatoes red?

Take 2

My mom dreads this day, but it's already here. We dropped Ross off at the MTC yesterday. He was suppose to go to the Brazil MTC but his Visa didn't come yet, so Provo welcomed him again. There is a UPS store that will deliver packages for free to the MTC, I'll have to send some cookies or maybe a jdawg to him while he's so close. Chet just got home and now Ross leaves, our family had a month together and we did alot of traveling to Idaho for family events.

Ross wanted to eat at Tucanos before he left, which was quite fitting.

Ross will be a great missionary.

The first thing he'll want to do when he gets home is hit the lake...

or ride the horse.

Camping update

Our camp out was successful. We never missed a ticket check and slept just fine on our blow up mattress. Ben and I watched Red Eye and everyone quieted down around 1:30am, and we both slept great. We woke up around 7:30 and they had another ticket check at 7:45. This was the last check and then they asked us to clean up all of our camping gear to get ready for the grand opening. We weren't sure what the rules were going to be and how we would get a years worth of yogurt.

This is how it worked. They gave us each 52 coupons for free yogurt, that's free yogurt once a week. The best part is, there is no limit to how high we fill the cup or how many toppings we put in. It's all free! So we now have 104 coupons for yogurt that are good until December 2011. It's a dream come true or Christmas come early!

My kind of camping

I think this is going to be the best camping trip. Right this minute Ben and I are camping. We weren't planning on camping at the intersection of Bulldog and University Ave, but here we are. We were originally going to go in the wilderness in Hobble Creek, but this deal of all deals was music to my ears.

Earth Fruits Yogurt is having their grand opening tomorrow and the first 100 people in-line get FREE yogurt for a year!! If you know me and my love for yogurt, I LOVE IT. They opened their parking lot to anyone who wanted to spend the night. For us, instead of paying money to get a camping spot, we get free yogurt and camping! We brought all our camping gear and made ourselves nice and comfy. I think we have the best set up with our 6 person tent and queen size air mattress. Everyone else is all crammed in, but our huge tent designated our spot. The way they are deciding who gets the free yogurt is that everyone gets a ticket and they do ticket checks randomly through out the night, to make sure you stay here. The people who were first in line have a lower ticket #. I'm #16, and I'll here all night so bring on the ticket checks! When the doors open at 10 am, I'll be one HAPPY CAMPER!!

Our HUGE blue tent is the biggest out of everyone's!

I'll let you know if I actually get any sleep and when I'm one year richer in yogurt!

Glad I'm not the Mazda

I've been meaning to blog about my internship and update you on how much I've learned and grown since I've finished, yes FINISHED my clinical experience in the hospital (10 weeks). But this bump happened.

Magic Eye?

Or.....my rear window?

Ouch!! That's my poor car. I recently got rear ended (2 months ago) and had to have a paint touch up on my bumper, that was a waste. This is going to take a bit more.

Hey on the bright side I'll be getting a new key hole on my trunk which someone unsuccessfully tried to break into 2 years ago. And I'm ok!! I'd like to thank the inventor of the seat belt at this time as well. I had a little bit of whip lash and a lot of wanting Ben to hurry and save me. The crazy thing is I saw the car coming at me and knew they were going to hit me. Once they hit me I could hear the glass crackling and breaking, but it never fell in completely. I kinda want to break the window myself before it goes to the collision repair shop, but that may be dangerous.

There she goes on the tow truck. Ben came and rescued me 20 minutes after it happened. Good thing I have a bike!