It's the most wonderful time of the year!

This and That

Squire had a great time on his fishing trip. He caught two fish (would've caught three, but one got away with his hook.) He cooked up the fruits of his labors (two rainbow trout) from the trip and they were excellent! : ) Now Squire is wanting to go fishing all the time! He even went last Saturday with his Professor! I'm glad I got him that fishing pole for our anniversary.

Our Relief Society had their Super Saturday last week - it was so fun! I was in charge of teaching about wire-wrapped earrings. I have attached pictures of the wire-wrapped earrings I made. I love them all!


Plus, I just thought I'd share a wonderful EASY recipe for pumpkin cookies - only three ingredients! (Maybe you already know about it, but just in case... : ) )

Really Easy Pumpkin Cookies

1 Spice Cake Mix
1 Small (15 oz.) Can Pumpkin or 2 cups
Chocolate Chips

Mix pumpkin with the dry cake mix until well blended. Add choc. chips. Drop by spoonfuls onto cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15min. until cooked through.

BYU Mate Selection/Redneck Weekend

I just found out today that my child development professor is willing to mentor me on my latest venture! I did a study on 520 BYU students last year to see how attractive they found a potential mate based on his/her major. I also asked the participants being surveyed about the importance of their getting a higher education and/or high-paying career as well as their spouse. The results are fascinating!! I am hoping to work on it this semester and next, and to get it published in BYU studies before I graduate if possible. I am so excited though! This will be a fun and really valuable experience for me to have before grad school, assuming I get in...


Here is a picture of my Autumn wreath hanging from our front door! Squire loves plaid, and let me know he approved of the ribbon when I brought it home tonight. : )



Squire will be leaving this weekend to break in his new fishing pole. He and a few other guys are going up to Flaming Gorge this weekend for a fishing/camping trip. They plan on listening to conference on the radio, and on going to watch Priesthood at the little church in town. Hope he catches some fish! Sad that he won't be here when Jeremy and his friend come tomorrow though! I'm excited to see you Jer! : )





As you can see, Squire is very excited to use his new lures. ; )

Autumn Wreath

Before...

After...

It's hard to see from this picture, but there are sparkly little crystals wrapped all around it, and these little fuzzy bud plants. I love it! I will add one more pic of it hanging on my door once I find the right ribbon to hang it from! : )

Fall Fun!

We had a great time tonight with our friends the Cragun's. They came over for dinner and we got to meet their adorable little baby girl GraceLynn for the first time! We had dinner in a pumpkin with the pumpkin we grew in our garden. As promised, here is the recipe for for our Fall favorite, Dinner in a Pumpkin:

· 1 to 1 1/2 lbs. ground turkey, ground pork, or ground beef

· 1/3 cup chopped green bell pepper

· 3/4 cup chopped onion

· 3/4 tsp. salt

· 1/4 tsp. pepper

· 1/4 cup soy sauce

· 2 Tbsp. brown sugar

· 1 four oz. can of mushrooms (drained)

· 1 can cream of chicken or cream of mushroom

· 2 cups cooked rice

· 1 medium pie pumpkin (about the size of a cantaloupe, 5-6 lbs.)

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2) Clean out pumpkin. Save the lid.

3) Cook the meat, pepper, and onion in a pot on medium heat until the meat is browned. Add in all the other ingredients and mix well.

4) Put it all in the pumpkin if it all fits.

5) Put aluminum foil on a cookie sheet and cook the pumpkin in the oven for 1-2 hours until the shell is soft.

When it is done dish up some of the insides and especially scrape some of the inside pumpkin shell with the rest of the food (this means the shell must be nice and soft).

"The Beast"

I love my Husband. He is amazing. While I was off at work today, I gave him a call to see how he was doing. He said he was doing homework...not so! He was working on designing and building an awesome shelving unit for our storage room! (Squire has named his gargantuan unit, "The Beast".) Here are some pics of all his hard work:


Notice how he cut around the pipes and electric to make it a perfect fit.

This is easy!

Well, maybe not that easy!

All the junk that was just stacked up on the wall before, in my closet to make space for the construction zone.

The craftsman taking a breather.

The finished product - wow! Thank you so much Squire! I love you! You get about 30 extra brownie points today for being an all around great husband.
: )

Summer Harvest on 9-9-09

Our landlords gave us a little plot to garden on this Summer - so nice and fun! Squire is the one who has really done everything for the garden this Summer, but I got to help him dig up the first thing we've been able to actually eat - red potatoes! I cooked them in little olive oil with garlic, fresh onion, rosemary, and some Parmesan cheese - so yummy! : )


Look at the little potato buds! They are actually pretty yummy all by themselves!





We found this little guy hiding in one of the leaves of our landlord's zucchini plant...

Our little cantaloupe is growing! Hopefully it gets big enough to eat before it gets too cold here!


Our pumpkin is ready to pick! We will be eating this with one of my favorite of Squire's recipes: Dinner in a Pumpkin! I will share this recipe with you very soon... : )

Can you believe all that plant?! We still have three more to pick from later. : )

The spoils... They have such a pretty rich color!