So last weekend was not enough to get our fill of carving pumpkins and watching Lord of the Rings. Last night, oh around 11, the boys and I decided it would be a ton of fun to carve some more pumpkins and watch the 3rd installment of the ring trilogy. They ran to the store and we got to work. Brad tried out a new technique he found online where you scrape away the skin of the pumpkin to create a scene. It turned out amazingly well, and is especially creepy with the ghost in the background. I did a simple witch and Matt did the tree. We had a blast doing it and this time we were only up until 2 am! Brad and I also tried a new technique I read about in the newspaper. The suggestion was to cut off the bottom of your pumpkin rather than making a lid from the top. This makes it easier and safer to light your pumpkin up because you simple light the candle and place your pumpkin on top of the candle (rather than trying to stick your arm down inside the pumpkin to get it lit). We tried it and it is definitely the way to go, especially if you have kids.

Jack-o-Lanterns and Dirty Viggo

Carving jack-o-lanterns is dirty buisness, especially if you want to do something more than a simple face. Saturday night we stayed up late (3am) watching Lord of the Rings and carving pumpkins. Good times. It was perfect timing too because the pumpkins kept the house lit the next day when the power went out for about an hour. Sadly, they have already passed away and had to be thrown out. RIP

Because NBC told me to...

On October 17 we attended the Samsung world cup of short track speed skating. We arrived in time to see two really good wipe outs and a lot of good races. Watching it live, you see lots of tactics that don't really come out from watching it on TV. We did get to see Apollo Anton Ohno and, he is everything the Olympics made him out to be. I wondered if he really was very good or just the product of NBC Olympic highlights. The highlights however, can be trusted. He is that good. No, I do not like him because NBC told me to.

Time or Money?

As Brad always says most things come down to time or money. So which of those things do you need more? Apparently I value money more than my time because although I appreciate being able to save money by carpooling, I've been waking up way, way too early for the past month and a half. Contract time for school is 8:10 to 3:50. But because I am carpooling with other teachers who want to be to school by 7:30 at the latest (and generally don't leave their rooms until 4 or later) I've been spending a lot of time in the teacher's lounge. The past few mornings I've gone straight to the lounge and laid down on the big leather couch and gone back to sleep for 45 minutes (students don't show up until 8:40) and sometimes an hour. But this morning I spent some time in the faculty bathroom snapping photos of myself and my big old belly.

On a non-school related note...I have a new favorite food joint called Sammy's. Tonight I had a great chicken sandwich with avocado and provolone cheese. And the best part are their real-pie shakes. They literally fill a cup with icecream and then put a real piece of pumpkin pie on top and mix it all together...needless to say it is DELICIOUS.

In other events: we saw the amazing Chinese Acrobats at BYU. They did the whole deal, body contortions, plate spinning, lion dance, and amazing men's acrobatics. It was a very entertaining evening. We also saw a dance show called "Thriller" at the new Covey center. They were incredibly talented dancers. And coming up this Friday we are going to the Olympic trials for speed skating in Sandy. And if I weren't so pregnant we would go to the corn maze at Thanksgiving Point. However, as you can see from the pictures I have become enormous and walking much more painful to my back and hips. Anyways, anyone who is in Provo should stop by Sammy's and get a real-pie shake.

Oh, one last thing...I have a 5 day weekend starting today. The kids have a fall break starting Thursday and coming back to school on Tuesday, so I too get a fall break. This means I get a 5 day weekend then only have 4 more days of teaching...then I'm done. Done, done! My TESOL minor class that I am taking this semester also got shortened by 2 weeks because my professor is awesome. This means I am done with my class next week. And finally, my TESOL practicum that I did in tandem with student teaching is almost done as well. I have to finish 2 more write ups and go to an exit interview and then I'm done with that. So, all-in-all I will be completely finished with school by the end of next week! Done, done with school...forever!!!

Oh, and did I mention I'm only five weeks away from our Due Date? Hip-Hip-Hooray!!!

Monkey Bun Success!!!

So, it's conference weekend and I have as yet never made Brad my families "sticky buns" (I like to call them monkey buns because it's a combo of "monkey bread" and "sticky buns" plus it's just funny). So I called my mom last night and got the recipe. After compiling all the ingredients and leaving them on the counter sit out over night (as I was directed) I get a phone call from my mom. Curiously, I answer the phone. She promptly tells me that my little bro', Matt, had just texted her asking if what I had done to the rolls was the correct way to do it. Both my husband and brother have very little faith (well, honestly, I should include myself in that group) in my baking abilities. I believe that somewhere early on in the blog Brad posted my angel food cake experience, see that for proof of my bad baking. Anyways, I woke up this morning nervous to get my buns in the oven. I walked into the kitchen and was horrified to find my buns spilling out over the edge of my bundt pan! My mom told me to only worry about this if my kitchen was too hot, so I made sure to keep them away from any heat producing appliance, safely tucked away on the counter.
But I was not going to give up! I immediately turned the oven on to get it pre-heating, chopped off the top of the buns that were overflowing and anxiously waited for a hot oven. Once I finally got them in the oven the 30 minutes that they were baking seemed like an eternity. I was thrilled when I went to the oven and found them cooked and smelling delicious. As we sat down to eat Matt told me that my monkey buns were better than moms sticky buns!!! I had purposely put lots of walnuts and doubled the sauce recipe...more sugar=better. I guess mom wanted her buns to be less horrible for our bodies.