Happy Halloween

The actual day is finally here! To celebrate the night right, I made pumpkin curry soup, with a blackened grilled cheese sandwich, orange juice, and a pumpkin chocolate chip cookie! It all just came together so nicely. Got to love black and orange!

This is the recipe I used for the soup. Just found it online and I actually didn't have onions or garlic cloves. Instead, I used bell peppers and ginger/garlic paste. It was so simple and tasty.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter or margarine
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 1 (15 ounce) can Pure Pumpkin
• 1 (12 fluid ounce) can Evaporated Milk

Directions

1. MELT butter in large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic; cook, stirring frequently, for 2 to 3 minutes or until tender. Stir in curry powder, salt and pepper; cook for 1 minute.
2. ADD broth and pumpkin; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low; cook, stirring occasionally, for 15 to 20 minutes. Stir in evaporated milk. Transfer mixture to food processor or blender (in batches, if necessary); cover. Blend until smooth. Serve warm. 

Then for FHE, we had a Halloween party and I went as a ninja. The idea of having a sword won me over. It was a super fun and easy costume thanks to a friend!

PS This year the Halloween season seemed to last forever and I am definitely ready to move on! Tomorrow the quest for Thanksgiving decorations will begin!

I Had A Dream

**This post is a little delayed as I wanted to wait to see how things turned out, but I feel the time is right.

So before the football season started, I had a nightmare that I was being forced to married Riley Nelson. In the dream, he was working on my car and totally ruining it by putting in teal leather seats. I was so mad that he was ruining my car! Then his mom was making my wedding dress out of a maroon comforter. My mom appeared in the dream and she wasn't too happy either! I tried to take a bike and ride away, but I was being forced to stay. I woke myself up from the nightmare because I couldn't take it anymore and I ended up being in a bad mood for the rest of the day!

Well fast forward a few weeks and all of a sudden Riley is named the starting quarterback! Did anyone see that coming?!! I surely did not, but I have to wonder if my nightmare was visionary. I have been forced to accept him as the starting quarterback. I know some people get answers from dreams, but I have never been one of them until now......

PS Around this same time, my brother had a dream where he was floating the river with Bronco discussing the team and how everything would be work out. I don't know what all this means, but I am pretty sure someone from the BYU Football team should be contacting us about our dreams/nightmares!

A Few of My Favorite Things

So there are just a few things lately that have totally become my new favorites.
1. Songs with whistling -  I just love it. Somehow it just makes me happy when I hear it!
2. Skinny jean - I know I didn't think I would ever like them, but I have bought three pairs in the last week and LOVE them. They are just so feminine and fun and perfect with boots!
3. Boots - I can't get enough of them. There are so many cute ones and with the coming rain it just makes it a little better!
4. Pumpkin recipes - I just want to cook with pumpkin! It is just so yummy and fun!

5. Fall colors - I just want everything to be red, orange, purple, and yellow. The leaves have just been great and same with the clothes!

Pumpkins & Family

This weekend, I continued the Halloween and Fall festivities with first some pumpkin carving. I can't really remember the last time I actually did my own pumpkin! It was more fun than I remember and I got a little carried away that I even did the back. I think the Y turned out really nicely:)

The other pumpkin is pirate style with an eye patch! So the only bad part of my pumpkin carving experience was not being able to find the candles. I just saw them the other day and for the life of me I can't remember where!

Saturday was a fun fall day which included some BYU football and shopping then ended with seeing Aunt Marianne and cousin Jessica! I am pretty sure I haven't seen Jessica in like 6 years. It was so fun to see them and they made yummy apple crisp and pear tart while I was there. We also had fun playing golf (card game) and just catching up on life. Yay for family being in Portland!

Fall Leaves

So I have just been in love with Fall and all the wonderful fall colors. Unfortunately, Oregon doesn't have the best trees for leaves, but on my road there are lots of trees that are beautiful. 

 

Today was so sunny and cloudless that I just had to go out and take pictures!

 

 This tree is right at the entrance to my apartment complex!

 Oh, the colors of yellow, orange, red, and green!

BYU Football Game

Oh, the weekend that I have waited so long for and made moving to Oregon seem a little better....BYU Football played Oregon State on Saturday. It was so amazing! On Friday, I went to the Football Fireside and enjoyed hearing some players, Holly Mendenhall and Bronco Mendenhall speak. They just make me want to be a better person. Then after I just enjoyed watching the players interact with the fans.

Saturday, game day, I woke up at 6:30 and drove down to Corvallis with friends. There was a fun tailgate party at a local stake center and it was just so great to be with BYU fans. I also ran into some people I knew from my ward. Then we headed to the stadium. We were there early enough to see the players enter the stadium to warm up.

 I even got see Bronco enter the stadium!

 The game was fun and loved cheering the team onto victory. We were in the blue section with a lot of other BYU fans and I got to see some coworkers and other friends from the ward! Oh, the joy of everything that is right about football!

 

PS all these photos were taken with my new iPhone4S....yes, I love it!

Corn Maze

So last Friday, I went to a corn maze, which just was so fitting with all my fall festivities. In honor of Oregon, I prepared for rain, but was pleasantly surprised by a clear night with a beautiful full moon. So our group was the only one there so it was fun. There were 16 stakes to find in the maze and my favorite one was #7 which was a big open field in the middle of the maze. With the full moon, I was sure a werewolf was going to attack me or I was going to get hit by an arrow....clearly I have Twilight and Hunger Games on my mind. Anyways, when I arrived at the end, I decided I hadn't got my monies worth yet and ran back into the maze! It was even harder to find my way out my second time, but it was worth it. Also, the pictures I took at the maze are all black, apparently the moon wasn't that bright....

Halloween Craft

Well, I finally finished my Halloween wreath. It wasn't too bad except it always takes longer than I think and cutting takes forever! Anyways, here it is....

 

I found the idea on this blog. I made a few adaptions, but it was pretty fun!

Ward Craft Night

 Ok, I have been obsessed with crafts for the past couple of weeks. I started a project two nights ago and had my evening all slated to finish it tonight. Then I got a text about going to corn maze and so change of plans. I went over to the church to meet up with everyone and the Lake Oswego ward was having a craft night. At work, Sam had told me about the craft night and how Liz was teaching how to make little booties for babies.  So I wanted to say hello to my friends and found Liz right away. I was only planning on saying hello, but when I realized that the corn maze was actually Friday Night I decided to STAY and crash the LO craft night.
I am so glad I did! 

So I wanted to make little boy ones, but the buttons and things were mainly girly. I decided I would try my hand at embroidering and had to do footballs. Then I loved how the green is like grass, the blue is the sky, and the white laces are clouds. Ok, maybe I am stretching it, but I think they are cute!

 

Unfortunately, I only got one done.....why do we have to have 2 feet?! Oh well, I am excited to make the other one!

GO BYU!

Fall Into Autumn

I love decorating and I really haven't done much since first moving into my apartment, but that changed this week. I bought a pumpkin spice candle a few weeks ago and that started everything! From there, my friend showed me the cutest craft ideas for fall. So this week, I spent my free time decorating. What fun!

 

The best candle in the world!

 

The mantle. It just makes me happy!

  Something about pumpkins and candles. You just can't go wrong, right?!

I saw this idea on a blog and just loved it. It is just so simple and fun. Sometimes I just grab a few as I walk by!

 I don't know why, but I love lights! Please notice the lights in the mirror. They are purple, orange, and green! They make the gray skies a little more happy.

Portlandia Boots

Fall is pretty much here in Portland, so to embrace it I decided to buy boots. They just seem to make the gray skies and rain not so dreary.

Super Summer Saturday Fun

 Saturday was fun filled! It felt a little like a farewell to summer and all that is sunny and warm and wonderful! I woke up early (5:45am) and went to the temple. Then after I went on a double date. We met up around 9:30am and drove to the beach. It was a little cloudy and cold, but that didn't matter. When we got to the beach, we ran around in the water and sand. For lunch, we had a yummy picnic. Then after we played with a surfing kite trainer. I had done it once before, but the wind this time was WAY stronger! I could barely hold on. The kite would catch some air and I would took off running as the kite pulled me.

After the beach, we went to Devil's Lake. There we had wave runners to go around on the lake. It was kind of funny because for the first little bit, our wave runner couldn't go faster than 20mph. We thought it was broken or just needed to warm up, but apparently we were using the learner key. Luckily, we traded for the faster one! I love wave runners and going fast especially when there is water all around!

It wasn't planned, but I kind of love how it was the sunglasses-long wetsuits against the no sunglasses short wetsuits.