For Thanksgiving we made the envious 15 hour drive to Iowa to visit the first born Anderson's. I thoroughly enjoyed playing with Sam and baby Emily. Having Abby around was a great surprise too. Well, not so much a surprise for me as it was for Ma Anderson, but it was fun all the same. Usually, Abby would be in Utah, spending thanksgiving with one of her roommates. This year however she decided to surprise her mom and fly out to Iowa. She came out of the kitchen nonchalantly minutes after we walked in the house. I thought for sure some complicated revealing of the surprise would come, but the simplicity worked out pretty well- there were squeals and tears!
Thursday we had our Thanksgiving dinner which was delicious and then most went to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 1, Mom and Sam went to Tangled (movies are a tradition in the Anderson family on Thanksgiving and Christmas).
Friday the ladies all went to Hobby Lobby (Ma Anderson's favorite store in the world. A Richmond location is coming soon!). We also spent a lot of time lazing around the house.
Saturday Evan and I rode up to Chicago with Andrew and Abby to drop Abby off at the airport. While there were tentative plans to hang out in Chicago, the group deemed the weather too cold to make the drive worth while.
Instead we went to Incredible Pizza.
Incredible Pizza is a buffet restaurant with an arcade. And it is Incredible. If you dress like a super hero you get $10 worth of games. We also joined a dance party in the middle of the restaurant and got a free attraction (in addition to games they have mini golf, bumper cars, duckpin bowling, and laser tag). So at the end of the night the fellas (including little Sam) and I played a round of laser tag. It was a lot of fun, especially considering another family was playing on the other team and also had little ones. Evan has a picture of us all in our superhero outfits, but hasn't forwarded it to me yet, so I'll post it later.
Sunday Emily was blessed. It was wonderful to be there and I am so glad Evan got to be a part of that. He missed out with Sam because he was really sick, so he only watched from the back. He even jumped up to pass the sacrament when Andrew was asked so that Andrew could stay with his little family.
It was a great trip to say the least. I took hardly any pictures, but I did manage to get a couple of Evan singing to Emily. I feel truly blessed to have married into such a great family, and to have found my perfect companion.
30 November 2010
23 November 2010
Giving Thanks
As the Thanksgiving holiday approaches, I always enjoy recounting what we are thankful for. This year will be the first we spend together as a married couple. I had the amazing opportunity last year to attend the Anderson Thanksgiving trip as a "special friend," but I am super excited to attend this year as an official Anderson. And what will the second born Andersons be giving thanks for? Many things. We truly have been blessed this year in so many ways. I am so grateful to all of our family and the support they have given us. I am also grateful the application process is coming to an end and the stressfulness of it all is lightening up.
We may only be 6 months in, but I think the rest of the journey is looking pretty bright :)
In about 12 hours we will be waking up to embark on our drive to Iowa- expect pictures upon our return!
We may only be 6 months in, but I think the rest of the journey is looking pretty bright :)
In about 12 hours we will be waking up to embark on our drive to Iowa- expect pictures upon our return!
03 November 2010
My Smartie Husband and further domestications
Evan informed me last night that his professor wants him to put more work into the research project she's been leading, and that his name will be put on the finished project :) This is a big deal. It doesn't happen often for undergrad psychology students to be published with their professors. Apparently, they do a lot of grunt work, and get to mention it on a resume and that's the end of it. Not my smartie though.
On a completely different note.
Saturday for our ward activity, part of it was a chili cook off. I've never made chili. So I signed up to bring cornbread instead. I looked up a recipe and found one that looked doable. However, it said it only made enough for 12. In my opinion, that isn't enough to take to a large potluck type function. I really spent too much time in a ward where only half the people contributed and everyone ate (don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed my stay at the single's ward and cooking once a month for the masses, I just didn't adjust my thinking when I moved into a family ward).
So, I doubled the recipe.
BIG MISTAKE.
I ended up with two 3-QT and one 2-QT baking dishes full of cornbread. Which theoretically left me with a big dish and a small dish. However, some over achiever that got there before me made enough cornbread for half the ward, and by the time I got there, there wasn't even space on the table for my dish. And none of it was eaten.
So it all came home.
And Evan is not a cornbread fan.
We managed to eat half of one dish over the last four days, but I knew it just wasn't going to be eaten. So I did some googling, and found a recipe for cornbread pudding.
Who knew?
So pretty much, cornbread soaked in milk, sugar, butter, and eggs, then topped with more cornbread butter and cinnamon/sugar. Then baked. I predict a gooey sugary goodness. Or a mess that ends up in the trash. It smells great though. I'll review it at a later time, after it has been tested.
On a completely different note.
Saturday for our ward activity, part of it was a chili cook off. I've never made chili. So I signed up to bring cornbread instead. I looked up a recipe and found one that looked doable. However, it said it only made enough for 12. In my opinion, that isn't enough to take to a large potluck type function. I really spent too much time in a ward where only half the people contributed and everyone ate (don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed my stay at the single's ward and cooking once a month for the masses, I just didn't adjust my thinking when I moved into a family ward).
So, I doubled the recipe.
BIG MISTAKE.
I ended up with two 3-QT and one 2-QT baking dishes full of cornbread. Which theoretically left me with a big dish and a small dish. However, some over achiever that got there before me made enough cornbread for half the ward, and by the time I got there, there wasn't even space on the table for my dish. And none of it was eaten.
So it all came home.
And Evan is not a cornbread fan.
We managed to eat half of one dish over the last four days, but I knew it just wasn't going to be eaten. So I did some googling, and found a recipe for cornbread pudding.
Who knew?
So pretty much, cornbread soaked in milk, sugar, butter, and eggs, then topped with more cornbread butter and cinnamon/sugar. Then baked. I predict a gooey sugary goodness. Or a mess that ends up in the trash. It smells great though. I'll review it at a later time, after it has been tested.
01 November 2010
October happenings
Even amongst the craziness that is GRE/application preparation, we managed to have some fun this month.
We finally celebrated our second annual Totfest. The first annual Totfest began because I was feeling devoid of Evan-nage in my life and I wanted a reason to hang out. When I suggested a hangout session he said, "Sure, to do what?" I was caught off guard so I texted back the first thing that popped into my head- "tots." Fortunately, Evan and I were soul mates so he was right there with me- and totally excited to do it. So we cooked up some tots and experimented with a few different types of dipping sauce choices.
This year we added hot wings to the menu. And boy howdy was it delicious! A dish full of hot wings, a bowl of tots, a multitude of sauces and the smell of fried oil in our apartment for the entire next week. It was a wonderful day.
Our spread- from left to right: salsa, Sweet Baby Ray's, honey mustard, (celery- for clearing the system after), ranch, chocolate sauce, guacamole.
Evan is excited for totfest!
We look forward to this time each year, and hope our bodies don't get too upset by the amount of bad stuff we put into it!
We also got to have some Halloween fun. First on Friday I dressed up for work. We threw the kids a little Halloween party and let them dress up and play games and gave out candy. It was pretty fun for all of us. The counselor's agreed to go as 80's people, but only two of us remembered, so the other two went as Referees (one of them happens to be a ref and had the uniforms in her car.)
Notice the totfest sign is still up. I was proud I was able to pull this together form things around the house, and also of my hair.
Seriously, it just came to me. The kids thought it was great and I was pleased with my handy work as well.
Saturday night, Evan and I went to our ward party. Evan has wanted to dress up as ACDC for forever, which sounds good in theory. However, very few people know what that looks like. Even fans of the music don't necessarily know how the band dresses. We did it anyway, and were very happy with our thrift store finds. However as expected, no one got it. Talk about disappointment. Take a look and see if the resemblance is noticeable
Angus Young (lead guitar) and Brian Johnson (lead vocals)
And the real deal:
Also on this wonderful Halloween weekend, Evan took the GRE (which put a stop to the crazy studying and sleep schedule). ANd he did a great job too! He had hyped himself up into thinking he wouldn't be able to get a decent score in the slightest, but he ended up with one that is competitive enough he has regained confidence in his choice of programs (he also relized in the shower the next day that he added wrong and in fact has 30 points more than he originally thought). Though I'm still not sure I want to live in the midwest (even though that looks to be where the majority of his chosen programs are), I am sure proud of Evan!
We finally celebrated our second annual Totfest. The first annual Totfest began because I was feeling devoid of Evan-nage in my life and I wanted a reason to hang out. When I suggested a hangout session he said, "Sure, to do what?" I was caught off guard so I texted back the first thing that popped into my head- "tots." Fortunately, Evan and I were soul mates so he was right there with me- and totally excited to do it. So we cooked up some tots and experimented with a few different types of dipping sauce choices.
This year we added hot wings to the menu. And boy howdy was it delicious! A dish full of hot wings, a bowl of tots, a multitude of sauces and the smell of fried oil in our apartment for the entire next week. It was a wonderful day.
Our spread- from left to right: salsa, Sweet Baby Ray's, honey mustard, (celery- for clearing the system after), ranch, chocolate sauce, guacamole.Evan is excited for totfest!
We look forward to this time each year, and hope our bodies don't get too upset by the amount of bad stuff we put into it!
We also got to have some Halloween fun. First on Friday I dressed up for work. We threw the kids a little Halloween party and let them dress up and play games and gave out candy. It was pretty fun for all of us. The counselor's agreed to go as 80's people, but only two of us remembered, so the other two went as Referees (one of them happens to be a ref and had the uniforms in her car.)
Saturday night, Evan and I went to our ward party. Evan has wanted to dress up as ACDC for forever, which sounds good in theory. However, very few people know what that looks like. Even fans of the music don't necessarily know how the band dresses. We did it anyway, and were very happy with our thrift store finds. However as expected, no one got it. Talk about disappointment. Take a look and see if the resemblance is noticeable
Angus Young (lead guitar) and Brian Johnson (lead vocals)
And the real deal:
Also on this wonderful Halloween weekend, Evan took the GRE (which put a stop to the crazy studying and sleep schedule). ANd he did a great job too! He had hyped himself up into thinking he wouldn't be able to get a decent score in the slightest, but he ended up with one that is competitive enough he has regained confidence in his choice of programs (he also relized in the shower the next day that he added wrong and in fact has 30 points more than he originally thought). Though I'm still not sure I want to live in the midwest (even though that looks to be where the majority of his chosen programs are), I am sure proud of Evan!
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