Turkey Day

Thank goodness for Thanksgiving break!

Bryant and I started off the week with me dragging him with me to go Christmas shopping. We started off by getting a few games of bowling in at Jack and Jills because we realized we have not been since my birthday. After that, Bryant took me to lunch at a new bakery called Flour Girls and Dough Boys. They have sandwiches, soups, breads and lots of cakes and cookies and things like that. I really like the inside of it, it's small but fun and the few times we have been there it's packed.
After lunch, we headed over to Khols were we picked up a few cheap ornaments and browsed around for some gift ideas. Then it was time to grocery shop for thanksgiving!

Wednesday night and Thursday morning I made 5 deserts. I made 2 chocolate chip cookie pies, a chocolate pudding pie, a banana cream pie and, per special request of Bryant, an apple crisp. We Spent Thanksgiving up at my aunt Paulines house in South Jordan. Not many people were able to come this year, but it was still fun.
Colter, Sawyer and Bryant trying to avoid getting their picture taken.This picture has some explaining needed.... This is carrot pudding. Yup Carrot pudding. When I was little we had this tradition thats been around for a while but we have not done it in a long time and my aunt decided to revive it. Notice the silver tinfoil in it? Those are coins wrapped in tinfoil. Your supposed to eat the pudding and you get to keep any money you find in it, and if you find a penny, you get a prize. I found one and I got a bottle of coke :) which, I have found a way to make it into a christmas ornament, photos to follow soon...

After dinner and hanging out for a bit (long enough for the 2 new babies to wake up so I could see them) we headed off to my grandma Peacocks house for some desert. We also drew names christmas this year. I got my cousins wife Carrie, and Bryant got my cousins new baby Jackson (i'll admit, I kind of peeked into the bowl to make sure we got jackson...)

Both Bryant and I had to work today. I was worried it was going to be crazy, but this year, instead of just me all by my lonesome at the Information desk, They paired me and a girl names Quincy up to be "Info Statues" We were told not to worry about answering phones, or putting away spits (the books people leave on the floor that we have to put away) which consumes a lot of time, especially when there are a lot of people to help. Plus the assigned 1 person in every zone to help customers out and answere phones, recover and put away spits. So Quincy and I actually had it very easy.
Bryant was busy today also. He made the store record for selling the most to 1 customer today, which got us a free dinner at tucanos from his boss!

Tomorrow, I have to work again but not until 4 so Bryant and I have the morning together, which is rare. I really want to put up Christmas decorations tomorrow, and my parents bought us two mini fake christmas trees (apparently they were buy one get one free). I know Bryant thinks its too early, but i'm going to have to enlist his help to encite some holliday cheer into him.

6 Months!

Well, we have been married for 6 months today! Sometimes it feels like we have been married a lot longer than that and some days I think about the day we got married and think "holy cow, it's really been that long?". It's been a really great six months and im so excited to see what the next six months bring.

So i know 6 months is not a HUGE deal or anything, but I still convinced Bryant to take me out to a movie last night. We ended up seeing The Blindside, which I was not too excited to see at first because the football, underdog type movie has been overdone so many times it's burnt to a crisp. But It was surprisingly very good. Definitely one worth seeing.

As for this week, again not much happened. Both of us have been working a lot and I have been able to pick up a few more hours because we are getting into our holiday crunch and the store has been BUSY! Even with the new In-n-out, 5 1/2 hour drive through wait overtaking our parking lot.

On Wednesday, I realized that after 6 months in our ward, our only friends are our 8 year old primary kids, when Rylan unexpectedly showed up at our doorstep, wondering if Bryant wanted to play. It was cute, for sure, but depressing that instead of being invited to ward parties and relief society events, we were being asked to play football by an 8 year old. But I took Ace out and while Rylan, Bryant and the neighbor boy who asked to join tossed a pig skin around, Ace and I had our own football game with his stuffed football.
Needless to say, Ace kicked my Butt.
Rylan had a lot of fun. The neighbor kid got a little competitive so I felt bad, but Bryant was good about keeping it fair. Afterwards, Rylan told us that he would come over every Wednesday to play if that was ok with us.

Today, we went to church and for some reason ALL of our kids were super hyperactive. Noel, one of our girls, didn't want to come to class and her mom asked me if I could go talk to her. I found her out in the lobby and she said she wanted to go home because she had spacers put in her teeth and they really hurt. I knew there was more then that so we spent about 20 minutes just talking and I was asking her about her favorite thanksgiving food and she wanted to know my favorite 2 colors put together. After a while she said she had forgotten that her teeth hurt because she was thinking of other things, and so I told her that coming to the rest of sharing time would help keep her mind off it. So we went back together and I was really happy when the other 2 girls leaned back to her when we sat down and one told her she had a really cute dress on and the other said she really liked her hair. I think that even at 8 years old, people just need a good confidence boost every now and then. After that, she was happy as a clam the rest of the day.

After church, I was able to work on some christmas crafts. Bryant should not let me go to Michaels craft store alone because It's like sending a kid into a candy store. I just worked on a wreath and then I made some pinecone ornaments.

I thought they turned out really cute, but I promised myself I wouldn't put them up until after Thanksgiving (saves me a lot of flack, I know it's not Christmas yet, but when it's cold and snowy, I can't help but get excited...) Oh well, Thursday will be here soon enough.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, my mom made a Turkey with all the fixin's today and we had our neighbors and my parents really good friends the Ostergaards over for a mini-thanksgiving dinner. I think we should have 2 thanksgivings every year!

On kind of a sadder note, which I feel like writing down cause it's been the cause of all my stress this week, I found our that school is going to take me even longer than origionally planned. I went to a counselor last year who admitted me into the History Education program at UVU. He said everything was taken care of and that I was on track to be done next fall if I did classes in the summer too. I was super excited for this and as I was registering for my final secondary education classes (I only have 1 more history to finish) It was saying that I did not have the pre-requisits for the classes I had to do. So I contacted the department chair for the secondary ed program. Come to find out, I AM enrolled in the history education program, however, they didn't tell me that the Secondary Ed program is not technically through UVU. It's an entirely different admissions process and that I had to apply and perform an Interview with the Dean. To make matters worse, I have missed the deadline for spring term, and now have to apply at the end of next semester for FALL semester.

I was really upset about this because I wish the couselor I talked to had told me this. It just set back all of my plans a lot further than I want them to be. And to make matters worse, I will only be able to take 2 classes next semester because I don't need anything else except for those education classes.

I'm really hoping it all works out. Thankfully I'm not the only person who didn't know this. My friend who is in the elementary Ed program said that she didn't know and had to do it all too. UVU's counselors have always been really awful. They don't ever seem to have all the information you need. On the brightside, I'll still be able to get my grant with only 6 credits (origionally I was told I could only get it full time, they were wrong about that too) And I'll be able to work a lot more and save up a lot more money.

Chef Brooke and Sous Chef Ace

So far, its been a great week. On Saturday, I convinced Bryant to come with me after we both got off work to do some Christmas ornament shopping. We headed over to the mall, but after about an hour of shopping around, I realized it would be a heck of a lot cheaper and more fun to just make the ornaments this year. So I called my mom and asked her to pick up some pine cones from outside her office for me. I didn't come away empty handed though, I bought this great hat for only 3 bucks!
Cute right?Bryant tried it on and this is pretty much the funniest picture in the whole world...

That night, it was Bryant's friend and co-worker Eric's Birthday, and his wife invited us to a surprise party at Olive Garden. Afterwards we headed over tot their house to have cake and play some games. We were both really excited to get out and hang out with other married couples.

I didn't have to work today so I decided that I'd make a really big dinner for Bryant when he got home from work. I know he loves lasagna and he has been telling me forever that I should learn how to make it, so I got a little adventurous and decided to give it a try. The recipe said it would take a total of about 45 minutes to make. It took me 2 and a half hours!!! But I had the help of my excellent sous chef, Ace!He was very patient and watched me almost the whole time. I think he was protecting me from the oven, which I discovered tonight is something he's really scared of. He would stare at it and start barking, which is something he doesn't really do unless you bark at him first, and when Bryant came and opened it, he freaked out and ran away.He calmed down as soon as we closed it and he went back to watching patiently. He's a messier cook than me though, notice the pile of crumbs left behind him from an English muffin I put him in charge of...

In the end, the lasagna came out PERFECTLY! My brother even came in and had a plate and he said he liked it. It's a lot of work, so maybe it will be a Sunday-only dinner, but I was super proud of myself, and I was really glad that Bryant loved it.

Not-so-eventful week

So Nothing really major went on this week, but I was just itching to write a new blog.

During the week, absolutely nothing happened and it was even more boring due to the fact that I was sick AGAIN (actually, I think it may be the same thing I had a few weeks ago so I have a sneaky feeling that it's just lingering), So I spent a lot of time watching movies and studying for my Utah History midterm that was Thursday and my American History exam (not a midterm) which was, for some dumb reason, scheduled on Saturday.

Sunday was the most eventful day. We woke up and went to my Aunt and Uncle's ward where my cousin Wyatt was being ordained a teacher. We were only able to stay for the ordination and had to skip out on breakfast at my aunts because we had to get back to our ward to teach our primary kids. Unfortunately, it was our kids turn to do the talks and scriptures, but 2 were gone, and 1 forgot to tell his parents so only Mikaila remembered to do the scripture. Embarrassing.

After church we headed up to visit my Grandpa and bring him dinner and cookies. We decided to bring Ace, which was an adventure in itself. He is huge! But unfortunately, he still thinks he can crawl in your lap so for the first 20 minutes of the ride, he was trying to get comfortable on my lap. It was funny because one minute he would want to lay down and curl up, then the next he wanted to look out the window. He just couldn't decided what he wanted to do.

Eventually, I decided that he was too heavy to be a wiggle worm up front so I tossed him (quite literally cause he didn't want to go) in the backseat, where he decided that it was a pretty good deal, curled up in the corner, and fell asleep.
Once we got to my grandpas, we decided to hook him up outside, and for the next 3 hours, he HOWLED like there was no tomorrow. We realized that that was the first time he was left alone. He is always either with us or with the other dogs. Not once has he been alone. Poor guy, but he has to learn sometime. Grandpa even said he was going to train that dog to meow.

My grandpa seemed to be doing really good. He has a lot of good neighbors that take him out to dinner and come over to visit a lot, which makes me really glad that he's not just alone out there. He was joking that the hardest thing is learning to cook. Looks like we are in the same boat.

After a quick bite to eat, we made the trip home, where Ace sat quietly in the back again, but this time, he kept sneaking up next to us and licking our ears. When he finally got tired, I stuck my hand back there to pet him and he laid his head in my hand. Pretty much the cutest thing in the whole world. He just always wants someone to play and cuddle with.

Halloween adventures!

Halloween was most definitely a success this year. Friday night we had our annual ward trunk-or-treat. We usually do it out in the church parking lot and everyone decorates their trunks and then the kids trick or treat from car to car. But this year it was just too cold (we had snow flurries off and on all day) so they moved it inside to the gym. We are still getting to know everyone (people confuse us with another new couple named the Francoms) but it was fun to see our little primary kids all dressed up (we teach the CTR 8 class).
Bryant was Clark Kent. I really love the glasses, they really made the costume awesome.I was Peter Pan. I made the costume, but my dad made my little sword and I borrowed the hat from my brother, who got it in Disneyland.This is Rylan, he's in our class and he's my friends nephew. He was the Joker from Batman.This is Brandon, Rylan's brother. He was superman too, muscles and all!And this is Daxton, another boy from our class. He was the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz and he had a LOT of fun teasing and playing with Bryant at the party.And last but not least, my little sister Sage (wearing a troll costume she came up with and made herself) sang the ghostbusters song and won a prize for "most memorable song".

Then yesterday, I ended up having to work all day, but I got to wear my costume. A few people dressed up as characters from books, which I thought was really creative. One girl from the cafe even dressed up as one of our managers. After I got off work, Bryant and I went out to eat at Red Robin with some of his basketball and work friends. It was fun and everyone had really fun costumes. After dinner, we headed over to my friend's new apartment for a Halloween party. On our way home we stopped for hot chocolate and got Shaun of the Dead to watch at home (you always need a good/funny zombie movie to top off halloween).

Today was a perfect Sunday. We got to sleep in a bit (until we were rudely woken up by Ace running in and jumping right inbetween us) and we only had 3 kids in our primary class today which makes it a lot easier to keep their attention and keep them quiet. After church we gave our puppy a much needed bath and he took a nice long nap with us while watching some football.

At 5:00 we went down to my cousins church for their baby's blessing and Bryant got to be in the circle, wich was really cool. Baby Jackson has gotten so big! The last time I saw him he was 6 pounds, and today he weighed in at 11! Baby's and puppies should stay little forever :)