Happy Thanksgiving back

This time of year makes me want to watch You've Got Mail. I just love that movie. Don't you? I must borrow it from my mother and watch it soon. I could probably quote this whole movie to you. Just ask my former roommates about the many late nights we stayed up quoting this and other classic chick flicks. . . good times.

"Rose . . . that is a great name."


Happy Thanksgiving!!

4 months!

Tom and I have been married for 4 months now! Can you believe it? Time has gone by so quickly, but we are loving every minute of married life together. We decided to have a little celebration in honor of four happy months together, and I surprised Tom with a nice little dinner. Just feast your eyes upon this romantic meal that I whipped up for him! (Thanks Pinterest!) We listened to classic love songs and ate this meal by candlelight. And that's about as mushy as I get.

P.S. I may or may not have melted the bottom of my plastic heart-shaped cookie cutters on the pan while making the pancakes. So there may or may not have been melted plastic in them. . . don't tell Tom.

Note to self: next time use metal cookie cutters.

Conference

Once again, we headed down to Utah for General Conference the first weekend of October. It brought back many memories for Tom and I since we got engaged during conference weekend six months prior. We didn't have any tickets this time, and hoped to get in via the standby line. But mostly we traveled down there so that Tom could attend his mission reunion. (Tom served his mission in Johannesburg, South Africa for those of you who didn't know.) It was fun to see some of the people he served with, hear fun stories, and meet some of his companions that he has told me so much about. Here is a picture of Tom with his favorite companion, Seth LeFevre.

My favorite part of the mission reunion was when we all gathered in the chapel and sang the mission song. The song was written by one of the missionaries in the area. It was such a powerful moment when all those men stood and sang in unison. You can tell that they all cherish the time they spent sharing the gospel and serving among the South African people. I know that Tom does.

We were jealous to find out that Seth and his wife had gone back to South Africa to visit last spring. I know Tom would love to take me there, and someday maybe we'll actually have the money to do it. Just maybe.

Here is a picture of us in the standby line. Unfortunately we didn't make it in, so we watched from the old tabernacle on Temple Square.

Overall, it was a great trip. I'm sure we'll be down there again sometime. But maybe we'll wait to go until we have tickets.

Oregon Trip!

Over Labor Day weekend (holy cow, am I really just getting around to posting things that happened two months ago?!) Tom and I traveled to Oregon with the Muenchs for a quick trip to visit his brother Ryan and family. We spent sooo much time in the car, but we had such a good time! Mostly we entertained ourselves by making music videos on Bob's laptop. Oh the joys of technology! I love how well the videos turned out even though they were totally spontaneous.

While in Oregon we got to walk through and explore some caves. We also went bowling, played rock band, and ate yummy food.

As you should be accustomed to by now, I failed at taking pictures. Good thing Bobby took some pictures with my camera, mistakenly thinking it was his mom's. haha

Funny faces at the bowling alley . . . well, at least mine is funny

Tom's niece Nicole. (And I guess she is my niece now too!) She is such a cutie!

She lost her very first tooth while we were there visiting and was so proud!

We stopped for lunch one day at a Dairy Queen in the middle-of-nowhere Oregon and had a huge ice cream cone.

P.S. I got so sick of fast food on this trip.

pumpkin carving

This year for Halloween we carved pumpkins with my cousin Mandy and her husband Wes. We had so much fun visiting and enjoying their new baby girl, Cambria. Mandy also made a delicious apple crisp for us to enjoy afterwards.

Tom and I decided to go with a Phantom of the Opera themed pumpkin. . .

I had to take a picture with the flash so you could get the full effect of Mandy and Wes's pumpkin - the nose is the best part!

Unfortunately we still have almost a week until Halloween and our pumpkins are already shriveling up, and the eye of the mask is now WAY too big. It looks more like an alien.

More Halloween pictures to come; bet you can't wait to see what we've come up with this year for costumes! We set a high standard last year, but I think this year's will be pretty good also.

Our apartment pics

Finally I am posting the long-awaited pictures of our apartment! I thought we would start off with the piece de resistance. . . our dining room table which we refinished all by ourselves. It turned out very nice, no?? We reupholstered the chairs, and even grew those centerpiece pumpkins in our very own garden. Be impressed.

Don't the backs of the chairs look like music stands? We thought so too. Quite fitting for our apartment I think.

The living room . . . yes, that is Breaking Dawn on the coffee table/cedar chest. I read it again in preparation for the new movie. And no, I'm not obsessed with Twilight, I just needed a fun book to read while Tom stays up late doing homework.

In the background is the card table we were using before we finished our beautiful masterpiece of a dining table.

The rest of the living room, with a few close-ups for your enjoyment. :)

And now on to our music room! Can I just tell you that I love the fact that we have a music room?? It is perhaps my favorite room in the house. On Sunday afternoons Tom gets out his violin and we play music together. It is absolutely wonderful.

Trusty old Chopin still sits atop my piano.
Also in the music room is what is perhaps my favorite part of our apartment - the bookcase. We also refinished this along with the dining room table and chairs. I love the way it looks, oh so much.

This room says things to me like: sophisticated, classy, refined, well-versed.

Sneak-peak of the bathroom. I just love our shower curtain.


And last but not least, the bedroom. My grandma made this quilt for me as a high school graduation gift. I got to pick out the colors, the pattern, and most of the fabrics. After six years I still love it. And now that I am married I finally get to use it!


Well, that's it! I hope that you enjoyed the tour. It's even better in person so if you're in the area come over and visit some time. Tom and I would love to show off our place to you. We're quite proud of our own little place.

Thoughts for today . . .

Thought #1: One of the greatest things ever is still getting wedding presents 2 1/2 months after the fact. Ever feel bad about giving belated presents? Don't. They are awesome.

Thought #2: I have been reading lots of blogs lately and I have come to the conclusion that there are two different kinds of blogs: good blogs and ok blogs. What is the differential factor? The pictures. Those with good blogs actually know how to take pictures. Photographers make excellent blogs. Ok blogs come from people like me who aim the camera and push the button. I wish I had an excellent blog that people would be jealous of, but I really don't have enough interest in photography to take the time and effort to learn how. Hence, my readers are stuck with an average, ok blog with amatuer pictures. Sorry.

Thought #3: I need to play the piano more often. Too many things to do and so little time! I just need to make the time and do it! I am somewhat self-concious every time I sit down and play because I know that my neighbors can hear me, but that's just something I'm going to have to get over.
I went to a piano concert up on campus Thursday night. To sum up . . .
Del Parkinson + Franz Liszt = pure, talented amazingness
P.S. If I was born circa 1820 I would have had a major crush on Liszt (like pretty much every other woman in Europe).

Thought #4: I need to blog more often too - as mediocre as the posts may be.

Thought #5: I really wish we had money so we could travel. Top destinations on our list:

• Washington, D.C. - oh how I miss you!


• California - visit the fam, go to the beach and Boardwalk, enough said


• South Africa - Tom could show me around his mission areas, I could finally use my passport, and we could go to Kruger National Park - South Africa's equivalent to Yellowstone (elephants, lions and leopards = way cooler than bears, elk and coyotes!!)