when the ox is in the mire.

If you haven't seen this video about Hurricane Sandy, take the 8 minutes to watch it.

oh, hot fudge.

Last night we invited over some friends and had ourselves a dessert waffle par-tay.  Instead of buying hot fudge, I wanted to try making it and found a "to die for" recipe.  We're up to our eyeballs in hot fudge sauce right now (I like to think of it as a beautiful mistake :) and probably should have halved the recipe, so we'll be putting this stuff on everything for the next few days.  Spaghetti with hot fudge sauce (Elf moment), meatloaf with hot fudge sauce, cereal and hot fudge sauce.  Mmmm.  Or maybe we'll just have to start giving it away.  But do yourself a favor and go make this sauce right now!

Ingredients
2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 c. butter
4 c. sugar
2 c. evaporated milk
1 t. vanilla extract
1/8 t. salt

Directions
1.  In a large saucepan, combine the chocolate chips and butter.  Cook and stir over low heat until melted.
2.  Gradually mix in the sugar and milk.  Increase heat to a boil.  Cook, stirring constantly, for 8 minutes.  Remove from heat, and then stir in vanilla and salt.  Serve warm.  Store in refrigerator.

This would be 1/3 of it, and there was plenty.

We also bought a Christmas tree and put it up a month and a half before Christmas.  (Yes, we would be some of those people.)  In our minds, it's a justified decision seeing as we'll be gone for Thanksgiving and the time around Christmas.  We are putting off buying ornaments until after Thanksgiving though... if that makes it any better!  Yay for the holidays!

focusing on the significant.

 I've been on this little quest for the past few weeks--working on figuring out what's important in my life and what can be cut out in order to declutter my schedule, relationships, and my mind.  I spent 30 minutes last night deleting over 300 people on Facebook that I'll never see again, and there are still many more to go.  Last weekend, I tried to focus on finding a home for all of those piles of things that kind of build up over time, and worked on finishing up little projects that needed to be done.  I went through my closet and cleaned out clothes I haven't worn in the past year. I even cleaned out the fridge.  (And I really hate cleaning out the fridge.)  I do, however, love these times where I feel the need to organize my life and get rid of things that take up my time and thoughts that are truly of no importance.  

I want to be better at taking the time to call the people I care about, and spending less time on social media.  I want to be better at sticking to a schedule and having an allotted time for each activity in my life.  I want to be better at working on homework and spend less time dilly-dallying around.  I want to be better at eating healthy, getting enough sleep, and working out more.  I want to be better at putting more effort into my church responsibilities and calling.  I want to be a better wife.  I want to be a better daughter and sister.  I want to be a better friend. 

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best moments of the weekend:

+ using a Cheesecake Factory giftcard for date night & the Oreo cheesecake
+ breaking out the Christmas music (too soon? eh.)
+ sunshine and 70 degree weather
+ our ward Thanksgiving dinner
+ finishing up a million little projects
+ finally watching the new Spiderman movie
+ church meetings & visiting teaching some awesome ladies
+ watching the thunderstorm
+ talking to family
+ dinner and a Christmas movie with friends
+ not thinking about school or work aaaallllllllll weekend long!

...and there's a 30% chance it'll snow around 2 am!  ;)  I've got my fingers crossed and Josh Groban's Christmas cd playing in the hopes that Mother Nature will send a small snowstorm our way.  All of those pictures of Utah and Idaho on Instagram are making me jealous.

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sliced.

Well, it only took 2 1/2 months for this baby to come...

and then we noticed the delivery guys sliced it when taking all of the wrapping off.  Thank goodness for companies who will replace damaged items!

We're just glad we don't have to sit on the floor anymore.  :)  And I'm so excited to find more pillows and a painting to hang over the couch.

(Also, the color in that last picture is the actual color of our couch.  Seafoam?  The top two pictures are really quite terrible.)

And guys, be impressed.  I made banana bread for the first time, and I don't even like banana bread.

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P.S.  See what I did there with the title?  It relates to both pictures?  Ha ha.  Okay, not funny...

jumbled (pointless) thoughts.

I'm having trouble coming up with Christmas gifts for my younger brothers.  They're too old for toys, and too young for "trendy" clothes.  Heaven knows they don't need any candy...

I did, however, have the greatest time coming up with a list for Ben of things I want for Christmas.

I hear peppermint hot chocolate is muy delicioso and I'm dying to try some.

I'm still reading Dracula, but am quickly losing interest seeing as Halloween is long past.  I have this internal battle raging inside of me between looking up the ending on SparkNotes or sticking it out and just finishing it.

We're super excited to go to Colorado for Thanksgiving!  Can't wait to see family, eat some Cafe Rio(!!!), and travel more than 30 minutes away from home.

I'm excited to use my turkey plates when the missionaries come over for dinner in the next two weeks.

Our ward does a Thanksgiving dinner each year.  I swear they have a get together or some kind of party once a month.  Don't worry, we're definitely taking some kind of Utah jello dish.

I got a great new Fall sweater tonight.  Ben is the greatest!

Watching the presidential election is intense!  I love America.  (Did anyone see the guy in the orange tie??  So shocked he wasn't wearing blue or red.)

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