my favorite Christmas song

BOSTON

Brandan and I booked a trip to Boston!! we are going in January. Brandan will be taking a certification class for Final Cut Pro through Apple. Ethan and Laura live there too so we get to hang out with them! I can't wait!

flat tire

i got a flat tire on my car last week. if you look closely you can see the screw sticking out of the side of the tire, it's at about 11:00. the weirdest part about it was that the screw was poking through from inside the tire and it was on the side so i'm not sure how it got in there. anyways i was kind of helpless and Brandan came out and helped me with it. we had to get 2 new tires at les schwab. it was a bummer. but my car was about due for them anyways so it's ok.

Sun Valley

we went up to Sun Valley last weekend with Brandan's family. Ryan had rented a condo for his Christmas present to the fam up there, and they ended up upgrading us to a cottage instead. it was pretty cool, and no one wanted to leave the place so we ended up pretty much spending the whole time hanging out in the cottage. i would really recommend it, we had a lot of fun.
Brandan and I outside the cottage

the family at dinner

getting in from the hot tub

all of us in the hot tub

brandan, curtis and i did snow angels while hot tubbing. when they were still well intact the next morning, i thought i'd take a pic. from left to right, brandan's, curtis's, mine. it was soooo cold!

early Christmas surprise!!

when i got home from work yesterday, there was a package waiting on the counter, hand addressed to me and Brandan. i wasn't sure what it was until i saw the name of the sender: CLAY. it had to be my Christmas tree star! the one i dreamed up the week before and wondered if he would be up for making such a project. he was, and only a few days later, here it was. waiting for me. i opened it immediately and this is what i found.

isn't it so cool? this is it head on, i love it.

this is from an angle so you can see the 3D aspect of it.


and this is on the tree. i got the tree out as soon as i opened the package and was too excited to stop and decorate it before taking the picture. we have a really small tree so it looks big in this picture but i think it is absolutely perfect, and we'll get a bigger tree someday anyways.


thanks Clay! i LOVE it!!!!!!!

First Snow

1st week

i finished out my first week as a decorator at RC Willey yesterday. all in all it was a good week. everyone in my department is really cool and seem to be patient while i figure out what i'm doing. i think the hardest part is getting an idea of how to decorate something, and keeping the "creative juices" running all day. usually by afternoon i am a little burned out. i hear it gets easier as you go though.
other than that it was a pretty uneventful week. this upcoming week is also looking pretty normal except we are going up to Sun Valley this weekend with Brandan's family. that should be a lot of fun. and a couple of birthdays in my family. happy birthday Clay and Anthony! Brandan also has finals the following week so he will probably be studying a lot.
i have been working on some Christmas gifts too and other projects. most of them are surprises so i can't post any pics or anything but i will probably put some up after the fact. we still haven't decorated our house for Christmas. hopefully we will get that done this week too.

goodbye sales, hello display

yesterday was my last day as a salesperson at rc willey.  i decided it wasn't really my thing and applied for an in-house transfer to the display department.  i am going to be a decorator now.  i am pretty excited considering i no longer have to walk around bored all day on the sales floor and i won't have the stress or fluctuation of an all-commission sales job.
on a different note, brandan and i went and saw twilight last night. i thought it was good overall but super cheesy. i don't know what i was expecting, though. i guess all in all i liked the book better.
brandan and i spent thanksgiving with his family. it was a really good meal and a fun time with everyone. i made the rolls again and a blueberry pie. i didn't get any pics of the event so this is kind of a boring post. **Thanks Hailey for the picture tip!

thanksgiving with the hawkley's and las vegas

we had thanksgiving early this year at my mom's house since she's going to be in texas on thanksgiving. it was super good food and lots of fun, as always.
brandan is in las vegas for the rest of the week working. he is staying at the bellagio. this is the picture he sent of the hotel last night.

Strike!!!!!

Janette's approach!

Janette Bowling

pumpkins and halloween

Brandan and I carved pumpkins at Anthony and Candice's earlier this week. I think they all turned out really good. The boys carved theirs on Tuesday and Candice and I carved ours on Thursday which explains the 2 pictures. Brandan's is the one with the ghost coming out of it, Anthony's is the one with drill holes all over it, in the other picture mine is on the left and Candice's is on the right. Sadie also got to paint a pumpkin which I don't have a picture of but she was really cute. Anthony also busted out the cocoamotion Thursday night which officially kicked off hot cocoa season for me. I highly recommend the cocoamotion too, it makes the best cocoa ever.
(ps I stole the pics from the Family blog, thanks Candice!)

#3

#2

Leo Kottke in Boise ID Egyptian Theater 10.16.08

does anyone else think these 2 concepts should be combined?

the crafty side

on the way to seattle, i knitted these hand warmers. see them being modeled about 5 posts ago on top of the space needle. i also am wearing them in the next picture but you can't see them well.

i also found this cute quilting store and got some fabrics for a project i am working on.

we drove back late Monday night and it rained almost all the way home. that's about all.

space needle + pike's market in 9 words

top

bottom

they throw fish

great doughnuts

clam chowder

seattle morning

we stayed at Joe and Jessica's house. they were very kind to let us crash there while they were unfortunately out of town in california, so we didn't get to see them. but their house was so cute and cozy, we really appreciated the awesome accommodations.

we ate breakfast here.

cocoa, crepe, coffee cake

cookie, yes, for breakfast.

this park was right up the street from their house. it had an awesome view of the downtown skyline but it was a very foggy morning so it doesn't look that good in the picture, but you get the idea.

the journey to seattle

Brandan got off work at 3 on friday afternoon. he got home and we finished packing up the truck and left for seattle around 5. we hit Ontario right on time for dinner and decided to try Brewsky's Broiler and their beer-battered fries as recommended by Brandan's dad. it didn't disappoint, it was delish. since i am obsessed with taking pictures of my food, here's a couple. i got the pulled pork sandwich and Brandan got the taco salad.


we hit the road again and for some reason, didn't stop again until Kennewick...we seriously almost ran out of gas.

see? his truck only has a 12 gallon tank and we filled up 11.86.

we had good weather most of the way there and Brandan got sleepy about an hour out so i took over the wheel. he fell asleep and it started raining a little, no biggie. then it started raining a lot, kind of scary, but there were only a couple other cars on the road so not too bad. then there was fog like you wouldn't believe, i couldn't see a thing. i tried to play it cool, but before i knew it i had to wake brandan up so he could help me navigate. i ended up taking the next exit and making him drive again. anyways we ended up making it there safe and sound around 1 am.

Jeff wearing his fancy bib and eatin crab

Jeff drove us to Chandler's seafood in Seattle. It was so good. Jeff
got some crab legs. Janette got a lobster tail. I got the king crab
legs. It was a fun night out. Thanks Jeff

Fancy dinner and it was so good!

Janette and I treated Jeff to a wonderful dinner. It was fun to get
caught up with Jeff again.

Janette modeling her new hand warmers

At the top of the Space Needle

Janette in front of the Space Needle

We had a lot of fun in Seattle!

we are going to seattle next weekend!!!

kahootz

Brandan and I went out to a steakhouse in Meridian the other night called Kahootz. It was probably some of the best steak I have ever had and it wasn't too expensive either-for steak that is. It was about $20 per plate. I got the prime rib and Brandan got the top sirloin, I would recommend both. If you ever go there, save room and order the bread pudding too. It is enough for at least 4-6 to eat but it is good as leftovers too. Anyways it was super good. I give the place 5 stars and/or 2 thumbs up.
Other than that not too much has been going on. We went over to Anthony and Candice's this morning for brunch and to watch the morning session of conference. I made my cinnamon rolls and took them over and they had prepared some hashbrown casserole. It was super good. Their kids are cute. I even got Lauren to laugh a little.
I also realized that Christmas is less than 3 months away and I already have some great ideas for gifts this year. I wish I could post about them but it's a secret...I might be done shopping by Halloween though. That would be a first.

corn chowder

on Sunday I made a corn chowder. it was really good I thought and will definitely be one I repeat in the future. for the recipe, go to www.anotherhelping.blogspot.com

Can you spot Brandan and Janette in this picture?

Brandan and I went to the RC Willey Picnic tonight. It was lots of fun, hung out with some work people, and I won a $100 gas card to Chevron, which is awesome. I made some rainbow chip cupcakes for the event and I saw a lot of people eating them, we also didn't go home with any leftovers which I always take as a small compliment. I hate going to a potluck and the dish you take is untouched. Like everyone walking by is seeing something better than what you made...so just a bit of wisdom: you can't go wrong at a potluck with rainbow chip cupcakes.