¡Fiesta!

I hosted a Spanish Dinner Party last night at our apartment with friends from my mission.  When I was in Barrio 8 for so long, it was impossible not to become the best of friends with Amanda Schiffler, Michael Karren, and Robbie Rich.  Plus, our district included Courtney Ball, Naomi Bell and Scott Dunn. I have other great friends from the mission, but this is the group that we love to get together because we always have fun. We had a party last summer at Michael's house and it was so great that we had to do another one.  The food was great, Michael and Robbie made Paella,  I made Tortillas Españolas, Amanda and Jake made Churros and Hot Chocolate, and Courtney brought Chuches!  It doesn't get more Spanish than that! And, our little district is definitely expanding, me being the first to get married, then Scott, then Amanda.  Plus Robbie invited his girlfriend Talya last night and we had some missionaries from other areas come as well. I think this is fast turning into one of my favorite traditions.

Philip Brown, Courtney, Naomi and Amanda

Scott, Michael and Amanda's hubby Jake

Robbie and girlfriend Talya

Amanda and Jake

It's great to have time to write again. The past month has been just too busy. I realized that pretty quickly when I decided to give Mary Kay a try. It added just one more thing to my already hectic-but-doable life, knocking everything out of balance and making me a little crazy. I guess I'll talk about that first then. I have enjoyed learning about Mary Kay, having my own business, and conducting parties. And, its true, there is money to be made. It's a great product that pretty much sells itself if you get it in front of the right people. Its flexible while I am in school and I think it will be a fun way to make some extra income and help pay the bills. But, I don't know that I am going to be turning it into my full time job anytime soon. 

Phil is busy applying to Grad School and more than anything I just want to know where we are going to be next fall. There is a good chance we will be staying right here in Salt Lake as he has applied to both the U and Westminster. I would be fine with that. I like the area and LOVE our Ward and would be happy to stay a few years longer. He also applied to Thunderbird (a university focused on International Business) in Arizona and to the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. I of course would not mind returning to my home soil :). 

I have two more semesters until I graduate! I officially finished my classes for Fall semester yesterday and am so looking forward to some time off before Spring semester starts. Though, I am looking forward to the classes I will be taking next semester. I will be taking Intro to Finance/Investments, International Communications, Spanish Literature, and Age of Total War (all about communism, fascism, and WWII-a time and topics that have always been interesting to me, especially since my time living in Russia). I already ordered a bunch of my textbooks, none of which were too expensive this time, except for my Finance book. The cheapest I can find it is $130 USED on Amazon! I still have plenty of time to get it so I am going to wait and see if I can find a better deal. 

Phil and I will be flying down to New Mexico next week. I am going a few days before him (he didn't want to take too much time off work) and then we will both be there until New Year's Eve. I can't wait to see my family and spend time with them. My mom and I are already planning the fun crafts and activities we are going to do while we are down there, and it will just be nice to be home for Christmas.

Well, I sure unloaded a lot of information for one post, but I felt like I needed to do a little catching up, so it felt good to get it all out. I'm looking forward to more time and more posting soon.

Paperback Pumpkins

I am so excited about my newest project.  I got the idea from a blog for the Book Garden, a cute little bookstore in Bountiful that I stop by every now and then. 

The example in the tutorial used Shakespeare's "Macbeth", which seemed very appropriate for Halloween, so I headed off to the D.I. hoping to find a copy of it as well, or at least, I thought, The Witches by Roald Dahl.  I just didn't think my pumpkin would be the same if I used Confessions of a Shopaholic. 

I looked through all the books and even though I couldn't find "Macbeth" or The Witches, I came home with "The Tempest" and Goosebumps.  Halloweeny enough right?

I just love them! They are so cute, and even though I felt a little bad at first about cutting into a book (don't worry Dad, they weren't valuable copies!) I couldn't be happier with how they turned out.

Find the tutorial here.