Happy Thanksgiving

How was your turkey day? We had a wonderful turkey day and our first one with family since we've been in Arizona. Gabe's parents are down for a week and arrived yesterday. It is fun having them here and they were a GREAT help in cooking the meal. It was very tasty and gabe and i both got some needed tutorials. We have a fun week planned and hope to be going to the grand canyon tomorrow as none of us have seen it before. Gabe and I have drove through the Grand Canyon twice, both in the middle of the night, so we are excited to see it in the day. I hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving!

free is always fun

On Tuesday some friends had a clothes/book swap. You brought whatever clothes you didn't want, need, fit, or just tired of; along with books. There was a huge pile of clothes and many many books to choose from. It was such a fun girls night, I loved it. Plus getting new clothes and books for free! Recycling is great, set one of these up for you and your friends. We decided to do something like this monthly now.

Then gabe and i went to Trader Joe's on Wednesday evening to try one last spot for pie pumpkins that nobody has anymore. While they too didn't have pie pumpkins, they were giving out a free pie for every customer. We got a cranberry walnut tart, which is delicious, because we made a pumpkin pie for dinner.

Too stressed to know how to relax?

Sometimes it stinks having someone know you so well because they know all of your little quirks and faults too. Last night gabe showed me how much of a blessing it really is to have someone know you better than yourself.

I've been really stressed out at work lately with some new projects on my plate and the only other position in children's programs being vacant for a few months now, both causing long days at work. At dinner last night I must have had a glazed over look on my face because gabe kept asking me what I was thinking about or what was wrong. Nothing was wrong I said, but I recognize that I'm pretty stressed out and I wasn't sure what to do to relax.

Gabe gave me a back rub and prepared a bubble bath for me. My muscles relaxed and I entered that mental state of mind where you are aware of everything going on around you and you hear all the sounds but its like you are asleep. It was wonderful, he knew exaclty what I needed when I didn't even have then energy to try and think about it myself. I really love being married to gabe...

simply sensational truffles

I volunteered to bake for our chruch's craft fair this weekend. We just got our Food and Family holiday magazine so flipped through there to decide what to make. I found the prettiest truffles and the receipe was so easy! So I decided to try making truffles for the first time. The making the truffle part was really easy, just two steps really. The decorating is what was a little more meticulous than I expected, but they were worth it. They were SO good! And they looked nice too, I thought.

The different kinds I made

Packaged for the craft fair bake sale

starter, battery, new car?

Lesson learned: when your car doesn't start, check your battery FIRST. We had been using one car for awhile now because gabe's car doesn't pass emissions to be registered in AZ so we decided that we would not put money into fixing it at this point anymore. When you're down to one car and it stops working, life changes fast for a little bit. Public transportation isn't well, the best in the Phoenix metro area and a car is needed.

So its determined that the starter went out in our car. Gabe confers with his dad that its true this is what is wrong and his father says that gabe can pretty easily fix it himself. Great! This would save us towing it to our mechanic who is clear across town about 20 miles. So the process begins. Here are our steps we took when we went into problem solving mode:

1. Rent a car - we needed one to go get all the parts we needed and to get to work in the morning, on my first day of classes.


2. Go to the library to look in the all knowing car manual book (whats it called?) and copy the page that describes in about 5 steps how to change the starter in our car.
3. Buy a coffee so you can get change to copy that page.


4. Go back home and start translating that foreign language of mechanic stuff.


5. turn on your foul language switch and eventually get the starter out after a long while.


6. I book it out of the house to go get the new starter before the store closes in 10 min. and of course come to a train which RARELY happens down here


7. Get there after it closed BUT the door was still open (YESSS!)


8. Buy it and book it home with the new shiny heavy starter.


9. Gabe smiles at me and I exclaim how lucky we are i got in there barely in time. He tells me its not the started; i need a new battery.


10. HUH
11. laugh as i'm sitting there being the assistant, handing tools his way and see the picture below of the message on the flap of the box of the new starter.

Chalk it up to experience! This all heightened our new car search and we ended up buying a new car 5 days later. It was the most expensive battery change I've ever had. humorous in many ways.

It is incredible the kind of car knowledge that Jim carries around in his mind. He was the true mechanic in this whole thing. So we have a new battery and a "new" car, of which we really are enjoying. I've wanted a forester for mmm maybe 7 years now so its exciting. We still haven't taken pictures of her yet though...

Blurry but still funny

Dirty work is almost done...

oh and how i love this one

precious fall family time

We were able to spend some time with our family in Jamestown, ND and Brainerd, MN. We loved being able to be back to experience some more fall weather in the north. We had a blast. We went to a corn maze and pumpkin patch, watched hannah try her hand in pumpkin exploring, helped make kneophla soup, ate some really great food, shared stories and had the BEST night sleep on our entire trip all while we were in ND.

gabe and hannah
Jade, Josh, and Hannah in the corn maze
Kathy, Jim, and Gabe in the corn maze
(before we got lost and had gabe cheat so we could figure it out)
Hannah digging in, with some help from dad
Getting ready to walk!

In MN we went to the park, walked through fallen leaves, played many board games, had a wonderful family dinner, stayed up late talking, and celebrating Ryan and Jackie's marriage. It is always fun to be around family and play with all the girls.

The five girls loving the merry-go-round

Mari who would get the biggest smile going down this slide
I LOVE this fall picture!

Ryan and Jackie had a beautiful wedding. It was a sun shiny day with a little breeze, which made for some gorgeous pictures. We got to see a lot of people we haven't seen in awhile and of course danced the night away. (We were both in the wedding so weren't able to get many pictures).

The happy couple
Jackie and the girls
Ryan and Jewel

Our 1st year of marriage

...has been blissful. Gabe never disappoints that is for sure! He surprised me for our anniversary with a stay at the beautiful Brown Palace in downtown Denver. I was in awe just standing in the lobby. You looked straight up and to see a magnificent stained glass ceiling. The place was ornate and felt like we were on the Titanic minus the being on a boat. That night we went out to Osteria Marco, an Italian restaurant. It was the BEST cheese and food I've had. Seriously. Amazing in house cheeses that we dream about. We got back to the hotel and there was a rose petal turn down and woke up to an amazing room service breakfast. It was a euphoric day for us and are so happy to be married to one another.

the brown palace

The room dividers were wine racks, very fun!