The weather outside was frightful...

Like Ben said, we had some very wintery weather last weekend which was perfect because we had some things to get done inside the house, like cleaning :).  We also have spent a good amount of time Christmasing!

The decorations are up!

I realized I don't have as many Christmas decorations as I thought, but I love the ones I do have!  We opted for a fake tree this year, but in the future you can count on a real tree we cut by ourselves (or at least pick out of a tree lot).

We have enjoyed lots of delicious treats!

Homemade Toffee and Candy Cane Divinity

The Relief Society has a cooking group and December's activity was a cookie exchange.  It was okay and my cookies were awesome (shortbread with chocolate drizzles and candy cane sprinkles), but it was a little bit of a let down to come home with plain old chocolate chip cookies and plain oatmeal cookies.  Oh well!  We also have been eating super awesome dinners, which might end up in a future blog (recipes included).

Christmas crafts have overflowed my craft desk!

A super cute ruffled shirt and some paper ornaments

I finished off two projects on Saturday (can't put some pictures up quite yet), and have worked on some ornaments that we did as the traditional Thanksgiving craft.  Though I haven't gotten Christmas cards or stockings made, I feel good that I was able to manage the things I did get done.

And, lastly, I spent a few days sick in bed.  It was miserable, but I got over it by Monday to go back to work and then got a cold that Tuesday.  Hopefully, that's it for the season :)

We hope you've been enjoying the Christmas time as much as we have!

SNOW!!!

Yesterday and today the State of MN told everyone to stay home because of an alien invasion!

Just kidding! Actually it was because of all the SNOW!!

In less than 24 hours we got about 16 inches of snow, and several feet of drifts. The winds are still whipping stuff around, and the high today was only 8 degrees Fahrenheit. . . . the low tonight will be -10 !

With the snow and extreme cold and wind-chills, they cancelled church and about everything else these last two days (including exams yesterday!).

So what did Joanna and I do at home this whole time?? Wrap presents, clean the house, cook Parmesan Patties and Pasta Gardena, and black bean and cheese enchiladas, and toffee, and Divinity, and watch church films, and other movies, and listen to the radio, and make Christmas cards, etc. etc. . .

Here is Ben wrapping like Tupac.

Here is Joanna wrapping like Willow Smith.

(Notice how she's whipping her hair back and forth. . . )

We got a little bit of cabin-fever today, so around noon we ventured outside to take a look at the snow. Here are some pictures!

Joanna coming out of our apartment . . . into the valley of snow.

Joanna showing us how the snow is almost up to that mailbox. There is a walk-way under there somewhere.

We were going to walk on the sidewalk, but all we found was about 30 inches of snow and a plowed road with cars pretending to drive on it (they were actually sliding. . . ).

 

Here I am showing the snow height. It comes up to my waist, so that means this drift was about 46 feet high.

Here is Joanna in the fields by our house. She and the snow are pretty! . . .Pretty COLD!

(Actually, we were very warm by this time.)

Me standing in the same field - with snow up to my knees.

Our tracks in the snow. Can you tell whose tracks are whose?

Joanna making a snow angel!! It wasn't that hard for her to be angelic!

There was sooo much snooow that the roof of the Metrodome (where the Vikings play) collapsed! There was so much snow that it came about 1/4 the way up our windows!! That's a lot of snow!!

Our bedroom window - with snow banging on the window trying to get in.

Don't worry, Joanna and I were nice and warm in our several layers. . . .

Here are our layers taking a break and being lazy on the floor.

Well, back to studying!

- Ben

Santa Ben

The other day we talked to Afton for a little bit.  Santa Ben made a visit to the web cam and talked to Afton a little bit.  When asked what she wanted, Afton said toys!  Santa ben also asked if Afton had been a good girl this year.  She simply said, "No."  We all had a laugh and Tracy said that she was at least being honest.

I love this time of year!  Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving

I am very excited for Thanksgiving!  All my memories of Thanksgivings have been fun as I've celebrated with family and friends at home and far away from home.

All the Thanksgivings growing up with the Clarks set the standard for what Thanksgiving should be: family gathered together with good food, lots of pie, playing games, and doing crafts.

In college, I got to experience Thanksgivings with extended family.  While it was a little different from my Thanksgivings growing up, it was still the same holiday with good food and family.

On my mission, I thought it would be hard to celebrate the holidays away from family, but we were welcomed into our dear friends' homes.  The food might have been better (because any meal someone feeds you as a missionary is good), and there may have been more gratitude in the air as I spent days sharing the Gospel with those who didn't have the blessings of it in their life.

Last year marked the beginning of all my future Thanksgivings.  Dad invited Ben over to run the Scoresby Scamper (conveniently held over Thanksgiving).  It was then that I think we both realized that we were pretty serious about each other.  For our official first Thanksgiving we are visiting Grandma.  Next year, we'll be grateful that law school is almost over.  And in years to come, we'll have children and start incorporating our own traditions into the Thanksgiving season.

I'm grateful for this time of year and the time we have to reflect on the things that are the most important to us.

Terms of Endearment

Joanna and I have the best nick-names for each other!

Confession

There will be no homemade Christmas cards this year.  I couldn't find the right color paper, and now there isn't enough time to get them all done.

Gobble, Gobble

They don't realize Thanksgiving is only three weeks away.

 

And, clearly they don't care either because they stared at me while I was trying to sew and freaked me out when I looked up and saw them right there at the window.  I had to scare them away in order to get outside the building just to go to work.

But, the weather was awesome today.  60 degrees and sunny in November?  You'd think we live in Arizona:)

Halloween!!

Hello!

Joanna and I had loads of fun eating TONS of peanutbuttery-chocolatey delicious candy and watching the first Harry Potter movie as our festivities for Halloween!

We had one trick-or-treater (Lauren). 

We also went to the ward's Halloween Party, which was . . . OK. 

Actually, the highlite of the night was when I found out that I was NOT ALONE in the universe! There are other alien lifeforms that worship Star Trek!! (That is the Elder's Quorum Pres. and his wife! LOL!) 

I took off all my human disguise that I normally wear, and it was nice to be my real self again - a Vulcan science officer on a starship. This year I even had a phaser. . . . needless to say, the Klingons left us alone.

My lovely wife, Joanna, wanted to hide her shame of having such a husband, so she went as an FBI agent - in hat, trenchcoat, and huge sunglasses. . . . . but still people recognized her! I'm sure people thought she was working on an X-File when they saw us together! . . .

In other news, Jimmy (Joanna's little Chevy Metro with 168K miles) got new tires, lube, fluids, and exhaust system, and now runs like a dream! We're hoping it lasts until we can afford a newer car. . . and when we have the need for extra space. 

In more other news, Joanna got a new hair style.   :)

In yet other news, in the recent windy storms, the back fence of our apartment complex blew over, and there are 3 trees leaning heavily on a power line. I do not think the power line will last much longer, and it presents a hazard to parking in the rear. . . .

In final news, Sing-a-ma-jigs are awesome.

Live long and prosper.

- Ben

The night the lights went out

Last night we had quite an adventure.  I haven't been feeling very well (achy, cough/cold, sore back, tired, etc) lately and was having a really hard time falling asleep last night.  Ben suggested I soak in a hot bath, so I got up and went into the bathroom.  It was a very nice HOT shower, and felt great.  I was sure I'd be able to fall asleep.  Before I left the bathroom, I turned the fan off then did a final check on my zits.  As I was walking out of the bathroom, I flipped the switch to turn the light off, took two steps into the hall towards the bedroom and had the biggest scare of my life.  There was a sudden burst of light and a loud electric frying sound.  I WAS SO SHOCKED! It was pitch dark in the apartment (because it was about 1:30 am), and I had no idea what had happened. Luckily, Ben was still awake and he immediately came to my rescue when I yelled for him.  Ben checked the circuit breaker, and sure enough, when he flipped the circuit the same flash of light and frying sound happened again.  Both bathrooms, the living room (minus the outlet the TV is hooked up to), the entry way, and the kitchen are all on that circuit, so we had a dark apartment until this morning.

Here is what happened:  During my shower there was some water condensation build-up above the light switch.  As I turned the light off, some of the water dripped down the switch and behind the face plate.  It built up in the box and once it reached the electric parts, it sizzled and created the awesome fireworks show.  The box had a hole burnt through the metal. Yes, right through the metal!

Luckily, Ben had a spare, non-burnt, new light switch and put it in first thing this morning.

Our apartment is still safe to stay in.  Visitors are still welcome  :)

Fall Break

Ben had his fall break this week, and since I was working both Thursday and Friday we spent some time together today on a mini-break visiting some fun things here in St. Paul.  We went to the Capitol Building and had a fun tour, walked along the Capitol Mall, and visited the Minnesota History Center.  We did lots of walking, but it was a fun filled day.

Inside the State Capitol

 

The Minnesota History Center

He knew

Ben knew he recognized a certain species when he first met the family.

 

The resemblance is uncanny.

A customer came into the bank the other day and shared this poem by Emily Dickinson.

The morns are meeker that they were.
The nuts are getting brown;
The berry's cheek is plumper.
The rose is out of town.

The maple wears a gayer scarf,
The field a scarlet gown.
Lest I should be old-fashioned,
I'll put a trinket on.

This morning Ben's 9:00 class was cancelled. He was finishing up studying for an exam. Since today is my late day at work, I took time to make us breakfast, and boy, was it good! We had some extra pumpkin leftover from a pumpkin spice cake I made last week, so I searched for a pumpkin scone recipe and found the perfect one. Ben kept raving about the scones all during breakfast.

Pumpkin Spice Scones
2 C. all purpose flour
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. ground cinnamon
1/2 t. ground nutmeg
1/4 t. ground allspice
1/4 t. ground ginger
6 T. unsalted butter
1/2 C. raisins (optional)
1/3 C. pumpkin puree
1/3 C. heavy cream
6 T. brown sugar
1 t. vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

2. Mix the dry ingredients together and cut in the butter.

3. Mix together the pumpkin, cream, raisins, brown sugar, and vanilla, then pour into dry ingredients and mix. I used my hands to get it all mixed together at the end.

4. Pat into a circle about 1 inch thick. Cut into eighths (like a pie). Put on baking sheet. Bake for 13 minutes.

I didn't make any icing for them, but we had cream cheese frosting (also a leftover from the pumpkin spice cake), and Ben really enjoyed it with the frosting. I also used plain milk instead of the cream and they turned out just fine. I can't wait to eat the leftovers for breakfast tomorrow . . .

Fall

Well, it is definitely fall time. The leaves are changing colors. The days are getting shorter. There is a chill in the air, well, if you are out late, maybe. The weather has been strange and thinks it needs to be in the 80s, but I'm much happier about it being 80 then snowing like it did a year ago at this time. Last night we ran around Lake Como and enjoyed the changing fall colors and listen to the ducks quack as the fly south.

We haven't really been up to too much lately. Ben has been studying extra hard with several mid-terms coming up. He turned the first one in yesterday, and is studying away for one on Monday. Lucky for him, haveing mid-terms means that the finals won't be as inclusive as last year meaning Ben doesn't have to keep four months of information in his head. He has also been meeting with all of his clubs and organizations and even crafted a poster for a fundraiser the SBA does each year.

I keep working at Bank of the Lakes. All the drama of the summer still continues. I try and let it all pass by, but occasionally it is too much to handle and I come home driven crazy by my coworkers. One thing that keeps me sane is knowing that one day I'll be gone from the bank and enjoying long days with our kiddos.

We've enjoyed following the Twins as they try to make it to the World Series. Unfortunately, we've been disappointed with their last two performances. Hopefully, they are just waiting to stun the Yankees in New York. We also enjoyed a night at the temple, especially since it has been closed and we've hadn't been in over a month.

Now that we have our own place, I've enjoyed being domestic and decorating our home. I've also had lots of time to do some crafty things, even though the latest project isn't working out so well . . . I'd love to have these hanging on our front door for Halloween, but we'll have to see if I can make it around to these fun candy corn.

We are slowly getting more comfortable in our ward. We helped clean the church last Saturday, Ben was asked to speak in Sacrament meeting in a few weeks, and the Bishop has promised that callings are on their way. It would be pretty sweet if we got to pass the hymn books out each Sunday! We even have been visited by both our hometeachers and my visiting teachers.

We are excited for the upcoming holidays and can't wait to enjoy the rest of our fall!

Popovers: FAIL

Clearly I can't make one of Mom's best recipes.

Domesticity

We've had a very productive month on the domestic front. Here are a few of our projects.

Cards and some Halloween decor.

TheFamily: A Proclamation to the World

Ben made some homemade pasta sauce.

It was delicious on our chicken/eggplant parmeasan.

And, he canned some peppers that Andy would be proud of.

The Bens

This is the Ben I married.


This is the Ben who is my brother.

They have many similarities:
-names
-second oldest
-relative size (though Ben J. is a few inches taller and possibly a few pounds lighter)
-fascinations with bodily functions
-like to sing Yo Gabba Gabba songs
-deep obsession (Ben J has Star trek, Ben S has BYU football)
-crazy inventions (can't tell you because you might steal the idea)
-the rabble rouser of the family
-like to play basketball
-like to throw their weight around while playing basketball
-cheat at games

When I first started dating Ben, it was hard to keep track of which Ben we'd be talking about when I was talking to family members. Ben J first met Ben S when Lauren was blessed last November and by the time that Thanksgiving had rolled around, Ben J knew he had been accepted by Ben S because of the "good to see you again" spank Ben S gave Ben J. Ever since then, the two have enjoyed countless hours of time goofing off together. They are like little boys.

Ben J and Ben S are so similar. It's almost like they are the same person. And if they are the same person this is what they would look like:

Kind of creepy. I don't know if I'd like waking up to this face every morning...

Get up. Go to work. Come home. Go to bed. Get up. Go to work. Come home. Go to bed. Get up. Go to work. Come home. Go to bed. Get up. Go to work. Come home. Go to bed.

That pretty much sums up what's been going on here lately.

We did enjoy a visit from Mom and Dad this weekend and listening to Rob report on his mission. other than that, things are pretty much still the same old routine.

Get up. Go to work. Come home. Go to bed. Get up. Go to work. Come home. Go to bed.

State Fair Pictures