Our busy week is almost over, what a huge relief. I can't site exactly why, but I'm crazy excited to see October finished and November beginning. That being said, I'm definately loving the fall weather. It's just so beautiful!

This week I decided I need some nice warm, fall food. Wednesday I made some beef stew in a crock pot, and oh man was it delicious (the left-overs didn't last long). Then on Saturday I made some pumpkin bread (thanks Renee!), and today I made arroz con pollo. Ok, so maybe the arroz con pollo isn't really a "fall dish" per say, but I ate it a bunch while visiting the Pratts my last semester at SFA in Nacogdoches (which happened to be fall semester), so... by association it's totally a fall meal.

While I do enjoy cooking, I'm not usually on such a big cooking kick (my favorite weeknight meal is throwing some chicken on our beloved foreman grill, making instant rice and a salad and wa-lah! a meal is born), but I hope it continues. During school, especially since I tend to have evening classes, it becomes difficult to cook more extravagantly during the week. I hope that when I'm finished with school I'll be able to be a more consistent cook. Jordan like to enourage this line of thought...

Another fun thing that happened this week was Jordan's mom was in town! It was just a brief stop-over betwen a family reunion and flying out of Salt Lake, but we enjoyed it none-the-less. She stayed over Sunday night and then between classes on Monday took us out to lunch at Red Lobster before she had to catch her flight. It was so nice to see her and we really did have fun teasing our waiter Phil (Kait had a bit of a crush...)

Ah. The TCU game. I will just say a few grief-ridden words: Oh, thou BYU Football Team, why hast thou forsaken us? For Homecoming? 7-38? And how could it be that your only two losses have been home games? Witnessing the losses personally is like putting salt on a wound... (sub-question: why do we blow out our away games and get killed at our hoome games? Bronco's plan for success next year: 12 away games).

(I snuck out of the opera for about an hour to watch is last night. When I got back I let people know about the score and one chorus girl said: "I'm glad I'm at the opera tonight because at least in opera we ALWAYS win!")

The job search has truly begun in earnest for Jordan, and he's doing really well. He had his first interview a week ago or so with Mercer, an actuary consulting firm with branches all across the US. Jordan said the interview went really well and we're waiting to hear back from them in a couple of weeks. They asked Jordan what his top three locations are and he said #1- Hartford, #2- Kansas City and #3- Philadelphia. Cross your fingers everyone!

So, other than that, I've been reading memoires that include cute, funny animals (it's a weird reading trend, I know...). I just finished Marley and Me (I cried and cried and cried... and when I tried not to cry my throat hurt), and before that I read a book called An Owl and His Girl, which was also sad (animal memoirs are always sad because the animal ALWAYS dies at the end... you'd think I'd spare myself and find happier reading material), but really it was just interesting to read about barn owls. I recommend both if you're looking for easy reads but emotionally fulfilling material. Anyone have any other book suggestions (you don't have to suggest animal memoirs...)?

Anywho, the opera's over and Homecoming Spectacular is over, we're going to see the King Singers on Wednesday (yay!), Thanksgiving is coming, and we have high hopes for snow to make an appearance soon. Jordan's still upset every morning when he looks out to see white cars and he suddenly realizes that the cars are actually white, not covered in snow...

P.S. Did anyone else realizes you can't write your blog in a word document and copy it onto the blogger? That was real annoying...

The Beginning...

I have been considering starting a blog for months now. At first, everytime I brought it up Jordan made fun of me. Recently, however, he has warmed considerable to the idea and the only thing standing in my way was me. I seem to think that by starting a blog I am making an assumption that people actually care and WANT to read about what happens in my relatively boring life. For some reason, that assumption really held me back, which is strange because I LOVE to read the blogs of others, and I do care and want to read about other people's lives.

Anywho, after reading the October 2009 Ensign article that encouraged church members to blog about the gospel in their lives, I was finally convinced. Plus, I don't call my mother enough, I'm sure she'll be appreciative (Love you Mom!).

Jordan and I have a CRAZY busy week ahead of us. Jordan's a Tenor II in BYU Men's Chorus (he's so CUTE in his suit) and this week is all about Homecoming Spectacular. They're singing the great medly of Gilbert and Sullivan songs (well, he tells me it's a great medly, I haven't heard it yet) with tons of stuff from Pirates of Penzance, including some choralography (aka Hoopla) where they do that hilarious policeman strait-legged walk. Jordan's given me a lovely preview, which was most entertaining (if ONE man is so funny doing the strait-legged walk, think about 130 men doing the strait-legged walk! Comedy gold, people...).

While Jordan is singing in Homecoming Spectacular, I'm still trudging through this opera. I'm on campus from 5:30-10:30pm three nights this week, for a whole 5 minutes of singing and 40 minutes sitting on stage reading a book behind a screen (let me explain: I have to sit on stage for the whole third act, hidden behind a curtain until it's my turn to stand up, reveal myself, sing, and then close the screen and hide until the Act is over. My director suggested I bring a book).

We're doing Tales of Hoffman (Le contes de Hoffman) by Offenbach. It's not my FAVORITE opera in the world: the plot is a little muddled (I'm still trying to figure out why the female character in Act II dies...) but the music is utterly breath-taking. I play the voice of Antonia's (dead) mother (I will get pictures of my fanstasically scary costume up soon), and I am in only one scene in Act III, but I'm pretty sure I sing the most beautiful melody out of the entire opera.
Other than that, Provo is looking just lovely for Fall. I love to look west down our street and see the yellow trees in the sunlight. Next Sunday we plan on taking a drive up the canyon to see more fall colors. Jordan's anxious for the snow, I'm pretty sure every morning he wakes up disappointed. In conclusion, busy, but beautiful week ahead of us!