8 things.

Tagged by Necia!

8 T.V shows I love to watch:
The Office
American Idol
One Tree Hill (except I haven't watched it for-ev-er)
Big Brother
Anything on TLC
Iron Chef America
Good Eats
Food Network Challenge
(now if we only had all those channels!)

8 Favorite Restaurants:
Cafe Rio
Cheesecake Factory
McGrath's Fish House
Steve's Steakhouse
Noodles
Olive Garden
Thaifoon
The Pie

8 things that happened yesterday:
Went out to eat Chinese with my family.
Subbed.
Went to Wal-Mart two or three times.  I think three.
Visited with both sets of my grandparents.
Bought a new Charlie and Lola book and eye liner.
Ate at Subway.
Got the mail.
Ate a pumpkin chocolate chip cookie that Dustyn made.

8 things I am looking forward to:
Adopting.
Going to North Carolina.
Going to Minneapolis.
Getting out of debt.
Getting our yard finished.
Thanksgiving.
FSA Conference next year!  :)
Vacation!

8 things I love about fall:
The smell and chill in the air.
Baking.  Lots of baking.
The beautiful changing scenery.
My angels birthday.
Thanksgiving, Christmas and family gatherings.
Our house is the perfect temperature!
I get motivated to accomplish things again.
CamRee's birthday!!  YAY!  Can you believe she will be 7?

8 things on my wish list:
A baby. And then maybe a little brother or sister.
A new HDTV and Satellite. (The Food Network and TLC, etc.)
A new fridge.
A new couch! (for Dustyn) ;)
A new wardrobe.
New holiday decorations/Everyday decorations for my house.
An iPhone that works in this area!
A new pair of sunglasses.

Got leaves?

Or maybe I should say: Got rake?

Suggestions Needed!

Does anyone have any suggestions on a November picture for the title of my blog?? I don't have a scarecrow. I don't want to take a picture of a turkey. I could take leaf pictures... but that seams more October to me... hmm.... I don't know. I just don't have any great ideas. So if anyone does, let me know!

Dustyn and I are going to do a picture a day blog next year if anyone wants to join in. I just want to experiment and learn more about photography. It might help Dustyn have more examples for his photography class... so I think it will be fun. My goal is to make it a whole year! We might do topics, certain compositions, textures, etc. (try out all kinds of different techniques). So we will be starting the first of January if anyone would like to join us! I am super excited! Yay!

Hope everyone has a great weekend! Dustyn and I are working on our Christmas cards! We got 15 finished tonight! Nice! I will have to take a few pictures and post them. They are fun! We make all kinds of different ones... so everyone gets an original Dustyn or Kamie card. It is a lot of work and I have NO idea why we started this tradition, but it is fun!

Time Flies

As I was thinking about the date today, I realized that 4 years ago today, Decker Lake Youth Center called and offered me a job. Of course, I accepted it. My first real job. A state job! That was on a Tuesday.

On Wednesday, my dad took me to Provo. We were looking for a new truck! I mean I had just got a new job... of course I needed a new truck! So we came home with my brand new 2003 Toyota Tacoma. It had 13 miles on it. Being the nice daughter that I am... I let my dad drive half of the way home. While we were doing the financing... a boy called me on my cell phone. I had no idea who it was and didn't recognize the number. So I answered and quickly handed the phone to my dad thinking that it was Jared (JaKell's husband at the time). Well come to find out... it was Dustyn. We had talked at Family Home Evening on Monday and he had FINALLY asked me out. It took him long enough to even notice me at all. But our date was planned for Thursday. He was calling to make sure that things were still on. (really he missed me... he just didn't know it yet).

On Thursday, Dustyn picked me up and we drove up to American Fork to go to the Haunted Forest. Of course he took me to a haunted house.. hmm.... why else do boys take dates to Haunted Houses? It was a great time! And of course his plan worked. When things kept jumping out of me of course I latched on to his arm! I mean what's a girl to do? We drove home hand in hand afraid to let go (ha ha! Don't you love that feeling?) He took me home and kissed me! From there the rest is history!

On Friday, Dustyn and I drove to St, George to attend Matt's football game. Of course HE drove. He put more miles on my truck than I did! I still think he married me for my truck! Ha ha! Well it turned out that we showed up on the wrong day for Matt's game. So we had dinner at Cafe Rio and turned around and came home.

On Saturday and Sunday we hung out all day. The bishop asked me what was up... and I told him that Dustyn just might be the one!! :)

On Monday morning bright and early, I moved to SLC, and started my job at Decker! We talked on the phone every night for 2-3 hours. I came home on the weekends and put about 8,000 miles on my truck in the first three month I had it.

A couple weeks later, we decided to get married. We went ring shopping. I was so nervous. It was so funny. At one point, I just had to sit down and breathe. It was all so fast and crazy, but so right and good!

On November 7th, Dustyn took me up Monrovian Canyon and proposed. It was now official. After working at Decker Lake for 5 weeks or so, I quit and moved back home to be with Dustyn. The people there thought I was crazy... and maybe I am. It was hard to tell them that I was quitting after I just finished training, but it was worth it! I moved home the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. We spent Thanksgiving at Dustyn's mom's house. (She still thinks that we had been dating for months and months. I am not sure if we have convinced her yet...even today).

We were married on January 10, 2004 in the Manti, Utah Temple. It was a day that I will never forget! From there we headed to Jackson Hole. Who goes to Jackson Hole in January? Only crazy people, I guess.

I can't believe it has almost been 4 years. I can't believe that the time has past so quickly. There have been so many great events in the past four years. Here are some of the major life changing ones.

*Our baby Hannah
*Buying a house
*Remodeling our House
*Kamie's Elk Hunt
*Dustyn getting his Master's
*Adoption

But most of all we just love spending time together. It's all the little things that make our life great. All the day to day things and time that we are able to spend together. I love subbing because I get to see him more and we are able to have Lunch together quite often!

This is and will always be a special month to me. Especially this week! Four years ago, it was one of the best weeks of my life. When I finally convinced Dustyn that he loved me!

It's October!!

To celebrate we watched "Monster House" and made Ginger Snaps! Two of my favorites! What a great night!

It's COLD!!

It has been so cold lately! I am glad it's not hot and it's cooling off, but man, oh man. It's cold! I am not ready to turn on the heater yet! So here I sit on a Sunday afternoon in my bed trying to get warm! Brrr...

Whatever happened to Spring and Fall! I bet it will warm up soon though. At least we didn't get snow like the northern part of the state! Ha ha!

Soup is definitely on the menu for dinner!!

One reason I don't look forward to fall...

All the bugs and spiders decide to move in to our house!! Every year our house has lots of stink bugs. This does not excite me at all. I guess I can deal with stink bugs over some other creatures. But today I found the biggest stink bug that I have ever seen! It was crawling down the curtain... I was going to stop and get a picture, but I couldn't risk giving it the opportunity to perfume my house! Yuck! So I got a cup and scooped it up and threw it outside (cup and all) all before he had the opportunity to raise his little behind. Now that was some quick movement!!


But the one bad thing is that I found our first black widow for the year! I hate those!! I think it is time to call someone to come spray our house. Grrr.... I hope they aren't bad this year. Last year we only saw a few, but the year before was bad!!


And I found two earwigs!! YUCK! I HATE EARWIGS!! So nasty! We usually don't have them in our house, so I wasn't too excited to find them on the curtains last night. Dang curtains!!


Guess I better go call someone!! Grrr.... I hope the mice will leave us alone this year!!

Fall Recipes

Here are a few of my favorite cookie/cheesecake recipies for fall!


Pumpkin Cheesecake
1 Graham cracker piecrust
1 12oz. Cream cheese (softened)
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 cup canned pumpkin
2 eggs

Mix cream cheese, sugar and pumpkin pie spice on medium speed. Stir in Pumpkin. Add eggs and mix until blended. Pour into crust.
Bake @ 350° for 40 minutes. Cool. Refrigerate for 3 hours.


The BEST Ginger Snaps
2 c sugar
1 1/2 c melted margarine
1/2 c molasses
2 eggs
4 1/2 c flour
3 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbs cinnamon
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
sugar

In a large bowl beat sugar, margarine, molasses, & eggs until light and fluffy. (takes quite awhile…. Should be caramely in color) Lightly spoon flour into measuring cup and level off. Mix dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Mix well with wet ingredients. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour. Heat oven to 350°. Shape dough in 2 inch balls, and roll in sugar. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8-12 minutes (cook until they start cracking on top), cool 1 minute. Remove immediately. Do not leave on the cookie sheet for more than 1 minute before removing.


Pumpkin Cookies
1/2 c. Unsalted Butter
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 Large Egg
1 c. pumpkin puree
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 1/4 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
(I add dark choc chips)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Cream butter and sugar in a medium bowl. Add egg. Mix in pumpkin and vanilla. Sift flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and spices. Mix into butter mixture. Drop dough by teaspoonfuls onto baking sheets. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Allow cookies to cool for a minute before transferring to wire racks.


*edit* Want something a little healthier? Calamity Jane has a Recipe here that I tried today and it was really really good!! Her blog is great! She has some really good basic principles to help anyone lose weight and change their lifestyles.

Fall!!

I am LOVING this cool weather! It is so nice! We went to FishLake again this weekend and it was as pretty as ever! I love FishLake! It is suppose to snow in the mountains tonight! Yah!! I am so excited!

This has been a good weekend. We are just heading north. We are going to visit Dustyn's mom and maybe go window shopping for fall decor! We'll be back tomorrow! So until then... audios!