Lake Powell!

Well my first trip to Lake Powell was a success. I didn't really know what to expect, since I've heard people talk about how awesome this place is for about 10 years, and it seems like everyone but me has vacationed on a houseboat. But lots of other people also think Twilight and Avatar are awesome, and I'd beg to differ. ANYWAYS, houseboats ARE awesome, and Lake Powell was a ton of fun. Paul and Mary (Matt's aunt and uncle) were incredibly nice to invite us and feed us and play with us there! They are such cool people. Even though it was just a 4 day trip, it feels like it was much longer. We rode jet skiis (all day every day) read in the sunshine, played in the red sand, swam (and bathed) in the lake, napped on rafts, looked at the unbelievable stars and planets, hiked to see indian ruins, and other lake activities.

And we also went spelunking in that cool cave!

Another neat thing I witnessed for the first time was cooking a turkey in the ground! We (Matt and his cousin) dug a deep hole in the sand, lined it with big rocks, burned a lot of wood down to ashes and coals until the rocks were glowing hot, then placed the foil covered turkey in there, covered it with rocks and sand, and let it bake for 6 hours. It was delicious!  

This is the turkey being raised from the hole!

I love vacations. Taking vacations is more important than... not taking vacations.

October is looking good so far.

Okay so I have come to the terms with the fact that fall has arrived, especially because it stayed warm and sunny for SO LONG. Our last day of sunshine was on Saturday, so we wanted to get out and do a morning hike before the first session of conference. We ended up taking a different trail than what we had planned on and we had no idea how long it would take or where it would lead us.

The mountains are so beautiful right now! And speaking of beautiful mountains, I got a pretty cool mountain of a spider bite right in the middle of my forehead!

Conference weekend was great. Aside from the talks, we also enjoyed not getting dressed for 2 days, relaxing on the couch, eating bacon, rice krispies treats, chips, no bake cookies, and lots of other healthy foods. Seriously disgusting. To make up for that we've had salad for the last 3 days. But sometimes the salad has bacon. It's hard to get full on spinach.

 But one more note about the junk food. We got these super delicious "rice and bean" chips from Costco (made by Boulder Canyon) and I am addicted. In fact, I am going to grab a handful right now. Good thing I remembered where I hid them from myself!


We are getting ready to leave for Lake Powell tonight! We're going with some of Matt's extended family and I can't wait! I've never been. We're leaving just in time to escape the rain and thunderstorms. So, even though I don't normally like October and the coldness and scary holiday it brings with it, I am so excited for our trip this weekend and another one coming up in a couple weeks!

Top Ten Reasons to Finish my Thesis and Graduate:

1) No more driving down to Provo. This will save roughly $1676 a year. Not to mention the probability that I will die in a car accident will decrease by 78%.
2)My family will come to visit. We'll all go out to dinner. I'm thinking Market Street Grill? I'll probably order the Alaskan halibut.
3) I will no longer have to answer the question "When are you going to graduate?"
4)When people ask me what my thesis is about, I won't have to bore them with the theoretical mumbo jumbo of ontological assumptions of the good life in psychotherapy. I'll just say I forgot.
5) I can get a FULL TIME JOB! One job, one location, one commute, one staggeringly large salary...
6) Maybe I'll want to have a baby one day. And maybe it will be a girl. And maybe I'll have to buy her cute baby dresses and decorate a nursery and play with her when she's born.
7) I can begin stories by saying, "Ah yes, back when I was doing my graduate work..."
8)I'll ask to be referred to as Master Emily Morris. Then maybe I'll become a ringleader in a circus.
9)I won't use my degree in my career, and then I'll write an exposé on the futility of graduate education.
10) Elizabeth said she'll buy me a present.


My thesis is temporarily consuming my life, I'll do a real post about what we're up to sometime soon!

It happened....

September came despite all my best efforts to delay its arrival. On the plus side, I am looking forward to new fall clothes, and Matt is anxiously awaiting football season. It is still in the 80s during the day, but the nights have been a lot colder. So, as a nod to the crisp evening weather, we had Apple Cider Chicken Curry Soup for dinner.

Very easy to make and it's one of our favorites. Here's the recipe...
Cook boneless chicken breasts or  tenders (about a pound?) in a deep skillet with about a half cup of apple cider on medium heat, covered. While the chicken is cooking, cook a large sweet potato* and then puree that with 1 can garbanzo beans (drained) and 2 cups of cider in the blender. When chicken is cooked, shred it (you can just use a wooden spoon to chop it while it's still in the skillet), then add the pureed potato, beans, and cider.  Season generously with about 1 tbs curry powder, 2 tsp ginger (grated fresh or powder), 1 tsp cumin. Stir together until warmed through, then salt and pepper to taste.
*The orange kind. I think the easiest/quickest way to cook the potato is to poke it all over with a fork, cover it with a damp paper towel, and microwave it for 7-8 minutes. Remove peel before blending.

I'm definitely not a professional recipe writer so I hope this makes sense. If anybody tries it, please let me know how it turns out! Mmmm I am hungry again thinking about food.

For everyone who just headed back to school and for everyone who just sent kids back to school- hope the first week(s) went well! Happy Friday!

Times they are a changin'!

It's official! Matt has left his previous job at NAI and has now joined the ranks of true corporate America- CB Richard Ellis. A quick Wikipedia search reveals why this is such a good change.


NA... who? Exactly.

CBRE. That's more like it.

He'll still be doing commercial real estate, and his office is still in downtown Salt Lake.

Now if I can just take a moment to brag about Matt. He is amazing!! This change was not an easy one to make, but after lots of prayers and discussions it's finally happened, and he's handled the transition very well. Overall, we are very excited about the new job!

In other news, this is my last Friday as a stay-at-home mom with no kids. No, we're not expecting. Starting next week, my schedule will get much busier as I begin TAing for my thesis advisor's classes. That's right, I'll actually have a job to go to 5 days a week. I even made a very elaborate Google calendar to help juggle the 3 different job schedules that change on a weekly basis. Just counting down the days until I don't have to commute to Provo. I could probably make the 50 minute drive with my eyes closed, and I've thought about trying it to prove a point, but the slim chance that it wouldn't work out might not be worth it.

I CANNOT BELIEVE that August is almost over! I'm not quite ready for fall. Not ready to say goodbye to days at the pool, picnics, hiking, barbecues, ice cream, long walks, and reading outside. I really hope the warm weather lasts awhile longer.

That's how happy I am in the summertime :)

Bobby D.

This week was VERY exciting for me because I fulfilled by lifelong dream of going to a Bob Dylan concert. Yes- the great BOB DYLAN, legendary hero of folk music and everything wonderful in life. For those of you who don't like Bob Dylan, it will be impossible to explain how satisfying this was, so I'll just say it was amazing. My dear husband even accompanied me against his will. Can't say he loved it, but I also can't say he didn't love it.

The internet we ordered has yet to arrive, so I am currently in Barnes and Noble, which has much better background music than our apartment.

We've been loving the mountains lately, and feel so lucky to be SO CLOSE to nature. We've made a couple trips up Big Cottonwood Canyon over the last couple weeks. This picture is from a ward hike we did:

And what have we been eating you ask?  I've been trying my hand at asian food.

Our neighbors must have finally figured out that our whole building was using their unlocked internet so they took it away! So, after being blessed with such generous neighbors for years, I'll actually have to pay for internet service for the first time ever. It should be installed by next week, and then I'll put up some new pictures.
Well it seemed like this last week was just filled with one embarrassment after the other. To name a few:

• At Cafe Rio, Matt went to get one last refill and asked me to take the tray to the garbage. I dropped the whole tray of food before even taking a step.
• In Sunday School, I was given quote #6 to read. I thought the teacher said "Now who has quote #6?" So I said "I do.." and started reading the paragraph. I stopped reading when I realized he was still talking. I guess he said "Now let's turn to Chapter 6". I don't know if that was better or worse than a few months ago when I thought the teacher asked "How does smiling make us feel?" Everyone seemed really serious and quiet so I said "Happy!" No, not smiling, sacrificing.
• At the grocery store, the bagger said, "Be careful with this bag it's really heavy." Trying to make a joke, I said "Oh I just got back from the gym, I think I can handle it." He said "No..I mean because the bag might break." When I was walking the groceries home from the car, the bag did break, and there went my produce rolling all over the parking lot!

Matt says I don't embarrass him. That's nice of him to say. He doesn't even flinch anymore when I spill something, bruise myself, fall off the couch, etc...
Aaaanyways, we are doing well here, we love and miss you all :)