Bambi and Projects

This afternoon David was asked by some neighbors to help tie a deer up to clean out. . .
Some other Christmas projects I've been working on:
Stockings! I was really excited to make these, but they didn't turn out the way I had them in my mind (the red girly one was supposed to have an awesome point at the toe, and instead it just looks really puny) and I can't decide if I haven't finished them because I've been too busy or I've been telling myself I'm too busy and I really just don't know how to fix and finish them.

Mint oreo pie! My sister-in-law Brooke gave me this recipe, and I made it for Dave because he thinks its DELICIOUS. I don't know how it tastes exactly because I don't like mint and so David has it all to himself. But it's really easy and looks good for the holidays--if you're interested in making it the recipe goes as follows:

1 - You just buy an Oreo pie crust from the store (don't try to make your own, it doesn't work very well). When you buy the Oreo pie crust from the store it comes with a plastic lid covering the pie crust, you can use the plastic covering as a convenient lid for the pie when you have made it. :)

2- one can of sweetened condensed milk

3- either 1 8oz can/bucket of cool whip or you can whip your own whipping cream. If you whip your own don't put any powdered sugar in it and make sure to whip it very stiff so it doesn't flatten out. I like whipping my own better

4- 1tsp of peppermint/mint extract. You can use more if you want but just do little bits at a time because it can be very powerful stuff. MMM

5- green food coloring. 7-12 drops. It just depends on how green you want to pie. Or sometimes red is fun too.

Mix the green food coloring and the peppermint in with the sweetened condensed milk first and then FOLD the whipping cream in with everything else. Make sure to fold it because if you stir it everything will flatten out and then you get like a soup. Then you pour the green nummy stuff into the Oreo pie crust and freeze it for at least four hours. Over night is best. There might be some extra green center stuff left over, don't try and pour it all into the pie crust because if you do it will spill over (obviously) and just won't work.

Yesterday I had a piano recital for my four piano students. It reminded me of the Santa Shares I did as a piano student of my former teacher, Don Royster. I played a song, too, and I think that has been the first recital I have played in for over four years. The recital itself was short and sweet, 30 minutes, and afterwards we all ate desserts/punch. It was a lot of fun and the students did well! I've really enjoyed teaching. I wish I had pictures from it.

Birthday!

We celebrated my 23rd bday on December 7th. Fun events of the day included: whole wheat pancakes for breakfast, getting my hair cut, eating dinner at Cheesecake Factory, and presents. Thank you everyone for all the birthday packages/letters and wishes! I had a fun day.

Oh the Weather Outside is . . . .

Pretty nasty stuff. We have been spoiled rotten by the 50-60 degree weather during Oct/Nov, but it finally seems like old man winters is here for good. One of my biggest fears moving to Omaha was driving during the infamous winters, and today I had to drive to work. I made it okay and back, so it actually boosted my confidence a little bit, but I am definitely not looking forward to driving during a blizzard again.
Creighton and a few other schools and my doctor's office were all closed today.
I miss Utah's policy of quick snowplowing and salting the roads.

It's actually really pretty! I love the snow. Just not fun to travel in.

Time for some hot cocoa and Christmas movies.

Christmas tree!

Not bad for one from Family Dollar.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Eating Thanksgiving dinner at the LDS Institute building with RDEP friends.

My favorite part.

Seeing downtown Omaha turn on the Christmas lights and enjoying hot chocolate, compliments of Con Agra Foods.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

Baby shower!

Last weekend my neighbors offered to throw me a baby shower and it was SO much fun. We played a few baby-themed games and won prizes, ate some delicious food, and opened baby gifts. And it was fun to just to see and spend time with friends. I'm excited that David and I actually have baby stuff now! Our neighbors have been very generous in loaning/giving/offering us everything from pack-and-plays, maternity clothes, bassinets, baby clothes, bottles, etc. Here are some pics:
One of my favorite parts of coming to Omaha and especially living in our townhouse complex is meeting so many amazing, generous people. This is a picture of the wives of the R-Dep students that came to Creighton in David's class.
When I got home from the shower I laid out the gifts and snapped a few pictures (sorry the lighting is terrible). Isn't everything darling?! I was SOO excited to have a boy after the shower.
I especially love these little baby shoes:
Dave and I picked up this rocking chair at a thrift store:
Less than 3 months to go!

David's campout

I'm going to write a little what David's been up to lately. LOTS of studying. And then for fun, we watch movies for breaks (we recently watched "The Bucket List" and "Flash of Genius"--really liked them both. David watched "Signs" for the first time last night. By himself.), and Dave also plays Halo and basketball every once in while. He has also finished reading "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell for the second time, and "Freakonomics."

David is a scout leader, and this past weekend they had a campout. I was supposed to get everything packed and ready for him to go because he had to leave for the trip as soon as he got home from school. I DID get him all the materials he needed to pass off for a merit badge, but I forgot the pump to the air mattress and also probably should have thrown in an extra blanket. He had a great time though--he said the leaders and scouts played capture the flag for 4 hours on Friday night, ate a dinner the scouts planned and prepared (tin-foil dinners, beef and potatoe style), and talked by the campfire for a while.
That night was pretty cold I guess--and without the mattress blown up and no sleeping bag, he woke up a few times during the night, finally looked at the clock, and realized he'd only been sleeping for two hours. Long Night. The next morning they completed their merit badge, ate breakfast the scouts planned & prepared, and cleaned up to come home. David was pretty hungry when he got back. But had a great time.

Humans are wonderful beings.

Wednesday started out like any other day where I'm scheduled to work at Barnes & Noble: David and I get up, I make our lunches for the day, David gets a ride with somebody to school, then I get ready to go to work. However, on this particular day, I couldn't find the keys to the car when I was ready to drive to work. David accidently took them with him. And we've only got One Key to the car.

My stress level went from 0 to 10 in about 3 seconds. David actually thought it was funny later that I texted him and called him twice in less than a minute. He was in class, so he couldn't respond right away, but at the time I was panicking . . . Then I sent out a text message to all my neighbors explaning the situation and asked if anyone would be willing to drive me to work.

Do you know that within 90 seconds I had heard back from about 5 people willing to take me? I was SO surprised and grateful. I got a ride from the first person I heard back from, and she also offered to pick me up later that day so I could get home in time to teach piano lessons.


I was listening to a speech the other day given by a economist from Princeton? I think? who was trying to figure out how all these tests he was studying revealed that people who donate time or money actually are financially better off/successful than those who don't. He was confused by the results because it seems obvious that first you need to accumulate wealth before you spread it, but all his data said otherwise. You got more because you gave. This economist goes on to explain after he talked with a collegue in psychology, he found out that people's brains are actually wired to be happy/successful/optimistic after giving donations or volunteering or just helping somebody, which in turns helps them out and simultaneously puts them in a leadership position. So this economist was actually able to prove that people who donate time, money, blood, volunteer, etc are more successful (he actually gave a $ amount of how much more better off they are per year). He argued that that is why America is so well off, because the average American statistically gives a Lot more to help the less fortunate than citizens in other countries. We can do better, of course, but America is not truly the stingy, selfish glutton that we are accused of and sometimes see ourselves as.


Barnes & Noble is doing a book drive for kids who don't have books at home; we ask customers if they would like to buy and donate a book from our store. I was working at the cash register on Friday, and so I was in charge of asking the majority of the customers if they would like to donate--I bet within a 4 hour period I got almost 20 books, and once again I was just amazed/humbled/so happy to see people so willing to go out of their way to help others.

Maybe it's just the Christmas season coming up, or maybe I have just been seeing everything through rose-colored glasses for a few days after listening to the economists' schpeel, but it's a nice change to realize people are innately good, something that is sometimes difficult to do when the media we are surrounded by is so quick to point out otherwise. . . .
Now I just need someone to break into our car again and make me eat my words ha ha.

Happy Halloween!!

I had the idea for being a troll probably clear back in June. I wanted to be something that could accomodate my stomach, and the troll dolls have got big bellies. I actually don't even like the trolls, but I thought it would be a fun costume, and it was. For my hair, I used lots of soap, hair gel, hair spray, and wrapped it all around an empty plastic bottle. We went to a costume/dinner party with a lot of neighbors, and I actually won 3rd place for best costume!

I already know what I want to be for next year :)

As for David . . . ?

He bought a kit of face paint that had a picture of a zombie on the front. Unfortunately, after he applied the paint, it just didn't look the same as the kit's cover. He Definitely did Not look like a zombie. We're really not sure what he was supposed to be. You tell us.

Getting ready for the big day . . .

I have been SOO excited for Halloween ever since August. I had most of my decorating done by Oct. 3rd. Unfortunately, we had a huge snowstorm earlier this month that completely snuffed out my Halloween excitement and now I can only think about getting ready for a white Christmas. However, Dave and I still carved pumpkins, and I wanted to display a little of the stuff I put up. I got most of my ideas from my favorite Halloween stories--Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, Wuthering Heights, etc.

Here is my pumpkin already carved--while I was carving, David walked in from the back with a carving idea he had gotten from the internet--it was exactly the same as mine. In the picture he is doing Jack Skellington instead. A good choice. I wanted my pumpkin to be something I envision the Headless Horsemen to have thrown at Ichabod Crane: gleefully sinister.

Anyone know what music, roses, a magical lasso, and the ominous warning all have in common?? YES! Phantom of the Opera. I stored a bunch of our books downstairs so I'd have room for a poison/brewing shelf (I didn't even finish putting labels on the bottles . . . ), poems of E. A. Poe, a gift box complete with buttons, thread and needle (Coraline), and the pirate flag.
It certainly isn't amazing, but I had fun. I had more in mind I wanted to do--I guess I'll have a whole year to get ready for 2010!

Wenninghoff

Wenninghoff is a farm that sells produce, but during the harvest season, they have a bunch of family activities to enjoy . . . cornmazes, bonfires, hayrides, feeding farm animals, etc. There was a Creighton Women's Dental Association family activity planned there so we were there with a lot of friends and ate hotdogs and s'mores--yummy! I had a BLAST. I really enjoyed looking at the farm animals--it reminded me of home. Not because we have any farm animals growing up, but the place I grew up is really agricultural/dairy/ranch, so it was nice to hear cows again :)

Here's a goat and a chicken. There were some cute rabbits around the corner.

David to the left of the cornmaze and in the middle of the "playground" area for kids. They had so much to do there!

One of my DREAMS when we get our own place is to have a pumpkin patch. Just like this one:

I will let people come and pick up their own pumpkin and I will also sell pumpkin pies, cookies, bread, biscuits, and anything else you can make with pumpkins. Here's me picking out the perfect gourd:

Here is David and me competing who can run over the haybales the fastest. I get handicap points for being womanly and pregnant.

Newest Yates

We are going to have a baby boy on February 14th! (Doctor is 80% sure of the gender. Baby's legs were crossed and we had a hard time getting a clear view.) Here is the ultrasound picture of his head from an aerial view. He is going to be a sweet little guy, coming at the same time as all those valentine's sugar cookies . . . .

Gardens and Bowling

The Omaha Lauritzen Botannical Gardens are about a 10 minute walk away from where we live, and they are beautiful. We went on a walk there a few weekends ago and took some pictures; Dave is at his favorite garden (Japanese garden) and I'm at mine (rose garden). I know we look terrible. We went spur-of-the-moment on a Saturday morning.



We also went bowling a while ago. We had gone to an Omaha Royal's baseball game, and since our team got 10 hits, all the fans got free bowling passes. We had a lovely time and I won (although Dave has a Much more attractive approach).

Good speech

I really enjoyed listening to the LDS Women's Conference last night. I've also enjoyed listening to BYU speeches and devotionals while I go running/walking some mornings. The other day I listened to one given by Professor Robert P. George, professor of Jurisprudence from Princeton University on October 28, 2008.

Prof. George argues that all of us need to take a more vigorous stand on moral matters, especially in preserving the dignity of human life in all of its stages, and maintaining the essential characteristics of marriage as a union between a man and a woman. He gave some great insights into how we can defend these morals with more clarity and conviction.

You can go to the website @ speeches.byu.edu to view all the speeches/devotionals/forums given, or you can click here or here to get to the free download of this specific talk. It's a little less than an hour long, but I'd highly recommend listening to it while you clean, or to download and listen while you go for a walk or drive. Feel free to share with others or tell me what you think!

Labor Day Vacation

We got a new camera! We agreed it's my extra-early birthday present. For Labor Day, Dave and I drove to Kansas City, Missouri to go to a Royal's game. We are slightly loyal Royal's fans as a result.
While there, we also stopped by some Mormon history sites: Independence = Garden of Eden and future site for Zion, Liberty Jail = where Joseph Smith spent 6 months during the winter while the Mormons were being driven from Missouri, and Adam Ondi Ahman = The place east of Eden "where Adam dwelt" after the fall.

Liberty JailAdam-Ondi-Ahman

We didn't get a chance to visit some other church sites: cemeteries, famous people's houses, Far West, Haun's Mill, or Zion's Camp, but we hope to if we go to Kansas City again. We were able to visit the temple at Independence by the Church of Christ, and it was neat to see their museum and their auditorium.

Back in Omaha!

Dave and I just got back from a month-long vacation from school. We visited family and friends in UT and ID, and by the time we were done, we still felt like we could have spent another few weeks there. Other than the disappointing broken A/C and disappearing flowers, it has been really good to be back home and see all our friends and neighbors! Our camera is broken, so I'm waiting to get a few pictures sent to us so we can share more of our fun travels.

Dave has enjoyed getting back in to school (the first week hasn't been too bad), and I am looking forward to starting to work at Barnes and Nobles! I will also be teaching piano lessons, and I am sure that will be a lot of fun, too.

St. George Revisited

We went to St. George with Dave's family right after Pioneer Day and had a GREAT time! We went hiking, played DDR and other games, went swimming, watched movies, and slept in.

Swimming in the pool! Dave and Brighton were having fun launching a few of us in the air. Here is Steph getting the most air . . .
Hiking through the Narrows!Good food.
DDR! It was especially fun playing with HSM.
We went on several hikes in Zions, and here we went to a lava cave--it felt SO good in there to be out of the sun.
We also celebrated David's birthday there; here he is wearing a new bday shirt:

Pioneer Day

July 24th is Utah's Pioneer Day. It was my first time celebrating the holiday in Utah, adn it was a lot of fun! Dave and I ran the 5k race through downtown with some of his family, and we had other family members and friends take on the 10k.
After the race, Brooke and I watched the Pioneer Day parade with Grandpa Yates. It was a really hot day, but we found some shade and Grandpa really enjoyed the parade.