JigZone puzzles

This is a great website for doing jigsaw puzzles on-line. My nephews showed it to me.

There's tons of styles & varying levels of difficulty to choose from.

http://www.jigzone.com/

Pumpkin bread & pie crust

Ok, so I'll admit that at first I felt extremely guilty about posting these 2 recipies on my blog. But, then I decided that they are so good that they should be shared & bring happiness to the people I love.
My mom would want it to be no other way.
These are Pat Russell specialties, some of her best: pumpkin bread & her awesome pie crust.
Trust me, give the pumpkin bread a try & it will become a tradition for Thanksgiving & Christmas...many people have been converted.
As far as the pie crust goes, its from one of the orignial Betty Crocker cookbooks, in fact...you can't even find it in the recent ones anymore (I checked). It's a little different than your typical pie dough: its an oil pastry. This means its a little salty & has some extra flavor, perfect for those really sweet pies. Yummm.
So, I dedicate this post to my wonderful mom who taught me how to cook & how to bring joy to others with food. Please enjoy.
I love you mom.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Pat's Pumpkin Bread

4 1/2 C flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
3 C sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
4 1/2 tsp cinnamon
*Mix in large bowl, create a well in center.
Add:
1 1/2 C oil
6 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 large can pumpkin
*Mix well.
Stir in 2 C (or 1 bag) chocolate chips
*pour in to greased & floured bread pans. Makes 9 mini-loaves or 3 large.
**Bake @ 350' x 1 hour (40-50 min. for mini loaf) or until toothpick comes out clean.

(great warm or cool, also freezes well if wrapped in foil)

Best-ever pie crust (for a 2-crust pie)

2 3/4 C flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
just under 1 C oil
1/3 C water
*Mix flour & salt. Make well in center, add oil & cut until looks like meal. Cut in water 1-2 Tbs. at a time (begin when dough is just starting to come together like meal). Gather dough togther, immediately roll out for pie pan.
**Bake @ 425' x 10-13 min for one crust pie/ baked shell or according to directions for filling.
(Because this is an oil pastry it the dough is not as soft as when using Crisco...trust me, it tastes so much better & is the perfect flaky pie-crust if not over-handled.)

Wonderfully fun waste of time...

Thanks to my oh-so-productive friend Kristen for the link to this blog-quiz.

You rock girlie.

I will definitely admit that I secretly was addicted to Buffy for years & I still own the complete seasons on DVD.

(oh... *ahem*...& the first three seasons of Angel)

Sometimes a girl just has to do something that's a complete waste of time.

You Are Buffy the Vampire Slayer

"We saved the world. I say we have to party."

What superheroine are you?

Bad combination

+

You do the math....
I'm still hoping that it'll dry out in the next day, or three.
Grrrr...

Park City trip

So two weeks ago we went to a friend's (Rich & Aleisha McConkie...a.k.a. Kaitlyn's mom & dad) family's cabin in Park City, UT. It was so much fun & we all got a much needed break from school. There were 5 couples total who went & all the kids that go along. Needless to say, the kids had a blast being with all their best buddies for three days straight & all us "grown ups" had the time of our lives.

Us & the McConkies...

On the way home from Park City we stopped by Salt Lake to tour the Church History Museum & walk around the outside the conference center. Every time I'm there I'm just amazed by that building. It blew me away, it was only the end of October & they were already busy putting up the Christmas lights on Temple Square.

I think this is my new favorite picture of Rick & Olivia. I have such a beautiful family, as you can tell, Rick is thrilled to have his picture taken.


This is at the interactive children's room in the Church History Museum.

By the way, for all those of you who haven't met the infamous Kaitlyn...this is her. My kids pretty much think she's their sister. Rich & Aleisha got married & moved into our student ward here in Pocatello within weeks of when we moved here. Her dad, Rich, is the same year in the BSN program w/ me. So, needless to say...these kids see a lot of eachother while we study.

Trevor had so much fun dressing up & just standing there holding the gift for baby Jesus. Olivia was just thrilled to be able to hold a baby.


Perfect timing, if you look closely you can see the snowball Trevor just threw is nano-seconds away from smacking Kaitlyn in the face...gotta love pictures.


I am really blessed to have two kids that love eachother so much....except, of course, when they're mortal enemies.


Friend-time: Olivia, Kaitlyn, Trevor, & Ryan (oldest kid of our friends Janelle & Chris Wertz).

Catching up...

So, as you can tell by the neglected state of my blog...school has been keeping us both pretty busy. When I'm not going insane that's a good thing though. I'm learning a ton & getting to do all sorts of fun medical stuff. (out of respect for those who are a little weaker-stomached I'll refrain from all the cool details). But, during my Surgical rotation I did get to be in on an open-heart surgery, the Dr. was doing a couple bypass grafts & that was so awesome!

(Google: "CABG" if you want to see pics)
Anyhow, I know I've severly ignored my blog & sending any form of correspondence so I'll try to make up for it a little.
We went to Park City, UT last weekend w/ a few other couples to a friend's cabin & it was so much fun. I forgot my camera so once I get copies of the pics from our friends I'll post.
Enjoy a little glimpse into what we've been up to the last month:

I absolutely LOVE Halloween but I felt like such a loser this year. I barely got my decorations up, the pumpkins didn't get carved, Trevor was actually Superman (don't let the picture mislead you), & on the day of the Halloween carnival I had a 12 hour shift at the hospital. So, Rick made the sugar cookies to decorate w/ the kids & then couldn't find Olivia's right costume so like a good Dad he went & got her a new one (she loved it). So I didn't even know what my own daughter was going to be until I showed up. Dressed as what, you might ask? A nurse, of course.

So serious...hair cut time. Dad is a great barber & then he gets a bubble bath when it's all over, a pretty fair deal if you ask me.

Rick was outside one day working on building us a shed & Trevor decided to help shovel the snow. He cleared the entire porch & was working on the driveway by the time we found him.

Just like mama used to make

Holy cow, nothing says "Fall's here" like homemade apple pie. This is one of those weekends that I was able to feel like a mommy & not just a student.

Mmm, now you can't say that doesn't look good...thanks for the lessons Mom.