Arctic Blast

Since Jaren and I lived in Logan, UT for three years (or three winters), a 5"-8" accumulation of snow over a two week period should not seem like such an amazing thing. However, here in the beautiful Northwest we are not used to getting snow. When we get snow, it's usually less than an inch and melted the same day by the rain that follows. When the snow stays, it creates a big mess. This is the first "white Christmas" I have seen in Washington since my family moved here in 1996. For nearly the last two weeks now we have been getting what the news has been calling an "arctic blast" (cold air coming down from Alaska). The rain that we usually get here during the winter time turned to snow all through the frigid past two weeks. To see snow stay on the ground, then more accumulate, then a 1/4" sheet of freezing rain, more snow, more snow again, etc. has been quite exciting. The funny thing is that it is such a HUGE deal here. The news has been reporting daily, all day long on the weather and snow conditions. Regular TV shows have been rescheduled for showings early in the morning (like 3:00am) because the news is taking it's place. It's quite funny that this has been nearly the only thing on TV. Church meetings were cancelled and our Stake Christmas program postponed for two weeks in a row now. Not to mention the Relief Society Christmas program I have been working on for months that will now take place the 8th of January. The Northwest doesn't really have snowplows so the roads stay a horrible mess. They do a bit of plowing on freeways but mostly require traction devices, snow tires, or studded tires when driving on all state highways and freeways. My mom and dad had to make a trip to the store to invest in a snow-shovel. My mom and I shoveled the front porch, back porch, driveway, and sidewalks for a good 2 hours and were very sore the next day. After being inside for three consecutive days, I finally got to the point where I shoveled a bunch of snow into the bed of my truck (to help with rear traction), strapped cables on the front tires and went to the store to get out. Ever since my scary accident involving a semi-truck in the snow I have been terrified to drive in/on snow, ice, slush, and even heavy rain. Even though I was driving a 4 wheel drive truck with cables going 25 mph, I was quite proud of myself at how much I started to venture out in the snow. It has been great. In the next couple of days it will warm up to rain and all of the snow will melt. I got a few pictures to show the beautiful snow here.

Mom and dad's house and front yard.

The sreet in front of mom and dad's house.

The freezing rain covered the trees in a 1/4 inch thick sheet of ice.

The freezing rain also put a 1/4 inch thick sheet of ice over my entire truck. Thank goodness the door wasn't frozen shut and I was still able to get inside. (Click on the picture to see the ice covering the truck)

Christmas music

As a tribute to my sweet husband who will not be able to spend Christmas with me or with any family and friends at all, I've decided to play some special Christmas music on my blog playlist during the final week before Christmas.

1. "Sending you a little Christmas" - I know this song has been on here since the 1st of the month but this song expresses my feelings of how I wish I could help Jaren have a nice Christmas even though he is so far away. If I could gift-wrap myself and send me to him, I would. Since that is not possible, I'm sending my love and prayers (and a small package) until he comes home.

2. "Soldier's Silent Night" - As I listen to the words of "Santa Claus" I get all choked up about the soldier. I hope Jaren isn't so alone on Christmas. At least he will be in a bed instead of on the floor. Other soldier's might not be so lucky.

3. "O Holy Night" - This is Jaren's favorite Christmas song. We have to listen to it several times throughout the Christmas season (both of us singing along) because he loves it so much. I had to put it on here for him.

I will try not to get all mushy but I absolutely must take this opportunity to tell Jaren and everyone reading this how proud I am of him. I was so blessed when Heavenly Father sent him into my life. He's such a great guy and I know he's in Iraq right now because he wants to help and serve his country. He also wants the experience so he can be a better Chaplain and relate with the soldiers he will serve one day. He's always so loving and patient with me. He's a better husband than I could have ever hoped for and I am so grateful for him. (I love you sweetie!)

Dumb Christmas tree lights!

Foreword: I appologize for the length of this post. I got a bit carried away but you will probably get a kick out of it.

There are a few specific things Jaren told me "came with the package" when we got married. These he informed me were absolute and there was no bargaining on the matter. They are as follows...

1. I must like white water rafting. His whole family has gone white water rafting as their summer family vacation since just after Blake and Teresa (Jaren's parents) were married. Jaren LOVES white water rafting. He looks forward to it all year. He decided to take me on my first white water rafting trip when we were engaged and before hand told me I must like white water rafting or he would not marry me. All of you who truly know Jaren understand this. I was terrified at first and it has taken our whole marriage so far to get mostly comfortable with the swift moving (cold) rivers that we raft. I have come to not only like it but even enjoy it...thank goodness. If not, I think Jaren would have dragged me down the river anyway.

2. Our first son will be named Blake. This Jaren told me after we were married. He must have been thinking about having kids at the time because it had only been days since we had returned from our honeymoon and out of the blue said "Oh, by the way, we're naming our first son Blake." To which I dumbfoundedly replied "ok" after not having a say in the matter. He then said "it comes with the package." Blake is not only his father's name but Jaren's middle name. Good thing I really like the name Blake! :)

3. Any and all Christmas trees we ever have will be/have:

a. REAL

b. Noble fir

c. lights wrapped around almost every branch

My family always got Douglas firs for our Christmas trees. My dad would wrap about 4 strands of lights around the outside of the tree. Jaren said that was absolutely unacceptable for our tree. Growing up, his family always went out and cut hundreds of Christmas trees and sold them at the family Nursery. People would pay them to string the lights on their tree. Jaren participated and spent several Christmas seasons wrapping tons of lights around the branches of beautiful pine trees. When we got our first real tree, he used this talent to show me how he thought all Christmas tree lights should look. I believe that year and every year since he has strung at least 15 strands of white lights on our tree.

This year, I am living with mom and dad while Jaren is in Iraq. For the first time in my life, mom and dad actually decided to purchase a Noble fir. So, I thought I would carry on with Jaren's tradition and attempted to string the lights myself the way he does. This is not as easy as it looks. Doing the top is ok but when you get to the more full bottom, you can't see a thing trying to wrap the lights around one branch with tons of other branches in the way. I had to have my mom follow me around the tree holding the branches out of my way. How Jaren does this all by himself, is a mystery to me. Since I am also not very experienced with the lights, I didn't check the individual strands until I had spent about 15-20 minutes each putting them on the tree. Good thing they all worked when I checked them. I used all of mom and dads lights then ran out (6 strands). So I climbed into the attic to get some of my lights that are being stored up there (another 4 strands). There is now a line on the tree between their lights and mine. Theirs have more of a yellow light and are a bit more dim than mine. I also got a little carried away with the first strand of my lights and there is a very concentrated and bright section in the middle of the tree. After all four strands were used, I stopped for the day. I could only handle a couple of hours at one time.

Today I went back up into the attic to get another 5 strands and finished off the tree with 4 of them making a grand total of 14 strands of lights! Mind you, this is not a big tree. Aside from the noticeable difference in the lights on top as opposed to my lights on the bottom, the tree looked mostly great. A few minor bare sections but what can I say...this was my first try. Jaren would have done a much better job but he has had years of practice. I still felt a sense of accomplishment for making it through this torturous task (I nearly gave up 3 times). When I came down the stairs and looked in the living room to see my beautiful handi-work, I was dismayed to find the top 3/4 of the tree completely dark. I then spent several minutes trying to find out why the lights that were working 20 minutes before were no longer working! I grabbed the last strand of lights and went around the tree trying to find the one that wasn't working. Just as I found the culprit light strand, the one I was using to test the others stopped working too. Am I cursed or what? I managed to work it out so all of the strands above and below it are plugged into the extension cord. That one section is a dark spot. I was NOT about to take them off and put on a new string. I have decided now to NEVER string the lights again! I firmly believed before that the lights are Jaren's job and am even more resolved about it now. Oh, and Jaren...I won't ever say a thing about the lights again. You can just do your thing. You are great at it and you won't hear a peep out of me.

You can't see too well from these pictures but here is my Christmas tree with 14 strands of DUMB lights! I won't say that out loud though, the other strands might stop working too! ~ Emily

It doesn't look too bad. The culprit strand is the lower middle section on the left, underneath the really bright section.

That rascally little strand of lights!

Jaren's address

Jaren has moved to a new location (which I don't know and he cannot tell me). I am posting the new address so if you would like to send him a letter or care package you can. If you send a package, use the Priority Mail Flat Rate boxes. They come in several different sizes. The large box is the one I use and it is $10.95 up to 70 lbs. If you use your own box of about the same size, it's anywhere from $20-$30. Make sure it is flat rate. Using the Express Mail doesn't get it there any faster once it leaves the country. It doesn't take long though. He has received the packages I've sent him as early as one week and as late as two and a half weeks. Here it is:

Jaren B Glover

341st ENG CO/54th ENG BN

APO, AE 09322

Funny christmas neighbor gift

At my very first Glover family Christmas Eve/white elephant gift party, Jaren was given a bag of "snowman poop" (a bag of miniature marshmallows). I thought this was quite clever and funny. Then I came across the idea for "snowman soup" (hot chocolate mix). Recently I went to a white elephant gift party and decided to give both of them as my gift and I wrote a story/poem that would tie the two together. I labeled both the bag of marshmallows and the hot chocolate mix accordingly and place the typed poem in the gift box with them. Make note that I have hated English for as long as I can remember. I love reading but HATE writing. I haven't written a poem since junior high school. It's not perfect and probably doesn't exactly follow the rules of this type of poem (whatever it may be) but I was quite impressed with my cleverness and have decided to share my little story at the bottom of this post. I have seen "snowman soup" used as neighbor gifts for Christmas. Here are some ideas for use with "snowman poop" and "snowman soup":

You could make individual bags of marshmallows or just buy one big bag and label it for the "snowman poop". This will probably depend on if you are giving it to a family or an individual.

This is my 2nd favorite hot chocolate mix next to Stephen's Milk Chocolate. Shown below you could buy a can like this and wrap it with a cute "snowman soup" label. You could also just buy a box of individual packets and put a label on the box. Then print the story and put it with the gift.

If you are just giving this to an individual, you could use this idea above where you have a cute mug, an individual packet of hot chocolate mix (labeled "snowman soup") and a small bag of miniature marshmallows (labeled "snowman poop"). Then wrap it in cellophane and tie it with ribbon. You could print the story however you want to and attach it to the gift. These are so easy! No baking necessary! You can also get good deals on Christmas mugs right now. So here it is...my little story explaining "snowman soup" and "snowman poop":

The morbid tale of how hot chocolate and marshmallows came to be…

In Santa’s secret village at the North Pole hidden so well
There’s a story nobody’s heard that I shall now tell

An unknown fact that snowmen in Santa’s village did live
These magic snowmen (like “Frosty”) did help to give

Christmas toys for the children they worked on themselves
The snowmen were cherished by Santa as much as the Elves

A crabby Elf named Hermey didn’t like this at all

He hated the snowmen, those big, fat, white balls

So he schemed and plotted and came up with a plan
“I’ll melt those snowmen, they’ll never again stand”

He snuck into Santa’s kitchen and stole a great pot
In it was melted chocolate all bubbly and hot

While the snowmen were singing and spreading Christmas cheer
He crept up behind and poured it on them when near

The snowmen started screaming and running to hide
So scared as they ran, great piles of white “poop” they left behind

When Hermey had melted the last snowman to the ground
Great puddles of chocolate liquid were all that were found

And floating in these puddles were the droppings of white “poop”
Hermey saw the hot liquid and knelt to taste a scoop

“Yum! I think I’ll call this Snowman soup!” he exclaimed
All the Elves and even Santa tried the soup and said the same

The name they changed to marshmallows and hot chocolate
Then packaged the lot and sold it for a great profit

Now when you sip on this tasty drink you see
The truth of how hot chocolate really came to be

What was once a snowman and his fluffy white “poop”

Was melted and turned into Hermey’s snowman soup

Happy Thanksgiving

I must say I had a great Thanksgiving even though Jaren was not here. All of my siblings, brother-in-law, niece and nephew drove up from Idaho to spend Thanksgiving here at my parents house. We definitely had a noisy, sometimes chaotic, full house. It was great! I took some family pictures of Melisa, Eric, Logan, and Lily. You can view the album here .
I made my yummy Mousse Mountain Cupcakes for everyone. They were watching me prepare them most of the day (since they take so much time to make) and couldn't wait for the chocolate coating to setup completely before breaking into them.

Lily loved her chocolate cupcake and of course we had to take a picture of her messy face.

Lily seemed to be in the spotlight most of the time with as cute as she is. She is talking so much now. She says "Hi" to everyone and is so friendly. She loved "puppy" or Abby (my parents miniature schnauzer) and would follow her around hand feeding her dog food to her. She also had some funny temper-tantrums. They were funny to me because I got to sit back and watch Eric and Melisa deal with it :) I know...one day it will be my turn. Logan was mostly interested in playing Sonic the hedgehog and was getting quite addicted so we had to distract him with other things. We got to enjoy our time together relaxing, playing games, watching movies, and just talking. It was great to see everyone because it has been so long since we have all been together at mom and dad's house.

(Uncle Scott and Lily)

(Grandma Denece and Lily playing the piano)

Jaren didn't have as great of a Thanksgiving unfortunately. From what he said his Thanksgiving feast consisted of some good ham and gross sweet potato pie. I got to talk to him but I felt bad that there was little I could do to help him enjoy the holiday. Just so all of you know, he will be moving out of the area he is currently in and doesn't know when or where they will be moving his unit. Hopefully, it will be in enough time that I can get a new address to send him a Christmas package. In the meantime, I can't send him packages because he could be leaving anytime and may not get them. When Jaren gets a new address, I will let everyone know. Thanks for all of your support! We love you all!

Lots of curls

Ever since I moved back to Washington in this more humid climate, the natural yet slight wave in my hair turned into a slight curl. I have been able to scrunch my hair to make it somewhat curly. I liked this better than blow-drying my hair because my hair can be quite difficult and I am such a perfectionist that most days it took me 45 minutes to round-brush every hair into it's proper place. I can't help it...the perfectionist in me won't allow me to do less. What a pain!!! I absolutely hated doing my hair! Unfortunately, scrunching my hair with a diffuser took quite a bit of hair product to hold it in place. I hate crunchy hair and most especially hairspray. Also, as my hair has gotten longer it has become harder to do anything with. It is now too long to round-brush or scrunch, and too short to do anything else with. I am trying to grow my hair out because Jaren likes it long so I didn't want to cut it. Jaren also likes big spirally curls so I decided to get a body perm where they use the biggest perming rods to give your hair some "wave". This wave gives your hair more body...hence the title body perm. I discussed this idea with my hair stylist and she said it should work well to add to the natural curl I already have. This would make scrunching my hair easier and require less hair product. Upon perming my hair I discovered that my hair takes VERY well to curl. I always knew it took to curl well but didn't know what using the biggest perming rods would do. My hair is definitely more curly now (more than I anticipated). At least it only takes me 15 minutes to dry using a diffuser and a lot less gel and hairspray. Several people say they like it but I'm still not quite sure how I feel about it since I'm used to my straight hair. The perm also shortened my hair a good 2-3 inches. Guess I'm going to have to like it now because this perm won't be going away anytime soon. Jaren just says I look cute. But because I got his reaction over a webcam I can't tell if it means, "I really like it and think it's cute" or "I always tell you your cute and am telling you that now even though I don't like it so much." At least if he doesn't like it he doesn't have to see it (except over a webcam) for the next 6-7 months. That should give me time to do something else with my hair before he comes home. So, dum da da dum! Here I am, Emily (Curly Sue) Glover:

This is a picture of my hair after 45 minutes of pain staking round-brushing. Doesn't look like it would or should

take that long, right?

Sorry this was such a long post about my hair :)

Have a great Thanksgiving!

Mousse Mountain Cupcakes!

Sorry, this is another post on my latest food creation. I just couldn't resist this one! I got the idea for the cupcakes when researching cupcake recipes for our monthly cupcake Sunday in Young Women. I brought cupcakes last month and found cupcakes like these on Martha Stewart's website. Hers are called Hi-Hat cupcakes with a seven-minute type frosting for the filling. I changed mine to chocolate mousse and named them Mousse Mountain Cupcakes! They are wonderful and messy and you need a huge glass of milk when eating them. Three wonderful types of chocolate all combined make this divine, rich dessert. ENJOY!

(Mr. Cupcake got a little smashed when I tried cutting him in half)

Cupcake: I use my favorite kind of cake for the cupcakes, Duncan Hines devil's food cake mix. I love cake mixes so haven't often bothered with making cake from scratch. I have learned that if you beat the cake batter too long it turns out more fluffy and goes dry easier. I like mine a tiny bit more moist and dense so I only beat the cake batter for about a 1min 30 sec - 1 min 40 sec instead of the two minutes it says. Might not make a huge difference but in my mind it does.

Chocolate Mousse:

4 egg yolks

1/4 c sugar

1 cup whipping cream (heavy)

1 c good quality chocolate, chopped (I use 1/2 - 2/3 c milk chocolate and the rest dark)

1 1/2 c whipping cream (heavy)

1. Beat egg yolks in small bowl with electric mixer on high speed about 3 minutes or until thick and lemon colored. Gradually beat in sugar.

2. Heat 1 c whipping cream in 2-quart saucepan over medium heat until hot. Gradually stir at least half of the hot whipping cream into egg yolk mixture; stir back into hot cream in saucepan. Cook over low hear about 5 minutes, stirring constatnly, until mixture thickens (do not boil). I use wire whisk for this. Stir in chocolate until melted. Cover and refrigerate about 2 hours, stirring occasionally, just until chilled.

3. Beat 1 1/2 cups whipping cream in chilled medium bowl with electric mixer on high speed until stiff. Fold chocolate mixture into whipped cream. Sometimes I need to use the electric mixer for 10 seconds to mix everything thoroughly. In piping bag or large plastic bag with corner tip cut off (1/2 inch opening), pipe 2 inch swirl on top of cooled cupcakes leaving an 1/8 inch border. It will look like the top of a swirled ice cream cone. If you don't use too much or too little then you should have enough chocolate mousse for about 20-22 cupcakesRefrigerate cupcakes until mousse is set (about 2 hours). I have refrigerated them overnight and they are just fine. However, make sure they are covered somehow in a container or make sure there are NO strong odors in your fridge. The chocolate mousse (and chocolate coating) can take on the flavor of the smell.

Chocolate coating:

2 cups good quality chocolate, chopped

3 Tbsp vegetable or canola oil

In double boiler on low heat (water barely simmering), melt the chocolate and oil until smooth. Remove from simmering water to cool for about 15 minutes. Transfer to a small bowl or I use a glass one cup measuring cup. It is easier with a glass one cup measuring cup to dip because it is deep and more narrow. Hold each of the cupcakes by the bottom and gently dip into the chocolate thoroughly covering the chocolate mousse. Let as much excess chocolate drip off then set on a aluminum foil lined cookie sheet with cooling rack on it so the extra chocolate will drip through the cooling racks and onto the cookie sheet. Refrigerate these yummy cucakes until the chocolate is set or until ready to serve. Store extra cupcakes in the refrigerator for up to 2-3 days.

Good quality chocolate: I use Cadbury's milk chocolate and royal dark when making both the mousse and chocolate coating. It is less expensive than other high quality brands and still works great in the recipes. I have found the milk chocolate at Walmart but you will probably have to go to another grocery store to find the royal dark.

Happy chocolate eating!!!

Pumpkin Pancakes!

So, I have been wanting to try and make pumpkin pancakes ever since fall came around and I finally did it today for Sunday dinner...yes, dinner. I looked at some different recipes, then tried my own version of several of them. They were really yummy! I also made a caramel apple butter sauce and real whipped cream to go on top. This would be a great Thanksgiving morning breakfast! In my opinion, it's not even too much pumpkin to make you not want pumpkin pie later. Of course, I had to take some pictures to display my creation and make you all drool and want to try them too. I included the recipes at the bottom if you want to try them. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Pancakes

2 c Pancake Mix

2 Tbsp brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp allspice

1/2 c solid Libby pumpkin

1 1/2 c milk

2 eggs (whites separated in a different bowl)

2 Tbsp melted butter

Beat egg whites until stiff peaks (but not overdone) and set aside. Mix dry ingredients in large bowl. Add pumpkin, milk, egg yolks, and melted butter and whisk together. You may need more milk (up to 2 cups) depending on the pancake mix you use. Pancake batter will be slightly thick. Fold in egg whites. Cook on hot griddle and serve with caramel apple butter, syrup, or whipped cream.

Caramel Apple Butter

3/4 c apple butter

2-4 Tbsp good caramel ice cream topping (Mrs Richard's butterscotch is my favorite)

1/4 c half & half

2-4 Tbsp water

1 tsp vanilla

Mix all ingredients in small saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir until blended. Serve warm over pancakes.

*The caramel topping makes the sauce sweet so you might want to add it a tablespoon at a time and taste a bit to see how sweet you like it. It is apple butter so it will be a thick sauce but I didn't want to spread a paste on my pancakes so I added the full 4 tablespoons (1/4 c) of water. If you like it a little thicker you can do less by only adding 2 or 3 tablespoons.

Whipped cream: I'm sure you all know how to make whipped cream on your own so I'm not going to list a recipe. Since the caramel apple butter is so sweet you probably will not want to add much sugar to the whipped cream when making it. A touch of vanilla will give it a good flavor too!

Beautiful Bouquet!

My wonderful husband did the sweetest thing! He had a beautiful bouquet of flowers delivered to my door this morning. It definitely made my day! I've had a hard time this last week because I didn't get to talk to Jaren at all and I've been trying not to think about how much time apart we still have left. This has lifted my spirit and given me a boost to keep going. We can make it, even if he doesn't get to come home for his two weeks R&R (Rest and Recovery). I absolutely LOVE the flowers and they are being displayed very proudly in the livingroom for all to see and enjoy. However, I think I might just take them up to my room with me at night so I can look over in the morning and see them. What a great husband I have! I love you Jaren!

Stress relief/Happy Holloween

I drove down to Ogden, UT this last week to take the majority of my belongings to the storage unit that Jaren and I have there. I would never have been able to get everything packed and cleaned at my apartment on time had my mom not come over and help me. She cleaned while I packed! Then on Monday morning (Oct 27th), we packed everything up into the back of my truck and a 5'x9' ramp trailer from Uhaul. The trailer was piled so high it was nearly another trailer size on top of the trailer itself. Thanks to the help of my mom, my home teacher, and his wife we were able to get things loaded up within a couple of hours. I checked out of my apartment and my mom and I left to Boise a little after noon that same day. My truck didn't really like pulling that much weight. It took us a little over 8 hours to get to Melisa and Eric's house (my sister and brother-in-law) in Boise where it would only take about 7 without a trailer. It also took a lot of gas. I was averaging 13 miles to the gallon. NOT GOOD! We stayed the night then left the next morning to head the rest of the way to Ogden. It took us about 6 hours where on the way back it only took us 4 1/2. We arrived just in enough time to rearrange the stuff already in the storage unit to make room for the stuff I had brought down. We unloaded everything and got it packed in with just enough room for it all. It took us about 2-3 hours and just in time for it to get dark while driving to Jaren's parents house in Brigham City where we stayed two nights. Wednesday was a day of running around doing some errands in Logan, visiting some stores we like to visit every time we're up there, and visiting friends and family. Thursday was back up to Boise for another two nights with Melisa, Eric, Logan, and Lily. We got to take Lily and Logan (my adorable niece and nephew) trick-or-treating Holloween night. Lily was "Boo" from Monster's Inc. and Logan was the Nascar Cheerio race car driver. Melisa even made him a paper mache race car box with sponsers and everything. Lily was great at saying "trick-or-treat" while walking everywhere but would get too distracted to say it when the people came to the door because she knew she was about to get candy. She was always very polite at saying "thank you", though. This morning mom and I were back on the road again to come home. At least without the trailer the gas mileage was back up to 20 miles to the gallon. What a whirl-wind trip it was! It was such a stress relief to get it all taken care of so I don't have to worry about it anymore. It was also nice to see our friends the Shelley's in Logan along with Tyson, Whitney, Teresa, and Blake (Jaren's younger brother, sister, mom, and dad). Thanks again Melisa & Eric and Glover's for letting us stay with you! Happy November 1st everyone!

Logan & Lily trick-or-treating

Iraq Sept 08

Here are some nice pictures of where I'm at.

Here is my first dust storm. The dust is like very fine powder that somehow gets through everything including your boots and socks.

New Job

So, an update on Emily...I have officially moved in with my parents and Ashley to save on rent for the last 7-8 months that Jaren will be gone. I am grateful for their hospitality in allowing me to take up some of their space but alas, I will miss my OWN space. It's only for a few (several) months. I decided not to do college because we are trying to save money for a house when Jaren gets back. So to occupy some of my time I got a part-time job. I will be working at Kohl's for the holiday season. I start next week. I was also just asked to be in charge of organizing and putting together the Relief Society/Enrichment Christmas activity (dinner/program). My mom was asked too but she says I'm in charge and she's my helper. I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. This will definitely take up any spare time that I won't be working. I guess I don't have to worry about staying busy through the holidays!

Playing Photographer

My Mom and Dad are off touring all of the church history sights back east for a couple of weeks, so I'm hanging out with Ashley. She has been bugging me to take pictures of her with my new digital camera, a Nikon D40X. So we went out today and I played with my new camera. I do think that Ashley makes a cute subject. I did some slight editing of the photos on Picasa. Here are a few I took!

Playing Photographer continued...

This one of Ashley I saturated the color a bit to enhance the color of her new blue contacts.


We found a fuzzy caterpillar while we were taking pictures and decided to take one of him too.

Sweet Gift

A couple of weeks ago Jaren and I were talking on Skype and he asked me if I was going to be home for the next few days. I asked why he wanted to know because I was curious. He then rephrased his question and asked what I do during the day, so I told him. I didn't really think much of it after that until a couple of days later when he sent me an e-mail. At the end of the e-mail he said "P.S. I hope you like your present!" I knew then that he had been trying to be sneaky about finding out if I was going to be home to receive whatever he was sending in the mail for me. Sure enough, about a week later I get a package. It was from See's candy. Jaren had ordered and sent me a 2 LB BOX of Assorted Milk Chocolates. He knows how much I love chocolate and decided to send such a sweet gift to me. It truly made my day to know that Jaren would do such a cute thing! Men don't always remember to be so thoughtful so it was even more meaningful to know how much he thought about me. I love and appreciate him so much! I hope every girl is as lucky as I am! For those that are wondering what happened to the chocolates...I indulged in sitting at home reading books and eating my favorite chocolates for a day before taking the rest to my Mom and Dad's so they could take care of the rest. I am after all still on a diet! ~Emily

Cannon Beach

The second to last Saturday in August, Mom, Ashley, and I all took a trip to the Oregon coast. We did a bit of school clothes shopping for Ashley, stopped in a cute town to look at some shops, went to Cannon Beach, and treated ourselves to a scoop of ice cream at the Tillamook cheese factory before heading back home. There was a cool glass blowing store we went inside at the town we stopped in. We got to watch the artist creating a beautiful large glass bowl. We could feel the heat eminating even from across the room behind a partial glass wall. It was amazing to watch! Cannon beach had absolutely perfect weather. I don't think I have seen such a nice day on the beach at the Oregon coast before. I could have stayed there all day just reading a book. It was wonderful! Ashley and I played in the water a bit, planning to just get our feet wet. By the time we left I was wet clear up to my thighs from waves that snuck up on me and was dripping with sand sticking to me when I got in the car. Jeans are not the lightest things in the world when holding so much water. It was fun anyway and I was glad to spend some time with the girls on our day trip!

Girl's Camp

This is the Fisher's Landing Ward group that consisted of all second year campers. Oddly enough that's how it worked out. This is actually the last day at camp when we were waiting for our drivers to come. We were all tired and needed showers!

One of the campfire activities was the "Miss Melacoma" pageant where the girls dressed up their leaders and we had to prance around the stage. This is my mom next to me since she came as my camp assistant. The girls did a great job at making beautiful garbage bag outfits!

We had a color war day and all of the second years were supposed to wear green. It was convenient that we only had second years which is why they are all dressed in some green.

Girl's camp was a lot of fun for me as the camp director! It gave me a great opportunity to get to know the girls and have fun with them. Now that the stress of planning is over I can relax and I will also know what to expect next year! ~Emily

Iraq

Here are some local pictures from where I'm at. This first picture is building a floating bridge.

And here is the beauty of kuwait.

More to follow later!