Must be Halloween

I went to make berry syrup for my pancakes, and got this:

Looks like a scene from an evil scientist's kitchen, eh?

I lit a candle to make the house smell a little better (our warmer's lamp burned out) and got this:

Pretty oozy, huh?

I cleaned out the fridge. I'll spare you the picture, but it was perhaps the scariest thing I'll see this Halloween. Spooky.

Also, I just realized I've been calling today Halloween, because tomorrow is Sunday. Silly me.

Tomorrow, for real Halloween, Zach and I are carving pumpkin pies.

That's right. You heard me. Carving PIES.

I'm so excited.

P.S. For anyone interested, the recipe that caused my Halloween Microwave Horror:

Best Ever FlapJacks

Mix the following ingredients:

2 eggs

1 c. buttermilk

1 1/4 c. flour (I used white wheat flour, YUM)

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. baking soda

2 TB sugar

1-2 TB oil

Cook on a hot griddle. I like to add a little butter to the skillet/griddle when I cook them instead of buttering the pancakes later. I usually eat them with that berry syrup (frozen berries + sugar to taste + microwaved until hot) and top them with whipped cream. DELISH.

Emmons Family Update

I'm playing catch-up blog, but I'm too lazy to make separate posts. So you get it all in one big whopper. =]

In either July or August, Zach took me to the Eastern Idaho State Fair. I don't think I've posted any pictures yet, shame on me!

We had a blast!! It was my first fair ever, and I loved just soaking it all up. Zach said it was "almost as good" as the one he grew up with in CA. I guess poor Idaho has a lot to compete with.

Zach went the cultured route and had a gyro for diner, but I bought a hand-battered corn dog to feel more state-fair-ish. Right after I ate it, I saw this poster on one of the vendor's stands.

A pig dipping corn dogs in grease... made me feel super classy. =]

I think this also happened in August: to celebrate 2 years without an accident, Melaleuca threw us a party at the Rexburg Air Museum that was catered by Texas Roadhouse. Kind of a random location, but it was soooo fun. They gave us free candles and $25 (each) to Texas Roadhouse.

Zach had a blast educating me about all the planes. He knew all of their names, specs, history, etc.... As everyone was cleaning up, one of the museum volunteers noticed us looking, and had us come back where he was working. He gave Zach a tour/quiz of all the model planes and WWII plane history, etc. A night well spent!

**I would like to note that I have lost weight since that atrocious picture of me in the middle there. Hooray!**

I have been feeling super crafty. My new favorite thing to do (besides writing) is making fabric flowers! I turn them into hair clips, embellishments, headbands, etc...

The picture of my friend is her showing of the headband I made for her birthday. (Yo yo flower and buttons.) The bottom right is a card I made for some hair clips I was taking to my old roommate's baby shower.

I learned a new technique the other day (See top right photo, which demonstrates how to make most of the flowers in the top left photo) from an awesome blog... check it out HERE.

Aaaaand, as part of our mega pre-holiday excitement, we carved pumpkins with our friends John and Cassandra Beck. They were going with a Mario theme, and I was looking for a relatively simple design, so....

They made Mario, and we made one of the bad-guy-mushrooms! (I never played Mario as a kid, I think it's called a Gumba or something?) Yes, I know, theirs is a little more impressive. But we were pretty proud of ours too. =]

Last week or so, I won 2nd place in the English Department's Pre-Professional Conference (I'm still not sure exactly how to explain what that means) Fiction writing contest. AWESOME! I was so stoked and excited, and Zach was super sweet to be excited with me. He called his mom to tell her, and started the news like this, "Mom, guess what? [pause] Your precious daughter-in-law ...[increasing suspense]... won 2nd place in a writing contest!" We realized later she was probably totally expecting us to say I was pregnant. Oops! ha ha ha.

Zach has been rocking out his homework like a champ. He's been swamped with tough classes and work three nights a week, so today we got a little rebellious and ran away to the Cocoa Bean when he was supposed to be in Physics. It was super fun, and brought back a flood of memories from when we were engaged. (Speaking of which, November 7th will mark one year since Zach proposed! Hooray!)

Anyway, that's life according to us so far. Maybe I'll be better at keeping this updated so you guys don't have to sit through all that again. =]

Lately...

Been having some bad dreams lately. But I figure around a certain time of the month a girl's allowed to eat as much chocolate as she wants, and that helps. Plus my sweet husband gives me plenty of hugs when I need them. And memories like this help:

Sorry, not trying to make anybody cry. It's just, most of my bad dreams have been centered around losing people. So I have to think of happy times.

Autumn is definitely here in Rexburg, and it's got me excited for the holidays! I look around and see Halloween decorations going up and my instinct is to call family. I certainly miss them. But it's also really exciting to have my own place to decorate! I'll have to post pictures soon, we have a Halloween door mat and a witch on the door, plus a rapidly-disappearing pile of candy corn. =]

Love this season!