School.

Do I like school?

YES.
When I was in school, did I like school?

Not immensely.
Do I regret that?

YES.

It is really a two-sided topic for me.

When in school, I LOVED:
-Interacting with people
-Walking around between classes and to/from campus
-Having a variety of projects and assignments that interested me
-Doing different things every day of my life!
-Being challenged mentally
-Engaging in thought provoking discussions
-WRITING papers!
-Organizing my time and choosing my priorities throughout the day
-Learning new, cool things that expanded my vision

Now, I LOVE:
-Having my nights FREE! I really can’t imagine giving that up!
-Never feeling guilty for not working on that paper or getting ahead on my project when I’m out having fun!
-Never fighting my professors for an A
-Reading for fun, instead of some text book
-Having my own desk/ office to decorate
-Being an expert on certain subjects and knowing all the answers to people’s questions
-Not studying for hours, not even knowing if I was or wasn’t ready for the test.

I’m not super sure what the point of this post was, but I guess it could be to LOVE your life if you’re a student now, and LOVE your life if you’re a worker. And if you're a mom, I'm sure there's a lot to LOVE too :)

I can't believe it's been a YEAR since I went through the temple! WOW, time flies!

There is just so much to LOVE in life!

Do you want the bad news or the good news first?

The Good news is that we miraculously got a notice in the mail for a $100 credit at

The Hotel Del in San Diego!

Combined with the leftover from our honeymoon, we hopefully have enough to have a REALLY great time over Christmas break :)

(When I told Scott about the credit, he said this was the BEST news he has gotten since we got married!)

The bad news is that it was soooo cold this morning that my lock to get in the car was sort of frozen shut, and once I did get going, the gears didn't shift so well. I can tell it is going to be a long winter...

To Wine, or not to Wine?

It all started with a beautiful pot roast:Then Scott got a stroke of inspiration to use the bottle of red wine we got from the Hotel Del last January... This was our first time ever cooking with any kind of wine, so we were pretty unsure what to do. The first task was to get the cork out. It took quite a bit of brainstorming to come up with the idea to use an actual screw and these orange things below in lieu of an actual corkscrew. Scott thought maybe 1 cup would do the trick. Ha. Luckily, we only put in half a cup, but even that was a bit much. Turns out the potatoes really absorb. Who knew? We decided not to have guests over because you could taste/smell the wine pretty well. Next time I think we will just put 1/4 cup right onto the meat when we sear it.

All in all, it tasted delicious and was very juicy with rich flavor. I usually let the roast cook in the Crock Pot, but this dutch oven was a dream! Thank goodness we got this wine as a free gift, I think I would be too nervous to go to the liquor store and I'd have no clue what to buy. Have you cooked with any unique ingredients lately? Do you have a corkscrew?

Time to Prepare for Christmas!!!

First, You choose 6-8 fantastic Christmas fabrics. I would suggest some darker, some lighter for contrast! Cut them into 2 inch strips and sew together either straight across, or at a bit of an angle for a more scrappy look (that's what I did). Be sure to iron every step of the way. (I'm not a big ironer, but it's a big deal for this project. Keep sewing strips until it looks as long or longer than you want your stocking to be. I just drew my pattern onto newspaper and used that for my template. Make it a bit bigger that you want your stocking to account for seams! I attached it to just 1 layer of my favorite "Warm and Natural" batting, then, top-stitched over all my seams with a zig zag stitch. This is to make sure it doesn't bust apart with all the goods on Christmas morning, and just to make it look cuter :) (oh, and be sure to cut the stocking out whichever direction you want the toe pointing. Look at your fireplace for inspiration!) I threw these tops on (with 2 layers of warm and natural) and attached a little loop to the top. I also put a liner inside (using the same newspaper pattern) with the same fabric I used for that top rim. This is a

super easy and fun

project even beginners can do!

So there you go, His and Her stockings :)

Please Pray.

Please pray for Scott’s brother John. The past 2 days have been alarming and scary and hopeful for our family. Two nights ago John was attacked at a skate park in Hawaii. As his sister Christina wrote, “John was hit in the head and knocked unconscious. He was then hit in the head with a metal rod and then beaten when he was down.” Some friends that were with him took him to the hospital in Laie.

John is now in the best hospital in Honolulu with a fracture from one ear over the top of his head to above the other ear. He has blood on his brain, and now has staples holding his scalp in place.

Thanks to Christina’s flight benefits, she, John and SueAnn were able to fly out and reach him very quickly. Since they arrived he has been conscious and remembers the family.

John is the most genuine, mellow, good-hearted person. He has truly helped me feel loved and included in the Hathaway family which has meant the world to me. It breaks my heart that violence happens and hurts people and families who are so good.

Please remember John Jr. in your prayers and on fast Sunday. We need faith, prayers and miracles as we work toward a full recovery for John.

THANK YOU to all those of you who have already reached out in love and support for our family, we feel the love and prayers. We have already seen miracles and we are faithful that miracles will continue to come about on the road to recovery.

For Halloween Dinner, We Ate:

Monster Taco Salad

and

Worms n' Dirt :)

Happy Halloween!

We got duped.

We thought the closest place to find bison was Yellowstone.

Well, we got duped.

There are currently ~750 heads of Bison/Bull just over an hour from our house.

I can barely believe it. We've been talking about

Antelope Island

since we started dating, and this weekend, finally found ourselves there!

If you don't make it to the Great Salt Lake any time soon, just know that it smells exactly like a Porta-Potty. Exactly.

What a great day to be alive :)