Shower

Erin and I went up to see Susan for her baby shower. It was SO fun seeing her and spending the morning/afternoon going various places. I liked having Saturday off too.

Costco H'orderves

I have a habit of stopping by Costco on my way home from work on Thursdays. I usually get the same few items in rotation as needed: gas, bread, and milk. There is an extra reason for stopping by Costco too though: SAMPLES. Yes, I am one of those people who go around trying one of each sample with no intent to purchase anything more than my bread, or milk, or the gas that I already bought. Yesterday I was talking to my sister who works in the eye department and guess who comes up? My mom! She was there to eat samples too! I was very excited though I really don't think she taught me this habit. We proceded to each buy our one item but not before trying: beef sirloin, cheese, chips, BBQ chicken wings, salsa, chocolate pomogranite bites, and other assorted h'orderves most likely to get poor unsuspecting individuals to invest more money into their Superbowl celebrations, but not us, one item each and quite content after extreme light snacking.

January

Ok I am not saying I am a hater of the month of January, but it is definately not my favorite month. Yes, cool people have been born in this month, and New Years is a fresh start and all, but on a whole I am not in the cheering section for January. January is cold. January is full of days old dirty snow on the sides of the streets. January ends when light is just barely starting to hang around longer, so most of it is dark. January is just blah to me. My feelings for February are about the same unfortunately. March is a wild card every year, though less gloomy. Again, I am not a hater of these months they just don't do it for me is all.

Oquirrh Mountain

Our date night this week consisted of going to the temple. We tried Salt Lake first and were sad to find out it was closed. How wonderful to live in an area where there are three other options in the same valley when such misfortune comes! We decided to go to Oquirrh Mountain. It was a wonderful evening. I really like the picture I took when we were leaving because it has the moon and two stars around the temple (I know they are actually Venus and Saturn, but still, they look like stars) the second 'star' is getting cut off right above Moroni if you can't see it. Ganesh afterwards was delicious as always. While we were eating we were approached by one of the other diners. Turns out it was a fellow missionary from when JD was serving in India, it was fun watching JD and David catch up with life and reminisce a little.

Artie

This is a picture of Artie. He is my space heater and I love him a lot. Artie helps keep me warm in a rather cool basement, particularly during the winter time. Lately my favorite thing has been to take Artie into my bed room, turn him on full blast, curl up in a down comforter and read a book. I like Artie a lot.

Basmati

Some people like a candy bar or their favorite ice cream for a treat. JD's treat this week was a little different. I got him a 20 lb bag of basmati rice. When he got home from his mission he would comment on how weird rice was here compared to India and to be honest, I thought he was nuts. This has changed over the years as my pallate for Indian food has become more refined and I can now tell a very big difference between different kinds of rice, and basmati is the best. Erin came over tonight, we made a chicken curry and had it with the basmati and it was delicious, much better than the long white rice from the store.

"T" Benson

I have been reading the biography of Ezra Taft Benson this week and I am loving it. I am not usually a biography type of person, but this book is fascinating. There are so many neat stories, and just to see how life was when he as growing up is so neat and humbling. I love learning about his family, and Flora and her family, their memories of growing up and the things they liked to do. President Benson was my first prophet and while I can't remember any specific talks he gave, I do remember seeing him on the TV at my old house in Harrisville and sitting down to listen/watch him instead of playing with my toys. Super good book, I highly recommend it.