Thankful Tag

My cousin Amy tagged me with a Thankful Tag. This entails writing something for which you are thankful for each letter of your name. With Thanksgiving just around the corner, it is nice to take a step back and contemplate the goodness in our lives. These are just a few of the things I am thankful for:

Sisters

Home

Autumn weather

Nice Customers

Nieces and Nephew

Amazing husband

I'm getting excited for the break. I'm looking forward to good food, spending time with family, and relaxing. And of course contemplating the many blessings in my life for which I am thankful. I can't wait to make a great new recipe for a Sweet Potato Souffle (thanks to Heather)! I also can't wait to taste Brad's fabulous apple pie that he volunteered to make. He insists that he loves cooking and baking, so now I'm ready to see just how good he is at baking. I'm sure I'll be impressed. I tag Paula, Heather, Elise, Betsy, Shelley, Allison, and Julie. You don't have to, just if you want to. Have a great holiday everyone!

Another Tag!

My friend Amy Lambert tagged me awhile back and I'm finally going to complete it. It's Friday evening and I have about 1/2 hour left at work. Yeah! I'm really looking forward to a nice relaxing weekend.

10 YEARS AGO I WAS....

• 14 years old
• in the 8th grade
• a cheerleader for the boys basketball team
• excited to get my first round of braces off
• boy crazy

5 THINGS ON TODAY'S "TO DO" LIST

1. Lift weights (check)
2. Walk during my lunch break (check)
3. Go to a reception
4. Clean out the dishwasher (we'll see....)
5. Fold the laundry that's sitting in the dryer (tomorrow? hey it's a Friday night!)

SNACKS I ENJOY

• Soy yogurt (just tried this and it fulfills my yogurt cravings)
• Bananas with Adam's Peanut Butter
• Hummus with carrots, green peppers, and cucumbers as dippers
• Almonds and fruit

5 PLACES I'VE LIVED (STARTING FROM BIRTH)

1. Idaho Falls, ID
2. Rexburg, ID
3. Cambridge, MA
4. Orem, UT
5. That's all folks

JOBS I'VE HAD

• Custodian at my dad's office
• Tennis Instructor
• Teacher's Aid for a professor
• Health Care Supervisor and Logistics Manager for the Tennis Camps at Harvard
• Jamba Juice employee
• Hostess at EIRMC
• Education Specialist for Nutraceutical
• Foot Solutions employee

PEOPLE I TAG

• Heather Olsen
• Julie Arfmann

Halloween Pics

Brad and I went to our ward's Trunk or Treat on Halloween. I was already dressed in my gypsy costume from work and Brad got creative with some Smarties. As you can kind of see in the top picture, Brad taped Smarties to his pants all the way down. Do you get it? He's a "Smartie pants"! How did he ever come up with that? Oh wait, I did. But he did all the work. Anyway, we had fun eating and seeing all the fun costumes. Some of the trunks were decorated really well. Very creative. One woman had her trunk decorated with the Twilight Series as the theme. She had previews for the upcoming movie playing on a screen and all kinds of vampirish things. Well, I think due to this activity and due to the fact that the entrance to our apartment is on the side of the house, we did not have one single trick-or-treater. Poor Brad has to eat that 5 lb. bag of candy all by himself. I think that was his plan all along! We also had fun watching part of a movie on our neighbor's lawn on their big blow-up screen. Fun times.

Seven Things

My good friend Kasi tagged me a few days ago. I've been tagged several times this week, but don't worry, I'll spread them out so it's not a super long post. And so you have time to read every word, right?! By the way, I didn't list these in any particular order, so number 1 is not necessarily more important than number 7.

7 Things I plan to do before I die…
1. Go on a really nice long luxurious cruise (at least once)
2. Go to Europe with Brad
3. Have children and grandchildren
5. Serve a mission or two
6. Become a patient, kind, charitable, thoughtful person
7. Become really good at something....piano, decorating, cooking, tennis, naturopathy...I don't care what it is, just find a passion for something and enjoy the process of becoming skillful at it.

7 Things I can do…
1. Cook and eat good food (I'm especially good at the eating part)
2. Give good massages
3. Play piano
4. Sing
5. Sew (some help needed)
6. Dance
7. Play tennis

7 Things I cannot do…
1. Read about stuff that doesn't interest me at all, my mind wanders the whole time
2. Live without chocolate (okay I probably would survive, but I would be kind of grumpy)
3. Multi-task (I sure try, but in reality, I'm just better at doing one thing at a time)
4. See the forest for all the trees are in my way
5. Eat dairy foods (sometimes I try, and then I pay for it later)
6. Write my posts quickly
7. Live without Brad (don't worry Brad, you come before chocolate!)

7 Things That Attract Me To Brad…
1. His thoughtfulness
2. His blue eyes
3. His ability to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time
4. He's tall (to me), dark, and handsome
5. His ability to relax and not stress out
6. He's athletic
7. He's hard-working

7 Things I say most often…
1. I need a nap
2. Have a nice day. Mmbye.
3. Nutritional Product Helpline, this is Shanna, how may I help you?
4. Seriously
5. I'm sorry
6. I love you (to Brad of course)
7. I should....

7 Favorite Celebs...
1. Tom Hanks
2. Reese Witherspoon
3. Will Smith
4. Taylor Swift
5. Matthew McConaughey
6. Jerry Seinfeld
7. David Archuletta

7 Favorite Foods...
1. Hot fudge brownie sundaes
2. Cinnamon rolls
3. Italian food
4. Mexican food
5. Homemade bread
6. Chocolate
7. Peanut butter

Halloween Fun at Work!

We all decided to get into the spirit of things and dress up for Halloween. From left to right: Betsy's a cowgirl, I'm a gypsy (I forgot my big dangly earrings at home :(. And my pose is totally awkward :)! I was pretending I had a tamberine on my hip. Weird I know! Oh well), Elise is Sarah Palin, Paula is a jail bird, and Heather is a rockstar. We played a fun matching game, thanks to Heather's creativity. We matched homeopathic names to their common names, all on cute halloween paper. Don't you wish you could have played? We've had a fun day so far. Dressing up is so fun. If only I could convince Brad of that!

Remember Me?!

As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot...anything you remember! Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty cool (and funny) to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you!

Weekend Fun

Whew! This was a full and fun weekend. Friday night I went to a Relief Society enrichment activity right after work. It was called Midnight Madness. As the name implies, this activity lasted well into the night. We had a yummy dinner which included salad and breadsticks from Olive Garden, which I love!! Then it was on to the crafts. I had signed up for three different projects. I should take pictures of them to post. I think they turned out pretty well, seeing how I don't do crafty stuff all that often. I had a good time getting to know the ladies in the ward. It's been fun being in a Relief Society with women of all ages again. I love learning from the wisdom of those who have been around a bit longer than me. We've really enjoyed our ward so far. Anyway, I stayed until about 10:30 p.m. so I could finish my projects. Then I finally came home to my lonesome husband. He didn't know what to do with himself without me. Actually, I think he enjoyed being able to watch all the football he wanted without me hasseling him to change the channel to something interesting. He deserved it after a very intense week with school.

Then Saturday, while the boys/men went to the BYU football game (where Brad got very sunburned), the girls went shopping, of course. This included my mother-in-law Tammy, Shelley and Megan (Brad's younger sisters), and me. We hit up the Provo mall and the University Mall. This kept us busy for several hours. No major purchases on my part. Just a couple of pairs of earrings. Nothing really jumped out at me. Much to Brad's relief, I'm sure! It was fun just looking around and helping the others look for things. Then we went to the Sunflower Market which is the new farmer's market in town. I was telling the girls about the great deals there and they thought it would be fun to check it out. Sure enough, there were still plenty of great deals there so we all got stocked up on some cheap produce. I'm talking 10 cents per grapefruit! It was fun spending time with Tammy, Shelley, and Megan. We had a good girls day out. For the grand finale, we met up with everyone at Grandma Roper's house for a pizza party to celebrate her birthday. We had a great time talking and relaxing, and well, eating of course! I love hearing stories about Brad's younger years, and when the family gathers I'm sure to hear more about the little mischief maker that he was. Of course he's all grown up and way past that now, right?:) It's been fun having Brad's family living right here in Utah. We get to see them a lot more and we love it!