all done!

I thought I should give an update about how I'm doing, since I know some people want to know, and I'd rather just type it out instead of telling them myself. Sometimes I feel awkward saying it all out loud. Please, feel free to skip this post if you find it's a little too personal.

I'm off birth control!!! I only ovulated once (released eggs) since March, possibly longer since I only started keeping track in March with my monitor, so my doctor put me on birth control for three months. She said it would regulate my hormones and make my body start balancing itself on its own. Seems fishy to me, but it's the only option she gave me, and I felt like I had to do something. I asked for Chlomid, since, you know, it would actually make me ovulate instead of taking the chance that birth control might do that, but we had a little argument about it and she refused to give it to me. (I don't really want to go back to her. I didn't like her all that much, but I don't have a choice because of insurance stuff). But John was on board with the birth control, and it is the least invasive step to take if it works, so I did it. And I just took my last pill. And I did a happy dance.

It was frustrating, but a little relaxing to know I couldn't get pregnant the last three months. No ovulation monitors, no charts or keeping track of things. It made time go faster for sure since I wasn't ticking days off a calendar.

If the birth control worked and I'm back on my normal cycle, I will be able to test for pregnancy on January 1st. What a symbolic thing to happen if I see a positive on the test. A new year, indeed! Although, I'm not keeping my fingers crossed. If the last two years have taught me anything, it's never hope for a positive pregnancy test. (However, if by a God-sent miracle I do conceive this month, my estimated due date would be September 7th... of all 365 days of the year, what a day to pick. That would be two years to the day that I miscarried my first baby. I'll just have to handle that doozie if it actually happens.)

thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving dinner last week! Victoria and Craig ate with us, and it was fun to have a full table.

Our menu:

Green bean casserole

Turkey!

Mashed potatoes

Veggies

Orange glazed yams

White rolls

Stuffing

Cookie pie (Victoria) and pumpkin pie (John)

Gravy

Set table with our china and goblets

John's plate

We were really sad that we didn't take a picture of the turkey before John carved it! It looked beautiful. Since I had to work the night before Thanksgiving, and slept that morning before dinner, I didn't have much time to make a lot of the dinner. So I am so happy that John was such a good cook and was willing to cook. John did the turkey, which he brined the day and night before, and then added the vegetables to cook in the turkey drippings while it was in the oven. He made mashed potatoes from those. He also made the pumpkin sweet potato pie, which was great, especially since it was his first attempt at a pie. He also made the gravy which was very delicious!

I did have time to make rolls before going into work on Wednesday, then we warmed them back up before dinner. Then I made the yams, green bean casserole, and stuffing right before dinner. It was very yummy, and we loved having lot of leftovers! Our favorite is what we have called Thanksgiving Pie that I made tonight. We chopped up some carrots, celery, and onion, added peas, threw in some shredded turkey meat, and stirred it all up in a bunch of gravy. We lined a casserole dish with mashed potatoes, added the meat mixture, and covered it with a pie crust. Put it in the oven, and bam! Thanksgiving in a pie. It was wonderful and the easiest thing for leftovers.

I can't turn the picture on the blog (the file on my computer is the right direction).

After we ate, we watched Scrooge, the musical version with Albert Finney. Victoria had never seen any version of A Christmas Carol, and since this is the best version, I wanted her to have the best experience possible with her first viewing of the story. I put up our tree and decorated it while we watched. Then the four of us did clean up (which was lovely that my guests helped so I didn't have to do all of it later by myself). We called/skyped our families, then John, Craig, and I went Black Friday shopping.

We went to Best Buy and got a few movies, and I got new earbuds. Craig also got some movies. The lines were so long that we didn't finish and leave until 2:30. John went home and went to bed, and I went out again to JC Penney's. They had the most amazing, perfect boots that I have been looking for for two years. But the smallest size they had was still too big! I was so disappointed. I bought a necklace for myself from John for Christmas, some new white cuff-link shirts for John, and two long-sleeved shirts for me! I also went to Bath and Body Works to get more Twilight Woods soap and lotion since my hoard at home was running low.

When I got up Friday afternoon, John and I went out again to Barnes and Noble to get a book he's been wanting for a long time, and then to WalMart just to see what was going on and look at Christmas stuff.

We had a great holiday!

new every day

I just learned how to spell "chiseled." Not groundbreaking knowledge, but still new.

Here is why I had to learn chiseled.

"That Jacob lookalike has chiseled abs."

We went to watch Bella almost die. And we were satisfied.

kitchen sweeties

I have a little secret that is a little embarrassing but kind of funny, too, because I'm sure a lot of people do this, or something like it. When I bake, I imagine myself on a cooking show and think of what I would say to describe what I'm doing, and have little historical facts or funny quips to add. Of course there is a laugh track in my mind thinking I'm so charming as I flash a big smile.I was thinking of this because I'm making orange tea rolls right now. The dough is in the bowl (hopefully) rising.

Thinking of my culinary endeavors, my mind trailed back to the many, many careers I wanted as I've grown up. I wanted to be a...

• Ballerina in early elementary school. I remember a picture I drew once in class when the teacher asked us to draw what we wanted to be when we grew up. I think I saw it in my accordion folder my mom has of all my childhood achievements.
• Airplane stewardess in 4th grade. Hey, I had just flown in an airplane for the first time in my life and thought I was indestructible. I wanted to feel like that forever, and liked how happy all of the stewardesses were. I announced this to my class after the school counselor came by to do some sort of presentation and asked everyone what they wanted to be... All of my classmates laughed at me.
• Homemaker in 5th grade. Same counselor, same presentation. I had abandoned the thought of a stewardess after the embarrassment from last year, and said I wanted to stay at home and be a mom. My classmates laughed harder than last time, but I just got mad this time. I remember yelling, "I will be able to stay home and watch TV and eat cake and do whatever I want while you're stuck at stupid jobs!" ...because that's exactly what moms do all day with their kids...
• Scientist in 6th grade. I had just won my school's science fair and thought I was AWESOME. I'm pretty sure I had no idea that there are like, a thousand different types of scientists. I just wanted to be a scientist and do science forever!
• Astronomer in early 7th grade. I don't really know why I wanted to do this. I just wanted to study space and stars.
• "Imagineer" in late 7th grade. The Disney Channel would do these little 2 minute commercial break shows, and one was about the engineers who design all of the Disneyland rides, called Imagineers (hah, clever, Disney). Combined with my want, no, NEED to be a scientist, I had no other eyes than ones set on designing roller coasters at Disneyland. This career choice actually lasted a few years.
• Psychologist in 9th grade. In my speech class we had to give a presentation about the career we wanted. I think this is when my brother, Drew, started studying psychology in college and it seemed like fun.
• Actress 9th/10th grade. I was hot stuff on the stage and wanted to be a good role model actress. Later I realized I wouldn't be able to do hardly any movies because my morals would prevent me from doing them.
• English teacher in 11th grade. I had my favorite teacher, Mr. Petite, and wanted to be exactly like him.
• Supreme Court Judge in 12th for a little less than a week. My government class did a supreme court simulation, and I was one of those selected to be a judge because I was most moderate of my classmates in my political views. I thought it was so fun to listen to cases and use facts, past cases, laws, etc. to decide outcomes. It was one project that I gladly spent hours and hours every night working and researching at home to pick the winner and type up a defense of my decision. Then I remembered that I hate politics, politicians, backstabbing, and CSPAN, and that one doesn't just simply apply to be a judge. They are hand-picked and stay for life. Man, we sure did a lot of fun simulations. But that's a post for another day.
• Nurse freshman year of college. I wanted to help people and I thought I was still good at science. Then I took an introduction to nursing class and decided that I didn't want to do that. I wanted to explore more before I decided the rest of my life.
  
• Pastry chef end of freshman year. I love to bake and wanted... still want... to learn from professionals.
• Ballroom dancer beginning sophomore year. I had no idea what I would do with a degree in ballroom dance, or where I would dance. I just liked to dance and wanted to do it all the time.
• School psychologist sophomore year. I took an MFHD (now isn't it SFL?) class from Dr. Nelson and loved loved loved it. I wanted to be an MFHD major and school psychology seemed like a decent career to get into with that.
• Librarian sophomore year. I heard that there was actually a major called Library Science, and that combined with my love of books made me a little excited. I didn't tell very many people about this one because I imagined them all starting to sing "Marion the Librarian" to me and telling me I'd be an old maid. Because all old maids are librarians, right? (I'd actually still like to do this...)
• High school English teacher junior year. With the school psychology idea I realized that I want to work with teenagers. I would be very happy doing that, but the long schooling and counseling part of the school psychology didn't please me. So the winner is the career choice from my junior year. I wish I hadn't listened to the multitude of people telling me I didn't want to be a teacher. If I had gone to school with that very first instead of nursing (which I think my mom brainwashed me into that :D) I could be done by now.

Well, I need to go check and see if my dough has doubled! Maybe I'll post pictures when they're done/if they turn out. I have a hard time with yeast...

paul mccartney

I admit it- I have already been listening to Christmas music. A lot of people have very strong opinions about that, and they are allowed to not like listening to it before Thanksgiving, but I do. (I actually saw a very, very heated argument online where people were hating on each other when they didn't agree about when it's okay to start listening to Christmas music. I never realized how strongly people feel about it... and think they are silly for arguing about it, because it's a personal preference. No one is right or wrong here.) Anyway, a radio station started playing it the day after Halloween, and I've had it on whenever I drive somewhere. Since I don't drive that often, I get a good dose of Christmas music that way without overloading before Christmas actually comes.

And this year, I have decided to keep track of how many times I hear the worst Christmas song in history. One of the beloved members of The Beatles created this monstrosity, and for some reason, it is played non-stop.

You may disagree about it being the worst Christmas song ever, and I do vacillate between this one and Wham's "Last Christmas." But for this year, I will go with Paul's "Wonderful Christmastime."

The count clock will be kept on a side bar on my blog right underneath my "I Believe" Mormon.org profile link and above my recently read list. So have fun keeping track with me!

mulled cranberry apple cider

I altered the original recipe my mom sent to make it easier. The original called for random amounts of juice and I didn't have a way to measure it. So I just did 50/50 cranberry and apple. I also doubled this to make a large batch.

64 oz. bottle cranberry juice cocktail

64 oz. bottle apple juice
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3 inches cinnamon stick
1 tsp. whole allspice
1 tsp. whole cloves

Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, simmer, covered 20 mins. Remove spices.

If you don't have the whole allspice/cloves, it still works with ground. Just add half of what it calls for.

Also, when doubling (to make the math easier) it's one gallon of each juice to make a total 2 gallon batch.

i'm famous!

I'm just too excited about this!

Geeksaresexy.net is one of my favorite websites that I frequent. It's a site that posts the most recent and cutting-edge technology, science and social news, as well as silly videos, pictures, and jokes. It's such a fun place to explore. I must warn you, be prepared to spend a lot of time on it. I admit that sometimes I completely skip some stories (ones about video games I've never heard of, or ones that use a lot of big sciencey words...) but I always learn something new every time I go on it. Like today, I learned about the chemistry behind making hard candy, about a new technology that can change the color of eyes from brown to blue permanently, the largest Reese's Peanut Butter Cup for sale, and that Amazon is now doing an ebook lending program for (Amazon Prime) kindle users! I am very excited to have an online library to use now!

So on Halloween, they asked readers to submit photos of their costumes. The staff would then go through, pick their favorites, and feature them on the website in a gallery. I just had to submit a photo. I just didn't now if I wanted to give them a picture of this year's Aragorn and Arwen, or 2009's Han and Leia. John did an awesome photoshop job with our Star Wars costume picture, so I decided to send that one.

I went back just now to cruise the site and see the new updates, and remembered that I emailed the picture. I didn't really think they would pick our picture to feature, but they did! I was so excited!

See it here!

They said they had a huge response of over 250 pictures. So I was flattered they picked ours with a few others.

it still exists

I made an amazing discovery tonight!

I was traversing through my old blog posts and made it to one that mentioned a website that I had made when John and I were engaged. I clicked on the link, and it still works!

Allison and John: Our Wedding

It was fun to look through everything- read the stories I had written, look at the pictures and guest book... it made me think about our engagement period and how exciting it was, and how impatient I was.

halloween: lord of the rings

Well, another Halloween has passed. This year was very successful, too! John and I dressed up as King Aragorn and Queen Arwen this year (with terrible wigs!) and had a bunch of friends over to celebrate. John wore the cloak I had sewn for him for the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II premiere, made a breastplate from cardboard, wielded a copy of Anduril, and accessorized with my Evenstar and his Lothlorien leaf clasp. I finally wore a dress I bought on super clearance from a costume shop who-knows-how-long ago and my tiara that I wore when I got married. I had fun baking and planning the night before while listening to horribly corny Halloween music (Ghostbusters Theme, Addams Family Theme, "Thriller," "Werewolves of London," "Purple People Eater," "I Put a Spell on You," and "Love Potion Number Nine.") I made my very favorite pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting and attempted to make mini pumpkin pies. The bars turned out absolutely perfectly. The pies... they turned into sticky goop that, apparently, according to John, tasted just fine, but were hard to eat since they stuck to the cup cake liners. But it was just pumpkin, vanilla pudding, egg, and sugar, so they had to have tasted good.

And, yes, that is Victoria being a creeper.

So we ended up with a great menu- pumpkin bars, sliced apples with caramel, strawberries, and hot apple cider. The cider is my mom's recipe, and it is delicious. I have a feeling I will be making much more of it in the near future, especially since John and I will be spending the end-of-year holidays by ourselves in Provo this year. Our guests contributed by bringing an amazing chocolate peanut butter cake, some Chex Mix, more apples (which was perfect to balance out the extra caramel we had!), and kettle corn.

So the night started out with our first trick-or-treaters we've had in the three Halloweens that we've been married. I was so excited that I didn't really care that the adults were also dressed up, had trick-or-treat bags, and were asking for candy. Luckily, sensing a repeat of last year, I hadn't bought any candy to pass out. However, in case we did have a few kids come to our door, we were prepared with a few pieces from goodie bags that John's mom had given us. We were left with way too much candy last year and it would have just set me up for disappointment again if I had actually bought any.

Then lots of friends came over, we ate, we watched Sleepy Hollow, and just had a great Halloween. What else is this holiday for besides dressing up in fun costumes and eating lots of sugar while watching creepy movies?

Harry and Hermione

Tiger Lily and Peter Pan

Daleks! (Mom, click on that to find out what they are.)

"Occupy Provo" protestors: "My arms are tired" is my favorite.

I'm sure Suki is most relieved that Halloween is over because now she has a whole 364 days left to go until she's forced to stay inside all evening again (we don't let her out on Halloween night). And she's free to sleep on my wig now that I don't need it anymore. I was hoping to throw it away, but she has decided that it's her new bed.

Speaking of next Halloween, I wonder if I can convince John to be Rhett Butler so I can be Scarlett O'Hara. Rhett is super sexy, so who wouldn't want to be him? Or maybe I should do what my mom did and make my husband be Mammy. (Note: I wouldn't actually have him do "blackface" and willingly offend anyone. This picture was taken a long time ago.)