i am in denial that the weekend is over

I am having a lot of [pretty meaningless] thoughts right now, so bear with me.

This was our Thanksgiving break:

Doctor Who
Bejeweled
mashed potatoes and gravy

repeated for four days straight.

I also finished reading Into Thin Air about the 1996 Mount Everest climb that went horribly wrong. Aaron's been obsessed with the idea of mountain climbing lately for no known reason, so he really wants to trek to Everest base camp. After reading that book, I never want to step foot on a mountain EVER.

This was meant to be its own post, but what the heck, I'll just tack it on here: I went shopping by myself on Saturday for Christmas clothes. I think it's a law of nature that whenever you're ready to spend money on clothes, you can't find anything you like, but when you can't buy anything, everything looks amazing. This seems to be especially true at Urban Outfitters, which currently seems to have the goal of "How ugly can we make this shirt and still charge $60 for it?" Seriously. Some ugly things going on in that place right now. Also, a lot of sheer things. Actually, that was true for every store. I find sheer clothing extremely annoying, because I am sick to death of wearing undershirts under everything I own, and now I have a if-I-can't-wear-it-without-anything-under-it-then-I'm-not-buying-it policy. They did have a beautiful princess pleated peach maxi skirt that I did want to buy, but: sheer. I also have no idea what I would wear with it. Also discovered: I would really like some polka dot tights, and I love really long loose shirts. I am all about cozy these days.

I did find two shirts at H&M that met my long, cozy, not sheer criteria, so victory me. I also found a beautiful quiche dish at Crate and Barrel for $10 plus 15% off plus free shipping. No intention of making quiche (I hate eggs-omelettes, quiche, breakfast burritos, scrambled eggs, eggs on sandwiches, etc.), but it will make a lovely tart dish or serving dish. I love free shipping so so so much. The only time I shop online is when I can get things shipped for free. Good thing we have Amazon Prime so we get free shipping all the time!

Okay, I think this has gone on long enough. I wish every weekend was a four day weekend.

praise god from whom all blessings flow

Last week in church was a little unconventional. Since it was the week of Thanksgiving, our branch president asked a bunch of people to come up and share what they were thankful for, but in their native language. We had people come up and talk in Tagalog (Philippines), Tamil (Sri Lanka), Vietnamese, Mandarin, and Italian. And that wasn't even all of the people from different countries in our branch! It was really neat. I don't know why, but I especially liked the testimony of the sister who spoke in Mandarin. Obviously, I couldn't understand the words she was saying, but as tears rolled down my cheeks I understood the spirit of what she was saying.

Because of ballroom, I've had the chance to go to church all over the US and a few countries in Europe. I'm always struck by how it's more or less the same everywhere you go. It's the same doctrine, and we're all just trying to do our best to be like Jesus. I think that's really powerful, and this week, I'm really thankful to belong to that kind of an organization.

happy [late] thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving, we made these:

The turkey looks weird because we spatchcocked it: removed the backbone and flattened it for more even and faster cooking. Result: a perfectly cooked turkey in 80 minutes. BOOM.

(+ rolls, stuffing, green beans, mashed potatoes)

We were thankful it tasted delicious.

gobble gobble

Aaron and I are doing Thanksgiving by ourselves in Philly this year. We've had a few offers to come have Thanksgiving with friends and family scattered along the East Coast, and while we would love the spend the holiday with everyone, we're a little burned out and just want to hang out at home.

So, we bought a 12 lb turkey. We'll probably be eating it for the next 6 months. I have read more articles about roasting turkeys in the past three days than I've read scientific papers in the past two weeks (oops). I'm super intimidated! We've never even roasted a chicken before, so this should be interesting. I've also read a lot about apple pie and making gravy, neither of which we've made before either. Oh the drama that is sure to unfold in our house come Thursday! We're pretty good at making mashed potatoes, honey glazed carrots, rolls, and pie crust, though, so if all else fails we'll just have a vegetarian Thanksgiving. NOT, we'll order take-out from Han Dynasty.

What are your Thanksgiving plans? You have any turkey/gravy/apple pie tips you want to share? Or what to do with the 10+ pounds of turkey we'll have left over?

(this is an open invitation to come eat our food)

at least aaron took really good care of me

This photo is for you, Amanda. :)

Today I felt like yuck all day and came home from church and threw up. This is after I've been sick with a cough all week and haven't slept through the night since last Sunday. I'm really disappointed because I was planning on making a skillet cookie + ice cream this evening to take to a party at someone's house in our branch, but alas. Vomiting has dissuaded me. 

Unrelated, but I think I'm going to be a pretty horrible pregnant person to be around. I hate feeling nauseous (well, okay, I guess no one likes feeling nauseous but I'm a little more vocal about my dislike), and I am no good at tolerating pain. This afternoon post-puking I also had a mildly throbbing headache and I just laid in bed writhing about, thinking how this was the WORST thing EVER. However, I don't think I've actually ever experienced legitimately awful pain. I've never had a migraine. I've never broken a bone or needed stitches. One time I had a root canal done without any anestesia, and that was pretty bad, but that's all I got. The worst pain I ever felt was a root canal, how pathetic is that?

I guess the point of this is I'm a complainer, and I feel bad I can't go to that party after I told the person at church that we were excited to come. Oh well. WOE IS ME.

forget chemist, i should've been a ballerina

Last week we survived a hurricane and hosting a Halloween party, so it was a success! Now we have enough cereal, granola bars, bottled water, and canned beans to last us until the next hurricane comes along. Just kidding, the bottled water will last the rest of our lives since we never actually drink it.

We watched a good amount of tv/movies this week since we never lost power. We finally saw "Moonrise Kingdom." Someone please remind me next September that I want to be Suzy for Halloween 2013. That blue eyeshadow just really makes me happy, and I haven't put mine to good use since ballroom (> 2 year old eyeshadow = gross?). We also watched "First Position," the documentary about kids competing in the Youth America Grand Prix ballet competition, and it was fantastic. So much beautiful dancing, and the kids were so adorable. We discovered that the dance studio, the Rock School which we drive past every Sunday on our way to church is actually pretty legit. Way to go, Philly!

If you need more convincing to watch it, here's the trailer:

Hope you had a lovely Halloween! We're still eating homemade oreos, pumpkin cupcakes, and candy corn so we're still enjoying it.