Round 2

I decided to give making another batch of orange rolls another shot and crossed my fingers they would turn out more light and fluffy. With a few changes which included sifting the flour, letting the scalded milk cool before adding it to the mixture, as well as letting the dough raise overnight, I am happy to say they ended up successful. I was excited, now I just wish I had more excuses to make them.

Holiday Shopping

I have made it my goal to never go out shopping on what might possibly be the craziest shopping day ever, but since I had the day off and didn't want to sit at home alone, I took up my friends invitation to go shopping with them. I met this darling family of mostly girls through Brandon, he shares an office with Joan's husband and also works her sister Rithka at Pechanga. They are such a fun family, I am so glad I went and everyone left with great deals and lots of fun things.

Sophia, Naoje (Joan's daughter), Joan, Flora (Mom she looks 25), Claudette, Rithka, and me. These girls were a blast to shop with, they all left with darling coach bags and gave me great advice on what to buy. These are my 4 sisters away from my 4 sisters.

Happy Thanksgiving 2008

What a fantastic holiday! Even though it is still summer weather here and doesn't feel like Thanksgiving at all, I am so excited to spend the day relaxing and eating delicious food. We went to Tracey's home and she cooked up a feast. Brandon made gourmet garlic mashed potatoes and I gave my orange rolls another shot. After dinner we played cards, talked and ate more yummy food, it was a very nice Thanksgiving day.

Thanks to Brandon we can always remember how good the food was since he took a picture of his meal right before he started eating.

Tracey and Mike

Church Talk

For the first time since Brandon joined the church he was asked to give a talk in sacrament meeting. He was assigned to speak the Sunday before Thanksgiving and the topic he was given was, being an example of righteousness. This is a perfect topic for Brandon because he was brought to the church by the righteous examples of his friends. Brandon is a great example to his non member family, co-workers and of course to me. He gave a great talk filled with examples of his life, scriptures and recent quotes by President Monson from the last general conference. I was very proud of him and also happy it was him that had to speak not me!

Dare I even bring it up?

Saturday was the big BYU vs. Utah game and we were the away team this year. Brandon, Jimmy, Geoff, Scott (Macdonald), Brooke, Bryce, Doctor Walker and I went to Indigo Joe's to watch the game. Unfortunately Max Hall, the quarterback, had a major breakdown and ended up loosing the game for us and I knew the loss wasn't going to be easy for Brandon. Thank goodness for comfort food, I ran to the store and bought a big pumpkin pie, whipped cream and cooked a big pizza to try and ease the loss. After eating a bunch of delicious junk food we felt a little better. BYU better get them next year!

Twilight

The day finally came when I could stop just dreaming about seeing the movie and actually see it come to life. After work Brandon drove me to Ontario to meet up Brooke and some friends, we waited in line for over an hour to be sure we had great seats. I am pretty easily entertained and not a big movie critic so I really loved it. Yes I know it was a little cheesy at times but overall the movie was very fun. If you haven't read the book it is amazing and a must read. Seeing the movie makes me really want to read the book again, to bad I have too many school books I have to read instead. I can’t wait to see the next movie!

Orange "Biscuits"

I decided to try to be domestic and practice making orange rolls before Thanksgiving, so I got my Aunt Carols recipe and gave it my best shot. Before I did anything else I wanted to make sure I didn't kill my yeast so when it over doubled in size I knew I was on the right track. I followed the recipe and when I had dough I let that rise for a few hours. Instead of rolling them in croissant shape I thought it would be a good idea to put them in balls (like a roll). After they baked and I sampled I was happy to know they were edible which for my cooking, isn't always the case. When Brandon got home from school around 10:30p.m., I had him try one and he was impressed they were edible but brought it to my attention that they were extremely dense and tasted more like a biscuit than a light and feathery roll.

Since I made a bunch I brought them to work with me the next day and my co-workers changed the name of them from orange rolls to orange biscuits. I thought it was really funny and a little embarrassing. I guess when I make them for Thanksgiving dinner I need to let them rise a little longer and make them into croissants. I'll let you know how they turn out; it's always a surprise when I am baking.

Sea World

On November 15th Brooke, Bryce and I went to Sea World! It was so hot and crowded but we still had a great day. We got to see the polar bears, the sharks, penguins, dolphin show and Shamu. Besides the fun shows I think we all enjoyed the shark aquarium. You walk underneath the water and the shark are swimming all around you, it is so cool.

Beach day in November

On Nov 7th I had the day off of work and so Brooke, Jimmy, Bryce and I went to the BEACH. It is still in the 90's here. I can't believe it is November and I am still able to layout on the sand. We packed a lunch and it was fun to watch Jimmy surf, play with Bryce in the sand and see a few dolphins.

Happy Halloween

Brandon's favorite holiday is Halloween and thanks to his excitement about the holiday I like it more and more. We love to watch the classic scary Halloween movies, where every house in the neighborhood goes all out decorating and celebrating the holiday together. Well, there happens to be a city about 45 mins. away from us that brought those movie sets to real life. In Redlands every Halloween tons of streets completely close off and the owners of these beautiful classic homes go over board in transforming their homes into cemetarties, pirate ships, haunted houses and much more. Crowds of people come down to admire the amazing decorations and of course to Trick-or-Treat! Brandon and I felt like we were in disneyland, we kept grabbing the camera from eachother because we wanted to capture everything we saw. It was unlike anything I have ever seen and really awesome.

This house transformed their home into a cemetary. Sorry its hard to see how cool it really is.

This is just one angle of the pirate ship house. I can't image how many days it would take to set this materpiece up and take it down.

Here is a picture of the great people I get to work with. We had a great Halloween work party with tons of food and delicious treats! Doc, Me, Dana, Cheri, Vicki

Fun with Bryce, Brooke and Jimmy

Bryce, Brooke and Jimmy are in town for the month while Jimmy does a internship at Loma Linda University. It is so fun to have them in town! They made it just in time to watch the BYU football game.

Geoff, Brandon and Jimmy getting excited to watch the football game. Go Cougars!

Even though it is the end of October it is still HOT enough to go for a swim at my pool!

Bryce is in his new glow in the dark spider p.j.'s Brandon and I got him for coming to stay with us. He points to the spider and then does "eensy weensy spider" with his fingers, its so cute. He also has a big tootsie roll in his hand.

Family Fun

We were so lucky because my family came down on Thursday for the weekend. On Thursday my Dad and my boss went out to the golf course at Pechanga and the girl's (my darling boss Vicki came too) + John went out to a winery in the gorgeous vineyards of Temecula and ate breakfast. It was delicious and not to mention a beautiful morning. We also went to the pottery barn outlets and found some great deals on stuff for the wedding! You can't come to Temecula and not see the historic old town so went LG finished golfing we picked him up and walked up Main Street and ate authentic Mexican food. My mom made Brandon and me the most darling Halloween quilt ever! I love it so much; I might actually leave it out on my couch until Christmas.


On Friday we got up and headed down to beautiful Orange County. After a quick trip to the mall we headed to Hunnington Beach to pay our respects to the sun gods! John surfed with a long time friend and the rest of us just soaked up some sun. When the sun started to set we rented beach cruisers and rode up and down the beach for an hour. Riding bikes along the beach has to be one of my favorite activities; it is fun for every age. We walked to the end of the long pier to eat at Ruby's. It is a fun 50's diner and they have some darn good shakes! What a great day, I love Orange County.


Saturday morning we went down the street to the one and only Richie's Diner. They know how to make some delicious breakfast! After we were all so full we drove out to the pumpkin patch in Redlands. There was a gypsy there that trained his monkey to shake people’s hands, after they give him a dollar. This monkey was a total clepto; while we were there he stole a bracelet, in a flash, right off a kid’s wrist. Shortly after a woman bent down to shake the monkey's hand but before she could even give the monkey the dollar he stole her camera right out of her hand before she knew it was missing. I couldn't believe it; I made sure my wallet was still in my purse and left before he came for me. That little, clepto monkey made more money in an hour than I make in a day. (I may need to change my profession).

We went out toward Palm Springs to go to a huge outlet mall and everyone ended up getting something. We got all Mom's Christmas shopping out of the way, thanks to Ann Taylor for having a huge sale, it was great!

I was so proud of my family we went to Sushi for dinner and everyone tried it and enjoyed it. It was a big turn for the Woolstenhulme gang. Niko Niko in Redlands knows how to do sushi right! I never thought I would say YUM, YUM!! (The darling girl in the middle is Mya; she owns the restaurant)

Sunday came way too fast and sad to say my fun family had to head back to Utah. Why is it that time goes by so fast when you don't want it to, and so slow when you want it to? I guess that's life, anyway the weekend was a blast!