Evening in Excellence

Tonight was our Young Women Evening in Excellence program. Audrey created a wonderful DVD video with pictures of the girls throughout the year. She did a terrific job and spent countless hours working on this project. In addition, she made a 30 minute DVD with the evening's background music for before and after the program.

I was also involved in the program by accompanying every single musical number. The program was basically 'song - short narration - song' all evening, so I was kept quite busy. But I did enjoy the opportunity to accompany some very talented singers (Mollie, Mike, Tiffani, Angela, Jessie, Tycie).

Lion King

I bought our Lion King tickets early enough (like 8 months ago) which meant we were able to get excellent seats - main floor row G! Audrey and I have been looking forward to this night for a long time. We started out the evening with dinner. She ordered steak and I ordered salmon. But the best part of our meal was the roasted veggies. I usually do not like zucchini, but boy was it cooked well (still crunchy) and I liked the spices mixed with the grilled flavor and the roasted red peppers. After dinner we headed over to the Opera House and saw this:
They had removed seats so that there were two inner aisles on the orchestra level. When the show started, the animals came down these aisles - so we got to watch an elephant & some gazelles go by. They used the aisles throughout the evening for entrances and exits. The costuming = fabulous. Who thinks up this stuff? Like the way they dealt with the water or the grassy fields or the stampede. The acting & the singing = wonderful. Such talent. Audrey's favorite character was Rafiki (best described as the narrator) and my favs were Scar and the hyenas. What a great evening to spend with my daughter. Thanks Audrey for the idea to go! The evening was marvelous.

The Mail

Good mail today. Was looking forward to the Conference Ensign and the very nice personal card from someone was a definite bonus. Really needed to read that. Thanks.

Halloween

I really like when Halloween falls on a Saturday - seems to leave more room for family time that way, at least at our house. We had already done quite a few events earlier in the week - a Youth Tri-Ward Halloween party (Sam & Audrey), the Ward Trunk or Treat (just Audrey), the Scout Haunted Hike in Dishman Hills (just Sam & John), so we decided Saturday was a family day. We cleaned the house, went shopping and then made Coney Dogs before settling in for our Trick-or-Treaters and some movie time at home. Audrey made us our own personalized treat bags. And then she played with some flavored syrup to make her orange pop look a little more spooky? Probably just to kick the flavor up a notch. Our door bell rang exactly twice. The first one was adorable. The little girl was very talkative and had asked me if she looked like a cat. I told her of course she did because of her whiskers and nose and ears. As she walked away she exclaimed "That lady is so nice!!". Awe shucks : ) After the second group left we went downstairs and tried to watch Arachnophobia. Audrey and I could only get into about 45 minutes before it gave us too many goosebumps. So we switched to some very tame cartoons before bed so we wouldn't have dreams of spiders crawling up our leg. John stayed up and finished watching it 'cause he's the man.

Coney Island Hot Dog Sauce

Made these for our Halloween dinner. I liked the flavor, but did not like how my hot dog bun got soggy quickly, so would advise toasting the buns first. Personal preference.

CONEY ISLAND HOT DOG SAUCE
1 & 1/2 lbs ground beef, browned & drained
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 - 1 medium onion, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
2-3 tablespoons chili powder (seemed too much, I did only 1 TB)
6oz can tomato paste
6 ox can water
2-3 tablespoons brown sugar
Dash Worcestershire sauce
Hot dogs & hot dog buns

Add cooked ground beef to crock pot along with all ingredients except the hot dogs and buns. Cook for 2 hours. Serve the coney sauce on top of cooked hot dogs with diced onions, mustard and grated cheese.

Halloween Candy Bouquet

The door bell rang and look what I found - isn't she cute?! And she brought me this!! My sister-in-law Michelle is the greatest. Always thinking about others and surprising us with really fun things. Thanks Michelle!

Leaves

I love our trees. Well, except that one day we decide to rake. We had heard it was going to rain and/or snow, and figured slightly wet leaves were better to pick up than really soggy ones. In 1 hour (in the dark) we picked up all this! 14 bags worth. If it were a sunny & bright afternoon, we easily could have taken 3 hours to do the same. Amazing how a warm blanket calling can motivate!