happy halloween.

i cannot take credit for the pumpkin carving... james did that at work yesterday for the lab pumpkin carving contest.
he will find out on monday if he won. :]
sometimes i wonder why i didn't want to work there too...

in my opinion, a jack-o-lantern of jack skellington is rather perfect.
perhaps it should become a tradition.
i also think that james will be the pumpkin carver from here on out. seriously. it takes me forever to carve one pumpkin and they never turn out as well as i'd like.

it's also nevada day today.
i met up with tracy and michele for breakfast this morning. it's always nice to have breakfast with friends. i used to do it at least twice a week when i was in school, but it's become a rare thing these days.

james has the day off work in honor of nevada day too.
we're going to do a little shopping and errand running.
i'm exhausted today [still not feeling 100% recovered from being sick] so perhaps i need a little hot apple cider for a little boost. :]

be safe & enjoy the night!

: [

i guess my grandpa isn't doing very well.
it looks like he will have to start chemo soon.

i'm going to see if i can visit for thanksgiving.
i was just going to stay here, but i think i should try to go visit instead.

i'm just sad.

crop result:

yes. result is singular in this case.
i only made one layout during the crop, but i'm happy with just one. baby steps. :]
and to be totally honest, i didn't even finish the page completely last night. i put the final touches on it during work yesterday.

it felt nice to work on this layout.
it came out better than i envisioned or expected. i enjoyed the process of just pushing the different elements around the page until i found the perfect placement and adding the little touches of hand stitching. that's not to say the creative process didn't feel like a total struggle at some points. i definitely felt frustrated more than once. maybe one day things will just easily flow, but generally it's a struggle for me.

i don't remember if i mentioned that a couple weeks ago i got the urge to just throw away all of my scrapbook supplies? ha. i think a small part of it has to do with wanting to declutter my house, but mostly i've just been having a hard time with scrapbooking. i don't think a hobby should feel like that.
when i tell people about the urge to throw away all my stuff, they usually suggest that i take a break from scrapbooking.
[that's after they suggest that i give them all my stuff. ha.]
the thing is i've been taking a break! i think the break is the problem. so like i said at the beginning of the post... i'm trying to work in baby steps and not get my expectations too high. [a hard thing for me.] hopefully the creative process will start to come more easily eventually.

timing is everything.

today, time just wasn't on my side.

i've been wanting to go to the local pumpkin patch, and now that halloween is just around the corner i decided that today was the day. we can't get our pumpkins too early around here because they tend to end up smashed in the street. nice, i know.
but.
our lunch went way too long [if you live in reno, i don't recommend cafe de thai at all.] and james had plans to go golfing with his friend. plus, the pumpkin patch was a little further away than i remembered. so by the time we arrived... james was checking his watch, i got frustrated, and we left without any pumpkins.
sigh.

i did get one nice photo though.
better luck next year i guess.

tonight, i'm off to scrapbook. hopefully i'll get a page or two completed. it's definitely been a while. :]

my week away.

i keep meaning to blog about the trip, but it seems like i don't have much to say, and i don't have many photos to share... so i keep putting it off.
oh well. i can at least share what i have. :]

it was so fun to see the parks all decorated for halloween. i don't think i've ever visited during halloween time, so i enjoyed looking for all of the little details and special decorations.

hanging out in the room... we did a lot of this. we had a pretty nice suite at the grand californian... which worked out so well for us. since we had the baby along, it was a slower paced trip... meaning that we spent more time in the room. plus, my dad always has to work during our vacations, and he had plenty of space to set up his computer and a work area. i have to say, we watched quite a few episodes of house during the trip. :]

this was the view out the living room. very pretty. sadly, i never made it down to the pool, but i did ride the roller coaster several times. :]
oh. and our neighbor in the next suite over was johnny depp. seriously. pretty cool.

victoria did so well during the trip. she would often fall asleep during the rides, and it was so cute. here she fell asleep on grandpa's shoulder. so he decided to pretend to be asleep too. :]
[see those candy corns in the planter! loved that detail.]

and here she is getting ready to go on a ride with mommy and daddy. i think it was nearly nap time at this point, but she made it through the ride without any problems.

we met jack and sally near the haunted mansion, which is all decked out in a nightmare before christmas theme. it stays this way through christmas, so the last few times we've been to disneyland it's been decorated like this. i think i might actually enjoy this version better than the original. :] anyway, jack and sally were really fun. they talked to each person for a few minutes before posing for the photo.

i almost made everyone get a photo with them. but i failed to set up a group shot or get mom in a photo. ah well... there was a line of people waiting.

victoria absolutely loved the characters. she wasn't frightened by them at all, more like fascinated. when amanda took her up to jack and sally, jack said, "oh my, it's a little miniature human." she grabbed his glove and wouldn't let go, and he said, "you're not afraid of me at all, are you?" it was very cute.

if you know me, you might know that i love mr. potato head. there is a new toy story ride at california adventure with this very large talking mr. potato head that you walk by as you wait in line. i was thrilled at the photo op. :]

finally on wednesday, james arrived. it was so nice to have him there. it's always fun to have a friend to ride the rides with. we took this photo while waiting in line for space mountain. i told him the other day that i don't think he looks like me, and he said, "that's because you look tan". haha.

thursday was the halloween party that i made into a huge ordeal as far as costuming. ha. but it turned out to be so fun. i'm really glad that we all dressed up. katie and jamie had to leave this day, so they weren't able to join in on the costume fun.

here's mom and dad in indiana jones theme. pretty simple, but i'm so glad i was able to get them to go along with a costume.

paul, amanda, and victoria in star wars theme. paul is han solo, amanda is princess leia, and victoria is yoda. ha. people kept commenting on how cute they were. i have to agree. one lady even stopped them and asked to take their photo. i wonder if she was a scrapbooker?

and james and i in haunted mansion theme. we had a quite the adventure experimenting with how to put on the makeup. i'm so sad that i didn't get a photo of james' first attempt. it was hilarious, but in the end i think it turned out pretty well.


that's basically it for the photos. friday was paul's birthday. his long time friend april drove up from san diego to spend the day with us. she's super nice, and i enjoy getting to see her every few years.

friday night was the night that i got sick. ugh. i barely recovered in time for the four hour drive to vegas on saturday. there were several times i contemplated asking my dad to pull over, but when i looked out the window and realized we were basically in the middle of nowhere, i decided to just try to make it. mind over matter, right? by the time we arrived at the bellagio, i was feeling ok... good enough to eat some rice even. my dad's host messed up the reservation, so we got upgraded to a penthouse suite. it had two bedrooms, each with two bathrooms. plus there was a half-bathroom off the living room. seriously. two bedrooms four and a half bathrooms. ridiculous. but it turns out that the two bathrooms per room idea is genius. around nine or ten o'clock, i was laying in bed and james told me he was going to take a shower. roughly two minutes later, i had to run to the bathroom [where i spent the rest of the night on the floor]. so really, thank goodness for two bathrooms. i'm going to take that idea into consideration if i ever build a house. ha.

anyway, i'm glad we were able to make the trip as a family. it was a good time. :]

a new favorite.

tonight radhika, james, and i finally went to see nick and norah's infinite playlist.
it's my new favorite movie.
:]

& & did you know that movies are matinee price all day on tuesday?
well. at least where i live. and i think that's pretty awesome.
perhaps a new tuesday night movie night tradition needs to start.
and next tuesday might need to be nick and norah again. ha.

p.s. vacation post is still coming. i need to upload photos and then have the energy to battle with the photo uploader. maybe tomorrow...

recovering.

we got home around 11 on sunday night, but i've been trying to recover since then.
i got terribly sick on friday night with food poisoning or some type of gi bug. not really sure what it was, but i couldn't keep anything down until sunday.

i'm still feeling kind of weak, but i'm feeling way better than i was a few nights ago.
nothing like spending two nights sleeping on the bathroom floor to take it out of you.

anyway. i'll post about the trip when i have a bit more energy. :]

and we're off!

mom & i are at the airport.
others have already arrived.
and some will arrive later.

all of us are excited!

ok. time to board. :]

first snow.

james woke me up before he left for work this morning to tell me that there was snow on the ground.
when i got up, it was still snowing.

it's just a light dusting, but it's still coming down.
i'm so ready for this.
:]

attempt one.

i had trouble blogging the other night, and it put me in a non-blogging mood. i guess it's time to get over that and finish my post!

i attempted my first recipe from the pioneer woman on monday.

i stopped at whole foods to pick up a few more honeycrisp apples. [yum!] the little red potatoes caught my eye after i filled up a bag with the best apples in the world. so i picked up a few potatoes and decided that maybe it would be nice to cook dinner that night. i was planning to just slice them and toss them with some olive oil and herbs them bake them like i normally do. when i was looking up the baking time online [because i never remember] i vaguely remembered that the pioneer woman had a potato recipe that i'd wanted to try. so i went and checked... and sure enough... crash hot potatoes.

so i decided to chronicle my attempt, pioneer woman style. :]
my photos aren't nearly as good as hers, but there wasn't sufficient natural light left by the time i started... you'll get the idea.

here's my line up:
notice that i substituted dried tarragon and oregano for her fresh rosemary. maybe one day i'll plan ahead enough to use fresh herbs. not today. also, i used five potatoes for james and me. that was a good amount.

oh. and one more thing in my line up...
yeah. the computer. :]

because of my mere five potatoes, i was able to get away with a pretty small pot to boil the potatoes.

my only problem was that i had no idea how long it would take for them to get fork tender, and i took them out too soon. yes. i checked them with a fork, but apparently i'm not very good at judging that sort of thing... or maybe...
ok.
i guess that wasn't my only problem. but i'll get there soon enough.

i'm not much of an oil drizzler, so i just spread some on the tray with a pastry brush.
and i do believe that my pastry brush is looking as bad as ree's. :]
[you'll have to read her recipe for more on that.]

now came the real problem... i don't have a potato masher thing. i realize that she suggested using the bottom of a glass, but i couldn't handle the thought of just smashing them and not having any of the lovely texture.
surely, an old beater from a hand mixer would suffice, right?
wrong.
well. maybe the potatoes just aren't quite done enough... maybe that's what caused me to push so hard with the beater that the potato flew off the tray.
so. i put the potatoes back in the water to boil a bit longer.
in the mean time i searched for some other tool available in my kitchen that would allow for the lovely texture i so desired.
maybe a giant fork meant to be a serving fork will help provide some texture while smashing the potatoes.
wrong.
those potatoes were sliding all over the place. including one poor tot lost to the floor. and i was most likely looking like a complete fool battling it out with those potatoes. obviously, the olive oil did not help my cause, but i think not having the proper tool was the main problem.
needless to say, my next attempt will require the purchase of a potato masher.

anyhow. after my tenacious battle with the potatoes, i ended up with this lovely tray:
so maybe i had to get out a knife, but either way they were finally ready for the oven.

i added a little parmesan cheese at the last minute per james' request. good call, james. the cheese was an excellent addition. i also had to broil them for a few minute because we were getting too hungry to wait for them to brown up adequately.

next time, aside from acquiring the proper tool beforehand, i will also season them up a bit more heavily. i erred on the side of caution here, which turned out to be a mistake. if it weren't for the cheese, i may have had to get out the ketchup. ha.

oh. and next time, i will be sure to get a photo of the final product before we dig in. we were so hungry at that point that i completely forgot to get a final photo.

i also tried a modified version of this recipe for the chicken, and we totally loved it! i was going to make my favorite lemon chicken, but the lemon juice was old, so i had to improvise. since i was cooking with my computer already, i used the neat little quick meals window on the left side of this website. i was only making two pieces of chicken, and i didn't have any orange zest... but i figured i could make the recipe work, and i did! james actually really liked it, and so did i. i was so happy. it's a rare occasion when experiments in the kitchen go well for me. :]

i just added 1/2 cup orange juice, 1/4 cup soy sauce, and 1/4 cup sugar to a small saucepan and reduced it over medium heat. we spooned a little bit of this reduction over the chicken breasts while they were cooking on the little foreman grill. [love that thing.] then we added a bit more of the reduction once the chicken breasts were done cooking and on our plates... you know just like they do it on the food network. ha. :]

in other news... i have so much laundry to do in order to pack for the family vacation! i'm sooo excited for sunday. seriously, there's just something about walking around disneyland that's unlike anything else. and i'm so happy that i'll get to see my sister and my brother and amanda and victoria. eeek!

still searching for costumes. james and i can't seem to agree on anything. he's just not into my idea that it needs to be at least a little bit disney. but i think we are back to pirates at this point. so tomorrow, i'm going to try to put something together and just be done with it.

i think that's about it for me lately. costume searching and cooking. yep.

oh. my studio calico kit arrived today. actually, it arrived six minutes after i left for work according to the tracking info. i would have been late, had i only known. :] i asked james when he was home from work if a package came for me. he said it did, and he threw it away because i already have too much scrapbooking stuff. ha.
he does have a point. but. if he wants to start throwing my stuff away, he should start with the old stuff so that i don't notice...

the little adventure.

we survived the trip!
and i got a couple photos. :]

we made it out just in time to see my parents for a bit before they had to head up to reno. i really wanted to make sure we made it while they were still there, so that my dad could show mike and james some of his collections. mike was on the rifle team at unr, so i knew he would probably enjoy seeing some of my dad's. we hung out at the house for about an hour before my parents had to leave.

then it was time to go to the corn maze. the rain didn't seem too threatening, instead it was just windy. [typical.] so i was able to somehow convince radhika, mike, and james that the corn maze would be a great adventure. so we headed inside.

and we were all smiles at the start of our little adventure.

we were told at the start that it typically takes about an hour to get through the maze.
so we kept on walking.

and walking.

and walking.

but after a while, we realized we were walking past the same stuff.
over and over and over.

i think they were getting a little frustrated. it had been over an hour at this point. but i refused to give up.
so we kept going, and we finally stumbled on a good path.

we were making progress, finding new check points instead of just passing the same ones.

then. before i knew what was happening, my friends were getting instructions from a man about how to quickly get out of the maze.
whaaaaa?
wait a second. we only reached six of the ten checkpoints!
we are not done!
but i guess i was the only one who wasn't done.
radhika, mike, and james were so done.
so we followed the instructions, found the bridge, and exited the maze.

later on, when we were back home walking helix that night, i told james that i felt like we failed at completing the maze. he asked me what i was talking about... after all, we made it out of the maze the proper way.
true.
but we didn't get to all ten checkpoints.
sigh.
i don't anticipate being able to convince anyone to go back and fully complete the maze. so. i guess i will have to find satisfaction in six out of ten.
the photos that i managed to get help a bit. :]

i don't really consider myself as having come from a farming community, but when we drove by all of the cattle yesterday, it hit me. i used to drive by those cows each day on my way to school... it's so strange.
sometimes i miss it, but i guess that's a good sign. i enjoyed my time there. i have to say, living there for several years was humbling. i would be a totally different person if i had never moved there.
it's also interesting to compare the things that have changed and the things that are just the way they were.
radhika said that my room looks like i was just living there... it really has stayed just how i left it. kind of funny. there are definite remnants of my past in there. and the folder with some papers from my college apartment was in there too. probably the left behind when i finally made the move into that apartment. [i could have moved in two weeks before i did, but i really was totally underwhelmed at the thought of moving into that place.]
the trees are all so much bigger at the house than i remember them. and i don't even know how to work the tv remote for my parents' tv there. ha.
it's sort of hard to put into words the feelings that a visit home brings up.
all kinds of memories and emotions. not too many words though.

i'm glad we went. i'm happy that i was able to show the people who are now such an important part of my life a little snapshot of what my life used to be like. it was a fun trip. and we were definitely all exhausted by the time we got home. :]

rain, rain, go away. come again another day.

tomorrow, i'm supposed to make a little trip to the homeland [fallon] with some of the biochem buddies.
they want to see wear i grew up, and although i've assured them that they aren't missing out on much... i decided that maybe we could make a trip out and go to the corn maze. [secretly, i'm totally excited about the potential photo ops, and i desperately need some fall photos to scrapbook. so much cute paper and nothing to do with it. i even have layouts assembled and just waiting for photos.]

the only problem is...
it's supposed to rain.
grrr.
i really hope it will be like typical fallon storms where it rains for a couple minutes and the sun comes back out.
that would make me a happy girl.

otherwise, erin and i went on two unsuccessful shopping missions today.
mission one involved finding some clothes for her to take to maryland when she goes to visit her boy. we didn't find anything good though.
mission two involved costume shopping for me. we are planning to go to the disney trick-or-treat night during the upcoming family vacation to disneyland. i told james and my parents that costumes are required. ha. technically, costumes are optional. i couldn't pass up the opportunity to get the whole family dressed up at disneyland though.
my first thought was immediately pirates. kind of perfect, right?
but in true amy fashion, i'm making it much harder than it needs to be. i don't want any cheesy costumes or anything made from cheap material. i want it to be authentic looking. and i certainly don't want anything in the typical "minimal coverage" style of costume that seems to be so popular.
so tonight, erin and i went to the fabric store to see if we could find a suitable pattern and some fabric. we found a pattern, but no fabric. and i sort of chickened out on the whole making my own costume thing. so. now. i'm getting to the point where i'm over the whole idea of making the family dress up.
why do i do this?
i need to either come up with a different costume theme idea. or figure out some pirate option that meets my standards.

after our failed missions, we decided to get a quick dinner at whole foods. we each had soup. yum. i also got some pineapple. double yum.

in other news... i'm seriously considering a re-paint in the studio. since the whole room is still in a disorderly state, i might as well do it now. james and i picked up a couple paint swatches and i'm really liking the look of "fabulous red". so if i'm not making a costume next week, maybe i'll tackle the painting project. :]

i think i might take helix for a walk now. i'm sooo feeling october. i love stepping outside and feeling the cool, crisp air.
have a good weekend!