It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown!

A True Halloween Classic!

A Halloween Treat to Get You in the Mood!

I am a huge Wade Robson fan! Rob and I really like the first clip. It is kinda spooky and it gets you into the Halloween Spirit with the dancing zombies and all. I love the second clip a little more than Rob does, but I think they both can help get you in the Halloweeen spirit!

Pinewood Derby

I hope I am not jinxing the ISU-MBA before it's big race, but I had to give our parents sneak peak. Rob spent all weekendend two weekends ago getting it ready for the ward Pinewood Derby. All the Elders in the ward are putting cars together to have their own shot at winning the Derby. Rob carved this beauty from hand. I helped a little with making sure the racing stripes were just right. I think it will be ready for the big day!

Caramel Corn 2

So, here is the finished product of the delightful treat we made on Friday night. It lasted all weekend and it was so gooey and yummy. We are getting really excited for Halloween. We started getting things together this last week for our costumes. We are excited to watch the Charlie Brown Halloween special and wait for "The Great Pumpkin" on Wednesday night. We are going to rent another suspenseful classic and sit and wait for little goblins to ring our doorbell so we can give them a Snickers treat (my personal favorite).

We even have the Halloween Menu Planned:

Mummy Dogs (hot dogs wrapped in scored Pillsbury crescent rolls)

Zombie Brains (Kraft Mac & Cheese with green food coloring mixed in)

Witches' Brew (homemade apple cider - apple juice, brown sugar, cloves, & cinnamon)

Goblin Boogers (homemade caramel corn with Brach's autumn mix)

Last Halloween I was by myself, because Rob had to fly to Seattle for an interview on Halloween. This year we are looking forward to being together to enjoy all of the festivities!

Amanda

A Spooky Night at Home

Last night was so fun! Rob and I planned to do something fun to start getting into the Halloween spirit. So, we called my mom and got her recipe for Caramel Corn. I remember as a kid, sometimes on Sunday nights my mom would make it for us while we watched The Wonderful World of Disney. It was always a treat!

We went to the store and got the ingredients and we also rented "Wait Until Dark", with Audrey Hepburn. If you know me you know I love ALL Audrey Hepburn movies, but beside that we wanted to watch a spooky movie. This movie is one of my favorites, because it is so suspenseful. It is an Alfred Hitchcock classic. I remember once I saw it at the Varsity Theatre at BYU for the midnight movie they used to show. It is a great movie to see in a theater, because there are parts that are perfect if you are watching it in a completely dark place.

Anyway we had great fun watching the movie and it was just as good as I remembered it. The caramel corn was also just as delicious as I remembered it to be, thanks mom! I will post a picture of the final caramel corn product so you can see how it turned out and here is the recipe:

Cheryl's Famous Caramel Corn

2 cups Light Brown Sugar
1 cup Butter
1/2 cup Light Corn Syrup
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Baking Soda
5 quarts Plain Popped Popcorn

Combine the brown sugar, butter, corn syrup and salt in a pot on the stove. Heat it carefully until boiling. Stir constantly for 5 minutes, being careful not to burn mixture. Take pot off burner and mix in baking soda. Spray nonstick cooking spray inside a roasting pan. Fill Roasting pan with popped popcorn. Drizzle sugar mixture over popcorn, and mix carefully together.

For Gooey Corn: Transfer mixture straight to bowls that are coated with nonstick cooking spray.

For Crispier Corn: Preheat oven to 200 degrees F. Transfer roasting pan into the oven. Bake for 1 hour, tossing mixture every fifteen minutes.

For Added Halloween Fun: Toss in Brach's Autumn Mix (candy corn and pumpkins) in with the caramel corn.

If you wanted a smaller batch: Half the recipe and mix the sugar mixture with one bag of Jiffy Pop Plain White Microwave Popcorn.

Enjoy!

Amanda

Today Was A Stinky Day!

Literally today was stinky! I went to the clinic today and we were only about an hour into seeing patients and then an OB patient came and complained that the room was flooding! Well, it turns out that all of the exam rooms on one side of the hall had overflowing toilets and sinks. We aren't quite sure why, but it creates quite a stink! The whole hallway had a terrible smell. It was so terrible that the Docs cancelled clinic for the day. I was supposed to have one of the faculty members from school come to visit me at the site for an evaluation. I had to call her and explain what was going on. The great part is that instead of her visiting the clinic she invited me out to lunch with her and we had the evaluation there. So, all's well that ends well.

Amanda

Another Perfect Day

Sometime ago Rob and I wrote a list of all of the things we wanted to do before leaving Pocatello. We have very few weeks left here, so we decided we needed to work on finishing off our list. I have never been to Yellowstone, so Rob and I decided to take a day trip last Saturday. We woke up early and we drove out there. The weather turned out to be perfect!

We stopped in West Yellowstone and got sandwiches from Tubby's Bakery to take for our picnic lunch. Then we went in and did the lower loop of the park. I got to fulfill a longstanding dream of seeing Old Faithful in action!

We saw elk, moose, bison, and many more little animals all over the place. I think that Yellowstone must be one of the most beautiful places in the entire world! We had such a wonderful day!

On the way back we stopped in IF to see Sean and Becky's new home. We met Annie, Jason, and Amy there and ate Olive Garden take-out. Then the guys went in to watch some football and the four gals swapped clinical rotation stories as well as what has been up in our lives since we last saw each other. Then we all got together and played games for hours!

We have been so blessed to have such wonderful friends here. I am getting sad because we are going to be moving away soon and it will be harder and harder for us to get together. So, it is important for us to make these memories now!

Amanda

Our Trip to Yellowstone

What We Are Up To...

So, life has been pretty busy for Rob and I lately. I know we have neglected to write for some time. Rob has been busy with job interviews, school, and his assistantship. He has been working really hard, and has been under a lot of stress lately. He has had some cool opportunities recently though. He has had several accounting firms take him out to dinner (I even got to go to one), and he had one accounting firm ask him to interview for one of their jobs in Anchorage, AK. We had never thought about Alaska before, but it would be cool for Rob to fly up there and check it out. So, he has a lot of decisions ahead of him and more resumes to send out.

I remember when we were deciding between Philly, Palm Springs, and Pocatello. That was a very stressful and exciting time. I know we made the right decision, eventhough some of our offers seemed a little more exciting on paper. Now we are getting back into the decision making, what a process!

As for me, I am in my second rotation. I am working with an OB/Gyn. She is two years out of residency and she is a great teacher! She works so hard and practically lives at the hospital. I have seen vaginal D&C, vaginal deliveries, and C-sections. I am getting better and better at paps, breast exams, bimanual palpation, measuring fundal height, and finding fetal heart tones. I didn’t know if I would like OB that much, but it is really interesting.

So far I love my clinical year and I know I will really enjoy being a PA. I love all of the hands-on learning we do. We studied insanely hard last year and so it is so fun to already be out there practicing and doing so much.

Amanda