Halloween

Here are some pics from the Andreasen Halloween party this year. The theme was “something from your childhood”.

I was a fairy this year. I used to love fairies when I was little. I thought they were real for a long time (I’m not going to tell you how old I was when I decided they probably aren’t real.) Little Ava was fascinated that we both had wings. After looking all over town for fairy wings only to find that all stores were sold out, I made my own with that really thick sticky plastic wrap, hangers, and glitter glue. Not the best, but it works.

Benj was a nerd for Halloween. Although I don’t think he was nerd when he was a child :)

My mother was Mrs. Brady. She was liking the idea of having Alice to do all the dirty work.

My dad was Race Bannon from Johnny Quest.

My little brother Joseph was Paul Bunyon. When Joseph was little he would watch the short Disney film about Paul Bunyon multiple time a day. He had a small wooden axe that my dad made him and some little cardboard trees that he would set up and knock over with the axe. Seeing Joe dressed up as Paul brought back good memories.

Emily was one of the Native Americans from her favorite childhood show “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimmaron”. Isn’t she a cutie!

I don’t have pictures of everyone’s outfits, but here’s a few more fun costumes from the party:

My Aunt Shawna was one of those Style Barbie Heads. She actually wore that cardboard styling table around her whole body.

Uncle Damon was Inspector Gadget.

My cousin Mason was Strong Bad from homestarrunner.

Grandpa Gary was the old cowboy Tex Ritter.

 

Damon and Shawna organized some fun silly games.

Eat the doughnut from the string. This was for all the little grandkids.

At one point Corbin yelled out “My Doughnut Hates Me!”

My cousin Luke after the doughnut eating competition.

In this game Benj and I had one minute to stack as many chocolate  doughnuts as possible on our foreheads. I won with 5 doughnuts.

In this game my mom and my aunt Nikki had to knock over a plastic cup with the ball inside the panty hose on their heads.

There were a bunch of other fun games. They were hilarious to play and watch. For a movie of the party, check out my uncle’s Youtube channel, Olinselot.

Changes

We have had a lot of changes in the last two months. In September we moved to Pocatello. Benjamin is in the last semester of his undergrad online and he will graduate in December. I am student teaching at Highland High School and I will also finish in December. I am teaching 9-12 grade in speech and drama. I am also helping direct the school musical, Willy Wonka (which opens November 10th and runs through the 15th It is going to be awesome!) . Student teaching has been really hard and really exhausting, but it is all going so well. I have great cooperating teachers and great kids (for the most part). Benjamin also got a job at an assisted living center. It is really close to our apartment, which is very nice because he can bike there. Oh, and Benjamin has been accepted to three medical schools! Ohio State (Columbus), Case Western (Cleveland), and Medical College of Wisconsin (Milwaukee).
Come with me on a tour of my apartment!
These are the steps down to our front door.

Lets go through the back door (so you can see the covered cement patio! It is quite long, but you can only see a little square of it in this picture).


Thanks mom and dad for the couch!

It has a nice open feel to it!

The view out the back window. The church is right down the hill. We run down the hill every Sunday for church. I guess we will have to sled down to church once it snows. The hill is pretty steep!




The kitchen! It has lots of counter space, lots of storage space, and a dishwasher!!!! Hooray! Finally a dish washer! I have been cooking every chance I get. I love cooking in the fall. Especially with pumpkin and plums and all that goodness. Check out my cooking blog to see what I have created recently in my new kitchen.

We bought a water filter for our sink. Pocatello water tastes horrible! This purifier really helps.

We also bought a new vacuum. It’s pretty nice for only being $40!

This is the view to the side of our apartment.

Anyway, that’s our apartment and our life! Cheers!

Leaving On A Jet Plane

Benjamin just got back from Columbus, Ohio, and St. Louis, Missouri. He did two of his interviews for medical school and he felt pretty good about them. He said that they were very laid back and very friendly at both schools. He really liked both towns. In a few weeks he has three more interviews and one in November.  A special thanks to Dan and Rachel Adair for housing Benj!

He took this picture for me :)

Crazy Hair Day

I have no idea how this got started. It was pretty late one evening and Emily, my mom, and I were just sitting in the living room talking. Somehow the conversation led to funny hair, which led to this:

We were laughing our heads off, when we decided that I needed a hair due too!

Last but not least, we gave my mom a new look too!

This picture is my all time favorite. We were trying so hard not to laugh!

August

This is the huge dust storm that we drove through on our way to Rexburg from Moscow.

We took Emily and Joseph over to the Romney’s one Sunday afternoon. They loved it there. This is Emily frolicking outside with the cat.

Emily was sweet to hold little Kalina. She kept trying to make the same faces as Kalina. I love both of their great big blue eyes.

I think they kind of look alike in this picture above.

Anthony and Benj were nice to play Masterpiece with Emily and Joe .

I made plum ice cream

I know this picture is from September, but I didn’t just want to post it by its self. This is me at the fair eating a turkey leg. I just had to have one because I had this memory of eating one at DisneyLand when I was little. It was way too big and it started to get old pretty fast, but it was still fun. I felt a little bit silly walking around gnawing and this huge hunk of meat.

What we loved about Moscow!!!

Summer was just too short. We loved our stay in Moscow! We are happy to be in Pocatello now, but we really do miss the little town up North. I thought I would post a few things that we loved about Moscow (in no particular order).

• THE FARMERS MARKET!!!! Moscow had a great farmers market. I think everybody in the town gathered downtown every Saturday to listen to live music and wander through the booths. Moscow had a great sense of community. There were so many little community events, concerts, etc. And the people actually went to them! Even the most random little events had good showings.

• THE PALOUSE- We loved the beautiful rolling hills of the Palouse farm lands. It was a pain to drive up and down the hills, but they are just so pretty!

• The GINORMOUS burgers at the Sandpiper Grill (no,it is nothing like the expensive version in South Eastern Idaho.)

• OUR WARD- We made lots of really good friends in our ward in Moscow. One of our favorite memories with the ward was going to Spokane to the Temple and then out to eat afterwards.

• THE PLANTS- When we first moved there, it was so green with trees and flowers everywhere! Later in the summer if was drier, but a good majority of the time it was beautiful!

• MOST OF ALL: WE LOVED LIVING CLOSE TO LYDIA! She was only there for a month while we were there, but we loved having her so close with her sweet little kids. I loved getting to know Lydia more and I consider her one of my very best friends in the whole world. Thanks for all the fun times!

Benjamin’s Research

Benjamin finished up his internship at U of I  in Moscow. He really enjoyed his work and the people in his lab. Here a a couple of pictures of the Research Conference, at which he presented a poster of his findings.

The interns from BYU-I