Halloween Cookies!

Yum! I love these cookies! My family usually makes them for Christmas or Valentine's Day, but I've started making them around Halloween too because I got some fall-shaped cookie cutters.


If they had the right shapes I'd probably make them for St. Patrick's Day, President's Day, Labor Day, or pretty much any day!

This time I tried making them kind of pumpkin-ish, so I put pumpkin pie spices in the frosting. It's SO GOOD! Want a bite?

Disco Fever

Introducing Greg's Parents.

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Happy Halloween!

Featuring Greg, Holly, Wendy, Dad, and Ginger!

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Fresh Pizza Sauce!

When it was getting close to freezing outside we covered the tomatoes with a tarp and set up a little heater at night time so they wouldn't die. Today I uncovered them and picked all the ripe tomatoes. I was glad so many did turn red! It's supposed to be a little warmer for the next few days, so I'm hoping a few more will ripen.


Tonight I chopped the tomatoes and made this pizza sauce. I'll probably make pizza tomorrow and freeze the rest of the sauce. It's so much better than store bought sauce! Yum!

Sorry for the ugly picture

Haha, now I'm sick of seeing that ugly picture of me with the goggles every time I look at my blog. I will have to hurry and find a new picture to post.

The worst goggles ever!

We have to wear the worst goggles ever for my chemistry class. If I could find a good set somewhere I'd get them, but they only offer these horrid things at the Bookie and the chemistry club sold the same kind too.


There's no place for your nose, so it just pushes really hard on the bridge of your nose and across your forehead.


It's so awful that now, 4 HOURS after I took the things off my face there is STILL a line on my forehead! It's kind of embarrassing to walk around like a nerd with a line on my forehead. It hurts too! My face is so irritated afterwards that I can't stand to even put my glasses back on.


Oh well. My partner and I just finished all of our lab report tonight so I'm really happy right now. Usually I spend hours working on the report at home by myself, and then try to squeeze in to the tutorial room to get help after getting really frustrated with it. We decided today to go straight to the night tutor hours after lab and do it together. So after spending from 2pm to 5:30pm doing chemistry, we took a little break for dinner and did more chemistry from 7pm to 9pm. I'm so GLAD it's DONE!

I'm rewarding myself with the fun activities of listening to a Harry Potter book and washing the dishes and putting away laundry. What a joy!

Green Growing Jewelry

What's next?

This was designed for people who live in the city so they can feel like they're close to nature... It seems like a guy would have a hard time accomplishing anything while wearing that lovely piece of jewelry. I'm sure it's worth it...


And you only have to water it once every 5 weeks!


Maybe if I wear a ring full of moss I will be as beautiful as her.

Halloween Surprise!

Mom sent us a surprise box of fun Halloween stuff! She said I had to wait and open it with Greg. When he finally got home and was ready, we opened the box together. We found the book first and he read it to me, then Greg carefully picked out one item at a time from the box. It was fun to find so many treats and fun things! This is a cute shirt for Halloween. It's nice to have a change from the same boring orange shirt I always wear.


The picture doesn't really show it, but there's a lot of pretty sparkles and shiny parts--like the pumpkins are bright and shiny.


Greg liked the box. He opened and shut the top a bunch of times to hear all the different sounds it makes. It plays spooky music with a vampire sounding guy saying scary Halloween stuff. It would be fun to use this box for trick-or-treaters.


The gummy flies are really tasty, but those eye balls kind of grossed me out. I haven't tried them yet.

Kelley Family Photo

I lined up all the kids for a nice picture.


It froze hard last night, so I harvested all the food from the garden. There are a few carrots in the ground still, but for the most part the garden is done for the year.


It's kind of too bad that it froze so soon. There were lots of small fruit that could have grown a little more and been used. These are all damaged from the freeze and not good for eating.


I feel like taking a moment of silence in memory of the garden I have so dearly loved.




I wasn't ready to let all the tomatoes die, so we covered them with a big tarp and stuck a heater in there. (They are on the deck so I knew it would be unbearably cold for them.) When it was 28 degrees last night our tomatoes were happy and warm in their 48 degree little home. (Sorry the picture is dark. I didn't think to take a picture during the day when it was sunny.)

Koelreutaria paniculata, Goldenrain Tree

...of the family Sapindaceae.


I was having a hard time remembering this one and how to spell it. I thought if I put it on the blog that would help me out. You might also notice the funny fortune cookie-like things on this plant. They are called bracts. They are papery and house the little black berry fruits inside.

Greg helps me remember this by singing, "If you like paniculatas, and getting caught in the rain.." (That's the song they play on Shrek when it shows the princess.)
Wish me luck on the quiz tomorrow!

Garden stuff

We got a few cantaloupe from the garden this year. The biggest fruit turned out to be rotten when I picked it...very disappointing. But the fruit we got tastes good!

I'm hoping all these tomatoes will hurry up and ripen before it freezes.



There are a few orange-red ones, but most are all green. They say there are green tomato recipes out there that are good, but I don't know about that. I'd rather make a bunch of pizza sauce with red tomatoes!

Greg got a new suit!

Actually, he got two new suits. We laughed until we cried when we saw that picture. I made him put on a fashion show for me when he got home from Spokane and I took a bunch of pictures of him looking dashing and debonair.



I had been a little worried because he picked them out by himself and then told me he got a brown and a gold suit. I was thinking yucky 70's looking suits, but they turned out to look really nice. The brown is actually very dark brown that almost looks black, and the "gold" is actually more of a sage color (Above). I think they both look great on him.


This is kind of a joke picture from when we were dating. Greg is so funny about posing for pictures.

This is Greg before we were married...


And this is Greg after almost 3 years of marriage!


Here, Greg is practicing looking good in a chair.

Leaf Project

Part of the fun of school is doing cool projects like this leaf collection. I got the assignment in class and then went straight to visit Summer in Oregon after school. I thought that was great because I could collect a bunch of leaves that other students in the class wouldn't be able to find in Pullman. So Greg and I collected leaves from all the plants at the Chandler's garden/yard, and then when we all went on a walk I collected leaves from every plant I passed.


When I got home I read the assignment again and found at the very end that extra credit would be given to the students who completed the project using the least amount of leaves. So I ended up using 9 instead of the 30 or so I thought I would use. I was actually disappointed to not use most of the leaves we got. I want to figure out some kind of artsy craft thing to do with the left overs now. They're so pretty that I feel bad throwing them away.


So this is my project. Since I couldn't use all the leaves I decided to pick my favorites and decorate the front page with them.




I enjoyed this so much that I thought I might do something similar as a "Quiet book" for our kids to have in church when they're little.