Fall...and possibly even Winter...is here!

Good morning family! Sorry I have not been sticking to my Sunday weekly updates. Bad me! Sundays are usually spent relaxing with Dan, cooking/baking, reading, or napping so it's not like I don't have time to update. I guess I feel that our lives aren't very exciting so updating the blog would be a waste. Anyways, not much happened last week except Dan and I both had last Friday off! It was very relaxing. We went out to eat for lunch AND dinner. Crazy I know. Lunch was at a hog dog place that has good hot dogs. We'd never been before so I ordered mine with cheese without realizing until the hot dog came that it's was the processed nacho cheese. We also got fries with cheese. I managed to pick out the ones from the bottom that had the least amount of cheese on them. I love real cheese but nacho cheese belongs on nachos not fries and hot dogs.

Dan and I went to Applebees for dinner. Dan LOVES their boneless wings. Saturday evening I worked at Lonestar. Before work I spent 2, yes 2, hours playing a Lara Croft video game with Dan. It was so much fun! I also made these lovelies:

I LOVE pumpkin anything. I was debating between muffins and scones and found this interesting scone recipe where the scones have a muffin consistency. Next time I make them I'm going to cut the scones in half so they're each about 170 kcals instead of 340kcals. Here's the recipe: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pumpkin-Raisin-Scones/Detail.aspx. I tweaked the recipe slightly using brown sugar instead of white and more applesauce and in exchange for butter to make them healthier. They turned out delicious! So delicious that they were gone by Monday :-)

Work on Saturday was just ok. My section that evening was in the bar at the bar tables. I've never worked in that section so I didn't know what to expect. I ended up sharing the 5 bar tables with another server. It was pretty slow in the bar area and I don't think I made as much as I would have had I been in the restaurant area. Oh well.

Sunday was good as always. The relief society teacher gave me some high quality chocolate as a thank you for substituting last week. Somehow between Sunday and Tuesday my chocolate disappeared. Yesterday I received this little treat:

"Rachel, some fatty ate your chocolate. I beat him up and made him buy you this. Enjoy. - Dan"

Along with another very exciting surprise:

Let's just say I have the most amazing husband ever. I don't have a holiday season cookbook yet and with my Mom staying with us for Thanksgiving I was starting to worry about what to make for our Thanksgiving feast. I know there's only 3 of us but I still want to make something festive! I'll probably just cut all the recipes in half. This book will definitely come in handy for future family holidays!

Speaking of the holidays...Dan and I booked our flights home. YAYYY!!! It's official. We will be flying home the evening of Dec. 22nd and will be staying until the 28th. I cannot wait to see my family and friends. The past (almost) 3 months have gone by so fast I'm hoping the next 2 will go by just as fast.

To continue on with this week: I went to Zumba last night and Monday night with my friend Amy. It's such a fun class! It brings me back to my high school dancing days. Wednesday's boot camp class was intense. Amy and I challenged the instructor to make a circuit using just your body weight and she actually did it! Unfortunately I pulled my hamstrings on my left (the weaker side) leg. I iced Wednesday, yesterday, and this morning and have been taking ibuprofen for the pain and to reduce inflammation. I decided to take today off since tomorrow I have my 1st (and only) 5 mile run planned before my BIG race next weekend! I feel like I'm a little behind from where I want to be but there's not much I can change now so I'm just going to be happy doing the 5 miles under 10 minutes/mile. Next Thursday Dan is taking his GRE test. He's been studying for it for the past several weeks. Judging from how he's doing on the root words I know he will do well! Wish him luck and say a few prayers for him!

On Monday evening Alicia (neighbor girl) stayed with Dan and I while her Mom was at work. I made delicious macaroni and cheese with sliced hot dogs. The side of the mac n cheese box had a cute opening:

 
Anyway, I hope everyone's Friday is going well! Have a good weekend :-)