Happy Halloween!

It was nice having Halloween on a Sunday this year so James and I could spend it together... but since it was Sunday there wasn't much for us to do. We decided to celebrate after church with food and a movie-our favorites! I had seen Rachel Ray make these Sloppy Buffalo Joes a few weeks ago and have been wanting to make them ever since, so today we gave it a try. They were SO good, so easy and I recommend to all. The recipe is HERE. We also wanted to watch a festive movie, but since I'm absolutely terrified of anything scary, we chose an old children's classic. Originally we wanted to watch Pete's Dragon. However, since Redbox and Netflix have put every movie rental store out of business there was nowhere to rent it, and I was not about to pay $13.50 for a movie to watch on Halloween. So I bought The NeverEnding Story, our second choice. I think it was a pretty good pick for Halloween... it's pretty crazy. Then we made Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies, ate way too many, and watched The Office from this last week. I'm loving The Office this season, by the way. It's a lot funnier than it has been the last two seasons in my opinion. Anyways, now I need to give Lily a bath and do a little reading. Happy Halloween!

The Brent Event and More...

I apologize. I haven't been the good blogger that I should. I don't like posting only once a week, but we're pretty boring except for once a week (when James has a little time off), so what am I to do? Last weekend was The Brent Event. Jessica and her family came down Friday night and stayed with us so they could be there Saturday. Here are the children eating some grapes on the kitchen floor because that is the only child friendly place to eat in my house :/ James had to work Saturday, which he was so sad about, but here is everyone walking in the 1 mile family walk. I wanted to run the 5k, but all my friends are pregnant, so I had no one to run with. Good excuse huh? :)Here is how Lily traveled the mile. So spoiled! Brent and Kelly thanking everyone for being there. They are such an inspiration to me. Lily did really well with all of the people and noise. But it really wore her out and she was so scared that she had to be held the whole time. Later that night I met James at his office to watch the UFC fight. They always have little parties for them. I was sad Lesnar lost... the "brown pride" guy was annoying. Monday night we went to dinner with Forrest and Sarah and a couple that they're good friends with. We had fun and it was good to see them. You would think you would see people more often once you go from 1500 miles away to 30 miles... but no, we've only seen this Harris family 3 times in the 4 months we've been here! Sad. In other news, I finished Wuthering Heights and Animal Farm. I did enjoy Wuthering Heights a lot more than I thought I would. But old school English love stories are a little crazy for me. This one in particular reminded me a lot of Edgar Allan Poe... very dark. Entertaining nonetheless. And Animal Farm is a classic that illustrates all the problems with Stalin and the Soviet Union and that whole mess. Today I got two new books: Vanity Fair and The Picture of Dorian Gray. I'm just shocked at the number of books I haven't read that I apparently MUST before I die. Well at least two down... 98-ish to go! I've also moved up to #25 on the waiting list for The Hunger Games- that's 54 spots in 3 weeks! Ha! So I'm excited to have it soon.

Also, I want to start documenting my favorite things at particular points in time. For example, right now my favorite things are:

• "French Cafe" radio on Pandora (Obsessed!)


• These flats! Got them earlier this week and love them! The cashier at Old Navy even gave me $5 off just because I asked... thanks girl!
• Putting "Benefiber" into foods to lower the WW Points value :)

Just a few things I love right now.

Birthday Weekend in Austin

This last weekend we went up to Austin (both of us for two whole days!) to celebrate our niece Brooklyn's 4th birthday. We had so much fun and I was so happy James got to have an entire weekend away from work. I took 65 pictures on Saturday :) I can't even imagine how crazy I'll be at my own child's party! This cupcake stand was my absolute favorite thing at the party. Jessica borrowed it from a friend, and after to some investigation I found that it is from Home Goods. Needless to say I am now on the hunt. (It is featured in 6 of the pics that I took-ha! )Little Pierce hitting the pinata and all the children grabbing candy. Brooklyn blowing out her candles on her oh so delicious cake. I had 3 pieces over the weekend :)Opening her gift from Uncle James and Aunt Maggie-a Tinkerbell costume. All of the adults at Benihana. Sad Jennika wasn't there- she was in Dallas for her sister's bridal shower. It was SO good and we had a really good time. And even though we didn't get to watch the Bama game, I enjoyed watching Ohio State and Nebraska lose-best thing that happened in a week given the previous Saturday (of which we do not speak).
Now for another crazy weekend again. All the family are coming here tomorrow night for the Brent Event on Saturday. Should be fun!

New Library Card

This morning I got a library card... finally! I had meant to get one back in the summer, but I ended up reading some books we already had so I just never got around to it. The nearest public library to our house is at a community college, and its huge! I'm so excited! I checked out Wuthering Heights and Animal Farm, both of which are on the list of "100 books to read before you die." I cannot even say how much I love reading and how much I enjoy being in a library. I almost got a little emotional looking at all of the books! It's just fascinating how much you can learn from reading. I'm so grateful to my mother for encouraging (and often forcing) me to read when I was younger as it has become one of my absolute favorite things to do. Hopefully one of my next books will be The Hunger Games, since everyone has raved so much about it. I'm 76 on a waiting list at the library, so hopefully everyone reads it quick! And I'm ALWAYS looking for book suggestions, so please share!

Maggie's 24th Birthday!

Yesterday was my 24th birthday, and it was such a good one! James was so wonderful at planning and trying to coordinate everything, even though not all of it worked out. First of all, the girls got to go to work with me! I just love my job-where else can you take your dogs to work?! Here they are working very hard. Ha! I got flowers delivered at work from my parents and from James, which were such nice surprises! I absolutely LOVE getting flowers! When the girls and I got home, I hurried and got freshened up and then we headed to the Cheesecake Factory-my absolute favorite- where we met Brodie and Jennika. Jessica was supposed to come down with her children for the weekend and go to dinner with us, but Pierce got a bad fever Thursday night so they weren't able to. So sad. But dinner was fantastic; I got my fried mac 'n cheese balls, crabcake sandwich with sweet potato fries, and pumpkin pecan cheescake, and some fabulous gifts!Yes, my dress is a Leslie Faye (my mom) original. She's currently finishing a crimson one for me to wear to Tuscaloosa for the Alabama v. Auburn game. And today I got THE CUTEST shoes to wear with it.... so excited!And this is our waiter, EJ. He was SO funny and such a great waiter, I just had to get a pic with him! I'm not exactly sure why he's working at the Cheesecake Factory, he should be playing for the Texans-he's huge! And here are some pillows I bought today for $7 each! Hence, why I bought them. They make the rest of my bed look bad now though, so I think I would like to do all white bedding with these pillows and a couple more brown and blue ones. I love a little early Saturday morning shopping. I've had such a good day: shopping, LDS General Conference, more shopping, and now the Alabame v. Florida game where we are currently KILLING Florida. Love it!

5 Years Ago Today...

Five years ago today I had just moved to Provo, Utah, and applied for a job at Convergys. As I was sitting in the lobby waiting to take a computer test, in walked James Michael Simmons with his brother, Brodie. I watched them as they filled out their applications at the desk, thinking that the shorter one (James) was pretty cute. We all took the test in the same room and then had our individual interviews. James had his before me and somehow I overheard that he was hired. Little did I know that I would also be hired, be in the same training group with him, not talk with him during our week in training, quit after the training for another job, go to work where two of his step-brothers worked-one of which lived with him, and ultimately be asked to James' house by his step-brother, which would end up being the first night we talked/hung out and lead to six months of dating, five months being engaged, and currently four years of marriage. I love you James! I can't imagine life without you and I am so grateful to have met you five years ago.

Happenings

We haven't been up to much since I've started working. We've finally fallen into a half-normal routine, which I'm loving. Though we've had a little something extra thrown into the mix this last week: In addition to our being on the Ward Activities Committee, we've also been called as nursery workers! This Sunday was our first experience with the nursery, and I think it went really well. Obviously for James there is no better calling-two hours of toys and snacks, what more could he ask for? :) I was a little worried at first, other people's children are not always my favorite thing, and I was scared that two hours would be such a long time. But the time went by really fast and the children are really well behaved, so I think it will be fun! After church we went down to Brodie and Jennika's to eat dinner and watch the Texans game. We also played a little Tetris on the Wii of course. Shortly after this picture of the guys was taken, Brayden got up on the coffee table and said in the sweetest and most gentle voice, "She's beautiful! Uncle James, look she's so beautiful!" And he was pointing at me! It was the cutest thing and best delivered compliment I've ever heard! So this is a pic of me and Brayden after I got done hugging and kissing him. Also, today I got my diploma in the mail! Seeing it did make it seem more real that I'm a college graduate, but I still don't really believe it. I've been telling James that I want to take an accounting class or two in the Spring. I just can't give up school! And finally, I think we've found our Mexican place! Tonight we went to Julio's up in Tomball and it was SO SO good. It's out in the middle of nowhere-love-has a really nice atmosphere (you can eat outside and listen to the Texas country music)-love-and the salsa, chips, shrimp quesadillas, beef fajita nachos, and cheese enchiladas were fabulous.