Let the Travels Begin...

I dropped Jason at the PHX airport Saturday evening and got a call this morning that he landed safe and sound in London. I am watching the Patriot vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers game that is taking place at Wembley stadium in London. Jason was able to score a ticket last week, so I'm scouring the crowds trying to get a glimpse of him. We went down to Phoenix on Friday night, went out to this great wood-fire pizza place called "The Parlor" and Saturday I had a little shopping spree at IKEA...Jason managed to survive that part of the trip!
It was really nice to "get down off the mountain" and do something different before Jason took off for 11 days of travel. The only negative part of the trip was my near collision with an Elk on Hwy 17 yesterday, about 30 miles out of Flagstaff. If you have never seen an Elk, they are like deer on steroids...kinda like this...


It was dark by that point in my trip and I was in the left hand lane. On the left shoulder I saw a giant Elk walking out from the woods. Luckily, I didn't hit it, but did nearly have a heart attack and drove about 50 mph for the rest of the trip.
I am off for S.C. on Thursday night to see Tim's game on Friday and visit Clemson on Saturday. It will be a short, whirlwind trip, but I am so EXCITED to see everyone!! I'll post pictures when I get back.
Helen & Maddie XOXO

Jack - O - Lanterns and Aspen Trees

Boo!! Jason and I are enjoying a night of good football with GA Tech leading VA Tech and the Alabama / USC game...complete with cool beers and homemade wings, so I thought now would be a good time to catch you all up. Last weekend Jason and I went to Josh and Mary Hampton Lovekamp's house for a 1st birthday celebration for their twins, Will and Kate. Will and Kate were born prematurely and spent their first 10 months of life on oxygen, so to see them stuffing cake in their face was quite a joy! We also visited the Fall Festival in Flagstaff, enjoyed some hot chocolate, a walk in the woods, and visited with some friends we ran in to. Here is a picture of us before we left...

We also bought and carved our pumpkins on Sunday night (Maddie even made one:)) They came out surprisingly well; Jason's was the scary one, mine the scared one, and Maddie's the guard cat. They are now outside our front door. It gets so cold here at night that they are withstanding the wilting process. Here is a picture of Jason and I with our final creations...

Another one trying to (unsuccessfully) get Maddie in the shot...

Jason hard at work...

We also toasted the pumpkin seeds and had a yummy snack all week!

This week was NAU's career and graduate school fair on Wednesday and the interview day on Thursday. It was a lot of smiling, talking, shaking hands and other fun career duties. Here is a picture of my friends Sonia, Lisa and myself nearing the end of the LONG day.

This weekend we were up early to watch Clemson BEAT Wake Forest and then took a drive around to the North side of the San Francisco peaks to get some photos of the changing leaves. In fall the Aspen trees change to a brilliant yellow-gold color. It was an oddly warm day and the trees were beautiful!


On a side note, Jason and I are really proud of my youngest brother, Tim. He is loving USC Upstate and having a great season in his first year in Div. I competition. He scored his first career, and the team's first conference play goal just over a week ago. Here is a shot of the man in action!


No other big plans this weekend; just relaxing and enjoying lots of good sleep and football. Next Friday we are going down to Phoenix for a fun night with a couple of friends, shopping on Saturday, and Jason flies out to London Saturday night. I'll be home alone until Thursday night when I fly out of Phoenix on a red-eye to visit South Carolina! Go Trojans and Tigers!
XOXO

Busy Busy Busy

Sorry this post is so late, but things have been pretty busy here in Flagstaff!! Work is keeping me really busy right now so I've been slacking on the blog:(

We had a great time this past weekend; Friday night we made homemade margarita pizza and watched one of our Netflix movies we've had for months - haha. Clemson football vs. Maryland was on Saturday morning at our friend Eric's house, so we were up early to catch the 9am kickoff. On Saturday night I went out with some girlfriends for dinner and to watch a band downtown and Jason stayed in for some alone time with his guitars and loud music,

On Sunday it was a rainy, windy day so we watched a lot of football and cooked. Sunday night was the season finale of Entourage, and was one of the best episodes of the year.

We're just working away this week and don't have too much planned for this weekend. Hopefully the weather cooperates and we can go to the Fall Festival and get my pumpkins!

If you are interested in a good fall recipe, tonight we made stuffed acorn squash. Here's the recipe; it was SO good

2 acorn squash
1/4 pound sausage, seasoned if you can find it
1/8 cup diced onion
1/8 cup diced celery
1/8 cup diced carrot
1/3 cup homemade whole wheat bread crumbs or brown rice
1/8 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1/2 TBSP Oregano
2 small cubes of butter
Splash of white wine
Salt & Pepper

Cut the top off the squash and scoop out the seeds. Cut off a little of the bottom if needed to place in a baking dish. Place one small cube of butter in each squash and set aside.
Brown sausage, and remove from pan, leave remaining juices. Add the onions, celery and carrots and cook for about 5-7 minutes or until tender.
Add a splash of white wine, cooked sausage, salt, pepper, and oregano and cook through. Remove from eat and add the rice or breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese. Stuff mixture into squash and replace its top. Bake at 400 degrees for about 1 hour.
YUMMO!

I promise pictures after this weekend!
XOXO