Brrrrrrr

Well, we're having a bit of a cold front here in San Francisco. Nowhere near as cold as it gets in Denver, however much colder than it's been since we moved 7 months ago. Bri Bri, who is never cold, went to turn on the heater on Saturday only to discover that our furnace isn't working properly. It's freezing in here! Luckily, we have plenty of jackets and blankets and hopefully we can get the HVAC man out here today to fix our furnace. Last night, we had fresh, clean sheets to dive into so Riley wasn't allowed on the bed. Instead, I gave him a nice down blanket of his own to keep him warm - and what do you know? He stayed on his bed all night!

Ta-dah!

Brian won an award at work on Friday for his awesome support in Q4! We are so proud of him! And how did my wonderful husband want to spend his winnings? He got me a new phone - an iPhone 4! Wahooo! My iPhone 3G was dying and my upgrade was due, but I couldn't justify spending the dough right before Christmas....but alas, Brian surprised me with a treat! We went down to AT&T on Saturday to pick up my sweet new phone, and this amazing new purple case which I love! Thanks, Bri Bri! And congrats again on your award at work!

November Catch Up

I've been a bad blogger - oops. I haven't been diligent with the camera and I hate blog entries with no photos. Sorry, friends. It's time to catch up, nonetheless. I can't believe November is almost over!

Here's a quick recap of the last three weeks....

• Brian helped his dad and brother move and brought home lots of old family treasures as a result - to name a few....a big metal shelf thingie for the garage, some fun photos, a chainsaw, a charcoal bbq, a lawn mower
• We had lots of Christina & Nick quality time - lunch date and shopping (just the girls!) and then pizza and beer at Rocco's (yum, yum) - can't wait to do that again!
• Josh turned 29 and had a tequila tasting birthday party - Brian loves tequila and brought Cazadores as his tasting bottle. We also got to see Kristen's adorable 5 month baby bump!
• We had a Pre-Thanksgiving Feast with friends - all the trimmings. I made Apple Pie, Turkey, Stuffing, Mashed Potatoes, Bourbon Yams and Gravy. Brian also grilled up two turkey breasts to make sure we had enough turkey in addition to our 21 pound bird. All the friends brought super delicious side dishes - brussel sprouts, broccoli cheese casserole, green beans x 3, salad, rolls, pumpkin pie (with brandy!), apple pumpkin pie (from Apple Hill!), caramel pecan cupcakes, spinach dip, chili dip.....everyone was STUFFED as you can imagine and our feast was a for sure success.
• Dan turned 29 and we headed to Berkeley for some T-Rex BBQ - we fought hours of traffic (Brian fought it home, then we fought it out of the city...yikes) and were an hour and a half late for dinner, but still had a great time celebrating ol' Grandpa Dan.
• Brian's class celebrated their 10 year reunion - had dinner with Chris and Jenna followed by old high school memory reminiscing. But, not before driving through San Francisco in the hail, rain, thunder and lightning to get there!

Soup-a-loop!

Last week, the rain and cold weather called for some soup making. Lentils sounded yummy and healthy. So I unburied my Better Homes & Garden Biggest Book of Slow Cooker Recipes and tried a new recipe: Lentil-Veggie Soup. Check it out:

I doubled the recipe to freeze some for lunch and I also made some cornbread - yum, yum.

1 cup dry lentils

1 cup chopped carrots (2 medium)

1 cup chopped celery (2 stalks)

1 cup chopped onion (2 medium)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 tspn dried basil

1/2 tspn dried oregano

1/4 tspn dried thyme

1 bay leaf

2 14 oz cans of vegetable or chicken broth (3 1/2 cups)

1 1/2 cups water

1 14 1/2 can Italian-style stewed tomatoes

Rinse the lentils. In a 3 1/2 to 4 quart slow cooker, place the lentils, carrots, celery, onions, garlic, basil, oregano, thyme and bay leaf. Stir in broth, water and undrained tomatoes. Cover; cook on low heat for 12 hrs or on high heat for 5-6 hrs. Discard bay leave.

Yum, yum! Next time, I think I'll add some sliced sausage.

Halloween Polygamy

I can hardly believe it's already November and that Halloween just breezed by. Normally, I'm not a big fan of Halloween, but this year I thought of an amazing costume (at least I think so). So, our friends had a party, we thrift shopped for finishing touches on our costumes, and I found a cool cupcake idea online.

Eyeball Cupcakes! Red Velvet cake (like blood!) and fun frosting decorations.

We didn't get any great photos of our costumes (turns out my brother isn't much of a photog), but Brian and I teamed up with our friends, Cat and Andra and formed a polygamist family - the crazy kind that live on a compound and have weird hair. I had a fabulous button up mauve dress with long sleeves and a high collar - thank you Goodwill! Cat did my hair up and I had a huge fluffy bump (with no bump it!) and a long french braid.