Happy Birthday Tony!

Today is my brother's birthday. 


Here are ten reasons why I love him (although there are MANY other reasons besides the ones listed below)...

• He is witty.
• He is funny and reminds me of Jim Halpert from The Office.
• He comes and picks me up from campus almost every day.
• He sleeps over on campus to get a good seat for Aggie basketball games. (Well, he did for the USU vs. BYU game).
• He looks after me.
• He loves his family (even if we bug him all the time).
• He is a great uncle.
• He has great one-liners and is very skilled with sport-type activities (see photo below).
• He puts up with my endless questioning.
• He is my little brother and will always be my little brother, even if he towers over me and looks like he's my older brother. I will always love him no matter what.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BROTHER! I hope your day is great, and it should be since Utah State beat BYU last night in the Spectrum! GO AGGIES!

Eleventh Hour. Eleventh Day. Eleventh Month.

"On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, was declared between the Allied nations and Germany in the First World War, then known as "the Great War." Commemorated as Armistice Day beginning the following year, November 11th became a legal federal holiday in the United States in 1938. In the aftermath of World War II and the Korean War, Armistice Day became Veterans Day, a holiday dedicated to American veterans of all wars." 

(via here)

I remember going to Arlington Cemetery in high school and seeing the Changing of the Guard in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. What a sight. I also remember the feeling I had when I saw the rows upon rows of headstones. It takes your breath away. Freedom is not free. War is not pretty. I am grateful for the sacrifice of all the men and women in the military. 

Thank you to all those who have served, are serving, and will serve the United States. God Bless America.


P.S. It's 11-11-11 today. Pretty neat.

Snot Funny

This week started off on a rough note (succumbing to a head cold with a faucet for a nose), but there have been some bright points. Just read the list below.

• I couldn't fall asleep Sunday night.
• I had weird dreams about fairy-tale characters and running out of time to do things.
• I woke up Monday morning with a sore throat and headache.
• I almost missed the bus Monday morning because it came so early. I also I had to stuff my breakfast bar in my mouth before I got on the bus. Do you know hard it is to chew a whole breakfast bar? It's hard.
• I couldn't focus on anything at all this week.
• I spilled my FULL water bottle all over my front side. 
• Tuesday I woke up with aches and pains. I had a hard time getting out of bed.
• The bus came later than usual which meant I got to stand outside in the cold weather (with a cold, stuffy nose, and headache) for a longer period of time.
• I tend to feel better when I am outside and not inside.
• I got done with a lot of my work for my jobs. 
• This is a good week for me to be sick because it has been one of the lightest school weeks I have had this semester. 
• I've been sniffing and sneezing all week.
• Who knew that one person could hold so much snot? I blew my nose a lot this week.
• I got to read Crossed by Ally Condie (the next book in the Matched trilogy).
• My school work was very light this week (thank goodness).
• I slept for 9 hours straight! That's amazing for me.
• I was huffing and puffing while walking up stairs (thank you plugged sinuses). 
• I got a new calling in my ward and got my visiting teaching assignments. 
• I downloaded Snow Leopard on my MacBook.
• It's only Thursday and I am exhausted, but looking forward to the weekend.
• That's a lot of "I's" on that list... I need to change that.

As you can tell, this week has been eventful yet uneventful at the same time. Life is grand.

Seriously?

This happened a few days ago and I started writing about it, but I am behind in my posting, so here it is now, in all its glory.


I am swamped with assignments and work is super busy. I always feel more calm and can think better when I run. So, I went to the Fieldhouse to get all my frustrations and stress out of my system for a short three miler. I would go running outside, but it is usually dark by the time I can go running and my family doesn't like it when I run outside in the dark. Imagine that. 


Anyway, I changed and headed up the stairs to where the treadmills are. Now, do you remember me mentioning how the Fieldhouse has creepy men that like to stare on my last blog? Well, they are still there, and I think there may be more than there used to be. When I got to the treadmill I planned on using, the place was pretty empty, I mean there were people there but there were plenty of machines not near me that were not in use. Do you know where my story is going? Where do these smelly, sweaty guys decide to run? If you guessed a couple of treadmills away, you would be wrong. 


I had to complete my run inhaling sweat smelling air and one of the guys had really bad breath on top of that. Not my favorite thing to do. But if it keeps snowing and is dark and cold, I will be going to the Fieldhouse more often.

Have a Nice Trip? See ya Next Fall!

I couldn't help myself with that post title. It's punny. This is one of my favorite times of the year.

I've made pumpkin bars and apple crisp. And I only have a photo of the apple crisp.

I went to a football game with Grandma Pat, Tyler, and Leslie. We lost. But it was still so fun to go with them. And say "It's another Aggie... FIRST DOWN!"

We actually had a fall this year! Amazing. I got to go hang out with my seesters (and nephews) for Fall Break and it was fun! I bought some boots and we went to Gardner Village and looked at all the "tare me witches" and cute little shops. 

Dewey (not my nephew's real name but it's a funny nickname) didn't come with us, but this was his church outfit on Sunday. He was a happy boy! And he looks a lot like his older brother when he was a baby. Isn't he a doll?

It didn't snow until November and I got to see all the leaves change colors and drop. I got to help rake leaves and took some fun photos. This is the carpet of leaves in the backyard. It was a pretty cool sight to see!

I love these colors! And it's so fun to step on all the crunchy leaves. Fall is great.

 Oh, and Tony did a cool trick... watch below.

Leaf Jumping from Alli Brown on Vimeo.

Candy Corn Cupcakes

I saw these on a blog, and I thought I would give them a whirl. They didn't turn out the way I saw the pictures, but they are dairy-free and extremely delicious!


Basically, you are supposed to take a white cake mix (did you know that most white cake mixes have milk in them?) and make some of the batter yellow and some orange. Then you put the yellow batter in the cupcake liner first and then the orange. You have white frosting and viola! Candy corn cupcakes.


This is what mine turned out like...

I guess it's not that bad for a first attempt. I couldn't get the colors just right since I started with a yellow cake mix instead of a white cake mix. Also, I made homemade Vegan Buttercream Frosting. It made quite a bit of frosting and it was mighty tasty.

Happy 30th Anniversary!

Today is my parent's 30th wedding anniversary. I am glad they got married because then they had an AWESOME family. Someday I hope to get married and have as many adventures as they do. They are great examples to me and my siblings. I just love my parents. So here's to you Mom and Dad!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MOM AND DAD! I hope you have more adventures and continue to love one another! Thanks for everything you do. Don't you just love this photo? I sure do!