I say Brrr...it's cold out here!

You know it's bad when even the dogs are trying to drop hints about the warm weather that they miss.

We woke up to a frozen water meter this morning. We didn't realize that it was THAT cold outside, so we checked the weather to see what it was last night. It turns out that the temperature was 0 degrees with a wind chill of -15. Yes, no wonder we had ice instead of water.

Are they worth it?

What do you think? Is a pomegranate worth the time and effort that it requires to get the tart and crunchy fruit to an edible stage?
Josh had never had pomegranate, so we bought one the other day so he could try it. He didn't much like it, and I didn't like the work required to prepare it. It is kind of a curious fruit though.

He said, she said

In the wonderful world of middle school, there are many rumors that freely fly throughout any given week. I hear all sorts of things about all sorts of people, but I guess that's what happens when I hang out with 13-year olds all day long.
One of the rumors is about me this week. There are two different versions:

1) Mrs. Mikkelsen can dunk a basketball.
2) Mrs. Mikkelsen can touch the rim.

I had one boy ask me if it was true that I could dunk. When I told him that I couldn't, he then asked if I can touch the rim. When I told him that wasn't true either, I sunk a few places on his cool scale. I did tell him that I could touch the bottom of the net though, but I don't think that helped me climb back up the scale very much. I didn't bother to tell him that I haven't tried to touch the net in about 4 years, but I think I could probably still do it. I'll have to try if nobody is in the gym today...

Feels like home

Sorry honey...they're not to eat. They're for Relief Society!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are grateful that we got to spend our Thanksgiving day with Josh's family and our friends the Duckworths. We had a good day with lots of food, lots of laughs, and lots of Jello!

Here are the dogs on patrol duty...waiting for some scraps to fall their way.

McKayla and me, with my first Christmas present of the year!

Layla, waiting for some company and mashed potatoes...

Our 20+ lb. turkey, too big for the platter...

Josh's layered Jell-o, more photos to follow...

Here is a pre-feast toasting shot...

And Regan, about to accept the challenge to eat the rest of the Jell-o, in 2 minutes or less. (He's always up for a food-eating contest, which makes for fun times for the rest of us!)

Going...

Going...

Gone! Well, done, at least. It was almost gone! Way to go Regan - There's always room for Jell-o!

Branch Thanksgiving Dinner and Talent Show

We had a branch Thanksgiving Dinner and Talent Show on Monday night. We had a great turnout, with so many faces that I had never even seen before. We had a fun night with our branch.

Josh was the MC for the evening, and only shared one Utah/BYU joke.

As we were compiling the list for the talents, we were short a few. There were so many people that signed up in church, not so many people who were brave enough to really get up and do them on the night of the show.

But the VonTrap Family Quartet started off the evening with a round of For Health and Strength.

A good time was had by all.

New calling:

Branch Relief Society President.
I got called last Saturday, freaked out until Monday, sustained and set apart today. I feel much better about things now.

Go Utes!

Nobody that we know here in Topeka (who was cheering for the right team) has the Mountain, the network that the Utah/BYU game was on tonight. So a group of friends went to Henry T's (a bar/grill) to watch the game. We enjoyed good food, good friends, and good football! We were glad that we walked out of there with a win, because we had some annoyed people who didn't think the Utah game should be on the big screen. It was hard to get everybody to smile at the same time, but here is one attempt.
Go Utes!

New house in an old picture

Josh's mom had this picture of us in one of her photo files. Neither one of us had ever seen it, but it was right when we moved in and I thought it was cute.

We voted, did you?

Gotta love trying to take a picture of 2 people when there are only 2 people in the room. :)

Guess who got glasses....

"I did," cried the duke when the sun came up!

Happy Halloween!

Haunted Happy House...(I've made too many gingerbread houses and not enough haunted houses)
The Shrieking Shack with a Wizard of Oz touch...

and Spooky brownies that were supposed to be so much cuter and turned out really lame and look like my niece Ana decorated them. Yes, everyone, I'm 24 and would drown if I were tossed in the sea of artistic-ness to swim ashore. I simply cannot remain afloat. (In other words, thanks to Jan for hogging all of the artistic ability and saving none for your little sisters.)

They're Gr-rrr-eat!

We had a great time at the JRC Halloween Party last night. We attended the party as Frosted Flakes and Tony the Tiger!
Josh rocked the guys' donut eating contest...
I couldn't quite keep the winning trend going on the girls' contest, but I took a fairly close second. I did win the contest for best soup though.

I wasn't the only Tiger at the party. Jamie and I talked about Henry being Tigger for Halloween, so I thought it was funny that Aubrey was - so I got a picture with her instead.

A few more basement pictures

These will be the last pictures before the real thing! We get carpet on Monday so everything else has to be done today! I'm working hard while Josh is at drill.

Basement update...

We've got almost all of the painting in the family room done, then we have the bedroom and the office to finish. Still to do: hang doors, trim, and tile before the carpet gets here on the 20th!

BAD DOGS!

It Must Be October!

October Sweetness:
#1- MLB Playoffs
#2- Dodgers are in the playoffs
#3- Yankees are not in the playoffs!
#4- Dodgers win game one against the Cubbies (sorry Grandma)
#5- Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies while we watch the game


Could October have gotten off to any sweeter of a start? I dare say not.

I bet you wish you had fruit pizza for dessert tonight. Besides missing the kiwis, it was awesome.

2nd place

B team had another tournament today, this time at Sabetha. The team had a bit of a hard time, they must have been as tired as I was. We took 2nd out of 8 teams. Not too shabby. Yes, this picture was taken after I woke up from a nap after 8 hours of volleyball and 8th grade girls. Here I am with my silver medal.

We have a ceiling!

I thought I'd post some pictures of the new ceiling in our basement. We also have a couple of walls. Our drywall should be all hung tomorrow and hopefully mud and tape will be done by the end of the week. We're getting there....

Eighth grade B team rocks!

We won first place in the Silver Lake tournament on Saturday. Our B team has never lost that tournament, so it was nice to win again this year so I don't get blamed for losing. Here is a self photo of me and my gold medal. Pretty sweet, huh?
Volleyball will already be over in two weeks, then girl's basketball starts after one day off. I'm keeping busy, but time is going by fast - which is a good thing when you teach middle school. :)

And now we know...

You'll have to excuse my absence from blogging. I have found it somewhat intimidating to blog about anything cooler than Africa, but I recieved some inspiration yesterday when we picked the last of our produce. This made Josh and I talk about our garden for next year. We discussed things that we will and won't plant, and what we should do differently. This made me think about the things I have learned and learned to appreciate since we put the garden in this spring.
Things I know now that I didn't last spring:
1. Furrow-making is an art.
2. Furrows should be cut to run slightly downhill.
3. My dad and grandpa are even more amazing than I thought.
4. You should spray corn for bugs.
5. Although I absolutely prefer eating green beans out of the garden, I prefer buying them frozen. (5 green beans?! Are you kidding me?!)
6. Grass in Kansas grows really fast.
7. Weeds in Kansas grow even faster.
8. Frogs and toads are different but they both like my garden.
9. If pumpkins don't have water, they will die.
10. You shouldn't pick a watermelon until its curly leaves turn brown.
11. Nature is more amazing than I realized.
12. Jalepeno peppers aren't that good for foods that I usually prepare.
13. Why my parents had so many kids. (to pull weeds, pick up sticks, shell peas, end and french the beans, etc.)
14. My mom was really patient when she would cut and seed a watermelon.
15. There are some crazy-looking bugs in Kansas.

I think Josh summed it up perfect when he said, "Now I understand why Grandma was always so mad at me for getting in her garden!"

It was a lot of work, but it was a lot of fun. We spent lots of hours working together and a few minutes enjoying the fruits of our garden together. Hopefully next year's harvest will be even better!

One of the scary spiders who has called our home home.

A hungry little caterpillar.

A frog...

And a toad...

One more scary spider who has called our home home. Anyone know what kind of spider this is?

My watermelon...

and my cantaloupes!