Happy Halloween!

Hey guys! I hope you're all doing well. Congratulations to Christine and baby Claire. I'm happy to hear about the Firths too. I just moved back to DC last week and I am so glad to be here, other than it is freezing cold! I wish I had something really exciting to tell you all, but I don't really. Oh, Jeff (my boyfriend) will be doing Washington Seminar (an internship program through BYU) next semester from Jan.-May. Yay! I can't wait. I have so many things planned for us once he gets here. As for now, I am back working regular hours, which is a relief. That's about it. Have a spooky Halloween! :)
p.s. We need to encourage all of the rest of our friends to post on here so I have more to be entertained with while I work!

Hello everyone! It's been so fun reading all of your posts....it took me this long to figure out how to post one myself. I'll give everyone a quick update on the Firthies......we are both graduated and working up at Primary Childrens. It's stressful, but great! We were both able to take care of those conjoined twins that were separated last month. I have not been working much lately becuase I have mono....not fun. Anyway, life is good. Ash is moving out and leaving me all by myself. We won't be connected at the hip anymore! The love life is interesting.....isn't dating always that way? Since we are the few single friends left, you'll actually still get updates on that. :) I'm still dating that boy I've been dating for a year now, but no marriage yet. Ash ws dating his best friend, but that ended. Now she's dating like crazy and I have to approve all of them! (She doesn't know I'm writing this)
Hope everyone's doing great and has a great Halloween! Hope to see everyone soon! Congrats to all the pregnant ones, new moms, birthday girls, and friends with new houses.

Love the Firthies!!

Great Pumpkin Cake

I made this cake yesterday for a former roommate get together. You can find the recipe on www.kraftfoods.com. It is probably one of the easiest recipes ever!! Looking at it from this angle, it doesn't look the greatest (since you can see the icing that dripped to the base of the cake holder--oops!) but from the side, it looks fabulous!! And it looks more orange in real life (it seems maybe the camera didn't do so well, I don't know). Anyway, it was super easy and I got LOTS of compliments on it! Not only did my old roomies think so, but even their husbands or bf's! Also, I was walking over to the girl's apt. where we had dinner and on my way over this random girl said, what a cute cake! Then she said, did you make it? Ha, like I am some gourmet! Anyway, if you want lots of compliments and a yummy cake, try it! All you use is a cake mix!! You can use any kind you want and then you just put a cream cheese frosting on top and the stem in the middle is an ice cream cone. Right now this cake is the featured cake when you go to the website--it's the one right there on the web page.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Buttermilk Syrup Recipe

For those of you who know me really well, you know that I love pancakes! And breakfast foods in general. Well Justin came home from work last weekend and said he had the best syrup on his french toast for breakfast there last Saturday (he works at a school for troubled adolescents and they have a cafeteria) and that we should try it. I am never opposed to trying new recipes, especially when it may involve a yummy breakfast food. So this morning I tried it and it was REALLY good! I thought I would share the recipe with anyone else who is a huge lover of pancakes, french toast, and anything else you may think of to put syrup on!!

Buttermilk Syrup Recipe

1/2 c. butter
2 c. buttermilk
5 c. sugar (I know it's a lot, that's why it's so good!)
1/4 c. corn syrup

Combine all ingredients into a large pot and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat and simmer 5-10 minutes.

Add:

2 T. vanilla
2 T. baking soda

Wisk until it triples in size. Serve with french toast, pancakes, etc.

*I halfed the recipe since there are just two of us and there was still plenty left over (I thought it would be too difficult to third it or I would have tried that!!)

**Also, if you don't have buttermilk laying around (which I never do) here's a substitute: mix 1 T. lemon juice (yes, I do have that laying around!) with one cup of regular milk, stir, and let sit at least 5 minutes.

It will look all white and frothy when it's done (but it's supposed to!). Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Whitney

Whitney! Happy Birthday to you! I hope you have a great day today and that you have some fun plans for the weekend!! Have a good one!

Love, Nicole

I lost my phone!!!

So, I am a genius, and left my phone outside of the meteorology building where somebody else picked it up. Now I have no phone numbers! If you guys could email me your number when you have time, it would be good to get everyone's number again.

my email address is nanhosen@gmail.com

Things are going well. I am pretty overwhelmed with school and work. All I know is that I cannot wait to be finished!! I think that I will probably go to grad school in hydrology once I graduate, but I am for sure taking a year off to work. I have a job with the National Weather Service, so it will be go to be able to go to work, come home, and not worry about the 18 tests that I have that week.

I hope everything is going well for everybody. Whitney, happy birthday in a few days!!!!

I've got a GOOD one!

I just have to brag for a minute about my wonderful husband! Yesterday Justin picked me up from work and on my seat was this beautiful flower arrangement! He asked me if I remembered what day it was. I had to think for a minute, but luckily I remembered that it was the day of our first date two years ago! And he remembered, I couldn't believe it! He bought food and made me dinner too! Anyway, I just thought I would share! Aren't the flowers gorgeous?!

Home Update

Happy LATE Birthday Nicole and Kathryn! I love birthday's and I hope both of your's was perfect. Needless to say, Jake and I found a house that we really liked. But, it was technically already under contract. But the sales rep told us they didn't think it was going to go through... long story short, it did and we didn't get the house. Oh well! We will for sure be in a house by April. We just extended our lease at our apartment, so we've got another 6 months in this place. Nan, 600 sq. ft is reason alone to pack your bags and move over that big hill. You'd LOVE denver, i went to Ft. Collins a few weeks ago and you should definitley look at grad schools here. I would love it if you were here! Anyway, happy late birthday guys!!! Love you all!
Whit