My Favorite (soon to be) Missionary

That would be the Boyce in the middle there. Congratulations to K.C. We just found out last night that he's headed to Uruguay in June!
K.C. is one of the many blessings that have come from being married to Nate. He's HiLaRiOuS (Can anybody make weirder faces and noises than K.C.? Well, Tyler' IS a close second...). Back to the point -- he's focused, ridiculously talented when it comes to LOTS of things, especially music and so much fun. And, he's going to be a great missionary.
I finally have a brother (in-law!) going on a mission! Hmmm....what baked goodies travel well by mail to the MTC? Oh, wait...he's going straight to the MTC in Argentina. That presents a bit of a challenge...I may be calling on my friends Mr. Hershey and Mr. Wonka for some of their products instead!

A little something to share...

Some of you might remember that about five months after Nate and I were married I found myself back in my wedding dress, at the temple and we were taking pictures to go with an article in the Ensign Magazine. We didn’t know when it would be published, but after hearing from some friends in South Africa and then Brazil that they had seen us (by the way, how did they get an Ensign/Liahona before we did?) we found ourselves matched with a beautiful article in the October 2007 issue. By the way, my dress was not long-sleeved. Somebody in Salt Lake must have done a little creative editing!Fast forward to this morning when I got a text message from our friend Greg in Texas that said, "You’re in the temple video on the church website." Hmmm…I figured there must have been a photograph of us that they used, but Greg wasn’t talking about the collective 'you'. He meant ME.

I had completely forgotten that at the time of the Sacramento Temple open house, way back in August of 2006, that I had the opportunity to sit with the Church’s film crew and share my thoughts about the temple. It was intended that the footage would be used in the open house film that is viewed before the tour of the temple begins, but I must have ended up on the editing room floor, because my remarks weren't included in that production.

Getting to the point FINALLY...for your viewing pleasure, I’m sharing with you this beautifully made short video, because...um...I'm in it, AND it really does encapsulate so much that is precious to me as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints regarding temples. You’ll see me for about six seconds at around the 2:25 mark. Silly, I know, but I thought it would be fun to share…especially when it’s surrounded by such a great message.

Top o' the morning to you!

I'm still getting familiar with the Boyce genealogy, but I can tell you that the Halls are exactly 0% Irish. We have absolutely no excuse for celebrating St. Patrick's Day EXCEPT that we do love a good Hallmark-promoted holiday and making traditions. I like corned beef and cabbage a whole lot more now than I did as a kid. Throw in some potatoes, carrots and onions and you pretty much have an Irish pot roast. And pot roast has got to be one of the best Sunday dinner meals my mom makes in the wintertime! So, on Sunday, we Halls feasted on the traditional Irish grub and festively wore green. (Thanks Dad for taking the picture. Aren't we color coordinated nicely?) Inspired by saying what we're thankful for when we're at Thanksgiving, we went around the table and each had about ten seconds to come up with one reason we were feeling lucky. It got kind of silly, but may be the start of yet another tradition!
Why are YOU feeling lucky today? Quick...think fast!

I knew it was coming...

That's right, it would seem that eight years of seniority in my school district is meaningless these days, because it still didn't save me from getting this little layoff notice on Friday. Oh, the irony of getting a layoff notice on Friday the 13th! I was forewarned by my principal about a week ago, but it's still LAME. The reality is that my job is pretty safe (uh, I think!), and this anxiety-provoking letter has been sent to too many teachers. But it's still a bit unnerving to even be put in the 'pink slip' category.
I haven't really lost much sleep over it, but I did use it as an excuse to try out a new recipe. Hopefully in the coming weeks as budgets are continually reviewed and reworked I'll hear that this letter has rescinded. Until then, I may just cope with any rising nervousness by experimenting with new pink desserts! I'm always looking for an excuse to put my KitchenAid to work!

Last of the Celebrating!

It was almost two weeks ago that we wrapped up our weeks of birthday celebration by heading to San Francisco with Nate's parents on a Saturday afternoon.
We had some time before dinner so we walked around Pier 39 and, our personal favorite, the Ferry Building. I just love window shopping for gourmet food. They have a whole store there selling mushrooms. -- $100 mushrooms! Incredible. When we go there I always lose Nate at the Cowgirl Creamery shop. After his wife, cheese might possibly be his second love. In fact, after this trip, he's decided that since we're not wine connoisseurs, we're going to learn to appreciate and sample fine cheeses. Fine with me. We ended up bringing some cave aged Swiss Gruyere home with us and, well, two years of sitting in a cave must do the trick, because that stuff is really good.
Honestly, as if it wasn't obvious already, the trip was inspired by our desire for good, no I mean great, food. So as the evening approached we made sure not to be a minute late for our reservations at Houston's. Ah, Houston's.
Nate first fell in love with Houston's when he lived in San Jose. He and his friends would drive into the city at ridiculously late hours for Houston's. At some point before I came into the picture, Nate's parents met up with him and tried (and loved) Houston's too. My first Houston's experience was with Nate, but I was already sold because I had become a huge fan of the Rutherford Grill, near Napa, years before. They are owned by the same group and both have the most amazing ribs. Mmmmm...the ribs. That's what the men ordered and Shauna and I had fish. But, lots of sampling and sharing went on for sure. We topped of the meal with the five nut brownie sundae. Again, delicious.
More than anything it was just nice to get out of our usual, busy routines and out of town, even for a few hours. This time of year gets pretty crazy sometimes. Thanks to our two family accountants for getting to work very early on a Saturday so we could get away and have some fun in the city.