Food, Movies and Cats

So for Halloween we went over to the Broadbent's and ate delicious foods and watched a very scary movie. We ate homemade egg rolls, kettle corn, little smokies, caramel apples and more. We watched, "The Watcher In The Woods". So spooky. If you haven't seen it, you should! It's a Disney, need I say more?

Narek.........(you have to see the movie to get it).

Thursday night after we had gotten into bed, Matt asked me to get up and get him an advil. I was not happy but I got up and went out to the front room. On the table stood a chocolate cat from Godiva! I had seen it a week before and said I wanted it cause it was so adorable. Matt is so sweet. I haven't eaten the cat yet, I just can't bring myself to do so. It's too dang cute.

Halloween Trips

Last weekend Matt and I drove to Boston and met up with some friends. We walked the Freedom Trail and then headed up to Salem for the Halloween festivities. My pics are a little out of order but I don't feel like fixing them.

Matt bought this $7 book that you can follow as you walk the Freedom Trail. He liked to pretend he was our tour guide.
Stokes, Johnsons, Jensons and us in Salem:) Courtesy of Lindsey's camera.

They had a Rita's in Salem! I was SOOO happy as you can tell by the picture!

I saw this clown and had to take this picture for my Sis Lauren. She loves the clown from "IT".

Boston

This radio station in Boston was having a costume contest for dogs! I loved this one the best.

Beginning of Freedom Trail.

Cemetery where Paul Revere's grave stone is.

Matt outside the Boston Hyatt.

Because they love Matt so much, they gave us a mini suite. Oh and they had a mini bar in the room and I woke up with major hunger pains and had to buy a $3.75 kit kat bar. Matt took out three different candy bars for me to choose from and THEN realized each time you take something out it registers at the front desk. So we spent $11.25 on a kit kat, snickers and oreos. Lesson learned.

View from the hotel room.

Go Dad!

My Dad works for PNC Bank, whom today just bought National City Bank. So PNC is now the 5th largest bank in the US! My Dad is the senior vice president of business banking at PNC and just last week was quoted in an article in Smart Money. I will post the link below for all of you that are actually interested in this type of thing!

Here is what my Dad said, (The article is titled, Starting Up: Improve Your Chances of Landing a Loan)

These days, banks not only want to see that a potential borrower has a solid credit score, they want to review their entire package — from business plans to balance sheets, explains Jordan Peterson, senior vice president of business banking at PNC in Pittsburgh. Paperwork should be up to date, an experienced management team needs to be in place and there should be proof that customers are paying on time and debts are under control.

Already having an established banking relationship with a lender will help your chances of getting a loan, says Peterson. (Let me know if you need a small business loan, I have connections!!!)

http://www.smsmallbiz.com/capital/Starting_Up_Better_Your_Chances_of_Landing_a_Business_Loan_.html

Autumn In New York

It's Autumn in New York and I'm not talking about that bizarre Richard Gere movie.

We decided to take the train into the city yesterday and frolic in the fall foliage. Our original plan was to try and win the Wicked lottery and after we didn't win (because we never do!) we were going to walk around Central Park. So basically 2 1/2 hours before each show the ticket office allows people to put their names in for a chance to win front row tickets for $26.25 each. We have tried before and it is just a disappointment because about 100-200 people show up and they only choose 13 people to win. And one of Matt's co-workers didn't win until his 16th try! Crazy right?!

Well anyhow our plan for the day was ruined because.........we won (they gave us second row)! Matt's name was called near the end and we were so excited. The show was great from the singing down to the props. Because we were so close we could see the cast members spitting when they sang. At one point one of the cast members spit on the girls in front of us haha. Definitely a must see.

This is Matt now. You can kinda see in this picture that I have this huge red pimply wart on my nose. People thought I was a fan attending the show in costume. Hopefully it scabs over and falls off soon. Ami forgot to mention how I plowed through the crowd after my name was called. I was knocking off purses right and left. The tourists were giving me looks like, "Who does this guy think he is?" It was awesome. In my defense, I did say excuse me, but they took too long to move.

Time Out

Time out for Women, a conference put on by Deseret Book, came out to Philadelphia this past weekend. It's a conference just for Women.....obviously. My mom and I woke up earlier than I would have liked and caught the train down to Market East in Philly. The conference was held at the Convention Center which is conveniently located right above the train station.

There were probably about 1000 women who attended from a bunch of different states. Hilary Weeks, an LDS singer, asked people to cheer when she said the state they were from. Connecticut was first so I was a little bit nervous and my response was delayed a few seconds. She jokingly told everyone else to try a little better! Anyways, there were women from VA, PA, NJ, FL, CA, TX, DE, WV and others.

There were five presenters and they spoke on subjects such as raising children, marriage, the Atonement, Adversity and knowing that God is always listening to you. Hilary Weeks sang a ton of songs and they had about 6 tables set up with books and CDs from LDS authors. Let me just tell you that Deseret Book banked on this event. I have never seen one person buy so many books and Cd's. At one point they brought out a box of books that everyone was looking for and there was a stampede to this particular table! And to be fair, there are no Deseret Bookstores in the East and come on, buying them online is just not the same!

One of my favorite presenters was Emily Watts. She has written a few books on raising children and she spoke on joy and adversity. She quoted from a talk given by Carlfred Broderick. The talk is titled, "The Uses of Adversity". The talk was made into a book (the book I referred to above). There is a quote from the talk that I really loved and it was quoted three different times through out the day.

"The gospel of Jesus Christ is not insurance against pain. It is a resource in event of pain."

I have to add that I was persuaded to buy the new Hilary Weeks CD and I love it. My Dad bought me one of her Cd's when I was younger and I remember not really listening to it cause Church music was not at all hip. I guess I don't care to be 'hip' anymore!

She sang most of the songs from the CD and told the stories that inspired her to write them. My favorite song is, "Just Let Me Cry". She wrote this song when someone she knew lost their 9 year-old girl to brain cancer. The family sent out DVDs with pictures and videos of their daughter and in the DVD case was a note that said, 'Please don't try to find the right words to say or feel like you have to make us feel better. Please just let us cry.'

So all in all it was a great day and if there is a Time Out coming to a city near you, I would definitely try to go!

Mom and I sporting our 'free' (or as Matt says, '$40 bags!)

The new Temple will only be about 4 blocks from this location

Great-Spectacular-Wonderful News

Today President Monson announced that a Temple is going to be built in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Temple is where members of the church perform sacred ordinances and are sealed to their spouses and families for time and all eternity.
When President Monson said that he was going to announce five new temples, I crossed my fingers and chanted, "Philly, Philly." It's funny because apparently my mom and sister both did the same thing! I'm sure back in Philadelphia there was a lot of jumping up and down, screaming (mom!), and crying after he announced the good news. The members in the Philadelphia area have been waiting for this day for a long time.
I told Matt that we have to move close to Philly so we can participate in the excitement. We are extremely grateful that Heavenly Father listened to the prayers of the members and blessed them for their faithfulness.
**Just an little side note....Found out today that the Temple will be built in the inner city near City Hall. It will be very similar to the Manhattan Temple(http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/manhattan/).
It will have two chapels for the city members and church administrative offices. Probably won't be built for at least 5 years, as right now there is a lease on the land for parking.**

Happy Birthday Jenna

Jenna and Ami

Happy Birthday to my lil' Sista Jenna who turned the big 14 today! 14 is a BIG birthday in the church....for those that don't know, Jenna now gets to go to church dances. Lucky you.

Matt and I are really into sports right now. The BYU football team is undefeated and is ranked #7 in the national polls. The Phillie's are 2-0 in the playoffs and the Angels are just 'in' the playoffs. The Angels are more of Matt's team and they were doing really well but for some reason they can't beat the Redsocks when it comes to the playoffs. It's only 0-1 so we'll see if they can pull it off.

.

Oh so cute story. I called my sister Hailey (age 9) last night to see if they were watching the Phillie's game. (my sister Jenna is a huge fan). So they were but Hailey wasn't really talking so I told her to give the phone to Dad. This is how the convo went:

"Give the phone to Dad."

"Dad's not home, he's at the Phillie's game."

"How did he get a ticket?"

"Um...I think either President Olson or President Uchtdorf had an extra ticket."

"Really Hailey......President Uchtdorf? I didn't know they were such close friends!"

"Yeah, he had an extra ticket for Dad."

"Hailey....he lives in Salt Lake and he is in the First Presidency."

"Oh, well I guess it was President Olson."

She didn't really seemed phased that she had said President Uchtdorf! She was actually thinking of President Coltron (my dad is in the stake presidency with Pres. Olson and Pres. Coltron). I just thought that was kind of funny.

.

Oh and a shout out for Twilight: The soundtrack for the movie comes out on Nov. 4th and one of the songs is available to listen to on Stepheniemeyer.com. And if you haven't done it yet, you have to read the rough draft of Midnight Sun, which is also posted on her website. It is Twilight told from Edwards point of view and it is really really good. Ok that is all from me.