A few of my favorite things...

So, it's that time of year again... my favorite 4 months. I don't really care much for Halloween generally, but I love the cool crisp air, the changing leaves that fall to the ground and dance in the wind, and the smell of pumpkin and cinnamon that lingers in the stores.... these are a few of my favorite things. Then, as if things couldn't get any better, the holidays come, and there's more leaves, more delicious smells, Christmas music, and the beautiful sight of falling snow that I get to enjoy living in Provo. So, to kick off the fall Joseph and I have a little tradition that we've done together ever since we were engaged. We drive through the Alpine Loop. To those of you who don't know, this is a road that winds up through Alpine canyon and you're surrounded by millions of colorful trees the whole way. This year we were just a bit early I guess, because the birch trees were just barely starting to change color... but last year we were late and many of the trees were bare. Luckily the view is beautiful whether we're early or late. Here are some pictures from last year's ride through the loop. I hope they make you as happy as they make me.

My Biggest Fear... (or at least the one I am most frequently called upon to confront)

"We are taught to understand, correctly, that courage is not the absence of fear, but the capacity for action despite our fears."

So, last night as I was coming inside from taking pictures of our house I saw something I easily could have lived without seeing. I told Joseph to come look at this horrific sight. He said I should take a picture of it for the blog. I thought of Rachel's post about Halloween images, and I possibly would rather see some of the gruesome Halloween props she described hanging from our tree rather than this. And this was real life. But, in effort to face my fears, I took the below picture.

Anyone who knows me knows I am terrified of spiders. Spiders frequented our last Provo home like they owned the place. We went 2 weeks before I saw one here. I was hoping this house would be spider free. Well, it's not. This is one of the biggest spiders (which looked much like a small tarantula to me) eating his dragonfly dinner. Well, apparently my "capacity for action despite [my] fears" has its consequences. When I woke up this morning I thought I felt a spider crawling on me. I started hitting myself to get it off, and actually scratched my face in the process. I thought facing my fears would make me feel better. Now I see that facing my fears literally hurts my face. Lame. We're buying spider spray. (By the way, that quote on top was by John McCain according to Woopidoo quotations online)

... and we're back!

Here we are, back in Utah, and getting back into the swing of things. Joseph is obviously keeping himself busy with school and working part time for a professor. He will probably soon be keeping even more busy with coming up with a new thesis topic and scurrying to get that ready to defend by February. We're crossing our fingers that it won't be too big of a burden on him to change so late in the game. I, on the other hand, am some what guiltily enjoying not having a stressful schedule anymore. I am doing photography full time now, which means I hope I get lots of photo jobs to keep me busy and to bring in a little money for the next 8 months. We live in a nice little mother-in-law apartment a few miles from campus, and are enjoying living in a neighborhood of houses rather than complexes. We are also enjoying the increase in square footage. Our last provo home was less than 500 sq ft, this is about 800 sq feet. We love having room for people to sit when we invite them over, having a kitchen table, and actually having a closet! Here's a few pictures of our new place.

So, that picture of the yellow thing with buttons on top... that's the controls to the electric burners on our stove. That cracked us up. It's definitely an old appliance, but it works. The door is our front door, complete with a screen door which I really like having. it lets in lots of light and fresh air. The birch trees are my favorite part of our house. They're right outside and line our sidewalk and yard. I love birch trees.