Fall so far...

I can't believe it's already November! Many exciting things will happen this month: Jared and Carrie's baby is due, we are hosting Thanksgiving at our apartment, and I start my Practicum on the Mother-Baby unit. School has been keeping both Niall and I extremely busy, I can't wait until I graduate and have some more time to do things that I love (like blogging and crafting!). Recently Niall and I have been doing a lot "puzzling" as we call it. We bought a puzzle at Walmart and have been addicted to it ever since. We are almost finished with it! I'll post a picture when we are done. 

So, here's what I've been up to lately, sorry for not posting hardly at all:

I really liked the yellowing tree right outside our apartment, so I asked Niall to take some photos with me in front of it, since we haven't taken any fall photos yet. I edited them myself and I really like how they turned out!

Tofu. I just love it. I don't really know how to cook very well with it, but I love it.

One night when Niall had night class I fried it up with some honey and cinnamon, a squirt of lemon juice and some oil.

I steamed some Kashi brand Rice Pilaf (my favorite!) and put the tofu on the top. It was mmm mmm good! And I had some left-overs for lunch the next day.

Fires. We've been making a lot of them. I love that our apartment has a fireplace (I think it's crazy, but I love it). We like to make hot chocolate and do our homework in front of the fire. So cozy. There will be many more fires this winter. 

Here's some bomb hot chocolate I made the other night. I just love our N&J mugs (a wedding gift from one of my old roommates- best gift idea ever!):

Hot Chocolate Recipe:

1 1/2 packets of hot chocolate mix

Handful of marshmallows

Dash of Rainbow Sprinkles

And, of course, a fire and the coals (which are very beautiful):

 Last week Niall and I made the yummiest dinner (yet again!). We cooked a mixture of veggies, some honey-glazed lemon-pepper chicken (our fav), and I made some mashed potatoes from the potatoes we bought up at Greenbluff a few weeks ago. 

Alright. We received a wonderful Crock Pot for our wedding and I still haven't used it. I finally bucked up and tried to make some soup in it. I sort of just threw in what we had in the fridge/freezer and cupboard. I vaguely followed a recipe online (I'm sorry I don't remember which one), but mostly came up with it off the top of my head. And I should NOT have done that. It was gross. And I mean GROSS. Niall said he liked it. I think he just said that to make me feel better. I froze some of the leftovers just in case we're starving one night and just need to eat something. But I will definitely follow a recipe next time. I was really disappointed. If anyone has some amazing Crock Pot recipes that are not too complicated, I would love to try them!

Here is a picture I thought was pretty that I took the other day. This is the view from our back deck. I love the colors of fall!

 And I am trying to keep the geraniums, African daisies, and basil plants alive as long as I can. They currently live just inside the back slider so they get lots of afternoon sun. Today I forgot to open the blinds and they are only getting about and hour of good sunlight- poor things! Here is a small snippet I made for our table one night.

 And finally... HALLOWEEN! Apartment living does not attract many (if any) trick-or-treaters. And I LOVE trick-or-treaters. My favorite thing to do on Halloween is to stay home, put on a movie, and pause it a million times because we have to answer the door to hand out candy. I love seeing all the kids dressed up, it is just too much fun. So, I got a little excited. Niall would say WAY TOO excited. But doesn't everyone run around the house yelling and jumping and cheering about how great of an idea it is to make a glowing ghost in the window to attract trick-or-treaters??? That is exactly what I did. It was my idea but Niall did most of the hard work. He hung the sheet over the ball and positioned the lamp underneath the ghost. But I did make the ghost's eyes and ran outside to make sure he looked spooky enough. Because, that's the most important part! I also made an orange sign that said "CANDY!" so everyone would know that we had it. Oh yes, and I hung up my small strand of blinking orange lights around the door.

In the end, we were successful- we had one family come to the door- the parents and the two kids were dressed up. So a total of four trick-or-treaters, and that was just enough for me! :)