EQ Chili Cook off

Yesterday was the annual Ames 1st Ward Chili Cook off! The rules are fairly simple, since it started as an Elder's Quorum activity (then opened up to the ward) only men are allowed to submit a chili. They are not allowed to have their wife help in making the chili whatsoever. Usually what happens is the men will make chili and the women will bring corn bread, or bread to go along with it. This year the youngest competitor was 12. I talked to his mom, who said he found his own recipe and got the ingredients (she helped with paying for them and driving him to the store) but he got home and made it himself.

This year 12 people entered a chili, with a wide range of flavors and spices. Some of the stand out unique ones were: Indian chicken curry chili, moose chili, bison chili, and alligator chili! It was an adventure in eating! Guy submitted a turkey bbq chili that was a little sweet. I was especially grateful his wasn't spicy since I have a canker sore! Guy's favorite chili that he tried was the Indian chicken one, while I enjoyed the moose chili. Although, we can both say we've eaten alligator!

Addison Winning the Chili Spoon

After trying all the chilis each person is allowed to vote for their favorite chili. This years top 3 were:
1. Addison's chili (the 12 year old who entered)
2. Moose chili
3. creamy chicken chili

For dessert we had chocolate or vanilla ice cream. There was a decent turnout (~75?) and the event went pretty smoothly.



**These pictures were from the end, I was too busy to get pictures during all the action**

Guy's birthday part 2

Friday Guy turned 25! He said he feels old now in his classes. He has one friend that he studies with a lot and her response was, "Wow! I'm only 21...". I don't think he enjoyed very much realizing how much older he was then the rest of the kids in his class. He had several people at the Institute building that asked him if he was 23...

I made Guy blueberry/mixed berry coffee cake for his birthday breakfast. He opened one of his presents before he left for school (socks!).

He went to school and I went in to work for a few hours. We met up at the Institute building to have lunch and listen to the lesson presented. For lunch we had pizza casserole, salad and homemade strawberry lemon cake for dessert.

After lunch we went to Goodwill, then came home so Guy could finish up some homework and we could open the rest of his presents. Guy picked what he wanted for dinner on his birthday, so we had pizza and popcorn shrimp (with ketchup). Once we finished we went to Boone where we ate the cake (Reese Peanut Buttercup) and ice cream and played games with our friends the Maughns and the Wards. We stayed until about midnight and really enjoyed spending time with friends.

Lesly Ward, Justin Maughn, Morgan Maughn 

Blowing out the candles

Saturday (Valentine's Day), Guy worked all day and then we fed the missionaries dinner. Their lesson was on Charity and Christ's love. After they left, we watched the Nicholas Spark's movie The Best of Me. We both enjoyed the movie, but the book was better.

It's been a crazy week, but Guy said he really enjoyed his birthday!

Guy's 25th Birthday Week Part 1

Guy's cake my grandparents made with Tools on it :)

This week was crazy busy!  On Monday, We celebrated Guy's birthday with my grandparents. They took us to dinner at Guy's favorite restauraunt in Ankeny (Jethro's). Tuesday, Guy had the engineering career fair. He talked to several different companies and felt like it went well. He feels really confident in two of the groups that he talked too. One company (Ag Leader) is based in Ames, and deals mostly with engineering in Agriculture. The other company does mostly marketing and he would end up traveling and talking to different construction workers about what products they like and then doing research on finding better products. We also fed the missionaries Tuesday night and I had a scout meeting. Wednesday, I had a cub scout meeting but otherwise it was pretty normal. Thursday night, Guy went and played basketball with about 7 guys from church. He said he played well and that he had a lot of fun.

my meal

At Jethro's to celebrate

Grill and school update :)

The Jensen family in our ward is moving to Idaho in the next few weeks for a new job. Justin and Guy play basketball together every week, and we've played volleyball a few times together as couples. I've also worked with several of the boys in the family in cub scouts. They didn't want to take their grill with them, so Justin offered it to Guy (for free). We picked it up this afternoon and are trying to decide what we want to do with it. We thought about selling it, but we both really like it. We'll just wait and see what happens. The grill has a side burner on the left hand side as well as a "warming plate" on the right hand side.  Justin included a propane tank with it (stored under the grill). We like it and, I'm thinking one of these 40 degree days we will have to go grill something!
 This week I had my first Organic Chem test of the semester. It went REALLY well (97%)!! Guy said school is going well for the most part but he doesn't have any fun classes. He said he's pretty bored with what all he is learning.

This week (Tuesday) is the career fair so fingers crossed for what internship and if Guy can find one!

Movie Night and Snow Day

Every weekend the university shows a recently released movie for free on campus. This weekend the movie was Big Hero 6. I included the trailer incase any one was interested. The trailer doesn't do it justice, it was pretty hilarious and a really cute movie.

On our way to see the movie it had started to snow. The big slushy wet snow flakes that stick to everything. It continued all night and right now we are up to about 9.5 inches of snow and it should keep snowing until late this afternoon. (I believe we're still under a winter storm warning until 9 tonight) Later this afternoon were suppose to have 35 mph winds. This all added up to our bishopric deciding to cancel church today. It feels weird to not have to go to church. Plus, we were both up and already dressed. Guy went to go snow blow my grandparents and he said the roads were pretty slick and that it was a good call to not have church.

Here's a picture of it so far