Mortuary Halloween Fun...

Halloween is one of our favorite holidays! We always have fun choosing our costumes and finding new exciting treats! We decided on our costumes late this year (it's been busy!) but we finally decided on costumes that would be really easy because we already had almost all the accessories. I decided on a ballerina and Matt decided on a Trekkie. Fun! I love my legwarmers! They are so fun. They are actually really warm, which is nice since the weather has definitely gotten pretty cold lately.

On Friday night, our ward had a fun Trunk-or-Treat and Chili Cook Off. It was so fun! I am now inspired to try some white chili. I've always been skeptical that white chili could be as good as the red kind, but I've been converted! There was a white chili there that was so so so good. I'll have to look for a good recipe!

On Saturday, we went to a fun party at a mortuary! You read that right! We have some good friends who live in an apartment above a mortuary and we thought it would be the perfect place to celebrate Halloween! We had some great treats: caramel apples, chili cheese dip, and fantastic pumpkin cookies! Matt and I made some spiderweb oreos. We had a lot of fun and now we'll have to bring our considerable chocolate dipping skill home for Christmas too! Who knew that a toothpick could make such adorable spiderwebs? I was really happy with how they turned out. And they are so cute :)

They look a little messy on the wax paper, but they looked great. We played Mafia, which brought us back to our Singles Ward days. I think we played that almost every week back then. It is such a classic group game and all you need are cards! We also watched Hocus Pocus. That movie really makes Halloween for me. I'll definitely make sure my kids see that every year. The child actors are the best and Bette Midler is in fine form. It is such a fun story and it brings back such good memories.

And here is a little update from my birthday! (All the way back on the 11th...) We had a lot of fun! We went to dinner at Red Lobster and went shopping. And Matt went with me...of his own volition! I also received some wonderful presents from family. Matt's parents sent Foyle's War, which if you haven't seen it, is our favorite TV show now. Foyle is a detective in England who is solving mysteries and murders during World War II. I am now determined to get my hands on a WWII-era military uniform for next Halloween. Wouldn't that be the best? My parents also sent some kitchen goodies. My mom made me an apron and sent a springform pan! Hooray! Cheesecake, here I come! She also sent some of our favorite treats from Trader Joes (dried mango and ginger chews). We also received a restaurant gift card from Grandma Eileen. We're so excited to use it! We also received wonderful birthday money from my Granny and the Biggs grandparents. I am saving it all up for something fun! We are so blessed to have such wonderful family! We love you all! Here is a picture of me with some of my birthday gifts:

I also made some fall decorations for our walls! There are pumpkins and leaves all over our apartment. I love this time of year!

iGEM Victory

The International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition is a synthetic biology competition for undergraduates that was started in 2003. This is the first year BYU has "fielded" a team (Matt founded it). The team has been working since last fall, and this past weekend we traveled to Indianapolis to present our project at the Americas Regional Jamboree.

We hit the road at 5:00 am to get to our early flight from Salt Lake City.

Once in Indianapolis, our main job was to prepare our power point presentation. We attended the jamboree with 64 other teams from the US, Canada, central and south America. Each team presented their project to an audience, and a panel of judges. Our presentation wasn't anywhere close to ready when we landed in Indiana, and we spent hours practicing in a hotel room to polish it up.

BYU's 2011 iGEM Team in front of our poster, left to right: Devin S., Chet C., Matt B., Julie R., Julius A., and Addison A. All are undergraduates at BYU.

You may be wondering what is meant by "synthetic biology," and what sort of projects emerge from an iGEM competition. Well, synthetic biology applies engineering principles to biological applications. iGEM teams engineer cells to do cool stuff. For example, Yale's iGEM team this year isolated an antifreeze protein from a Siberian beetle. The protein binds to small ice crystals in water, keeping them from forming large crystals and killing the cell. The iGEM team from the University of Washington created an enzyme that breaks down gluten around 100-times better than a commercial enzyme that is currently in clinical trials. This sort of enzyme is used to treat gluten intolerance in human patients.

iGEM projects range from agricultural topics, to medicine, to technologies useful in colonizing Mars. Most projects stay in the hypothetical realm. The goal of the competition overall is to develop the theoretical framework, lab techniques and safety of the field of synthetic biology.

Our project, cooked up at BYU, was a hypothetical colon cancer detector. The idea was to output a fluorescent signal when two specific biomarkers were detected: heat, and reactive oxygen species (ROS ... not to be confused with ROUSs from the Princess Bride). Our claim to fame was our method of detecting heat. We used a strand of RNA already found in nature and engineered it to have a very narrow operating range. The natural version is stable at 30 deg. C and unfolds at 37 degrees, which is an operating range of 7 degrees. Our engineered version is stable at 35 deg. and unfolds at 37 deg, which is a 2 degree operating range. Why is that cool? Well, 1) it's never been done before and 2) a more specific heat sensor is more useful than a less-specific one.

It was a bit intimidating to compete against teams like MIT, Yale and Stanford. We were so excited to see the results on the last day - we won a Gold Medal and were selected to move on to the World Jamboree in Boston in November! The Gold medal represents a quality standard of our work - many teams received Gold. But not all Gold goes to Boston :)

Zucchini Marmalade, seriously!

Zucchini marmalade may sound really strange and not-at-all appetizing, but it was a surprising success! My Granny and I found the recipe in a cookbook at a drugstore. I think the reason we were brave enough to try it is because zucchini seems to go really well with other dessert-like recipes: chocolate cake, cookies, and of course, zucchini bread. Also, Matt and I have been seriously overrun by zucchini and we definitely had enough to grate down to size for marmalade. If you are looking for a new, interesting canning project that can use up some zucchini, this may be it!

  What You Need:

6 cups peeled and finely grated zucchini

1 cup water

6 cups sugar

2 Tbs. lemon juice

1 (20 oz.) can crushed pineapple

1 (3 oz.) box peach gelatin

Directions:

In a saucepan, bring water and zucchini to a boil. Gently boil for 10 minutes. Add sugar, lemon juice, and pineapple. Cook another 10 minutes. Stir in gelatin and cook 10 minutes more. Ladle into the sterile jars. Wipe the tops of the jars and securely close the lids. Cool completely.

It is seriously yummy!

Bat Caves and Other Adventures: The Cabin in Autumn

Matt and I were able to visit Jessica's Granny at her cabin in Southern Utah this last weekend. We had a blast! We went hiking, rock-hounding, fishing, and exploring in a lava tube and bat cave. The bat cave was definitely a highlight. Jessica didn't love the dark, dampness at first. The flashlights seemed almost useless at first, but as our eyes got used to the lack of light, we were able to enjoy the beauty around us. The stones on the ceiling of the lava tub sparkled with quartz. It was so cool! Matt was disappointed though because we didn't see any bats. The only sign of life we found was one lonely splat of guano. Oh well...we'll see them next time for sure!

At the overlook.

A gorgeous view.

Matt and Jessica by a lava flow. There were some beautiful rocks there!

The beautiful fall leaves in the mountains.

Jessica coming out of the bat cave. The exit was a little cramped! 

Matt fishing on Navajo Lake.

Matt's muddy toes. Fishing is always better with your shoes off!