Job, Corn Maze, and Trunk or Treat

We have had an exciting week here in WV. First off I (Becky) finally got a job! I have not been actively searching for a job; I’ve just been keeping my eyes open and figured I would know when the perfect job showed up. Until then I have been content doing things around the town and here at home. I have been volunteering at a museum here in town, called the North House Museum for a few hours every week. One day I went to volunteer and the director asked if I was interested in working, I said yes but only part time. That was what they were looking for; she told me that she would get back to me after she had looked over her budget and talked to the board of directors. She told me later that she did not have the funds in her budget and that maybe it could work out for next year. I had no problems with that and just kept volunteering. About a month later, the director asked me again if I would like to work, and I again said yes not knowing what had changed. I guess what happened was that one of the part time employees switched her status to volunteer status and gave me her position since the money was not in the budget to have us both working. I felt bad at first like I was pushing the women out of a job but she informed me that she does not know how to use a computer and does not want to learn, so she felt it was better I started working so the computer stuff that needs to be done can get done. And so that is the story of how this perfect job just fell into my lap. They will even work around me leaving for some of the summer to visit family in Idaho (if we can get that all worked out). Blessings from Heaven!!!

Also this past weekend on Friday Stewart and I went to a corn maze with our friends the Rodebacks. The maze was in a town called Union about a half an hour away. We had a lot of fun, the maze was 10 acres. I did not think it was too hard, I have been in some that were definitely more confusing, but it was fun none the less. It took us about 45 minutes to complete the maze. After the maze we wondered the area and looked at all the fall produce they had for sale… namely pumpkins and some squash. Stewart bought a small pumpkin to carve, he plans to carve it tonight… as of current he is reading the newspaper, guess we will see if it gets done.

Becky, Mr. Pumpkin (friendly guy), and Stewart

Nativa and Becky

Our husbands did not want to do this with us, so that is why Nativa and I posed for the picture together. I think we look great! You missed out husbands.

Nativa, Derek, and Stewart... I was taking the picture

On Saturday Stewart and I went to our ward trunk or treat activity. We only found out about it in a passing conversation the night before with the Rodebacks, so we really did not have time to decorate our car. Since Stewart and I are no longer attending Priesthood or Relief Society meetings (because of our callings Primary teacher and nursery worker) we miss out on a lot of announcements that would be beneficial to know about before hand. We went anyway and socialized with the ward, and had a great time. Next year our car will be one of the cool cars that is decorated!

Stewart and Becky, wearing our costumes! We were pumpkins.

No More Anatomy Classes... WAHOO!!!

Stewart finally finished his anatomy class! Hooray for that, no more stinky husband coming home from lab! Because he finished his class and his last test for anatomy was on Monday, Oct 5th, he had a fairly laid back week last week. We went to the library and he checked out a book (The Red Badge of Courage) and read a lot. He also did not have school on Friday so we jumped at the chance to take a trip to Washington DC.

We left Lewisburg on Friday morning and got to DC around 11:30ish. Our first stop was the DC temple. Stewart has not been able to get to the temple since we moved here because of school and the long drive. So we spent the afternoon in the temple. I am so grateful for the temple, the atmosphere is always peaceful and calm. It was nice to forget about Stewart’s school pressures, the crazy DC traffic, and everything else that has been on our minds. Even thought we live 4.5 hours away from the temple we feel we are very blessed to be able to go to a temple and spend our time doing something that benefits us and others. In general conference Stewart and I learned that 83% of LDS people live less then 200 miles from a temple, that means Stewart and I fall into the 17% that live further than 200 miles from the temple. How blessed we are that the temple is only 4.5 hours away, it could be worse.

After the temple, we met up with one of Stewart’s former roommates, Josh Woolstenhulme. Josh is living in DC, and working at some research place. It was good to visit with him and catch up on how things have been going since our last visit over two years ago. I think the best part about seeing Josh, was that he was someone who knew about our Pocatello life, and we could talk about things that were familiar to us. I guess it kind of took me home to Idaho for a time, I enjoyed that. Josh if you are reading this… THANKS FOR DINNER!

We spent the night in the outskirts of the DC area on the Virginia side, in Vennia. It was a nice location and easy to find. The hotel had a shuttle service that took us to the Metro stop about 10 mins away so that we could leave our car parked at the hotel. I think that was the best part. On Saturday Morning we got up and went to the National Mall in downtown DC. We had a great time; we took the Metro, which was about a 20 min ride and not all that scary. It was pretty strait forward. We did need help buying the right ticket for the right amount… but that all worked out thanks to the nice Metro Employee who helped us.

The National Mall was great! It was a lot of walking, but well worth it. Stewart and I knew that we would not be able to do everything in one day so we decided that on this trip we would go to the United States Holocaust Museum. The Museum did an excellent job educating us on a tough subject. There was a lot of reading involved, and I got to the point where I could not read things fast enough, so I would make Stewart read them and tell me what it said. We spent most of our morning there. After the Holocaust Museum we went and walked over to the Washington Monument, and then we headed the other way to the Capital building. We had a great walk and enjoyed seeing the sites we did see. We will most definitely be going back, I think it will take us a few more times before we can say that we have seen the National Mall.

Captial Building

Washington Memorial Building

Not sure what building is behind us

By the reflection pool in front of the Capital Building

One of the many Museams

Pointing at the capital building

(only put this in because Stewart says I never post enough pics of me)

On our way to the Capital building

Washington Memorial ... from a distance

On our drive home that afternoon, we were admiring the fall colors in the trees. It is a beautiful sight to see, the trees are amazing in there fall colors. I can’t even begin to describe to you what they look like, and the pictures I have taken do them no justice. While we were driving the sun was setting, the sky turned this vibrant pink and orange… that along with the trees was an amazing sight. How blessed we are to live in such a beautiful world where we can enjoy the beauties of nature.

On Sunday evening Stewart and I decided to go for a drive and a walk before school started on Monday and things went back to their normal vigorous routine for Stewart. We ended up by the river, and took some pictures of the sunset and the fall colors. While I was all camera happy taking pictures of this and that, Stewart informed me that there was a black bear. I said what? And he pointed to the bear on the other side of the river (which I was happy about) I took a picture, but he had already started to walk away by the time I snapped the shot. The people here say that the bears are just as scared as we are… to that I say, I hope they are right!

BEAR! ok so this is not the best picture... but that really is the back side of a BEAR... promise!

Well I think this post has gone on long enough, I hope you have enjoyed the pictures along the way, and know that we are still alive and living a life of adventures, one day at a time. Ciao!

Not Much Happening Here

Sorry there really has been nothing to update you on about our lives here in WV. We are getting along just fine. Stewart had FOUR tests between Monday and Tuesday of last week. He got all his scores back just a few days ago… he did GREAT on all of them! I am so proud of Stewart; it is nice to see all those long hours of studying and being apart pay off. Other than that, I (Becky) have been doing the normal everyday sort of things along with a few volunteer hours at a local museum. Yep, I know…nothing to exciting.
Last night I came home from watching the RS General Broadcast at a friends home, when I pulled into the parking lot behind our house there were SIX deer. I called Stewart and told him to get a flashlight and come take a look. It is fun to see so much wildlife around our home, I wash the dishes and watch chipmunks, squirrels, lots and lots of different birds, playing in the yard. What a beautiful part of the country we are living in. Well, I believe that is all the update I can think of. Ciao!

White Coat Ceremony

On Saturday (Sept. 12, 2009) morning, my amazing husband received his official WHITE COAT! The whole ceremony was organized like a graduation, Stewart and his classmates were ushered in to the big tent (located on the WVSOM campus) by a brass band. There were several speakers, and then they were called up to the stage one by one and were coated by DO doctors from the area, or if the student had family that was an MD or DO they were allowed to coat them. Stewart was coated by a Dr named Zachary Comeaux, DO.

Receiving his White Coat

Stewart and Dr. Zachary Comeaux DO

Modeling his White Coat

Stewart standing next to his amazing Wife, Becky

LDS Med School Groupies (minus Jonathan Lewis)

R to L: Derek Rodeback, James Bishop, Stewart North, and Joe Sorber.

Saturday was a great day, I am so proud of my husband, he is a man who truly does care for people. He loves what he is learning in school, and is so excited to share with me all he learns, despite my glazed over- “I lost what you were saying” look. He will be a great doctor, because he truly cares and takes time to see all the potential people have. To him people he meets in passing are not just numbers they are his friends, colleagues, his brothers or sisters, they are important, and he treats them with the respect and kindness they deserve. How blessed I am to be married to Stewart, he teaches me everyday how to forgive as Christ did, or more importantly how to love as Christ loves. He is a man of mighty character, and I know he will become the best Dr, he can be.

Labor Day Fun... Lots of Pictures

Ok so as promised in the below post, here are pictures and more details to our very much needed vacation, we took yesterday! We left our apartment at 11:20am Stewart wanted to leave earlier but I would told him he needed to study for a good 3 to 4 hours before we could leave (I know… life is not fair, especially if you're in med school). When 11:00 am rolled around Stewart was right at my side to help me pack the car and then we were off!

Our first stop was on Hwy 219 north…. There was an accident (power line had fallen across the road… don’t know how that happened) which stopped all traffic both ways. We sat there for five mins, and then an older gentleman in the car ahead told us to follow him and we would take a detour around the accident, along with everyone else… so off we went. Talk about some detour! One thing you must know about WV is that many of the roads out here are single lane roads; if you see someone coming you drop the two passenger side tires off the road onto the shoulder (or ditch) and pass the car. Now, imagine if you will, all the south bound traffic being detoured the same route the rest of us are being detoured… it was a long detour on an old narrow, windy, WV country road. When we finally got back on the main two lane highway, we would pass a truck with a horse trailer or something else along those lines and I would say… “So glad we didn’t have to pass that guy…” .

Anyway, enough about detours this post is going to be long enough as it is. Our first stop was Falls of Hills Creek. The falls were not as impressive as the below post promised, but I am sure if we went again next spring there would be tons more water. The walk was nice, they have it all board walked for you so you just keep to the trail and you can see all three falls by the end. Stewart and I thought the first half of the trail reminded us of the board game Candy Land, it just wound around all over the place, guess you would have to go there to understand just what we mean. Stewart and I ate a picnic lunch down by the 2nd water fall, it was a great setting, and we enjoyed the beauty of nature in that area.

lower falls

Middle Falls

(we did not take a pic of the upper falls, it was not impressive)

Stewart on the walk way

Us, at the lower falls

Stewart on the boardwalk, look at all the green!

Our next stop was Cranberry Glades Park, this was not as cool to me as it was to Stewart. This park has a boardwalk that takes about ½ hour to complete. It goes in a big circle around a bog (BOG- an area of wet marshy ground, largely consisting of accumulated decomposing plant material. It supports vegetation such as cranberries and moss and may ultimately turn into peat.). Stewart reminded me that I am married to a Biologist… that’s right, Stewart’s undergrad degree is a B.A. in Biology. Never put that together in my head before… anyway like a true Biologist, Stewart took his time and studied may plant boring facts. I did however see many animal tracks and scant… none of which I could identify with the poster they had posted along the walkway.

Stewart... there was some bug(?) that was flying around and he could not figure out how... it did look cool, I got board with it far faster then he did though.

This kind of reminds me of Idaho... I think the fact that there were Pine Trees around may have helped me decide this (hey give me a brake I have not been to Idaho for 1 1/2 months...).

When we were tired with the bog we drove to, Droop Mountain Battlefield. This place was cool! I guess it was the location of one of the big civil war battles, there was a sign that told us all about it… but I can’t remember the details. It had a neat lookout tower, which had a breathtaking view of the West Virginia valley below. I was glad we decided to stop here, as it was not in our original plans.

Stewart trying to get cell phone reception... I am not sure it worked

Me (Becky)

Check out the VIEW, it was even more impressive in person!

Our final stop was Beartown State Park. This again was a state park with a board walk that you followed up and down around giant rock formations. It was a cool setting, there were signs for you to read along the way that explained about the minerals in the rocks and why the looked they way they did. I thought the rocks looked like Swiss cheese. After the walk around the park, Stewart and I warmed up some leftovers from the night before, for dinner. We had Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo. We brought our gas stove we purchased over a year ago (for our emergency kit) this was our first time using it. It worked like a charm. After dinner we cleaned things up and headed home.

Swiss Cheese, anyone?

Narrow Pass

Stewart

Becky

Dinner!

We had a ton of fun, West Virginia is a great place to explore. We saw several other places we want to visit, (next time)… the best part about our trip yesterday is that it did not cost us a penny, except for fact we filled our car with gas before we left. So we had a great time, we saw a lot, and we saved money! What could be better?

P.S. Check out our wildlife photos:

Can you find the deer?

This guy was along the road side, he let me take his picture and did not even notice us... is this a badger? if so I was with-in 3 feet of him (in the car of course). COOL!

Thank Goodness it's LABOR DAY!!!!

Stewart and I are on vacation today for Labor Day, what are the plans? We are going to go EXPLORE, West Virginia! I have planed a half day road trip to the next county over, we are EXCITED to leave Lewisburg for a little time and spend time together. Here are our plans as of now (they could be subject to change…due to time and the weather):

Stop #1- Falls of Hills Creek

Stop #2- Cranberry Glades Park

Stop #3- Beartown State Park

Here is hoping to a lot of fun, the rainy weather turned into sunny skies, and many laughs with my BEST FRIEND! We will tell you all about our trip when we get home. Ciao!!

(All Pictures were taken from the Pocahontas County web site, thanks for letting us borrow your pictures! )