It Snowed, It Snowed, and It Snowed

Yesterday it snowed here… our first snowfall of the season. I think we got about 4 inches. The fresh blanket of snow really does help make the area beautiful. Ever since the trees have lost there leaves West Virginia has been kind of ugly. So as long as the roads stay clear and dry I am ok if it snows.

Stewart and I have had a few fun adventures this past weekend. Friday Stewart and I went to a choir performance at the Carnegie Hall were, the choir performed some selections of Handel's Messiah. I resisted the idea of going at first since I am not into opera music… but when Stewart informed me that he would go without me I decided that if I wanted to spend time with him I should just go along and pretend to enjoy the event.

The choir’s performance was amazing, and for the record it is not opera. I actually am considering finding a CD of Handel's Messiah. What was interesting was the amount of Baptist preaching that went on after the performance. They even passed the collection plates around, asking us to give generously to the choir since it was a free event. I thought they could have spared us the preaching and let us go with spiritual high we were feeling after the choir’s performance. I also got a kick out of the many AMENS that were shouted during and after the each song. Stewart and I both came away with renewed testimonies of the sacred event that happened this time of year so many years ago, with the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ, and a realization that we are now living in an extension of the Bible belt.

On Saturday Stewart and I went to WVSOM’s (med school) Christmas party. There was hors d'oeuvres, music for dancing and of course a cash bar for anyone wanting to purchase alcohol. Stewart and I took a dance class almost a year ago, so naturally Stewart wanted to go dance. I hate being in the spotlight and knowing that people are watching me… well the dance floor was in the middle of the room with all the tables surrounding it. I told Stewart I did not want to dance, because no one else was dancing and we would be in the spotlight, he kept insisting so I gave in. I should be more outgoing like Stewart, because I had a fun time and found myself enjoying the night dancing all alone on the dance floor with Stewart for many of the songs. It was a fun evening. So thank you Stewart for a wonderful weekend full of “I-don’t-want-to’s” turned to “thanks-for-the-good-time”. Loves!

Thanksgiving Week Recount

It is Monday afternoon here and I have just put up our Christmas tree, tonight Stewart and I will decorate it for Family Home Evening. It is our family tradition to assemble and decorate our Christmas tree the first Monday after Thanksgiving. It has been fun to talk about different family traditions we want to establish in our home and with our future family. Stewart informed me at Halloween it is our new family tradition established just this year to watch the Michael Jackson Thriller music video. We have also decided to declare the annual constructing of graham cracker houses a family tradition. Now I bet all this talk of family traditions makes you want to join our family huh… come on over, the more the merrier!

This past week Stewart had two major tests one on Monday and the other Tuesday. I don’t know if he passed them or not. The one test for his PBL group was 6 essay questions long. Stewart said he had some major hand cramping going on after two hours. I think his test started at 8:30 am and finished at 12:00 noon. Yeah, I would think just about everyone’s hands would be cramping up by that time. Tuesday, after his last test Stewart stayed at school and did all his homework so he could have a real Thanksgiving break. By Tuesday evening I had a free husband with no homework!!! It was so nice to spend time with Stewart and not have to send him off to do homework, I have forgotten how much I have missed just chilling with Stewart like that… it was fun.

On Wednesday, we decided since the weather was nice we wanted to get out of the house and go for a hike. We went to the Greenbrier National Forest, which is about 15 mins from our house. While trying to find a trail to hike we found a Frisbee golf course and we just so happened to have our Frisbees in the trunk. We played 9 holes, and then drove down the road a ways and found a place to explore by a stream. We had a good afternoon together laughing and challenging each other to walk the logs across the steam. That night we went to our friends the Rodebacks and watched a movie with them. Thanks for having us join you guys!!!

Thursday, we had Thanksgiving dinner with a nice family in our ward, the Burdettes. They had a house full of people, some family and some other people from the ward. They also had a large table full of food! You think I am kidding I am not… the table was packed with tons of dishes of food. We both feel very blessed that the Burdettes were kind and invited us to join them. I am not sure what we would have done if they had not invited us. That evening we went to some of our other friends' (James Bishop Family) home to play games and have more dessert. Melanie made several pies… I think there were about 6 or 7 different pies plus a dessert I made and one other dessert Nativa Rodeback made. I don’t know what they ended up doing with all the leftovers. I should mention that early in the day around 9 am Stewart participated in a friendly, game of touch football with some of the ward members. He had a lot of fun and even had a few good plays.

Friday we recovered from our Thanksgiving Day feast, cleaned our home and decorated a little bit for Christmas. On Saturday, Stewart and I drove to a larger town called Beckley, about 45 minutes West of here. We went to a craft store called Hobby Lobby just to explore. There was so much stuff to explore in that store. We wandered that store for about an hour. The idea was for me to find something crafty I could do to pass the time here at home; instead Stewart came away with a craft project of his own. He wants to work on it hear and there during school in hopes to help reduce the stress that builds or just take his mind off of school for a few minutes. I can not say I know what he is doing… you will just have to wait along with me for the finished project. Note: this may not be a finished project for several months… let the suspense begin! After Hobby Lobby we drove across the street and had lunch at a unique restaurant called Delightfully Yours. The food was amazing!!! I think I know where I want to eat out next time we head over to Beckley. We finished our trip to Beckley by watching the movie “Old Dogs” at the theater. It was a three star movie in my opinion. It was not everything the movie trailer made it out to be.

Wow this blog post is getting super long! I will end by expressing our deep love to our loving Heavenly Father, who is watching out for us. We have so many blessing in our lives. We can’t help but to feel deeply grateful for all the wonderful gifts Heavenly Father blesses us with. How grateful we are, words can’t truly express.

Guest Author

Becky informed me today that I was in charge of doing the blog post this week. I grumbled, and frowned, but she held her ground. It’s not that I don’t like the blog, I love it. Becky does such a good job with it and nearly every time we talk with family they tell us how much they appreciate it. It’s just that I don’t know what I would say. I guess I’ll just tell you about my life. Tomorrow is a big test for me. It covers material for almost the last 2 months, and believe me, it’s a lot of material. I’m in a special track at med school called Problem Based Learning (PBL). If you’ve ever watched House, that doctor show on one of the cable channels, it’s similar to House. Instead of sitting in lectures all day we are put in small groups to learn the material on our own to “solve” the cases that the faculty gives us. It’s a little bit more than that, but that’s the jist. Anyway, each of our test questions is written by a different faculty member with a different field of expertise, and they are all essay questions. That means that we might have to go on for a page or more about each topic. This test will be unlike any I’ve ever taken. For the last week I’ve been waking up to study at 4:30 just to get ready for the test. It’s been hard, but I think it has really helped me.

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I teach a class of 8-11 yr. old boys in church. I have to prepare a lesson for them each Sunday that lasts between 40 and 50 minutes. Sometimes it’s a challenge, sometimes it’s a joy. Today we had a really great lesson. The main topic was the Mormon Pioneers who crossed the Great Plains to the Salt Lake Valley back in the 1840s-60s. They sacrificed so much because of their faith in God. It is an inspiration to anyone who studies their stories. Near the end of the lesson I asked the boys if all the pioneers were dead. They were smarter than I thought and said no, some people today are pioneers. I told them that a pioneer is anyone who prepares the way for others to follow. Then I had an elderly gentleman in the ward, the grandfather of 2 of the boys, come in and talk about what the Church was like when he was young. When he was young there was no meetinghouse in this area and they met in people’s homes. He was baptized in a creek up in the hills outside of town. He helped dig the footings for the first LDS chapel in White Sulfur Springs. It is still standing, but the LDS church sold it to another church when we outgrew it. He talked about the members donating labor and money to build the meetinghouse. He talked about what it was like to be one of just a handful of members of the church at a time before satellite broadcasts connected us all. At the end of his talk he told the boys to always trust in Heavenly Father because no matter how difficult life was He would help them. There is something different when an older person says that. An older person has lived it, and knows it’s true. When I say the same thing I believe it, and I intend to live it, but I haven’t lived it. The spirit in the room was strong as he admonished those boys to be faithful. The boys were mostly quiet, and mostly paid attention (hey, I’ll take what I can get).

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Becky also taught a lesson in church today. She teaches the nursery class (15 mo. – 3 years old). She made a turkey out of construction paper (I named him Toby the Turkey). She prepared little pictures of toys, clothes, families, Jesus, the temple etc. and used them to show the children what Toby the Turkey was grateful for. She said that the children kept scooting closer and closer to her as she talked and she took that as a sign that they were paying attention. She does such a good job with the little kids. When we see any of them outside of the normal church schedule they always get excited and say hi to her and hug her leg.

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We wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving! I’ll be giving thanks that these tests are over. We hope you have plenty of things to be grateful for as well.

For Corinne & Anyone Else

Ok so here is the Apple Butter recipe that I used to make my apple butter. I halved this recipe and it made about 2 cups. I think the best part of the recipe is that it made my home smell amazing! I got this recipe from my Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book; I just re-typed it here word for word.

Apple Butter

Prep: 3 hours Process: 5 mins Makes: 8 half-pints

4 ½ Pounds- tart cooking apples, cored and quartered (about 14)
3 Cups- apple cider or apple juice
2 Cups- sugar
1 ½ teaspoons- ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon- ground cloves
½ teaspoon- ground allspice

1. In an 8- to 10-quart heavy kettle combine apples and cider. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, covered, for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Press through a food mill or sieve until you have 8 ½ cups pulp. Return pulp to kettle.

2. Stir in sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and allspice. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Cook, uncovered, over very low heat1 ½ hours or until very thick and mixture mounds on a spoon, stirring often.

Boiling: Water Canning: Ladle hot apple butter into hot, sterilized half-pint canning jars, leaving a ¼ -inch headspace. Wipe jar rims; adjust lids. Process in a boiling-water canner for 5 minutes. Remove jars and cool on racks.

Freezing: Place kettle of apple butter in a sink filled with ice water; stir mixture to cool. Ladle into wide-top freezer containers, leaving a ½ -inch headspace. Seal, label, and freeze up to 10 months. Apple butter may darken slightly on freezing.

The Grand Affair Saga

It was the best of times it was the worst of times (this is Stewart’s introduction… I think he is borrowing it from somewhere ~wink~)... Stewart did his usual go to class and study routine and since I am out of a job at the moment I went back to my search for a job, clean the house routine. I did however make a batch of homemade apple butter. We bought a bushel of fresh-from-the-orchard Pink Lady apples, so I have been trying to make different dishes using apples. Stewart seems to love the apple butter a lot and since I love it a lot as well I may be making more. What I need to do is borrow someone’s hot water bath canning pot so I can can some of my delicious apple creations. Of course if I did that I would then have to buy the jars. It is a win lose battle I tell you.


Last night (November 14) Stewart and I were supposed to go to a very nice banquet/dance put on by the WVSOM School. Stewart was expected to go and help out since the WVSOM Senate was in charge of the event (he is the 1st year PBL senator). Because of that I did not want to go (at first) since Stewart would be helping out the whole evening and in my head I envisioned me sitting in the corner watching the clock waiting for the time to pass alone. After sometime thinking about it I did decide that it would be fun to go dancing again with Stewart (we took a class in Pocatello but have not had many opportunities to use it… this was our chance) and I was sure he would not have to spend the whole night running around helping out.

So last night while I was getting ready, about 20 minutes before we were to leave, Stewart informs me that he has become very dizzy and feels like he may throw-up. I was just finishing my hair and asked if I should go get in my dress. He said yes thinking he would be okay in about 10mins. So I got all dressed and ready. Long story short I was all dressed up with no where to go by 7:15pm. Oh well I probably would have been way underdressed there anyway, since I was only going in my Sunday best… it was a black tie optional kind of event.

Stewart is doing much better today; he stayed home from church and seems to have things back in check. He should be fine to go to school tomorrow. I am very happy about that, he does not need the pressures of playing catch up a week from his very first Problem Based Learning (PBL) test. The stress of the test will be thickening up by itself as the week progresses. Today we have just been playing things low key, nothing much. I guess this concludes my weekly update on our lives, over and out.

Another Week Gone By

So this past week has just flown by for me… I am not sure why it has, it just has. I am suppose to me working on our budget right now, I need to tally up our total expenditures and then make sure everything has cleared for this month. Stewart says I have over-organized our budget way to much… to that I say, how does one do that? Just because I have several Excel documents that have: addresses of where bills need to be paid, dates we have paid our bills, the method we paid them (check or credit card), and much more, you probably don’t care to know about, does not mean I have over-organized our budget. Honestly if I were to disappear and leave him to figure out what I have done with our money… he should have no problem picking up where I left off. Anyway… sorry about that tangent, don’t know where it came from.

Stewart is at school (where else would he be), it is getting too cold for him to ride his bike to school down the hill. So I take him to school and then go to the gym. He calls me if he wants a ride home for lunch or at the end of the day. Sometimes I meet him for lunch and we eat at the school, and other times he just walks home because he enjoys the walk. This coming Sunday is our ward primary program. Stewart teaches the senior boys in primary, so he gets to get up and sing with the boys. He has done great things with that group of boys; the bishop here thinks the world of Stewart when it comes to teaching primary. The boys have all gone home and told their parents that Stewart has the best visual aids and examples with every lesson. Stewart tells me that he just takes everything out of the lesson manual. He does a great job and I am proud of him.

I am working in the nursery, last Sunday there were 5 kids and the other nursery worker never came. I had a lot of fun telling the kidos to share and not climb on the table. By the end of those two hours I was ready for a nap, and that is what I did first thing when I got home. It was nice! I do miss the adult sunday school class and relief society. I feel like I don’t get much gospel doctrine discussions with the 2 year olds. I guess I need to step up my personal studies to fill the void.

Other news this week- I lost my job… I don’t know what happened, something with the politics of the museum board members and the way I was hired. It has been a bummer deal for me, but oh well life goes on and there is something even better out there for me. I am not excited to go out looking again, working at the museum was a perfect fit for me in my mind. So here is to being jobless (again) and luck be on my side with the job hunt! Also this week Stewart has caved in and said we can buy ourselves a chest freezer! I have been telling him we need one since we got married. I think he finally understands all the money we could be saving by having one. I am stinken excited about this new breakthrough; I will let you know which one we decided to give ourselves for Christmas. Oh happy day! Other than that, I don’t think we have any other news to share, all is well here in WV, we are enjoying ourselves and learning lots. Hope you have a great week! Ciao



P.S. Thanks to everyone who left comments on our previous post or contacted us by other means. We appreciate your love and support!