Christmas, Baltimore, and a Happy New Year!!!

We have a lot to fill you in on… Stewart and I have been super busy taking advantage of his time off from school. For Christmas we stayed here in Lewisburg. This was our first time being away from family for Christmas. It was not too bad, although very different than what I am used to. Stewart and I were able to start our own family traditions, which was fun to do. The Monday before Christmas we had our friends the Rodebacks over to make graham cracker houses with us. This was a family tradition that I had with my family that I have carried over. This year we ended up making a train, I think it turned out sweet!

On Christmas day Stewart and I woke up, we decided to read the Christmas Story in bed before we got out. I think this was one of my favorite times during the day. There was such a peaceful feeling in our home while we read the account of Mary and Joseph, and the birth our Savior Jesus Christ. We also read in the Book of Mormon account, with Samuel the Lamanite telling of the signs of His birth, and then the account of Nephi the prophet who believed the words of Samuel in 3rd Nephi. It was a great way to start the day, by remembering why we have a Christmas day and the significance of it. After our morning devotional we went and checked out what Santa brought us… he was very practical this year. We got things that we needed, such as a new scrub brush to do dishes with, mouth wash, new toothbrushes, soup, and oranges. We then opened our gifts, Stewart gave me two small spring loaded pans (that I helped pick out) and I gave Stewart a Cut and Assemble Book (that he helped me pick out). We also got a few gifts from our parents and friends. Thanks to everyone who helped make our Christmas wonderful! Later that afternoon, we had dinner with some other med school students and played games. We had a very Merry Christmas, and hope you all did too!

Stewart Christmas Morning

Becky and her Goodies

Why did Santa bring me Mouth Wash???

Stewart's mother put together this nice calender for us... Stewart is thumbing thru it for the first time.

This is my Christmas gift from Stewart... my favorite thing about it was how he wrapped it. A friend came over and she saw it, her first words were it looks like my 5 year old wrapped it... funny.

Stewart and I decided that during his Christmas brake we were going to take the opportunity to go to Washington DC again and go to the temple and explore the sights found there. So on December 29th we left Lewisburg and drove to DC. We went to the temple when we got there, and then we drove over to Laurel Maryland to stay with some extended family, John and Sandi Mumford, on Stewart’s side of the family. They were super nice to let us stay there for a few days, while we were in the area. On Wednesday we went to the National Aquarium, located in Maryland on Baltimore’s inner harbor. We had a blast there looking at the all the different fish, and exhibits there. The tickets we bought included a dolphin show; it was super neat to watch them perform. I think however, between Stewart and I, our favorite part was the jelly fish exhibits and the very large sting ray pool they had displayed at the very beginning of the museum. There was something about those two exhibits that were so calming to watch. We took some short videos of them so you can enjoy them too, but I would suggest turning your volume off to view the sting ray pools, the background nose of all the people is kind of disturbing otherwise. After our time at the aquarium we went out on the harbor and explored more. There was a large ship used in the navy during WWII at Pearl Harbor, stationed at one of the docks so we stopped and took some pictures by it. Then we went to Barns and Noble and looked at all the books for a while. By that time we were getting cold and tired so we went back to the Mumfords. That evening we went back to the DC temple. They have a mini-light display, similar to Temple Square’s but smaller. The visitor’s center which is right next to the temple was set up with several nativity sets from all around the world. They also had a performance from a Sweet Adeline (women’s barbershop) group which was neat to hear. After exploring the lights we met up with Josh W. one of Stewart’s former roommates from ISU; he picked us up and took us out for dessert. It was great to see him again, we are grateful he made time in his busy schedule to visit with us.

This is an octopus... well part of him anyway

Stewart waiting for the Dolphin show

This is an Amazing video of two of the dolphins doing flips

On Thursday we packed our stuff up and headed back to Lewisburg. On the way home we stopped at a museum about “Stonewall” Jackson, a General in the Civil War. The Museum was nice but both Stewart and I agree that it would have been better if we had read up on him before so that it all made sense. We got home around 4:30pm that day, time enough to unpack, eat dinner, and get geared up to go to our New Year’s Eve party with some friends.

Which now leads me to say… HAPPY NEW YEARS EVERYONE! We hope this year is a great one filled with many significant experiences that will bless your life for years to come. Stewart and I look over the year 2009 and feel very blessed and honored. We have been richly blessed, there is no denying that. To everyone who reads this blog… we love your GUTS!!!

Work, Tests, and WV Winter Storm

These past two weeks have been one of business for both Stewart and myself. Stewart was preparing for his last BIG test of the year and I was busy impressing my new employer with my mad receptionist skills. Yes… you read that right I got a JOB!!! I had the job at the museum but it did not workout due to complications on how I was hired., so instead of just leaving the museum with bitter feelings I kept going there as a volunteer a few hours a week. Well one day the director of the museum called me and said she had a job for me to look into. It was a new pediatric dentist office about a mile from my house. I called the number she gave me, the lady that answered told me about the job… it sounded great except it was a 35 plus hours a week job and I wanted 20 or less hours a week. I told the lady that I wanted to discuss it with my husband and if I was interested I would drop my resume off to her in the next few days. Well Stewart and I decided that we were not interested in the job due to the hours… and that was that, until the next day when the dental office called me up asking me when I was bringing in my resume. I explained my reasons for not wanting the job… she asked me to bring in my resume anyway and we could talk about a part time possibility. Long story short I got the job and the hours I wanted to work. Merry Christmas to Stewart and Me! I have been very busy since trying to learn their specific dental office computer program. So far I really love the job and the environment. It seems to be a good match for me.

Stewart says: I took my big test on Friday. I paced myself better this time, so I had a little extra time to look over my answers and polish them up a bit. I feel good about my answers. I’m confident that I passed the test, and that’s all that matters. It was such a relief to walk out of that room and realize that I am a free man (for about 3 weeks). I felt a burden lifted from off my shoulders. I’m pleased with the hard work that both Becky and I did during this semester. It hasn’t been easy, but I’m grateful that she’s stayed by my side through it all.

Other news… we got more snow, and by more snow I mean lots and lots of snow in 12ish hours! It started snowing Friday afternoon after Stewart finished his test, and kept on snowing until Saturday afternoon. We are still getting snow fall here and there and the main roads and highways have been shut down. Stewart and I can’t move our car because the parking lot is so packed with snow; we need a snow plow to clear it out first. We have contacted our landlord… who knows when he will get around to it… I hope soon because I have work in the morning.

We have had fun playing in the snow though. Stewart was asked to feed a fellow student’s cats while she was out of town. She lives close to a mile away from us. Since we are snowed in we have been trekking over there on foot to take care of them. We had a lot of fun pushing each other into the snow banks… It is a winter wonderland outside and it is for certain we will have a very white Christmas. Stewart thought it would be smart to document the snow fall every 2 hours so that we could have a picture journal of this year’s 2009 West Virginia Winter Storm. The following pictures are proof that it has indeed snowed a lot here:

Friday Dec. 18, 2009- 2:00 pm

Friday Dec. 18, 2009- 4:00 pm

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Friday Dec. 18, 2009- 6:00 pm

Friday Dec. 18, 2009- 8:00 pm

Okay, so maybe we fudged the climate data a little bit. But who doesn’t fudge a little climate data every now and then? However we had a blast taking them! And since we love taking pictures here are a few more of our snowy adventures. Loves!!

Mr. Malibu... playing in the snow

Stewart burried Becky in the snow... it was cold (why did I let him do this to me?)

Stewart, stole our neighbor's snow shovel... good thing he won't be home for a while, we might need it longer then a few hours.

On our way to feed them Cats (hey Mom... how do you like Stewart's hat?)

Still working our way over to feed them cats... look how narrow the road is (Margie do you like my hat?).

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.