Merry Christmas to all our friends and family!

Christmas Jammies

One of my favorite traditions is Christmas Jammies. When I was little we opened one present on Christmas Eve and it was almost always a pair of Jammies. We would proudly wear our Christmas P.J.s on Christmas Eve and take the standard pictures of us olding up our presents on Christmas morning. This year we are having heat trouble. You see our 90 year old house is heated with something called steam heat. Water goes through pipes to the radiators and heats somethingy. (that's the technical term) When it does this it makes a very loud banging noise like someone is pounding on the pipes with a sledge hammer. If you've ever seen Fragel Rock and know what a pipe banger is- that's what we've got. They make loud low bangs and then high bell-like tones and once the steam comes out, they move to the next radiator. The noise combined with the extordinary price of gas out here forced us to turn our thermostat down to 60. We bought two electric heaters for the bedrooms, but it still gets nippy so Adam gave us our Christmas jammies early. Mine even have footies! We had fun cuddling and playing in our new jammies.

Cheeky Business

I gave Adam a chance to post this, but he didn't and it is just too funny to let go. He was in our entry way trying to weatherproof our door by putting styrophome around the edge. He was pushing so hard against the door, that his rear end went through the wall of our 80 year old house! It was a perfect circle!! I guess he had great placement because it was right between the 2X4s and right above a crease in the old sheetrock. Adam had to research old plastering techniques and has since patched the hole, but I won't soon forget the odd message he left me telling me he had put his butt through our wall...

Thanksgiving with the Pilgrims

Adam flying in the Naval Museum. next thing I know he'll probably be building one of these in the garage. Good thing we don't have one right now.

Eating at Doumars

The Worlds First Cone Machine

Captain Jack complete with eye patch.

Pirating the playground

Functioning lighthouse

The USS Wisonsin is still a registered battle ship so they let us walka round the deck but not go inside.

mermaid Jack

The lights on the beach

On top of the light house

Crosses were set by the Pilgrims when they first landed to thank god and worship Christ.

Cute Charbar on the boardwalk.

Here's my dinner- see Mom!

This Thanksgiving was one to remember. This was our first Thanksgiving by ourselves. We invited some people from work but no one was able to make it so after a failed attempt at some flag football in the morning (Only the branch president and us showed up so we ended up playing Frisbee and flying airplanes) To my Moms surprise, I made my first turkey dinner. I kind of cheated because I used a crock pot and a store bought pie but hey, I wanted to play football not be in the kitchen all day. As we were eating, we decided to be spontaneous like we used to be way back BC ... Before Children. We decided to go to the beach, so we found a cheap hotel, cleaned up, packed and were in the van before the hot oven light turned off. 4 1/2 hours later, we were at Virginia Beach. We drove along the boardwalk listening to Christmas carols and watching a light presentation. It was a great start to the holidays, rolling along with the windows open, listening to the waves and smelling the ocean breeze as we looked at depictions of Santa in Bermuda shorts.

Adam did some crazy early morning Christmas shopping and then when the rest of us woke up, we went on an early morning jog on the boardwalk. It rained and was a little chilly and we found a playground that had been half buried in the hurricane a few weeks ago. We went to the navel base and climbed what was one of the very first lighthouses in the U.S. We found some other placks that talked about the landing of the pilgrims, the battle of Chesapeake Bay, and how the pilgrims erected a cross because they were so grateful for their opportunity to come here and have freedom of worshipping Jesus Christ. As we were walking, I realized that it was thanksgiving and we were walking where the pilgrims walked and the pilgrims invented Thanksgiving. (I know I'm a little slow, I've just never felt like that part of US history was very real, it seemed so distant and long ago). We went up to Jamestown and Williamsburg. We learned about glass making and I truly felt an increase in my testimony of the pilgrims. They led incredibly hard lives, many perished, but they kept on. Their plans for making wine and textiles failed, the doctors had to invent and try investigational medications, and they kept on. I am truly grateful for those who were brave enough to colonize this new world and have allowed all of us the freedoms that we now have.

We ate lots of crab- of course.... What's a trip to the coast without eating crab? We decided that the drive was so long that we extended our trip an extra night. The next morning we drove to a place I found that invented the very first ice cream cone. There was an old man there- he had to be at least 85 and he had been working there since he was a teenager making waffle cones on an old waffle maker. Jack loved watching him and we ended up having burgers and ice cream for breakfast. The place is called Doumars and when you go in you feel like you've gone back in time. There are orange Formica counter tops, the food comes wrapped in plastic held together with a toothpick. Even the prices on the menu seemed old fashioned. $1.50 for french fries, a $2.00 milk shake. There were a few older customers there who all knew each other and had their special seats that they have probably been sitting on for years and years. I loved it! It was like ice cream mecca with an incredible homey feeling. I felt like Mr. Doumar who is actually the inventors nephew is from a special time- back when people took great pride in their work, no matter what it was and that any job doing is worth doing right.

As we were on our way home, Adam saw the navel museum and the USS Wisconsin battleship. So we decided to check it out. They were having a special exhibit on pirates that just opened. It was a little like Bodyworld. They had all of these artifacts that were from an old time pirate vessel. Then they had the actual life boat that those Somali pirates took the ships Captain hostage earlier this year. They had video explaining that story and I had never realized that the ship and crew were based out of Norfolk, VA. We went and saw the battleship and explored the rest of the museum. Jack liked the bearded dragon but was too nervous to pet the crab. All in all it was a great experience. Once we got home, we found out that the man we had seen on the national news who died in Nutty Buddy caves is the son of a Bishop in a neighboring ward. We had a fireside by a mad from Utah who guides tours of archeology sites in Central America. He talked about Columbus and read some excerpts from his journals describing his spiritual draw to come to America. I'm amazed how everything seems connected and again I am so grateful for the United States and the blessings, privileges and freedoms we enjoy.

Small Town Celebrity

Sometimes I feel like I am in that old TV show Northern Exposure. Not that I'm in Alaska or that it's even that cold, but the small towness. The other day, I did a local radio show with me and this guy that's been doing it forever. He had two mics and a little room with some buttons and stuff. he had me write out all the questions for him to ask me and then some people called in with their questions. It was pretty funny. I guess everyone in this little town listens to the station every morning; it's how they find out about local events and they have crazy guest speakers on all different topics- including me talking about occupational therapy and Alzheimers.

Next week they want to feature me on a local cable channel which I'm assuming will be similar to Lilly Moscovitz'. Probably right after the high school basketball game.

They ran my picture in the local paper with the other new therapists and people started recognizing me at the YMCA. They mentioned that they want to put it on a billboard too but I sure hope not. It's funny to get this much publicity but I guess they don't have that much to talk about around here.

The Fireworks of Fall

"They say that autumn in New England is the greatest of them all, but give me sweet Virginia for the fireworks of fall."
We have been loving the Virginia Fall. I drive around all day and if I can get the pictures of my cell phone, I will post some of the beautiful streets and scenery I've seen. We went on a hike up to Philpott Lake. It was actually a branch hike but there were only three other people besides us. Charlie was a trouper in the backpack. The colors just keep getting better. The reds are like flourescent red and the yellows and orange. They started at the end of September and we still have leaves, some haven't even changed yet. The only drawback to all the leaves is that we have to rake them up. Adam bought a leaf blower and it sucks up the leaves and pulverises them so that more will fit in each bag but he's still spent hours on the front yard and hasn't even started on our 'park-like" back yard. :) Jack loves the leaf piles and after Becky educated him on the true leaf-jumping technique, he did great!! Becky and Jack would hold hands and run and jump when Jack said, "Now." These are memories I hope to treasure for a long time.

Happy Halloween!! +recipe

This years costume- THE SHREK FAMILY

We had a fun time at our branch Trunk or Treat. In the famous Evans' style, we went big. Our responsibility was tyo do a childrens game and we picked a fishing activity. Adam brought in subwoofers and fancy rope lights and hooked up a sound system with spooky music. My friend Don from work came and helped. I made my first real chile and cornbread and it was actually pretty tasty. The kids trick or treated around all the cars and bobbed for apples and played cake walk and a slippery put ice down your clothes game... (that one was fun to watch :) All in all it was a successful day of safe fun and a good fellowshipping opportunity.

Here is a link to the Dinner in a Pumpkin Recipe we used:

"Stuff and bake a whole pumpkin with layers of browned ground beef, rice and vegetables in this no-dish meal which serves up to 10 people." (Or four plus 2 hungry missionaries :)

Ingredients:
1 medium sugar pumpkin
1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 cups tomato juice
3 cups shredded cabbage
1/2 pound fresh green beans, washed and
trimmed
1 cup uncooked white rice

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Wash pumpkin, cut off top, scrape out seeds and discard.
3. Place hamburger in a large, deep skillet. Crumble and cook over medium high heat until evenly brown. Drain fat, add onion and garlic; saute slightly.
4. Add sugar, Italian herbs, salt, pepper, tomato juice and rice; mix thoroughly.
5. Layer inside of pumpkin with 1/3 of cabbage, green beans and beef and rice mixture. Repeat layers, replace lid and bake for 2 to 3 hours

Halloween Preparations

Jack and Charlie taking an airplane break. They are growing up too fast!

Playing games at K-mart with Daddy dressed up as a first counselor...

A chick and a duck...

We had the missionaries over and served dinner in a pumpkin- Adam made it and it was delicious!! Kind of like how my mom used to make it, except this time, we ate the pumpkin too and it was yummy!

Elder Mulkes and Elder Ingram

Jack loves making cookies. He is a sprinkle pro.

Little snitches

Cute cookie maker in training

Making cookies for friends and neighbors after church. Three crazy boys and one who decided he can't smile for the camera anymore.