Shucks-No Camera!

Dad and I were responsible for a ward activity Friday night and it went really well and we FORGOT the CAMERA!
We had the first Rockbridge Family Stomp where we had a couple teach us how to Flat Foot dance, and a very pregnant sister (due in 2 weeks!) teach us line dancing. We had people make Brunswick Stew (most had never made it before) and fruit cobblers with ice cream and a great time was had by all. Family dances used to be popular in the church and we decided to put one on. It was such fun to see the Dads and Moms dancing with their kids and each other!
I made Brunswick stew for the first time so I thought I would share the recipe I used along with a little history.

A crock-pot Brunswick stew recipe, made with chicken, corn, tomatoes, okra, and seasonings.
Ingredients:
• 1 can (14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes
• 1 can tomato paste, (6 oz.)
• 3 cups chicken, cooked and cubed
• 1 1/2 cups frozen sliced okra, thawed
• 1 cup corn kernels, frozen thawed or fresh
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed
• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 dash ground cloves
• 2 1/2 cups chicken stock
Preparation:
In slow cooker, combine tomatoes and tomato paste; stir to blend. Add chicken, frozen succotash or sliced okra, corn, onion, bay leaf, salt, rosemary, pepper and cloves. Stir in chicken broth. Cover; cook on lLOW for 5 to 6 hours. Before serving, remove bay leaf and stir well.


Brunswick Stew:
Brunswick Stew is a southern concoction that dates back to the early 1800's. Two southern states, Virginia and Georgia both claim it's origin began with them. However, I must yield to what the history books tell us.
According to Virginia's history a political rally was held in 1828 for the Democratic party candidate Andrew Jackson, at the home of Dr. Creed Haskins, which was located on the banks of the Nottoway River. The story goes that Dr. Haskins asked his cook, Jimmy Matthews to make a pot of his hunters stew that was usually cooked while on hunting trips. The original pot contained squirrel meat, onions, stale bread and seasonings.
The political rally was a success and Andrew Jackson was elected, the stew was a success and Brunswick County's name was given it. The recipe was copied and served at many church functions, family reunions and every celebration from picnics to fund raisers. The ingredients were changed by replacing the squirrel with chicken but the basic stew remained the same.
My sister Mary and her husband Bill came and it was fun!!

Wicked St Patrick's Day

For St Patrick's Day Dad and I went to see Wicked in Richmond. It was the traveling Broadway cast and it was a lot of fun! The school had bought a block of tickets (around 75) and they took the schools vans up but Dad and I drove up. We had dinner at Elephant Thai and then after the play we spent the night at Aunt Kathy and Uncle John's house where we looked at family pictures and talked family history. It was a great night!!

JJ Turns 22

It was wonderful to have JJ home for his 22nd birthday so we gathered together at Emilie's house for Tuna Noodle Casserole,pie and ice cream. JJ had gone to Florida for spring break so it gave us a chance to hear about his trip and enjoy his great sense of humor! My how we missed him while he was gone for 2 years!
Here are some pictures of JJ, Tommy and Jack.









It seems just a minute ago that JJ was the same age of Tommy and jack. My goodness how time flies by!

Remote Area Medical

Remote area medical is a program started here in Virginia which takes medical teams to the hills of Virginia to bring free medical care to those in need.

The professor who is in charge of the Pre-med program here at the school has been very involved in this over the years and takes students into the field every year. This year they decided to hold it here to see how it did. It took the volunteer efforts of many at the school and in the community and church to make it possible but it was a great experience. They did over 1400 proceedures on people that traveled miles to get here. They did fee eye exams and glasses and all the frames are brand new given to the program when styles change. This is the area I worked in and we did glaucoma tests,then the eye exam, picked out the frames and then they actually had a van where the lenses were ground to their prescriptions. Amazing!


They had physical exams, womens exams and even a veterinary clinic for cats.
The largest and most popular was the dental clinic. People would spend hours in the chairs as they had work done that they had never had done before, especially basic cleaning. One person had 22 teeth pulled!

this is JJ's friend Baden who is going to be a Dentist.

They then do follow up care with some of the folks that need it. The Doctors,nurses and out of town volunteers were housed in our main hall dorm rooms since they all voulunteer their time. All of this was possible because our students were mostly gone on spring break. Some actually stayed just to help.
It is great to be in a situation where we can help others and the tremendous work on the part of those who put it on is inspiring.It actually helped build a good feeling with the town and the campus which was nice.

My mother was right-unfortunately

My mother always claimed that "Bad news comes in threes" and it seems to be true in the last few weeks. I would like to pay tribute to three people who have touched my life in various ways that passed away in the last few weeks.
First of all is Clay Finch.

He passed away on Feb 10 after having bad health for the last several years. Clay came into my life because of his wife, Barb. She is one of my dearest friends and a tremendous blessing in my life. We worked together to build up Curves of Newberg and Barb and Clay joined the church after we had known each other for around a year. Their conversion story was wonderful and Clay grabbed hold of the Iron Rod and never let go. We had the privilege of going to the Temple with Barb and Clay and hosting a "wedding party" for them at our house. What wonderful memories we have together!

Clay was one of the kindest people I know and would do anything for anyone. He had a great sense of humor and lived life to the fullest. He had an Indian burial in New Mexico that was fitting of his heritage.He loved the statue "end of the trail"and he loved,Mick,his dog and Mick loved him! I look forward to the day we meet again.

On March 1st Phyllis Parrott past away after a very quick illness. She was my visiting teacher and a wonderful friend. she was totally devoted to her family and especially her husband Arnold. Arnold came to help out at SVU as the director of career development after working at BYU for many years and is loved by the students and an invaluable help to them. Phyllis volunteered at the front desk in main hall and everyone appreciated her ever present smile and happy disposition. Phyllis and Arnold are converts to the church and had a great love of the temple. It is on our trips to the temple that we got to know them. She had a wonderful sense of humor and I will miss her very much.


Last is John Andrews Sr who died on March 2. He is John Andrews father and he was a wonderful, kind gentle man. All you need to do is know his son to know what kind of person he was.He has been such a loving father in law to Hope and a wonderful grandfather to Sarah and a good friend to our family. Go to Hope's blog hopescraps@blogspot.com to read a beautiful tribute to him.


All of these wonderful people have passed through my life at different times to enrich my life, to teach me things and to remind me that life is very fragile and that we never know when our time will be over or that of someone we love. How wonderful the plan of happiness is and the comfort it gives us in times such as these.

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines day to everyone! It has been a very nice day for me. It started with Papa giving me a beautiful card and a box of truffles from a local chocolatier called Cocoa Mill over in Lexington. They are really good!
We were actually able to go to our own ward today and it was so nice to get to mingle with everyone again and to discuss the Old Testament (Cain and Abel and Noah) and to discuss the great plan of salvation and the war in Heaven. I am really enjoying this new course of study of simple gospel principles.
When Emilie and Logan got out of church they dropped by and it is always so good to see them and get to be with the boys.
I didn't think we would see them today since we spent all day yesterday together on a family Temple trip. Emilie, Logan and Papa went on a session while JJ and I watched the boys and then we switched (except for Dad who stayed in the Temple to do the veil). While JJ and I had the boys we took them to the Mall and what a zoo that was! All those DC people had been trapped inside for days and so they were all out on the streets and it took a half hour to go 3 miles!
I took the camera but forgot to take pictures until it was dark so Dad took a few. Hopefully you can see the 32 inches of snow plowed up to over 5 feet in the parking lot! It was amazing! And to think we thought we got a lot! Fortunately the Temple wasn't crowded so we were able to get a parking place!



Since I thought you might be getting as tired of our snow as we are (more is expected tomorrow!)I decided to move on to icicles! These show the front door and the stoop. When I was walking in on Friday one of the icicles fell on my head and each morning Dad has to "break out" of the house from the ice built up in front of the door. It doesn't seem to matter how much salt he puts on it, the ice just keeps mounting. It will be nice to see temperatures get warm enough to melt this but we need it to happen slowly so we don't have flooding!


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Her are a few of my favorite campus icicles!




When we were on the way to the Temple we saw some icicles under a bridge they were building that must have been 5 feet tall! Just think, we'll be able to bore all of our future posterity with "we remember the winter of 09-10 when all the records for snowfall were broken and President Obama called it Snowmagedon!"

On the way home I took this picture of Tommy with his new hat. He is so much fun!


And to end a great day I got to talk to my grandchildren on the west coast! It makes me so happy that they were all together today, safe and sound in Oregon. I just feel such peace having them all in one place even if it is just for a day!

And MORE snow...!

On Friday they preemptively called off school because of the threat of a major snow storm. They were plowing as it was falling unlike the last time and so conditions were much better. We had snow, then sleet, then frozen rain and then snow again so this is a crunchy snow and good for snowmen, forts etc (see Emilie's Blog). Papa and I just hunkered down for the duration and it was kind of fun being snowed in. They canceled our church and so we were going to go to one of the student wards and then they decided to go ahead and have the afternoon family ward meet so we went there. We just had sacrament meeting but it was so nice just to get to be together and hear testimonies.
I thought I would send along a few more snow pictures taken by Papa of some of the other buildings on campus.
Here is Crayton, the dorm where JJ is an RA.


This is the student union where the cafe,game room,dance studio and mail room are located.

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This is a picture of the brick entry and Chandler Hall where the plays and concerts are held.


On Thursday the students put on a benefit for Haiti relief and raised $750,which was pretty good since we were competing with the girls home basketball game! JJ was the emcee and our acapella group, The Fading Point, performed along with Shenanigans, our comedy troupe, of which JJ is a member. Scotty and the Beamers, a rock band started by one of our professors, also performed along with a middle school band named "Rock Mutt" that has children of several of our professors in it. We had pizza and ice cream and a great time was had by all for a worthy cause!