Pumpkin views

After giving some of you a build-up about the pumpkim Jim and I carved, Kurt suggested we add the pictures to the blog. So here they are. Mom was the one who designed the face, except for the nose, and Jim and I cut it out. Jim then added the nose. Enjoy. -- Sorry folks, my ISP isn't allowing me to post the pictures right now, at least that is what the blog is saying. I'll try later.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

To follow the Halloween spirit, this is a pumpkin that Eric carved at a little get together we had with some friends. If you can't tell, it's the grim reaper.

This is the pumplkin in the light, and this....is in the dark!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!!

Pumpkins!

After hearing that Mom, Dad, and Jim would be carving pumpkins for family home evening, Heather and I decided to let our creative juices flow, as well. Our first obstacle was finding the pumpkins. Most grocery stores didn't have any; we think because the frost we got a few days in a row may have ruined the pumpkins that stores were keeping outside.

We finally found them on sale for only 25 cents each! The pickings were a bit slim, but we found a couple good ones and brought them home. After scooping them out and setting the seeds out to dry, we got to it. We decided to try the scraping method instead of actually cutting the shapes out, because we've seen some pretty cool pumpkins online that were done just by carving deep grooves into the skin. Here's how they turned out.

And here's a few shots with candles in and the lights off. We think they look sweet.

Click on the pictures to see them bigger!

Unstuffed Cabbage -- recipe

Okay, now it's my turn to post a recipe. I described this one to a couple of you yesterday and received requests to post it. This has become one of our favorites; Jim eats two or three helpings each time we have it. It is actually quite easy to prepare, although it take 1.5 hours to cook. At any rate, here it is:

Unstuffed Cabbage

1 small cabbage
1 pound ground beef or ground turkey
1/2 cup chopped onion (I don't really measure it out; just chop up some and throw it in)
3/4 cup rice (I use brown rice, Mom uses regular rice, the recipe calls for instant rice)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper (the recipe calls for 1 teaspoon pepper but we thought it was too much pepper)
2 10-ounce cans condensed tomato soup
2 cups water
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brown beef/turkey with onion. Stir in rice, salt and pepper. Finely chop cabbage and layer it in the bottom of a well-greased 9 by 13 inch pan (we just spray with non-stick spray). Spoon browned beef/turkey over cabbage. Mix soup and water and pour it evenly over the top. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Cover pan with aluminum foil. Bake for 90 minutes.

The recipe suggests you can substitute marinara souce for the tomato soup for a spicier dish but I don't know how much you would use.

Eat up -- it is very good!

We went to a ward Halloween party on Thursday. Jason wore a huge, black fro wig with big gold glasses and I crimped my hair and ratted it up really huge--we went as Mr. and Mrs. HAIR. Pretty funny, eh? It was the easiest costume we could think of.

Jason entered the pie eating contest and tied for first place! They had to eat an entire chocolate pie, crust and all, without any hands. Enjoy the pictures!

I haven't posted anything about what's going on in our lives lately. Last weekend we met part of the family in Columbus and had a great time hanging out in the motel. We were pleasantly surprised to go to church there and find that is was their stake conference, so because it started an hour before we thought it did, we only had to go to church for 1 hour instead of 3. It's very pretty there and if Jana ends up there, I'm sure they'll like it. Last night we went to the Redford Theatre to see Fankenstein with Boris Karloff and Abbot and Costello meet Dr. Jekell and Mr. Hyde (also with Boris Karloff). It's always fun to go there for Halloween. We went there last week also and saw Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. I know all of you loved that movie when we rented it one night. Dad has mid terms in 2 weeks. I know those of you in school will identify with him. Dad says to tell all of you that he loves you (as do I). I'm so glad that Jana started this blog, it makes keeping up so much easier.

The Ohio State interview

We had a great time this weekend! My brother-in-law was married in Columbus, the family drove down from Michigan and we were able to spend some time together, and JASON WAS ACCEPTED TO OHIO STATE! He still has another interview in Memphis on November 10th, and we'll make our final decision after that. It's nice to know that whatever the outcome, we have somewhere to go regardless. Thanks for your prayers! Yay!

WOHOO!!

Just so you are all aware, Eric got an email this morning asking him to fill out a secondary application to THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN!!!!!! This is the one that we've been anticipating the most-this is Eric's top choice. Of course this doesn't mean that he's in the school...he still needs to get an interview and convince them that he is what they want (shouldn't be too hard, I think). But, anyway, we are SUPER EXCITED!!! And if he does get an interview, I will be coming along to visit...so double whammy of greatness. Anyway, we thought you should know. And so you don't feel jipped, this is what the school looks like.

Correction

After I published my last post, Eric informed me that the information about the school in Wisconsin was wrong...I wrote about the medical college that is apart of the University of Wisconsin, NOT the Medical College of Wisconsin. The Medical College of Wisconsin is in Milwaukee, not Madison. And this is what is really looks like.

Sorry about the misinformation...I hope it wasn't too much of a complication :) Well..that's all!

p.s. Heather, I didn't mean to delete your comment...I made 2 of those posts and I just liked the second one better, but we did read it and we thank you for your congratulations.

Something to report--finally

We haven't written anything in a while because there hasn't been anything to report. But, we finally have something to publish. So, recently we've been wondering why only one out of the seven schools that Eric applied to had asked for a secondary application. Well...yesterday Eric recieved an email that his primary application had been processed and sent out. We figure Penn State saw that Eric was going to apply to them and they jumped the gun. But, anyway, Eric checked his email this morning and three schools had sent him emails wishing him to complete their secondary applications. These are the schools, east to west.

FIRST UP:
OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY IN COLUMBUS, OHIO.



SECOND ON THE LIST IS:
THE MEDICAL SCHOOL OF WISCONSIN IN MADISON, WISCONSIN.
I like the badger with a lab coat and stethascope and a clipboard. I'm not sure if it's the mascot or if they even have one, but I like that the badger is a doctor.


LAST BUT NOT LEAST IS:
CREIGHTON UNIVERSITY IN OMAHA, NEBRASKA.
So, the schools that we haven't heard from yet are the University of Iowa, the University of Michigan, and George Washington University in Washington D.C. Cross your fingers and thank you all for your prayers. We will keep you posted if there are any more that roll in. We love you all and thank you for your support!

We accepted the offer!

We have an offer on our house!

I just wanted to quickly tell everyone that we received on offer for our house yesterday, but we don't know what the offer is yet. Our realtor is suppose to call us today once she gets into the office and sees what it is herself. I'll be sure to keep you posted. Thanks for all your continuing prayers. I know they have been heard and this could possibly be the answer we've been waiting for.
Love you all!

For those meeting in Ohio

For those of us meeting this weekend in Ohio for Jason's interview (YAY!) the Columbus Zoo is having a Halloween-themed day on Saturday. It sounds like a lot of fun, if we can all afford it! Admission is this: 12 to adult are $10, children 2 to 11 are $6, and younger than that is free. Here are the details:

Boo at the Zoo
Date:
October 20-22, 27-29, 2006
Time:
Friday 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.Saturday 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.Sunday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Cost:
Regular Zoo admission rates applyFree to Columbus Zoo and Aquarium members
Details:
Boo! The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium’s delightfully haunting Halloween celebration offers candy stations, storytellers, magicians, a haunted train ride and other thrilling activities.
Don't miss the Pumpkin Smash on Oct. 21 and Oct. 28, when animals throughout the Zoo will be presented with pumpkins as part of the Zoo's enrichment program. More information

I'm really excited to see the fam, and wish everyone could come! Love you all!

Favorite Colors

Alright, I need to know all of my sisters' favorite colors. I'd be happy to get my brothers' as well if they would like some beaded jewelry. If I remember correctly, Kari likes green but after that I'm lost. I have been at home sick with my heart stuff for the last bit so have had a chance to get a start on Christmas presents. I am still working on your wedding cross-stitch, Kari and really hope to have it to you by Christmas as well. Cross-stitch always takes a hundred times longer than I expect it will. I suppose it would get finished sooner if I had a longer attention span.

Kurt's resume is out floating in the internet world. If any of you guys know anyone who works in a remotely techinical job we'd love to have some more contacts. Getting a job is so much easier if you have an in.

Hope all is well with everyone.

I thought I would send a recipe to those of you who might be interested. The 3 of us really like it and the good thing about is that it's easy and makes a lot, so we have it for several meals. It's called Tacco Chilli.

1 pound ground beef---browned
1 15 oz. can kidney beans
1 15 oz. corn
1 46 oz. can V8 juice
1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
1 15 oz. can pinto beans
1 package tacco seasoning mix

Throw all together and simmer about 20 minutes. Some people serve it with gratted cheese, sour cream and tortilla chips, we don't but you can if you want.

Thought I'd try my hand at posting

Hey all,

I don't have anything earth shattering to post about but hadn't created my own post yet so I thought I would put something out into the blog-world. I've now told all of my supervisors and advisors that we are going to be leaving earlier than planned. Most took it pretty well, though my boss in the computer lab gave me a pretty hard time. He said he thought I had some intelligence and would know better than to move back to Michigan in December. I replied that intelligence and common sense don't always go hand in hand. We are getting pretty psyched about the move. My parents are going to fly down and help us get packed and ready to go. I'll probably be off my meds by then and will not be much help but I've always thought of myself as more of a manager figure anyway :-) Kurt hasn't told his work because he isn't sure when he will be getting a job exactly. He's made some professional contacts with people we know back in Ann Arbor and should be sending out resumes some time next week.

Hillary, if you are looking around the Ypsilanti area I'd recommend checking out Belleville. It is south (?) of Ypsi and a couple miles from where we used to live. We spent a lot of time there and really liked it. As for the real estate, I don't know what the options are but I do know there is a Curves and a kicking Cajun restaurant. Might not be grounds for a major move but their crawfish estoufee is to die for and they have fried alligator (tastes like chicken). Anyway, it was one exit down from Rawsonville Rd.

Like I said, not a lot of real news. Hmmm, I took my ASBOG exam on Friday to become a licensed Geologist. It was a lot harder than I expected it to be. In fact, it was a lot harder than any test I have taken in years. We are keeping our fingers crossed that I pass. The Board of Licensing of Geologists gets together every year and goes over the test with statitions and throws out the questions everyone gets wrong. Hopefully there were a lot of dumb geologists taking the test this year.

Alright, enough of my ramblings. I enjoy checking in on the board and seeing how everything is going. We'll keep you posted on the Great Northern Exodus as details get set. Love you all.

Heather

more pictures

I thought some of you, namely Heather, may like seeing more pictures from our trip to Moab. These pictures include less of us, more of the sights. Hope you enjoy them!

1. The one on the left is Double "O" Arch. It's hard to tell in the picture, but there are two arches right on top of each other.
















2. This is an impressive view of Delicate Arch. It still baffles me that this arch is free-standing.



3. This is all of us walking along the trail, if you could even call it that. You would never be able to find it, if it weren't for the trailmarkers...which brings me to the next picture.


4. The tiny thing on the left is the trailmarker--just a couple of stacked rocks on top of each other. Sometimes they were hard to find!








5. These are petroglyphs, thought to have been drawn by the Ute Indians.











6. This one is Wall Arch. This one was really fun because it was easy to climb up and poke around.



7. The last one is Partition Arch, but we couldn't remember it's name at first so we all called it Pocohantas Arch. Anyhow, it is rightfully named because, as you can see, it serves as an amazing divider between where we were standing and the distant city of Moab on the horizon. What a view!

It's about time!!

Well, now the time has come for your parents to finally chime in. After all the chatter amongst the Hutchinson crew, we finally have time to sit and write and actually add some photos. By the way, GO TIGERS!! If any of you non-sports types hadn't heard, our beloved Tigers defeated the evil empire, New York Yankees (sorry Eric, I don't mean to step on your team -- but we love the Tigers, as does your mother [we'll send you all some souvenir T-shirts soon]).

Now down to business. Mom and I traveled up north, to da UP ehh, for our annual October trip and had a great time. We visited Tahquamenon Falls and the Shipwreck Museum. The first day was beautiful, although on the chilly side, but bright and sunny. We enjoyed walking around the falls and taking some very nice pictures of the falls and surrounding area. The leaves were spectacular, turning different shades of yellow, orange and red. I will post some pictures we took there. We stayed the night in Paradise, MI and ate at a fun little family restaurant. We stayed at a motel that was right on the shore of Lake Superior. The next morning we layed around watching it rain and watched a sea gull sitting on the fence enduring the wind and the rain.

It was very relaxing and fun. We drove up to Whitefish Point and toured the museum and learned about a number of the 6,000 shipwrecks that have happened on the Great Lakes, including one of the most famous, immortalized in song by Gordon Lightfoot, the Edmund Fitzgerald.

This bell and life preserver are from that ship. On the way home, we stopped again at the family restraurant for lunch and were surprised to discover that we couldn't sit in the main area because a bus tour was just about to arrive with a large group of Jimmy Buffet fans who wanted to eat a cheeseburger in Paradise. We are not familiar with his music but we think he has a song, or at least mentions in one of his songs, eating a cheeseburger in Paradise. This group was an incredible menagerie of people wearing bright Hawaiian shirts and leis and some had hats with parrots on top. It was pretty funny (although they kept going in and out of the front door and often left it open, much to our chagrin because it was fairly cold outside). Sorry these pictures will make you ex-Michiganders homesick, since you won't see this much color in your tree's in Utah (I'm not sure that applies to trees in North Carolina).


One last piece of unfinished business, Mom mentioned the hard work Jim and I put in to plant shrubs around the back and West side of the house. It was challenging for we who don't normally do that type of hard labor. It does look great and we are excited about the future prospects for the appearance of the house.



As Pooh says, TTFN.

We love you all and are so proud you are in our family.

Mom and Dad

?

I wasn't sure what to title this...so, hence the question mark. There isn't much to report, everything is much the same. BUT Eric did hear back from his first school to fill out a secondary application. Yeah for Penn State!! He's finished with the application but just needs to send it in.
We're anxiously waiting...well, I'm anxious...for more of them to start pouring in. But, Pennsylvania is a beautiful state and it would be closer than we are now. But cross your fingers and say your prayers that more schools ask Eric to fill out their secondary's and that way we have more options because they are ALL going to want him. It's true. :) I think that's about all we got for the night. But, it's good to hear from all of you. Keep it up!

Big News

Well, we've told mom and dad, so I thought I'd put up a post to get the word out.

Heather and I had been planning to stay down here in North Carolina until she finished her Master's thesis, which would have been in March or April. However, we've done some thinking and decided that it would probably work out better to move home as soon as this semester is over.

The reason for that is that we want to start trying for kids! Heather will need to stop taking her heart medications, so she'll probably be on bed rest for most of the pregnancy and a bit afterward. It makes more sense to have our first one before she starts a job rather than have to take a year off after just starting one.

So I'm going to start looking for jobs in the Ann Arbor area, and hopefully we'll be moving back by January and trying to get pregnant. Heather will finish writing her thesis while she's stuck at home, and take a trip back down to North Carolina when it's finished to defend it.

Well, that's the gist of it. Just wanted to give everyone the update!

I almost forgot...

Hello all! I thought I'd join the gang.

I think this is a great way for us to keep in touch. Can someone explain how to post pictures so that I can in the future. Our digital camera isn't working right now. We have to return it to the company and have them fix it for us. But after that, we will be able to post pictures a lot. Not much is going on in our lives. Which is kind of nice for once. Charlie is staying at his brother, Les's, house during the week and coming home on the weekends. We are on week #5 for living this way. It crappy! But I had a realization last week that when we did this last year (same time in fact) that it was preparation for this time. It has certainly helped this time not to be so bad because I've already done it before. That does not mean that I like living this way, it's just a little more bearable. We have had one couple look at our house during an open house we had. Unfortunately, they have a house they need to sell before they can buy. Sounds familiar. I'm not worried about our house selling. I know it will happen when it's suppose to. What I'm starting to get worried about is that this is the Lord's plan for us right now. I don't know why it would be, but if it is, it's not nice. I'm just trying to stay positive.
The kids are doing well in school. It took them a little while to adjust to going back after the summer, but I think things are going better now. The city's mass transportation system takes the kids to school and brings them home now. That helps me soooo much. That was one of my major stressors last year, especially with Charlie being gone. Now that I don't have to take them or pick them up my day is so much better. Makayla is very proud to be in school. She tells almost everyone she talks to, even if she's already told them before. Merrit is still a big science buff and Lexie is enjoying art and music. She is still playing piano and gets better all the time. She's a hard one for practicing though. She doesn't really fight me but does complain about it most of the time. Now I know what Mom went through with me. We've thrown around the idea of starting Merrit. He shows intrest some days and none others so we're still up in the air about it. I think Chelsea is enjoying being the oldest at home during the day. She and I even get one-on-one time sometimes and I think she likes that too. Jaxson is a little brute though and likes to pick on her. So even though she's the oldest, she gets pushed around when Jaxson feels like doing it. He likes to antagonize her. He thinks it's so funny. He sure is a character. He likes to do things to laugh at himself. He's our comedian. He's also the one who is having the hardest time with Charlie being away. He has separation anxiety now. He won't go to nursery any more and he cries when I even just go outside to get something out of the car. Chelsea has started having pottie accidents and we think this may be a sign of Charlie's absence affecting her as well. It's hard to tell, but it wouldn't be surprising. We just really want to be together as a family again, full-time, as soon as possible. So thank you all for your prayers and please continue to pray for us. We have begun to look at other alternatives than just selling, but selling is still the way we would still like to have things happen.
Charlie doesn't currently have a calling at church and I have a new one. I'm the sharing time leader. I love it. It gives me so much more freedom. I can actually focus on my kids more now than I have been able to in a long time. At first, I really didn't know what to do with myself. Now, I'm getting back in the swing of being a good, attentive mom again and I like. Although, it does get tough sometimes not to get a break in the evening. I don't know how single moms do it and work a job too. I don't ever want to be a single mom full-time.
Well that's about it. It was real nice to read everyone else's blogs. I will try to be diligent in updating. I'll even get Charlie to join up. He can write from his computer at school. Lexie and Merrit like to write emails so maybe I'll have them write every once in a while too.
Till later then....

Arches National Park

DELICATE ARCH

(Jason and I are the small people underneath)

Jason and I went on a camping trip with some of our friends this weekend to Moab. We visited Arches National Park and had a GREAT time. We ended up hiking about 10 miles total, and I am exhausted. It was so beautiful; the rock formations were unbelievable. If you're able, GO! We kept asking ourselves how this and how that, Jason and I wished Heather had come with us. She could have explained some of the mystery of the magnificent rocks. Here are some pictures from the trip--

DAY 1: This is Jason and I kissing under the Delicate Arch. My coworker asked if kissing under the arch is a fertility ritual. I told her I hope so.

This is Jason on a really high rock above the Delicate Arch. You can see the arch in the background. This hike was beautiful, but terribly hot. There is no shade along the way, and it is about a 3 mile hike roundtrip. Much of the rock along the trail is so smooth, we walked it in our bare feet. Delicate Arch is probably the most famous arch, it's the one seen on Utah license plates.

DAY 2: Ok, don't look at me and Jason because we look gross. Behind us is Landscape Arch, it is the widest arch in the park. It's hard to see because of the rock behind it, but was absolutely amazing. This one was so thin on top, it's incredible that gravity hasn't yet won the battle.

Here you can see Travis, our friends' 2 year old. We are sitting in a little cavern near the entrance of Navajo Arch. This was one of our favorite spots because not only was it shady, there were plenty of good rocks to climb. There was tons of soft, red sand, and a very very narrow crevice with sloping rock climbing to the top of the cavern. Once we climbed the rock to the top, we were able to see over miles of red rock. It was gorgeous.

This is Jason and I finishing up our difficult 6 mile hike on Day 2. We were exhausted! We had successfully walked across an EXTREMELY high rock fin (the top of a narrow wall of rock with sheer drop-offs on either side), slid down moutain after mountain, walked on sand, gravel, smooth rock, jagged rock, bushes, lizards (you name it!), seen and/or walked through 15 to 20 arches, and came out alive. I can't wait to get more pictures and post them here, it was AMAZING. The park, along with the most delicious dutch-oven apple crip, made this the best camping trip I've ever been on. Ahhhh....