Jon's favorite run on EARTH

So while in VA I am able to go to some old stomping grounds and yesterday I went to Jon's favorite place on earth to run - Burke Lake. I took my niece and nephew (but forgot the camera) an we had a picnic and played at one of the playgrounds for 2 hours.
Why you ask is this Jon's favorite place to run? - Here are the answers I can come up with: 1. Good memories 2. It is a 5 mile loop (leisurely run for him) so no seeing the same thing twice 3. there is no cars trying to hit you or people yelling at you 4. it is a trail run - easier on your knees. There has not been a year we have been married that he has not mentioned running Burke Lake - he loves this run and weather. I am hoping that when he comes in December it won't be snowing too bad and he will be able to run it one day- I know it won't be cold to him no matter what the weather since he will come from Alaska. He does PT there outside and I bet it will be closer to 0 (or negatives) and 30 will feel nice to him!
If you ask my niece and nephew we went to Jon's favorite playground in the world - they didn't quite understand the run park but they are 2 and 4. I let them know I am sure uncle Jon would love this playground but he liked to be the people we saw running more.

Mobile

Well just to update everyone I am in Virginia/Maryland for the next 2 months. My granny died two days before Jon was to leave for a month for war training in California. Since I was planning on coming down to VA/MD for his little sister's wedding in December he mentioned getting a one way ticket and just staying for awhile. While I love Alaska and the women I have befriended I just couldn't pass up the chance to be with family! This will be the longest I have been around them since before leaving for college. I am getting to stay with my brother and his wife and hang out with their kids for a few nights then going up to my parents for awhile. We figured this would be the best time for a mobile Ashley - I am sure when Molly comes I will need to be a tad bit more stable (at least for a few months).
I will be posting some pictures soon but let me tell you the shock it was to go from 8 degrees to 78! On the drive from Tennessee to Virginia we got to drive through the moutains and see the leaves changing colors - very beautiful.

Granny Head

My granny passed away today so I will be silent on the blog for a bit - I am flying to Tennessee for the funeral.

Movies and burp clothes

Jon and I at Bear's Tooth (not the greatest picture but the only one we have). This is a restaurant that owns a movie theatre where they cleared out every other row of seats so you can eat as a family and in the back they created 2 and 4 person booths. Since this was our first time and we didn't fully understand the seating I made Jon pay the extra so we could have a booth. Next time we will pay $3 for the movie and then you order food at the concession stand and they deliver it to your seat. We had a Brewhouse Pizza - it was pretty good, the movie however was a tad painful. This week is Mama Mia - while I enjoy musicals this one was a little rough even for me - I gave Jon a few sympathetic smiles - he only had one bad comment during the entire time and that had to do with me making him pay extra so we could have a booth instead of just a regular seat.
Here is my first attempt at a burp cloth - not so bad! The onesie was big disaster however - I tried to sew an M in the chest but instead I created a big whole so then I had to sew a circle and just frey the edges. Luckily I am not a perfectionist and since I am sure Molly will only be wearing this as an undergarment who cares if the big black and red circle doesn't always match all her outfits!
Next week - SHOES for Molly!! I am excited to try and sew these I will let you know how they turn out.

When you all come and visit Alaska we will be sure to take you to Bear's Tooth!!

Sewing - How Mrs. Frew saved the day

Since I don't have a machine yet I borrowed a neighbors to get some of Jon's sewing done today.
What is that - Ashley taking her time and measuring? While I tend to be an impatient person who hurriedly does things I did learn from Mrs. Frew that you MUST measure and pin down or else the sewing job will not turn out correctly.
The slow process of sewing 1 inch velcro squares onto 5 of Jon's uniforms so that he will be able to have his cross and rank on each uniform. There was a lot of turning but I did manage to get them all sewn on the first try!

That is one complete job - the little cross patch in my hand is what had to have a velcro partner in order to actually stick to the uniform. Jon has been wearing a pin on cross but you can't wear those downrange (fake and real war zones). Don't want anything shiny to catch the wrong persons eye!!

The complete pile - 5 uniforms and a name badge on a bag!

Some of you may wonder - how did Mrs. Few save the day? Well let me tell you. While in elementary school my school let out Monday's at noon - my mom worked until 3 (or 4) at preschool so she arranged for me to hang out with our neighbor Mrs. Few. While I would be at her house for a few hours each week she taught me how to sew. She is an amazing seamstress who sewed many of her own clothing, quilts and other random things. My mom has one of her quilts as a wall hanging. So each Monday she would patiently teach me how to measure, pin, measure, cut and sew things. This is one of those fun facts when people meet me they don't tend to believe - I usually get - You can sew???? (with a funny face) But yes in fact I can sew. In fact Molly will be benefiting from my lessons as a kid since I will be making some burp clothes and possibly some shoes (pictures as soon as those are made).

New House

Pictures of our new house on post!

Do you see my decorative pumpkins near the door??

The wall of crosses in the entry way.
Jon thought it looked a little bare so I guess I will just have to find some more crosses!

Living Room- The white stuff outside the windows is snow!

The Study - Jon's work in progress

Dining Room - Walls are bare but we are going for the snow effect.

Kitchen- As you see I was actually cooking for my tea (see the post below for that one)

My favorite thing in the house - WALK IN PANTRY! It also is somewhat bare but since Jon will be leaving next week and I will be cooking for only myself no need to stock up too much!!

We have lived in the house for 72 hours now and love it! It is an 8 minute (very cold) walk for Jon to work. But that means we can share the car much easier now!!
We do have bedrooms upstairs - the guest room, our room and Molly's room (which only has clothes in it right now) and the wash room!!! But as you can tell I took the pictures while cooking so I didn't wander far from the kitchen.

Only in Alaska- As Jon and I walked into the library this morning he said "You know 35 degrees isn't that cold - 25 is cold. But I hear that in winter when we average 0 degrees if we get a day in the teens we will think that isn't to cold either." If you had told me 4 months ago that I wouldn't think 35 degrees was cold I would have called you crazy but now I would just have to agree that it is not!

Lisa Sealey shout out!

So I had my first official tea as a military wife yesterday. Hospitality and food are not my strongest giftings but praise the Lord for friends. We have a lot of friends in Waco we were able to learn from for the past few years. So when I signed up for the tea the first thing I realized that meant was I was in charge of food - immediately I emailed Lisa knowing she would be able to give me some Octoberish recipes. She recommended spiced cider and pumpkin dump cake - which everyone loved by the way. Here are my pictures!

Spiced Cider

Pumpkin Dump Cake (the hit of the night)

My mom has laughed that I never actually cook things and test them before giving them to others. So far I have only had a few failures but not last night - they were both great!! Tonight I cook my first Thanksgiving dinner for Jon and his chaplain assistant (bodyguard - man who makes sure Jon comes back from the war alive!!) and once again I making my first chicken, green bean casserole and sweet potatoes. I figure since they will both be in CA at war training the best thing to do is make sure they get one homemade Thanksgiving.