The Great Pumpkin Patch

Greg and I had a wonderful fall adventure today! We went to the Great Pumpkin Patch in Arthur, Illinois. Mom and I discovered the Great Pumpkin Patch in 2007 while I was at EIU. We thought it was one of the most fun fall places we had ever visited, and today it was just as fun as I had remembered it. Arthur is a little Amish community in central Illinois--and the Great Pumpkin Patch has been an annual event since 2006. We began our morning at the Homestead Bakery, where we found some delicious pumpkin bread and apple butter.

When we entered the pumpkin patch, we found some very fun and cute animals. They even had a "Three Little Pigs" pig pen, complete with piggy houses constructed of straw, sticks, and bricks.

What a pretty fall setting! Even though it was very cold in Arthur, I had to have a hand-dipped pumpkin ice cream cone. By the time I finished the ice cream cone, my mouth, face, and hands were frozen, but I was happy.

The Great Pumpkin Patch is full of fun pumpkin/squash/cucumber displays, including Noah's Ark, pumpkin trees, and funny animals and giant gingerbread man looking things made of hay bales.

There were also some displays which included scarecrows featuring the faces of several well-known figures . . . including Hillary Clinton :-) How perfect is that? Stick that in your field, and you won't have to worry about anything--crows, bugs, worms, deer, robbers--a Clinton scarecrow would scare absolutely everything away. Greg and I should have put one of those in our garden this spring to scare the bunnies away. Below is a funny video of one of the pumpkin patch roosters who sounded really silly. Though he was the smallest rooster, he thought he was pretty cool, and whenever one of the other roosters would crow, he had to try to outdo them.

After visiting the Great Pumpkin Patch, Greg and I went over to Tuscola to eat lunch at our favorite place: Flesor's Candy Kitchen, home of the most wonderful Reuben sandwich in the world.

After our fall adventure, Greg and I went to see the condo we are thinking to buy. It is so cute!!! The price is right, location is right, and it has a fireplace so we could stay warm this winter without spending millions of dollars on utility bills. It would need some new paint and carpet, but other than that it is in really good shape. It has three bedrooms and two-and-a-half bathrooms and is located in a really nice condo complex on the north side of Springfield. What do you all think? We would be happy to hear your input on the matter. Later this evening we went to a fun cookout at the Hennings' (Greg's boss) house. You could call today a perfect fall day.

One Year!

Today is Greg's and my ONE YEAR anniversary!!! We can't believe it's already been a whole year. It was a beautiful fall day here in Illinois--just like the beautiful day in Utah when we were married, and Mom said that it was the same type of perfect day there today. That was such a wonderful, happy day that we spent with our family and friends last year. Much has happened since we got married--I no longer have a gallbladder, and Greg is back in school--but it has been a fun adventure so far. Greg and I are looking forward to many more anniversaries in the future!

To celebrate our anniversary, Greg and I spent the weekend in beautiful Nauvoo. On Friday afternoon we drove over there, with a stop at Greg's nice cousin Scott's house in Hamilton (he and his wife Amy have the cute twins), then we checked into our hotel room and enjoyed a delicious dinner at the Hotel Nauvoo buffet. When we woke up on Saturday morning, it was gorgeous outside. Here is a picture of the temple with the pretty changing leaves.

Here is the neat hotel we stayed at: the Woodruff Hotel on Mullholland Street. It is an old building that was converted into a hotel. Mom, Dad, and I actually stayed in the same building a few years ago, but at that time the accommodations were quite rustic. :-) It has been updated a lot, and we enjoyed our stay there--especially the yummy breakfast basket they brought to us.

Then we had a wonderful time at the Nauvoo Temple that morning. It was so nice to attend the temple and be reminded of the eternal blessings we can enjoy through our marriage. I especially enjoy being at the Nauvoo Temple and reflecting on our ancestors who helped build and attended the original temple there.

After going to the temple, Greg and I had fun going around Nauvoo for a while. We had lunch at one of our other favorite places: Grandpa John's Cafe, and enjoyed the nice fall weather.

What a beautiful setting! After our fun day in Nauvoo, we drove down to Quincy where we were going to pay homage to Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln-Douglas debate site, but the downtown area was all closed off for a parade. It was okay though, because we found a cool sports card shop to see while we were there. Then we headed home.

Today, on our actual anniversary, we spent a nice day together. Unfortunately we couldn't go to church--because I had to go give my Civil War presentation at the Lincoln Home--but we made the most of it, and had a nice time with each other. There was an unusually big crowd at my presentation today. I wasn't expecting many, but I guess there were a lot of people there at the park enjoying the nice, sunny day (it had been cold and rainy all week). Our animal children have been extra cuddly today too. The three of them definitely make our lives more interesting :-) I am so happy to be married to Greg!

Happy Together

A Season of Change

Nothing brings Tiger Lily and Little Spike--who normally don't really like each other--together better than cold weather. Greg snapped this funny picture last night when I was sitting on the couch reading with the space heater blowing on me. First Little Spike, drawn to the heater, came and sat on my lap, then Lily followed. Usually Little would not like Lily sitting on top of him, but he didn't seem to mind last night--probably because she was keeping him warm. It is indeed getting colder here! It has been quite chilly out, and the temps even dropped to freezing on Saturday night.

With the colder weather comes a change in uniform for me. Here I am sporting the official National Park Service winter look. I like the uniform because it is very warm. As you can see, the winter uniform includes a tie. The other day when I was getting ready, I realized that I don't know how to tie a tie. So I asked Greg for some help, and he tried tying it on himself, but it was smaller than what he's used to, so he couldn't get it quite right. Finally he said, "Okay, lie down on the bed." I was confused, but then I realized that whenever Greg ties ties on other people, they are in a casket! :-) He did a great job tying my tie.

Unfortunately the weather isn't the only thing changing around here--we just found out at work last week that a bunch of people will lose their ranger jobs in December. Out of six term rangers (hired for one or four year terms), I am the only one they are keeping at the Lincoln Home. That isn't fair!! Everyone is very upset. It turns out that our superintendent got a little too excited about all of the extra Bicentennial funds the Lincoln Home received, and he spent three times too much money. So everyone is very sad and disheartened at the Lincoln Home. With most of the staff leaving on December 5, I am worried about this winter--I don't know how we're going to have enough people to do everything. My supervisor Laura told me that I will need to take on the jobs of the five other term rangers who are leaving. But I don't even have enough time to do my own jobs!! We'll see how that goes.

Today Congressman Aaron Schock came for a tour of the Lincoln Home. He is a Republican Congressman from Illinois who is currently the youngest member of the U. S. House of Representatives. He is a really cool guy, but all of the Democrats around here completely hate him. They can't stand that he is a young, smart, handsome REPUBLICAN!! I was really shocked and disappointed to hear reactions from some of the rangers today during lunch. They were disgusted that he came to the Lincoln Home, and they felt like it was a burden to have to show him around. Not cool. Congressman Schock's office is located in downtown Springfield. You might have heard about this on the news, but a few weeks ago a crazy guy tried to blow up the federal building in downtown Springfield (but the people who sold the guy his "explosives" were undercover FBI agents). The crazy guy's secondary target was Aaron Schock's office. As soon as people found out that the crazy guy was a Muslim and that a Republican was one of his targets, all of a sudden the news stations stopped covering the story! Grrrrrrrr. Anyway, I think Aaron Schock is cool.

Switching subjects, the poor St. Louis Cardinals blew their season on Saturday night when they lost to the Dodgers. Greg and I were especially upset because we had tickets to Game 4 of the playoffs--but since the Cards were swept in three games, there was not a Game 4!!!! :-( We were very sad--especially since the Cardinals SHOULD HAVE won their game on Thursday night. It was the bottom of the ninth inning, and the Cardinals were up 2-1. There were two outs, and the Dodgers guy hit it right to Matt Holliday in the outfield. Greg and I started to cheer--because the win would mean that there would for sure be a Game 4--and then . . . the ball hit Holliday in the chest, he dropped it, and then he fell over. Greg and I could do nothing but just stare blankly at the TV as we watched the Cardinals fall apart and lose the game. We couldn't believe it! We were really sad on Saturday night, but I think we're over it now. We are looking forward to celebrating our big ONE YEAR anniversary this weekend!!! I can't believe it's already been a year!

Archaeology Adventures

Today was probably the coolest day of work ever! In preparation for the installation of some geothermal wells in the Lincoln neighborhood, the National Park Service sent some archaeologists from the Midwest Archaeological Center in Nebraska to survey areas that will be affected by the wells. They are trying to determine where artifacts will most likely be found when another archaeological team comes back in November to do some actual excavations. So today I got to help the archaeologists!

Most of our work was focused on the vacant lot at the northwest end of the neighborhood. A widow named Ann Walters lived in a house on this lot when the Lincolns lived in the neighborhood. Our work today was especially exciting because no archaeological work has ever been done on the Walters lot. We could find anything--house foundations, a barn, a well, or . . . the outhouse! After establishing a very precisely measured grid, we got to use the ground-penetrating radar, which is an amazing piece of equipment. Here I am taking my turn with the radar.

The radar sends signals into the ground which then show up as squiggly lines on the screen when a disturbance in the soil is detected. Here is one rather big "blip" we encountered in the Walters lot. There were also quite a few squiggly lines in the back corner of the lot, which indicates that there may have been a barn or outhouse there. The archaeologists will be at the park all week. They will use some other radars and extremely high-tech metal detectors to try to pinpoint the appropriate locations to excavate. The ultimate goal is to hopefully find some building foundations, as well as some empty areas where the geothermal wells can be placed. I learned a lot today and had a great time working with the archaeologists. One of the neat things about archaeology is that it deals with the "unknown" component of history. It's kind of like researching papers that have been hidden in a library for hundreds of years. We know that the Walters lived in the lot, but we don't know what kind of food they ate, medicines they took, animals they had, or how big their house was--which is all information you can find by looking underground. The information is there--you just have to dig for it. Archaeology adds a whole new dimension to historical research. It's all quite fascinating!

The local news station sent some reporters over to the park to find out about the project, and even though I wasn't actually interviewed, I did show up in the background when they featured the story on the 6:00 news this evening :-)