Country Fried South

On our way home from Atlanta with the Browns we actually stopped for gas at the very same gas station that John and I stopped at when we were first on our way to Savannah with our moving truck! We always mention it because when we first stepped out of the truck, we were blasted with the smell of fried food. A smell that has become very familiar to us over the past few months and a symbol of the south. It's amazing the variety of foods that can be fried! Chicken, potatoes, even shrimp are common, but come down south and they'll show you how to fry gizzards, dill pickles and even peanuts! As proof, last weekend we snapped a shot of some deep fried peanuts in a gas station. We've actually become very fond of the fried chicken (go Zaxby's) but haven't ventured too much further than that.

Atlanta Temple with the Browns

Copyright 2003 Rick Satterfield

Today John and I went to the Atlanta Temple with our friends the Browns. We watched their kids so that they could go through the temple together and then we did a session. We actually had to leave at 4:30 this morning so that we could get there in time for Kevin and Lisa to make the 8:30 session. We had to go especially early because of the temple closing in the afternoon for the Relief Society Broadcast. It was kind of a long drive, I can't complain though, John and I slept most of the way up.


While Kevin and Lisa were in the temple we did yoga with the kids, got them changed and ready, and fed them breakfast. Those kids have a lot of energy!

I think this picture is so funny because Derek and Lily look like reverent little angels, but this is probably the only time they were still the entire trip!

After the temple we went to the famous Cheesecake factory for our very first time. We also wanted to hit chipotle - awesome burritos - so all we ordered were fries and cheesecake. Not the healthiest meal but it was amazing. And finally, we checked out Costco, reminiscing of our Utah days. On the way home John and Kevin played guitar hero in the back and Lisa and I talked in the front. A pretty long and exhausting day but a great trip.

Religious Revivals

John and I went for a drive around the area we live in and found this beautiful, old episcopal church. I thought it looked just like a gingerbread house and had to take a picture. There are a lot of different Christian denominations here and everyone is very open about their religion and they're all into "church shopping." It's very much a part of the culture here and John and I have found it really interesting to find out about what other Christians believe. Our favorite "religious revival" memory is still when we were driving through Atlanta and there was a beautiful, old, white church like this one off the the side of the freeway that went through the center of town. It had a really tall steeple that had hung a flashing, neon sign hanging off of it that said "Jesus Saves." I guess it was a true statement but it was just so funny to see the old mixed with the new.

Picnic in the Park

It has been so nice for John to have a break from school and the weather has been absolutely beautiful! It's actually starting to feel like fall weather, warm fall weather but fall all the same. I've been really busy studying since I'm still in school full-time but I decided to take a break tonight and we went on a picnic for dinner. We wanted to find a park near by to go to and we found one that was on the river. We had our picnic and then we kicked around a soccer ball. John has a bunch of cool tricks that he can do, as you can see in the pictures. I, on the other hand, have few tricks up my sleeve, so I could merely pose like they taught me in the peewee league.
The craziest part about our romantic picnic was that we thought that we found a dead body floating in water in the boat ramp area when we were exploring the park. I'm not sure how many people know this about me but I've always had a fear of finding a dead body, especially in the water. Today I thought that my paranoid worries had been realized! We were just about to call the cops but when we looked closer we realized that it was the carcass of a dear with no head that had been skinned and dumped in the water. It was kind of an odd and gruesome discovery but it made our story much more exciting.

September 11: Where were you??

John and I went out to dinner on the 11th and we talked about where we were when the twin towers fell. Since neither of us probably kept journals back then I decided to turn our discussion into a post.

Victoria:
I was a senior in high school attending Penticton Secondary School (Pen-hi) on September 11, 2001. I was sitting in the library waiting for school to start. I always got to school early because I would get a ride straight from seminary at the church to the high school. I was talking and laughing with Irene Pastulovic, one of my classmates. I remember everyone gathering in the computer section of the library, there was some kind of commotion that caught my attention. We went in to see teachers and a few students watching the news on a tv. I remember seeing the buildings smoking and then seeing one of them fall. It just seemed very surreal and I didn't really understand what was happening. I remember Mr Hannah, my history teacher, just standing there shaking his head with his hand over his mouth. None of it seemed real and I didn't comprehend the gravity of what had just happened when I saw it.

John:
I remember we were living in the Sloan's old home, renting it out waiting for our new roof to be completed--due to recent fire damage. I was attending BYU but living in Elk Ridge until I could find an apartment. I was downstairs in one of the bedrooms, sleeping on a mattress on the ground when my mom bursts through my bedroom. I can't remember exactly what she said, but it was something to the effect of "John, you need to come up and watch the news. There has been a major terrorist attack that will change the world forever." Together the two of us ran upstairs. It was hard to believe, watching the screen with the smoking tower, imagining an airplane crashing into it. And then, as if watching a replay I saw another plane smash into the second tower. Was I seeing this right? I thought to myself. The image I was watching said live underneath it, could the second tower have been hit too? I told my mom, but she said it was probably only a replay. Then seconds later the news lady confirmed that, yes indeed, the second tower was hit... The rest of the morning was more of a blur for me. I remember staying home from school and watching the news all day wondering what this all would mean, how things would end. It was a scary day, I don't think I'll ever forget it.

Adventures in Walmart

This past weekend John and I took our friend Lily Brown on a trip with us to Walmart. We had lots of fun. First we looked at the toys and tried on the Hulk boxing gloves. Lily had fun beating up John. He didn't get too many bruises so don't be alarmed. Then we got our food and checked out. Lily was a perfect angel the entire time and we enjoyed having an adopted child for a few hours.

Victoria's Celebrity Look-alikes

http://www.myheritage.com/collage

MyHeritage: Celebrity Collage - Free family tree - Family history sites

John and I had so much fun finding our celebrity look-alikes. Depending on what picture we used we got different results. My favorite one of myself was when I got all asian girls except for one ugly man as results. I didn't use it for my post because I didn't know who any of the people were. I have been told before that I look asian... I just didn't believe them. My favorite look-alike in these results is Fred Savage, what a cutie!

John ... with a Scalpel!

John recently learned in his clinical skills class how to do cyst removals. Here he is in action!

No major bleeding, a job well done...

He says his stiches look better when he's not working in foam,
I wonder how he'd fair in real skin!

John's Celebrity Look-alikes

http://www.myheritage.com/collage

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity

John and I tried this celebrity look-alike program that our friends Britton and Renee had on their blog and had a great time! We tried a few different pictures of John and came up with different people every time. Although we didn't recognize many people in these results we just couldn't resist putting up that he most resembles Vana White. Some of the other people the search came up with were David Beckham, Topher Grace, and Jada Pinkett Smith. We were surprised that Robert Downey Jr. didn't come up since people are always telling John that he looks like him.

School-girl Victoria

I've been in school for 3 weeks now. I've got my first big test on Monday and we've already been tested on assessing vital signs. I received my uniform in the mail this week although I won't have to wear it until the end of the semester when we go into the nursing homes. We have to wear an all white uniform with our school's badge on the arm. My teachers told me its so that we don't get mistaken for real nurses in when we're in the hospital. Students who don't know how to do anything have had doctors and other nurses yelling at them for not doing anything in the past. I also got a bag full of fun stuff that I'll use in my lab. There were needles, bags of saline, catheter kits, wound kits, and a bunch of other fun things. It was like Christmas!

Bugs, Lizards, and Frogs

John and I are always finding cool bugs and creatures outside our apartment. We get excited and have to take a picture so I thought I'd make a post. Every night around dusk all the toads and frogs start singing to us. They are really loud and the toads are all over the ground. When we are out walking we have to be careful not to step on any because they are literally everywhere! One day we found this metallic green bug beside our car. We also see lizards everywhere and huge spiders like to nest in our stairwell. Well its all very exciting but I have to say that we do find them much more interesting when they are outside then when we find them in our house!

A Storm's a-Coming!

A few weeks ago we were pummeled by tropical storm Faye. We got a lot of rain for a few days but it didn't affect us too badly. This week we were waiting out tropical storm Hanna, which was a hurricane at one point. On Tuesday this week John's program director at school talked to their class about preparing for a hurricane. He cancelled all classes on Friday and got the class all scared. Our apartment complex even put Hurricane preparedness fliers on our doors. John and I went to Walmart as soon as he got home to stock up on our emergency survival stuff. We bought some survival stuff for our 72-hour kits, some canned food, ponchos, and gatorade. We would have bought some bottled water but the store was completely bought out! Luckily I had bought a couple gallons after the tornadoes we had back in February. Hanna ended up missing us completely, all we had were a few clouds and a little sprinkling of rain on Friday. But look out, hurricane Ike and tropical storm Josephine are on their way across the atlantic and headed our way!

Labor Day Weekend

Normally John and I spend our weekends just lounging around but this weekend was action packed. Friday night we played volleyball at the church with the missionaries. John's friend Mike came with us and there were almost 30 people there. We had two games going and John's team and my team ended up battling for the championship. It was a really close game but John's team won. He was really excited since last week we went to play and he pulled a muscle in his neck before the game even started. He was really bummed that he didn't get to play. He made up for it this week by spiking and stuffing and blocking all the way to the gold. It was a fun night and afterwards we went to Sonic and got slushies.
Saturday we studied and then went to the pool in the late afternoon. We had the pool to ourselves for most of the time, we kind of wondered why there weren't more people there on a labor day weekend afternoon. There was actually a UGA vs GSU football game going on, the first of the season. We didn't mind missing the game for a little quiet sunning. That night we went over to the Brown's for a rousing game of Pinochle. The boys won 2 games and the girls won one by shooting the moon (That means that you bet from the beginning of the round that you can win the round and by doing so win the whole game). It was a really fun and exciting night.
Sunday John's friend Mike came to church with us. The missionaries invited him when he came to volleyball with us and he said yes! We were excited to have a friend come with us and the meeting was really good. After church we had a potluck and I made some New Orleans Red Beans and Rice. I've had it before and it was really good but I've never actually made it myself. First I had to overcome the challenge of having it cooked and hot in time for the potluck, which started right after church. That was easy, I decided to cook it in a crockpot in the church kitchen while we were in our meetings. My second obstacle was having rice cooked and ready in time for the potluck. I decided that I just wouldn't bring any rice and people could just eat the sauce plain. (It's like pastey sauce with beans and spicy sausage and ham in it.) Well I couldn't get to my crockpot fast enough and by the time I got to the kitchen it had already been set out for people to eat. I hadn't tasted it or checked if the beans were done or anything. When I found it on the table it looked more like a bean soup than a paste. The beans were cooked which was a relief but I wasn't sure if I should take it off the table since I wasn't sure if it tasted good. I ended up just leaving it and I actually had some people tell me that they liked it. I guess I believe them! That night we talked to our families and just relaxed.
Monday we went on a Picnic to Ft Pulaski with our friends Gina and Cody Ballard. It was kind of windy and we were risking having storms from the outskirts of Hurricane Gustav but it ended up being a really nice day. We explored the fort a little and saw our first Alligator in the moat around the fort! Afterwards, we went downtown to the City Market to have Gelatoh (Italian icecream) and to see St. John's Cathedral. It was a lot of fun and we enjoyed hanging out with our friends Gina and Cody.

The alligator in the moat


St. John's Cathedral, downtown Savannah

Mike Jecen, John's classmate, and our Korean barbecue

That night we had a Korean barbecue with Mike. He came over to our apartment and cooked us marinated beef strips and sticky rice with kelp. We really enjoyed it, the kelp was better than I expected. After dinner we played a couple rounds of Boogle, which John dominated in, thanks to all the practice he's getting with the boggle on his iphone.