Carving Pumpkins and Joe Froggers

John's family has a tradition of carving pumpkins and eating Joe Froggers. Since we aren't close to family to carry on the tradition with them, we invited some people over and had our own pumpkin carving party. John's classmates Mike and Tiffany, my classmate Bessie and her husband Jon, and the missionaries, Elder Brunson and Jenson came. We had a lot of fun and everyone said that they liked the Joe Froggers.

Joe Froggers fresh out of the oven, eaten with lots of icing!

The pumpkins! John showed his surgery skills by carving a witch, Bessie and Jon made a cat, Mike carved a ghost, and the missionaries carved the angel Moroni.

John's family always carves pumpkins and makes Joe Froggers on Halloween. The Joe Froggers are a molasses cookie with a strong taste that takes some getting used to! John's mom kept the Colver tradition alive from when John's dad was young and now we are going to try to keep it too. Last year John's mom stumbled across the story behind the Joe Froggers.

* The Legend of Joe Froggers

A couple known as Aunt Crease and Black Joe lived at the edge of a pond in Marblehead, Massachusetts. Joe had fought in the Revolution as a young man. On election night, they would open their house, which on occasion was also a local tavern, and serve grog. Joe would play the fiddle and Aunt Crease would cook.

One of her specialties was a molasses cookie the size of a modern-day salad plate. She made them for fishermen, who found they stored well in barrels during long sea voyages.

In the early 1800s, the election took place at the end of May, a time when frogs were peeping in the pond, and by association the cookies were called Joe's Froggers. Over time the possessive was dropped, and the name today is Joe Froggers.

Here's the legendary recipe:

Joe Froggers

Combine in 4 different bowls first and then add each 1/2 at a time into the 4th bowl.

1. Sift 7 c. flour, 1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. cloves, 1 tsp. nutmeg, 1/2 tsp. All Spice

2. Combine 3/4 c. water, 1/4 c. rum flavor

3. Combine 2 tsp baking soda, 2 c. dark molasses. Stir and let sit for about 15 minutes

4. Cream 1 c. shortening, 2 c. sugar

Add 1, 2, and 3 in with number 4 half at a time. Blend well chill dough over night. Roll and cut. Put on greased sheet. Bake 375 degrees 10-12 min. Makes about 2 dozen. Frost with butter cream frosting.

Fall Festival and Chili Cook-off

This Saturday was our ward's Fall Festival and Chili cook-off. Last Sunday John came to me with a sparkle in his eyes saying that he had a great idea for the chili cook-off: green chili. I had never heard of it and neither had he, but we found a recipe online and it turned out great. John's "Green Hulk" chili won the prize for most unique out of about 15 other chilies. I was too afraid to try it before we took it to the church but a bunch of people came up to me and told me how wonderful it was so I had to try it. It was pretty good, definitely unique.

John eating his Green Hulk Chili trying to look scary

John and I helped out at the fall festival by manning the fishing pond booth. It was fun and only a few of the kids were scared of us, most thought we were funny. We dressed up as PA and nurse zombies. We wore our school uniforms and then painted our faces so that we looked dead. We even won the couples costume competition! (John says "booya!") We had a lot of fun and we were glad that some of our friends could come too.

John at the fishing pond booth

Lily Brown, me and Camryn Ogg (so cute!)

Your friendly neighborhood zombie healthcare workers

And here's the prize-winning recipe for anyone who's brave enough to try it

John's Green Hulk Chili

2 pounds of pork, diced
1 cup onion, chopped
14 0z chicken broth
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 1/2 T chicken stock
1 tsp celery salt
1 T cornstarch
1/2 tsp oregano
1 T cumin
1 T dried cilantro
1/2 T chili powder
10 oz. green enchilada sauce
1 can black beans
1 can butter beans
1 can great northern beans
27 oz. green chilies, chopped
8 oz. green chilies, pureed
1/2 T jalapenos, pureed
1 tsp salt
Habanara hot sauce

Brown pork and drain
Add onion and chicken broth, simmer 1 hour, stirring often
Add spices and a little water. Simmer 1 hour, stirring often
Add green enchilada sauce and beans. Simmer and stir 1/2 hour
Add chopped green chilies, cook for 15 min
Add pureed chilies and jalapenos. Adjust taste and hotness with salt and habanara sauce

Low Country Boil (pronounced "bowl")

Tonight John and I went to the Cardiff's house where their son Hayden was opening his mission call. He was called to serve in the Italy Rome mission. It was very exciting. As part of the festivities we had a low country boil (true southerners pronounce it "bowl"). This area of Georgia is called the low country because it is at sea level and the low country boil is sort of an area specialty. How it's made is you take sausage, corn on the cob, potatoes, and shrimp and boil it all together in a big pot with a little seafood seasoning. Then you dump the whole mess out onto a table and dinner is served. It's a pretty fun little tradition.

A Wicked Weekend

This weekend John and I went to see Wicked, the musical, in Atlanta with the Browns. I've been wanting to see it ever since I was first introduced to the music 3 years ago by my roommate DeAnna. I love the music and I begged John to take me. Wicked is a musical vindicating the wicked witch of the west. It's about her friendship with Glinda the good witch and how Elpheba becomes known as "the wicked". The music is awesome and the play is incredible. I highly reccommend it to anyone who gets the chance to see it.
We left at about 7am so that we could get there in time to have lunch before the matinee performance. We ate at a Greek diner right next to the Fox Theatre. The theatre was really neat. It was designed to be like a big tent under a starry Arabian night. The walls were all mosque-like and ornate. The ceiling was lit with dark blue lights and the balconies, the back half of the theatre, had the tent pitched over them.


The show was amazing. I have listened to the music so much and so I know all of the songs but it was so neat to see them performed. We got to see the whole story, which you don't really get just from listening to the songs. The performance was awesome and we both really loved it. We had a great time with the Browns too.
On the way up Lisa and I talked in the front while Kevin and John played guitar hero in the back, as is tradition when we go on trips with the Browns. On the way back John studied for his big test on Monday!

Victoria's Fall Break

This past week I had three days off of school for Armstrong's fall break. It was too bad that none of my days off coincided with John's 3 week break, but it was a nice rest all the same.
I started my break with, of course, volleyball on Friday night. Saturday we went for a Barbecue at the Ballards. Cody Ballard was deployed for 4 months starting this week so Gina held a barbecue in his honor.


Sunday I made a Thanksgiving dinner in honor of Canada's Thanksgiving holiday which was held on Monday (October 13). It was my first time making a Turkey. I let it cook in the oven while we were at church and it actually turned out really well. We also had mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, salad, and my personal favorite, raspberry jello. We had the missionaries, Elders Brunson and Jenson, over to share it with us.
Sunday night we went to the Tom and September Cardiff's house and played cards with their family, the bishop and his family, and Robin Thomas. It was a loud and crazy night, they really get into their card-playing. We had a good time.

On Monday I just relaxed. I slept in and then met John for lunch. After lunch I went to the mall to look for a top to go with my green skirt that I was planning on wearing to Wicked this weekend. I bought this beautiful green satin skirt with my mom when John and I were first dating. The skirt was kind of expensive so I didn't buy the top and shoes that went with it. At the time I thought it would be really easy to find a top to go with it. Little did I know that green and satin are almost impossible to match and that finding something to go with this skirt would become my life's mission. Over 3 years later I think I've finally found something that will work. I don't want to see another mall for a long time.

On Tuesday Lisa and I played a morning downtown. We were planning on visiting the Telfair Museum of Art since Lisa had this awesome coupon to get the two of us and Derek in for free. Well we got there only to find out that the museum is closed on Tuesdays. How random! So we walked around downtown and went to the City Market. There we went through the Thomas Kinkade gallery, which was so beautiful. I wish I could visit each of the places he painted. They all look so quaint and cozy.
Tuesday night I hosted the book club at my apartment. We read The Tale of Despereaux, a really cute children's novel. In part of the book the queen dies while eating soup, her favorite meal, and the king is so distraught that he outlaws soup. So for our refreshments at book club I made some turkey soup from thanksgiving leftovers. It was really good and I was really proud for making it from scratch.

On Wednesday I met John for lunch again and then went to play with Katie and visit Gina. I've only been gone for 2 months but Katie has grown so much! I couldn't get over how big she is! Her legs have gotten so long, but they're still as chubby as ever. She's crawling and can pull herself up to standing when she holds onto things. She's also got 8 teeth! Four on top adn four on bottom. I couldn't believe it, she's almost a little girl! We played for a while and Gina and I took her to the park and played with her on the swings. It was a lot of fun. I think Katie remembered me but she was a little shy.

Back to the Ol' Grind Stone

Tomorrow John will go back to school for his 4th quarter. He's really enjoyed having fun and relaxing over the past 3 weeks. It was a much needed break. He's been to Islands of Adventure in Orlando, deep-sea fishing, shadowing with Bruce Marshall in the ER, and golfing. He has also been able to read a church book instead of a textbook for the first time in months. We've been able to do a lot of fun things together but all good things must come to an end. Lest anyone think that we have nothing but fun here in Savannah, we now return to our boring lives.
John will be taking courses in surgery, diagnostic methods, clinical medicine and pharmacology, and epidemiology. He is excited for the surgery and diagnostic methods classes. We'll both continue on in our classes until Christmas with a short break for Thanksgiving. Although we'll be studying a lot we'll hopefully still manage to make it to the church on Friday nights for Volleyball. It's the highlight of our week and we really have a lot of fun playing.

An Early Christmas Present

John and I have been wanting to get a nice picture of Christ to put in our home. We often have friends over (Christians of other churches) and we feel bad that as fellow Christians we've never had a picture of Christ on our wall. So as an early Christmas present we bought one at the bookstore beside the temple in Columbia, South Carolina on our last visit with Gina and Cody Ballard. It's been sitting frame-less in our apartment for the last few weeks because we hadn't been able to find a nice yet affordable frame for it.
After my class on Thursday this week we headed off to Michael's, even though I was sure the sale on frames had ended last week. To our surprise the frames were still on sale for 50% off and we found the perfect one. We went to the framing counter to have it put together and the girl at the counter asked us if we wanted glass for the frame. We decided that it was probably a good idea even though it would cost us more money. The girl ended up giving us the glass and the assembly free! So a frame that should have cost us at least $100 was less than $40. We were really lucky that we got such a beautiful frame for so cheap. We felt it was a direct blessing of wanting to have a picture of the Savior in our home.

General Conference Half-time

This weekend is General Conference. John and I are lucky enough to not have anything going on and so we'll be able to watch all the sessions of conference. In between sessions John and I went to the driving range with our friends Hayden, Robyn, and Manny. John really likes to golf and is actually quite good. I on the other hand have never really been golfing except for that one time in Mr Stenseth's gr 10 PE class when a large bush ate my ball. John provided me with some private lessons and got me on my way to stardom. We had a really good time. John especially since we usually do things that I want to do.

Beautiful form John! (golf clap)

Notice how in the middle picture I'm following through on my swing but my ball hasn't moved an inch.

This morning before the first session of conference (since conference doesn't start until noon out on the east coast we had a little time to spare) we actually went down to River Street where the Oktoberfest celebrations are starting and there's a artisan market. We walked through the booths and watched a big freighter pull into the harbor. We also saw some yachts and this big sailboat that looked like a pirate ship.

Wormsloe Historic Site

Since John had been off having fun by himself for 2 days, I decided that it was time he spent some time with me. So after my class on Wednesday morning we packed a picnic and went to the Wormsloe state historic site. Wormsloe is the estate of one of the early settlers of Georgia. It's most famous for its long oak-lined driveway. I expected the house on the estate to be large and rich but all that's left are the ruins and from the look of them, the house was actually very small, about the size of our living room. It was a beautiful afternoon and we enjoyed just walking around the site with its beautiful trees.

Fishing the Atlantic

On Tuesday this week I left St. Augustine really early in the morning so that I could go deep-sea fishing in the Atlantic Ocean. I went with some of the guys from our ward: Vince Reiley, Brian Larsen, and Blen Blackwell. It's been a while since I've been fishing, like ten years or so, and I've never been deep-sea fishing. I had a blast! Brother Reiley took us in his boat and was a great guide and teacher. We found this one hole where we caught loads of fish, one after the other. We even caught a few sharks!

At the end of the day our take-home included some red snapper, black seabass, triggerfish, spanish mackerel, and atlantic shark. I got to take a little bit of everything home.

Just when we got back from our sweet fishing spot, maybe 30 miles from the shore, we got pounded by a huge storm. It poured rain for at least 30 minutes while we were unloading and filleting our catch. I got soaked. I came home wet, muddy, and smelling like fish. Awesome.

On Wednesday I cooked up some of the snapper and the spanish mackerel. The spanish mackerel was really good and the snapper was amazing, really light and tender. Even Victoria, who isn't the biggest fish fan, loved it.

Islands of Adventure

Monday my friend Mike and I went to Orlando and spent the day at Islands of Adventure. We got there right as the park was opening to be able to hit every ride in the park. Because it was a Monday, overcast, and off-season there were virtually no lines and no waiting to go on rides. Our first roller coaster was The Hulk, which was awesome. Then we did the Tower of Doom and Spiderman. We were going so fast we ended up doing the rest of the park including both the Duelling Dragons, Jurassic park, and the Looney Tunes rides before lunch. At 2:30 we went to the Hard Rock cafe where I got this amazing burger. After lunch we saw Eagle Eye at the Universal Imax theatre. It was really good. We headed home to St. Augustine after that exhausted from our fun-packed day in Orlando.