Our Toledo Home

So here is where Jon and I will be living for the next four years. I got most everything unpacked before I took pictures, but you will see some boxes in the pictures.

This is what the outsides of the building look like. The tree you see here keeps our apartment shaded really well in the summer. It is very nice.This is the floor plan. It is much bigger than where we lived in Provo. Here is the kitchen. It is more then twice the size of the kitchen I had in Provo. It is still small, but I love having a dish washer......and an oven that isn't broken, where you have to play guess what temperature it will be when it actually heats up. Another look at the kitchen.This is the dining area. Notice there is a window between here and the kitchen. It is fun to still be able to talk from the kitchen to Jon sitting on the couch.Here is our living room. If you look really close, you might be able to see where the couch was broken in the move.This is the other side of the front room that we have made into a sort of office. The desk is a new feature for our home. It is from IKEA. Thank you Lori for putting it together. On the right is the sliding glass door to our balcony (which is not pictured at this time).Our full bathroom. It is about the same size as our Provo place, but has more counter top space. Heck, it actually has a counter! That is a great improvement.This is the room Jon calls the craft room, and I call the sewing room for now. This is my new sewing table. I love it! It is spacious and I don't have to take out and put away my sewing machine every time I want to use it.Here is the opposite wall and our library.This is the far corner of the room. You can see the dresser that Jon wrote his name all over, and our stuffed animals. This is also the messier side of the room.Looking at our room from the half bathroom (not pictured today).Our wonderful bed. It was a great day when the moving truck got here and we could sleep in our own bead again. We hadn't slept in it all summer. The laundry room is also not pictured, but it is not very exciting. It was a washer and dryer and the garbage can. This is where we live now. It is home. We love it.

Pictures From Apple Picking

We went and picked apples at the beginning of the month. I wrote a post about it when we did it. Click here to go to it. Here are some pictures that we took that night.


Here is a picture of members of our ward walking down the rows between the apple trees looking for some good apples.
Jon reaching for a yummy apple.Keriann up a ladder in a tree.

First Hair Cut

I started cutting Jon's hair for him. I have done it a few times now, but here is a picture of the first try. It actually turned out pretty good. It was a little shorter than Jon had wanted, but we didn't know what setting would be good on our new clippers. Since I was nervous and didn't want to mess it up, it took a long time the first time too. The battery died twice, and we had to wait for it to charge with half Jon's haircut. The second time went much better.

Pictures At Last

These are the first in a series of pictures to be posted. I thought I would first post the rest of the pictures from our move out here to Ohio. These pictures were taken on our drive back to Toledo from Palmyra. Thirty Mile Point Lighthouse was the second lighthouse we stopped to see (the first being the Charlotte-Genesee Lighthouse pictured earlier). To learn more about this second lighthouse click here. There was a little state park we had to enter before we could get to the lighthouse. They did tours, camping, youth activities, etc. It was a cool place.

My mom, dad, sister, and Jon looking out over Lake Ontario.

A Touch of Another Culture

Monday night, Jon and I went to a dinner and speaker. The menu was foods of the Middle East and the speaker was one of Jon professors, Dr. Iman Mohamed. Her topic of discussion was how to help Muslim Women patients. She spoke a lot about the Muslim religion. It was fascinating. I learned lots that I didn't know before hand. The food was really good, too. Interesting, but good.

Finally, More Pictures to Come

I finally finished my roll of film. I will be taking it to be developed today. Then I will post pictures! I have decided that I will spread them out. Post a few every couple of days. That way it won't be over kill in one posting and it will last longer.

Keriann's List of Allergies

Some have suggested that I put up a list of all my allergies, so I decided to put it as a post. If anyone would like it to be a more permanent thing on the side or something let me know.

Here is the most up to date list:

Food

Ginger (Spice), smelling it is as bad as eating.

Celery

Avocado

Kiwi

Most Nuts (except Cashews and Peanuts)

Coconut

Other

Hay Fever

Latex

Most stretchy fabric

Nylon

Elastic

Penicillin

Sulfa Drugs

Flomax

Codeine

Hydrocodone

Morphine

General Anesthetic (MH)

Local Anesthetic (it doesn't work)

Erythromycin

COX2 drugs (such as Celebrex, Vioxx, etc.)

Eucalyptus, the smell coming from all those flower arrangements with this in it

Echinacea

Vanilla scent

Flowery scents

Those in red are the worst.

Ohio Residents

On Friday, Jon and I got our Ohio Driver's Licenses. It only took around 45 minutes. Not too bad. The test was so easy it was almost a joke. Then even though the line was long and they were having problems with the computers crashing, it didn't take long to change over to Ohio. I'm a little sad because I have been holding on to my Idaho residency as long as I could and now it is gone. Looking to the future, I don't know that I will ever be a resident of Idaho again. It's sad. Jon was really sad to give up his Washington residency too, but there is a chance we will end up in Washington again. We just have to remember that our move here is just temporary and we will only have to renew our licenses once while we are here.

We do love Ohio. It is beautiful and we are enjoying going to school here. We just aren't ready to make a permanent home anywhere.

Toledo-Lucas County Public Library

Jon and I have really enjoyed the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library. There is a branch of the library just 2.2 miles from where we live. They have great movies to check out, and Jon has enjoyed many of their books. I am also looking for a book that I would enjoy.

Last night we decided to walk to the library to return a book and check out some movies and another book. 2.2 miles isn't too far. It was really fun. It reminded me of the days in Provo when we would go for walks. It was good exercise and great time spent together, just the two of us.

For those of you who might think this was a little extreme, it only took us a half hour to walk to and 45 minutes to walk home. That was nothing. There was a time when we walked to "Macey's" (the grocery store) and "Cougar Video" from our duplex in Provo. We grossly underestimated that distance. It took us about 1.5 hours to get there and then we had to walk home. It was an insane walk, but we lived to tell the tale.

The Hunt For A Cross-Stitch Is Over

Jon has been wanting a new cross-stitching project for a while now. It doesn't help that I have been enjoying my slowly developing cross-stitching abilities. We have been looking all over Toledo for a good pattern. Last night Jon decided he had to have a cross-stitch to do. We journeyed out to "Hobby Lobby" and bought an amazing pattern. It is of a winter/Christmas scene, with ice-skaters, lit trees, and snow covered houses. Jon said he was going to do it for me to hang on our wall, but it might take months. He was so excited.

After we had found this cross-stitch, we decided to stop at "Toys 'R' Us" and look around. Jon was walking so fast through the store I wondered what he was looking for exactly. Then his eyes got big, and a smile spread across his face. We had found the Lego's. He was so excited and kept asking me if I was going to get him some Lego's for Christmas this year. He also kept pointing out the ones that were the best so I would know which ones to get him. He was pleased to see that they are going back to more the original designs and less preformed piece, which took out all of the fun.

Fondue

Jon and I have been enjoying fondue this week. Jon suggested I should blog about it since this is the second and third times we have had it here in Toledo. We have a wonderful nonalcoholic recipe so we don't have to worry about cooking that out. It has been so good, but I'm sure all that cheese is not too healthy.Oh, well. Here is the recipe if anyone is interested. Enjoy!

Cheese Fondue (from the Betty Crocker's Cookbook, but altered by the Felt Family)

Ingredients:
4 ounces natural Swiss cheese, shredded
4 ounces Gruyere cheese, shredded
1 Tablespoon flour
1 clove garlic, cut in half
1 small can (5.5 ounces) tomato juice
1/2 Tablespoon lemon juice
1 loaf of sour dough bread, cut into 1-inch cubes

Place cheese and flour in a resealable plastic bag. Shake until cheese is coated with flour.

Rub garlic on the bottom and sides of a small sauce pan (we use the stove top, but if you have a fondue pot that can be used instead). Mince leftover garlic and put in the bottom of the pan. Add tomato juice. Heat over medium to low heat (simmer setting) just until bubbles rise to the surface. DO NOT BOIL! Stir in lemon juice.

Gradually add cheese mixture, one handful at a time, stirring constantly over low heat, until melted.

Reduce heat a little. It must be served over heat to maintain smooth, creamy texture. We eat it around the stove.

Spear bread with forks; dip and swirl in fondue with stirring motion. Make sure you keep stirring it until it is gone.

Makes 2-3 servings

What happened to Fall?

So, when Keriann and I woke up this morning, we noticed that the weather report for the day has us hitting almost 90 degrees, again.

Neither one of us is a fan of hot weather, so we're rather disgusted. Curious, we glanced at the weather for Idaho Falls and Salt Lake City, and to our great surprise, saw that it is snowing!

It must be global warming!;P But wait... Is there such a thing as selective global warming?

Someone better call Al Gore, I smell another Oscar!

Applesauce

Since we got so many apples from picking apples at MacQueen's, I decided to make some applesauce. It turned out really well. It is a little chuncky since I used an electric mixer, but it taste really good. I think I will have to make another batch since I still have so many. It was a successful venture!

Apple Picking

For Family Home Evening last night, Jon and I went with others in our ward to pick apples at MacQueen Orchard. It was really fun. I will post a few pictures from it when I finish this roll of film and get it developed.

MacQueen's is really a neat place. It has around 200 acres. There is also a Farmers' Market and a gift shop. They make all sorts of neat things, like apple cider doughnuts. Definitely a place to visit in the Toledo Area.