Christmas 08

We spent Christmas with my family this year and it was tons of fun. We ate lots of great food, played fun games and I became a Rock Legend on Guitar Hero. My sister and her family made the long trip up from Houston, TX to see the snow. But the weather turned for the better and was a scorching 45 degrees.
This is the newest member of my sisters family Alaura. She is a happy and plump baby that likes to hug. It turns out that she looks just like my Grandma Goldie. Yes, my Grandma looks that young.

My nice Maiya was given a Webkins for Christmas this year and I was disturbed to find out that the little pet cyber animal that one can grow to love and cherish dies after a year. I can see it now this time next year all those animals are going to die and what will be the only thing that will console the broken hearts of all those children... another Webkins. Brilliant marketing scheme.

One of the many high lights of my day was going outside to play with Noah and Paisley. It seems everyone in the Bennett family was given a remote control car. Ah the memories.

This ham might not look like much, but I am telling you! It was the greatest tasting ham ever. And I not just saying that because I made it and I don't think its the bourbon in it either. But if you were wondering... yes that is a dish towel in the pan... adds to the flavor.

Merry Christmas from the Nativity Cat

We have been slowly getting ready for Christmas this week. I had to work on Monday, and get the rest of the week off, so we have had some time to do some fun things. Our first stop was to the liquor store to pick up some bourbon. We left it under the tree for Santa, and he can have as much as he wants--just as long as he saves some to baste our Christmas ham with.

Then we headed to Wheeling for a day of browsing antique shops, gambling on the nickel slots, Olgebay's Festival of Lights, and lots of wrong turns on the convoluted, crazy roads. We decided to become members of the 'preferred club' at wheeling park, and recieved free coffee mugs and WV lottery tickets. Dj ran into some luck and scratched off a dollar win; this nicely evened out the dollar we spent on the nickel slots.
Other than that, we have been making lots of cookies, enjoying our joint present of DirectTV, wrapping a few presents, and visiting with the Chapman's. Merry Christmas everyone!

(Picture from the Festival of Lights--giant glowing marching soldiers...)

The Christmas Sweater

"Eddie, we can't control what happens to us, but we can control how we react to it. We are all meant to be happy. Even you, Eddie, as hard as it is for you to believe sometimes, you are meant to be happy. If you're not happy, it's not God's fault, it's not my fault, or anyone else's fault. It's your own."
--Glen Beck, The Christmas Sweater

I never really watched anything on CNN until I found Glen Beck. Immediately, Becky and I were glued to his talk show every night at seven o'clock. Sadly, he is no longer on CNN; he has moved to FOX News and now I can say there is nothing worth watching on CNN. I know because I tried to find a replacement for my Beck addiction. But all I found was mind numbing babelings of a very left-wing liberals spewing nonsense out their nostrils. In order to remedy the problem we are getting Direct TV for Christmas. I can hardly contain myself. But now for the exciting part in the Glenn Beck story...
We had the opportunity to go and meet Glen at the premier of his is play, The Christmas Sweater, at Heinz Hall in Pittsburgh. It was a truly moving story-deep and thought provoking- and if anyone would like to buy it go to GlenBeck.com (enter plug here). Glenn Beck performed his story with such captivating emotion, humor, and rawness. After the play, we waited in line to shake his hand and get our book signed. Not once, but twice. Becky went through first, while I snapped a picture that didn't turn out. Then, since traffic was at a stand still in the parking garage, I went through with the same book to meet him myself. He was such a friendly guy, very genuine and down to Earth. Notice the NRA shirt. We love this man!!

Happy Thanksgiving

We spent the last week in South Carolina visiting Hannah, Brandon, Caleb, and Audrey. We were able to spend a couple of days at Myrtle Beach, collecting shells and enjoying the balcony on our serbert-colored hotel. We had a fun time visiting Caleb's school, playing at parks, watching animated movies nonstop, getting clawed by Kiki, and discovering golf on the Wii among other things. Dj and I enjoyed kidnapping both Caleb and Audrey and doing random things with them: the carwash with Caleb and the scary monster blow dryer with our windows rolled down and feeding Audrey fried okra at Little Pig's BBQ. The visit just reminded me how much I want to live closer to them all, so they can be a bigger part of our lives!

Dj and I bundled up under the pier.

Audrey the Velociraptor enjoying the view on the balcony.

And we came back with plenty of stuff to keep us occupied. Brandon gifted us with his entire music collection burned in mp3 files on a million CD's. Better than winning the lottery.

Hannah taught Dj how to crochet. Dj decided to make a camo blanket. The blanket kept growing and growing. I think the tread is starting to strech out more and more, because the blanket keeps growing. It is now much larger than him. We had to stop three times to buy more thread. We will see how wide this blanket gets with 14 bundles of thread, camo thread...

Decorating Time

Since we will be busy visiting in South Carolina for Thanksgiving, we decided to decorate our tree today for Christmas. Yes, I know it is really early, but this is the only time we could do it until December! With the snow falling outside, it could not have been a better time. Every year we try to get new ornaments as a keepsake of fun memories we have experienced. Here are our new ornaments for 2008:
This wreath was knitted by my Grandma Golden using a milk jug ring for the center mold of the wreath. Although she passed away in 2000, I was finally able to get one this year to keep forever.

Dj's first set of dentures. What else can I say? I think it is rather cute.

My Grandpa Golden worked very hard to win each of his grandkids a medal from the senior olympics. And every year he kicked butt big time! I decided to turn my medal into a Christmas ornament.

Lastly is our fishing boat from Maine with the little lobster trap in the back. Every year, we save our special ornaments for the very end, and try to remember stories to tell about each ornament as we hang it on our tree. Years from now, we will be able to look back on Dj's years in dental school, our trip to Maine, and the sweet memories of my Grandma and Grandpa Golden.

This is a picture that I took out at coopers rock. We wanted to try and capture the fall season in a photo. But most of the area was still green or a dead looking combo, not the typical fall colors we were hoping for.

This is our puking pumpkin George. He had a little too much eggnog. But the neighborhood kids sure love him.

Fall Visit

I've had a crazy time since last week. My wonderful grandpa passed away at the age of 95. I was able to drive down to Buckhannon and hold his hand one last time, and he was able to hold and squeeze it back. My sister drove up, and we spent some time with her cute clan. The kids are so grown up, so well behaved (for the most part!), and so sweet! Most of our time seemed to be spent shuttling back and forth to Buckhannon. Hannah was able to stay another day, so we actually got to visit and took a nice walk at Friendship Hill with everyone.

Dj's Life in Pictures

I did this with Dj too. He did not have as much fun as I did....

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into bighugelab's mosaic maker.
d. copy the mosaic image (right click, save image as) to your computer.

My answers:
1. What is your first name? Don
2. What is your favorite food? Chilli

3. What high school did you go to? Junípero Serra High School

4. What is your favorite color? Blue

5. Who is your celebrity crush? Alanis Morrisette

6. Favorite drink? Water
7. Dream vacation? Country of Georgia

8. Favorite dessert? German Chocolate Cake

9. What you want to be when you grow up? Dentist
10. What do you love most in life? A Good Laugh

11. One word to describe you? Happy
12. Where are you now? Morgantown

Becky's Life in Pictures

Kind of fun! Here is how you do it:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.

b. Using only the first page, pick an image.

c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into bighugelab's mosaic maker.

d. copy the mosaic image (right click, save image as) to your computer.

My answers:

1. What is your first name? Becky

2. What is your favorite food? Mashed Potatoes

3. What high school did you go to? Albert Gallatin

4. What is your favorite color? All Colors

5. Who is your celebrity crush? Christian Bale

6. Favorite drink? Water

7. Dream vacation? Machu Picchu

8. Favorite dessert? Chocolate Fudge

9. What you want to be when you grow up? Goat Farmer

10. What do you love most in life? Sleeping In

11. One word to describe you? Hesitant

12. Your flickr name? rahbehkah

Not doing much, but with no time to spare

I haven't written anything lately, mostly because nothing exciting has really been happening. We have settled into our fall routines: Monday, Gossip Girl (it mildly entertains me); Tuesday, House and Fringe; Wednesday, Bones; Thursday, Ugly Betty and The Office. How depressing that TV has taken over my evenings? But it just so nice to sit and vege.

I also decided to take a Physiology course. I hate to admit it, but I work in a Physiology lab and have never taken a Physiology class. So this weekend instead of taking advantage of free museum day, OR making old fashioned molasses with the Chapmans, one of my favorite fall activities, OR heading to the Buckwheat Festival to determine if my teenage self was correct in exclaiming that buckwheat cakes are disgusting OR buying a scalped football ticket for $5 to watch the Eers, I spent a sickening amount of hours trying to figure out nine pages (nine!), with 4 pictures per page, of the above monster picture and evil friends. Who knows their histology?!?

The White Coat

One of the things that they seem to talk up at WVU dental school is the white coat ceremony, an induction ceremony in which you receive a white coat indicating your readiness to start treating your own patients. You start to hear about it at day one. Then you get to let the anticipation build for the next two years. Finally the day arrives and with it some mixed thoughts and feelings like, "wow, I wish I was sleeping right now" said one of my fellow inductees. Another, "I hope they have good food afterwards". My self "man I hope they don't stand up there and blow hot air for the next hour and a half".
After standing around in the hall waiting for the ceremony to start we next got the opportunity to practice some skills we learned in the K-guard, namely walking in a single file line and sitting when told. The speeches were short, which warrantied a sigh of relief from myself. After listening to some of the professors for past two years you realize how long winded they can be and the thought that there was no present ending point was a little daunting. But when it was all said and done, the comments that were directed towards us were thought provoking and left me feeling that receiving the white coat was a milestone in which resembled the culmination of all the long hours of studying, taking test, practicing preps on fake teeth and giving injections to my class mates. All of which are fond memories.
Although I may not have been too excited about the whole thing at first... having Dr. Hornbrook put that white coat on me sure felt good.






Me and some of my classmates.



Me and the Russian, aka Alex. We are members of the DDS club. Which stand for the Dental Domino Society. We, and the other member of our club who is not pictured (Larkin left early) play domino's every lunch hour.


My parents. It made me very happy that they were there to witness me receiving my white coat.

Woke up nice and early this morning and took a road trip to the DC temple for stake temple day. The closer we got to DC, the harder the rain came. The front lobby was filled with umbrellas. It was a super fast trip through the monsoon weather, so we could come back and watch the WVU vs. ESC game. The depressing WVU vs. ESC game... Time to go wallow in my sorrow, or at least take a nap...

Our car is smarter than us

We made the decision not to get a new car because we had so much trouble with I-79 Honda. We decided to try the Honda dealer farther away, Urse, and they made us an offer we couldn't refuse. So, we got a new car. It is definitely smarter than us. It tells us exactly how many mpg we are getting, when we need to change the oil, and a million other things. It shuts itself off when we stop at a red light, and then turns itself back on when we push on the gas. It rides like a sports car. We are in love.

Cleveland and Amish Country: August 16th

On our way back home we stopped in Cleveland, and were rather frightened by the number of homeless people. We parked our car, and the first thing we saw was two homeless guys asleep on the concrete sidewalk. Here is a picture of a bunch of homeless people (the guy standing up was chasing the pigeons like a crazy person...) in Public Square:No trip to Cleveland would be complete without a visit to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. We were too cheap to buy a ticket (See Cedar Point entry. Did I mention we are old? And Lame? Next time!), and settled for visiting the gift shop. We found out they have free concerts every Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. The day we stopped, Ted Nugget was playing that night. Tempting?

We drove home the long way, through Amish country. It was so pretty! There were Amish everywhere, and we enjoyed seeing their horses, buggies, and little girls with bonnets.

We stopped at Heini's Cheese Chalet and ate our stomach's full with cheese of all types, sizes, tastes, and smells (including chocolate, peanut butter, and pinapple). They were very generous with the free samples, and we tried everything. So good! And yes, we spent a small fortune in cheese to take home.

Cedar Point: August 15th

We decided to celebrate Dj's taking the board and Becky taking the GRE by riding some major coasters at Cedar Point, aka, becoming ride warriors. We got to the park 30 minutes before the rides opened and kept going all day. We really felt our age! Remeber the day when you could ride rollercoaster after rollercoaster, the faster and higher the better? Yeah, our adrenaline ran out around 3pm. Old age.... We are determined to go back and ride all the coasters that we missed someday.

MaxAir: Becky's favorite ride

Raptor: Dj's favorite ride

OH: August 14th

We decided to take a little trip before Dj had to head back to school, plus I had some comp time to use up. We decided to visit OHIO. Ohio surprised us by being so pretty. We enjoyed the rolling hills driving up I-77. Dj really enjoyed the lumber mills. Everything was run by water power: only 2 inches of water were needed to get the water wheel pumping.
Next to the lumber mill is the ashery. Here they would turn ashes into riches, no joke. They would dump the ashes in the top of this funnel and heat until a black solid was left. Then they would take the black "rock" and heat it in this oven until it turned white. The white rock was then used for china and other things.

Boo and her Rose

Today, Kathleen gave everyone a red rose. I came home and Boo went crazy for it. She woke up from her nap and out of nowhere became my best friend. I put it up and she was heartbroken. So, now it is Boo's rose. She purred and cuddled with it all day.

Went blueberry picking today and this is a picture of our plentiful harvest, six quarts to be exact. I have never picked fresh blueberries before so this was quite an adventure. The guy that owned the farm was a nice fellow who let us pick his brain on how to grow and harvest our own blueberries someday. He also let us eat a few berries off the tree while we were picking, Becky loved that. I don't think that guy new what he was getting into. After eating twice the amount depicted above I thought Becky was going to look like the person depicted below and roll down the hillside. I finally wrestler her away from the field and dried her crying eyes as she exclaimed "Now I know what Heaven will be like".... It was a pretty good day.

Black Raspberries

Well, the black raspberry season has finally ended for us. We had a sizeable harvest this year: five fresh cobblers, seven quarts of whole berries, and eight pints of preserves, not to mention the millions eaten right off the vine. We had some adventures this year in our collecting. It seemed to rain everyday, and Dj and I repeatedly fell down the hillside on our butts every time we harvested. We have no pictures of the battle scars, just the canning.

Virginia for the 4th

We took a road trip with the "old people" to Keysville, VA over the 4th of July weekend. We had a quiet visit with Dj's great-grandma; she seemed such a charming, Southern belle with some personality! On the way back to WV, we stopped at Monticello, home of Thomas Jefferson. George W. gave a speech there the day before, and somehow the crowds stuck around. In all of our pictures, there is always someone else croc'ing in the corner! We had to wait a couple hours, but were finally able to tour the house.
My favorite part of Monticello were the gardens and fruit trees. The garden was 1000 feet long and filled with all types of yummy things. The orchards contained peach, apricot, cherry, and apple trees at least. We could not resist and helped ourselves to some delicious cherries and apricots straight off the tree. Jefferson added a bunch of personal touches and inventions to his estate; the above sundial is just one of the many. Probably only Jefferson knows how it works... Monticello really is a unique place, from the stables and the kitchens, to the maps hanging on the walls and all weather passage. I recommend going on a non-holiday weekend.