CJ & Autumn Miller

At this very moment I have immature vegetable plants growing all over my house. I started them by seed in little soil pods our first week in Port Alsworth & now they are demanding more root room. I did a bit of recycling & punched holes in the bottom of my tin cans for drainage which transformed them into modern pots. My neighbors have been teasing me & are a little suspicious about what I am growing, but hey, I am doing the best I can without a greenhouse.

I attribute my green thumb shenanigans to my Grandma. Every summer my parents would drop me off in Cincinnati for two weeks to spend time with Grandma & Grandpa. They have always had a lush backyard garden & graciously let me trample through their vegetable rows & help harvest. I always tried to time my Ohio trip just right so I could be there for fresh raspberries. Right up there with fresh raspberries is grandma's steaming hot raspberry cobbler. I would pay big bucks to get my hands on a piece of that right now!
Thanks Grandma for sharing with me the joy of gardening.

I just took two loaves of sourdough bread out of the oven. It is a little bit of an experiment each time on how to get it to rise correctly & be big beautiful loaves. I have high expectations from working at the bakery & not a lot of bread making experience, which can be a disappointing combination. My old gas oven has a mind of its own regarding temperature & is by all means the antagonist in this story.

My dear mother has had patience with me through it all though. A couple weeks ago she called from Alabama just as I was taking some chocolate chip cookies out of the oven that were charred on the outside. I know, how do you burn chocolate chip cookies? Well, I set the oven at 275 for safe measure & when I reached in to take the cookies out I noticed it was a blistering 425 degrees. Mom calmed me down & reassured me that I just needed to get to know the oven. Well, let's just say we are getting to know each other quite well with no restaurant options in town. Thanks to many cooking lessons growing up & her persistence with me refusing to stick my hand up the turkey, CJ is not starving up here in the sticks.
Thanks Mom for sharing with me the joy of cooking.

Knitting is the thing to do in Alaska. Every lady I have talked to in Port Alsworth knits, & it is not just the elderly. Somehow the cold of winter, a hot cup of tea, & a knitting project sounds so enticing up here. So, I am glad I brought my knitting needles & have at least knitting in common with my new neighbors.

My mother in law, Pam taught me to knit a couple years ago. She showed me her completed projects while CJ & I were dating. I was super curious & I guess my nagging finally got to her. Pam sent me my fist pair of knitting needles, some purple yarn, & an instruction book for my 25th birthday. Luckily Mike & Pam came to Texas to visit us shortly after my self instruction began & Pam straightened me out. She said "Are you stressed out? You are doing this so tight." Well, I still knit pretty tight, mostly because I pull out my knitting when I need to relax, but I believe it is good therapy.
Thanks Pam for sharing with me the joy of knitting.

The week of Thanksgiving is quite possibly the busiest week of the year at the bakery. You can only imagine how many pies & rolls we made in preparation for everyone’s big feast. By the time Thursday came around, I thought I would be tired of cooking, but I wasn’t. It was still fun & exciting to be cooking for MY feast & MY family. My parents drove up from Alabama to spend the holiday with us in Harrisonburg since it was a bad week for me to try to get extra time off. It was the first time they had visited our house in VA, so it was especially fun to show them around. They were amazed at how truly beautiful the mountains are & took several walks in our neighborhood past the cattle grazing over the rolling hills. Thanksgiving Eve we took them to Kline’s Dairy Bar for a true Harrisonburg experience. Dad talked about his Eggnog ice cream for the rest of the weekend. They will probably come back, if only for some more Kline’s ice cream! Who could blame them?!

I consider this Thanksgiving a success. It was my first Thanksgiving meal at my own house & I didn’t burn anything down, so it should be rightfully considered a success. You agree? Dad kept referring to mom as the “Turkey Coach” all weekend, so with that in mind I will admit I had some help. But, with one home-cooked turkey under my belt & lots of Birmingham Thanksgivings spent as the kitchen slave, I think I am experienced enough to do it on my own if need be.

Yes, I admit, I went shopping on Black Friday. And I dragged sleepy CJ with me. We left for Old Navy at 4am the morning after the feast. It was dark & cold outside & the parking lot was packed. There were excited caffeine induced screams coming from the saleswomen when we arrived & I looked for the dressing room in a blur. Like an idiot, I left my phone at home still charging by the bed. I didn’t think I would need it at this time of the morning. CJ separated to scour the men’s jeans & that was the last I saw of him, for literally hours. I waited in line for a ridiculously long time to purchase a jacket & CJ was no where to be found. I checked the car, the bookstore, the coffeeshop, GAP outlet, Eddie Bauer, the curb, everywhere I thought likely. I had no car keys & it was too cold to stand by the car, so I wandered around sleep deprived until 6:30am when I finally found him exhausted, trying to sleep in the car. How had we missed each other? We were both too sleepy to make any sense of it & went back to bed.

I think CJ’s in-laws made him sick, or at least they apologized for it in jest. Or maybe it was the holiday shopping that did him in. He spent his extra long weekend mostly taking it easy. CJ in turn gave me the infirmity & earlier this week I felt as if my eyes would pop out from all the sinus pressure. Needless to say, we didn’t cut down a Christmas tree as originally planned & the house is still decorated for fall.

This labor day weekend we hopped in the old Subaru and endured the 12 hour trip south through Va, Tn, Ga, and finally into Alabama where we met up with the extended Schweigert family at Paul and Connie’s newly remodeled house!  The trip was long, but the company was well worth it.  This was my (CJ’s) first time seeing most of Autumn’s aunts and uncles since our wedding over two years ago!  We were all gathered in Birmingham to celebrate the life of Uncle Sammy (Paul’s brother) who passed away this last April.  It was a great celebration of a life lived to glorify God.  Uncle Sammy’s siblings and extended family shared memories from his life and little bits of wisdom they received by knowing him!  I was privileged to be involved in such a wonderful celebration.

The rest of the weekend was full of food, football, and some quality family time sharing what God is doing in all our lives and our plans and goals for the near future.  God has truly blessed me with a great in-law family!  The love and support from everyone, for everyone, is outstanding!  I think the next Schweigert adventure is planned for early November, and we are looking forward to a wonderful weekend in the mountains of North Carolina (a much shorter drive) with great family to share the memories!