Homesick for the Holidays

I think the stars have to align perfectly in order for me to be able to sit down in front of the computer and write anything...for the first time in nearly three months, I have a moment to blog. Six years ago today, on an 80 degree Texas winter day, Chris and I were married. Our lives have changed so much since that day. Today it seems like we live in another part of the world (and it is 20 degrees and snowy outside). This morning my wonderful husband got up with the kids, brought me breakfast in bed and then took them to gymnastics. I was left with peace and quiet and an awesome new laptop so I can now blog from bed. I would say the stars have aligned quite nicely (even though I don't really believe in that stuff).

There is no way that I can recount the last three months in this entry. All I can say is that we truly enjoyed the gorgeous fall in our new home. October was a crazy busy month for our family and November and December are not far behind. I guess when you work for a church the birth of Christ is kind of a big deal or something. :)

November marked one year since we first came to Annapolis during the interview process with Weems Creek Baptist Church. I can't believe that we've been here 10 months now! We love this city and this beautiful part of the country, but this holiday season has us all REALLY homesick for the first time. Christmas cards from family and friends mean so much more this year. Some things I really miss this time of year:

1. Holiday gatherings with family & friends

2. Denton Christmas Tree Lighting

3. Christmas festivities at school- secret Santa between the teachers, sweet gifts from my students and an awesome program from the kids

4. Hilarious white elephant gift exchange at our Sunday School party

Annapolis is absolutely nuts with holiday shoppers and it's cold, really cold! But we can't forget that we are extremely blessed to be here and are busy making new memories and holiday traditions.

Back to School and More

So I watched Julie & Julia last night and it put me in the mood to blog. It's been a long time since I last posted and a lot has happened. Nothing very exciting, but I will tell you regardless.

New Lunchbox

1st Day of School

Back to School
Emorie started Preschool and is ecstatic after being out of school since February. You can tell how excited she is by her big "cheeses" in pictures. She's so goofy! I have volunteered to be 'Room Mom' for her class. This will be the first year that I'm not teaching, so I can enjoy just being a parent. I'm also enjoying my one-on-one time with Ryland while Emorie is in school. I have already introduced him to the taste of Dr. Pepper and started teaching him how to do laundry. One day he will make his wife very happy!


Speak, Ryland, Speak
We've started working with a speech pathologist to encourage communication with Ryland and maybe get him to say something other than "dah". I've been working on the sign "more" with him since he was 6 months old...after one meeting with his speech pathologist, he was using the sign. I believe stubborn runs in this family!

Fact: This is the Maryland State Flag
(I know these things)

My Car is Legal
After an excruciating 3 hours spent at the MVA, I finally got Maryland license plates. Sometimes I don't recognize my car because I'm so familiar with those Texas plates. It's one of those things that I have to get used to. Like not seeing the Texas flag anywhere. I'm embarrassed to say that it took me nearly 5 months to figure out that the flag I was seeing everywhere is the Maryland state flag. Duh! I kept thinking 'what flag is that? That flag is everywhere!' I'm sure the Texas flag is around just as much as the state flag is here (If anyone has state pride, it's Texas!)...I just never noticed it. It was just part of the scenery or something.


Grocery Shopping
I haven't stepped foot in a grocery store in over a month and I can't emphasize enough how awesome grocery home delivery is!! Safeway.com rocks! Now, if only Target and Costco would deliver too! This is why I hate going to the grocery store:

Pouting, Whining, Attitude,

Screaming, Crying,

and all these steps!

Our pantry after the Pounding

And while we're on the subject of groceries, you might be interested to know that we finally used all the pancake mix we got from the "Pounding" when we moved here. After 7 months we still have: paper towels, spaghetti & pasta, rice, sugar, ketchup, soup, peanut butter, antibacterial wipes, tea of all kinds, hot chocolate and a few other things. We continue to be completely blessed by our new church family!


In other news, I found out that the 7-Eleven down the street has Dr. Pepper in the fountain. Oh thank Heaven! They also just put in a Redbox so double score!

Pick-Your-Own Farm

A couple of weeks ago we went to one of Maryland's many pick-your-own farms. We drove nearly an hour to get to Larriland Farm, but it was totally worth it. We were there for hours picking blueberries, peaches, raspberries, potatoes, tomatoes and onions. It was so much fun for all of us! Emorie was so proud of each piece of fruit she picked. That night we made a salad using the fresh veggies we bought at the farm and baked the potatoes we had picked out of the ground ourselves. It was a very yummy dinner!

I spent a lot of time last week using the fruits and veggies that we had picked ourselves in new recipes. I made my own potato soup, tomato soup, cobbler (twice), blueberry pancakes and much more. And now I remember why I don't make things from scratch...it takes to long! I didn't think my tomato soup was very good so I think I'll stick to Campbell's condensed soup. We really liked the potato soup though!


Spicy Potato Soup
6 c. cubed potatoes
1c. chopped carrots
3 c. chicken broth
2 tbsp. butter
1 clove minced garlic
2 tsp. parsley
1 tsp. onion powder
1/4 tsp. paprika
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
salt & pepper to taste
Put everything in crockpot and cook on low for 6 hours. 
Add 3 c. milk mixed with 1/2 c. flour 1 hour before serving.

The best of all the new recipes I tried was definitely the peach/raspberry dessert I made! It was kind of like a cobbler, but called for oatmeal in the topping. Here's the link for this Raspberry Peach Crumble:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Raspberry-Peach-Crumble/Detail.aspx

It was so good that I made it AGAIN a few days later! The second time I left out the raspberries and only used peaches because we didn't have any raspberries left. The general consensus was that it's better WITH the raspberries. Either way, this dessert with a side of ice cream is heavenly!

Our 6 Month Mark

We have been Annapolitans for six months now! Wow, time has flown! During the five and a half years we've been married, we have faced many struggles. Job loss, starting a family, death of loved ones...to name a few. I believe these events have only made us stronger and prepared us for the road ahead. Adapting to a different culture and a life in full-time ministry has been interesting. At times exciting and at times exhausting.

I have found it difficult to form close friendships in my new city. A lot of people in this area are very career driven, not God driven or family driven. They marry later in life and have kids later in life. Maybe it's because careers are thought so important or maybe it's financially necessary, but women are not usually stay-at-home moms here. I think the job of "homemaker" is looked down upon by many. So a Christian, 27-year-old, stay-at-home mom of two kids? I am not the norm! I also get the feeling that a lot of Annapolis moms are...well, hippies. Everything organic, breastfeeding for years, cloth diapers, etc. I do my part to try to be "green", but I'm not a crazy person and I don't want to push a fancy jogging stroller every morning while I sip organic coffee! Basically, it's been hard to bond with people in my stage of life. Please pray for me in this area!

There are many things I love about the Bay Area. I love all the cool east coast cities that are nearby and all the fun places to go and things to do. I love that we will have four seasons, that's right FOUR! I'm excited for my favorite season, Fall, and to see all the changing colors. I love the malls here. Maybe it's because I came from the Golden Triangle Mall, but I think the Annapolis mall is completely awesome and it's like a minute from my house. I like that there's a ton of good consignment shops even though I've only been to one. I think crab picking is pretty cool even though it's gross and my husband says he will never do it again. I love Whole Foods and of course Target, which has Dr. Pepper in the fountain! Could Target get any higher on my list?! And I love all the amazing parks that we have here.

All in all, I think it's been a great six months! I'm interested to see what the next six will hold. Thank you for your continued prayers over our family!

Milestones

I think it's safe to say that Ryland is finally walking! He's been taking steps on his own for awhile now, but this week walking seems to be his primary means of transportation around the house. Go Ry! Being the great mom that I am, I had yet to get his first steps on video. I probably have about ten videos of Emorie taking two steps and then falling on her face. Second Child Syndrome? Yesterday the thought finally crossed my mind and I filmed Ryland walking!

Here's an update on what else has been going on with the kids:


Emorie still has an extensive vocabulary and sometimes the things she says amaze me. She's also good for a good laugh! She usually has a funny quote of the day. Ryland, on the other hand, has not uttered any distinguishable words other than "dada".


It has been a process, but Emorie has learned her colors. I consider Emorie to be fairly intelligent for her age, but for some reason it took her forever to learn colors. She has known all the shapes for a long time now and I was wondering why she couldn't grasp color names. Now we are working on letters and Emorie is learning how to write her name.

Emorie's Letter "E"

Emorie absolutely loves imaginative play. She's a great mommy to her baby dolls and plays with them and her Barbies everyday. She certainly loves to dress-up and play "house". She'll even whip you up something yummy to eat in her kitchen. Emorie has always been interested in books and still loves reading as well as coloring, painting, play doh and many other art activities. She really enjoys games now and that has been a fun thing for us to do together. Family game nights and movie nights are her favorite!


Ryland's favorite toys are cars and trucks. I think it's interesting that he automatically started making engine sounds while playing with them. Is that something boys are just born to do? He also loves to play with blocks and he can build a mean tower!

Building

Last but not least, both kids have already shown musical talent and we can't wait to see where that will take them!

Back to Little D

Recently, I was able to make a short trip back to Denton. Our friends, the DeRoche's were awesome to pick me up at the airport and let me stay at their house! As we left DFW and started driving into town, I started to feel really homesick. Wow, I hadn't realized how much I missed this town! What's the first thing we did? Get some BBQ and Dr. Pepper from Sonic! Actually, I hit up Sonic almost every day I was there. I had such a good time seeing many of my closest friends!! So, this trip prompted me to start recording some of the differences between Texas and Maryland...

First of all, in Texas, people are just plain friendlier. People hold doors open for you and are not as horn happy while driving. In Maryland, I've left the grocery store nearly in tears more than once and it wasn't because of the prices! These people need some Jesus.

Dr. Pepper is more readily available in Texas. It is the home of Dr. Pepper. I mean some McDonald's don't even offer Dr. Pepper. Isn't that unamerican? Is that a word? Also, Sonic is nowhere to be seen around here...so I guess they figured if we don't sell Dr. Pepper, why have a Sonic? Maryland is also lacking in the area of good Mexican food and BBQ. It's just different here. Although, the seafood is amazing! You can't go to any event without having a crab dip of some sort.

Next, we do not have a Walmart in Annapolis. I believe that's a point in favor of Maryland! Can you believe I haven't stepped inside a Walmart in nearly six months? And if not having a Walmart wasn't crazy enough, I've never seen so many gas stations without gas. Why would you have a 7-Eleven that doesn't have any gas pumps? If you're driving through this area and you need gas, don't look up nearby gas stations on your gps because chances are they won't even have any gas. I guess we're fond of the convenience store here. One convenience store that I had never heard of before moving here is Wawa. Supposedly it's a big deal. Our house backs up to a Wawa, but they don't have a single gas pump either. Pretty good shakes though!

So, say you are driving through Maryland...you better fill up before you leave! Unlike your drive through most of Texas, you're not going to see tons of gas stations, restaurants, hotels, retail stores, etc. Driving down Maryland highways you will see tons of beautiful trees! And you really can't drive anywhere around here without going over water. Sailboats are everywhere. I guess we are in the sailing capital of America! Another thing you will not see while driving anywhere in Maryland is a million huge pick-up trucks. High-end cars are in abundance here. You practically have to have a brand new BMW to pass a Maryland car inspection. I'm not bitter at all.

Well, now that I have rambled on for so long, I will have to save the rest of my thoughts on Texas v. Maryland until another entry. Why are my blogs so long?

July in Review

July has proven to be our busiest month yet! We started off with a fun Fourth of July weekend. When it comes to holidays, we are a bit homesick for old friends and past traditions. But I must say, watching fireworks over the Chesapeake Bay sure beats Fouts Field. After church on the Fourth, we went to a party where we were surrounded by some of our new friends from our church family. We all had a great time, especially Emorie who we had to pull out of the pool when her lips turned blue. She had been swimming for 3 hours straight!


West Virginia

A few days later, Thursday, we headed to Lewisburg, West Virginia to visit my family. We had a couple of relaxing days in the mountains, but were sad to find out that this would not only be our first drive there, but our last! My family will be moving from their WV home back to Texas mid-August. On Saturday night, we left the kids there and headed back to Annapolis to prepare for our mission trip to Boston, MA!


Boston Mission Trip
On Monday, July 12th our group of mostly youth and college students began a tiring week of working with Grace Church Boston. We spent our time there cleaning, canvassing neighborhoods with service invitations, cleaning, passing out free granola bars at T stops, cooking, cleaning, smuggling 18 boys through 2 hotel showers each day, touring the city and of course cleaning. The church building was unbelievably dirty! We also did A LOT of walking! Although at times this trip was frustrating to my OCD nature, we were able to reach thousands of homes in the Boston area and lead a worship service our last night there. Boston was a great place to VISIT. So rich with American history! I would love to go back and finish the Freedom Trail.


Cake Boss
On our way back to Maryland we stopped in Hoboken, NJ to visit the home of the Cake Boss! We waited in line and braved the crowds inside Carlo's Bakery. It was nuts. We made it out with some very yummy sweet treats! I think that pit stop was fun and enjoyed by many in our group. A good end to our mission trip. At this point, I was counting down the minutes until I could see and hold my sweet babies! We had never been away from them that long before and we missed them like crazy.

Birthday Girl
It felt so good to get home on Saturday night. In the past week we had driven through Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts (in probably the same amount of time it would take to drive across Texas). I was exhausted. Was it time to settle down? Nope. I still had a birthday party to throw and Vacation Bible School to prepare for! Emorie had a blast at her Build-a-Bear party and we are so grateful for everyone who came to celebrate with us! On July 20th Emorie turned 3 years old. I can hardly believe it! Our baby girl is growing up so fast!! Emorie and Ryland make me love being a mom even more every day.

Vacation Bible School

The next weekend was eventful to say the least. First, we had a couple of the hottest days of the year so far and our air conditioner decided to break. It's a misconception that it's cooler up here. It can get just as hot in Annapolis as it does in Denton. Plus the humidity is insane here. Yuck! We then had a freak storm which caused tens of thousands of houses and businesses in our area to be without power for hours. For some, days. This was last Sunday, the day we were supposed to start Vacation Bible School. Needless to say, we had a bit of a rough start to VBS. Eventually, our air conditioner was fixed and power was restored to our church and friends. After having to cancel one night of activities and having a shortened night without lights and air, we finished up with a great week, never losing sight of the reason for VBS. Our church is so blessed with wonderful volunteers who made it all happen! It was all in His plan!

So that brings us to July 31st. Whew!

Day in the District

Last Friday we had the opportunity to spend most of the afternoon and evening in Washington, DC without kids!! Thank you Naegeli's! After lunch, we drove to the nearest Metro station, got on, and headed in to the city. Our first stop was Capitol South where we met our friend Donelle who works for Texas Representative Kenny Marchant. What an exciting job! We're such tourists. We were able to see his office and even sit behind his desk. Haha. We were then put on a tour of the Capitol (which was actually like an hour later, after passing through a lot of security). The tour started with a short film and then we walked through the Capitol building looking at the many beautiful statues (2 for each state) and paintings. My headset wasn't working, but it sounded like the tour guide was telling us a lot of interesting facts about the pieces of artwork. As we were trying to take a picture of the statue of Sam Houston, our group left us and we never found them again. Chris did not think this was funny, but I was laughing anyway.

the picture we were taking when our group left

So that was the end of our guided tour. The Capitol building is huge and very confusing, but we finally found where to go to see the Gallery. We spent another hour dropping off our phones and electronics and going through more security before entering the Gallery viewing area. We happened to sit down a few minutes before they came into session. Although we didn't understand what they were saying and it was only for about two minutes, it was neat to be sitting in the Gallery while "in session".

By this time most of our day was gone, but we got back on the Metro and got off at the Mall. We spent the rest of the time we had left before dinner in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History (and didn't even go through the entire museum). We came to the conclusion that we need to spend at least two more full days in DC just to do the basics. We got on the Metro once again and got off in Chinatown to meet Donelle again and her husband Joel. Joel is a good friend of ours from college. We ate dinner together at a really cool Italian restaurant called Vapiano. Yes I know, Italian food in Chinatown, but it was so good! We had a great time catching up and I felt so at home talking to people that come from the same place we do. I get asked all the time "do you miss Texas?" Honestly, I don't really miss it. I just miss the people in Texas, our amazing friends and family! It's been great having a few of our friends visit already. After the Webb's spent a week with us, I was sad to see them go. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love our new church family! Sometimes it's just comforting to have people around that we've known for so long; something familiar in an unfamiliar place.


We finished up the night by taking the Metro to the Harder's (Joel and Donelle) house in Alexandria, VA to have dessert. It's weird to travel to another state and back home in one night. They showed us Old Town Alexandria and we ate some very yummy peach cobbler. It was a great day!

Recapping the past 4 months...

Hello everyone! Since we are frequently asked how we are doing and how we are adjusting to the move, we have decided to start an official family blog. What was supposed to be our "family" blog seems to be used primarily for thoughts on Ska music and electronic devices, so we have created a blog specifically dedicated to what is going on with the Nuckels family! Supposedly the real Naptown is Indianapolis, but it works with our last name, so we're going with it.


The Story So Far...
Four months ago we moved from our home town of Denton, Texas to Annapolis, Maryland for Christian to begin working in full-time music ministry. Weems Creek Baptist Church, the church to which we have come, is a great family of believers. When we first arrived, this entire area of the country was covered in tons of snow! This was a bit of an adjustment for us, but Emorie seemed to do very well.

Our first Sunday, we were greeted by the church with a "pounding" [pictured below]. This is apparently when the people of the church collect a massive amount of food and household goods to bestow upon the new minister. We were truly overwhelmed with gratitude. We are still working on this enormous supply of food and other household items!

We began getting settled in and found that living 30 minutes away from Baltimore and D.C. has the great advantage of never being without something to do as a family. It seemed that almost every weekend we were able to go somewhere new and experience something fun together. Michaela even took a day trip to NYC! Baltimore has a great children's museum and aquarium in the downtown area known as the "Inner Harbor" [pictured below].

We also were able to check out the Cherry Blossoms in D.C. which was an amazing time to see our nation's capitol. The kids got really tired really fast, but it was so worth it! There are so many other places near us that we can't wait to visit!

Needless to say we are having a blast and these first few months have felt kind of like a weird, long vacation. Of course, there are drawbacks to leaving your friends and family so far behind. We really wish that everyone could have come to see Ryland turn 1 year old. I could tell you all about it, but as Christian would say, "a .jpg is woth a thousand .doc's." ...nerd. (He wrote that!)

So, besides all of the family fun what else is new? Well, Christian was officially ordained "So - Bap" Style two Sundays ago and is thoroughly enjoying his ministry work. Emorie has started a dance class and both Emorie and Ryland have been LOVING gymnastics.

We love to frequent many of the beautiful parks here in town. Oh yeah... did I mention our Target? This picture doesn't really do it justice, because it is on the 3rd FLOOR. The actual store is not really anything special, but we think it's really cool to park in the garage and use the cart escalator!

So, we know that this is info overload, but we wanted to get you all caught up with the reader's digest version of the past four months. Check back to see more fun updates on the Nuckels family adventures! We are going to leave you with a few pictures of our new city. It is becoming increasingly evident that we are living in one of the most beautiful places, but even still we miss you all!