Back In Wisconsin

Greetings from Wausau WI.

Autumn is currently working as a Vampire...(Phlebotomist) at Aspirus, Wausau Hospital and is enjoying having only to drive 2 minutes to get to work. It definately beats the long commutes in Minneapolis. Autumn is now in the process of applying to Physician Assistant school infact she has an interview at Iowa tomorrow (10-23-08) and friday. She's pretty excited. In mid November she also has an interview in La Crosse.

Doug is now in his last term at Northwestern Health Sciences University. He is working with Dr. Scott Bautch who is giving him insight into various aspects of chiropractic but most importantly, occupational health. The days are long but the schooling is almost over and then the real world sets in. Fortunately I have decided that I want to do the post graduate preceptoship program with Allied Health so I will get to get paid a little more and start getting ready to have my own practice.

We've finally booked our Honeymoon. School ends on November 13 and November 14 is Autumn's interview in La Crosse. On the November 15 we're flying out to CANCUN. We're both really excited. We'll try and take lots of pictures. After the residency Autumn and Doug are thinking of moving to La Crosse, WI and it just so happens that Allied is now looking to expand in southwestern Wisconsin. So many things are happening and we can wait for what the future will bring.

Apple Picking

We haven't gone apple picking in ages...probably 13 years to be exact. So when people at Autumn's work started talking about going apple picking at Helene's Hilltop Orchard in Merrill, WI, we though that we'd give it a try. This weekend Doug's parents came up to Wausau to visit, giving us the perfect opportunity to put our rarely used picking skills to work. We ended up picking a half bushel of Macintosh apples and splitting it with Doug's parents.

The best part of the apple picking experience was eating homemade pies from Helene's Apple Orchard bakery afterward. We split a slice of fabulous caramel apple pie with homemade cinnamon ice cream and Doug's parents split a slice of Dutch Apple pie. I know that this might come to a shock to those of you who have eaten pie from the Mennonite store in Rhinelander, but this pie was better than any Mennonite pie we've eaten. We have never tasted a pie so delicious.

Here is a slide show of our adventure:

As we were sitting at home today with 15 lbs of apples and wondering what we should make with it, an ingenious idea came to Autumn that we should try and replicate the apple pie we devoured yesterday. So we searched the internet for a recipe that had the potential to compare to Helene's amazing pie. Then we headed out to Bed Bath and Beyond to buy the $20.00 apple corer/peeler/slicer that we would need to create our masterpiece. The apple peeler is amazing! Doug was able to peel, slice and core six apples in a matter of minutes. The peeler works for potatoes too. You can even use it to make curly fries. Yum!

The long wait is finally over. The pie has baked and cooled and is ready to be eaten. We cannot wait to try our first slice. Will it compare? Was it worth all of the time and effort that we put into making it?

Yes indeedy it was delish. It was definately even better than we thought it could be. (Ten minutes later...) Our stomaches hurt but the taste of the sweet crunchy caramel topping, the soft cinnamon apple slices and homemade crust keep us wanting more but for now we refrain for tomorrow is near and to bed we must go.