Baby Jack

I'm an aunt - AGAIN! Jack Lawrence Ross is #22 in my family, my 16th nephew. He was born on Tuesday afternoon after my youngest sister, Maggi, had been in labor since Sunday afternoon. Jack is her first baby. Maggi did it without any epidural or anything. She was super tired by the end, but she is amazing. Some people say that everyone should try running a marathon - I think natural child birth is much more impressive. Go Maggi!

I have been waiting for pictures of my newest nephew since he arrived but none have been sent to me, but luckily today I have found some on my sisters blog so I pirated them. I was the only one of my sisters not there when he was born so I think maybe they just didn't think it was urgent to get pictures out since they had all already seen him. Anyway, I think he is pretty cute!

Welcome baby Jack - I can't wait to meet you!

For the birds

I am not sure exactly when it started, but close to as long as we have had our house we have had problems with birds around our entry-way. We (meaning Ryan mostly) will have just swept off the entry and beat clean the door mat and by the next morning it will be covered with bird feathers. Also, several times over the past couple years we have found broken eggs, with and with out baby birds on our entry, which is quite disturbing. The puzzling thing has always been that we could never find a nest - but we would hear the birds. It was very strange. And rather annoying. Well, when we were in our attic looking for our wreath hook at Thanksgiving time we finally found the reason for our problems. In our attic was this huge nest - apparently our builders did not secure the corners of our attic very well. At the time all our Christmas decorations were in the way, but before we put them all back in a few weeks ago, we removed the birds home and tried to discourage them from rebuilding. We will see if it works.

I'm A Winner!

Really - I won! Ryan is incredibly lucky and wins things all the time. His luck has not yet rubbed off on me and I rarely win anything. I can only think of one other time I have ever won anything - I won a Shaq t-shirt in high school because of a can a Ocean Spray Cran-Rasberry juice I bought. But I didn't even like Shaq so I gave the shirt to my sister. Anyway, on December 2 my friend Ashley Myers posted on her blog that she hsa some boxes of Chex Mix Bars that had been sent to her because of a post she had done abouthow much she loved them and she was supposed to give some of them away, and if you wanted to win them to leave a comment. I have done these kind of entries to win before, but since I am unlucky I never thought about it after that. In fact, I totally forgot about it. And even though I read almost all of her posts I guess I somehow missed the one where she listed winners, because I guess my box arrived while I was home for Christmas. But since being home I have been enjoying my box of Chex Mix Turtle Bars. They are definately more of a dessert bar than a breakfast bar - but they are pretty darn good. Thanks Ashley - I'm so happy to have won!

Our Christmas Vacation

So, it has taken me a little while to get around to blogging again - but I am finally ready to blog about our great Christmas vacation. Mine started a little earlier than Ryan's. I headed for Vegas on the 17th of December, a Thursday, and the morning after Las Vegas had received the most snow it had in I don't know how long, since before I was born. Growing up my mom always told us that if it snowed and then snow stuck an inch that she would keep us home from school, or come and get us. As it only even snowed at all about once every five years, and when it did snow it rarely stuck at all, and when it did it pretty much started melting soon after - there weren't really opportunities to take advantage of this "snow day" offer. I have in my memory one day of snow sticking more than an inch because I remember making a snow man, but I am almost positive this happened on a Saturday. But still we always prayed for the snow to come, and to stick - not only for a snow day, but just because it would be fun. I am not the kind of person that likes living in the snow, I don't like ice on the roads (rolled my car the first time I drove in the snow and hit black ice), I don't like scraping cars or shoveling walkways or having to worry I will fall as I am walking. But I have always liked visiting the snow - and I LOVE snow in Las Vegas. As I flew into Las Vegas and saw the entire city all white, covered in snow, a site I have never seen before, I can't even explain how excited and happy it made me. Unfortunately I didn't have a window seat and I didn't think to take a picture, but it was awesome. When my dad picked me up from the airport and took me back to my house it was crazy seeing my street so filled with snow. Earlier in the morning the day before my mom had offered to babysit a bunch of my nieces and nephews - I think maybe 13 or so were there. Then it started snowing and my sisters couldn't come to get them so most of them were still there when I got home. They had already been out playing before I arrived and had come in to thaw, but we all went out and played some more. It was great!

On Saturday was the Las Vegas Bowl where BYU played Arizona. The outcome of that game was not a highlight of my trip – however, I didn’t go to it and didn’t watch a ton of it so I wasn’t highly invested in it, luckily. But because of it other events did happen that were highlights. The first was the UNLV vs. Arizona basketball game. Yes, the game would have happened even if the Bowl game hadn’t, but because of the game there were tons of Arizona in town and so the basketball game was PACKED. My dad took me on a date. (My dad has season tickets, has had the same seats ever since the Thomas and Mac has existed, and has missed very few games in its existence – you could probably count the number of missed games on one hand and they would be because of either births or marriages in my immediate family.) I grew up going to Rebel games and am a loyal Rebel basketball fan. For any other sport I will cheer for BYU Cougars, but when it comes to basketball I will cheer for the Rebels (although if the Cougars win I will still be happy – it is a win-win for me.) I get excited to go to games (although unfortunately to this one I was accompanied with a migraine, I had had one every day for almost two weeks and so I was beyond exhausted as well as in pain so I am not sure everyone could feel my enthusiasm.) The Rebel color is red – and it just so happens that that is Arizona’s color too – so there was a lot of red. The announcer thanked the Arizona fans for wearing Rebel red to support our team. I think it helped. It was an awesome game! My dad is a huge fan (obviously) and loves going to games, but I don’t know how long it has been since I have seen him that excited at a game. And his enthusiasm is contagious. My dad has a loud voice. When he boos ref.s it is so loud that video men have gotten him on camera (no joke – when I was little I was at home watching a game while we was on a vacation going to a game and he was booing some ref and there he was on camera.) Well, when he gets excited he also has this “whoo, whoo, whoo” cheer that is just him, that no one else could really do. It’s hilarious and makes you smile. Anyway, it was a great game – we won!

One of the other great blessings of the Bowl game was that it brought my good friend Nicole Santiago to Las Vegas. I met Nicole on my mission when I had been out about 3 months. We lived together in a house in Eureka. Although I never got to officially be her companion, although I would have loved to, I did get to spend a lot of time with her, and I learned so much from her. She was one of the best missionaries ever, she was a super hard worker, but she loved every minute of it and had fun. She taught me about joy in the journey. And she continues to teach me about that. She is so amazing! She has one of the greatest perspectives on life of anyone I know and I count myself blessed to know her. Although I don’t get to see her very often, I don’t even talk to her very often, she’s one of those friends that despite how long it has been since you last saw or talked to each other, when you are together it feels like it was just yesterday. That is the best. She is the best. Love you best friend.

Sunday night was my family’s annual Christmas pageant. Every year we reenact the Christmas story and then my nieces and nephews may perform some musical pieces they have been working on. I don’t just mean my parents and their descendents, which would be over 30 people, I mean extended family on both sides. We had 60 people in my parent’s house, give or take 5. It was packed and crazy. But the kids were adorable and things went fairly smoothly considering how many people there were.

On Tuesday Ryan finally got to Las Vegas so on Wednesday we headed to the Strip (Ryan loves the Strip – he finds it fascinating.) We had heard about this gingerbread house display at the Four Seasons so we thought we would go check it out. We were rather disappointed. I think if they had displayed the houses differently they would have been much more impressive because there were even things inside the houses and they had a lot of details on them, but you couldn’t see them very well because they were packed so closely together and you couldn’t get very close to them. But the carousel was made all out of chocolate and sugar and it had a lot of detail, so I guess that was kind of cool. After we went to the Belagio to see the garden. It wasn’t quite as impressive as sometimes, but they had some reindeer made out of pecans and some snow men made out of carnations that were kind of cool. We decided that while we were there we would watch the fountain dance since we hadn’t seen it in a while. That was fun. They have changed it quite a bit since the last time we watched – at the beginning they make this cloud like thing that I really like. We enjoyed it.

So – I have 6 sisters. Five of them live in Las Vegas and 4 of those have kids (the one that doesn’t live in Las Vegas also has kids but since she was about to have a baby she couldn’t come home for Christmas this year, and my one sister that doesn’t have kids yet will have a baby any day now  ). On the years that it is my family’s Christmas, on Christmas afternoon we will all gather at my parent’s house to eat and exchange gifts. With all my nieces and nephews (I currently have 21 but have 3 more on the way) and then 16 adults, things can get kind of crazy. I love the chaos. This is what it looks like.

On Saturday Ryan and I met my best friend Wendi’s brand new baby girl. Unfortunately, Wendi had just had a c-section and they were still in the hospital recovering so we didn’t want to impose on them with pictures. But she is super adorable! After, we headed to the new Encore hotel. My friend Steve (one of my best-friends from BYU, we met our 2nd day of our freshman year in chemistry) works there so we had him show us around, which was awesome. Not only was it so fun to spend time with him, but he told us all about things that just made the hotel so much more interesting and took us to places we never would have thought to go. Also, he took us into stores we wouldn’t have been allowed to go into had he not been with us. One of which was a jewelry store. In this store they have ridiculously expensive stuff, but amazingly gorgeous at the same time (although even if I was filthy rich I still don’t think I would buy it because to me it just looks fake, because it is so perfect I guess.) Anyway, he asked one of the store workers to help me try on this one necklace, his favorite one. I don’t know how many carets it is, but it was diamonds the entire way around, and each diamond is certified (whatever that means). The necklace costs $762,000. Too bad I had entirely the wrong type of collar/neckline to go with the necklace, but maybe you’ll kind of get the idea of what the necklace looked like. It was amazing! They also had this poker set where the chips were surrounded with diamonds and the dice were made of mammoth tusks. I have no idea where they got the mammoth tusks from, nor do I remember how much it costs. Crazy!


On Sunday we went over to spend some time with my sister Molly and her family. Ryan enjoyed playing the Wii with her family while I enjoyed holding the most adorable 7-month-old in the world - Timothy!

Monday night I had a get together with some of my friends from growing up and from high school. It was so fun – some of them I hadn’t seen since I had been married or even since before my mission so it was so good to catch up with people. It was also good to get to meet my best-friend Wendy’s new baby, Dash. I hadn’t for about a year, the longest I’d been without seeing her in our lives other than our missions, so it was definitely time.

Me, Katie Gibson Morgan, Amy Ekins, Julie Waldo Doody, Wendy Lewis Reni, Jamie Krahenbuhl Heagany (holding baby Dash), Janie Day ?

Tuesday morning Ryan and I headed for Flagstaff where my sister Jenny lives. Less than an hour after we got there she was ready to head to the hospital to deliver her 3rd son – we got there just in time. I stayed home with Ryan and the boys, Nathan and Ben, for a little while and we played in the snow with their awesome dog, Bella.

Then I went to the hospital to meet Jenny, Cam (her husband), and my mom (my dad had just left that morning to head back to Las Vegas for a dental appointment so he just missed it) while Ryan stayed to baby-sit. Jenny did an awesome job and delivered my 15th nephew without an epidural – what a woman! He’s super cute – Jesse Price Norton.

Both boys were so excited to meet their new brother – Ben continually asked to hold him and loves kissing him and Nathan was even willing to share his most prized possession, his stuffed cat, to help him sleep better he says.

We had tons of fun while in Flagstaff – going to National Recreation Areas or Monuments or National somethings, sledding, hiking, and we even made it to the Grand Canyon with my dad once he came back. It was a great trip.

Sunset Crater National Monument

Waptuki National Monument

Walnut Canyon National Monument

A hike we went on in Flagstaff

Grand Canyon National Park

We eventually had to leave so Ryan could get back to Texas to make us some money. I couldn’t get out on his same flights so I stayed behind. The day before I left I got to go to breakfast with four of my cute sisters. It was so much fun. I really, really like my sisters. I don’t just love them, which I do, but I really like them. I like the people they are. I like spending time with them. I learn from them, I am amazed by their goodness and am grateful for their thoughtfulness towards me. No, we don’t all always get along, but generally we do, and I do think we all respect each other. And they all have great hearts. They are the best and I am glad they are my sisters.

Me (holding Seth), Maggi, Mindy (holding Ethan), Molly (holding Lissa), Ellie (Emily took the picture)

So I had a great Christmas vacation – life is good.

Bethlehem Revisited

So Saturday night we enjoyed our latest Christmas adventure. I guess every year the town of Waxahachie puts on what they call Bethlehem Revisited. I have never heard of it before but we decided to go this year and I am so glad we did - so worth the drive. They have set up this whole fake city enclosed in a city wall. Inside there are all these people in character, fully playing their roles. There are tax collectors, money changers, Roman soldiers, tons of different types of merchants, inn keepers, etc. Every half hour they have Mary and Joseph come through the city, with Mary riding the most adorable donkey. They talk withe inn keepers not just reading the Bible story but actually having conversations. They are eventually led to the stable where Jesus is born. They have 3 live camels that are really nice looking. Wise men accompanied by a group of people. Shepherds with sheep. All of them asking along the way how to find the Messiah. It was super impressive. We were there for at least an hour. It is free, too, though they accept donations. I so recommend going. They make flaxen and let you feel it, pick seeds out of cotton and let you feel that, have wool to feel and furs, herbs and oils to smell, scarves and turbans to try on, chickens for "sale", the tax collectors encourage you to pay your taxes and the soldiers praise Caesar. The only thing is that I would recommend eating before going to Waxahachie as restaurants are limited. But go, you won't be disappointed.

President Bush's New House?

Ryan loves to be part of current events. Or at least he loves to visit places where current events are happening. So when it came out where the Bush's are most likely moving in a few weeks he wanted to drive-by. After the temple we headed over - it is only about a mile from the Dallas Temple. It is just at the end of this little culdesac and it quite modest looking (although it is worth $2,000,000). Welcome to the neighborhood, W.!

The house next door where it is speculated the secret service will live.

Arlington Nativity Exhibit

Well, the next holiday adventure we had was this past Friday night. We took a date to the Arlington Stake Nativity Exhibit. It was quite interesting. They set up all the nativities in the classroooms and the theme for the year was angels, so each room had a scripture of a quote either from and angel or about an angel and then the room was decorated around that scripture. For example, there was the scripture where the angel tells Joseph to take Mary and Jesus into Egypt, so the room was decorated all Egyptian. Their displays were quite impressive and I always enjoy nativity exhibits. They had a choir singing in the chapel and if I were to guess I would say they were from perhaps a Southern Baptist Church. Anyway, it was well done and enjoyable.
After, we tried heading to Interlochen. We have never been before and the light display isn't really supposed to start until next weekend. But Ryan has heard horror stories about the crowds so we thought we would beat the rush and go early. Well, surprisingly only a handful of houses have their lights up already - but at least it wasn't crowded.

Trains

I am not sure who, but some amazing person put together this incredible list of all the holiday happenings in our area. I got this list the Sunday before Thanksgiving and the week after Thanksgiving I got out my calendar and marked all the dates of the things I wanted to do. Well we started out our holiday celebrating the Saturday after Thanksgiving by going to see the Trains at North Park with Ryan's parents and his sister. It only costs $5 for an adult and all the money goes to the Ronald McDonald House. It was totally worth it. Not only did they have tons of trains, many of which were BNSF (which we are obviously partial to), but the details of the surrounding landscapes and all the people around the trains were just amazing! I think probably our favorite was this school yard were the kids were playing and the swings moved and there were a bunch of kids playing tug-o-war and the rope moved back and forth, and there were just a ton of things going on and it was impressive. The whole thing was impressive. I think we probably spent an hour walking around looking at all the trains and such. They had San Francisco complete with Lombard street, Downtown Dallas, New York. It was just a lot of fun and I would recommend it!

Temple Workers

Ryan and I were set apart as Dallas Temple Workers at the end of September. Our first day as temple workers was the second Saturday in October (the first Saturday was conference) and so we have now been working there about two months. We work the Saturday mid-day shift (11:30-4:30) and although it basically takes up our entire Saturday we are really grateful for this experience. We have already done a little bit of everything and we have learned a ton. We are amazed at how much there is to learn. The temple is such an incredible place to spend your time and serve. This past Satruday was somewhat sad, though. We had to cancel at least two sessions and in at least three session there were only three patrons. We have enough temple workers to accomodate a large number of patrons but instead we are using our temple workers as patrons. We would love more people to come to the temple. I know it is hard if you have young children to get to the temple, and I obviously would not be available on Saturday's, but Wednesday mornings and pretty much any time Friday I would LOVE to watch children for anyone who wants to attend the temple! Even if you want to go on a Friday night date to the temple, I will watch your kids, let me know! I'm so grateful to be able to have this time in my life to serve in the temple!

Thanksgiving

When my oldest sister got married19.5 years ago a cycle was set up such that she switched off spending Christmas and Thanksgiving each year between our family and her in-laws (one with each family.) It was another 7 years before any of my other sisters got married, but when my next sister got married her husband's family didn't have a plan for holidays really established so they just went along with the same plan as my oldest sister, spending the same Christmas's and Thanksgiving's with us as she did. All 7 of us have kept the plan since then. None of the families we have married into had established plans already so there have never been any issues. Well, this year is an in-law Thanksgiving and my family's Christmas. So we were with Ryan's family for Thanksgiving in Grapevine.
Ryan and I started out the day with a run (I am not a runner and hate running, but we figured we needed to do something active if we were going to spend the day eating and sitting around.) After we'd gotten ourselves ready we loaded all the food I prepared the day before and headed to Grapevine. We had an enjoyable day. We ate (of course), played crouqet, went on a walk, watched some football, played some card games, looked through ads, and just spent time together. It was a good day and I was grateful for Ryan's great family and all their kindnesses to me.


Some of our pies: Top - apple pie made by Ryan's mom, center - pecan pie made by me (it was Ryan's aunt's recipe and it was amazing), bottom - pumpkin pie, from Central Market. I also made refrigerator cake (a family recipe created by my grandma - yum.)

It's A Beautiful Day!

So after our crazy cold front that caused us to save all our tomatos from freezing, we are back to beautiful days. Monday was perfect! I spent about an hour and a half outside on a blanket doing some reading in the sun (I may have got a slight sunburn, but I don't think so.) At one point when I was driving the car thermometer read 79! It was awesome. Ryan and I had to take advantage of the great weather, and we got our cars all cleaned up.





Yesterday wasn't quite as nice, I think it only got into the 60s, but heck, it's November. Today is another beautiful, warm, sunny day and I am about to head outside to lay on a blanket and do some more reading (I put my sunscrean on just to be safe.) So Texas weather is crazy, but on 79 degree days in November, I will not be complaining about the craziness.

Blue Skies Smiling At Me, Nothing But Blue Skies, Do I See...

Tomatoes, tomatoes, and more tomatoes

So, mostly we have had really nice weather lately. In fact, two weeks ago I tried to take pcitres of Ryan and me flying kites. It was such a beautiful day, I think it got up into the mid 80s that day. Unfortunately when I got my camera out and focused on the kites, it shut down - battery dead. So my great plans of blogging that adventure were foiled. Well, that was just two weeks ago and most of the days since then have been the same. High's in the low 80s or 70s, lows inthe 60s or 50s. Well, for some reason the weather decided to change on us yesterday and it got super cold. Highs in the 40s (I guess it is possible we broke into the low 50s but I don't think so) and lows below freezing. Luckily we had warning of this drastic change so we were able to take precautionary measures. So yesterday morning we did our best to rescue all our tomatos from possible freezing. We plant a garden every year. We are not fantastic gardners. We learn something new about gardening every year. But, if we are ever living ina community where we need to grow our own food, Ryan and I volunteer to grow the tomatos (as long as someone gives us started plants - we've never tired from seeds). We are excellent tomato producers. Tomatos are our one crop that has never let us down. We do have one problem though. We don't get them in great abundance until the fall (Texas summers are just too hot for htem I guess.) So we picked tomatoes for an hour yesterday, until we had to tear ourselves away to get ready to leave, and still hadn't picked them all. We were out in our jackets and stocking caps, freezing - our hands were so cold it took a half an hour for them to stop tingling after going inside. But we have TONS of tomatos, in all different stages of ripeness. Luckily we learned a couple years ago that you can pick tomatos green and put them in a box in your garage and they will ripen, so that is what we will do.


All the tomatos we picked yesterday divided into their different ripenesses.

Our sad tomato plants after they were frozen.

But, with all these tomatos, we are going to need some good tomatoe recipes. I am particularly interested in creamy tomato soup recipes. And recipes that call for cherry or pear tomatos.

Also, if you are interested in partaking of any of these tomatos please let us know because we are mor than happy to share. We also have mint, rosemary, oregano, and thyme that could use a trimming if any one wants some fresh herbs.

Ward Halloween Party - October 2008

Last night we attended our ward's trunk-or-treat. It was fantastic. There was a chili cook-off so we had some great chili for dinner. There were bounce houses and carnival-type booths, and then trunk-or-treating. All the kids seemed to be having a blast and Ryan and I really enjoyed ourselves as well. We have a fantastic ward and the activities committee is amazing!

I was going for the hippee look and Ryan sported his new gear from his intermodal bootcamp and was a railroad worker. That reflective stuff really works!

A Tailgate Party and a Football Game

We attended a tailgate party at which we were able to meet Ty Detmer (1990 Heisman Trophy Winner) as well as get his autograph and a picture with him. Unfortunately we had camera trouble (I forgot to put our battery in) so we had to use our friends camera so we wouldn't have to keep Ty waiting too long (he was really patient with us though.) But, I don't have the pic yet, I'll post it when I get it.

After the party there we went to the game.


Teams ran on the field and we cheered!


And then there was kickoff and we cheered some more!


At half-time they released balloons in honor of breast cancer awareness.


We enjoyed time with friends...


And with each other.

And then we went home.

My first "tag" - October 2008

Even though I have not yet come out of the closet (honestly revealed to anyone that I have a blog,) people are finding out and I have been tagged by my good friend Andrea. She actually tagged me two weeks ago, but as I have just been trying to get my blog up to date and do things in order, I am just now getting to it - sorry Andrea. So, here goes:

10 years ago I...
1-was 19 years old
2-was a junior at BYU and had just switched majors from animal science-prevet to biology composite teaching
3-living with my sister, Emily; nephew, Matthew; and good friend, Lisa Ure
4-had made awesome friends in my ward who I lost touch with while I was on my mission and I miss so much (where are you Alisa, Melissa, Sherral, Chad, Quinn?)
5-was writing to over 30 missionaries - how many of you wrote me while I was on my mission?

5 things on today's "to do" list...
1-finish getting caught up on my blog so I can tell people about it
2-list my families beach condo for rent (anyone planning a vacation to San Diego?)
3-clean some bathrooms (and other things that have been neglected)
4-make some phone calls
5-start doing my geneology

5 snacks I enjoy...
1-fresh fruit
2-dried fruit
3-ice cream
4-candy
5-cookies

5 things I would do if I were a millionaire...
1-pay my tithing
2-pay off our house
3-pay off my parents mortgages
4-pay off Ryan's parent's mortgage
5-invest

5 places I have lived...
1-Las Vegas
2-Provo, UT
3-London
4-Northern California (Eureka, Middletown, Santa Rosa)
5-Burleson, TX

5 jobs that I have had...
1-babysitter
2-dental assistant
3-biology teacher
4-research assistant and TA
5-tutor

Rules:Each player answers the question themselves. At the end of the post the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blog and leaves them a comment letting them know that they've been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person that tagged you know when you've answered the questions on your blog.

Okay, I never forward mass forward emails, it's just a rule I have - I don't think I will do the tag thing either, but if you want to be tagged and answer these questions, I would love to read you answers so let me know you've done it. Thanks!

Ryan's the Best! - October 2008

The first day of General Conference there is an evening session that is just for the men of the church. Ryan went to this and returned that evening with these:


Yellow is one of my two favorite colors (purple is the other). Yellow flowers make me happy, and when they are given to my by my fantastic husband they make me even happier. Isn't Ryan the best? The answer is yes.

General Conference - October 2008

Every 6 months the leaders of our church speak to the entire church. It is broadcast throughout the world so that those of us who can't travel to Salt Lake where they are actually speaking can still watch and listen. I always look forward to these conferences. Not only do the prophet, his two counselors, and the twelves apostles, all speak to us, teaching us the things they have been prompted by the Lord to say, but many other great leaders as well. It is a spiritual feast. It lasts for two days, Saturday and Sunday, and that means I get to be with Ryan during all that time and share that experience with him. Soemtimes in conference there are recurring themes in many of the talks. One theme I noticed was that as we get closer and closer to the Second Coming of our Lord and Saviour it is becoming increasingly important that we develop Zion-like attitudes and build unity in our communities, our church families, and our families. My parents have always taught us how important it is to live this type of lifestyle, and it was just interesting to hear so many church leaders stress it so much.

I know that it is important to reach out to those around us in a spirit of unity and I am going to try harder to do this. I also recognize that it is not one of my gifts to automatically recognize the needs of those around me, nor is it one of my gifts to be extroverted. It is extremely hard for me to make phone calls - even to my family who I love talking to. The ONLY person that I call easily is Ryan. EVERYONE else I have to prepare myself to call. I am not a drop-by kind of person, meaning it is not easy for me to drop by someone's house. But I love to talk to the people I care about (or more jsut listen because I am not much of a talker) and I love visiting with people, either at their house or mine. I am social, I am just not good at making the first move or thinking up conversation topics. I also LOVE doing service. I LOVE to babysit. I would love to help people run errands, or whatever. My point being, I would love to help any of you, am more than willing, most likely have time, and am probably available, but am bad at approaching you about helping you. So please HELP ME build unity by letting me know when I can HELP YOU. Thanks so much.

Anyway, all the conference talks were great and I would recommend listening/reading.watching them.

Somewhat Northern California - September 2008

Having lived in Eureka as a missionary, and that still being 2 hours from the northern California border, it is hard for me to consider the Bay Area as really being Northern California anymore, since it takes so long to get to the border from there - but I know it's way north of San Diego.

Anyway, Ryan had a work trip to Stockton and then Richmond that was going to last from Tuesday-Friday. One of the benefits of not having any kids, nor a "real" job is that I don't have a lot of commitments at this point in my life. So, after Las Vegas, we met up in California. While he went to intermodal "boot camp" and learned all about the running of a rail yard, I got some journaling done my first day, headed to Sacramento my second, and got some more stuff done in the hotel the third. His work was super nice to us and took everyone there out to dinner our second night there to this super nice resteraunt. It was pricey, but it was tasty. Ryan got the prime rib and I got the halibut - mine was covered in king crab and was so yummy. Our hotel was nice - a Hampton Inn - it was nice to stay in a nice hotel, we generally get the cheapest place we can find when we're paying.

The first thing I did in Sacramento was go to the temple. As I have said before - I really love to go to temples, and I especially enjoy going to temples I have never been to before. I decided to list for you all the temples I have been to - both those that I have actually been inside and done something in as well as those I have only been on the grounds of.

1. Las Vegas
2. Salt Lake
3. Jordan River
4. Mt. Timpanogas
5. Provo
6. Manti
7. St. George
8. Albequerque
9. Portland
10. Bountiful
11. Oakland
12. Logan
13. Dallas
14. Nauvoo
15. Houston
16. San Antonio
17. London
18. Anchorage
19 San Diego
20. Monticello (only walked around)
21. Vernal (only walked around)
22. Atlanta (only walked around)
23. Washington, D.C. (only walked around)
24. Preston, Englad (only walked around)
So adding Sacramento to the list, I have now been to 25 temples, and been inside 20. I am pretty sure that we were just told there are currently 125 opperating temples, so I have been to 1/5. I would love to go to all of them, but it seems unlikely in this life. Maybe I can keep up a rate of 1/5 though.

I really enjoyed my time at the Sacramento temple. The grounds were HUGE. They have their own road to get to it and then when you do there is a church as well, plus 2 or 3 houses, and a park complete with restroom and some other building. It was really quite nice. And the temple itself was very pretty and the members are so excited to have a temple and not have to drive to Oakland any more.












Next I headed to the state capitol building. I thought it was quite impressive, inside and out, though there wasn't a whole lot of direction inside (usually someone wants to help you find your way or offers you a tour in capitol buildings, don't they?) One interesting thing - Arnold Schwarzenegger was there while I was having a meeting with the "Big Four" (whoever they are - some senators). I was hoping to get to see him, but no such luck. After the meeting was over he snuck out a back door, but the "Big Four" all came out to give a report to the press, so I did see them. (If you know who the "Big Four" are, let me know :)).

I thougth the capitol building was really pretty


Ryan really enjoyed working in the rail yards - I think "running the train" may have been his favorite part, but I couldn't say for sure. He also go to check the trucks in and operate some other equipment - they had fun.

After Ryan was done with his intermodal boot camp we headed to Richmond. After checking into our hotel we went with the other guys from Ryan's work to Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco and ate at this really nice seafood restaurant that is right by the water, Scoma's. It was so yummy - we each had clam chowder and lobster tail. Yes, his company treated us very well.

The next day Ryan went with the guys to tour an automotive yard while I headed to the Oakland Temple. I had been to the Oakland Temple with my parents a few months after my mission, so about 5 years ago, but I think we were rushed or something, and I really don't remember it very well at all from that experience. The Oakland Temple is AMAZING. I know all temples are, but I really enjoyed the Oakland one. I like going to older temples because they are all so unique. Well, the Oakland Temple sit high up on a hill/mountain so you can look out over all of Oakland to San Francisco, the view is just amazing. And the grounds are huge - there is a large visitors center and also a cultural building that looks like a large stake center - I didn't get to go in this, but it is where they hold they Oakland Pageant. Anyway, I was meeting one of the ladies who I had taught as a missionary and was baptized, and got there early, so I went into the visitors center while I waited. They currently have a really great exhibit of sculptures depicting the miracles of Christ - I can't remember the artists name, but it was quite moving and I would recommend anyone in the area go see it. By the time I was done in the visitor's center my friend, Paula, had arrived and I was so excited to see her - it had been 5 years. We walked around the temple grounds and talked for awhile. And then enjoyed a temple session together - which was really a neet experience for me to get to share that with someone I had taught.

Paula and Me

Isn't the temple gorgeous?; Paula and Me closer up; the stunning view of the city from the temple grounds

Paula and I had to say goodbye after that (it was so good to see you Paula!) and Ryan and I met up in Richmond then headed on to San Francisco - no more work for us, (well, for Ryan, I had just been playing for weeks.)

Our brother-in-law Bruce is a Southwest flight attendant and had an overnight in San Francisco that night, so my sister Molly came to join him and us. We all met up at their hotel. After eating we headed to Muir Woods. None of us had ever been there and we got a bit lost on the way, but weren't too frustrated because our detour enabled us to drive down Lombard Street, something Ryan and I had been wanting to do anyway.

We did make it Muir Woods an hour before dark and had a great hike - except that we did not take the trail we thought we took and ended up having to hike for about half an hour to an hour in the total darkness, with a cliff on one side of us - thank goodness for the light of cell phones. Anyway, Muir Woods is beautiful, a coastal redwood forest, it reminded us of the Redwood forest up in my mission area, although the trees are not yet as tall. And we had the trail mostly to ourselves, which was also nice. And we enjoyed just spending time together.

So, it was raining and pretty dark the whole time we were there and we were in a hurry to get our hiking in so we didn't get a lot of great pictures, but here are a few, with some rain drops - Molly and Bruce (who we are so grateful to not only for letting us stay in their hotel with them so we didn't have to pay for one ourselves, but also for more standby passes - THANK YOU!)

Unfortunately, we also got lost on our way back to the hotel - so we saw even more of San Francisco, haha.

When we did make it back to the hotel I got to talk to my cousin Jessica who lives in San Fran so I could make plans for the next day. Jessica is one of my favorite people, she is just pleasant to be around. Even though she is 6 years older than me, we have always been close. She didn't live in Las Vegas when I was growing up but would come to visit a few times a year it seemed like, and whenever she did I always felt like she chose to spend time with me. I don't know if that is true or not, but that is how she made me feel. She would be staying at our grandma's (Grammy's) house and she would have me come spend the night, and she would spend the whole time just pampering me - washing my hair in the sink, putting it in curlers, that kind of thing. She has always been so good to me. And it wasn't when I got older that she started being nice to me, I remember running out the door from pre-school on the day she was to arrive for a visit and her having run over to the pre-school to pick me up. So, I guess I would have been maybe 3 or 4 and she would have been 9 or 10. And it's not like I didn't have sisters her age that she could have been spending time with and probably prefered the company of. She was just good to me. Yes, I love my cousin Jessica. Anyway, when we were talking on the phone that night she told me that she did something every day that Grammy had taught her. I have to tell you, I was blessed to be the granddaughter of two of the most incredible women EVER! EVERYONE loved GRAMMY and GRANDMA LISSA, you couldn't not. And Grammy was everyone's grandma, everyone called her Grammy - she was very special - both my grandmothers were, are.


Grammy, isn't she beautiful? Don't you just love her too?

Okay, so back to Jessica's story. She told me that when she would come to visit and they'd be one their way back to Grammy's house from my house in the evening (Grammy came over almost every day to help my mom out around our house - very nice of her and helpful with our houseful) she would sing "Count Your Blessings". One day Jessica was not in a very good mood and asked her why she was doing that and Grammy said she did it so she would always remember how blessed she is. So now, every day when Jessica is driving she sings this song to herself and starts listing her blessings. I love this idea - I to think of blessings I receive everyday and it not only helps me to be grateful for my blessings, but helps me remember I am loved. I am grateful for such a great example in a grandmother and for Jessica for sharing this story with me. So, for those of you who don't know the words of the song, here's the first verse:
When upon life's billows you are tempest tossed
When you are discouraged thinking all is lost
Count your many blessings; name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.
Count your blessings; Name them one by one.
Count your blessings; See what God hath done.
Count your blessings; Name them one by one.
Count your blessings; See what God hath done.

Today happens to by Grammy's birthday, she'd - I'm glad I got to remember her by posting about her great teachings - she was amazing and I miss her so much. But I am also grateful to have an amazing angel watching out for me. I love you Grammy, Happy Birthday!

The next morning Bruce had to fly out super early, but Molly, Ryan, Jessica, and I got to enjoy a super yummy breakfast together at one of the local places.

Molly, Jessica, and Me (unfortunately Jess is blinking, hopefully Molly or Jess will send me their copy so I can replace this)

Molly had to leave after that and Jessica had to study, so Ryan and I headed down to San Jose and the Winchester Mystery House. It was built by Sarah Winchester, one of the heiresses to the Winchester fortune. There are several theories as to why the house turned out the way it did, but one is that she was trying to confuse the ghosts of the people who died by the weapons made by her husband (Winchester Riffles). There was construction going on on the houe 24/7 the entire time she was alive. And a lot of it doesn't make sense, like doors and staircases that lead to nowhere. But a lot of it is just beautiful. Anyway, it was really interesting and fun to go on the tour. Another interesting thing is that because she was alwayshaving things built she had tons of store rooms filled with stuff, such as hundreds of windows, regular and stained glass, rooms filled with wallpaper fabric, and more. It was crazy. Anyway, we recommend the tour.


After we were done at the mansion we headed back up to San Francisco and to Jessica and her husband Troy's place. Troy just got a new job and wanted to celebrate - they were so nice, they treated us to a super yummy dinner and this awesome restaurant right on the water. They ordered these great appetizers, and then I had this tasty meatloaf that was topped with bacon and hollandaise sauce and Ryan had seafood linguine (with shrimp and scallops) - they were both excellent. And then we had peach cobbler for dessert, which was also tasty - and if that wasn't enough, Troy and Jessica weren't going to finish their creme brule, and so we helped them out, and it was amazing. Do you think we overate and were a little bit spoiled on this trip - yeah, I think so too, but it was so good. Jess and Troy were so good to us and let us stay with them that night. We visited with them for a while before bedtime, then had to say goodnight because Ryan and I had EARLY flights. Thanks Jess and Troy for everything, we had so much fun and it was so nice of you.

So, we enjoyed all that great stuff on that fabulous vacation and only had to pay for one flight, two meals, and two tours of the Winchester House - how awesome is that? Yes, we are blessed.