Christmas Day

It is Christmas Day and I am enjoying the holiday even though there is no tree. I am living in New York with my sister in a Jewish house hold. They have gone the extra mile to give me a wonderful Christmas. They cooked me a Christmas Eve meal, and this morning had a stocking hung on the fire place mantle. They gave me wonderful gifts, and had Christmas music playing. They were so very kind to give me a wonderful Christmas.

I am so blessed to have wonderful friends and family who have given me so much joy over the past year. Thank you everyone for a wonderful season!

Messiah sing a long

December 9th, I had the opportunity to drag along a small group of young women from my ward to go to a Messiah sing-a-long. It was at a beautiful catholic church in New Jersey. None of the Young Women had ever heard of Handel or heard of the music. I was so excited, because I have attended for the past four years in Salt Lake with friends. I was worried that I would not be able to attend this year.

My favorite part other than the music is the fact that I can pretend to sing and sing well. I love the fact that there are all of these beautiful voices surrounding me and I can sing as loud as I want without feeling too self conscious. I love following the music and trying to find my place and when I should come in. It is always a challenge, but one I enjoy.

The cathedral was beautiful, the music was beautiful and I started

too early more than once. It was a wonderful evening and a fabulous way to start off the Christmas season.

To the Zoo Quilt

On November 9th I had the opportunity to go to the Palisades Mall and look at a quilt exhibit. The difference about this quilt exhibit was I had a quilt the was entered into the exhibit.

I don't love the quilt, but I learned a lot making it. I want to do another one, but change the pattern up some and work on the color scheme.

My favorite square to do was the birds. I liked all the colors of the birds.

I patterned this quilt after the Central Park Zoo. I was really excited about the penguin exhibit, but it didn't quite turn out like I wanted. One of the penguins looks crazy.

After I entered the quilt I was really nervous that I wouldn't win, but I was even more worried that no one would bid on the quilt at the auction. I didn't place, but I was pleasantly surprised when someone bid $125.oo on my quilt. I had a higher bid than the 2nd place winner.

I was glad I did the project even though it was a lot of work. I found out about the contest at the end of September and began working on it the first of October and the due date was October 31st. I wasn't even close to finishing 3 days before the contest ended so I stayed up for 3 days to finish it. I had an idea of how I wanted the quilting done, but in the end it wasn't very detailed. I was just happy I was able to finish it enough to enter it into the contest. The nice thing was the money raised by the auction went to a local charity.

Maddie and the UltraSaucer

Maddie loves her exerciser, but not only does she love jumping in her exerciser and using it to help her do her daily constitution she loves being out of it. When Maddie is not in the exerciser she loves to climb in it. She will climb throuh it and then try to stand up in it and then she gets stuck. Most of the time she will sit down and climb out, but sometimes she gets frustrated and we have to take out the seat so she can stand up in it.

Election Day

Wow! I am so excited that I was able to witnesses such a momentous event. It was so exciting to see such a historical event take place. I know I have heard so much about Obama not having experience and crap about Obama being associated with radicals. What I saw last night was a man who elegantly spoke about his love for his country and his desire to bring much needed change. I saw a man who really loves his wife and his children. I saw a man who is educated and ready to serve, but humbled by the huge task that lays before him. I was also impressed with McCain's concession speak. He was graceful, and I only hope that those who voted for him will follow suit.

I loved seeing the celebrations of all the people who had voted for him. I loved seeing the faces filled with tears. This was something that the majority of us thought we would never see in our life time. It is possible for a man to be judged by the content of his character and not by the color of his skin.

I did wonder at the contrast of the two different venues that were chosen for the speeches. Obama thanked everyone at Grant Park in Chicago, filled with supporters that flowed into the streets. McCain's had chosen an upscale hotel in Phoenix that look extremely isolated. I felt that McCain's choice was a representation of the Republican party and where it is today. Elitists that are out of touch with the people. I used to be a Republican, but I have been so disappointed with the party that I left. I am proud to say that I voted for Obama.

Rocketship Run @ Lincoln Center

Today I had the opportunity to go with Maddie, Terri and Seth to the Lincoln Center to attend Maddie's first concert in New York. Terri told me that Laurie Berkner was the "Elvis Presley" of children's music. Well I had never heard of her, but it was a lot of fun. She was quite entertaining. Before today I don't think the Lincoln Center has seen so many people dancing in the isles. Maddie was getting into the fun she was jumping up and down and flapping her arms at such a high rate she looked like a humming bird.

I never thought that my first time to the Lincoln center would be for a children's concert, especially since I have no children of my own. I don't regret going, because I had a good time.

I have added a video I took on my phone of Maddie. She was doing all of the bouncing herself. She does that when she gets excited. If you listen closely you can hear her cute little squeal.

Fish Face

Yesterday I had the chance to drive around Rockland County with Maddie. I am on the hunt for great parks. By the time I found one I wanted to explore, little Maddie was out cold. I didn't want to wake her, so I decided to leave the exploration for another day. It is different here, because you can't see anything for the trees, and it is hard to find parks because they are not marked well.

Maddie and I are having a good time. I am proud to say that I have taught Maddie, or at least I am taking credit for teaching her how to do the fish face. This picture is the coming out of the fish face. Every time she sees the camera she stops what she is doing.

Eating with Maddie is a bit of an overstatement. She really doesn't eat that much she ends up wearing more than she eats. Maddie has struggled with eating. She has had a hard time getting the food down. She usually throws the face "What are you putting in my mouth?" It is really cute. So one day I tried her food, and it is yucky, so I can't blame her for throwing the faces. The funny thing is she does that with anything that is put in her mouth. I think it is the initial reaction because she will eat some things and like it but you always get the face. Maddie also prefers to feed herself, but doesn't get much food to the mouth.

Maddie teething

Terri and Maddie to the right. I think that Maddie is going to grow up with a sense of humor, because her mom you can see is a bit of a ham and then hanging out with me, well she doesn't stand a chance.

It has been fun to see Maddie growing just in the short time that I have been here. She began waving, and sitting up the first week that I arrived. She will be crawling before we know it. She is ready to go, but has yet to figure out how to get her legs to work in harmony with her desires. She is going to be a little ball of fire once she is able to move where she wants.

Maddie broke her first tooth last week with the second just a day or two behind. She has been uncomfortable, but not too cranky for growing teeth. She loves to bite on anything she can get her hands on.

Center Park Zoo

August 23, 2008

I had the chance to go to Central Park Zoo before Tammy flew back to Oregon. It was so fun to see Maddie get excited about the animals.

Here are a couple of pictures of Terri and Maddie while we were at the zoo.

Trip across the country

I have made it safely to New York. It took 5 days and a small amount of site seeing to make it here. Let's just say I feel asleep when I got here I fell asleep on the couch while my two sisters were visiting, and most embarrassing of all I fell asleep at Spamalot the next day. I thought it was funny, but couldn't keep my eyes open.

Day 1: we left Astoria at 6:30 am on August 17th.
We drove to Alberton, Montana where we camped next to a beautiful river. I slept in a tent and Tammy (my sister) slept in the back of my beetle. Let just say Tammy wasn't really interested in doing that again. You can see us here sitting in the back watching a movie to pass the time before we hit the sack.

Day 2: We left Alberton early in the morning and drove to West Yellowstone, Montana. We drove into the park and drove to the group of geysers. We made two stops. The first stop was beautiful and it felt more the way Yellowstone should feel, no giant lodges. Just 500 other people and the scenery. Then we headed to Old Faithful. Unfortunately we were not able to see Old Faithful go, but it was still neat. I got some pretty cool t-shirts. After we ate our home made sandwiches we took off for our next stop. Our goal was to reach Custer, South Dakota that night.

We took a really beautiful drive through Yellowstone. We saw one buffalo that was walking next to my car. It was HUGE. I told Tammy if that thing wanted to ram the beetle it would smash it. The bison would defiantly have won. We felt very tiny compared to that beautiful animal. Unfortunately we were not fast enough to get a picture. We drove around a large beautiful lake and saw a bear on a hill eating possibly berries. It was fun to see one that close.

On our drive through Wyoming at around 8:00pm after stopping for some really, really, and I mean really bad Mexican food I decided that it wasn't safe driving in the dark. I was getting tired and I saw two really large bucks on the side of the road. They were standing just off the shoulder. One had at least 5 points (hard to tell going 75 mph) but it was a good size rack. I didn't think it would be wise to hit one in my little car. We found a hotel room at around 9:30 pm to sleep for the night.

Day 3: We woke up early, because we wanted to stop at Jewel Cave that morning and Mt. Rushmore while taking our drive across this beautiful nation.

Jewel Cave is just outside of Custer, SD. I realized on our drive to Custer that morning that I am glad that we didn't try to make it all the way the night before. The road to Custer was a two lane winding road once we got off of I-90. We would of been more likely to hit a large roaming animal in the dark.

We arrived at Jewel cave at 8:00am and the tours didn't begin till 9:00am so we wandered around a bit till they let us in the tourist center. We watch a quick film on the discovery of the cave and the couple who had spent so much time finding new caverns. We took an hour tour that takes you deep into the ground on an elevator (the only way in and out).

This cave is unique in that it is the 2nd longest cave in the US at 143.3 miles long, and they are discovering new caverns everyday. They claim that it is most likely only 1/3 of it has been mapped. The velocity of the air pressure going through the cave means that there are miles of cavern. They said it is possible that it could one day be declared the longest cave.

The cave is covered in crystals. The man who discovered it originally was hoping that he had found precious jewels but they are a form of calcite crystals and are very soft to the touch. It was beautiful and definitely worth a stop for a couple of hours. Here is the website for the national park http://www.nps.gov/jeca/

After Jewel Cave we headed for Mt. Rushmore. We got to glimpse the Crazy Horse monument from the road. We decided not to stop still since it is still a work in progress.

Mt Rushmore was a quick stop. It was kind of like National Lampoons Vacation where Chevy Chase walks up to the edge of the Grand Canyon and looks with his head bobbing up and down briefly and says, "Lets go!" We stopped long enough to eat our lunch and take a couple of pictures and get me some over priced ice cream. Then it was on the road again.

We drove through some amazing landscapes. I had no idea that South Dakota was so beautiful. I would definitely go back some day and stay a while longer. We made it to Sioux Falls that night at 7:30pm. We watched a little of the Olympics, ate dinner and went to bed.

Day 4: When we left the morning of day 4 I put our days destination into the GPS and it was taking us back 10 miles and along I-90 going through Chicago. I really didn't want to go through Chicago. I was hoping to go around and miss the traffic. Well by the time we figured out the way it was taking us I needed to find an alternate route. So we decided to take I-35 through Iowa. When Tammy and I spoke with my mom, she told us we had to stop in and see her Aunt Audry.

Audry is our grandmothers sister. So my mom called her aunt and told her that we would be drive through the area, and would she be up for a visit. She asked us to stop by, so we were planning on having lunch with her. Well lunch turned into dinner and we ended up staying the night. It was fun to see where my grandmother grew up and visit with Aunt Audry. Audry drove us through corn fields to show us the farm that she and Marvin raised their kids on and then over to the farm that Audry and my Grandma Ginny grew up on. I have moved so much that I don't feel like I really have any roots, but it was neat to go somewhere and see where 4 generation of my family lived and died. It was the best part of our trip.

Day 5: We woke up and had breakfast with Audry and then hit the road again. We made it to Pennsylvania and stayed the night somewhere along I-80. Pennsylvania is also another beautiful state. I will have to go back some time soon.

Day 6: I HATE the GPS! We finally arrive in Nanuet at around 2:00pm in the afternoon. The GPS tells us to exit, and turn right then turn right again. The exits in New York are right next to streets and are sometimes part of the road. I wasn't sure where it was taking us, but as soon as I realized it was taking us back the way we came I began looking for an exit to correct our course. The GPS had taken us in heavy traffic 45 minutes out of our way. We finally made it safely and I fell fast asleep.

Sorry I noticed a typo after I posted. It is "Mutiny on the Bounty" not "Mounty on the Bounty" :)

Astoria often gets, what they call "tall ships" to the port. It is exciting to see the old world ships right next the modern coast guard ships and HUGE barges that are passing by.

Oregon

My time in Oregon has been interesting and part of the time it has been spent in Washington. I arrived in Oregon in June and spent most of that time helping my family with remodeling their house. I did some side jobs to earn money, but mostly spent time with my family. On July 22nd I drove to Washington State to house sit for some friends that I knew when I was living in Arkansas. They are on a 3 week cruise to Norway and I am taking care of their house.

I told my mother that this July has been the coolest July I have ever had. Most days were in the 70's. The Oregon Coast is a beautiful place, but chilly. I have enjoyed daily walks on the river walk with my mother and brother, and at least once a week with my dad and sister. It is fun watching the sail boats and HUGE barges go up the river. One day the Bounty was docked with the Coast Guard. The one that was built for Mounty on the Bounty.

The wild life is amazing. I have seen elk, deer, bald eagles and all kinds of birds. It is beautiful here.

Food: my favorite place to get fish and chips is at the Bow Picker. It is just across the street from the Maritime Museum. Oh, the fish is heavenly! Buoy Nine is my other favorite for a good meal, but if I want clam chowder is is Moe's all the way!