I'm Getting Old!

But it was a wonderful weekend. Although it was very, very busy! And I am exhausted!

Friday, I left work and went home to get a shower. Then Virginia came by and picked me up and we drove over to the hospital here to meet up with Stephanie Vickery who has been in town because her dad is in the hospital. The three of us went to the Temple. On the way there, we hit torrential rain, and several people actually pulled off of the interstate. But, the most awesome thing I've ever seen.... A complete rainbow. We could see where it looked like it ended on both sides. It looked like it was right over the interstate and we could see the whole thing. It also seemed as thought it was moving with us, and I could look out my side window and see where it looked like it touched the ground. I have never seen anything like it. It was amazing. (There was no visible pot of gold ;)). After about 10 minutes of driving in the downpour, we were out of the worst of it, and eventually we drove out of the rain completely. We swung into a drive-thru to grab dinner. We at in the parking lot at the Temple. Then we got out and took pictures.

I got home some time around 11:30 that night. I was tired! And I full enjoyed my last night of sleeping in my bed for who knows how long. Except that I woke up at 6:30 Saturday morning because I'd dreamed about giving a talk in church (probably because I really was giving a talk in church :)). In the dream, I was trying to give the talk, but the microphone was on this really long metal arm that was bendable (best way I can describe it is to tell you to picture a metal fold-out contraption or Johnny 5's arm from Short Circuit). Anyway, for the life of me I could not get that microphone to be in the right place where both everyone could see me and I could talk into it comfortably. Yeah, I have strange dreams. Anyway, I have weird dreams. I was able to go back to sleep and slept until 8:30 when I got up, ate strawberry banana oatmeal, and got to work on more packing. I took apart my bed and maneuvered all that to the wall. My room was so empty! It's amazing. I moved all my boxes to the living room so they were all ready to go. I was so disillusioned that it started raining 2 hours before we were supposed to start moving. And it didn't look like there was in an end in sight. I called Virginia, who looked itt up on the weather.com, and she said it wasn't listed as being isolated thunder storms until 6 p.m. I was concerned. It's not like I have a lot of time to work with here ;). But, in answer to prayer, the rain stopped, and we were able to get my stuff moved in 2 loads. A great big thank-you to Thad, Chris, and Virginia who helped me move!!! So, now all my stuff is in an 8 1/2 by 5ish foot space in Virginia's apartment for 3 weeks. It's rather amusing to see the pile against the wall. After eating some dinner, I went home and got a shower. Then I went back to Virginia's to use her computer and she and I also went to Wal-Mart. I was pretty bushed by 10:00, so I headed home. I talked to my dad for a while, and then read a little before bed. I had decided not to blow up the air mattress, because I'll just have to deflate it in a couple of days, and I figured sleeping on the floor wouldn't be so bad. I used to do it all the time when I was a kid. Okay, so not the most brilliant of ideas... espcially after a day of moving. I ached in some severe ways. And every time I thought, "oh my back!" I felt like an old lady ;). And let's just say I made a decision to make good use of the couch until Rachel comes to get it.

My talk in church went well. I spoke on temple work, and I got several compliments. I went to nursery for the last time (I was released as nursery leader, since I'll be heading out). One of the parents brought me a rose and thanked me for taking such good care of her child. I thought that was so sweet.

Of course, it's not sweet that I can't seem to take a decent picture to save my life here recently.

After church, I went to Virginia's to burn the last of the family DVDs (nothing like cutting it short, right ;)?) and the B.C. Thanksgiving and Christmas DVDs. Plus we had root-beer floats. Yummy :). I like the fizzy bubbles. I got home around 4:30, got the chicken marinating for stir fry, read, took a shower, cooked and ate dinner. Stefanie went to the church with Allyson and Stephen to meet the missionaries and a guy from her work. She came home around 9:30 with Allyson and Stephen, and I was on the couch in my jammies. Because the couch is the only comfortable place I have to go to read now. So we sat up talking and laughing until about midnight when Allyson and Stephen left and then Stefanie and I talked until about 1 this morning. I slept on the couch -- much more comfy than the floor. But I am soooo very tired. I just can't do this 1:00 in the morning thing and then get up for work and not feel tired thing anymore ;). I like my sleep! I had another weird dream about all these people I used to know in Panama. It was all of my old guy friends from there and their spouses, and we were all in the ward building in Cardenas at one point and I remember saying, "Man, it seems like no time has passed at all, but I know that it's been 11 years! You guys are all married with children now, so obviously time has passed!" Yeah, I dream a lot. I know I've said that a lot, but it's true.

Heifering Up...

Let's face it... You all know how I love food. So, it really shouldn't be a surprise to you, or to me, that I stood on the scale yesterday evening and saw that I had gained 5 pounds since the last time I weighed. It was one of those, "Oh shoot" moments when I realized I would have to scale back a little on my eating (no pun intended ;)). Actually, I shouldn't have weighed myself when I did for an accurate weight. Hahaha... I am currently wearing and fitting into a pair of my skinny pants, so it's not like I'm really a heifer. But when I stepped on the scale and saw that, I literally laughed. So, let me give you the rundown of my food consumption this weekend and you see if you can determine where I went wrong ;).

Well, you saw my splurge for my solo girlie night. Enough said about that in my last post, I do believe.

Friday I worked until 11:30 -- my last opportunity to do that. On the up-side, today I get off at 11:15. So yippee!!! I'm all about early afternoons off. But I see I'm already getting off-topic, so I'd better right myself :). So, if you keep up with my blog comments, you will see that Stefanie invited me to eat lunch with her on Friday. See, she has these meal plan things here at the University, and it's a use-it-or-lose-it kind of deal. And since Stefanie is going to BYU next year, she would be losing hers. So, she invited to treat me to lunch at Lakeside Dining. Man, it reminded me of an airport terminal in some ways, at least the airport in Tocumen (Panama), because you had to go down into the food area and you could look up and there were all glass walls where people could sit and eat and look down on you. Anyway, it was a buffet and it was awesome. I didn't even know places like that existed on campus. I think they try to hide them from me :). Okay, in spite of the fact that I said I really heifered up this weekend, I want you to know I did not make a pig of myself at this place. I didn't go back for seconds. But I did get dessert. They had delicious soft chocolate chip cookies. I mean, they were good. You can see them in the picture. (Again, I will embed multiple pictures and clicking on any one of them will take you to where you can view them all).



So, after leaving lunch (oh yeah, Stefanie also used up two more meals for us to get to-go plates. Probably we should have done this at the time we were getting our first plate, because by this time, I was packed and nothing looked good. But, in the interest of kind-of-free food, we both loaded up so we'd have extra food stocked. I admit it... I took home more cookies :). And a huge 20 oz. cup of chocolate milk. After dozing in my room and trying to sleep off my very full tummy (yeah, probably should have been out running or something), I went to Wal-Mart. But you know they say it's good to shop on a full stomach, because then you don't impulse-buy. I can attest to that. Nothing looked appetizing at Wal-Mart. However, as I cannot pass up a good deal, when I saw 2 different Ben & Jerry's flavors in the little pint containers at $1.00 each, I had to get them. And in my defense... one of them was strawberry banana frozen yogurt. (And so it really doesn't matter that the other one was peanut butter cup, because they cancel each other out :)). Just FYI -- I have not eaten any of either of them yet. No need to, as I am still working on the mint cookie frozen yogurt ;).

So, after Wal-Mart (by the way, I was highly annoyed that Wal-Mart did not have any black slip-on sandal-y type heels), I tried to find a shoe-store in my vicinity. Alas, it was not to be had. So I ran home and showered, did my hair and make-up. This is why you don't take naps when you have stuff to do... Luckily, I had 15 minutes before I needed to be at the reception thing. Yeah, I'm neurotic. I have a thing with being on time, and it usually leaves me feeling awkward. But I can't seem to help myself. But anyway, since I didn't want to be early to the thing, I ran over to Target (pronounced tar-jay) and they did have some shoes for me! Yippee! And then I was only like 5 minutes late to the reception thing. But I was still one of the first to arrive. And it was awkward. April, Courtney, and April's boyfriend Mark got there about 5:30. And finally I was able to feel more normal. So, we decided to get some food and then we wandered off by ourselves to visit. Okay, so I don't know who planned that menu. I'm sorry, but yikes. There were a few things I could/would eat, like cheese cubes. And some things I thought I would eat and then later regretted. That happened with most of the food (and there wasn't much, trust me). Okay, so the mini sandwiches were pimento cheese (very Southern for those of you who don't know). These would have been fine with me. Except that they ended up being on rye bread! Ugh! Ick! Blech! I only found that out after I took a bite!!! Ick. Yuck! I hate rye bread. It tastes like licorice! And don't argue with me. It does. And then I moved on to eat whatever spread that was with the crackers. Oh my gosh... One smell of that stuff made me think twice. I let everyone smell it. I'm not even sure what it was. I tasted it a little. And yuck! I don't know what it was. Mark ended up eating it (I'm not sure how he could) and he decided it was hummus mixed with some herb of some sort. Whatever herb it was, it was potent. And so I ate the other cracker plain, and it was stale. And then, because the woman hosting this said that someone told her you couldn't not have something sweet... She pointed th way to the cookies and candy. Gingersnaps and a small bowl of jolly ranchers. I kid you not. Ugh. You know how I love a good spread. This was definitely disappointing. What can I say? I'm a food snob. Good thing I ate such a huge lunch. So, April, Mark, Courtney and I sat around laughing and talking. Courtney was bored stiff and ready to go. April looked over at me at one point and said, "Why did only the nerdy people from the program show up?" I looked at her and said, "Do you know what this says about us?" How depressing! Anyway, be glad you weren't there. So, we managed to sneak away by about 6 and decided we needed real food. And after much deliberation, we decided on IHOP (which Courtney finally realized stands for International House of Pancakes). The IHOP part was the best part... Real food, lots of laughs.



Friday night I talked to my dad and Brad, and then I went to sleep.

On Saturday, I got up early and headed to the Temple in Birmingham. Karen met me there and afterwards, we went to the Cheesecake Factory. Delicious. I must recommend the Adam's Peanut Butter Cup Fudge Ripple. It is divine. I should probably branch out again and try something new... BUt the last 3 or 4 times I've been, I think I've gotten this one. It is soooo good. It's very rich though. I was sorry I ate the whole piece in one sitting after I was done. I rarely do that. But I didn't eat as much of the lunch as I normally do, so I thought I had room for the whole piece of cheesecake. Apparently I had room, but it wasn't a nice fit or anything. Karen and I thoroughly enjoyed our visit. It's so nice to see friends I don't get to see very often.



I drove home, got a shower. Decided I needed to come up with something cute for the nusery kids to do for their moms for Mother's Day. It also needed to be inexpensive. I mean, I can get reimbursed for anything I purchase for nursery. But that's a hassle, and it's not really about the money. I know I can find cute crafty things to do and not spend a ton of money doing it. So, I went to Hobby Lobby and looked around. I found stuff to do home-made cards and came up with a simple idea that would be different. In years past, the kids have put their hand print on a paper with the poem about handprints on the wall, etc. I wanted to do something different. So, this is what I did:



That was my example one. And you know what? I'm sending that one to my mommy. It'll be late, of course. But it's hers just the same. I started thinking yesterday as I decided to write in that card and get it ready to send to my mom about why it is we now just purchase our cards as adults. I'm not saying bought cards aren't nice. But who said that just because you could afford a bought card, that you should? I may be 27, and my thumprint might not be as cute and adorable as that of the little 2 year olds... But something tells me my mom will love this card. It has something no store-bought card has... It has a part of me in it. Again, I'm not knocking store-bought cards. I just thought about how, when we couldn't afford to buy the cards, we made do with what we had... And somehow those probably were more of us.

Anyway, I watched two movies on Saturday night. I watched The Thin Man, which was a recommendation from Tammy. I liked it. It is older and about a detective and his wife. But they are a funny couple. Very cute. Will probably borrow the others from the public library also. The other movie is from where the quote of the week comes, so I won't tell you what it was. But it was a present to myself, since it was on sale :).

And, in conclusion, I called my mom and wished her Happy Mother's Day yesterday. I also called Christina and Tarylyn and talked to my grandmother and aunt a bit. And I hope all of you mothers had a wonderful Mother's Day!

And, oh yeah... So I got a most unexpected compliment on Sunday. A girl that helps out in nursery (Celeste - she played 80s games with me once) is moving this week. Before she left at the end of the day yesterday, she said to me, "I just wanted to tell you that I think you are one of the prettiest girls in the Ward. You have a classic beauty." I thought it was a very nice thing to say. She will be greatly missed in nursery. She was such a huge help.

Living La Vida [Nilla]

You know, I've had that song title post in my mind for a while. I was just waiting for the opportunity to use it. And, it seems the opportunity has arisen. I find it ironic that I ended up having two Spanish blog post titles back to back mere months before I (most likely) will find myself jetting off to a Spanish-speaking country. Life is interesante, no? And my apologies for the fact that that song will remain in your head now. But hey, since it's going to remain in mine for the day, I thought I would share the experience with you.

So, since I remembered to bring my camera with me, I figured I'd upload my photos from the weekend and give you a play-by-play of the Nilla life when it's not so vanilla :).



Doesn't that look yummy? I'll just go ahead and tell you that it is. The recipe actually calls for toffee bits instead of butterfingers, but as I couldn't find ANY toffee bits or any toffee-like candy in either Wal-Mart or WinnDixie, I consulted with April over the phone and we decided Butterfingers would be delicious. And they were.

Okay, so on Friday, I got off work at 11:30 (and let's just say I am basking in my last few weeks of having this opportunity), and I ran by the passport office, as I indicated yesterday. So that's in the works and I'm glad. Oh, and it only cost me $100. (Only?!?). Just FYI -- if you go through like a travel agent to get your passport, they will charge you a significantly higher price. It's much more worth your while financially to find the nearest not-for-profit place (in my case it was the county courthouse) and you can do so by looking at the immigration website for the government. Just wanted to help you out with that info :). I went to Institute after that and we ate pizza. We had a lively conversation about books. Right up my alley. I left there at 3:00 and got a shower and got ready to head to the Temple. I picked up Virginia and we stopped to get gas on the way. Good grief... $3.45 a gallon, and that's the cheapest I have found lately. On an up-note, since I was very thirsty, Virginia and I went into the gas station and bought some drinks (I never buy convenience store food anymore -- it's expensive) and they had mint M&Ms! They are special for the upcoming Indiana Jones movie. And they are very minty. So obviously you see that we bought some. I worked at the office until 10 and then we drove home. However, I was sooo hungry. And so was Virginia. So, we pulled off the interstate in Bessemer and got some Sonic. I have to say those were the best pieces of popcorn chicken ever (due to my hunger). And I also have to say that that was the crappiest Butterfinger Sonic blast ever. We got totally jipped on the butterfinger.

Saturday, I woke up and started cleaning and de-cluttering my room. Okay, so I'm going to make a confession... I only sleep on one half of my queen-sized bed (although I could use the whole thing, I just don't -- I'm imaginarily confined to "my side" of the bed. One must not pass the 5th parallel, or whatever marks the mid-point of your bed). So, I use the other side for storage... You know, it stores my scriptures and any other book I happen to be reading. So anyway, I had a lot of junk mail to shred and all that. I think it should be illegal to get junk mail. It really irritates me to have to go through it all and shred 50 million credit card offers. Anyway, I talked to my mom that morning, got my sheets in the washer, ate the last of my Fruity Pebbles... Then I went to Wal-Mart and got groceries. And since they didn't have toffee bits, I went to WinnDixie in hopes of finding some there. And then I decided to get butterfingers instead. So I was headed home and starting to put the white bean chili into the crock pot. Well, it calls for vegetable broth. I had very carefully scanned the Wal-Mart shelves for veggie broth. The ONLY veggie broth at Wal-Mart was a box of organic veggie broth by Swanson. $2.72. Sigh... Ordinarily, I would have just substituted chicken broth (which is 50 cents for the Wal-Mart brand), but April is a vegetarian... So, I bought the organic stuff. Or at least I thought I did. Sitting on the shelf next to the organic veggie broth was the "Free range" chicken broth. Turns out I grabbed that in lieu of the veggie broth. And I didn't notice it until after I got home and was about to put the requisite 1 cup of broth into the crock pot. Arg. So, back into the car and back to WinnDixie. Who, I might add, had a significantly cheaper can of Swanson veggie broth... If only I'd have realized I'd be going to WinnDixie, I wouldn't have even bothered with the broth at Wal-Mart... What an adventure. Once that was going, Stefanie helped me bake the cake for the trifle. I also had to cook the pudding for the trifle. I'm not sure why I couldn't use instant, but the recipe said "NOT INSTANT," so I obeyed. I don't know if I will obey in the future, though... I spent the rest of the afternoon continuing my cleaning spree by cleaning my car (and breaking a nail in the process) and raking up a lot of hair from my rug in my bedroom. Ick. I could have made my own hair doll. I have lost a lot of hair. Meanwhile, April was on her way from Jacksonville (where she had been baby-sitting her nephew for the day), and when she was about 30 miles away, her check engine light came on. So, she pulled off to find out what was wrong. Turns out it was the O2 sensor. Why do they even put these in cars? Everyone's seems to go out, but the car still runs. What is its purpose? So, I got a shower and April got there a little after 6:00. We headed over to take pictures with Bear Bryant before it got too dark. It's just something you have to do... take pictures with the statue. It's a landmark. (And I shared that with my class last night during my power point presentation). April wasn't sure where graduation was to take place, so I drove her over to where that will be so she'd know. And on the way, we stopped by where I used to live. It certainly looks different... It's been leveled! My apartment no longer even exists. It's kind of sad, really. Then we traipsed to the library to take pictures on the big steps, because we figure we should have pictures in front of the library, seeing as we ARE future librarians and all that. I'm thinkig the future of libraries is scary... (Just kidding). We started to leave, and I made a comment about how some of these trees on campus are "tree-climbing trees." Well, that resulted in us having to climb the trees. And Elka -- flip flops get all wonky when you're trying to climb a tree. They are a hazard and can fall off at any second. Might as well just go barefoot and lose the possible distraction :). But, then it's painful on my poor tootsies. Lesson learned. I will likely try to climb a tree again in the future though. Monkeys climb trees, you know... So I'd better do that. We stopped by Publix (after a seriously huge let-down that I couldn't climb the second even cooler "tree-climbing tree") because, surprise surprise, I forgot to buy yeast for the cinnamon rolls. Look, if it's not on my list, it's not going to be remembered. Not even if I mentioned it out loud to Stefanie that morning that I needed to get some. Arg. Then it was on to the house... Where we satiated our now monumental hunger with white bean chili and corn muffins and Dr Pepper (I learned last night that there isn't supposed to be a period after Dr). Honestly, wasn't that impressed with the white bean chili. It was too sweet -- probably due to the sweet corn. But, it was food. Then it was time for me to wash the dishes and prepare the dough for cinnamon rolls. Which I did. And while it was rising in the oven, we broke out Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture edition. We soon discovered that using the accompanying DVD was lame. So, we stopped that. I was the Atari joystick, Courtney was the lava lamp, and April was the cool mix tape that had "makeout tunes" on one side (you can see it in the picture of her holding up her winning piece). The makers of Trivial Pursuit think of all the small details... We made the cinnamon rolls (well, except for the baking part) and then returned to our stimulating activity of learning trivia. I still can't believe I didn't win! I was the first one with all my pies, and I made it into the hub on the first try. But, as I can't answer a sports question to save my life... Finally, we decided that there would be no sports questions in the middle. Nobody would have won if we had... So, since you have to leave the hub and re-enter it exactly each time you miss the question, April ended up getting back in there and knowing the answer to the yellow question for the win. Darn! But it was close. Oh yeah, and we did stop at one point to dish up some delicious heaps of trifle. And it was soooo good. By this time, it was 1 in the morning and it was past time to go to bed. So, we retired to our beds and slept the night away.

On Sunday, I woke up at 7:30 to set the cinnamon rolls out to warm up, plus I pre-heated the oven. Then at 8, I popped them in and they were ready by 8:30, which is when I went and woke up April and Courtney. So, the rolls were fabulously delicious and warm and gooey. And yum. At 9:30, I headed to church and April and Courtney left. Turned out April was going to meet with her group mates our crazy class at 11:00, so it was a good thing she was here, since she's the only one who doesn't live locally. After church, I headed home and got a shower and got ready to go to a wedding with Heath, who was a groomsman in the wedding. It was outside of Birmingham, so I got there in good time and the wedding was nice. It threatened to rain, but it didn't end up raining, which was probably good, since it was an outside wedding. The rain waited until it was time to drive home, and then it fell torrentially. So lovely. But, the rain did bring the cooler weather again, which is good, since Stefanie and I finally caved and turned o the a/c on Saturday. It's the humidity, I'm telling you. That's what makes it feel so hot and icky! I got home and talked to my mom on the phone and talked to Stefanie as well, and so I ended up not going to sleep until after 1 in the morning.

So there you have it... That's what it sometimes looks like to "Live la vida Nilla."

*And Julie has guessed the movie quote!*

My Weekend

So Stefanie treated me to lunch on Friday at the Crimson Cafe. I'd never been there before. It was good. I got a Club Grinder, which is basically just a toasted sub sandwich. They put oil on the sandwich (and I mean it was dripping with oil), so that was annoying. And they didn't give me or Stefanie our pickle spears. A true tragedy. So I'll never know if their pickles were of the "not a good pickle" variety :). Haha... Okay, so it really wasn't that tragic. I just thought I'd mention it. But aside from the oil that was dripping off my sandwich, the taste was good and Stefanie and I had a good time visiting. Although I looked really rough. I'll tell you what... I don't understand how you can take pictures that look decent one day and then the next day you can look really really bad. Or even later on the same day that you took the decent picture, you can look bad in a picture. Of course, I've also had it happen where I've taken an ugly picture earlier in the day and then later on I like the way I look in the pictures I take later... What did we ever do without digital cameras that allow you to preview the pictures??? Not to mention the ease of being able to show pictures immediately to everyone else. So anyway, I look pretty bad in these pictures. The badness is ony magnified because Stefanie always looks sweet and cute. And so I look like an ogre. Stefanie, I'm never taking a picture with you again! (Okay, I'm kidding :)).And yeah, I said I was going to use photobucket if I had more than one picture to post. But that's kind of ridiculoous for this type of thing... Maybe when I'm posting a mass picture post where all the pictures are from the same thing...

Friday was payday, so I went to Wal-Mart. It really wasn't too bad. Sometimes Wal-Mart is a nightmare place to be... Especially on Fridays. Then I filled up my tank with gas (at $3.15... and I was proud to get that... What is wrong with the gas prices!!??!!). Then I got home, took a shower, and then went to Virginia's to pick her up, and we went to the Temple. I didn't get home until 11:20ish.

I had to come to school on Saturday to meet with my group for the Wednesday morning class. We met at 10:30. So, I got to sleep in. And sleep in is exactly what I did. I woke up around 9:30. The group meeting went well, and we seem to be well on our way to getting stuff accomplished. We only have about 4 more weeks of class, and I am so ready to be done! It seems that the closer to the end I get, the more I'm itchin' to be finished!!! I spent the rest of Saturday going to the public library and working on school stuff (which included reading more of the book, but I didn't get as far as I'd hoped I would). We had quite a good rain on Saturday evening, which was nice, since it washed away all the pollen on my car. Of course, that will just come back... I also talked to my mom for a long time, as well as Aunt Sue.

On Sunday I went to church, then Jill (my visiting teacher) came over after church. Then David and Ethan (my home teacher and his son) came by. Then I helped Stefanie deliver dinner to the missionaries. Then I made cupcakes for a YSA fireside (and luckily Stefanie was willing to make the frosting and frost them so I could get a shower). The fireside was good. It was about enduring to the end. Yep, sometimes that is the hardest part. After we got home, I talked to Christina briefly, talked to my dad for an hour, and talked to Brad for quite a while (some of it was in the afternoon, though).

So, here's a couple of funnies for you... Brad apparently bought the movie Follow that Bird from the $5 bin in Wal-Mart for his kids. It's about the Sesame Street characters. So he called and told me on Saturday about the very beginning of the movie where the Grouch Anthem is played. He told me to look it up on youtube. So I did. And so here it is for your enjoyment (because it really is funny):


My brother cracks me up!!! Brad tells me that the song has stuff about me. What!? So he clarifies for me... Apparently, because according to Brad, I'm so conceited, the part where Oscar says "something's wrong with everything except the way I sing," is like me because "Oscar thinks a lot of himself too." Okay, so Brad lost some coolness points with that one... Good thing I have to love him, since he's my brother ;).

And finally... This one is for Kristin... Although wikipedia (and, let's face it, are they not the authority on everything ;) -- spoken like a person who would give a librarian a heart-attack) explains quite clearly and concisely that dinner is "the main meal of the day, normally eaten in the evening, but occasionally at lunchtime," Kristin felt the need to prover her point by sending me this:
But I want you to notice, Kristin, that it's only occasionally a lunchtime meal. And the real irony is that it's still called lunchtime :). Not dinnertime :). Dinnertime is usually in the evening :).

I do believe I have some of the greatest people ever in my life!!!

Loads of Fun and Family Foreverness

Yes, I know I am in trouble with several of you who have probably been checking for the last 4 hours, at least, to see my update about my trip. I must apologize. But I seriously just woke up about 30 minutes ago. I called in sick today, because although I was hoping it would go away, the sore throat I woke up with yesterday morning (when I was still in WA) was still hanging around, and then was joined by a congested head and achy neck muscles. So, I think it's a cold, but since Grandma had told us she had gotten sick when she got up on Tuesday, I didn't want to chance that it was the flu, so I stayed home and called in. I still have a sore throat and a stuffy nose, my head still feels congested. But I'll live ;). And I probably needed this rest anyway. I slept HARD. Brad called sometime around 8:50 to see if I'd gotten home okay, and I only kind of recall that short conversation. It surprised him that he had woken me up, since he knew I had planned on going to work. So anyway, that explains the lateness of this post. But it also means I can spend my time tweaking it and making it perfect :). So, anticipate a panoply of pictures, because I certainly took my share for a 2-day trip!

So, as you have probably guessed by now, the post title for my Monday post was, in fact, related to my life and not just a random music title that I just threw up there :). But Christina and Brad and Tarylyn had NO idea I was going, and we wanted to keep it a surprise! Going was a last-minute decision I made last Thursday. I knew Brad and Tarylyn and the kids were going to the Temple to be sealed for time and all eternity on Tuesday. I had looked around at tickets that would fly out the weekend before. Everything was expensive. Over $300. And sometimes over $400, depending on the days I chose. I had pretty much given up, but it just kept coming back to my mind that I should check again. So last Thursday, I checked again... Still no dice. Gave up, went back to doing work. Got the feeling I should check again, repeated that whole thing. Then go the feeling I should check again. I kept telling myself that, if I could find a ticket for less than $200, I'd buy it, no matter when it was. So, I finally played with the dates enough and found one! The saddest part was that it had me leaving Monday afternoon and coming back Wednesday afternoon. So short. But any longer, either before or after, and it would have cost me a minimum of $100 more. So, this is how it had to be. So, I threw all caution (and Nillaness) to the wind and bought the ticket. Because, as Heath once pointed out to me, in ten years, will the annual leave I lost to take the trip or the money the ticket cost me really matter? What would I look back on and regret more? The loss of that money or the loss of the memory? And it's really a no-brainer. I have been blessed to have the money and to be in a situation where I can do this. I will still achieve my goal of being credit card debt free when I leave here, so that's what matters as far as money is concerned. And you will see how my going panned out, and how that was what was important as far as anything else matters.

I went to work on Monday until 11:30. And I have to say I have been so blessed with wonderful friends. April once again was willing to take me to the airport so I wouldn't have to pay to park my car. This meant she would have to pick me up on Wednesday at almost midnight. And she was like, "Not a big deal!" I also had a girl I work with in nursery at church named Emily offer to take me to the airport if I didn't have a ride. And that was really nice of her. I just have been so blessed, and I cannot adequately tell my friends how much they and their kindness means to me. (I did bring April back a dark chocolate Seattle Chocolates truffle bar, but that's not really decent payment for driving to the airport at midnight!). Anyway! So, I got the BHM by 1:00 (thanks again April!) and found out my flight to Chicago had been delayed due to weather, and the flight from Chicago to Seattle had been canceled (a snow storm was going to come through Chicago Monday evening...). So, United Airlines put me on a Continental flight to Houston, and from Houston to Seattle, and I only got in about 10 minutes later than I would have on United Airlines. So all was smooth. Although I was labeled a "secondary female" on my ticket out of Birmingham, so I had to get patted down, and they went through my stuff. I guess maybe it's random. So that was fun. If I had had more time in Houston, I would have taken a picture of me and George Bush Sr. in the Houston airport. They have a huge statue of him. But I had to book it to my connecting flight. My one complaint about my flight to Seattle was that the older couple I sat next to.... Man, the husband really smelled like BO. I'm talking this guy was trying to compete for the "Ooo Stank" award.... Yuck! They were nice, but man, I was sorry every time he reached up to adjust his airflow over his seat or turn on his light or something. Ick. That was a 4.5 hour flight, which felt like a very long time to me. Oh! But they fed us on this flight! Even in Coach! So, I took a picture to prove it, because it was pretty exciting to me! My stomach was starting to gnaw through itself by this point (I try to avoid buying airport food).
Okay, so it wasn't the greatest cheeseburger I've ever had. But it was food, and I was hungry. The flight landed at 8:08 p.m. Seattle time. Which meant I missed the 8:20 airporter by 15 minutes by the time I made it out of the terminal. So, I walked around and waited on the next airporter to take to my mom's. She picked me up, and we headed to Christina's. Keep in mind it's about 11:00 p.m. by this time. Well, my mom had already called Christina and told her she was going to take some stuff over for Desiree. Christina kept telling my mom that it was okay, she could wait, since it was so late. But my mom insisted, saying she'd forget if she didn't. I had also called Christina, telling her I couldn't sleep, so I wanted to chat with her for few seconds. And I got to chat with my munchkin too. Well, so we get there, and I knock on the door with my mom and camera at the ready. I think that picture from yesterday (which is now clickable) just about sums it up :). Christina is so great. She wears her thoughts on her sleeve. I love the raised eyebrows in that picture. I think this picture was taken the second before enlightenment fell on her ;). She was like, "How did you get here?" And I was like, "I flew!" And you know what??? Desiree was smiling and looking at me and I said, "Do you know who I am?" And she nodded her head. I said, "Who am I?" And she said, "Aunt Hoda." Awww. My baby knows me!! And here are a couple more pictures from that first night (oh, I slept at Christina's).

That's Desiree playing with her daddy, Nick. She was turning him into a monster with her "fair godmother wand." She turned me into a cow, and then back into an Aunt Hila. Here's a video of me turning her into different animals (hopefully... if I can figure out how to load up video).



Christina and I didn't go to sleep until about 3 in the morning, because we watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I was exhausted! Oh yeah, and it was so sweet... I do my hair at night (because I really am too lazy to get up early enough to do it in the mornings), so I was doing my hair, Desiree wanted me to "blow-dry" her hair and also spray hairspray in it. So I did. She thought that was the neatest thing.

The next morning I woke up at 8:30 to start getting ready to go. My mom got there at about 9:00, so we hugged and kissed Desiree and hugged Christina, told them we'd see them that night, and headed out to meet Brad and Tarylyn and the kids. We met them in a bank parking lot, so they could get on the ferry right behind us, since they didn't know how to get to the Temple. So, we pull up by their van in the parking lot and just sit there. Both Brad and Tarylyn look over at the car and they are smiling. But there's no real huge reaction about me. Tarylyn looks right at me, smiles, looks down to her lap... And then you can literally watch as it dawns on her... She jerks her head back up and look at me with her mouth gaping open. It was great. And I didn't see Brad's facial expression, but my mom said that she watched his reaction. She said he was smiling as he looked at her, and then he looked in the backseat (Grandpa was riding up front with my mom), saw me, and she said his face lit up. And you know, seeing Christina's face and Tarylyn's face, knowing that Brad's face lit up.... That makes all the lack of sleep, the whirlwind trip, the money, all of it worthwhile. I walked over to the van to speak with them for a second. Brad rolled down his window and said, "I knew you were here, because I could smell you." Haha. Brad is such a dork. I guess I smell all the time, not just at midnight. (Brad, for whatever reason, tends to tell me, when I call him and he answers the phone, he tends to answer it by saying, "You smell.") Anyway, I laughed. Brad cracks me up :). So, we headed over to the ferry (Brad's work stuff was in the van, so there weren't any extra seats for me, so I rode the whole way with my mom). Once we drove onto the ferry and got out of the cars, Saria came running over to me, calling out, "Aunt Hila!" Oh I love these babies! Samuel still remembers me too. So, here are ferry pictures with me and the kids, and me and Brad.
Samuel calls Mt. Rainier "Fudge Mountain." Other lessons from Samuel? Apparently pirates don't eat dirt.... unless they are dead. I don't know. He's Brad's kid, what can I say? And Saria has become such a great reader! I'm so very proud of her! Samuel talks a lot! And he laughs a lot too. He really is just like Brad. The Temple was awesome. Getting to see them all sealed as a family was so neat, and I am so glad I got to be there. Afterwards, we took lots and lots of pictures. So here are several:And this picture is one my mom snapped when we weren't ready. I happen to like it, because I think it captures the essence of the relationship Brad and I have. I run my mouth... he laughs :).
So, we left the Temple and headed back to Grandma and Grandpa's house. I wanted to make sure to see Grandma at least a little bit. She wasn't feeling well, but I still got to see her for a few minutes. Then we all headed over to Brad and Tarylyn's so I could see their house. The kids were super-excited to show me their room. Then we met up with Christina at a restaurant called Shari's. It was really good. And as soon as we came in, Desiree (she and Christina got there before us) ran up and hugged Saria. Isn't this so sweet???
We all had the greatest time. I will admit, I did take a picture of my food. However, I think I will not post it :). It's not that important :). But I did get a group picture of all of us, courtesy of our waitress. I think we look like a happy bunch :).
After dinner, I went back to Christina's. I took a picture with Nick, since I don't have any.I also took this picture of Desiree and me after my shower and before she fell asleep. She's a sweetie.And here's a video of Benjamin and Samuel. Saria had already left for school at this point. But these boys are funny. And you can hear Brad and Tarylyn talking about Samuel's comments on pirates eating dirt in the background. So hilarious.



This was on Wednesday. I flew out at 3:27 on Wednesday, so I had to catch the airporter by 12:30. So Mom took me over to Ben's house (he works nights, so that's why they weren't able to be at dinner). Michelle was at school, so I missed her. But I got to see their oldest son, Sean. The other two (Tony and Royce) were at school also. I have to post this video so you can all laugh at me :). And then are the pictures of me and Ben and then me and Sean.




Mom took me to Safeway (a grocery store) and I bought some Chinese food from their deli (it was very good, actually). This way I didn't have to eat airport food. Mom cried when I left, which I knew she would. I love my mommy. Getting through security was a chore, there were so many people. The flights back were amazingly smooth and totally not crowded. I was still ready to be done with them by the time I landed. On the way back, I went through Denver, CO. Oh, and just for the record, for all of you who say you won't move to Washington because it's "too cold" (Dad), it was beautiful in Washington while I was there. And it was FREEZING, literally, in Alabama when I landed here. It was about 20 to 30 degrees colder in Alabama than in Seattle! And thanks again to April who braved the freeze and picked me up! And then I drove an hour home. So, I got home at about 1:10 this morning, got a shower, and fully intended to go to work today. But I really woke up feeling crappy. And I still feel pretty crappy, at least in my head. I feel congested and like my head is heavy. Ugh. It needs to get better by tomorrow, because I have an interview for my summer internship!

Well, so that's the story of my surprise visit to Washington. I miss my family so much. I can't wait to live close to them! And I'm so thankful I was able to do this!

*And Tarylyn guessed the movie quote!*

My Bags Are Packed, I'm Ready to Go

Although entirely unrelated to this post, that is totally a song title post :). Isn't that a great song? I actually own a CD with Peter, Paul, and Mary's greatest hits. I like the CD. I was raised on a lot of folk music from the 60s. Let's face it, I was raised on a lot of music. It's why my playlist is such a plethora of genres and decades :). Plethora... Julie used that word on Saturday, and I like it :). Although I generally include this CD in the group of gifts from G&G that came during senior moments... Also in this grouping: Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas (we'd never seen it, much less asked for it, and somehow it ended up being my birthday present when I was really hoping for The Three Musketeers -- because I thought Charlie Sheen was HOT in that movie.... hey, there's another "famous crush" of mine from back in the day!); Frank Sinatra's Duets on CD; and the cream of the crop (which I've mentioned before), a VHS tape of Elvis: Aloha from Hawaii. It's not that these are bad gifts by any means. They are just rather odd choices for a 14 or 15 year old, unless said teenager has requested those gifts. And I can vouch for the fact that that particular teenager (i.e. me) did not :). But, I love telling the story. So, I say it was a good trade :).

Wow, I had a super-busy weekend! On Friday I ran out to Wal-Mart and transferred all my pictures on my camera to CD (finally). There were 400 of them! Wow, I've been taking some pictures lately! They spanned November through February. Apparently I was living it up :)! Which would be accurate, seeing as my fun trip to the Northeast, my trip to Julie's, and my trip to Atlanta, along with 3 other girlie nights were included in this 400 pictures! And I said I was vaNILLA... I'm such a liar ;).

Oh yeah, so... My weekend. Okay, so after that, I ran home with all the good intentions of doing school work. However, life usually has other plans for me, so I never got around to doing much schoolwork. Okay, I'm not going to lie. It wasn't life's fault... it was mine. I decided to eat my $1.00 jalapeno poppers for lunch, and figured I didn't really need to do schoolwork at that time. It was much better to savor each popper by watching the rest of Dirty Dancing. So, I took my own advice, and that's what I did :). Well, you know what they say about good intentions ;).... Toad the Wet Sprocket says it's hard to rely on them... I'll have to concur. So, by the time I was actually free to do some schoolwork, it was time to start getting ready for the Temple trip. Several of us from church went to do baptisms, and I rode up there with Stefanie. That was fun. Then she and I came home, stopping through Wendy's on the way home. The prices have gone up! I ended up just getting a Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger, because I am too cheap to pay $1.19 or $1.29 for fries or a frosty to accompany it... What happened to all of these items being $.99? Anyway, Stefanie and I had a good ride home, just chatting away. I'm such a talker.

Saturday I woke up early, because there was a Stake Relief Society Enrichment Meeting to go to. I could not believe how cold it had gotten over-night! I rode with Virginia, Joan, and Pearl. The meeting was awesome. It was all about preparing ourselves, and becoming self-reliant so that we can lift others and help them become self-reliant and prepared as well. There were several different 30-minute classes we could attend. I opted for the ones on bargain buying, food storage, provident living, and then looked at all the other displays for the other 30 minutes of my time. They were great. And there was some great granola snacks (I mean, this was delicious, and I wish I knew who made it), along with a great lunch served at the end. That ended around 1:30, and I got home sometime after 2:00. I talked to Juliebean and got my Juliebean fix for the month (that's what it seems like these days, since we don't seem to talk on the phone as much anymore... But when we do... It's a blast! We talked for probably a total of 2.5 hours! We killed the battery on her cell, so she had to call me back on Jon's, if that tells you anything about the length of our conversation :)). I finished my second article review for the crazy class, and got another article read and annotated for that same class's big project, which is due March 6th. Sigh... I washed 2 loads of clothes, talked to Christina, and watched half of a movie. Oh, and I took a nap, because I only meant to close my eyes, and that was an hour-long blink. Oops. At least I got done with everything I HAD to get done with by today :). And a little extra...

On Sunday I got up and went to church. One of the mothers of one of the nursery children told me the neatest story. She said, "You guys must do a great job teaching the children. Joshua came home last week and told me all about the Holy Ghost. He told me the Holy Ghost doesn't have a real body, but He has a spirit body. And then he said that the Holy Ghost goes, 'Woooo.'" She laughed, and I laughed, and I said, "Well, I didn't teach him that last part! She laughed and said, "Yeah, I know that was his invention... He's been watching a lot of Scooby Doo." It just feels good to know that the children do listen, even at age 2. Sometimes I'm not sure if they are getting anything out of the lessons, because they are all moving around and getting out of their seats. So it is neat to learn that they do learn stuff, and that they are paying attention, even if they don't seem to be. I do love the nursery kids. In fact, this same little boy came over to me while I was cleaning up the toys yesterday to prepare for lesson time, and he grabbed my arm (I was bent over, picking up the toys), and hugged my arm. I thought it was just so sweet. The kids are just so neat, and this calling has been so rewarding and I have really enjoyed it. After church, I worked on reading some more, but dozed off again... for another hour. Virginia called and woke me up, so I ended up going to her apartment to watch a movie, burn more family DVDs and eat popcorn. Yum! So, I have 2 of the 6 DVDs burned for each of us now (that is a total of 5 each). Yay! I didn't end up leaving until about 10:00, and I still had to get a shower... Not to mention the other stuff I needed to do! Of course, I was so wide awake, I didn't fall asleep until after 12:30... I'm tired! But, I'm wired! So, I'm good :).

*And Mrs. S has guessed the movie quote correctly!*

Fire at the Table

So Friday afternoon was a blast. I got off work at 11:45 and met up with my friend Virginia. She treated me to lunch at Pepito's, which is this Mexican place here. Then I took her back to the Engineering building so she could work on grading papers while I went to the post office to pick up my package. It was my semi-new coat! Yay! For picture references, you can re-visit my Tri-City Blitz posts and look at Elka's lovely gray coat. It is awesome. Very warm and snug and looks great! My first real coat :). I was so excited. Brad called me while I was doing all this. He is hilarious. And I have to add this: he's a dork :). Not for any particular reason. He just is ;). And maybe he's reading this... After that, I went and helped Virginia organize some of her papers she has to grade and then headed home to get a quick shower and get ready to go to the Temple. So Virginia and I headed over the Birmingham Temple and got there around 5:45. It was a very cold evening. So I wore my coat :). And it kept me toasty warm. After the Temple, we decided we were hungry enough to eat again (lunch was very filling), so we pulled off the Interstate and ate at a place called Jade Garden. I've really eaten a lot of Chinese and Chinese-type food recently, which is suprising :). Actually, this restaurant was very good. We got the Pu Pu Platter and some Vegetarian Chow Mein, and we split all of that. I have to say, I was impressed with the presentation of the Pu Pu Platter. It came out in the bowl in the picture and in the middle was fire! So I had to go grab my camera and take a picture! And I was able to coerce my camera into taking one more picture on dying batteries. So yay :). Oh, and according to my fortune cookie, "An unexpected event will soon make your life more exciting." Hmmm... How exciting does it have to be to make a vaNILLA life more exciting? Are we talking finding a shiny new penny on the ground-exciting or finding the man of my dreams-exciting :)? Yeah, probably the penny. Because that's about all it takes to make my life exciting ;).

I will, of course, be posting numerous pictures in my next post about Atlanta. But suffice it to say, for the moment, that I survived :). When I got my shower tonight (can you tell this is totally unrelated to anything? Isn't that just so Nilla of me?), I used this conditioner that Jeni gave me a while back. She gave me several different ones and I've been making my way through them. So I finally got to this one called "Trader Joe's". Oh my gosh! You know that smell that the Jergen's lotion used to smell like? It smells like that. I LOVE that smell! It smells so good! Well, except when, in attempting to smell it some more, you squeeze the bottle to get a whiff of it and some of the conditioner comes out and goes up your nose. Then it's a bit too strong. But other than that, I LOVE the smell :). Oh, and other random story: So Stefanie comes to my room after my shower and goes, "I need some help." She was trying to put a barrette-looking clip back onto a bag of sugar. She had to borrow the sugar from the guy next door. Now, this is the guy who I think secretly wants to be an exhibitionist. He lives on the ground floor, with his huge sliding glass doors facing the parking lot, and he keeps his blinds open all the time. And, although I've never witnessed this, Stefanie says he likes to walk around without a shirt on. So we always refer to him as "shirtless guy." So Stefanie said we should invite him over for dinner some time and I was like, "Yeah, only if we post a sign that says, "No shirt, no shoes, no service." Haha. I'm so corny :). Anyway, so she borrowed this sugar from him and was like, "I don't know how to put this clip back on, it's funky! I don't want to look like an idiot when I return it!" Well, I couldn't figure it out either (turns out it's a Pampered Chef thing) (Also turns out you have to be a rocket scientist to be pampered, because neither of us could figure that barrette-looking thing out ;)). So Stefanie just returned it to him with the clip left off. Then, when she came back, she told me about having gone over to ask him if she could borrow it. Now, this is hilarious to me. She said he invited her in when he went to ge the sugar. So she went in. And she said to him, "Don't you usually not wear a shirt?" Oh Stefanie... I was like, "You asked him that!?!?" She was like, "Yeah. He laughed. Then he said, 'yeah, but it's cold now.'" Oh Stefanie... She cracks me up. What can I say?

And Tarylyn (my sis in law) created a blog! Yay! I am a good recruiter. I deserve a cookie :). Well, for now, that's all I have to say. Tomorrow, however, I will have a post replete with pictures. So, check back soon :)! I feel like I'm trying to sell something :)...

Tri-City Blitz Day #3 - Washington, D.C.

Side note: having 4 separate parts to my tri-city blitz makes it so nice for post-title purposes :). I don't have to wrack my brain for a nifty title more than once, because I just tweak it to reflect the day and city :). But anyway...

Saturday, December 8, 2007

Well, due to the fact that we'd had such an early morning on Friday, we decided to leave later in the morning for D.C. I had spent Friday night at Katherine's house, so I was woken up by her cell phone singing "Oh When the Saints Go Marching In." She was in the shower, so I just informed her of the call when she came downstairs. She said it was probably our moms calling to make sure we were awake because they were on their way over (which would have been earlier than planned). It turns out that it was our moms, but they were just calling to check on something and hadn't left home yet -- oh, I just remembered what they were checking on: food. They wanted to know if we wanted them to bring the extra cheese olivettes and the pretzels I bought (the misspelled ones) to snack on on the way down. And just so you know, food was a large part of our trip :). Oh, and if I haven't mentioned it before, my aunt lives only 7 minutes away from my cousin. Okay, so Katherine and I finish getting ready and our moms pull up around 8:20 and we pile into the car. And away we go! We stopped at Wawa on the way (yet another different one, so this makes Wawa #4). Katherine had to fill up the gas tank, and check this out: They have the gas station attendants in New Jersey! They do the work for you! Pretty nifty. And wonderful day! This Wawa wasn't out of hot chocolate!!! So, I took my opportunity to have fabulous hot chocolate and got a 20-ounce cup of it. With vanilla steamer mixed in. Oh yum. Oh, and I bought a boston cream doughnut. So yummy. So we get back into the car and on our way again. And we are driving along yakking up a storm when all of a sudden Katherine's hot chocolate spills everywhere!!! She'd picked it up by the lid and it wasn't on very well, so the whole 16 ounces of delicious hot chocolate spilled all over her. Which, in my opinion, is totally tragic, because that is some good hot chocolate. That might have been enough to make me cry at the loss of that stuff :). Anyway, so we pulled off the road so Katherine could clean up her seat and put a towel down. And then we had to stop into Wal-Mart so she could buy a new outfit, because the other one was soaked in hot chocolate. Katherine is amazingly upbeat and happy, even when things like that happen. I was impressed. I usually get frustrated at situations like that ;)!

So after that little adventure, we got on the road again. We talked and laughed the whole way. We listened to some of the Christmas culture of the Northeast. And quite frankly, because I would be willing to bet that most people who read my blog have never heard this before, I'm going to share it. So you must click here and listen to one of the most popular songs in the Northeast at Christmas-time. And FYI, while driving down to D.C., we went through Delaware (we actually stopped there to use the restrooms) and Maryland. And even though we made a couple of wrong turns on the way, we used them to our advantage so we could change clothes (since we decided to go to the Washington, D.C. Temple before the monuments). So as you are driving along on the Interstate (I think it's I-95 South), you round a bed and this is what you suddenly see in front of you:
It's just beautiful. And the grounds surrounding it are very beautiful, even in the winter. We all went through and did a session, which was a neat experience, us all being together. And afterwards, we took a lot of pictures. For the sake of time, I will only post a couple. But suffice it to say that, among our 4 cameras, we easily took 30 or more pictures. And for the record, I was not trying to be cute in the second picture. I had the camera set on something and on timer, so I didn't know if it would cut off my head if I stood up straight :). We went into the Visitors' Center to see the Christmas displays inside there. They had Nativities from around the world, which was really neat. They also had Christmas Trees decorated, and each tree was decorated according to a different region of the world. So they had a tree for the Americas and the Caribbean Islands. And it had a pollera from Panama on it! It was so cool:
And the Visitors' Center in D.C., like the one in Salt Lake City, UT, has a Christus statue. It has to be one of the most peaceful statues I have ever seen. The implications of the statue , the idea that the Savior is inviting all to come to Him, really are amazing and offer so much hope and comfort.
After leaving the Visitors' Center, we went to the bookstore and spent money (ah, such a fun thing :) ) and changed clothes, since we knew we'd be hoofing it around D.C. And we were back on the road. But by this time, it's getting to be dusk, so we pretty much know that we're going to be walking around D.C. in the dark. So as we drive down there, Katherine says, "Well, the good thing about going to D.C. at night is that all the traffic will be leaving!" Just keep that comment in mind for future reference :). So we do manage to make it into D.C., but it looks like we're going through a relatively bad part of town. So we try to not look like tourists by closing the road map and turning off the dome light in the car. Oh yeah, we werehungry clear back before we went to the bookstore, so by this point our stomachs "have started digesting themselves" (as Katherine so eloquently put it). Hahaha! So we swing into the first thing everyone can agree on, which is Wendy's. We finally get our food there (and they left out the granola for Katherine's much-anticipated yogurt and granola - she was quite disappointed) and get back out into traffic. And we eat while we drive. At first, we see signs for the monuments. But then we see a sign telling us to turn left, but we weren't in the right lane, so we had to keep going straight. And for some reason, we just kept on going straight. And there are people everywhere!!! So we eventually decide to pull out the map again and figure out where we are. And so we have to turn around, once we've discovered the route to get to the monuments. So I'm navigating and Katherine is driving and our moms are in the backseat. Katherine tells them to help us look for a certain road sign, and they are doing good for a while. And then they get off topic and start talking about something else. And then Katherine and I are trying to figure out if we're still on the right track, and Aunt Hila says, "Okay Debbie (my mom), start singing." Because her philosophy was that if they were singing, they couldn't get in trouble if we made a wrong turn because it wouldn't have been their fault. Or something along those lines. It was so funny. I can't really do the story justice by telling it. But it was so hilarious.

Okay, so to explain D.C. and actually the Northeast: they have these things called circles. For anyone from Dothan, these are not huge circles like the Ross Clark Circle, where you actually can turn left. In a circle, your only option is to turn right. They are kind of like a wheel and the roads coming off the circle are like the spokes on a wheel. If that makes sense. And actually, as luck would have it, I found a picture of the perfect example (in fact, I think it was the one in question during our trip):
Please disregard the green arrow, because I don't know what it's pointint to. However, we were on Connecticut Ave the whole time and we were trying to get to Massachusetts Ave. If you'll notice the circle, you see that there are no left-hand turns. So Massachusetts Ave. will pick up on the other side of the circle as well as the one you see on the map. So we start going around the circle and Katherine says she thinks we need to take the first right. But we don't see a road sign, and I'm looking at the map and I see other little roads that seem to be connecting to the circle as well, and I think those little roads are the roads we are seeing at first, not the one we should go down. So she listens to me and we keep going around the circle. And then I see the sign for Massachusetts Ave. So I say, "There, that one." And she says, "No, we'd be going the wrong direction, we want the other Massachusetts that we already passed." And I'm like, "No, we can't have passed it, we just started going around the circle!!" And she's like, "No, there was another Massachusetts at the beginning." But I'm telling you, I have no clue how we went around that circle so quickly that we passed Massachusetts twice by the time we were having the conversation. And at some point in my brilliant conversation (oh yeah, because she did turn down the road I told her to turn down, but we were going the wrong way) I said, "But you have to take this one, because you have to turn right onto Massachusetts!" And she said, "Hila, it's a circle. You always have to turn right!" And in the backseat, we start hearing Aunt Hila singing, "Laaaaaa." So that way she was absolved of any guilt :). Hahaha... We laughed so hard. Anyway, so we made our way back onto Dupont Circle and took the correct right turn onto Massachusetts and we were going in the right direction.

Okay, so FINALLY make it down to the monuments and there are masses of people and cars parked everywhere. Remember Katherine's earlier statement that I told you to remember for future reference? Well, now is the future. Seriously, cars everywhere. It took us about 30 to 45 minutes to find a parking place (not to mention the time we spent going in circles... literally). And I'm not even sure how we ended up back where we ended up when we finally did get a parking place. But it was several blocks away from the monuments, so we were walking again. Oh, and we had to have a potty break, so we had to find an open building. Would you believe coffee shops in D.C. close at 7 on a Saturday night? That's worse than Dothan! Who'd have ever thought it? Oh, and coincidentally, as we walked closer to the monuments, we saw more and more parking places that we had somehow missed on the first trek around. So we ended up sending Aunt Hila back to get the car while Katherine and I found a potty and my mom waited for us. And then we realized we probably should have sent Aunt Hila with one of our cell phones, because she had lost hers (or possibly gotten pick-pocketed) in NYC. Anyway, she wasn't coming back and wasn't coming back, so Katherine ran to find her. It turns out she got lost at first and said she really felt like she really was getting Alzheimers, because she had no idea where we were parked. But then she found the car and Katherine found her. So the car got moved closer to the monuments. And we were on our way. Our first stop was the back side of the White House (oh, and did I mention there were tons of people?).
And when we got around to the other side of the white house, we suddenly see why there are so many people: they are doing the National Christmas Tree Lighting and the burning of the Yule Log. Ah yes... We totally knew that and we totally planned it this way :). Just kidding. But it was cool to see the big Christmas Tree. Taking pictures in front of it was a chore, because there were people EVERYWHERE. But I got a few. Here's one:
We next headed over to the Washington Monument, thinking we were going in the right direction toward the Lincoln Memorial. However, as is par for the course on this trip, we were not going in the right direction. However, there were potties down where we ended up, so our moms used those before we finally got our bearings (with the help of some other tourists) and got pointed in the right direction. But here's me at the Washington Monument:

We walked over in the direction of the Lincoln Memorial (I'm telling you, it's hard at night to see very far, so it was easy for us to not know which way to go). We stopped at the World War II memorial first, because that is the war in which my Grandpa served and we wanted to take pictures. So this first one is of me and my mom and the second one is of my mom and aunt sitting on either side of the place where my Grandpa served, and the third one is of me and Katherine doing the same. We next found our way to the Korean War Memorial. I really can't even express how awesome all of these memorials are. This particular memorial... the statues of the soldiers were amazing. The fear was captured on their faces so well. Oh, and there is a wall near this monument with one simple phrase carved into it: Freedom is not free. That touched me.
Next we headed over to the Lincoln Memorial. I have always always wanted to see the Lincoln Memorial. I don't know why, exactly. But I have. And so I was finally able to. And it is massive.
Now, I have never been to D.C. before, ever. So I cannot say this from my own experience. But both my aunt and my cousin said they can't believe how much better it is to come at night. You miss the crowds, people talk more quietly, and there is just more of a sense of reverence. And because of this, we were able to see something that both my aunt and cousin had missed the other times they've come, due to the crowds. On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial are carved the words "I have a dream," memorializing the speech Martin Luther King, Jr. gave from the steps in the 1960s. It makes sense that he would give his speech at the Lincoln Memorial. I just don't think I'd ever really thought about it and made the connection before. But anyway, I took a picture with it:Our last stop for the evening was the Vietnam Wall. I have to say that I think it was best that we ended our tour with this monument. I have heard from several people that you can feel a difference when you walk through this monument. I can now say that I have felt it. The crowds were not large, so there wasn't the automatic hush that others have described, because it wasn't really noisy in the first place. However, as I passed the first part of the wall, I could feel a change. It almost seemed to get a little warmer. I know of no other way to describe it. I took a picture pointing toward the name of someone my friend Annie knew who was killed in Vietnam. I will also say that I had no idea the massive numbers of names on these walls. It is sad. I had no idea that the walls became as tall as they do. And they are filled with names. Literally filled.

And after this, our conversation changed. Each of the four of us has had (or still has) a family member in the service who has gone to war. My aunt's husband Harrell served with the Marines in Vietnam. My cousin's husband just got back from a stint in Iraq with the Air Force. My brother Brad (and therefore my mother's son) also spent time in Iraq with the Air Force. We know what it is to worry about someone in a war zone. We know the cause for which they are serving. And we know the price they may be asked to pay. And this wall memorializes many, many men and women who paid that price.

Even now, since I wrote this, it is hard to change back into a light-hearted mood in this post. Seeing this monument, along with the others that honor our veterans and fallen soldiers, will change you forever. This ended our tour of D.C., and we headed home.

Upon getting into the car, Aunt Hila said, "We need to refill." And Katherine said, "I think we have enough gas to make it." And Aunt Hila said, "I'm talking about food." See, I told you food was a big part of this trip :). We got stuck in some traffic on the way home (we aren't even sure what happened, but it literally slowed all traffic to a stop). We somehow ended up in Virginia for a short time (while on the Interstate). And we did stop at something called the Maryland House and we bought some food and hot chocolate or apple cider from Starbucks. And we got home at 3 in the morning. I said goodbye to my mom that night/morning. She cried. My aunt Hila thought she was saying goodbye to me that night too, but since my flight left later on Sunday, I was going to get to see her again on Sunday, so she stopped crying and said, "Oh good, I don't have to cry now then."

What an emotional day. But it was so wonderful.

Oh, and if the crazy font is all messed up, I'm sorry. This kind of thing aggravates me, but I tried to fix it and I am sure it didn't work. Arg.