2012

Last year I wasn't that great at blogging all of my fun adventures. So, to catch up, here is last year...in pictures.

I started making paper word beads. My sister Heather created them and I took over her etsy shop selling them. I also take care of Charlotte, she is a cutie!

                                 I went to Boston with friends...where everyone knows your name!

  For those of you who don't know...it's against the law in New Jersey to pump your own gas. So, for my birthday last year my friend and I went to Newport, RI. That was the first time I pumped gasoline in a really long time.

             This pic is the Single Adult Memorial Day Picnic...what a day. We had to stay for 8 hours. The heat was making us miserable, but when you are in charge of the activity, you get to stay the entire time. Here we go, all of us, Me, Jolene, Belinda, Luis, Sara, Geovanny, Rilee.

 Charlotte was blessed to become a big sister to little Harper Rose. As you can see, Charlotte likes to play dress up with baby Harper.

  My friends and I went into NYC for the day and went to the chocolate restaurant Max Brenner. The above pic is of onion rings sprinkled with chili powder and cocoa, with Chocolate Ranch dip on the side. It tasted alright surprisingly!

    This was a really really hot summer July day in NYC. You can't tell because of all of the bright lights, but it was actually about 9 pm when this picture was taken. I was melting, as you can see. I think the temp was in the high 90s, and 100% humidity.

   My friend Jolene and I like to go to Liberty State Park and watch the sunset, it is a great way to relax and enjoy the moment. It is also nice to see the sun go down and see all of the lights go on in NYC.

   I LOVE sushi. I took a pic of this because it was so pretty. It was just as yummy as it looked too!

                I got a temp job in midtown NYC, and passed this lovely waterfall everyday. I would sit here before work sometimes and just enjoy the quiet moment in the city.

                                 
                                                                   Me at work!

                                 My friend Jolene at our ward's Trunk or Treat...all of the kids were so excited that we made homemade Root Beer. It was fun!

  Right after the trunk or treat, we had a little storm...Sandy. The trees above are just some of the many that were down. We lost power for 12 days, and the pic below shows how we were connected to a generator outside that allowed us to have water, power, heat, and a few other basics.

       The grocery stores looked like this after the storm...scary when all of the shelves are empty.

   We cheered when we saw power trucks, because we knew how hard the employees were working. It was amazing and exciting to see power trucks from other states all around NJ. Not that you can tell, but these trucks are from Utah.

  After the storm, the commute into NYC was challenging. Usually when taking the train, the conductors are very anal about not letting anyone block the walkways and stairs. However after the storm they were just trying to fit as many people onto the few working trains as they could. They didn't even bother to check for train tickets. So many people had free rides!

California

Hello!
    I saw my sister post a pic of her and I from last year and it reminded me that I never blogged about my time in San Diego last spring. It was fabulous! I was a temp nanny helping a family move back to SD, so I was able to be out there for about three weeks. During that time I was able to do lots of fun stuff. The best part was my sister and her hubby driving down to see me, the beach and the temple.

Me and Heather, at the San Diego Temple. We had a fun time together.

Heather and Brian, being cute. Wow, I just realized that this was the last time I saw them, almost a year ago, and before that, 18 months or so. Luckily we can Skype now!!

I borrowed her idea of taking pics from the "flowers" view of the temple.

Now, the beach!

I was so surprised that I had a great time in San Diego. I have not liked CA for a long time, but San Diego was great, not too hot, and that made all of the difference! Definitely need to go back again.

Turkey & Flowers

Hello Everyone,
  
  See, another post sooner than the last!! Yay, I'm gettting better. This post is from last fall. My friend Jolene and I went to visit her family who live just outside of Alexandria, VA. They were great about letting us crash in their play room and help them eat their turkey for Thanksgiving. The day after, they let us pick the activities for the day, kind of. They said we had to go to D.C. (twist our arms) so we went to the Botanical Gardens. Wow, it was amazing.

When you go to Botanical Gardens, you absolutely expect to see gorgeous flowers. They were breathtaking. I need a better camera, because when I tried for some close ups, they were blurry.

 I was surprised to learn that every year there is a display of important landmarks created from nature, twigs, sap, leaves, etc. They were beautiful to see. The pics don't do them justice. These are just a few.

I took lots and lots of pictures, it was hard to put up so few, I definitely would love to get back again next year.
  Also on the agenda was the D.C. temple which I haven't been to in years, since I went with my sisters.
Here is Jolene and myself.

Nope, we didn't plan to wear the same color, it just worked out that way. There was a wedding going on, and they were so cute. That's all for now!

Paul & Friends

Hi! Wow, it's been a long time, but I hope to do better and post more frequently. I have done lots of fun things, that I need to share.

   Last November, I went to see Paul Byrom preform in the city. Two of my friends who had never heard of him were kind enough to go with me. Paul used to be in Celtic Thunder, an Irish singing group? for lack of a better word. I was so excited to go, and my friends were great for letting me be silly.

We were waiting for the show to start. We arrived a few minutes early and good thing, because Paul came out 15 minutes early.

The pics are not the best, because of the lighting, sorry. The show was amazing, Paul is an all around entertainer, he is hilarious, as well as having a fantastic voice.

Not only were we excited to see Paul, we were at B.B. Kings place, which is amazing in and of itself. Here is David, showing us the cool chairs. Silly yet fun!

After the show, we were able to meet him and have him sign our stuff.

There are many more pics, but more of the same. Way fun, thanks guys for going with me. More to come, promise!!

Hurrican Irene

Hi Everyone,

   This past weekend we had the hurricane hit. On Friday I went to go purchase supplies, because I didn't have all  that I needed. It was chaos at the stores. No stores had batteries or flashlights. The only candles that were available were tea lights or decorative. Luckily I had friends who shared what they had. Normally I have supplies on hand, this time around I needed to stock up. 
   At the stores people were a bit crazy, in the parking lot two women were screaming over a parking spot. I live in a wooded area, surrounded by trees and more trees. It is beautiful, but not great for power lines. 

 We lost power Saturday night by 10pm. We thought it strange, because the storm was just beginning to hit our area, so it was strange. We live in an older house, so lost not only power, but water as well. Luckily we can flush the toilet if we can pour a bucket of water into the tank to refill the water in the bowl.  On Sunday we went out for drive, to see how everything was. We turned from our street onto the main road and we saw the reason we still don't have power.

I drove by this morning and it was still blocked off, and not touched yet. Too bad, because that means there are worse areas that need to be fixed before this.  During our drive we stopped at a church member's house and they still had power. They only live about a mile away from us. We stayed and ate and played games. They we got a call that someone needed a shop vac to suck up the water flowing into their basement. So three sister missionaries, Bro Jones, and myself left to go help. On a good day it was only about twenty minutes from where we were in Mendham. This was not a good day to drive, but we still went.

On one road it was flooded, but the water didn't look too deep, so we tried to cross. I volunteered to get out and walk in front of the car to see how deep the water was.

I walked about fifty feet before it came up to my knees and we decided to turn around. Behind me the water was flowing a bit faster and was making me a bit nervous...good thing we turned around then.
    We never did make it to help the person, but in the time we spent out on the road, we were able to see first hand how much damage and chaos the hurricane left behind.

I will post more later.

Cake Boss

There is this show on TLC that showcases a bakery in Hoboken, NJ. Carlo's Bakery. I have watched the show with a few of my sisters. The bakery is a family bakery, currently run by Buddy, the brother in the family. The others that work in the bakery are various family members, sisters, cousins, and so on.
   I have heard rumors about how crowded it would be, and how you would have to wait in line for hours, just to go into the bakery. Well, my nanny employer at the time was preparing to move back to CA and one thing she wanted to do before the move, was to go to Carol's Bakery. We arranged a day, and the kids and I were going to meet her there.

This is me and baby Cole, and as you can see, there was no line to wait in. It was a Friday evening in May, while school was still in session, before tourist season hit. If you look closely, you will notice that it is packed inside the bakery.

 
 It was a "treat" to see one of the brother-in-laws come down and talk to an employee for a few minutes. I forgot his name. Do you see the stairs in the back? They were filming then, so a lot of people were going up and down the stairs. The sound guys came and stood behind the counters for a bit as well. It was cool.

 They had cakes displayed everywhere on the walls and counter tops.

We bought the pink cake and it was tasty, as well as pretty. It was hard to look at everything they had, because it was so crowded. I ended up buying an apron that said Carlo's Bakery on it, and of course I had to buy cupcakes. 

There were two flower ones that were just plain yellow, the red velvet were the two in the middle and peanut butter cup on the right. I shared some with my friends, but I had to try each one, just to make sure they were yummy. I was surprised at how tasty they were. 

That is me tasting the red velvet, my favorite. It was yummy! 

Hi Everyone,

  Sorry, it has been awhile since I last posted. I hope to do better and post more often. Today's post is about my drive from UT to NJ. I had a temp nanny job that began March 7th. So I decided to start the drive out on the previous Wednesday. 

   The weather didn't cooperate with me, so I ended up leaving in the middle of a snowstorm. Looking back, it wasn't the smartest thing I ever did, but I had to get myself out there, so I went for it.The first picture is of a lonely back road that connects UT to WY. 

This picture was from looking right outside my car, I was looking down and sideways, make sense? I didn't look up into the sky for this pic, that was how high I was up in the mountains. Was I scared? You bet, but I had no room in my head for that, I was focused on driving.

  While a bit scary, the scenery was beautiful and helped me focus on the beauty of the day, instead of the driving conditions. I was blessed to make it to NJ the night before I was to start my temp job.