Christlike Love

November 11, 2013
   Today I was shown an example of Christ like love by a woman I never knew.
   This morning Vance and I got up extra early in order to get to a church building in Twin Falls so I could register for classes and so that Vance wouldn't be late for work because of it. After getting registered for all the classes I needed we drove over to Vance's work and he headed in. Well because I am still getting used to driving and I knew that the church building by the temple was open I headed that way. While driving up I saw an old woman go in the building, so I decided I would make sure she knew I was there (I didn't want to scare her) and to see if it was ok for me to stay there. I got to the building and tried the doors, they were locked but that wasn't the side we went in before so I walked around and went in. I heard the organ playing and headed for it. I was expecting her to turn when I came in but nothing, not even when I got right up on the stand. When the music got a little quieter I made a little noise trying to get her attention. I told her my plans and she said it should be fine but  how long was I going to stay and replied till about 3:00, it was only 7:30am at the time and I told her my reason. She just sat there for a little bit and then asked if I wanted to go home with her, the church building didn't have any heating on yet and her house was a warm 76 degrees. I kindly declinded and said how I had brought stuff to do and I dont mind the cold. Well that wasn't good enough for her she told me that she was going to practice the organ for a little but more then we were going to head back to her place.
   Well we left and headed to her place, which was just across the street. We got in and she showed me her house and how she came to live there.
   She used to live in Logan taking care of her mother who has Alzheimer's. Because the temple was so close on Logan she was able to go there and back before her mother woke up. Soon her children told her she needed to move close to at least one of them, she thought about it when one day one of her daughter's called her and told her that Gordon B. Hinckly had been to Twin Falls and announced that there was to be a temple. She was going to move now. At first she lived on the other side of town in an apartment. But she layer got a call from her other daughter who is in releastate and told her to see if there was any property near the temple and if so to buy it. She found a lot right across from the temple and bought it with the promise that her daughter was going to build a house there for her. Now she lives literally facing the temple.
  Anyways... so after the tour I sat down at the table (I was too shy to sit anywhere else) She would talk to me know and then about her kids and what not. While I wrote in my little blue journal. Once I was done with it we talked a little while she cleaned her kitchen. Soon I got a call from Vance just asking if I wanted to eat lunch with him, since I was actually in town. I told him a little about my situation and declined the offer because that would mean more driving by myself... which I didn't think I could handle. He understood and we said goodbye and hung up. The woman asked me if that was my husband unsaid yes and told her what was going on. Well she surprised me yet again. She told me that she going and feeds her mom lunch at that time (her mom and her husband are both in a nursing home now) and if I wanted she could take me over to have lunch with Vance and pick me up I was done. I immediately said yes, thank you and I called Vance back.
  We still had a while till then and when she was done with what she was doing she asked me what I was working on (my little blue book) I told her that it was a journal I was keeping off all the "adventures" my husband and I had had and I asked her if she wanted to look through it. She was so excited. She needed to go visit a friend who just got out of the hospital but she couldnt wait to go through the book.
   While she was away I got a little more comfortable and moved to a comfier seat and called my mom to tell her all how I got kidnapped by an old lady in a church building.
   Once she got back she commented on how she was happy I moved to a softer chair :) I asked her about the pictures she had in her house (her kitchen had a little outside counter thing full of them) and she proceeded to introduce me to everyone, to her children, grandchildren and even great grandchildren! Her family was huge full of blood relatives and people who just adopted her as their grandmother. her house was also covered in pig things, she told mw how's she collected them and then proceeded to show me some of the funnier once that her son had given her, like a beanie baby kosher pig that he had a butcher do for him, it had the stamp and all.
   Pretty soon it was lunch time, she had some coconut covered marshmallows and gave some to me to share with Vance for dessert. We left and ended up stopping at Kmart because she needed to pick up something's. After that she dropped me off to where I was going to meet Vance and then headed off to the nursing home. I told Vance the whole story and we laughed about how crazy it was. 
   Vance headed back to work and I only had to wait a little bit till she came back. Once back at her place we were about to get started on my journal when her daughter called her. Earlier we had picked up some donut holes for this daughter. I guess this is something that she does everyday. She helps her daughter out in her class (she's a teacher) and brings her donut holes everyday. So we headed out to where her daughter worked, she wanted her to meet me so her daughter wouldnt get on her for bringing a stranger home.
   Once back we started on the book. I told her how I was the one to chase Vance not him chase me and she laughed because that as kinda how her and her first husband had met. (I say first because she had been married before he current husband. He died when his truck was blown over by the wind. The amazing thing is how he would usually take their son with him but this time he decided not to. But anyways her first husband is the one she is and always will be sealed to, she said she is never giving it up) anyways she told me how when she was registering for classes, back when you do it all in person, she had seen him across the room and their eyes met. She went home and told her mom that she foo d a guy she wanted to go on a date with, and later she learned that he went home ans told his mom that he and found the girl he was going to marry. Well everyday for weeks she would walk ( she said stomp) past all the class rooms hoping he would see her and ask her out. Until finally one day he did. I guess he was expremely shy on the date and ended by said that he had a question he wanted to ask her but he was afraid she was going to say no, she just said it never hurts to ask and so he said, "will you go steady with me?" She was so excited, finally! Haha
  So we continued on with my book she would ask about every picture and comment on them. saying how cute we were together and how handsome Vance was. When we got to the section on Skype I told her how for a period of time we were apart and had to Skype. This lead to her telling me another story about how only after going steady for a few months her husband had to go to Korea of training, he was going into the marines. The first letter she got from his was different than she thought it was going to be instead of the dry, hi how are you I am fine... it was Hi Honey!!! 
   We talked and talked and I just learned and learned we kept going through the nook and told each other stories of our loves.
   Finally the time came for me to leave and go get Vance so she drove me back to my car and before I got out I just told her thank you and hugged her. Then she did something very unexpected, from a pocket in her car she pulled out a 20 dollar bill and said do something fun with you husband. We said I love you too each other and I left.
   Earlier she told me how miraculous is was that we met. She usually practices earleier because she helps her daughter with class but since there was no class she decided to be a little lazy and wait, which I guess is very rare for her. And then she said how the doors shouldnt had been open for me to get in.
   Spending my day with her taught me so much I loved hearing all the stories she had and how our lives were so similar. All throughout the day she was giving me advice that I hope I never forget And the funny thing is its stuff that I have been trying to learn and had been struggling with. She didn't know, she had barely just met me and was following what she thought her Heavenly Father wanted from her. When I was telling Vance about her he told me how she reminds him of me. I hope that one day i can be as kind and loving as her, that I can have the courage to invite someone in need into my home.
   When we were first talking about my book she told me to cherish every moment I have with my husband and to cherish the little blue book. I barely even know this woman but I can truley and honestly say I love her... Eloise Shirley Bringhurst.

Flight Back to the States

We left the hotel around 7 in the morning, with everything (or so we thought). Once we were at the airport Melanie realized that she had left her purse (thus her passport and all) back at the hotel… It was decided that Gladysue and Mel would just have to change their flight to tomorrow and I would just head back with this flight since I had to catch a flight tomorrow to get back to California. Luckily I have an amazing aunt and she was able to (all while still being in Paris) arrange for someone to pick me up from the airport and for someone to take me tomorrow. So I continued on without them.

The actual flight was long… I had finished The Hobbit while waiting in the airport and on the plane I finished Call of the Wild as well as watch two and a half movies. I was only able to fall asleep once and a while and not for long (the longest was about an hour). Near the end I was anxious to get off, my legs and back hurt a lot.

As the plane parked I called Gladysue and figured out what was going on. Her roommate was going to pick me up and take me back to her (Gladysue's place).  I made it through customs and headed out to where we were going to meet and them came back to the house, where I just relaxed, wanting to sleep but I wouldn’t let myself at least not until later… but that didn’t end up happening… After about an hour I woke up to Skype Vance and fall back asleep.

Our Last Full Day in Paris

So I forgot to say this yesterday but we finally had escargot (snails) they really weren't that bad once you got past what they were.

 

Now for today well not much happened, Mel and I slept in till about 12 but didn’t actually do anything but read till 1. From there we got together with Gladysue and got lunch (I had one of the best burgers in the world!)  then headed to the shopping around the Louvre for last minute  shopping. Which is also where we got more rose ice cream.

 

I got strawberry this time to make it look even more like a rose… But yeah after shopping we headed back and just relaxed we were all really tired after this week…

Rose Ice Cream and a Ballet

Today is my relax day. As our trip has progressed the days have become more and more relaxed. After sleeping in I took my time in getting ready and then headed to the Metro station. My plan for the day was to go to the Louvre and just leisurely go through it, but once I got off the Metro I realized that my Museum Pass was done. Since it was my relax day I decided I didn’t want to go through the hassle of ticket lines and crowds of people so I walked through Tuileries (the garden/park by the Louvre)

 

(I found a Carousel)

After wandering around a bit I headed to the shopping area under the Louvre to get a rose shaped ice cream.

 

It was delicious… I was kinda sad that I had to destroy the flower though…

Another thing I wanted to do besides the Louvre was go to a book store I went to earlier that week and get some books.

 

One was a Doctor Who version of Where's Waldo, and the other was a book on Joan of Arc by Mark Twain, which I guess Twain thinks is one of his best works, so needless to say I am very excited to read it.

There wasn’t much I wanted to do in that area so I headed back to the hotel where I relaxed and wrote on postcards.

A little later once homework was finally finished Gladysue and Melanie got back from the conference and we went to eat. After dinner we got ready for the ballet and headed out. The Opera House was huge.

 

(ok so this picture is from yesterday… I didn't bring my phone or camera… so yeah…)

But anyways… we say the La Sylphide (I think that is how its spelled) overall it was pretty good but I will admit that I prefer plays. The whole time I found myself overthinking the plot… I guess I need more to think about than just the dancing… ANYWAYS… Once it was over we headed out and walked until we found a place to get crepes, then off to the hotel.

Shopping in Paris

We all got up around 6 this morning to meet up so Wesley could head to the airport and Melanie could move back to our hotel. Once finally back to the hotel we went back to sleep and slept till around noon. But that was ok because Mel and I were only going to go shopping today.

After finally getting up we were off to find a dress. Mel remembered a store, Disigual, that she thought I would like. Once at the store we found the dress.

 

It wasn’t what I would usually go for but I still loved it. Before coming to Paris my grandpa, Papa, had given me some money for something that I usually would not have gotten and with that money I got the dress :) (oh and the store was having a 20% off week so I got it for 63 euros instead of 74) After getting the dress we headed over to the Lafayette Galleries which is this HUGE shopping center full of designer everything. There we walked around and talked getting to know each other again as we looked at all the clothes. We got lost a few times and then headed out to Notre Dame area to find the mask shop where I got a MASK!!!

 

Vance and I have always loved Masquerade Masks so he told me to splurge and so I did :)

We needed to meet Gladysue for this fancy dinner for the conference at 5 so we headed off to the hotel then off to the restaurant… But as things are we ended up waiting for hours till it started… But yeah once dinner was done we headed back to the hotel.

Becoming a Little more French

Well last night was a wonderful sleep after my busy day yesterday. I woke up around 8 in the morning to find a Voxer message from about ten minutes earlier, so in hope to catch him before he goes to bed (it was midnight his time) I sent a message back. He was still up so we Skyped! It was so nice to be able to see him at the beginning of the day. I am grateful to at least be able to see him at the end of the day, but today made my day even better by seeing him at the beginning. Right before he headed to bed and I went off to get ready he decided to play the piano for me since it has been so long since he has had access to a good piano. It was beautiful, I love listening to him play his little songs.

 

Well it was getting to the time were we needed to say good bye and start my day. After a quick work out and getting ready I headed out to where I was to meet up with Mel and Wes. I found a nice bench and waited, while waiting I admired the Arc de Triomphe and read the scriptures a little. Eventually they showed up and we headed to a café to get some breakfast. I got a crepe with Nutella on it… I like nutella but they put way too much on the crepe… While we ate it started to pour outside and of course I didn’t bring my umbrella with me so I got a cheap one from a little shop on the road…

 

Once done eating we headed for the Arc, it was HUGE just like everything else in Paris. We were able to climb up to the top where we over looked the street and got a really nice view of the Tour Eiffel.

 

Next we headed to the Catacombs. On the way I ended up having to get more metro tickets which lead to a fun experience. As I waited to get up to the machine to get my tickets a lady came up to me asking for help… in French. When I tried to tell her I only spoke English instead of moving on to someone else she stayed with me and tried to explain what she needed. She needed help with getting a pack of ten tickets (that was what I needed too) when I showed her how I did it she said no, too much (in French and very very poor English) I told her I don’t know and she moved away saying Merci, I then went to get my tickets instead then realized I need to get change and ones I was back so was she this time she understood a little more of what she needed to do but she still needed me to push the buttons for her, she showed me a cheaper ticket to get. Once she had her tickets instead of saying Merci and leaving she then "helped" me get my tickets by pushing the buttons for me and staying until I had them in my hand. When we both had our tickets we said Merci and went separate ways. Even though I could not understand her and she could not understand me we were still able to communicate and help each other out. It was such a fun and great learning experience.

I was finally through and we were able to start on our journey again… of course until we needed to wait for Mel to get more tickets :) Once to the area of the catacombs we stopped at a Patisserie where we each got a Macaroon.. They are DELICIOUS!!!

 

I was still hungry so I got a bagget (I know I spelled it wrong but I have no idea how to spell it, it the long French roll thing) We then found the long line for the catacombs to later learn that if we stayed in line the place would be closed once we got there sooooo we left and headed for the Musee L'Amree where we got to see the tomb of Napoleon and stuff about WWI and WWII. But of course we got kicked out because it was closing so we found a bench and sat waiting for Gladysue. There I made a new friend with a pigeon who I feed bits of my bread too. While we waited we walked around the area. Once Gladysue was there we ate and headed back to our hotels.

Bigger and Bigger

After going to bed at 2 in the morning I really did not want to get up… but I did anyways. Gladysue and Melanie had their first day of the dance conference so it was me and Wes. But of course the conference was going to Versailles as well so we were just going to meet up with them. With the help of the kind Metro worker we got our tickets and map to Versailles (it was a lot easier than I thought). As we walked towards the courtyard it just kept getting bigger and bigger. The line was almost equally as big (ok I guess it wasn't that bad).

 

On a sad side note, as we were heading towards the line we noticed a man lying on the ground with people around him, the next thing we know there is an ambulance headed towards them. We don't know what happened but the paramedics started to do CPR and as time went on more police and medics came. I don't know if he survived or not but it was intense. If you looked beyond you could see a girl (who didn't even know him) trying to keep control of her friend who was having a hard time with it. And I will admit I had a hard time as well. And yes I know that there is a life after this, where we get to go back home with our loving Father in Heaven, but I think of who this man may have been and the pain that his family is most likely going through because of what happened.

Anyways, there was nothing we could do but pass by… The line moved quickly which means soon we were in Versailles. Gladysue and Mel still weren't there yet so we headed to the Château. I think in it my favorite room was the Hall of Mirrors.

 

One wall is windows and the other is ALL mirrors. I would have loved to see what it was like back when it was used for its purpose. Full of people and lights making the party go on forever. Once all through the Château part we waited for them some more then finally they came, but because we had already gone through part they went to the Château and we went to the gardens (its ginormous!!!!)  and to Marie Antoinette's estate. We definitely got  a work out walking all that way. A bit later Gladysue and Mel wanted to get to a lecture so we all got together for lunch then went our separate ways again. Wes and I headed to the Pantheon. On our way there it started to rain and little by little it got harder and harder. Luckily before it got too bad we made it inside.

 

It too was a lot bigger than I expected. Underground there are crypts of  famous people in literature, science, history and more. We saw the graves for Voltaire, Marie Curie, and Victor Hugo.

 

After the Pantheon and the rain had stopped we went to find a Patisserie (Pastry shop) Then we headed back to the hotel. (which I was very happy about because the day pooped me out)

On Top of the World

It is hard to believe that I have only been here for four days it feels like it has been forever with all that we have done. Yesterday Gladysue and I went to the store to get some breakfast food, so for breakfast I had an apple and a croissant with chocolate in it. Then we were off for the Eiffel Tower.

 

It was HUGE!!! Once we got through the lines and all we were finally on our way up. You could see all of Paris from there it was very beautiful.

 

Instead of taking the life back down we climbed to the 1st level to go to 58 Tour Eiffel, the restaurant they have there. I decided to get the speared scorpion fish and blanc froumage with red berries (yesterday Vance reminded me of the promise I made to him to try new foods) When they brought the food out it was like a picnic. Instead of being on plates they had the food in glass Tupperware containers  and the bread (they have bread with EVERYTHING) was in a little brown lunch sack. I fish tasted well like fish but the blanc froumage with red berries was DELICIOUS!!! On our way back down after lunch we were heading for the lift but then some security people told us to take the stairs, they seemed nervous. As we were leaving the Tower we learned why. There were two guys climbing up the Eiffel Tower!

 

(can you see him?) 

After all that excitement we decided to have more and head to Notre Dame. I am so grateful for the Art History classes I have taken, especially my high school one. It was amazing to see the place in person. (And I will admit that a I fell asleep for a few seconds here and there while we sat)

 

After the awe of Notre Dame  we headed to the Crypt below it. It was amazing to see how the old Paris was. By that time we were tired so we headed to a street to try and find a place to sit and eat. Well we ended up at a Crepperie (most likely spelled horribly wrong) I learned that I only like sweet things on my crepes. But the caramel and salted butter one was amazing! After a wonderful day I finally got back to the hotel where I got to skype Vance!!!! But of course since I am making him work out he made me do some sit ups and push ups…

Tut Tut it Looks Like Rain

Once all ready for the day Gladysue and I hit the subway and headed towards the where we were going to meet up with Melanie and Wesley. It was raining a little but but not much. We found a bookstore called The English Bookstore, it was full of regular books and a lot of British and French stuff... like Doctor Who things. I didn't get anything from there though but we might go back again later in our trip. Outside it started to rain even harder so I got my first souvenir... an umbrella with Paris written all over it. We continued to wait and ended up at a cafe, L'Imperal where I tries my first Creme Brulee.

 

While at the cafe Mel and Wes finally made it. After eating we headed to L'Orangerie so they could get their museum passes and look around. I decided to just relax and stay in the Monet part.

Once done there we headed to the Louvre!!!

 

Today we mainly looked at the Egyptian artifacts, which I was very gratefully for because I have just spent the last semester studying that area in Art History. It also showed me that I have A LOT to learn. Once all through the Egypt stuff we headed for the Mona Lisa. She was surrounded by a lot of people. But we saw here that was the important part.

 

It was all most time for the Louvre to close so we headed out. It was such a wonderful and tiring day and tomorrow will be as good, if not better. We are planning on going to the Eiffel Tower and hopefully Notre Dame.

Church in Paris

Since Vance and I are in completely different time zones (I'm 8 hours ahead of him) we don't get to talk much (I know, I'm in Paris so I should be happy about just being able to send messages over Facebook) Well this morning I woke up to a Voxer message (it's like texting only you can send voice messages too) It was Vance telling me good morning as he was just about to go to bed. I thought that was a very good start to my morning.

 

(haha you can see me in the reflection)

After getting ready for church we headed out on the subway (by the way this was my first time ever on a subway). We got to the area we needed to be then headed out in search of the meeting place… Well we ended up going in a huge circle around it till we actually got there. Once there I was surprised to see so many people, there were two rooms one that looked like it was the actual chapel and then the other (the one we were in) where all the "foreigners" (my words not theirs) were with english translation of what was being said. The speakers were really quiet so it was hard to hear what was actually being said but from one talk I found something very important, "When we leave our comfort zone that is where we find faith and miracles…"

When church was over Gladysue and I were going to go with her friend to make sure she met up with the others who she was going to see. Well we could not find them anywhere. After a relaxing sit in front of a water fountain we decided to look one more place before we moved on.

 

Since we couldn’t find the people we decided to go into the museum that was there, the Musée de L'Orangerie (this is also where I got my museum pass!!!). There were many different paintings but my favorite was the collection of Monet Water lilies.  Whenever I thought Monet's paintings I would think of them being a normal size, not very big. But these were huge they covered most of the wall. There were two rooms with these paintings, Each room had four paintings that wrapped around the room. When we were done with the museum we headed back to the hotel where we met back up with Melanie and Wesley and got pastries, Gladysue and I got croissants with chocolate, it was delicious! After that Gladysue, Mel, and Wes went to move Mel and Wes to a new hotel, we were only supposed to have two people in a room in our hotel not three so they had to get a room somewhere else… While the went I stayed behind to rest and enjoy the Sabbath day by watching 17 Miracles (I ended up watching it twice because I kept falling asleep the first time) and writing a letter. But probably one of the best things about today was ending it with Skyping Vance:)

Walking Around Paris

So once we finally got off the plane we had to take a bus to the terminal… Well after we finally got to the terminal Melanie ran off hoping to be able to meet up with her boyfriend for a few minutes before his plane headed back to Texas. So we lost track of her, we tried to follow but later decided to just go to baggage claim. So we went to the little desk thing and got our passports stamped!!! After waiting and worrying for a little while Melanie finally found her way back. We also figured out the wifi at the airport so I was able to check my facebook and Voxer messages (I am so grateful for them) After calming down from the little craziness we got a taxi (the first time I have ever been in a taxi) We left the airport and headed to Paris! Along the way we saw many things like:

 

Graffiti (it reminded me of home)

 

These cool statues (I still have yet to figure out what they are but when I do I will let you know)

And last but certainly not least…

 

THE EIFFEL TOWER!!!

And of course because I was watching everything fly by I started to get car sick… But luckily we got to the hotel soon after. Once we got our stuff in our room Gladysue, Wesley, and I (Mel wasn't feeling good) went to look for food. Eventually we decided on a little café where I got a ham and cheese sandwich.

 

I know not the usually idea when you think of a sandwich but it was really good still. Sadly knowing me I barely at half of it… Once we were done there we found this cute grocery store (which I think I will do a lot of my food shopping at) Then headed back to the hotel for naps and what nots.

After over two hours of naps we headed out to walk around. One of the places we ended up was the Luxembourg gardens. They were huge! I have never been somewhere like that before. There was grass and trees everywhere. In one part of the gardens there was an indoor/outdoor art gallery. After wandering around looking at the art we found the senat of Luxembourg (I think that’s what it is called…)

 

(Here is Gladysue in front of it, I'm not very good at getting pictures of me…Oh but here is a picture of me and my cousins in front of a fountain in the gardens)

 

… Anyways we traveled around the gardens a bit longer then decided to start heading back, along the way back we decided to go a different way and ran into the church from the movie The Da Vinci code (I can't remember the name sorry)

 

After that little adventure we decided to go on another and ate at this little brassiere(I think that is how it is spelled…) where a nice man helped us with it and he told us that usually only locals ate there which meant it was better quality and cheaper than the "tourist" ones. I ended up getting this pasta with tuna and ratatouille (mainly because of the movie:)…) Once done with dinner we headed back to the hotel, which was fun because it helped me understand the streets better. Finally back to the room I am well writing this and trying to figure out if I can sleep tonight…

Flight to PARIS!!!

Well the morning was like any other morning. I got up, got changed, and did my hair. After a quick run to the store I got all my stuff together and talk to Vance over the phone and on Skype. (I love that man) Around 11 Melanie came over and soon later we headed to the airport.

 

After a but of waiting Wesley met up with us, and by that time we were rushing. Getting through security was long then quick (there was a huge line and then once it was our time to get checked it was nonstop) Once out of security we hurried to our gate where we found a huge mess of a line. But we conquered through that line and eventually got to our seats, but as life is we were all separate in different parts of the plane. Luckily my seat was an aisle seat so I didn't have to worry about being boxed in. There were still a lot of people coming on board so i took that time to tlk to Vance one last time one the phone (I will love Skype more than ever these next ten days) After a teary good bye with him I settled down for the flight. Now to long after we took off the flight attendants brought dinner out (this is my first ever meal on a plane)

 

(if you can't te by the picture I got the chicken;) with it though came this interesting weyet good pasta type salad thing, the yellow dish, some bread that had cheese spread and butter, applesauce.... I didn't eat that part though, and this chocolate chip bread dessert thing, oh and for a drink I had sprite )
Once all full on dinner I decided to work on some homewor for my online class so I wouldn't have to worry about will in Paris. When I finally decided I had done all I could do for now I got comfortable and watched some of the movies the flight offered (which included one of my childhood favorites, Spirit). After my third movie o decided I should at least try and sleep little, so I pit on the eye mask they gave us and slept... It only lasted an hour but hey it was an hour of sleep. When I woke up the lights were on and they had just started to serve breakfast.

 

(I only had the muffin and orange juice, I tried the yogurt but I learned that I wasn't a fan of plain yogurt)
Unless something crazy happens on the flight I am done for now and will be posting this once in Paris :)

Sealy

Well I slept in until 10:30 am today (but hey that’s only 8:30 back home so I'm ok) Well since Gladysue practically lives at her job I have the day to myself to do whatever I want. I started off my walking to the local market (it was only a few streets down) to get some food for the next few days. After what seemed like an hour I finally decided what I was going to get and headed back to the house.

When back I had a couple hours until I had to get on for a meeting for my online class. So Vance and I Skyped and watched some Doctor Who together (I am so excited that he likes them).

After the class meeting I decided to wander some more and ended up at a huge cemetery.

 

(There was a retirement home right next door to the cemetery)

I have always wanted to wander around a cemetery full of those big headstones (All the ones I've been to in California only had the flat slabs for headstones). They were gorgeous! There were a lot of family plots and graves that had benches in front so people can sit and visit with their loved ones. I eventually found my sister's future grave too

(her married last name is Hill)

And the angels were after me…

But luckily I got away (Doctor Who fans will understand)

By the time I got back I was drenched in sweat and glad to get out of the humidity. Once Gladysue got home we went out and I was able to have some authentic Texan BBQ… It was delicious! Then to end the night Vance and I watched more Doctor Who.

Flight to Texas

After not sleeping too well I got up around 3:30am in order to get ready to leave for the airport. Around 4:30 me and my parents left the house and I was luckily about to sleep a little during the hour drive to the LAX. Once there we said our goodbyes and I was off to the security check. When I went to go grab my bags I learned they ran one of my bags twice through the machine (I had a mini heart attack) I quickly thought of everything in the bag and couldn't understand why they would need to check it again. Luckily it was nothing and I was on my way. Because we left so early I had about 2 hours till my flight boarded, so during that time I read a book (The Hobbit) and talked to Vance.

Around 7:30 am the plane started to board and I was lucky enough to get a window seat with an empty seat next to me. The guy on the aisle ended up being with his family who were in the next row over, so every now and then I would get a cute little boy sitting next to me. I spent my time watching Doctor Who and dozing on and off. When the flight was near the end and the stewardess was coming around to pick up the trash she had a cute little girl helping her out.

 Because I had a window seat I was able to see the wing on the plane as we descended, I loved watching as we went through the clouds. we the plane landed and I made my way to the pickup area where a friend of my aunt, and my cousin we waiting for me.

As we drove through the country I couldn't believe how green it was. I know that when I went to the east coast last year it was greener but for some reason I wasn't expecting Texas to be this green (I'm too used to Idaho and California I guess) After a long drive we got to Columbus where I was going to wait for Gladysue to pick me up.

Sequioa

So we have been in the park since yesterday but today was when we did all the exploring. We went and saw Grant Grove with the huge tree. While heading to the tree I leaned against Vance and ended up getting bit or stung by a bug, of course I over react and freak out, and he just laughs at me making sure I'm ok while he does. Later we looked around the visitor centers, where Vance finally convinced me to let him get me a stuffed animal fox (we named her Vixie) after that we headed back to camp where we rode the bikes and then walked along the river. Vance got more and more hyper the farther we went. We found a trail head on one of our bike rides and decided to go after dinner to insure we still had light. Not even half way through the hike we saw a black bear! I of course got scared yet excited while I stood behind Vance, he again just stood there laughing at me and the bear ran away. At the end of the trail was a beautiful waterfall. We got back to camp right when it was dark and then sat and watched the stars:)

 

Roses from 1300 Miles Away

The past week has been hard, I would get bored easily then get sad about being away from Vance. I decided this week would be different but of course just to fight against me this morning was well crappy, the cat wouldn't leave me alone, I was clumsy to where I would hurt myself, and well I just wasn't in a good mood. But I fought back I went to the school to volunteer for a bit which helped a lot. After a while I came home and relaxed then the doorbell rang. I looked through the eye hole and it was a guy holding roses and a teddy bear, Grumpy. Without me even having to tell Vance I was having a bad morning he still knew to send me a surprise.

Brigham James Peacock

1940 Utah State Census with Hillam family

The First Five Generations of My Family

Family Fan Chart