Ikea trips and the Temple

Well-

I'm so the winner of any worst blogger ever contests that may be currently running. What can I say, my life just isn't that interesting! :) (That and I just can't remember to actually blog.)

Well this certainly feels like the LONGEST winter ever. It started snowing here back in October and it's still freezing cold. I can't even begin to tell you how excited I will be for spring to come. Bring on the green! There is nothing more depressing then brown Ontario. We took a road trip to Ikea and then the Temple on Saturday and the whole drive was boring brown. (Until we hit the GTA and then it was just buildings.)

Can I just tell you for a minute how much of a fan of Ikea I am. Really, I wish we had one closer. There's just something fun about all the cool stuff that they have, and I've now become a big fan of their meatballs. It's just so appealing to wander around pretending that all these great rooms could be mine...

While on our wonderful trip to Ikea Holly and I decided it would be a good idea to take random pictures of us being old. We have a dear young lad in our YSA who likes to remind us that we're not as young as he is, and the jokes have now extended to things like canes and walkers. While I am fully cognizant that I am really not that old, it sure can feel like it in a YSA branch. Here's a few sample pictures...

Here's Holly and her wonderful Wicker Rocking Chair...every old lady should have one.

My walker. Gotta have something to help you get around...

The knitted afgan... we were taking pattern ideas so we could make one.

The Temple was just as amazing as it always is. I am forever grateful that Heavenly Father has provided a way for families to be together forever. There's nothing better then going to the temple on a Saturday night. I only wish it were closer so that I could go weekly instead of monthly.

Wow-

So ok, wow I haven't posted in a REALLY long time. Uh, fall came and went and now I'm just getting ready for christmas. I'm heading home from Dec 19th-26th so I'm totally looking forward to that. It'll be good to get some nice needed vacation.

As for what I've been upto, I've participated in several "service projects." I've put them in quotations as they were run through work as opposed to church so that would't be the technical name, but that's what they were just the same.

In Novemeber Citi hosted Global Community Day, and I got to go out with a bunch of my co-workers and turn some old trails into some really cool new biking trails. It was a TON of fun! There's just something to be said for digging in the dirt. :)

This past week I had the opportunity to go make Christmas Hampers with the Salvation Army for kids. It was so much fun until you started to think about why you were doing it, and then it was just sad. Let me just say that going forward I will be buying a toy with every pay check to donate to the Salvation Army at the end of the year. What they do is truely amazing, they manage to create Christmas for those who wouldn't have had one otherwise. Honestly working there on thursday really rung home the true meaning of Christmas. Sadley there's no pictures (We were too busy working to take any) however if any of you ever get offered the opportunity to go help you should totally do it!

What else to say...uh my brother got married in September...those were some good times. Other then that, not much new in my life. Hopefully I can post a little more regularly :)

Google Fun

So I was reading Claudine's Blog and she had an amazing challenge posted that looked like a ton of fun, and since she tagged everyone I decided that I would Participate! Here's how to play, you take the following catagories and do a Google Image Search. You pick a picture out of the first page of results that you like the best to represent the Catagory. Seriously...it's fun. And you won't believe what comes up sometimes :) So here's my pictures. See if you can guess what some of them are...

My First Name

My Last Name

City I was born in

Past Love

Favorite Animal

Favorite Object
Favorite City

Favorite Food

Favorite Colour

Bad Habit

First Job

Future Job

Place I want to Visit

My Age

So there you go...essentially my life in random pictures. I'm just sorry I couldn't figure out how to make some of them bigger. Anyway I'm going to tag Kristi, Keah and Karen to give this a try. You'll be surprised just how much fun it is :)

Miss Hannah Banana...

Well I finally got to meet my niece Hannah today. She's pretty dang cute if I do say so myself, however I may be a bit biased :) After some serious finageling I was finally able to get a hold of Catherine and we agreed to meet up in Victoria park for a bit and I could come meet Hannah and Catherine (and her brother Chris, his wife Ann Marie and thier daughter Hailey). It was all some good times until the thunder storm hit. Thankfully Chris had some Umbrellas in his car and we took shelter until the worst of it passed. Hannah and Hailey were adorable and fun to watch, and it was good to actually sit down and talk with my soon to be sister in Law :)

Here's miss Hannah sitting under the Umbrella. She looks a lot like my dad in this picture. Catherine and I were joking that it's due to the lack of hair... Oh well...mom said none of us ever had any hair either until we were over a year.

This one might just be my favorite! We're both smiling (I couldn't seem to get any where Hannah would smile when the camera was actually taking pictures)

This is Catherine, Chris, Ann Marie, Hailey and Hannah. All Huddled under Umbrellas due to the Thunderstorm. Actually the rain felt really nice! :)

This is what Hannah looks like if you sing Skinamirrinkidink. (Really not sure how you spell that one...you know, "I love in the morning and in the afternoon, I love you in the evening and underneath the moon...") It's her favorite song. She laughs everytime!

Wall of Shame...

Well I have to admit I really don't have anything fun and exciting to post for this week. It's been pretty uneventful I do have to say. No Roadtrips, or really any trips at all. Get up, go to work and go home. That's been my week.





I did however get an exciting piece of mail Today. My friend Jamie (yes I'm sure some of you know her) is getting married and she thoughtfully sent me a wedding invitation. I LOVE getting wedding invitations. It may seem weird as I really am not a fan of wedding receptions (all I have to say is anyone who's still single can probably relate) however I just LOVE wedding invitations. I don't know what it is about them. I love looking at all the different styles and types even if I can't go. That being said, my roomate and I have a board that we've affectionally named the wall of shame. (We're just Jealous.) After I put up Jamies wedding invitation I took a picture so that you could all see.

This particular board is about two seasons old...meaning invites from 2007 and 2008. The invites are 3 deep :) Everytime one of us gets a new wedding invitation we excitedly pin it to the board. And we ALWAYS notice when a new one goes up :) So yep, that's it. My news for the week. So if you're reading this and getting married, I would love an invite. Even if you don't really want me there :)

Palmyra Fun

Well this weekend was our annual trip down to Palmyra New York. There's just something exciting about going to another country, even if it's just an hour and a half away and everything pretty much remains the same. We decided that it would be cool to rent a car, that way we would be able to dictate where we go and when and we could have the added benefit of a really cool car :)

So we left Friday at Noonish and headed on down to the border...where thankfully we had no issues. I had nightmares of the last trip when I rented a car and took it over the border, but thankfully when you say you're heading to a church pageant they don't ask too many questions. We made a stop at Target (Which I absolutely love and wish would come to Canada) and then headed on down to Palmyra.

The Pageant was just as cool as it always is, and then we had to go meet the rest of our group so that we could head over to the YSA dance at the Palmyra stake center. So we`re just standing there waiting and these two guys come over and ask if we`re YSA, to make a long story short they end up being from California, working in Long Island and my dear room mate offers them a ride to the dance. Yep, that's right we literally picked up some random California guys. Thankfully they were pretty cool. I wish I had of taken a picture, but well...they were random guys :)

The Dance was pretty good...lots of people there (many of them HCP cast members that had snuck out) and then we had to head out to the camp we were staying at. Just for all of you out there who may have to plan some YSA activity in the future...do not pick a camp site an hour away from where your dance ends. Especially if no ones ever been there and it`s 2 in the morning, and if there`s anyone that has to get up at 6:30 to go to the temple the next morning...we got lost, and I went to bed at 4:30. Good times.

The next morning I was lucky enough to be able to do a session at the Palmyra Temple. It was BEAUTIFUL! There`s something really special about going to the temple in the place where it all began. (Just as a side note, if you ever go...try and get more then 2 hours of sleep the night before.) I absolutely love the temple, and I`m extremely grateful for the chance I had to go. There`s even a clear window that looks out over the Sacred Grove!

After the Temple we hit up the Sacred Grove. I have to admit it`s pretty much my favorite place to go in Palmyra. (Well, after the temple). It`s good to go see the frame house, and the log house, and the printing press, but nothing beats the grove. I absolutely love the feeling of peace you get sitting in there. I didn`t want to leave. I could have cheerfully stayed there all day!

After the Sacred Grove we headed over to Everyone`s favorite eatery the Chill `N Grill. If you`ve never been there you seriously need to go. Really good food at a really good price. It`s most definitely worth the trip. After we ate we visited the bookshop and then it was time to head on home. For pretty much the LONGEST trip ever. It was 6 hours and it felt like 12. I have no idea why it passed so slowly but there you have it.

I just want to end this post by saying that I`m so thankful for the opportunity I had to go to Palmyra. It`s such a testimony boost! I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and I know that the Sacred Grove is where Joseph saw God the Father and Jesus Christ. The Book of Mormon is true and I`m so thankful to have the Gospel in my life. Miracles can and do exist and I`m grateful to experience them.

Sunfest=Sunburn

So this weekend was Sunfest, which is pretty much the best festival of the Summer here in London. It's kinda like the buskers in Halifax...only without the Buskers. Ok, so that's actually a bad comparison, however it's pretty much the only thing I can think of to compare it to. There's Amazing food from all different cuisines (You can get everything from Poutine to Goat), as many vendors as you could possibly cram into one park, and my favorite...free mini-concerts from musicians from all over. Seriously, the have something for everyone! My favorite group by far, from this years Sunfest has to be Le Vent Du Nord. LOVED THEM! It was a french group with a Celtic type sound. Very East Cost :) You should all go listen to them on youtube or Itunes. Thats them at the top in the pictures.

So as every fair skinned person will realize Sunfest also invariably turns to Sunburn. It never matters that I have sunscreen on. I Burn. This year my burn even went so far as to cause my face to swell. Very attractive I must tell you. I didn't go to church today it's that pretty! And even better, I burned just in time to be peeling for next weekend's trip to Palmyra. How amazing is that!

You can kinda see the burn in this picture...however this was still during the day...you know the stage before you start glowing. And somehow it just doesn't look as painful here :)

Anyway I've included some random Sunfest shots from this year...It was some Seriously good times. Next weekend is the annual trip to the Hill Cumorah Pageant. SOOOOOO excited. Nothing beats a good Palmyra trip. Even if I've already seen things dozens of times :) I'll keep you updated on the good times to come!