Butterfly

A couple of people in the other singles ward have started teaching Free Friday Dance Lessons. I have been going with my roommate the last few times. This week, we learned the waltz and danced all around the room in a circle. I loved it! I decided that I want to put dancing in a ball room dance competition on my bucket list. Dancing is especially great with men that know how to lead. My sons will definitely learn how to dance.
This weekend was a regional conference: AWE (All Winter Extravaganza). Friday night, after the ballroom class, I went for game night and played a little Rock Band and a little volleyball. Saturday, we first heard from Sister Jane Clayson Johnson. I love hearing her talk about the different experiences she had in her career. One thing she said that I liked was that the gospel of Jesus Christ is not insurance against pain. It is our resource in the midst of pain. We also went to several different workshops that morning. A few nuggets I gleaned... Put yourself in places to feel the Spirit. Pain is inevitable, misery is optional. If I obey the commandments and work hard, sooner or later, everything will work out. Constantly access the atonement, ask myself, "in what way am I different today than yesterday?" The conference ended with a dance that night. Yep, more dancing... lots of fun.
Sunday, Katie and I made a red velvet birthday cake with cream cheese frosting for our friend Cassie. She is going to make a good cook out of me yet. We accidentally forgot the candles, so we used some of Kristie's crazy straws. It was really cute.
Monday, after work I went to FHE. Joseph gave a great lesson about how we should evaluate and ask ourselves if we are rationalizing certain behaviors. It inspired me to try harder to avoid things that are not uplifting. We played a game called Smurfing, where one person leaves the room, then tries to guess what an action is... referred to as Smurfing until they guess. Afterwards, our amazing, talented Julia (whom my dad taught math to in junior high) asked if she could practice her violin audition for us. Absolutely. I could listen to her play all day. It was interesting to hear her talk about the whole auditioning process. Once again, a packed, but really fun weekend.

Angry Audrey

At Institute on Wednesday, I was sitting in the middle of class when my phone rang. My teacher was really nice about it, but I did feel bad for distracting him into telling a story about once when his phone rang in the middle of Education Week after they made a big deal about turning off cell phones. (He picked it up and said, "Hello... President Hinckley?") I didn't answer, but when I checked my voicemail later, this is what I heard:

And another message, left a few minutes later:

Isn't she a hoot?! (Jess swears that Audrey said those things all on her own. If that is true, it is because she hears Jess say them a lot...) When I talked to her after my class, she told me that her mom taught her and that she had been practicing with her pink bubble tape. Hooray for Audrey!

Wishing...

Do you think I could get away with this?

President's Day Weekend

We had originally planned on being in NYC for the entire weekend, but a few weeks before, I was reminded that I was supposed to sing in Relief Society for the musical moment. I was going to reschedule this, but then was asked to speak in Sacrament meeting that same day. I decided that for some reason I was supposed to be in church that day, so I should probably make it back... even though we were all really tired from coming home at 2 a.m.

My friend Christina and I sang "Ya Znayu Zhiv Iskupityel Moi" ("I Know That My Redeemer Lives" in Russian). Christina served in the cold, cold Russian mission, while I got the warm one. :) It is one of my favorite hymns, and really fun to sing the slightly different Russian translation. The last verse is such a strong testimony to go and tell everyone that you know He lives.

My talk went well, with just one little embarassing moment. I was wearing my grey birthday dress that has a few buttons down the front. Somehow when I was turning the pages in my talk, I brushed my arm too close and one of the buttons popped open! While continuing to talk, I had a quick debate in my head... should I leave it alone and hope that no one notices? But if I button it, will it just draw more attention to it? I decided to button it, thinking that my chest gaping open was probably a worse option. While continuing to talk, I deliberately leaned right, putting my right hand out in front of the podium, as if to emphasize my point, and buttoned the button with my left hand. Phew! Luckily, only one of the people I asked said that they even noticed anything. I am sly.

On Monday, it was very nice to have a day off to get all caught up with life. I met some friends for lunch in the North End, where all the Italian restaurants are. It was some yummy food and good to get to know some new people.

Afterwards, we enjoyed cannoli from Modern Pastry. Katie and I then decided to wander over to see the seals at the aquarium. We stumbled upon an ice sculpture contest called Chisels & Chainsaws. I thought this was cute... they let kids make little paper boats to sail in the water. This one was clever... if you can't tell, it is a person asleep on the bench. We considered shopping a little at Quincy Market, but the cold, bitter winds changed our minds. We had worn light jackets because it was so warm when we left. Instead, we went home and watched the movie, Amazing Grace. If anyone hasn't seen it, I highly recommend it. It is about the slave emancipation in England. The story was very inspiring to me.

I 'Heart' NY

Do you remember how in An Affair to Remember they decide to meet at the top of the Empire State Building on Valentine's Day? Well... we decided that New York would be a good place to go for the day. Katie and I woke up before the sun did, picked up Kristie, Cassie and Victoria and drove through three states to New York City. One plus is that there was no traffic, so we made it in under four hours. Woo-hoo!
We started out at Times Square, enjoying the general splendour... and the m&m store. This funny (and slightly insulting) machine told us what color m&m's we should eat that day.Next we moseyed over towards Fifth Avenue, stopping at St. Patrick's Cathedral...... and Rockefeller Center. There happened to be a Cupid ice skating!On Fifth Ave, we window shopped, and stopped in Tiffany's to see the canary diamond. We sauntered through Central Park to catch the subway to the Statue of Liberty. Kristie was a little worried that we wouldn't make it in time... she has twice been foiled in her attempts to go there. Luckily, we made it with plenty of time.Looking up into the statueWe listened to the ranger in the museum. I didn't know that there are broken shackles at the feet of Lady Liberty. You can't really ever see them from the ground. I also learned that there are twenty-five panels/windows around her crown, representing the twenty-five precious stones (at that time) to help us remember how precious liberty is.Unfortunately, only Cassie and Bryce made it to Ellis Island. The rest of us missed the ferry when we stopped to grab a little food. We were starving, though, and didn't realize that the last ferry was about to leave. I guess Kristie was just out of luck for the day. ;)
We next went to Ground Zero and saw the construction going on and this memorial that says "May we never forget."Back at Times Square, we realized that we probably weren't going to get to see a show that night as the tickets were gone. We had a lovely Valentine's meal at Texas Barbeque (at a boy's suggestion, of course). Luckily we didn't have to wait for a table as most parties that night were smaller than ours and they had a big table available. At this point we started to feel our early rise and got tired. Is this a good sign to see at a restaurant?Next, we finally made it to the top of the Empire State Building! Victoria was so excited and did a little dance for us. :) We had fun making silly faces in the picture they make you take in front of their background so they can try to sell it to you later. ESB was lit up red and white in honor of the holiday.
I slept most of the drive home that night. It was a very long day, but so much fun. It's a treat to get to live so close to NYC.

Mmm... Brains

In honor of Friday the Thirteenth, my friend and upstairs neighbor Bree decided to have a Zombie Valentine's party. They had awesome decorations, food, and a black and white zombie movie playing for ambience. There was even a cake with zombie pieces coming out of graves. :) Katie and I decked out for it. Do I look like the undead?
p.s. Look what my mommy sent me for Valentine's! Isn't she sweet?

Melted Ice

I heard that Salem was having a Chocolate and Ice Festival. I had a full Saturday, so we decided to go after church on Sunday. Katie and I picked Kristie up from the airport, and kidnapped her to Salem. Unfortunately for the ice sculptures, the weather was unusually warm that weekend and very few survived. Only the dancing polar bear was intact.

The fairy was just missing her head... the others were undistiguishable.
I did discover a statue I'd never noticed before... Samantha from Bewitched! (I'm wiggling my nose, in case you couldn't tell.)

While bad for the ice sculptures, we did enjoy the warm weather, and our leisurely stroll by the harbor...... and the incredible scenery.

Aah... how I again longed for more than my camera phone.

Back Staircase

I went to see the movie "Taken" with my friend Joe who was my last DL on the mission. I found it interesting that as the good guy, he kept killing a lot of people who didn't necessarily need to die for him to accomplish his purpose. It was justified, though, because they were all really bad people. It was definitely action-packed. Anyway, the movie is pretty intense and I was a little on edge afterwards. Joe decided to go out the exit by the movie screen instead of going out the way we came. We ended up in this little narrow staircase that was kind of creepy. When we got to the bottom, there were three doors. One had Emergency Exit Only on it and the other two said Do Not Enter. We went back up and the doors were all now locked. We were stuck! We finally just went through one of the Do Not Enter doors which goes into the Ritz. We got about halfway through the room before Security stopped us and directed us to go through the Emergency Exit door. Nice signage.