This morning I had to wake up early and begin my day with a little work. Even though I'm on furlough this week. Also, another memo came out today and we will be on furlough next month too.
Faith Mickley and I jumped in the car this morning and went to The Museum of Science and Industry. We went to a presentation on the earth and that we need to reduce, reuse, and recycle. After that, we traipsed through the entire museum. The highlight of my day was going to the Toy making factory. While there you get to design your own spinning top and watch it be made from start to finish. It is even inspected to make sure that it has been made properly.
After a couple of hours, we went on another adventure. We went to the Pupuseria El Salvador and picked up pupusas. They are so yummy! Pupusas have pork and cheese in the middle with masa on the outside.
Tonight a group of us went and saw the new Disney nature movie Earth. It was absolutely amazing. James Earl Jones did a wonderful job narrating it. I highly recommend this movie.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Slacking in my Writing
I can't believe it's April and I haven't written on my blog in a couple of months.
February 17th I went to the Jason Mraz concert in Dekalb, IL with Jillian and Carl. It was a wonderful concert, but on my way home I started reflecting on my life and where I was at and where I would be going in this next year. I began pouring out my soul to the Lord, and told him that if my work here in Chicago was done, to allow me to leave the area and be of more use somewhere else. Honestly, I was quite frustrated, especially with the current economic situation and my current employment.
The week continued and whenever something big is about to happen in my life, I freak out and I'm a bit annoyed with the change. Sometimes I don't even know what's coming, but get a feeling of uneasiness.
Sunday, February 22nd, I took Chelsea Barnett to the airport fairly early. I didn't get a whole lot of sleep the night before, so I thought I would take a nap at the church before my meetings. I decided I needed to read my scriptures, so I went into the nursing mother's room, where it was quite and began to read. I then read my patriarchal blessing and as I read the words of my blessing, "Relief Society President" came into my mind as clear as day. My first thought, "I've definitely lost it, and I need to get more sleep!" The feeling continued and I felt quite overwhelmed by the responsibility of caring for the sisters' in the ward.
After sacrament meeting, the Bishop called me into his office and he extended the calling of Relief Society President to me. All I could get out was, "Ok, Ok....Ok" Then the tears started streaming down my face from the overwhelming task ahead of me. I then relayed the experience I had had only hours earlier. He then told me that that is when they as a Bishopric had determined I would be the next Relief Society President.
The rest of church was pretty much a blur.
While sitting in relief society, the lesson was about lifting where you stand. Our closing hymn was, I'll go where you want me to go." I purposely sat in the back and tears again streamed down my face.
That afternoon, I went home and fell asleep on the couch. When I awoke, I asked my mom if I was just dreaming that I was the new relief society president. She said, "No, you still are going to be the next relief society president." I asked my father for a blessing. The most poignant part was when I was told to not worry about my temporal needs and that He would take care of them, but that I needed to focus on the spiritual things and my new calling.
I know that the Lord is mindful of each one of us and our needs. He will not leave us comfortless. I'm thankful for the opportunity to serve and grow in ways I never thought possible.
The following Sunday I was called as Relief Society President. That day was filled with quite a few different tasks and meeting with quite a few of the sisters. We had a break the fast meal at the Stake Center and then a fireside. I was so overwhelmed. I was about to leave and Chelsea said she needed to talk to me. We walked away from the group that we were with and she said that she had been fasting that day to find someone to live in her house after she left. She told me she knew the moment I was called, that I was to live in her house. I was like ok, let me think about it. That was March 1st and by March 11th, I was completely moved into my new home. It has a beautiful back yard, and a wonderful area for entertaining the ward and my friends.
February 17th I went to the Jason Mraz concert in Dekalb, IL with Jillian and Carl. It was a wonderful concert, but on my way home I started reflecting on my life and where I was at and where I would be going in this next year. I began pouring out my soul to the Lord, and told him that if my work here in Chicago was done, to allow me to leave the area and be of more use somewhere else. Honestly, I was quite frustrated, especially with the current economic situation and my current employment.
The week continued and whenever something big is about to happen in my life, I freak out and I'm a bit annoyed with the change. Sometimes I don't even know what's coming, but get a feeling of uneasiness.
Sunday, February 22nd, I took Chelsea Barnett to the airport fairly early. I didn't get a whole lot of sleep the night before, so I thought I would take a nap at the church before my meetings. I decided I needed to read my scriptures, so I went into the nursing mother's room, where it was quite and began to read. I then read my patriarchal blessing and as I read the words of my blessing, "Relief Society President" came into my mind as clear as day. My first thought, "I've definitely lost it, and I need to get more sleep!" The feeling continued and I felt quite overwhelmed by the responsibility of caring for the sisters' in the ward.
After sacrament meeting, the Bishop called me into his office and he extended the calling of Relief Society President to me. All I could get out was, "Ok, Ok....Ok" Then the tears started streaming down my face from the overwhelming task ahead of me. I then relayed the experience I had had only hours earlier. He then told me that that is when they as a Bishopric had determined I would be the next Relief Society President.
The rest of church was pretty much a blur.
While sitting in relief society, the lesson was about lifting where you stand. Our closing hymn was, I'll go where you want me to go." I purposely sat in the back and tears again streamed down my face.
That afternoon, I went home and fell asleep on the couch. When I awoke, I asked my mom if I was just dreaming that I was the new relief society president. She said, "No, you still are going to be the next relief society president." I asked my father for a blessing. The most poignant part was when I was told to not worry about my temporal needs and that He would take care of them, but that I needed to focus on the spiritual things and my new calling.
I know that the Lord is mindful of each one of us and our needs. He will not leave us comfortless. I'm thankful for the opportunity to serve and grow in ways I never thought possible.
The following Sunday I was called as Relief Society President. That day was filled with quite a few different tasks and meeting with quite a few of the sisters. We had a break the fast meal at the Stake Center and then a fireside. I was so overwhelmed. I was about to leave and Chelsea said she needed to talk to me. We walked away from the group that we were with and she said that she had been fasting that day to find someone to live in her house after she left. She told me she knew the moment I was called, that I was to live in her house. I was like ok, let me think about it. That was March 1st and by March 11th, I was completely moved into my new home. It has a beautiful back yard, and a wonderful area for entertaining the ward and my friends.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
New Year, New Resolution
Christmas to New Year's was spent in Utah with the beautiful mountains and one of my best friends', Jenny. We spent much time catching up and took a drive around a few of the temples. The Bountiful temple is most beautiful. I really wish I would have gone to the temple, because the Chicago temple is now closed to early March or later.
December 30th in the evening Tim, Jenny and I were sitting around and started making our New Year's resolutions. This year includes running at least 5 5ks, 2 10ks and 1 half marathon. Over the past few months I have realized running has taught me life lessons. I'm looking forward to achieving my goal of a half marathon before I'm 30. I've also renewed my commitment to reading the scriptures. My other goal is to develop another talent. I have decided to get more involved in my writing. I love to write and would eventually like to write a book. Lastly, I'm going to start graduate school. I've been looking at several options. I figure it's been 6 years since I finished my undergrad and I should go back while I have the time.
Life is wonderful and I'm looking forward to embarking on these new adventures. May I complete these goals...
December 30th in the evening Tim, Jenny and I were sitting around and started making our New Year's resolutions. This year includes running at least 5 5ks, 2 10ks and 1 half marathon. Over the past few months I have realized running has taught me life lessons. I'm looking forward to achieving my goal of a half marathon before I'm 30. I've also renewed my commitment to reading the scriptures. My other goal is to develop another talent. I have decided to get more involved in my writing. I love to write and would eventually like to write a book. Lastly, I'm going to start graduate school. I've been looking at several options. I figure it's been 6 years since I finished my undergrad and I should go back while I have the time.
Life is wonderful and I'm looking forward to embarking on these new adventures. May I complete these goals...
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Christmas Day Adventure
Christmas morning was relaxing as we all slept in a got up around 9:30am. I still had a few more things to pack into my suitcase for my trip to Salt Lake City. I left the house at around 1pm to attend our Christmas luncheon at my brothers' in-laws.
About 1:45 pm I received a blackberry message from one of my friends in Utah, who told me they had blizzard conditions and no power. I thought, I have to get out, so hopefully everything will be cleared up by the time I'm to arrive in Utah. I check my flight status and everything was on time.
We had a delicious dinner of prime rib, BBQ ribs, squash casserole, homemade roles and sweet potatoes. After a couple of hours my brother and sister-in-law took me to the airport and I checked in with ease.
We loaded the plane and took off early to Minnesota. When we arrived I had to book it from one terminal to another, which also involved getting on a tram. I quickly arrived at the gate only to find out that we were delayed. We continued to wait for almost an hour and then we loaded the plane and headed for Utah. When we were approaching Salt Lake the captain continued to warn us of freezing fog, low visibility and keeping our seat belts securely fastened. I always sit in the window seat and as we were about to touchdown, I realized that the white below was the actual runway. We touched down and fortunately didn't slide off the runway.
As we approached, the tarmac was filled with hundreds of planes and our gate had to be reassigned, but there was one catch. The gate we were transferred to was not made for our type of aircraft. So they had to move quite a bit of heavy machinery, which ended up taking over an hour. We were literally 10 feet away from the gate, but we started to slide, so we had to wait for someone to tow us in. Back and forth and back and forth several more times until we finally made it into the gate. Cheers and applause could be heard throughout the cabin.
We deplaned and it was 2am. Several stranded passengers were scattered throughout the airport sleeping or playing on their computers. We ended up deplaning in Terminal 2, but our luggage was sent to Terminal 1. We were directed to carousal 4 where we waited for another 1 1/2 hours, until the luggage started to spit out on to the carousal.
After retrieving my luggage, I hopped on the bus to the economy parking lot. When I arrived at my brother and sister-in-law's car, there was tons of snow on the car and it was up to my calves. It only took about 20 minutes to clear off. I said a quick prayer and started my journey to my friends house.
None of the roads had been plowed and it was quite slippery. I fortunately made it to my friend's home in safety at 4:20 am.
About 1:45 pm I received a blackberry message from one of my friends in Utah, who told me they had blizzard conditions and no power. I thought, I have to get out, so hopefully everything will be cleared up by the time I'm to arrive in Utah. I check my flight status and everything was on time.
We had a delicious dinner of prime rib, BBQ ribs, squash casserole, homemade roles and sweet potatoes. After a couple of hours my brother and sister-in-law took me to the airport and I checked in with ease.
We loaded the plane and took off early to Minnesota. When we arrived I had to book it from one terminal to another, which also involved getting on a tram. I quickly arrived at the gate only to find out that we were delayed. We continued to wait for almost an hour and then we loaded the plane and headed for Utah. When we were approaching Salt Lake the captain continued to warn us of freezing fog, low visibility and keeping our seat belts securely fastened. I always sit in the window seat and as we were about to touchdown, I realized that the white below was the actual runway. We touched down and fortunately didn't slide off the runway.
As we approached, the tarmac was filled with hundreds of planes and our gate had to be reassigned, but there was one catch. The gate we were transferred to was not made for our type of aircraft. So they had to move quite a bit of heavy machinery, which ended up taking over an hour. We were literally 10 feet away from the gate, but we started to slide, so we had to wait for someone to tow us in. Back and forth and back and forth several more times until we finally made it into the gate. Cheers and applause could be heard throughout the cabin.
We deplaned and it was 2am. Several stranded passengers were scattered throughout the airport sleeping or playing on their computers. We ended up deplaning in Terminal 2, but our luggage was sent to Terminal 1. We were directed to carousal 4 where we waited for another 1 1/2 hours, until the luggage started to spit out on to the carousal.
After retrieving my luggage, I hopped on the bus to the economy parking lot. When I arrived at my brother and sister-in-law's car, there was tons of snow on the car and it was up to my calves. It only took about 20 minutes to clear off. I said a quick prayer and started my journey to my friends house.
None of the roads had been plowed and it was quite slippery. I fortunately made it to my friend's home in safety at 4:20 am.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Subzero Weather
Last Sunday I woke up early to prepare to go to the Sunday Christmas program. As I started to prepare the weather advisory said that it was 32 below zero windchill and that we would not reach even zero degrees. I was not thrilled with the idea of going outside. Unfortunately, I'm the organist and choir pianist, so I had no choice of skipping out.
I put on my dress and decided to put on my sweatpants and boots to keep my legs warm. I did remove them before church, but couldn't help but get a picture of me all bundled up.
I put on my dress and decided to put on my sweatpants and boots to keep my legs warm. I did remove them before church, but couldn't help but get a picture of me all bundled up.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Quilting 101
I was on my way out of work after a stressful week in the office, when I received a text message from one of my guy friends asking if he could use our sewing machine. At first, I chuckled wondering what he needed to use it for, but then he explained that it was for a t-shirt quilt.
I headed home, picked up the sewing machine and arrived at his house around 6:30pm. We went to dinner and then went to Wal-Mart to pick up some things for this quilt. I am not domestic in any form of the word. I can cook well, but sewing is absolutely out of the question.
We headed back to his house and started on our adventure. We realized we had forgotten some things for the quilt, so we had to leave again and ended up at Joann's. It was literally the blind leading the blind. Fortunately, we found some clear grid plastics that we took two and taped together to make a 16" x 16" square. We didn't think that we would need any more than one fabric cutter, so the last of the 36 squares were quite fun to cut out with a dull blade.
We began a process that he would cut, I would iron and this went on for a couple of hours. Towards the end of the cutting of the squares, we realized we had to thread the bobbin. I started on my attempt to thread the bobbin, which turned out to be disastrous. I resorted to watching a video on YouTube, which I have to admit was extremely helpful. I can now say that I'm a professional bobbin threader.
Threading the entire machine was another adventure. I had my guy friend thread the sewing machine as I cut out some more squares. He fortunately took Home Economics in the 7th grade, so he's much more experienced than me. After we laid out the squares in the order of the blanket, he started sewing the rows together. As he would finish a row, I would have the next row ready to sew and this took a couple more hours.
2am rolled around and we ran out of Navy thread. We decided that there was a 24 hour Walgreen's down the road, so we got bundled up and headed out to the snow covered streets. Luckily, Walgreen's did have spools of thread, but our options were limited to white or black, so we opted for black.
We then headed back to the house and began sewing the rest of the rows together. It was good having two people handling the quilt, because the quilt got extremely heavy at the end.
At 6am we were finishing the edges and extremely proud of our awesome accomplishment. We had one more edge to go and were finishing the corner, which were pretty tough, because of the thickness of the batting and material. The last stitch on the second to last edge, was extremely difficult and the needle ended up breaking. We called it quits, because by then it was 6:45am.
He fortunately finished the quilt yesterday!!! I definitely can say I feel much more domestic after our quilting marathon. Next time, I'll spend more than one day on the quilt.
I headed home, picked up the sewing machine and arrived at his house around 6:30pm. We went to dinner and then went to Wal-Mart to pick up some things for this quilt. I am not domestic in any form of the word. I can cook well, but sewing is absolutely out of the question.
We headed back to his house and started on our adventure. We realized we had forgotten some things for the quilt, so we had to leave again and ended up at Joann's. It was literally the blind leading the blind. Fortunately, we found some clear grid plastics that we took two and taped together to make a 16" x 16" square. We didn't think that we would need any more than one fabric cutter, so the last of the 36 squares were quite fun to cut out with a dull blade.
We began a process that he would cut, I would iron and this went on for a couple of hours. Towards the end of the cutting of the squares, we realized we had to thread the bobbin. I started on my attempt to thread the bobbin, which turned out to be disastrous. I resorted to watching a video on YouTube, which I have to admit was extremely helpful. I can now say that I'm a professional bobbin threader.
Threading the entire machine was another adventure. I had my guy friend thread the sewing machine as I cut out some more squares. He fortunately took Home Economics in the 7th grade, so he's much more experienced than me. After we laid out the squares in the order of the blanket, he started sewing the rows together. As he would finish a row, I would have the next row ready to sew and this took a couple more hours.
2am rolled around and we ran out of Navy thread. We decided that there was a 24 hour Walgreen's down the road, so we got bundled up and headed out to the snow covered streets. Luckily, Walgreen's did have spools of thread, but our options were limited to white or black, so we opted for black.
We then headed back to the house and began sewing the rest of the rows together. It was good having two people handling the quilt, because the quilt got extremely heavy at the end.
At 6am we were finishing the edges and extremely proud of our awesome accomplishment. We had one more edge to go and were finishing the corner, which were pretty tough, because of the thickness of the batting and material. The last stitch on the second to last edge, was extremely difficult and the needle ended up breaking. We called it quits, because by then it was 6:45am.
He fortunately finished the quilt yesterday!!! I definitely can say I feel much more domestic after our quilting marathon. Next time, I'll spend more than one day on the quilt.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Birthday Weekend
Wednesday in the middle of work, I had the thought that I should treat myself to a weekend in Chicago. I went on priceline and booked a Five Star hotel for cheap. I was so excited at the idea of spending some time in my favorite city.Friday morning I awoke around 8 am and headed to the gym for a two mile jog and then I attempted to get a little Christmas Shopping done on the way home. I have vowed I will never take my children the day after Thanksgiving to shop, because it's not fair to them or me, especially with all of the people.
I got home and started packing for my weekend adventure. I packed up my car and headed into the city around 3pm. I arrived at the hotel around 4:30pm, checked in, and relaxed in the room for a couple of hours.
I made my way down Michigan Avenue and hit Victoria Secret, which was having some awesome sales and found my mom and sister-in-laws presents. I was pretty excited and after shopping for a few hours returned to my hotel room. I headed out and found some yummy dinner and went back to the hotel and relaxed for the rest of the evening.
Saturday, I woke up around 8am and got ready for the day. I left the hotel around 10am and headed to Millennium park. I ate a muffin and sat and watched people at the Bean for a couple of hours. I headed to Macy's on State Street where the windows are a disappointment, but they were having some great sales, so I went and shopped, but didn't find anything worth buying. I then headed to various other stores.
Around 3:30pm my family arrived into the city and we went to the German Market and they ate some Bratwurst, Strudel, and Hot Chocolate. It was all delicious. The German Market was very packed, since it was the first day, and my family had had enough after only about 45 minutes. A couple of my friends came into the city and we went and ate tapas at Cafe' Iberico. It was delicious.
After dinner we wandered back to Millennium park and then started heading north on Michigan Ave. One of my friends asked what we should do. I thought for a moment and then suggested we go to the top of the John Hancock building. We walked a few more blocks and waited in line for about 20 minutes. We had an awesome view from our table and sipped hot chocolate. Honestly, the best view is from the Women's bathroom. I took a couple of pictures I'll post.
Sunday, I headed home early, because it started to snow. My family returned home from church and we had lasagna and pumpkin cheesecake for my birthday dinner. I got another kitchen gadget. It's a hot air popper which the top is a bowl! I look forward to using it soon.
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