I made it to NYC!

I lived 5 hours away from NYC for 16 years and never had the opportunity to visit. I was so excited to go with Ami! Ami was a super tour guide and I have lots of good pictures to share. I won't comment on every picture since some speak for themselves!

Lots of taxis in the streets!

The picture above shows that we were in the fashion district! I thought this was great!
Below, this picture was taken at Mood. This is the store shown on TV. It was overwhelming how much was for sale there in the store.

Above, a city view including the Dow Jones prices for the day.....

The two pictures above were taken on Time Square. It was so little and just a regular intersection. I was surprised. The big ball drops on New Year's Eve just above where I was standing in front of the police station.

Toys R Us had this Ferris wheel inside the store. I loved the Little People chair the best. It was so cute!

I felt very safe in NYC.....

I'm at the Rockefeller Center and the ice skating rink is in the background. This ice skating rink is about the same size as the ice skating rink in Portland at the Lloyd Center Mall. The picture below was taken at the same location.

The picture above shows where the Today Show is filmed each morning. It's the room on the bottom floor. Again, this is just a small room and not nearly as big as it appears on TV.

The picture above is for Charity since she loves this store.

The Empire State building above.
I loved the advertising for Macy's below with the huge shopping bag!

Men were waiting for someone to come play
chess with them.































The subway...............













Walking on the streets of Chinatown... I bought a watch and some jewelry.








Chinatown - a typical store!





To go to NYC, we left at 6 am and returned at 10 pm. It was snowing as we left NYC. We had a full day and a great day. We saw the sights shown in this blog posting and also went to a book store. I had a terrific time. Thanks to Ami for making it all happen! One more of my dreams came true last week!

Baking Pizza on Cardboard

Dwain was a good sport about taking these pictures.................. Yesterday he put a frozen pizza in the oven to bake and left it on the cardboard. We had to cut the pizza off of the cardboard to eat it but it was still really good. We had a good laugh over it and then ate the pizza!

My Schools - Tuscarora School District (2/10)

My niece Paige is standing in front of her school. This is currently the James Buchanan Middle School. When I was attending this school, this building was used as the High School. I attended school here for grades 9 to 12.

When I attended school, girls had to wear dresses to school. The attire is very different today. The main teacher I remember is Mr. Ralston, my Spanish teacher. I have thought of him when I visited Mexico and Spain and wish that I could remember more of what he taught me.










This is a shot of the back of the school. (currently the Middle School)













This is currently the High School.















I went to Elementary School here for grades K through 6th. Mountain View was a brand new school when I first attended. My nieces Emma and Maggie are in front of the school as they currently attend. When I attended this school, I remember that I gave my kindergarten teacher a Book of Mormon for Christmas. I think that was my first missionary experience.









Behind me, in this last picture is the school I attended for Jr. High School for grades 7 and 8. This school was K through 12 when I attended. The portion I attended those two school years was called St. Thomas Jr. High School. The Jr. High School was in the basement. This view of the back is from the school I attended. The front of the building has been added onto so it looks very different. This building is now exclusively an Elementary School. I remember attending this school when I got my first pair of glasses. I returned to school during geography class and hit my glasses with the door when I opened the door. Everyone in the class laughed at me and I was very embarrassed. I'm not sure how I hit my glasses when they were on but I did.

Sights of Cyprus (11/09)

After Paul was converted and his name changed from Saul to Paul, Pathos (Cyprus) was the first place Paul taught. Pathos is the capital of Cyprus. The two pictures below show an actor portraying Paul teaching at the ruins of the temple. The actor was fabulous and a surprise to us at this location. It was really touching to watch and listen to him speak to our group.

The temple in the picture above was destroyed by an earthquake.

A beautiful view at the coast of Cyprus..............
Below, an example of mosaics.... These mosaics, according to the tour guide, were made by finding stones with the various colors. The mosaics in Pathos are the most famous in the world.

The pictures above and below show you what Pathos looks like today.

I found the cute little purses (above / below) in the shops. I wanted to buy one for each of my granddaughters. Since they were the equivalent of $20 (U.S. dollar), I decided against purchasing three of them. The purses were so cute so it was really tempting though.

Charity was so exhausted. This is one time she didn't protest that I took a picture. This tour had us leaving the ship around 7 am and returning for dinner around 6 pm so we had long days. We all napped when we could while traveling on the bus from sight to sight.

A beautiful view of Cyprus as we were leaving..................

Rhodes, Greece, the Medieval Town (11/09)

Here is my wonderful daughter in Rhodes at the center of the castle. This picture gives you an idea of the massive building. I could just imagine the place full of people with a jousting ( a combat in which two knights on horseback attempted to unhorse each other with blunted lances) match going on. Charity and I had a great time which is evident by the smile on Charity's face. Rhodes was our last stop in Greece and we were sad to have the trip come to an end. What a wonderful time we had in every city.

After touring the Mediterranean countries and seeing the "evil eyes" above frequently, I had to include a picture. Many of the countries have these evil eyes in their jewelery, etc. We were told the people are very superstitious and believe that the evil eye will protect them from the evil eyes given to them by others. Charity and I didn't care for the evil eye design so we avoided purchasing items that included the evil eye - sometimes that was very difficult and we passed up items that we would have otherwise purchased. We saw the most evil eyes in Egypt and Turkey. Since returning from our trip, I have noticed evil eyes here in the U.S.

Due to the antics of some of my current co-workers and as a joke, I brought home one of the evil eyes from this basket to "protect" me from the evil eyes of my coworkers. It brings a little humor to the work place. I was surprised that my coworker from India knew exactly what the evil eye was intended for so I assume it's use is broader than the Mediterranean countries.....

This little town of Rhodes was so cute. The picture above and the one below were taken at the center of the city. Below Charity is at the fountain with our good friends Linda and Mike from Manassas. We met them the first night at dinner and were amazed at what a small world it is after learning that Mike and Linda know my brothers from church and hunting from years ago. We became fast friends and quickly felt like family. We were all in the blue group so we toured together and had most dinners together. They made the trip even more enjoyable than it would have been otherwise. We intend on keeping in touch and seeing them from time to time.

The picture below shows Charity and Linda pooling their remaining foreign currency to get some gelato. Since this was our last stop, we didn't want any excess foreign money to take home. I think the gelato is more European than Mediterranean but it was nevertheless greatly enjoyed.

I just loved the cute little streets of Rhodes as shown above........... The picture below is shown of a man in the street with his truck selling bananas. He had a lot of customers!

Since this was our last stop on the cruise, I wanted to include a picture of our cruise ship which held approximately 1,200 people. What a super fun time we had cruising with the religious people from around the world (mostly Americans). This was an experience I will never forget and will remain my most special trip of my lifetime. Thanks to Charity for making it all possible as I wouldn't have done the trip alone. This was really an educational tour as advertised.

First Day in PA (Feb. 2010)

I arrived in Pennsylvania just after the big snow storm. The snow was beautiful.

Gary talked me into going to the farm auction. I dressed up in layers (contributed by my dad and Gary) and wore my wool coat on top. I got a lot of funny looks with my attire. Don't you just love my cool hat?

Venus and I were two of the three women at the farm auction. My dad was a good sport to tag along. It was so cold and windy. I was happy that we didn't stay very long.

Ephesus (Turkey) Where Paul Lived for 3 Years

This was the entry into Turkey.

When we got off of the cruise ship, we got on buses for our smaller tour group - we were on the blue bus. You can see Charity ready to get on the bus. We liked to sit in the back and have a row to ourselves. There were 4 buses with the LDS Travel group that we were part of for the trip.

A beautiful view above and below taken during the bus ride to Ephesus.

This is the only picture I have from Ephesus. Our tour guide was holding the blue flag so we could follow the flag and keep with the group.
Charity has lots more pictures of Ephesus. I ran out of memory and also ran out of battery charge so my pictures were limited.
Paul lived in Ephesus for 3 years and taught the gospel there.

This was my favorite menu item for the entire cruise. The Greek salad was delicious and I had it at least once a day and sometimes twice. I never got tired of it.

Final Resting Place for Honda Civic? (2/9/10)

On Tuesday I was involved in a car accident. Going through an intersection, I hit a car that didn't yield the right of way. I lost consciousness for a bit so don't remember much.

I found out yesterday that my car is totaled. At the accident my front bumper was on the ground but you can see from these photos that someone kind of stuck the car back together so it looks better than the last time I saw it. The radiator was smashed in so after the accident the steam was coming out like crazy and the radiator was fully exposed to view and you can't see it in this picture.

I went today to take these pictures and get my personal belongings out of the car. I haven't felt emotional at all about the car but when I went to go see the car and get my stuff, I started to cry. I cried as I took my stuff out of the car. It was hard to say good bye.

My car only had 59k miles and had a new engine around 10k miles ago so it was in excellent condition and still like a new car. I still can't believe it all happened.

Fortunately, I was not injured any worse. I walked away with aches and pains and bruising. My air bag didn't deploy so I have whiplash really bad and hurt my back and knees as well.


I found one broken part in my car. I'm not sure what it is but I included a picture in case someone knows what it is.