LDS Confrence Center Salt Lake City : My First Big Mormon Adventure!

Here is the photo of me in the LDS Conference Center for the  General Relief Society Meeting that took place on Saturday, September 24, 2011.  This was my first big LDS adventure out here in Utah!  All I can say is "WOW".  It was such a great experience for me.  I could have stayed all night long.  I can't wait to take my family there for a tour.  It is such a beautiful building.  I've linked you to a site that gives all the details about the conference center.    It was so amazing to see it packed with women.  I think other than the wonderful talks the best part was standing up and singing with all these other people.  It was just really wonderful for me to do that.

Here is a photo from the outside at night.  This is what I saw as I left.(well except for on the ground not in the air!)  My photo did not come out as good as this one that I found on the Internet!  There are gardens at the top of the building so I'm told.  I want to go and see them.  But isn't it just beautiful?!  I have read that this is the largest theater-style auditorium ever built.  When we got to the Conference Center their were masses of women standing in line to get in.  I was amazed at the amount of people there.  I'm not sure if it was filled to capacity, but it seats 21,200 people.  That's just amazing!

Here is a nice photo of the inside that I found. I had a seat way up in the top of the terrace section.  I was supposed to be in the balcony, but I walked in with a member of my ward who was handicapped so we got closer and better seating.  The speakers were so far away that they looked like little dolls.  I was told I missed the most exciting part, (as I went to get water for my friend.)  I missed the Prophet walking in.  I was told the whole place becomes totally quiet.  All the talks were wonderful.  But to make my experience just the top for me was that my favorite speaker gave a talk.  President Uchtdorf was the last speaker.  I just love to listen to his talks.  And his talk had a reference to flowers!  Could my night have been any better?  I don't think so.
After conference I rode with my friends to burger restaurant.  It was nice to have a night out with the women of my ward.  I hope at some point to get to go to General conference at the conference center.  That would just be a great LDS Utah experience for me!

You've Got Surveys: Can you really make money with online surveys?

Ah life in Utah, where it never seems to rain.  Here is a photo of one of my friends roses.  I could just stay at her house and photograph roses forever. 
So for the past month I have been unemployed and at home playing on my computer for a lot of my time.  So you know how you get those emails..."Sign up with us and do surveys on line and make money".  Well having nothing better to do and thinking I'd be able to share my opinion and make a little extra money I signed up for a few.  I can say this it's a good thing I got my night job now! Can you make money doing online surveys?  Probably, but from what I have found you are not going to make very much, and most of the so called surveys are just companies trying to get you to sign up for their product.  One site which I'm going to cancel out of e-mails me daily with a supposed survey to take.  You click to take the survey and they want you to actually sign up for a different companies product.  What is funny is they will pay you $1.50 to sign up for a product that will end up costing you $10.00 to $20.00.  Or they ask you to sign up for a chance to try out a new laptop for free, but when you get to the end of the survey to be able to proceed you have to sign up for two other products that cost you money.  So in the end at least with this survey company you would end up parting with more of your money than you would actually make.  I always end up closing out of the surveys early, I'm not that stupid!  There is one other company that sends you e-mails.  I think I've figured out you get paid two cents for each e-mail you open.  Again it's all a way to try to get you to purchase some other companies product. Through this web-site you can also watch video's which pay you three cents, or take other surveys.  They also want you to play on-line video games which you somehow would get paid for.  The attempt there I think is to get you to think you are a really good video game player and then make you want to play and bet money.  Not into that.  So I've watched some of the video's and I've been opening the e-mails.  Hey that's not to hard.  And I've made so far about $6.00.  Now I'm not too sure I'll ever see that $6.00 but I'm definitely not going to go to far with my survey taking money am I!  Seriously I thought I'd be asked some grand questions about products I used and that I might get some little reward.  I have to say it really just isn't what I thought.

Here is a photo from behind my daughters school.  You can't see it but the mountain is starting to get red blotches all over it.  Fall is coming.  I'm not sure how many trees on the mountain change color and how many are evergreens.  It will be interesting to see the first snow on the mountains.  Vermont won in that category as my mom has said their is snow on the mountains. She thinks that means it will be a hard winter.  My children are very excited to have snow.  To go for walks in the snow.  I guess it is good that they have something to look forward to.  I hope that the road crews are good out here as I work nights and I don't look forward to driving home in snow storms. 

Well I hope you had a good week.  I kept very busy.  Tomorrow I get to go to the Womens' General Relief Society meeting.  I actually get to go where it will be occurring.  I'm very excited about this.  To be in the same room as the Prophet of the Church.  How greatly blessed I feel. I hope I can get a few photo's to share. Oh if you know of a good survey site or if you have made real money on surveys let me know.  As I'm quiet convinced it's all a big scam!

Have a great weekend:)

I survived my first Night shift in Utah!

Here is another photo of going down the mountain. I need to find out what the name of the mountain is that I keep traveling over.  I got to drive over it again today.  All the little shrubs are changing color.  It will be interesting to see what the mountains look like in the different seasons. 
Last night I had my first night shift at Kohl's.  It was also my first time alone in customer service.  And I had no clue where anything was, I had forgotten how to do things, but thankfully I had help and I my brain figured out the rest.  I was supposed to work until 11:30 but didn't get out until 12:30.  Makes the Christmas season that is looming scary.  If you get out at an hour later than you are scheduled does that mean soon I'll be getting home around 2am?  Ugh.  Guess I'll be doing a lot of napping while the kids are in school.
I have to say "I LOVE THE UTAH MOUNTAINS!"  I can't wait to go places and learn more about them.  I'm truly enjoying our move and learning about this state.  Because I've slept most of today I don't have much to share today.  I look forward to having tomorrow off and doing a little more investigating and just learning about my surroundings. Oh since I work night I got to see the "Valley"  in the wee hours of the morning and can I say it's beautiful.  It is also very lit up even so early in the morning.  The moon looked so beautiful last night too.  I like to drive home in the middle of the night as there is no traffic. Talk to you soon:)

Driving over the mountain another Utah adventure.

Some of our friends live in Highland Utah.  To get from where we live to where they live you have two driving choices.  You can drive along the highway which is flat and straight.  Or you can drive over the mountain.  I like driving over the mountain.  Despite the fact that when I'm the passenger I get a little car sick. 

When you go up over the mountain there are so many cool things to see.  I tell my husband though that I would not want to live on the mountain.  Our friend told us there are about 1000 houses up on the mountain.  They had planned to build 8000.  But then the housing bubble burst.  I just would not want to have to drive in the snowy weather up there.  I can imagine that it might be a bit colder too!

This is a view of the salt lake valley.  It's not the greatest photo as I'm in the car and my husband is speeding along.  We were running late so I didn't make him stop.  So all the photo's are from the passenger window.  I should have sat in the back where my daughter sits she had much better views.

Here we are heading down the mountain towards Highland.  It's amazing how you are just surrounded by mountains out here. One thing I'm noticing is that people take their football very seriously out here.  Everyone was wearing red on Saturday for the big football game.  And Everyone was wearing Red again on Sunday.  I take it the "U"  won the game Saturday night.  Those who were fans of  the "Y"  were hiding out and wishing they had a little more red in their closet.  Being totally unaware of the school colors I wore all blue.  Well it's my favorite color.  I hope no one thought I was a "Y" fan.  I'm not a football fan at all!

One other thing I learned.  There are parts of the mountain that look red now.  I was wondering what that was.  My husbands friend told us that it was the shrubs on the mountain changing color.  I also thought that watering your yard would cost a fortune, but I've found out that it only cost about $17.00 a month.  They collect the water that runs off the mountains and then pipe it through the neighborhoods and allow you to tap your sprinkler system in and charge you $17.00 a month unlimited use.  Or at least that's how much our friends pay.

Well off to learn more about Utah.  Hope you have enjoyed.  I start work tonight and I'm a bit nervous. I'll be glad to have my first day over with!

Dimple Dell Park, our first family adventure in Utah!

In New Jersey it took me awhile to go out and check out the parks.  As we began our  move I made the decision that I would not wait to find some great parks to check out and go for walks at.  Of course our favorite park in New Jersey was Dukes Park.  It had paved walk ways.  Well today my family took our first adventure out in the wild lands of Utah.  Or at least it felt wild to me.  We went to Dimple Dell park.  This is a very big park with lots of dirt trails.  We started up on the top of the park and descended down to the bottom where their is a dried up creek.

My husband and the kids had a great time looking for living creatures.  We saw lots of big black beetles, and dragon flies.  Thank goodness we did not see any snakes, or scorpions.  I'm not sure they really live in this area, something I need to look up.  Some of the locals that were on the trail said that it would be very rare to see a rattle snake in this area.  That made me feel much better.  He did say you might see a water snake but they  are much smaller.  I stayed on the path.  My adventurous family left often to investigate.

I'm not sure what these flowers are.  I think they might be wild sunflowers.  You see them everywhere right now.  I think they are very pretty.

Here we are on the path I thought we were going to follow.  The nice "Wood Trail" .  But no we had to go on the paths that went all over the place, through mud, and pricker bushes.  Adventure!  My husband thought it fun to walk behind me and throw little pebbles and see me jump thinking a snake was out in the grass.  My son loved looking at all the rocks hoping to find a dinosaur fossil.  My daughter liked to lead us on the winding ever changing trails.  I was glad we got back alive.  We did see alot of horses too.

If you are new to Utah or visiting and want to know about trails in the area the book to get is " Hike Trails (& walk paths) In Salt Lake Valley.  By Howard L. Nuttall.  Someone gave us this book as a gift and I'm going to use it alot!

We also have found a favorite ice cream shop.  Farr's Fresh.  You get to fill your own ice cream bowl and put your own toppings on.  You pay by how much your cup of ice cream weighs.  I tried the Pumpkin Pie Ice cream.  It was actually very good.  I think my daughter likes to make her own bowl.  I was surprised she could eat all that ice cream.  But she did.  She also likes that she can get mini marshmallows and M&M's on top.

Have a great weekend:)

UTAH CURIOSITIES...What I'm learning about my new home!

So when you move to a new place how do you learn about the new world around you?  Go to the library and take some books out on your new state.  I got the book :"Utah CURIOSITIES.. Quirky Characters, Roadside oddities and other offbeat stuff.  By Brandon Griggs.   Here are some interesting facts I have learned:
1.  When the Mormons first settled out here in 1847,  they called their provisional state "DESERET"  Deseret is a book of Mormon term meaning "honeybee."  I didn't know that.
2.  Up on the mountains you see these big letters.  I asked my husband what are those letters for?  The book gave me the answer.  In Provo you see a big "Y".  The letter was built in 1906, it represents Brigham Young University, which students and alumni call "the Y" for short.  The "Y" is 320 feet high it's the largest in the nation.  50 miles north there is a big "U"  For the university of Utah.  From what I read there is a big rivalry between the schools.  To the students the letters are symbols of school pride. 
3. I have finally learned where the numbered street system came from.  It is very hard to figure out the streets here, and then people shorten the numbers also.  Go down 7th east,  there's a 700 east where's the 7th?  Well they all just take the zero's off.   It all boils down to Joseph Smith.  And I was told by other's Brigham Young, but guess he was just following orders.  So Joseph Smith decreed that all Mormon settlements should be laid out in a numbered grid with a temple in the center.  Brigham Young, followed the Prophet's order when he got to Utah and established the street system in Utah shortly after founding Salt lake city in 1847.  Another thing if there is a town that was settled by people other than Mormon's in Utah, you know because the streets are not done by the grid system.
Well I hope you enjoyed reading a little of what I'm learning out here in Utah.  And for my mom " Yes there are tree's and grass and flowers.  And it is even raining today.  I hope tomorrow is nice, I want to get out and take some new photo's.  We are hoping to go to the Dimple dell park.   I hope to share more of what I have learned soon. Have a great weekend:)

A Chance to Grow...

Last night amidst some very strange dreams I met a man, and asked "Why did I have to move?"  He said to me "It's a chance to grow."  I woke up after that feeling calm and happy.  It was my answer.  I'm here to learn and grow.  With everything so unfamiliar each day I have to stretch and grow and push myself forward.  There's a part of me that would love to just hide under the covers and pretend I was back in New Jersey.  But then my husband would wonder why no meal was cooked.  The little apartment would become a disaster fast.  And I'd eventually get very lonely.  I find each day brings so many new experiences.  Every grocery store is different.  Trying to figure out what brands of food are similar to what we used to eat is a challenge.  The roads and streets are different.   The weather is different.  It's cold in the morning and then pretty hot in the afternoon.  I continue to wonder "Does it ever rain here?"  I'm guessing not much with the amount of sprinkler systems that are all over. 
I'm excited though to be on this learning adventure.  As I learn about Utah, the place, the people, the environment, I grow and change. 
I'm definitely looking forward to growing closer to Heavenly Father in all of this.  I'm looking forward to going next week to the Women's conference.  And what luck, the ward I'm in has tickets to go to the conference center.  I was a bit nervous that I was not going to be able to attend as next week I start working.  But was so happy to find that my schedule is for only two days!  I have next Saturday off.  I get to go to the conference center and see the women's conference live.  What an exciting thing for me.  I know it will just be wonderful!
I'm reading a really good spiritual book " I need thee every hour"  By David P. Vandagriff.  It has been such a nice book to find and ponder about.  One thing I love about the book is all the quotes taken from hymns.  I love to listen and sing and ponder about the hymns.  There are so many great quotes I could share from this book.  Here is one I just opened to" ...trials are often spiritual training exercises designed to change us, strengthen us, and encourage us to grow.."  Any way if you have not read this book you should.  It just brings the spirit right to you! 
The other book I'm reading is called "Rebecca."  it is a Gothic romance novel.  It was written in the 1930's.  It's very interesting to me because the main character is much younger than her husband.  With Gothic novels there is some evil about.  You always have a hint that it is there, but you are not sure what it is.  I connect with the main character who you never learn what their name is.  I can understand all that she goes through as being much younger than her husband.  She is very much younger than her husband than I am.  But I understand how she feels as her husbands friends look at her and think "What was he thinking?"  I am my husbands opposite, and I think that was very hard for his friends to deal with. He is the life of the party, and when we met I was quiet and shy.  He is loud and funny, I'm quiet and serious.  He is always late, I am always early.  It's funny for the most part we do very well together, we balance each other.  But I know that his friends had a hard time with our marriage.  I just hope out here we can find friends who accept us both.  I think we already have found a few, and I hope it continues.  It's very nice though to just be together.
One thing I've been doing which is fun, is seeing how many people I can get to smile at me.  Today as I left the library, I looked at this woman, and gave her a huge smile and she smiled back.  What a small way to make a persons day a little brighter.  How about you do you ever just smile at people to see if they will smile back.  To have some small connection with someone you don't know.  Try it you might find it brings you a little joy.  Have a wonderful day:)

He's Changed!

As my daughter and I walked to her school yesterday she said "He's changed!"  She was talking about her brother!  She is upset because they used to play together all the time. But now he barely pays attention to her.

I told her that yes I had also noticed that he has changed.  He is now a teenager.  He wants to fit in and be cool.  Or at least be a little cooler than he was.  He is one of those boys who is obsessed with playing on his DSI.  He loves to make animated cartoons and wants to be popular on the animated cartoon website he is a member of.

Here he is two years ago.  You could already see the young man starting to come out.  But now all those teen changes are occurring.  I can empathize with my daughter.  My brother and I were about the same age difference as my children are.  We did so much together when we were young, but that first junior high year "He Changed!"  He listened to head banging rock-n-roll and was always hiding out in his room.  He no longer thought it was cool to hang out with his little sister.  I was always jealous of the girls he dated, they got more of his time than I did.  Now I realize it's just a part of life.  You grow and you change.  Then it was hard.

Here he is my little boy, very much more grown up than I'm ready for.  And he has changed, and he is still changing.  It is wonderful to watch and yet scary.  There is still a very young side to my son.  The want to stay a child side wars with the teenage hormones.  The outside is developing, while the inside is not always sure it wants to be that way.  He does still do stuff with his sister but it is not the same. With all the change our family has gone through in the past few years, this change, the changing of my children I think might be the hardest.  Because it means that soon they will leave.  Although I've been told the teenage years are made hard so that you want them to leave.  I'm still not sure I'll get to that point.
I've been looking for articles about how to adjust to a big move.  A cross country move.  How do you move forward and go on.  My one advice for any one would be not to sit and compare your new surroundings to your old surroundings.  I'm trying hard to just learn and embrace this place called Utah.  Here is an article I found about "Adjusting to a big move."  Though I don't think the move they are talking about is as big.  Because they tell you to invite old friends over for a house warming.  I can't do that.  No one is going to drive 4 days one way to visit me.  I have to make all new friends.
I have finished reading the book "The girl next door."  by Elizabeth Noble.  I connected to the book on so many levels it was not funny.  I think it is just because of the move, and the adjustments that my family are going through.  One other quote I liked was " Loneliness was physical too..."  I felt that so much while my husband and I were apart for 4 months.  The physicalness (not sure this is a word.) of being lonely.  There were so many times when I desperately needed a hug and there was none.    Not a hug from my children, but a hug from my husband.  Where I really just needed him.  And he wasn't there.  And the late night phone calls did not help.  Even this past trip for him was hard for me.  Here I am in a totally new place with hardly anyone I know and no comfort when I needed it.  I think my husband just got annoyed when I was calling him, he never realized just how much I really needed him.  I don't think he realizes at all how much I've really needed him these past few months.  How absolutely physically alone I felt.  I look at him, and he has aged.  We have an 11 year gap between us.  I now realize, that those years could cause me much loneliness in the future.  It scares me.  And yet I wouldn't trade our love and good times for a younger spouse.  I'll take the years I get and be happy.

I feel like I live in the Fawlty Towers apartment complex!

Lately I feel like I live in the Fawlty Towers apartment complex.  I don't know if you watch British comedy, but it was one thing my husband and I used to love to do on Saturday nights when the children were young.  Back in the day when you could put rabbit ears on the TV and actually get a TV station without having to pay for cable.  Every Saturday night we would watch all the British comedy shows on PBS.  Now due to some change in how you receive TV signals we don't get any TV.  But then it was fun.  We used to watch this show Fawlty Towers.  This tall thin man was the manager of a hotel, and there was always something going wrong.  My apartment seems the same way.  First when we moved in, I unplugged the toaster and put it in a different place.  This caused some problem with the wiring and the refrigerator stopped working.  There is a door between the kids bathroom and ours that does not shut all the way.  When you turn the water on for the sink it makes a horrible noise if the water is not going full blast.  Makes me feel bad as I don't like to waste water.  If you just have the hot water on the faucet whistles like a tea pot.  The handle for the toilet in our room falls out every few days.  And the other night the kids toilet backed up and flooded onto the floor.  Thankfully I knew how to turn the water off to the toilet. I was doing a lot of laundry the next day with all the towels I had to use to soak up the water on the floor.  The light over our dining room table had a piece just fall off.  When I go to put one of the windows up in the living room it makes a horrible noise.   Now don't feel to bad for me, we did want to save money and picked an apartment that hadn't been remodeled so that is probably why things are causing issue left and right.  Did I mention the hot water heater that sounds like it is making popcorn sometimes in the middle of the night.  Ugh.  Any way we don't have some talk lanky apartment manager here.  We have this young slightly big lady who has a very annoying laugh.  It really grates on you if you hear it too often. I'm not sure if it is a happy laugh or a nervous laugh.  But she does it often.  
My husband is finally home from his last cross country trip.  We are all very happy to be back together.  The photo is of my daughter doing something she loves, climbing trees.  Have a wonderful weekend!

The need for light in my home.

Here are a few more paragraphs from the book I'm reading (The Girl Next Door by Elizabeth Noble) that I connect to. I've changed them a little bit.

" It was the light flooding in from the windows on three sides. She realized, standing there, that natural light was important to her. In the light, she suddenly felt lighter herself, and she didn't feel boxed in."

The one really nice thing about my apartment is all the natural light that comes in all day long. We have big windows in the living room area, two big windows in the dining/kitchen, and then another big window in each bed room. I don't have to have any lights on all day long! I love that.

If it had been dark in the apartment I'd have been going crazy by now. My cat is so enjoying sitting in the sun. It has cooled down enough now that I can open the windows and let the breeze come in. One part of the apartment that I don't like at the moment is the fire place. It takes up space that could be used for a TV. Perhaps this winter I'll have changed my mind though. Perhaps after a day out in the snow sitting in front of the fire sipping hot coco will be a treat. We will see.

Here is another quote from the book: " ...The phone, email, and facebook. I have that, I know. But it isn't the same, you know? I don't have

any friends here. And talking on the phone, emailing or reading Facebook, well, it makes me realize how far away my friends and family are!"

I have to say that at first maybe I felt this way, but I do have some beginning friendships. My husbands been out here for four months and has made friends and they have welcomed me in. And I feel comfortable around them. They have children close to our age. I also found out today that I will be transferring to a Kohl's store out here. I'm so happy. Plus I get to work in customer service and that is one of my favorite places to work in the store. So I look forward

to meeting new people and making new friends at work too.

Today I started working on my family history again. It was a bit frustrating. One because there is no information on my laptop. Two because I have an external hard drive with information on it, but it took me over an hour to figure out how to open it on the laptop. Three because after opening it I could not make changes could only read the information. I did find someone on Ancestry.com looking for photo's I have copies of. So I was able to transfer them to my lap top and then send them one by one. It was nice to give a person some photo's of their ancestors. We both share a great great grandfather. It is so cool when you can find a connection like that. Computers have certainly changed the world.

Another book I've read that I've been meaning to share with you is "Left Neglected". This book is about a women who got into a car accident and ends up with TBI. Her brain no longer realizes that she has a left side or that there is a left side to anything. It is a very interesting book to read especially if you know someone who has had a similar injury. I hope that I don't end up working a lot of hours. I'd like to focus more on sharing things with you on this site, books, other blogs that I find interesting. I'm hoping the pace of life here is slow like everyone told me.

I do have to say the sprinklers are still attacking me in the morning. My daughter finds this to be very funny. Good night for now!

Connecting my move to a book I've started to read "The Girl Next Door".

I've started to read a new book. It is called "The Girl Next Door." By Elizabeth Noble. In grade school children are asked to make connections to what is in a book to their life. I've made a connection so early in this book. One of the characters moved to an apartment in NYC from England. She has to move because of her husbands job. I've taken a section of this book and changed just a few parts so that it fits my life.


" She couldn't believe she was here. Everything had happened so fast. Six months ago there had been no hint of any of this. Six months ago she'd been looking out the back kitchen window at her garden, planning what she would plant



Once spring arrived. She'd loved that garden. And the house. Their first house. A three bedroom duplex near their favorite park. Fit their budget and allowed them to pay tithing on one income. It needed a ton of work when they bought it, though she didn't realize that. He did all the remodeling and made a place that they truly loved, all period correct with a country cottage feel. The garden had been the best part and the biggest revelation. (Perhaps because it had been just hers. She made it with no help from others.) She'd never taken the slightest notice of the seasons before. When she was young she watched her mother garden but never

wanted to get her hands dirty. When they moved into the house there was only one garden. She told her neighbors she didn't know anything about gardening. She surprised everyone by growing the biggest and prettiest flowers. Whatever she planted flourished. One garden grew into four. Now she was here, far away from her garden, far from everything familiar. In a small apartment....."

I've only changed a few lines. I couldn't believe that a beginning story line could speak to me so quickly. I don't have any of my flower garden photo's on my laptop. In fact I'm running out of

Photo's on the lap top to share. Time to walk around with my camera attached to me. So you get photo's of my little duplex. I felt comfortable in this little house. The hardest thing the past few months has been listening to people tell me what they found wrong about my house. It was such a disaster when we bought it. My husband worked so hard on it. And yet people will still walk up and tell me this or that is wrong. My husbands friends were the worst. (not his church friends, his friends that he grew up with, his friends from before we were married.) They would tell me how things weren't as good as they

could have made them. Or that they told my husband he should have never bought this place. It hurt, it made me feel small and unimportant, not worthy. I hope(and think) they didn't realize how their words made me feel but it still hurts. I'm glad to be away from that. I feel for my husband as he is back there with them. They are still not being nice about the move. It's funny how everyone focuses on my husband in this move. Him not being able to say goodbye to everyone, him having to leave family and friends. No one really thought about me. I wonder why? Why did it seem to me as if no one thought it was hard for me? Perhaps they did and I just didn't realize it.

Anyways one thing I loved about my house was the natural light. All the light that came into the house. The house would stay warm because of all the sun light. I know that when I look for a new house I'll look for a house with lots of light. I already told the children that once we think we like a house I will want to be in it at different times of the day. I want to see the light at different times. Our little apartment has lots of windows and natural light. I love that. Someday I'll garden again.

Being Sunday the kids and I spent 3 hours at church. While this may seem like a long time to most people, I could stay longer if they made it

so. I felt the spirit so much today. But I wanted to share from last week. I was asked to read a quote, it brought me to tears. God always answers my prayers on Sunday at church. Here is the quote: " We need to remember that a fundamental purpose of life is to be tested and stretched, and thus we must learn to grow from our challenges and be grateful for the lessons learned that we cannot gain in an easier way." I feel I've been so tested and stretched in the past few months. I would like a break. I'd like some time to breath, and rest. I'm not sure if I will get it. Yet moving as hard as it is, is not as hard as surviving a hurricane, coming out losing everything. I can't imagine that. We were lucky we were spared that. There was a bit more damage than we had thought to the stuff in the basement. But it really wasn't our precious things. I guess in all trials you learn what is important. My family is most important. I'm glad to have Internet in the house again. I'm going to start working on my family history this week. Can't wait to have my other computer set up with all my important files. Thanks for reading. I hope to find ways to share important things with you. I'm glad to have time to read again.

I didn't realize this photo was down here. So this is our very cleaned up ready to be moved out of master bedroom. My mother makes quilts. I have a ton of them. One of my hopes is that in our new house ( when we will get one) I will be able to display all these beautiful quilts from my mom. I also want my husband to have a garage. So he can go out and tinker on his projects. Hope those blessings come at some point. But for now I'm content to be in this little apartment.

Week 3 of Life in Utah, Watch out for hidden sprinklers!

How do they keep things green in Utah? I have found out pretty much by surprise! They have sprinkler systems all over. These little black objects pop out of the ground without any warning and begin spraying the world with water. I walk my daughter to school every morning and the biggest issue we have is avoiding being soaked by a hidden sprinkler system. One moment life is nice and dry and the next you are being sprayed by water! Some mornings as I am walking my daughter to school I'll see the wet grass and think that it must have rained the previous night and then I realize that it was not rain but the sprinkler systems.

I know people watered their lawns and gardens in New Jersey but it was never to this extent. People have told me that you spend more on watering things in Utah, than you spend on air conditioning. It worries me. My house was very small and my electric bill only got to be maybe $70.00 during the hottest of summer months. But I know of friends that paid three to four hundred dollars a month. I can't imagine how much all the watering must cost.

I have been slowly getting used to being in Utah. But there are many moments when I sit in my Papasan and close my eyes and think that I'm back in New Jersey. I'm back where everything

is familiar. I can call a friend and go and visit. And then I open my eyes and realize that it is just a wish, just a dream. Today I went to Kohl's to buy some things for the house. The Kohl's is almost the same layout as the New Jersey Kohl's. And I thought any minute one of my friends would appear. Perhaps Cindy in Shoes or Susan in jewelry. But no. I'm in Utah. It made me a little sad. The store is the same the people are different.

I really like the library out here. You can check out your own books. It's all computerized. The library is a very busy place. I felt comfort walking in the stacks! I got some cook books, and a novel. Many of the people out here are nice. A bit nicer than I'm used to. Everyone wants to know how you are, what you are doing. I'm not used to cashiers and bank tellers asking so many questions. New Jersey people just aren't that way. Everything is rushed. Everyone wants you to move along. Here it doesn't seem that way.

Well those are my thoughts today. The kids are doing well. They are happy to not hear curse words all the time at school. They are making friends, and enjoying swimming in the pool. I sometimes wonder why, why are we here? I can only hope that our house sells now. My husband is making his last drive out with the rest of our stuff. I'm glad more than I thought is fitting in the apartment. I don't know that I miss my house so much as I miss my garden. I try not to dwell on it. I just look at others peoples gardens and hope that Heavenly Father will bless my family with a new house sometime where I can garden. Right now I'd be happy with a good job. Hope you have a good weekend. I have some books I want to share with you soon. I read "Garden Spells" again. It's one of the only books that I find I can read over and over. I guess I need to find more books with magical garden themes. Isn't there something just wonderful about gardens? Hope to share more of my findings, and questions about Utah soon.