Pics from London

Mom and Dad's New Summer Home. Look how well HB fit's in with the locals

Trafalga Square

H and Pen enjoying Wicked

My favorite Part of the trip! Hooray Wicked

The outside of the tower

Londond Bridge

View from our river cruise. I don't know what people go on about as far as the weather. We had gorgeous blue skies the entire time.

Penee and H enjoying the river cruise

Here is the famous Hyde park and the "Soap Boxes" It's true people do just randomly stand up to express their political or religious views. You can see how many are gathered to hear what they have to say. This was really interesting. Apparently these men were talking about suicide bombers.

Dad became obsessed with this Palm tree. He kept trying to ask everyone what it was called to no avail. Eventually we had to go to a nursery so he could find out the name.

Did I mention he was obsessed?

We went to church at the Hyde Park ward for Easter Sunday. It was truly delightful.

This statue was in the square right outside of buckingham palace. It's a memorial to Queen Victoria

There is a beautiful promendade outside of Buckingham. We enjoyed our walk very much.

Here we are in front of the Buckingham







Our walk to Buckingham took us through Regency Park. Maybe I've read too many Regency Romances but I could just picture all the Caroline Bingley's of a certain time "taking a turn" their. It was beautiful. It's also go a Princess Diana memorial walk.

Mom per usual was obsessed with any and all wildlife that we saw. She exclaimed to see a squirrel in the park.

Westminster that we got to see on our walking tour.

Us in front of the Houses of Parliment just outside of where Big Ben sits.

Big Ben

a better view of big ben and houses of parliment

Lindsay across the way

More Scenery









Mom and Dad, just like a second honeymoon.

Our hotel lobby in Russell Square. Kudos to Larry for scoring us such a nice hotel.

P.S. if you are wondering why these pictures are mysteriously a Larry free zone. It's because he just did not want to be in any. I'm not sure why.

Brave New World

As most of you are already aware the beginning of April didn't go quite as I thought it was going to. Just wanted all to know that I'm doing well. I feel peaceful about what happened and feel peaceful and hopeful about moving forward.

Plus I got a fun trip to London with my parents and Larry which was so much fun. I don't currently have pictures available to post but when I do I'll be sure to put them up.

I know that if I put my trust in the Lord all will work itself out. In fact things already seem to be coming together as I've already had one job offer and an interview. Things just have a way of working out don't they.

I arrived back in the States on Tuesday evening and have been enjoying my time with friends family and my new "roomate" Canyon Rose. What could be better?

Much love to you all!

Hen Night

Hen night was a great success. I had such an amazing time. I think that a party is only as much fun as the people who attend and this party was much much fun. Margaret picked me up at 8 and we made our way over to the party. We started with food which was plentiful, delightful and included my 2 favorite food groups. Gummie and chocolate fountain.

We then played many fun games. For example we had a contest to see who could make the best wedding dress out of toilet paper. Here is Heather Smyth in all her TP glory.





















They dressed me up and we played other fabulous games it was a wonderful night and I appreciated all the wonderful people who both put it on for me (Clare and Frieda McElhinney) and all who attended. Here is a picture of most of the attendees and me in all my finery.

Fascinator

I now know why women here are sometimes referred to as "birds" it's because of the tradition here of wearing hats and for a little thing appropriately named Fascinator.

This little treasure is for the most part made up entirely of feathers. Hats here also have some form of feather on them. That's right I said hats. Women here actually wear them. It's a divine custom.

Margaret and I went shopping in Coleraine to finish off her outfit for the wedding. We had looked at some hats previously but didn't find just the right thing. We arrived at a shop called Dixons where they had many lovely hats and fascinators for us to choose from.

Clearly as I am an American the fascinator lives up to it's name in my heart because we just don't wear them. In fact until I came here I can't remember a time that I have seen a woman in other than a baseball cap. (which doesn't really qualify as a hat at any rate) . I am uploading a few pictures so you can share my joy in these accessories.

Tips for wearing a fascinator and or hat:

These items should not be worn squarely on top of the head. Whenever possible they should be placed jauntily on the side of the head in what can only be described as a rakish angle. Please see the picture below for an example.
I only hope to be able to live here long enough that at some point I can pull something like this off. But sadly I fear that at least for now I'm to American to look well in it.

One Week

The wedding is officially 1 week from today. Turns out 4 weeks isn't a whole lot of time to plan a wedding. Even if it is going to be very simple. We finally got our invitations out last Friday. I think Ray did such a fantastic job on them. Of course we mailed out every one we made without saving one for ourselves. So we'll be purchasing some more supplies so that I can have one as a little keepsake.

Flowers are organized, nails are done, found someone to do my hair, ties for the men are ordered. Today we pick up our marriage license.

This weekend some of the ladies in the branch are throwing me a Hen night. I've never been to a Hen night myself but I hear it's like a much crazier version of a wedding shower. I'll be sure to post some pictures and details of the event after the weekend.

Here's wishing every one of you could be here with us 1 week from today.

So Idol

I was ready to write this whole season off. Then PA-POW this week brought it for me. Chris R. Hello dead sexy and Blake same. Then Jordin etc. Let's just say although clearly Lakisha and Melinda are fabulous singers I was just waiting for this to turn into a competition which I feel it finally did last night.

I'm sucked back in.

Random P.S. What was with that little girl? Pull it together 'lil sister.

Five years ago today

It was 5 years ago today that the man of my dreams made the moves that changed us from best friends, to best friends with benefits. Those same moves have led to us (in 2 weeks and 2 days) becoming best friends with benefits for time and all eternity.

I could not ask for a kinder more loving man to spend eternity with. He is such a calming and stabilizing influence in my life. He's the string to my kite. the balance to my teeter-totter, the love of my life. Happy Anniversary sweetie!


Ray and Lindsay at Ballintoy Harbor September '06

Ray and Lindsay at Grianan Aileach September '06

Ray and Lindsay at Zions in May '06

Happy Mother's Day

Lindsay and Ray preparing the Mothers Day dinner.

From Left Stewart, Judith, Harry, Margaret, Ray and Lindsay

Just wanted to write a special post to Margaret wishing here the best of Mother's Days. Ray and I were fortunate enough to be able to have the fam over for a celebration on Mother's Day.

We loved having everyone over for a meal and hope it will be the first of many more evenings hosted by Ray and I. I know that some pictures were taken of the evening and will beg Ray Sr. to send a few my way to be posted here.

Much love to Margaret on this Mother's Day!

All At Once One Day It's Spring

Spring has arrived here in the Ireland and I for one am thoroughly enjoying it. The days are getting longer the skies are just a bit clearer and these little beauties have appeared in my yard. These are the before pics. My goal for this week is to do a bit of yard work and then I will post the afters. Hope your spring is as springy as mine!

The Color PurpleDelightful Daffodils

Fun with Canyon

Just got these pictures emailed to me by my Dad. I just can't help myself but post a few of them. How did I get so lucky as to have 2 such adorable nieces.















Austin and Canyon

Canyon and Dags

Canyon and her favorite Aunt :)

It's never to early for good dental health

Happy Birthday

To my newest niece Penelope Gwen. Born this morning and from all accounts doing marvelously. I can't wait to see her in person! (Even some pictures would be nice....hint, hint)

Congrats to Dave and Lacy. I'm so happy for your new little family.

Love you guys!

Plans Finalized

Our plans are final. We called the temple and have booked my parents flights. We will have our civil ceremony on April 5th sometime in the morning. Then we will take a ferry from Belfast to Scotland and from there drive down to Preston. The next day, April 6th we have the temple booked for 4:00 p.m.

It's a month from today and we couldn't be more excited! Just happy to be here and have everything finally coming together.

Almost Deported

I did finally arrive safe and sound here in the good old North of Ireland. The trip was actually pretty eventful to say the least. Starting with the fact that as I arrived to check in from SLC my bags were approximately 9 pounds overweight and I had to scramble to do some repacking in my carry-on and purse to make the weight limit. Still I had to pay an overage fee which I thought would be around 60 dollars but turned out was only 25, schwoo on that. Turns out there was much bigger schwoo to be had on this trip.

Arrived in Houston with no mishaps got some lunch and milled about reading a book. Boarded the plane and was informed that we would be delayed 30 minutes on the ground as Newark was a bit backed up and needed us to delay. We were informed that we would still be touching down at the stated time. Which was around 7:00 pm. My flight to Belfast left at 8:05 pm so I was relieved to hear this. However once we were on approach to Newark we were told we would have to circle and we didn't touch down until 7:25 (coincidentally this is the time my other flight started boarding).

So with the help of one of those speedy airport carts I was able to sneak on the flight minutes before they closed the doors.

Upon arrival into Belfast I was one of the first off the plane and therefore one of the first through immigration. Or should have been one of the first through, but imagine my surprise when the man takes my passport and inquires after the nature of my visit. I inform him that it is for purpose of Marriage and Settlement. He flips to my Visa and just as he is about to stamp it says," This visa isn't valid until the 15th or March." I could see the problem immediately as I had arrived on the 3rd of March. He asked me to wait in a seating area while he processed the rest of the flight. I sat for 30 minutes watching everyone enter the country and wondering the following:
A- how could I be so stupid as to not know about travel dates on Visa's.

B- how could I convince him to deport me to the Republic of Ireland so Ray could just drive down and pick me up

C- how embarrassing is it to be sitting in the airport crying in plain view of an entire airplane full of people wondering what sort of crime you've committed to not be allowed to enter the country.

After the rest of the plane had been duly processed I was beckoned forward by the kind, kind immigration officer. He talked to me at length about what could have possibly happened. He choose to make his official decision that there was a mix up at the embassy instead of assigning the real blame to the fact that he was dealing with a very green girl from Orem, UT.

Let's just say bless him forever. His final words were, "Technically, technically I should be refusing you entry as your Visa isn't valid until the 15th. However I'm going to assume this is a mistake with the embassy and admit you now as a visitor"

Seriously.....he is now on my Christmas card list.

Trip ended with them losing my bags, again. But really who cares, as I had almost just gotten deported. Lost bags truly pale in comparison with what my outcome could have been.

This experience has only re-affirmed to me that Ray and I are truly supposed to be getting married here in the UK. It's finally the right time and the right place.

I must also credit the faithfulness of some of our dear friends here in the branch who told me today that they had been fasting and praying for me that there would be no further delays to my coming here and Ray and I getting married. After hearing this I genuinely feel that their fast was a big contributor to my being allowed in the country and I'm so grateful.

It's Finally Happening

Friday I received my Visa from the UK. This means that the wedding will be taking place in N. Ireland/England. We are shooting for either the 29th and 30th or 30th and 31st of March.

I fly back to N. Ireland this Friday and I'm so excited to get over there and get things sorted. I would of course adore having any and all who could come be there. But understand that it's a bit farther to travel than SLC.

We are just so thrilled to be able to move forward and get married! Hooray!

As I understand that my Aunt Kathleen will be in the states and so my uncle may be a little lonely up there in Russia I would like to extend an "especial" invite to him to attend.

Also Mallory if you are reading this....I know you have plans to go to NY that week. But Ireland's cool too. (just saying).

Babies

You can only vacation for so long before tearing your hair out. I have officially reached that point. The only bright spot in my otherwise monotonous exsistence is the thought of, and in some cases the reality of, babies. My dear friend Jodie is here with her husband visiting from Chicago and I have had the pleasure of meeting her adorable 7 week old son Henry. Other baby delights to be had are in order of due date Julie, who's due date was actually yesterday, Kristin and Lacy. I do wish all their babies would hurry up and make their appearance here in mortality so that I might start my full time job as professional cuddler.

Special mention goes out to Canyon Rose who I just can not get enough of.

As a random Visa update. No word from the US Visa. Just nothing, I ask myself frequently," How can this be?" There is no explanation it just is. Ray and I had decided that we would just make plans to marry in England. Turns out in order to do this we will need a UK Visa. So I fed-exed everything off this morning and that could take 3-4 weeks. So at this point our plan is that whichever country will give us a Visa for getting married the quickest that's the route we will go.

I'll of course keep you posted but for now that means I'm in Utah for at least another 3 - 4 weeks.

Update from Utah

I received the sweetest email from my FIL and MIL (mother and father in law-to be). Amongst other things they gently pointed out that I haven't posted in ever so long. So this post is dedicated to them :)

It has been go, go, go since I arrived in the States almost a month ago. Not to much exciting happened in Utah except that I got to see Canyon and the fam. Last week my mom and I drove down to Arizona to see Lex. It was indeed delightful to see her and judging from the look on her face I think she was happy to see us as well .

Mom and I had a few mishaps on our drive down to AZ. First off we missed the turn off and instead of going through page had to go through Vegas. Secondly once we got to Kingman we stopped to eat and then Ray called. My mom blames it on me being in love but I got distracted and forgot to tell her that we needed to fill up before we left Kingman. We were pretty much in the middle of nowhere and only miraculously made it to a gas station. Somehow our car went almost 400 miles on 12 gallons of gas (we hadn't filled up since Beaver.)

Our second driving mishap was that I misunderstood HB's directions and so instead of heading south down to Phoenix and therefore saving ourselves about an hour and a half we drove on to Flagstaff and then down. We did finally make it however and were very excited to be reunited with Jeff and Pam and our little Lexi.

The next day while Lex worked in the morning Mom and I went and visited Uncle Charles and Aunt Laurine. It was delightful to visit with them and seeing uncle Charles always makes me miss Grandpa Howard. To me there is such a strong resemblance between the two of them.

Here is picture of them with Penee. From there lex met up with us and we partook at the Cheesecake Factory which I obviously adored and then we went home for some naps before heading out the Chea's to see the Cliff Arnett family.

Here is a picture of Aunt Cathy, Chea and I at Chea's house in Queen Creek, AZ. The follwing day we got up and drove down to Sierra Vista. Mom had never been to Lacy's house so it was a delight both to see her so adorably pregnant and to see her cute house. Mom washed all her windows, did laundry and helped to set up her nursery. So hopefully Lacy will have a head start when little Penelope Gwen decides to make her appearance.

While we were there we also had the opportunity to go to a baby shower hosted by Lacy's SIL, Maren.

Much delights were had by all and it was good to catch up with some of Lacy's friends who I've

come to know and love. Like Xela, a friend of Lacy's from the U of A from Malaysia. Also Danielle. Here is a fun picture at random from the fun baby shower.

Finally two pics from our last day in Sierra Vista. First a pic of the hosts with the most. Dave, Lacy and Deacon. Dave especially was such a trooper to have put up with so many Arnett women under one roof for almost a week.

Finally a pic of us girls

Mom and I flew out from Phx yesterday and arrived safe and sound last night. I miss the Mayberry's and Lexi all ready and look forward to the news of Penelope Gwen's safe arrival!

It looks as though I will be here in the States for at least another couple of weeks. But I do miss Ray, Ireland and all my family there and I can't wait to be back with them, hopefull soon, soon, soon!

Coming Home

Salt Lake City or Bust!!

I'll be home the night of the 23rd around 8:30 p.m.

Can't wait. Still not able to set a date for the wedding. I'm planning on being home for about 2 weeks, after which time we hope to have some word about Ray's interview from the embassy. So I may or may not be there longer than the 2 weeks.

So get prepared. I'm going to need lots of Olive Garden, Happy Sumo, Mi Ranchito, etc.

I'm hoping to make a quick trip down to AZ as well (bring on the cheesecake factory).

Did I mention that I love taking a vacation from my vacation ;)

Sea Foam

This weeks excursion took us to a little place called Creevy Pier. While probably not found on any tourists map it has some significance to me as it will always be the place where I first saw Sea Foam. I've always known that Sea Foam existed. I've heard tell of it from many sources but I was surprised to find that I had never in actuality seen it.

As we pulled up to the beach around Creevy Pier I saw all this white stuff collected around the shore and rocks. I asked Ray what it was (I was prepared to be outraged as I thought it was some sort of litter). He informed me that it was Sea Foam.

Notice all the white stuff caught in the rocks. This is Sea Foam. The picture (as I am clearly not a great photographer) doesn't do it justice but it was a highlight of the day for sure.

For those of you who are as ignorant as I. Apparently Sea Foam is created when there is a perfect mixture of sea and wind. The wind whips it up into some sort of frothy delight.



Also on our travels Ray found a little church where he thought we might discover some Elder's. So we put on our waterproof coats and headed out with the digital camera. We didn't find any Elder's but we did get soaked as the weather soon turned into a torrential downpour. We had to abandon our search as the weather truly got so bad that water was dripping off our coats.


Finally we went to a little place called the Donegal Craft Village. It's a place where lots of people who do native arts have little shops. There was a woman who was weaving on an actual loom. She made beautiful scarves, bags, etc. Then there was a place where they made glass jewelery and sculpture. There were many other shops but not all were fully opened due to the fact that it is the off season, I'm sure.

Final item of note- there was a little coffee shop where we ate our lunch. They had this brown bread that came with our soup that was truly to die for. So good in fact, that we bought a loaf to take home with us. I wish I could adequately describe the tastiness of said bread but sadly I know any description given here would not do justice to it's deliciousness. Instead you will all just have to come and I'll take you to see for yourselves.

Sugar Cookies

Ray is the YM president here in the Londonderry branch. Last week he invited the Young Men over for some food and X Box. We moved the couch around so that we could project the game onto our wall.

Here are the boys enjoying themselves and taking whatever soccer game they were playing most seriously.

I did my part for the activity as well. Over the holiday I had gotten from C.S. her world famous sugar cookie recipe. This was my first experience in using it but they were mighty tasty and I think that the boys enjoyed them almost as much as Ray and I did.

Here are some samples of how well it turned out.

This is an Ode to the love of my life (I think cookie is my medium).







Here is a picture of the finished product in all it's glory (Notice the green frosting in honor of Ireland).

Deja Vu

This evening Ray and I decided to catch a flick. We hit up the 11:15 p.m. showing of Deja Vu. As you can imagine I am not used to that late of an hour so I had a bit of a Diet Coke to give me the boost needed to get me through. That is why I am currently writing this post at 2 a.m. Doing my best to come down off the Caffeine.

I enjoyed the movie. It didn't change my life or anything but I actually thought it was rather suspenseful and tense in parts. So tense that I fear I gave myself movie whiplash. As evidence of this I cite a very stiff neck, which I believe is due to the total tightening of all my muscles for a prolonged period. Tense movie indeed. Or perhaps I just need to get out more.

Homesick

I've been suffering from some post Christmas, been here a month homesickness. Nothing drastic just a general bit of missing all my dear family and friends and the rocky mountains. Luckily I'm engaged to the most amazing man and to help alleviate the homesickness he made me a lovely tea (this means dinner) yesterday evening.

Here is a photo of our delicious mexican feast created especial (notice the Spanish accent) for me by Ray.

It was most delicious, satisfying, and very sweet to boot, of Ray to go to all this trouble.

He even provided a little guacamole delight with the help of our friends at Old El Paso :). The net result was that after the meal and the company I was feeling a bit less homesick.



Update on the wedding. Ray finally jumped through all the hoops that the embassy doctors wanted him to. He had to get a tetanus shot and another MMR because they couldn't find the records of his immunization. All of this was sent to the embassy on Wednesday and we were told to call the embassy on Monday. So cross your fingers and say a little prayer for us that we can finally set a date!!