Women's Conference

This weekend I, as I'm sure a lot of you had the opportunity to watch Women's Conference. Unlike many of you I have a very contrary nature when it comes to things spiritual. The thing is, I adore General Conference in all of it's varieties. I LOVE Women's Conference, and yet whenever it rolls around there always seems to be an internal struggle between something that's "come up" and Women's Conference specifically (I don't seem to have the same internal struggles about General Conference proper).

I'm so grateful that I listened to the words of our General Relief Society Presidency and our wonderful Prophet, President Gordon B. Hinckly. I honestly felt the spirit so strong as they talked about the importance of finding ways that each of us personally can feel the love of our Heavenly Father and his son, our Savior Jesus Christ daily. I felt the spirit confirm to me that they do indeed love me and a renewed commitment to feeling and seeking out that love daily.

I'm so glad that I choose to spend my Saturday night in that way and am truly grateful for the ability to be forgiven for my contrary nature. Now I'm just so excited for this weekend and the rest of the General Conference sessions. This truly is one of my favorite times of the year!

Ireland part 3

This is probably my favorite part. There is a beach Ray took me to. From the beach up on the cliffs you can see this domed building. I asked him what it was and he told me it was called Mussenden Temple.
The Bishop of Down Hill house built this temple for his mistress (who was also his cousin) it was a library. Can you imagine how divine this would be as your library? I can completely imagine myself here. The view was breathtaking. Here is a shot from this cliff down to the beach below.







And here is a picture of me in front of the temple fantasizing about having just such a library for my very own one day!

Ireland part 2

The following day we just took it easy and lazed about. Tuesday we drove out the this Irish ring fort. I don't know how to spell the name of it but it is prounounced green a gollya (maybe Dr. Ray can leave a comment and tell us all how it's really spelt).
It's a dwelling that was built 5000 years ago by an Irish king. and the view from the countryside there was incredible.

Here is a picture of Ray and I at the ring fort.
Also a picture of some of the Heather that was growing up on the hill. Who knew that the Heather plant could be so pretty?
Wednesday we went into Londonderry and walked along the walls of the city. Londonderry is the site of a famous siege and the city itself has a very rich history. From the wall I took this picture of an area in Londonderry known as the “bog” it was here that the incident known as Bloody Sunday occurred.










Wednesday we went shopping with Ray's mom which was a delight and then Thursday we went out to a national park known as Glen Veigh. Margaret (Ray's mom) was supposed to go with us but unfortunately that day she was feeling poorly and actually ended up in the hospital. She wanted us to go regardless and so we did. Immediately after we went and spent some time with her at the hospital where she has been for almost a week.

Here are some pictures of the grounds at Glen Veigh it was truly gorgeous.

This is a picture of the castle from the walled garden.




This is a picture looking out from the Castle to the Loch (lake)

Back from Ireland

I'm back! I had a most wonderful time being with Ray and his family and visiting the beautiful Irish countryside. I arrived on Sunday at 8:30 in the morning. To try and keep the jet lag away Ray drove me to his parents house to shower and then we collected his parents and visited the Giants Causeway.

Here is a picture of Dr. Ray, myself and Margaret. I had the most fun visiting with them and they were the hosts with the most :)

Here is another picture at the cause way taken by Dr. Ray of Ray and I. From there we drove down the coast to a place called Ballintoy which was a beautiful little place.

All Ready To Go

Only 3 more days until I head out to beautiful Northern Ireland!

I spent all of this last Labor Day laboring to get ready to go on this trip. After trips to the Mall, Old Navy and Walmart, I finally have enough outfits and supplies to get me through.

I also purchase this little beauty yesterday at Target (Where incidentally I had my first random Chad siting. Which was most exciting!). I'm hoping that this will allow me to at least get some sleep whilst winging my way to the Emerald Isle.

Now I have only to wait until Saturday when I will head out at the crack of dawn for my delightful 17 hour door to door excursion. Hopefully I can convince HB to take me to the airport at 6 in the morning.

Wish me luck!

My Government- Actually working backwards?

As most of you know Ray and I are patiently waiting for the government to let us know when we can get married. We have a receipt number that they kindly gave us when they received our application. This doesn't actually mean they are processing anything, just that they received it. However, with this number I am able to go to their website and track what dates they are currently working on.

Yesterday while checking things out I had quite the shock. When I checked the website on August 3rd of this month they were processing March 6th's applications (ours is July 10th). However yesterday when I checked, as of August 25th they were processing February 23rd.

Could someone please explain to me how this is possible? Can it be true that our government has actually started working in reverse? Say it isn't so!!

Hopefully this is just some sort of typo that will quickly be corrected so we can actually know where they are in processing these things.

Don't worry that when I called their hotline that the woman there told me she had "no information" about it, but that she had already received a few calls regarding this same thing and would let her superviser know. What a comfort indeed.

Sisters, Soccer and Oh yeah......BECKHAM!

Sydnee Nicole will soon be leaving us to head to the St. G for some sweet college action. Because this is the case, she and I decided to have a last hurrah at the Real Salt Lake vs. Real Madrid soccer game held at Rice Eccles stadium on Saturday night.

The reason we were so keen initially could be summed up in one word...... Beckham. Lest any of you need a reference please feast your eyes on the picture to your left.


So obviously we knew immediately that we would have a good time. Sydnee borrowed some binoculars from H.B. because as she said, "a good stalker always brings their own equipment." She then proceeded to ogle him with her binoculars for most of the game.

Clearly I wasn't expecting to get much more out of this game then a fun night with my sister(which it really was). Surprisingly I found I had more fun than expected. The thing is, I actually got into game itself. I just really found myself being entertained in plenty of ways that had nothing to do with Beckham.

In fact I liked it so much I might even consider myself a fledgling fan.

So many things have combined to bring me to this moment that I feel I can't let it pass with out a few shout outs.

First to David Beckham- Dave, thanks for being so hot. It was this hotness that sucked me into the sport in the first place.

and

Second to Dave Checketts and Sandy city- Guys, thanks for coming to a not so official (but we all have high hopes) agreement that will allow my love for this sport to develop.

Missing Ray

Today Ray has been gone for 2 weeks and although we have been apart before it's much harder this time around than it's ever been.

Ray and Lindsay at the Lodon Bridge (our attempt at a self portrait with the disposable camera)

When we went down to Bullhead City, AZ and St. George in May we bought a disposable camera and snapped a few Photo's. I just had them developed and picked them up this week when I was out and about and it made me miss him all the more


That same trip we went out and hiked at Zions and had mucho fun. Here is Ray striking a very dashing pose.

Much Fun in the Bear Lake Sun

I thought I'd start by honoring the two people for whom we trekked all the way to Bear Lake, Idaho to celebrate. Happy Birthday Dana & Steph. It was a very fun weekend in honor of 2 very fun people who I love with all my heart!


I know you were all most anxiously awaiting to hear whether or not our Bear Lake festivities were a sucess or not. Rest assured that we had a most delightful time.

Saturday morning we all got up early and headed out the the lake. Stephanie had purchased what was either referred to as the "party island" or "temptation island" depending on who was on it at the time.
Much fun in the sun, several sunburned people and a party island (almost lost to the Bear Lake monster later for more details on this ask Steph, Jake or Kathleen)....we packed up and headed back for showers and to rendezvous back at the Steve and Peggy Portela household from some really, really delicious dutch oven delights .

After dinner we all participated in some really fun relays. The first one involved straws and pretzels. Here is a pic of Stacey and I ROCKING the relay.

Next was followed by getting a piece of bubble gum out of whip cream and blowing a bubble, and filling up a glass with water by using only a spoon.


Behold the winners of said competition in all their glory!



Thanks to the Portela family for being the hosts with the most. I can't wait until next year!

Bear Lake, Yipee!

This weekend I am heading out to the beautiful Bear Lake. I'm excited to be with the Portela's, Bennett's, Brijs's, DelHoyo's, one Shepherd and the Larry Arnett fam.

On tap much lake side and lake activities. A delicious dutch oven BBQ and additional fun and frivolities too numerous to mention in this post.

Goals for this weekend include:

Maxing and Relaxing

Not getting trapped between 2 docks whilst unloading the boat (which happened last time I was at Bear Lake)

Eating myself into oblivion

Cove Fort and Other Delights

This weekend we went down to St. George with Jon and Kristen. We attended the play Grease "School Version". This just means that they cleaned up the lyrics to be not quite so graphic. It was truly a high school delight, although i'm quite certain that both Ray and Jon wanted to snap their own necks. Kristen and I however were thouroughly entertained.

We also met with some of Ray's friends this weekend. His friend Wilma from Ireland and her husband Craig, also a friend of Ray's from college and his wife and baby.

As a fun sabbath activity on our way home yesterday we stopped at Cove Fort. Everytime we pass by there we always say we should stop and finally yesterday we did. We didn't think they would be there on a Sunday, but the missionaries were indeed there and out in full force. We had a delightful couple from Boise take us around and it was fascinating. As I'm sure most of you already know Cove Fort was run by Gordon B. Hinckley's grandfather, Ira, his wife and family. By all accounts these were truly amazing people and it was wonderful to feel the spirit that was there as we learned about the Fort.

Last night was a fun one with an impromptu family gathering so that the Larry Arnett clan could finally meet our little Canyon. I'm posting a pic of she and I from when she was still in the hospital and I leave you with a final question;

How can anyone resist this face?- Her's not mine ;)

Tidbits

I have more pictures of our new baby Canyon. I haven't had a chance to upload them yet because they are still on the digital camera and the camera is currently at Larry's because I forgot it there on Monday. So I will strive to recover the camera and share more pics of our cutest little one.

Ray is flying out on Wed the 19th. We are still patiently waiting for any word on our visa application as we have had the app turned in for about 2 wks at this point. So now comes the not so fun part of being apart.

I'm looking into hopefully flying to the beautiful country of Northern Ireland sometime in September. Luckily I have much to look forward to between now and then. The blessing of Canyon, a visit from lacy and a much looked forward to trip to Bear Lake for Steph and Dana's brithdays. Woo Hoo!!

Happy Birthday Canyon Rose

So last night Miley gave birth to our newest member. Welcome to our family little Canyon!!

I'm happy to report mother and baby are doing well and Miley was such a trooper. Aaron couldn't have been more supportive and except for a bit of a scare at the end (emergency C-section) it couldn't have gone any better.

Good job Miley and Aaron she's beautiful!

A Pic of the Ring and Other Bits and Bobs

Well here it is finally, a picture of the ring. Now you can all see why I love it so much. Although currently it is at the jewlers getting sized. It's funny how my hand doesn't feel quite right without it and I've only been wearing it for 2 weeks as of last Sunday.

Other items of interest;

My sister Miley still has not had her baby. We are most anxious to meet the newest member of our family and hope it will not be too much longer until we can meet her. (Also Miley is exceedingly uncomfortable and we don't love that either)

I started back to the gym and I might have overdone it. I can't haul myself off the couch these days without a little assistance from Ray. (but let's be serious, I have to be hot on my wedding day, so "beauty is pain" is my new motto)

The BBQ yesterday was a smashing success. I know I was not the only one to enjoy the sight of Sydnee and Ray as partners agains Lex and Mallory, out on the badminton court where instead of Syd trying to hit the birdie she would yell out to Ray, " get it, get it!!". Needless to say she didn't break a sweat and Ray most certainly did. (Also who can't love HB sharing his "secrets" to delicious hamburgers)

A Red Hot Fourth

It's no secret that I adore the 4th. For one thing I look GOOD in both Red, White and Blue. For another I am in love with fireworks. What is better than hanging out on a giant lawn with a million people that you don't know, oooing and awwwing in unison as the stadium of fire let's loose with it's incredible fireworks display.

This years calendar of events (as always) includes; Stadium of Fire (this year it's on Saturday just a heads up),Hot air balloon launch, parade and shopping.

For those of you interested in checking it out, here is the link to America's Freedom Festival

Engagement

Honestly, I thought that I would feel different now that I'm an engaged lady. The truth of the matter is that Ray and my relationship has changed very little. I mean sure Sydnee is nicer to him now and I do have a beautiful ring on my finger. But truly except for a few little things we are the same today as we were the day before we got engaged and the day after.

There is actually something really comforting about that.

Now on the the update, we have decided to move forward with the K-1 Visa. This is the one where he leaves the country until the visa process is complete. We are turning in all our paperwork today and are crossing our fingers that maybe we will get a miracle and it won't take quite the full 6-9 months that they are saying.

Meanwhile the plans march on. I have found a dress I love, although I still want to try some on before making a final decision. I found a cake style I love and am currently looking for a photographer and someone to do the decorations at the wedding (whenever that might be).

Visa

Yesterday Ray and I went and met with an immigration attorney to try and figure out the process for him to get a Visa and a time frame for getting married. Apparently there has lately been a crack down on fiancee visa abuse. The attorney we met with advised us that to do a K-1 visa (fiancee) could take 6-9 months just to issue. Our only other option is a K-3 visa (married). With that visa we would get married here and then move over to Northern Ireland while it was processing. Both options obviously come with their own sets of pro's and con's and Ray and I are still weighing our options and trying to decide which way is the best for us.

The thing is, I just find it slightly ridiculous that this process is so complicated. I understand that there has to be a screening process. I really don't have a problem with that, but considering all the immigration debates that have been going around lately it feels to me right at this moment like our government is making it hard for the honest people to be honest and do things the right way and the rewards for dishonesty in this particular regard are great.

Regardless, I know that Ray and I are doing the right thing by getting married and that things will work out. I'm grateful that we will have an attorney on our side to make sure things get done right and hopefully before too long we will be able to have this all ironed out and set a date. I'm really looking forward to that day.

Until, then we'll keep you all posted!

It's Official!

Ray and I are officially engaged! He asked me yesterday and I of course said yes. We are both very excited.

We haven't set a date, as we have to wait for Visa's and such before we can do so. But I will of course keep you all posted.

Jacks

Yesterday in Wal-Mart as I was walking to the check out line, I noticed that they were selling a set of jacks for only 88 cents. I used to love playing jacks as a little girl and couldn't help myself but pick up a set.

Turns out I haven't lost my touch. I cracked them open last night only to find that my coordination and skill came right back to me. I even got Ray to play a few rounds.

So now I'm in a jacks playing mood. I'm calling all comers. Just let me know, I'll bring the jacks and the butt whooping that goes along with it!

A little Jaunt

So yesterday I had to fly down to Bullhead City, AZ. I had planned our company party and needed to be there to oversea all the details. My company owns a little single engine Cessna plane, it's a delightful little 4 seater and actually was quite roomy.

When we arrived at the Provo city airport yesterday my boss, Ken Condie asked me if I ever had any sort of motion sickness as there were supposed to be "erratic winds". I have a stomach of iron (or so I thought) so I didn't think it would be a problem.

Turns out what "erratic winds" really means is that your plane will be so tossed around that you will feel at any moment you could potentially plummet to your death. I was able to dampen these feelings of impending doom when I realised that Ken (who was piloting) and Norm (co pilot) still had the controls on auto pilot and were sharing a can of mixed nuts. Certainly not the behavior of people who feel their lives are in jeapordy.

I'm happy to report that the flight back early this morning (6:30 a.m. to be exact)was a dream, no turbulence in sight in fact I slept most of the way. I now can chalk this experience up to an adventure and eagerly anticipate my next trip in the company plane.