Sunday, April 25, 2010

A fun weekend in Nauvoo

My brother Thad came out for the weekend. The Air Force has him studying in Ohio right now so he decided to drive down for a visit. We got to go and see Uncle Lynn and Aunt Sharon at "Rendezvous". They have been doing it so long now I think they have become one of the best casts we have ever seen. We had a great time.
We went over to Sylvia's restaurant "McKee's". She just opened this week and the food is amazing. She was opened at Annie's Custard shop all winter and everyone loved her food so now she has opened her own place right across the street from the Allyn House on mulholland street in Nauvoo. We had the "Porter Rockwell" sandwich. It is the best sandwich I have EVER had!!
It was a lot of fun seeing everyone. The place seems to be a real hit. I hope they do well. They sure work hard at it. I am impressed that everything they cook there is from scratch and all of her soups are gluten free and I guess she makes an amazing vegetarian sandwich too.
We ran into the Hardles there. They are the owners of the Nauvoo Log cabins. Lori loves the fettuccine and the Nauvoo bread.
We also went to Lacey's Track meet. She took 3rd place in the 1600 meters. It rained lightly all morning and then it poured all afternoon. It didn't matter though. We had a great time. Thad hung out with the girls and talked and talked. They had such a great time. He went home today and we were all really sorry to see him go. He is a pretty cool uncle.

The temple is closed this week and next for maintenance. They are replacing some of the carpets and we are resurfacing some of the marble. I love working through shut down but I will be really happy when the temple opens again.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Freebies!!

I have been such a slacker with my blog that I have decided to reward my loyal readers. :) Yes I am going to give away some more of my earrings. Why? Because I love making them so much, I love you guys and everyone loves a freebie.

Seriously I have made hundreds of earrings. They sell really well in town. I only charge $3 a pair and tourists love "handmade in Nauvoo" gifts. Helen has them at her custard shop and now Sylvia will be selling them at her restaraunt, which by the way is opening today!! She has it decorated so cute. I will go take pictures and blog them this week.

Ok so the deal is you have to comment so I know who is reading after all my down time. Then you have to give me an idea of what color or type of earring you would prefer. and then email me your address. Don't assume I have it because I don't want to have to go looking for my address book. I am so lazy! lol Oh and I don't have to know you and you can live anywhere. I think it would be cool to get to send some of my earrings overseas. I am hoping I haven't lost all of my readers. I promise I will do better at keeping you up to date on our little corner of the world.

Thanks again for being interested!
Love ya!!

Sunday, April 18, 2010

It has been way too long.

(Way mixed up pictures but hey!! I posted.)






Wow! I have really been a slacker.
I now work at the temple full time nights from 7pm to 3:30am. I drive the bus too. My bus route has changed from the Nauvoo route to the High School route. I am amazed how much I really enjoy it. I have to be careful to get enough sleep but when I do my weeks are great and they go so fast it is amazing. Then because my weeks fly by so fast my weekends drag by so slowly it feels like a huge reward for my busy week. I will never complain I have two of the best jobs I could imagine. I miss my daycare kids sometimes but the kids on the bus keep me happy.

We just met a lady from Monmouth Illinois who is a member of the church. She was Bryce Capeners Young women leader. She is a host mom for foreign exchange students. She brought her 2 boys, Dennis from Germany and Emeric from France, and another boy Maz from Germany who was staying with her for the weekend. We had a great time visiting with them and invited them to come and stay the following weekend so Suzanne could spend time with their daughter. Bryce and Amber went with Suzanne and the boys to pick up her daughter. They had a fun day in Chicago and then came and spent a day here in Nauvoo with us. Emeric came back the following week and went to church with us and to Super Saturday with Lacey. They are such nice boys and so respectful.

This weekend I drove the girls to Columbia Missouri to Mormon Prom. The girls were so cute and had such a great time. They really set an example of what a Dance should be like. They danced with everyone under the sun. They laughed and visited and really made everyone feel good. I was so proud. Both Lacey and Amber are like that at every dance. They just want to have fun and they do. I hope I get to take Lacey next year when she is old enough.

As most of you know Amber is graduating in May. She had all sorts of plans all based around Luke Turner and his return from his Mission. Well due to health problems Luke has been given a full honorable release due to some pretty serious medical problems with his ability to be on his feet for long periods of time. Well this is changing things so stay tuned for more of this story....

Sage and Zachary came out in March for a visit. They got to see Amber's play. Amber was in the musical "Thoroughly Modern Millie" It was AMAZING. Wow that girl can really sing. The files are all to big or I would have posted them for everyone to hear. Well Zach and Sage were able to be here. They are coming back the end of April to spend the summer working and saving money for school next year. We are thrilled. Everyone will be home for Ambers graduation and everything will feel normal for a while then our house is going to get pretty empty so...we decided to host a foreign exchange student. Yep. So far it looks like it will be a 15 year old girl from Brazil. :) We are all just wondering how that happened but it feels good and we have room and Lacey will have a friend and the other girls who have stayed with us briefly didn't seem harmed by the experience. lol

There is probably a million things that I should post but this is what is on my mind right now. Life is good everyone is busy and happy. Amber is franticly getting ready for graduation and her future. Lacey is running track and getting ready to start drivers ed the first few weeks of summer vacation. Marty just finished a side job, hanging Sheetrock and texturing the walls of a house in Montrose, Iowa. He is also working on getting mom's tile floor finished. :) whew!!