I've been replaced

Every woman wants to think she will be the star of her husband and sons lives forever. But alas, I've been replaced this week with another woman. Her name is Irene. She's quite large and has such a temper, not to mention how messy she is. But she seems to have captured the attention of my men, and people all up and down the East Coast. I personally don't think she's going to stick around for long, but while she's here she's gonna make an impression.

So I'll sit back, bide my time, and I'm willing to bet they come back to me in a day or two.

Actually, Irene has caught my attention too. Interestingly on my first Sunday here the stake had a presentation in all the wards about Hurricane preparedness and the risk of hurricanes in the area. Here it is four weeks later and a major hurricane is upon us. Inspired leaders for sure.

We are as ready as you can be: plenty of drinking water, batteries, flashlights, full gas tanks, food, and a tub full of water for flushing toilets and cleaning.

I have to admit, I'm a little worried about the trees...there are so many of them right around the house. This one in particular. He's about 18 inches across and fifty zillion feet tall. And look at the base. He's not especially deeply rooted. And he's right outside my bedroom window. Now I've spent several days this week chatting with him and making peace. Telling him how tall and strong he is. How he's so much better than any storm that could come along. And how I'm so glad he's there to protect the house and my little family.

Hope he listened and we can still be friends when Irene packs up and moves on.

A little down time.

So after a few crazy weeks of sight-seeing we finally had some down time. Our down time consisted of driving Stacey back to JFK for her flight, missing the turn, ending up in horrible traffic and barely getting her there in time.

Driving back to La Guardia two days later to pick up Lynn and the boys from Philmont and making a wrong turn on the way home. Thankfully that one was on the country roads in CT, but still can't make it to an airport and back without getting lost.

Taught the RS lesson on chastity Sunday. (Hazing is alive and well in CT wards too). Poor missionaries were in the class translating for an investigator...they were several shades of red.

Got my haircut by someone other than Marcy for the first time in 12+ years. Hate it! Cut it myself the next day and didn't make much improvement.

Played Settlers of Cataan with Heidi for hours on end. She cheats. (Actually she doesn't but she beats me so badly that I like to think she can only do that by cheating).

Went to the beach where Jeremy buried Heidi in the sand. All or her except her big toe, which a seagull tried to eat.

Ate cupcakes roughly the size of Manhattan.

And drove Heidi to La Guardia for her flight home. Too bad her ticket was for a flight from JFK. Gratefully through a truly miraculous set of events we did catch the error and got her to the right airport in time for her flight.

Whew. Relaxing down time, no?

That Was a Great Idear!

We went to Bahston. We pahked the cah and even took our umbrellers just in case it rained in Hahvahd Yahd.
First stop was Lexington and Concord, well after a stop at Walmart for umbrellers...
Despite the rain, and getting there after the visitors centers were closed, we still enjoyed seeing the sites.
Even got to go by the house my mom spent much of her childhood in. I think the current owners were wondering if they should call the police on the crazy stalkers in the front yard.

A new day brought sunshine and beautiful weather for our trip into Boston.
I love US history so Boston is a favorite. We took the guided tour of the Freedom Trail, and our tour guide was none other than Rachel Revere, Paul's wife!
What's a trip to Boston without some clam chowder?
Then we wandered through the Boston Commons where we waded in Frog Pond
We fed the ducks in the Public Gardens, rode the swan boats and of course visited the Make Way for Ducklings statues. (a personal favorite of mine).

Check out that adorable little duckling bringing up the tail end.

Then it was off to Cambridge to visit Harvard.



Not sure what this had to do with anything Harvard(ish) but it sure was cute...

And one last stop to visit the church on Longfellow where my mom attended.
It was a great trip. I'm glad I got to take Heidi there before she heads back to school in a few weeks. It's been fun to have her here and have a reason to play tourist for awhile. I'm glad Boston is so close so that we can visit often. Can't wait to go back with Lynn and the boys. So much to see.

Our Backyard Neighbors

Aren't they cute friends.

More NYC Adventures

Heidi's friend Stacey is here visiting this week which necessitated my first driving in NYC trek. She flew into JFK so off we set to pick her up. Actually it wasn't too bad, and made me feel a little more comfortable with city driving without being on the surface streets much.

Thursday was Girls Day in The City. We headed off without the boys and had a fantastic day, which included, but was not limited to, riding a crowded subway.

A Harbor Cruise which went under the Brooklyn Bridge...

The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island

And views of Ground Zero

We had a hot dog at Battery Park and then walked over to the Ground Zero site.

We visited the Empire State Building. Let me just add here that paying the extra money for an Express Pass was well worth it!

We then wandered through Times Square and did some people watching, which in New York is never boring.

And to top it all off we saw How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying! Daniel Radcliffe and John Larroquette starred in it and what a fun show. We all LOVED it. Great theater, fantastic cast, good seats. It was just a blast. I highly recommend it to anyone.

Today the boys headed off to meet Lynn in Colorado and then drive to Philmont for a week with the scouts from Texas. I was sad to send them off, and even forgot to get a hug before they boarded the plane, but I am really excited for them to get to see their friends and have their adventures at Philmont.

Driving them to the airport allowed me the opportunity to drive in NYC again, this time in the late morning traffic. And then to add to the fun, we drove through the city on the surface streets, crossing bridges, taking the Holland and Lincoln tunnels, and visited New Jersey. We really wanted to go to Carlo's Bakery and see the site of Cake Boss. Sadly the lines were at least a three hour wait and we just weren't willing to do that so we took pictures out front and headed back to the city for the drive home.

Heidi was following me in Lynn's car (which we picked up at the airport) so that made it a little more interesting trying not to get separated. But we did it! I cut people off, honked a few times, ran a red light, even double parked at one point. Heck, I'm practically a native!

No Applause Necessary, Thank You

Ahem. I drove in NYC.

That is all.

Grandpa Looking Great!

After full hip replacement today dad was sitting up and eating ice cream! I'd say that's a pretty good sign.

Family Home Evening

Tonight for Family Home Evening we each shared our favorite scriptures and why we love them. It was fun to hear what scriptures meant a lot to them. It was a very short an impromptu lesson, but still had meaning.

Then we loaded into the car and headed to the local ice cream hot spot, The Creamery. We'd heard about this place from the missionaries and they couldn't stop going on about it. Actually Friday night Lynn and I went by after our date and the line was about 60 people long and we had to jockey for a parking spot. We decided it wasn't worth standing in line that night.

Monday apparently is the night to go since there was plenty of parking and a line of only 10 people or so. It's the cutest little farm right in the middle of the Connecticut country side, complete with red barn, cows, wildflowers and a silo. It's like stepping back in time.


The ice cream was delicious, but I think I'm still going to give Blue Bell the top honors. But this will have to do for the next year. A fun place to spend some family time to be sure.

Finding Joy in the Journey

Yesterday's Relief Society lesson was on Finding Joy in the Journey. That's a topic I've given a lot of thought to in the past, so I was interested in the discussion. I've come to several conclusions. First, you pretty much find what you're looking for in life. Second, everyone struggles. Third, sometimes it's easier to find joy than others, but it's always there if we are looking.

This move to Connecticut has been an interesting time for me to find joy. From the time the idea was proposed to me last August I think I knew we would be coming here. It was just one of those times when someone says something and you know it feels right. Like it fits, even though it may not be comfortable at first. All through the process of this planning and moving I have had an overwhelming sense of peace. I've mentioned it to Lynn on several occasions that even though the stress level is immense I still have that underlying peace.

Some of that peace comes from knowing I'll face this adventure with him. His love and support have taken me through many things and when we face those together we always come out alright. But another part of that peace is that I've allowed myself to accept that it would be challenging but still positive in the end. That's progress for me.

It doesn't mean it's not hard to be thousands of miles away from our parents as they face serious health issues. Or to leave our home in the hands of others and hope for the best. It doesn't make it less difficult for the kids to face transitions to new schools and friends, but it does mean that along this bumpy journey there is a lot of joy to be found. I'm looking forward to the discovery of it each new day.

This week's adventures were not quite as exciting as New York City, however, they were also much less expensive.

There is a Revolutionary War Memorial Park just down the road from us, Putnam State Park. We took a trip there this week to discover some of the history of our area. It's a beautiful park, called the Valley Forge of Connecticut, where General Israel Putnam and his troops wintered. Actually the house we are renting sits on some of the property where the British troops who encountered General Putnam's army were camped for the winter. There are lots of walking trails, a pond, a visitors center and camping area. We had a fun time there. If you look closely you can see Travis and Jeremy disappearing around the bend on a jog through the park.


Saturday was a trip to New Haven to visit Yale University. What a beautiful campus. It's full of great architecture and history.


Fun to wander around and imagine what it would be like to attend there. Obviously I would never have been able to attend there, since I'm not nearly intellectual enough, but still fun to pretend.


We stopped at an ice cream shop and had some seriously delicious ice cream. Now that was much more my speed.




After walking around the campus we found our way to Lighthouse Point Park on the Long Island Sound.


Sadly the day was quite overcast so playing in the water didn't really appeal that much but we did take our shoes off and wade, and Jeremy and Heidi did get pretty wet. The shore was lined with shells which we had fun collecting. Overall, it was a pretty good day.




This morning Lynn got up at 3am and headed off to Denver for the AAA meetings (no, not the Auto group, the American Accounting Association). This is the national accounting meetings and he is the co-chair of this years event. I know he will be very glad to have this week over and done. Friday Travis and Jeremy fly to Denver to meet him and head to Philmont with their Texas scout troop for a week. I'm excited for them but honestly glad it's not me hiking those hills with a pack on my back.

"I'm a Mormon"

Today we had the missionaries over for dinner. One of the elders had just been transferred here yesterday from Manhattan. We discussed the I'm a Mormon campaign going on in Times Square and around NYC, which has increased recently due to the Broadway musical, "The Book of Mormon". Of course it has prompted a lot of interest in the church, and so our stake has been active in discussing it and the impact. They gave us some pass along cards with "I'm a Mormon" on them and encouraged us to use them when we have friends who have questions about the church. I think it's an exciting time to be in New England and look forward to the conversations we might have about the church.

We went on a little adventure today to Ridgefield CT, which is about 10 miles away. It has the most adorable Main Street, and old colonial town feel. We just wandered around poking in the shops, stopped for some pizza and then headed back home.

This week has mostly been running errands, getting kids enrolled in school, shopping, and trying not to get irretrievably lost. So far so good.

Sunday Lynn leaves for his Annual Accounting meetings in Denver, then next Friday the boys fly to Denver to meet him for their trip to Philmont. In all that means I won't see him for another two weeks. Maybe I'm crazy, (well of course I am crazy) but I kind of like being in the same state as my husband.

Mark Twain Library

Apparently in his later years Mark Twain moved to Redding CT, and built a home where he and his daughter would live until the end of his life. While here he founded the local library. Today Heidi and I ventured out to check it out and get a library card.

I don't know that I will ever understand why, but a library is such a soothing place to me. I felt at home as soon as I walked in, like I was seeing old and very dear friends again after a long absence. I felt almost silly walking around looking at the shelves with a grin on my face. I wanted to touch the books, take them down and hold them. Whatever it is, it made for a wonderful day.