YOU DON'T NEED TO TELL ME

I know I’m not very good at keeping up with my new goal.  I wanted to start posting at least once a week and that has not gone very well since the last time I posted was on July 21.  Go me!!  Anyway, Recently I’ve been unhappy with my blog the way I designed it and such that I’m trying to remodel it.  So, as of right now my blog is under construction for the time being.  I’m hoping it will be like a week, but I sometimes have no concept of time (and I’ll be the first to admit it).  If you keep checking back my page will hopefully be changing daily.  I do have some posts I’ve written and just haven’t published.  I will be getting to these too.  I'm very picky when it comes to my writing (something about studying creative writing does this to you) so I nit pick at everything I write.  I will try to be better and not worry so much and just go with my instinct of writing.

This tin man is from the west, unlike Dorothy's. So, he's not as sensitive about things and knows to go inside when it rains.

M.I.A.

I’ve made it a goal to be better at keeping up my blog.  My problem is everyday I think “I will blog tonight,” but I’m not just thinking about my blog during the day.  I’m also thinking about the book I’m recently reading (which I don’t seem to keep updated on here very well either) and I can’t help myself I just go straight to reading and think “I’ll blog later.” Then I get tired after reading and go to sleep instead.  And it would be lying to say I’ve been a little obsessed with the whole last Harry Potter movie being released (AWESOME - by the way.  I have to see it again soon or I might lose the will to go on.)  So, now I will try harder to devote time to this blog at least once a week instead of once in a great while.  

Since I last blogged about my oh so fun filled life I have been to Philadelphia, PA; Mystic, CT; and Palmyra, NY.  Shilo and I went to visit Philly (or better known on the east coast as Wayne) and his family.  We got to meet his new baby and get to know his wife better.  It was a very fun weekend.  Philadelphia is a fun city, not too busy but of course not little either.  Here are a few of the places we saw during the weekend:

The LIberty Bell

Benjamin Franklin’s grave

A Real Philly Cheesesteak 

In the Italian Market

Along With A Pizza

The Rocky Statue

... And The Famous Steps on the way to the art museum.

I don’t think anyone was really there to go to the art museum 

A view of the city from the top of the steps

The building straight ahead is the Philadelphia City Hall.  On the top is a statue of Benjamin Franklin and when the building was first built the rule was made that no building should be taller than that statue.  Now obviously surrounding buildings are much taller than it, and they say the sports teams of Philly are cursed.  (though this isn’t true since the Philly’s won the world series in 2008.) But they do dress up Ben with basketball and baseball jersey’s.  

And I thought this was just another interesting find in the Italian Market

My Birthday!!

I didn't do very much for my birthday, but it was fun.  Caskey and Shilo got me a cake and put 26 candles on it.  Anyway, I just thought that I would post the video of me blowing out my candles.  

Memorial Day Weekend at the Capitol

 I’m so sorry I’m the worst blogger ever.  I’m not going to make excuses as to why it has taken me so long to post again, but I do have a lot to post.  Over Memorial Day weekend Shilo, Caskey, and I went to Washington D.C.  and I think it is an awesome city.  I feel like we barely even covered a fourth of the city.  There is so much history ad so much to do that we couldn’t cram it all into just three days (technically two and a half).  So, here is a list of what we did go see:

The White House

The Washington Monument (You can see this from almost anywhere in Washington).

The World War Two Memorial

The Vietnam Memorial

The Lincoln Memorial

The Reflection Pool  (currently under construction. Sad day).

The LDS Washington D.C. Temple 

The Watergate Hotel

The Pentagon

The Smithsonian

The Hope Diamond (not at the bottom of the ocean...  very misleading ending to a movie).

Julia Child’s Kitchen

 

The Original Jim Hensen Muppets

Dorothy’s Ruby Red Shoes

Michael Jackson’s Hat

Minnie Pearl’s Hat

This one I took a picture of just for my mom.  It’s Archie and Edith Bunker’s chairs from the sitcom “All in the Family.”

...And Abraham Lincoln’s Hat

We also went to Ford’s Theatre where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth.  What I thought was interesting that I found out here was that Booth didn’t plan ahead to assassinate President LIncoln until that very morning when he was at Ford’s Theatre and found out that President LIncoln and his wife would be attending that night’s play.  

This is the home across the street from Ford's Theatre that President Lincoln was taken to and passed away there

This is the box that he was shot in and the stage that Booth jump down on and made his escape. 

Here we are bored waiting for a bus or in a line to get into some place.  For some reason we couldn’t stop singing “I’m just a bill...” and “the preamble.”  Good old School House Rock.

We went on a tour of the monuments at night so here are pictures of those all lit up

We also went to see the Constitution of the United States of America and The Bill of Rights, but we weren’t allowed to take pictures of those, and we went through the international spy museum.  Now I think everyone is a spy walking around with little microphones and bombs in their pockets.  All in all this was a really fun vacation.  I would definitely go back to Washington, D.C. just to go to more museums and to more monuments.  I think it could take days to get everything in that you wanted to.  

Package of Fun

Today I recieved a surprise package in the mail from my best neighbors named Craigs!!  It made my day.  I love to get mail and so to recieve an entire package is the most exciting thing to me.  And this box was full of fun items... candy and such.

They sent two nail polishes, lip gloss, fun dip, popcorn, ring pops, a reminder notepad (I love notepads!!) and the little book with the pretty cover is a Book of Mormon.

I wanted to thank Craigs so much for thinking of me and sending this package.  It reminds me that no matter what I still have amazing friends and family in my life.  I also wanted to tell Cammie congratulations on making the dance company team!! I'm so proud of her because she is a hard worker (and big trouble.)

I also wanted to say a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my favorite Jake in the whole wide world!!  I hope you had a great day!!

Adventures of flat Jake

I've ben living in Chappaqua, NY for two and a half weeks now and I have been loving it.  I really like the family I live with and the kids are good listeners... for seven year olds :).  Recently, my nephew Jake sent me his flat Jake (like flat Stanley) for me to take around and show him the area.  First stop, Ted's Restaurant to try the famous steamed cheeseburgers!!!  My mouth is melting just thinking about them now. The workers put the burgers in these trays and stick them in a steamer.  The burger was so juicy and cooked all the way through.  But the cheese.  The Cheese!!  I could write a song about the cheese.  It's a white chedder cheese with a sharp taste to it.  But this cheese isn't just melted on the burger.  No, it's steamed in it's own dish and poured over the juicy burger place a a perfect bun.  Amazing!  

  Flat Jake liked them so much he passed out from being so full.

After a perfect lunch Shilo, Jake, and I took a drive to Hartford to visit Mark Twain's house.  The tour guide gave so much interesting information about Twain or Samuel Clemens.  Up on the mantle in their library were small trinkets and pictures and his daughters would ask him to make up stories involving all those trinkets displayed on the mantle.  The trick was that he had to go from left to right and chnge the story everytime, involving all the items.  

At the end of the tour the guide said that throughout the whole house is where Samuel Clemens existed, but upstairs in the Billard room where the writing desk was is where Mark Twain existed.  It was at that desk in the corner where he created some of the most beloved novels from American Literature such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. 

Our day in Connecticutt wasn't the last of the adventures of flat Jake.