Kansas City Temple Open House

A few weeks ago I had the wonderful opportunity to go to the Kansas City Temple Open House. It was such a wonderful experience!

Kansas City is about 4 hours north of me. I left early tuesday morning armed with some snacks and my ipod and enjoyed the drive up there. I arrived around 11:30am and was amazed at how many people there were. We first went into the church building and watched a short video about the temple, and then they took us to go walk through the temple.

The Oklahoma City temple is a mini temple, this one is a full sized temple and it was wonderful to see the different rooms that you don't get to see in a mini temple. After we toured the temple we went back to the church for refreshments. I sat and talked with a sister missionary from Sandy, UT. I was impressed with how many people there were on a tuesday morning (there were easily 200-300 people during the two hours I was there). She told me that there seemed to be an overall positive attitude from the community.

Unfortunately not everyone is adept at taking pictures and this one the top of the temple was cut off :(
After I left the temple I had to make a stop at a very important store :)

This is the nearest Costco to me so I had to take the opportunity to stock up on supplies!

This is the alcohol section! It was HUGE! There was also an entire isle behind me that was full of alcohol. Lets just say I'm definitely not in Utah anymore!

On the way home I attempted to get a picture of this! It's a McDonalds and the arch covers the entire freeway! So you can get off on either side and the restaurant is over the freeway! I thought it was pretty cool, next time I'll stop to get better pictures!

After I got home I had the task of attempting to fit all the food in the freezer. I was a little nervous at first but I eventually made it all fit! It was such a wonderful experience to go see a temple open house, and feel the wonderful spirit that resides there!

Relief Society Birthday

A few weeks ago, we celebrated the 170th anniversary of the formation of the Relief Society. Our branch had a dinner and a short lesson. It was a lot of fun, good food and we had a pretty good turn out!

 We prepared the food at the Layton's house. Brother Layton is in our Branch Presidency and he lives just a few minutes from the church. His wife was kind enough to let us use her kitchen!

The theme was Bows. We had everyone wear a bow and decorated the room with bows. We made bow-tie pasta and chicken, with a salad and cupcakes for dessert. It was really yummy! Our Activities Specialist Nikki P. was baptized a few months ago and is really a sweet girl. She's Greek and has great recipes for food.

 Nikki P. and I made the cupcakes the night before, we had a lot of fun making them, they were very good too!

 Noemi and Me

 Nikki R. and Me

 Nikki P. and Me

(yes there are two Nikki's, it gets confusing)

Happy Birthday Relief Society!!!

It's Doug's Fault

Thanks a lot, it's all your fault Doug!

About two years ago, I sold my DSLR in hopes of buying a new one. Well you know how it goes, you save up some money and then something more important comes along. Since then, all I've had is an inexpensive point and shoot camera. Lately I've been very unhappy with my pictures. They haven't looked good at all. When I saw Doug over the Holidays he showed me his new toy. I LOVED it! It's the perfect camera for me. It still is a point and shoot, but it has controls that are similar to a DSLR. Since I won't be able to get a new DSLR for a little while longer, I decided to buy this camera so I can take pictures and actually be happy with them. I've only had it for a few days but I am incredibly pleased with it.

Thanks Doug :)

Craft Time!!!

Last week I had a few days off and decided to make some crafts!

I still have my Christmas Tree up and I just can't bear to take it down. I like to turn all the lights off except from the tree, it makes my small apartment feel nice and cozy! So my friend suggested I leave it up and make decorations for each holiday to decorate the tree with. So I made some Valentine and St. Patricks "ornaments".

I also had some wood blocks and painted and modge podge'd paper on them. I think they turned out pretty cute!

I think it was a very successful craft day, and I'm sure I'll make some more very soon!

The First Snowfall

The other night I had some friends over for a movie night. We had pizza, treats and watched She's The Man, it was a lot of fun! As my friends were getting ready to go, they mentioned that it was supposed to snow that night. I glanced outside and sure enough, while we were nice and cozy inside it had snowed outside. It wasn't very much, and it didn't look like it was going to stick, but it was my first snow here in Oklahoma. I took a few pictures through my windows (it was too cold to go outside), so they aren't great. But it finally felt like winter!

Thanksgiving & Black Friday

I had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year! I spent it with my friend Nikki Roylance and her family. Her Dad was released from our Branch Presidency a few weeks ago and so I know her parents really well, and they were kind enough to invite me to Thanksgiving dinner. It was really yummy! After dinner, Nikki and I sat down to strategize our Black Friday plan of attack. I was so excited that I had someone to go with instead of by myself. We started our shopping at none other than WalMart!

The Line of course was long, but we were out of there by 10:35! Next we went to check out Target and Kohl's, the line for Target wrapped completely around the entire building. We didn't want to wait in the very windy cold so we went to Sonic to get a breakfast snack. Then we went to the mall and got a few things from stores that opened at midnight. We went back to Target and it was 12:40am and there was still a line to get in the store! We hopped in line and were quickly in the store. We wanted some movies there and didn't think there would be any left but we were surprised when they had A LOT left. The line for Target was really really really long too, but it moved pretty quickly. I also was on the phone on and off with Mom and Lynne, even though we are 1200 miles apart, we still got to do Black Friday shopping together... sort of :)

We went to Kohl's next to see if we could get a few games but they were all out and the line at Kohl's was super long and very slow. We went back to the mall to go to a few stores and then wait for JC Penny to open (we wanted to get the $30 boots). We had walked into Bath and Body Works and I was going to buy some stuff when I realized that my credit card was no longer in my pocket! I lost it!!!!! After a heart attack, we retraced our steps and checked Nikki's car, but couldn't find it. I immediately called and canceled it, but it's still annoying and a hastle to go through!

By about 5:00am we were finished! Nikki's trunk was full and neither of us wanted to think about how much money we spent! We decided to end our adventure at IHOP with breakfast! After Nikki dropped me off I had to wait for my bank to open to go and get a new credit card ordered, then I collapsed on my couch for some much needed sleep.

So this is my haul! I bought a small Christmas tree to fit in my apartment and I'm really excited to set it up and decorate it! Of course I bought a ton of movies to add to my collection and then some makeup to try out! Despite the credit card mishap, it was a very successful Black Friday!

The End of Days

Since moving to Oklahoma, I have survived droughts, extreme heat, fires and now not one but TWO earthquakes!!! This past week has been filled with unexpected events! I had gone to bed at 11:00 tuesday morning when a fire broke out at my apartment complex. The fire started around 11:30am in one building and spread to another. I remember hearing the fire trucks in my sleep and hearing a lot of extra noise than normal but I had been up all night so I was pretty tired. The maintenance staff for the complex was coming around that day anyway to test the smoke detectors and change out filters in the heaters.
I woke up about 2pm to let them in and they were saying how it was probably hard for me to sleep through all the commotion. I had no idea what they were talking about! Then I checked my phone and had some missed calls from some friends and the missionaries (who also live in the complex). I then went outside and looked and saw what had happened. It was a pretty devastating fire, at least 6 apartments were completely ruined and 6 others pretty badly damaged. I haven't heard what started the fire yet, but it certainly was a sad and unfortunate event.
Saturday morning at 2:14am I felt my first earthquake. I was up watching a movie when I felt things shaking. At first I thought it was my upstairs neighbors being super loud as they ran up and down the stairs (which happens ALL the time), but my t.v. and computer were wobbling which doesn't happen. The shaking lasted about 10 seconds or so. I thought there is no way that was an earthquake, especially in Oklahoma of all places! I waited about 15 minutes and checked the news and sure enough, we had an earthquake!
It was a 4.7 and the epicenter was about 80 miles west of Tulsa. It was felt statewide and even north into Kansas and south into Texas. It was the talk of the day! Saturday evening I had just gotten off the phone with Jen, telling her all about the earthquake that morning when we had ANOTHER one! At 10:55pm, I was once again on my computer with a movie on and it started shaking again. It felt stronger than the first one and lasted just a little bit longer! I couldn't believe there was a second quake! Once again I checked the news and this time we it was a 5.6 and again the epicenter was about 80 miles west of us.
I've experienced some crazy things here in Oklahoma, but I certainly wasn't expecting earthquakes! I wonder what will happen next!