Carthage, Illinois

On day 3 of our trek we stopped off in Carthage, Illinois to view the jail where the Prophet Joseph Smith was martyred before going on to Nauvoo later in the day.

Here Sara and Liam stand in front of the statues of Joseph and Hyrum Smith.

After spending a few minutes in the visitors' center, we went into the jail, which is still standing from the time of the martyrdom. We saw the various rooms and were told who was where on that fateful day, June 27, 1844. We then saw the room where Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith, John Taylor and Willard Richards sat when the mob attacked that day and the window Joseph jumped out of to save his friends from the mob. It was a very touching experience to be in that room, where Joseph and Hyrum sealed their testimonies with their lives.

The window the Prophet Jospeh jumped out of to save his friends from the mob.

South Bend, Indiana

Later on on Day 2 (Day 1 was across PA to Cleveland), after visiting Kirtland and stopping for food in Sturgis, Michigan (to check the Automotive State off of Liam's places visited map) we made our way to South Bend for a quick visit to Notre Dame. I'm not a big fan of Notre Dame football myself, but I-80 runs right through South Bend and so we decided to stop and snap a few pictures with the tripod.


I'm unfamiliar with Notre Dame's buildings, but our first stop was what I'm guessing was the main quad to snap a few photos of this impressive cathedral looking building.


Another picturesque building on the quad.


We then left the quad to visit Touchdown Jesus (I'm sure there's a different name for this beautiful mural, but it's positioned across from the football field and it looks like he's signaling a Touchdown to me.)


Our last stop on campus was at the football stadium itself, where we opened up our trunk to help out Notre Dame's football coach Charlie Weiss load up his stuff since he was about to be involuntarily terminated from his employment with the Fighting Irish. Welcome to the economic downturn coach Weiss!

All in all, I thought the Notre Dame campus was quite beautiful, and impressive. I think I'll still root against their football team on most occasions though (my father and grandfather grew up in Pasadena and were big USC fans after all.)

Kirtland, Ohio

Our first stop as we traversed the country was in Kirtland, Ohio (I always want to write Kirkland - dang you Costco!) where the Saints (which I use as a short form of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for those unfamiliar with the term) first gathered and built our first Temple in the Latter-days.

We started out at the visitor's center, where we watched a short film that portrayed the gathering of the Saints to Kirtland, the building of a temple, and then their persecution prior to their exodus to Missouri. Seeing what the Saints sacrificed to build a temple at that time was very touching and reminded me of the sacrifices we are sometimes asked to make to follow the gospel.

Liam practicing his sitting skills on the vistors' center sign.

From the visitor's center we toured the Newel K Whitney store, where the Bishop of Kirtland provided for the needy, temporary residence of the Prophet Joseph, and home to several Church History milestones including the location for the school of the Prophets.

Sara and Liam in front of the Newel K Whitney store.

Bishop Whitney kept very detailed records of every purchase made at the store and the church has transferred the manuscript records into a typed-up ledger to allow you to search for your ancestor's purchases. Above is a page from that ledger, showing several purchases of Sara's ancestor and one of the architects of the Kirtland temple, Artemas Millet's. There were several pages recording his purchases for himself and others.

Will and Liam in the parlor on the second floor of the Newel K Whitney store. The table in the picture is from the actual store and was used for drawing plans for the Kirtland temple.

After viewing the store we cut our site tour short to head over to a scheduled tour of the Kirtland Temple put on by the Community of Christ church (formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints). We watched a quick documentary about the building of the temple and the Community of Christ church before going into the temple, which is a National Historic Site by the way. Pictures weren't allowed inside the building, but it was great to behold such a significant building in the history of the church.

Liam fell asleep while we were touring inside, so here's a picture of the temple without us.

Cheyenne

We've made it to Cheyenne, Wyoming, and just in time too as the snow has started blowing. This is our 4th night in a hotel and the first night without a bathtub, so we had to improvise with the small sink in the room. Liam seemed to enjoy it a lot, even though he kept tipping back because he was lifting his toes out of the water to look at them. He still found it relaxing enough to prompt a hasty shuttle to the toilet and a quick clean of the sink.

Mission Accomplished

Wow. November is over. We are just over 1/2 way across the country. I cannot believe how quickly the month flew by and all of the changes that have happened/are happening in our lives. I do have to say that I'm pretty amazed with myself for posting every day for a month. I know the past week and half of packing and moving has resulted in some lackluster posts but hopefully I'll make up for that soon.

Stops Made Today

550 miles and 9 more hours driving down. We're getting closer and closer! Today, we spent the morning and early afternoon in Kirtland, OH. We stopped for dinner in Sturgis, MI (oddly not my first time to visit Sturgis, MI). Then, we stopped for dessert and a quick drive-around tour of Notre Dame in South Bend, IN. Tonight, we're staying in Galesburg, IL and we plan on spending some time in Nauvoo, IL tomorrow!

I've been trying to send pictures from my phone but can't quite seem to make it work. Next week there will be a lot of cute pictures to make up for the dearth this week.

One day down...

Seven hours driving, approximately 440 miles down and we're all still smiling! I tried to send a cute picture of Liam from my phone but it wasn't working so next week we'll have to get back to cute pictures every day.

Movies that make me cry - The Blind Side

Typically, my gauges of a quality movie are a) whether I fall asleep watching it in the theater and b) whether I cry. Will (or anyone else who has watched a lot of movies, or even TV, with me) will tell you that I cry a lot, happy and sad tears, but I really enjoy movies that make me feel. We saw The Blind Side tonight. I cried. I think I cried even more because it is based on a true story and I was amazed at the generosity of the portrayed family. We have so much capacity to love and give and so often let fear or the unknown limit our loving and giving. The story made me want to be a better person, to reach outside myself and touch someone else, to be a good person. It also made me wonder whether Faith thinks Tim (McGraw) is sexier bald or with the hairpiece he was in for the movie. I personally prefer him in a cowboy hat and find the hairpiece much less attractive than a bald head. Just sayin.

And the tryptophan sets in...

Remember how I was going to do a quality post today? Not going to happen. I'm full and sleepy and need to rest up for a long road trip. However, I did learn to post from my phone, by text or email, so the posts will continue while we are road tripping.

Goodnight all. Happy Thanksgiving!

Test Numero Dos

If this works, I can also blog by email. Who knew I could be such a
diligent blogger.

--
Sent from my mobile device

If this shows up on the blog, I've successfully learned to blog by text message. This should be very useful while we're driving across the country.

Countdown to Thanksgiving - Sleep

Today I'm grateful for sleep. After getting very little sleep Monday night because we were up all night packing, packing, supervising the loading of the truck, and finishing last-minute errands all day yesterday, and leaving Providence at 11:30 last night, we were exhausted, to say the least. I was trying to focus all of my sad energy into driving energy but it only lasted me to New Haven so we stopped and got a hotel room.

It's amazing how much better we felt eight hours later (minus Liam waking up twice) later. One thing Will taught me early on in our relationship was that he valued sleep much more than I. I have definitely adopted his sleep habits and cannot believe that there was a time that I survived quite happily on three or four hours of sleep a night.

Earlier yesterday evening, our lack of sleep manifested itself quite clearly. After the movers left with their (very full) truck, I cleaned while Will tackled the final pile that remained - the stuff that we needed with us either for the cross-country drive or the first week or so we're in Utah before our stuff arrives. After playing tetris with the final bags for quite a while, we decided that we needed more space and went to look for a car-top luggage carrier. After doing some research, we realized that we didn't want to hang out another day to find someone to install a rack on our car. So, we were in Sports Authority and decided that we needed to buy a new car. We will probably need one soon anyway and ours has been paid off for a while so why not last night? We hastily looked up the closest Nissan dealership and drove off in search of a new vehicle (to caravan with across the country - we weren't planning on trading in our car). Luckily the dealership was about ten minutes away and by the time we got there we had returned to our senses (or were just too tired to get out of the car and talk to someone about a new car). However, we've only driven 4 hours and have a good 36+ left to go, so don't be surprised if we lose all sense of reason and do something crazy...

Speaking of sleep, I'm already needing some again. Tomorrow this blog deserves a better post. Until then, Happy Thanksgiving Eve!

Packed and out the door...

They say that you should just rip band-aids off to reduce the duration of the pain. That's how we did this move. We think it was the world's largest band-aid.

This post is from my mobile device on the way out of Rhode Island. Happy 6 month birthday Liam!!!!

Countdown to Thanksgiving - Modern Communication Devices

A quickie again today so I can get back to boxing...

I am so grateful for cell phones, email, and all the other creative modes of modern communication (even text messaging, but it is not my mode of choice). I'm grateful to be able to talk to my friends and family often and to have easy ways to keep in touch with people.

Countdown to Thanksgiving - Friends

Just a quick note tonight because I'm supposed to be busy packing after our little getaway.

I am so thankful for the friends I have here and there and everywhere. We have been blessed with great friends in Rhode Island and tonight we visited some to say goodbye. I am so grateful for each friend I have made here that has touched my life (and Will's life, and Liam's life!).

Countdown to Thanksgiving - The Ocean

Tonight I am grateful for the ocean. I have been so blessed to live so close to the ocean (and the beach!) for the past 6.5 years. I am going to miss it a lot when we move to the desert. There are many things I love about the ocean. I love the rhythm of the waves and listening to them at night. I love the sun and lying on the beach all day with a good book. I love swimming in the ocean and getting tossed around on boogie boards and body surfing.

I'm so grateful that tonight (as a special birthday treat) we are sleeping here where I can hear the ocean all night and wake up to an ocean sunrise tomorrow morning. I'm grateful for fresh delicious seafood one last time and the adventure of having been in 4 states today in just a couple of hours. None of that out west.

I'm also grateful they have a guest computer in the lobby or I would have failed at my daily post with only 10 days left. I must learn how to blog from my phone before we start our cross-country haul.

Countdown to Thanksgiving - A Week of Gratitude

I really admire the bloggers out there that have taken advantage of NaBloPoMo or just the month of November to post daily on the things that they are grateful for. I was planning on doing another Thankful Thursday post yesterday and forgot. So, I decided this morning that I am going to do a countdown to Thanksgiving for the next week and post on things I am grateful for. Hopefully that will make posting simple enough that I'm able to keep up the post a day through the packing.

Above all, I am grateful for Will and Liam and the blessing I have of being an eternal family with them. I know that I am blessed to have a husband who loves me and our son as much as Will does. He is constantly showing us how much he loves us. He gets up in the night with Liam. He rubs my feet. He works hard. He has a strong desire to continue learning and growing. Will has taught me a lot in the three years that he has been in my life. He has taught me about forgiveness and patience. He has taught me how to be a better person and helped me see that I am a good person.

Liam has added a whole new dimension of love and gratitude to my life. It is overwhelming and amazing at the same time. I am learning a lot from him every day. The biggest lesson I have learned from him (beginning from before he was born) is to beware of and prepared to adjust my expectations. I'm grateful for that lesson that could be applied to most areas of my life but is much more easily seen in watching him develop and progress.

Moving to the country...

Yes, the big news is that we are moving! Will accepted a job offer in Utah this week and we are moving next week. I'm feeling surprisingly calm about the logistics of packing and moving but am really sad to be leaving the East and especially Rhode Island. Sunday at church I even had to take a bathroom break to cry it out for a few minutes. We are going to miss our wonderful friends here and especially our primary kiddos. We are also going to miss urban living and the nearness of other cities and states that come with living in the East. I'm sure that there will be many more postings on the things we will miss as I realize them this next week and even more when we are moved.

So, on to moving bids, sorting through stuff (and hopefully getting rid of some), and tough goodbyes.

p.s. Does anyone remember the song this blog title comes from? and who sang it?

Flu Mist

Today Will and I got our flu vaccination - via mist. I've been getting flu shots for several years now - working in healthcare, working in schools and working for the government made it necessary/possible. Last year, because I was pregnant, my midwife gave me a special flu shot. But, today was a new experience. We were able to get our vaccination via mist. It's pretty amazing that they have figured out a simpler way to give it - I didn't have to pull up (or down) my sleeve, I don't have a sore arm, and there wasn't any dangerous medical waste.

Liam's pediatrician recommended that we get both the seasonal and h1n1 vaccinations because Liam is so young and we are in the age group that seems to be being hit hardest by the flu this year. However, despite having an infant at home, I don't think we'll ever be able to get on a list for the h1n1 vaccine. Surprisingly, getting the seasonal one was VERY easy. We called the company distributing them for the state and made an appointment. It only took about 10 minutes today when we were there and our insurance covered it completely!

And, just because I didn't post one yesterday, I will end with a cute picture of our little man.

Be sure to check back tomorrow for some BIG news!

Magnification

For those of you who haven't heard, our ward is small enough that many people have multiple callings. Will and I teach sunday school to the 8-12 year old kiddos, get the 8-11 year old kids together for Cub Scout (plus the girls) a couple of times a month, and I am in charge of activities for the congregation as well. We have a great time with the kids and all of these callings have definitely brought blessings into our lives. I just wanted to jot down a couple of memories from the last week so that I don't forget them.

First, Saturday night I put on (and by I, I of course mean Will and I) a dinner and talent night for the congregation. I had been advertising for weeks and at a meeting a couple of weeks ago, mentioned that I was planning on 50-70 people. Our bishop quickly told me that I shouldn't plan on so many - 20-30 was probably the max that would attend and I would have way to much food, etc. otherwise. I chose to go with my gut (or possibly a prompting from on high?) and still planned for 70ish. We drove to the church at 4:30 Saturday afternoon in a torrential downpour (thank you hurricane Ida) and I had some moments of doubt. We got pretty drenched hauling 70 bread bowls and ~10 gallons of soup into the church but we made it. Thanks to some help from some friends, we had all the bread bowls hollowed out and started on time, with quite a few people there. People kept coming and we ended up with about 80 people there! I was glad I had planned for as many and the evening was, thanks to participation and help from so many people, a great success!

Next, tonight we took the kiddos (seven of them) bowling. It was an adventure from the beginning. Two of our kids live in a project. In order to get in, you have to show identification, car registration, etc. I've been there many times and even twice in the last couple of weeks but the very astute security guard tonight was the first to notice that the registration paper I had been handing them expired in April. Mr. Astute promptly refused to let me enter and informed me that I would have to park my car and walk to pick up the kids. I called one of the moms and she met me at the parking lot but I couldn't reach the other mom. It was dark. They live at the very back of the community. I wasn't comfortable leaving the two kids I already had in the car (+ Liam) in the parking lot and really wasn't feeling great about walking, alone or with them. I tried to talk the security guard into helping me but he was having none of it and said that if I wanted someone to walk with me I'd have to call the police. Although it was a flippant suggestion, I took him up on it. Not long after I called 911, the manager of the project came out and told the security guard to just let me through, no big deal. It was a lot of drama to pick up kids to go bowling! Bowling was crazy - the kids were really hyper and on the verge of out of control. At one point, the person running the bowling alley asked me if they were all ours. I think the look on my face answered him, but really?? The only kid that possibly could have looked like ours was Liam and there were seven kids between the ages of 9 and 12. Hmmm.