Quest Day 8 -- Barcelona, Spain

It poured in Barcelona the day that we were there -- and I was about as watery as the weather. I slept really well until 5:30 a.m. but then wasn't able to go back to sleep. I got hungry and finally got up to read to distract myself. Finally I got ready and went to breakfast by myself -- it was 9 a.m. Derek was still recovering from an awful cold and I hadn't wanted to wake him -- but I hadn't wanted to eat by myself again either. Sigh. I was thankful for the man who handed out the trays and bowls. He was very nice. I don't know his name -- I just called him "the man who is always fine". He is from Bahli and has a wife and an 18 month old son who he doesn't get to see for months at a time. Cruise ship workers usually work 7 months and stay home 5. He always seemed happy to see me and so it was like having a friend in the dining room.

Unfortunately the water works started after breakfast (mine -- Barcelona already was experiencing rain). Derek was very patient and we ended up walking into Barcelona after lunch. And I don't know what that crab creature in the picture above is all about. It was just interesting because someone took the time to make it.

With my usual amount of knowledge I'll tell you that this was an old castle like building that I took a picture of because it was an old castle like building and it wasn't raining so hard at that moment that I was having to try to keep the camera dry.

While seeing if our stamina would hold out long enough for us to find a famous cathedral, we found the "Arc de Triumf" or the Arch of Triumph for those of us who only speak English. It was built as a welcome post or door to the Universal Exposition of 1888. I just learned that from the internet and didn't really know it at the time. It was just another big gate (whose name we did know from the map) that was cool so we took a picture.

This is what we spent a lot of time doing -- looking at maps. I don't think it really ever helped. In this picture what you cannot tell is how soggy that map was. We had one umbrella with us and so my right side and Derek's left were soaked. The building behind Derek had signs about a zoo but I don't remember what the building itself is.

We never made it to the magnificent church that we had heard about. That's what we get for not braving the subway. The longer we walked the more my neck and feet hurt and we headed back. This statue that you can't see as clearly as I wish you could is of Columbus. Our bus dropped us off by it and picked us up there. The bus was a courtesy to get us from the dock to the "shopping area of Barcelona". We did see one church that was under renovation. It was pouring at the time so I didn't take a picture. We still managed to walk a few miles I think. It's easy to get a little off course in the not so straight streets.

I did hear some people say that Barcelona was their favorite. I would undoubtably have liked it better had I been feeling more relaxed and happy. On this day I believe I said "I just want to go home". I am a bit of a home body and I missed my kids.

On the 9th day of the quest -- we were at sea.

This might have been the day that we filled out the room service form and forgot to put it on the door so we had to hurry to breakfast before the meeting -- which was set for 8:30 a.m. We needed to be there there by around 8. Of course, it could also have been the day that we did get room service and ... Derek had added hot chocolate to the order without me knowing -- as a surprise. When we got back to the room later we discovered that they had given us the hot chocolate packet and a container of hot ... tea. It's just as well I didn't see it when it was hot. I should mention that I enjoyed breakfast on the ship every day. Mostly I had scrambled eggs and bacon and french toast -- but the bread part varied and I did have cereal a couple of times. I think the cook gave me more bacon every day -- I started laughing one day and told him to stop since the pile was so high.

I liked this day. I like handing out things at meetings and being a greeter. The other people who were handing out things with me were fun and, in general, the people are friendly and happy to smile back at you. This is the meeting where the managers got to play bingo. It was funny to find that some people didn't know what constituted a "bingo" -- even after they had been told. They had never played before and didn't seem to understand that you had to have five in a row -- not just five anywhere.

Derek's boss sang "O Solo Mio" at this meeting. He has a beautiful voice and did a terrific job. I liked that part of the meeting even better than greeting people.

The rest of the day was good. We visited with other people and with each other and enjoyed a dinner with friends. I've had a lot of waiters on these trips chuckle at how much I don't eat. I try -- really I do -- but I can't eat THAT much food!

After days of walking until I was really tired it was nice to have a day to rest my feet.

On the 10th day of the quest ...

we were in Great Britain at the Rock of Gibralter. I think this is a picture of it as we were leaving. This was our second Sunday being gone. I had tried to find a branch of our church in Gibralter but could only find one in Cadiz -- which did us no good. Fortunately, I didn't find this Sunday as hard to deal with as the last one. I really don't handle not being able to go to church very well. On this day we did what we had done on many other days. We walked. In fact, I kept thinking of the pioneer song "Pioneer children sang as they walked, and walked, and walked" and I thought that they must have done their singing walking downhill -- or on a flat surface and not hiking up a mountain. I could barely talk, let alone sing.

Our original vaguely formed plan was to take the tram to the top of the mountain. As we were walking to the tram, we passed a graveyard for soldiers. Their grave stones had mini stories on them. If you could read it, you would find that this stone is for two soldiers who were killed with the same bullet in a battle on Nov. 10, 1810. It was a very nice tribute.

Right next to the tram was a beautiful garden which we decided to look at before riding the tram. Derek said we should make our next yard like that and I laughed since the weather is all wrong and we don't have enough water to make those plants live where we are. The garden was on a hill and by the time we got to the edge of the garden we were so far up that we thought we would just keep walking instead of hiking back down to the tram. Sigh. I don't think that was our wisest decision ever but we did see things that nobody else did -- and we got a reputation as "hikers" who "probably walked more than anyone else on the cruise". I think the person who said that was probably right. The picture at the beginning of my blog is from this garden.

I think that this is the path that we took that nobody else got to see. It was made during the war -- but my knowledge is a little lacking as to what war so if any of you go through the trouble to figure it out -- let me know. There were places for cannons along the trail and we felt sorry for whoever had to get those cannons in place. There were chimneys built in to the rock with big ovens too but I'm not sure what they were for. We were supposed to get to enjoy seeing the apes in their natural habitat as we walked the trail -- but the apes prefer the more populated trails so that they can beg for food. You are NOT supposed to feed the apes but we found several people who risked being fined to feed them.

At the end of our side trail we met up with the road and the "apes" which we called monkeys for obvious reasons. They would hop on cars and busses and the bus driver had to chase one away from the bus door. They obviously had no fear of people and Derek could have moved closer to this one but probably was a bit wary since it had just used that railing as its potty. Ewww!

After that we walked down the other side of the Rock -- closer to the ship. We found a great short cut (a little rocky trail with steps at the end right into downtown). I wish we would have found that on the way up! It was much shorter. It was after noon when we got back to the ship and I was kind of tired and grouchy -- but lunch helped.

The rest of our Sunday was spent on deck chairs. Derek read and I did too. I read for my primary lesson which is tomorrow and some other church related things so that I felt better about the day. Later we got out the house plan book that we had hauled across the world and sorted out our favorite look for the outside of our next house (okay so our top 20 or so). People came over to offer opinions and it was nice to visit with people.

I think this was the day that ended with a jazz concert. It wasn't our favorite music, but the man who played the clarinet, saxaphone and a mini banjo thing was very talented. There was a lady down below by the stage that provided us with entertainment as she swayed and rolled her head around. It was also interesting to watch the people around her stare at her -- half appalled and half amused.

I was generally pleased with this day. Derek was feeling more energetic and I only whined a little bit about us not taking the tram -- which was my own fault since Derek gave me a choice. I just usually do what I think he wants to. Maybe sometimes I should do what I think I want to do. Hmmm. Did I come any closer to finding my brain? I guess you can say yes if you count the fact that I was reminded of the importance of the Sabbath day and what a blessing it is to be able to attend church every week. At home I find the Sabbath day long and sometimes difficult right now -- but I still missed the things I love about it. I missed taking the Sacrament, singing the hymns, and having the chance to worship our Savior with other people who love Him too. Maybe I'll be like the scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz and find that I had a brain all along. Maybe mine is just a little tired right now.

Day 11 of the Quest -- Cadiz, Spain

Well, the computer added my pictures backwards so I guess I'll tell the story backwards ...
The last day of sightseeing is over and we "sail" off into the sunset.

On our second time out of the ship in Cadiz, we are trying to find the ship before it can leave without us and we find a garden / park so we take a picture. We are tourists after all, and snapping pictures is what we do.

This is also on our second trip out (after lunch). Instead of walking in to "shop" we walked over by the sea. The weather is nice for a change and there were cats lounging below Derek where you can't see them enjoying the sunshine. We walked kind of far by the sea and then went into the town to try to find our way back to the ship. We wandered farther than we thought (it's hard to tell where you're going with narrow winding streets and tall buildings!). Fortunately, us ending up far away from the entrance to the dock enabled us to help a nice older lady who had piles of shopping bags and had been led in the wrong direction by a taxi driver. Our walk was considerably slower after that but I think we got back to the ship with ten minutes to spare.

This was the only church we walked into in Cadiz. It had nets up high to catch falling pieces of rock from the ceiling. It was beautifully done and was being used. Someone was actually confessing to a priest as we quietly walked by. What a weird thing to have your church be a tourist attraction!
This church was made out of two kinds of stone -- they ran out of the first kind. The church was over 300 years old.

This was at the beginning of the day on our first trip out. We had not bought anything the entire rest of the trip and we know from experience that the customs officials in the USA look on people who don't buy things with suspicion so we agreed to go shopping with some friends to buy something. We figured Derek's parents deserved something for all of their hard work. Unfortunately, we are not great shoppers, especially when we are together and in a foreign country. One of our friends called it the longest short walk he had ever taken and we all split up at lunch time. I found the whole experience so frustrating that it took me a few hours to get over it. I will definately have to remember what we've learned on previous trips and I temporarily forgot -- that I need to find someone else to shop with and let Derek happily walk for miles while I shop.

We liked the flower tree Derek is standing in front of and he thought maybe we could create one -- so we took a picture so we could remember.

Other notes on the day: By this day I am really desperately tired of trying to be excited about odd food. I try the pizza on the ship which is yucky. I love breakfast on the ship but am not really fond of much else. Sigh.

Back on the ship after touring we packed our suitcases, ate dinner, and watched a movie at the theater -- the only movie we watched at the theater the whole trip. It was almost time to go home and we were feeling happy about that!

On day 12 of "The Quest" ....

The wake up call was set for 6 a.m. Lisbon, Portugal time. Unfortunately, room service showed up five minutes earlier than it was supposed to and so Derek staggered to the door and breakfast was there. We were out of bed, and knew that the next time we would get a chance to lie down in a bed again would be more than 24 hours from then. We went to the Lisbon airport by bus and I found it disconcerting to find that they didn't put any of their signs in English. What were they thinking? We still managed to get on the plane where we were trapped for 8 hours with the window seat and the middle seat with a nice older man on the edge making it impossible to escape. We fought our natural instinct to panic when stuck in a small space, and popped up immediately the one time our older man aisle guard decided to get up. I was seriously wishing he'd accept more drinks from the flight attendants so that I could. I was very thirsty but didn't dare drink a lot since I didn't feel the path the the WC was really clear for me. (That would be Water Closet which is what we really don't call our bathrooms in America).

When we got to Newark we were not allowed to land for an extra forty minutes due to an emergency at the airport. I enjoyed being over the USA and seeing the beautiful fall colors going by as we flew around and around in circles. Surprisingly (or not) there were no old European churches below, or cities packed full of people and mysterious statues -- except I could see NYC as we were landing. Of course, Derek and I managed to look suspicious enough to be the only ones in our crew sent through the agricultural inspection line where the nice workers told me (in a surprised tone even though I'd already told them) that my beef jerkey was made in the USA. Sigh. We had enough time in this airport to eat since we'd only had three meals on the plane. We were with four other people from Derek's work and I think four of us took pain killers during our meal.

Next we were off to Houston. By then I had started a book which I finished on that flight. I slept on the next one even though that last flight was cold. Surprisingly, all of the other flights had actually been warm. We then waited for our luggage, dragged it onto a bus, got off at the proper stop and wheeled our suitcases through the falling slush and out to the car. The weather went from atrocious to okay to slightly bad and we finally arrived home after 1 a.m.

The quest was over. Was it a success? I'll have to answer that question when I'm not falling over with fatigue and taking pain killers to help with awful headaches. Was it a good trip? It was like being at home in one way. Some moments are great, some are good, and some are pathetic. Overall it was a good experience and something we were thankful to get to do. After this last day of "the quest" we were very thankful for a comfortable bed that didn't rock, or make weird noises due to rocking. We were thankful to be home and we were thankful for Derek's parents who had stayed here to take care of our children. I think they were probably thankful to get to go to their own house for the night. Finally, after the longest November 4th ever the quest was at an end.

Dear Reader,

Once upon a time there was a beautiful girl with not so long or flowing hair that went to a far off kingdom on a quest. She travelled with the handsome prince on a loud, cold, slightly smelly but exceedingly fast steed across the ocean to a place where not many people speak her language. She boarded a ship of the floating variety (we should hope so!) and went sailing on many waters. She walked around great cities, dined on delicously prepared food, slept in a bed she didn't have to make, and talked to many people along the way.

What quest could take her so far away? What is she hoping to find?

Her brain. It seems that it has been misplaced and she can't remember little things like -- Where are her son's shoes? Which Sunday School lesson was she reading? Which pocket were those keys in? and Was that really all she needed at the store or will she have to go back tomorrow? It would be nice to call her children by the right name the first time and to remember what they said to her five minutes ago.

Wish her well. Never fear. She'll ride her trusty steed back to the States in time to hear the Election results -- at which point -- with her in tact brain she will somehow be able to explain why THAT person got elected. Okay, maybe not. But hopefully she'll at least remember to call her children by their names and she'll walk to those missing shoes without hesitation.

Ta Ta until next time, when pictures of the quest can be posted.

My first baby -- all grown up!

Here's my beautiful Trisa. I had already discovered that those tiny baby clothes that I admired before she was born were actually too big! Look at the way those socks hang loose! I had also discovered that Trisa looked so cute that I couldn't help but admire her, and expect others to do the same, no matter what she was wearing. Trisa was born October 18th after I had spent much time lying around, worrying, being uncomfortable, and being spoiled by many. I was not awake for her birth because the epidural didn't work right and so she was seen first by her doctors, her Dad, both sets of grandparents, and a few nurses. Four hours later I was finally able to see her for the first time with my parents and Trisa's Great Grandparents looking on. She was called our "miracle baby" by many and the hospital staff was shocked at the number of visitors that trooped in to see us. What a happy day for us!
The above picture is in our Salt Lake apartment. As a member of a large and loving family, and as the oldest grandchild on her Dad's side and the oldest great grandchild on her Dad's side and as the no less loved third grandchild on my side, she has always had many admirers. She had a lot less cousins back then but her uncles and aunts loved her and played with her at every opportunity. Her aunts were much more patient at teaching her letters and teaching her things.
Time marches on, and Trisa now has two sisters and three brothers. The picture above is her with her oldest brother. She has always been a good sister -- even if I worried when Tia was born because she thought babies were supposed to sleep with blankets on their faces and she felt Tia would be bored in her crib without the addition of several toys dropped over the top (thankfully usually of the soft variety). By the time we got to the boys she was helpful for real -- and not just desiring to be helpful.
Here's Trisa on a family hike. She is a good adventurer. She has been trained from a very young age to watch sports and understand them and she likes to attend BYU games with her Dad. She has played sports in the cities leagues and has enjoyed family hikes and trips -- especially to visit family members. Trisa also has good talents of being musical (she plays the piano beautifully), smart (she takes harder classes than I ever did), kind, sympathetic, and helpful.
Trisa was not born on Halloween, but she was baptized on Halloween when she was 8 and now she has celebrated her 18th birthday with the annual Halloween party thrown by her Grandma C. Her friends came and decorated her room while we were gone and I think the day was a happy one for her. It is certainly a blessing to me that she was born into our family. She does a good job of taking care of me when I need it and I love her very much.



Happy Birthday Trisa!

The invasion of the THINGS!

As I was walking through my house this afternoon, I got the feeling that the tool above would be the most useful tool when my house has been invaded by THINGS. These THINGS come crawling out of all kinds of corners of the house and they even come in the doors -- in shopping bags! I could just rake all of the THINGS into a pile and then decide whether to

1. Chuck the whole pile of THINGS

2. Burn the pile of THINGS

3. Sort the pile and leave individual piles of THINGS in bedrooms

4. Pick all of my THINGS out of the pile and give away the rest.

5. Leave the pile of THINGS for a decoration.

6. Try to shove the pile of THINGS under the couch for dealing with later.

I'm going to have to design a handy plastic, no stratchy up the floors THINGS rake for indoor cleaning. Maybe it will be a big hit. I'll just have Walmart leave them in the middle of an isle where everyone walks and people are bound to compulsively put them in their cart. After all, we all know that the best way to solve the THING problem is to buy another tool or organizing gadget right? How do you manage the invasion of THINGS that come creeping out of closets and backpacks and grocery carts and do you ever get tired of all of those THINGS?

Tag, I'm It

2 names you go by: Sher and Sherie
2 things I'm wearing right now: my birthday "diamond" earrings from a friend (thanks Shan) and a new bright orange shirt.
2 of my favorite things: my family and my friends (except are people things?) Maybe my cedar chest and my piano would be the things.
2 things I want very badly at the moment: Food (preferably yummy and cooked by someone else) and a maid (preferably friendly)
2 favorite pets you have/had: Sunny (my parakeet) and Monster (my sister's cat)
2 things you did last night: Colored a picture of a witch, Sang a couple of hymns (those go together, right?)
2 things you ate today: cereal and pumpkin bread
Last 2 people you talked to: Trisa and Kayli or Tia
2 things you are planning on doing today: go to the dentist and eat dinner
2 longest trips taken in the last 5 years: Baltic Cruise (Russia, Sweden, Finland, Germany, ?) and a Caribbean Cruise (Jamaica, Haiti, other warm places) -- Derek's work is great but my memory is a little slow!
2 favorite holidays: Christmas and Easter
2 favorite beverages: Orange juice and lemonade

Angel Class: Recognizing the Angels in our lives, and learning to be one.

I decided last night, at my most brilliant hour (around 11 or so at night) that this is the title of the *Enrichment Class I want to teach. Not because I am so angelic, but because I believe that everyone has it in them to be an angel for someone else, and wouldn't it be fun to discover the "angels" that people recognize in their pasts, and to learn from those experiences what we can do to meet the needs of someone in the future?

So, what would I teach at my first class? I decided that I would have three people who were coming (that sounded like a nice round number) share how someone had been an angel to them, and we could discuss what we learned. Then I would share one of my stories -- and give an assignment.

My story is a simple one from over twenty years ago. I was in college and not having a particularly cheerful day and was headed off to class. I was walking, probably with my head ducked a bit, feeling sorry for myself for one reason or another, when a cheerful voice greeted me, and a stranger smiled at me. I don't remember exactly what was said, but I remember looking back at her and smiling, and then continuing to grin in a silly fashion. Almost immediately someone passed me, caught my eye and my smile, and they smiled too. I remember wondering how far that one girls smile would travel. It was such a small thing and it made such a big difference to my day, that I have remembered it for over 20 years. By the simple method of a kind smile, and a cheerful world, my day seemed transformed.

What would the assignment be? I think, until the next angel class, that we would all be assigned to try to "create" as many smiles as possible by sharing our own smile with others. Perhaps that one girl has created a million smiles by now, just by sharing hers. Trying to get others to smile or "create" smiles is a fun and happy way to be an angel.

What angels have you found in your life? What have you learned from them? What would you teach at angel class?

*Enrichment Classes are small classes held by groups of Relief Society Sisters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. They are held on many different topics and help "sisters learn and share ways to strengthen
homes, families, and individuals."

Jolly Jenny Jump Up

This post is in honor of my little sister Jenny. Her birthday is on Friday and we used to celebrate together quite often -- usually on the day between our birthdays (I know -- it's a not so subtle hint that my birthday is coming too--so start writing your good wishes to me and get them in the mail!). It's harder to get together for birthdays now and sometimes that makes me sad. Jenny is always fun to celebrate with! Jenny is the spunky one in the family. She has pizazz (except how do you spell that?). She is very talented and is a good person to ask questions of if you are planning a big event and need some help. She's patient too. I used to read out loud to her for hours, insist that we should memorize hymns and no doubt was bossy in other ways too. Here we are looking all beautiful for my older sister's wedding reception. Jenny is a good friend and I miss all of the chatting we used to do. Sometimes life gets busy! She kept me entertained during the months I had to stay in bed before Trisa was born. I loved hearing Jenny and Jeff stories -- especially because it had a happy ending.
This is Jenny in the hospital. It's not fair that she looks so beautiful is it? We were pregnant at the same time four times and somehow I never got a picture of us together with round bellies. This picture is of her fourth child-- Seth, and my fifth -- Jake. I decided while trying to get pictures together for this post that I have never taken enough pictures of Jenny. I'm going to start haunting her at family reunions. Here she is with her husband and her five beautiful children. I really can't say enough good things about a little sister who has been protective of me, kind to me, helpful to me, and a good example to me. I hope that this year's birthday will be a happy one -- even if I'm not there to help her eat her cake!

Nice clothes, Mud, and the Haircut from Hades

Tia went to watch Mud volleyball with a friend of hers the other day. They were easily the nicest dressed people there because everyone else planned to play. What do you do when someone asks you to join in the fun -- but you aren't dressed in the right kind of clothes? Jump right in!
After a seconds thought, I approved their decision -- even if I had wished they'd thought of wearing grubbies in the first place. Tia took a shower in her clothes afterwards and then another shower -- umm -- in the more usual way. I think her clothes are going to make it and she had a good time.

Here's Dan. Isn't he cute? His hair was long in the bangs and over the ears and I was just going to trim him up a little. Unfortunately, he's terrified of scissors and clippers. He tries to put his hand up to stop the scissors -- thus making them dangerous. He just throws his head around a bit with the clippers -- thus causing an "oops" to occur that meant he is now a buzzed boy instead of the longer haired boy you might expect. It's still too long in spots and needs to be fixed. He did survive the trauma (and I did too -- barely) but .... He would like YOU to come and fix it up. With his hair buzzed you can now see the gash in his head from landing against the fireplace. This is added to the bruise on his cheek, the scar on his other cheek, and bruises up and down his legs just to prove he's manly and adventuresome. He can obviously still smile so I think he'll make it.

Cleaning out Critter Haven (Previously known as our Garden)

Monday was our family night. You can imagine the children's delight when they were told that we were cleaning out the garden for our activity. "Hooray" they said -- or maybe "Oh Groan". Fortunately, besides the rather rebellious 6 year old, and the little adventurer, everyone was quite helpful. Now, when I say we cleaned the garden, I mean the space previously used as a garden, or the weed garden, or the weed / stick pile where critters like to congregate. I really tried to find you a before picture -- but I forgot to take one on Monday and I purposely avoided aiming the camera that direction on other occasions. The above trailer is full of the things from the garden and I had gotten rid of quite a pile of things a couple of weeks previously. This is our trash can Tuesday when I finally took the picture. I was a bit distressed that our garbage can, which was emptied on Monday, was three fourths full by the end of Monday because of old hoses that have been moldering in the garden. Where is all of our garbage going now? I'm practicing "creative cramming" but the lid won't shut already.
Here is the "garden" looking more like its old self. In fact, I really don't think it's looked this good since we moved in.
This section next to the house hasn't been weed free for years and years. I've tried but those weeds have really tough roots, even when soaked with water, and weed killer. There were lots of spiders that liked to hide in them waiting to get me. Don't tell Tia or she won't ever go in the garden again. Here's another trailer / tarp picture. Silly me took out the camera and forgot to take the picture until after the tarp was on. I was focused on covering up the pile so it wouldn't blow away in the storm, ruining the perfect lawns of our neighbors.

We didn't actually see any furry critters, but I've heard suspicious noises in the piles in the past and I keep expecting those traps Derek set to catch something. Perhaps they ran away and aren't coming back because Critter Haven no longer exists and they must find a new place to lay down their little furry heads.