Musings

I love to blog, but must admit I can't unless I have a picture.  It slows my process down because if I have a picture I have to scrapbook it.  It is a vicious cycle and slows the process down dramatically as I have to look for photo ops that I want to scrapbook without getting behind.  I begin to lean more towards Facebook (yes I just admitted that) because it satisfies my gossip urge as well as allow me to participate instantly with the like button. Funny part is that I still take twenty minutes to compose an answer.  This is why I make Daniel compose our Christmas card.  I don't know what he will pull out of his hat this year since we didn't celebrate our birthdays, holidays, or even our anniversary (yes we both forgot).  Sounds depressing when put on paper.  Most my vacations were canceled as well so I can't regal the world with where I've been.

Yes this is my whiny post. I  figure I should have one in case people get the misconception that I'm always happy.

October Crazys

This October I had vacation, but it wasn't so much vacation as a shake up of life.  We moved from Douglasville to Vinings.  I am so excited because now we get be in a hip part of the city.  Daniel's commute has been cut down to 30 minutes from work and 15 minutes from school!  We moved into a  two bedroom apartment (hint: come visit!) that is a renovated Victorian housing.  It is old and has lots of character and I got to paint my walls!  It is the first time I've got to live in a house with out magnolia walls, so out came the magenta and apple green!  I am loving it and have done a great job painting.Still decorating and more pictures to come on that.

After Daniel and I moved by ourselves, okay we had one day where a friend helped us, I treated myself to a concert in Salt Lake.  I went with my friend Tera to The XX.  It was great the crowd was a little weird and we decided that we were too old for concerts, but overall it was worth it.  Daniel was super bummed that her had to stay in Atlanta because of school, but was glad that one of us got to go to The XX.

One of my overnights this month was in Charlottesville, Va.  This is where Thomas Jefferson's Monticello is located.
 It was AWESOME.

 Totally beautiful, but  I feel that way every time I come to Charlottesville and I know why he always wanted to stay on his mountain in Monticello. It had a kickin' kitchen, the Chateau de Chenonceau (France) was better, way better, but they had French copper pots in this kitchen and that is always a mega bonus.  I was amazed to find out that he died with so much debt.  It was worth a small house ($150,000) in today's money and I can't imagine what it was with inflation.  He also didn't free his slaves like most people think. He only freed four; two were his children, one he promised his freedom for becoming his french chef and teaching others, and his butler.  He had an awesome garden. I wanted to buy some seeds that he had cross bred, but they didn't sell any.  They only sold harvested seeds from Monticello, but conveniently none of the species he "invented."

Daddy Daughter Date...Across the Pond

How this all came to be was my dad was saying he wanted to meet Daniel and I in Paris  for the weekend.  Daniel had started his new job and there was no way he could go, and I just mentioned that I need to go to Bradford England to do some family research.  My dad was all over that idea because he just wanted to get away and it he was his family I was researching and my father loves England (served his mission in London and hadn't been up North).

My first map which worked great for the Motorways(Freeways)

I choose the time in September so I knew we could get on a flight to Manchester. It ended up a little rough, but we did get on and in first class!  I will admit that I packed to a  Salt Lake City fall leaning more to Atlanta weather.  It came as quite a surprise when we landed and it was 40ish degrees.  I ended up buying a great jacket.

I am so easily amused. My name was on the TV in my room!

Dad driving on the wrong side of the road--literally he is driving on the American side.

We rented a car because we needed to go to Bradford.  I was hoping that we could just rent a GPS and go from there, but they didn't have any left.  So I navigated us with a map and then later had to buy a town map which became really useful when we searched for where the family lived and moved.

The old grocer...sort of.

We started off driving to the moors. It really it is beautiful country and I'm sorry that I didn't get any good pictures of it.  We arrived after we struggled to find the hotel, and then headed to the Bradford Central Library.  The ladies there were so helpful.  I was able to find out my great great great grandfather was a prominent grocer in Bradford and we found where his grocery store stood which was right next to the Bradford Cathedral. Once again my little street book helped us find this.

My fish is so hot I can barely eat it!

For two nights we got fish and chips at this quaint little chippery near our hotel that served locals.  It was the best fish and chips I've had in a long time.Of course it was the best since the last time I had fish and chips was in England.

 On our third day we found the graveyard where William Lee was buried.  It is in the Colesly Parish. We drove out to the countryside and  found the church with its graveyard. It had taken care of some of its graves while others were very scary.  We couldn't find his grave, but as we were leaving to go to  the Halifax library, I pointed to a mess of weeds and said it's probably dead center in that mess.  We went to Halifax and found a cemetery map.  We went back and it was exactly where I said it was.  My dad was such a trouper because he walk into all that mess and cleared it away, so that we could stand right on top of it. It was the silliest and coolest thing ever.

This was the nice part of the cemetery that was taken care of.

We had to go home after we found this grave.  We did catch a movie at their museum of Photography and Cinema.  It was so cool to see Batman  in a museum it was totally designed to get the best out of the film. I'm glad we got to go there as it is one of my favorite museums.  While I was trying to find this guy's parents, I unfortunately didn't, but seeing where he lived and what he did and where he was buried made this trip successful for me.

Weekend at the Red Neck Rivera

Daniel and I have become beach people.  It is hard to believe considering how hard it is for us to just lay around and stare at water.  This year we chose to go to Panama City, Florida where most Georgians go because it is close and cheap...Red Neck cheap. We did prep for this trip, tanned a little so we didn't burn when our skin saw the sun, we bought a cooler and we bought a beach umbrella. We feel like we are official beach goers now.  We didn't have great weather all the time, but for one day there was nothing but sun and that made our trip.  We scooped out places to eat from my pilots who lived there and we ended up at this really beautiful restaurant on the bay.

Boondocks. The restaurant even has a Red Neck name!

View outside our table

A Week of Incredible Visiting

Izzy  the fish

This weekend I had an extravaganza of travel and family.  I started my Thursday trying to get to St. George for my best friend Jenn's wedding.  I was able to spend some time with my sister and her girls in Los Palmas.  It is a condo complex that Anjie, my sister, and I used to go when we were little. It was great because we swam  and snuggled in bed.  Little girls are the best to giggle and snuggle with. My nieces are especially funny when you bring out the camera.  I couldn't show all of the funny pictures because there are too many to pick from.

Snuggle Bunny time

 After going to the wedding, I traveled up north on my way home for a family reunion.  I don't really do reunions and the moment you call it a reunion I have no interest in going.  I can't help it I always associate seeing my cousins as low key family afternoons or celebrating family achievements.  I don't know why the reunion makes it

Most all of the cousins that came and yes my brothers are the only boys in the family.

Rinehart's Kids

 Hanging out talking. The best part of a "reunion" for me! I got a royal sunburn even though it looked shady.

Hmm My Favorite!

 When I was going home (at least to a stop on the way home),  my dad and love green apples (totally not ripe, but good).  We used to eat them all the time when I was little from the neighbor's tree.  Unfortunately the tree was chopped down, but my dad found another tree.  I was totally excited I made him turn the car around so I could get some.

I went to Baltimore on my way home because it is easier to get from Salt Lake City to Baltimore than to Atlanta.  It was a great opportunity to see her little boy, Tate, before he was no longer little.  He was good boy and I was able to walk him with his papoose and Jody kept saying it was a Bjorn wrap, but I insisted it was a papoose and I had the baby so I got to call it what I want (mostly I just wanted call it that because I don't know the new fangled words that are associated with children). We had Frito Pie while at Jody's house. I knew that Daniel would love it so I came home and made it from him.