Visiting Sister Sarah

As mentioned in a previous post, while we were in UT we made a fun little trip to visit with Sister Sarah.

It was SO wonderful to see her. She's looking good.
Sarah took us on a tour. We even got to go on top of the conference center.



I personally don't know if I would have handled having my family visit me while on my mission, very distracting, but she seems to have handled it well and part of that may have to do with where she is and the fact that the possibility is greater of her seeing family then it ever was for me.

June 29th - Phantom of the Opera

AMAZING!!!

Just so cool! Giddy would be a good way to describe me. The anticipation was immense!

We found a nice Italian place near the Majestic Theatre for dinner before the show. It was a lovely atmosphere.

After dinner we walked towards the theater, taking our time and shopping along the way. We lined up for the show and waited. I kept feeling surges of giddiness come over me. Despite the long line once they opened the doors it didn't take us long to get inside. Grandma and Laura were taken to lower seats since they didn't have an elevator up to our seats. I personally loved our seats. The first row on the balcony...lots of leg room (a definite plus for me)

The inside of the theatre was beautiful. As part of the show they had the buttress's covered at first. I didn't even realize until the pulled off the fabric when they raised the chandelier. BEAUTIFUL! We snuck some pictures (NOT during the show of course...PLEASE! We have much too much theatre edict to do that!)

We also may or may not have sent gloating texts to various family members and friends before they asked us to turn off our cell phones ;)

The show itself was amazing!...as stated before. So lovely! I forgot how much I love plays. Movies are great, but live theatre...no comparison. The atmosphere, the trill and emotion...it's just indescribable.

After the show Mel, Valory and I made our way home. Valory made a great find! Several street vendors were set up outside the theatres waiting for people to come out. Valory found an amazingly fun purse.

Overall is was a fantastic, amazing, thrilling, fabulous day!

June 29th - Ellis & Liberty Island

This is the second time I visit Ellis and Liberty Island.


I LOVE it!


It's an amazing place to be for those who love history.


In random order. Some of my favorite pictures.


Random find of an amazing staircase. I actually really like the architecture of the old buildings.




The sorting room - Again, love the architecture.

The view from the ferry.

SO much fun! I love boats/ships and being on the water.

As you can see it was an absolutely perfect day. I was worried about a long line, but we got there earily enough that we hardly had to wait at all...and got great seats on the ferry!



Lady Liberty -

We all aspire to be like her...

June 28th - Wandering Sunday

We spent essentially the entire day just wandering around.

We managed to find a church on Queens, not far from our hotel. Unfortunately for everyone else the service was in Spanish. Personally I enjoyed it a great deal.

After sacrament meeting we went back to the hotel and changed in to 'street' clothes and Laura, Hilda, Valory, Mel and I set out for some major wandering...from Downtown to Uptown...all over the place.

We visited the WTC site. Even almost 8 years later there isn't much to see. In some way I feel that says more then any memorial.

We stopped by Trinity Church and Wall Street

We then made our way Uptown. We went to Central Park and up 5th Avenue to the Guggenheim Museum and then down 5th Avenue to Tiffany's

Shhh...you're not supposed to take pictures in Tiffany's...I didn't know that when I took this one, but the security guard informed me...fortunately he didn't make me delete it.

We went to Juniors for dinner and bought a Cheesecake to take back to the hotel to share.

Look at those hamburgers...bigger then my face!

The Cheesecake was huge! Bigger then we anticipated, but amazingly good. Even Mel (who doesn't care much for Cheesecake) was convinced to try the cake top part.

It's all Melanie's Fault

We never watched much TV growing up. Movies, yes, but TV no. I basically kept that habit all through college and over the several years since I graduated. However, ever since Melanie moved in with me I've become addicted to a few shows and the most recent one is So You Think You Can Dance.

I've always enjoyed watching dancing. I would go to watch my sister Becky at her Ballroom dance classes at BYU and my roommate Valory at her international Folk dance classes. Heck I even took a Polynesian dance class at BYU and participated in two luaus there and danced for one of the opening celebrations for the 2002 Paralympics. HOWEVER I can't dance! I try...sometimes. This show inspires me...it makes me wish that I could dance and I find myself prancing (notice I did NOT say Dancing...) around the house more frequently and that my friends is all Melanie's fault :) (there are many things that are Melanie's fault, but we'll stick to this one in this post...now I know we could go into that whole discussion that Melanie isn't forcing me to do anything and I have my agency and all that, but for the sake of this post just pretend it's Melanie's fault and if you have a hard time with the word 'fault' go ahead and use 'influence'...it was all Melanie's influence)

So when you see me though the open blinds (because they always seem to be open...), making a fool of myself...shake your head and sigh and think, 'Poor Amy...it's all Melanie's fault.' and then I give you permission to laugh. Laughter is good for you and someone ought to benefit from my silliness :)

The Month of September

September was a crazy month...

I flew out to UT to on Sept 1st to help my sister Becky move into her new condo (YAY Becky!) It's a nice place. I like it a lot. She seems happy and excited about it.

That next day my dad called and told us that he was fired (officially, not just a notice like before) He was so sure that he was going to be reinstated since he was one of the senior programmers on the project with the most knowledge and experience, but honestly that's probably why he was fired. SO my dad packed up his stuff in California and drove to UT (He was coming to UT anyway, but was only planning on staying to help my mom pack up the Orem house, which they just sold, and for my nephew's baptism and then head back to CA) My dad only had 18 months until he could retire with the full benefits and all (another reason he was probably let go)

Anyway...my folks got to UT on Thursday night (Sept 3rd) By which point we had Becky basically moved in. We (my folks and I) spent all Friday packing up the Orem house and I went to pick Becky up from work and died...we still had more to do, but it was getting late...my folks stayed in Orem...

That next morning my dad called about 8 am to tell us that my Grandpa Durtschi had passed away earlier that morning. It was expected, he had been sick and in failing health for a while and all, but I don't know if that really makes it much better...I was doing okay until I had to talk to my coworkers to arrange for more time off to stay for the funeral.

We had the funeral service on Wednesday Sept 9th. It was a simple and beautiful service. Elisabeth was able to join us. Becky, Elisabeth and I sang and I spoke. I'm happy that my grandparents are together again. It must have been hard for my grandpa, staying behind while my grandma went on last December. I'll miss them both.

My nephew Jared was baptized on Saturday, Sept 5th. I can't believe he's already 8 years old! Time flies!

That Sunday, Sept 6th we made arrangements to see Sarah at Temple Square. She took us on a tour. It was SO much fun. I miss Sarah. She looks great and seems very happy.

I flew home Sept 10th. Before I left we finished packing up most of the Orem house expect for the last few things, such as the dolly, which my dad packed at the end and didn't secure well and it ended up falling on his head...he had to go to the emergency room and get 8 stitches. My poor daddy!

So I got back to work on Sept 11th and was told that they had chosen a new person to hirer and she would start Tuesday. Tuesday came...she started and we started training...training is interesting...fun and yet so time consuming. Needless to say it was an interesting 10 days. The newbie didn't quite work out and on Sept 24th my manager spoke to her and told her it wasn't working...it was hard for all parties involved.

My folks made a cross country trip, stopping at Grandma Maren's (Southern Utah), Aunt Anita's (Colorado Springs), Elisabeth's (Temple TX) along the way.

As I said, September was a crazy month...I'm so glad it's Oct :)

With all the heartaches and struggles my parents are going through they seem to be taking it really well. It's an inspiration to me. I know they have prayed and cried, but they haven't given up and that's a big deal.