Claire's Bubbles Dress

Claire calls anything with dots, "bubbles." Thus, she wore a bubble dress to church today. This is Claire striking a model pose by her play kitchen set.

Claire smiling.

Suzy at 30 weeks and one day.

Advice Needed

My mom is coming in two weeks and we're planning to go shopping for a lot of baby stuff. Since I'm new at this whole thing and I have many friends and family who are parents, I'm looking for your advice on baby products. I know all the obvious things I will need, but I would like to know what the most surprising thing is that you couldn't live without. And also, something you thought you would used a lot, and haven't used at all.

Any other advice you have on baby products is welcome. Also, if you have any books on babies that you really like, I'd love to know that too.

As far as life goes, things are going well. Work is going along fine and its good to be productive and earning money. I have been tired, but generally feeling really good. I'm wearing only maternity pants now, but I can still wear most of my normal shirts, although that will end soon I'm sure.

Yesterday we had an enrichment activity at church, which I'm now in charge of. We had a breakfast and a speaker who spoke about depression. The last week was stressful as I was trying to get all the loose ends taken care of. I'm glad it went fairly well and its over!

Time is flying by...My mom is coming in two weeks, and then it will be only a few weeks until Thanksgiving, and then it will be Christmas time which always flies by, and then little baby girl will be coming in only a month or so. We're really enjoying fall here and enjoying all the beauty around us.

General Conference

First I will start with an updated picture of Suzy. This one is Suzy at 23 weeks.

Between General Conference sessions on Saturday afternoon we ventured down a trail near our home, aptly named KC Trail. We walked through the woods, which were very pretty. Parts of the path were quite swampy so the trail had been raised on these wood platforms, some of which were pretty wobbly. This is my favorite picture from that day.

The trail led us across the train tracks near our house.

Me at the KC Trail sign...

After dropping Suzy off at work one day, I was killing time until an appointment I had and was driving around out in the sticks, when I came across this cool bridge. I thought it was a good picture so I decided to post it too.

This past weekend was perfect. The weather was bright sunny and relatively warm (mid 70s) and to top that off it was the official peak time for the fall foliage. Inspired by Elder Perry's talk at General Conference (Saturday Morning for those of you who missed it, read or listen to it here) we decided to go to Walden Pond and walk around Thoreau's old stomping grounds. It is certainly a nice peaceful place (when all the people aren't around, it was packed), but it was a beautiful location, especially with the leaves turning. These picks are us at Walden Pond.

Site of Thoreau's small cabin.

Tradition has it that fans of Thoreau add their own rock to this pile when they visit the site (next to his cabin). This is me tossing my small pebble onto the pile (this one was for Ms. Pera).

Sunday after Church, Suzy and I decided to take a nice Sunday drive through the woods to see more fantastic tree colors. We stopped along the Deerfield River for these.

I have other pictures of the fall here in Western Mass on Flickr, click here to see them.

No more seminary

Yesterday was my last time teaching seminary. :( I have been teaching home study seminary for one girl in our ward (originally it was two but one only came twice). I'm pretty sure if it had been early morning, I wouldn't be so enthusiastic with my sentiments, but being home study, she read on her own each day and then we met once a week to have a lesson.

This year the course of study was Old Testament. I was really unhappy when I found that out originally, but I'm really grateful for the chance I had to read and study it since I wouldn't have done it on my own. Mae, the girl I taught, is really amazing. She is a convert to the church as is most of her family. Her testimony is so sweet and pure and it has been a joy to be around her. She always had a good answer for everything and it was evident that she thinks about things. Its very hard to be a member out here when you are so isolated. She is the only member in her high school. I'm pretty sure I learned a lot more than she did. Although the calling intimidated me a lot initially, I'm so grateful for the time I got to spend with Mae and studying the OT.

It's March!

We were excited that it was already March, with hopes that soon the crazy New England winter would soon be over. The sun even teased us on Saturday with sunshine and warmth. But we were sad to learn at Church on Sunday that March is perhaps the snowiest/wettest month of the year, and with that information our hopes came back down to earth. 

This week has been good. Yesterday I had an interview for a summer internship with the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, in Sarasota, Florida. The interview went really well, and the internship is near the top of our list. First of which because the internship is paid, but mostly because it is in Sarasota! And that sounds perfectly wonderful right now. 

In other good news...I have been working with a team in a business plan competition, well two actually, one at MIT and the other based in Boston. My Bishop is a chemical engineering professor here at UMass, and has come up with some new clean energy technology. So one of the 2nd year students, one of my Bishop's PhD students and I have put together a business plan based on the technology and entered it into these two clean energy business competitions. We found out yesterday that we made the semi-finals in one, and we will find out tomorrow about the other one. I am pretty excited about the competition, it has been really interesting as I have worked on it, and we like our chances to win the whole thing.

Suzy is doing well. She is pretty busy working, and in her callings in the Relief Society and finding time for Seminary, too. Unfortunately, we have no pictures because we have been stuck inside all the time because of the bad weather. So someday we will venture outside and do something and take pictures so that our posts will be more interesting.

Check this out...

Maybe a lot of you have already seen this, but if not you should check it out. Its Glenn Becks closing thoughts from his show where he talks about President Hinckley. Its good to see people who are not afraid to talk about what they believe.

http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/200/5127/

Busy Schedules

As I lay in bed last night, I began doing a few calculations in my head regarding my time, or lack thereof. Now life in general almost always seems busy, but since school has started things seem to have gotten worse, I feel like there is no time left for anything.

So as I lay in bed I did these quick calculations:

# of hours Monday thru Friday = 120

# of hours consumed by my classes = 20 hours a week (19 credit hours!)

# of hours supposed to be consumed by homework = 20 hours a week

# of hours for sleep (I really like 8 hours) = 40 hours a week

# of hours for my assistantship = 10 hours a week

# of hours spent on the bus or driving to work = 5-6 hours

# of hours for my internship at Historic Deerfield = 8 hours a week

When you add all those together I am left with about 15 or so hours a week for eating, exercising, scripture study, getting ready for work and for bed, and spending time with my wife. After doing these calculations I realized that the reason I felt like I had no time was because I really have no time. While I did not take the weekend into consideration, I did not count any Church activities, callings or home-teaching either.

So as for this week, surprise... we have been busy. On Monday we had the missionaries over for dinner. It is such a nice treat to have them over and the Spirit they bring, I missed that while living in Utah. On Tuesday we got to go vote in the Massachusetts primary, and it was fun because we know that our votes counted and made a difference. I went to the statewide breakdown for the primary and because we live in such a small town we could actually see that our votes where important.

We were both excited about the new addition to the First Presidency, President Uchtdorf will do wonderful things for the Church, as will President Monson.

Our Catch-Up Post

Today we both mourn the loss of our beloved Prophet, President Hinckley, but we also rejoice in his reunion in heaven with his wife.

We have been really bad at posting this month so this post is an attempt to catch up on what we have missed.

Between Christmas and New Years we drove down to New York and spent three days in the city. It was a blast. We walked so much our feet ached, but it was worth it for all the things we did and saw. Below are some pictures of our trip. I do have to mention that we ate the best pulled pork sandwiches ever at a BBQ restaurant near Times Square. It was so good, the meat was so flavorful, and the BBQ sauce was heavenly. That meal alone made the trip worth it.

January has been crazy. The weather cannot make up its mind, one week the temperatures were in the 60s and all the snow melted then the next week we got 12 inches dumped on us in 12 hours and temperatures dropped to daytime highs in the low teens.

Suzy has been busy with work, and I have been busy with my internship, a consulting project with some classmates and applying for summer internships. I think that pretty much sums up our month of January. School starts again for me tomorrow, I look forward to it with trepidation as a 19 credit semester awaits me. Needless to say I will be busy.

So here are highlights of our NYC trip.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Wonderful Thanksgiving Week

I am sitting here typing this wishing that this week could continue a few more days. But, alas, I must return to school tomorrow.

We had a great Thanksgiving holiday. First I would like to announce that we have received our first snow of the season on Tuesday. It was an interesting day. The night before I checked the forecast and it said nothing of any expected snow. I woke up early at 5:30 am to study for a mid-term, and no snow. But by the time I left the apartment at 8:45 am there was a solid 2 inches of snow on the ground and more was coming every minute. I enjoyed the snowing part, I think watching it snow is very calming, something I definitely needed before the test.Suzy and I prepared a very nice Thanksgiving Day spread, much more than two people can eat. Before we got started on the big feasting I made some cinnamon rolls, which were oh so very good (quite possibly the best food ever). Since neither of us is a huge fan of turkey and we surely did not want to be eating turkey for the next week, we made a delicious spiral cut ham, which we are still enjoying. For desert Suzy made creme brulee, which was quite good. She did a great job making in for the first time.Oh, how I love cinnamon rolls. Seeing this picture makes me hungry for more...

On Friday, we braved the shopping scene, traveling over the Berkshire Mountains to a factory outlet mall. We found some good deals on stuff for our Christmas presents for each other. It was a fun day but quite cold. Then Friday nigh I sat on the couch with the grainy video on my laptop watching BYU beat #6 ranked Louisville in basketball (while simultaneously keeping track of the score of the Jazz game online), both of my teams won and I was very happy and thought it a good omen for the rest of the weekend.

Yesterday, we had our Elder's Quorum Turkey Bowl football game that all of six people showed up for. We persevered through temperatures in the low 30's and played for about 90 minutes. It was good to actually do some exercising that was actually fun and enjoyable for a change. Then, Suzy got to stay home and watch most of the BYU-Utah game while I went and helped a family in our ward move in. Luckily I made it back for the last half of the 4th quarter, the only really exciting part of the game. I must admit that after Utah scored to go up by one and BYU was facing 4th and 18, I did not think that they could pull it off again. But the good karma that I gained by sacrificing watching the game to give service came through, BYU scored and won the game. I am sure that I was very close to having a very serious medical condition because of the stress of those last few minutes. After that game I decided I would not, could not, watch the whole of the UNC-BYU basketball game that night, so I only watched the first half.

When I woke up this morning my body definitely felt every single box that I moved on Saturday, and I still cannot move with out aching. I really hurt in places I did not know I had muscles. This morning I spoke in Sacrament meeting with the rest of the Elder's Quorum Presidency. I spoke about the importance of Home Teaching, so I guess now I have to go do mine.

Suzy and I both hope that all y'all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.

While having Thanksgiving by ourselves was nice in that we got to create some of our own traditions, but we both missed our families and friends and realized how grateful we are for them. And how grateful we are for a loving Father in Heaven who is watching out for us here in Sunderland.

Boston Temple

A few weeks ago we drove the two hours to the Boston Temple. After getting lost a few times, we finally found it. It's beautiful and we're glad to have one so close.

The picture is a little funny. Casey took the picture himself and he always does a funny face when he does that. Also, the sun was very bright.

Speaking

As we arrived and began unpacking our things here in Sunderland, Suzy and I made predictions on when we would get callings and when we would have to speak. I am pleased to announce that, as of today our second Sunday, we still have no callings, which we were sure we would have by now. I think that it was because the bishop has been out of town.

However, we received the dreaded call Wednesday evening asking us to speak today. That was much quicker than we anticipated. Our assigned topic was, "Share your favorite scripture and a personal experience, and you are the only two speakers." Luckily, they called a new member of the bishopric and he and his wife bore their testimonies and took up quite a bit of time. Our talks went well, and they are over with, I think we are safe for the next about 4-6 months. It was a balancing act to prepare a good talk but not too good, we don't want to be speaking too often, which is a definite danger in our ward.

This last week has been a busy and fun one. We had intended to go to Six Flags down in Springfield, but the weather was unseasonably cool, which was a nice break from the hot humid weather when we arrived, I enjoyed it much more than Suzy did. We traveled out to Boston to go to the temple, which is a very nice one; it just explodes at you on the freeway, though not quite like San Diego or DC do. After the temple we went to Minute Man National Park, where the battles of Lexington and Concord were fought, the first blood of the revolutionary war. That was very interesting, we learned things about those first battles that they did not teach in school.

The ward Relief Society had a retreat to Camp Joseph in Sharon, Vermont (the birthplace of Joseph Smith, about 90 miles north of us). She had a wonderful time. On Friday, the priesthood holder that they had going with them had to cancel due to illness, so they asked me to go as the priesthood holder. I enjoyed it too. It is a beautiful part of Vermont, very mountainy compared to here. It was a relaxing weekend, except for the sleeping part. We had small cabins that fit two sets of bunk beds, which were short and not so comfortable. Overall, we had a good time and enjoyed the Visitors Center at the birthplace; it was a nice conclusion to our little Church history tour.

This next week will be busy as we prepare for school and get the rest of our to-do items off the list.

We cannot find the camera right now, but when we do a few pictures will be posted.

Nearly Done Driving

These last 400 miles were some of the hardest, our bodies yearned to be done, but we had to press forward and push through the wall to make our destination.

After the 2600+ miles and 10 states that we have driven through, I would have to say that New York has the cleanest, smoothest and best patroled roads of them all. Of course they had better for the nearly $50 we paid in tolls driving through it. I cannot imagine how much money they rake in daily just from the semi-trucks alone. To top it off I am sure that their other taxes are just as high, gas there is the most expensive we saw on the trip, from $2.79ish in Pennsylvannia to $3.05ish once you cross the border. Wow.

Today was a fun day the driving notwithstanding. We stopped into Palmyra and saw the sites. I must say that the Hill Cumorah is very very steep, think the steepest part of the trail to Timp Caves, it is a good thing that it is not quite so high, and mst people cheat and drive to the top anyway (at least those not driving a huge moving truck and towing a car). The area is very beautiful full of greenery and blue skys. The weather was quite perfect, not too hot or too humid.

We then headed over to the Smith Family homestead and saw the frame and log homes of the Smith's. Very cool. And we had a very nice sister missionary take us around, it was her 23rd birthday. She was one of the best we have encountered on all our Mormon history stops. We got to wander out the Sacred Grove on our own. It is a peaceful, calming, beautiful place. I could of sat there all day. We enjoyed the calm of the grove in contrast with the stress of driving the truck amid semis wind and cars.

We then headed over to the E.B. Grandin Print shop where the BoM was first printed. One cannot appreciate the sacrifice and the expense that Martin Harris made to finance the BoM until you see the work that went into printing each copy. Wow is it hard, labor intensive work. It is no wonder that a copy sold for $1.25 (two full days wages at the time). The printing of 5,000 copies of one book with that process was crazy, but the right people were there at that right time. It took nearly 2 years to fulfill the order for 5,000 copies. We ate lunch at a nice little cafe that overlooked the Erie Canal, it was very nice.

We finally made it and are in Holyoke tonight and will finish the last few miles in the morning and begin the next painful process moving in tomorrow, during which we are forcasted to suffer through thunderstorms, so pray for us. :)

Picture one is the Sacred Grove and the second is in the upstairs of the log home where the angel Moroni appeared to Joseph to tell him about the Book of Mormon. Enjoy the pictures.

Kirtland to Niagara

Today was a nice easy 200 miles.

We got to sleep in until a little after 8 as we knew that today would be a short day of driving. As we wandered over to our complimentary breakfast we saw a missionary and his parents eating. They were from Spain if I heard correctly and they were touring the Church history sites before they went back to Spain. I think that the hotel we were staying in was probably a popular one with LDS peoples since it is so close to the Kirtland sites.

We drove down the road a mere mile and were at the Church's visitors center were we toured the Newel K Whitney home and store on a tour with a family of 10 and the sister missionary. It was a nice tour, but took a bit longer than we thought that it would because of the kids.

We then headed up to the Temple site and just walked around the grounds, the Community of Christ, which runs the temple site, wants $2 for the tour and we were needing to get on the road.

It took us a little over 3 hours to make the drive up here to Buffalo, it was slow at times with construction but otherwise uneventful. We got here and were able to get off of the freeway just as traffic was really getting bad.

We checked into the hotel and headed back out to see Niagara Falls, which we were very excited about. With only moderate resistence from traffic we arrived in Niagara Falls, New York, and as we crossed one of the bridges we could already see the mist rising up from the Falls.

Deciding to go on the Maid of the Mist boat tour we headed down to the dock were we received out blue poncho and boarded the boat. In my experience ponchos are less than effective so I wondered how much good it would do as we neared the great falls especially with the wind. But somehow they held up much better than I thought and kept us dry with the exception of the exposed legs.

Niagara Falls is quite the impressive site. Amazing, beautiful, powerful, awe inspiring, the list could go on and on. I guess that now that I have been there I can check another thing off my list of things to do before I die. We are very happy with the choice to go on the boat tour, it was spectacular and you get to see an amazing up close view and experience with both sections of the Falls. I took video so that the sounds and wind could be fully appreciated, but for now I do not know how to post that to the site. I will make attempts at learning how, and if I fail I will email the video to all who would like me to do so. I hope that you can enjoy the pictures though they fail to capture the beauty and wonder of the place.