Day in the Swamp

It's only taken me two years, but last Saturday, I finally went into the swamp! Grandpa Bill and I went out on the Atchafalaya Basin in his boat. We launched at Bayou Benoit and went up the G-A Cut, passed house boats and fishermen.

It was a gorgeous day and we saw a lot of snowy egrets.

...and blue dragonflies.

We then turned into Buffalo Cove Canal. The cove is a beautiful spot with cypress trees and lily pads (?) so thick, you couldn't get through them. It was neat to see the guys with their crawfish cages. (Too bad I didn't get any pictures of those!)

On our way back down the G-A Cut we found a narrow water way, that led back to a Lake (I can't remember the name of it). The water looked almost blue.

Bill pulled into an inlet to show me an old oil drill and we ran into an alligator. We spent a few minutes following it, so I could get a picture.

It was fun! (Racing dowing the bayou, I felt like I was flying :-)

Birthday Fun!

I had the best Birthday! Stephanie and Rosie brought me balloons at work.

Then, Barbara picked my up and took me to lunch. We feasted on all-you-can-eat pizza at Gatti's. That afternoon, we had the Kumbuka African Drum and Dance Collective come and do a program at the library. It was fun...I love the drums! After work, I went to Catherine's for FHE and Barbara showed up with a gigantic cookie she had made and they sang "Happy Birthday" :-) Barbara, you are a sweetheart!

When I got home, I had a package from Elyse. She had sent me a snow globe from Barcelona and these beautiful carved wood bookends (they were literally books with elephants carved out of them :-) from Kenya.

Then, my mom called and gave me the good news that they got an offer on their house (it's been up for sell for a year now!). Finally, Elyse called and informed me that she's serving on a jury for the New York Supreme Court. How exciting!

Fun in the Sun (and in the Rain)!

I can't get any of my pictures to load on Facebook, so I just wanted to post some pictures from Seminary Graduation. Marteena, Andrew, and Tara all completed the year. I'm so proud of them. We had fun, and, as you can tell, Andrew likes to show off!

Since Seminary's ended I have just been relaxing. I've read about a book a day :-) Right now, I finishing up the Percy's Jackson series so I can read Rick Riordan's new book. I've been to the movies (Anyone see "How to Train Your Dragon"? I loved it!) One night I took my friends, Stephanie and Tina, out for dinner. We went to Tokyo Live, where they have a Hibachi Grill. It was so fun!
We had our annual Summer Pig Out with all the staff at the library. This is Jessica (one of our Summer Workshop workers). The second picture is with Denise.

We also had our Summer "Splish, Splash, Kickoff Bash" at the library for the Summer Reading Program. This year's theme is "Make a Splash, Read!" We had carnival games and I helped the kids make flying fish. It was fun!

Don't Ashley and I made good looking pirates?!

Winding Down Down South

I can’t believe it’s already May! This year is just flying by. You may have guessed how busy I am based on my lack of communication since New Year's. I have a few minutes, so I thought I’d give you the highlights of the last few months.

First, I started a Family Home Evening Group with the single sisters in my branch. We get together every Monday and rotate who hosts each week. It’s been a great way to get to know each other better and to learn the gospel together.

I also started attending Institute class. There’s one that meets in Lafayette at the Church on Tuesday nights. I discovered there’s a whole bunch of YSA, just not in New Iberia! I have been blessed by the insights from our teacher, Br. Nelson (which have helped me in teaching Seminary) and in socializing with other people that share the same standards as me.

In addition, I took the Missionary Challenge, which is to have someone taught the Missionary Discussions in our home this year. I met a lady named Catherine, that had some questions about the church, and I invited her and her boyfriend over for dinner and a discussion with the Elders. The first one went so well, that we made it a weekly occurrence. So, for the past few months, I have had everyone over on Saturday nights for “Dinner and a Discussion.”

My friend Barbara (and “Temple Partner”) and I, are trying to get a regular group of temple goers with us each month and we had a delightful time with my friend Linda and her mom, Doris, this last month. We made a day of it in Baton Rouge, by going shopping, doing a session, going to lunch at Chili’s, and then for ice cream at Baskin Robins. Then, they dropped me off at the Stake Center, where I met up with my Seminary girls, Tara and Marteena, and their mom, Chelsie, and we attended the Seminary Bowl. It was a Muti-stake event with all the seminary kids from Baton Rouge Stake and Denham Springs Stake. I've never done anything like that before and it was so fun! They just had different games and competitions (like Hollywood Squares, Pyramid, Jeopardy, ect.) but all based and the Book of Mormon and the Scripture Mastery. Then, they fed us pizza and had a dance. Tara ended up meeting a guy and we met up with them at Cold Stone for ice cream afterwards (Ice cream twice in one day!)

It is just amazing all of the opportunities I have had to feel the Spirit.

On the home front, my Dad came down for a weekend in March to visit. I love when he’s around…I discovered some treasures in my own backyard! We watched the sun set over Vermilion Bay, canoed down the Bayou, chased alligators in the Jungle Gardens, and took a stroll down historic Main Street. It was a nice relaxing weekend for me. Elyse took 2 months off of work and went and volunteered at a hospital in Kenya for 6 weeks and the spent two weeks exploring Barcelona. She was over there when the volcano erupted and everyone was trying to get out of Europe through Spain. Crazy…(all of these natural disaster back to back have been crazy) And, can you believe it, my baby sister is graduating from High School this month…Yeah!

Finally, my old college roommate had a baby boy last month. They named him Spencer David Bingham. Congratulations Sarah and Cory!

Stay tuned for more pics...

A New Year, A New Decade...

Happy New Year everyone! I took a week and a half off and went to Utah for the holidays. I was suppose to fly out Christmas Eve morning, but was delayed by tornadoes that hit Louisiana (one library director's house was completely destoryed, a church as leveled to the foundation, and I was sitting in the airport watching the rain fall sideways!). I missed my connected flight in Houston and had to find another flight to Salt Lake. I finally got to Utah late, but safe and sound. Elyse had flown in from New York a couple of hours earliear. It was nice. My whole family was together for the first time in a year and a half. We celebrated M's 20th Birthday that night with dinner and presents.

Christmas day was clear and cold. Grandma and Grandpa stopped by for a visit. We ate junk food and watched new videos. We had a Berrett Christmas Party down in Salt Lake. I got to see Lindzey's son, and Elyse, Mom, Dad and I went to see "Planet 51" It was cute!

My parents Ward had a Ski Night up at Beaver Mountain, so we all bundled up and headed up the canyon. I skiied with Dad...It was a blast! (I've never been skiing before...) Another night, we got in the hot tub and relaxed.

New Year's Eve, we all went out to dinner at Ruby Tuesdays :-) I got pink eye and my eyes were killing me. I finally went to bed at 11 pm, so I didn't get to ring in the New Year, but that's okay.

I got back to LA Sat. night. Mike blessed MaKayla in Church on Sun. And Monday, it was back to Seminary and Work. At work, I'm literally swimming in books that have been piling up on my desk since last week. I'm slowly, but surely, digging my way to my desk. :-)

Happy December!

December is flying by and what a crazy month it's been! I came back from Utah to a cold wet Louisiana. It rained for 14 days straight. We had a major flood (worse then when we had the hurricanes last year!) I woke up one morning and the road and field across from my apartment had disappeared and was replaced by a lake. Water got in my car, and it started smelling pretty bad (because I didn't have a sunny day to dry it out :-). Here's a picture of the Bayou. It had risen all the way up to the top of the fence.

For our book club, we read The Christmas Shoes and then went to Barbara's to watch the movie. I cried, of course! The next week was our Relief Society Christmas Party, as well as our Branch Christmas Party. Both were fun. I decorated a table for the RS Party and we did a skit called "The Littlest Elf" I was laughing so hard, my sides hurt! Included in the picture is Stephanie, who was a Babbling Brook, Mary, who was Mrs. Claus, and me, who was a Nodding Flower (yes, that's a flower on my head!)

Morgan, Mary and I.My friend Tina, had her baby on Wed, Dec. 9th. Makayla is a beautiful, healthy, 7 lb. girl...

I was babysitting the 3 Harvey girls when we had the Branch Party and they were excited to see Santa (though Becca refused to sit on his lap!). Here's a picture of Angelle and Emma Claire with Santa.

We had our Annual Staff Christmas Pig Out and I introduced my co-workers to jello salad (the green one with marshmallows). Some weren't impressed and others loved it. And Sarah made this divine stuff called Le Corn (kind of like a big hush puppy with corn, onions, and green chillies). Here's me posing with the chef herself!

One Sat. we had a Baptism in our Branch. Marcus' daughter Myracle, decided to be baptized. We were all so excited for her. Congratulations, Myracle!

My apartment complex also had a Christmas Party, but we ended up in the dark, because the power went out for 2 hours that night! (...I told you it's been a crazy month! :-)

Finally, we finished up Seminary for the year! Yeah, 2 weeks off...and, I'm off the Utah tomorrow.

Life is Wonderful!

I had such a good week last week. I got to spend time visiting with friends. On Wed. I met my friend, Morgan, for lunch at Pizza Hut. It was nice to just sit and visit (and we both love pizza!).

Then, Thurs. night, I got tickets for my friends and I to see the special showing of Twilight and then the midnight showing of New Moon. It was a blast! New Moon was my favorite book in the series and I've always loved Jacob, so I was in heaven. And I definitely like Taylor, the the guy that plays Jacob. He looks just like I imagined him.

Denise and Stephanie goofing off at the movies

Waiting for New Moon to Start!

Mary and Sarah waiting for Twilight to start

Everyone repeat after me: "I love Jacob."

On Sat. I spent the day in Baton Rouge with Barbara. We did a temple session and then we went to lunch at Jason's Deli. Has anyone eaten there? It was so yummy! Then, since neither of us had to rush home to work on lessons (Barbara's a school teacher and they have this whole week off and I don't have Seminary, since the kids don't have school) we stayed and went shopping. It was a nice, relaxing day.

Couple more days and I'm flying to Utah...I can't wait to see everyone!