New York, New York!

New York, New York...how I love it! I had a great time with Elyse this past weekend. It was great to see where she lives and work.

I flew in Thur. evening and Elyse met me on the bus going into Manhattan. She took me to her old apartment on the East Side, so I could meet her friend Candice. They have a balcony that I could spend all day on.

Then, Elyse treated me to dinner at Sala Thai, one of her favorite Thai Restaurants. I ordered Drunkin' Noddles. It was yummy and spicy!

Finally, we caught the bus to the Upper West Side. Elyse's new apt. is on the corner on Columbus and W 90 st. Way nice...on the 15th floor and a corner apt. so windows with views! The whole side of one wall is a window and looks west to the Hudson River. I can see Jersey!

And Central Park is a only a block away, down a beautiful street filled with brownstone houses. We spent a lot of time in Central park. Friday morning we got up and went to the Good Morning America Concert. Third Eye Blind was performing. It was fun!

We went back that night for the NY Philharmonic Symphony Concert on the Great Lawn. You just take a blanket and some dinner and sit listening to beautiful music with a view of the city behind you. They were suppose to do fireworks, too, but it started raining.

Friday afternoon we went to the Hayden Planetarium and watched "Journey to the Stars" narrated by Whoopi Goldberg (whom we later saw while walking down Central Park West!) We went back after lunch and took a tour of the American Museum of Natural History. It was neat!

On Sat., Elyse had a Bridal Shower at a place on Park Ave., so I went to the Park and walked around the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir. I came out on 5th Ave. at the Museum Mile and just sat and people watched.

Where the double towers are is Elyse's street on the Upper West Side.

That evening, Elyse and I caught a cab and went down to Time Square to try to get lottery tickets to see "West Side Story"...We didn't get tickets, so we went wandering down Restaurant Row (46th St.) where they were filming a movie (Elyse had my camera and she only got a picture of the old taxi cab, but I saw the actors, which was exciting!).

We went over to the Hudson River and then went up to the High Line. There are some old train tracks that run up between all the warehouses and someone came in and built a park. If you look, you'll see the tracks in between the flowers. Elyse treated me to Gelato, an Italian variant of ice cream. Finally, we went home and order Margarita Pizza :-)

Me on the Hudson River (Behind me, New York is on the left and New Jersey is on the right).

View of the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building from the High Line

We went to church Sunday afternoon. Elyse's new ward meets in the same building as the Temple which is straight down Columbus, across from the Lincoln Center. Way cool! After Church, Elyse took Armineh and I to her work. She works on the East Side, off of York St.

To get to the airport, you catch the M60 on 125th Street, right across from the famed Apollo Theater!

Harry Potter

I went to the midnight showing of "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" last night, with Cheryl, Anna, and Mary. It was good (way better than the last one!)

Between the music and watching Draco, I was in heaven...When Tom Felton stepped onto the screen, I literally gasped. I've never really cared for Felton but, he's grown in the last two years (Everyone is so tall-Daniel Radcliffe is now officially the shortest one) and he looked sleek and sharp all dressed in black. He did an amazing job portraying Draco Malfroy as a tortured soul in this movie.

The movie was 2 and 1/2 hours long and I didn't get out until 3 am, but again it seemed too short. I was, however happy to see Ron in so many scenes.

Now begins the waiting for 7...

FYI: I'm off to the Big Apple tomorrow to visit Elyse (yeah!) and I'll try to take lots of pictures to post.

Lonnie :-)

One long sentence...

This past week was crazy! Here's a summary in one long run on sentence... :-)

First, my car wouldn't start (I had to get a new battery), my toilet exploded (the valve in the tank broke), I got carded when trying to buy a ticket to see the midnight showing of "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" (apparently all movies after 9:15 pm are considered "R" and the guy at the ticket booth thought I was 17 instead of 27... I should be flattered that he thought I was 10 years younger!), I bought a plane ticket to New York to visit Elyse, and finally, I got up at 4 in the morning on Sat. to drive to Baton Rouge and do a Temple Session (it was awesome!).

Adios!

Quick Note

I just had a few minutes and thought I'd post something. Elyse spent the week in Greece and Turkey and flew back to the States the same time my parents were flying off to Alaska! I want to travel...oh, wait, in order to do that I would have to have money and time off, which I have neither!:-)

I taught Temple Prep classes every evening last week, except Tues. (and that's only because I went Visiting Teaching:-) Saturday, I had a birthday party, a graduation party, and a Temple Prep class to go to. In between all that I somehow managed to go shopping for presents, get my laundry done and my apartment cleaned! By the way it was 100 degrees all week and to demonstrate how hot that is, I had a ball in my car for a half and hour and it got so hot it popped!


On Sunday, I was released as the Primary Secretary, however, I ended up filling in in Nursery, so I didn't get a chance to go to Sunday School or RS...maybe next week :-) After church I went with Chelsie and we visited the kids that are suppose to be in my Seminary Class. There are 18 kids on the roll and I wanted to introduce myself and invite them to Seminary in the Fall.

My break's over, so I should run, but I hope everyone is doing well!
Lonnie

1 Year Anniversary at Iberia Parish Library!

I can't believe it's been a year, since I started working down here...what an amazing year!

June Bug

June is rushing by! The crape myrtles are in bloom and the heat wave has begun!

With the 1st of June came the start of Huricane Season and the Start of our Summer Workshops. We had our 2009 Summer Kickoff at the library. This year's theme is "Once Upon a Time" and kids were encouraged to come dressed up as their favorite fairy tale character. We had craft and game stations set up around the library (pin the tail on the dragon, make crowns and wands, ring toss on the gingerbread men, etc.) and they could come and sign up for the Summer Reading Program. It was so fun! Sarah transformed the Children's Room into a Gingerbread House and the picture is of me standing by the bean stalk (you can see the gaint's foot above me). We also had the Bookmark Awards Cermony. My favorite was created by a 6th grader. It has a knight and a dragon and the knight says, "Thou Dragon, I have come to slay thee!" and the dragon replies, "Can it wait until I finish this book?" and he's reading a book entitled How to Breathe Fire For Dummies. Isn't that ingenius!

There are different workshops every day and musical and comedy acts visiting (Roger Day, whom the kids love, Healing Force, etc.).

So, that's work...Church has been just as busy...

A couple of weeks ago, we had a "Soup"er Sister Party at Church and I made homemade chili. I thought it turned out pretty well. We also had our first LDS Book Club. We read and discussed Suzanne Collin's The Hunger Games. I'm hosting June's, and picked one of Dee Henderson's stand alone books, Before I Wake (not my favorite, but it's what I could get).

The first Saturday of the month, I went to a Seminary Training Meeting (They have one every month). It was at the Baton Rouge Institute on the LSU Campus. I was hoping to be able to go to the temple while over there, but the training was from 9 to 3 pm and the last session ends at 3pm. I got another calling in the Branch- I was called to be the Temp Prep Teacher. We have a couple going through the temple next month and it's exciting.

Last Saturday, I went back to Baton Rouge and went to the Temple. It is so beautiful. I stayed and went to the Adult Session of Stake Conference and then me and 2 other ladies in the Branch got a hotel room for the night. Sunday morning I woke up to them sing Happy Birthday to me and presented me with a chocolate cupcake and a candle. It was fun! We went to the General Session of Stake Conference and they reorganized the Stake Presidency.

Oh, May!

I know, it's been a month since I've posted...I flew to Utah the first week on May and went to the Logan Temple to receive my own Endowment. It was amazing!













Between visiting with family and friends, going to lunch and dinner, I went back to do Initiatories and a session with Mom, as well as a session with Grandma at the Ogden Temple.

While I was there, Mom and Dad put their house up for sell. I can't believe they're been there for 9 years!

I also met M's new dog, Rusty, who is a red blood hound and adorable!

I took Tedi to get her hair cut and then got to see where both M and Tedi work

My wonderful parents

Me and My Papa

The rest of the month I've been busy with work, going back and forth to the dentist with a tooth filling problem, and fighting the stomach flu. Then, yesterday, our Branch Presidency was release and Mike, Tina's husband, was called as the new Branch President. To top it all off, the Stake called me to be the new Seminary Teacher!