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!

Life...

Hello my friends, I hope life is treating you all well. It's been a couple of weeks since I posted...eventful weeks for me, my family, and my friends.

First, I found out Sarah, my roommate from Utah State, is having a baby! She found out this week she's having a boy, Yeah :-) Congrats, Sarah!

Second, Ticia, my roommate from BYU-Idaho, got engaged to Rob...Congratulations to both of you!

Other, not so great news...Nicole broke up with her fiancee, M broke up with his girlfriend, and I just found out this morning that my friend Mary's, boyfriend died yesterday. Grant's been battling leukemia, and hasn't been doing well the past month. He's only 20, so young...I'm sad and I'll miss him, but I take comfort in knowing that he's not suffering anymore.

Mary and Grant

Other events in my life:




Mary made this mummy cake for Halloween and unfortunately, by the time I saw it, all that was left was the head. But, she did an amazing job and hopes to start her own cake business.
On Halloween, I just stayed in and watched movies. It was a nice break.

I thought this past weekend was going to be relaxing too, but, when I got home from work Friday night, I had three messages on my phone, asking if I could pitch in and help out...First, our library had their annual Bayou Book sale at the Community Center in the park. I went and helped out for a couple of hours on Sat. (after "shopping" for 2 hours!) It was fun and we made over $9,000 dollars.


Then, we had another Baptism at the Branch and the Franklin Elders asked if I would give a talk on baptism. Finally, Sheri asked if I would do Sharing Time in Primary on Sunday, because she was out of town.

Me with the Primary Girls

Amazingly enough, I got everything accomplished and it all worked out okay :-)

Happy Fall Y'all!

For the first time this season, we are having cool weather! Yea! It feels so refreshing and nice...I hope it lasts.

This is a picture of mist rising off the Bayou in the morning, before work.

The kids at the library are suppose to create pumpkins out of Storybook Characters. This is Sarah's example (She did the Princess and the Pea). And here's one of my favorites, Charlie Brown, submitted by Dr. Jack Ferry:

Last Saturday, I went to Lake Charles, which is about 2 hours west of me, for a Genealogy Conference. I went with Linda, one of my co-workers. We had fun visiting on the way over, and getting lost in downtown! The conference was held in the beautiful Civic Center, on the shores of the lake.

Ms. Linda posing on the balcony over Lake Charles.


Below is the Lake Charles Alligator. He has everything Lake Charles is known for painted on his body. I just thought it was cool.

At work, Monday and Tues., we trained on Polaris, our new library system, which will replace Dynix. I'm excited-it's a Window based system and I think it will be much more user friendly for both our patrons and our staff.

I spent the rest of the week, trying to play catch-up and get all the ILL books processed and cleared off my desk that have been piling up.

I spent this whole last weekend at Church. Friday Night our Branch had a Halloween Carnival and I helped out at the Prize Booth. I have never seen so many kids in so many cute costumes. It was crazy chaos! Then the Relief Society had a Super Saturday Craft Day. We made items to give away for the holidays. Here's a picture of me with my friends, Nicole and Stephanie. We had lunch and then, we had a Baptism that afternoon. It was really nice. Finally, on Sunday, we had our Primary Program. I wish I was still in Primary, so I could have been up there, singing with the kids. They did an awesome job though!

And now, it's just another Manic Monday... :-) I hope everyone has a great week!

Happy Friday!

After 3 weeks of reading a page here, and reading a page there, I finally finished Dan Brown's new book The Lost Symbol :-) It has officially bumped The Host down from my # 1 spot of favorite books! What can I say...if you haven't read it, Read It! (But, make sure you've read Angels and Demons and Di Vinci Code first.)

Let's see, other good news...

I finished the book last Sat. On Monday I got a new Seminary Student-that brings my count up to 4! :-) Chasity has been coming to class with Tara and Marteena, but we made it official and got her on the roll. I admire her for getting up and coming every morning, when she's not even a member (yet!)

Coming out of church Tues. morning the sky was infused with colors-pink, orange, red, yellow. It took my breath away, I've never seen anything like it. Then, Tues. night while driving home from work, there were rainbows! God is an amazing Artist...The World is amazing.

Last night was Andrews Homecoming Game. And what a game! They played the New Orleans Saints. Zach, our Quarterback, scored a touchdown within the first 2 minutes of the game! :-) (Now, you have to know a little background about the Highland Bears to get why this is huge...this is the first year Highland has had a football team play in a league. I have been to every home game, but the first, and they have lost every one, most of the time never scoring). Andrew plays Middle Linebacker and boy he can tackle! It was fun to watch. We won 48-6 (New Orleans finally scored a touch down in the last 3 seconds of the game-talk about exciting...I was happy for them). Also, tonight was the first time we had an announcer and can I tell you what a difference that makes...I could actually follow the game! The Cheerleaders even did a little dance and they introduced the Homecoming Court. Our Quarterback's sister, Victoria Flemming was crowned Queen. The whole night was just plain fun.

And now, it Friday. Who can't love a Friday...it means we survived another week.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

Lonnie :-)