What was in the kit

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The essentials kit and my hallway....

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Hahaha i packed light. No jacket. Im laughing because its pouring rain and im getting soakd waiting on my shuttle to the hotel. They gave me vouchers and an essentials kit

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Sitting looking out my window on my delayed flight to ATL...sat next to a really nice gal from florida. teaches eng to 7th grades. i missed the connecting flight to SLC.

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My trip begins. Gube so kindly let me use his oversized backpack to trek to utah and idaho 4 a few days and then brought me to the airport..even taught a hometeaching lesson on the way. Scriptures on ur phone....kinda cool. He didnt want me to post this pic on facebook. Never said anything abt my blog though.

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Andrew kitara and i hung out tonight at mcdonalds listening to old school classic music. Lots of fun conversation like....where me and kit will meet our husbands and then after getting back to my house we put in the movie incredibles. Andrew asked us if we could have any super power what would it b? The noteworthy powers were flying...being invisible and reading minds. Andrew then said he would want to b vulnerable. um really? Did we hear that right? NOPE we didnt. he wanted to b invulnerable. but he went with it. haha how amazing. andrew decided how cool would that b to b 'EMOTIONAL MAN' hahahaha now thats powerful! i love polygadating with andrew and kitara. ok its more like girls night with these two. its a shame casey had to miss out on the events of the evening.

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Went to my homeland....

A couple weekends ago I found out some of my cousins from Virginia who I hadn't seen in ages were going to be in ohio up at my Grammy's house. I decided late friday night to take the trek.

On Sunday morning I went for a walk around town. I found out that the old house on Main street in Marblehead that I used to live in is for sale. Not that I would ever consider buying it, but I COULD if I wanted to. It kind of looks a lil run down. It was built in 1929...I found that interesting. I also think its fun to walk by the church my aunt goes to and remember things about the church like getting chocolate easter bunnies from Father Ott (if that's even how you spell it) and going to a midnight mass christmas eve one year. Good times.

It was fun getting to see everyone from Virginia. I was only there from about 5 am Sat morning until after church on sunday. But it was still fun. I havent been to the Marblehead light house in ages. I didn't get much sleep friday night because I went to a dance in Cincinnati before driving the 4 hours north at 130 in the morning. So I was sleeping when everyone decided to go to the lighthouse. Oh well. I did it by myself. Bad idea to take a picture of myself after just waking up, but again, I did it.

The weather was perfect. I am glad we got to drive around the penisula and talk with my grammy about who lived where and who was married here and who was born here, and who built this house. I wish I could remember it all, but even still. It was fun to talk.

My grammy has lived down this street as long as I can remember. I'm pretty sure my whole life she has lived here. There used to be a big tree growing in the middle of the road. My dad used to drive us like we were going to hit it and then hurry up and miss it. We always got a kick out of that. They took the tree out many years ago. That was a sad day, but we knew it had to happen eventually. The pile of asphalt that covers that hole can kind of still be noticed. I'm sure they havent redone the road much. Not like a lot of people travel it. This is also the road that brings back memories of me falling out of my moms station wagon. I'm sure I was not much older than 5 if even that old. My mom used to bring us to her moms house to get babysat everyday while she went to work. It was a winter day i'm pretty sure. I remember being in a snow suit. I was sitting in the front seat. I'm sure I was just taking after my mom and taking off my seat belt long before we actually pulled into the drive and when we turned the corner to the driveway....welll....i mustve opened the door, i dont know how else this wouldve happend, but i definately fell out of the car and rolled in the ditch. Haha I still laugh at it even though I dont remember it all too well. I probably remember telling the story more often than the actual event. Good times.

While we were in Marblehead we decided to go see grammys sister Aunt Ethel. Aunt Ethel is 10 yrs older than my grandma! wowzers. These ladies are 84 and 94! Can you NOW tell why I enjoy listening to their stories so much!? My favorite was my gram telling us about how if she had a chance to do it all over again she wouldn't have gotten married. She wouldve just saved herself the grief. HAHAHAHA it was hilarious. She always rubs her head when she is trying to remember things. My mom does it , and I'm sure i'll do it someday too. Aunt Ethel was telling us about the day she got married her house got caught on fire. They were trying to fix up her dress so you couldnt see all the places it had smoke damage. CRAZY! I'm sure that just wouldnt fly with some girls today. They would probably just get a new dress. BUT not Aunt Ethel. She got married anyway...ruined dress and burnt hand and all. They talked about all the memories of things that happend in her home. How they used to live in the garage while it was being built.How one of their grandmothers lived there in her last days. I was being stealthy and taking pictures and videos while they were talking. I love going to Aunt Ethels! I think she even remembers me a little bit :)

Grammy (Julia Stark) on the left and Ethel Gresh on the right.
They also talked a little bit about how their dad changed his name. They are Sedlaks. They dont seem to remember, but Sezdlak or something like that was how his name used to be spelled. Its fun to hear stories, but accuracy, not sure we can count on anything so much. Thanks mom and Kim for going on our little outing through marblehead and down memory lane.

Hill Cumorah Pageant

I guess I have to give highlights because there is no way I can write about everything from pageant again. (not to mention, some things are better left in my journal) I spent hours writing in my journal the two weeks I was in New York. This is the Hill Cumorah. Looking down the first day I went to the top. 7 stages constructed by 26 young men for which the cast of 739 (42 % were until the age of 18) would perform the show "America's Witness for Christ" during the 7 nights in July.


I don't even know what to say other than I feel overwhelmed. It was such a good experience. I was a part of the cast in 2001. It was a good experience then, but even more so this go around. I got to meet so many people from all over the...well i would say world, but really only the USA and CANADA. Made lots of friends. Its amazing how the Gospel brings people together and makes it feel like we are in such a small world. This is me and Melissa. She was the one who so lovingly braided my hair every night before I put on my wig.

I walked every morning around the campus of Hobart (the college dorms we slept in) and this snail was on my walk one morning. I guess I just appreciated him because well....these couple weeks,and well this summer in general I've not been as lucky as this snail to enjoy my surroundings at a slow pace. Its been go go go. Just thankful that somehow I have the energy to do so much. Isn't he cute? Okay, and maybe I video taped this lil guy moving too. Haha. I enjoyed my walks and I think that's how I kept a lil bit of balance to all the massive amounts of people I got to meet.....it was nice having a lil quiet time in the mornings to think and walk.

Most of my cast team right here. Awesome people. Wish I could tell you a lil bit about each of them. There isn't enough room, but they all had an interesting story to tell. Teachers, mothers, friends, explorers, talented & amazing.

Wish I would've memorized this. We said it at every devotional so we didn't forget what it was exactly that we were doing. It was after all a missionary experience. Who knew being a missionary would be so fun. Rewarding & fulfilling I expected, but fun...now that was a bonus.