Trip to Orlando IKEA

Today we went to Orlando and spent the day at the IKEA store there. I have always want to see an IKEA store. I’ve passed by them on roads when we’ve been in Salt Lake and past the Portland, Oregon airport.

All I can say is WOW! They are quite the store. I think they have perfected the shelving and organizing thing down. We literally spent about three hours just going through the store. I took my camera so we could take pictures of ideas! Maybe in the future we’ll take a trip to the closest IKEA (Atlanta) and get some things to organize our closet space. We got done before Kevin and Bonnie and enjoyed watching people trying to get the boxes all packed up in their vehicles!

A visit to Vernon Harper and St Augustine

On our way to Kevin's in Florida, we planned on taking some time in Savannah, Georgia but the traffic was just terrible and it was raining so that will have to happen another day. We stopped and spent the night with Michael's brother Vernon and his wife Juanita. We had an enjoyable evening and visit.

We then went to St. Augustine to see the city. St. Augustine to see the city. It's the oldest in the US and one that I have always wanted to see. It's been under the rule by France, Spain, England and the US. You can see a very multicultural background throughout the city.

We took a trolley tour to see the city and then stopped at the Fort and looked out over the bay and saw a cannon firing demonstration. It was under siege many times but never taken by pirates or foreigners.

The tour ended at the Old Jail and a museum. Here are a couple of jailbirds!

In fact we heard where the term "jail bird" came from. That's right, they would put offenders in a cage and hang it from a tree for 24 hours and you had to stay there in whatever weather came and the only food or water you had was what people would throw at you!

Our Harper Provencial Office Furniture line

Michael has a Christmas break project from me. He is making me a wall of shelving for my office. Over the years, he has made several pieces of furniture for us and we call it "Harper Provencial." To do this, he has happily expanded the tools for his shop! Above is my media shelve that he had done for me before Christmas. He still has to make two shelves with hutches next week! Maybe with the new tools, he'll be fast as well as doing a beautiful professional job!

In his shop heaven with his beloved tools and HE space!

Don't make me take a test on what the tools all are as I would fail it but he is happy!

2008 YEAR IN REVIEW - July to December

The second half of 2008 was just a busy as the first half! Here are the highlights!

JULY

In July, Michael and I went to Oregon to visit family and met up with LaDonna and her friend, Diane! Our first stop was a visit to the Portland Temple and then on to Richard and Renetta's!

We enjoyed three beautiful days on the coast with pictures to prove it! This is my favorite spot on the earth and it’s hard to limit it to just a few photos!

August

In August my break and rest from seminary was over as I was called to be the Relief Society President of our ward! In fact, from August and September were all a blur to me as we got things started up! I started a lot of interviews and visits with sisters in our ward.

September

September seemed to be more of the same with Relief Society visits and planning!

October

October saw me one year older but we won’t go into that! The first of the month, we began having Josie living with us while she goes to school. It’s been a great experience having her in our home.

The middle of the month we had a Chocolate Unity Enrichment and had a wonderful dinner, a lot of chocolate and activities and had about 55 sisters attend! It was a great first activity for our RS!

Then it was Ethan’s birthday!

Followed by Halloween and our ward’s trunk or treat!

November

The first part of November we made a quick trip to Albertson, NC where Michael was from to attend a surprise 75th birthday party for our sister-in-law, Eleanor. Her face is priceless as her sons pulled off this huge surprise

We had a very different Thanksgiving and for the first time in 32 years I did not cook a turkey! We had an enjoyable day with Tracy’s family.

December

We’ve now caught up to the end of a busy 2008. Relief Society was in charge of our ward Christmas party and we think it went well with a Book of Mormon Christmas theme. We had beautiful decorations, great food and "prophets" visit us!

One day Michael and I took Ethan and Sydney to karate class that they have been doing this fall. We took some videos we may post at a later time. It was fun to watch the children do their thing and they got into the activities. Their teacher sure has patience to work with 4-6 year olds!

We had Christmas Eve with Ryan and Eric and Tracy's family, including a short Christmas FHE with the kids acting out the nativity and some stories, songs and games. Christmas was the most quiet we have had since Eric and Ryan were babies. It was just Michael, Ryan and I on Christmas day! What a change from normal. We still enjoyed the relaxing day together and talking to many loved ones. Then we left the next day to finish our year in Florida which I will blog about separately!

Here’s some of our day’s highlights:

2008 – YEAR IN REVIEW January through June

It seems like we just turned over the calendar to January of 2008! When you go day to day, it doesn’t seem like a lot has happened but here’s a quick year in review!

January

We had our yearly snow!




I made a quick trip to Oregon to see my dad for his birthday and also got to see my brothers and sister! LaDonna and I always travel together! Here’s Mick and Mary with Beth and her new little Zack and Marella with her new little Conrad.

February

Not much out of the ordinary happened in February. We did enjoy a nice Valentine’s dinner and activity at the church. The next weekend, I helped with the African American Family History Workshop we had at a local community college. Seminary and work kept me plenty busy!

March

In March during Michael’s spring break he had an educators conference that he went to in Nashville so I took off three days and went with him. It was at a resort next door to the Grand Old Opry. They didn’t have any shows going on while we were there but I tried to unwind and relax. The resort was really nice but they even charged their guests $17 a day for parking in their parking lot and also a resort fee to have cable, a paper and two bottles of water whether you wanted it or not! I’m glad we didn’t have to pay! It had three big indoor atriums with many waterfalls and lots of lush plant life. I really enjoyed walking about the flowers and trails.
Here are some views from the atrium:




April

Our big event from April was going to Utah for Adam’s BYU graduation with a degree in Electrical Engineering. We had a quick trip and it was verrrrrrry cold! We had fun with Adam and Caprise and Todd and Amanda. We stayed with Adam and Caprise and played some fun games in the evenings. Adam did real good marching and smiling! I couldn’t believe it was snowing on Thursday during commencement. It didn’t stick but I guess I’m a southern girl because I did not come prepared for that. In fact we took jackets at the last minute since it’s been in the 80s here.

We got back in time to help Sydney celebrate big #3! She loves being a princess and here she is in her Belle dress her Grandma Fuller made her. Her favorite gift was from Uncle Ryan – “glass” slippers!”

MAY

After nine years of teaching early morning seminary, May of this year found me without my favorite calling of all! I kept saying I was dis-appointed from teaching seminary. Here is almost all of my final class on their way to an LDS prom! What a great group of youth!

Michael and I made some raised beds the fall before for a strawberry crop. It paid off with a bumper crop of 28 gallons of berries and beautiful plants. We had added to this with some more raised beds and other berries in the hopes of great fruit to come in 2009!

JUNE

We made a fun quick trip to Buena Vista, VA to attend the Southern Virginia Education Conference with some friends. This is our third conference and we just love this get away.

Our biggest event in the year, happened at the very end of June when Todd, our youngest married Amanda Lundy. What a great new daughter-in-law and family to add to ours. They were married June 28, 2008 in the Columbia Temple.

Of course, there was a reception that followed!

Then there were the grandchildren!