As My Bestest Friend Amelia Stated....

"Probably the best Photobomb in the history of Photobombing" (yes that is me in the background)
I am quite proud of this picture...I have been practicing my photobombing skills for some time now, and have just never been able to get the timing right.


By the way...Amelia is the gal on the right...but perhaps here is a better picture...

No? Well perhaps maybe this one....

Well if you haven't yet ascertained why we are friends, maybe these photos will help you see why...

(Don't ask me why my hand is where it is...I could not even begin to explain)

(Picture taken by Amelia)

If you are guessing that maybe one reason we have been friends for so long is because we both are seemingly incapable of taking a normal picture (especially when together)...that is correct. My excuse is that normal pictures are boring, and as my family is well aware, I'll go for the crazy pose 99% of the time. I don't know Amelia's excuse....please enlighten me dear friend if you are reading this.

Fortunately for someone...and I am not really sure who that someone is, maybe our grandchildren some day...we do take the occassional good picture

Yay Amelia!

Dominican Republic Trip

Okay shocker, that's right, this may be the one and only time I post an entry on our blog. It is more like a blog about random stuff Amy thinks about. Now everybody gets to know what I am married to, and I think I'm super lucky! Oh, that was so sweet :)

I thought I better let everyone know about the trip. It was really awesome, and is something that will stay with me forever. Seeing all these people who want to go to the dentist, I know, its unheard of. Our day consisted of meeting for breakfast around 7am, leave for the clinic around 7:30am, arrive at the clinic around 8am, work all day with a 15min lunch break, and then end the day somewhere around 5'ish. When we would show up to the clinic in our personally guarded (by the Dominican Republic Air Force) bus, this is what would be waiting for us...lines and lines of people. Some of these people started to wait for us at 4am.


Our dental clinic is actually an emergency room. The clinic consisted of a Diagnosis Room, where the patients were screened for their dental needs and oral cancer. In the Diagnosing Room we had three stations.

Then we had two rooms for Restorative. Between the two rooms we had 7 stations where we would do cavity fillings. Let me tell you, by the end of the week my back was killing. As you can tell from the pictures we didn't have dental chairs. The patient would sit down in a plastic chair and we would have to bend over or kneel down to see into their mouths.

Then we had one Oral Surgery Room, with 3 stations. This room was basically for pulling out teeth. We did do a couple of biopsies for cancer.

Then upstairs we for the pediatric room. We had 2 pediatric residents and a pediatric dentist come with us. They had some interesting stories, for example, a kid throwing up and urinating on one of my classmates, but luckily I was never selected to join them upstairs. As much as I love hanging out and teasing kids, I do not like treating them.

I wish I had all of the numbers to tell you guys but I don't. I know we treated over 300 patients and there were still many more that needed to be treated, but we ran out of time and had to turn them away. I'm pretty sure we did over 2,000 different types of procedures. For instance, the one day I was in the Oral Surgery rotation we extracted 83 teeth (remember that is between 3 students and an oral surgeon). When I was in the Restorative rotation, I would be doing somewhere between 2 to 8 fillings on one mouth in one visit. So each day you would work your butt off and sweat till your clothes were soaked through. It was awesome :)

Then the worst part of the trip was coming home after working to these really fancy condos that were right on the beach. You go straight to your room and change into your bathing suit and then hit the waves. I mainly did body surfing. The waves sometimes got the better of me. I came home with a cut up nose from the waves forcing my face into the sand. I literally ate the sand. I also had a bruised shoulder and lower back. Good times, good times.

Here's a few other pictures in this filmstrip.



You can also check out all the pictures one of the faculty members took. Make sure you click on the link to Dominican Republic 2008 (Nov 8-16). I'm warning you though, you could be there for hours looking at all of the pictures. Check it out at: www.nyucdoutreach.com

You have my permission to be jealous

Because I just spent a marvelous weekend in Paris! There are only a few things that could have made the trip spectacular 1) if Jer was with me and 2) if the sun could have made a cameo for a few hours to at least burn away some of the fog.

I need not bore you all with picture of things you can look up on the internet and probably see much better pictures which were probably taken by professionals and not 100 pictures like this....

or like this........

(Forgot the camera was zoomed in)

Yes. I was with people that could take pictures of me at the different locations, but because I have a really hard time taking a serious picture, you end up with pictures like this...

So it is just better that I take pictures of myself, arm stretched out.

So here is a summary of my trip (with some select pictures, and for the most part, not of me):

1) Started the morning at a corner cafe with a hot coco and a pan au chocolat (pastries are my favorite...who needs candy when you can have baked goods with chocolate in them!)

2) Walking down the Champs Elysees towards the Arc de Triomphe dodging clouds of cigarette smoke. While window shopping found this little (literally) treasure...

Yes...that is a car on the wall.

Toyota's version of the Smart Car is so small and aesthetically pleasing you don't even need, nor would you want!, a parking spot outside when you can park it on your living room wall where the colors and dimensions can accent your living room decor....talk about a converstaion piece!

3) Next it was on to the Eiffel Tower. Well....it is a big medal structure. Apparently you can pay money to go to the top and get a fantastic view of Paris, but the 3rd level was closed and I didn't really see the point if you can't go to the top.

4) A quick subway ride and we were at Notre Dame and just in time to hear the bells ringing. This I must say was pretty cool. It was early in the afternoon so the bells did not ring for long, but it was long enough to get the pigeons to leave their post and fly around the cathedral. I got this on video. I may be the only one, but I think it was cool.

4) Next stop...the Musee de Louvre. I didn't go inside. As much as I would have liked to see the Mona Lisa, I don't think I could suffer through 2,000 pictures of Madonna and Child. But in the courtyard I really wish it had been a clear day, because this picture with the eiffel tower in the background would have been pretty cool.

5) Next a stop at a brasserie for lunch for some "typical" french fast food, a croque monsieur, americanized by the addition of my coca-light. Enjoyed my meal sitting outside under a heat lamp by a square complete with a small orchestra playing classical favorites such as Cannon in D and the "Beef. It's What's for Dinner" song or for those in the music "know", Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.

6) After lunch it was on to the Sacre Coeur Basilica, from who's hill you can see a lot of Paris...However, on a foggy day, all you can see is a bunch of clouds and a few buildings. About the only thing I got out of this was some burnt calories and some sore calfs from the hike to the top of the hill. But this was okay because from all that hard work I earned myself number 7.

7) Afternoon treat, a crepe with nutella and banana...delicious. After a quick (3 hour) nap and dinner and some walking around with no particular destination in mind it was bed time in my hotel room about the same size as a broom closet.

8) Sunday morning, I attempted to go to sacrament meeting. Western Europe changes time for daylight savings one week before the US. I knew this saturday night and attempted to watch my phone to see if it automatically changed. Well by 1 am, it had not changed, so I changed it. Long story short, phone did change itself, so I was 2 hours behind and only made it to 35 minutes of sacrament meeting (do I get credit for trying?)

9) With not much time for site seeing on sunday, we decided to go to the Luxembourg Palace. While in route to the Palace and speaking of small cars we found the original smart car. The Fiat Cinquecento (500), I honestly think you could not be more than 5'0 tall to fit in this car.

Of course there were other things I saw, but this post is getting long. So, go to Paris if you ever have the chance, it is an absolutely charming city.

And to end...here is my favorite french word (I don't know why). Bonsoir (Good Evening)!

Have you ever....

Have you ever wanted to "forever change the rules of engagement for marshmallow gun confrontations"?

Introducing the Marshmallow Mazooka!
Item Description: The 40' Marshmallow Bazooka. This battery powered bazooka launches edible, full-size marshmallows up to 40', forever changing the rules of engagement for marshmallow gun confrontations. The integrated miscroprocessor automatically regulates air pressure, allowing you to launch up to five marshmallows in 60 seconds without manual pumping. Simply load a marshmallow into the chamber, wait for the LED on the reticle to illuminate, and pull the trigger to bombard your mark with confections. Requires two 9-volt batteries. Ages 6 and up. (Sold on Hammacher Schlemmer's website)

I saw this in a magazine today and was beside myself with laughter. First I was laughing about the fact that Marshmallow bazookas were even invented. But then I read the description and it was all over. Pretty much made my day. It makes you wander though..."who is the ad wizard that came up with that one?" (a gold star for anyone who knows who that quote came from).

Special Announcement!

Here it is.....the special announcement!!

I have to confess something first. When I first said I had a special announcement...I really didn't. I just wanted to see if I could drive people crazy. It worked on a few of you!

So nope...no babies in my belly...if that is what you were thinking.

But I am happy to report that we do have a big announcement.

Jer got accepted to go to the Domican Republic for a week as part of an outreach program at school. This is really exciting for him and I am really proud of him. He is already an amazing dentist (from what I hear) and I know that he will do a lot of good while he is there.

Good job Hun!

(sorry family if I got your hopes up! But if you got your hopes up...you should know me better than that!)

More Stuff

So continuing on...


Also in August I had a very important birthday....Y'all I am 26! I am officially on the other side of 25. I think I can be classified as "mid-to-late 20's" now. Wow!

At the end of August, Jer and I went on a much needed vacation. We went on a Carribbean cruise. We had a lot of fun. We went to Cozumel, Mexico first. While in Mexico, Jer and I went beginners scuba diving ("are you for scuba?").





This was actually quite a big deal for me...I am not a deep water person. Anyway, we made some friends on the cruise ship (Holla' Jess and Carrie) and they convinced us to go with them. Anyway, this is how it went.

We get to the scuba place and the instructor takes us down to this room to give us instructions on how to scuba. So a couple things here. 1) The room had an echo so it was hard to hear, 2) english was this guy's second language so he was hard to understand, 3) we got a 15 minute instruction session and then he said "alright lets go to the water", and I was thinking "ummm....isn't this something that people have to spend hours getting certified for and I just sat through a 5 second instruction session and now I have to go do it...great!"

So we got down to the water and started going through all of the steps that we talked about in the instructional room. I immediately start freaking out because my brain is just not liking the idea of breathing underwater. Next, the instructor starts to take us deeper into the water, and again I start freaking out because I can't figure out how to "pressurize" (if you don't pressurize you can really damage your lungs and sinuses). Well I am happy to report that after I got the breathing and the pressurizing all figured out, everything went fabulously. I actually had a lot of fun. We only went about 20 feet under the water, but both Jer and I agree that we would like to do this again.

Next we went to Roatan, Honduras where we just went to the beach. We had a great time here also. I played volleyball with bunch of people from the cruise ship. I didn't know them, but it only took me about 3 seconds to realize they were from New Jersey (all of the guys were Guidos). Also in Roaton, we went snorkeling as evidenced in the below photo (by the way, looking at our vacation pictures it looks like I am trying to bring back the "two thumbs up" in pictures).












The next location was Belize City, Belize. Here we got off the boat, got to the port, looked around and decided that we would not be venturing into the city. Belize City from what we have heard and what we saw, is not a fabulous place. We did however find a local company that took us snorkeling and then out to a private island. The snorkeling was fun and the island was pretty fun too. Here is a picture we took at the private island. (Posers!)



On the way back from the island, we saw some dolphins, two adults and a baby. They weren't close enough to touch, but I liked to see them all the same.

Lastly we went to Freeport, Bahams. We went to the beach, got a few hours of fun, and then the outlying storms as a result of hurricane Ike caught up with us and we had to go back to the ship.

When we got back from vacation, it was moving time again....except not for us this time. Our best friends, Corey and Nan were moving to California. This was very sad to me for a few reasons. Corey and Natalie were the first really good friends we made out here in Jersey. We did just about everything with them, in fact most of my memories of this area involve them. It was also a very sad event because Natalie and I were pretty much the same on the crazy scale (and I mean crazy in the nicest way). We were always singing something (even though I was never good) and we would laugh at all of the same things (particularly "mom jokes"). I put a few pictures in the below slideshow to show what ALWAYS happened when we were together with a camera. These are only a select few of the many pictures that we have like this. Finally I was sad because Natalie is pregnant and I am sad that I won't be able to be around for it. Anywho, we were very sad that they had to move, but we know that the friendships you make when you are an adult are so much stronger than those you make when you are children and teenagers so we know we will still see and talk to them.

Before Corey and Natalie moved, Natalie and I celebrated our birthdays by going to a Broadway show. We went to Gypsy, and it was amazing! It stared Patti LuPone (who I guess is a pretty big deal) and she really was amazing also. I would have never chose this play on my own, but luckily Natalie is a theater person and new the play well. I highly recommend the play. It is not for the kids, because it is based on the memoirs of a stipper named Gypsy Rose Lee (no worries there is no nudity).



Jer and I also saw another play when his brother came to visit. We went to a new musical "A Tale of Two Cities". A....maze....ing!. We loved it! Great story (I am actually to read the book now) and the actors (singers) they had were really really good. We were blown away, especially by the lead James Barbour (who played Sydney Carton).



And lastly...

Jer finally got his Playstation 3. He has wanted one for a long time. I made him save up his money and buy it. This was the only way I would led him get it. I didn't want it, I didn't think we needed it, so I didn't want to spend a penny on it. Well, Jer saved up the money he earns from assising a dentist every now and then, and he finally saved enough. I must say, I like it as well. The PS3 has blu-ray which is awesome. One of the first movies we watched with the blu-ray was Harry Potty: The Order of the Pheonix, the graphics and clarity of the movie was really cool.

What the heck have we been up to?!?!?!

So here is it....the catch up blog.

So where should I begin? I think the best place to begin would be where I fell off the blog-wagon back in July.

July

When I posted last, I was actually in Switzerland...yes, be jealous because Switzerland is the most beautifully gorgeous country I have been in my life. It is so gorgeous, it is ridiculous...infact it is so beautiful...I am mad at it!

I was in Switzerland for a week and I had the weekend to kind of explore. I went for a nice long drive on Sunday and came across this gem of a landscape (unfortunately is was rainy that day so it is not the clearest shot). Nearby where I took this photo was this sign saying that on July 31st there would be a fireworks show over this valley, how freaking awesome would that have been!!! Unfortunately I had to go home before that, but just look at the picture and try to tell me you would not have liked to see that also.

Also while meandering through Switzerland, I drove past a town called....

Yup...Frick! I may be the only person that thinks this is funny...but that is okay. I am usually the only person laughing at my own jokes anyway...so I am used to it.

Back tracking a little. The week before I was in Italy. We had one night to spend in Rome, and we had an Italian showing us around. I have been to Rome before, so I have seen all the main attractions, but this guy showed us something that is not quite as well known...

I guess somebody wrote some love story and the lovers in the story wrote their name on a lock and attached it to one of the light posts on this bridge as a symbol of their never ending love. Well, people decided to copy the book and did the same. Apparently so many locks were attached to the light posts that the mayor (or Italian name for it) was going to take the locks down and through them away...people had a fit! So the solution was to put up this railing (there were atleast 10 more of these on the bridge) so people could attach the locks to them instead. It is insane the amount of locks on this bridge. It was interesting to walk around and read people's names on the locks and to see how much of an impact one person's seamingly insignificant idea can have.

Out of all of the locks I looked at, this was the one that I felt was the most heartfelt and got me a little emotional ...

I know it is kind of hard to see...and it is in Italian...but roughly translated it says, "Die Everyone!" Ha Ha! What?! isn't the act of laughing an expression of emotion.

August

August was moving month. Basically the second I got home from Europe, we had to start moving. I got home the very end of July, we moved on the 15th of August. I dislike moving soooo much. What made it even worse is that we had to repaint our apartment. We had painted it brown, and had to get it back to a whitish color, so the apartment people could come in and paint it again anyway...stupid. Anywho, we tried to make moving a non-event by doing a little everyday. I think it made the process go a bit smoother, but it was still stressful. Many thanks to all of you who helped us move.

Here is a picture of a big part of the moving team...

*Helpful hint...always make friends with the missionaries. They are the key to a quick move.

So moving was a bittersweet process. There are things we will miss and there are things we will not miss so much.

Things we will miss:

1) The view:

2) Our friends (including Ozzy's best friend) - Tom, Elena, and Frankie

3) Being close to the Leishman's and the Reed's

4) That feeling of being home (this was the longest place we have lived since we have been married and it truly felt like home)

5) The pathway by the river, nice for an evening stroll.

6) Something that Ozzy would do...but I can't describe it, I have to show it. But I can't get to the video, so I will have to post it later.

Things we will definitely not miss:

1) The fact that we could support a small country with the amount of money we were paying each month for rent

2) Our apartment building that was "settling" especially where our apartment was located. Everything was slightly slanted in our apartment.

3) Our noisy upstairs neighbors (who I am pretty sure were druggies).

4) No storage

In the end, I think we got a much better apartment. It is bigger...cheaper...and more state of the art.

Here is our old apartment:

And here is our new apartment:

I do have more to blog about, but I think this is a good place to stop for now. I know that I don't really have the attention span for long blogs, so I am sure many of you are the same (if you have even read to this point, for all I know you gave up a while ago). Stay tuned for a few pictures from our vacation, a farewell to a good friend, some other random things, and a special announcement ;)

Ain't all it's cracked up to be

So I know that I promised an update on what we have been doing, and it is coming....later.

So as most of you are aware that over the past 3 years I have travelled ALOT for my job. As many of you are quite jealous of all the different places I get to go and see, I just wanted to give you an idea of the woes that come with the territory of traveling alot. I am getting to the point now that it seems like something always seem to go wrong. Honestly, I don't think that any of these things would have ever happened to me in my life if I weren't on an airplane at least 4 times a month...

Here is listing of some of the more interesting traveling woes I have experienced:

1) Found cockroach in rental car

2) Rental car infested with ants

3) Crashed company car in France

4) Prepped for any emergency landing while flying over the Atlantic Ocean because of a electrical fire in the cockpit. (no worries, the fire was extinguished and we landed okay).

5) Hotel room that was so small that I had to share my barely bigger than a twin sized bed with my suitcase because there was literally no where it would fit in the room.

6) Same hotel room bathroom so small that I either had to sit on the toilet seat sideways or drape my legs in the tub.

7) Exercised at 3 am because I was wide awake from the time difference and there was literally nothing else to do.

8) Fell down the stairs in a hotel lobby (and yes in front of a crowd...awesome!)

9) On one flight was surrounded by a group of individuals that immediately took their shoes off, the smell was horrible. I switched seats only to find it was the coldest seat in the plane, and it didn't recline, and the flight attendants skipped over me 3 times. When I asked for things and politely let them know that they skipped over me...they got pissy with me!

10) Sat directly behind someone with hygiene and gas problems.

11) Can't even count the amount of hours I have spent in an airport due to delayed flights, you learn quickly how to sleep in the airport chairs.

12) Eating out, though it may seem great to not have to ever cook, you really get sick of it.

13) My malnurished husband who only eats candy and pop while I am out of town.

14) Spent a 5 days in Belgium....stayed in 5 different hotels.

15) Airplane that pulled into the wrong gate so we had to wait longer to get off the plane.

16) When I am traveling my dreams get VERY interesting. I have weird dreams normally, and by weird I mean waking up in the morning thinking "what in the world was that?", but when I am traveling they get even worse.

I am positive that there are plenty more that I can't think of...it is midnight and I have been working all day so my brain is fried and refusing to put a coherent thought together.

My Apologies....

So I have been grossly neglecting this blog. I promise I have had a good excuse. Between business trips, moving, and vacations, I just simply have not had time to update the blog.

Goods news is that life is starting to get back to normal. I promise I will be making time next week to give you a much needed update of what has been going on with us over the past few weeks...woops I mean months!

To be continued....

Just Something I Wanted to Share

Our friends Bryan and BreAnna live in NYC and Jer goes to dental school with Bryan. They were recently able to go listen to Glenn Beck speak. (for those of you who do not know him...see this hyperlink)


BreAnna created this post about what she thought about it. I really liked what she had to say and some of the things Glenn Beck had to say. I hope you like it as well.

Bored....So I thought I would write something

So this is not an original thought, a friend had a blog about things other people may not know about them, and I thought it was kind of an interesting topic so I thought I would share some things that people may not know about Ames and Jer.

This could be tough....Jer and I are pretty much open books.

1) I am a closet case Thespian. When I was younger, I really wanted to be an actress. But I learned early in life that it just wasn't my calling. Age-8, grade-4th, play-Tom Sawyer. Everybody had to be in the play so we all had to try out. They sent us home with lines to practice and a song to learn and boy did I practice...I thought there was no stopping me. When the try outs came I totally choked, I struggled a little through my lines, and my solo song was all shaky, but I still thought I did good enough to be one of the lead parts. Apparently Not! I got to be a funeral attendee...no lines...I just had to sing "Praise God Through Whom All Blessings Flow" and "Nearer My God To Thee" all while standing up and walking around the pews and sitting back down. The next experience was in the 7th grade, I tried out for yet another play. This time I really thought I nailed the audition. I had learned from my 4th grade experience that I wasn't lead material, but I thought I was good enough to at least play a wicked awesome supporting role. Nope, I didn't even get a call back. They did, however, offer me a position as a stage hand. The Diva in me said NO THANK YOU! Nowadays to appease the thespian within, I just remember movie and TV lines and quote them constantly, there is not an original thought in my noggin.

2) Jer has a tendency to be very obsessive. Jer actually admitted this to me today so I am sharing it with you. When there is something he really likes, it becomes difficult for him to focus on anything else. For example, Jer was my husband who didn't like to watch sports or play video games. It has been great, I never had to worry about "oh but the game is on and the Jazz are up 87-12" or "Halo 19 is coming out in 372 days and it's gonna be awesome!". Well that all changed a few weeks ago when our friend Corey introduced him to a game called God of War. Long story short, Jer ended up buying God of War 2 when he finished the first one. When I got home from my 2 week trip to Florida, as soon as we walked in the door he sat down and started playing his stupid video game. Seriously?!?! If he is reading a good book, he just has to read every second he has got (I am kinda the same here, but my obsessiveness is reading the book multiple times within a few days or weeks). And finally if there is some electronic gadget out there that he wants, he finds every opportunity to let me know that he wants it and he never lets it drop and I eventually give in.

3) Jer has only kissed 2 girls. I was number 2. Jer was such a good kid. He made up his mind early that he was not going to be a womanizer or "playa" if you will. And he wanted to wait until he was 18 to kiss a girl. His parents actually were offering 50 bucks to the first girl to kiss him. The first girl, Jessica White (now Jessica White-Savage, who we refer to as Jessica Black-Sabbath) didn't cash in....I totally would have!

4) I am a little afraid of the dark and the things that go bump in the night. I am going on year 5 of my rule to not see scary movies. Back in 2002, after I saw "The Ring", I decided that I mentally cannot handle scary movies. First of all, after seeing "The Sixth Sense", I couldn't get up and go to the bathroom in the middle of the night for like 3 months (this was hard for me, because I have the smallest bladder in the world and I get up every night for a potty break). Well after I saw "The Ring" (Jer and I were dating at this point), Jer would have to tuck me into bed, I would close my eyes, and he would turn out the lights and then he would have to lock up my mom's house as he left and I wouldn't open my eyes until morning. When we are at the movie theater, when that certain "this is going to be a scary movie" music starts I close my eyes and start humming in my head, so I neither see nor hear what is going on, and Jer tells me when it is over and I can open my eyes.

5) When I was little, I tried to run away from home several times. I don't want you to think that I had a horrible childhood, cause I didn't. I never actually had a good reason to run away, I was just being dramatic. So this is how it would happen...Before I went to bed, I would write the run away note and I would put it under my pillow with the intention of waiting until everybody was asleep and then I would leave it on my pillow and runaway. I always fell asleep and would wake up disappointed that I slept through running away. I never knew where I would go. When I was really little maybe 4-5ish, my mom made me mad cause she didn't take me to a mother daughter activity with her and my sister. After she left I told my dad that I was running away to my Grandma's house on my big wheel. My dad asked me if I wanted him to follow me in the car, but that was a definite no! I made it about half way around the block got tired and turned around and went home.

6) Jer crashed somebody else's car into a brick wall. This is a long story, but the short version is that his friend Ben let him try driving their souped up Miada and he took it too fast around a corner, the car fishtailed, he lost control, and crashed into the brick wall. Luckily there were no injuries and his friend's dad was really cool about the whole thing. Jer naturally got a ticket, but this was right before he went on his mission, so by the time he got back from his mission, his record was clear so his insurance did not have to go up.

The Sunshine State Huh?

I am in Florida for work this week...well where I have been for the last week and a half. I decided that ratther than going home for the weekend I would stay and enjoy sunny Florida.

Well I was expecting this....

And.....ended up with rain...Is there a monsoon season in Florida?


Stupid rainy Florida.

So...I am a little sad :(

So....I just got released from my year and a half stint as the ward organist. To be perfectly honest with everyone, I am pretty broken hearted.

Funny how things change...back when I was first asked to take this calling, I was shell shocked. At the time we were teaching the Young Single Aduts Gospel Doctrine and had been doing that for about a year and I knew a change was coming because Jer had been called to be in the Elder's Quorom so I was teaching the class by myself. I never in a million years expected to be called to be the organist. I was horribly out of practice and had not really played for a few years; I had played for Relief Society a few times, but struggled through the hymns. Of course it is all Jer's fault for ratting me out to Justin Sheen that I knew how to play the piano.

I remember the day clearly. Jer had let it slip that he told Justin my hidden talent, and mentioned that they were looking for a new organist. So when Peter Christensen called Jer and me in and offered the calling to me, the first thing I did was turn to Jer and said "I told you!" I then began with a string of inadequacy comments such as "I am really not that good" "I don't think you are asking the right person, I haven't played for years" "I am really bad at playing when people are singing with me" and more importantly "I don't even know how to play the organ", etc. Then Peter pulled out this whole "stretch calling" nonsense (laying on the guilt trip...thank you Peter). Anywho, after trying unsuccessfully to convince Peter I was not the one, he asked me if I would like to think about it and get back to him in a few days....and I said "yes I would".

Well after fully convincing myself that I was going to say no, I spoke to my dad. He asked me "Well do you know how to play the hymns?"...yes. "Are you able to practice?"...yes. "So what's the problem?"....OH MAN! Sometimes I hate logical thinking!

Well I was going on a trip so I wouldn't be at church the next sunday, so when I was saying goodbye to Jer, I asked him to call Peter and tell him "K, Fine, Sure, Whatever, I'll Do It". So Jer called Peter and told him "K, Fine, Sure, Whatever, I'll Do It". And Peter proceeded to tell the Bishop "K, Fine, Sure, Whatever, I'll Do It".

Although I was nervous at first, I got over myself and fell in love with the calling. It springboarded me into being the choir pianist, the pianist for baptisms, sometimes primary pianist, relief society pianist and anything else someone needed a pianist for. There were some sundays that I played for every hour of church and then a baptism afterwards. Eventhough I ended up playing mostly church music all the time, I enjoyed that I had a reason to sit down and practice the piano most days. I love playing the piano so much now that it makes me wonder why I took it so much for granted when I was younger. I took lessons for years, but I was never really good at practicing. Sometimes I wonder how much better I would be now if I had practiced more....funny how hindsight is 20/20.

Well as Biship told me that I was being released, I am sure I was alternating between 2 looks. 1) shock that I was being released, and 2) a glare (which is my normal face unfortunately) because I was sad. And Bishop sensing that I was not too happy about the decision said something very wise...and I paraphrase..."when a person gets upset about being released I know that they put their heart into their calling and I like to see that".

Well now I am on to Primary, 9-11 year olds. I am excited to get back into teaching again. Being the teacher you get to learn so much as you prepare the lessons. I am excited to get in the scriptures again. The lessons for this age are much more than "I am thankful for my eyes".

So to all of my friends that laughed with me as I totally botched a hymn ("Called to Serve" anyone), our fun is at an end. This has been my absolute favorite calling to date. I can only hope that in the future I will be given this calling again.

I just want to say that I am multi-talented and today I have chosen to express myself through dance

I think we have a young Mary Catherine Gallagher on our hands....Enjoy!

Where in the World is.....Amy?

So just a quick update for those of you who don’t know. I quit my last job with Quest Diagnostics….because it sucked. I have nothing against the company, I just didn’t like the job. Anywho, I am now working for my old boss at a company called Catalent.

What does Catalent do you may ask? Well they are a drug packaging company, meaning customers send their drugs to us to put into soft gels or plastic bottles or to place the pills in the plastic casings with the foil on the back. I was given a tour of one of our facilities and it almost felt like I was watching “How It’s Made” on the Discovery Channel, it was really interesting.

So with this job, I will of course be traveling again, especially this summer. I don’t think I will be home for more than 2 weeks at a time this summer. I will be crazy busy this summer, but I am REALLY okay with that. I am the kind of person that thrives on being busy and my recent hiatus from work nearly drove me insane.

I will of course be going to some interesting and not-so-interesting locations. And since I will be all over the world this summer, if figured it would be fun to let all of you know where I am at so you can either be very jealous or laugh at my misery.

But what fun would this be if I just told you where I am at? Not fun at all!!! Unfortunately I don’t have a picture of my current location, but I do have a clue.

Ready?!?!

Here it is: “Ned... Ryerson. "Needlenose Ned"? "Ned the Head"? C'mon, buddy. Case Western High. I did the whistling belly-button trick at the high school talent show? Bing. Ned Ryerson, got the shingles real bad senior year, almost didn't graduate? Bing, again. Ned Ryerson, I dated your sister Mary Pat a couple of times until you told me not to anymore? Well?”

I will admit that I am not in the most interesting place in the world, but it is beautiful here and the town has a couple claims to fame, one of which is referenced above.

Let me know if you can figure it out?