Death and Lights

My excuse for not being more diligent in blogging is the fact that we don't have a table. Or a desk. We just have the floor. Do you know how much your butt starts hurting after sitting on the floor/mattresses to accomplish all your computer tasks? The answer is a lot. I'm hoping this week we'll buy some junky top with legs. And no, that's not a prostitute joke.

Yes, we found an apartment.

Yep, I'm too lazy to rotate the picture of the hallway. Deal with it.

The inside is newly remodeled; new carpet, flooring, paint, doors, fixtures. In making it look nice they forgot to also update the kitchen, so sometimes I feel like I should be looking for the Beav. It's a one bedroom, and kind of far from work, but Mitch and I were so desperate to get a decent place we said "yes please" on the spot. Mitch sleeps out in the front room and I get the massive back room. Right now there is only my lonely mattress on the floor with my random stuff strewn across the floor. I would clean it up, but then the room would look even bigger.

The first two nights we slept on the floor. Thankfully, we have been uber blessed to know a family that I met in Georgia who are up here on base. They hooked us up with some great stuff and helped moved our mattresses from the store to our abode. We also got to go over there for Easter dinner and play with their kids. Knowing people is a really great thing and I highly recommend it. Unless you know them and they want to kill you. I'd avoid that.

I am getting a little ahead of myself. The very first Friday we were here, we found out that my grandmother passed away. I wasn't surprised because she was extremely sick with cancer and it was only a matter of time. Thankfully, like 2 weeks before I went to Alaska I went with my mom and aunt to go see her and I'm so grateful that I did.

My grandfather had died 12 years previously, so besides being happy that she didn't have to suffer anymore, we also had the wonderful assurance that she was with him again. I made her funeral program and listed her progenitors. She had 8 kids and with the addition of their spouses, grandchildren, grandchildren-in-law (is that even a phrase?) and great grandchildren, there are exactly 100 people. That is a legacy. She is a very stubborn lady and was uncompromising when it came to the gospel. She is also full of love and kindness for others. I'm excited to see her when she'll be free of mortal disease and aches.

One story that was told at the funeral that was then related to me goes as following:

The stake president had brought his young son to the ground breaking of the Phoenix LDS temple. He was upset because he was missing his soccer game. The father was trying to calm him down, when up walks my grandma. She asked him what was wrong and gave him some kind words. During the ceremony, she turned to him and said "I don't think you're going to make it to that soccer game, they're taking a long time to do all their talking." After, she told him she knew he was sad he didn't get to go to his soccer game, but that being there was so much more important. This was just one example of countless incidents where she showed her faith - even when it wasn't the most exciting place to be, she was always where she was supposed to be.

A few days after we found out about my grandma, we were told that my 7 year old Golden Retriever dog, Captain Jack Sparrow, had to be put down because of cancer.

Cancer sucks. I'm still pissed about his death.

However, about a month ago I read a sweet story about a boy who had to put down his dog and when his parents or the vet weren't able to answer why his beloved friend had such a short life here, he sat down and pondered the question himself. He then told them that if the purpose of life is to love others, that dogs perfect that principle quickly and don't need as much time on earth to figure it out.

It's hard to explain to someone who has never had a beloved animal, but if you have, then you know how true this little boy's statement was. If I was ever upset or crying, Captain would always find me and put his gentle head on my knee and I  knew that no matter how harsh the world was, Captain loved me without reservations.

I'm  going to move on now before I start bawling for the rest of the night.

Needless to say, we had a bit of a rough beginning. Despite that, I've had many reminders of God's love for me. One of those being the Northern Lights. I've only seen them one night, and it was about 15 degrees and 1 a.m., but it was one of the most beautiful displays of God's majesty that I've ever seen. Sure, science has figured out why they happen, but that doesn't make them less spectacular.

The auroras are one of those things that is impossible to describe or capture in a photograph. For me, it was like a visual representation of a celestial lullaby. They move and ripple like ribbons in water and do a ballet in the sky. See, told you it was hard to describe. Apparently they even make sounds and you can hear them if it's silent enough.

I'm hoping to still have some chances to see them before the sun stays out all night. I didn't know the best way to photograph them, but for you photo nerds out there, I left my aperture open for 30 seconds. I would have left it on longer, but I forgot my remote. Then again, if you leave it open for too long, your picture will probably just be a blur of colored clouds.

This coming September when they come on strong again and it gets dark enough, I'm hoping to go down to Denali and see and shoot them there.

This was my favorite picture. I probably took about 50. It kind of reminds me of the movie Hocus Pocus when the witches do something at the school and this green cloud comes streaming from the roof. Anyone else?

That's it for tonight. I don't want to bore you to tears (that was one of my grandma's sayings. She had a lot of them). Next time I'll write about the adventures in driving a 45 foot bus. Oh, and I signed up on Twitter @ElissaGator in case you were getting ulcers waiting for me to jump into another social networking pit.

Gina's Wedding

Oh. My. Word. I just got back from the last wedding of the season. It was for my cousin, Gina. She got married in the LDS Oquirrh Mountain, Utah Temple. And it didn't snow then either. That makes 4 winter weddings I went to and no snow. Oh well. I guess the brides were happy. In case you were concerned, I did not catch the bouquet. It went to a 10 year old. Just because she's not even old enough to date doesn't mean I'm bitter...

This whole reception was decorated and thought of by my amazingly talented aunt and her friend. Our family also did all the food. We can crank out some serious food.

Here is a video of Gina seeing it decorated for the first time. Then you can scroll down and see all the snap shots and descriptions and tragic stories about elephants at weddings.

Unfortunately, these pictures don't even begin to convey the beauty of the reception. Maybe once the professional photographer gets her pictures up I will post a link.

The centerpieces were chandeliers my aunt bought on ebay on top of glass bowls or vases, which were on top of doilies, which was on top of a gray quilted square (that my other aunt made from old suit coats). On top of the square were more doilies, antique teacups filled with various flowers and sugared fruit. 

While we were up at the temple, my aunt's friends were busy finishing up the decorating. Someone had left a burner on in the kitchen, and then someone had put a plastic box on top of it. Needless to say it caught on fire. When my aunt asked if they had called 911, the friend said "No way! If they came in here and saw all the cords for the chandeliers running all over the place they would for sure shut us down!" Thankfully, the fire was contained and only a plastic box was harmed. As well as someone's pride, I'm sure. 

The above is the sign-in table. It's an old yellow-paged piano book with classical songs in it. The bride's sister then glued blank pages every other page with pictures of the couple. I wrote a haiku. The silver tree was done by another aunt spray painting about 20 large branches for her son's November wedding. We reuse when we can. 

As guests left, they got to fill up a box with homemade mini cookies that were in decorated jars. More doilies as well as stuffed birds were accented throughout the room (do you see Hedwig?).

Old chairs were in corners for people to sit and enjoy the reception, or look at some of the many black and white old framed pictures. Notice the silver platters on the wall or the black feathered wreath? Someone said this reception could have made for great "I Spy" pictures. And that's my grandma in case you were wondering. 

The hot chocolate stop - with hazelnut, vanilla and toffee syrups, marshmallows, crushed whoppers, crushed peppermint and cream. Most of the furniture my aunt already owned. She and her decorator friend would also go to DI (a thrift store in Utah) and pick up all sorts of antiques that they then displayed. 

No plastic china here. Antique plates were used to eat cake from (the most deliciously wedding cake I have ever tasted, I might add).

Speaking of cake, there the couple is cutting it. And a bird in the lower right hand corner. Dead, of course. 

The backdrop was made by tying different ribbon to a bar. Chandeliers were hung from the basketball hoop. They also had rugs everywhere to make it feel more homey and less basketball-courtey. 

Because all the food was made by us from scratch, it was a delicious affair. You got a glass plate (they had an eclectic mix to choose from) and then picked up: a vegetable cup pre-arranged with ranch dressing and slices of veggies; colored shaped sandwiches with fillings like apricot bacon (YUM!), pimento cheese or deviled ham; mini homemade cinnamon rolls; parfaits of chocolate and oreo, vanilla, wafer and banana, or vanilla, pound cake and raspberry in glass cups; raspberry frappes, and chex-mix in a bag. We had to wash all the glass plates and parfait glasses by hand. Thankfully I didn't volunteer for that job. 

And check out that beautiful centerpiece! They ordered flowers from Costco.com and had a friend who had had some experience with flowers do the arranging. Sadly, at the end of the night when everything was being packed back up the flowers froze because they were accidentally left outside for the night. 

 That's me, my mom and my sister Saundra. I'm surprised we didn't look more like zombies by the end of the night. 

And of course me and the bride. Isn't she just gorgeous? 


When they were setting up the reception, my uncle had to make 15 trips with his pick up to bring all the furniture, chandeliers, rugs, tree branches and other decorations to the church. The next day he had a brilliant idea to rent a UHaul truck. We filled it. 

Thankfully there were a lot of people there so clean up only took about 2 hours. To cover all the chandelier wires that ran from the tables to the outlets, someone used paper packing tape to secure them to the floor. Because of the nature of the tape, it didn't pull of cleanly so about 20 of us had to sit on the floor and slowly scrape away at the tape. It was a mess. 


At the end, we all agreed that it was a ton of work. I think I might just have a petting zoo for my reception and the people can eat the animal's food pellets. To make it even more fancy I'll even have an elephant so you can take your picture with the bride, groom and elephant.

Weddings, Food, Weddings, Holidays, Weddings and NEWS!

Oh my word. Word being "do you remember what blogging is dear Elissa?" Let's get to it, there's quite a bit to cover, and at the very end I have some news I'd like to share with you. I'll forgive you if you scroll through most of this, but I won't forgive you if you don't jump up and down once you find out my news at the end. No, I'm not engaged -- we'll just nip that in the butt right here and now.

Waaaaaaaay back in November of 2011 (you know, the year before the year of the end of the world) I went on a fancy schmancy semi-formal dance date. The evening included convincing the waitress that we had just attended a Voodoo wake/funeral where there was dancing because that's what you do at Voodoo funerals. They believed us.

My date, Cameron, and I pride ourselves in knowing it was because of us the party got started. We also would run around people who were sitting and try to convince them to dance. They weren't as convinced as the waitresses.

The week of Thanksgiving my family and I headed up to Idaho for a cousin's wedding (in which you would think there would be pictures, but nay, I cannot find any) and then back down to Utah for some food love (most people just call it Thanksgiving). We had two tables of pies. With pie labels.

Then two weeks later, I went back up to Idaho for Rachel R's wedding (now Rachel H). I had designed her invites and they were put in these sweet pocket envelopes. When I get off my lazy toenails, maybe I'll take a picture of the whole shebang, but for now you can enjoy this:

It was a wedded bliss weekend. We stayed at the groom's house, which also happened to be my first District Leader from the mish. Crazy, right? Being the good friends that we were, we dipped 1,345,982 strawberries (or something close to that).

And then we obviously had to get manis and pedis. I need a spa chair in my house.

I got a little over zealous when arranging the vegetable trays, but I wanted people to know that today was a wedding day, because seeing a girl in a poofy white dress carrying flowers sometimes doesn't get the message across.

Then the actual wedding came, and she and her hubby were sealed in the Idaho Falls LDS temple. It was probably 45 degrees, so it really wasn't that bad. She had gotten a bridal cloak, but while taking pictures without it, I decided to take upon the part of snow queen.

There's the beautiful bride with a creeper who photo bombed in the background.

Two weeks before, at my cousin's wedding, I caught the bouquet. When I came back to Idaho I had every intention of starting a winning streak. Alas, a woman in her late 40s caught it. She probably needed it more than I did. 

Back to California for Christmas and a cooked goose that tasted more like ham because it was ham. Here are our awesome Christmas cards that moi designed. I'm okay with you saying these are the best Christmas cards ever made. I've already come to terms that my humility is perfected. (Click to make bigger so you can bask in its amazingness). 

Christmas was pretty low key, as was New Year's. Basically just hung out with the fam because we're tight like unto a dish. Then we said goodbye to my brother, Trenton, who was going to the Atlanta Georgia mission for 2 years. Yes, I served in the Macon, Georgia mission, and now he was following in my tracting footsteps. Bye TrennyWennyMenny!

During all of this I managed to crank out a second wedding invite for my cousin Gina who will be getting married in a couple of weeks. It's quite different than Rachel's invite, but the same in that they are both invites for weddings. Pretty cool how I can keep to a theme, no? 

And then on to my third wedding in this nuptial whirlwind. This was for Rachel D (Yes. Two of my best friends are named Rachel. Don't let that blow your mind). She's from Alabama and her fiance (now husband) is from Wyoming. They were going to get married in Alabama, because who gets married in Wyoming in January, but the groom's family had a dairy farm they couldn't leave and just like that I got to fly to Billings, Montana. It's a small airport. 

I thought for sure it would be some great blizzard that people would tell their grandkiddies about, but luckily it was about 40 degrees and clear skies. My very talented friend, Adrian, was the wedding photographer, so I didn't take many pics. I just yelled at people to get out of the background or made the kids in the picture laugh. I'm pretty good at that. 

Get this. She got her dress from China. Never tried on or nuthin. Didn't even see a picture of it. Okay, she saw a picture and sent in her measurements and money, and they sent back this beautiful dress. I was super impressed. I don't know if I have the guts to do it, but I'm glad it worked for her. Especially because she saved mucho dinero.

That's me standing next to the groom in the picture above. These weddings have really taken a toll on my appearance. Rachel got married in the Billings, Montana LDS temple. Behind the temple there is this wide field with gorgeous rocky cliffs in the background. I only saw the pictures on the camera and they're breath taking; I'm excited to see them once Adrian puts them up. Yes, Adrian, that was a subtle message to you.

After the wedding, we went back down to the farm which was near Cody, Wyoming. While waiting for the reception, I went and kicked it with the calves. 

Remember how I caught the bouquet at wedding #1, but not at wedding #2? Well I was destined to catch it at wedding #3. Mainly because I was the only single gal who was still there. But part of it really was destiny, I just know it. When I get that picture of me fending off the non-existent single crazies, I'll make sure to post that.

I have such awesome friends and am so glad I can attend their weddings. I'll be going to wedding #4 in a couple of weeks (that will be for my cousin Gina) and then it looks like I'll have a little breather.

Speaking of breathers, you probably had to take a potty break this blog post is so long. But now it's the end and I get to tell you my exciting news. 

I'm moving to Alaska. 

You read that right. I'll be moving to Fairbanks, Alaska, in April to work for the cruise lines as a tour bus driver and guide. Essentially, I'll drive a 40 foot bus while entertaining...er...explaining touristy things. I get a microphone and a captive audience and I'm getting paid. Life doesn't get much better than this, folks. 

I have a feeling that once I get to Alaska this little blog is going to be updated a little more regularly than it has been. Someone suggested I set up a Twitter account and repeat the funny things people say to me. Or vice versa. So start sending me your favorite Alaska jokes. 

Kisses!

Obama Beats Jesus

Last night my dad was at the computer and says "What's that Justin kid's name?"
We said "Justin Bieber?"
"Yeah, that's him," dad says.
"What are you doing dad?"
"Oh, I'm seeing who has the most images on google."
"How many does Justin have?"
"Like 54 million. Give me some more names."
"Taylor Swift."
"24 million."
"Brad Pitt."
"Yeah, he went down, only 9 million"
"Jesus"
"Oh, he has 86 million."
"Obama."
"Yikes, he beat out Jesus with 121 million."

But don't despair. "God" came in with a whopping 268 million.

In more monetary news, I finally have posted my children alphabet letters. It has taken FOREVER. And I still only have one "V." I'm just hoping they sell. But I was super excited posting them. Check them out. Or don't.

And a big shout out to my friend Madison, who got home from her mission at the end of January and got engaged tonight. I'm going on 3 years and still trying to get on one date...

My Mom. Can't Think of A Better Intro.

First, I decided I'm so embarrassed by my last post, that I needed to get a new one on here so that each time I open my blog I'm not blasted by...well whatever you want to call it. So what better way then to embarrass my own mother. Don't worry, there have been plenty of times when she's embarrassed me. And actually, both of us don't get embarrassed very easily (minus previous post).

When the movie about the Spice Girls came out (Spice World), my mom took a friend and me to go see it, purely to make fun of the movie (my friend and I didn't care too much for the group so we were down with going to make fun of them). In the movie during a dance seen, my mom got up and started dancing. In the theater. But I thought it was hilarious.

We have a family friend that is a cop and since he didn't work til later he would take his elementary school daughter to the bus stop in the morning, being the only dad there. One morning my mom showed up (the other bus moms didn't know her) dressed up in a robe, curlers in her hair and some blacked out teeth, holding my baby brother and yelled "Bobby, I can't believe you left me and lil' Billy here. What a scum bag you are!" She went on and on, horrifying him and the other bus moms. She's so cool.

She recently went to Washington D.C. and as we were looking through her pictures there was this one:

Me: "Mom, what are you doing in this picture?"
Mom: "Oh, that's Helen Keller so I'm pretending to be blind."
Me: "Right."

Are You Also Related To Him?

This is a true story about my 15 year old sister. My uncle Clark said that his son Josiah had recently signed on to the new.family search.net site and had just kept hitting the back button to see how far back the McKray (my Grandma's maiden name) line would go .  Anyway, they discovered that the line goes through royalty in England, Scotland, the bad guys of Troy, all the way to Adam.   

Audrey (my 15 year old sister) had just come into the dining room when Clark said, your line goes all the way back to Adam.  She asked whose did and my mom told her it was Grandma Kellis and therefore her.  She went back into the other room and said, ‘hey guys, I am related to Adam! The sad thing is I'm pretty sure she was seriously excited to find out she was related to Adam.

Bubble heads

We've all heard of bobble heads, well up here in the Burg there are some people who are bubble heads. The reason why they are called this is because they live in a bubble. Or they did before they came up; and it really irks them when someone tries to pop their bubble. Example (and this is a true story):

A girl goes over to a guys' apartment. She then preceedes to take off her shoes, then puts her bare feet on the coffee table (but no coffee, that's just what it's called). One of the roommates then says "I'm feeling very uncomfortable right now. I'm pretty sure that it's against the honor code for people to take off their shoes in the presence of the opposite sex." His roommates assure him that it is not against the honor code, but this bubble head is adament that this girl is breaking the rules and agains states his feelings of outisde-the-bubble-queasiness.

Now I've heard that it is against the law in China for a man to see his neighbor's wife with bare feet (and heck, that could have been 100 years ago, for all I know). And there are some interesting honor code rules that we abide by here on this campus. And some interesting laws in Rexburg (it is against the law to throw snowballs. Really? We live on the island of misfit cold and all fun has to be frozen away?). But. There is no such rule here at BYUI, or Rexburg, that says you can't show your feet to the opposite sex. I suppose that if your intentions include breaking the law of chastity that you shouldn't even take off your shoes. It may be your only link to reality. And unshaved legs.

So to all the bubble heads out there- good luck in life. I hope you never have to meet with a client from China during winter without a snowball.

Finally, my Georgia Trip

So I'm kind of a lame-0 and finally got around to posting some stuff from my Georgia trip. I blame my procrastination on my space bar problems (see couple posts down to understand). That and I wanted to edit some of the photos. They didn't all get edited, but whatever. This is a blog, not my portfolio. Although there are some great edited Georgia pics on my portfolio website. More about that later.

First off, it was obviously pretty amazing. I want to live there. For real. I'll just have to invest in some great bug protection (for myself and wherever I'll live-palmetto bugs (nice euphemism for COCKROACHES) and I don't really get along). And the people there are just, well southern. I don't know many more words to describe it. It's a good thing though. And these pics aren't in any darn tootin order. Just the order that I please. And that's southern too.


For sure one of the highlights of my trip- seeing Janet Felosi, the first girl I got to see baptized. She drove from Atlanta to Augusta just so she could see us. We're trying to get her to go on a mission. Or move out west. Or both.

Kylia Weller- the 5 year old who when she saw me ran up to me and said "Sis Stewart, I missed you so much!" It's good to know that 5 year olds remember you (and miss you) even though it's been over a year. Savannah, GA.

Cindy Vogel (aka The German) and Rachel. Martinez, GA.

Here is the biggest oak tree I've ever seen. This picture doesn't even do it justice. You can drive trucks underneath the branches. Talk about the coolest tree house ever! Savannah, GA.

This is a little out of order. This is one of my best friends, Rachel Dean, from Birmingham, Alabama. I made a stop to see her on my way to Georgia and it was so well worth it. Here we are at the Purple Onion, her favorite place for gyros. I've been hearing about these things since we were college freshman way way back in the day, so obviously I had to go to experience it for myself. And I wasn't disappointed. Even if I was, Rachel would probably cut me for being disappointed, so I would never say I was. But for real, I wasn't.

Me, Heidi Bailey, Rachel Redman, Sis Fraraccio and Michael. Martinez,GA.

Rachel and Amanda at Amanda's semi-bachorlette party. I was going to jump out of a cake, but it just didn't seem appropriate. Okay, actually they just didn't have any cakes for me to jump out of or I totally would have. Martinez, GA.

Back in Savannah- Wormsloe Historic Place. This guy named Wormsloe (bet he got teased as a kid) had this huge plantation back in the glory days of the South and for his "driveway" he planted like hundreds of oak trees in a lining either side of the drive. Over the years they have gotten bigger and grown at the top to meet the other side for this beautiful canopy of oak with of course spanish moss hanging ever so southernly. Savannah, GA

Here is a view of the drive. It goes on for quite awhile, you can kind of tell from this picture, but not really. Once again, pictures don't do this justice. It is breathtaking. You. Just. Don't. Even. Know. Unless you've been there, of course. But probably not. Double click to enlarge to make it feel like you're there. Sorry, they don't have computer sensory technology for us poor folks so you won't be able to smell or feel. It smelled good and it felt warm and sticky.

Some more awesome greeness of Georgia. You can look, but there are no alligators in the water. I checked. When I was there. But there weren't. So sad. Savannah, GA.

COOLEST CEMETARY EVER. Bonadventure in Savannah. If you can call cemetaries cool, which I think I just did, so in fact yes, you can call them cool. It's cool because it is just so darn old. So there is a lot of overgrown vegetation, but the cemetary is still well taken care of. It is also right next to this big marsh. (no alligators here either). Can we say creepy place to go to at night?

I didn't even realize until after I was looking at the pictures that this statue was holding a rose. Very romantic, but not in the lovey dovey romantic way, if you know what I mean.



So I think this is the grave of a little girl named Gracie. This statue is supposed to look like her. I didn't know that until after I took the picture, but I really liked the statue. Too bad they don't make cemetaries like they used to.


Crooked view. It's artistic, okay? Actually I was trying to take pictures like a mad woman because I had only minutes to be able to take this place all in before we had to leave. Definitely going back there. Just probably not tomorrow.


This is what I'm talking about the greeness! That tree is about to overtake the lights. Awesome.


One night one of the members and I had fun doing these "light painting" photos. This one is kind of dark, I have a better one. Just letting you know. But it was fun. What you do is leave your shutter open for like 30 seconds on a tripod and then move lights around. The fire is flashlight. Then you quickly stay still (oxymoron?) and we had the motion detector light go off so you could see me in the tent. And I was eaten alive by mosquitoes. It was worth it. Lynnae, the woman that did it with me, she was able to "draw" a fire, and her holding a stick with a marshmellow over that she also drew. It was sweet.


I had to include at least one from the wedding. This is Amanda- she was one of those awesome members in Georgia. It's one of the main reasons I went down-was for her wedding because she will then be moving to Maryland! But her parents were like our adoptive parents on the mission. I even call her dad Poppi, and even forgot what his first name even was. It was a great fun time. Especially dancing. I love dancing at weddings. Or I should say, I love going crazy. The rest is up for your interpertation. Let's just say some certain readers know my particular dancing style...


This shot I got while someone lit a little box of matches on fire. I was moving my camera around to get some cool light effects, and just so happened that they showed up clear in the background.



I leave this one for last. I guess you could say that this is my "I have to go back to Rexburg, Idaho?" face. It doesn't even really capture how much Imiss Georgia already again. You. Don't. Even. Know. There were obviously a lot of other great people that we saw and a lot of great food that we had. So until next time, Georgia will be in my heart. (*Still trying to get it off my stomach...)