Church in NYC

So I have been meaning to post about the church here. We are in the Manhattan 1st ward which would generally meet at the Temple/Lincoln Center location, but as I mentioned before, it is being remodeled- we are hoping that we will be able to meet in that building at least once before we leave here. (The deadline is set for our Stake Conference in November.) We will see!

So this is the East side building where we meet currently. It is really beautiful and the kids love the elevator. I still have to think twice about which floor to pick the kids up from primary and which floor is nursery. The Relief Society (women's organization) meets on the 5th floor, right where that cool circle window is in the picture!

Joe is really loving the fact that they want to utilize him for all of his musical talents. He has been playing the organ off and mostly on since we have been here and has accompanied several musical numbers. He is a very happy person when he can share the talents that the Lord has blessed him with.

Zac- formerly known as Zach, has been enjoying the scouting program here and has excellent leaders. He has always had wonderful leaders, which we are so grateful to! He generally meets at the Temple building for his activities; we love that it is so close. He is eager to turn twelve and be ordained a deacon, to begin in the Young Men's program, passing the sacrament, and scouts.

Kaija and Bella are glad to be involved with the Achievement Days for the girls- they had a great stake activity for them on Friday night (which is when they hold all of their youth programs). They celebrated Pres. Monson's (belated) birthday and followed his wish that for his birthday all he wanted was for everyone to do something kind for someone else. They had some fun activities to learn about him and played Monson BINGO, created service jars with ideas on how to serve someone each day, and made a bag of treats to give to someone with a hand made note. Bella gave hers to our Concierge Seth- it made him smile. Which reminds me, today as we were walking in from church our Concierge, St. John, asked us how church was today and was so thrilled to see a family attending church on Sunday-in our building and in this city it is often a rare occurrence. He was just oozing with delight that we would use our time to worship God. It makes one feel good!

Eli has done marvelously with nursery-this is the bulletin ELI ATTENDS NURSERY WITHOUT A FIGHT OR ENDLESS TEARS- yes miracles never cease.

The primary and youth programs are all relatively small- there has been no complaining though; I think the kids feel comfortable with a smaller group where they shine a little more!
All in all it has just been a wonderful experience for us, and the beauty of the church is that it is the same where ever you go- same structure, same lessons, same pure doctrine and great fellowship with the members!

So much to be glad about

Well, it is absolutely true that time flies. It is hard to believe that we have been here now 9 weeks. We feel so blessed in our circumstances right now, to have been able to sell our home at just the right time. The reality of this Wall Street crunch is so obviously evident here- in Ward Conference on Sunday the Stake President mentioned that he hadn't received this many phone calls since 9/11. There are so many people in the Ward (and Stake) who work in the Financial District. They are just living their lives one day at a time right now- this is one time that being an organ builder is a very steady job; strange, I know!!

So for the activities of our household during the past 2 weeks:
On Friday Sept 12 we went with our friends (Kristen and Matias, and Gil, Marin, and Charley) to Victoria Gardens which is the amusement park for kids at Central Park. This was their last week being opened, before the skating rink opens for the winter! We had a lovely time, paying 2 arms to get in- though we were only able to enjoy it for a couple of hours before it began to rain. The first ride that the kids went on was the one that has individual swings for everyone to ride in and it goes around and around up in the air. No problem, this has always been a favorite of mine, however it didn't cross any of our minds that Eli has never been a fan of swings in general! So poor Eli was left to be terrorized through the whole ride claiming "I hate...this thing" through clenched teeth. He did pretty good recovering and was able to go on other rides after the incident. We had other great amusements in town introducing Kristen and Mati to Dylan's (we have been there too many times now) this time they had the chocolate fountain out in celebration of International Chocolate Day. We made a run to the old friend FAO Schwartz, and a first time stop over at the Disney store on 5th. Eli was thrilled to have his picture taken with Chip and Dale and Donald Duck.

Monday night we had our Family Home Evening with a fellow named Anders Karlsson, who Joe met at church on Sunday. He is from Sweden and was here on business. We met up with him and went to Dylan's candy bar of all places and tried out the ice-cream parlor upstairs- it is overrated for sure. We had an enjoyable time just visiting with him and Joe got his Scandinavian fix in for the day! The full moon was gorgeous and made for a great picture of our family and the Crysler Building with a full moon, which Anders took with his camera- (we will add it when he sends it to us!) They have 4 kids just opposite ours and two years younger- two girls, oldest and youngest, two boys in the middle. Same age splits and everything- their oldest daughter is Kaija's age and youngest 1 1/2 years old. I think the cogs in Joe's head were turning- not such a bad idea to have planned marriages te, he, he! Oh, for the love of Scandinavia!!

Tuesday morning we went with Kristen and Sara and their kids to the Doughnut Plant down in Chinatown and got some yummy doughnuts- raspberry glaze, tres leche, coconut cream, chocolate etc. Yes, admittedly we have had WAY too much sugar in our lives lately!!! Oh well, we will be back in Warrensburg soon enough without yummy, fun places to eat- live it up, that's what I say! Anyway, we burned some of those extra calories by playing at a park nearby and shopping around a little bit.

Wednesday morning Kristen, Sara, Marin, and Amiee and I with all of our children went to the Bronx Zoo which was spectacular- and it was the most beautiful and perfect day ever known to man! The camels made a huge impression on us as they were healthy and happy looking- something unknown to us in our zoo travels. Usually they look like they were hit with the ugly stick; having their humps falling off their backs, and their mangy looking dread-lock patches semi-attached. We were so pleased of their confident manor in the Bronx! Yea Camels! The Gorilla forest was wonderful with mists and waterfalls and other things to amuse onlookers. It was just a fantastic day and we were so glad to spend it with such fine friends!

Friday and Saturday I was able to help our friend Suzan Nelson pack up their things for their move back to Provo. It was such fun and a good break for me since the kids could work on their school stuff in our apartment while I was seven floors up with Suzan. Suzan and her husband Tom were the first members that we met upon our arrival- they were going to dinner with the Sister Missionaries and we all happened to meet in the foyer of our building. They were instrumental in helping us find the church building on the east side (since the temple building is currently undergoing renovations). They have been so fun to get to know and we are so sad for them to leave, however, they are conveniently moving in "across the street" from my parents in Provo; that should work out nicely!

For our final outing of the week, we found ourselves in a crazy crowd down in Little Italy on Saturday night for a street fair or festival of some sort- we just had to check it out- though Joe wouldn't hear of actually eating there. It was a very busy place and sort of repeated itself each block, so we ditched and wandered around Soho, Noho and Nolita and somehow ended up at the K-Mart; how weird, but we were able to get some items that you just can't find at other places around here. I never thought I would be shopping at K-mart in Manhattan- I could probably say it was the least notable shopping experience yet!

Our missing stories

So obviously there was a little break in my posts over the last couple of weeks, but it certainly isn't because there wasn't any activity going on in our lives! So for my own sake we are going to have a little recap of these events!

We went to Coney Island on Saturday Aug 30th- We were headed out there as a family, then as we were half way there Joe got called into work because of a leak into the organ chamber-there was quite a bit of rain on Friday; bad news indeed! Well, we went on ahead and were a little scared of what we had found. First of all it was not a beautiful ride into Brooklyn,(though we did think that the houses there were interesting-1/2 of it with red siding, green shingles and a rock chimney, and the other half white with blue shingles and a brick chimney- so weird to me) but Coney Island was not any better-in fact it was a ghost town. We found out later that things don't get hopping until much later in the day! Anyway, we walked around the Boardwalk for a bit and found some lunch at Nathan's with the famous Coney Island hotdog. Then we walked down the pier and played in the ocean for a few hours until Joe hooked back up with us again. This was the kids first time seeing the ocean, and they loved it. They discovered jellyfish and sea glass and wanted to go to the beach everyday afterward!

So that was fun, then on Sunday we had Joe's sister Abby come for a visit! We were so happy to have her come and I loved having another adult to hang with during the day. We had a blast- shopping, and shopping and shopping, and walking and walking and walking. Hopefully Abby's feet have recovered!


For my birthday we went to a fun place called Dylan's candy shop and had our share of eye candy as well as candy candy! Not to mention, we had the weirdest thing happen at the pier with strange boats that came and camped out, a police search all around the pier via boats and wave runners. It was really exciting and we all made up stories about what was happening; this is New York, there always has to be a good story to go along with the action!!

We went on the Stanten Island Ferry to get some close up shots of the Statue of Liberty- which Eli loves- he likes to call her Lady Liberty too and is so excited when we can see her from various vantage points like the Brooklyn Bridge, Ikea, and now the ferry. The kids liked the ferry and were counting jellyfish all the way across to the island and back.

We went to Ground Zero and the surrounding areas- now having seen video footage and pictures it really is mind boggling to imagine the distruction that took place there.

We went to Chinatown and ate some yummy icecream there including coconut, lychee, and mango-such fun. The week before I had taken the kids to the Children's Museum of Art and the Chinatown icecream factory was there doing a demonstration on making icecream- so the kids all got to try out the plastic bag version of making icecream- then when no one actually made their own icecream, they passed out some that they had already prepared. Hence the journey to their shop in Chinatown! Admittedly Chinatown isn't my favorite place- the smell at the grocery shops there is rough for those with a weak stomach....psssttt....wanna buy a purse, CD, DVD, perfume???? You really have to be in the right mood to go there! We did make a second trip there with my friend Kristen and her son while Abby was with us, only we went to the Economy candy store and a Cuban resturant and Washington Square- which is not my favorite park! We were, however, amused by the squirrel that was throwing nuts at us from the tree above our picnic table- it was crazy!

Oh yes, and one more thing, since they have had 2 Saturdays of flooding into various areas of the organ chambers- our stay has been extended into the beginning of December!!!!! Not too sad about that-but we were a little worried when they were thinking of calling off the job for a while! We weren't quite ready to leave yet!

Remembering 9 11

This is a day that I never fully grasped when it occurred 7 years ago. We were living in Lawrence Kansas in our home on Rhode Island St., Zach and Kaija were at preschool at K.U., Joe was at school (I think) and I was home with Bella. We had no television, I didn't listen to the radio, we didn't get the paper and I really just didn't have a real connect to the outside world. My sister-in-law Amy Kirkham called me to tell me what was going on, knowing that it wasn't likely that I had heard anything. I never actually saw any of the T.V. footage or newspapers, just bits from the magazines and papers at the grocery store.

Sad to think of my ignorance- so today for part of our school, and since every station here in New York has the live coverage of the memorial services, I thought it would be appropriate to watch. It is strange to have been down at the Ground Zero site last week, and going there to see nothing really. It is surrounded with a gate which is covered with tarps. Basically an empty space; then to watch the coverage and see down inside that space and all the people who are still mourning their losses. We also watched a portion of the documentary called "The Day the Towers Fell" on the History Channel. Heart wrenching, would be putting it mildly. I think it is apropos that we are experiencing these tragic and heroic images for the first time while we are living here in NYC. It has been really emotional for me (not that there is anything that isn't emotional for me) to experience this today, and it is in stark contrast to my experience last night while we attended the Manhattan Temple for the first time since being here (it has been closed and just re-opened on Tuesday). What a difference from the crazy noise of the city to the absolute peace of the temple. What a blessing to have the peace of the gospel in our lives and to have a refuge from the world and a place like the temple where the spirit of the Lord is unrestrained and can penetrate deep into the soul! This to me is a day to truly count my blessings and to express gratitude for all who have sacrificed so much for the freedoms I enjoy.

In a nut shell

We have been busy little beavers here lately- I have really been trying to concentrate on school for the kids- which has been a little challenging due to the fact that they feel like we are still on vacation! Slowly but surely we are getting it going and working out the bugs! We are not finding it difficult to have things to do, it is just trying to sort out all the good things that we can do. For school on Tuesday we went to the Metropolitian Museum of Art for the first time since our arrival- crazy I know! It was bad timing for Eli; he was suffering from some Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde moments- rotating between brilliant and nightmarish moments throughout the day. I was exhausted by the end of it! We did have a great time though, and for their art projects afterward they started a new hobby, Quilling- I could hardly get them to bed.