Good Times

The past two weeks have definitely been the most eventful of my whole life! It has been a whirlwind, but a good whirlwind. I feel kind of like Dorothy in the "Wizard of Oz." Only instead of "I'm not in Kansas anymore," it would be, "I'm not in Utah anymore." I miss everyone there, but it's been good to get settled in here. And I do love Illinois in the fall with the leaves changing color and the corn harvest taking place. I really enjoyed meeting everyone in the Springfield ward yesterday. They are very nice, and the bishop and his wife invited us over for dinner this evening. Bishop Andreasen works at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum--so we had many things to talk about. Speaking of which, just the other day the director of the museum was arrested for shoplifting! So he is currently on "paid administrative leave." The funny thing is that this isn't the first time that said director has been arrested for shoplifting--it's the third time! It seems funny that they won't fire someone who keeps getting arrested, but they will lay off other hardworking employees. It sounds like this guy needs to be replaced, and I can think of the perfect person for the job. Her name is Linda, and I'm pretty sure she would need an assistant. :-)


Yesterday afternoon Greg and I picked up his two dogs at the doggie hotel where they were staying. It was fun to see Big Spike and Little Spike again. Little Spike is extremely intrigued with my battery-powered toothbrush. Greg and I are getting along well as a married couple. The only problem we've discovered is that I'm always cold and he's always hot. :-)

Here is a recap of the last couple of weeks:

On Thursday, October 16, Susan and Harvey Black took Greg and me to dinner at none other than the famous Chuck-a-Rama restaurant! I hadn't eaten at Chuck-a-Rama for about eight years. Let's just say that I lost a lot of weight after I ate there the last time--but I had no stomach complications this time. It was fun to have dinner with them and some other BYU friends Dr. Anderson and Jeanne. They offered us a lot of good marriage advice.

On Friday, October 17, Grandpa Dick and Grandma F.T. arrived from St. George! It was wonderful to see them. Then Greg, his parents, Mom, Dad, and I had a delicious lunch at Chef's Table.

That afternoon, Mom, Lindy, Camden, Riley, and I went and had our nails done! We had a great time. Here are the girls with the wide selection of nail colors.









On Saturday, October 18, we had the wedding! It was a beautiful fall day, and it was so fun to see everyone there. Having Grandma F.T. and Grandpa T. there was especially special. Here I am with Mom and Dad in front of the temple after the wedding. More wedding photos will be coming in the near future.







Here we are at the temple.











And here we are at the White Willow for the wedding luncheon.








After the luncheon, Mom and Dad helped Greg and me pack the car, then Greg and I took off for Sundance where we spent the night. This is a picture of the back of Timp on Sunday morning. It was so beautiful there! We had an awesome brunch at Sundance. My favorite dish was the eggs florentine.




The next stop was Four Corners. This was the first time I had ever visited Four Corners, and it was definitely fun to stand in four states at once.






That evening, as we passed Shiprock in New Mexico, we could see a sunbow around the sun--it looked pretty cool. We spent Sunday evening in Grants, New Mexico, and then on Monday we drove to Gainesville, Texas.






On our way to Gainesville, we passed the infamous Route 66 town, Moriarty, New Mexico. That is where Mom and I were marooned for a few days back in 2007 on our way to Natchez when my car decided to break down (which was very unusual for my car!). Greg and I blew past Moriarty because, as Mom, Sarah, Joel, Eliza, and I discovered, the town is cursed. Some kind of weird vibes in the air cause your car to break down. Sarah, Joel, and Eliza decided to stay there on their way back to South Carolina--but when they went out to the car in the morning, it wouldn't start! Weird. So here is a picture of Moriarty from the freeway. It's a fun little town, but never stop there to eat or fill up your car or stay overnight or anything.

On Tuesday morning, we met one of my favorite people, Ayne McKay, for breakfast. She is my dear friend who I worked with in Natchez. Her husband Berle was another of my favorite people, but he passed away earlier this year. Ayne is so sweet, and it was fun to spend time with her.




Then we drove to Natchez! Greg and I actually stayed across the river in Vidalia, Louisiana, which was really nice. Here is the sweet view of the Mississippi River from our hotel room. We had a fun BBQ with Nathan and Kate that evening.





On Wednesday we toured Natchez. Here we are in front of Melrose.







Of course we had to have lunch at Mammy's Cupboard! Greg agreed with me that the blueberry lemonade and banana caramel pie were about as good as it gets.









That evening, we had dinner at King's Tavern. We ventured upstairs where the ghost, Madeline, is said to live. I took this picture of her mirror which, if you look closely at it, is kind of creepy. You see the thing that looks like a hand print? If you look very closely, you can make out a face. Weird.







Here is the Natchez gang: Greg, me, Jessica, Sharon, Tim, Donna, Kate, and Nathan. Sharon's husband Justin took the picture. It was so much fun to see all of them!






On Thursday we left Natchez and headed up to Vicksburg. Greg liked the cannons :-) It was quite rainy that day, but we had fun nonetheless. Greg also enjoyed seeing the Cairo--a Union gunboat that sank in the river and was recovered back in the 1970s.





We spent Thursday night in Memphis, and then went to Graceland on Friday morning. Graceland was so cool! Elvis definitely had good taste--though the pool room with the carpeted ceiling may have been a little eccentric.





Here is the table in Elvis' TV room. I thought that the monkey was random and funny.







So we had all kinds of good times on our trip, and Greg got to see why I love the South so much. Although he didn't try any grits--we'll have to work on him. Donna said to him, "What?? I didn't know you could have breakfast without grits!" Now that we're back in Illinois, Greg and I are enjoying real life together too. Greg went back to work today, and I'm finishing unpacking all of my stuff. Tomorrow I get to head into Springfield to start working with Linda! There is a chance that if I work with her for 40 hours a week, I might not have to do an additional month of internship somewhere else after Linda is laid off on November 30. Dr. Small is thinking about it. Life is good.