Mom to the rescue

My wonderful mom came flying to my rescue last week. I was dreading the week because Scott was leaving for Houston to attend classes for work. Which meant me being at our apartment, alone, no job to keep me busy, and no friends to keep me company. (Just so you know, I love the ward out here so far. They're awesome. But Scott and I are literally the only young married couple and also the only couple without at least 3 kids. We're clearly in a different stage of life then everyone else.) So needless to say, I was getting a bit of anxiety about Scott leaving. My mom could tell and bought a plane ticket and stayed with me for the week. It was fantastic.

I know. I have the best mom.

It was so fun having her out here and having our first visitor! 

We of course had to spend a day in the city of New Orleans. The live jazz music was excellent and the mardi gras masks were very entertaining!

Mom's mask with the beds hanging down under her eyes kills me every time! haha it's such an awesome mask. And so jeanie. 

We found an impressive living statue. Mom snuck up behind him for a picture!

We had to try out Cafe Du Monde while we were there. They only serve beignets and drinks and it's a cash only business but their beignets are delicious! mmmm 

I realized that I never feel claustrophobic while inside the French Quarter but as soon as I step out, I take a huge inhale as if I can finally breathe. Everything is so tight inside there. 

But I do love the Spanish architecture.

Now for some history provided by the mug I bought: "New Orleans was founded in 1718 by Jean Baptiste La Moyne Sieur de Bienville of France. New Orleans changed from French to Spanish then back to French control before being sold to the United States in 1803. During Spanish rule (1762-1800) two fires destroyed most of the French Quarter. Rebuilding was done in the Spanish style with wrought iron balconies, this is why the dominant architectural style is Spanish not French."

Next stop was a ride on the streetcars. The St. Charles line ventures through the uptown neighborhoods and must also be one of the parade routes for Mardi Gras considering the ridiculous amount of beads hanging from every tree and many telephone lines. (Can you see all the beads in that tree?) The houses we passed though were gorgeous.

Audubon Park is this amazing area full of huge oak trees, ponds, fountains, open green space, and a trail that has a 2 mile loop.

You may also come across a man sitting on a bench playing his saxophone, serenading the park.

Such a great find! I need to go back and walk through the park some more. So glad I was able to have my mom there with me! She kept me sane and we had a great time. It was all in all, a relaxing, fun week. 

Gainesville, Florida

I thought I would do a quick picture update for you. Over Labor Day weekend Scott and I took a spontaneous trip to Gainesville, Florida to visit Scott's best friend. We went to a football game Saturday evening and had quite the evening. 

Firstly, I've never seen so much orange and blue. And this wasn't even a huge game mind you. 

Secondly, and I had no idea but the thing to wear to a football game is a Vegas style strip club dress. No, I'm not kidding. Check out my stalker photos. :)

Lovely right? Wrong. It's ridiculous. Really? You want to sit on a bleacher in that? While it rains? Good call.


Anyways, it was lovely and sunny.                             And then it down poured like no ones business.

And then the game got delayed before it even began. So we waited, and then got some sandwiches to go and ran in the pouring rain to this little tunnel to wait out the rain. Tunnel included smokers on both ends and drunk nasty adults on the other. It was quite the experience. It makes me realize how great Utah is with it's little bubble. I know people hate on the Utah bubble but I'd rather not be surrounded by disgusting adults who are drunk and talking about all sorts of foul things thank you.

The lightning finally cleared up enough for the game to start. (After 3 hours of delays). University of Florida almost scored on the first play. And then the game got delayed again. And after a half hour of more waiting, the game was finally cancelled.

Sunday after church we drove over to St. Augustine to walk around and see the oldest town in the US. 

It's really hot and humid there.

But so pretty and so neat.

We had a great little trip. Even though we got stuck in traffic for an hour and a half coming home. That was a kill joy for sure. But that's life for you! You just have to take it as it comes. :)

Why Write?

With not having a job right now I was running out of things to do to keep me busy during the day. A good friend told me to try out calligraphy, and can I just say that I'm so grateful I did! Calligraphy is amazing and addicting. It has a way of calming you and sucking you in. It's the same feeling I get when I do embroidery. I'm focused in on this simple task, be it a stitch or a stroke, that everything else fades away and I become relaxed. I just write, or I just sew and nothing else matters.

I came across this video though and thought I would share.

Why Write?

Now if you don't have 16 minutes to just sit down and watch this TED clip, then scroll a little further. But really, you should watch it.



The medical loving side of me caught on to this research he mentioned... Here are the notes:

-He took a cognitive psychology class and studied how handwriting helps develop the brain. During the different tactile movements of doing handwriting, the brain is engaged in more areas and the information is ingrained into the brain. The same was not found to be true with typing however, which does not involve the same type of differential tactile movements.
-Handwriting was also found to be incredibly helpful in small children who were learning to read. By forming the individual letters they had a deeper understanding of the anatomy of each one, and were therefore able to recognize it when it came time to read it on the page.
-Cursive was found to be even more beneficial to the brain. Researchers and scientists have done brain scans on children learning cursive and found that the different parts of the brain engaged are similar to those that adults typically use for writing and higher reasoning. The screen went blank when the kids were doing typing because it didn't involve the same type of tactile movement.

Interesting right?! I love learning about how amazing the body is and how things effect each other.

Here's another article for you:

Why Writing by Hand Could Make You Smarter

I think it was in high school that I decided I wanted to start writing in cursive more. (I'll have to check my journal for sure though.) I had to do a google search for the cursive alphabet for some of the letters I had forgotten from elementary school. Cursive became my primary handwriting for my journal and remains still. I love cursive. It's so fun and fast and beautiful.

If all of this hasn't inspired you to take a second look at your handwriting then I don't know what will. It's never to late to try something new. Start with cursive and just a normal pen or pencil. I think knowing cursive beforehand has been helpful with picking up calligraphy. And then try some calligraphy. I'm excited to really study it out and practice. I find myself looking at billboards now and imagining the direction that the strokes would need to go to produce the thick/thin look of the letters. Pathetic I know but whatever. It happens!

Weekend Getaway to Orange Beach

Scott has a work schedule that's called a 9/80, meaning he works 9 hour days Monday through Thursday, and then he has every other Friday off. The Fridays that he does work are 8 hour days. Last weekend was one of those wonderful 3 day weekends for us so we decided to see what Orange Beach, Alabama was like. It's only a 3 hour drive from where we are and the sands are white and the water is warm. It felt wonderful... as long as you were in the water. We didn't have a big beach umbrella so laying out on the towel was toasty hot, sweaty, humidity goodness. The heat is intense down there right next to the gulf!

The only thing about the area is that there were a lot of little fishes that you would accidentally step on, or they would nibble at you. And there were even these little jelly fish looking guys and I got stung on the arm by one. (No worries, nothing happened except a stinging sensation that lasted for about 10 minutes). Now there were some speed boat racing going on right out in front of us, so I can't decide if they were stirring up the water and causing all the fish to come closer to the shore, or if that's just normal.

 Quaint little place to stick a restaurant don't you think? We loved it.

We weren't sure what to do for Saturday, and we knew we didn't want to go back to the beach because we had already checked out of our hotel, so I searched online and found another little gem hidden away.

Behold the Bellingrath Gardens and Home.

Walter Bellingrath was one of the first to open a Coca-Cola Bottling Company in the southern area, and let's just say he made a pretty penny from it. He and his wife ended up creating a beautiful garden that covered 65 acres, with the help of an architect. They opened their garden to the public in 1932 just for one day, but it turned out to be quite the attraction. It's been open ever since and now you can also tour their home that was built around the same time. 

The house was built in a "U" shape with this courtyard in the middle. They had no air conditioning yet so the shape of the home helped the air flow better through the house.

The gardens were amazing, and completely worth the humidity. :)

They had many different themed areas. The couple traveled to Europe at one point and was very influenced by the English style gardens. They had an area for that, an Asian garden, a Bayou, a large rose garden, and a few others. The garden is most popular for all of the azaleas and camellias that grow there.

Their house is on the edge of the Fowl River so naturally they would need their own huge private dock. 

It was a fun little weekend getaway. I think the next one we'll hit Pensacola Beach and see which one we like better. They're almost right next to each other but we heard Pensacola is more crowded. Orange Beach was nice though. We'll be back for sure!

And the Bellingrath Gardens and Home, was so lovely. I love learning about people and what they did and the stories about them. When Scott and I were in Oregon, we toured Captain Flavel's house as well. I think I see a pattern starting to emerge... haha find me some old houses please!

Global Wildlife Center (aka "FEED ME!")

Number 6 on the Tripbuzz website for things to do in Covington, LA and given a 96% rating was the Global Wildlife Center. So Scott and I decided to check it out last weekend.

Basically, it's a park where a bunch of wild animals (all grazers) roam free(ish) and you ride in this covered wagon train and feed the animals. They have these miniature deer, zebras, giraffes, emus, kangaroos, and a bunch of other animals that I had no idea what they were.

(Some playing around before getting on the wagons.... Scott mid yawn. haha)

These are the cups of food that you can buy. You can also buy an entire bucket... which is definitely the better option. The animals chow down! Also, they are known to take the cup right out of your hands.

It was so hot out there. I was getting a little sweaty. Also, it started raining at one point and those "covered wagons", don't actually mean they'll protect you from the rain. Which lead to my entire backside getting wet and adding on to the sweat. Yum-my

Tiny deer! They're so cute. 

Don't know what happened to this guys poor horn, it's bent all the way back. 

The animals swarm the wagons. They know that you have food hidden inside and they want it!

Apparently you're not suppose to feed the zebras with the cup. You're suppose to just throw the food on the ground, because the zebras will still bite at you. But what the heck, I fed him with the cup anyway.

Zebras are so cool.

Longest tongue ever. Also, his throat alone is a bottomless pit.

One more cute zebra for you! There are also giraffes but they don't come up to the wagon train very often. So, next time I come here, I'm doing the private tour. Which means you're in a smaller car and you drive up to the giraffes! There are two baby giraffes as well right now so I definitely doing it!

Anyways, Scott and I had a great time. If you ever happen to be around here, I would completely suggest it, along with light weight airy clothing, water, buying the bucket of feed, and the private tour. :)