Happy Easter

We hope all of our friends and family had a wonderful Easter weekend. David and I spent the day with David's family. We went to church at Courtney and Cameron's ward in High Point and then came back to Greensboro for a picnic at the beautiful arboretum near our apartment.

After the picnic, we went and played on the swings. Now, when I say "we," I mean the adults. I think Courtney, David, and I had more fun than the kids!





Jackson and Caroline had a good time playing too!



It was a really enjoyable day. I love spending time with family!

Monkey in Europe

Recently, my mother-in-law took a trip to Europe. She was nice enough to take Monkey with her and took some WONDERFUL pictures of monkey tagging along on her travels.

Monkey taking a bus ride in Koblenz, Germany

Monkey in Hitler's Congress Hall in Nuremberg

Monkey on replica of Gutenberg Press in Mainz, Germany

Monkey in the Heathrow Airport on his way to Amsterdam

Monkey in part of the Berlin Wall (He's on the side of the right panel)

Monkey holding his bus ticket (This is one of my favorites!)

Monkey on the door of St. Stephens in Mainz, Germany (notice the loaves and the fish)

Monkey with bust of Hitler

Monkey at the flower market in Amsterdam

Bet you can guess where this last one was taken...

So, I was extremely jealous when I found out that David's mom, Heather, had not only gone to Nuremberg but had toured the Nuremberg Rally Grounds where the annual National Socialist Rallies had been held. For those of you who don't know, I'm writing my thesis on one of the stadiums, the Zeppelin Field, within these rally grounds. I literally freaked out when I found out that Heather had actually BEEN THERE!!! (David said that he wished I had been as excited on the day we got married ;) Anyway, Heather, being the amazing person she is, brought me back two books about the rally grounds and the museum there, the Documentation Center. Aaah!! I can't tell you how thrilled I am! Thank you, thank you, and thank you again, Heather!!! My night will be taken up with reading!

Domesticity

Last night David and I decided to make apple pie. It turned out pretty good and David even liked it! (He doesn't usually like cooked apples.)

Interjection by David: The key to a good apple pie is thinly sliced apples. I'm talkin super thin slices. They can't be too long either. I learned this from my companion Elder Wright who makes a mean apple pie. We now return to your regularly scheduled blog brought to you by Leda:

As I was saying... we made apple pie last night. Here are some pictures. I didn't get a chance to take one of the pie before we ate some of it. Sorry. But you get the idea.

In this picture, David is not actually pointing at the bowl. He is actually pointing at his UNC shirt for all my family who chose Memphis in their brackets...

Triple Coupons!

Today I went to Harris Teeter (which is a grocery store for all you Utahans) because they were having their famous triple coupon sale!!! This means that they will triple any coupons you bring in up to $0.99. So, for instance, if you have a coupon for $0.75, you will get $2.25 off!

So, here is a list of all the things I bought today:

Package of 24 frozen rolls
Granola bars
2 packages of Pillsbury biscuits
Package of Pillsbury croissants
3 boxes of Kellogg's Mini-Wheats Cereal
2 boxes of Kellogg's Frosted Flakes Cereal
2 Gallons of milk
Package of spaghetti noodles
5 boxes of trash bags with 18 bags in each box

For all of this, I spent $21. It normally would have cost $50. I was pretty proud of myself!

Knowing

I absolutely LOVE disaster movies. They are my favorite film genre. So, when I saw the awesome trailer for the new Nicholas Cage movie, Knowing, I had to see it. David was kind enough to take me for our date night last week. All I have to say is, wait until it comes out on video. Overall, the movie was well done and the storyline was interesting (and pretty intense...I had my eyes shut for a lot of the movie because it was VERY SCARY!). However, the storyline was also WEIRD. The story and outcome were completely different than I thought they were going to be and, in the end, well, let's just say it got a little too scientological for me. But, hey, that's just my opinion....and the opinion of most reviewers....and of everyone else I've talked to who's seen it....

AMAZING!

On March 17 an underwater volcano erupted off the coast of Tonga. It is an amazing sight. I've included some of the pictures below. Go here for all of the photos or here for a video of the eruption.

Thankful Thursday...on Friday

I meant to write yesterday but, as so often happens, "life comes at you fast." This week I am thankful that sometimes life's chaos happens at opportune moments.

Previously, the only seating we have had in our apartment was a futon. About a month ago, said futon began to break. David tried to fix it and we attempted to only sit on one side of it when we sat on it at all. But, alas, on Wednesday when David and I were watching TV we heard a creaking noise. Suddenly we found ourselves facing the ceiling. Needless to say, the futon had finally broken.

Now, here's where the "Thankful Thursday" part of this journey comes into play. I am thankful that the futon, although diminished of its couch-like qualities, can still be used as a bed when we move into a larger apartment. I am so extremely thankful that David and I had the means to go buy a very nice sofa and love seat to replace the futon. I am thankful that I live right next to the furniture capital of the US so we have cheap furniture outlet stores on every corner. Finally, I am thankful that Wednesday was David's night off so we were able to immediately go looking for new couches.

The couches have been moved in and are so nice. We got an extremely good deal on them plus they are leather which means they are easy to keep clean! (Clean freaks rejoice!) Both David and I are grateful for the blessings that we have that allowed us to purchase them.