Oh Ellen

I really love Ellen DeGeneres.
I love her show as well.
She is so hilarious.
If you don't watch her show, you should. Check YouTube, it's great stuff.

Anyway. She has these new commercials with JCPenny. They are laugh out loud funny.
In case you haven't seen them, watch these!! There is bound to be at least a smile on your face! :)

And finally...

Taxes

I think I just died a little inside.
Who knew using a 1099 to file taxes online would make life SO complicated.
I didn't even make it through the form, which is stupid because I don't have much of anything to fill out on it.
But, instead, I decided to watch The Office.
I still have 6 weeks or so right?
Taxes should be easier.

Distractions

Sometimes I get very easily distracted. Like right now. I should be doing homework, but instead I have been on Pinterest for the past 45 minutes.... Oops! I should be doing homework and then going to be since I am exhausted but for some reason I find procrastination much more entertaining. Oh silly me. The other thing distracting me is that spring break is just two short weeks away. Although I have TONS to do before then, it's also not too overwhelming, at least right now, because I have midterms out of the way, AND I got A's on all of them! Woot woot! That is a first ever in Lindsay history I believe, but hey, I'm gonna take it and roll with it and hope the rest of the semester flies by in the same fashion with surprisingly good things like midterm grades. :)

Sometimes I think distractions are good though. They are a great way to clear my head and realize what is important and who is important and who is worth my time to worry about and who isn't. Now, for me to stop finding new music and pinning all the things on pinterest... and back to reality and homework.

Happy Monday!!

Why I have super awesome parents

Today I got my computer back... and I am struggling to type on it correctly. The reason this makes my parents super awesome? Well for the past couple of weeks while I have not had my computer, I have had one of theirs! You see, a few days after my computer went on the fritz and I took it in to get fixed, they sent over one of their laptops from Colorado for me to use while mine was gone. They are so awesome. They did this last time my computer had problems as well and it has been so helpful, especially with all of the crazy amounts of school work that I do online. Thanks mom and dad!!!

I also FINALLY picked up a bunch of my pictures from my Israel trip today, and I must say, they turned out SOOOOO great! I spent nearly 2 hours going through them today and just remembering all of the different places we went and all of the things that we saw. That really was such an amazing trip for me and I am so grateful I was able to go (another reason my parents are so great! They were the ones who paid for me to go!)

On a side note, I have a new addiction this week, well actually two. Double Stuf Oreos and the TV show Shark Tank! It is oh so good and everyone should watch it!
And now, I must get back to studying for midterms :/ Oh what a week I have had, and mostly in the not-so-great-and-stressful kind of way, but that's life I suppose.

Hilarity (is that a word)

Sometimes when it's late at night and I can't sleep, I find random things online.... like these awesome pictures..

              Traffic... what a bugger

                                                 This is how I feel almost every morning..... ugh

Pretty sure this is how every college feels at the end of each semester

I used these at USU, and luckily have not had to use them in Orem, but they were sooo not fun. 

WHYYYY????  All I want this winter is for it to snow :(

Bahahaha

Oh Toy Story

Life's sweet little moments

While at work recently I have started really appreciating quiet time in my life, now more than ever. Three little boys can get EXTREMELY loud, but I just love it. Today while the oldest was at school, I was home with the other two. The baby fell asleep and the three year old quickly after him. I sat on the couch with him laying on my lap sleeping soundly...until he started mumbling in his sleep and snoring because he has a cold. Little ones are so so cute when they sleep. Anyway, I sat there for nearly two hours in just silence and did homework. Usually when I do homework I put some music on or have the TV on or something but not today. It's amazing how often as humans we feel the need to always have noise in our lives. It is near impossible to do things without some sort of background noise. I get ready for school in the mornings listening to music, I drive to school and work with the radio on, there is always background noise of the TV or kids playing vigorously at work, and even putting the kids to bed requires music. But, I am quickly learning to appreciate the little things in life these days. Like peace and quiet. Or when a 3 year old tells you that you are their best friend because you are wearing a spider man band aide. Or when that same three year old just wants to snuggle and watch a movie with you. Or when you pick a child up for school and they are so thrilled to tell you about their day and what the did in school. Little kids really are the greatest, even when they are wild and crazy. I thoroughly enjoy my job. And life is just great these days.

Oh yes, Spider-man rules. 

A must watch

The following video may be 8 minutes long, but it is 8 minutes of pure awesome! These boys are legit.

Such is reality

Oh reality, sometimes you can be so great... other times not so much. 

This kind of reality is my favorite...

I love the snow so much it is kinda ridiculous. Except this snow (the first that actually stayed overnight) disappeared all too quickly and made me sad. 

This one, not so much

and yes, it is very much REAL, unfortunately. Surprisingly, I was not as upset about this as I would have thought I would be. Now just to find the time to go to court...

And just for laughs... this hilarious video that is all too true, especially around Utah. 

I saw it awhile ago, but decided it would be a good laugh for this good ole blog here as well. 

Enjoy your last weekend in January! 

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to one wonderful cousin!! Today is Rachel's 15th birthday!! She is such a joy and a wonderful friend. I was lucky enough to spend three weeks with her in Israel over Christmas and I can't wait for her to come back in August! Love you Rach!!

Mount Zion and En Kerem

After an adventurous few days up North, we had a day full of relaxation and watching movies/ X Files! Sunday was pretty low key and nice just to hang out with family and not do much of anything. Monday was a good, low key day as well. Elaine, Rachel, Nana, and I went to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum here in Israel.  I have had previous experience with Holocaust museums and learning about when happened in the 1930's, but it was still a somber experience. This museum is very well laid out and has an excellent portrayal of what happened from the very beginning to the end. 

Tuesday was another super fun day. Eric, Nana, Brother Elliott, and I all went to Mount Zion and En Kerem. Our first stop was St. Peter in Gallicantu. Early Christians associated this site with the Palace of Caiaphas. This site overlooks the Qidron, Hinnom, and the Tyropoean Valley's as well as the Mount of Olives and Mount Scopus.

  

1st century steps that Christ very well may have walked on

Temple Mount behind us

We then walked up some massive hills (while Eric pushed Nana in her wheelchair) of Mount Zion where we went in to Coenaculum which is traditionally where the Last Supper was. We then hopped over to the Dormitian Abbey which is a traditional site of Christ's mother Mary's death. 

We then got back in the car and drove up to En Kerem. It was so beautiful and green. We walked through the small little city a bit and made our past Mary's Spring where Mary stopped for water on her way to visit Elizabeth after she learned she was pregnant with Jesus. We also saw a few churches that commemorate The Visitation, the meeting of Mary and Elizabeth, and John the Baptist. Unfortunately, they were closed as as most churches during the lunch hour it seems here, but we were still able to get some nice views of the grounds and understand why they are important points in history for us. 

Mary's Spring is behind us. It used to be very large, but in the modern day, water is now diverted elsewhere for people to use and only a small amount still comes all the way down. 

St. John the Baptist church

End of Galilee Trip:Tiberias

On Saturday, December 31, we got up early at left Acre (Akko) to drive to Tiberias to go to church. The branch there are normally about 8-10 people in the branch but the 6 of us alone almost doubled the size and then there was a small tour group there as well so this small little room that used to be a living room of a villa that was converted for Church was just bursting at the seams! It was a lovely service though, and the interesting thing is that a number of the people in the branch speak Spanish so the Branch President translated everything he said in to Spanish as well. The first speaker spoke in Spanish and had a translator so that made it slightly difficult for me to pay attention to her plus the view of the Sea of Galilee was also very distracting. Then, Eric sang a lovely rendition of the hymn, "Arise, O God and Shine". The second speaker, the Branch President's wife Sister Graham, spoke about the Book of Mormon and gave a touching testimony which made me feel the need and a sense of urgency to read the Book of Mormon this year. I have not read it for awhile, but after her talk and even this amazing trip, I feel like it is something I need to be doing. After the service, we gook a few pictures of the amazing view of the Sea of Galilee and then got back in the car and drove down on Israeli controlled roads through the West Bank to Jerusalem. 

The course of our trip Saturday

And a few pictures of the view from the converted villa...

Can you imagine living somewhere where you look out your back window and this is your view???

This little vacation within our vacation was so wonderful and I had such a great time that I am sad to be living Israel at all in a few days, but school must  continue I guess.

Safed and Acre

A day of the Middle Ages!! We started out our morning bright and early with breakfast so that we could check out of the kibbutz and get on the road to Safed and Acre, which is right on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. This was our journey of the day...

We drove from point A all the way to the coast and still had time to do things both during the drive and after our arrival. We drove through the mountainous North of Israel and found our way to the old city of Safed (also known as Sfat!). As I learned from Eric, it is one of the four Holy Cities of Judaism, the other three being Jerusalem, Tiberias, and Hebron. Safed was important because it was like the base of mysticism for the Jewish community and a lot of important and powerful rabbis are buried in the cemetery there. From Safed, you can even see the Sea of Galilee and it looks much closer than it really is. It is a beautiful site to see. We mostly just drove around here because we didn't really know where we were going and it was a city with massive hills. A few times though, Rachel, Eric, and I would jump out of the car and wander through a few streets or take some pictures. The first time we got out of the car we just parked on the side of the road and Elaine, Nana, and Sam stayed while we went down the hill to see a few things. On our way back up the hill we saw a police car with its lights on and for a moment we were worried it was going  up the hill to take our car away because we didn't know if we could really park where we parked or not. It was pretty entertaining and we ran up the hill only to discover that the police were not in fact interested in our vehicle. What a relief! We then drove around some more and here are the pictures of our little adventure...

This flag says "Messiah" with a King crown on it. These men were walking in to the welfare office of the city while sporting the flag proudly throughout the streets

Safed used to be a mixed community of Arab's and Jews but in 1948 all of the Arab's were either expelled from the community or voluntarily left the city. This is an abandoned minaret still standing in the now all Jewish community. 

A cloudy day, but still barley visible is the Sea of Galilee

A wall made of old trash cans filled with rocks

evil little Hyrax! As we approached the following abandoned building, this little monster was staring us down and being evil. 

We then drove around some more and took all kinds of turns trying to find the cemetery and experienced the city a little bit and then on the very edge of town next to the highway we finally found the cemetery! Jewish cemetery's are interesting to me because they are not "normal" cemetery's with just headstones or anything. It seemed that the coffins were above ground, although they may not really be above ground. The following pictures will help describe the cemetery.

The hands on the tombstone mean that the person buried there was of high importance as a priest in the community

"Safed Blue" tombs. Some were painted while many were not. It is unclear to us why some were painted

Eric, Rachel, and I climbed up part of the hillside through the cemetery so that we could look through some of the older tombs. 

Then we got back in the car and started driving some more! Along the way, we stopped at this little mall on the side of the highway in Karmi'el...

...and food of choice that meal by Sam was MCDONALDS!! 

It tasted mostly normal, but somewhat different because there was not cheese on any of the burgers and the shakes were not as thick as they are in the states. Ordering food here was just as difficult if not harder than the previous day because the ONE guy who spoke English only spoke a few rudimentary words or phrases. I didn't even bother to try to ask for salt or anything extra because it was just too difficult. Even when they asked for my name after I ordered, the guy struggled with it as if he had never heard the name Lindsay before and it was too American for him to figure out. 

After we ate, we had to get gas but this picture just proves how difficult things are in a foreign country! It was near impossible to figure out what to do since everything is in Hebrew and very complicated. The clerk finally came out and helped him figure it out but even when she was doing what needed to be done, it took multiple steps and complicated ways of getting gas!

We then drove the rest of the way to Acre (Akko) and found our little guesthouse/hostel/hotel and got all checked in. At first we thought that the people at the desk said that the castle across the street was already closed for Shabbot, but there was some misunderstandings between language barriers and it turned out that it was still open so we were able to go and explore it for a little while. I am really loving old places like this castle and other places like Caesarea. 

Part of the Crusader castle was under construction

Rooster!

Then after we went through most of the castle, Rachel and I went exploring down in a tunnel.

A VERY SHORT (height wise) TUNNEL MIND YOU!

When Rachel and I exited the tunnel we ended up in the old city of Acre and had to find our way back to the entrance of the castle to find everyone else

The garden at the entrance/exit where I experienced more staring and weird things because of my blonde hair... 2 Italian men were walking by and they were staring at me and got very close and then one of them said to me "Oh beautiful! What blonde hair and blue eyes! Mamma Mia!" Nana and I had a good laugh about this. 

Then we all wandered through the city and made our way down to the docks on the ocean. 

Restringing their nets

Playing on the rocks on the shore

This picture has two mosque's, two minarets, and a church right in the middle of them all.

We even walked through the fish market!

I love sunsets on the ocean :) They make me happy

We then went back to our hotel and relaxed for a little bit before we ventured out to find dinner... oh what an experience! It seems that when it comes to finding food here, it is the most entertaining because it is so difficult! We drove around for awhile and then finally we found this random little place on the side of the road that didn't even have a name. We went in and only the main manager spoke English. We were at our table for maybe a good 10 or 12 minutes before he came back said "We have a small problem. We have no menus in English". We just all had to laugh because we started to suspect that that would be the case. So he kindly told us a few things they had and we just ordered simple: the salad (which if you remember is NOT really salad but pita and dips and whatnot) and then the meat plate for the table which consisted of lamb, chicken, and steak. 

I thought that I had been eating steak the whole time but turns out the three mini pieces I had were actually lamb! Who would have guessed that I would have liked it hahaha 

And it apparently was somone's birthday because they turned on the music quite loud (which was in English by the way) and brought out nifty little firework type candles and sang. By the end of the meal we were all tired and ready to just be in our beds and wake up to a new morning. Just for fun, here are a couple of pictures of our little rooms...

Sam really loved the bunk beds. 

I found ESPN somehow on TV and was able to watch the last half of the Lakers/Knicks game which made me happy even though I don't really like either of the teams. Overall, it was a very busy, long, and adventurous day for all of us and I am sad that this whole trip is quickly winding down.