Amsterdam - Church and Family

On Friday, we took a side trip to visit The Hague (Den Haag) and Rotterdam. It's the capital city, and beautiful. My chief reason for wanting to visit The Hague was to see the temple. It was a bit out of our way, but worth it for me. The temple is small, but beautiful, and beautifully situated.

After an afternoon in The Hague, we took the train over to Rotterdam for an evening visit. My reason for wanting to visit Rotterdam was that I found an ancestral connection who had left for America from Rotterdam in the 1730's. I thought it would be cool to be there and feel that connection, and express my gratitude for his courageous decision to leave his home and make a new life for himself in America.

Sunday, we got ourselves to the local Amsterdam ward for sacrament meeting. It was a very cold day, and when we arrived (after 5 train transfers), we found the building to be under renovation, and without heat. But the members were great, although small in number, and we got to enjoy their primary program. As the services were conducted in Dutch, The missionaries also kindly provided translation services for us so we could understand what was going on.

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Tidying Up

If you've been watching Netflix much lately, you've probably seen the new series "Tidying Up", with Marie Kondo. She's an expert in cleaning, tidying, and storing stuff, and her method is quite inspiring. I enjoyed the show so much that I ordered her book "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up", and spent several days trying to get my house more in order. Not that I'm a hoarder - I have a basically tidy home. But the Kon-mari method teaches you to look at your belongings and ask yourself if each particular belonging brings you joy. If it doesn't, it's time for it to move on. I went through all my clothes first, followed by my books and DVD's, followed by the office, followed by the kitchen and laundry room. Whatever didn't bring me joy or a happy memory went into the pile. And when all was said and done, I ended up taking an entire car full of stuff to the local Deseret Industries, to hopefully be re-purposed for someone else to find

New 'Do

For probably the last 10 years or so, I've had pretty much the same hairstyle. For the most part, it's been long, all one length, and I would eventually put it up in a ponytail almost every day, because I couldn't stand having it in my face. It drove me crazy, but I didn't know what to do with it, and at the same time, I liked that I could basically get up and go every day without a lot of effort. For the past several months now, I've been threatening to do something different and drastic, and finally, yesterday, I did. At the recommendation of Angel, I made an appointment with her stylist. It took several weeks to get in, but finally, the day arrived. Angel went with me, for moral support, and to be the photographer. I went in with some basic ideas, but after some consultation and looking at photos with Francine, this is what I ended up with. First, the "before" shot: In process: And finally, the finished product: I can't remember the last time

Triple D Divas Do Northern Utah

Last Saturday, the Triple D Divas met for a day trip get-away to Northern Utah - specifically Logan and Brigham City (with a little touch of Idee-ho thrown in for good measure). We started our journey with lunch at the Bluebird Cafe. Everyone knows about the Bluebird - it's about the oldest place on main street, and is tradition for anyone whose ever done a Logan Temple Trip. We went in to see the Logan Tabernacle, and I snapped this cool picture of the oragn pipes. (Of course, now that we're all in our 40's and have shrinking bladders, the Tabernacle also made for a clean and convenient potty stop.) ...Also a view of the Logan Temple spires from outside the Tabernacle... From there, it was off to Glossner's Cheese Factory for some squeaky cheese. After that, we went to the Pepperidge Farms Outlet, and the girls all found some cookies and stuff. But nothing really excited me there. However, the outlet is located in

Tracie's World

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