wahoo. rewind..

Don't know what happened between last time i updated and now...but here i am again!!  

 Here's an update :)

Guess who came out to New York to join the nanny world...? This girl did..

Tia Marie Patterson!!!

me and tia at the Brooklyn Nets game!

Seriously was sooo so excited when she told me and it was a week after the hurricane so you can imagine how excited i was to see someone that i actually knew and could get away from the family for a little bit to go pick her up from the airport!! She spent the weekend at my house in Woodbury. We went to the Brooklyn Nets basketball game that Sunday. And than each weekend she comes into Long Island to see me and all my friends and goes to church here because her ward is lame...It's been so much fun having her here with me to enjoy all of the fun perks of living in New York! 

***

With Josh gone i haven't gone on a single date until this little boy melted my heart and asked me to go on a date with him!!! (non-creeper) He is on the spectrum (very very low, has very good ability..but just doesn't get some things). Since mommy and daddy always go on dates, he said that he wanted to go one time so i was the first person he asked and we went to dinner and a movie.Friendly's and Wreck It Ralph (seriously a must see movie).

First date in 15 months..with a 7 year old 

best date ever. sorry Josh!!!;);) i still love you!!!!

Deanna (my host mom) said that he has never liked anyone and has been more comfortable with anyone before and that she has seen change in him since he has been here..i honesty couldn't believe how much of a difference it makes to have someone else there and helping him be his "older sister". This little boy has the most amazing heart, cutest laugh, and is the most cuddly boy in the world. He's got his times, but his good times stand out more than the bad..i cant thank my lucky stars enough to have been put into this family..so remarkably blessed! 

Riding go-carts at Woodloch. 

Our "date" :)

***

We had the most perfect get away from all of the craziness of the world and with the hurricane that this was more than perfect!! With my host family we went to Woodloch with his side of the family. Woodloch is in Pennsylvania, in the middle of basically no where. It kind of reminds me of Island Park, Idaho...but not as many cabins! They have a beautiful lake that our hotel overlooked, and so many fun activities that the kids enjoyed. 

Me and Zachary at Thanksgiving dinner

no but seriously..they have everything..

I got my own room, and i have never stayed in a hotel by myself so this was a little weird with two huge beds..and a walk in closet almost bigger than the entire room itself. Of course i had my own dance parties every night!!;) We were there from Wednesday-Sunday. Our days were filled with food, the kids playground, more food, paint balling, riffle shooting, skeet shooting, more food..i felt like we spent more time eating than we did doing activities! You are assigned a certain time to eat so you have to go when they tell you too because there are so many people there. There is horse racing, and a show every night that they hire someone out. They have an amazing staff there and makes every activity fun for the whole family:)

Me and Vivian at thankgiving lunch

Lindsey (cousin) and i zip lining in 30 degree 

the car ride to Woodloch

***

On our way home from Woodloch we stopped by the BIGGEST light show in the US!! It was amazing! The crazy part..literally in the middle of no where. I don't even know how they get customers, but its packed with more than 2,000 people a night!! Its crazy:) But it seriously looked like it could have been the north pole..it was beautiful!!

The lights were done sooo amazing

***

Since the hurricane there is still people with out homes..and because i belong to The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints, and as a Latter-Day Saint it was my privilege to go help those people that needed our help. Mormon Helping Hands seriously changes lives..and there have been a couple people that through our service want to take the lesson's from the missionaries. How amazing??

Please keep those effected by the storm in your prayers, because there was a lot of damage done and still a lot of people out of homes. 

The sweetest lady in the world. With her husband, they had 5 ft. of water in there house. We went in with the Mariners and destroyed the entire house. from top to bottom, completely took everything out, the only things let were the beams for the walls. Her and her husband are both 89

me and violet carrying the HEAVY log. 

Now that is December thing have just got more busy..Christmas shopping, patiently (or i could just be a little to excited i can't wait) waiting to go home, christmas packages, and trying to keep the kids under control...i guess they like Christmas or something!;) The best thing about Christmas time with little kids is that if the kids are being bad i just say "oh look, Jingle (Elf on the shelf) is watching you and he is going to tell Santa that you weren't being nice"..seriously gets them every time!! I wish that every month was Christmas for that reason! 

Next week i will be flying home to see my family for Christmas and i couldn't be more excited to see them!!! I have 1.5 weeks to spend with them!:) Miss them more than ever!! And while i am home i get to have a skype date with my missionary!!! last christmas without him, couldn't be more excited!!  

Frankenstorm Sandy

A freaking hurricane....really??

 k in Utah NOTHING LIKE THIS HAPPENS!! We have mountains they have water, which is why i decided that i am staying in Utah forever!! haha!!

Sunday night is when the wind started to pick my my host mom told me not to worry about it, that it would probably not even hit us hard. Because by the time that it got up to us, it would lose some of its power!! well guess again..

Monday we were fine and still had power but thats when the wind started to really pick up. The kids didn't have school because they cancelled it, so we played just like a regular day. At about 4 o'clock the lights started to come on and off. We got all of our flash lights out and kinda just had them on hand. At about 5 the power went out for good. The kids were a little bit confused when they tried every light switch and no lights came on! haha! So we continued to play until there was no light outside to light up the house. We had cooked dinner while the power was still on so the kids would be able to eat. That night we were able to sleep in the house because it wasn't that cold. I couldn't sleep though because the wind was blowing at high 40-60 mph, with gusts of 80 mph. So that kept me up for a while until it was a background noise to me. 

So you would think that wind wouldn't do much damage...let me tell you it does!!

I was COMPLETELY shocked by how much damage it did. The next morning we couldn't even get out of our neighborhood. There were trees down everywhere. It looked like big foot just came and stopped on all of the trees. They were hanging down, laying on the main roads, leaning on houses. There were leafs everywhere, and the roads looked awful. Wires were down, phone poles were down everywhere, and cable/phone lines were ripped, torn, and destroyed. We also found the top of our chimney off, the cap that holds the pipes on, in the backyard. We had to go spend a couple of days at my host mom's parents house in Queens. They had power, a nice warm bed to sleep in and TV (of course for the kids)! 

I complained about not having power..why?? I felt so selfish after hearing all the news when we would turn the tv on the news how people have lost everything, cars, houses, loved ones. I never will take that for granted again that is for sure. We are back in the house now after five very long days..and things are getting to be back to normal. I have never been in a hurricane before but Sandy was ranked the worst storm in United States History, and i was in it! Something cool to tell my kids when they are older!! Now when i go back home and in class you tell something about yourself...(well i guess college doesn't do that), i can say i was in a hurricane!! haha!!

I feel blessed for nothing further damaged and for being kept safe through the storm, i know that many people had been texting me and worried about me..i am truly blessed to have them in my life!! Prayers were answered that day:)

sandy aftermath: 

oh just our chimney cap!

This van got owned 

This is what every part of our neighborhood looked like

Had to clean everything out of the fridge!! NO power=bad food

This is how cold it was in the house when we finally got power
and were able to come back home

Blackout in Manhattan

What we did while the power was out..

thank heavens for iPads and fake candles 

vivian showed me her dance!

yes they "roasted" marshmallows on the candle 

"roasting!!"

YOu though we were watcing tv on the 64"...nope
that TINY little one in the bottom left corner!!
classic :)

Perfect timing- Family Time

Guess who came to visit this girl???

my family!!!! ohh i was the happiest girl!!! They came over to my host parents house and met them!! You should have seen the way i ran down those stairs to hug my two sisters (out of 4..the other two couldn't come), and my parents!! Ohh i was soo happy that day!! I can't tell you how good it was to see them. It was perfect timing..i'd been out here for long enough i needed my family..but right in the middle before i come home for Christmas!! 

That night my host mom ordered chinese food (she doesn't cook). So i took them on the tour of the house while they got everything set up, its a gorgeous house. After the tour, than we sat down for dinner and had dinner together. We talked, laughed..just like my family dinners! I missed it! After 2 hrs of talking and laughing and getting to know each other they left because we had to get the kids together. I stayed at the house that night because i had to work the next afternoon..so i said goodbye to my family for the night.

I rode the train in the next day.. and my dad picked me up at the train station for 45 minutes. (i was scared out of my mind because i am the ONLY white girl so i stick out like a sore thumb), my dad couldn't find the train station..he finally figured out he was 6 minutes away from me the whole time!! Ahh talk about craziness! Over the next couple of days us girls went sight seeing because my dad had come here on business..so us girls did what we do best, shopping!!!!

We went to Ground Zero on Friday, and that was an amazing sight to see..it was cool too actually see where the buildings stood. There is one tree thats original..the stump is what was left..so it was cool to see that! We went shopping in SoHo, walked canal street, and got lost a lot over the few days! Went to the M&M World, the Empire State Building and looked out on the very top..such an amazing view!! We went to the Manhattan Temple and took some pictures..my family was surprised to know that half of the temple was a church, its in such an awkward place it doesn't fit..but its gorgeous!! My sister bought me Wicked tickets for my birthday..so on saturday night me and my family got to go to that!! It was absolutely AMAZING!!!!! I loved every song and it was amazing!!! I want to go see it again for sure:) 

This weekend was amazing and i was so sad to say bye to them..but Christmas is only a month and half away and than i will see them!! I already miss them:) 

In Times Square

My cute fam:)

M&M World

Freedom tower..not even half way done

amazing picture on the wall

south towers

The only tree that was left of all the destruction..it was a stump when they found it

North tower

Ground Zero memorial

On top of Empire State building 

yess..we are tourists!! 

Me on top of the Empire State Building

amazing panorama picture on top of The Empire State Building

Me and Linds on the subway

M&M World

Bubba Gumps..yummy drink 

The saddest note i have ever seen..911 memorial

Wicked...it was AMAZING!!

yess..we are official

NYPD Dept!!

Me and Tiff standing in this weird mirror...
skinny much..? haha we look like pencils

but for now... i have to be stuck here in Hurricane Sandy... yes i'm scared outta my mind!! In Utah you would never get anything like this...so i have never experienced hurricanes, tornados, or anything. The winds are suppose to pick up to anywhere from 50-70 mph. K i am not even used to 30 mph winds..how am i suppose to more? ahh!! I'll be okay, we are about a half hour from the beach, so hopefully we will be okay! There have been many people have been worried about me which makes me happy that they are thinking of me..but i am hoping that everything will be okay:) All the schools are cancelled and so we will so how tomorrow will go if we don't have any power and the kids are stuck inside all day..this should be fun!! 

I don't consider myself a tourist anymore!!

One month today i have been here!! Time seriously is flying by so quickly...it doesn't even seem like i have been out here that long! I love it though:) I have been trying to figure things out, where the main roads are, how to drive in NY, and specifically figure out where the country stations are on the radio!! I love country music, but there is absolutely none on the radio..i try searching but i can't ever find it. I need to ask someone because i'm sick of all there lamo rap crap!!
Isn't it weird that we pick things out that is different about things back at home? There are no trucks out here..i miss those, zero mountains what so ever, and to many cars! haha!! Everyone out here is either really mean or overly nice, i swear there is no inbetween! Everything is fast pace, go go go attitudes..and there drivers are absolutely insane! Last week when i was in the city with my friend we had to take a taxi to take us back down into the city because we were upstate..and i litereally almost died while in the car..ran probably 5 red lights, and 50 fatal accidents! I am so surprised that there are not more accidents. What i figured out was that like in movies when they show NYC and taxi's in traffic and just a constant honk..they aren't lying, thats real life! Nothing ever stops moving, its absolutely insane!! New York is a beautiful place to be though, all of the amazingly tall buildings, shopping centers, museums, and sights to see! I still have a lot to see because of course i only get to go into the city every weekend and in one day you can't see a lot! So i have a lot ahead of me!!
As for the nanny part of this journey..i love it!! I get to be a mom everyday (that may not sound like a lot of fun, but i am learning a lot) the kids can be a bit to much at times, but i have to remind myself that they are kids and thats what kids do. As anyone would say..i am sure that it's much harder looking after other little kids that aren't your own (and since i don't have any of my own) i think about my nephews..how i enjoy watching them but to other people its more of a job!! It used to be a job, but now i am enjoying it more and feeling more comfortable with the kids! It's amazing how you can just mold into peoples life..like it was meant to be, and i don't doubt for a second that this was my plan all along, because i have already seen changes that are for the better with the family.
The parents have asked a lot of questions about the church. Sometimes i don't feel qualified to answer them because i'm not a "missionary"..but that doesn't mean that i can't help get them there right? I believe that this is my "mission" while everyone else gets to go on their missions, this is mine. To help this family in every way, shape and form!! They did tell me that they are interested and intrigued in my religion. I just hope that they will ask me more questions, and actually want to know more. I am praying that the missionaries will be able to get involved..maybe not while i am here, but maybe down the road! That's my "mission"!!!
New York has already changed the way i think and believe life's suppose to be!! This has been one of the best decisions of my life, and i still have 7 1/2 months left!! Can't wait for what lies ahead of me:)

Me and Vivian (10) went and got Mai's and Pedi's

The Apple Store. Literally UNREAL! It's underground, it's amazing!!

Wednesday night volleyball. Some people from my branch

Me and Violet! Wednesday night volleyball, such a fun night!!

I decorated the house with stringers for the kids to surprise
them when they got home from school!!

The fall tree's are amazing!!

I put this picture on here, because while i have been here i finished
The Book Of Mormon! The most amazing feeling:)

Me and Zac (4) making ghost cookies

Me, Zac, and Scott in the kitchen making cookies!!

The tree's area amazing, this is what it looks like when your driving on the freeway!!

more tree's!!! most amazing thing ever!

Six Flags wit my branch!!

Fright Fest at Six Flags! such a fun day

Me, Krista, and Violet!! They both are nannies too

They were peeing there pants, while i was laughing..at them!!

Fright fest came to an end!! sooo much fun, soo cold, and sooo tired!!

My journey still continues!!! I can't wait to see what other adventures i get to have!! So happy:)