Dallas

Joseph and I just got back from a fabulous trip to Dallas, TX.  Joseph had to go for work and my mom volunteered to come down and stay with the girls for the week so that I could go with him.  It was heavenly!  I love our girls and I love being a mom, but sometimes a break is very nice, especially because it reminds you why you love your kids so much.  I was quite anxious to see them again once it was time to come home and I really missed them a lot, but we had a great time while we were there.

I have a few friends from my mission to Poland who live in the Dallas area, so a few weeks ago I called them up to get everyone together while we were there.  We met at TGI Fridays in commemoration of how we would often eat there in Poland (yes, they have them there).  They all brought their spouses and kids so it was fun to see these elders being daddies to such adorable boys.  Two were from my MTC district, Phillips and Ostreicher, and then I served again with Phillips in Gdansk when he was companions with Durkovich.  They are highly entertaining guys, especially together, and our district meetings weren't always the most productive because we laughed almost the entire time.  Great memories.

Not much Polish was spoken since it's been a while since we've all been home and we're all out of practice (well, I am at least) but it was just fun to get together and reminisce about good times in the Poland Warsaw Mission.  Thanks for coming to see us, guys! (L to R: Scott and Connie Phillips, Matt and Emily Durkovich, and me).

Joseph and I took an afternoon while we were there and went to the Dallas Temple.  It was quite the adventure getting there using public transportation because we ended up having to walk quite a bit.  I eventually walked most of the way there with no shoes since my blisters on my feet were already too huge to believe, so I felt a little bit like those who have to sacrifice a lot to make it to a temple, and I think it made the session a little different than usual which was nice.

We were both so sweaty by the time we made it that I'm surprised they still let us go in, but they took pity on us thank goodness.  It was just nice to be there together.

I was able to spend a lot of time on this trip working on projects that I've been waiting for a time such as this to complete, but I still ventured out a little bit to sightsee.  One place I had to go was the 6th Floor Book Depository Building where they have an exhibit about the shooting of JFK.  The window it supposedly took place at is the top one on the right in the picture above.  Nobody knows whether Lee Harvey Oswald really did it or not and he was killed before he had to testify so we'll probably never know, but being the history lover that I am, it was very interesting and I loved my visit.  I think I was there over 4 hours and it's just one little floor, but it was fascinating stuff.

I had just begun the tour when the fire alarm went off in the building and we had to all evacuate down the 6 flights of rickety stairs until the fire dept. came and checked it out.  It was a false alarm and I quickly continued my tour.

The white "X" on the road at the center bottom of the picture is the spot where JFK was shot the last time, which is the shot that killed him.  

This is the grassy knoll where conspiracy theorists, like the gentleman above, say the real killer of JFK shot from.  That's the same fence that was there in '63 and just may have been where the killing really took place.  We'll never really know I think.