Elder Zwick

Elder Zwick from the Seventy and his wife were here on Friday as well as our former area authority, Tony Burns and his wife.  Elder Zwick's son is one of the contractors building the temple.  It was a pleasure to meet them and go with them as they toured the temple.  They received special permission to come, as it is not normally allowed.  But Elder Zwick and his wife are here to do some stake conferences and he was also sent to speak at the funeral of one of the missionaries who was recently killed.

 They are gracious and lovely, all of them.  They stayed for a couple of hours before they had to leave.  We enjoyed them very much.

From left to right:  Me, Mark, Elder Zwick, Sister Zwick, Dave Griffiths, Sister Burns, Brother Burns

Stake Conference

Saturday and Sunday was our stake conference with Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve.  The theme continues from General Conference "Hasten the Work of Salvation."  Missionary work has been a challenge for me.  But I have determined to do better.  I  understand we can go out with the missionaries to help them talk to people (not proselyting, but in their homes) to bear our testimonies and tell them how the gospel has blessed our lives.  That's what I intend to do.

The choir sounded wonderful.  In fact at rehearsal this morning the Spirit was so strong and their voices so beautiful I started to cry as I was directing.  All our hard work paid off.  Elder Oaks said he has heard many choirs, some good and others ordinary.  Ours was a "good" choir.  We sang "I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus" for the prelude, then after the prayer, we sang "How Firm A Foundation."
That last verse is so powerful:

"The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose
I will not, I cannot, desert to his foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I'll never, no never, I'll never no never,
I'll never, no never, no never forsake!"

Eighty five voices joined in unison to bear that powerful witness!  The choir also sang the closing hymn:  "Because I Have Been Given Much."  It was an appropriate hymn for the theme.  We have been given much and as we share the gospel with others, hopefully it will bring them joy as well.

Elder Oaks came in as we were finishing our warm up rehearsal in order to shake the hands of the choir before the meeting.  It was my privilege to shake his hand.

It's been an emotional weekend.  I came home after stake conference and took a nap!

I'm grateful to whoever took these and posted them on Facebook.

Elder Dallin H. Oaks, President Cesar Rincon, 1st Counselor, President Scott Richards, Stake President, President Fred Bethel, 2nd Counselor,  Fort Lauderdale Stake

 

 

The Sound of Music

Friday night we had a wonderful opportunity to go to the Wick Theatre in Boca Raton to see "The Sound of Music."  Chris and Charity gave us tickets for my birthday.  Mark took me to "Josephine's," a lovely Italian restaurant for dinner before the show.  The front parking lot was valet only, which gives you an idea of how expensive it was.  We parked in the back.  Only one other was parked there.  That was okay.  And yes, the food was delicious, but very expensive.  We had a special that included appetizer, main course and dessert.  I got chocolate mousse for my dessert and Mark got the strawberry shortcake.  I liked his better-it had a yummy cream filling.

The Wick Theater is new, or newly renovated and this is their first show.  It's a small theater, but so beautiful and intimate.  The musical was wonderful!  I have never seen "The Sound of Music" on the stage.  Naturally, it is not exactly the same as the movie, but the music was all there.  Because the theater is smaller, it is easy to see every nuance on stage.  I thought everyone did a beautiful job.  The woman who sang the part of the Mother Superior had an amazing voice!  And when she joined her voices with the women playing nuns the sound was absolutely glorious!  It was just so well done!  We loved it!

One of the fun things about this theater is the costume museum that will be opening in November.  The Wick family have collected over 1.2 million wardrobe pieces many from original Broadway shows.  That would be really fun to see.

"White Christmas" will be performed in December.  Mark and I really hope to go back and see that one. 

Palmetto Bluff Resort

Last weekend we had the privilege of staying at the fabulous Inn at Palmetto Bluff.  Our nephew, Dave Berry was getting married and had invited us for the festivities.
We left Thursday afternoon and drove as far as Daytona Beach and stopped at the Comfort Suites for the night.  It was near the freeway and the rates were very reasonable.

We were walking to find a place to eat when we saw a man pushing his car.  "I've run out of gas," he said, "do you have any spare change?"  At first Mark said no.  "Sorry to bother you."  He also asked a woman and she said no.

Then as we watched, he pushed his car out of the way and started to walk to the nearby gas station.  Was this man really in need?

Mark said to me that if the man could push his car to the gas station, he could use his credit card and buy him some gas.  He just couldn't not help and I encouraged him to do it.

Mark walked to the man's car and motioned to the man to come back.  Together they pushed his car to the gas pump and Mark went inside to pay for the gas.  I had watched this and then walked over as well.  The man thanked me for Mark.  "Thank you so much! he said.

Mark was very generous in giving the man gas so he would have plenty to get him where he needed to go.  It seems he had left his wallet when he stopped to eat and when he went back for it it was gone.  He said he was gone only five minutes, but no one there knew or would say what happened to his wallet, even after the man said he didn't care about the money, only his license and credit cards.  He had come from Ohio and was going to Cocoa Beach.  When Mark told him how much he had given him he said, "No way!"  Then he thanked us again and told us he would be sure to help someone else; that he helps people all the time.

I was so proud and grateful for Mark's generosity.  "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these...ye have done it unto me."

The room was very nice and the bed comfortable.  There was a nice breakfast we enjoyed the next morning before we left.  Daytona Beach is supposed to be pretty famous, so I asked Mark if we could drive to the beach to see why.  Guess what?  There are breakers!!  You could actually surf or boogie board on waves!  What a difference from Fort Lauderdale!

All right, moving along.  We stopped in Savannah for lunch then continued to South Carolina. It is beautiful and green.  We got to the Palmetto Bluff gates.  They had our reservation and let us through.  We had to drive for another 6 miles before we came to the inn where we would sign in. We arrived about 2:30.

Wow!  It's so beautiful here!  A valet came and loaded our things into a cart and drove our car away.  He took our stuff to our cottage and put everything in there for us.  We signed in and found out where we would be staying.  Mark's dad and sister, Mary Alice were also here, so we stopped first at their cottage.  Oh my goodness!  The cottages are so luxurious!

The Inn at Palmetto Bluff

    Their cottage was larger than ours because they are sharing it, but ours was no less beautiful.  We were in Cottage #22.

I love the style of wood board and batten on the walls and ceilings! 

Screened porch

That is a luxurious tub!  Loved that!

There wasn't just the cottages and inn.  It was like a little community with shops and a restaurant.  There were homes as well which people owned.

A couple of homes across the lake from our cottages and behind the inn.

Okay, we won't be swimming in the lake!

One of the nice things about this place is it's also a preserve.  They've worked very hard to preserve the natural habitat of this beautiful area.

Because cars aren't allowed to the cottages, bikes were provided for our enjoyment.

Friday we met in front of the inn at 5:30 along with all the other wedding guests.  We were shuttled to a secluded area where we would have a nice dinner.  We were met with drinks, hors d'oeuvres and a great little band playing music for our enjoyment.  Naturally I went for water.  Mark and I did actually try an oyster.  It was cooked, otherwise there is no way I would have tried it!  Slurping raw oysters off the shell is disgusting!  I had mine on a cracker.  It was okay.  There were other hors d'oeuvres I liked much better.

This place was beautifully decorated.  I learned later that Melissa and Dave had done the decorating.  She has an interior design business in Park City.  I understand it is very very nice.

You can see a tree house in the background.

Because we were near some of the natural habitat waterways, there were a lot of mosquitoes so bug spray was provided on the tables.

Allie Berry

Dad Berry and Rob, Mark's oldest brother and father to the groom.

Berry clan

When the food was finally served it was delicious!  It was like a big buffet.  Melissa's family showed a special video of Dave and Melissa.  It was very nicely done and everyone enjoyed it.

I didn't realize that Melissa's last name, which is Crotty, is an Irish name.  All of the family members that we met were gracious and friendly.  Because this is a resort, Melissa's family took much of the cost upon themselves so we could afford to come.  It was very much appreciated.

It was late when we got back to our cottage.  The TV was on (Harry Potter) and I looked at Mark and said, "Did you leave the TV on?"  We realized the bed had been turned down and bathrobes laid across our bed and slippers on the floor near the bed, plus a tray with a bag of some kind of chocolate treat.  We realized housekeeping had been in.  Boy you could get spoiled here in a hurry.

In the entry way of the cottage, there is a small refrigerator where they offer free water and other drinks.  Snacks are also offered as a complimentary service.  The only thing that wasn't complimentary was the bottle of wine. (Not much to worry about there.) There were two glass containers:  one had chocolate covered something in it and the other looked like nuts of some kind.  I took one of the nuts out and popped it into my mouth and almost immediately spit it out!  I had to run to the bathroom and rinse out my mouth.  When I read the bottom of the jar it was wasabi peanuts!  Okay.  Hopefully the chocolates would be better.  Unfortunately not!  When I ate one, it was nasty and so I took another thinking it might be different.  Nope.  Looking on the bottom of that jar we found out they are chocolate covered coffee beans!  "I just broke the Word of Wisdom!" I wailed.  Inadvertently.  Oh well, we wouldn't be enjoying the rest of those.

Saturday, we rode our bikes to breakfast.  We ate at the Buffalo, which was a nice cafe.  We had the breakfast buffet, which included some incredibly delicious pastries!  At $20.00/plate, it was pretty expensive, but we enjoyed every bite.  You just don't get to experience this kind of thing very often, so I say savor the experience.

We rode our bikes all over.  Because there are 22,000 acres, obviously there are plenty of places to ride.
There are so many beautiful pine trees here.  The smell reminded me of camping.  As Mark and I were talking, something reminded me of the song "Those Were the Days."  Does anyone remember that?  So I started to sing (as I'm weaving around on my bike)
"Those were the days my friend
We thought they'd never end
We'd sing and dance forever and a day.
We'd live the life we'd choose,
We'd fight and never lose,
Those were the days, oh yes those were the days!
Then, of course I burst out with "La, La, La, La La La...  Mark thought I was funny and weird.

We hooked up with Mary Alice and rode bikes together.  I really wanted to go kayaking, but Mark reminded me that we didn't have hats and would probably fry.  He had a headache too, so we just stayed on the covered deck and watched some of the others.  There was a dolphin out in the water.  The day couldn't have been more perfect.  The sky was a perfect blue with no clouds.  The scenery is absolutely gorgeous!

I actually took these pictures first thing Saturday morning on our way to breakfast.  The clouds later went away and it was a perfect blue sky

 There is a cute grocery store just a little ways away.  Allie wanted to take something home for her girls.  It was fun to look, but it was pricey, like $7.00 or more for a can of vegetables.  : O

Mark spent the afternoon with his dad watching the football games and I went to the pool with Allie.  We enjoyed lunch and a short swim there until it was time to come back to get ready for the wedding.  There is a small chapel across from the Buffalo Cafe.

The wedding was supposed to be at 5:00, but didn't quite get started on time.  It was a different wedding, based on nature.  Melissa's family is Catholic, but Dave isn't religious.  A woman pastor married them.

You can see Mary Alice and Dad at the front.

Dave and his mom, Donnie.

The woman who married them is on the far left, then Dave, Luke, (Dave's son was best man) then Mick.  I don't know anyone else, although Melissa's brothers are probably the other groomsmen and a friend.

Bridesmaids.  Mick's wife, Sarah is 2nd from the left.

Bride and groom.  My flash didn't take a very good picture.

After the wedding, there were drinks and hors d'oeuvres before the reception dinner.

When I took this, we had finished with all the drinks and hors d'oeuvres we wanted and were sitting on the porch of the inn, looking out over the festivities.  It was starting to get dark, but you can see there were still a lot of people there enjoying themselves.

This isn't very clear, but we were told that there had once been a plantation home on this site, but it had been burned during the Civil War as most of the homes had been.  Can you make out the ruins?

 

 

 

The reception was very nice.  The food was delicious, the service amazing.  A DJ was there playing music and there were several dances:  The traditional bride and groom dance, the bride and father and the groom and mother.  Mark got a bit misty eyed at this point.  He was thinking of Mom.

Their cake.

Each of these balls had our table placement on it.

Mick, the groom's brother.

Rob and Sheila, the groom's dad and step-mom.

Mark and Dad

Allie, Dad, Sheila and Mark

Melissa wore a lovely Vera Wang wedding dress she bought in New York.

I wish them much joy and a long married, happy life together.

Some in our party were flying out very early the next morning for Utah and Mark and I were leaving at 7:00am to drive home, so we left the reception early.  At 11:00 we knew there was going to be some kind of surprise.  It ended up being fireworks.  I think I can safely say a good time was had by all!  I know we had a really good time.  Thanks, Dave and Melissa!

Scrapbook Expo

I had an opportunity to work at a scrapbook expo at the Broward County Convention Center.  I worked for a guy named Eric Smith who owns Paper Wizard.  His company makes laser-cut scrapbook kits.  

His kits are really cute and amazingly detailed!  When I worked at Roberts, I became so jaded with all of the scrapbook stuff I saw.  Things had to be really something to get my attention.  These are really something. 

It was hard work, but fun.  I actually worked for Eric on Thursday and Saturday.  However, I also had an opportunity to work for one of the other retailers who had been unable to find people to help her.  I helped set up and put all the product on their displays.  It meant standing all day on cement floors.  The food there was not very good...But Eric paid for it, which was nice of him.  At the end of Saturday, I helped inventory and take everything down so it could be put away for the next show.  Eric does 22 shows a year.  His next one was in California, I think.

The only negative experience I had through all this was going through the Port of Everglades.  Anyone who goes through there has to show their ID.  Friday night I mistakenly went back into the port and had to show my ID in order to turn around.  I ended up sticking my license back into my wallet, but didn't realize or remember where.  When I came Saturday morning, I was shocked to see my license was not anywhere I could find!  I looked everywhere for it!  So I was asked to pull around and see the police officer.  When I couldn't find my license he tried looking it up, but the way I told him, he kept coming back to tell me I wasn't in the system and he was getting more and more annoyed and impatient with me.  I was in tears talking to Mark.  (He had already looked up the license and demanded to know who Mark was)  The way he was treating me, Mark wanted to reach through the phone and punch him.  Finally, I was able to tell him the right name and he found me.  They issued me a one day pass to get through.  When I went through the gate, the man who gave me the pass apologized and said how sorry he was at how I'd been treated.  His kindness made me cry again.  I'd been there for about a half hour and was late for work.  And then the guy at the gate I was supposed to park in wouldn't accept my pass because I didn't have a picture ID, so I ended up parking in the expensive parking ($12.00/day).  I had to ask myself what I was supposed to learn from this experience. 

That night after I got home, Mark went through my wallet and found my license in a side pocket I hadn't checked.  At least it wasn't lost.

The good thing about the weekend was making over $300.00 between the two businesses.  The bad thing is being more paranoid about police officers.

Harry Potter World

For my 60th birthday, I wanted to go to Harry Potter World.  So Monday, Sept. 30th, we drove up to Orlando and spent the evening with President and Sister Berry (aka. Mike and Beth Ann) at the mission home.  It was wonderful to see them and spend the evening with them.  We got to stay in the GA room (General Authority).  There's a bathroom connected to this bedroom, so it's perfectly private.

The home is beautiful!  We were able to enjoy a lovely dinner with them and three young men who serve as President Berry's assistants.

The next morning we went to the temple and enjoyed an especially awesome session.  The new film is so beautiful, tender and thought provoking.  I cried through most of it.  It is so well done.

After the temple it was off to Universal Studios.  We paid for the "Islands of Adventure" where Harry Potter World is.  We could have paid for the whole park, but it was after noon and I really didn't think we would be able to get our money's worth.  Of course we walked straight to Harry Potter.

It's amazing!

I really wanted to see inside the castle.  The ride signs kept warning people about motion sickness, so I asked about it.  Oh, it's not that bad, I was told.  It's a simulator.  So I thought I could handle it.  Mark, wisely decided not to go with me.

I'm so glad he didn't!  I got so sick!!  Towards the end, I'm not kidding, I really thought I was going to lose it!  I just kept praying:  ohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohplease don't let me throw up!  I actually gagged, but thankfully managed not to completely lose it!  I was queasy for quite a while afterwards though.

So sadly, I have come to the conclusion that I can no longer do any of those high-powered rides most people find so thrilling.  And again, sadly, that was what the majority of the rides at Islands of Adventure is.

We did find other things to do however.  Probably my most favorite place next to Harry Potter was Jaurassic Park.  We went on a water ride that was similar to Splash Mountain at Disneyland.  Dinosaurs would pop out of the water from time to time and at the very last minute before plunging down the final portion of the ride, a Tyrannosaurus Rex reaches down to get  you.  We also got our DNA and picture that showed us what we would look like as a dinosaur.  Funny.

Cool.

We also enjoyed the "8th Voyage of Sinbad" live show at Lost Civilization. We sat in the wet zone and got pretty soaked!  All fun.

At the Lost Civilization.

We walked around the park several times, so we did go back to Harry Potter World a few times.  The shops were cute.  After I got over my queasiness we had dinner at The Three Broomsticks.  It wasn't long after that before we left to go home.

A view of Hogsmeade.  So awesome!

The Three Broomsticks.  Doesn't Mark look excited?  lol.  The food was pretty good.

Dr. Suess Land.

Yertle the turtle.

What an awesome birthday!!