The O'Neil Family: March 2007

Friday, March 30, 2007

Lifes Callings

I've decided when things start to get comfortable, we should expect things to challenge us and stretch us. I just got called to be an early morning seminary teacher. I have been teaching for 7 days now and it will be a challenging opportunity. I've enjoyed studying the scriptures in order to teach, but the early mornings are a bit more challenging. I tend to be somewhat of a night owl and if I don't go to bed it is tough in the morning. If anyone has any suggestions for what made seminary great or terrible for you. I would much appreciate any help. My first week of teaching also was the the week I catered a wedding the first in almost a year. It required a little juggling, but it should get easier. As for the weddding it seemed to be a success. It was for the Shane and Lauren Dyer (wedding we attended in DC a few weeks ago). There was approximately 160 guests and it was a beautiful evening. I hope the food was good for everyone. I spend so much time with it all, by the end I can't tell if anything is good or not. I will hopefully have some pictures soon that I can share of the display, I think it turned out pretty nice. Now things are settling down and maybe I can spend more time preparing for seminary. I am excited about general conference and the spiritual boost it brings. Have a great weekend.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

NY/DC Highlights

Whit and Ryan at the Liberty Bell

Dyer Family

Chris and I and Abe

Jefferson Memorial

Catch-up

I have to play catch up for all the posting I haven't done in the last few weeks. I convince myself that my life is so boring, who wants to read about it. Then a few weeks have gone by and I realize there are things that maybe some of you want to hear about. Please forgive me if it really is boring. My sister encouaraged me to make a goal of posting once a week, I'm going to try.

We just got back from a whirlwind trip back east with my parents. Flew on Wednesday to New York for a day and a half to see Whitney and Ryan. Love that city. It was so fun to be together. It was wicked cold, now giving me more sympathy for those of you who endure the east coast weather. I'm not sure who chooses to live like that but it is bone chilling. I wish spring for all you soon. As you may have noticed, we like to eat. We of course had some delightful culinary experiences. Jean-George, Gotham Bar and Grill, Bouchon Bakery Goodies, and New York Pizza. Haven't had a bad meal there yet. And we got to see my cousin Laurel for dinner each night, so fun to see her. Can't seem to go without shopping, which is always fun for me.

Friday we rented a car and all drove together down to Washington DC. Stopped in Philadelphia for a cheesesteak sandwich and a looksie at the liberty bell. Drove through six states, NY, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia.

Saturday morning to the DC Temple for the Dyer wedding. It was a very nice day. What a beautiful wedding. Shane and Lauren did such a nice job planning (mostly Lauren). They held the reception in a tent behind her parents home, which was so delightful. We are so glad to have been invited and loved being there to help them celebrate. The reception was in the afternoon, so that evening, mom, dad, whit, ryan, chris and I went into DC to see a few sites. It was really fun to walk from the Washington Memorial to the Lincoln Memorial at night. Beautiful evening and lots of history. My favorite was the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial. For only having a few hours in DC it was perfect. There were no crowds and it wasn't a million degrees outside like the last time we were there. Chris and I had a flight out of Dulles at 6 am. Our taxi got in an accident before getting to us so we were 2 minutes late for the 45 minute cut off. They wouldn't let us check in so we rerouted standby, but finally made it home. It was a fast weekend but well worth it.

Kung Hei Fat Choi

Happy Belated Chinese New Year to you all. We've had an adventurous month and now are back to life and reality. We were lucky enough to enjoy a trip to Hong Kong in the middle of February. The opportunity presented itself and seemed too good to pass up. We had a great time traveling with a lot of family and friends. Both sets of our parents were there as well as many friends from Pasadena and from Reno. We had the best accomodations, great tours, delicious food, and a whole lot of fun. We were there for the Chinese New Year and loved all the festivities. It is the year of the golden pig, which is supposed to be very fortuitous. It was fun to celebrate because Chris was really sick for the first of the year celebrations. We got to the enjoy the greatest fireworks display I've ever seen. We had harbour view rooms the were directly in front of the show. We could see thousands of people along the water in front of our hotel to watch the show in the rain while we sat in the comfort of our own room. It was really fun. It was a fabulous city with a lot of culture. We took a tour into mainland China for one day, it was neat to see and I would be interested in going to see more some day. Shopping is a huge part of the culture there, they have knock offs on everything, we did a lot of bargaining on purses and watches. We like to think we got some great deals. I'm such a foodie and loved the great food there. We had the best breakfast buffet ever at our hotel. We enjoyed dinners at a variety of restaurants including Cantonese, Indian, French/Asian fusion, dim sum, and yummy treats along the way. The hardest part was the 16 hour fight overthere, but it was worth every minute. I'm going to add a few highlight pictures of our adventures, hope you enjoy.