Eastern State Penitentiary

I don't expect many of my friends to read this post, but I thought it was too cool of an experience not to document at least for my own personal "Gee Whiz" collection.
While my parents and sister were in town, we wanted to do some sight seeing in Philadelphia.  They had previously already seen independence square, the liberty bell, ran up the Rocky steps and all the other stuff that most tourists do here, so we wanted to show them something cool that was different.  My parents have seen a lot of cool things all over the world since they've traveled frequently during their lifetime.  So I wasn't sure what to show them that would impress them.  After doing some research with Scott, we decided to take them to the Eastern State Penitentiary, which is what is now an abandoned penitentiary in the city of Philadelphia, but also a historical landmark, complete with guided tours.

Even from the outside, this building is extremely impressive.  We didn't tell my parents where we were going, but when we drove up to it, both of them went, "Hey look! That's a Castle!"  Having lived in England for two years, my family has visited many Castles built in the middle ages, and knew darn well what they looked like.  One of the many reasons why the penitentiary is so cool, is that it basically looks like a castle built right in the middle of the city.

View from across the street where we ate lunch first.

Walking along side the building

It was the first penitentiary ever built way back in 1829, on top of a hill in the middle of what was then, just farmland.  It was made to look intimidating on the outside so that people would never want to end up there.
The inside, was made to look like a church though. They did  so, because they wanted it to be a place that would reform criminals and inspire them to change their ways.  This was the first time that people thought of making a prison into a place of reform.

Picture I took of one of the many hallways inside the prison

Inside one of the cell rooms.  All the props in this room are real and were actually used by inmates.  When the prison was abandoned, a lot of stuff got left behind.  The slit in the wall is where they got light in the 1830's.

Unfortunately, their idea of reformation was not exactly humane.  In fact quite the opposite.
The early prisoners were not allowed human contact, not allowed to speak, whisper, whistle, sing, hum, or make any sounds at all.  They had to sit in silence, think about their sins, and pray mentally.  If they were caught making sounds or communicating to anyone for any reason or making any sounds, they had their hands tied behind their backs, were tied down forced in a kneeling position, and an iron ball was placed into their mouths and tied in with a strap, making any movement, especially with the tongue extremely painful, to the point of bleeding if they tried.
Because of the horrible torturous things that were done to inmates over the years, this place is thought to be one of the most haunted places in America.  Dozens of paranormal researchers visit every year to gather more research and find evidence of ghosts, some claiming to have succeeded.   Many popular ghost documentary shows have done specials on this place, including Travel Channel's Ghost Adventures, which Scott and I like to watch from time to time.

Picture of Brad Pitt in the very spot where the viewer is standing.  The movie "12 Monkeys" was filmed here.

  There are also hundreds of stories of eerie experiences by some visitors, staff, guards and inmates about things that they've seen within the walls of the prison.  For the believers out there who want to know if I saw anything, no, I didn't see any ghosts...but there was definitely a strong feeling.  Some places you go in this world leave behind feelings  just in the atmosphere.  For LDS people, that's why they visit places like the Sacred Grove among other places.  Here,  I expected to feel scary and spooky feelings, but instead, I felt feelings of hopelessness and sadness, and feelings of loss.  There was definitely some eeriness, but I got the feeling that a lot of people in that building were just lost souls. Some were horrible human beings, but some were just lost.  However, even though nothing there freaked me out, I wouldn't want to be alone there at night.
Even if you don't believe in ghosts, the stories of things that were done to inmates in that building is enough to make anyone shiver. Inmates were dunked in water, and then hung out on a wall in the winter time until ice formed onto their skin as a form of punishment.  There was also a chair called "The Mad Chair" which bound inmates so tightly that circulation was cut off and would result in eventual amputation.  There was also "The Hole"...which were cold, wet, underground cells with no light, where prisoners were left naked with no heat, no exercise, no fresh air, little food, and no toilet.

The underground cells, or what they called "The Hole."  to the left of this tunnel you can see doorways to the tiny cells, hardly any room to move and no room to stand up straight.  The guy with the beanie was our tour guide.

 Needless to say, many inmates went crazy while incarcerated there.  Interestingly enough, since I had the "lost sad souls" feeling while in there did some research later on, and discovered that yes, there were horrible people incarcerated there, but most of the early criminals were put in there for simple robbery and theft charges like mugging, pick pocketing, purse snatching and burglarizing.  First time offenders served a minimum sentence of two years.  Like I said, I felt a sense of hopelessness while in there.  Not to sound devastating though, this really was an interesting and fascinating place.

The prison stayed active all the way until 1971, so some wings of the prison are slightly more modern than others because with more and more prisoners coming in as the years went by, the prison became overpopulated and they had to keep adding rooms and cells to hold inmates.  

Stories about some of the inmates that stayed there were equally fascinating.  There were famous prisoners who stayed there like gangster Al Capone, and bank robber Willie Sutton.  As a matter of fact, there are records in the prison showing that in 1940's Al Capone reported his own experience with supernatural phenomena while staying there, that he was haunted by a man that he had ordered to be killed at the time.  Weather that's true or weather he was in the beginning stages of mental illness, are up to the visitor to decide. 

Al Capone's actual prison cell.  This furniture was put in to re-create what it looked like, showing that even in prison he received many special privileges.   When he left he took all his actual things with him.  

Other stories that were fascinating, were the stories of escape.  The prison was supposed to be inescapable, but as several very smart and sneaky inmates proved, there is always a way.  These stories were inspiration for Stephen king's story, "The Shawshank Redemption," which seems to be a combination of many of the things experienced inside the penitentiary.  Almost all of the escapees however, were re-captured, except one who nobody ever saw and heard from again, just like the movie.   The stories of escape were fascinating and even really cool.  It amazed me how some people who were so smart and talented, wound up behind bars in a place like that.  

The guy in this picture spent a year and a half digging a hundred foot tunnel from his cell, under the prison wall and out to freedom.   He got rid of all the dirt by filtering it through a tube he inserted into his toilet so that it would go out into the sewage system.   However unlike the movie "Shawshank Redemption" he was re-captured within a few hours. This stunt added an extra 10 years to his sentence, that originally only had two years left.   

 

The structure, the history, and the stories of this place were extremely impressive, and my parents were indeed impressed.  My dad called it one of the most fascinating tours he's ever been on, and having been a former world traveler, hes seen and done many many impressive things so that said a lot.  He also stated that he wanted to go back and see it again the next time they come out to visit.
I highly recommend this place.  Having come to the East Coast to see Scott's family many many times, I had never been here and it really is an incredible experience.  However if you go in the winter time, dress really warmly.  Next time I go back will be either in the spring or fall, when the weather is just right.

Jacob fell asleep for 90 percent of the tour, which was a huge blessing since he's our loudest and most distracting kid.  The tour guide was careful with the things he said and how he said them so that he wouldn't scare the kids, Crystal was the only one old enough to understand most of what he said anyway, and she thought that this place was really cool.  Like her mommy, she loves historical places such as ruins and deserted buildings and learning about them.

Prison courtyard.  Added way after the days of solitary confinement as a means of reform. By now inmates were allowed to interact.  Some of the stories about things that happened here were both interesting and even funny.  Some were sad.

Still an impressive view while walking back to our car.

Another cool thing, is they transform this place into a haunted attraction during the month of October for Halloween.  It's called, "The Terror Behind the Walls."  Click on the link to learn about it if you're interested.  Something Scott and I are TOTALLY doing this coming October for sure. It looks amazing and terrifyingly awesome.  There are three levels of terror you can experience, one being that you can just walk through and get startled by the people in masks.  Two you sign a waver that allows the worker to touch you. (obviously not harm you though.)  Three, you actually get separated from your group as an individual and experience it alone.  The workers are trained for weeks on how to time and coordinate it in a way that will separate you and then reunite you with your group as you walk through.  

So, if you made it this far reading this post and you're in the area and interested, this place is a must see.  It's definitely not the last time I'll be visiting this place.

Crystal's Baptism Day

Last Saturday, on January 18th, my precious beautiful little girl made the decision to get baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  She promised to obey Heavenly Fathers commandments and to choose the right in all the situations she found herself in.  She promised to repent if she made mistakes, and she promised to always remember Jesus Christ.
I am so proud of her.

This was the picture on the cover of her program:

Here she is on the big day trying on the dress for the first time.  When my sister saw her she started to tear up at what a big girl she is and how beautiful she looked.  Then I pointed at her and told her that she's not allowed to do that because I had to keep it together for the whole service so that I wouldn't be a weeping mess.  My mother made the dress.  Both of my parents and my sister flew out to come and see her, help, and celebrate her baptism.

My perfect princess

The Sister Missionaries in the ward helped with so much.  They were rock stars at getting the keys to the font for me, filling up the water and coming up with an emergency plug when there was nothing to keep the water from draining once it started filling.  They also helped set up chairs and welcome people, and brought an investigator who was curious to see a baptism.  These girls were fabulous.

Grandma Margie, Uncle Brian and Crystal.

Uncle Kyle and Crystal

 Getting things set up and ready

 Here of course is the proud daddy, Scott and his little girl.  Scott is the one who Baptized her, and so it was a very special day for him too, to baptize his first child.  

Aunt Denise helped watch my boys while I was running around making sure everything was where it was supposed to be.

Crystal with Grandpa Jose and Grandma Marlene.  (My parents.)

 Group shot of all the Itri's. We take up a lot of seats.

And now I will be annoying and shamelessly post a lot of pictures of my daughter in her baptism dress because I love her so much and am so proud of her.  

I don't care, this is my blog and I do what I want.

It was a wonderful day.  It all happened so fast, but the spirit was there and people who were there felt it.  We also felt her Grandpa Nick watching close by as well.  It was a beautiful feeling, and I even kept it together and made it through the whole service without crying.

I also made sort of a slideshow/montage to play while she was getting dressed after the baptism which I am pasting here below.  The first five minutes is pictures and videos of her.  Unlike the baptism I sobbed the whole time I was making the slideshow.  The last five minutes were just some Mormon messages I added at the end to help fill time and to help feel the spirit.  One talking about what the Holy Ghost feels like, since she was going to be confirmed and then given the gift of the Holy Ghost herself, and the other was just about finding peace during times of stress and chaos in life through prayer. Both are things that are a big deal when you become a member of this church.

Here it is:




Does it ever get easier watching your kid grow up?  I'm not so sure.  I am so so proud of her, yet there is a mixture of emotion at the fact that I still have such clear memories of that beautiful little baby girl in my arms looking up at my face for the first time.  It makes me sad that it's all happening so fast.  I feel like the best moments of my life are just too fast.

Special thanks to my Parents who flew out here and immediately went to work helping out.  Crystal wanted Bolivian empanadas that my mom knows how to make after the service, so my mom made them all by hand.  They got up at seven am (which is 5am their time) to start cooking, even though the service didn't start until eleven.  My mom is so awesome.

These things are filled with the most amazing melted cheese ever.  

This was one of my most favorite days ever.  I loved seeing my little girl all dressed in white with her father.  I loved seeing my husband baptize our oldest child.  I loved the talks that were given, my Dad spoke about baptism and my Sister in Law Kelsey spoke on the Holy Ghost.
A lot more people than I expected showed up as well.  Since I don't really know anyone here I was expecting it to be a small amount of people but I was surprised at the turnout.

I'm so grateful for the opportunity I had to see my daughter make that promise to God that she would make him her first priority.  I'm so grateful for the blessings she is going to receive in her life because of it, including having his spirit to help her as she makes decisions and moves on through life.  As her mother, it makes me feel good to know that when I'm not there to help her or protect her, that Heavenly Father will, because he has promised her that in return for the decision she has made to follow him.

I love my little girl so so much.

...And that's how my husband ended up on the eleven o'clock evening news...

Those of you who don't know my husbands side of the family, should know that they are absolute Eagle's fans.  They love the Eagles, win or loose, they will watch every game, they will also watch every game of their opponents to see how they will measure up.  They can't get enough.  They get the same high from watching the Eagles that I do when I go shopping and find an amazing deal on high quality fabulous things I want.  Sports are their drugs.  Especially football for Scott.  I never thought I'd marry into a family of Jocks, but it's actually very entertaining.  These boys are nuts.
Soooo naturally since the Eagles made it to the Playoffs this year, they wanted to get tickets to the next upcoming game.  They thought it best that they go through craigslist to see if they could avoid processing fees and possibly come up with a good deal.
Carefully, they searched the ads, carefully they asked questions to every potential seller to not get scammed.  They asked for pictures of the tickets, they asked for details.  Some people seemed too shady, some people wanted to meet in weird places, some people weren't giving enough details.  They read an article online about fake tickets being sold to hundreds of people every game.  They were determined not to let it happen to them.
They found a woman who said she could sell them the tickets.  When they called her, she was very detailed.  They could hear her kids running around the house in the background, she seemed safe.  She walked them through a step by step process where they could purchase prepaid debit cards through their local CVS and pay with those.  The cards also had a pin number along with a lot of other numbers.  She said she needed the pin number to be able to transfer the money, that it would not give her access to the card, just transfer their names to the tickets.  She sounded like she knew what she was talking about.  So they give her the pin number.
Long story short, the money on their card disappeared, and there were no tickets.  They'd been had.  They were swindled. They were suckers, chumps, patsy's, saps, and dupes.  As careful as they tried to be, they were scammed.  
Yes it's a shame, yes a lot of money went down the tube, but me, being who I am, still couldn't stop giggling at the irony of them being as careful as they possibly could, and still getting scammed anyway.  It was so ridiculous that it was hilarious. I've been told many times that my sense of humor is somewhat heartless.  This proved it because I thought this was the funniest thing ever. They tried to go through a third party so they could save money on the processing fee because they didn't want to loose any unnecessary money. Instead they lost all of it.  I laughed so hard when Scott told me, that even he started laughing too.  He admitted that it was a funny story. 
Dan on the other hand, who also went in with Scott to pay for these four tickets...900 dollars to be exact was not so amused.  He was furious.  Even though he knew the phone number was probably off of a prepaid card or phone, he still sent the phone number to the University of Phoenix, Golds Gym, and many many other organizations guaranteed to harass the crap out of them, just in case.  Then he wrote a letter to the local radio station, and called CBS news to tell them what happened. In his words, "I'm a salesman, I never give up, I do this for a living."  Well, turns out, CBS picked up their story.
I filmed the TV with my phone so this is a crappy copy of the clip with my baby briefly coughing for a moment in the background.  I may replace it later when I get a better, digital copy, but for now, here you go:



Oh and HERE is the link to the story on the web.

Once again, while I was sitting on the living room couch with Scott next to me, I burst out laughing while watching them on the news.  Especially because they were labeled as "Dan Itri, Scam Victim" and "Scott Itri, Scam victim."  Anyone who knows these boys and how careful they are with their money would laugh at this irony also.  They are usually so careful and so good at avoiding this kind of thing, but they were just so excited to pull the trigger on those tickets that they got bamboozled.

Well this sad story has a happy ending.  The radio DJ who was sent their story, caught their story on the news and contacted the Philadelphia Eagles themselves.  The Philadelphia Eagles organization, who sympathized, sent them all free tickets to the playoff game.  So Rob, Dan, Scott, and our friend Ed all went to the game, AND had the amazing seats that they thought they were paying for in the first place.  Honestly, I think Nick was up there pulling some strings for his sons to get to go to the game.  He loved the Eagles, and passed that love down to his kids, and he was making sure they got to see them in the playoffs.

I made Scott take pictures and video for this post.  Unfortunately he was having so much fun, he didn't take as many as I wanted, nor of the views I asked for, but here is what I do have:

The Lincoln Financial Field, where they play

Their fabulous seats

The three brothers.  It was 20 degrees outside in humid Philadelphia, so they're all dressed like marshmallows with 50 layers of clothing to keep from freezing to death. 

Video of the view from their seats:



Two minute clip of the Eagles running out on the field for those who care to see it (skip to 1:10):


And finally, the joy of singing the Eagles fight song in the stadium. FLY EAGLES FLY!:



In spite of the fact that I teased Scott about the scamming thing, I was really happy and excited for him.  I was so excited for him in fact, that I even had the game on at home and watched most of it without Scott there.  Another Eagles miracle. HA!  ( I did have a movie on the computer on at the same time, but I would often pause the movie to see different parts of the game. Scott would be so proud.)   Even though they lost by one stupid point, this will always be a great memory and story.

I waited up for Scott to get home, and he brought back sandwiches from WaWa.  (For my West Coast friends, "WaWa" by the way, has sandwiches way better than Subway, and they're open 24 hours.)  So at the end of the night there we were eating sandwiches at two in the morning together and talking about how our day went.  It was a good day for everyone.  I loved hearing about how it went and the fun they had.  You know you really love someone when you're extremely excited for that person to enjoy something that you aren't really passionate about, simply because it brings them joy.  That's how I felt that night.  I'm glad they got to see their playoffs game.

Meanwhile, the rest of December, including Christmas happened.

December is always a whirlwind for us.  Jakes Birthday, our anniversary, Christmas, Crystal's birthday, and New Years Eve pretty much consume the month and all of our money every year.  I'm sure we don't look very smart having two babies right around Christmas time, but we'd rather do that than live without Our only daughter and our most spirited son. They make our lives richer than Opera Winfery. So we'll take it.

So a week after Jakey's birthday celebration, Scott and I were able to get a baby sitter for the first time since we've been out here, and go on a date for our anniversary.  It was the first time we'd been alone together since mid October when we were in California and my parents watched the kids for us so we could go to Halloween Horror Nights in Hollywood.  All we did this anniversary was dinner and a movie, but it was very much needed.  We even played a game during dinner to try and tell each other stories from our childhoods that the other didn't know yet.  Since we tell each other everything, we had to dig deep in the memory box.  Sometimes one of us would start a story and the other one would finish it, and then the person telling it would be floored that the other already knew the story because they had no recollection of ever telling it.  Luckily we came up with some.  I told about a crazy date I went on once, and he told about something stupid he did with his friends as a teenager.  I didn't get any pictures of the night, like I said, the actual activity was nothing special, but it was nice to talk about the 9 years of marriage we've had and the 10 years of memories together.
 So since I don't have any pictures, please enjoy this short video clip of us when we were still dating because it pretty much sums it up for us.  Nine years to mature yet this still happens more often than I'd like to admit:



So moving on, we had a great time celebrating the Christmas season here on the East Coast.  In Scott's words, "Christmas kind of snuck up on us this year"  usually we plan Christmas at least a month in advance, but we've been so busy, distracted, and stressed that things just started happening.
I still say it was actually an easier Christmas for me though.  Last Christmas I was throwing up the whole time from morning sickness with Sammy, the Christmas before I had a 2 week old, and somehow hosted a huge family Christmas get together at my house at the same time even though I couldn't even poop without medical assistance or sit down without a doughnut because of the recent brutality of child bearing.  Also everybody got a stomach flu that year and was throwing up, which made me crazy because I was terrified that my 2 week old would get infected and die from it.  I blame hormones.  Anyway, this year was the easiest it's been for at least a couple of years, so I was pretty happy about that.   Everybody still got sick again, this time with an ugly cold/flu virus...including pinkeye instead of a stomach bug, but whatever, my kid was 5 months instead of 2 weeks, it wasn't all at my house, and I didn't just give birth this time, so I consider that a win.

We Itri's hosted an "Itri Family Christmas Party" which was a lot of fun.  There was dinner, treats, minute to win it games, getting to know you games, a white elephant gift exchange, and a photo booth.  We had a lot of fun.

Our Guests

Our fellow Itri's (The ones who were okay being photographed.)

Our selves.

Minute to win it!!!!

The white elephant part was the most fun. There were useful gifts, tasty gifts, decorative gifts, useless gifts, joke gifts, and lots of laughs and randomness.


We also went to the ward Christmas Party the very next day where the kids could meet Santa.  Brian was Santa's helper which the kids also liked.  Crystal looked pretty skeptical of the Santa who was at the chapel.  Especially because you could see the elastic band holding his beard on.  Hmmmmm.

 

The next notable event was Christmas Eve dinner.  Todd cooked the seafood pasta.  There was also gingerbread making, and home movie watching and nativity pagenting and  good times were had by all.

The kids love to play with Sammy

Jacob being his usual tackling self

Mussels

Seafood pasta

Just chillin

Nativity Scene.  Sort of.  

Brian was king Herrod!

This picture makes me giggle

Crystal was Mary, Sammy was a big baby Jesus.  Reagan and Seth took turns being Joseph.  

Lila was the Angel, appearing to the shepherds

Scott was a wise man, (More like wiseGUY) warning them to run away from Herrod.

Kelsey who's pregnant was the "before" Mary with Seth.

Gingerbread time!!!  We always buy the premade ones at Costco and let the kids just do it themselves.  They love it.

Margie made this very addictive homemade toffee

Watching Nick on old home videos.  He's talking about the accomplishments he had that year and his future goals.  Everybody enjoyed watching him.

Cake!

Jake has a master talent for finding desserts anywhere he can and stealing them.  If there is a baked good anywhere, he finds it and eats it when nobody's looking.  Always.  He's a cake ninja.

Our tiny living room.  We haven't had a living space this small since we were newlyweds.  We had to pile presents on the couch so they would fit

Mommy was a little sad that Crystal was doubting Santa this year.  (She has a lot of Jewish friends at school who don't believe in him.)  So she and daddy made sure to be sneaky and catch a photo of Santa in our living room delivering presents to them so that they could have some solid proof.  We had it on our TV screen (which we have connected to the computer) when they came in to open their presents in the morning.

We mostly take video on Christmas so that we can watch it to get excited for next year, but we did take a few pics.

Sammy's favorite present

Two years old is when they really begin to understand that Christmas is exciting.  He had the best year ever.

This is probably my favorite gift that was given to us.  Margie made a quilt out of nick's shirts for each of the boys.  I love this so much.

Everybody looking at their quilt

We had prime rib for dinner on Christmas night.  

Dinner table

What's Christmas without warming up by the fire?

The room was a disaster afterwords, but we had a great night

Santa Sammy

It was a great Christmas.


Of course, we can't just end there.  Four days after Christmas, my only daughter turned 8 years old.  I can't believe I'm the mother of an 8 year old.  She's at an age now that I can remember so clearly it makes my head spin.  So crazy.  She lost all of her front teeth this year and has been growing in new ones.  Her left tooth has already grown in.  When their teeth change they officially change from looking like babies to looking like actual kids.  She's done a great job getting used to the schools here and life in general.  She still misses her best friend back home, but she gets along with everyone at her school and is a great student.  She loves doing her homework and she loves to read books all day.  She has become my little bookworm.  She is like having a third hand as far as helping around the house goes.  She takes care of Jacob and Sammy all the time. She is amazingly responsible and a model child.  I didn't think kids that obedient existed until I found her.  I love her so much.

 

Dont laugh at my stupid cake.  She liked it even though the frosting is melted and the pan is drippy.

 

New backpack.  (Her old one started falling apart.)

 

Princess Anna from Frozen!!!  She wanted this SO badly.

 

 

 

 


We forgot my parent's gifts for her at home, so she had extra presents waiting for her when we got to the house.  She was so excited!

A stamp set...Shes way too excited to use this.  

So that was our December.  We rang in the new year at a small party with friends and family, but I forgot my camera that day.  I thought we would have to leave early for the kids, but they all miraculously behaved extremely well.  It was a new year's miracle.  We ended up staying till midnight.

It's been a good year.  An amazingly hard one, but good.  Scott and I looked back at what we were doing at the beginning of last year and we couldn't believe that it was only a year ago...with all the stuff we've gone through it felt like a lot longer.  Like a completely different time in our lives.  Nick wasn't nearly as sick, we were going on vacation in Mexico,  I was newly pregnant, we had our own home, Scott was good at his job, and I was surrounded by friends who would drop by and see me all the time just to hang out.  I could get a babysitter whenever I wanted and for how long I wanted, I had a calling I absolutely loved at my church, and everything was in control.  Pretty much all of that has changed.  It was so hard to say goodbye to Nick and see his health fail, I went from having three kids to four, and moving when my Son was only 5 weeks old, only deciding a week before I gave birth that we were going to do that.  We sold our home and are renting a much smaller, older, place for right now, Scott is stressed out every day trying to manage both of his jobs, running half of the company in Utah and running all of his Dad's company here, I didn't get to really say goodbye to my friends, I miss my family, and I miss being able to just have my parents take the kids all the time without me even asking them to.  It's been hard.  Of course the hardest of all was loosing Nick.  I honestly can't remember that much of the first three months after I gave birth because everything was so chaotic and my body and hormones were so not adjusted to what was happening.  I'm amazed I was able to do it at all.  There is a lot to be happy about though.  Nick didn't stay in the state he was in very long, he didn't suffer nearly as much as many cancer patients do.  We were able to sell our house quickly and easily.  We had a place lined up to rent on basically no notice beforehand whatsoever.  We are so blessed that Scott is able to own two companies.  We had a lot of family out here waiting for us who we spend time with almost every weekend.  There is a sense of community in the ward here, since there aren't as many members of the church, it's more close knit, and more like a family where everyone is generally concerned about each other.  I actually really like the members in our ward a lot.  I'm the mother of four kids!  I love my family!  I love my husband!  He loves me back! (Yes, that is a big deal in this day and age.)  We are so so so lucky!  Some days are still hard, some days are stressful, some days are sad, some days are crazy, but that's pretty much life anyway. Either way, we are happy.  At the end of the year I looked on Facebook and was surprised on New Years Eve to see how many people really hated 2013.  It seemed like it was a hard year for a lot of people.  Us too.  Either way, we are happy in spite of it all. We have SO much silver lining that we can't complain. We have Sammy in our family now!  We laugh all the time because we still have a sense of humor about it all, we think that this is a great life.  The hard times have brought us closer together.  It's been a good 2013.  If there's one thing this year has taught me though, it's that anything can happen and it can happen fast.  Who knows what 2014 will bring.  All I do know is that we have each other.  I love my little family.  Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.