34-46 Days left...

34-46 Days Left,

(Beware of a long post)

Ok I know I am a TOTAL slacker and even got messages from some of you telling me to post more on my count down of Philly days, so for the past few days I have been thinking of something that we would miss 12 days worth so that it would be really really good.  

So with 34 through 46 days left we will miss...

Sundays in Philly and the Logan Ward!

Yes that is right all of you Logan Warders or past members (like Mike and Shelley!) we will miss those crazy yet wonderful days packed full of meetings, baptisms, on the spot lessons, picking people up, dropping people off and much much more!  

Here is Shelley's Baptism day with her and Mike and the missionaries that made it possible.

I already posted this picture awhile ago but this is a picture of Steve and his children, we will miss the great families we have met here!

Don't forget about our amazing callings!  Ted has held two callings since we have been here: for the first few months he was the building coordinator and then he became Elder's Quorum President.  I have held about five different callings, not to mention four at once!  One of my favorites was girls camp director, we had a blast planning and going to girls camp! 

I also was able to be a youth camp leader which was great and really helped me to get to know the Young Men and Women in our ward.  They are amazing young people with such talent!

This is me with the Young Women and Lincoln Dobson preparing for one of our many fundraisers we did.

This is Ted and Lola one Sunday night trying to unwind after a day of long meetings and before he was off to another Priesthood Leadership meeting.  He really was amazing with all those meetings and time he spent on the Logan Ward.

So that is it for now, I really will be better about posting but in the 12 day hiatus Ted's parents and friend Austin came in town and left, Ted graduated, I started to get serious about packing and I have now been obsessed with reading anything I can get my hands on (if you know me - VERY out of the ordinary, but hey maybe I am maturing with age!). 

48 and 47 days left...

With 48/47 days left...

We will miss the cold weather for a small few reasons...one of those reasons is fire!

At our old house we had two fire places, one in our living room which we used often.  It was fun to have a fire going but it also saved A LOT on heat bills.  Plus what is more romantic than snuggling up to a fire your hubby just made?

Here is Ted building one of our first fires in the old house, he always got it going SO much better than me, but I guess he was an Eagle Scout.

This is a really cool picture I took.  It was of ALL the wood that Ted's parents gave us as part of our Christmas gift that year.  If you were wondering, wood is measured in cords.  They gave us not one but two cords and the people came and dumped it out of a big dump truck onto our small driveway and we had to stack it like it is in the picture, with help from a few missionaries we got it done.  Thanks mom and dad!

51, 50, 49 days left...

Sorry!  I am already starting to slack on my posts but hopefully I will have time this week - in between having Ted's parents and good friend Austin in town, and going to Ted's 2nd masters degree graduation - to post something we will miss in Philly every day.

So...

With 51, 50, and 49 days left we will miss all the fun and historic things we get to go and see here in the Philadelphia area.  Here are just a few pics from the years we have been here.

Who could miss the Art Museum where Rocky Balboa ran up the steps? 

We loved it when people came and visited us, our friends from Arizona, who we have really missed, the Abneys (Austin, Linds, Kate, and Jane - who at this point was still in her mom's stomach) came and visited us last spring and we had a lot of fun.  This is in Fairmont Park, the largest city park in the country, this is a little restaurant we like to take people to because of the beautiful scenery.   

This is Kate and Ted at Valley Forge only 20 minutes from our house (about 2 minutes from the amazing mall from the post below).  This is Kate pretending to be George Washington (with a little help from Ted).

52 days left...

52 days left, 

I am going to do a materialistic post on this one, and something that I will miss more than Ted.

King of Prussia Mall!

For those of you who don't know...this is the second LARGEST mall in America!  Yea!  They have two of a lot of stores because it spans such a large space, and then there are the stores outside the mall and all around, just a great place to be!  I will miss it!  But I think Ted will live without the long waits outside women's clothing stores and carrying bags around and telling me I look great in anything I try on just to get out of there!  Ha ha~!

53 days left in Philly...

Well I was going to wait to do this one till one of the last ones, but I decided because of yesterdays post (and all the food places we have visited with them) that I would do it a few times.  Yes that is right, we will miss the amazing, talented, and loving Bianco's!  

Mike and Shelley have been great friends to us and I think an inspiration to the whole ward.  They are great people with a lot to teach us, so we better soak up a lot of Bianco time before we leave because we have a lot to learn if we want to grow up to be like them one day!  

54 days left...

54 days...

Philly food!

Who would ever be able to forget all the food that is known in Philadelphia?  I think we eat so much!  Ha ha, it has to be all the good food around.

Dairy Queen has been a great friend to us, yes it is left over from our Scottsdale, AZ days but we found one back here, and not to mention made Mike and Shelley go with us at least every other weekend, I will never forget the fun we had driving about 30 minutes each way just to get our blizzards or for me a hot fudge sunday!  Oh the conversations that we had on that drive...

This is a little restaurant in White Marsh, PA, just outside the city (for those of you who want to go it is on Germantown before you get to Miles park on the right in a little shopping complex).  It is the best Italian food around!  (Even our friend Mike, who is 100% Italian thinks it is good!)  This is another frequent stop for Mike, Shelley, me and Ted.  It is VERY affordable, but watch out the line can get long to wait for a table, go early! 

Now, to some of the more common Philly foods, Ritas Water Ice.  We frequented this place a lot last summer since it was within a 1-2 minute walk from our old house.  I haven't had it this season, but am def. going to have to get some before I leave!

Pretzels?  Who would think Philly is famous for this one?  Well they are!  And boy are the good and fresh!  You can find little pretzel shops all over Philly, and did I mention people here put a ton of mustard on them?  I never got that, but I did love a good pretzel every now and then.   

Last but not least!  The famous Philly Cheesesteak!  Boy are these a heart attack waiting to happen, but OH SO GOOD!  I love onions and mushrooms on mine!  Hey!  I'll take one right now!  I would love that, and then I would be out of my chore of cooking dinner... 

55 days left...

55 days left, 

We will miss all the great families and people we have meet here!  

This is a picture that we took this past Sunday with our friend Steve and his family (Steve is a recent convert to the church and his kids are also looking to get baptized).  Ted and I love to get to know everyone in our Church, they each have amazing stories and VERY strong testimonies that have built our faith making it strong, we will NEVER forget all the people that have touched our lives.

The last days in Philly...

Ok, so I know it is still 56 days away, but Ted and I are leaving a city we have loved living in!  While we are really excited to move back to warm Arizona, it still will leave us missing good old Philly and the many things that go on here.  

So....

This is why I have decided to try to post every day till we leave, something that we will miss when we live back on the west coast.  I will count backward from #56 and hopefully will get one everyday, if I remember!  Moving means you are busy!  And not to mention Ted's parents and good friend Austin will be coming out next week for Ted's graduation.

Here we go -

56 days to go, 

~Seasons~

This is just a cute picture of Lola I found while looking through my old photos, sorry got side tracked...(nothing new for me :)  )

Yes that is right Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter,  we will miss them all!  

In Arizona they only have one season: WARM.

Not that we are complaining about always being tan, going to the pool, and never wearing a heavy jacket, but we will miss the leaves like in these photos at our old house we had to rake ALL the time, and we will miss the snow.  We will miss the tulips and flowers in the spring and the rainy days with no sun that seem to span over weeks (ok maybe not those no sun days) but you get the point!  We will miss our Philly!

Eligah, we will miss you!

We have been so blessed to have many great friends here in Philadelphia.  Someone we are going to miss a lot when we go to Arizona is Eligah.  He is an amazing guy, with an amazing story and is so strong in the church, he has such a solid testimony.  We really will miss him, but he has promised that he and is dog, nightmare, will visit us often!