My Wedding Pics

So i have my wedding pics and I am finally posting them! I hope you all enjoy.
If you want to see more go to picasaweb.google.com/amazinglen !
Ill do some more updating on the actual event later!

Kala's Wedding

So I haven't posted for a while. This is due to my crazy busy life! but still no excuse. Since I left Houston I went home for a week and got to see my grandma (who lives in Scotland) she is so awesome and fun. She came for the summer for my brothers highshcool graduation and for my sisters wedding. Unfortunately, with timing she couldn't go to my wedding. After I was home for a couple days my parents and their best friends took me to the Montreal temple to receive my endownments. It was also really nice to have my sister and her husband Mike there. Just a couple days later, my family and I drove down to Palmyra New York for my sisters wedding. It was really fun, we the kids van with my sister, Mike, my brother,and I, all driving together. We stayed in the Palmyra inn which was really cool because the rooms were huge with living room and kitchen area. So the next day I woke up early with my sister and drove her to get her hair done. I thought that was early and then I realized I was getting married an hour earlier than her!! Her wedding was great! Unfortunately, we were taking pics afterwards and it started to rain. but Ciccika had a cute black and white umbrella to protect from rain but still have cute pics. So when i can back to have my reception in Ottawa I used the umbrella too. So we have similar pics!!
Anyways we went back to the hotel and had a luncheon. Her colors were balck and pink and Ciccika and I were her bridesmaids. We wore black dresses with pink sashes and had pink gerber daisies for bouquets. We then returned home, but other friends had come down for her wedding that we had so many cars. It was just Ciccika, Niall and I driving home in the van. funny story, Ciccika rolled the window down when we were downtown Palmyra and then tried to roll it back up when he were on the highway but the mechanics were stuck. We drove home the whole way which is 4 1/2 hours with the window down, freezing by te end of it.

The next evening was my sisters reception. It was a nice sit down dinner, program and dance. earlier my dad had decorated the gym with a canopy. We had italian buffet with lasagna, canelloni, and manacoti. We also had a juice fountain (very italian), and gelato and biscoti for dessert. My sister and mike entered the room while being piped by a piper. (scotish heritage). the evening was followed with a slideshow, speeches while my dad cryied (lol) and a great dance, with my cousin as the DJ. It was great and one of the only (Mormon) weddings were people actually stayed to the end. And of course my family was left to clean up!! The next day was sunday and grandma was leaving back to scotland. So there ended my week at home and my next blog with be the adventure to Utah and MY Wedding!

Batman: The Dark Night

So I waited a week to see Batman and I was all hyped up and excited to see it. I was definitely not dissapointed. It was one of the best films I have seen in a while. Even though the movie was about 2 1/2 hours it was filled with action, explosions and suspense it kept me on the edge of my seat.
Christian Bale was great once again and Heath Ledger played the joker so well he was so frightening and very disturbed.
The movie really made you think and had a deeper meaning.
Anyways, if you haven't seen it yet I assure you will definitely be satisfied with this great movie. So go check it out.

I saw Batman on Friday. Then spent the rest of the weekend with Yesenia (Friend from Baytown) We went bowling on Saturday and then went to YSA dance which was 'Prom' themed so we dressed up all looking pretty. We didnt stay long at the dance though, it was well attended but the music was not very good. So we had some refreshments and headed out. Then Sunday I went to church and FHE with Yesenia. It was a great weekend and its always fun to spend time with friends!!

Ball Game

So last weekend I went to my first MLB game! ive seen baseball games before but no pro games. Celanese had all the interns in Houston attend an Astros game.
THe astros were playing against the CUBS.
It was great, the company had a box so we had all the food you could eat and we had texas BBQ and brisquet for dinner. SO GOOD! All the drinks you want. and there were peanuts and cracker jacks for every seat!!
The game was slow at first but still good. Well what I could tell im not much of a baseball fan. In the 5th inning came dessert were there was ice cream sundaes and brownies and cobbler!!
Well needless to say I was fed well and had a good time.
Astros won 2-1 in the bottom of the 9th. Nice finish to the game!
It was friday night so they had amazing fireworks to end the night.

To finish off the weekend I stayed with Heather Kyle. Heather is the sister to one of my good friends in Ottawa 'Gene'. Heather has 3 way fun kids I got to play with all weekend and well I actually babysat! I did get to spend all saturday by the pool and get a great tan and cool off in the pool! Mostly it was just nice to be in a home with a great family!
So that pretty much wraps up my summer till now well aside from my apartment difficulties. i live in a ghetto dump. but i may post all those awesome stories soon. I dont have any pics to these post cause I found my camera died on me sometime in june?? dont know what happened. maybe I should get an new camera!! for my b-day!! just like yours amanda!

Week at the Plant

So this summer I have been doing a Research and Development internship. SO i work in the lab a lot and do experiments and the like. I have really enjoyed it.
well a couple weeks ago I did an intern exchange and went to 'shadow' another intern at the Pasedena plant. I jumped into full coveralls and steel toe boots, hard hat and googles. i was completely covered. and it was 95 deg with crazy high humidity. i was deathly hot. So i guess i was happy that I got an internship where i was in a/c 72 deg clean building.
I actually really enjoyed being at the plant. I was able to see and work with everything I learned it my clases. Also everything I was doing in R&D was upscaled to huge sizes!!
The following week the intern at the plant came and shadowed me to see what R&D was like.
My company also had a career conference. Where all the interns in the country flew to Houston to gather together and get an outlook on the company. It was a great conference unfortunately since it was in Houston I didnt get to fly anywhere or even stay in a huge hotel room all to myself. oh well! We did get a cool dinner cruise in the golf of mexico.

Summer flies by

So I cant believe it. I have 2 1/2 weeks left in Houston! Wow! its crazy how time flies. So since I havent been so great at updating my blog i'll recap some of the events of my summer here is Houston. Since I live in the middle of no where and live on my own I decided to stop feeling sorry for being so lonely and I went out with the sister missionaries. I taught with them a few times and it has been really great experience to teach the gospel with these amazing ladies!! the benefits asides from company and the spirit, is sometimes I get dinner appointments too!! I met a friend at church, he really likes music and had an extra ticket to lifehouse. So I went to the lifehouse concert and we were really close to the front. it was really fun! and lifehouse are really good live!!

I went to a YSA activity in May and met 2 really fun girls, although one lived an hour away from me, the other girl, Yesenia decided to hang out with me for the rest of the summer, she lives 15 min away. Since then I have spent pretty much every weekend with Yesenia and her friends and family. Its been so nice to have friends and people to be with on the weekends. We have gone swimming, gone to YSA activities, a baby shower. And we definitely went shopping and out to some great restaurants in the area.
I spent 4th of July with Yesenia and her family. We had an amazing fajita lunch her family made. We then went to Kingwood and had a block party with her sisters neighbors, they even had the fire truck come and entertain the kids! Then we went back to Baytown to enjoy the fireworks. It was a great 4th of July!! Great food! Great friends! and Great fireworks!! my favorite!

Biking to Work

So without a car in Texas you are pretty much an outcast. There is hardly any sidewalks and definitely no public transportation. So its a truck or maybe a car or nothing. And for me I dont own a car, I flew to Houston. I fortunately had friends in North Houston lent me a mountain bike for the summer. I have been biking to work. This past week I worked at a plant off a highway so it was not really accessible to bike to work and I got a ride from another intern. But the two weeks before that I rode my bike to work everyday and I am assuming this coming week I will also have to ride my bike to work. Its like a 10 mile bike ride each way. And sometimes its really draining in the Houston hot and humide weather. So when I get to work I am definitely nasty sweaty, but my work has a really nice "emergency shower". One of the disadvantages is that I have to leave for work at like 7:00 and I still only start at 8:15. it gets to be a long day sometimes. I may be able to find a ride again but we will see.!! As for now I guess its a good workout! Eh!!

Papa Martinelli

After a great visit with Janie and Jeremy Sandberg. I had some very unfortunate news. My Papa (Stan Martinelli) passed away on May 26 2008 (Memorial Day).
So then on Monday night my family made arrangements for me to fly to Buffalo the next day. I went into work Tuesday and had to hope they would give me the rest of the week off for an emergency funeral and they were very understanding. One of my coworkers was even nice enough to drive me to the airport ( I would have had to take the bus.) So I only took a backpack so I wouldnt have to check any bags and make things complicated with the airlines. Oh, but with my luck there was still problems. There was storms over Houston so we ended up being 1hr and half late to catch my connection to Buffalo, which was the last flight out. That meant I had to sleep at the Philelphia airport. (add another airport sleepover to the list) So, I arrived in Buffalo the next morning. My parents picked me up. It was so good to see them again. I love the way my dad greets me at airports, he is always so excited to see me! My mom has family in Buffalo and we had lunch with them and then headed to Burlington for my Papa's wake. We went to an afternoon wake and then an evening wake. But it was closed coffin (good thing). THe following day we had funeral for my Papa which all his family participated in either my sciptures, speaking, eulogy or ball bearer. My Papa was Lutheran so we had a Lutheran ceremony, it was really different and weird when they receited prayers.
My Papa was an awesome man. He served in World War II in the Navy for Canada. He had a bunch of medals and lots of stories of his boat. He operated the sonar system on the big submarines. He was always really fun! I will miss him alot. I remember we would see hime at least twice a year. During the summer for BBQ and pool parties at his condo and in November when we would have an early Christmas with him and cousins in Barry. Good Memories!! At the end of his life he had Dementia and was slowly going down hill. It was his time to leave this life and stop suffuring. I love my Papa!
It was very nice to be able to be with my family though. I got to spend almost four days with them. another good thing that came out of this was i got to give my mom a better view of my wedding plans 'in person'

Janie's visit

I guess I'm back tracking a little but one of my best friends from school, Janie Sandberg came to visit me in houston. Janie and her husband Jeremy came during the memorial day long weekend. I thoroughly enjoyed having company and it was so nice to spend the weekend with Janie and Jeremy because they're so fun! So they came Friday night and threw me a bridal shower! It was so much fun. Janie asked Dan questions earlier to during the 'shower'. So for every question I answered incorrectly Janie had a big marshmallow waiting for me to fill my mouth with. I do have to say I did very well but still got many wrong, which led to a mouth being full of marshmallows!! Thanks Janie for the shower!! So on Saturday we went to the Kemah boardwalk and watch all the boats to out to the ocean. Then Janie took me to Jack in the box for the first time! and it was really good. The afternoon we spent at the Houston Space Center!! 'Houston we have a problem'!! we took a tour of the command center at NASA! it was really fun although it was also very busy due to memorial day weekend. Then Janie and Jeremy took me out to eat at a Italian restaurant. I loved it! it was a perfect day! which we ended in shopping at walmart to fill my cupboard with food for the next month which was wonderful because I only have a bike! So it was wonderful to have Janie and Jeremy come visit!

Living in Houston

So moving to houston on my own was very difficult. But I survived. I did not realize how different and hard it would be to move away from the student life. So I headed to Houston after visiting with Dan's family. I headed to Dallas to be there for my friend Kenny Kyle's wedding. I stayed with his family which are practically my second family. They then drove me to Houston where Heather Kyle lives in North Houston. Heather gave me a bike and drove me to my apt. So when I got to my apt there was no electricity or a/c. Oh man! My phone had also died and I was all alone. So needless to say I didn't have much, no car, no phone, no internet, and no electricity. I did however have furniture thanks to my very nice landlord. So i lived without electricity for 3 days. It was very long. My parents mailed me kala's phone and I went grocery shopping on my bike.

But all the hardship is mostly over. Now im pretty much lonely. I have a phone, internet, electricity and a/c which hardly works and a bike. still no car. So I bike everywhere, except work is 10 miles away so I have always seemed to be able to find a ride to work! i love my coworkers.
Weather in Houston is crazy hot and very humide. During the summer most people go from their a/c house to a/c car to a/c work. Me on the other hand, I ride a bike and sweat to death and then I go home and sweat some more. My a/c does not like me and does not like to work. Fortunately, work is very cold! Before I came here I thought i would be outside and tan after work. No way! It never cools down and so I pretty much stay inside until 7pm when the sun isnt so hot. In my loneliness I have been able to read many books. It is very enjoyable to be able to read books outside of school work!!

Trip to Seattle

So I started a blog for all my wonderful friends to know what new things are happening in my life! But mostly for Amanda!!

For an update. My parents came to Salt Lake for my sisters graduation from BYU-I. They also happened to come the week earlier for see conference. Oh lets say about after 15 minutes of meeting my dad my wonderful boyfriend (Dan Morgan) at the time asked permission to marry me. Then two days later proposed without a ring! He just couldn't wait. So we are getting married Aug 26th in Salt Lake temple. This made it very hard to concentrate and get everything done during finals week. I had the amazing help of Amanda to help me dress shop!! and then I spent my remainder of the time studying and packing up for the summer. After finals Dan and I drove to Seattle were I was to meet his family!

I really loved going to Seattle, it is beautiful! I did have very good luck and it seemed to only rain during the night! I spent time with his mom and sister exploring downtown Seattle. We went to the waterfront, we did the underground tour and explored pikes market with the flying fish!! I also went back downtown with Dan later and we went to a glass blowing shop, were we got to see them in action! We also went up the space needle. So, Dan actually lives on Camano Island which is in puget sound. So we went island hoping in the puget sound! we took a fairy to friday harbor. Seattle was a lot of fun. Dan's family adored me! well they seemed to like me a lot. And best of all I got to spend all day and every day without any school or work for a week with Dan!