Happy Birthday Cory!

Nov. 4th - 5th, 2010

For Cory's birthday we dropped the kids off at my parents' house for a sleepover. Cory and I drove to LA and stayed at the Temple apts. there. The session times changed recently (of course we didn't remember) so we missed the last session which began 20 minutes after we got there but we were still able to spend an hour in the Temple. I met a woman who was about 55 while I waited for Cory. She was looking at 3 x 5 note cards and reciting them quietly to herself. I asked her what she was studying. She said she was learning Spanish. She said that even if it took her 5 years to learn the language she might as well put those 5 years to good use because they were going to come and go anyway. Wow! This woman is amazing to me. She wants to learn new things while she can and she isn't going to let her own fears or doubts get in the way. I do that a lot. I'm afraid to try new things (like learn an language or the piano) because I've already decided it's too hard or that I won't be able to do it. Yikes! Well, this woman is a ambitious. It's nothing like a trip to the Temple to make one feel encouraged to do a little better. When ever I go to the Temple I always feel like I want to learn a little more about the world around me: Plants, History, Animals, Geology. I made a goal: Each month select a topic or subject to study. Check out books (even children's books would be good) on the topic and every night before I go to bed (for the whole month) read about it for 10 minutes. Think of all the things that could be learned in a year. So Tuesday the Library is open and I am going to check out books on Astronomy. I'm not talking College level stuff. Like: The names of the plants and their order and relation to each other. What each planets atmosphere is like. The different types of stars, moons,etc. Fun facts and stuff like that. November is starting late but oh well. 3 weeks is better than 2. :-)


















The next morning we got up early had a special Birthday breakfast (A McDonald's sausage, egg McGriddle) and went back to the Temple to attend the Session we came for.
Goodbye Temple!



















We then drove to the Paul Getty Museum and enjoyed the beautiful paintings, sculptures, and manuscripts. We took pictures next to our personal favorites. The Getty has strict rules about flash photography, so most of our pictures are a little blurry. The "flash" of a camera destroys the paint and integrity of the paintings. So the flash is forbidden!
This is me next to a Renoir painting called "La Promenade" Click here (1870)




















This is Cezanne, "The wounded Foot."click here (1909) It was painted on a beach in Spain.














Cory's favorite painting of all time: Van Gogh's "Lillies" click here Fun fact about this one... It was painted in 1889 and no one would buy it. 100 years later to the year it broke the record as the most expensive painting ever sold at $56 million dollars in 1989. Who knows what it is worth today 11 years later. The picture does not do it justice. The colors are vibrant they seem almost electric. The blue is like no blue I've ever seen before and there is no brown in the dirt; It's terra cotta and peach. And you can actually see the thick globs of paint and the brushstrokes. Cory and I sat down on the bench in front of it and stared at it. It is beautiful. We left but came back once more before we headed back home.