Pondering On The Weekend.

It's been such a good day today. What made it so good? You might think I went on a nice weekend trip or perhaps met some new friends and or something like that. Nope, actually my weekend has been very calm! And I loved it! Friday night, I didn't feel like spending money on bus fare and food in Old Town so I decided to stay home. I completely organized my Pinterest and watched Ice Age, Shrek and had some Oreo Milkas with banana cookies. It was quite divine! It was so nice to just have a chill night. One of the other girls came and slept over and we slept in til about 11 :) It was so nice! Saturday morning, we found out our host dad had been taken to the hospital because his lung collapsed. This obviously wasn't a good part of the weekend, but he IS okay. Kelby & I cooked dinner for the family while our host mom went to the hospital to be with her husband. Kelby made creamy garlic mashed potatoes and I made some Pico salsa! We kind of had to just throw something together quick, but it fed everyone so that was good! We then went to meet one of our friend's from church, Louisza, so she could take us to a few cool places we've yet to see. First was the country within Lithuania called Uzupis. It's this little district that decided they wanted to be their own republic so they branched off and became their own country. They have their own constitution and everything which includes things like "Everyone has the right to own a cat if they'd like to." and "Everyone has the right to love and be loved." and "Everyone has the right to die, but this is not an obligation." Hahaha, awesome right? :) It's just a district full of peacemakers and artists and hipsters. There was art all over the place like sculptures, statues, photographs, paintings. Cool shops and cute houses and it's all along this BEAUTIFUL river. Especially with these fall colors it was just breathtaking. After that, we headed to Gediminas Hill. It's a huge tower on a green hill that overlooks all of Vilnius. It's the last tower standing of the castle that was in Vilnius, so it's very ancient and beautiful. I loved it! The hike up wasn't too bad either except for the last like 30 steps was torture! It was so steep, my calves were on fire! When we got up, we got on the wall and hung our feet off and aw'd at our city that we have come to call home. It was a beautiful feeling to finally SEE the city I live in. We haven't seen too much outside of Old Town. There is so much to see! I can't wait to do more exploring! All of the green, yellow and red trees are so beautiful. they are everywhere! It was pretty cloudy and misty so you couldn't see the red roofs as good as I wished, but I will definitely try to make it back up when it's sunny again. After that, Louisza invited us to our favorite restaurant "Tres Mexicanos" for her dad's birthday! She said we could have free dinner! So we FLIPPED OUT and made our way down the hill to the restaurant. Her dad was the most precious thing. He's Costa Rican! So that means Louisza is half Costa Rican half Russian which is like the coolest mix I could ever think of! He just had this permanently happy face that you can't help but feel so warm and happy when you talk to him! Inside there was a big celebration with his friends from all over the world and a Cuban singer was playing guitar and everyone was singing along with him! It felt just like we were in South America! They were singing so loud and happy and were harmonizing like mad men! It was so jovial! I got my usual chicken enchiladas and was so so happy. We thanked her father and wished him a Happy Birthday and went to Coffee Inn to get some cheesecake. Nom Nom. Then went home and slept. I was soo tired! I woke up this morning and decided I was feeling very productive. Luckily, Kelby felt the same so we cleaned the entire basement! We did all of our laundry, I washed my sheets, we sweeped and mopped. We scrubbed the bathroom to death and washed the rugs. I re-organized all my teaching supplies and clothes in the closet and oranized my side table. It looks SO good! And feels so good to have everything clean! We listened to a bit of conference which was very good. The first time I've actually listened and paid attention to conference, that is. Some things in it made me emotional, which felt good. I love to feel the spirit, I realized. And pushing it away all the time is not what I truly want. Even though sometimes I think I want worldly things, all I really want is a good relationship with Heavenly Father. And a good understanding of the Gospel. It inspired me a lot to fix things in my life, so hopefully I can continue to feed off of that inspiration. Did I ever mention how much I LOVE Grandmothers? They are the absolute best. Our host dad's mom comes over whenever our host parents go to the countryside or go out of town. In this case, she came over for the day so our mom could go to the hospital. She deep cleaned the house and cooked us the most amazing Pumpkin soup! Freakin' pumpkin soup! It was creamy with potatoes and pumpkin and garlic. With a side of bread. And she kept telling me to eat more and more. And then about an hour later she made mashed potatoes with delicious meatballs! hahah! It's just like a grandmother to feed you and feed you. That's why I love them :) They always want to make sure you are well fed and that's just so cute to me! And they are just warm and lovely and beautiful. I love my Grandma Jenny :) She's so smart and clever and beautiful! I've been reading her book while I'm here and it' so interesting to read about the things I didn't know about her and her childhood. A lot of it is quite heartbreaking and I've shed many tears over it so far, but she has such a good way of writing! I am excited to finish it and then talk to her about it when I'm home. Then there's my wonderful Grandma Margie. She passed from breast cancer a while ago. She was the epitome of beauty. So sweet and soft, but also tough. She fought that cancer until she possibly couldn't any longer. Some of my favorite memories in my life are pulling up to her house on Easter and Thanksgiving morning and seeing her already out in the parking lot waiting to welcome us! It was always just her because my Grandpa passed years before..But I will never forget that. And then we'd hop out of the car and she would hug each of us and bring us inside to the DELICOUS smells filling up her small home. She had cups with all of our names on them so we always had our own cup! I remember mine was white with green pine trees and brown deer on it. And then she had that old dart board in the back that I'd always bug someone to play with me. Whether it was my brother Kolby or my dad or my cousin Justin. It was so much fun! Gosh I miss her so much. Making that trip to Overton, Nevada on Easter and Thanksgiving was so fun! I haven't visited her and Grandpa's grave site as often as I'd like but I plan to make it a goal when I get home. Gosh, aren't Grandmothers the greatest? :) Here are some photos of the weekend Love Shelb xx