MARYLAND

Here is the address for Eric while he is in the Washington DC North area:

Elder Eric Liebhardt
Washington DC North Mission
11700 Falls Road
Potomac, MD 20854-2823

It will come to this address (the Mission Office) and be forwarded on to him.

Easy!

MTC address

Eric has given me permission to occasionally update his blog.
This is for while he is at the Missionary Training Center only. He'll be off to Washington DC and other parts nearby very soon. Until then, you can write to him here:

Eric Liebhardt
MTC Mailbox #253
DC-NORTH 1013
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793

Missionaries do love letters! I'll get his DC address posted as soon as I receive it.
He's doing well, enjoying himself, working hard, staying COLD !! Apparently they haven't turned on any heat there yet, and he's freezing. But he loves it.

LIFE IS GREAT!

Eric Liebhardt:

Born at approximately 2:00 pm
weighing 9 lbs 2 oz (or something like that. Mom doesn't remember)
and 19 1/2 inches tall.

My birthday wish for this year: everyone should own one funny hat.
My birthday wish for last year: I don't remember, but I'm sure it had something to do with a certain girl.
My birthday wish for next year: I don't know. But I'm sure it will have something to do with open hearts and willing minds.

Cake this year: No cake. We had apple pie made from the apples from our backyard.
Cake last year: I don't remember. Probably a Duncan Hines/Betty Crocker mix.
Best birthday cake: DQ ice cream cake is the bomb-dot-net! Or fudge brownies and cookies 'n' cream ice cream. Mmmmm.

[Almost] every year, Mom asks what I would like to eat for my birthday dinner. This years menu included the following: Dutch oven potates [with bacon and cheese!], dutch oven BBQ pork (pork shoulder roasts should always be cooked in a crock pot. They're waaay more tender that way.), dutch oven elk [apricot, honey, pineapple- dad's recipe] (I was skeptical at first, but it was delicious!), rolls, strawberry jell-o salad (the best thing ever), green salad, a variety of soft drinks and punches, and apple pie and ice cream for dessert. Mom and Pa outdid themselves this year.

Presents acquired this year: My presents was the presence of those I love! I had lots of family from all over the country come, albeit they were in Salt Lake for a scrapbooking expo, but they still made the four hour drive to Cedar! Gramma from Georgia, Aunt Donna from Georgia, Aunt Laura from Texas, Katie, Casey, and Hayden from NV, Tandy, Lexi, Braeden, and Ella from CA, Uncle Robert, Aunt Janet, and Sarah from UT, Gail, Seth, Caroline, and Jonathan from UT, plus my local family: Nick, Mom, Dad, and Gramma L. And I had my non-family family: Isie and Venice , and Katie. I would have invited about twelve hundred more people (we had enough food, too), but I didn't have a way to contact several because I lost my contact list when I lost my phone...
And I got a surprise phone call from my brother, Damian, who is serving overseas! We had a nice fourteen minute, eleven second conversation. He just called to wish me a happy birthday! My family is great!
But. I did get a few great things: a box of LIFE, a new scripture case (mine was falling apart), and some money (which is very helpful for the mish), and Isie is in the process of making a quilt for me to take on my mission (yeah, they told me to bring a blanket. Weird)! And Nick made a funny card with lots of insults on it. Oh, and Mom purchased 92% of my necessary mission clothes. Thanks Momma! I love you!


Only ten days til the mission! On Thursday, mom and I were talking about how, often times, Elders will come home from their missions looking different/fat. Mom said, "What if we don't recognize you when you come home?" My response: "Mom, I'll be wearing a name tag." Duh. She worries too much.

I also got to attend a session at the Salt Lake Temple with Mom and Gramma A. on Friday morning. It was so great! I'm glad I got to go before the mish.

So. Pictures of the celebratory day of birth? Yes? Ok!

All of my nieces and nephews! This is the last time that we will all be together for at least two years! Hayden (on Katie's lap with Katie hiding behind him), Caroline holding Jonathan, Braeden, and Lexi holding Ella.
*

(Not a birthday picture, but still cool.) When Tandy and the kids came to town, Tandy really wanted to go eat someplace that she couldn't eat at in SoCal. So the Grammas, me, Braeden, Gramma L, Lexi, Tandy, Ella, Nick went to the Pizza Factory. I had a Calzone. Twas delish.

*

Katie, Venice, me, Isabel (Isie). We are so good looking.

*

We're still good looking.

*

We then played Harry Potter and were going to make a short movie, but we ran out of time because we were going to go to the CES Broadcast fireside. I will definitely post the pictures/video of us being wizards and looking into the pensieve later, but this post is already waaay to long, so I think I'll stop now. It was a great birthday!

WHAT'S ON MY MIND

[Missionary tag] My mission: The days are flying by and there's still lots to do. Lots and lots and lots and lots to do.

[Pile of folded shirts] The inevitable clothing shopping: I do not like shopping. Especially for clothes. The image of a folded pile of shirts represents the things I must purchase before September 23. Some of those things? 8 white dress shirts, 1 pair of slacks, 1 suit, lotsa socks, shoes. And that's only a portion of the list.

[Burger King King] The Burger King: He's just really creepy.

[Camera] Pictures: As I'm preparing to serve, I think: should I still do some legit missionary pictures? What pictures should I put in my little album I'm going to take on my mission? And should I buy that digital camera on Ebay to take on my mission?

[Messy garage] Gramma's carport: I've been helping my grandmother, Berenice, clean out her carport. It is messy. There is so much clutter and garbage and junk and dirt. It seems like an impossible task. But. We're making progress.

[Milka] Milka: The other day, dad informed me that I had a package in the mail. It's contents: Milka!! And a wonderful letter from my German friend Maria M. There was also a ladybug stuffed animal. In Germany, ladybugs bring good luck.

[Peach pie] Peach pie!: We had peaches. So mom made 3 pies. I think I've eaten, cumulatively, one pie. Or close to it. They are soooo good.

[Mailbox] Letters and other informative items: Oh how I delight in receiving letters! There is something about a handwritten letter that takes me back to a simpler time; a time full of nostalgia and peach pies; a time when junk mail didn't exist; a time when life was simple, uncomplicated by computers, TV, mobile phones, and loud media. I've been getting letters from a couple of missionaries and Maria.
And. I got MTC info and info regarding my mission. And I'm waiting for my new debit card. Woot for mail!

[Christmas tree] Christmas: I love Christmas. Even though it's only September, Christmas has a way of sneaking a way into my thoughts. This Christmas will be... well, different. But there is no place in the whole wide world I would rather be.

[St. George Temple] Temple: I'm trying to attend the temple as much as I can in the next few weeks that I'm home. The St. George Temple has been closed for the past two weeks for it's scheduled cleaning and maintenance, but it reopens on Tuesday.
I had a nice long visit with my across-the-street-neighbor, Josh, who recently (less than 1 month) returned home from serving in Florida. The nearest temple to his mission is the Orlando Temple and he only got to attend once because it was four hours out of his mission. I hope that I'll have the opportunity to attend the DC Temple often. And it's even in my mission.

[Guy sleeping] Sleep: I love naps. And I love sleeping in. It seems like my body needs 12 hours of sleep/day. Maybe my brain manufactures excess melatonin? I don't know how I'm going to fare in the mission field, but I have faith that the Lord will give me the strength and energy to carry on.

[Alarm clock] Tomorrow: Tomorrow will welcome me. With tomorrow (and every tomorrow) there are new challenges, blessings, and friends. Although I'm not a fan of waking up, I hope I can face tomorrow with a smile and a willing attitude.

*Not Pictured*

[Speaking] Opportunity to speak: I will be speaking in sacrament meeting on the twentieth for 15-20 minutes. That seems like a really long time for me to talk.

That's not all that's on my mind. There's tons more going on in there. One might even say, it's mind bottling. And no, I don't think the expression is really "mind bottling." It's from a movie.
☮ ♡ ☺

HAIR RAZING EVENTS

Yes. I said "hair razing." Raze as in to tear down; demolish; level to the ground or to shave or scrape off. Meaning I lost my lovely locks of wavy, luscious, voluminous, golden-brown hair. Although I'm not bald, I feel like I am. It's quite a contrast to go from 5 inches of hair to one inch, and it's nicely tapered down on the back. But I love it. And I'm going to save a fortune on shampoo! Thanks mom!

This is a lovely before photo of my hairy head. It doesn't look 5" long because of the beautiful waviness of it, but I plucked out a hair and measured it with a ruler. 5".

In the process of the hair razing.

The finished product! Rather dashing, eh?

I'm really not that distraught about losing

it, but that is a very large pile of hair.

Why is it italicised from this point on?!

So why did I cut my hair? Well, the next day, Saturday, I was planning on going to the temple and do my missionary photos. My good friend, Krista, is a marvelous photographer and she offered to do them for me. So I packed my bag and left Cedar around 7:15 to meet Krista at 8:00. I got there. And I waited. And I waited. And I waited. For about an hour (48 minutes, according to my clock) and decided that she just forgot.

(Oh, let me insert right here why I didn't call her: I lost my phone the day before. I have no idea where it is. I retraced all my steps around town and there is no sign of it. Not even crushed pieces in the road [which is where I think it is. I played a rousing game of Chinese Fire Drill and it's likely that my phone fell out of my pocket when I jumped out of the car.]! It's just mind bottling.)

So rather than wait around even more, I went to my first session at the St. George Temple. It was lovely.
After the temple, I drove to Santa Clara to Krista's house to find out what's up. Turns out, we suck at making appointments. I was positive that we had agreed on 8:00. She wasn't sure what time. She texted me multiple times the previous night and that morning. But. My phone is lost so I never got her messages. Instead of taking pictures in the now horrible noon lighting, we just sat in her sitting room talking. And ate a bowl of Life :)

Today, Sunday, was a wonderfully spirit-filled day. Block meetings were canceled across Utah (My college ward had a short 1 hour sacrament meeting) for the Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple dedication- the 13th temple to be dedicated in Utah. I went to the seventh dedicatory session with my parents and then to the ninth and final dedicatory session with my brother, Nick. The Spirit at both sessions was sooo amazing and I'm so glad that I got to attend with family, which is really what the blessings of the temple are all about.

And I finally had a Court of Honor for my Eagle Scout award. I finished it about 1 year ago, but I never had a Court of Honor. I, along with 4 other young men from my ward got 'em! Here are some photos.

Myself talking about scouting experiences.

Starting with me going clockwise: Eric Liebhardt, Evan Harris,
Justin Jones, Jesse Carter, & Lance Brown.

☮ ♡ ☺

WARNING: LOW MERCURY°

Why is it so cold today?
Isn't it August? This is when Cedar usually gets some major heat in the summer months, but that is definitely not the case for today.
A huge cold front moved in and it made my last night's sleep miserable.

The first time I woke up, I closed the window.
The second time I woke up, I unfolded the blanket at the foot of my bed and put it over me, in addition with the bedspread I already had.
The third time I woke up, I put on socks, flannel pajama pants, and a long-sleeved shirt (I usually just sleep in my underwear).
The fourth time I woke up, I went into the computer room and grabbed the little space heater and turned it on in my room.

That was not cool. In the temperature sense, it was cold. According to weather.com it was 56° F last night. Tonight, it will be 46° F. I think I might be building a fire.

So I have a theory, albeit a lame one, but a theory nonetheless: People are attracted to climates that describe themselves.
e.g. I am drawn to hot, dry places; therefore, I'm hot and dry (definitely hot, but dry? I don't know...) My friend, Brantz, loves cool temperatures; therefore, he's cool (and he is.)

So let me know how you roll- what climate you're drawn to. And we'll analyze the data. Or not. Just... whatever.

MOSAIC ME!

I'm sure you all are wondering, What is that crazy box of random photos on this post?. Well, I can answer that question for you.
I was recently blog-stalking and came across this little blog activity thing that one of my friends had done. So I said to myself:
Self, this is pretty rad. I should do that.
So I did.

Here's how it works:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd's mosaic maker. Choose 3 columns with 4 rows.

The Questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you.
12. Your Flickr name (or favorite animal)
1. Dutch 17th century polder windmill, 2. Cookies & Cream Shake, 3. RIP Ann Richards, 4. Green River - 10,000 views!, 5. heidi in Louboutin, 6. Ice Age is here in Amsterdam!!!, 7. the river Rhine flows through Basel, 8. Our hand painted bakery menu board, 9. epiphany + entertainment, 10. gather 'round kids, it's story time!, 11. Yosemite Reflections #1 - Mirror Lake, 12. Intimacy

Hmmm. Cool?
I think so, yes.

So now, you should do this activity and share it on your blog!

MYTH BUSTED!

Yesterday, Friday July 24, I went to the Greenshow with my friend Kelsee to watch our friend, Marisa, play the fiddle.
Following the show, we went to my house and watched Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Old school. On VHS.
We then killed lots of time playing with one of Marisa's apps on her iTouch that has 6500 random tidbits of knowledge. One of them said: If you plug your nose and eat an apple, an onion, and a potatoe, they all taste the same.
So we put it to the test.
We went to Marisa's (she had all the necessary items to test this theory) and cut up a potatoe, an onion, and an apple in to similar shapes. We then plugged our noses, grabbed one, and ate.
What did we find out?
Potatoes still taste like potoatoes. Apples still taste like apples. And onions still taste like onions. The flavors were subdued a little, but not enough to be unable to tell them apart.
When I grow up, I want to be a Mythbuster.
Myth busted!

SUMMER STUFF ctd.

Tuesday, July thirteenth:
Tandy really wanted me to go to the Greenshow with her and the kids. And one of Lexi's friends, Caleb. To describe Caleb: hyper, crazy, attention seeker. I think that sums him up pretty well.

The kids and I.

Gypsy night at the Greenshow! This sure is a great shot of Marisa!

Ella likes to wear sunglasses. Upside-down.

The kids were the true entertainment for those around us. They had a massive grass fight and involved Tandy at the end. Lovely.

Crazy kids. It's all downhill from here!

Seriously downhill.

Hunchback? Ok. I think that's what I was going for.

The kids and I ran around for a while, screaming, play a pirate kidnapping game, and tag. We eventually got kicked off the lawn before the play performance because we were being too loud.

Playing the Pirate kidnap game. I'm "kidnapping" Braeden and being attacked by crazy Caleb.

Not-so-Synchronized somersaults.

Kids can be brutal.

After getting kicked off the grass, we picked up Nick from the Sigma Chi house, went to Wendy's and then ate at the park and played! There's too many pics. Here's my favorite.

She's smiling. Really big. When Ella swings, she sometimes holds her breath and forgets to breathe, but if you make airplane sounds, she respires.

Goodbyes!
Gramma has been a resident of Cedar for over 40 years and she has never been to Hermie's Drive-in. So Friday night, Tandy took me and gramma, and the kids to Hermie's. So good and greasy! Just the way my arteries like it.
After dinner, we went to gramma's house for a little while. Gramma was sitting on the couch showing a bunch of photos of grandpa (who died this past December) to Braeden and it was so darn cute and I got all teary eyed. He was genuinely interested and was hanging on to every word gramma was telling him. So cute.

Braeden sitting next to gramma while looking at photos. Lexi is looking at an album, too.

And then it was time to say goodbyes! Tandy left the next day and I was off to a dance. Ella was so sweet. She didn't want to let go. I'm gonna miss her! And Lexi. And Braeden. And Tandy. I'll miss them all!

Aww. So tender. But she would not let go. Seriously.

Braeden gives such great bear hugs!

Lexi! She's getting so tall.

I bet you're now thinking: Wow. His whole summer has consisted of playing with nieces and nephews.
That's not [entirely] true.

I had a pool party with my buddy, Michael! He leaves on his mission... Wednesday. He will be serving in the Paraguay Asuncion Mission.

Jumping into the pool!

He gave a really great talk today at his "farewell" and I know that he will be a great missionary and serve those in Paraguay well! God speed, brother!


I also went on a lovely date with a lovely girl. We had a wonderfully delicious picnic while we sat on a wonderfully red cliff and enjoyed the wonderfully beautiful views of St. George. Then We went to Footloose at Tuacahn.
Her name is Krista.

We had a fantastic time!

That's my summer in a nutshell. Well, all the eventful, fun, blog-worthy things.
☮ ♡ ☺

SUMMER STUFF

I'm a bit of a slacker when it comes to (among other things) keeping my blog up to date. So this is going to be somewhat of a blogging blitz of the summer. So far.

A bit of a disclaimer before I get too into this: Tandy and the kids left today and I got a disc of some photos (200+ of them) from Tandy. It's very hard to decide which ones to post. Here it goes.....

One Monday evening, Mom, Gramma, Tandy, Lexi, Braeden, Ella, Nick and I went to the Greenshow for FHE. Here are some photos.

Braeden started off the evening being a pouty little stinker so I was tickling him to cheer him up. I almost have a smile on his face!

Some of the Greenshow-ers putting on a... show. The fiddler is my good friend/stand partner, Marisa. She'll be a junior in high school this upcoming year.

The kids were sure mesmerized!

Me 'n' Nick being creepers.

I'm a creeper. (This will be a reoccurring theme throughout this post.)

Ella, Tandy, and Lexi. And a creeper lurking.

CREEPER!, Gramma, and Nick.

A semi-normal photo of Eric/CREEPER!, Gramma, and Nick.

Random news: My Blogger account is screwed up and everything I do is in html. I don't know how to fix it and the format/feature options are very limited in html. Grrr. 'Tis frustrating.

I wasn't actually present when this photograph was taken but I just think it's so stinkin' cute! Ella loves salt and pepper shakers so mom gave her some that are really hard to open. She was so happy!

Mom, Dad, Gramma, and I were in Provo for the Fourth, so Tandy brought the kids over one night (the 7th or 8th... Not sure which) and we did some sparklers and some other fireworks.

Me assisting Ella with her sparkler. This is one of my favorite photos!

I really love this one, too.

Braeden showing off his muscles.

Lexi has muscles, too! She also has a CREEPER! behind her.

Nick is crazy-dangerous with his fireworks!

I don't like feet! Neither does Tandy for that matter. Who knows where Ella inherited her love of feet? She was nice enough to clean off my feet after running around outside playing with fireworks.

Tandy invited me and Nick out to Kanarraville one evening to have dinner and roast marshmallows. She said we could invite a couple of friends, so we invited Kelsey Chandler and James Pace. It was lots of fun!

Ella loves melted marshmallow on her face.

Nick's face is priceless. You can purchase it for only $12.

The whole gang! Minus me. L to R/going around the fire: Braeden, Tandy, Pam (Tandy's mom), Nick, Kelsey, Pace, Ella, Lexi.

Kelsey! And CREEPER!

I baby sat Tandy's kids while Tandy went to the St. George Temple with her mom and cousins for some major sealings. Yay for the restored gospel of Jesus Christ!

I only got a few good photos in before Braeden made off with the camera. I think he should be a photographer. He's pretty good when he makes an honest effort.

The kiddos on Temple grounds. They're not very cooperative when it comes to looking at the camera at the same time...

Ella was being a pill most of the time because she has massive separation anxiety when she's away from her mom. I decided to make a mean face with her. Braeden's look in the background is precious.

And I'll end this HUGE post with a photo Braeden took. Not too shabby for a four year old, eh?

There are still so many photos and things that I need to get posted. But it's late. I'm tired. So I'll do it tomorrow.