I don't even know where to begin. 

    Never, ever did I think that I would find myself in this particular situation. One of the scariest and most devastating phone calls a person can receive is hearing of the death of a loved one... But that happened late yesterday evening. In a quick instant, one of the closest friends I've ever had, tragically lost her life. A somber state of shock for all of us who knew and loved her.
     Nicole was a red headed fire pistol who'd speak her mind in an instant. She had a no-nonsense approach at life, coupled with sheer adoration for animals. She bore hard things with strength. She laughed loud and frequent. She was filled with intelligence, witty comebacks always at the ready. She worked and loved hard.
    It's hard to write a few lines on her countenance. What more should I say? How she spend every weekend with me from seventh grade until we were college students? How talented of a writer she was? How proud she was to earn her Medical Assistant degree? How loyal of a friend she was? How many of the craziest experiences in my life happened with her? How much she loved Mexican food? How we both cried pitifully to each other throughout her years? How much she shopped at Rue 21? How I told her every minute detail of my life? There are so many things that I want everyone to know about her, because she was a wonderful person.
    I'll never be able to sum her up in a little blog post. She was larger than life, and there is so much more that I wish she could have experienced. Her passing is far too early. The biggest comfort I heard was offered to me from her own brother, "I think she would of wanted us to remember the times we had together instead of focusing on the ones she didn't have."
   I think that's true. And her and I (usually with Miranda) shared many great times together. Hundreds, thousands! When you're together as much as we were growing up, you can't help but have anything but. When you've only got one shot at life, you better make it worthwhile.... and she did!



    I wanted to share a few pictures, but as I looked, we had far too many memories (accompanied by too much fun) to condense. And I have many memories of eye-rolling to her Tim McGraw tunes she loved. :)
    So with that I say: The earth lost a great, fun and caring person yesterday. Nicole will be so missed by so many people. I'm grateful for all of the fantastic and heart- wrenching times we shared together, they'll be imprinted upon my heart always. What a life she had! I know we will be reunited again one day. I am so grateful to know that there is a plan for us to overcome death. I love you Nicole!

North Carolina pt. 2

Another time of taking way too long to complete a thought :)

   So, here we go, my (with a little of Graham’s input) overall thoughts of North Carolina. When planning this trip, the most minimal planning of a lifetime, Graham decided to keep it simple by visiting: Chimney Rock, Asheville and Linville. These cities are rather close together, about 45 minutes from CR-Ashe and Ashe-Lin, so it kept us on a easy quest.

    We left late Wednesday, the 22^nd of October, so we could wake up the morning of my birthday in Columbia, South Carolina. The 4 hour drive didn't put us off in the least as we listened to the audiobook of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. After waking the sleeping lobby-man, who apparently lives in the hotel, we were in for the night. Thursday morning Graham and I celebrated my birthday with my request to visit the Columbia LDS Temple! It was the first time either of us had ever seen it, and it was quite a surprise. Barely 10,000 feet, this is one of the smallest temples in the world  (but not the smallest). This little temple was nestled in a side street very close between a few homes. It was just so cute and tiny! Unfortunately, it was so small that we had a difficult time getting it into one picture, mostly due to the fact that if we stepped away we would be overtaken by trees. But still! Darling. (And one less temple off of our list!) 

    After we left the temple, we made a beeline for Chimney Rock, North Carolina. Since we had made our temple trip early enough, we had plenty of daylight when we arrived. We were given a map of all of the things to do and we selected 4 of the 5 walking trails and left. We really, really enjoyed our time here. At first we hiked up the rock and stared at the utterly magnificent view, seriously, check out the first picture below on the left, it was gorgeous! Then we followed the advice of a guide and walked to the most anticlimactic waterfall in all of existence, it took about 15 minutes of an uphill climb to get there and as right behind us a little boy reached the view of the waterfall and said incredulously, "this is it?" Kids, man, they're honest. The remainder of our time we trekked over everywhere else to enjoy the views provided by this place. In all, I would give it a solid 5/5 stars for having everything a good national park should: scenic destinations, wildlife and a variety of easy and more difficult trails.

       Leaving Chimney Rock we drove for, maybe, 40 minutes to get to Asheville, where we would be staying for two nights. As soon as we arrived we drove straight to the downtown area. There was no parking anywhere except for a parking garage, so we begrudgingly gave a man with a suit coat and camouflage shorts our $6 to actually get somewhere. We started off walking around for about 10 minutes until, at my insistence over the cold, we entered the Japanese steakhouse we planned to eat at. Our dinner was successful and as soon as it was finished Graham was just itching to see what was in downtown Asheville, so we wandered around for a little bit longer, but at this time we didn't have a jacket and the weather was about 50 degrees (keep in mind the night before we were in 80 degrees Florida weather). So we popped into a recommended French Broad Chocolates, after all it was my GOLDEN BIRTHDAY (23 on the 23rd), for a birthday treat! I snagged a caramel creme brulee and all was right with the world. After this delicious expedition we wrapped up our first day of vacation.

    Also, Listi sent me a message on my birthday, which I sadly didn't see until after my birthday! She just happened to have a training online for something to do with her missionary work, so she was slightly disobedient (she spelled it wrong in her message, ha) by emailing me!

That's it for now, time to wrap up some homework. :)

Honoring Cathy

    Yesterday, November 10^th, we laid Graham’s Grandma Cathy to rest. The past few days have felt so hectic, but have been filled with love and family. It wouldn't feel right to skip over the details in regards to one of the best Alexander's I know.

    On Thursday, the 6^th, I had the day off, so I drove Graham to his job and worked on some homework that was due. Within a few hours it was apparent that some changes had occurred in Cathy’s condition at the ICU and we were all asked to immediately come in. Graham’s immediate family members (the ones who live in town) joined us by her bedside in saying our goodbyes. It was my first experience of being with a person during such an important time, as such I was emotional and deeply saddened. But I can vouch for the spirit in the room that perceptibly changed as one by one we shared our favorite ‘Cathy story;’ everyone giggled or smiled and we all thought loving of the lady who had invested so much in each of us.

     In the following day more family came to town, there were more details shared about specific things in her life, more picture albums scoured through. To celebrate her life, we attended a really personal, detailed wake. Later, the funeral was a perfect homage to her life; Graham was the first of 3 speakers from the family. His talk, occasionally touched with overwhelming sentiment, gave example after example of her love for him. His beloved, so so beloved, Grandma Cathy was his true friend. We rounded out the service with one of my favorite hymns:

"Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee:
How great thou art! How great thou art!"

     Visiting her house the first time after it happened, I found our Christmas gift we’d given her the year before… And it made me think about her last year, which we clearly didn't know it would be at the time, and how frequently it seemed we were able to do things as a family. What a magnificent blessing. At the end of everything, I told Granddad just how special everything was, truly how superb each part was. I couldn't help but weep when he responded, “I just really wanted to honor Cathy.”  And it just so happened, I think she was.

Oh Cathy, you will surely be missed.

Until we meet again.

We love you.