I was Mrs.Eleanor Elkins Widener

One thing I love about my job is that I get to go places and experience things that I other wise would probably not. For example this past Monday, Camp Eagle went to the Titanic Experiences on I-Drive. We took a guided tour through rooms that held artifacts, that replicated the boat and that brought you into the magnificence of the Titanic and those days that lead to the sinking. For the tour you become an actual passenger that boarded the Titanic before it sank. I was Mrs.Eleanor Elkins Widener! And this was my boarding pass.........

At the end of the tour you enter this room that has four clear mounts on the walls. One for each of the following; first class, second class, third class and the crew. On them are the names of the passengers and this is where you find out if the passenger you became at the beginning of the tour lived or died on the Titanic sinking. If your passengers name was hollow then that meant they died, if it was solid you lived. Mrs.Eleanor Widener survived in the sinking but lost her husband and son.

Of course now Mrs.Widener's story intrigued me so I went home and researched more about her and this is what I found.....

Name: Mrs Eleanor Widener (née Elkins)
Born: Saturday 21st September 1861
Age: 50 years
Married to George Dunton Widener.
Last Residence: in Philadelphia Pennsylvania United States
1st Class passenger
First Embarked: Southampton on Wednesday 10th April 1912
Ticket No. 113503 , £211 10s
Cabin No.: C80
Rescued (boat 4)
Disembarked Carpathia: New York City on Thursday 18th April 1912
Died: Tuesday 13th July 1937
Cause of Death: Embolism

Mrs George Dunton Widener (Eleanor Elkins), 50, was born in Philadelphia, PA on 21 September 1861
A resident of Elkins Park, PA, she boarded the Titanic at Cherbourg with her husband George Widener, son Harry Elkins Widener, Mr Widener's manservant Edwin Keeping and her own maid Amalie Gieger. The Widener's occupied cabins C-80/82.
Mrs Widener was helped into Lifeboat 4 after more than an hour's wait by her husband and son. They then stood back to await their fate.
After their arrival in New York, Mrs Widener and Miss Gieger were met by a private train which took them back to Philadelphia.
After losing her husband and son to the sea, Mrs Widener devoted herself to charitable work. A lasting monument to her generosity stands as the Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library at Harvard for which she made a large donation. Her only stipulations being that no stone be touched as long as the library stands and that each graduate of Harvard pass a swimming test (she felt her son might have been saved had he been able to swim). Both rules stand today although the library has been augmented by new buildings in recent years.
In 1915 Mrs Widener married the geographer and explorer Dr Alexander Hamilton Rice of New York, NY and in the coming years followed him on several expeditions in South America 1. They also travelled extensively in Europe and India.
Eleanor died in Paris on 13 July 1937.

Her Husband

Her Son

Widener 110room mansion

It's really different looking at the Titanic sinking as if you were a passenger aboard who survived and lost family because of it. I really enjoyed the experience and learned a lot as well. Like the fact that the Titanic actually only has 3 smoke stack, the 4th one is fake and is there to make it look bigger, stronger and more stable. Something else I learned is that 3 more seconds and it never would have hit the ice burg; nothing would have happened if there would have been binoculars on board, if the wind crashed waves against the ice burg or the moon had been out. Fascinating...huh!

My Heart in Pictures

I have been capturing a lot of hearts in my pictures lately. Some of them in unusual places.

Now these two pics are really the ones I wanted to show you, I love that they are hearts that have shown up in nature:

This first one kind of has a story as to why its special. This heart in the clouds showed up on the day of beach baptisms for my church. It showed up in the clouds right after everyone got baptized and right before we started our worship service at the beach :)

July the 4th

Got to relax and be with family :) We went to a family friends 2 story house on inter coastal that had a dock that went out to the water and a pool in the backyard looking over the inter coastal......just sayin ;) AND we got to see pods of dolphin and manatee right off the dock, I was pretty stoked. Have I mention it was beautiful as the sunset and the fireworks went off.

A Wedding Weekend

My friend Jess got married and I was blessed to be a bridesmaid in the wedding. It was a pretty crazy fun weekend. Spending time with her and the bridal party doing all the fun weeding stuff= LOTS OF MEMORIES!

Leading up to the big day.......

The bride and bridesmaids spent the 2 nights leading up to the wedding in a hotel together and we had a blast hanging out, watching movies, doing each others nails and getting ready for the big day.

We ended up at Walmart a lot...haha

 Lots of girl time :)

 One of the trips to Walmart we practiced walking w/ fake bouquets

 Our movie selections for the weekend

Setting up for the wedding.

Rehearsal dinner

Rehearsal bouquet I made for the bride

Some how we ended up with toilet paper accessories and did an awkward family portrait..hahah

The Big Day.......

Jess and Chris included Disney stuff in there wedding because that is where they had there first date

Katherine Squared

The bride and I

Bridesmaids and flower girl

Cutting the cake

My parents and I

Ending the night

OH AND DID I MENTION.......I CAUGHT THE BOUQUET ;)

A Week at the Beach

Sunrises on the beach......

What's cool about the beach.......

Family time.......

A special birthday.....

Some awesome critters.....

Jellies at the Beach

Jellyfish at Cocoa beach. It's been all over the news and everyone is talking about it here at the beach. They are thought to be mauve stingers, which are not native to North America and aren't really none to bloom at any particular time except for maybe during seasons of El Nino. While 1,600 people within a 10-mile stretch have been stung, I've actually enjoyed watching them on the beach. I came at an optimal time though, before I arrived on Saturday to the beach it was covered in dead washed up jellies but that hasn't been the case since I've been here and there aren't a ton in the water. Each day that passes the number of jellies in the water is going down. As long as you dont step on the ones on shore and just watch for them in the ocean you aren't going to get stung. They are a redish-purple color, so easy to see in the water. They are also small and not aggressive, I just think those 1,600 people just aren't paying attention to there surrounding.

Here are a few of the ones I have seen in the past few days....

I actually think they were cool to watch how they move and they are kind of awesome to see. I caught a few just to watch and then release.

Freezing To Death in Florida!

So let me start by saying that this is a true story, it really happened and that while I can definitely laugh at it now it was definitely very scary.

Last week on Wednesday I was at work at The Master's Academy starting the first week of summer camp as a counselor. I was sent to go on a hunt for some ice cream that was to be in a freezer in the cafeteria.. I soon discovered that the only freezer that was left on for the summer and that the ice cream could be in was the walk-in freezer in the back of the cafeteria. Coach, my boss for the summer and the leader for the summer camp came to help me find the ice cream in the freezer and bring it over. He opened the door of the walk-in freezer and found another walk-in freezer within, which is where we found the ice cream we were looking for. All this time the freezer door staying open. Next I walk in to assist in making sure we have the ice cream and know how much we have, as I turn to go get a cart to load the ice cream on I realize the door of the freezer has shut with us inside. I push on the door and say 'Coach, is there a way to get out from inside of the freezer?!'. He gives me this look of panic and we both pause. We then both pull out our phones and start to panic cause we have no service, we both tried to call out with no luck and I even tried to text with no luck. OK...so I'm a logical person so I say 'There has to be a way out from the inside of a freezer!'. We look around and take a minute to think, at this point in shorts and a t-shirt I'm already freezing and thinking that there is no way I could last 20min.....30min or even longer in here before they know we are in here or notice that we haven't come back with the ice cream. We both start to panic a little more, my adrenaline starts to kick in and I start to shake even more. I even asked if we could turn the fan off in the freezer to make it warmer but it looks like that wont even work. Coach starts to bang on the walls but I know there is no one even in the same building we are in that will hear us. I say again 'there has to be a way out from inside', so we search and find a label that says 'To get out from the inside' with directions......But of course the label is ripped (its like a scene from a movie...lol). We try to read as much as we can and try moving this metal bar on the door but the door still doesn't open. Finally Coach thinks to close the second freezer door and see if there is a label on that one....THANK GOD there is so finally we read it, turn the bar and push the door out and the door OPENS. I pretty much ran out of that freezer.....lol.
This is an experience I will never forget. I can definitely say that for a few minutes I thought that we were not going to get out of there our selves and that no one was going to find us in there until it was to late. Thinking back on it, it's quite funny and something you only think will happen in the movies.

Lets just say I will never walk into a walk-in freezer again...hahahaha.