Spring 2012

It's SPRING TIME !! Time again to remember all those things that I just didn't quite get to last fall :) The remaining plants in the garden and the flowerbeds, the trimming of the Lilac bushes that line the driveway, bug treatment for our sole remaining shade tree in the yard, fallen leaves that are now much closer to mulch than leaves... Well, I'm sure you get the idea.

Oh yeah, and the realization that (at some point) I'm going to shed the loose fitting and slouchy clothing of winter and dawn a somewhat smaller wardrobe that will unavoidably include SHORTS!

Hmmmm - Time to WORK OUT (again). I know it would be much simpler if I'd just incorporate an exercise routine into my regular life all year long, but somehow it just hasn't happened yet. You see, I don't make "New Year's Resolutions". Nope, I make "Springtime Resolutions"!

Right now, Craig and I are 20 days into a 90 Day workout program that promises to have us in a much more presentable, and far healthier, shape by the first week of June. This time, I've done my homework. I've learned about the nutrition needs of a newby to the exercise scene. Turns out, they're very different than those of someone who's more accustomed the working out process. I've found better support networks and sites that help me understand how to pace myself to avoid injury. Craig has done A TON of research, too. In fact, he's lead me to most of the sites and resources that I use. We have very different learning styles, but both of us are doing much better than in our previous attempts.

Once we've reached the June goal, then we reform the workouts into more of a maintenance program. Working out 3 or 4 days a week (instead of the present pattern of 6 days a week). The initial blast is quite an undertaking, but I'm having an amazing time! And we're already seeing progress! WooHoo!

I'll keep you posted throughout the process. Happy yardwork to everyone!

Time Flies !

To a follower of my blog, it may appear that 2010 simply did not exist in my realm of the world. For that, I apologize. We did have a rather exciting year, and much of it was blurred onto the walls of the time-eating-monster known as facebook.

I completed the Ogden half-marathon, Heather enrolled in school again (which will be starting soon), Kelly is a senior in high school, Craig has discovered a passion for Disc Golf, and much, much more. For now, please take my word for it, and believe that our year was incredible.

2011 is off to a turbulent beginning, and is showing promise to be one of our most eventful years in a LONG time!

Here we go! Hang on, and enjoy the ride!

The Winter Fishing Derby

Kelly left today for a weekend in Southern Idaho with his father and some of their friends.
It is an annual trip to take part in what they call the "Winter Fishing Derby".
Let me explain...

The "Derby" is a contest run by an Idaho fish farm.
The ordeal, as I understand it, goes something like this:

-The whole event is a contest to be the lucky fisherman to catch and submit the biggest fish. Being the one that catches the biggest fish makes you the "Winner" of the contest. The winner gets a $500 cash prize and a bunch of swag from the sponsors.
-Each participant pays a $25 entry fee to be a part of the fishing derby.
-Each participant also is charged $20 for a room. The "room" is really just a spot to sleep inside one of the 10 or so trailers that are located on the fish farm. As the trailers have been described to me, I picture them to be similar to the FEMA trailers that were used in the Hurricane Katrina disaster. Kelly's group (6 of them) each paid $20 a peice for their spot inside their trailer.
-You bring your own food, or go out to eat. Meals are not provided.
-Now the interesting part! These dedicated and highly skilled groups of fishermen (and probably some women, too) now get to go out onto the BREEDING PONDS of this fish hatchery to try and catch the Big-One! These brave men and women must use their keenly developed fishing skills to try and outsmart these fish by trying to get them to bite on whatever bait their years of fishing knowedge tells them will be the most effective lure to snag a captive-bred and human-fed fish!

WOW! How proud can a mother be ?!?!?!

But, I confess...Last year, Kelly did have a lot of fun, and he came home with a couple of rather large rainbow trout to add to the collection of frozen fish already in my freezer.

So... I guess we'll see how this year goes.
Truly, there are MUCH worse things my 17-year-old son could be doing with his time!

Fresh, Home-Made PIZZA

For Christmas, we received a Pizza Stone and all the makings for home-made pizza, from my Sister In Law and Brother In Law (a la Pampered Chef - You can look, and even order, HERE) .

Tonight, we put the whole package to use. It turned out SO GOOD!

Thanks again to the well-inspired gift givers!

Quick Update - 11/27/09

* Kelly got his drivers license on Nov 19th and Craig had his truck inspected, registered and ready to go for him by that following Monday.

* Heather is doing fine. She spent Wednesday night at our house and rode up to Idaho for Thanksgiving at the bowling alley with us.

* Craig got laid off from his job, but hopefully only till the first of the year. In the meantime, he gets a small bit of income via unemployment, and I have quite a list of honey-do's around the house and yard to keep him from getting too bored. :-)

* We're all healthy and happy, and we still like each other.

* Kelly's 1st term is done for this year at school and his grades are good. Monday starts a new set of classes.

Reality vs. Imagination

Discoveries/Conclusions/Realizations/Rude-awakenings I've had in the past 24 hours:

1) I am a control freak... and when things get beyond my control, I tend to FREAK OUT.

2) My children and my spouse ARE (and have the right to be) out of my control.

3) I have a great imagination ! :)

4) I need to learn to use my imagination for good, not evil.

5) I am NOT fat (in my imagination).

6) I AM fat (in real-life).

7) Craig loves me anyway (Proof that Love is blind).

8) My children are BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE, and I love them both very much!

9) I have an AMAZING sister with incredible talents! (and A LOT of patience)

10) Photographs are very powerful.

11) Digital 'film' cannot be torn from the back of a camera and destroyed like old-fashioned film.

12) Digital proof now exists, that reality bites.

13) I really MUST do something about this.

14) Suddenly, Oompa-Loompas are not cute to me anymore.

15) Fall is still my favorite time of year! :)

~

WHAT ARE THOSE THINGS ?!?!?

OK... So, at the park where I sometimes eat my lunch, I found TONS of these... Probably somewhere between 50-75 of them laying on the ground under a large grove of trees (many different kinds of trees, and NONE have any of these hanging on them).
They appear to be seed-pods of some form.
About the size and weight of a softball.
If the surface of the unit is disturbed, they ooze a white, sticky, gooey juice .

Kelly sliced one in half to see what the inside was like.

No single stone-type pit and not any other kind of visible seeds of any type.

Just a fibrous and somewhat stringy looking material that follows in the 'brain-matter' pattern that is on the outside of them.

Anyone have any clue?

I haven't dedicated much time in my 'research' into them, just thought I'd throw it out there for conversation.

TTFN

(Please take note of the extensive vocabulary of technically correct and highly scientific words that I used!)

Craig's Jack-O-Barrel

This is what happens when Craig has a day off work, a blow-torch, and an empty 30-gallon oil barrel.

I think it turned out AWESOME! It took a LONG time for me to figure out how to manually adjust the shutter speed on my camera to be able to get a good (well, pretty good) shot of it without the flash.

1) Barrel - with flash

2) Barrel - no flash - with candle inside

Happy Birthday to Me

Friday was my birthday. Throughout the day, I received a ton of texts from my family and friends with a variety of different birthday wishes. My boss brought Chef Salads down to my office from the Idle Isle in Brigham City. (If you're ever in town and in the mood for an AMAZING chef salad, the Idle Isle Cafe is the place to go!) Friday evening, Craig took me out to dinner.
Saturday, Craig and I cut and hauled a couple loads of fire wood, then we went on a ride up to southern Idaho to invest in Craig's retirement plan and to look at the changing fall leaves. After that, we went over to Mom & Dad's house and had a sloppy joes for dinner and relaxed in the hot tub for a while.
One thing that I decided is this:
I'm officially getting old. MULTIPLE people wished me a 'Happy 21st Birthday'... (and, I'm MUCH older than that.) So, now I KNOW I'm getting old, when people find it necessary to make up a nice-young-birthday-age for me. :)

On Sunday, life was pretty much back to normal. Craig and I went and picked up groceries in the morning and then spent the rest of the day at home doing laundry and watching football.

Farewell to a Great Great-Grandma

My Great-Grandmother turned 100 years old this past January, and on last Sunday morning, she passed away. She was a smart, witty, and wonderful person and I have a lot of fun memories of her & her house. Her house was always warm, with cookies on hand, and tiny glasses of milk to go with them. The bright-dyed sheepskin was my favorite place to be, and the wooden thread spools were my favorite toys. I remember sneaking into the bathroom to throw things down the laundry chute that were definitely NOT laundry, and then running to the basement to see that they REALLY DID make it down there. Her sewing room above the garage was so cool, with it's funky closet and storage boxes everywhere, and the story of how Great-Grandpa built the house himself. Simple pleasures in life shared with me by outstanding people.

Grandma-Great, I love you.

Busy Saturday

Today started out with an EARLY morning to help with a Charity Poker Run with my Parents' motorcycle club. I helped Mom run the Registration/PokerHand/Raffle table. Cyndi & Jim were stationed at the 3rd checkpoint on the route. Craig was nice enough to drive my Dad's bike around the route :) That way, it didn't just sit there. There was not as many entrants as we had hoped, but I still think it turned out great!

I left for a few hours in the middle of the day so I could go to my friend's funeral. Afterwards, I was able to make it back to the park just as they were packing up to leave. So, I followed Craig back up to Brigham City to drop off the motorcycle, where I was going to just pick him up at Mom & Dad's house. Well, we went inside to visit and realized we were all pretty hungry. Mom & Dad were BEAT from the whole day running the gathering at the park, so I dug through the (freshly organized) pantry and found all the goodies to make some chicken enchiladas. Mom & Dad (and Craig) seemed to like the enchiladas, and that way everyone got a good dinner.
**********
Meanwhile back at the ranch...
We've had a washing machine that's been on the fritz for a few days. It washes, rinses, rinses, rinses, rinses, but does not spin. Bad deal and VERY wet clothes. Today, Craig - with the help of a couple of online forums - was able to fix it! YAY! So, I guess I'll go do some laundry now.

Yep, We're all still alive.

Almost TWO MONTHS since my last post. How Horrible!
I have a whole list of reasons/excuses for my long break, but they don't matter, and it won't change the fact that it's been almost TWO MONTHS since I blogged.

So... Here goes:
Work is still, um, work.
Kelly is back in school. A JUNIOR! (yep, that's the Eleventh Grade) He is continuing with the violin again this year and considering the golf team.
Craig is still driving gravel trucks for the same company.
Heather has a new boyfriend, (TONS better than those of the past, in my opinion). Still out of work, but now, I'm almost thinking it's more of a choice than a tragedy.
Cats are still furry, Ferret is still CRAZY, and Fish are still wet.

We spend our weekends hanging out together, geocaching, catching up on house/yard work, and generally just screwing off.

Over the past week or so, we had family in from out of state, and that was a BLAST! It's so much fun to see and spend time with people that you don't get to see all the time. All the different ideas, opinions, and views are so cool to me. Sounds cheesy, I know, but I love it. Simple reminders that there is a VERY BIG WORLD out there beyond my little pod of an existence.

A close friend of mine died on Monday morning. He was an older gentleman, but it was still very unexpected. I'll stay in touch with his family, I'm sure. But I sure will miss him and his quirky sense of humor. Whenever we met, I was always greeted with, "Hey, You're looking good !" booming from his weathered and always smiling face! The part of the greeting that makes it the most memorable, is the fact that he was blind.

I have A TON of pictures since my last post, but I'm trying to figure a more efficient way to upload them. So, for now, just be patient. We all look pretty much the same as we did in July.

To Infinity and Beyond !

Since I actually got Friday, July 24th, off from work (Shocker, I know) for Utah's 'Pioneer Day', I was able to go along with Craig and his brother on an incredible hike! The two of them had been planning for almost a week to hike up and hide a GeoCache near the flag pole on top of one of the peaks above Willard. They were nice enough to allow me to tag along for the adventure.

The peak we went to is directly in the CENTER of this picture. This is the view from our back yard.

On the way up, we were able to see the local herd of mountain goats on their way up to higher ground/rocks for the day.

The entire hike was just over 3 miles round trip. About a mile and a half each way. The interesting part is the elevation change of over 900 feet overall, but that includes going over THREE separate peaks and through the connecting valleys to get there!

Here is a shot of our house from about half way to the flag.

And another incredible view from the trail.

Getting Closer... (the little tiny white line on the tip of the peak is the flag pole)

There were TONS of Sego Lillies along the way. The first time I've seen them in the wild.

WE MADE IT! (And figured out how to set the timer on the camera)

The Flag is huge, and the view is incredible! Well worth the work to get there!

On the way back we came across these two fellas... Vultures?

Not into visiting.

I think we all had a great time (I know I did), the hike was long, but so much fun! I'd do it again in a heart-beat... Well.... maybe in a month or so. :)

Welcome to the Jungle...

Today, Craig, Cyndi and I went to work on our Grandma's yard.

(It's only had front-yard maintenance since she moved from home into assisted-living.)

THIS is what we found!

And this is after nearly four-and-a-half hours of HARD WORK.

A different view... Before... and AFTER
From the back portch. Before...

...Almost finished.

Mom and Dad also came down for a couple of hours.

Dad helped Craig out a lot, and Mom offered great moral support and handled some projects INSIDE the house, too.

Good thing Cyndi thought ahead and brought her camera :) Otherwise, it would be hard to comprehend what we all really did.

It was quite an undertaking, and a lot of work for all of us, but WOW how great it was to see the final results!

Thanks to Craig, Cyndi, Dad, and Mom for the help!

Pink Panther Rodeo

Welcome to the 1st Ever Pink Panther Rodeo!

Oh, the cruel things that Craig and I will do for simple entertainment on a LONG, BORING, RAINY Saturday.

HeeHeeHee

Cosmos was not amused

Tiger thought the whole ordeal was lame

Rajha couldn't walk straight

OK... We're DONE PLAYING!

Pictures of the BBQ

A BIG Thank You to Cyndi for sending me these shots.

SUCCESS - What a great weekend !

Photos will be posted later.
For now, here's a summary of our incredible weekend:

Saturday was pretty much a just busy-day running errands and getting the yard ready for Monday's BBQ party. Running around town (in the rain) to gather the usual party supplies, like Kingsford Charcoal, a small wading pool, birdseed, a broom. You know, the regular stuff.

For Sunday, we had planned a rather long hike to a Geocache on the mountainside above Perry. When we woke up, it was STILL raining. So, we decided to dress warmer and go hiking anyway! My trusty Subaru sure proved herself on the road(?) to the starting point of our hike. Got a couple of dings in the rocker panels at the worst spots, (we need a little bit more ground-clearance) but over-all, a really fun and challenging drive. We parked at the base of a rock slide and started our ascent. Just under an hour later we arrived at the HUGE rock formation that was our goal, searched about 15 minutes more for the cache, added our names to the log, sat and enjoyed a wonderful view of the valley, and prepared to head back down... then came the fun part. On the North end of the rock formation was a section of the rock slide made of much smaller rocks. We essentially floated all the way down. It was like skiing on rocks. Just take a step and slide for about 8-10 feet, then do it again. Craig timed us on our way down... 3 minutes and 48 seconds. WHOO HOO !

Monday, Memorial Day, was a BLAST! I hope everyone had as much fun as I did. The Ribs turned out incredible! We had 6 full racks of baby-back ribs, in the marinade and in my fridge since Saturday evening. They were SO good (if I do say so myself). We ended up with 15 people at the party, and everyone got along great, even though it was A VERY DIVERSE GROUP. But, I think Craig said it the best I've ever heard. As I was planning my guest list, he said to me, "It doesn't matter WHO you are... it's HOW you are that matters."
Perfectly put. :)
We had a full day of hanging out and visiting, a fun little yard game, playing in our big back yard (remember, we have an acre) with one of those 6-wheeled amphibious vehicles, and generally just having a relaxing afternoon with each other catching up on life and being together.

Kelly's Driving, Heather moved, and our lawn mower sucks!

I took Kelly to get his Learner's Permit on Tuesday!

It freaks me out to think that 'My Little Kelly' is DRIVING! And, of course, he drove home from the Drivers License Division. Then we went for more practice on some of the dirt roads around our house. He actually does very well (for a beginner). Starting out from stop signs is the roughest part, but that's normal. Our vehicles don't have automatic transmissions. Around here, you learn to drive with a CLUTCH and a stick shift. After the rural roads, we headed down the Highway to Ogden, and into city traffic. He even handled that with a great sense of humor.

After some sort of an episode that I don't fully understand (or need to), Heather decided to move out of the apartment with her 'friends' and has moved in with Grandpa Fred in Brigham City. Obviously, I'm QUITE HAPPY with that decision. She's seems to be healthy and I think she's doing fine now. Last I talked to her, she is STILL looking for a job (It's a tough market out there). Grandpa is a great guy and I think this will be a good arrangement.

Our lawn mower (the BIG one that you ride on) has not been running right for a few months. We've tried tearing it down and cleaning the carb, replacing ALL of the filters, new spark plugs, fresh clean oil, new gas, the whole kit-and-caboodle. STILL running wrong. I've called a couple of repair shops, which all seem to be run by pig-headed jerks, and found that they are back-logged anywhere from 1 week to 3 weeks before they can even diagnose the issue, then they'll order parts and go from there. No thanks. First, I have a really hard time PAYING other people to fix our stuff. Second, if you choose to treat me like crap when I call your business, you can bet that someone ELSE will be my choice if it comes down to it. Craig & I are both very mechanically savvy, and we can usually fix anything that shows up around here. So, our next step is to try a total carb rebuild (instead of just cleaning) and if that still doesn't fix it, THEN we'll cave-in and get it fixed by someone else. For now, we have been able to borrow our neighbors' mowers to keep our small jungle under control. (We're lucky enough to have nice neighbors on both sides of our place.)

On Monday (Memorial Day), we're going to have a few friends over for a BBQ at our place. I think that will be fun. I'm going to try doing baby-back ribs... my first attempt at ribs. We'll see how it goes.

Mother's Day Fun & Adventures

I got my mother's day gift from Heather on Friday evening. She gave me a sweet card and a rose. :)
On Sunday, my Mom, Sister, Grandma and I all went down to Kaysville to visit my GREAT-Grandma (who is 100 years old)! It was a good trip, and I'm really glad that we all got to spend some time together. I think the visit was important for everybody.
Afterwards, I went on a bike ride with Craig & Kelly. We went out to the Legacy Nature Trail that runs along side the Legacy Parkway (a new highway from Farmington to Salt Lake City). We didn't ride the entire length of the trail since it was already late in the day, but we did ride about six and a half miles. It's a pretty simple trail that runs through the wetlands and next to a nature preserve. We saw a few ducks, a lot of Kill-Deer (birds), a snake, and smelled (but didn't see) a skunk. It was a blast! As usual, my butt-bones are sore from the seat, but well worth it.

Update on the party and evening.

The Pampered Chef party went well. Fewer came than I was hoping, but it was still fun. The recipe that we made was amazingly yummy and simple, too.

A big batch of dishes to do, because I didn't use any styrofoam or paper products. We ate on real dishes with real utensils. But, I did manage to fit all of them into one load of the dishwasher, so no extra water usage either. SUCCESS!

Kelly & Craig had fun at the soccer game and stopped for a little while for a brief visit at Kelly's girlfriend's house.

All in all, I think it was a good evening for everyone.