New Device

I found this wonderful little pillow at Toys R Us on Saturday. If you have kids, no doubt you've turned around and felt bad at the cricked neck position your children fall asleep in when they're in their carseats. Nat loves this little pillow and I thought she was so cute with it on. It's our favorite find of the week!

Feeling Like a Princess

I found this picture of me the other night. It was one of my favorite bridal shots. When I decided to get married, I looked around at all the various veils available but none seemed just right so I hired someone to make it. It was absolutely the most beautiful veil I have ever seen and went literally down to my knees. Plus I had a layer that went over my face during the ceremony. I love the way it nearly takes up the whole picture providng me the perfect soft backdrop to my princess moment.

Upcoming Construction

I'm going to begin telling a story that will likely continue for several months. And since no doubt it is going to cause me enormous consternation of which I will need a venting post (my blog), I will start with the beginning so I can vent at will in the future...

I live on a pretty busy street in Bountiful and they are planning to install curb & gutter along my street on our side stretching for about 1/2 mile. Construction has already begun to the south and several retaining walls have gone in. The track-hoe's are heading our way and I'm told that within a couple of weeks, they will be demo'ing my front yard as well. This is the "before pic" taken July 18th:



I'm sure you noticed that we ALREADY have curb & gutter. Yes, well the logic is mystifying.

Part of the agreement with The City was that in exchange for the property necessary for the project, they would cut down this enormous pine tree in our front yard. This tree stretches well up to 70 or 80' tall and we hate it for so many reasons. The first of which is the ardently distasteful curb appeal. Second is the obnoxious pine needles; third is the area under the tree which is just ugly...and that's just a few reasons.

I don't know when this "tree-deraising" will occur but I'm anxious and fascinated about the process. So in case you're driving by, that's what's happening. It's normal...it's good...THAT part of the construction will be good times. The rest of the experience will no doubt be forthcoming.

Snippity Snip

This post is mainly for my friends & family that don't see me a lot since my close-by friends have seen my new haircut. It's not that unusual from what it used to look like other than it's shorter in some spots and the coloring makes it stand out a lot better than it ever did when it was all squirrel brown.

I was losing my mind with my old hair. But I went absolutely insane with my old hairstylist. The woman was/is bi-polar, pregnant and another friend believes she's doing drugs (this friend goes to her also). She literally stresses me out so much when I go see her that I've lost the energy to call her up for an appointment. I can't put my finger on why she is so nutty, but I feel this unusual jumpy energy everytime I'm around her, not to mention her non-stop chatter about really weird, weird things. So I tolerated my hair as it grew and grew and when I was finally forced to resort to a pony tail everyday, I found someone new.

There's a girl in my ward, Shannon, who does hair and out of desperation, I went to her. She did an amazing job and it was seriously the fastest haircut I've ever had. It was then confirmed to me that she is moving in like 2 weeks to Wyoming. Since my "old" hairstylist is mentally unstable, and I'm not sure she won't stab me in the eye with her rat-tail comb if I go back to her and she sees that obviously someone else has cut my hair, I'd go back to her possibly. Now I have 4 weeks to find a replacement.

In any case, I'm loving my hair, and when I walk by a mirror, I take a step back and look twice!

Why Can't Women Be More Like.....Me?

If you are a fan of the movie, "My Fair Lady", you'll know this line well. It's a song in the movie and a self-centered man sings it about how everyone should be just like him so as to make the world an easier place to get along in.

In a way, this song strikes a chord with me and could it be because I'm self-centered? I don't know. I was talking to a friend recently about personality types, shyness vs. being outgoing and what it's like to have those characteristics.

Natalie is very outgoing. For instance we went to Cherry Hill today and she had no one to play with. She's an only child; it happens frequently. A mom and her kids, including a 3 year old girl sat right by us. True to form, Natalie followed this little girl around for about 10 minutes until the girl finally started playing with her. Maybe she knew she wouldn't be able to get rid of her unless she played. But here's me sitting next to her mom and bored. I start talking to her mom. Was she shy? Was she having a bad day? Who knows, but she seriously would not talk to me! And this happens a lot!

I am more like my dad in this way and will strike up a conversation with just about anyone for a few minutes just to ease the boredom of a grocery line, sitting at Cherry Hill by myself or whatever. But I've noticed that about 50% of women just won't talk back! Whatever! I KNOW it's not because they don't like me. They don't know enough not to like me so what's up with them? Are they just naturally introverts, are they rude, or are they just shy? It doesn't make any sense to me! I don't want a lifelong friendship; I'm just a happy person!

I'M FRIENDLY...WHY CAN'T YOU BE FRIENDLY TOO, AND WE CAN BE FRIENDLY TOGETHER! I won't keep trying, it's not my nature. Like me and my friend discussed, we hope Nat won't get disgusted either and quit trying. I feel bad for her rejection though!

Ancestors

My next door neighbor spoke in church today about his ancestors and I was absolutely transfixed! I was aware that he was very interested in his family history but I had no idea he had managed to find such details about his ancestors!

I too have had a strong desire in the past year to find out about my ancestors. One in particular is my great-great grandmother, whose name is Susan Lukas-Zajic-Roberts. She actually emmigrated from one of the Scandinavian countries when she was in her twenties, had four children 2 of which died when they were children. She moved with her family to Pennsylvania where her husband was a coal-miner. Coal-mining in those days was very dangerous work, and I can't imagine the stress she was under each day as she worried about her husband and her family. Other than these few facts, however, I've not been able to find out much else and am envious of my neigbor for all of the wonderful information he has found.

This particular weekend, where in Utah we celebrate the Pioneers, I am so grateful for the sacrifices that my ancestors made, LDS or not. To uproot oneself from your native country to travel to an unknown country where hopefully things are better is a huge & scary risk, especially to do so with very young children. Many of my ancestors did so and I am so honored they did. Here I sit in my comfortable, climate-controlled house in a country where I say and do what I please is only because of the sacrifices & trials of strong-willed people in my family. My daily decisions ("should I go float in the pool, or should I clean house today") would likely seem superfluous and rediculous to them. I hope there are other ways in which I make them proud!


Some Ancestors Unknown to Me - possibly great-grandparents??

So Far It's a Perfect Day

Now this day started out RIGHT! I was up EARLY actually! It's a miracle. Well not exactly - I have been doing it quite a bit more lately but today it just felt great! I got plenty of sleep last night so that certainly helps. I got home, watered all my flower beds, showered, dressed, got all my chores done, worked outside for awhile fertilizing and stuff. Then Nat got up and she seemed surprised to see me not in bed which was adorable. She helped me outside, then we came in and had a wonderful breakfast of fresh (yeah!) tomatoes w/toast & feta cheese. How nice not to have Rice Krispies for a change. What a great breakfast! It's only 9am and we're both dressed and ready to go. She's playing play-doh and we haven't had the TV on once! I wish all days could start just like this one. In my perfect world, they would.

Oh - and I'm finally getting my hair chopped tonight! I can't wait!

Summer

I LOVE summer! I love the hot weather, tending my gardens, watching various flowers pop up in their time, the smell of fresh cut grass, laying in the sun, & fresh tomatoes!

I've also been lucky enough for the past 5-6 years, to have fruit trees in my yard. My last house had apricots, pears & plums. This house I have peaches & apricots. Fruit trees are beautiful and Natalie and I love singing the popcorn song in the spring. The way the fruit trees go from blossoms to fruit is amazing. My apricots are on, and the tree is laden! It it such a beautiful tree (some of you might know about my obsession with trees), and when the pretty little orange apricots are on it, it's wonderful! My mom came over the other day to pick them. And anyone else is welcome to do so - anytime; just show up! These pics are of the tree during blossom stage, and then it snowed - and now with the fruit.

That Time of Life

My friend, Kelly and I often talk of the wrinkled little old people we see and how under all their wrinkles and gray hair, they are the same people they were when they were younger. That seems trite and obvious but it's sort of profound. It's sometimes hard to imagine all of the feelings, thoughts, memories, character and personalities that underlie each and every single older person. It's easy to categorize them and overlook them but I challenge you to look further.

I meet a lot of old people at work, and this week I met an 86 year old lady whom I talked to at length. She was brusque at first, but I pushed past it and sat talking to her for a long time. She's lost her stature, very gray and wrinkled. She has a hard time walking and came in for hip surgery because she fell and broke it. A typical patient. But while talking, it came out that back in the thirties when she was very young, she eloped to Idaho with her husband. They just couldn't wait and drove to Idaho in the middle of the night, got the Justice of the Peace out of bed and they were married at 4:00am. They had like 8 kids! I just couldn't help trying to imagine this little old lady as that extremely vital, excited, anxious young person very in love and driving up to elope! I asked her if she was pregnant and she laughed and said no, but that everyone thought she was.

She talked about all of the relatives she's known over the years, and stories for some of them, mostly from when she was younger. I thought of the people in my life - my sisters-in-law, friends etc. I realized with a jolt that this lady has probably seen many of them die already. That this little tiny lady who remembers being young, remembers being young with all of those relatives has likely experienced a great deal of death; lots of people she loved & cared about including that cute husband. She's a widow. It's a thought most of us adjust to and don't think about a lot but it was profound to me in that instant.

I talk of this today because my husband's grandmother is dying. She's had vascular dementia for the past 6 years and my DH's mom has been caring for her. DH drove to his hometown this morning to pay last respects before she dies. She's on hospice. I realized that only about a month ago, we were doing the same thing for my grandfather who lives in California. He actually is still living but I understand is not doing extremely well. With this grandmother, DH will have lost all of his grandparents. When my grandfather dies, I will have on my grandmother left. She's still very vital and active and hopefully stays that way. Of all my grandparents, I've always been closest to her. I even lived with her for a year before I got married.

My point in all of this is that it's funny. We are now at that point in our lives where were are experiencing the first touches of death that that little old lady has had so much of. It's part of life, and comes in small doses to get us used to it. It makes me a little sad.

The Power of Scent

There is a particular scent when I go into Natalie's room. It's the same scent that is attached to all of her clothing and her both of her precious "blankies". It's not the same scent she had when she was a little baby, which was also very unique. It wasn't quite the smell one associates with "baby", the baby wash and lotion, the smell of their milk breath etc. It was a little Natalie smell. It's evolved since then. It's still very much her own and I love it so much. I was thinking the other day how wonderful it would be if I could bottle it so I could have it for life. I'm sure it will change again and I'll lose the toddler smell forever. Maybe when she's done with her little blanket, I can put it in a zip loc bag and it will keep for a while. Eventually it will be gone though. The power of smell is so strong - it takes you back with just a whif. Why hasn't technology progressed to where we can capture these crucial smells that enable us to re-live precious moments in our lives years later?

Nat finished her Level I swimming lessons today. She passed! Not that I was worried. I highly recommend this cute girl Whitney at Bountiful Rec Center for lessons. She was great with Natalie.

Watch Where You Drive

In all the minutes, hours, days, weeks, years I've been running, I've come across some unusual things. I found an unopened [yes, sealed] tube of Chapstick once (Rachel can attest) which Todd prompty decided was full of poison (I used it and am alive today!)... I have found all manner of clothing - even a mitten of mine I had lost on an earlier run. I've found enough change to fill a small glass. I've seen enough trash to fill a dumpster. I've seen binkies, an entire novel with all pages in tact, & miscellaneous jewelry. But in all that time of running, and all of the miles I've run, which are easily hundreds by now, I have never even so much as SEEN paper money. Until just the other day I found a twenty dollar bill, right at the exact place I stretch each day as if it were waiting for me. Keep in mind that a lot of people run this particular route, up & down this same road each day and my liklihood of finding that particular bill was amazing. Another five minutes, some other runner would have come along and found it instead. It's probably a silly thing to blog about but I've always wondered why I never find money! Oh, and don't think I'm some sort of scavenger. I don't pick up and keep all of these items. They're just curious oddities.

Lastly, let me tell you - I run a lot similar routes each day but every SINGLE day, I'll bet I pick up at least 3-4 screws or nails a day off the side of the road. Be careful where you drive! No wonder we get so many screws & nails in our tires! Stay close to the middle if you can!

BONES IN THE ATTIC

I went to add a title to this post and I double clicked on the title square and a whole bunch of weird titles came up. Some of them were ones I'd already used in other blogs but some of them I'd never heard of...like this one. I'd really like to have read whatever post was talking about Bones in the Attic. Now I don't know a great deal about computers but doesn't that only happen when someone types those words on the computer you're using? So who else is blogging on my computer is what I want to know!

Someone told me today that I haven't blogged enough and that my posts are too few and too far between. Well, I knew that. I've actually been sort of crazy these past few weeks. I've been feeling very disconnected from my life which usually means I'm not sticking to my routines enough. My goals aren't going to the way-side exactly. I'm just at a point of assessment and figuring out how they can jive permanently with my life on an on-going basis. So far, I've completed about 50% of them, and am still committed to finishing them.

I've been working at Lakeview Hospital for the past few months and have really enjoyed it. I always thought working in a hospital would be fun. Scrubs are the nicest working clothes - so comfortable and you don't worry about getting messy. Plus, I like the patients. Most of them are older and have lived in Bountiful for a long time and are so neighborly & friendly. But, I have been considering going back to Davis School District once school begins again. It's more hours per week which I'm not thinking will be so great, but I do love that job. It's just so much more my style. Schedule-wise, I do my thing and it's great. I have a few more weeks to make up my mind.

Natalie and I have been busy with swimming lessons. Well, she has anyway. I've been busy trying to make sure we get there on time. I realized in about 1 minute that we were past the Mom-&-Me phase and she'd get more from a teacher-student situation. Her teacher, Whitney, is so great to her. She's the cutest girl and seems to really like Natalie. She carries her around on her hip like she's her own little girl. The best thing is that Natalie has gone from not even wanting to sit on our laps on a raft in our pool (previous post), to being fine to float around in our pool with just her water wings on. She'll even float in her water wings in the lazy river at Cherry Hill all by herself. All this in just 2 weeks. She has 2 lessons left. $30 well spent.

My garden has gotten away from me. I fertilized my flowers and veggies a couple of weeks ago and although I'm harvesting veggies already, the weeds got fertilized as well and I'm inundated with them! Yikes! I need a good few hours just to devote to weeding! But I picked several zuk's and even made zuk bread last weekend. I've picked some snap peas, spinach and lettuce already. The herbs are good to go also. But I'm still waiting on the tomatoes. I've got tons already but none of them are red yet. I'm sure I'm not alone. Waiting also on the beans & I think the green peppers are starting to produce too. Fun!

BTW, in case anyone hasn't heard yet - I won the 10 lb challenge! I've officially lost 13 lbs. since Christmas and I'm more than a little proud of it! If I don't get pregnant in the next few months, I hope to continue this downward trend all the way to where I was when I got pregnant. That's only 13 more lbs to go.

I just heard tonight some very upsetting news that my friend Katie and her family are moving out of our ward soon. They're building a house not far, but far enough away she won't be at church anymore, nor just down the street. I'm so happy for them since they've been wanting a new house for such a long time and now that they're having a baby, it will be nice to have a brand new home but it's still sad for me that they won't be so close anymore. Well, I guess I'm just being silly. I think they're only moving 5 miles away. They could be moving to Tucson like our friend Rachel (my old running partner) did. That's quite a bit too far!

Well, enough of my rambling. Sorry for the extra long post but that's a re-cap of the past few weeks. Happy, healthy, hard at work!

Scrapbooking at my house next Thursday 10am! Be there or be...somewhere else I guess.

Golfing & Other Fun Stuff

When I was in graduate school, I actually won our mock-golf tournament and even received "the jacket". Those kids in my class must have really sucked for me to win, that's all I can say.

DH recalls that the summer we got pregnant with Natalie, we golfed together a lot but I don't remember that. I remember being busy with my internship, and several jobs but I suppose it was possible. But that was 4 years ago and since then, I haven't even picked up my golf clubs. When I retrieved them from a corner in the basement this morning, there were actually cobwebs on them and I felt sad that I'd not been for so long since I love it so much.

We went to a course today that allows you to take children on the fairways and we all had so much fun! I actually did much better than I anticipated striking the ball nearly 99% of the time although sometimes it didn't really go where I had intended it. I had forgotten how satisfying it is to hear that *crack* and know that you actually connected with the ball, and that it's going where you want it to go! For those of you who have never golfed, you probably think it's silly but it's really sort of addicting.

We even took her miniature golfing this morning. They handed her the tiniest little putter, I thought it was a hammer at first. I think it was only about 15" long! She was so adorable trying to hit that ball into the holes and was so animated and fun! It helped me get over my frustrations from this past week about not being able to take her anywhere that she truly enjoys - and the fits that are associated with every outing. We had a great time today. We even hit the Alpine Slide up in Park City; something else Natalie was totally down for!

All in all, a great day.

Hanging on a Thread...literally

This past week we had our old hot tub removed from our backyard. Anyone who had visited our house knows that the only way into our backyard is down the stairs in our house, or down the stairs on the side of the house. Either way, it's tough getting things in...or out of there. Wheelbarrows, lawnmowers, etc - once they're down there it's not easy getting them up. So imagine a 2,500 lb. (maybe more) hot tub needing to come out! We had to get a crane and it was so fun! I got the whole thing on video. The man stuck the boom clear out over the house and into the backyard where some guys tied the hot tub on, and then it got lifted up, over the house - and then the entire length of the house including over the carport, and then was set down on a trailer. It was so amazing to see that huge hot tub danging over my house knowing that at any moment, it could come careening down destroying my brand new kitchen, my bedroom, my car, the whole garage and all that's in it. It was a little nerve-wracking. Aside from that, it was awesome. Only yesterday I found out that 2 other times just this week, a crane which was not well secured fell onto a house. Yikes!

Chicken

DH and I were hanging out in the pool on Saturday on rafts just floating around because it was like 100 degrees. The pool felt wonderful and Natalie couldn't wait to get in. She ran in and got her suit on and came back out and I picked her up to put her on her dad's lap and the minute her toes touched the water, she freaked out! It was chilly in the way water is when you first get in it but after only 10 seconds, it was perfect. She wouldn't hear of going in after that. We cojoled her with ice cream sandwiches, Reece's, and even a very off-limits drink of my Pepsi. Nothing worked. But it was still really hot and she obviously wanted to cool off so she climbed into her water table instead and sat down and played while we floated. What a kid.

I'm wondering...do you empower kids to do things they don't want to do to by requiring them to try; or do you just let them be scared hoping they eventually grow out of it? DH and I conflict on this but we're both equally frustrated knowing she'd have a blast if she would just get over her fear. Case in point...little Cooper R.

Pajama Bottoms

To all of you who have helped make pajama bottoms for the kids at Primary's or Shriner's or wherever these go (the question is who wants them) - thank you so much! Right now, I have 30 pairs completed and ready to give away. I make a couple new pairs each week to add to the lot but the day when we got together and made them was the biggest difference and probably amounts to 75% of what I have.

Thank you also to all of you who unselfishly contributed fabric for us to use. Bonnie Haines, Kelly Sansom, Heidi Redd, Kimberlee Freedom and others that I am forgetting. We had a lot of fabric! Huge thank you to Bonnie who by far was the biggest contributor and gave us the cutest flannel in kid-designs.

To those of you who are wondering when I plan to take them to the hospital: I was planning on doing it shortly after the date when we made them all but then I thought I'd wait a little bit so I could add to it for a few more weeks. I wanted to have at least 30 pairs to take.

I'll be calling Primary's or Shriner's this week to see who is in greater need and then Nat and I will take them over. Natalie has been talking about this for a while and I hope it's a good learning experience for her for how we can, individually, do great things to serve others by just using our talents.


Anyway, thanks again to all who helped pull this off. Anyone who is still interested in making these to donate, I will be taking another batch at the end of this year. I have patterns available, and invite anyone over to make them with me. I do it every week for a couple of hours and love company!

Paris Hilton

So Paris went back to jail to fulfill her sentence, the full 42 days left. She was screaming & crying and carrying on the way one would expect someone in that situation to be. Does anyone want to go to jail? She broke the law; she's young, unwise and silly. Has she had many character-building experiences? Unlikely.

However, she had a "medical situation" that was incompatible with jail and a reasonable person decided that house-arrest might be the best situation especially since jails are usually for hardened criminals. As my friend Kelly would say: "The end". On with real news, right folks?

So what about the hundreds & hundreds, or was it thousands, of letters & phone calls the courthouse received from people who were "outraged" about the decision. Come on people. This is what I'm talking about...get a job, get a hobby, get a book, get a date...whatever. Get something in your life that will give you something else to do rather than worry about what people you don't even truly know are up to! PUH-LEASE!

Rule of thumb: mind your own freakin' business

How Did I Get Out of Shape?

Oh, it must have been those early morning roll-overs! I went this morning to take my Tahoe down to this place at Colonial Square (about 1 1/2 miles from the house) to finally have an iPod adapter installed -YEAH!, again YEAH! And I took my 10 speed and bike trailer to come home with. It's a little up-hill from there to here but I thought it would be no sweat. Well, it was...a lot of sweat. My lungs are hurting me and it's been 15 minutes since I got home! I need to get out more! I'm so glad the weather is nice again so I can get back out! But it did feel so good to be back on that thing. I think poor Todd's wondering why he even bought me that bike since I've ridden it a total of 5 times. Seriously though, every time I get on it, I blow a tire - that sounded funny. Anyway, anyone up for a ride? I have a spare bike!

Twenty Years From Now

Twenty years from now...I see myself accepting my gray hair and wrinkly skin. I see myself finding new reasons to love my husband now that our nest will be empty. I see myself on a farm & still be close to my family. I hope to see that I will still not be visited much by death among friends. I see myself not regreting too many decisions I made in younger years. I see myself still a runner. I see myself surrounded by more family & friends (and maybe a grandchild). I see that I have overcome some of the petty nuisance behaviors that have plagued many of my younger years. I see myself giving more time to volunteering than for paid labor and feeling happy that I'm capable. I see myself a little more educated and a lot more wise. I see that I have served hands-on in several natural disasters as the leader in a company devoted to these causes in occupational therapy. I see myself happy with the life I've created.

I'm THAT Lady

So I went grocery shopping tonight after Natalie went to bed and it's really late. The grocery store closes at 11 and I am still picking up my last few items. I seriously thought Smith's Marketplace was open all night long! Well, whatever. So I get up to the checkstand and there's this tired girl standing there looking at my humongous cart full of stuff and I just know she's thinking, "I'll bet she's couponing too." Well, fortunately for her, I wasn't but that was rare anyway. Okay so here's the good part. I shop according in categories like, I go get all my produce, then head to frozen stuff, then meats, then canned goods, then baking goods or whatever. But it's all layered up in my cart in categories so that when I get it out to lay it on the thingie, it all goes in bags ...in those same categories. That makes it easier to put away. Don't you think?

So you're thinking, is this the long version or the short version? Well, it's the long.

So the cheese I'd picked up was moldy and I voluntereed to go get a replacement and she was just getting ready to bag. So I started saying this:

"Would you please do me a huge favor and make sure all the frozen stuff goes in it's own bag, and then the refrigerator stuff gets it's very own bags, and produce too..."

And then I had this out of body experience because she suddenly looked up at me like, "are you for real lady?"

I just turned right around in the middle of my sentence and ran to the cheese. Seriously. And while I was running, I was thinking "who are you?"

I really like my categorized grocery shopping bagging thing but I've really never had to explain to to anyone before and for the first time, I was really embarrassed of my "systems".