Ahhhhh.....

Inhale

If it were possible for your soul to take a deep, cleansing breath...

Mine finally did this week.

It's been rough at work the past few weeks but then at the end of it all, I attended our leadership meeting at a beautiful hotel in Florida. (it's amazing the deals you can get in Florida during hurricane season!)

The lobby of the Ft. Lauderdale Westin Diplomat, all decked out for Christmas

and Hanuka

Holiday palm trees

This was the view of the pool that night from my hotel room

I slept with the balcony door open and listened to the waves crashing all night. Sigh...

This is what I woke up to:

I went for a walk along the beach before my meeting. Oh how I wish I could do that every day.



Found a few new friends along the beach

It was 85 degrees there instead of 30 degrees back home. I wish Joshua could have been with me to enjoy a few moments in paradise. It was still pretty great.

Exhale.

And then there was light

If there has to be winter in Utah, at least we have the lights at Temple Square. I always remembered them much more brilliant when I was small.

They're still fun to see and a great tradition that we were happy to share with Gina, April, James, and the little people this year.

Kellan looks like he's caroling...

We went the day after Thanksgiving and OH the crowds! April, you better know I love you. I braved those crowds just for you...

Okay, you and the view... (My apologies to Shannon, my professional photographer friend who hates photos taken on cell phones. This was the best I could do.)

I didn't get any pictures at the square with little Max, but here he is at dinner. What a scrumptious little smile.

It was a beautiful night and I was happy to share it with my wonderful husband who braved the crowds and walking in the cold...with a bad back. Love you babe.

forever and ever.

Oh the weather outside is frightfull

If it has to look like this outside, like it did yesterday...

(That says "Boo" by the way, not 800)

...then I'm glad we had one of these inside:

This was the first time in nearly a year that we lit the fireplace. After all the issues with the house after we moved in last December, we didn't dare lite it for fear of the whole house going up like a roman candle. We had it serviced last month and decided to give it a try. The only thing missing were some marshmallows. Otherwise, it was perfect.

Big, Bigger, Biggest

Having a tiny car sucks big

Having a tiny car with a tail light that doesn't work

and wont pass the safety inspection, sucks bigger

Having to crawl into the trunk of a tiny car from the back seat (because the trunk doesn't open) so you can fix the tail light sucks biggest

My husband is awesome!

I guess we'll never be smart

Joshua and I just got back from Nashville/Knoxville and I'm sad to say that I suck at taking pictures. Plus it rained all day on Saturday when the little people would have otherwise provided ample photo opportunities. We did spend a beautiful day with Joshua's parents strolling around the Cumberland River (I think) before we came home. I wish Utah had more trees.

We also thought this was noteworthy. We saw a Smart Car outside our hotel and had to take a picture. Joshua and I will never be "Smart", as in owning one of these, so long as his wingspan is longer than the car itself.

Does this strike anyone else as ridiculous? Bring on the Jeep Grand Cherokee, if you please!

Cultivating

Our garden is thriving, still with weeds but other stuff too. This morning I went out early to gather some yummy goodness for breakfast omelets.

I came back with tomatoes, onions, peppers, zucchini, and carrots. They were good omelets.

The strawberries didn't really take this year. I think we got about 3.

But we've also got 2 pumpkins that we'll be carving up next month.

Their blossoms are so pretty.

I serve my God and my country

In general, this message speaks mostly of things I believe in. Things I would venture that Jesus Christ taught. However, they had me up until referring to:

1) Ending 200 years of slavery-- if by that you mean the American Companies that hire undocumented workers who have immigrated illegally and pay them a laughable wage because they wont argue--then yes. I too pledge to end slavery. However, somehow I fear your "white guilt" implies that African Americans are still slaves in this country. I disagree. I came from a poor, single-mother family in a fairly high crime part of town (not Detroit, but still) and I put myself through college, have a hard but successful career, and am a home owner in America. All because of the choices I made and the mother who taught me how to make righteous ones. Every American has the same opportunity to make the choices and sometimes sacrifices that give them access to "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." I take offense to your implication that anyone of any ethnicity who chooses not to pursue happiness through righteous choices is a slave.

2) I recycle my plastic bags at the grocery store, my cereal boxes, the few plastic bottles I purchase. I map out errands so as to conserve gas. I put a sweater on in the winter to keep the thermostat lower. I do a pretty good job of reducing my consumption and increasing what I cultivate (so far...about 10 zucchinis from our garden). How many new, belts, Prada handbags, hybrid cars, houses, pairs of ugs, electronic gadgets, sparkly bracelets have you, Cameron, Demi, Ashton, etc., bought this year? I drive a 10 year old car that gets 30-35 mph, hardly a gas-guzzler, or "obnoxious car". I wear the same shoes and jeans as last season because they're still in good shape. Trying to be more green, doesn't mean you are doing a good job consuming less and cultivating more.

3) I am not a servant to my President. I pledge to serve my God and my country. My President took an oath to serve me, as a citizen of the United States of America. Did you forget that oath, Mr. President? Or did you not believe in the words of that oath? Okay, in fairness, I don't think President Obama created this message, but if he sits back and allows this understanding of "Change" to be perpetuated by those that live in Hollywood (and by that I mean the fairytale world it represents) instead of the real world (where Mom and Dad work two full time jobs for less than $100,000 a year) then he's guilty by omission.

Shame on the school principle who thought it was appropriate to indoctrinate Utah children with this blatant, one-sided propaganda. If their parents believe this message, it is there right to give it. It is the school's responsibility to teach: reading, writing, arithmetic, science, history, government, and world events in an unbiased way so they may learn critical thinking skills and choose their own beliefs.

Caught ya!

So I'm upstairs cooking dinner and hear my neighbor's grand kids out playing. Cute giggles and shrieks, obviously having a great time. Then when the noise in the kitchen died down I thought to myself, "Huh, they sound awfully close. Is that splashing water I hear?" I opened the front door and saw four little rug rats, 8 shoes, 8 socks and 3 volleyballs standing/floating in our front yard fountain. All I could do was laugh instead of being the serious adult who should tell them they've been naughty. I wish I could have taken their picture because the only thing more priceless than their faces was when one of the rug rats (maybe 4 years old) said, "We've played here lots of time, you just didn't catch us."

I promptly sent them home to explain their drenched-ness to their parents so I could laugh in private so as not to send them a mixed message.

Busy Keeping Their Jobs

We have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion. Doctrine and Covenants 121: 39

Shame on Senator Barbara Boxer and all of our leaders who have forgotten the responsibility in which they have been entrusted. I hope she actually heard what the General was trying to report over the self-aggrandizing in her head.

Fruits of Our Labors

Well...vegetables actually. I picked a bowl full of peas from our garden today. There were so many that the pea plants were drooping quite a bit. Hopefully they'll bounce back for another harvest this season.

Before:



After...yummy.

Too Tense? A day of testosterone will cure that.

So a man came up to me and said, "I'm a wigwam. I"m a tepee. I'm a wigwam. I'm a tepee." So I said to him, "Take it easy dude, you're two tents." Ha ha. This was Joshua's clever quip when we discovered we literally have 2 tents, and we're not sure why. So if we borrowed one from you and never returned it, let us know. We didn't remember there being such a killer deal that we bought one and got one free or anything, but the fact remains...two tents.

We went camping this week and set our 2 tents up in duplex fashion. It worked out great. Since they're both just 2-person sleepers, there isn't much room for changing clothes so we'd crawl from one into the other to get dressed. Pure genius.

It was a nice camp spot, right on the upper Provo river in the Uintas: It was close to the road, but pretty secluded with all the trees and a nice flat spot for the tent. We brought our bikes along to check out some trails.

The only problem was there were tons of mosquitoes. And even though we were covered in Deep Woods Off they would just hover by your face, waiting for you to open your mouth. So because of that, plus the fact that we forgot to pack pillows--which made for an uncomfortable night's sleep-- we decided to head home and kick it.

We stopped by Provo River Falls on the way home and found what may have been part of the bike trail...um...a little steep, so we'll just walk. It was a beautiful morning though.

So today, after a comfy sleep in our king size bed, we headed back out for a day of testosterone (insert caveman grunt here). First we drove out to a little gully Joshua knew about, basically in the middle of nowhere, to shoot his gun. Turns out I'm a pretty good shot. Joshua is better, but I did okay and won a few more "awesome wife" points.

Next, back to the Provo River. This time it was the bike trail along the river in Provo Canyon. I discovered I am way out of shape, but we had a nice ride up to Bridal Veil Falls. I'm glad the trip back to the car was downhill!

Nothing like checking out some real bikes to end a great couple of days. We stopped at the Harley Davidson store in Lindon, UT for lunch at Marleys on the way home and it didn't hurt that they had many many awesome bikes to look at too.

One for Joshua:

And one for me:

Just kidding. All we purchased were a couple of sliders and shoestring fries. Though it was tempting.

And how cool is this...the tables at the restaurant were covered in these old soda bottle caps under the glass. I'd never heard of half of them.

Sadly, back to work tomorrow. Although, taking a Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday off is kind of a nice break in the week, when everyone else still has to work. Nah nah.