Christmas Is On It's Way

For our Christmas ward party I signed up to take cupcakes/cake pops. Since I like to bake and don't really do it all that often I chose cake pops. I had to look them up on the internet because I had never heard of them let a long know how to make them. They looked so fun, and not too complicated. They are basically a baked cake crumbled up then mix the frosting in to make a dough. Then stuck with a stick and dipped in chocolate. These were my first try! Not too bad, if I say so myself. I learned a few tricks as I was nearing the end, and I think they will be easier next time. I had so much fun with them and they are soooo good that I think I will take them around to the neighbors as my Christmas treats this year.

Anyone that knows me and picking out Christmas trees would know that the next picture is not a picture of a tree I would typically pick. Lets just say I have a thing with picking really good Christmas trees. Well, this year we were discussing if we wanted a bushy tree or one that you can only get high up on the mountain, like the ones around my cabin, and are not found too much here in St. George area. We wanted a perfectly spaced, green, triangle shaped tree that you get high in the mountain, but since we were only going up on Pine Valley, a bushy tree like the years past was what we were going to get.

We dressed really warm and drove up near Pine Valley. We started hiking around looking for the perfect tree. After about an hour of looking we found one tree that was not a typical tree for this area. Since it was like one we wanted and knowing we wouldn't find another one like it we decided to go for it. it was actually three trees in one and was really tall. Yes, we topped our tree. Alan climbed several feet up and started sawing. Our saw was not a good saw but it was all we had. It took about 30 minutes to finally cut the tree down. Once it was on the ground we realized it was way too tall. So I laid down on the tree to measure out and we went back to sawing. As Alan and I took turns the saw blade began to stretch. We did the best we could but the tree put up a fight. Just before we were all the way through the tree the saw broke completely. We had to just break the rest off and call it good.

We stood the tree up and realized that it was not a good looking tree. In fact it was quite ugly. But, we had no saw now, and we had put so much effort into this tree that we decided it was ours for the year.

It now has pretty lights and lots of decorations, yet it is still ugly. It is our poor Charlie Brown Christmas tree. But even though our tree is ugly, misshapen, and has sparse branches I LOVE our tree. It grew on me. I know what you might be thinking... but thats okay, we still love your tree.

Life is Great!

The colors on the mountain were breath taking.

My hott cowboy.

The storm rolling in. It didn't help with gathering the cows that day, but it was beautiful.

We didn't want the calves to get crushed, so we locked them in the nose of the trailer. They didn't like it too much, but I thought it was cute.

Mom, dad, and Ben eating lunch.

Admiring a hard day's work.

Amazing Weekend at the Ranch

The perfect place to sit and listen to conference.

Good food, and great family.

We are so blessed!

Stress...Why?

Stress
Stress is to life as caffeine is to soda.
Addictive, no nutritional value, adds nothing good to life.
Negative effects: weight gain, wrinkles, gray hairs, zits, increased heart rate, perspiration, sleep loss, bodily functions to not function, irritability, increase/decrease appetite, and an emotional roller coaster.
So why do we stress? Nothing good comes from it and yet it is addictive. Sometimes I even stress about trying not to stress.
Is it a learned behavior or innate?
Is it possible to be 100% stress free? How?

No longer will I sit by and do nothing!

I hate it when we are driving along and I go to get a drink and there always seems to be a bump in the road or the driver just happens to hit the brakes or gas and without fail water is all over the place. This has always seemed to be a passenger’s problem. You try to be sneaky and reach over and tip the cup of the driver but that only works once before the driver learns and just uses the other hand out of reach.

BUT….. last night as we were on a dirt road and I had a hard time getting a drink then handing it over to Alan I got a small idea. As he removed his foot from the gas and placed it on the brake to come to a slow roll, he lifted his cup up to take a drink. I was sitting girlfriend in the truck and slid my foot over ever so lightly and pushed the gas. Water first went all over Alan, and then he retaliated and splashed me with the rest. I was more wet than Alan but it was so worth it. We laughed for over 15 minutes. It was the best I have gotten him in a long time.

He may rethink tapping the brake or gas when I take a drink as a passenger from now on.

Why I Teach

I will never claim,
I teach for the glory or fame.
The paychecks are small,
but, I don’t teach for that at all.

Some nights I can’t sleep,
I try my hardest to count sheep.
But I’m lost in thought,
Have I helped each student or not?

Most students pass,
And just move on from my class.
They were taught what they need,
But, did I really feed?

In over 4 years,
I have only twice been brought to tears.
Only twice….
I have known, I made a difference.

In most professions things are tough.
Knowing you succeed twice is not enough.
But, twice is all I need,
To know that I did succeed.

Moab & The Mountains

Alan had a few days off and in trying to plan where would be the most fun and adventurous we decided that Moab was the place. Saturday morning we went climbing in Millcreek along the loop road. We have never been there before but knew there were climbs. I think it is so stupid for people to park on the road right where the climbs are. It is so narrow there and makes it difficult to pass another car. So we decided to pass the bridge, park on the side of the road where there is a lot of shoulder to park on and then hike back down canyon. We found a way down at the bridge then bush whacked it to the climbs. We had a blast climbing there. It was totally different rock for us and so fun to climb in a new place. When we were done we found a rock slide and followed a trail out of the canyon. It was sooo easy and our truck was right there. No need to bush whack it and NO need to park on the other side of the creek where it causes problems for other cars passing.

We went to church on Sunday in my parents ward. In remembrance of the pioneers and 24th of July, Jean West gave a talk and at the end of it she read "missions" to people in the ward like the pioneers would have been called to. My dad's was the first and I started to cry. He was asked to take his truck and horse trailer and travel to Alaska to live. He could take Ben with him but Brina and my mom had to stay behind. My mom and us girls were to take care of the property and all the cows and such. He could take one horse with him if he thought he would need it.
She then continued to read other people in the ward their situations. Like the Calls had to take the remainder of their kids and travel to Mexico and live and teach the gospel. They had to get there in one vehicle and had no paper work to cross the border. Another family had to raft down the river but they would not have any medications for their daughter that has some health problems. It was so spiritual and really made you feel a small part of what the pioneers felt as they were given their callings.

Sunday after church Alan and I went up to the cabin. Ohhh how I love being up there. There is just something about being up in the cooler weather with lots of green that makes you feel like you could spend all of your time there and do nothing and still be happy.

On Monday, we decide to hike up Mt. Peale. Lots of my family has done this hike, but I have not. I was actually excited, which surprised me. There was fog on the mountain which made it beautiful. We hiked and kind of just found our own way up. It was absolutely amazing on the top. I loved that in all directions I could look and recognize places. Fog kept rolling in and out, but there were no signs of a real storm so we just stayed up there and enjoyed the scenery. Later I found out that we took a long time to do the hike, but we weren't in any kind of a hurry and it was just nice to be out and enjoying the mountains.

Part of being on the mountain is being reminded how great my family is. While we were there Uncle Lyman, Aunt Sandy, Uncle Lynn, and Aunt Cathy came over. We had great food, conversations and lots of laughs. I love how close our family is and how much fun we have together.
Tuesday, we packed up to get ready for the long drive home, but not before it decide to pour rain. When you think the mountains can't get any better than it rains. I love it when it rains at the cabin. We leave the door open and build the fire up really big and just watch and listen. Life doesn't get much better than that.

We finally decided that it was time to start home, even though it was still raining. We left my mom and dad at the cabin hoping they would stay a few more days, but my dad just thinks he has too much to do, and they came home later that day.

I have had this written for a while now but keep waiting on getting the pictures off of our camera. I decided to go a head and post it and I will add the pics later.

Summer Time Fun

Here are a few pictures of some things we have been doing this summer. The first picture is of Ella in a pond out at the pastures where Alan's dad runs his cows. All of the other pictures are us at "The Spot." It is a new bouldering gym here in St. George. We are friends with a guy who works for the owner. It has been fun going (sometimes more than once a week)and playing around or placeing some of the holds. It will be open to the public soon!

Birthday Week

This week is my birthday week. I am turning 27 this year meaning I only have two more birthdays before I am 29 and stop having birthdays all together. So, I am having a birthday week this year to make up for all the non birthdays later.

Monday was my first day after surgery that I could get up and do whatever I wanted. So my gift for Monday was time. It was so nice to have time to do some of those things I just couldn't get to before.

Tuesday, Alan took me shopping. It was a lot of fun to just go from store to store and try on clothes.

Wednesday Alan took me to Tarzan at Tuacahn. We got seats in the second row and had a blast. Here are a couple of pictures we took with Alan's phone. They aren't very good but it proves we were there. Another cool thing was Denny Miller (the guy who played Tarzan in the 1959 movie) was there.

Today I went in for my post op appointment and was cleared to do all activities again. Yahoo! That means lifting more than 5 pounds, swimming, rock climbing and lots more. It was a great present.

Friday, Alan and I are headed out camping.

Saturday, more camping and fishing.

Sunday, my actual birthday, and Alan is going to do all the cooking.

I am really loving this birthday week stuff. I guess I can keep having birthdays after 29 as long as they are a whole week long.

Only Alan...

will go from this.

To this in the same day.

Easter Weekend

For Easter weekend Alan took a couple of days off so we could have a long weekend together. My idea of a long weekend together was a cruise. Alan's was to go backpacking. Alan's plan worked out better, so we decided to go backpacking. We left early Friday morning and I was sleeping in the truck on the way out to Escalante. Alan woke me up about an hour outside of Escalante so I could see the scenery.


As you could imagine I was not excited to see SNOW!! I made some comment about how there wouldn't be snow on a cruise and how I was not at all excited to go backpacking anymore. Thankfully this was at 7777 feet at Bryce canyon and we had some altitude to drop before we got to Escalante.

We decided that backpacking probably wasn't the warmest idea but that we would see the same things just in 2 miles not 26. We pulled put to the trail head and started to make lunch when 2 guys came up out of the canyon we were about to go into. We talked to them for a minute and found out that it wasn't cold in the canyon and they just spent 4 days down there. I got really brave and decided we could take the stuff down and have the possibility of just coming back up. From the picture you can see that I still packed warm.

It wasn't long before I got pretty warm and started shedding the winter clothes. It was a really pretty hike in the 2.6 miles. (Can you spot the arch?) After we got to the bottom of the canyon we realized that everything we read it was 2.6 miles to the bottom not to all the really cool stuff to see. Because it was warm and really pretty we decided to spend the night and make it a full backpacking adventure.

We found this cool spot and set up our tent. The next morning we got up late. (I had to wait for it to warm up.) Then went and explored the canyon. There were three arches and lots of water falls.

This is Alan filtering us some water. The water tasted really good!

On Sunday we jumped on the 4-wheeler and drove out to Hole in the Rock. We were really glad we took the 4-wheeler. We passed a few trucks and they didn't seem to enjoy the ride as much as we were.

This is my favorite picture. Someone has taken the time to mark the wagon trail from Escalante to the Hole in the Rock with these markers. Sometimes they are right on the dirt road other times you can see them off the road a ways. In the background you can see the opening to the Hole in the Rock.

I have always wanted to go out to the Hole in the Rock. It was amazing to be right where these incredible people showed their faith and overcome such an endeavor. There was a lot of emotion walking in their footsteps and looking out to where they went. I have a great love for them and am so thankful they stayed strong and completed what they were asked to do no matter how hard it was.

Essential Oil Party

Over the past few months I have discovered how wonderful essential oils are. Not only has it helped me in my life but it has helped my mom with her MS and her friend Sue. There are so many uses for essential oils. At a later date I will explain more about the oils and how I use them almost everyday. But for now I want to invite everyone to an Essential Oil Party.

On March 12th at 6:30 pm we are going to meet at Comfort Suits. I am brining all of my oils, my mom's and Sue's oils. We will be doing a short presentation on how to use the oils and how they can help from things like calming a crying baby to reducing the affects of MS.

There will be food and a whole lot of fun. If you are going to be in Moab that night you should stop by! Everyone is welcome. Spread the word and lets party.