Happy Anniversary (continued)

The hike was fun, the sky was blue, and it was great to be out of the car.

Fifty cents bought us a pamphlet that lead us on a car tour through this wonderful valley, pointing out petroglyphs, geological phenomenons, and giving us some history of the area.

Like today, ancient American men must have been proud of their anatomy.

Our little pamphlet lead us to the petroglyphs, but mentioned that the meanings are unknown. Not to Isaac. He logically explained them to me, including the "exploding spittoon".

We visited Josie Basset's home. She traded electricity and plumbing available to her in the early 1900s, to live completely isolated in her dirt-floor cabin. One glimpse of this valley helped me understand why.

After gaining an appreciation for Josie's lifestyle, we continued on to Turtle Mountain.

We took in the sights. We moo-ed at the resident cows. We didn't make it to Park City, but there's aways next time.

They Grow Up So Fast

Last night was the school Talent Show. Just your regular old song and dance talent show.

For special occasions, Maddie gets to wear make-up. And by special occasions I mean Halloween. Since she was going to be on stage, I figured that warranted a little glam.

She did a great job. She sang Zip a Dee Doo Dah. By herself. Acapella. Microphone in hand. Maybe there's a little too much Idol watching in this house.

But Dang! She looks old. No more make up for a while. Not until she's 22.

More Than An Eye-full

Early in the morning, Sunday before last, we were driving to Sarah and Jimmy's for General Conference.

I'll pause here to mention that they live in a very nice neighborhood. Mowed lawns, beautiful homes, tidy-ness all around.

We passed the house. What was hanging from the garage? I know what I saw, but it couldn't be.

I had David turn around and go back.

Once we confirmed my suspisions, I had to take a picture. Who would believe me?!

You are not looking at the latest in Easter decorations. That is lingerie. All types. Colors. Preferences.

Have we progressed from the late night T.P. trips to THIS?! I hope David wasn't serious when he suggested that someone was just line-drying their delicates.

What the heck?! If anyone out there knows - please enlighten me.

PS As soon as we snapped the picture I insisted that we take off immediatley for fear that the homeowners would blame us for this crazy prank.

PSS On Monday I was visiting my aunt Sandy. I nosily leaned in as her across the street neighbor gave his report to the police for the TP in his tree. Who calls the cops when they get TP'd?!

PSS Ugh! As I've sat here to type, my ears are burning with the unmistakable sound of a broken washer. When did that happen?

She's Back Part 2

I don't handle do-overs very well. Let's get it right the first time.

Lemme see if I can remember what I lost when the blog crashed.

I was probably barking about how busy I've been lately.

I finally put together Maddie's room, and after 6 months of her sleeping on a mattress on the floor, she got her new bed.

Also keeping me busy was Maddie's rock project. It was so overwhelming to me (because I don't get nor do I care to get rocks) so I recruited my friend Jehn. Between the 3 of us, Maddie scored 100%.

More busy-ness... what blast we had with Becky & Terry and Gina & Jeremy coming to town. Sarah and Jimmy were so good to include us in all the goings-ons.

There was a trip to the Mayan and a trip for the older kids to Space Camp. It was great.

Though Maddie's birthday is mid-March, we just didn't get around to celebrating. Finally (finally!) I was able to pull off a little surprise afternoon with a trip to get nails done and then dinner at Appleby's.

This weekend was something of a conquest for me. Me conquering (temporarily) my fear of heights, and David conquering his knee issues, all to hike up Mill Creek Canyon.

I was brave. And then I was proud. David actually hiked further than I did, but let me just tell you that we were way up there.

It must have been hump day, because there were little beetles attached to each other all over the place. Look close for a little Beetle P*rn.

On to Easter. Nothing fancy. Nothing extraordinary. But unlike the last two Easters, we were with family. It's so wonderful to have my aunt Sandy and her family here.

The busy-ness may be slowing down. I'm home today. I was home (for a while) yesterday. I may even be home tomorrow. But send me a note if I forget to tell you about the outdoor-hanging of lingerie.

She's Back

Whatever reader may have once stopped by here is now long gone. Given up. Gone home. But now I'm back.

I have been on the go since March 15th (ish). So do I inundate you with details? Do I catch you up on all the goings-on? Or do I just start here and move forward?

Maybe a little of both.

A family wedding took us home for a quick weekend mid-March. So quick that there were many loved ones that I couldn't connect with. Some day soon. I hope.

And while we were home we squeezed in a 50th surprise party and an Eagle Court of Honor.

There has also been an addition to our family. Bella turned Teddy (with the discovery of some extra anatomy) has been terrorizing our home and family. Yes, he's as evil as he looks. I have scabs all over my ankles and hands courtesy of the kitty. And I'm quite allergic to him. We love him.

***The piece of crap blog just crashed and lost a bunch of my post. Tune in tomorrow.

Mini Hiatus

I will not have access to Internet until March 31. This also effects my email. If you're wondering why I haven't responded to an email, it's because my former provider is a communist and I am switching to a new phone/internet company. Until then...

Where is Just Jess?

Is she busy? Is she in a full-body cast? Did she leave the country? Get out your magnifying glass. We're hot on her trail. Oh. We found her at the Write-a-Lame-Blog Clinic. If I type it all out it will seem so pathetic. It's been a weird couple of weeks. Not all bad, but weird. We'll start with the good. My mom and dad and grandma came to visit. Short but sweet, and you'd be proud of all the shopping we crammed in. Three different Old Navys in one day. That's a lot even for me. We found plenty to buy for Maddie, but I (sadly) came home with only one shirt for me. My dad turned 50 while he was here. We celebrated with a little BBQ at aunt Sandy's and that incredible chocolate Costco cake. 50. I got another calling. In addition to ward missionary, I'm on the compassionate services committe. Our ward is having a LOT of illness. It's very sad. Some of the ailments are so extreme and out of the ordinary. One man is now wheel chair bound because of a spinal cord infection, and even lost his sight for six days. One sister just had her entire large intestine removed. And the list goes on. Not to mention the new babies that are due to inundate us in March and April.

I enjoy helping. I need to be needed. It's great to be able to feel a part of something again. It's been a long, long time. I'm not even sure that I've felt needed in the last two wards I've been in. My poor husband sits back and shakes his head.

Speaking of David...he got a calling on Sunday. He was called to ward missionary, but over the pulpit they sustained him to ward mission leader. Minor detail.

I'm not infatuated with my job any more. I guess you could say that the honeymoon is over. It lost it's charm. Or maybe it just doesn't seem worth driving 16 miles and through multiple detours (and sometimes snow) and mostly on a two-lane, traffic-jammed road for this low-paying position. Some days it just doesn't seem like my work is as important as it used to.

There's been another huge project (possibly the biggest of 'em all) that's kept me busy. After six months of sleeping on a mattress on the floor, Maddie has a bedroom fit for a princess. It didn't get off to an easy start, long story short I canceled the first bed (finally got the refund yesterday) that we ordered and dug around on the internet until I found The One. It's gorgeous. She'll probably hate it in a year when she goes through her inevitable Goth phase. Pictures to come.

Today Maddie turns 10. Is it possible? My baby? She's wonderful. She's fun. But the poor thing is constantly injuring herself. Whether it's tether ball, falling down in the grocery store, or having some woman with spiky heals in church step on her and mutilate the top of her foot, she's been hurting. Honorable mention to the fall she took off her bike when brother stuck PVC pipe in her spokes and sent her flying over the handle bars, which then sent us to Orem for an X-Ray. Nothing broken.

As if that weren't enough, she's now suffering the miserable rite of passage called Braces. The top appliance came a couple weeks ago, the bottom on Saturday. No brackets yet, but they're coming. It has created such an awful speach impediment that Mel Blanc wants to cast her alongside Sylvester, and she probably spits more than he does.

David got his latest and newest company car, the fourth since we moved here in August. I think this one is a keeper.

I'm traveling home this weekend. In and out. West bound late Friday, eastbound early Monday. It's going to be rough, and we're going to pack in as much as we can. With Michele's little wedding bringing us to California, we hope so see as many loved ones as possible.

We finally have seating in the living room. I found a sofa in the reject pile at RC Willey a couple of weeks ago. Now if the computer desk can mutate from heaps of paper into an organized home office we'll be in good shape.

One last thing. We have been almost done with the Book of Mormon for two weeks. We have been floundering around in the final chapters and just can't seem to wrap it up. Maybe tonight is our night. Keep your fingers crossed.

PS Yes, I know Mel Blanc is dead.