Sunday, May 29, 2011
Rain, Rain GO AWAY!!
There has been a LOT of rain recently. As a result, part of the basement I'm living in flooded. Fortunately, insurance brought in fans to dry it up, but there are some stains on the carpet and holes in the walls. The water came from under the back porch, seeping through the ground because the ground is not level and made it so the water gathered right by the house. Now, I just need to get a lot of dirt to level it out so it won't happen again!
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Where are we??
Well, if you couldn't guess, this is actually our attempt to hike Stewart Falls in Provo, UT today. Stewart Falls is my most favorite hike, mostly because it's a different adventure every time I go. Well, I definitely wasn't expecting this kind of adventure. Word to the wise: If you're going to hike someplace after it's been raining everyday for the past week, you might consider renting some snowshoes and bringing some gloves. I knew right where the trailhead was, but from there on out, the trail was completely covered in snow. We followed the footprints of other hikers hoping it would take it to the right place... apparently not. The snow was really deep and the other thing we could do was hike straight through it, which I know is not how the trail goes to the falls. I honestly believe that hiking straight led us to the Mt. Timp trail, because where we hiked to we saw some trail, but it was paved and the beginning of Mt. Timp trail is definitely paved and Stewart Falls is definitely not. One of the best parts was occasionally stepping and falling through so our whole leg is under the snow. It was really deep snow and with the sun shining, it got pretty soft.
We ended up hiking through the snow up to a large bowl where we saw a couple avalanches. Fortunately, they were too far away to do us any harm, but it sure scared me anyway. Where we found the trail, we saw where the snowmelt created a cool looking tunnel. We decided to hike as far as we could and then build a snowman. The snow was perfect!! We named him Fettuccine. He's in the Italian Mafia. Secret trail... secret snowman... My new favorite thing... hiking to snow falls. Yeah, you guessed it... it's just another name for avalanches. I'd feel pretty safe with Fettuccine there with me, though!
Saturday, May 7, 2011
New Love
I woke up this morning and had one of my super duper waffles (peanut butter, banana, syrup). I knew it was going to be a great day. I think spring is FINALLY here! I know it's supposed to rain for the next couple of days, but today was absolutely BEAUTIFUL!! I was outside from about 10 AM to 4 PM and I absolutely loved every second of it! I sat reading on the front porch swing for a while, but stopped reading because I was so distracted by seeing all the pollen floating in the breeze everywhere. It looked like it was snowing, but it definitely wasn't.
My grandma and I took a walk together, as we've been doing almost everyday this week. She is feeling pretty good. She is able to walk the half a mile route we have made up. I was planning to go explore some hiking trails I found pretty much in my backyard, but instead I decided to join the neighbors in doing some yard work.
The neighbor across the street has helped Grandma with caring for her lawn and gardening, so I went there and asked them to help me figure out the sprinkler system and the garden. I've always wanted to have my own garden. Because I lived in an apartment, I resorted to have an indoor plant, but now that I've moved here, I can cultivate and add to the garden grandma has. She has a lot of places to garden, so I'm excited!! The neighbor (Sis. Robbin) said that she will come by Tuesday or Wednesday of next week to help me figure out what are weeds and what are actually plants or flowers.
Today I spent the whole afternoon cutting off all the dead flowers and cleaning up all the dead things all around the front yard. There is too much to do in the backyard, so it will have to be another day. But I managed to fill up almost an entire garbage can with all the dead stuff. Anyone looking at it might not think much of the garden, but it looks a lot better than it did. Grandma has LOTS of rose bushes and when they start to grow out again it will look really awesome. I am looking forward to planting some more perennials and keeping it all looking really nice.
The ironic thing is that when I was little, I didn't enjoy doing the yard work very much, but many times today I thought about those family yard work days and really appreciated the memories and being taught how to work. Grandma has one fern bush in her front yard that when I trimmed and smelled it, it brought back memories of trimming the fern bushes at home when I was younger.
So, if you haven't already guessed, my new love is gardening!!
My grandma and I took a walk together, as we've been doing almost everyday this week. She is feeling pretty good. She is able to walk the half a mile route we have made up. I was planning to go explore some hiking trails I found pretty much in my backyard, but instead I decided to join the neighbors in doing some yard work.
The neighbor across the street has helped Grandma with caring for her lawn and gardening, so I went there and asked them to help me figure out the sprinkler system and the garden. I've always wanted to have my own garden. Because I lived in an apartment, I resorted to have an indoor plant, but now that I've moved here, I can cultivate and add to the garden grandma has. She has a lot of places to garden, so I'm excited!! The neighbor (Sis. Robbin) said that she will come by Tuesday or Wednesday of next week to help me figure out what are weeds and what are actually plants or flowers.
Today I spent the whole afternoon cutting off all the dead flowers and cleaning up all the dead things all around the front yard. There is too much to do in the backyard, so it will have to be another day. But I managed to fill up almost an entire garbage can with all the dead stuff. Anyone looking at it might not think much of the garden, but it looks a lot better than it did. Grandma has LOTS of rose bushes and when they start to grow out again it will look really awesome. I am looking forward to planting some more perennials and keeping it all looking really nice.
The ironic thing is that when I was little, I didn't enjoy doing the yard work very much, but many times today I thought about those family yard work days and really appreciated the memories and being taught how to work. Grandma has one fern bush in her front yard that when I trimmed and smelled it, it brought back memories of trimming the fern bushes at home when I was younger.
So, if you haven't already guessed, my new love is gardening!!
Sunday, May 1, 2011
It was the best of times and it was the worst of times...
Why do we trust a groundhog to tell us how much longer winter will be? Just wondering because he was seriously wrong this year! Come on Spring! Come already!
With that said, overall things are going good. My grandma got her pacemaker this week and she is recovering well. Hopefully this week she will feel up to go on walks with me to get the exercise that she needs.
Today I was set apart as the Family Home Evening coordinator. Originally I was called just on the committee, but today when I went to be set apart, we talked about it and they decided to make me one of the ones in charge. No one on the committee seemed to know who is in charge or what is going on, so I took charge of FHE last week and with that showed that I pretty much was a coordinator and could really get the FHE in this ward going strong again. I hope to make things a bit more organized and better in the near future.
Life is extremely stressful right now. I'm really feeling the weight of the responsibility to take care of my grandma and everything that goes with living with her and on my own in the basement. In addition to that, trying to provide for myself and have the money I need to pay my bills this summer (including expenses of participating in the Nauvoo Pageant) is really hard on a small salary. I asked this week about applying to be a teacher next year. I hope that will help with the money, but it would be a great step in my profession. A federal review team is coming in a couple weeks to check out our program, and I am teaching that week, so I hope it all goes well and that I will still have a job next year. I won't if our program doesn't pass. I'm still not settled in the basement at all yet and I have lots of "chores" to do, but I haven't had the time or energy to do any of it. I was sick for a week and then I am usually so exhausted after work and have other pressing matters that I just don't get to it. I'm also trying to be involved in the ward and make friends. I have a calling now, so that's good. I've made quite a few friends and I'm excited about upcoming changes that will allow me to make more friends. I have a little more than a month left of work and then it's summer break!! I definitely need it! It will be nice to go hiking, do things with people, and have time to get my room/stuff settled down stairs.
All this may not sound all that stressful to you, but it is all together really overwhelming at times. Fortunately, this weekend I got to get away for a little bit by watching a friend's four kids for her and her husband while they went to a cabin for the weekend with their family. It was tiring, but I loved playing with them, watching movies, and most of all, using yarn to string up their basement like a huge spider's web. They loved it, too. I also took them on a treasure hunt and did make-overs with the girls. It was a great way to be a kid again.
With that said, overall things are going good. My grandma got her pacemaker this week and she is recovering well. Hopefully this week she will feel up to go on walks with me to get the exercise that she needs.
Today I was set apart as the Family Home Evening coordinator. Originally I was called just on the committee, but today when I went to be set apart, we talked about it and they decided to make me one of the ones in charge. No one on the committee seemed to know who is in charge or what is going on, so I took charge of FHE last week and with that showed that I pretty much was a coordinator and could really get the FHE in this ward going strong again. I hope to make things a bit more organized and better in the near future.
Life is extremely stressful right now. I'm really feeling the weight of the responsibility to take care of my grandma and everything that goes with living with her and on my own in the basement. In addition to that, trying to provide for myself and have the money I need to pay my bills this summer (including expenses of participating in the Nauvoo Pageant) is really hard on a small salary. I asked this week about applying to be a teacher next year. I hope that will help with the money, but it would be a great step in my profession. A federal review team is coming in a couple weeks to check out our program, and I am teaching that week, so I hope it all goes well and that I will still have a job next year. I won't if our program doesn't pass. I'm still not settled in the basement at all yet and I have lots of "chores" to do, but I haven't had the time or energy to do any of it. I was sick for a week and then I am usually so exhausted after work and have other pressing matters that I just don't get to it. I'm also trying to be involved in the ward and make friends. I have a calling now, so that's good. I've made quite a few friends and I'm excited about upcoming changes that will allow me to make more friends. I have a little more than a month left of work and then it's summer break!! I definitely need it! It will be nice to go hiking, do things with people, and have time to get my room/stuff settled down stairs.
All this may not sound all that stressful to you, but it is all together really overwhelming at times. Fortunately, this weekend I got to get away for a little bit by watching a friend's four kids for her and her husband while they went to a cabin for the weekend with their family. It was tiring, but I loved playing with them, watching movies, and most of all, using yarn to string up their basement like a huge spider's web. They loved it, too. I also took them on a treasure hunt and did make-overs with the girls. It was a great way to be a kid again.
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