There is definitely an ebb and flow to my life, where certain times everything is crazy and I can barely keep my feet moving fast enough to keep me from falling on my face, and other times (mostly never) when things slow down. Right now is one of those - almost falling on my face - times. Here are some of the things I have done in the last week: organized/ran weekly church youth night began final year of grad school read 400+ pages for school wrote two papers for school finished 9 different projects at work wrote/submitted 17 proposals held a sleepover/beauty bootcamp for 15 youth/leaders picked 14 lbs of raspberries made raspberry pie made raspberry butter made raspberry jam attended church fed/entertained 10 people for Sunday dinner held interviews with leaders visited a few women from church cleaned my house hosted my father during all of this... And so on and so forth. There are other things, wrote letters, answered 89 emails in a day, paid bills, etc but when I got called lazy yesterday, it was all I could do to hold my tongue and simply say that I don't believe that its true. So tonight, I take a small break and go see this guy
He is more than the desire of every pre-teen girls heart. He's got some fabulous stuff out there. Stitched Up with Herbie Hancock, the father of jazz hands piano. Or any number of his Trio work. I'm hoping for a few gems to take away from tonight to keep me going during all of this craziness.
The craziness that is my life until at least April, has begun. I get to work around 7am, take the train to class in the middle of the day, then head back to work until about 6 or 7 pm. Add in evening commitments and you start to understand why I seem, at times, aloof. My semester started a few days ago. I've got to say, though, that I am so excited about these classes. I love the subject matter and am looking forward to the readings and assignments. (Nerd. I know). We've also scheduled out tons of fun things to do during this fall including: a Utah Utes football game, apple picking, corn mazes, state fairs, parties, Harry Potter movies, pumpkins, the Story Telling Festival (its own post), the Sundance Ski Resort scenic fall lift... I could go on but instead I'll post about them as they come up. In the meantime, my husband had dinner waiting for me when I got home from work yesterday (what the?) and even gave me a back rub the other night without my asking and with no prompting whatsoever. Crazy huh? He is so sweet to me. I am one lucky girl! I also have some of the best friends a person could ask for. At times like these when everything is going so well and I feel so happy, I start to get worried in the back of my mind. I keep wondering, why is everything going so well? what is going to happen? Is that so doomsday of me? Ah well, lets enjoy it while it lasts!
A few things to share with you before you begin what I hope will be a wonderful weekend. I was going to go camping this weekend but plans fell through. I'm actually totally fine with this but I had plans to share a cool camping photo I had on store so I'm going to share it anyway because who knows when I'll go camping again and have the chance to share the photo.
Lets agree its a nice photo of camping.
A few other things that I have seen this week that I enjoy.
Incredible right? I think I'm going to add "learn how to yoyo on my 100 by 100 list" (I don't actually have a list like that But I think I'm going to make one and the first thing will be yoyo).
Here is another video that DesignMom posted and I really really enjoyed. Its a beautiful poem set to video. I don't know about you but sometimes I crave alone time.
I love that last line. A testament. I've learned to really cherish time by myself. There was a period in my life where I was always alone, when I had no friends and no dates and no family around. Eventually I embraced it and discovered so much about myself. I became very self-sufficient. I became my own best friend. Like from Space Balls...with the dog guy. ha. Anyway, I remained in that state until one day I decided to pray to have friends. Shortly after that I met my best friend and I've had a steady stream of truly amazing people in my life ever since. I am a very blessed person. Funny (or dumb) that it takes me so long to ask God for help when He is so readily willing to bless me.
Lastly we are having a guy come by to tell us how outrageous an idea it would be to finish the attic. I'm feeling less and less ambitious with house projects the longer we live in this house. But adding another 400 sq ft and a bedroom if we can do it on the cheap is a good way to ensure that we don't take it in the pants when we move in a couple of years. It would be a project and a half but I have this beautiful picture of an attic bedroom in my mind. It looks similar to this one. :)
The other night someone stole our wicker bench off of our porch. It happened sometime during the night when we were home and the porch light was on. It is a strange thing to have happened. We live in a safe neighborhood and in a very safe city. The sad thing about this whole event though is the effect it has had on our cat. If you didn't think I was a crazy cat lady before then you will now. That bench belonged to our cat, truly. She was always on that bench. She slept on it. She sharpened her claws on it. She used it as an obstacle course. She would run up the sidewalk at lightening speed and with one clean leap from the sidewalk she could bypass the entire porch and land on the bench. She is so use to having it that she keeps leaping on to it but its not there. She sits just where it used to be and looks at us all forlorn. Don't get me wrong. I'm kinda weirded out that someone straight stole something off of our porch. We even booby trapped the rest of the furniture on our porch and tied a string all the way back to the bedroom so that if someone tried to take it, it would yank on my husbands arm. Yeah. Hows that for a security system and thinking like a 10-year-old? If we could've figured out how to get a mud pie to fall on their heads when they tried to grab stuff then we would've done that too. But mostly I'm kinda sad for my cat. I mean, look at that face...
This weekend we celebrated our 5 year anniversary. I've got to say, this year's celebration was the best by far. I even got to cross one of my 30 before 30 goals off - skydiving. More about that later. On Friday we had a lovely dinner at Bear Dance Cafe in Midway, Utah. It has excellent food and live music on the weekends. We wanted something off the beaten path and we certainly enjoyed the 20 minute drive through the beautiful canyon to get there.
We got back late because we just talked for hours about the last 5 years and the next 5 years and our next big Europe trip and all the exciting things there are in life. It was wonderful. We got up early Saturday and drove nearly 2 hours to a weird, middle of nowhere place called Tooele Utah (pronounced too ill ah- from what I could tell from the locals). We watched an instructional video with Bill Booth, the founder and inventor of all things skydiving. I honestly don't remember a word that he said. I mean look at this guy:
When he spoke there was a ripple effect in his beard from his chin movements. No joke. Then we got geared up and loaded into the plane. I'll let the pictures and video take over from here for a bit.
Wee fun, walking to the plane with no understanding of what lies ahead.
ok here is the video:
After skydiving we ate at Doug's favorite restaurant, Original Pancake House (see sigh via doug below). We were really hungry because we didn't dare eat before the jump. That night we hiked the mountain near our house, to the Y, and watched the sunset. My husband made it sound like it was a little walk up a mountain but it was stupid hard. Also I suck at hiking. Here is the mountain:
Here is the view: We topped off the weekend Sunday with church, a visit with my best friend Leah who was in town, an attempt to see my brother at the airport, a visit with some of our dear friends from Virginia who were in town and a concert at Red Butte Gardens with The Swell Season. Here is Leah (she was out here for a wedding that she sang at and I was dumb and forgot to get a picture of the two of us):
Here are our friends from Virginia (and yes that is my husband showing his nipple - this is what happens when I tell him to smile pretty for the picture) -
And just one song at least from The Swell Season who are one of our favorite bands ever. Glen Hansard, the main singer and heart and soul of the band, is one of the 5 people that if the opportunity arises I can leave Doug for (we have small lists and rules - this is how you make it to your 5th anniversary. haha. just kidding.) I don't have a crush on Glen, I just love his music and the passion with which he sings. Ah Glen... This video is crappy quality but the song is fabulous:
So that was our 5th Anniversary. Normally we go out to dinner and go to a movie or something. Life is short so we decided to step it up. Next year, hot air balloon ride. I've got to whittle down that 30 before 30 list somehow.
I also am happy. This also has to do with the approaching Fall. I love Fall more than Jo loves Fall. So much so, that I always capitalize it. Virginia has the most spectacular Falls in the world. Hands down. Fact: scientists and professional season rankers have all agreed that Virginia Falls are vastly superior to all other seasons in all other areas of Earth. Sorry New England. Sorry Mediterranean summers. Sorry Hawaii.
Fall has the best food. The best weather. The best books. The best fashion. The best outdoor adventuring. The best weekends. The best holidays (I'm looking at you, Thanksgiving).
The transition into Fall is equally awesome. Memorial Day. Beautiful late August mornings. Insane end of summer action: rafting, camping, skydiving, concerts, etc.
So, yea I'm happy too. About our 5th anniversary (feels like we been married SOOOOO much longer). About going to see the Swell Season again this weekend. About new, creative ideas and opportunities. About becoming a uncle x 7. About all of the right people and right things being placed in the path to what I want to do with my life.
So now, just like Jo, I'll share some stuff too.
Music:
Next, a journey in eye candy.
We'll take this car:
down this road:
stopping here:
and here:
before getting to our final stop, here, where the governor of VA will have been kind enough to let us move in:
I feel really happy. I am so excited for fall to arrive and am loving the cooler summer days that we are having right now. I love having a little time to just chill. There are always a million things I need/should do but just for right now, just for at least one more week, these heavy burdens don't feel like they weigh so much. Some things that are making me smile... I may have some new opportunities at work opening up. My fall semester looks intense but fabulous. My husband is delightful as ever and we get to celebrate our 5th anniversary this weekend. I got a lovely hand written letter from our dear couch surfer, Brett, that made my whole week. The bakery two doors down has started making pumpkin chocolate chip cookies that are spectacular and a sure sign that fall is on its way. A big sunflower just opened up in front of my dining room window. A beautiful hummingbird has been visiting the feeder I painstakingly fill for him and has done so just when I'm watching. And to top it all off, I've been listening to some excellent music that can't help but put you in a happy mood. And because I want you to be happy too, here are a few lovely things I want to share. First, the music...
Next, a journey in eye candy photos
We'll take this car down this road
drive by this
and this
till we get here
Its a beautiful view out the front window. Look!
But inside is just as fabulous
You walk to through the house that apparently has lots of living rooms until you get to the bedroom
Suddenly you're confused because you hear
and then this guy enters the room
wait, no I meant this guy
See don't you feel happy? What a beautiful trip, right?
I took a final on Wednesday night, turned in my final paper Thursday morning, and left for a river rafting trip with the youth group on Thursday afternoon. We thought we planned a hard core trip where the girls could learn some real bad-to-the-bone mountain skills.
Turns out we stayed on a lovely camp ground attached to a golf course.
Slightly disheartened at the realization that they would be fighting off golf balls rather than bears, I took solace knowing what lie ahead: the river.
in my mind:
actual:
My shining moment came around midnight the first night when I was deliriously tired from pulling all-nighters two nights in a row. It was pitch black except for the golf club house (but that was a few holes away) and not realizing that the ladies in the leader's tent had zipped up the screen I did my best to walk straight through it.
I am a procrastinator. Not with all things but I am absolutely when it comes to big school projects. Lets take for instance the large paper I have due tomorrow for which I only have an outline. It on American tax dollars earmarked for the presidential nominating conventions. Should tax dollars go to these type of events, especially in the face of such a huge deficit? (fyi - the public has been footing a considerable portion of the bill since around the 1930s). But really, nothing in me cares at the moment. Terrible, I know. I chose this topic because it was the most interesting idea I could come up with that pertains to public finance (my summer course that concludes tomorrow). Instead of focusing on that, I've decided to think about adding some pizzazz in the bedroom. Wait. That sounds wrong. Also it sorta looks like I want to add pizzas to the bedroom. I was just wanting to paint it and stuff. Its pretty boring in there. Wait. I'm not sure how comfortable I am with the innuendo's in this post. Maybe I can just show you a super boring picture and we can agree that it needs some paint and pictures and other such things. Lets consider this the before picture. However be warned that the after picture may be weeks or months away, depending on how long I choose to just think about this.
So my idea is to paint it a darker color (it doesn't get a ton of light so I'm thinking about just embracing that and making it a darker room) including that very prominent door so that it sorta disappears, adding lots of black and white photos that have meaning to us, and moving that nightstand I painted into another room and getting a lighter wood colored nightstand. Check out the wall color I'm considering:
I think if I have enough light colored things in the room to balance the color it could work... any suggestions? I really love this paint color. Maybe I should just go for it.
He is more than the desire of every pre-teen girls heart. He's got some fabulous stuff out there. Stitched Up with Herbie Hancock, the father of jazz hands piano. Or any number of his Trio work. I'm hoping for a few gems to take away from tonight to keep me going during all of this craziness.
