The Gowers Family

Tiniest chicken egg...ever!

2012-02-24T17:59:00.000-08:00

Tonight I went out to collect the eggs and say hi to the chicks. I also happened to have a treat for the older ladies that needed to be dropped off in the run. As I stepped into the run I saw the teeniest tiniest little egg in the run (see image).

I could hardly believe my eyes. The egg is just slightly larger than a quarter. This is not someone's first egg, we have accounted for all of our chickens and they've all been laying for at least 6 months. This is just a fluke...and an adorable one at that.

The fact that it was out in the run just makes me laugh, because our chickens are very well trained to lay their eggs in the nesting boxes. That means, one of our Leghorns obviously thought she had to poop, walked out into the run to relieve herself, and was probably quite surprised when she realized what she had laid.

Love it!

Teaching Abortion in Medical School

2012-02-09T18:28:00.000-08:00

Do you see anything wrong with this picture? Do you even know what this picture represents?

These are the images used to represent abortion. These are the images used to teach doctors and physician assistants how to perform a variety of methods of abortion.

Now that you know what you're seeing, do you notice anything missing? I mean, I can't remember the last time I heard controversy over a doctor popping a water balloon.

I was a little perturbed in class when the instructor referred to abortion as "vacuuming out the contents." Vacuuming out the contents? Like, vacuuming out the trunk of my car or the contents of my purse? Really? What was even more bothersome was when reading the chapter on "Elective Termination of Pregnancy" (notice the lack of mention of a baby or even a fetus), I counted nine mentions of the word fetus, five of those were in reference to suctioning/delivering fetal parts or fetal tissue. Does any part of that sound wrong...perhaps along the same lines as the picture above? Let me expound...

I've added a little something to the pictures to make them a bit more anatomically correct. What do you think?

Do you think if educators told it like it is (instead of trying to sugar coat it or dance around it) that it might change some peoples' minds about abortion? Do you think if we explained it in pure scientific terms, that your doctor will be using a small vacuum to pull the limbs off your baby so that your doctor can then suck the "fetal parts/tissue" out of your vagina in order to terminate your pregnancy, that people might think twice about it? By the way, the medical definition of "life" is implantation...meaning a day or two after intercourse, there is life within you!! It's not a religious view or a personal view, it's a medical definition.

I just find it interesting, that when discussing abortion we can leave the baby out of the images and leave the baby out of the discussion and still feel like we're educating people. Just my opinion.

Equal Rights for the Blind

2012-02-09T11:19:00.000-08:00

Recent, discouraging events in our country have opened my eyes to the discrimination against the blind and the unjust inequality when it comes to denying the blind the right to hold a drivers license. My views are very passionate in regards to this issue, but I do not intend to offend anyone...so please proceed with caution.

It was back in December as I was waiting for my number to be called at the DMV that I witnessed the following event. A young, healthy appearing female approached the window, after passing her driving test, to take the vision exam and receive her license. She must have been about 16-years-old, as I overheard her speaking with her father about how excited she was to be able to drive to school. As she pressed her forehead against the bar of the Optec 1000 she explained to the worker that she could not see any numbers illuminate. After adjusting the machine, the girl expressed the same results. Picking up on the worker's frustration, the girl explained to him, "I'm blind." Apologetically the worker explained to the young girl that she did not meet the requirements of the DMV and she would not be able to receive a driver's license.

As she made her way back to her father to explain what had happened, I watched as anger flushed across the father's face. His daughter had been wronged!

This heartbreaking event has really empowered me to fight for the rights of the blind. It is unbelievably unfair that we don't allow the blind to have access to the same rights as all Americans! In discussing this with a few friends and family members, their arguments have infuriated me and triggered some really hostile conversations. But, as with any good cause, I will pursue equality for all and continue my fight.

Dan, my husband, argues, "But she doesn't pass the requirements, therefore she shouldn't be allowed to drive." To that I say, those requirements were written decades ago by men and women who had no comprehension of their discriminatory actions and they no longer have a place in our society. They must be changed!

My brother argues, "If you allow blind people to drive then next year paraplegics will want drivers licenses." To that I say, "How dare you compare the blind to paraplegics!"

A friend brought up a valid argument, "Putting blind people behind the wheel is dangerous." I simply share this link as my defense http://news.discovery.com/videos/news-blind-drivers-hit-the-road.html . May I also add, there is no evidence to show that blind drivers pose a threat to our society.

Lastly, my own mother asked, "Why does she have to have a license? Why can't she just enjoy the thrill of driving without going through the DMV?" To this I say, Equality! If you're going to allow this right to some, you must allow the same right to all. It's not about the driving, it's about holding the license in her hand and knowing that she is legal! I don't care if she's allowed to drive, I care that she's not allowed to have a license.

Do you feel my frustration? How can our country be so discriminatory against this specific population? How can we be so blind to this injustice (I apologize for the pun). Will you join me in the fight to establish equality among all populations? I'm planning a march in front of the Salt Lake Capitol to get the word out. We'll all be dressed in different colors, like a rainbow, to bring to light the fact that the blind may never see these colors, but at least they should be able to drive!!

I hope to see you there.

A new White Coat!

2012-01-14T19:04:00.000-08:00

Thursday night the University of Utah PA Program held their 42nd annual White Coat Ceremony. This is held the evening before the students enter the clinical setting for the first time. This is me in my new white coat. It's not an attractive white coat. It's a unisex coat, which is code for, "makes me look like a balloon," and it's very very short, because in the hierarchy of medicine, students are peons. But, it's my white coat! It has my name badge on it, and after my name are the initials PA-S, meaning Physician Assistant - Student. I may not look great in it, but it means I'm one step closer to becoming a PA, and I'm ok with that.

These are the cookies Dan made for me, to surprise me after my first day in the clinic. The note reads, "I am so happy I frosted cookies for you. They kind of suck. I love you." It was such a good day in clinic that we celebrated with Rodizio and had the cookies for dessert. That's when we noticed Dan's subliminal message...

"You suck."

It's pretty obvious that the message was unintentional, especially because my dear Dan nearly killed himself with laughter when he found it, but it was great enough to take a picture of and document for the rest of eternity.

Just one more picture of my parents and I at the White Coat Ceremony. I was super glad they could make it, and was glad to have the support of my three favorite people!

Happy New Years!

2012-01-01T18:50:00.000-08:00

This year, for our New Year's celebration, we were invited to IHOP with my brothers and their families. We picked up my niece, Megan, and made it to IHOP at 11:30pm where the festivities were in full swing.

My sister-in-law, Devanie, had prepared several games for us to play while we waited for our food to arrive. We had a blast folding paper napkins into the most creative designs, competing to see who could build the tallest tower out of straws and who could build it out of sugar packets.

We were the only customers when midnight struck, so we could be as loud and as obnoxious as we wanted to be. It was a blast! Do you like our 2012 made out of straws?

Thanks for the invite Nate and Dev, we sure had a lot of fun!

Dogs are not unlike children

2011-12-27T11:02:00.000-08:00

When you don't have children and you're almost 30 people don't really take you seriously. It's true. Don't deny it. Dan and I are told almost daily by one person or another, "you'll understand when you have children," because, ya know, we couldn't possibly understand now. Neither of us have ever watched a child or babysat, or helped raise a younger sibling or niece/nephew. We have never worked in jobs with children and we couldn't possibly understand what it's like to have a child. Sense the sarcasm?? I recently overheard a young mother say to her friend, "You can tell she doesn't have children," when I simply made the suggestion to not offer an alternative meal to the one you're serving the rest of the family when the child refuses to eat.

We know we're not parents. We have dogs for crying out loud. But for once I would like a little recognition that although I have not delivered a child through my vagina, I happen to know a thing or two about having children, and I happen to know enough to understand that I am not ready to surrender the rest of my life to the events that took place this morning.

The dogs, Harvie and Chloie, had a vet appointment this morning. Harvie is due for his Rabies shot and Chloie is ready for boosters and a checkup (not so unlike children, right?). Because both dogs are dusty from the lack of snow and our unfinished backyard, I decided to bathe both dogs. It's not an easy task, as I know bathing children is not an easy task, however, I would venture to guess that bathing dogs is actually more difficult than bathing children. You see, most children enjoy bathing, especially if you add bubbles and wall markers and music! Dogs, however, hate bathing, no matter what fun toys you coax them with. So, after about an hour both dogs were bathed and lying comfortably on the living room floor with some fresh bones while I had a quick minute to jump in the shower myself.

Everything seemed to be going smoothly...

I laid a towel down in the back of the car in case of any accidents, helped both dogs into the back and headed to the vet. Three quarters of the way there...I smelled it. Poop! I knew it was Chloie, because Harvie would never do such a thing. I happened to be on the phone with my husband when I smelled it and immediately started venting. "I'm going to kill her! I can smell it! She has now pooped on every seat and the trunk of my car. I can't handle this. It's going to be all over their freshly bathed feet and I'm not taking poopy dogs into the vet!" So, I pulled over to assess the damage and sure enough, it was as bad, maybe worse, than I imagined. It was everywhere! So, I told my husband to call the Vet, reschedule the appointment and I would be spending the rest of the day cleaning up this mess.

I headed home, with rolled-down windows in 26 degree weather, because it smelled that bad! I got home, let the dogs out, scrubbed their feet, and Harvie's side because he just loves to roll around in stinky messes, and sent them into the kitchen. Then, I began working on the trunk of my car.

The mess (in the picture), covered every square inch of my car. Not only had Chloie pooped, two, maybe three times, but the smell of her own poop had also triggered her gag reflex and she had vomited in the corners and every single crease of my trunk. I backed the car up to the garage, grabbed some towels, rags, and carpet cleaner and started to work. Not so bad, right? Well, the carpet cleaner was frozen because it's so cold, my fingers were turning white, and the smell was just about enough to trigger MY gag reflex. I had to hook a space heater up in the trunk just to prevent frostbite and we lost a few good towels as casualties because there is no way I'm putting those in my washing machine.

It took a good hour and a lot of elbow grease, but the trunk is finally clean. The dogs are warm and clean in the kitchen and I have successfully wasted 5 hours of my day. Without the history of the dogs chewing up $2000 worth of snowboard and photography equipment last weekend, ruining our kitchen table, and end tables, do you think, just maybe, that you'll think twice before telling a non-parent that they "just don't understand?"

Christmas in Lava

2011-12-25T11:23:00.000-08:00

Dan and I have spent Christmas in Lava Hot Springs, Idaho for the past three years. This year is no different. We started the drive early in the morning on the 23rd. We made a stop at my parents to wish them a Merry Christmas and to drop off their gifts. After an hour with them, we made our way to the Salt Lake International Airport to pickup my sister-in-law's Christmas present, her sister. After we acquired the goods we headed up to Kaysville to deliver the package. We had lunch with my brother's family and then made our way farther North to see Dan's parents. After a couple hours with them we set off to our final destination, Lava!

We pulled in to the Riverside Inn around 5 o'clock where I promptly fell asleep while Dan watched a little t.v. At seven o'clock we made our way down to dinner where we were spoiled with the most amazing creamy potato soup with Prosciutto followed by Prime Rib and completed by Figgie Pudding! Have you ever had Figgie pudding?!? It's amazing. We got a few tips from the chef and are excited to give it a try. We even ordered a second round of soup to eat later that night.

Back in our room I made Dan open one of his presents so we could watch "Date Night," and enjoy our soup. We love Date Night! I think we're the only people who enjoy it as much as we do, but it never gets old and it's one of maybe three movies I can actually stay awake to watch. Once the movie ended we called it a night.

This morning, Christmas, we woke up early (meaning, Dan woke up at 5:30 because he was so excited to open presents and woke me up with a cup of hot apple cider), opened presents, and then watched an episode of Jem. It was truly outrageous! Truly, truly, truly outrageous! After Jem I took a little nap, because heaven knows I am not a morning person, while Dan watched Indiana Jones, and when I woke up it was time for breakfast! We had a delicious breakfast (Dan had egg nog french toast and I had the traditional eggs, bacon, potatoes, and toast) and headed back to our rooms for a little more t.v. and R&R.

We love our lazy time in Lava. Today we'll continue to laze around, maybe leave our room once or twice for food and some sightseeing. Tomorrow we'll hit the hot spots and we're making plans to have lunch at the Bluebird Inn in Logan where my parents had their wedding dinner.

A new snowboard

2011-12-21T16:41:00.000-08:00

Dan brought me home a new snowboard a couple of weeks ago! My old board was a little long and was causing me some trouble on the slopes so he traded it in and upgraded to this cutie patootie!

We've been able to try it out a few times this season and will hopefully be able to really break it in several more times before Spring sets in.

Dan is the most amazing teacher when it comes to snowboarding. I am not an easy person to teach...in fact, I'd say I'm downright stubborn and crabby when it comes to learning new things. I love learning, don't get me wrong, but if it doesn't come easily, I become one big cry baby. It's not something I particularly love about myself, but, it is what it is.

Dan has learned all the tricks though. Teach me the subject, let me fail at it time and time again, let me throw a fit and threaten to quit, agree to let me quit, then, when it's all about to come to a crashing halt, watch me get it right and begin the cycle again. It's exhausting, for both of us, but I wouldn't trade Dan in for anyone else! Not only does he have great taste in snowboards, but he loves me all the way down to the very bitterest of rocks in my boots!

Nativities

2011-12-10T16:18:00.000-08:00

I've been collecting Nativities for several years . Dan loves nativities too so we decided to make it an annual tradition to pick out a new nativity at Christmastime. This year was especially challenging, as we couldn't find a nativity that both of us loved equally. In discussing our tradition with friends and family, we've received several requests for pictures of our nativity collection. So...here they are:

This is a mysterious Nativity. We have no idea where it came from. It suddenly appeared in a box in our old house. But, we like it a lot.

This is 2010's Nativity. It's a Jim Shore Nativity...we LOVE Jim Shore!

My mother gave us this Nativity. It was made at a RS Enrichment. We love it's simplicity.

A gift from my parents. I'd had my eye on it for years and received it in 2007 as a Christmas gift.

This was one of my first Nativities. I have a thing for snow globes...especially ones that play music. This one plays Christmas music and I think it's beautiful!

2009's Nativity...our first as a married couple. We loved it's uniqueness and the fact that when you stick a tea light inside it casts beautiful stars on the wall.

This is Dan's favorite. This was another gift from my mother.

I received this Nativity when I was 17 from my YW President in the form of the 12 days of Christmas. It holds a very special place in my heart because of the friendship I share with Leslie.

This nativity is made of Olive Wood and was purchased in Jerusalem...by my parents. I have not been there, but I love the story behind it.

Another nativity from Leslie, my YW president. She had this one hanging on her wall while I was helping her move one year and I just about kidnapped it I loved it so much. Thank goodness I didn't, because she had already purchased one as my Christmas gift that year.

2011's Nativity. A simple, red clay nativity with just the holy family. We both agreed this was the most unique Nativity available this year and we especially love the faces on Joseph and Mary.

Christmas Decorations

2011-11-26T15:29:00.000-08:00

Dan and I always decorate the day after Thanksgiving. I grew up decorating on Thanksgiving, but Dan and I are usually away from home on Turkey Day so we spend the day after decorating. This year, we couldn't find a spot for our Christmas tree, so we decided to decorate the tree we already had in our living room. Doesn't it look fun?? We don't have a lot of Christmas decorations. We can never find the time to hang Christmas lights on the outside of the house. Our house is humble and small and cannot hold a large pine or mountains of presents and tinsel, but we have our own special way of celebrating and we enjoy keeping the holiday centered around Christ.

We spent Thanksgiving with Dan's family. His parents, two brothers and their families were there and it was lovely. I missed being with my family but they had plenty of fun without me.

These are my two boys, under the Christmas tree. I sure do love my family and my home.

Dan's Birthday at Brighton

2011-11-19T22:03:00.000-08:00

Snowboarding is one of the most ridiculous activities I have ever participated in. It makes no sense to want to strap both of your legs onto a fixed board, slide down an icy hill, careening out of control to the bottom and when you find yourself at the bottom, still alive, you do it all over again. You'd have to be perfectly nuts to want to do it at all, let alone more than once...I guess you can call me crazy.

I have been looking forward to snowfall since the last day of the snowboarding season. I am a junkie and I needed my fix. I normally go boarding with Kat but for this trip we decided to make it a guy's day out and I went with my buddy Erik.

I talked to Erik and he said he hadn't been boarding in about twelve years. What he didn't tell me was that he is an incredible snowboarder! It may have been 12 years for Erik but you would think that he lives on the mountain. That man comes across all unassuming but he can shred like you would not believe.

I made the mistake of letting him lead and I was exhausted after 2 runs. I will say that he was able to build my confidence. So much, in fact, that I thought it would be a good idea to follow some skiers (half my age) off trail and into some pretty technical terrain. It seemed to be a good idea at the time but shortly after I realized the limits of having both feet strapped in...when you get stuck in a bowl, in waist deep powder, you are pretty much boned. We had to completely unstrap and shuffle our way out. After about 40 minutes and 40 feet of travel I had to take a breather. Erik fared a bit better than me but we both had to take a breather.

Eventually, we got out and ended the day with some awesome runs down the mountain and, of course, some hot chocolate. I wish we could have spent more time up there but I wanted to get home to my wife. I had an awesome time and can't wait to go boarding with Kat.

What would you do with 100 pounds of green tomatoes?

2011-11-01T14:32:00.000-07:00

We heard that frost was coming so we quickly picked all our remaining tomatoes...all 100 pounds of very large German-Striped tomatoes.
We'd heard that several of our neighbors were letting their ripen and making salsa and tomato sauce to can, but I'm not that patient. Dan and I did a little googling and found all sorts of delicious recipes for green tomatoes! Over the past weekend we went through about 1/4 of the tomatoes and made green tomato salsa, green tomato jelly, sugar-free green tomato jelly, green tomato/jalapeno jelly (my favorite), and green tomato pie! Who knew?!?

Here's the green-tomato jelly boiling...we thought it was beautiful!

This was the very begining, green-tomato salsa on the left, green tomato jelly on the right, and Dan's A-Z bread in the middle....seriously, the man knows how to bake better than me. And that used to be my only selling point!!

More green tomato jelly in the preparation phase.

The green tomato pie! It was fantastic! Go Paula Dean!

About 75 pounds of green tomatoes left...wonder what else the world wide web holds in store for us!

Chloie Gowers

2011-11-01T14:13:00.000-07:00

Well, we certainly didn't intend on bringing home a puppy this soon after losing our Cadie, but, when we met with Chloie and experienced her playfulness, we couldn't exactly say no. Chloie is beautiful. She looks very similar to Cadie, with quite a few differences that mostly, only Dan and I notice. She is Harvie's niece (1/2 niece, technically), but their temperaments couldn't be more different. Chloie is lively and playful and a little wild when she's excited. Chloie is also very smart! She's learned tricks and skills so much faster than any of our other dogs. We love that about her.

Chloie and Harvie get along swimmingly. Although, Harvie likes his days a little lazier than Chloie prefers her days. Still, you'd be hard pressed to find one of them without the other.

I like Chloie too! She is always eager to keep me company while I study, or lately, when I'm sick in bed. When she's not rough-housing with The Harvster, she likes to me sleeping next to her Mama.

For Halloween Harvie picked out a Jack-o-lantern costume and Chloie got to be "Chicken Little." Seriously...aren't they the cutest? What's great about dogs is that we didn't have to hike all over the neighborhood with them to get them high on candy...we just got to stay home and be comfy.

We sure are happy with our littlest girl. She makes us miss Cadie even more than we did originally, but we see so much of Cadie in her that we feel a little bit like God sent her to us for a very special reason.

Barricade "Cadie" Gowers

2011-10-10T21:25:00.000-07:00

Barricade Gowers came into our lives on December 3, 2009. Dan and I had been married 9 months and had spent the majority of those months looking for the perfect puppy. We had tried our hand at a rescue dog, Bruno, whom we loved, but was not a great fit for our lifestyle/tiny home. Some may call it a fluke, but we call it fate that we found the breeders who let us have Cadie. We'd been in touch with the breeders for a few days when we decided to take the drive to see her. It was cold and dark when we finished work at the studio. Dan had just finished a proofing when I surprised him and said, "Let's go see the puppy!" It took us an hour to get there but the breeders were patient with us as we played and loved on Cadie. It was during the drive that we decided on the name Barricade. After an hour of staring at bright orange traffic barricades we thought it was such a fitting name for a bulldog. We also thought Cadie would be a super cute nick name.

It didn't take us long to know we would take Cadie home with us. The breeders had her dressed in a sweater that was so small they had cut the neck just to get it over her very large head. And so, she was ours. Cadie let us know the very first night that she hated sleeping in her kennel. For such a small puppy she had the strength of a Rottweiler. Alas, we were determined to be good parents, so we purchased Cadie a tiny stuffed pig with a hot-pack belly to keep her company at night. Before you know it, Cadie was sleeping through the night and we were falling very much in love.

Cadie learned to use a dog door very quickly. She was so smart that we were teaching her new tricks almost weekly. She learned to sit and lie down almost immediately. She learned to high-five once I concluded that shaking was a little too boring for such a magnificent dog. Cadie kept me company at work (at the studio) every day. She slept on my lap while I edited pictures up until she could no longer fit. I'm pretty sure that's when she learned that she would always be a lap dog, even at 80 pounds.

Just after Cadie's first birthday, Dan and I moved into our new home in Saratoga Springs. Cadie had a lot more room to run, but Dan and I were out of the house a lot more, leaving her alone and lonely. So, Dan and I started looking for another puppy. Someone to keep Cadie company and someone to get into trouble with. That's when we found Harvie. Harvie was an incredible puppy and we give all the credit to Cadie. Cadie taught Harvie how to use a dog door, how to lie down, where to go to the bathroom, how to "go to bed." We put very little effort into Harvie. He was Cadie's baby. She was an excellent mother. Cadie and Harvie were an instant pair. They were immediate friends, soul mates perhaps. They slept together in the same kennel and never complained. They found trouble together and comforted each other when the other was hurt. Cadie even let Harvie use her ears as a pacifier (really!). It was the funniest thing to wake up in the morning, let them out of their kennel, go to pet Cadie on the head just to find a soggy ear that Harvie had chewed/sucked on all night long. It was very clear that Cadie loved her Harvie, and he loved her too.

Cadie was patient. Dan and I both have pretty crazy schedules and she never made us feel bad for leaving her in charge while we were gone. She was ALWAYS happy to see us when we got home and ALWAYS had a new toy, stick, rope, or plastic bag shredded on the carpet and was excited to show us what had kept her so busy while we were gone. Cadie loved children. She would get so excited when a new face would walk through the door that her entire body would wag. She was our little wiggle worm. The excitement would almost seep from every pore. She loved every ounce of attention anyone would give her. On that note, she would do anything for a treat!

Cadie was always healthy, unlike her little brother, who is quite the mischief maker (I'd have to say it comes from being a boy). But, regardless of her good health, Cadie passed away on October 2, 2011. After a very brief illness she passed from our arms to our Heavenly Father's. We know Cadie is happy and healthy but our hearts will forever be a little bit broken. Cadie was our pride and joy. We love her every bit as much as we could possibly imagine loving our children. We're excited to tell our children the stories of Cadie's adventures and to save her images on our walls (much thanks to Larry Spencer of Spencer Photography). Cadie left us much too soon but her paw prints were HUGE in our lives and she will always be a part of this Gowers Family.

We love you little bug. We will see you soon.

The herb garden

2011-10-01T09:20:00.000-07:00

Dan and I have had so much fun gardening this year that we started to panic when the weather turned to fall and we realized the days of gardening were limited. At the very beginning of Spring this year, Dan built me an indoor garden shelf, complete with grow lights! My parents had purchased one for their tomatoes and Dan and I thought it was a brilliant idea for starting our garden early. Of course, we didn't have the money to buy one, so Dan, being the thrifty person he is, found a few thrown-out shelves that just-so-happened to fit some spare legs we had laying around along with some warm and cold fluorescent lights and the very next day, I had a grow shelf!

Well, the grow shelf has been empty since we moved our garden outside. A few months ago our ward had a gardening class and there was a fantastic presentation on herb gardens. Remembering the lesson, I presented the idea to Dan and we decided it would be a fun project. So, I used all my birthday money to buy some pretty pots and some herbs from the Farmer's Market, and a few days later, we had a beautiful herb garden! Dan and I have never had much luck with her gardens. They always end up infested with fruit flies or dead from over/under watering, but we were determined to make this one work, especially because we've learned a trick or two from our outdoor garden this year.

Well, it's been over a month now and our garden is still alive and THRIVING! I harvested some leaves this morning, to dehydrate and save for later. Aren't they beautiful? We have Basil, Rosemary, and Stevia (my favorite)! We also have Oregano, but I didn't snag any of those leaves today. I'd never heard of growing your own Stevia, but this is the best idea! We use our fresh and dried leaves and toss them into smoothies, breads, etc. for just a little added sweetness. It's better than sugar and you use far less of it as well. The rosemary makes the most delicious Rosemary bread and we had fresh basil leaves on our Caprese sandwiches this morning.

I'm thinking Winter won't be so glum with these little beauties around. Thanks to the most incredible husband for building (and keeping alive) the most fantastic herb garden.

Paradise

2011-08-12T10:05:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to post a few images from our garden and harvests this year, but since I've been on break from school, I haven't had a whole lot of "me" time. Just this morning I woke up, fed and watered the rabbits and chickens, collected the eggs, medicated the chickens, harvested the garden, loaded the dishwasher, made breakfast, unloaded the dishwasher, fed the dogs, prepared the butternut squashes for butternut squash bread, fed the melon rinds and egg shells to the chickens, and felt sorry for Dan that he has to do this every day by himself while I'm in school. So...while the butternuts are in the oven, I have 30 minutes to make my bed and update the blog. Ready....break!

These are some pictures of our early garden. You can see our baby acorn and butternut in the first two, and our funny carrots in this last one. Dan scored some really inexpensive compost earlier in the spring so we filled or garden beds with 100% compost and we haven't been disappointed.

Our lettuce was really great this year! We had oodles to share with friends and family, and it was some of the yummiest lettuce I've ever had.

When Dan and I planted our garden, we planted a few too many yellow squash. We have about 15 yellow squash growing at any time, which is great, because we're filling our freezer! :)

This was today's awesome find. Our baby acorn (from above) was full and ripe and I can't wait to have it for lunch. The tomato on the left was an accident. I broke it off while I was pruning, but, I'll have Dan fry it up when he gets home and it will be wonderful!

Notice all the eggs? We're getting 7-9 eggs a day, every day! YUM! It's especially great because we have family staying with us this week and next so we won't have to worry about breakfast. :)

This was a yummy treat from Alice...grown in her grandparents' (whom also happen to be Dan's grandparents) yard. We made 6 jars of jam and dehydrated the rest for our treat drawer. Thanks, Alice!

We sure do love Saratoga Springs. We've loved having our chickens, rabbits, garden, etc. Rumor has it the city is trying to outlaw chickens...in which case, Alaska is sounding like more of a possibility once we're done with school. But, for now, we'll keep eating our home-grown produce and lovin' our little lot of paradise.

Our Beautiful Bouncing Baby Boy Has Surgery

2011-07-13T05:58:00.000-07:00

Our sweet Harvie had to have foot surgery yesterday. He stepped on a foxtail in our backyard and it festered and festered until he had a firm module-sized nodule on top of his toes. We took him in to our regular veterinarian a few weeks ago where he flushed Harvie's foot, told us there was nothing in there, charged us $130 and sent us home with some antibiotics and a few pain pills. Well, the lump grew and grew and progressed further back towards Harvie's wrist...so we grew worried.

Yesterday we took him to a new veterinarian, closer to home. We were both a little anxious, because we've never taken our animals to another vet, but, seeing as our last vet is very rarely available and has failed us on two occasions, we decided it was time to find someone else. Well, we are very happy to report, we like this vet. He performed a thorough exam on Harvie and then informed us that the only way to ensure healing was to perform a minor surgery. He gave us an estimate and informed us that he could perform the surgery right then and we could pick him up in an hour. Wow!

We brought Harvie home shortly after, still very heavily sedated. Harvie is normally a lazy dog, but he picked a spot on the carpet and didn't move for the rest of the night. As we walked by, we'd scratch behind his ears and tell him what a good boy he is. He'd try to lift his head but his eyelids were too heavy. It broke our hearts. Cadie kept him company all night, lying right next to him, chewing on her bone. What a good sister! We sure do love our kiddos.

Eggs

2011-07-10T05:58:00.000-07:00

Dan and I started raising chickens just over a year ago. We currently have 13 of various breeds (Leghorns, Araucana, Americana, Black Australorp, Silkie Bantam, Rhode Island Red, and a few others we inherited from a family member that we don't know what they are). Half of them are still young, while the other half is about ready to be made into a wonderful chicken dinner. Regardless, we've got some really faithful layers. Just two days ago we picked up seven eggs! Picking up the eggs feels like Christmas. It never gets old. We've got such a variety of shapes and colors, it's always exciting to see what they've left us. We've got red eggs, brown eggs, white eggs, blue/green eggs, textured eggs, smooth eggs, double-yolkers, but today we found an egg that we'd never seen anything like before.

This was the first lay of one of our young Leghorns. Apparently she saw that everyone else was laying and figured she'd better hurry things up. Unfortunately, her reproductive system isn't quite ready, and this was the result. She laid a very odd-shaped, yolk-less egg. We didn't eat it, but we both figured if someone can replicate this egg on a regular basis, they'd be wealthy. Do you know how many health-nuts would pay big money for a fresh, yolk-less egg!?

(Update: This Leghorn has successfully laid very normal eggs since this post)

First Harvest

2011-07-09T09:15:00.000-07:00

Technically this is not our first harvest. We've eaten 2 green beans, 1 carrot, 2 radishes, and now...a huge amount of lettuce! We're excited that our lettuce has done so well, because we really thought we'd lost it earlier in the spring. We eat a lot of salads around here, so we'll probably be done with this pretty soon...and this was only half of what was in our garden! Yeah!

We are having a pretty successful garden, so far. We really thought we'd lost everything in the Spring, so we ended up just dumping seed packets in our planter boxes to see what grew. So far, we have jalapenos, 4 different kinds of tomatoes, snap beans and peas, TONS of squash, giant sunflowers, cauliflower, cabbage, walla walla onions, green onions, strawberries, and red peppers. We're so excited to see what's ready to harvest next.

Ophthalmology

2011-07-07T21:23:00.000-07:00

Notice anything strange about my eyes? Go ahead, click on the picture...make it bigger...take a good look at my eyes. Whoa! Do you see it? My left pupil is about 4 times the size of my right pupil and I wasn't in a major car accident or experimenting with drugs. The unilateral pupil dilation is a result of being a PA student in an Ophthalmology course.

It was horrible! It nearly gave me a migraine, I couldn't see any better in the back of the eye than I could in a dark room...and I'm pretty sure I'm allergic to the medication they used to dilate me. The entire left side of my nose went numb, I think my tear duct constricted because my eyes were crazy watering, and my teeth and lips went numb, like at the dentist. What's up with that?!

It was fun for the picture, but that's about it. Not nearly as good as suturing pig feet.

Crazy Hail Storm

2011-07-07T13:49:00.000-07:00

I played hookie from school today, seeing as I only had one class and it's not my favorite. Dan and I were eating lunch and watching a movie when I heard a pounding on our roof. I looked out the window and the sun was shining, although it had been thundering about an hour prior, so I knew it wasn't rain. I waited a minute, the pounding grew louder so I asked Dan, "What is that?" Dan didn't say anything, but reached for the remote control to mute the t.v. As he did, the pounding became so loud I worried something was going to fall through our roof. "WHAT IS THAT?!" I yelled. We both jumped off the bed and caught a glimpse of what was happening through our closet window.

"It's hail!" I exclaimed. We ran to the window to witness quarter-sized hail falling. We quickly threw on some hoodies and ran out front, because neither of us had seen anything like it before. We grabbed the camera and captured some pretty funny video for you.

As I ran out onto the drive way you'll hear me say, "Oh...Oh..." That's when I spotted a beautiful robin who had apparently been struck by one of these enormous hails and was on her back, struggling to breathe. Dan was so brave, he scooped her right up and put her under the car for shelter. You can tell what's happening after that.

Funny how I seem to attract some pretty crazy weather...

What Matters Most to You?

2011-06-26T16:07:00.001-07:00

Meet my family

2011-06-23T19:33:00.000-07:00

This masterpiece took me close to 100 hours to create. It required A LOT of imagination, an enormous amount of ingenuity, a pathetic amount of begging, 5000 miles of travel, some tears, a bit of sweat, and a I'd do it all over again to make my mom's Mother's Day as special as it was.

My mother has wanted a family picture for about 15 years. Our last family picture was in 1995 and was immediately outdated as our family grew and grew and grew with babies and new spouses.

I apologize for the quality of this picture...it is a picture of a picture.

Now, if you've counted the recently finished family portrait, you will have counted 45 faces. 45!! That's a lot of people. That's a lot of schedule to work around! 17 of those faces live in Connecticut. The other 28 live in Utah, hence the 5000 miles of travel. 11 of the faces declined to participate. 4 of the faces are 2 years younger than the rest (meaning, the picture was taken 2 years before the rest). 1 face is 8 years younger than the rest. 1 pair of legs was used twice. 1 pair of shoes was used twice. 2 bodies were used as body doubles. 1 arm was used as an arm double.

My mother gave up on her wish several times, but I was determined to make it work. It's not as perfect as it could be, but considering the cropping, pasting, liquifying, searching, begging, and blending I had to do, I am most certainly proud!!

My mom was in China on Mother's Day, but she got what she wanted most and I'm happy to say, it was worth it!

Learning to suture

2011-06-22T21:27:00.000-07:00

Wilbur was in a really bad accident. He was cut up pretty badly. They rushed him into the nearest building, which just so happened to be the PA building at the University of Utah. Fortunately, I happened to be there at the time and I got to practice my suturing skills. Not bad, eh?

Actually, this was my very first time suturing and I'm pretty impressed with how they turned out. I don't think I'm good enough to be suturing anyone's face...but if you happen to slice your thumb in the kitchen with a parring knife, I could totally hook you up with stitches. You may end up with a nasty scar, but don't fear...I get to suture pig's feet again in a few weeks...after that, I'll be an expert. :)

Luckiest Girl in the World

2011-06-22T07:35:00.000-07:00

Since starting school, the part of me that used to be a wife and homemaker has been put up on a very high shelf that even I cannot reach. I wake up very early (5:00am), shower, eat breakfast, and run out the door to catch the bus. I'm at school until 5:00pm, when I catch the bus and get home around 6:15pm. It makes for very long days and when I get home, I'm exhausted. I usually take 5 or 10 minutes to grab a snack, pet the dogs, and settle in with my books for a few hours of studying before I fall asleep. As you can imagine, the dishes pile up, the laundry becomes a mountain, the house is dirty and dusty...only, it isn't that way at all. See, I have Dan.

Dan is the most incredible man! If it weren't for him, I'm sure I wouldn't be in school right now. Actually, I know for a fact that I wouldn't be in school right now. You see, Dan get's up with me every morning (even when he works until midnight the night before), and he makes me breakfast and packs me a lunch, EVERY MORNING. When he works an early shift he drives me to the bus stop and picks me up in the evening. He does the dishes. He takes care of our menagerie of animals. He washes the laundry, folds it, and puts it away. He changes the oil in our cars. He mows the lawn and weeds the garden beds. He composts. He deals with the leftover Kathryn Michaels Photography crap that we're still dealing with. He runs errands and returns things to the store. He does it all and he never ever ever complains about any of it.

In fact, after breakfast this morning, when I got in the car to drive myself to the bus stop, this is what I found.

Good Morning! First, I love you; Second, With God all things are possible;

Third, you are amazing; and Fourth, I love you. No matter what,

I will support you and pull you through, carry you across, and life you up until you can do it on your own.

Please allow me to help as I can. It brings me joy. Have a Wonderful Day! <3 Dan

How could I possibly have a bad day after that?!? He even sent me out the door with a hot chocolate.

I am so very grateful for my husband. I love that we've surpassed everyone's expectations and that we fall more and more in love every single day. I'm grateful that I get to spend eternity with him...I wouldn't have it any other way! I love you, babe!

School Bust

2011-06-10T05:54:00.000-07:00

So, I actually typed the title as "School Bus" but accidentally added a "t" at the end and thought it was pretty funny, because it describes exactly what I'm feeling right now. So, I left it.

I've been in school for just over a month...it feels like I've been in school for three years. I've already finished two classes, passed three final exams (yeah, you heard that right...we had a final for a class we never had), learned a lot, forgotten even more, and learned the Utah County UTA bus routes. In fact, that's where I am right now...on the bus. It really is a spectacular invention, the bus. It successfully adds 2 extra hours of study time to every weekday, and how can I complain about that? Granted, I'm blogging right now, not studying, but still, it's Friday! The express buses, which this is one, are equipped with outlets for your computers and free WiFi. Holla! So, I try to get as much studying done as possible so that when I get home, my time is with Dan.

That hasn't really been working out very well, because I feel so inadequate at school that it seems I can never catch up with the studying, like there's always something to be learning. I sure hope my future patients appreciate how hard this 2 years is going to be and how much time I've lost with family and friends in order to make them feel better.

Speaking of the bus...we're lost right now. :) UTA keeps loading our buses with new drivers and it appears this particular bus driver's co-driver was taken off the route a day too early. Funny.

Dan started a new job with Harmon's a few weeks ago. He loves it and he's very very good at it. The schedule is hard, because it seems to be the exact opposite of mine, so our limited time is even more limited, but I'm happy that he loves it.

I feel a little awkward posting a blog without any pictures, so, this one's for all of you looking for a picture:

Here's a sneak peek into how your body makes and stores cholesterol....fascinating, huh?

Cheater, Cheater, Rabbit Eater

2011-05-05T19:27:00.000-07:00

Today I had orientation for my Physician Assistant Program at The U. I arrived early, having to travel almost an hour to get there, and walked into the classroom where the faculty were writing interesting facts about themselves on the white board. I realized that this was probably part of a game and jokingly mentioned, "Whoa! I better step out into the hallway. I don't want to be a cheater." About twenty minutes later, more classmates had arrived and we went back into the classroom. As I entered, a faculty member patted me on the back and announced to the class, "This is our little cheater!" Nice.

Orientation started the way most orientations begin, with introductions. We were given the task to say our name, our background, and one REALLY interesting fact about ourselves that no one else could use as their fact. Well, here were a few of the facts: "Yesterday I pulled a 9mm sliver from my finger." "I got back from Paris last week." "I'm from [enter state here]." Ok, you get the point....nothing totally fascinating, right? Well, it gets to be my turn and I say, "Hi, I'm Kat. I'm from Saratoga Springs. I've been a Nurse for 8 years but for the past 5 years I've owned and operated a photography studio. In order to help pay for PA school, my husband and I have started raising rabbits for food."

Oh, the sounds and faces!! Gasps, laughter, horror! Looks of disgust, surprise, horror. I certainly would have won 1st prize in reaction rating, had there been one. "You're kidding, right?!?" "Are you seriously going to eat your pets?" "Raamen Noodles are only 99cents (one of my top 3)." And...my personal favorite, "If you're really that poor I'll buy food for you."

Uh....is it really that unthinkable to eat a rabbit? I'm no country girl, but I've known people who eat rabbit my entire life. It's highly nutritious, low in fat, and tastes like chicken (seriously!). I was pretty surprised that Dan and I seem to be the only two who have taken such drastic measures to be able to afford our schooling. I guess everyone else is comfortable with student loans....we are not.

So, in justifying my behavior and trying to beef up my "being thrifty" plan, I came across these, that I found reassuring.

Why on earth, when I have the means to eat food that I've grown myself, would I trust a stranger somewhere in Wisconsin to grow it for me? It doesn't make sense. I know what goes into my chickens, rabbits, and garden. I know my animals have happy, healthy lives. I like my food that way.

C'est la vie. People will be people. I'm just happy to know that I'll be a little less in debt at the end of these 27 months than most will be.

Home

2011-04-07T21:51:00.000-07:00

Well, we are home. We drove from Denver to Salt Lake today. We stopped in Grand Junction for lunch and to drive through Colorado National Monument, and to stamp our passports.

I don't know if the drive felt twice as long because it was the last day, or because I wasn't quite ready to call it quits on our road trip. We had so much fun on this trip! We saw so many fantastic sites, friends, family, and thoroughly enjoyed the company of my parents. We covered more than 5500 miles in two weeks. We passed through fifteen states.

Once we picked up our cars at my parents' home, transferred our bags from their car to ours, picked up our garden (a big shout out to Suzie for keeping everything alive) and headed home, I suddenly felt very sad that it was all over, and work starts immediately tomorrow.

We arrived home to find two very excited pups. Cadie and Harvie just about shook themselves out of their skin. They were a great welcome home parade. My dear friend, Jess, who watched our home for us, had washed the pups, made us homemade bread, left us bananas and snacks, and made us a very large, very beautiful quilt. Seriously?!?! She did us the HUGE favor and then spoiled us rotten when we got home. It made coming home much easier. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Jess.

Tomorrow will be a busy day. Lots of work to be done at home, a pickup with a client, and a photo shoot (depending on how bad this weather really gets). So, it's almost eleven o'clock. We're going to hit the hay.

Friday

2011-04-01T22:11:00.000-07:00

This morning we were able to sleep in a bit, which was nice. We grabbed breakfast at the Athenia Diner because I LOVE DINERS and they don't have authentic diners in Utah, so I try to get my fill when I'm out East.

We stopped at a little shop in town called McKenzie's and found MORE Vera Bradley...Score! After we spent some more money we hit the road, headed for Niagra Falls...with a few stops along the way.

We stopped at The Hill Cumorah, where Joseph Smith was shown the Gold Plates. It was FREEZING!! We ran up to snap a few shots, well, we drove up, because there's a road there now. On our way out we picked some Myrtle. We hope we can keep it alive until we get home. How neat would it be to say, "That Myrtle in our front yard came all the way from the Hill Cumorah." We'll see!

As I was flipping through our new National Park's notebook I noticed that one of the stops, The Women's Rights National Park, was just a few miles away in Seneca Falls. We convinced Dad to make the stop, stamped our books, and watched a pretty entertaining video on the history of Women's Rights. I am proud of the women who initiatied such a movement.

The Women's Rights National Park was followed by the Peter Whitmar Farm. The Sister Missionary at this site was a great tour guide and you could tell she loved what she was doing.

We hit the road, and about 30 minutes into our drive we decided it was time for lunch...typical. We stopped at a little sandwich joint called Pellegrino's in Rochester. Once we downed lunch we hopped back in the car to finish the trip to Niagra Falls.

We got in to Niagra Falls around 4pm and I was so excited for Dan to see the Falls. They were pretty misty, but absolutely gorgeous. We learned here that Joseph Smith had recently visited Niagra Falls when he described the voice of God as "rushing waters." Back then, however, the Dams had not been built, so the waters were higher and the falls louder. Pretty neat to think about.

Once we walked around the falls we headed over to our hotel, The Giacomo. What a gorgeous hotel!! We absolutely loved the style and the views from the 19th floor lounge were phenomenal!

We hung out in the hotel for a while until we felt hungry enough for dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. I haven't eaten at a Hard Rock in years, but when we lived in England, we frequented them pretty often. I remember them being loud, but at this particular Hard Rock, they had a live band and the music was so loud there was very little conversation at our dinner table. Thank goodness they were an Aerosmith cover band, so the music was pretty good.

Dan and I found some fun hats and I found a very cute hoodie. We got Dan his Niagra Falls shotglass to add to his collection, and once again, left with empty wallets.

We grabbed a taxi back to the hotel, because the Giacomo town car never showed up. We're hanging out in bed, once again watching some tv. Tomorrow we head off to Kirtland. I don't remember much about Kirtland, so I'm excited for the review.

Palmyra

2011-03-31T22:51:00.000-07:00

Today we drove to Palmyra, New York. This is where The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was restored. The drive was not too long but we did stop for lunch at a yummy little Thai Restaurant. We arrived in Palmyra around 4pm. We toured the Joseph Smith Home and The Sacred Grove. I love this place. It is wonderful to stand where God and Jesus once stood, to spend some time on such sacred ground. The Church has been restoring such historic sites so things look very different from the last time I was here, more than a decade ago. The houses and farm were restored to look more like they did in 1830. While small and simple, the houses were beautiful. It makes me want to simplify my home, but with all the souvenirs we’ve been buying…that probably won’t be happening any time soon. J

We checked into our hotel, The Palmyra Inn. It is a very nice hotel just around the corner from the Joseph Smith House/Farm and the temple. We had just enough time to iron our temple clothes before we headed back to make a 6:30pm session in the Palmyra Temple. It is a small and wonderful temple. It sits level with the tree line and has clear windows that overlook The Sacred Grove. Stained-glass windows throughout the temple depict tall, thin aspen trees. Mom loves these windows. I would love to find a small replica for her home.

Dan and I were able to witness, which we love. The session was small with about 16 people.

After our session, Dan and I headed back to The Inn to enjoy a dinner of Carne Molida that my sister, Melanie, prepared for us. The dinner was incredible! It was just what we were craving and we were so happy to have it. Mom and Dad went out looking for ice cream and were kind enough to bring us some. It was smooth and delicious, perhaps we will have some more tomorrow before we leave.

We finished the night with an epic episode of Grey’s Anatomy. It was a music event that I’m sure to download as soon as we’re home. Now we are off to bed, because we’re tired and tomorrow will start early.

Connecticut

2011-03-30T22:16:00.000-07:00

This morning we had high hopes of starting the day with a trip to The Apple Barn. It’s one of my favorite places in Connecticut where they sell homemade jellies, mustards, preserves, pickles, salsas, etc. There’s nothing quite as delicious in Utah, so I was excited to get to stop. Unfortunately, after making the 30 minute drive we found that they weren’t open…apparently they were still closed for the winter. Boo!

While spending time in the Visitor’s Center of Chillicothe my parents bought us a National Parks Passport that allows us to stamp each of our visits. It’s a very fun journal and we’ve planned lots of road trips over the next few years to try to fill our passport. Since we suddenly had some free time available to us in Connecticut, we found The Weir House, a national park in Weston and figured we’d stop to stamp our passport. Unfortunately, they were also closed for the season. Silly Connectikites! After two fails, we opted simply to go shopping.

My mom remembered her favorite store in Monroe called Country Hearts and thought we might find a quilt there, since Lancaster had been a bust. Surprisingly, the cute craft store my mom remembered had been transformed to a very cute boutique, complete with a wide variety of Vera Bradley bags…MY FAVORITE! We spent a decent amount of time in this cute boutique and spent a little too much money…but I have the cutest new bag to show for it. J

Once we finished shopping, we met up with 2 of my 3 sisters at Cracker Barrel, another favorite place of mine, for lunch. We had the largest group in the restaurant, with seven adults and nine children. I do believe I have the cutest nieces and nephews. These kiddos are smart and adorable. Although, it saddens me that I’ve been gone long enough that a few of them don’t want much to do with me anymore. I’m just a stranger to them. To a few though, I think I remain a favorite.

I’ve been working on providing up-to-date family portraits for my mom for some time now. This was the next step on our road trip. Apart from two siblings, I have completed my task.

Firstly, I photographed my sister, Shana’s family. She has six boys, ages 12-4. They were extremely well-behaved. We did some family shots and some shots of her twins, because they are so dang cute!!

After this shoot, Dan and I retired to our bedroom where we watched an episode of Law and Order: SVU, one of Dan’s favorite shows. We relaxed for a bit, because let’s face it, any amount of time with 9 children leaves us feeling a little weathered. As soon as the episode was over, my sister Melanie’s husband arrived and they were ready for their family portraits. They have 3 children. We did a variety of pictures with this family and again, my opinion may be biased, but I think they turned out pretty adorable.

After this shoot, we trekked over to Chilis for dinner and then returned one more time to snap a few remaining photographs.

At this point, Dan and I were exhausted and decided to call it a night. We climbed in to bed and are enjoying an episode of American Idol. Seeing as we don’t have television at home, Dan and I have been enjoying waking up to GMA and Fox News and falling asleep to the latest episodes of some of our favorite Prime Times.

Tomorrow we head to New York. It’s been nice spending two nights in the same hotel. We considered unpacking, but decided against it.

Gettysburg

2011-03-29T20:35:00.001-07:00

Last night I sent a text message to my sister, Ranna. I told her that we were going to be in Pennsylvania and wanted to know if there was any way she and her fiancé, Don could meet us for breakfast because they don’t live very far from Gettysburg. Ranna was ecstatic at the opportunity but lamented that Don would not be able to join us. I told her when and where to meet us and beamed from ear to ear when I saw her walking in. Mike and Carolee had never met Ranna despite that she and Don came to visit Utah this past fall. Anyway, breakfast was wonderful and the conversation was great but we had to cut it short. Ranna had to drive to Baltimore for work and we had to be on our way to tour the Gettysburg battlefield.

We arrived in the visitor’s center and immediately went to the gift shop. My first order of business was to get a shot glass while Kat decided what imprint to get smashed into her penny. We picked up our tickets to go on the tour bus. While we waited for the bus we watched a short movie, perused some of the artifacts on display, and experienced a cyclorama (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gettysburg_Cyclorama). Everything there really gets you in a mood of awe. One thing that stands out to me is that the army officer's swords of that time are pretty much identical to my Marine Corps NCO sword today.

After the cyclorama we ran to the bus pick-up point for our tour. We ran but didn't need to because the bus was 10 minutes late. So, we went to get on the bus and the bus driver said our tickets were not the correct ones. Upon hearing this news Mike and I ran back up the hill to the ticket counter to get the appropriate tickets. We made it to the counter just as Mike found the correct tickets in his other pocket. Out of breath and embarrassed we sauntered back to the tour bus and calmly boarded, hoping that we didn't create too big of a scene. I am glad we were able to make the tour because it was incredible. I do not have the words to explain how I felt but let me recommend that everyone go at least once in their life. Unfortunately the visit had to end quickly and the next thing I knew we were on the road again.

Exactly 27 minutes into the drive there were some mentions of finding a good place to eat lunch. I was surprised because I wasn't expecting anyone to mention it for another 3 minutes. Kat and I, never wanting to pass up a chance to eat, quickly googled where the closest restaurants were. I found a little place in York, PA that looked really good from the web-site but looked like an abandoned slaughterhouse in real life. I was more than a little concerned but kept my hopes up. It was my turn to pick the restaurant and I did not want it to be bad because if so I would never be allowed to pick where we ate again. But amazingly, the food was great! It was so good that when we left the restaurant we decided to celebrate by getting some Dunkin Donuts before we got on the freeway once again.

On the road again...Our next planned stop was a little town called Intercourse, PA. I was really excited to go because I, like everyone else who has a sense of humor, get a little chuckle when I think of the name of that town. Mostly I wanted to add an Intercourse shot glass to my collection. Too bad we arrived just in time to watch every shop in town switch their Open signs to CLOSED. Bummer. On the brighter side, once we continued on we were able to stop and get our picture taken by several state signs including; New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut. We arrived in CT and stopped by Shana's house just as the kids were supposed to be going to bed...oops, sorry. Nothing like out of town visitors to rile everyone up again. No sooner had we seen how the house had been rearranged and dropped off some pictures we were off to Shelton to (finally) sleep.

So that is where we are. In the hotel room, in Connecticut, watching television while waiting for the laundry to finish. Busy day, and many more to come.

Monday

2011-03-29T20:29:00.001-07:00

We only had one stop today. If you've listened to Glenn Beck in the last year, I'm sure you've heard him talk about the "Mound Cities" in the Mid-West. In Chillicothe, Ohio lived the Hopewell Indians between 200BC and 500AD. They were a MASSIVE civilization with literally millions of people. They had cities and cemeteries. We know very little about these people, except that something scattered them and before they scattered they buried everything! They buried everything and set it on fire and buried it again. So there are mounds throughout the Mid-West and even into the East. They look just like hills. To the naked eye, there is nothing special to them, but from the air, they form patterns, incredible patterns! Patterns of circles, octagons, snakes, flowers, etc. And inside the mounds lie all the secrets, proof that these Indians traveled from all over the world bringing gifts and precious stones/metals with them. There are stones from Canada, shells from Mexico, and so on and so on. It's a very educational stop....I wish we could have spent more time there.

The rest of the day we drove. We picked up a few Red Box DVDs, Secretariat, Morning Glory, and Quantum of Solace. We drove through the rest of Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland, and landed in Pennsylvania. Just in case you were wondering, we both thoroughly enjoyed Morning Glory, I enjoyed Secretariat, and neither of us were crazy about Quantum of Solace.

Tomorrow is Gettysburg. We're very excited...neither of us have been here before.

Sleeping in Terre Haute

2011-03-27T20:21:00.001-07:00

Today we started the day by touring the Independence Visitor's Center. The story of the Saints here in Missouri is heartbreaking. Just the thought of all they endured, all their hard work, just to be chased out by some jealous mobs. Knowing that my ancestors were here, paved the way, makes me very proud of who I came from.

After the Visitor's Center we took a short car ride over to Liberty Jail, where Joseph Smith spent several months and received many revelations that make up part of the Doctrine and Covenants. The sister missionary here had a very strong testimony of Joseph Smith. It was a privilege to hear it.

Much of the surrounding land, including the Temple Site is owned by the Reorganized Church, now known as The Community of Christ. They have an "ice cream cone" shaped temple and anyone is allowed in. Unfortunately, we weren't able to stop in this trip, but a previous trip to the temple proved to be very educational. Touring the Community of Christ sites is certainly a testimony builder for me. :)

Once we finished at Liberty Jail we headed over to Far West where we were able to view the original corner stones of the temple. Ah, again, it saddened me to see how excited the saints were to have a temple but were forced to wait until their time in Nauvoo.

Now, for anyone who ever visited my parents when they lived in Kansas was sure to have been treated to Sheridan's Frozen Custard. So...seeing as we were in the area, we hit Sheridan's. Ahh...it is absolutely the best Frozen Custard I have ever tasted....and I've tasted a lot of Frozen Custard.

Our time in Missouri/Kansas was up so we hit the road. We passed right by the St. Louis Arch, although we didn't get to stop and ride it...that'll give us something to do next time.

Tonight we are sleeping in Terre Haute...ever heard of it? I haven't. We're sleeping here because it's close to the Indian Mound City we hope to see tomorrow. So many places to see...so much fun to be had!

Ken, Cathy, and Carlos O'Kelly's

2011-03-26T21:23:00.001-07:00

We woke early this morning, which was not easy, because we have a full day of driving ahead of us and we piled into the car with the goal of getting in and out of the temple before breakfast at Ken and Cathy’s house. As an aside, I’ve lived in Utah almost my entire life. I am used to having temples all around me. What I have considered a long drive to a temple is about 17 minutes. But we were no longer in Utah and I was surprised to learn that in the state adjacent to mine there was only one temple. There is one temple to serve the entire state where I have 5 temples within a stone’s throw of each other. It did not seem fair.

We neared the temple. The angel Moroni peeked above the treetops and the rooftops. Its beautiful glow beckoned us to follow it. Mike and Carolee told us how you could see directly all the way down a side street to the temple. Kat and I waited impatiently to view its majesty and suddenly…we passed it. “Was that the street?” we asked. “I don’t know, it had to be one of them,” Carolee said. We all began giving Mike, who was driving, directions as to how we thought we should get there. I do not know how he stayed calm but he was the only one who stayed quiet. We shouted turn by turn directions, consulted our various GPS devices, and probably gave Mike a headache with all the chaos. However, Mike simply went around the block a couple of times, each time getting closer to the temple until we arrived. Believe it or not we even arrived on time.

After the temple we gathered up our luggage from the hotel and drove over to Ken and Cathy’s house. We didn’t have much time to eat breakfast because our initiatory session got started late so we told them we had to eat and run. Then we saw the spread that they prepared for us and quickly changed our minds. They had fruits, meats, various muffins and croissants. The main course was something I had never had before…a breakfast lasagna. We talked, laughed, listened to stories of trips, and had a wonderful time. Unfortunately, the time came all too soon for us to get on the road to Overland Park, Kansas.

As we approached our destination Carolee began telling us about where we were going to be eating tonight. She had planned for us to eat at one of her favorite restaurants, Carlos O’Kellys. Yes, it was a Mexican/Irish restaurant. Aside from the strangeness of the name and food combination it was amazing. I wish they would open a restaurant in Utah because I alone would probably keep it in business.

I am really enjoying this trip and can hardly wait to see some more sights.

We're goin' on a road trip!

2011-03-25T22:20:00.000-07:00

Almost six months ago, Dan and I received some news that prompted the need for a vacation. After reviewing our budget and discovering our lack of funds, we decided there would be no vacation. That decision did not sit well with me. I knew that during my 27 months of intense schooling, there would be no time for vacation, so I begged Dan to find something we could afford before I started school. We pinched our pennies and decided that a “Temple Tour” would be wonderful! Plans of a Church History Tour were far beyond our budget and we were certain Dan couldn’t afford to take that much time off of work. So, we planned 5 days to visit all 13 temples in Utah. It was going to be intense and wonderful!

About a week after we finalized our plans, we received a call from my parents asking us if we’d like to accompany them on a Church History Tour across the United States. Certain we could not afford the time off or the trip in itself, we asked for a few days to think about it and hurriedly set off requesting time off and counting our “rainy day” piggy bank. While we knew the trip would stretch our funds, the miracle came when Dan’s boss informed him that he could, in fact, take the time off, and better yet, use his PTO, so we would not lose our income. It was truly a miracle! We quickly called my parents back and confirmed that we would LOVE to be backseat drivers on their trip. J

Today begins the tour. We met my parents at their home after they finished serving in the Jordan River Temple. Our dear friend, Jessica, is watching our babies while we’re gone…so we know they’re in good hands. We packed LOADS of treats for the car ride and my mom has a very detailed itinerary planned to navigate us through all the church sites. We can hardly wait! My mom said a prayer before we left, and for my family’s sake, made sure not to pray for memories…only good experiences.

Today we drove from South Jordan to Littleton, Colorado. As is typical with my family, about 30 minutes into the car ride, my mom and I decided we were hungry and needed to stop in Provo for some lunch. So, we stopped at Wingers, grabbed a bite to eat, and then settled in for the long haul. The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful until we pulled up to Veil Pass in Veil Colorado. We were forced off the highway and told by the Highway Patrol Officer that there was an accident involving 2-18 wheelers that had closed the highway. We detoured to a very fancy restaurant, in our sweats and hoodies, and ate a delicious dinner. Fortunately, by the time we finished dinner, the road was cleared and we resumed our trip. Unfortunately, when we started back on the road, Dad announced, “All my lights are out! I can’t see a thing!” Now, that’s scary to hear, but what made it a little more frightening was that we were on the edge of a mountain, in blizzard-like conditions, in the black of night. Our hi-beams were on, bout the dash lights and navigation lights were all out. Dan and I quickly pulled out our cell phones to google possible solutions and my mom frantically looked for the user manual in the glove box and door panels. Dad drove on, half watching the road and half looking for a light switch below the steering column. Finally, after what seemed like hours, the lights flicked on. Phew!

We rolled into Littleton around 10:30pm and we’re here for the night. Tomorrow we’ve scheduled a trip to the Denver temple and lunch with my aunt and uncle, Ken and Cathy.

Siblings

2011-03-10T09:02:00.000-08:00

Dan took me out for sushi last night. We found a great coupon for our favorite place and I got off work unexpectedly early so we made a date, because that's what we do...spend every single second that we can together. We talked the whole way home, on the phone, because that's another thing we do, and we were in separate cars. Somehow I got on the topic of my siblings and all the wonderful things they do for me and we finished the phone call in amazement of how lucky I am to have such incredible brothers, sisters, and in-laws.

Last week, I received a box of Dunkin' Donuts from a sibling. I will have to refer to this sibling as "sibling" because Dan and I agreed, in my family, it's best to leave names out. :) I digress. This sibling knows how much I love Dunkin' Donuts and makes an effort to send me a box of 6, sometimes 12, donuts at least twice a year...even when this sibling knows I'm on a diet and the one thing I'll break my diet for is Dunkin' Donuts. As much as I loved (and Dan loved even more) the donuts, the note that came with them was the real cherry on top. It read:

Because I may dodge your calls sometimes when things are crazy.

'Cause sometimes I'm too busy to chat.

'Cause sometimes when I can chat the kids are too crazy.

'Cause you live far away and I never get to see you.

Just because...

'Cause I love you.

Happy Donut Day!

<3 Sibling

And it came on a card that only I would love!

Another sibling called me last week just to chat. I can't tell you how rarely this happens. 99.9% of the time I am the one who calls...my phone rarely rings (sniff sniff). I totally expected this sibling to say, "Oh, and I have a favor to ask..." but they never did. They called because they hadn't heard from me in a while and because they had read my blog about Dan dying and wanted to make sure I was okay. Seriously?!? Am I not the luckiest girl ever?

During this conversation with Dan, I detoured a bit, back to 2004 when I was in a really bad accident that totaled my car. It started out as a funny story because I remember sitting on the curb of the fire station trying to find someone to come pick me up. I called my parents. No answer. I called a sibling. No answer. I called another sibling. No answer. And then, sibling #2 called me back. "Hi," sibling said, "it's late." "Yeah," I replied, "I'm sorry...um...I was just in a really bad accident. Could you come pick me up?" It was late at night and this sibling had children, but they came and picked me up. The funny part of the story was that my parents were at a movie and I didn't hear back from them until the next day...it was a really great guilt trip conversation for me. ;) So, this sibling picked me up and that was really nice, because she had to wait with me while I gave a statement of the drunk driver who hit me and then took off on foot, but that's not even the nicest part! This sibling continued to drive me to work every day for almost two weeks. It was totally inconvenient and extremely out-of-the-way, but this sibling never once complained. It was pretty awesome.

I have an absolutely beautiful Blooming Peace Lily in my kitchen. It's just over a year old and it arrived on the day that Dan and I were sealed. It came from a sibling. What makes it so special is the thought this sibling put into buying such a wonderful gift. Our sealing day was the BEST day of my life. It was the day we finalized moving into our new house, it was filled with family, new appliances, and this sweet gift. "It's a housewarming gift," sibling said, "but it's more than that. It's to celebrate your marriage. You have to take care of it like you do your marriage. If you neglect it, it will not survive." The Peace Lily also came with one beautiful white flower. "That's to celebrate your sealing," said sibling. "The white flower is for the temple. If you go to the temple regularly, your marriage will be strong. Those white flowers are hard to get to bloom...they take work." Anyway, over the next several months, we received SEVERAL white flowers from this Peace Lily. There are times that there are none, but on the morning of January 1st this year, we were met with another white flower. It was such perfect timing. We love this plant and it's one of the objects in our home that receives the most compliments. Every time I see it, I think of this sibling and the symbolism in this plant.

Oh, I could go on and on and on. I have in-laws who take time out of their very busy and hectic schedules just to have lunch with me and let me love their little ones. I get phone calls from siblings on birthdays. I get gifts on holidays. I am VERY thankful for such wonderful brothers and sisters.

Larry Spencer and Sunshine

2011-02-28T21:34:00.000-08:00

We had a visitor this week. Larry Spencer of Spencer Photography whom I met, oh, about 4 years ago at a photography class (and we've been friends ever since), came to visit Dan and me...and maybe he came to go snowboarding too. :) We love having Larry visit. He gets the guest bedroom and we get the honor of his company and fantastic photos too!

Larry, Dan, and I spent two days covering the locations we'd picked out....here are some of my favorites.

This was taken at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. We absolutely love this place! So...the pose was to show our passion for this location. ;) Do you feel it?

Love the sun refraction halo around Dan.

So, my laugh is a little big....but this picture pretty much epitomizes our little family!

This abandoned school bus was turned into a camper. It has a kitchen, restroom, bedroom, living room, and of course, a steering wheel.

This is one of the benches from the school bus. We liked the little graffiti heart under Dan's arm.

I borrowed Larry's camera up at Silver Lake to snap this shot....I love it!

Thanks for this one, Larry.

On a day home, by himself, Larry held a little photoshoot with our pups. He captured this shot of Harvie tackling Cadie and it has to be my all-time FAVORITE picture of these two. Harvie, like his mamma, has an obsession with ears, specifically Cadie's. He loves to chew on them and Cadie usually lets him. But what you have to know about this picture is, Cadie is a VERY playful puppy and Harvie is rather docile. So, look at that sweet look on Harvie's face, while Cadie is all about the game. It's perfect!

Last, but not least. This is our newest addition (Yes, another one!). Her name is Sunshine. She is a Sun Conure, about 1 1/2 years old. She is absolutely wonderful and smart and we love having her around. In this picture (which ought to win an award), Dan told Sunshine to "kiss kiss." She loves to tap her beak to your lips, but seeing as she's at a funny angle, she landed on his cheek, leaving Dan with this priceless face. Love it!

Larry left this afternoon. We'll miss his company, and Dan will miss his Black Diamond Buddy, but we will look forward to next year!

Dan died...

2011-02-24T22:15:00.000-08:00

...and I awoke inconsolable. I have a dream once a year where someone dies. It's always family, but usually a sibling or parent. It's always upsetting and usually wakes me up in tears. It always ruins my day.

Last night, it was Dan.

He was diagnosed with cancer and we were given two days. Two. Days. We spent 48 hours discussing such things as, "What do you want me to do with the rest of my life? What do you want me to do with the dogs? What do you want me to do with your things?" It was terrible. The night he died I called his work to tell them he wouldn't be in and the next day my parents came to help me sort through things.

I woke up at 3am in such a fit of hysterics that I could not be calmed. Dan worked last night, so I woke to find myself alone. It didn't help the situation any. I texted Dan, "Guess who died in my annual 'someone dies' dream tonight?" He called me immediately. I sobbed for about 15 minutes.

The rest of the day was spent tearing up over the constant thoughts of losing Dan. See, these dreams are so realistic and so frightening that part of my brain becomes undeniably convinced that it's real. So I get to spend the rest of the day trying to convince that part of my brain that everything is fine. Thankfully.

Everything is fine.

Weight Loss

2011-02-23T17:49:00.000-08:00

Dan and I have been on weight watchers for seven weeks now and nothing is as encouraging as weighing in every week and watching the pounds melt away.

I realize, that by posting the above image, I'm showing the world how fat I've let myself get...but anyone who knows anything about my health issues over the past two years, knows what a MASSIVE step it is to have lost nearly 15 pounds. It's pretty crazy!

Now, having posted this achievement, I fully expect to have cursed myself and be up this week (it has nothing to do with the fact that I've eaten out 3, soon to be 4 times this week), but, one small setback in a long descending line of weigh-ins is manageable. We love weight watchers!!

Bountiful Baskets

2011-02-10T12:47:00.000-08:00

Dan and I, as you may have read once or twice, are trying to save money so we can afford to survive while I'm in school. One of the ways we've found to save money is through Bountiful Baskets. We pay $15.00 a week to get a laundry basket full of produce. 50% fruits, 50% veggies. It's wonderful!

Occasionally, they offer a bulk item, such as apples, oranges, or...asparagus. I got this 18lb box of Asparagus for $8.00. And while I absolutely wasted it because I didn't know you had to pressure can asparagus, the point is, we absolutely love getting our basket of produce every week. So much, that we've started purchasing 2 baskets every week.

It encourages us to eat healthier (I'm down 10lbs and Dan is down 12lbs) and it saves us a bunch of money on our grocery bill.

Yay!

Planning for Spring

2011-01-31T12:49:00.000-08:00

Dan and I have been planning for Spring! We're getting a few new chicks in a couple weeks, we're adding rabbits to our collection of animals (for meat), and we finally found railroad ties cheap enough to build our planter boxes.

We picked up 40 railroad ties in the back of a U-haul and it wasn't until we headed home that Dan mentioned, "This is going to be hell unloading these." See, they used a fork-lift to put them in the back of the truck...we don't have a fork-lift at home.

So, when we backed the truck through the snow, through the mud, and through the gate, I climbed in the back of the truck and shoved. And shoved. And shoved.

And before too long at all, we had unloaded all 40 railroad ties, without injuring our backs, breaking the fence, or ruining the truck. Although, we did have to give the u-haul a pretty thorough scrub down once we were through with it.

Now we just need a bit of warmer weather so we can get to building!

Visitors

2011-01-26T14:19:00.000-08:00

We don't have too many visitors at our house. In fact, we have so few visitors that our dogs just about shake themselves to death (out of excitement) whenever anyone stops over to say hello. As we were leaving the house a week or two ago, we noticed we had had visitors overnight. Dan spotted deer prints in the snow on our front porch. This didn't surprise us much, because when we were looking to buy the house (a year ago) we were met by five deer eating the bushes in the front of the house. What was surprising, was that they were brave enough to come up on the porch to have better access to the bushes.

Yesterday, as I was talking with Dan on the phone while he drove home from work, he casually mentioned, "Hey Honey, we have deer in our front yard." I quickly told him to get off the phone and snap some pictures. Here's what he caught:

How it's coming...

2011-01-16T20:59:00.000-08:00

We are well into the first month of the new year. Just last night I told a friend, "Christmas will be here in three weeks!" Time sure flies faster and faster the older you get. The sad part is, I don't feel as if I get any more productive with time, rather that the days disappear before I have a change to tackle my to-do list. I hear this is a common feeling.

So far, we have stuck religiously to our new eating habits. Plenty of fruits and veggies, smaller portion sizes, and only occasional sweets. We've both dropped a few pounds but mostly we're feeling great. We signed up for an annual membership at our local recreation center and we're actually feeling like we have enough energy to use it.

Last weekend Dan and I went down to Nephi to visit his grandparents with Aaron and Alice (they're also Alice's grandparents). It was a little bit of a drive so of course we had to document it on film...

But we also saw this cute little Sinclair in Goshen, about half the way down. Pretty nifty shot if I do say so myself.

Along with our healthy eating comes a lot of fun new recipes. Dan and I picked up some Cornish Hens the other day and this morning I prepped them for dinner. As I was browning them on the stove I couldn't help but think how cute these little chicks looked bathing in butter on my stove. They were mighty tasty too, so tasty, in fact, that Dan and I are thinking of adding a few to our collection of birds.

A Pano A Day

2011-01-11T12:08:00.000-08:00

Dan and I live in the most beautiful area! Every morning we get to wake up to some incredible views. So, this year, we are attempting to take one panorama a day for the entire year! Who know's if it'll work, but I figure if we even end up with one pano a week, that's 52 panos to document how amazing the view can be all year round. We figure it'll make a pretty neat album.

Here are a few of our favorites so far.

This was the first pano of the year. A clear crisp day. The lake is frozen so when it's not covered with snow it creates some amazing reflections.

We had some pretty smoggy days the first week of January, which is rare for where we live! Then it snowed just a teeny little bit and this was the view the next morning.

Our sunsets are always phenomenal!

This shows some of the smog...Dan and I call these the "Hallelujah Mountains."

Happy 2011!

2011-01-01T20:26:00.000-08:00

No official resolutions have been made but changes are in the works and Dan and I are very excited for the new year! I signed off of Facebook just before the New Year in an effort to be more productive and spend a little less time reading about everyone else's lives and a lot more time living mine!

We created a chore chart in December and it has helped us tremendously. We have a mostly cleaned and organized house, the dishes are always put away, the floors are mopped/vacuumed. It has been wonderful.

We also created a budget in December and I have to tell you, this is the hardest change we've made! I will be losing my income in May when I go back to school so we'll be living just above poverty level for two years. The thought is terrifying. Trying to stick to the budget now, while we still have both incomes is good practice, but is proving to be quite difficult, especially when both cars are due for their 60,000 mile services, the dogs have vet appointments, the house needs smoke alarms, etc. I'm glad we have the time to practice.

The diet is cliche, but truth be told, we both need to lose some weight. The gym memberships come this weekend as does our first ASL (American Sign Language) Class. We're so excited! This is something we've been wanting to do for years and we're finally getting to do it!

So, let the race begin. The changes are a good start. Here's to much luck in 2011.

What a day

2010-11-05T20:00:00.000-07:00

Today I spent the entire day interviewing for a position in the University of Utah's Physician Assistant Program. They are ranked #4 in the nation for PA Schools and I am very honored to be among the 90 candidates there today. I met some incredibly talented and qualified professionals and, in all honesty, I'm feeling a little underqualified at this point.

I had three interviews today, two solos and one group. I also started the day off with 150 question test in which I can pretty much guarantee I failed. It was a really sp

ectacular way to start the day. I don't want to blog too much, because I still have another interview tomorrow and I think venting here will psych myself out. So, I'll post the details tomorrow.

But, I'll end on this. Coming home to these three makes any day bearable:

There's a spider in the kitchen!

2010-11-01T19:47:00.000-07:00

Tonight, as I was preparing our meals for tomorrow, I decided to wash a few dishes while I waited for some water to boil. I was on the phone with Dan, so my full attention was not on the dishes, or the stove, or anything for that matter. As I looked out the window over the kitchen sink, I noticed flames dancing behind my head in the reflection. As I continued the dishes I thought to myself, wow, those stove flames are really high, I should turn them down. So, I turned around to turn down the stove when I noticed the flames were not from the stove, but from my hand mixer that had rolled into the flames and had caught on fire. "There's a fire!! There's a fire in the kitchen!" I yelled to Dan, over the phone. "What? Where?" Dan asked. Huh? So, I grabbed the hand mixer, tossed it into the sink and turned the water on. Once the fire was out and most of the ash had settled (seriously), I explained what had happened to Dan. He then explained that he had heard, "There's a spider in the kitchen," and figured my reaction was appropriate, considering how much I hate spiders.

Anyway, just a funny story. And here's the picture of the damage:

Tonight I am grateful for quick reflexes, even though my thoughts were slow. I am grateful that the fire didn't spread to the cupboards directly overhead. I am grateful for a humorous husband.

Pumpkin Carving

2010-10-28T21:45:00.000-07:00

Tonight Dan and I went out with some good friends, Jim and Lisa. We met up at our favorite little sushi joint, Tokyo, in Lehi, UT. We ate some absolutely delicious Hibachi. If you're ever in need of A LOT of food for a really reasonable price, order the Tokyo Special at this place. Lisa's bra popped and all of us needed to undo our top pant buttons by the end of the meal...needless to say, there were a lot of laughs.

Afterward we headed back to our place where we carved pumpkins. We had a pretty good assortment of stencils to choose from and the finished jacks looked pretty awesome, if I do say so myself.

Dan's pumpkin is the bomb-diggity (meaning, it would have won first place if there'd been a competition...for those of you reading this in the year 2050). Notice the awesome shadow it casts in the background...yeah...he carved that too...FREEHAND!

This is Jim's pumpkin. He and I both opted for the simple stencils, considering we are not expert-carvers. His turned out much better than mine!

I think Lisa's tied with Dan's for awesomeness. What a great witch! I kinda wished she'd left this one to display on our front porch!

This is my lousy owl. The stencil was adorable...it didn't transfer to pumpkin so well. Oh well. We'll have another round of pumpkin carving tomorrow and I'll get a chance to make a fantastic shadow-casting monster of my own.

Here's the whole gang together! Pretty fun! Can't wait to see tomorrow's.

We are grateful for great friends (who are genuinely good people), delicious food (even more grateful for the leftovers they provide for tomorrow's lunch), and for inexpensive activities such as pumpkin carving.

Gratitude

2010-10-26T15:28:00.001-07:00

It seems that Dan and I are constantly discussing how fortunate we are, how we're so lucky that this happened and so lucky that that didn't happen. So, we decided to start blogging, because it's always in those really rotten times that we can never recall just how blessed we are.

Neither of us have great blogging records, so don't expect regular updates from us...at least in the beginning. But, this being our first post, it's going to be a little bit like Jumbalaya.

This is a carton of eggs we gathered from the chickens in our back yard. Dan and I decided to raise chickens last spring in an effort to become more self-sufficient. We love our chickens, and though they cause us a lot of heartache, we are grateful for the beautiful eggs they give us every day.

We're also grateful for shower markers. Dan and I have been leaving each other notes in the shower for about 8 months now. This is the latest...he hid it under my towel. Don't mind the orange and blue streaks on the shower wall, those are just leftovers from previous notes. Not only does it make your morning, but it's also a phenomenal way to end a quarrel or just let the other person know, "Hey! I'm thinkin' about ya!" We recently bought some mirror crayons and are excited to see what kind of creative doorways those open.

Last night, as Dan and I were moving our chickens from one coop to another, we watched a fabulous storm brewing over the Eastern Mountain Range. We watched as the mountains turned from red to white and marveled over the absolutely stunning view we get to wake up to and fall asleep to every single day. A few weeks ago, I was up early talking to Dan as he drove home from work and together we watched the most magnificent sunrise I have ever seen. Thank goodness for iPhone cameras!

These sweet little pups are what make Dan and I the happiest. Cadie Bug, our one-year-old Olde English Bulldogge has the sweetest personality and a puckered chin that'll make anyone soft. Harvie Dent is just a pup (also an Olde English Bulldogge), but is playful and smart, and LOVES his big sister. They can make either of us feel better when we're down, and if we weren't commanded to have children, we'd definitely be content with these two.

Lately, we've had several experiences where the roads have seemed dark and tumultuous. We've white-knuckled our way through however and found the most amazing views once the clouds have cleared, some have even just turned the clouds into fantastic skies!

A few weeks back the Photography Studio was a little slow. Ok, let's be honest, the studio was dead! It was at the beginning of October, which is supposed to be our busiest month of the year and we hadn't heard the phone ring in days. Needless to say, we were a little stressed...a lot worried! Well, a week or so passed and our prayers became more earnest as we asked the Lord to send business our way. The very next day the phone was ringing off the hook. It was fantastic. After the third booking I dropped to my knees and thanked our Heavenly Father for answering our pleas. It was also then that I realized, had the studio not been quiet, had the phone been ringing off the hook a week or two earlier, Dan and I would not have had the time to deal with a bit of bumpy road we had encountered elsewhere that seemed to take all of our attention. Once we had dealt with that chaos, the Lord knew we were ready to start our busy season.

The Lord knows exactly what we need, and even though we may feel like he's about to put us out of business, in all reality, he's just turning us into better, stronger people.

I sure do love this life!