Embracing the Inevitable

I was born into a family with four older brothers and no other sister but me. As soon as one of my brothers married, my mom started to have "Girl's Night" with my stepsister and my sisters-in-law.

When I was a teenager, I preferred to either be playing with my nieces and nephews or going hunting/shooting with the boys, instead of staying the with girls and sewing. I just wasn't a fan of sewing, and was a huge fan of shooting cans and bottles to pieces with my .243 winchester rifle my brother bought for me, or with his 20-gauge shot gun. Who could resist??

Well, years have past since there has been an official "Girl's Night." The girls have moved away or out of the family, and we just plain haven't gotten around to it.

Until last week. I guess my brothers would say "I've finally become a woman."

My sister-in-law Jana, my stepsister Melissa, my mom, and I got together and made aprons. For some reason we decided not to pay much attention to the instructions on the pattern, but I was the only one who had to unpick anything...and I unpicked seams, oh, only about 7 times(!!!). (There's a reason I prefer shooting to sewing.)


But, in the end, they turned out okay. The straps around our necks are too long, but a twisty-tie fixes that problem. Oh, and I'll be adding a cute blue star to the front of mine to match the fabric.

Next projects: retro-apron like this, or something more like this, home-sewn cabbage patch dolls (I guess), and I have an half-finished purse from a high school sewing class...

The Weedmaster

My job has taken me to new levels. No longer do I throw rocks off cliffs or play my trombone at the mountain's edge; now I get to drive a truck at 2 mph and spray weeds, mainly thistle.

Me & My Duffel-Bag Life

Since last Fall (after Sam moved to Colorado) I have traveled more than I ever have before--and I don't mean around the world. Mostly, it's been to Colorado and back, to my parents' house and back, and work-related meetings/conferences/trainings.

A couple of weeks ago I started complaining (shame shame, I know) about how I'm sick of living out of a duffel bag. Perhaps I'd get more sympathy (not that I'm really asking for it...) if I spelled out my duffel-bag travel life only since January 1, 2008 (err...December 28, 2007), with the help of my ever-useful, can't-function-without weekly planner.

December 28-29 2007: packed U-Haul in Logan, drove to Taylorsville to pack more, then stayed overnight in Orem; moved out to Duchesne
Dec 30-January 1, 2008: back out to Salt Lake & Provo areas for family celebration of New Year's Eve, travel back to Duchesne (1st day on the job started the 2nd).
Jan 9-10: drove to Helper--stayed with my brother; took Sam to meet his ride to Colorado; trained with Carbon County Agent;
Jan 17-21: drove to Colorado; stayed; came back to Duchesne
Jan 29-February 2: drove to Nephi to train with Juab County Agent (stayed overnight in Orem); drove to Tooele to train with Tooele County Agent; drove back to Duchesne, then back to Orem; drove to Ogden--training with agents there; drove back to Duchesne

(and that was just about one month!!)

Feb 15-18: took off to Colorado, then back to Duchesne
Feb. 19-21: to Logan for a work-related training

March 3-6: to Logan for a work conference
March 12-16: to Salt Lake to train with Salt Lake Agent, picked up Sam from airport, stayed with family for activities surrounding my sister-in-law returning from her mission
March 21-23: Dentist appointment and more family activities; Sam flew back to CO
March 26-27: travel to Logan for my (successful) thesis defense; back to Duchesne
March 28-29: travel from Duchesne to Orem for job-related stuff; family activities.

April 1-3: travel to Salt Lake; then drove to Logan for a graduate symposium of my thesis; back to Duchesne
April 4-6: travel to Colorado to be with Sam and back to Duchesne.
April 10-12: work related conference in Price.

May 1: to Colorado to pick up Sam; traveled to Clearfield, Utah that same day (yuck!)
May 2: to Logan for my graduation; then to Salt Lake
May 3: with family; then finally back to Duchesne
May 7: staff meeting in Castle Dale, then to Orem.
May 8-13: tending my brother's children in Utah County; back to Duchesne
May 16-17: travel to Utah County for high school reunion and family activities
May 19-21: travel to Logan for work meeting
May 28-June 1: travel to Taylorsville, then to my brother's high school graduation, then to Clearfield for nephew's baby blessing; back to Duchesne

June 2: back to Orem to pick up car (the A/C was getting fixed); back to Duchesne
June 6-7: travel to Utah County for family activities
June 10-12: travel to Kaysville for a work conference
June 12-13: youth conference at Camp Williams
June 14: to Fruitland for a picnic with my brother and his family; then to Helper, then to Manti for the Manti Pagent, then back to Duchesne (all in one day!).
June 20-21: travel to Utah, Salt Lake, Tooele Counties for camping (Sam) and girls' night activities

Can you tell why I grumbled about living out of a duffel bag? And there are still 6 more months in this year... But, I think I'm over that grumbling phase. It's exciting to be running around like a chicken with my head cut off. :)

Perhaps my next post will be figuring out how many miles have been added to my car since Dec. 28, 2007. And how much that has cost me (and my travel budget from work) in gasoline. Too much, I assure you.

PS I should probably mention that while I've been packing and unpacking an insane amount of times lately, I still can't figure out how to just take one bag--by the time I head out of the house, I have 3 or 4 bags hanging off of me--my purse, the duffel bag or suitcase, the bag with phone chargers, food & water, and a bag with my workout clothes. Sometimes there's even my temple bag and laptop bag...call me a bag lady, I guess.

A trump from on high

The past two days I "worked" at the Upper Stillwater Dam. A few people had to rappel off the cliff and clean off any rocks that could be hazardous to the trail below. It was my job to wait at the top and pull up the 300 ft. ropes so that when they returned to the top the ropes would be ready to use again at a different spot. This took up about 20 mins. of my time and I only did it 3 times a day. The rappelling crew took about an hour each decent. As you can see, the rest of my time I spent practicing my trombone with a glorious echo off the mountainside. One thing I did learn from pulling up those ropes; there's no way I could pull anyone up with them. When the rope is 300 ft. down it is quite heavy by itself and it was very tiring, pulling it up. The next time I see a movie where someone is hanging from a rope and are pulled to safety I will have a hard time believing the possibility.

Water Hollow Dam

I recently started working for the Central Utah Water Conservancy District, here in Duchesne. I am a temp. employee for the summer and I do a number of odd jobs from mowing weeds in the lot next to the office building, checking water levels at the various dams, throwing rocks off a cliff into the dams, to shoveling sediment build-up as seen in the picture. It's a great job with great people.

The Family Defined

Recently Melanie and I have heard a lot in the news about the polygamy issues with the FLDS church. While listening to the radio one day, we discussed the constant dilema and Melanie made a substantial comment. She stated that the easiest way the government could avoid such issues is to define the family; this would also take care of the gay/lesbian marriage problems. We both feel fortunate to have the family already defined by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in The Family: A Proclamation to the World given in 1995. The inspiration of that document cannot be overlooked or understated. I am grateful to belong to a living church with inspired leaders who recieve revelation for our time.

B is for Bullet Bike

Oh Baby, oh baby! When can I get myself one of these? My stepbrother Mitch gave me a ride home from Alex's graduation on his new bullet bike. I don't know much about bullet bikes, but I do know that if I lived somewhere besides Duchesne (or any other rural area), I might just get myself one. Now I really can't wait until I move out of Duchesne!! :)