I've Got Dreams, Babe

New Year, New Life

2011-01-07T11:46:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I mentioned in my last post that 2010 was a little disappointing for me in some ways. I think partly because I'm used to being really busy, doing so many things all the time, always in the midst of some means to and end of bettering my life. Nursing school, fixing up an old house, etc. This year most of those things slowed down and I had a lot of time on my (odd) days off to become a little depressed about my new, frustrating and disappointing job and its effects on my whole life, and the uncertain direction in which my life was going. This new year, 2011, I want to change that. Over the next few weeks/months I will be unveiling my new plan for my life. I don't know that I will see a huge change in my career (the biggest stress in my life right now) in 2011, but at least I will hopefully be on my way to finding something that I love in which I can still use my education and background. So I started with a change in the look of my blog! Changes in 2011...let's see them! What are you going to change in your life in this new year?

2010: My Year in Review

2011-01-07T11:27:00.000-08:00

2010 was an interesting, if challenging, year. Challenging because of the challenges, but also because for the first year in a long time, I don't really feel like I have much to show for the challenges. Through the last half of my 20s, I tried to do at least one new, exciting thing each year that I hadn't done before and could be proud of. I don't feel like that really happened in 2010. So, I'll rededicate myself this year to making my 30s about accomplishments again. But for now, here's 2010.

Baby sitting my nieces a bit and watching them grow has been so fun. Looking forward to welcoming a new nephew this year, that will even up the score on my mom's side a little!

Annual trip to St. George in February. Always a winner. We also went on a cruise that month, blogged about that here.

Went to Girls' Camp for the first time as an adult. Now THAT was interesting. And fun. And, I was glad it was over by day 4. I never realized how much work the leaders put into camp. I think all I did was cook for 4 days! We had a good time though.

Speaking of camp, I spent most of 2010 as a Young Women leader. I learned a lot, and really gained from it, including some great friendships. Yes, I eventually got called to YW again in my new, reorganized ward. Most of the same girls, some new, and new leaders to work with.

A few more home updates. We did some redecorating in the bedrooms, including finishing the room in the basement (I'll have to post a picture of that later) and finished the backyard. I wish I had taken a picture of the backyard while it was still green and beautiful - it looked great! We had a great garden too, so I'll post a picture of some of the things we grew instead.

We took an awesome trip to San Francisco that included seeing my childhood homes and elementary school, time with friends/family, riding our bikes from the Ferry Building to the Golden Gate bridge, across, and back, plus an extra 8-mile ride along the bay on the way back after getting on the wrong ferry, seeing Wicked, eating at the Cliff House, walking in Golden Gate Park, eating lots of sourdough bread, and our car hitting 100,000 miles on the way home.

We also hiked Timpanogos during the summer. It seemed to be the height of wildflower season, and very beautiful. My knees prevented me from getting to the VERY top, but we made it pretty close.

2010 was also a year for change with family. I mentioned above how I appreciated spending time with my nieces, one of whom was born in 2010. But I also lost my Uncle Fred in July and my Grandma in October. Very sad, but the funerals were a wonderful opportunity to celebrate their lives and reconnect with extended family. My grandma's passing was especially emotional - I was very close to her and pretty much had her near my whole life. All of her daughters were present at her passing, and most of the grandchildren were able to make it to the funeral. We had fun celebrating her life by making a video with photos from her life and visiting the old homes she lived in around Salt Lake City.

My Grandma and her life were an inspiration to me. I especially loved seeing her old homes, as I always love old things and I'm a sucker for nostalgia and all things meaningful. A few weeks after we went to look at and photograph the homes, Chase and I were leaving our house one day for a walk. Just as we were walking down the driveway, two men approached us to ask us if they could take a picture of our house, because it was the house their mother grew up in. They also pointed out the house down the street that their father grew up in. Of course, we told them to take all the photos they wanted. I was glad to be able to do that for someone after all the people that let us take pictures of their homes in memory of our grandma. And I love living in an old house in a historic area, just blocks from where my grandma grew up. I can imagine her childhood there, and now I can imagine the one that happened in my very own house 80-something years ago!

Finally, I celebrated my Golden Birthday - 31 on the 31st! - in October. One of the highlights of my year, because it supposed to be the best year of your life right? Oh, how I've waited for this! If you know me at all, you know I'm kind of obsessed with dates (plus the fixation on meaningful, nostalgic things mentioned above). From the moment I was told of this tradition, I waited for this birthday to happen! My sisters experienced their golden birthdays early in adolescence - 12 and 15 - but I would be the oldest one could possibly be to celebrate this amazing birthday! Finally, the long-awaited day arrived, and I couldn't have asked for a better day. Chase and I went to Las Vegas and stayed at Treasure Island for the weekend. For my birthday dinner, we went to Max Brenner, an amazing restaurant in Caesar's Palace that specializes in CHOCOLATE! What could be better? After spending an hour or two there and becoming thoroughly drunk on love and chocolate, we went back to our hotel to see Cirque Du Soleil's Mystere. After the show, the hotel gave us free sparkling cider (we opted out of the free champagne they offered) and we had a toast in our room. We also enjoyed some hiking at Red Rocks and some shopping that weekend.

Also in 2010: Chase became a full-time teacher at Legacy Preparatory Academy, he started his Master's program in Special Ed at Weber State, I did some more canning (I even canned pickles all by myself), I became an avid reader of Feminist Mormon Housewives, and we had a great holiday season spending time with friends and family. Here's to a great year in 2011!

Summer Book Reviews

2010-09-15T11:30:00.001-07:00

Even though I didn't post on here all summer, I did get some reading in. It wasn't as much as I've done the rest of the year (why? I'll blog about my other summer adventures later), so I thought I'd put it all in one post.

The Horse Boy, Rupert Isaacson
I loved this book. I had heard about it a few times and was interested, so I finally made it to the library to pick it up. It's a father narrating the true story of his son Rowan's life with autism, beginning from the time he was born, through his diagnosis and subsequent events/therapies/treatments, and finally the family's journey to Mongolia to find healing for Rowan.

Rupert Isaacson was a writer and human rights activist who had worked as an advocate for a tribe of Bushmen in Africa. His experiences with the shamans of this and other tribes colored his view of medicine and healing. Rupert and his wife, Kristin, and Rowan spent a weekend with many such shamans at a conference, where Rowan exhibited signs of progress and healing when being in their presence. Later, Rowan, who spent much of his time "inside himself", in his own world, as is characteristic with autism, finally opened up around animals, especially horses. It was while riding the horse of a neighbor that Rowan finally began to talk and interact with those around him, including his father, who was ecstatic at sharing his love of horses with his son. Rowan improved so much as a result of time spent with the horse, and had responded so little to conventional treatments for autism, that Rupert began to form an idea to combine these two seemingly healing powers for his son. Thus, the family embarked on a journey to Mongolia, the country where horses were domesticated, and where shamanism is the national religion.

The rest of the tale is a beautiful, sweeping description of the wild Mongolian countryside, the rituals of the shamans, and the joy and sometimes fear in the family's journey of traveling hundreds of miles and riding the Mongolian horses. In the midst of the journey, Rowan begins to make human connections with those around him, showing signs of possible healing for himself and other autistic children.

This book made me think about healing in the context of my own religion. I strongly believe in the power of healing, and the faith to be healed. Of course, as Latter-day Saints we usually hold the belief that healing only comes by the power of the priesthood, and from the faith of the person being healed. This book described a lot of the faith side, but obviously did not included\ priesthood in an LDS sense. However, healing truly did take place and it was interesting to step back and look at the concept of healing with a larger worldview. I would be interested to know others' thoughts on the concept of healing, specifically the thoughts of LDS people who have read about or seen similar healing experiences outside our faith.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Lisa See

This book was recommended by my Aunt Nancy, who has great taste in books and has read many more books than I have! I loved this one as well. It was the story of a young girl named Lily growing up in a remote Chinese village in the 19th century. It was a very compelling description of the lives, trials, hardships, and inequities that Chinese women endured for many centuries, and probably still do to some extent.

Women in China during this period were valued only for their ability to produce sons, who would then become the head and leader of the family. Girls were required to have their feet bound beginning at age six or seven, or their marriage prospects were completely nonexistent. And if marriage wasn't an option, girls would be sold to other families as a concubine, or "little daughter-in-law" when that family's daughters-in-law failed to produce sons. Girls were seen only as liabilities, extra mouths to feed until they could one day be married off to husbands who would then treat them as property, and own them until their deaths, when the sons would then take over as commander of the woman's life and fate.

These women, however, were clever and found ways to enjoy life and even exert their power in their own subtle ways. Many girls were taught from a very young age to use Nu Shu, a secret writing language developed by women that could be used away from men's influence. At age seven, Lily is paired with a "lao-tong", or "old same", a young girl from another village with whom Lily will forge a lifelong friendship, a relationship that in this culture was more sacred, more intimate than marriage in some ways.

The story follows Lily and her lao-tong, Snow Flower, from before the time they meet, throughout the major events of their lives, as they record messages and letters to each other on a paper fan. Each woman's life takes unexpected turns, but the friendship prevails throughout extreme hardship and even changes in personality and circumstance.

I'll stop the description here, as I feel that to say any more would spoil the story. I found this a fascinating look at another culture and the way women's rights and lives have changed in the world throughout the last century or two.

To Destroy You is No Loss: The Odyssey of a Cambodian Family, Teeda Butt Mam

Another recommendation from my aunt, this book was thoroughly enjoyed as well. It was an account of a family's experiences and struggles during the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia. The story is told from the point of view of the family's youngest daughter, Teeda, who was fifteen when the takeover began.

The Butt family was a fairly well-to-do and prominent family from Phnom Penh when the Khmer Rouge communist regime took over Cambodia in the mid 1970s. The family, with the rest of the city's residents, was ushered out of their beloved city and back to rural ancestral villages, where people were then arbitrarily moved and transferred at the will of the regime's leaders. The Butt family lost their father right away, but the restof the family stayed remarkably intact throughout the 4-year, excruciating ordeal they were forced to endure. But life went on, weddings happened, babies were born, and the family survived to tell the world of the hell they went through.

The beginning of the book contained a history of the cultures and governments of Southeast Asia. This included comments about Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Laos, as these countries now exist because of arbitrary borders drawn by foreign governments and have ancient tribal lines that transcend these borders. I thoroughly enjoyed this section, having traveled to Vietnam. It was very interesting to read more about the history of the Vietnam war, the different perceptions of this war as experienced by citizens of Southeast Asia, and the impacts on surrounding countries.

Teeda and her family lived in rural jungle villages for most of the story, forced to perform hard physcial labor 12 to 14 hours a day, no matter the age, condition, or gender of the person. The Khmer Rouge maintained a nameless, faceless, power that rendered the citizens of Cambodia helpless to do anything about the terror of the situation in which they were placed. When the regime finally collapsed, Teeda and her new husand of four days and the rest of their extended family began the long journey on foot to the Cambodian-Thai border where they hoped to finally find freedom. The spent a few weeks in a refugee camp, where Teeda's sister Mearadey wrote to every relative abroad she could think of, asking for sponsors to help their family emigrate to America. Finally, Mearadey, her husband, and three children were put on a bus and given the necessary means to make it to the US. Shortly after, Teeda and the rest of her family, including her frail mother, were put on a bus as well, but before they could breathe a sigh of relief at being able to escape, the bus turned around and took them back to Cambodia, which meant certain death.

With extraordinary courage and perseverance, Teeda's family once again made the trek across Cambodia, the dangerous crossing into Thailand, and survived the refugee camp long enough to settle in America. This heartbreaking story was fascinating for me to read, as I learned of events and gross human rights abuses that were going on in the world so recently. In fact, Teeda and her family made their second escape into Thailand right during the time I was born.

I would suggest this book to anyone looking for a story of human courage that is beyond the so often told or read Western stories of the Holocaust, etc. This story is comparable but, much more recent and with a different angle. You won't be disappointed.

Calling Limbo

2010-09-15T11:18:00.000-07:00

An interesting thing happened the other day...our ward was dissolved. I haven't experience this before, and it's a little unnerving. I mean, we've only been in the ward a little over a year, but I didn't realize how attached I'd gotten. All of the wards in our stake are small, but we had one of the smallest, situated geographically in an area where it could easily be split and absorbed by the two surrounding wards. And that's what happened. Yes, our small ward struggled a bit, there weren't enough people to fill all the callings, and it was hard dealing with lots of inactivity when trying to fill said callings. But the calling I had here was unforgettable to me. What started out feeling like one of the most daunting callings I'd ever received, turned out to be my very favorite. I connected with my young women more than I ever thought I would. I know everyone always says that in a "teaching" calling like this, you end up learning more than those you actually teach. I think it became true for me here. I learned to observe, listen, speak, lead, serve, and much more. I feel that I truly learned, for the first time, how I personally receive inspiration and saw how that worked in my life and the lives of others. There was just something about our little group, struggling, learning, laughing together, that I'll miss. Now it's on to a new ward, and most likely, a new calling. I'm excited to see what I'll learn this time, but a little nervous too. I mean, how could I possibly love my next calling as much as I loved this one? It kept me busy in a way that I love to be, and kept me distracted from a job I don't love, and abated loneliness in my new found free time during this stage in my life when most of my good friends live in other states. It's truly been an experience to remember. Now, I guess I'll have to learn to attend Relief Society again, something I haven't really done in nearly 3 years. Anyone else had a similar experience? Or am I total sap?

Love these girls.

May Book Reviews

2010-06-10T09:30:00.000-07:00

When You Are Engulfed in Flames, David Sedaris
This was another D.I. book! My sister introduced me to David Sedaris several years ago, and he has also been a regular contributor on NPR. He writes mostly of his own life experiences, somehow putting a twist in the telling of every day events to make them hilarious. This book was as funny as anything else I've ever seen from him. If you are going to read this book based on this review, then let me just warn you (Nancy's mom, are you reading this?) about some explicit content. Some chapters have it, some don't. My favorite chapter was the last one, called "The Smoking Section". It chronicles Sedaris's quest to stop smoking and his several month-long trip to Japan with his partner. He has a gift of telling about mundane experiences in a way that makes them seem hysterical. I loved the way he contrasted Japanese culture with Western culture, and especially the English translations he observed. A thoroughly funny book, just watch out for some of the explicit content if you aren't wanting to be exposed to that!

The Wednesday Letters, Jason F. Wright
Yet again, D.I. This one I didn't feel quite as lucky to find once I read it. Yes, it was heartfelt, blah blah blah. It was about a family in rural Southern Virginia who owned an inn and raised their three children there, and about the things that drove them apart and ultimately brought them back together. Anyone smell predictability? The book opens one night near the end of the story, and then flashes back through time to tell the story of the parents' marriage and their life together raising their family through weekly letters that the husband, Jack, wrote to the wife, Laurel. In the opening scene, Jack and Laurel both die within 20 minutes of each other (I'm not spoiling, it's written on the blurb on the jacket), which forces the children to reunite for their parents' funeral. In doing so, they find boxes and boxes of letters that Jack has written to Laurel over the years. As they read through the letters, they discover a *gasp* FAMILY SECRET that threatens to destroy what they know and love...

Okay, so the story was fine, it was just predictable. The characters were okay, but also predictable and not that well-developed, in my opinion. The writing was trite, and the setting and supporting characters were just a little too convenient. I know lots of people love books like this, that tell a good wholesome family story, but it was just a little too much for me. If you read it and disagree, feel free to tell me what you thought.

Atonement, Ian McEwan
I have wanted to read this book since I saw the movie previews a few years ago. They just made the story look so interesting! I still haven't seen the movie, but I managed to read the book. It begins with a young girl, Briony Tallis, living at her family's manor in England in 1935. I liked the development of the character of Briony. The reader was allowed into her 13-year-old mind to experience her thoughts and feelings, and it sets the stage for what happens next. One hot summer day, Briony witnesses several encounters involving her older sister, 23-year-old Cecilia, and Robbie Turner, their housekeeper's son and the family's longtime friend. As a budding young writer, Briony has an active imagination and attempts to incorporate events around her into her storytelling. She fancies herself somewhat of a heroine in her stories, and this spills over into her own life, setting off a disastrous chain of events that affects the lives of nearly everyone in her family when she can't separate her imagination from reality and unwittingly implicates someone in a grave crime they did not commit. The story leaves off after the events of this day and picks up again ten years later, in 1945 and the middle of World War II. Briony is now a nurse working in a hospital that takes care of wounded and dying soldiers. She realizes, with adult perspective, what really happened that day in her childhood and she attempts to repair the situation and make amends with those she has hurt. The story then leaves off again and picks up in 1999, when Briony meets with family members for her 77th birthday celebration.

I have to admit, I didn't love it as much as I hoped I would. After watching the previews and reading the book's jacket blurb, I had hoped for a more emotionally charged and fleshed out story. The book jacket says how the author has never "worked with so large a canvas", spanning dates from the 1930s to the present, and how it is his greatest masterpiece. I guess I just had a little bit higher expectations based on what I had seen and heard. The characters were wonderful, I enjoyed their development and getting to know them. The story telling was also wonderful, and in these senses it was a masterpiece. I guess I was just hoping for more - more insight into what life was like for the characters during these time periods, I felt that they were each too short and disconnected. I also hoped to find out more about how the problems were resolved - I suppose this was left hanging on purpose to allow the reader to come to their own conclusions. I guess I was expecting too much. I really did enjoy the book, it was just not what I expected. I would still recommend it.

Of Love and Other Demons, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
This was an interesting book. I had previously read "Love in the Time of Cholera" by the same author and really enjoyed it, so I picked up this little story at the library a few weeks ago. I really enjoy Marquez's writing style. He has a way of wording things that I really like. Of course, it is translated from Spanish, so who knows if it is exactly as the author intended it. At the same time, however, I think it is impressive that a translator could get the author's meaning across so eloquently. This book was the story of a family that was part of the decaying noble class in 18th century Colombia (I think - ? I guess it never really says exactly where the book takes place but Marquez is from Colombia and the other book I read was set there, and this setting seemed similar). Don Ygnacio de Alfaro y Duenas is the father of this family, and he is described as a funereal, effeminate man, as pale as a lily because the bats drained his blood while he slept." Bernarda, his estranged wife, loves no one, even her family members, as she pines for a slave that she fell in love with long ago during her days as a merchant in the slave trade. Their daughter, Sierva Maria, is completely neglected by both parents and raised by the household slaves in their African traditions. The girl is bitten by a rabid dog on her twelfth birthday and begins to exhibit bizarre behavior. Or rather, her parents begin noticing her regular behavior when they pay attention to her for the first time. Ygnacio realizes that he actually loves his daughter, and seeks help from the local Catholic bishop, and also a local Jewish doctor, considered to be a heretic. Sierva Maria is eventually deposited by her father into a convent of Clarissan nuns, where she is kept in a prison cell. The bishop finally turns the girl's care over to his protege, Cayetano Delaura, who begins visiting the girl daily. He eventually falls in love with her, and a tragic chain of events is set in motion, including exorcism of the demons believed to be possessing the young girl, and the subsequent deaths of most of the main characters. This time I was expecting tragedy, and I was fine with it in this book. It seemed in keeping with Marquez's writing style. So does a grown man falling in love, or having a physical relationship, with a young girl. This has happened in both of his books that I have read so far. I don't know if this was cultually and morally acceptable in 18th and 19th century South America, or just something the author adds for interest, but it is a little disturbing according to today's standards. Still, an interesting look at the culture of the time and the interplay of science and religion in the society. And at only 147 pages, definitely worth a read.

It's over

2010-06-01T15:18:00.000-07:00

My show is over. Now, I've never been a big TV watcher, and I especially don't like to plan my life around a show, but Lost sucked me right in and I was hooked. I admit, I joined in late. Adam and Kim let us borrow the DVDs for the first two seasons a couple of years ago. Once I watched those, I knew I had to catch up before the next season (#5) started on TV. Then Chase and I made a Wednesday night ritual of watching the newest episode (we watched them online the day after they came out on TV since we don't get TV channels). It was almost comforting to tune in to those people and their crazy island problems every week! Not to mention, it has got to be one of the best TV shows ever made. Lost was an intelligent show, and assumed the viewer was intelligent as well, which was refreshing. I liked the psychological, philosophical, religious, and literary overtones, and the symbolism. It was a show really made you care about the characters, and what was happening in their lives, past and present (and future!). I even liked the finale. I know some people were disappointed, but I felt like it was emotionally satisfying. I know there were questions that were left unanswered, but I felt like that was to be expected. I think one mark of good writing and character development, whether in a movie, TV show, or book, is that it keeps you thinking about the story long after you have finished it. Lost definitely did that for me. Good thing Netflix has all the seasons on instant play...I just might watch them again! What did some of you other Lost fans think of the series finale? Are you lost without it? (he he)

Weekend

2010-06-01T15:15:00.000-07:00

Sleeping in. Picnic in the park. Cookie bites from Corner Bakery. Friends over, and grilled pizza on the barbecue. Settlers of Catan. Sunshine. Naps. Getting sent home from work early. Trail running. Movies. It was a good weekend.

Food Revolution

2010-05-06T12:08:00.001-07:00

Chase and I watched all six episodes of "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution" on ABC's website. (I love ABC's website! They have all the episodes of all their shows, not just the last 5.) You can watch it here, and I would suggest that you do, if you haven't already. I think there is a lot that we can all learn from it. Everyone has probably heard a lot lately about the movement toward eating more healthy, fresh, and local food and generally having more interest and knowledge in where our food comes from. I have personally been obsessed with this lately, with Netflix helping to feed my addiction by offering streaming documentaries like Food, Inc., King Corn, and of course the old standby, that arguably started it all, Supersize Me.

Anyway, Jamie Oliver, of Naked Chef fame, heard about the US government health report that exposed Huntington, West Virginia as the unhealthiest city in the US, in terms of obesity and related health problems. He travels there to see if he can help the citizens of the town to make some changes. He works with the local schools, churches, and even individual families to educate them about healthy eating and lifestyle choices. Most of his time is probably spent in the community's public schools, trying to exchange the frozen, processed, saturated-fat laden unhealthy foods being served in the schools for fresh-cooked, healthier options. Nearly everyone in the town is opposed to him at first, but as he works with people and shows them how easy and worthwhile the changes can be, he slowly gains many followers.

I won't tell the whole story here, because I don't want to spoil it for those who still want to watch it (please watch!), but I will mention some of the things I found interesting. First, Jamie wanted to see how much the children in the elementary school really knew about healthy eating. He visited a classroom of young children (kindergarten or first grade) and showed them a variety of fresh vegetables. There was not one child in that entire class who knew a single vegetable by name upon seeing it. I don't think most of them had even eaten a fresh vegetable before. And these were not all obscure vegetables either - they were potatoes, tomatoes, and such!

Another thing that I couldn't believe was the "nutritional" guidelines that Jamie and the school were required to follow. In one episode, Jamie cooked his own fresh food for lunch at the high school, instead of letting the kids go through the regular hamburger/chicken patty/french fry line. After serving food for a while, the woman in charge of school lunches for the district showed up and told Jamie that his lunch, which was a vegetable-pasta stir fry with seven different vegetables, and a side of fruit, did not meet the fruit/veggie requirements of the USDA for school lunches. So the french fries were brought back out, as those would fulfill the vegetable requirement. What's crazy is that the USDA and US government guidelines are making school lunches unhealthier than they need to be!

Finally, Jamie went to the home of a local family to see if he could help them learn to make choices that would curb their obesity problem. He went through their kitchen and dumped out all the food from their pantry, fridge, and freezer onto the table. By the time he was done, the table was filled with frozen pizzas, corn dogs, donuts, snack cakes, etc. All of it was processed, pre-packaged food - not one thing was fresh! Needless to say, every member of the family was overweight.

This just backs up my feeling that we each need to be more personally responsible for finding out more about where our food comes from. Is our meat industrially raised, crammed into unlivable spaces and injected with hormones and antibiotics and other additives just to make it "safe" for us to eat? Is our produce shipped in from other countries, contributing to massive carbon emissions and other problems that destroy the environment? It shouldn't be that hard, no matter where we live, to find at least some locally grown, in season produce, or locally packaged foods when we do need to buy packaged. Also, we can take a little extra time to make things that we would normally buy, and it is so much healthier! Making the change to foods that are healthier for us and healthier for the world around us can seem like a difficult task, but let's start small. I challenge anyone who is reading this to watch this show, and make some changes in your family's food choices today!

Also, if you feel strongly about this food issue and you want to help improve school food in America, you can go here to sign a petition that Jamie will eventually be taking to the White House to ask for the government's help in providing more nutritious food in US schools. There are at least 1,000 people from every state that have already signed up!

April Book Reviews

2010-05-05T11:00:00.000-07:00

The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver
This book ended up being one of my favorite books that I have ever read. There were just so many things I loved about it - the characters, comprising a family of all girls, the true historical setting (although the book itself was fiction), the wordplay used by the characters and the changing narrator. "The Poisonwood Bible" is set mostly in the Congo (Belgian), Africa in the 1960s. It tells the story of a Baptist preacher and his family who travel to the Congo on an evangelical mission. The story is alternately narrated by the mother and the four daughters of the family. Each has a startlingly astute point of view, whether she realizes it or not. In the backdrop of the family's saga are the true events of the Congo's fight for independence from Belgium, the election of their first democratic leader, and his subsequent assassination as part of a coup backed by the CIA and the American government. I was shocked to read about this. Maybe I should have already known this important story, but I guess it's not the kind of thing they teach you in high school American history. It was a sad commentary on the effects of powerful, first-world nations, and the devastating repercussions faced by developing countries, especially resource-rich ones like the Congo. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone. Five stars.

The Last Summer (of you and me), by Ann Brashares
This book was a nice easy read. It would have been perfect summer beach or camping reading. However, Chase and I had just made a trip to the DI for some old-looking books to help fill our built in shelves in the living room. I saw this one for a dollar, and having read the "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" series by the same author, thought I'd give it a try. The back of the book says that this is Ann Brashares's first novel for adults. I'm not sure I'd say it's for adults, but I guess it's not for teenagers. It's about two sisters, Riley and Alice, who have spent their summers for their entire lives on Fire Island, a small island off the coast of New York. Riley and Alice are three years apart in age and very different, yet very close. They have shared many things, including the friendship of their next-door-neighbor on the island, Paul. The summer that the book takes place, Alice and Riley are both in their early twenties and they are spending what they both know may be their last summer on the island. Paul returns to the island that summer too, after being away from the girls for 3 years. Riley hasn't lost any of her childhood wonder, energy, or innocence, but Alice, the younger sister has grown up a bit and is confronted with the realization that she has always loved Paul. The two are faced with how to deal with their new found romance in the presence of Riley, who has always been best friends with Paul. The story follows the three through the summer, the fall, winter and spring of the next year, and into the next summer as they deal with growing up, loss, and love. (No, I didn't copy that off the back off the book, but it sounded kinda cheesy, didn't it?) The story was okay. I do think Ann Brashares has a talent for developing the deep feelings and inner musings of her characters, which I enjoy. This was a fun read that you can easily get through in a day or two. Not amazing though. Three stars.

'Tis, by Frank McCourt
This was another DI find. I haven't read his best-selling memoir, "Angela's Ashes" (not sure why - just haven't gotten around to it I guess), but I couldn't resist this "sequel" memoir by Frank McCourt for 2 dollars. Frank McCourt was born to an Irish family in Brooklyn in 1930. When Frank was four years old, his parents moved with him and their other children back to Limerick, Ireland, where his mother was from as his father was unable to find work in Depression-era America. His eventually found work in England when Frank was older, although he spent most of his earnings on alcohol, rarely sending any to support the family and forcing them into poverty and begging for food and other necessities. When Frank was 18, he returned to American by himself, joined the army, received an education at NYU, and became a high-school teacher and Pulitzer-prize winning author. He himself lived in poverty for many of the years he was in New York, subsisting on his meager teacher's salary and sending any extra money home to Ireland to support his mother and brothers. One by one, each of his family members made their way to America, with the exception of his father, with whom he never really reconciled. "'Tis" tells the story of Frank's adult life against the backdrop of mid-century America. I guess I was surprised to learn that even that recently in our country's history, so many immigrants were being treated differently. Not always badly, but sometimes. McCourt notes many times throughout the book that he wonders why anyone he meets who is Irish and can tell that he is Irish automatically tells him what part of Ireland their parents grew up in, and not to mingle with others who are not like him. Even those who are not Irish among the Americans he meets tell him he's better off sticking with other Irish people. "Stick with your own kind", they tell him. I of course realized that blacks and many other ethnic groups faced and still do face this kind of racism and discrimination, but it was sort of new to me to think of Irish (white people!) as being treated so differently in America, and so recently. Ultimately, though, I think McCourt's "Irishness" very profoundly shaped who he became. This was a sad and also funny and moving true story. Four stars.

Happy Earth Day!

2010-04-23T20:11:00.000-07:00

Okay, I know it was yesterday. I didn't have time to post yesterday. But I still wanted to do a post on the 40th anniversary of Earth Day! I think it's great that since 1970, Earth Day has become more accepted and more mainstream. And hopefully, living in an Earth-friendly manner is something we're all considering more and more. I wanted to list a few easy things that we can all do, and that we try to do at our house, to live a more sustainable lifestyle.

1. Use less plastic. Reusable shopping bags are a great start. Plus, they are much cuter than plastic grocery bags. You can get some great-looking ones at Envirosax. They even come in a little case so you can throw them all in your glove box when you're driving to the store. And speaking of driving to the store...

2. Drive less! Combine trips if you can, and ride the bus or the train! Lots of times when I ride the bus, I am the only one on it. If we could fill up the buses, we'd take a lot of cars off the road!

3. Use less power. Unplug your phone charger when it's not actually charging your phone. Plug your TV, DVD player, etc. into power strips that you can turn off when you're not using them. Get dimmer switches for your room lights, and use CFLs. But dispose of them properly!

4. RECYCLE! This one is easy! We put so much less garbage in our landfills when we recyle.

5. Use less water by implementing strategies like using a shower timer to take shorter showers, or turning off the water while you're brushing your teeth. (I'm still working on these ones.)

6. Grow your own food. Plant a garden and get as much food out of your own yard as you can! The only energy used in producing and harvesting will be the calories you burn working in the garden and picking your home grown fruits and vegetables!

These are just a few things that are easy to add into your daily life...I may add more if I think of them. What things do you do?

March Book Reviews

2010-04-18T12:25:00.001-07:00

I didn't get as much reading done as I was hoping in March. I did manage to get through two short books though. So I'm a little late in posting them, but here they are.

"Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston was the first book I read in March. It is a novel that is considered the author's greatest work. Zora Neale Hurston was an African American author in the early 20th century. I would actually like to read more of her books, as she was a compelling and stimulating author, who also seems like a very interesting woman. And, Zora is a really cool name. This books is about a young African American girl who has grown up in the South, experiencing the many prejudices faced by blacks and women at that time. Refusing to fit into the mold that society has cast for her, the story follows Janie into adulthood through three marriages (one arranged) and shows how she finds love on her own terms. The story takes place primarily in Eatonville, Florida, the first all-black incorporated town. As someone who was born and grew up after civil rights were in place it seemed like a great glimpse for me into the life of African Americans in the early 20th century. Five stars.

I've had "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" on my shelf for probably at least ten years. I think I had to buy it for a college class once, but then I don't think we ever ended up using it for the class. At any rate, this was the first time I read it. It was a nice inspirational story, I suppose, and it had a good message about working hard to become your best self and help others. I found it a little hokey, though. Maybe it was the grainy black-and-white photos of seagulls throughout the book, or the corny 1970s feel to the story and the personification of seagulls with dignified sounding human names (and middle names!), but it just didn't quite do it for me. It only took me about an hour to read though, so I wouldn't say it was a waste of time. I can only wonder what the film version is like...two stars.

Some more remodeling

2010-03-10T10:46:00.001-08:00

We've been slowly working on our house for the last 10 months or so. Some of the projects, like finishing the kitchen, have had to wait because of expenses. We're still trying to catch up since Chase lost his job last fall. But last week, when our garbage disposal broke, we decided we had to do something. We could pay $55 to get our garbage disposal looked at, and possibly pieced back together to work marginally well for another couple of months under our home warranty, or we could pay $70 to get a brand new one. Which we did. However, we knew we needed to eventually get a new sink and counter tops, and it would be silly to install a new garbage disposal in our old sink if we were just going to replace it...you can see where I am going with this. So, we went to Ikea and found a "damaged" (slightly scratched) sink for 40% off and wood countertops that we liked that were pretty affordable. We only got countertops for the counter that has the sink right now, so for a while we will be mismatched. But that's okay, it's starting to look (and function) so much better in there!

This is what the sink area of our kitchen looked like before. Stained, ugly sink, disgusting old faucet, chipped countertops...

This is what it looks like now. Much better, right? We just need to add our colored glass tile backsplash, which Chase scored for $7 for the whole kitchen at a tile store sale!

February Book Reviews

2010-03-10T10:21:00.000-08:00

Febraury was a short month...that's my reasoning for only having read two books. Also, they both took a while to get through.

This was a very interesting book that I got for Christmas a couple of years ago. (Yup, I'm catching up on my Christmas presents for the last several years.) It is thought to be an original manuscript written by a black slave woman in the 1850s. It was found at an auction by Henry Louis Gates, and researched and edited by him. There is a lengthy introduction about the acquisition of and the research done on the manuscript, which is what made it take a while to read. The book itself is fairly short, probably less than 200 pages. Gates makes the case that this is the first novel ever written by a female slave, and possibly by a black woman at all. The novel is though to be fiction, but heavily influenced by actual events in the author's life as well as the literary style of the day, namely the gothic and sentimental novels of the 19th century. An interesting read, mostly for its novelty. Three stars.

I just finished this one. This book was very sad, and actually kind of depressing. It's a holocaust story, but not your typical holocaust story. Told from the point of view of a Polish Gentile survivor of Auschwitz and a young American writer, it addresses issues not only of the war and the holocaust, but also of the decade of the 1940s and the feeling and mood of the time. It talks about how Americans, even though we were part of the war, for the most part did not know what went on in Europe during those years. It suggests that the suffering of the Holocaust was endured and experienced by many peoples throughout Europe and the world, not just Jews, and draws parallels between anti-Semitism and the heated racial tensions in the American South in the first half of the twentieth century. The book had a little more profanity and other explicit scenes than I would have liked, but it was a wonderful, sad, heart breaking story that still applies today. Four stars.

The Trip

2010-03-10T09:14:00.000-08:00

Last month, we finally went on the cruise we'd been planning for over a year. This was in place of the one we didn't get to go on for our first anniversary, because the boat left without us (how mean!). I won't tell the whole story here - it's too painful! - suffice it to say, we were really looking forward to this one. We both love the warm weather and even though our trip didn't have as much of that as we hoped, we enjoyed experiencing the Caribbean.

This time we flew in on a Saturday, 2 days before our cruise left. This gave us plenty of time to relax. We hung out in our hotel room, watched TV (which is something we only do when we're traveling since we don't have TV at home), went for walks, and went swimming. We took a one-hour bus ride to the port on Monday morning, and there we were, on our ship! It was actually the same ship we cruised on for our honeymoon! We couldn't believe we actually made it on this time and were going to the Bahamas!

The cruise had two stops, Coco Cay (the cruise line's private island) and Nassau, the capital city of the Bahamas, on New Providence Island. We stopped in Coco Cay the day after the ship departed Florida. It was a really fun stop. Everyone on the island was from our cruise, so it didn't seem too crowded and they were able to include lunch with our excursion. We went snorkeling in the crystal clear Caribbean water. It was my first time snorkeling, and it was amazing. I love how you can sort of float along with almost no effort; slightly kicking your feet to move yourself through the water is all you have to do. The bottom of the ocean was beautiful to see. There were so many colored fish, starfish, coral, conch shells, sand dollars, and...WE SAW A MANATEE! I believe wild manatee sightings in the Bahamas are pretty rare, since manatees are endangered animals. Chase and I were the only people that saw it, I'm not sure if the other people that were snorkeling around us believed us, but we kept wanting to tell everyone, we were so excited! It was less than 3 feet from us. It was so friendly and docile. It stopped in the water near us and let us look at it while it looked at us for what felt like several minutes. Then, just as quickly, it swam away and was gone. It was definitely one of the most amazing things I have ever seen! The people preparing us for our snorkeling expedition did not even mention the possiblity of seeing a manatee, or maybe we would have invested in the disposable underwater cameras they had for sale...I wish we had a picture of our manatee! But here is what it looked like:

It was smaller than I expected. After seeing it, we talked with one of the cruise employees working on the island, and she said there was a family of manatees living nearby, a father, mother, and a baby. I am pretty sure the one we saw was the baby, or at least young, manatee.

Here are some more pictures of Coco Cay. It was a beautiful day. I ended up with a sunburn (as usual) even though I used lots of SPF 50. I'm pretty sure I was the whitest person on that beach.

The next day our ship stopped in Nassau. It was actually kind of disappointing. It was raining all day, so even though we were docked and didn't have to be back on the ship until 11 PM, we went back around 1 PM because it was freezing cold, pouring rain, and there really wasn't that much to do there. Nassau seemed like a rather dirty, seedy city that really catered to tourists. Everywhere you walked there were people shouting at you to buy something that they were selling. We took a water taxi over to Paradise Island, hoping that would be a little better. Most of that island is owned by the Atlantis Resort, which has a huge hotel, condo residences, a casino, shops, restaurants, and aquarium, and a water park on the island. Of course, this didn't make things any cheaper there! They owned everything and could jack up the prices. So lunch for the two of us at Johnny Rocket's was $30. And we didn't even get drinks. Also, you had to pay to go on the beaches.

The Atlantis Hotel on Paradise Island

Us on Paradise Island

The aquarium on Paradise Island

Nassau

This one kind of shows how bad the weather was. The islands were beautiful though.

The next day we were at sea all day on our cruise ship. The cruise lines do a pretty good job of coming up with activities to entertain people on days like that. Chase and I won second place on the cruise's ship scavenger hunt, so we are now the proud owners of 6 Royal Caribbean pens. Chase also entered the men's sexy legs contest, and he won a medal for "Best Flamingo Legs"!

Showing off the medal (and the legs)
We had a great time on the cruise. We ate dinner with some fun people that sat at our table every night. There was a honeymooning young couple from Boston, another couple from Michigan, a British couple that lived in France (and entertained us every night with their stories) and a couple from Hong Kong. We all got along really well and even hung out outside of dinner! The last night we all went to the ship's piano bar and listened to the pianist play and sing request after request from people on the ship. It was a great time.

On the day the cruise ended, we decided to go to Disney World. We had free passes from participating in Disney's "Give a Day, Get a Disney Day" program. We spent our day at Epcot Center. I had never been to Disney World at all. Chase had been once to all the parks, and recommended Epcot as the place to go for me. Since he said the Magic Kingdom at Disney World is pretty much just like Disneyland, and I've been to Disneyland tons of times, we opted for something different. Epcot was great! I loved seeing all their depictions of the different countries, with the shops and restaurants located in each one. We ate lunch in "Morocco", and also visited Japan, China, Germany, Italy, France, Norway, Mexico, and probably some others!

Italy

Norway

There weren't as many rides at Epcot, but there were a few really fun ones we did go on. They had a lot of other fun things like films about the environment or the different countries, shops selling things from those countries, and (this surprised me) tons of the Disney characters roaming around! We saw Alice in Wonderland and Mary Poppins in England, Aladdin and Jasmine in Morocco, Beauty and the Beast in France, Snow White in Germany, etc.

There is so much to see in Disney World; if we were ever going to hope to see it all I think we'd have to make that a week long trip in itself. The trip was amazing. It wore us out though (or mostly the traveling wore us out I guess) and we were glad to get home. I think Lucy was glad to see us too, although she had a fun time spending the week in Woodland Hills with Chases's parents. Now she's used to having us home and back to her regular antics.

January Book Reviews

2010-02-17T12:39:00.000-08:00

This year I think I would like to post reviews each month on the books I read. It will help me keep track of what I have read so I can look back and recommend books to other people. January was a long month (it seemed). I was able to get through four pretty good books.

I got the book "To See You Again" for Christmas from my dad. He had told me about it before, so I was excited to open it on Christmas. I've always been a sucker for books about WWII, and this one was the true story of Betty Schimmel, a young Jewish girl growing up in Eastern Europe. She and her childhood sweetheart, Richie, were separated during an air raid in Budapest, where their families were living in the ghetto. They vowed they would find each other and get married someday, but after Betty and her family were liberated from a concentration camp, she was unable to find Richie. At the urging of her family, she married another nice young man, Otto, whom she never really loved. They have 3 children and build a life together in America. On a trip back to Hungary later in her adult years, after her children are grown, she has a chance meeting with Richie in a restaurant, and must decide whether to act upon the feelings of love she still has for him after all those years. This story was beautifully told, especially for someone who is not a writer, or even a native English speaker, and simultaneously beautiful and heartbreaking. I give it 4 1/2 stars.

Next I read "The Looking Glass" by Richard Paul Evans. I have had this book for nearly 10 years, and I think I have read it in the past, but it has been long enough that I couldn't remember...I pulled it out again because I knew I could read it in a day or so. This is a fictional story of course, set in 1870s Utah during the gold rush. It involves a man who was once a preacher, who has abandoned his parish and come out west to search for gold and new meaning in his life after his wife dies. It is an interesting historical fiction that covers some of the issues of the time, such as women's rights and racism, that are still pertinent today. It may have been a little trite and predictable, but was still a nice love story. Three stars.

Next on my list was "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch. I received this one last year for Christmas from my Dad, but hadn't had time to read it since I was in school. This was also a quick read, as it is a series of short essays, almost letters, from the author, between a half page and several pages long. Randy Pausch was a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University, and was diagnosed with terminal cancer in his 40s. He had a young family and had only been married for ten years or so. Soon after his diagnosis, the university asked him to give a "last lecture", something that professors usually do upon retirement to leave their last bits of wisdom to their students. Randy decided to do this as a tribute to his children, to leave them life advice he knew they would need later on, and as a way to remember him. He writes about many different subjects, including childhood dreams, career, love, and family. He seems to have an exceptional personality and positive attitude, therefore, his life has also been exceptional and full of many great opportunities. Although most people may not be able to apply everything he says, not having had the many great opportunities and advantages he seems to have had, it is still great advice on how to life a good, full life. Four stars.

Finally, in January I read "Dewey: The small town library cat who touched the world" by Vicki Myron. Chase got this one last year for Christmas (thanks again Dad!) and loved it, so I thought I'd read it. This was also a non-fiction about a library in Spencer, Iowa. Dewey was a kitten that had been shoved into the library's book return slot on a cold winter evening, and found the next morning by the librarian. She kept him and he became the cat in residence at the Spencer Public Library. Woven in with the story of Dewey and how he touched the library patrons are scenes from the author's life and views of a small Midwestern farming town and its struggle to survive during the 80s and 90s. The library was a big part of the town, and Dewey became a big part of people's lives. I love reading non fiction, and I love it even more when the true so story is so exceptional that it seems like it should be fiction! The things that happen in people's lives really are better than fiction a lot of times. Three and a half stars here. Also looking forward to the movie version, in which Meryl Streep is rumored to play the librarian.

2009 Year in Review

2010-01-04T10:02:00.000-08:00

2009 was an interesting year. Here are some of the things we did:

January - we got a new car. The one we had before was a total lemon. We had decided about six months previously to be a one-car family, so we were very excited when we got our Honda Element! We have loved it.

February - My first niece, Emi was born. What a little darling! We also took our annual family President's Day weekend trip to St. George.

March - After a few months of looking and making offers, we finally found our new house! Actually, it's an old house, built in 1922. It looks a bit different that this now, as we have done some fixing up, but here's what it looked like in March.

April - Chase's birthday, and a trip to Las Vegas/St. George/Kanarraville that was enjoyed with the company of some family and friends. We even saw a Gila monster in the wild!

May - We moved into our house, and we've been working on it ever since then! We also got Lucy. In addition, I was able to travel to Dallas to present two research papers I'd written at a medical conference.

June - I started my final semester of nursing school. I don't have a picture for this one, and it's a good thing, because if I did, it would involve me buried in a pile of books, looking like a crazy woman, wearing some ugly blue scrubs.

July - I don't really even remember July, it was such a blur. We went to see The Fray in concert with my sisters, which gave us a new love of The Fray. I also baked my first pie from scratch. Yum!

August - I finally graduated from nursing school! We also said goodbye to Carrie when she moved to New York, and then hello to her again a few weeks later when we arrived in New York for our trip! We also visited Maine, Boston, and Washington, D.C., where we visited with Brittany, Lumina, Dan, and Aunt Nancy and her family!

September - I started my new job as a nurse. Chase lost his job, and began a 3-month search to find a new one. I began doing things like making home made bread to save money. I also learned how to can jam!

October - I turned 30. I've already written a post on that.

November - Chase found a job at Legacy Preparatory Academy, where he is currently in charge of Special Education at the secondary school. No pictures of that. We also traveled to Price to set up Carrie's art exhibit, since she couldn't do it from New York. We had fun doing that!

December - we finally re-did our kitchen floor! It looks great. Pictures of that coming soon, since we still have to finish the baseboards and the stairs.

Here are some of the things we are looking forward to in 2010: A visit from Brittany, a new baby in my family (Alicia's - due any day!), our cruise to the Bahamas in February (finally!), and much more that I will blog about later!

Anniversary

2010-01-04T09:23:00.000-08:00

This is a little late, but Chase and I celebrated our second anniversary a couple of weeks ago. Things were a little crazy with work and the holidays around that time, so I'm going to write about it now, and also mention my thoughts about our wedding day, which I intended to write about at the time, but I could not find my journal anywhere the night before my wedding.

It was very, very cold the day of our wedding, Saturday, December 15, 2007. I awoke feeling strangely calm, even though this day would change my life and my eternity forever. I woke up in my old room at my mom's house, and went downstairs where my Aunt Janine made me scrambled eggs. Soon Crystal, who was doing my hair and make up, showed up. I had dressed in my Sunday clothes for arrival at the temple. She did a beautiful job, even hiding the new zit that popped up that morning! Just my luck. My sisters sat with me and got their hair and makeup done too.

My mom and Rod drove me to the temple, and I read the December issue of the Ensign in the backseat on the way there. At the temple, we sat in the waiting room awaiting the arrival of Chase and his parents. We had gotten our messages mixed a little, and Chase was about 30 minutes late. I was beginning to get a little hysterical waiting for him, hoping nothing had happened. When he finally showed up I was so relieved, I cried but got mad at him a little. He didn't even realize he was late. We met with the recorder, who changed my last name on my new recommend, even though I didn't ask her to, and then we were whisked off to change into our wedding ceremony clothes. I wore my regular white temple dress, since my wedding dress wasn't white!

We went through some of the things you do before the wedding ceremony, and then were allowed to spend some time in the celestial room. There were about 90 weddings going on that day, and so they were running a little behind. I didn't mind, as we sat there together peacefully, for the last time as fiances. I knew my grandpa was there and that he was happy with me. They finally led us into the sealing room, and we looked at all the smiling faces of our friends and relatives who had joined us. The sealer took lots of time with us. I was afraid we would be whisked through that part too, but he did a wonderful job. He never made us feel rushed, he just made us feel special, like it was our day and he had all the extra time in the world to spend on us. After we were married and we hugged everyone, I went back to the bride's dressing room where my mom helped me into my wedding dress. I made sure my hair and makeup were just right, and then I walked down the long hall toward the exit to meet my new husband! I still remember his expression when he first saw me then. We waited until it was our turn to walk out, and everyone cheered! Pictures were taken, so many pictures, that took hours out in the cold and left my feet feeling numb on that cold day. Chase carried me when I couldn't feel my feet enough to walk anymore. But it was worth it to get all the beautiful photographic memories of that day.

Soon it was time to go to our wedding dinner. Chase drove me up Millcreek Canyon as it lightly began to snow. He turned up the heat in his car to keep me warm and I think I even fell asleep for a few minutes! Log Haven was decorated beautifully for Christmas, and our portion of the restaurant looked even better, thanks to my sisters. They did everything that made our dinner beautiful...the decorations, the picture displays, the cake, etc. I immediately changed into my slippers and began to greet guests! So many people that I love were there! We began to form the line for the food (which ran out before everyone got to eat! I'm still mad about that) and while we ate our family members and friends passed around a microphone and spoke of their memories about us. People began to leave after dinner, even though I wanted them to stay and dance! We still danced, and that is perhaps my favorite memory of the day, dancing with Chase at our wedding dinner and knowing we were married now, feeling so secure in that and the knowledge of our love. I tried to talk to everyone who had come to support us. I didn't throw my bouquet, I knew exactly who I wanted to give it to! I actually had two, one for holding and one for throwing. I gave one to Rochele and one to Carrie!

We wrapped things up and changed back into our regular clothes. Pictures were snapped of us making our way to our car to escape to our honeymoon! Our car wasn't decorated, as we were borrowing Chase's dad's car for the honeymoon and I threatened everyone with their lives if they did anything to it. We opened cards all the way to the Hotel Monaco, where we spent our first night!

It was the most wonderful wedding day I could have asked for. And though no December 15 since has quite compared with it, I know we are in for a lifetime of wonderful experiences like this!

This year, I had to work until 7 PM on December 15. Chase picked me up at work, which is just what I needed that day. When we got home, he made me close my eyes as I sat at the dining room table waiting for him to make last minute preparations. When I opened them, he had our wedding video playing for me to watch while he finished making dinner, which was a wonderful lemon chicken piccata, garlic-and-romano mashed red potatoes, asparagus, and pastry-wrapped baked brie!

It's been an interesting but great two years, as we've been with each other through graduations, new jobs, loss of jobs, new homes, and many other things. We are both excited for the adventures our futures will bring and love each other more as the days pass!

Sorry, this is kind of long, and I don't really expect anyone to read the whole thing, but I wanted to make sure I remembered these experiences!

Blue Christmas

2009-12-04T14:12:00.001-08:00

I have finished decorating for Christmas. My decorations consist of a tree and a faux-pine garland over the fireplace. And a nativity set. That's about as all-out as I go. But it was fun putting up the decorations this year. As I pulled out my old ornaments, one by one, I was reminded of Christmases past.

I purchased most of those ornaments five years ago, in an effort to cheer myself up in the aftermath of the breakup of a five-year relationship. I wanted a blue-themed Christmas tree. Allison wanted a pink tree, but I wanted a blue tree. Maybe it had something to do with my mood that year.

I got my blue tree. And I loved it. And it did cheer me up.

But this year, I don't need the blue anymore. Oh, I still used the ornaments, scattered throughout my tree here and there. But there are new ornaments now, some added from Chase's personal collection, and some we collected together. Looking at our house decorated for Christmas, there is definitely a more colorful, rich, and full look to my tree and home now. Maybe it has something to do with my mood this year.

I Love Lucy

2009-12-02T15:10:00.000-08:00

Lucy is 18 months old now. We've enjoyed her for the last six months. She can definitely be a pill, but most of the time she's a sweet, loveable dog that we just can't get enough of. Some of her favorite things include trips to the dog park, chewy treats, sneaking on to the couch when we're not looking, running at full speed and chasing birds, licking the popcorn bowl when we're finished, and following us everywhere we go.

30

2009-12-02T13:46:00.000-08:00

It's been about a month since I turned 30, and I'm finally getting used to the idea. I don't really feel any older, until I remember that I have a 25-year-old husband...:)

My birthday was great. I was able to get the day off work, and Chase and I went to breakfast at Emigration Market with my mom, Rod, and my Aunt Karen and Uncle Allan who were in town from Canada. Chase and I went to Gardner Village to walk around and do some shopping. There were lots of cute little kids there in their Halloween costumes.

We also stopped by Daybreak and looked at some of the model homes. Ever since I went there for the first time a few months ago, I have been interested in their community and philosophy, which is to bring people together and help the environment by creating small communities with neighbors, recreation, and shops/businesses all within walking distance. It's a pretty cool little place.

Later that night, we went to Ballet West's "The Dream". It was a delightful little 3-part ballet with a completely different story/theme in each act. "The Dream" referred to Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream", so the third section was a short rendering of that story.

As much as I was dreading turning 30, I have found that so far it isn't really that bad. In fact, sometimes I secretly enjoy the looks on people's faces when they ask how old I am and I tell them. Shock! I hope that my 30s are a decade full of success, accomplishments, and family. I am glad that I am able to look back on my 20s with a sense of accomplishment. Some of the things I was blessed to be able to do in my 20s:

Graduate from college with a bachelors degree, and again with a nursing degree
Travel to 7 different countries
Travel to 9 different states for my job
Get to know many different types of people, from patients with artificial hearts to Tibetan refugees
Learn many new skills
Buy a house
Get married to the best husband I could ever ask for!

Here we are on my 30th birthday....

And here I am celebrating my next decade!

Fall

2009-10-14T23:25:00.000-07:00

Wonderful morning. I slept in, while Chase took Lucy to "the dog park". I put that in quotes because what he was really doing was setting up a surprise breakfast for me in Miller Bird Park. We had planned to go on a bike ride this morning, so I got ready for that while he was gone. Then we biked up to the beautiful park on 15th East. It was a glorious fall morning. The weather was perfect and the colors were beautiful. The light shone just right on the surroundings. I loved biking through the picturesque Sugar House neighborhoods, many with fall decorations and colorful leaves. I like to imagine my grandma growing up in the same neighborhood when she was young. Others that were out seemed to be enjoying their morning too, and a peaceful feeling seemed to be in the city. When we arrived at the park, there was no one else there. A blanket was set out, along with a vase filled with a rose bouquet, breakfast, and a book of poetry from which Chase read to me the poems of Charlotte Smith and William Wordsworth. The stream rushed by down the hill. The sky was blue and the clouds floated quickly by. It ended all too soon as we had to go home so that I could go to work. It was fun coasting as fast as we could down the big hills to get back to our house, with Owl City playing in my ears. A wonderful morning with good company and good exercise, that makes me glad I live in Salt Lake City.

(500) Days of Summer

2009-10-06T15:19:00.000-07:00

It's not very often that I come out of a movie and actually think, "I loved that. Really LOVED it. I'd watch it again. I might even buy it when it comes out on DVD." It seems that so many movies these days are full of lame attempts at predictable humor or are remakes of something earlier, whether it's an older movie, a book, or a children's toy from the 1980s. But this movie was great. It was original, and funny, and moving. I love the kind of movies that have so much emotion, and are so heart-wrenching, that you find yourself thinking about them, and the characters, long afterward. Not only was the movie a great getaway into the lives of its characters, but it made me consider my own life as well. It's often been hard for me to move on from things in the past, whether situations or relationships. A line from one of the characters in the movie stated, "I think next time you look back...you should look again." That was timely in my own life right now, and is something I think we all need to hear from time to time. Sometimes things were not as great as we remember them. Looking to the future can be just as fulfilling as the memories.

Did anyone else see it? Watch it and let me know what you think!

Things

2009-09-08T22:27:00.000-07:00

My house is a huge mess. And here I am, at 11:30 at night, blogging and messing around on Facebook. I am on a weird schedule with my new job. I don't even know what day it is half the time! This afternoon, I told a friend I would baby sit for her, but then had to take it back because I remembered it was Tuesday...Young Women's activity night.

To make matters worse, Chase is gone all week. He is on a week long training with Outback Therapeutic Expeditions so that he can hopefully land a full time job as a wilderness mentor for troubled teens. If he gets it, he will be gone on backpacking trips every other week. I guess I am going to have to find some new hobbies. This week I will be baby sitting my niece and later this week I will be doing some canning. Now if I could just find the motivation to clean my house...

Also, tomorrow is the 2 year anniversary of our engagement. I so badly wish I had pictures of that lovely event, but of course I didn't know what was happening, so I didn't bring my camera. We knew Chase would be gone on that day this year, so we went up to the spot in Big Cottonwood Canyon last weekend to reminisce. The night we got engaged, he had set up a beautiful dinner with candles glowing all around, even in the waterfall (try to imageine it from the photo above). He read me a poem that he wrote, which he also put into script on our bathroom mirror last year on the anniversary of our engagement. What a sweet husband I have. Sure will miss him this week.

Plans

2009-08-29T10:10:00.000-07:00

I like to make plans. Few things make me feel as satisfied as sitting down and making a good plan. Unfortunately, it usually stops there. I fail to plan for after the plan. I carry out my grand plan, and then what? I had been planning to go to nursing school for so long...that was my plan. Now it's over. What will I do? Like the time I planned to go to Maine for the summer. I spent hours thinking it over, corresponding with the camp where I was to work, preparing, purchasing, packing. I went there and had a great time for 9 weeks. Then I came home and wandered aimlessly for 2 months. Well, this time I don't want to do that. I'm trying to make a post-plan plan. Here are some of the thins I would like to include: catching up on leisure reading, cooking more regularly, organizing my house, attending the temple, volunteering, exercising. Ideas?

The Challenge

2009-07-08T18:14:00.001-07:00

I signed up for this last month. I have to admit, I haven't done too well on it. It's really difficult for me to use public transportation while I am in school and my schedule is so tight. But I have eliminated a few trips. I think this was a great idea that our city mayor, county mayor, and governor collaborated on to get people to take responsibility for improving Utah's air quality. So I am going to challenge myself to keep doing it, even after it ends on the 18th. I challenge all of you to drive less to clear the air also!

7 Clinicals Down, 3 To Go

2009-06-29T17:14:00.000-07:00

The countdown for nursing school:
9 more tests
7 more weeks of my current job
5 more weeks of class
3 more clinicals
1 set of boards to pass (if if pass the first time that is...)

Then the best part...

Our graduation celebration trip, where we will go here

And here

And here

Post-school happiness coming soon!

1.5

2009-06-15T20:52:00.000-07:00

Today is our 18-month anniversary. One-and-a-half years. We celebrated by going to Docetti Gelato.

I will be sad to leave the newlywed stage behind one of these days. I don't know exactly when that ends, but it's been fun thinking about all the "firsts" since we've been married. The first holidays being married, the first times going places since we've been married...it will be sad when the newness wears off. We've had a great year and a half!

Rain

2009-06-10T19:34:00.000-07:00

What is this weather? I feel like it is October, not June. I was ready for summer. On the other hand, with this weather, I don't feel so much like I'm missing out on summer, since all I do in my free time is study. Maybe the good weather will come later, when I'm finished. 7 more weeks to go!

I'm back...with some new additions

2009-05-15T22:22:00.000-07:00

After a 6-month blogging hiatus, I have decided to come back. I think I needed a break from blogging for a while. So, since I know you have all been dying for an update, here it is.

The new additions to the Raymond family are:

The dog is Lucy. We got her about a week ago from an animal rescue. She's a German wirehaired pointer/Lab mix. She's a bundle of energy and very cute, but has already managed to get into some trouble. She got out and ran down the street last night terrorizing the neighbors' dogs, while narrowly missing getting hit by a car (twice) herself. We have also already gotten a barking complaint from SL County Animal Services. But, she's adorable enough that we love having her around.

We also bought our first house! It's right near downtown Salt Lake, and was built in 1924. Needless to say, it needed some work before moving in. Here are some pictures of the progress:

This

Has become this

And this

Has become this

We also had fun peeling off 8 layers of wallpaper in our spare bedroom

Thanks Carrie! And to our families, who spent hours helping us with the remodeling/tearing out walls/putting up new walls/painting/cleaning/decorating.

Here are a few more pictures of finished work:

Harvest Time - Recipes

2008-11-05T21:16:00.001-08:00

All the fall/harvest type foods available right now are putting me in a cooking mood. I have been trying to incorporate them into the meals that I make. As I mentioned in a post last month, I learned how to can apple pie filling, which I repeated over the weekend at my mom's house. Apples are a great fall food, and so versatile. On Monday for dinner, I made potato and cheese pierogies cooked with onions and apples, served with chicken noodle soup. I also recently tried a new caramel fondue recipe used for dipping apples, and it was delicious.
Last night, I made vegetarian stuffed peppers. Those turned out great too. Especially since our landlady just gave us two bags of walnuts off her tree! I love being able to use up fresh, seasonal ingredients.
Tonight I made pumpkin pancakes served with massaman curry over rice. Okay, so the curry was left over from the Thai restaurant we went to for my birthday, but I made the pancakes myself. They turned out great. I would highly recommend trying this recipe. Let me know if you have any more great fall recipes I should try! I'm making my first Thanksgiving dinner this year...

Tagged...

2008-11-05T20:56:00.000-08:00

8 Things...okay, I've never done one of these before but Kim tagged me so...

8 Favorite T.V. Shows
1. Lost - we were hooked on the DVDs all summer, just have season 4 left
2. Alias - we've been hooked on those DVDs this fall
3. The Office, again, on DVD. Need to catch up on the last season of that
4. I don't watch TV. If it's not on DVD, I don't watch it. Most of the shows out there, I've never even heard of
5. I like several of the shows on NPR...does that count?
6.
7.
8.

8 Things that Happened Yesterday
1. We got rid of the monster TV that we bought on KSL
2. I got Adobe Creative Suite 4 Master in exchange for it
3. I also got Mac OS X Leopard
4. I made yummy vegetarian stuffed peppers for dinner
5. Did some reading for my pediatrics class
6. It rained a lot, and snowed a little
7. I voted for Barack Obama
8. He won

8 Favorite Places to Eat
1. Rumbi
2. House of Tibet
3. Sawadee Thai
4. Paradise Bakery
5. Mazza (Middle Eastern)
6. Chipotle
7. Quizno's
8. IMC cafeteria (just kidding)

8 Things I'm looking forward to
1. Thanksgiving
2. Holiday break from school
3. Our scooter being fixed
4. Chase graduating
5. Our cruise to the Caribbean - Dec 15!
7. Me graduating
8. Buying a house

8 Things on my Wish List
1. Travel the world
2. Learn a couple more languages
3. Perform again (dance)
4. Get completely out of debt
5. A puppy
6. Be happier by simplifying my life and needing less
7. For my family to be happy too
8. For my dad to be rebaptized

I tag...anyone who wants to answer this on their blog!

Happy Halloween from Wal Mart

2008-10-25T09:22:00.000-07:00

I try not to venture in here. Especially after a comment from an acquaintance once when I mentioned I was afraid I couldn't afford to shop anywhere else for groceries: "Well, then, you should go to college and get a degree. Then you could afford to shop somewhere else." This was after I had graduated with my bachelor's degree and been accepted to nursing school. Oh, the joys of having a sociology degree.

Anyway, our bank happens to be in Wal Mart, so sometimes we have to make an appearance. This sign was the first thing I saw when I walked in.

Now I remember why I'm going to nursing school.

Trips

2008-10-25T09:00:00.000-07:00

Chase and I have been trying to plan a trip for a long time. I have had a bunch of unused Delta Skymiles in my acount for years, accumulated mostly from business trips I've taken. It was never quite enough for a flight though, so back in June we decided to get one of those American Express cards that gives you Skymiles with each purchase, plus 15,000 bonus miles when you sign up. Or so we thought. We had originally planned to go to Maine in August, to visit Acadia National Park and my friend Brittany. However, we soon found out that the miles take 8-12 weeks to come through on your account. A couple of weeks ago I was thinking about this, and wondering why, though we'd waited months, these miles had stilled not shown up on my account. (We'd bagged the Maine idea a long time ago, traveling to Canada instead, and were now looking to fly to Florida for a cruise to celebrate our anniversary and Chase's graduation.) When I called American Express, they informed me that they'd "made an attempt" to transfer the miles to me in June, but because my name was different on my card (married name) than my Skymiles account (maiden name), it wouldn't work. Besides being annoyed they hadn't notified me of this little problem, I thanked the man and set to work faxing my marriage certificate to Delta so they could change my name. Despite this, the miles still did not appear (meanwhile rates to Florida are increasing daily). When I contacted them again, after forty minutes on the phone, twenty of them spent on hold, and a three-way conversation between me, an American Express lady, and a Delta lady, this is what I found out:
Delta lady: The name on your American Express card and the name on your Skymiles account don't match, so we can't give you the miles.

Me: Nice try, I faxed the marriage certificate in last week and they told me everything was updated.

Delta lady: It says here that the name on your Skymiles account is Ashley Raymond.

Me: Yeah, that's right.

Delta lady: Well, the name on your card is Ashley L. Raymond. That is not the same name.

After a little more negotiating, I agreed to fax in my drivers license, which lists my middle name, so that I could prove to them that I am Ashley L. Raymond, instead of the "other person" they had an account for, who happened to have my same first and last name, address, phone number, social security number, and credit card number. The conversation ended like this:

Delta lady: Before I hang up, would you like assistance booking any hotels or rental cars?

Me: NO! (Because of you, I probably can't even go on my *@$#?&#* trip!)

Delta lady: Would you like to apply for an American Express Skymiles card and receive 15,000 bonus miles with your new card?

Me: Aaaarrrghhh! (Hang up phone)

After a few more painful phone calls and several more painful days of waiting, I am pleased to say that we have now booked our flights and cruise in December. Finally...in seven weeks we will be here:

Stories, Updates, & Things Left Unblogged

2008-10-25T08:32:00.000-07:00

So I've taken a break from blogging for a while...to focus on the election (ha! just kidding - although my candidate is pulling ahead...yay). So what has been going on...

1. A couple of months ago, in an effort to be more environmentally conscious, we downsized to one car and bought this:

Cute, fun, 80 miles to the gallon...but it broke down this week. I never really thought about how you'd get a scooter to the shop to be fixed when it doesn't work...you can't tow it, nor does it fit in your car. We're still working on that one...

2. I have learned how to can. Sort of. Some women in my ward were nice enough to teach me. Eventually I would like to know how to do this on my own, but since I don't have any of the equipment, I settled for canning in the church kitchen (applie pie filling!) the first day and in someone's home kitchen (tomatoes) the next week.

Next I'm looking to buy a wheat grinder so I can make my own whole wheat flour.

3. I'm going to have a niece! My sister already blogged about it here, and I am so excited...we guessed it would be a girl, and we were right. What else would you expect from my family?

Hilarious

2008-09-15T18:50:00.001-07:00

Click here

Junk

2008-09-09T20:19:00.000-07:00

One person's junk really is another person's (my) treasure. And there are a few times when my husband's job at the after school program working with mostly very disadvantaged kids comes in handy. Like when we get to go to the SLC Arts Festival or Raging Waters for free. Or tonight, when he called me from work and asked me to bring the car over, because today is the lucky day every year when the Salt Lake Airport drops off all the junk from their lost and found at the Sorenson Center. This is mostly so that the children can take advantage of the coats, clothing and other items that they might need. But there were many, many things that the children did not need, that we definitely developed a need for very quickly when we saw them. Like the 7 megapixel digital camera, the digital photo frame, the tempurpedic travel pillow, the brand new suitcase and electric razor, the plastic baggie full of quarters, the portable hand-held TV, and the brand-new women's size small Marmot rain jacket (yay! it was even raining today). Of course, there was a lot of real junk too, and some verrrry interesting finds. I think a lot of the stuff was removed or confiscated at security. There were a lot of belts. I know airport security is a big deal now since 9/11, but really, must we seize baby bottles with formula in them? And I did feel sorry for the poor diabetic person who somehow became separated from their glucometer, insulin, and syringes. But it was a great treasure hunt for us!

Street Fair

2008-09-09T20:15:00.000-07:00

I spent Saturday afternoon at the Avenues Street Fair. My sister Allison debuted her new business, Shades of Jade. She has been making all kinds of handmade things to sell, such as photo frames, baby headbands, and onesies with cute designs sewn on them. She did pretty well for her first time selling the stuff, and we looked pretty cute in the little booth...

You can check out her stuff here

?

2008-09-09T18:10:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of funny and...unique things around Salt Lake. Like this.

I wish I had 25 hours in my day.

Today

2008-09-08T17:33:00.001-07:00

Do I look like a sad person? I think I don't smile enough. But I think that is just naturally the way my face is (and my personality). I tried to capture it here.

Today I am going to change my life. This is something I have been wanting to do for a while. I wasn't quite sure how, and I'm still not, but I think that I can do it. And in the process, I will change other lives as well.

I will feel better about myself. I will love others better. I will learn more. I will give even more. I will be happy. Because really, these are choices. And I will make these choices today.

Canada Part 2

2008-08-21T19:41:00.001-07:00

That was getting to be a long post, so I thought I'd break it up. The day after we went to Banff, my cousin Traci and her family took us on another adventure. We went to dinner at the home of some friends of theirs, who live on a little farm outside Lacombe. They had lots of fun animals to play with.

After dinner, we rode "quads" (4-wheelers) a few miles down the road to a gorgeous lake where we were able to canoe around and see even more wildlife. We came really close to two big pelicans, and we saw tons of beavers swimming around in the water. We got out and hiked around at this little cave, and then rode our quads back to the house, where we got to try Saskatoon pie (a type of berry found in Canada).

We also got to hang out with Traci's adorable kids:

Madison

Hailee and Payton

The next day we went to the West Edmonton mall. Alberta happens to have one of the biggest malls in the world, and it's only about an hour away from my aunt's house. It's actually pretty crazy and maybe an interesting commentary on Western consumerism, but somehow they managed to fit hundreds of stores, a waterpark, a full amusement park complete with roller coaster, an ice rink, water/animal shows, and lots more into this mall.

I'm not going to say it wasn't fun! We were able to stop and do a session at the Edmonton Temple on the way back too, which was really nice. It was fun to see one of the smaller temples, and I actually got to meet the temple president!

It was a great trip.

Canada

2008-08-21T19:10:00.000-07:00

Yay! Summer vacation! We (I) totally needed this, as it has been one of the least fun summers I can remember, for me at least...work and school kinda burned me out so we'd been waiting to take a trip like this. It was totally worth the 15 hour drive each way (well, 24 hour drive on the way there, but that's another story) for the week we got to spend in Canada. We stayed in Lacombe, Alberta with my aunt and uncle. The drive through Alberta was pretty, it actually rained a little, which brought out the colors of the surrounding farmland beautifully, and provided us with an awesome double rainbow.

Oh yeah, we also passed this:

Our second day there we drove to Banff National Park. This is definitely the biggest national park I've ever been to. It was amazing. The Canadian Rockies were majestic and the water in all the lakes and rivers was bright crystal blue. We found out that the color comes from rock powder that falls from the mountain in the glacier melt and allows blue and green light to be reflected back from the water.

We stopped at Lake Louise (above) and looked around the hotel they have on the grounds. It was called Chateau something (meaning it's really expensive - $600/night minimum), and the grounds were really beautiful.

We then went to the actual town of Banff for lunch and shopping. It's a kind of quaint-looking, touristy, ski-area town, very Park City-esque, only cooler. Later we took a gondola ride up to the top of Sulphur Mountain, and from there hiked over to another peak. Amazing views from the gondola and mountain tops, including a baby bighorn sheep:

We also caught the elk herd that lives at the Banff Springs golf course. We were really close to some of them, which was cool, and they didn't even seem scared. Then we stopped a Bow Falls on our way back to Lacombe.

We can't wait to go back to Canda again and spend more time in the park and in Banff. I think it would take several days to see it all. It was an amazing place!

World Water Week

2008-08-17T21:51:00.001-07:00

Today marks the beginning of the 2008 World Water Week. Besides being a fun alliteration to say, World Water Week is an annual meeting in Stockholm, Sweden to present and generate ideas about better use of the resource and environmental concerns. This year there is a special emphasis on water sanitation throughout the world. In light of my last post, and my efforts to be more conscientious of my impact on the environment, I decided that this is something I would definitely like to support! Some of the initiatives being considered at this year's conference include cutting back on the use of bottled water, carbon-offsetting, recycling, and fair trade. I am excited that this group is taking the initiative to help the billions of people in the world who do not have access to adequate sanitation. This is the kind of organization I would like to be involved with in the future (you know, once I'm out of school and I have time for stuff like that).

Addendum to the Golden Cathedral Trip

2008-07-20T10:47:00.000-07:00

Another wonderful souvenir I acquired on the Golden Cathedral Trip (besides the hundreds of bug bites and terrifying memories of being stuck 50 feet in the air)...Giardia. Yup, that's right, the parasite that lives in your intestines.

This is an artist's interpretation of a parasite in my small instestine

**Giardia is also known as beaver fever. Strangely you don't usually get a fever and beavers have little to do with it.**
Courtesy of www.ceoblues.com/archive/2006/june/giardiabeaver

MOBA - Is this for real?

2008-07-20T10:35:00.000-07:00

Museum of Bad Art, Dedham, Massachusetts.

"Lucy in the field with flowers"
"Acquired from trash in Boston, this single painting planted the seed that grew into MOBA. The motion, the chair, the sway of her breast, the subtle hues of the sky, the expression on her face -- every detail combines to create this transcendent and compelling portrait, every detail cries out "masterpiece."

"Mama and Babe"
"The flesh tones bring to mind the top shelf liqueurs of a border bistro. With an astonishing emphasis on facial bone structure, the artist flirts with caricature and captures features of Mamma's face which remind us of a Presidential candidate. The upright marionettish pose of the babe hints that the early bond between mother and child is as formal as it is familiar. Good old fashioned parental respect is at the center of this celebration of color and contour."

"Sunday on the Pot With George"
"an the swirling steam melt away the huge weight of George's corporate responsibilities? This pointillist piece is curious for meticulous attention to fine detail, such as the stitching around the edge of the towel, in contrast to the almost careless disregard for the subject's feet."

"Think Again"
Acrylic on canvas by Unknown
Acquired by Scott Wilson from trash

This disturbing work "makes an offer you can't refuse". The chilling, matter-of-fact manner in which the subject presents the severed head to us is a poignant reminder of just how numb we have become. The understated violence implicit in the scene speaks volumes on our own desensitization, our society's reflexive use of force, and the artist's inability to deal with the hindquarters of the animal.

http://www.museumofbadart.org/

The Golden Cathedral

2008-07-12T09:26:00.000-07:00

On the fourth of July, Chase and I, and Chase's dad, Mike, took off for Escalante Grand Staircase to hike Neon Canyon and see the Golden Cathedral. It was quite an eventful trip. After the 6 hour drive down, we started the 4 mile hike down into Escalante. It was blazing hot when we started, and even the water in our water bottles was actually HOT after the first 45 minutes or so. Luckily, a great big cloud came over and shaded us for most of the hike.

The trailhead where we started was called Egypt, which I thought was kind of funny because it was nothing but sand and barren desert, and I guess I have always kind of pictured Egypt to be like that. I'm probably wrong, but I thought it was amusing. There actually turned out to be great desert scenery, and we even found those pretty little flowers growing right out of the sand!

After we made the hike in and set up camp, we swam in the river for a bit, cooked our dinner, and went to bed. Not that we actually slept...the mosquitoes, wind, and rock-hard ground kept us awake most of the night. The next morning we set out for the top of Neon Canyon, then dropped in by rappel and enjoyed hiking through the beautiful slot canyon. We knew there would be a couple tricky spots, such as this "keeper pothole" (meaning if you fall in and you're alone, it will keep you there - the odds of you ever getting out are almost none). But we didn't count on the trouble we were going to have coming down the last rappel, on the Golden Cathedral itself.

Chase in the keeper pothole...luckily we all got out!

The Golden Cathedral is beautiful...at least in these pictures. I didn't really take time to look at it while we were in there because of what happened...I was a little nervous about the 80' rappel down because you couldn't see over the edge, and I knew there was a pool of water at the bottom. I just don't like not being able to see what I'm getting into! So I made Chase say a prayer for us before I dropped down, and I'm glad we did. When I got to the end of the wall of rock, just before the free fall, my prussic knot got stuck on a piece of tape that was around the rappel rope, marking the middle. I couldn't go back up the rope, but the farther the prussic slid down, the tighter it held around the rope and wouldn't let me go down either. I was stuck, dangling about 60' in the air. It was one of the scariest things that's happened to me, because we knew there were no other people out there in the event we needed to be rescued, and there was no way I was going to be able to make that knot move. I didn't have anything to cut it off with, and I had no way to move anywhere. Chase eventually had to descend the same rope to where I was and try to rescue me. We tried a few things that didn't work, and after about an hour of hanging there we were able to get me free and we slid down. He had left his pack at the top, so he ended up having to hike back around to the top of the canyon and drop down again to get it. Meanwhile, Chase's dad and I hiked back to camp through the river (and got about 150 horsefly bites on the way - not joking). We were all exhausted after that, but still had to make the 4 mile hike back to the top of Egypt trailhead. Then we still had a 6 hour drive back to Woodland Hills, and another hour to our house. We didn't get home until after 4 in the morning! I told Chase I think I'd need a break before doing any serious rappelling again for a while.

Me as I was getting stuck on my descent

Chase on his way down to rescue me

Us, trying to untie the knot. So glad we finally got it free! Thanks for saving me, Chase! And thanks to Mike for driving us down there, and taking these pictures!

Stewart Falls, SLC Arts Festival, and LOST Marathons

2008-07-12T08:45:00.001-07:00

So the events from this post are 2 weeks old, but my life is too crazy to be able to blog more often. So I'm writing this as if it were still the weekend of June 28. We caught up with the Raymond family to hike to Stewart Falls near Sundance. It was a beautiful hike but totally crowded. Of course, Chase plunged himself into the waterfall at the end but it was so hot he was probably dry by the time we got back to the car.

We had a picnic first

Beautiful scenery on the hike. Some parts of it looked almost tropical, they were all green and covered with ferns...then of course there were the mountains and the waterfall.

Chase and his dad considering getting under the waterfall after his dad taunted him, "Come on, aren't you going to get wet with me?"

Chase actually getting wet while his dad decided not to get in

Both of them running away from the FREEZING waterfall - notice how Mike is still dry :)

Moving on to later that evening...we got free tickets to the SLC Arts Festival from Chase's work. So we rode our bikes on over to the library to check it out. We saw some cool performers and lots of awesome paintings, photography, etc. in the artists' booths. It's nice to go to something like that and see that our downtown isn't always dead with no people walking around...I hope this is a sign of how our city will be in a few years when they finish all the downtown projects.

Cool Brazilian fire dancers

So, each night of the weekend after we'd tired ourselves out all day, we settled in to watch LOST on DVD, which Adam & Kim were nice enough to lend us. Now, I realize I'm about 4 years behind everyone else, but we're still on the first season, and I'm hooked. They really do a good job of making you want to know what happens next. I don't know how people watched it on TV, once a week, with commercials and stuff. I do, however, have a few comments to make/questions to raise about LOST:

Okay. I'm sorry, but the whole Jack/Kate connection isn't that convincing to me. I know there's supposed to be all this tension/desire, etc. between them, but it's just not quite working for me. I don't feel like it'd been developed enough to make me root for them just yet.

Also - I like Sawyer. I think you're kind of supposed to hate Sawyer, but I like him.

There are a few too many close calls, I think. I know, I know, it's a TV show and you're supposed to suspend your belief, and if all the characters died off there wouldn't be a show. But seriously...

Finally, how do all these people stay so clean shaven on this island? Did someone bring along a waxing kit that they're all using? I think after a month on an island with no razor I'd be embarrassed to strip down to my bikini.

But, after watching the show, it leaves me with a strange desire to be stranded on a tropical island...

Anyway, we had a great, relaxing weekend!

The new ride

2008-06-22T13:19:00.000-07:00

Yeah, we like it...

Cooking...

2008-06-22T13:10:00.000-07:00

So, now that we have a new place and a kitchen that can actually fit two people in it at once, I've been trying my hand at cooking a little more. We have our favorite 6 or so dinners that we rotate through, but here's some things I've tried lately...

Crepes with apples, cheese, and honey

My first pizza...this has become one of our favorites. (Okay, it's really because Pillsbury makes the dough and sells it in those rolls...)

More hiking

2008-06-22T13:01:00.001-07:00

Here's some pictures of our hike in Centerville Canyon. To see photos of our hike in Adams' canyon, check out Allison's blog at http://adambombandlittlefrenchie.blogspot.com/2008/06/ash-and-chase-weekend.html

Emigration Canyon

2008-06-22T12:47:00.001-07:00

Chase and I have tried to get out hiking as much as we can this summer. So far we've been to Centerville Canyon, Millcreek Canyon, Big Cottonwood Canyon, Adams Canyon, and most recently, Emigration Canyon, which has been our favorite. I had been there a few times, but apparently not enough to appreciate the wonderful beauty and uniqueness of this little canyon. It's unique in that people live in it year-round all the way up to the top. There are a few little restaurants (Ruth's Diner and the Sun & the Moon diner), but other than that it's not very commercialized. You have beautiful views of the mountains in Park City, as Parley's Canyon is just over the mountain. We must have happened upon it at the best time of year, as everything was still very green, and there were tons of wildflowers in all different colors.

We loved this view from our summit. It reminded me of a little European village in the mountains. We also saw a baby deer crest a hill across from us, and we ended up at this bridge.

Beautiful place! I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a great hike with lots of natual beauty.

Gardening

2008-06-22T12:36:00.001-07:00

We started our (okay, my) very first garden last night. I know it's a little late in the year (we realized this when all our seed pacakges indicated the need to plant six weeks before the last frost - oops) but, we're giving it a try anyway. We planted sunflowers, tomatoes, red peppers, onions, squash, cucumbers, and carrots. Hopefully we'll have a great little harvest sometime before the next frost...

Deviled?

2008-06-22T12:32:00.000-07:00

While enjoying some deviled eggs for dinner last night, Chase and I pondered the meaning of this term. This led me to wonder...when, exactly, did "deviled" become a verb? I know it's something you can do to eggs, or crab, or probably many other foods, but what IS it? How does one "devil" something?

Our new place

2008-05-25T12:41:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been about 6 weeks now, but I still call it our new place. We were SO excited to find this little place, an upstairs apartment in a house one block from Liberty Park. Yes, Chase gave up his nanny job (and with it our private hot tub)in mid-April so that we could move into this place. Some highlights (not trying to brag here - just VERY excited that we have a place with our own entrance, garbage disposal, washer & dryer, and that is bigger than a motel room):

Our kitchen

Bathroom (we have 2!)/Laundry Room

Above: our guest bedroom/office, and our living room.

Yay! Anyone who wants to come over and chill is invited...

Washington & Oregon

2008-05-21T17:50:00.000-07:00

Since I had an entire week and a half of from school this summer, Chase and I decided to drive up to Washington for a little vacation. My aunt and uncle live there, in a little town called Trout Lake, not far over the Oregon border, near the Columbia River Gorge. It is an absolutely beautiful area, and Chase and I couldn't wait to get up there and relax and spend some time outside, not to mention eat a lot of my Aunt Janine's amazing cooking.

Our first full day there was pretty rainy, but it was so beautiful because the overcast sky brought out the green so much more. That day we hiked up Multnomah Falls and did a few small hikes around some other waterfalls. I can't believe how many waterfalls are in the area!

Here we are in our rain gear. Obviously not our own, since we live in Utah...but my aunt and uncle were kind enough to let us borrow theirs.

View from the falls of the area below

Chase was really excited when he found this salamander.

Some more waterfalls

The next day we went kayaking on the Trout Lake. It was freezing, really shallow, and had tons of marshy grass that made it kind of hard to paddle around, but still fun.

On our last day, we did a great hike on Beacon Rock where you got a stunning view of the Columbia River Gorge from the top.

Right after the hike we jetted over to Vancouver, WA just because we'd never been there...it was about 50 miles away, so we went there, had lunch, drove around the town a bit, and then headed back to Hood River, OR for the rest of the afternoon.

Downtown Vancouver, and the great Italian cream sodas we had at lunch!

We had fun in Hood River, which is a quirky little town with no chain stores and full of, it seems, windsurfers and Subaru owners (yay!). It was fun going in all the little shops...well, until 6 PM when the whole town basically closed down.

All in all, it was a great trip, even when you add in the part where I fell off my bike (no pictures of that!)

Goodbye Subaru

2008-04-21T18:49:00.001-07:00

Well, it finally happened...I had to say goodbye to the ol' Subaru. It wasn't a happy goodbye, either...that is, it wasn't because I got a nice new car to replace it with. It was because of an incident involving a snowy day, icy roads, and a school bus (without children in it) that left my car looking like this:

So, I finally had to say goodbye. (I think the Kidney Foundation is pretty happy though.) This car and I have been through a lot together...I've been driving it for 7 years, and my family had it for 8 before that. Its 254,000 miles have taken me to Canada, California (several times), Las Vegas, St. George, Colorado, Arizona, Idaho, and more...if I hadn't killed it, I don't know if it ever would have died. And sadly, it hasn't been replaced by anything new yet...

Vietnam - Week 3

2008-04-21T17:51:00.000-07:00

I had to take a break after posting about the first two weeks. Ha! Anyway, the last week in Vietnam was great. We spent the first few days of it in Hoi An, a little coastal city that is famous for its textiles...you can buy amazing silk (and other fabrics)and have them turned into clothing in 24 hours! Needless to say, I did a little shopping while I was there. Here's a picture of one of my dresses...

That's one of our Vietnamese dentists with me in the photo. She was my age, and a dentist, which I thought was kinda crazy.

We also had the chance to go to the beach again while we were there - for a few hours anyway. I was glad to be able to go and relax and read on the beach. We did a couple of clinics in that area. It was really hot and humid there, and most of the places we went to didn't have electricity, or glass in the windows, or much protection from the heat at all. (Or plumbing, but that's a different story...) Those clinics were long days, but well worth it. Especially seeing all the cute little kids.

Our last clinic was at a youth shelter in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). It was a place where kids ages 5 through 17 or 18 are placed when they are in trouble with the law or their families have kicked them out or abandoned them. Some kids are abandoned by their families for what seems like no reason at all, such as they have a big birthmark that is seen by the family as a curse. One little girl I saw had been kidnapped by her own uncle and held for ransom. Another little boy's medical card read that he was there because "his parents didn't want him at home anymore". It was very sad, but what struck me was how happy many of the kids seemed. They have a terrible lot in life, but still manage to stay happy and do things for others. I was helping out in the pharmacy that day, and near the end of the day, a bunch of the teenage girls came out of a class where they had been making hand-embroidered greeting cards. They set up a little stand later where they sold the cards and other things to us, but first one of the girls came up to me and presented me with her card, in which she had hand-written and little message. Her teacher told me, "She wants to give this to you." I had one of our Vietnamese interpreters translate it for me, and then I got a picture with the girl, whose name was Lan Anh.

She wrote me a very sweet note, thanking us for coming to her school, and wishing me well in her health and travels. The card was beautiful too, with hand-embroidered birds on a silk background. It was moments like that that made the heat and the long days worth it!

Right after that we visited an orphanage across the street. This was only two days before we left, but it ended up being the turning point for me on the trip. It really made me realize how much these kids in Vietnam go though, and how much they need someone there to love them. Going to the orphanage that day was a pretty tough experience, and I left there in tears. After holding the sweet little babies in the baby room, and then seeing the suffering babies in the handicapped room, I broke down crying and wished I could take every one of them home with me, because it was so hard knowing that most of them didn't have a chance in life. Even the ones with totally treatable medical conditions would probably never get the treatment they need, because most doctors won't touch an orphan child.

It broke my heart, but I managed to get up the courage to visit another orphanage the next day. That one happened to be the orphanage where Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie adopted their son Pax. I only know because there was this bulletin board that was practically a shrine to them outside the front doors of the orphanage (which I thought was a little silly). Anyway, we went into the toddler room first at that one, and as soon as the children saw us coming, the doors burst open and before I could even look twice a little boy had jumped into my arms and was squeezing me so tight, I couldn't believe a three-year-old had a grip that strong! He laid his head on my shoulder and probably would have stayed there forever if I hadn't had to put him down because another child was clamoring for his turn to be held. These children were so desperate for love and affection. They didn't want to let us go when it was time to move on to the next room and see other children. It was really hard letting them go, and knowing that they might not ever have a family of their own. I think these last two orphanages were a turning point for me because it made me really start to consider international adoption.

Oh, also, we visited a preschool class while we were there. The kids were incredibly well-behaved, and sat there practicing writing their letters. Then suddenly one little boy, who couldn't have been more than five, asked us if we wanted to see him do a hip-hop dance. This was the most hilarious, adorable thing that I have ever seen. I wish I had it on video, but here's a picture:

We also got to visit another sort-of orphanage, it's a place that's run by nuns and gives free day care to children and babies while their mothers work. The nuns there are doing so much to help the orphans and the people in need, but there is so much more that needs to be done.

Later that day we had some time to go shopping and see a little bit of Saigon. It's a pretty crazy city, very crowded, with tons going on at every second. There are motorbikes and scooters everywhere (you have to watch closely so you don't get hit!) and street vendors hounding you every couple of feet, practically begging you with the few English words they know to buy whatever they're selling. I didn't get many pictures of Saigon, because I didn't have a lot of time there, but maybe this one will show just a little bit of how crazy/crowded it was...even the electrical and phone lines were a jumbled mess overhead, strung back and forth between the buildings.

Our hotel was pretty nice too. I wish I could remember what it was called...but anyway, apparently it's pretty famous because the rooftop restaurant (where I ate dinner one night while listening to a terrible Filipino cover band sing the Pina Colada Song and Hotel California) is where the government officials and diplomats sat watching the city burn during the fall of Saigon. It's got a great view of the city still.

The last night the whole group went for a farewell dinner at a restaurant, Blue Ginger. We all had a great time dressing up in our newly made clothes and celebrating our trip. Here is a picture of most of the medical team.

The trip truly was a great experience, and I loved working with this team. It also solidified my desire and love for humanitarian work, and I hope there are many more trips like this to come!

Vietnam - Week 2, continued...

2008-04-05T18:52:00.000-07:00

Okay, are you ready? We're halfway done! So, after Hanoi, we flew to another city called Hue (pronounced Hway). Luckily after Sapa, where it was FREEZING cold, the weather just got hotter and hotter. Hue was really nice. It used to be the capital, and it's a really fun city with lots to do. Our hotel was like a resort here, with a swimming pool, salon, etc. It was on the Perfume River, where we took a little boat cruise. We also visited the Citadel, which was the home of past emperors and royal families. Some of it is in ruins now, but some of it is well preserved and it was cool to see some historical things that are actually old, as opposed to our "history" here which is never really more than 200 or so years old, usually.

Darn! It's that sideways problem again...can anyone tell me how to fix that? Oh, and that last picture is the result of my friends paying a few thousand Vietnam Dong to put on the "Emperor's Robes" and sit on his throne. Anyway, it was delightfully warm in Hue, which is more than I can say for the weather since I've been back in Utah...here are a few more pictures.

My roommate Hailey and I...yeah, I guess we were too cheap to pay to wear the disgusting robes that thousands of other people have worn...we opted for a ride in the emperor's carriage instead...

We took a little boat cruise down the Perfume River that evening. That was a pretty crazy experience - I can't believe how many people actually live on their boats in the river! I mean, these things are just thrown together with pieces of wood and tarps, and there are, like, 4-year-old kids jumping from boat to boat, and people are building fires on their wooden boats for heat, and their dogs are hanging out on the boats too. It's like a whole neighborhood of boats along the river! I couldn't believe some of the living conditions I saw there.

A fishing boat out on the river (although I can't imagine you'de want to eat ANYTHING out of that river...EVER) and our hotel in the background

We did a clinic the next day just outside of Hue, at Kim Doi compassionate home. This is a place run by some sweet little nuns, and basically the whole village showed up to be checked out by us.

The sweet little nuns, who cooked for us, gave us presents, and treated us like royalty even though we probably got them in big trouble with the government for hosting us.

It was a really long, hot day, but fun too. It was also a bit scary, as some communist government representatives showed up and tried to make us leave halfway through the day. Our director, Binh, (the found of COPI, from Vietnam) spoke to them and told them we would be happy to leave if they would apologize to the 200 people that were still waiting to be seen. Of course they wouldn't so we stayed...but they were not happy. We had even gotten permission from the governor of the province to be there, so he sent undercover police to stand by and watch, and help us in case anything happened. We made it through the day (another 12 hour), but the poor nuns will probably be the ones that get the punishment for us being there. Then, when we got to our hotel that night, in another town an hour away, there were government representatives there waiting for us. It was pretty scary...they escorted our director and her son out to the parking lot, and it was so late at night that none of us heard what happened until the next morning when our trip leaders announced that we were leaving the province immediately. This was very sad, since our accommodations there were at a lovely little beach resort, which I had been waiting for the whole trip! I have some pictures of the few hours I got to spend there though. Anyway, it turned out that the woman who is in charge of Foreign Affairs for the province didn't want Americans coming in and delivering health care to her people - apparently it makes the government look bad when they're not doing their job, and it's being done by foreigners. So we skipped out of there VonTrapp-style to avoid anyone getting arrested, and we had to cancel our next two clinics. Here's the pictures of the beach:

Vietnam - Week 2

2008-04-05T17:42:00.000-07:00

Our second week in Vietnam was quite an adventure! On Sunday night, after being at Thanh Ba all day, we all piled in a bus (one of our main modes of transportation while we there) and drove to the train station, where we took an overnight train to Sapa. This was another new experience for me - I've never riddern in a sleeper train car before! Really, they shouldn't call them that, because I don't think I slept much. The train lurched around and stopped and started all night long. We left around 9 PM and when we got there it was about 5 AM. Then we took another bus to the town of Sapa. Sapa is in the very northern end of Vietnam, about 30 miles from China. I was told that you can usually see China from there, because Sapa is way up in the mountains. But it was unseasonably cold there this year, and it was so incredibly foggy the whole time we were there that you couldn't really see more than several yards in front of you. The city of Sapa was very tourist-oriented, and the look of it seemed almost Europen to me.

Sapa, and the mountains of northern Vietnam, are where the indigenous people live - a lot of them migrated from China, Mongolia, etc. hundreds of years ago. They are the Hmong and other tribes, and they are now the ethnic minority in Vietnam, and they are very discriminated against. Again, these children are normally not allowed to go to school, so COPI gives them scholarships and help set up a school for them to attend. It's very interesting there. The indigenous people live in very primitive conditions in small villages outside Sapa, but they come into the city or wait for the tourists to come to their villages so they can sell their handiwork. Besides farming, that is how they make their living. There was a whole group of little girls waiting for us when we got to our hotel. They followed us around the city for hours, trying to get us to buy the things that they had made. And they make everything - jewelry, handbags, blankets, wall hangings, scarves, etc. A lot of it is hand embroidered and hand-dyed with dye from the indigo plant. It's all very pretty.

The market in Sapa. They had lots of crazy things (can you see the dead chickens?) like chopped up cow and pig parts, and bottles of "healing" wine with snakes, scorpions, and lizards in them. They also had lots of cool stuff, like Pashmina scarves and handmade blankets and pillowcaes.

We went on a trek to two of the native villages. The government had paved sidewalks put in the villages a couple of years ago so that tourists could go on these treks and the villagers could have a little industry. They surrounded our bus the minute we pulled up, and walked with us all over the villages for a couple of hours, in hopes that we would buy things from them at the end of the trip. It was all women in the group of villagers that were walking with us, and one of them would latch on to one of us and walk with us the whole time, speakingin perfect English that they have learned from all the tourists coming through. What I didn't realize was that that person then felt that you were obligated to buy something from them at the end. Well, I didn't end up buying anything from my little friend, because the lady next to her had stuff that I liked more. I felt bad, especially after she followed me around and yelled at me for about 10 minutes after that! Here she is:

And a picture of what their housing looks like. It's basically just some wooden boards/planks thrown together with a tin roof and a dirt floor. They build a fire in a fire pit inside the house to keep warm, while pigs and chickens are running in and out all the time. Most of them are rice farmers as well. Here is a picture of what their rice fields look like. The hills are all terraced for their rice paddies.

The next day we did a clinic in Sapa, at a boarding school for the indigenous children that COPI supports. They were lined up and waiting for us at the gate to their school, and all along the entrance. They clapped for us as we walked in, all the way through the last person that made it in. They were so grateful to have us there. We probably saw over 300 children that day, and we were there for about 12 hours.

The next day we had another clinic, at another school in Sapa. It was in a pretty remote little village, which we actually had to trek into on foot after quite a long and nauseating drive in a van. I was actually shocked when we made it back to our hotel in one piece. The combination of the lunatic Vietnam drivers, plus the extremely narrow mountain roads with cliffs plunging down the sides, and the incredibly thick fog made it pretty much the scariest ride of my life. Way scarier than any amusement park ride, because at least on those you know you can't actually get hurt. Anyway, we had to trek over this rickety little bridge, up this hill on a muddy, swampy, unpaved road to the school and back. I was pretty much covered with mud when we got back. Oh, I'm also attaching a picture here of what our dental clinic looked like that day. Pretty scary.

Anyway, once we survived the van ride back and cleaned all the mud off ourselves as best we could, we drove back to the train station and took another all night train, this time to Hanoi. Hanoi is the capital, and it was a fun place to spend a day. I did a lot of shopping there. COPI supports a store there were we all bought a lot of stuff. They give women in the small villages micro loans to have some start up capital to make more of their handiwork, and then they can sell it in the store for fair trade prices. It was a little more expensive than most of the stuff you could buy there, but definitely worth it for the cause. Most things in Vietnam were ridiculously cheap.

We also had the opportunity in Hanoi to visit a leper colony. Contrary to popular belief, leprosy is actually very hard to catch from other people. However, the government forces these people to live in isolation, and not only the lepers, but their children and grandchildren, who are completely disease free. Only the elderly in this colony have leprosy, but their descendents are completely ostracized as well. The children are not allowed to attend school, and the are hardly even allowed to leave the colony. The government "provides" them with food and medication, but once you visit there you can see that these are completely inadequate. Also, the government is mostly corrupt, so all the food, medications, etc. that we brought the people had to be handed out one by one directly from us to them. The government representative who just happened to show up on the day that we were there would have liked to take them and "distribute" them to the people, but past experience has shown that the people never end up getting anything that way. The government or who ever happens to be in charge will take and sell whatever they can get. This was another hard thing to see - these adorable children who are completely normal in every way having to live in isolation, and the older people suffering from leprosy, losing limbs and extremities because they aren't getting their medication often enough.

We were able to donate some money while we were there to give the children scholarships to go to school. Here I am with the little boy I gave a scholarship to, and his sister (I think?)

This is getting to be quite a long post...I think I'll split it up some more to give all you readers a break. (All 4 of you...)

Vietnam - Week 1

2008-04-05T17:03:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm finally getting around to reporting on my adventures in Vietnam! I've been back for 2 weeks now and it's been crazy catching up. So I went there with an organization called COPI - Children of Peace International. It was founded a by a Vietnamese woman whose family fled to the US right after the war. She ended up in Colorado and became a Lutheran. Then when she unexpectedly went back 12 or so years later to find a lost sibling, she realized what a need there was there. There were so many orphaned children from the war, and so many others not receivng adequate medical care, etc. under the new government. So her Lutheran church began donating money and she founded her organization. Then a pastor at the church there who is now a pastor at Good Shepherd Lutheran church in Sandy enlisted people here to help. One of the nursing instructors at my school goes to church there and began taking nursing students there with COPI on study abroad trips a few years ago.

My first week there was really only half a week, and half of that was spent flying. It was my first trip crossing the International Date Line, and it was a weird experience! We left on Wednesday evening, March 5 and got there Friday morning, March 7 - but Thursday the 6th got lost somehow...it is a strange feeling missing an entire day. The way back was even more strange...like living the same day twice. Have you ever seen that movie Groundhog Day? :)

Anyway, we flew into Hanoi, which is in northern Vietnam, and stayed our first few days in a city called Viet Tri. It was not my favorite place. It was a smaller city, not too touristy, so I don't think that the people were too used to seeing Americans. We got stared at a lot, me in particular...I don't think they have seen red curly hair too often. Our first full day there happened to be International Women's Day, so we all got roses! That was something I've never heard of in the US...

That's my hotel room in the background...

Anyway, after unpacking and sorting all our supplies that day, we went to a place called "The Temple of the Seven Kings". It had all of these different shrines to this former king, and they were all built further and further up on this hill so that you had to climb a ton of stairs to get to each one. The scenery there was like nothing I have seen before, so it was pretty cool. Like I said though, it wasn't my favorite city. It was pretty polluted, and the city itself wasn't really that pretty (which is why I don't have any pictures of the actual city). Here are some pictures of King's Temple...

The next day we had our first clinic. We set it up at a little school in a village outside of Viet Tri, called Thanh Ba (pronounced tang-ba). All of the people get so excited that we are there to provide medical care...for some of them it is the only time they ever get to see a doctor or a dentist. They line up before we even get there and wait for hours in line for us to see them. We mostly saw kids at the first clinic, and they were super cute.

Some of the kids being entertained by our clown while waiting in line

One of the nursing students doing an assessment on a child

There was also an orphanage at Thanh Ba. I spent a little time in there after our clinic was over. I had never been to an orphanage before that. I've hear a lot of horror stories about foreign orphanages and the terrible conditions and everything. This wasn't nearly as bad as some of the ones I've heard about in Romania or the Ukraine or something, but it was still pretty sad. A lot of parents in Vietnam will abandon their baby if they think something is wrong with it, or if they get pregnant without being married, because of the stigma in their culture. And when a child is an orphan there, they are a complete outcast in society. No doctors will touch them, they are not usually allowed in school, and they will probably never get married since they have no social standing. It was really sad to see those tiny babies lying alone in metal cribs or on hard wooden "beds" and know that they won't really have a chance in life. Also, that particular orphanage recently closed adoptions to the US. Hopefully there are some people in Europe or Australia that want to adopt some cute little Vietnamese children!

House of Tibet

2008-03-03T19:33:00.000-08:00

Recently Chase and I enjoyed the food at our favorite little Tibetan restaurant. Well, the only Tibetan restaurant I've ever been to, or seen in Salt Lake for that matter. But, I feel I have to give a little shout out to this place, because it's so great. It's owned by a family who came to the US in 1990 when the government granted visas to 1,000 displaced Tibetans. I know the mother of the family from working at LDS Hospital. The hospital offered English classes to employees who needed them, and asked for volunteer mentors to help them with reading, etc. So I helped her with reading, writing, spelling, etc. a couple of times a week for about a year. She worked so hard at learning English and she is such a sweet person. When I found out her family owned a restaurant, Chase and I went and tried it. If you've never had Tibetan food, you should try this place. They have lots of great vegetarian options (but they have meat too). It's sort of like a mix of Indian and Chinese/Thai...lots of potatoes, curry, cilantro, noodles...my favorite thing they have are these bread dumplings stuffed with sweet cheese...I can't even describe them. But please try this place! It's on 13th south between State Street and 200 East. It's usually not too busy, which means you get great personal service from the owners! Anyone want to go out to lunch?

Love it

2008-03-03T19:28:00.000-08:00

I love being married. I never thought that I would hear myself say that. For a few reasons...now here I am, saying it out loud to myself. (Okay, I'm not actually saying it out loud, because I'm the only one in the room...and that would just be silly.) But I do, I actually love being married. I know that is the kind of sappy thing that single people hate to hear married people say, which is one of the reasons I could never picture myself saying it. But forgive me, I guess I feel that I deserve the little indulgence of being able to say that I love being married. There, I've said it.

Adventures in Snowshoeing

2008-01-08T20:42:00.000-08:00

In the winter we try to get out snowshoeing a lot. It usually ends up being on Saturdays. A couple of Saturdays ago was our first time going snowshoeing this year, and I couldn't wait to try out my new boots that Chase got me for Christmas. Unfortunately, I was a little rusty, and Chase got this shot of me:

Hm. I really need to figure out how to turn these. Anyone? They look right in my iPhoto, then when I go to upload them, they're turned...

Well, we did have a lot of fun, and we really weren't turned sideways the whole time. Millcreek Canyon is beautiful right now, completely covered in snow but with the river still running. I'd recommend going up there to check it out. We also went snowshoeing in Farmington Canyon recently, and took our sleds. Chase rode his off a cliff:

To infinity and beyond!

Holidays with the Raymonds

2008-01-08T20:37:00.001-08:00

Well, we're officially the Raymond family. And it will be even more official in April or so, when I actually change my name. Here are two photos of us from the holidays:

How do you get these things to turn the right way? Anyway, this is what could have been a very nice, yet very cheesy Christmas card photo, had we taken it more than 3 days before Christmas. If you can't tell, we're in front of the "R" in California Adventure.

And, New Year's. Things got pretty crazy (you know, with the Martinelli's...) This is after we broke open the pinata AND stuffed our mouths with chewing gum. Somebody remind me to post pictures of that later.

Cruising

2008-01-08T19:20:00.000-08:00

We spent our honeymoon aboard the Monarch of the Seas. I know, I know, it's hard to believe, but this IS as wonderful as it sounds. You can't beat traveling to exotic locations like San Diego, Catalina Island, and Ensenada, Mexico! Seriously, though, this was our first cruise, and we ended up loving it. For those of you who think that cruises are just self-indulgent, sit-around-and-stuff-your-face fests, well...they can be. But for us, it was a good balance of relaxation and adventure, as you can see:

First we went to the San Diego Wild Animal Park.

Next, it was on to Catalina Island. It rained that day, but we still had a great day sea kayaking. A little cold though. And we didn't see any dolphins, which I really wanted to... :(

We only took one picture in Mexico. I think this pretty much explains it.

And, my personal favorite, the "Meatier Shower". SICK! This is what happens when McDonald's infiltrates Disneyland.

Catching up...

2008-01-08T19:06:00.001-08:00

Okay, so I know it's been forever since I posted anything. There's really no excuse. Except for that I haven't had a reliable internet connection at home for the last several months...oh yeah, and...I GOT MARRIED! So, I've been a little busy. But I'll fill you in on all the details.

The dress...

The dinner venue...Log Haven (isn't it beautiful?)

The groom...and the dancing!

I will post more pictures when I get them. Actually, I'm not sure if I'm supposed to post them at all, since they're from my photographer's site...you can check out more at: http://threewinksstudio.blogspot.com

It was the best wedding day ever. Which is lucky, since it'll be my only wedding day ever!

Camping in the Uintas...

2007-09-30T16:03:00.000-07:00

This weekend we camped overnight in the Uintas. It was a pretty rough ride getting up to our camping spot, but thanks to Robb's off-roading experience, we made it with only some minor car-sickness. We were so tired when we got there that we only stayed up long enough to eat Robb's fabulous fajita dinner and then we crashed right away. When we got up in the morning, it was snowing! We didn't expect that in September, but it made the scenery gorgeous and we were able to get some great pictures.

Can it be true?

2007-09-18T17:44:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's true...and for those of you who thought it might never happen (including me!)...I'm engaged! Chase and I met last fall in our singles ward. After nearly a year of lots of adventures together, we are getting married on December 15. We can't wait! Life will be pretty busy, as I just started nursing school and Chase is getting into his classes for English teaching. We'll be sticking around the Salt Lake area for awhile, so let's keep in touch, everyone!

Lava Hot Springs

2007-09-18T17:38:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we headed up to Lava Hot Springs, in Idaho, with the family...if you don't count the millions of hornets swarming all over our food and the trains waking us up all night, it was a great time! Here are some pictures of the adventures...

New Blog!

2007-09-14T22:00:00.001-07:00

Okay, so I decided I wanted my very own blog...it's not very exciting yet, but check back soon for some news!