Blissfully Happy

I am truly one of the most blessed people in the world. John asked me what I wanted the most. My response?? To be Blissfully Happy with him.

John Western officially proposed to me on Friday, September 28th. I took a short day at work to enjoy the afternoon with John. A snow storm had been brewing all day long, and he was eager to take me up to the mountains to see the snow. After several attempts to make it up the canyon, we finally got a start around 9 pm and got to the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon around 10.

It was snowing beautifully, but it was COLD. John tried to coax me out of the car several times, before I got it and joined him standing in the beautifully falling snow. He held me for a few minutes before he got down on his knee-- on the wet cold pavement!! At this point my tears started gushing. He proposed beautifully and slipped the ring on my cold trembling finger.

As we started down the canyon... we had to stop the car as the reality of what we had done just struck us.. and we both whipped out our cell phones to send text messages to everyone we know and love. :)

It took us about an hour to come back down the canyon because the snow was so blustery and thick. It wasn't sticking to the road, but it definitly made visibility difficult.

Again, I feel so blessed and marvel every day that this man has chosen me to spend all eternity with. He is more than I could ever have dreamed of. We will be sealed in the Salt Lake Temple on January 4th, 2008.

Ta DA!

Not the greatest background.. but a picture of the two of us. Hurray!

Sigh....

I hardly know where to start with this entry... so much has happened since my LONG ago post in June.

I suppose new love takes priority.. yet it seems to run all together.

At 34 years of age, and who knows how many crushes and hopeful new relationships, it seems a bit foolish to be so gushy and sentimental. Yet, here I am, feeling 13 years old and giddy as ever over the very thing that should be old hat by now.

John and I met in our Singles Ward, ironically, the last place I thought I would meet someone special. We were partnered up in an ad hoc church activity as team mates, and after several months of friendship chatter, we blossomed into something much more. Starting with a midnight hike on the 4th of July, a midnight showing of Harry Potter and a camping trip with people neither of us knew well, and the list can go on and on and on. There's hardly been a night since then when you couldn't find us together doing something fun. He's truly a blessing in my life and I'm grateful for the new experience of getting to know him and enjoy his zest for life.

My family has been fitfully planning a reunion for the last year. I was half in and half out for so long, wanting to give my relationship with John every chance to grow. But at the last minute, I couldn't resist the call of an adventure to get on the road and join them all in Bend, Oregon for a little camping, and canoeing and sight seeing. Unfortunately, it was so rushed (11 hours to drive there, and only about 1.5 days to play) that my camera didn't come out of it's case much.

The campsite had biking paths all over, and I was so eager to get my bike there and play. We packed both of our bikes on the back of John's car and got with it 24 miles of Bend when

**** the rack broke****

I heard John calmly say "there goes your bike" and I turned around to see my bike bounce about 6 feet in the air, and launch into the weeds and dirt on the side of the road.

Of course, I'd much rather tell the story of my crazy descent from the top of a mountain, losing control just at the end of the trail resulting in the fabulous disfigurement of the tire rims. John likes to tell people that I found my way back from the one way Hades Trail. :D

I'm thankful that all that was damaged was my bike, and it is fixed easily enough. We've decided that if biking is important enough on future trips, we'll rent a bike instead of packing them with us. :(

We saw another fascinating phenomenon. Mom alerted us to it before we even got on the road. She saw this odd looking tree with some strange shaped branches, and as they got closer, discovered that it was full of shoes!!! This picture is only a small sampling. If you do a Google Search for "shoe tree" you'll discover that there are several such trees all over the country. This particular one is found outside of Juntura, OR.

My mind has been spinning for a long time, trying to decipher the story behind the beautiful pair of pink ballet shoes hung relatively low on the tree, or the muddy football shoes hanging from the upper most branches.
There's a brief update on my life of late. Pretty consumed with living rather than documenting it. I'm truly blessed in my life and grateful for the things that make life worth living. :)

The creek in Mill Creek Canyon

-- compliments of a good friend with a great eye for photography!

No hiking today, but a BIKE RIDE!

You may or may not remember that last summer I had knee surgery.. and today is the 1 year anniversary of that surgery. I didn't realize that, but that makes my bike ride today monumental!

Bike Maintenance is not one of my regular activities, so I have found that when I get a flat tire, or have other maintenance that needs to happen, I tend to get discouraged and fish around for anyone who might want to fix it for me. I'd had enough, and last Monday I replaced the front tire on my bike-- ALL BY MYSELF! (are you so proud?? )

I took a short spin around the block, and discovered, much to my dismay, that I haven't been very diligent in my strength training. Between moving and getting used to a new neighborhood and adjusting to new work hours, it just wasn't a priority. I did heavy duty strength training this week, and felt good enough to do a ride this morning in lieu of my regular hike.

I have also discovered that I'm MUCH closer to Sugarhouse Park than I originally thought. So, that's where I went this morning. there were only two hills that got my heart rate up where it should be for a good workout, and that was perfect! I was so surprised when I got home and it only had taken me a half hour to do the whole trip!

Reading...

I mentioned in my last post that I've been reading Emerson... but I've also been reading another book that's more business related. I haven't been sucked in to a book like this for a while. It's wonderful. Good To Great is about companies who have successfully crossed the line from being a pretty good company to become a GREAT company with miraculous returns and a solid future.

There are a million concepts in this book that I could share, but the one that is sticking out the most in my head is the "Hedgehog Concept." Basically it's finding the mission of your institution-- what is it that you are the best at? Once you've established the Hedgehog Concept-- it guides EVERY decision you make. This eases the decision making process, because rather than being caught up in the whim of the moment, you can pass up the "fantastic deal" that will take you off course from your ultimate goal. I like this because not only can I see it's perfect applicability in business, but I can see the benefit this would have in personal day to day issues as well.

Frisbees...

I went to a picnic with my family last night-- a wonderful, well organized event put on by my parent's HR department where they serve a part time service mission. They had goodie bags for EVERYONE! One of the items included was a flexible fold up Frisbee. I took my niece and nephew out in the backyard to play. My niece really has an arm!! She threw it right over the fence into the neighbor's yard. We timidly went to the door to ask permission to go back and get it-- which of course was granted. When we got back into my backyard, she use those muscles again then threw it into the OTHER neighbor's back yard. We had to circle the block this time to retrieve the errant Frisbee, and decided that it was time to put the Frisbee away for a while. It was adorable. I'm not sure how she felt about it as grandma and I tried, unsuccessfully to restrain our giggles at the second mishap!

Raspberries....

On our return from the second retrieval, my adorable neighbor was out on his evening bike ride. Tonight he had a treat! Fresh raspberries from his garden! Beautiful yellow zucchini and pale green cucumbers! I ate the raspberries for breakfast this morning-- definitely a little bit of heaven!

Well, that's my post for today! :) feels good to just write it all out for a bit. :)

Weekly Hikes

I've been taking advantage of my three day weekends this summer, and my close proximity to Millcreek canyon to go hiking every Friday. My intention is to go in the mornings, but it usually ends up being LATE morning.

Last week I got half way up the Porter Fork trail. The sign at the trail head told me it was 3 miles to the top, 1.5 miles to the actual wilderness trail. I only made it half way, because that first 1.5 miles, though paved, was UPHILL the entire way. There were cabins and beautiful summer homes all along the paved road, so I can't say that it was an entire disappointment. Another day, I'll go better prepared to hike in the actual trail.

Today, I hiked on the Pipeline trail. Again, quite a bit of uphill hiking before I got to some level walking, but it was refreshing and beautiful. We're in our first "heat wave" of the summer, so it was quite warm. Even that was enjoyable, though. The canyon wind was hot, rather than the cool breeze you would expect. I did fine respite on an obliging rock in the shade of some trees. It's in the lower left hand corner of the collage.

I've recently started reading the Essays and Poems of Emerson, and I took some time to read about Commodity and Beauty in relation to Nature. Beautiful stuff. Here's a quote:

"To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from
society. I am not solitary whilst I read and write, though nobody is with me.
But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars. The rays that come from
those heavenly worlds, will separate between him and what he touches. One might
think the atmosphere was made transparent with this design, to give man, in the
heavenly bodies, the perpetual presence of the sublime. Seen in the streets of
cities, how great would en believe and adore; and preserve for many generations
the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! but every night come
out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing
smile."

CONNECTED!

Well, don't fall out of your seats quite yet.

I finally got my Internet connected this morning! What a hassle.. that I'm going to wash my hands of right now and talk about positive happy things.

I've moved into a beautiful little duplex in Holladay. My wonderful realtor Aaron Oakeson is also a property manager. After several frustrating house hunting excursions, he suggested that maybe this wasn't the right time to be looking for a home to buy, and he had a duplex available for me immediately if that's what i wanted to do. After a few days to think about it, I decided to go for it. So, here I am... in a very quiet, quaint neighborhood, in more space than I ever had in my condo.

I'm still very unsure of what I want to do and where I really want to be, but this is a good stopping off point while I figure that out.

Several of you have been asking for pictures, so if you can bear with a few boxes.. I'll give it a go. :) Enjoy!

Here's the front yard.. nice long driveway :)

And the Backyard... (invites for the barbeque soon!! )

This is the front room, from the hallway...

And the front room from the front door...

And finally the kitchen from the back door.

No bedrooms.. they were too small to get a good picture of them... but the master bedroom is in the back of the house. It's so quiet here.. i can actually wake up to the birds singing-- usually around 4 am. :D but that's the miracle.. i can hear the birds.. very nice!!

I'm also only about 15 minutes from Millcreek canyon, I went hiking there yesterday afternoon/evening. It was beautiful and GREAT exercise.

I think that's it... but now that I'm connected again.. I hope to post a little more frequently.

Four Reasons to Celebrate

1. I SOLD MY CONDO!!!
   I listed it Wednesday night, and Thursday morning, I had an offer for MORE than my asking price. It is truely a blessing. I've been wanting to sell my condo for a while, and this completes the direction i feel like i've been needing to go in a long time. Closing is April 19th. Now i'll wait on another miracle to see where i'm supposed to move. A little unnerving, but exciting at the same time. I've got two apartments to look at tomorrow evening. We'll see how nice the neighborhoods are in comparision to the cute pictures they had posted on Craigslist.com. A good friend of mine is thinking about selling her townhouse, but her roommate is moving out this week, so that might be my best option until I can get my feet on the ground and really decide what I want to do with my life.
   


2. The last ski event of the season.
   I finally got to go skiing with my friend Nate last friday night at Brighton Ski Resort. Despite my face plant and pulled muscle, it was a WONDERFUL evening. I really enjoyed myself. The weather was warm-- no frostbitten fingertips. Nate actually forgot his ski coat, so he was skiing in a triple layer of sweatshirts.. and as long as we were going hard, he was warm and comfortable. I might even attempt a snow board next year. ;)
   


3. General Conference.
   What a wonderful weekend to spend with family listening to our priesthood and auxillary leaders counsel us on how to live and love. Elder Holland spoke so eloquently about using kind words with our families and loved ones. Elder Oaks spoke on divorce and the far reaching affects of a decision to divorce. It led to some very insightful comments on marriage as well.
   


4. Neices and Nephews.
   The whole family was home for the conference proceedings. Usually they are all pretty shy and I don't get to have much quality time with each one individually-- there are 11 of them.. but i can honestly say that I was able to spend at least a few minutes talking and playing with each of my neices and nephews this weekend. They are all such beautiful children with sweet spirits that touch my heart. Makes me proud to be an aunt. :)

I think that's about it for today.. wish me luck with the apartment hunting!

Creative Concoctions

A friend came over to play Wednesday night, and I decided to cook dinner. The only problem was, my fridge was pretty bare. I grabbed out a few things and came up with this:

2 chicken breasts, cubed
1/2 chopped onion
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 pkg. frozen chopped spinach

cook the chicken with the onion until onion is translucent and chicken is browned.
Stir in mushroom soup
Add the frozen spinach.

When warmed through, roll up a spoonful of the mixture in a whole wheat tortilla.

Gotta figure out the spices though, I used salt and pepper, some garlic and basil, but there's probably a better spice mix for it. . The spinach was a bit overwhelming... fun to play with though!

More Pictures

Yes, I know, I took 6 days of vacation and only posted once! Pathetic indeed.
I'll repent by posting a few more pictures. Post note: I'm done with picassa!!! i had to fix this post about 5 times!!! Enjoy it!

The park had this HUGE activity barn that would have been so much fun, had it been opened. As it was, we had to settle for this single activity attraction. The instructions tell you to stand with the outside of your right foot flush with the wall, then place your right cheek against the wall (eewwww!! :P but i tried it anyway). Then you were to try, just TRY to lift your left foot off the ground. Sure enough, it wouldn't come up. I felt kind of foolish as I thought about the possible populations this activity was targeting in its day... interesting perspectives the South has to offer.

Here's a close up of some Ivy. There were so many cool photo ops.. just what I asked for! :D

Even in the wintery month of February, there was more green in Georgia than is even possible in Utah. Especially with our SNOWSTORMS of the week. Here's a shot of the trees with ivy growing all the way up the trunk. Beautiful!

This picture should give you a better perspective on just how big this stone mountain is. I took this one about half way up the grassy area the other one was taken about halfway again closer than this one. Kinda cool, huh? I'm a little more inspired to get to Mount Rushmore now. :)

Trips

This was cool. Stone Mountain, Georgia. They carved this monument in the side of a giant rock in the middle of town. The three men are Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and Jefferson Davis. It was a beautiful park, with EXPANSIVE grassy areas for watching the fireworks show. Unfortunately, we were too early in the season to see the fireworks, and the children with us would not have made it that long. It was a fun way to get out of the house and see something of Atlanta.

My visit has been cathartic.. in more ways than one. Tomorrow I head for home, hopefully to warmer weather and no snow. :D

Three Things...

1. The inversion is so nasty... the smog/pollution index thingamijigger says that we are currently 3-4 times WORSE than LA. I walked out of Target tonight and I could actually TASTE the air. Gag!



2. I watched the COOLEST thing while I was checking out at Target. The store security had been running around the store the whole 30 minutes I was there.. playing with their walkie talkies and hiding behind displays and fixtures. I knew something was going down. I had walked in to the building with two snotty girls.. who were acting kind of weird, but I didn't really think anything of it. I happened to be walking to the register and one of the girls was walking out at the same time-- not to the checkout, but to the doors. Just as she crossed the threshold, the cute security guy made a mad dash to the door. He confronted her and it appeared, asked her politely to return to the store. She resisted and was "helped" back into the store. She continued to resist and two cops came and handcuffed her!!!! Is that so cool?? It was really hard not to stare and watch the whole drama scene play out. My cashier was just as distracted. It was pretty amazing. You Go Security! anything you can do to keep the cost of my wonderful Target merchandise to a minimum is okay by me!



3. I'm refinancing my house! I started the process today and did some pretty fancy negotiating. They are going to drop my interest rate from 7.124% to 5.347% or something or other... and the only cost was for the appraisal. They told me it would be $410 for the appraisal!! My jaw dropped... until I asked around about a reasonable rate for an appraisal and found that $300 is about the average. Well, I told the guy that the appraisal cost was a roadblock. He asked me what I was willing to pay, and just grabbed $100 out of the air. He talked to his manager, and they approved it! I was shocked and grateful. With any luck, the paperwork will be all done and I'll have a much lower mortgage payment with in a week and a half!

* picture is from the walkway at Buchart Gardens in Victoria, BC. Awesome trip!

A Poem that Touched me today

I found this poem eons ago in a book I read as a teenager. Web searches for it in the past have been futile, but today, it magically appeared. :) I must have been in sore need of it today.

He Wishes for Cloths of Heaven

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths,
Of night and light and half-light;
I would spread the cloths under your feet;
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

W.B. Yeats

The new room!

I tried to take pictures of the whole room, but alas, it isn't big enough to get more than corners.
And I actually got halfway moved back in before I snagged the camera. Here's one corner.. where the gray meets the white and brown/purple wall.

This is the opposite corner from the first picture. Notice, the doors have not been re-installed. I need to buy one new one.

Here's another one trying to highlight the new flooring.
It feels SOOOOO Good! :D

Feeling a bit artsy with this one. This was on Hug Beach on the Oregon Coast. I took it on my trip back there the beginning of October.

I'm pretty disppointed though. I have seen so many people have success with Picassa for uploading a whole slew of pictures to blog about. My previous post worked with Picassa, but my last few attempts have failed miserably. Austin thought perhaps it was a glitch with the updated Blogger. I'll have to take a look at the blogger notes to see if anyone has found a fix for that problem.

oh baby! does that have "geek" written all over it or what?? Gotta love it.

This is a very Austinish entry, isn't it? I just feel like rambling for a while. Work today was interesting. We have "office days" twice a month. There are seven designers in my office, and we are spread hither and yon through out the work week-- either working from home or meeting with faculty at other campuses or just making ourselves available for general questions. These "office days" are an attempt to build some cohesion and help us stay focussed on some higher level activities, rather than course support on a day to day basis.

I've been conducting these since November, and I've always tried to make sure that the things I plan are of value to the other folks in the group. We decided to read a book and have discussions on it. Once the "business" portion of the agenda was over, we really didn't have much time for the book discussion. What we did have was really good though-- at least I thought so.

We've been migrating to a new content management system, and the general feeling in the office has been like The-Little-Engine-That-Could trying with all her heart to make it to the other side of the mountain. Now that we are there, we can all use a little down time to enjoy the Vista-- oh dear BAD!! joke (the new system is called Vista). That's so bad i'm almost tempted to erase it, but I'll leave it for writing therapy sake!

So, now, i'm home.. after spending an hour at the gym, and cancelling my gym membership (effective on Feb. 15th). I need to make a plan to really initiate an At-Home program. First I'll get my Spare Oom finished so i have someplace to store my exercise ball and weights and all that fun stuff. The only things left in there are to paint the lower half of the walls, and purchase storage shelves so stuff can be moved back in.

You wanted pictures. :) Here we go!
This is the most adorable picture of my Grandparents. I took it at Thanksgiving.
They are wonderful, inspirational people to me.

Love you Grandma and Grandpa!!

Gold Nuggets

Found this one while browsing a friend's library this weekend-- thanks Wade!!!


From the chapter titled "Swords and Scabbards" in the book "The Power of Truth" by William George Jordan:

"The man who does not dare follow his own convictions, but who lives in terror of what society will say, falling prostrate before the golden calf of public opinion, is living an empty life of mere show. He is sacrificing his individuality, his divine right to live his life in harmony of his own high ideals, to a cowardly, toadying fear of the world. He is not a voice, with the strong note of individual purpose; he is but the thin echo of the voice of thousands. He is not brightening, sharpening and using the sword of his life in true warfare; he is lazily ornamenting a useless scabbard with the hieroglyphics of his folly.

Life is not a competition with others. In it's truest sense it is rivarly with ourselves. we should each day seek to break the record of our yesterday. We should seek each day to live stronger, better, truer lives; each day to master some weakness of yesterday; each day to repair past follies; each day to surpass ourselves. "