The Holidays!

Our little tree and Santa were so cute I had to post them again.  Our little Christmas was exactly what I wanted and needed.  I am so thankful for Scott and his thoughtfulness and control! Scott spoils me daily and he showed great restraint in keeping our Christmas small.  

Notice the long present in the front of the above picture.

That long gift was a 2 quart thermos for Scott. He was thrilled and surprised! Last night Scott had to work a graveyard shift and so we tested this bad boy out.  At 8 pm it was -2 outside and we knew it would only get worse as the sky was clear.  Scott layered up and I filled up the thermos with hot cocoa (props to cannery cocoa!). Scott got home this morning around 8:30 am and I poured out the remaining cocoa-as I did I touched it and was SHOCKED to be burned! Granted I put boiling water into the thermos 12 hours ago and while the cab of the truck was not in the negatives it was probably 60, I figured that the liquid would have cooled enough to touch. I was honestly expecting lukewarm cocoa.  Scott was thrilled to have actual HOT cocoa all night long as he was out in the snow hauling water which frequently freezes between locations so he has to use blow torches to thaw the valves so the water transfer can happen. Here is to Stanley and their thermos making! They sure made a good one!

Scott suddenly got Christmas Eve off.  He was supposed to work but thanks to a frack being postponed 4 days he found himself without work for 3 days.  Even though it means loosing hours I was secretly happy.  One day there was a sale on the big shrimp at the store. I got one pound which was only 13 shrimp.  They were monstrous.  They have been in my freezer for a while and I decided to try making my own shrimp cocktail.  I boiled the shrimp in spices and make my own cocktail sauce.  It was so wonderfully delicious! I want to make it again for New Years Eve!

I also treated Scott to a wonderful Christmas dinner! We got a little prime rib roast.  We make a rub (salt, peppercorns, garlic, thyme) and cooked it.  It turned out quite nice.  I was impressed.  Scott enjoyed the horseradish and potatoes. I even tried some potatoes with all sorts of good/bad stuff in them and I liked it! It was such a good dinner. It does make me wonder what a REAL good prime rib would taste like. One day I will eat the prime cuts of prime rib that gets sent to New York and Texas and probably cost more than 20 of the ones I can get in Utah. But how happy would that bite be?!? I cannot wait to try it.

After our huge dinner we went with Scott's mom to the movies. We saw The Hobbit.  I enjoyed it very much even though I missed my family very much. 

Traditions Continue

Last year when I was visiting Scott in Utah during Thanksgiving we had this amazing date.

We recreated the date again this year.  Early in December Scott took me to McGrath's and again we had a wonderful meal!  After our tummies were full we walked around Temple Square and enjoyed the Spirit and lights and brisk walk!   

We warmed up at Melting Pot for dessert and some sparkling peach juice! Scott secretly called and got reservations for our romantic night. He simply succeeds at impressing me.

A week later Scott had his work Christmas party. As we sat at a table with a couple we knew the wife said 'hey I hope we win that popcorn maker so we can re-gift it and give it to your sister'.  So all night we were hoping they got the popcorn maker.  As the drawing occurred the couple sadly received the Mag-lite combo pack and Scott received the popcorn maker and 8 pounds of kernels  I am in heaven! I love it. It is such a fun novel way to pop corn and fills my salty crunchy cravings.   

December 12 marked the day that Ichiban Sushi opened in Vernal Utah.  Scott and I had to try it! We went on the third day it was open and while the waiters were running around crazy and unsure of the menu we had an enjoyable experience.  We ordered a variety plate of sushi with a spicy tuna roll. It landed on our table in a boat (in the above picture--the rice covered stuff is the spicy tuna roll, then the red is tuna, and white tuna, snapper and yellow tail) the squid has the black belt of sea weed wrapped around it, the shiny looking one was saba and was quite good). It was so fun! Scott is such a wonderful adventurous man. He ate the squid roll while I only ate one bite. I just could not do it. He totally made my night.

As Christmas gets closer our little tiny tree is getting quite the mound of presents around it.  I am pretty excited for Scott to see what I got for him.  As many of you know it is tricky with online banking to secretly purchase something online without the charge appearing and being spied by both of the account users. The stuff I bought at local stores is easy-cash. But online shopping is harder to hide.  I think I might have slipped on a couple gifts but I hid my Amazon orders on our account and I erased all viewing histories so maybe just maybe I will surprise him. Regardless I am really quite pleased with our little tree in a pot and we stayed in our budget!

Suzie loves Scott. There is no butts about it.  She lives for the moment he gets home from work. She knows the sound of his truck.  She simply unconditionally loves him and this pic shows it! The look in Suzie's eyes says it all!

I hope each of you have a wonderful Christmas and that December has been a wonderful month of tradition and love. Thank each one of you readers! I know who you are even if you do not leave a comment.  I appreciate that you visit and wonder how I am doing.  I wonder what you are doing as well! Merriest of Christmases!!!!

Back of the Freezer

TonightDec 20

15^°FObserved High1:45 pm

1^°F

Clear

CHANCE OF SNOW:

0%

 

WIND:

WNW at 2 mph

Details

FriDec 21

27^°

6^°

Sunny

CHANCE OF PRECIP:

0%

 

WIND:

SE at 2 mph

Details

SatDec 22

30^°

10^°

Partly Cloudy

CHANCE OF PRECIP:

0%

 

WIND:

S at 2 mph

Details

SunDec 23

28^°

8^°

Partly Cloudy

CHANCE OF PRECIP:

10%

 

WIND:

N at 3 mph

Details

MonDec 24

31^°

14^°

Few Snow Showers

CHANCE OF SNOW:

30%

 

WIND:

NNE at 2 mph

Details

TueDec 25

27^°

8^°

Few Snow Showers

Full Christmas Forecast

CHANCE OF SNOW:

30%

 

WIND:

NW at 4 mph

Details

This is the weather channel's forecast for Vernal until Christmas. As you can see we are in what I call the deep freeze.  I fear we will not see above freezing temperatures until March. It is  a geographical downfall for living the in Uintah Basin.  I can only hope  the lows are not into the negatives.

And while this deep freeze is hard to keep warm being in the deep freeze of a family member is even harder to bear. I have been in this freezer before and know of it's frigidity.  For some reason I cannot come to peace with it. 

I am really struggling right now with several things and my heart hurts on a daily basis. 

I am feeling quite isolated in the back of the freezer.

Mair-reminder

I really liked this quote and I think I need to be reminded regularly.

BLOG ON

I have come to another decision. After many hours in agony over hurting my sister Lori's feelings I decided to quit my blog. This is not the first time Lori has been offended by my thoughts and feelings on this blog. I figured it would be easier to delete my blog and start another one. I have had this blog for eight years. I have used this as my outlet to get my feelings and thoughts to mix and become one. It helps ME and only ME. I need an outlet to get my feelings into words. I remember last year posting and questioning who has access to my life. I have decided that I will let the same people have access to my life. If they do not like what I write then they can unfriend me or quit reading my blog.

I love sharing my thoughts in this venue! I appreciate each of you who take time out of your life to read my thoughts! I love it! I want to keep sharing myself in this manner.

This is my blog.
These are my thoughts.
My opinion is not perfect but it is mine.
I love you all even when we do not agree.

Post #420

For some reason I have been looking forward to this post for quite a while. It might have started during the time I dated Josh Nay. He was quiet the user of 'spice'. I dated Josh while I was in Portland and marijuana is legal in Oregon with a prescription from a doctor-and it is easy to get. I woke up many times from the smell of pot being smoked. It is such a nauseating smell. Whatever the cause the truth is that I have been looking forward to this post.

Now that it is here I am not as excited. I have decided to go private private with my blog. This means that I will be the only one to read my blog. I appreciate all of the hours you have spent reading my words and my thoughts, my pains and my success. I have loved sharing my fears and my opinions with you. Journal writing is the main way I process my feelings. I have found 420 chances to express my feelings and my thoughts. I have appreciated deeply the comments and the attention to my words. Thank you very much!

Point of View

Point of view is a weird thing. A person can only have one-their own. Yet as humans we can understand others POV and we can learn to see things from their POV but originally we only have our own POV. My POV has been so very wrong lately. And thinking about it for several days I thing my POV is way out of whack, I think it is broken. It is a very stomach sickening thing to learn about oneself.

I remember one significant day when I first noticed my POV was out of line. I was 13 years old and entering high school. Looking at the seniors I thought they were so big and so tall and so mature. Then a mere 4 years later I was a senior and when I looked at the seniors I realized that we were not that big, that in fact it was the freshmen who were tiny, scrawny, puny, and immature. I should have learned right there and then that my POV is wrong.

Over the next two decades I have learned about friends and their POV. There are so many POV out there. I have maintained friendships even though our POV on religion is not the same. Some of my friends do not have the same POV politically as I do yet we hang out and enjoy the things we do have similar POV on.  I have way more friends who have a POV regarding drinking alcohol than I do yet I enjoy going to events where we each have a choice of beverage and each can life according to our POV..

I know my POV is very wrong. I know that I have much to work on and much to understand. My sister is going through a trial that I have prayed more than once that I could be the one to go through it and spare her heart. My POV thinks that I cannot take this trial from her. My POV says that it is ok. She will be ok. Just as I was ok during the last 3 years of my life. My POV says that only I could do what I did and only she can do what she is doing. She has to learn and live and love through her own POV and I cannot cange her POV. I can only understand that my POV is wrong.  Each person on this planet has heartache of some kind. It may be public or it may be hidden but we all have it! We all have our POV to help keep us human.

Today in church my Bishop explained the need for a new study curriculum for the 12-18 year olds of the LDS religion.   His words were that while the youth today were an extraordinary generation and very strong but that many of the youth were being lost to immoral sins. The POV of the LDS church regarding chastity and morality are very strict and my POV agrees with the LDS church and I have chosen to live these laws. I find them to be freeing even though they seem so restrictive. It is a complicated POV of mine. Anyway, the youth in the world today are introduced to sex and experimenting with sex at such early ages that my church is trying to prevent the consequences of promiscuity.  The lessons plans now taught every Sunday to these young people will be NOTHING. No lessons will be prepared. Instead the adolescent will be given a topic such as the Godhead and the teen will research at home and then come with info for a discussion. This provides a way for the teens to learn on their own-in their own houses, to study out a topic and learn for themselves if it is something that they want to commit to. I think this is wonderful. But I am reminded of a time when I was a teen and my mother taught me about signs of the last days before Jesus Christ comes again. She said we would be required to teach the gospel in our own home. My POV interpreted that to mean that I would be living in a land where teaching the gospel in a public setting would be prevented. My POV thought that I would have to teach my children and myself alone. As a result I saved every manual and every church resource I could get my hands on. Yet sitting in church today I realized that my POV was once again WRONG! I will not be living in a world where I cannot publicly practice my religion. I will not have children. I will not be all alone in my teachings. Now my POV thinks that I will be required to teach those in my house the gospel so that they can stand on their own two feet and choose for themselves what they believe. The best environment for families to learn together is in the home and now my POV has changed.

POV is a ever changing thing. I know mine is completely flawed. I know my POV has let me down several times. I try to learn and try to change. I try. Yet I fail. My POV is only my point of view. I do not have anyone else's experiences and I do not have other people's thoughts. I just have mine and I am a 100% imperfect woman who fails 100% of the time.