Camping 2014

We planned, postponed, dreamed, longed, ached and waited for this day! And it finally happened. We made it up the mountain!

Notice the puddles. It had been raining almost every single day so we took the 20% chance as a good sign. I mean we live in a dessert--for sure it cannot rain every single day. The reservoirs are at all time low levels. How much more rain could we really honestly actually receive?

Scott was a busy man up the mountain. He chopped down a couple trees by hand due to the fact our second hand chain saw failed to start. He has pretty impressive axe skills. Hitting the exact same slit every single time. It was amazing to see his skills. He claimed to have developed them on the oil rigs where he had to hit small wing nuts and that he learned really quick to hit the right exact spot. 

We spent a whole 7 minutes setting up our tent. It is so wonderful. I just love the thing! We had our entire camp set up in less than 30 minutes. I had Scott take a pic of me in my new Yellowstone zip up hoodie. I love that thing so much! Soo comfy. So long and so wonderful! 

Thursday we set up camp. Thursday between 1-6 it rained. We totally took a nap in the awesome dry tent!

About 6 we made a fire and ate dinner. We decided to try some freeze dried meals. So all we did was heat up water, add to pouch, stir, wait, eat. I loved it. The food is tolerable and so much easier than busting out the potatoes, onions, dutch oven and coals. We waited about 10 minutes for dinner to be ready instead of the hours of dutch oven waiting. I am a huge fan now of these dinners. They are the only way to go camping and relaxing. For me who is not the biggest fan of dutch oven due to all the onions and potatoes involved in every single dish. I hate the clean up, trash collection from peels, and cans etc. The pouches of the freeze dried meals are so wonderful!

After dinner we had a small fire for a couple hours while we each read our books and enjoyed the night. Then it started to rain about 8 pm. We just went to bed. It rained for the better part of the night. We woke the next day to a very soggy morning!

Here we are before 7 am. Suzie had been all around the camp smelling whatever had crossed our camp during the night--many deer prints, but I am sure racoon etc. She quickly became soaked from running around with her nose to the ground. 

The sun is finally rising and starting to warm us up and dry everything out!

Suzie loves being 'camp dog' She is on the look out even though there is a ball right under her feet. 

Friday morning was amazing. It was quiet and still. There was some fog nearby that quickly dissipated after the sun rose. We sat by the fire until 11 am talking and reading. It was a wonderful morning! We went for a drive after lunch and saw many cows and one crane. it was a great drive. We found other camp sites we would like to try next time. 

We got back to camp and made another fire and Scott in his wisdom suggested cooking some hot dogs really quick since the clouds were getting darker. We cooked our hot dogs and the rain started. We shoved the remaining dogs in our mouths and quickly put stuff up. We then went to the tent to find shelter. It rained for a few hours and then about 7 pm it stopped. I went out to the drenched fire and wrote in my journal. We contemplated packing up and going home (in hind site we should have), but chose to spend one more night as planned. So far we had not gotten too wet. The tent was holding up quite impressively! Then at 8:15 pm the rain stared and did not stop until 3:05 am. We tried to sleep. Scott did pretty good, I failed. Even though my eyes were closed the lightening was quite blinding. I spend the night counting seconds between lightening strikes and thunder rolls. The thunder was so wonderful. It echoed back and forth on the hills and sounded longer, deeper and much more threatening than if I was at my home. Sometime after midnight the wind started blowing and part of our tent was up rooted due to saturated ground and the steak not being able to find purchase. We fixed the fallen tent and noticed the tent had reached it's saturation point. We had small drops falling in. Nothing too serious just enough to make the blanket damp in a few spots. Once daylight came and we could see better we noticed a puddle. We think it came between the awning and the front door where there is a small gap and the wind much have been just right to allow the water to run right in. All in all we had a dry camp considering how much rain there was. We got out of bet about 7 am and dilly dallied and enjoyed the morning. Promptly at 8:03 am it stared raining again. Hard. Scott sent me and a shivering Suzie into the tent while he packed everything up. Then I put Suz in the car and helped Scott tear down the tent. We were packed and heading down the mountain by 8:41 am. Our goal was to come down the mountain about 9 or 10 am so we were right on schedule. Vernal was having rain so we piled everything on the deck and will dry everything out Monday. What a smokey, muddy mess we are! 

It was fun nonetheless. It is so wonderful to unplug and detach and just breathe mountain air. 

One of these things is not like the other.

Last weekend I had the honor of attending a sister week of a dear long time friend. This was 9th year of this great event. I have attended several of these gatherings in Indiana and Utah. So naturally when it was in Utah this year I arranged to attend. The sisters of this group are 5. Four are currently married. Three have children. 4 have jobs that they love. 5 find great strength in each other and love having a week with each other to recharge, renew and refresh.

All 5 of these women are wonderful, inspirational, hard working, smart, musically talented, creative, passionate, dreamers, caring and great citizens of the country. While they are such great women and I love each of them very much I have noticed a few things over the years. Only 1 sister seems content with her body size. 1 sister seems content with her life. She seems content with her relationship with her spouse. She loves being a mother even during the hard moments. She is a regular attending member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. She honors her temple covenants. She seems happy-deep down happy.  Is this because of her choices? Is this a result of how she was raised? What makes her so different? Do the other sisters recognize this? How can I be like this 1 sister?

I enjoyed my time with the sisters and I hope to continue to be invited in the following years. I also hope I can live a better life and be a happier and better person. These are simply my observations and hopes for myself.

Is My Blog Dead?

Is it? There is no signs of life, there is not much activity. It just might be dead. I am weeping over the loss of my dear friend-my Blog Bubble. BB has been there for me for eight good years. He has listened when I complained, cared when I cried, laughed when I married Dan, cheered when we divorced. He was there while I dated and dated and dated and found Scott. He was there for all my adventures. But most of all he was there to get the words, thoughts, feelings, and ideas out of my head and out in type format. This process of getting words out of my head and into type helps me process the good, bad, pretty and ugly in my life. I find it very cathartic.  My thoughts and feelings are sometimes jumbled up in my head. My heart conflicts with what my brain is telling me and my brain dominates what my heart is trying to feel. Putting feelings and thoughts into neat little sentences which grow into paragraphs who mature into stories, articles, factiods, help me to make sense out the jumbled chaos that is happening inside my head. The resulting word rush results in a heart in harmony with my calm mind. It is a release. It is a joy. It is necessary.

So why the death of the blog? I blame no internet in my house.

I have chosen a life with limited internet access. It works for me. I am not condemning anyone or preaching a limited internet life; I am simply explaining my choice. I have found over the past year and a half that I am connecting to actual people more. I don't plan my meals around what picture I can take to post on my blog. I don't plan my weekends with great photo ops in mind. I just go and do and be. It is hard because sometimes I just want to google some recipe or an actress or find movie times but I survive and realize other things are important. I watch so many people playing on their phones and ignoring their spouses and their children. I see people playing plants and zombies in church instead of looking up scriptures. I see many many friends ignored for the glimpse of a text or tweet. It is a weakness of mine that while I tried to focus on good things I found I was missing out on the better things. I am no longer guilty of distracted driving. I ignore texts and only look at facebook 1-2 times a week. I am rarely on pintrest and never on twitter even with accounts. I have never done instagram and fear I am missing out. I feel I am a fuddy duddy who lives in a cave. Yet here I am--not regretting my choice.

I do not think I will put this blog out to pasture just yet. He might have some good post left in him. But for now I will revert/continue to use pen and paper in the form of journals (I have 16 volumes dedicated to my life--picture free sadly).

Oh BB how I have loved you! I am tearing up now just thinking about how much you have helped me! I cannot quite let you go just yet! I feel bad for neglecting you....I sound like the movie Her which I have not seen but can relate since I am talking to a blog. A inanimate blog.

My Kitchen

I am finally getting around to writing about my house.

Scott has been living, off and on, in a house owned by his grandmother since 1996. It has been a worry to me about our future in the house. We have been allowed to paint but not change the things we wanted to like the roof, fencing etc. I have wanted to remodel and landscape.

Recently my sister who was widowed in November 2012 had been living in ‘grandma’s’ house with her husband and children since 1997. Due to the recent passing of her husband her in-laws decided to disregard the husbands deathbed wish and included ‘grandma’s’ house in with all the farm land and sold it. My sister now has to worry about paying rent or buying the house from the new owner or moving. She has not had a mortgage for 15 years and all the equity in grandma’s house is no longer hers. There is plenty of blame all around for this current situation. Regardless of who didn’t get papers correctly signed and who lied etc after many years my sister and her kids have nothing. I am not going to be in a similar situation. I do not want to imagine life in 15 years and Scott passing and I am kicked out of my home that was never really mine anyway. I would lose all the ‘sweat equity’. I also worried that when Grandma passes away –without a legal will which she refuses to make- all her assets will be divided between her three children and NOT three children and ONE grandson. Even if taken to probate court-which causes me to shudder—going to court against family—I think the judge would say one grandson does not have rights if none of the other grandchildren have rights. So I am sure of the future in the house is not secure.

Scott readily agreed with me and went on the hunt for a house. You have seen outside pictures. Here is some detail about the kitchen.

This is a picture of the back door. This is taken before we moved in.

A picture of the flooring-I like it. The pics look like there are scratches in the floor-there are not. They must be scuffs that have been washed out.

This is the corner. The stove was not installed at this time. Nor is the fridge.

A whole view of the kitchen. The stove and fridge were placed as part of the staging of the house.

All moved in and put together!

A closer view of my favorite corner! Everything is so handy! I love my gas stove! I love the hanging spatulas and spoons for easy grabbing. It is my favorite corner in the house!

This is the other corner-not my favorite-but way better than the small orange corners I had before. I do love the refrigerator! It is very hand having the freezer on the bottom! We were very lucky that the refrigerator fit. We measured between the counters and did not notice that the cupboards above were not lined up. It barely fit between the cupboards! We were very very lucky indeed. Next to purchase is a new dishwasher. That will be a little down the line!

That is my kitchen. I enjoy it very much. We are using a card table for our dining purposes and will one day get a real table with real chairs!

Here is to the future! Which is much more secure even if I have a card table and old icky dishwasher!

Another Peek at the Stewart Shack

The following pictures are of my real life! My unorganized, less than perfect, real life!

This is the master bathroom. Yes the light bulbs are different colors-It is weird but I have not taken time to fix it nor to put away my hair band and lip stick, so it must not bother me too much.

The shower is very nice. It is real stone and quite nice. There are 2 heads with one removable.

The jets can be angled to spray in all directions to allow massage of my back and shoulders!

This is the other shower head in this his and hers shower. I like to get both ends going and really steam up the place! It really helps that I have a ginormous 75 gallon water heater! I have yet to drain it!

My mom had one of these hanging on our bathroom door as a child. She and my father would put their underthings in them. My mom started making them again and gave me this one shortly after I married Scott. It has “Keep your laundry tucked away” embroidered on it. My previous bathroom was blue and she made it to match. I love it! It reminds me of my childhood and of my mother all in one daily glance! Oh FYI there is a flap on the bottom to make loading the washer very very very easy!

Speaking of washing machines! Right out the second door of the master bath is the wash area. Hardly a room but it fits my needs!

Now onto my closet! It is a good square closet with and L bar. It has enough room for all our shoes and clothes and dirty clothes baskets! Again it is perfect for me!

Here is our bed. Not made squarely—and I call myself a hygienist! But this is how it really is. I am cold and need my WSU Dental Hygiene blanket on my side! Suzie prefers to snuggle down on my side! Sheesh! This makes it difficult to make the bed! That is my excuse for having a bed in disarray while I have no children to require my time. I guess I am just lazy! Ugh! I do not want to think that about myself. So I will conclude that I am an imperfect person with an imperfect house.

This is the spare room you will be entreated to upon arrival at the Stewart Shack!

This is also the bathroom you will pleasantly use! Heat lamp light included!

I just wanted to show the cute tile floor someone did—probably in the 80’s! Regardless I enjoy it!

Well that is another installation of our house! One day I will get the family room cleaned enough to take a picture and include it. I also need to purchase another couch for the upstairs sitting room. When that happens pictures will follow!

Introducing the Stewart Shack

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Valentine's Day and all the rest of the holidays I seem to have missed!

Scott and I did our traditional trip to Temple Square and then to Melting Pot. It was wonderful as always!  I do enjoy that tradition we started. 

We had a very tiny Christmas this year! The reason was we closed on a house on Christmas Eve! What a great gift Scott got me!

He did a lot of the work all by himself. He got the Realtor, the loan, looked at the house first, got the paper work done etc. I just showed up for the house viewing. He did all the inspections etc. He even signed for everything by himself while I was at a work party. How great is that? He did such a great job! 

Scott in the process of moving! Just a classic shot of the fun we have.

The boxes slid and I couldn't resist another shot while I was laughing so hard. 

Here is our little house. I am calling it the Stewart Shack for now. It is 4 bedroom, 2 bath little nugget of a house! It is an upgrade from where we were living before and so life is great! I am so thankful for the house and the chance we have to make it our home. Now if we could just get a magic wand to poof all of our copious amounts of food storage from the basement of old house to basement of new house that would be great!

Happy Life

Summer and Fall zoomed right by me. I worked. I played. I slept. I went to church. The end. 

Earlier in the year Scott and I decided to try a membership at Costco. We are actively working on our food storage. We have made it a priority in our budget and thought the bulk items found at the mega store would be worth having a membership-even though we have to drive 3 hours to get to one. Overall we have been pleased with the membership and found several items we like. Now this jar of Nutella cracked us up! 

We expect large quantities but W.O.W!

I have lived in Vernal for 21 months and not once have I been to the little donut shop in a shack in a parking lot. Well, Scott and I tried it the other day and have been back 3 times since then. For a mere $1.75 you can get a small tray of mini donuts (6) covered in 1,000 toppings. Here in the pic is Banana Creme Pie and Orange Dreamsicle. 

I took one bite of the banana and caramel donuts and cried a little-that is why my eyes are so green. 

Not really-

They do turn green when I cry but who knows why they are green in this pic--must be to draw your eyes from my silver fillings I refuse to replace until I have to. 

All I can say is the Boston Creme Pie is fab as are their large warm pretzels! I want to try their soup but just cant--must order donuts!

Scott and I purchased a new bed. It is my first new bed in my life. I have always had hand me downs. We splurged on a king, Tempurpedic choice-that means it has the memory foam and the air chambers like a Sleep Number. We also splurged and got the adjustable bases. So every night Scott goes to sleep with the vibrating massage feature on while I read for a few and once it shuts off I can sleep-I just dont love falling asleep to the massage feature-oh well. I do however love the Zero G feature! The base lifts the head and legs slightly to remove the pressure from your back. I feel like I am floating in zero gravity forces! I love it! 

I am not sure I can express how much I love having my legs elevated! It just rocks. I have experienced 'leg aches' since I was a small child and frequently get them. Doctors have no idea what is wrong--what do they know lol. All I know is the Zero G helps!!! I am starting to wonder if the massage feature helps with blood circulation and is helping me also. . . just a thought.

Suzie of course loves the bed. She does not get kicked out as often because she has room to sleep in the big spacious king! She is notorious for trying to bury under the covers-in this pic she failed to get all the way under and made a V. I guess she gave up trying to get under the blankets and plopped right on the V part of the mass of blankets. She honestly cracks me up! The new bed is significantly higher than our old bed and she has no problem jumping up to get where she wants to be.

I guess our new bed is a success! All love it!

In October Scott and I went to Salt Lake City to a wedding. While we were there we had a picture snapped of us.--We are too cute!

The wedding was beautiful! One of the best I have ever been to. My friend from hygiene school was married--Maria!

Mair, Melissa and Heidi then Maria is the stunning bride in the back--She was exquisitely, classically, stunning! I am so thankful I was able to attend! 

Life has treated me well and life has kicked some bruises but all in all it is a happy life!