10.15.2010 Mail Time

These came today in the mail.  I love getting packages in the mail!  And I love when they contain such things as lovely as this letterpress calendar.  Letterpress is such a beautiful art, and every year I've been meaning to purchase a letterpress calendar on etsy, but at first it takes me while to find one I like, then I decide to think about it for a few days, and then I forget about it.

My friend, Willow Withy, made this one.  I saw the post on her Facebook profile and I had to have it.  I've always loved air mail envelopes, which makes these even better.  I think May is my favorite.  Yes, May being my birthday month makes me a bit of a partial judge, but I think the paper airplane is great.  My dream is that one day I'll learn how to do letterpress myself.  I would love to have "The Family:  A Proclamation to the World" done in letterpress.  With the right design I think it would be beautiful.

So thank you to Willow for making this beautiful calendar.  For those of you who don't know Willow, she is one of the most talented and creative women ever!

Now I just have to decide if I'm going to put it up at home or at work...probably work because my little desk could use some cheering up.  And, of course, I have to wait until January 2011 rolls around.

10.14.10 Lessons learned from a traffic jam

What is it about traffic that makes people go crazy...me in particular?  I was having a great, productive day and a smooth drive home from my meeting in Salt Lake this afternoon.  I was thinking about how much I love autumn and listening to feel good music when I suddenly hit horrible traffic on I-15 around American Fork.  It was stop and go for about 3 miles due to construction.  Twenty minutes later my whole mood had transformed.  Before the traffic I was looking forward to getting back to my office to help a woman prepare her taxes.  After 15 minutes I was cursing her for procrastinating until the last possible minute.  Earlier I was enjoying "The Only Living Boy in New York," and thinking how lucky I was to have a wonderful husband.  Minutes later I was yelling at the woman driving the Cougar in front of me and yelling at my new phone that apparently has a very limited texting dictionary (on a side note--I am usually very strict about never texting on the freeway, but we were literally stopped most of the time).

I was absolutely infuriated by the time I got off the center street exit in Provo.  And then this came into my mind:

"When I come to my evening prayers and try to reckon up the sins of the day, nine times out of ten the most obvious one is  some sin against charity; I have sulked or snapped or sneered or snubbed or stormed.  And the excuse  that immediately springs to my mind is that the provocation was so sudden and unexpected: I was caught off my guard, I had not time to collect myself.  Now that may be an extenuating circumstance as regards those particular  acts: they would obviously be worse if they had been deliberate and premeditated.  On the other hand, surely what a man does when he is taken off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of a man he is? Surely what pops out before the man has time to put on a disguise is the truth? If there are rats in a cellar you are most likely to see them if you go in very suddenly.  But the suddenness does not create the rats:  it only prevents them from hiding. In the same way the suddenness of the provocation does not make me an ill-tempered man:  it only shows me what an ill-tempered man I am.  The rats are  always there  in the cellar, but if you go in shouting and noisily they will have taken cover before you switch on the light.”
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity


I have rats in my cellar--lots and lots of rats.  And so I can't blame the traffic, the construction, or that woman in the Cougar who obviously has no idea how to drive.  I only have myself and my rats to blame.  So, as is often the case, it looks like I need to spend more time and effort on developing the godly attributes of patience and charity and less time on things of lesser importance.

And just because I really do love autumn, here's a photo from a couple of years ago.

10.14.10 Look what I found!

Just another reason for me to love IKEA!  I fell in love with Elderflower sodas while on study abroad in London.  I found them again in Ontario...so so good!  And today while at IKEA I randomly found this Elderflower drink concentrate.  Too bad I didn't pick up some soda water on my way home so I could enjoy it tonight.  But tomorrow, this is what will be in my glass all night.

10.02.10 Cowboy Camping

This past weekend we went out to Marc's family ranch out on the Utah-Nevada border.  I've heard about this 3,000 acre farm since we started dating but had yet to see it.  Marc's cousin and his wife live out there and run the farm.  Marc, me, and his three friends from high school camped out on a remote part of the ranch.  I felt like a real cowboy, camping out on "the range".  It really made me want to move out to a place like this.  Too bad Marc hates farm work, and I'm sure I'd get tired of being so far away from everything after a while.

This is a far away shot of the farm house and stables.  I wanted to get more photos of this area and the cows, but we were hardly ever over there, and it was too far to walk from where we were camping.

There was a time when I would have thought this wasn't so pretty and would rather be in a big city any day.  Yet, lately I've found country life so much more appealing.  It just seems so much less complicated.

Aside from spending hours at night hunting rabbits, the boys spent much of their time shooting things and blowing things up.  I didn't shoot any bunnies, but I did shoot one of those exploding targets which was pretty exhilarating.

This is one of the many fish Marc caught at the fishing hole.

And this is the very first fish I ever caught.  The other two I caught afterward were about the same size.

The fish pond wasn't the best water to swim in, so luckily there is a swimming hole from the natural spring flowing down the mountain.

Farther down the stream, I found some great mud.

There was brief rain storm and we had to scramble to put a tarp over our tent since we forgot the rainfly. Marc got inside and the wind was so bad most of the time the tent was nearly flat on the ground.

Moose, Jay, and Winkie crowded inside the truck during the storm while laughing and Marc's little predicament.  The rain really wasn't that heavy, so I saw no reason to find shelter.

One of the cowboys who works out on the ranch has 25 horses alone.  These foals were so scared of me.  They gathered together on the far end of the coral to get away from me.

Marc lived on the ranch for a whole month the summer after he graduated from high school.  He was out there all by himself since this was before his cousin moved out there.  I just can't believe he lived out there for a whole month and never got up in this tree house.  Unfortunately, I never got out the tree house to test it out myself.

I loved the cowboy camping.  Hopefully we'll be able to go more often next spring and summer.

09.05.10 Cruisin' Together

For our first anniversary Marc and I drove down to Southern California to go on a cruise to the Mexican Riviera.  

First we went to Disney's California Adventure with our free pass we got for volunteering. 

This ferris wheel is pretty much the scariest ride there...no joking.  

The gondolas move back and forth on long rails as you go around, swinging you back and forth.  We didn't realize how bad it would be until we started the first slide.  The worst part is, you aren't strapped in but basically sitting in this big sliding box.  I wanted to get on the floor in the fetal position.  We had to ask to get off after one time around...pretty embarassing.

I think Marc's favorite part was watching the waves outside our cabin window.  Every time we came back to our room he would get on the bed and look out the window like a little dog.

I think his other favorite was the miniature golf course...which was extra challenging when the ship was in choppy water.

My favorite part about the cruise was the formal dinner nights.  I married to a man who won't even wear his suits to church, so it was great to have an excuse to get all dressed up.

All that said, cruises are a whole other world of traveling.  The first couple of days we felt a little claustrophobic being in the same contained area with 5,000 other people (and it was big ship).  With all the lounging, gambling, drinking, and entertainment going on I almost felt like I was on a floating "great and spacious building."  Part of what I like most about traveling is being immersed in a new culture.  Yet, with only 8-12 hours in each port, you don't get much of that--especially since they try to coral you like cattle into the touristy places.  That said, the food was amazing!  We avoided the buffet room and had all of our meals in the dining room.  Marc did hate having to sit with strangers.  For those of you who know Marc at all, you know he hates small talk and meeting new people.

Our first stop was Cabo San Lucas.

We avoided the overpriced and campy group excursions the cruise offered and got great deals on our own on all the things we wanted to do in port.  In Cabo, we rented a double sea kayak and rowed out to see Los Arcos at Lands End.

This shot is not the greatest, but we only had a waterproof disposable camera.  We also saw seals bathing on the big rock next to the arch and relaxed for a bit on the beautiful Lover's beach.

Cabo itself didn't impress me very much.  Its a desert and the city is built around tourism.  However, the water was absolutely beautiful.  It was bright blue and so clear.

Next Stop... Mazatlan

We didn't really have any plans for Mazatlan, but after walking around for a while, we found this beautiful hike up to a lighthouse that had great views of the city.

For lunch, we ate AMAZING tacos at this hole in the wall taco shop.

Peurto Vallarta...very pretty, very fun!

Mallory and Adam went on their honeymoon to Peurto Vallarta back in August and they said we had to do a zip line.  It took us a while to barter the salesman down to what we wanted, but we finally got one to go low enough.

The zip line itself was so much fun.  I was a little nervous while they were training us how to use the pulley because both Marc and I are scared of heights.  Once we started though, it wasn't scary at all.  Our guides were so much fun and it was beautiful to zip back and forth across the river.  Wish we had photos, but they don't let you take a camera and then try to charge you $79 for the photos they take.

To top all of it off, we got to ride burros up the steep trail back to the top.  I love it!  I named my burro Pedro.  He seemed to not like having me on his back, but I told him he just better be grateful he didn't have to carry my husband.

After the zip lining, they have you trapped up in the canyon to sell all their things to you at their restaurant and tequila factory.  It was a little irritating waiting for the ride down while everyone was getting drunk on tequila.

I don't really like dinky little souvineers so I wasn't planning to really shop at all.  However, when I saw these plastic banners everywhere I had to have one.  The panels are cut into ornate designs of flowers, birds, etc. When I asked one guy at the market where I could buy them he said they are just decorations and you cannot buy decorations.  When I turned around, the woman across the way from him had several of them bundled up for sale.  I told Marc I am going to hang them up for his birthday, our kids' birthdays, and my birthday.  He thought it was pretty ridiculous that I was going to decorate for my own birthday.

Overall, it was so nice to get away from everything for ten days.  I felt so relaxed by the end of vacation. It was so nice to be away from TV, music, and the news.  I decided on the drive home that I don't like stress, so I'm not going to let the stress get to me.  I'm not going to try to do so many things in one day anymore.  Instead, I'm going to do one thing at a time, and enjoy it while I'm doing it (this includes work).  I don't want to waste any of my time and thoughts on stupid TV shows and internet browsing.  It really isn't worth it.  I have to admit I have let the stress get to me a couple of times since we have been home, but overall, I think I've achieved a new perspective.