What Do You See? Clouds . . .Strange Clouds

I love summer. I LOVE it. I love not wearing shoes, I love not wearing a coat, I love not being cold.

I love the feeling I get when I get into a car that's been outside in the hot sun: It's like goosebumps but not quite, more like waves of super-hot air. I love that it sucks all the cold out of my body. Afterward not only do I feel warm, but cleaner.

I also love the rain. I love rainstorms, I love rainclouds. I have loved the storms we've has lately, not only does our garden get watered, but it makes everything green. I love how storm clouds look against the mountains. I will never get over how beautiful the mountains are.

Friday night I looked out our bedroom window and saw the most breathtaking double rainbow back dropped by the mountains. Kris said in ended in her backyard. I just found out the Drek saw another double rainbow four hours away on his canyoneering trip.

Missed You

Thursday Drek went on another canyoneering adventure. For the first time in forever, I was unable to cuddle with either Acouchi or Drek. It was so sad. I was all alone (expect for the wildly kicking baby in my tummy).

Friday I was supposed to work. Alas, my phone rang early in the morning, waking me up. It was my manager asking me if I had gotten her texts. I said no. She said they said not to come in today. Hey thanks for waking me up to tell me I could sleep in. After I hung up with her, I checked my text messages: 5 new, all telling me not to come in to work, sent at 11:48 pm. Well, no wonder I didn't get them. Yeash.

So I spent Friday reading, computering, cleaning, and trying to stave off panic attacks. Not really seeing how I can be a stay-at-home mom when I can't handle one day of free time. On the bright side, I have become a fan of online communities. I consider myself a member of a mothering site, Freecycle, and this great new forum dealing with great delas (i.e. free). So, although I am not socializing in real life, I am online. For whatever that's worth.

Anyway, Saturday was much better. I went with Krisling and her family up to a HUGE farmer's market. It was so much fun! Afterwards we went to lunch (oh, the yumminess!) and to the Library. We had a fantastic time. Then I came home and cleaned like crazy so Drek could come home to a very clean house. I finally went and picked him up at 11:00pm. Oh, it was so good to see him!

Sunday went great! Drek sang in the choir, I gave my talk than he gave his (he really did a fantastic job) and then we went to Primary, did a great sharing time, then taught our class a really good lesson. All in all it was very successful!

Come On Men! Nobody Lives Forever!

You know how it's really weird when one of your friends who is the same age as you gets married and it's shocking to realize that you could be getting married? Or when your friends who are the same age as you start going on missions, or having babies or buying houses or whatever and their actions somehow tell you that you are grown-up now and should also be doing grown-up things.

I remember going though through that when I started getting the wedding announcements of girls from my graduating class, or when I found out that a girl from my elementary school already had three children or when couples who were married the same year Drek and I was got divorced. I'm still disquieted when I think about a girl I grew up with dying in a car crash along with her husband and her unborn baby. It's as if somehow these things personally affect me, even if I hardly knew the person or if their circumstances were entirely different.

I went through that again yesterday, when one of my best friends from High School was shipped off to Basic Training for the Air Force. It's one thing to send a friend off on their honeymoon, it's another to end them off to war. He got married a year before I did and he already has two little girls. It's just so weird. And again, it's as if this is supposed to mean something to me, personally. As if this is a sign for me (or a warning?). I'm not really sure, it's just weird.

I just hope he comes home safe.

Everything's Shiny, Captain. Not to Fret

Happy Father's Day yesterday!

Drek and I got to spend time with both of our dads. We also got to spend time together, which was a lot of fun. The day started out hectic, but ended really well.

We thought we were supposed to give talks in Sacrament meeting. We also thought that the primary was singing in sacrament, we had to give our normal lesson, AND we had sharing time. That's two lessons, two talks (one for Drek, one for me) and a song. Oh, and it was Drek's first Father's Day (as an almost-father? Close enough!) and I wanted to do something special for Drek.

The day before Drek had realized that we were one week off on the sharing time; we were supposed to do sharing time the week AFTER Father's Day. Phew! That made it a lot easier.

Father's Day morning I made Crepes for Drek just the way he likes them while he edited his Sacrament talk. We ate breakfast, I gave him his present, we got ready for church and left. As we arrived at church I checked the program. To my surprise we were not listed as the speakers. Drek asked the counselor about this. He said we were scheduled for next week and "we must have told you wrong." Yeah, thanks. I would like to take this moment to point out that we moved into the ward on March 1st. We have yet to be assigned home teaching or visiting routes or home or visiting teachers. The Relief Society President told me the second week in March that she wanted to come to my house to meet with me. She has yet to show up to a time we arrange. We were called as Primary teachers for the six-year-olds, but always end up teaching the five-year olds and a four-year-old in addition to our class because they can't seem to get another teacher. I understand that God's perfect work is carried out by imperfect people, but would it kill this ward to have a little organization? Still, they could be worse. I half-expected to walk into primary and be told this WAS our week for sharing time and "we must have told you wrong." Thanks goodness that was not the case.

So next week we have to give sacrament talks, a lesson (hopefully just to our class because I think they found a teacher?) and sharing time. Piece of cake.

So We Grew Together Like to a Double Cherry Seeming Parted

Krisling so very generously gave me a back of the most wonderful cherries. These cherries were amazing. I have not had cherries like these since I picked them off a tree. Alas, there was a whole bag, and I could only snack on so many. What does one do with fresh cherries? Well, one makes up a cherry crisp recipe, adds ice cream, cuddles on a bean bag chair, watching the rain storm while your husband reads to you. That is what one does with fresh cherries.

Made-Up-On-The-Spot Fresh Cherry Crisp

• 2 cups pitted delicious and fresh cherries
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 
  
• 3/4 cups flour
• 1/2 cup instant oats
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 tsps nutmeg

1. In a large bowl, combine cherries, white sugar, cinnamon, and 2 tablespoons flour. Pour into 9x9 inch baking dish. In a medium bowl, combine flour, oats, and brown sugar. Cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over cherries.
2. Bake in preheated oven at 375 defrees for 15 to 20 minutes, or until topping is golden brown.
3. 

Today is my Dad's last chemo treatment.

(Hopefully)

Radioactive Cat, dun-dun-dun, Radioactive Cat

She does not hate me. In fact, she loves me. She wants me to pet her. This morning after Drek left for work she followed me EVERYWHERE and kept rubbing up against my leg and then collapsing on her back to tell me she wanted her tummy rubbed. I would move and she would get up, follow me and ask again. I keep telling her that I can't touch her but I will cuddle with her as soon as she gets her "special collar" taken off (right now she has to wear a collar that announces she is radioactive until a certain date). When Drek is home I'll make him pet Acouchi and tell her it's from me. I don't think she understands.

I love that my baby is home. It makes me so happy.

Riddle Me This

A little video. In the ruins you can climb down this little ladder, through this little hole and into an underground room. How big do you think the room is?

There is Just News. There is no Good or Bad.

Drek and I spent the week at his family's reunion. We are back now. The best news: Acouchi is also back!! When we got back into cell phone range there was a message from her doctor telling us that her levels were fantastic and we could come and get her!! Hooray!! Even though I can't touch her it's good to see her prowling around the house.

We started our trip at 10am on Monday. Drek's family had left at 5:30 that same morning. We arrived 10 minutes after them. No, we were not speeding. Drek was driving so you know we were going the exact posted speed limit. Drek does not approve of my driving (he has massive heart-attacks when I am the driver and he is the passenger) so I didn't even try to drive. In fact, I left my driver's licence at home.

We arrived and looked around; It was such a gorgeous place.





Monday night I was in "the grown-ups circle" (Every family has one. You know, where the kids are off playing, the teenagers are doing their thing and the adults are in a group talking about adult things and when the kids come by they roll their eyes and complain about how boring adults are and how they never want to grow up because all adults do is sit in a circle and talk about boring things but somehow when you're an adult these conversations are riveting and you wouldn't trade it to go traipsing about the trees or to go down the zip-line. Yeah. That.) I realized that sitting in on Drek's family's grown-ups circle is more frustrating than my family's grown-ups circle, simply because in circles like these there are always references to past events. In my family I understand all of these allusions, since I was there for some of them, remember the shock waves from others and heard the family gossip about the rest. In Drek's family, I have no idea what they are talking about. So I miss a lot of the conversations, but it is still fun to be part of the group. During this time it was mentioned that Dreks parents have five grandchildren and one on the way. "Two on the way." Drek's mom corrected. Two? I became very excited. Who was the other one? Alas, no more information could be given. My mind raced through the possibilities. Hooray! Would my baby have a cousin it's own age after all? I guessed who I thought was expecting and waited.

We had a very nice devotional followed by family announcements. It was here that the revelation was finally given. My guess was wrong but my baby will have a cousin it's own age to play with. Well, maybe. There are a lot more variables than in the optimal circumstance, but still (Now this is a perfect example of the conversations I was talking about earlier. If you know to what I am referring, it makes sense, if you don't then you have no idea what I'm talking about).

The next day Drek and I decided to go on the teenage camping trip. What amazing sights! I got to go on a hike by myself and I couldn't believe how gorgeous the sights were; breathtaking canyons, incredible rock formations, hawks flying overhead, tiny lizards willing to let you touch them if you were quiet. It was an amazing hike!
Does this last picture look familiar? There are similar pictures posted on this blog from three years ago. Same place, whole different experience.

Wednesday the whole family went into town to visit the local rec center. The place had an indoor swimming pool and what a pool it was! An "adults only" pool, a lap pool, diving boards, a HUGE hot tub, a water slide, a lazy river, a vortex of swirling doom, and a whole area for kids. And also showers. I was very fond of the showers.

Thursday night Drek and I decided it was time to head home. We had had a wonderful time, played some fun games, learned new things, gotten chipmunk pee on our bed, but it was time to be getting back. Drek drove until we need to stop for gas and food. As we headed back to the car he offered to let me drive. GASP!! So I did. Hooray for me driving! Drek read out load as I drove and we had a very pleasant (no heart attacks) time. It was uneventful until traffic came to a stop on a two-lane highway out in the middle of no where. Drek put the book down and looked around to figure out why were were stopped. That's when we saw the sign: Sobriety checkpoint. How exciting!! My first encounter with cops wanting to know if I'm drunk! I was very excited. After a very long wait a deputy came up to our window, looked in and introduced himself. We smiled and said hello. He asked to see my driver's licence.

Oh. Um... it's not here. We just got done camping...

He asked if I had had anything to drink that day. I smiled, shook my head no and patted my tummy. The deputy smiled, congratulated me, finished looking at the interior of the car and sniffing the air and waved us through. He was actually really nice. Drek said if he had been driving and he didn't have a driver's licence we would have been in trouble, it was only because I was pregnant that we got through. We spent the next few miles discussing the rights of stops like that, the legality of asking for a driver's licence, and the merits of having sobriety checkpoints.

All in all, we had a good drive home.

Waiting For You To Return

I am assuming the only way to pull myself out of this depression is to keep myself busy and have lots of projects. This was my project today:

Drek and I have collected a lot of games. When we moved into this townhouse, the only place to put the games was on a bookshelf that did not match the other shelves (and the games didn't fit too well either).
I have been looking for a replacement shelf for almost three months. Again and again I have scoured D.I., browsed furniture stores, yard sales, discount stores, craigslist and other .coms. I have even sunk so low as to search Wal-Mart and Target for the perfect shelves to house our games. Alas, I found nothing.

Until yesterday. Yesterday it seemed I had found my shelf. There was a small picture of what appeared to be nice-looking black shelves, a little small in one dimension, but hey, it was only $5!! And all proceeds went to the Christian Community Church, so what did I have to lose? This morning I got up early and drove the twenty minutes to pick my shelf. It was in the basement of the aforementioned church. All I can say is: Gross. Old, stained, orange carpet, paint peeling walls, dirt and dust everywhere, and that was where the two guys worked. I think they were computer guys? Thay were talking about ow their site was hacked and how someone had yelled at them for having moldy pizza. The two guys weren't that great either; very overweight, stains on their shirts, hair very unwashed. Ew.

So the one guy shows me the shelf. I can tell right away the dimensions posted on the Internet was wrong. This shelf is too small. Also, this is not a shelf. It is a media cupboard with the glass door taken off. Sigh. But here I was, I had come so far, and they sleazy guy was already telling me he only accepted cash. I gave him the $5.

The guy said I could look around and see if I wanted anything else. The other things were. . . D.I. rejects. I looked around the room looking for other shelves that might be better.

"Do you want some coffee?" The guy asks me. I am taken back. Somehow, I always forget that the rest of the Christian world is addicted to coffee, and even the vegetarian Seventh Day Adventists are addicted to caffeine. I am also surprised that he would offer a pregnant women coffee; I am obviously pregnant. Also, is the coffe machine next to the moldy pizza? I shake my head no, thank him, and say I'll just take the shelf. He shrugs and says, "Well, I'd help you carry it but I just had my rib replaced." Seriously? A rib? I didn't know you could do that. Again, I would like to point out that I am obviously pregnant. I pick up the shelf and the bottom breaks off. How do I explain this? The shelf doesn't fall off, the wood doesn't come apart, the wood was already broken, like, splintered, and it had just been lying there, not even trying to be fixed, pretending to be fine until someone picked it up. I put it back down and look at the guy. He shrugs and says "I'll open the door for you." What a gentleman.

So I carried the broken shelf passed the other sleazy guy, up the stairs and across the parking lot. I loaded it into my car and could not get out of their fast enough. I am not a fan of the fundraisers for the Christian Community Church.

All the way home I debated about what to do with the piece of crap in the back seat. I finally decided it wouldn't hurt to see how it looked, do Drek brought the shelf in, I cleaned it up and loaded the games onto it:

It was too small. Also, it was ugly and broken. After thinking about this dilemma more, I realized we had a shelf the right size, just the wrong color that was almost-not being used. I traded that shelf for the old game shelf. Drek had some left-over black spray-paint (which I had intended to use on a shelf that needed spiffing-up, but this shelf was way passed spiffing) so I got right down to it. Ironically, I had painted this shelf last year. I blogged about it. And now I'm doing it again.

Before:
And then I ran out of paint.

I went to the store to get more, but the kind I used was discontinued. I bought some I thought would be close. It matched perfectly. I continued painting. And then I ran out of paint again.
But the only thing I hadn't finished was the top shelf's back. It was mostly-black, just not all black.
I gave up. The games will cover that part anyway. I moved it back inside and ta-da:
Hooray! I finally have my shelf!

Am still depressed.

Darling, I'm Killed. I'm in a Puddle On The Floor

Acouchi does not have cancer. Treatment went ahead as planned. I drove her to the animal hospital this morning. When they took her out she started crying. I can't see her again for two weeks. I can't touch her again for twenty-eight days.

Well, You Know, Race Cars Don't Need Headlights, Because the Track is Always Lit

At the very beginning of my pregnancy I was in a car accident. A few days later I was driving at night and having a very hard time seeing the road; it was difficult to see the lines, where the road curved, etc. I blamed this new "night blindness" on the pregnancy and tried not to drive at night. Of course, there were times when it was unavoidable, like when I drove Rissy to the airport and scared her half to death in the process. But, for the most part, I just didn't drive at night for two months. A few days after the airport fiasco, Drek drove at night for the first time since the car accident, while I was a content passenger. After a while of driving Drek announced that he didn't think the problem was me, he thought the problem was the headlights. He did some experiments and found that one headlight was dim and pointing upward. This was the problem, caused by the accident. My eyes were fine.

We replaced the headlight bulb, solving the dimness problem, but it still pointed upwards. We postponed getting fixed and just avoided driving at night.

Alas, we could postpone no further. Drek and I are going on a very long car trip soon and I want Jasmine to be ready. I stopped by an auto body shop, ordered the part and scheduled an appointment.

So, Friday morning I took Jasmine to get her headlight fixed. The appointment took two hours. I wandered across the street to a yummy Indian restaurant, read my book and waited. Afterward I took Jasmine to a different car place to get her oil changed. I waited thirty minutes while that was done. Finally, I took Jasmine to a a glass-car place to get a rock-chip repaired. That took ten minutes.

Two hours and forty minutes. That is a long time to sit around waiting for your car to be done. When I finally returned home to brag about my day and how Jasmine was now road-trip worthy, (headlights facing down, illuminating the road, oil changed and working great, windshield in-tact) Drek simply asked: "Did you get the tires changed? We need those snow tires taken off and new tires installed before the trip." Sigh.

A brief history: I bought Jasmine in September. Not long after I had snow tires put on to help with the winter weather. I just never got around to taking the snow tires off (what can I say? If she was an electric car I might be more interested in her workings. As it is, I am lazy. As long as she's running, great). In January (two years and some months later) I got new snow tires since the old ones were wearing out.

On Saturday I finally had regular tires put on to replace the snow tires (thirty more minutes of waiting). I can't believe the difference. It's like I'm driving a new car. I can turn on a dime and I fly. I was going eighty before I realized I was speeding. Usually I can't get above seventy-five. And I get better gas mileage too!

These not-snow tires are amazing things. Now Jasmine is ready for our road-trip.