Education is a blessing (repeat 3 X's daily)

Two weeks ago school started for Jason and if you were to rate his level of excitement it was comparable to a kid eating their dreaded veggies. When I said we should take "first day school" pictures he response was a enthusiastic no. Instead he opted for posting this picture . . . 

His caption "Where I wish I was".. . I will agree with him on this one. 

School started this week for me and I have to admit that I wasn't too excited either. I had been working on my internship all summer so it felt like my summer didn't really happen at all. Plus I'm taking a Law class this semester as one of my capstone classes. . . . (audible groaning). But I do have to admit that I only have this semester and then 2 more classes and I'm DONE! GRADUATEO, FINIS, DAS ENDE. So I can't really complain (as Jason puts it). 

Don't get me wrong I am a firm believer that education is a major blessing and should be treated as such. Like the post title says, I just need to remind myself of this. But then when you throw law into it  . ...

... anyways GO COUGARS! Bahahaha Trogdor strikes again!! (Jay is going to love seeing that I wrote that)

What do you guys do for your date nights? We like to wander aimlessly with no purpose whats so ever around the local DI stores. Often times we'll walk away with a random book or two or like on our last rampage, a potato peeler. (We buy these things of course)

DI is a magical place. Really it is. The outdoor section is the best!  A lot of our apartment has DI touches to it and you would never know. . . well maybe you would but it works for us. 

If you've never been to DI for date night you're missing out. 

View from Grove Creek Canyon

For those of you who don't know, there is a plethora of hikes in the local area. Grove Creek being one, Battle Creek, Dry Canyon, etc. We were only able to go about 2 miles up into Grove Creek before we had to turn around, aka I about died from exhaustion, but as you get farther up it takes you more onto Timp and you can hike in and camp there. There are really pretty meadows and rivers up in there.  Whats really neat is that a lot of these hikes inter-connect with each other as well. 

If you are feeling the Hiking itch and want to go try one of the hikes let us know and we'd love to come with you! Its always fun to hike with friends. 

Now onto our fur baby. She is a pill, but she's really cute. I have never seen a cat poop so much. With my last cat I cleaned out her litter about every week. Timmy makes enough deposits that her litter needs cleaning about every 3 days... Anyways Timmy has started to warm up to us and will come out when we get up in the morning, come out during the day (sometimes), and will follow you around the apt meowing for attention and to be petted. Then when you try and pet her, she runs away. Typical woman... can't make up her mind. ps sharyti said it was ok for me to leave this in the blog. She's nice. I'll keep her. Oh gosh.

She has a habit though of hiding under the bed or couch whenever there are loud noises or if Jason looks at her wrong. We're making progress with her slowly and we're pretty sure she doesn't think we're big scary giants that are going to eat her any more. 

Food Love/Experimentation #1 - Ginger Snaps

I was feeling excited for fall this past week so I decided to make some form of spice treat. What better treat for a Ginger to make then ginger snaps right? So I used a recipe I have used for the past few years and have loved. I know it works because when I make them the balls of dough magically disappear off the cookie sheet when I turn around. . . 

Recipe:

3/4 cup butter               2 tsp Baking soda

1 cup sugar                  1/2 tsp salt

1 egg                        1 1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/4 cup molasses (yum)       3/4 tsp cinnamon

2 cups flour                 1/2 tsp cloves

Cream butter, add sugar gradually. Beat until Fluffy. Add egg and molasses: blend. Stir or sift together flour, soda, salt, and spices; blend into butter mixture. Roll small portions of dough into balls, roll in granulated sugar. Bake for 8-10 min or till their fluffy and melted at 350 degrees.

That one time we didn't update for three weeks. .

The last week of July concluded our adventure in the Beaver mountains. Halle-stinkin-lujah All in all it was a success. A lot of ups and downs, but overall a memorable experience. I would say memorable is a choice word to use but it works. Nah, we definitely learned a lot and grew closer together because of the struggles we got to face this summer so it could therefore be declared a success.

Pictured below was after one of the many ATV rides with the scouts. We didn't get much rain this season so all the trails were overwhelmingly dusty. Like, you're running around as Pig Pen from Peanuts for the next 24 hours or at least until you can get a shower. I had a good time with all my biking groups. I had a lot more injuries this year than last, but luckily I didn't have to send anyone to the ER. As camp commissioner I learned a lot and had fun getting to interact more with the participants and the leaders. It was stressful at times but theres nothing quite like helping boys to push beyond their limits and do hard things and walk away from the experience wanting to do more. 

We are happy to be back in the real world however. I have to say I was pretty ecstatic for running water and not having to sleep on an air mattress any more. Its the little things you really become more grateful for when living in the mountains in a tent for 2 months. We spent one night at Mom and Pop Williams's then headed up to our new apartment. Sharyti was slightly happy to be back, as you can see lol. 

We got everything moved into our apartment the week following camp. I think we are going to be happy here. It's a one bed one bath basement apartment under Sharyti's grandma's house. We also got our new car registered. . . finally. Our house may be slightly dark (to be expected with a basement apartment) and spider infested but we love it :) It sure beats a tent! I agree with everything that he said but I do have to let you know that if we disappear and can not be found it is because the spiders have taken us for all of their family members we have murdered these past few weeks. . . Spiders .. lots of them o.O

While in the process of moving in, we found out Sharyti's mom was in a bad bike accident, but I'll let her tell you about that. I will say that it was a busy and scary week full of stress and trying to get moved in along with visiting Debany in the hospital and helping out around their house.

These past two weeks have been the hardest two weeks of my life next to some of the experiences I've had on my mission. No child should ever had to see their parents go through something like this to be honest. Like Jay said my mom was in a severe biking accident on August 1st. She fractured her skull and ripped the membrane around her brain, broke her collar bone, broke 4 ribs, and some other medical injuries. We were in and out of the hospital staying with her so my dad could go home, get things done, and shower. My siblings and i traded on and off through out the week. As well as working with my siblings to try and keep their garden and yard alive. She's been in and out of the ICU and the ER since but things are finally beginning to look up. The power of prayer and love is real. My mother is absolute proof of that. I have to say Jay was absolutely amazing these past few weeks with helping his poor wife. Her, my, emotions were like a roller coaster. He deserves a big round of applause. 

On the second Tuesday after getting back from camp we decided to go to look at some cats. We had been talking about adopting a cat for quite some time but never had the chance up till now. And we were both just a little excited to bring home a fury friend. We found one that we really liked and we and got her the next day. She is a beautiful calico that is about 16 months old. She was super freaked out with the whole experience of bring her home to a new and strange place, and has been taking her time getting comfortable with her new surroundings. (Aka she hides under the couch all day and only comes out at night. BUT! She uses the litter Box - big bonus on her end) Because of this, we decided to name her Timid, or Timmy for short. She will come out from under the couch at night when we are in bed, or sometimes we can coax her out while we are there. Once we get her out, she will play with us a bit and let us pet her, so I think she will warm up to us before too long. Jay and I are absolutely smitten with her and may have already begun spoiling her like the newbie wanna be parents that we are. So yup, we have a new member to our family and its a cat.