Au-gust it's my turn 4: Po ta toes

 Two years ago today Billy proposed to me while I sat on this very wall: 

awww romantic!

This is a picture of the water feature in front of the new Provo Rec Center, which doesn't really have any significance besides the fact that I went there today to fill out new employee forms for my new job as the cross country coach for the Provo team! Woot!

Also, Morinda gave me a delicious birthday cake since it is birthday month 

aaaand the potatoes I was sure were goners because they've turned into nothing but spindly, withering stalks as of late actually produced some real live potatoes! And there are many more (and bigger!) where these came from! Gardens are amazing!

Au-gust it's my turn 3: Soreness and Roast

'Twas a good Sunday. I was a little sore from our adventures up Timp, but it felt good!

I just tried all Primary long to think of ways to take a picture of primary without being irreverent or weird so I could blog about it, but I just couldn't even be sly enough. Suffice it to say, primary was as joyous and crazy as ever. I do quite like that calling. 

We had the Perez's over for roast. It was fun! Billy and Andy ate all the breadsticks and me and Bum ate all the rice krispies and Eliana was just a cute little monkey! And it wasn't even roasting hot in our house, so that was good too!

I sewed a skirt and now we are off to bed!

Au-gust it's my turn 2: Timp!

We've been wanting to hike Timp for a long time, but most Saturdays are too busy, until Billy came up with the brilliant idea to hike it at night and camp on the mountain! That's what we did last night. 

We left on time and were pumped for a joyous adventure with what weather.com said would involve 0% precipitation, only to arrive at the parking lot to a downpour. We had no rain gear or even coats, so we ended up going back home, grabbing coats, and getting back just in time for the rain to pass.

Billy checking out the storm

As we started hiking, I couldn't see anything cus Billy's pack was huge and blocking the whole trail. At one point he jumped back with a yelp and was startled and my first thought was "badger!!" 

But it was a huge moose, and it just came crashing out of the bushes!!We got a good look at it, but it was hiding too good for the camera to catch. But it was awesome!

We hiked into the night, which was beautiful. 

We made it to the lake (maybe 2 miles under the summit?) in about 3 hours, so it was like 10 or so by then. We were trying out our backpacking stove for the first time and it was amazing! Billy's favorite part of the trip, so he says.  

brats for dinner!

We slept under the stars. Definitely my favorite part of the trip. It was so beautiful. Hikers were hiking past all night cus it's a thing to hike in the night and make it to the top for sunrise, but I was grateful that they woke me up now and then because it was a beautiful place and the stars were incredible. 

And we woke up to the sunrise!

Made sausages for breakfast on the stove, which Billy of course loved. It was quite a cool little invention. 

Then hiked the rest of the way to the top. I could not believe how many people were on the mountain! Crazy!

this picture is cool mostly because it's a birds-eye view of all the canyons and trails Billy and I run. Such fondness for those trails!

Cool trail shot, with surprisingly few people on it. 

the lake we slept near

horrible, hilarious picture!

the shack on top. no donuts there. 

the usual outfits we are always wearing on such adventures

wildflower field and "the glacier", which people were still sliding down, the crazies

on the way down. Also on the way down, we ran into Rob who was taking his young men up! We found out the night before we would be on the mountain at the same time, so we were so excited to run into them.

Another on the way down. It was kinda rough. But fun! And note the long braid I have!

I do believe this trip was exactly what I needed to pick me up in what has been a rather rough time. It was so fun and so beautiful!

Au-gust it's my turn 1: Birthday month!

In honor of May(be) and June(ver) and July(ke) it?, Au gust it's my turn to attempt the daily blog!

Just a warning that there's not a ton of exciting things that happen every single day of my life, so hopefully I don't get too real on you and every blog post is just about me staring out this window by my cubicle: 

But if it is, hopefully you can at least be entertained by the things I do, like this page of the Morinda Access newsletter I designed and created: 

The "paper" is the handout we send to our distributors to let them know about this new program, but I didn't want to just stick the handout into the newsletter, so I spiffed it up. It reminded me of those children's books of teenage girls writing in their diaries who write a little then draw pictures of what they were talking about, like of the boy with cooties in their class and pointing an arrow to him and writing, "cooties!! ewww!" 

The good news is, last night Billy and I stayed up past midnight just to usher in birthday month!!!! Happy August Birthday Month all!

This blog post is about Billy!

Because I think he is great but I noticed that almost always in my blogs I talk all about myself and then have like one sentence at the end of Billy. Partially cus he doesn't really like being spotlighted, but too bad for him cus his doings deserve more than one sentence! 

For example, my dream come true! He built me a picnic table! 

On 4th of July he was going to work in the morning but decided that was lame and that he would rather build a picnic table, which is something we've been wanting for so long. And he loves building and so he did build it! 

At 11 he arrived home with the wood from Home Depot

And by the time Summer and Andy came over for lunch at 12:30ish, the table was all done and ready to enjoy some July 4th BBQ on!  

(Also notice the makeshift shade Billy and Andy crafted for us! Andy is also great!) 

So there is one good thing about Billy. And we sure love this table!

Also, Billy takes me camping and always remembers all the things we need to prepared in the wilderness and starts fires with tinders and flint n steel and finds the best camping spots and always wears his orange flannel. This is where he took us to camp on the 4th of July. 

Next Billy spotlight, he got the sweetest job ever that he designed from scratch with is own landscaping skills and knowledge and is now building with same said skills and knowledge! 

It is pretty intense! He is building this incredibly huge water feature. Oh man I'm nervous, but so far so good!  

Somehow he knows how to do these things and can also drive around huge machinery. And also have a business. Crazy. 

I love Billy so much and am pretty sure I would just crumble up into a teeny little ball of misery without him, aside from all the picnic tables and water features and stuff. He is more tender than his hobbies/work make him appear, and I depend on him for pretty much every need, which he so happily, humbly and selflessly fulfills. 

Go Billy!

Monoooooo!

Welp, I have mono! Sometimes it is rough and sometimes I am tough. So far it has not been too too bad, but I am quite fatigued. And quite heartbroken that probably maybe I might not be able to get to run my race :( I have been quite literally devastated, but stably so. 

But it's ok. There are a lot of 50 milers to be run in this life and a lot of other joyous things going on in the meantime. 

Like this baby shower I threw! The games were pretty fun and one involved paper plates on heads. In fact, I'll tell you about it so you can use it at any party you ever want cus I shniked it from a lady who invited me to her Christmas party and then boom I used it at a baby shower! 

So you give everyone a paper plate and a pen and then tell them to put it on their heads. Then you have previously determined a list of things for them to draw on the paper plate. For the shower, I had everyone draw a nursery, but did it in steps. So, for example, I said, "Draw a floor." Then they draw the floor and lose track of where it is by the time I say, "Draw a crib" Then "Draw a baby sleeping in the crib" onto the rocking chair, the crib mobile, the bookcase, the toys on the bottom shelf, the books on the top shelf, and finally, a window. 

Then they get to look at their pictures and I award them points (1 for each leg of the crib that is touching the floor, one for if the baby is laying horizontally, one if their mobile is not touching the crib, one for each floaty thing they drew on their mobile that is touching the mobile, one if the window is not touching anything else in the room etc. etc) 

Anyway, it was pretty fun. You can use that game for anything, and it will be fun! And funny, cus who can even draw on their head? 

Before three days ago our landlord hadn't come to turn on our swamp cooler and so we were suffering. So so suffering, especially since I was having these crazy temperature fluctuations and especially since Billy works in the hot sun allll day and so we were struggling. 

One night we couldn't take it so after an an hour of tossing and turning and a trip to McDonald's for some ice cream, we just moved out to the backyard! It was soo much nicer. But then my immune system is shot so I got a cold. But then I got rid of it with oils and noni juice. Go MLMs. (too bad their products don't work for mono!)

Last weekend was the children's parade and since I am in the primary now, I got to march in it with our primary! It was fun and the kids were darling and I wore my red overalls. 

Popsicles!!!

My garden is THRIVING and I am soooo happy about it! 

The potatoes went crazy, but luckily not so overpowering that anything else is suffering. We still have a good crop of corn, cucumber, tomatoes, peas, strawberries, onions, spinach, bell peppers and carrots (which were a round 2 attempt but are coming up!)

And we have this happy gnome that mom got us:) 

(nestled in between the HUGE potatoes, cucumber, pepers and peas)

I love watering the garden/him because he just always looks like he is enjoying the shower so much!

So life is good! Billy is working like a crazy and just finished his hugest job ever then went straight into his coolest job ever! I'm so proud of him and you guys would be amazed at the work he does! 

I've got good news and I've got badger news

The good news is, this is one of my best running stories. 

Last week I went for my usual run after work in the mountains. I was going to do a big loop up one canyon and over the back of the mountain to the other canyon then back over to where I started, so I ran up one canyon and joined with the trail to start over to the other. However, I didn't get too far before the trail disappeared. I debated going farther anyway and just bushwhacking it through the mountains, but I had started feeling sick that day and figured I should head back down the canyon instead of trying for the big loop. 

Well, I turned back around and crossed a stream. At that point I realized I had missed the real trail and that's why the one I was on disappeared, but since I was sickish I decided to just keep going and get down the canyon. 

I ran for maybe a mile, a mile on a trail I had run a thousand times before without any glitches or strange encounters when SUDDENLY I saw a huge creature occupying the entire trail like five feet in front of me!!

I screamed a huge scream and had a billion thoughts in a milisecond, something like this: "AA! A skunk! No.. not a skunk. Procupine! Too big! A weasel! Weasel? No, what are those things called? Should I pepper spray it? Didn't I read a book about these in Mrs. Keating's class? That was a loud scream! I'm a ninny!" 

I was just staring down this guy (more like he was staring down me) and it wasn't until I had taken in his 2 foot width and his poky fur and his striped head and his freaking 3 inch long claws and snarling nose that I remembered his type are called badgers!!! IT WAS A BADGER! 

We were both frozen, but I was freaking out and he looked pretty confidently about to attack me. He was sniffing and hissing and he was seriously huge. He looked like a huge wad of carpet or something. I was trying to decide if I should turn back and take the huge loop anyway even though I was feeling sick so I wouldn't have to try and pass him or if pepper spray would have positive or negative consequences or why I hadn't brought my camera so I could take a picture! And then all of a sudden he just shuffled his little carpetbag body backwards and then right off the trail into the bushes! 

(this is just a google image, but he looked pretty much exactly like this, barred fangs and all!)

Oh man. I was nervous to run past him in case he sprung out at me like a ferocious lion but I heard him rustling deeper in the bushes and so I decided to chance it! Even though it was a narrow trail sloping off a cliff into a river, I flew down it like a wild indian! 

It was crazy! Afterwards I just couldn't believe that I saw a badger or that there even are such things in the mountains of Utah because I have never seen one in all my years of Utah mountains. But I went home and researched them and I don't know what this guy was doing because they are usually nocturnal and if they come out during the day at all, it is in the early morning. Bottom line is, they are fierce. Just look at these guys:

So the badger news is, a) I FREAKED out. I don't know what will happen if I ever see a cougar (heaven forbid), but my reaction to a badger was pretty dramatic b) I did not carry out any of my heoric plans that I've crafted during hours of running in the mountains in case I need to defend myself. I totally froze c) Hollywood and Disney and that silly book we read in Mrs. Keating's class seem to think that badgers are friendly, nice, cuddly little guys but they are NOT. d) If I didn't even entertain the idea of a badger and one showed up, what other crazy creatures are lurking in the mountains!? 

But, more good news, a) he was apparently more frightened of me than I was of him b) I think I would've reacted ok if I needed to c) I made it home fine and am now an expert on badgers. 

Onto more running! (after I am not sick anymore because I have had a fever since this run! Sad! But I am running 50 miles in 6 weeks!)