Date Night

This post is about an event that actually happened on July 8th... before Bill's accident.  It was a Date Night.  Every Friday night for several years has been "Date Night".  The kids stay home with pizza while Bill and I head out for dinner and sometimes some adventures.

Date Night dinner is almost always Rubio's.  Bill and I both love their food and have come to know the managers and workers well.  On this particular evening, the manager, Eva, decided to treat us to our dinner.  So, after we ordered, she discounted the entire meal!  We have been regulars at Rubio's for over two years now and this is the second time they have given us a free meal!  They almost always comp our sodas, but this was an especially pleasant surprise.

It was such a pleasant evening, that we decided to drive up the canyon and out to Squaw Peak to admire the view.

I really like this picture of us!

The sun on the cliff face.

 Squaw Peak is a 'romantic' place to bring a date to watch the sun set.  We left not long after I took this shot so this couple could enjoy the sunset alone.

 We decided we needed a sno shack treat to complete our date, so we kept our eyes peeled and soon found just the thing!  I loved that the prices were very reasonable for HUGE portions!  This is the small!

The sunset was still beautiful, as seen from the car instead of the peak.

Fibroadenoma

Can you say that?  Fibro-adenoma.  There.  Does that help?

It is a benign tumor in the breast.

I have several of them, one large enough to feel on self examination.  That one has been around for a long time.

Last January, I went in for my first mammogram.  It was not as painful as I thought it would be, since the hospital has new imaging technology and a machine that doesn't squish you as flat as they used to.  But, of course, the mammogram raised some red flags that resulted in an immediate ultrasound (yes, that stressed me at the time).  The diagnosis was fibroadenoma... but come back in 6 months so we can be sure.

Today was the six month check up ultrasound.  Yup.  They are still there.  The radiologist still diagnosed them as fibroadenoma.  I have been instructed to watch the large one carefully and report any sudden changes to it.  The tech who performed the ultrasound seemed nervous about it and was very earnest in telling me to contact them right away if I am concerned at all.

Am I concerned at all?

Not hugely.  I did my own research on the subject.  Fibroadenoma occurs in 10% of women.  One in ten.  That is a lot of women!  Still, lucky me.  Having them increases my risk of breast cancer (duh).  I have had that large one since I was a teen.  I saw a doctor back then who gave me the same diagnosis.

So, no.  I am not going to lose sleep over it.  I am just grateful for modern technology that can keep an eye on stuff like that.  And I am grateful for medical insurance that covers the expenses that would have buried us by now... between my diagnostic procedures, Helena's surgery, and Bill's emergency operation.  Do I wish I didn't have them?  Of course!  But that is something I can't control, so I am going to let that go and focus on what I can control.

Are You Poor?

Or are you rich?
It is really all just a matter perspective.

I have been feeling really down lately.  Really down.

It seems like nothing is going our way this summer.  Bill hurt his arm and is out of work.  We won't be able to make all our bills this upcoming month and that has me extremely stressed out.  The Alero's plates expired at the end of June and I don't think it will pass inspection without a new set of tires.  And my laptop is on the blink.  Gah!  Some soda got spilled on it.  I have taken it down to the technology department for repairs, but I will have to come up with a part of the repair cost right when I can afford it the least.

You might think this post is a pity party.  You might be correct; except I am really trying to keep my life in perspective right now.

I am healthy.  I am strong.  I just swam a mile when I thought I could only go half that distance because my muscles are sore from lifting weights yesterday. 

I have a job that I love, and a long vacation from it to refocus on myself and recharge my batteries.

I have a home that is in no danger of being taken away.  That is one bill that WILL be paid.  A home that is comfortable and that I love.

We have plenty of food in the house.  There are all kinds of canned and frozen foods we can eat, so the only shopping we need to do is for fresh produce and dairy.

I still have two other computers I can go to for keeping in contact with my world. 

And, of course, I have my family... all of whom are healthy (other than Bill's gimpy arm) and happy.

So, really, I am not so poor.  Compared to most of the world, I am rich.  I just need to keep telling myself so I don't forget over the next several weeks.

Grocery Shopping

Bill has been off pain meds since yesterday morning.  He doesn't like to be dependent on them and is hyper sensitive to forming an addiction, so he was highly motivated to stop taking them.  Today he started feeling the need to get out of the house.  It starts feeling like a prison when you are staring at the same four walls for too long.  So, we went on a short walk this morning, followed by a grocery shopping trip.

I will tell you now that Bill works in construction.  He operates heavy machinery.  I have no problem bragging to you that he is EXTREMELY GOOD at what he does.  I have watched him run backhoes and trackhoes at full speed mere inches from buildings (like our house),  it is amazing!  The machine becomes an extension of him and it seems like the whole thing just comes to life.

Because of the type of work he does, however, this injury is going to put him out of work for MANY weeks.  Possibly more than six weeks.

I wish I could say that we have followed sound financial advice and have a rainy day fund set up for just such an emergency.  That would be nice.

Unfortunately, we have nothing to fall back on during the time that Bill will be unable to work.  Of course, there are some options.  Hopefully, we can use his vacation pay.  He also has disability insurance.  The insurance won't kick in for six weeks, though, and I don't think there is enough vacation hours to cover the gap between now and when the insurance kicks in.

So, we tighten our belts and pray.

And now I am back to shopping.  You were starting to wonder if I had gotten the name of this post right, weren't you?

We just went for essentials.  Normally, our weekly shopping can run upwards of $200.00 thanks to the large appetites around here and the fact that we really never stick to a list or budget when it comes to food.  Today's trip came in at $100.00.  Not bad to be able to cut the food expenditures in half.

Still.

There was a time when $100 was a big grocery bill for us.  It used to be that $100 would overflow the cart.  I looked at those few measly grocery sacks and thought... REALLY?!?  That's all I get these days for my C note?

Remember when a gallon of milk was 89 cents?  Everything seems to cost a fortune these days.  Butter?  Holy cow!  So it does make me worry about the next several weeks.  What money we do have is going to need to stretch pretty far.

Please don't start trying to educate me in the intricacies of extreme couponing.  I have tried coupon shopping in the past and have found that it just doesn't work for us.  Or rather, it doesn't work for ME.  Most of the coupons are for items that we can't buy anyways.  Remember,  we have to read every label for gluten contamination?  Now try to use the coupons!  I am pretty sure we can manage without them.  After all, I lived for a year in college on nothing but rice and potatoes.  We can certainly get by.

Anyways, the morning's excursions wore Bill out and he ended up taking a nap when we got home.

Living with Celiac

Yesterday afternoon, the leaders of my church's women's organization stopped by to see how we were doing and to offer any assistance they (and all the women of the church) could.  This is one of the wonderful things about being plugged in to a Christian community... reaching out to each other and serving one another in times of need.  For the women in the community, it often means fixing meals and delivering them for a family when tragedy or trials strike.  It is a give and take.  I have often helped out with meals for new mothers, invalids, and for funerals.

However, when the ladies offered, I politely declined.

It is not a matter of being 'too proud' or 'too independent'.

It is a matter of dietary restrictions.

 http://www.csaceliacs.org/

Bill has Celiac Disease.  Click on the words for a full explanation of what that means, but essentially, he cannot eat anything that has gluten in it.  Gluten is a binding agent found naturally in wheat.  So he can't eat any kind of bread or pasta.  Unfortunately, because gluten is such a good binder, it is often included as an ingredient in many other pre-packaged foods.  For instance, most cream based soups have gluten in them.  Some meats have been treated with gluten before being flash frozen.  No beer or anything basted in beer.  Nothing 'breaded'.  Anything with malt flavoring added is out.  In fact, if maltodextrin is an ingredient, then it is iffy.  Maltodextrin in the US is usually made from corn, but if it came from another country, then all bets are off.  Having maltodextrin in it is usually enough for us to return the item to the store shelf unless we can find a specific 'gluten free' mark on it. When shopping, we have to read EVERY label to make sure each item is safe for Bill to eat.  Even if we knew it was safe last month, we still check because companies change their recipes and something that used to be safe may no longer be 'clean'.  We were excited when Chex changed their formula, making the Corn Chex and Rice Chex gluten free!  Eating out can be challenging unless the restaurant is in the know and has a gluten free menu from which to order.  That is why we have a very select number of favorite local haunts.

So, when the ladies asked if they could bring meals in?

No.

There is just no way to know if each person cooking a meal for us was fully educated in how to avoid poisoning Bill on accident.

Many people have asked me over the years how we manage to keep Bill's diet gluten free.  They seem to think it is some kind of hardship.  I will admit that I thought the same thing when he was first diagnosed four or five years ago.

It turns out that bread is NOT the staff of life.  You don't need it.  We tried in that first year to find replacement flours so we could continue cooking and baking our same menu items.  That was a dismal failure.  Not only are alternative flours massively expensive, they also taste TERRIBLE!

We have discovered that if you just eat fresh meats, fruits, and vegetables, you really don't need the bread products.  What about carbs?  You can find them in beans and rice.  There are a few products in the gluten free aisle of the store that are worth the price... like one particular brand of pancake mix, or a certain iced sugar cookie as an occasional treat.  But, really, when well meaning friends and family members give us gluten free flours and other products, they usually just go to waste due to the fact that they just taste horrible!

Also, Mexican cuisine is really well suited to a gluten free diet.  I'd say that about 75% of our menu is Mexican, now.

Of course, the house is not entirely gluten free.  There is bread for the kids to make sandwiches, and I have some single serving frozen dinners ready for sudden lasagna cravings.  But, no, there is no flour and we do not bake.

And I am okay with that!

48 Hours

Sunday, July 17th, 4:00 pm

Bill took our youngest child, Will, out to the Eagle Mountain Bike Park after I suggested that the only way to get him to go to bed at a reasonable time was to tire him out with physical activity.  He, meaning Will, has gotten in the habit of staying up ridiculously late and sleeping half the day away.  He had skipped church and rolled out of bed at 1:30 that the afternoon.  So, off the boys went, to 'get tired' and do some father-son bonding.

After going off of several 'skill building' jumps, Bill "got cocky" (his words, not mine) and pushed it a little too far.  You will have to get the full details from Bill, since I wasn't there, but basically, he landed the jump badly, did an 'endo', and landed with his entire body weight bearing down on his bent right arm.  Will was still at the top of the jump waiting for his turn to go down it and had seen his dad biff it.

Bill called up to Will that "it was time to go."

Will asked, "Are you okay?"

"No!" replied Bill, "I broke my arm.  We need to go."

So, Will rode his bike down and asked again, "Are you okay?!"  (You can see that this conversation was really going nowhere.)

The park they were in is a 30 minute drive away from our house, which also put it about 35 minutes from the hospital (yes, there is a hospital only 5 minutes from my house... I love where I live).  Will helped Bill load up the bikes, then Bill DROVE himself back to our house so I could take him to the emergency room!  That's right.  While bleeding profusely!  He even managed to call me on his cell phone while en route so that I would know to be ready.  Once home, he asked me to help him take off his shirt, because he really didn't want the ER nurses to cut it off of him.  He liked that shirt and didn't want to lose it.  I helped him peel it off, left it in a bloody pile in the driveway, and wrapped his arm in an old towel to try to staunch the blood enough to finish the trip to the hospital.  At this point, he didn't seem to be in terrible pain, as long as he held his arm very still.

5:30 pm

Checking in at the hospital ER, I noticed that not only was the road and approach to the hospital under construction, so was the hospital itself.  There were portions of the room sheeted off with giant pieces of visqueen (heavy duty plastic sheeting).  While giving his vital info, Bill asked for a drinking fountain because he was very thirsty.  The woman behind the desk told him he couldn't have anything to drink just in case the doctor decided he needed surgery.  So, what did Bill do?

He walked back out to the car where he had left his Camelbak and got a drink out of it!  After coming back inside, the nurses sort of chastised him for drinking and his response was to point out to them that while he was in the hospital he had to follow their rules, but out in his car he could do whatever he wanted... and he wanted a drink of water!  Fortunately, they had healthy senses of humor.

It didn't take long after that to get him onto a gurney in the ER.  You know what?  Time goes by very quickly in the ER.  Before you know it, an hour or more can slip by while you sit and wait for x-rays, or a doctor, or an IV to be inserted.  Bill said to take his picture and post it on Facebook, so I did.

7:00 pm

X-rays happened.  I'm guessing 7:00 here, since time was rather fluid at that point.  X-rays are so miserable!  The patient is getting x-rays because something is completely screwed up inside and it hurts, but the technician has to contort the patient's body in some excruciating position and asks the patient to hold still right there!

The x-ray confirmed what we already knew, Bill messed up his arm pretty darn badly.  The hospital also confirmed that this was not a simple break and Bill would require surgery.  They called in an orthopedic surgeon.

8:00 pm

Dr. Matthews consulted with us and explained that he would have to use a stainless steel plate in the shape of a hockey stick to bolt all the pieces of Bill's ulna together.  He also said it would have to happen immediately, because Bill's injury was an open wound and as such, simply could not wait.  He said they were collecting all the necessary tools and staff, and that they should be ready in an hour.  All this time I had been sending text messages back and fourth with Will, Helena, Liz (Bill's niece), and Crystal (Bill's sister).

9:00 pm

Bill was wheeled away by the doctor and anesthesiologist, while an operating room nurse escorted me to the waiting room and left me there.  Dr. Matthews had told me to expect a 2 hour wait.  It ended up being three.  Our Bishop stopped by to find out what happened.  He was hoping to catch Bill still in the ER so he could give him a blessing before the surgery, but the hospital staff got him into surgery quite quickly (as these things go).  I was surprised to see him because I hadn't thought to call him.  Fortunately for me, other family members thought of that for me.  Liz called the leader of the women's organization, who contacted the Bishop.

Crystal and her family came, bringing me some dinner and other essentials.  Jeff, her husband, took the kids home after a while, but Crystal stayed with me for the rest of the night.  Her help was beyond measure, because she is a nurse and knew all the right things to say and do at a time when I was a worn out basket case. 

Monday, July 18th, 12:01 am

Dr. Matthews came into the waiting room to see me.  He explained that when Bill landed, his humerus (upper arm bone) had acted like a pile driver and had pulverized the ulna at the elbow joint.  There were only 4 or 5 usable pieces left, which he wired together, then bolted onto a stainless steel plate.  There was a section of the bone that had been reduced to such small pieces (powdered) that they couldn't be salvaged.  To fill the gap, the doctor reconstructed it out of what he called a 'bone putty', or a bone graft.

They wheeled Bill into his recovery room and started the process of trying to get his pain level under control.  That was a hellish experience!  Literally.  I felt so bad for him!  I have never seen him in so much pain!  Keep in mind that this is the guy who has done A LOT of damage to his body over the years, too.

3:30 am

Bill's pain was finally under control enough that I felt like I could take Crystal home, then get a few hours of rest at my house, as well.

4:00 am

Finally in bed.

7:00 am

A phone call woke me up in a panic.  My heart raced as I snatched the phone up, afraid it was the hospital with bad news (Bill had been paranoid all night about blood clots because his Aunt Ruby died of a blood clot after knee surgery).  It was my mother-in-law, Doril.  She wanted to know his hospital room number so she could go visit him.  I am sure she did not realize how few hours of sleep I had, so I tried not to be annoyed.  I knew I should get up and get back to the hospital, but my brain was in a fog and I literally passed out until a knock at the door woke me again just 30 minutes later.  It was Bill's brother, Steven, needing the keys to Bill's work truck so he could go take over the job Bill had been working on before the accident.

9:30 am

After showering and eating quickly, I hurried back to the hospital.  When I got there, I found out that Bill's pain level had shot through the roof earlier in the morning (at about 6:00?) because the night nurses had not stayed on top of the morphine doses for him.  Apparently, the Bishop had arrived during this pain spike and did manage to give him the long awaited ecclesiastical blessing, but, MAN! that must have been a stressful time!  I felt guilty for not being there for Bill.

I also have to point out at this point that there is NEVER a good time to remodel a hospital!  Bill got no sleep the night before and he was desperate to sleep during the day, but just when it seemed like it might be possible, suddenly there was massive and startling construction noise right above us!  I'm talking hammering and drilling.  It was a nightmare (only in the daytime)!!!

11:30 am

Lunch time!  I have to say that hospital food has improved astronomically in the years since I last ate it!  There was a menu to select from and you could mix and match anything on the menu.  Bill's lunch arrived by noon and was really very good (according to him).  While he ate, I went down to the 'Pink Shop' for lunch.  That is not it's real name, that is just what everyone calls it.  It is the gift shop/cafe in the center of the hospital that is staffed by volunteers dressed in pink shirts.  I guess the volunteerism is the reason the food is so cheap there.  You can order a really delicious cheeseburger with a bag of chips for $2.60.  A lady from my church congregation was volunteering there when I arrived for my lunch.  She chatted amicably and was a good listener.

3:30 pm

Dr Matthews arrived to check on Bill.  The Dr. and I both agreed that Bill should stay one more night in the hospital since he wasn't off the morphine yet, and I really wasn't rested enough to start taking over as his primary care provider.

6:00 pm

Visitors!  During the day you simply don't see many visitors in the halls of the hospital.  Everyone is at work.  After work hours, though, the hospital is just full of visitors.  Bill's sister, Necia, stopped by, along with his mother.  My brother, Erik, and his family also came, bringing our son, Will with them.  I failed to mention that our daughter, Helena, and her best friend, Megan, came to visit him in the late morning.

8:30 pm

I headed home for some much needed recuperating.  

Tuesday, July 19, 7:00 am

I woke up and headed back to the hospital.  Bill was in a much better place at this point.  His last dose of morphine behind him, it was starting to look like he could go home soon.  All we needed was to have the Dr. come back and give his release a green light.

2:00 pm

The doctor finally showed up!  He had actually seen Bill early in the morning before heading to his clinic, so we had to wait until after his clinic appointments to see him again.  He agreed to release Bill right after his next pain meds dose so we would have enough time to get him home and settled and allow me the time to pick up his prescriptions before the meds wore off.

4:00 pm

Finally!  I pulled the car around and drove Bill home from the hospital.

****

Where do we go from here?

He will wear a soft cast for 2 weeks.  After that, the doctor will put him in a hard cast for an additional week.  Then he starts physical therapy, which will last for months.  However, after 5 or 6 weeks he will go back in for surgery on his shoulder, which was re-injured in this crash (there is an old injury there from a previous mountain biking crash).

So, in other words, he will be out of commission for quite some time.

Thank you for sticking with this long winded post.  I have been in a fog for the past two days and it is hard to write coherently, and for that I apologize.  Please keep us in your prayers over the next few months!

Emma Watson on What is "Sexy"

My niece, Bridget, posted this quote on her blog and I liked it so much that I decided to steal it.  I can't verify if Emma Watson actually said this, other than from Bridget's blog, but it coincides with how I feel about the concept of "sexy", so I'll go with it!

"I find the whole concept of being ‘sexy’ embarrassing and confusing. If I do an interview with photographs people desperately want to change me - dye my hair blonder, pluck my eyebrows, give me a fringe. Then there’s the choice of clothes. I know everyone wants a picture of me in a mini-skirt. But that’s not me. I feel uncomfortable. I’d never go out in a mini-skirt. It’s nothing to do with protecting the Hermione image. I wouldn’t do that. Personally, I don’t actually think it’s even that sexy. What’s sexy about saying, ‘I’m here with my boobs out and a short skirt, have a look at everything I’ve got?’ My idea of sexy is that less is more. The less you reveal the more people can wonder."

Amen!  

For instance, I have always thought that the string bikini just destroys the mystery.  There is nowhere to go from there... the guys have already pretty much seen it all (other than a couple postage stamps of skin).  Where is the sense of "you are the only one who will ever get to see the rest of my body"?


To me 'sexy' is not showing the world your whole body.  'Sexy' is looking trim and fit in clothes that hang just right and accentuate the fact that there is something worth seeing under there... and don't you wish you could?

The End of an Era

Helena made the comment that she has grown up with Harry Potter and it seems fitting, somehow, that it is ending at nearly the same time as her childhood.  It is true that she does have one year left of school, but that seems like a small offset of time for a story franchise that has encompassed her entire childhood.  She is only 4 months from turning 18, now.  In the movie time line, the main characters have been the same age as Helena throughout giving her a stronger connection to them.

We first started reading the books when she was in third grade.  The first book had been out in the states for a couple of years by then, and I finally decided to figure out what my students were talking about when they mentioned 'muggles' and 'quidditch'.  This also would have been the year Will went through first grade struggling to master reading to the level his teachers expected of him.  Oh, how he hated reading!  After I read book one and thoroughly enjoyed it, I spent that summer reading it out loud to Will while he sat in my lap as I painstakingly pointed out each and every word while I read it.  For the entire book.  I did not expect him to learn to read that book, of course.  But what I hoped for was a connection in his brain that the patterns of words arranged on the page made for something truly exciting and much more desirable than the pathetic 'dick and jane' style reading in a first grade library.

It worked!

He fell in love with books and with reading.  Thank you, J.K. Rowling!

From then on, we got hold of each book as soon as it was released.  In fact, I recall standing in a midnight line outside of WalMart waiting for the release of book five (or was it six?).  FOR A BOOK PREMIERE!  I ended up buying two copies that night because I didn't want to fight with the kids for a chance to read it.  Consume it is more like!  I had each new book read in a day and then had to wait a miserably long time for the next book in the series to be published.

Then came the movies.

There are very few movies I have actually seen in the movie theater.  Every single Harry Potter installment makes that list.  The last four have been midnight premieres.  Tonight is the final movie!

Helena and Will are already in line in the parking lot down at the theater.  They have been for an hour and a half now.  There are still 5 1/2 hours until show time.  That is how crazy excited they are.  And the rest of the world, for that matter!  I know that the line at our local theater started queuing up at 10 o'clock this morning.  Helena just sent me a text saying they are about 2/3 back in the line for our showing (the 12:05), for now.  She says it is really warm.  I bet!  It is a parking lot and it is currently 89* F.  I am sure that the lines will get much longer over the next couple of hours!  Bill and I plan to join them around 9:30 tonight.

In the meantime, I am worried the kids will stay hydrated during their vigil.  That's just the mom in me.

"Nose Job"

Helena went in for same day surgery on her nose this week.  She has been jokingly calling it her "nose job" for months.  In actuality, she has suffered from stuffy sinuses her whole life.  I always attributed it to allergies, at least until we saw the orthodontist when she was in 7th grade.  He was the first one to tell us that the reason her teeth were so badly out of alignment was the fact that her sinuses were messed up.

Essentially, there was tissue inside her nose that had grown larger than it should have, causing a partial blockage of the airways inside her nose!  So, all her life she has been unable to breathe fully through her nose.  That meant that she had to breathe through her mouth while she slept.  That is what messed up her teeth.  When you sleep, your tongue rests on the top of your palate and keeps the arch of your teeth in their correct position.  Because Helena was breathing through her mouth all night, every night of her entire life, her tongue was not doing its job of keeping the teeth in place.

?!?

Wow!  Who knew?!

So, I decided I really had to investigate this and see if anything could be done for her while she was still my responsibility (and on my insurance).  I took her to an ENT (ear, nose, throat guy) who agreed that there was a laser surgery that could fix the problem.

Great!!!  We scheduled it for summertime so it wouldn't impact her schooling.  And this was the scheduled week.

She did absolutely fabulously in the hospital.  She went under general anesthesia quickly and came out of it just as quickly with no side effects.  In fact, her pain levels have been much lower than even the doctor and nurses anticipated.  The doctor said that during the procedure he discovered that not only was the tissue too large, so was the underlying bone structure.  So he reduced that as well.

I am so happy to hear from her that she can breathe clearly for the first time in her life!  She has also noticed an increase in her ability to detect faint smells.  Things she could never smell before.  Not huge scents, mind you, but little things... like the fact that the Swiffer dusting cloths have a fragrance to them.  She never knew that.

She has to be careful to not exert herself too much for about a week, to allow her nose to heal and to prevent triggering nose bleeds.  But, after that, life gets back to normal for her...

,,, only better!

The 2011 Art Show

The American Fork Steel Days Art Show was held last week.  This year I volunteered as the Youth Division Director.  If you remember, last year I was the director over the whole shebang.  This year Heidi B. acted as director over all.  We agreed to take turns being the head of the show so we could each have a bit of a break every other year.  I was glad to be able to step back because, really, this thing is high stress and a whole lot of work for very little satisfaction.  What do I mean by that?

Well, every year we have to hunt down lots of volunteers to help run the show and many of them flake out on us.  In fact, this year the Adult Division Director fell through and Heidi ended up running that division on top of organizing everything else.  The person she lined up to do data entry also flaked out, so that became an added stress this year.  Then, of course, there are the comments and critiques from others who are sure there is a better way to run things and are quick to point out all the ways we are doing it wrong, but they are simply too busy or their health won't allow them to volunteer and do it themselves.

Still, we had 452 artworks entered this year.  Most people seemed happy with it and there were only a few minor mistakes (in spelling on certificates mostly) to correct. 

 Helena entered a couple of photos and this one received first place it the HS Black and White Photo category.  One of the judges asked if she really took the photo herself and wanted to know where the shot was taken.  It was good to be able to assure the judge that, yes, she took the shot in Venice, Italy. 

Here is a photo of the Adult Division set up in the Library Rotunda.  The entire show is only on display for 3 days.  It is just so much work for so little time!  Now the show is over and the work should be over, too, right?

I still have to input all the contact info from this year's show into the e-mail account and there are still several unclaimed artworks waiting down at city hall to deal with.  Oh.  And the corrected certificates to print and mail.  Fun, fun.

Still, I have to thank both Helena and Will for their volunteer time on this show!  Will helped set up the display panels and Helena was my assistant director and did some of the data entry for us!  Thanks kids! 

Hiking in a Thunderstorm

I am sorry I didn't write about the 4th of July, or about the Art Show... I'll try to catch up on posts for those topics later this week.  For now, I want to write about today's adventure!

Bill, Will, and I decided to go on a hike this afternoon.  Helena was invited, but she didn't feel well and declined.  It is probably just as well, because I don't think she would have liked this one.

We drove up the Tibble Fork of American Fork Canyon past the Tibble Fork Reservoir and onto a dirt road.  When I say 'dirt' road, what I mean is a rough riding rocky off road adventure along sheer cliffs next to a raging river of death!!!  At least, that is what it felt like to me.  Most of the time there was not enough room for two vehicles to pass each other comfortably, and at one point we had to back down the mountain side to find a spot to pull off and let another vehicle pass us going the other direction.    I get mocked by my family for my fears of canyon driving, but I really can't help it!  Driving mere inches from a severe drop with no railing of any kind just freaks me out!  This was all in the Expedition with 4 wheel drive, of course.  We were well past the point that a civilized road car could handle.

After driving on some of the roughest road I've ever been on, and crossing the stream bed several times, we arrived at a point in the road where even the Expedition could no longer handle the terrain. At that point, we got out and set off on foot.

 Early on in the hike.  Everything is looking good!  The weather was nice... not too hot, but not cold either.

 Early on we noticed that in several places the trail had turned into a stream with all the melt water trying to find its way to the river.  This has been the wettest spring/summer season on record!  The fact that there is even still snow in the mountains is kind of amazing!

 The terrain may have been too difficult for our Expedition, but there were plenty of people with off road-ing vehicles up there.  This Jeep was at the tail end of a 3 car 'pile up' because a white pick up style at the front of the line had a flat tire and was on a steep incline.  The drivers of all three vehicles were trying to work out the best solution to the problem as we passed them by.

 Although there were a lot of people adventuring in off road vehicles this far up the mountain, there was only one other group of hikers up on this particular trail today, and we passed them coming down early in our hike.  Bill guestimates that only about .001% of people from the valley ever make their way up to these higher elevations on foot.

 This is not the stream.  This is the trail!  Normally at this time of year it would be dry.  The river is to the right and out of the picture frame.  By this point in time, I had given up trying to keep my feet dry and I just hiked straight up the water.  It was freezing, of course, being melt water, but it is surprising how little that mattered.

 The actual stream had turned into a 'raging river of death'.  Literally.  We never went any where near it because to slip and fall in would spell certain death.  Not to sound overly dramatic, but really.  It was deep, swift, freezing, and deadly!

 This was probably around the 8,500 ft level.  You can see that the snow is not gone.  These shadow drifts are about 5-6 feet tall.  It really amazed me to see so much snow still on the ground in mid July!  The air was cool, but not cold.  I was comfortable in my shorts and t-shirt.

 Hiking at high elevations can be challenging.  I got a great work out, but I also was surrounded by stunningly beautiful scenery!

 We were at about the 9,000 ft elevation here.  Notice the trail is a serious stream bed again, with a deep puddle to wade through.

 At this point I realized I ought to get some photos with me in them, so I started trying to fit myself into some of the pictures, too.  Photos of me are rare, because I am the family photographer.

 Oh, so beautiful!!!

 I had to take this shot to illustrate the amount of snow still on the ground!  That is a full grown tree, not a sapling!

 Not long after the last shot, we crossed over into the snow field and reached the base of the Snowbird Resort back country ski lift basin.  This is at about the 10,000 ft elevation.  It was getting cold (duh!  There's snow everywhere!) and had started to rain.

 Will had forgotten to pack a parka/rain jacket, so I let him use mine.  I found that if I just kept moving, I didn't get too cold, although by the time we made it back to the car, my hands were numb with the cold and wet.

 Bill took off ahead of us.  I think he was headed for the ski lifts and the tunnel that bores through the mountain to the front side of Snowbird.  However, Will and I were more than ready to turn around and head back to the car!  The rain was intensifying, and we started hearing thunder and seeing lightning!  It is probably not the brightest idea to be up on the mountain during a storm.

The thunder and lightning were a little unsettling, and I admit we were faster down the mountain than we would have been without that extra motivator.  However, I felt like the weather conditions only added to the feeling of adventure and I really found myself enjoying hiking in the rain!

 Heading back to the car in the rain.  For part of the hike down, we watched the trail for Bill's wallet.  He thought it might have fallen out of his pocket!  Can you imagine losing your wallet on the mountain?!  You'd never see it again!  Fortunately, it turns out he never had it in his pocket; he had left it in the car.

 There were so many amazing and beautiful flowers on the mountain!  I limited myself to one photo, though, because I know that too many flower pictures are... well,,, too much!

 Back at the car!  We were really glad to get in out of the rain and dry off!

 Bill was a little disappointed in the hike because we ended up on the wrong trail.  We were going to hike to Pittsburgh Lake, but ended up on the Mineral Basin trail up to Snobird by mistake.  He felt badly that we never found the lake, but honestly, I had such a great time hiking through all that water with two of my favorite men in the world that I couldn't care less about the lake!

 I have to say that hiking in the rain was really a whole lot of fun!!!  For the first time I was able to hike down the mountain without my knee giving me trouble!  Years ago I damaged one of my knees hiking to the Mt. Timpanogos summit and it has never been the same since.  I hope it is due to all the marathon training I've been doing, because that means I can go on more hikes now!

Oh yeah.  On the way down the mountain I slipped once and fell to my knees.  I got my hands and video camera all muddy and managed to get a scrape on my knee reminiscent of all those scrapes I got as a little kid.  So now I have a band-aid on my knee and some slightly sore muscles, but lots of awesome new memories that make me happy and eager to go out again!