Oh sole....oh mio

 

 

 

I know, I know, this is my third post about the soles of my shoes, but I am just fascinated by the whole thing.  These are my newest pair and just look at those flowers.  I still think about the sole artists and the process they use to pick out what the bottoms of shoes will look like.  I think I need to don all the pairs I have with cute soles, walk in paint and make prints.

 

Remember these posts? soles

Last Vacation for 2012

 

 

 

I didn't post for a few months so I am just going to catch up.  These are the vacation photos from our trip to southern Utah and Las Vegas.

 

 

We decided that since we have lived in Utah for almost 11 years and have never made the trek to Southern Utah, it was about time we did. On October 14th we packed up and drove to Zion National Park.  It's only 4 hours away.  Why haven't we done this before?  I was going to call my niece Jem who lives there when we got to Mesquite  but soon realized I did not have her phone numbers or her address.  It was 2:00 in the afternoon so I am sure nobody was home anyway, but I couldn't even leave a message.  Sorry Jem.....next time.  We stopped at a casino which was beautiful on the outside with palm trees and beautiful fountains, but we had to walk through the smokey casino to get to the restroom and boy did  that walk stink.  We grabbed an ice cream cone and got the heck out of there. 

We next drove to Cedar City to see where my neighbor Brenden goes to college and then on to Saint George where we toured the Brigham Young winter home.  I loved seeing this old home and the yard.  Brigham Young liked things to look beautiful even if they were made of inexpensive wood so he had craftsmen paint the pine in the home to look like oak and marble.

 

Brigham was hoping the Saints could be self sufficient by planting mulberry trees.  They had silk worms that ate the leaves of this tree and they did produce silk but it became too expensive to continue.  The tree split in half many years ago and a tree surgeon put a brace in it and said it would only live a few more years but that was 40 years ago.

 

 

They also planted cotton but it was too labor intensive and they could buy cotton on the open market at a cheaper price so this too was ended.  They do still plant cotton at the home so the tourists can see what it looks like.

 

 On to Zion National Park to spend the night.  we got a motel right in the park.  The shuttle bus picks you up right at the motel and drives you to all the spots you want tot go.  You can walk it or get back on the bus every few minutes.  I never got tired of the red rocks and majestic mountains.

 

 

The Virgin River runs right at the end of the walking path.  If you want to walk further, you have to wade the river.  We stopped right here but many did not.  The water was a little too dirty for me.

 

 

As we were walking along the path, this guy walked right in front of us.  For some reason I was not afraid and just took photos. Wayne was obviously not afraid either.   My camera's lens was set to the wrong setting so the photos are blurry, but you get the idea, and you can see it's size.

 

This was the lodge we stayed in, and our room (which was at the back of the lodge), had a little deck that was right next to the mountain behind. It was quiet and peaceful and serene.

 

 

 They are very concerned about keeping the park litter free and the environment green so the rooms had a recycle bin as well as a trash can.

 

The style was rustic but classy Craftsman style and was very nice.

 

 

 

 

 

It was fun to see plants that seemed to sprout right out of the rocks.

   

 

 

 

I love the look of old fences and natural growth.

 

 

 

 

On our hike out we came across this thing.  We didn't know what it was.  It was very long and crawled like an ant but had the butt of a bee.  It scared me more than the tarantula.  It was probably about 2 " long.

 

 

This deer must be so used to people that it didn't even look up  when we passed.

 

 

Now this is a mystery.  On the way out I snapped this photo.  I is a tree covered with tennis shoes.

 

 

And of course, I couldn't pass up this photo of a field with dozens of ostriches.

 

Now on to Las Vegas!

 

A wonderful Day

Yesterday was a wonderful day.  My meetings at church were uplifting.  Hearing little children bearing their testimonies that they know that God is real and how he takes care of us was so touching.  Learning the lesson in Sunday School was great too but my favorite was Relief Society.  Our President, Carey Anderson, talked about hearts since it is Valentine's month.  Her son was born with a heart defect and she talked about his diagnosis, surgery and recovery.  She pointed out that our hearts beat 100,000 times each day, 36,500,000 times a year.  What other machine can do that for 80 or so years and rarely need tune ups?

In my case it has beaten.......well, I'm not even going to do the math. The heart is where we feel emotions like love, fear, grief and pain and that  is where we feel the holy ghost.  She talked about how God loves a broken heart (and contrite spirit).  Things that are broken are loved by God such as the ground as you plant a seed.  How a seed needs to break open to sprout and how after the plant grows, we need to break open the wheat to make flour.  Our hearts need to be open to learn and feel.

I was thinking about last year when I started have heart palpitations.  They were so bad one night I was thinking I was having a heart attack and Wayne took me to the hospital.  They strapped the monitors on me and ran lots of tests.  They called my problem PVC's.  (I remember it because that is what Wayne uses to pipe the sprinkler system).  Not the same, but anyway.....they were so bad at times that they took my breath away every few seconds.  The Doc said they were bad but that they were not dangerous.  He still sent me to the cardiologist to have a second opinion.  He was right.  There was no known cause  for them and they are not dangerous. They lasted for many weeks though and stress could make them worse as could cherry coke.  I got used to them just as they went away.  I get them now and then but not like they were before.  It made me think about my heart and what a great machine it is.  I think about my family history of heart disease and it scares me some.  Dad had a quad by-pass, my brother had 2 heart attacks and they were both thin and active.  My Grandma Marchant died in her sleep one night of heart failure at about my age, my uncle died of heart failure at a relatively young age too.

I know this magnificent machine in my chest needs a better work out than it's been getting and that I need to lose weight to make it healthier so I am finally making a New Year's resolution.  I am going to get in better shape.  It is hard with a leg that doesn't work right and a head tumor and medicine that make it very hard to lose weight but I know I can do better.  I love my heart.  It deserves better.

If you are reading this you probably know me and I love your hearts too.  Happy Valentine's Day early. 

My thoughts

Last week I had a lot of time to muse.  It was so cold outside and so snowy that I just wanted to hibernate.  When my mind wanders I have a few a-ha moments.

1.  When I am cruising on the Internet and I find a site or an article that I just love, I look for the "pin" button so I can pin it to my Pinterest Board, but when there is not one, I get a little irritated.
2.  I am so glad I got my flu shot.  I have been hearing of people who got the flu and after many weeks of trying to cope,  are just exhausted, have missed work and passed it on to the rest of the family.  I get mine free and I get it every year.  One tiny pin prick that I can hardly feel is really worth it.
3.  I know in my heart that I will never win the lottery or the Publisher Clearing House
contest, yet I still daydream of what I would do with my millions or my $5,000 a week and how many of you would also be blessed if I won.
4.  Every time I see those "As Seen On TV" ads, I want to buy everything and try it.  They make it seems like your life would be much easier if you just had all their gadgets, yet I never buy any.
5.  I don't get depressed, but when we have our horrible Utah inversions and I can't see the mountains for weeks,  it does make me stay in and organize my drawers, my paper files, and to take old stuff to DI, read many books, and want to rearrange my furniture, and get new stuff.   And I do this.
6.  I keep cutting out magazine pages, pinning to Pinterest and looking in furniture stores, but still don't have an exact idea of what my decorating style is. I do like parts of traditional, parts of country, parts of transitional, parts of French Farm House, parts of almost every style except ultra modern.  I have antiques, shabby chic, modern, and transitional things in my house and even have a couple of modern bathroom rugs.  I guess I am just very eclectic and try to color coordinate things so they look like they go together.  I could probably never have a decorator do my house.  My visiting teacher always says it feels so warm and cozy when she comes so I guess that's OK.
7.  I celebrated my birthday for a week.  I signed up for free dinners at a lot of restaurants online and so far we had a free dinner at Noodles and Company,  had a free Blizzard, had a free dinner at Rodizio's Grill, and had more coupons for Red Robin, Smoothies, Arby's, Chilis, Famous Dave's BBQ, Cold Stone Ice Cream and a few others.  I won't be using them all of course but there is one for Carrabba's that I will definitely be using next month. 
8.  I am going to try harder to write to the missionaries from our ward.  I know mail is a big deal to them and I am trying to read my scriptures and Relief Society lessons every week.
9.  I just looked out the window and the sun is shining and I can see the mountains.  Hip-hip-hooray.  I won't do anything differently though, except maybe try to get my ironing done and to eat some chocolate.

I haven't blogged for a few months.  My life got so busy. We were traveling a lot and this just seemed the thing to give up, but I want to get back to it....it is a new year and although I don't make resolutions, I still have a couple of goals I want to reach. One of them is to not let go of blogging completely because that is my journal.  My memory is not good enough to "not" write down things that happen in my life.  I can't catch up the last few months (because I didn't write it down and can't remember it, ha) but I will still put in photos of a few things and then go from there. 

Today just happens to be my birthday.  It doesn't hurt like 60 did.  In fact I plan to enjoy it completely.  My goal is to do nothing but read, play on the computer, eat some chocolate and later go for dinner at Carraba's for scallops.  Mom and Dad called early this morning and sang to me.  I consider it such a blessing that they are both still here and that they can still sing to me and tell me that they love me. Susan Welton dropped by with a wonderful little book for me  titled " The Beginning of Better Days" that I can't wait to get to.  I also had lunch with the ladies this week.  I had a Cafe Rio salad and Susan W.  had gotten a chocolate pastry with a candle on it to share.  How cute is that?  Tricia got me some good smelly stuff and a set of 2 lb. barbells.  Susan Welton, Laura Turner, Tricia Garside and I get together for all of our birthdays.  We worked together in the Relief Society Presidency years ago.  It's amazing how friendships are born, broadened and continue when you work together closely and I just love these women so much.

My son Shon is supposed to have surgery this morning.  He has Diverticulitis that has worsened and my prayer is that is is OK and everything goes well.  That would make it a better birthday.