Two-year-olds

Ive been watching a movie about a family whose 2-year-old wandered off. They have hundreds of people searching for him. I haven't seen the end yet, but it makes me remember when Nathan wandered off from the house when he was about that age. We were searching everywhere close to the house and starting to fan out, but someone from our ward found him on a road that leads out to nowhere. It is a very long road and he was sure that he was headed home. If the people had not recognized him, there is no telling how far he could have gotten and whether we would have even found him. He and we sure were blessed to have found him safe and sound. It makes me so thankful. I love my kids and the thoughts of losing one of them just makes me sick.

The Perfect Walk

Ken and I have been wanting to go up in the mountains to see the fall leaves, but something keeps coming up. Well, last Wednesday we both managed to have the day free so we went up to Snow Basin. We stopped at the Green Lake trail head and started hiking. Although the most colorful part of the leaves changing was the past couple of weeks, there were still some pretty colors. However, that was not the highlight of the hike. It was an absolutely PERFECT day for a hike! The sky was clear, yet it was not hot and not cold. There was a slight breeze that came up occasionally to cool us from the efforts of the hike (although we did not hike fast), and yet it wasn't constant. It was the middle of the week, so there were only a few other hikers or bikers on the trail. I LOVE hiking in the mountains. At the beginning of the trail there were yellow aspen and as we hiked there were more evergreens and red scrub oak. We saw some blue jays, some wood peckers and a squirrel, but no deer. As we were driving out of the canyon Ken pointed out some Elk, but they were black and said Moo, so I wasn't very impressed. It was the most pleasant hike you can imagine. I look at the hike N&T took in Texas and think that looks so dry and barren compared to our shaded, cool beautiful hike. Sorry guys, but these mountains are the place to be!

Last week

"C"--this updated blog is for you.

I got to go to church last week. Between Stake Conference, General Conference, and work it has been a while since I got to hear a Sunday School and Relief Society lesson.

This week, of course, was General Conference. As usual there were wonderful talks aimed especially at me. President Uchtdorf's talk on how over-scheduling our lives prevents us from focusing on what is most important particularly hit home. I have been feeling very stressed lately by how busy things seem to be and how no matter what I do, there are always other things I didn't do that cause stress or guilt. And yet the things that I do and that I have scheduled are not bad things. Its hard to know what to cut out. I have been wanting to make some applesauce this year because our golden delicious apples make such good applesauce. However, I'm not sure if that will come about. All the apples tend to just fall to the ground and ROT. Sad--I'd love to be able to give them to Timber (who just said she was canning applesauce) or anyone else. But Timber is too far away and they are organic (translated as: full of worm holes) and some people just don't want them.

I had a couple of days with nothing outside of the house scheduled, so I was able to start deciding what I want on the shelves in the storage room. However, there is still a long way to go. "A" walked into the storage room today when she was here to visit and basically said "Whoa". The canned storage shelf makes quite a difference.

I took advantage of a free blood draw test from H2U a week or so ago. Disappointing results. For the first time, my cholesterol and triglycerides were high. About the only risk factor that is bad is that I am overweight. It never matters if I lose 25 or 30 pounds or more than 10% of my weight (this is often cited as a recommendation) --when a health screen is done, I am still overweight. I wonder if menopause is contributing to the raise in Chol and trigl. On the bright side, my Hct and Hgb are well within normal range (they used to be low but with no more monthly blood loss they are better).

Ken and I are taking a CERT class (Community Emergency Response Team) through the Clinton City fire department. Last week we learned how to do triage and help sort the degree of seriousness of injuries in a disaster situation. We also got our fingerprints taken for a criminal background check. Apparently they don't want to give criminals a chance to take advantage of people in the event of an emergency.

I am back with the Wasatch Master Chorale. Last week we practiced "Its Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas, Shepherd's Pipe Carol, Carols of Germany, and the Amen Chorus from Messiah". Of course that is only one week's practice. There are a number of other songs we will sing in our program.

I got to work at ORMC on Friday, but fortunately it was not as busy as the day before. Susan ended up working until 8 p.m. on Thurs. I went home by 4:30 or 5. Of course my day was easier because she spent so much time working with those that were having problems the day before.

TTFN