Whirlwind Weekend

It's the last weekend before school officially starts - we kicked it off by making a whirlwind trip to St. George to watch the Jags take on Hurricane (not to be confused with Hurricane Irene taking on the east coast)

Gary and I left Friday early afternoon, we stopped in Nephi for lunch at a place called the "One Man Band" Diner. It was a quirky little place - kinda set up like The Training Table where you call in your food order from a phone at your table, but it's a much smaller, intimate setting. We ended up chatting with one of the local Nephi policemen who was at a table with (what sounded like) the high school football coach, one of his assistants and one of the high school assistant basketball coaches. It was fun to listen to them talk and interject on a few sports related subjects I was comfortable with.

We left there joking that we were going to have to retire to a place where, on Friday afternoons, we could go and shoot the breeze with the locals at a small cafe.

When we arrived in St. George we started worrying about how hot it was (the car said 105) outside, and how we were going to sit through a football game!! Before the game we headed to my sisters house to see her and her cute family. 

This is me with cute little Hailee

I got to sit and hold Hailee. She was born August 8th - shes SOOOOO CUTE!!! Except she wouldn't open her eyes and look at me!

 Her big sister Hayden is soooo excited to have her around, she is her mom's big helper for sure....right, Kel?? Hee hee

We had dinner - taco salad and fruit and my sisters famous lemon poppyseed cake - to DIE for! Yum! Hayden was more worried about me seeing her "big girl" room than eating, but I think she managed to eat some fruit before getting Aunt Jenna out of the couch and down the hall to see everything.

After dinner we picked up Reillys' friend and headed to Dixie college where the boys were playing ball. Jace rode with Gary and I, he thought our car wasn't big enough and figured we should have a bigger one so we could fit more people. I couldn't bear telling him we were not exactly a growing family and didn't really need a bigger car.

Lance, Reilly, her friend and Jace at the game.

It was really fun to have them come to the football game with us. It was miserable hot for a while, but worse than the heat was that the concrete steps we were sitting on were hot - serious cooked buns!!! But, the clouds covered up the sun, and while it was still hot, it was bearable. We all enjoyed the game, mostly.... Jace actually spent most of it playing on his DS and wanting to know how soon the 4th quarter was so we could start walking over to see Jeff. He was pretty patient for the most part, he just wanted to see Jeff.

 

Jace and Jeff

As you can see, Jace got his wish :) I'm sure if he could have climbed on the bus with the big boys so he could hang with Jeff he would have.

It was a good trip, quick, but good. It was fun to see everyone.

Well, time to chill for a while and get my "Qi" in order for the beginning of the school year!

Time to be a tree

Gary and I went to Yellowstone this past weekend  - a much needed getaway. As we traveled through the park I was amazed at all of the new trees, even though this park and many of its formations and geological wonders are exceptionally old, the park had a feeling of "starting over" if you will.

I'm not one that likes to quit, nor do I like having to do things over a 2nd or 3rd time because I didn't get it right in the first place. But the trees had me thinking....am I really doing things over? Or am I just giving myself a clean slate and a new start? Or is anything completely new?

The fires that ravaged Yellowstone in the late 80's left nothing but burned out sticks for miles and miles and miles of hillside. To be honest, it looks pretty desolate and ugly. I remember visiting Yellowstone VERY briefly in 1996 after my sister's wedding reception in Newdale, Idaho. I couldn't believe the desolate waste that was left. I couldn't imagine how this place would ever look good again.

For those of you who don't know my husband, he is an outdoors/scout/wealth of knowledge type guy. As we drove and hiked Yellowstone I learned a lot of things from him - for example.....fireweed.

This pretty pink flower is one of the first things to return to a forest following a fire. He said that after a fire it pops up very quickly and that the hillsides that were devastated were soon covered in pink. It thrives in a place where resources have been depleted and keeps the hillside from eroding away too much. Because so much time has passed since the big fires this flower has almost disappeared again - it cant compete with the other plants.

Anyway...back to my tree thoughts.

As we hiked I saw this amazing array of tree life in its various stages (prepare for the mutated photo essay). I tried to take these pictures so you could get my perspective, I'm not a photographer by any stretch of the imagination, so I hope this comes out ok.

While this is not the smallest tree I saw, it worked out to be in the right place at the right time. When fires go through a pine forest the pinecones drop and open to release their seeds. There is no other natural way for these pinecones to open for various varieties of tree (as far as I understand). So for this little tree to have a start, it literally has to come through fire. I've had my share of fires to go through, and I know that I have left behind many things that protected me but have come out with new thinking, ideas and ways of doing things for the better.

I know the colors blend some, but in the right side of this picture you see the first little tree compared to its sibling who has been growing a bit longer. Interesting how the perspective changes, isnt it. In the picture above he looks like a solid, decent size tree, but really he didn't come up much higher than my knee. His sibling has obviously made some great strides since the fire....There are ideas, methods and ways of doing things that are in a different place following my (many) personal fires, they have a more solid look and feel to them and I'm more comfortable with them.

Here are the two little trees in the front, with a much more mature tree behind them. Again, you now see how much growth they need to have before they are well established. There are things in my life that are well established, that will continue to grow and be a force in keeping the "new growth" safe from harsh winds and over exposure.

Can you find the little trees?? Sometimes my new experiences and thoughts can be overshadowed by the old, more established things that I am more comfortable with...and once in a while, that is ok. There is nothing wrong with holding onto the things we are comfortable with, as long as we know when we need to be nurturing the new.

This burned out tree was a ways off of the other trees, but it may be the tree that seeded these others. How can the old, established things in our ways be a way to "seed" the new? Well, for example, my love of learning led me to a workshop this summer that will help me implement "new" things in my classroom and while my love of learning will not burn up and go away I certainly will be shedding old ways of thinking.

Last, the old things go by the wayside, but help nurture the new with their decomposition. By realizing the way I used to do things and understanding their effective or ineffectiveness I can help my new ways of thinking and understanding to grow.

In thinking about it now, I'm glad I've been done over by fire once or twice. Glad that I've had new ideas and ways of doing things "pop" open in he midst of trauma and disaster, grateful for the old nurturing the new, but secure in letting the old go when it was time.

Is it time for you to be a tree??

Heel and Hero

It has been three of the longest days I think I've ever had. I come to the end of today totally conflicted.

Dad - 

Its been 12 weeks and one day since Dad went to the hospital. He doesn't remember a lot of that time (about 3 or 4 weeks according to him). I think a lot of the time he doesn't recall is the time he spent in ICU with the MRSA staff infection. Most of that time he was in ICU I was in the hospital at 8 a.m. and would sit in the room and watch him. I made sure they kept up on his pain meds, and made myself a general nuisance asking questions and asking more questions about the answers to the previous questions. 

Me - feeling like a hero after breaking Dad out of rehab

That said, today I became a sort of hero (my personal feeling). I picked Dad up from the rehab center to take him home. Of course, we didn't end up going straight home - we had to go to get him a haircut, a bagel and groceries (the bagel was of utmost importance). He was happy, he laughed, joked and carried on. He was thrilled about the new "papa bear" chair we got him and was excited to be able to sleep in a bed that he fit in and that doesn't have a squeeky mattress.

However -

Mom - 

In all this time with Dad being hospitalized Mom has been trying to keep up with everything, work and be supportive. In the midst of all that HER back has now flipped out. The MRI yesterday showed a severely herniated disc at L3. So...when I went to pick up Dad from rehab I delivered Mom....to be left...in Dad's (former) room....for rehab. 

Me - feeling like a loser after leaving Mom

She was was not happy. I carried her suitcase in and set it next to her and said...."see ya later." Yeah, at that point I felt like a real heel. I'd been dragging her around to doctors for the past 2 days trying to get things figured out. The MRI was an un-fun process for her, she was in pain, she wasn't safe at home, and as a family, we just weren't able to care for her like she needed.

I know that I'm probably not the first person to have to deal with this, but it doesn't make it any better.

I'm tired and conflicted and I just needed to vent. I'm not diggin' this whole being the oldest kid, having to worry over your parents thing. I appreciate all the help we've been getting, from other family members and the wonderful neighbors that my parents have. There are some great people in this world, I only hope I can be so kind and generous one day....but today isn't it...heh.

So, my label today.... Heel and Hero