The Zoo

Last weekend my sister and I went to the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City. We were lost for an hour in a car with no air-conditioning, but we finally made it there (a trip into Baskin Robbins helped us find our way). My sister had never been to a zoo. Ever. So I brought my camera and we took pictures. Enjoy!

We got our faces painted.

We talked with the macaw only because he said hello first!
We saw a very cute sleeping red panda.
A tiger went swimming.

And an elephant took a bow.

Manning the Home Front and Abigail Adams

As my husband is in California I feel akin to Abigail Adams who's husband was in Europe for 8 years on assignment from his fellow Founders (he was only supposed to be gone for 6 months!).

Our similarities:
She missed him terribly, as I miss mine
She was supportive of the reason for his absence but still didn't have to love it, as do I
She had to stay to take care of income, as I need to do

Our differences:
She let him leave for the good of the new nation and I let mine leave to help the future of only our family
She didn't know h0w long she would be without him and I know to the day when I'll see Steve again
She had to raise her children while he was away and I do not

I take comfort in our similarites and our differences

(My commentaries on Abigail come from my reaction to a book called "Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation" by Cokie Roberts.)

Home Improvement

So I've been in Fresno now for a few weeks and have been working on many things to make the house a little nicer. Two weekends ago I put up a fence on the north side of our house (there was none there before).

This past weekend was an extended weekend. Matt was in town and also our friend Jason. Rich and my Dad helped out also. We had lots of hands working on the yards. The projects overlapped, but over all we patche a dozen sprinkler issues, dug out many cubic yards of soil and replaced it with potting mix. We planted flower bushes and lillies along the outside border of half the back yard, planted some trees, and did some general trimming/branch cutting of old overgrowth.

The biggest pain was the ton of gravel we had in both yards. We tried hacking on it ourselves but ended up getting Luis (hispanic laborer waiting around Home Depot) to do it for us. We paid him a lot for day labor, but that little guy did what several of us big guys couldn't do!

After this past weekend's efforts our house should be much greener and more pleasant for our futures there. Next up on the list are some simple, fast, single-person jobs that I'll do once Matt leaves.

--Steve

For the Beauty of the Earth

There are only a few things more spiritually relaxing to me than a beautiful fall day. On these days, there is often a moment that comes which takes my breath away and relaxes me completely. When this happens I am usually standing outside, leaning up against the side of a building, taking in the fresh air and soaking up the sun. I am usually thinking of nothing in particular. Then, with a casual turn of my head - BAM! my eyes alight on a harmoneous veiw that catches my breath, clears my vision and helps me to feel connected to God. The picture on the right is one of those views. It is at a cabin near Zion's National Park in Utah.

Marshmallows

Remember when you were little and you roasted marshmallows over the stove with your parents for an FHE or rainy day treat? I do, and I love it! I love sitting around a big fire and smelling like smoke afterward (really, I do, not sarcastic!). But I like roasting marshmallows at home even more. I'm not sure why.

I wish I had a picture of this, but at the end of May/beginning of June Steve and I roasted marshmallows over our gas stove. I would have staged one but he isn't very into that kind of thing (and I am lazy). Oh, and I discovered that I like dark chocolate more than white or milk chocolate on my smores.

Pantalones Colagados

Pantalones Colgados = Hanging Pants in Spanish

Steve left on his Accouting internship today and will be in California for the next two months. This internship is very important to him (and me) and we wanted to make sure that he would fit in with his business casual co-workers. This would normally be easy for an active church goes like himself, but he hasn't bought new formal pants or shoes since his mission and his formal clothes were a more than a little worn. Kohl's had a great deal on pants during their Memorial Day sale and here they are in all of their glory!

(On an interesting but not completely related note, while I was staring at the pants and thinking about making this post he gave me a 30 minute lecture on deferred tax liability. I understood most of it! My favorite line was when he was telling me about the ways to reduce tax liability and he ended his example with the line: "unless the earth implodes". I couldn't help but agree with that earth shattering statement.)


While looking at the pantalones colgados, I thought of a place in Cuenca, Spain that has a tourist attraction called "Las Casas Colgadas" (the hanging houses). The houses were literally hanging over a cliff (see picture I took below) and housed a modern art museum. Pretty cool. Oh, and I should tell you that the date is November 5th; I was going through a Europen phase...

Our Salsa Garden Cont'd

The patch of dirt Steve is standing next to is our work area. Last year it was an old stump, dirt and stredding plastic (yuck!). Our landlord gave us permission to play with it and play we did! Steve took out the stump (he was sore but he got to buy a shovel so it was worth it!) and we planted bulbs. When those died, we bought dirt and planted flowers. This year we had a few bulbs (mostly daffodills), one marigold from last year and now a salsa garden.

In our garden this year we planted three kinds of peppers (bell, serrano and habanero), two kinds of tomatoes (roma and cherry) and one onion plant which I don't expect to survive. The bugs seem to really enjoy our bell pepper plants.

Oh, and Steve decided to do this at 8:45pm on a Saturday. So once again I found myself racing to Home Depot at 9:30pm hoping they weren't closed (they weren't) and buying that one last item. Why is this starting to become a pattern??

I think the stakes look funny with all of that string and I hope that the plants get big enough to grow into the supports we created for them.