Raspberries

I'm a nut for raspberries. I never thought there would be anything in the world better than fresh picked berries from my great grandmother's garden. I remember climbing through the thick prickly bushes to find just the perfect berry. I must have been around six years old, but I remember the days clearly. I would even shimmy on my tummy under the thorny branches to reach the berries in the small patch of bushes near my grandma's garage.

Today I still love raspberries in the middle of summer. I have stood my ground my entire life, raspberries were my favorite fruit.

Well, like I said, I never new I'd find something better than those perfect berries of summer, but I think I've found a close second, canned raspberries, homemade of coarse. E's mom was nice enough to share a jar of her famous raspberries last fall at dinner, and I fell in love. Now, each time I see her I beg her for another jar of my own. She has been more than nice to indulge me, and last night I savored the end of another jar of berries.

They are sweet and tart, and tender, and oh so good! Luckily E isn't as crazy as I am about the berries, so most of the time they are mine.

So why am I writing an entire blog entry about raspberries? Who the hell knows, work has been busy and stressful, and I thought it would be fun. Plus, I don't ever want to forget the memories of those prickly bushes all those years ago.

Southern Utah getaway

What a great weekend, E's family has been doing more and more trips that we are invited on, and this last weekend, we headed down to Escalate National Monument for a weekend of hiking, eating, and being silly.

I took Friday off work, we headed down early, and braved the rain and snow. We were a little sad, because we were trying to get to the warmer weather of Southern Utah, and it was snowing in the mountains, but my spirits were high!

Soon we arrived at our B&B to find a comfortable room, and a beautiful view! Soon it was dinner time, and we decided to give a tiny little Mexican restaurant in town a try. We were a little scared, the place was in somebody's house, and there wasn't really enough room for our party of five. After other patrons moved and we settled in, we had a great meal. It is so funny that in the smallest of towns you can find something so fantastic. The chips were cooked there, and were fresh, and we finished the meal with an awesome bread pudding.

The next day the weather had cleared and we were excited to get hiking. Over breakfast we talked about what C and Ch wanted to do (they aren't much for hiking) but they both surprised us and said they'd give the six mile hike a try. So after getting a picnic lunch in town we were off towards lower Calf Creek Falls. We were sure that C and Ch would want to turn around, but they hiked and hiked, and totally surprised us, and we had a great lunch near the falls.

Later that night we headed to a restaurant in Bolder that gets fantastic reviews. We had made reservations and were quite excited to try Hells Backbone Grill. The little restaurant was quirky, out in the middle of nowhere, with these really fantastic things on the menu. We ordered appetizers, salads, soups, drinks, desserts, and the most amazing trout I have ever tried. We chatted about hiking, and life, and wine as the sunset behind us. We all ordered dessert at the end of the meal, and all agreed this was a fantastic find.

The next morning, I woke up and packed my things quickly. E and his family were still packing, so I decided to take a little walk by myself. I felt so alive and happy. My heart was beating, and I was breathing deeply, and was just so happy to be under the pure blue sky and red cliffs of Southern Utah.

After my quick hike, some breakfast, and water bottle fill-up, we were off to an area called Devil's Garden. This mini wonderland had arches, slot canyons, mesas, and deep cracks, all the thinks you'd expect from Southern Utah, but it was all miniature, so it was fun to explore the area, without ever feeling in danger or lost. We even spotted a jack rabbit that didn't seem to skiddish, so we got some great photos!

After our hike and rabbit spotting, we headed towards a coffee house we had seen perched up on a hillside. We were hoping for some incredible views and lunch, and we got both. The little coffee house offered organic sandwiches and salads, so it was perfect!

We headed out towards Capital Reef National Park, and after getting some photos of the deer, pictograhs, and fading sun we reluctantly headed towards home.

We ate at a funny diner in Central Utah, and got home late, happy for the great getaway.

Here are a few photos I took:

Fading light on the fruit trees in Capital Reef National Park


Group of cactus near our B&B in Escalate


My sweet hubbie looking up at Calf Creek Falls


The beautiful view from 'Devil's Garden'

Fantastic weather, is it really March?

We’ve had fantastic weather here in Utah the last couple of days. Highs in the 70s, and just so springy! I love this weather, if it didn’t get hotter all summer, I’d be happy. So on Saturday E and I met up with a group of our best guy friends for the first mountain bike ride of 2007. It was hard, and hot, and tiring, but by the end I felt accomplished. I rode up the steep hills, and the gradual inclines, and sped down rocky declines.

Afterwards we rode our bikes directly to B’s house, went out to Middle Eastern food, played Frisbee at the local park, and had a great evening of playing Bolkus, eating pizza, and telling dirty jokes.

More Saturdays should be like last Saturday, I’m sure they will be!

Changes at the office

I knew it was too good to last. My office is incredible, larger than any of my coworkers, and a fantastic view of the mountains. Every day I think about how lucky I am to have such a fantastic office, but somehow I knew my days were limited.

My company is doing well, really well. This is fantastic news, I’ve gotten bigger and better clients over the last year that keep me busier than ever, which of coarse is fantastic. We’ve hired again and again in the last six months, and we’ve outgrown our office space.

So, luckily the space next to us is vacant which means we can expand directly into there. However, my boss realized just how fantastic my office is because now he wants to make it the conference room. He feels that we should have our best area for clients, therefore I’m moving down the hall.

The new office is fine, still a window (so I can’t complain too much) but it’s a lot smaller and doesn’t look onto the mountains. Oh well, life will go on, even though it really bums me out...


View out my window from my office. Notice the windowsill in the foreground.

Grandma teaches me about love

My Grandma Florence, my dad’s mom, gave me some wonderful wisdom the other day, that has stuck in my mind. We were talking about my Grandma Barbara, who has been working on adjusting to her new life as a widow. My Grandma Florence has been a widow for about two years now, and she said “it doesn’t matter how much time you have with someone you love, it’s never enough.”

I agree.

Serenity now...

Work and life is stressful, really stressful. E is unhappy at school and unsure in his abilities. He is so smart and talented, but the math thing just keeps getting in the way, now he thinks he might quit altogether. This really upsets me, because he wasn’t happy with his original degree, and he’s not happy now. I want him to find something that makes him happy, and earns an income he will be happy with. I know he can do it, I just wish he knew that too.

My job is super stressful now too. I’ve never had so many active accounts, and active jobs for each account. Managing everything feels like juggling sometimes, and I do drop balls. I hate telling clients I’m sorry, because I screwed up. And it does happen.

A trip to Maui right about now sounds perfect. All I want to do is chill out and recharge.

Last weekend my family went up to Joan’s cabin (this year was better than last) and I snapped a photo that I call serenity.

This is how I want to feel, cool, calm, and peaceful:

It is the first day of spring,

at least in my book. I say spring is March-May, summer is June-August, fall is September- November, and winter is December –February. I know that is not officially the case, but that’s my rule of thumb.

So what is happening in Utah on the first day of spring? I’m looking out the windows in my office (I’ll say it again, I’m damn lucky to have such a beautiful window office of my own) and it is snowy and cold. The trees are bare, and another front is coming in today.

However, that cannot dampen my spirits. Spring is coming, I know it.

Nostalgic

I’ve been feeling a little bit nostalgic lately, so yesterday I pulled out some of my photo albums and scanned some photos of me as a tyke.

Enjoy:

This is me when I was about 5, I think I just lost my first tooth. I remember being in a gymnastics class at about this time, and looking in the mirror in my leotard while wiggling my tooth with my tongue.


When my parents got divorced last year the thing that made me the most sad was not being able to go on family trips anymore. Here I am at Arches when I was about 9, with my brother and sister. Arches National Park was a standard family trip as long as I can remember.



I loved my Sailor dress when I was 8, and I always wore bows in my hair. I remember one time at figure skating practice a older girl saying she was 'too old' for bows. I clearly remember thinking 'I'll never be too old for bows!'



This photo was taken when I was 15, and was the only time in my life that I cared about how my hair was styled. At this point in my life I actually showered every day. I loved to work on homework, and drink OJ while my hair curled.




And this is how it turned out, pretty damn cute if I do say so myself!

Birthday wishes-

This time of year it happens, it happens every year. I am super excited for spring, I feel energized and happy. Today it’s snowing like mad, but that can’t ruin my mood. I want to travel, read, laugh, and sing. I also like thinking about my birthday. I really hate to get older, I’m happy where I am at, but that doesn’t mean I can’t pretend I’m a kid and get excited for presents and birthday cake!

So, here is what I’m thinking I want:
1. Couch- I hate our upstairs couch, it is uncomfortable and just annoying. Now that my mom is working at Ikea, I want to get a new couch. Something wonderful yet simple, and really comfortable.

2. Kit’s Table and Chairs- I am really enjoying collecting American Girl dolls right now, and have always wanted a complete collection of any single doll. Now that I’ve chosen Kit, I want to get her table and chairs.

3. Kit’s Birthday Linens, Party Treats, and Grace- Trying to collect an entire collection is hard, so I take it in small steps, and want to get Kit’s birthday collection for my own birthday.

4. Unconditional love and incredible health (hey, isn’t that what everyone wants?)

Here is a favorite photo I took two years ago in London in March:

On a side note, this is my 100th post - go me!!

Changing Seasons

Well after two weeks of unseasonably warm weather, Utah finally reminded us it was winter. Yesterday E and I wanted to get out of the house, and do something for the long weekend. We drove up to the Uinta Mountains (about 90 minutes away) and went snowshoeing. This was after a huge discussion on if we should go snowshoeing, because everything felt so springy. E wanted to go biking, or hiking, and I wanted to snowshoe (we finally decided to snowshoe). Anyway, on the trial we were both so warm we didn’t wear hats, gloves, coats, etc. We both hiked in our T-shirts! I couldn’t believe how little snow was there, and how quickly it was melting.

I looked out my window yesterday at our beautiful silver maple. The buds were coming out, and it was ready to start spring! E and I commented that this warm weather can’t be good for our snow pack, yet we were loving it!

This morning I woke up late (no work on President’s Day!) and peaked out the window. Utah reminded us, and our tree, that is still in fact winter. I snapped these photos out of the reading nook, because I mentioned in my previous post that the reader (or the napper) can watch the changing seasons, and this is a perfect example.

Valentine's Day

The last two years, Valentine’s was tough. Last year with my parent’s divorce, and the year before E saw a child get hit by a car, and was not responsive (luckily the child made it).

This year E and I were waiting for the worst to happen, and it did, on February 12, 2007. In Salt Lake City five innocent people were shot and killed at Trolley Square, a mall E and I love. Four of the five fatal deaths happened in a card store I love! I’ve bought birthday presents there, trinkets, and most recently, my Christmas cards.

It is so scary when a place that is familiar and safe turns into such horror. E and I both have been really hurt by this incident. And, a man I worked with about a year ago was shot in the incident, and is still in critical condition at the ICU.

However, Valentines Day was peaceful enough. E gave me a beautiful card and surprised me with a dozen roses.

The card he gave me had a caring heartfelt message inside, too personal to share here, but here is a part of it: “I think everyday how lucky I am to be married to such a wonderful beautiful person.” I have the best husband ever.

Last night we had my family over for a Valentines party, and had a really nice time.

Now I’m ready for spring!

Today is the day

One year ago my parents announced their divorce. I remember it like yesterday, I started to cry, and my perfect little family that I had always thought would survive anything would never be the same. For me, the divorce was hard. For months, I thought about never going on family trips again, never spending Christmas with my entire family in one place, and the thought of my brother and sister having to jump between two homes.

One year later I am better, I don’t get as upset about the divorce. I am happy starting my own little family with Ethan and hope and pray that we will always be happy together. It will take work, but I’m willing to fight for something I believe in, my family.