Living Room Curtains

I've been meaning to post a picture of our living room curtains for a while now. This was my project for several months. My sister Suzanne came up to Salt Lake to help me pick out the curtains a while ago. Then it took me another month or so to buy the curtain rod. Then a couple more weeks passed before we got around to putting them up. But here they are.

It was a little tricky arranging the curtain on the rod without any clips - the material is pretty silky/slippery. But I'm pleased with the finished product. It adds a little color to a room that was predominately green and black. And now the window doesn't look so sad and bare. :)

OUCH!!!

So some of you may not know of the ongoing ordeal with my right wrist. It all started about 3 months ago. After a long work week, my wrist was hurting. I then noticed a rather peculiar bump on my wrist. I wasn't sure what it was. I asked a few coworkers and they didn't really know, either.
To make a long story short, after several visits to the physical therapist that treated Christine last year (when she broke her pinkie), I decided to see a hand doctor because the bump was still there. The doctor informed me that the bump is called a ganglion cyst. Apparently, it's quite common. They're not completely sure what causes them, and they're not always painful like mine.
The doctor first treated it by draining the cyst. He told me there was a 50/50 chance it would come back. Sure enough, two weeks later, it was back and slightly larger. So back to the doctor's office I went.
The options I faced were: live with it, or have surgery. Because I use my hand so much, I opted for surgery. For the past three months I haven't been able to play the piano, play volleyball, or work with a mouse (I've been using my left hand at work).
So two Wednesdays ago was the big day. The nurses were all very friendly. One nurse even had a cyst on her wrist and was very interested in my treatment.
After the surgery, I wore a splint with an ace bandage on my wrist for a week. A lot of people mistook it for a cast. So this is what my wrist looks like now:
The doctor says it may take a few weeks to heal. Right now I wear a brace that keeps me from overusing my wrist while it heals. One time, when I wasn't wearing the brace, I slipped and caught myself with my right hand. It hurt so bad I cried out in pain.
Each day it gets a little better. I look forward to playing the piano again, as well as returning to other daily activities.

Trip To Zions National Park

I spent this past Wednesday through Friday in Zions National Park. I went there with a group from La Europa. They take the girls on short trips every couple of months, and I always wanted to go on one. So this past month, I did. I went as a staff member, so I was in charge of two of the girls - knowing where they were at all times and making sure they were safe. But my room and board were all paid for, which was great.

On Wednesday we hiked the Narrows. For those that don't know, the first part of this hike is a sandy trail next to a river.

Then you leave the trail and actually hike through the river. You weave back and forth from bank to bank, first upriver and then back downriver. I wore my bathing suit under my shirt and my swimming shorts, because I knew that there would be parts that got waist deep.

Funny story: when I got to the deepest part of the river, where it was only supposed to go up to my waist, I was a little ways behind the rest of my group (probably a combination of stopping to take pictures like the one below - the deepest part was right past this bend - and the fact that I wasn't wearing the best pair of shoes - my sandals completely died by the end of the hike and I ended up throwing them away). So I didn't get to observe which part of the river everyone else crossed at. Result: I picked the deepest part to wade through and got in up to my neck! It was a little crazy for a minute there, but I made it through. At least the people coming behind me learned from my mistake and waded on the other side of the river at that point.

When you're hiking through the water, you watch your feet pretty closely. I happened to notice that someone had etched the word "HI" into a rock. I thought it was cool so I took a picture.

Towards the end of the hike two deer decided to join us. They got pretty close to us.

Now, unfortunately, I dropped my camera in the water on the way back through the Narrows, and I was afraid it was ruined. I took out the batteries and left it to dry that night, but the next morning it still wasn't taking pictures properly. So I don't have any other pictures from the other two days. Sorry. But when I checked my camera again today, lo and behold it was working! Yay! So, at least you got to see my pictures from the first day.

On the second day I went canyoneering. It was AWESOME!!! The first thing we did was rappel down into the canyon. I'd only been rappelling once or twice at West Point when I was in high school. I really loved it and couldn't wait to do it again. This time it was even better. One of the rappels was about 100 feet down a cliff side. I bounced off of the rock on my way down rather than just walking down the cliff face, and it was SO MUCH FUN!!! The girls were surprised/impressed that I enjoyed it so much and had some experience doing it.

We then hiked through the canyon, surmounting obstacles along the way. It was very taxing but a lot of fun. I would love to do it again sometime. And our girls did really well. They worked together, listened to the guides, and had a lot of fun.

On the third day I was with a group that did a few small hikes. We drove through the east part of Zions, went on a short hike to a waterfall, and pulled off at a random spot and hiked some of the sandstone. The trip to the waterfall was everyone's favorite. We followed a stream to a secluded, shaded pool of water that had a small waterfall feeding into it. Some of the girls decided that they wanted to go swimming in their clothes. They also jumped off of a cliff about 8-10 feet high into a spot of water about 7 feet deep. I captured it on video on my phone. (Side note - does anyone know how to get pictures and/or videos off of their phone if they don't have a data plan? Is there some kind of software I can buy to transfer it from my memory card to my computer?)

We also found a flat rock overlooking the stream where we had a yoga class. One of the staff that was with us is a yoga instructor, and the girls do yoga a lot a La Europa. I'd never done it before, but I decided to give it a try. It was the perfect setting in the middle of a canyon with blue skies, hawks circling on the cliffs above, and the sound of running water below us. It was very relaxing.

Overall it was a great trip. I arrived home Friday evening sore and tired, but happy. The activities were fun, but the main reason I went was to bond with the girls, and I was able to have some good conversations and fun times with many of them. I'm really glad I went.

I'm Grateful for Running Water

Sometimes you don't realize how grateful you are for the little things in life until they're taken away.

Well, we had a little excitement on Friday night. Right around dinner time, we discovered that we had no running water in our condo. We had noticed some construction going on down the street when we drove home, so I walked down there to find out what was going on. They told me that our water should be back on in about an hour. I thought that sounded a little optimistic given that they were completely digging up the street, but I was at least hopeful that it would be fixed that night.

I was able to make dinner without any water, but it felt really wrong to leave the dishes in the sink without rinsing them.

After dinner Jeff and I went to see a movie - Julie and Julia, in case any of you are curious. (It was ... ok. They definately had more language and "content" than they needed to. I thought it was a shame, because it would have been a lot better without all that.) We came home to discover that our water was still off.

At that point, I started thinking about all the things I wanted to do that night or the next day that involved water:

Dishes
Cooking
Using the toilet
Washing my hands
Brushing my teeth
Showering
Laundry


We got by on a few of those things with some of our water storage, but I started to get a good idea of how inadequate it is.

Fortunately, our water came back on at 11:30 - yes, we were still up. I was just getting ready to brush my teeth and climb in to bed when I heard the pipes gurgling. And lo and behold - we had our water back. Yay!

So, I know, we were only without water for a few hours. It could have been a lot worse. One thing that I gained from this experience is a renewed determination to increase our water supply. If anyone has any tips, let me know. And I have an increased appreciation for running water.