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.

Hiking

So here are some pictures from earlier in the summer when we went hiking. We took the Mill B South trail, which is located in the Big Cottonwood Canyon. The trail was short, shaded, and followed a stream.

I thought this was a cool bend in the stream.

What a stud.
I loved hiking next to the water.
The sound of water running in a stream is one of my favorite sounds in the world.
The shade was nice, too.

There was another trail that branched off of the Mill B South trail and led to Lake Blanche. We decided to try it, or at least go a little ways along the trail.

We didn't even make it halfway to the lake before we got tuckered out and decided to turn back. But it was still fun.
The trail took us up higher, though, and the views were really pretty.

We might go hiking tomorrow. If we do, I promise to post some pictures, and I'll try to do it sooner.

First Wedding Anniversary

Earlier this month, Jeff and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary. We spent the Friday before (July 31st) at Johnson's Mill, the bed and breakfast in Midway where we spent our honeymoon. We were planning on going hiking on Saturday, but it turned out to be a pretty hot afternoon, so we just came back and relaxed at home.
This is the Mount Timpanogos room, where we stayed last year and this year.

Here's a side shot of Johnson Mill.

You can walk around on the grounds and see sights like this. There are also deer on the grounds, but I didn't get a good picture.

This is the porch where they serve you breakfast in the morning.

As gifts, Jeff and I gave each other pictures. Jeff painted a picture of the Bountiful Temple. It is pictured below - I apologize that my computer chose to rotate it. Isn't he amazingly talented?

I hired Jill Buckmiller, the art teacher at La Europa, to draw the picture below. It is based on a photograph (also below) taken at our wedding that Jeff and I both love. But, as you can see in the photograph, there were several things in the background that detracted from the picture. So I thought it would be cool to have the picture drawn of just us. It turned out really well.

All in all, it was a wonderful first anniversary, just like it's been a wonderful first year.

Catch-Up

Well, the official summer is coming to a close, and I realized that we haven't really blogged about what we've been up to lately. So this will be a hodgepodge catch-up post.

The summer term at La Europa went pretty well for me. I got to teach my NUMB3RS class again, which was my favorite. The Da Vinci Code class that I team taught with the English teacher Kelli also went well. It was fun teaching the girls about different kinds of codes. For their final project, we sent them on a scavenger hunt throughout the school. My favorite clue that I came up with read (after it was decoded): You seek the median on the left side of the place where you can find what it means to be disliked, disgusting and dismal. Think about it for a few minutes - I'll post the solution in a comment.

For Jeff, the second half of the summer came with unique challenges at work. This was due to the fact that about 6 weeks ago he developed an odd bump on his right wrist. In addition to a sore wrist, the pain sometimes traveled up to his elbow and down to his fingertips. He went to see a physical therapist. While it helped to relieve some of the pain, the bump remained. At first, we thought that it might have been caused by over-using his mouse at work. In an attempt to relieve the pain and avoid problems in the future, he went through several different mice, tried out three new desk chairs, changed his desk, got a wrist pad, and got a new keyboard. After all that, his bump still wasn't going away, so he went to go see a doctor. He found out that he had a ganglion cyst (cause unknown - possibly an old injury from volleyball or playing the piano that was aggravated by work). So last week the doctor drained the cyst and he's wearing a splint for a few weeks to help it heal and avoid injuring it further. If it ends up coming back, he'll need to have surgery.

My brother Kenneth came home from his mission last month! I was really excited for him to meet Jeff. He was home for a few days, then went to Virginia to visit with friends for a week or two. He got back in town this past week. He'll be going to BYU this fall, and I look forward to having him close by.

In addition to my brother being back, my sister Marie is also in town this week with her two kids Evelyn and Edison. On Wednesday I went to the airport when they flew in. On Thursday Jeff and I drove down to Provo and went to a few classes at Education Week (which were awesome!) with Marie and Suzanne. On Friday we went with my mom, Marie and her kids, and my sister Suzanne and her kids to the Children's Museum (I think it's called Discovery Gateway) downtown. I had a ton of fun, and so did the kids. Then yesterday we got together for family pictures, lunch, and an afternoon session in the Provo temple. It was the first time our entire family was able to go through the temple together. And then tonight we're getting together for a dinner.

News Article about La Europa

Here is a copy of a news article that was printed in the Salt Lake Tribune about La Europa Academy, the place where I work. It doesn't talk much about the school, but I thought you guys would enjoy reading about where I work. And if you haven't checked out La Europa's website, I highly recommend it (the link is at the bottom).

Live-in school in Murray helps girls deal with issues

By Jennifer W. Sanchez
The Salt Lake Tribune
Updated: 07/22/2009 05:49:45 PM MDT

Patti tried everything -- school counselors, psychologists and hospital programs -- to help her teenage daughter, Shannon, with drug addiction and emotional problems.

Nothing worked. A counselor suggested Patti put Shannon into a long-term residential treatment center. After much research, Patti enrolled Shannon last summer in La Europa Academy in Murray -- about 400 miles from their hometown of Las Vegas.

Now, after seeing the improvements in Shannon, Patti is glad she sent Shannon to La Europa when she did.

"I can sleep at night," said Patti, who declined to use her last name. "It's wonderful; they contributed to saving my daughter's life."

La Europa administrative offices sit along a main road in Murray and the school and a residential campus are both secretly tucked among a nearby residential neighborhood.

The residential treatment and education center opened more than four years ago for girls ages 14 to 17 who deal with issues, such as depression, eating disorders and substance abuse, said Richard Long, the academy's program director.

The maximum number of students at the academy is 32; it currently has 21 -- none is a Utah resident. The average stay for treatment is about nine months. And it costs some $10,000 a month per student, Long said.

Shannon, who also declined to use her last name, said she "was totally taken [to the academy] against my will," but is now thankful her mom helped get her the needed help.

Shannon -- who started experimenting with prescription pills in the ninth grade and later used heroin and cocaine -- said she started giving the academy a chance when she noticed the counselors and staffers were a different sort from those she had dealt with in the past.

"Everyone really reaches out to you and doesn't judge you for your problems," she said. "They really try to help you live your life again."

Shannon, who graduated last month from the program, said its best parts were the supportive staff and residents; the art and recreational therapy; and volunteering in the community. She determined issues that played into her addiction and how to deal with them.

"We're in connection with the world," she said. "We're not in a lock-down facility."

The treatment program uses fine arts and recreation, from painting to yoga, to help the girls control their emotional issues, Long said. Each week, he said the girls undergo 11 hours of therapy, including individual and group.

At most, there are six students per counselor, he said.

"Everything we do has a therapeutic purpose," Long said. "We want them to learn to live life in a new way -- something they've been doing hasn't worked."

For Patti, the roughly $100,000 she paid La Europa was worth every cent.

She liked the academy's location in a metro area versus a rural community, its "beautiful campus" and the people. Patti said she's elated with Shannon's new look on life and the 24-hour care she received at the academy.

So far, Shannon said she's been clean for 14 months. She's living in the Salt Lake City area, volunteering with teens, looking for a job and plans to enroll in college next month.

"[La Europa] helped our family a lot," Patti said.

Web site » www.laeuropaacademy.com

Mixing Work With Pleasure

Recently at work, the yard surrounding the schoolhouse was becoming very overgrown and unkempt. We thought that this reflected poorly on our school and on La Europa in general, so we decided to dedicate one class period to pulling weeds.
We had the girls form into teams and compete with each other to pull the most weeds. We offered a pass to get out of P.E. (which means the girls could sleep in for one morning) and another pass to get out of 5th period as incentives. Both the girls and the teachers joined in on th weeding. Unfortunately, about half of the girls gave up halfway through and just sat around talking. It was sad, but I guess not unexpected.
What they didn't know was that we had other surprises in store for them. Did they really expect us to make them weed out in the hot sun and only reward a few?
While we were weeding, the staff was in the house next door filling 500 water balloons. The weeding ended in a huge water fight, complete with balloons, a hose, and buckets of water. It was a ton of fun. At first I stayed around the edges of the fight and just threw a few balloons. But then one of the students smashed a balloon on my head, so I chased her around and made sure I nailed her with a few balloons. I thought that was the end of it, and I started going around picking up the rubber remains of the balloons. But then this student came back with some friends and they dumped two buckets of water on my head!
Then it was war. I ran after her, determined to get her back. Almost all of the balloons were used up, so I wrestled the hose away from another girl and chased down my prey, returning the favor and getting her drenched from head to toe. It was great. The other girls were laughing and screaming and egging us on.
We also gave them popsicles after lunch, after they cleaned up the bits of rubber that were scattered all over the lawn. I think we all had a good time, and the yard looks a lot better than it did. It's fun mixing work with pleasure!

Geneology, I am Doing It!

Yes, I know that they changed the words in the Children's Hymnbook to "Family history, I am doing it," but I still like the original words.
So, I've been thinking lately about how blessed I am right now in my life. I have a great job, a wonderful husband, a lovely home, and great friends and family. I'm also blessed with a lot of free time in the evenings and on weekends. So I decided that I wanted to give something back, to find a way to serve.
One thing that came to mind was family history. I felt compelled to be more active in helping with family history. I want to combine the training I received from the Family History class I took at BYU with the time that I've been blessed with. So this past week I started indexing records on-line.
You go to FamilySearch.org (there's a link to it from the lds.org website) and there's a tab at the top of the page for Indexing Records. If you've never done it before, they have some tutorials on-line, as well as help tabs while you're doing it.
I've done this off and on in the past, and I'll warn you that it can be addicting. But that's a good thing! As I was picking it up again, I found that I was a little worried that I might index something incorrectly. Some of the handwriting is hard to read, and it can be difficult to make out what the record is saying. But you just do your best and type it as you see it - they actually have two people index every record. Then, if there are any discrepencies, a third person checks both transcriptions and the original record and determines what it should say. This relieved my worries that I would type in a name incorrectly and make it difficult for someone who is trying to find their ancestor.
After the indexing has been cross-checked and corrected (if necessary), they post the information for free on FamilySearch.org so that anyone can have access to it.
I highly encourage everyone to give indexing a try. It's very user friendly. It doesn't take a lot of time- it usally takes me about 20-30 minutes to do one record. And you don't have to sit down and do a batch all at once - you can download it to your computer and work on it when you have time.