May oh May

May is always a busy month for teachers.  School getting out brings tons of events, usually fun ones, and things like graduation, etc.  At least I thought it was a busy month for teachers, now that I am not one, it turns out it is just busy in general. 

All week I was forwarding things to evernote (life changed, thank you) to focus on during my flight home and it suddenly overwhelmed me so I am recording it for posterity and as a small attempt at putting off those events:

--Return from NYC tonight, home by 1 am (I hope)
--Research and work on presentation to be ready for tomorrow am meeting with my group for my curriculum class
--Tomorrow am, meet with group to prepare for presentation on Tuesday
--Tomorrow noon, go see our favorite family friends.  You know who you are.
--Sunday morning give talk
--Sunday evening get invitations ready for babyshower event I am putting on for visiting teachee
--Tuesday day booked with a quick hiatus to fight a traffic ticket (I am only asking them to knock it down one mph because it will be $100 lower ticket).

I know, boring.  I just want to record the pace of life these days.  I won't even get into all the things I have due for work by Friday.

Goblin Valley Experience

This weekend I went to Goblin Valley, for those who don't know, it is a crazy amazing place 3.5 hours from where we live now.  I can't explain it so I won't try.  Here are several shots to attempt to capture the beauty of it:

It really is like a bunch of little rock goblins.  Speaking of little goblins...

Then my phone died. So I didn't capture the loveliest of all, my new amor for the outdoors that I discovered in a slot canyon. Little Wild Horse Trail. So I have to borrow some pictures from other sources, pretend like the kid in this picture is one of the young women in my ward or one of my own wee ones:

 Or...

Prior to this trip, when people would say "let's go on a hike" I would think things like uphill, stickers in my socks, plant identification, and being really thirsty.  But this kind of hiking, this kind of adventurous climbing and moving your way through small openings in rocks, now that... that is what I call a hike!

So fun, and I hope to repeat it several times over.  I am already trying to scope out a time when I can do it again.  Here is one more picture just for you to imagine it.  We saw several groups doing things like this so we could go under their legs to pass.  Again, don't know these people, but you can imagine that is the kind of group we might have seen.  If I get some actual photos, I will replace these.

The Rule of a Year

For some reason, even having lived in Utah before, the rule of a year remains true.  What is the rule of a year? It takes a year to stop longing for your previous community and start feeling connected to your new one.

I suppose because Santa Barbara was so lovely and we lived there for longer than we have lived anywhere else the year was more like 15 months before I finally let go.  But it happened, the last two weeks demarcating the end of my transition into this community.

Four key events occurred that have helped me with this transition:

• Starting school has provided me with a new community among my fellow classmates with whom I will be spending the next year or so
• We had a new family move into our neighborhood/church and for some reason I thought to myself Hey! We can officially welcome new people now and not BE the new people.  The new family has their children in Spanish immersion and when we eventually bribe them to come over with a meal, I feel like we can have some friends in the cause.
• I finally made a good work transition (I moved teams about 6 months ago but finally had to let go last week in Napa when both teams were meeting at the same time and I very clearly had to physically go to another location for my new team which caused a deep sense of loss but finally some exclusive focus on my new work) which means LESS travel finally.  Like maybe even 30-40% of what I have been doing
• I was called to be a counselor in YW in my ward.  For those who don't know what that means, I will be working with 12-18 year-old girls during the young women's portion of church on Sundays and one night a week, my specific focus will be 12-13 year olds.  The president and other counselor are both working moms with husbands who have provided primary care-giving in the home, very different from what I would describe as your typical situation.  I am excited both about the opportunity to work with these young women and the leaders themselves.  It will be an additional time commitment but part of our religious belief is that when you volunteer your time to help others, you are giving a blessing of additional energy and spiritual support which I have felt for myself at other times in my life.

The combination of these four factors, culminating with the calling yesterday, has finally secured a sense of home for me in Utah.  Now I just have to hope and pray Steve doesn't get a job in Oklahoma or some other random location to pull me away from my new home.

Mother's Day Hopes

Bridget asked me what I wanted for Mother's Day and I gave the standard answer:

I want everyone to get along and be nice to each other, and our home to be filled with peace, love, and harmony.

The response:

We can't give you that, what do you want us to buy for you?

Junior High Humor

Dear, _______  Thank you for serving our country in the wars we are in. I am writing this to you because my teacher, your sister, assigned me to write this letter to you. What war are you serving in, Afghanistan or Iraq? I’ve heard that no one can send you any packages/gifts because otherwise your whole group gets punished. Are you already in the war or are you just training? If you’re just training then how soon will you be in the war? I’m sorry I am asking all these questions but all my teacher told me was that you were a soldier or were about to be one and that it was pretty tiring or hard. Hopefully you made some friends there otherwise I would feel bad for you because I probably wouldn’t last a day with all that training and without any good friends. You’re probably lucky I typed this because otherwise you probably couldn’t read my handwriting and would have a lot less words to read. By the way I’m in seventh grade and am at xx jr high school. You probably knew that I lived in Utah because most of your family lives here and to you it wouldn’t seem that your sister would leave Utah to get a job. Anyways my name is Casey and i’m probably the awesomest person that will ever write you a letter and you should feel bad for the other people who write you letters because whenever you see mine you’ll just think mine’s too cool for theirs’. I’m sorry that I am kind of bringing up random topics but I have to feel up my page for this assignment and it’s hard to think of stuff when your teacher doesn’t tell you much about the person you’re writing to. So, thank you for everything you’re doing right now by serving the best country in the world(you know the one, America) because we should win every war because we’ve have only lost one war and that’s because Vietnam are cheaters. I bet just having you, just one single person, will change the war because I bet you’re the best person and we would lose without you. That’s probably the reason we lost the Vietnam War, because they didn’t have you in it. I bet if I met you in person you would be cool because you’re sister is. Also I am not even going to know your name until a couple days because my teacher didn’t even tell me yet. That means your name after “Dear,” is going to be written like the day I send this letter. Even though this is the best letter ever you’re probably wasting your time reading this because you have other things to do and even the best things aren’t perfect. By the way those last five words are a pretty good lesson for life and on not being optimistic. But now is a good time to be optimistic because you are doing your duty in serving this war. I don’t feel bad that we can’t send packages to you because even if someone could send cookies to you or something they would probably become melted and gross. But of course you could handle that because you’re in the military and super macho. Oh yeah when you reply any other kids don’t forget to say sorry that mine is better than theirs. You probably think this letter is pathetic because I should be more serious and the whole reason I sent you this letter is because I should be thankful for you serving our country but I said it twice and if you knew me well you would think that that is pretty good because I’m not the nicest person I know. I’m really hoping you’re one of those guys who has a sense of humor otherwise I might not like you because humor and talking are my life. Please don’t get offended that I might not like you and that would be because you wouldn’t have a sense of humor but as you would know that people have their ways. Oh yes I’m almost done with this letter, you should forget that this is the best letter ever and I bet you’re as excited as me that this is over because you probably hated this. In the end  thank you for serving me, you and your family because this is America. (that was corny)      Sincerely, your half friend Casey P.S I ran out of room P.P.S Reply Please.

The Decision Matrix

I am trapped in the matrix of decision-making.

Now that I am a bit older, I care more about my health, and we have a tad more disposable income than previously experienced (well, until next week when we pay tuition for my Master's Program) my life's decisions have gotten more complicated.

There was a time when this was enough:

But those days are over.  When was the last time any of us actually bought Suave?

Right.

So I have decided that as I have aged the thought process that goes into even the smallest decisions for buying hair care, skin care, food, and clothing has evolved to the point that I can rarely feel good about buying much of anything.  But I am going to write this post to liberate myself and anyone else out there who feels constantly guilty about one of the following criteria:

--Affordability (do I have enough money for this thing?)
--Functionality (does it actually work?)
--Health (is it good for me?)
--Joy (do I like this thing?)
--Stewardship (is it good for the planet?)
--Humanity (were any humans hurt in the processing or packaging of this item?)


I have realized that I am not going to make all of those things happen in a single item, so what I am going to do is require myself to only think about THREE of these things at a time.

For example, one of my favorite products, something I buy weekly:

Let's analyze this by my old guilt:

Do I have enough money to buy this thing? YES

Does it work? YES (I feel good when I eat it)

Is it good for me? Complication. Stress. Yes, sort of, but it is not organic so is it kind of not good for me?

Do I like this thing? YES

Is it good for the planet? Complication. Stress. Yes, if it is locally grown but no if it is shipped. And if it is local, is organic? If it was local and organic, was it grown on a sustainable farm? If no, than it is not good for the planet.

Were any humans hurt in the processing or packaging? Don't know. There was no fair trade label, how do I discover this information?


Do I buy this thing?  Um.  So... we have three YES answers but in the old guilt, I have to feel bad about it not being organic, not being locally grown on a sustainable farm, and not knowing the labor practices of the farm from whence it hailed.  And I have to look something up on my phone while shopping, thereby slowing me down and making me question whether the other items in my cart are worth equal effort.

So let's try this again with the new matrix and a different item:

Can I *afford this thing?  YES
Does it work?  YES
Is it good for me? YES

Should I buy it?  YES.  I don't need to discover its origin or if it is environmentally friendly because I have already answered three questions in the affirmative.  

Feeling better?

Not me.  I still feel guilty.

So for all you libertarians out there, wouldn't it be nice if the government just limited all the non-environmentally friendly, non-humanitarian products?  My life would be so much easier. 

Happy shopping.


*Disclaimer:  My definition of affordability is different from my husband who would claim that this shampoo is not affordable.

Various kidlets

First, a detailed description of Meg's potty routine:



Second, a sample of the constant soundtrack that is my tweener son.