I can’t seem to keep the way my website looks the same for too long of a period of time.

If you are reading this post through a feeder/reader, then you won’t understand. But, if you are actually reading this post on my website, then you’ll notice some big, I mean massive, changes to my website.

I was getting frustrated with some changes that happened with an updated version of my theme (does that make any sense?) and decided to try a new theme/layout design.

A friend of mine and my mother commented that when you went to my old site, it was confusing as to which post was the newest post. And they were totally right. I wanted my scrolling picture box so badly that it just wasn’t making sense. I was going for looks over function.

So, here I am with a new theme/design. I’m still tweaking – a lot. So, every time you come to my site, it will probably be different, which kinda makes me excited! I can now change my header to what I want and do it easily. I can add background pictures easily. But I can’t seem to get my little thumbnail pictures to come up and I still want a scrolling media box at the top. So, I’m searching the help forums and learning all about .css and custom style sheets and hooks and codes.

The problem – I leave for Boston in 2 days, so if I can’t fix everything then it will just have to wait until I get back. Oh well, I guess I’ll have to accept that imperfection.

Anyways – if you really like something or absolutely hate something while you are reading my blog over the next couple of weeks please let me know and I can try to change it. Y’all see it through a completely different set of eyes and I want your opinions. Now, back to adjusting and tweaking.

So, I started writing that novel – you know, that one I’ve been meaning to write since I was 18.  I actually have started it several times and have worked on it sporatically.  Well, I decided that if I was going to actually keep working on it, then I would have to do something about it.  You know – make me accountable.

So I’ll be posting individual chapters on the blog.  I would love any feedback, but understand if you just skip these posts.  If you would like to read chapter one, here is the link.  Or you can use the menu at the top.  Enjoy!

Chapter 1

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Chapter 2

“Is Scott driving today?”

“I bet he is and I’m riding in the front.  Preferably in the middle.”  A chorus of giggles erupted from the circle of girls.

“Sharon you are so bad.  Do you think Scott will date you this year?” asked a tall blond.

With a glint in her blue eyes, Sharon responded, “I’m going to do everything in my power to encourage it.  Jessica isn’t coming back this year, so as far as I’m concerned he is free and clear.”

“Think you’ll have any competition from the new girls,” asked a short, gymnast looking girl.  Just then the whole group scanned the others around them and looked right at Anna, who was studiously looking at her shoes pretending not to hear their conversation.

“Definitely not. Scott wouldn’t be interested in any of these girls.”

Anna whipped her head up and shot the girl named Sharon a dark look.

“Humph!  Who does she think she is?” responded Sharon loud enough for everyone to hear.

“Don’t worry about her.  Last summer Scott was totally flirting with you when Jessica wasn’t around.  And he was really friendly after the First Aid training meeting on Saturday.”

“Yeah, he was,” Sharon answered with a firm nod and turned away from Anna, forgetting about her.

Anna couldn’t believe that she dared to give anyone a dirty look and was afraid she had already made an enemy.  While she was thinking about how to make the situation better, a large black Ford F-150 pulled into the parking lot.  The windows were tinted, but Anna knew by the giggles, smiles, and shuffling that Scott must be the one driving.  On Saturday, Anna hadn’t noticed his hair, which was as black as his truck.  From across the parking lot she was struck by how dark it was and wondered why she didn’t notice earlier.

“Okay everyone, gather around,” bellowed Bill, the manager of the camp.  Anna wondered how a man that old, he had to be in his 60’s, could have the energy to do this every summer.  “Now who are our drivers? Raise your hands.”

Anna’s hand went up with Scott and three others.

“Okay now raise up how many other people you can take in your car, not including yourself and everyone find a place to ride.  Go,” Dave instructed.

Anna reluctantly held up three fingers.  Technically she could hold 4 if needed, but that would be really uncomfortable in her little car.  The group of girls from earlier had all surrounded Scott once he got there, so he truck was already full.  Everyone else’s cars filled up quickly while Anna was still waiting and holding up her three fingers.  It felt like gym class all over again; being chosen last for the team.  Anna’s face slowly turned more and more red.

“Why did I ever volunteer to drive,” thought Anna. “You wanted the freedom of having your own car and driving into town,” she reminded herself.  Although Anna was shy, she valued her independence too much to rely on other people.  She knew that she would probably want to get away on her days off and didn’t want to depend on other people.  What was left when everyone had chosen their rides were three quiet people, who looked just as lost as Anna felt.  Not wanting to let everyone know she was embarrassed by being chosen last Anna yelled to the left over people, “Come on! I hope you like loud music and speeding.”

“Hold on there Anna,” Bill said.  “Here are the maps. And we are all meeting at the gas station off Highway 34 in Gaskill.  The road to the camp is hard to find.”

“I’ll be there.  First!  Come on guys,” Anna ushered her bashful car mates into her car and shot Scott a daring look.

Scott yelled out to Anna just as she was getting in, “We’ll see about that in that little car of yours.”

“Don’t judge a book by its cover.  I’ll be waiting for you at the gas station,” Anna shouted as she started her car and took off before she even checked to see if everyone had their seat belts on.  Scott was stuck while his gaggle of girls had to arrange their seating with Sharon front and center, of course.

So, what did I do in Phoenix?  Not much and I loved every blessed, relaxing, and lazy moment of it.

First – Sun.

Mandy’s parents have a pool.  ‘Nuff said.  Here she is!

I would spend about 2-3 hours a day in this pool. Mandy on the other hand could take the heat longer and she laid out longer – hence, she has a much, much better tan than I do.

I spent most of my time playing with the floaty toys, lounging in these chairs, and reapplying the sunscreen.

My biggest fear about going to Phoenix was not getting a sunburn, but this:

Sorry, but I just had to show you. This little bugger was on the wall, right next to the couch. And I asked Mandy if scorpions climbed on the furniture and beds. She assured me that they didn’t. Humph!

But she is an excellent Scorpion Killer and Catcher. No worries. No one sustained any injuries (unless you count the scorpion, but I don’t).

Second, D-backs.

And of course we went to two Diamondback’s games. And we watched them every night on TV. Let me just say, I love professional baseball!

Here is the field. I love it when the players all get together and chat. Even if it only happens when the pitcher is well, pitching crappy.

Everyone on base!

But the D-backs lost this game to the Giants. The cool thing is that Kelly Johnson hit for the cycle and that was neat to witness. When he got the base-hit he needed to finish the cycle in the 8th inning, everyone stood up and cheered. Now, just a week ago I would have thought, “What are you all doing? He only got a single?” But because I have been watching a lot of baseball, been tutored by Mandy, and kept score (see my score sheet below), I knew what was going on. That was pretty dang cool. You can go to Mandy’s blog and watch a video recap of Johnson’s hits.

Wow! I feel neat for doing the scorecard, but I only did it for the D-backs, not the Giants.

(For those of you who don’t know, a hit for the cycle means that in one game a player gets a single, double, and triple hit as well as a home run.)

We also got to see fireworks! Chase Field is indoor with air conditioning to fight the hot Arizona sun and so they opened the roof and we got to watch the fireworks.

Last – Fun!

The whole week was lovely and I loved it!

I spent some time last week in southern Idaho with my grandparents.  My grandmother just had surgery – she broke her femur – and was in recovery.  My grandparents are quite old.  My grandpa is going to be 96 this year and my grandmother is 82.

Let me tell you some of my favorite things about them.

• My Grandmother is from Belgium.
• They met while my grandfather was serving a mission.
• My grandfather wanted to serve a mission and so he saved up his money and waited for WWII to be over before he could go – now that is perseverance.
• My grandmother came to the US not speaking any English and she didn’t learn English for about 7 years.
• My grandmother became a nurse.  Now that may not seem odd, but for a women with children, whose 2nd language is English to go to school later in life in order to have a career – that is amazing.  Props.
• My grandma always slept on a love seat when I was growing up because she worked the swing shift at the hospital.  And she always had a little silk pillow so that she didn’t mess up her hair (she gets it done every week).
• When my grandmother gets mad she sticks out her tongue at you.
• My grandfather has lost most of his hearing, but when you laugh he laughs.  It is so cute!
• My grandma calls my grandpa Papee and he giggles almost every time she does it.
• My grandparents don’t gossip and when they describe people they say things like, “He’s a hard worker” or “She loves her kids.”  It is a good reminder to me of making sure good things come out of my mouth.  And when someone wants to get my grandparents to gossip they respond with, “Well, I don’t know about that,” pretending that they don’t know what you are talking about and so they won’t say anything.
• When my grandparents were called on a foreign mission they accepted and went.  They never said that they wanted to go foreign and at the time my grandpa was 80 years old.
• Like many older people, my grandparents barely eat, but when you are eating with them they always try to get you to eat more and more and you can’t say no and so you always leave with a very full tummy.
• My grandmother always dresses up to go out to town – even if it is just to the Walmart.
• They have old wrinkled hands that have seen a lot of hard work.

They have lived extraordinary lives.  My grandfather remembers taking a horse and buggy places, the great depression, and both World Wars.  My grandmother lived through the Nazi invasion and occupation of her home, immigrating to a new country, and raising a family.  They are amazing examples to me and I’m so grateful for every moment I get to spend time with them.

On the way home from Washington, they most amazing this happened.  They sky was clear and from my window in the airplane I could see Mt. Rainier, Mt. Adams, Mt. St. Helens, and Mt. Hood.

This is amazing because:

1. You can never see out the airplane because of the clouds.  Seriously it was only sunny one day I was home and it was the first week in July.
2. You usually fly so close to Mt. Hood that you can’t see it.
3. You usually fly in between these mountains and so you can’t see all four at the same time and out the same window.
4. I had no one in my row.  I usually don’t sit by the window because of my long legs and claustrophobia.  If it had been a full flight then I wouldn’t have caught this splendor!
5. I broke the rules and turned on my “electronic device” aka my iPhone before I got the okay from the captain.  I’m sure glad the flight attendants didn’t catch me, though I was trying my hardest not to be too noticeable.

From left to right you have – Mt. St. Helens (do you see it is stumpy?), Mt. Rainier (it is actually quite large, but so far away that it looks small), and Mt. Adams (it is the smallest, but closest to the airplane at this point so it looks bigger, but it isn’t).

And this is Mt. Hood. It is huge and quite the skiing destination for those in the Northwest.

Beautiful! And I’m glad I got to see it – it was a first, and probably a last for me.

While in Oregon, my parents and I attended a Sheep Herding Competition.  It was surprisingly fun and I feel like I learned a lot.  But it isn’t as simple as it looks in the movie Babe – let me tell you.

Here is the course that the trainer has to navigate the dog through.

The trainer has to stand at a pole while the dog does the “out run” all the way at the end of the field and gets the sheep.  Since the dog is so far away, the trainer uses a whistle to tell the dog where to go and what to do.  But hopefully, the dog can do this part all on its own.

Then they herd the sheep back to the trainer, through a set of fences, around the trainer, through gate 1 and gate 2.  Then the trainer is finally able to leave the pole and go to the “shed ring.”  It is here that they try to get two sheep away from the others, preferably the two who are wearing colored neck scarves.  Then they get all five into the pen, shut the gate, and if there is time left they go back to the shed ring and get one sheep away from the others.  That is hard because sheep don’t like to be alone.   They enjoy the company of their companions.

Oh, and did I mention that they have to do all of this in 13 minutes. Each section is worth points, so you want to finish the course, but you also need to do it without losing points.  The fewer calls you make with your dog the better.

Here are some pics.  I only had my iPhone, so they aren’t the best.

Going around the pole.

Trying to get the sheep into the pen.

If the dog bites at the sheep they are disqualified. It happens – it happened 2x in the 3 hours we were there.

I was really impressed and it made me want a border collie and train them. All the trainers had their dogs just trailing after them as they walked all around. They were really well behaved dogs.

What I wish I had gotten a picture of was that the dogs who weren’t competing at the moment would line up at the fence and watch what was going on. You could tell that they were thinking about what they would do if they were out there. It was adorable.

If you get a chance to see a competition – go. It is quite an experience. To read more about the rules click here – this website has a lot of great information.

For the holiday weekend, my parents and I went to see a sheep herding competition.  Weird.  But cool.

Anyways, while we were driving out into the middle of nowhere in Oregon, we passed this old, red covered bridge.  I fell in love.  And I remembered the movie The Bridges of Madison County and I remembered that I always wanted to go there – wherever that Madison County is.  But, I digress.

I made my dad pull over so that I could take some pictures.  And then I cursed myself for not bringing my fancy camera and so these were taken with my iPhone.  And I edited them in Aperture and Photoshop.  Lately I have been adjusting exposure, level, saturation and stuff like that in Aperture and then I go over to Photoshop to apply an action.  It is a little time consuming, but I love it!  I might do a step by step one day on these photo’s, but I might not, we’ll see.

Now, onto the main event of this post.  The red covered bridge of my heart and my dreams!

I used a different action on each shot.  Which is your favorite?

Last night I didn’t sleep.  No really.  I never fell asleep.  Finally around 4:30 I got up and started writing.  As I was writing, I noticed the sun coming up and my room getting lighter and lighter.  I thought I would go and watch the sun rise, while I wrote outside.  I wrote a whole series of haiku’s, which I will post on my haiku blog this week.  Here is the haiku that I am going to post for today.

Sunrise

Slowly the sun
grasps the mountain cliffs and peaks
over the valley.

(I like the double use of the word peaks – but I’m a word geek.)

Then I decided to take some photos.

This is the view at 5:30 am

Here is the view at 6:00 am

I like 5:30 am much, much better.  But I don’t plan on see that very often in my lifetime.

Let me start by saying that I do NOT like scary movies.  I had nightmares for weeks when I saw the Sixth Sense – and that isn’t really that scary.  I blame it all on my overactive imagination.  That said ….

My roommate has been gone for almost two weeks.  She has been basking in the sun in Phoenix, Arizona.  I on the other hand have been basking in the glow of a makeshift nightlight I jimmy-rigged from my scented candle warmer.  I haven’t fallen asleep before 3 am in 13 nights.  Sunday, I fell asleep at 6 am.  Seriously.  I watched my room get lighter and lighter and only then was I able to fall asleep.  I have taken NyQuil like 5 times in the last two weeks.  I won’t let myself take anymore in case I become an alcoholic (not that you really can become an alcoholic from NyQuil, but you can never be too careful).

The problem – nightmares.  I won’t tell you the graphic details – and believe me they are graphic.  They are the type that are all in black, white, gray, and red – blood red.  But I will tell you that they all involve someone breaking into the house and, well, I can’t tell you because it would be too graphic.

Let me just say that my neighbors are noisy.  I never really noticed before, but now I hear every little sound in the house and analyze it for hints that someone is breaking in, so I have really noticed every little noise they make.  I know there are only two of them, but I think they shower way too much.  And, they talk loud sometimes.  And they slam all their drawers and cabinets.  Seriously, I screamed once because it was so loud that I thought they were in my kitchen.

Anyways, this lack of sleep is seriously imparing my eyesight.  I actually started wearing my glasses.  Also, I feel like I’ve had a migraine for a week.  No amount of medicine is making it go away.

So, let’s just say that I am seriously reconsidering living by myself – ever.  Is that bad?  I mean, I’m not quite 30 – yet.  This might be the strongest impetus for me to get married – other than sex, of course.

I know, I know.  It seems a little snooty of me to not attend bridal showers and wedding receptions.  I’m sure that most people probably look at it as the bitter, single gal not supporting her friends and what not.  Or that I’m probably jealous.  But that really isn’t the case.  And I should probably say that I do attend bridal showers and wedding receptions – just not many.

Here is the deal.  For years, I attended every blooming thing I was invited to.  I even threw a few bridal showers myself.  As I look back, I am currently still friends with 3 of those lovely ladies.  Three.  That is all.   And I know that I have attended close to 100 – wait and I’ll count it up in my head . . . okay, I exaggerated, only 78.  But between my friends from high school, roommates, all the girls in the singles ward in Washington (because I was the RS Pres and “had” to attend or risk offending), and girls I know now – that is a lot of people.  A lot of people that I no longer talk to.

I stopped the madness about 2 years ago.  I made a conscious decision to not attend if I didn’t feel obligated to.  Usually these feelings of obligation are due to the fact that I often represent the Morris family in the state of Utah and so I attend.  Or if it is a good friend.  But that isn’t really an obligation – I like attending those functions.  Or if I feel obligated to the person throwing the bridal shower or the parent of the bride/groom.

And you know what – I have LOVED not attending all these events.  Because, in reality, they aren’t so much of a celebration as much as they are a way for me to say goodbye to our friendship – and I don’t want to do that.  Because the truth of the matter is that once someone marries their life changes.  Their inner circle changes.  Their focus changes.  And it rightfully should.  I certainly don’t expect my married friends to hang out with me as much anymore – they now have husbands and a whole other set of family that they have to fit into their busy schedule.  I don’t get upset about it.  Not at all.  But it is very sad to me.  And I hate it.  I hate not seeing them or talking to them as much.

Recently, I was talking to one of my oldest friends about all my job/moving/Casper drama and halfway through her baby started screaming because he fell and was hurt.  She needed to get off the phone ASAP.  And I don’t begrudge her that, but I miss being able to talk to her about all that stuff.

I was once told by someone, who I thought was a good friend, that it made her uncomfortable to be around me since I wasn’t married.  You see, we were friends in high school and I believe I am officially the last one of the group to still be unmarried.  I guess a single female in a room full of married people is uncomfortable.  And it was hurtful and I haven’t seen any of them since.  Our lives changed and we walked down different paths.

I see the path dividing in the wood every time I go to a wedding reception.  So, I stopped going.  I know that some people are hurt by me not attending and I’m sorry for that.  But in reality, in 6 months I bet you don’t remember whether or not I was there or really who was at your wedding reception because you are on your path looking ahead of you and not behind.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot because this last month I attended a bridal shower and will attend a wedding, not because of the bride/groom, but because of their parents.

So, if I ever get married, don’t be surprised if I don’t have a reception.  But if I do, I won’t be upset if you don’t come to it.  I’ll understand because I don’t want to really say goodbye either.