Take State

Stuff you can see at the 4H State Horse Champsionships...
I'm thinking of  something similar for my car.

State 4H was pretty fun and educational even though 3 days of competition was kind of  exhausting for Jessie, and she was disappointed with some of her events. It was a great experience, and the out-of-town crowd was pretty cool.

Here are a few action photos of our amazing girl.

On her near personal-best barrels run with Pumpkin.

I know I already posted this one - sorry, I like it.

Another great run on Poles. (She loves speed events.)

I had to post this one of her with Dolli in Halter, even though she was bummed about her score. She has the cutest forced smile looking at the judge - just after he pulls the white flag.  (She's not a big fan of show events.)

 Goofing off at the trailer with T. and S.

Jess chatting it up with friends.

The Man. Thanks Dad.

 I've promised, now that Jessie's riding season is over, to give the other kids more equal blog time. Because they are all awesome.

Way to go, Jess. We're so proud of you!

We went to the doctor. We went to the mountains.

Pardon the Indigo Girls reference...

Some of the boys in their hollow-tree fort.

It's been a pretty tough week.
So we were a little hesitant when the Sullivan clan finalized plans for a camp-out this weekend. Things were so crazy and we've had a lot on our minds. But in the end we pulled it together and made it up the canyon.  We were glad we did. As ALWAYS, it was good for what ails. The kids built forts. The morning hiking was so beautiful. I was able to do some quality thinking. And breath deeply.

We're still under some pressure.  Mike's been working on a promotion at work and also securing a teaching position for some Econ/Finance courses.  Any positive thoughts or sympathetic mention in your prayers this week would be appreciated. 

Thanks and love going out to the Sullivans for getting us out where we could regroup.   

This is bound to definitely wreak havok with the kitchen sink.

When the water inexplicably stops flowing from the faucet you think 1.) The faucet is broken. or 2.) There is a situation with the pipes.
You don't think something like this:
Wha????????????

Mitch-darling removed this chunk of wood from INSIDE the old faucet. I have no idea how it got there. (Mike has his theories.)
We got a fancy new faucet in the process which we plan to keep even though the old one turned out to not actually be broken.
Problem solved.

Hot Time in the Old Town

(photo horked from KSL)

Holy smokes....(I couldn't avoid the pun). We've been watching this all evening from our balcony. The wind has been blowing about 5 million miles per hour so it was actually frightening how fast this thing came out of nowhere this afternoon, cresting the ridges of the Oquirrh mountains, raging toward the city. I broke out the telescope to get a good look. It seriously looked like the surface of the sun, churning flames.

 I haven't seen any clear numbers yet on how many homes have burned. Best of luck to all you evacuated residents of Herriman. And to an old classmate, Josh Mills (Mayor of Herriman)...it's going to be a long night for him.

Also hot in town this weekend:

(photo horked from SL Trib)



It would have been nice to see Sean White on a skateboard this weekend but...

We were checking out this action instead.

(More on that later.)

For Jessie's 12th Birthday we bought a new furnace.

(Snapped this just as I asked, "what's that in your nose?"...lame trick... but oh, I couldn't help myself. he he.)

OK, not exactly.  But we did shell out some serious cash this week for a new (super awesomely high-tech, smart) furnace. AND Jessie turned the big 1-2. You may ask yourself: How can you afford to give your daughter a birthday present after a purchase like that? The short answer is, we couldn't. So, for her birthday Jess received:

* One leg-shaving lesson and a razor of her own (one of those rites of passage gifts you can get away with).

* New Chuck Taylors with day-glo laces (those were Noble's idea).

* The boys pitched in with some original art work: mud man.

Actually, we're hoping to have a more proper celebration later this week, schedules permitting. (She's got state for 3 days later this week.)

But just as a matter of commemoration... a hammered black and white of J. and N. a few years back.

Happy 12th, baby girl.

Of Running and Philosophy

With the weather all crispy and lovely I've been really happy about running lately. The truth is, with the move, new neighborhood, etc. I've kind of let myself get out of the habit, only making it out a half-dozen times or so over the past few months. So it's been so nice getting back to it.

Yesterday while I was out THOROUGHLY enjoying my morning run I was thinking about stuff. I guess it was the meditative music I chose on the iPod to change things up, but ... (I started reading The Compleat Angler last night too. I must definitely be in a philosophical mood.)

A long time ago (check out my braces - ha ha ha...)

As some of you might know, I used to run my guts out in high school, seriously. (We can talk privately about some of the physical effects of that...) I dreaded racing like you wouldn't believe and I suffered a lot of anxiety all the way through Cross Country season every year. Anyway, after four years of that I was content to never race again. It's taken some years for me to find a new purpose in running.

I used to run to WIN.
I've learned how to run for meditation, renewal, endorphins,to be outside, to feel good...

I do a race here and there with friends and family (and when I do I have to watch myself to keep that competitive monster in me from rearing up), but running for me is mostly about what it adds to my life from day to day. I think it's cool when people train for something that really challenges them, we all need a challenge. But I'm not planning on the Wasatch 100 anytime soon (my brother did that a few times a few years ago, and it's pretty cool if you've got time for 40-50 mile training runs - that was when he was single). And I don't drive around with a 26.2 sticker on my car (no offense if you have one of those).
I may sound like an old lady in a Tai Chi class... these days I run for the joy of running.

Labor Day Weekend - Let's Do It Again.

Great weekend. Congrats to my brother, Casey & sis-in-law, Helen on the blessing of baby Zeke yesterday. We loved our time with everyone. Noble got up to share his testimony during the meeting, and announced to all that he was, "Noble... Casey's grandson." (The giggling from the congregation only gave him momentary pause.) Later, when Jessie told him she would have been way too scared to talk in front of strangers like that his response was: "Jessie, I conquered my fears like 5 times today." A little patronizing...but totally one for the record.

We had a BEE-autiful Labor Day. Man oh man, we could NOT have ordered better weather. 75, sunny and super clear views of the mountains.  We got up this morning and met up with a bunch of our new neighbors for a street breakfast party. (People cook really well around here, by the way. I haven't had chili verde with tortillas like that for years, not to mention all the sundry homemade pastry.) I loved it.

We spent most of the day afterward at the zoo with Mike's parents. Sully's first (highly anticipated) visit. He was s-t-o-k-e-d. Seriously. He saw pretty much every animal there and enjoyed every minute.

A day/weekend like this makes you feel good to be alive.

FYI, nervous citizen.

After a couple of episodes with the SoJo police concerning Jupiter, Mitch-darling had a few of these made & posted them in our yard (according to police suggestion -since we don't know who called and they can't tell us). Also, Mike made the rounds to all the neighbors within a visible radius, introducing himself, the dog, and giving out our telephone number. We want to cover all our bases.
My main concern in putting something like this up was that it might lead people to believe (falsely) that our dog is scary or that we don't want people to come to our house. Like those conspicuously posted BEWARE OF DOG signs that really mean, "We don't want you to come near our house, and if you do we'll send out our lethal-weapon dog."  But I had to concede that this was the best thing to do under the circumstances.
Anyway, to the person who called the police (twice):

The dog is nice AND restrained. Come over some time and hang out.