Now I Have 'Em, Now I Don't.....and Then I Do Again

THIS WAS ME LAST WEEK!

And this depicts our neighborhood...

Then we went away to a [colder, snowy] ski town in Colorado for "Spring Break" which apparently was against the norm.
We were informed of this when my daughter returned to school following the week-long Spring Break, and all the kids were asking each other what they did/where they went for Spring Break, the "winners" were:

• St. George

• Las Vegas

• California

When she shared that she went to Colorado (and to Wyoming, also, for 1 day), everyone replied, "WHAT?!?" and  "WHY?!?" with dumbfounded looks on their faces.  ;)
(We were ultimately there for my nephew's Baptism, but hung out with extended family a few days before, too).

But, anyway, during the 5 days away from home, this is what happened.....

I could walk and not be sneezy, I could run and not have snot constantly run out of my nose! 

THIS WAS ME!

And, then we returned home to Utah a couple of days ago.....

AND THIS IS ME, AGAIN!

My conclusion?  
I must be allergic to Utah!!
Where should I start looking to move to instead?  The thing is; I don't really LIKE the snow, so I don't want to go live in the Rocky Mountain area of Colorado, that we were in for Spring Break, permanently.  So, how about Arizona?  Hawaii?  Kentucky?  New York?  Texas?  West Virginia? ;)

I'm sure the difference in how I felt/reacted had nothing to do with the fact that Spring had not yet Sprung up in the colder, snowier location we were staying in.  ;)
And, thus, the absence of pollen.  Nah.

With my new knowledge, I must take drastic measures and start looking elsewhere to live.

But, then, is scorching heat, mold & rainy seasons, fried foods being readily available, honking taxis, big BBQ, & breaking mission rules any better than allergies?

It's for my health & well being.

My husband says we're never packing up another house and moving again.

Whatever.  If he finds a wife with puffy, red, bulging eyes (or swollen shut) with no make up because it's dripped off, and a chapped, red nose to match, with sneeze spray projecting clear across the room attractive.......more power to him!!!

I'm glad we could have this little talk.

This Weekend:

* While the boys were at Youth Conference...

*The rest of us headed down to Zion National Park for

a Brenchley family reunion in a 7,000 sq. ft. "cabin."

*We hiked the Riverside walk (the trail that leads to The Narrows)

 and had a sack lunch at the end, while some of us played in the water,
then we went back down to catch the shuttles to our cars in the parking lot.

*Some of the ladies stayed up way late talking.

*On Saturday, after our boys arrived (they drove down separately after YC),
we went to another part of Zion's where there are some hieroglyphics

 & more hiking...

*That night we all went to the Ponderosa Ranch for a buffet dinner put out just for our group.

*We moved from the restaurant to the playground. 

{How many grandkids can get on ONE jungle gym?}

Some of the older kids started having a swing contest - to see who could jump out the farthest.

{Kyle won}

*We played the "Loaded Questions" board game - there
were so many people, we only did one round and it still lasted hours.
There's always some real funny answers!  :)

*Some of the ladies (& Ryan 'til he fell asleep on a bench) stayed up really late talking again!
(Even usually-in-bed-by-9:00-p.m.-Julie!!!  Woo Hoo!)

*On Sunday, we drove to a small town, Orderville, about 30 min. away to attend church.
  Interestingly enough, their program was made up of a dozen or so
youth who were reporting on their youth conference they had gone to recently.
There's was called, "Journey to know Him" and it sounded like it was
similar to ours in that there was reenactments and a Christ experience, but
there's covered scriptures in the Old Testament, New Testament, & The Book of Mormon.
(All scriptures about Christ).  My boys were saying they wanted to do
that Youth Conference, too!!
(Except Ryan has run out of "youth" years.)

*Nicole brought us all a "4th of July" craft for the ladies to do.  (Thank You!)
We painted, papered, & mod podged together in the afternoon.

{Here is the finished product on my shelf at home now.}

*Later the USA soccer team was playing their game in the World Cup.
In honor of this, and the fact that the Brenchley's are such a "soccer family",
the reunion "T-shirt" this year was actually a Team USA soccer uniform!

{The Matt & Suzanne Team}

Then we all (well, not all) thought it would be a 'Ton of Fun' to build a grandkids pyramid....


Step 1: Organize the rows by child's size

Step 2: Build it one row at a time.  Base row hold very steady!!!

Step 3: Ta-Da!!!  Hold & Smile until we can get a picture!  (While still pleading the "unsure" stragglers to join the human grandkid [+ a few parents] pyramid.)

Step 4: AND THEY ALL FALL DOWN!
(You knew it was going to happen!)

*I made dinner and I'm proud to say that ALL the food & supplies for dinner made it safely to our cabin at Zion's.  And the 42 peeps were happy they got to eat!  ;)

*Each family took some time to give "updates" on each person,
then we opened it up to questions from the "audience."

*The couples played "The Newlywed Game".
There was some heated "discussion" amongst the players about what was a "correct" answer or not.
If the answers of husband & wife were NOT an exact match in wording,
but kind of meant something that resembled the answer, according to that couple's inside knowledge - was it correct?

*Some of us stayed up semi-late talking.

*On Monday, it was time to pack up and go home,
and say good-bye to the cabin.

EXCEPT WE DISCOVERED WE HAD A FLAT TIRE!
(There was a nail in it.)
We got air put in it at the nearby Ponderosa Ranch - just enough to get us to Orderville again.
WELL......funny (or unfortunate?) thing, when we'd been at church the day before,
we'd heard them announce a funeral of one of the members - and that's where the owner of the service station WAS, and the teenager left to man the place didn't know how to fix our tire.
So, we went down the road to another station.  Well, that guy was way backed up
with so many jobs (because of the overflow coming from the other low-staffed station?) that he said he didn't have time for us.  And that we'd have to move on to the next town!
So, we drove another 50 miles on borrowed air & prayers to Panguitch.
There was a REAL tire shop there, and no line!
A guy came out to help us, got down on the ground by our tire with a couple of tools,
and in no time at all he was all done and said, That'll be $20.
What?!?
We were all thinking we'd have to get a whole new tire and that it would run us
HUNDREDS of dollars!  Instead....Bang, botta, boom - same tire and it's all good!
What a BLESSING!!
Then we felt like we had $$ to eat lunch at Henrie's Drive In which was great
since we were quite hungry (& stressed) by then.

* We got home with just enough time to unload and head over to Katelyn's
primary class SHAVE ICE party that her teachers were having for Family Night treat.
She even put vanilla ice cream in the bottom of the shave ice cups!
{YUM!}
It's good to be home again.

3 Gatsu!

YES!!!  It's March!

{finally}

Which means the worst months (January & February) are over!

Even though our weather has been mild the last couple of weeks, and today's weather hasn't change - it's actually the same - I'm just so RELIEVED we're moving onto March!

Winter has always been my least liked season, but I think, as I get older, my feelings about it are getting worse!  It's hard for me to be upbeat.  I'm not really a fan of winter sports/hobbies, so I'm not excited for snow ever.  EVEN THOUGH Utah has been known to have strange weather - snow as late as May - I feel like we're on the way out of the woods.

So, hopefully, most of the snow/cold/inversion days are over - both where I live AND where the airline I work for flies, so that we don't have to be so crazy, busy with tons of problems at work!

Hopefully, I can start to see my peeps again!  (We quit walking our kids to school when it gets into the 30's.)  It seems like we all stay inside our houses during the winter, and I don't get to see/talk to anyone.  Seriously, one day in January, I took a walk through and down every single road in my ward (church congregation geographical boundaries) and I did not see a SINGLE PERSON out.  What?!?  Do we have an anti-social ward?!?  Or people don't like to be outside in single digits when the air quality is harmful to your respiratory system?!?  ;)

So.....now that it's March, I've got several things to look forward to:

1. Having a lunch with my [long time, no see] friends
2. Going out on our semi-annual lunch with my aunts, girl cousins, & sisters on my mom's side of the family.
3. Attending a 3-day event, Romance & Royalty, with Matt up in Midway at The Zermatt Resort  (We won it!  Valued at $950)
4. Annual dinner at Ruth's Chris with a business partner (and on his dime!)
5. Spring Break with my family in Las Vegas
6. Going with TWO of my daughters to the FIRST General Women's Meeting that includes all girls age 8 & up.
7. And maybe this scene:
   

 {OK, so maybe not in Utah}

Welcome March!

Phone Fast

The first evening we arrived at Aspen Grove (our family vacation this summer) we had a few children asking for electronics.

"Dad, can I play on your phone?"

"I want to use your iPad."

I was disgusted.  After all, we were on vacation at an "all-inclusive" Family Camp with a TON of things to do, and all they could think of was electronics?  In fact, they seemed a bit lost in the cabin that 1st night, since there was no T.V. and we said NO to their gadget requests.  (Apparently they didn't bring toys or books or artwork to do, either.  And, what?  The don't know how to TALK to anyone else who was there?!?).......well, here's an idea: why don't you GO TO BED and actually sleep when it's after 9 or 10 at night?!?

I was kind of shocked, too.  It was an eye opener to me that it had become so routine for them to use/play with the electronics daily that 1) they were MAD when they couldn't (there was MUCH complaining/crying/whining when we said NO) - it was like the end of the world for them and 2) they acted like there was NOTHING TO DO instead, like no alternative to those [sometimes dumb] machines!!  Has it been so long since the time when they DIDN'T rely on that for entertainment?  AND it was my girls -- what do little children "need" with those things?!?  It made me sad.

FIRST AND FOREMOST, this week was a time to be with our family - away from all that distracts us!

AND, SECONDLY, no way do I want anyone to miss out on God's BEAUTY that surrounded us!

I ended up turning off my cell phone, (it was VERY spotty reception anyway) left it in the cabin, and didn't even carry it with me all week.......it was SO nice!

I Need to Get Out of Dodge

I haven't seen the ground for over a month!  It's been covered with snow or ice continually.  OR, at times, snow AND ice.  In the past, usually it will snow, but then the sun comes out and melts it all in a few days.  Then it will snow again sometime later, only to be all gone within days again.  This year, ACCUMULATION is the story.

UTAH IS FRIGID!

I mean colder than I ever remember it.  I am actually wearing a coat every time I go out.  Mountains of snow pushed to the side of the road and in the middle of parking lots are a common sight. In fact, the width of the roads has been narrowed because the snow banks are spilling out into the outside lanes, and the snow plows haven't had time to clear the entire width of the road, just down the centers.  Our poor cul-de-sac has been forgotten by the city's snow removal crew - they still don't know REAL PEOPLE live in a few of these houses in the construction zone?!  We [foolishly] drove on our driveway when it first snowed back in December, and the packed down snow became permanent.  It was all white for a month.  EVERY house & building has icicles galore - I'm seriously afraid entire rain gutters or eaves are going to bust right off the framework.  Then add the constant INVERSION we've had - a sky full of "gunk" blocking out the sun is depressing!  And hard on the respiratory system, too.

Basically, The Beehive State resembles a frozen tundra.

Currently, anyone who walks anywhere outside is taking their life into their own hands.  The combination of temperatures in the teens, a thick layer of ice, and the sun’s inability to melt anything right now make for a scary combination.

Two and a half weeks ago, school was cancelled - we got THREE phone calls AT 5:45 IN THE MORNING, one to my cell phone, followed by one to Matt's cell phone, and then finally to our home phone.  Yep!  We got the message - we had a SNOW DAY!  That's the first one we've had since my oldest started school 12 years ago - we just haven't had bad enough snow storms in all these years!  I remember having one when I was in High School, but the power was out in conjunction with the weather which made school impossible.

Then last Friday, the ringing of my cell phone woke me again from my slumber.  School was going to start two hours later than normally scheduled due to the ice storm we had the previous day & night.  We're not used to those in Utah and we don't know how to drive (or walk) in them!  I actually could handle that late start for school.  I was totally ready when I took the kids to school and there was no rushing!  :)  But, it was also "early out Friday" so the elementary kids were all back home 2 1/2 hours later - WEIRD!

(Then we had a "turn" in the weather when it rose to a "balmy" 35 degrees for a few days and we were able to chop up the snow/ice [and break our backs/arms] off our driveway and we saw concrete again!)

And then it dumped snow on us again yesterday, and we've got more snow forecasted for the next 3 days.  We already broke a brand new shovel we bought last month!

Winter has always been my least favorite season, but THIS YEAR....Oh, it's been so bad.  It's merciless!

I CAN'T STAND IT!  I need OUTTA here!  I'm going to go LOONEY pretty darn soon!

Even Kyle, who enjoys the snow......

...says he is now DONE with it. NOW THAT'S HUGE when it gets to the point that he'll say THAT!

So, EVERY DAY, I am telling Matt, "We gotta get outta here!"

And he says, "I hear ya."

But, for some reason, we're STILL HERE.  And we have no excuse, with my flight privileges and all!

We are currently on the TOP of a waiting list for a Mexican Riviera cruise that has SOLD OUT but is leaving in 12 days.  (That my siblings & parents happen to be already booked on)  I am driving my "Personal Cruise Consultant" at Holland America crazy by calling every week, even though she has told me she will let me know as soon as a cancellation comes in!  Hey, what does she get paid for, anyway?!  I'm just helping her "earn her pay!"  PLEASE SOMEONE CANCEL!!!  It'll just take ONE cabin to cancel, and we are ON that ship.  Isn't that bad, that I'm hoping for a cancellation, which will most likely be BECAUSE OF an "unfortunate event" for someone else, so that I will have something good that I want!?

If this cruise doesn't work out for us in February, I'm demanding we go to Cancun in March (after basketball season is over.)  We have a free week at an Adults Only all-inclusive resort that we have to use before June 2014 anyway -- but March is so far away!!!  I need to go somewhere warm & sunny NOW!   Waaaaahhh!

See, I'm becoming mentally deranged!  I'm gonna be that lady you see on the Evening News doing something totally crazy & senseless......if my environment doesn't change soon!