The Natural Blonde Strikes Again.

Today when I woke up I was Convinced  that today was going to be awesome. But as it seems to go, (more often than not) I was wrong. Yep. Today = less than awesome. Okay, Okay. If I'm going to be perfectly honest, only one thing went wrong. But it was a pretty big one thing. I bet right about.... NOW you're wishing you knew what happened. Well, don't get your panties in a bunch, I'll tell ya!

This morning I woke up to Ben telling me he was off to school. His first class started at 6:00 in the morning. As he gave me a kiss goodbye I thought, "Sure glad I don't have to be anywhere at 6:00 today." So I rolled over and resumed my peaceful slumber. Then, about two hours later, I woke up. and got ready to go to the grocery store before I had to be at work at 11. Right before leaving I grabbed my keys and my phone however, my phone seemed to have died sometime during the night. "No biggie," I thought "I'll just plug it in to charge while I'm at the store." 

Now, I feel you should know that because I coupon, grocery shopping takes me a bit longer than it takes other people. 

Anyways, when I got back home from the store, my phone was fully charged, so I turned it back on. I had one text message, which I responded to, and one voice mail.  Here are my thoughts as I was listening to that voice mail:
 Oh, I have a voice mail. Whoever could it be from?
Oh it's my manager from work
 6? I WAS SUPPOSED TO BE AT WORK AT SIX!? That was like 4 hours ago!!

Needless to say I threw what was supposed to go in the fridge in the fridge, still in the bags. However, I neglected the items that were meant to go in the freezer. Then I there on work close and got my butt to work. Good news, still not fired, bad news I'm supposed to be eligible  for a raise in about a month that doesn't look like it going to go so well.  

{Moral of the Story}

 Remember to switch the schedule posted on your fridge from last weeks, to this weeks. 

Burnt.

And no, if you're wondering, this post is not about bulk chili. 

Almost two weeks ago (Not last Saturday but the one before. {In case you wanted to know EXACTLY when this all went down.})  my darling husband and I decided to be good members of our ward family and participate in the ward social. This fun little get together would involve canoes, inflatable rafts, kayaks, the snake river, pulled pork for lunch, and I seem to be forgetting some thing... oh of course! THE SUN!  Now being a true blue Arizona girl, you wouldn't think this would bother me, and it didn't. At least not for the first 2 hours. 

{Allow me to Explain}

For this activity members of my ward would be getting together for lunch made by our wonderful bishop (Who, might I add, teaches classes about meat and how to make it taste sinfully good. Rather the contradiction, eh?). Those that wanted to could meet up before lunch and float (a.k.a paddle yourselves using your brute strength, because clearly rivers don't flow or anything..?) down the river. Sounded just like the kind of fun Ben and I are all about!

Eventually we found the people that we are supposed to meet up with so that we may caravan to our "put-in site." Through this experience I have learned that this means either 1) an area where grievous errors are made  or 2) the site where individuals start their journey down the river. I'm leaning towards the former.  After we all got settled in our water-craft of choice (The hubs and I went with a canoe. I wanted to go on the raft, but I decided to support him in all his righteous endeavors. Later to find out that that was a good move on my part. I'd recommend it to a friend.) our bishop sent us off!

I don't mean to make this seem like it was a terrible experience the whole time. For the first hour and a half, heck, maybe even two hours it was a grand ole' time! The company was great, the river was even flowing (off and on. but mostly off) thus helping to propel the canoe (a little). It wasn't until I got hungry, tired, cranky, and sunburned that I was ready for the landing to be just around the next bend...or the next one, or the next one, or the next one, or please Zeus let it be around the next bend! (classic case: too much of a good thing.)

What was I saying.... oh right. Sunburned. OH SO VERY VERY SUNBURNED. By the time we had gotten back on dry land because we had finally reached the "yep, this is way too far point" to call our bishop, Ben and I were burnt to a crisp. So burned we cracked when we walked. On the upside lunch tasted extra good. 

Looking back on the whole thing we believe that even though we had gone too far we hadn't gone too far by a long shot so we figure we must have "Put-in" at a spot further up the river than we had intended to. After we got home, Ben google-maped our approximate distance and he estimated that we canoed (with little help from the river I'll remind you for the third time) anywhere from 12 to 16 miles. Originally planned on an 8 mile ride. Almost two weeks later, our sunburns are mostly better. However, one of us is pealing of in sheets and the other is flaking like a buttery croissant (except that instead of delicious, it's, well...not.) 

{Moral of the story}

Get out of a (figurative, and also literal) sinking canoe sooner rather than later.

ALSO

I'd probably do it again if I had a sack lunch, water, good nights rest, and lots and lots of sunscreen. SPF 3,000.

Preservation

Today was a good day, I kicked it off by starting a new job as a donor processor at a plasma collection center here. That was pretty normal, run of the mill first day stuff... paper work, talk about 401k plans, insurance, job duties, and more paper work. After that I went home and watched a movie with Benjamin (pronounced bean-ha-mean). Then things got interesting. 

You see, today was the day Ben went to his very first wild-land fire call. (Husbands. They grow up on you so fast. One minute you're feeding 'em sweet tarts and the next you're dropping them off to go fight forest fires. Literally.)  So now he's probably asleep on a mountain side, I'll see him again... sometime. No idea when, but sometime when the fire is out. 

ANYWAYS, after I dropped him off with a bunch of dirty smelly men (and a couple dirty smelly women) I headed back to good ole' Rexburger. Just as I was getting away from their camp site I noticed two dear crossing the road a ways in front of me. About at that point I said a quick prayer that I would know what to do when I came upon an animal suddenly in the road. I kept on saying this prayer for about 100 miles. I kept meaning to say "if I encounter an animal suddenly in the road" (power of positive thinking and such.) but somehow it kept coming to mind as "when I encounter an animal." After a bit I thought, "hum, where is my phone." So I was feeling around in the car for it for a moment or two before getting the impression to pay very close attention to the road so I did. Not 10 seconds later, at 65 miles and hour, I saw in my headlights a large furry grey... mass in the middle of my lane! (I have no idea what animal it was. If it was a dear, it was a huge dear that decided to curl up for a little nappy-poo in the middle of the highway.) So I immediately slammed the brakes and turned the wheel. Now, if your thinking, "If my memory serves me, I believe that those are the exact ingredients for a tail spin." you would be right. 


Though I really wanted to freak out, I'm not sure I've ever been so clear headed. As I started to spin, I got the impression that I should relax a bit. I'm not sure when I let off the brakes or what I did with the steering wheel, But I believe that it was exactly what I was supposed to do. With a cloud of dust that surrounded every inch of window space, I couldn't see a thing that was going on as my car spun and rolled back into a deep ditch I couldn't help but feel an overwhelming peace. At a certain moment when I was rolling backwards into a ditch I felt that at that instant I should press the brakes, so I did. My car came to a stop about 1 foot away from a mean looking metal fence, and I was safe. My car must have turned it's self off (handy safety feature). So I turned it back on and tried to drive out of the ditch. I could hear the wheels turn but I didn't move. At this point I was panic stricken, after all I was stranded in a ditch in the middle of nowhere and I couldn't find my phone (later to discover it was in the front pocket of my jacket, but it couldn't feel it over the seat belt. LAME SAUCE.) So I took a deep breath and again, I felt that I should just put it in a lower gear, and slowly try again, so I did. I got back on the highway, I was safe and my car didn't even have a scratch (at least not that I can tell. It was dark and iPods aren't exactly flood lamps.)

I believe in miracles. Maybe this was a miracle, maybe it wasn't. I know that even in a time of crisis, the Spirit of the Lord can communicate with us clearly and calmly, and that is just one way that our prayers where answered. I'm thankful that I and my car made it home safe tonight, goodness knows we couldn't stand to lose another vehicle. As I said at the beginning of this post, today was a good day. 

KJV Psm. 145

Somewhere In Utah

I don't know if the travel gods have something against me going to weddings or what, all I know is that so far I have a perfect track record for getting lost on the way to friends weddings. 

{Here's My Story}

Nearly a month ago (yes, that is how long it took for this experience to stop being traumatic and start being funny. So I can write about it.) I went on a road trip because one of my other very best friends was getting married. My dear husband was unable to come because 1. we are poor newly-weds and we can't both afford to take a week and a half off of work and 2. he had to finish up wild-land fire fighting class. So I was on my own, just me and my google maps directions.
To start this whole adventure off on the wrong foot, the night before I was supposed to leave, Ben and I went to the LDS temple in Idaho Falls. Later that same night Ben got a call from our bishop informing him that I had left my wallet at the temple. Awesome. It's not like I would need that at all during this trip. Anyways, It turned out that the temple opened a half hour after I intended to leave, and I would have to drive though Idaho Falls, which conveniently takes a half hour to get to. No harm, no foul, except that when we got to the temple there was a hiccup. I love the elderly that work in the temple, but they just don't move too fast. So after a few phone calls were made to find out who they should call to find out where lost and found was and a good deal of time sitting and waiting, I was reunited with my wallet.Now on with the road trip. 
Everything seemed to be going just great, It even seemed like I would be there early! I took my exit and followed what I thought to be the google map directions. After the 58 minutes had passed that the directions said I would have from the last turn until I was in Manti, and then some I did not find myself in Manti. So I got gas and a road map. On this map I located Manti (aka:where I was supposed to be) and the town I was in, somewhere in Utah. Yep, nowhere close to each other. 
So! Being the smart traveler that I am, I decided to find the shortest rout between where I was and where I needed to be. 

Long Story Short

The light brown lines on the road map means "this is a dirt road, not a short-cut. Pick a different rout." I know this now, and feel it is my duty to share it with you, should you ever find yourself in a similar situation.

So an hour or more after I left the town that I had discovered my lost and fallen state I turn around and go back The long (but thankfully, not the longest) way. I finally get to the temple that they where getting married at a meager 3 hours late. Thank goodness I was set to be early or it probably would have been more like 5. Then I would have missed the dinner too! That would have been bad, because boy was I ever starving! The rest of trip I only got lost once, somewhere in Delta. 

Wedding Pictures Part II

 Hope Your Scroll Wheel Works!