Zion Pictures from June

for full pictures look at eric's blog.


walking through water


Eric and I walking through the Left Fork in Zion Nat'l Park, June 2006, 'the subway'


Me standing in the middle of the path- the tunnel!



Andy and me about to jump into the next pool along the path


beautiful country!

the pics are finally in...

Summit, Long's peak, Rocky Mountain nat'l Park, 14,200 ft, July 23,2006

Leading Loose Ends 5.9, Lumpy Ridge, CO- best 5.9 I've done!

Somewhere in the middle of Rocky Mtn Nat'l park- what a great backpack!!

Eric and I at sunrise at the Keyhole on our way to the top of Long's Peak, July 23, 2006- our first anniversary

home again!!

what a wonderful vacation. it was as perfect as it could be. it was seriously almost uneventful in the bad sense of the word. we made it to the top of Long's Peak on our exact anniversary date (july 23) and were the first ones up her. it was glorious! we had rain/lightening/thunder storms almost every afternoon, but thankfully we were already set up inside our tent by that time. the backpack was wonderful, one of the best i've ever done.

we stayed in a cabin a couple of nights- glorious human comforts! i love backpacking, but deep down, i strongly dislike camping. i know, that sounds unbelievable. but i dont' really enjoy sleeping on the ground all wound up in a mummy bag, or all the dirt, or no water, or no bathrooms. i enjoyed the cabin immensely.

we met up with sam higby for a day and a half of climbing in lumpy ridge. it was so good to see sam again. we've gotten to see him more than any other friend from back home since he lives closest ( colorado is still 8-9 hours away!) climbing was fantastic- interesting rock in lumpy. it is not easy to place climbing protective gear in the rock making it very interesting to climb. we climbed a couple stellar routes however- it made me wish lumpy were closer!

we boozed up in wyoming. and some in colorado too. i have found a new joy in unfiltered wheat beers. yummmmy! by 'boozed up' i mean we bought a lot of beer, not that we drank a lot of beer. we now have enough 'real' alchohol to make it to our next trip out of state. i am a baby beer drinker- not hard core at all and i can recommend a couple beers to other younglings. Easy Street Wheat by Odell's out of fort collings, CO- ummm good. add a slice of lemon to it. also, any apricot hefiweizen (sp?) or a wit bier is good as well. there is just something very special about a beer after doing any sort of hard activity- thinking hard, climbing hard, cleaning hard, etc.

annnnd, welcome back to real life. i am once again on a night shift. it is getting harder and harder to come to work. for my own sanity and length of career i think it is wise to start considernig other options in nursing at this point. i am investigating our primary children's hospital here, just down the street from my hospital. i think it is probably a good idea to keep chaning things up so i don't become bored and tired with a current place. i htink mostly it is my schedule that detracts from my current job b/c i enjoy the traumas and people that i meet (for the most part) if onlyi could have a job that allowed me tow ork 3 12 hour DAY shifts in a week i would be so happy. unfortunately, that may be hard to find as night nurses are quite the commodity (but not enuogh of a commodity to have our hospital give real incentives to make us stay at nights...)i like to only work 3 days a week for climbing sake. sigh, i am hitting the slump a bit early tonight. 1 am. shoot. it usually comes at 2 am and at 4 am. gosh this is hard.

my sister is pregnant again. i have one nephew currently and another something (nephew or neice) due in february. i hope to make it over to ohio for the birth.

i am so happy we serve a creator who saw fit to imagine such a world for us. mountains like Long's Peak, valleys of pine trees, even the elk, the fields of corn and wheat we passed in wyoming, and the lightening storm across northern utah--jesus reminded us all over again of his love for each of us and his desire for relationship with us. we read donald miller's searching for god knows what while driving and hiking. it brought about some great conversations. it's an interesting book to be sure.

hopefully i will actually post a few pictures here some day- of zion and of rocky mtn.

on my way to the mountains...

tomorrow eric and i are leaving to rocky mtn nat'l park for a week of backpacking, sleeping, and rock climbing. i have this kid-like anticipation of leaving tomorrow morning- i am still unpacked as we were super busy this week (it would have helped if i hadn't gone climbing so much...teehee) hopefully we will be on top of long's peak on sunday morning- our exact 1 year anniversary. it's something we've always talked about wanting to do and now we are finally doing it. it is going to be glorious i know. sam higby is meeting us in estes park for a day or so to do some rock climbing as well- we are really looking forward to seeing a friendly face from 'back home'- sam isn't really from back home anymore though a his chief residence is now breckinridge, CO. also, i am looking forward to buying some cheaper beer.

who knew? utah doesn't allow full force beer in the state. the typical beer you get in the grocery stores or even at the bars only has round 3.2% alcohol. and it is way more expensive. so the popular 'watering hole' is evanston, wyoming- just across the border with cheap and fully stocked liquor stores. oh how i miss liquor world in fayetteville- that store was amazing. the mormon government would have a heart attack if such a wonderful store put up its signs here. of course, it wouldn't be allowed to b/c the only places allowed to sell hard liquor and wine are state liquor stores. so, if anyone comes to visit, you will always be warmly welcomed if a few full fledged beers make their way into your suitcase. eric likes guinness. i prefer something lighter like an apricot beer or wit bier.

i drank a starbucks white chocolate mocha about 11 hours ago at work (we gave a 24/7 starbucks here in the hospital and let me tell you, it makes a pile o' cash. i think it is the one of the largest, if not the largest, grossing starbucks in our region-idaho, oregon, wyoming, montana) and i am still quite giddy and agitated from it. caffeine really gets to me. i have to remember to not drink coffee! it kinda gets things moving, if you know what i mean. in a little too much of a way. i just enjoy coffee so much! but my insides always protest against such indulgences. well, it's better to save the money anywya.

night shift ripped me a new one

i just got done working a string of night shifts that brought me to a new definition of 'low point'. i worked two nights, had one night off, and then worked 3 nights. this is about the worst scenario you can imagine for working nights b/c what in the heck do you do with that one random night off in the middle? you can't go back to a day time schedule b/c your body just doesn't work like that, so i had to do a night shift except not work. eric went to bed, i cleaned, picked up, watched a movie, and finally went to bed 'early' (3 am). by sunday night's shift i was miserable. so miserable in fact that i cried at work. i thought i was getting seriously depressed and needed something. then i remembered that i had just got done working basically 6 nights in a row and my body was trying to revolt against my brain. i was so tired, worn thin, burnt out, and i know i wasn't a very nice nurse. in fact, a patient's family member came by and said, 'hey nurse, why don't you take a happy pill?'. do you know how mad that made me? you don't freakin' say that to a night workin' nurse. grrr. i wanted to tell him to go take a stupid happy pill-suppository and see how much he liked it. i was so bummed though. then i had a few days off and came to work today. but still, last night i coudln't get to sleep b/c my body hasn't readjusted yet. it still thinks it is supposed to be dead asleep at 10am and not awake. so i have slept waaay in the past few mornings and then this mornign i coudln't wake up. of course, last night i coudln't go to sleep so i had to take a sleep pill which did not help me wake up this morning. ahhh, it is such a hard cycle. i was very ready to quit though after these last night shifts. i have been toying with the idea very seriously, and have becomemore serious since the night shifts and the decrease in nursing personnel has really affected our unit. it's been really hard. and for once, work has started to affect my personal life. usually, i can leave work and work doesn't come with me. but when i am this tired and worn out and unhappy for 12 hours of work at a time, it has to affect my home life. i didn't see eric for a full week when i was working those night shifts. it's just too hard. and i am not a night person to begin with either.

my oregano plant died. and it was a house warming gift from coby! however, i think it died of simple causes: died of thirst. yes, i had to admit that my green thumb utterly failed me. i thought it was the lack of sunlight, or bad soil or something. but nope, it was just lakc of water. but the little plastic info thing that comes with the plant says it likes heat and dryness. so i thought i didn't neet to water it but once a week. turns out my basil plant almost died as well,a nd that's when i figured out that if i only just water them they live. so i've saved my basil plant and now i water allm y plants every other day. i almost lost my mint too- it looked really bad. but somehow it made a come back. i am very excited about my little gardens.

summer has turned suprisingly hot and sorta uneventful. but maybe that's just the tired night shift nurse talking there. eric and i are about to embark upon our second year of marriage. i just can't believe that was a year ago. it seems so much shorter and so much longer at the same time. i think of it now in seasons: fall=alone and sad. winter=snowboarding. spring=climbing. summer=working night shifts...hahah. no, summer=friends, climbing, hot.

i haven't gotten to climb as mcuh as i want- but that's b/c i could climb all day and haven't gotten to b/c it was so hot (and night shift- it's always the reason for everything) speaking of climbing: i had to back off my first climb and actually leave gear for the first time. well, actually coby left the gear but i coudln't rescue it either. so we left two stoppers and two good caribiners on a climb called wheels on fire rated a .9. it was a really hard.9 though. hardest i've ever tried. flaring crack i coudln't get into. it's on the list to go back and do though.

A MESSAGE TO ALL WHO READ MY BLOG: YOU ARE ALL WELCOME TO STAY WITH US THIS WINTER AND SKI!!!! i asked about getting discounted tickets for friends from my ski bum friends. but apparently the ski resorts are very stingy with those discounts and only give employees 6 or 7 a year and so it's too hard to get ahold of something for cheap. sorry about that. lodging is free though- that always helps! :) fyi: the resort you need to look into is called the canyons ski resort in park city, utah. that is where i will have my ski pass to and where you should get your passes so we can go together. also, i am offering free snowboarding lessons to anyone who wants to come out and learn- THAT'S A DEAL!!

how did this get so long again? thanks for bearing with my long-wind-ed-ness.

a blog about blogs

I think i have abnormally long posts on this blog. i was looking back over my past couple of blogs and realized that it takes a full flick of the wrist to get through that one i wrote about deserts on. most people don't write that much. i guess i can't help it though. my thoughts just run, especially at night. for the record, this one will be short. (mostly b/c all i have been doing is night shifts and i don't really have anything exciting to say. however, i have somehow managed to get through a decent paragraph on absolutely nothing. )