Desert Fun

The past couple of weekends have been spent in the desert climbing. we went to indian creek over the 21rst, met sam higby and friend marci, and had a grand time climbing. we eventually got rained out, you never know with that desert weather! at least this time we didn't have to dig our way out of our campsite. great campfires, s'mores, friends, and climbing. it was a great weekend. i think i worked a little that week :) and the next weekend my friend Tracy and i blasted down for a one day stint at the fischer towers, climbing a little corkscrew tower called Ancient Art. it was the most exposed climb i've ever done, but so much fun. tracy and i felt so proud of ourselves for doing that climb all on our own- just a girl team. it's so easy to go climb with 'the boys' and have them lead everything and basically take you climbing. but when you climb with another girl it's either you or her, and that's a fun decision! we blasted down sunday night and spent the night in the back of our subaru, climbed early the next morning and were back in salt lake city in time for tracy to take a final at 6 pm. it was such a wonderful weekend!!

it was back to work again this week, but, weather permitting, katie and i will be going down to grand junction, colorado this weekend to climb the colorado national monument via otto's route.

eric is through with school, hurray! we are waiting to hear back from a black diamond interview. man, i hate waiting! this is a huge decision, and you can't make head or tails of your next few months until you know about a job. i am more anxious than eric though, as i would love for him to have this job. we'll see....

i am going to buy a dog house for pilsner right now. he's getting pretty big. today i went to the pet store to buy more food for him and they were all out. or rather, they had recalled all the DRY dog food of my brand (natural choice puppy food). that's kinda scary when you realize your dog just ate an entire bag. but he isnt' dead (yet) so maybe he'll pull through this one.

el salvador is just a week and a half away!!!!


Tracy and I before our climb of Ancient Art 5.9, A0 Fischer Towers, Utah


Me leading the second pitch chimney on Ancient Art


Me across the narrow 'sidewalk', thinking about jumping up on that diving board- the classic "jump and hump" move on the climb- it was scary!


half way up the to the summit


me on the tiny summit!!


a daring one foot stance....


the entire climb- you can just see the tiny cork screw against the sky. we were up there!!!


Me leading Chocolate Corner, 5.9 Indian Creek, Utah. That's Coby belaying me, Sam bending over, and Marci in the foreground



Coby and I with the rain rolling in down the canyon


Sam, Eric, and Coby doing a little dance around camp



The one bathroom in the whole valley, and me, waiting patiently....

Success? yes, please.

The past few weeks have been super fun here in Salt Lake. We had a birthday party for eric at our house back at the end of march. it was so great to celebrate his birthday with our group of friends.


Eric's 25th Birthday Party

Last year for eric's birthday it was just he and i and a quiet little dinner and one big cake. This year we got to eat that cake with 20 other friends and enjoy what a year's time has brought us in the way of fellowship. i have felt so connected here this spring. again the feeling of "wow, we really live here now". the feeling of roots being formed- it looks like we are here to stay more and more. Eric has officially decided to not pursue grad school. he is finishing out this semester, taking a test for his Master's degree next October, and meanwhile trying to decide what it is he really wants to do. he has the opportunity to run his lab's new MRI scanner and work as a lab engineer until he finds something he really wants. he has also applied with an outdoor gear company called Black Diamond here in salt lake. they make tents, trekking poles, climbing gear, skis, etc. it would be so great if he could work there, using his mechanical engineering degree. i think we would both be very happy with that. we are just waiting to hear back from them (the worst time- waiting!) if that doesn't work however, at least he will have some form of employement t hrough the lab until something else comes along. we will see, we are kind of in a transition through all this.


it's been an interesting few weeks in regard to transition. i think eric and i are in one of those "young places". i don't have a better description than that- we are young, we have all these choices ahead of us. we can do anything we want. ANYTHING. i think we have begun to realize that we are 'of age' to define what our version of success will look like. coming from the south has brought us both up to believe that success is a nice house, pretty good cars, an IRA account, and 2 weeks of vacation a year. but i don't know that if that is what i want. what about real travel? i brought up this idea that eric and i take off 6 months and backpack around south america, or somewhere in asia. at first he balked at the idea. he thought, "how can i justify a 6 month period of in activity to a future employer?". i think that was an engineer's typical reaction- i mean, 6 months of just travel? how is that productive? but the more we talked about it, the more we realized that that is an incredibly priceless and valuable experience. if i was an employer i would love to see that someone took time off to travel, get to know themselves, see other cultures, become well rounded.and we've started to think about, well do we really want just a nice house? a better car (eric is still kicking in his '88 honda accord with 230K on it), nice furniture.....or do we want to see the world while we are young? is it more valuable to be 'set up' or to have taken time off? i think that taking time off is actually very much more valuable. we are in a place to do that too- within the next two years we could save all my salary (now that eric is working that is..) and have enough to travel and come back to. why do we want to be so 'successful in the world's eyes? b/c it's what we've grown up with. there's nothing wrong with that- nothing at all. our parents did a wonderful job bringing us up. and they did things when they were our age that weren't necessarily to benefit the coming of a family. i just think that if we are going to do anything 'selfish', now is the time to do it .we can recover from any major financial strain at this point, and man, seeing all those places i've wanted to see??! i get so excited just thinking about it. for now, we are just trying to figure out what a "successful Dacus Family" looks like. we've got some time to figure it out, in the meantime, i think i'll be stocking that money away in a travel fund.....

of course, if eric starts working for black diamond things might be a little different. anything can happen.

over easter we traveled 3 hours away to City of Rocks, Idaho for some climbing and camping. a bunch of our friends ended up there with us- it was a blast! the weather was beautiful and the climbing was great- but the friends really made the trip.



Me on top of a big rock! City of Rocks, Idaho


Eric and I at the very top of the Morning Glory Spire in City of Rocks


i have also found something else of great value here in salt lake- a group of incredible women! over the past year and a half i have finally found this group of girls that desire to know each other deeply, and live out life with each other. it's been one of the most beautiful things i have experienced in my life. from making jewlery at a local bead store, to climbing, to running together, to instant tradition coffee nights, and breakfasts in the mornings, we've begun to truly live our lives together, know one another, and encourage each other. i hate to use the words "girl power", but there is something powerful and wonderful about feminine bonds. and it is something that has to be fought for. friendships with girls don't come all that easily. we fall quickly into comparisons, jealousy, and petty disagreements. it is our nature. but this group of girls has all come to realize that about herself, and we've been able to see and help each other through all these feelings. i am just so happy to have found or stumbled upon such a great group of friends.

ski season is officially over- really this time. the resorts have even closed. so no more ski clinic for me either. eric and i went to the closing ski clinic party this weekend in park city. it was in this beautiful house- one of the biggest i've ever been in. it just brought up that whole discussion of houses and success again b/c you know what? i really want a kitchen that's about 700 square feet- basically the size of our little house right now! man, the kitchen in this house at the party was amazing. a wet bar, all the counter space you could want....beautiful cabinets...i know, all this after my big long discussion about not wanting THINGS! and then i get in this house and i want want want all over again. really, i just want a big kitchen. i'll sleep in the closet, if i can have a big kitchen!


we are traveling to indian creek this weekend again to see Sam Higby and of course, climb. i'm sure i'll have some more good pictures from the weekend. it'll probably be super hot though- it's already in the 80's in southern utah. worth it though, for the climbing and friends.

Quote of the Day

I am at work at the Park City Ski Clinic today. The quote on the side of the wall says: "Skiing is the only sport where you spend an arm and a leg to break and arm and a leg". This is true! As i pulled up to work this afternoon i said to myself, i sure hope people are falling up there. that's horrible isn't it? it makes my day go by quicker though, and i get to see cool stuff! no blood so far, just dislocations, ACL/PCL tears, sprains, head injuries, etc. just another day at work! i love this job.

Post-op Day 0

well, he did it. pilsner lost the goods. this morning we dropped him off to get neutered at the humane society. i must say that they are, by far, the cheapest around town to get such a deed done. plus we got a coupon from the city for $25 off b/c we are registering him with the city. we got him neutered, microchipped, and rabied(?) :) for $44. my vet wanted 240 just to neuter. i feel bad for the poor feller-he can't tell where that awful collar stops so he is running into everything. he just wants to go through the door way to get to his water, but he runs into the door jam. he tries to come give you kisses but he can't b/c the collar gets in the way. however, it is pretty funny. i can't help but laugh at him! he just casually walks by the table but his collar runs into the chair and he gets shut down. then he just stands there looking very forlorn and maybe even whimpers a time or two. right now he is looking at me with those puppy eyes, begging me to take off the collar. guess what pilsner? you have to wear that sucker for TEN DAYS. i couldn't believe it- 10 days is a stinkin long time for a poor dog to wear one of those. after all the pain medication wears off and he is back to being a puppy (which i guess will happen in about 2 days) i don't know what we'll do with him- all energetic with a collar. hmmmm.

today i took one small step for femininity and one big step for polly-kind. i got my hair highlighted. or rather, low-lighted b/c i didn't actually get a lighter color added, but had darker colors added. i've never had anything done to my hair before b/c i think brown hair is hard to color- it always looks weird or orange or something. i went to a real actual salon, as opposed to a hair school, and paid the big bucks just for a little bit of vanity. however, it looks stellar!! i couldn't be happier, which says a lot b/c my hair has been in this awkward growing out stage for far too long. the gal did a great job; i think i'll keep it!

last weekend some girlfriends and i had a clothing exchange. we are all tired of the fact that we still are wearing sweaters we bought when we were 16. we all cleaned out our closets of those clothes we were most tired of and threw them in a big pile in my living room. after a couple bottles of wine we all thought that most of the clothes looked a lot better on each other and each went home with a bag full. we are donating the rest of the clothes to the battered women's shelter. it was so much fun, plus we all got some really good "new" clothes.

in other news, climbing season is officially here. i've now done three routes in Little Cottonwood Canyon and can feel the climbing vibe coming back to my fingers and forearms.

yoga is hard. i went to yoga last night. i always think that yoga is going to be relaxing and centering for me. well mostly it's just hard. there is this excellent yoga instructor at the climbing gym we belong to and he doesn't let you get away with any incorrect pose. it's a good thing actually, but it makes the yoga classes a real work out. i've got this 30 minute tape of yoga that i used to do at home, and i never really felt much work out from it. not now. just the simple downward dog pose that is basically the beginning yoga pose has become somewhat strenuous. you are supposed to be 'active' all the time, meaning your muscles are toning, not just sitting in a certain position, you have to actually engage every muscle group. and you must always engage your shoulder bones toward your spine. that's freakin' hard! given the fact that i can't touch my toes, my hip flexors are over developed, my hip muscles are under developed, my hamstrings are tighter than a wound spring, and my lower back is crinkled down tight, it's a wonder i can even step into bed at night. i've got a lot of stretching to do. i'm psyched.

we are having a birthday party for eric this weekend. a fiesta of tacos and birthday cake with a bunch of friends. what a difference a year can make. last year we quietly celebrated, just the two of us, with a small dinner and small cake. we were happy to just be married and have at least each other on a special day. this year it's turned into a great fiesta with many friends- it's the greatest bunch of people to hang out with and i'm so happy to be celebrating a special day with so many good people.

new favorite music to listen to: Regina Spektor and Rosie Thomas - i guess i've been in a mellow mood huh?

right now i smell nutmeg. bath and body works is having sale on wall plug-ins; i bought nutmeg. it's really good. eric's nose is completely stuffy and he says he can't smell it. i don't think pilsner cares b/c he is in too much pain. what a nice little family. :)

March Madness

March has been a great month. Spring weather makes everyone feel a little more chipper, except for the fact that it means no more skiing. i am so excited that i started to learn to telemark ski- in fact i can't wait for next season!

i got great news this month- i am going on a medical mission trip to El Salvador this may. Through the university of utah and a charity organization named Operation Walk we are taking a team of about 25 medical professionals. the other half of our team will come from the los angelos chapter of operation walk. we plan on replacing about 50+ joints for the locals in a town called sonsonate. this is an incredible opportunity as i have always wanted to be invovled in these types of things and have been looking for opportunities ever since i started nursing. i heard about operation walk about 2 months ago and tried to get on the team but they told me they were all full. i think it's b/c of my spanish that they decided to take me. they let me know about a week ago that they opened one more spot on the team for a nurse and i got in. i am by far the youngest team member, all the other nurses being some sort of manager. i am so happy that i am able to start this pattern as a young nurse, and not wait 15 years before finding experiences like this one. working at this orthopedic clinic has really opened a lot of doors for me to make connections and learn different things- like the ski clinic i have been working at since february. i've never had so much fun before and it's work!

i've had the itch to travel too for the past several months. one absolute plus of this trip is that it is completely paid for. i will be working with the patients after their surgeries and making sure they recover well. not only will i be practicing REAL nursing- not just paperwork, but i will get to use my spanish, experience a new culture, and visit a place i've never been. the only bad part is that i will be gone during the week of my birthday. it's a small price to pay.

there is also a new dynamic in this group that i have never traveled under before- we are not a christian organization. we are out there simply to help and there is no religious obligation. i felt it already in one of our meetings- no prayers, no mention of a religious reason why we are going, no mention of a strict dress code so that we always appear to be christians. we are simply helping. i love that. not that christians don't also simply help, but that there seems to be a driving force to also explain the gospel and have a number at the end of the day. i have no doubt of how to answer why i live the way i do or why i help. it's just that this time i am going alone with only God. yet another example of living life outside of arkansas and the known bible belt.

in other news- we just returned from a great Indian Creek climbing trip. it's eric's spring break and we went down to our favorite desert spot outside Moab and met up with a few friends for several days. it was really hard! i haven't climbed in over 2 months and i had a very hard time struggling up the rock faces. but i think it was also one of the most fun trips we've had- so many good friends and good conversations. it didn't matter that i couldn't climb, it only mattered that i had friendship to offer.


Eric and I playing with headlamps and open shutters


me on a climb called Spaghetti Western, 5.11


the group trying to catch some shade- it was hot already down there!


Liz and I at the belay


Katie and I enjoying our turkey burgers after climbing


Tracy and I with a desert feature called Six Shooter Peak in the background


Example of a splitter hand crack in Indian Creek. Mark leading Pente, 5.11

the winter boots gave me blisters

winter boots

alright, i've had it with wet feet, and snow drifts up to my knees. i've had it with slushy parking lots and my really lame, baby pink, rubberized kid's on-sale north face boots. i picked up an extra shift this week and guess what i'm using that money for? WINTER BOOTS! i've been on a quest for the past, oh month, looking for attractive, cheap-er/ish boots that i can wear through all our wetness and still look good with jeans and skirts. you wouldn't believe how hard that is. and why in the world have i not owned winter boots before now? what did i do in the past? i am really baffled (that's a good word, makes me think of waffles-i must be hungry). zappos.com and i have become quite close. if anyone is interested in any particular boot on that website i bet i can tell you what page it is on and how much it is. you may even get free overnight delivery!

i am a particular fan of Camper shoes. they originated in Spain, and that's where i discovered them and fell in love in 2003. i stumbled into a camper store in spain and thought they were the coolest shoes ever. i didn't know that anyone else knew anything about them(that they have the potential to be as big as Uggs- heaven forbid). but then i thought that i discovered Coldplay too. i was just listening to what i thought was a way ocean band(thank you gennie!) aka- a band that nobody knows about really, and i really liked them. i even first listened to them on a bus in london. theni found out they did international tours and everyone and their mom knows who coldplay is -duh polly! anyway, more and more ppl actually know what camper brand shoes are. they make really cute shoes-mismatched on purpose. i love 'em. well, zappos sells campers. there, now you know weveryone knows about them. but i found a pair of campers in an outlet store in salt lake- i couldn't believe my eyes! campers, in salt lake city? we ARE hot! and i have a friend here who owns a pair (lacy, i love your shoes- we can almost be twins now!) i looked and looked for affordable cute winter boots and coudln't find them anywhere online. i finally broke down and bought this pair from the outlet store (sundance outlet-whoever heard of the store sundance??!) i now am the proud owner of a pair of cute, if not really affordable, winter boots.

sometimes, you just need to spend money.

yeah, that'll take me far in life.

watch out eric!

back by popular demand

alright, i know everyone thinks they have a cute dog/puppy. and they probably do. but so do i!! :)





PILSNER THE AIREDALE!!!





i am a little obsessed with his ears. airedales are supposed to have really cute, floppy ears- like the way pilsner's ears are in the first picture. the second picture is what he does with his ears most of the time. one is correct and the other is 'flying' away. i always try to correct it with my hands every time i pet him and he hates it. i even thought about super glueing his ears so they would stand up straight. i hope it's just a teething thing and they will both stand up correctly in the end. he is about 4 and a half months at this point and quite the handful. he is 90% house trained, but we still have to watch him. sometimes eric and i ask each other why we wanted a dog? i guess a dog is okay, it's the puppy that is too much. next time maybe we'll just adopt a dog. but sometimes, when he is really chill and just likes to lay around, we really like him. and i like that he makes us take walks and it's time to get out and talk to each other, when we aren't yelling at him to 'heel!'. he actually does down-stay and sit-stay quite well, especially when there is a treat involved.....

we have discovered that i am alpha dog. there is always one dog that is the head of the pack, and all the other dogs obey that dog. well, i'm it. i think it's all the obedience t raining i've done with him. eric just plays with him, therefore eric is a playmate ande fellow litter mate. during dinner time, pilsner leaves me cconpletely alone but runs up against eric the whole time wanting to play, or asking him to throw the ball etc. he never touches me. all i have to do is look at him the wrong way and he'll stop doing something wrong. eric is trying to rise in rank and become alpha dog 2 by growling at pilsner's throat every time he does something annoying, but i think secretly pilsner will always see him as a playmate. we are both ready for pilsner to become dog and stop being puppy. looks likewe have a long 9 and a half months ahead of us!!! we love him!

Lindsey- this one's for you!

LINDSEY LYTLE/MARCH!! that was so awesome to hear from you!! i am making this a special post b/c i don't know if you would check the comments section for a reply from me. :) how great that you found my blog. it looked like you don't have a blog though cuz i clicked on your name- or maybe you just didn't have a profile. you are a very brave women, with Drew being gone for so long. i'm sorry to hear about his absence but will look forward to his return with you!

okay, hope this wasn't too weird sending out a post just for one person- i was just pretty excited to hear from you! :)

"in sickeness and in health..."

i returned just last night from visiting my friend Lindsay Porter in colorado.

Lindsay and I on the slopes


i had a blast- except that the night i arrived i started to come down with a horrible sore throat which worked itself over the course of the few days i was there, into a full blown cold. all this, and i was still taking antibiotics from my strep throat just last weekend! poor eric has had his hands full taking care of sick polly ever since we moved to utah. i don't know if it's just getting used to new bugs or working in a hospital or what, but i've never been so sick before!

colorado was perfect! we snowboarded at Breckenridge ski resort on sunday, meeting up with eric's best friend Sam Higby in the afternoon. Sam showed us some really fun places to ride.

that masked pirate is Sam Higby

it was snowing the whole day so we got some actual real powder during the afternoon. i haven't snowboarded in over 2 months and i can tell b/c i haven't been this sore in two months! boarding uses different muscles than skiing does, especially falling and getting back up- you have to use your arms so much more. i was having a hard time opening doors and putting on my coat after sunday. we spent monday in ft collins, where lindsay lives now in the old part of downtown. that's a really cool city with a lot of culture and personality. we would have toured the breweries there, but my sore throat was begging to not be exploited by my brain's desire to taste 'non-utah, real" beer. i am so proud of my friendship with lindsay. we actually haven't lived in the same state since 2001- when we were freshmen in college. we became fast friends during that one year however and have kept up the friendship basically through phone calls and brief visits here and there. it's like something out of a movie, the older we get the better and deeper our friendship gets and the more sure we are of being "friends forever".

traveling is actually exhausting. i have a deep desire to 'travel'- you know, the cool sense of the word. like when you have conversations with people you've just met and you're getting to know them you'll ask, "well what did you do after that job?" and they will say, "i traveled". and you'll think inside, "ooooooo, i want to travel like that- just wherever the wind blows or decides to take me...i wonder if i can take off work, i wonder how much that plane ticket would cost? should i use a lonely planet guide? who would i travel with? what do i want to see the most? is it safe for americans to travel there these days?...." well that sort of travel is cool, fun, discovery, and uncomfortable, eye-opening and an opportunity to grow. traveling within the united states is exhausting! it is still cool, and it is still a growing experience, but it isn't that exotic kind of travel where you've packed your swim suit, travel towel, and warm jacket just in case. i'm exhuasted after traveling twice in the month of february- first to ohio and then to colorado. the airports were tiring, such a feeling of urgency there and people always pushing and shoving to get in lines first. sitting in airports waiting to go home is exhausting, you can only people watch alone for so long. then there's the inside feelings, of anticipation of your up coming trip, or of saying goodbye to family or friends, not knowing when you will see them next. traveling with eric is way better b/c i can voice some of my feelings, or talk about that strange person i just saw. but traveling alone....my sense of adventure is a little tweaked being out there alone. if i had never married i might look at it differently- a time of independence and adventure. but now, no adventure is complete without eric, so traveling alone becomes simply time away from him, and not so adventurous. plus, i was just sick this time. so maybe i was a little skewed, i was really tired and just wanted to relax at home, not in that uncomfortable chair.

i believe our trip to indian creek has been put on hold. utah has received 30+inches of snow in the past week, and the powder is full on. how can we leave that?


after a long day of riding, Lindsay and i took time out to play our snowboards. i wonder if anyone else has ever done that....

Travels and trinkets

For all of you who have posted in the past two months- thanks! i just realized that i had enabled the comment moderator, but had no clue how to use it. i just enabled all the comments so they have finally shown up! i was sorta wondering... i mean, usually someone has something to say!! it was kinda fun though, getting all those comments at once! it felt like i almost had a conversation with some of you!!

it's been a busy february. i haven't gotten out too much due to this nifty brace i have been wearing on my thumb. who knew that sprains take, um, forever to heal? my thumb still hurts and i sprained it at the beginning of january. i wear my brace religiously though and it is healing, just slowly. i will continue to wear it until the beginning of march when we are planning a trip to southern utah (indian creek of course) for a weekend of climbing with our friends katie and mark (and anyone else who wants to come- lacy??!!! pleeeeeeeease!!)

i recently returned from Lima, Ohio where my sister, brother in law and now TWO nephews live, as well as my grandparents. miranda, my sister, had an emergency C section on friday february 9th and my newest nephew, Elliot, was born. i arrived less than 12 hours before she began labor, and it was a good thing. she was scheduled for the operation on monday, but friday morning she began some intense labor that resulted in the C section occuring that afternoon. i had no clue. i mean, aren't laboring women always making it up? :) (j/k to all my friends who have recently labored!!) but it does seem that all too often labor is false- or just not close enough together, or not regular enough. but you have to go into the doctor's b/c what if it is real? it just seems like most of the time they are sent home to rest, relax and let that baby come when he/she wants to. well miranda wasn't faking it. i took her to the hospital and went home with my 2 year old nephew Adrian. we had a grand ole time athome, playing trains, hide n go seek, watching thomas the tank engine. well a few hours later what had happened? miranda had gone into surgery and we hadn't a clue! i got a call in the evening saying, baby elliot was born! everyone was very healthy and the baby was soo beautifully perfect. it was a good thing i had arrived when i did b/c who else would have endlessly pushed that swing for Adrian?!


Miranda, Me and Baby Elliot

my mom arrived saturday evening and sunday afternoon my grandfather went to the ER with his lungs filling up with fluid and heart irregularities. i mean, as if one hospital wasn't enough, now my grandpa was in a different hospital across town fighting for his life! it was very stressful, between taking care of Adrian at home, going to the hospital to see miranda and elliot and then going across tgown to see grandpa. miranda came home on monday and my grandpa started doing better too. he is still in the hospital but it looks like he will pull through.

i was supposed to leave on wednesday and tuesday morning the blizzard of the century started in ohio and chicago- both of the places i had to fly out of. it snowed alllll day. that's more snow that even utah has gotten in the entire month (we have a pathetic excuse of a snow base here this year) i really started to worry as all the flights from ohio and chicago started to get cancelled. and we were stuck inside all day from the blowing wind and snow which just adds to the pent up feeling. wednesday mroning as beautiful and clear and the flights began resuming, mostly. Thank God my flights were all actually on time(which is awesome, chicago airport seems to always always always be delayed for some reason). i arrived home wedneday night and started work the next morning.

friday afternoon i started to get that tickle in the back of your throat that means a cold is coming. great a cold- after all that i've been through this week? friday evening was spent in the hot tub with our friends katie and mark and mark's roomate's blind, deaf husky named Mookie. i had the worst time sleeping b/c every time i swallowed it woke me up from pain. i took a look at my tonsils saturday morning and was horrified at the site. we went to an ugent care clinic and lo' and behold i have strep throat. i've never had strep throat before. i have gotten more maladies and horrible diseases in the last year and a half in utah than my entire life in arkansas. they grow 'em mean here i guess. anyway, i was stuck in the bed all day yesterday and today and have started my antibiotics. if you havne't had strep throat you are lucky. it is extremely painful and uncomfortable and your tonsils look like some sort of alien life form. it is a 3 day weekend too b/c of presidents day, the slopes have a little bit of fresh snow on them and it's completely clear and blue out and what am i doing??? in bed feeling horrible. eric and i were supposed to go touring, or at least to the resort or at least on a long snowshoe with Pilsner or something!!! i was so looking forward to it after being gone for a week and working on either end.

i am leaving again this next saturday for Ft, Collins, Colorado to visit my dear friend Lindsay Porter for 4 days. i am really lookingn forward to it as i haven't seen her in a year and a half. Ft collins is an extremely cool town if you've never been there, and a ton of breweries are located there ! :) (by the way, try to say the word "breweries" out loud, it's a very awkward word)

This week eric and i ( and a bunch of our friends ) are going to see the Banff Film Festival (it's here in salt lake, not in banff) but it is an independent outdoor film festival. we went last year and it is extremely fun! anybody can enter, but usually the people are experienced and put together great films. they can be any length and be about anything- as long as it is outdoor-ish. last year we saw a couple climbing films, kayaking films, base jumping and para-gliding films, and a film about two french guys living in a small village and how their life basically hasn't changed at all with the times. so you never know what you are going to get, but it's always great. it runs for two nights and i can't wait to view the films!

before all of this crazy stuff in february started a bunch of girl friends and i drove down south about an hour and a half to my favorite natural hot springs called Diamond Fork. they are incredible, and the girls i went with have become some of my best friends. it was pilsner's first experience with snow hiking too. we went on a day when the snow was still everywhere around and the springs were steaming- i just love this place!



Diamond Fork Hot Springs. you can just see the waterfall above tracy's head- the springs are beautiful. from left to right: me, tracy, cassie, lacy


alright, so this isn't quite as long as my posts used to be, and i used the enter key so no one can get upset with me! :) i was asking eric the other day how ever did i used to post so long? i'm not sure what i used to write about, but i think i have significantly improved.

on my plane flights to and from ohio i read the book, Life of Pi. it is a quick and good read if anyone is looking for an entertaining book.

FYI- if any of you are looking for really good, easy, and fairly quick recipes for dinners my sister and i keep a recipe blog where we post our menus and good recipes we've found. if i don't know what to make some night i can just get on there and find some good stuff. just wanted to help all those other cooks and families out there. it is linked off my main blog site as "recipes and more" or it is frickenscookin.blogspot.com

alright, i'm out.

a generous orthodoxy

the small group that i meet with every wednesday (composed of 8 people) began reading a book this week. a book- how boring is that right? imean, every small group reads a book, does a study, talks about things that normally don't really show the inner thoughts and desires, hopes of the person reading the book. normally book studies are polite, easy, PR, correct and boring. every one agrees, nods politely, may go home and think, "so n so was so out in left field tonight, they are weird" or they may go home and not think about it at all. they showed up to a study, isn't that enough?

for many years now i have deeply desired a study/group that would open my heart, speak to my deepest desires, and bring forth that love and joy of life that i so desperately long for. but in this quest, i have basically forgotten my mind. what about the fundamental issues that make me a christian, or not one? how is my mind developing over the past years? what about the mental connection to christianity?

the book : a Generous orthodoxy by Brian McLaren. i've only read the first chapter and i am deeply and mentally involved. the cover of the book heralds the following chapters to explain, "why i am a missional, evangelical, post/protestant, liberal/conservative, mystical/poetic, biblical, charismatic/contemplative, fundamentalist/calvinist, anabaptist/anglican, methodist, catholic, green, incarnational, depressed-yet-hopeful, emergent, unfinished christian".

this is intriguing enough. i feel that i am finally getting down to the bones of my religion. ami a fundamentalist? am i liberal? can i be both? am i conservative? i certainly was raised mostly so. yet, what gives me the biggest picture of christ? and modern daychristians- what about them. what are they exactly? am i one of them? do i actutally live out my religion? or is it just nice. hmmm.

somewhere in chapter one McLaren talks about an old friend telling him this, "Scratch the paint of a liberal, and you'll find an alienated fundamentalist underneath". perhaps this is what i identify with most.

you know how everyonce in a while ch ristians will get around to talking about why modern day miracles don't happen? here is McLaren's view point on that. i agree.
"while i believe that actual miralces ca and do happen(though i notice they sometimes create nearly as many problems as they solve, and so i see why they aren't given "on demand"), i am sympathetic wqith those who blieve otherwise, and i applaud their desire to live out the meaning of the miracle stories even when they don't believe the stories really happened as written. (i find it harder to be sympathetic with those who take pride in believing the miracles really happened but dont' seek to live out their meaning)."

i fall into that latter category- i believe these miracles literally took place, yet do not live my life as though their meaning was real.

needless to say, i am very excited about this book, about the food for thought it has already given me,a nd to see what else this man has to say. he is just a man, htis book is only his thoughts, not even exactly scrpture based. as with all chrsitian books you must look back to the source to fully examine your heart and mind- the bible. i would recommend ths book to anyone however- it will make you at the very least think about the way you live and why.

10 Uses of the Thumb

1. blow drying your hair
2. typing
3. cutting chicken for dinner
4. peeling a kiwi
5. holding your dog's leash
6. opening doors
7. brushing your teeth
8. pushing buttons on your cell phone
9. lighting a candle
10. holding a dad gum ski pole


so why the 10 uses of a thumb? b/c my thumb is currently sprained, andyou'd never know how much you use a thumb until you don't have one! i was so excited this weekend to start using my new christmas telemark skis. telemark skiing is where your heel is free, kinda like cross country skiing but you are going downhill. it takes a special kind of turn down the hill, gives your quad muscles a burn you never even got on 16,000 steps of the stair master, and is super duper fun! eric has been tele skiing since last year when i attempted snowboarding. i never truly enjoyed snowboarding, but did it b/c my knees are so bad (a tightened IT band and tight patellar-femoral tendon). i figured out some Physical ntherapy exercises to do to help my bknees, took a free tele lesson, and got hooked for life! i used some christmas money bto purchase boots and skis and got out this weekend. it was such a blast. but i had to give my quads a rest every5 turns or so b/c they were getting such a work out. it's like doing leg presses down the hill! anyway, i took a lousy little fall and forgot all about poles (snowboarderrs don't use poles!) and the pole pushed my bthumb all the wayb ack, now the entire right side of myb right hand is swollen and myb thumb is taped with a popsicle stick and tape, which also hits the 'b' key every btime i reach for a letter on the top row. so please disregard the 'b's in front of other letters. it hurts like a mother too! i never knew sprains could hurt so badly! i am kinda bummed b/c this means no climbing and no yoga and probably no skiing for a little while. i don't know how long these things take to heal, i'll have to ask one of the ortho residents i work with tomorrow. writing is a challenge though, as is typing. however, skiing is still way more fun than snowboarding! i am so excited to own skis. i can't believe i own skis. i mean, i feel like i actually live here now!!! :)

pilsner is doing great- last night he slept all night until 8:30 am!! how great is that? it's been freezing, no colder than that, here. the low in park cityb (where we ski) last night as -14. yep, NEGATIVE 14!! the high on the ski mountain yesterday was 6.buuurrrrrr!! i was pretty cold! but in salt lake the highs have been around 15 too, so pilsner doesn't like to go outside. he peed on the mat right outside the door the other night so he wouldn't have to step on the snow. that's kinda annoying. puppies are hard work! they have so much energy, and take constant watching. he knows now that he is supposed to pee when we take him out, but he doesn't knwo that he isn't supposed to pee inside. it'll come. he's 12 weeks this wednesday. i am becoming attached, he's so darn cute!

we've been trying a new church down in salt lake (instead of park city) our friends tyler and alyssa go to this church, called Capital- church in the city. it's got a satruday bevening jazz service we've gone to twice, kinda a coffee bar/jazz worship with a message thing. it was great. plus, it's saturday bnight which means sundayb feels like a whole another day bto the weekend and it's laid back. i am excited about this service. in the s ummer it will be very nice to go to church in slat lake instaead of driving up the hill to park city. it's been reallyb hard finding a church in salt lake. combing from the grove in fayetteville which we really liked almost everything about- it's hard to find a church and not compare. i htink we've finally stopped comparing churches to the grove and are trying to just find soenmthing that fits for us now. capital seems like a good one to give a try. we've meet the pastor and associate pastor. i think it's impressive when a pastor of a church will come and meet you personally bb/c he's noticed a new face int eh crowd. that means a lot to us, after having gone to so many churches and not met anyone. having the pastor connect with you and have a chat means you are that much more liekly bto come back b/c yo've met someone. it's a good idea.

Artists recently added to my iPod

Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah
Devotchka
Gillian Welch
Mason Jennings
Patty Griffin
Sufjan Stevens
The Wailin' Jennys

New Years Events 2007

Katie and Alex (Alyssa's Baby boy), Alyssa, Me, and Liz at New Year's Sushi Party

Bridget and i enjoying that sushi!

Katie and i are at the top of Summit Park in Park city

Garrett and Mark rolling the sushi at our new years party

Lacy, Annie and Sahale, Bridget and me at new years

Our friends Tyler and Alyssa and i touring up Summit Park New years Eve

Eric and i in Summit park New years eve



The past few days have gone by very quickly with the advent of pilsner, seeing friends, touring in the backcountry, and trying to sleep somewhere in there. I had the best new years i've ever had with a bunch of well loved and enjoyed friends here in Salt lake. What a difference a year can make! New years eve we spent with our good friends Tyler and Alyssa touring in Summit Park near Park City. They recently had a baby (6 wks!) and Alyssa was already out pushing herself up the hillside. New Years Eve was spent at our house rolling Sushi. Just about everyone dear to me in Salt Lake was there which made for a very wonderful evening. Today (new years) Lacy and i are touring up Little cottonwood canyon- hopefully it will become a tradition! I've had plenty of time to be out in the snow and powder of utah, however i am still learning how to keep my snowboard above the powder. it is much more like surfing than it is skiing or anything else. i usually fall a lot and it takes a lot of effort to get out of the 3 foot powder hole i create by falling. i am learning however. this will hopefully be the last season i am snowboarding though as i want to buy a telemark set up. i've never truly enjoyed snowboarding, it was just easiest on my knees. but next year i am going for the ultimate backcountry set up by using a telemark (free heel) ski. eric already skis this way, and i am looking forward to it.

i hope you all have a wonderful New Year- it's a new beginning!

Our Puppy Pilsner

well we did it! today we woke up at 2:30 (ark time), left little rock, flew to st louis, and arrived in salt lake to drive an hour and pick up our airedale puppy. His name is Pilsner and he is adorable!! i've read so many books on raising a puppy, but now that he is actually here i don't know what to do with him! after he looked around the house and got sleepy we decided we would introduce him to his crate. he ate his supper inside the crate and both eric and i were trying to get him to come up the stairs on his own to go outside to 'do his business' when he squatted right there. i was farther away and cuoldn't see but all eric did was say, "uh oh". i said "uh oh? uh oh? UH OH??!! ERIC you can't just stand there and say uh oh you have to grab him and stop it!!!" it was so classic!!! puppy just ate and needed to pee. owners have NO CLUE. anyway, accidents will happen, even to us perfectionists who own dogs. he is going to be a real joy i think, and i am looking forward to the relationship i will develop with him.

i can't figure out how to change these pictures around so they'll be right side up. eric's at the gym climbing so my tech guy was unavailable. :)

thanksgiving pictures

These are some pictures from our thanksgiving climbing trip. they are all out of order and backwards b/c i can't quite figure out blogger's picture upload-er just yet.

Birchler- this one's for you! katie was trying to take a picture of our bivi(i thinki...), but i was also trying to go the bathroom at the same time. It was an experience!

This is the line that we climbed. About 800 feet.


Walking back to the car after the 3 days of climbing.


Mark, Katie, Eric, and i at the top of the climb!!


Zion Canyon, the road runs down this narrow water and wind carved geological wonder. the people in the cars would lean out and yell at us things like, "don't fall". that really helped.


It's a long way down! this is the view to the bottom of the canyon from our overnight ledge (bivi ledge in climbing lingo)


Me leading the first pitch off of the bivi ledge.

Katie, Eric and I at a belay anchor about 200 feet up


Katie and I waking up after a night of sleeping on the port-a-ledge


Me in the early morning, Angel's landing in the background. I look tired. it was a long night b/c i was in the middle of a nasty cold.


Jugging up our fixed lines early on Day 2. "jugging up a fixed line" means, using rope clamps, we haul ourselves up a rope we attached to an anchor the day before. you can see a second group here starting the same climb we are doing.

This is a view of Zion Canyon from our over night ledge at pitch 5- around 600 ft.

Me and Eric at a belay anchor- Angel's Landing is in the background.

First move off the ground- a hook placement! yikes!


I just fell! don't worry mom, the rope caught me!


Mark, Katie, and I before starting Touchstone, Zion Nat'l Park


Katie and I at a belay- you can barely see the scrub bushes at dots in the distance.

Thanksgiving at 453 ft

well, we did it! we spent thanksgiving hanging from a red sandstone wall in Zion Nat'l Park. it was fun! the trip was actually fantastic and un-eventful as you would want a trip like this to be. we had perfect weather (lows in the 20's at night, highs in the 50's during the day) clear, blue skies, and lots of good fellowship between eric, mark, katie and i. pictures will soonfollow. the only thing that wasn't so great for me was a terrible cold i started coming down with on wednesday. sleeping in that cold weather till sunday morning didn't help at all. it progressively got worse as the days passed. i was so weak on saturday that i had to come back down from the pitch i was trying to lead. we spent friday night on the wall at the top of pitch five (around 500 ft up). katie and i slept on the port-a-ledge and eric and mark bivied on the small ledge. the whole thing was such an experience. i'm glad i did it. do i want to do it again? not for another year at least! i think it would be a fun once a year type thing, but it was exhausting. and everything was colored by my cold, which made me weak, tired, and fuzzy-headed. but we all made it up the wall, had lots of tourists taking our pictures and yelling out the windows of their cars, 'don't fall!' as they drove by.

using the bathroom was...interesting! i am sure that my hind side has made an appearance in at least 20 tourist's thanksgiving photos. seriously, they just stand by their car hundreds of feet down and use binoculars or whatever to stare up at the ppl climbing the walls. i felt like an animal in a pet zoo or something. "wow, look at that exotic climber- that one's got a red helmet!". i basically had to moon the world to use the bathroom. not that bad actually.

the wall was just very mentally tiring. everything had to always be clipped in somewhere. and you couldn't ever just let your guard down b/c what if you dropped the lid that goes to the water bottle? and where are your anchors? did anyone move my carabiner? and i need another carabiner to clip in my gloves....on and on. i always wanted to aid climb to learn about gear, anchors, ledges, etc. well i am well on my way to learning that. mark did a fantastic job of basically guiding us up this wall and being patient with all the newbys. we didn't have a clue. really. and no one got hurt or anything. i'm glad i spent my thanksgiving doing something energetic. many times after that huge thanksgiving meal i feel ancy b/c i have sat inside all day and then consumed about 2000 calories. it felt good to actually be needing food on this climb.

we were all glad to be back down on the ground. you can just walk around like a normal person and not worry about falling anywhere. and i can just go use the bathroom like normal! and i dont' have to keep track of every article of my own clothing. i can put soemthing down and walk away. we were just mentally ready to be down on the ground. and some ppl can do this type of climbing for days on end. we only spent one night! saturday evening we poached a hot tub in springville (the itty bitty town outside zion with all the toursity things) mark figured out that all you have to do is walk up outside the hot tub and pretend that y ou had forgot the code and someone inside will come open the door for you. it worked. some part of me still felt like a college kid trying to get something for nothing. here i ama professional nurse- i have a real job now for crying out loud, and i am still trying to find ways to get into hot tubs that i have no business being in for free. anyway, the hot water really felt good. i would do it again in a heartbeat :)

we were welcomed back to winter here in SLC with a foot of snow on the groun monday evening. it is jsut beautiful here now. the resorts are up and running and we are planning on making our debu this weekend. i had to call in sick on tuesday to get over this dang cold. it really kinda put me on the side line. i tried to pretend like it wasn't happening b/c, well, i didn't have a choice. i was hangin in my harness 500 ft up. i couldn't exactly hydrate and take benadryl. it took me a few days to bounce back and i amstill not over it yet.

this weekend is also tree getting weekend. and boy am i excited! i got out all the christmas decorations, bought eric's christmas present, and in general got pretty psyched on christmas. a tradition that my family always did and that i have carried over into my family with eric is advent. every evening you gather around the garland of 4 candles and read a scripture and a devotional about the birth of christ. the four candles all stand for something different to reflect the season. then you take a candle and sing a christmas carol on yoru way to bed. i love doing this b/c it makes you stop and think about the season, plus as a child i always played with the wax while mom tried to relate to us on a spiritual level. it didn't always work. but now that i am the instigator i can't wait to do advent.

our good friends josh and annie just delivered their baby yesterday. a sweet healthy baby girl named Sahale. we are going up to their cabin this weekend to see her.

work's been good this past month. we are having a catered christmas party with an open bar and dancing next weekend. i'm like, wow, there are actually cool employee christmas parties??! i am so glad i have come to work at the ortho surgery center and have the time off that i do. eric and i are really looking forward to being with his parents over the holiday.

monday morning we picked out our little dog!!! i am pretty dang excited. i've got just about everything we could need for the puppy at our house and set up. by the looks of it we already have a dog. but i have some pretty firm beliefs about dogs being just dogs. not children. not uber special. just a dog. there's a place for the dog and some ppl have carred their dog waaaay over into human-dom. he is just a little puppy right now and we will be bringing him home december 29.

if anybody ever needs any outdoor gear made by Patagonia, just let eric and i know. the next big sale is in february but we can be on the look out for you. extra good deals....almost all my christmas presents this year are from that brand. but who wouldn't want something made by them?!

so I Aid Climb...

I am discovering a new kind of climbing. it is called aid climbing and invovles using gear to pull yourself up a wall instead of 'free climbing' which invovles your body- using arms and legs to work your way up a wall. Aid climbing typically means you will be getting very high off the ground. most climbers in yosemite are aid climbing. you have to aid climb rock that is just way too hard for the average (not super human) climber to free climb. when you look at a chunk of rock and it just looks impossible to climb using fingers, toes, etc you can probably get to the top by aiding. you place protective gear in a crack, connect a sort of ladder to that piece of gear and step up the ladder with all your weight. place another piece, move your ladder, etc. it sounds almost easy, until you try it. i 'aided' a 100ft pitch this last week and by the top of it my brain was absolutely frazzled. it was just being 'on' for almost 2 hours- as in my brain was working, thinking, choosing, deciding, doubting, and guessing for 2 hours straight. aid climbing is slow, but it gets you high. aid climbers are the ones that sleep on port-a-ledges- those tarp looking things that people sleep on 1000 ft off the ground. it was fun though- it is systematic, detailed, and interesting. most importantly, it makes you very familiar with the protection we climbers use while free climbing. you learn very quickly which kind of gear is 'good' and which kind will probably pop out of the rock if youf all on it.

why all this about aid climbing?

because we are going to climb a big wall in zion nat'l park over thanksgiving. the wall will be around 1000 ft high, and we will be spending the night somewhere around 600 ft. eric, mark, katie and i are all going and we are pretty excited. mark and i have been practising more than eric and katie b/c we have more time off so we will probably lead more of the routes. the people who follow the leader must 'jug' up the rope- using metal devices called ascenders they slide themselves up a fixed rope. it will be epic. it will be challenging. it will be fun!!!


Thursdays are my favorite day. we meet with several other couples every thursday to share a meal and just talk. if it's about God so much the better. but mostly we are all getting to know each other. mark and lauren, tabetha and brian, garrett and bridget, eric and i. last night we took katie with us too. we didnt' mean for it to only be couples, it's just who we knew at the time. i feel so blessed to have this growing group of friends. last night we all told how we met/dated/got married and we just laughed and laughed. it was so much fun. i felt like i had a lot of community. i look forward to thursday evenings so much now.

this saturday we are going to attempt a backcountry ski run. i say 'attempt' b/c we only have moderate snow right now and i'm not sure we will find enough out there. but it'll be fun. and (i can't believe i am going to say this) we may actually watch an arkansas football game. brian and tabetha are from tennessee and they invited us up to park city for the arkansa/tennessee game. mostly we want to go just to drink some beer, eat chips and salsa, and laugh a lot. i could care less what we are watching. we are even attempting to drag our northwestern friends garret and bridget along with us (and you KNOW they don't care!).

eric and i now have memberships at a climbing gym. i've gone a few days so far and can only last about 1 hour. my hands get torn apart and i have been sore for days now. it's a good sore though.

work has been kinda hard this week. i haven't been able to get all my hours (again) and that creates a certain amount of stress. so to make up the time i have been helping in the pre-op section, making home phone calls to review health histories with patients, doing sort of glorified secretary duties. that is hard for me when i feel trained to do such a different job.

today is friday. hurray! i am looking forward to this weekend, the friends we will hang out with, and the mountains we will enjoy. salt lake is so pretty right now with the snow capped mountains and the blue skies. don't you all want to come visit?! :)

October Pics

Josh and I had a contest to see whose hair was greasier by the end of the trip. It's a close call.



Sam and I digging out the clay road with an ice tool and a plastic avalanche shovel




Leading Dr. Carl 5.10 Indian Creek, Utah