Here's what July 07 looked like

We started the month off with our new scooter!! i absolutely love riding this thing around. just this morning i passed my driving test and am official now!


Eric and i drove to the Sawtooth Mountains near Stnaley, Idaho for a weekend of climbing and family. This is Pilsner and I waiting for our shuttle boat on the dock at Redfish lake in the sawtooth mountains. We climbed on the far side of the lake, and by paying for a shuttle to take us all across we saved ourselves 5 miles of hiking.


Hiking in to our climb- what a view!


The view got even better! these are the sawtooth mountains.


Eric and i on the Super Slabs Centrale Gully route, 5.6. It was so slabby at this point we weren't roped in.




Me and my newest nephew, 5 month old Elliot. We met up with my sister and brother in law and two nephews in the Sawtooths. We got to camp with them one night and go for a beautiful hike on sunday before driving home. It was so good to see them again and in such a wonderful place!



Miranda and i after our hike. She's carrying baby Elliot.



My mom and dad visiting us. This picture was taken at 11,900 feet on top of Bald Mountain in the Uintas


Eric and I- from this one point we could see 9 lakes!


My mom and i at Cecret Lake on Alta Ski Resort

this'll make you laugh on a bad day

"Welcome to the employee rock-climbing seminar. You'll learn valuable teamwork skills by doing dangerous things unrelated to your jobs." — Dilbert (1997/8/3).

Top 5 List of the past Month

I'll adhere to gennie's top 5 policy. I haven't posted in the past month b/c i guess we've been really busy. so, here's the top 5 things that have happened in the past month:

1. We bought a scooter! I now ride to work on a 150cc Twist'n'Go Milano Scooter. the other week i got her up to 58 mph, and i could have gone faster. We also get between 70-75 miles per gallon. Eric's piece of a Honda has finally sold...to our next door neighbor!!! I guess that means we should be moving soon.....ha!

2. Eric has a new job! He is now working split time finishing his master's thesis and being a design engineer for a medical device design company. Specifically this company makes ceramic knee and spine implants. He got the job because of a connection i established on my el salvador operation walk trip with the president of the company. Hooray!!

3. My parents came for a visit! We spent 4 days hiking in the mountains and canyons around Salt Lake. it was a great trip, and really fun to show them around my stomping grounds.

4. We have now been married for 2 years! With eric's crazy job schedules we weren't able to get away anywhere this year, but this weekend we are going to beautiful Stanley, Idaho in the Sawtooth Mountains to spend saturday together climbing and hiking and Sunday with my sister and brother in law in from Ohio.

5. Coming up: Ryan Adams concert!!! He's coming to a great outdoor garden venue next week, and eric and i have bought tickets. Also coming up: August 17-19, Denver, CO to visit Erin Johnson!!!!

Good books I've been reading over the past month:
-His Dark Materials book #3 "The Amber Spyglass". This series is excellent! Almost kid's books but too deep for the little ones. The first is called "The Golden Compass" and they are making a movie out of it this december. It looks great!!
-The Millionaire Next Door. wow. this is a good book. It reveals one group's research into the lifestyles of America's millionaires. it is suprising for sure, and has been very enlightening with suggestions for retirement, house, savings, and taxes.
-The Celebration of Discipline- Foster. A classic. take some time to chew through it; excellent standards for all of us who believe in Christ.
-Sex God. a new favorite. Rob Bell. looks into the connection between our sexuality and spirituality. we all lust. why, when i like a shirt, do i think i need one in every color? why am i continually struggling to understand contentment and peace?

next book on the list (waiting on interlibrary loan): Serve God, Save the Planet.

Pictures to be posted soon(ish). i did a girl's climbing trip in june to Maple Canyon (sport climbing about an hour and a half south in shady coolness). We've done some other good climbing around salt lake. i've started teaching a couple girl friends traditional climbing placing their own protection. fun fun!

holy hotness! salt lake has been an inferno the past month. our lame single window unit Ac can't quite keep up, and we've all been hot. pilsner just lays on his side on the tiled kitchen floor panting. i am so so so ready for cooler weather. on my days off it's all i can do to do anything at all. (that was a crazy sentence) eric and i have taken to drinking lime gin and tonics every afternoon just to cool off. other great drinks: Agua de Sandia (watermelon water) these drinks are popular in latin countries (i've had them both in mexico and el salvador) and are composed of the fruit (mostly either pineapple, cantaloupe, or watermelon) blended up with ice cubes and sugar. what a refreshing drink!!

farmer's market started in july too (that should be #6 on the top 5 list). every saturday morning local produce only sets up shop in a park nearby. we scooter over (our sweet lil scooter has a milk crate bungied to the back). funny thing is about that farmer's market- it's more expensive than the grocery stores. it's like all those farmers know that they'll get us suckers who want to support local, sustainable produce so instead of having any competition they all just raise their prices. so they are all expensive. it is kinda disappointing actually. it makes it harder to afford, just like organic produce. but the taste is worth it for a few things bought there.

Vedauwoo, Wyoming

this past weekend coby and i traveled to Vedauwoo, wyoming, a national recreation area outside of laramie. for anyone traveling west on I-80, this is a beautiful place to call it a day and camp out. it's about half way between cheyenne and laramie, and offers free camping in a beautiful setting (you can pay too, but it's just as easy to drive down the road a bit and pull off into one of the already established free camping areas. just bring your own water). it is well known in the climbing world for off-width cracks in pink granite. off-width means a crack that is bigger than your fist but smaller than your body- meaning, you have to pull some crazy, grunting moves to work your body up one of these cracks. salt lake city reached 100 degrees, so we ran out of town and enjoyed the 70's weather and shade in the park.


Unique, granite rock-mushrooms inside the recreation area


Coby grunting her way up an "off-width" crack. turn your head sideways- sorry!




me trying to decide which big piece of gear will fit into that monster!




me being eaten up by another big crack. turns out i can only climb 5.8 big crack at vedauwoo. it was hard climbing!



Over memorial day weekend, eric and i attempted to backpack in the Uintas in north-eastern utah. turned out there was still too much snow and we couldn't even follow the path. so we drove around, admired the view, and came back home. it was nice to know we have such beautiful mountains so close to home! my parents are coming out the second weekend of july to backpack in these same mountains. can't wait!


(pilsner is afraid of heights)

El Salvador-Operation Walk and how I did Bikram yoga for 8 days

El Salvador was hot. and hard. and a really good thing all at the same time. i got the weather forcaste just one day and then i didn't look again. it was 92 degrees with 70% humidity. i've never sweated like that before in my life! the heat was the hardest part of the week. we fortunately had fans that helped a bit, but still, every day i couldn't wait to be back in the relative (i say relative b/c it mostly worked) AC of our hotel room. we did 63 joints in 3 and a half days in only 3 operating rooms. that's a heck of a lot! on an average day here a surgeon uses 2 rooms and does maybe 3-4 joints. in a day. we did 63!! we helped so many people, it was a blessing to see them all walk. one of the best stories was a woman who had only walked 6-8 feet for the past many years. after surgery, she walked the 100 feet to the bathroom. we sent her home with a walker and hopefully many more years of walking ahead of her. most of our patients were over 60 years old, but then that's normal. mostly women. again that's also normal. the all spoke only spanish. th efirst day my spanish felt really shakey, but by the final day i was thinking in spanish again. i had a blast, and i learned a whole boatload of new words- medical words that i am happy to have added to my vocabulary. i worked on the recovery side for the patients after surgery. everyone got a couple bags of blood to speed their recovery, a couple were pretty dehydrated. but for the most part we had no real medical problems with the recoveries. it went very smoothly. i realized what a huge thing we were doing down there while i was there. i mean, operating on that many people is a huge deal-it takes so much work, from the pre operation time to the going home time it takes a lot of medical people to make the operation happen. i was blessed to be on the end part where i got to see the outcome of the surgery and the gratefullness of the patients. it was very satisfying work, if hard. we were really running b/c 63 joints means a lot of patients to take care of. wednesday was the hardest day b/c that was the final operating day- the day we had the most number of ppl in our wards. but somehow they all got dressing changes, pain medications, and IV fluids. and somehow they all were happy the entire time.

still, eric has phrased it best for me. it was one of those things that while i was doing it, i wasn't exactly psyched the entire time. in fact it was so hard that sometimes i wanted to quit and leave. my feet hurt so much by the end of the day i was limping like the patients. my head hung on the verge of a dehydration head ache from the moment i woke till i went to bed. even with 4 liters of water a day. i just sweat that much. but now that i am back, comfortable again, i am very glad i did something like this. maybe in the moment i wasn't glad, or happy or even very energetic. but after the fact, i wouldn't have missed it for anything and plan on going with Operation Walk again next year. it was a complete success and the beginning of hopefully, many more missions like this for me. what i've always really wanted to do with my nursing career is set upa clinic in a third world country, preferably south america, and help the ppl in that kind of setting. my plan before getting married was to head on down somewhere and start that up. i wouldn't give up being married of course, but i am waiting to see how God directs both eric and me into a season of serving the third world population. i am pushing for Operation Walk to go to south america next year, and perhaps make some contacts for me personally while there. i believe we are in salt lake for a time yet though, i am not impatient yet.

these pictures are out of order and i can't make blogger turn my vertical pictures upright, so yo u'll have to turn your head instead. we did get 2 afternoons of relaxation- one at a local doctor's beach house and the last afternoon on a sort of tour bus. both were good, yet harda t the same time b/c of the vast differences in where we had just been and where we were standing- like at the beach or by a big affluent household.









i had to make up this IV pole. we ran out of almost everything down there- syringes, anti-nausea meds, iv poles, blood tubing, ace wraps, sheets, etc. so i took the opportunity to use this shelf and the patient's belonging bag to make a wedge to hang the bag in. it worked quite well!


we had one afternoon of rest time which we spent at a local doctor's beach house. it was shocking to walk into this world of beach, sand, an infinite pool, and an abundance of food having come straight from the hospital. lest you think doctors actually make that much more down there, this man actually works 3 weeks of every month in LA. that's he actually affords this house.


this was the last day passing out meds for all the patients to take home. this was a total organization head ache. the pills were in individual packets that had the english description on the back, or worse, the "medical word". so none of the spanish speaking patients would know what "vicodin" was. but worse than that, the actual pill packet said "hydrocodone". now how were they supposed to know that pill was what they were to take for strong pain? so i had to try do describe them. but hydrocodone is white, and so is apririn and tylenol, and they were all handed out to the patient in a little ziplock. so i ended up writing things on a piece of paper for them to take home, translating hydrocodone into vicodin and showing them the packet. i hope they take the right pills! another example- iron. also known was ferrous sulfate. in spanish this is "ferroso sulfato". but most ppl don't know that that means iron, even in the united states! so i ended up writing"the green pill, take it once a day with meals".


El Salvador's Crater Lake. the final day we had the afternoon off to "tour". there isn't a lot to tour in el salvador. but we made it to some mayan ruins and to this lovely lake. what a world of contrast- here lived the rich- the owners of phone companies, beer companies, senators and the like. and we had just come from serving the poor. it was a week of contrast.


at one point (when we had the most post-op patients) the beds were crammed in so tightly you couldn't walk between them. i had to get into bed with the patient to take her blood pressure. that box in the background is the wall for our make-shift bathroom. the real bathroom was some 100 feet away, and for someone with a newly replaced joint, that's a long way. it was taking us 15 minutes for a round trip to the bathroom with each patient. so we took a commode and built a bathroom in the ward- with a box, a taped up dust pan, and a sheet. we got pretty resourceful down there!


this was during visiting hours, the room got really packed with all the family members (if it wasn't hot already, it sure heated up then!)


the final day, walking a patient outside for some air. she can walk!


one of the three inpatient wards


the nurses (some from Utah some from LA) and one translator (on the right)


another shot of the patient ward, the patients were absolutely packed in there!

Pilsner, the not-so-lap-dog

Eric keeps trying to hold Pilsner in his lap; Pilsner isn't the biggest fan of the lap though. He's almost 7 months!

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.