Start your engines!

As part of my, I'm gonna try and not sit at home feeling sorry for the fact that I never leave the house phase, I signed up to take a community class through UVU. I was thinking maybe I would look at their photography or pottery, maybe guitar, very maybe dance, but none of those worked with my schedule. So......I am the latest enroll-y in Basic Automotive for Women.

I can't say I don't know anything about cars, I mean I did just change my head light, but my knowledge is pretty limited. All those nights of holding the flash light while my dad worked on our cars didn't seem to rub off much. Maybe because my mind was wandering towards boys.

I tend to feel a huge knot in my stomach whenever I have to take my car in somewhere. And my dad has called more than one place for me. A lot of this has to do with a level of social anxiety, but hey having a little more knowledge can't help right?

I did get a little nervous just looking at the campus map though and trying to figure out where I will need to go, where I can park. It says you will bring your own car and be hands on. Looking at the map I don't see where I get my car to the building? Its a huge building which part do I go to? I might have to do a walk by next week before the class starts. I'm already dreading walking in that first day not knowing anyone.

I wonder if we will have homework? A test? I didn't think this through very well. Good thing I already paid, I'm committed. March 9th is when it will all start. I need to clean my car before then.

Thank you for holding

One of my duties at work is the cell phone coordinator for our department. I had a mistake on our last bill that I needed to have cleared up. While looking online for the contact info they had a feature where you could chat online with a customer service rep instead of calling. Since I hate talking on the phone, I decided to give it a try.

I log in and Rahbib asks how he can help. I type in my question and it takes a very long time for a reply. And the reply is oddly formulaic. Like, "Thank you for contacting us. How may I be of assistance." I type my question get, "Thank you. Let me make sure I have this correct. You have a question about your bill." Ummm...yeah. "Ok, let me direct you to the correct department for assistance with that." Ok. This little transaction took like 5 mins to happen. I think I may have been "chatting" with a computer generated response.

After our lovely discussion I get, "You will need to call the billing department at..." Wow thanks, that was extremely helpful. Glad we had that chat. So I call the billing department. While on hold, this is the recorded message, "Don't want to wait on hold? Try our online chat and talk to customer service rep without the wait." Awesome. You guys are so damn helpful.

Foto Friday

Well hopefully I get up the desire to write about something else during the weeks or I guess I'll have to rename my blog Foto Friday.

On Monday I went for a walk along a section of the Provo River Parkway Trail during lunch. I was very intrigued by the way the people who live along the river make sure to take advantage of this feature. Excuse the through the tree shots. I felt like I was some stalker so didn't stand there for long trying to get these. I need to find out how to not focus on the tree branches but things behind them. Here are some examples of life by the Provo River.

Maybe a peaceful relaxing afternoon just watching the river flow by

Or a leisurely swing (can't really tell from the pic but the swing steps out from the deck and is suspended above the water.)

A suspended patio to entertain on

Or maybe a hammock accompanied by the weirdest mesh of sticks and wood and quite possibly some sort of tree hut. Who knew Provo was so classy.

Foto Friday

Ok I'm cheating a little for my first one and using a pic I took last weekend while in Kanab. My work started this new photo contest for employees. Its nothing special, but I thought I would try and submit something each month. This month's theme is "Anticipating Spring". I tried several things but didn't really get anything I liked. This was the only one I felt still fit that theme for me.

Moving Forward

So I've been having a hard time with life lately. Just everything. I finally got to the point today that I googled therapists online and actually found a site that listed more than just where someone went to school to help make a decision.

Found someone that looked good and gave him a call on lunch. He was actually able to adjust some things and get me in today. I was pretty shocked about that, but extremely grateful because I needed it. Its just the first meeting, but I'm actually feeling a bit of hope today. And I'm not sure the last time I felt that.

This isn't really a topic I'm comfortable discussing with people, and don't really want to now. So here's the point. Part of my "homework" is to find something I enjoy doing that I have to commit to doing several times a week. Its pretty sad how hard it was to think of something. So for right now I picked taking photos. Someday I would love to take a class, get a nice camera, but that is not today. So this is not about being a photographer, its just about getting out of the house and doing something I enjoy.

So here is where you all come in. I'm making a commitment. Online. Because I know myself and if I don't I will do it for a week and then stop. So welcome my new feature, Foto Friday. I know its cheesy, it was the only thing I could think of. If you check my blog and its Saturday, and there was no Foto Friday post, I expect harsh comments telling me to get off my ass!

And I'm not having visions that I will overnight become Ansel Adams, so remember this is about doing something, not the quality of the photos :) For now. Just moving forward a bit at a time.

Kanab v.2010a

(again for reference - Will: my son, Willie: brother-in-law)

Will has been asking every weekend lately if we are going to go visit NeeNee and uncle Willie. Since this was a long weekend we made the plans to venture down to Kanab. My sister Alex recently moved to Cedar City so we swung by and picked her up for the final leg of the trip.

~ Drove through Colorado City. It was...odd.

~ Bird hit our windshield while driving, scared the crap out of me. I think it might have been trying to escape Colorado City.

~ Got to Kanab. One kiss from Lola for everyone, lots of kisses from Jackie.

~ Meeting the newest family members: One Eye'd Clyde (or pirate kitty) My fav. I mean he's a pirate. And he has an awesome purr. Twice he decided the crook of my back was a good place to sleep. It was like my own little heating pad.

Other new kitty, Two Eyes (I don't remember his name). He was cute and soft, but come on, he's no pirate. Btw - kitties that sleep all day decide that 3 a.m. is a good time to come out and play wrestling tag on top of you.


~ Two days of breakfast at the coffee shop Willie bakes for. Ummmmm...good thing I can't go there everyday.

~ Thrift storing and then a visit to the park. My sister Britta recently went to a record store in NY that has two store kitties, so I was a little surprised when I heard that one of the thrift stores we were going to had feline inhabitants also. This cat was extremely fat. But very good with the kids.

This kitty was brand new, she'd just recently lost other fat kitty. He was not as fond of the kids. Fear not, they tracked him down.

Thrift store find, they finally got a table. Jackie decided to give it a try and approved. His new favorite place to sit.


~ Yummy, yummy vegetarian tortilla soup. So good that the next night when we were at the store picking out stuff for dinner we all looked at each other and said, you know I kind of just want to make more soup. So we did.

~ Tour of Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. Its kind of a pain now and they make you sign waivers and all so we ended up just doing a mostly driving tour. Still cool to see where Kee works and more of the layout after watching the show Dog Town.

Visitors Center
Main grave yard. I don't know I thought it was cool. There are hundreds of wind chimes for different animals.
Cool natural amphitheater that I see all the time on Dog Town

We were driving past one of the many horse areas and stopped to see Kee's favorite Curly. I got out to take a picture and he was at the end of the fence area. Keeley called to him and when I got out he came walking right over. I asked if I could touch him and she said I probably shouldn't. So he walked over to the fence and just shoved his face into me. Hey, he touched me first! His hair is all curly (hence the name) and it was the coolest/weirdest thing I'd seen on a horse. He looks a little ragged in the picture but he was one of the most beautiful horses I'd ever seen. We were sad when we pulled away and he looked sad too. There was something about him that just drew you in and I hope to see him again some day.

~ Lots of sister girl talk, a Skype call with Britta so that we could have a complete sister chat.

~ Fun times sleeping on a pull out couch. What the hell is with the bars? FYI - I did find out through experimentation that if you sleep with your head at the foot, slide down about 8 inches from the top, curl on your side sort of in the fetal position, you sort of slip in between the two bars. Putting the mattress on the floor is not much more comfortable. Of course neither is sleeping on an air mattress with a slow leak. Are they required to come that way?

~ Will and Lucia had a great time playing with Kanabie friends that seem to just appear when ever you are there. I think Kelly had as much fun as the kids. They spent most of one day making mud soup, crashing cars into it and then rescuing them. Will's dream.

Kelly also helped out with the family band



~ This is what happens when Will has people play with him all day. So far every visit to Kanab, this is the result while waiting for dinner.

~ A dance party followed by shin splits the next morning. No photographic proof was kept.

~ Who says a love seat is for 2? Not when Mario is involved and playing with a doggie


~ Desert snow
~ Will serenading Lola with Jingle Bells. And no, he actually was NOT naked the entire time there. Not sure what that was about.

~ A fun trip. Wish the whole fam could have been there. Sad to go back to reality world...