Once in a blue moon . . .

A blue moon happens about once every two-and-a-half years. A golden birthday happens once in a lifetime. At the end of my golden birthday party, in addition to my other presents, I got a blue moon. That was in addition to the rainbow I got earlier! Add to that a husband who threw the most amazing surprise birthday party ever, and I would say I am one lucky girl. And that lots of fantastic things are in store for me as a 31-year old. (Pictures will be forthcoming--you have to see what this man did for me.)

Heather's Golden Birthday Celebration -- The At home celebration

For those of you who couldn't come to the epic Golden Celebration (Heather's 31st birthday on the 31st of August) (that was most likely rained upon very hard and thus 31 activities became like 3) which is going on currently, you can play at home:

Here's the 31 question quiz that we had see if you know the answers without peeking

31 Question Quiz (use the back to write answers/more space):

1. What is Heather’s Birthday?

2. Who is Heather’s favorite composer?

3. Where does Heather work?

4. What is Heather’s job title?

5. What is the number 31 in binary?

6. How many months have 31 days?

7. In what hospital was Heather born in?

8. What is gold’s symbol on the periodic table?

9. What is gold’s atomic number on the periodic table?

10. What year is the golden anniversary?

11. What is the price of gold today (within $10)?

12. What is Heather’s favorite color?

13. If you earned $31/hour, worked every week of the year at 40 hours a week how much would you have earned?

14. How many inches are in 31 feet?

15. What is Heather’s favorite ride at Disneyland?

16. What is Heather’s favorite holiday?

17. What is 31+31?

18. What is 31-31?

19. What is 31X31?

20. What Is 31/31?

21. Who was the 31^st president of the U.S.A?

22. How much money would you have if you had 31 pennies, 31 dimes, 31 nickels,31 quarters, 31 half dollars, 31 dollar coins, 31 dollar bills, 31 $2 bills, 31 $5 bills, 31 $10 bills, 31 $20 bills, 31 $50 bills and 31 $100 bills?

23. What was the 31^st state in the United States of America?

24. What is 31 in roman numerals?

25. What is Heather’s favorite cereal?

26. What is Heather’s favorite number?

27. What is the name of Heather’s mission?

28. What color are Heather’s eyes?

29.  Which of these places has Heather never been: a.) Auckland, New Zealand b.) Hartford, CT c.) Mentone, IN d.) Banff, Canada

30. What element has 31 as it’s atomic number?

    31 is the number for international direct dial calls to what country?:


Hope you had fun. Happy Golden Birthday Heather.

Tell all your friends in Payson!!!

Most of you who read this blog already know and love Lori. But I know there are some of you who don't. Suffice it to say, she is one of my nearest and dearest friends and the example of everything I want to be. If you don't know her, I would encourage you to spend a few hours reading her blog (trust me, once you start reading you'll be hooked and want a few hours to get to know her and her story).

In any case, I am telling you all about her because she is starting a preschool in Payson and needs help spreading the word. Now, I know that at least a handful of you have got to know someone who lives in Payson. Even if that person you know doesn't have preschool-aged children, chances are someone they know does. And I'm telling you, this is the type of thing you want to share with people you know and love. It is going to be a darling preschool. But beyond that, Lori is an amazing teacher (as evidenced by her two, happy, bright children). This is a great opportunity for kids to start their school years.

So if you would please, just send your friends a quick link to her preschool website with the message of "Spreading the word." It's that simple. I know that's a lot to ask, especially for those of you who've never met her. But I promise that you will want everyone you know to know her once you learn more about her. Thanks friends!

Club 33

My time is almost up for my 30 by 30 list and I've already had to modify some of my goals. I'm still working on some and have stories regarding some others (to be told eventually), but haven't had any success (or near success) with my going to Club 33 goal.

During my time in trying to accomplish this goal I know at least a couple of people I know who have been able to go to Club 33. I've tried calling hotel concierges to try to get me in (without any success) and I've even considered paying $6,000 for a partial membership (without the money to do so). Finally, I even considered contacting Nicholas Cage (how exactly?) because someone told me that a waitress told my friend that Nicolas Cage had a membership. I then decided I didn't want to have a restraining order put out on me.

Anyway, I guess this is another call to help. Does anyone know of anyone who can get me into club 33 for sure and is willing to do most of the legwork to make sure it's legitimate and to pretty much get me in? I only have the next couple of weekends left (one really I suppose as I'm suppose to be going camping in two weekends, but I am willing to sacrifice that to go to Club 33.) Weekdays will work as well (with some advanced notice to get time off work). Pretty much any day before July 20th (weekday or weekend) is fine with me. So if anyone can get me and Ryan in to club 33 that would be perfect! I guess if someone can help and get me and Ryan into Club 33 before that time I'm willing to pay for a park hopper for them to come as well (you'll have to provide your own way to the park though I think).

Please help! 

Fires

Two posts in two days?! Apparently I have a lot to say this week.

As many of you know, there are a lot of fires raging in the west right now. It's very sad how much has been destroyed. I just found out yesterday that our family was the recipient of a miracle. My niece, Chanelle, was at Girls' Camp in Sanpete County this week. The fire in that area was spreading faster than anyone anticipated, so the fire marshall booked it up there and told them they had 1 hour to evacuate the camp. Just after they got out of the canyon, the entire canyon was shut down. Less than a couple of hours later, the entire camp was burned to the ground.

I talked to my sister yesterday to see how they were doing and she said that so many people are being affected not only by the fires, but also by the lack of rain. People in that area rely on their farms and gardens for their livelihood; even if they don't sell their goods, many can their produce and live off it for the year.

So our family and many people in the state are using this fast Sunday as an opportunity to fast and pray for the fires to stop spreading, for the people in the area, for the firefighters, and especially for rain so no more fires start. And not just in Utah, but in all of these areas that are so dry. I believe in the power of prayer, fasting, and combined faith, so if you would like to join us I invite you to. As you feel comfortable, spread the word. I know there are many worthy causes to pray and fast for, but thank goodness there's no limit on how much we can pray for. :)

Voles

(Although I think this post would be more entertaining with pictures--stock pictures from the internet, not my own photos--I can't bring myself to; it's just not funny yet.)

5 weeks ago: I was out watering our lawn and gave a little scream (that's a lie--it wasn't little) as I saw a little mouse scurry from behind our garden box into our neighbors yard. I made Royce come out and he saw the mouse scurry back in and out the other side of the our yard. Feeling violated and vulnerable, I called my dad and asked him what we should do. He reassured me that they were only field mice and calmed my fears of whether they would destroy our (surprisingly) thriving garden. He counseled us to set traps in our garage and other key points in our house in case they decided to try and move in, but that there wasn't much he could do about them outside since we live next to a park.

4 weeks ago: Our HOA emailed us to say that the exterminators were coming to spray for voles and that they would put poison in holes in our yard and in trenches. Royce asked me if we needed to have them come to our house. I told him no, we don't have voles. I hadn't noticed any holes or trenches in our yard.

3 weeks ago: I was out in our yard, trying to train our tomato plant to go up the vine we've kindly provided for it. Not 6 inches from where my hand was, a mouse came out of nowhere and scurried along the fence. This time I screamed bloody murder. I think everyone in the neighborhood heard me. I told Royce he had to go water the lawn for me, but he said I was overreacting. With my back against our sliding door, I tried watering the lawn, only to see the mouse scurry by again. I screamed, dropped the hose, and ran inside and told Royce I was not going back out there. I told him to go and turn off the hose. He did, and he acted just as nervous as I was; overreacting my foot. (Sidenote, as we were going to bed we couldn't figure out why it sounded like water was running. Finally, I ventured outside again and realized the hose was on, full-blast. I asked Royce if he had really turned the hose off. He said, "Yeah, I turned it all the way off; lefty-loosey, right?" Oh Royce.)

2 1/2 weeks ago: Saturday morning, after waking up early with high hopes of being productive, I discovered that our strawberries, which were looking beautiful and actually growing, had been eaten (my dad lied). After seeing one too many of these guys scurrying by (okay, it was probably just one) I again bolted for the safety of indoors and then spent the next couple of hours scouring the internet trying to figure out how to take care of these creatures, once and for all. I discovered, among other things, that voles and field mice are the same thing (guess we should have had the exterminator come spray). I also read that cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes, certain herbs, etc. would make them stay away. I also spent an hour looking for cats on KSL. Once Royce got up, I, tearfully, dramatically, told him how frustrated I was and begged him to go put out the cayenne pepper. He did. Also, as we were running errands we picked up some traps (the kind where you can't see the dead mouse once you've caught it). When we got home we baited them with PB and confidently put them out where we had seen the voles.

2 weeks ago: Voles apparently don't mind cayenne pepper. They ate our entire bean plant; it was over a foot high. Our traps so far had proved useless. They had attracted ants, but no voles. And we definitely have several holes and trenches by now.

1 1/2 weeks ago: I finally called the exterminator and made an appointment for them to come back. Occasionally I would spot one and tried to get Royce to smash it with a shovel, but they were always too fast for him.

1 week ago: The exterminator came and said that the previous exterminator shouldn't have sprayed because of x, y and z, because we're next to a water way and that he was going to talk to our HOA about putting in a barrier. He set out some sticky traps. On my way home from work that day they ran a story on KSL radio about the vole problem in our area and how frustrated residents are that the city wasn't doing anything about the problem.

6 days ago: Royce was home early from work getting ready to go on a trip, and saw them blasting away parts of the hill leading down to the water way (or smoking it or something; I know he said there were little explosions). He also saw them looking at the big green plastic utility looking thing on the city property. When I got home he showed me the many holes going under the green thing and from a distance we could see voles scurrying in and out. Shudder. The green thing is apparently their breeding grounds.

4 days ago: I was talking to my mom about our problem and she told me about the traps they use for mice. She kindly brought some over. (I also looked for cats again on KSL--I don't really want a cat, but it sure would be handy.) That evening, as I prepared to set the traps outside, I saw one right smack in the middle of our yard, eating our grass (usually they scurry along the fence). Totally unaware of me, he came closer to the house and was trying to eat our rubber mulch. I grabbed the nearby shovel, and sneaking up behind it, prepared to smash it. I hesitated several times, and then finally whacked it as hard as I could (with a little cry of alarm as I actually made contact with my target). The little creature flipped over on its back with little legs flailing in the air. It continued to flail for several seconds, not dying. I didn't know what to do. I decided to try and put the little creature out of its misery and so I whacked it again, but it still didn't stop flailing. I dropped the shovel and ran inside, tears in my eyes. I called Royce and told him that he should have been the one smashing it with a shovel. He asked if I was crying, and I said yes, I'm a horrible person, I just killed one of God's creatures, brutally and forcefully. Once he realized that I was genuinely upset he tried to comfort me. After I got off the phone, I tried to not think about it as I made dinner, but I kept thinking about it and bawled. I begged God for forgiveness and asked Him to make the voles go away. Eventually I mustered the courage to go outside and scoop the dead little thing into a plastic sack. Then I went about setting the traps.

3 days ago: Royce came home and by that time we had caught one vole in our traps. I made him get it out of the trap. We reset the trap and washed our hands vigorously.

2 days ago: As I went out into the yard to water, I noticed that we had caught 2 more. Since Royce wouldn't have time to help me by the time he woke up, I set about emptying the traps myself. I re-baited one and reset both traps.

Yesterday: In the morning, it looked like there was one dead vole. I didn't have time to do anything about it though. By the time I got home from work, there were two more that were caught. I gaggingly cleaned up all three.

Today: When I looked out our window, we didn't have any dead voles. But when I went out to open our gate for the exterminators (who are apparently coming to the neighborhood again) I noticed that one of the traps was closed. But it didn't look like anything was trapped (part of the trap was under the fence and not visible). I grabbed the back of the trap to reset it, and screamed and let go as I realized that there was a still flailing vole on the other end. When I let go, it sent the thing partially under the fence we share with our neighbor. I think the flailing vole ended up on their side . . . Sorry!

Tomorrow: The exterminators will have sufficiently poisoned all voles in the area and we will never see another one. Right, right? Shudder. It's so gross and awful, I can't talk about it anymore.

Honest (i.e. TMI)

Someday I'm going to upload all my pictures and blog about all our adventures (since really, that's what the title of this blog advertises). In the meantime I thought I would share my thoughts on a subject which I think about quite a bit: trying to conceive.

I think most of you know from our 30X30/31X31 lists that we are trying to have a baby. But it's not something I talk about much, except with a few close friends. Infertility is an interesting stage of life, filled with mixed emotions. I suspect that there are quite a few of my friends/acquaintances who are also struggling with infertility or have in the past; some are quite open about it and others keep it very private. I would say we're somewhere in the middle. If people ask us about it, directly or indirectly ("So, are you waiting to have kids?"or "Do you have any kids yet?" are not uncommon questions) we're pretty open that we're trying without success so far. But I definitely find myself picking and choosing what I share based on who is asking. For instance, when our mothers ask us, I have a tendency to be very vague. But when say the Fitz's ask us the latest, we're pretty open, probably since they've been through all this before.

In any case, I thought it might be interesting to share my mixed emotions (as mentioned above) or it might be just way too much information, or just really stale. Who can tell. So here goes, in no particular order:

1. Last night at orchestra rehearsal two girls I've known for a long time were talking about their 4-month old babies. And I was kind of mad. Which is stupid. They're both older than me, both got married later in life, and this is the first for both of them. It is wonderful!

2. Sometimes I worry that people that know we're struggling with infertility may feel awkward telling us that they're expecting. Because maybe I'll have a reaction like I did above. But honestly, I am almost always genuinely happy for that person--the above experience doesn't happen often. I truly recognize that a good thing happening to another person is not an injustice because it hasn't happened to me yet. Plus, I love most kids, so that just means more little babies for me to "ooh" and "aah" at. When I enthusiastically tell you how excited I am for you, I promise I'm not crying in the bathroom two minutes later.

3. Having a baby is not always on my mind. Sometimes I'm just too darn busy to worry about it; between work, mutual, orchestra, cooking, cleaning, etc., there's often not a lot of down time. I don't even always remember to pray for it. I felt a little guilty about that for awhile, but it's not like Heavenly Father doesn't know our desires.

4. I rarely feel sad when my period starts. It's not that I'm not hopeful; but it would just be so out of the norm to be pregnant, that I'm not really emotional to find out that I'm not pregnant. I can think of only two times that I cried when I realized our efforts hadn't worked. I don't remember when the first time was, but I know I was at work. The second time was about a year ago, when we had been trying for a little over a year. We had really made an effort to do everything "right": ovulation tests, good timing, other stuff that doesn't need to be mentioned . . . The day before my sister had announced that she was pregnant. And then my unwelcome guest arrived at my dad's birthday party. See above to know that I was truly, 100% happy for my sister. And little baby "E" is too cute for words. Love her! It was just hard timing. Luckily the sadness didn't last long--30 minutes maybe. A good hug from Royce helped a lot.

5. Speaking of periods (because I know the 2 or 3 guys reading this blog are loving this topic), sometimes I have irrational thoughts such as, "Man, I really wish I was pregnant because then I wouldn't be having these awful cramps that keep me up all night." Somehow I have delusions that I will not suffer from morning sickness once I do become pregnant.

6. Totally random thought here: I hate the term preggers. I hear it everywhere these days! It just sounds so unclassy and unfeminine. When I am pregnant please don't ever refer to me as being "preggers". You can say that I'm "expecting;" maybe that's old-fashioned, but I'm kind of old-fashioned.

7. A few months ago I thought that maybe we actually were pregnant. In that moment, I became absolutely terrified and wanted so much to see a negative result on the pregnancy test. It's amazing how something I want so much can be simultaneously terrifying.

8. Sometimes I feel guilty that I'm so worried about having a baby when I have friends who are still single and wondering if they're ever going to find their eternal companion, let alone have children.

9. Sometimes I look at people with children and feel intensely jealous of their life. Other times, I see people with children and assume that they're jealous of our carefree lifestyle (ok, our lifestyle is not exactly carefree, but it is more free than if we had children). That's probably not the case though. I think most people are pretty content with their state in life, including me!

10. I don't love advice on what worked for so-and-so to get pregnant. We're not totally uneducated on the subject and have been working with fertility specialists. But if you give me such advice I won't get mad or secretly resent you. I'm sure I've given unwanted "advice" to people before, so I know that since I dish it I can take it.

11. Sometimes I think about adoption. But I'll tell you right now that Royce is much more open to the idea than I am. Whenever I've been on adoption websites I kind of freak out and feel sick to my stomach. I am a total believer that adoption is wonderful! But for some reason right now I have a hard time with the idea of adopting. And I often feel guilty about that.

12. I recently was involved in a conversation about decorating a nursery. I listened and smiled, but couldn't contribute because truth is, I really don't want to decorate a nursery! I can see myself putting in a cute little dresser with something cute on top of it, but no painting of walls or cute animal decals. Realizing that about myself made me wonder if I'm fit to have children.

13. Sometimes when I think about having teenagers I want to throw in the towel all together. It's just such a hard time to be a teenager (so different from when I was a teenager--night and day it seems). I can't decide which would be harder: teenage girls or teenage boys. I really don't want to find out.

14. Overall, I know that this is in the Lord's hands. And that really gives me a lot of confidence and peace. In the meantime, Royce and I are going to enjoy our freedom and travel as much as we can. And maybe even blog about our travels (if you're really, really lucky).