What Brings Me Joy?

I'm stealing this idea from a blog I like to read, A Place to Grow. It was fun to do and I challenge you to come up with your own list.

•Seeing the people that I love happy
•Sitting on the shore watching the waves
•Fresh, warm clothes from the dryer
•Receiving a sincere compliment
•My testimony
•A good friend's phone call
•Mom's meatballs
•Watching Acadia laugh and play with her friends
•Sunshine after a rainstorm
•Rain after a dry spell
•Chatting with friends (husband included) on the internet
•LOTR
•Playing the piano with feeling
•A long, hot shower
•Having a spiritual conversation with a friend
•Having a good work out
•Knowing I am sealed to my family for eternity
•Cadi Cuddles
•Friends that know everything about you - and love you anyway
•The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
•A clean house
•When someone says Acadia looks just like me
•Seeing I have e-mail
•Getting REAL mail from a friend/family member
•Reading the scriptures
•My foot spa
•Campfires in Waterton
•Laughing and goofing off with good friends
•Music that brings back not only memories but FEELINGS... joy, sadness, nostalgia
•Christmas
•Candlelight
•Watching a favorite movie - and saying all the best lines with the actors
•Prayers answered
•Finally seeing the purpose in a past trial and knowing that God was with me every step of the way
•Acadia National Park
•Getting a really good back massage
•When Cadi says she wants to be like me when she grows up
•Being able to increase my weights or cardio in my workout
•Planning a super-fun family vacation - and then going on it
•Getting my hair done
•The look on Acadia's face when she is around horses
•Driving through the Columbia River Gorge
•Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream
•The view of Waterton Lake
•Hearing Ryan say that he loves me more now than he ever has before

Okay it's your turn. What brings you joy?

What I do with all my time.

I have been asked about this so many times in the past week!

Now that Acadia is in first grade, she doesn't get home from school until after 3 p.m! I don't have anyone else at home, so what do I do with all my time now???

Actually, I haven't really been able to find out yet! I go to the gym every morning, as soon as the bus picks up Cadi. By the time I get home, showered and dressed it is between 10:30 and 11:00. For the first several days I spent all of my time posting all the pictures from our trip and blogging about it.

I know that soon things will become more normal. Today I babysat my neighbors darling twins, then went grocery shopping. Tuesday I went to the temple then had a surprise lunch with Ryan. Soon I should be working in Cadi's classroom and eventually (maybe next semester?) I am going to take an Institute class.

We are looking into starting up the home projects again too, that should keep me busy. If for no other reason than because those projects always make more of a mess to clean up - dust everywhere! One of these days I'm going to get started on my Christmas cards (after I figure out what I'm doing and get the supplies) and I have more than enough scrapbooking to catch up on! I have fallen behind on my piano playing and I have a whole series of books that I haven't read yet. (Two series actually, but one of them I did read one of the books, just not any that followed. Not that I didn't want to, I just haven't found the time.)

So, does that come close to answering that question?

She's crying over a brush!

This is how sensitive (what I really want to say is 'dramatic') Acadia is. One of her brushes broke. A hair brush. And she is crying.

"Mom, will you please buy me a new one?"

I just told Ryan that she was crying over it. His response? "Her cute one? That is sad."

'Her cute one?' - IT'S A BRUSH!!! I didn't know one was cuter than another! I didn't know my husband knew one was cuter than another!

(It turns out that the "cute one" Ryan referred to is not the one that broke.)

Catching Up

While the travelog is done (Took long enough, don't you think?) I do have one more trip related journal entry I might as well post.

Thursday, September 8, 2005

We've been home 4 days and I'm still thinking "Canadian". When I look at the time, I add an hour. (We live in PST, Landon lives in MST) When I look at the speek limit, I caluculate it as if it were kilometers. When I see a dollar amount, I try to think, "How many US dollars is that?"

Earth to Sariah... COME HOME!

The funny thing is - it was like that for about an entire week after getting home! But I am pretty much back to normal now (or as normal as I ever was).

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Acadia has been enjoying school. If you read her blog (No, I'm not going to link it right now because I am feeling lazy. If you want to read it, get your mouse over to the side bar and link it yourself!), you will have seen how sick of it she was last week. lol Well, she got over that really quick. It wasn't even a 24 hour thing.

She hasn't had any homework yet (spoiled) but that is okay. I'm sure it will happen soon enough.

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This past weekend we went to an air show. Well, actually we went to Ryan's work's parking lot to get free seats. The air show was just a few blocks away and we could see everything except what went on in the actual stadium. There were a couple of times that the jets flew right over us at the parking lot - that was cool.

We took the camcorder. I will probably snag a few pictures off of it eventually, I just haven't done it yet. When I do, I will put them on photo bucket (Again - link it yourself.) in the 2005 album under a sub-album I can only guess will be called... uh... "Air Show". (I'm just guessing...)

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And now you are all caught up. *thumbs*

The End

Saturday, September 3, 2005
 
When it rains, it pours. Poor Landon can't get the right car part until Tuesday! Bummer. But we are hanging out. It was a debate. But we ended up deciding to leave for home on Monday morning - which is the very last possible time we can leave in order to be home in time for school. But we had originally planned to stay this long anyway, so it's kind of funny that it worked out this way.

We met Landon's "dad" today. Craig is a good family friend who has been the closest thing to a father that Landon has had. He seems like a really nice man, I'm glad we got to meet him.

We took Cadi to the park. We took the frisbee too. It was fun. We saw two girls that Acadia had played with earlier in the week. They played frisbee with us a little, then Cadi played with them on the playground while Ryan, Landon, and I played frisbee.


The plan was to wear Cadi out so she would go to bed easily. I think we wore ourselves out too!

Sunday, September 4, 2005

We went to church with Landon today. It has been a long time since I've been at a single's ward! We only stayed for Sacrament Meeting since they didn't have any primary for Cadi. We didn't really have any plans after that, but then we got a call from Landon's mom. She invited us to join her, Craig, and Landon's grandma at Indian Battle Park for a BBQ.

We had a great time! They made us feel like family. And it was exactly what we needed to end this trip. It was perfect!








From journal entry on Tuesday, September 6, 2005

Sunday night Rye, Landon and I stayed up WAY late and watched movies. I was surprised at how late we stayed up, but then it was our last night - for sure this time! We slept in Monday morning.

Actually, we were counting on Cadi waking us up at about 8, but she slept in too - til 9:30! lol, oops!

Oh yes, that is Cadi eating ice cream for breakfast - while watching cartoons with Ryan. Again, WE WERE ON VACATION!!!



Landon's hunk of junk...uh...I mean, car.







That last one was them playing X-Box together.



Landon, thank you for a great vacation!

I have posted all 624 pictures from the Canada Trip. Snoop around in all the sub-albums until you find them all.
We left at about 11:30 am (10:30 am, PST) and had a nice LONG (13 hour) drive back home. But it was uneventful - always a good thing, and we are now home safely.

On the way home, we stopped by Frank Slide again. This time we got some pictures. It is incredible to see all that rock. Back in 1903 the mountain just came down. They believe it is because of the mines inside and then the water getting into cracks and freezing. But whatever the reason, it happened without warning. It buried a good portion of the town and killed alot of people.






This trip was a terrific visit with Landon. For all of us - as a family and individually. It is great for all of us (Rye, Cadi, and I) to have a friend we all love and enjoy so much! It makes for lots of fun!

The night before we left (Sunday), we were all watching a movie. Landon was laying on the floor with a blanket. Acadia just went over to where he was, crawled under the covers and cuddled with him. It was SO CUTE! I wish I could have a picture of that moment. I wish I could bottle up that feeling.
There are lots of moments I wish I could bottle up. It was a really good trip.

Here are a few random pictures that didn't get posted.

Good-bye Waterton

From Friday, September 2, 2005 journal entry:

Wednesday we packed up camp and headed to Landon's. On our way there from our campsite, we saw another black bear. This time we were able to pull over safely and take a picture.



Landon was done with his final day early (they weren't really working, just doing evaluations) so we loaded up the cars and headed towards Lethbridge.

Waterton was an amazing place. We loved our week there. It was beautiful, peaceful, fun, and relaxing. We want to go back and visit again sometime.

Two of my favorite views. The first one is that spot on Waterton Lake that Landon took us to on our first full day there.



The second is the view from the entrance of our campground. I really liked this mountain. I took some pictures of it from Red Rock Canyon too, but this one with the creek is my favorite.



On the way to Lethbridge, we stopped in Cardston. We went by the temple and took a few moments to take some pictures and let Cadi look around. The last time Ryan and I were there was right before we were married, 9 years ago. It was neat to be there again. We had hoped to go do a session with Landon during this trip, but it didn't work out. Next time.

 





When we got to Lethbridge, we stopped by where Landon's mom was staying. She has been having back problems and so is temporarily staying at a Lodge in Lethbridge while receiving treatments daily. She had been holding Landon's keys, cell phone, laptop, etc while he was in Waterton. Once we got his stuff, plans changed a little. Landon's car refused to start again. The guys worked on it for awhile, but couldn't get it to go. We did some juggling, got our stuff to Landon's, went back to get the stuff from his car to take back to Landon's, and still managed to make it back to his mom to take her out to eat.

I had been wanting to meet Landon's mom for a long time. I LOVE her! First of all, she is very pretty and has a great smile. Even though she was in terrible pain, she never let it show. Instead she smiled, laughed and made us feel very comfortable. She is great!

After eating, we headed back to Landon's house. We were all beat. We tried to stay up and watch the Fellowship of the Ring, but we barely got through the first disc! We ended up falling asleep on the couches. lol

Thursday was fun! The original plan had been for us to go home that morning so Landon could do some job hunting. But now with his car not working, that wasn't going to happen anyway. Landon's grandma was making arrangements to have the car towed to a garage, so in the meantime we stuck around for an extra day to play.

We spent all afternoon at the community center in the pool. It was great fun! This pool was so cool - they had a ball hanging from a rope to swing out over the water on and there was a jungle gym/rope climb/monkey bars thing that you could do over the water. They had a slide too, but it was closed while the monkey bar thing was out. Plus there was a kiddie pool in the same room that had lots of toys and a slide of it's own. Cadi spent most of her time there while we played in the big pool. But sometimes she came out with us too.

Oh, and there was a hot tub too. That was really relaxing, especially after we had been playing for awhile. While we were in the hot tub, discussing weight loss goals (lol), we decided that on the way home we should pick up donuts and the fixings for ice cream sundaes. After all, we are on vacation!
With all that sugar in us, it was easier to stay up late this time. We watched Two Towers and then Ryan played Halo 2 while Landon and I watched. I don't even know how late it was when we went to bed - LATE.

Today stinks!  (Friday, September 2) Today we go home.

We have had such a great trip. We hate to leave. I have loved this time with Landon, I have loved being here in Canada, I have loved being here with my family, we had a great time and I just hate to see it end. But it is better to leave when things are great then to wear out your welcome and leave when everyone's tired of each other.

(later)

Well, today didn't stink too bad. lol

We dropped off Landon at his car before we headed out of town. But there ended up being a problem and they weren't going to get it towed afterall, at least not to where it needed to go. Ryan had suggested trying to pop the clutch earlier, but they never tried it because they decided to just let it get towed. Now it seemed like a good idea, so Ryan jumped in the car, Landon pushed him a little, they popped the clutch and it worked.

To make a long story short, we're still here. They now know that the problem is definitely the starter and Ryan offered to change it for Landon instead of having a shop do it for alot more $. They took the bad one out and went looking at U-Pull-It places for a replacement. No luck, so tomorrow they will buy a new one and Ryan will put it in.

And THEN we will go. lol

Pretty soon we will NEED to go. Cadi starts school in 4 days! Wow, I can't believe that. So IF something goes wrong... AGAIN, we HAVE to leave by Monday! But I really think tomorrow will be it.

I think it was Friday that we took these pictures while playing at the park. It was either Friday or Thursday. Check it out!















So, the saga continues... You can see all the pictures from our trip here.

Two days in One post

We were really lucky to have Landon pretty much all to ourselves from the time he got off of work on Wednesday until he had to go back on Monday morning.  But even when he had to work it wasn't all bad.  It gave me time to do laundry and get organized since we were leaving the park on Wednesday.

There isn't quite as much to report on for those days, I may actually cover more than one day here...

Monday, August 29, 2005

This has been the perfect vacation so far. I hate that it is almost over.

Today Ryan is hiking and he should be back around the time that Landon gets off of work. Cadi and I are at Landon's. We did dishes and laundry. Landon surprised us by coming home at lunch. I told him about Ryan's hike, he doesn't think Ryan will be back on time. We'll see.

(Later)

Cadi and I ran errands. As soon as we opened the door to go out we saw a deer eating bushes in the area right outside. We have seen tons of deer - all over. We saw a mom with twins the other day. They are not afraid of humans at all, so they are often very close to where people go.

This morning when Cadi and I got up to go to the restrooms, we saw 2 deer walk right through our campsite. On the way back, one walked right across our path.

When we got back from errands, just now, we found a deer right in front of Landon's door.





It's cool. There are bears and wolves and mountain lions around, but we haven't seen any. I don't want to see the mountain lions. If it weren't for them, I'd like to try a night hike. But I'm a wuss.
At camp we do see tons of stars. It is beautiful. So far I've seen at least 6 shooting stars. Plus one bright flash - I have no idea what it was. It was a pin point like a star or something, but it just flashed brightly once and was gone. Ryan saw it too. (Ryan says it was a shooting star that was heading toward us instead of across the sky. Cool.)

From Friday, September 2, 2005 journal entry:

Monday, Ryan's hike was good. He was only a little late coming back and he was pretty sore. We saw a black bear right off the side of the road after I picked him up from the trailhead.

Ryan had the camcorder with him on the hike and I grabbed a bunch of pictures from it to share. It must have been absolutely gorgeous up there, the pictures are really pretty.















That night we had Landon with us at the campfire again. It was super windy at first, but eventually it died down.

Landon's pretty creative. We started playing a game where we looked up at the stars and challenged each other to find different pictures. Landon always found them. Ryan did better than me, I was the loser. :( (Landon: But at least in the end I gave you that alligator in the stars!) I suppose it shouldn't have been so hard, there were so many stars, how could you not connect a few to make pictures?

We had fun. But all good things must come to an end...sometimes it is a late end. Ryan took Landon home pretty late. But we were running out of campfires left, we had to make the most of it, right?

Tuesday we went into town while Landon worked. We bought a SUPER CUTE polar bear nativity. And we bought Acadia a big stuffed horse - for way more than it should have cost! But then, the nativity was probably more than it should cost too. I guess we are both spoiled!

Landon was packing up his stuff and saying good-bye to a friend in the evening. I brought him back to camp when he was ready and we had our last campfire in Waterton. Unfortunately, it was a very short campfire. The wood was awful! It burned our eyes so bad! While Ryan was putting Cadi to bed, Landon and I decided that we should spend the night playing cards in the tent instead.

But before that, Cadi put on a show. She did some interpretive dances. lol My favorite part was when she became a girl speaking Japanese! Too funny!!! I do have a couple pictures, though they do not capture her full cuteness.





She was a good helper that night. She went to get water and then helped Landon make drinks for us.







That night, the impossible happened - again! (It has only happened twice before - yeah, yeah I know that means it isn't "impossible" - get over it.) I won Phase 10 - and there was no cheating involved!!! Incredible!!!

Wow, I got two days in this post! Not bad. Check out more pictures from Ryan's hike or from the Canada Trip in general.