Let's be honest...

Recently I have not been blogging much because I don't have anything "exciting" to say.
Truth is....
my life is always "exciting" if exciting means not dull. Why is it that I am magnet for drama? Or more accurately, why is it that despite my best tactics, I can not escape it, solve it, or walk head strong into it with every effort to just get through with as little involvement as possible.
And then, by some really ill-humored joke of the universe, when I am a little bit successful in the anti-dramatic arena, I go and mess it all up. I don't think I know what to do with myself when my life is void of chaos, in fact when the chaos meter drops to "Empty" I find myself creating leaps and bounds of it. Which causes me to start all over with the hole simplifying of drama. So as it goes, my trying to to be less stressed about all the goings on around, causes more stress.
It's not funny, seriously.

I am coming clean...
I have a confession.....

I have a problem with stress. I am unable to manage it. I am unable to recognize it until its too late and have put my poor husband through another mental breakdown because I had to get the mail AND do the dishes. I mean come on, can I get a little help around here?

I am doing a lot, but its not like I am doing more than is physically possible. I work a little more than full time, I take care of a house, I do graphics for the Diner, and I am the Visiting Teaching Coordinator, a calling that doesn't take much time. Nothing too out of the ordinary. I don't even have kids. I don't know how you all do it.

So, if any of you have ideas on managing stress, I'm all ears.

It may just work....

Well, they approved my article and I have now written 2 very short articles and am waiting to see what they think! It is very fun so far!!

This has also made me discover something else about myself...

I am very happy being very busy. All this time I kept thinking if I could simplify it would be better. Who would have thought.....

New endeavor....

So, I have always loved writing (even though you would never know by the neglect evident in blog) and have decided to throw some things at the wall. I have just submitted my first trial piece to an article broker for their review to see if I am worthy of them sending me free lance work. I have done some research and learned that this is the easiest way to try out free lance writing. They send you articles based on your interests and pay off per word. If it works out, I might pursue something more serious, but for now we will see how it goes! I am pretty excited and hope it works out! This could be an exciting new adventure!

Best Day....

I have always been a lover of music in theory and creation and one of its biggest fans of most all its forms. If I ever loose my hearing it will be like part of my soul has died to some extent. But, there are a few songs that hit me right in the heart, that my heart will carry always, most of which the mainstream listener would have a hard time tolerating with out skipping the track. These songs I can always rely on to make my day better now and have gotten me through some pretty crazy times in my life. But, recently I have added a new song to that list. "Best Day" by Taylor Swift. While this song was written about her mom being her best friend, I have many songs that fill purpose for me. I've been collecting them over that last several years. And, while it was written for her mom, this song reminds me of my dad and the relationship that we share even though its rocky. Yesterday my dad paid me an unexpected visit and while it wasn't particularly eventful, he reminded me why this song reminds me so much of him. Thanks dad for giving me another "Best Day". Its been awhile, I really needed it!

Lyrics to The Best Day...

I'm five years old
It's getting cold
I've got my big coat on

I hear your laugh
And look up smiling at you
I run and run

Past the pumpkin patch
And the tractor rides
Look now -- the sky is gold
I hug your legs and fall asleep
On the way home

I don't know why all the trees change in the fall
I know you're not scared of anything at all
Don't know if Snow White's house is near or far away
But I know I had the best day
With you today

I'm thirteen now
And don't know how my friends
Could be so mean

I come home crying and you hold me tight and grab the keys

And we drive and drive
Until we've found a town
Far enough away

And we talk and window-shop
Until I've forgotten all their names

I don't know who I'm gonna talk to
Now at school
I know I'm laughing on the car ride home with you
Don't know how long it's gonna take to feel okay
But I know I had the best day
With you today

I have an excellent father
His strength is making me stronger
God smiles on my little brother
Inside and out
He's better than I am

I grew up in a pretty house
And I had space to run
And I had the best days with you

There is a video
I found from back when I was three
You set up a paint set in the kitchen
And you're talking to me

It's the age of princesses and pirate ships
And the seven dwarfs
Daddy's smart
And you're the prettiest lady in the whole wide world

Now I know why all the trees change in the fall
I know you were on my side
Even when I was wrong
And I love you for giving me your eyes
Staying back and watching me shine

And I didn't know if you knew
So I'm taking this chance to say
That I had the best day
With you today

River Rats Return!

We are back from our adventurous river rafting trip. Our journey took 88 miles down the Green River through the Desolation and Gray Canyons. It was filled with history, geology, scenic canyons and amazing fun!

The first night we camped at the put in at Sand Wash, an old ferry site for the river. It is a quick, dusty drive through the oil fields outside of Duchesne to the river. The mosquitoes were beyond ridiculous! Luckily we reserved a screened cabin to cook and sleep in. We got up, rigged the rafts, and headed out on our journey. The first day was mostly flat water, but my husband (gotta love him!) convinced his dad that we needed a motor to speed things up. We camped at Stampede Flat and boy were we surprised to find that there were more mosquitoes than Sand Wash. It was unbelievable. No amount of any kind of bug spray worked. I was wearing 2 layers of clothes covering my whole body and somehow they still got through! We should have motored on through a little further because the farther we got down the river the better the mosquitoes got. During a brief stop, we saw an old iron skiff that had been left on the shore. We also saw wild horses and sure-footed mountain goats.

On day two, we went from Stampede Flat to Three Canyon rapid. Turns out the motor wasn't as good of an idea as we thought.... Going through one rapid, we didn't have enough steering capability and power to have complete control of both the rafts when they were tied together. The combination of the current and the wind pulled us nose first into a huge boulder in the river. Luckily no one was hurt and nothing was damaged. Our camp was great. We had a great amount of flat area for tents right off the river and we could hear the rapids all night. There was a huge aspen, one of the largest I've ever seen. Its twisted roots were exposed in an almost symmetrical ring, creating a great seating area where we placed the firepan in the middle. Above the camp area on the hill was an open meadow with a majestic vista. The three canyons converging on the river creating one of the best views of the trip.

We decided we probably ought to move on down the river a bit to keep a good pace and we had heard that the Joe Hutch Canyon Rapid was now a fantastic rapid especially with the water level and West was very excited to get to it. After a couple of miles we came up on it and pulled off the river to scout it out since the rapid had changed significantly in the last year due to a debris flow from a large mudslide. I have to admit that I was scared and excited to the point of nausea and I wasn't sure how we would fair. The commercial trips and boats flipping all day and the boats with kids were walking all the kids to the other side of the rapid and sending bare bones oarmen through the rapid. We decided to go right of center and then to the left skirting the HUGE hole on the left. There is also a huge wave train. We hit the smaller of the holes on the right and it almost stopped us dead in our tracks. The wake of this rapid is about 8 ft high. You could feel the power of the water rumbling on the floor of the boat and it definitely reminds you of your place in the world! Right at this point, the motor cuts out and Keith and Justun have to get us through this wall of water with their paddling alone. We made it through fine, it wasn't textbook or even pretty, but good enough to get some cheers from the people on the side. Just after Joe Hutch Canyon, we started looking for a campsite and pulled out the snacks. After the excitement of making through Joe Hutch, we let our guard down. This can be catastrophic on the river. Before we new it we were 10 ft away from a rock and being swept right into it. We got the rafts turned to the side and the raft I was on went over the rock, but the rafts were still strapped together. The others didn't fair so well. Their raft got wrapped around a rock, dumping anything not strapped to the rafts (i.e. people) into the river. Then Ross, jumped in after the cooler leaving West, Justun, Jamie, and I to figure this out. We pulled all the gear we could off of the raft by holding JJ over the water by his feet. We tried to separate the straps and it wasn't happening. We got on the high side of the boat to keep the balance when we separated the rafts. When Jamie was trying to get high side, the raft got bumped and Jamie just about fell in. Luckily she got a good grasp on the rope and I grabbed her life jacket and pulled her up. West cut the straps and off the rock we went! Our other raft broke away from the rock and we intercepted it on the side of the river. West jumped in a oared across the river to the other shore where all the lost members of our group had gathered. The rest of us walked down stream and picked up all of the gear that another rafting group had gathered from the river for us. We spun the raft off the shore and motored across the river to meet up with everyone else. As we assessed the damages we discovered we had been very lucky! We had a couple of scraped knees and I had a small cut on my thumb (which bleed EVERYWHERE, you would have thought I severed a major artery!). The only gear we lost was a shoe, a water bottle, and and oar. Pretty dang good, if I say so myself! We bent the frame on the wrapped raft but other than that, that was the only damage. We camped right there on the beach where we pulled out of the river. It was a little out in the open and pretty rocky, but we made due.

We pushed off again the next morning and decided to finish out the river. We skirted Coal Creek the other large rapid and took the safe way through all the rapids. We camped at the pull out at Swasey's Rapid. This is just below Gunnison Butte outside of Green River. We stayed the night and headed for home the next morning. We stopped for an early lunch in Green River and Ray's Tavern. Their burgers are infamous so we thought we ought to try one! They were delish!

All in all it was an awesome trip in the great outdoors with great company. We are planning on going again soon, maybe running up to Jackson Hole for the weekend to run the Snake. Whoever thought that I, afraid of water as I am, would become a river rat, but I think its happening.

We forgot to pick up some waterproof disposable cameras so we didn't take any pictures. But, I found some great pictures on another blog. Follow this link. http://cedarandsand.blogspot.com/2008/09/desolation-canyon.html

Lately......

Well, quite a bit has happened lately at the Walker residence. Some noteworthy, some not so much so I will try to to ramble forever.

During Memorial Day weekend we were helping my family move some furniture. I was carrying a dresser with West and rolled my ankle on a 2 x 4. As a recent of the rolled ankle, I dropped the dresser and then my head. My head hit the dresser and it started to swell IMMEDIATELY. Before I could stand up, I have a baseball size bump on my head. West saw the huge swell and ran over and applied pressure to my head to try to get the swelling to go down. Jeni ran to get some ice which I had on my head for 5 hours. Over the next few days I developed a huge black eye. I had such a bad headache in my life.

My sister Jeni moved into our house! We are so excited to have her! She is working at the Diner as a waitress. We now call her Laverne and she looks fantastic in that classic diner outfit. She has had a little more time off than she is used to and has taken it upon herself to touch up the paint on our walls. They are looking great!

Our basement is now finished (well mostly!). West has some more tinkering with his electronics and thus is in constant disarray, but we are loving it! Its great to sit back and admire the result of a lot of hard work.

And, finally.....we have been planning a rafting trip on the Green River through Desolation Canyon. We are so excited!!! We start on the river on Monday and we can hardly wait. We are going with our in laws, a neighbor, and our friends Jamie and Justun. We have been setting up rafts and checking parts, and packing so almost a month just to make sure it comes off with out a hitch!

Pictures of all of these events to follow.

Blog books

I've come across something that many of you bloggers may want to know about. I've been working on these photo books for vacations, the diner, etc. The website I use to publish them has released a newer version that allows you to import your blog posts, including pictures, in to a book for printing. I just thought this was great because now a journal/scrapbook like album can be published for permanent keeping. The website is blurb.com, you just need to download their program called BookSmart.