East Canyon

I decided to be the fun aunt this past week and took neices/nephew numbers 2,4,6, and 7 to East Canyon for a few days.  It was just going to be 4 days of hanging out, watching tv, playing in the snow, playing games, and eating too much sugar and junk and too few fruits/veggies.  And, based on the storm we got in the valley on Christmas day, I was sure we'd have tons of snow up there to make it fun.
As we came in view of the reservoir, we were kind of surprised by how little snow there was. It looked like kind of an average year, where we wouldn't really get to use any snow equipment, and if we tried to play outside, we would just get muddy.  So instead we settled in and started binge watching Psych, the kids' favorite show and the only show I own on DVD.  Over the next couple of days, each morning we woke up to more and more snow.  By the 2nd morning, the snow was up to my knees in the unplowed section of road.  It was the best snow I think I've ever seen up there.  And, even though we hadn't brought sleds with us (my car was packed as tight as it could possibly be packed just with food and luggage), some kind soul had abandoned a couple saucer sleds in the campground area.  We let them sit there for half a day, and they went unclaimed.  There were no cars and no people around, so we adopted them for the rest of our stay.  Some of us had a great time playing in the snow.
There was lots of this:

Number 7 and I went for a walk and saw bald eagles, deer, and animal tracks.  The snow was almost as tall as him, and it was still coming down hard and fast, so we cut the walk short.

The main sledding hill was pretty crowded so number 7 and I built our own.

Unfortuntately, there was also a lot of this:

A stomach flu started making its way through the group on the second day, so we cut our trip short and came home a few days early.  But I think we still had fun.  We got lots of tv binge watching, movie watching, game playing, snack eating, and snow playing in.  And we even got caught in 3 blizzards coming home.  Coming down Provo Canyon, there was a thick blizzard, with terrible visibility, but up ahead we could make out some blue and pink skies, and then suddenly it just stopped snowing and the sun was shining and we were out of the canyon.  It was pretty cool.

A Pain in the Back

Work has been stupid busy the past few months.  In a normal year, we do budgets and board packages August-November, so we can just count on those months being bad, knowing that we can breathe and catch up in December.  But this year, they started the budget process in July, and then they acquired a new company in August.  The acquisition has been a nightmare for a variety of reasons, so our busy months were wayyyyyy busier than normal.  And then, even after the board meeting in November, we've had several extra reports related to the acquisition that have kept us in overdrive, so we haven't slowed down at all.  I've had several pay periods with 20-30 hours of overtime.  And I'm a lightweight on my team.  A few guys had one or two pay periods with 80-90 hours of overtime.  Just overtime.  On top of their regular hours.  It became a normal thing for them to work until the wee hours of the morning, every morning, then come back for regular office hours, plus every weekend, for several weeks in a row.  

We just had our first financial month end close with the new company transferred to our accounting system, so as a little thank-you, the CEO scheduled two massage therapists to come in and do 15 minute back massages for everybody in finance.  I don't have much experience with back massages, but...  

One of my college roommates was from California, and her parents had a tradition of arranging for her to get a massage every time she went home to visit.  I went home with her twice, and each time, her parents got me a massage too.  The first time was my first ever massage and  I had no idea at all what to expect.  The lady turned on some relaxation music, told me to take off as much as I was comfortable with and then lie face down on the massage table with a sheet over me, and she'd be back in a few minutes.  I did as she said, and when she came back to start the massage she said, 'Um...you're going to have to take off more than that.'  She should have been more clear to begin with.  Anyway, I don't remember much else from that massage, except that I came out covered in oil.  Like, really covered.  I just wanted to go home and shower before I got oil on everything else.

My next massage experience came from physical therapy with my back.  I spent a couple months one summer after college going to physical therapy a couple times a week, and each time I would get electro shock therapy (I don't think it was called that, but I don't remember what it was called) that sent electric waves deep into my back muscles.  It was wonderful.  Then the physical therapist would come in and do a quick back massage.  All I remember from that was that he used a ton of petroleum jelly.  He would always wipe it off at the end, but I'd still be covered in it when I got home.  But I always enjoyed physical therapy.

So I was kind of excited for a back massage at work.  It was just the kind where you sit in a chair and the therapist does a quick shoulder/back massage.  Everybody who sits near me ended up with one massage therapist and I got the other.  They were all talking about how it was one of the best massages they'd ever had.  I don't know if it had just been too long since my last massage or what, but it wasn't what I was expecting.  For the whole 15 minutes, it felt like she was digging her knuckles into my back.  I kind of just wanted to excuse myself, but I didn't want her to feel bad.  Also, I must have had some crazy knots or something, because she spent almost the whole time on one small area of my back.  That spot of my back was sore for a couple days after.  I even checked for bruises a few times afterwards.  She kneaded my muscles so hard!  Maybe that's what it took to get the knots out.  I don't know.  But I didn't see anybody else walking around in pain the rest of the day, so maybe I got a bad massage.  But it was still a fun little perk after the months we've had lately.

The Great Mouse Scare of 2014

I know what you're all thinking. 'Carolyn, why on earth are you posting again so soon?!  You just posted three months ago!  Do you really have so much going on in your life that you have another story to tell us already?!'  Yes, it's true; after just three short months, something that may or may not be as exciting as rebuilding a fence panel has occurred in my life.  I'll let you be the judge.  Some of you have already heard this story.  I told you then that it had been the most exciting thing to happen in a while.  I wasn't kidding.  Sorry you have to hear it again.

In one corner of my yard I grow sweat peas and sunflowers.  The sunflowers are super sturdy and get around 7 feet tall.  The sweet peas are kind of viny and climb up the sunflowers stems.  It's my favorite part of my yard.  The picture below doesn't do it justice.  The bright yellow sunflowers are just perfect against all the pinks, purples, reds, and whites of the sweat peas.  And they smell incredible.  They all come into perfect bloom around late September and throughout October.  On the days when I manage to get home from work before dark I like to go stand in my flowers- not in front of my flowers or next to flowers; I climb right in among the stems and vines and breathe it all in.  I come out covered in leaves and poky things, but it's okay.

This year I decided to save the pea pods to be able to plant the seeds next year.  So every few days I would go out and look for mature pods. Then I would leave them on my counter to dry out.  Everything I read online said if you store them away too early, they would get musty and moldy and would be no good by spring.  So one night I left a few pea pods on my kitchen counter and went to bed.  In the morning I came up and found a scene from my nightmares.  One of the pods was lying open and the seeds had been scattered all over my counter and across the floor.  And I don't just mean that section of the counter.  I mean across the stove, a few feet away.  The ones on the floor were several feet away.  The only thing I could think was that I had a mouse.  It had found the pods, opened one, and carried the seeds all over the kitchen.  Which meant that mouse feet had been all over my kitchen counter and floor, including the stove top.  That grosses me out.  I spent my next hour at the gym coming up with a plan of attack.  I decided I was just going to have to be late for work that day.  I would go to the hardware store, get some poison, and put it in key spots around my house before I went to work.  Yes, it could have waited until after work, but that would mean a full day of a mouse (or mice) running free in my house.  And I know mice multiply fast.  Maybe by the time I got home there'd be several generations hanging out, bullying me into cooking for them.  So it had to be taken care of that morning.

But then my more rational side came back into control.  I got to thinking- there had never been any other evidence of mice in my house.  No poop, no scratching sounds, no bags or boxes of food in storage chewed open.I even had other food on my counter- bananas, tomatoes, etc, that hadn't been touched.  I had rodent problems in my houses in Virginia, and I know the signs.  There were no signs in my house.  So when I got back from the gym, I did a little investigating.  The open pea pod had no bite or scratch marks.  In fact, it looked like it had exploded, and in a violent way.  Which explained how the seeds scattered so far.  So I calmed down.  Apparently, when pea pods dry out, they explode.

Since then, I've been storing my pea pods in a paper bag.  Most of them dry quietly, but a few others have exploded.

This is what most of my pea pods look like as they dry.

This is what the pea pods look like after they explode.  Looks violent.

And one more picture for good measure. This is the 'Tree of Life' in Draper Park.