The Man Out Standing in His Field, Part II

I tried to replicate the same place.  You can see that the cabbages and tomatoes are growing, along with other stuff.   Little lettuce out front, some peas, radishes... It's coming a long.  There are a LOT of weeds, too.  And too little rain.  We've been watering like crazy and still it's kind of stunted.   We DO live in a desert, and it shows.  Even the lawn is kind of stressed.   Part one is on an earlier post.  below

Trying to be fit[er]

Occasionally I attend the staff weight training class on campus at noon.  I mean, really occasionally.  It's probably called "Strength and Conditioning" and it's more of an activity than a class. It's guided if we want it to be, or we can just hang out and do our own thing in the weight room if we'd rather.  The guided ones are like a mini cross fit workout.

I went on Monday. I just want all my readers to know that

I DID 150 PUSHUPS

Yes, they were girlie ones on my knees, but I did them.  In increments of 15 at a time, then ran about 100 meters, rested 1 minute, then did it again.  Ten times total, making 150 pushups.  I remember when I started attending the weights class I couldn't even DO a pushup.

So, yes. I'm just a little proud of   well-pleased with that accomplishment.  I wonder if it does make me more fit, or just more proud. ha.

Memorial Day, 2012

 As you can see, it was a lovely day in Provo on Memorial Day.  Mike, Me, Eric, Caroline, Grandma L. all traveled to American Fork to Decorate graves, then on to Provo.  In Provo, there are little trucks that will give rides to those in need, so Mike's mom was able to ride in the little jeep thing from site to site.  That was a big help. He also hauled our buckets of flowers!

Eric's friend from Cedar City,  Kristalyn Williams BYU Student, met us at the park in Provo for our picnic. 

Uah Summer Games

http://asherjswanphoto.smugmug.com/2012UtahSummerGames/2012-Opening-Ceremonies/23651988_SqP8js#!i=1914373776&k=2hjJXXz

In June, Cedar City hosts the Utah Summer Games.  It's always a lot of fun.  We have seldom (if ever) gone to the opening ceremonies of the games, even though they are a big and festive event.  We've watched the fireworks from just outside the stadium, or from our back yard.  The link above will take you to a site with many MANY pages of pictures.  Pages 8 and 10 looked to have some good ones.  I didn't look beyond there.

I decided to purchase tickets for me and Mike to go and see them.  This year was unique in that the football field in the stadium where the ceremonies are held is due to be replaced with artificial turf (boo) this season, so the grass was dried out and on it's way out.  So they booked "Nitro Circus" for the entertainment.  They were fantastic!  Such fun and thrills!  And the musical entertainment was good, too.  And flags by the dozens,and horses and athletes!  It was a fun party, and the stadium was filled to over-flowing.  We were lucky to find seats.
Before the opening ceremonies, we walked down to our chapel and we picnicked with Gail and her children on the lawn at our church, which is quite close to the stadium.  We were invited to have hotdogs with her and the kids.  We accepted.  Only Gail forgot the lighter. Darn.  She drove quickly to our house to retrieve one to light her BBQ grill.  Only NONE of us could figure out how to light the silly butane or propane bottle.  Very strange.  But Jonathan wanted a hot dog!  He was hungry.  So, he ate it cold.  That's the THIRD time he's done that!  Yuck.  But he just eats it right down.  [shudder]  We opted to pass on the (cold) hot dog, but we feasted on the rest of the yummy dinner she brought--potato salad, snack crackers, chips, cookies, veggie sticks and drinks.  Thanks, Gail, for a fun picnic!

Wouldn't it be fun to close off the blog post with a thrilling video of the music and fireworks that concluded the opening ceremonies?  Well, I forgot my camera, so you'll just have to use your imagination on that one, too.  It was pretty spectacular, though.  They spare no expense on that show.  I'm so glad we went.  It was a very enjoyable evening.

Driving [to] Shower

Nope, not a weather report.  Although, we have had NO rain for such a long time!!  It's mighty dry around here and it's just the first day of summer.  Our lawn is really suffering, and even our trees are looking a little stressed.

Saturday, June 16, Kaylee's sisters-in-law hosted a bridal shower for her up in Salt Lake City.  Gail and I went, along with Grandma L. and Gail's 2 kiddos.  We left Cedar at 6 am, drove right there, enjoyed a really nice shower in West Jordan at Brooke's home.  It was really lovely--both her home AND the shower!  She is quite the hostess and does love doing parties.  It shows.  Mostly it was grandmas, aunts and cousins there.  There was a nice brunch, only one fun game for Kaylee to guess Nick's answers to certain questions.  I'll have to tell you the one that got the most "Oh's".  Nick was asked (and it went both ways--she was asked to say the same about Nick), "What did Nick say was his favorite physical feature of yours [Kaylee's]."  yeah, well, the question was worded so it could be understood.  She had a hard time guessing, settled on "My smile.'  Good answer.  But Nick was quoted as saying, "My favorite thing about Kaylee is that her hand is just the right size to fit perfectly into mine."  Awww, isn't that sweet?  Such a romantic.  We're really excited about their upcoming wedding in July.  She is such a sweet gal.  They compliment each other well. 

Oh, and showers!  I'd forgotten about how many cool gifts and wonderful things one receives when approaching marriage!  This was just one shower and she (they) got TONS of stuff!!  What a haul.  My gift was so dorky...I really need to work at being a better gift-giver.  I'm such a procrastinator.  I did contribute to Gail's thoughtful and creative/personal gift, however, in addition to my dorky gift.  Gail made "sign-in" guest book pages, prettily decorated for the guest book at their receptions.  I provided the album in which to put the pages after they've been signed by the guests.

After the bridal shower, we headed up to North Salt Lake to see some cousins who were in town for a day doing motor cross racing.  Alec was there with his mom, Darla.  They are Liebhardt's from Battle Mountain, NV, and we seldom see them, so that was fun.   We just chatted briefly in the parking lot and didn't stay to see him race.  It was very hot, dusty, and noisy.  He'd done pretty well in the first two races that day.  I still pictured him, oh, about 7 years old or so.  Well, I hardly recognized him when they approached us.  He's taller than me, skinny, and about 15 years old.  Totally different kid than I remembered. I guess they do grow up...

We headed to Nick's house after that.  Eric had stayed up there after his conference in Logan earlier in the week.  We visited briefly, loaded up and headed south.  We ate dinner at the Family Tree Restaurant in Santaquin.  That was fun. I remembered they had large scones, but I forgot just HOW LARGE.  Wow.  I mean, WOW.  Like about a foot long...maybe 14 inches.  They were large.  And yummy.  And so was the rest of the food.

We were back home in Cedar by 7 pm or so.  Tired of sitting, that's for sure, but it was a very nice day!  Yep, no pictures. I forgot my camera.  So did gail.  I have one picture on my phone that I took at the shower (with much difficulty, I might add.  I have a new phone and it's way different than my old one), but I have no idea what to do with it from there.  Maybe someday.  I would have taken a picture of our food, too.  And Nick and Gail having a push-up contest on his living room floor, and the lavender fields . . . you can just picture it all in your minds now, can't you?

Cherry Season!

 We are excited for cherry season.  You'll note that the cherry tree doesn't actually belong to us, nor is it in our yard.  However, a LOT of the cherries do hang over onto our side of the wall and I received permission from the tree's owner to pick those that are on our side.  Yum.  Any day now, they will be ripe and ready for picking.  Some have already been picked by the neighbor's grandkids, but I'll bet they are a bit tart still.  Just a couple more days!!!  Mmmmm, cherries.  We're so excited.

Here is a man out standing in his field.  This is Eric, when our garden was just dirt, seeds and a few little tomato and pepper plants and cabbages.  Now it is mostly weeds, dirt, a few medium tomato plants and some growing cabbages.  And some carrots, spinach, lettuce, beets, cucumbers, summer squash, winter squash, canteloup, peppers.  And lots of Iris leaves.  Are you supposed to cut back the iris leaves after they've bloomed?  I cut back the flower stems, but I saw in someone's yard where they had trimmed the leaves, too.  I've not ever done that.

Wednesday that felt like a Productive Saturday

Today was Wednesday and I had the day off.  I have about 5 days off in June, and this is one of them.  I had an idea of what I wanted to accomplish since I didn't have to be at the library, so this is what I ended up doing.  Not all of it was on the list, but it was still a very productive day and I just wanted to share.  Because productive days don't happen very often.

• Slept until I woke up. (that's always fun!)
• Went for a 4 mile walk up and over Ridge Road.  Took me just about 1 hour.
• Pulled weeds in a very wet and well-watered garden.  Wednesdays are our irrigation days.
• Rode my bike to WalMart to have my glasses repaired. ( I broke off a nose-pad.)
• Balanced my checkbook and paid some bills.
• Washed windows.  I didn't do the basement ones, but did do insides and outsides of almost all the others on our main level.  Blinds, too!  I skipped the big window in our room because the cooler is in it.
• Blogged.

Not bad for the first day of summer.  I have tomorrow off, too.  What shall I do?