Things to Blog About

Sometimes, especially in Fall and Winter (and Fall has completely moved in around here already), my poor blog sits empty because I can't think of anything to write about. So, if there's any ideas out there of things you'd want me to write about, just let me know. Otherwise, I'll probably have little spurts of blogging productivity every now and then.

We have a borrowed power washer in our garage, waiting for the rain to let up for a few days so we can clean off our deck and restain it. There are too many people moving this Saturday so we regret that we can't help everybody, but it will sure be a busy day. I think I get to babysit since I'm not up to lifting boxes yet.

The doctor told me I'm well enough to stop physical therapy, but I'm not well enough to resume normal fun sports (I miss volleyball!) I will really miss PT, especially since I'm going to have to continue to do the exercises on my own anyway and I don't have the most important things at home, like the giant heat packs, the little cool eletrical shock gadgets that mess up the pain signals, or the massage therapist.

I've found some fun books to read lately - like the Adoration of Jenna Fox, and Cybele's Secret, and others that I can't find the titles to right now because our library computer system is undergoing massive upgrades this week so we can't access anything online. And I've found at least two books that I picked up at the library, took home, opened up and dropped in disgust. Really! The covers should have a Mr. Yuck sticker or something to warn you of some of these things. I am also attempting to read an e-book that a friends gave me. I want to read it. I just don't want to read it on a computer. Sigh.

I have a new craft light. Well, I will have a new craft light after my birthday. For now it is sitting in a box waiting for someone to wrap it for me (hint, hint!). Then I will have good light to see to build puzzles or cross-stitch (or more realistically, to sort through mail, file papers, and pay bills).

I am off of the blood thinners. ... ! I am trying to work through the anxiety I now feel every time my calf feels tight or my ankles get swollen. In the next few weeks I see the doctor again and have some tests done to see if I have a tendency towards forming the bad blood clots (DVTs or PEs). Anyone who has ever seen me stress out can imagine how I am feeling about the next few weeks. And you can all be really, really glad you're far away from me right now. :)

I am behind on work, which is of course why I needed to take a mid-day break to post this, and some of my favorite people to work with have transferred out of my group. At least they're still in the same office. And I have been attacked by a giant swarm of zucchinis and squash. Or a swarm of giant zucchinis and squash. Yum.

(Mr. Zucchini on his way in to work)

Time for a Change?

I'm fundamentally just too lazy to change my regular email account to another service. But this could convince me, since I've been locked out of my Inbox for three full days now.

About a piano...

When a piano takes a bath
The waters swirl with wrath.


When you press a piano's keys
If it's old you just hope it won't wheeze.

Music is sweet
Playing piano is a treat.

The keys are white
Even in the night.

When a piano writes notes
It plays them on boats.

When a piano says hello
It sounds very mellow.

When you press a piano's pedal
It sounds very high, low, or middle.

There's a piano named Lina
When played sounds like a hyena

About the author
Julie is nine years old. She loves to read and play on the piano. She is going to take swimteam for the fourth time. She is in fourth grade, loves to write, and is good at rhyming. She loves school, and likes horses.

This is from a little homemade book I made when I was nine. I found it as I was sorting through boxes of old papers. I hope it made you laugh.

Hooray for Old Friends!

Not that I'm calling anyone old, in particular; except we did all own up to feeling much older than when we were at BYU together.

After a day of work we got together for a walk in the Grass Lawn Park in Redmond. The park was really cool - a nice variety of paths in the main park and through the woods, plus fields for baseball and soccer, plus tennis courts, and then bunches of play areas for kids with these really cool rope structures to climb on.

I love trees

Which is why I was pretty nervous to have our backyard trees cleaned up. But it had to be done - the big oak was just about touching the roof!


The other problems included a couple of evergreens with a lot of dead branches at their base, an old, tired apple tree which never even flowered anymore, and a pine tree that was leaning over so much that the roots were starting to come up out of the ground.

So I called AG Tree Service. They came to my house to give me an estimate the same day that I called. We went over the various "problem areas" in my yard. We worked out a plan and the crew showed up the next day to make my yard beautiful!

Here's what they did:

They removed my apple tree and pine tree, even grinding up the stumps so that we can use the space to plant something new.


They cleaned out the dead branches and raised the bottom level of the evergreens to about the height of the fence behind them so that we could keep the privacy they provide.


I admit that I miss the whole "Christmas-tree" look of a tree that reaches down to the ground, but about 75% of those lower branches were just dead sticks.


My favorite was the oak tree. It went from a wild and shaggy monster tree that was reaching out to touch the house and had branches dangling so far down into the yard that we could walk right into them ... it went from that to a beautiful tree that raises high up overhead, opening up space in the yard while still towering over the house and providing some summer shade.