So it's been a while, I apologize. I either didn't feel like getting on the computer, the computer didn't want me to get on, or I just plain didn't think about getting on. Regardless, I am now here to update the last several weeks of goings on.

A few weeks ago, Karl and I decided on a whim to go on a weekend trip. We decided on a Thursday to go somewhere, and at 8:30 at night decided on Leavenworth, WA. We lucked upon a B&B that was up on the side of a mountain, in a beautiful location. Here's the view from the deck of the place:

This is a view from a trail behind the house.
Leavenworth is a cute little Bavarian wanna-be town. We happened to pick the start of Octoberfest to head up there. We didn't realize this when we decided to go there. We headed up on Friday after work, we got there about 7:30. The road to get to the B&B was barely wide enough for Karl's truck to get up it. Once he made the first trip up, he apparently felt quite comfortable with the road, because it became his personal race track after that. I'm surprised we didn't have any close calls.

Anyway, Saturday morning we headed to town fairly early. We parked at one end and walked a circle around the town. We hit up several little shops that had some cute stuff in it, including a candle store that even Karl got a little too excited in. Suffice it to say should the power go out this winter, we'll be a nice smelling, very well lit house. Here's a couple photos of the town:


Here's Karl dressed up. No, just kidding. But they are cute.

We had dinner on Saturday at the place we stayed. They offered a gourmet 3-course meal that was scrumptous. The dessert was to die for, some kind of chocolate tart thing. Here's a photo of us on the deck before dinner.

On Saturday afternoon, when we got back from our treck through town, we decided to go on a treck through the woods. The lady who owns the house showed us a route to take that had a little spot you could overlook the valley. So we headed out, me not realizing that the initial steep incline was detrimental to my asthma. Fortunately I had my inhaler, and was able to make the dizziness and those spots go away and not pass out. We enjoyed the walk, managed to wish away the rain that was threatening, and saw some pretty views.

Does this picture remind anyone of a certain male-oriented commerical, minus the bathtubs:


Our cialis picture. Sorry, that was the first thought that went through my head when I walked up to this point. Sad, I know. Karl didn't think it was funny. My co-workers did, so poo on Karl. It was a fun weekend, and we didn't want to leave. But alas, we have to pay for these weekends somehow.

This past weekend, Karl and his friend Nick decided to participate in a sprint triathalon. This consisted of a 300 meter swim in a frigid pond, a 13 mile bike ride, and a 3.1 mile run. Karl managed to finish in 1 hour and 28 minutes, Nick a little less than that. Not bad for not really training for it. Now they're ready to do some more next spring.

Lastly, as you know, we've been working on our yard. The weekend after labor day we finished spreading the dirt and planted grass seed. This was 2 weeks later:

I don't have an updated photo, but today it is almost fully grown in. Who says grass seed doesn't work? The deluge of rain we're getting is helping it along, I'm sure. Karl was grateful for the garage yesterday when he had to do a little work on my car.

Well, that's our life in a nutshell. Karl is headed to BYU-I this week to do some recruiting, so I'll be all by my lonesome for a few days. I'll try not to enjoy my freedom too much.... :-).

I'm a believer!

I haven't given an update on my healthy food efforts recently, so I figured I would tonight. I recently went to see a naturopath, which is a doctor that prescribes earth, not drugs. I have ulcers, several of them. My stomach is a constant knot of pain. Such is the life when you work too much, and can't seem to figure out how to leave it at work. The doctor told me how to fix the ulcers - quit working so much. I already work the minimum hours I'm allowed to, which is still too much. To my credit, I have recognized this fact and am working on fixing it.

Until then, I'll settle for the other things she prescribed - licorice tea and cabbage juice. Yes, you read that right. Cabbage juice. And yes, it's disgusting. I went to Walmart and bought a juicer and some cabbage. I juiced the cabbage and took a swig, and nearly sent it back out as quick as it went in. But, alas, I am drinking it regularly now. And I am a true blue believer now. I had a nasty ulcer attack tonight, I seriously contemplated going to the emergency room. But Karl suggested I first drink some cabbage juice. So I relented, and I feel so much better. Who knew? And the licorice tea is really good. It doesn't taste anything like licorice, it's a smooth sweet tasting liquid. You boil some licorice root in water for 5 minutes, and voila, you have a delicious and healthy drink.

My next appointment is to determine if I am alergic to certain foods, most notably milk. I dread this discovery, as I love milk. But I have made the permanent switch to rice milk, and I've noticed less headaches. Don't know if that's a coincidence, but I find it interesting. Who knew your body and the herbs and natural foods you put in it could be so powerful and affect you in such crazy ways?

As for other fun stuff, we spent last weekend working on 0ur yard. We took full advantage of having Labor Day off, and we each took Friday off as well. We rented a backhoe and tore the yard up. Karl was nice enough to allow me equal time in the saddle, so to speak, which was fun. Other than coming within an inch of taking out our main electrical panel, I did pretty good. I tore things up, Karl came behind me and made it pretty. Despite mother nature's best effort to derail us by sending rain all weekend, we managed to get quite a bit done. As a side note, when I got to work on Tuesday, I discovered I had to go to a training class that afternoon. Guess what it was on......excavation. Go figure. I tried to test out, but they wouldn't let me. Whatever. I got in some more poker playing on my cell phone.

Anyway, here's some photo evidence of the damage:

The before picture, the driveway that we wanted to get rid of.

The new driveway we are cutting in:

Karl at work clearing out a turn-around area:

The new driveway after we've done some work:

The old driveway after the gravel had been peeled up by me. It's now ready for grass seed:I took the time to get a picture of Karl at play, but he didn't bother to get one of me. You'll just have to believe me:The somewhat finished turn-around spot and drive: Karl got to put the garage to use tonight to change the brakes on my car. You can see he's already moved in, despite not having a door yet:And as a side note, we have new neighbors:It's hard to see, but there's a baby horse in there. Pretty fun.

Anyway, that's it. The next step is to actually finish the garage, and get the final permit signed. It's been a fun experience, and it's cool we can say we built it. Hope all is well with everyone!

Pondering life

Life is funny. You cruise along thinking it’s great, maybe having a struggle here or there. But you know deep down that it really isn’t as bad as it could be. Until something comes along, and it is as bad as it could be. As was the case last week for three different people in my life. Which made last week not a whole lot of fun for anyone involved.

First and foremost to me is Jeff and Alissa, who learned that life can be tricky when it comes to life. Literally. While we can never know Heavenly Father’s plan for us, or those coming into the world, we know He knows who needs to spend some time on earth, and who just needs to say they swung by. Jeff and Alissa are putting their baby in the hands of people who are trained to perform intricate procedures, such as the one Maddox needs. Those people also know it takes a little luck, and assistance from above. I pray all involved are listening tomorrow when the work is done, and decisions made. And that Jeff and Alissa will be well. Regardless, we know Maddox is now part of the family, whether we get to meet him here on earth, or later when we all meet again in heaven.

Our bodies have a funny way of reminding us we’re human. Especially when we’re people that like to go-go-go. I think it’s good to have that attitude, it prevents laziness, and keeps the mind growing. But when our body decides, without consulting our brain, that it needs a break, it tends to do so in ways that aren’t too fun. As is the case with Karl’s Dad. His body decided it needed a break, and found a most rude way to force Doug to take a break. And while it’s a treatable issue, it doesn’t make it any more easy to accept or deal with. His body will get it’s break, but at the expense of driving Doug crazy with the thought that he can’t get up and go-go-go like he likes to. Perhaps that’s a good thing, but I’m sure he would have preferred a less intense reason why.

We all have reason’s to worry, especially about our loved ones. Are they going to get to work okay? Are they going to get to school okay? Did I teach them well enough? Will they handle that struggle in the best way possible? And so on. But to have to worry that your husband is going to survive the day while being the target is one thing no one ever wants to have to deal with. My friend/co-worker’s husband has been in Afghanistan for 6 weeks, on the front lines for three weeks, and has lost 10 men from his battalion in the last two weeks. I know my fear for her. I can’t imagine her fear for her husband. I watch her struggle with the guilt she feels for being glad it wasn’t her husband, and dreading the seeming daily e-mail notifying family members of the battalion that another soldier has died. She talks openly about the fact that her husband may not come home, but she dreads the day the green suits show up on her doorsteps. I pray for these soldiers that they can be as safe as possible, knowing not all will be safe. I pray for the families to be able to handle the stress that comes with having someone over there. Most of all, I know these soldiers and their families are hero’s, and am so grateful they are sacrificing their lives, so I may live mine.

Ruminating....

I'm going to steal Jessie's idea of random thoughts for this entry...

I'm at work by myself at 7:30 at night. I "won" the next three nights to be on site while we have two guys spraying noxious smelling stuff in one of the buildings till 11:00. Fun times. I'll entertain myself with writing this entry, reading the internet, and maybe watching some movies. Gotta love getting paid to do nothing.

My co-worker sent an e-mail to the lady that handles access passes for the workers to get on the Army base, and she used the word "herewith". In the return e-mail, the lady made some smart aleck response to Brenda's choice of words. So we decided Brenda would use the thesaurus from now on when sending e-mails to this lady, making sure to use as many big words as possible. So I did the same for the title to my entry here. Fun times looking through a thesaurus.

I find it funny when a General or a Colonel comes around, everyone gets all giddy, like Santa Claus is coming. We had a 1-star General visit our job site yesterday, and his group included some high ranking people. Our office was all excited to see the guy come in, and our project manager and superintendent got to walk around with him. I will admit, I was looking out my window when he showed up. What I find funny is that we are civilians, we don't salute, or live the Army codes. But we all still say "sir" and address him with authority. Whatever works I guess.

Shanequa is back. Shanequa would be my car. She decided when it got to 100 degrees out that she would blow the device that controls the motor temperature, and thus overheat. So she's been parked for the last two weeks. We finally got her fixed, and she's back on the road, looking pimp as always. Jessie and I came up with her name. My friend was calling my car the princess, but the car has too much attitude for that. And Karl thought the car was female, but one with a whole lot of attitude. Fitting for me! After tossing some ideas around, Jessie came up with Shanequa. I'll call her Q for short. Q is one bad chica car!

Karl experienced something I don't think he was remotely ready for over the last two weeks - only having one vehicle in the yard. It was quite the shock to him. We sold the Accord a few weeks ago, and he loaned his F150 to a friend. So we were down to his Tundra. It took a little coordinating, and fortunately he still had the motorcycle, or we would have been up a creek. But I had to laugh a little at how lost he seemed at times.

Before you go buy drugs for some bodily ailment or infection, do a little research to see if garlic covers it. I'm telling you from personal experience, garlic fixes things you'd never guess it would. And there's a lot it fixes. What harm do you have in trying? $1.00 for a head of garlic vs. $20.00 for some drug.

If you'll recall, back in June I posted that Karl and I splurged on some tickets to a Storm game that were right behind the bench. Well, this past weekend we did our other splurge for the season - we sat front row right next to the bench. It was pretty fun. We got to high-five the players when they came out for introductions before the game. Karl was upset because Ashley missed his hand. Furthermore, during the game, Janelle smiled at him twice! So he's thinking about leaving Ashley and going for Janelle. I think I heard she was engaged. Then again, he's married. Whatever.

At one point, Sue was getting ready to throw the ball in right in front of us, and she was bent over holding her knees. I told Karl he should reach out and give her a little tap on the butt. He looked at me like I was crazy. I know it had already crossed his mind :-).

One of the funnest parts of sitting that close to the action is hearing the players talk. We heard some conversations and comments not made for family listening, which was pretty funny. Can't say I was miss clean-mouth when I played. Sorry Mom and Dad. Anyway, it was fun sitting that close to the action. Here's some photo's:

Well, it's 8:00, and I'm already tired. Not good. Three hours to go. I found a poker game on my cell phone the other day that has kept me very entertained during meetings. Perhaps I'll do that and learn how to throw away my tens of dollars. Maybe being at work by myself at 8:00 at night isn't so cool. What things we do for employment...

Musings

Since it is 90 degrees outside today, and I slept in till 9:30, I have been pretty much just hanging out around the house today. In the one room that has air conditioning - my bedroom. After re-arranging my desk area because Karl found the one spot in our house that gets acceptable internet service, I decided to updated our goings-on.

First, I must say good-bye to my friend. Though it was expected, and we've figured it was going to happen for the last six months, Abe finally decided he had completed his task here on earth. He became part of the family in no way any of us thought possible, and we all cried when the phone call came. Thanks for all the memories friend, you will be missed.

We did our family reunion in Salt Lake at the beginning of July. It was good fun, and always a blast getting together with the whole family. Karl and I drove down, it took about 13 hours split over two days. So not bad, nice and relaxing. We were the last to arrive, with the others getting there a few days earlier. We found plenty of activities to do, including jumping on the trampoline, going to the park for water fights, fireworks, hanging out with some family friends, and just hanging out and visiting at Mom and Dad's.

On Saturday, Dad, Jeff, Keyan, Karl and I played 9 holes of golf. I had an interesting time, in that I managed to strain a muscle in my neck on my third swing on the driving range, before we even started playing. Despite not being able to turn my head, I managed to score 2 pars. Not bad considering I haven't played in nine months. The funny part was 5 year old Keyan. It was his first time on a real golf course, and he did so good. He was hitting straight and long shots. By the sixth or seventh hole, Karl finally gave up and had Keyan hitting his tee shots and putts. Karl is new to the game, and is having difficulty understanding it's not about power, it's about control. That doesn't speak to his manhood. Whatever. Anyway, we had a good time.

I didn't get a whole lot of pictures, but here's a few:

Good luck to Jeff and Alissa on this one. He's super cute, and super mischevious.

How is Jefferson always ready for the perfect picture?

Ada is waiting her turn...

Not quite sure what Brynna is up to here, but don't mess with her.

Jessie cheesin'.

KB chillin'.

The grandkids acting like themselves...

We saw this sign up in the mountains at whatever ski resort we were at. Seems to go without saying, but....

Though we spent the majority of our time with my family, we did get a visit in with Karl's sister's family. We had a good time hanging out. We went to the race track out in Tooele and watched the motorcycles race for a little while, then went and played on the go-kart track. Talk about fun! The karts got up to 50 mph on the straights, which made for some fun racing. The best moment was when I was going into a corner and my kart decided not to turn. I couldn't figure out why, and ended up spinning out. When I came to a stop, the front tire fell off. Go figure. It was pretty funny. I got a new kart, and we kept going.

It was a good trip, but we were glad to get home. We have a garage to finish. Which is almost done. We took a break from the garage last weekend, and got in a motorcycle ride, some hanging out, and sold the Accord. It was a busy weekend.

A crazy thing happened this week. I don't know if this made national news, but there was a shooting on the Fort Lewis Army Base on Wednesday. Which is random, because loaded weapons are not allowed on Post. Anyway, it happened at lunch time at the PX, which is basically a big shopping area and restaurant center location. Brenda and I usually go to eat there once a week at the same time it happened. We happened to decide that day to go off Post for lunch. We got a phone call while out and about telling us it happened. Needless to say, it left both of us a little freaked.

Anyway, that's my life in a nutshell over the last few weeks.

One last thing, for Skye. While looking through some photo's, I found this:

To my Sista in the 'hood!

Shanequa's shoe blew up

Ever had one of those days where you woke up to hit the snooze button for the second time, only to realize it's actually the third time. Which makes you 10 minutes late. Then realize your car needs gas, which will add 10 minutes to your lateness. Then 40 minutes into your 60 minute commute you hear a clicking noise. So you turn off your radio to see if it's the radio or the car. Then realize it's your car. And while thinking you'll just go to the next exit, you look over and see a man in a truck frantically pointing at the backside of your car. So you decide to cross 4 lanes of I-5 traffic to get to the median, only to discover your back tire is as flat as it can get. This is where AAA would be handy. What to do? Then you realize you've got this fancy cell phone that can save the world, so you look up a local gas station to get help. Then call, only to be told they don't have a service department, and don't know who does. Then it occurs to you no gas stations do service any more. What next? Ahh, the car came with road side assistance. So you call them, and get a Pakistani woman who can barely speak English, and try to describe your location. O-lym-p-ia. Her response to "I"m at Exit 104" is, "What's the name of the exit?" What part of Exit 104 was hard to understand? So 40 minutes later a van with a handicap placard pulls up, and you have a free tire change. But then you get this brilliant idea that you're only 40 minutes from home, why not go home now and trade cars? That way you can make that trip to Seattle tonight should you chose to do that. What you've forgotten is that trip home takes an extra 20 minutes because you can only go 50 mph with a spare tire on the car. And your car still needs gas. So that 40 minute trip actually takes 65. So, when it's all said and done, instead of being 20 minutes late, you're 3-1/2 hours late. And you get to work just in time for your lunch break.

I wish I knew the moral of this story.

Remember when...

In honor of our family gathering this week, here are some photos to laugh at...

Fortelling my future, I started early with the love of dirt.

When we used to be so innocent and cute. What happened?

Apparently, Jessie was shocked at the tactics being used to get her to smile. And I was not impressed. Nice hair to me and Mom.

The true look of the Dixon family.

Mom may have had an accident in her pants this day. What fun, at her expense. What's new?

Abe the Dog. You rock.

Our last family photo, a few years ago.
Time for a new one, we've had a few additions...

(sorry, I can't find any photos of Tracen other than his baby ones. Have you guys been gone that long?!)

(And I haven't seen Chase yet, so no photo there. I'm sure I'll get plenty this week)

Look forward to the fun times this week! Can't wait to see everyone!!!!!!