And Then Life Takes a Turn...

I've been teasing you with a promised post on Christmas ornaments for a few weeks, and I promise I did start writing it today.  But then I got an email about a job opening that would be so PERFECT for my husband and I got completely carried away and Christmas ornaments just don't sound that interesting anymore.

What's the job, you're asking?  Well, I'm not going to tell you everything because he hasn't even filled out the application, but recently he told me what he really wanted to be doing was working in the great outdoors.  He's always loved biking, hiking, skiing, and is crazy adventurous.  This job would allow him to do all of those things plus a whole lot more...for a living.

What would the job mean for me?  He'd be gone A LOT.  It'd mean a summer of me and 4 kids figuring things out on our own.  It could mean giving up our house and bumming couches from friends and family all summer instead of continuing our search for a bigger place we can all fit in.  It could mean a lot of traveling to where he is, including a trip up the ALCAN Highway with my minivan, a 5-year-old, 2-year-old and 9 month old twins.  It could mean saving a lot of money or turn into having absolutely no money.  And most importantly, it would mean being so incredibly proud of my husband for giving up the security of a decent paycheck at a ho-hum job to do something that he really loves to do!  It'd give me hope for my own dreams coming true in the future, too!

I'll let you know how it all turns out, but for now know that I have a HUGE grin on my face.  And forgive me for not getting around to that very "settled down and domesticated" post I'd been promising...maybe in a few days when I come down off this high..

In My Heart On Thursday (Conquering)

Need a little surge of pride in the time and place that we live?  The accomplishment and hope for the future represented in this video did it for me...

How does it make you feel?

More information on this

 mission to the edge of space

In My Heart On Thursday (Escape)

The Journey That My Heart Is On

My husband is in Seattle this week.  My boys and I were going to meet him there for the Easter weekend and go exploring on the Olympic Peninsula, but the the weather forecast was for low 50's and rainy.  We're not going.  We were going to go to the Redwoods for my 2-year-old's birthday, but we didn't.  I wanted to drive to San Diego, leave my kids with family, and go on a cruise this summer before the baby comes.  Completely off the table.  And the year-long adventure I've been dreaming about?  Most definitely not going to happen.

In full disclaimer, my kids and I are going back to the Sparks Flea Market next month to hang out with my family.  I used all my frequent flyer miles and all our free hotel nights to get us there.  They were going to waste and it's not looking like I will be using them for anything else anytime soon...I don't travel anymore.

Would you mind being the bounce board for my therapy?  

First, I never have renewed my passport.  The money always kept going elsewhere.  The cruise I mentioned earlier would require a passport and applying now would probably not see that beautiful blue book back in my hands until I'm too pregnant to be sailing.  One weekend I had an idea to fly to Canada and go camping in Banff National Park this summer, or to drive to Alaska to visit friends, but those are things I also can't do without a passport. Please don't offer the advice that I could expedite my renewal.  I know.  That adds to the cost which has been inhibiting me all these months and appears to be staunchly implanted in my brain as an excuse not to go get my new photo taken tomorrow.

Second, life happens when you don't realize you're looking right at it.  For 15 years I've had a personal philosophy that people don't need to settle down until they have children that start school.  And with today's technology, that's not even a resolute reason to change your wandering lifestyle if your family is still out there  having fun.  Five years ago when I had my first baby my ideals didn't change, but since then the trips have become routinely shorter and closer to home.  I HATE when people tell me having kids changes things.  I don't think it's an excuse to quit doing things.  How could I have let that happen to me?  

Now I have my soon-to-be kindergartner registered in an online curriculum  that would enable us to keep taking off on far-away adventures.  So what happens?  Life, again.  All the money we'd saved and sacrifices we've made to pack up and leave town weren't for nothing.  They've just turned out to not be for what we'd thought they would be.  Medical bills for new babies and broken arms and who knows what else is to come turn out to cost just about the same amount of money as backpacking around the world for 9 months in bliss.

As for the third and final reckoning in my brain?  My husband has decided he likes living a comfortable suburban life with a safely predictable job, all of his hobbies, and extra-curricular responsibilities.  He has contentedly settled down.  He won't tell me that matter-of-fact, but it's time for me to accept and start dealing with it.  How do I know that's where he's at in his life right now?  He's quit getting excited when I call out of the blue with a hair-brained plan for where we should take off to on the weekend.  I used to jump in the car and show-up unexpectedly wherever he was working out of town, but now he as much as tells me it'd be more responsible if I stayed home and saved the money.  He's in his fourth year of a job that was always supposed to be the hold-over until a great new adventure came along, but now he talks about a year from now when he'll be working more in the office and less on the road.  The final blow?  The year-long traveling life change I believed in wholeheartedly never evolved further than a passing whimsy to be discarded quickly in my husband's mind.  

Having now had my equivalent hour on the couch, how do I evolve from here?

I have no idea.  Always in my mind are the thoughts that I'm being tested and need to learn to be happy in the moment with the circumstances surrounding me.  That it is noble and normal to live in one house & one town with predictable days forever.  I feel guilty that my vision of motherhood, marriage partnership, and family life is so different from everyone else.  I struggle with wondering why I have to be the one that pretends to be something different than what is deeply rooted inside me.  I dread hearing people tell me not to give up on my dream or lose the wandering part of my soul when I don't see how there is any other option for me.  I don't want to be one of those, "When the children are older," or "We'll do that when we retire" type of people, but that is exactly what is happening. 

That is what is happening to me.  Part of me is being buried and the tightening I feel in my chest when I admit it so I can let it go confirms that I've barely embarked on the most challenging journey yet that my heart has been asked to travel.

In My Heart On Thursday

What are you planning for the New Year?

Uniquely December: International Mountain Day

Out my front door right now I can see the snow-topped mountains of Utah's Wasatch Mountain Range and it has me pondering the journey I've taken to get me here from where I grew up on the grassy Midwest plains.

My first trip to the mountains was on a church youth group retreat before I graduated high school.  We took a 14-hour charter bus ride to Estes Park, Colorado and toured through the Rocky Mountain National Park.  Hanging over the edge as the bus crawled around the curves nearly had me jumping out of my skin.  And to this day I think back to our day of cliff rappelling as my first real-life faith lesson (which I failed miserably, but continue to learn from).  

My next foray into the mountains came in a big way the day I left home in my car driving to Alaska.  No person, driving solo for days in early spring over the ALCAN Highway, can say they've stayed sane.  But Alaska grew on me and living within view of Mt. McKinley off and on for eight years gave me a great appreciation for the wonder and magnificence of the Earth and it's Creator.

Several years ago I got to travel with my family to Switzerland where we spent the day shadowed by the Matterhorn.  It was beautiful and impossible not to marvel at it's grandeur as it slipped in and out of it's cover of clouds.

Now here I am living in Utah.  My husband grew up in the mountains and feels out of place in wide open spaces.  My 4-year-old is learning how to ski and I realize I'm now raising mountain boys.  When I first moved here I thought for sure I'd never take the mountains for granted, but the day did come when I was driving down the freeway and was struck by the thought that I hadn't given the mountains any thought for longer than I could remember.  And then the day came when I'd flown back to visit the land of my childhood, but only felt like I was "home" as I flew back over the Wasatch Range to land in Salt Lake City.  

The mountains have come to mean a great deal to me?  What impact have they had on you?

Letter Z

This is the Zebra that ate my car.

I don't know why he ate my car.
I almost died.
(Honest, he wrapped his buck teeth around my mirror and took a bite)
Natural Bridge Wildlife Park, New Braunfels, TX

And that is the end of my A-Z.  It's been super fun for me!  

What was your favorite letter?

H Takes Us Up, Up, & Away

I LOVE hot-air balloons!   Last year we went to the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta for the fiesta and I'm hooked!  That festival has hundreds of balloons lifting off every morning of the 10-day festival.  You can sign up to be part of a balloon chase-team and then get in free for the entire festival.  Last year I pushed my reluctant husband into volunteering and he was addicted after his first day.  He ended up chasing with a team from the Netherlands flying a 10-story-high Rooster balloon.

Last Christmas my husband's boss bought hot-air balloon rides for all his employees.  Oh, that was fantastic for me!  We saved our vouchers and went last week for my birthday!  I think most people have a romantic idea of what it will be like floating in a balloon.  It was exciting and fun, but not necessarily peaceful.  We were in a basket with 10 other people.  The burners control the rate of conversation (or at least how much of the conversation you hear) and they're pretty hot!  One man on our balloon was nearly bald and the pilot had to scrounge up a dirty smelly baseball cap for him to where instead of roasting his head.

I know hot-air ballooning is not for everybody.  It happens in the EARLY morning.  It's more successful in cooler temperatures.  It's not face-paced and you are thousands of feet off the ground suspended in a basket propelled only by a little propane.  But it's definitely worth a try!  The balloons are enormous!  Watching the first balloon of a dawn patrol alight before dawn is mesmorizing.  The coldest air is actually on the ground and warms as you make you way upwards.  And though I'm not afraid of heights, several people have told me that once you're off the ground, height is all relative and not really a problem.  

I think you should try it!  Get up close and see how it happens.  And if you find yourself at this year's Balloon Fiesta (Oct.1-10), look for me!  I'll be there.

G Is Easy

Letters E & F were travel-related posts and today is, too, but then I promise to move on to some other interesting part of my life. The thing is, I live next door to a huge white mountain "G" and am taking a shortcut today by grabbing a post from my Utah travel blog to share with you here....

                                          The Pleasant Grove "G"

The Pleasant Grove "G" has been an important landmark for our family.  As a marker for home, we can point to it from across the valley when our little one asks how much longer until we get home.  He knows the closer we get to that letter on the mountain, the sooner we'll be home.  Along with the BYU "Y", the "G" has also served as an educational tool.  When Word World was teaching him his letters, our little one started spotting them from the freeway and hollering them out proudly.  And most recently, the giant white letter has turned into a fun game of "I Can See a G" as it moves behinds trees and buildings before reappearing a few moments later.  

We have intended to make a trek to the "G" several times.  The lack of clearly defined trail always dissuaded us, and once we discovered the much easier and well-marked BattleCreek Falls trail leaving from the same parking lot, the "G" was pretty much off our radar.  Finally this summer the giant "G" called us so scouted out a route to take us all the way there.  We left our excuses in the car and struck out on a trail that kinda sorta looked it was the right way to go.

The first part of the trail is really steep.  Our little one kept telling us it was "pretty steep," but he kept on trekking.  

 

It's interesting to get up close to a mammoth wild consonant.  On the way up we each took a guess what it would be made of-wood, rocks, concrete.  It's actually made with long strips of white-washed metal, and coming into full close-up view our little informed us we were all wrong....it's made out of chairs.  He could be right-if you think of the nylon weaving of a lawn chair painted white and giganticized, that is what the "G" is made of. 

 

We spent the rest of our time there having lunch in the center of the oversized capital letter.  It is beautiful to get above your regular life-all the traffic, the stores, and the noise; to look across the valley and realize how big Utah Lake really is, how intricately the roads are interlaced, how many reservoirs there are, and where all the dirt trails go. The opportunity to take it all in made the trip worth it, no matter the difficulty we had in getting there.   

Come visit me!  We'll take a hike and you can see it for yourself!

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Far, Far Away

I mentioned yesterday that I've done some overseas traveling.  Today I thought I'd share some thoughts on the foreign countries (and one self-governing commonwealth) that I've visited:

Belgium-My senior English teacher docked me a point on a paper for typing the Grand Place instead of the Grand Palace. It really is Grand Place and I still want my point back.  Make sure to see the night-time laser light show!

Luxembourg-Teeny tiny, but beautiful.  You know the capital city and country are the same, right?  Making it officially Luxembourg, Luxembourg.

France-After two trips to Paris I can officially say I could care less about ever going back there.  The Normandy Coast and the French Riviera, however, are definitely worth repeat visits.

Netherlands-My paternal ancestry and I LOVE this country!!!  

Canada-The thoroughfare for my multiple drives to and from Alaska. I'm still grateful for kind strangers 50km north of Edmonton who helped me change my flat tire.

Mexico-Anyone who tells me they're taking a Mexican Riviera cruise will probably never have to worry about me asking them for travel advice.    

England-I haven't made it out of London, yet, but definitely on my list to go again.

Bermuda-A GREAT cruise destination because all the ports are on the same island.  Get off at the first one and rent a scooter for the rest of your stay.  You don't have to be on the ship when it moves-but know that the island is a little step back in time and all-night gas pumps may not be readily available...

Bahamas-Okay, this is a little cheating because I've only been on the beach Princess Cruises leases.

Guatemala-Does anyone have insight on how safe it is to travel independently here?  Not knowing, we were overly cautious.

Costa Rica-Definitely do the zip-lining.  I went 5 months pregnant.  My husband and I were the only English speakers and after listening to a 20-minute safety speech in Spanish we were told, "Hold here, don't touch here. Go!"  

Panama-Traveling through the canal is amazing!  Tip for my LDS readers-the Panama LDS temple is viewable as you're entering/exiting the east end of the canal. 

Puerto Rico-I mostly remember it being dirty.

Taiwan-This also should be considered a cheat, but a 10-hour over-night layover anywhere counts in my book.

Thailand-Go here!!  Get out of Bangkok right away.  I went north to Chiang Mai and did a jungle trek.  Next time I'll go south to Phuket and the beaches!

Malaysia-Aqua blue beaches, snake temples, and English architecture-a surprisingly interesting destination.

Singapore-As clean as the news reports lead you to believe.  

Spain-Gaudi was such a freak!  A big-dreaming freak!

Australia-Really incredible-Perth was my absolute favorite.  Great opposite-side-of-the-road driving in Tasmania.

New Zealand-The mist in the fjords is worth getting up early for, but I'd spend the rest of my vacationing days on the north end of the north island if I could.  

Tahiti-French-speaking and you'll REALLY benefit from being french-speaking, too.

Italy-Where to start?  Go here...that's all I can say.

Portugal-All the blue & white tiles in Lisbon-enchanting!

Albania-Such a sad looking country.  The fall of communism, the rise of capitalism, and now?  Deserted developments as far as the eye can see.

Croatia-Everything wonderful that, for me, Albania was not. 

Switzerland-Idyllic and the greatest place to have family!

Gibraltar-Okay, the Rock of Gibraltar is a real place!  And at the top is a mess of wild monkeys. Totally awesome!

Elephant Starts With E

In 2002 I took a 4-month backpacking trip with friends.  The trip included stops in the Caribbean, the Mexican Rivera, Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.  By far the most memorable event of that trip was my ride on an elephant's head.

Most rides on an elephant (or camel, or any other exotic animal) take place on some sort of wooden bench or chair for two strapped to the animal's back.  Indeed, my animal did have that.  But, traveling in a group of three that day, one of us was going to be left out.  Not to be discouraged, our guide used a little creativity.  Looking straight at me and taking note that I was wearing "trousers", he found a special seat for me...

Look at the photo again.  Yes, that's my hand on top of an elephant's head!  My front-row seat for an hour-long elephant ride was hovering over the elephant's neck.  Let me tell you, it was invigoratingly harrowing!

To start with, I'm not an animal person.  Add to that the fact that elephant hair is coarse and wiry and their skin is extremely dry; not the nicest resting place.  Then consider that an elephant is considerably wider than your normal riding-type animal.  And finally, let me explain to you that when an elephant is nervous, or concentrating, or struggling down a riverbank, he will wrap his ears back tightly against his body and around whatever else he finds there...in other words, he will wrap those rather strong ears around your legs and hold them still until he's comfortable again and feels like letting them go.  

Now looking past all that, believe me when I say my elephant ride was one of the most INCREDIBLE experiences of my life thus far.  I would do it again in a snap and absolutely recommend you jump at the opportunity should you ever find yourself in the wilderness of northern Thailand. Just be sure to travel in an odd-numbered group and wear your trousers...

(My one piece of advice is this:  Elephants are large animals and so logically have large poo.  Large poo makes a big splash when dropped in a river.  Elephants may be tall, but an elephant poo splash will always be taller-look away and keep your mouth closed.)

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