Uniquely December: Bill of Rights Day (and In My Heart On Thursday, as well)

Our Bill of Rights...have you read them recently?

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?

Sleepy Time

Sleep.  I absolutely love it. That has not always been the case.  Here's the journey sleep and I have taken to get us to the symbiotic relationship we enjoy today:

High School: Who sleeps when they're in high school.  I mastered the art of waking up, getting dressed, and rolling out the driveway in 5 minutes.  My sister Kathy was thankful she never had to worry about sharing the bathroom while she was getting ready.

College:  I worked graveyards doing night audit at a hotel, a good amount of overtime covering day shifts, and took 21+credits at school.  One semester my schedule required me to leave for school Friday at noon and not return home to sleep until Tuesday morning at 8AM.  I still tremble thinking of the day I pulled in my driveway after driving the 30 minutes across Des Moines but not remembering a single thing I did after clocking out and getting in my car to head for home.

Early 20's:  Most of this time I was in Alaska. In the summers I lived 2 hours away from any civilization.  With friends, I'd often work all day, drive into Fairbanks for a full night of fun, then head back home in the wee hours of the morning to make it to work the next day.  I'm 100% convinced that I ran over a human foot on one such excursion. 

Winters I lived in Fairbanks working two jobs.  On the weekend friends and I spent our time dancing until closing time at the Greyhound Lounge.  I decided it was time to catch up on my sleep the morning I got up and drove to work thinking I was going to be late for my 7AM shift.  I drove past 4 bank clocks but didn't register the time until I parked in the hotel parking lot and realized it was only 2:45AM.  I'd been asleep for a whopping 30 minutes before waking up in my panic.  

Late 20's:  Sleeping got better after I got married.  My husband and I quickly adopted a routine of not going to bed until well after midnight, but most of the time I could sleep in a little bit and still wasn't feeling like I needed a whole night's rest to fully function.

Now:  After having my second baby my body decided it would go on strike if I tried rousing it before getting 8 hours of sleep.  We could have a party if I let it have 10.  I still haven't figured out how to get in bed before midnight, but my husband is a saint who gets up with the kids and lets me sleep in the morning.  Heaven help me if he ever gets a job that requires him to be gone early.  

And that brings me to this weekend.  At 11:30pm on Saturday night my sore throat decided to explode with a pain I've never felt before.  My husband ran to the store for cold medicine.  I'm very slow to take medicine, and when I do it's usually only a half-dose, so when he gave me a full dose and I swallowed it I should have expected it to knock me out.  

That would have been a huge understatement!  I woke up at 10:30 long enough to agree I should stay home from church, and then not again until 12:50.  When my family got home from church I crawled back in bed and slept the rest of the day.  Literally.  I woke up at 7:30.  Everyone was getting into bed when I decided to start my day-still feeling a little groggy.  And then I crawled back in bed with my husband at our normal time.  

This morning I'm feeling pretty great!

A-R

Let's Do A Little A-Z

We've all seen it-People out in blogworld playing a little game of A-Z.  There are lots of variations, but the idea is always the same: Starting at the beginning of the English alphabet, work your way through to Z, sharing little snippets of yourself along the way.  In the past I've had little interest in jumping onto the bandwagon, but something in my mind recently said, "Hey, go ahead and give it a try!"  So for as long as it takes me to get through the 26-letters, here is A-Z, Wandering Still-style...

My last name growing up started with double-A's.  Aa.  I loved ALWAYS being the first name called on the roll-call list.  No waiting  around or worrying that I'd quit paying attention and miss someone calling my name. I had no sense of humor for substitute teachers cleverly trying to "switch things up" by calling out names in reverse, starting with "Z".  No one else was buying it were they?  If I were a Wilson or a Van Wyk or a Young I'd probably have been annoyed because I wasn't used to being first and so I did just miss you calling my name...

My married name is a good-ol' middle-of-the-alphabet name.  Not too far in to bore me, but enough in that I have to stay on my toes.  But,as I sit here thinking about it, there aren't a lot of moments in adult life that call for a long line of attending names to be called out in succession, are there? 

Huh.  Glad I had my double-A name back when it meant something.

In My Heart On Thursday

"The problem with history was that it was written by the survivors, and they usually wrote it in sunshine, or harvest day, from victory stands."

-Timothy Egan, The Worst Hard Time

It's What Motivates Me

I'm a spur-of-the-moment kind of girl.  Not necessarily the drop everything and go kind of girl that I used to be, but an instant planner.  My husband can mention a random event in passing and 15 minutes later I'm bombarding him with the best dates to do it and how to get there and where we should stay and how much the whole thing is going to cost.  At that moment I am 100% ready to go....15 minutes (or less)...and my husband is left trying to remember if he was the one who'd set the whole trip in motion.

So, what motivates me?  Let me walk you through the three adventures I've wanted to embark on just this week.

To witness, or be a part of, history.
My sister called this week to ask what channel would be broadcasting the launch of space shuttle Discovery.  Three minutes before blast off we found it on CNN and then the NASA channel.  I recorded it and watched later with my family.  Watching instantly took me back to 3rd grade, sitting in my school desk, watching the launch and subsequent explosion of the Challenger.  It moved me.  It was my husband who later reminded me there are only going to be two more shuttle launches in the entirety of history.

Getting from Utah to Florida for a space launch is not an overnight jaunt.  Plane tickets, lodging and rental cars are going to cost a bit of money.  But can you put a price on creating memories?  The last two launches are scheduled for April 19 and June 28 and I want to be there.  When my children are writing school reports about space, I want them to have first-hand stories to tell.  When the world starts to forget this incredible part of United States history, I want to have first-hand knowledge to share and remind them.

Anything Is Worth Free
I have a NASCAR family (at least at the beginning of the season).  My dream would be to buy the RV infield weekend package and surprise my dad with the trip of a lifetime.  However, until I wake up in a bed of money, I'm more than willing to get in on the events more within my budget.  This weekend's Kobalt 400 race in Las Vegas is the closest the NASCAR circuit will come to me this year.

Of course I want to go.  At first it was just a joke with my husband.  It would get us out of a weekend of church stake conference meetings.  Then I discovered there are two days full of free activities well worth seeing.  On Thursday there are autograph sessions with drivers we follow and my dad's favorite racer, Danica Patrick.  Both Thursday and Friday you can watch practice laps and qualifying laps in the stadium for free.  And Thursday night the NASCAR car haulers parade down the Las Vegas strip.  After paying for gas and dirt-cheap Las Vegas lodging, it's an entire weekend of free!

It's There!
Utah is an extremely diverse state and I've explored nearly every inch of it.  I feel sad to talk with people who live here and have never ventured away from their mile of the Wasatch front-especially in Utah County. We're right in the middle!  Nowhere is too far from here.  Moab is the perfect place to get away from the mid-winter blahs!  I've learned that south of I-70 does not automatically guarantee it's always going to be warm enough for camping, but even in March the days are beautiful.  Fresh air and sun on your skin.  Who doesn't want a little bit of that?

Getting YOU Out There
Unfortunately, I'm probably not going on any of these trips soon.  We're working hard to pay off debt and save money for our 2012 multi-month get-away.  And so, if I can't go, I want to find an opportunity that will inspire you.  How great it makes me feel to pass on dates and times for local parades or festivals or share my travel "secrets"  when friends are heading out of town.  I love planning and finding good deals and am more than happy to do the dirty work if it will get someone else out on the road.

These are a few of the things that motivate me.  Traveling is what gets me excited.  Exploring and experiencing make up a huge part of who I am.  And I guarantee that this week I'll have a whole new bundle of ideas about where to go and what to do.  Want to come along with me?

Tragic Day in Utah History

 

Built in 1883, the Provo Tabernacle caught fire this morning shortly before 3AM.  Our kids are sick and no one in our house was sleeping so we decided to drive down and witness this horrible historical event.  The roof collapsed near 6AM and it's expected the building will be a total loss. 


For photos, video, and more information, visit my family blog here