BYGTWSO!-Day 25

K kindly pointed out my little pile of sandals and flip flops which had somehow accumulated in the middle of the dining room...how did that happen??? For the last decade or so, it's been nothing but hiking boots and brown socks! And these are not all of the pairs of sandals and flip flops I own. I wonder why I need so many different pairs. In fact, I'm certain I need more. Sandals. And flip flops. I just do.

I drove up the canyon this morning to volunteer at the cave, but S. was missing from her duty post. School was calling my name, so I worked there again today. Couldn't stay long though, because I really wanted lunch. I added tomato, mushrooms, and salmon to the leftover salad from Olive Garden yesterday. Dee. Vine!

With lunch came dish duty, a little more laundry, and receipts (we keep spending and we keep wearing clothes). And a shower (no point in showering before the cave trail, at least for this sweat monster). I cleaned and organized some things in our closet and then...drum roll please...I ironed. I ironed while watching Simon Birch, a nice-ish movie, but a little too cheezy for even me--ruined the emotion that was supposed to be there. My favorite line between these two twelve year old boys was, "Why won't your mom just tell you who your father is? You already know you're a b@$t@rd. You may as well be an enlightened one." Anyway, the ironing took exactly the same amount of time as the movie, so that worked out well.

We had spaghetti for dinner, if you must know. K did the dinner dishes. I've been reading a lot and appreciating the time to do so. This evening, we walked down to the pool. K left early, but I stayed until I was the last one there. However, I did leave before Jose arrived to lock up.

There was a couple in the pool clinging to each other, face to face, while talking and giggling. Didn't take long for me to figure out it was their first date. I think they're both in their thirties. He casually mentioned, between giggles, that he has sleep apnea. She didn't catch on. She asked, "Oh? You have trouble sleeping? When I can't sleep, I read a book at one in the morning!" He caught on that she didn't catch on. More giggles. He explained sleep apnea a little further and mentioned he'd had surgery to enlarge his windpipe and that was necessitated by acid reflux. More giggles. Then he said, "I guess I shouldn't be talking about all my ailments on a first date!" More giggles, more clinging. She followed up with, "Well how else are we supposed to get to know each other?!?" There were about fifteen other people around, jumping, diving, splashing, and what not, but those two were oblivious. With all the splashing, they spoke more loudly, so I wouldn't call it eavesdropping. I'd call it entertainment.

BYGTWSO!-Day 24

Scripture study, pool exercise, watered flowers, shower, shave, and shine, visited friends, delivered gifts, worked in my classroom, ate out at Olive Garden, pharmacy, Red Box, movie/mostly nap, planned the future (that's right, the whole thing, right down to the smallest detail), called some friends (VT), watermelon for dinner (so full from lunch), watched Night of the Grizzlies on PBS (ate popcorn...light dinner), and of course, blogged.

Hubby's iPOD

K got an iPod a couple of years ago. I don't know what all he has loaded on it, but he seems to load stuff regularly. I usually only use his iPod while sitting on an airplane. K will say something like, "Do you want me to find a conference talk for you or maybe Car Talk or maybe a podcast about the Civil War?"
We used his iPod for Family Home Evening the other night. You see, K downloads the Ensign every month so we pulled up President Uchtdorf's Home Teaching message for this month about being in the middle. That is just one little slice of my darling husband.

And last week in Glacier...K got into the tent before I did one evening. When I got in and all settled, he said, "Wanna watch a geology video?" Yep, before our trip, he downloaded several little geology talks/videos about Glacier National Park so he/we could keep learning all the time. We watched one about argillite, the type of rock we'd been noticing in the park and which the ranger had talked about during her evening program an hour prior.

I just love so many things about him!

BYGTWSO!-Day 23

Doctor appointment, car wash, bank, pharmacy, reading, laundry, swimming, and the monthly Relief Society Midweek Meeting (it was wonderful! thanks to all the ladies who planned, prepared, and participated). I had a perfectly ripened avocado sliced on my sandwich for lunch along with mustard, tomato, spinach and turkey--divine! I also had fresh cherries with lunch--divine! Love, LOVE, LOVE having time in the summer to prepare fresh, healthy lunches here at home. And time to peacefully sit and savor them.

I love having a clean car, inside and out, but sadly, I just don't keep up with it like I used to. The inside doesn't get too bad, but the outside was a shabby mess. As I tipped the guy for hand waxing it, I expressed my delight and he told me he had a lady come in with a Suburban earlier today with seats that were "practically coated with candy." When she came back later to retrieve her vehicle, she started to cry because she was so happy with how clean it was. She asked how they had done it. He said, "Ma'am, I had six people working on your car for two hours straight!" Cleanliness can be so temporary and yet so satisfying.

BYGTWSO!-Day 22

Today was Garden Day. After being gone for two weeks, we had a little work to do. The garden is actually flourishing, much to our surprise. Things are growing well enough to count on some vegetables soon! We'll let you know if and when the day actually comes. It was hot, hard work, but we kept each other going.

After the garden, we headed for Walgreen's to order prints of some of our Glacier photos. Then we went to the post office to resume delivery!

After the post office, we hit the grocery store and stocked up on fresh produce and a few other items. Back at home, we fixed and ate lunch and then washed dishes and got dinner going in the crockpot. After this, we sat down to work on finances: balanced last month's statement, recorded all of our trip receipts, etc., etc., etc. All the while, the washing machine and dryer were doing their duty, so we stopped at times to fold and hang clothing.

Dinner was so good (baby back pork ribs)! Dishes again...not so good! A little more laundry, a little Family Home Evening, and a little more trip planning (I know. We are ridiculous!). After our calendar/Rand McNally Road Atlas party, things are winding down for the evening. Just wish the temperature outside would wind down a tad as well.

By the by, I had the opportunity to drive someone to the Emergency Room last night. We were there for about three and a half hours. She's doing fine, but boy, the other people walking into that place had stories! Bless those ER workers! Especially the gal who welcomes and processes everyone--smile on her face no matter what.

One of my favorite moments was when we were almost leaving. It was 10:30 p.m. and in walks an older woman holding a towel to her head with blood spilled down the front of her shirt. Okay, I get it, a bleeding head wound. Another woman was with her, probably her daughter. With them was an older boy, maybe 10-12 pushing a stroller with a younger boy, maybe 2 years old. To enter, you have to go through these automatic double doors, so as Mom was escorting Grandma in, she called to the older boy behind her, "Stay right here!" The obedient fellow stopped on a dime. Right there between the double doors.

Immediately, Mom and Grandma disappeared further inside where the kids couldn't see them. I wanted to invite them through the second automatic door to the waiting room where the rest of us were, but decided to not interfere. When Mom says "stay right here" in THAT tone of voice, well, of course, you would stay right there, no questions asked. Soon after, Dad arrives along with four more children, all aged between the older boy and the kid in the stroller! This is cracking me up that they brought the whole fam damily to the ER for Grandma's bleeding head wound. I mean, it's 10:30 p.m. and I know it's summer vacation, but shouldn't someone be thinking about putting some of these children to bed? Maybe they were out somewhere with only one vehicle. I understand.

So anyway, Dad and all the kids also stop between the double automatic doors and I heard the dad ask, "Why are you waiting here?" The kid responded with the best, most uncontested excuse anyone in the universe could ask for, "Mom told me to." Dad did not take one step further, because, you know, when MOM SAYS, and she says it in THAT tone of voice, nobody, and I mean NOBODY dares to defy! Especially when Grandma is bleeding.

So then Mom comes back to the double doors because she needs Grandma's purse. However, the automatic doors are confused because there are now SEVEN people standing between the two sets of doors and the sensors forgot how to open. Mom is saying, "I need Grandma's purse!" Dad is waving his hands up high in the air to get the doors to open. Mom says more loudly, "Give me Grandma's purse!" The doors still don't open. It was just comical, but I wasn't laughing out loud. Finally, the doors open, Mom got Grandma's purse, and that's when we made our exit--you know, while the doors were still open.

BYGTWSO!-Day 21

Lake McDonald is my favorite lake, I'm pretty sure. The following images are looking north, looking south, and then our stop at Garnet, another ghost town. We met my youngest sister, Angie, for lunch in Missoula, but I completely forgot to get her photo. The Mister and I packed it in the best we could on this trip. There are so many details I'm leaving out. We made chicken fajitas one night (a new camping menu for us to change things up a bit) and pork and noodles another night. We paid $2.50 each for shower tokens and just as I got in to the shower booth and undressed after waiting for three other ladies to have their showers, a man opened the door to the place (but not my booth) and said, "Maintenance! The showers will close in ten minutes!" Oh great. The tolken would produce hot water for eight minutes, but if I took the whole eight minutes, that would only leave two minutes for dressing and that was cutting it a little close for me, so I hurried through my "shower" and dressed, feeling nervous the whole time that Mr. Maintenance was coming back any second. We went to an evening program about wildlife and the ranger said someone that very day had encountered a grizzly on the trail (in an area near where we were hiking) and a man in the front row raised his hand and said, "That was me and my wife!" Turns out they followed the protocols and did everything right and all was well. K has been to Yellowstone three times, Grand Teton twice, Glacier once, and he has still never seen a bear in the wild. While driving home, he said, "Well, now that we have bear spray, maybe we should go back to Yellowstone." So many trips, so little time. However, I feel pleased that we've been able to spend so much time together and that my Summer Vacation has been meaningful and not wasted. We will rest this week and catch up on household chores. But Yellowstone and so many other places are calling to us!

BYGTWSO!-Day 20

Our adventures continued in Glacier--we took a boat tour at Swiftcurrent Lake near Many Glacier Lodge. We walked "over the hill" and continued on a different boat at Lake Josephine. We had some cold and windy times, bundled up on the Fourth of July. We hiked on the Swiftcurrent Pass trail to Redrocks Lake and the falls above. More sheep, more goats, more deer.