For the Beauty of the Earth and a little dog sledding...

“Oh, earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you.”

-Thornton Wilder

This quote was in my inbox the day before we left for Yellowstone this month.  We went down for our usual snowmobiling trip with Vision Source.  It was fun.  The weather was good, a little foggy to be able to go to Two Top, but we still had fun, were able to snowmobile a lot, and in a new twist, we both got stuck at different points in the day.  

This quote is from "Our Town", a play by Thornton Wilder.  I imagine Emily is saying it as she looks down on her town after she dies.  She realizes how great the earth is, what she had when she was there, and what she is missing now that she has passed on to the other side.

My first thought when I read this is how beautiful and wondrous the earth is.  I can't help but utter a prayer of Thanksgiving when I am out in Nature.  At times I am close to being overcome by the Earth and her MANY facets.  Each beautiful in its own way.  In fact, one of my favorite instagram accounts is usinterior!  Each day I get at least one amazing photo of this place we call Earth, and the diverse beauty of it.  One of the best examples of our gorgeous world is Yellowstone National Park.  Unfortunately, this year, I really didn't get any good pictures, so I stole from my archives for this post.  The great thing about that is the sights are still there, still breathtaking, and barring some volcano or other natural disaster, will be around for a long time.  

The Snow Giants

The falls of the Firehole River - Yellowstone National Park

One of the many geothermic features at Yellowstone National Park

So, yes Emily, Earth is to wonderful for us to realize...in so many ways!!  I'm grateful for a Heavenly Father who loves us so much, He sent His son to create this wonderful planet for us to live on.  Yes, it has its problems, (although, I'd say the majority of those are caused by the inhabitants, and not the planet itself) but, everyday, I am grateful to be here, in such a lovely place to live, to love, and to prove I am up to the challenge of living in such a way so I can return to that same Heavenly Father, whose daughter I am, someday.  That is what life is all about.

Now, on to less weighty matters...

The day after snowmobiling, we got to try dog sledding!  That was a great experience!  Definitely a new one!!  There were two rules.  1 - Hang on.  2 - Don't let go!   You have to hang on because the dogs LOVE to run!  They are bred to run.  As soon as they realize it is almost time to go, they bark, they jump, they whine, they can't contain themselves until they get down to the business of pulling the sled!  So, should the driver not be able to step on the brake, they will take off down the trail!

Well just let me say in my defense that it is really hard to steer the sled, and at one point, I leaned hard into the turn, and thought we were going over!!!  I broke rule #2.  Luckily, our guide, Moffet (is that the greatest name for a sled dog guide?) was in the front of the sled and jumped out, and stopped the sled.  Who knows where John would have ended up otherwise??  I ran fast to catch it, but would have been toast if not for Moffet.

John was a much better driver, to say the least.  I was happy to turn over the proverbial reins when we got back to the start, and he had another successful run with the dogs.  He did not break Rule #1 or Rule #2.  He is a good listener!!

At the helm of the dog sled.  (Do you hear the foreboding music???)

The Cardigan Post

This post has been rattling around in my head for about a week.  It all started when a friend and I were having a discussion (through email, not a face to face discussion) about the pearls she wore to church.  In the course of said discussion, she commented that some day she wanted to own as many cardigans as Mimi and me.

Now, Mimi and I do have a lot of cardigans, and more than one of which could be considered the same (or close to it).  Many is the time we have shown up at church wearing alarmingly similar outfits.  We've even joked that we should call each other before we leave the house to make sure we won't be twinners!  :)

Slight digression - As you can already tell, we both have much the same taste in clothing styles.  We both like to shop at Eddie Bauer and yes, we know that sometimes (many times) the clothing there is a little expensive.  We have the "Eddie Bauer theory" that when you purchase something that is a little steep, we both can completely justify the purchase because we are also very much keepers of said clothes, for a long time, therefore, getting many wearings out of those quality Eddie Bauer clothes.  Note that I rarely buy something at EB that is not on sale, so that makes our theory even better!  This, of course, would not work if one or both of us were fashionistas and wore something for one season, then passed it off to the thrift shop.  Come to think of it, rarely do I give something to my favorite second hand shop that I don't feel a little bad because it is usually out of style and very worn out - possibly with a broken zipper, a stain on it or a hole in it.  I'm not sure I'm doing them any favors being a donor.

Now, back to the original post...

Cardigan - a usually collarless sweater or jacket that opens the full length of the center front

Origin - James Thomas Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan †1868 English soldier

First Known Use: 1862

Geographical location - former county W Wales ∗ Aberystwyth

As far as cardigans go, they may be my favorite clothing item -
-They don't have to be a perfect fit, like jeans.  Ugh!!  In other words, THEY ARE COMFORTABLE!!
-They keep you warm.  My favorite time of year is when the autumn air starts getting crisp, and the weather begs for a cardigan!  Heaven!!!
-They are not fussy.  They just do their job, then quietly wait for the next time they are called into service.
-They are versatile!  I can wear a cardigan all day long, starting with Seminary, switching out of my skirt to pants/jeans, and go the rest of the day!  You gotta love such an accommodating piece of clothing.  In fact, today, that very thing happened.  I am still wearing the cardigan I put on at 5:45 this morning.  Again, ya gotta love it!!
-For the most part, they are easy to take care of.  (At least the ones I buy).  As long as I remember to wear an apron when I cook, I don't have to wash my cardigans very often, and when I do, they seem to come out of the laundry room no worse for the wear.
-They invoke images of Mr. Rogers, and librarians.  Two things I love!  (One of the blogs I like to follow "The English Geek", is written by a part-time librarian, and she posted about her life as a librarian and they part cardigans play, but I can't seem to find it at the moment.  You'll just have to take my word.)
-It seems they were first used exactly 100 years before I was born!  That has to mean something!
-Given my love for all things across the pond, it seems fitting they are named after a place exactly there - across the pond!  :)
I'm sure there are more, but suffice to say, those are reasons enough.  I (heart) cardigans.
Ah cardigans!!

Not convinced of my adoration for the cardigan? Consider this quote from Ashley during planning for her wedding.  I was stressing about what to wear, and she said "Mom, you cannot wear a cardigan and khaki skirt!"  :)  It still makes me chuckle when I bring that to mind.

(In case you are wondering, I do not have a count on my cardigans.  I know there are a lot, but I haven't had to build a wing onto my bedroom to house them, so I think I'm okay.  Plus, I can justify their presence in my closet because I wear them!  OFTEN!  Especially this time of year.)

Have I mentioned that I just got one in the mail?  Today.  From Eddie Bauer!  Yes!!

A New Discovery

While I'm not one to shy away from new food, and certainly not from squash, I have never done much with Spaghetti Squash.  I may have bought it years ago, or had a fresh one from someone's garden, but I'm not sure I made it into something that we all really loved.  In fact, I am sure of it, given that it has been so long since another one has come home from the grocery store.  But all that changed when I decided on a whim to buy one a few months ago, and then searched the internet (the fountain of all cooking wisdom) for some way to use it.

And now, Baked Spaghetti Squash with Beef and Veggies is the new recipe that is getting rave reviews around here. (Not my photo, my dishes aren't near that nice, and flat leaf parsley is not something I usually have hanging out in my vegetable drawers :)  I do like to make it with ground Italian sausage, and I'm not sure I use the exact amounts of red and green peppers, but so far, everyone has liked it.  Actually, I can't say everyone.  Even as I type, Trevor is wondering why we have been having it so often, so I guess not all are fans!  :)



So, in the interest of good food, I'm sharing it with you.  Give it a try, maybe it will become a favorite at your house too!

And in the interest of movies about food, if you haven't seen The Hundred Foot Journey, with Helen Mirren, you may want to give it a try!  It's both sweet and funny, and we all enjoyed watching it!

Bon Appetit!

Au revoir, 2014...

Just a quick post about 2014.  The good, the bad and the ugly.  (Since it will be quick, it will probably be incomplete, but oh well.)

The good - Where to start?
-A new grandson - pictures here
-Sister Rietz serving in the California Rancho Cucamonga Mission.  She's 7 months in and going strong.  You can follow her adventure at her blog
-Teaching Seminary.  Who knew I would love it so much?  And love it I do.  I have a great class who show up, stay awake and are a joy to meet with 5 mornings a week - see this post
-Thanksgiving with the family.  see this post
-The first Roommate Rendevous  - see this post
-Many good books - Non-fiction seemed to be my genre this year - here is one I really enjoyed
-Watching my family continue to grow and seeing the great people they are becoming - you'll have to peruse the blog to find examples.  I'm sure I included plenty!  :)

This is just a sample of the good.  So many things to remember and to be grateful for.  I hope I appreciated and will continue to appreciate them enough.

The bad - Luckily not the longest list, but still long enough...
-Too many people we know passed away too soon - here is one story
-We didn't go to Australia - I could list this under "ugly" because it makes me very sad, and the regret       I feel about this is something I have to let go, because I can't change anything.  Lesson learned             though - take the matter into my own hands if I want something badly enough.
-Not enough blog posts, quilting, hiking or bike riding...no posts, just 3 resolutions for 2015!

The ugly - okay, there really isn't anything to put here unless you want to see a picture of my varicose veins, and really, who wants to see that?  ;)  My life is great, and my family and I are richly blessed.  Sure we have ups and downs, but isn't that what life is all about?

I'm excited to have a new year ahead of me.  I just saw a quote today about how we have 365 pages of a new book to write on.  I'm looking forward to seeing how our story unfolds in 2015.

Happy New Year!!

I give Thanks for...

FAMILY!!

Hands down, the greatest gift a girl could have.  

Here are a few pictures from our weekend in Utah, and a few things that happened that we don't have pictures for.  Just let me say, it was a wild and crazy weekend, we came home ready for a nap, and the drive home was long, but...we wouldn't have done it any different!!  It was a perfect trip spent with people we love.  

(The pictures are out of order, but if I spent time rearranging them, I would decide I don't have time to finish this post, so take it or leave it.)

Saturday evening, we ended up at Temple Square, but really only got to glimpse the Christmas Lights.  This is a good picture though, no?  Four beautiful girls, two cute little boys and the Salt Lake Temple in the background.  We don't even need lights to make this a pretty picture.  (Okay, we could have done with a little better photography, but it is what it is.)  We met up with one of the families Amber has gotten close with on her mission and we got to hear all about her, and what a good missionary she is.  This mama's heart is full!!  

There was a suprise activity for just the girls on Saturday morning.  Can you guess from the picture?  Yep, pedicures at a VERY calming spa!  My birthday/Christmas present!!  It was a treat for sure. My toes have NEVER looked this good!!  Let's hear it for "Bright Lights, Big Color" OPI nail polish.  Although, get a load of that bunion!  Not so good!!

We all went bowling Saturday afternoon.  You can't tell from this picture, but Carter spent the majority of the time VERY sad.  It was loud and chaotic for him, and he DID NOT LIKE IT!!  He finally got a little into the spirit of things after the noisy group next to us left.  He did feel a little better about things if he was in the arcade.  (Go figure:)  

Talmage used the rack to bowl for a while, but then got his groove on, and rolled the ball just like a pro.  It was a happy moment when he got a strike!

Tanner and Benson both benefitted from help.  Benson and Grandpa also got a strike at one point, and there were hugs all around from Benson.  He was a very happy boy and wanted to share the love.  Tanner, as you can see, is very intent about the whole affair.

Ryan, Chelsie and Brandon.  Can you see the football game in the upper left screen?  BYU was playing and we had some distracted bowlers!  :)

Dinner on Saturday night was compliments of Ashley and Brandon.  Tucano's was delicious!  I could have just eaten the from the Salad bar and been satisfied, but the meat was pretty darn good as well!!  Mmm, I can still taste the Garlic Beef.  Carter didn't find much to complain about either!  

Another beautiful shot from the outskirts of Temple Square

Benson loves Nutella for breakfast.  He is also a champ at saying cheese when it is time for a picture!  He doesn't disappoint.

I warned everyone ahead of time that there would be a family picture at some point in the weekend.  We finally snuck one it before Chelsie and Dallin had to leave.  It isn't the perfect set-up, but the people in it are just right, and that is all that counts!!

Dinner prep

Grandpa and the boys with their birthday presents from us.  Note that everyone is calm, and still...

...a few minutes later.  Lesson learned.  They are only good for one picture!  :)

We had two Thanksgivings, the second with the Cleggs at their cabin.  Here is a pick up basketball game after dinner.  Not pictured - John who took a tumble and crashed his head into one of those fence rails.  He took a break after that.  (He was okay, thank goodness)  Also, Talmage was able to get into the action a little after this picture.

Grandpa Clegg kept a few boys busy on the (what is this called?  Four-wheeler?)  It doesn't matter, they loved it!!

There has to bee football on TV after Thanksgiving, preferably while you are eating pie.

These boys knew where the good stuff was!  :)

A few more things that happened that weekend...

-We had our first Thanksgiving dinner with Valerie and Bruce and their family.  It was great to see everyone, and it was nice they were all there together.

- We went to the Museum of Art at BYU and saw an exhibit of costumes from Period movies that was SO COOL!!  Many of my favorite movies were represented - Little Dorritt, Miss Potter, Sense and Sensibility, The Phantom of the Opera, just to name a few.  It was stunning to see the detail and although I got reprimanded, nicely, of course, for taking pictures, I would have snuck a few more if I wasn't afraid of getting reprimanded again.  There was also a quilt display of Pakistani quilts!  Not my style, too much applique, but stunning, none the less!  Really intricate and colorful!  It was a nice bonus.

-We got to see Ryan's parents at his aunt and uncle's house.  It was nice to catch up with the Inkley's even for just a little while.  They had a lot of family in town also, so I think it worked out well for everyone.

-We also visited with Alli and Ryan's second family, Ben and Kelli.  They also welcomed us, fed us, entertained us, and made us feel like family.  Such a nice family.  (I will partner with Kelli any day for Nertz!!:)

-We got to stay with Chelsie and Dallin in their basement apartment for a few nights.  John and Chelsie went to DI and found some chairs for their "new" table.  It was fun to be in their home.

- John and I went to the Bountiful Temple with Ashley and Brandon.  It is always good to be at the temple with your family.  On the way home, we drove by their new home and saw where Brandon will be working.  Its all so good!!

- We had a surprise visit from Joni, Valerie, Alice, and Aunt Susie on Sunday afternoon.  I'm glad Ashley got to see her grandma, and that Grandma got to see the boys.

- The boys got to go to a BYU Basketball game on Saturday night.  They had a great time.  Lucky for Tanner, not so lucky for Dallin, Dallin got called in to the hospital right before dinner, so he not only missed dinner, but also missed the game.  Tanner did get to go, and showed his Cougar spirit by trash talking the other team the whole way out of the Marriott Center!  :)  Dallin hung out with us girls and actually was okay with that, as he was fighting a sinus infection all weekend, and was able to just lay low.

- It was a great weekend!!  I hated to see it end.

NEVER!!

Let's play Jeopardy.  The title of the blog is the answer.  Never.
What is the question?  When do I want to experience another day like November 13, 2014 again?

It started out like a normal day.  Seminary first thing, then kids off to school and John off to work.  I did my scriptures, got a list going for the day and was working on the "exercise" part of that list.

The phone rang, I let the machine pick it up as I was in another room and typically whoever is calling is someone I don't want to talk to - read, Telemarketer.  Then my cell phone rang.  It was Kristin.
"Mom," she said through tears, "Can you come get me?"  "Can't you drive yourself?" I asked.  "No"  "Did you throw up?"  (She had missed the day before because she was sick)  "I will just tell you when you get here."

What was going on?  If she wasn't sick the next place my brain went was to a car wreck.  Cars are always getting hit at the High School, because, its, well,  High School kids driving.

I got stuck behind a de-icer truck on the way down the hill.  Really, just the way things go, but very annoying when you feel you need to get somewhere fast.

When you come to the High School from our direction, you come up to the back of it first.  There was a kid talking on his cell phone outside the building.  No red flag yet.  Then there was another one by the trailers.  Still no sign of anything unusual.  But the curb full of cars in front of the building?  Starting to see a little red.  Then I noticed quite a few people walking out of the front doors.  Wait, some of those people are adults, with distraught looking kids.  Okay, starting to have a mini-panic attack for sure.

As I was walking to the building, I asked a women behind me, who was carrying a satchel of sorts, and appeared to be coming to work if something had happened, that my daughter had called crying, and probably some other rambling.  I assume I was rambling because she just kept saying she was sorry and that she was just getting to work.  (Now, I feel stupid about that, but I'm sure she understands.)  By the way, red flags are waving all over the place in my head.

When I walked into the building, I was in full panic mode.  Several police officers were standing around, and the assistant superintendent, Mr. Hansen, was there, kids were sitting all along the hallway.  What in the world had happened?  School shooting, bomb threat?  What???

Lance pointed me in the direction of the counseling center, after telling me that Kristin would tell me what had happened, and that she was okay.  (Whew!!  That was a good thing to hear.)

The counseling center was full of crying girls.  Not just crying, but sobbing, full out wailing and weeping girls!  As soon as I got Kristin she told me - one of the girls from her soccer team had taken her life the night before!  I cannot really remember how I felt at that moment.  Sorrow for the girls, sorrow for the parents of Devann, shock, the need to comfort, the need to cry!  No doubt more, but once I was hugging girls, that was where my focus needed to be.  We stayed a while, then it was time to go home and grieve and start to heal.

I never want to experience anything close to that again!  In this age of school shootings, and all other evil things, you just never know what could happen to your kids, but the thing is, you don't send them out the door in the morning expecting something like this to happen.  I guess that is a good thing or you would never send them out the door at all.

Such a sad, unnecessary thing to happen!  So much grief!  This is the 3rd teen suicide in our valley in 7 months.  A counselor in our ward who knows about these things is getting worried.  There is an element of contagion in suicide.  The scary thing is that the girl's parents knew she was struggling.  They were working on getting her better.  She just couldn't handle things anymore.  The other scary thing is that she was a darling girl.  A senior who had just the week before been voted most inspirational by her soccer teammates.  A girl who had been voted "Spirit of DWY" at last spring's Distinguished Young Women program.  What went wrong?  Why couldn't she get to a better place in her mind?  What does that say to kids who are have much less going for them?  If her life was so great and she still killed herself, then why should I stick around?  My life is 10 or 100 or 1000 times worse!  So goes the contagion.

Of course, no one knows what happened in Devann's mind that caused her to actually go through with it.  No one ever will.  I mourn for her friends whose lives will forever be affected by this.  I mourn for kids who may decide this worked for Devann, so it will work for them, but most of all, I mourn for the family, for the loss of their beautiful daughter, and for the unfinished life she left behind.  And this mama is grateful to have her little ducklings safe and alive.

Facebook #2 Post

Facebook used to be something I just knew about.  One day I actually created a FB page, but rarely, if ever went on it.  I think my motivation was because my older girls were on it.  Once we got the iPad, I visited it occassionally, but it was still just something I had an account for and sometimes visited.  Once we created a Relief Society group, I started visiting it on a regular basis, and now, even though I don't post stuff for the RS group anymore, and I rarely post stuff on FB, I am a regular facebook troll.  (Probably not the right definition of what I do, but it feels like I'm a troll, whatever that means.)  Bottom line-FB is a regular part of my social media routine.  I don't think this is a bad thing.

I am able to keep track of a good friend who has moved away and uses FB a lot.  I can almost for sure count on her to message me back if I message her.  I have connected with childhood friends, and although we don't communicate with each other much, I can see what they are posting, commenting on, etc.  Just yesterday, because of FB, I learned one of my favorite radio personalities, Tom Magliozzi, passed away.  (He's one of the Car Talk guys for those of you who don't have any idea who he is.)  Of course, I would have heard about it on NPR, as I did this morning, and John did inform me of it this morning as well, but I was glad to hear about it as soon as I did.

One of my college roommates formed a group for us on FB.  I can easily communicate with them.  The list goes on.

One day, probably about a month and a half ago, I was trolling through my news feed and ran across a post from a "friend" of one of my "friends".  Doyle Albee is his name.  What??  Doyle Albee, the guy I went to Jr. high, with!  The guy who after looking in my annual, I remembered, was actually the guy I sat next to in Concert band!  Doyle Albee, the very awkward boy from Scottsbluff Jr. High.  Whoa!!  Talk about a blast from the past!

Of course, that opened a whole section of my memory that had been dormant for many years.  I started to remember people, especially with the help of my yearbook.  I ran across JR Brester.  Honestly, one of the nicest guys I have ever known.  You know what, his picture doesn't look much like he did way back when, but he still looks like a pretty nice guy.  He still lives in Scottsbluff, and he runs a bike shop.  (If I remember correctly, his dad had a bike shop.)  I was VERY tempted to call there and say "Hey, you probably don't remember me, but I went to Elementary school and Jr. High with you.  How in the heck are ya?"  Speaking of awkward!  So I didn't, but honestly, for a few days, Scottsbluff was on my mind.  What happened to Jayme, my best friend?  What happened to Tom, the guy who looked like John Denver and was my first proper crush, and who I would have gone to a dance with in 8th grade had my mom not put down her foot.  (I was only 14!  No way she was going to let me go!!  I did NOT want to have to tell him, but in the end I did.)  How about all those other people I went to school with for those 6 years I lived in Scottsbluff?  I actually found a lot of them as I looked through JR's friends list (see what I mean about a troll.  I'm thinking creeper describes me better!  :)  Crazy to say, many of them looked like just a grown up version of themselves.  Some I never would have recognized in a million years, but who knows what people might think I look like.  (For the record, I think I am just an aged version of who I have always looked like.  I think most people agree with that, but I did have one friend who saw my wedding picture and said she didn't think it looked a thing like me!)  Sorry, digression.

The end of the story is that I didn't request a lot of new friends from this experience.  In fact, not even one.  I may someday, but not yet.  I think what I got most from this whole experience was the shock of seeing Doyle's post, and the tidal wave that engulfed me afterward.  Its amazing what experiences get dredged up.  But here's a funny thing.  I remember I didn't like Jr. High.  I felt the typical teenage anxiety about never fitting in, how I looked, what people thought of me.  Having spent a little time thinking about it though, I think what I didn't like was me.  I didn't like the way I would sometimes treat people (I was a teenage girl - not an excuse, just a fact) and I don't think I was the best I could have been with what I had to work with.  Of course, its hard to know what was what all these years ago, but I guess I just hope that should people run across Michele Sollenbarger Rietz on a comment of one of their friends, they would think to themselves something along the lines of - "I remember her.  I went to school with her.  She was an okay kind of person."  I truly have no idea what feelings my name may conjure up!  Maybe someday I'll find out.  For now though, I would really like to know what became of Jayme and Tom!  Maybe through the magic of social media, I will find out someday.