Cache Valley Hillbillies

Last night we felt like we needed a little adventure so we moved my greenhouse over to Deb's place. Since I spent most of my free time over there and we're growing our flowers for the wedding, it makes sense to have it where we can take care of them better.

We did it at night so there would be less traffic, fewer strange looks and stares.

The only thing we would have needed was a rocking chair up on top for granny and we would have fit the description for the redneck-of-the-week award. Looking back at it, we still might get the prize...

As I drove the rear dolly from the inside, I felt like I was a pioneer driving a covered wagon with those three hoops. Lucky for me, Deb is much cuter than a team of oxen!

Phoenix

As we progressed further south, I naively realized that cactus-filled landscapes aren't just decorations for the movies. It was pretty cool being around all the desert/tropical scenery.

We went to the Mesa Temple . . .

. . . A couple times . . .

I also learned that Palm trees aren't very cuddly.

I've got a few more pictures to post, but they will have to wait until tomorrow. These should hold you all over for now!!

The next leg

When we finally reached the Grand Canyon it was just past dusk so it was too dark for any decent pictures. I had to photoshop the ones we got in order to make them the least bit visible. This first pic was just a teaser canyon before we got to the real one. We still had quite a few miles to go before we got to the real park.

Here is the before picture:

Another one with a little color tweaking:

(There IS an) Arizona

Right back in there is the entrance to Bryce Canyon National Park, where you will find natural beauty and awe-inspring gorgeousness that will make your jaw drop. we didn't have time to go in there see for ourselves but here are a couple pictures of what others have found. Some slot canyons:

Those pointy formations are called hoodoos.

Just a few more miles down the road we hit Lake Powell. Again, we didn't have time to do a lot of sightseeing, but we made a point to stop at Glen Canyon Dam for lunch. This is the dam that creates Powell.

This is what it looked like back in 1983:

This ends the first leg of the journey. . .

Easter

These are from awhile back but I didn't put them up back then.

These are all I have for now for this post, I might get a couple more later!!

Fluppy Dogs

17 hours in a car in the middle of a desert(complete with cacti!) will make wierd thoughts go through one's head. A certain ill-fated cartoon shpw from 1986 randonly popped into my brain for some reason. Fluppy dogs have nothing to do with this post though, so that's all I'm going to say about them.

Now through the miracle of modern technology I am able to surf the web on Deb's laptop while she takes a turn driving. I can blog, e-mail, watch the latest Susan Boyle video on Youtube, plot our course in real time, anything I want!

We're not quite to our destination yet, but we have accomplished two of our major goals of the trip so far. We stopped at Glenn Canyon Dam at the bottom of Lake Powell...I mean puddle Powell. That was pretty cool though. By the time we got to the Grand Canyon it was late dusk and there wasn't much we could see. Now we are just on the rest of our trip and there really isn't muchelse exciting going on.

I will post pictures when we get home because this computer has issues with the memory card from my camera.

And now that I can blog from my phone, i can post candid shots like these!

Progress in this neck of the desert

Several great things have come to pass in the last few days down here in Logan. But since I don't have a gigantic block of time to adequately describe them with all the minuscule details that I usually like to, you'll have to suffer through a checklist type of thing for now. If you want details about a particular event, please write to me and I can elaborate it for you later.

Last weekend:
I had Callie and we had a great time. We didn't didn't have any big and fancy outings, just stayed home this time.She's getting so big and indepenent, it's hard to keep up!

Sunday night:
Deb and I went to a fireside with John H. Groberg and Elder Charrington(sp?). Elder Groberg is the author of The Other Side of Heaven and a former member of the Quorum of the Seventy. Elder Charrington was just called to be a Seventy in ths last Conference. I went up and met them both afterward. This was my second time hearing from John H. Groberg. the first time was inthe Salt Lake Tabernacle right after the Other Side of Heaven movie came out.

Monday:
I got a call from Ryan Powell, one of the four owners of the Sprinkler Store from last year. He called to invite me back to work for this season but couldn't give me a specific date to start as of yet. There are some details involving the transfer of ownership of the company that needed to be worked out first. Those kinks should be fixed throughout this current week and he said he would call me back next Monday about it.

Tuesday:

I got a call from Sue Boswell, my counselor from Voc. Rehab. She called to tell me she got a call from a Kevin Smith who wanted to work through them to get training for me to draw sprinkler plans for him this season. It was an interesting call because I had to explain to her that I really didn't need training to draw sprinkler plans. Also, the name Kevin sounded familiar and I wanted to know what company he was from. She didn't know, but she gave me his number so I could call him and ask any questions.

I talked to Kevin and told him I was fairly proficient at drawing plans as I had done it all last year. Then he mentioned how he needed to talk to Ryan about it anyway and it all clicked! Kevin was one of the owners of the store that I was already planning on coming back to anyway. I had only met him once last year and apparently he didn't remember me very much either. I explained to him that the only training I might need is just a little refreshing from Nick, the manager and that there was no need for Voc. Rehab to get involved.

{Did you notice that between the owners of the store that the right hand didn't know what the left one was doing? This was the kind of confusion and miscommunication that we (the peons) had to deal with last year, which is the cause for the current transfer of ownership from four owners to no more than two now.}

I called Sue back to explain that Kevin didn't know what was going on and that I had worked for them before. I told her that I had talked to Ryan the day before and I was already planning on going back pending the desicion from him.

Today:

I am doing more financial aid stuff for school. It never ends! Later I am Going with Debbie to her bank to find out why there is this unending chain of fees that keep getting charged from her account for no reason. She's got plenty of money in there but they keep taking out signifigant chunks of it!!! We need that money!

Tomorrow:
I'm going to do a couple temp jobs in the morning and then we are packing to go to Pheonix, AZ Friday morning. We are Taking Deb's other car to her mom who needs it. Her car was totalled in a wreck a month ago and she's going to take over payments on the Lexus rather than getting a new car. This whole car swap has been kind of a complicated ordeal between creditors on the Lexus, gettingthe Taurus fixed for Deb, transferring the title to her mom and for preparing to take it down to her, but soon it will all be done and everyone will be happy and we'll all have transportation! Yay!

Friday:
We are leaving at 6:30 AM, taking both cars down to Salt Lake. We will leave my Caddy at Aunt Leslie's house for the weekend and drive the lexus to Pheonix. we are planning to make a quick pass by Lake Powell and then the Grand Canyon on our way down, so be prepared for some amazing pictures when we return!

The Weekend:
We will spend time down there taking care of liscencing and everything for her mom. I get to get grilled by Deb's Family the whole time and then we will fly home Monday afternoon. Aunt Leslie will come pick us up from the airport in my car and then we will come home from there.

Does that sound crazy enough?

~P.S.~
This post wasn't quite as brief as I was hoping it would be, but that's alright.

This is a test to see if I can post a mobile blog from my phone

Especially for you!

I got this idea from Jill Smith. I'm reposting because it will be fun to make a custom, surprise project for you! Plus I need to do it in order to get the suprise from Jill... The first 5 people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice, for you.
This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
1. I will make no guarantees you will like what I make.
2. What I create will be just for you.
3. It will be done this year. (anytime)
4. You will have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a story. It may be poetry or an article on properly cleansing your face before a masque. I may paint or draw something. I may bake something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure.
5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.
The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must re-post this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on their blog. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did, win a FABULOUS homemade gift by me! Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!

That's DEFINITELY worth blogging about!

Remember that list of dead cars I made awhile back? Well, I'm proud to announce that I can cross one of those cars off the list. The Taurus that I had so much trouble with last Fall has been sitting all winter waiting for something to happen. I've had a couple opportunities to get rid of it, but they fell through. A young couple almost got it to fix up for their own, but then changed their mind. Then my friend talked about getting it for himself and his other buddy to go bombing around in, but they lost interest as well. Now we'll fast forward to the present day. Deb needed a car and I happened to have one that needed a home. We put a new battery in it and it started right up. We got it registered today and it's going to be a perfect 'round-towner for her.

Another reason that this is such an accomplishment for me is that it is a big type of project that I completed nearly all on my own from start to finish. Usually withmy past automotive issues I've had to defer to other people to handle the problems. It makes me feel good to know I got it all done myself! I guess I just needed the right inspiration to finally get it finished up finally! Woo hoo!

Today we all went to a baptism for one of Deb's friend's kids. It was at the Logan Tabernacle which provided some nice photo opps afterwards. The sky was slightly overcast which gave us excellent light for photography and the temperature was even cooperative which added to the ideal-ness of the conditions.

Pull out the stopper, lets have a whopper!

Ok everybody, I promise you'll all get individual official announcements in the near future but I'm sending out this blanket statement now in order give you as much notice as possible for you to make plans if you can make it down here this Summer. Debbie and I are getting married on June 27th.

She really is a winner and I would like as many of you to come as realistically possible. We are looking forward to having a traditional ceremony and reception here in Logan on that day so as many of her family members will be able to participate. I know it's not a huge amount of time to plan, but please let me know if you can find a way to make it down here. I'd appreciate it. Hope to hear from you soon and we can make arrangements for you.
love,
Zach

Do a good turn daily

The other day, after helping a nice old lady cross the street I was on my way over to rescue a poor, helpless stranded kitten out of a tree when I spotted a plastic wrappedobject in the ditch about the size of a small loaf of bread wrapped in bubble wrap. I picked it up and it turned out to be a brand new paper bill accepter mechanism for a vending machine.


It looked like it had fallen out of a truck as it was turning the corner or something. The bubble wrap was succesful in its objective by preventing the part from not getting anything worse than a slight scuff on one of the corners. I found a manufacturer's phone number on the side and called it. I gave them the serial number and they tracked it to the Pepsi distribution center about a 1/2 mile from my house.

So Friday I took it over to them. The receptionist had no clue what to do so she called a guy in from the warehouse. a kind of grisly older guy came out, grabbed the thing and said, "Come on back here..."
So I did. I followed him through some doors into a warehouse filled to the brim with more bottles of soda than I had ever seen before in my life! You could say they had a "plethora"
of Pepsi products!

"I guess I owe you a drink for bringing that back to us, don't I?" he said.

I wasn't expecting anything in return but, ok. As we started heading toward where a vending machine was over in the corner, he uttered an, 'aw heck' and then a made a right turn down a towering aisle of Country Time or something. He called to another guy farther down and said "Hey! Grab me a case of pepsi and bring it to this kid here!" Whoa. They even loaded it into my car for me and told me to enjoy it and gave a great day!

Now I've got a fridge full of soda pop that I (used to) rarely drink. I'd offer some to y'all but you're kind of far away, sorry.

I have a REALLY cute video of Callie from tonight's visit, but it will have to wait until I am reunited with my card reader in order to upload it onto the web. I should be able to do it tomorrow morning.

Here it is...

Mole in the Hole

I came over yesterday and Deb and I had breakfast. Since we're both pretty broke we had a cheap, easy, quick and delicious option. All you need is bread and eggs and some butter!(and a small glass to cut the holes)

All things bright and beautiful

For all of us having to endure these past few days of dreariness and grey weather, here are a few pictures to help keep things light and fresh. My Christmas cactus is getting ready to bloom again for Easter, so I will post pictures of that when it explodes with flowers again too.

Birthday Party

This morning we went to a brthday party for Deb's friend's 8 year old girl. Callie had a great time. All the other kids just accepted her as another one of the big kids and let play along with everything.

The pin'ata wasn't half as good as ours are(Go Emily!). It kept falling off the wire every 3rd hit or so.

We ran around the rest of the day going on errands and taking care of things. It was pretty fun, especially since the weather was cooperative!!

Draper Temple

Last Thursday Deb and I went down to the Draper Temple open house. It's beautiful! For those of you who aren't familiar with the Utah locale, Draper is at the very south-east end of the Salt Lake Valley. The Temple is tucked up right against the mountains, as you can see in the pictures.

I hope that no one buys that piece of property and puts some hideous gargantuan house right there. It would ruin that spectacular view!

For Amanda

Amanda, this is how I would do the windows on your greenhouse. You can roll up the flaps and tape them in place to adjust the opening. Put matching ones in the back too and you'll be good to go!

Whirlwind

OK, I'm playing catch up now because the past couple of weeks have gotten away from me. Between employment stuff and everything else, I have had very little time to blog. Lately I've had something going on every night of the week! Mondays are FHE; on Tuesdays I go visit Callie; Wednesday is for Institute; Thursday is Volleyball night; last Friday, my friend Deb had the day off from work so we decided to get out of Dodge and went up to the Idaho Falls Temple. Neither of us had been here before and we both had always wanted to go- So we did!


It was as beautiful as everyone says it is. We didn't get out of there until fairly late and didn't get home until much later, but the trip was well worth it. I got to take my Caddy out on it's first real road trip and I had a good navigator too. We enjoyed being in the Temple and had fun on the way there and back.






Deb had to work Saturday afternoon and then we went swing dancing that night.








Sunday night we went to a fireside(which was very good). The guy who spoke also played the piano and sang.




This past week has been crazy too. I've been meeting with Vocational rehab for them to help me to get back into school. We've decided to forego the university setting for now and opt for a trade school with a more flexible schedule. It has open enrollment (I can start at anytime) and I can go at my own pace. Voc. Rehab will pay for everything. I'm going into the drafting and graphic design program. It will give me the opportunity to get out of the seasonal jobs I've been stuck in and into a career with a broader range of job prospects with more stability. I'm taking the placement test next Monday.

A great weight has been lifted from my shoulders

My mailbox is going to get lonely now because I won't be getting bills every day from my creditors. I finally got my tax return back and immediately called the student loan people, paid them off; went to the lawyer's office, paid thyem off, called a couple of others and paid them off too. Unfortunately I don't get to keep more of the return, but it's a good feeling to not have to have those other things in the back of my mind all the time. I might even be able to start saving some money for the future now!

I'm blogging about that fact that there isn't anything new to blog about...

Callie's Birthday

I might as well do a post on my blog about Callie's birthday as I sit here eating her leftover chocolate cake for breakfast/lunch.





















Yesterday in Priesthood meeting our music was being conducted by a 13 year old who had obviously never done it before. After the song was finally over, the announcements were given and we broke to go to out individual meetings; I went up to the bishopric and politely told them I had experience with leading music if the ever needed someone to fill in. They said,"Well we'll just issue you the calling right here! You can be the one to pick out the songs and lead the music. We've been needing someone to do that." They clearly needed help, but I didn't want to say anything. You just don't go up to someone and say, 'You're horrible. Let me fix you.'

Another funny thing I noticed in church yesterday was that no one sat behind us in Sacrament meeting. I guess they didn't want to get smacked on the head by Callie!

Wasteland?! . . . I think you mean Wonderland!

I was feeling photographical yesterday so here's a few wintery pictures.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
With scenes like these on the left;

And these on the right;

How could someone not be inspired to take pictures of them???

I like this one