Spanish Sweet Onion Letterbox

We went Letterboxing on Saturday! Thanks, Lara for the idea. It was so much fun. Just two things I would suggest: bring a compass and wear good shoes (I was wearing flip flops, don't ask me why). If you want to go letterboxing, here's what you do:

• Go to letterboxing.org and click on your state, and then your region to find clues.
• Print out the clues, and make a plan.
• Find some sort of notebook to be your letterboxing log, so you can keep track of the places you've been.
• Find a stamp that represents your family or group (We chose a ladybug because that's what I found in my craft box and I like BUGS.)
• Bring your stamp, an ink pad, your log book and a pen, and go discover your first letterbox!

First, we tried a Letterbox at "Denzil Stewart Nature Park" and couldn't find it... I'm hoping to contact the Placer and see what's up.
We looked and LOOKED, but no letter box.
It was so beautiful there. I didn't even know this park existed until today.

We found a HUGE slug (seriously it was twice as wide as and longer than my finger!) I lifted up a big rock and saw something breathing... I poked it with my finger and it started writhing around. Needless to say, I let out a little scream! Can you see the leopard patterned creature by the little red piece of tree branch?
That's him!

He's kinda cute....

We decided to go to the second area. We found the "Spanish Sweet Onion Letterbox" near Willow Park. When you find the letterbox, you stamp the book, date it, and many people also wrote in where they are from. I saw stamps from Nevada, Montana, Wyoming, and all over Utah of course. Who knew? Many of the stamps had group names
too, so we decided our name would be the "SLUG BUGS".

I was SO excited to find the letterbox! Inside the letterbox was a sweet onion stamp (hence the name) and I stamped that in my book and dated when we found it.

At the pond, we saw lots of big dragonflies, some ducks,
and even a muskrat swimming around in the water! We also found a frog...

Zeke did NOT eat it, I promise!

What an awesome day! I can't wait to go again. Thanks to my family for going along with me :)

Letterboxing, hummus, and rocks at my window...

Happy September! I really love the cooler weather. I'm going to try and get some yard work done..."You try, you sit, this is about DOING!" I love that quote. Okay, I'll commit myself to DOING some yard work this fall (I didn't say how much though!)

I like to try new things. I'm anxious to try something I've never heard of: Letterboxing. I've been reading a blog called "Overstuffed" and it is FABULOUS! Earlier this week, Lara and her family shared their hobby of letterboxing. It looks pretty easy and really fun. Depending on Zeke's work schedule this week (oh, boy!), I'd like to go letterboxing. I'll let you know how it goes.

On Tuesday, I got to try a new food: HUMMUS. My brother keeps telling me I should try it. You were right, Brady, it was really yummy. My friend, Julie, makes her own and we ate it on wheat thins. Good stuff! But just for the record, I like garbanzo beans (aka chick peas)... so that might influence your opinion about hummus.

Ok, for the next part of my post, I'll call it a "Choose your own Adventure" (I used to love those books!) Choose wisely.... it may save you 5 minutes and keep you from hearing me whine.

Choice 1: I'll paraphrase the rest of my week: blah blah blah, murmur murmur murmur, waaah. Done.

Choice 2: ok, I told you it was your choice.... this is serious whining here:

Well, the new stuff has helped me cope with the "old" this week. I am such a baby. YES, it's true. Zeke started school again on Monday. It is his LAST semester though... but everything changes when Zeke is in school. I know it's important that he graduates, so for now, I'm just going to bite my tongue really hard and hang on until December. HELP!

It doesn't help that his job is INSANE. Ok, I am thankful he has a good job, but when they have a project deadline... yeah, let's just say it's not my favorite. My week has been so crazy, I can't remember what happened on what day. Zeke has been going to work at 6am (thanks for the rides to work, Paul). We are a one car family now (by choice) and wow, I am spoiled. I've been taking Zeke to school and picking him and the kids up this week -- about one hour round trip, not including other errands and activities. That's ok. But poor Zeke hasn't been coming home until 2 or 3 in the morning.... yes, you read that right. He goes to work at 6am and comes home at 2am the next day. (so that's like a 20 hour shift -- too bad he doesn't get paid by the hour!) So here I am feeling sorry for myself... it helps to write things down and get them in proper perspective. It's been a long week, the kids are missing their Dad and I am just plain worn out.

Anyway, one night/morning I went to bed and left the door unlocked for Zeke, because he left his keys here. I figured he'd be home soon and well, open the door. Around 3am I was sleeping soundly for once (and probably snoring too) and I could hear little taps on my window. It startled me, because our bedroom is on the second floor. The more awake I became, I realized someone was throwing rocks at my window. Now, under different circumstances it might have been romantic. But I don't think I've caught up on my sleep since 1998, so I was NOT pleased. I got up and opened the window and said, "The door's open." Zeke said, "Are you sure?" For those of you that do not know me, this is one of my LEAST favorite things to hear! For those who do know me and wonder why I suddenly get bugged, I really am sorry, I know I'm a brat and I'm working on it.

Anyway, Zeke was tired and so was I. Zeke came in and felt bad for waking me up. He went right to sleep like he almost always does. And me, well, I have this dumb habit I don't know how to fix or stop. My Mom is the same way. If I wake up in the middle of the night (to go to the bathroom or to help a crying child or to see who's throwing rocks at my window) I CANNOT for the life of me go back to sleep! It's awful! I'm still very tired, but my brain wakes up and I can't shut it off. Any suggestions, please? So let's just say, I was not 100% yesterday, oh yeah, that would have been Tuesday then. When the alarm went off at 6:30 I wanted to cry...

Ok, phew, I'm done whining for now.

One last quote to kick me out of this negative rut:
"If you can laugh at it, you can live with it." -- Marjorie Hinckley

Zeke: I love you, babe, we'll get through this... I hope! Thanks for ALWAYS making me laugh.