"It's the one with the dress, mom!"

This week has reminded me of one of my famous sayings that I said to my mom as she was on a path to walk into the wrong restroom at Disney World... "wait, mom, it's the one with the dress!" Luckily, she had me there to remind her and saved her from an embarrassing moment in the world's most happiest place. I was 9. Unfortunately, 20 years later (Yikes!), I seemed to have forgotten my advice ...

I need to first mention that the bathrooms in the SUU Centrum (where my office is) has multiple doors. Last week, I had accidentally walked into the wrong bathroom ... you know, the one without the dress ... the one ... with the pants. Yikes. Well, it wasn't a huge deal, nobody was in it. Earlier this week, I repeated my error, except this time, somebody was in there!! Luckily, he wasn't a coworker. I ran out as quickly as possible. Of course, I was paying attention to my email on my phone so it took me awhile to realize ... actually that is probably the reason I made the mistake in the first place. I am proud to report that I walked into the correct bathroom the rest of the week. Unfortunately, this was not the end of my "interesting" adventures for the week ...

The same day that I successfully walked into the correct bathroom, I locked myself out of my office and squirted Yoplait Yogurt all over myself. What can I say, I was on a roll this week.

Callie and I are still extremely happy to be here. In fact, we had a chat the other day, and we can't imagine ever living any place else! This place is somewhat backwards, but the trade off of the location and the amazing people I work with and friends I have made thus far, it is completely worth it. I'm just so unbelievably happy ... I never thought I would get here when I embarked on this journey 10 years ago. I feel so blessed to have fabulous family, friends, and amazing coworkers at an amazing place to work and live. I'm not sure life could get any better. And ...

I can GROW things here!!! The curse of me killing plants is over!! Check it out:

I grew this carrot from a seed. I also have onions and that is strawberries!

This is my sod after its first mow! 

Annoyance of the day: mean people

Obsession of the day: "Say Yes To The Dress" ... that show is hilarious! 

Snakes Rattle, Prairie Dogs Attack

Well, today was a very interesting day to say the least! I finally found Callie a vet ... conveniently right down the road of of 56 highway. While I was there, I learned that we have quite the rattle snake problem here. Not that I should be surprised ... we are considered "high desert." Although, this is the coldest desert i've ever seen. Of course, I don't think i've ever been to a desert. But, I just kind of always thought they were hot. I could be wrong. Maybe only the low deserts are. Something to investigate ...  Also while at the vet, I learned of a rattle snake vaccine. I haven't decided for sure whether I will be getting it for Callie. All I could think was to heck with her, what about a vaccine for me?? Ha! I'm trying to find out. Apparently the snakes are more concerned with getting away from you and only bite as a last resort. Don't worry, Mr. Snake, I will definitely get out of the way. But what happens when there are multiple snakes and no escape route? I suppose this is where a gun would be helpful ... and John Wayne. So, while we are on the subject of snakes, during Callie and I's walk, we found out that those holes in the middle of the dirt road? Those are not prairie dog holes, oh no. They are snake holes!! When Callie and I peeked in one of them, we saw a snake  ... a big one ... coiled up. Not sure if it was a rattler ... i've only ever seen them on Nat Geo. I didn't wait to find out. It was asleep, and I wanted to keep it that way. I tried to take a picture with the zoom ... not sure if you can see it in there ... but, I really didn't want to get any closer. :-) So, just when you think the stream of knowledge has stopped, I learned more ...

Prairie dogs, while incredibly cute and cuddly, are not in fact cuddly. Actually, if you get too close, they attack (think squirrel and raccoon attack combined). Callie and I like to hide in the what I now know as snake infested bushes and watch them communicate with the other prairie dogs. They actually chirp like birds. It kind of takes the peacefulness out of a nice country walk. So, I think I will rethink a) letting Callie run after them and b) the idea they are cuddly. They really are everywhere. What I haven't seen? A squirrel. Haven't seen one since in St. George at Zion. Despite the snakes and dogs that live on prairies, Callie has grown a liking to horses ... and the horse have grown a liking to her! Every time we are by there, she refuses to continue until we have said hello. Interestingly, they always come over right to the fence and say hello. Once I get some apples on my apple tree, I'm going to bring them some. As far as I know, horses don't attack, so we should be good there.

I also learned there are hardly any female medical doctors here. Not really sure why, but it's bizarre. I set up all of my doctors and got my cardiologist all set up here. He's kind of a temporary cardiologist. Because, of course, if I am dying or something, I want my Kansas cardiologist. They just need to keep me alive until he gets there. Not that I'm expecting anything like that. But with all this hiking, you never know. Check out the view from my doctor's office... breathtaking!! To quote one of my closest friends, I live in a postcard. It's pretty amazing.

On the school front, Theory class is prepped, Research Methods is pretty much prepped, and the intro comm class will be prepped by the end of the week! Then on to working on research!! :D

Annoyance of the day: Why am I listening to ads on Pandora?!

Great obsession of the day: Adele

Wind, Altitude, and Monsoon Flows

Looks like the monsoon flow that had been over southern Utah for the past week has finally past us. The news had said it was leaving, but what a vast difference. We have had unusually high humidity (40-50%) and it is definitely all gone. The current humidity is 18%, making my walk very unenjoyable. I also tried to run for the first time at a high altitude ... definitely not at the point where I can do that. Maybe i'm not as used to the altitude and climate as I thought I was ... even Callie was having issues! Hopefully we both get over our issues by Saturday ... Callie and I are going hiking at Cedar Breaks ... which is at about 10,000 feet. We'll see.

The wind here is much like it is in Oklahoma, except less like a hair dryer. The wind here is actually cold. So, the only thing that was enjoyable about my walk was this amazing view ... check it out:

Sodtastic!

I haven't written in awhile due to the fact that I have been working extremely hard on the house, school office, and the major beast, my backyard and front yard. Two weeks later and a stress fracture in my heel and numerous bruises and sore muscles, I can report that everything is finally complete! YAY!!! So, let's start at the beginning ... 

Backyard

As many of you know, this house had been vacant for about 7 months. It's amazing what can happen to the little grass that I had in that time frame. It was really ugly. Now, keep in mind, that when I first moved in, I only had grass in the front yard. It seems as though my builder, who is from Vegas, loves rocks. And the previous owners had a love for rocks that I had never seen before. So much so that they put the entire backyard in rocks. Take a look at the before pictures of my front and backyard: 

Front Yard

My mom and I pulled every weed in the front yard and sprayed weed killer in the holes. As for the backyard, that was more of a process. First, we had to get all of the rocks out of the swath where we wanted the grass. For those wondering why I didn't just pay someone to do it, the estimates ranged from 600 to 1000 dollars. All of this cost only around 100 dollars. So I saved a large amount of money. Once the rocks were removed, it was time to till the soil. Which was hard as a rock, so first we watered, then tilled ... by hand, with a rake. And we thought that was the hard work ... not so fast ... 

Spreading the Manure

The next step was to fertilize the soil ... which meant we got to spread manure all over the yard. Wonderful, right? While that was a stinky job, it wasn't all that hard. The next steps were, however. The next step was to lay the sod ... 

Jack was trying out the grass as we were laying it ... 

Once we were complete, the whole project took us about a week, but I think it looks much better, don't you?? 

Here is the backyard:

And here is the front yard ... 

Even though it is hard work, I recommend doing it yourself. Not only it is rewarding, but you save a boat load!! :-)