Good Riddance Summer

Not going to lie, I am SO excited for September 1st. I wish to redact all kind words that I had to say about summertime, I know come tomorrow I will say not necessarily all of them, but for now I am bitter and against all things summer. Summers can be cruel and life changing and very unfun. Yes they can be quite the opposite, but for two years running, my summer falls into this category where some of the very worst things I have ever gone through are plagued by summertime woe. I was tempted to decorate for fall a week early to escape the darkness that the course of summer brought with it, but I decided against such actions for fear of tainting my favorite season with summer's memories.
Tomorrow I break out all the fake fall colored leaves, sunflowers, warm hued decorations and my Spiced Orange Harvest scentsy bar. I will bask in the beauty of autumn as I recover from the events of bygone days of the previous season. I will enjoy the cooler evenings and crispy mornings. Harvest salivation will be an every day occurence with peaches, and tomatoes, and corn, and all such delicious produce. I will wear long sleeved shirts and sweaters and hoodies. Colorful photos of changing leaves and delightful crunching of fallen leaves beneath my feet will bring a constant smile to my face.
Goodbye summer, you really stink.

The Shadow Proves the Sunshine

The Shadow Proves the Sunshine

It has been a very long and very hard week for us with multiple set backs and problems that culminated with the news we had been hoping to be different, being confirmed today. Despite all that has happened and is held in store with this trial, I am grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who knows what is best for me even when that means something that is terribly painful and hard to experience.
Doctrine and Covenants 98:1-3

1 Verily I say unto you my friends, fear not, let your hearts be comforted; yea rejoice evermore, and in everything give thanks;

2 Waiting patiently on the Lord, for your prayers have entered into the ears of the Lord of Saboath, and are recorded with this seal and testament-the Lord hath sworn and decreed that they shall be granted.

3 Therefore, he giveth this promise unto you, with an immutable covenant that they shall be fulfilled; and all things wherewith you have been afflicted shall work together for your good, and to my name's glory, saith the Lord.

I know that the shadow does prove the sunshine, and that sunny days are just around the corner.

Fare Thee Well Sweet Summer

The above picture is the "Last Day of Summer 2006" Event. My sisters and I will usually do something to commemorate the end of summer. Em was gone this year so the unofficial end consisted of pizza and a movie with Christie and Erin. Not quite as fancy as the Mardi Gras masks, boas, and 80's cabby hats of '06, but still nice. It has been a nice summer. Trips to Bear Lake, staycation, Organic Chemistry ENDING, archery, no pulmonary embolism. All in all I would say it has been quite pleasant. Last year I didn't finish my clinicals until July and was sentenced to recliner rest for basically 2 months in a basement so summer didn't really happen; I just reemerged into fall. So in blissful memory I will quote Sir John Lubbock:
Rest is not idlenss, and to lie sometimes on the grass on a summer day listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is hardly a waste of time.

Stormy

That didn't take long. Oh well....hopefully sunshine again soon.

Background story on the picture: My best friend Erin and I were having fun in Yellowstone enjoying the sights when we saw a beautiful storm approaching us. So beautiful, we took a few pictures and then kept walking along; we turned around a few minutes later and realized this beautiful storm was moving very very fast and had lots and lots of rain in it. We had to run back to the car for safety wearing flip flops, along boardwalks, down hills, across a bridge, we were soaked by the time we made it to the car as in needing to use towels to dry off. We have matching hoodies that we had to buy that day as a result. Good memory. :)

Light and Airy

Have you ever had something happen in which stress that you didn't even know you had, and that was entirely consuming you is suddenly gone and you feel light and airy and happy and calm and peaceful? I have. It's nice. -I PASSED MY RADIATION THERAPY BOARDS!!!!

Salt Lake Day 2

Day 2 began with the Hogle Zoo. I will admit I have always hated this place; I thought the animals were sad. Feeling this way, I don't think I have been there since I was in junior high. It was SO much better! The animals weren't pacing, the compounds were nice, and the 'lands' were fantastic. It was a much better than expected stop.Red Butte gardens were beautiful! We had fun walking around the different themed gardens and enjoying the water features. We spent a lot more time there than what we planned on, and I wouldn't be surprised if we go back, even without a Connect Pass.

We ate lunch at Crown Burger and then went back up to the Utah Museum of Fine Arts. This activity was 'ok'. I actually do like going to art museums, this one just felt like it was trying too hard. There were a few pieces that stuck out and their current display was from an artist that had a lot of work in the Layton, Ogden, Huntsville areas circa the Great Depression, so that was kind of fun to see buildings I recognized in the art work. On a whole, I probably could have done without this attraction, but it was new and now we know.

Our day ended at the Gateway with a dome film in the Clark Planetarium and a quick walk through of the Discovery Gateway. Just a warning, if you don't have kids, they think you are a threat and you have to hand in your ID before entering. That was kind of strange.

Another fun day, but I am tired, we were going to try to add in a couple more things, but there was no way, maybe if the sun and heat were a little less intense. We did a lot of fun things and saw some fun stuff. The best part was being with JD and not having to worry about O Chem. Day 3 happens today so more to come of our vacation in Utah.

Salt Lake Day 1

Snowbird was beautiful! It was fun driving through Little Cottonwood Canyon, and the tram ride to Hidden Peak was fantastic!

The Connect Pass includes lunch at the Lion House. The food was delicious and as an added bonus I finally went upstairs, I had never toured the home before, just eaten in the basement.

JD loved Tracy Aviary. We had fun looking at all the birds and had a peacock friend that followed us the entire time we were there.

For day one, we went to an IMAX film at Clark Planetarium, Born to be Wild, it was really good. They are showing the last Harry Potter film on their IMAX screen so there were all kinds of Harry Potter stuff in the gift shop including the above Quidditch helmet.

Salt Lake City Vacation

JD and I had been hoping to go somewhere exotic for our vacation when we wrote off work back in April....somewhere like California or Colorado. Due to changes in events such as the new car and what not, we figured it may be a good idea to stick closer to home. We ended up doing some awesome things thanks to the Salt Lake Connect Pass. This gem is amazing. For a one day pass it is $24, for a two day pass it is $36. We got the 2 day pass and it more than paid for itself, we actually came out with a per person total of $75.50 so $39.50 in savings and times that by two. We have had many new adventures so far in our staycation with the bonus of sleeping in our own bed at night!

Goodbye O Chem

So JD is officially finished with organic chemistry and what a happy thing it is! He has been working so hard on these two-seven week courses and has done remarkably well. True, there are just a few weeks off at this point and true there will be more fun to come next semester, but this doesn't matter though because these classes are DONE, forever. We have a week planned for playing and spending time together; it has already been fun just going to bed at the same time, going on walks, and doing things other than study. HAPPY DAY!

Archery World Cup 2011 Part 2

Yesterday was the final day for the Archery World Cup. JD had fun taking pictures of the different countries during the compound final. I enjoy recurve more than the compound finals but it is still fun to go. Tonight was fun because we knew so many people who had come, both of our families, JD's coworker and family, and our upstairs neighbors as well. We would periodically change location to go and talk to so many friends. This put us by team India, France, the Netherlands, and the medals. For other insight into the tournament you should check out the past few posts by my sister: somemusingsofme.blogspot.com

Archery World Cup 2011

JD and I went to the Archery World Cup finals for Recurve tonight. It was fantastic as always. This year brought a lot more people with it. It was fun to see Brady Ellison and his pink bow shoot once again, he managed 3 gold medals tonight and is amazing to watch. India was also in most of the finals which made JD happy too. If you can, you should definately come out tomorrow night for the Compound events. Lindquist Field in Ogden, 6-10, free admission, free raffle entry with a chance to win a Disneyland vacation. We hope to see you there!

Of Cars and Such

July is the month of the car in the Speth home. Last year brought new tires and a pulmonary embolism with registration. This year was no less exciting, well maybe a little less since it didn't end with me in the hospital. It started with a windshield for the Civic, no biggie we were planning on that. The Taurus has been been very fussy and we were kind of dreading taking it in to get inspected. JD did, and surprisingly, it passed! We were joyous, but not for long. JD drove home and upon arriving home came to realize that the car was dumping large amounts of fluid all over the driveway. He drove back and unfortunately it wasn't a misplaced oil cap, but the transmission. The mechanic's ultimate bill of health was no driving over 40 miles per hour, no question; and the price tag to fix around $4700 since it is such an old car. Well, that isn't exactly worth it to us when he only paid $1000 for it in the first place. The pursuing weeks consisted of wonderful suggestions on facebook and the ultimate purchase of a 2007 Toyota Corrola from Kirsten Kemp, JD's childhood neighbor who was leaving for the MTC 3 days from when we decided to purchase it. So....we have a new car! We really love it, it was a good situation, and it is a good car so everyone won....except maybe our wallets. :)