30 years baby!

Yesterday, May 28 2018 was my 30th wedding anniversary.

30 years is a long time.

We went to Moab for the long weekend so I wasn't able to post but I wanted to write a little something to commemorate the occasion.

Frank got me a lovely picture of Christ with his sheep, a cute card (Disney themed! He is trying to get what I might like obviously) and just a few sugar free chocolates (we are trying to eat healthy but he knows I would like a little cheat).  I got him...nothing. Ugh.

In my defense, we are going to Mexico in a couple of weeks which is our official celebration of our anniversary so I didn't know we were doing anything on the actual day. 

Still, it was definitely a fail on my part.

I was really surprised by the picture!  I love it.  As I opened it he said something along the lines of the picture reminding him of me and my life's work/what I do best.  It totally made me tear up and still does when I think about it. So thoughtful.

Let's see how we've changed:

1988

1990 Frank's College Graduation

1995 (My college graduation)

Most of the pictures from the "early years" were on film so I don't have access to them. I need to get them digitized. Although those were not my best years, so I'm ok with missing them. Ha!

See:

1999 

1999 New Years Eve

2000 (Business trip tag along)

2003 NYC

2004 on our Anniversary

2005

2006 (Me trying not to cry at Christmas)

2006 Our anniversary (I tagged along on a business trip Frank had to London!)

2007 (40th bday trip for me)

2008

2008 (70's Party)

2009 in our backyard

2009 (Maine)

2010 Anniversary weekend (at a Memorial Day Parade)

2010 (first time at the grand canyon. Came out west for my parent's 50th anniversary)

2011 Branden and Amber's Wedding

2012 (The day Frank entered the hospital with Leukemia)

2012 (The day before Frank went back to the hospital for his bone marrow transplant)

2012 (On our anniversary)

2013 (Canobie Lake Park with Carter and friends)

2013 (Oregon Christmas, Frank's 50th bday)

2014 (Oregon Coast)

2015 (Moab)

2016

2017 (Moab)

2018 (Family wedding)

Apparently, for the most part we don't take pictures together unless it's a holiday or special occasion. Luckily we have taken some when we've gone hiking in Moab or I'd have nothing together for the last few years! Gotta fix that I guess.

It's been a bumpy ride for sure but I guess that's just how life is, amiright?

We do forget to cherish each day, which I vowed to do when Frank was so sick, but I'm grateful that our lives have become so normal that we can sometimes take it for granted.

Love is like that sometimes.

And I'm glad to have my love of 30 years here by my side.

Escape rooms

A few months ago I tried my first escape room.

We went for Frank's birthday when we had some family here for Christmas.  I thought it was super fun...although humbling in some ways.  We felt at times like we must be complete idiots but after we successfully escaped (ok with a couple of hints) we felt pretty darn proud of ourselves. If I think back, I'm not sure I was super helpful. I did find a few clues that were helpful but I didn't come to any of the big conclusions that led to breakthroughs.  Nevertheless...it was fun!

Then a girl at work told me about a local Harry Potter themed escape room. Oh man, I really wanted to go!

I talked some family members into it and we went.  This one was even better with multiple rooms that you had to figure out how to enter.  We had a really good time together and we also managed to escape this room with only one hint. The younger set we had with us did not want any hints at all, and maybe they would have figured it out, but we were definitely stuck at one point. Afterwards the guy said that he has to give 99% of the groups that particular hint. It was a tricky one. My only regret was that I didn't think to wear my Hogwarts shirt that I got in Florida. Ugh! I'm so dumb sometimes.

Anyway, the reason I am writing about this is that I am totally hooked! I want to go all the time!

Escape rooms are not cheap entertainment. Also, I have no interest in going with strangers so I can't really go with just Frank and I because they will likely add another group to our slot. I just don't think that would be as fun. I have to round up a group willing to spend a bunch of money to get locked in a room!  Not easy.

I just found out that there is one in my town here which is getting good reviews and it is 90 minutes rather than 60 so, obviously, it is more bang for the buck! There is also a new one opening nearby. And of course, the last two places I went to have other rooms with different games inside.  So many options. And I want to do it again and again. Maybe I will lose this desire once I have a room I do not escape from...who knows? I always try to bring some smart people with me to avoid this scenario.

So, who wants to go?

Complimentary

I made a decision a long time ago to forget about being shy or following social norms when it comes to giving compliments.
If I see someone and think "wow, she's pretty" or "cute shoes!" or "Oh I love that dress"...well I don't keep that information in my head. I tell the person.
Has it been awkward at times? Yes.
But has it been great other times? Yes!
So it's worth it.

I just thought one day that it would sure make me happy if some random person gave me a compliment (as long as it is done in a non-creepy way) so why not spread a little love?

I used to sometimes embarrass my kids with this behavior but I don't care.

I remember one day as I was filling my gas I saw a lady two pumps over with the cutest coat. So I yelled..."Hey, I really love your coat! It's so cute!"  My kids were mortified as they sat in the car. But she yelled back "Thanks! You made my day!"
So, sorry kids, it was worth it.

Anyway, I have continued this behavior for many years now.
Recently, however, I have wondered if my compliments are having the intended affect.

You see, I often like dresses or shirts or shoes or coats that happen to be worn by fairly young people.
I wonder if after my middle-aged, somewhat pudgy self tells them that I love their outfit, if they find themselves wondering if they like their outfit anymore?  Or do they think "am I wearing an outfit for  a middle-aged, somewhat pudgy person?"

I hope they just feel complimented and don't overthink it.

But I can imagine that if someone much older than myself complimented a shirt of mine, I might wonder "Is this a 90 year old woman's shirt?" See what I mean?

Possibly (probably) it is my own insecurity coming out as I think about this. But, these are the thoughts in my head, so there you go.

Around the house

My refrigerator is making some weird noises. That's bad, right?
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When Frank is out of town, I watch too much Fixer Upper and The Middle and This Is Us.
He's been traveling quite a bit lately and I am actually almost out of tv to watch. I may have to branch out to some different shows...or maybe start reading again! Recommendations welcome.
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We are having plumbing woes at our house...things that really do require some attention. Our hot water heater is probably in need of replacement. It sounds like there are a bunch of rocks tumbling around in there. About a year ago we had a plumber come to flush it but it didn't fix anything, it actually got worse after that. It is most likely due to our hard water and will need to be replaced sooner than later. The plumber actually recommended replacement when he came but we are trying to eek out as much life as possible.  Looks like our time is about up..as you might imagine, this makes me sad.
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The fact that our hot water heater is dying due to hard water and the fact that our dishwasher is also not faring well, most likely for the same reason, is leading to me to think that we should probably get a water softener. Neither Frank nor I am excited about this idea. First soft water feels awful...all slippery (Frank would say slimy). I have been told that you get used to this but we have our doubts. Also, I haven't looked into it but it sounds expensive as well.  And how does that work with the drinking water? Do I also have to buy a water purifier if I get a water softener? And then I will have to become one of those people buying pallets of salt at Costco?...
Obviously these are things I have to investigate.
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We used to laugh when we would go visit Frank's parents because they had a guest room for us but we had no where to put our stuff when we visited. The closet and dresser were full of his mom's stuff.
My daughter-in-law and the grandkids are coming this week and will stay at our house part of the time and Carter will be home from college this week as well. As I look around to prepare for their arrival I came to the uncomfortable conclusion that I have also started to fill the closets and dressers in the guest room. Maybe this is just what happens when the kids move out. I hope to deal with it soon, although I'm not exactly sure what I mean by that. None of the things in the closets or dressers are things I want to get rid of necessarily. I just don't want them in my closet!
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I recently got a new job. Why is this fact included in an "around the house" post? Well, because I will be around the house more! YAY!  I will miss the people I work with, I did make some fun friends at my current job. But my new job is a few less hours per week and is closer to my home so I will get to spend some time in my favorite place-home. I'm thrilled. Hopefully I will like the job as well.
 :-)
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Also, on a positive note, the tulips have bloomed. I love them so much. So. much.

Jeeping. The latest.

One might get sick of reading about Jeeping in the coming days, I  may even get sick of writing about it. However, Jeeping, for me, involves a lot of mental and emotional energy (is trauma too strong of a word?) and so blogging about it will most likely continue. To my grandchildren who may read this someday out of boredom or curiosity, I apologize.

Did we go to Moab two weeks in a row? Why yes, we did.  Here were the reasons:

-It snowed up here where we live and that made us want to go south.

-Frank's jeep got lifted this week so he, of course, really wanted to try it out.

-Frank doesn't really need a reason to want to go to Moab. I think he would do it every single weekend if he could.

We went on a new trail that we had never tried before. This time around (vs the last time we owned a jeep) I am trying to put my foot down and say I refuse to do anything crazy. I do not like the feeling of "I might die doing this stupid thing".  It is not in my nature. I don't get it at all, to be honest.

However

(You knew that was coming didn't you?)

Frank picked this trail and said it was mostly a medium trail-yellow- with nothing really dangerous. It was only considered hard in parts-red- because of rocky terrain.  We ventured on.

An example of "rocky terrain". This kind of stuff isn't scary to me unless it's too steep.

I kept to my stated intention of getting out of the car if I had any doubt of the scariness of the terrain. I got out about 4-5 times on this trail. I took a few pictures and a couple of videos, although neither the videos nor pictures do justice to how scary it looks from inside the car. 

That is disappointing to me.

Take this for example. Inside the car it looks very steep and rocky, like driving off a mini cliff. In this picture...no big deal.

This is me trying to get a picture from inside the jeep of how scary it looks. Even I admit that this picture doesn't look that bad. But seriously, those are big rocks and we are going to drive over them.

Here is a little video that shows my feelings and Frank's feelings all in one short clip. I was trying to keep my commentary to a minimum since all I ever say is how scared I am. Ha!  But as you will see, I let some noise slip out...

It was beautiful. A perfect day, weather-wise. I do love the gorgeous Red rocks of southern Utah as well. I can never capture the beauty of the place (how surprising...using my iPhone only and sometimes through a window) but it really is quite spectacular.

About halfway though our drive, Frank heard a noise he did not like. Since he just got the lift done this week, he was keeping a close eye on things and making sure it was all installed and performing well.  Turns out, this sound was the sound of part of the jeep's guts coming loose (Yes, guts...something underneath...that's all that matters to me). He found that a bolt had come loose, so loose that the nut was missing and it was almost out completely.  During his investigation he found another bolt that was also loose but the nut was still intact.  As we have done with the past Jeep, he jimmy rigged a fix with duct tape. Yes duct tape held our vehicle together as we finished a difficult four wheeling adventure and drove the 3 hour drive back home afterwards. Ridiculous.

Shortly after "repairing" the jeep, we arrived at a cool arch called Uranium Arch...apparently named after the mines that existed around Moab back in the day.

For me the upside of 4 wheeling is that you get to see things that you would likely never see in any other circumstance. Most of these beautiful places are only available to people with serious 4 wheel capable vehicles or to serious hikers. We don't really fall into the serious hiker category though we hope someday to be less pathetic than we now are.

Arches are so cool in person and kind of hard to capture with an iPhone. You'll just have to trust me.

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We have a book that we use to map the trails. It gives info on what kind of terrain you will find and obstacles that you will experience. We knew this trail had an optional hill called "Wipeout Hill".

I told Frank that we would definitely not be taking that side trip.

We got to a point in the road where there was a fork and it wasn't clear which way to go, so Frank just starts going left. I tell him to stop while I read the book...turns out if we had continued to the left for a few more feet we would have gone down, you guessed it, Wipeout Hill.

OY!

We turned around but as we were about to drive away we see a couple investigating the hill and then getting into their jeep and heading that way. So we got out to watch.

I was so stressed watching them go down it that I couldn't even bring myself to take pictures. I wasn't in any danger whatsoever but I was beside myself.

At one point the jeep went up on the two front wheels and nearly tipped.

Frank immediately turned to me and said,"You did not just see that."

The jeep did make it safely to the bottom where they stopped and looked back up at the hill for quite a few minutes. I'm sure they were thinking back to that moment when they almost went end over end.

Then a group of vehicles arrived that were all going down the hill.

Turned out they were being trained to take tourists down this way...so they had a guy showing them where to put their tires and how to steer as they went down.

I wish now that I had a decent picture of this monstrous hill but I was at this point pretty sure I was about to have a full on panic attack just watching.

I ended up leaving the area to do some deep breathing and questioning of my life decisions. 

Frank watched the first guy go down and said he did fine.

I made him vow to never talk about that hill to me again. 

A vow he has already broken numerous times (accidentally of course) 

Here is a picture I stole off the internet showing the beginning of that hill. It gets worse after this part:

Below is the only picture I managed to get. You can't even tell it's a hill really except you can see the guy at the top waiting, and the guy headed down.

Anyway, after my little breakdown we kept going and the road was less stressful for the rest of the ride.

We had a lovely little lunch with a nice view, as usual.

I also got out of the car for this part

The book described this part as "uncomfortably tippy" and "scary looking".

I agree.

I took the above picture as I hiked over the scary, tippy hill while Frank waited at the bottom.

So that was the latest adventure in Jeeping from the Hills.

I am happy to say that this coming weekend, we are not going 4 wheeling because we are doing an escape room!  I'm actually excited about this idea and I will not be in danger at any point.