Man do I wish this was what it looked like!....

It would be so much easier to explain some event of the recent past...

You know, Patrick was just off having a little blast!!!

The reality is the grenade is disarmed hull that's a shelf display (as long as our home teacher doesn't steal  it...) and the bag is polishing powder squired on the same trip a couple weeks ago.

The reality picture for this week is this...

Those would be my hospital bracelets and the piece of tiger's eye that I used to cut them off fairly shortly after I got back into the car (would you believe they don't let you carry knives in the local hospital?)..

Yeah, there are changes and there are going to be changes but there are things that don't change either:

1: My testimony of Heavenly Father and the Savior are here, strong and true.

2: The adventures continue... It's just some of them aren't the ones we planned on (guess what they never are!).

3: Words still mean stuff (Hmm plug for my other blog?) and I will continue to be writing about things that are important (to me at least!) and continuing to pursue that publishing dream.

4: Making things and doing things is a must (why just exist when you can create (lots more to come on this)

5: (hey if you don't get something out of this on your own I can't help you)



Now you just make what you want to/can out of that last one...

For those who haven't heard I was diagnosed as diabetic last week along with a big scary hospital adventure that I'm not talking about too much right now (at least until I can access what Lisa's been saying to people (and what they've been saying) and so on (at least in part not sure what to tell people (do I add detail or issue a rebuttal?)). I am out and doing better. I will say that I also managed an ulcer (I was right better to give 'em than get 'em), an antibiotic allergy, and a sinus infection in the same run (can't do anything simple can I? and Lisa adds "What about the vasculitis as well?"). Like I said not going to talk too much about this right here and right now (but in the appropriate place and time...)

Lisa is still working on that doctorate thing... at least one of her committee feels she's ready to move on to proposal stage and then do her research. As far as writing goes for me, events have slowed me down but I'm putting words on paper and screen again! The novella is in edits, several stories in the works and non fiction stuff is "in process" (in other words writing is going on but I don't want to talk about it right now).

More to say on more things, but this post is taking way to long today and there are things to do and places to be... more to come...

till next time...

keep the faith

Running Away...

So, after some very crazy weeks, and the upcoming end of the semester, we needed a break.  (I think we also get antsy as spring comes around.  The uncertainty of the weather in the winter makes traveling a bit more anxiety producing.)

So, from our travels we brought back...

• German chocolate
• French pastries
• Chinese sauces and mixes
• A baseball grenade (empty)
• Some zippers
• Pre-polish grit for the tumbler
• Some rocks - just two little ones for Lisa's office collection
• Little boxes
• New pants for Patrick

I find it great that we can travel 2 1/2 hours away and have such an international experience!

We did skip the Brazilian BBQ and the Belgian frites and waffles this time around, but the point was to step away from work and re-orient ourselves.  The German deli  - Seigfreid's Deli - had priorities this time around, and we did breakfast at Les Madeleines.  I had the best English muffin ever! Homemade really does make a difference.  We, of course, brought home some of the pastries - you just can't get enough of the good stuff here!

We ended up in a great little hotel suite, with a good bed - which helped us both to sleep better than either of us had for a while.

With a lazy Friday, semi-wandering around Salt Lake it gave us much needed time to talk.  Although, work - both teaching and writing filtered into the conversation, that is nothing unusual for us.  At dinner Thursday night, we think the table next to us changed their conversation as an attempt to counter our pretty heady and theoretical conversation.

Throughout the weekend we discussed the lesson I taught on Sunday, (which I think went really well) a talk from the October General Conference by Sister Carol F. McConkie entitled Live according to the Words of the Prophets.  I love that we can talk about everything - especially scripture and gospel topics.

Next spring we are going to plan to go to the Winter Solstice Writing Retreat (See Solstice Writer Retreat Blog and High Valley Arts Website).

Sorry, no pictures this week, perhaps next week.

A little more sure

Lisa and I are definitely bouncing back, but it takes a while...

Words Mean Stuff (my other blog (you know the one with the thinky stuff...) is picking up likes and followers on a regular basis again (slow but regular and we're working on the slow...) this is kinda important because it fits more into my professional writer persona.

Lisa is progressing toward her dissertation proposal and should be getting a proof copy for her book chapter within the next month or two.

We also found time to make it up to the Idaho Falls rock show...

If you noticed on  Lisa's last post a couple things were missing...

1) I always pick up tiger eye.

Well we got it this week!

Top left is kinda both of our favorite

2) I'm known for picking up the catapult shot size stuff and we didn't get that last week.

This week we loaded up!

This is a massive opal (sadly not the fiery kind though) on  some base rock. It's a definite carver!

Also in the running this week...

Two auction wins. The green one is mine and the other is a 'Lisa Rock'. I think I kinda torqued a guy off by winning the green one, but that stone has a purpose in my shop...

Just a cool red Jasper here folks mostly picked this one to round off the price of a bunch of slabs...

Speaking of slabs!

Probably my favorite of the day. Check this out!

Light in front of it, light be hind it, winner either way!

One last goodie I got for Lisa

Labradorite not the easiest thing to find or cut but cool. We need a better camera to really show it off!

Well, that's the rocky road we walked ;-)

There's more (there's always more), but a lot falls into the category of "aught not to be revealed at this time"; so I won't reveal it yet!

Good luck,
take care,
see you next week!