Canoe-dled

I went camping last weekend. Camping with a canoe. A canoe strapped on my wee car. People said I couldn't do it, that my car couldn't carry a canoe. Silly people. Here they are, my car and the canoe and some friends (Ryan, Jenny and Daniela):



Here is another view of the canoe on my car while driving in it. I couldn't see the traffic lights, so whoever was in the front passenger seat was kind enough to inform me when I could and could not travel safely through intersections. :)



The trip up to the campground was an adventure in itself. Jenny, Daniela and I meant to leave around 5:30 or 6:00pm on Friday night, as soon as we could get the canoe securely attached to my humble vehicular transportation. :) A friend in the ward, Emily, was VERY kind....kind enough to let us borrow her family's canoe even though she could not come camping with us. She drove with us to her parents' house to pick up the canoe and for some reason, we could not figure out how to tighten the straps that were supposed to guarantee comfortable passage with the canoe nestled snugly on my car. Finally, after some fanagling and a bit of help from Emily's kind mother, we got the straps tight enough on the canoe that they "strummed" when flicked, a sure sign of security. If we hadn't been able to tighten those straps, we considered having one person sit inside of the canoe while holding on to the straps to make sure it didn't come flying off. Yeah, that would be a good idea. :) By the time we got those straps humming, it was 7:00pmish. We left Salt Lake at 7:30pm.

When we finally got to the campground, the sun had set and the stars were shining magnificently above the peaks of the canyon where we camped. The other people in the group we were meeting up with were already there, with a fire started and lasagna cooking in the dutch oven. It was a great scene to come upon, I must say, especially when one of the guys came out to our car and said that they needed girls in the camp. :) We could definitely help them with that!



That night we had an animal visitation of sorts. A moose who'd been making visits in the neighborhood found our camp inviting and decided to pop in on us quite unexpectedly. We were all in our tents and we head lots of rustling in the bushes. Jenny, Daniela and I all thought the guys were trying to scare us (silly us). Suddenly we heard loud clapping and two high-pitched screams coming from one of the guys' tents. We rolled our eyes, thinking the guys were definitely up to something. Well, as you know, we were wrong. The moose apparently found Ryan's head appealing. It was sniffing him through the tent fabric. Maybe he uses Herbal Essences shampoo. Ryan's tent mate, Matt, clapped and screamed (quite like a girl) and the moose ran off to investigate other campsites. We all got up and cleaned up any extra food that had been left out from dinner, just to make sure we would have no more midnight visitors. Thankfully, it wasn't a bear. The picture below is of Matt, the guy with the pipes, in the tent where the moose did its sniffing.



The next day we went canoeing at Porcupine Resevoir. It was a gorgeous day, and I got to increase the muscelage in my chicken-leg-like arms by rowing across the length of the reservoir. :) The guys went cliff diving and I was BUMMED because I couldn't join in with them for reasons I do not wish to discuss on my blog.



I was reminded on this trip that I need to allow guys to help me with things when they ask if they can be of service. Hence the picture below. The guy in the back, Tom, was quite nice and always ran up to help with the canoe if he saw that I was carrying it. As a single girl I've learned to do things by myself and I forget what it feels like to have guys do things for me out of thoughtfulness (although I must say that my dad, brothers, and brothers-in-law are always bailing me out of some crazy situation I've gotten myself into.....thanks peeps!).



Ahhh, camping. Anyone wanna go next weekend?

Biological Family History

Hi everyone. Today's post will be a short one, but I've been meaning to talk about this subject for a long time. I know lots and lots of people who have adopted children for one reason or another. I also know that where I work, we get calls from adopted people who want to know their family history, their biological family history. So I have a thought that I want to throw out into cyberspace, hopefully to be caught by at least a few people. :)

If you adopt a child and have a good relationship with the child's birth mother/parents, get as much information about that child's biological progenitors as you can. One day they might want to know all about where they came from (maybe for medical purposes, maybe for other reasons), and wouldn't it be wonderful if you could provide enough information for them to at least get started in discovering their background? I think so!

There it is. For all of you future adopters of children, you can give them the gift of their family history before they even know that they want it. If I were you, and who knows, maybe one day I will be, I'd get out a four-generation pedigree chart and kindly request that your child's biological relatives fill it out to the best of their knowledge, complete with vital events, dates and places, for the benefit of the child you both care about.

That's all. Have a great day everyone!

Tagged!

Cher, thanks for giving me something to blog about!

A- Attached or Single? Single, but hopeful!
B- Best Friend(s)? My family, including siblings-in-law, roomies, old roomies, some other peeps....I'm really lucky to have great friends.
C- Cake or Pie? Pie....home-made pumkpin pie goodness with real whipped cream.
D- Day of choice? Friday.
E- Essential Item? Wireless Internet (yes, I am addicted).
F- Favorite Color? Yellow, purple, deep deep reds and oranges.
G- Gummy bears or worms? Worms....they are more fun to eat!
H- Home town? Good question. I suppose Liberty, UT.
I- Favorite Indulgence? These days it's Dove chocolate....the ones filled with caramel are especially delightful.
J- January or July? July all the way, baby.
K- Kids? In the future, I hope!
L- Life isn't complete without? The Gospel....I've got to agree with Cher on that one.
M- Marriage date? TBA (Just so all of you know, I don't know who the groom is yet either.....anyone know any eligible young men?).
N- Number of brothers and sisters? 2 brothers, 2 sisters
O- Oranges or apples? Mmmm, toss up!
P- Phobias? Spiders. Falling. Drowning.
Q- Quote? Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear. - Mark Twain.
Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society. - Mark Twain again. :)
R- Reasons to smile? It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood.
S- Season of choice? Summer and Fall.
T- Tag three people? Somerset, Wendy, Heather.
U- Unknown fact about me? Huh. I'm pretty much an open book. Yeah. Maybe I should change that, it might make me more mysterious. :)
V- Vegetable? Broccoli.
W- Worst habit? Worrying.
X- X-ray or ultrasound? X-ray.
Y- Your favorite food? Tough one. Cheese, perhaps.
Z- Zodiac sign? Cancer.

North and South

WARNING TO ALL WOMEN WHO READ THIS POST (I probably don't need to be so specific because I have a feeling that my only readers are women): THIS POST CONTAINS A SPOILER VIDEO. There, now that I've given all of you proper notice, I must inform you that the video posted on this blog is a clip of the last five minutes of the movie North and South, directed by Brian Percival and based on the novel by Elizabeth Gaskell.

First of all, I love love LOVE the novel and highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading the works of Jane Austen. Elizabeth Gaskell wrote about similar issues, although some of her work has been described as more edgy. Now getting back to North and South. The movie, while a bit different than the novel due to the need to squeeze everything into four one-hour installments, is wonderful. In fact, the last five minutes of the movie are quite as moving and expressive as the last page-and-a-half of the novel, although the two scenes have some marked differences. The main difference, as those of you who read the book AND see the movie will note, is the abundance of kissing in the last scene of the movie. It is no surprise that Gaskell didn't describe any kissing in the novel. She lived right in the middle of the Victorian Era in England. Could we imagine it happening to the protagonists, Margaret Hale and John Thornton? In my opinion, although she didn't write it, it is a most delicious idea. Sometimes situations an author doesn't describe in great detail are more powerful than those that they record in minute detail.

Secondly, and you must understand that I never thought I would say this, I find Mr John Thornton, the leading man in North and South, to be more appealing than Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy. It's true. I can't help myself. Well, I can help myself, but I simply don't want to. Thornton is too appealing in the end, and in the middle, although not in the beginning.

Anyways, if you are not planning on seeing the movie, watch this clip and enjoy. The whole clip is about 8 minutes long. I would suggest that you let the clip load, then fast forward 2:40 minutes to get to the juicy part. If you ARE going to see the movie, then I suggest that you wait because this part won't be as beautiful without the events leading up to it. Either way, enjoy!

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