Video Chatting

I am not very up on the latest technologies - I just have a regular cell phone and have never once texted (texting is actually blocked on our phones), we do not have cable or a dvr or a flat pannel TV, we only got high-speed internet 2.5 years ago - and I only got a web cam a couple months ago. There is a lot about technology I don't like - but there are also some things I love - and I have just fallen in-love with video chatting.

At Christmastime my family had a big party - I didn't get to be there. I also didn't have a video cam at the time, but my sister did and so for part of the party I got to watch my family (they couldn't see or hear me but I could them so it kind-of felt like I was there with them).

My MTC companion and I have a tradition of talking every year around the time we entered the MTC. She is a Canadian however, so I can't talk to her for free. But video chatting with Skype and Google chat is free - so this year we bought a web cam. We have tried a few times to chat, but our chats have been cut short due to technical difficulties. One of the times our chat wasn't working out one of my friends from BYU, that I haven't seen since before my mission I think, was on-line and I ended up getting to chat with her for a little bit, which was fun.

Last night I got to chat with my companion, Crystal Little Schlenker, for 1 1/2 hours - so fun. Since being home from the mission I have only seen her twice - once just a month or two before I got married - so 7 years ago. The other time was a couple years ago when Ryan and I were on our way to Vancouver for our Alaska cruise we had a lay-over in Toronto where she lives. She traveled about an hour (each way) to see us for 30-45 minutes. But it was so great to see her. Well, after last night I almost feel like I have seen her again. I feel blessed.

Now I want to chat with all my favorite people who I don't get to see regularly. So, you should get a web cam if you don't already have one and we can chat. Let me know when you want to!

May Holds Camping - and more bird stories

Our temple closes the first two weeks of May for cleaning and up-keep. That means we have two free Saturdays. As our first free Saturday was approaching we tried to remember what we used to do on Saturdays before we started working at the temple - we would get things done. So, our first Saturday we spent the majority of the day doing stuff in the yard and around the house. It was exhausting and we thought we needed to get back to the temple to get a little more rest. (We did play games with Ryan's parents that night, which was fun.) It was interesting though, we spend almost every Saturday at the temple and have done so for a year and a half now, and somehow despite work and church service we are still able to get all our stuff done. I have no doubt that if we hadn't had this time off from the temple we would still have been able to get all our stuff done some how. I think it is like keeping the Sabbath Day holy - you may have to take a break from your work and focus on the Lord for one day, but if you do you are blessed to get all your other stuff done faster - I have seen that happen too many times to even need to rely on faith anymore, I know it will happen. I guess it is the same with all obedience, God will make sure everything can work out, as long as you are obedient - so nice of Him.

But since we got all our work done that first Saturday, we were able to play the second one - and play we did. When Ryan and I were engaged and registering for gifts, we registered for camping equipment. We were given a lot and used it frequently our first several years of marriage. Camping is a tricky thing in Texas though because the weather doesn't go very gradually from cold to hot or from hot to cold. There are definitely some nice days, but they are rather sporadic and hard to predict. Generally you can only think of camping in April and May or September and October, and even then, like I said, it's hard to know. As a result, we haven't been camping since before we started working at the temple because there just haven't been many opportunities. But we had a weekend off that also had perfect camping weather - and so we went. On my way home from work I always pass by signs for Joe Pool Lake. Neither Ryan or I had ever been there. But a few months ago (like 6) a guy I work with said he would go camping at this place near there and that there was camping there. Ryan and I tried to go hiking there on New Years, but it had been rainy and so the trails were closed. But we decided to try again, and I am so glad we did. It is only about 20-30 minutes from our house, and oh so pretty.

There are various parks around the lake with camping - we camped at Cedar Hill State Park. It was fantastic because there are tons of trees which makes all the campsites secluded, and the lake is nice. We got there fairly late Friday night so by the time we got out tent up the sun was already down so we only had enough time to walk to the lake and check out our surrounding area. The next morning after breakfast and packing everything up we went to Penn Farm (it is within the park). It was interesting, I don't know how many acres, but pretty big with lots of old farm equipment and buildings and such. I wish I were a better photographer because I think you could get some AMAZING pictures there. I would like to have family pics taken there. Anyway, we walked around the farm for awhile and had some interesting run-ins with some birds. First, we were just on this covered patio when we saw a mama bird sitting on her nest. We took a couple steps closer to get a better look and she started flying all around the nest. We stopped, I was hoping she would sit back on the eggs so I could get a picture, but she didn't. then we wondered what she would do if we got closer to the nest, so we tried. She is not at all a good protector, instead of dive-bombing our heads as we expected she just flew to the other side of the porch and watched us. We got a stool thing and looked right into the nest and she didn't do anything, not even chirp at us. But it was still fun to see her 5 little eggs.

Our second run-in was actually quite scary. I am not sure I can inspire in you the fear we felt, even with the pictures, but I will try to explain. There is this big red barn thing on the farm that was made to incorporate two previously existing buildings - I know one was a school but I can't remember the other one. When you go inside the barn you can easily see the structures of these old buildings inside. They are fairly small though, maybe 10-12 by 10-12 feet. The first one we came across had cut-out windows, one on each side. I looked in first and didn't see much, it was really dark but just looked like a big empty space to me. Then Ryan looked in and told me there were chickens in there. I hadn't seen them when I first looked in so I took a second look. Sure enough I saw these black chicken-like animals, but they were covered in about an inch of dust and standing totally still. I thought for sure they were just statues - what animal would be able to live in such a dark place where they clearly weren't being taken care of - what would they eat and how would they get so dusty? I told Ryan I thought they were fake, but he told me they were alive. As I watched a little longer they started moving, super slowly, and very scary. Their bodies and feet look like chickens but their beaks are more vulcher-like. CREEPY. They reminded me of those vulcher-things on The Never Ending Story - do you know what I am talking about? Anyway, we wanted a closer look so we went to the window that was on the side of the building they were huddled against. As I poked my head in they moved in to the corner to get away (I was so nervous even looking - such crazy animals) but then Ryan looked in and the hissed at him - actually HISSED! They were SCARY! We left them alone as we explored more of the farm, but we wanted another look at them since they didn't seem quite chicken or quite vulcher. When we went back I tried a different window, but they had again moved to a new corner. I only had my small camera with me, but I got a few shots with our zoom. I wanted to get a better picture though so I decided to go in to the building they were in. I was scared - not sure if they would try to get me or something. I climbed in and when I was still 8 feet or more away they both started hissing at me - yep, they scared me - I froze, took my picture, and got out of there. Would you be scared of these birds too?

After the farm we went on a nice hike in the park - it was so nice to be totally in the shade pretty much the whole time and see tons of flowers and butterflies - it was just so nice and pleasant.

We then left the state park and went to Cedar Ridge Preserve - it is kept up by the Dallas Audubon Society and it is amazing. It is free although they suggest a $3 donation - totally worth it. We did some super pretty hikes there as well.

After all our hiking we were hungry and a little tired so we stopped at JBs on our way home. It is in this new shopping center in south Arlington. They just happened to be having a car show in the shopping center - so after lunch we walked around the car show for a while, which was fun - it was a first for me. And that was our great camping adventure - loved it.

April Adventures Continued

My sister Molly came to visit for my birthday. She was here with two of her kids and husband on my birthday a few years ago - I think my 26th birthday. I am pretty sure she has been the only one from my immediate family that has been with me on my birthday since I graduated from high school (except when Emily and Maggi lived with me at BYU). So it was fun having her there. She came on Friday afternoon. She took me shopping for clothes as a birthday present - so nice of her. I got a super cute shirt and sweater.

Saturday, the day before my birthday we went to brunch at Blue Mesa Grill, which is fantastic. Then we went to the temple so Ryan and I could work our shift while Molly just got some good temple time in. We left the temple and headed to Ennis to see the wildflowers, which of course were beautiful.

After our flower viewing we went to the drive-in movie theater. While waiting for the movie to start we played some miniature golf. Half-way through our game it started raining pretty hard - we played a quickly as we could and then ran to the safety of our car. Have you ever watched a movie at the drive-in in the rain? It was quite an adventure. But we learned that having your wipers on while your car is not on drains the battery fairly quickly. About 3/4s of the way through our first movie, How to Train a Dragon (which was fantastic), our power went out. That was disappointing. It wasn't so out that we couldn't still listen though, so we did. During the intermission before our next movie, Bounty Hunter (not worth your time) we let the car rest, said a prayer that it would start so we could enjoy the movie, but more importantly get home, waited a little longer, and then started it up - and it did start so we were grateful. Doing these things (Blue Mesa brunch, temple, Ennis flowers and drive-in) have become a bit of a tradition for my birthday - and I like it. I am so glad my birthday is at such a beautiful time of year.

Sunday we went to church, took naps, and then Ryan's parents and sister came over for dinner - paninis (another bit of a tradition - this is the third year in a row anyway - maybe I'll change it up next year). They also brought me cheesecake (my favorite.) It was a fun birthday.

Monday I helped Molly set up a blog and then a Facebook account, and then it was time to head to the airport. I'm so grateful I have fantastic sisters, so lucky!

One day during that next week Ryan came home and there was this guy that told him someone in our neighborhood needed their phone line fixed, which meant they would need to work on the boxes in our backyard. We are not fond of the appearance of these boxes so we have planted bushes all around them to cover them up. As a result, this guy said they would need to dig up one of our bushes to get to the box, but that the guy doing it was really good and that they would replant it. We thought it would be no big deal, that they would dig up our bush, do a little work on the box, replant the bush, and no one would be the wiser. Little did we know - this is what Ryan found when he came home from work.

We were a bit surprised to say the least. We had this gigantic hole in our backyard for three days. They filled it in (kind of, if you walk on the area the hole was the ground starts to sink) and put sod over the area where the hole was, but not where all the dirt was piled up so we now have a big muddy patch. But oh well, what can you do. We knew when we bought the house that they would have access to the spot, we just didn't realize they could dig such a huge hole. Now we know - and so do you.

The Friday after the hole arrived, so did a bird on our back porch. Ryan saw him (I am just guessing he was male) lying on his side breathing really hard. We were sad. It has happened before that birds have flown into our window and knocked themselves out, so I thought maybe he just knocked the wind out himself and that he would be alright. We also thought that maybe it had just hurt one or both of his legs, which was why he was lying on his side, so if he could get upright maybe he could fly. I decided to try to help him. I got some of my gardening gloves and headed to help him fly away. When I first reached to pick him up he started flapping and flew a little ways but stayed close to the ground. Once I did actually pick him up he seemed to calm down quite bit, but he never flew away. So I ended up setting him upright in the grass, he didn't jump or fly out of my hands, I had to set him all the way down.

So this reminded me of another time I held a wild bird. This is a fairly funny, yet true story. My last year at BYU, the year I was dating Ryan, I went grocery shopping at WalMart. On my way to my car I saw this bird just sitting right on the ground, his legs tucked up tight underneath him. Even when I got super close he didn't move at all. I was worried if he stayed there he would get stepped on or rolled over. I did not have any garden gloves with me, I just had my groceries. But I had just bought tortillas, so I used them to scoop him up. He still did not move, so I placed him and the tortillas on the child seat of my cart and proceeded to my car. I unloaded my groceries and he was still there, so he and the tortillas went on to my passenger seat. I figured he was probably rather nervous so on the drive home I played some church music to help soothe him. It is about a 15 minute drive from WalMart to my condo. When I was less than a minute from my condo he decided to fly - he flew around my car for a little bit (which was quite startling) and then landed somewhere, I wasn't sure where. I drove a Subaru Forester so there was quite a bit of space for him to fly around. When I got home I got out of the car, leaving my door open and then went to the back where the groceries were. I looked around for him for a while but couldn't find him. I proceeded to take my groceries in, but as I couldn't find him I figured he had flown out when I wasn't looking. As I picked up my last grocery load, which was a huge purple ball he flew out, which was startling again, but he flew right away, didn't' seem hurt at all. SO I suppose he just wanted to get relocated or take a ride in a car, or sit on tortillas, or just hang out with me for a while, I'm not sure which. But I was glad he was able to fly away because I do not know what I would have done with him.
That's the end of my story, and the end of my April adventures. We will have to see what May holds!