Sunday will come.

I got back from Utah on Thursday. I was listening to the radio and heard, as I was driving down my street, that Michael Jackson died. Sadness. I still wasn't feeling well but figured I'd rest all Thursday evening and then hopefully would start feeling better the next day and could get back to normal.

I was surprised to find I actually felt worse, not better on Friday. This lovely scene at the side of my bed pretty much sums up my day:
I was given these tablets a few months ago (the last time I was sick-- what's up with my immune system lately?) that are like Airborne on steroids. These things fizz like nothing else! The writing on the container is mostly in German but I'm pretty sure it's just a power dose of Vitamin C and zinc. I was really wishing I had this stuff when I first started feeling sick but I was about 700 miles away from it. Bummer. I've been drinking it like crazy since I got back but that was probably a little too late.
While this was all going on, we were all hoping for a miracle in Texas. This potential miracle had a lot of forces working against it, and I'm sad to say those forces won out. No miracle. Huge disappointment. Sadness.

In my mail yesterday, I got a newsletter from the BYU College of Health and Human Performance. I read that Dr. Keith Karren was retiring. Dr. Karren, who's undying optimism for life and never-ending perkiness I have not forgotten from my days as a Health Science major at BYU.... His big thing was the mind-body connection. He taught of the power of the mind to influence the health of the body.

Building off of what I learned from Dr. Karren, I have to believe that the reason I'm not getting any better is because I'm pretty much surrounded by sadness right now. And it isn't just the things I've written about here, it seems that amongst my friends there have been a never-ending string of disappointments and tragedies. Whenever we think the streak is being broken, we're disappointed once again. Tears, tears, and more tears. I've been putting too many names of people I love on the temple prayer roll recently. Too many.

So when I read this tag line on the new "Mormon Message" on Facebook, it seemed completely appropriate: "No matter how dark our Friday, Sunday will come." I watched the video and found comfort. Hope. Between laying around being sick all day and one huge disappointment, yesterday truly was a dark Friday. But thank you Elder Worthlin for reminding us that Sunday will come....

Maybe soon I can start to feel better.

Two new temples and concessions for free speech: "hooray for the First Amendment- now go stand by that trash can"

In lieu of actually going to church today because Roman wasn't feeling well, Wendy, Roman and I ended up going to see the two new temples in the Salt Lake valley: Draper and Orquirrh Mountain. We're going to the open house for the Orquirrh Mountain temple on Tuesday so I'll get to see the inside then.

First we went to the Draper temple, which was dedicated back in March. Gorgeous, as always.
We all wore our pajamas!

On the street right above the temple are some ridiculously ginormous houses (the picture really doesn't do them justice):
Some flowers:
Then across the valley we went to the Oquirrh Mountain temple. The tents are up because of the open house, which wasn't going on today because it's Sunday. But there were some security guys in white shirts there who must have been bored because they were zipping around the parking lot on their golf carts. I thought they were going to tell us we couldn't be there because the parking lot was all blocked off, but they completely ignored us.

This one is a darker color. It's pretty! I love that beam of light shining right on the angel Moroni in this first photo.

Speaking of the angel Moroni, it was struck by lightening not too long ago and you can see the black marks on it.
If you look between the trees you can see the Draper temple, can you see it? It looks far away but it really only took about 15 minutes to get from one to the other. (by freeway of course)
Then you can also see the Jordan River temple down the hill in the other direction. See it?
A nice view of the mountains:

Now the part about free speech....we thought these signs were kind of funny. There's a small lot over on one side of the temple and there were signs that said: "Free speech standing area". Why people would take their time to go protest the building of a temple in Utah I don't quite understand, but hey, who doesn't heart the first Amendment? I love that this sign was right next to a trash can. Good place for the protesters if you ask me!

Where am I again?

I arrived in Utah on Saturday to find it cold, windy, and rainy. The Wasatch mountains were covered in dark, stormy clouds....and I started to wonder, where the heck am I? Did I overshoot my drive and end up in Portland or something? This isn't normal June weather in the Utah valley.


I looked around for some confirmation that I was, in fact, in the right place...and...
























Yep I'm in Utah.

I finally scanned some old pictures.

This is probably my favorite of the bunch- my 3rd birthday with my favorite cousin "Big Katie". (of course I am "little Katie")
This blue dress is one of the ones I posted here...
Carol, you look just like Anthony here! Crazy:
Don't be jealous of my outfit:
Who wouldn't want to run wild through the Lincoln Memorial?
I never did update the teeny tiny clothing thread with pictures, and by now they would just be buried so....I'm posting them here.

**I've just been informed that the picture of me running is actually at the Jefferson Memorial. I should have known that since Lincoln is sitting in a giant chair, not standing...Boo on me!

Arson = bad

Dearest kids:

There are lots of mischievous* things you can do to occupy your time. But arson should not be one of them! I'm not advocating other crimes either but I'm just saying if you're going to break the law, don't set stuff on fire please. Why do I single out arson? Well, people have major trust issues with kids that set stuff on fire. No one will take you in residential placement if you're a known arsonist. And that is defined very broadly; you only need one conviction to be considered a full-blown arsonist apparently.

Sex offenders? No problem getting them treatment. But arsonists? Well, no one wants to sleep in the same building with you. Even the sex offenders.....SO DON'T DO IT!

Your's Truly,
Your Attorney



*Recently there was a rolicking debate on the correct pronunciation of mishchievous. So I'm curious, how do YOU pronounce it?

Days 5 and 6

It's been 6 days since shampoo touched my head and I'm loving it!
Here on Day 6, I was feeling the curly vibe so here you go: curly. Although I'm not feeling the loving karmic vibes from the universe because I got a freakin' speeding ticket on my way to FHE Monday night. Lame!! That's a real ticket from a real cop, not those stupid photo tickets that I don't pay. And I wouldn't have even gone that particular way had I not been going to Sunflower market first to get coconut oil. So I choose to blame my no-poo adventure for my ticket. (not myself for speeding.....allegedly)

Day 6 I washed with baking soda diluted in water and a couple drops of peppermint oil. Then I rinsed with diluted ACV with a few drops of sweet orange oil, which mostly took the icky vinegar smell away! I was in a hurry so I ended up scrunching more than I thought I would, but putting coconut oil on the ends helped to soften it up. (thanks for the tip, Kate!)

Day 7 I just rinsed with some chamomile tea and then used safe conditioner. I'll tell you what, my hair hasn't felt this soft since I was a kid!! Seriously! It's awesome. I round-brushed it and was pleased to see that my color seems to be holding up fine. (there was some fear that baking soda and/or vinegar would strip the color) But I think it looks okay so far.

I don't know how long to keep posting these pictures and updates....I wonder if this is interesting to anyone but me and my fellow no-poo'ers!