Houston, we have a sidewalk!

For those of you who have been to our house in the last year or two, you know that we ripped out our sidewalk in anticipation of putting in a new one. We thought we knew what we were doing, but cement supplies ran out. When cement was available again, it was too expensive. We've had an empty ditch leading up to our house for over a year now. I finally decided to take an extra day off work over Thanksgiving weekend and put in a brick sidewalk. The bricks came from three different neighbors who had some extras lying around. Over the past couple of months, other people had offered to help, but they never came through. While Emo and the kids cleaned the house for Thanksgiving, I put in the sidwalk. It's kind of lumpy in spots, but it's better than having a ditch. Sharon came up from Vegas to spend Thanksgiving with us and got to walk on our beloved sidewalk many times.

There be Pirates!

Dexter has been cast in his school's production of "Pirates of Penzance." He will be one of the pirates. Rehearsals have already begun and performances begin in February. They have created a little website for their play at http://provonianpirates.blogspot.com/

I grew up listening to the music from "Pirates," so I'm very excited to see how they do with it. Listening to Dexter sing some of my favorites makes it hard to have to wait until February to see the whole show.

Halloween

Halloween...that wonderful holiday for trying out alternate identities or expressing your weirder side. With my hectice schedule, I went for a cheap and easy costume. I stuck nametags with different names all over my shirt (having an identity crisis). It got a few checkles and didn't get in my way at work so it was a success. Dexter dress the way he wishes we would let him (kind of gothic) and is a little disappointed Halloween is over. Dwayne (pictured) showed us what he would look like if he cut his long hair. Actually, he went to a party at his girlfriend's house and the afro wig made him look just like her brother. For school, he borrowed his Scout leader's kilt and wore it. Not really a costume, but now he's interested in making kilts part of their Scout uniform since he found it so comfortable to wear. The biggest challenge of the night was trying to keep things quiet so Emerson could get some sleep before work. I opted to put the bowl of treats out on the front steps to avoid constant banging on the door. It didn't take long for someone to dump the contents of the bowl in their treat bag. then I turned off the lights and got back to my homework.

The Gang's All Here!

Dwayne's Eagle Court of Honor turned out to be a great event. I was pretty stressed out trying to work out all the details, but the glitches just made it more memorable. On Thursday, half the electricity in our house went out. We had to use flashlights and oil lamps to light our way in the bathroom and kitchen. Late Thursday night we found out that more family were coming up for the event than we had planned and our house was in no shape to host them. The program was a little late in starting due to some late arrivals and our struggles to figure out how to connect the laptop and projector for Dwayne's slide show. After that, things went fine. Our friend, Carl Moore, performed a hoop dance and a northern men's traditional dance for us. Another close friend, Angela Crank, presented Dwayne with a real eagle feather that she had used for dancing.

We're very proud of Dwayne and we're all so glad that so many family members were part of it. Loren, Mom, Evonne, Sydney, Seth, Gene, Sharon, Erin, Dion, Emery, Brenda, Eriona, and Ethan all came. Loren's not in the picture because he's behind the camera. I'm working on a video to send to everyone who couldn't make it.

The Annual Mount Timpanogos Hike

Every year, during August, on a Friday night with a full/mostly full moon, some people in our neighborhood organize a hike up Mount Timpanogos. We start the hike at 1:00 a.m. and head up the Aspen Grove trail. For people who are very active, it's a very nice hike and they reach the summit in around 3.5 hours. Last year was my first year attempting this adventure. Hiking in the dark is pretty interesting, and, once I saw what I had hiked up when the sun came up, I was glad I didn't see it on the way up. Last year, our little group stayed together and I struggled to keep up with their pace. About 80% of the way to the summit, there is a shelter next to a lake. I stayed there and waited until the rest of the group made it to the summit and returned. Dwayne and Dexter both went with me last year. Dwayne stayed with me at the shelter (he's been to the summit before) and Dexter went to the summit.

The whole experience was pretty crazy. The group that went to the summit decided to come back down by sliding down a glacier. I watched someone slice open their arm doing that 30 minutes before our group tried. Fortunately a group of brothers (the Henrys) had some rope and other equipment that allowed our group to descend safely.

The Henry brothers then used their water filter to get us all more water for the hike down. On the way down, most of the group was impatient and started running back down. I could hardly walk anymore, so I was quickly left behind. Along the way, there was a snow bank over part of the trail. In the heat, the snow was starting to melt and when I tried to cross it, I slipped and was about to fall off the trail (and the mountain). The Henry brothers came to the rescue again. They happened to be right behind me and helped me get back up and on the trail.

Later on, after a few more miles of hiking down alone, Dwayne called me on the radio. He had gone off the trail, slipped into a stream, and was now hanging on for dear life since he was about to go off the end of a waterfall. He was having a tough time describing where he was, so it took awhile before I figured out which waterfall he was on. One of the Henry brothers was again in the right place at the right time and located Dwayne and rescued him. Once everyone was safe again, the rest of the group hurried down the trail and headed home. I was in agony and could barely will myself to move my legs. It was another hour before I reached the parking lot.

This year, I rode with the rest of the group so they couldn't leave me behind. Dexter is staffing a Scout camp, so he missed the hike. Dwayne and I headed back up the mountain at 1:00 am Friday Night/Saturday morning. The group eventually split into several different groups. Dwayne made it to the shelter first (as usual). I travelled alone, taking 5 hours to reach the shelter since I stopped a lot along the way. It's an incredible hike and I was glad I did it. As far as I could tell, I was the only overweight person out there trying this. Once I reached the shelter, I rested for an hour. Half the group was just reaching the summit. A few had stayed at the shelter and there were two who had already gone back down. I decided to start back down since I knew I would be slow again. Two of the boys in our group decided to hike down with me and they helped me keep a pretty reasonable pace. The hike down is beatiful, but painful. The scenery is spectacular, but going down the trail is hard on the knees and your toes are constantly being jammed into the front of your shoes. My feet hurt pretty bad, and I really slowed down near the end. Dwayne passed me up just before reaching the parking lot. I hiked down in 3 hours, he did it in 1.5 hours. So now I'm soaking my feet, catching up on sleep, and trying to get stuff done around the house without walking much.

Until next year.... (I promise I will be in better shape next year)

Our EAGLE SCOUT

We have set the date for Dwayne's Eagle Court of Honor. It will be on Friday, August 25, 2006, at 7:00 pm in the cultural hall of our church building. Dwayne's pretty excited and has already received letters of congratulations from Utah's governor and from Senator Bennett. There are still a lot of plans to figure out, but we're excited to see our son get Scouting's highest honor. Utah has such a large Scouting program that people often forget how rare it is to become an Eagle Scout. Only 2% of Boy Scouts ever get it. For a Native American boy to get it is even more rare.

What next?!?!

Yes...fixed the dryer, found the paperwork. Then we spent 5 days of last week with no refrigerator. The compressor died. Despite spending a fortune on ice and dry ice, we ended up losing a lot of food. Just a tip -- never go shopping the day before your refrigerator dies...

Ended up buying a new water heater so we should be good for the next decade. In order to replace a water heater, you must first drain the old one and then once the new one is properly installed, it must be filled up and given a chance to heat the water. I think Emerson had a pretty tense day with no hot water because of the switch and no refrigerator since we were in between diagnosing and fixing stuff.

Did you hear about our big wind storm? That was the third major one to rip through the same path in our neighborhood. It uprooted some pretty big trees, but it wasn't as bad as on the west side of town. We ended up helping a neighbor try to dig out from two different trees that decided to shed half their branches on their house. Fortunately, no injuries other than strained muscles from cutting up and carrying all that wood. The wind kicked up again today and tore another branch off their tree. They're seriously considering getting rid of the tree entirely.

Calgon, Take Me Away!...

Ever have one of those weekends? This last weekend was one of those weekends for me. We had planned to go to the Heber Powwow, a tradition for our little family. With our truck currently not working, we are down to a single vehicle. Dwayne had to work Friday night and got called in last minute to work Saturday night. Emerson had to work Saturday night too. Dexter is on the staff for a Boy Scout camp and they scheduled a last-minute planning meeting for Friday night and Saturday morning. I soon realized that it was going to be impossible to get to the powwow and decided to make the best of staying home. On Saturday morning, we discovered that our dryer wasn't working and had to start hauling clothes to the laundromat. Dwayne has earned his final merit badge for his Eagle rank, but I spent all weekend searching for the paperwork from his eagle project. The next little disaster happened when a friend of Dexter's came to confess that she had broken one of our windows. This had happened three days earlier, but the damage was hidden behind blinds, curtains, and an entertainment center. Her parents brought her over to own up to her mistake. So now I had a broken truck, broken dryer, broken window, missing paperwork, no sidewalk (that one's been missing for almost a year now), and no chance of going to the powwow to lift my spirits. First time we've missed this powwow in all the time we've been married.

What a difference a day or two makes...
Late Sunday night, I found the missing Eagle paperwork. On Monday night, a friend helped me figure out which part needed replacing on the dryer (a simple fix). The same friend is coming back later in the week to see if he can help us with the broken truck. Tuesday morning, our neighbor mentioned she might have a lead on getting some bricks to fill in our sidewalk. I stayed home Wednesday to get the broken window pane replaced. Things are definitely looking up. It's so nice to know that prayers do get answered and that God really is paying attention to little ol' me down here losing my mind.

Father's Day

For Father's Day, I decided to cook one of Emo's favorite foods - beef ribs. I know how to cook pork shortribs, but not the beef ones. After researching the Internet, I found a decent recipe for slowcooking the ribs in the oven. Things were looking good and I was optimistic....until the very last step. I added the homemade barbecue sauce (my great-grandma's recipe) and set the oven to broil according to the instructions. The sauce was supposed to bubble and carmelize. Unfortunately, I managed to char them (see picture, upper left). Emo was pretty nice about it and said he assumed I had cooked them on the barbecue so he didn't mind the burnt touches. They actually tasted fine under the burnt sauce. Dexter got a little creative with the strawberries on the dessert (see picture, upper right) and turned some of them upside down to honor his dad. Dwayne cooked some corn - sorry, no picture. Looks like another entry in the memorable meals history book. I just hope they remember the taste more than the burnt sauce...

Heber Powwow

This year's Heber Valley Powwow will be held June 23-25 at Soldier Hollow. It's the first outdoor powwow of the season for us and usually our first family camping of the year. Attending this powwow has become a tradition for our little family. We've never missed it. The one year we thought we wouldn't make it, it got cancelled. Dwayne and Dexter were initiated into the dance circle at Heber and it continues to hold a special place in our hearts. Our friends, Jay and Angela, will have their tipis up. We invite anyone who can make it to join us.