Autumn in Utah

I love the change of seasons. It's one of the reasons that I decided to move back to Utah from California. Just when I get sick of one season it changes to the next.

I've decided that I'm truly tired of summer. Tired of mowing the lawn, weeding the garden and mostly tired of opening the pool for Nicole and her friends then 30 minutes later having her decide that she's bored.

I think I'm becoming like my dad when he says "I'm looking forward to the snow flying so that my yard looks as good at my neighbor's".

Yesterday we decided to take a drive in the mountains to view the leaves. We drove up Farmington Canyon and came out just above the "B" on the mountain above Bountiful. The trees are just beautiful. It looked like God had taken a paintbrush and painted touches of orange, red and gold among the green.

When we were on top of the mountain looking down into the valley the words of the Louie Armstrong song "What a Beautiful World" came to mind. It actually brought tear to my eyes when I thought about how lucky I am to live in such a beautiful place but mostly a place where I am able to enjoy so many freedoms.

What Were They Thinking????

So, anyone who knows me knows that I listen to "The Chunga Show" on 101.9fm on my way into work in the morning. Well this morning was extra special news. They were talking about how gay marriage in Vermont is now legal and so Ben & Jerry's ice cream which is located in Vermont is going to change their ice cream called "Chubby Hubby" to "Hubby Hubby". Now here is the kicker. The ice cream is listed as FUDGE COVERED PEANUTS AND PRETZELS. I guess it was that or the rainbow sherbet. What were they thinking?

Zion National Park

Nicole had been bugging us to take the trailer and go see some of the national parks. So, since Dr. Bentley (the doctor I work with) was going to be out of the office mid July we planned a trip down south to Zion National Park.
If you look really close you can see that Nicole has a HUGE Stink Bug on her hand. It looks like she is going to eat it!

We did a lot of hiking. I had never hiked at Zion's before and Scott was excited to take us up the Narrows. It was nice to get out of the heat and be in the water.
The walls were so close you could stand two people together with arms outstretched and touch them. They went sooooo tall too. Nicole loved posing for lots of pictures as you can see in the waterfall picture.

When we started out of the canyon we turned a bend and the heat hit us like someone had turned on the furnace. I'll bet the temperature went up by 20 degrees in a couple a hundred yards. After that it was hard to get Nicole to push forward and finish the hike, but she did. We were proud of her because the hike was probably close to 3 miles round trip.

We decided to go down south Friday night to St. George's Tuachan theater and see Annie. It was a great production but very hot! Tuachan is an outdoor theater set against the redrocks....very beautiful but DON'T go in July!!!! Can you pick out the non-orphan in the picture? It's only because we made her clean up!

Our hike up to the Emerald Pools found us off the trail and hiking where I'm sure only the deer and mountain goats hike. Somehow Scott took a wrong turn but we realized our mistake and found the trail again. The best part of this hike was the top pool which was big enough for Nicole to swim in. It was nice to get wet to cool off for the hike down the mountain.


Our last and shortest hike was up to Weeping Rock. This hike was steep but only about a 1/2 mile roundtrip. The view from Weeping Rock was beautiful and the rock really did look like it was weeping. Bottom line....if you haven't ever been to Zion's or it's been a long time since you've been GO! One suggestion though, don't go in the middle of July when the temperatures during the day were around 113 F and nights still in the 80's! HOT! HOT! HOT!!!!

Time Flies By

It seems the older I get the faster time flies by. I can't believe it is June already and that school will be out the end of this week. It seems like just yesterday when I was sending Nicole out the door to her first day of Third Grade.
My theory for why time seems to go by faster the older you get is that you have already lived x amount of days and so consequent days just seem shorter and shorter.

I think my big reality check of time flying by came last week when my parents, Nicole and I went and saw Braedon perform in his high school's play Dracula; which he did an Awsome Job! Before the play my mom and dad commented on how they couldn't believe that Braedon will be 18 this year Wow, I hadn't really thought about that until they said it, but he is my baby from my first marriage and I can't believe that it has almost been eighteen years since he was born. Time flies whether you want it to or not.
So here is my advice to the new moms in our family. Enjoy each and every minute with those little ones because they truly do grow up way to fast!

Life IS Good!

As I drove home from work tonight I followed a car that had a decal on the back window which read Life Is Good and I thought to myself how very true!

You see before I left work tonight I received a text message from my son Derek who serves in the Army Reserves. The text stated that he won't be deployed to Iraq in September. Needless to say my prayers have been answered, because I have been worrying about this for about nine months now. It's been especially hard since him and Ashley found out that they are expecting a baby in May. The thought of him not being around his baby has been very hard for me since I know how much he wants to be a dad. Plus I've been worried that he might even miss her birth (it's a little girl).



DEREK AND ASHLEY AFTER DEREK'S FIRST TOUR TO IRAQ

Don't get me wrong. I know that he signed up for this duty but he was told that he wouldn't have to go back to Iraq for the first two years that he was with the reserves and that time won't be up until about November. So I am glad to see that they are keeping their promise. And I know that if he is called up after that time that he will go and do his duty, because that is the kind of guy Derek is. I'm just glad that he will have some bonding time with his little girl.

Mystery Solved

I solved the question "Who turned on the light?" which I asked in my previous blog Scaredy Cat . So if you haven't read that blog I suggest you read it first or this will make no sense.

My husband ever the smart alec, after reading my blog, sent me the following remark. "Me thinks that you might be getting more like me and just maybe can't remember if you left the light in the piano room or not." Well honey, I had already solved the mystery and here is the solution.

As I woke up the next morning and thought about the lamp situation more. I remembered that when we headed out of town in January to New Orleans I thought since nobody would be home that maybe it would be a good idea to plug the lamp into a timer so that it would go on in the middle of the night and scare off any would be burglars. Funny that for three months I hadn't even noticed that it had been going on in the middle of the night. Funnier still that my husband who has been spending sleepless nights on the couch hadn't noticed it either.

SO DEAR....I did not leave a light on, I just forgot that I had plugged it into the timer. MYSTERY SOLVED!

April Fool's Day

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Corbin Keith Schumann was born yesterday! What a pleasant way to spend April Fool's day.


He was 7 lbs 1 oz and 19 1/2 inches long.

Tiffany was told on Monday that her blood pressure was too high and that she would need to be induced again (the same thing happened with his older brother Kayson). So they told her to they could either do it on April 1st or the 2nd and my son thought it would be cool for him to have April 1st as his birthday. Hopefully Corbin won't hate him because of this later in life.
They had to be at the hospital at 6:30am and he was born at 11:24am. I think that Tiffany's body was ready this time because last time she pushed for over three hours and labored for a lot longer. However when she started to push Corbin's heartrate dropped so they had her stop until the doctor arrived. When he arrived he saw that the cord had wrapped around Corbin's neck and was choking him
so they had to cut the cord before he was fully out. They decided to observe Corbin in the nursery for six hours because of the nuccal cord just to make sure he was fine.

Since Nicole and I went on a school field trip in the morning (we went to the Ogden Children's Treehouse Museum)we didn't get to the hospital until about 1:30pm so Corbin was in the nursery
by then and we didn't get to hold him. Nicole was insistent that she get to hold her nephew so we left a bit so Tiffany could get some rest. We called Cassie and decided to go down to American Fork and see her while we waited so we could go back after 6:00pm. We went back about 6:30pm with Cassie and we got to hold and feed Corbin. He is a Real Cutie!