Can we do something to improve January?

January is probably my least favorite month of the year.  I know it has some redeeming attributes, but I still can't seem to learn to like it and this year January 2014 only deepened my dislike for the month.

I know the beginning of a new year should be viewed as a positive thing and the opportunity to set new goals and make new habits.  I've long given up on New Year's resolutions.  I figure I need to try to set goals and make new habits all year long, it works out better for me that way.  Btw... my goal in January was to memorize The Living Christ.  I figure that will help in my future missionary service.  Still working on memorizing it, but what a powerful document it is and I love the spirit that comes to me as I study and learn the testimony of his modern day apostles.  I ran across a video made by BYU study abroad students to Israel quoting The Living Christ showing in the background places corresponding to Christ and his apostles' mortal lives.  Go to this link vimeo.com/65004521‎ I love watching it.  You may enjoy it as well.  ‎

I ought to love January because that is the month I married my sweetheart, David Rhoades in the Bountiful temple.  We were married in January, not by choice.  It started out being our intention of getting married the end of March, and then it was moved to June, then October and finally January.  We had waited so long for the paperwork to be approved, we didn't care if it was in the most blah month of the year.  This year was our 5th wedding anniversary.  We still love and appreciate each other (always a good thing) and are happy with the life we are building together.

I know many others who have chosen to be married in January as well.  So there must be something good about January that people would choose to hold one of the most significant life events during this month.  Dave's daughter, Marie, was just married to her sweetheart, Jeremy, Jan. 25, 2014.  It was fun to be at the temple and the festivities afterwards.  She did such a nice job decorating up the church gymnasium and using a winter theme, very pretty.  Here are some picture from that event.

 Isn't this a pretty way to dress up folding chairs?

 She used a winter theme so these snowflakes were just perfect.

 The chairs looked so nice once we got all the bows tied on.

 The tulle gave the backdrop and gym more of a winter landscape look

 The backdrop they used for the reception line

 Table center pieces.  Very pretty

Table dressing for the guest book sign in table.

For more photos you will have to visit our family site https://davecindyrhoades.shutterfly.com/pictures.

However, there are things about January that I just don't like.  The winter cold and snow doesn't help and the longer hours of darkness don't help.  But here are some of the things this year, 2014, that didn't help January's standing in my book.

1-  We got word from our stake president that it would be MONTHS before we received our mission call.  Yes, months.  Needless to say, it took the wind out of our sails and left us feeling down and blue.  But what a great lesson in trusting the Lord and His plan for us and His timing.  It will all work out.

2-  Moving is one of the great stressors of life.  We had that stress this month, but not as we moved ourselves, rather helping move Donna, my sister.  Thank goodness, she does not have a lot of stuff, but the time and energy it took to find her a place and get her settled in took a toll on us.  And it looks like we are back to the drawing board with that again as we got word from her new landlord that their property was sold to Wal-Mart and they can not guarantee how long she will be able to live there.  As she is trying to get on housing assistance and they require a one year lease, this means Donna will need to move yet again and she can't do it alone, which means we are back in the rat race there.

3-  Work was quite stressful for me this year during January.  One of the case managers left the firm and I was given 6 of her bigger files to finish up.  Coming into a case in the middle is so much more difficult than starting at the beginning and building the case as you go.  One of her cases had 25 providers!  Just so you know, a typical case will have anywhere from 4-8 providers most commonly.  That number of providers is highly unusual.  On top of that, once they knew I would be around longer, they decided to give me 6 cases of another case manager who had mishandled the cases so badly that they needed a lot of fixing up and clean up, not only with the documentation of the case, but the PR with the client.  It made me angry to see what the clients had been put through due to her negligence and the bad light she had put the firm in.  It was one of the harder months on the job I've had in a long time.

But on the positive side...we are 31 days closer to spring now and we now have more winter days behind us than are ahead of us.  We have the Winter Olympics to entertain us during the month of February and before you know it, we will be into March and my outlook always begins to brighten once we get into March.

2013 Highlights

In keeping with the end of the year, I will follow suit with the many top 10 lists that come out this time of year and make a list of the highlights we experienced in our family during 2013. These will be listed in chronological order.

1.  4 years completed and still happy together.  January 9th is our wedding anniversary so each year starts out celebrating our relationship and commitment to one another.  And if it isn't a highlight for both of us to still be happily married, given our past histories, then shame on us!  We kept it simple and went back to the scene of the crime (Bountiful temple) took in a session (I still think it is a very beautiful temple and was a good choice for us) and then enjoyed an Italian dinner afterwards.

2.  A new master bath.  Hooray!  We bought a fixer upper 4 years ago, and Cindy finally got one of her wishes, the master bath restored.  And Dave even let her have the final say on most everything (highly unusual) so it has become a very enjoyable place to be.  An earlier post documented the process.  In addition, throughout the year, Dave also worked on improving Donna's apartment and the awning/sidewalk area, we finally repainted about 90% of the house trim/eaves and the biggest project was building a small studio apartment above Donna's place, which for now is being used by Dave's cousin, Brent Peterson, who helped put in a lot of sweat equity on the project.

3.  The Stecks return from England.  At the end of February we were excited to welcome back my oldest daughter, Alyssa, and her family (husband, Kelan, and two daughters, Sierra & Cosette) back to the states for good.  We made sure to be at the airport when they arrived and gave them hugs and kisses.  There were a lot of smiles as well.  They have since settled in Ephraim, Utah where her husband grew up and his extended family live.  They have seen a lot of blessings come their way this year.  Both have found good jobs, they are working on purchasing a very nice home, and we get to see them on a fairly regular basis.  Being grandparents is better when it doesn't involve long distances!

4.  Darci changes from a Rhoades to a Stone.  At the end of March, Dave's oldest daughter was married to Eric Stone in the Mt. Timpanogos temple.  Both sides of the aisle were thrilled, to say the least.  It was a fun day with it ending at American Fork High School, where Darci teaches science classes.  The reception was held in the commons area and was a very unique affair.  I believe an earlier post documented this event as well.

5.  Marie graduates with her nursing degree in the spring.  Dave's second oldest daughter worked very hard to put herself through school and a very challenging degree to boot.  She is hooked on the adrenaline rush that comes from working in the ER at Mountain View hospital and volunteering on the ambulance service for the Payson area.

6.  Summer road trip down the coast of Oregon.  This was Dave's kind of trip, spontaneous with a very loose agenda.  We loved every minute of it.  An earlier post also documented this well.  We now list the Oregon coast as a potential retirement spot, along with the St. George area, the Pacific Northwest and any other potential spots we've yet to discover.

7.  Marie takes the spotlight again in September by getting engaged to Jeremy Cuddleback, a fellow ambulance worker and EMT.  They plan on getting married January 25, 2014.

8.  Spencer took on the motto, "I can do hard things" and set a goal to compete in a marathon this year, which he did the first weekend in October at the famed St. George marathon.  He started training in early spring and set training goals, running in a 5k, and two half marathons leading up to the finale in St. George.  And he survived! with minimal recovery time needed afterwards.  He now enjoys membership in the marathon runners club.  Whether he becomes addicted to the experience and a repeat offender is yet to be seen. Cindy also participated in a mini-triathlon completing a bucket list item of hers and overcoming her fear of swimming in a competition setting.  An earlier post speaks to this.  It was too bad she was so nervous that she only got a few hours of sleep the night before and had to compete with less than a full tank but she can hold her head up high and feel good about her accomplishment, as can Spencer.  

9.  Rhoades trip to Lake Powell.  Sadly, I've dropped the ball and failed to blog about this event in mid-October.  It was a blast!  A three day getaway to Page, Arizona and time out on the lake.  I did do up a memory book for Dave and presented it to him for his birthday.  You can see the book hopefully at

https://davecindyrhoades.shutterfly.com/

10.  Dave's Retirement from Unified Fire Authority went into effect November 1, 2013.  This was a once in a lifetime event.  It isn't every day one retires.  It was hard for Dave to wrap his head around it.  After spending 28 years as a fireman to no longer be on active duty was a weird concept.  Dave has been busier than ever.  On November 12, 2013 we finished up our mission papers and they were submitted for consideration.  A top goal of both Dave & I to serve full-time missions in our senior (ahem, cough, cough) or not so senior years.  We are still waiting to hear what our assignment will be this time around.  We are hoping to serve multiple missions as our health, finances and world conditions will permit.  But don't worry.  We do not plan on neglecting family either.  We are looking forward to many, many years of good and happy memories with family together.

Other family members have had good things happen to them this year, despite not making the top 10 list.  Jennifer is now an Herbalife consultant and is enjoying that tremendously.  We don't see her much but we are pleased that she is leading a productive life that seems to make her content.  Emily Rhoades continues to take classes at UVU and work in the marketing department for UVU's catering dept.  We enjoy seeing her more often than her other siblings, a bonus when you are basically empty nesters.  Bryan Rhoades is in his second year teaching at Roosevelt High school in the science department.  He continues to struggle with his health and his young son, Griffin, had a serious burn accident in July that he continues to recover from.  Any and all prayers on their behalf are always appreciated.

Dave continues to serve in the High Priest Leadership.  The Group leader has expressed that Dave will be hard to replace when we leave on our mission.  Cindy continues to serve as the Beehive advisor.  She enjoys serving with the other leaders and hopefully helping to light the flame of testimonies in the girls she teaches on Sundays.

I can do hard things

With summer over, as I look back on how I spent my summer, I would have to chock this summer down as a summer of pushing the envelope when it comes to what I have challenged my body to accomplish.

The trek experience was the first physical challenge.  I wrote about that in a previous blog.  With the new Murdock bike trail opened this summer, I have pushed myself and done many long bike rides, the longest being 20 miles.  With a number of weeks of good weather still left, I hope to push that distance up to at least 25 miles.

This blog is about two other physically challenging activities I did in the month of August.  With plans to head out on a full-time senior mission sometime, hopefully early, in 2014, I wanted to climb Mt. Timp one more time.  I don't know where we will spend most of our time during retirement, so I was worried that this summer might be my last opportunity.  Dave wasn't interested in joining me so I wanted to find some hiking companions, so I extended an invitation to my Beehives to join me.  Two of them took me up on the offer.

Here they are at the trailhead early August10th.  Lindsey Edgecomb on the left (you can see she wasn't quite sure this was a good idea) and Eliza Whitehouse (my next-door neighbor)

I was interested in making it to the saddle, the very top of the peak wasn't the goal.  We started hiking at about 7:20 am.  The first part of the trail the girls realized they had actually hiked last year during girls' camp.  They had hiked up to Scout Falls.  We detoured over to the falls for a photo opp.  See below.

We were doing well and enjoying the climb and views

 until we got to the big meadow.  Eliza had lost her enthusiasm and steam.  Even though we could see the saddle and peak from the meadow

 Saddle ... oh so close

We had the peak in our sights

the people coming down informed us that it was still an hour more to the saddle.  This discouraged Eliza and she didn't want to keep going.  She said she would if we insisted, but I really didn't want to have her hate me for the rest of her life and I wanted her to want to make the attempt again some day and be successful in reaching the top.  So we had lunch in the meadow (it was 11:30 am by then), took some pictures and turned around.  

 Lindsey & Eliza at our rock ledge lunch site

Pretty photo of the three of us surrounded by the meadow wildflowers

It actually turned out to be a good thing we headed down at that point because both Eliza and I struggled with foot problems and barely made it back down.  Eliza and I suffered for days afterwards.  Eliza with blisters and I with a bruised left big toe.  At the last minute I decided not to wear my hiking shoes and wore an old pair of running shoes, with thick wool socks.  They worked well going up the mountain, but on the way down, my feet swelled up and felt squeezed into too small a space, those bruising the big toe.  I had to wear open toed shoes all the next week and wasn't able to exercise at all.

No photos to show about this part of the hike (and I'm sure you appreciate that).

I worried that the Timp hike had put in jeopardy my ability to do the triathlon I had planned on doing in two weeks and had been training for a month for.  Luckily a few days before the race I was able to get a pair of covered shoes on that foot.  I went down to the school track and tested out running.  I managed to run a mile without problems.  So I went forward in faith to race day, Sat. Aug.24th.

I and two other ladies from my neighborhood participated in the half-triathlon.  This was held in Orem at the Scera pool and surrounding neighborhood.  This was put on by the Share A Smile Foundation as a fund-raising activity.  This was their 13th year of sponsoring a triathlon event but it was a very non-competitive atmosphere, which is just what I needed.  The night before I hardly slept so worried was I about what I was getting myself into.  So on about 3 hours of sleep, I headed out.

The first phase was the swimming, my weakest event.  Luckily since it was a half triathlon I only had to do 4 laps down and back for a total of 200 yds.  Here I am reaching for the last wall of my swim.

The next leg was biking, my favorite event.  I had Dave prepare my road bike to use, which would have been faster and lighter, but I psyched myself out of using it since I hadn't ridden it all summer and I wasn't familiar with the road conditions I'd be traversing so I decided I better use a bike I felt comfortable with.  This may have slowed down my speed, since you can see below I rode a coaster bike for the 5 mile route, which had us traveling on main thoroughfares in Orem - State St., Center St. University Parkway, 3700 N/800 S.  Here I am approaching the finish line for the bike section.

Then it was off for the last leg, the running.  Fortunately it was only 1.5 miles, which under other conditions would be no sweat but coming off of a swim and a ride, made it seem so very difficult.  My time was much slower than I would have liked.

Dave snapped a photo from behind as I approached the finish line.  (Don't you love the back end view? Not!)  He rode my bike out to find me and found me a bit past the half way mark and kept me company until I got back to Scera park.  It kept me going, because by then I was running out of steam so I have to give me credit for helping keep my time down.

My goal was to finish in an hour or less.  I didn't make it but came close, finishing in 1 hr. 1 min & 55 sec.  Here are the three amigas together at the end.  Left to right - myself, Camille Davis & Carissa Neely.

Summer Road Trip

More than a month has gone by since returning from our road trip and I definitely have to make a blog about it.  This was a new experience for me.  My idea of a vacation is to plot and plan for months prior and have everything figured out as to where, when & how.  After all, that is part of the fun, the anticipation that comes with the planning.  This trip was definitely more in the vein of David's kind of vacation - more spontaneous and take it one day at a time and see where it leads you, with nothing set in stone.  And I have to say, I quite enjoyed it.

Dave purchased a truck on auction out of Yakima, WA.  He had to pick it up within a certain time frame that made it fall right while I was away at YW girls' camp.  He really wanted to do more than just pick up the truck.  He wanted us to have some time away together.  We've both been so busy with our church callings, jobs, life in general that we were missing time together.  So he flew up while I was at girls' camp, picked up the truck, did a few minor repairs, hung out in Seattle a day and then I met up with him the following Saturday for a five day road trip down the Pacific coast and back home.

Sweet man that he is, he took 3 dozen yellow roses (my mother's favorite flower) to my mother's grave for me since he had the time and I wouldn't.  Hopefully I will get a picture posted here once I can figure out how to get it off the cell phone.

After meeting the host family that took care of him while he was up there, the lovely hispanic family of a good friend of David's, we headed out.

We got started later than I had anticipated and my goal (see just had to sneak in a little advanced planning and schedule) was for us to make it to Tillamook, Oregon.  After all, the Tillamook cheese factory, we learned, is the second most visited tourist attraction in all of Oregon.  What?  A cheese factory that popular?  Who would have thunk it?

But since Dave is more of a stop when the urge takes you kind of guy, we made slow progress.  Here are some of the distractions -

 A bridge section out in the middle of the water... why?  

 Some great yard art if you love fishing

 Dave enjoying the journey... a road side eatery

 This docked boat was surrounded by bleached oyster shells by the boatload

Some NW alaskan-esque art work

We made it to Tillamook 20 minutes before the factory was to close and this was Saturday, which meant we HAD to do it then or never since we could not waste a day not traveling at all.  I wasn't about to be that close and not go!  I had been dreaming all day of a Tillamook ice cream cone! We didn't do the tour but we did make sure we hit the factory store and I did get my ice cream.  It was delicioso!  We also got to sample cheese and bought some smoked cheddar and swiss cheese packages to take home.  Did you know they did fudge as well?  We bought some raspberry white chocolate fudge.  It was good, but the almond joy fudge outshone it and after tasting that, the raspberry white chocolate couldn't hold a candle to it.  We nibbled on fudge the rest of the trip (I was determined not to put on weight so I was very proud of my self-control).

The next day we attended church in Tillamook before heading out.  The members there indicated they were in the middle of a heat wave - mid 70's!  Wow, we were loving it.  So much better than the 100+ temps we knew Utah was having at the time and mid 70's was perfect!

We had a very leisurely drive Sunday and didn't make a lot of mileage.  We had to keep pulling off the road to take photos of the awesome coast and ocean views.  We couldn't get enough of it.  Here are som samples of what we got to see & enjoy.

We stopped at one beach and Dave pulled out the kites he had managed to purchase at a garage sale he had visited while in Seattle.  The beach is the perfect place to fly kites, the wind is pretty much always blowing.  We saw tidepools and harbor seals, but not the pod of grey whales we had heard makes their home at Depoe Bay.  We spent the night in Newport, Oregon.

 Gorgeous photo of one of the tidepools we saw

Monday we visited Seal Rock, which was great.  The only problem... we saw no seals.  The fog had come in and we arrived early in the morning (9 am).  I imagine afternoon hours are better when the fog has lifted and the seals are snoozing & sunning themselves.  We had a good time exploring and taking photos at least.

 Here is where the seals should have been, but not a one was in sight.

 Exploring at the Seal Rock site.  I am on the back side of the huge rock you see in the photo below.

This photo shows well how much fog was on the coast when we stopped at Seal Rock.

We hit Florence, Oregon about lunch time and we finally had the chance to dine at Mo's Seafood restaurant.  Signs are plentiful along the roadway advertising Mo's.  We decided to give them a try.  What a great decision that was!  Move over Ivar's, Mo's has won my heart!  We had the most incredible smoked salmon fetticine alfredo dish, along with some clam chowder.  For days, we couldn't stop remarking on how wonderful that meal was.  We would go back to the Oregon coast, just to eat a meal at Mo's.

View from our table at Mo's.  One of the many bridges found in western Oregon.

In Florence, we also did some souvenir shopping as well.  We continued down the coast, drinking in the gorgeous sight.

 The only lighthouse we had the chance to see along the coast, but there are many.

 That is a petrified whale jaw bone Dave is leaning on.  Kinda helps you visualize how Jonah could spend some intimate time with a whale/big fish, huh?

We both definitely want to do a coastal Oregon trip again.  It made me wish we could have spent our honeymoon there rather than at Lava Hot Springs, ID.  We made it down to Crescent City, CA by Monday night.  There we saw a sight you wouldn't plan on seeing no matter how much effort in advance planning you made.  A dead, young female whale that had beached there in town.  The whole town was talking about it.  Apparently, that is not the norm for them.  We took a little hike down to the beach and saw it.  It had been there for about a week, so it looked like a deflated whale.  It made me think of those gag rubber chickens.  All skin and no flesh/muscle.  It had bleached from the sun as well.  I'll see if I can post the photos we took of that as well.  I don't know how to post from Dave's cell phone as well as from mine.

Tuesday it was good bye to the coast and hello redwoods, but not before we took one last short hike down from the highway to the beach for one last attempt to see some tide pool wonders, but our timing was off again.  The tide was not far enough out but the hike had it's own wonders, mostly to David.  He took many photos of slugs and bugs.  The windblown trees were unique and interesting and we caught a glimpse of some wild rabbits.

 The hike had us going down to the beach so this is a view at the beginning, down to our destination.

The trees were all windblown, which meant the branches leaned against the hillside.  Here was a natural tunnel made form the tree branches.

We drove through Redwood National Park.  Sorry, Redwood NP, but you did not steal my heart.  Sequoia National Park close to Fresno by far is more impressive.  We still enjoyed the giant trees and had the chance to see my elk and deer wondering through the area.

We continued down highway 101 until just before Ukiah and then headed east driving around Lake Lucerne.  Our goal was to hit Auburn that night and see a former college roommate of mine, Carlene Edmond, whom I hadn't seen in years.  As soon as we left the coast, the temperatures went up dramatically and by the time we hit Auburn they were having 108 degree weather.  Oh, how we missed the Oregon coast!

We managed to hook up with Carlene, although I think Dave managed to take the most round about way possible.  We got there much later than we had hoped, but still took her out to dinner and ordered way too much Chinese food for the 3 of us.  I think she was probably eating left overs for a couple of days after we left.  It was good to see her and catch up on what has been happening in our lives.

The last day of our trip, Wednesday was pretty much a driving day.  We did stop at Truckee and visited the monument to the Donner party.  Dave's ancestors helped rescue the Donner party.  We had hoped to see if they were mentioned at the visitor center, but again our timing was off.  We were too early and they hadn't opened yet.  Again, we couldn't wait around or it would have made for a VERY long day.

This monument to the Donner Party was built at the height the snow was at when the Donner's were stranded.

We stopped and had breakfast in Reno, but the rest of the way was drive, drive, drive.  Not much to see along I-80 through Nevada anyway.  I read outloud the sequel to the Hunger Games, Catching Fire, to David as he had not read it yet.  He did let me do a little bit of driving during this trip, but by far he did the bulk of the driving.

We had a great time and it has planted in Dave the idea that this might be the way we want to spend our winters in our retirement - away form the snow and cold of Utah, on a two month road trip to warmer climes, exploring the great outdoors.  Aw, now doesn't that sound enticing??