Another Frog Story!

So, a long time ago (about 7 1/2 years) I spent the summer at Camp Birchtrail in Minong, Wi. There are many great Birchtrail stories, but tonight you get the frog one as I was reminded of it at work today.

One night at camp we had the most amazing thunder storm ever. It poured buckets of rain and there was very little time all night that you could not hear thunder. Even better was the lightening which literally lit up the sky all night. Well hearing that much rain on a tin roof is amazing unless you need to go to the bathroom. E was 11 I think. She really needed to go, but the bathroom was a bit of a walk and she was both scared and wanting to stay dry (from the rain). We tried to talk her into using the bushes right behind the cabin but she refused and eventually had to go so bad that she ran to the bathroom without shoes as there was not enough time to put them on.

E screamed on the way back and we thought that maybe she fell in the mud, but she came in the cabin door a few seconds later shaking. She explained that she stepped on something gross on the way back. She couldn't tell what it was, but it felt slimey and gross. We thought little of it, helped her clean the mud off and finally got her to go back to bed.

In the morning, just a few feet from the cabin door we found the "something gross." E had stepped on a frog. The even grosser part was what we learned that morning about frogs, you see when a frog gets squished it's guts come out it's mouth and stay there as it is now dead. E threw up on her frog, knowing that she stepped on that pile of grossness was just too much.

Yesterday while discussing my roomie frog with a coworker the story of E came up. The really weird part was that coworker finding a similarly squished frog in the parking lot. So now all you readers can avoid using your imagination and just look at the photo below to see what a squished frog looks like. Don't barf on your keyboard :D

Well, I didn't think that would ever happen!

So... do you remember 2 entries ago I told you about my new visitor?
Well this morning he decided to move in. He must have liked the warm damp weather in my bathroom a little better than the cold damp flowerbed outside the door.


I was surprisingly calm. For a girl who still gets a little crazy over spiders and crickets a frog could have caused a very serious reaction. I thought quickly and ran to the kitchen for a glass. He was already in a corner, so capturing him was kind of easy.



Then the tricky part. This works for crickets by putting a piece of paper under the cup, but frogs weigh more than crickets so I found a postcard and carefully slid that under. He was a little scared of Yosemite, but then again for someone so small the view from half dome would be frightening.


Then I put a tupperware lid under that, no sense chancing an escape.




My little friend was taken to the other side of the building across the parkinglot and released by the river. I don't want him too close now that he thinks I am looking for a roommate. (He's jumping behind the tall green leaf in this one.)


When my neighbor started smirking at the turbie twist on my head. I told him that when there's a frog in your house you don't have time to dry your hair before you play catch and release.

MMMMMMMMMM cookies!

When I went to Utah in October my friend gave me maple cookies. I don't think that I had ever had them before, but I love them. She gave me the recipe a few days ago, and now sitting on my cooling rack are the first batch that I have made. Hers were better, but then again I didn't use the right grade of syrup since I had some here and pay day isn't 'till next week. Anyway, they are yummy! Go make some, I am willing to share the recipe if you're curious.

New Visitor

There are always lizards running around outside my home. They are hardly even interesting or noticeable anymore. I got a new visitor last night. He's a little cuter than a lizard and hard to photograph since he kept hopping away, this was the best I could get, the rest were all blurry.

Awesome Weekend

Well, that was a fun and different type of weekend. My aunt and Grandma came to visit and spent 2 nights here. They have never stayed with me before and it was a lot of fun. My grandma brought me apple crisp which was really really yummy. We visited a few local places and saw some marine life. Pretty much just ordinary stuff, nothing even cost money, but it was tons of fun just being with them.

We did a short little nature walk and saw butterflys and people.

We saw seals both in the water and on the beach.

Then we stopped along the side of the road when we saw dolphins, look close there is one fin in the shot below, tiny and just to the right of the rocks.

They left this morning and I went on 2 more adventures. First I saw the weinermobile, then back to the beach where one pelican wanted to be the star of everyone's show.

It's funny how I don't think that it was an exciting weekend, just normal except for Grandma and my aunt, then I start thinking, typing, and looking at pictures and realize that I did a lot...

AND IT WAS ALL AWESOME!!!

CAMP

Thanks to Mr. Bond I learned about 20 years ago that I love camp! And 5 years after that he taught me to appreciate it even more by not allowing me to go. I have spent weeks at outdoor ed. and girls camp and later whole summers having the time of my life.



Eventually we all should grow up and in my world this includes a career. Careers don't give you the whole summer off unless you are a teacher. So camp has become a distant but happy memory.



My ward has a camp activity every year. Less than 24 hours at a camp, but enough to remind me just how amazing camp is. Mediocre food, dusty cabins with uncomfortable bunk beds, the chance to stay up late sitting 'round a camp fire, seeing wildlife, and being somewhere where your phone doesn't quite work are all pieces that I love. Somehow my spirit completely relaxes at camp. I stop thinking about work. I stop feeling like I am running in circles. Everything unimportant stops and I remember that I am a child of God and He has given me beautiful places where I can feel closer to Him. So give me trees and mountains and crappy falling apart cabins and squeaky bunkbeds. Give me a chance to be in nature (even if it's just a couple of acres in the middle of a neighborhood)and I will always be grateful for it.

habanero peppers and tomato worms

So, if you've ever spent the summer growing things only to have a tomato worm eat them you may appreciate this photo!

This little guy ate a huge amount of the habenero plant followed by the missing chunk of this pepper and apparently burned to death from the pepper's heat. Definitely not how I want to go.

Conference Weekend

For Conference Weekend I went to Utah for the first time in a few years. Things have changed and I had fun. Thanks to Emily for letting me and a friend stay with her. My friend's mom got tickets to both afternoon sessions. We missed the morning sessions and I have been catching up a little each night since getting home.

On Saturday morning we went to the Salt Lake Farmer's Market. It was fun and there were lots of interesting things and people to watch. Like these guys...

We went to the Cornbelly's Corn Maze on Saturday night. That was tons of fun. We forgot flashlights and it was pretty dark, but we made it out in only 45 mins.

This is what the maze looks like this year.

Mmmmm corn!!!

Is this thing haunted? Someone is in there! (It's just my friend shhh!)

See how dark it was?

On Sunday we drove to Salt Lake by going through Provo Canyon and up to Park City. It is definitely a longer way, but I will do just about anything for even 5 minutes in the mountains. There was gorgeous fall color! See...

Crafty Weekend

Well, it has been a relatively crafty weekend. I finished 2 hats and woke up this morning to make apple-berry pie(yum!!!)



The hats are fun! This was the first stripey one and I am proud of it, possibly the cutest one yet:) They are for a guy at work who's baby girl is due next Monday. Now I just need a gift bag. Maybe I will find one tomorrow morning on the way to work.



That pie sure smells good, too bad it's for MEG after church, I can't eat any until
4:30ish :-( Oh well, if it is as good as it smells it will be worth it.

holy moley!!!

OK, so I understand that we need passwords, but sometimes I forget one. I tried to get help from the blogger/google people, they said that I didn't know enough about myself to confirm that I'm me. Jeepers who else would want access to my blog? I know that my life is super interesting, but not enough to pretend to be me. I mean really!

So anyway while cleaning my messy desk today I found the password, so now I just need to find my camera and downloading cord and I've got some stuff to share.

At least they didn't close my account since I didn't know me.

Vacation over

Well after 2 weeks of vacation I suppose I was going to have to go back to work eventually. It wasn't too bad, but I'm sure more fun will come tomorrow.

On Vacation I learned about geocaching. What an awesome idea! It's an online/outdoor treasure hunt using GPS. Fantastic idea! Today I found one during my work break, about 1/2 a mile from the office was a convenient location.

More, including pictures will come later.

Morro Bay Adventure

On Saturday I made it to the Morro Bay Natural History Museum. Not a bad place, though geared more for 6-10 year olds. It was a little amusing, there were rock shaped speaker things that you held up like a phone and "Rocky the Rock" (aka Morro Rock) would fill you in on what ever info pertained to each display.

Better than the museum, I randomly stopped at a state park on Hwy 1 just north of Cayucos. There was a huge meadowy area on cliffs above the beach. Tons of wild flowers, super green, tide pools on the beach. Really it was a beautiful place. I'll have to figure out which state park it was.

My friends continue to have to work when ever my adventures are planned, so I completed this one alone.

The state park was great, will totally go back. The museum will be great for supervised visits at work. I will have to remember it for that. Somewhere between the museum and the park on the greatness scale was Ben Franklin's sandwich shop in San Luis. I have been driving by for 2 years, thinking I should go there. Well, I have now been twice. Both times got a #4 (Turkey and Swiss on french bread.) I will be returning here too.

changed plans :(

Well, so much for that. My plans fell through. I did however begin to work on my art adventure and am about 1 1/2 hours into my art project.

Adventure #1

So... the time has almost come for my first adventure. I will be going to the Monterey sock shop on Friday. I will likely do other things while there but have not decided what yet. I am taking one friend as nearly everyone else will be working.
Hopefully it is not raining. The 101 North in Central, CA is not a ton of fun to drive in the winter.

the plan

I have decided that my weekends are far too boring and unproductive. So in an effort to shake things up a little I have given up TV cold turkey and am planning multiple adventures all of which will eventually be blogged about.

If you are aware of an amazing California adventure, let me know.

My goal is to have a list of 35 things to do/places to go to complete before my 31st birthday. I have 17 1/2 months.

My biggest adventure will be outside of California, but due to cost the rest must be here.

Some adventures will require training or courage. Most will involve tourism. The last one "My Grand Adventure" will require both. It will be a secret until the end and may be solo, we will see.

If you know me you are welcome to join any of the adventures. Just let me know.

Finally Thursday!!!!!

Working for the government has one fantastic perk, holiday weekends! There are some holidays that I get off that seem totally ridiculous to celebrate. That being said I am not about to give them back. 2010 appears to be a particularly lucky year. Lincoln's Birthday and Presidents day have lined up to create a rare four day weekend! Wahoo!!!!!

Now, all you private sector employees, don't get too jealous. After all, have you ever had a "concerned citizen" report you for misusing tax dollars when you stopped the company car at a store to take one the many children that you get to chauffeur to the restroom? I didn't think so. So, enjoy all of your company discounts and perks. For the next four days I will be enjoying mine :)

This is my favorite place, well kind of, really this is the view if you look behind you from my favorite place. I can't wait for winter to end so that I can go there again. I could go now, however I dispise winter and after 4 1/2 years of snowy cold winters during college I am officially done with snow (except for occasionally playing in it.) So anyway, I love the picture and just wanted to share it.

hello

So... today I am beginning a blog. Hello world! If you find this entertaining, be my guest and read on.

I will be sharing very limited personal info. Because of my job I am better off having little identifyable information. If that is ok with you... read on.

I am 29 1/2. I work with broken families in an attempt to put things back together just enough that they are ok on their own. I love to travel. I love to read. This year I am hoping to complete a 5 k. The problem with that is that I am in terrible shape. I have not run since the last JR High PE coach forced me to (that was 15 years ago).

So anyway, wish me luck. We will see together what this year brings.