Hometown Occurrences

You'd think that getting out of Dodge would inspire some new picture-taking ideas in me, but as I look at the photos on my camera from last week it's all the same: Bird. Bird in beanie. Bird with cousin. Bird with Grandma. Bird with Adam. Plus a couple shots of my brother and my dad laid up with knee problems; Dad just got a knee replacement and Mark just had knee surgery #7. So just imagine all of that. And when I find my camera cord maybe I'll upload them for your viewing pleasure.

In the meantime, here are some noteworthy items of happenstance in a town where nothing happens.

*The Bird's sleep was something phenomenal in Roosevelt. So phenomenal it straight up scared me. I believe it is an indication that her true home is in the country.

*Adam and I had a date night out to the movies. We tried to see New Moon (shut up) but it was sold out. We went across the street to see 2012 (slim pickin's - we're just grateful to have two choices) but before doing so, we had to get cash. It was 7:25 p.m. and the movie was to start in five minutes. No biggie. We went back to the car, drove back to the house, got my debit card (Adam's is defunct for some reason), drove back to the theater right into the same parking spot we'd had before, went to the bank (which is conveniently located across the street), walked to the theater and all with plenty of time to spare. If that isn't a pro to living in a small town, I don't know what is.

*I shaved The Bird's head. I just couldn't take the patchiness anymore. It was okay back in Utah when it was cold enough to put a hat on her head everyday, but now I'm kind of regretting it.

*My dad runs the town morgue (actually it's a mortuary but who knows the diff?) and often enlists our help when we are home. This time it was a huge funeral with lots of flowers that needed transporting. I was notified by Mom that I was to get my fannie over to the morgue ASAP to load flowers in the van and take them to the place where they were having the luncheon. Good thing I had just put on pink lipstick that was supposed to be red and had tidied up my hair into pigtails earlier that morning! No need to feel silly, though. The dress code ended up being cowboy boots and large, ratted hair, so I felt kind of like I fit right in ... in a backward sort of way.

*There are always choice occurrences in Roosevelt 5th ward, and yesterday did not disappoint. In Sunday school, we were discussing the whole armor of God in Doctrine & Covenants 27: 15-18 and the teacher drew a stick figure complete with "truth" written across the "loins." Everybody loves a good loincloth of truth. In fact, I think I'll go put mine on right now. A lady also commented that the danger to having an open mind is that it just gets filled right up with trash. I thought, "Yeaaaaah. Wait. What?" I guess being close minded is the only way to know what's right ... right? And in an unofficial poll conducted by me at our family dinner table, I found that 3 out of 5 adults admitted to spacing out when people started talking about their ancestors. We agreed that stories about our own ancestors are interesting, but sacrament meeting talks lasting 30 minutes based on random stories about other people's ancestors was just too much to ingest.

*Adam wanted to go "see some sights" on a drive around town, and I didn't know how to break the news gently as in, "Honey, there are no 'sights.'" Luckily, Mom came along and knew just the spots to take him to. We drove around Bottle Hollow and talked about the Ute Indian reservation on which we reside. We drove around the golf course because that's where all the pretty houses are. Then finished the trip with a jaunt out to Hancock Cove to spot my Uncle Gib's house and see what kinds of animals he was harboring (just cows this time). The whole time I had a tightening in my chest and was finding it hard to breathe. I realized it's because I start panicking when I look around and all I see is nothing. The nothingness collapses in on me, and I feel like I'll do anything to get to a shopping mall. Now I finally get why people were shocked when all they could say about Roosevelt was, "You guys have to drive 3 hours to get to a mall????????" Yep. I get it.

*I cleaned my brother's tub this morning, and I consider it one of the more magnificent accomplishments of my life.

*I ate four slices of pie at Thanksgiving, preceded by one the night prior: apple, pumpkin, razzleberry, sour cream apple and double cream blueberry. When I finished the day with a cup of hot chocolate, I was in full-on regret mode.

*Adam and I were going over some things of import on our drive last night to SLC while The Bird was testing her lungs and suddenly, out of nowhere, a deer met up with the driver's side rear view mirror, taking the thing clean off. We are still shocked and glad that nothing worse happened, especially because Sienna would have been so flipping more mad than she already was.

*I wore my mom's Snuggie a few times. It really is the best invention of 2009.