All Is Well In Zion

This first picture is the peak of Angel's Landing, a famous hike in Zion National Park, and the first one John and I climbed while on our recent getaway. I conquered it!! I even bought a shirt that said so :) The scenery is so incredibly majestic throughout the park, and there is no way to truly give scale or perspective to what we saw with our little photos. But I'm posting the photos anyway.
We had a wonderful time. Very relaxing and enjoyable. We not only did the Angel's Landing hike, but also the Riverwalk, Emerald Pools, Weeping Rock hikes. We took a geology course provided by the park and went to see the Checkerboard Mesa, all kinds of cross-bedding geological formations, and even some Bighorn mountain goats. I didn't want to come home!


















That's the peak of Angel's Landing behind us, over my left-shoulder, in this self-timed shot. See how high I was!!















































































If you look at the very first picture, you can see the little stack of stones on the top of Angel's Landing that John is perched on in this picture. Like I said, there's no way to give perspective and scale to the immense grandeur of the scenery.


We're standing on a ledge at the top of Angel's Landing--that canyon behind us is about 2000 feet down.

Jana is Married!

My only sister got married last week. She finally found the right man--Robert Berntson. All my siblings were there for the wedding, so the picture opps were too good to pass up. Jana looked beautiful, and she and Robert seem very, very happy.

Grandbaby #7

I'll get in trouble for posting this before Kathy updates her own blog, but I figure it's worth it to show off my newest grandchild. John Alexander Bitter was born on 10-8-10 at about 8:40 AM. Kathy was super-mom with her hynobirthing, and Brice was a dedicated and attentive coach/partner. I was privileged to be there and see it. Baby John weighed 9 lb, 3 oz--same as Kathy did as a newborn, and was 21" long. The nurse said she probably could have stretched him to 21 1/2", but new baby John wasn't too pleased with the measurement process. Kathy went home that evening...baby and all! They're doing very well, except for a tiny bit of jaundice in the baby.

Overheard After Dinner

As John and I left Iggy's restaurant last night, a mother and her young daughter exited at the same time.

Daughter: Mom, time me and see how fast I can run to the car. (Daughter takes off running at high speed, arms and legs flying, and arrives at car)

Daughter: OK, Mom. How long was that?
Mom: That's not our car.
Daughter: WHAT!?!...Well...pretend it is our car. How fast did I get here?

Who cares about the destination, as long as you arrive fast! Kind of a dangerous philosophy, but very funny to witness.

Canning Season

What would fall be without a post about canning? This year's unique weather brought all the peaches and pears on at the same time. Fortunately and unfortunately, there is not an abundant crop of either peaches or pears. The storage room is empty of pears, but still has lots of peaches from last year, so the the pears on the back porch are getting top billing. I've done over 10 dozen quarts of fruit since last Saturday. I'm tired. I'm afraid I'll lose some fruit before I can get it all done, but I'm going as fast as I'm able--and that's all I can do.

Mono and Coxsackie!!??!!

Here's a surprise: I ended up with mono and the coxsackie virus over Labor Day weekend! I think the mono has been around for a while--I've been slowing down gradually over the last few weeks. But the coxsackie virus, which has symptoms like strep throat and the flu combined, hit hard for the holiday. Thanks to great homeopathic treatments, lots of rest, and loving care from my family, I've now recovered to the point of just having a bad head cold, and am improving by the moment. I missed two days of school and felt so guilty leaving my kids in care of a sub, and so guilty leaving a sub at the mercy of my kids :) Can't wait to be back to normal. We're so grateful no one else caught it...at least no one that we know of. We've offered some pretty powerful prayers of protection, and I think the Lord was merciful to us in that regard.

School Is In Session

First week of school is now behind me, I'm totally prepared for next week, (unless I change my mind about some lesson plans) and canning season is about to commence--the corn is on. I'm debating about freezing some of our overabundant chard as well. The summer was short, but eventful...that's an understatement...but the school year has lots of mini-vacations in it. I don't think a month goes by without some kind of 3 or 4 day weekend in it. With school starting, my mind is telling me that I must now be super busy. But if I actually look at my schedule on paper, I'm not overloaded. I just need to budget my time and choose which things are most important to do at the moment--same as always.
Have a great 2010-11 school year!