Holy Colee!

Saturday we went to see Hairspray. If you like musicals at all- SEE THIS SHOW. I was dancing the whole time. I didn't expect the show to actually have a purpose, but it does. And John Travolta as a woman - it was well worth the money spent. The man can dance no matter what shoes he's wearing. Again, a movie I will have to add to my library.

This week I am hanging out with my mom. I am pretty sure she is bored off her gourd during the day, but hopefully we can find some things to stay busy during the evening. Tonight we went to dinner at the Jenkins' home. It was super tasty. Tomorrow we're going to see the grandparents, because I am pretty sure they will disown me if I don't get there soon. After that, I am not sure - does anyone know what there is to do in Salt Lake on a Wed or Thur night?

Next week I am gonna go home for a week and work from the hospital annex's basement. I like working from the library better, but it's not open early enough to work from for a whole week. The cool part is that it is fair week next week :) YAY demolition derby!

First of all - Happy Birthday Mom!!!! My mom is 47 years young today. I am super excited because tomorrow she is coming to stay with me for a week! YAY:) So she'll probably be super bored all week, because I still have to work, but I am way happy she's coming down.

So the last little while I have been thinking alot about water. Christ called himself "living water". The human body is approximately 60% water. 80% of the earth is covered in water, 97% of the water is salt water, 2% is frozen in glaciers leaving only 1% drinkable.Water is life and death. Water makes things grow. It is necessary for survival. If it comes at the wrong time it will take life. It can destroy homes. We pray for rain, at the same time as people a couple of states away are pumping water out of the streets. I drove home in a torrential downpour tonight and loved every minute of it. But I have spent the last 48 hours trying to figure out why my house is flooding and once we knew why, how to fix it. Water is cleansing and yet causes mudlides. We have 8 wildfires burning in the state of Utah, but in the part of the state that is not on fire, we have hail the size of quarters. Frozen water can be as sweet as popsicles, or cause accidents as black ice. Water can knock out power lines, cause flash floods, or cool the head of fevered child.

Ok, sorry, like I said, I've been thinking about water lately. I didn't say I had come up with anything profound :P Anyway... now that I have rambled on a while, I think I shall go to bed. Staff meeting at 6:30 comes plenty early.

So, the reunion was pretty cool. Friday night I saw fire flies for the first time. They are not very common in Idaho, so it was pretty neat. Saturday morning the rest of the Skinner clan converged on the camp ground. Well, not technically "the rest." We had about 120 people of the 260ish that should have been there. It was fun though, normal family reunion stuff, food, games, talking, and lots and lots of wet kids.

Now I am back in Salt Lake. Life is pretty quiet. Monica is in Kenya on a service trip, so I leave the TV on for noise :) I have the new Harry Potter book sitting on my table, still in the box. I am afraid if I open it I won't be able to put it down. I haven't quite gotten to the point where I want to do the extra work I should be doing, but I have a guilty conscience.

Now you know, in case you were wondering, I am strange like that.

Today was a much better day than yesterday. Yesterday was one of those days where everything is just a bit off and nothing turns out like you think it should. Work, home, roads, people... everything just seemed a bit off. Today things went pretty much like they were supposed to. Except for the ear infection my mom woke up with. We woke up, got stuff ready, went out to the campground, chatted, ate, got eaten alive by mosquitos, came home. It really is a simple life. I only got pulled in to work stuff for about an hour. The water issue at my place seems to be resolving. Really, a simple and happy day.

Ok... I am off to bed. We have to get up early to go back out to the campers.... I'd much rather get up early and take a lovely warm shower than sleep on the ground and smell of yesterday's bug spray all day. I love that they camp about 30 minutes from Mom's :)

I give up, officially. I am supposed to be leaving town for 4 days in an hour and I have just discovered that there is water seeping from the ceiling around my cooling vent. Someone please remind me why I wanted to become a homeowner.... please.....

AaaaAAaaaaaAAA is really all I can say about that.

My neighbor is going to keep an eye on it and call the HOA's handyman to figure out if it is my cooler or water from the upstairs unit. I am blessed to have good neighbors. I will have to remember to make cookies ;)

Between July and August I think I celebrate half of the birthdays in my life. Ok so probably not half, but it seems like a lot all very close to each other... Kelly, Matt, James, Mom, Kym S, Heather, Daniel, Shahna, Trista, Me, Riley, Alice, Kym W and I am pretty sure I've missed some.

This is me remembering to say- Happy Birthday, in case I forget.

I get to go home this weekend. I am going to Clark's reception on Wednesday and then I have a family reunion on Saturday. I know I was home a couple of weeks ago, but I am still excited to go back. If nothing else it's an excuse not to answer my cell phone, but it's better than that, cuz I get to chill with the fam. If anyone is in Bennington this weekend, take Hunter Lane til it ends and come find us! We welcome all :)

Today was a good day. First of all, I got to chat with John. That always makes me happy. Second I went to WW and not only did I lose all the weight from my business trips and vacation time, but a little bit more. Third, I broke 100 on both games of bowling, and Barry was even there to see it so I didn't have to send him pictures ;)

Ok, so maybe I am being a bit simple, but really, that's all it takes to make me happy:)

So, for Matt's birthday we went to see Harry Potter 5 last night. I say go. It was fabulous. They left a lot out, but well, you kind of have to when the book is that long. But they followed the story better than normal AND they finally cut Harry's hair. If I had my d'ruthers the twins and Luna would have had bigger parts, but that's just me. Anyway, it's worth th 8 bucks to see it in the theater. And it will be a definite add on to my collection.

Anyway - Happy Birthday Matt!

I am officially going through withdrawls. Fortunately, work is extra busy to make up for it... or maybe that's what I get for thinking I could actually take that much time off. My next goal is to take 5 days consecutively. LOL, guess I should get some training done.

There are a couple of things that are helping keep my brain busy. The first is planning a trip to Manchester... the other is getting ready to go to Cancun. I am not sure how or why, but somehow I get to go to Cancun with work. I am super excited about it. The coolest part, is I get to bring my mom and just pay her air fare! That's freaking awesome.

In the meanwhile, I am looking for random projects.... any ideas?

This is John at his first baseball game :)



Over looking Park City, getting ready to go down the Alpine Slide



Welcome to Bear Lake!



We tried and tried to take a picture at the fireworks, but for some reason John couldn't keep his eyes open for the flash. We gave up, this picture just makes me happy.

Yeah, so... lots of stuff...John survived meeting my family. I think Cannon actually likes him, so that's a good sign ;) Cannon took him bowling, milking, and thru the Oregon Trail Center Museum.

John also survived as a Brit celebrating Independence Day in America. We did the fireworks show in Logan on Tuesday, just so he wouldn’t think we were all crazy. About the most exciting part of the actual holiday was watching M Hill light on fire from a rogue firework.

We got back into Salt Lake yesterday morning. Everything we tried to do didn’t really work out, even bowling with my friends, none of them showed up. So, we went to dinner instead.

I left him at the airport this morning. That sucked a lot. October has never looked quite so far away. Fortunately, I have plenty to keep me busy between now and then. Most of which I found out about when I got back to work today ;) But I am also going to Cancun in September (yay) I am not sure how I got put on the list, but I am not going to complain. I also get to take my mom. She totally deserves a vacation, and I’ve never been to Mexico, so it should be an adventure.

My internet at home isn’t really working so much, but when it does I’ll upload the rest of the photos. I know you can hardly wait :P