Quick re-cap

My friend Robe came to town this weekend and we did tons of fun things! Skydiving, repelling, rockclimbing, snorkeling the reef… wait. No we didn’t!

I thought it would be fun to check out some of the cool AZ scenery – but instead I pulled out the ‘Grandma’ card and we just chilled, I didn’t even take him to Camelback!? We did manage to squeeze in a few really great alternatives though:
1. Heidi’s talk - She did great! I asked her if at the end of her talk she could gives us a little ‘shout out’ and mix things up in primary like “I LOVE you Aunt Jera!” or “ Hi Robe!!” she was being shy and coyly said no but we secretly thought she might do it… no luck. Primary as usual, but it was a great talk!
2. Nap time. Really – remember when I said I pulled the Grandma card. Actually after we ate some delicious pasta dreaming that Cami makes :-) mmmmmmm thanks Cam! We were all lounging around trying to keep our eyes open enough to tell funny stories. No one actually got a nap – we tried.
3. The Big Bang – It’s a dueling piano bar That was only the 2nd time I had been there – the players are really good. You can request any song that you want and see if you can stump them. We had a few requests. Robe had ‘Jack & Diane’ and ‘tiny dancer’ - I put up ‘let’s hear it for the boy’ and got… nothing. We think they lost it – or thought I really wanted them to bring the boy player back haha – Anyways the Big Bang is an AZ fun spot if you ever come here!
4. Golf land – (Jan, seriously!) Robe was great and tried to find one last great activity before he went home, shooting for batting cages (all closed due to the rainy weather, or out of business), go carts or a race track – all in Phoenix – except for the Golf land ones! Well, we got there and the tacks are only open Fri, Sat, Sun. Since it was Mon. we were out of luck so we decided on Pool (with and eight ball) or should I say Billiards? Letting my English blood show haha. Anyway, Pool or air hockey , but they didn’t have pool so air hockey it was. So here we are in Golfland the place is totally vacant. We are the only ones in the whole place except for a couple or 19-20 hear olds and the lonely ticket taker .
On our way to the Air hockey table we passed by dance dance revolution – I’d never been on that before and neither had he so we made a little wager that who ever lost had to play dance dance revolution. ½ way though the game he let me know he had been playing with his right hand, but he was left handed. Needles to say, I lost. – poor dance dance revolution – I never made it passed the intro. And that was with his help! I don’t think I’ll be trying out for So you think you can dance – this year.

We played a few other games all of which he schooled me at, race cars and motorcycles…

On the way out I passed a rotating wheel – like on the price is right – and was faking like I would pull it, but I didn’t want to play it. He swiped the card anyway, so I went ahead and pulled it. And- Lucky ME! I won the bonus square of 1000 tickets!
Ummm what do you do with 1000 golf land tickets when there are no kids under 10 to be found?
- Well, I’ll tell you what I did, get a cool juggle kit to put in the playroom! :-) I think that Broc broke it in this week. (Thanks Broc!) He was so excited to play it!

You can let go now daddy by Crystal Shawanda

Good idea – Go marketing!
Bad Idea – Cry like a girl while listening to a sad country song right before you go!

A couple weeks ago I went marketing to a few Physical Therapy offices. One of them invited me back to talk to the staff and share with them a little more about Acupuncture, the type of patients that would be great candidates to refer and just generally allow them to ask questions.
On my way there I had the radio on and I heard a new song start to play that I’d never heard before so, I turned it up and tuned in… I got caught up in the lyrics pretty fast and of course wanted to know how it would end! Well – But the end of the song I had tears streaming down my face! Duh!!!! I’m not even pregnant, I might be a total wreck if I ever am! Who does that?!
Well the marketing went great, I don’t think that were any the wiser – Waterproof Mascara- A must in make-up accessories.

I love my Dad! Maybe that's why it made me so emotional

My Christmas Purse

So, What part of this does not scream Louis Vuitton? I got a wonderful gift of goodies in the mail that was waiting for me when I got home from Oregon for Christmas. The delicious items were packed it a very convenient/on-the-go shoebox, that I thought was perfect for any occasion!??
Cami and I decided to hit the movies for New Years day and as we were going out the door in our usual hurried- late surge, I grabbed the snacks and put a few other items in the box since it was sooooooooo convenient! I thought the shape of the items that fit into it and the perfect under the arm transport fit were a match made in heaven. Little did I know this was not the apparent fashion statement that I should have been going for. As we were walking out the door Cami asked me if I would like to use one of her purses - that she had a LOT I could pick from (she is so good to me!)
**Now I have to tell you about a very sacred pack that Cami and I have that would instigate this conversation (not that she would not have politely made the suggestion with out the pact… however this is a free license to make wardrobe or fashion ‘suggestions or strong recommendations’ at any time! Due to the following:
Once upon a time I can across a picture that was really awful – you know, the “Why didn’t somebody tell me that looked so awful?” kind. So Cami agreed that from there on out ( as she could have told me before) she would – as ALL dear friends do – tell me if something about my wardrobe or presentation is particularly just WRONG!**

Since that time she has ‘helped’ me innumerably which brings us to said story… before we went out the door I received another STRONG request to use one of the many purses that might be available, and declined.

So –off we went to the movies and enjoyed the curious case of Benjamin (not to be confused with Bengerman, because that is not a word) Button – which was a fun movie I thought… and on the way out of the movie --as we are most usually the last ones out before the cleaners come in because we like to chat about the movie (if it was any good that is), Cami says while passing the cleaners “ I can’t believe you brought your Bird!” I looked around asking what bird? I don’t see any bird? I didn’t know what she meant then one of the cleaners asked the other one -“ Is there a bird in that box!!??” as Cami is laughing all the way to the car-

Haha Cami thought she was funny – and when I finally go it, I did too. That was the last adventure with my stellar box purse. I’ll let everyone know what the official line will be out as I am sure that you all can hardly wait to have one of your very own!

- Don’t be jealous!

Mafia Marathon

We went up to my ward camp out this weekend (Friday night). We got away a little late so it was dark by the time we got there (tradition I think! Uggg)

The Felix’s, & Betz were soooo good to us, fed us well and helped us put up our tents when we got there. We had some delicious Dutch-oven yuuuuuuuummy food (nothing loved-up there!) After a few games we settled into what would be a two day “Mafia-marathon”
We did get a little cold at night; Meagan and Sydney had to re-bundle in the night I woke up to "Jera, Jera - Is she still in here? I dont know - Jera..?" - Poor girls, I guess they were a little chilly.
We got up the next day to yummy breakfast burritos just to give us fuel for more Mafia.
(you’d think by all the mafia we played I’d be better- but I still couldn’t talk my way out of dying three times tonight! Joel- I need more lessons!)
We were able to take Kali with us camping and Paige and Brooke came over today to play. I love all their cute faces! We have so much fun – Thank you all for sharing your wonderful children with us! What a fun weekend!
I guess I am off for my first full week on the ‘trail’ – should be fun! Funny that I went camping on my last weekend before going to the extreme – I am glad that I went plush style! Cami even blew up an air mattress for me! Thanks Cam!!
Thanks for the fun y'all!

"Loved-up"

You know, among friend it’s always fun to give each other a hard time now and then.
Cami sometimes likes to do that to me about the fact that for the most part I don’t like to share a lot of things that have to do with bodily fluids – Like cups, forks, Air space that contains sneeze particles – you know stuff like that.

I wasn’t even always like this. I used to share food and air space with anyone. I think this happened sometime during the Robert era. He definitely had germ issues and it has stuck! Maybe this will be more therapy that I thought for myself! - Therefore- the following:

I learned a new term this week “loved-up” is a trail word .. in the fictitious trail dictionary it might read something like: Loved-up: A Term used to describe the process of food preparation wherein lieu of cutting, chopping, or dicing the food is put into a trail-walker or young walkers mouth and masticated to in turn be spewed back out into the camping cup to be cooked then eaten at a later time with the rest of the cooked ingredients. Such as: The dried tomatoes were loved-up while preparing the lasagna.

So, this is not a process that I am the most excited about… The other walkers think it’s pretty funny and already like to give me a hard time about it. Tuesday on the trail Ramsey said to me – “hey Jera, would you love this up for me?” while handing me a clove of garlic. I gave him my best and most sincere “ Are you kidding me right now?” face, and the words came with it. He continued “ Aw, come on you can do it” - I told him no, but thanks anyway. Then he went back to Dawn- “Hey Dawn, Will you love this up for me?” She said Sure! And within seconds the garlic was ready for our rice.
I told them they could definitely skip putting it in mine, that I won’t love-up my own food yet, let alone am I ready for someone else’s lovin’. – All this protest while they scooped “my” share onto my rice uggggggggggg. I was struggling with that.

In a few minutes, the rice was ready. I asked Jonathan if he wanted to “share my rice”? He said yes! Awesome. Needless to say I gave him the generous sized top portion before I mixed in the loved up garlic –so I escaped garlic loven’ this time..
Something tells me I might not make it out of this without some loving up at some point -
It’s pretty common on the trail to love-it up then share whatever is in the cooking process among trail walkers. After Dawn had finished – Ramsey said “ Thanks! I NEVER love up garlic!” haha – Dawn smelled like garlic for two days I am sure.

Anasazi

So, I have been wanting to check out this Anasazi thing for a while. I know that I have been really interested in it and ‘drawn’ to it.. I have felt like it is an important piece of the ‘Happiness Clinic’.
I just completed the first week of training and I have to say I am more excited than ever to move forward with this!

As I sat in this place and watched the sun set I knew this is right where I needed to be :-)

I went in Monday morning and it felt like I had known all the trainees in my group already for years! That is so rare for me with a whole group like that! There was such a comfortable feeling there – As I went through the next few days in the wilderness of Tonto National Forrest with just the essentials –
The clothes on my back
Oats, rice and a few other nutritional food items
Water, puncho and sleeping bag
I was so excited that this whole program is based on the bare basics – Physical and emotional pureness. It’s amazing what you can feel out there for extended periods of time with no distractions.
We had an awesome experience talking with a couple of the young walkers who were going home while we were there – they truly had been transformed while they were ‘on the trail’.
There are no elusions that this is a program to ‘fix’ any one or anything though that is often the perceived result. The mission statement is to turn the hearts of the children and the parents to each other so they can weather the wilderness of life together.
I am so excited for what comes next and worried because I am such a wimp in the cold!
I need to get some WARM gear!
In the meantime I am continuing to train and learn the ‘lingo’ of the trail, and cultivate new friendships- this is going to be a fun chapter!

Wake boarding! - sup' with the pics?

On Friday Kerry took a big group of us wake boarding at Canyon lake. Despite getting away a little late is was a blast!
The weather is getting cooler and it was perfect up there! I guess Cami took a video of me riding, so I don’t have pic’s of me on the board- but we got some other ones-
It was blast, Thank you all! - Lets go again!

Oh, and after, thanks to Shannon we ate at the “coolest” restaurant. Jessica – what did Guy's Diners, Drive-ins and Dives say about it? It was good is all I know. Bring on the Portobello delight with sweet potatoe fries mmmm- And fun conversation – Joel , can you please always come with great dinner conversation like that? What are your top three choices of ways to die? – Shark attack (by a great white) I’ll never hear that and not think of you!