A Big Recap

...for all of those who are interested to know what has happened over the last few months. Here's the scoop.

The Job Front:

In mid-July I was laid off of work due to Medicaid cutbacks (and for some other personal opinions that I will keep to myself). I immediately went from working with people on welfare and food stamps to becoming somebody on Unemployment and food stamps. I am very grateful for the Unemployment Benefit program and for food stamps. I never in my dreams thought I would ever be on either one, but would not have been able to survive without it. It was a very humbling experience.

It was a bitter-sweet lay-off from my job. I was ready to kick them to the curb anyway but had not found another job to transfer to when the lay-off came. I was happy to be free from the agency I was working for and especially happy to still have some of the summer left to play without having to work around a job. I kept to the unemployment benefit requirements of actively looking for a job, but was a little more focused on having fun and enjoying my summer. Plus I was hoping to get into a Paramedic program at the start of September and so getting a job wasn't at the top of my priority list. After finding out that I would not be able to enroll in the Paramedic program nothing changed a whole lot. I was still thoroughly enjoying my play-time.

Shortly after September rolled around I had a week of financial realization; a realization of the little money I really had being on Unemployment and food stamps. I had the greatest desire to get a job again because I knew I wasn't getting anywhere fast. I had been applying at jobs every week with little return on my effort. I knew that with the Lord's help and a greater determination and effort to really get my hands dirty in job searching that I would have a lot more success. At the start of that new week I printed out a list of 40 Psycho-Social Rehabilitation (PSR) agencies in the area and began calling them one by one. With a little more effort on my part to fax my resume to a half dozen or so agencies who stated they were hiring and then going to some agencies to fill out applications I was able to land a few interviews. And from perfect timing orchestrated by the Lord I was offered a job by the end of the week! An amazing blessing and miracle.

I now work at an agency called Children's Supportive Services (CSS) doing the same thing as before - working with mentally ill and emotionally disturbed individuals in the community - but mostly with children. Due to my experience working with adults - and being the only PSR worker there with this experience - I do have a split caseload of kids and adults whereas the other PSR workers have majority, if not all, kids. I am just grateful to have the job that I do and with the agency that I do. It is a lot more than I could ask for. This coming week will be my first week full-time with my own clients. I have been shadowing other PSR workers for the last month and am excited to get out on my own now. This job provides me with a complete well-rounded work experience as I have worked with teenagers at ANASAZI, adults at Beehive Rehabilitation and Counseling, and now with children at CSS. I am very grateful for everybody who kept me in their prayers and gave me their encouragement and support during this period of time that I was unemployed.

The Home Front:

I have moved. Again. I have almost reached the same number of times I moved with my family growing up before leaving for college, which was 17 times in 19 years. This last move will be number 15 in the last 8 years. Whew, breaking the record! Getting paid with this new job is a wonderful thing, but it only happens once a month, on the first. That is the same day my rent is due as well. Knowing that my landlord does not tolerate late rent (despite the grace-period) I knew I needed to make special arrangements with him to have my rent due a day or two later than the first of the month since I can't get rent to my landlord the same day I get paid. With this request to him I received a response back telling me that I needed to be moved out by the end of the month. I was very shocked and very frustrated. I was being asked to move out for something that was completely out of my control.

I was able to get all of my belongings into a suburban and my car for one quick haul over to the new place of residence. I don't know how many times I've been able to do that. It was quite the accomplishment. I now live in a much larger house in a neighboring city with a single 45 year old lady who has a Goddaughter the is frequently over visiting. Every move has its pluses and its cons, but it is a new adventure and I am looking forward to what it will bring.

On another note, we have completed the gardening season but we are still reaping many things that we are continually enjoying. The last of the vegetables to come out of the garden were string beans, carrots, beets, and pumpkins. Unfortunately all of the pumpkins that were harvested were stolen and smashed by a couple of teenagers. On the flip side, we recently won first place in a community-wide garden salsa contest from tomatoes harvested from our garden. We did well with our garden and have really loved learning how to grow an organic garden.

The Family Front:

My brother Ben has returned home after serving an honorable 2-year mission in Guadalajara Mexico. I am SOOOOOOO proud of him for his deeply dedicated and selfless service and am extremely excited that he is now home. I was very sad that I was unable to go to Texas for his arrival, open-house, and homecoming but am looking forward to see him at Christmas and having him back in Idaho when he returns to college in January. He is my happy thought and I love him so much.

The Health Front:

I have wanted to become a vegetarian for a few years now after reading the book, "The China Study" but drug my feet doing it by not being able to completely give up meat even though I had cut certain meats out. I have always had a desire and aspire to live a healthy life-style that includes eating healthy and exercising/being active on a regular basis. This desire has increased dramatically over the last year. I decided that I wanted to kick off my vegetarian diet with a cleanse as a way to start fresh/clean and to help with another health problem that I had been dealing with for a long time.

I read the book, "The Lemonade Diet" before going through with the 10-day cleanse. I highly recommend both books I've mentioned to anybody who is wanting to learn a lot about the kind of food people eat without thinking twice about it and who want to live healthier and avoid (or reverse) a myriad of health problems. Both very enlightening books! Anyway, the cleanse was worth every minute of it and a great success! I have been greatly enjoying my vegetarian life-style and have found it a lot easier than expected. I have loved the knowledge I am continually learning in so many ways and on many different levels. A lot of trial and error, but the successes a lot more fulfilling.

In the Future:

My efforts for the next 8-10 months will be focused on and dedicated to 1) getting out of debt with enough money saved up to go into the Paramedic program to live on with minimal income and 2) training to compete and finish a Half Ironman Triathlon (1.2 mi swim, 56 mi bike, and 13.1 mi run).

Rush Results

FINALLY!! I've waited long and...well...not very patiently for these results to come in from my team's participation in the Rush Triathlon (see previous post). I am ecstatic about them!! I'm so proud of my team members for doing so amazing!

Finish Time: 01:55:15.1

Sprint Relay FEMALE: 2nd place

Sprint Relay OVERALL: 7th place

Becky's swim time: 00:20:53.140

Swim Relay FEMALE: 1st place

Swim Relay OVERALL: 1st place

Swim Sprint FEMALE OVERALL: 2nd place

Angela's bike time: 00:55:17:633

Bike Relay FEMALE: 4th place

Bike Relay OVERALL: 9th place

Rachel's run time: 00:37:30.713

Run Relay FEMALE: 5th

Run Relay OVERALL: 11th place

As you can see my two team members kicked some serious trash out there! As for me on the other hand, I'll just say that I'm grateful that my team members love me unconditionally. I don't think we could have expected a better result from the training we each put into the race - some of us more than others - but we are all very pleased with the results. WAY TO GO TRIO CHICKS!!

PS: The 'professional' pictures taken during the triathlon have been published on the internet for viewing. Stay tuned for digital copies to be posted!

The Rush

Out of all of the triathlons that I've competed in, the RUSH triathlon has been by far my favorite. Maybe because it was the first triathlon I did, which started my addiction to this multi-sport race. Or it may be because of the vast variety of terrain it offers that challenges each athlete. Whatever it is I love it and I was so excited to participate in this year's Rush triathlon with two of my buddies, Angela and Becky, as a relay team. We call ourselves the Trio Chicks.

Left to Right: Angela (biker chick), Me (runner chick), and Becky (swimmer chick)

This event was not only exciting just in itself, but it was a significant milestone for one of the members of the team who has made a dramatic life change and used participating in this triathlon as a goal and celebration for this change. It was a celebration of a milestone in her journey.

Race morning always starts too early for my liking, but it doesn't take long for the excitement of the race to kick in, fading away the morning grogginess. It would be soon enough that total nervousness and anxiety would take hold of our emotions as the beginning of the race crept closer and closer. Then in the instant that the shout, "GO!" rang out nothing but full-throttle adrenaline surged through the body. It was race time and time to put on our game faces to show everybody what we're about.

Becky, leaving everybody in her wake!

Becky was a competitive swimmer in high school, but having so many years between now and then she was very nervous about her performance despite her training. To nobody's surprise, it ALL came back to her! She kicked some butt in that lake!! Becky was one the first five women to emerge from the water and had even passed many of the men who had started the race 15 minutes prior to her start. Becky had swam the half mile so quickly that Angela wasn't waiting at her bike for the hand-off between the two of them like planned; she was thinking that she had plenty of wait-time.

In a fury Angela ripped the timing chip off Becky's leg, wrapped it around hers, and then grabbed her bike. She was gone in a flash!

By the time that Kristy (Angela's mom), Becky, and I caught up to Angela she had already biked 10 of the 14 miles. She was HAULING!! It was taking us so long to catch up to her that we were getting nervous that she had already completed the biking and was waiting at the transition area for me to make the hand-off. I was pretty relieved when we finally caught up to her, but it still didn't leave much time for us to get to the next transition station with much time to spare.

In fact, after we parked and started making our way towards the transition area I started an easy jog to make sure I was in position and had some time to stretch before I ran my 3.1 mile run before Angela got there. Just then I saw Angela dismounting off of her bike. I set off into a sprint in order to enter the transition area before she did. Our transition was slick; she entered the transition area two athletes behind me so it was a fast exchange of the timing chip before I was off. No stretching for me!

The first 100ft of the run felt great! Everything after that was pretty miserable. This run would be the first time I have ever "couched it" meaning that I did not do any prior training for an event. I certainly learned my lesson! What a huge difference training makes even for as little as a 3.1 mile run. The first mile and a half was an incline; the last half mile of it being a steep, dirt trail that felt 10 degrees hotter than the run on pavement. At the top of the hill, the halfway point, there was an aid/water station that had ran out of water but was passing out sports drink, which was not ideal. I needed water!

The rest of the course from the halfway point was downhill, leading to the high school's track where I had to run three-quarters of the way around to the finish line. In the above video I am making my way towards the entrance of the track. Angela joins me for the final stretch.

WE FINISHED!!!

We're still awaiting the final results to be published, but according to the unofficial results we placed 8th out of 11 relay teams, coming in at 1 hour and 56 minutes. We don't know the break down of each discipline yet, but the results will be posted as soon as they are released. All I know is that we each gave it our all and that we had SO much fun!!

We're all grateful for our supporter and photographer, Kristy!

From the Dust of the Earth

I have helped in a couple of gardens my mom created growing up, but I was so young that I don't remember a whole lot, just a few select memories. Last summer I attended the Idaho Fall's celebration of Earth Day where I learned that Idaho Falls offers community garden plots for the summer months. I thought that was an awesome opportunity Idaho Falls provided for those who are interested. This past June I was invited by Angela and her mom to be apart of a garden they were planning on growing, a garden that would provide food for four families total. This garden would be grown on a plot of ground in one of the many community gardens since none of us had a yard where we could grow a substantial garden, especially for four families.

One of the great things about this community garden is that it is completely organic. There aren't any kind of chemicals allowed whatsoever in the garden. The plot of land was only $40 for the summer and if we contributed to keeping the garden clean and attended work parties we would get $20 of the initial cost back. It didn't take us much time at all to sign up.

We were given a tour of the community garden to see the different plots available to us to choose from as well as get a feel for what other gardener's had already begun planting on their plots of ground. We decided upon a plot of ground about 30' long and 15' wide. It seemed plenty big for the three of us to manage. We all made a list of desired fruits and vegetables we wanted to plant, then condensed our lists, and then plotted it out on paper. It didn't surprise us that we had a lot more plants than we did earth to grow them in. Kristy had a gardening book that listed which plants grow better together and which plants we needed to keep away from each other. This helped us tremendously in planning where everything would be planted in the garden.

Then came the weeding, tilling, measuring/plotting, and planting. It felt so rewarding when we finally got everything planted and the weed-filled plot of land we started with looked somewhat like a garden. The real excitement came when we finally started seeing the plants start sprouting out of the ground!

Right side: Squash

Front/Middle: Lettuce

Back: Tomato and Bell Peppers

Front Left: Radish and something else, Zucchini (not pictured)

Second & Third Row: Carrots and Bush Beans

Fourth Row: Strawberries & String/Pole Beans

Far Back Row (against fence): Corn & Pumpkins

We had an unexpected freeze early one morning that almost killed our tomato and bell pepper plants. We were lucky that they survived; some of the other gardener's weren't so lucky. It did kill some of the corn seeds, we later discovered, which was disappointing but grateful that it wasn't worse. Idaho weather is really unpredictable.

Once everything is planted it seems like all the hard work is done; just sit back and let it grow. But a garden is not something that can be neglected. We learned that when we realized how bad the weeds had taken over the garden after a short time of sitting back to let the garden grow. Many hours and days were spent crawling around pulling weeds, not exactly one of my most favorite things to do. But it looked so much better!

It's been about two months now since we began this garden. Take a look at it now!

HOLY GARDEN JUNGLE!!

Take a look at it up close...

Everything you see in this picture is lettuce. Whoa.

Squash

Tomatoes and Bell Pepper plants (forefront)

Tomatoes

More Tomatoes

Bell Peppers

This is the right side of the garden where you will find Radish, Carrots, Bush Beans, String/Pole Beans, Strawberries, Zucchini, Corn, and Pumpkin plants.

Close up picture of the Bush Beans with the Carrot tops below...and my finger.

This shows the back right section of the garden: Strawberries, String/Pole Beans, and Corn.

Here are the rows of Carrots and Bush Beans.

My mom has also created an amazing garden that could feed a colony of people. In her family emails she always talks about how her garden is doing, the large amounts of produce she's harvested, and any interesting findings she's had. Some of these findings have been little critters, some good and some not so good. In my most recent visit to the garden Angela and I found a couple of little critters ourselves, both not so good.

You might be wondering why I am holding up a bundle of carrots from the garden and how they have anything to do with critters. These carrots were affected by a not-so-suspected critter. As Angela and I were driving up to the community garden to water we spotted three little critters in the midst of our garden. We quickly jumped out of the car and made our way to the garden to ensure that these critters did not get away. Hiding between the carrot and strawberry rows were three little kids, all with carrots in their hands. After asking them non-accusatory questions we instructed the kids (none of which were related) to take us to their parents so we could talk to them.

Having people steal from the community garden is an on-going problem that has been happening from the creation of Idaho Fall's Community Garden. The only thing that 'protects' the garden area is a chest-high chain-link fence (as you might have noticed in the background of some of the pictures). The gates to the garden are not locked; the fence can easily be jumped if the gates were pad-locked. Finding somebody in action stealing from the garden is rare since there is usually somebody working in the garden at any given part of the day. Finding things stolen out of the garden is a lot more common as it is not monitored during the hours of the night. It is a chance you take when growing a garden in a community garden area and not on your own property.

Another obstacle you face when growing a garden organic-style, is this:

This grasshopper was huge! It was immediately disposed of after discovering it in the garden.

It has been a lot of fun growing this garden; a great learning experience. I am seeing a greater and greater need and importance for growing gardens for health, financial, and self-reliant purposes. Plus having the satisfaction of enjoying a meal or sharing your crop that was created from the work of your own hands can't be found elsewhere. I am so grateful that I was invited to join in growing this garden!

A Perfect Weekend

Surprisingly, I have come to find out that not many people know what a Yurt is. Let me be the first to introduce you and give you a tour. Reader, meet Yurt....

...a tentlike dwelling of the Mongol and Turkic peoples of central Asia, consisting of a cylindrical wall of poles in a lattice arrangement with a conical roof of poles, both covered by felt or skins.

Wythia Yurt at Harriman State Park in Idaho. Complete with a picnic table and fire pit.

The Yurt comes with many nice accommodations, such as a stove, a bunk bed, and a table....

...As well as another bunk bed, lantern, and firewood for the indoor wood burning stove (not pictured - to the right of firewood) and the fire pit outside. Also, not pictured, is a circular sky light in the middle of the yurt's roof, which provided light during day and a beautiful view of the stars during the night.

And then there was the gang that had the opportunity to inhabit this Yurt.

Left to Right: Me, Alicia (my roommate), Angela, and Kristy (Angela's mom)

Not pictured: Betsy (Angela's roommate).

The above five mentioned took the weekend of August 6th to ditch city life and all its flare to escape into the mountains and enjoy a wonderful, peaceful, yet adventurous vacation. It was exactly that. Not to mention, perfect.

We arrived at the Yurt a couple hours before nightfall on Friday, giving us just enough time to get settled into the Yurt, start a fire (busting a coal style, of course), and get dinner underway. Everybody pitched in and we had our bellies full from a delicious dinner of shish-kabobs and a divine dessert of fresh fruit chocolate torte. The stars came out to provide added beauty and awe to the surrounding mountain scene lite by the glow of our campfire. We enjoyed one another's company until the thought of bears coming into our campsite from the smell of the left over food began our nightly cleanup ritual before hunkering down for the night.

We took full advantage of being up in the mountains with the limited time we had. After a hearty breakfast on Saturday morning we set out on a hike at Mesa Falls. Mesa Falls consists of two falls (an upper falls and a lower falls). The upper falls has a boardwalk which takes you up close and personal to the top of the waterfall. On the other hand, the lower fall's view point is a couple hundred feet up the steep canyon wall. You don't get much of a feel for how awesome this falls is when you're that far away. A year ago my friend, Carrie, and I sought to get up close and personal with the lower falls. We did just that...and more! (My facebook profile picture is of me enjoying the mist of the lower falls). We not only got in touching distance of the lower falls, but we hiked up the river to the upper falls where we were able to get incredibly close to the bottom of the upper waterfall. (Click here to check out that experience).

It's a funny thing how time erases the difficulties of past experiences giving one renewed confidence in their ability to experience something over again. This was the case with me when I was telling the group about how awesome the hike was from the lower falls to the upper falls and that it is a hike you will never forget because of how personal you get with many elements of nature. I failed to remember just exactly how personal it becomes....

(Meet Betsy, in the white shirt, the fifth member of our group).

After climbing down a rock wall we had to slide on our rear ends down the steep embankment to avoid loosing our footing which would send us right off the edge of a 50ft cliff and into the raging river below. Once it was safe to stand we scooted along a thin trail where, once passed, we had to again scramble down another hill which ended at the top of the lower falls. Kristy's expression on her face clearly depicts the fear and questioned sanity of this hike. It was only the beginning.

But of course once we made it to the top of the lower falls, a sigh of relief was breathed by everyone, and the thought, "That wasn't so bad..." was mutual among us. We enjoyed the breath-taking views and the cool spray of the water, but we were quickly on our way again towards the upper falls, which would prove to be a lot more difficult than I remembered it being a year ago.

The distance between the lower and upper falls is a mixture between overgrown game trails and stretches of lava rock. More lava rock than game trails. A lot more! (than I remembered). This added to the difficulty of the hike as well as the pace due to the instability that the rocks created. If we weren't trying to find balance as we scrambled over the numerous lava rock fields, we were blazing a trail by bush whacking through ferns, shrubs, wild raspberry bushes, stinging nettle, and ant hills...you name it, we probably went through it. I couldn't be more impressed by the positive attitudes and fortitude that everybody had despite the difficulty. They just kept chugging along, putting all of their trust in me. I must admit, I did/do feel pretty guilty for putting everybody through the ringer on this hike. It was h.a.r.d.

But from the look on everybody's face once we reached the upper falls we were all pretty happy to have made it to our destination and to be on flat, stable ground again. One tourist to Mesa Falls that Kristy made conversation with stated that she didn't know there was a trail from the lower falls to the upper falls. Kristy quickly corrected her by saying that there is one now because we blazed it. I don't know if that hike was worth it to anybody, especially since we weren't able to see the upper falls from below due to time constraints. Everybody was beaten, scratched, sore, stung, and exhausted. We ate a much needed and tasty lunch upon arrival back at the yurt. Then everybody crashed for a greatly needed nap (minus Betsy, who had to leave).

Knowing it would probably be our last and only chance to squeeze in a bike ride before leaving Harriman State Park the next day, Angie and I took off on our bikes to ride along the trail that circled the park's lake which has been dedicated as bird sanctuary. The trail was a really nice and easy single-track lane. There were a couple fallen trees that we had to lift our bikes over and lots of puddles from the late afternoon rain storm that left us dripping with mud; we looked like true mountain bikers. The above picture of the sun setting over the lake is what we ended our bike ride with. As we emerged from the thick forest that surrounds the lake onto the road leading back to our yurt we couldn't help but stop in awe of such a beautiful sight.

The next morning, Sunday, we were pretty sore from our previous day's hike so we had our own professional Yoga instructor provide a short 15-minute Yoga session free of charge. We all looked pretty ridiculous in an attempt to move our stiff, sore bodies into positions that they didn't want to or couldn't go in, but we had a lot of fun laughing at ourselves and each other. We spent the remainder of the morning cleaning and packing up camp.

Harriman State Park isn't that far from many surrounding attractions, one of which is Quake Lake that is located just North of where we were. I had no idea of the importance of Quake Lake or why it was such a desired attraction to go so until shortly before arriving. Kristy gave us an account of her experience with Quake Lake or what was previously known as Madison River Canyon.

Madison River Canyon was a camping hot spot. The canyon was lined with numerous camping areas that were continuously filled. As a kid, Kristy would often camp here with her family; it was their get-a-way place whenever they wanted to go camping. On one occasion they had decided to come up to Madison River Canyon to go camping for the weekend. After getting all packed up and loaded into their vehicle Kristy's father sat in the driver's seat for about ten minutes while his wife kept bugging him to get on the road since they were already late and it would be getting dark by the time they would arrive. Kristy's dad finally said that he didn't have a good feeling about going and would see how he felt in the morning. That night at 11:37pm a 7.5 earthquake hit causing one side of the canyon wall to sweep down the canyon and up the other side killing everybody in it's path. (To read the whole story and its many affects, click here).

You may need to click on the picture in order to see the drawing of what happened.

This plaque is mounted on a rock weighing 3 tons that surfed on the top of the avalanche from the opposite side of the canyon, resting about halfway up the other side of the canyon from it's original place. Three hundred feet or more below this rock rests the victims (listed above) that were killed in the avalanche. Many others were killed from different after-effects of the earthquake. We visited the visitor's center where we saw pictures of the aftermath of the earthquake, read personal accounts given by the survivor's, and watched an educational video of the event. It was mind boggling and very sobering to learn about this horrific event and have it hit a little close to home knowing that Kristy and her family could have had their names listed on that Memoriam plaque.

On that sobering note, the weekend was nothing less than perfect. It was a much needed trip to the mountains and forest that I have been craving for many, many months. In my perfect world I would spend my life living in the mountains. I am incredibly grateful for the people who willingly agreed to join in on the weekend adventure. It wouldn't have been as fun without them; it made all the difference!

The Seven Paths of the ANASAZI Way

The ANASAZI Foundation