Feelin' Fine in 2009

A new year. Already. Wow.

After welcoming in the New Year and toying with various goals that I considered setting I finally decided that I really did want to be a better journal-keeper. Kind of like a bee keeper...but different. So since all of my other various attempts at keeping a regular journal have miserably taken a nose dive off of a 4,000 ft cliff, I turned to blogging, desperate to find something that would keep me writing. After all, Jerusalem was probably my longest span of time keeping a somewhat regular journal through blogging. so here goes...

I would first like to explain the title of the blog. First, these entries will just be my reflections on and accounts of various aspects of living and all the joy that accompanies it. "Heather" is a type of texturing used often in fabrics that I have always been quite fond of. (Whether that has anything to do with the fact that it uses my name I will leave quite to your discretion.) Green is the color I would use to describe my life last year and the color I am hoping will characterize next year. Green, for me, brings to mind growth and beauty and a freshness and vitality that is pleasing to the mind and spirit. And that fits my past year and hopes for the future quite aptly. I feel like I have been continually learning and growing, starting fresh and tentatively unfurling my tiny leaflings in the newest and unfamiliar surroundings and situations I find myself in. It's been breathtaking.

I love my life and the ability I have to laugh. I feel so sorry for people who do not laugh.

Today I flew back to Utah after a wonderful 2 weeks in California. The snow made me want to cry, but was stunningly and mysteriously beautiful, covering the world as I flew over it and reflecting various shades of pink in the sunset. Gorgeous. After landing, Jewels picked me up and we spent the 45 minute car ride talking and singing in harmony to wonderfully cheesy EFY music from the 90's. And laughing, of course. Gotta love it. Family is the best. We drove to Robbie's parents' house and had dinner and a presentation or Trav's travels in China, Cambodia, and Thailand. Dessert was not to be forgotten, of course, and we gluttoned ourselves on Denver chocolate cake (or something like that) homemade by Teri and complimented with vanilla ice cream. I'll tell you, no one had to tell Lydia how to use a spoon when that was put down in front of her.

One of my favorite moments in the evening came when we were all talking in the kitchen and all of a sudden hear a sputtering noise and Jen's cry of concern which quickly turned into a full-belly laugh. (And I mean full-belly quite literally.) Julie stood up from the table very quickly looking very concerned and I turned to find Emerson behind me with a huge swath of dark chocolaty goop running down his chin. While Teri had been bustling around the kitchen trying to get the cake in the oven, Emerson climbed unnoticed onto the kitchen stool, grabbed the spoon in the bowl that contained a mixture of water and cocoa powder (JUST water and cocoa powder) and shoved it into his mouth. Upon his triumph he discovered, as many have before him, that he did not like the flavor of cocoa powder and thus, doing as all one-year-olds do, stuck out his tongue to get it out. I wish I had had my camera to take a picture of his very betrayed and confused face. How could something that looked so good taste SO bad? And why did you all let me do it? His eyes seemed to plead. Needless to say, we all got a good laugh out of that one.

My final opportunity to have a good laugh tonight came when Julie and Robbie had driven me back to their house to get my car. Robbie, being the kind and thoughtful boy scout that he is, thought ahead and cleaned my car yesterday of the two weeks of snow it had accumulated while I was gone. VERY kind. But, as I got into my car (after walking around in a foot of snow moving my luggage into my car, the whole time protesting the cold by saying loudly and forcefully, "no...no...NO....no....NO"--Julie got a good laugh out of listening to me) I tried to pull forward and was treated with a bunch of loud scraping noises. The foot of snow had frozen over and was hard and deep and my little toyota was having none of it. Julie by this time had driven up to the house and gone inside. I was so cold that I couldn't bear to get out of the car and dip my feet, protected only by some open-aired flats, back into the snow drift. So I started putting my car into forward and then reverse and then forward and then reverse, each time gaining an inch or so as I sat in the car moaning, shivering, and chattering to myself. If someone had seen me they probably would have thought I was a lunatic--talking to myself frustratedly and rocking my car back and forth continuously. Wow.

Finally, enough snow built up in front of my tires that I couldn't get any further and my tires began to spin out. Right about then, Julie came out to see what the problem was and we went into the house together to find Robbie in his flannel pajama pants, sneakers, and big winter jacket, getting ready to come out and do battle with the snow. Julie gave me Robbie's snow boots, which I gratefully put on and began tromping back out to my car in, and a few minutes later Julie came trotting out in her sweats and jacket and glove. I tell you, we pushed that car, dug that snow, and revved that engine all to no good. Robbie got some boxes to put under the tires while Jewels and I kept digging out in front of the car. I made the mistake of refusing Julie's offer to find me gloves and my hands soon turned into a pack of Oscar-Meyer sausages. And they felt like them too...my fingers felt like they were burning in a skillet, but at the same felt like they were frozen into rock and that if someone had so much as flicked one, it would have broken off of my hand like an icicle and fallen to my feet. Ouch. You know, all this crap about people imagining hell being completely covered in flames...I'm now 100% positive that hell is covered in 3 feet of snow. All the time.

Anyway, with Jewels and Robs pushing from behind and me lightly giving it some gas, my car finally mustered up some courage and tentatively flopped over the remaining snow and then exhaustedly carried me up to the house. Victory! It was such a sight to be seen, though. The three of us all mismatchedly dressed and pushing and digging and pushing at 10:00 at night. HAHA. How I do love a good laugh.

But I was very grateful for Jewels and Rob and their willingness to help me without complaining or being grumpy. Yay for family and yay for laughter.

It is just about 2 am and I start school tomorrow so I better hit the sack. But I felt it was important for me to start this and get into the groove of blogging before all the busy-ness of school began again. Plus, in dad's blessing last night he blessed me with the ability to get by on less sleep. I'm taking that for all it's worth and trusting that I'll make it through the day without my head dropping noisily and unexpectedly on my desk, leaving me with a goose egg and embarassment beyond bearing. Although, maybe that would be better than snoring...dad? What's your opinion?