Word Vomit

I can't seem to settle on any one thing to post about tonight. So many things have been on my mind, and most of them seem important and yet insignificant at the same time. So I suppose I'll revert to the ole type-whatever-you-feel-like-at-the-moment method.

Terral just told me that tonight is the first night it weeks he doesn't feel flooded with emails. Although the current turnaround time for sandals is still longer than we'd like it, things are looking much better now. Even though owning our own business (confession: I really like the sound of "our business") can be quite stressful at times, for us it is very worth it. Terral likes what he does (uber important), we're always learning things, and it's so fun to meet people who are interested to learn about what we do. But most importantly, we feel that this is where God has led us, and that feels so good.

Speaking of feeling good, we were also just discussing how good it feels to have absolutely no travel plans for June. If we take a fancy to do a quick weekend trip, we can, but we don't have have any commitments! Aaaahhh. . .

I'm taking a challenge to washing my face with honey for two weeks. So far so good, but I haven't noticed any major improvements yet. It's only been a couple of days, though.

Terral made yogurt, some with cow milk and some with goat. I really like the vanilla-cinnamon flavored ones! I haven't tried the plain goat yet, but Terral said it's sour like kefir.

Last night as I was trying to fall asleep, I found myself thinking of things like, "I wonder where we can put the kitchen garbage can?" "I hope the water filter is usable." "I'll have to look into the price difference between butcher-block and cement counter tops." And on and on. We don't even have a current offer on the table, folks. But don't worry, I'm keepin' it real. Sort of. Well, honestly I feel that I am, but I know that it wouldn't seem like it to some people. But I might as well record a portion of my thoughts and what's important to me, right? That's kind of the purpose of this blog. To record our life.

It really kind of drives me nuts to feel like I can't express my real thoughts. I'm not just talking about here on the ole blog, but that's kind of what's relevant at the moment. Normally, it's not that big of a problem. I'd like to be a transparent person. And I really haven't minded having a public blog. I like making it easy for people to connect with me. I like people. :) But I've been contemplating making the blog private. As in really private. Like not let anyone read it private. At least for a while. So I can just write for me. For our records. So I don't have to worry about what will so-and-so think if I write such-and-such. So I can be more genuine. Of course, any sort of record only shows a portion of the story, no matter how true it is, but I don't want to limit the picture too much. Lately, I've felt a little too much restraint and not enough connection.

Is there a better term than "word vomit" to describe this type of writing? I think it rather fitting, but also unappealing.

Zion 100, Part 2

Read Part 1 here.

After passing a semi-sleepless night (The wind kept tricking me into thinking an animal was coming after our food), we awoke to our beautiful campground.

 We had a yummy breakfast of homemade peanut butter granola in yogurt. Don't mind the bed head. ;)

 And then we went to check out the swimming hole! Oh, did I forget to mention one of the most awesome features of this camping spot? It was kind of the main reason we wanted to check it out. Ethan is fond of all things water, and he thought it was a good place for throwing rocks.

Terral thought it was a good place for a morning bath. :)

It was a little chilly for me yet, so I just watched while the boys played around. When we made it back to the tent, this is what greeted us. A little disturbing, no?

 We left the spider alone since it wasn't bothering us, and then we packed up half our stuff (there was a lot of back and forth on this trip) and went back to the park to finish setting up the booth and have lunch.

Ethan did quite well, and even lounged around a while.

 The booth!  

Sometime Terral wants to get a picture of an actual runner for a new poster, instead of me pretending to be one. ;

 Well, Ethan and I didn't really want to hang out at the park all day, so we went back to camp to play at the swimming hole some more. This time we actually got in. Ethan loved playing in the shallow area with the rocks, but seemed a little anxious when I took him into the deeper water for a minute. That surprised me a little bit.

 He kept picking up this big rock and throwing it about six inches. :)

 Oh, and this pic reminds me that there were some nasty gnats at our site in the morning. Ethan seemed to get the worst of it at first (I think they were attracted to his white little head), but we put some CC Salve on it and by afternoon you couldn't even see his bites. They didn't bother Terral and me much at first, but by the time we got home we had huge itchy bites all over us that are just now starting to fade away. You can see one of mine above my swimsuit. Lesson learned. Put the salve on right away!

 Well, we made it back to the park again to spend some more time with dad and eat dinner. There were a lot more people around, which was fun, but we weren't too excited about the really loud band setting up right next to us.

 We talked to some more people (I forgot to mention that in the morning I met a girl who was excited to show me that the only thing on her To Buy list was Unshoes) and I followed Ethan around as he wandered and played. We brought our own food to make, which was a yummy success, but then the race director handed us a couple tickets for the catered meal. We only took one since we were satisfied, but curious about their food. I give it and "eh, not bad". The best part was watching Ethan eat the watermelon. He didn't remember what watermelon was, so he approached it a little suspiciously at first. One bite convinced him this was something good!

We would have liked to stay for the award ceremony, but we had to get going, so we packed up all the booth stuff and headed back to camp one last time. While Terral and I took care of the tent, etc. Ethan gloried in the sand and sticks. What a cutie!

We made one last visit to the river. Isn't it beautiful?

 And we trekked over the bridge one last time. But we made sure to play on it before we left.

I think we'll be back. :)

Zion 100, Part 1

Sorry for the absence. Today,we are recovering from our latest and greatest, or should I say insane-est, adventure, but I figure I better do first things first and record our Zion 100 trip.

After Terral was done with work on Friday, we finished packing up and headed to Virgin. We found the park where the race was centered, and Terral started setting up his booth while Ethan and I ran around in the grass and explored the playground.

This little guy is very into cars lately, and he loves steering wheels. He signs "car" like it's the most exciting thing in the world. I love it. :)

Eventually, we went back to see if we could help Terral set up. It's a brand new canopy, and a little tricky to figure out, so it was taking him a little longer than expected. Plus, there was a nice strong breeze "helping" him out.

Eventually he got everything set up that he was comfortable leaving overnight, and we left for our campground. We had never been to this particular spot before, so it took us a while to find it, but we were so glad when we did! It's a wonderful spot, and we had it all to ourselves in spite of all the runners and their families that were camping out. Pretty sure that was due to the fact that you couldn't actually drive to it. You have to haul your stuff the last little way. So worth it.

While Terral (and Ethan) finished bring our stuff to the campsite, I set to work on dinner. Mmm. . . broccoli. :)

You really can't tell in this picture, but the cliffs looked just like a Jim Jones painting. It was gorgeous!

As soon as Ethan was free to roam, he got busy right away with the sand, rocks, and sticks.

And since we had to wait so long for dinner (what with a late start, the time at the park, and time spent looking for camp), it tasted oh so good! I must say, I was rather proud of my thrown-together meal.

Just before bed, Terral caught a frog and brought it to show Ethan. He actually didn't seem too interested in it. He was much more excited by the campsite and tent. This little guy really loves being outside! (Our adventure yesterday certainly proved that!)

While Terral washed the dishes, Ethan helped me pump up the air mattress. He was having so much fun. This was actually the highlight of the trip for me, because as we were pumping, he randomly stopped a couple times and gave me a huge hug! It was as if he was saying, "Thank you so much for bringing me here! This is the best trip ever!"

To Be Continued. . .

100 Miles in the Desert

We just got back a couple hours ago from a nice camping trip. The camping was actually rather a nice side effect from sponsoring the Zion 100. Yes, a hundred mile race. People really do that. Not this person, but I do think it's pretty amazing. But personally, I'd much rather go hiking.

The Race to The Race, and other short stories

Well, it's already late and we didn't sleep well last night, but I'm going to post about our Saturday excursion anyway.

Friday afternoon, Terral called me and asked me to check the date on something. Sure enough, it turned out that a race we were sponsoring was the next morning. He'd been so busy, he forgot about it. Thus our last-minute trip was born. Heather and Chris were very obliging with our plans thrust upon them.

We wanted to be at the race site by 10 am, when the runners would start to come in. Unfortunately, the car decided to not work. Terral called his dad, and together they figured out that the wires connecting to the battery were corroding. Fortunately, they were able to fix it (temporarily) so we could be on our way. We were rather late to the race, but Terral was still able to do some networking, etc. A big plus for him was that he saw an elder he had served with on his mission. He never runs into people from his mission, so it was really fun for him to catch up.

While he was doing all that, I took Ethan to Heather and Chris' house and we hung out for a while and had lunch. Then H&C watched Ethan for us while I picked Terral up so we could go to the temple. We did some initiatory work, which we hadn't done for quite some time. I really enjoyed it.

After the temple, we met up with Heather and Chris again. They had taken Ethan to a splash pad in a park, and he had lots of fun playing in the water.

 We stayed there for a little bit, and then it was back to the house. After dinner (and a semi-nap for me—I don't know why I was so exhausted!), we decided to enjoy the insanely perfect weather outside. It was so nice. Ethan played in the yard while we played a card game.

 I'm not sure what this expression on Terral's face means, but I can think of some funny captions. ;)

Ethan had a lot of fun playing in the dirt. His new overalls from Grandma Fox were perfect for this sort of thing.

I love this picture because it captures Ethan's silly so well. It really is not surprising he is such a goofball when you consider who his parents are, but it still catches me off guard sometimes because he seems so much older when he gets that way.

After the card game, some tree climbing ensued. Ethan has been in a tree before, but this time he really seemed to have fun with the novelty of it all.

We also took a walk to a park as the sun was setting. We really tired our little guy out. He fell asleep when we got back to the house, and he didn't even wake up when we put him in his car seat. The day was that fun.

Crazy Growth

The Kanab post is postponed (ha! pun intended) yet again, since the evening was taken up by business duties. You know, budgeting, paying bills, that sort of fun stuff. We are experiencing some growing pains. It's very exciting, but a little scary too since we're not quite sure how to handle it all. However, we are in a much better place than we were last summer when we experienced our first growth spurt.

Tonight, as we were looking at some of the reports and thinking of some of the things that have happened (like our little appearance in The New York Times Magazine), we were kind of blown away by it all. It certainly has been an adventure. As expected, our sales dropped off over the winter, but not to the extent we thought they would. And they have picked back up much sooner than we anticipated. Our March sales exceeded our busiest month last year. Crazy! Our sandals are traversing the globe. We haven't been following all the locations like we used to since we now have some awesome shipping software, but the other day Terral noticed one of the packages was going to Tanzania. It's just fun to think about.

Terral has been super busy lately trying to keep up with it all. His final project, a series of photographs for the Senior Exhibit, is going up next week and he has had to do all the finishing touches for that. Add to that his teaching, grading, church calling, and a million things to do with the business, and he's been feeling a little frazzled. It sure will be nice when school's out.

In the meantime, we are feeling very grateful for the blessings we have. It is so wonderful to know that Heavenly Father is in charge.

Unshoes Workshop

Between my teenager-like act of staying up all of Monday night to finish a book and Ethan thinking it was morning at 4:30 am today, I'm beat. So I'm kind of copping out by directing you to some posts that Terral wrote about our recent-ish move to an actual workshop for the business.  You'll find the first post here, and the second here.

It has been such a good thing for the business and for our family. Now work doesn't interfere with Ethan's naps, and vice versa. ;) We are so grateful for Heavenly Father's guidance.

Out of the Basement

So, I know I said I'd give more details on our adventure yesterday, but I just want to go to bed. Ethan's still sick, and I think I'm getting it now.

Today was rather monumental. Unshoes now has an official workshop! Terral signed a six-month contract this morning, and we spent the day moving stuff and getting everything all set up. We've talked about renting a place for quite a while, but we couldn't afford it, and it just seemed like it would pose too many obstacles. Well, last week Terral just "happened" to call on a place just after one of their more affordable units became available. They had called everyone on the waiting list, but couldn't get a hold of anyone, so Terral took a look at it. When he came home and told me about it, we just felt like the timing was right. The finances were in place, and orders are picking up, so we really need to be more efficient with production. Going around a house and up and down stairs between production steps is not really a recipe for efficiency.

We will have to get used to Terral not working at home anymore. I told Terral, it will almost feel like he has a regular job now. ;) He replied that he doesn't think he'll ever have a regular job, and I said I'm fine with that.

Anywho, I think Terral's planning on doing a post about the move, so you can see some pictures then. In the meantime, I'm gonna get my hiney to bed. . . if Ethan can stay asleep, poor guy.

The Cobbler's Son

You know that saying about the cobbler's children going unshod? Well, it's been pretty true at our house lately. Ethan grew out of a borrowed pair of leather shoes, and we just haven't gotten around to making him a new pair. I've gone as far as looking at DI, but didn't find anything flexible that would fit. (We like close to barefoot around here. And I think Ethan has really good balance because of that.) In general, it really hasn't been too much an issue, which I suppose is why I haven't been spurred on enough to make it a priority. We just put on extra socks if it's warm enough for him to walk outside.

Well, today Ethan had some grandma time while I was teaching lessons, and he came home with a new (to him) pair of  shoes. Now he can walk outside even if there is snow out!

This is his first pair of hard-soled shoes, so they will definitely take some getting used to. Ethan doesn't seem to mind that though.

Tax Day

We've been doing taxes pretty much all day. Oh, the joys of being self-employed! I think after this we're going to cave and hire an accountant.

Blessings

There a so many things I could write under that title, but right now I'm thinking specifically about financial blessings.

Last year, Terral was working for Decorworks. They do design for grocery stores, etc. It seemed like a pretty steady job, but with the economic downturn, they started losing clients and money. Terral got laid off in November. He did freelance for a while, and then started working part time in January for a friend of ours. Washing windows wasn't exactly his favorite thing to do, but we needed something to supplement our income, so we were grateful for the job. By May, Terral was getting really busy with freelance work, so we decided it was time to move on from the window washing. In June, he started working for himself full time, and I started working at the Braithwaite Fine Arts Gallery. (I previously worked in the CPVA Dean's office.)

We've invested in the business as we are able. We are constantly making improvements and working toward our goals. Slowly but surely, Terral is making a good name for himself. In the meantime, our income has been pretty tight.

Now come the blessings. My switch to the gallery has been a big blessing. I get more hours, which is an obvious plus in the monetary area. On the other hand, school is starting on Monday, and more hours at work could mean more stress. My job last year was uber stressful all by itself, not to mention the compounding school stresses. But this job is pretty low-key, and I will likely have some time to do homework at work: Double Plus!

This is my fifth year of college, which means that my four-year full-tuition scholarship has run out. I admit that I was a little worried about that. But between grants and new scholarships, we now have all of my school expenses covered. Even my fees and books! (Including that darn $200 French book.) We can even put some of it toward Terral's school expenses.

Which leads to another blessing. Terral is going back to school to get a second degree in photography. We really feel like it's the right thing to do at the right time. When we made the decision, it was already past the deadline for scholarship applications. Then we found out he can't qualify for a grant because it's a second degree. Then Terral was offered the teaching position at SUU. It's only for one semester, but we think they may ask him again for the next. He is only teaching one class, but one of the perks of being an adjunct professor is that he gets to take 3 credits tuition-free. Also, he feels like preparing to teach his class has already made him a better graphic designer, and he will continue to learn as he teaches. He is making some advantageous connections, and will likely get some new clients through this position. His "boss" is in our ward, and he really likes getting to know him because they have so many interests in common.

We love our ward, and we are so grateful for our apartment! Last year we moved about a block away. We are in the same ward, but we have an awesome landlord (big difference), we are no longer in a dungeon. . . I mean basement. . ., we don't have to take care of the yard, the neighbors don't hear our every move, we're still within walking distance of the school (especially the music building), and our rent is lower!

This post has turned out a lot longer than I intended, but can you see why I felt the need to express my gratitude? It's so easy to focus on the things that we don't have, but Heavenly Father has given us so much.

Yes. I am blessed.

Dallin Berry

Here is a sampler from the photoshoot of Dallin Berry on Friday. I was pretty happy with the results. Dallin's mom is one of Mary's friends and former roommates.