Lindsey and Summer

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I have been working on a personal photo project for about a month now, I wanted to photograph some of my friends and show off how hot they are! This stemmed from a constant beauty queen run-in, here in Utah county. These people are obsessed! Every where you turn there is a wall dedicated to beauty queens of the past *at least* 5 decades. It can be quite annoying to the average woman, so I took it upon myself to make a list of my own beauty queens. Today's additions are Lindsey and Summer. Lindsey is the blond and she works with me at ATEC she has a kind spirit and a goofy outlook on life. Her favorite thing to do after work is nap and then chill with her husband. I was Lindsey's brides maid, that is how close we are! :) Inside joke. Summer is my roommate and trusted pal. She is a very and I emphasize VERY talented artist and is really awesome with kids, she also listens to me on a daily basis rant and rave about my ups and downs. I could not honestly live without her.



I will post the next two in the next few days : Liann and Sadie

two tickets and a rant

I woke up this morning bright and late, and hurried to get dressed. The day started out good, I was excited because I had an appointment with Catherine to take her pictures later that day and overall just feeling spry despite staying awake till 2 am talking with SumSum. I walk down stairs and to my surprise Papa Carr had made pancakes! These are special pancakes because they are all natural and healthy for you so I had no problem/guilt about eating four, drizzled with homemade peach stuff. On my way out I notice a cute little yellow envelope on my car. It was a nice note from the Provo city telling me I got to pay a 30.00 ticket due to overdue registration. See in Provo city you cannot park your car on the street unless it is registered. So I made the necessary appointments with my mechanic tomorrow to get things done, blah. SO on a better note I did buy a plane ticket to Pennsylvania to visit my KIELY! I am so excited because there is a good chance we will end up in NYC. I am hoping to do a bit of Temple work in the DC temple *my fave temple* and just spend some good ol' time with the fishers. I embark on this mini trip on August 8 and return the 15. It will be nice considering I'm not doing much in the traveling dept this summer. I have a new boyfriend! His name is Mont he is my client at ATEC, and is convinced we are dating, you know in dry boy times like these I can't help but to laugh at my own expense.

Farmers Market!

So the farmers market had an official blog, but since the changes there hasn't been a post I should talk to my neighbor about maybe picking it up. Last night I went to a awesome Thai restaurant called Sawadee I forgot my camera though at home as well as my phone so I was at a loss to some great photos of good food and friends. After the fantastic meal of Pad Thai, yellow tofu curry, garlic chicken and pad see ewe we headed to a place called Hatch's family chocolates. The place is run by little people and before we got there lots of umpa loompa jokes were being thrown around by our group. First off the chocolate was amazing! second I was totally hit on by a girl, I looked around to Rob then Janesse then Kim and nobody was paying attention, which I was bummed but I had a good story later, gotta love the avenues! I woke up this morning and decided I wasn't going to go. Of course it was 6 am, but two hours later I was up and running, no shower and I forgot to brush my teeth, YUCKY! I'm glad I pushed through and made it. I had so much fun with Liz and Tiffany *my neighbors* they are beautiful earthy women and really sweet to talk with. The place was so busy today! I sold 3 paintings and a bunch of bags and even got an order from one of my guy friends! there are a ton of pics that I will put captions under! I'm glad I went today, it was a blast.



This cute and sweet little girl was dressed as a lady bug princess! she has gorgeous eyes!~

Cherries and Peas were showing up today! These peas were from Liz and the cherries are Tiffany's. She had a big pail of them on the ground and let me forage on them all day!



I loved taking pictures of these apples!

It was officially a zoo today! Everyone brought their pets, this is Bella she was so cute and cuddly!

One of the bunnies for sale
There was a girl playing a fiddle during the day, here she is playing for 3 little girls.you can even get a massage at the farmers market!

Funky treasures!

A real rock band was playing.OK these guys (Aaron top and Alex bottom) cracked me up, Aaron had no problem modeling my bags with out me asking him and the funny thing is he pulled it off! Alex actually ordered a bag from me, he wants the Grateful Dead skull logo on the front of his man-purse.

pondering

Despite its paper-thin wings, the monarch butterfly is a powerful flyer with uncanny endurance. It is best known for its annual migration through -- sometimes as far as 3,000 miles--North America to California and Mexico. Now the question is...how do they do it? is it instinct, pheromones, intelligence? I have always kind of wondered about these creatures and others similar to their habits. Like the crabs on Christmas Island, during the migration, the crabs cover the routes to the coast so densely that they can be seen from the air. Volunteers shovel the crabs off the roads and, although no harm is intended, some of the countless millions of crabs inevitably get injured. Instinct.

Is it instinct that we are spiritual beings? I really could never understand fully how people could be so sure that there was no God or being out there that could have created such a beautiful world. A being who thought about every last detail of a large and lustrous flower tucked away far inside jungle walls where no one can see the hard work? Natures indulgence! Or what about deep in oceans where every few hundred feet down of water has life forms that perfectly fit that habitat? Even under thousands of pounds of pressure? Every thing having a job or purpose to thier lives. Bottom feeders that live on debris from the surface that float down. They go about their daily lives doing what they do best under instincts direction, having adapted perfectly. I am sure we are not here just to meander through our lives working and nothing else, nothing but darkness in the end. I am sure that there is higher direction, above instinct and influence of others. I have had strong spiritual experiences that cannot be ignored as a coincidence, I think miracles come in small packages or phone calls. There is a man who survived having the right side of his skull removed to relieve pressure and the Vatican is investigating on weather or not it should be considered a miracle. Of course it is a miracle!! why are we investigating? Why does the Vatican have to declare it one? I think we should look at our own lives and find tiny miracles in ourselves and others, the human can do extraordinary things maybe not live deep in an ocean or fly 3000 miles. No, instead we love, we love our families, friends, leaders, and even strangers.

Farmers Market!

So the day started off late, because I was up till 1 in the morning preparing for farmers market on Friday night. For some stupid reason unknown to me I set my alarm for 730 instead of 700 am and overslept, but we still managed to get there on time. Unfortunately the weather had different plans as well and it was a bit stormy around 1130 am, we had to hold down everything because it was blowing away, and a lot of vendors left. We stuck around anyhow, I think I love the market best because people give you such great compliments on your art! I get praised all the time about how "talented" I am, meanwhile deep down I'm saying to myself "wow really?! because I may just be compensating for the hole I have in my life due to not having a perfect body, being too intimidated to get a real education and no husband" But I will take anything I can get. There are a ton of hot guys walking around and Sum and I cat call them. That's right, we're those girls. I love it when my friends come and support me! Jessica and Liann stopped by to chat for like an hour, Liann and I got tie dye skirts, which I am way excited for! Jessica brought 20.00 and spent about 12 of it on random food. I introduced her to the Arabic food stand where they sold falafel's, tabbouleh, baklava, and an array of yummy side dishes like couscous, I will take pics next week of those I was too busy eating and not thinking of anything other than yummy tabbouleh. I walked around and took pictures of some of the vendors and their arts.


I really liked this guy he does some spectacular stained glass.

These ladies are rockin the plant holders 70's style!
This couple were really talented in the wood department! look at the crinkles in the boots.

This guy hand makes his glass beads.
I love the produce! It is starting to come up more with the vendors as the season progresses.

weeks activities

So this week has been really stressful for me, work is changing, friends are changing, farmers market is changing. All these things take a bit of acclimation.

1. We got some new students in our area and they are difficult, 2 staff walked out within three days.
2. I realized my problems are no comparison to my friends issues and I can only do so much for them. I cannot fix everyone but I need to be more supportive and learn to balance my life in a healthy manner, and still be able to help and support the people closest to me.
3. Farmers Market management has changed my beloved neighbor is no longer in charge, and I will miss her good work.

ON A POSITIVE NOTE :

We made pizza at my work!! Debi and I got into a bit of a flour fight


Logan and Sara got hitched! I loved Logan! Still do! Sarah is a wonderful girl and she is so lucky to have a guy like that! I was Logan's pseudo therapist for a while before she got home from her mission and married his butt. Absolutely darling this girl is!



Lindsey's (or weenie as the guys call her) hair is all over the place!

This is Debi Stewart, she is one of my clients and I love her very much. I call her my Minnie me she bosses everyone around just like me and clings to my side. I have been meaning to take some portraits of her, she has been given only a few more months to live. Before you start to tear up keep in mind she talks about it on a regular basis and it gets really annoying. She constantly asks if I can listen to her heart to make sure it is still beating. Sometimes I tell her she no longer has a heart and we have to look for it. I don't believe she will be gone soon nor do I want to, denial seems to be the best for me in this situation.

Ode to fathers!

Up in the canyon I came upon this darling father and son doing the simple thing... fishing! I love these moments and I am very grateful to them for letting me take a few pics. It actually reminded me of my own dad. He used to drag me fishing with him early in the morning, he really wanted me to be a tomboy and I was, just not very good at fishing. By the time we got out there to the lake or river and got all set up, the lures baited and worms on their hooks, me all wrapped up in dad's flannel shirt or over sized coat that smelled like dirt and oil. I would almost always tangle the fishing line before he even had a good chance to toss a good cast. He would always let me reel in the fish, and we always threw it back. When my dad would go fishing with my uncle Tom they would go really late at night and catch catfish and bring those ones back and put them in my kiddie pool. They were huge and ugly but my dad could cook till they tasted like a gourmet meal. I love my pappy!

Happy Fathers day!

Garden update

So the garden is going great! Everything is coming about, the one thing we can really grow without effort is weeds! We have tried mulch and newspaper but we have received so much rain! The best we can do is clear the weeds from the plants so we can actually see them! I am excited about a few things, the flowering plants of course the broccoli, tomatoes, carrot, and some of the peppers have begun. I am really excited to see the eggplant it is probably the one thing I am looking forward to most and I will probably take a bunch of pics.
broccoli up top and carrot below

I almost always underestimate Andrew and he always proves me wrong.
Yesterday we transplanted some rhubarb (gorgeous plant by the way) from Summer's uncle Harland's garden and I was kind of worried that he didn't know what he was doing. To my surprise he of course looked it up and made sure he knew what he was doing. It was one of those magical moments when you are genuinely proud of your friends, I flipping love that kid! The rhubarb was beautiful inside out as well! There was this protective outer casing of decomposing root that smelled so sweet and earthy, we got about three of them from one rhubarb stalk root thing. That is what you plant! The root thing, it was so alien but beautiful at the same time. I wonder how people figured out that is how you transplant rhubarb!

We had walked from uncle Harland's house to the garden and on our way we admired a small garden growing in the strips of earth on the edge of a parking lot, they had everything from squash to melons and it turned out to be my home teacher Tad's garden and he came out to show us around. I guess he had a real bird problem so he got some fake lizards to scare them away, I thought they were cute but Andrew didn't want to scare away our precious quail. I had to take a few pics of them!


Our quail daddy, he wouldn't let me get very close before barking at me.
After our visit with Tad we met another gardener on our way and his garden was magnificent! It was planted in swirl pattern, swirls of beets or lettuce, peas and onions all in a swirl and I thought to myself "now that is an artist!" we got the chance to meet him after we passed his garden, he seemed a little loopy, just like his garden. I really love others gardens as well as ours I love the automatic connection you have with someone who grows things just like you! We give tips to each other and compliment one another on the quality of soil or color and size of beet greens. My advice usually comes in the form of a plug for the farmers market. Enjoy the rest of the pics!!
This was not originally our idea for growing the peas, this garden has been here for a couple years and Andrew's brother Scott grew around this bike wheel first, we just copied him.

OK this is a bunch of squash that we did not plant. We figured out that it had been left over from last year's crop and whatever was here decomposed and left it's seeds, then we used the rototiller, thus planting them unintentionally, we think they are acorn squash. We have found various squash plants all around the garden and transplanted them here and there, we are going to have a butt load of squash. I joke with Andrew that we will have to find unlocked cars to put the excess in during the night.

My corn! That looks just like grass! I pulled up a few on accident.

Andrew pruning the fruit tree, I made him do it because I was afraid of spiders. I pruned for about 10 Min's before I gave up. I DON'T LIKE SPIDERS!