Trip to Monument Valley

Here are some pictures of Kiri (she's the cute girl in the cowboy hat), and one of me and Kiri on our horses. I threw in a couple pictues of Monument Valley as well.

I am getting ready for my favorite holiday in the world, HALLOWEEN! Yipeee! I am doing the easy thing this year and wearing a silly fish hat. Kiri is going as a dead bimbo (NOT my idea), but as long as her ass and boobs are covered, I'm not going to make a fuss.

Missuzj and Sophie dropped by this morning. I was still in bed because I'm a lazy bum on Monday's. Soph was wearing her funshine bear costume and was adorable. God, I love Halloween. I always laugh every year when all the crazy zealots start calling Halloween a satan worship day, and try to get everyone to boycott it. Whatever. It is fun to dress up and get treats, so chill people. I am not so sure that the Devil gives a crap about little kids in princess costumes.

Have a great spooky Halloween everyone!

Horse boogers

I met up with the farrier (horse hoof trimmer and shoeing type person) today to get my horses hooves trimmed up. It was colder than outer darkness (you other mormon people will enjoy the reference). My horse likes to put her head on my shoulder while I scratch behind her ears, and she did this while the farrier was working on her feet. Next thing I know, I'm covered in horse slobber. I mean she soaked my whole left shoulder and ran down my back and in the front past my boob. Nothing better than horse boogers right before you go home to watch Survivor and eat pizza.

The farrier was a young man around 25, and totally adorable. Cuter than....well, cute. Very smart and witty as well. So, it wasn't all bad.

I got Kiri's grades for the first semester. She got 4 A's, 1 B, 1 C+, and 1 F. How do you get 4 A's and one F? It really baffles me. She blames it on the 3 days of school she missed last week because she was sicker than a dog. I guess she missed a test. But even so, how does one test drop a grade to an F? I don't know whether I should talk to her teacher and see if she can make up the work and get her grade changed, or just hope she does better from now on. What do you all think I should do?

A quick memory I have of my brother and I when we were around 9 and 12 years of age ( I was 9, he was 12). One winter our outside faucet froze solid, and we had to haul buckets of hot water from the house to the horse trough, a total of about 300 feet one way, back and forth until the trough was full. The water had to be hot to melt all the fucking ice already in the trough. This had to be done in the morning before school and again after school, all winter long. We would bundle up in my dad's heavy overalls and oversized coats, and haul water back and forth. We would race each other, and end up spilling half the bucket on our pantlegs, which would then freeze solid. The sun would start coming up just when we were finishing up, and I remember watching the sunrise with my older brother, in complete silence. Even though that sucked ass carrying water, the sunrise was always beautiful, and made the task not so terrible.

That same winter, it rained then froze, and our whole field was one solid ice rink. Shane (my bro) and I got our old wooden sled out, the kind with the wooden planks on top and metal skids on the bottom. We'd take turns running with the sled towards the ice, then hurling ourselves forward and sliding forever. Then Shane decided he had to get the farthest out yet, and ran full bore towards the ice, leapt on the sled too far forward. The sled tipped upwards and he smacked his face on the ice and slid a good long ways on his face, with his legs up in the air on the tilted sled. I ran over to him, laughing my ass off of course, and helped him stand up. Then he spit blood all over the ice and I saw his lips were mangled. I did quit laughing when I saw that.

I also accidentally kicked my brother's two top front teeth out once when he was tickling me. He to this day says I did it on purpose, but I swear to God it was an accident. He was a cool brother. I love that dude.

Some background info

I figured most of you don't know much about my background, so I'd write a little about where I came from and big events of my life. Lets start out with my childhood.

Overall, I had a happy childhood. There were some ups and downs of course, but I had a loving family and great friends.

I was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. I was almost born in Red River, New Mexico. That's where my folks lived when I was conceived. The nearest hospital was 2 hours away, and the doctor decided it would be best to fill my father in on how to deliver a baby in case they didn't make it to the hospital on time. My father promptly packed his family up and moved to Salt Lake.

One of my best childhood memories is of my best friend Brandi. We would play for hours every day. One of our favorite games was pretending we were King Kong and our barbies were Jessica Lange.

When I was 6, my brother, cousin and I were crossing a busy street to get to Sunday School (which for some reason was held on a Wednesday). I remember the day fairly clearly. We had just learned about looking both ways before crossing the street in school that week. So I looked both ways....no cars. I started running across the street and then darkness. The young man who had hit me got out of his truck, and seeing the damage the 6 year old girl had done to his vehicle, then exclaimed "MY TRUCK!" Fucking Prick. My brother saw and heard the whole thing. I was in the hospital for 2 months with a fractured skull, broken ribs, broken hip, ruptured spleen (which was quickly removed) and a mouth full of broken teeth. This would not be the last time I busted out all my teeth. The man who hit me was uninsured, and left town after a insincere apology to my parents.

At the age of 7, my parents decided to live in the country. We moved to Hinckley, Utah. I thought my life was over when I said my last goodbye to my friend Brandi.

My father is an electrician, but was raised on a farm in Preston, Idaho, and always craved the small town life. We raised 180 acres of alfalfa, had numerous chickens, dogs, cats, horses, and pigs. I found that farm life suited me just fine. I was a tomboy who loved the outdoors, my horse, and privacy.

At the age of 12, I was in Karate class and blew out my knee. I had surgery, and recovered fairly quickly. When I was 13, I got bucked off my horse and busted out all of my front teeth, six teeth total. I still bear faint scars on my face from that incident. At 14, I was playing football with my friend Becky and her very cute brothers and blew my knee out again. This time I not only tore tendons and ligaments, but I broke the knee cap itself into 3 separate floating pieces. The good part was when Becky's hot brother Mel carried me to the car and drove me to the hospital. That part was heaven.

That was my childhood, the quick version. Perhaps when I am feeling melancholy, I'll relate my first marriage to you all. It will take about 4 paragraphs as I was married of a grand total of one year, but only with the man for about six months. Just long enough to get pregnant. I still believe to this day that having my daughter saved my life. Both physically and mentally.

More to come another day.

Doodle bug

So, I'm finished with my supervisory training for the year. Thank the Lord. The lecturer wasn't so bad, fairly entertaining actually, but I must occupy my hands somehow during endless hours of listening to someone else talk. I ended up going through my entire training guide, coloring in all the letters that have holes (does that make sense?), and doodling little pictures in the margins. It was pretty informative, though I have done the personality tests so many times with different results that I must be trying too hard.

So I was pleased to see that Missuzj has tagged me. Here goes.

Ten Years Ago: Okay, lets see. I was 24. I had been divorced for 3 years, and still pretty bitter about it. I had just moved to Cedar City the year before to finish up my bachelors degree, and was struggling with school, taking care of an almost 4 year old girl, and feeling desperately lonely. I had zero friends, no family in the area, and living in a dump of a basement apartment that I couldn't afford. I had been seeing Kendall for a while by then, and enjoyed dating him, but was so against the thought of marriage or commitment that I often gave him the cold shoulder in hopes he would get frustrated and quit calling me. He had asked me to marry him earlier that year, and I laughed in his face. I seriously can't imagine why he stuck around. Except for Kiri, my life sucked. The only things that kept me from an total mental breakdown was the fact that I loved my little girl more than anything, and I was driven to excel in my studies. I cared about little else besides those two things.

Five Years Ago: I had been working for the Park Service for 2 years and been married to Ken for 3 years by that time. I had found my greatest treasures unexpectedly in Becca, Kelli, and Jennifer. Kiri was 8, and still thought her mother was the smartest, prettiest, greatest woman in the world. We had just moved into the little white house in the center of town, which just happened to be a block away from Missuzj. Missuzj quickly became my mentor, confidante, and closest friend. Kendall nicknamed our new home "the covered wagon" because it is as old as the pioneers (or damn close).

One Year Ago: Kiri and I had just returned from Norway one year ago. It was a fabulous trip, though Kiri was a little grumpy and impatient at times. I snapped at her a couple times, and then felt really bad about it. At one point she was rolling her eyes and being a general pain because she didn't like our choice of activity and I yelled at her "I should've just left your grumpy ass home." Another time I told her she was ruining my vacation, and hurt her feelings really badly. Overall, we got along well and enjoyed ourselves immensely.

Five Snacks: Cheetoes, deep fried motzerella cheese (which I love to eat but cannot spell), twix bars, kettle corn popcorn, hot fudge sundae.

Five Songs I Know All the Words To: Son of a Preacher Man, Dream On (Aerosmith), They Both Reached For The Gun (Chicago), Sandman (Metallica), Pinball Wizard (The Who).

Five Things I Would Do with $100 mill: Put Kiri through college, buy a new house, buy my parents a new house, build a fantabulous horse arena, donate to Lupus research.

Five Things I Would Never Wear: a dress, stiletto heels, Ug boots (ala Brittney Spears), leather chaps paired with only silk panties (ala Christina Agulera), thong underwear.

Five Favorite TV Shows: Forensic Files, Survivor, Jeff Corwin Experience, VH1 specials, Going Tribal

Five Biggest Joys: Kiri, snakes, Kendall, my animals, my friends.

Five Favorite Games: Solitaire, Trivial Pursuit, Black Jack, Dominoes, Scrabble

My dog, Lightning, didn't go hiking, but she's so cute, I had to throw her pic in as well. 

Check out those flowers! And the plants are pretty too. 

Beautiful fall day on the mountain 

Put one foot in front of the other.....lalalala. 

Oh my God! It's an African swallow carrying a coconut. 

Mmmmmmm. Cheese. 

Paul is so clever, he figured out how to set the timer on the camera that I've had for like 10 years. All of us could be included in this picture. We were a bit tippy by then. 

Hangin with my pals

This is how I feel today. A little silly, pretty tired, and on the edge of complete insanity.

I took this picture of myself, for some strange reason. I look like a toad.

Kiri has been very sick, and I had to go back to work, so I'm a bit overwhelmed right now. I'll get over it. The following are some pictures of the hike I did with my two good friends, Jen and Paul. We did this hike back in September, and it was gorgeous. So enjoy. I'll try to blog more later this week. I have to go to training for two days, so I'm sure I'll have lots to vent about later.

My ass hurts from all that driving

I'm back. Hurrah! I missed all of you terribly. The trip was fun, and I definitely want to go back again, but it feels good to be home.

We left early Monday morning and drove all the way to Page, Arizona. As we pull into the restaurant in Page, my car starts making a god awful noise, and I'm thinking "Shit, there goes the vacation". Kendall makes me stick my finger through the hubcaps and feel if there is any pad left on my brakes. All I feel is HOT metal. So we see a Big O tire, and it's only 4:00 p.m. Arizona time, so we decide to try and get them fixed pronto.

We walk into Big O and wait at the counter. And we wait, and we wait, and we wait. I'm all for going to eat, and try again in the morning, but Ken wants to get them fixed NOW, so he marches through the EMPLOYEES ONLY door to the garage. I can only hear his side of the conversation but it goes something like this.
Ken: I need my brakes fixed today
Big O dude: mumble mumble mumble
Ken: You don't look busy
Big O dude: mumble mumble
Ken: I need to speak to your boss
Big O dude: mumble mumble (a note of distress in his voice)
Ken: What is your boss's number, I'll call him at home
Big O dude: mumble mumble!
Ken: You bet your ass I'll call him at home, now what is his number
Big O dude: mumble, mumble mumble (a note of resignation in his voice)
Ken: Hey, thanks man, I really appreciate it.

Ken then sticks his head back into the waiting area, and tells me to pull my car around, they were going to fix my brakes right now. Thirty minutes later, we had new brakes. Ken supervised the entire installation, making sure it was done correctly, then tipped the guy $10 after it was all finished. Sometimes it is nice to have a pushy man around to get things done. I would have never dared to walk into the garage and threaten the mechanics into submission.

We left Page and drove to Navajo National Monument. I hiked around there, looking at petroglyphs and Anasazi ruins while Ken stayed with the dog (who was not allowed on the trail). This arrangement pleased everyone because Ken doesn't like to hike, and I don't like to hear him complain when I force him to hike. When I got off the trail, I purchased a Navajo cookbook from the gift shop, and am looking forward to making fry bread. I can also now cook a prairie dog, as there is a recipe for that in the book, but as the Utah Prairie dog is an endangered species, I don't think I should try that dish just yet.

Then, on to Monument Valley proper, stopping at all the Native American vendor booths all along the way. We must have stopped fifty times, and I eventually purchased a beautiful silver bracelet. Again, Kendall sprung into action, haggling with the vendor. Summary of the conversation follows.
Kodi: How much for this bracelet?
Native American woman: $65.00
Kendall: We'll give you $30.00
Native American: I can let it go for $55.00
Kendall: $35.00
Native American: $50.00
Kendall: All I have is $40.00. That's as high as I can go.
Native American: okay

I was blushing the entire time. I hate when Kendall haggles with people. He grew up in this area, and he tells me the Native Americans expect you to haggle with them. I don't know about that, it seems somewhat like taking advantage of them, but Ken says that haggling is part of their culture.

Monument Valley was stunning. I know this is a cliche, but it was truly breathtaking. I can't wait to post the pictures I have of it, though I really don't think they will do the place justice.

We spent the next night in Mexican Hat, then toured around Hovenweap for a few hours, which was very cool AND they allow dogs on the trail. I pondered on going to Mesa Verde, but Kendall wanted to head back to Page and head home the next day. I decided that Mesa Verde could wait. We had seen so much already, so we decided to head back.

Now I'm here, a day early and very happy to be home and sleeping in my own bed tonight. I'll post pictures soon.

Hurray for Vacations!

Ken and I are getting ready to go on vacation next week. We are heading into Monument Valley, stopping by Natural Bridges National Monument, and Hovenweep National Monument, to eventually end up in Mesa Verde National Monument. I am so excited. I've never been to any of these places, so it should be totally cool.

Kiri doesn't want to go with us. I really want her to go, but last year she had a beast of a time catching up on all the school work she missed when we went to Norway. She would rather stay with her friend and go to school. I have mixed emotions about this, as I really don't want her to miss school, but I'm wondering how much school work she will actually do while staying with her friend.

Speaking of school, I am getting ready to head over to meet with Kiri's teachers for an update on her performance so far. These used to be called Parent/Teacher conferences, but now have the happy euphemism of SEOP's. I have no clue what SEOP stands for (little help here Missuzj), but I liked it better when it was a Parent/Teacher conference.

I have mountains of laundry, so I'm keeping it short this time.