Autumn Update

I should be studying for Neonatal Resuscitation test/class thing I have coming up soon but I'd rather update the blog real quick then get back to that. Studying when you aren't in school anymore and work a lot just isn't very appealing.

So, autumn has arrived in Utah. I love fall, greatly dislike Halloween though. Seems most Utahns love this day. I just despise how gross, demented, and twisted it can become. We'll be celebrating all pumpkin foods and Reformation Day. The weather has been A+++ awesome. Sunny and cool with deep blue skies contrasting with the warm colors of yellow, orange and red on the trees. The occasional clouds will roll in and give the mountain tops a nice snow dusting. It is absolutely lovely.

Big Cottonwood Canyon

Leaf sighting on a stroll with Ingrid

I doubt Davis gets the same urge or even understands but I need to go "look at leaves" during this time of year. So, generously Davis drove me up one of the canyons and we enjoy the chilly air and looked at some lovely leaves. The only bad thing about fall is that it means winter is follow closely behind it. Although I think snow is very lovely, I am sad that my job doesn't afford any "snow days" like in the south. Life goes on and I better well make it to work because work surely continues. I get rather anxious driving in the snow and now Salt Lake City has monster hills, I am even more nervous. But I am trying to learn not to waste the present on future worries, so enough of that right now.

At the beginning of October, I turned a whopping 27 years old. We had decided to take a star gazing camping trip to Bryce Canyon National Park for that weekend. Unfortunately the Federal Government, being a bunch of ding dongs, had all the parks closed during that time. So we joined the mass of other folks kicked out of their vacation plans in Koda Chrome Basin State Park just a few miles away from Bryce.

Rock Chimneys in a once more Geo-thermally active
area in Utah

Shakespeare Arch

weird-o rocky landscape of utah, chimney in the distance

looking out at some more rocky things :)

Davis and Mark made a meaty breakfast for us

 We hiked around on the local trails. The red rocks were quite extra lovely at sunset. That evening after dinner, we settled in and did some star gazing. The moon was gone for the night and we were no where close to civilization. The Milky Way was so very clear and innumerable stars twinkled across the night sky. Our friend Mark practiced some night sky photography and was able to get some pretty fantastic shots of the stars. I will try to remember to post a few here sometime, when I can get a few from him. It was a nice pause from daily life to sit in the cold and see the stars and try to comprehend the universe in it's vast, immeasurable enormity. God created pretty fabulous everythings for us to enjoy. I know that sounds silly but He did create everything big and small, all things so wondrously well.

It seems like our lives have gone from school zone speed to interstate fast. I have doubled working hours, taking on 40 hours a week as a nurse. If you are nurse, you know that 40 hours is a lot. Davis is still enjoying his job. We are making new friends and deepening bonds with established ones. Somehow we managed to become  co-leaders of a new multi-church youth group that is starting first of November. Clearly, they didn't look at our unimpressive youth ministry resumes before they asked us.  We are excited about it. Admittedly, I do have many fears and anxieties associated with this new endeavour. Additionally, we have busied ourselves with a couple small groups and are loving all the contact with other people.

To end this little update, I'm adding these verses from Psalm 8. They popped into my head when I was star gazing.

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
   the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,what is man that you are mindful of him,
    and the son of man that you care for him?

Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
    and crowned him with glory and honor You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
    you have put all things under his feet,all sheep and oxen,
    and also the beasts of the field,the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
    whatever passes along the paths of the seas. 

O Lord, our Lord,

    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Psalm 8:3-9