The Beautiful Things in Life...

Always remember to take the time to reflect on, even write down, the beautiful things in life:

• life's little pleasures
• great interactions with friends, family, strangers
• wonderful moments that will turn to wonderful memories
• the sight of your first spring butterfly
• a great song you heard on the radio
• a wonderful comment someone made to you
• a wonderful comment you made to someone and how that made their day

It only takes a minute and there are so many wonderful things you can take the time to appreicate.

Till I write again, take care!

Workin' 9 to 5...

...What a way to make a linvin' (love that movie!)

Hi All,

Well, I am a working girl again (have been for over a month now...I apologize for my delay :)

I took a position as the Program Coordinator with Utah Campus Compact!!!

Utah Campus Compact is a coalition of all 13 Utah college and university presidents and their campuses. UCC is one of 31 state compacts nationwide and kicked off its 10-year anniversary celebration on Nov. 21, 2006. This organization serves private and public higher education institutions, helping them develop a shared commitment to the public purpose of higher education and the value of integrating service with learning.
UCC's purpose is to:

1) assist college presidents in promoting service-learning and
student participation in civic and community service,
2) improve collaboration and build partnerships at the state level,
3) provide links with other state and national groups, and
4) offer resources, ideas and information to member campuses.

Good news is that I am working for an amazing organization, I am still in higher ed, I am still in service-learning and I am still impacting students (although a bit removed!)....AND I AM LOVING IT!!!

Another great thing about me going back to work, besides the paycheck :), is that on the day I started working, my mom started volunteering for the local boys and girls club down the street. She has been going over just about every afternoon and helping with their Power Hour which is when the kids do homework or reading. But not all the kids bring something to work on or read so she has been brining in poems for them to read aloud to her. They are loving it, infact many of them have started writing their own!!! It is great and it has filled her day with so much joy.

Till I write again, take care!

Never a dull moment...

There seems to never be a dull moment around the Mieremet/Williams household and today once again proved that. Bless my mom's heart, she decided (on a whim I think) that she wanted to make mustard pickles, the ones like her grandma and mom used to make. So, we went along for the ride...

4 different trips to the market for supplies

2 heads of cauliflower

5 lbs. of baby onions

5 lbs. of green peppers

7 large cucumbers

4 lbs. of green tomatoes

3 cups of brown sugar

1/2 gal. of vinegar

turmeric

mustard powder

black pepper

celery seed

and a few more things I must be forgetting :)

After a long evening of cutting all the veggies (mom was up till 2am, I only did a few I had had a few beers so I need much to go to sleep!!!) and a saltwater bath over night, we began the real process. Well, with all this food we must be canning and preserving all these mustard pickles we are attempting to make so, out came the mason jars and the pressure cooker!

Thinking that my mom was a pro at the canning process she says first let's read the directions! Come to find out that really meant she wanted to see how long to cook them for. Well we got the mustard sauce made and put all the veggies in the jars so on to the pressure cooking.

Now I am new to this pressure cooking thing so I was just standing back as Carrie and mom were getting ready to take the lid off. As we were moving slowly to not hurt anyone, all of the sudden there was this loud noise and there was water spraying through the top of the lid. We all jumped back and just watched "Old Faithful" spew. There was just too much pressure in the pot and we were not prepared. Well after it was all over and we all calmed down for a second, we realized that mom had some minor burns so we acted quickly and all is good now.

After that, our kitchen disasters continued...one cut finger and a broken glass. Needless to say, we closed up shop for the afternoon and moved on with our day!

While I know that these are only small things compared to other things going on in the world and even in our own country today, I must say that I am glad to say that they were only small things that happened today. And I am so grateful my mom is okay and it was not worse but I am happy that she was a part of this story today. Just a few days ago we celebrated an anniversary with my mom, the anniversary of her being cancer free. In 2001 she was diagnosed with breast cancer and a long road laid before us then. But now our road with her is full of stories about canning pickles and making multiple trips to the store. I love you mom and I am so happy you are here.

Bless those in Texas and those who are still being affected by hurrican IKE. My prayers go out to those being affected.

Till I write again, take care!

A brief stop...

It was the week before labor day weekend and my sister Carrie said to me that she really wanted to go to Red Rocks to see the Allman Bros. and Gov't Mule even though it was a trip and a weekend we had taken off the calendar about 3 months ago when it was announced. So, after some thought and looking at the calendar, we made a jump on the tickets and packed our bags.

While we only got tickets to the 2nd night of shows and missed the Allman Bros and Ratdog, we made it to Mule and everything else for the brief weekend was awesome. I got a much needed Denver fix and a much needed friend and music fix! We tried to get in to the Blue Bonnet but the line was not worth the wait so we went to our next favorite, Old Chicago.

On our drive out there we saw about 3 new wind farms which were spectacular and beautiful.

While I was in Denver, I was not able to see everyone but please know that next time I will plan ahead and plan for a much longer stay then our quick weekend (most of which was spent at the Rocks!). Here are some pics of the weekend.

Till I write again, take care!

No Problem Mon...

Hi All,

I hope all is well with everyone. Things are going great back here in Utah and I have some photos to share of our time in Jamaica and the wedding!!! But here are some highlights of the trip...

• About 2 hours into the trip we experienced our first major thunder & rain storm. Little did we know it was going to rain like that everyday we were there (except our last two days!). At one point the thunder and lightening was so hard it set off all the car alarms around the hotel. The rains were so hard too that sandbags were pulled in to keep the water from completely flooding the lunch area! (Oh yeah, we still were not in our rooms at this time!)


• With these rains came my fall/accident of the trip. We had finally gotten into our rooms and they were bringing the luggage over and my sisters and I thought we would help so off we go and I get to the first set of stairs and down I go...The rains had completely saturated everything and I guess I was moving to fast on slick tile and down five stairs I go. I reopened a cut on my hand and jammed up my ankle and my neck. Typical!!! But it didn't impact the rest of my trip (at least I didn't let it).


• We had to transfer hotel properties on the second day because the one we were at was undergoing renovations and the other half of our wedding party was at the newer property so we didn't unpack the first night and moved the next day. Made for a long day but it was awesome no matter where we were!
Members of the wedding party...Back row left to right: Gary, Mom, Carrie, Kellie, Natalie (Melanie's family) . Front row left to right: Joel, Alan & Valentina, Beni, Richard, Melanie (Ronnie's family from Switzerland)


• It was so beautiful there we really didn't want it to end. However, the humidity was out-of-control. At least for us desert folks from Utah!!! It was so hot and humid that our towels, swimsuits, and clothes never dried and as soon as you walked outside you were sweating again. There was not point in trying to do your hair or for some put on makeup because in a matter of minutes it was ruined. As a matter of fact within one hour of being in Jamaica my hair had already started growing in size and curls!

• There was always time for dancing to live reggae. My mom and I were usually the first to get started but usually others began to join in!!!


• The beach was beautiful and the water was so nice. We would get out there relatively early each morning get our spot on the beach, lather up the sunscreen and then go swimming. At about 11am we headed to the bar for our first drink of the day! Got to love the all-inclusive resorts. Then by 12:30-1:00pm we headed in for lunch as the rains would come in about that time each day. At least it provided us a routine!

• On 08-08-08 my sister, Melanie, and Ronnie had their special day...the wedding. It was at 9am but let me tell you by the time we got to the location and finished the ceremony, we were all sweating. I can only imagine what it would be like if we had kept it at noon! It was beautiful ceremony though. And taking pictures was so much fun, running around and doing sweat patrol for the bride! Here are just a few photo highlights. Now I am not one to toot my own horn, but I have to say that the jewelry I made fit perfectly with everyone's outfits and it looked so beautiful on my sister with her dress.

• On our sunset cruise I got to snorkel, swim threw a cave, and hold a starfish! Let me just say that snorkeling is not so easy when you are near-sighted and your glasses don't fit inside the snorkel mask!
  
  

• Water sports...we got to do more than just swim and snorkel in the water! We tried sea kayaking which I totally loved, we did the paddle boats and some sailing!

Well, I could talk about this trip for hours and there are so many more stories and fun things I could write but I will cut myself off here. I will add some more later and put up more photos as there were so many taken. In fact, I had just purchased a new memory stick for my camera and it held up to 1,500 pictures. Well, I did not take that many but I got close...630!!! (okay not all were of quality but I figured just keep snapping and I should be able to get at least one good one!)

Till I write again, take care!

I just love this one too...

The time has come...

Hi all,

So tomorrow my family and I are off to Jamaica for my sister's wedding. The bride and groom left California today and will be there when we get there. Their wedding is on 8-8-08. After lots of shopping for new clothes, a new hair cut, and plenty of other miscellaneous errands we are ready to go. I think there is two bags per person and even some carry-on's to add to that. Lots of stuff!!! I will be back on the blog when we return!

A big thank you goes out to my cousin who will be staying at the house with Sugar (see previous post)!

Till I write again, take care!

She senses something...

Sugar is my mom and Gary's dog so in a way I feel like she has become my dog! As she has aged, she has become much more mellow and oh so sweet. I know for some it may be crazy to think that I live with a dog and I care so much about it but it is true.

So, yesterday my mom and I were upstairs getting our luggage out and cleaning up our rooms. Sugar was in the hallway on the floor and she looked a bit sad. Then, my mom tells me she hates the site of suitcases and she knows what they mean :(

No joke, the rest of the day she was very sad and just followed us around every step we took just waiting for us to leave. I feel bad that we in a way have tricked her because we started packing so early. But after a while she realized that we were not leaving yesterday and she perked up and totally struted around during our walk last night :)

Till I write again, take care!