Absolutely wonderful vacation!

I was gone last week and went to see Christina & Linda for a week. It was beyond wonderful! And the weather was absolutely perfect! Perfect timing for the rain too! Sitting in the airport to leave it started to rain.

Stayed the first night at Lewis's. They used to live in Sandy so it was wonderful to see them again after many years! Went up the back way to Victor on Hwy 89 instead of I-15 so saw lots of small towns. The picture with the town sign was really cool! We stayed in Victor for 3 days and went to the Tetons and Yellowstone from there. Got very lucky at Yellowstone and saw a fair amount of wildlife. Wasn't expecting to actually see a Grizzly or otters! We then headed to Idaho Falls and stayed at a couples place. Once again it being a small world was shown to be so very true! I knew her sister when I was growing up. Spent a couple of nights there and  headed back to Salt Lake City and back home. And it's so wonderful to once again find the same spirit so far from home in Sunday meeting.

Salt Lake

There's a railway causeway that separates the northern and southern portions of the lake. One side blue and the other violet. Kind of interesting.

Really like this sign!

So beautiful!

Lunch!!!

Gorgeous!

Tetons 

Just really like this picture!

Lots of Bison!

A couple of otter if you look closely!

Old Faithful!

Boiling mud pit.

Not sure what she heard but this elk was sure set on getting somewhere!

Just a tad close!

Grizzly bear according to some friends who saw this picture!

Leaving Yellowstone

Idaho side of Tetons.

Yikes....!!!!

I had blood tests done for life insurance... Probably didn't do me any good but at least I know my feeling of needing to start taking Reliv is correct! Those urine results are beyond scary. Blood test were okay, other then I'm still borderline diabetic, but that's actually been the case for a year or two. Sitting in front of a desk is taking it's toll. But I don't think it can fully explain those urine test results. :( Micro albumin and protein seem to be the problems. High limit of protein is 14.9 mg and I'm at 76 and it only gets worse.

Sigh... changes coming in diet. However I did figure out real recently that it's possible that my body dumps protein due to having MTHFR and with that the body doesn't do well in processing animal proteins. Since that's where most my protein comes from it's possible that could be part of the issue.

And not being able to have the 'fake sugars' limits the sweets! Mutter....  :)

Whew! (for now)

Well... one window was leaking pretty bad this last winter and a friend has been looking into it this Fall. He was afraid that the top window had issues that would cause the water to travel to the lower window but that appears to not be the issue (whew!). The board in between the windows needs replaced and the wood around the lower window needs replaced but the water is coming from somewhere to get there, question is where? It doesn't appear to be coming from the roof either, at this point, since the wood coming down from there has no dry rot. Quite the mystery. It'd sure be nice to figure it out before winter hits! It has been a year of house repairs. I think the painting is finally done as well! I got quite the lesson in the process. The post right outside the door needed painting, however, I had gotten so used to it that it took a while for it to register that paint was needed. What needs taken care of in my life that I'm blind to because it's been there for so long?

Got help with the lawn today too! Even got the edges trimmed. I'm pretty sure that hasn't been done in the front since Dave left. It looks amazing and it got done for an amazing price! :)

Timing can be an amazing thing!

I'm once again amazed on the timing of my Father! One client may very well go away if a phone call last night is any indication but today a newer client today asked me to take on more, which would cover what i'd lose and then some. I'm always thankful and amazed when this happens. We'll see what happens in the next couple of months! Also picked up a couple of small accounts this last month!

Scarlet turned 4 a few days ago. It's crazy how quickly time is passing! She is now taking her own sugars! But it's tough getting those sugars to be fairly steady. Growth spurts probably don't help. Taking into account all the food carbs and giving 'proper' insulin seems to cause the sugars to drop too much but other times it doesn't seem to be quite enough. It's quite frustrating! Teagan started kindergarten. It sounds like it's going fairly well. :) Thankful that she's in Corbett! It may actually be a couple of years before Scarlet starts school due to a birthday at the end of September instead of the beginning of September.

There's one more trip in the works this year. I'll head over to Idaho Falls to see Christina and get to go to Yellowstone for the first time! So excited!! Then probably no trips, except to Klamath, for 6 months! Kind have started to like this traveling! :) That could get a bit dangerous! lol!!!

Fall is definitely here and boy are we glad! The fires are pretty much done. There was a little bit of a flare up last week when the east wind kicked in. The temps shouldn't go above 80* again though so we should be good. Tomatoes are about done. There's some raspberries to pick but there's also quite a few molded ones due to the rain. :(  Got the painting done between the carport and house roof only to realize that the front of carport needs painting. Sigh!! Going to work on that tomorrow evening and then hopefully paint it Thursday. THEN painting will be done! :) The carport roof looks pretty awesome too! It should last for about a decade at least. In the next couple of years I can hopefully get the house roof done as well!

Mt Hood from Hwy 26

Mt Shasta from Klamath Falls

Scarlet's favorite book, Tweaty

Time with Auntie!

Who says a cat can't be trained! :) Pippy loves his treats!

The cat's wanted nothing to do with the vet taking their picture!

Love this picture of Mia!!

What got painted and a peak at the carport roof

Crazy fires this year made for awesome sunsets/rises!

Hope not to see this on the sign any time soon! Fire level one evacuations were three miles from us. That's smoke not clouds.

One more sun/smoke picture

Ash!

Family!

Auntie with Christina

First day of school!

More family :)

Pippy loves Auntie!

Struggles/Christina speaks/photos

For some reason I'm really struggling this month. I really can't pinpoint why but I do know that there's major motivation issues!! Uhg!! Onward and upward!!

My aunt is now back on convention rounds after being back home for a month and Christina is in preps for Boring as of last night. She speaks next Sunday! Meeting starts at 6pm on the grounds. Her first time to speak in a G. meeting on 'home grounds'. She's doing pretty awesome! I love a thought that was shared a couple of weeks ago. The trouble with trouble is it almost always starts as fun.

We're hoping that this next week is cooler then this last week! We reached 104* and 105* on Wednesday and Thursday. And that was with really smoky skies from fires. It's supposed to 90's all week but maybe cooler the next week? There's some noises of rain that week. I'm really hoping that isn't the case since that's the week my carport roof is being replaced and the house roof is being re-coated! Fingers crossed it holds off. We do desperately need the rain since it's been a month and a half since we had any. But not on my roof week please and thank you! 😆

Business has been amazing. I've picked up several new clients this summer. One could turn into a pretty decent one. Amanda and Mia have definitely helped a ton!! One of those new clients is the roofer. He's asked to exchange services. I'll probably still pay something but it sounds like there's a lot of work to do on the books/payroll. He also has excellent reference from a remodeling client who's hired him on multiple jobs so it's a win/win.

Super bummed about my windows though. One was leaking this winter and when the guy that is doing repairs for me started investigating he found that the people who put in the windows didn't do a real good job and it's been leaking inside for a while and just made itself obvious this winter. One corner of the wood at the bottom just crumbled when he touched it. We'll see how bad it is but it would be good to get it fixed correctly! And then there's the other windows that company installed. That's the downside of owning- you have to fix the issues yourself and this year is shaping up to be a doozy!! Who know's maybe this is causing my issues. In that case motivation to work is quite counter productive!! Kind of need that money to pay for the repairs! :)

Here are some garden/family photos I've taken recently.

Bees and mint

Cool sunset in the mirror, lots of smoke makes for gorgeous sunsets!

First tomato!

Tomoto's seem pretty happy in their pots!

We picked 17 lbs this day! Christina found the perfect picking spot.

My mom would be so proud of Christina! Christina made this complete quilt by hand.

Fall raspberries are setting!

One happy kitty! Pippy rarely gets to go out so he enjoys it when we do!

My brother and his two boys! Where has the time went??

Sisters! It's been much too long since I've gotten a picture of  them together!

Aunt Nancy and Scarlet had a great time!!

The purple butterfly bush that the birds so kindly gave me! :)

Just a little bit of pollen on this bumblebee!!

Potted potatoes-we'll see how they produced in another month or so.

The other potted potatoes!

Scarlet and Teagan fixing 'sandwiches'. :) Teagan starts Kindergarten this fall!!