University Falls

Saturday, Logan and I escorted some of the Young Women to University Falls. Located in a remote area, we walked in 2 1/2 miles. As you closer to the falls, the path of the trail becomes narrower and heads downard at a pretty steep grade, walking over rocks and tree stumps. Apparently this is an area where trucks like to go four-wheeling over the boulders. While on lower part of the trail we found two vehicles that had been abandoned, one was on it's top the other was in the path of the trail, wedged between rocks and the trees.

When we finally arrived we found these huge granite boulders with ice cold water cascading over them, with a small pool of water below each fall.
I have never been in water this cold. I have never until now experienced having your breath literally sucked out of you. When I came up for air I could not catch my breath. I could just see the panic on my face, the bulging eyes, pleading for air as I swam as quickly as I could to the other side.

At the 3rd fall, freezing, anticipating my fate.

But I did it! I went down all three falls. But for the life of me, I could not pull myself out, I layed there feeling like a beached whale, I thought it was just that I wasn't fit. But after listening to some of the men talk about their experience and feeling the same way, I realized it was the cold water that sucked not only the air from you lungs but sapped your strength.

Logan went down three or four times. Several of the boys actually raced down them, competing for the best time. After Logan showed the first few up, the boys stepped up the pace, they were not about to have some old man go faster than them.

The water was crystal clear, beautiful to look at, but no one really lingers in the pools of water.

Ike Update 6 am

All is Well. Everyone made it through the night. April texted us at 5:30 am and said they were safe, but scary stuff. April and Jill are both without power right now, their windows are all in tack. April's house has lost a tree. (That's ok they were the ugly ones the developer puts in, now she can get her beautiful Magnolia trees in front).

April said that is was a long night with the gusts of wind shaking the walls of the house, they said the windows were really moving and thought they might lose them at one point. They even made plans on which child to grab and put in the closet and who was going to grab the third one. But they still have another 6 hour or so at the 100 mph winds.

Jill said Eric was home last night and was scheduled to be at work at 8 am this morning. She said last night before the storm came in, she stepped outside and the air was so calm and still, you could see the stars. But the winds they are feeling are at the 58 mph and they may not feel the full 100 mph.

Consuming Thoughts

With Hurricane Ike headed directly towards Houston and then turning up towards College Station - my thoughts are consumed by the devistation, storm surges, power outages this storm is going to cause.

#1 Worry - Eric - Of course linemen get great overtime with storms, but he's now on call and is expecting to work 16 hour shifts and the crew will be staying at the power plant for immediate dispatch. While Jill sits at home (maybe huddled in the corner) and tends to Izzy and Bella while she wonders how Eric's doing and he wonder's how she's doing.

#2 - April has never been in a storm like this before, small earthquakes, sure, but nothing like this. And our three granddaughters are there, innocent of what is coming their way, and Peyton does not like thunder and lightening her eyes get big and she clings to you and covers her ears.
Kevin - well he's just used to this type of thing - Isn't he?

I've talked to Jill and April, both are prepared, have food, water and batteries, gas in the car... It's only a catagory 2 - shouldn't be so bad?

Print Your Blog

I've been hearing that it's possible to print your blog, but other than just printing directly off your blog, which wasn't really the ideal layout situation I couldn't find an acceptible solution...until now.

Blurb.com - This is a publishing website, where you can create your own book or let the program download your blog and you can edit from there. (I just tried the automatic download of my blog but I didn't like the layouts, I have more photos then words of wisdom. I'll insert the photos and choose the best layout for that day's blog. Blogs are meant to be journals, to be read, not neccessarily a photo album, which is my preference). You can choose book size, page color, etc.

It's a free download to edit and add to your book. The cost is of course having it printed, but the cost is not expensive and such a nice way to save your blog.

Thank you to Ruth for the Info. :)

This is What I'd Love to Live In

When you have an appointment and they keep you waiting and waiting...well, I start thumbing through the magazine and tearing out ideas. Here's my latest. Since I couldn't photoshop my house without a spending a tremendous amount of time on it...this picture conveys almost exactly what I'd like to see in my house. Now I know there are subtle differences, such as my roof is much flatter than the one in this picture and my, our house is more of a ranch style. But I love the scallops in the gable, the window in the gable, the porch, the steps leading to the porch, the window popping out of the roof...., Love it Love it Love it.