The tale of the Saguaro cactus

DISCLAIMER: the main character in this story dies. If you're the kind of person that can't handle that, 

stop reading now. 

Phil and I went to Southern Utah in April. Remember? If not, read this post. Well while we were there I convinced Phil that we needed one of these. A Saguaro cactus growing kit. Phil thought it was pretty ridiculous considering they mainly only grow in Arizona and we were in Moab, Utah. But I had visions of the huge cactus we'd have one day. And we could say we grew it from seed! The thing about Saguaros though is that they grow very slowly. Our kit informed us that this little guy would give us many years of enjoyment, reaching 4-6 inches tall in 10 years. There's no telling how many more decades (or centuries) it would take for it to sprout arms.

Well, I might not have watered it enough... and a couple of the cute baby cactuses died. And then we drove to California with it in the dashboard and it got fried. RIP. I think we might have to get another one and try again. I mean how many people can say they grew a cactus from SEED?

And when we're really old we'll have it planted in our front yard.

Somewhere between a small town and a big city

The story continues.

So we arrived. This "little town" is beautiful. It's not a little town though like they say. I mean come on so far I've seen multiple Target stores, Ross stores, Big 5s, and Lowe's. And they have a mall. And I sometimes use my GPS to find Walmart. They think their Walmart is small, which totally cracks me up. It's not a big city, but its a lot bigger then Rexburg (which in my opinion is the real small town, USA.)

Downtown Visalia

The next morning after we arrived we started the hunt for an apartment.We looked at Craig's list before we arrived and thought it would be easy to find a good little apartment that would fit in our budget, but it soon became apparent that we would have to do some digging. Almost everyone we met warned us about living in the "oval area" because of gangs etc. No wonder all the cheap and sometimes dumpy places were there. I don't know how much crime really goes on but it sure has a reputation and there are definitely run down looking areas. One place we found was a really cute little duplex that I loved- all wood floors, beautiful kitchen, and good price- but it smelled like cigarette smoke BAD. Like we would have left the house smelling like chain smokers. And I would have been kicked out of my internship. Maybe not. It was sad.

There were times in the process when Phil and I got pretty frustrated. I felt like we were lost little puppies looking for a home. And it was hot outside. My internship was still being worked out and Phil hadn't gotten his job yet. (Why did we come here again?) At least we were able to understand each other's frustrations and just let it go. We needed some help in our search so we called a Bishop. (And the heavens open, and the angels sing!)

Bishop Frost told us to just come on over to his house. When we pulled up he and his wife came out the front door to welcome us. They invited us in for dinner. Looking back at this moment I realize this is when we went from knowing 0 people in Visalia to knowing 2 of the best people in the world. Bishop and Sister Frost told us about the nice people who helped them out when they first came to Visalia for an internship. I suddenly felt like we had a lot in common. After hearing that Phil and I met in a kayaking class we got a very interesting story about their 10 day kayaking trip in Canada. And the bishop is training for an Olympic length triathlon! How cool are these people? We were invited to stay at their house for the night, and then invited to stay until we found a place. We were complete strangers- but they completely opened up their home to us (including their pool!)  These people are like saints in my book. I don't know how I could say enough good things about them- they are two of the most Christ-like people I have ever met. They fed us, told us all about Visalia, let us watch movies and fed us popcorn, and even gave us tables, appliances, and food when we found our place.We stayed over the weekend and then on Monday Sister Frost had an idea! She knew a nice LDS couple with a pool house just up the street! And low and behold, the nice couple said they would rent it out for $300 a month, no utilities. We feel so very blessed. And that is how we came to live in the cutest little house on Sol road.

The crazy CURLS on my head

I had 3 inches cut off my hair last week and it was a BIG DEAL.

You might say, so what? Well, when I was 12 I got a A BAD haircut. Let me tell you, I'm pretty happy that this was one of the worst things that happened to me at that age considering all the other awful things that could have gone wrong. But trust me, this haircut was REALLY BAD. I almost wish I had a picture so you could see just what I'm talking about but few exist. (Probably because no one wanted to take a picture of the ugly duckling.)



I might have looked like the girl on the left a little
bit, or even the creepy lady on the right when I had bed head. Somewhere in the middle as far as age goes, but with a chubby face, acne, and braces.
I went in wanting shoulder length hair with layers and came out with a humiliating curly-almost-mullet.




From that day on I started growing out my hair and wishing my curly hair would just uncurl itself. I even tried to permanently straighten my hair with one of those straightening kits... didn't happen. I didn't know how to take care of my hair, and to make matters worse all of a sudden what I looked like really mattered. I "realized" that I needed cuter clothes, a skinnier body, and straight hair-because how else was I going to crimp it?! I hated my hair for a long time. Finally, after it grew out a bit and I grew up a little I decided my hair was okay and I stopped fighting it. For years I trimmed my own hair and I've only been to a hair salon a handful of times since the awful haircut.

For a few months I'd been thinking my hair had gotten too long to take care of- I never thought that would happen! So I got it cut and I love it. I'm so glad I've come to love the crazy curls on my head.

Where Nevada meets California

                           Where Nevada meets California you'll find this glorious sign. And you'll rejoice! 

                                           

After a long couple of days of packing and a long couple of days of driving, we arrived in Visalia. Hallelujah! Memorable moments from the trip:

• A traffic jam to get into Nevada? Huh? (Road construction.) 

• Gas station bathrooms in Nevada= gross. But bathrooms aside don't drive through Nevada unless it's absolutely necessary. Seriously. It's just sagebrush and Casinos. 

• Camping in Winnemucca, Nevada on the dirt between the sage brush. The mosquitoes were insane!  

• Entering California. All of a sudden there were lots of trees and sunshine and oranges! And the road construction stopped. And the bathrooms got clean, and the birds started singing! (Ok, I might be exaggerating, but not by much.)

• Grapes! And tons of other things growing on trees and vines. 

• The HUGE Philly cheese steak and Chicken fried steak we ate to celebrate our arrival in Visalia. Mmm. 

All in all a good trip. A big thanks goes to my husband for beforehand fixing everything on our car he thought might possibly break- our 4Runner did great pulling our heavily loaded trailer. AND he drove way more then I did. Love you Phil! 

Stay tuned for more. 

Califonia Dreamin'

We're moving to Visalia California in 2 weeks. It's a small town (according to those from CA.)Population approximately 125,000. Fondly known as "Where the Valley Meets the Giants" (says Wikipedia) which I'm guessing has something to do with big beautiful trees. I'll let you know. See yellow circle below.

You might be wondering: Why are we moving there? For my internship this Fall. I'll be working with the Exercise Phisiology Director at a place called The Lifestyle Center.

Will I be making a lot of money or something? No. Nada.

Have we been there before? Nope. Never. 

Do we have a place to live? Well we have a tent... hopefully we'll find an apartment quick.

Are we excited? Very!  

But also a little nervous. We're hoping we can find jobs and friends and a church to go to. And a grocery store. And climbing. And grapes?

We have no idea what we're getting into.

Today I feel...

LIKE THIS. 

AHHHEEeEGAAeeRRRrr!

School is driving me nuts. All week I thought I had two big projects due today for my Health Communications class, having written it down nicely in my planner and checking it often, only to find out they were due... WEDNESDAY?! Argh. And I have a Stats test coming up. And finals are just around the corner. Something about this semester has been really difficult for me. It's like my brain is all packed up and ready to go on vacation and I keep making it WORK. It's like "Noooo I'm done, don't make me! Please, you're turning me into jello."

Three weeks until freedom. I think I can I think I can. 

Happy 25th birthday to the love of my life!

There's a reason this man's birthday is on Summer Solstice aka the sunniest day of the year. Phillip is one of the most optimistic and fun people I know! He makes me so happy.

Phillip, I'm so glad you were born. Love you, babe!

These pictures show off a few of his many talents to honor him on his big 25th. Pay special attention to the one of him and the mushrooms hehe :) 

Breakfast for happy people

You know it's going to be a good day...

When your food smiles back at you. 

How we really met REVEALED

You may have heard that Phillip and I met at the pool. But truthfully, that's not the beginning. If you want to hear the inside story of how things really went down when we met, keep reading.

This much is true- Phillip and I met in January of 2010 in the Hart pool at BYU-Idaho where I was a kayaking instructor. But let's rewind to exactly 8 days earlier.... This cold Monday in January happened to be the opening social  for the Outdoor Activities Program. I had been involved for a couple of years and was now the kayaking coordinator. While everyone was going around introducing themselves and saying where they were from and bla bla bla I suddenly hear "Hi, I'm Phillip Montour. I'm the survival skills coordinator." I turned around in my seat and there he was. I was thinking He's a coordinator too? Why have I never seen him before? Dang, he's cute. After introductions we loaded our gear in some vans and went cross country skiing. I saw him a few times throughout the night, but didn't get very close. After all he totally could have been there with his girlfriend. Or married. Or worse. (Wait, nothing could have been worse.) So what's a girl to do? Lucky for me, since he was a coordinator, I had access to his name on the papers that were handed out. So I went home and looked him up on Facebook. And I'll admit it... I read his info, read his wall, and probably looked at every photo he was tagged in. I'm such a creepy creeper. And then I found THIS.

                                                                                                                                                                       

I thought... I'm a smokin hot fun outdoorsy girl. 

I was thinking this before we'd even MET. I already knew we were absolutely perfect for each other, and he didn't even know I existed (Ok maybe not. But hey, we did end up together.)

And that's why when he called me a few days later and left a voicemail saying, "I was told you're the kayaking coordinator, can you give me more info on your kayaking class?" my heart skipped a beat.

That's why when I saw he was on the list of students for my kayaking class I got a little nervous/excited.

And that's why when he saw me for the first time at the pool and I said, "Hi, I'm Lydia. What's your name?" I already knew the answer.