Bee Memorial

Rodney checked both hives yesterday. We knew we had lost one hive to moths - which is one of the dangers of organic beekeeping - but he disovered yesterday that both hives were gone. All that was left of the other hive was a few, sad, little, dead, bee bodies at the bottom of the hive. No moths in that hive just an empty cache of honey. He had said that if both hives were gone that he was going to take a year off - build some more hives and move his hives to a different place. Not sure if this is still the plan. I worry a little bit about the garden and the wasps. Since we got the bees, the wasps have left for the most part.

It's funny that I am so sad about the bees being gone since I wasn't thrilled to get them in the first place. I understood the importance of bees but I am just so stinking afraid of them. Over the last 2 years however, I have come to respect them and appreciate them and I am so sad they are gone and I feel a little guilty, like maybe we didn't take good enough care of them. In truth, we were lucky to come out of that first winter with both hives. Beekeepers lose hives to winter all the time.

I'm still sad though. :(

Here are some pictures from the last hive.

Southeast to Alaska

For Valentines, Rodney booked a room at the Alaskan Inn which is where we went Saturday for a nice relaxing evening without kids. The Inn is a couple miles up Ogden Canyon right along the Ogden River. Every room has some Alaskan/outdoor/wildlife theme. The room we stayed in was the Goose and Gander. The problem was that the bed was a queen which sounds cozy but when you're used to a humongous California King bed is a tad cramped. Also the head board didnt quite match up to the mattress so the pillows kept falling down behind the mattress. The jetted tub was fun though and it snowed which was nice. We also had a great dinner but maybe next time we will just visit and then come home to our own bed. Am I old? I think so.

Romantic Dinner for Four

Rodney had to work until 9:30 tonight so we had a late Valentine's Day dinner. I bought some yummy pasta (wild mushroom and five cheese ravioli) and tossed it with some olive oil, butter (just a little), garlic and fresh basil. We had it with salad, french bread, and white wine (for us ADults). For dessert, I hand dipped some HUGE strawberries in dark chocolate. I also made some strawberry shortcake for the girls. It was a late dinner but a tasty one. *yawn. Now for some much needed sleep.

In addition to getting Rodney's truck serviced and filling his tank (I know! How romantic am I????) I got him a silver guitar pick stamped with "I Pick You". My valentine from him is an overnight stay on saturday at a bed and breakfast. Yay!

Saving the world one bee at a time....

Last night Rodney and I watched a documentary about bees and their role in the world, entitled, "Queen of the Sun" I know shocking that Rodney was home to watch a movie! It was a great movie and has inspired me to become more involved. Sadly, we lost at least one of our beehives this winter. Rodney said that if the other one was also gone, he was going to take a year off and move the bees and build a better fence for them. I'm not entirely sure what will happen, but I do know that I want to be more involved in their care. This is a huge thing for me considering I have been, historically, terrified of bees. Of course having two beehives in your backyard changes your perspective a bit - especially since I haven't been stung once since we got the hives. Bees play such a critical role in our lives and all of us should be doing our part to secure their future. If you get a chance - I highly recommend watching the movie for yourselves.

Things you can do to help the bees
Take the time to listen to and take care of the honeybees in your neighborhood. Here are some steps that you can take right now to help the bees:

1.Plant bee-friendly flowers and flowering herbs in your garden and yard.
2.Don’t use chemicals and pesticides to treat your lawn or garden.
3.Buy local, organic food from a farmer that you know.
4.Bees are thirsty. Put a small basin of fresh water outside your home.
5.Consider backyard beekeeping. It really isn't difficult and your garden and your neighbors gardens will thank you.

Curry fries - the weight watchers way

Yum @ roasted garlic curry fries - made by moi!

Debrief

Our impromptu staff lunch retreat. Not sure it helped much but lunch was tasty!

My iPad doesnt take great pics in low light so I had to do some noise reduction which blurs things up a bit. They are still a good looking group.

Sad Days

I work with some wonderful women. We all get along so well considering the level of hormones interacting with one another on a daily basis. We also have very tough jobs. We have fifteen plus women working on topics such as domestic violence fatalities, teen motor vehicle crash victims, child maltreatment, suicide, violent death, rape, teen dating violence, etc. Because of the subject matter that we work with, every month we get out of the office to have a debrief meeting so everyone can come together, bond, debrief, vent, laugh and eat. It can be a barrel of laughs in the Violence and Injury Prevention Program. Really it can be. This week hasn't been so fun though.

I know the Josh Powell case has been hard on everyone. It's so difficult to understand how a father - or anyone - can do what he did to his entire family. Our group is no exception. When you deal with death, child abuse, homicide, domestic violence on a daily basis, you learn to distance yourself and look at it as a case and not real people. Maybe that sounds harsh. We do care. Immensely. Which is why we do what we do and have been doing it for so long. But getting emotionally involved in these cases would be overwhelming and unhealthy.

We mostly do a great job of keeping emotions in check. The problem is, the tragedy is always there just under the surface and when high profile or especially difficult cases like this one happen, all that emotion that we have kept in check, comes gushing out all over the place.

The past few days have been so difficult that one co-worker suggested we do an impromptu debrief meeting. In a way it will be our own private vigil for Susan, Charlie and Braden Powell. May you rest in peace.

Additionally, there will be a public vigil sponsored by Prevent Child Abuse Utah in Ogden on Thursday. If you're able, please plan to attend. We all need to work to make sure these things stop.

Too blah to blog..

I had a couple ideas for my blog tonight - Like telling you all about the conference call I had with CDC today, or my trip to Whole Foods tonight to get my husband some hummus since he is only eating grains, fruits and vegetables. But when I got home and turned on the news, I heard more about what happened to Susan Powell's children before they died in the fire their father set and I just can't think of anything I can say about whole foods or the CDC that matters in the whole scheme of things. Instead I am going to post a pic that I took today of my friend Anna and her darling bug Addi. Her smile helps me feel tons better.

I'm Not Fat - I'm Just a Little Husky

I have a bed broom. A broom to sweep off all the junk Amaya drops on the bed from her her hairy body. When I change the sheets, I try to keep her off the bed for at least 12 hours. Last night, she was banished from the bed in hopes of keeping my sheets clean for at least one full night. At some point in the night she jumped up without any of us realizing it. I was mad - but how can you stay mad at this cute little sh*@?

A Sinking Feeling

A couple weeks ago I was doing dishes and went to turn the water off at the sink and the handle popped off. When Rodney got home I asked him to fix it but the screw in the handle was corroded and he couldn't fix it. For the past 15 years, I haven't had a squirty thing on my sink - which I HATE. After Rodney's failed attempt at fixing the sink he got online and bought - not only a new kitchen faucet but a sink, faucet, and garbage disposal. I LOVE IT! It even has a soap dispenser!

Thanks again Bubba!

Hannah Date

Hannah took me to get my hair done. After we were done, we were starving so we went out to dinner. I rarely get one on one time with my kids. It was nice just chatting and enjoying each others company. I have great kids - all 6 of them. I love them all very much. So Zach and Kylie -when should we go out?

Sick and twisted

I work with a group of very disturbed, damaged, sick and twisted women. To decorate for halloween, we put tape outlines of ourselves as dead victims of some horrible, injury. We do have a couple of male honorary members. Our Bureau Epidemiologist sits next to our program and he has a birthday coming up on Saturday. Some of our staff decided to decorate his cubicle for his birthday. They also wanted to thank him for all of his work with our program. Nothing our program does is very traditional so "decorating" for his birthday included dolls with speech bubbles thanking Mike for his work in public health.

I work with some non-traditional colleagues. But I adore every one of them. It sure makes going to work more enjoyable.

Earlier, another colleague did a presentation about our program entitled: Top 10 ways to injure yourself or your loved ones. It included information like

1. "Stuff your baby’s crib with soft, fluffy pillows.
• 2/3 of Utah infants who died of SIDS were sleeping in a bed inconsistent national recommendations."

2. Leave your baby alone with your boyfriend. More than half of child homicides result from injuries due to abuse. The biological father or boyfriend of the mother are most often the perpetrators.

3. Who says Grandma doesn’t need all those rugs laying around? Falls are the:#1 cause of injury-related hospitalization and emergency department visits #1 cause of traumatic brain injuries.

4. Take a bunch of pain pills and call us in the morning. Starting in 2006, more Utahns died from poisoning than from car crashes each year.

5. Have your family reunion right next to a stream or pond. Two common drowning scenarios in Utah are:
• Toddlers (ages 1-4) wandering off during a weekend family gathering – with several adults present – and falls into a pool, stream, pond, river, etc.
• Teens swimming with friends at a lake (aka “dumb boy stunts”). Many are “witnessed” drownings, where friends or family members see the victim go under the water and are unable to rescue them.

6. If you ain’t tough enough to take it, don’t play!
• Half (49.5%) of all ED visits for sports/recreation-related concussions in Utah are among children age 10-19.
• Even “getting your bell rung” can be serious. If your brain doesn’t have time to heal, a second – even mild – concussion can be fatal.

7. Belittle, control, and abuse your significant other. If you think abuse is someone else’s problem, think again.
• More than 3,400 men, women, and children entered shelters in FY 10 to escape domestic violence.

8. Strive to obtain as many Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) as possible. ACEs include verbal, physical, or sexual abuse and family dysfunction (e.g., incarcerated, mentally ill, or substance abusing family member; domestic violence; or absence of a parent because of divorce or separation).

In fairness, she did warn them:

*Disclaimer: When you deal with some of the topics we do, you quickly lose all sense of moral boundaries. It’s a coping mechanism. We’re disturbed. We know it.
Please don’t be offended….

A New Doo....

I wait way too long between hairdressing appointments. I wait until I can do NOTHING with it but stick it up in a clip - which I do WAY too often. I made this appointment almost a month ago and as usual, I had waited so long that I wanted something drastic. I told her to cut it all off and paint it red... which she pretty much did. Now its too short to clip and I like it.

I hate my picture taken - hate hate hate it. If I edit to the point you cant really tell its me, I can live with it...lol. Now Warhol knew how to doctor a photo... lol.