Tender Mercies

If you haven't read this talk about tender mercies from LDS General Conference, you should. Yesterday, I experienced a tender mercy of my very own. I have a friend who works in the lab next to mine who is Greek Orthodox and a very devout Christian. He is probably one of the most spiritual people I know. Anyway, yesterday I was talking with him about something and he told me exactly what I needed to hear. I know this only happened for two reasons: 1. He is spiritually in tune and prepared to do the right thing when prompted by the Spirit 2. God loves me and wanted me to remember something important. I just wanted to say that I am very grateful for the tender mercies that God gives us and I hope I can continue to recognize them when they happen.

Attack!

Cute looking, huh? This is a chow chow. Cuddly, fuzzy looking dog. I was taking care of this kind of dog for a friend who has been in the hospital for several months. At least that was until last Tuesday (Sept 29th) when it attacked me. After looking this dog up on the internet, it looks like it is prone to aggression unless "properly socialized." I guess it hadn't been. Everywhere I looked seemed to indicate that the dog needed some TLC (as I am sure all dogs do, but some more then others) to be properly trained and that they were wary of strangers, etc. Well, my friend was gone a lot and I highly doubt he took the time and energy to "properly socialize" the dog. He may not have even known how to. Now the dog thinks it is abandoned by it's owner and I think he is just going crazy. Anyway, unless you know what you are doing, don't get this breed of dog. Please. Don't go there unless you have a lot of experience. (Which apparently I don't.)

Anyway, getting attacked by a dog is terribly frightening. I'm not talking about getting bit, I mean getting attacked. Getting bit is when the dog chomps down on you once and then runs away or something. Getting attacked is when they come back at you over and over with the intent to draw blood. Frightening. Luckily, I was wearing Doc Martens, we were outside, and I was standing near the door into the house. So I was able to fend him off by kicking him with my honking shoes until I got inside and slammed the door in his face. By then I had been bit on my forearm, hand, and knee (although I didn't even realize my knee was injured until much later) and I was bleeding all over the place. Adam was in class and didn't answer my phone call, so I managed to call my in-laws who only live about 5 miles away. I think all I said was something like, "I was bit by the dog and I think I'm in shock." I continued to bleed all over the house until they got there. All of them. I was just expecting my father-in -law and maybe my mother-in-law too, but the two teenage kids they have at home came as well. It made me feel loved, and they did a great job helping out. So, here is my tribute to Tara and Zac who were especially wonderful:

Tara came into the house and immediately found a job for herself. She became in charge of calling Adam and letting him know I was at the ER. She was on top of it and as soon as she took over that responsibility, I knew that eventually Adam would show up and I didn't worry about it for another instant.

Zac came and was helping out. Happy to be there and offering moral support. It wasn't until the next day that I realized this all happened on his birthday. No complaints, not even a mention of "this is kind of a crappy way to spend a birthday." Just there helping me out, no thought of himself. What a guy.

OK, well I am doing much better now. Some of my tendons are still stiff, but I only notice that because I've just done so much typing. The pain is gone and I am healing. Soon I will have forgotten the whole incident, which is why I decided I better blog about it now!

Fortnight

I have so much to do in lab over the next two weeks. It's going to be crazy. I need to plan something to do at the end of it so I have something to look forward to. I usually find that's the best way to get through a hectic time. Any suggestions?

Adam's adventures

My husband has taken up exploration. Especially what he calls "urban exploration." He goes into old buildings and under-ground drainage systems of cities and takes photos. I think he's a little young to already have had a mid-life crisis, but what do I know? The thing is he's hooked. Completely hooked. If we drive by anything that looks interesting, we absolutely have to stop and at least "scope out" the place. It's almost like there is no choice in the matter; some unknown force compels us to stop the car and give notice to places that everyone else seems to be able to just ignore. I have mixed feelings about the whole thing, not that it matters. He's going to do it anyway. I do worry that he is going to get hurt, but he tries to be as careful as one can be exploring a condemned building. I have kindly informed him that if he kills himself doing something stupid, I will never forgive him. Not for all eternity. I refuse to become a widow due to something stupid and preventable. I'm not sure if this makes him more cautious, but I sure hope it does! I must admit that he does take some pretty neat photos. If you are interested, check out his flicker account here.

Glacier National Park, Montana

Here are some more photos from our trip. These ones are all during our family reunion at Glacier Park. We did a lot of hiking, and it was beautiful!

Several of us went on a long hike one of the last days we were there. My brother John packed his daughter the entire way. What a stud!

You can see lots of mountain goats if you hike in the right places.

Alberta

OK, so I promised a few photos from my vacation in July. I'm just going to do the part where we were in southern Alberta right now. My mom grew up in Cardston, Alberta so I grew up going to many of these places and they hold a special spot in my heart!

These photos are of the one-room Chief Mountain School house, where my grandma was the the teacher for a little while-- probably in the late 1930's.

Here I am at the top of Bear's Hump in Waterton park.

One of the few remaining old style grain elevators in the area.

Adam hiking up Red Rock Canyon in Waterton.

If you want to see more and are friends with me on Facebook, Adam posted a ton of photos for me on my profile!

Crazy Summer

Well, it's been a crazy summer. In mid-June my co-advisor Craig got seriously ill and was admitted to the hospital. He had an infection called necrotizing fasciitis. He lost his left leg to right above the knee and nearly died. Luckily, he has pulled through the worst of it and is on his way to recovery. His only immediate family are his sister and parents who live in Toronto. Since we are quite close and I live near him, I have been doing a lot of the "family" type work that needs to be done when someone is taken suddenly away from their normal life and ends up hospitalized like that--plus there are still months of recovery ahead. Needless to say, it has been a bit of an emotional roller-coaster and at times physically and/or emotionally exhausting. That in combination with the fact that I just don't seem to know what to blog about can explain my long absence from posting. However, I did get away to take a fun trip with my family where we visited southern Alberta and then swung down to Glacier National Park in Montana. I have some fun photos and will try to post some of those later, but for now I have to finish up some lab work and then go home and get ready to fly to Phoenix where Adam's brother is getting married on Friday. Yea for Seth and Janette!