It is November 5.  The first snow of the season has arrived.  It is so beautiful!  I am sitting here in my living room enjoying the soft fluffy flakes as they feather to the ground.  The sky is so close to the trees that it looks like it is a ceiling and the earth has compacted into the single room of my neighborhood.  Things are muted outside--it isn't as noisy and chaotic as it usually is.  My daughter asked me this morning why it was quieter when it stormed.  I think it has something to do with the clouds being so low and not allowing the sound waves to vibrate so much but I don't know for certain.  I just know that I like it.

It is nice to be in a climate that has 4 distinct seasons.  There are still yellow and red leaves on some of the trees but the trees in our yard are all bare.  The nice part about this week's weather is that it is suppose to get warm again later in the week so maybe the snow will melt and then it will come again next week-end.  Today is definately a day that I don't want to go out and drive in.  I think I will just enjoy the snow from my window!

It has been a long time since I've written anything.  Life has changed a lot.  I am no longer working for Val.  She was not following her physician's directions regarding her meds and I was afraid that she would be dead one morning when I went in to work.  Her living situation was always precarious because she didn't ever know who was going to help her once I left and I felt that I was totally responsible for her care.  It was more than I was willing to deal with.  Fortunately for her, she has found someone that can care for her during the day and someone to stay with her through the night so she is doing well.  I still call and we talk and visit but I just didn't want the responsibility---especially when she wasn't doing her part.  I think it will work well this way.  I am trying to have the faith that I need that Heavenly Father will help me find another job before the time runs out and I find myselt living on the street.

 We also had a difficult day yesterday.  We have had a beautiful golden lab-retriever in our home for almost 2 years.  However, things weren't working out the way I wanted them to and so when he ran away and the dog pound caught him, I decided it was time for him to have a new home.  So we took him down to the humane society and surrendered him yesterday.  He was so beautiful.  He was a very gentle dog but also high maintanance so I am glad that he's gone.  Hopefully, someone will be able to adopt him that will be able to let him run.  We took him to the humane society because there was a greater chance of his being adopted before they put him to sleep.  Here's hoping. . .  I hate not knowing for sure what happened to him!!!!!!

I forgot---I have been working for 2 weeks as a personal attendent to a disabled lady.  She is awesome and my job is totally what I have been looking for.  While I would much prefer the honor of a secretarial job, this one fits my personality and allows me to be of servvice and to give of myself.  It is exactly what is best for me.  I am so grateful for the guidance of Heaven to have found this opportunity!

Well, it has been a few days since writing last.  In the interim, I have created a blog for my grandchildren to visit where they can get to know Grandma a little better.  I have named it Grandma Barker's Attic.  I hope that I can create something that will attract their attention and give them a desire to visit often.  It is a fun exercise!

I have also just returned from St. George, Utah where I had the great opportunity of seeing Les Miserables at Tuachan.  I have loved the movie version of this great classic for many years.  I finally convinced my daughter that it was something she might like and now there are two of us that love it.  But she has taken it a step further.  She knows alot about Les Miserables.  She is 200 pages short of completing the unabridged version of the English translation of Hugo's masterpiece.  She has 4 different recordings of various productions and she understands the subplots that Hugo was writing about.  Further, she knows about the dress styles of the period and whether they are authentic or not.  It was so much fun to be able to be with her and see her enjoyment of this play.

Some of the cast was from the Broadway production.  A lot of it was from local and regional talent but it was so outstanding.  Being able to watch the scenes, the acting and the music all together made the story more complete.  We had listened to the Broadway cast, the London cast, the Dream cast and watched the 10-year anniversary dvd but there was still something fresh and magical about watching it live in person on stage.  It was so awesome.  

The stage at Tuachan was breath-taking.  It is an out-door theater.  St. George will reach the low 100 degree mark during the day so I was a bit worried about the heat but the show started at 8:30.  By then, the sun was behind the red cliffs that encircle the city and the shadows provided a bit of relief from the heat.  During the battle scenes of the revolution, there were cannons positioned up among the hills and the natural backdrop became part of the stage.  It was so convincing!  It was great.  The show was professional in every way.  It was so much fun to enjoy a magical evening at the theater with my daughter.  It was great!

 Well!  It seems that my life of retirement is about to come to an end.  For the last 2 years I have been able to live on my husband's survivor death benefits but those are about to run out.  It makes me sad to have to return to the work force.  I have loved being home and doing what I want to do.  It has also been difficult because I have never really discovered what I wanted to be when I grow up.  So. . .  While it isn't the most glamorous job, I think I will probably work as a home health aide.  I like being able to help those that can't help themselves.  I find that I am more patient with them because I know that they are vulnerable and they need someone to watch out for them and protect them.  It is something that I have done in the past and that I have enjoyed and that is important, too.  So. . .  here's to returning to work.  I'm off so wish me luck!

Well!  Our trip to Yellowstone turned out to be just what I wanted it to be.  It was a great time to be able to create memories with my kids.  And we saw a lot of stuff that I hadn't seen when I was growing up.  It stimulated an interest to come home and research on the internet the geology of the park.  It was quite interesting.  While my kids went on a hike, I was able to wait for them at Krystal Falls.  I timed some of the geysers; Old Faithful isn't the only geyser that goes off on schedule.  There seems to be a cycle that some of these wonders follow.  It was great to sit and watch.  I loved it.

We were also able to see 3 bears---one up in a tree that just looked like a black blob---it was really hard to see.  Then we found one in a dead wood stand and the third one was in the higher elevations on the way to Mommouth Spring.  When we got to Mammoth, there were elk all over.  They enjoyed the grass of the residents that lived there.  The residents had learned to live with their natural neighbors by putting up a chicken wire fence around their trees---about 6 feet up and 5 feet out from the tree so the elk couldn't strip the bark or eat the leaves.  I wished that I could have an elk in my yard; then I wouldn't have to mow the grass!

We also got high enough that there was still substantial snow on the ground.  Amazing---in June!  There were still drifts along the road that looked to be close to 2 feet deep.  One of the camp grounds was still closed and had drifts 5+ feet deep.  I knew from my childhood that the park "closed" in August because of the snow but I hadn't seen this part of the park before.  It was great!  I would love to be able to take a snow trip into Old Faithful during the winter.  It seems like it would be so much fun!

We enjoyed the rivers and meadows that support the buffalo.  We also enjoyed the majesty of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.  There was so much to see and to appreciate!  It was a great experience.  I am so glad that my kids could go with me!

I learned long ago that I enjoyed the computer but I'm learning anew that unless you are well educated in how to work with them, trying to do the advanced things on your own will bite you every time!  I have an old computer that I was trying to wipe clean and reinstall Windows 98.  I got it wiped clean and reinstalled but part of the process required that I have an authenicity code and I don't have one so my computer is now useless.  I am so frustrated.  If anyone has any suggestions, I would love to hear it! 

You would think that I would have learned better after deleting a necessary part of another computer system.  Upon taking it to a repair shop to have windows reinstalled, they shorted out my mother board and I had to buy a complete new CPU!  Fortunately for me, I don't need this computer that I have messed up today but it sure does frustrate me!

My daughter and I went to the Scottish Festival/Highland Games yesterday.  It was so much fun!  We enjoyed the actual games as we watched the pole toss and the men throwing the 56 pound weight (I don't remember the offical names of the events  ) and listened to the band competition.  It was great.  We were able to find our tartan and enjoyed many folks wondering about in period clothing.  While the weather was definately summer, we didn't stay long enough to wear ourselves out.  There was so much activity to observe and so many colorful people to watch.  I hardly knew where to stay focused for fear that I would miss something somewhere else.  It was really a great time.  It is something that we enjoy doing.  It helps me remember my cultural heritage and helps me appreciate all that my ancestors went through so that I can have the life that I enjoy so much!  I am truly fortunate!

One of the fun things that we do is just jump on a road and see where it takes us.  We usually don't have a map so we try to be sure that we are on state roads that pass through towns frequently enough for us to gas up when needed.  So this afternoon, after an unsuccessful job interview, my daughter and I decided to go on an "adventure."  We headed up the canyon behind Kennecott Copper Mine.  Let me tell you, it was way exciting!  There were switch-backs and roads that were only one lane.  The road climbed very quickly and the cliffs were a long way down!  My daughter was glad that she was on the mountain side rather than the cliff side.  However, looking out over the gourge was breath-taking!  Eventually we got high enough that the clouds were sitting on the car.  We could put our hands out and touch the clouds.  It was so awesome!  They were cool and wet. 

On one switch-back a car came around the corner pretty fast and we were very glad that we were going slow!  It took a few minutes for our hearts to slow down!  We went around the last switch-back and suddenly found ourselves at the top of the mountain.  We didn't want to go back down the way we had come because it was so winding and narrow.  Fortunately for us, there were 3 young men that were getting ready to go for a day hike and they told us that we could continue on a road they pointed out that would take us back to the valley and to Tooele.  By the time we got down the mountain, my daughter said that I looked pretty frazzeled. 

But the scenery was so beautiful!  There were trees so thick that we couldn't see through them.  They were green and lush and so many different shades of green!  I was afraid that the clouds would be thick enough that I wouldn't be able to see that road and that would have been disasterous because there was no room for mistakes but they were thin enough that we were fine.  The lower we got on the mountain, the thiner they got, until we could just see them sitting on the mountain tops.  It was an exciting afternoon to be able to find a way over the mountain instead of around it.  However, I believe that it is probably much faster to go around and certainly not as hair-raising.  For an adventure it was great fun but I don't think that I would suggest it for a daily commute!

My family and I are going to Yellowstone within the month!  We used to go to Yosemite frequently until we moved to Utah.  Now we are looking for a new favorite place to go.  While I went to Yellowstone when I was a child, it has been years and years and years since I've been so if there are any suggestions as to what to see or do while there, it would be great to hear from you.

We are also going to see Les Mis in St. George this summer.  It is so much fun to plan and then save for these little jaunts.  I want my children to have good memeories of their summers off and still be able to afford them.  Sometimes, on a fixed income, that can be a bit of a challenge but I've learned that things generally work out if you are careful!