I was able to drive with my sister Kelly Foster to our annual Sister's Reunion. This year it was held in Spring Branch, Texas. So... en-route, Kelly and I decided to do a miniature temple trip as well. Pictures are in order of when we visited.
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Today, I took in a session with my niece Mary Anne Thomas. She lives in Henderson and I was taking a class at the 2016 World of Concrete. Though I had been in this temple for Mary Anne and Charles wedding, I had never done an ordinance. So, now that I have, I can check this one off my list! Other fun photos from my trip:
I did it, and in the end, it wasn't that scary. First, I have to say that knowing I am about to do something scary, and knowing I'm not backing out no matter what, really helped me be calm through the whole experience. It was a completely different mind set than I have ever had before. My nephew Jeff recommended the place, Mt. Herman in the redwood forest above Santa Cruz, California. Knowing I only had a few days left in Cali before the rainy season, I called for the next available time. As luck would have it, Halloween wasn't booked solid and Douglas and I were able to go the very next day. Our appointment was for 12:30, but we are early risers and decided to leave at 6:00 AM. We spent the first few hours of our day wondering the beach of Santa Cruz. I can't remember the last time I was able to wear short sleeves on Halloween and not be cold. The weather was perfect! I was surprised to find out that others in my tour group were actually more frightened than myself. That is usually never the case. While riding the zip line, I discovered that the experience felt much like riding a roller coaster, and I LOVE roller coasters. To get to the final leg of the journey, we had to walk across a suspended bridge. Since I knew I would never pass that way again, I challenged Douglas to walk across with out holding on to the cables WE DID IT! Scary thing for 2015 in the box. Bring it on 2016!!!!
I did the Bubble Run in Everett this year. It's a 5k that takes you through 5 sets of bubble machines. The first gate has no color, but the remaining four machines stain your clothes red, green, blue and yellow. Andrew went with me. He did the "run" and I did what I call more of a "jog/walk." Fabulous Day!! It only took me 45 minutes to get through the course. I know that doesn't break any records, but at least I was still alive at the finish line! While visiting my family, Chris and Holly Aylstock, I was able to attend a session in the Rexburg Temple. It was beautiful and serene, just what I needed after a long drive. The reason for my visit was to see my newest grandniece Cheyanne get blessed. So of course, Melissa and Roger came up from Texas as well. It was a great visit.
2017 Report: It is December 28th. I weigh 154 right now, but started a diet yesterday. For the better part of the year, I was under my goal weight. The stress of the last few months kicked in and now I have to scale back.
2016 Report: Today, February 28th, I jumped on the scales and I finally saw the number 3 as my second numeral in my weight!! I am trying to get to as low as I can in the next two weeks because I am going on vacation and need all the wriggle room I can get. 2015 Report: I was good for most of the year. Crept up again around Christmas time. It's January as I type this and I'm doing the 21 Day Fix to lose it. It is a portion control method of weight loss. 2014 Report: I tried really hard to do this, but alas, I got up to 155 lbs at one point. The good news is that Mandolin married Gary in November of this year and so I had real motivation to take it off. I didn't want to be that heavy in all the pictures! My method was slow but sure. I cut out flour and sugar. The only substitutes I allowed for white sugar was agave nectar or coconut sugar. And the only bread I would eat was sprouted wheat because it doesn't have flour in the recipe. I was able to loose a pound a week and attending the wedding at 145 pounds. Here's the proof... I know, I know. It took me until almost the last day of the year to get this one done. Andrew and I woke up early to make the trip. Before we even left the driveway, Andrew checked to make sure he had his temple recommend. He did. But the problem was it had just expired. so he had to choose to either stay home or come along for the ride anyway. Luckily for me, he came along.
Afterwards, I changed into my whites and went to sit in the celestial room. It was the most peaceful time I have ever spent in a celestial room. Not a single soul was in the room; this had never happened to me in all the years I have been attending. And the room was so quiet. I couldn't even hear any furnace going, though I am sure it must have been. The silence made me think of Douglas and how much he would have loved to film in this room because of the lack of ambient noise. On the way home, Andrew and I stopped for a snack in a Canadian convenience store before heading to the border. Crossing back into the United States at 11:00 AM was not a pleasant experience. We waited in the long line of cars for an hour and forty minutes before our turn to show our identification at the booth. But he kept speaking, looking for the correct word to use so I would understand. When he hit upon the word 'recommend,' I immediately knew what he meant. The strangest part of it all was that he wanted to see my recommend. I couldn't refuse, and there would be no reason not to give it to him.
After a moment of inspecting the card, he queried about the signatures. I told him that yes indeed, two people needed to sign the recommend before I would be allowed entrance into the temple. His curiosity satisfied, he let us back into the USA. I hope not to take so long in 2015 to visit one temple I have never been inside. Look out Boise, you're my next closest! It's been a long road, but I finally made it. My business, Danasco LLC, is now officially a certified Women's Business Enterprise (WBE). Along with this certification came another one known as the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) which works on the federal level.
With these certifications, I can begin working my original business model, which is to bid on as many government funded public work projects as possible. They pay more than the private sector and project listings can be found online. Another bonus is that general contractors seek you out because they have to meet the mandated federal goal of using minorities on the job site. See my blog post "Just Boots" for more details of each hike. September 5, 2014 - One down, 9 more to go. I didn't choose this hike, it chose me. Rattlesnake Ledge had fabulous vistas! May 26, 2015 - Went 11 miles round trip to see a lighthouse at the end of Dungeness Spit. June 2016 - Hiked Mt. Lassen with the Fosters and Aylstocks. This is the stuff dreams are made of—literally. Or in my case, nightmares. In Tukwila, Washington I went to a place called iFLY which allowed me to experience what most people call "the exhilarating, weightless sensation of skydiving." All without having to leap from great heights. For me though, it did require some nerves of steel as the sensation of free falling was a terrifying thought. Thus, it was one of my Bucket List items to do this decade.
In fact, I hadn't planned on doing my first scary thing from the list when I woke up Thursday morning. I was going to take a hike. You know, something safe where I could keep both feet on the ground. But Doug convinced me that it was my day to fly, seeing how it was August already and I hadn't done my "scary thing" yet this year. Time was wasting. Before being allowed to take your first flight, training is involved, which consists of watching a video and learning hand signals. Once leaving the training room, I stepped up to an counter that reminded me of a roller skating rink. I was provided with a special one piece jump suit that had built in handles on the outside, a helmet, goggles and a set of earplugs. If I hadn't already been wearing lace up shoes, those would have been provided as well. I was told to remove all jewelry and anything from my pockets. The force is so strong in the tunnel I was told, that it could suck the cell phone from back jean pocket, travel up the backside of my jump suit and get sucked out into the atmosphere, never to be seen again. If it could do that to my cell phone, why on earth was I paying good money and walking into this storm on my own free will? As luck would have it, I was chosen to fly first. Timidly I crept into the chamber waiting room with much trepidation; the rest of the 3:52 PM flight team right behind me. This was no simple matter. I knew I was heading into a wind tunnel that had four turbo fans located at the top of the building, two facing one direction and the other two the opposite direction. This created two air-flows that came together and met in the middle. There was an inlet contractor that condensed and compressed the air, which created a nice, clean air column in which I was to be put inside to fly. The wind can travel up to speeds of up to 160 miles an hour. Each flyer has a personal guide while inside the tunnel. Mine was Spencer, a fun loving guy who has clocked over 5,000 hours. Spencer told me to gently lean into the wind through the door. Then I was to burst into my flight position, which he said was like making a really big letter X with my body to create as much surface space as possible. I don't think I have ever been so happy to weigh as much as I do now seeing how surface space was now suddenly so important to have. Spencer said he was only there to keep me horizontal while suspended in the 100 mile an hour plus winds. Spencer informed me if I didn't stay calm, and wiggled too much, I could inadvertently go shooting straight up the tunnel and end up like those cell phones! Holy Crap! What was I doing? I had paid for two sessions, each of a one minute duration, and my first 60 seconds of terror was about to begin. Surprisingly, I was able to stay calm. Another way of looking at it is I was "scared straight." I was literally too frightened NOT to do exactly as I was told...lean in and burst out. The picture shown here was taken during my second session, one in which I was able to actually sustain myself in flight without Spencer holding onto the handle bars of my flight suit the entire time. Notice I even have a smile on my face at this point. You can enter the wind tunnel without a guide once you have more training and pass a few tests. By the way, I have already purchased my next flight passes to do just that. |
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