Homemade Lotion Bars

My sister has been into using essential oils for a long time, and she's been giving me a few to try when she's almost out of it (so I get partial bottles for free, which is awesome!). We used them when we had the flu--in a diffuser, making it easier to breathe at night. Beyond that, I never really sought out buying them, except for lavender oil for sleeping, and peppermint oil because I liked it.

Anyway, Dave's aunt invited me to a DoTerra class where they talked about the oils and their uses. I'm still not going to spend a lot of money on them, or become a distributor, but I'm starting to see that they have a huge variety of uses. DoTerra is a more expensive company though ($90 for a 1.5 oz of Frankincense??) but my sister gets them a lot cheaper though her company, Butterfly Express ($4 for the same amount of the same oil).

I was browsing through blogs, looking for uses for these oils, and came across a recipe for homemade lotion bars! Three ingredients: beeswax, coconut oil, and shea butter (or cocoa butter). I bought a few ounces of beeswax, already had coconut oil, and found some shea butter at Whole Foods. Melted them down using one part of each, plus some oil. I made lavender, lemon, and peppermint bars. I also used paper baking cups for the molds.

My supplies: beeswax, coconut oil, shea butter, essential oils, and baking cup molds.

The finished product! I think I could find some cuter molds at various thrift stores (Yerington has 3, sometimes 4 thrift stores and Carson City has a lot more) but these work just fine! I'm thinking even tea lite holders could work as molds! I made three different kinds, but what I really wanted was a peppermint bar, and that's what I ended up with.

I did make a pretty good mess in the kitchen while I was melting everything down, mixing in the oils, and pouring the molds, but I just told Dave not to look! I gave a couple bars to one of our neighbors and she said she loves the "thick seriousness" of it...we all have dry hands out here and this has made a huge difference! My cracked fingers healed and my feet are actually soft! Dave's cousin's wife made some whipped body butter with cocoa butter and orange oil so I may have to try that soon.

I got the recipe from Wellness Mama's blog.

Oatmeal's Not Feeling Well

We've been noticing my cat has been peeing on our bed lately! Since that's not a good thing, and since I've noticed her doing that before, in other places, I took her to the vet this morning to see if she had an infection. They had wanted us to bring in a urine sample but Oatmeal was very uncooperative with this, so we went in empty-handed.

She got blood drawn, weighed, inspected head to toe, temperature taken (hiss), ears looked into, and x-rayed. Her results came back: she has an accessed tooth, high glucose, and bladder stones which causes repeat bladder infections.

Next week she goes in to get her tooth extracted and mouth/teeth deep cleaned and hopefully will be good as new!

Park Ranger Blog

I started a new blog, called Park Ranger, Naturalist, Interpreter (interp-ranger.BlogSpot.com). I'm hoping to show what my job is like on a daily basis...not sure if I will really be able to post every single day, but I'm going to try my best! I've got one post up already, but the daily posts will not start until Jan. 1--with our first day hikes! I'm doing a hike at Dayton State Park at a historic mill site, and one at Washoe Lake through the sand dunes. Last year I had about 20 people plus a reporter from the Reno Gazette-Journal, so I'm hoping for a good turn-out this year too!

Ore-crushing mill site in Dayton, near the first place gold was discovered in Nevada.

 

Washoe Lake State Park sand dunes.

Over a year....

I haven't touched my blog in over a year! I'm thinking of starting a park ranger blog, even though I know there are tons out there...but I think it might be fun.

I've been married almost a year now! Dec. 19 is coming up fast :)

I've also been a full time park ranger (interpreter) for over 11 years now! 7 years with Utah State Parks, 4 + with Nevada State Parks! I was a seasonal for 6 summers before that...another season is starting soon and I'm thinking of everything I have to do to get ready for that.

I want to spend more time with my blog. I miss seeing what everyone is up to!

A snowy picture from Washoe Lake State Park

"Kiss the Bride....Again"

Since, May, there hasn't been a whole lot to post about. New job, got engaged...lots of work, frustrations, being tired, driving a lot of miles...about work...so a lot has happened, but I haven't had time or energy to post! ...until now :)

Dave proposed in May, after I got offered a new job. I went back and forth a lot with wedding plans. Dave didn't want a ceremony in front of a lot of people. I didn't either, but still wanted something special with my mom and his mom present. Went back and forth some more, decided no ceremony, just a reception, then a short ceremony with everyone...because I can't leave my friends and family out after everyone comes out for the reception...

My regular days off are Thurs-Sat now that I'm working 10 hour days to save some miles driving to and from work. We stayed at the Peppermill in Reno, and today while we were driving around, we decided to go ahead and get a marriage license. Then, we decided to check out a venue, just to "see." One happened to be available right then, so we decided, why not, and got married!

I wasn't nervous until the minister made us face each other and hold hands. I felt Dave's hands shaking, then decided I was nervous too, and spent the whole time trying not to either cry or start giggling (bad, I know). He felt the same way I guess. Finally we got to the part where we had to repeat after the minister our parts, the "I do," then "kiss the bride." I don't know if they decided to film or take a picture, or if a nervous "peck" wasn't good enough, but then we heard, "kiss the bride again." Okaaaay, make it even more awkward....slightly longer "peck" and then "congratulations!" Put my coat back on, pay, paperwork, and we're on our way as husband and wife! Still a little weird but it works! We called our moms after it was all over, made it "Facebook official," and now we're watching TV/blogging/reading a book (soooo exciting, I know). We've been together for almost 5 years so it's not really that weird, just the new titles are weird.

So anyway I will try to post more often! It totally wasn't planned, and we are still going to do a ceremony and reception in July at Mormon Station in Genoa, but WE'RE MARRIED!!

Do You Like Chinese Food?

I got home from my last day at Fort Churchill and walked up to the door. Taped to the door was a note: "Do you like apples?" Weird. Then I walked in, and there were flowers, a glass of wine, and another note on the table, "How do you like them apples?" Huh. I thought Dave must have been bored all day...

Then he said to go change clothes, because he had rented a movie and got Chinese food. Last time we got Chinese food in Yerington, we both got food poisoning. I wasn't really excited, but he seemed to be, so I changed clothes, came out to the kitchen and he had six containers of food lined up on the counter.

Taped to one of the containers was another note: "Do you like Chinese food?" I opened that container, and inside was a blue box with a diamond ring in it, and a note on the box, "I thought this would be better." I looked at it, looked at Dave...and he was just standing there giggling. I'm thinking, "Is that what I think it is?" Then I said to Dave, "aren't you supposed to ask me something?" He said, "I'm so nervous!" haha it's only been almost 4 years!! So he took the ring and asked me, and I said "sure." (Maybe I was nervous too!) And no, we didn't get food poisoning this time :)

Krista's Wedding (from last summer...)

I realized I never posted pictures from Dave's sister's wedding at Lake Tahoe last summer! Here are a few...it's so pretty up there! It looks like a beautiful day, but it was actually really cold! We drove through snow the day before on the way up to Tahoe.

Pretty cake, pretty view :)

The bride and her dad

I love that they picked Tahoe!

...and Dave and me

New Job :) ...pictures will come soon!

I interviewed for the Park Interpreter job at Washoe Lake State Park last Thursday morning in Carson City, and on Friday afternoon, I got a call from Jenny (the supervisor there) and she offered me the job! Of course I said yes and she wanted me to start right away because very soon she will be going on maternity leave and I need to know a LOT before she leaves. Dave and I were eating lunch in Gardnerville after we walked around the Cowboy Poetry festival in Genoa at Mormon Station. I looked at my phone, saw it was Jenny, and couldn't decide if I really wanted to answer the phone! Dave's like, "What are you doing? Answer it!!!"

I am going back and forth doing both jobs until the 20th--which will be my last day at Fort Churchill! So I'm trying to make it as easy on both of them as I can, which is hard, but I am leading a hike on Sunday at Fort Churchill, then doing a park tour on the 15th (for the administrator, the deputy administrator, and the new accountant at the Division office), and helping with a school group that's bringing 140 kids to the park! Other days I will be at Washoe Lake learning as much as I can!

Thursday (yesterday) was my first day at Washoe with Jenny and it was awesome! Crazy, busy, confusing...and I had to leave for an hour for my school visit in Carson City--I did a talk about Fort Churchill for 90 4th graders in one classroom--then I went back to Washoe until 5:30 and headed home!

Jenny had to meet with the region manager, so for the morning, I wrote receipts and filled out forms for the group use area reservations for her three group use areas, went through the park library, and started reading the park's Master Plan. She manages two parks; the second park is Dayton State Park, in Dayton, NV. It's a much smaller park with a campground, trails to a historic mill site, and a group use area.

The second half of the day she showed me how they do deposits. While she was doing the deposit, the phone did not stop ringing--with a lot of crazy questions I couldn't answer yet--and other employees came in and out for various things. I can already see that it's going to be crazy, but it looks like it will be a lot of fun and seems like a very positive, energetic environment! Of course, I will miss Fort Churchill and all the people there, but I'm very excited for the new job!

Wish me luck :)

Procrastinating

I'm procrastinating...so I'll update my blog! I'm getting a portfolio ready for a job interview on Thursday at 9 a.m. It's only an hour and a half away from Yerington (an extra hour away from my current job). It's for a Park Interpreter at Washoe Lake State Park and Dayton State Park. I think it would be SO AWESOME! ...because it's got really cool history (tied to Virginia City and Fort Churchill, and Lake Tahoe, and the Sierra Nevada...), it's really, really pretty, and I like the people who work there.

I'm SO not good at job interviews, but I'm excited for this one, because it would be a fun job to have--not that I don't already have a cool job, but this would be a little greener, and it's a lake instead of all desert. They have a lot of hiking trails, even a paved bike trail.

Anyway, wish me luck :) :) :)

Lutherans in Yerington

After being here for 2 1/2 years, I finally looked at the schedule for the Lutheran church in Yerington. They have Bible studies Wednesday nights, new member classes on Thursdays, a contemporary service at 4:30 on Saturday afternoons, and a traditional service 8 a.m. on Sundays. I've been to two Bible studies so far on Wednesday nights, and one Saturday afternoon church service. I've missed going to church so I'm glad I finally went. I don't know what made me wait so long to find the Lutheran church here in town, but I'm glad I finally did! The people were very nice, welcoming, and so far I really like the Bible study. I work almost every Sunday, so I won't be able to go to the traditional service very often (which I think I would prefer over the contemporary...) but I'm glad I'm able to go in the first place! :)

Guided Hikes and Reporters...

I'm planning a guided hike this Sunday--four miles round-trip. The Public Information Officer got in touch with a reporter who wanted to do a "preview" of the hike. Our volunteer and I had already been planning to walk the trail and talk about what we were going to do, so we invited the reporter and photographer to come with us and it ended up being a really fun day!

Unfortunately the day they showed up the power was out in the whole park so touring Buckland Station didn't really work out...but the rest of the hike was fine because we were outside the whole time. We hiked from the museum to Buckland Station, where my office is. The power was out so the alarms were going off and I couldn't make them stop completely. The reporter wanted to plug in his phone to charge it but he couldn't do that, and the beeping alarm made it so he couldn't have done any recordings anyway.. Neither the reporter or photographer had brought water, but thankfully I had a couple small bottles in the fridge in my office. They wanted to hurry back so they could charge their equipment to get voice-over recordings for their footage so we took a short cut back.

We ended up sitting in the reporter's truck so the phone could charge and we could get the recordings, which worked out pretty well--it was quiet at least! He called me tonight to say the article was finished and I could look at the video link. I think it turned out really well, and you would never know we had technical difficulties that day! Click here for the video!

Just for fun...

I was out with the camera last night just before dark, walking one of the park's trails...thought I'd share a few "just for fun" pictures I took.

Looking up...

Cottonwood stand in the campground.

Waxing Gibbous Moon (looked it up on earthsky.org)

Parks Academy Pictures

I got an e-mail with a bunch of pictures from the Parks Academy...so now I have a few pictures of me talking in front of lots of people and I don't look scared! (in most of them...)

View of the crowd from the front of the room...

Lots of park rangers, park supervisors, park interpreters, maintenance staff and administrators...and I actually think that's me in front, just to the right of the screen. I looked over at my boss and his friend and they were laughing. Later they told me they were laughing because I'm not much taller than the podium...at least I can make people laugh :)

...and me, standing in front of all of them with a microphone! It ended up being a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be and now I know that speaking in front of a group of people that I know and work with won't kill me after all.

Parks Academy: Part Two

Well, my talk at the Parks Academy went way better than I expected it to! It was Wednesday morning, and it started right around 9:45 a.m. I talked for a solid 1/2 hour (I think) and it seemed like people were paying attention...except a few who were laughing because I wasn't quite tall enough to really be seen over the podium...!

I was really, really, really nervous for the first few minutes. Then I had a skit that I added at the last minute--a law enforcement ranger and a misbehaving park visitor. After that it was like someone flipped a switch. The nerves went away and I started having fun. The chocolate chip cookies I passed around helped a little too...

Anyway the rest of the Academy was fun--good presentations and two field trips that were great. We went to Oatman, AZ. It's a historic mining town sort of like Virginia City, NV with not-so-wild burrows walking around the town looking for handouts. Of course, I had to spend $1 on burrow food (compressed alfalfa)--big mistake! They follow you everywhere and if you ignore them, you get head-butted or bitten. One head-butted my knee so I ended up dumping the rest of the food on the ground for whoever wanted to fight over it. Oops....

The 2nd field trip was to Big Bend of the Colorado State Park and a rock art site close by.

...so I guess that I learned speaking in front of a group of 60+ people I work with won't kill me after all :)

Park Academy

Yay! I get to do a talk in front of 65 park rangers on Wednesday morning at 9:30! (I'm trying to be excited about it...) I can do the talk without my notes right now, I just have to not get nervous and forget everything I've worked on for the past month and a half :)

Parks rented two inmate vans from the Nevada Division of Forestry so we are all carpooling down to Laughlin. They're picking me up in Yerington at 6:45 a.m. and we're supposed to be there by around 4 p.m. I've never been to Laughlin so that part is cool! There are other presenters--it's like a giant staff meeting where everyone gets together every couple years. Because of budget cuts it's been 6 years since the last park academy.

Me talking to a group of Boy Scouts...interpretive program.

 

Me on a full moon hike in the summer...doing interpretation.

 

I'm going to be doing a 30 minute slide show on interpretation--what it is and how to do it. I've got about 60 slides so I'm hoping it should go by pretty fast. Then there is a 15 minute break and I'm breaking everyone up into 8 groups to start developing their own interpretive program with props that I'm going to give them.  There are two of us doing this talk--Dana is going after me with a lot more information about designing interpretive panels, using the sign manual and developing an interpretive plan for each park. My presentation covers the who, what, when, where, why and how of interpretation. This was a surprise too--one day I got an e-mail saying I was a speaker at the academy and "here's the agenda!" haha

 

I'm always nervous before a presentation like this--mostly because it's people I know! So wish all of us presenters luck!! (I need it!)

Lake Tahoe with the Fam

Around the middle of July, my step parents, Norm and Judy, came to visit. They stayed at Lake Tahoe for a week and I took 6 days off work to stay with them and sight-see. Dave had to work for a few of those days, but then he joined us for the weekend. It was great being up in the mountains while the temps in the valley reached 106 and 107!! Of course the day I had to drive back down the mountain it was 106 and then 107 the next day at work...I could have stayed up there!

My first time ever swimming in Lake Tahoe!! The water was awesome...and so clear!!

Hanging out on the beach...

For a park ranger, I have really, really white legs!

Spent some time at the Tallac Historic Site. We were surrounded by these fancy old estates and other buildings--what do we take pictures of? The cute chipmunks!

Dave joined us for a dinner cruise for their 15th anniversary on the Tahoe Queen. Good dinner, great views and live music!

Short Update

I can't write long today but I realized it's been a LONG time since I posted last! Work's going pretty well, keeping me busy...and recently it's been decided that we all need to learn Spanish so I've been having fun with that. I took Spanish in Jr. High and high school, but that's about it. I tried to learn German while working at Dead Horse Point, and that was fun, but haven't really done anything here language-wise. We have online classes and I ordered CDs from the library so that should help. So far I'm up to 3 hours online.

I've been at this job almost 2 years now (wow!) and have lost about 15 pounds!!!!! I've got 5 more to go before I can celebrate losing 20 pounds and getting back (almost) to my pre-Dave weight...but I finally can fit into a size 6 again--Dave finally made me go shopping and get some clothes that aren't baggy on me. Soon I will be able to post a picture--once I learn to use his computer to post pictures on here!

We're going to his sister's wedding this weekend at Lake Tahoe and I managed to get 4 days off work for it--so excited!

Vernal

Because of scheduling at work, I ended up working 9 days in a row and being off four. I thought it was perfect for a quick trip to Vernal. It takes 12 hours to drive to Vernal, UT from Yerington,NV so I decided to fly.

Tuesday morning, I got up early, drove to Reno, parked in the long-term parking and got on the plane! It's only an hour and a half flight from Reno to Salt Lake and then my sister and mom picked up and drove the 3 hours back to Vernal.

 

I asked my sister to stop at the overlook just before we went down the hill into Vernal....This is a view of Split Mountain in Dinosaur National Monument.

 

My nieces were happy to see me! This is Brianna and I having fun with our sunglasses!

 

More Brianna! She's 4 and belongs to my sister! Her sister Emily had fun hanging out too, but she was in her last week of school before summer vacation started.

 

The trip was over much too soon, but it was great to spend a few days at home seeing my mom, hanging out with my sister and watching Star Wars with my friend Stacy. There were a lot more people I wanted to see, but without a vehicle and more time, it didn't happen this time!





Busy!

I've really been neglecting my blog! I keep thinking about posting, but by the time I get off work and run (or sit down to read or watch TV) I don't want to do anything!

I keep thinking that after this Thursday, things can slow down enough to concentrate on some other things! I have a presentation for a grant at work (a BIG grant for trail work) and a school visit in Carson City for 100 4th graders all in one day!

The grant is for new interpretive signs along our hiking trails and also to take out two old toilets, replace one toilet and put a new one in at the Orchard (day use area). I got to learn all about matching funds and what it actually takes to remove and replace vault toilets! All I really wanted was to replace the signs along the trail and line it, so it's easy to follow. Our volunteer and I did a lot of work last spring to get the trail looking good, but it needs a lot more work, and new signs to replace the missing ones, broken/faded ones and the ones with swear words etched into them! The grant required 20% matching funds which includes pre-project planning and volunteer time, among other things so I had to figure in the amount of volunteers and their time, that it will take to get this project finished in the next two years. Thursday I have a 10-minute presentation to go along with the application. I was told to make it "pretty, snappy and very specific to the project." I think I've done that! Now all I have to do is learn the slide show well enough to do a good talk, and it's over! Still no idea if we'll get any money but it's been a VERY good learning experience!

Dave and I took a short trip to Monterey, CA last month to just get away for a few days. I'll have to post pictures of that trip soon.  A friend and I also did the Hidden Cave Tour in Fallon a couple weeks ago. I'll post pictures of that too...but not in the next couple days!

My friend Wendy is coming to visit, and I'm hoping to make a quick-trip to Utah later this month because my nephew just got home from his 2nd or 3rd tour in Afghanistan for the Army.

I also found out that my friend Cherie lives about 4 hours away in Yosemite National Park, so I will need to visit her.  Another friend is moving to Sacremento, which is only a couple hours away, just over the Sierras! So I will have to visit her too....plus I started a garden. 

I only have tomatoes, strawberries, kale and parsely so far, until we have a space in the ground for everything. Then I will plant heirloom tomatoes, jalapeno peppers and hopefully rosebushes and phlox.

No More Wine...(for a while)

I'm not Catholic...I'm Lutheran...but we give up stuff for Lent too. All winter I've been drinking too much wine. I LOVE red wine but it seems to kill any motivation I have for working out and doing things after work. I decided to start working out finally, and didn't drink wine for over a week (a week before Lent started). I decided to keep it going through Lent and take up jogging, even if it's a few times a week after work, on the treadmill. The very 1st day I jogged 2 miles and walked for a 1/2 mile to cool down. I still felt good, but my feet were numb and I knew I was going to be sore the next couple days.

Now I'm up to jogging 3 miles and still walking 1/2 mile to cool down and rest my muscles. I started lifting weights (light ones) and doing push-ups and sit-ups. So far so good! One month into it and I think I've lost...one pound!

Today I bought Dave a bottle of wine and we watched Wreck-it Ralph. I didn't drink any of it but it smelled good! We're both trying to be healthier and I think it's working! Let's see if we can keep it up...