Common Sense

This weekend, we took a break. A break from the media that is! I didn't realize how relaxing life has really been for awhile until all of the hype - political and financial of the past few weeks has just become all-consuming!! If you turn on the TV or read the news on the internet that is. Did you know the world is ending tomorrow and the Gadianton has control over the government? True story. No worries here. I actually woke up the other morning and my heart was just racing and "Come Come Ye Saints" was going through my head!-- I was seriously stressed! it is craziness! I was lieing there thinking about what I am going to do when Mark gets drafted and dies and all of our insurance policies end up being worthless so I have to provide for my five children in some way and my degree in English just isn't going to be enough - (since our house and business were no longer worth anything). Good stuff. Take a deep breath! I called my good ole Dad who has recently lost a nice chunck of retirement and he reassured me that we still have about 50 acres in Idaho Falls that we can farm since no one is buying right now. Thank goodness for common sense! Phew~ that's a load off!

So, Friday the kids were out of school and since Mark was off and we were tired of worrying about things we have absolutely no control over, we made a pact not to look at the internet for a day and we took a little drive around Lake CDA to find a couple of places we have wanted to check out since we moved here 8 years ago! They are two little towns on the East side of lake CDA. Harrison (population 247) and St. Marys. On our way to Harrison, we stopped at this gas station that had a cool little country store inside- this picture simply doesn't do it justice. It was on a cliff overlooking the lake with a picnic area and just immacculately kept. Anyhow, we stopped for some snacks and some pictures.

It's amazing how much fun just circling a fire pit can be! Who needs Disneyland? Who can afford Disneyland?! Then on to Harrison where we found the neatest little park with a pretty view overlooking the lake. The kids played there with me for over an hour while Mark and Abe walked up the main drag of Harrison which consisted of a couple of shops. One of the shop owners was actually smoking in his store! Either he didn't get the memo, or he wasn't really expecting customers - or, martial law is in force in Harrison! Mark and Abe actually had fun talking to him because he liked rock collecting and knew of some good places to go.

Ben was quite fascinted by this little bear that he seemed to think was real. At first he was ready to go head to head with the bear - "you want some a this?!", then it seemed to get on his good side, so he was trying to feed it acorns - nice little bear.

After Harrison, we drove another 20 minutes to St. Mary's, which is literally 10 times as big - population 2047 or there abouts. We drove through town, assessed our dining options and went to a tiny little drive in for some dinner. I have to give my kids credit for the most well behaved dining in a public place ever. Good job kids. I think they were fascinated by other diners (I have a feeling some of them had never been out of St. Marys!) We had a good adventure with cultural diversity of a different nature.

The accomplishment of the day for me was figuring out how to use the automatic timer on my camera! See? No worries here! Did I mention the cash I am stashing under my matress? But why will it matter when our currency has no more value.....