A reason to moisturize...

Do you see this? This is the pumpkin Alex and I carved a week ago. If Utah weather can do this to a pumpkin in a week, what has it been doing to my skin for the past 10 months? I'm going to look like I'm 58 by the end of the year. A few posts back I talked about the good things Utah has to offer, here are a few things I'm still getting used to...

1) Bad hair. You can get amazing haircuts and lots of great products, but after a day in Utah - your hair is guaranteed to look like junk. Flat on top and static flyaway hairs everywhere else. My days of cute hair are over.

2) VERY dry skin. As you can see from Exhibit A (my no longer cute pumpkin), Utah weather has a way of sucking every bit of moisture from every pore of your body. Moisturizing is a mandatory, multiple times a day requirement.

3) Bugs on steroids. We have an abundance of bugs and they are much larger and creepier than any of the bugs I remember from home. There's no such thing as a cute little anything here... unless your talking babies, which are also in rich supply.

4) The things people say. There are a few words and phrases that must have originated here in Utah. Initially they struck me as being kind of funny... Like "Oh my heck!" or "Fetch". I don't know if it's a Utah thing or an LDS thing. What the heck is "Oh my heck"?

5) Driving. Driving can be a bit of an adventure; a very dangerous adventure if you're not ready to hit the brakes, changes lanes or speed up at a moment's notice. I'm certain they must offer offensive driving courses in their schools. California gets the bad rap, but Utah's got them beat. (Unfortunately I've become a "Utah driver"... it's my survival instinct kicking in.)

Again, this all comes down to me refusing to adapt, but now that I've outed myself on the Internet, I can move on.

All in all, this has been a very good week. We both enjoyed quality visits from our parents this last week.

While my Mom was here, she helped with the duties of the house. Every day I'd get home and she'd have a different thing she'd taken care of - dishes, dinner, laundry, cleaned the bathroom. When my Dad arrived on Friday, he was Mr. Fix-It until he left Saturday - he checked out my car and fixed a few things in the house that were in need of some attention. Thank you Mom and Dad - you have no idea how nice it was to have the extra help.

Alex spent time with his Dad over the weekend to do "the manly bonding". On Saturday they met up with Steve's brothers, Brion and Ed for some boating. Originally they wanted to water ski, but the water was way too cold, so they opted for Plan B, fishing! Throughout the weekend Alex was able to discuss some things he's been struggling with and now he's feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the world with his new found perspective. His Dad has a very calming spirit and was kind enough to share it with us when he came. Hopefully we can keep it here for awhile. Thanks, Steve!