Heather's Harmony

saturday snapshot: Adding adventure to road trips that can easily be over looked!

2012-02-25T09:23:00-07:00

Other than just visiting the four states at the monument I thought it would be fun to take a photo with each state sign. Once again, the self timer on my camera was extremely useful and we got lots of fun and silly shots!

Above: myself, Brittany, Emily and Nate

I think this was all of our first time in New Mexico and this sign is actually right at the entrance to the Four Corners Monument.

This photo below might be my very favorite one of them all! I had the self timer set to take 7 consecutive photos and that way we were guaranteed at least one good photo and here I was caught completely in mid-air. AWESOME!

You would think we have some really great tunes in the backgroud that we are dancing and getting inspiration from, but no, we're dance to our own beat :)

Between all the border crossings we could never find an Arizona state sign. Either our eyesight failed us or Arizona failed us but either way that wasn't going to stop us. We stopped on teh Utah-Arizona border and made our very own sign! Clever, no?

I was hesitant to ask my friends if they were willing to make all the stops, but they were all for it and it ended up being pretty fun and a good break to get out of the car and we got pretty creative with it. I would highly recommend it for any road trip!

Four Corners Monument

2012-02-24T08:33:00-07:00

We left Friday after work, spent the night at my parents house, shopped for rocks in Moab, enjoyed the scenic desert drive we finally arrived at Four Corners Monument, open until 5PM and costs $3 per person to enter.

It is the only place of its kind in the entire United States where four states Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona touch. (yes, the monument is NOT exactly where the four states intersect, as most people are quick to point out. Sure its a little disappointing, but hey, who are we to say that isn't good enough?) Going to 4C's has been on my bucket list for a number of years and when I made my birthday list of things to accomplish before my next birthday this had to be on the list!

Brittany, you wouldn't know it but she was very sick during the whole trip but she wasn't about to let that stop her from performing the very talented act of being in four places at one time.

Nathan first decided he wanted to take a nap in four places, and then decided to be in four places at one time hands first and feet last!

Emily couldn’t help but lay down and laugh at the whole adventure.

I had been thinking of what I wanted to do while being in four places at one time and thought what better way than a backflip with each limb in a different state.

What would I do without the timer on my camera? So. Much. Fun.

As opposed to containing our hilariousness in my car, at the monument we had an audience. I think everyone there was laughing at us and if we’d put out a container of some sort we might have had enough money to buy ourselves something pretty. We had been in the car for so long it was nice to goof off and stretch a bit!

Desert Views from a Weekend Road Trip

2012-02-23T08:09:00-07:00

I always laugh when people take dozens of scenery views, but what do they do with them?

I’ve taken plenty in my day and for the most part they remain buried in digital darkness. This time was different, the scenery is half the fun of going in a road trip right? As my friend Emily said, “I love road trips cause I love the in between” and I have to agree with her, I enjoy just staring out the window lost in my head or music as the case may be.

My friends are SO much fun, seriously, I couldn't have asked for more spontaneous, easy going and downright great friends! As I am behind the camera setting up the automatic timer they stand there unsure of what to do so naturally they just strike a pose!

It was such a gorgeous day, the sun was shining and in just the perfect position so most of my photos have a magical sun glare that I personally love!

We were curious why a hole needed such a prominent sign, but as you pass the other side there is actually a restaurant inside the rock along with a petting zoo! If you ever make to the Moab,UT area keep an eye out and then share with the rest of us what the “Hole in the Rock” is like.

I could have taken pictures the whole way down cause the view is so picturesque, but alas I think I’ve taken enough pictures for you to get the idea and hopefully not get bored.

Very soon we will arrive at Four Corners!

The first BIG step of 3 needed to start my new life as a Permanent Traveler

2012-02-22T09:23:00-07:00

Well the time has come; my condo sale is going through this week, it will definitely be one of the most difficult, emotional, exciting and tumultuous weeks of my life.

My condo has been my only constant for 5 ½ years, its been my comfort and safety through love, independence, absolute joy, heartbreak, divorce, new friends, old friends and lost friends, through hardships that took my breath away, wild laughter, illness, uncontrollable tears, and its given me strength and courage to pursue my dreams.

Even though I have been anticipating and preparing for the time I would have to walk away from my first home… its rocking my world right now.

Every emotion possible is pulsing through me and I’m welcoming each of them in a very bittersweet way.

I know this ending will help facilitate a new beginning that I’ve been dreaming of and anticipating for years and I look forward to the momentous changes that are sure to come my way but for now I am going to let my sadness and grief take its course.

If you are newer to my blog here are a few posts about my condo and my decorating style. Why fell in love with my condo, styling in small spaces, decorating to display your passions, why I prefer to surround myself with personal photos rather than buy others artwork, home is where my heart is, Halloween Party 2011, Christmas Traditions 2011, My 5 year anniversary of being a home owner.

This transition should be fairly seamless on the blog; I’ve got even more exciting posts about my recent road trip to the Four Corners coming your way and will be posting about the process of closing one chapter and starting anew once I’ve settled into my new home.

My life without Television...

2012-02-20T16:36:49-07:00

This week on BootsnAll Indie Travel Challenge they are discussing budget. My life drastically changed four years ago and one of these changes was getting rid of public television, it can save someone up to over $100 a month depending on the service you subscribe to but what about your time? How much is that worth to you? Imagine, rather then spending your time on something that will (most likely) not come back to you, what if you spent it with your family? cooking? reading? chores, living healthier, getting to know your neighbors better?

What about all the lost potential that your TV is taking from you without you ever even noticing it?

I have a TV but I don’t get any channels on it and only watch movies. It started somewhat as an experiment to see what my life would be like without spending so much time watching public television and has since turned out to be an interesting & permanent change in my life.

The single largest difference that I have noticed, is in conversation with family, friends and co-workers when they discuss the latest show or story they saw on TV. I simply respond that I don’t have TV and don’t know what they are talking about, I get some shocked reactions and a few that ask what its like or state that they themselves could never live without TV.

Flashback to Heather in 2008. I was even more over weight and wasn’t in the best of spirits. I would go to work like everyone else but at the end of the day I would usually pick up food on my way home, change into pajamas and remain in front of my television the rest of the night then go to bed and repeat day after day. I wouldn’t make plans during my favorite TV shows, I seldom enjoyed anything that wasn't television. I was living vicariously through the characters on the screen. It wasn’t healthy and I wasn’t happy.

Four years later I can say that not having television has impacted my life so much that I don’t even notice it anymore. I would never want TV in my house again, mostly because I know I’ve been addicted to it previously but also because I don’t know where I would find the time to watch it, even if I did have it.

When I watch it now at others houses, waiting rooms ect. it upsets me how media so deeply influences our daily lives, watching commercials while they can be humorous it sickens me to think how bombarded most people are with unnecessary 'things'. No wonder we always want more, we are completely surrounded with brand new products and inventions that there is no way we can keep up, we're already set up for failure. It makes me wish more people would try getting rid of television even just for a certain amount of time, just to open their eyes and see what it does for them.

I will admit TV has some truly amazing and positive effects, but for me those benefits have not out weighed the negativity it brings into my life.

Who plans to go rock shopping?

2012-02-20T08:33:00-07:00

Stopping in Moab to go rock shopping definitely wasn’t on our agenda before we left for our weekend road trip to the Four Corners, but by the time we were passing through Moab we were ready and willing for something new & different!

On the left side of the road just as you enter the city of Moab there is Lin Ottinger's Rock Shop & the perfect place to stretch our legs and discover a little more about what this Southern Utah town had to offer.

I was a little camera happy (at least I am putting my birthday camera to good use right?) I pre-warned my friends that because they are traveling with a travel blogger that there would be a lot of pictures to be taken, they were good sports about it!

Emily perusing through the tables and tables for rocks, shells and minerals for sale.

Inside there were shelves of fossilized animals.

The fossilized sand dollars were my favorite.

Emily with some Purple Sodalite

We dubbed these sea shells, unicorn horns :)

I love how this picture of the petrified wood turned out!

Only a few more hours in the car until we arrive at our destination!

3 ways to sleep on a road trip

2012-02-19T11:14:00-07:00

After driving 2 ½ hours to my parents house and spending the night we were headed off to complete the additional 5 hour drive to the Four Corners Monument. Planning a road trip can be overwhelming when you have to plan all the arrangements, coordinate several personalities and hope you make good time. I tend to beat the planning blues by keeping the plans as simple as possible and leaving opportunities for the adventure to develop naturally.

What would a road trip be without some sleepy passengers?

Yes, my friend Nate is really sleeping, he looks very contemplative though huh? Makes you wonder what he was dreaming of.

Emily was diligently doing her homework… sleeping won.

Poor Brittany got sick the day we left and was such a sport, we would forget how sick she really was becuase she barely mentioned it until she was on the verge of a fever or wondering if she might throw up.

Along the way we decided to stop at a fun little shop in Moab, Utah to stretch our legs and enjoy something unexpected… Rock Shopping.

saturday snapshot: weekend road trip

2012-02-18T09:02:00-07:00

There are several aspects to being a dedicated traveler that I have discovered, one of which is the need to travel. There are times when I crave travel, the thrill of planning where to go, what to see and who I will share the experience with. What I didn’t expect is the insatiable desire to always have a trip on the horizon.

In the recent past I haven’t been planning anything with the expectation of heading out to travel on a more permanent basis but as it turns out life has its own way of working out and I won’t be leaving ‘home’ until July or after. As such I’ve also been given the opportunity to take a few small weekend vacations as well as two other longer trips.

One of which is on my birthday list of things I’d like to accomplish before my next birthday in September, to visit the Four Corners. The only place in the United States where four states intersect at one place, although many are quick to point out that the actual location of the intersection is about a mile from the monument.

Three of my good friends and I have decided to take a road trip to the Four Corners Monument to attempt the feat of standing in four places at one time. The sleeping arrangements have been made, a route has been chosen and our bags are packed. Traveling in a group can become stressful however, I have some pretty amazing friends and I am confident that no matter what we encounter there will be laughter and clever retort!

After a 2 ½ hour drive from Salt Lake City to a rural town in Utah’s desert country we arrived at my parent’s house for the night, complete with games, food and humor.

Compromising sleep for fun and an early start for a delicious breakfast we were soon to be on our way even further into the middle of nowhere.

Book Review: Catcher in the Rye

2012-02-17T08:00:00-07:00

I was anxious to read the Catcher in the Rye before I opened the front cover or knew a single thing about it because it was recommended to me by a friend whom I admire & respect. 99% of the books I read are by recommendation, It means more to me knowing that it has meant so much to someone else.

However, I also love it because as I picture what the main character is like I can see my brother Robby, just like the main character, Holden Caulfield. To help you understand the book you have to know Holden. He is roughly 16 with a chip on his shoulder; he is harsh, brazen and rebellious. The author, J.D. Salinger does a fantastic job of presenting Holden’s personality by his terrible grammar, blunt opinions and negative perspectives of the world. I’ve heard from several people that they didn’t like Holden; they thought he was a spoiled brat who took the world for granted. This may seem true but if you look closer at Holden you can see his desire for a happier more innocent life.

Holden talks about some astonishingly harsh truths & down right tasteless comments; he doesn’t have respect for social standards, expectations or formalities. Just like my brother did at that age, and most of us have stages or moments where we want to tell societies standards to shove it!

But you see the magic of Holden’s personality isn’t in what the author makes obvious, they are simple truths innate to who he is. He uses terrible language throughout the entire book but while visiting his little sisters school gets upset that someone wrote the F-word on the walls for little children to see.

He finds himself in a hotel room with a prostitute but can’t go through with it. “The thing is, most of the time when you're coming pretty close to doing it with a girl, she keeps telling you to stop. The trouble with me is, I stop. Most guys don't. I can't help it. You never really know whether they want you to stop or whether they're just scared as hell, or whether they're just telling you to stop so that if you do go through with it, the blame'll be on you, not them. Anyway, I keep stopping. The trouble is, I get to feeling sorry for them." – Chapter 13

Where Holden’s true saving grace comes from is also where the book gets its name. It’s based of a poem by Robert Burns titled Comin Thro’ The Rye from the research I’ve done about the book & this poem Holden misinterpreted it, but his intention is all the same. “I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be." ~J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Chapter 22

If Holden could do anything all day, he would be the catcher in the rye, what does that mean though? Most believe what this means is that he would stop children from running off a cliff into the realities of the world and adulthood. Holden also learns that it isn’t good to prevent children from growing up.

This isn't a read for all, but to anyone who will give it a shot, I highly recommend giving it a read.

An interesting post on why JD Salinger wouldn't release movie rights for the novel.

Have you read The Catcher in the Rye? What did you think of it?

Microloaning a Month at a time...

2012-02-15T14:00:51-07:00

If you've been reading my blog for a while then you most likely already know about my favorite non- profit organization, Kiva. As an individual its difficult to know how you can help elevate poverty, create opportunities, support education and strengthen economies that are weak but Kiva provides a world-wide network of micro-finance institutions that lets individuals donate as little as $25 to help create opportunity around the world.

Each month I donate $25 to an individual or group and as re-payments are made I re-lend those payments to new loans, in a sense, recycling opportunity. I also recently started my own lending team, Heathers Harmony, if you're interested in becoming a Kiva lender I'd consider it an honor to have you on our team! To learn more about Kiva and Heathers Harmony's involvement please check out my previous posts here.

This month I chose the Africa One Group in Tanzania.

In a group loan, each member of the group receives an individual loan but is part of a larger group of individuals. The group is there to provide support to the members and to provide a system of peer pressure, but groups may or may not be formally bound by a group guarantee. In cases where there is a group guarantee, members of the group are responsible for paying back the loans of their fellow group members in the case of delinquency or default.

Kiva provides facts about the countries they lend to, Tanzania has an average annual income of $723, and a life expectancy of only 44 years! To learn more about this countries facts go here.