Broken Blood Feathers

Yesterday I decided to give Mali and Zaire a bath in the new house we just moved into. It was a very nice day out and that's the best for drying out the birds after bath time. Mali as usual just sat in the bottom of the sink with her eyes closed and seeming to enjoy the warm water running over her back. Zaire was his usual neurotic self, screaming and fighting the water the whole time. Somewhere in the fight, Zaire broke a blood feather off under the skin. I hate it when this happens, and it seems to happen a lot more with him than with Mali. I can't even remember Mali breaking a blood feather ever. I had some hemostats and reached in the hole the broken feather made and tried pulling the rest of the feather out. I couldn't get it, so I decided to leave it alone. Zaire clots up real good with these things. It's not something that usually worries me. Sooooo, moral of the story is, don't freak out at bath time Zaire!

Bumps and Bruises

John had school shows to perform at all week in AZ. During one of his shows he was doing a back flip that got away from him while he was upside down. He said he fell on his back from about 10 ft in the air. Check these bruises out and how they spread over 3 days.

LA Monster...

John headed down to LA the weekend before last for the Monster shows again. It was sunny and beautiful for the shows. He ended up tweaking his ankle (the good one) and didn’t ride as much as he usually does; he just stuck to announcing. He was bummin’ around Hubbard’s house for a couple days, but made it to Arizona just a couple days later.

Ah Weather!

Mr. Bethers' first show tonight got rained out.

As for me this evening, I decided to take my first mountain bike ride of the season and chose Rock Canyon for my new bike's maiden voyage. The snow got pretty deep and I got pretty bummed as I continued to climb. I passed this man on his bike and I felt like he had to show me up and go into the snow I refused to ride. What a man and he proved it.

Driving to Texas

John sent me this film of the storm they drove through yesterday.

Texas Monster...

John is in San Antonio, TX this weekend for BMX demos. Monster Energy hires in his team to put on a high-flying stunt show, J to thrill and amaze. He had to drive the rig down there for the setup. Colton Satterfield and Ben Voyles were already down in that area at another contest, so they were just going to meet him there. Josh Hult got to accompany John on the way down in the Truck. They just finished setting up all the ramps, but the weather isn’t looking good for riding later today.

The Inspector

So I mentioned John and I are buying a new home. Yesterday was our scheduled inspection. The real estate agent for the house is supposed to contact the renters in the house 24 hours in advance to let them know if we need access to the inside of the house. Now these people are full on ridiculous because they don’t own a phone and they don’t have a computer to check their email. They have to go to the city library to check it. It took us 2 weeks of being under contract before we even got to go inside! So the people never got back to the agent about us needing to be able to have our inspector do his job, but our inspection deadline is up today. The real estate agent told our inspector to go over and everything would be okay. He started on the outside of the property and could see that people were in the house, so he knocked on the door and rang the doorbell. Nobody would answer. He continued to knock every now and then throughout his inspection of the outside of the house and still nobody answered. Once he was finished outside, he called the agent who in turn told him where the key to the house was and to let himself in. When he did, there was a child there in the room and he asked if her mom was home. Right then, an irate trashy woman came into the room swearing up a storm at him and telling him to get the hell out of her house. We didn’t get our inspection done because of this beastly lady and that’s going to cost somebody some money. Everybody was really angry, but we rescheduled for next week.

On the BMX side of things, it seems like the neighborhood kids this week don’t have school. They must be on Spring Break because it has been nonstop on the ramps in the backyard all week. John leaves for Texas soon to do shows for Monster Energy. He will be in San Antonio and he thinks he is taking 4 riders with him. Colton Satterfield and Ben Voyles are the usuals these days, so they are going for sure. John is still thinking about who else to take.

Happy Easter!

So I’ve discovered swimming is a new happy workout for me. I’m not very good at it and I hyperventilate a lot, but I’m working on it. I went to the Orem Rec Center pool yesterday when I left the ‘crazy house’ (aka, my other job).

Work seems to get crazier and crazier. Board Bunnies is just a year old now and I work at another job to help make ends meet and for the health insurance while trying to get Board Bunnies built. My other job is working as staff at a residential treatment facility for girls ages 8-13 years old. They are REDICULOUS for the most part. I work night watch with a friend and it can be pretty kick back, but when it isn’t, it’s insane! The girls here constantly hit, spit, and kick us. They don’t seem to change and just when we think it couldn’t get any worse, the school enrolls another one worse then the last.

My coworker Camille constantly keeps me entertained. Last night we watched as the blizzard rolled in and ruined Easter egg Hunts everywhere for small children in Utah valley. I thought it was pretty, but not Camille, she got very angry.

Last night I met with Hailee Mattingley, a girl who knows how to shred on a snowboard. I’m taking her on as one of my Board Bunnies sponsored riders. She is on her way to the finals at USASA this weekend and her goal is to podium. I wish her all the luck and am sure she’s going to give the other girls a run for their money.

I’m supposed to be working on making stickers with Bethers, but I’m distracted by the “Words with Friends” and “Chess with Friends” apps on my iPhone, my two parrots, and my computer.

Planning for Hell Track

John is planning a BMX contest for this fall called Hell Track. Today he had a meeting with the Rio Tinto people to talk about using the stadium as the venue for the event. I’m super stoked for him and all the planning he has already done to get ready for this event. He’s not sure if this is the venue he’ll use yet, but we’ll see. Other than that, today is kind of a lazy day. I’m meeting a new team rider for Board Bunnies this evening. She is going to finals this weekend for USASA.

On a whole different note, we are planning on buying a new house. We are about 30 days away from close. The house is so much bigger than the one we are in now. It's on an acre of land and has a big barn out back. It kind of feels like the house is in the country, but it's still in Provo city; our neighbor even has horses. John's already designed out a skate/bmx area so he can ride in the winter too. I posted a photo of the CAD drawing he did for the inside of the barn.

The Sundance Experience

I’m an instructor up at Sundance in my 4^th year of teaching this season. Tonight was our end of the year party for ski school and I was able to talk Mr. Bethers into being my date for the event. He’s such a good sport, laughing at the jokes and talking with my friends. I was stoked on him. He even let me sit on his knee almost the whole night.