The Heathen Caboose

2010-09-05T18:39:00.004-07:00

The Great Salem Adventure

One of our favorite experiences this summer was our visit to Salem, Oregon, when we met up with the oldest friends Jemayla and I have (meaning, friends we've had ever since we were a couple).

We spent several days mooching off of them and making them teach us how to make omelets, but they were still sad when we finally left. Is that true friendship or what?

On one memorable day we went to a carousel and park with Matt, Megan, and their three goofy boys.

While we were there, a cool guy taught us how to throw boomerangs. Matt was a natural at it, and Jemayla was pretty good too. Byron broke his boomerang in

half, and felt really stupid.

Luckily the cool guy (who could have kicked Byron's butt up and down the carousel) was really nice about it.

2010-09-05T17:59:00.001-07:00

The Seaside Vacation

We're about a month late posting this, but we wanted to put up some pictures of our big summer vacation. Our first was in Seaside, Oregon, where we were able to have a Heath family reunion. And anytime you put Heath men near the ocean, they are going to jump in, no matter how cold it is. Luckily, this water was cold enough that after about five minutes we couldn't feel anything below our necks.

Here's a picture of Dad getting his ankles wet. His diabetes makes it much easier for him to withstand the cold to his extremities. That's why he's still smiling.

One of the highlights of our time in Seaside was the family talent show. Chad, of course, is the most talented among us.

In addition to sharing his more . . . er . . . specialized talents, he wrote and performed a song with the boys.

The boys also did the Muppet version of "Bohemian Rhapsody" with their own puppets.

Megann taught everybody a Zumba dance, which is probably her second-best talent (her first talent is giving Dusty looks that are laced with hidden meanings)

Dusty performed some acrobatics with Libby, and then Jared performed some similar, though slightly more athletic, acrobatics with Courtney.

Mom made fun of Dad in Spanish, while Jared unwillingly translated.

Dad sang a very sweet song to the grandkids . . .

And Eli sang "No One Likes a Frowny Face" with one of the best frowny faces I've seen all year. And I taught freshman!

Jemayla and I spent a large portion of our time at Seaside hanging out with our nieces and nephews, and we had a great time.

Family is found here!

2010-07-14T21:23:00.000-07:00

The best part of living in Idaho Falls is being with family. We are so blessed to have sane and loving siblings and parents. :) I am so glad we are here, and that we can enjoy the company and friendship of family members, especially our nieces and nephews.

~Mayla

Idaho Falls, you are winning my heart!

2010-07-14T20:49:00.000-07:00

Though I have been to Idaho Falls many times over the last few years and did live here for a few months, I am just now seeing the treasures that are found here. I recently acquired my Grandfather's bicycle and have used it a great deal to see the great things in this town and I am probably only beginning. From the 4th of July celebration to discovering the green belt, I am finding small joys and sweet things. Here are a couple of pictures from our latest adventures

Exploring downtown

Going to a Bluegrass concert on the greenbelt

Finding a hidden treasure of rock formations

On the way back from a bike ride down the greenbelt

~Mayla

Please Come Home!

2010-05-16T20:47:00.000-07:00

This is a song I wrote for Jemayla when she was gone for a week and I was home all by myself. It was lonely, and the only friend I could find was my trusty ukulele. The song was originally planned as a solo, but when I got about halfway through it turned into a duet.

As you'll be able to see, Jemayla and I make a great team, but we're not exactly American Idol material. Oh well; there's always the circus.

Dragons, Monkeys and Kids!

2010-04-30T20:49:00.000-07:00

These are some old videos from last summer. The neighbors kids were over playing while the Mom's were having a meeting. We are going to miss our sweet neighbors and their kids! -Mayla

2010-04-24T17:51:00.000-07:00

Spring!! I love it. We biked to Bern today. This time both of us went. The wind blew against us on the way there so the ride home was smooth. We went to the same school I went to last time, but this time there were no kids around to scare. So, I (May) played on the Merry-go-Round which I have been wanting to do for some time. Overall it was a successful ride. On the way home, Byron had an epic race with a horse.

Byron's words: While we were heading home I saw three horses racing across a pasture towards us. I slowed down for a few seconds and pointed them out to Mayla. They splashed right through a pond and ran up alongside us, just fifteen feet away on the other side of a fence. Before we knew it, the horses were running full-tilt, racing past, as if to prove they were faster than us. So I leaned on my pedals, blew past Jemayla, and chased after them. The lead horse was young and rust-colored, and it was flanked by two white horses. I never thought I would catch them, but they slowed down as they reached a T in the road where their pasture ended. Somehow, they seemed to know we weren't taking the turn that would keep us near them.

I had the song "Rendevous" playing on my MP3 player, so I was feeling pretty competitive. Instead of riding straight, like I was supposed to, I veered to the right, switched gears, and pedaled furiously. The lead horse hesitated for a split-second, then kicked its back legs high into the air, pounded them on the ground, and took off like a shot with the two white horses galloping behind. The three horses immediately pulled ahead of me. I leaned forward and pedaled faster than I've ever pedaled before. To my amazement, I was gaining on them. Granted, the wind was at my back, and I was on a very slight downhill slope on a paved road, while the horses plowed through grass and uneven dirt, but I was racing with horses! The distance closed between us, and my visible success made me push even harder. I pulled even with the horses with a quarter of the pasture left, and barely pulled ahead just before they started to slow down. They stopped at the corner of the pasture, staring after me as I slumped over my handlebars in exhaustion. I coasted to a stop, and slowly pedaled back to where Jemayla was petting them on the noses.

We spent a few minutes letting the horses nose at us and nibble our shirts. I cursed myself for having already eaten my apple--I couldn't very well offer them my crushed, leftover salami and cheese sandwich. Finally we climbed back onto our bikes and started the long ride back. The horses didn't follow us this time.

Yay for spring!

2010-04-18T20:04:00.000-07:00

Saturday was a dangerously deceiving day. I felt like summer break should be starting the following week! I had my first long bike ride in a long time. 13 miles to a neighboring town called Bern. It took me an hour and a half. One thing I like about our area is that there are old schools all over the place. Here are some pictures from my ride. It's getting to be green! -Mayla

Monkeys, Mafia and Moustaches

2010-04-13T06:55:00.000-07:00

I know we're a little too old for this, but it was still fun.

To: Caylin

With love: George, Honch Heado and Ova Cason

Byron's Black Hair

2009-06-10T09:35:00.000-07:00

During a school fundraiser for African children, I promised my 3rd hour class that I would allow them to dye/shave my hair if they raised $100 dollars. They ended up raising $98.22, so I thought I was off the hook.

Unfortunately for me, the teacher who counts all the money knew about the bet, and added the last few dollars, just so she laugh about what the students did to me.

We ended up dying my hair black during class, and then I let them rinse it out by throwing buckets of water at me during lunch. I forgot to get pictures of the actual process, but I know my students took plenty.

Better Together

2009-04-08T20:35:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow, I get to be with my husband again, but no more sad departures for us!!! I Get to go home!! I am so grateful for the experiences that I have had here and the people that I have come to know. Sometimes I feel like I am on a second mission, the first being California, but I think this mission is more selfish...:). I love you my husband and I am coming home!!!

Valentine Vegas Vacation

2009-02-20T20:18:00.000-08:00

For Valentine's Day Jemayla and I decided to go out of town. She wanted to go someplace warm and I wanted to go somewhere with food . . . lots and lots of food. So we went to Las Vegas. As far as I'm concerned there's no better place for eating.

This is the ceiling of the Bellagio. We decided that the Bellagio was the classiest place in Vegas, but that might just be because of Ocean's 11.

And what trip would be complete without a visit to a fake bridge?

I learned to play a song on the ukulele for Mayla's Valentine's Day present. She really enjoyed it, even though it wasn't very good yet. I've decided that the uke is more my style instrument than the guitar.

For her part, Jemayla gave me a poster with a life-sized Jemayla traced on it to keep me company while she's away. Unfortunately the poster doesn't seem to like me much. It never laughs at my jokes, and when I tried to kiss it goodnight it gave me a paper cut.

This is chocolate fountain next to a candy shop. Jemayla stood staring at it for a long, long time. She was finally asked to leave after the janitor arrived for the third time to mop up her drool puddle (it was becoming quite the slipping hazard). Now she keeps dropping hints about what she wants for her birthday.

There was a curious lack of drinking fountains (as well as an abundance of alcohol) in the casinos. Consequently, Jemayla got a little bit too excited when she saw this waterfall/restaurant sign, and started drinking. Security was not pleased. I told them that they could just give Jemayla a picture of the chocolate fountain and the waterfall would be refilled in no time, but they didn't believe me. The janitor would have backed me up, but he was still wringing out his mop.

Not long after this we found a shopping center (Jemayla bought some shoes and I bought a rather tiny but very expensive bottle of a Gatorade), and of course we were immediately attracted to the silliest things we could find.

I remember Chad owning some glasses like these.

I still have nightmares about the 80's.

In the mall we got $20 dollars for watching a screener for some new makeover show (foolishly named "Making Over America with Trinny and Susannah"). We also got to see the Stone Man, a really cool street performer(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJrB8KxIvzA), and people giving out free hugs.

Of course, like any trip we had our disasters. At a gas station in the Nevada desert a guy pointed out that you could see the wires shining through our tires. Sure enough, the tires were all worn waaaaay down. Montpelier is so muddy I rarely see the tire tread, so I had no idea that we were one little bump away from spending Valentine's Day dehydrating in the desert. Luckily there was a garage nearby where we could get some new tires, and we were happily on our way.

The Christmas Chess Set

2009-02-20T19:51:00.000-08:00

I have a very talented wife. Jemayla made these chess pieces for a sister's Christmas present. I liked the chess set so much that I tried to convince her to keep it, and send her sister a fruitcake instead, but Jemayla has these weird ideas about morality.

At one point I tried to help Jemayla make some pawns, but it turns out I have the artistic ability of a wet rock. After my failed attempt, Jemayla made me my own Jedi chess piece to make me feel better. Marriage is nice.

Now I just need a name for him.. Maybe something like "Bobo Windu" or "Lando Organa"

If you have any suggestions (better ones anyway), let me know.

Just in case you didn't know!!!!

2009-02-19T18:08:00.000-08:00

I love my husband soo much!!!!!

2009-02-04T22:54:00.000-08:00

Thanks to the amazing Megs, comments can now be posted on this wonderful, exciting, informative blog. I send a thank you to all my supporters and my editor who is also my lover.

No comment!

2009-02-01T22:16:00.000-08:00

For some reason, comments cannot be posted on our blog. So for all those who have tried to comment but were not allowed, I have nothing against you and I love you all very much.

What the heck.....

2009-01-30T21:30:00.000-08:00

So me and Megan decided that we wanted to have a girly night which consisted of shaving legs, dying hair, putting on bronzer, and watching an episode of North and South. But....after the hair dying, we wern't much in the mood for bronzer and N&S. Not only did my dying experience turn out quite reduculus, but Megan's didn't go to well either.

Though no human tears were shed, the girl on the dye box managed to share some sympathy.

2009-01-29T20:52:00.000-08:00

DDR Madness!!!

2009-01-18T12:17:00.000-08:00

Me and Megan thought it would be a fun and a good workout to get Dance Dance Revolution yesterday. So we started looking on Bulletin board, and then Craig's list, at which point I needed to keep Megan from desiring a $200 XBox game bundle including DDR and pads along with a lot of other fun games. (She really wanted the game!!) After dinner at Wendy's and a spilled lemonade, we went to claim our prize for just being crazy girls at Game Spot. When we were walking up to the store I was thinking, what an interesting sight. Here are two girls with babies, one is in PJ's now because of lemonade, walking into Game spot at 7 pm caring a Wendy's bag... Anyway, we danced and danced and tripped and stumbled half the night away. What Fun!!

2009-01-12T11:56:00.000-08:00

In an attempt to ease the pain of being apart from Jemayla (the pain being caused, in large part, by the food I eat when she's not around) I'm going to post some pictures of some of my favorite memories.

Here we see a picture of Jemayla before we were dating . . . she's gotten better since then, but she still wears the monkey ears.

After months of toying with her heart, I finally asked Jemayla to be my girlfriend in a grove of apple trees . . . . It's less romantic if you realize that it was the middle of winter and we were still sweaty from running.

Jemayla's roommate was thrilled when we started dating, and wanted to take tons of pictures of us doing mushy stuff.

This picture was taken by Jemayla on the way up to Table Rock, a really cool hiking spot near the Tetons. You shouldn't go there before July though, because it turns out that the mountain is still covered with snow, not to mention it's prone to violent hail storms.

Jemayla first told me she loved me while I was wringing out my socks and hiding from the hail under a large pine tree. Then she took off down the trail at break-neck speed, with me staggering behind in a pathetic, lovesick sort of way.

Jemayla has some sort of strange fascination with getting soaking wet. Once she made me take her running in sprinklers, but not the regular sprinklers. She wanted to run in the enormous pivot sprinklers in the fields by my house. Do you have any idea how powerful these things are???

Anyway, this is a picture of me after Jemayla and I swam in a canal during a family reunion in Oregon.

My Current Life

2009-01-06T11:31:00.000-08:00

I have been away from Jemayla for almost three days. I've already gotten sick, lost the car, missed a lot of sleep, and now my poop is orange. I've gotten about four hours of total sleep in the last two days because, apparently, my body is punishing me for letting Jemayla sleep somewhere else.
On Sunday night, when I laid down to sleep, I was already moderately tired, but just couldn't sleep. I tried everything I could (short of drugging myself) and still only fell asleep around 4:00 a.m. This happens occasionally, so I wasn't terribly upset, and I expected to sleep very well the next night. Oddly though, for probably the first time ever, one sleepless night was followed by another. Once again, as tired as I was, sleep just wouldn't come. This time I was very upset. Generally at this point Jemayla would realize my dilemma and sing me to sleep, or stroke my hair until I finally drifted off, but I had no such option. Finally, around 2:30 a.m. I slept blissfully.

Until the phone rang at 3:00 a.m.

It was a snowplow, asking me to move my car, which I had left in the school parking lot. I usually walk to school, but since I had some large items to bring back from school that day I had driven instead. But I forgot to get the items, as well as the car, and walked home from school that day. And thus, at 3:00 a.m., just after I had entered my R.E.M. cycle, I was forced to walk two miles to the school in subzero weather. This was not one of my better moments.

As awful as this situation was, I think it was good for me. I have started to rely on Jemayla much in the same way that a computer will rely on a jump drive: for a little extra memory. If Jemayla had been there she would have, of course, said something like "Um . . . Byron, do you know what happened to the car?" It seems that, for the time being anyway, my addled hyperactive mind is on its own. I'm just not sure if it is up to the task.

Weeping and Wailing

2009-01-05T15:18:00.000-08:00

Jemayla got the idea to name our blog "The Heathen Caboose" because we are both the youngest in our families, and therefore the caboose of what is sure to be a long and heavily-graffitied train. On Friday Jemayla and I left the safe boundaries of Montpelier, Id. in an attempt to bring her to Rexburg for her final semester of college. 24 hours, 163 miles, 5 brutal basketball games, 1 Xbox 360, and several dozen Tylenol later, I left Rexburg, alone. Jemayla has returned to the land of everlasting wind to finish her education and let R.M.'s oogle her, while I am alone in what is probably the most isolated community in Idaho. Someday my wife will return to this choice land and sleep by my side again, but until then we have this blog to share our thoughts with each other and the rest of the Heath train(or whatever freaky contraption you've chosen to be a part of).

It has begun!

2009-01-04T16:15:00.000-08:00

The blogging days of the Byron Heath family have begun. Who knows what treasures this site shall hold, but all who view it are sure to be amazed..... or not. Since me and Byron are going to be 3 hours apart for a while, we figured a blog would keep us busy and distracted. Here it goes. :)