Summer Education

Thanks to my subscription to Glamour magazine I have been getting a "proper" summer education. Since some of you might be too busy frolicking in the sun and vacationing at the beach, I will pass along some insightful tidbits to you. Enjoy!

1. 75% of women pee in the shower. According to a Glamour survey, and it is perfectly OK! flushing the toilet accounts for 27% of indoor water use. So cool,go green, or yellow rather, save water and pee in the shower. Urine is sterile and non-toxic, after all, that guy Bear Grills drinks his pee all the time. Some people even believe it can help athletes foot. Just don't do it when you are not alone in the shower.

2. 85% of women wear dirty clothes. Yeah, I think we have all done that, who wants to waste water cleaning something you just wore to church. But here is the gross part... there is about 1/10th of a gram of fecal matter in worn undies ( that is not true for kids undies... that is like 3 grams) that has all kinds of bacteria. This bacteria can transfer to other clothes in your hamper and make you sick if you are rooting around in the clothes. So if you are a regular hamper digger, be sure to wash your hands. If you are like me and your worn clothes end up on your floor long before they ever think of going into the wash, pick 'em up and wear 'em again, just try not to see the same people.

3. 32% of women go barefoot at the gym. okay... this apparently is NOT good. there is lots of stuff in hot sweaty, steamy areas that can cause plantar warts and athletes foot. Or if the places between your toes doesn't get dry, infection can grow and grow. So by the advice of Glamour mag, splurge on a pair of $1.99 flip-flops for your gym bag.

Kate winslet is the #1 most glamorous woman. Michelle Obama is a close 3rd, Angelina Jolie 4th. Okay. Apparently they have never met me or my friends... Not a fair judgement. For a shout out for the plus size girls... Queen Latifa made it on the list, barely at #46. 3 spots lower than actual queen Rania of Jordan. Thankfully Megan fox (transformers) made it, I was beginning to doubt the credibility.

Now, for the moral education section:

Things you can think, but not say

* Zorro?! you named your baby Zorro?

*Didn't I tell you not to marry him, you fool?

*Whew. Another successful regifting.

*I am not sorry and I was right.

For those of you that are feeling conflicted about cheating... Glamour gives us some standards to refer too:

80% say it is cheating to exchange steamy Facebook messages.

37% say it is not cheating to kiss another girl. Now, if it happens more than once... the number jumps to 72%. So for those of you contemplating a girl-girl kiss... 28% think that it is OK and keep doing it, a lot if you want.

So you know what is OK...

it is OK... to have a whole bathing suit collection (tankinis, bikinis, string-inis ?!?) but always wear the same old black one piece.

...to pick up change off the ground as part of your personal financial recovery plan.

... to bury the price tags in the trash.

... to not know what to say sometimes.

...to kiss him just because he looks hot with his shirt off. ( or looks cute, or took the trash out, or let you sleep in) wait! That is more than OK - its awesome ( and might get you more of the same!)

Next time I will give some valuable relationship tips from OK! Magazine.

There you go. That should get you by for a week or so.

Confession

Okay, maybe a blog is not the place to "confess" but where else right???

So in the last month or two I have been having a big I mean BIG problem with jealousy. I have never considered myself a jealous person, but I do know that when it sprouts, it can really take hold. You know like the ivy that begins at the base of a beautiful brick house, then years later all you can see is a large house-shaped ivy bush... well that has been me. Barely visible under a mass of jealousy.

It seemed like everyone else had something I didn't. My friend who was living with family (like myself) bought a house. My friend who was running (like myself) was losing weight and  looked great. Another person's kid plays baseball perfectly, someone else's husband makes more money. It was always something, her legs are longer, her hair is shinier, her kid dances better, and yadda yadda yadda. I was beginning to make myself annoyed from hearing the "it's not fair" voice in my head all the time.

No wonder I couldn't find anything to blog about. Thank goodness for my superb acting skills, or people would NOT have wanted to hang out with me.

You know what, life is NOT fair. And she will always have longer legs than me. Some things you can't do anything about. Some things you can. 

So, I am going to try to shut off that whiney voice and do something about it. I have seen that it could always be worse. There is always something worse, than dry hair or love handles. I still have to convince myself of this one.  So starting today, I am going to find 5 positive things to think about me and my life each day. 5 is going to be tricky for me, baby steps, baby steps.

1. I have hair! not shiny, but not falling out.

2. Abbie makes me laugh. not always at a good moment, but laughing at all is good.

3. Reagan will give me  snuggle whenever I want it. 

4. Dan works hard for us (really hard)

5. I ran 92 miles last month. So I must be sort of tough. right?

May in a nutshell

So like every other month of May since Reagan was born, it was crazy. Perhaps I just convince myself it is going to be this way so I am prepared for it.

First we had birthdays, which were a lot of fun.

We also got to spend three great weeks with auntie JoDee and Olivia and Baby Ben. Abbie got really attatched to him and kept asking if we could keep him. It was pretty cute.

Then we had graduation for Abbie. It was fun to see her with her friends and teacher.

Then Mothers Day, which was awesome and really should warrent an entire post for itself. Dan was such a sweetie and made me and his mother a 5 course candle light dinner. The food was amazing and we had leftovers for 2 days! he should get a prize or something.

Dance recitals were... interesting. Reagan did great and it was fun to see her dancing again. Abbie had fun. Which I guess is all I could have hoped for. Her attention span is short and dancing does not seem to hold it for long. She did love the flowers that grandma gave her.

and I finished it off with a super fun, relaxing weekend of shopping and pampering with my great friends. This is a picture of our toes post-pedi.

I guess it was a pretty great month... now lets see how June unfolds.

Crazy-Fun Birthday week

The first week of May is when we decided to celebrate all of our kids' birthdays. Smart, arent we. So, on the morning of May 1st we were 

out of the blocks and well on our way in a birthday party bliss marathon. We woke Reagan up early to breakfast in bed, as per her birthday wish. She also got a new big bike

 a few presents and lots of hugs. 

She was pretty excited to go to school for her birthday dance and spanks from her teacher. I took her doughnuts to share and she was really a celebrity at school that day.

I think her favorite present was a light up HSM shirt. it was my favorite because it was $3.00.

That night we went to the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner because Reagan swears spaghetti is her favorite food. 

We told Abbie we were pretending it was her day too so we could do the major partying on the same night.  After a yummy pasta dinner, we headed to Build-a-Bear workshop. It was fun to watch them, pick out their bears. Abbie decided on a unicorn named Sparkles in about 5 minutes and Reagan took much longer. 

My heart bleeds for her when she has to make a choice because I HATE making choices too. so we were quite a pair... it took us much longer.

The night was so much fun that we strolled through the Gateway enjoying the energy and people out at night. Then Abbie had a meltdown after falling off a metal chair outside Ben's Cookies, so we hightailed it to the van.

Yesterday I took Abbie out with her 2 friends and a cousin to Classic Skating. They played for 3 hours and ate almost an entire large cheese pizza! it was fun to see them having so much fun. 

We wrapped up the week with a cake fest for 3 little birthday girls and lots and lots of singing.It was a great week and fun to have such sweeties to celebrate.

thankfully, I have a 361 days until the next birthday party marathon. Now, if I can just make it through Mothers Day...

Pancake Puppies

We were out on Saturday and were picking up the girls from the my BIL's house and of course we stayed to talk for a while, when we left it was 11:30pm and the girls kept saying how hungry they were. I was ready to drive through Wendy's but as we drove by Denny's he must have read my mind. So we pulled in and were seated by our good friend Kevin ( he was there last time we got a craving for the puppies. We are undecided if he is gay or just super friendly/weird). While we were eating Abbie was looking around and said "Mom, I want to buy that baby." I had her say it again because I thought it was so funny. When I asked her if she would buy a boy baby she said, "No, they are stinky."

I found this little review of the Pancake Puppies (for those of you that don't eat at Denny's after midnight and have no Idea what I am talking about) I don't think I could have said it better.

Foodies enjoy!

There are so many levels of wrong with Denny's Pancake Puppy dessert. The mutant cross between a pancake, beignet, and hush puppy, this delectable treat is addictive in its delicious, oh-so-bad for you simplicity. Crusty, humble fried pancake bites, coated in cinammon sugar and served with warm syrup for dipping, these may indeed be the cruelest thing to come out of a Denny's since...the Denny's.

Damn you, late night diners, and your evil, evil temptations!

Healthy Dinner... Not!

This was my mashed potato fakeout dinner. Cool huh! Dan and I rocked the April Fools day this year. First I got Reagan out of bed at 6:00am and told her she was late for school. I had her running around thinking she was going to miss the bus. :-) Then I told her to look at the clock. she said "it's 7:15, do you think they are going to recess???" I laughed because my awesome prank didn't work because she isn't that good at telling time yet. hehehe I still had a good giggle later. She thought it was funny too and couldn't wait to tell her teacher that I had "fooled" her.

I also pranked my mom. I had Abbie call her and told her that she had broken her arm. Grandma of course beleived her because... well because it was Abbie. Then Abbie burst out and said "April Fools Grandma!" it was funny, for me. Grandma was a little bugged.

Finally we spend about an hour making "dinner" we followed the instructions in Family Fun and created "mashed potatoes" from ice cream and caramel, "fish sticks" made of cookies, and "peas" made of taffy. We felt pretty good that our trick would fly, but Reagan was on to us from the start. She said "hey, this smells like ice cream." The second trick was that we said she could eat it for dinner. She was sure we were kidding, but we were serious! She still was not convinced, so we said she could eat some left overs and then eat her "dinner." It was a fun and silly day for me! I think this is my new favorite holiday.

My double life

I confess, I think I have been leading a double life. Last night while I was getting ready to go out to see the PCD and Britney Spears concert (and applying waaay too much dark eyeliner), I realized it. I was going through my day and I thought okay, here I am going to a concert where there is going to be a lot of frivolity, I will stay up until 2:00 am on a school night and tomorrow, I will get up at 7:00am get dressed, get my daugter on the school bus, and then be a chaperone for the preschool field trip. How cool is that! I truly get to have my cake and eat it too! I get to be a Mom of two adorable girls, have cool friends who like to have fun, have a husband that loves me even with a few extra pounds and too much eye-makeup, AND go out and party once in a while to remember what it feels like to be a teenager.

Here are a few of the fun pics from my double life. This all happend with in 24hrs.

The show was AWESOME! The Dolls sang all their songs, had a ton of energy and really rocked their fishnets.

Britney put on a fantastic show, circus acts, fire, acrobatics, lip syncing, dancing, costume changes and lots and lots of high energy fun. It was a great night! We even had fun watching the drunk chicks next to us fall over and get lost.

Thanks to Anne for being my concert buddy. We always manage to rock our socks off. Who says blondes have more fun??

Great read

So I just finished a great book. I read it in about 5 days and it was spellbinding. Not what I usually read, but capitvating anyway. I actually felt smart reading this... strange.

American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld.

It is a novel about a fictional character based on Laura Bush. It was facinating to me to learn about a woman so important in history that has such drastically different views than her husband. I loved the way the story unfolded as if she was sitting with me telling it from start to finish. It also gave me a little perspective on what it might be like to be the Wife of the President and not want the fame and influence that goes with it.

When I finished it this morning, I was overwhelmed with the reminder that it is okay to be different and think differently than my spouse. We can still have a great marriage even if we don't see eye to eye on every issue

Spring has brought me such a nice surprise...

Ok, not! After returning from a week long hiatus in the sun with perfect weather we got another treat of nice spring time sun. I even got a little sunburn while selling girl scout cookies. It was sheer bliss. See, I am not a big fan of winter, I am diminishing how much I don't like the snow, so Spring is my 2nd favorite season ( summer rules) because it means that there will be an abundance of rain (which I love) and sunny afternoons (which I love).

So when I woke up Wednesday and saw this I was so mad I wanted to punch someone. But instead I grabbed a shovel (the blower was put away) and started shoveling. Yuk. Mother nature is such a "Spring tease."

Spring Break!

Nicole's Spring Break Top 10

1. Riding a Zip Line 200 feet long and 300 feet above the ground through the jungle of Belize.
2. Swimming in a Mexican Cenote (underground caves filled with clear water)
3. Driving a beat up Jeep with my posse and getting whistled at by Mexican construction workers.
4. Getting a 60 min massage on the beach for $20!

5. Eating delicious food anytime I wanted.
6. Spending some quality time with my hubby of 10 years.
7. Playing dress-up with my BFFs
8. Riding the water slide on top of the ship while going 17 knots in the Caribbean.
9. Scuba diving in the Bahamas- we saw about a dozen Lion fish.


10. Going to dinner with Nacho Libre

11. Doing all these awesome things with awesome people while wearing awesome shoes. Keens rock. (another post another time.)Other great highlights...

We spent a great day in Costa Maya enjoying the beach, yummy guacamole and doing some serious shopping for my recuerdos (souvenirs).


My favorite recuerdo- a true Mexican Sombrero in the colors of the Mexican flag.

We got a "bonus" excursion when we missed our connecting flight in Washington DC and had to stay the night. We rented a van, piled in and visited some of the memorials on the Mall. It was a cold and rainy night that was full of adventure!

When I look back at these pictures I am still amazed that we actually took this vacation! it was one of those things that had been an "idea" for nearly a year and here we are! We did it!

Bubble Butt

This was too cute not to comment on. This was a clear example of what boredom and creativity in the bathtub can create.

Days of my life...

A few Sundays ago while we were sitting in church Reagan and I had our very first heart to heart about boys. This was a pretty exciting moment for me. You see, as a girl, I was what my 4th grade teacher called boy crazy. This hurt my feelings at the time but was entirely true. I played with boys at recess, called them on the phone had day dreams about them (many involved me running toward a boy and dramatically kissing him than saying something like "I can't live without you!")

I have always been okay with the fact that Reagan was not looking at boys like that because it eliminated a lot of potential issues. So imagine my suprise/delight when she had a question about boys (which I consider myself and expert on).
"Mom, how do I know what boy I should marry?"

"Well, he will be a boy that does nice things for you, makes you smile and laugh, and buys you pretty presents."

"What if I have to choose between two boys?"

"Then you are a very lucky girl."

"Beacause Carson at school says he wants to marry me and likes to hug me, but when Eli sees him, he tells Carson to keep his hands of me 'cause I'm his girl. I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings but I don't know who to choose."

"Well, lucky for you, you don't have to pick just one boy! You won't get married until you are like 25, so you can hug all the boys you want until then."

I am not sure how Dan felt about my side of the conversation, but I thought I was pretty smart and cool about the whole thing. Luckily, it was just a conversation about hugging...

I am more than willing to talk to any of my fellow Mom's/girlfriends' daughters about boys whenever they want. It is one of my favorite subjects along with teen boy bands, HSM, clothes and any TV shows on the CW. Reagan is becoming the little girlfriend I have always hoped I would have when I first looked at her.

Can we be friends?

Last night was not a typical Tuesday. After dropping of the kids at Grandma G's house we were off to the Hello Katy Concert in SLC. I thought we were way early and I was begging dan to take me to Ben's Cookies nearby to grab an oatmeal cookie before the show (we were virtuous and had cereal for dinner). Thankfully we didn't because when we drove by, the line to get in was over 3 blocks long! I had no idea...

Well, I am still stoked because Katy pointed at me! I know... Awesome. It all happened like this- I was dancing and singing and then she looked right at me, I looked at her and waved my arms madly like a crazy person, then she pointed back and nodded her head. Yeah, pretty cool I know. I think it was her way of telling me she wanted to be my friend. You know we are practically the same age and stuff.

She wore these shimmery silver leggings, a long graphic T/Tunic, a red studded belt and the coolest pair of high heel blue sued booties. It was a fun 80's style outfit. I think dan was hoping she would wear an outfit like the one on the Kissed a girl video... Sorry. But she did change into a full-body leopard cat suit for the encore. It was cool. She got more crazy and bizzare as the show went on and told some funny stories. At one point she bent over into the crowd and let all the crazies touch her hair and... probably everything else.

I had a killer time and danced and shimmied alongside my very tired/stoic hubby. Luckily he does not get embarrassed of me and thankfully, I don't need someone to dance with me to enjoy it. It seems like going to concerts is my new favorite thing.

So, if you read this Katy, yeah, lets be friends. It could be cool. I could teach you things like how to make sugar cookies, knitting scarves, and making crafts at church. And you could take me to meet all your friends, or to the Grammys. We could go to the mall and share a pretzel and then I could show you some of my awesome dance moves in one of your new videos.