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.

Scientific Experiment

I am always excited to find new products that promise to make my lashes fuller and longer, so when I saw the commercial for Loreal's new Beauty Tubes Mascara I was intrigued. When a coupon came in the Sunday paper I knew it was a sign that I needed to give it a try. After all, it would be $6 well spent to see if Loreal would actually deliver on it's claims. So here are my results.

Observation 1. The white layer (step 1) was a bit thick and chunky when applied.
Observation 2. The handles are too short to get proper application to the eyelash.
Observation 3. It feels strange to put so many layers on.
Observation 4. When washing off the "beauty tubes" there were little black lines on my wash-cloth. I think this was the mysterious tubes.
Observation 5. I noticed a difference in length from other mascara.

This photo is the "control" Cover Girl volume lash mascara.

You can decide for yourself, but I think that there was a difference and will buy it again (if there is a coupon)

Deluge of Denim

I popped into the DI today to pass a few minutes and as I rounded the shelf of black shoes, I was overwhelmed by the two tall rounders filled with Denim. Not jeans denim, denim dresses and overalls. There were so many in fact that there was a rack dedicated to denim dresses. Another rack next to it was jammed with discarded overalls. An entire rack! Upon further investigation, I noticed that there were 5 pairs of light olive khaki Gloria Vanderbilt overalls in varying sizes. In almost new condition. Could they be store overstocks, I thought? No, they were owned by completely different women. All purchased for around $15 at Sam's Club. How do I know this?? I owned some myself. By some I mean 2 pair, one olive green khaki and one light khaki. My BFF had a matching pair too. As I think back, I even owned 2 denim dresses, one was a denim overall dress! Who convinced us this was a good thing to wear? Do we buy things because everyone else is or because they are cheap? Does anyone still wear these? Do people like the wedgie feeling you get while wearing overalls and bending over? This is what actually convinced me to abandon my collection of Gloria Vanderbilt's, just a short 5 years ago.

So, I am deeply affected by the enormous amount of denim clothing that I witnessed today at Desert Industries. It had me thinking about how much can change in 5 years. So I composed a list of some things that have changed in just 5 years or 1825 days.

Denim dresses/overalls are very cool. Although when searching for a picture, I saw a caption that said they were slowly coming back...

You could buy scrunchies at the store.

Barack Obama, was running for a seat in the U.S. Senate.

George W. Bush is TIME's 2004 Person of the Year.

I was changing diapers on a 1 year old!


This was all I could think of. What has changed for you?