Still Sneezing Fushia, Snow is STILL Falling

One annoying characteristic about Utah during this transition of seasons, is how it will be gorgeous for a week or so, and then out of nowhere, snow comes back. ARRRGH!

I have never been huge on superstitions, but after this very long and nasty winter of snow, I am willing to do what it takes to make spring come, and to make it stay.

This weekend we decided to go to The Hari Krishna temple in Spanish Fork to the annual Festival of Colors. We joined 10,000 other people for the Krishna's celebration of the arrival of spring and the passing of winter; definitely my kind of reason to celebrate.

Before Shot (* Notice that it is a fairly nice day outside)

Basically, everyone buys sacks of colored chalk and once the main bonfire is lit at dusk, it is time to cover everyone in sight in color. This is a reenactment of the actual "Holi Celebration" that takes place each year in India.

Verdict: Very cool experience.

Afterthought: I was pretty sour as you could imagine when I woke up on Sunday and realized that all of our dancing and partying to bring in spring had failed me. This was the view out my kitchen window . . . A fresh 2 inches.

Only in Utah Part V and VI

Saw this plate while I was in a dead stand-still traffic jam on I-15. Speechless, really.




Apparently, small signs don't get the message accross, but 5 of these puppies sure do.

A White Easter

Happy Valley has never been a top vacation hot spot for my family. To paint a clearer picture of what I mean . . in my 6 years of living here, they have come for my graduation and my wedding. I am honestly not bitter about this, becasue I understand that Utah does not have as much to offer as say . . . Disneyland or a beach when you only have limited vacation days.

However, this situation might explain that when my sister told me last month that she was bringing my joy in life (my nieces) up to spend Easter and their spring break with me and Uncle Niels, I nearly fell off my chair. For the next few weeks, I called every couple days to confirm that she was serious and hadn't changed her mind.

By the way, my nieces have never really seen snow besides "Vegas Snow"!!! So, we decided that we would stay in Park City for the weekend and let them experience Utah's "Best Snow on Earth".

One classic conversation with my seven-year-old niece Taylor . . .

Me: "What do you want to do when you visit Utah?"
Taylor: "Can we build a white snowman?"
Me: "What do you mean, what other kinds are there?"
Taylor: "We only build grey ones in Las Vegas becasue the snow is dirty"

We had such a great time with the girls. It is fun and such a self-confidence booster to be around our nieces . . . they think we are so fun and cool =)

Niels seems to think we will have have all boys some day, while I am banking on all girls so that we can have all these cute hand-be-downs and accessories of course. It should be interesting what happens based on the track record of mostly all girls in my family, and mostly all boys in his. Needless to say, he has won the hearts of all of our nieces. . . They love their "Uncle Skittles." (Sydney couldn't say his name when we first started dating, and thinks Skittles sounds better)

A Friendly Reminder . . . Support the Troups

What's hot, what's not

I wish I was talking about fashion.

But sadly, candy is my forte and my guilty pleasure of adulthood.

My brother-in-law Trevor once told me that he would have no problem digging a hole in the Sahara Desert, throwing every fruity, gummy, sour thing that ever existed into it, and never think twice about digging them back up. My heart ached at the thought.

Instead, I was thinking . . . "I could throw every snake that existed in that desert hole."

That being said, I would like to share two new treats I have explored recently . . . one pure bliss and one pure miss.

Pure Miss



Chocolate Skittles? Not a good mix of flavor and texture here. Ecckkkk!

Pure Bliss

Peanut Butter Whoppers, genius. Very hard to come by. . . I have only found them at Wal-Mart check out lines amidst all the mothers yelling at their 6 children in their carts. So worth it.

I Kill Citizens

It was a dark and snowy morning @6am . . . a few instant, sure characteristics of a bad day for me. . . I stumbled out of bed and into my laundry room to grab my running clothes out of the dryer. With my eyes still trying to peel themselves open, I noticed out of the corner of my eye that my bottle of bleach had tipped over on top of my dryer. Not thinking twice about this, because the cap was screwed on of course, I grabbed the bottle to return it to it's upright position. As I grabbed the handle, my palm met the label on the bottle which was completely drenched.

At this point everything on my body that was formerly only semi-conscious, woke up quickly. I began to asses the un-reversable damage of bleach, and started to pat the various stacks of the clean, folded laundry on top of my dryer. Everything felt fine, and then my eyes met the last stack before my hands did . . . I froze as I registered that my one and only favorite pair of designer Jeans were RUINED.

Now this post might seem somewhat petty and materialistic, but these jeans were my first big purchase after I graduated from college and had a real job. They were my envy that I could not afford as a poor student, (I actually still shouldn't be affording them as a newlwed either, not to mention an upcoming dental student's wife.) 

If it was anything else, I would have seen it as an opportunity to by a new one. But . . I, like most women, don't necessarily have the easiest time when it comes to shopping for jeans. It is a serious process for me that takes a lot of time, money, and alterations. Let the process begin . . .

Isn't it funny . .

Isn't it funny that my Grandma Happy (yes that's her name) STILL sends me a homemade birthday cake every year in the mail, complete with frosting, candles, plates, and valentine napkins?

Isn't it funny that my boss actually gave me these gorgeous flowers for my birthday, and that everyone kept saying , "Ahhhhhh, someone must really love you" . . . and I would grin and reply, "in the most appropriate way possible" . . . to avoid starting any uwelcomed office rumors of course.

Isn't it funny that the engineers at my office gave me this sweatshirt?

Isn't it funny that Niels hates Valentines Day, but he still decided that he would support my guilty fetish with gummi grapefruits, chocolate cinnamon bears, and Aussie licorice chews? I am pathetic, I know. Equally impressive act of Niels . . . please note the black and red bucket. He hand-picked this to tell me he got into UNLV Dental School. Go Rebels! The hideous piece of art was a wedding gift we had stuffed in a box. Niels thought it would go well with the rest of his get-up. Good job Babe!

Only in Utah part IV

No joke, this is a real add from a local catalog. Seeing how Utah is the only state where the average household has at least 6 kids . . . what better piece of furniture can one own than "bunkie cribs!!???" Call me crazy, but I happen to notice a striking resemblance to kennels here. 

Innocent and Shameless . .

I am always blown away by the hilarious things children say without meaning to be funny. . . I was sitting in singing time with the 4 & 5 year-olds that I teach at my church, when out of my peripheral vision I caught one of my young boys gazing at me with utter disgust. I asked him if everything was ok, when all of a sudden he picked up my hand, carefully examined my fake nails, and looked me straight in the eyes and said ,  "You need to trim these." 

"Mom, what are hot dogs made of?"

I came across this picture today on someone's blog and was slightly disturbed that it was likely fed to a poor child because their mom saw it in Martha Stewart Magazine and thought it was sooo clever & cute. Sure, I agree that it is sometimes necessary to be deceptive to make your kids eat well. But, an Oscar-Meyerpus a la green ramen noodles? Hid-e-ous.  

Are you kidding me?

10 days is a little much . . 

Tonight Jan 24 Few Snow Showers N/A/23° 30%			High not valid after 2pm
Fri Jan 25 Few Snow Showers 29°/21° 30%			29°F Protect Your Plants From the Cold
Sat Jan 26 Mostly Sunny 38°/28° 20%			38°F
Sun Jan 27 Snow 41°/27° 80%			41°F
Mon Jan 28 Few Snow Showers 30°/15° 30%			30°F Get the Latest Flu Reports
Tue Jan 29 Few Snow Showers 29°/22° 30%			29°F
Wed Jan 30 Snow Shower 28°/17° 40%			28°F
Thu Jan 31 Few Snow Showers 32°/19° 30%			32°F Get the Latest Flu Reports
Fri Feb 1 Snow Shower 33°/17° 60%			33°F
Sat Feb 2 Snow Shower 34°/21° 40%			34°F

Aspen Grove 2008

Cuddle Sutra

One of my gifts from Niels was this book. It has over a hundred different cuddling positions. Hence, Cuddle Sutra. Hil-arious

"Matching Pillow Set"

"Over the River and Through the Woods"

The Gift That Kept on Giving . . .

We had ourselves a merry little first Christmas together. We spent a lot of time with Niels's family at the Aspen Grove Lodges by Sundance. There were over 30 people from all over the country and a handful of little ones. We had a great time playing games and ping pong, watching movies and having snow fights. We also went skiing at Park City and snowmobiling nearby the cabins.


The older we get, the less it seems like Christmas to us. That is why we decided that is so much more fun to be around children on Christmas because they are so enthusiastic about it all! So much fun to see their little eyes and expressions light up as I tell them that I can hear Santa and his reindeer on the roof. It is so wonderful to have the ability to encourage good good behavior from them by threatening to call the elves at the North Pole to tell them not to bring any toys if they are bad.



The one drawback about the week was that many people got sick from a 24 hour stomach bug, a.k.a. -the gift that kept on giving. A few people fell victim to it everyday, including Niels. I didn't catch it luckily, and there were many others who had spouses who had it and didn't catch it themselves. So random- there was no real rhyme or reason to it.

The Pressure is Off Baby - We're in!!

Niels was accepted to dental school in Arizona!!! After 7 months of stress, essays, application fees and secondary applications we are happy to have this huge relief off our backs. I am especially happy that I can stop worrying that we would become the people in the grad school horror stories you all hear about, the ones people have been haunting us with all year . . you know the ones I am talking about . . . . " I know someone who applied to 20 schools and didn't even get invited to one interview!" or I love the ethnic ones . . "My friend had a 4.2 GPA and and a 24 on his DAT and has been rejected 3 years in a row, and he is BLACK!"

These are the type of stories have kept me up at night.

The way Niels told me was pretty funny, for him at least. Two Fridays ago we had decided in the morning that we would go to a nice dinner to celebrate Niels being done with finals and me being done with my huge office move that took place that week. I called Niels twice during the day and he didn't answer. Finally he called me later in the afternoon and was being really weird and distant on the phone. At one point he even cut me off and answered one of my questions with , "So how is work going today?" By this point I was officially annoyed with his super strange phone behavior, so I told him I would see him at 6 for dinner and got off the phone.

Because I am a woman . . . I began to assume the worst cases possible, naturally. What was he doing at home that he couldn't tell me? Why was he so jittery on the phone? Then the logical thought came to me that maybe he got into school and is excited to tell me . . . but I quickly dismissed that idea, because he had only interviewed 8 days before. The school told him it would be at least a month before a decision was made. I was so annoyed/perplexed at work the rest of day.

6 o'clock rolled around and Niels came to my office to get me for dinner. I came down the elevator still irritated about our earlier phone conversation. The elevator door opened and there was Niels with a long red rose in hand. (*For those of you that know Niels, know that the flower is a BIG deal*) I hugged him and we walked out to the car. I just sat and waited for him to say something, but instead he just sat there with a huge grin on his face, enjoying the fact that I was completely confused.

Finally I looked at him and said, "Honey, are you pregnant?" We both had a good laugh, and still . . he didn't say a word. Finally we got to the restaurant after 20 minutes of driving and right before we ordered he leaned over and said, "We got in."

Needless to say I was VERY excited, but I had to play it down because we were at one of those nice, quiet and dark restaurants. Had we been somewhere normal, I probably would have jumped on the table. I was so shocked because had only been 8 days after his interview. So proud of him.

This is very long so I will close, but I will end with an update on our application status. Although we have been accepted to Midwestern University in Arizona, we still are waiting to see if we have any other options before making a final decision.

Quick Stats:

• Applied to 15 schools total
• Denied by 7 schools
• Accepted at MWU Arizona
• Interview @ UNLV Jan. 17th
• Still waiting to hear from: University of the Pacific, Howard University, University of Louisville, Boston University, University of North Carolina, Virginia Commonwealth University