Pura Vida

Typically, I try to disappear when Niels has big tests so he can really focus on doing well. Apparently I am a distraction.

While I usually jet off to Utah to see old friends or go into the office I remotely work for during his crazy weeks, an opportunity presented itself to go somewhere a little further and little more exotic than Zion during his finals week in April.

Some friends have asked me to join them as their nanny on their trip to Costa Rica. I have never been and have always wanted to go, so I am pretty excited. It will be a decent amount of work, as the kids are . . . um, well very energetic. But, they are very cute and say and do the most classic things that keep me laughing.

So while Niels is pounding the books, I'll be watching three kids, ages 8, 6, and 2. That's a fair trade, right?

Please let me know if you have been before, especially with children and if you have good ideas of things to do/see!

Dr. Niels

So he's not a doc quite yet. In fact, he has one semester down and only nine more to go. Yee-haw. Nonetheless, he was "cloaked" last night at his White Coat Ceremony.

What does that mean you ask? Why does he get one now before passing boards or anything? Well, we are both still wondering the same thing. Nonetheless, it was a cool event.

Apparently, the WCC is a relatively new ritual in some medical, dental, pharmacy, veterinary, podiatric and optomery schools that marks the student's transition from the study of preclinical to clinical health sciences.

Niels' mom and stepdad came in from Arizona to attend. We had a great time.

Class of 2012:



Dr. Niels:







Playing dress up never gets old. His coat, my robe . . .

When Hell Freezes Over

That’s right. That's when she said she’d come visit me in Las Vegas after moving back here form Utah last August . . . when it froze over.

So when it ever so randomly snowed 7 inches here in December, you better believe I told her to pack her bags. It was the most snow this city had seen in nearly three decades.

My 40 year-old best friend, Becca, (well she’s actually no longer 40, but I promised her I’d stop counting after then) pretty much hates Las Vegas to put it nicely. Typically, I am bombarded with the usual comments/questions when I meet people that are intrigued to learn I grew up here.

Nope, not Becca.

To her, my hometown is right up there with Galgotha. She even jokes sometimes about The church not being true here.

This all being said, she decided to follow-through on her afore mentioned oath, and came down with her husband to celebrate my quarter-life. They literally drove down and back, for one day. They are crazy/amazing and they made me feel pretty special.



I figured it was about time I finally saw one of the Cirque Du Solei shows. So we decided to see Mystere. I thought it was pretty good and entertaininig for a freak show. We ate at Maggiannos in the Fashion Show Mall beforehand. They also have one in SLC at The Gateway. We chose to do the family style set menu where there was a flat rate per person but you got to try all sorts of different dishes, appetizers, salads, etc. It was delish, I highly recommend.



Thanks for a great B-day guys. I hope we can do it again sometime, and hopefully I won’t have to wait for this place to freeze over again.

Snail Mail

In our rapid world of cyber relationships through SMS, Facebook, Google Chat, emails, etc. , It is always refreshing to get a good old fashion piece of snail mail. Or, 25 of them.

These puppies arrived on the eve my birthday. Each postcard had a memory or a funny saying on it.

Verdict: One of the best and most thoughtful presents ever.

C is for Cookie

I'm not much of a dessert fanatic, but I absolutely love a good, fluffy, moist (I hate that word, but I don't know how else to put it) sugar cookies. Mmm.

I finally got the best recipe for them, and made 100 of them to give out this week. Unfrtunately I was told by the author that I am not allowed to give it out. I might have already broke that rule, maybe even twice, but just maybe. . .

I fell in . . .

With Target's Valentine line this year. It really is true



I had been waiting for them to go on sale the day after tomorrow, but luckily a great friend surprised me with them for my b-day. 



Don't have these yet, but ever so appropriately for Valentines Day they will "Be mine."

Dear Google, your new app scares me.

Dear Google,

You have improved my quality of life beyond measure, as well as the lives of all the other eleventy million people that use your clever applications every day. However, I feel the need to tell you that your new application is rather creepy and a bit stalker-ish.

Don't get me wrong, I love how I don't have to go on a daily wild goose chase to see if any of the sites I follow have new content. Google Reader is indeed a wonderful, and a time-efficient beast.

I also appreciate how I don't have to pay some 4-1-1 operator in a over-crowded call center in Dubai to tell me a phone number/address that I need while I am driving/running errands. I am betting all odds that I have used Text Google at LEAST once daily for the past two years or so. It's pure genius.

Google Maps - need I say more?

You know, I really like how I can securely store all my passwords, my budget and other juicy details in Google Docs and then I can selectively invite other peeps to access them.

And above all, I relish the fact that when I haven't heard of something, or I need to know ANYTHING about everything possible, I can have the faith that "Googling it" will never let me down.

You have so many revolutionary tools. But really, why did you create this one? Are you trying to be helpful to parents that want to manage the whereabouts of their teens. Or, perhaps as one article hypothesized, you built this so people would know if their spouse was cheating.

Well, whatever it was that made the light bulb go off in some executive Google app planning meeting last year - I just thought you should know that it gives me the heebie jeebies.

Sincerely,

Susie Jensen

Of all the foods in the sea . . .

There are a plethora of reasons for which I love Costco. But this week, I especially love Costco for possibly saving our lives. If you haven't heard already, there is a nation-wide warning on a salmonella outbreak in many items containing peanut butter. 7 cases have already been reported in Las Vegas!

Now I wasn't really put out with last year's tomato scare, but PB just happens to be one of my favorite foods, and this is one warning I am pretty upset about.

As of this morning I have received a total of 3 calls, each one for a separate item that I have purchased since LAST JULY that contain peanut butter. An intense and slightly scary automated voice demanded me to immediately dispose or destroy any remaining products I had that contain PB.

I find it a tad creepy that technology has come so far that Costco knows that I purchased Cliff bars, Zone bars, and PB pretzels since last summer and can call me to tell me to throw them all away within the same day that this whole thing hit the press . Yet, at the same time it also adds a whole other level of coolness to the magic that is Costco.

Too old to dream?

After watching High School Musical on ice live last week (with my nieces), I had the same feeling I had after watching the gymnastics portion of the summer Olympics last year and after every episode of Fox's "So you Think you Can Dance." I was slightly regretful for about 20 minutes that I never got into something that I stuck with long enough to become really great at it.

I guess it comes as no surprise then, that after watching this . . .

"Keep your head in the game"

"Stick to the stuff you know"

That Saturday's date night consisted of this . . .

And this . . .

Niels is a good sport.

Orange you glad I didn't say banana?

I think I have missed my window to catch-up post about our Christmas.

I will just mention that was filled with smorgasbords, hours of Rock Band, and lots and lots of delicious fresh orange juice straight from the trees in Niels’ mom’s backyard. Who knew that citrus could thrive in Arizona?

Niels and his brothers laboring in the orchard..

Wii-diculous

I‘m a fairly logical consumer, I think so at least. I usually take my time making decisions about bigger purchases and really consider if I/we really need or want it. This is all of course only valid as long as I am not at Target/Costco. For some reason I can always justify needing mass grocery items for the two of us. Always makes sense, always.

All of my monetary inhibitions flew out the window for a few days this month when I got the sudden urge to buy us a Wii. Sure we have played the Wii a dozen times over the past year and have had fun. But not enough fun to make us want to go on a wild goose hunt after one. And then, we played Wii Fit at our friends house on New Year’s Eve. Now I had seen ads for the thing and thought it was one of the dumber pansy exercise inventions ever created since the Gazelle. Nonetheless, I decided to test my hypothesis and had a change of heart after a 3 hour trial run. They rock.

I woke up New Years Day, sore like an old lady, eager to find us a Wii, and more importantly a WiiFit board. I realized that they were the new Tickle-me-Elmo item after patronizing the closest Best Buy and Target, only to be laughed at by the Geek Sqauder and the Target Team Member when I asked them to direct me to them. “Oh, you’re out of them? Can you see if any of your other locations have them?” Additional boisterous laughter followed.

Suddenly I realized that I was about to become one of those people I always make fun of at Christmas time for spending too much time and effort tracking down the hot item of the year. I was on a mission.

I can only tell you the rest of my story if you promise not to judge. . .

I figured it would be really dumb of retailers to advertise Wii Fit boards in the Sunday paper, and then not have them in stock. Sure enough, there she was smack dab in the Best Buy ad. It was 8 now am, they opened at 10, and my church started at 11. Brilliancy flashed in my mind (some might call it Satan), I figured I had time to get ready for church, go be one of the crazies that stands in line for a dumb store to open, and then be home in time for Niels to wake up and go to church.

Long story short, I was number 8 in the line of about 25 other crazies waiting for the store to open. I was all dolled up in a dress and heels, standing there with all the people that just rolled out of bed in their sweats. Filled to the brim with adrenaline, I ran to the back corner of the store with my high-heels on and secured one of the 13 boards without too much trampling.

I’m pretty ridiculous, I know.

.

Near extinction . .

 

 The popularity of the names Susan and Susie over the years . . . I'm almost extinct.  Then again, Niels didn't even make the chart.

Check out your name, or your kid's names here:  http://www.babynamewizard.com/voyager

It's not really looking like Christmas in Vegas, but we'll try anyway.

It's still 70 degrees here (not complaining), so we figured we better do something to get in the holiday spirit. After all, it is our first winter away from snow in 7 years. (again, not complaining)

The entryway creation . . .

The tree . .

I have this quirk sometimes that if I am going to do something that I care about, I want it done well. Hence this little Douglas Fir. I didn't want to fork out the dough on an expensive tree this year, only to adorn it with tacky ornaments that would drive me crazy to look at every day (being that those are likely all we could afford right now). But, it's not Xmas without a tree so I decided to put the 11 ornaments that we own on this 18 inch beauty. We pick a new one each year and the others were gifts. My plan is to get a steal in January on a big tree and some pretty ornaments for next year.

I promise I am going somewhere with the following:

Most of you probably already know that many celebrities have their various assets insured. Well this was completely news to me last month and frankly I was baffled to learn that J-lo's derriere is insured, as well as are Mariah Carey's legs, not to mention Bruce Springsteen's voice, Liberace's hands, Dolly Parton's you-know-whats, etc. , etc.

I also recently learned that most dentists insure their hands in case anything debilitating happens during their career. While it totally makes sense, I guess it never really crossed my mind that we would have a policy on Niels' paws someday.

Still going somewhere with this. . .

This all being said, I am slightly overprotective of Niels' hands as they are kind of our future. I got a tad nervous when he played in last week's Turkey bowl, and to be honest I have doubts about our ski trip next weekend as I envision all kinds of worse case scenarios. I know it sounds crazy, but Niels will testify that his professors back me up on this.

Earlier this week I was nervous for his hands as he climbed a 20 ft ladder to hang Christmas lights on the top story of our house. Now he tried to convince me that it was ok and very normal to just hang them on the first story above the garage. But because of my above mentioned quirk, that was simply not an option. That is, it was simply not an option until I saw how tall that ladder really was. I told Niels to let me get up on the ladder becasue we needed his hands. He replied from 20 ft. above me, "You're not getting up here. We can still have children if I don't have hands."

Ta dah . . .

We took the girls to an outdoor light fesitval at Springs Preserve. Jen told Taylor the real Santa was there and she cocked her head and rolled her eyes in very Taylor fashion.

Who needs a Douglass Fir, when you can have a huge Saguaros instead? Kind of cool.

Turkey Tales

It was soo last week, but . . .

This year we hosted Thanksgiving dinner at our house for my family of 6, minus both my sisters and my nieces. My mom brought the bird and Niels and I made all the sides. I told her I couldn't cook anything else if I had a Turkey in my oven all day. While that is very true, I was actually just too nervous about making a turkey.

It was the very first adult only holiday we have ever had. It felt slightly incomplete to not have the girls running around to buffer conversation with how cute they look or how funny they are.

I didn't take any pictures of my food creations, just of the ambiance . . .

My awesome brother Ryan saying, "Stop, don't take a picture of me . . . I don't want to be on your dumb blog!" He used to work in banquets at various hotels and has amazing napkin folding skills. I am jealous.

My best friend Jessica Jensen, her husband and her kids stayed with us for 3 nights. Her kids are pretty much little replicas of her and her husband, Travis. So cute.

On the same day that Jessica and Travis left, we wiped down the counter, washed all the sheets and towels and had a quick overnight visit from yet another Jensen family. Niels' brother Trevor and his family stayed with us on their way back to SLC from Disneyland. Caden and Hailey are alwasy cracking us up. It was so fun to see all of them.

To top off the busy week, we had . . . eh hem, we got to speak in church on Sunday. I was actually ok with it so people can stop asking us if we are new at functions.

Needless to say it was a crazy and eventful week. However, we are indeed thankful for the wonderful family and friends we had to share the holiday with!

You Old Hag

If you know me well, then you will know my best friend Jessica Jensen as she usually comes up in conversation on average of about 3.74 times a day.

Today is her 25th bday (you're old Kika) so I thought I'd tell you all how much I love this woman. Seriouslly, who drives 10 hours to be a bridesmaid at my wedding 7 days after giving birth?!

Jessica and I became friends shortly after she decided to no longer be scared of me in 7th grade. You see I went through a skater phase in middle school where I wore a chain on my wallet and one those metal ball necklaces. I also wore blue mascara with white eyeliner and only wore Vans shoes (kind of like Avril). Jessica, being a naive girl from Farmington, Utah . . . knew that girls that looked like me must have been trouble. But, she eventually she saw past my facade, and embraced my quirks in all their glory. The rest is simply history.

I first thought about listing 25 things I love about you, but I could only come up with 7.

So instead I just want to say thank you for being such a huge part of my life. I know without a doubt that I would not be who/where I am today if you were not in my life these past 12 years.

You make me excited to be a mom someday when I watch you play with your kids. I just hope you will still consider living next door to me someday when we finally decide where we settle. And no, Forks, Washington is not an option.

Love your guts.