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 . . 

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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

Looting

We were sitting the fence on whether or not to put up a tree this year as we would be so busy to enjoy it very much.  However, since my office is moving this Friday, I didn't bother setting up the tree there only to have to take it down for the move.  Also, the office is shut down for the week of Christmas, so it wouldn't make much sense to set it up at the new space either.  

I figured the office tree and all of it's decor needed a good home this XMAS, so we decided to loot and to adopt it this season =)

 

The only problem once we brought it home was that this 10' tree was way too tall for our itty-bitty house. So we were crafty and took out the middle segment of the tree and decided to use the top and bottom half to make our first little Xmas tree. It's wobbly if you touch it too hard, but it's just great for us!  

Niels is like a little boy in this picture

                    

Ta Dah!

 Well, I learned here, that pictures of trees never do justice because you can't see all the detail.  

Only in Utah Part II

Christmas Goodies

So, this is my (Niels's) firsts post on our little blog. I thought I'd spread the love and post a few Christmas songs. This year I've been listening to more "modern" Christmas tunes, so here's a few that are pretty hard to come by.

Good times, good times.

We are always happy and very willing to escape the cold and the snow. Last weekend we traded Utah's first snow day, for a heavy weekend of rain in Arizona! We flew down along with the rest of the family to celebrate the retirement of Dave Colton, Niels' step-father. It was a great and relaxing time filled with late-night girl talk among the sisters, and lots of sports watching among the brothers (and grandpa, of course).

Niels and I have been fairly spoiled the past three weeks with complimentary, fancy schmancy dinners. We have eaten at Sundance, La Caille, Ben & Sara's (my sister-in law who is in culinary school), The resort where Dave's retirement dinner was held, and Bambara at Hotel Monaco, SLC. Not too bad for newlyweds, eh? We have struggled with our transition back to normal people food this week. =)

A VERY Rare Occasion: The Colton/Jensen Crew Minus all the grandchildren at the dinner.

My mother-in-law treated the girls to pedicures! (oh yeah, and my my brother- in -law Dave too!)

Usually wives get baby hungry before their husbands do . . . These pictures of Niels and our niece Abby make me wonder if that will be the case for us.

Only in Utah . . .

A bumper sticker I saw in the Target parking lot tonight.