Prove it

I had this friend in high school who had a minor obsession with heart throb Josh Harnett after Pearl Harbor came out. Then again, who didn't?  

Randomly one day she told our group of friends that she scored the chance to meet Joshy in LA, and talked it up big time for a few weeks.  Ironically enough, she  "dropped her camera in the pool"  while she was there and the film was totally ruined.  Consequently, she had nothing to show us, but lots to tell, about her wonderful afternoon with Josh.  

Because it all sounded too good to be true, I chose not to believe her because the evidence was gone to prove it.  So high school/Mean Girls of me, I know. 

Well this story surfaced in my mind as I sit here in Costa Rica without my camera.  Nope, I didn't drop mine in the water . . .  I left it at the gate at LAX before I even got on the plane to come.

So I have no evidence, and not even a tan to sport,  to prove that I was here. 

So when I post stories or tell you about my trip when I get back, it's ok if you don't believe me. 

Brainfreeze

I love this picture of my girls from a recent cousin sleepover we had at our house.

To me, it is so symbolic of the care-free innocence and enjoyment of childhood . . . Then again, I'm 25 and I still feel like this when I drink Slurpees.

Being Lazy in AZ

We still have some years to see where the good winds will take us to eventually settle. But if I controlled the winds, one of the places I’d have them blow us for good is Arizona.

We spent last week in Arizona for Niels’ spring break. I particularly enjoy Arizona because it seems to be a hybrid of all the good things I like about Las Vegas, Southern California and Utah.

We arrived just in time to smell the goodness of the annual orange blossoms blooming. Did I mention that I am still blown away by the fact that citrus thrives in such severe heat in the summer? Anyway, I wish I could have bottled the scent that was in the air and brought it home to release in my house. Amazing.

The oranges taste even better than they smell, so we made sure to pick about 50 of them straight from the tree to bring home.

There are about only two places I will eat hot dogs: 1) Costco 2)Baseball games. Baseball isn’t necessarily our big thing, but our friends are intense Angels fanatics so we thought we'd join them for a spring training game in Glendale.

We also hiked/rock climbed Camel back Mountain with Niels’ mom and step father, Dave. I hope I can still scale mountains in my 50s. They rock.

I still had to work while we there, but luckily Penny kept Niels company.

Ch, Ch, Chihuly

If you have been to the Bellagio in Las Vegas, you have seen the unmistakable work of Dale Chihuly.

He created the amazing glass flower ceiling that hangs in their main lobby:

Even though he looks kind of interesting/pirate-y . . .

The man makes amazing creations and is incredibly talented.
(Sidenote: did you know that many glassblowers eventually go blind because of the extreme heat their eyes are exposed to?)

Last week we visited his new traveling exhibit at the desert botanical gardens in Phoenix with Niels' mom and step-father. It was quite unique and impressive.

We were in awe and couldn’t stop commenting about what a challenge it would be to make all of these pieces, to transport them, to install them and to take them down and get them ready for the next city. I mean, look at this!

"The Sun"

"The Moon"

Our Favorite. Niels titled it, "The Marbles I Used to Play With"

Although impressive, I wouldn't necessarily hang this chandelier in our home in fear for our lives, or the lives of any of our future children.

"The Spanish Hat"

"Cattails" (being artsy with my camera)

If you're in Phoenix soon, include this on your things to see

You're the Weiner

Now you too can be a winner like me. Lucky you!

My crafty/creative sister-in-law posted this, so I thought I'd give it a whirl.

The first five people to respond to this post will receive something made by me for you. It will be my choice what I make, but it will be tailored just for you.

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2- What I create will be just for you.
3- It'll be done this year. (might be December 31st, but you WILL get something)
4- You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a story. It may be poetry or an article on properly cleaning your face before a masque. I may draw or paint something. I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!
5- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange :)

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog.

The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment will receive a personal surprise made by me.

Happy commenting :)

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..