Now You See It, Now You Don't

The timing of this incident is just impeccable, given the last post about swapping clothes with the girls.

So I bought myself a fabulous new dress a week ago. Even wore it to church feeling oh-so-cute, with even my girls commenting on the dress's cuteness. Definitely a winner for my wardrobe.

Today, I hucked the cute-new dress into the washer, then pulled it out of the dryer, and found a MINI-cute dress. I was speechless. As I went to put it in the basket, I noticed instantly that the dang dress was several inches shorter than it was 60 minutes prior to its fateful soaking.

It is now Kimberly's cute-new dress. To say she is excited is a mere understatement. She did tell me she felt bad that I had only gotten to wear it once. Cheers to thoughtful daughter!

Can I also just add that my sadness extends to this simple fact -- that she is old enough for a women's size large dress (granted, a shrunken large, but you get the idea). P.s. She is only 2 women's sizes smaller than me in shoe size. ...and she is already just shy of 5 feet tall.

I heard someone say once that time goes really slow when you have little ones because the days seem to just drag on. and on. and on. But once they start school, it goes by really fast. I can certainly testify to that.

Now I am in the market for a new-cute dress.

Freaky Friday

On Friday, Kimberly and Alicia had a mother/daughter achievement day activity where we had to dress up like the other, you know, like the Freaky Friday movie.

I gave the girls free reign to any and all of my clothes and I tried to squeeze into some of their clothes. No such luck. Next best idea was trying to find something somewhat teenybopper in my closet. Success! The girls approved of my outfit, and I did eventually find one of Alicia's vests that fit me (sort of).

Kind of funny seeing my clothes on a curve-less version of me.

Also of note this week was Natalie's 4th birthday.

John was pleased to find out Natalie insisted on Blue frosting. Even after her older sisters tried to talk her into fabulous pink frosting, she was not deterred. And she wanted the castle cake, which Kimberly so kindly helped me with.

I have spent my free time whipping up this fort for Natalie. Isn't it cute? I remember having one when I was little and we played in it all the time (it's just one of those forts that goes over a card table), so when I got a sewing machine and found a cute tutorial online, I knew I had to make one.

It's a hit, thank goodness.

Spring Break, New Mexico Style

I love long road trips.

What other way can one go from mountainous desert, to rolling hills, desert nothingness with tumbleweeds, and back up into the mountain terrain with beautiful trees all in one day?

So, when John found out he needed to be down in New Mexico for another business trip, and it just so happened to coincide with our Spring Break, I hopped on the traveling bandwagon.

I love the fact that Utah is surrounded by so many amazing states and places to see and do within just a days' drive, of which we have been to many, but surprisingly, New Mexico has never been on my list of places to visit, probably just because I didn't know very much about the state.

Now that I know what a fabulous place it is, let me try and entice you to this great deserty place with the following spiel.

It helped that we were staying up in the mountains as the southern part of the state is a tad on the dry, flat, and tumble-weedy side of things, as evidenced below -

- as seen from the canyon drive up to our pad. Yup, definitely desertish,


especially when compared to this luscious area right next to our condo.

However, amidst the desert land is this national park - full of white sand dunes you can sled down. In fact, scroll back up the the picture of my girls in the canyon two pictures above - see that strip of white in the very top of the picture? That is White Sands National Park.

Can you believe that?

We had so much fun that we went back for a second time in the evening after John got off work.


We had 3 days to play together as a family before John had to be to work, so on one of the days, we hiked on some of the trails near our condo, which led us to these old railroad trestles, one a little more crumbled than the other.


We were looking for a geocache amidst this trestle rubble, which is why we are climbing all over it.

While hiking into town, we ran into a few houses like this one with very interesting versions of foundation set on the hillside.

Anyone interested in purchasing this baby?

The song How Firm a Foundation comes to mind right about now.

Back in desertville, we encountered some really fascinating petroglyphs dating way back - there were literally hundreds of them along the hiking trail, so the girls were in heaven. It was like a huge scavenger hunt.

I of course got a sunburn that day because I left the sunscreen back at the condo. oops.

Here is just one of the 40 pictures John took of various cool carvings in the rocks. Aren't you glad I'm not making you look at all of them? You are just going to have to trek down there and see them for yourself.

The highlight of the trip though was down in a little spot out in the middle of nowhere just north of the Texas border -

Carlsbad Caverns.


We drove nearly 3 hours to get there, then spent four hours down below in the caves just wandering around in pure wonderment of the beauty and hugeness of a world completely hidden from sunlight.

Here is the entrance. Funny story, as we started walking down into the dark unknown territory, Natalie started walking slower and slower until she finally quit walking altogether, made an abrupt about-face and informed us she was going home! John luckily worked his magic on her and convinced her otherwise, especially when she started seeing all of the cool things inside.

None of our pictures even do the caverns justice, so I won't even bother posting any, other than this one of us standing in the caves.

Suffice it to say, it truly was a most amazing place.

Alas, when the week ended, we had to leave John and the sunshine so he could finish out his business trip and the girls could return to school. We commenced the 15-hour drive back, this time breaking it up into 2 days and with the help of one of my neighbors who happened to spend the week visiting her sister in Albuquerque and was looking for a cheap ride home. Win-win for both of us!

Back to Utah and reality, just in time for the snowy weekend. Sunny New Mexico, I miss you!!

Ouch.

Fourteen years and four kids later, the inevitable finally happened.

Our first broken bone. Poor Kimberly.

How did my ever-so-cautious 11-year-old break her finger you ask?

sigh.

Goofing off with her best friend during drama practice at school.

You gotta' love those phone calls from the school:

8:40 a.m.
"Mom?" "Can you come pick me up?"
"Why, what's up - didn't I just drop you off?"
"I broke my finger."
"WHAT!?!?!? Are you sure?"
"Um,...yah...the finger is facing a different direction from the other fingers."
"I'll be right there."

March - In Like a Lion and Still Going.

March has wooshed in like a lion for us, though as March comes to a close, there doesn't seem to be a lamb anywhere in sight as we're getting pounded with yet another storm.

The month started out with Kimberly's 11th Birthday. We celebrated as a family at Chuck E Cheese - her choice, not ours by any means. Afterwards, we dug into this yummy looking cake with mounds of flowered frosting.


She is getting older as we inhale. In fact, one of those boxes holds a couple new t-shirts for her, and sadly, I did not buy them in the kids section. yes, that's right folks, she has moved into the older girls section. yikes! (notice I can't say the T word. t_ _ n _ _ _ r )

As for the rest of the month, we spent a healthy amount of time in Salt Lake City at the Energy Solutions Arena for these two events (guess which one John enjoyed more) -

Grandma Lynn treated us to Disney on Ice. The girls were in heaven.

Disney Princess Heaven that is.
(you can't see Alicia - she is on the other side of Grandma)

A couple weeks later, Rock 'n' Roll Heaven for the parental side of the family -

Bon Jovi is John's absolute favorite singer and band, so when he came to SLC on tour about 8 years ago, of course we went. Having never been to a real rock concert before, I learned really quick that rock concerts are very, Very, VERY loud. I came prepared this time around with my magical earplugs - the very thing that allowed me to actually make it to the end of the concert without ringing ears like the first time around. Don't worry, I only put them in for about 4 songs, but trust me, it helped immensely.


Interestingly, Bon Jovi has been rocking for 27 years, so there was a wide range of people at the concert - from teens, to twentysomethings, to us thirtyish ones, even couples in their 40s and 50s.


It was a very good concert indeed, especially since we got to enjoy a night out without kidlets (thanks grandma rimington) and attempt to feel younger again. We sat next to another couple that looked just like us - in their thirties, married, probably had kids - they rocked out about as much as we did.


and Lastly, what would a blog post be without a few snippets of Megan's latest (mis) adventures?

We enjoyed a trip out to one of the local frozen yogurt shops where Megan Really enjoyed hers.

...and here are the more civilized of the natives. well, maybe just a little more civilized.

I think that's it for the month. Until next time, I'll keep singing with Bon Jovi,
It's My Life -
It's now or never - wo, ooh,
I ain't gonna live forever
I just want to live while I'm alive,
It's My Life!

Don't Hate Me Because I'm Beautiful

So John and I have a problem.

A problem with this particular family member -


I am not kidding you - she is an accident magnet, and we've only owned her for 8 months! You've heard of lemon cars. Well, we seem to have the exact opposite problem. She keeps garnering the attention of other cars who just can't seem to stay out of her personal space.

Another car sideswiped her frontal region in January. Sadly, the other car didn't even stay long enough to apologize. He simply sped off with only his mark on her front bumper as a witness (actually, to be more specific, her bra. I can't even begin to share with you her feelings of violation). Ever onward to court next month to remedy that situation.

In the interim while waiting for that unpleasant event so we can recoop the funds from the other car owner to pay for her repairs, another car just couldn't withstand her pull. An Oldsmobile Alero could not resist the temptation of giving her a love tap in the rear end at the church parking lot tonight where a 16-year-old driver backed up into our too-beautiful-for-her-own good set of wheels. I mean really, Really?? Why can't the other cars just keep their bumpers to themselves because this is getting really tiresome.

Now if we can just keep the other gawkers away from our baby. I guess we're just getting a little advance preparation for our girls' dating years coming just around the corner.

Confessions of a Stay-at-Home Mom

I have a confession to make. Something I have been too ashamed to do anything about for some time. Okay, if we're being honest here, which I am, I will confess that it has actually been a problem for the last 10 years (did I really just write that out loud?).

I can't be too hard on myself because really, it happens to the best of us.

In fact, a few of you might be experiencing the same problem as I. Come on now, join with me as we proceed to count all of the t-shirts in our closets. That's right, my everyday wardrobe consists solely of t-shirts and jeans. I have become the classical stay-at-home mom in whatever is comfiest. I may venture out and buy a different color, or even - gasp - a v-neck or two, but really, my shirts are all the same.

I have decided my current clothing status has not been due to lack of interest - trust me, every time John and I have a hot date, I stare at my less-than-impressive choices and wish I had something a little more classy to wear. It really boils down to two things: cost and wearability (you know, comfyness). First off, boring t-shirts frankly cost less than their fancy counterparts. When I only get claim to our clothing budget every few months - now that four girls seem to have taken over that budget category - I am usually trying to get the most for my buck, so enter a few t-shirts into the equation and I'm good to go.

My friend suggested I try shopping at Ross, where they have a lot of designer shirts (aka more fancy) for a fraction of their normal cost. I reluctantly drove by my favorite clothing stores to give Ross a try last night since this month I finally had access to the clothing budget - all of it - which is due cause for celebration because miraculously, nary a girl is in immediate need of tights, pants, or shoes. I figured I better run as fast as I could to use my budget before someone even sounded the ouch word when it came to their digits getting scunched in too-small shoes or unwittingly getting a a hole in yet another pair of pants.

Upon entering the store, I retrieved a cart and proceeded to the women's shirt section, where to my surprise I found quite a few options I liked, all for around $10 a piece! I began filling my cart with options because I decided I was going to be bold and try on stylish pieces I may not have normally considered. Before I knew it, I had about 40 shirts in the cart (no really, I'm not kidding). I decided I better go try them on and widdle my selection down to a more manageable number (you know, like 5, so I wouldn't have to obliterate the grocery budget for the month too while I was at it).

Surprisingly, I fell in love with 6 very stylish shirts, all within my budget (a few of the shirts were even priced at $7, money savings to my happy wallet) and they are NOT t-shirts! At first, I was a little unsure if this find -

- would even look good on, but wa-la, it looks very stylin', don't you think?

and this one...

and these ...


okay, so maybe this one looks more t-shirty than the others, but see the cool design on the bodice? Hard to tell in the picture, but definitely un-t-shirt like.

and sadly, I may be regretting this shirt choice because every time I have put it on since coming home, it feels strangely like a maternity shirt with the flowing front area. I may have to rethink my decision on this one - good thing the tag is still on.

and for my hot date on Friday night with my fabulously hot husband, this sexy number...

(okay, so the date only consists of dinner out, but still, a hot date nonetheless).

Now it is on to buying new swimming suits and spring clothes for the girls in the upcoming months. By the time John and I catch a glimpse of the the clothing budget again, which given summer clothes and new school clothes and shoes after that, probably won't be until November, perhaps it will have been long enough for me to talk John into getting a purple tie and shirt. Not counting my eggs before they hatch though.