Thoughts by Nicole

Mostly Pictures

2009-05-11T22:03:00.005-06:00

I know it's been a very long time since my last post, but I'm finally done with spring semester grades (just posted the last ones half an hour ago!) and I'm already a little bored. So here are a few pictures of the last few months.

First, Aurora and Rayston blowing bubbles outside.

Aurora riding her bike, which she got for her 3rd birthday. She loves it, although on this particular day she was torn between the bike and the bubbles (see above).

Here is Aurora showing off her new Barbie, along with a dog she named Rainbow, just after her birthday...or before. I forget.

This is me and Aurora sitting in a helicopter at the children's museum at the Gateway in SLC during one of Aurora's SLC birthday trips (yes, there were two).

Aurora and Daddy on that same trip (which we took on the Front Runner).

Finally, Aurora checking out the view from the train just before we got going. Perhaps you can guess which train station we boarded on. :)

That's all for now. Now it's time to catch up on all of you!

Just Some Pictures

2009-02-26T22:44:00.003-07:00

Aurora finally smiles for the camera:

Hanging on my treadmill despite my many warnings that she's going to fall (which she's done, lots):

Bothering Rayston while he's trying to play a game:

Aurora holding one of the Valentine's Day treat bags we made for her friends at her daycare. She doesn't look happy because she was crying right before this photo. If I remember correctly, I think she was sobbing over the shirt I wanted her to wear (the one in the photo) because it was pink, for V-day. That's a sticker on her cheek (yes, a bribe to get her to calm down).

Aurora's first photo. Obviously the balance is off and the hand was wobbly, but hey, it's not too bad for a 2-year-old.

A New Dinner: Tortellini with Asparagus

2009-02-16T20:29:00.005-07:00

Some of you know that I like to cook. I really like it a lot when I have the time to mess around with new things. Tonight I really didn't have the time, but when I went to make egg rolls, I noticed my bean sprouts looked a little iffy. Then I noticed an unused bundle of asparagus... and a new recipe was born. For those of you who like to cook, this is a really easy, pretty quick, fun dinner.

Tortellini with Asparagus

1 bundle asparagus
1/2 medium white or yellow onion
2 roma tomatoes
2/3 package frozen cheese tortellini
1/2 jar Ragu alfredo sauce
1/2 cup chicken or turkey stock
1/4 cup milk
salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 375.

2. Chop asparagus into chunks (whatever size you want), onions into 1/2 inch squarish pieces, and tomatoes into 1/4 inch chunks. [Note: don't forget to chop off the ends of the asparagus based on where they naturally snap when you bend them--throw away these ends.] Toss all vegs in a cassserole dish and drizzle a little olive oil over the top. Grind some fresh salt and pepper overtop. Toss all together. Put dish in preheated oven.

3. Boil some water; cook tortellini according to directions.

4. Whisk 1/2 jar of alfredo sauce, 1/2 cup stock, and 1/4 cup milk together in a small bowl or large-ish liquid measuring cup.

5. Drain tortellini once cooked to al-dente.

6. Pull dish out of oven and toss tortellini in with vegetables. Drizzle sauce mix overtop and then stir up.

7. Bake again for about 15 minutes. Give it one more toss once it's done, then salt and pepper to taste.

I think chicken would also be really good in here, but I love cooking vegetarian dishes.

If you give it a try, let me know what you think. I've noticed sales on asparagus at Kent's and Smith's, so this might be the time of year to do this.

Don't forget to serve this in your favorite princess dishes with flower forks.

P.S. I don't really believe in recipes, but I do recognize the difficulty of replicating a dish without some guidelines--so enjoy my first attempt at writing down an actual recipe of one of my dinner concoctions.

It's Spring Time Here

2009-02-07T23:04:00.004-07:00

... on my blog. I started gmail-chatting with Becca, and she walked me through the process of making my blog look crafty. Then she created my header--isn't she fabulous? I've rearranged a few things on here, and I think it's about time because I've been blogging for nearly two years (not that I've actually been blogging consistently for that long). I like the new look--nice and springy, even if my driveway is still mostly ice and my backyard is sloggy, frosty mud.

Me and J at our "Christmas" (actually December 27; thank you Old Man Winter) get-together with my fam

J, me, Rory, and Rayston at my b-day shindig with my fam

Mother/princess

The princess's solo shot

Catching Up

2009-01-18T15:16:00.016-07:00

Isn't my kid cute?

I'm taking a break from writing a lecture for my online class (done), creating a strict syllabus for my high school boys to follow for English this semester (not done), and preparing my lessons for Tuesday morning and Wednesday afternoon (also not done) just to blog about my last couple of months. So here it goes.

Thanksgiving was fun. Lots of good food. I hate mashed potatoes and gravy, but I love turkey doused in cranberry goo.

(The pies I made)

The end of last semester was a huge pain in the @$$. Each of my 40-some odd students turned in between 4 and 6 papers at the conclusion of the course, so I had a huge pile of crap to grade.

(No photo available. Be grateful.)

It snowed a looooooooot.

(Our back yard, including the dog's kennel)

(Just some cool frost)

We went to some Christmas parties.

(Brave girl--not at all afraid of Santa)

(A little afraid of Santa)

On Christmas Eve, we read Aurora all of her Christmas stories, including the Grinch, a Sandra Bonyton collection, Frosty the Snowman, and this classic.

(Daddy's turn to read)

(Our new Christmas jammies)

Christmas day was super fun until we had to cancel our plans due to the raging snow storm. Both kids received their own 22-inch TV for their bedrooms from Santa (Daddy). Grandparents went totally overboard spoiling everyone.

(One of the new TVs)

We let Aurora have some sparkling cider from a plastic champagne flute on New Year's Eve. Doesn't this photo make it look like we're terribly irresponsible parents? Funny.

(She loved this)

(Yes, this was really midnight. Apparently our girl can party with the big kids just fine)

Then, finally, school started again. This semester I'm teaching an online class at SLCC, a face-to-face/satellite combo class at USU, and a high school English class at my residential treatment center. That's a lot of prep time, considering each class uses a totally different textbook and curriculum. Once again, no photo available. But here's a video of my cute little kid on Christmas Eve. Soon I will post some video of her singing, so Derek, stay tuned for a follow-up to "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."

Six Quirks

2008-11-30T12:34:00.002-07:00

My beautiful friend Chelsi tagged me to write 6 quirks about myself, so I guess I have to.

1. I'm kind of double-jointed. If I sit on the floor with my legs stretched straight out and then flex my quad muscles, my heels lift off the floor about 4 inches--and the backs of my knees are still flat on the floor. My shoulders are flexible too.

2. I still wear my retainers to bed even though I got my braces off in 2001. They are blue with a little white daisy in the middle of the top one.

3. I fold and organize all of my underwear. Want to learn for yourself? Hold panties up, facing you. Fold edge of crotch up to waistband. Fold left side in to the 2/3 mark; fold right side in to 1/2 mark. Stack in drawer, folded seams down, according to genres: cotton bikinis, thongs (yes, I fold those too), hipsters, all microfiber blends, and lace hipster/bikini combinations.

4. I hate makeup, but I collect it. About 90% of my makeup collection is made up of items from various Clinique bonuses that my mom didn't want. I have only "run out" of an eyeshadow once before; all other shadows (and if you've ever seen a Clinique bonus, you know these are fairly small eyeshadows) either still exist in one of my half-dozen Clinique bags tucked in the back of my bathroom cabinet or have been given to other people because I know I'll never wear them. When I do wear makeup, I apply all eye things sparingly because I have sensetive eyes and contacts, so even the smallest flake of mascara is really, REALLY unappreciated. I don't wear any "face" things except occasionally moisturizer, and I'm completely obsessed with lipgloss. I occasionally throw or give away lipglosses so I can make room for more. I've never "run out" of a lipgloss; only chapstick.

5. Like Chelsi, I sort out my candies by color. This really only applies to M&Ms because I don't really eat any other artificially-colored small candies. I count each color of M&M in my hand or in my 1/3 C measuring cup (which I use more for sanitation purposes than portioning purposes) and then eat to the smallest common denominator. I eat brown, red, and orange first, then eat blues, greens, and yellows in combinations. I do the same thing with my Lucky Charms marshmallows after I've eaten all the little cereals, which ultimately just get in the way of eating marshmallows for breakfast.

6. I watch back-to-back Lifetime movies every time I am left alone on a Sunday, like I will be this afternoon when J goes to work and the kids go to Grandpa's house for a Grandma/Grandpa movie date kind of thing. I realize Lifetime movies really suck: the acting is terrible, the drama is manufactured, the Botox is poorly administered, the men are half-decent-looking at best, and the screenplay is usually laughable. But still I watch. Lifetime movies are as addicting as old Seinfeld reruns, which I never appreciated until recently when J started watching them every time they were on TBS.

Now that I've revealed strange things about myself, I have to tag people. No one really reads my blog, and some of those who do read it have no blog of their own, so that doesn't leave many choices. Becca has already done this and so has Chelsi, so I guess that leaves Mindy and Krystal, who might read this sometime. Incidentally, if they would ever log back in to their blogs, I would tag Kati and Panini. If you do it, leave me a message and let me know so I can check it out.

My Numerology

2008-11-30T11:59:00.002-07:00

An old friend from high school and college found me through Facebook and sent me a link to her blog, on which I discovered a link to find out your numerology (shout out to Krystal). I tried it (results below) and now I'm really interested in seeing what everyone else's numerology is. So try it yourself and post it on your blog so we can all read it. At the end of your numerology report, there will be a link for you to enter your birthdate and find out what that means. I did mine but didn't post it; it's only kind of interesting. The most notable thing I learned from mine was that I share my birthdate with Langston Hughes (totally one of my all-time favorite poets), Lisa Marie Presley (unfortunately, I already knew that) and Boris Yeltsin (I think I'm going to ignore that one). Anyway, the name details are below; let me know if you think any of this is right.

You entered: Nicole Dana Butler

There are 16 letters in your name.Those 16 letters total to 66There are 7 vowels and 9 consonants in your name. What your first name means:

Greek: Male: People's victory.
Greek: Female: Feminine form of Nicholas: People's victory.

Your number is: 3

The characteristics of #3 are: Expression, verbalization, socialization, the arts, the joy of living.

The expression or destiny for #3:An Expression of 3 produces a quest for destiny with words along a variety of lines that may include writing, speaking, singing, acting or teaching; our entertainers, writers, litigators, teachers, salesmen, and composers. You also have the destiny to sell yourself or sell just about any product that comes along. You are imaginative in your presentation, and you may have creative talents in the arts, although these are more likely to be latent. You are an optimistic person that seems ever enthusiastic about life and living. You are friendly, loving and social, and people like you because you are charming and such a good conversationalist. Your ability to communicate may often inspire others. It is your role in life to inspire and motivate; to raise the spirits of those around you.

The negative side of number 3 Expression is superficiality. You may tend to scatter your forces and simply be too easygoing. It is advisable for the negative 3 to avoid dwelling on trivial matters, especially gossip.

Your Soul Urge number is: 3

A Soul Urge number of 3 means: With the Soul Urge number 3 your desire in life is personal expression, and generally enjoying life to its fullest. You want to participate in an active social life and enjoy a large circle of friends. You want to be in the limelight, expressing your artistic or intellectual talents. Word skills may be your thing; speaking, writing, acting, singing. In a positive sense, the 3 energy is friendly, outgoing and always very social.

You have a decidedly upbeat attitude that is rarely discouraged; a good mental and emotional balance.

The 3 Soul Urge gives intuitive insight, thus, very high creative and inspirational tendencies. The truly outstanding trait shown by the 3 Soul Urge is that of self-expression, regardless of the field of endeavor.

On the negative side, you may at times become too easygoing and too optimistic, tending to scatter forces and accomplish very little. Often, the excessive 3 energy produces non-stop talkers. Everyone has faults, but the 3 soul urge doesn't appreciate having these pointed out.

Your Inner Dream number is: 9

An Inner Dream number of 9 means: You dream of being creative, intellectual, and universal; the selfless humanitarian. You understand the needy and want to help them. You would love to be a person people count on for support and advice.

Halloween Festivities

2008-11-02T17:11:00.009-07:00

Although I hate closing my blinds and turning on my lamp at 5 PM, as I did tonight, I do so enjoy the fall festivities. This is a great time of year--it kind of cools off, but many days are pleasantly pleasant. Autumn weather sometimes seems like a childish taunt from Mother Nature, as if she's yelling "You can't catch me" right before she blows in the icy winds of winter and the sun never seems warm enough again--until next April or May, when we get a few short weeks of Spring before being launched into a blisteringly hot summer (which I adore).

Here are some photos of my family and I enjoying the surprisingly comfortable weather of Halloween. Last weekend we went to the Dinosaur Park in Ogden, which was "haunted" (meaning the workers stuffed ripped-up mannequin/doll parts into the dinosaurs' mouths and dressed up in semi-scary costumes). My parents came along and the children had quite a good time. Some highlights:

Looking through some sort of rock thingy

Posing with a blown-up Frankenstein

Walking around with Daddy (one of the rare moments Aurora actually walked; her feet probably only touched the ground for a grand total of about 8 minutes that night because she kept demanding to be carried on account of being "scared.")

The good folks in Garland like to do trunk-or-treats for Halloween. This is actually a wonderful idea, since our humble town is rather spread out, and door-to-door trick-or-treating would be quite a bit of exercise for little kids like Aurora. So we join the local crazies at the largest parking lot in town, a stake center which always has cars lining it on the two blocks adjacent because there is, in fact, not enough parking for more than one ward at a time. I know all this because I frequently run past the building on Sundays so that all the good people can look out the window and call me a sinner ;). I'm kidding. Kind of.

I had my camera on the wrong setting for most of the night, so I didn't get the greatest photos of my little princess. And yes, she did dress up as Princess Aurora from Sleeping Beauty. We were looking at Cinderella costumes together, and when Rory saw the pink Aurora dress, she chose that one even though Cinderella is more of a favorite. What can I say? My girl LOVES pink.

Looks like she's posing, but she's actually pouting because I told her to "come on, walk with me" and she didn't want to (parents of younger children, beware. This is what they all become.) I took the opportunity to take a picture.

Getting candy from another princess

Handing out candy with Daddy after making our way through the whole parking lot

Being shy. After the trunk-or-treat we stopped by J's friends' house, and Rory got all shy on us, so hid behind J and hid her face on my shoulder.

Sitting on the porch waiting for trick-or-treaters after moving our "punkins" from the back porch to the front

One last self-portrait with the Halloween Princess.

My Girlfriends are Hot

2008-10-12T14:49:00.004-06:00

And only one of these girls would really object to being called my girlfriend--even with all the implications associated with that term. :)

Kati, me, Chelsi

Chelsi, me, Cami, Kati

Chelsi and Cami

The beautiful bride

Cami and Kati

Me

Chelsi, Kati, me

Kissing Kati

And this is my favorite, although I wish it had all 4 of us in it:

See? My girlfriends are hot.

Just a little info

2008-10-03T17:45:00.002-06:00

... about a website giving away some handbags on the day of their launch. I signed up to get my name in the drawing because I really like bags. You could sign up to win one too:

www.handbagplanet.com

The site ad makes it sound like this will be cool: really cute bags for not too much money. I'm a huge fan of online shopping right now, as many of you would know... (it's becoming a problem).

So check it out if you want. ;)

Aurora's First Recorded Vocal Performance

2008-06-17T19:21:00.004-06:00

One fun thing about parenting is getting lucky enough to catch this kind of stuff on video:

Pictures of My Kid

2008-06-17T18:55:00.006-06:00

What else did you expect?

A rare smiling moment...

and it's gone.

Catching bubbles outside

Trying on Mommy's shoes

Posing in front of the new sticker board (stickers are rewards for going potty, you know)

My New Bookshelf

2008-05-20T09:49:00.003-06:00

I added a Shelfari bookshelf on my little sidebar, below my weather pixie. Thanks to Lindsey for introducing me to the shelf. This is a fun way to show all of you how I've been spending my time for about the last year and a half.

Most of the books on my shelf are from my graduate classes, though some are books I've read for fun (Alice Munro) or for my thesis (George Saunders). I've read all of these within about the last 18 months. Anything older than that is hard to remember. I decided not to include the books I didn't like, such as "Girl with a Pearl Earring," "Girl in Hyacinth Blue," "The Lonely Londoners," and some others from various classes (boring art books and dozens of boring technical textbooks), so you will only see awesome books on my shelf. You may notice that only two of my book recommendations have five stars. This is not because the others are any less good, it's just that I have very high standards when it comes to literature. It's an honor for any book to get four stars from me. ;) But seriously, if you read these two books that got five stars, you'll see why the others can't quite attain that same rating.

All the books on this shelf are "literary," meaning, I suppose, that they are known for their artistry (like character development and use of language) more than any other elements, even though they also have solid plots, themes, contexts, etc. I think by now I've earned the right to be a literary snob, so I simply refuse to include books of lower caliber (though I'm totally not above reading them). I also have a big list of "Books I Plan to Read," but I don't think those show up on this shelf. If anyone else decides to join Shelfari, let me know so we can be friends on the website.

Birthday Fun

2008-05-08T09:03:00.006-06:00

One year ago tomorrow was my first blog post. To celebrate, here is a long post with lots of pictures. :)

Thanks to my busiest semester ever, I was a total slacker about posting on here; consequently, I missed posting about Rory's birthday. Her half-brother Rayston's birthday is exactly one week before Rory's, so we just celebrate them on the same day with all of J's family (since we don't get Rayston that often anymore). But to make it fun, I made a cake for each of them:

Rayston's was way easier and definitely more fun. Perhaps it's because I did his first, and by the time I got to Aurora's, I was running out of time before the guests arrived and I still had to shower and cook something. I also made both the kids a little individual cake of their own, even though it was completely unnecessary; we had plenty of cake (the butterfly ended up in the freezer). Here are all the cakes together, and yes, that's Rory's eager finger reaching toward the cake:

As is expected of two-year-olds (so they tell me), Rory was happier to have her gift bag than her actual present (from her grandma):

She was also quite happy to share her hamburger with me during dinner, even though I didn't ask her to:

Rory of course had another birthday party with my family, down at my mom's house. Here is her cake, which my mom ordered from somewhere:

She opened this little outfit and decided she loved it:

...so much that she had to put it on right away:

My mom gave her a big "princess" balloon made of Mylar which absolutely would not die for 3 whole weeks. She played with it every single day, and she even held on to it as she watched one of her "moo-ies":

Sadly, she also took it to bed with her a few times:

And here she is playing with some blocks she got for her birthday:

And finally, here is a picture of us both with curlers in our hair. I was doing mine, and she insisted i do hers by repeatedly saying, "Mama, hair," and pointing to her own head. I just had to take a picture, even though I wasn't wearing any makeup yet.

I'm a Master!

2008-05-04T11:01:00.006-06:00

Of what? Well, English, I suppose. On Friday, I graduated from Utah State with my Master of Science (grrr...) in English, Lit and Writing. I tried to get an MA degree, but I couldn't pass the stupid German test. Apparently I'm not a master at German. My mom and dad, grandma and grandpa, brother and his girlfriend & her kid, J and Booger all came to the graduation ceremony. Thankfully, it was only about an hour and a half long, and everyone agreed that Booger behaved rather well. Here is a picture of J, me, Booger, and my mom:

Isn't that gown just wonderful? :P That white thing around my neck is my "hood." That's what you have to wear when you get your master's.

Here are my grandparents:

And here is my little fam:

This is me and my friend Curtis walking up to the podium to get hooded:

I like Curtis because he was just as excited as I was when I picked up the bound copy of my thesis. It has my name, thesis title, etc. on the front cover, like a real book! It's even got a hard binding with my name on the spine, too. Curtis was way excited about my thesis being done and looking like a real book, and he's excited for when he gets his back (I finished my thesis before everyone else in my group).

Here is me with my little Booger:

I don't think my mom got a shot of my full dress, but it had a puffed-out A-line shape. I wore some black patent baby-doll shoes with a Mary Jane strap. I got my hair cut that morning, and the stylist offered to curl it for me. Little did I know how silly that would look under my cap. :)

Catching Up Via Pictures

2008-03-09T12:22:00.014-06:00

It's been over two months since I last unloaded pictures from my camera. So here is a quick update on little Booger and all the things she's been doing.

First, she goes potty now. She's getting pretty good at it. Hopefully when she turns two (April 7), she'll be ready for the "princess" panties she picked out. :)

Unfortunately, poor little Booger is quite bored most of the time. She's all alone with me at home every day, and I'm usually doing homework for at least half the day. She has started turning her chair upside down and pulling various stuffed animals inside it with her. It's funny and sad.

She also spends a lot of time reading her books. Dr. Seuss has become her favorite playmate. We read "There's a Wocket in my Pocket" and "Mr. Brown Can Moo. Can You?" every day. We also read "Go, Dog. Go!" and "Hop on Pop" most days. She also, apparently, reads Jon Krakauer (which was sitting on the couch after J and I watched the movie the other night).

For Valentine's Day, I made Booger get all dressed up in her adorable sweater dress and put little heart ribbons in her hair.

I made a bunch of sugar cookies for Valentine's Day. For a few of my girlfriends at school, I made cookies on sticks and put them in some styrofoam at the bottom of a little V-Day bucket. I had fun decorating them. :)

Here is Booger enjoying her little V-Day cookie.

Here are some pictures of her new bangs.

It took a really long time to load all of those. :)

(Un)Important Things to Know About Me

2008-02-23T21:48:00.002-07:00

Since I have been largely ignoring my blog for the past several months, I thought I might try to write a bit. Unfortunately, I don't really have it in me to be all witty right now (mental exhaustion), so instead, here are some lists.

People I Would Totally Leave My Life For (but probably only for a couple days):
1. Dave Grohl (as long as he's not talking)
2. Johnny Depp
3. Taylor Hawkins (with his mouth closed)
4. Topher Grace (where has he been lately?)
5. Johnny Depp (yes, he's good enough to be on here twice)

People I Would Totally Go Gay For:
1. Angelina
2. Shakira (quickly moving up to #1 if Angelina really is pregnant)
3. Amanda Bynes
4. Lauren Graham
5. Hilary Duff (I'm such a cradle-robber, right? Note: although Hilary sings and acts, her most notable talent is being gorgeous)

Things I Love to See:
1. The big, fat, fuzzy white llama looking angrily out at me and the other cars passing by his big flock of sheep on the highway up the road from my house
2. The big Cache Valley sky taking up most of my frame of vision as I reach the peak of the second-to-last hill going from Garland to Logan, when my car is angled upward so much that I can barely see any ground--just a lot of air
3. I think that's it

Favorite Songs of the Moment:
1. "CrushCrushCrush" - Paramore (fronted by Hailey Williams, who would totally be on my go-gay-for list if she wasn't freaking 16 years old!)
2. "Gold Lion" - The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
3. "le Disko" - Shiny Toy Guns
4. "Now Mary" - The White Stripes
5. "Summer's End" - Foo Fighters

That's about all I can come up with right now. Another funny thing I thoroughly enjoy is Booger's way of saying "peek-a-boo" (which is hands-down her favorite game of all time). Phonetically, it sounds like this: "beek-a-doh"--and it is hilarious.

Mom and Baby

2008-01-05T14:25:00.001-07:00

A Dancing Baby

2007-10-19T10:53:00.000-06:00

This is Booger dancing to the Foo Fighters' "The Pretender." She loves the whole album, I think, but this is her favorite song (probably because it's the first track). I love it too, so maybe this will encourage everyone to run out and buy the album. Incidentally, she also has a favorite comedian: Stephen Colbert. I don't know how, but she recognizes him whenever he comes on the TV. She likes the eagle that flies across the screen in the opening sequence of the show, but I think she also likes him--she laughs at him all the time. Who doesn't, really?

Now, wasn't that hilarious? More funny stuff:

First sucker (I think--one can never be sure about these things, given the fact that she has 3 or 4 adoring grandparents who will give her anything she wants, ever). It was a blue sucker; can you tell?

And this is lunch: munching on a piece of bread. I love the pig slippers, and she kept them on that whole day!

O Canda

2007-10-07T21:28:00.000-06:00

I just got back from a trip to Calgary, Alberta, Canada. I attended an academic conference for the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association. YES, it is as boring as it sounds. My paper-presentation included. Calgary was pretty cool, though. I loved the size of the city, which was pretty comparable to Salt Lake (excluding outerlying areas like Draper and North SLC/Bountiful), but I would have also enjoyed it if it had been even bigger. The buildings, however, were quite big enough--so tall that one could topple over while craning the eyes upward to see the top of the building. Not that that happened to me. Ahem.

I ate the most amazing food while in Calgary, and since I've come home nothing sounds good to eat at all. In fact, here I sit with my tummy rumbling, and I can't bear to eat anything less than a $12 bowl of sherry onion soup crusted in fine pastry and served with a side of focaccia bread. I've become a food snob. I'm sure it will wear off by tomorrow when I resort to cooking something like bell pepper pasta for dinner. Alas. My stomach, not so much my heart, yearns for thee, O Canada.

I learned a valuable lesson while over the northern border: now is not a great time to travel if you live, and consequently earn money, in the U.S. It's rather expensive to convert U.S. dollars to Canadian dollars because their dollar, believe it or not, is stronger than ours. And they still charge about double for everything, compared to here, which means your American dollar runs right out quickly. Rumor has it that the Euro and Pound are both better than old George Washington bills, too. Wait, you mean other countries are doing better than the U.S. economically? Huh, I wonder if it has anything to do with the billions of dollars being gleefully tossed into the large sinkhole labeled "War on Terror" that is hidden in the backyard of the national treasury. Just a thought. On a happier note, the shopping is great in Calgary! My American-turned-Canadian dollars happily jumped into the cash register of a sweet little store selling gorgeous purple sweaters, of which I purchased two, and no one thought twice about it.

A couple last things about the coolness of Calgary. The hostel we stayed in was amazing! Panini and I requested a private room. We figured this meant two bunkbeds stuffed into a jail-cell sized room, but it was worth it to both of us to pay the extra 10 or so dollars a night to not have to share a room with total strangers. We were shocked to see that our private room was not a jail cell, but a corner room facing the street, with giant windows on TWO walls. There were four beds in there, so we opted for the two that were not stacked on top of each other--and I even got to sleep on the one full-sized bed! (Thanks, Panini! Love ya!) Panini's bed was also cool--it was propped up between a wall and the window (supported on a huge window-seat--great view!). There was a wall mirror in our room, and even a TV and DVD player! We also got wi-fi on Panini's laptop--totally for free. The shared bathrooms on the floor weren't bad at all, and we never had trouble getting into the shower on time or anything. We stayed there for three nights--and all of this cost us each a total of $105 Canadian dollars. That price was less than one night in the hotel that was hosting the conference. We were still high-fiving about our amazing lodging choice even on Saturday as we flew home. :)

And the flying--well, that's another story entirely. It turns out Panini is deathly afraid (think death-grip) of flying. Or rather, crashing. I'm not quite so scared, but I too gripped the armrests out of fear. Fear of throwing up, that is--from all the bumping and the sloshing and the turning. We both survived. Just fine. For more on the plane rides, including details about how many seats were included on each plane, how well each pilot did at landing and taking off, and EXACT details about the landing strips of all three airports (SLC, San Francisco, and Calgary), as well as how many spare pilots were riding in there with us, see Panini's blog, surely forthcoming soon with all of that and more.

It was a really fun trip. Perfect length, great lodgings, decent weather (it was cold but we managed to dodge the rain the entire time), and again, really awesome food and purple sweaters. Even the piles of email on my computer and toys on my floor as I returned home haven't changed my mind about going away for 4 days in the middle of the semester. I strongly recommend saying, at some point in your life, "To hell with school/work/everything! Let's just escape to Canada!" It will be one of the coolest trips in your life, eh?

My New Hair

2007-09-29T12:59:00.000-06:00

I cut all my hair off today. This is how long it was when I left to go to the salon (please don't look at my hideous face; just notice how much hair I have):

And then when I came home, I looked like this:

This is a closer shot, but it's a little blurry:

I like my new hair, but I'm afraid I won't be able to do it this way ever again. My stylist showed me how she did it, but still, I know I won't do it right.

My former ponytail rode home from the salon in a ziploc bag on the seat next to me. I'm going to send all 12 inches of my extra hair to Locks of Love so some poor hairless kid can have a nice new hairpiece.

And now back to work.

Bad Blogger: Just Pictures

2007-09-03T17:30:00.000-06:00

I could write long diatribes about my pet peeves or my relationship issues. I could list so many different reasons I'm feeling anxious about my two upcoming conference presentations. I could also write lengthily about the amount of work I haven't done on my thesis, or treat you all to an explanation of even more reasons I hate Garland... but instead, I offer these photographs of my cute little Booger in place of actual words.

Here she is acting like a goofball:

This was the day I met Panini and K-Lu (with her two kids) at the swimming pool. This is Booger getting ready to go:

And here is the Booger playing in some sprinklers:

And finally, here she is "driving" her car around the house this morning:

If I ever come up with something interesting to write about, I promise to share it with this empty cyber-space. In the meantime, enjoy the periodic photographic updates.

What the Booger Has Been Up To

2007-08-16T09:56:00.001-06:00

I haven't been writing much lately for a couple of reasons: first, I was in school. Homework. Second, I haven't had anything to say that would not immediately be classified as a long, angry rant. Third, no one reads this.... so why bother?

But at any rate, it's time for a few pictures. This is what the Booger has been up to lately. First is a pic of her with her favorite stuffed animal (which is not new but has been recently "discovered"):

And here we have a picture of how the baby sleeps, from an interesting angle:

A couple rare moments of actually looking in the general direction of the camera:

And these are my favorite. This is what happened last night at dinner:

Yes, if you look closely, you'll notice that there is a french fry sticking out of her little mouth, and that is a tuna sandwich clutched in her little fist. Eating is just so exhausting! And just to make the situation even funnier, she finished eating that french fry when she woke up 15 minutes later.

Why is it So Hard to Find People?

2007-08-06T13:32:00.000-06:00

I am in the process of writing a memoir for the workshop I took last week. This memoir is due on Wednesday, and it is progressing fairly well, but I'm getting hung up on details. I can't remember them! The unfortunate thing is, this memoir is about my friendship with a girl from the early years of college, and how we had a terrible break-up and quit speaking to each other for a long time. So, she's really the only other person who would know the details I can't seem to remember, but it's impossible to find her! I've tried searching in all sorts of places, maiden name and married name, and I just can't find her. It would be nice to talk to her anyway, not just about the memoir, but also for fun.

This dilemma leads me to a question of ethics: what do I do if I can't remember the exact details? Make them up? I really want to, but the idea of memoir is to make sure the actual events are true. Is there a way to search for people's blogs on this site?

Conclusion is a Beautiful Thing!

2007-08-03T21:47:00.000-06:00

I, Nicole, just posted the final assignment for the online course that has been plaguing me for the past eight weeks. I would love to say I'm reveling in the freedom I have earned, but I think my senses are just a little too weak for celebration right now. I've been getting a little less or more than five hours of sleep a night for a week, which is a tragedy for me, since I usually get eight or nine. The reason? I attended an on-campus class from 8am to 4:30 every day this week. And this, of course, was the best week to do that, since I had to write a 7-page, single-spaced paper and design a website for my online class by midnight tonight. I'm a genius.

I shipped Booger off to my mother's house on Wednesday afternoon (J delivered her before I even got home from my workshop) and now that I'm finished with my most pressing obligations, I'm excited to go pick her up tomorrow morning! I'm thrilled to be finished with one class, and by Wednesday I'll be finished with the work for the other, and then I can say I've officially finished exactly half of my coursework for my graduate degree. Actually, I think I can say that today... so on Wednesday I'll be more than half-way done! That's even better.

I'm off to enjoy the rewarding sleep only a ridiculously exhausting week like this one can offer when it comes to a close. Sweet dreams.

The Best News I've Heard All Week

2007-07-18T23:25:00.000-06:00

This story has made me so very happy. This fall, filming will begin on the Sex and the City movie. I haven't been this excited about a future media event since right now--waiting for the new Harry Potter book. Another thing to look forward to: Ian McEwan's amazing novel, Atonement, has been made into a film and is opening sometime very soon in the UK. I don't know when it will be in the US, but thanks to youtube and internet-ordered movies, I shall have it as soon as it's available.

It's amazing that I can get so excited about a book, a movie, and a book being made into a movie. But I AM!

This Blast from the Past is Cold

2007-07-17T20:04:00.000-06:00

The other day I received an email that simply said, "Nicole?" The e-signature at the bottom was from an old friend of mine that I knew in high school, T. I don't think I had spoken to him since 2002 or so. I wrote back. He responded today with a message saying he used Google to find my email address, and the reason he looked me up is because he had a dream wherein all of his (our) old friends were back together, hanging out with all of our spouses. I chuckled and wrote back that I'm not married. That was all I wrote about my personal life.

The conversation was formal and not very friendly. The sad thing is, he was my best friend for quite a while. When I sprained my wrist during a track & field incident, he sat behind me in Seminary and helped me fix my sweater sleeve over the splint. He bought me a nice watch and took me on a short trip with his family in honor of my high school graduation. Then he married a sweet girl named J--another close friend of mine.

A few weeks ago I cleaned out an old email account and found a message from an old friend I made in my undergraduate days, A. I hadn't spoken to him in two or three years or heard from him via email for more than a year. I didn't hesitate to write him a message, telling him everything about my current life. Our ensuing conversation was full of jokes and exclamation points, followed by an invitation for me to visit him at his new job (conveniently, it's on the same campus where I teach).

Both of these guys are now married, and both have small children. Both were well-acquainted with my former self. I knew T when he was still dating his wife, J, and I met A right after he proposed to his wife. These guys were my friends.

What I can't figure out is why some old friends make me perfectly comfortable, and others make me squirm. I never even talked to A outside of school, but I spent years hanging out with T. Now I feel extremely comfortable chatting away with A and rather worried about what to say to T. It's strange that I feel perfectly fine telling an old friend all about my new life, but on the same day, I avoided mentioning anything personal to another friend from my past who was much closer to me.

I think maybe the bottom line is this: you think some people will judge you for your mistakes, so you never want them to see your weaknesses. At the same time, a few decent people will not only accept you for your real self, mistakes and all, but will even welcome your new self into their fancy offices and ask to exchange photos of kids.

Some old friends are friends. And some old friends are memories.

Festivities and Photos

2007-07-13T12:44:00.000-06:00

I bought Booger her first set of crayons. They are the big, fat kind that are supposedly a little more difficult to break. She has gotten to the point now where she doesn't immediately put everything she touches straight into her mouth (data processing, as her doctor calls it), so I thought it might be safe to introduce the concept of art. She's 15 months; by age 3 she could be a world-famous artist. I'm hoping she adopts a Jackson Pollock stlye.

And this is Booger playing on the grass at our Fourth of July picnic. How festive!

My camera has a special setting just for fireworks, so I spent the first half of the fireworks show trying to get a good shot.

And this is the Booger enjoying the show, as well as her thumb.

The Fourth of July is a great holiday! Who's not a fan of patriotism?

What I Want

2007-07-13T12:19:00.000-06:00

Today I had a little free time. Feeling tired, I convinced Booger to go to sleep a bit earlier than normal for her mid-day nap, and I thought I would take one too. I couldn't sleep, despite staying up too late 3 days in a row. I started to think about what I want. It started out innocently enough: I want my toe to feel better so I can shop for new running shoes. I want food to taste terrible so I'll stop eating it and actually have a chance at losing my remaining baby weight. I want this carpet to be tan, not brown.

Then it got a little more complex: I want to graduate. I want my degree to speak for itself--no more elaborate lines on my resume describing "extracurricular" activities as if I were still in high school. I want a job that might actually make my academic efforts worthwhile; I want to earn enough money that I am very firmly above the national poverty level.

But then I came down from my plush little fantasy-cloud with this thought: If I was somehow offered a job that would pay me enough money to afford my own little house, big enough for my book collection and the Booger's toy boxes, and allow me to move far, far away from here, would I take it?

I'm usually the type of person who loves change; moving to a new apartment or starting a new job are things I can do without hesitation. I have an amazing ability to close my eyes on the past and pretend it was never there, or pretend it doesn't bother me that it's gone. Even still, my heart beats noticeably louder when I think of making a change that big. But that's the whole reason I started graduate school in the first place--I hoped my diploma would be a one-way ticket out of my current life situation. I don't know if it will be. And if I find out one year from now that it is, I'm nervous that I won't be brave enough to climb aboard.

What I want is to know what I want.

I Can See!

2007-07-02T12:27:00.001-06:00

These are my new glasses. Panini requested a photo; here it is. They are blue.

Water in the Desert

2007-06-18T10:40:00.000-06:00

I don't think it's any big secret that Utah is nestled in the heart of the Wild West, which is still largely covered in desert lands. In fact, I think it's probably obvious to a lot of people, whether they live here or not: Utah is mostly desert.

Unfortunately, the brilliant locals of Garland, UT (located in Box Elder County, a very large and dry desert) must not have taken their geography, civics, or earth science classes in their youth (I've already mentioned how no one over here has gone to college, right?). Having missed out on the presumably widely-known information that Utah is in fact a desert and we are in a continual state of draught, the good people of Garland obliviously water their lawns from sun up to sun down. That's right, they water their lawns all day long, when the sun is the hottest and is most likely to suck up that water they're feeding their grass.

It's a common occurance for me and my small, water-conservationist family to take a stroll down Main Street and be washed off the sidewalks and into the road (40 mph) by the gallons of water gushing forth from the neighbors' sprinklers. No one seems to realize that placing a sprinkler right next to the sidewalk, or even better, in the exact center of the cement driveway is not only non-effective but also wasteful and completely socially irresponsible.

It's a draught, people. That means you should conserve water, and it probably means you should quit wasting it. But, then, what do I know? Perhaps if you continue to water the concrete, it will spring forth and blossom into the most beautiful concrete on the block. All your neighbors will be jealous because your concrete is so much more green and lush than theirs. Or maybe, if you try hard enough, you can transform the dry desert that is Utah into a tropical oasis of water-abundant bliss. Good luck with that.

Those of us who are more liquid-conservative prefer to get our water fixes at the swimming pool. Here is Booger's first swimming experience. She didn't enjoy it as much as I'd hoped, but maybe someday she will learn to appreciate the water and the little blue floaties stuck to her tiny arms!

Introducing The Four Whores...

2007-05-29T18:02:00.000-06:00

...of the Apocalypse. These beautiful girls are my besties: Chelsi, Panini, and K-Lu (who is holding Booger). This was a fun backyard barbecue where we celebrated being out of school and increasingly happier with each passing moment of freedom (even if it is temporary).

Getting Old Sucks--Just Ask Blondie

2007-05-25T18:18:00.001-06:00

The pace of my everyday life has slowed to a near standstill these days. I now have time to do anything I want. I can read entire books in two or three days, watch every single old episode of CSI, spend an hour looking at pictures of old friends on the web, or scrapbook Booger's entire first year of life. I CAN. I don't. Instead I have lengthy discussions with myself about what on earth I could possibly do to fill up my free time and whether I should lift weights or just go for a jog as my daily workout. Wait, what is my point? Oh yeah. My immense amount of free time has led me to the Today show. Despite the fact that I have little to no daily schedule to follow, Booger still wakes me up like an alarm clock at about 10 minutes after 7AM. After I stow her in her highchair with a significant amount of Cheerios, I usually turn on the TV and go straight for Matt and Meredith. They help me get through the mental dilemma of what to think about for the first few hours of the day with their witty dialogue and "investigative" journalism. At the very least, they provide background noise for Booger's Morning Playtime Extravaganza, which takes place in the 10-foot space between me and the TV. Imagine my disappointment when I turned the show on today to find that Blondie (who?!) would be taking up an extremely unjustifiable amount of time on this morning's show.

This circa-1980s pop "icon" performed three or four of her "hits" for a crowd of middle-aged women dancing very badly to the tune of their adolescence (I'm so glad I wasn't old enough to really see the 80s--the resurgence of that decade's musical and clothing styles going on right now makes me roll my eyes and shop less). The crowd of dancing women, pathetic sight that it was, didn't even compare to poor Blondie's stage performance. This woman was rolling her eyes back in her head, trying to bang that very head to the beat of the drum, and raising her hands in some sort of victorious, fist-like gesture. I've never seen these things before; did these psychotic, giggle-inducing symbols mean something in the 80s? While I did vaguely recognize most of Blondie's music, it sounded nothing like the original recordings--which had to have been done at least 20 years ago, when this pop star was actually an appropriate age to be on a stage.

Honestly, though, it's not her fault. Everyone gets old. I myself have gotten rather old lately--little did I know that having a child would make me think that sitting at home blogging on my couch on a Friday night is totally fine (it is, isn't it?!). Now that I'm done with this, maybe I will do something constructive with my Friday-night free time... or, I'll just get back to that CSI marathon on Spike TV.

A Happy Mother's Day to Me

2007-05-14T14:03:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was more than Mother's Day for me. It was also the anniversary of my first date with my life-mate, hereafter known as J. J, kind soul that he is, let me cook breakfast for the doubly-exciting occasion. I also got to bathe the baby, clean up after breakfast, bake a cake for a family get-together, and listen to the Nascar race as I drove us there--in my car. So sweet!

While at my mother's house, I got to help cook dinner, with my mom, of course. Booger ran around the house hollering "Dad!" one of the only 3 words she knows (or is willing to say), and refused to sit with her mama even on Mother's Day. Then when we got home, I got to sit on the couch and ask if we could watch something other than the Jazz game while the baby toddled around whining because she was tired. After much pleading, J finally put Booger to bed. Then he promptly put himself in bed with the book he's been trying to read for the past 6 months, leaving me no kiss good-night or even a final "Happy Mother's Day," or more important, "Happy anniversary." But hey, he got me a nightgown I wanted, which cost less than $10, and he did manage to mention the fact that it was our anniversary once (only because I reminded him a few days before).

The highlight of my day was dressing myself and Booger in these somewhat-matchy dresses for the special occasion. And the fact that she has survived not 12 but 13 months of life is worthy of a pat on the back or even control of the TV remote for an hour, but I got nothing of the sort. In fact, the only thing I got was one decent picture to remember this special day--before Booger squirmed out of my arms and walked away to play with her toys. But isn't she cute? She's a pretty good Mother's Day gift.

Welcome to the 21st Century

2007-05-09T09:22:00.000-06:00

My first blog! I feel like I'm finally a part of the "internet revolution." And I hereby swear I will never join myspace. Despite the fact that probably no one will read this, I couldn't think of a better way to use up my summer free-time. Other plans for the summer include: purchasing a new queen-sized mattress set and using the old one for an indoor trampoline, going door-to-door down my sparsely-populated street to ask the residents if they wouldn't prefer an import of more college degrees into the neighborhood, and making a general ruckus around my sad, sleepy town.