And thats Utah for you

I am a pretty lazy blogger but today I knew I had to post when I woke up and looked outside I was so shocked, it was snowing! Now yes I know I live in Utah and yes I know it snows here, but its officially spring and Easter is over. The forecast did say flurries and a drop in temperatures, but the 60's we had all last week and over Easter weekend gave me a false sense of security that the snow was done with. The temperatures are high enough that it won't stick on the streets, but it is sticking on my newly blossomed daffodils and on my starting to green up grass. One thing you can say is that the weather here is not predictable or boring. Arizona had great weather all winter and freakin' hot weather all summer, but you pretty much knew what you were going to get. The truth is if it fluctuated between 105 to 115 it didn't really matter that much it was still hot and sunny. I never watched the weather there, unless the seasons were changing and I was hoping for the temps to drop, oh around Halloween or Thanksgiving. I watch the weather here pretty religiously. When I saw the snow outside I had to
take some pictures and pause in my laziness to blog about it.

Here are my daffodils and sprouting tulips with snow all over them
A shot of it all from the front of the house


The kids begged me to get out Easter decorations which I have very little of. Ashlin and Alex took their baskets and started putting them on their heads. Then Sam caught on. His basket is tiny and makes it look like a monkey in a marching band. Don't worry that was the last minute basket I could find for him last year, but this year he has a bigger one. It was perfect last year for a one year old though. I especially like the way the tag is still on and falls in front of his face.

I think the brand is Crayola- they came out with a new kind of sidewalk art using paint instead of chalk. It washes off and out of clothes too. The kids got a set to share for an Easter present. They loved it. Alex has a goal to pain the entire driveway in. Because of this we went through the full 2 bottles within an hour. That was Sunday. Well on Monday Sam couldn't stop asking for more paint. He remembered it out of the blue. So Sam and I had to go back to the store to buy more- each bottle is just under $2. Worth it to me because the kids have so much fun with it. As you can see the snow is going to help clean the driveway. It looks like Alex is going to have to start over again and I will be needing to buy A LOT more paint:).

Diet Murder

Today was diet murder. I started out with a good workout and a healthy breakfast. Then we headed off to playgroup water bottle in hand. After that we had just 15 minutes to get lunch (Wendy's) before heading off to a field trip at a very scary place I will say more about later. At Wendy's I ordered a dollar menu bacon cheesburger! and a side salad. Why did I do that- well I usually try to get a small burger and a side salad with low-cal dressing but the addition of bacon and cheese was just wrong. I got that because I was in a hurry and couldn't think--she was waiting for me to order and I was having trouble making a healthy decision in the 5 second pause I had to look a the menu. So then the burger came and I realized I forgot to tell them to leave OFF the mayo. So after a quick debate as to how dry and flavorless it would be, I wiped off the mayo with a napkin and decided that the bacon and cheese and vegetable and the beef would lend a good enough mixture of flavors and moisture-- I was right it was good. So I downed that and the salad and we were off to the field trip to Sweet's CANDY FACTORY!!!

If I had any diet responsibility at all I would have arranged to have Ed go or just never mentioned it to my kids, but the truth is I wanted to go as much as my kids did! It was a really cool field trip and tasty too. I have seen all kind of shows about about how things are made and seen the factories and such, but have NEVER personally been in one that I can remember. So we saw taffy being made and sampled it, and we saw jelly beans being made and sampled them, and we saw orange jelly sticks enrobed in chocolate being made and sampled them (holy crap it was good- so fresh and I am not usually that much of a fan) we also saw cinnamon bears being made and I got to sample one too (I LOVE them). This place even covers cinnamon bears in chocolate and they are so good. The chocolate enrobing kitchen smelled AMAZING. So I sampled all of the things above plus a carmel peanut chocolate covered thing. On the drive home I was literally feeling sick. It wasn't that I had eaten THAT much candy, it was really just one of each of the things I mentioned above-- could be worse. It was just so much sweet all at once for me. So worked on recovering during the drive, home and told myself I would not eat anymore candy today. So when I got home I went to show Ed the candy that I bought (I forgot to mention that) the factory had a little candy store that sells all kind of fresh candy. I then began to sample all of it. There were huge chocolate covered marshamallow eggs, an easter candy mix, some saltwater taffy, grape sourballs and a mixture of chocolate covered nuts (my favorite). I kept eating the nuts and eating them because I had to try all the different kinds several times- there were dark and milk chocolate on pecans, brazil nuts, cashews, peanuts, walnuts and almonds-- I hope I tried them all I wonder if there are some nuts I missed I need to go check! I followed this up by a little walk outside and a healthy dinner-- my homemade version of Chili's Grilled Chicken Carribeann.

So it was a bad day as it was (I also sampled a couple bites of cookie throughout the day) but then my favorite neighbor came by with the most amazing chocolate cake I have ever eaten. She had told me about the recipe she had and so she was bringing it by for me to try and to get rid of some of it. I had decided by this time it was a lost cause that the diet was not happening today and that there was no way I was leaving that chocolate cake alone tonight. So I ate it but my kids wanted some so I hesitantly gave them each some of mine knowing it was for my own good, but it was not an easy sacrifice. I want the recipe really bad, but am not sure if I am to be trusted. Here is the strangest thing about my diet murder today- I have been sitting here hungry and wanting more food! I am in no place to eat more after today or after the high numbers on the scale I have been seeing lately-- hopefully due to the time of the month. Also because I saw a full body pic of myself and it was a wake up call. Losing weight has made me feel so good because my clothes fit better etc, but the picture made it very obvious that I am not there yet I have a ways to go! It was diet murder, but it was really, REALLY yummy.

Hackjob Hair

This is Ashlin before we cut her hair-- this is a silly picture back from December. So seeing as it is March her hair was even longer.

She had been growing out her hair for Locks of Love for around 2 years I think now. Sweet girl huh? She really is. Her hair was beautiful in many ways, but a little hard to take care of. We both were ready for a cut. I had recently seen an old picture of her with shorter hair and thought she looked so darn cute. Still I was patient not wanting for her to cut her hair after so much growing and hard work before it was time.


Well the boys were due up for a cut and so as I cut their hair and she was feeling some desire to join the ranks. She was ready for a cut. So we measured it out and she had 10 inches which is the minimum for locks of love, but the last inch was not such nice hair- bad ends and not thick, but quite sparse. So I trimmed off the bad ends measured again and got 9 inches. So I then decided to research and see what would happen if we cut now. I had remembered Hilary Swank cut her hair for Pantene, so I decided to check out their site. It turned out you only need 8 inches for them, so we decided we were good to

go. So we followed the instructions and put her hair in a good tight ponytail and I chopped! It was very scary! It was a lot of hair and I wanted to make sure the hair she wasn't keeping was usuable for Pantene and that the hair she was keeping looked decent and wasn't TOO short. I had to chop and chop and chop to get throught it all. I was really afraid because it wasn't making a real clean cut. I just kept tellng myself if I mess up we can take her to a salon to get it fixed and that hair does grow back. I DID know that cutting from a ponytail at the back of her head it would end up in an A-line cut, where her hair in the front was longer and the back was shorter- which I wanted. It was already pretty cute as soon as the ponytail was cut and the hair fell forward, but it needed some cleanup. She looked in the mirror while I had to run and help her brother- it wasn't fixed yet but she said "I already think it looks cute!"I was relieved. So I evened out some areas to make them straight and in my amateur way tried to do some layers in the back. I quickly realized it was well beyond my ability and that we needed to take her to a salon or to one of my friends who is a beautician and ask for help. Well I first called a couple friends and one line was busy and the other wasn't home, then we got busy and still haven't fixed it-- it looks good enough for now, but I do need to get her in somewhere to get the professional touch. Doing hair that short is hard, it has to be precise. I keep catching her looking in the mirror and smiling which is so cute. She also gets really excited to see friends who haven't seen her hair yet. I love her so much and am so glad to have a daughter with such a big heart. I also am just glad to have a daughter. She is like a best friend and she is so forgiving of me. Really, she tells me that I am the best mom in the world and means it, and I'm far from it! I guess I only need to wait a few years 'til she's a teen and her mind will quickly change. I hope not though- I hope we are buddies forever. I usually can't imagine anything but the sweet little girl she is, but every once in a while I catch a glimpse of some major attitude!