what would I do without a good hair stylist?!

You all know what it's like to find a hairdresser you love and then never want to let them go.
I know you do.
Well my dream hairdresser unfortunately lives 3 provinces away from me. :(
I have gone to a bazillion hair dressers in Calgary since I've lived there, and so far no one can do my hair like Johnna. I've been going to her since I was like 14, and she's awesome. Shes one of those stylists you tell all your dirty secrets to, and who knows all your bizz. (not that I have any dirty secrets but if i did, I would totally tell her)
Unfortunately I only get to see her when I go home to Burlington, and I need to get my hair done more than twice a year.
Well the time has come! I'm going home next week and my appointment is BOOKED!
It will be great to catch up with her since the last time I saw her was when she did my hair for my wedding.

dont mind the cheesy '2' in this pic... ugghh



Right now my hair is so weird. I got it done in Calgary right before we moved to the Peg and it's this weird brown/red/blonde. NOT what I asked for.

This is what I asked for


This is what I got.


Ok, so it could be worse, and this picture doesnt show how brown/red/blonde it really is. I just can't wait to have it fixed.
Some of my favourite cuts and colours have come from Johnnas chair, and im excited to have fresh new hair to surprise Adam with when I get back.

She did my hair right before my brother wedding and i loved it.


I need to get back to those platinum blonde roots!!

anyways, Johnna is pretty much the bees knees (thank you rach) and im so excited to have my hair done next week!!
(pictures to follow)

Firsts

As a first time mom, documenting all these little milestones is so much fun for me!
I`v been wanting to give Tenley rice cereal for about a week, but I wanted to make sure Adam was home to see it, and we hardly have any time together so the rice cereal has been put on hold for days. Finally, this morning we all woke up bright and early and gave Tens her first bowl of solids! yayy :)
Sorry if this is just another boring baby post, so ignore it if you dont think shes totally scrumptious trying her cereal for the first time. But I doubt you can ;)

the first bite


it looks like she likes it! I couldn`t get the spoon in her mouth fast enough.




Too bad this picture is so dang blurry!
The cereal seemed to be a success!!



like i said... SEEMED to be a success



All the sudden she just hated it







Ummm no thanks mom!



Anyways, its safe to say, in the end the cereal was not as successful as we thought. We`ll see how tomorrow goes!!

My speghetti squash LOVE

Let me tell you. I.love.spaghetti,squash!!!
I could probably eat it all day, everyday.
I make it alot for dinner ( probably more than adam would like) and I usually prepare it the same way everytime- cooked squash, with an organic tomatoe basil sauce, and sauteed mushrooms... boring? Yes. Easy? Yes. Tasty? Well yeah!
But today I decided to experiment a little. I switched up my spaghetti squash regime! Im usually pretty fearful to try new recipes, because im scared to death that Adam will hate it and think im a bad wife... He always says he loves everything I cook, but I still think the day will come where I try something out of the ordinary, and he will be sick to his stomach for the rest of the night, and suddenly I am no longer a domestic wife... irrational fear I know.
Anyways, my dinner went a little like this.

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 cup vegetable broth (made from scratch)
1 ear of corn (kernels cut from the cob)
1 whole spaghetti squash
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
salt and pepper to taste

OK, im all about easy, quick meals. this is both those things. The squash takes about an hour to cook, but you dont have to watch it, and it takes like 27 seconds to prepare.
So, I tried a new, super healthy recipe, and Adam loved it!! yay! Im always so happy when he legitimately likes my cooking :)

Iv been doing really good at eating healthy. Iv always been a fairly healthy person, but I think im doing really well right now. Im considering going 80% raw, but I have to look a little more into it because im still breastfeeding and I need to make sure I'll be getting enough calories. My brother in law is a health NUT and such an inspiration. He leads a raw food lifestyle and loves it so much. Ill be hittin him up for tips very shortly. Ill stay posted about how the raw diet goes or doesn't go...
Oh cheat! I had a 7-11 slurpee today and it was heavenly.

Crisis Averted!

5.... count them, 5 Iphones!! Thats how many I have gone through in the past 3 years. I have had them stolen, or I break them, but most of the time I just lose them.
I have really bad pregnancy brain, but I think I had it long before I was pregnant.

Today I lost my phone again. Not just misplaced it somewhere in my purse and cant find it, but actually lost it. Or so I thought.
I had gone only two places. I retraced all my steps. Checked all the usual spots where I normally leave my phone and NOTHING. I called it about 32 times from the landline and I was getting no where. Of course my phone is always on silent which doesn't make sense for someone who loses it 10 times a day. I called Adam from the landline and vented all my frustration about how I am the worst phone owner and should never be allowed another phone for as long as I live, and how mad I was that i could not for the LIFE of me think of where it could be. Adam, being the calm and collected of the two of us, says " well we will just have to buy you a new phone. if you think you have looked everywhere, and its no where to be found then theres not much you can do. Hopefully a good samaritan will pick it up and call you back." (since I had called it 32 times) That answer was not what i was looking for. I dont know what I was expecting him to say. Afterall, he has been at work since 9am... how would he know where my phone was?! The current *lost* Iphone has only been in my possession for about 4 weeks, so the thought of throwing another 6 or 7 hundred dollars down the drain was NOT exciting. I decided to call my dad and tell him my sad news... I had to vent to a few more people to get this out of my system.
I had a bright idea, and asked my dad to call my phone for me while I ran out to the car to see if I could hear it vibrating... I had done this like 5 times already but thought it couldn't hurt.
Then voila... my phone was under Tenleys car seat. Im not sure why it was there, but Im not going to question it.
Crisis Averted.
For someone who loses their phone on a daily basis, I sure was over reacting for a better part of the evening. Instantly that yucky feeling in the pit of my stomach was gone and I could relax!!
Im so good at overreacting :)

reunited and it feels so good

Finding JOY in the little things

When you move to a new city and know NO ONE, and your husband is gone 14 hours a day, and you only see him for about 2 hours max each day, things can get boring...fast! Iv had a few hard days, where socializing with someone other than my 5 month old would be heavenly. alas, that is not the case. I have come to appreciate the small things in my day that keep me sane, and make each day here a little better than the last.
On days where im tempted to buy a plane ticket back to Calgary, and hop on the next available flight, these are a few little things I find joy in :)

Vitamin Water 10cal




Hunter Wellies



Fresh Flowers in my house




Drinking Peppermint Tea from cute tea cups

My Life List

here is my life list. a list of 100 things i want to accomplish in my lifetime.
I got this neat idea from one of my favourite blogs

1oo things was REALLY hard to come up with. Sad, i know. It took me quite a while to actually think of things i would LOVE to do. I encourage others to write their own life list, because you will learn so much about yourself.
Mine are in no particular order, but just as they come to me.




1. Travel to Korea with my husband
2. Live in New York City
3. Have a picnic in Central Park
4. Do a Masater Cleanse for two weeks
5. Take a picture of the Mona Lisa, in person... in the Louvre... in Paris... right after I climbed all 1665 steps of the Eiffel Tower.
6. Ride a horse bareback through the ocean (done)
7. Get over my extream fear of horse back riding
8. Take a relaxing vacation with just my sisters
9. Learn how to sew really well
10. Make a quilt for one of my babies
11. Learn how to use my DSLR and take really great photographs
12. Go to Africa and ride on the back of an elephant
13. Attend New York Fashion Week
14. Drive across an entire country
15. Go whale watching and actually see one. or two. or three.
16. Go through the temple with all of my children.
17. Do the make up for a magazine spread
18. Hear my daughters first words
19. Complete a 365.
20. Scuba Diving (CHECK)
21. Grow a vegetable garden in my backyard
22. Have a baby (CHECK)
23. Witness a loved one give birth
24. Own a Boutique
25. Live on a house boat
26. Go to a Temple Dedication
27. Meet a living prophet
28. Make a dress from a REAL pattern
29. Walk down East Hastings Street in Vancouver. (i tried this once before, but chickend out)
30. Dance in the pouring rain with my husband
31. Complete a triathlon.
32. Have a star named after me
33. See a broadway show
34. Meet and talk to Oprah
35. Sky Diving (CHECK)
36. Learn how to surf
37. Live like a local in a place completely foreign to me
38. climb an active volcano
39. Do the Polar Bear swim
40. Go skinny-dipping at midnight in the south of France
41. Send a message in a bottle
42. Find a message in a bottle
43. Fall deeply in love- helplessly and unconditionally (CHECK)
44. Sit on a jury
45. Own a ridiculously expensive pair of shoes
46. Live in a big, old, house in the country, and decorate it exactly how i want
47. Attend a real gospel church
48. Watch my kids succeed
49. Cook a Christmas dinner by myself
50. Sit under a waterfall
51. Become really good friends with a neighbor
52. Serve a mission with my husband
53. Tour the Coliseum
54. Change someones life
55. Watch all of the "Lord of the Rings" movies
56. Go to the Georgia Aquarium- worlds largest
57. Go to Uluru National Park in Australia
58. Vacation to Bora Bora and stay in a hut on the water
59. Catch a fish with my bare hands... which totally freaks me out
60. Learn more about my Family History
61. Take a culinary class
62. Sleep under the stars, not in a tent
63. Make pickled onions for my family
64. Fill my passport
65. Learn to play the piano
66. Make a perfume
67. Do a backflip on a trampoline
68. Enjoy a gondola ride in Venice
69. Donate blood. I have never been able to, but one day hope I can.
70. Go on a Safari in Africa
71. Send my parents on a vacation
72. Help plan a wedding- all the little details
73. plant and grow my own flower garden
74. Make exercising everyday a habit and a joy
75. Walk across the Brooklyn Bridge
76. Go on a one horse open sleigh right
77. Host a dinner party
78. Find the PERFECT red lipstick
79. Visit 20 different temples, and not all in Utah. (8 down, 12 to go)
80. Have a big wrap around porch with a swing, and enjoy it with my husband
81. Ride on Maid of the Mist (CHECK)
82. Stand at the bottom of the Grand Canyon (CHECK)
83. Watch sea turtles hatch
84. Hang off the side of a cable car in San Fran.
85. Ride a bicycle built for two
86. Send 100 handwritten notes
87. Always be a stay at home mom
88. Be on Oprahs Favourite Things show (it obviously cant happen now, but I can still dream)
89. Organize and event for charity
90. Fund another families trip to the temple
91. Take a picture on the Great Wall of China
92. Swim in or step foot in all 5 oceans
93. See a Polar bear (outside of a zoo)
94. Climb a coconut tree
95. Adopt a child
96. Live in a house with a pool so my kids can grow up with one like i did
97. Build a tree house, then spend the night in it.
98. Go to an outdoor concert
99. Attend a Coldplay concert
100. Be content with myself

DONE!
this list took me about 4 days to complete... but im so happy with it. Go ahead and make your own :)

"Every man dies – Not every man really lives.” ~ William Ross

Just Do It

I have to be honest. Since I had my daughter 4, almost 5 months ago, i have struggled. i have struggled with remembering who i am outside of motherhood, i have struggled with trying to be just as good a wife as i was before, i have stuggled with nourishing my friendships, and i have SERIOUSLY struggled with self esteem. As if there isn't enough to worry about when becoming a new mom, like wondering if you're going to be able to handle this massive task, or trying to keep up with all the fantastic, creative mothers around you, now i have to worry about whether or not i will ever be me again.
My daughter is an absolute joy in my life (hence her middle name, Joy) and I could never, in a million years picture my life without this sweet girl.
I had a picture perfect pregnancy, and loved almost every minute of it. (minus the last 3 weeks, because, well the last 3 weeks suck.) The thing about my pregnancy, that i didnt realize then is that i had a HUGE baby bump. like really big. so many people thought i was carrying twins. my unrealistic expectations of getting rid of the baby weight in a month came to a screeching halt when a month had passed and i did not look anything like i did pre baby. So iv had a few melt downs in regard to this. Body image is so terribly hard for me to talk about, as it has haunted me my whole life. So now it begins... it should have begun a while ago, but i think iv been in denial for a few months now. No more putting off, taking off the baby weight. No more sad days wishing my old body would miraculously appear when i wake up in the morning (but how awesome would that be?) Hopefully ill be able to blog about my progress, and im sure that will help with my accountability!
here goes nothing!