End of April.

Since we are now down to 1 car, the girls and I drove my husband to work. Yesterday, we stopped by Beyond Glaze. Have you SEEN these donuts?? I took a picture to share. Now I haven't had a donut in years, but I looked at these beautiful delicious edible pieces of art and I could not help myself.  So on the top, Raspberry Torte, German Chocolate, S'mores. On the bottom, Caramel Apple, Peach Cobbler, and Key Lime. wow. seriously. I had the KeyLime. :) That sucker will last me hopefully another few years. Who comes up with these things? soooooo gooood.

Today I spent most of the day at my sisters! I drove to her house in a snowstorm. Who knew it was Spring? The snow was on and off most of the day, and I loved it when it looked like we were in a snow globe. Anyway, here's a picture of the kids out playing in the cold. Amy's little girl, Mylee, would not be in the picture. I tried. Most of the time Amy and I were being crafty working on a project. Lots of Mod Podge, pretty paper, and a box. Pictures in a couple weeks. Love being at my sisters, just frustrating when the kids don't listen and leave the house a disaster area.

For a while now I've been wanting a bike. Just a bike. I haven't had a bike of my own since I was a kid. My ultimate goal will be to get a bike trailer for my kids so I can bike my oldest to school, it's only 3 miles to get there.  Who knew that buying a bike could be so complicated! They have mountain bikes, road bikes, hybrid bikes, comfort bikes, and then the odds and ends. I had no idea what I wanted. My hubby and I looked in...wow, lots of different stores. Finally I sat down at the computer and did a little research on the different kinds of bikes.

What I really wanted was something I could ride around town, bike rides with the family, take my daughter to school if the weather permitted, maybe get a new book at the library...you get the idea. On the way home from picking up my hubby from work, we stopped by another bike shop, and I found what I wanted. A Hybrid, a bike that's supposed to combine the best features of the mountain bike and the road bike, but meant more as a commuter bike, the tires are meant for the paved roads, but still fast and sturdy. AND comfortable.  I hope this bike becomes my new best friend when the weather decides to stay warm. :)

cute, simple, comfortable. such a lucky girl.

Me Time and Saturday

I definitely believe in ME time. If you have kids (whether you work or stay home) you need to have time for yourself to unwind and recharge your batteries. How often depends on you. I know you've heard the debate on if you should put your children's needs before your own? that if you don't take care of yourself you won't be able to take care of your kids.  Why can't we have a happy medium? With certain things in life, absolutely, my kids will always come before my own needs. BUT sometimes the moms NEEDS should be met so you don't have a stressed out time bomb ready to go off. (personal opinion) :)

Saturday was my ME day. :) I have needed one for a while. You know when I can tell?? when I'm at the end of my rope with my kids and have no patience. Ok this is a daily thing sometimes, but you know when it is bad enough. Anyway. Saturday!  I must share my Me day, i LOVE Me day. One of the best I've had. The other great thing about Me day? my husband. He's the one watching our girls. love him.

In the morning, before my kids found me, I showered. very important. :)  If my girls find me, then the shower has to be put off until they are distracted. My in-laws were in town for my brothers Masters degree graduation and staying over, so that helped with the distractions.  After taking care of breakfast, cleaning up, getting my girls ready for the day, and catching up on silly facebook games, I was on my way to lunch at Zupas!

Zupas is one of my favorite places to have lunch. Chicken Summer Salad...yuuumy.  Meeting my sister Amy, my friend Liz, and an old friend I hadn't seen for almost 10 years, Kurt. This was really a last minute, craving Zupas, catchup on life lunches. LOVED it. Just something about getting together with old friends as if no time has passed, and being able to talk about everything. Lunch was so great, that in the end we were already making plans for the next Zupas lunch!

Lovely picture. by a stranger. Liz, Amy, Kurt and me with my eyes closed.

After lunch, my sister and I met up with our mom and we treated ourselves to pedicures. Keep in mind, I can probably count on one hand how many times I have had a pedicure. AND Ams and I have been prepping our little toes with lotion every night so that the people performing miracles on our feet wouldn't laugh at our callouses. hehe.  A little pampering, and pretty toes go a long way. :)

The next activity Ams and I did after our lovely pedicures will remain mostly confidential. Let's just say that it is not often that Amy and I are both child-free. And a certain wonderful cousin (ahem..Anna) will soon be married, and we may or may not have picked up a couple of things for a party in the near future. (insert evil laugh here)

At this point Amy and I had to go our separate ways, but my ME day is not over! For those that are still reading (wow), I'll try to sum up the rest of my night. I did go home to check on my little family, and make dinner. Then I was so excited about the "couple of things" we purchased, that I wanted to go to Hobby Lobby for a new little project for these things. (When I'm excited about something, I'm not very patient.) My girls were playing games with each other (wanting to play together...seriously, doesn't happen often), and my husband kicked me out of the house. Once again, child-free. yay!

Let's just say that I was successful in finding what I wanted! and it was so nice to just walk around a store without restless kids pulling in every direction, worried about what they were going to do next. On my way home, I decided to use a gift card I'd received for Kohls. How often am I going to be kid-free, needing to try on clothes, and not having to worry about my 3yr old crawling under all the changing stalls while I'm half naked. Well, I was on a mission to find shorts. Not only did I find shorts, but I found 4 shorts in the 90% clearance, and 2 cute skorts for 50%. oh yea...sometimes I just love Kohls. :) 

The Me day has come to an end, and it was such a great day. thank you hubby for taking care of our girls so I could have this day.  I came home happy, relaxed, pretty toes, a new fun project to work on, and much needed shorts for the warm weather. Sometimes you just need an afternoon, or a few hours to focus on you. (and hopefully enough to last you until the next Me time.)

Dirty Thunderstorm

I'm sure most of you are keeping up on the volcano Eyjafjallajokull glacier (totally copy/pasted that, needs to be added to the Spelling Bee. lol) in Iceland. When I was on msn, I saw these pictures of what they call a "Dirty Thunderstorm." Personally, I think it's fascinating and breathtaking...but also unnerving for those that are directly affected by this natural disaster. Either way, I wanted to share a few pictures that I saw on msn.

Lightning, mixed with volcanic ash and hot lava. wow.

I have always been fascinated with the weather. Just so I could get my information correct, I checked on the weather channel website. Basically, the ash cloud and thunderclouds are similar in that they are full of hot humid air, and postive charges. Eruptions produce major electrical charges. Ash clouds are mixed with other rocks,  minerals, debris, that when they are released and collide may be cause the lightning strikes.

This volcano is erupting under the glacier, about 200 meters under. How neat is that? As the lava is spewing out, it is cooling into rock before it goes down the mountain, and the frozen water that is going into the volcanos crater is creating the huge ash clouds. Obviously the downside is the melting ice, creating flooding the area. 

The ash cloud is causing major airport shutdowns across Europe, which is definitely inconvenient for the traveler, but from what I understand planes and ash do not mix, so why chance it? ;)  The number one rule when I was working at the airlines? Safety Firt.   I loved these pictures, hope you did to.

(btw: I really hope my information is correct, but please don't quote me..just in case. lol. Just wanted to share some amazing pictures.)

***AND Happy Anniversary to my sister Amy and her hubby, they've been married 8 years. <3

Muse concert

Muse! They were here in concert last Monday. In a few words, the concert was spectacular, love them, and just what I needed. Originally, I had given my tickets to my brother James when I found out about my trip to Sydney.  All I knew was my flight was getting in that same Monday afternoon, and a high chance that I would miss the concert. Muse was the first band in almost 12 years that I wanted to see live. (They even sound better live.)  Anyway, to make a long story short, I was lucky that even though my flight was delayed, and with no sleep for over 30 hours, I had a few hours before the concert started. yay! AND especially lucky that the spare ticket just happened to be available at the last minute. So James picked me up from the airport, and that night we went to see Muse. Have I mentioned that I love Muse? :)

So for those that are unfamiliar with Muse, they are considered a Rock Band, comprised of just three guys: Matt Bellamy (lead vocals, guitar, piano), Dom Howard (drums), and Chris Wolstenholme (bass, back vocals). These guys are seriously talented, naturally talented, freakishly talented.  The concert was seriously fantastic, from the ear deafening loud music, to the bass shaking all my insides (kept me from falling alseep on my feet). Between the energy of the band, the lights, and the fans, it was crazy. They played non-stop for 2 hours, didn't stop for anything. Then again the crowd was screaming so loud they couldn't get any words in after a set of songs. Everyone was standing the entire time. When they pulled the piano out for Matt to play, I was one of those crazy screaming fans...love to hear him play.

One thing I did not like about the concert?? (not Muse, they were amazing) the other guy next to me. He should have been down screaming/jumping with the fans on the floor. This guy screamed every word to every song into my ear, and even when it was a guitar solo, he was doing the "duh duh duh" sounds along with that. So along with screaming the songs, he was jumping up and down (most of us did), and then his hand seriously "accidentally" brushed my behind at least 5 times. Wouldn't you back up or be more careful after the 1st or 2nd time?  You know I can sometimes have a temper, I almost turned around and decked the guy.

Honestly, I only know a handful of my friends that are familiar with Muse. My sister just rolls her eyes when I bring them up, and my husband is hoping that I'm just going through a phase (he doesn't realize that Muse is a life-long affair. hehe). Did I mention that my 5 yr old loves to listen to the music with me? With most bands I only like a few songs, but with Muse I actually enjoy 95% of all the songs they've recorded.  Anyway, I wanted to share a few videos of Muse for those that are not familiar with their music. I have too many favorites. If you're looking for more, they do have a website, here, that has all of their songs listed from the beginning that you can listen to.

Butterflies and Hurricanes video. 
I love this song, mostly for the piano solo that's around 3:00. amazing. sorry the video is chopped, couldn't get the deminsions smaller on youtube.


Undisclosed Desires video. This is one of my favorites from their latest album, The Resistance.


Uno video. This one i'm sharing just for fun, and I like the song. Uno is from their first album, showbiz, released in 98-99. Just amazing how they've changed in the last 10 years--growing wise, not the music.

Really wanted to add more, but this post is long enough. still working on Syndey highlights, wanted to get this one posted before I just didn't care anymore. ;)

Where have I been??

I'll give you a hint!

Above is Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge right before Sunset

And this is ME with the Opera House in the background. It was totally raining that day, which would explain my poofy hair..oh wait, that was just Sydney, it had that effect on my hair. hahaha.

This is just a quick post to tell everyone I'm home! I'm still pretty jetlagged and I'm using today to wake up and get my head on straight before I go pick up the girls from the grandparents in the morning. More to come...but before I update my blog I'll be uploading a ton of pics from my day to day experience on facebook, if you're interested in that and yuo are not on facebook, I can still send an album link so you can still look through the photos. :) I took over 900 photos...lol, but I'll work on weeding those out and sharing my favorite moments. Hope you all had a fantastic Easter weekend!