posts in progress

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I have six in total. All have been started. None finished. And there are many more in my head.

Here’s the quick and dirty update on my life, for anyone who is interested. Right now I’m in AZ playing with my nieces and nephews…particularly the babies. It has been so fun (and exhausting). Because of my sister’s crazy work schedule and her husband’s finals, I have been playing the role of nanny almost full-time. Today was by far the hardest day with the littlest munchkin suffering from some kind of illness…I got puked on and pooped on, along with all of the other daily activities.

I’m currently taking my first photography class from one of my besties, Candice through jessicasprague.com. Candice is an amazing photographer and I’m taking her portraiture class and LOVING it.

While in AZ I’ve been able to catch up with a number of people. I went into Dolce (the old stomping grounds) for a massage, and was able to see my old boss, who I just adore, as well as a number of the other girls I used to work with. I can’t believe it’s been three years since I left Dolce and AZ. So much has happened, and yet it feels as if I’ve only been gone a few months…maybe because I come down here at least four times a year. I also saw my bestie from beauty school (yes…if you weren’t aware, I went to beauty school just after I left college). And then I got to spend some quality time with one of my favorite people in the world, Jenny, and meet her new little munchkin who is darling.

What I haven’t been doing is reading all of the books I brought with me, getting ready every day (or even most days), sleeping in, calling people, going to bed early, exercising, or blogging. Being a “mommy” is time consuming…especially when they aren’t your kids so you are like the best version of a mommy you can possibly be. (Basically, I don’t ever want to appear like I’m neglecting my sister’s kiddies to blog, or exercise, or whatever).

What I have been doing in all of the hours I am in my sister’s house with two kiddos under two is thinking…a lot. Thus the many posts floating in my head.

The good news is that I am just super content right now. I head back to Vegas next week for a couple of days, then back to P-town just in time to run this great 5k that I love. A week there and then I’m off to NY for the summer. I’m glad I’ve had a purpose this last week and a half…or I might seriously be going crazy. As I’ve said before, I enjoy Downtime for weekend visits, but much more than that and I want to kill her.

That’s all for now.

two little munchkins

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*Disclaimer – this post contains a bunch of photos (like 20-ish) of two kids who may or may not matter to you, but are two of a very select group of people in my life; my nieces and nephews.

Of all the labels I can currently claim (daughter, sister, friend, student, etc), Auntie is definitely my favorite. I have spent the last few days with these two kiddos whom I absolutely adore. The littlest loves me when her parents aren’t around, but Tannon and I are best buddies (although, his dad sometimes rains on my parade). In any case, we have been having a fabulous time. Every morning I am awakened (or so they think) by cute little voices yelling “Boo” at the top of their lungs. I love it!

I get to watch kiddie movies, play with Playdough, build with magnets, create “water-slides”, share my shoes, tickle, dance, be a human jungle-gym, receive bear hugs and slobbery kisses, wipe snotty noses, go for walks, make Spiderman Mac ‘n’ Cheese, fill sippies with apple juice, and laugh and laugh and laugh. Two more days of this and then it’s on to the rest of the nieces and nephews for a week or so. I’m so enjoying the benefits of the student lifestyle right now!


This little boy could play with Playdough all day long. Seriously. He loves it! And his super-mom let’s him play with it in the house. Something that never happened when I was a kid (at least not that I can remember).

And really, he just likes anything that involves constructing, creating, fixing, or building…just like his dad.

Yes, she has already discovered shoes and is quite impressive as she walks around in heels, which is made even more impressive by the fact that she’s only been walking for about five months.


Somebody has some serious skills.


What is it about little feet that just makes me smile?

Zoning.

He was totally posing for this one!

Grandma Kim would be so impressed with all of her water-loving grandchildren. What you can’t see from the pictures is that, while sunny, this was a relatively cool and very windy day and the little pool…not so warm.



Why yes, Auntie Cwo-Cwo (or Chlo-Chlo if you can pronounce your l’s) did put the slide right up to the little pool. Isn’t that what aunts are for?


All bundled up after freezing in the water…this bundling happened about every five minutes and lasted for about 15 seconds.


I know a little girl who LOVES her daddy!


How lucky am I? I get to hang out with these kiddies all day right now! Such a fun life.

And it’s even more fun because I’m not their mom (not that I wouldn’t be so happy to be their mom…they are awesome kids), so I get to hand them right over for any kind of disciplining that may be necessary. Such a charmed life I live!

bruges – a new place in slc

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So, for those of you who don’t know, I spent a semester of my high school career in Belgium. It was hard…very hard; just ask my dad about the phone bill in December of 1992. I was really young (14 to be exact) and not fully prepared to be away from my family for that long. Anyway, I digress.

There were some things I loved about my experience (at the time; there are lots of things that I love about it now…in hindsight). Two of those things: frites and gaufres. Or, in English, fries and waffles. Belgian waffles are familiar to most people, but did you know that fries are really Belgian and not French? Probably not.

Moving on: in Belgium they have fry and waffle stands, just like we have hot dog stands. It’s amazing. The fries are twice fried. Once to cook the potatoes and once to crisp them up. The waffles are not made from batter, but dough; delicious dough full of little chunks of sugar that caramelize when they bake.


When I was in NY, the girls and I went to this place called Pomme-Frites that was amazing. Just like I remember fries in Belgium, right down the curry ketchup (something I find completely and totally disgusting, but authentic, nonetheless).

Then, two days ago, while traveling through the tubes of the Internet, I discovered a place in Salt Lake, serving frites and gaufres (again, fries and waffles). I had to try it before leaving town. The good news, I needed to go to Salt Lake today to run a few errands anyway, so this was just the slightest detour.

Bruges is the name of this fabulous little place, named after the city in northern Belgium where the owner grew up (think Venice, but cooler and cleaner). You can read all about it on the website.

Anyway, it was so worth the detour. The frites are authentic in preparation and taste (the shape was slightly different than those I had in Belgium), served with real European mayonnaise. Not the same as American mayonnaise, but for those of you who think you would never eat fries with mayonnaise (and are currently judging me for doing so), I hope you realize that “fry sauce” is just mayonnaise with ketchup. I know, I thought it sounded disgusting, too…and then I tried it. So yummy! And if you still can’t stand the thought of it, they have other options.

Frtes with mayonnaise…and the little wooden thing…that’s a little fork type thing for eating them. Brilliant!

And then there were the waffles. I wish I had taken a picture of Pierre (the owner) pulling the dough off the parchment and putting it into the waffle iron so you could all see what I’m talking about. But I didn’t. I did, however, capture the end result…a delicious Liege waffle. (Belgians do make batter waffles, too…but the dough ones originated in Liège, which happens to be the province where I was living in high school.)


It was amazing! It’s only been open five weeks and I hope it sticks around for a while. And yes, I did get both waffles and fries. Sue me.