T-minus 2 weeks...

...until I move back to Bountiful. Yep, I'm moving back to the land of milk and honey...the land of my youth...the land of fresh lime rainbows, yum! I feel like it's something I need to do at this point in my life. Not sure why, but how often does the Man Upstairs gives the reasons in advance? :)

I'm sad to leave Lehi. It's been a great 4 years, and I've had some fantastic roommates. But the future is bright. I'll be living with a good friend from high school. And a new ward will bring new friends and fun. Sooooooooo.......here's to a new chapter in my life!

My evening as a model

A few weeks ago, I went and served as a model for a photographer friend who wanted to build up his portfolio. He's doing a project called "Perspectives" where he's taking pictures in places that most people wouldn't think to have them taken. Check out his blog to see where we went. I felt a little self-conscious as first, but I really had a lot of fun. And my friend is pretty darn talented. I love his style! And I'm really pleased with the pictures. Here are a few of my favorites.

Adventures in babysitting

So part of my purpose in traveling to DC was to watch my friend's 3 kids for 2 days while she and her husband went away. You see, they will be moving to Africa in about a month and I thought it'd be nice to do this for them before they leave. Of course, it does give me an excuse to see them once more before the big move...

They have two boys, ages 6 and 2, and a little girl, age 9 mos. Their little girl has the most mild temperment, so no problem there. The 6-year-old is old enough to entertain himself. The 2-year-old...well...he's a bit of a live wire! He was the one I was most concerned about as far as behavior goes, most particularly in sacrament meeting.

I arrived from England last Friday night and Tia and hubby left for NYC at 2 AM, so my job began almost right away. Saturday proved to be a pretty good day. The boys were behaving and playing together well and sister was content with just about anything. We took a trip to the school playground, during which the 6-year-old asked whether I knew how to play on the monkey bars and could I show him how...That was interesting. It's much, much easier to swing on them when you don't have so much weight to support, which is probably why I have rarely attempted such a feat since the age of 10... Since I could stand on the ground and reach the bars, I opted for the theoretical approach to monkey bar playing and demonstrated by walking rather than actual hanging. This seemed acceptable and just as effective, though being only 6 still made it difficult for him. Nevertheless, I can rest assured that I've given him a good foundational knowledge of successful monkey bar playing.

The rest of the day went well. Saturday night was bath time, and in spite of half the bath water ending up on the bathroom floor, it was fairly routine. They all even went to bed without a problem. Phew!

Sunday dawned bright and sunny ... a glorious Mother's day. I woke up early to get myself ready before the kids got up and began preparing myself for the task of keeping 3 kids entertained and quiet for a little over an hour. We got to church and I found a side pew in the back of the chapel. But I had to ask myself, "Why do the side pews in newer chapels not attach to the walls like in older chapels? It's so much easier to keep kids in the pew if there's not a side exit." We sat down and got settled a bit before the meeting started.

Sister sat in her car seat rather content eating a baby biscuit. That was her taken care of... The boys...well, they went from coloring, to asking for treats, to reading little church books, to asking for more treats, to asking for the other treats, to coloring, to asking for more treats. Then the 6 year-old got up to sing to the moms with the Primary. The 2 year-old sat quietly watching brother sing. Then it was back to coloring, to asking why there weren't more treats, to coloring (the 6 year-old) and to threatening to leave through the side exit (the 2 year-old), to wanting more treats. The 2 year-old started getting more daring, threatening to leave the pew, and at one point he even walked around the back of the pew but came back in on the side I was sitting. That was a great relief! I could tell, though, that all 3 were getting more restless as the hour progressed. I began to slightly panic when it was time for the meeting to end and we were only on the first of two speakers. Anyone sensible would finish it early on Mother's day so the moms could send the kids to Primary and really enjoy church. I might make that suggestion one day. As it turned out, the meeting ended 15 minutes late, and with a sigh of relief I took the boys to Primary and nursery. I had survived!

The rest of the day was fine. We had lunch, then dinner later and a little movie night. I was quite happy when I had all 3 in bed a little after 9 PM. Tia and hubby were due home around midnight, so my job was pretty much done. My last task was to pick them up from the metro just a few minutes' drive away. Well, apparently the kids wore me out, because I slept through 5 phone calls - they ended up having to walk home, but they managed to find a taxi on the way - and then knocks on the door and bedroom windows. The 2 year-old likes to open the door and run away so they installed a chain at the top of the front door out of his reach so he can't unlock the door. I had the chain in place upon laying down because I had intended on picking them up. Well, since I was fast asleep and the chain was in place, they couldn't get in the front door. They had to resort to climbing in through an unlocked window in order to get into the house. I was oblivious to their presence, as I was quite asleep, until they both came into the room I was sleeping in. I somehow immediately woke up then ... and have felt terrible since that I not only failed to pick them up but also locked them out of their own house! Ha!

Thankfully they're good enough of friends to not hold it against me...at least I hope. :)

SLC Bike Tour

So somehow I let my friend talk me into doing the SLC bike tour this Saturday... OK, it didn't take much persuasion! Despite the fact that it starts at 6 AM, I'm really quite excited for it. It's not an actual race, but a ride which will follow the marathon course. So that's 26 miles of city biking. I've been to and through Salt Lake hundreds, if not thousands, of times, but never like this... Anyone want to meet me at the finish line at the Gateway?? Ha! Just kidding ... you'd have to be there at the also ridiculously early hour of about 7:15 or 7:30 AM, assuming I keep pace...

This one goes out to Christine...

...who's been so kindly reminding me that it's been several months since I've updated my blog. :) It's true, I've been quite busy. I had the LARGEST project to finish up in February and it was a beast! I pulled an all-nighter getting that one done...never again! Plus other work in general usually requiring in total more than 40 hrs. per week. And then there are numberless other excuses that I really won't bore you with because you probably won't really care to read about those....

Since my last post before Christmas, I have been busy trying to get myself ready to go back to school. That's right, Nicole is going to be a student again. No, it's not a masters degree - which would seem the obvious next step after having received a bachelors degree - but a second bachelors. You read that correctly, a second bachelors. I'm doing a complete change of course, and am going to study Child Life at the U - that's right, the U (I may need to consciously remember not to wear any BYU clothing!). Because I've already done one bachelors, they're waiving all sorts of classes for the second. So I can do it in about 1.5-2 years, including the internship. With this I can certify as a Child Life specialist and work with children in hospitals. Specialists use play therapy to prepare children for medical procedures and otherwise help them cope with their hospital stay, whether long or short. I'm really quite excited, because I've grown somewhat tired of libraries and business, and I feel like this will be more rewarding for me. So should be an exciting new adventure.

Because of said schooling, which I'll be doing full-time, I'm also stepping down as project manager, though I will be staying at my company. I just finished the first week of training my replacement, and it feels great! I'm feeling less stress already. Only a couple of weeks left then freedom... :)

And as a treat to myself - post-manager and pre-school - I'm taking a trip to.....

My beloved England
and...

DC!!

I can't wait for a little R&R... I'll be going at the end of April for two and a half weeks - one and a half in England and one in DC. Hooray!

So here's to you, Christine... Hopefully you won't have to prompt me for another post. :)

A little Christmas fun for Twilight fans...

Happy Thanksgiving

So, I've been a bit busy for the past...well...long time, and haven't taken the time to post anything. With Thanksgiving today, and since I've had the day off, I thought I should try to catch up a bit. (Hence the pictures but no writing...that part takes too long).

I've also tried to think and write all the things I'm grateful for, but I can't express all the gratitude I feel. God has truly blessed me. And I hope that today you all feel how blessed you are, too. Happy Thanksgiving!