personalized baby slings!

I sent an email out to most of you that read this, but I am starting to sell baby slings for other people now. Here are some photos of my first order, and some of the sling I made for my sister and my nephew Jack.

If you'd like more info about ordering a sling (or if you have any other ideas for a handmade sewing project), shoot me an email. I am making a messenger bag for my friend Brian and could make lots of other things as well.

Cheers!
Nicole

summer

Greetings!

I am writing from my new MacBook! This means that I will (much more easily) be able to upload more photos for YOU, dear reader, to look at. :)

If you'd like to see summer pics (I am still working on being Mac-literate, hence, no photos in this entry), go to http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2513343&l=d0801&id=13902993 or http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2524810&l=37acb&id=13902993.

I have a week left of summer and then it's back to school next week. It's warm, but we're keeping cool with Izzes (sparkling fruit juice and water), swimming, and blasting the air conditioning from time to time. :)

Peace!
Nik

wow

Okay. My cousin Kristine informed me that I have not updated my blog recently. I didn't realize it had been THREE MONTHS. My apologies to those of you who (used to?) read it often.

Spring Break in March was glorious - seven days off from school. We also had a slew of visitors: my parents, Curt's mom, two of my aunts and Curt's cousin Pete et al. I would post pictures of all if I had them, but I only have photos from Shirley's (Curt's mom) visit.





I don't remember much else about March...school kept me pretty busy. I spent all of April getting ready for the Evening of Fine Arts. I had my (small) choir perform, a student of mine did a solo, and my 2nd graders were absolutely adorable performing "La Mariposa" (The Butterfly). I wish I had pictures of it! The whole show was judged, and my students went home with nothing. That didn't stop me from being proud of them, though!

I'm getting ahead of myself. In April, I went to Minnesota for a long weekend. I spent most of it taking pictures of Jack. :)





I also saw some college friends in Minneapolis.





Back to May...I played piano for the 8th grade promotion (Pomp and Circumstance, of course). The last day of school, I took about 30 students to a children's theater production of Cinderella. Most of my students have never been to a play. I think they had a really fantastic time. My superintendent organized the trip; his rotary club paid for the tickets.

School got out on May 31st. Our 1st wedding anniversary was on the 26th; we went camping last weekend to celebrate.





Since we got back from camping, we have gotten pretty good at lounging around the house. :) I'm reading three books, playing guitar, and hanging out by the pool a lot. Curt is in-between temp assignments and is keeping me company.

Next Friday I leave for San Francisco, and from there it's onto Minnesota! I will be sure to keep this thing more updated in the upcoming months. :)

Til next time,
Nicole

summertime?

It's been awhile, and I do apologize. January dragged on forever, and February just flew by. We are at the beginning of a long stream of visitors. Shirley (Curt's mom) flew in Friday night and will be in Arizona until the 9th. She is staying at a Holiday Inn not to far away from here until Wednesday, when she will go to Scottsdale for an audiology conference. I haven't been feeling well (again), so we haven't been up to much this weekend. Last night we went to Cafe Lalibela, an Ethiopian place. DELICIOUS! We watched The Darjeeling Limited, the latest movie directed by Wes Craven (of The Royal Tennenbaums and The Life Aquatic fame).

Today we just lounged by the pool for awhile. We are going to grill out tonight. I wish spring break started tomorrow...it will be here soon enough.

More visitors will be my parents March 13-18th, Curt's cousin Pete et al at the end of the month, and my aunts Pat and Ginny towards the end of the month. It will be fun to see everyone.

After two bouts of possible food poisoning with seafood and fish, I am back to a real vegetarian diet. While I could never (ever) give up cheese, I am trying to cut back on eggs. I made vegan raspberry walnut muffins from scratch today and I think they turned out alright. :) I am turning our balcony into a bit of a garden...after visiting the farmer's market yesterday, I now have a pot of rosemary, basil and oregano. I hope it works (for eating so many vegetables I don't have much of a green thumb). I also got everything I need to pot a tomato plant from the market. Fresh tomatoes, year round?! Welcome to Arizona. :)





Ghost town in Apache Junction





Church on the Mount



Inside the church



As we pulled up to the ghost town, I secretly hoped they had ice cream.





A pretty cool Hawaaian concert I took some students to last weekend.



Some of my students.



Our new patio set (thanks Mom and Dad!).



The new herb garden.



Our balcony. <3

Yes, We Can

confessions of a non-athlete

Hello Everyone!

It has been an insanely busy last couple of weeks. After our trip to Minnesota, we returned to Arizona with our friend Adam along for the ride. We stopped in Phoenix for one night, and the next morning headed to Las Vegas. We met up with our friend Pilks there (a teacher from New Zealand that I met during my student teaching). New Year's Eve is a bit of a blur, but we counted down to the new year on the Strip with fireworks going off over nearly all of the casinos.

Pilks came with us back to Phoenix, where we spent a lot of time catching up, playing Scrabble, and cooking Indian food. Pilks is more or less an expert on cooking Indian, and bought us a fantastic wedding present of an Indian cookbook and all the necessary spices.

The madness continued into this weekend. Our friends Angela and Alex from Minneapolis came to stay with us for the P.F. Chang's Rock and Roll Marathon. I used to work with Angela at the child care center in St. Paul. Alex is a big-time runner, and ran the full marathon in 3:10, which qualified him for the Boston Marathon. Woo-hoo! I finished the half-marathon (13 miles) in 3:04 and Curt did it in 2:24. Not bad! Before training for this, the most we'd run was maybe three miles. Thank you so much for all your words of support that day!!!

Well, Curt is back with some fried rice, so I'll leave you with some photos. I hope you are all well. Stay warm.

Love,
Nicole




In front of a mini Eiffel tower on the Strip.



Our off-the-Strip motel.



Indian spices.



Pilks keeping a close eye on my vegetable chopping.



Ready to eat!

2007 Highlights continued