Arizona Day Two Afternoon

At my first Power of Mom Retreat back here. I had meet some exceptional woman who are moms and I've always dreamed of going into each of their homes and watching them "in action" doing real mom stuff. Well I got my first opportunity to do so this afternoon with a mother that I admire and look up too.

Meet Shawni....

I would consider her a Super Mom but she is so real and upfront with real life and writes beautifully. I contacted her because she lives in Arizona and I knew that somehow someway I would get to see her and it worked!

She got my post comment and wrote back and we got to meet up and she happens to live one mile away from the friends that we were visiting. So perfect.

I invited the friend I was visiting to come along and walked into her home which is adorable and just had a great visit.

During this time she has been in the middle of potty training her last child and it was just great to see her doing all the motherly duties while friends are over and just holding her children while they were sad or explaining to a daughter to be very careful about handling their "6th child" which happens to be her beloved SLR camera!

I loved every minute of it and I just thought to myself just how important life is as a mother and to cherish all these moments even when their is company over and to just appreciate great friendships.

We went back and forth about all of our ideas that we have been doing and the new ideas that we are currently working on as mothers. We went from home decor to schools to travel to blogs to power of moms stuff which you can read more about here.

Overall it was just such a treat to be in her "mom life" for a moment in time and to catch a glimpse into her role in that part of the world. I hope I can do this more often to bring into perspective just how real mom life is and its not always going to be a pretty painted canvas.

Thanks Shawni for a great afternoon!

Golden Scissors Fashion Show

I was invited by my friend, Dianna, to attend a fashion show. I had never been to one before but I totally had so much fun seeing all the crazy stuff out there but then there was some clothing in the show that I actually would love to wear. Dianna has been taking some fashion design classes and one of her classmates was a participant in this Fashion show and she was able to show her collection of 7 pieces which I loved ALL of them and hope to get my hands on some of them one day.

I also loved just 'people watching' while I was there. The Fashion world is so interesting to me and the different variety of people you encounter in this world is so fun to watch. I loved watching them stare each other down and commenting about everything and hearing their conversations. Of course that is what comes with 'fashion shows' because that is what it is all about ...looking and observing and commenting!

Its a tough world, I am sure, but I like that I just get to wear clothes and don't have to have the stress of designing and creating them! I have always had a deep respect for these type of people to adapt to a lot of different body types and styles but since seeing it first hand, instead of on Project Runway for example, I just admire them so much more.

I hope to be able to get some pictures of her collection soon.

USU Girls Retreat

What a fun filled weekend I just had with my college roomates. Leah set up this get together and we stayed at her in-laws beach house in LaJolla. It started out at the airport picking up the girls and Taya drove in from Vegas so we had her car as well. They were hungry so we stopped off at Islands Resturant by the temple and ate. We started going around the table to let everyone have about 10 minutes to talk about themselves and get us all caught up. I got to meet one new girl, Amber, who married one of the boy friends we hung out with, Dan. She was a lot of fun to get to know.

We got to the house and just got settled and of course stayed up that evening chatting it up till 2:00am. We were to start our next day leaving at 5:30 to go to Disneyland but we talked Kelsey and Katie to leave at 8am instead.
I was kind of bummed to find out that we were going to spend time in Disneyland because I had been there so many times but this time was different. I actually went on some rides that I thought I would never experience in my lifetime. I was so proud of myself and maybe it was because of these girls that I went on them. Its all a mental blockage and I know I can do alot more things if I just change my attitude and just suck it up a little. Well I kind of had that attitude today and decided that today was going to be that day

I rode on Space, Thunder Mountain, Matterhorn That was an achievement for me now I have to work on Screamin and Tower of Terror. It was a long day but we had no kids to keep occupied and to entertain it was awesome. It was packed but it wasn't that bad because we just kept chatting away and the lines would go by fast and it was just really enjoyable. I had the best BBQ dinner it was so tasty and I ate at The Bengal BBQ right by Indiana Jones. I had beef and chicken BBQ sckewers with Bacon wrapped Asparagus. YUMMY! That will be my new meal at Disneyland now thank you Kelsey for the recommendation. That night Chantelle, Leah and I took off early because the others wanted to do some shopping and thank goodness we did because they were still there by the time we got back to LaJolla. I got lucky enough to get the nickname of Spiritual Sarah on this trip. It seemed as though everytime I chatted it had to do with the gospel and then of course the J-1ers did say that I was and at that time in college I think that was the most spiritual time in my life. I wish I could say that now but I found it funny that they would think that I was this amazing molly mormon girl but in all reality I am far from it and I told them that many times but they didn't want to believe it. Well of course we get back late from Disney and the girls at this point are coming up with excuses not to go to church and had to ask me for permission to excuse them from it. They also mentioned that we would instead go down to the beach and have a testimony meeting. I was planning on going to sacrament meeting but Leah and I stayed up and chatted way too long and then I couldn't sleep for about another hour so I woke up at 10am. I saw Leah out getting ready for a run so I decided to jump on the cruiser and go along with her. I just talked myself into not going to church that day. Its been a long time since that has happened. Anyway I felt guilty all day long and then they of course didn't go to the store to get food so Leah took us to this cafe and I bought OJ and a muffin that was really good so once again I broke the sabbath. I felt aweful and I couldn't believe I was doing this. Here I'm supposed to be the example but I gave in. I will on the next trip be better. That afternoon we got into our swimsuits and headed to the beach for a couple of hours. It was a great day and just so relaxing. That night I took the girls to my place for dinner. Trent had been so kind enough to make us all dinner. It was so yummy and he even had cookies baking. I was so impressed and the girls were as well. They just thought it was the neatest thing to see Trent doing that for us and to take care of us. That is why I love him so much he is willing to do anything I ask of him and do it a full 110%. We headed back and concluded our last night together with a 6 hour conversation that was really intriguing and quite the learning experience. Every mother, woman, or daughter needs a girls weekend to just get away and just renew their lives and think about whats most important. I went away from this experience with a greater love and appreciation for Trent and the man that he is. The last day of our great weekend together. We all woke up at 11am! Yikes! The time change just threw us off but of course the late night chats didn't help much either. The girls went out for a run while I took Chantelle to Nordstrom Rack where we both scored on some great jeans that make us look good too bad the price wasn't that good as well. Then I dropped her off at the airport. I picked up the rest of them and headed off to Fashion Valley mall to get a makeover at Bare Minerals and ended up that I was the only one that didn't get it done because of time. I felt like I needed it the most but then I thought to myself, "Would I actually wear it?" Then I didn't want to spend money on it either. So it ended up ok. Then I dropped them off at the airport. I feel so blessed to have such great friends to confide in even though I only see them only once every 2-4 years!! Really does it have to be that long. I hope this will become a yearly event quite honestly. I have just come away with a great attitude towards being a mother, wife and daughter. I just cannot describe it. I haven't laughed that much in a long time. At times I wonder why Trent and I don't laugh together and just have fun. I'm going to work on that one because laughter truly is

J-1 Roommate Get Together

This was the only day the whole summer that I was in Utah that we all (almost all) got together for a chit chat about life and whats happening.

Natalie is in Australia and just happened to be filming for Shelf Reliance here in Utah which is her new job as one of their test chefs! Way to go Nat! She's so cute you can check her out here. Stacey drove down all the way from Preston Riverdale, Idaho. It was so fun to be in her presence again. Then of course Leah which I saw all summer long which was FAB cause I miss her so much!

I love it when these things take place because I have a constant smile on my face and then my stomache hurts because I just laugh so much when I am with them all. We ate at PF Changs for dinner and had wonderful food. It was a first for me to experience that type of resturant. It was good to have Nat there because she was the one who is the food expert. Afterward we sat in front of my condo and just chated more. I wish I could do it more but we have to live in different places now. We are all over the place and no one lives by anyone, Sad! Love you girls and we missed you Teresa and Jill!

Jon McLaughlin Concert

I was invited to go along with these ladies that I play basketball with to go see Jon McLaughlin who is incredible to watch in person play and sing! He has some great music and it was a very small venue and it was kind of nice to sit in the back of the room and just DANCE! What a fun night thank you girls for inviting me to tag along!

My Good Excuse!

My absence from my blog world is all due to this Woman, Jillian Michaels, and well all I can say is that she is pretty hard and kicks your trash hard core. I love her workouts and the total time to do her book workout is 45 minutes. I am doing some things that I have never experienced before and the results are amazing. It all makes sense to me that you do nonstop workouts to keep your heart rate up and burn those calories.

Just for some information I started her exercise and eating regimen on November 12th and since that time I have lost 15 lbs and 4 inches from my waist, 1 in around my arms, and 3 inches around my bust! It works! I was so disciplined over the holidays and I just told myself that I needed to do this even if its the hardest time of the year to start it.

I have also purchased her workout video which is intense as well but its only 2o minutes of nonstop bum kickin! Its called 30 Day Shred! It works ladies and gentlemen. I say that because Trent is doing it along side me which we have loved to being able to share that wonderful time together getting motivated by this woman!