motion city soundtrack

so my fave band, motion city soundtrack, came out with a new cd last week.
i thought their last cd was a bit of a letdown so i was anxious to see if they would redeem themselves with this new one and guess what, they did!
this new cd has more of the lyrics and music you would expect from these guys. the only complaint i had was that i feel that their singer justin pierre's voice was a little over-produced.

if you haven't had the pleasure of hearing what these guys sound like you should watch my fave music videos.
the future freaks me out is awesome! i love all the different scenes they have in this one!
my favorite accident is hilarious! my fave part of this video is 2:18 - 2:22 when he's yelling at the bunny and twitches his head! and around 1:50 you'll see keyboardist jesse johnson do a handstand! amazing!

now, anyone who knows me well knows that i have a crush on justin pierre.
in fact, thats an understatement, i have a HUGE crush on justin pierre!
he's definitely in my top 5!
he has the most amazing voice and crazy look!

this is definitely my most fave picture of him!
i really wish i could talk matt into looking like this!
i guess i just have a thing for that haven't-washed-my-hair-in-days look!

the first time i saw them play live it was my birthday and my friend told justin to give me a birthday hug, which he did and i practically fainted!
then several years later i received a kiss on the cheek from this stud so basically...i am awesome!

new life, here we come!

i have been totally loving the weather these past couple weeks!

there is nothing better than cloudy/rainy days!

i even got a chance to wear my puffy vest that matt said i'd never wear!

i love it!
i also love our sweet bathroom that has our handprints all over it!

this weather is bringing back wonderful memories of our trips to seattle and portland!
and making me want to move up there more than ever!
matt is probably going to hate me for the next couple of weeks until i get over my moving sickness.
my moving sickness is basically the time when i bug matt over and over again to move up there and matt has to tell me over and over again that we can't just yet.
i know he wants to move up there too but he has to be at ASU for the next 3 years so we won't be moving any time soon.
sad face!
i made him promise me that we will move up there someday though!
YAY!


in other news...our store is closing. we are closing the doors for good at the end of february.
its such a bitter sweet time for us.
we know this is the right decision and it will be a relief when i don't have to lose sleep at night worrying about if things got done or if things still need to be done but we spent so much time and energy on this place.
plus, this store has been around for about 7 years now and some of our most loyal customers are not taking the news very well.
i really hate making people upset and the phone calls and emails have been pouring in asking why we are closing and if there is another option we could choose.
its making me so sad to disappoint people.
but the bottom line is that we need to do this.
i need to get out of this place and move on with my life.

i'm lucky to have good friends who have been coming to the store to support me during all the "disappointing people" time.
michael miller has come to paint with me a couple times this week!


and i even got dallin to paint which he has never done before!

the best part is they get my mind off of the stress of closing and make me laugh. like michael hiding in really high cupboards and then popping out...
THANKS GUYS!

this next month is going to probably be one of the hardest times in my life but it will all be worth it when its done.
i already got another job and i'm excited to start tomorrow.
it will be so much better to work from home.
i'll finally be able to go back to school and finish up my degree and matt and i might even be able to start a family soon since i'll be able to work and make money but still be at home.
closing our store opens up so many opportunities for us and i'm ready for that!

new life, here we come!

the final frontier

i'm absolutely and totally addicted to random, humorous websites. that's what happens when you spend all day being bored at work and are desperate for something to do.

i have a large list of sites that i have spent a million hours on but the faves are...

notalwaysright.com
stuffwhitepeoplelike.com
fmylife.com
mylifeisaverage.com
peopleofwalmart.com
awkwardfamilyphotos.com

all of these sites were amazing to begin with but one of them just got a whole lot cooler because of the fact that my family is featured on it!
that's right, blood relatives!
which makes the website more incredible and me more incredible by association.
that's just a fact.

check it out!

The Final Frontier « AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com

what is also a fact is that this particular picture of my aunt's family was displayed proudly in my home the whole time i was growing up! now it is out there for the whole world to enjoy and there just isn't anything better than that.

new threads ahoooooo

matt and i had a very lovely saturday together.

i was excited to have a day of thrifting since its been forever and a half since we've done that. we started out at goodwill and found absolutely nothing good. it broke our thrifting spirits a little bit so to cheer ourselves up we went to name brand exchange. its a guaranteed fact that at least one of us will find something great there! and since it still sorta kinda counts as a thrift store, just slightly higher class, we thought it fit into our thrift day! matt found some amazing corduroy pants! i found a cool t-shirt and some sexy high heels that i walked around in but talked myself out of. they were super duper high and i should probably start off with something a little less "hooker heel" for my first pair.

after name brand exchange we started to run out of time. we had to make our way to kohls to return a dress i had bought earlier in the week. i have absolutely no luck with dresses which is why i don't own them. this one was perfect in every way on the top half of my body but totally wrong on the bottom half. apparently my body just isn't made for dresses.

anyway, i returned my dress and then we walked around for a bit. matt and i love love love kohls! we know its ridiculously nerdy of us but how could you not love a place that tells you the price is one thing and then you go to the register and its even cheaper than you thought?? its like winning a game every time you go there! so matt found zilch but i totally scored!

i got a sweet dr. pepper shirt i've had my eye on for months...

an amazing sweatshirt that just screams NIKKI

this is my very favorite part about this sweatshirt...thumb holes!!

and the greatest shirt known to man!

this shirt makes matt super jealous! i bet it makes you jealous too! usually its me always complaining that matt got a shirt and they didn't have it in my size but this time, i win! go me!!

i mean, who wouldn't want this shirt?!

it was worn by dwight schrute, jack black and now ME! HA!

i had to promise matt that i would buy him this shirt for valentines day now because his jealousy won't stop until he gets it.

later on that night, matt and i had the funniest conversation ever!

he's always talking about how my little sister has amazing girly handwriting and he said something about it again last night. then our conversation went a little something like this...

me: "you like sari's handwriting better than mine!"

matt: "no i dont. i dont care if you write girly."

me: "YOU write girly."

matt: "no i dont. i write in all caps. thats as manly as it gets. its like i'm yelling ALL the time. rawr rawr rawr."

i laughed about this all night long! i love my little nerd boy!

farewell zombie man

ya know when you have been working at a job for a while and you start to have your favorite customers? well one of my favorite customers was zombie man!

my fascination with zombie man started from a distance.
he worked at a store a couple doors down from mine and he would walk back and forth several times a day and i would watch him and laugh.
he received his nickname because of the way he walked past our store.
he doesn't move his arms when he walks, never has any type of facial expression and
his hair is always styled super crazy and never ever moves!

picture him like the second one from the right but with killer style and amazingly crazy hair!

every time he walked by it would make me laugh and it was the best part of my day!
it soon became the best part of all the other employees day too because i shared
my love for this funny man.

on wednesday, i heard the worst news possible.
another worker from zombie man's store came into our shop and i told her i hadn't seen "that man with the blonde hair" lately.
(i never got up the courage to ask zombie man what his real name was)
and this girl told me he was fired! FIRED!! oh my gosh! i couldn't believe why anyone would want to fire him! the girl explained to me that he wasn't very nice to the customers.
apparently his zombie-ness went all the way through to his core.

work is going to be considerably worse now that he's gone.
i really regret not telling him how happy he made me every day.
and never finding out his real name because i was too big of a chicken.
i will miss you zombie man.
you will live on in my heart forever and i hope to some day see you again and smile as you zombie-walk past me.

what i love!

i’ve decided to write a little about the things that i love and why i love them so when i look back at this in later years i can laugh at myself.

note that these things are in no specific order, its just how they came to me.

here goes….

i love dessert! ice cream is the fave but all dessert is good dessert! sadly, matt does not share this love with me but sometimes i find that to be a good thing. i never have to worry about opening the freezer and finding my ice cream is missing. unless its raspberry tart from mesa frozen yogurt. matt would steal that in a heartbeat!

i love creating! this all started with pottery painting which i’ve been doing for years now and have gotten pretty good at it, if i do say so myself! but i also love learning to sew and working with sculpey. sadly, i’m not very good at drawing but luckily i have a super talented hubsy to help me and i’m trying to get better!

i love papasan chairs! i grew up my whole life wishing i had one and envying those friends of mine who did. i love love love them! i love them so much that i finally talked my wonderful hubsy into trying to get me one just a couple months ago! they were super duper expensive though so my wonderful sister gave me her old one!! (love you Christy!!) now i can sit in one whenever i want! and i love it!

i love hoodies! it’s a shame i live in arizona where you can only wear a hoodie 4 weeks out of the year (maybe) but that doesn’t stop me from loving them to pieces!

i love bouncy balls! the world’s simplest toy is the world’s best toy! i have been kicked out of many classes and yelled at many times for enjoying this lovely invention and i must say, it was totally worth it! i always have one in my purse in case i’m in need of some bouncy fun during my daily travels.

i love classic rock music! matt has recently discovered that if i’m in a bad mood it can instantly be cured by listening to journey, styx, eagles, guns and roses, foreigner, bryan adams, tom petty, kansas…the list goes on and on! that music is so much better than the junk that’s on the radio these days. plus, it reminds me of my daddy and i love that about it!

i love chocolate milk! there’s just something about its childishness that makes it more delicious than other drinks! i love chocolate milk so much in fact that when my mother-in-law offers it to the youngsters at sunday dinner i’ve talked her into offering it to me as well! SCORE!

i love lights! i have cute light strands for almost every holiday but when i see some in a store i beg to have them! they brighten every room they’re in and i love that!

i love clothes right out of the dryer! they’re so warm and perfectly perfect! especially bed sheets! i can’t explain it but my bed always feels 10 hundred times more comfortable when i pull the sheets out of the dryer, put them on the bed and jump right in!

i love chapstick! it’s one of the few items that are always always with me! but unlike other people, i’m not picky about my chapstick. i like the plain old, normal, no flavor, chapstick-brand chapstick.

i love moccasins! they are the best footwear! even though i’m a total shorty i don’t own a single pair of high heels because i love moccasins too much. they are my choice for footwear at all times! parties, work, church, professional, evening, day, it really doesn’t matter. i will wear moccasins whenever i get the chance!

i love penguins! they’re so unique! you could consider them the rule breakers of the bird world since they swim rather than fly! those rebels! plus they are beyond cute since most of them mate for life! they’re not sluts like other animals, they believe in true love!

i love popcorn! it really is the perfect snack food! if matt would let me, i would eat it every single day!

i love cloudy days! in fact, i love rainy days too! and cold days! again, i’m living in the wrong state. cloudy or rainy days are definitely the best days because they bring out hoodies and boots and puddles to jump in while you wear your hoodies and boots! and you have an excuse to drink hot chocolate and caramel apple cider and light a fire, not that i think you really need an excuse to enjoy those things but with rain and clouds you can have an excuse if you really want one!

i love playgrounds! no matter how old i get i will never stop loving playgrounds! running, jumping, sliding, swinging, there’s really no down side!

i love watching tv shows with matt! we have watched every single episodes of so many tv shows and i think its 100 times better than watching movies!

i love stuffed animals! you would think i was 5 years old if you saw all the stuffed animals i have from growing up! but i have great memories with every single one of my little animals so matt can’t talk me out of putting them in my corner net in our spare room!

i love 11:11! not only is it the time to make a wish but it holds special meaning for me and matt! he knew i was the one because of 11:11, we were married on 11/11 and every time i see that number i think of how much i love matt!

i love halloween! it’s definitely the best holiday out of the year! matt and i always spend a long time on our costumes and try to be the best dressed! it’s amazing that one night out of the year you get to dress up as whatever you want, act crazy and ask strangers for candy! i want to meet the genius who thought that up!

i love t-shirts and jeans! that basically sums up my entire wardrobe! i’ve been told i’m a great candidate for the tv show “what not to wear” but i can’t imagine wearing anything else!

i love strawberries! i stink so bad at picking them out at the grocery store but thankfully i have a mother-in-law who is an expert at picking them out and letting me enjoy them at almost every sunday dinner! they are the perfect addition to any meal! truly!

i love shark week! most people don’t understand my fascination with shark week but i promise you if you watched one shark week show with me you would understand how incredible it is! i try my hardest not to work that week so i can sit around in my shark week clothing, eat shark week foods and do nothing but think about sharks all week long! who wouldn’t love that??

i love jammies! i used to wear them to school all the time but now that i’m a grown up i can’t really do that anymore. sad face. but the second i walk through my door at the end of the day all i can think about is putting my comfy jammies on and lounging around!

i love giving presents! it’s so much better than receiving them! i love seeing the look on people’s faces when they open a present i spent time and energy into getting for them!

i love tetris! best. game. ever. and not only do i love it, i’m dang good at it too! i can kick anyone’s butt at that game guaranteed!

i love thrift stores! i don’t get to go to them as much as i would like anymore but i can’t even count the number of t-shirts, jeans and odds and ends i’ve picked up at thrift stores over the years! one person’s trash is another person’s treasure!

i love surprises! i’m incredibly hard to surprise so these don’t come easily but i think that makes me love them even more!

i love seaworld! it’s the best amusement park known to man! but i could just think that because i love the whole ocean! strange animals doing strange things and we don’t even know the half of what’s in that big, blue ocean! i never get bored learning about it either! if i lived anywhere near an ocean i’m sure i would’ve gone to school to become a marine biologist!

i love scuba diving! again, its all about my love for the ocean! being down under the water and seeing those things with your own eyes is unbelievable!

i love laughing! i’ve had many nicknames proving this too! i laugh at basically everything, seriously!

i love lime ricky! i don’t think anyone will understand my love for this bright, neon green color! matt has come to accept my odd fascination with lime ricky enough that he lets me decorate our house with it, including painting a whole wall lime ricky!!

i love getting mail! real mail that isn’t bills! i love going to the mail box and getting a letter from a friend!

i love kisses! great big matt kisses are the best but i also love little, wet kisses from my adorable puppy padme!

i love birthdays! not just my own but birthdays in general! they are such special days and of course it give you an excuse to party with friends!

i love socks! little mittens for your feet!

i love 80's music! i was totally born in the wrong era! i would’ve loved the big hair and the funny clothes and the dancy dancy 80’s music! if i could, i would time travel back and party like there was no tomorrow in the 80’s!

And last, but definitely not least…

i love my hubsy! matt is the single greatest thing that has ever happened to me! i don’t know what i would do without him! he puts up with me and my weirdo ways and ideas! he’s the funniest, sweetest boy in the world! we understand each other in a way that most people only see in the movies! i love him so much!!

saturday is a special day

this weekend was great! i got to spend a lot of time with matt which is pretty rare since we're so busy lately. we ran a bunch of errands on saturday and then my lovely in-laws took us to dinner and gave matt the best present in the world. his old toys! he looked like a little kid on christmas morning with these things.

see...

we spent a good portion of the night playing with SPINJAS!! i forgot how amazing they were!

if you're having a hard time remembering spinjas i'll go over the amazingness of them.

first you load your ninja into the spinning device and twist it a couple times.

then you and your enemy both shoot your ninjas out at the same time and watch them spin and spin and spin!

they hit each other as they spin until one of you knocks the other down and is declared the champion!

YEAH!!!! man, these things were so cool! i wish they made them now!

after the spinja marathon we were sitting around watching tv. i've been trying for weeks to teach our cute little dog, padme, to roll over. she has mastered the usual sit...

and lay down...

but hadn't quite mastered roll over. she was incredibly close but was just being stubborn! i would tell her to roll over and she would wait until i gave her a little nudge and then she would do it but on saturday night...SHE DID IT ALL BY HERSELF!!

i felt like a mom watching her child walk for the first time! lame, i know! but this puppy is my little baby and i was beaming with pride! and now matt and i can't stop asking her to roll over because its so dang adorable!! poor padme. i keep telling her we'll get over it soon but i think she knows i'm lying.

crafty

i guess i should probably write about my new years resolutions too. matt's are so well thought out and are intended to make him a better person.

my resolution has nothing to do with that at all.

my only resolution is to be more crafty.

i'm definitely going to learn how to use my new sewing machine. matt and i bought some really cool fabric for my first project which was going to be an octopus plushie like this one...

i love love love this octopus so much so i tried to copy it but the fabric we got was not intended for a beginning sewing project. it was too stretchy and i had no idea how to use it. so we went back to the store to get nice cotton fabric that i know i can sew with and i found an

easy monster plushie pattern to start me out.

i'm going to try to make this orange one!

its basically the easiest one possible which makes it perfect for me!

matt also turned me onto sculpey. he made me some amazing tetris earrings for christmas and i made a keychain as a christmas gift too. i'm working with sculpey more and more and yesterday i made these penguin earrings.

perfect for valentines day!

hopefully after this year i'll be an expert with my sewing machine and with the

sculpey and i'll be able to make all kinds of things for

myself and for other people!

So Long 2009...and Good Riddance

I've been thinking a lot about the changes I need to make in my life to get the results I want. I came across a new blog called www.6changes.com. There's a lot of info there but it taught me a lot about the reasons I've always failed at New Year's Resolutions and making changes in my life.

The secret is making "habits". It recommends making 6 Resolutions. One for every two months of the year. This is one of the reasons I always fail. I always try to do to much at once. This way I can focus on one thing and start with baby steps. That is the second reason I can never keep a goal longer than two weeks. I try and lose 30 pounds in one month instead of making a "habit" and slowly building up an exercise routine. The third rule is to be publicly accountable for your goals to help you keep motivated and log your progress. 

So that's it, I'm going to:

• Start with one change at a time.
• Begin by taking baby steps.
• Commit publicly and keep a log.

These are my New Year's Resolutions:

1. Financial Organization. Organize bill schedules and debt payoffs. Organize filing cabinet.
2. Daily Exercise and Diet. Activities I enjoy. Cut back on processed foods. 
3. Stop Internet Obsession. Cut off impulsive behaviors like checking e-mail, facebook, and Google Reader.
4. Wake Earlier. Make quiet time to relax, create, or exercise.
5. Focus on Creating. Set aside time every day to create something amazing.
6. Declutter. Simplify schedule and possessions.

Obviously there is more stuff I want to conquer, but I have to keep it simple. I am going to break each change down into 8 steps, 1 for each week during the 2 month period.

Nikki and I coined the phrase, "Zen in 2010." That's what I am going for.

(Sorry I'm not as funny as Nikki is. I will try to incorporate some humor in my next posts.)

today is the first day of 2010. epic.

to prove our level of awesomeness i will tell you that we did not receive one invite from any of our friends to participate in any exicting new years eve parties so what did we do? we decided to have some fun of our own!

we first took a lovely trip to safeway since we had a gift card and needed all-nighter supplies. we ended up with this...

junk food junk food and, of course, more junk food. you simply can't go wrong with soda from your childhood, pretzels dipped in nutella and what great party doesn't have fritos, bean dip and martinellis?

we arrived home and hunkered down to watch one million, literally, episodes of dexter. our new favorite show.

we finished the first season and man was it great! i must say that i thought the first part of the season was totally predictable. i consider myself a forensics expert. partly because of my childhood ways and partly because i've watched way too many CSI episodes and this made me think that i had dexter all figured out but then POW! the end of the first season totally threw me! i couldn't believe it! i guess i'm not the forensics genius i thought i was. bummer.

matt fell asleep before midnight, as always. i did wake him up for the traditional midnight kiss though. & then i spent all night waiting to fall asleep. matt snored away while my curse of insomnia kept me up all night. plus the bad serial killer dreams started as soon as i actually did fall asleep. maybe i shouldn't watch dexter so close to bed time. mental note.

now today, new years day. a day full of more dexter and junk food. i did pry matt away from the tv to take me to the mall to search for a cute dress which i didn't find. sad. i did find a cool one online though & matt bought it for me!

isn't it cute?? i do not own one single dress, shocking i know, so i'm really hoping i end up liking this one when it comes. matt is such a sweetie to buy it for me!

hopefully the greatness of last night & today is a sign that the rest of the year is going to be amazing!