Peace out, Orem.

The Nichols family is officially moving back to Salt Lake City!

Now I know that we've claimed to be moving several times before. But come on, there was just that one time... umm... and then that other time... But that's beside the point! Because we really, truly, honestly ARE moving this time!

Destination: Sugarhouse
When: Some time in the next 2-3 weeks
Why: Lots of reasons, some I'll share and some are private. So there.

In all seriousness though, we've really loved Orem, but it's time to move on. We want to be closer to family and closer to everything we love to do. It seems like we're always up in Salt Lake anyway, so why not live there? We know that Sean's commute will be long and that we'll miss the friends we've made here, but we have definitely heavily weighed the pros and cons and this is definitely the right decision for us.

This will be the eighth time we've moved in almost eight years. You'd think I would be used to moving by now, but I'm not. The mass of boxes and clutter is overwhelming, as is the INSANE cleaning checklist that must be completed. But I shall do what I need to do:

Or maybe it was this:

Cancer sucks like a picnic.

We are calling today Sean's official 2-year Remission-versary. He has been cancer-free for two years now, and you have no idea how good it feels just to type that.

A little over two years ago Sean and I were going through hell. There's just no other way to describe it. Loads of sickness, pain, anger, fear, indigestion, and hair loss. The fighting, the medical bills, the worry that the chemo treatments wouldn't work - it all added up to the worst four months ever. EVER.

Although it was hard, we're happy to have gone through it and learned many, many lessons about ourselves and life that we never would have learned otherwise. And we are grateful - OH so grateful - to be healthy and happy now.

Now you're probably wondering what the title of this blog post has to do with what I've just written. Well, my Aunt Holly - my wonderful, beautiful, fantastic Aunt Holly - wrote me a very hilarious email in the wee hours of the morning that I just have to share. Hope this is okay, Aunt Holly - it was just so chock full of comic gold that I couldn't resist sharing. So without further introduction, an excerpt from the funniest email ever:

"I was sorry (and I'm still sorry!) that you and Sean had to go through such a terrifying thing as cancer when you were so young! (or ever) And I know it's still something that affects you. I don't know that I could have been as strong as you were. (I know it was no picnic, but you DID handle it well--you made it through with your marriage intact and you managed to raise a wonderful little boy in the middle of it all).

You know, maybe it WAS a picnic. A picnic in a park where you lay your checkered picnic blanket on a fire ant bed and they start biting you and then you eat your sandwiches only to find out they are contaminated with a fast-acting strain of e-coli and you have INSTANT DIARRHEA! At the park! In front of everyone! (And you're wearing white pants, of course). And then a pack of wild dogs runs across your blanket and steals the rest of your food, and all your beverages too, so you're totally weak and dehydrated from the insta-diarrhea, and you no longer have food & water with which to regain your strength so you can barely manage to crawl to your car and it takes an hour (on account of the fire ants still crawling all over your flesh, and who can crawl quickly when they are both dehydrated AND being devoured by fire ants?). And so finally you get to the car only to discover you've left your keys at the picnic site but then you also discover that your didn't lock your car (whew), but when your husband (who went to West High so he knows how) manages to hot wire your car and get it started, a gang war breaks out in the parking lot and though you only receive a few flesh wounds from the stray bullets, your tires are toast. So you both (thank goodness you didn't bring the kid) lie huddled under your car and hope the vicious pack of dogs die from e-coli sandwiches before they get hungry again and track your foul stench back to your hiding place and eat you.

So yeah...that kind of picnic.

Dude! Cancer sucks like a picnic!"


Yes Aunt Holly, cancer sucks like a picnic. Glad that picnic is over.

Thanks, Bob.

“He’s not perfect. You aren’t either.
And the two of you will never be perfect.
But if he can make you laugh at least once,
causes you to think twice,
and if he admits to being human and making mistakes,
hold on to him and give him the most you can.
He isn’t going to quote poetry,
he’s not thinking about you every moment,
but he will give you a part of him that he knows you could break.
Don’t hurt him.
Don’t change him.
And don’t expect more than he can give.
Don’t analyze.
Smile when he makes you happy.
Yell when he makes you mad.
And miss him when he’s not there.
Love hard when there is love to be had.
Because perfect guys don’t exist,
but there’s always one guy that is perfect for you.”
--Bob Marley


To the man that is and always will be perfect for me - I love you!

Oh how I love my son...

...and all his crazy faces.

Oh if only...

If I had an extra $1800 just sitting around collecting dust, this is what I'd buy.

Super Monkey!

I shot a few photos the other night of Tay doing what he does best: jumping.

Gotta love this kid.

Christmas 2009

Think it's finally time I updated this here blog? Yeah, me too.

Our Christmas was great; as Taylor gets older it's gets more and more fun to celebrate the holidays.

Christmas Eve we celebrated in that time-honored tradition of bowling. What, you don't go bowling with your family on Christmas Eve? Well, we must just be super cool then. Tay absolutely had a blast even though he was completely exhausted from the excitement of the day combined with utter lack of any and all nap. After we bowled our game we all opened our Christmas Eve gift (pajamas, of course!) then headed home to get the tyke to bed.

Christmas morning Sean and I lay in bed, excited and anxious for Taylor to wake up and see what Santa brought him. His eyes nearly popped out of his head when he saw his full stocking and all the gifts under the tree. After several months of telling us at least once a day how bad he wanted Santa to bring him a "big giant dinosaur puzzle" we were so excited to watch him open it.



While I was helping Tay open another gift, Sean sneaked (snuck? snucked? sneakered?) off to the bathroom where he'd hidden my gift. I turned around to find a huge gift leaning against the wall behind me and immediately knew what it was. I opened it and bawled my eyes out:


Once Sean finally pryed me away from my new toy we headed out to make the rounds. We visited so many family members and each time Tay got a load of gifts. He was so spoiled this year and loved every second of it. It was so great to visit with all our family members - especially those we don't see very often.

For New Year's Eve we just stayed in, watched movies, and ate lots of junk food. I did manage to get my kiss for the new year though.


My resolutions this year:
1. Workout at least 250 days this year (secretly I'm shooting for 300 but something tells me that's not going to happen).
2. Spend more quality time with Taylor.
3. Cook dinner more often and actually stay within my grocery budget each week (there's a concept!).
4. Work harder on my Etsy shop.
5. Keep my house clean and in order.

I hope everyone had fantastic holidays and that you all have a happy and prosperous 2010!