Fashion epiphany

I have never claimed to be adept at fashion, but I did not realize how inept I really was until one Sunday I was sitting in church looking around at all the super cute girls in my Relief Society. I have always admired all the cute outfits I would see on them, but my nemesis (shopping) and I don't exactly understand one another. I looked down at my skirt I was wearing and realized that I was the only one still wearing a long skirt. I then counted the years in my head that this skirt and I have shared together....8 years! Yep, I had been wearing the same skirt pretty consistently for 8 years!! It was a practical purchase to take on my mission. It was loyal to me for 18 months as I walked day in and day out on the very cold and very hot streets of Ohio! It helped comfort me when I came home from my mission and was trying to find myself again. And it had always been there so I would never have to shop for church clothes again....or so I thought! For 3 weeks consistently I observed the girls' outfits at church in hopes to find that I was not the only one wearing a long skirt. Much to my dismay, week in and week out I saw all the girls running around in their knee length, colorful skirts. It became more and more clear that my ankle length, black nun-like skirt and I would finally have to part ways. I made it my new mission to buy some new clothes!

Old Navy provided me the colorful jumper I am wearing below!

Then I decided to walk next door to the Downeast Outfitters. With very low expectations, I looked around. Much to my surprise, I found some really cute clothes!

And lastly, I went to the mall......I cringed a little as I walked through the doors. Torried proved successful! I had to add my own touches so that I could still be modest, but I immediately fell in love with this dress!

I'm like a new woman!! And most of it was done fairly affordably! I have a new goal to buy at least 1 new item of clothing a month! Now I know what you all are thinking....what happened to the trustworthy, old, black skirt! Well, it's still hanging in my closet! Why throw away such a reliable skirt! I will probably wear it to the next funeral I attend. That seems fitting!

I Hope They Let You Back In the Country Cont'd

Monday morning started off with Danielle waking me up way too early on my vacation (830 AM) so we could go get pedicures!

Then I got into a lil trouble with the New Mexico law enforcement!

But luckily they just let me go cuz they could tell I was innocent! And they actually took me to the nearest shooting range! Owen was excited for the event!

Is it obvious that I am clueless when it comes to guns?!

The small one surprisingly had the biggest kick!

It kinda scared me a little! I've decided that I'm not a big fan of guns!

Owen was so cute!!!

Nate was showing us how it's really done!

Then we moved on to bigger and badder guns!!

My very first shot, I hit the target. The rest of my shots were nowhere close!

I hope they let you back in the country

We have an ongoing joke with my little sister Danielle...When she was younger, and when I say younger I really mean 19 or 20, we had a friend from New Mexico that was pretty much part of our family. She lived in Utah for several years and would come to family weekends or holidays with us cuz her family was far away in New Mexico. One year, our friend got to go home for Christmas. Danielle was saying her farewells and said as seriously as could be, "I hope they let you back in the country!" Yes, it's true, Danielle did not know that New Mexico was part of the USA and not Mexico! haha. 5 years later, Danielle and her family have moved to New Mexico, so we consistently let her know that we hope they let her back in the country! I told her that I brought my passport to come visit her, just in case!

New Mexico has been a fun trip! The fist night here, the small town of Tucamcari, where she lives, had free bowling and pizza at the local bowling alley. I thought for sure that the place would be crowded, but there was maybe 20-30 people. I'm used to small towns since I've lived in Nephi most my life, but this place is tiny!! It reminds me of Radiator Springs from the movie Cars. It's even along route 66!

Dakota was so independent that she would carry the ball up herself, even if it was too heavy for her. She would just chug along while making a little grunting sound. It was so cute!

The second day we went to a neighboring town, smaller than the one Danielle lives in, and went swimming in a lake. This is the coolest lake ever! It is fairly small and has a diving board and slide going into it!

Being as white as I am, I had Danielle spray sunscreen on me. She got it in my eye! ;(

Austin was such a good sport! The water was a bit frigid but he never cried. He loved playing in the mud!

Owen and Dakota loved being around water! They would've stayed longer if we had let them!

After the lake, we came home and showered! We were pretty murky! Danielle made meatloaf and vegetables for dinner, and I made rolls from scratch for the first time! They were surprisingly good!! And then I was asleep in bed by 9 PM. These kids tire me!!

Sunday we went to church at the small branch in town. A lady there said the funniest thing! We were talking about the story in the Bible about the rich man asking the Lord what he needed to do to enter the kingdom of heaven. The Lord told him to sell all he has. The moral of the story is to not put riches above the Lord but this lady behind us said, "There once was a man who was very wealthy and told his wife that when he dies he wants all his money buried with him in his casket. So the wife wrote a check and put it in the casket!" hahaha I thought that was so funny!!

I also watched the kids play with their church toys during sacrament meeting. You know you're intelligent when even the kids' toys confuse you. I was watching Dakota put the wood letters into the carved out spaces for each letter, and I looked at Danielle and asked, "why are there 2 M's?" She looked at me with her "you must be kidding mom look" and said, "1 is a W." hahahaha

After church, we went on a walk and then came back and sat on the porch, ate popsicles, and played with sidewalk chalk!

Owen tried rub all his chalk hands on me!

I have 1 1/2 more days in Tucamcari but am going to start a whole new post to document them! I don't like the way blogspot places the pictures so it's a pain to try to add pictures on chronologically!!! stay tuned!!