We got a CAT, well a Kitty.

We have a baby in the house. A furry one. She is a cute calico cat named Ginny Weasley Nielsen.
We don't have great luck with pets. So I hope that we have this one for a long time. Mike was out of town and when he leaves I get some really great ideas. ie. I painted the whole house while he was gone once.
A few years ago we had to get rid of our cats Rachel and Phoebe. It was a sad day. Since then the kids have asked for an animal. Mostly they have wanted a dog. Over Mike's dead body can we get a dog. Mike is a cat lover. So the night that he was gone I was looking on KSL classifieds for kitties. There are lot right now since it's spring time. I found some that were cute and didn't look like our previous cats. The lady never called me back but there was another ad that had free kitties. They were 6 weeks old. Mike had a Saturday off and we took a drive to SLC to see these free kittens. Jersey was so excited she could hardly contain herself. We fell in love with our little calico cat. Phoenix was asleep but when he woke up said that we should call the kitty, Kitty Softpaws. Like from Pussy and Boots fame. We all agreed that her name should be Ginny. As I writing this I would like to change her name to Katniss. I will have to ask the kids in the morning about that.
So our kitty likes to attack anything that moves. My hand is scarred. But she loves to cuddle. When it gets to be late into the night she will curl up next to and purr this really loud purr and clothes her eyes. I glad she can go into the bathroom and sleep there all night. There have been a few nights where we let her roam the house. I didn't get that much sleep those nights.

It's official..... The kids liked the name change so she is now Katniss Everdeen Nielsen

Magic

Last month my friend Sarah and I went to the Utah Symphony. (wow, I can't believe it's been a month) The Utah Symphony was playing the music of John Williams and the famous pieces that inspired him. If you haven't heard of John Williams he wrote very very famous music. Some of his pieces, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, just to name a few. 

I like classical music and pop culture so this was perfect mix. We went with out our husbands because well they don't find the symphony or any classical music enjoyable. My mom was in town she came with us too. We had a fun night! 

Before the performance began we got to take some pictures with characters from the movies. Chewie, some stormtroopers and at the end Gold Leader and Snape. I had fun acting like a dork. 

Afterwards we walked over to the new shopping center Downtown and ate at the Cheesecake Factory! Delicious!

Skiing fun

My husband work at a local ski resort, Snowbird. We haven't taken full advantage of our benefit we get because he works there. 

I took the day off because the kids had the day off too. I wanted to go skiing. With recent snow here in Utah. I was hoping for a good day. I'm a fair weather skier. I like the fresh snow but I want the sun and no wind. That is a rare combination. But we got that today. The kids didn't really want to go but the threat of having to clean the house didn't sound as much fun as skiing. 

A perfect day on the slopes and the children did great. Phoenix is feeling more comfortable getting off the lift with me ( I snowboard not ski like the kids). Jersey is a speed demon on the slopes and loves to try to jump. After lunch the kids were done with skiing. Me? I wanted to keep going, I had to given in to the whines. I had a great workout though. I am hoping to have a chance to ski again just Mike and I before the season is

Cruises

The thought of going on a cruise has always been a dream of mine. Sitting in the sun, sipping exotic drinks (virgin of course), getting the perfect tan, exotic places. What is there not to love.

With all the news about the cruise ship in the Mediterranean sea. Tipped over and people freaking out. As soon as I saw that the news story, I knew my husband would veto any idea of a cruise now even more than before.
We were laughing about his aversions to cruises when I found an article in the news paper talking about a cruise that wanted to dock at the Falkland Islands because people had the stomach flu. But couldn't because the country didn't want the sick people to come on land.
Yep, I will have to go with my sisters on a girls only trip or when I'm a widower but then I don't think I will be so cute in my swimsuit. :)

are you Ragnar ready?

Ragnar? What is that you say? It's an insane race with 12 team members that run for two days. Why? No one knows why you really you do it other than you want to get really close with friends 

(or strangers in my case) they will know more about you after a few hours.

(fact 14,000 people ran in this race this weekend)

How did this happen?
Well, let me tell you a story. 

Mike has been signed up for Ragnar for a while since he did it last year. He hurt his knee a few weeks before the race. He didn't think he would be able to run. I started to do a bit more training. In a few weeks he was feeling better, he told me that he wouldn't need me to take his place. I was happy that he was better but sad that I wasn't going to get to run. 

My friend and former neighbor posted on Facebook that her team was needing a runner. (Wednesday) 

I was crazy and said that I would do it. I got all the information and we were planning to leave Thursday night to go to Logan because our start time was 5 am. Mike had said that he was cool with me doing the race. Now that we were both racing we needed to find a babysitter. I'm so grateful my sister was able to stay at my house with my kids. (THANK YOU) 

Our Van signing in at the beginning.

Starting line at 5am Friday morning.

I left for Logan, Thursday night. 

We got to our hotel at 9pm. We were all excited that we couldn't sleep. 3am came really fast. We needed to get up and get signed in before 5am. Our first runner started we drove along the race to help her. I got to be the first driver. Around 9 am it was my turn to run. 

I couldn't believe that was doing this race. 

This is what we did this weekend.

Check this of the bucket list

Giddy with joy

Last year I volunteered and now I was actually running it. My first leg of the race was all up hill. I had a 1200ft elevation change. Oh did I mention that it was in dirt with cars following me up so they kicked up even more? And there were lots of rocks! One I wanted to be really good. I did that leg in 1 hour and 48 minutes. I ran the whole thing and was proud of my run. 

Getting ready before my first run

After our first major exchange with van 2.

My second leg of the race was I feel was my best leg. I was feeling good, then I started to get a cramp on my side. I was steady and did it 52 min. Still a 12 min mile. 

My last leg was good too. I started crying before my last exchange, I was happy that did the race, I have been wanting to do this race since the first time I saw Heather (my SIL) run the race 2 years ago.

I did it. 

By Jordanelle

the hand off at my last exchange

For the love of chafing

We met up with our van 2 and once we past off to them we have some time until we would see them at the finish line. We spent $20 to get a room at the Swiss Alps inn in Heber City. We could shower, clean out our car or take a dip in the pool and hot tub. I jumped in the pool. I really did a cannon ball. It felt so good. We got ready and went to eat some lunch and do some shopping at the outlets. I wasn't really in the mood for shopping (shocking, I know) We made to the finish line to meet the rest of our team.
Our official total time for 192 miles was 35(hours):49 (min). 

I got the sticker and an awesome medal

MikenRhi together to again after running our first legs of the race



Snowbasin with Michael aka Gingy



The only time I got to see Mike was at Snowbasin. I was so happy to see him. Maybe next year we will do this together. Many people say that this is worse than child birth. I don't think child birth was all that bad and Ragnar wasn't that bad either.
Any where you go you see these little Ragnar stickers on cars.
I have wanted one and GUESS WHAT? I got it. My car will be awesome. 

R for radical, Ragnar and Rhiannon

I have to give a shout out to Datamark for sponsoring our Ragnar team.  

(most of the people on the team were workers for Datamark) 

Yes, my body is sore. I was surprised that I feel better than I expected. 

Zoo/Park City/Snowbird

On Saturday, my work sponsored a family fun day at the Zoo. Last year it was cold wet and rainy, with some snow. This year didn't disappoint. Our trip to the Zoo started out good but as soon as I got to the freeway I realized that I didn't have the tickets so I had to go all the way home and get the tickets. By the time we got back to the freeway the rain was coming down in sheets. The kids were nervous about walking in the rain, I kept telling them that we were having an adventure. We met up with some of my co-workers, most of them were already gone because of the ran and we got there late. Megan was my free person, because Mike couldn't come. Megan brought Adam we had fun getting wet together.

Mike's mom also brought the other grandkids to the Zoo. She was watching them while Mike's sister was running. We were quite the group. 7 kids 4 adults and everyone wet. Of course when we were all done walking around the Zoo. We left and the sun came out to warm us up for a few minutes.

Since I don't get to the "Eastside" to often I told Jersey that we would go to East High. Adam and never been to the "This is the Place" monument. We stopped there to take pictures get wet some more. Then we drove down Sunnyside Dr. passed my old village. The Student housing. Memory lane was flashing through my head. We passed the first ward building Mike and I went to. I told that to Jers, she thought that was cool. Then we got to the bottom of the hill to see EAST HIGH!!!! We are big, huge, HSM fans. I think more than the normal adult. I think because I worked there. I was in the halls that they now film. We parked in the front so we could take a few photos. I just so happen to park in the exact spot Sharpay parked in HSM3 the pink lines are still on the asphalt. Jers and Phe had fun posing by a planter box.

After our trip down memory lane we met up with Mike so that we could go to Park City and see his sister come in from her race. But we got there two late and missed her but that was ok because we were again hit by the rain. When we were walking back to the car that is when I decided that I want to run the race next year. To kill some time we went to the outlet mall. We found a cute hat for Jers and I found some cute shoes. But when we were leaving the Nike store the rain came down so hard. My feet were black because my sandals were so soaked. Of course again when we were leaving Park City it started to clear up.

We were staying at Snowbird for the weekend because Mike was working on Father's day at an event, but because of the rain the activities were closed at Snowbird and because we didn't want to sit in our room for the rest of the night we went out to dinner as a family. After all of that we headed up to Snowbird. As so as we got to the resort and in our room the kids were stripped and ready for the pool. Mike and I were so tired. We went to the pool but didn't stay long. There were so many people and the hot tubs were all full. The cold pool it was for us. Luckily the pool wore out the kids even more and they slept like angels.

The rain was not suppose to come until the afternoon but while we were in the pool in started to come down. I didn't know if I could handle another day in the rain. It was an adventure after all but I was ready for the adventure to end. We got ready, headed for the playground and to see Mike at work. The rain wouldn't let up and it was time to check out. I packed up the car and of course when were headed out the rain stopped. I turned the car around and headed back to Snowbird. The kids enjoyed the rest of the day by jumping in the bounce houses, trampolines, and mining for treasure. After all the activities we were ready to head out.

It was truly an adventure dealing with all the rain and the many things we did this weekend. Jers and Phe were great sports through it all. I can't wait for this weekends adventures.

Yearbook Photos

Once I saw Marquita's "yearbook" pictures I just had to try it. I have to say that Mike's pictures turned out much better than mine. But he is the good looking one in this family.

I hope you enjoy the mockery.

1956

(I think Mike looks like his dad here.)

1962 1970

1976

1980 (he looks like Willie Ames from 8 is Enough)

1984

1996( I think Mike has a real picture like this one)

1998I Can't stop laughing at the last picture.

My pictures aren't that great but you might laugh hard too.

I don't remember the years on mine but I'm sure you could guess which years are which.