Eerie Ogden

Have I mentioned that I live in the coolest town!?

I live in THE COOLEST TOWN!! 

Picture via Eerie Ogden Tribune Facebook

A writer friend of mine, Randi, has started a quarterly newspaper for kids called the Eerie Ogden Tribune.

This isn't your ordinary newspaper for kids, Oh No! This is a paper filled with stories about mermaids, ghosts, witches and other supernatural creatures.

The best part is that all the settings are local!! That's right, the stories are set here in Ogden and the surrounding areas of Northern Utah!!

HOW COOL IS THAT!!??!!

Now, this paper is totally grassroots and needs help. Please, please, please go to their Kickstarter and give a little if you can! Any help is appreciated!!

Pictures via Eerie Ogden Facebook

Here is an adorable Word from Barnabas Wolfbeard! (For some reason I couldn't put the video on here. Just go to the link. It's totally cute!)

You can also find out more information on their Facebook page. While you're there be sure to enter one of the many contests going on! I won this awesome mug! They just gave away some werewolf ears! Seriously, this is so cool!!

Weekend Fun

So much went on this weekend! I hit the first Ogden Farmers Market of the season. I got there half an hour after it all started and the produce was already selling out! I managed to snag some tomatoes, but I was really there for the kettle corn.

It's also a tradition for me to stop in and see my friend Candice and get some amazing henna done!

There is so much to love about the Farmers Market. Aside from all the stalls, I always run into friends, and I always get to meet new doggies.

That's Boss. He's a baby English Bulldog!! I just had to snorgle him! His owner was very patient with me. The good news is that he belongs to somebody running a stall, so I'll get to see him next week too!!



If you've read the last few posts you'll remember that we let my oldest boy get a guinea pig. That has been a saga of its own.

What we thought was simple hiccups turned out to be a respiratory infection. We woke up Saturday morning to a dead baby pig. It was very, very upsetting. Joshua took it like a trooper though. Of course he cried a little, but he didn't act out or anything. I'm really proud of him.

He decided that it was a sign that we shouldn't ever get an animal from a pet store, adoption is the only way to go. Since we'd only picked up the guinea pig on Tuesday, there was a warranty. Josh took the money and adopted another female pig. This time a full grown, mellow adult.

Her name is Lily, and she's a complete sweetheart. Even my husband has fallen in love. That's him cuddling her in the picture.

She's still a little skittish, but she's eating and drinking well. She even took a strawberry I gave her! For the love of Pete, please let this one live!



This weekend I also had the chance to spend some time with my good friend Jen. She lives in Wisconsin now, but she came back into town to get some work done on her house so she can put it on the market.

It was great to see her again, she is as beautiful as ever, and it was so nice catching up. I'm bummed that she's going to sell her house though, as long as she had that I felt like she had ties to this town. Now the only excuse to visit is Tona Sushi and of course all the people here who love her!

Ogden Bucket List (A work in progress.)

My cousin Shanon just moved here to Ogden. I've been driving her around bombarding her with "You should eat here!" "You need to try this!" "This place is so cool!" and she suggested that I put it all down in a blog post. (Probably in an effort to get me to shut up and pay attention to the road while I'm driving.)

This is partially a love letter to my town and partially a list of things I want Shanon to check out. I will probably update it more than once.

Things to see:

The Ogden River Parkway. Great for a little exercise or just a little fresh air.

Historic 25th Street. Just walking it is fun, but it's good for shopping and eating as well.

Ogden Union Station. If you feel like a museum, they have a couple. I think you'll have fun just taking pictures of the trains that are outside and free to explore.

Pineview Reservoir. Technically it isn't in Ogden, but I claim it any way.



Things to do:

Alleged. It's a club but they have Geeks Who Drink every Thursday. I will happily introduce you to people who will let you join in the fun. You might even be able to convince me to go some time.

Ogden Nature Center. It's not just for little kids. Sure they'll educate you if you want, but just wandering around is peaceful and sometimes you can get pictures of the wildlife.

Ogden Mustangs Hockey. The season is over for now, but isn't it nice to know we have a team!? YAY HOCKEY!!

Peery's Egyptian Theater. Lots of different kinds of performances. They even get some of the Sundance shows!

The Zigfeld Theater. This is where I saw Spamalot and Rent. Very fun.

Sasquatch Cowboy. Woo! Improv Comedy! Woo!!

Ogden City Dog Park. To let the pups run! While you're in the area you can also look at..

Ft. Buenaventura. Totally cool that it's an old (reconstructed...) fort in the middle of the city. When you're there it feels like a forest in the middle of nowhere.


Places to eat: 
Slackwater*

Lucky Slice Pizza This one is my favorite because they have awesome gluten free pizza too!

Kneaders*

Dragon Restaurant

Tona Sushi (I can't remember if you like sushi and sashimi, but they have other good foods there.)

Sonora Grill. I make Eric take me here on dates!

Sweet Pop'n Cafe. Okay, they only have different awesome sweets and popcorns but hey, you eat it! I'm addicted to their Kettle Corn.

*Places that I have not personally eaten at because of stupid Celiac Disease. I recommend them because they have been recommended to me. Or, like Slackwater, it's just an awesome place. 

Shopping!!

Only in Ogden. This is where you can go to get local things to send to your out of state friends to make them jealous that you live her now and they don't!

The Queen Bee. Chocolate. They have other stuff, but chocolate.

Things Shanon might not actually like but I have to write them down anyway because they are awesome: 

Sandtrap. Karaoke with Jackson the Karaoke Dude on Wednesdays. Very fun crowd. I've also been told the food there is pretty darn tasty.

Northern Utah Fashion Expo

Saturday I had the opportunity to volunteer at a local event here in my amazing town.

A friend of mine, Stephanie, joined up with some other amazing people and put together the very first Northern Utah Fashion Expo. It was a showcase for local fashion and accessory designers, complete with live music and three fashion shows.

I was asked to be the person who welcomed people to the event and handed out swag bags to the first 100 people who came. It was a job I'm made for. I got to chat with a bunch of people, and met lots of new faces. I had a blast!!

I only spent two and a half hours there, the expo went from noon to 8:00 pm. I only stayed for the first part, then came home and crashed. I'm such a lightweight!

Sunday I had a terrible shock. I went to Pinterest, like I do eight or nine times a day... Only this time my home page looked like I'd just signed up! None of the boards I usually follow were there and there was a prompt to start setting things up! I went to "My Boards and Pins" and all my "Followers" and "Following"s were gone! I was freaking out!! I restarted my computer, tried logging out and logging back in, nothing helped!! I shot an email off to the help department and then tried to think about other things.

Thankfully, when I got up this morning I had an email from Pinterest. They suggested clearing my browser and cookies. I did it and like a miracle, it worked! WHEW!!

I would have been upset to lose all my followers, I get a real self-esteem boost every time I get a new one, but I was really upset about losing all the boards I follow. There is no way I would be able to remember all 800 of them! I follow some really great boards and would be devastated to never see them again.

Even that I could live with as long as my pins and boards are still there. It's a bonus to me that people follow me, the most important thing is that I use Pinterest. I use it to organize my recipes, crafts, sewing patterns, shopping lists, so much! I have basically stopped using browser bookmarks. I'm a visual person, so Pinterest is exactly what I need. If I lost my pins I would be completely lost!!

(For the sake of honesty I will say that I do have one board that I curate only for my followers, Long Hair Style Ideas. I started it when I still had long hair and considered not posting to it any more, but I have a bunch of followers so when I find something cute I just go ahead and pin it.)  

Summertime Santa

You guys!!

I solved the mystery!!

I know what Santa Claus does in the off season!!

He drives a cab in Ogden, Utah!!

"Pool Honeys!"

Yesterday we make my nephew's dream come true and took the kids to "The Sandlot Pool".

In reality, we went to Lorin Farr Pool which is right in my neighborhood. It is the pool they used during the filming of the movie, but it's changed a little since then.

There used to be a couple of giant slides called Rampage. You went down them on a raft and they had rollers. It was dangerous. I heard horror stories.

Now they've put in three twisty water slides. Much safer, and lots of fun. The three youngest couldn't go down the slides, but they had a blast anyway.

This was one of those times when I'm glad I don't have more kids. Keeping my eye on all three of my kids was stressful.

I did have lots of fun, I went down the slides and soaked in the water.

My kids and I got burnt. Toasted. I swear I smothered us in sunscreen! We're just soooo freakin' pale!  Well, not any more.... Now we're pink!

We had tons of fun though, so I guess we earned the burn!

Video courtesy 71WinterWolf on YouTube.

Countdown to Summer

Today is the last full day of school for my kids. Friday and Tuesday are half days. The school year was actually supposed to end tomorrow, but we had a Snow Day and needed to add another day to make up for it. One of the cool things about my kids' school is that they sent out a survey asking when we'd prefer to have the extra day added.

Here I am, sitting in the living room trying to motivate my kids to get dressed and ready for school. They're dragging. I keep chanting to myself, "It's almost over, it's almost over..."

I'm looking forward to this Summer Break. I have all sorts of fun stuff planned! My sister is coming into town at the beginning of June, and I'm super excited about that. I've also been compiling a list of things I want to do with the kids. I've been working on it since January. We're going to build a solar oven, and attempt to cook a meal in it. We're going to pitch the tent in the back yard and camp out a lot.  I'm going to teach my kids part of my vast knowledge on how to start and maintain fires. We'll be Letterboxing and using the compasses the kids got for Christmas.

Joey had his Kindergarten evaluation and didn't do very well, so a lot of this break will be dedicated to getting him ready for school. I have an idea in my head to do my own little Summer Camp for the kids and the idea is evolving to include things Joey needs to be familiar with. Maybe a number, letter, and shape of the day? I have to ponder that one some more.

Utah Bloggers Meetup

I've been wanting to get moving on this blog again but for some reason I've just been lacking in motivation. I have no idea what my problem is, but I get all kinds of ideas late at night. Then the next morning I stare at a blank page until I finally give up and head over to Pinterest.

Saturday I got a brilliant shot of inspiration!

I met a few of the coolest ladies in this state. I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the Utah Bloggers Meetup hosted by my dear friend Mikki. I felt like a total impostor since my blog has a grand total of 6 followers and I hadn't updated in more than a month (we won't do the math to see how long it'd been before that.)

I went because I wanted to get some tips and tricks to hopefully get my blog to be more successful. Life had other plans. I didn't get a single tip.

Something much better happened.

I made new friends!

Photo courtesy of Mikaela Platter.

Every one of the bloggers was amazing, and completely sweet. They accepted my pathetic handmade "business" card and handed me their adorable ones. They let me hold their babies (I'm looking at you Victoria!) and chatted with me all afternoon. As much as I can use the help with this blog, the friendships that are starting to sprout will be much more valuable.

If you look close you'll see the little lip just starting to pout. Poor little cutie just wanted to eat and there I was stealing cuddles. Photo courtesy of Kristin Brandt.

Mikki planned this whole thing, and she did an amazing job. Seriously, I don't know how she does it! Everything she touches just turns amazing!

We met at Grounds for Coffee at 25th Street. It was the perfect place! I didn't know it, but they have a second story area with more tables and quite a bit of privacy. The best thing about this particular Grounds for Coffee is their baker, Jenny. She makes delicious gluten free desserts! I'm drooling just remembering the astounding chocolate mousse cake I had. They didn't have my favorite, the cheesecake, but the mousse cake quickly made me forget my disappointment. I washed it down with a fresh raspberry lemonade. Yes, you can go to Grounds for Coffee and never even have coffee!

Now, I have a confession. I am a sucker for swag. It's sick. Mikki, with her magic, arranged for us to get some pretty awesome gift bags. They were filled with great stuff! Sweet Pop'n Cafe gave us kettle corn, amazing kettle popped corn with just the right amount of sweet and salt. Mmmmm, I'm hungry again just thinking of it. Green the Earth added samples, I got some face firming lotion which I'm looking forward to trying. Silver Firs Farm gave us the most lush lip balm I've ever tried. I tried thinking of other descriptive words but "lush" is the one that keeps coming to mind.  Grounds for Coffee Riverdale, Rovali's Ristorante Italiano, Timeless Yoga, and Treehouse Museum all contributed valuable coupons for free stuff. By far the best swag came from Indie Ogden: stickers, a drink kooszie, and a super soft t-shirt! Oh yeah, and a fuzzy, stick-on moustache, because.... Well, of course a fuzzy, stick-on moustache!

There was one other thing in these bulging gift bags. A t-shirt from FamilyShare.com. Now the thing about this t-shirt is that it's part of a contest. I'm supposed to refashion it, blog about it, and then possibly win a prize. My head is already bubbling with ideas, so stay tuned to see what I make of it.

The Bloggers Meetup was a raging success and I am thrilled that I was a part of it. I look forward to picking up skills from the new friends I made and hopefully making this blog a much better place!

If you're curious about the bloggers I met then head over to the Indie Ogden review of the meetup. Mikki compiled a whole list of the blogs who's writers came. Hours of good reading all listed out for you!