Goslings Nesting and Jumping

I just love baby animals. Well, I really love pretty much any animal. I was pretty stoked this year when my co workers told me how geese always nest on the ledge outside our kitchen window.

I was even more excited when they did come to nest. They were hilarious. They kepy attacking their own reflections in the glass. I heard little bangs all day long, of their beaks attacking the glass.

First there was just one egg and then the mom and dad both left for a day. The next day they were back and I saw at least 3 eggs. The dad left again and the mom sat on those eggs for more than a month. Every day there was one goose out on the open fields in front of my work. I'm not sure, but I'm a romantic so I'm gonna go ahead and say it was the dad.

Then on Thursday I checked in on the mama as I do every morning and I saw a little flash of florescent yellow. Her babies had hatched!

And there weren't three, there were FIVE! I don't think the people who work up here got a ton of work done that day. Everyone was constantly checking in on the babies. They were so cute.

My co-workers warned me that they usually leave the nest within about 24 hours of hatching. I was so nervous they'd leave before I came into work the next day. I looked in as soon as I got in and I saw the mom go over. They'd also warned me that once the mom flies down, the babies immediately start jumping.

By the time I made it running down the stairs 2 babies had already jumped and were already off with their mom and dad.

I got to watch 2 babies jump from our 4th floor ledge. Did you hear that, these goslings jumped 4 stories down to the ground, and were totally fine. And then there was one baby left. It was really sad, it kept running to it's reflection in the glass thinking someone was still up there. He just chirped and chirped for an hour up there by itself. And then all of the sudden the chirping was gone, and the whole family was gone. It must have finally jumped off the ledge because those geese weren't leaving until their baby came down.

It was one of the most adorable things I've ever seen. Now enjoy these videos of the goslings jumping from the 4th floor ledge, and how their just fine when they reach the bottom.

Goslings 1 from Sam M. on Vimeo.

Goslings2 from Sam M. on Vimeo.

Funny Friday: Funny Stories

For Funny Friday today I thought I'd share some funny stories that happened to both us and other volunteers while we were living in Cambodia. A lot of really crazy things happened to us, but after a while they just became common place to us.

One of my favorite stories happened to Hal and I while we were eating some Zattarans in our room for lunch. We savored our western food while we lived there so we would save them for special occassions or days that we just really didn't feel like biking to the market.

I was sitting  on the edge of our bed, and Hal was sitting at our desk with the bowl of food. The fan was inbetween us because I was preparing to leave, and if you have the fan on you and then step outside you'll start sweating even more profusely, so I put the fan between us and was reaching out to get bites of food.

One thing you should know about me, is that I'm a serial spiller. I spill on myself probably once a day, no joke. I think this moment is when Hal stopped letting me lean over him to eat out of the bowl. Lets accurately set the scene for you here. You're welcome for this, in advance.

(Don't ask me why Hal is sitting weird like that, lets just call is creative license. I'm particularly proud of the mosquito net in the drawing, it's kin of a masterpiece.)

As I took a bite I brought it over to my mouth while I was blowing on it to let it cool, I dropped the whole heaping spoonful into the fan. Hal was suddenly splattered with zattarans since the fan was blowing directly on him. He wasn't very happy but I just laughed and laughed and laughed. That was probably my most epic spill ever.

This is our friend Ashley and her Cambodian yay (grandmother). Yays are the coolest! This is possibly one of the best pictures I've seen any volunteer take.

And Lastly, we all have mispronounced a khmer word a time or two. The problem with that is that a lot words sound almost exactly the same, so it's easy to mispronounce them. A good friend of ours chose a few words each week to practice with his Health Center Staff. One time he was trying to say "I ate corn on my new sheets" what his staff heard was "I ate vagina on my big shirt".

And that for you, is a glimpse into the life of a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cambodia.

The Red Scotty Dog Dress

Guys, here I am with my first ever outfit post. I don't know why I've never done these, but I'm excited to do a few of them from here on out.

A few weeks ago a friend of mine went to good ol' Decades, a vintage store in downtown Salt Lake and got some really cool dresses and wore one to church the next sunday. How have I never thought of wearing my vintage dresses to church? I have quite a few of them that people have been so kind to give me over the years and they deserve to be displayed, so here is vintage dress #1.

This dress is so comfortable.  I love it. It has pockets lined in mustard yellow, how much better can it get than that?

Hal was so nice to take these pictures for me. I said I want to do an outfit post. He grabbed the camera and took one picture and started to walk inside. I had to stop him and say you can't do an outfit post with just one picture.

I love the shape of this dress and the cute little design of it. I need your input to solve a debate. I say the dogs on this dress are scotty dogs, but Hal says they're poodles. What type of dog do you think they are?

Wish Hal goodlcuk on his last 2 finals of the year! He's taking both of them today and then he'll finally be done with the Jr. Core and have a life again. YAY!!

Linking up with Rolled Up Pretty

I'm Feeling The Itch

Living abroad and being able to travel so much while we lived in Asia has given me an itch. An itch to travel even more.

Well, we're too poor to travel much right now, so instead I'm going to dream travel. These are the places I would be planning trips to if we weren't poor college students.

The Grand Canyon:

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My birthday is coming up and I'd really like to go here for the big 26. I live like 10 hours away from it, have driven past the signs for the national park and still have never been. That needs to change. And tips on which part of the canyon to visit, and if it's better to camp or stay in a hotel?

Europe:



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 Hal is doing a very short study abroad in multiple cities in Europe this summer for accounting. I'm so jealous of the places he's going! His school won't let me tag along with the group, boo! This one definitely isn't happening for me, so I guess I'll just dream about it and settle for a suitcase full of kinder chocolate instead.
And lastly
India:

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 Two of my favorite travel partners are going to India in September after their Peace Corps service ends. I skyped with them, and they brought up the brilliant idea that since I can't go to Europe with Hal, I should get to go to India with them. Oh man, I'd be there in a heartbeat if I could. I used to think I didn't really want to go India, but after living in Cambodia I totally want to go to India.

Funny Friday

I thought about not doing a funny post today considering everything that is going on in Boston, but then I remembered when we had that mass shooting at Trolley Square, the mall where I worked, and I thought, no today we need laughs. But we still send our hearts to those effected by the Boston Bombings.

Who doesn't love good cat picture to make them laugh?

Let me paint a picture for you.

Your tummy is hurting when you get home from work and you walk in the door and your husband is making the most fantastic meal. Like homemade tomato almond pesto yummy. So you go lie down in your comfy comfy bed with your kindle to relax and hope your tummy ache passes. Then your nice kitty climbs up on the bed, and you think, oh she wants to come cuddle with me since I don't feel well.

But then your view of your kindle gets blocked, and all of the sudden this is your view.

She's really a big fat jerk covered in fur with a cute little meow to make you forget that she's really just a big fat jerk.

Because she also does it when you're trying to watch some netflix in bed.

In other news, The Giant Mechanical Man on Netflix is worth a watch, it seems like people are always trying to find a movie worth watching on Netflix.

DIY Headband Holder Tutorial

Hal turned in his application for the Accounting Masters program yesterday. Send good vibes his way!

When we got home from Cambodia I rediscovered all of my girly things that I forgot existed while I lived in the land of constant sweating and pony tails. I didn't want to leave all of my headbands in the box I had stored them in while we were gone. I started doing some searching, and I found this post. Sounds easy enough, so I decided to make my own version, it's a bit differnt than that tutorial.

All you need is a large oatmeal container, and some pretty duct tape.

This is my oatmeal container. If you can find one that's just a few oz. bigger, and therefore just a tiny bit bigger around that might work even better, but this size worked pretty great.

I bought this damask duct tape at target for $1.00. I was super excited, even easier than buying scrapbook paper and modge podge. I just did strips around until they overlapped, and then cut them. Then I flipped the tape upside down and tried to line up the pattern.

And the best part is, you can use the empty inside for all of your hair clips and your soft headbands!

Total cost for the project:
$1.00 for the tape

Linking up with Rolled Up Pretty

Happy Khmer New Year!

Today is the last official day of Khmer New Year, but that doesn't mean the festivities will end today. Cambodians know how to make a vacation extend as long as possible.

In honor of Khmer New Year and all of the people who will get bags of water and baby powder thrown at them today, and all of the volunteers who will get little to no sleep thanks to all of the music blasting throughout the village, I decided to post some of my favorite pictures that we took of Cambodia.

A year ago today Hal and I were returning from our trip to Scotland through Thailand. As we rode in our overpriced holiday time taxi to our village we watched children on the side of the road throw bags of water at people on motorcycles followed by bags of baby powder. Everything shuts down for Khmer New Year, everyone goes back to their villages and parties for like 3 days straight. I can't believe it's been a year already!

Sou Sdai Chinam Tmai!

Funny Friday: SomeEcards

Happy Friday everyone. It's friday in what seemed like a foreverly long week.
I read 4 books this week people, 4 books.

So in honor of this lovely weekend I'll share some funny someecards that I found. Who doesn't love these sarcastic ironic cards?

I hope you get to sleep in this weekend, and I hope that you leave the house at least once.

How Do You Blog?

I have some questions for you all. I need some advice from the blogging world out there.

I need to know, How do you do it?

I've had this wee little blog for almost 5 years now, but this is the very first time I've been blogging consistently. I used to blog just randomly as I took pictures, or as events happen. I've really enjoyed blogging more consistently and the connection to the blogging community that I've slowly begun to establish, so I need your help, and your experiences.

How do you come up with things to blog about on those days where it feels like you have nothing to say?

And how in the world do you remember to take pictures of things?
I went to an event this weekend where 6 of us friends from high school got together and I did not take a single picture. I brought my camera and it stayed in my purse the entire time. I literally didn't remember until almost everyone was gone.

And how do you not feel like an idiot taking pictures of everything?

How do you handle the issue of privacy on your blog?
I've really struggled, wanting to write freely, but feeling slightly confined since my blog is well known to my friends and family(Hi guys!). Do you write freely even though there is no anonymity to your blog? Or do you keep your blog private from people in your real life? Or do you just not write about personal things on your blog? Or do you just post those vaguely vague posts where no one has almost any idea what you're talking about other than something is obviously bothering you?
I view this blog almost like a journal and want to write freely, but I don't want my loved ones to view my posts I am back biting or passive agressive when my issues involve them. I don't want my blog to just be about the happy things in life, because real people struggle, and I want to include those struggles on my blog.

So I want your advice on all things blogging and the decisions you've made about your blog, and how they've worked out for you.

And if you have lost of advice to give, please feel free to e-mail me at samnhal@gmail.com

I'm excited to hear what you all have to say.

Birchbox or Ipsy?

There are so many different companies that do the same thing as Birchbox and Ipsy. Julep does nails polish, I even heard of one recently that will send you a different pair of sunglasses every month. Who needs that many sunglasses?

Anyway, for christmas this last year Hal got both of us a BirchBox subscription. I had wanted one forever. I had looked into so many of them last year to see if I could get them shipped to cambodia, but that was a big fail, and I couldn't decide if I liked Birchbox or Ipsy more.

Well, once Hal realized Birchbox does a men's line, he was sold and that's the one we went with. I've been wondering though...Which do you like? Have you enjoyed your Birchbox subscription? Have you enjoyed your Ipsy or Julep or whatever else subscription?

I just received my third birchbox in March, and it was the best one yet! So let me tell you about my experience, and then I want to hear about your experience so I can know if we should keep going with Birchbox.

 This is my march box:

-Benefit Benetint

 It's a lip stain isntead of a lip gloss or lip stick. I thought this was super cool when I got it. I was a bit diappointed, because the picture her lips were dark red, and that's what I was hoping for, but it actually just stains them pink. It still looks good, just not what I was hoping for.

-Supergoop Endless Summer SPF 30+UV Lotion

I actually haven't tried this yet. The reviews have put me off, and I don't like that it's named supergoop. I'm particular about my face wash and face lotion, and usually when I switch it makes me break out, so I haven't tried it yet.

-Whish Save Crave Shaving Cream

I just used this last weekend, shaving for the first time....in along time (don't judge, it was winter) and I liked it. It's supposed to keep your legs moisturized while you shave for a close close shave. I did get a close shave, but I had to really lotion my legs after.

-Madwell For Birchbox Emery Board

This board is pretty! It's not as rough as the one I normally use, so I'm excited to use it on my actual nail, instead of just the top of my nail. I hope it will help my nails to stop peeling. The dry climate has killled my nails after living in a humid climate for over a year.

-Macadamia Natural Oil Healing Oil Treatment

This stuff is pretty good. I still want to play around with how to use it in my hair, but it's thick, and I hope it helps to clam down my hair.

-Macadamia Natural Oil Deep Repair Masque

Single best thing I've received in my birchboxes so far. I was really excited to try it, and BAM I noticed a difference right away. My hair was SO soft, and it smells really good. This stuff really works. I'm saving up my points to buy it.

So, here's something I've noticed about my birchboxes, my first month was kinda cool and exciting, but not really stuff applicable to me. So I took a little quiz they have on their site, where you tell them more about you, so they can send you better stuff. The next month had some things I really liked, and some I didn't really like. Well, I started doing reviews of the products and my third box was awesome! It could be total bs, but I really think the quiz and the reviews have made a big difference.

Plus, my hubby got lots of stuff for mega cheap with the points he's stocked up. You get 10 points for every review, 100 points is $10 off!

If you're thinking about getting your hubby one, mine has really liked his. His first one, he got a great sweater tie. They always put a really big item in the guy's box. He just got his 4th box and it contained a small portable wooden speaker. Super cool.


So now that I've told you about our experience with birchbox, tell me what you have thought about the one you use? Is it worth the money?

Funny Friday

This week's Funny Friday post is also a little bit scary. It comes to you from the Color Festival we went to last weekend.

I was one of the last ones in our group to shower, and everyone kept looking at me all funny. No one would take my seriously with chalk all over my face, So I started wiping all of the chalk off my face, and then they looked at me even more funny.

I went from this:

To this:

Perhaps the title of this blog should have been "Something Wicked This Way Comes"

Don't mess with my cake eggs

Guys I didn't take one single picture this weekend other than for the color festival. How could I have not taken a single Easter picture? Fail.

So instead I'm going to paint you pictures with my words.

It all started on Friday when we took Hal's newly returned missionary brother, clothes shopping at the new mega nice City creek mall in downtown Salt Lake. Who can resist a little H & M? We stopped at a specific grocery store to pick up my annual cake eggs. They're the only store around that still does them. Every other store does disgusting marshmellow eggs. Barf.
Don't know what cake eggs are?

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Cake eggs are exactly what they sound like, small cakes in the shape of eggs with yummy shell like frosting over the top of the cake. Well, when we showed up at the store, they only had chocolate covered eggs. Something you may not know about me is that I hate chocolate cake and frosting. Like hate it. That's all they had. So I ask the guy working the bakery and he says I can special order some with different frosting. Perfect.

I put in my order for white frosting and white cake and I was stoked. Every year growing up we had these cake eggs in our easter basket. They're like prime Easter memories. Except for the year my dog ate my entire easter basket with the aiding and abetting of my cat who knocked it down. Jerks.

My bro in law agreed to pick up my cake eggs the next day, since I wouldn't be back up there until Sunday, and they're closed on Sundays. So he came down to go to the color festival, and  he had a sad look, the eggs were chocolate frosted. He said the guy at the bakery said they don't do other colored frosting for them. WHAT? That's why I special ordered them! I could have bought these out on the floor, why would I put in a special order for the same thing I could buy already made, 2 feet away?

But I was ok, I was going to suck it up and enjoy my easter treat. When we came home from the color festival Hal bit into one, and was like babe, these are chocolate cake. WHAT? The label says they're white cake. They gave me the exact opposite of what I ordered. I can suck it up and eat something with chocolate frosting, but I draw the line at chocolate cake. If you couldn't make it, why didn't you call me? I gave you my phone number. I would have been much happier if you had called me to say you couldn't make them, than you give me the opposite of what I ordered, and pretend like it's all cool.

You better believe I was not happy. I told Hal, these are my easter, this is all we were doing for easter this year. He looked and me and said "what about like the whole Christ being resurrected thing, isn't that your easter?" Oh...yeah, I meant that too, obviously.

I knew I'd never make it to the bakery in time to talk to someone who actually could do something about it, so my father in law was nice enough to agree to take them back and talk to the bakery. They gave him a refund, but Dick's Market Bakery in Centerville, you're on my black list.

I didn't get any cake miracle this Easter, but thanks to Hal and the 3 year olds I teach at church, I was reminded of the real miracle of Easter.

Color Festival

The Hari Krishna temple here in Utah does a huge color festival every spring. I've heard it's the largest color festival in the US. I've wanted to go for so long, so we decided to go this year.

We all dressed in clothes we didn't care much about. The traffic was horrendous, so we parked about 2-3 miles away and just walked. People had leftover chalk that they were throwing at those of us walking towards the temple, so all of us already had color before we even made it to the temple.

It was insane how many people were there. They do a throwing every hour, but people are always throwing chalk, all the time. We decided to go up onto the temple so we could see everyone down on the ground when the throwing started.

Then we threw at each other. We mostly threw at each other anyway.

After the throwing ended we decided we wanted to get even more colored, so we all bought another bag, and this time we only threw at each other.

We had so much fun at the color festival. You can't tell it from this picture, but I totally had purple in my teeth and all throughout my hair. There was so much chalk in the air. They had face masks for sale, but the best part was throwing it at each other's faces. Hal threw a giant chunk of yellow at my face. I breathed out my nose, and I was like a dragon breathing fire, a cloud of yellow came out.

We had to line our car with sheets to make it back home.

Tip for next time. Dust as much as you possibly can off before you get any inch of you wet. If you get it wet it stains. My friend Meagan had a purple face after her shower. I'm glad she showered before me, or I would have ended up with a purple face too. Instead we just ended up with a purple stained bathtub.

There was only one thing left to do, order take away from an Indian restaurant and stuff our faces with curry and naan.

Happy Spring!