Speaking of cars

All this talk about cars and such got me thinking a little sentimentally about one particular gem. Our 82' Toyota Celica that we drove in Hawaii. Some of you may or may not know that Deke and I lived in Hawaii Fall semester of 2006. She was our primary mode of transportation for when we needed to get somewhere that roller blades just wouldn't cut it for. No words can completely describe this little beaute', but I'll give it a go:

-Let's begin by saying she was completely free. As in zero dineros. Yup. Need I say more.

-We never registered her, so she was completely illegal too.

-At one time I think she must have been white. But now dirty cream and rust adorned her thanks to the continuous salty breeze of the islands.

-The back of the car was held together by really, really old duct tape.

-There were absolutely NO shocks whatsoever. If you reached speeds >than 5mp and went over a bump bigger than exactly 1 inch the metal surrounding the wheel well would scratch the tires. There were seriously little slices covering the entire wheel (all 4).

-The inside was covered with spider webs and really weird white ants. It also leaked when it rained which resulted in a permanent musty smell.

-The interior lights in the dashboard didn't work. I have one particularly fond memory of driving home from Sunset Beach after dark and Deke and I holding our cell phones over the dashboard so we could see how fast we were going (remember she was illegal so we really didn't want to get pulled over), and laughing the entire way home.

-One of my favorite memories with this car happened over our 1st anniversary. I'll try and describe it in as few words as possible: Going to stay in "town" (otherwise known as Honolulu for us Haole's). Cruising down the coast along the Kam in our illegal car (over an hour drive). Staying at super nice hotel in Waikiki. Pull up to unload our car and check in. Parking lot full of Beamers', Mercedes, lots of sports cars, etc.., Look on Bell hops face: Priceless.

The pics totally don't give the Celica's full glory it's due justice, but hopefully they'll give you a small smackeral of what a beaute she was:

Please take a moment to contemplate the pictures below...

I was looking through some older pictures tonight and came across these gems:




Mostly they just make me smile because of the memories that go along with them.

Enjoy :)

The loss of a loved one

Today was a sad day. We lost a very important member of our family. She was true and faithful and gave 110% in all that she did. Many memories were made with her, and she will sorely be missed.



That's right.. we sold our 4Runner. Some of you may remember that we put it up for sale last summer. Yes.. as in like almost a year ago. Our little ad on the blog was about all we did to advertise. Yup. We were putting a lot of effort into it. We seriously LOVED this car, but come on, a family of 2 does not need 3 cars. We held off as long as we could, but we finally just had to buckle down and actually put an ad on ksl. Today we handed the new driver the keys and let her drive it away.

sniff, sniff

I'm not really an emotional type of gal (at all), but if I was, I totally would have shed a tear or two today. Why, do you ask, did we sell on object so near and dear to our hearts? A few reasons: A)Like I said, a family of 2 seriously does not need 3 cars; B)The prophet says to get out of debt; C)Seeing as how this is one of the 2 cars that we still owe money on we decided to sell it because D)Our new 08'truck is, well, new... and only has 3,000 miles on it, so it's shelf life is probably much longer than our 00' 4Runner. (knock on wood) So sad.

So yes, it was a day full of mourning and gnashing of teeth at the Harbie Home today. As soon as the good ole' Honda bites the dust I would hands down replace it with another 4Runner. But, seeing how that's probably not for another couple of years, I guess I'll just have to hang tight. Don't worry, I haven't already started searching for another one or anything just yet. ;)

Or not.

Well, I'm not making any promises...

Belly Update Continued..

This was taken about a week ago at 22 weeks:


I feel like I'm definitely in the honeymoon phase of pregnancy right now. I'm not big enough to be uncomfortable at all, and I'm completely pass the morning sickness phase. I actually feel human again! We have absolutely loved feeling our active little one rolling and kicking around in there. I'll be honest, at first it completely weirded (sp?) me out to feel a completely seperate entity rolling around in my belly, but I seriously LOVE it now!! (except for when she decides to kick me right in the bladder. yikes.) I know I may be whistling a different tune when she starts kicking my ribs, but for now I'm enjoying every second.

I also have made a HUGE accomplishment..... I can eat MEAT again!!! It's a modern day miracle!! I even prepared raw chicken a few days ago. I honestly didn't know if I'd ever see the day again when that would happen. Deke probably didn't think he'd ever see the day again when he'd have a "true" dinner. (For him, dinner absolutely HAS to include meat). Since we're already talking about food, I've really only had 1 true craving: Pace's Cherry Rainbows. Wow. Those things are heaven. Basically anything cold and sweet hits the spot, but these are in a league all their own. Handmade mint chocolate chip shakes are a close second though, and in all honesty I have at least 1 a night. Yes, I said at LEAST. Mmmmm..... In fact, I think my freezer's calling!!...

The Ultimate Boys' Weekend

So while the girls were partying it up at home, the boys were having a pretty sweet time themselves. They roadtripped it to Phoenix (in a Hummer, might I add - a little accidental switch at the car rental place), stopping half way in Page for some golf. In Phoenix they did a couple rounds of golf, went to 2 Sweet 16 games and 1 Elite 8 game, ate out, and just had an all around grand time being just with the dudes. I'd give more details, but I wasn't there and unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) my husband isn't exactly a "share every tiny nugget of a detail over a bowl of ice-cream" type of guy. :)

So, here's a few pics:

The Ultimate Girls' Weekend

A few weeks ago all the men in the N fam ventured down south to Phoenix for some golf and NCAA sweet sixteen and elite eight action (separate post coming later). Which meant all of us gals were left alone for 5 days to do nothing but...

PART-AY!! All courtesy of my mother. We did the following:

Wednesday: Kicked it off with a huge dinner at the Mandarin complete with dessert. (My favorite was the fried banana one, but the raspberry vanilla bean creme brulee was pretty fantastic too). I ventured out and tried one of their vegetarian noodle dishes, and I'm so glad I did. It was one of my favorites!

Friday: We were spoiled with a shopping spree from mom followed by dessert at the Melting Pot. Love their chocolate. I could eat it plain by the spoonful.



Saturday: My favorite day! We had a full blown tea party complete with scones and sandwiches at the cutest little place in downtown Farmington called Teas'N You. I highly recommend it to anyone. We drank the best herbal tea (my peppermint tea did not disappoint - in more ways than one ;) - sorry inside joke...) and ate dainty little finger food like this:



Everyone is required to dress for the occasion, so feather boas, tiara's, and wide brimmed hats are provided!



My mom had scheduled European facials for each of us that afternoon (and yes, you should all be very jealous), so following the tea party we were all pampered at the Garden Day Spa in Bountiful. Holy smokes am I big fan! After that, we helped Katie Marie get ready for her first prom and sent her on her way.

I had so much fun with all of my sisters! We're only able to get together as just girls with everyone in attendance once in a blue moon, so this was definitely a rare treat. Thanks mom for greatest week! It made the time without Deke fly by! And quite honestly, I wouldn't mind Deke taking a few more guys' weekends if it meant I got to party with the girls a little more often ;). Thanks again!

P.S. Annie, I stole your pictures. Gracias :)

Food Storage for Small Spaces

Food Storage. Dun, Dun, Duuuuuuuuunnnnnnn..........

I always feel slightly overwhelmed when I think about this. You have your long term storage, your 3 month storage, your 72 hour kits, perishables, non-perishables, water, first aid kits, sanitation stuff, cooking gear, etc... There's a whole lot to think about, that's for sure! One of the bigger problems I have is that we live in a smaller space, and there's just not much room for it. But this week I discovered a fantastic find for a great price! (I think..)

5 gallon water jugs from Walmart!

Water is probably the most important food storage item to have on hand. These jugs are small and fit close together. They would be really easy to transport if you needed to as well. It would be super easy to store these in a closet somewhere or even under your bed! We would love one of those really huge blue water barrels, but we have absolutely no where to store it, so this works a lot better for our needs.

These are only a seasonal product (they bring them out with the camping gear), so I'm not sure how long Walmart will keep them around. I found them in the Seasonal isle, but I just wanted to share my great find with those who live in an apartment or somewhere without a basement, or anyone who lives in a small space. Enjoy!

P.S. Most places recommend about a 2 week water supply for your family. You need 1 gallon per person per day. A family of 3 would need 42 gallons. (1 gallon x 3 people x 14 days). That would be nine 5 gallon jugs (that would give you a few extra gallons).

P.P.S. For those who are really tight on space, you can buy buckets at Costco that supply 1 months worth of food for 1 person. It includes 3 meals/1600 calories per day. I think they run about 80 bucks each, and if stored properly last 20-25 years. Not bad for a whole month of food!

IT'S A..................

(That pink footprint means GIRL for those, who like my husband,didn't catch on)

Profile shot (it scanned in kind of fuzzy):


I think ultrasounds are just about the greatest things ever. We loved watching her roll around while they measured all the organs and stuff. Funny story - I was really worried that the baby wouldn't cooperate in letting us see the gender, but the first thing she saw when the technician put the wand on my stomach was the girl parts! It seriously looked like she was sitting on a copy machine. It was hilarious! She was just chillin' for the whole world to see. Apparently we have a little "mooner" in the making.

She was very cooperative through the entire ultrasound and the technician was able to measure everything just fine. Hopefully she'll be just as cooperative as a child when she's finally here. Maybe?? Hopefully?? Here's to hoping. I just still can't get over how you can see each individual toe, the 4 chambers of the heart, and everything else all through a little wand and some jelly. We even got a shot of her little nostrils. Modern technology is amazing isn't it?

Apparently the flu and morning sickness feel a lot the same

But I realized I had the flu when I barfed all over the parking garage at work on Tuesday. Classy.

Your welcome fellow parking garage patrons.

I had been feeling kind of nauseous and tired all day, but I thought it was just a random return of morning sickness. (Besides the fact I've been feeling FANTASTIC the past couple weeks.) Later in afternoon the nausea got worse and worse. I was involved in a web/conference call from 4-5 in the afternoon and I seriously didn't know if I was going to hold it together. Every second past 5:00 felt like F O R E V E R. It finally ended at 5:06. Several times I leaned over to my boss and said, "Umm... don't be surprised if I throw up any second ok?" I think she thought I was kidding.

The nano-second the call ended, I made a B-line to my car. Except that I didn't quite make it to my car. Lovely. I'm a dry heaver when it comes to pregnancy, not a barfer, so this was kind of my first clue that the flu was the culprit.

Anyways, I spent the next day and half barfing and living on water, Gatorade, saltines and popsicles. Sounds a lot like the first 3 months of my pregnancy! If anything it has been a great reminder of how awesome it is to have have somewhat normally functioning body again! Wahoo!

Before I jet, I have 2 other random thoughts:

1)Belly Bands (I got the generic ones from Motherhood Maternity) are pretty much the greatest things EVER. Definitely more comfortable than the rubber band trick. And double plus - they cover your unzipped zipper. What a novel idea!

2)Why is it the pregnant woman is always the one to die on all the medical dramas on TV? Did anyone else see that on ER last night? I swear it happens every time I happen to watch one of these shows. Gives me all sorts of great thoughts about delivering.

Have a fantastic Friday!!