Killing Me Softly

Have you ever tried killing your family? Well, it's not been on my mind but I just about made it a reality this week. Last year, I canned carrots with my parents. It was a fun experience. See the beautiful carrots below:

Well, I pulled out one of the above jars of carrots to use for dinner this week. I was highly disappointed. The color had gone from my beautiful jar of carrots. grrr. Did I need some preservative to help the color?? So disappointing.

 Then I opened it. You know when you open a sealed jar how it "pops"? Well this one "ping-ed". That didn't sound right. Next red flag: the carrots on top were GRAY! Should I have put more water in there during canning?

As I was about to pour the carrots into the dish I was making (chicken long rice to be exact), I decided to go get another jar of carrots just to check if another jar would look the same.

Can you see the difference? One of these jars in not right on the inside!

The smell was stark between the 2 as well. The nice orange ones smelled deliciously like carrots should. The gray variety smelled like...chalk dust. Can you say "Botchulism"?

The chicken long rice was excellent, and there was no fun trip to the hospital for an after dinner party.

We are Still Alive I Promise

I promise the Yazzie's are still here.
as you can see the blog got somewhat of a facelift. haha. I realize it looks a little gloomy but I tried to give it an antique feel. Mom you can totally change it if you want. I just felt the Header at least had to be updated! haha.
MARCH 6th was the last post! SERIOUSLY?!
wow sorry folks! Its been an interesting year for all of us. I'm not even sure where to start.

March.

Mom had a birthday.
We went to McGrath's fish house. Hence the Fish hat.
My friend Ashley made a New Moon cake. It was Delicious!

APRIL.

Dad, Rhiannon, Zack and I went to the Subway 500.
I think we are all becoming NASCAR fans. I love this race.
I for sure have to say its a fun sport to watch in person. Fun time for
people watching! hahaha.

.MAY.

We went camping with our family friends, The Beaudettes.
Had a great time at the cabin, cave exploring, and craw dad catching.
No Bear this time...haha.
I also turned 20, and moved to Utah Memorial Weekend!

.JUNE.

From this point obviously its all coming from Utah, hopefully my mom can fill in the blanks! A highlight in my Utah fun, Zack cam and visited. He came up to BYU for the football camp. We had a blast that weekend! Introduced him to my friends brought chaos to Provo with a game called Fugitive! Kristen turned 7. I drew her a picture and mailed it to her, not sure if she still has it!

.JULY.

The big family trip happened. The Simper reunion moved to Washington this time. While I flew both ways from Utah to Washington, I think my family had the greatest fun. haha. From what I know they drove up the coastline. Seeing all of California into Oregon and finally Washington. I love the Evergreen state! BEAUTIFUL. I would love to live there, especially along the coastline. It was nice the second time around to be with the family in Seattle. Also, buying Fireworks on the Rez thinking we'd set them off on the beach. Nope waited till Utah. (Pioneer Day)

.AUGUST. SEPTEMBER.

I moved back home. The JcPenney job was a bust, and my credits didn't transfer. Oh well, I had a great time and learned a lot. Our great grandpa Austin turned 90! Us girls took a Holbrook trip, and had a BLAST! Zack started his Junior Year, turned 16, and went on his first date. (Homecoming) He was also ordained a Priest. Rhiannon turned 12 and is in 7th grade. She is on the softball team and loving the competition. She is starting to see the fun that 7th grade has to offer, the awkward time for pre-teens, I've enjoyed helping her out with advice when it arises. She too has advanced, from primary into Young Women's. (Our Little Beehive!) Kristen is in 2nd grade, my mom has really helped her out greatly with her dyslexia. Mom has done an AMAZING job with her YazBagz line (check out her website yazbagz.com) I continually get ooo's and ahh's over her creations. Purses, hair clips, diaper bags, Epipen clutches; you name it she does it! Dad, he turned 44! He has had great progress at work! A club will be opening up on the Hopi reservation soon! He was so excited when he got the news, and we are all happy for him.
.CLOSING THOUGHTS.
I am pretty sure I left things out, so mom whenever you get the chance go ahead and fill in the gaps! Its been a wonderful year so far. I can't believe how much my family does, how all our personalities somehow work together! Its insane. We all balance each other and need each other in different ways. I guess that's the great thing about being a family...well an eternal family

National Pick on Nichelle Day

I know I post my life on Facebook, but I think I should share with the Blog world as well. I have found that I frequently have been having some DUH moments or Oh wow Nichelle moments. I swear its all unintentional, and these moments will probably turn into life tips for my future family. But until that time I'll deal with the RED face-ppl laughing and quoting me. haha.

But before my long story a great example, I had one last Thursday. so it is Wedding Season. Love my friends that are enjoying their newlywed Bliss :D but I made a comment that's on the list of "Are you pregnant?" i have/had 2 co workers that were engaged. One Still is. but it was at a Family fun night and we were all sittin around talking and someone starts talkin about twilight, (why they all think I'm a Fanatic i'll never know) lol.
but we got on the topic of love, and so i turned to the two ppl i knew were engaged and the first says yep still on and I love her, and the other...well...she looked me square in the eye and said "uh, Nichelle I'm not engaged anymore. " Talk about worst moment ever. she was giggling trying to break the death silence, and ofcourse my face goes BRIGHT RED. then everyone busted up laughing---ya i'll never forget that.

February 12,2010
So...i have to write about this because this seriously was like the funniest day ever, i think i set the record for most blonde moments aka "uh... duh Nichelle!" moments. Well if you didn't know i had the taco sale at work today, and i was kind of the co-partner in this fundraiser, anyways so i had a billion things to do to get this started and be successful. well I showed up on time and what not, and already the staff were hard at work. I had to bring 2 slow roasters to keep the beans heated, and i brought that. so already i was doin good. this is what my list looked like:

1. put the beans in the roasters
2. Make signs so people know where the sale is
3. make another sign to put on the building outside saying " Indian Tacos here"
4. Cut Onions

the general list. so major multi tasking today. well luckily my awesome teens were there so the onions i passed to them, and as the clubs official sign maker i started with that.

I was so proud of myself, because i got the 2nd task done, it was in large bold letters and looked good. so i took those signs to the end of the street and hung them up. So check that was done.

came back and did the sign for out side. BAM--check that was done and hung up.

next the beans (this is where the fun began.) well in a slow cooker there is the heating portion and then the tray that goes in (both black) so I thought the tray was in it, and i start to pour the beans in, and as i started to mentally check it off Lata sitake (my co worker) comes out with the tray. my face turned bright red, and if u know me u know what that looks like, everyone busted up laughing. so we got it together and we were just laughing about it. u know no big deal simple mistake.

WELL we needed more ice so i left to go get it, and when i came back I tested the signs out. Yeah...u couldn't even read them. the sun was so flippin bright today. the white poster board reflected white. so NO ONE would know what was going on...so i was like shoot, i have to hurry and fix that. as i pulled in to the parking lot, some chuckles came, and obviously i wanted to know what was up, i thought i ran over something or one of the teens did something. Lata approached me was was like nichelle come look at this sign on the wall what's wrong with it....I read it, and the red came back to my face. it read "INDIAN TACOS HERC"
yeah...one simple line can make a difference, as soon as i realized that, a roar of laughter came from staff, teens, and customers. ofcourse i'm cool about it and shake my head cause the list just keeps addin on. that's what the pic is for... so the joke was we were selling Nichelle's Hercules Indian Tacos...haha...

So because i've worked for the club for so long i have a billion staff shirts and today i had to wear this particular one, little did i know i would be teased for that too! so this shirt has this bird on it, like phoenix, and graffiti distorted art on it...and on the sleeve the tribal seal with like a ink splatter on it. well its just a shirt to me, but during lunch as we ate the tacos several ppl which shall remain nameless!! haha. start teasing me for it. saying wow nichelle, what's up with your shirt, it looks like some one shot you in the arm, that splatter looks like blood. and the splatter on the front of your shirt looks like the bird crapped on it...haha another roar of laughter...
then the day was ending, and i was outside with the kids and they were throwing the football around and kicking a big kickball, well i've been hit in the back of the head with this ball (on accident, cause i don't know what Nichelle head's up means) well it came towards me and out of instinct i kicked it...well my shoe goes FLYING across the parking lot and of course lata is standing right there and BUSTS up laughing again...

lastly, went to the movies with the teens saw VALENTINES DAY. (awesome movie) and george (co worker) every time Taylor lautner popped up he'd turn around and say " Nichelle! its your Boyfriend!--ohp nichelle dont look he might take off his shirt!" comments like that. of course i'm not going to lie i think he's hot, and my face indeed turned red.
so for everyone who missed the taco sale you missed out on the NATIONAL PICK ON NICHELLE DAY. for those who were able to take part in this momentous occasion did i miss anything???

Fiesta Bowl Parade 2010

Tradition! Tradition! (Sung to the Fiddler on the Roof song)

We attend the Fiesta Bowl Parade every year and as such, it has become a tradition. We sit in the same spot, know the best route to park close, come prepared with food and beverages, and even come prepared with our own parade junk so I don't have to buy it at inflated prices.

Motivation wanes each year as the time gets close but our kids love it and we go for them. After we get there, we have a great time and vow we'll do it all again next year! This year was no exception.

We invited some of our friends, the Beaudette Family to come with us. They had never been and it was fun to have someone to pass the time with pre-parade. We brought cards, played spoons and answered silly "Would you rather" questions. They brought a GPS and introduced the kids to GeoCaching. They went on a hunt and found some treasure. Now they want to get one for ourselves so we can treasure hunt!

The girl from Disney Channel's "Jonas".

Some WWE Person.

Christmas 2009

Our Christmas was intimate this year, which was fine with us. We kept the gifts to a minimum and instead chose Christmas Angels for each of us and went shopping for these less fortunate kids. The kids had a good time shopping for someone else and they like knowing that these kids would have a better Christmas because we helped.

Christmas Morning Pics:






Dumb Dog! She loves Chocolate! In fact, We think she ate a very large Hershey's kiss (Krispy's holding it away from her). She didn't get sick so we're not sure what happened to it. It's a mystery!