Family Pictures

so on thursday we had some family pictures taken in hopes of sending out christmas cards. here are a few of them. We're totally hyped about them. Our friend Scott took them. If you like what you see, which im sure you do... check him out!
www.ssbphoto.com

Ten days 'til...

... I get to see these cutie pies! I'm super excited to see my family. oh yes, meet Abi, Keaton, and little Jayden. They are my brothers kids and super cute dont you agree? Hopefully I can have kids this cute!

stay tuned for future pictures from our holiday adventures!

my new obsession

So last week at church we had a combined 3rd block. In that class they talked of the new Family History search website. And for most of you my age youre probably thinking the same thing right now as I did when I heard it......"Family history..(eye roll)... I'm sure my families is done. And if its not, I wont have access to any information past 4 generation. Theres nothing I can do with it..(eye roll).." or something along those lines. It's like pioneer stories.. you appreciate the pioneers and what they did, you just dont want to hear about it every other second. Well.... LISTEN UP!!!

Family History work is AMAZING!!! And I'm gunna tell you why!

So in the class they kind of gave an over view of what can be done. I was like the above mentioned and figured mine was done. I seriously thought we'd only have info like 4 maybe 5 generations back. But the website looked easy so I atleast wanted to go look. And oh my lanta!! TONS AND TONS!!! I have some records that date back to the 1700s! Drew's goes back even further!

After I looked through and realized there was so much I could do I just turned into a green arrow junkie (green arrows mean work needs to be done). I became so excited when I submitted the information to be done. I'm not kidding. I was skipping around the house!!! I would get so into it.. I'd be up past midnight going through the information still. Drew would tell me to come to bed, and I would say.."I cant yet. they are waiting for me. They've been waiting so long for this"

It truly is amazing. I went to the temple early this week to do some work for some of the names I had submitted and what an experience! I helped seal 7 kids to their parents, 6 couples together, 2 inititories, 1 baptism, and 1 confirmation! I didnt have any super out of the ordinary experiences like some do when they take through family names, but it did just seem to mean more to me even though I had never even heard of the people I did work for. Just knowing they were my family made all the difference.

So, I challenge those of you who have not done so already... check out the new family history site. Even if its just to make sure your 4 generation chart is up to date. But we're the "clean up generation" and we need to make sure our family work has been done. It's blessed my life so much and I've only been doing it for a week! Try it out.

Below is kind of a sample starter. There is tons you can do on the site. If you have any questions let me know. you can email me at nikki.r.solomon@gmail.com

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Let me tell ya how to get started. Well first off the website is new.familysearch.org
The website will have to register. For this you well need you member number (temple recommend holders.. you can find that number on your recommend) and also you confirmation number. They will have you set a user name and password to use each time you log on. Then it should take you to your information. The way I started my family predigree chart was to enter my parents names (if it doesnt come up already with your name)

On the welcome page go to add information. On the next page youre giving different choices.. for now select add family or individual that is connected to my family tree. The bottom portion of the screen will have the person you have selected and all their info. If your marriage was performed in the temple, your spouse should come up. Add parents names and birthdates. My whole ancestor line came up after entering my parents info. But for drews family I did have to add up to 3 generations. But it should all come up.. unless you are the only person in your family that is LDS then you might need to do a little more work.

But from there you should be able to see all of your relatives. There are a few symbols that lets you know the status of their temple work. If the relatives are still living there will be no box in the up right hand corner of their name. If a relative has died and all work as been completed there will be a temple picture with a check mark. If there is a temple with a yellow icon, temple work needs to be done, but someone has the information reserved. If there is a flashing green arrow, the work is available to do.

So select that green arrow and it might have you look over some possible dulpicates. Just look of the info and follow the prompts. Once that is complete (if the work does still need to be done) It will take you to the temple ordiances page. On that page any work you submit will automatically be assigned to you. You can chage it to the temple in the far right colum. Then you print off the page and take it to the temple for the to print the cards.
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just a little update

I'll just pin point some recent happenings in our lives.

+ Drew and I volunteered at the Arizona IronMan triathlon last week... drew did it for extra credit in a class and I just went along for fun.

+ We had 3 thanksgiving dinners. One with our neighbor the day before, one with drew's family the day of, and one with my cousins that evening. Loved it! I made my "famous" chocolate pie

+ I hurt my knee somehow. My doctor uncle thinks I might have torn my meniscus. I'm gunna have an MRI done on it probably the first of the year for insurance reasons.. but it actually hasnt been hurting too bad lately. hopefully itll heal and no MRI and no surgery.

+ Drew starts finals this week. The end of the semester is in sight!

+ We spent some time with our visiting out of state friends.

+I continue to be HORRIBLE! at taking pictures. But we should be taking family pictures soon for christmas cards

Um.. I dont know what else. Probably nothing. But we are super pumped for the semester to be done and head to Tennessee to see my family for christmas! Sooo excited. Just think... this time next year... Drew will be graduating from ASU and finding out where he got into Dental School. Oh how 2010 will bring some happy times!

I tag.. everyone!!

Copy and paste this into a new note. Replace with your answers.

1. HOW DID YOU MEET YOUR SPOUSE?

Well, back in Oklahoma I dated Drews cousin off and on for a long! time. so we kinda became long distant friends

2. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST DATE?

Um... this is tough. He had just gotten home from his mission so everyone was all over him for like two weeks straight. I think the first time we actually got away to go do something is when we went to the cannery and worked a 4 hours shift together. haha... we packed ketchup.

3. HOW LONG DID YOU DATE BEFORE YOU GOT ENGAGED?

4 almost 5 months-- mind you we'd known eachother 7+ years

4. HOW DID YOUR FIANCE PROPOSE?

let me just say, i knew it was coming. Drew and I were supposed to fly into utah around the same time over christmas break and get engaged shortly thereafter. Well, because of weather I was stuck in Kansas City, Missouri an extra day because of a freak snowstorm. So I finally get into utah the next day. Drew;s off snowboarding with a mission friend, I had to work for somebody. Still hadnt seen drew in like.. almost a month. So finally... prolly 9 pm we finally meet up, I'm beat- tired and looking. I lay down half asleep from the day and he starts playin me a song he wrote. Towards the end I think it said something like.. will you be my princess and let me be your prince charming. When the song was over he said.. soo...??? and pulled out the ring. haha! I cried through the whole song.

5. WHAT JOBS DID YOU TWO HAVE WHILE YOU WERE ENGAGED?
I worked for horrible Sears and Drew worked for Safeway Pharmacy

6. HOW LONG WERE YOU ENGAGED?

a little under 5 months

7. HOW OLD WERE YOU WHEN YOU GOT MARRIED?
I was just months short of 21 and he was even closer to being 22

8. WHEN DID YOU GET MARRIED?

May 16, 2008

9. WHAT WERE YOUR COLORS ?

Pink and green

10. HOW MANY BRIDESMAIDS DID YOU HAVE?

zero!! too much drama for me

11. WHO WAS YOUR MAID OF HONOR?
no one! my best friend at the time was bein a butt!

12. WHERE WAS THE CEREMONY?

Mesa, AZ temple

13. DID YOU HAVE A DJ OR BAND?

neither. I think we ended up with an ipod dock?

14. DID YOU HAVE A SONG YOU DANCED TO AND WHAT WAS IT?

nope, no song, no dancing. sad huh

15. DID ANYTHING GO WRONG AT THE WEDDING OR RECEPTION?

The florist completely jacked my bouquet. I mean horrible!! They were supposed to be multiple colors of pink with the slightest bit of green. Instead it ended up green with the tiniest bit of light pink. and my sisters tried to tell them to change it and they refused! So I had to go a lil bridezilla on them before i left for the temple. haha

16.. WHAT CAR DID YOU LEAVE IN AND WHAT DID IT LOOK LIKE?
Drew's accord. It was clean. No one touched it.. I kinda wish they woulda. Would have made for better exit pictures.

17. WHERE DID YOU GO FOR YOUR HONEYMOON?

we stayed at the Clarendon Hotel in Phoenix for a couple of days then went on tour with our reception wagon to Oklahoma and Tennessee. Ha! we didnt really have time for a honeymoon

8. WHAT WAS YOUR MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT?
um...looking at him across the alter in the temple during our sealing.

19. WOULD YOU HAVE CHANGED ANYTHING IF YOU COULD?

yes! a dj and dancing for sure. a different month even.. way too hot! and definately a lengthy non receptions involved honeymoon

20. HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN MARRIED?
a year and 6 months

look who got a haircut!

isnt he just a cutie!

halloween of champions

Well not exactly. This year drew and I didnt really have a lot going on for halloween. we both just kinda through costume ideas together and this is how it turned out..

I was goin for the ipod commercial.. i just didnt black out my face

eric foreman, anyone?

Pumpkin carving

preparing the pumpkins

serious faces..haha.. and kelly playin with a scalpel

our finished pumpkins. (L-R) Grandpa Fred, the headless horseman, and a bat

yesterday our friends kelly and spencer came over for some pizza and pumpkin carving. This was my first time believe it or not. I've cleaned pumpkins out before but my dad always did the carving. The one on the left is mine.. grandpa fred. Ha! it was supposed to be a witch but ended up lookin more like an old man so we named him Grandpa Fred. haha! it was lots of fun.
Good food, good fun, great company. Thanks for comin guys!

Kristen & Conrad's wedding

So It finally happened! Kristen is married. this is the cute couple right after they were married.

Drew and I at the reception.. this is such a bad angle on our faces

the bride and groom with there awesome exit (rockin a 4 wheeler)

haha! this is too funny. you cant tell but we were dancing and Drew dancing.. you just have to see it. He was getting really in to it. I couldnt stop laughing

Our wedding crew: Jill, me looking prego (which i'm not!), Drew, and cousin Niklas (he even caught the garter)

Falling for Fall

so I've really been trying to get into the fall season. Its a little difficult here in Arizona because the weather hasnt quite changed yet. Dont get me wrong, I'm much enjoying the 80 degree weather over the 100+ we had weeks ago. But it just hasnt hit me yet. I love the fall smells of spices, pumpkin, campfires outside...aaaggghhh.

I've gotten some seasonal candles to start it off. Well, its not exactly fall frangrance but it sure is yummy! Then today I made some pumpkin bread. first time ever! I came across the recipe last night and thought it just might be the ticket!

I had a little bit of a hard time finding mini bread pans so I settled for the disposable ones (Deb said it was okay). But they sure are cute! Deb also said you can make them in soup cans for a different look, she actually prefered that way because she said you could wrap them up cuter. who knows. haha
I did have some difficulty getting the time down. My oven (which usually works great) was struggling today stayin hot. So I think the first batch (3 loaves) were in for almost 40 minutes as opposed to the 20 they are supposed to be in. But I got it figured out and they are fine. Non of them burned so dont worry.

the finished product. Sorry I started eating this loaf before I decided to take a picture of it. haha. but it sure is yummy. It'll be a nice 'welcome home from a long day' for drew. In case anyone wants Deb's recipe its as follows:

2 cups sugar
5 eggs
1 1/2 cups oil
2 cups pumpkin
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 heaping tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
2 boxes vanilla pudding (not instant)

Mix sugar, oil, eggs, and pumpkin. Add flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon. Add 2 boxes of vanilla pudding. Add nuts if desired.

Use soup cans or small loaf pans.
Spray with Pam and fill 3/4 full.

Bake at 350:
soup cans- 40 mins
tomato sauce cans- 20-25 mins
mini loaf pans- 20-25 mins

NOTE: one thing I learned, the middle should be firm to touch before removing from oven ;)

enjoy!

bye bye belly fat

so Ive turned a lil crazy against my belly. I'm just super sick of it. Drew and I were talkin the other day about an older family pic of mine and he said my cheeks were filled out more then..which I didnt completely understand since I was atleast 25 lbs lighter. So the more I thought about it, the worse I felt about it. Now I highly doubt I can lose 25 lbs. but I'm tryin for somethin! I always thought I wouldnt so much care if I had a belly as long as I didnt have love handles.. well, I have both! haha.

so my approach to fixing the problem is actually working out! huge for me! To start, I weigh myself before anything on my trusty wii fit then start some zumba. I take a class on saturday but figured I should prolly hit it up during the week as well. I found some good ones on youtube and do that for about an hour.

after that I hit up my quality workout dvds. I'll do one or two of the '10 min abs' then I'll change gears and do 30 mins of pilates (id do more but thats all there is on the dvd)

then lastly, I do free step on the wii fit (under the aerobics portion) for 30 mins.

I will take breaks occasionally and maybe have a healthy snack. So working out like crazy, eating better, and a lot less of it... hopefully I'll see some results!

the New Tooth project

Well as i have been saying for awhile, I got a new tooth, in a non-oklahoma country white trash way. haha! thats how i feel when I talk about it. but yep, I had some work done on my problematic front tooth. I hadnt been to the dentist in almost 3 years and I've gone in over that in the last one and a half. I guess I had to catch up or something.

But anyway.. the process: the big thing (besides the horrible color) was I had excess gum tissue on my bad tooth. so they did some shock stuff on it to kill the tissue then cut it away. After that they filed down my tooth to this ugly little stub that I refused to look at but accidentally saw today. (Thats when I felt way white trash) After that they made me this temp tooth outta this plastic stuff I guess. Idk. Looked kinda legit. I had that for roughly 2 and a half weeks. But today I got to go in and get the real deal. And its porcelain baby! Haha. The shape isnt as perfect as I'd like it to be but you probably cant really tell

BEFORE: note the coloring/ gum line

AFTER: the finished product

quite the improvement wouldnt you say? they look more.. adult like I guess

no pictures

I really dont like updating without posting pictures to go along with it. I have no pictures. But I knew if I didnt say a lil somethin somethin it would never happen again. So some highlights..

My birthday was last week. (no pics were taken, Im horrible i know) Didnt do alot. Drew was busy with school and work. But dont worry, he took me to dinner and Oreganos the weekend before to get it in. And I told him all I wanted for my birthday from him were flowers. He did a great job with those. My mom sent me a package that came the morning of my birthday. She sent me two tops (which I surprisingly like alot), a brownie mix, and money! You can never go wrong with money. But I should take a pic of the tops, I think you'd like 'em. After taking my time gettin ready, I went to lunch with my Aunt Karen, cousins: Jamie and her daughter, Kristen, Kelly and her two girls. It was fun and I felt pretty cool that they invited me to lunch. I've always wanted to "fit" in with them. haha. they're great! Oh and Drew left me his card to go buy the second book of the hunger games: catching fire. If you havent read the series, get after it. They are A-MAZ-ING! Thanks Cami for getting us all hooked

What else has happened? Institute is going great. I really like my teacher and learning new things about the book of mormon. Drew is full blown into school now. He'll be starting his 4 week on monday and has a lot of tests that week. He's also been checkin out some styles of dentistry. I'm pretty sure he still wants to do oral but who knows. He changes his mind every other hour with that stuff.

Speaking of denistry, I get my new tooth on tuesday! wahoo! dont freak I'm not walkin around missing a tooth. I had the starting stages of a crown done on my front tooth. See previous post. I've had a temp for the last two weeks. Its grown on me, but I really hope the new one just blows me away. I want it to look amazing! I will forsure post before and after pictures.

Nothing really happening other than that... yup!

Institute

so tonight was my first night of my book of mormon institute class. I really like the teacher. Theres a girl in there that might cause some problems but the teacher is real chill so itll work out. I like bein able to leave with stuff I didnt know before I went. Thats my favorite. So after class they had pizza and such. At first I was debating on whether I wanted to stay or not. I did end up staying and inviting myself to a table. I just didnt really felt like I belonged. they are all college students, single college students. I had announced that I was married and it was like a red flag went up. I dont regret being married, I just feel out of place at institute. But you know, I'm there to learn. Increase my spirituality. Not "fit in" I guess I'm right back in to the fellowshipping circle. ha! thats the only way I can meet people I swear. No one reaches out to me.

Also today I got a crown put on my front tooth. That tooth has been giving me problems for years. so it was about time. And since we finally have dental insurance I took advantage. I dont really like the temperary tooth, but what can you do. the color looks tons better. He also trimmed back the gums on that tooth. I had some excess, but thats what is makin it look so bad right now. I'll do a before and after pic later. Once my gums are so red and swollen.

But yep! thats what's up.

Utah Highlights

here are some of my favorite parts of our current trip to utah! Above: we were able to go to the SLC temple for a live session. It was awesome to be able to go for the first time in awhile. We were also able to go to the Timpanogos Temple for our friends sealing. See below.

The man and lady of the weekend! Drews trainer Briant got married to this cutie, Camille on tuesday. The whole reason for the trip. congrats you guys

Drew's companion, Kyle, came to visit us. He brought his cruiser! So right when he walked in the door I told him he was gunna be giving me a ride on it later. It was soo much fun. I havent riden on one since summer '07. thanks Kyle!

while hanging out with another one of drews companions, we hit up Juice Press (only the best smoothie place ever) and Ernies Sports Deli for some rockin sandwiches.

We got to go to Rocky Mountain Chocolate factory (twice actually) for their AAMMMAAAZZZING carmel apples. The one I have here has carmel, chocolate, white chocolate, tiger butter, marshmellows, and rice krispys. its my favorite ever!

As you can see, we had a pretty good time. We stayed with drews high school friends, Alex and Karina in West Jordan. It was fun hangin out with them. We saw a couple more mission friends, even both mission presidents. i was able to see Jana. And Kyle from above took us out for breakfast to One Man Band. Anyone that goes to utah, I would recommend it. Cheaper breakfast but definately not lacking in quality. Oh, and drew actually admitted to liking utah. thats HUGE!

Old photos

so like I said in my last post, I've been organizing things. During such I came across some older pictures. Mind you, they are only from the last couple years. All others are at my parents house. But here are a couple I found that I thought were kinda fun.After my family moved to Tennessee we would visit our old lives. this particular visit was right before my friend Cameron was to head off on his mission. So my mom, paige, and myself took him out to lunch. Here we are reenacting the airport scene from Saturdays Warriors.

this picture is of me and Kira. I dont really remember how old we are. But I'm pretty sure it was taken on the campus of Pitt-State in Kansas. We had a Bi-Stake youth conference there one year. Its actually a pretty classic photo. We both look pretty good, too.

Yes, that is one lovely oldsmobile I'm sitting on. One week senior year, my parents went out of town or something leaving me and paige home alone. No big. Except the week they decided to go, my car, Cavi, decided she was gunna freak out and start smoking! big problems! and for some reason both of my parents cars were gone too leaving us without transportation during the school semester. so we got in touch with our family mechanic and he gave us this beauty as a longer. Let me tell ya, we looked pretty rockin rollin up in the thing to school.

Memory Lane

so after a weekend of thrift store shopping, I decided I would go through my closet and see if there was anything I could donate to D.I. Well I got a good sized box of clothes/shoes. Then I started organizing this cabinet deal I have in my closet that has school books, pictures from the years and just stuff. So I have tons and tons of pictures. Alot were junk ones of people I dont even remember from college years. But I did make a pile that I'll eventually make a post with. I just wanted to share a message from my dad on my 19th birthday card.

"We have lost count of the number of boys who have come in and out of your life... keep learning from them and you will someday find the keeper."

I just think its too funny. I did go through quite alot of boys that summer, but that was only the beginning.. hahaha. But you know, I did learn alot. And it was so many mostly because I bounced back very fast. Ha! But the important thing is I found my keeper, Drew.

Haha. Just a little random update from me. I'll post some pictures soon.

Dave and Deb

So as some of you know, my mom came to Arizona last week. I had a cousin getting married so she came to help, but hung out that whole week. She's pretty rockin. Pictures from the trip are to come later. But here's a slide show my sister did for my parents 30th anniversary. Look for me, I'm the cute one ;)

A glimpse of Drew's 23rd

We went to famous Dave's on drew's bday with his fam. Wilbur was there so we snapped up a pic with him








Then we went back to the apt for some cake and ice cream.

The next day we went bowling with his posse. Alisha brought mustaches in honor of the birthday boy

Drew looking hard- core with a few of his things Check the handle bar mustache

happy-weekend-getaway

so this weekend we went to New Mexico. We didnt do too
much just kinda hung out with some homies, got soaked in
rain, eat some super hot mexican food, saw some people
smoke pot, lots of booze (we didnt drink, no worries), and
we watched a crazy A roman candle war. that was our
weekend. Happy 4th everybody!

goin' on 30 years

Dave and Deb's 30th anniversary is comin up July 6th. Shai is putting together a scrapbook for 'em from our family trip this year and has some extra room. she's thinkin of doing kind of what we did for my wedding one. Your memories, well wishes, congratulations, love notes, etc..

If you guys would like to help, you henryetta ward family, I'm talkin to you, send 'em on over. you can do it on here, facebook, email me* or shai**. maybe have them done by Sunday? they dont have to be anything long.

*nikki.r.solomon@gmail.com
** shairasmussen@hotmail.com

but c'mon, arent they just presh?! oh man, i just love them!

New hair!

well, same hair. only shorter. ha. this is kind of a bad pic, oh well. we actually took this to send to my dad this morning with a voice recording. so this is us, at church, rocking our calling in the library. Drews hair is almost as long as mine now.

Night Night

Isnt he precious?! I dont know what it is about bed time that Karabi just loves. He has to sleep with us. If he doesn't, he'll whine until you give in. Last night when we were getting ready for bed, Karabi hopped up and started settling in to go to sleep. Well Drew thought it was only appropiate to tuck him in. Hahah!

Don't worry, Karabi did finally surrender Drew's spot in bed and went to the foot of the bed. Thats his favorite, right in front of the fan.

I dont know what it is about chris..

so after a long sucky day of work, I was unwinding to some dashboard on my way home. And I could help but get a flood of memories. Mostly ones of friends I've lost. no not died. just lost. most of the ones that came to mind were because of my stupid hormones that led to late night, regrettable kisses. haha. others because of stupid girls. but it really makes me sad that i lost those friendships. and sad that I'll probably never be able to regain on with those individuals.

but heres to chris carraba, for helping me remember.

-Nikki

Hey, atleast I'm trying

Meet Allison, she's my daily pilates instructor. yep, thats right, I'm actually working out. i only do it at home, cause i dont really have time or money for anything else. It says guaranteed results in ten workouts. im at that point and dont really see it. But I feel smaller, I just dont know if I really look like it.

But hey, its makin me feel good and again, atleast I'm tryin.
Check her out, The Firm's Sculpt and Tone Pilates.

-Nikki

And it begins.

Summers in arizona are anything but pleasant. triple digits everyday. lots of work. not so much time with the husband. I miss my utah summers. boating, pool parties, floatin the provo, motorcycle rides... let me just day dream a minute about that....
.....
.....
.....
.....

okay. sadly it wont happen again. but here's whats been going on. Drew started his summer job, door to door pest control. Ha! He only did it a week and made like 5 sales. pretty darn good I'd say. but it wasnt really working out for us. Sure there was a potiental of getting decent money, eventually. But I seriously never saw him until sunday. so he started looking for a new job. And sure enough, he got one. He's gunna work for a insurance company filling scripts. Its gunna be a nice hook up. Pretty good pay, 40 hrs a week, and medical and dental insurance! finally! im excited.

as for me, sears is still gay. im still there. arizona is in a crazy hiring freeze for everyone but drew solomon. oh, and massage is super slow because im at sears. but you gotta go where you'll for sure get money. what can ya do.

So all an all, I might actually do something this summer since we'll have money and ill actually be able to see drew. he talks of a trip, california, maybe a cruise? who knows. but i think we'll hit utah in august for his buddy's wedding. oh! and Deb is coming out next month. you just cant get enough of her. hahaha. i really do like her guys.

Nauvoo

the family + 2

Oxen Rides

Our Pioneer family

We would have looked pretty good as pioneers, huh?

The trip went well. the weather was perfect. I loved the green and lightning bugs at night. We just toured and hung out together at the condos. Nimit, Paige's bf, brought his wii and that kept us very entertained when we werent touring. The family went to the temple on Friday. I didnt go sadly, I wasnt feeling too well. so I spent the morning with the kids.
All and all, it was pretty fun. These are just a few of the pictures from the trip. If you want more check out my facebook or get with shai. she took alot.

um, yep.

One year down, eternity to go...

Thats right, Drew and I are coming up on our one year anniversary. Crazy huh. I cant believe its gone that fast!!

School is down for drew, finally. no worries, he's still a genius. He thinks his gpa might have slipped to a 3.94. oh no! heaven forbid. haha. he;s great. And with school being done and summer right next door, it's Rasmussen family vaca time. Yep, the Rasmussen clan (plus me and drew-we're solomons remember) are heading to Nauvoo next Wednesday. I've been before as you Ft Smith stake kids remember, we went for youth conference a couple years ago. But it'll be exciting. I'll be able to actually do a session in the Nauvoo temple. Drew has never been before so that'll be fun. Also, Paige's recently baptized boyfriend, Nimit, is coming too. so that'll be awesome to watch him recomfirm what he was just taught. So be ready for tons of pictures of the trip in future posts.

Welp, We're over to Famous Daves. yum yum

-Nikki

It's official...

I, Nikki Solomon, am a failure at life.

I didnt get the job. I guess I'm no better than sears. and there i'll stay for the rest of my life. yay... seriously. talk about a self esteem buster. I dont know what ill do now.

i just need some time to breathe

Here goes some updates on life in the Drew Solomon family...

'll start with last week, the longest week ever! Massage has finally picked up and it has picked up a lot!! I had 8 last week alone. Doesn;t seem like tons for you massage therapist, but for me when I usually only had one a week, 8 is huge! Plus, on top of that, I had a ton more hours at sears becuase the shoe lead recently retired and they have yet to find a replacement. very exhausting week. and again, it probably would be a normal day for anyone else, but i lead a very chillaxed lifestyle. very rarely do I work both jobs in a day. I did both every day this last week. wow.

to give you an example of how out of it I was... I tried to walk out of sears with the money bags. yeah. who does that. not me! When a buddy from LP said something to me during my walk to the door, I was in such shock! I could have sworn I turned them in. haha. yeah it was rough. I dont need to steal!

then I got offered the lead position for the shoe department at sears. just thought, no way! but the store manager wanted me to think about, i did. turned him down. then he started trying to talk me into it. crazy fool! he was willing to work with my massage schedule, which was nice. but neither of us were willing to cave on Sundays. I didnt want to work them, he wanted me to. so that settled it without any arguement. Drew told me something better would come along because i did what was right.

Well a couple weeks ago I applied at a credit union because Clifton (the singer in drews band) said they would be having an opening soon (he also works there). So I applied no big. So a couple days after i turned down sears on the promotion, I heard from the bank. I had the interview today and I'll find out either way by the end of the week. I'm kind of excited. it's a huge pay jump! so hopefully it'll go well. fingers crossed!

Drew is still doing good. just finishing up school like everyone else. then he's off to sell pest control for Moxie. We kinda have mixed emotions about that, but we'll see how it goes.

Karabi is still being crazy. haha. man i love that dog! he's my lil friend.

I want to try and get a 'family photo' taken and put up so you guys can see all is well. haha, if you even care. but thats life for right now. its definately going. Luckily I'm getting a much needed massage today. thank goodness for that! welp, thats about it.

-Nikki

My life's mixtape

- Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
- Put it on shuffle
- Press play
- For every question, type the song that's playing
- When you go to a new question, press the next button
- Don't lie and try to pretend you're cool either.

1. Opening Credits: Franklin, Paramore

2. Waking Up: Send me an angel, Thrice

3. First Day At School: All down hill from here, New Found Glory

4. Falling In Love: Hundred, The Fray

5. Fight Song: Hysteria, Muse

6. Breaking Up: Tune out, the Format

7. Prom: Say goodbye, The Click Five

8. Life: Sophomore Slump or Comeback of the year, Fall Out Boy

9. Mental Breakdown: Super Duper Love (are you diggin on on), Joss Stone

10. Driving: Allison Knause, The Stills

11. Flashback: I believe I can fly, Me first and the gimme gimmes

12. Getting back together: Panis Angelicus, Josh Groban

13. Losing your virginity: You to thank, Ben folds

14. Wedding: Reflections, From Autum to Ashes

15. Birth of Child: Wretched Boy, donots (hahaha!!)

16. Final Battle: Throw your body in the air, MXPX

17. Funeral Song: Rocket, Mae

18. The end credits: Over my head (Better off dead), Sum 41

I'm happy with that. I probably wouldnt have picked them myself but I think it'd make for a good mixtape. Matter of fact, I'm guna burn a CD with them all on it right now. Enjoy

-Nikki

where'd he come from?!

So I was just catching up on the Dancing with the stars week 6 result show and rascal flatts were the guest musicians. Well, I like their stuff sure, but I had no idea they had such a hot guitar player. When I saw him I didnt even know he was 'in the band'. I'm not a really big country person so I didnt even know what the other two guys of the band looked like. Anyway... he's a hottie. I looked really hard for good pics and this is the best i can come up with.

Joe Don Rooney (silly name, hot man)

On heavy rotation

..Fear and Love by We shot the moon. This CD has been rockin in the neon for the last month or so. Ever since City Knights (Drew's band) played with them in concert. So this song is my favorite. Like, of all songs out and about, this one is whats up for me. If you havent checked 'em out yet, do so. I think you'll like 'em.

Enjoy

Is the end coming?

Well we were informed on Sunday that our road through nursery might be coming to an end. I must say, even though i wasnt stoked to have the nursery calling, its kind of spoiled me in not having to do too much. Its very low key.

Where will this next calling take us......
the library. oh boy. haha! but like i said before, this is just a chance. they still need to find our replacements.

On the bright side, after being in the ward almost a year, maybe i'll finally be able to meet some people in it!