Monsters University! It's almost here!

I've been waiting my WHOLE LIFE for this movie to come out. (Slight exaggeration? Possibly.) Look at this adorable new Got Milk? poster! Who wants to come see this movie with me? Totally serious. Let's set up a date.

Dump your photos. Because it's Wednesday.

Turbo is a creeper. He is constantly watching the neighbors through windows.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. FUCK YAH.

Time for summer nails! Neon green makes me happy.

Aww, this little guy. He's so sweet when he wants to be. So cuddly and cute.

I braved the 30-minute wait for this. (Here in Utah we get all sorts of amped about new food places.) They're decent. Not the greatest thing ever, but I'm glad to have some lunchtime variety. Plus, red beans and rice are a favorite of mine.

The clouds were all wispy and cool, and the sunset was beautiful. Utah Lake isn't pretty very often, but it sure was that night.

It's so awesome to see this thing go! I'm so ridiculously proud of and impressed by my husband. He races like it's what he was born for. How many people do you know that could go 183mph and not even flinch?

First-round win! FINALLY! We've got all of the bugs worked out and the car is running consistently and now is when this starts to get really fun. (And maybe we can win some money... maybe.)

NOVICA: A pretty cool place to find very cool things.

I was provided with a gift code in exchange for writing a post about NOVICA.com. All words and opinions are my own.

NOVICA is one of the leading fair-trade websites out there. I'd never heard of them before they asked if I wanted to review their site, but after checking it out, I will absolutely be shopping there again! NOVICA has a ton of different items on their site, from jewelry to home decor to paintings, they've got whatever you are looking for. They partner with artists from all over the world (along with National Geographic!) and give the artists a way to sell their goods internationally without so much upfront hassle for the artist.

They also have a really cool feature called Curation, where you can create your own collections of items, which can then be browsed through by other people visiting the site. This also helps the artists get more exposure for their items, and gives other people gift ideas or original ways to use the products... basically, it's a win-win.

I ordered some jewelry from NOVICA and can't wait for it to get here. They are definitely unique items that I could not walk into the mall and buy, and I have a few pieces all coming from different places. Each item comes with a little card about the creator, and I'm excited to read about the artists I purchased from.

Now, I know it's Mother's Day in just a couple of days so I'm a bit late for that, but how about a birthday present or Christmas present (get a jump on your shopping!)? Check out some amber earrings or maybe a silver cocktail ring for the lovely jewelry-wearer in your life!

A classic Wednesday photo dump

I've been trying to post this damn post for a week, with no success. F!Q@$E*$#@.

I ran a 5k. In 34 minutes and 41 seconds.

This is what eating looks like when you're OCD. The pineapple not being in perfect rows is actually agitating.

The Jeep is a flexin' mother.

The husband, doing licensing passes with the new motor in the dragster. It's a little bit faster than the old motor.

We're overflowing with toys. This isn't even all of them. I'd say we have a problem, but it's too damn fun to be a problem, so it's just a good time. We're a good time. HA!

Every anti-social fiber in my being prefers this Saturday to any other. Curled up on the couch with a blanket, my kitteh, and a good book. Nothing beats it.

My favoritest wedding picture. It's so us. So incredibly real. I love it with all my cold, black heart.

He's a psycho. The cutest goddamn psycho in the world, but still a psycho. Look at his claws peeking out - even when he's chilling on the couch, he's ready to rip your retina.

Boston Strong. Waddup.

The Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point is pretty rad and you should all attend it some day. I don't even like flowers that much and I enjoyed myself thoroughly. Poppies are cool.

Things I learned on Pinterest: crock pot cream cheese chicken chili

The last couple of weeks have been perfect in Utah for chili. It was stupid cold for April and it wouldn't stop raining/snowing. Thankfully, yesterday was warm and today looks promising but... it's Utah. You never know here. We're a bunch of bipolar weather crazies. So, for this autumn or possibly next week here, here's a delightfully good chicken chili recipe.

pinned by me, recipe source here

Crock Pot Cream Cheese Chicken Chili
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can corn, undrained
1 can Rotel, undrained
1.5 TBSP chili powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 8 oz package light cream cheese
2 chicken breasts


Place chicken at bottom of crock pot, cover with corn, Rotel, and black beans. Top with seasonings. Stir it all together, then place cream cheese on top. Cover with lid and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Stir cream cheese into chili. Use 2 forks to shred chicken. Stir together and serve.

 **The original recipe called for ranch dressing mix and cumin. I didn't have either so I upped the chili powder and called it good.

The epic adventure of Stepmom and Biomom: part 4.

So really, this is just our day at California Adventure. Nothing much else to see. But, California Adventure is so much fun! We had a total blast and were completely worn out by the time the day was over. It just goes to show, Disneyland really is the happiest place on Earth. I honestly like California Adventure more than I like Disneyland. I know, I'm shunning myself from society by saying that, but I mean it. The rides are more fun for the most part, the food is awesome (except you can't get those pineapple drink things...), the characters are rad, there is a better showing from Pixar; I just love it!

I just really like this kid. She insisted on driving the bumper car, which wasn't even really a bumper car because you had to go in the direction of the arrow and if you stopped, you got in trouble. Today's society is sissy.

Buzz freaking Lightyear! I love him so much. This was the Pixar parade that we somehow managed to end up at right at the perfect moment. It was adorable! Toy Story, Cars, Finding Nemo, A Bug's Life, The Incredibles... I am sure I am forgetting some but it was great. Everyone should make time for it.

She decided closer to the end of the day that she wanted to start collecting/trading pins. I wish she had decided in the morning so we could have had the full day to find rad pins, but in the time we had left, we still managed to get her traded out of all of her "trading" pins and left with a ton of pins she really wanted. This pin thing is pretty awesome. I totally recommend it if you do Disneyland fairly frequently.

Cars Land. I could have stayed here all day. The characters were perfect, the shops were just like in the movies, and the food there was pretty good! We didn't even get to do the racers, which I really wanted to do, but it was still so amazing.

Throughout the day, there are different characters that come out and do dances and sing and whatever. These guys came along while we were eating so we got to sit and watch their performance, and it was super cute! We also saw Phinneas and Ferb and the Newsies.

Freaking Tower of Terror. This ride was my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE! It was so fun! Although most of the kids on the ride were really not enthused (as you can sort of see in this grainy picture of a picture on a TV screen).

I'm a really big fireworks fan. I downright love fireworks, and Disneyland puts on the best fireworks show I've ever seen. But World of Color? Kicked the shit out of those fireworks. It was 25 minutes long, with lights, music, pictures on freaking water fans!! It was epic. There are all of the little fountains and each has a color-changing light attached to it so they go all one color or rainbows or spraying streams with sporadic lights to look like sparkles. It's crazy cool. You absolutely HAVE to stay for World of Color if you go to California Adventure.

So that pretty much sums up the trip. The next day, we got up and drove all the way home. Not that bad of a drive, really. We were super busy the whole time, which made it easy for us to get along and also made it less hard that the Husband wasn't there. I would love to replicate this trip with the Husband, but minus the shopping because he's not a big shopper and minus Biomom because how awkward would that be?

Friday favorites: a music edition.

It's a music edition of Friday favorites. Here are a few songs I can't stop listening to right now. Warning: I've been intoxicated by Mackelmore recently. Also, there may be explicit language. That's almost a guarantee with me. Also, legit warning: these songs may be triggers for some people. So tread carefully.



This song needs to be played on every radio station everywhere. Because it's the best argument I've heard yet for equal rights. "No freedom 'til we're equal, damn right I support it."

This one breaks my heart every. single. time. but I can't stop listening to it. I am sort of in love with the whole Artwork album, actually. It's pretty freaking good.

The epic adventure of Stepmom and Biomom: part 3.

Sunday was stressful. As a parent, you watch your kid give their all for something and all you want for them is the win. You want them to feel proud of themselves and be happy with the results. Going into this competition, we felt good about their team and their routine. After watching the robots they were competing against, we were all really worried about Sunday. It's hard to be honest with yourself when all you want to say is that your kid's team is the best. They did a really good job, seriously. They rocked their routine. It just wasn't at the difficulty level of some of the other teams.

Their elevator. They hit this pretty hard!

Waiting to hear placement.

After an 11th place finish, the girls were pretty down. We all expected them to place better than that, so it was a bit of a shock to all of us, really. We decided what we needed was another night at the beach. Because the beach fixes everything! No really, it does. I was there. I saw it happen. We wandered the beach for an hour picking up seashells and other random ocean objects. Punk really wanted to find a sand dollar, and I told her how hard that was going to be, but we found a half of one, then another quarter of one, and that seemed to make her happy. Wandering the beach makes me happy. I need to move closer to the ocean.

Only sorta awkward, right? I really like the crab with the mustache and margarita.

I was dying for Mexican food, so we ate at a little place just across the street from Huntington beach called Fred's. Unfortunately, the service was tragically bad AGAIN. They split our orders wrong, then blamed it on us because we "didn't tell them". Then it took them 45 minutes to correct our tickets so we could pay and leave. It was awful. But the food was wonderful! It hit the craving right in the junk. And, they seated us by the windows, so we had this view:

Holy mother of sunsets, Batman! Why is everything so pretty at the ocean?

I hope you're enjoying this little trek! Mostly it's so I don't forget about it but I guess it's also to show you that a Stepmom and a Biomom CAN GET ALONG! You just gotta put effort into it. To be continued... again!

Photo dump Wednesday.

My ADORABLE Easter treats.

I purposefully bought small baskets so I wouldn't spend so much. It obviously didn't work.

I love crock pot dinners. Putting it together in the morning is so easy.

Saw this at Disneyland, and how could I NOT buy it? Honestly. Even though she's the bad guy, she's still in my club.

A picture of myself that I actually like. It's a Christmas miracle!

Sewing another blanket! Exactly the same as the one I made for myself. This one's for a dear friend of mine.

Mother fucking SNOW. Utah is extra bipolar this year.

The epic adventure of Stepmom and Biomom: part 2.

You want to know something? I took my nice camera with me to California and did not take a SINGLE picture with it. All of my pictures are from my phone. That's the great thing about having a phone with a good camera, I guess - it takes pictures as good as any point-and-shoot out there.

Saturday and Sunday were competition days. Early mornings to get the three of us up and out and to the convention center by 8:30... it was not fun. As witnessed by the kid below. She's not a morning person, she gets if from her daddy, and getting her up at 7:00 was the last thing in the world she wanted.

Her mom had literally pulled her out of bed, and she rolled over and went back to sleep. I'd love to be able to sleep like this kid.

Go cheer! Or something.

Practice and practice and practice some more.

Competition time! This was prelim day.

These girls. They're cute. But they're CUH-RAZY.

After competition on Saturday, we chilled at the pool. For four hours. The girls were stunting basically the whole time. It makes me feel old... I'd have died by hour two. Plus, you start to melt in water after that long! But they were happy and occupied so we let them be. Us moms laid out and relaxed. It was pretty wonderful. Although I do wish the people in the background had invited us to their fiesta; their food smelled pretty great.

Crazies.

After we finally got the girls out of the pool, we hit the Orange Outlets again for dinner and more shopping. I'd say a good 35% of our time was spent shopping, no joke. It was terrible for my bank account but wonderful for my mindset! Ha.

They insisted I take their picture pretending to be mannequins. They only got yelled at twice before I finally told them to get out of the window. Hey, pictures were being taken! Leave me and my blogging self alone.

We were cursed on this whole trip though, because almost everywhere we ate, the service was terrible. Saturday night we ate at a restaurant at the outlets, and they screwed up every single one of our orders. Our waitress never apologized or offered to fix our orders, she just casually mentioned that it was "the kitchen's fault, NOT hers!" I know serving is harder than people think, but when there's an issue, apologize. Seriously. They added her tip in before giving us the checks, luckily for her.

Not a whole lot of parenting needed to be done on this trip at all, which made things so much smoother for all of us. Everyone has asked how things went, and no one believes me when I say everything was fine. It's taken all of us - Biodad, Biomom, Stepdad, Stepmom - over 7 years to get to this point, and we've had our rough times and fights and speed bumps and parenting disagreements, but I survived a week-long trip with my kid and her Biomom. That's something to be proud of.

To be continued...