A Bushel & A Peck

Princess

2011-07-06T13:57:00.007-06:00

The other day "Princess" and I were killing time until Taco woke up. She loved it :)

Long time to wait.

2011-01-19T15:05:00.003-07:00

Been sitting in the front room waiting for some sunshine all day. It just popped in to say hello and is already gone again.

I wish it was summer. I need more sunshine.

Ew!

2010-11-22T21:46:00.004-07:00

HA!!

I watched this funny video and thought, "We say how gross it is the whole time.... and yet we don't take his toe out....." lol. And why not?? Because it makes for good tv!!

Stocko

2010-11-22T21:32:00.003-07:00

So in August my dad stayed with us for a few days while he recouped from a knee injury. Stockton of course ate up the extra attention :)

Things that go bump in the.... day....?

2010-11-12T19:14:00.005-07:00

So during the day, I watch "Taco" and my little niece, "Wowa." Taco is not yet a year and Wowa is only 3 months. Pretty tricky at times but we manage!

Today, both of the babes were up and we were all playing in the front room when I heard something metallic tip over in the house somewhere. This shouldn't have happened because we were all in the front room and I don't have any pets! I was so scared! I immediately stopped talking and stuck my head around a corner where there are doors to different vacant areas of the house.

And I sat.

And I waited.

And I made some pretty ulcers.

"....I have one phone call.... if there is someone here, they will rush me when they hear me make a phone call.... I want to call Jimmy but then if I am attacked, then that will waste precious time when the cops could be on their way....."

"....I should go check it out! But I don't really carry both babies very well and if we have to run, we'd be in trouble......"

So! I called the cops! And two lady officers walked around my house and looked for bad guys, haha. Oh, man, I felt like such a sissy!! I guess if they had sent 2 guys over who were 300 lbs each then I would have felt justified but the fact that they were ladies who were more brave than me made me feel really yellow bellied!! I mean, I was about 90% no one was there but that 10% was just making me sweat bullets! Also! If there had been an escaped convict hiding in my laundry room and I hadn't called, then I would have been dead and sorry!! haha

Hey, that dumb police tax that all of us unincorporated city residents paid has got to go towards something, right?? ;)

Oh Boy!

2010-11-08T12:52:00.004-07:00

The other night, Jimmy and I were dressing Stockton after his nightly bath. When he's tired, Stockton always cries and puts up a pretty good fight when you lay him down to get him ready. This night was no exception. So while he's really giving us the best he's got, he yells out, "oooh booyyy!!!"

Funny!

Especially since he doesn't talk yet. :)

Father's Day, Another Freezer Stencil and a Cool Gadget!

2010-06-23T20:51:00.008-06:00

So I had ambitions of being a regular bloggist again but alas, whatever, lol.

This year was Jimmy's first official Father's Day! Yay for Jimmy! I wanted to give him some fun stuff even though I don't have very much disposable income of my own anymore (I haven't worked since I had sweet baby Stockton in December). So I made him a couple things, got a couple things on awesome sales and made his favorite breakfast and dinner. It was nice!! Jimmy is a really terrific dad and a very supportive husband. He deserves way more than what I gave him!

Stockton's present to his dad was a new trick that was super funny. He would spit out his tongue and work it around a lot. Sounds really simple and it was but it was new and he looked cute doing it. Behold:

(Taken with Jimmy's cell phone...)

Oh, he's such a doll, isn't he?!?

Anyhow, here is a shirt that I made for him. I had it all designed but I was *soooo* exhausted from afore-mentioned sweet baby Stockton that I just gave him two shirts with "to be continued" signs, hahaha. Luh-ay-zuh-ee!! So this one I finished today while Jimmy was closing and I have yet to do the other shirt. I haven't really finalized the design yet.. I have a few ideas but I'm just not sure... hmm..

I like this one, though. I like the colors :) I hope Jimmy likes it, too!

Anyhow, I love stenciling! It's a lot of fun! If I still had a 9-5 job, I would *totally* buy this!! In case that link expires, it's called a Print Gocco! I read that in the 90's, 1/3 of all Japanese households owned one but now I guess they're not being manufactured anymore. Read about how they work here. It's a like a mini screen printing machine. It's cool! It's fast, you can use the same screen over and over again and it works best with fine lines, I guess, as opposed to freezer paper stencils where if you want a fine line, you better have a steady hand because you are exacto knifing that fine line yourself, lol. It's cool, though, eh?

Another Somthin' Somthin'!

2010-04-29T20:26:00.004-06:00

I've been following lots of craft and sewing blogs lately - my list of blogs I follow is growing and growing!! I recently discovered Disney's blog Ruffles and Stuff through Dana's Made. (Isn't that such a great name??) These two craft/sewing geniuses have teamed up for the next couple of weeks and are both having daily posts about things that you can get or make for moms for Mother's Day. I love it! I am always excited to see what they have posted :)

The other day, Disney posted an idea about a flower cuff and I thought I'd give it a whirl, especially because Joann's silk flowers were half off - yay!

So here are my results!

(This picture is also with my Mac because I haven't really figured out my little Nikon problem yet, lol. Oohhh,.... Being a photo person, posting a picture like this kills a little bit of my soul, lol...)

I've been having lots of fun with these crafty things lately :) Jimmy got me a sewing machine for Christmas and it's been really relaxing to be able to create things with it, especially because I'm home so much now and don't have a lot of stress relief. I never would have known before I had Stockton that listening for a baby to wake up from his nap can get a person really anxious!

Anyhow, this little project was really fast and if Stockton hadn't woken up half way through, then it probably would have only taken an hour or so. I was going to make one for my mom for Mother's Day but I'm not sure if this type of thing is really her style. I have a feeling it would be the equivalent to her wearing the macaroni necklace that I made her when I was 4. I have some other people in mind who I would like to give it to for a gift but I want to give it to someone who would like it enough to wear it but not look too closely at the craftmanship, hahah. We'll see! Maybe I will just keep it and if anyone says anything about it when I wear it, I will just make them one :)

Sleeping Lunatic

2010-04-26T09:27:00.005-06:00

I guess when I am out, I am *out*.

We took our little family (with Kathy and Krissy) to the first Jazz home game of the playoffs against the Denver Nuggets the other night. It was a really late game - it started at 8:30 and we got out of there around 11:30. I was really hesitant about going because a) it would fiddle with Baby's sleeping schedule and b) I don't want to blast out his hearing before he's even crawling.

I had been looking and looking for a baby sized set of protective ear muffs but I could only ever find them online - all the stores just had adjustable adult sizes. Jimmy ended up buying a $7 pair of the adult kind at Walmart and they seemed to work really well for Baby at the game. So well, in fact, that taking care of problem B also took care of problem A: Stockton fell asleep for the whole game except for the first quarter! If you've ever been to a Jazz playoff game, then you know that's *amazing*. Needless to say, this means that he was sleeping on Jimmy for about a quarter and on me for 2 quarters. This means that to make him comfortable enough to sleep, you have to position yourself in the most uncomfortable position while using the most unwilling and unfriendly muscles in your body to contort yourself into some semblance of a slanting baby mattress and freeze that way until your body starts to tremble like you're having seizures.

Obviously, as a parent, you are totally willing to do this.

However, when you get home, it's all you can do to not fall comatose and bang your head into the sink while washing your face. I was utterly spent which seemed really usual to me because we went to bed around 1:00 and that's not really abnormal at our house. It's not as common now as it once was, by any means, but it still happens.

So when I laid myself on the pillow, I knew I was fading fast and it was only a matter of time before I would be redeeming my golden ticket at Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. I took off my glasses and just put them on the pillow in front of me because I decided that my poor broken body couldn't call the strength to put them on my nightstand.

What seemed like a blink of an eye later, Baby was summoning me in his own little language. Usually when I feed Baby at night, I turn the tv on so that I don't fall asleep and also because it gives a low light so I can see what's going on a little more easily. So as I'm getting things arranged for Baby, I can't find the remote. Jimmy and I always put it in between our pillows but it wasn't there and I couldn't find it anywhere. I know this was really rude but I kind of whispered to Jimmy to see if he knew where it is. 3:00 am and I wake my husband about a tv remote when he has to wake up in 4 hours to go to work for 9 hours.... tsk tsk... not nice. However, I don't think very clearly at night which is what my little story is about.

So, anyhow, I wake Jimmy up and he's really nice and gets up and starts looking around. We can't see it anywhere.

"You moved it when I came to bed, Jan," he says. "It was in the middle and I came to bed and you moved it really quickly. I asked for it but you were asleep and I just went to bed."

I have foggy visions of this but I'm not sure if that's what I remember or if it's like when someone tells you a story about when you were little. You think you might remember it but you can't tell if it's a true memory or you are just imagining the scene. That's what this is like for me. However, my foggy vision doesn't help me at all because I have no recollection of putting anything anywhere.

So I'm looking around still and voila!! Of course!! I had stashed it on the nightstand! Right in a deep bowl of canned juicy pineapple where it belongs!! Why didn't I look there before!!

All I can figure is that slumbering Jan was nervous about her glasses getting squashed when Jimmy came to bed so she grabbed everything in the proximity of her spectacles and dumped it all on the table beside the bed. It's just a happy coincidence that she left an unfinished bowl of pineapple there, as well, because she was too tired to finish it and/or take it to the kitchen... A non-slumbering Jan doesn't typically surround herself with sticky fruit bowls.

In the end, Jimmy camped out in the bathroom trying to clean it out for about 10 minutes. In the morning, the remote no longer worked but Jimmy did a quick change of batteries and it was fine.

The sad part of my story is that I lost my bowl of fruit to the battery acid demons. On the bright side, the remote now smells very tropical :)

Look What I Did!!

2010-04-20T18:21:00.006-06:00

Check this out! We are going to the first Jazz home game in the playoffs against the Denver Nuggets on Friday. Jimmy and I have always really liked going to the Jazz games - we had season tickets for a few seasons. Since it's going to be Stockton's first Jazz game, I wanted him to have something cute to wear. They were selling "Got Stockton?" shirts but never in his size that we found and they were very expensive!! I have read a lot about freezer paper stencils here and other places, too. So I decided I would make my own shirt!!

First I found a picture of John Stockton that I liked and thought would be not impossible to make a stencil out of. I had a couple different options but decided to go with this pose:

Dana's tutorial said that Photoshop has a "posterize" option but it wasn't quite 2 toned and not really usable how mine turned out. So I found another awesome tutorial here. This is a REALLY easy step by step tutorial for turning something into a silhouette, a stencil, a two-toned picture... They're all the same thing. Anyhow, from there, I got this:

I really like how this looks but I didn't want a black square on the shirt - I just wanted an outline of John himself. So I deleted the background of the original color picture and redid the black and white steps, put his name on the side and voila!!

The image itself is a little small because I had to make it to find a size 3 month onsie that had shrunken to boot!

After that, it was a matter of cutting the image out of freezer paper with my exacto knife (HARD when there are lots of little shadows and the image is only 4 inches tall!), ironing it onto the onsie, painting and then waiting. In the end, I decided that some of the little details that I thought I was going to include weren't worth trying to piece them together on the shirt. I.e., the UJ that are at the top of John's shorts. I think it looks good without it! :) I can't wait to see it on his little body!!

This is a ridiculous picture taken with my Mac computer because I can't get my stinking Nikon to show up on the computer. I am going to restart my computer to try to fix it but I was too excited to not post yet, hahaha.

Anyhow, I am VERY happy with the results and had a lot of fun! I will definitely do freezer paper stenciling again :) (I mean, really, what else am I going to do with 500 yards of it..?? lol - jk.)

Thanks for the good tutorials, people!!

You bet your pretty neck I do!

2010-04-19T11:16:00.005-06:00

Ok, last time!

I changed the name again, lol. This one will stick. I sing this song to Stockton a lot :) It's very cute!

I will have more posts to come! I bought a lot of fabric and am making stuff but I can't post them because they are gifts! :)

*muwah*

I changed the name!

2010-03-18T22:56:00.000-06:00

No, not of my baby :) I changed the name of the blog! It used to be plain ol' "Jan" but I wanted to change the header and putting "Jan" on my baby's photo was weird. What do you guys think?

Yay! The Boy Sleeps!

2010-03-18T15:27:00.001-06:00

My little baby has been putting himself to sleep lately :) I love it! I have read and been told by the dr. to put him in his bed while he's drowsy and let him fall asleep there instead of holding him and putting him down asleep. The first while that I would do this, I would be shush/patting him to sleep for about an hour. You think, "oh, well, he obviously wasn't tired." Wrong. He would fall asleep in my arms but then I would either wake him up so that he didn't associate me holding him with sleeping or else he would wake up when I put him in his bed. Today, I had him propped up on my legs while I sat down and he started to fall asleep. So I swaddled him and put him in his bed while I held in his binky for him and he put himself to sleep in about 3 minutes! :) It's great!!

Now if I could get him to eat more (and not spit it up) so that he'd last longer at night! I think that he actually eats more at nighttime. Typically during the day, he eats about every 3 hours. It used to be 4 but I read to wake him up after 3 hours during the day time so that he knows to sleep longer at night. However, I don't really know if this is working because it seems to be that he wakes up every 2 hours or so at night, lol. Hmmmm. When did everyone else's kids start sleeping longer or through the night?

Here is Stockton last night after a bath. If you're wondering why Jimmy has no shirt on, it's because Stockton needed to empty his bladder on Daddy and Mommy THREE TIMES after we took his diaper off for his bath, lol. That cold air, I tell ya.

(Also - we can't find our camera so this was taken with my phone... not the best quality, haha.)

Stockton meets his cousins

2010-03-04T21:36:00.003-07:00

Sunday Feb 28th, we surprised Jimmy's family by taking the baby over to the Hub (Grandpa & Nana's house) for the first time. It was very fun! Stockton hadn't met most of Jimmy's family yet because he hasn't been allowed to meet friends under the age of 14 and that pretty much describes all of those cousins (almost, Graham and Delaney! Almost! lol).

It was also fun because Stockton has 2 cousins that are particularly close in age to him on that side (and one who is very close on my side, as well!) and we are all sure that they are going to be the Three Musketeers. So it was really fun for the three of them to meet!

L-R: Luke (8 months minus one day older than Stockton) and his mommy Karyn, Isaac and his mommy Heidi (born January 18, 2010) and Stockton, who was born December 24. Look how different they all look!!!

Here is Isaac and Stockton. I love how their moods are complete 180's of each other, lol. So funny.

And here is Stockton and his mama :)

Being a mom is great! I think it will be more fun when Stockton can start smiling on purpose and laughing. He was born on Christmas Eve but he wasn't due until February 5 so he's only developmentally a month old tomorrow. I guess babies don't master the social smile until around 4 months, which also happens to be about the month that his little body will be able to handle breast milk better and I can start having dairy, nuts, chocolate, eggs, shellfish, etc., again. That, my friend, is a very long, very dreary chapter, lol.

He's a cute baby.

Note: This was only Stockton's second social visit somewhere. I was able to take him here because I could call ahead and verify that no one was sick. I can't do that with church so that's why I haven't been able to bring him there yet. Judge me not, hahah. *paranoid*

My Projects

2010-03-04T18:04:00.000-07:00

As I sit here trying to shush pat my baby to sleep with one hand, I thought I'd show you all what projects I want to work on :) Mostly they are repurposing other clothes. I have seen lots of websites about it and I am pumped!! (Btw, shush-pat with one hand doesn't work... haha.)

So for my first project, I've decided that I want to make Baby's name blessing outfit :) This is kind of a big deal because first off, I haven't really sewn anything awesome by myself since my three sewing classes in middle school (HA!) and Baby is getting blessed the last Sunday of this month! So! I gotta get cracking so in case I stink it up, I have time to go and buy something, lol.

My biggest decision about the outfit right now is should I go with a traditional all white outfit for him or should I go with just a very sharp one with color? If I go with a non-white outfit, I have this skirt that I can make him some trousers out of. It's a nice skirt - there is nothing wrong with it, it's just that it no longer fits me and hasn't for a few years, really, lol. I have no idea why I've kept it other than it was still in great condition and I probably just had a problem giving away something that I felt wasn't thrashed.

I have been having Jimmy looking for a sweater for me to make Baby a sweater vest. However, if I want to do an all-white outfit, then I'm going to make a sweater vest out of this sweater of mine.

The thing is is that this sweater is still something that I used to wear occasionally. I didn't wear it this fall or winter, though, because I was pregnant. So I am not sure if I am going to really wear it anymore or not.... Hmmmm. I feel a little hesitant to chop it up, I guess, is what I am saying. Also, this sweater has really loose weave and I'm wondering if it will unravel if I try to cut it up. At any rate, it'd make a really sweet little baby sweater vest.

Lastly the shoes! I got a half yard of nice white felt so that I can make him some shoes. I want them to look something like this:

I found a couple different tutorials and think I can use them as a base and tweak the shoes how I want them. Too ambitious? Perhaps!! Definitely perhaps!!

Another project that I am really excited about is the 90 Minute Shirt by Dana of the blog, Made. This is the same person whose sweater vest tutorial is what I want to try. I am really excited about this pattern! I went to Joann's the other day and got 7 different colors of ribbing (for the hems). I was really excited because the fabric was about half off! It was supposed to be $8 a yard but was $4 and I only got a half yard each. Very affordable! Here are my colors that I bought:

These are all sitting on my white felt. Funny lighting and focusing because I took this with the lights off. Baby was asleep (the whole half hour block he has slept for me today... ug.).

Then! For the shirt's body, Jimmy, Baby and I went to Walmart last night for some food and they had some blowout on clothes. $1.50 shirts! Woo-hoo! Jimmy let me pick a few out so that I could try to to make 90 Minute Shirts :) I think that I am going to try to make the large green striped one a onsie version.

And those are my projects that I have planned! :) I also have a quilt that I would like to make. Jimmy bought me some super cool ugly yellow fabric at the D.I.. I will post pictures of that next time!

So anyhow, what do you guys think?? Anyone want to come over sometime and make a 90 Minute Shirt with me? I want to go out more but at the moment, Stockton is very difficult to take out of the house when it's just me. His sleeping schedule is unpredictable and so he wakes up telling me he's hungry all the time. (More on that later.) I am just worried that I will leave the house and he will be sitting the back screaming the entire way. Something I will need to learn to cope with at some point, I know, I know. At any rate, he's still on semi-quarantine so whatever, lol. Just come over!!!

Wish me luck!

Hello Again...

2010-03-01T23:31:00.000-07:00

Hello world.

I have been mostly been a horrid blogger and I am always starting off with a "sorry." Let's just assume that whoever reads this knows I'm not consistent and we can just bypass the whole bad blogging apology, eh?

So guess what? I'm a mom. Yep. And my husband is a dad. And we have the most beautiful little boy. He's a peach. And so is my husband because he's letting me be able to quit working full time and be a stay at home mom :) Being the daughter of a mom who had 10 kids and never got to stay home, I have always dreamed of being able to when I grew up. I remember specifically in first grade answering a questionnaire about myself for school. One of the questions was, "what do you want to be when you grow up?" and I said a stay at home mom :) And that, my friends, is an example of how my husband makes my dreams come true. He's rad.

So now that I stay home and have a baby, I have become a bit more "nesty." My problem is that I have all the ambition in the world to do some really cool projects (mostly cool clothes and fun toys for my baby) but I am not good at juggling and accommodating an infant's schedule with my own.

Hopefully I will figure this all out and be posting some neat projects, some neat pictures and some fun baby stories :)

Happy Halloween :)

2009-10-08T00:16:00.000-06:00

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

(Me, Jimmy, my sister Elise, her dog Ridgley and my niece Jasmine - heheh)

I'm a horrible blogger but this is hilarious

2009-09-03T21:28:00.001-06:00

Have you seen this little guy??

I love it when he "gives his big booty a slap," hahahah. So great!!

He's going to be so awesome in high school at prom, hahah.

i hate spiders.

2009-07-25T13:31:00.000-06:00

I think one just tried to kill me. Either that or he was just running to hide under the couch I was sitting on. (I'm currently on the floor on the other side of the room where he can't bite my feet...)

I'm pretty sure he was trying to kill me, though.

A+

2009-07-15T21:09:00.000-06:00

So today, I found out my blood type. A+. It's the second most common type of blood in the world. I'm a little disappointed in myself, really, lol. Completely ridiculous but slightly true! Jimmy's got such cool blood! O-!

I have blood envy.

Does anyone else know what kind of blood they have?

Also, btw, check this website out. It's very interesting. In a chart about half way down, it tells you what kinds of people have what kinds of blood. Check out the Bororo people of Brazil! So bizarre!

Bijou Market

2009-06-05T14:39:00.000-06:00

I've decided that I really want to go to this at the end of June. (See the flag on the right.) It seems like a live Etsy shop with lots of vendors :) They will have things there like these cute hand-made baby books made by this lady and her husband.

I'm excited! Anyone want to come with me?

I'm a dork

2009-05-23T16:32:00.000-06:00

Check this site out. I found her stuff by accident today. She's very talented at drawing characters from the cool 80's cartoons. It makes me want to start sketching again! I miss it!

(I think that this is the Fashion Star Filly that I had in the first grade, actually, lol. Awesome.)

Furry Happy Monsters

2009-04-15T21:11:00.000-06:00

Jimmy and I went to IHOP tonight (we're big fans!) and they played "Shining Happy People" by R.E.M. It's a fun song and reminded me of the time R.E.M. went on Sesame Street and sang, "Shining Happy Monsters." I thought it was so funny :) I remember watching VH1 or something and the lead singer for R.E.M. was talking about the day he went to shoot that. He wasn't having a good day at all and didn't feel like shaving. I thought it was very ironic considering the song he was going there to sing :)

Funny :)

That was fun to go to IHOP with you, Mr. Jimmy :)

Also - I have to say, for anyone who knows Kevin, don't you think he looks like the lead singer?? He looks like the lead singer for R.E.M. and like Steve Jobs. Especially because he and Steve Jobs both are tall, thin, have the same kind of hair, glasses and they both have an affinity for mock turtle necks tucked into their jeans. Yet he tells me that I'm the first one to point this out to him!! Go figure.

pics to be seen on other blog :)

2009-04-07T01:36:00.000-06:00

I haven't been updating this blog as well but I do have a few more posts on my new blog. Feel free to take a peek :)

Elizabeth

2009-03-30T21:09:00.000-06:00

This post has been a long time coming but I just wanted everyone to know how proud I am of my sister-in-law. My older brother, David, married a gorgeous Venezuelan named Elizabeth when I was in the 6th grade. I've always really loved Elizabeth and felt a special closeness to her. I was so proud of her the other week when she was sworn in as an American Citizen. It was a neat day! I was so happy that I got to go :) (And since it was 2 buildings away from my office, I got free parking, hahah.)

Congratulations, Elizabeth!

my new blog!

2009-03-28T17:39:00.000-06:00

I've made a new photo blog for my company :) I have posted some photos from a shoot this morning - they turned out very cute!!

http://little-bird-photos.blogspot.com/

Wheeler Farm

2009-03-27T18:24:00.000-06:00

I absolutely love Wheeler Farm. I used to work there as a tour guide for elementary school field trips when I was 20 or something. It's such a great place and so well preserved. All of the little baby animals are being born so everyone should go and take a visit :) Today I saw a week old baby calf, some other very young calves, about 20 baby lambs (so adorable!) and some baby chickens in a barn under a heat lamp. No wild baby birds yet but from the looks of things, there will be A LOT of them soon enough. A LOT.

This is my favorite one from today, I think :)

To get it, I almost died a horrible goose death, though!!

The lambs were so sweet.

Taking pictures of lambies through a wire fence is difficult, lol.

(These photos are all in extremely EXTREMELY low res. Can you tell? lol)

Dogs?

2009-03-23T20:47:00.000-06:00

Does anyone own or knows someone who owns a sighthound? A greyhound, a barzoi, an afghan hound or a saluki? Something like that? If so, would you leave me a comment with how to get in touch with you? I'm not looking to buy one but I had a cool idea for a photo.

Thanks!

My KSL ad.

Calling all brides! (Post, Present and Pre!)

2009-03-23T00:13:00.000-06:00

I am going to start in earnest on my bridal portfolio! Very exciting!

If you are a past bride or someone who just thinks it would be fun to get dressed up in a gown for a few hours and work on your poses, that would be perfect! If you are a bride who is in need of some portraits to display at the reception, I can give you a discounted rate for the images since I wouldn't be doing your whole wedding.

Leave a comment with your contact info and let me know if you're interested! I will send you more info! Feel free to send this link around to anyone who you think might like to get all dolled up and have their picture taken. It will be fun!

Thanks :)

(This obviously isn't a bridal photo but I think that posts with photos are more fun, lol)

sweet little Dumbo moment

2009-03-13T20:56:00.000-06:00

I love this part of Dumbo. It's so sweet and always makes me feel like crying. Pretty cheesy but still really sweet.

amazingly creative idea

2009-03-09T23:03:00.000-06:00

I just saw this on Anna's blog and I am completely dumbfounded. This person makes up these songs from all of the things he finds on YouTube. He doesn't change them - he just takes snippets of them and makes these amazing things.

He really reminds me of Moby!

I love especially love the intro to #1 and the end of #3. #2 and #5 totally remind me of Napoleon Dynamite, lol.

Here is #1

Happy Birthdays :)

2009-03-08T23:58:00.000-06:00

So lately, there have been lots of birthdays in my family - lots and lots! Within two weeks of each other, we have first year birthdays for Jennifer's Aleah, Katie's Andrew and Jodi's Jasmine. Happy birthday to them and all of the other family members who just had birthday or will have birthdays!

coming soon

2009-03-02T12:25:00.000-07:00

I haven't done a cool photo shoot just for fun in a while. I want to. That will come soon.

word to your muthuh

2009-02-28T11:44:00.000-07:00

Remember these sweet dance moves? "Let's kick it."

I would have liked to have gone to this!

2009-02-28T11:36:00.000-07:00

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

have you heard about this???

2009-02-27T10:35:00.000-07:00

Go here. Go NOW.

(Obvious question that no one has asked her: How did she recover and clean it?????)

Chicken Soup with Orzo (it's REALLY healthy)

2009-02-25T00:03:00.000-07:00

I made this Ellie Krieger recipe tonight. It was good! Plus, it was fun because I got to use some kitchen equipment that I don't use a lot or haven't used before: my immersion blender, my mortar and pestle and my new dutch oven. :)

Jimmy got me this for Christmas and I haven't had a chance to use it before. I really liked it. It was nice and hot and just the right size. Plus, since the inside is white, you can easily see the nice "brown bits" from cooking chicken, etc. :) My other pots are black or silver so that's harder to see where I need to deglaze when I cook. Thanks for such a nice gift, Jimmy!

Anyhow, the recipe was really yummy! I added way more salt than I am sure she did. I like my food saltier than most! The thyme was good, too, but I wish that I had fresh thyme to use. I like to grind up my dry spices, though, if I don't have fresh ones. I think that when you grind them up that it kind of breaths a little bit of life in them.

The recipe was very simple to follow, as well. The only thing was that I think her cooking time estimates were pretty far off for me. Her recipe said to cook the chicken until just through, which should be about 5 minutes. Yeah right! Mine took me about 15-20 minutes, lol.

The one tweak that I made to her recipe was after I had sauteed the vegetables and added the broth, I used the immersion blender and smoothed it all out. Jimmy is not a fan of celery or onions and if he sees them, will avoid them on principle mostly, I think! lol. If he can't see it, though, then he's usually fine. I'm the same way, though, sometimes. I don't like a soup spoon full of onion pieces. If it's whipped in, though, it's nice. Anyhow, after I blended in the veggies, then I added the orzo and did all that.

Also, I might add more orzo next time. I am a fan of that little pasta! It's good stuff!

If you try it, let me know what you thought of it. :)

Here's the recipe with Ellie Krieger's intro:

I recently threw a soup party with huge pots of soup bubbling away on the stove and small serving cups so everyone could to taste each one. This is the soup no one could stop talking about. My guests all fell in love with its thyme-scented, thick, lemony broth, delicate orzo (a rice-shaped pasta), and meaty chunks of chicken. It's kind of like a girl-next-door chicken noodle soup that’s traveled abroad and returned with an intriguing flair.

4 teaspoons olive oil
8 ounces skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cut into small chunks
Pinch of salt, plus more to taste
1 medium onion, diced (about 1 1/2 cups)
2 stalks celery, diced (about 1/2 cup)
1 medium carrot, diced (about 1/2 cup)
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried
6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 cup orzo, preferably whole wheat
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Heat 2 teaspoons of the oil in a soup pot over medium-high heat. Season the chicken with the salt, add it to the pot, and cook, stirring, a few times, until just cooked through, about 5 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a dish and set aside.

Add the remaining 2 teaspoons oil to the pot. Add the onion, celery, carrot, and thyme and cook, stirring, over medium-high heat until the vegetables are tender, about 5 minutes. Add 5 cups of the broth and bring to a boil. Add the orzo and let simmer until tender, about 8 minutes. Turn the heat down to low to keep the soup hot but not boiling.

Warm the remaining 1 cup broth in a small saucepan until it is hot but not boiling. In a medium bowl, beat the eggs. Gradually whisk the lemon juice into the eggs. Then gradually add the hot broth to the egg-lemon mixture, whisking all the while. Add the mixture to the soup, stirring well until the soup is thickened. Do not let the soup come to a boil. Add the cooked chicken to the soup. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

Makes 4 servings
Serving size: 1 1/2 cups

Per serving:
Calories 280; Total fat 10g (Sat fat 2g, Mono fat 6g, Poly fat 1g); Protein 26g; Carb 22g; Fiber 2g; Cholesterol 139mg; Sodium 291mg

Excellent source of:
niacin, phosphorus, potassium, riboflavin, selenium, vitamin A, vitamin B6, vitamin C

Good source of:
copper, folate, iodine, iron, magnesium, molybdenum, pantothenic acid, thiamin, vitamin B12, vitamin K, zinc

SLC on Food Network

2009-02-20T15:21:00.000-07:00

This is cool. It's in Cottonwood Heights and I drove by it every day for like, 3 years. If I go to my dad's place or my in-laws' place, then I drive by it, still. It's funny - I drive by there all the time but I've never eaten there. I want to now, though!

I haven't been here, either. I don't like "real" hamburger, though, so maybe I will have to try these sometime.

I think he went to other places in SLC, too, but I haven't found them on You Tube yet.

Photo Tag

2009-02-17T21:04:00.001-07:00

Katie dear tagged me. I thought it'd be interesting to see which picture it actually was so here it goes!

1. Go to the photo folder in your computer
2. Go to the 6th folder of photos.
3. Go to the 6th picture.
4. Put the picture on your blog and description of it.
5. Invite six friends to join the challenge.

Here's mine!

This is a picture of Jodi and her kids, Jasmine and Jesus. We took them in September, I think, as a surprise for her husband's birthday. This one didn't quite work out, though, lol.

I tag Jodi, Courtney, Heidi, Michael, Jani and Shalae. I know some of you like to take photos so if you do this little dealio, they should be interesting posts!

coolest headline EVER

2009-02-17T14:56:00.000-07:00

I am still laughing about this, hahaha. SO funny.

Found here.

Woman gives suspect a wedgie until police arrive
February 17th, 2009 @ 1:15pm
By Adam Thomas

Salt Lake City, Utah -- Sometimes, the best way to trap a burglar is to hold him by his underwear until police can get there.

On Monday afternoon, a worker heard her car alarm going off in the parking lot near 1200 East and 3300 South. She asked a friend to check it out.

That friend looked outside and saw Frederick Baze, 21, inside her friend's car. She went outside to confront him, and he took off. She caught him. First she sat on him, but he was able to get away.

She caught him a second time and managed to place him in a headlock, but he was able to get away again.

The third time, she grabbed a hold his boxers and pulled. Salt Lake City police say she then she put a headlock on the man until help could arrive.

Baze had in his possession the victim's credit card. He was booked into the Salt Lake County jail on suspicion of vehicle burglary, possession of stolen property and outstanding warrants.

This story also found here.

LBJ and Yuki

2009-02-16T22:29:00.000-07:00

I was watching Dogs 101 tonight and I learned something really funny.

Lyndon B. Johnson was an avid dog lover. He had like, 6 beagles, 1 collie and a terrier mutt. Out of all of the dogs, he loved Yuki (the terrier mutt) the most and Yuki loved him just as much. Yuki would howl with the president if he howled. LBJ absolutely loved this and thought everyone else did, too. So, the two used to perform for everyone.

Check out this funny picture.

It's LBJ and Yuki "singing" the the US Ambassador to Great Britian. Isn't that so funny? I love that LBJ was no respecter of persons that way. It reminds me of those kinds of dads who have really silly magic tricks and they show anyone and how great that always is.

How funny. :)

Here he is singing with Yuki for his grandson at the LBJ Ranch.

Aren't those so great?? Did you ever know that we had such quirky presidents??

I like LBJ as a person now. Anyone who likes dogs is good by me :)

Oh, Yum!

2009-02-08T01:07:00.000-07:00

Since we're having stake conference next week and won't see the nursery kids around Valentines day, I thought for our snack tomorrow, we could have these little lovelies. They turned out really cute.

Jimmy liked his, at least!

Farmington Bay

2009-02-06T16:06:00.001-07:00

For my landscape and nature class, we went to Farmington Bay to photograph the bald eagles. Apparently, Utah rivals Alaska for concentration of bald eagles once a year. I saw a lot of them! However, that link to the photos of a million bald eagles in a tree isn't mine and I didn't see that many, lol. That is at Farmington Bay, though. Next week they are having Utah Bald Eagle Day there. It's really pretty scenery and neat to see some big birds. You should go.

Here are a few pictures really quickly from this morning. I wanted to get closer but if you get close to them, they fly away. Besides that, they were clear out in frozen swamps, lol. N'thanks.

Anyhow! I will try to post more later. :)

(Also - I don't want people to kief my stuff so I put this very large attractive star as a generic water mark until I come up with a water mark of my own that I like.)

a couple photos from my classes

2009-02-04T22:25:00.001-07:00

This is my photo friend Mandy. We get along so well. Photo classes are so much more fun with her :) She's superb.

If you click on these to enlarge, there is a little bit of camera shake. I didn't bring a tri-pod yesterday and I needed to. Lesson learned!!

Mandy dear again.

These are some storks from a school shoot at the Tracey Aviary. I was so discouraged. I had the worst lens ever for that trip. Since then, my dearest darlingest man spouse let us get me another one. We are going to Farmington Bay on Friday morning to photograph bald eagles. I'm pumped!

Hello, there!

2009-02-04T21:21:00.001-07:00

So I'm alive :) Sorry to the two people who read this for the hiatus, lol.

Here are are a few photos that I've found on my computer of our trip to CA this Fall that I thought were fun.

This was Jimmy and I during our Disneyland trip this fall with the in-laws. I have a really funny pictures I found of them that I need to post sometime. It's awesome. Remind me.

Never mind. Don't remind me. I had to come back and put it in. I have the coolest in-laws ever and the picture to prove it. The only in-laws that might be cooler are Jimmy's. lol. Teasing Bates!

And here we find Mr. Jimmy shooting the breeze with Marge Simpson. He about died at Universal Studios when he rounded a corner and saw this.....

Jimmy was in heaven. This is someone who while he was on his mission, his crazy family taped every single Simpson's episode for him so that he wouldn't miss any of them. Yes, he's that much of an addict and his family is a bunch of enablers, haha.

Anyhow :)

Holy Cow, I won!!

2009-01-08T22:29:00.000-07:00

The other week I entered a give-away contest here and I won!! yay!! I haven't ever won a blog giveaway before but it was even cooler because the prize was a pair of earrings made by my uber talented cousin, Leigh! (Here is her Etsy store)

So anyhow!! Last night, we got home from a Jazz game late and I had my cute man spouse check the mail when what to my wondering eyes should appear.....

Notice the really dainty little packaging. I actually saved it. It's that cute.

Yay!!!!

I heartily approve!!

Thanks so much, Leigh and Molly! I love them!!

(Also, as a side-note: I can do pretty good with my big manual slr camera but I really stink with my little camera. For some reason, I couldn't figure out how to make it focus right... It's +4 year old and we don't use it a whole lot. I'm wondering if it's busted.... either that or I'm just dumb, lol. Could be!!)

New Playlist :)

2009-01-02T23:19:00.000-07:00

So I have some playlists that I listen to sometimes while I'm at work. I have one called "Smooth Songs" that I really like a lot that I thought would be fun to share. There are some very cute songs in there that I've found. Have a listen :)

P.S. "Clocks" isn't the normal version - it's different. And cool.

Christmas :)

2009-01-02T15:37:00.001-07:00

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas! Jimmy and I had a lot of fun and really enjoyed so much time off with each other, especially since it was our first holiday season in our very own house :)

We really enjoyed decorating...

We really enjoyed the presents (or the wrapping paper, at least!)...

And we really enjoyed my mom's Christmas shuffle, hahah!

We found her some green slippers with green dusters on the bottom so that it would buff her hardwoods while she walked around. Only, Mom's got more style than that and she was grooving around, lol.

We also gave Mom some funny things in her socking. Funny things like fiber pills and laxatives...

Mom assured me that we shouldn't have but we already had.. so... hehehe...

Hope you all had good times!!

Neat Photographer

2008-12-20T19:24:00.000-07:00

I realize that I'm a little slower than the average bear and that these images have been out there for eons but I've just rediscovered them.

I love them.

Aren't they so cool? A famous photographer named Annie Leibovitz modeled celebrities as Disney heroes. They're so great. My favorites are the Scarlett Johansson as Cinderella and Julianne Moore as Ariel with a Michael Phelps as a merman - how appropriate, eh?.

See some other ones here.

(On a side note, the JLo & Marc Anthony one as Jasmine and Aladdin really isn't my favorite.)

Hey Hey!

2008-12-10T21:13:00.000-07:00

Sheeeshh!

I haven't posted anything in eons! How awful! I bet you can all guess at how good I am at writing family and friends when they go on missions, eh? Ding ding ding!! Pretty sucky is right!! lol

In my defense, though, I was (and still am) sick since before Thanksgiving. It keeps morphing into different kinds of colds! Jimmy and I are in nursery on Sundays and I think that the wee ones are giving me their bugs. It's alright, though, because they're oh-so-funny :)

The other part of my non-posting was because I had final projects and final exams for the past few weeks. I am so glad that they're over! I thought that I had bombed one of them - especially since he went over the test right after we finished it and I knew the answers he was saying were not at all what I had put. Wa-wa-waaaaah. However!! I think that he got sick of correcting all of them very precisely, I guess, because he gave me full credit on those answers and I got +100%, lol. Yay for teachers getting sick of grading very closely!! lol.

Now for something very, VERY serious.

Eli Stone......

is.....

*sniff*

CANCELED.

How absolutely tragic!! I love this stinking show. Jimmy and I DVR all of them and watch them together. I don't understand how a show can get canceled when they have guest stars like Katie Holmes, Seal, the lady from I Robot and the gay guy who sings "Faith" (Michael something). :( It's so sad to me. At the risk of looking like a weirdo to petition people to save my show, please go here and save this weirdo's show... You just sign your name. And also join a group for it in Facebook.... lol... *sniff*

Also sad on a lesser note (I don't watch it anymore but used to) is that they're canceling Pushing Daisies. This show is very creative (as is Eli Stone) and my mother-in-law loves it.

death by flu would be awful

2008-11-26T20:10:00.000-07:00

that's my whole post, lol. I think the worst way to die would be to be "flued to death." How tragic. I hate "productive nausea."

Embarrassing

2008-11-20T21:36:00.001-07:00

So in my photo classes, we've been talking a lot about lighting and adding more light in case there isn't enough ambient lighting.

First we were talking about flashes. "Flash" is an embarrassing word for me to say, lol. Whenever I say it, I always think of a "flasher." If I tell anyone about school, I always have to say, "we're talking about flashes - like the ones on cameras." Not like I don't think anyone knows what it is - I just have to make sure no one ever thinks I'm talking about naked people.... lol.... Anyhow! Yesterday, we were talking about studio lights. The ones on stands are "hot lights" because they get really hot, right?

So after each of our classes, my teacher goes around and everyone has to say what they learned that day. Well, after the hot light demo, I was so preoccupied about the "flash" word that I got my wording all mixed up. When it was my turn to say what I learned, I promptly said, "Well, I've never had anyone explain hot flashes to me before so this was a really good class for me today."

ARE YOU KIDDING ME??

I thought my teacher was going to pass out laughing...

lol.... embarrassing.....

tree people

2008-11-17T14:14:00.000-07:00

As an exercise in blending for textures, etc., I made Elise and Matt tree people! lol. Weird.

This was sweet.

Elise and Matt

2008-11-16T00:06:00.000-07:00

Today my sister Elise and her husband Matt met me at a park for some pictures. It was fun! Here are a few from the shoot.

In my photos, I have some different color techniques - some are heavily sharpened, some are lightly desaturated, etc. Anyhow, just trying out different things :) Also, Blogger is putting a blue cast on some of them.... The "real" ones don't look that blue...

Thanks, Lee and Matt :)

(I just got my new computer!! It's awesome!! It's a fast Apple and I love it. I owe 2 people photos and I'm cranking them out. This computer is so much faster than the other one! I'll have your photos soon!)

mentally I'm doing this today

2008-11-13T12:17:00.000-07:00

major character flaw...

2008-11-12T20:44:00.001-07:00

So I have a real problem.

If I don't know you, then I am respectful and polite to you. But once I start to know you and I think you can "take it," I guess, I tease. Not that teasing is bad. I think it's fun when people can tease me back. I don't ever get offended by anyone teasing me. Like, ever. I really don't. But the problem with the way that I tease is that I think I go too far with people who aren't really my "peers."

I think the problem stems from the fact that I am insanely sassy and hate saying that anyone isn't my peer. I probably have some kind of superiority complex. Not that I think that I am superior to anyone (!!!!) but that I have a hard time accepting that anyone else is superior to me. Even when I type that, it seems true (and conceited that I admit it): No one is my superior. They may be better than me at somethings (I in no way think that I am good at everything that I do and no one can teach me anything), they may have more schooling than I do, they most likely have more money than I do, etc. but I don't feel like they're my superior because of it.

So, since "no one is my superior," no one is exempt from my unrelenting and insubordinate teasing.

And that is a major problem.

I feel like I am constantly going up to my employers or my teachers after my shift ends or class ends and apologizing if I went too far. I basically operate without a filter. I am saying whatever I want to as long as it's within my boundaries which are turning out to be completely different than everyone else's. Really there are people who I need remind myself that even though I feel like we're friends and I can joke with them and they can joke with me, I still shouldn't joke with them so "comfortably," shall we say, and I need to edit what I'm saying to them. I don't really want to give any examples of my idiocy because when I type them here, then it really is obvious as to how much of a socially oblivious person I really am.

Having said that, with my "peers" (*cringe*), I feel like they can and do act the same to me and it's fine. I do check every once in a while to make sure we're still ok, though. Like, when I was in middle school, I was starting to tease a lot. I remember in my history class, I would tease Candice and Courtney (who I found on Facebook and has a blog linked on this page!) the most it seemed. I was always paranoid that I was going too far so we had a code word they could tell me when I was really being a jerk: tin can. They never really used it but still. I've been a sass for a while now, I guess.

I feel really awful about this all. After I realize that I've gone too far teasing, I apologize profusely and feel sick about it. Like, literally sick. I was joking with my teacher too much tonight in class in front of everyone. He's a good sport and after class said he wasn't offended but that I needed to watch it because someone else might have been (I am obviously aware of this). I have no idea how to "watch it" as stupid as that sounds... I feel like my teasing nature and my frankness are just kind of who I am and I don't really know how to filter that out. I like who I am and I like that I feel comfortable with people but I am aware that I have been letting myself run wild and that it's offensive to some.

Anyhow... this is kind of a long and venting post. I hope that if I've ever teased any of you to the point of offense that you'll forgive me. I honestly never tease to hurt anyone's feelings or make them look silly in front of anyone. I need to figure out how to not do that.

(I also hope that I haven't made myself out to be a jerk. I feel like I'm very nice to people and that when I tease, I'm not making people cry. I think that people realize that I'm not serious if I go too far when I'm joking around with them. It's more like I'm oblivious when I'm too old to be that way anymore. Does any of this make sense?)

this is late...

2008-11-05T23:45:00.000-07:00

But Halloween was lots of fun! Our scones and hot chocolate were a hit! We put them on a table with old jars and bottles I filled up with colored water and dry ice to look like potions. (See photo above.)

Jimmy did such a good job with the lighting and sounds! He hooked up a flood light to a machine that would make it flash with whatever sounds/music he plugged it into and he plugged it into thunder sounds so it seemed like lightening. It was really cool!

Then, when our scones, hot chocolate, candy and glow sticks were all gone, we headed over to Jimmy's brother and sister-in-law, Dave and Heidi's house for their annual haunt. This is from 2007 but you can get the idea. Always very cool!

At Dave's house, we saw Jimmy's cousin Gordon and his beautiful wife Jacqueline. Gordon for the past few years has made AMAZING costumes. This year, he made a Domo Kun one. Apparently Domo is big in Japan and is now the candy man for Target. Anyhow, this costume was REALLY great! That's me in the scrubs behind. I was a dr. this year, obviously... (I stole this off of Dave's Flickr website - thanks, Dave!)

So lots of fun! Sorry it's so late!

Happy Halloween :)

2008-10-31T10:10:00.000-06:00

For trick-or-treaters, we're making scones and hot chocolate and will pass them out from our garage :) I'm very excited!! I'm just nervous that since we're new in the neighborhood that people will not want to take homemade things from us. That's why I was thinking if we cooked from the front of the garage and people came up our driveway with their kids, they could see us and talk to us and know we're not crazy weirdos. Also, we're in the nursery. You'd think that would give us some credit but I don't think that most of the parents with kids in our class know us from Adam.

So!!

We also have a lot of candy so people have an option.

We'll see! :)

pic from california adventure

2008-10-27T19:36:00.000-06:00

I requested Orange Blossom Special for these guys to play. It was superb :)

7 Random Facts Tag

2008-10-27T15:48:00.000-06:00

My sister Jodi did this on her blog. It was really funny!

Seven Random Facts about Jan Chava:

1. I am a cyberchondriac. Any ailment, disease, disfigurement that I think there's even a .001% chance that I have had, do have or will have in the future, I've WebMD-ed it. I don't do this as often anymore but it's because I've consciously made an effort not to. I'm pretty sure that I'm dying of about 6 different things right now. I was going to make a "most frequented sites" list and put WebMD on it but I thought that would give me away.... So much for discretion!

2. I hoard candy and good food but never really eat it. Being the 9th of 10 kids, it wasn't very often that we got really good food so when I got married and got to pick out all the food for my husband and me, I would gets lots of junk food. Lots of oreos, spaghettios, cookies, candy, etc. and they would all to go waste because since I didn't eat it growing up, I don't really eat it now. Jimmy likes sweets much more than I do but we still have a lot that we just throw away. So! If anyone wants any Easter candy from last year, come to my house!! lol.

3. I love animals. Like, really love them. When I was younger, I would go through stages of what animal I wanted to get. I went through cats, dogs, pigs, horses, birds and ferrets. In each of the stages, I would go to the library and check out mountains of books on that animal and memorize it all trying to figure out what breed of that animal would be best for me. So, I want a miniature vietnamese pot-belly pig, an umbrella cockatoo, a sable jill ferret (they don't stink as much as the jacks, I heard), an arabian, akhal teke, and so on.

4. I really love documentaries and like-minded magazines. I love learning about animals, places, languages, whatever and so documentaries of any kind are REALLY fascinating to me. I especially like animals and where they live. Jimmy bought me Planet Earth for my birthday this year :) Very intuitive of him! The only think that bothers me about animal documentaries is that they always go into a "this animal is threatened and it's your fault." There really isn't a whole lot that I can do about deforestation. I never even buy wood, or use tobacco or drink coffee (some of the reasons they are clearing things)... so... whatever.

5. I can squat like no body's business. I have thought that I'd be really good at Survivor because in so many competitions, you have to balance on really small surface areas so that you don't fall in water or something. I can squat for literally hours and not move the whole time. I will have to take a picture and show you all.... lol

6. I can do a really good imitation of a horse, a monkey and a pig sound. I haven't done a full-on horse in a while and I recently tried to do my pig but when I had my nose innards all redone and my tonsils and adenoids taken out last year, I think it messed my pig sound up. I have to practice, lol. But my monkey is superb, lol.

7. Jimmy and I like to sing duets of songs that are instrumental and don't have words. Like, that one song they always do for the 4th of July with all the fireworks - Stars and Stripes Forever. We switch who is doing the melody and who does the back-up. We do "bum bum bums" and "da da das" and badadadas" - stuff like that. I whistle my parts a lot, too. I whistle awesome!! :)

I tag Leigh, Mandy and Heidi :)

we're back! :)

2008-10-26T23:22:00.001-06:00

Cool stories to follow (one is REALLY cool!)

Jim and Jan's Excellent Adventures

2008-10-17T22:37:00.000-06:00

Hello kids. We are going this week on an awesome trip to California. Yay for us! So if I'm quiet for a bit, that's why!

In the meantime, here's a sweet little Princess Aurora clip. (I've got Disneyland on the brain!)

Yo Yo

2008-10-17T12:56:00.001-06:00

*Insert cool scratched vinyl record sound here.

Quilt Give Away!

2008-10-16T22:45:00.000-06:00

Neato! My friend from high school - Ariane - has a very talented cousin who's giving away this beautiful quilt.

I have NEVER seen SO many comments on a post before! When I put in my entry for it, she has 1,769 comments. Unbelievable.

If you want to enter, the deadline is on Friday, Oct. 17 at 7:00 pm mst, I think. Double check that.

Anyhow! I feel a little like I've entered Publisher's Clearing House, lol. Hopefully I beat the odds!

(Aren't her photos for it great? I love them.)

school photos

2008-10-16T13:51:00.001-06:00

Here are two photos that I developed from film and did all the fancy stuff myself. :) It's really fun to do! I like the darkroom! I haven't been in there since I was a sophomore in high school!

(Sorry for the obnoxiously huge watermarks - I just got paranoid.)

"How I Lost My Photos" by Jan B. (and venting)

2008-10-10T15:52:00.000-06:00

I had some questions on the previous post and was leaving a comment to asnwer them but it was really big. So here we are.

The pumpkin patch is in South Jordan at 2200 West and 9000 South. Just right on the corner. It's 4 acres and is awesome.

How I lost my photos was like this:

From "My Computer," I always right click and "eject" (sometimes it has the "safely remove" option which I like more) and then wait until it says you can take your card or thumb drive or whatever out. This is supposed to be idiot-proof.

Apparently my computer is an idiot, though.

My computer has relay issues sometimes because Vista and Photoshop fight over RAM and it creates problems. Like, I'll be working on a photo and will make a selection in the photo. The computer freezes for a few moments (sometimes a few minutes *UG*)while it thinks it through. Totally ridiculous because a 3 year old computer with duo-processing, 100 gigs of hard drive, blah blah blah. This is a super annoying problem especially as of recently and I'm actually thinking of buying a nice new Apple. :)

So when I got home from work on Tuesday, we were going to the pumpkin patch and I needed my card which was in the computer. So I went to "My Comptuer," and went thru the steps to eject until I got the message that it was safe to take my card out - which I did. When I started taking photos at the pumpkin patch, I noticed that all my previous photos were gone!! The only thing that I can think of is that I should have waited a few more moments to pull out my card until it stopped that whirring noise and had really decide it wasn't using my photos anymore (because of the relay issue).

So, there you go!

It's the first time it's happened. When I got my first thumb drive/memory stick a few years ago, I NEVER ejected it correctly - I just pulled it out and I never lost a thing.

Anyhow - still very very sad to me. I had pictures from a trip to the hills behind the capitol, pictures of my mom, pictures of that cool tree house I found, etc.

The morals of the story are: Don't trust Vista (!!) and triple check your drive :)

sweet jimmy

2008-10-07T22:57:00.001-06:00

We went to the pumpkin patch this evening. Jimmy was my model and it was lots of fun. :) Thanks, Babe!

(Also, a bummer: I thought I've always been amazingly careful with properly ejecting my data card but I guess I disconnected it too fast today and I lost a whole 4 gb card of photos. That is so sad to me... Let this be a lesson to everyone to be careful ejecting data cards! Or you will lose your photos!)

coolest tree house EVER

2008-10-06T22:24:00.000-06:00

It's got a bucket on a pulley, a hammock (!) (can you see it?), a ladder....

so cool..

dancing matt

2008-09-29T11:19:00.000-06:00

Has anyone seen this? It's a guy named Matt who travels everywhere and dances like a dork. It's neat and moving in a strange, weird way.

Tanner Baptism and Jodi's Photos

2008-09-27T18:59:00.000-06:00

Today was my nephew Tanner's baptism :) Congrats, Tanner!! It was a really great meeting (is that the right word?). Katie gave a talk and so did Jamey's Grandma Virigina. They both gave really nice talks and lots of us were teary. It was neat! I had wanted to take photos of stuff but I had my cameras in the trunk and then when we were leaving, I forgot to grab them... :( I will see if I can take photos of Katie and her family soon to make up for it :)

Afterwards, on the way home, Jodi and I stopped by a place on the side of the road and snapped a few photos as a surprise for her husband's birthday. Taking photos of kids when you're not just following them is hard!! We couldn't let Jesusito run because, like I said, it was on the side of the road so we were posers today. Anyhow! Took maybe about 25 or something and there are only a couple that I could use because it was hard to get baby Jesusito to look. I was barking, making freaky noises, telling him to look for planes, anything!! Actually, I should have went with his disinterest, really. Like, had Jodi look at sticks with him on her lap or something.... Hmmm.. Well! I will try that next time! I only had a limited amount of space on my cf card today :)

Anyhow!!

(Just as a notice - Blogger makes my photos look kind of blue-green - it doesn't "really" look like that!)

that's what she said.

2008-09-22T23:21:00.000-06:00

I have a life.

I really do! But I am intensely excited for new episodes this Fall!! Specifically new episodes of Heroes, Eli Stone and......

The Office!! Que hallelujah music!!

The Office is my absolute favorite. You know all those dumb people who quote whole scenes of movies or shows to each other? And everyone thinks they're stupid but the quoters really know that it's so funny?? That's totally me and my husband. (We also do this with the Simpson's. Lame, I know.) We can say one word from a particularly good episode and we'll start spouting off from there. If only the funny lines from The Office had quantum physics woven in them somehow, then maybe all this memorized rhetoric would be of use! As of now, it's just memorized because Jimmy and I think it's awesome and that's it.

I think many aspects of my life are totally relatable to The Office! For a very superficial example: in the office where I work, there are only 11 people. In those 11 people, there is a Ryan, a Michael, a Pam, sometimes a Karyn and a Jan. WEIRD. And I am married to Jim!! I think that a Phyllis or a Dwight would be particularly difficult to find just to get closer to "completing the set" but stranger things have happened, right?

While I'm on the subject of individuals from the show, check this action out. (May I just say that the "stock photo" stamp on the picture is absolutely hilarious!)

So to all my fellow The Office-ers out there, I say to you - Dwihgt on. Dwihgt on. :)

(Is anyone having a premiere party?)

Neat Quotes

2008-09-15T16:59:00.000-06:00

In my school notebook (which I've used for about 3 years), it looks like I took notes on a church talk sometime. I don't remember where it was at or who was speaking, but the quotes are neat and have made me feel better to read a few. Here are a couple I like.

The desire to walk should mean more to you than how many times you fall.

You can be greater than anything that happens to you.

Sometimes it takes more faith to accept things as they are than to change them.

We pray to have Heavenly Father's will become ours - not the other way around.

Adversary can be a fire that destroys us or a lamp that can light the path.

Photos

2008-09-15T15:48:00.001-06:00

I'm at school printing some photos for a class. Here are some photos that I like that I've recently taken. Some of them I tried washed-out for a light-feeling picture. Some, like Tatym, are really richly colored. Just experimenting to see what I like..

Hope everyone is behaving themselves :)

no more

2008-09-12T16:50:00.000-06:00

So I've decided that I'm making a rule that no one can change anymore.

ever.

No moving, no changing jobs, no getting older. no nothing. no more. I have discovered that I have a hard time with stuff changing, especially now while I'm so busy. That includes myself, my family, my friends, my co-workers and even people who I don't personally know whose blogs I follow.

NO MORE. So everyone knock it off, please.

Thanks. :)

great commercial

2008-09-06T14:32:00.000-06:00

Does anyone else love this commercial? I think it's really something. I love the drums and I really appreciate the photos (when I'm watching closely enough to see them!)

Meh shrug

2008-09-04T21:51:00.000-06:00

Started school again. It's fun. I'm tired, though. I leave at 8:30, don't get home until 10:00 pm on Mondays and Wednesdays and am working extra hours to compensate.

More posts and photos to come.

And a proper birthday post for Mr. Jimmy. (Yay Jimmy!)

Hey Jude

2008-08-23T13:31:00.001-06:00

I like this version WAY more than the Beatles'. I love how he nods into the mic.

"....Just ret it out and ret it in.."

The Mario

2008-08-23T13:26:00.000-06:00

This move works best if you're fat and wear overalls. Preferably red ones.

Funny

2008-08-21T22:22:00.000-06:00

The Life and Times of Krissy (and pictures she's taken)

2008-08-16T15:40:00.000-06:00

(This is REALLY long...)

My sister-in-law Krissy is staying with us for a few days while my parents-in-law are in Hawaii. HAWAII. I know, right? :) Krissy's working today and I just noticed that her camera is here so I thought that it would be neat if I posted some pictures from her point of view. (I just called and got her permission.)

Here we go!

First, in case you haven't had the pleasure of meeting Krissy, here she is.

Krissy's the youngest sister of my husband Jimmy. She's 27 years old, blond, 5'0 and has down syndrome. She's SUPER social and loves to flirt(!). Big time. We bought Chinese food last night and I was paying the delivery guy and she comes out talking in her cutest, most desirable voice. "Hiiii... what's your name....? Oh, really? I'm Krissy.... How long you been working for? I've been working at McDonald's about 8 years.... Byyyyeeee." It's very funny. Take any emotion that you might have and times it by about 10 and that's how Krissy acts, I think. She's very honest and doesn't hold things back that way.

Speaking of honesty, the first time I met Krissy, I was sitting next to her at one of Jimmy's Men's Chorus concerts at BYU. It was an intermission so I was kind of talking to her. I had on a turtle neck sweater and I asked her if she liked to wear them. I told her that I liked them but I thought that they made my face look fat. She looked at me and said, "yeah, you're right. It does make your face look fat." Little squirt!! lol.

Here is Krissy with her only sister, Karyn. I think that she feels a very close camaraderie with Karyn because they're the only girls. Krissy's a huge fan of hers. (Karyn's a doll, though, so you'd be weird not to be.) Krissy is also a VERY VERY huge fan of Karyn's husband, Steve.

On of Krissy's favorite things to do is dance with Steve. She likes that one move where you put your arms up and bump someone else's hips with yours. Someone has a picture of that somewhere, I'm sure. She also likes to talk to Steve about his Elvis impressions. Steve's really sweet to Krissy. He's in a band and whenever he does a "gig" (I got the lingo down, eh?), he always gives her a "back stage pass." Even at his and Karyn's wedding when he was playing with the band in the backyard, lol. Very nice.

Here is a picture Krissy's taken of her parents and my esteemed in-laws, Ed and Kathy. They're very supportive of Krissy and all of her endeavors.

Krissy is a big family person and loves to do things with everyone. (This isn't "everyone" but it's one she has on her camera.) She loves loves to play games with everyone and really likes to play frisbee if Jimmy and I (or anyone else) are out in the park. There's no one-on-one time playing frisbee with the spouse if Krissy knows you're playing. :) She's really good at throwing it, too, really! As long as she's looking where she's throwing it to.

This is Krissy and her best friend, Morgan (Krissy says "Muah-gun") on a Camp Kostopolis trip to Vernal, Utah to see the dinosaur bones. Every time I meet someone named Morgan now, I want to call them "Muah-gun." They do lots of stuff together. Morgan is a person who is very "movey." When she and Krissy have sleep overs, Morgan will get up at 6 am or something when Krissy is still comatose. Morgan will wake Krissy up and be like, "Don't you want to eat breakfast now? How about you make us some french toast?" and Krissy will even though she's exhausted. Krissy's a good friend. She will always stick up for Morgan when we suggest that maybe it's Morgan's turn to pay or to pick Krissy up or whatever. She's very loyal.

Here is a picture Krissy took of a grave. Kathy's great grandma (is that right, Kathy?) was married to Brigham Young, the prophet. It was another of Kathy's great grandma's (maybe it was just grandma?) who was married to Wilford Woodruff. At any rate, Krissy has a real appreciation for her ancestors, as you can see. She calls Brigham Young and Wilford Woodruff both Grandpa. She has some pictures of both in her room, I'm pretty sure, and will always go and put flowers on the graves with Kathy and Ed on Memorial Day (they're all very good at that).

And here is a picture Krissy took of her favorite relatives of ALL TIME, lol. Just kidding. This was up at in Park City during a vacation the family had up there. This is at a pizza store on main street.

Anyhow! This is pretty long and maybe I'll just do another post of her stuff later. Sufficeth to say, Krissy is a fabulous person and a great "sis-ha-in-lahw" and you can't help but love her :)

wish me luck

2008-08-16T15:34:00.000-06:00

I used to love to sew. In middle school, I took it all three years and made cool things like a stuffed animal and a quilt that you folded up into itself. Now, I'm looking at this pattern and wondering what the heck pieces I need to cut out.....

Hmm...

(I want the green dress with sleeves. I have a cream colored with little swirls for it. I'll post that later.)

Pa's Photo Collection

2008-08-13T17:16:00.000-06:00

So I told my dad that he should create a Photo Bucket account when low and behold! He did!! Check out his photos here.

Dinosaur Museum

2008-08-12T20:14:00.000-06:00

Recently Jimmy and I went to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. It was really busy! It seemed like there was a couple of schools there on field trips or something! Very, very packed but it was still neat to go through. Especially since it was only $2 each! Wa-hooo!!

Here are a few pictures from our trip :) I ran out of batteries half-way through, so... Pretty disappointed.

Jimmy almost got eaten!!

This fish is freaking scary. I thought it was interesting that these fish had bones in their eye sockets. Animals usually don't have those and it made it look like he had "angry eyes just in case," as Mrs. Potatoe Head would say. I felt kind of funny putting the "Forget Me Not" stamp on it because I felt like, "geez, if I ran across you, I would really hope that I could forget you...."

This one wasn't a fossil - it was just supposed to give you a reference for the other animal skulls it was by. It was really eye-catching, though, because it was so white and the fossils were all earthy colors.

Here are the rest of the fossils and bones.

My new favorite Flight of the Concords video :)

2008-08-09T16:43:00.000-06:00

(I obviously got the video stuff to work without the html button :) Neato!

My no "edit html" woes

2008-08-09T15:38:00.000-06:00

So I'm posting this because I have a problem and I've asked gurus on the Blogger groups for help. Some of them were curious what my stuff looked like. If *anyone* knows how to help me, though, please feel free!!!! It's frustrating having a problem that no one else seems to have.

When I log onto Blogger, here is my dashboard.

When I click on "New Post" on either of these blogs, here is what I see. (Here I clicked on my "Jan" blog.)

I think most people have the "edit html" button by where it says, "preview." I don't. I want to embed YouTube videos, etc., but obviously can't.

I do have the "edit html" button for "Layout" but that doesn't really help me with embedding a video, does it?

It's always looked like this, by the way.

Super Funny Tattoo (kind of an oxymoron)

2008-08-09T12:33:00.000-06:00

He's really running out of space!

Breaking Dawn ssiiiggghhhh

2008-08-07T09:51:00.000-06:00

So has anybody started reading Breaking Dawn yet? My sister picked it up on Saturday for me and I just finished it last night. I really REALLY loved it! It answered all the questions that you had in the first two books but it doesn't answer them at the very end, really. It answers them at the beginning and middle, most of them, so that you have the whole rest of the book to read about it. It's not like just throwing a "yes" or "no" answer at you and then it's finished.

I thought it was very exciting, too! Like, when I read the second book, I thought that the vast majority of it was pretty boring and pretty repeatitious. It was just at the end that it seemed like things worth reading about happened. Breaking Dawn, though, things were happening the entire time and it made it really easy to want to read it.

I was surprised about its sexual content, though. It wasn't raunchy or anything but I just wasn't expecting it to be more than the other books and it was.

I'm so sad that that was the end of the series!! She said she's doing another book that is the first book from Edward's point of view. That will be really interesting because in the books, you only ever read from Bella or Jacob so it'll be neat to hear from Edward. It's called Midnight Sun. I'm glad that there's one more in this series but I wish that she would write more books about that were moving forward. I really do feel bad that there won't be any more that way. Anyhow, if you'd like to read the first chapter of Midnight Sun, go here.

Also! This is really cool! On Stephenie Meyer's website, there's a playlist of the songs that she would listen to while she was writing these books. Go here. She always says how much her music would inspire her so it's neat to have it on a playlist that you can listen to. They're also doing concerts, believe it or not. The last one is today and will be broadcast on the internet. All the details on her calendar page.

Has anyone else read it yet? What did you think about it?

You Are Mighty!!

2008-08-01T22:21:00.000-06:00

So Jamie my cousin was talking about the 5 Love Languages book. I had a gift card for B&N thanks to my darling sister Jennifer and I got that book. I haven't read it all yet but Jimmy and I took quizes in the back pages and I found out of that one of the love languages I predominantly speak and appreciate is "words of affirmation."

Having said that, you can appreciate that even though the website link below is pretty funny, it also makes me feel better about myself - more so than I would readily admit to anyone if asked, lol. An attorney at my work sent it around with his name in it saying that it is how he gets ready for trial, lol.

Anyhow, just go to www.youaremighty.com or to www.(type your name here).youaremighty.com. Here is mine.

I did one for all of my brothers and sisters and my parents. Some thought it was REALLY funny and some of them really appreciated it. Like I said, I think it is funny, too, but it's also very motivating!

(Don't you love the music??)

I just watched it again and I totally feel like "Dwigt" on The Office, lol. It looks like something he would love and it all seems like things he'd say to himself, lol. I still really like it, though, in a non-funny way :)

Cheap Good Summer Fun!

2008-08-01T18:03:00.000-06:00

So I read an ad yesterday that seemed too cool to be true! I tried to verify it off of Thanksgiving Point's website and didn't see it listed anywhere there so I called their info line and the lady said it was true!

What's this awesome deal, you ask? Every Tuesday in August, all of the venues at Thanksgiving Point are only $2 each! That's the dinosaur museum, the gardens, etc. Isn't that cool?? I'm excited! I'm going every Tuesday, lol. I love the gardens (which I read have the largest man-made water falls in the western hemisphere) and have always wanted to go to the museum (which I also read is the largest dinosaur museum in the world - really) but it's always been so expensive.

So, you mommies out there! I thought you all might like to know about this for something cheap to do with your kids that's also fun :)

(I got this photo off of here. Just giving credit where credit is due...)

A Few Pictures

2008-07-31T21:49:00.000-06:00

Here are some pictures of three of my sister Katie's cute little kids. Tanner's the oldest, then Jamey-o and then Gracie. After Gracie is Alex and Andrew who have pictures in other posts on here. Anyhow, they were at my sister Elise's husband Matt's birthday party swiming and they looked really cute in their goggles. For the boys' pictures, I gave them some deeper contrast but I liked Gracie in the kind of older, more faded colors. I think it makes it kind of nostalgic.

And here are some pictures of Ridgley dog. I had to basically threaten Ridgley to make her stay on this tree stump so I could take a bunch of goofy pictures. I thought that this first one was kind of funny.

WHAT????

2008-07-29T21:58:00.000-06:00

LISTEN TO THIS.

Jimmy's been trying to find cheaper car/house insurance for us because ours is something like, $800 for 6 months. I figured that was normal but Jimmy got some other quotes at like, $450 for the same coverage. Crazy! So we called up our insurance and asked them what the dealio was. She couldn't believe that we got quotes for that good and asked if she could research it and call us back. So, today at like, 5:30 she called and said that she has some better packages that we COULD qualify for if my driver's license hadn't been and currently is suspended since 2005.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME???

Apparently, I put that I had a medical condition (can't figure that one out - I wear glasses....?) that I needed to provide additional documentation for and never did. Well, I can't imagine how I would have ever gotten the notices from the DMV. I haven't had my current address on my driver's license for my entire married life. (We moved around a lot so I kept it as my mom's address.) Still! I've been in the DMV since then! I've changed insurance plans since then! I've done lots of stuff since then! I can't believe that this is the first time I'm hearing about it...

Anyhow! So that's what I'm doing tomorrow morning. Missing the first half of work so that policeman can't arrest me if I get pulled over.... lol

That's so CRAZY!! I feel like a white trash criminal off of Cops!!!

I Won at Butlerville Days!! :)

2008-07-25T23:33:00.000-06:00

So I went to Butlerville Days in Cottonwood Heights for the 24th of July (Pioneer Days for all the non-Utahs who might see this). It was really super fun! They had a cute little parade with the highway patrol motorcycles. I LOVE the motorcades. I'm not even sure if that's what you call the motorcycle fleet but I do anyways. They do the coolest things! Typically they all wear fake black mustaches, too, but not this year. I love how someone whistles and then all move. For similiar reasons, I really love the horse clubs, too, although they weren't at the Butlersville Days parade.

They always bring in a couple of helicopters and let everyone come sit in them and talk to the pilots - that's always really exciting to me. One of my favorite shows is Cops (I'm a total Kidd - everyone in my family loves that show, too) so I always like to see the UHP helicopter. I asked them if Cops have ever filmed with them. They said no but the week before, the History Channel had come out and filed with them about SLC gangs. It's either cool that they were here filming or extremely awful that they were here filming. I would say both.

At this Butlerville Days thing, they also had lots of blow up bouncy toys, games, food, etc. They had free watermelon slices that the fireman served. It was so great! It tasted just like the jolly ranchers, lol.

Speaking of watermelon! They had a contest where they dropped about 5 watermelons off of the fireman's ladder and you tried to guess how far the watermelons would splatter. I guessed 123 feet and it was 124!! Super awesome!! I won a $20 gift card to Target. Very nice!! I'm kind of a dork and was dancing around a little and some lady with a fat camera took a picture. I wonder who she's with......

What's really funny about it, though, is that the kid who brought us the slip of paper to write our guess on explained the contest wrong. He said we were guessing how far up they'd be when they dropped the watermelons. So, I was like, "well,... a story is 9 feet.... I bet they got up a couple stories......" lol... I still won!!

Anyhow!! That's my cool story :)

One More Cassie Picture

2008-07-18T23:18:00.000-06:00

This one is one of my favorites but I needed to get permission first :)

Cutie-Pie Jimmy and Cassie

2008-07-15T21:16:00.001-06:00

Cassie, our little neice, was doing flips on some of those handles that are separate - I don't know what their technical name is. Anyhow, her poor little arms were getting tired. She would do a flip half-way (she was trying to go all the way around) and then we would all laugh really hard. Cassie is a terrific laugher! Then she'd say, "ok, let me practice!" So here is Cassie "practicing!"

And then Jimmy got in on the act! Here he is helping Cassie cheat. She was trying to do the monkey bars but her arms were tired so she wanted Jimmy to keep out of the picture and hold her like she was swinging around. Very very funny!

And then Jimmy decided that he needed to try the flipping thing. That was HILARIOUS! He didn't think that he's actually be able to do it and he did it on the first time! He was pretty surprised with himself!

Anyhow! That was our funny photo shoot! I have some more that I might post later. It was a lot of fun :) Cassie is such a cute little girl! She laughs at anything and has such a great personality :) Jimmy is so fun, too, and is so great with kids - he's going to be an amazing dad!

Walk Down Memory Lane

2008-07-15T21:12:00.000-06:00

I got this off of Heidi's blog. I think it's fun! Here are the instructions:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together (It can be a memory with either Jan or Jimmy or both). It doesn't matter if you knew me/us a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

Logo Test

2008-07-07T18:10:00.000-06:00

So I'm experimenting with a logo. I'm afraid that it looks cheesy but this is just early stages. What do you guys think? I'm experimenting with names, too but I don't want to post all of the ones that I'm thinking about in case someone else is trying to think of some, too and swipe mine before I register it, lol.

I've become paranoid lately! I was thinking how stupid I was to post the mls page of the house that we bought. Hello! It's got the address, the schools we'd go to, a map here, etc. etc. I mean, not that anyone is really going to stalk me from here but you can't be too careful, right?

Anyhow! Here are some photos! Tell me if the logo is too much and if so, how I should change it! Thanks :)

20 Years Tag

2008-06-24T23:07:00.000-06:00

I was tagged by Miss Katie L.

Here goes!

20 years ago -

1. I was five years old.
2. I was oblivious to "social norm" (which explains a lot!!!!)
3. I had one of my favorite teachers - Mrs. Mills. She was lovely.
4. I went as a witch for Halloween with a green face courtesy of Mom's eyeshadow and I couldn't wash it off for school the next day.
5. I lived in Centerville and loved the deer that came down to my house.

10 years ago -

1. I was fifteen years old.
2. I was had a short SHORT haircut and I totally looked like a boy and kept a tally of how many other people mistook me for one.
3. I had a crush on a very nice boy :)
4. I had really awesome young womens leaders who all left lasting impressions.
5. I was SUPER excited for my drivers license!

5 years ago -

1. I was 20 years old.
2. I got a job at a trucking company as their paper and billing girl.
3. I just met my future husband (and Paige and Jodi both told me the first week I met him that I would marry him).
4. My sister Jodi married the ever-impresive Hey-Soos (I can't spell it because you'll all say it wrong).
5. I was regularly enrolled in college.

3 years ago -

1. I had been married for a year.
2. We had just moved to our second apartment.
3. I quit the trucking company and got a job at Morgan Stanley.
4. I quit Morgan Stanley (lol) and got a job at Gap for Christmas.
5. We went on a vacation to Disneyland 6 months after our honeymoon to Disneyland, lol.

1 year ago -

1. I had a septum reconstruction, polyp removal, adenoid removal and tonsilectomy as well as a big-butt-ectomy. *Bow-chica-wow-wow*
2. We moved in with Jimmy's awesome parents of power so that we could have Jimmy finish school and I could get said surgeries.
3. Got called to primary with Jimmy (it was great! I love my primary kids!)
4. Jimmy graduated!!! Yay, Jimmy!!
5. Went to the BYU game where BYU POUNCED the Utes during which game I got punched in the face by one of Jimmy's best friends, lol. (Collie's still open...)

So far this year -

1. Jimmy got a good job!
2. I got a new car!
3. We bought us a house!
4. We started eating newspapers! lol..
5. We were released primary :(

Yesterday I -

1. Woke up later than I should have.
2. Made Leigh's awesome bean enchilada thingys (Yum! See her recipe in the comments about dinner ideas)
3. Bought a wireless router for our internet.
4. Shaved my armpits....?
5. Stayed up late working on some engagement photos.

Today I -

1. Woke up later than I should have again...
2. Worked 3 1/2 hours later than I typically do.
3. Ate lunch!! I NEVER EVER eat lunch!
4. Went to Jodi's house and played with her and her kids and then my mommy and her kid Jake.
5. Got frustrated with trying to secure my wireless network.

Tomorrow I will -

1. Go to el worko.
2. Work possibly late on an important project.
3. Call and maybe visit Jacob for his birthday :)
4. Send out engagement pictures.
5. See a movie (hopefully and hopefully it's Get Smart!)

In the next year I will -

1. Probaly be thinkin' about having a mini me (or mini Jimmy).
2. Buy my awesome lens.
3. Start my photography company.
4. Get closer to my degree (I feel bad I'm 25 and don't have it. I know lots of people don't and that's ok - I just want one for me.)
5. Become more sincere religiously and become closer to my Maker.

This is kind of long but I tag Leigh, Jamie, Jodi, Marne and Heidi :) (If you only want to do half of them, that sounds good!)

My Friend Katie is a Celeb

2008-06-21T15:31:00.000-06:00

So I think that everyone should know that my friend Katie is a long lost sister of Maggie Gyllenhaal. She's an actress from Stranger than Fiction, Dark Knight (the new batman movie), etc. Don't they look like twins or something?? Sheesh!!

Funny Website

2008-06-21T15:26:00.000-06:00

So check this website out. It's a of prom dresses made out of duct tape - very interesting!!

The price I am paying for mooning the world for 3 hours.

2008-06-19T16:26:00.000-06:00

So yesterday afternoon, Jimmy and I decided that weeds really shouldn't be taller than trees so we took on the daunting task of weeding our back yard for the first time. May I just say that we have WAY too much area for "flowers" and domestic plants. It's hard to control when there's that much space for weeks to grow.

Anyhow, we started at noon and ended at 3:00. We used lots of sunscreen, I wore this cool ugly gardening sombrero thing I have and Jimmy wore sun glasses. Pretty good, right? Well, while I was bending over for 3 hours, I must have had a plumber's smile because I have burned the small of my back and the top of my bum!! It's cherry red. I would take a photo but that is not something I'm comfortable with, lol, as I'm sure none of you would be, either! I also got burned really horribly by my shoulder where we missed it with sunblock.

Anyhow, I just thought it was funny that I had a plumber's smile I didn't know about and now it's burned :) You can imagine how difficult it is to wear pants and have the waist sit right on top of that which is exactly why I wore a dress today, lol.

A Bushel & A Peck

Princess

Long time to wait.

Ew!

Stocko

Things that go bump in the.... day....?

Oh Boy!

Father's Day, Another Freezer Stencil and a Cool Gadget!

Another Somthin' Somthin'!

Sleeping Lunatic

Look What I Did!!

You bet your pretty neck I do!

I changed the name!

Yay! The Boy Sleeps!

Stockton meets his cousins

My Projects

Hello Again...

Happy Halloween :)

I'm a horrible blogger but this is hilarious

i hate spiders.

A+

Bijou Market

I'm a dork

Furry Happy Monsters

pics to be seen on other blog :)

Elizabeth

my new blog!

Wheeler Farm

Dogs?

Calling all brides! (Post, Present and Pre!)

sweet little Dumbo moment

amazingly creative idea

Happy Birthdays :)

coming soon

word to your muthuh

I would have liked to have gone to this!

have you heard about this???

Chicken Soup with Orzo (it's REALLY healthy)

SLC on Food Network

Photo Tag

coolest headline EVER

LBJ and Yuki

Oh, Yum!

Farmington Bay

a couple photos from my classes

Hello, there!

Holy Cow, I won!!

New Playlist :)

Christmas :)

Neat Photographer

Hey Hey!

death by flu would be awful

Embarrassing

tree people

Elise and Matt

mentally I'm doing this today

major character flaw...

this is late...

Happy Halloween :)

pic from california adventure

7 Random Facts Tag

we're back! :)

Jim and Jan's Excellent Adventures

Yo Yo

Quilt Give Away!

school photos

"How I Lost My Photos" by Jan B. (and venting)

sweet jimmy

coolest tree house EVER

dancing matt

Tanner Baptism and Jodi's Photos

that's what she said.

Neat Quotes

Photos

no more

great commercial

Meh *shrug*

Hey Jude

The Mario

Funny

Meh shrug

Breaking Dawn ssiiiggghhhh