The Meandering Thoughts of Jan

The other day I took a walk by a lake nearby with my dad and my husband, two men I love dearly. It was a gorgeous afternoon with beautiful scenery. I thought I would share some pictures, think of it as a New Year's Eve gift.

So I’ve seen a few newly released movies this past little while and I thought I would share my opinions on them, because I can. (Got to love freedom of speech.) Movie #1: Tangled This movie was so cute. It is the typical Disney fairytale cartoon, a love story, comic relief and music. This movie is based on the story of Rapunzel, loosely based might I add, which is Disney’s style. We saw this as a family and both the kids and adults enjoyed it. The only negative for me was I didn’t find the music as captivating as past Disney Princess movies. After the movie, I asked my 7-year-old nephew, E, if I should grow my hair out as long as Rapunzel’s hair. He vetoed that idea quickly. Jan's Rating: Movie #2: Tron I keep seeing facebook statuses of friends who loved this movie, I’m puzzled, wondering if I missed something. Here is my view. When a movie is made in the 80’s and is bizarre and you remake that movie, let’s just say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tre...

Making and Decorating Christmas Cookies! Christmas Eve and Christmas Day!

Lights at Temple Square

Five years ago today I joined the ranks of “RM”. December 23, 2005 is when I returned home after serving 18 months in beautiful England as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Much has happened in these past 5 years, I graduated from college, started a “real” job and more recently got married. However, there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think of England and the time I spent there. It seems when Dec. 23 rd rolls around everyone is thinking of Christmas, but my thoughts turn back to my mission. I’ve been thinking all day about what profound thing can I say about my mission. How can you sum up the most wonderful, spiritual and sometimes trying 18 months of your life in just a few words? I really can’t, except to say I loved my mission. I loved the people, my companions, the friends I made, England, the good and hard experiences I had and most of all, the message of the gospel that I shared. Me and one of my lovely comps, Sis. Gamez in...

What happens when you mix Build-a-Bear and Justin Bieber... Build-a-Bieber! One of my friends has this up in her cubicle at work. It is a little creation that she and a co-worker came up with. It makes me chuckle every time I see it.

This past weekend we had a birthday party for my wonderful sister-in-law. She and my brother have 4 little boys, so going to their house is always full of excitement. My nephew, Lil’R (who is 3) always makes me laugh. Even though it was JanaRae’s birthday, he came running up to me with what I thought was a box of chocolates in his hands yelling, “Happy Birthday Day!!!” I think in his young mind, one person’s birthday makes it everyone’s birthday, which is an awesome way to look at things. I played along and enthusiastically open the box to find it full of plastic spoons. “Spoons! Why thank you!” I exclaimed. Lil’R in response said, “No, they’re fighting spoons!” He picked one up and did a few jousting type moves with the spoon in hand to show me how my fighting spoons worked. He then gave me some directions for when to use my fighting spoons. They are to be used to fight bad guys, of course. He also was sure to include the advice that “Bad guys don’t wear pink” so I won’t...

This past week, the husband and I made our way up to Hogle Zoo for the Zoo Lights display there during Christmastime. This is something I've wanted to do for awhile. Danny was kind enough to oblige. We learned much during our short time at the zoo. Lesson 1: The Zoo=children, Christmas=excitement x sugar, thus meaning The Zoo + Christmas + Lights= hyped up children everywhere! (Plus, it was dark, so I had to watch out and make sure I didn't step on any kiddies.) Lesson 2: Another equation: The Zoo + Christmas + Lights = picture happy, excitable moi. What can I say, I really like Christmas lights. At times I fit in with the giddy children. Lesson 3: When they say Zoo Lights, they mean just that, lights. Very few animals were available to actually look at. I guess hibernation is a real thing. But animals made up of lights does smell better than the real deal. Lesson 4: (This one was for Danny.) Yes, my fear of snakes is not pretend. Just my luck, one of the few...

At my place of employment we have various interns/volunteers who come in hopes to learn skills to help them in the real world. There is one who, we shall call Frank,who is quite the character and definitely keeps things interesting. One of the responsibilities Frank fulfills is to drop off items to different floors in our building (a very important real world skill). He came back very frustrated earlier this week. Apparently on one of the other floors there is a Christmas treat table, but the rule is you can only have a festive sweet if you donate some to share with everyone else. The receptionist wouldn’t allow our intern to have any goodies since he hadn’t brought any. I overheard him talking to our manager, insisting he go reprimand this receptionist (who isn’t even in our division) because she wasn’t following the spirit of Christmas and sharing. My manager just laughed it off. The next day this receptionist, wanting to tease Frank, said if he was so hungry he could hav...

After spending about 5 years of my life in Provo, I have to admit my heart broke a little this morning after reading this article . Rest in Peace Provo Tabernacle.