The Meandering Thoughts of Jan

I didn't find too much online that peaked my interest this week.  So instead of doing random online finds for the week, I thought I would do random thoughts for the day.  Both are random, so it works. I am now a proud owner of a glue gun.  Let the crafting ensue! I am in no way a promoter of the teen bopper pop music; however, I had a 14-year-old moment today and Miley Cyrus's "Party in the USA" got my foot tapping.  I have to admit, it's kind of a good jam. I cannot think of a single meal that is not enhanced by adding cheese.  I know what you are thinking, "What about waffles?"  My response: cream cheese.  (My nachos for lunch brought on this inspiration.) I'm really proud of my alma mater!  Go BYU!  Oh yes, I've caught the Jimmer fever! People who cannot spell should not be allowed to update their status on Facebook...just saying. I think that is enough for today.  Happy Saturday! PS  My random thoughts appear to la...

I got the idea for this post from my friend, Camille's blog .  This all started with Ernest Hemingway (Yay Uncle Ernie...Family joke)  receiving a challenge to write a story in 6 words.  He wrote, "For sale, baby shoes, never worn".  The online journal Smith Magazine   is collecting people's 6 word memoirs, which is based on this same concept.  While I don't think I'm ready to write the memoirs of my life, I did ponder what 6 words would describe what I've learned so far. This is what I came up with... Walking Away From Fear Equals Happiness. I could expound, but that would be more than 6 words, kidding.  This is based off one of my favorite quotes by Joseph F. Smith, "Faith and fear cannot be in the same [being] at the same time."  It is a good gauge of what is ruling your decisions.  Anyway, I would love to hear your 6 word memoirs, do share! 

Danny's birthday was last weekend.  We had a few friends over for cake and ice cream.  It is inevitable with many of the social gatherings we have that after a short time, the guitars come out, which I love.  My husband has skills when it comes it to the guitar.   (One of the many reasons I married him.)  Here is an original song by Danny and his friend Jeff (who also has impressive skills) called "Funky Birthday", which was fitting for the occasion.  It isn't me behind the camera, our friend Rachel got to play that role this time. My contribution to this lovely video is my cheering at the end and my guitar makes a cameo appearance.  (It's never sounded so good.)  And never mind the false start.  (Even though I find Danny laughing at their mess up super cute.)

#1 - True Love :  It makes me so happy that this article ran on Valentine's day.  Forget the flowers and chocolates, this is what real love is made of.  This woman in Malaysia beat a tiger off of her husband with a wooden spoon, saving his life.  Remarkable courage to say the least. #2 - Good Reads :  This website has been around for awhile, but for some reason I never knew about it.  My super classy sister-in-law Heather invited me to join a few weeks ago.  It is social network for those who love books where you can share your favs with your friends.  I'm still figuring it out, but I'm enjoying it. #3 - Revelation :  A friend sent me this New Era article that I loved.  It is really good insight into personal revelation and prayers being answered.  Just thought I'd share.

As mentioned in the post before, Danny and I went to Color Me Mine to celebrate Valentine's Day.  Today we were able to pick up our pottery creations.  I thought they turned out quite well. I painted this little dish.  It is supposed to be of dandelions blowing in the wind, because you know, painting weeds on your pottery is cool. Top View Blurry side view Danny painted a little gnome whom he loving named Jonnifer after me and called it our gnome child.  We shall call him Jonny for short.  As you can see, taking pictures with little ceramic gnomes can be fun. Jonny the gnome Guarding the plant... Sitting in his chair...

I love holidays, even obscure ones.   (Actually those are my favorite to celebrate.)  With Valentine's Day on a Monday, I decided that wouldn't do.  I wanted a whole day of fun, so I requested we celebrated on Saturday...and Friday night. Celebrate big or go home, that's my motto. Here's what we did: Friday Danny got me roses, which adorn our kitchen table. I made German pancakes for dinner.  For some reason many of our holiday celebrations include German pancakes. We then spent the rest of the evening chilling and watching movies.  We watched the movie " Paper Heart " which was pretty funny. Saturday On Saturday, I got to choose the activity.  I requested we go to Color Me Mine, I love that place.  I like to pretend I'm artistic. Danny painted a gnome...and gave him red hair...and green eyes...and named him Jonnifer...and told me that it was our gnome child.  My husband makes me laugh. Wow, that's an intense look on my fa...

Happy Valentine's Day friends!  I hope on this day you remember how loved you are, because you are! (If you have forgotten, go back to the Free Music post last week when I shared my early Valentine's present with you.  It will remind you of a few of the many ways you are loved .) Now for a few thoughts about my love : In the fine words of Lucille Ball: "Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead ." I'm sure glad Danny followed through with this, I'm a lucky girl that he did.  I'm not sure if I fit in the gorgeous category, but Danny thinks I am, and that is all I need.

#1:   SniqueAway  - Traveling is one of my loves, saving money is one of my other loves.  Because of this, I've joined all the travel websites that send out alerts for different deals that are going on.  SniqueAway is a new on.  It is like a Groupon, but for hotels.  It let's you buy hotel stays for half the price.  While I don't really have the vacation time or money to go on a trip right now, I do like looking at all the offers and think of all the places I could be going. #2:   Free E-Valentine's  - Just in time for the love holiday!  There are a few sites that let you send free e-valentine's, but this one is my favorite.  It has many unique options.  I sent the burro one to Danny because it made me laugh really hard.  He liked it. :) #3:   Fashion Color Secret Society :  This is where the random from the title of the post comes in.  (Just know I find random things interesting.)  Did you kno...

So back in my younger college days (a mere 4 years ago) I was hip with the music scene/new bands/concerts and all that jazz (or actually I should say and all that rock/indie).  However, I'm less cool now and have less time to find out about the latest bands.  In fact, it has been awhile since I came across a band I really liked.  However, just a day or two I heard about the band The Civil Wars and I think my ears fell in love.  It happened when I least expected it.  They are more country-ish which isn't usually my style, but their harmonies are amazing. You may be thinking this is old news because you have already heard of The Civil Wars, but what you may not know is that you can get a whole album from them for free!  (And it is totally legal.)   Click here  to download the album of one of their live concerts.  It's really good.  And if you  click here , it will take you to their band website where you can download their new singl...

*Before I share the second half of our girls night, I have to give a little shout out to my dear friend Melina and her husband Dave, who had their baby this morning.  They had a little girl with reddish hair.  The world is a better place with another redhead here on earth.  (I'm slightly biased.)  But seriously, I'm so excited for them, this is their first! Brittany and my next destination during our girls night extravaganza was to the ice castles in Midway.  It was a nice way to enjoy the chilly weather.  Plus, when entering the ice castles, they have complimentary ski poles you can use so you don't slip and fall (and to have pretend sword fights with if necessary...kidding).  I really liked that perk.  The ice castles were beautiful.  Brittany and I weaved in and out of them and took multiple pictures until our fingers and toes were numb. Afterwards we warmed up with a nice Italian meal and then returned to Brittany's place where we f...

This past weekend my husband Danny had a "Man Night" with his old roommates, and I had a Girls Night with my old roommate, the lovely Brittany.  We met up in Provo and wandered around the Riverwoods.  There were so many cute shops and clothes to look at.  However, our favorite store was the toy store.    We entertained ourselves by revisiting our childhood and taking pictures with all of the displays, as you can see. One fun thing about this toy store was all the English stuff they had, including English candy, mmmm.  They also had toys from the show " Charlie and Lola ".  It is a BBC cartoon I was introduced to when Danny and I babysat our cute nephew and niece Jacob and Lucy.  I know it is a kid's show, but it really cracks me up, plus you got to love their darling accents. Moving on, Brittany and I then walked among the twinkle lights all in BYU colors and treated ourselves to a delicious caramel and Reese's peanut butter cup ...

And the tradition continues of sharing my online finds for the week.  I had a lot less research time this week.    However, among the busyness, I still came across a few interesting tidbits #1   Taking baby pictures to the next level :  I've seen these pictures on a couple of websites now.  This mom creates scenes around her sleeping baby with materials found around their home.  It seems to fall on the scale between a little idiosyncratic and amazingly creative. #2   The New CPR :  I found this pretty informative.  Did you know there is a new form of CPR that has shown to be more effective than the tradition CPR we all learned at girls/scout camp?  One of my friends posted this on her facebook status, because this new form of CPR saved her mother's life.  GTK. #3 Poshish :  Poshish is a blog my friend Eliza started.  She has invited a group of friends to share simple and cheap ways to decorate and spruce up your...

I have a little sister that likes to abbreviate really random things, hence the title of this post.  Anyway, Happy Groundhog's Day friends! Every year I'm struck by a. how random this holiday is and b. how I really just want to watch that movie to celebrate, which I missed doing today, so may next year.  I'm not even sure if the groundhog saw his shadow or not.  Either way, I'm pretty sure it is still going to be freezing for a couple more months.  But to past the time during these frigid days, here's the history of Groundhog's Day . Also, my fabulous cousin Heidi Lou (whom I chatted with for over an hour this evening, it was splendid...we had a lot to cover) informed me that Chinese New Year is tomorrow.   So many holidays and so little time.  This year is the year of the rabbit.  What this means?  I'm not sure, but some random website gave me the following prediction for year of the rabbit: The year of the Rabbit is traditionally a...