The Meandering Thoughts of Jan

Here is a photo journey of our little weekend trip to St. George.  Danny and I went down there to visit my sister Michele and her husband Dan.  We hoped to catch a ray of sunshine, which was no where to be seen in Northern Utah. On arrival, my sister gave me an early birthday gift, yay! Knowing my love for holidays, Michele and Dan gave me Easter decorations. Michele has the same love for holidays, I think it runs in the family. Much playing of the Wii occurred throughout the weekend.  Michele and I played the dancing game, which was fun but tiring. We also went to the Dinosaur Museum.  Michele makes a lovely Vanna. These fossils are a replica of a ancient reptile found in England, of all places. Me and Danny by a wall of dinosaur footprints. We went to lunch at 25 Main Cafe, yummy. We went geocaching for the first time, which is a treasure hunt with a GPS. The GPS led us to this lovely spot. Michele found the cache and Danny opened it....

Dear Old Man Winter, When you so rudely crash a very delightful event known as S P R I N G ... I have no choice but to slip out the back door or even the front door to a place where your presences is not felt.  How about you just stick with Christmas and New Year's, it would be much appreciated. Sincerely, Me

While we have had a lot going on, I haven’t had much to write about. Weird, huh. Danny is healing up quite nicely after his little surgery, even though his back is sore. We have used Netflix quite a bit during the recovery. My personal favorite right now is “Pushing Daisies”. It is such a clever show, love it. Also, as part of the healing process Danny let his beard grow in which I think is so handsome on him. That is until today when he had to shave the whiskers because he returned to work. Good thing I think he is handsome without a beard as well. While I don’t have many exciting events to share, I do have random thoughts and that is just as good, don’t you think? First off, I was researching the Cherry Blossom Festival in DC, just because. I found out that the way the Queen of the Cherry Blossom Festival is chosen is by spinning a bottle . Now that is my type of beauty contest. I told Talena and we both found it funny, because we usually find the same things funny. Now w...

I have spent a lot of time taking in the joys of March Madness so far this weekend.  It really has been fun to see clips from the different games.  Plus, it was the March Madness basketball games that got me through my time in the waiting room while Danny was in surgery yesterday.  The saddest part of March Madness is even though I did fill out a bracket on Yahoo, there was a glitch and Yahoo didn't save it.  It may have been my fault, I'm not sure.  But I've seen my choices win time and time again this weekend. I've never had such a good bracket before and now that I chose wisely, I have no way to prove it. As I mentioned, Danny had a minor surgery yesterday.  He had a lipoma removed from his back.  All went well and he is now recovering.  And being the nice wife I am, I've made him lots of Ramen Noodle soup to help him heal faster. Also, here is the best article I read this week.  It gave me a chuckle, enjoy.

This is how my St. Patrick's Day started out... Mmmmm, green chocolate chip pancakes. I just love celebrating my Irish heritage!

For Pi Day, Danny and I had a small commemoration by making mini pizza pies for dinner. We thought it was fitting.   Creating our yummy creations.  (That was redundant.) So this picture doesn't look really appetizing, but it really was good. For dessert, Danny made dessert pizza, which was delicious.  As you can see, we didn't have traditional pie for Pi Day, per se, but we believe in celebrating unconventional holidays unconventionally. He's such a cute baker. The dessert pizza!  Impressive, huh.  Danny did a such a fabulous job.

First off, today is Pi Day!  (3.14, get it?)  According to my Lent schedule, I was allowed to eat sugar today because it is a holiday.  Isn't it just my luck that this past weekend I haven't been feeling top notch. Even though I still carried on and went to work today, this is the 3rd day of me not really wanting to eat anything.  Lame.  Even though the universe may be against me, I still enjoyed a little sweetness.  I'm kind of paying for it now as my stomach is not pleased, but the celebration must go on!  I will share pictures of our small Pi Day festivities in the near future. So, I've been meaning to post pictures awhile ago.  My sister-in-law Katie put on the most fabulous surprise birthday party for my brother Tim last week.  I wish I got more pictures of the food and decorations, because she is so talented and the place looked awesome.  I have to show off the cake she made for him, it rocks, literally. The guitar cake,...

Today is the first day of Lent.  While I'm not Catholic, I got on the topic of Lent with my good friend Talena and we discussed if we were Catholic what we would give up.  This led to us deciding to participate in Lent because there seems to be some satisfaction in depriving yourself of things you want.  Talena and I both decided to apply this deprivation to our sweet tooths.   (It is going to be a lonely 40 days little sweet tooth, sorry.)  I go through this cycle of trying to cut back on sweets in my life and then indulging in sugary goodness (this usually occurs around the holidays.)  So it is time to return to the cut back phase.  For Lent, I plan on not eating any sweets except for important holidays.  These important holidays include: Pi Day, St. Patrick's Day (I have to celebrate my Irish blood) , My birthday weekend (because birthday celebrations last more than in day in my book) and Easter when Lent ends.  Wish me luck, because I'...

Danny and I entertain ourselves quite often with music.  Would it surprise you that our first meeting each other was at a concert and we actually own more concerts on DVD than movies.  The other night Danny was playing the guitar and I was singing along.  Danny decided to record our cover song of "Mountain and the Sea" by Ingrid Michaelson.  I'm definitely an amateur, but we had so much fun playing and singing together, that I thought I would put up the video.

Hi Friends, I'm back with more great things I found online this week. Enjoy! #1 Defending Honor - This is by far my favorite online find I came across this week. While the suspension of Davies is sad and not great timing for BYU's basketball team; I love that ESPN defended BYU and their Honor Code. #2 Looking on the bright side - Just a little reminder that being optimistic not only makes you more enjoyable to be around, but it also helps you to be around longer. #3 Today's Music! Instead of sharing another article, I'm going to share what has been on replay today while I worked at my computer  here and here . They aren't new songs, per se, but good ones. In other news today is National Grammar* Day and National Pound Cake Day , very important holidays to say the least.   (Yes, I'm a great source for lots of random information, if you haven't noticed.)  How am I celebrating? I'll tell you, by eating a bag of Valentine's Day themed ...

Hello everyone, welcome to March!  The spring is slowly (very slowly) inching closer.  I can’t wait.   To make the frozen hours of February more enjoyable, I passed the time reading and finishing two books, which I thought I would share about. Book #1: Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen I always feel weird giving reviews concerning classics, since they have been around forever.  Northanger Abbey was the first book published by Jane Austen.  It isn’t my favorite book by her, but it is interesting to see her style progress.   The book’s heroine is Catherine Moreland and the story follows her on her visits to Bath and Northanger Abbey and documents her love triangles and friendships made there.  I didn’t connect with Catherine or her love interest like some of Austen’s other heroines, but it is still a charming and at times funny story. Jan's Rating:  Book #2: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne This book is sad, di...