The Meandering Thoughts of Jan

With all the hoopla in the weeks before William and Kate's wedding, I surprised myself by staying quite calm.  Everyone knows I'm enamored with England and all that is English, but with a busy week at work and life I didn't have much time for the pre-wedding updates.  That is until the royal wedding yesterday.  I was distracted at work all day!  I couldn't get enough of the wedding pictures and news report.  I couldn't help but smile when seeing how happy William and Kate were.  I also looked at some of my own wedding pictures, reminiscing about my own wedding day.  Plus, I love, love, loved Kate's wedding dress !  So classy and elegant.  I send my congratulations from across the pond to the new happy couple!  (Because I'm pretty sure they are going to read this, haha.)   In other news, while Danny and I aren't big TV watchers, we do use Netflix to watch past shows on occasion.  Over the past couple months we have been watch...

First off, good news, H&M is coming to Utah !  I fell in love with H&M during my time in England.  I always made sure to visit H&M (and go on a small shopping spree) during my trips to see my parents when they lived in New York.  As you can see, I'm really excited by this announcement! For Easter I experimented making decoupage eggs using real eggshells, a craft that I found online here .   First take of the top of the egg (I would crack the top and  peel a little of the shell off) and empty the egg. Danny and I  ate a lot of German pancakes, since I don't actually like eggs.   Next, gently wash the eggshells out with dish soap and water. Let the shells dry overnight.  Then you fill them with Easter candy. (Just in case you didn't get enough from the Easter Bunny.) Next cut up pieces of tissue paper and use mod podge to past the strips to the eggshell.  I started by pasting a bigge...

This past weekend my mom and I went to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point.  I believe they have around 55 acres of gardens.  There was plenty of gardens to explore and enjoy.  We had so much fun walking, chatting and taking pictures.  Being outside among all the many varieties of flowers felt so refreshing, even if it was a little chilly.  Plus, my mom is such wonderful company! There were so many cool species of flower, some I've never seen before like this one. I loved the coloring of the flowers in this area. Beautiful Blossoms My mom and me!!! This fountain reminded us of England, and that made me and my mom very happy, since we both have lived there at some point in our lives. Ha, I know, I look a lot like my mom, which is a compliment to me. This was in the secret garden section, which I loved!! It was Dutch Days as well.  My mom and I looked at all the delicious Dutch food...and then we bough...

I came across these photos taken from space (the final frontier) of our lovely, little planet.  In honor of Earth Day, I wanted to share them.  I'm sure grateful for all the effort and work God put into our home called Earth. It is a pretty fabulous place to live.  (You can see more spacey pictures at the Mother Nature Network , where I got these photos.)

Not only is this extremely cute, it also matches my blog background! I saw this home-office-in-a-closet idea online today and thought it was sheer genius.  What a great way to use space and it is so pretty.  Plus, I think every home office should have a chandelier.  It's true, I would love to have this in my home, except we don't have enough closet space as is, so I will have to wait until we upgrade.  This home office idea is from the Country Living website .

I took this picture during a Sunday walk Danny and I took on Temple Square.  It actually wasn't raining, so we had to take advantage of the nice weather while we could.  I love the blossoms in the spring and the temple, so I thought they went well together.

Have you ever had those moments when you ask yourself, "How did I get myself in such a odd situation?"  I had one of those moments just the other day. A week or so ago Danny picked me up from work like usual.  He had the driver's side window rolled down, a common occurrence.  I mentioned I was chilly, so Danny tried to roll up the window, but nothing happened.  We attributed it to the short in the wire and figured we would wait a few minutes and it would be fine.  Alas, it was not fine. No matter how many times we turned the car on and off, the short was permanent.  We soon figured out the electronics to the whole driver's side door was out, including the button needed to pop the latch to fill the gas tank.  Not only was our window stuck, but we also couldn't fill up our car.  Luckily this all occurred when we still had a half a tank of gas.  I had a minor freak out since it was supposed to rain that night and I didn't w...

I read this quote the other day while flipping through the Ensign,  which really struck me as powerful.  It is from the article about infertility ; however, I feel like it really applies to everyone.  This is something a bishopric member told one of the women who was struggling with infertility... “When someone has an ailment or an illness and they are healed as the result of a blessing, their faith is being strengthened. But for those who aren’t healed but continue faithful, their faith is being perfected. The first is a faith-promoting experience. The second is faith-perfecting.” Each of us have righteous desires that don't come in the time frame we would like, whether it is marriage, having children, going on a mission, health, financial stability and the list goes on. We all have and will have those times when we must endure.  It seems so often in church we love to hear the faith-promoting experiences and while those are important, how much more important a...

The past 24 hours have been rough ones for this little body of mine.  I have managed to... Slice one of my fingers with a butcher knife while doing the dishes. Get two of my teeth drilled on. (I don’t care if you give me a free toothbrush, Mr. Dentist, we are still in a fight.) Had three charley horse cramps in my right foot.  (Does anyone else get those?!  They hurt.) Never mine the pure whining in this post, what I’m concerned about is the pattern here.  All day I’ve been worried about what painful experience is going to occur in fours.  I think I'm getting a little superstitious here.  

Sunday morning was the typical get up and get ready for church, except I did make cinnamon rolls for breakfast to add a little sweetness to the day.  After church Danny gave me birthday presents.  I got a few books, some crafting supplies and the movie Enchanted , which I find hilarious. Opening presents, yay! I then got to partake in one of the greatest things in the world, a Sunday nap.  That evening, Danny and I went to my parents' house.  My mom made one of my favorite meals, chicken enchiladas.  I was then given the assignment to decorate the cake.  I wasn't really prepared for this assignment, so I just used a plastic sandwich bag, frosting and food dye.  I've decorated better cakes in my life, but that's ok. The cake with the sufficient decorating job, nothing more, nothing less. My brother Joel's birthday is 3 days before mine.  We are birthday buddies.  My siblings, their spouses and children came over for a big birt...

Following in the tradition I was raised (which is to celebrate birthdays to the max), I celebrated all weekend long to embrace my new age of 28.  I'm actually quite pleased with the age of 28, because I like even numbers better than odd numbers; 28 just seems like a much more solid number than 27. I started the weekend fun by sleeping in.  Then I used one of my favorite bridal shower gifts, a foot spa.  My sister-in-laws Katie and Becky gave this to me and it was delightful.  I could see this becoming a daily habit.  While letting my feet soak in bubbly bliss, I read the book my friend Becky got me "A Covenant Heart" by Bruce C. Hafen.  I figured I wasn't being too self-indulgent/centered if I read a Church book as well. Bubbly Bliss Pretty Painted Toenails Then Danny came home from class and surprised me with these... These flowers make me happy every time I enter our kitchen. Danny and I faced the downpour/blizzard outside and went and saw t...