The Meandering Thoughts of Jan

A few fun things have occurred in my life lately, which I thought I would share via pictures... Banff, Canada.  Photo from auski.com Fun Stuff #1:   The Banff Film Festival Honesty, I find the arrival of the Banff Film Festival World Tour to SLC more exciting than the Sundance Film Festival.   (Gasp.)  Not only has this film festival put Banff on my bucket list of places to visit, but it brings some of the coolest outdoorsy films to Utah.  The husband and I went one evening (on a date!) and watched a film about a nine-year old girl who is a champion rock climber, another film about paragliding off of Mount Everest, and another about conservation efforts on the coast of Oregon, plus more.  Very cool. Photo from my phone A more professional picture, I totally have a crush on the guitar player. Fun Stuff #2:  Danny being invited to play at his friends' gig Remember how I recently mentioned Danny's buddies band Jumbie.  Those cool kids invited Danny to be a guest g

This past weekend was the husband's 30th birthday!  I wanted to do something special for his little shindig we had with some family and friends.  Danny hearts sushi with a capital heart.  I came across this little find on pinterest for rice crispy sushi and I knew I had to try it out.   (Awesome thing about pinterest, so many great ideas.  Sad thing about pinterest, I can't claim any creativity when I use those ideas.)   Anyway, to create the rice crispy treat sushi, I made normal rice crispy treats and then used Swedish fish, fruit roll-ups and gummy worms for the roll centers.  I learned they don't make green fruit roll-ups anymore.  I thought purple should be my next choice since the seaweed on sushi is usually blackish, but I couldn't find any of that either.  I ended up using the flavor "tropical tie-dye" which was all the flavors mixed together.  I thought it turned out cute and more importantly Danny was quite pleased with them. In other news, a new

I was recently introduced to William Fitzsimmons's music  by the husband.  Love.  His voice is haunting and soothing.  His lyrics are poetic and thought provoking.  Overall his music is sad, but I'm one of those weird people who likes sad music. Another thing I've been loving: the BBC show Sherlock.  It is Sherlock Holmes in modern day.  It is a clever and intense show.  There are only 3 episodes on Netflix, but it is worth watching.  You can also watch it on pbs.org .  I hear the second season is on over in England, hopefully they will share with us soon. Speaking of the BBC, I'm sure you all have heard of the craze about Downton Abbey .  Yes, I've been watching it as well. Anyway, someone posted these  Downtown Abbey paper dolls and I thought they were hilarious. I thought about doing a post on Valentine's Day, but I decided I'd mash it in with this post.  My conclusion about Valentine's Day this year was that it was a bit weird, in the sense

Lately I've been cursed with being locked out of my own abode.  I returned home after running some errands the other evening to find that my house key some how broke in half in my purse.   How on earth does that even happen!?  Danny was also off running errands, so I texted him to return home.  While I was waiting, I realized I needed to go into survivor mode.  To survive what is the first thing one must do?  If you said, find food and water, then we are on the same page.  I hopped in my car and traveled to Taco Bell (don't judge) and got myself a nice burrito and bottle of water.  Yes friends, I would make it another day.   Second item of business, I needed to find shelter.  I traveled to our nearest shopping center and found many of the stores were closing their doors.  But guess what store I could rely on in my time of need?  Barnes and Noble.  I walked into the warm glow of books and magazines and heard the latest songs of Ingrid Michaelson playing overhead.  Yes, I would

I thought I would share a few things from the past week or so.  First off, I made this little craft for Valentine's Day.  I'm lacking in decorations for the holiday of love and this was so easy to make.  Especially since I already had the frame.  I followed the same method I used to create the "Home" framed art I made recently. Next item of business, did you know my sister Noelle is in The Ensign this month.   (The Ensign is a LDS Magazine, fyi)  Doesn't she look pretty and contemplative?  Of course she does!  If you would like, I think I might be able to schedule an autograph session, I'll have to speak to Noelle's agent. So, you all know I married a musician.  Musicians are friends with other musicians.  This means we get invited to go to Danny's friends gigs from time to time.  We were recently invited to a concert of the local band Jumbie.  Danny is friends with 2 of the 3 guys in the band.  Danny and I went and partook of their tunes and I

As I mentioned in my last post, Melina, Talena and I had book club on Groundhog Day.  As always, we used video chat to unite us.  How I love video chat.  The book we read was A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith.  The book follows Francie Nolan and her family, who live in the slums of Brooklyn during the early 1900's.  It shares the trials and triumphs they share as a family during difficult times. It is kind of hard to say what the full story is about since each chapter shares little tidbits and stories about Francie's life, some funny, some sad, some intriguing.  I'd say it is a book about growing up. Overall we all liked the book. You can't help but like Francie, as you see the world through her eyes.  She's curious and smart.  She loves her family and isn't afraid to work towards her dreams.  However, my favorite character of the book was her mother, Katie Nolan.  She's one tough woman, pulling her family through heartache, poverty and life in gene

This past week we celebrated that little critter called the groundhog foretelling the future.  You may have heard that he predicted another 6 weeks of winter.  For those of us in Utah, I think we are all thinking the same thing, "What winter?"  We've barely had any snow this whole season and when I came home from church today, I noticed the tulip and daffodil bulbs I planted last October are already peeking through the ground.  Crazy.  However, Talena came over to commemorate the rodent holiday with me. We originally planned to go to the grocery store and get some pork and ask the butcher to ground it so that way we could have ground hog for dinner, get it, hahaha.  Ok, our most morbid plan yet.  We actually went to Cafe Rio and had nice (pork) meal there.  Then we came home and made a nice little treat for the holiday. Groundhog pudding cup! The cups are multiplying! Happy Groundhogs Day! We also had book club that evening with Melina on video chat.  To b