The Meandering Thoughts of Jan

Here are a few date nights the husband and I have had over the past week or two.  Just keeping the romance alive, kids. Leftovers (As the unused oven mitt sulks in the background.) Discounted Easter Candy... don't judge. A exciting game of Carcassonne. Danny won. Taco Bell picnic, because we are classy like that. Us

I loved this article  about what a family in Maine is doing to help them through the loneliness while their husband/father is away on a 13 month deployment.  Very sweet. The healing power of gratitude.  I'm really good at starting projects.  I'm not so great at completing projects.  However, I would love to try this... I'm loving this song !  If it doesn't put a smile on your face, well I don't know what will. Happy Weekend everyone! PS  There is a lot of love in this post, in every bullet point in fact.  However, I don't feel like there can ever be too much love.

Last weekend was my mom and my second annual trip to the tulip festival.  We liked it so much last year that we decided to go again this year.  The weather was much warmer this time around, which made me happy and the flowers were gorgeous as expected.  My mom and I strolled, chatted and took breaks for pictures.  When the temperatures got warmer, we treated ourselves to mango smoothies.  It was a perfect afternoon.  I love that I have the mom that I do.  My mom is also my friend.  I inherited her green eyes, big smile and sense of humor.  I always beam with pride when someone tells me I look so much like her.  Thanks for your example mom, I love you!

Ingrid Michaelson on stage with her band Last week I treated my ears to the most delightful tunes of Ingrid Michaelson.  Nothing like live music.  Talena and I got there for the end of the opening band, whose name I can't remember but they were pretty good.  In between bands we met up with more friends there, which made it for a fun girly evening (because we were a bunch of girls) .  Ingrid and her band put on a great show and we a had such a fun time.  It helps to know most words to every song.  Below is a small clip from Ingrid's song "Ghost".  You even get the feeling of what an earthquake is like for a few seconds in the video.  Shaky cam, got to love it. My concert friends!  And good friends in general, Annie, Talena and Me. It's funny, 2.5 years ago Annie, Talena and I went to the Ingrid Michaelson concert.  Talena and I were lamenting about how back then, in our prime, what night owls we were, but this time we were w...

I've said this once and I'll say it again, one of the greatest blessings in my life are the life long and loyal friends I've made over the years.  I count myself one lucky girl.  Over the past few years, many of these friends have moved off to the great unknown...away from Utah.  Which means, away from me.  I miss them dearly, but luckily these friends come back to visit on occasion.  Last week I got to see two of these great friends.  Their visits energized my soul. First, I visited the lovely Eliza Jayne.  She was in the area visiting her parents with her sweet baby girl.  Eliza and I met while serving LDS missions in England.  We were never companions, but we wanted to be.  Once we returned back home, we were roommates at BYU and had a blast together.  So many great road trips and adventures were had.  Now Eliza is out in the Midwest with her husband and baby. I was so excited to hear Eliza was going to be in t...

(My Sister-in-law Erin sent me this video of my nieces singing me happy birthday.  Be prepared, your heart will melt a little because of their cuteness.  Thanks  Maestro L , Iz and Mi, this made my day!) So this past week I entered the last year of my 20's.  Kind of weird, yes, but so far so good.  Even though I had a moment of sadness on the eve of my birthday with the idea of saying goodbye to the age of 28, I'm actually quite pleased with 29.  I'm happy where I'm at in my life right now.  Do I have more I want to achieve? Of course.  But I'm able to look back over the past decade and feel grateful for the opportunities and accomplishments that have come my way so far.  I really want to make this year of 29 count, so I can say left my 20's with a bang. Now for my birthday celebration, because seriously it was awesome.  On my birthday eve, I was outside weeding when Danny came out and excitedly told me he wanted to give me...

Our Easter was pretty chill this year, but good.  Before the actual holiday, we had an Easter egg hunt with Danny's sister, Mary, and her kids.  Mary even assigned each of us a color and we had to find all the eggs of that color.  My kid at heart was pretty excited. Showing off our Easter goods! On the Easter Sunday we woke up to a surprise from the Easter Bunny.  Last year we were super cute and put Easter baskets together for each other.  This year, the Easter Bunny brought socks, which is cool too. That sneaky Easter Bunny! We went church and were reminded of the true meaning of Easter, our Savior.  We tried to teach the kiddos in our Primary class about the resurrection.  Tried is the key word there.  Primary on a holiday is a bad idea.  Imagine a half of dozen kids hyped up on sugar at 9 in the morning.  We also had that horrible moment when one of the kids announced the "truth" about the Easter Bunny and Santa Clau...