The Meandering Thoughts of Jan

Hello Friends, I have recently returned from my little trip to California.  The main event for visiting California was the wedding of my wonderful and fabulous friend Brittany!  This was also the first time Danny and I have been apart for longer than 24 hours since we have been married.  With finances, his schooling and work, it just wasn't feasible for both of us to go.  I missed that husband of mine, a lot!  But I still had fun with my cousins and friends. My trip started early Saturday morning hopping on a short flight to Oakland.  Luckily there weren't any delays.  Once I arrived, I changed into my wedding attire, met my cousin Heidi at her gate and our other cousin Julia picked us up from the airport and we headed to the Oakland temple.   (Brittany has been roommates with me and many of my cousins.  She is pretty much part of our family.)   We made it there in good time and were able to witness the sealing of Brittany and Bryce. ...

Right now, I should be packing.  But instead, I'm too lazy, so I'm sitting on my bed trying to use my mind power to will my clothes into the suitcase I haven't even opened yet.  Actually, if my clothes started moving out of the closet on their own, I'd probably run from my house screaming.  Tomorrow I'm heading to the WC (west coast, not water closet) for the wedding of the lovely past roommate of mine Brittany, yay!  Hopefully my suitcase gets packed by then. So I think the pinewood derby is dumb*.   (Gasp from all the den mothers.)  I mean, really, the motto of boy scouts is to be prepared.  How is making a wooden car help you be prepared?  If you get stranded on a deserted island with a boy scout and he says, "Don't worry, I know how to make a pinewood derby car", would that put you at ease?  I think not.  Actually, I'm just being cranky because tonight is the pinewood derby and Danny is a cub scout leader so he is there fulfilling...

I visited my blog today and noticed I haven't even posted yet in this lovely month of June.  Time flies.  First matter of business, I went to a bridal shower last night for my beautiful friend, Ashley.  Tis the season for marriage.  It was such a fun night spending time with the ladies, talking about girly things and eating off of pretty plates.   (I stole the following pictures of the bridal shower from Ashley's facebook.) The food spread For dessert we had gelato and macaroons.  Very classy.  And then we pretended for a split second to be in Paris, because that is what you do when eating gelato and macaroons. In other news, I've been working on my blog book (where I print my blog into a book) from when Danny and I were dating and engaged.  Such fun memories.  This past week I have been editing the pages of when Talena and I visited England.  Sigh.  So many pictures of rolling green hills and stone buildings.  ...

Danny and I went to the Natural History Museum up at the U of U this evening.  It was a nice change of scenery.  We had a fun time wandering around looking at historic things, because that's what you do at the museum.  And in my case, take lots of pictures. An impressive building. A wall of cool stuff. Me, solar panels and mountains, a nice mix. There are some poor, disrobed turtles somewhere in this state. How embarrassing. Danny, the wild is calling to him. Where they filmed Jurassic Park...kidding. Don't eat me! A break from the bones for a pretty sunset. Oh my! A wall of dinosaur heads for every occasion. In my spare time during our outing, I made a little discovery for the museum. You're welcome. Danny and his new friends.  They are a bunch of bone heads. (Some times I think I'm so funny, this joke is for my dad and Danny's dad, because they will appreciate it.) Something is amiss underfoot. Footpr...

This past week was Melina's birthday!  Since she lives far away, Talena and I put together a hula party in a box and mailed it to her.  We found all of these treasures at the dollar section at the front of Target.  My favorite moment was when we heard a lady gripe about how the discount section was full of a bunch of useless stuff that no one would buy.  At that very moment we turned the corner, with our hand basket full of awesome stuff we had found.  We just smiled. The party supplies The party agenda I was having a bit of a low evening and Danny suggested we go get my latest craving Sonic blasts.   (Ice cream + candy + whipped cream.)  I know you aren't supposed to feed sorrows with food, but this particular evening I made an exception.  Whoever made that Sonic blast was heaven sent.  It had more Reese's peanut butter cups than actual ice cream.  It's like they sensed my heavy heart and tried to heal it with choc...

Item of Business #1 - A funny story.  I was sitting in primary with our class waiting for the lesson to start when the little boy in the class that sits in front of us turned around and had the following conversation with me... Little Boy:  "Did you know I know how to make my own light saber?" Me:  "I didn't know that." Little Boy:  "Yes, all I need is a laser, some crystals because that is what decides the color of your light saber, some plasma, and metal for the handle." Me:  "How did you figure this out?" Little Boy:  "I thought about it for a long time...So do you know where I can get some plasma?" Me:  "Hmmm, I'm not sure, do you mean plasma as in plasma TVs?" Little Boy:  "Yeah, that's what I need." Me:  "You should ask your mom."   (My go to answer in primary.) Little Boy:  "Do you think things will turn to plasma with the solar eclipse today?" Me:   (Biting my lip so ...

I noticed that I put a lot of pictures of food on this blog.  Just to show to show that Danny and I do other things than eat, I'd thought I'd post pictures from our latest date up to Park City (even though we did get dinner while we were there.)  One of my favorite things to do in Park City is to visit all the art galleries and that is just what we did.  Some of the galleries were closed since it is considered the off-season right now.  However for the ones that were open, that meant less crowds.  The art and photography we encountered was awe-inspiring.  It was a good evening. Images of Nature gallery  The Hope Gallery was one of our favorites.  There was a Carl Bloch exhibit which was beautiful. Danny observing art or art observing Danny, that is the question. This photo entranced me or that is how it appears. I highly recommend the Fatali Gallery, especially if you have a love for Southern Utah like I do. Taking a...