long strange trip

No, we didn't start out our little adventure across the USA with a UHAUL...

Especially because this is all we had to fill it up!

No, we picked up this little addition to our adventure when our car broke down near Silverthorne, CO and we needed a way to get it back home.

Li drove this whole mess for 10 hours straight, he even reversed...I was seriously impressed!
We got to Hurricane at 2am and left at 7am to go with Brett to the MTC.

WHAT A SUMMER.

NEWS FLASH!!!

Monday at 10 we found out that Li's office was being closed for the summer and we had to be out of our condo by 2. So we did what anyone would do in the circumstances...packed up as quick as we could and spent the day at Disney!

Tuesday morning I quit my job and we drove ALL day and ALL night to get to Philadelphia. We are staying with Li's brother Jason "on the way" to Utah for the rest of the summer.

What a summer!!

20 is my new favorite number

Lately I've been uberlazy and out of shape but I couldn't bring myself to start working out. I finally decided to do something aerobic for 20 minutes....walk, jog, play with the ripstick, dance, whatever. It's been awesome. 20 minutes is usually enough to break a sweat, get some happy endorphins going and make me want to do 20 minutes again the next day.

It worked so well I decided to apply the same 20 minute rule to my nonexistent scripture study program. No pressure to write things down, look up cross references or do anything that requires thinking too hard....just open up the book for 20 minutes. Again, awesome. The hardest part is getting them open, once I cross that bridge I usually want to search something deeper, write something down, or even read longer. But if not, that's cool too.

And then the kicker...Li and I have had many discussions about how to keep the house clean without one of us just doing all the work. Last night we agreed on, you guessed it, 20 minutes a day. So far so good!

3 cheers for 20 minute jumpstarts!!

visitor of the day

I love google analytics.

Thanks to Lex for putting Ljubljana on my map.
You made my day.

contest winners

CONGRATULATIONS to

lex
brad campbell
&
aj


also honorable mention to
Emmie (orange + barrel)
&
brynne, aaron and cade

for correctly identifying my location in this contest.

Send me your address and I'll send you something real nice.

busy weekend

Well, Tina and Dan are married, Li finally arrived, we've seen the whole family, wakeboarded and drunk our wheatgrass (not recommended!) and now we are headed back to Florida.

Li's flight leaves at 11pm and arrives at 10:30am.
I leave at midnight and arrive at 5pm.

Sad thing is I booked both flights....glutton for punishment I guess!

UUUUUUUUGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!

Today I would like the universe to know that I am really mad at it. REALLY MAD.

I called Li at 2 in the morning here in UT, which is 4 in the morning in FL ,and he was up and ready to go to the airport to catch his flight for Tina's wedding. I was shocked, he never wakes up on his own. I fell back asleep and woke a little while later to Li calling me. Get this....

They got pulled over because they didn't have a license plate and even though Li told him he was in a hurry to catch a flight, the MAN was convinced they were drug dealers and insisted on searching the ENTIRE vehicle. Ugh. Then he tells them that he won't write a ticket but that they
WILL get pulled over again and so they need to go home and get a different car. UGH.

By some miracle they still make it to the airport 30 minutes before the plane leaves and the MAN tells Li that he can't get on the flight, it's full. Hint for Mr. Man, a grown man traveling by himself with no luggage to check can make it from one side of the airport to the other pretty quickly. Basically, Li watched his plane depart and TOTALLY could have been on it. UGGGHHH!!!

So now he is arriving in Vegas at 2 in the afternoon, right around the time Tina and Dan will be exiting the temple. Why did the universe conspire to make everything so stupid?


Life lessons learned:
We've got to stick it to the MAN or he'll stick it to us.
If your sister is getting married you shouldn't book your husband on the last flight that arrives before the wedding. (Too bad I don't have any more sisters, but let that be a lesson for the rest of you.)
Any suggestions on what life lesson I was supposed to draw from this experience?

Jen Can Cook

I found a recipe that worked the first time I tried it and it was really yummy! Well, I should qualify that, it's more like a mini-recipe. Okay, fine, it's some stuff you can put on the top of your muffins to make them crumbly. But I thought it tasted delicious and I was stoked that I didn't have to mess it up 5 times to finally get it right.

Here it is:
you make muffins from a mix (or not if you're super ambitious) oh but don't cook them yet
in another bowl you mix
2 T butter (softened)
2 T brown sugar
3 T oats
3 T flour
then you put the mix on top of the muffins and cook them

Hmmm...did that make sense? I hope so because they were so good!!

birds

I saw a man riding his bike down the street and noticed he had a big bird on his back. Then I realized he had 3 across his handlebars and one on his bag.

I was too stupefied to even think about taking a picture. So stop a second and create the image in your mind. It'll make you giggle.

huh

I walked into a store in the mall today and saw a sign that read:

$3.99 and up*
*selected items only

So.....
some things in the store cost more than $3.99 and some cost less?
is it a sale?
I don't get it.

growing green

I saved my empty cans and planted some of those seeds Li got me for my birthday. I have been watering them religiously while wearing the hat he got me. Today when I went to water them I gasped.....there were little green things coming out of the dirt!!!!! Woo-hoo.

This almost never happens when I plant things. It must be the hat!

Happy Birthday to

the world's greatest mommy!!

nifty thrifty

I think my thrift store addiction dates back to when I was a little girl. Sometimes on Saturdays we used to get a brown grocery bag and a dollar and then we'd hit the garage sales with my mom. I could buy anything I wanted with my dollar! And sometimes people would even have a free box. I would come home with a brown paper bag full of treasures.

I love the thrill of finding something in the midst of junk. And you never know when that random thing you buy is going to end up being your new favorite pair of shoes or the shirt that you wear every single time you take it out of the dryer (and sometimes when it's still dirty-- am I sounding white trashy enough yet?!)

Today I got pajama pants, workout pants, pants destined to become shorts, a shirt, a sweater, a dress and some nylons for $24. Doesn't that just put a smile on your face? I'm smiling.

But I have a question...
When I went to try my clothes on I went in to the empty dressing room. Inside I found somebody's leftover clothes and tried some of them on. I decided to buy this great sweater that was left behind. As I'm getting ready to leave the dressing room I hear a woman outside all confused because she can't find the clothes she left to try on. She asked me if I had seen a white sweater. I wanted so badly to say I didn't know what she was talking about, but gave it to her instead, informing her that I wanted to buy it if she didn't. I stalled (and in the meantime found a great dress) when she left the dressing room without the sweater I asked if she was going to buy it, twice, both times she said yes. In my head I was screaming, "Then why isn't it in your hand?!!" I hung around a bit more waiting to make sure and eventually gave up.

But what is the rule? I mean, she found it. But she left it unattended for a LONG time. Doesn't that put it up for grabs? I'm serious. Any thrift store lovers out there know the official ruling on this one?

As I was checking out a guy and the cashier next to me got into a shouting match over 98cents. The manager was called and she went at it with the guy for a few minutes. They were literally raising their voices over 98cents. Finally the manager said, "I'm not going to cry over 98cents we'll credit you a dollar." It was the most amazing thing I have ever seen

Somebody stop me before I get that far.

where's jen?

The first person to guess where I am in this picture will win a prize.

Li

Isn't my husband adorable??


I got in trouble today for calling him pretty, so adorable probably won't go over too well...
handsome
strong
hot
lovable
cute

I'll stop myself before I get in trouble, but don't you just love his giddy, little-boy-smile?!

I do.

15 words of fame

The "Tina Campbell" in this article is my little sister!

Rock on.

Behind the Magic...

Yeah I'll tell you how we get the magic at Disney....

WE MAKE IT!!

Boy do we work hard. My shift today was from 8am until 7:30pm.
I thought it was a mistake on my schedule but they assured me that is the normal schedule.
And the Orlando sun just zaps the life out of you.

I got home and checked my schedule....Next week I am scheduled for every single day that I need off for Tina's wedding and not scheduled for a single day that I'd actually like to work. Ironic?


I am tired.

But really, it was WONDERFUL!!!!!!!!!

Shout out to the Dads...

fHappy Father's day to Norm....Brad.... (he takes all the pictures, thus he's not in ANY of them; here is some of his work instead--what a talented papa I have!!)



and Li... (someday!)
I love you guys!!

Happy Sunday!

Meet the temple in Orlando. It is really pretty. I can't wait to go inside!

Lions & Tigers & Bears. Oh my.

Today I went on an African Safari and then an Everest Expedition. I saw a musical of the Lion King and then inadvertently ate an entire package of graham crackers. Busy day.

kids

The kids that hung out at the job site were our favorite part of the trip.

Backing up

On our first day in the Dominican Republic we took a tour of the capital. Here is the Reader's Digest version....





More to come.

Year of a million dreams....

When I was a little girl I spent a lot of time at Disneyland. And for some reason I was fascinated by the people who cleaned up trash. They had those really cool, long dustpan things and I wanted their job when I grew up. I know, dream big, right? A few summers ago, my dream came true when some Disneyland Cast Members let me use their dustpans to clean up the park. Well, it could have come true on a more permanent basis when we decided to move to Orlando for the summer. Only I decided to pass on the custodial opportunity and accepted a position at the Blizzard Beach Water Park instead. That's right, I am the new slide operator. You might ask what that means. I'm not really sure. But so far what it means is that I have an ID card that gets me in the parks for free and I don't actually start working for a few more days!!! Happy birthday to me!!

Okay so what it really means is that I was the lame 25 year old single rider grinning from ear to ear in the Magic Kingdom today. Some guy in the Dumbo line asked me if I was with a kid. Like everyone doesn't secretly want to ride Dumbo by their self.

Here is me in front of the Castle.

Here is my self portrait on the Carousel.

And I wasn't kidding about the whole lame 25 year old thing either. I really don't think that is the right age though. I'm pretty sure my birth certificate is wrong, or someone messed up somewhere because 25 just doesn't sound right! Li took good care of me on my birthday; check out the stack of presents he wrapped up for me!

And here I am modeling a few of my treasures.

Called to Serve

Brett is going to Japan!!!!

I didn't guess that.

shout hooray

Happy Birthday to Brett. He is smart, witty, stylish, talented and willing to drive across the country with me....who could ask for a better brother.

His mission call is in the mail. Where do you think he is going?