Storybook Love

I love Jim Halpert. Yes, he is fictional, but I love Jim Halpert. Yay, Jim and Pam!

I Want to Be a Pirate in the "Pirates of Penzance" . . .

Ahoy, me mateys and beauties! For those of you who don't know, Friday the 19th of September was International Talk Like a Pirate Day. And for those of you don't know, I thoroughly enjoy this day (when i remember that it's coming up, at least). That's not to say that I dress up and speak pirate-ese every moment of the day (first off, no desire; second off, i don't have the vocabulary to pull it off), but I do manage to get in a good amount of "Avast"s and "ye"s. So to "celebrate", Esther and I bought some Chips "Ahoy" cookies (her idea--brilliant) and watched "Pirates of the Caribbean" (the first one, which, let's face it, is the only one worth watching). Our neighbor Alicia joined us about halfway through the movie, and the three of us had a nice discussion about "North and South" afterward, which naturally led us to watch the last five minutes of that, as well, like the bunch of girls we are. So I hope that everyone's TLAPD was fantastic, even if you didn't know it WAS TLAPD. Arrr!!!

The next day, Esther, Becky, Jeremie, and I hiked to Stewart Falls. The four of us have all managed to graduate from BYU without ever having hiked there, which is kind of strange, considering it seems to be a very popular hike among students here. Go figure. So we went, and it was really cool. It's really not much of a hike, just a two-mile trail to the falls, but the scenery was beautiful, so I decided it's one of my new favorite spots. The entire morning the weather was vacillating between stormy and fair. In fact, it started raining (and hailing) about ten minutes into the walk. That didn't last very long, but the clouds did continue to look threatening. But all in all, it was a good hike/walk, especially to watch Becky and Jeremie slide down a hill on their rear ends (it's a requirement for becky's butt to get dirty when outdoors, we've decided).

Sunday brought us up to Clinton, where we went to my sister's house for dinner. I wasn't sure if my roommates would enjoy having to simultaneously entertain and be entertained by my nieces and nephews, but I think they had a good time (although esther did make the comment that she doubts her future ability as a mother because she's not sure she'll be able to keep up with the "lightning bolts of energy"--a similar thought that has crossed my mind whenever i have been around my nephew andrew). The food was yummy, and I was flattered by Kelly continually going back for more of the salad that I brought. The day before was my niece Nicole's birthday, so the dinner was complete with birthday cake and then watching her open her presents. Good times.

I keep on counting the days until I leave for Oregon. I'm getting more and more excited to go! I have two more days of work, then I'll drive up to Kelly's Thursday night, and we'll all make the drive up on Friday. I'm really looking forward to going home. The days at work have just felt like they've been dragging. Today, however, I did have a little break-up in the monotony by going on an LNCares activity to an elementary school (those halls are tiny!) and painting basketball and tetherball poles. Yeeha! So let's hope I don't explode in the next couple of days.

"I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority." -E.B. White

-Me

Millions of Peaches, Peaches for Me . . .

Time flies when you're having fun, eh? Well, not that time has absolutely been flying by the last couple of weeks; I just didn't realize it's been a little while since my last post. Not that it really matters. Nothing too grand and exciting to report in my life, necessarily. Just keep on living life, and it's going well. I've started to really try and incorporate better habits into my every-day life, and while I still never want to get out of bed in the morning (for purely selfish reasons, like wanting to sleep in), I'm feeling really good. And not just about health habits, either. I realized a few weeks ago that I really was out of habit with reading my scriptures, and that's just no good. I don't really do bad things with my time, but I knew I wasn't doing enough good things, so I made the goal to read every day, and I gotta say, I feel so much better about things. It's great!

This last week, I've been going around and meeting all the new girls who have moved into the ward. Can't remember any of the names because meeting all of them was kind of whirlwind-y, but I'm glad I went with Rebecca (our RS president) to do it. I'm now the Compassionate Service Leader, and I'm excited to be doing something that I will definitely be learning from. I love music callings, but I do like to branch out every once in a while, too. And having this calling will get me looking out for other people, rather than focusing so much on myself, which is really something I need to work on. Our ward is PACKED now. I've played the piano in sacrament meeting the last couple of weeks, and it's absolutely incredible to look out at the congregation and see how much the ward burgeoned with the advent of fall semester. Wow!

Last Saturday, Becky, Esther, and I had another bbq. I guess it's appropriate. We had one in May, so our two bbq's have just been bookends on the summer. As ever, good food, good people. Megan brought her niece with her, and all the girls were ooh-ing and ahh-ing over her. (megan also brought lil' smokies with her, which made me really happy) After it got dark and people were starting to take off, Kelly decided to make an Esther taco with the blanket Esther was using, and he proceeded to drag her around the yard in that state. What a goof. Becky got Lil' Smokies all over her shoulder, which amused us greatly. -sigh-

We love asparagus!

Becky protects the Esther Taco from the likes of me.

I've made peach cobbler twice in the last couple of weeks, and that's always a reason to smile. I love peach cobbler! Peaches are great, and they're especially great this time of year. Yay for harvest time! (and no, they didn't come from a can, and they weren't put there by a man in a factory downtown) I'm looking forward to the end of next week, because I'll be heading up to Oregon with my sister, Kelly, and her children for a week! The drive probably won't be too fun, but I'm excited to see my family and home for a week (and get paid to take vacation! i love being an adult for that reason!).

"Laughter is the shortest distance between two people." -Victor Borge

-Me

The Beauty, The Splendor, The Wonder of My Hair

Thank goodness this three-day weekend was good! I always am afraid I'm going to waste my extra time, but I did all right this time around. The one disappointing thing was that I didn't get to see my grandparents like I almost did (they came into Provo for the football game), but you win some, you lose some. But yeah, good weekend all around! Yay!

Friday evening wasn't anything overly special, but I did get to see my friend Andrew, who is a friend from back home and I haven't talked to for a few months. Yay for friends! Speaking of friends, what made Saturday really awesome was that I got to see Carol! She came down from Logan with her roommate and a couple of friends to hike around Timp, but she wasn't feeling so hot, so she dropped them off so they could hike and came down to Provo and dropped in on me! I was really excited to see her. We went to lunch and chatted and caught up from the last couple of months. I should really take the time to head to Logan to visit her, though. She's great, and I'm always really glad to hear from her. I also watched the first half of the football game, which was excellent before going out to dinner (i know, i know, my resolution to stop eating out! but i didn't pay this time) with Kelly. The Chinese made us both feel a little gross, though. Oh well. I survived, and after seeing him crash on his couch, I'm sure he found a way to survive, too.

Sunday I drove up to Salt Lake to my uncle Floyd's for my cousin Tina's daughter's blessing. Lots of people, and most of them I didn't know because they were Sam's family, but it was fun. Kelly and Nate and the kids came down from Clinton, and Nicole was my little tag-along, which was kind of cool except when she got mad that I played frisbee with Jake and Andrew. Oh, well. After being with the family, I headed over to Stansbury Park, where Esther had been for the weekend. We were going to go hiking yesterday (Monday) around there, but the weather decided to interfere with our wonderful plans. The storm hit around 5 or so (which is, of course, when I was driving to Stansbury) and continued until yesterday morning. So no hiking for us.

So that was also an unfortunate turn of events, not to hike, but it was nice to have a lazy day at the Morris residence. We had BLTs for lunch (yum!) and watched a movie, played with Sparky, and highlighted my hair! I haven't highlighted my hair in several years, and it's never particularly fun to go through the torture of that ridiculous-looking cap, but we got through all right, and were all pleased with the final result. Woohoo! All in all, Labor Day was a very relaxing day. And the entire weekend was just good. Made me happy.

So this is the lighter hair. Wa-hoo.

Quote of the Day: "Some of the worst mistakes of my life have been haircuts." -Jim Morrison

-Me

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

I keep on telling myself I am going to stop eating out so much, and what happens? I go out to eat three days in a row! But no more. I am making a stand. For at least a week. (that sounds pathetic, yes, but my friends and I have kept on finding excuses to eat out!) Monday night, Esther and I stuffed ourselves silly with Thai food. Very good, but we definitely ate more than was good for us. Then Tuesday afternoon, we had an office lunch for an employee who is leaving. And last night was “Girls’ Night Out” with some friends, and naturally that includes going out to dinner! Naturally.

Actually, “Girls’ Night Out” ended up being really fun. Those of us who went out to eat had a really good time being goofy and weird together, flirting with the waiter (sorry, Mom, I didn’t leave my number with the receipt), and leaving a business card magnet with the fellas at the neighboring table. Oh, yeah. It was a good night for scoping out the guys. Well, not necessarily in the sense that there were a lot of guys worth scoping out, and we definitely focused on our food, but we were in the mood to “shop”, if you know what I mean. Maybe you don’t. Meh. Doesn’t matter. We also watched a chick flick when we got back to Mary and Andrea’s, and half the commentary was about the two very attractive actors in “Sweet Home Alabama”. Who to choose? Who to choose? And all of it was topped off with a stirring interpretive dance performance by Andrea and Beth of a song I had never heard. I can’t fully describe the dance, but it was completely riotous. I was on the floor, crying because I was laughing so hard. That’s the beauty of girls’ nights. Don’t get me wrong. We all know I love boys (when they’re not being moronic), but having a night with my gal pals when we can act completely silly and stupid with each other and laugh until it hurts is quite awesome.

I am grateful today for my musical gifts. On Sunday, I walked into sacrament meeting and there wasn’t anybody playing prelude music, and I immediately saw the bishop make a beeline straight for me. I knew right away he was going to ask me to play the piano, and that’s totally fine. I can do it, and I like it, too. (go figure) I’m glad that I can help out in that way, that I am gifted enough that people know they can ask me to do that. Not that always being asked at the last minute to accompany a musical number is the greatest feeling (believe me, it’s not, I’ve been there), but I’m grateful that I have the talent to do so. Thanks, Mom and Dad!

Quote of the Day: “We rarely think people have good sense unless they agree with us.” –Francois de La Rochefoucauld

-Me

To Life, To Life, L'chai-im!

Well, all. There is a new Jensen in the family! And I'm way happy that it's a girl. We've managed to keep the Jensen family very balanced in terms of gender-ratios. With the addition of Lucy June, we have now exactly seven boys and seven girls! Not to say that leaning any which way is bad (i would be a total hypocrite in saying that, considering how many boys i grew up with as cousins), but it's kind of cool. Anyway, she was born last night at an extremely healthy poundage (hmm, is that a word?) of 9 lbs. 3 oz. Managed to beat her aunt Megan by three ounces, so that's pretty impressive. The sad part of all this is that Tom and Lisa are up in Oregon and I'm here . . . in Utah . . . a thousand miles away. -insert pouty lip here- Anyway, all is well, and it's always awesome to welcome a new little life into the world!

(for family members who read this, you'll probably
recognize that I stole these from Tom)

In other news, our house is looking really bad, what with "squatters" and Becky moving in and trying to figure out where we're going to put everything (we now have three standing lamps in our living room, which is totally laughable). But hopefully all the clutter will be clear very, very soon. (if becky is reading this, hint, hint! i love you) So far I haven't bothered anyone with playing the piano. Even our duplex neighbors have said that they "love" to hear me play. And it's become a natural part of the house. Yay!

"People who say they sleep like a baby usually don't have one." - Leo J. Burke

-Me

Sing us a Song, You're the Pianoman (woman)

Life has continued to be pretty dang good. A miracle happened last week and I was actually asked on a date. Honestly, the guys asking me out happens about once a year, and this marks the second time in 2008! No sparks, but hey, a date is a date. We had some slight thunderstorms last week, so it was a welcome change to the intense heat, especially when I helped out at a volunteer activity outdoors for work last week.

The really awesome news of last weekend was that I finally got my piano! I was really excited, even if it didn't come until Sunday afternoon. Some people have been under the impression that I bought this particular instrument. Believe me, I didn't. It was completely and totally inherited. It's just been up in Oregon for awhile. So now it's here, and I'm really happy. I played up a storm on Sunday after the guys helped me move it in (which was very kind of them). So now I don't have to sneak over to Kelly's to play anymore! Woohoo! I just have to watch when and how much I play, what with neighbors close by and roommates I could possibly easily annoy.

Speaking of roommates, Esther and I went to see Brian Regan perform on Wednesday night at Thanksgiving Point. My gosh, it was awesome. Buying the tickets for it was a completely spontaneous decision, but I figured that since we both love his material, Esther would definitely come. Which she did. It was totally worth it, too. There were some moments that I couldn't breathe because I was laughing so hard. The guy who opened up for him was pretty funny, too. And fortunately, the rest of the night wasn't damaged by us getting stuck in traffic for ages coming out. We totally beat the traffic getting out of the parking lots. Yay!

I've been taking some small trips to Nostalgia Land this last week, too, when I've had the time to. When I was about nine, the TV show "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman" premiered, and my brothers and I totally loved the show. Tom and I would slightly gloat at Craig when he had to go off to Encore practice on Sunday nights and we would stay home and watch it. Anyway, I found out last week that a co-worker of mine owns the first three seasons on dvd, and she offered to let me borrow them, which I was quite eager to do. I was mainly curious to find out if I'd still even like the show, fifteen years later. After watching a few episodes, I have found out that yes, I DO still like the show. It's hardly Shakespeare, but it's still really entertaining and fun, and I'm glad that I've gotten to take a small trip down memory lane and not be totally ashamed of my former (and clearly still present) tastes. "Truth, Justice, and the American Way."

Seriously. Hot guy. Hot girl. Who wouldn't watch this show? (teehee)

All right. Now that I've gotten that out of the way, I suppose I shall sign off. This weekend is going to be interesting because I haven't made any plans, which isn't exactly in keeping with the last couple of weeks. But it will be nice to sleep in. We like sleep. A lot.

"I think Superman should go on the Larry King show and announce that he would come back to life if people in all 50 states wanted him to." -Dave Barry

-Me