Off to a new adventure!

Living in Southern Texas for the past 6 months has provided me with some FANtasticly good times. Ok, so the bugs were a huge draw back to that (I'm looking at you flying roaches, crickets, and fire ants)but I'm not going to think about that. Instead I'm just going to think of all the cool stuff I got to do!

So here is my ode to you Texas. I have been trying to get out for so long that I didn't realize what a good time I was having. Just this week my family took a small vacation together (read Miracle was performed). Did you know that the perfect month to go to the beach is October?

Not only was the beach clean and the sun was shining but I spotted the legendary beached whale  HALF WOMAN HALF MANATEE!!I hear they are very sensitive about the size of their fin...approach with caution. Don't learn the hard way!

"These aren't hips they are saddle bags! What have you done to me?!"

Haha, sometimes I think we have more fun than Ariel. We found a man-of-war washed up on the beach and when she wasn't looking we found a stick to poke it with. The little guy deflated into a raisin. So icky! Did I mention I caught some fish?

I couldn't leave Texas without one good tall tale to my name!

That's just the way I was raised!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another memorable moment from Texas, Steph and I took my mom on vacation to see her parents. My mom hasn't visited her sister in...over 10 years? It was a pretty monumental occasion. It was also pretty impressive that we survived that car trip. For those of you familiar with my family you will understand why. My eye is still twitching.

I forgot how we convinced Ariel to pose for this.

My move back to Texas started off with a bang. I was able to run a half marathon in Beaumont Texas to fight obesity. And by run I mean danced and skipped and jogged and ran. Endurance running is great but you really have to be able to entertain yourself. One of the runners behind me asked how I was able to keep skipping towards mile 12 and I told him it was more fun that way. It was a first time event so they ran out of water on mile 6. A lot of runners took it out on the volunteers and I thought that was sad. My expression however turned into this:

But why is the water gone?

 Luckily a police officer came running off a side road with a gallon of water that he shared with those who saw him. I sprinted the only hill in the whole course and it felt so good to use different muscles. My pride told me I couldn't live in Utah for 5 years and not run that small hill. I think that makes up for not making my goal time by 7 minutes. I also ran slightly off course to use a town fountain to cool off. Smelled awful but was totally worth it! I had a running buddy who kept me on pace: Bettie Sue. She was so cute. "I'm an old woman and you're young! I'm not allowed to beat you!" She beat me by a minute. My dad, who ran the 5k, waited by the finish line and ran in with me. People came up to me after the race and thanked me for being so upbeat. It encouraged them to keep going. I still think of this race as a metaphor for life. It's not the running that I love so much as the whole experience itself. Next step marathon next year!

What else have I done in Texas that makes me smile when I think about it? Youth Conference and Girls Camp. So much better when you're a YSA leader going back. I actually promised to fly back for camp next year since I am moving. I absolutely adore those girls! Only one small story from this though since I could write pages on it. While at crafts trying to teach the girls how to make friendship bracelets I had gotten so frustrated. I said "I'm not as good as Sister Craftlady. I suck at this!" The 12 year old girl I was teaching turned and looked at me with her big eyes and freckled face and said something along the lines of "No you don't. You just need to practice more. Everyone has their own talents." Her sincerity and earnestness took me off guard and I had nothing else to say.

Have you ever been to DC? I have now! What a happening place to be. Thanks to my 6 month Texas vacation I had time to go to one of my best friend's weddings! Melissa and Fabrizio ForEVER Yo! I still remember when she came into the lab and told Breanne and I about him. We nick-named him Fabreeze. What a good sport :-) Oh the stories that are under friend secrecy!

My Dad and I visited every museum known to MAN! At least that's how it felt to my feet. Always bring proper walking shoes to DC. I took him to the Washington DC temple (mormon temple) and we enjoyed their visitors center. It was really hard to squeeze in all the sight seeing we wanted to do. Mike went with us to Jazz in the park and cooked dinner with us on Sunday. He even took us on a special insiders DC trip where the SWAT team was involved. Talk about a hook up from a native.

Tourists with a capital T. "Jenny that's a senator go get your picture with him!"

Did you know my brother got married last month? September 17 2010. Right before that he graduated AIT and a few days later he was shipped out to Germany. We celebrated the way my family celebrates anything: with food. Nobody knows when things are going to happen in the military. We didn't find out about this until the day of. Good thing I was in Texas and got to spend a week with him before he left.

Ariel made him hold her puppy and the other soldiers had a field day with it so of course I needed a picture with them both

The after wedding party aka harass the bride and groom with the  camera. Well Nick and Angela are now happily married and have started their life together.

Forget the last year, these last 6 months have been CRAZY! I've become increasingly aware of how much Heavenly Father is watching over my family and myself. I hate slowing down. Sometimes it is needed but I hate admitting that. Texas has given me something going straight into grad school never could have. I've made great friends and had my perspective restored. I leave next week to attempt to start up work in Utah but I am grateful for the time I spent at home. Despite the misunderstandings we have I sure do love my family. We just need to invest in foam bats. That would really help our relationships. Oh yeah.

I end with something that happened tonight. After getting back from Institute I went to the back of the house and Ariel called out to me from bed. I went into her room and she said she wanted a hug and when I went in to hug her she said "Jenny everyone loves you." Good to know everything will be ok.

How to Apply Make-up Like a Pro

You may have seen the how to videos on youtube sponsored by make-up companies.

GARBAGE!

In these 6 simple steps you will be able to accomplish any look for any time of day!

Step 1: Make sure to have the right tools. Asking an experienced make-up artist could be helpful. But why when you can play with all the fun brushes!?

Step 2: Scope out your canvas. Remember you are a beautiful work of art waiting to be completed.

Step 3: Now cover those hideous problem areas! I'm looking at you clogged pores...

  Let's not forget the unbrushed unibrow!

Step 4: Apply the powder. This is best done in a forceful thrusting motion ignoring all sense of placement. Imagine waging a glittery war on your face! Pain is a sign of victory!

Step 5: Hide from disapproving adults. Get with the times sister GEE WHIZ!

Step 6: Apply your eye shadow. Pick the prettiest color and just go with it. Work it and your confidence will make up for any faux-pax that tried to stand up to your fashion sense! 

 

**Just in case you need to learn by seeing it done instead of by pictures here is a demonstration**

Yes my lovely ladies, follow these tips and your inner beauty will surely shine through every time. 

And voila! Here is the finished product:

 Now wasn't that SO much simpler than those fancy pants professionals make it seem?! 

Some of the best stories come when everything goes wrong

All I wanted to do was go mountain biking.

Texas has no mountains. I convinced Hatchet and Teagan to go to McAllister park and check out their relatively new off road trail. How hard could it be? I went once before with my dad but he wouldn't let me explore...something about his bike and his rear didn't get along. But Hatchet and Teagan were young! We could do this!

Yeah.



It had rained earlier in the day but had cleared up by the time we decided to go. Packing two bikes in my Jetta proved to be an advanced tetris game. Haha, my dad tried to jam them in and scratched the bumper with one of the bike chains. He didn't laugh like I did. In other words, I was late to our meeting place. Teagan and Speed got to check out the trail and decided it was really muddy. But we tried it anyway.

So naive...I mean WOO!

We made it 20ft before our tires were so caked in mud that they looked like large chocolate donuts. Jen said lets go back, but noo. Onward we went scrapping mud off so the tires on our bikes could move every ten feet. Texas mud is THICK and cake-like. I mean I was out of shape but moving through that was ridiculous! Then the mosquitoes descended on us. I had forgotten about those guys. Mud is a pretty good bug spray as it turns out and I decided to rub it all over myself. For the record, it worked. By the time Teagan finally had enough (because it was her idea to keep pushing forward! As punishment I pushed the "let's run a marathon without training" idea later) we had to carry our bikes back. Poor Clarence was 5 lbs heavier. I believe there were people waiting in the parking area that had warned us before and got to see us saunter back in disgrace.

But no! We were not defeated! Far from it...since we didn't get to bike like we wanted to why not bike to a car wash and clean up? Both Speed and Teagan had iphones. Just use the GPS right? We freed our wheels and biked a couple miles down road (which felt like 20) and hit up a car wash. I had three dollars in my camelbak. Should have been enough. We were so close!

  

Not defeated! (I was totally defeated...not pictured)

According to Speed this is right before we had to sell our innocence

So Teagan and I volunteered to go try and find someone willing to give us 50 cents.

Let us get a full picture of this epic event shall we?
Two grundgy girls absolutely covered in mud and sweat come up to you at dusk asking for 50 cents. They leave the army guy to watch the bikes because people will be more sympathetic to girls right? You know it didn't sound that crazy when we did it...
The first lady we came upon at CVS looked nice enough. We came up to her all excited asking for just two quarters. She looked at us like we were going to mug her, locked her car, reached into her purse and quickly walked inside. We think she was holding onto her mace in case we tried something funny.

Fail.

So we ran across the street to a gas station. There was a guy pumping gas into his pimped up ride and I thought heck no. He probably wouldn't be very nice to us...or something along those lines went through my head. But Teagan asked and he kind of laughed and said "...just 50 cents? alright." He was actually really nice. I still think about that situation and judging others based on appearance.

The story didn't end there though. We ran back to the car wash and told Speed what had happened. When we started back to the park and our cars it was dark. Very dark and the sidewalk we were on was very unlit. That park is kind of scary at night...high on life we decided to go to IHOP for food. (IHOP the official eatery of San Antonio YSA Summer '10) Teagan and Speed thought they would get us there soooooooooooo fast with their GPS on the iphone. SCOFF!! We went all the around the airport and got stuck in traffic for what 30 minutes? Hindsight: had we just taken Nachodoches we could have been there in 5 minutes. Google map says: please board the ferry. Moral: Technology doesn't always win.

Teagan's bike was strapped to the back of her car so she parked by the window. She wanted to keep an eye on it to keep it from getting stolen. So we march into the IHOP and say can we sit right there-pointing to the window. The waitress is kind of taken aback and says ok. We're all chipper and talking about how muddy we are and how hungry we are then we almost at the same time notice all the ashtrays around...Teagan did you really just have us sit in the smoking section?

Much laughter ensues.

Since we were all wet and muddy big Speed got cold. He was shivering so badly that Teagan and I felt bad for him and knitted him a small blanket out of napkins and straw wrappers. I was proud of that moment of ingenuity and attribute it to my time with the engineers. And they thought they taught me nothing. Then in walked Mama K into our lives. A feisty old lady who smoked a pack within the time we were there. She goes there every evening if you're interested in meeting her and treats everyone like family. Speed and I ordered big meals and Teagan wasn't going to order anything because she was on a diet. Mama K looked over and told her a thing or two. She ended up ordering macaroni and cheese and fruit from the kids meal to get her to stop ranting. I think she went off for 15 minutes. This was one of those rare things that got me laughing so hard I cried especially when her food came out. We now affectionately call it bottom of the pot macaroni. She hid it under a napkin so Mama K thought she had eaten. And trust me when I say she checked. Mama K went away for a little bit and came back with a lemon and a napkin and was like "watch this kids it's a crab!" She giggled like a little girl. "Don't worry we will give the lemon back" she assured the waitresses. We vowed to visit Mame K again.

High on Life

What a night. Freaking awesome.