Blah, blah, blah

I'm tired of recaps - it's like when you get behind in your journal and then feel like you need to do a massive update so as to correctly record history, but then you don't want to write in journal because it will take to long. Can you tell I'm not much of a journal writer? Or like when you have a good friend you want to call, but you feel like if you do, it will be a three-hour phone conversation because it's been so long and who has that kind of time unless you're sixteen and talking to a boy you like? Of course, nobody is requiring me to do an update in my journal, stay on the phone for three hours when I call them or recap my entire summer on this blog - it's all in my mind. So, I'm going to ignore my mind and just throw out my favorite pics from July and August - here we go!

My cousin Devin got married at the beginning of July. Since all of the other pictures I have of Adam and I were taken with me extending my arm out with my camera, I thought I'd include one where that wasn't happening.

Here's the wedding party in all their splendor, smiling as though they haven't been taking pictures for hours...

This is my cute grandma eating an ice cream cone at the wedding. She told me to delete this picture. How could I possibly?

This little guy and his mom and dad left us in mid-July. See the bottom of this post for a video of Tianna and her good friend Candace boxing it out the night before they left. After witnessing this, I will never challenge Tianna to a fight. It was a sad, sad morning when they left and I cried myself back to sleep (it was 5:30 AM). We miss you guys!

I consoled myself by forcing Adam to let me take a picture of him like this. This was after a Sunday afternoon nap and I couldn't let that hair go to waste. It's hard to tell but he's wearing a leather jacket. He's like a taller, brunette Billy Idol. Well maybe not Billy Idol but you know what I mean.

July was definitely a wedding month - shouldn't that be June? Nicole got married - woohoo! She was a beautiful bride and this was the first wedding I've ever been to where the groom's cake was an iPod. I should've taken a picture of that!

Since my birthday was on a Monday, we celebrated all weekend long....and into the next week. This picture was taken Saturday night at Sugar House Park - we had a picnic. Sunday, Adam's mom cooked an amazing dinner for me, Adam's dad, and Ben since we all have birthday within like a week and a half. It's an intense time in the Ard Family. Monday, Adam and I went to an amazing Italian restaurant and then...



This was taken on my actual birthday (August 24th - mark your calendars) as proof that I've really matured...



Still my actual birthday. This was what the sky looked like driving home - not to brag, but this was taken from a moving car. Can you see the penguin? I took it as a good omen for this next year of Jen. Penguins are lucky, right?

Hooray for extended birthday celebrations! I love celebrating for a week. We had a great time alienating the other restaurant patrons.

Rest of NY Trip

So, maybe some people are wondering, why does Jen have to try and update the last four months? Well, it's partly because I took a million pictures that I feel I should do something with. I'm not really sure about other reasons other than it seemed like a good idea at the time. I'm getting kind of bored with the immediate past - I may run out of steam soon. It's like the time I decided that I was going to get a head start on writing my memoirs during the summer of 2005. It seemed like a good idea. I have a head crowded full of memories starting from about the age or two or three. Why not jot some down on paper and maybe create some more room in my brain to memorize more Top 40 songs? Anyway, I was maybe a little too detailed at first. I filled at least 10 pages in a notebook and only got to age four. I got a little discouraged and gave up the attempt, although one day I'll get back to it. I'd like to note that the discouragement may be partially due to the mocking tone that my roommate Lis employed whenever she would tell people what I was doing.

So, to finish with the NY trip, I wanted to include some shots from one of my very favorite places - the church sites in upstate NY. Do you know how beautiful upstate NY is in the summer? Some of you do, but for those of you who don't, I will simply say that there is a reason that Rochesterians brave those bone-chilling winters and continue to live there. Adam and I went to the Hill Cumorah and the Sacred Grove. It was a perfect summer day and surprisingly not too hot. We had a nice, peaceful stroll through the grove. This was my second time going there with Adam. I took him there right before we got engaged and so it was fun to recall that time as we walked around. Next we drove over to the hill. As we were walking around the monument at the top of the hill, we saw this black and white cat just lounging in the shade, looking like it owned the place. It soon got up and started following us around - maybe the cat is employed for security?

After we finished visiting the site and headed home, the heavens opened up and it rained the rest of the day. We stopped at Wegmans for lunch and soon after headed over to my sisters ho

use for some Pontillo's pizza. If we had been able to stop for some ice cream at LuGia's, then this may have been the most perfect day possible. I have to include the two pics - I overlooked them in my last post and they're my favorite. Can you see why I'm such a proud aunt?

This is Aiden's smile every time you take his picture.

I had my finger on the flash when I took this of Owen, but look at those brown eyes!

They're lots of fun. Here are my shots of the grove and the hill. Visit if you can!

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Should there be an apostrophe in the title of this post? Lisa? I think you're my Shakespeare expert so if you still check this blog, I'm counting on you. So, yeah, I made it to my June update and it's only August! Woot! Tia Juana, you may just be able to read about July in September - no promises though. I'm all about the shout outs tonight. How about this one: Hey Wende, just because you're with child and you have three little boys to chase around, doesn't mean you can just neglect your blog. What? Like you're busy? I mean, I thought I was bad. Who wants to hit me yet? No one? I could go all night. August is my birthday month and that means that I get to be a diva. Hey Jess and Rachel, what is this come-to-Utah-and-don't-call-Jen-or-Lis-while you're-here-business? You can blame family obligations all you want, but the next time around, I expect to hear from you. Do NOT mess with me. I am almost 31 (does snap in z formation in the air). No one gets to mention that last fact but me.

This blog post should really be titled, "A Lack of Focus." To the task at hand: June. I know that I was alive in June and that I did more than just go and visit my family back east, but I am seriously drawing a blank. At work, my job revolves around a series of three approving committees that meet every single week. That means that I have three weekly deadlines that I am constantly having to meet. The one thing that keeps me from going crazy is the fact that the committees break from mid-June until August and then for most of the month of December. This makes mid-June feel like salvation and July feel like happiness. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I probably spent most of June reveling in my lack of things to do. I took long lunches, I left early, Adam and I sometimes slept in and got there a little late. One day, encouraged by Tianna, Adam and I bought a slip and slide. It turns out that those things aren't really as fun when you're an adult; however, they can be refreshing if you just use them as a place to sun bathe.

Then along came June 16th. Adam and I were discussing when we should go to see my parents and sister. We were thinking July, but then Adam told me that he couldn't leave until after the 20th, which is right when I start to get busy again, preparing for July. What a quandary! Then, Adam said, "what about next week?" Huh. What about next week? To make a longer story shorter, we bought tickets that next day and were on our way by Saturday. I am not usually that spontaneous - ask anyone. We had a great time! I love visiting my parents. They are seriously the best hosts. They go out of their way to make people feel comfortable and welcome, and they have more food than anyone I know. Plus, I am addicted to my nephews. Adam and I slept in, watched movies, went on multiple ice cream runs, visited the church sites in Palmyra and played with the kiddies to our hearts content. I went on my second zoo trip this year. Who knew?

These pics do not show up as well in this format. Let's try these:

Out of time! I'm sorry I only take pictures of my nephews. Next post will contain non-nephew photos.

May

So now here's my recap for May. To be honest, it's kind of a blur. The tree in our front yard bloomed. We celebrated three birthdays - Adam's sister Jenny (although we really celebrated when were all in Oregon), Adam's sweet mom, and Liam's first birthday. Since Liam's party was at our house, I only have pictures from that celebration. He greatly enjoyed his cake:

Of course there was also Mother's Day and Collin, Tianna, Adam, Amber and Ben (Adam's younger brother and sister) and I cooked dinner for Adam's mom. I think we overdid it as far as how much food needed to be cooked, but it was really fun to host it at our house. We need a bigger table, but I did finally use the cloth napkins I registered for.

We also had a fun Memorial Day spending time at Hogle Zoo with Liam and Tianna. It was my first visit to the zoo since 1987. I have decided that going to the zoo makes me feel both good and bad. It's fun to see the animals up close, and I know that they were raised in captivity and don't know any different, but still...Would you like shrieking children around you every time you ate and went to the bathroom? Anyway, I did bring my camera that day and yes, I'm subjecting you to those photos as well.

Oregon - the rest of our trip

Wow! This font is looking really big as I'm drafting this post. I hope it's not quite as big on my blog. If so, please note that Jen recognized its abnormally large size but was too lazy to find a way to change it. So - it's like July 26th. I have had so many ideas for blog posts/pictures since my last post in April and guess what? I can't remember half of the ideas, although I'm sure they would have made anybody who still reads this blog laugh/cry, but I still have the pictures. I never finished adding the rest of my pictures from the Oregon Coast when we were there with Adam's family and you're going to see them now:

This was the view from the beach house we stayed out. I loved looking out at seeing the coast every morning! This is Haystack Rock. Does anybody need me to explain why I was possessed by a constant desire to watch Goonies while we were on vacation? If so, see me after class....

Every morning, Adam and I would try to get up for low tide so that we could walk around the rocks and tide pools. The getting up early was no small feat for either of us - just ask my co-workers or anyone who's ever known Adam. It was so worth it though!

I went a little crazy taking pictures of all of the starfish and anemones that we saw on the rocks and in the tide pools so I thought I'd include one and spare you the rest.

Yes! The one sunny day with blue sky we had! We even waded in the water for about 5 mins and that was about all I could take. We bought some cheap kites had a blast flying them on the beach. I should have gotten a picture of the kites - the most hideous I've ever seen...

Here's Adam holding on to his kite and the demonstrating the reflection capabilities of his jacket. We were lucky enough to catch this gorgeous sunset - sorry you get me in the picture with the sunset.

We had such a great time with Adam's family! Thanks again!

April Showers

Oh my.  It's been awhile.  If I'm not mistaken, today is the last day of April - how time flies.  I've noticed that the older I get, the quicker time goes.  That seems unfair.  Maybe if I had a shorter commute or got up earlier in the morning, it wouldn't feel that way.  Maybe if I organized my time and used something like a planner, it wouldn't feel that way.  But I'd have to find the time to either make or buy a planner and if I don't already have one, how will I set aside the time to do that?  Also, I'm telling you right now that the getting up earlier in the morning will only happen sporadically.  I don't have kids to wake me in the morning and I'm going to make the most of that.  So....what have Jen and Adam been doing?  This will not be in order of importance:  

 - Killing weeds in our yard with copious amounts of weed-killing lawn fertilizer

 - Driving to our places of employment

 - Working at our places of employment

 - Doing stuff for our church callings

 - Doing laundry

 - Reading: Adam - Huck Finn, programming books, Uncertainty 

    Jen - The White Tiger, Harry Potter (again - I know it's nerdy), The Road

 - Replacing the alternator in Adam's car - that was an awesome little surprise

 - Mentally spending our kick-a&% tax return

 - Planning a trip to Italy (we're really going to do it this time)

 - Watching Lost every Wednesday and bemoaning the fact that we got sucked into it

 - Watching the Office and 30 Rock on Thursday

 - Eating Adam's mom's delicious Easter dinner

 - Wishing my mom and dad a happy anniversary (thanks for getting married!)

 - Trying to stick to some sort of exercise plan (tonight it was a power walk)

 - Making fools of ourselves over Liam

 - Waiting to see where Collin goes to law school

 - Spending five wonderful days with Adam's family in Portland & Cannon Beach!

So, yeah, that's what we've been up to!  I'm going to conclude with my pics from day one of the Oregon trip.  Adam and I flew in on Thursday night and spent the night at his sister Jenny's apartment.  On Friday, we went and hiked Multnomah Falls.  Then we had lunch, drove by the house where he spent his adolescence, and met up with the rest of his family to go to the Tulip Fest and then shopping at the outlets.  The hike almost killed me, but it was so worth it!  Dad - enjoy!

             

I'm trying to be better about updating my blog so as to be the favorite daughter.  Here's an update about the last two weeks in Jen and Adam's world:

Major Event #1:  Adam's Birthday

What a beautiful day!  Saturday the 14th was warm and sunny.  We hosted a little birthday lunch in Adam's honor with his immediate family and Collin (who was going solo while Tianna visited family in AZ).  It was my first hosting event in the new house and since it consisted of pizza and Marie Callender's pie, I'd say it was a success.  I think this may have been Adam's favorite present:

No - that's not an announcement.  I just realized that might be misleading.  We got his brother Ben a Disney Princess Diary for Christmas this year and he decided to exact his revenge.  Sigh.

Another year older.  I really can't believe that Adam used to look like this:

What a handsome sandwich! 

Major Event #2: Wende's Birthday/St Patrick's Day

I couldn't be with her on her birthday of course, but it sounded like a great day.  I really can't express how much I love and admire my big sister.  I think that about 60% of who I am comes from growing up with her playing "Carol and Diana" and "What's for Lunch," making up and acting out plays such as "The Death of the Mailman in the Kitchen," begging her to tear herself away from her book and play Barbies with me.  That's just the tip of the iceberg.  I love our relationship now and how we can talk about anything and everything and frequently do!  Happy Birthday, Kitten!  

I tried to take part in some sort of celebration for Wende and St Pat and and so we went to my friend Nicole's annual Leprechaun Frolic.  Nicole needs to do event planning.  Her parties are amazing and she doesn't lack in enthusiasm:

That about does it for major events.  The rest of the time has been spent working, doing our taxes, house cleaning inside and out, etc, etc, etc.  We just found out this morning that Adam gets to teach Gospel Doctrine and I am the new RS secretary.  Yeah, third time's a charm - I apparently didn't get it right the first two times and still need to grow in this calling.  We'll see how that goes.  I'm reading Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier again.  I love that book.  I've read it like a dozen times and it never gets old to me.  Mrs Danvers is the creepiest of housekeepers and I can relate so much to the awkward, gauche heroine without a name.  If you've never read it, do.  If you don't read, the movie isn't bad either.  I'd like to conclude this with the latest Liam pics.  He has definitely perfected his stare.  Until the next time I post - let's hope it's before April.  

                                             

 

Beware the Ides of March

That title has nothing to do with this post. My sister and I were discussing that phrase and neither on of us knew what it meant. If anyone can tell me, I'll send them a candy bar...or something like that. If anyone actually reads this blog post it will be miraculous since my dad informed me that if I wait this long between posts, no one will check my blog and I won't have any more friends and I'll be alone at 80 years old. I always thought I go my dramatic streak from my mom...hmmm. So, okay, life has changed a little bit since January. For starters, my brother and sister moved into our house with us in February. They're between gigs right now since Collin is waiting to hear from law schools. It's been great to have them. I was a little nervous, but it's so fun to see them when we come home from work, etc. Since they will most likely not be staying here for law school, it's also great that we get to spend the last few months they're around seeing them every day. Liam is another bonus - so cute. And so entertaining in church!

What else? There were some lay-offs in Adam's office to remind us that no one is invulnerable to a really bad economy. Luckily, he made it through and it doesn't look as though there will be any more in the near future. Whew!

I am excited for spring and, this is for you, Wende, am excited to celebrate Adam's AND my sister's birthdays this month. Hooray for birthdays! If anyone has any suggestions for good things to plant in your yard for a dry climate, let me know. My mother will stare at this sentence in disbelief, but I'm so excited to work in my yard! Last but not least, after a long delay....here are some pics of the new house - we still love it!


So this is what our house looks like from the back yard (I should have stood a little further back).
Note the extremely random little look out balcony from the main floor. Adam and I have decided that this will be where our kids will go for "time-out." We may also use it to host neighborhood theatricals...I'm thinking Romeo and Juliet balcony scene - sans cleavage.


And a few shots of our cute back yard. I just realized I really don't have any of the interior from after we moved in. I'll work on that...


Adam's birthday is this Saturday! It's cool that I'm younger than him...

First Things First....

You know those movies where they try to do too much and everything seems really chaotic and disjointed? This is one of those posts. We've got a lot of ground to cover, people!

Item One - Cindy's Wedding

My dear friend Cindy got married in December. Our other dear friend Jess couldn't be there, but I promised Jess I would post some pics so that she could see what a gorgeous bride Cindy was. Here we go:


The pictures don't do her justice (mainly because they're so dark). She was a beautiful bride!

Item Two - We are all moved into our house and unpacked! I'd show you pics, but I still need to take some and we've been far too busy shoveling snow this past week for me to feel like it. I will soon. We're loving the house and all the space. I'm cleaner when it's my own house - go figure.

Item Three - Christmas in Ro-cha-cha with my family! Everybody made it out there this year and it was so wonderful to be able to spend so much time with everyone. Now I get to play the proud auntie once again:

I hope my dad's not mad that I included him too, but it's a cute one of Connor and I felt particularly satisfied with the set of John Wayne movies I gave my dad this year for Christmas (which he is holding in the picture). Many moons ago, my family and I were getting ready to go somewhere, and I was told to go downstairs and let dad know we were ready to go. He was watching a John Wayne movie downstairs and I just went over and turned the TV off without a thought. He was extremely indignant and said, "What did you do that for? I wanted to hear what that old Indian had to say!" He can now hear all the wise words from that old Indian and can even rewind them.

The last one isn't the cutest one that I have of Aiden, but he was such a fun playmate while we were back there, and everytime I look at this picture, I just miss him! Anyway, it was a grand old time. We enjoyed every minute of pizza and wings, garbage plates, keeping the boys entertained, Christmas, etc.

Item Four - New Year's! We had a great time with Adam's family once we got back into town. His sister Jenny was able to stay a few days longer so we were able to see her too! We had the best chicken cordon bleu I've ever had and some nice tennis and boxing sessions on the Wii. I won at Scattegories. It's no big deal.

Whew! That was a lot. For those of you who were able to make it through this post, I thank you for your time. After the holiday rush, it's nice to get back to a routine and make some empowering resolutions for the new year. I recently rediscovered Dolly Parton's "Light of the Clear Blue Morning" song. Years ago, I used to listen to it when I needed a pick me up. It's maybe a little cheesy, and something I shouldn't admit to liking but I feel like I could hike Mt Everest whenever I listen to it. It was a good way to start the new year and you should listen to it on youtube or something for a quick fix. I feel no shame. I also like Timbaland's "The Way I Are." It's called being well-rounded - sheesh.