Airy Voices

"He is ne'er crowned with immortality who fears to follow where airy voices lead." John Keats said that - did anyone catch the movie "Bright Star" this year? If you haven't seen it, check it out on Netflix or however you view movies. Warning: It's sad, but so, so beautiful! And if you haven't guessed yet, it's about the life of John Keats. This is not a quote from the movie, but one I actually read a long time ago that was quoted in the L.M. Montgomery novel, "Emily Climbs." If you've read any L.M. Montgomery, we'll probably be friends or at least we'll have something to talk about. Anyway, I've always been intrigued by the quote. What exactly are these airy voices? Are they the random, beautiful thoughts/inclinations that swiftly enter and leave one's mind? How do I follow them when they pass so quickly? Does this mean I need to be more spontaneous? I'm going to factor this into my new year's resolutions once I make them, which will hopefully be relatively soon as it's New Year's Day.

So, the new picture at the top of my blog is a picture of Adam and I in Siena, in the Tuscany region of Italy. We went there the first week of November in part to celebrate our second anniversary. Yes, we made it two years! Now can I start giving out marital advice or do I still ne

ed more experience? I meant to blog about this sublime, am-I-really-here trip that we took, but I got busy. Sorry - I should have a better excuse, but I don't. If you'd like to view the photos I took with my running commentary, view here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/zundelje/ItalyTripNov2009?feat=directlink

We went to Florence for four days and to Venice for two days. It was my first European experience and I loved every minute of it. The highlights for me: our nightly gelato runs, walking through the Sienese Duomo, and seeing Michelangelo's David. I loved all three cities we stopped in, and I can't wait to go back!

But this post is not about Italy. It's not even a catch-up post, really, or at least I didn't intend it to be. It's more just a friendly, "hi, it's been awhile" post. We had a great Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday run. I love Thanksgiving and Christmas! I love the long weekends and vacation days that allow me to catch my breath after busy work deadlines and Christmas parties. I have mixed feelings about Christmas parties this year, especially when I essentially had three work Christmas parties this year. Another potluck - really? I also love the feeling on New Year's Day when you realize that the holiday craziness is past and that normal routines will set in again. I like routine...For awhile. I like making new year's resolutions. Starting today, Adam and I are giving up refined sugar - again. I want to last at least a month. I'm putting this in my blog post as to document the start and create greater accountability. But I have just one question. Does today count? It is a holiday after all.

So, for Christmas this year, I got a new nephew and new experience in building snow caves. Adam is reliving his Boy Scout past this week. We've built caves in our yard and in Adam's parents' yard. The one in his parents' yard is over 6' and has not been fully excavated yet. I have a feeling I know what the rest of my day will hold. Mom and Dad, here are some pictures from the last little while:

Christmas Day 2009 - note the copious amounts of snow outside

My first gingerbread house ever - mine is the far left and also the most structurally unstable

Adam's brother, mom, and sister creating their masterpieces

Adam in the snow cave in our yard

Adam and Jen preparing to build the second snow cave - note the head flashlights, a present from Adam's mom. Adam looks like he could rob a bank

As you can see, our Christmas decorations really added something to a drab living room that I've been meaning to decorate. I'm really going to miss them!

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!