Moms are cool.

This weekend Mama Linda was able to come and visit!  It was a short trip for a little over 24 hours and kind of last minute, but we're so glad she was able to come.  I've said it a million times, but my mom is the best.  She really loves her kids more than anything.  I admire a lot of things about her but I think that is one of my favorite things.  She'd do anything for us and would rather spend time with us than do anything else.  She'd also rather spend money on us than herself.  I haven't quite fully understood that one yet.  I'm sure if I'm ever blessed to be a mother then I will fully get it someday. 

I love that she loves us, and I also love that she's so fun and seriously has the soften skin.  Yes, that sounds weird but I always want to remember that my mom has the silkiest skin of any human being i've ever met.  I even made Cole and Kier touch her face in the middle of Cheesecake Factory yesterday.  They agreed.  She also doesn't really have hair on her silky soft arms really and that also makes me jealous. hahaha moving on.

We took mom to see the Saratov Approach (the movie about those two LDS missionaries who were captured in Russia) and it was so good!  I'm pretty sure it's only playing in Utah, but if you get the chance when it comes to DVD, you should watch it.  I really admire those men.  In fact, I admire missionaries in general who choose to leave their families to serve the Lord and preach the gospel to the world.  A lot of missionaries are sent to really sketchy areas or just knock on a lot of nice doors with sketchy people behind them, but they go and they do what the Lord has called them to do.  I can only hope that I can be that faithful and strong someday.  I know I didn't serve a mission, but maybe I will have a son or daughter someday who chooses to serve, and I will have to have faith and be strong enough to let them go and to trust that the Lord is going to take care of them.   

....seriously, I could go on and on about how grateful I am to be a Latter-day Saint and about missionaries and all the blessings I have, but I won't.  Just see the movie if you can!

We spent the rest of our time with mom shopping at city creek, eating out, and just hanging out at Cole and Kier's house.  I really do have the perfect family for me.  We aren't always patient sometimes, but we are so close of a family that we just get over it,  we talk about it, or we call each other out on our bull.  It just works.  It's the Hansen way.

 

oh, oh, oh! I almost forgot that we are throwing a Halloween Party and C&K's house the day after halloween and I'm SO excited for it.  We finished getting the rest of the stuff for our costumes and it's going to be great. We also started decorating their cute old farm house with orange lights and cob webs that mom supplied us with. It should be lots of fun.  Halloween is my favorite time of the year so I'm just really excited for the festivities this week.  

ew.  But I'm a little apprehensive about going to the new ward by myself today.  This could quite possibly be the worst part about moving so much as a single adult.  

Pray for me.  

new living space (pics to come)

I was going to wait until I could actually post some pictures of the new apartment to blog about it but since it isn't all the way decorated it's just going to have to wait.  Things have been a little interesting the last few days. I had the best help moving out of the old apartment and into the new one.  Moving is hard work!  I spent all last week packing and cleaning the old apartment whilst being a little sick and dreading Saturday when we'd have to move it all.  Well, people, it's finally over.  I seriously have the best family and friends.  They help me move and they don't even complain or make me feel bad for it.. even though I know it's miserable and they might hate me a little for it.  It's whatever.  They are champs though.  We did the entire move in two and a half hours! Record time.  I ended up doing over 50 flights of stairs and did 15,000 steps that day. So people who helped...you really deserved that pizza payment.  Really though, my fitbit was loving me but my body really wasn't.  Oh well, that's the life of the single nomad.  You know, moving place to place and not really knowing what's going on with life...the usual.  

I counted the other day and this is the 5th place I've lived in Utah since I graduated in April 2010.  Granted, I was in a couple of middle places as a post grad for a while until I found a job and figured out where I needed to be.  So I guess it's really been three official apartments now. This time is the first time since BYU-Idaho that I've lived with another girl, though.  That's going to be the biggest change I think.  Right now we are just figuring it all out.  We've both had roommates before but we were both in school at the time.  So now that we just "work" it's kind of interesting.  We'll figure it out, but I'm glad that I have a good roommate. It will feel like home soon and we'll get the hang of it all eventually :)  I really just need Kier to help me make my room cute (hint hint.. ha!)

My room is huge and I love that part the most.  I'm getting used to not having cable too.  If you know me then you know that's a big deal for me.  I only thought once about how I missed the episode of Keeping up with the Kardashian's on Sunday (it was the baby North West episode)..I really did just think about it for a second, shrugged my shoulders and moved on.  I think this means I'm growing up?  Getting a life? I don't know, but it feels pretty good.  Now, I'm not saying that I cut out shows, though.  ha! Get real.  After breaking out in Hives from having to be rude to the Digis people, I finally got someone who knew what they were doing and got us hooked up for internet.  Thank you Hulu, Thank you Netflix, thank you Mtv.com.. thank you Internet!  Really.  I can watch pretty much all my shows online...minus the Kardashian's and a few others that I probably shouldn't even watch anyways.  It's all trash that I love.  Can we afford cable? Yes.  But we're just trying something new.  Honestly, not having the TV on as background noise has been nice.  I've been able to just "be" and think and it's been kind of nice.  We'll see how long it lasts.  It's a new adventure!

 I was talking with Nieko and Willy at separate times last weekend and we realized that moving back to main street really does just bring back some good memories.  It's back to where we all started. Sure, I'm in a different apartment complex, but it's right in the back yard of my old, old apartment when I was at Sterling Point where we all met.  Except this time it's south of the complex, away from the "Mexican border."  (I really should stop calling that but I think I told you that when I lived there I legit saw kids crawling under the fence to play on our apartment complex basketball court and it was common to be woken up on a Saturday or Sunday morning to a full blown 'fiesta' with bounce houses.  It was a good time. ..and Kind of sketch.  Ole'!).  Anyways, it kind of just made us stop and think about how much each of us has grown up.  Well, maybe not grown up.. but we're figuring things out about we who are and who we aren't more and more each year.  

People have graduated, gotten married, left the group, met new people, left on missions, tried new things, gotten closer to each other, made mistakes, moved, gotten annoyed with each other, had random crushes/significant others, been jobless, gotten new jobs..the works!  Even though last year was a really hard year for a lot of us, it was sprinkled with A LOT of good memories that we will always tie back to my second official apartment in Utah up on Highway 193.  It was a great apartment and I will miss that GINORMOUS closet dearly, but I take comfort in the fact that no matter where I go, or what things I go through, I have so many great people around me and that I'm there for a reason.  I almost left Layton thinking that I was done with it and got what I needed out of it..but it wasn't the time. I could say that it's just because the apartments were more expensive and more ghetto closer to Salt Lake but I know that it's more than that.  It always is.  I'm not sure what will come out of this next year in this new apartment but right now I feel like I'm right where I'm supposed to be...and that's a pretty good feeling :)  

Wednesday

"I've got the sugar sweats."
-Sam
Ok, so this one was said a couple of weeks ago but I found it in my notes on my phone and had to share.  Remember that time when every one of my friends made fun of me for getting a neck freeze at Sonic?  Well, they still make fun of me for it.  In fact, Chris made fun of me at Cole and Kier's wedding while eating Zepe's and I didn't even catch it.  He claimed he had a neck freeze and those are real.. I wasn't going to judge.  ANYWAYS, Sam was eating some gummy bears and he claimed that he had the "sugar sweats."  I know I shouldn't make fun but I feel like sugar sweats are less real than neck freezes are.  He also claims "meat sweats" are real. He said when he eats an access amount of mean or sugar he sweats.  I feel like he made it up.. but I googled it and there is at least one other unlucky soul with the same problem.  But I bet if we put sugar sweats up against a neck freeze, I feel like the neck freeze would be deemed more real.  They hurt.  It's a real thing.

"You have nothing to offer"
-Kiersten
Now, Nieko and Amanda would probably have to help me remember what she exactly said but this is how I remember it. What she should have done was just shot me right in the face because that's how much those words hurt.  

haha ok, I know she didn't mean it that way.  She was talking about my facebook status when I posted that anyone who found us a roommate would get paid in "smiles and Texas Roadhouse Rolls." Well, since Amanda works at Texas Roadhouse she just assumed that the thing I was offering to pay was the smiles.  GET REAL.  1.) Anyone can buy rolls from Texas Roadhouse and 2.) Who doesn't want smiles from me?  Plus, I'm funny.  That status was funny.  and 3.) You're rude. (not all the time but you were a little snippy towards only me that night for some reason.. See next quote)

"No, JENN! I'm not OK.  I almost got electrocuted." 
-Kier unleashing the wrath of Satan after being shocked.
Can we please take a moment to mention the reason she was shocked?  It happened when she decided to touch a neon white light with her bare hand.  It would be one thing if Nieko or someone convinced her to touch it, because he has a way of getting people to do dumb things, but this was all on her own.  In fact, no one was watching at all, she was just curious to see what would happen.  She just touched the neon sign under the protective plastic and instantly screamed in pain.  I was just being nice when I asked if she was OK and she yelled at me.  

We got a good laugh out of it. It was mostly funny because of what she had told me earlier.  I guess I shouldn't have even asked if she was Ok, because as we all know, I would have nothing to offer her if she truly wasn't OK.

JK.  Kier, I love you.. even when you're a meany head. 

"He had the worst breath!" -Me about the AT&T worker
"I was trying to figure out what that was.. it was like someone had the worst BO ever." -Nieko
That BO smell was legit coming out of a human mouth. The workers mouth.   The stinky, non helpful At&T worker's mouth to be exact.  Nieko and I spent the next 10 minutes after we left the store talking about his breath.  It's honestly a toss up between which makes me the most angry between his breath or the fact that my iPhone 5S just barely shipped this morning after a month of waiting around.  Gross.  What's even worse is that Nieko's Dad and brother went into that same store the day before and had the same employee helping them.  How did we know?  His foul breath.

"My phone's dead, I have to pee, and I'm going to go on a rant like Jenn"
-Neiko
So now the truth comes out!  Apparently he thinks I go on rants or something?  Rude.  HAHHAAHA jk. I rant all the time.  The comment was valid.  You should have heard this one though.  His voice was almost gone from the Utah game, it was almost 1:00 am, and we were walking downtown Salt Lake... you'd have thought he was dying.   We got a good laugh out of it.  Once he peed and stopped complaining we quickly transitioned into singing "Benny and the Jets" most of the rest of the walk to the parking garage.  

....Good times.

"You need to store at least 10 gallons of gas somewhere for when the shi(z) hits the fan." -Dad talking about disasters
"Stop saying that nasty word." 
-Mom in reference to dad saying the S word...repeatedly.
Oh I love my parents.  My Dad and I sometimes talk about what we'd do if a disaster hit and just about being prepared.  Especially with everything that's going on with the government right now..We just want to be prepared.

Well, have I ever told you why I don't let my gas tank go under a quarter of a tank? Here you go:  1.) Because it's not good for the car, obviously but 2.) What if something crazy happened and I didn't have gas and all the crazies were killing people just to get the last drops of gas from every gas station so they could get the heck out of dodge?  I would at least be able to make it to Cole and Kier's house so I wouldn't have to face whatever was happening alone. 

Am I dramatic?  We know this already.  But I need to at least have a way to get somewhere because we all know I wouldn't be able to survive at my apartment.  I don't have storage..scratch that.. I don't really have food at all.  ey yi yi.  

Dear Santa, maybe you should get me a 72 hour kit for Christmas? Maybe a gun? 

#myfathersdaughter

oh hey

It's been a week or so and the thought of blogging about my uneventful life right now seems kind of boring.  I'm not complaining though, sometimes boring is good.  Boring usually means that nothing bad is happening, right? Maybe not. I guess it just seems pathetic when it comes to writing about it. So do you want the real talk session about how everything's been this last week? I mean, aside from General Conference, which was amazing?

Here you go:

1) At work a few weeks ago we each were each gifted a Fitbit which is this little device that tracks your steps, calories burnt, and sleep each day.  Great right?  Well, if we choose to, we can be part of a team score board that shows all your steps each day along with the records of everyone else.  Nightmare.  Basically they just want us to be more aware of how much we sit in a day and they turned it into a little competition.  Well, thank you FranklinCovey for making me feel guilty for the desk job you've provided me with...

The fitbit works.  I now spend most of my nights watching my TV shows and doing ridiculous steps and exercises in front of the TV or feeling bad when I'm not up and moving.  It's pathetic.  Guess who didn't wear hers at all this weekend because of General conference though?  This girl.  "Opps. I forgot" was really just my way of saying "Yeah, like I really was going to have time to work out or walk around town while I watch all these talks.  Get real."

2) Living alone, even though I only have to do it for 2 more weeks, is hard.  Parts of me love it.  The parts where I can lounge around in whatever I want and essentially do what I want when I want REALLY loves it.  What I don't love is realizing that the only time talk at home is when I'm on the phone, have someone over, or when I accidentally talk out loud to myself (sadly, the talking to myself started happening more than I'd like to admit.)  Again, pathetic.  Also, I've realized that I feel kind of awkward when I laugh out loud over a TV show and no one else is there to join in.  This shouldn't be an issue but I find it a little embarrassing.

3.) I found myself early Sunday morning ugly crying to a 30 minute video (that I watched from start to finish) about that guy who proposed to his fiance and surprised her with a wedding in Miami that same day based on all the stuff she pinned on her wedding pinterest board.  When I said ugly crying, I meant ugggglly crying.  I shouldn't be surprised though.. my life the night before was right out of a scene from a movie where I pathetically watched "Valentine's Day" on TV and accidentally ate three too many chocolate chip cookies.  Yes, I know that Valentine's day is possibly one of the worst chick flicks and I was crying out loud to the ending...over it. Oh and for, in that same night, reading all 157 comments on a blog post from "The Weed" (a gay Mormon blogger, who's sealed in the temple to a women).. it's whatever.  I really should get points for noticing what I was doing and for getting up and doing jumping jacks and other active things to get me to snap out of it.   Kier told me it wasn't healthy but I've decided that Saturday night-Sunday morning was a teensy-weensy low point.  

I'm convinced we all need one of those nights from time to time.  It's alllllll goooood :) 

4.)  General Conference--Ok, I guess this deserves a bullet point from the week because it was the best thing that happened.  I'm always amazed at the things I learn every time I watch general conference or read the talks later down the road.  I wrote down so many great things that I learned. I think the biggest thing that was testified to me is that I am a daughter of my Heavenly Father and he loves me.. no matter what.  I've always known this but I think sometimes we mess up or we get lost for a bit and we think that we aren't as deserving but I know that God's love is always there. Life will get hard but as the Prophet, Thomas S. Monson advised us that we should endure through the sunshine and the sorrow.  Along with that, one of my favorite quotes from the conference was from Elder Holland who said "If the bitter cup does not pass, drink it up and be strong."  Life will get hard sometimes and we will have trials that we feel no one else will understand.. but the Savior does.  He's cheering for us and wants us to learn and grow from our trials.  All he asks us to do is to work hard, keep enduring and include him in everything we do.  You need a quote from a non LDS member too that will back it up?  Thank you Ms. Kelly Clarkson.. "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger" :) 

Don't give up.

5.) Oh yeah, Amanda and I turned in our deposit for our apartment we're moving into on the 19th! I seriously can't believe that's next weekend. I need to start cleaning and getting ready! We decided to stay in Layton and we got a 3 bedroom two bathroom apartment that's super spacious.  We're both in spots in our lives where we need a change and for me, the saving money part is an exciting factor. This is going to be good;  It has to.  We want to find a third roommate to make rent even cheaper.  The only problem is that we don't really have any girl friends around here...haha.  Meh.  For some reason we feel good about finding someone.  Stay tuned for updates on that adventure.

6.) I guess the main reason why it's seemed uneventful this week is the whole government shut down.  It's the pits.  I never realized but Jamie, James, Coleman and I all work jobs that have to do with the government.  My job isn't a government job but I work on the Government Team with FranklinCovey where I plan all the training seminars on the east side of the country for the Veterans Administration.  Jamie and James work for the VA and as of tomorrow Jamie will be staying at home until this shut down is over.  James gets to go into work but won't be paid for it until the shut down is over.  It's kind of a crappy situation for both of them.  Cole works on Hill Airforce Base as a general maintenance dude but because he's contracted he's fine.  For me...?  No VA workers means no events right now.  Luckily we're locked into a contact so we're fine but it's sure made for an interesting couple of weeks here at work.  Honestly, there's only so many times you can check the news, facebook, pinterest and buzzfeed before you want to poke your eyeballs out.  OK, that was dramatic.  But really.. today my most exciting thing was buying three rolls of washi tape on Etsy. haha  It will get better..we just have to be here and deal with some slow boring days until the shut down is over.

Oh how bitter sweet it is working with the government :) 

That's the update.  Things should get exciting here soon with the new apartment and my favorite holiday right around the corner!  Fingers crossed.  

Boring or not.. Life is good :)