Good Medicine.

There are a few things that I've decided are good medicine for me:

1.) Family

2.) Friends

3.) The Gospel

4.) and... Planning a dang good party.

I was able to take a quick trip down to Rexburg for Savanna's 26th birthday party. We decided to throw the cutest little black and white party. This is the set up I came up with the help of some great little bar tenders.

Really though.. I think that I should start bar tending on the weekends or something because I would totally get great tips; even the sober people were diggin' my drinks!..oh wait, we were all sober :) That's the best part!

We had a cute set up, a good turn out and a great time. It's insane how much I find joy in planning...it's sickening actually.

But the weekend was spent with great medicine. I mean, I wasn't with my family, but I was with friends who are like family. It was a weekend spent with a bunch of my closest friends which is always a good time in my book. Lets not forget to mention that I got to see Mandy Atwood!! To say that I'm totally obsessed with that girl is an understatement. It's funny that we hadn't seen each other for two years but things was just the same as it was when she left. She will always be a BFF of mine. I love that woman and the fact that she was able to become instant friends with all of mine! On Friday Hyrum and I took her to meet Alex and his roommates and Flo and Janna and some other people that I didn't really know.. we caught up with each others lives, played games I can't even pronounce the name of, ran, danced around, witnessed an intense missionary tag collision and laughed like crazy. That on top of the birthday party made it an all-around good weekend with people I love followed with the ever so familiar drive back to reality, which, as depressing as it sounds, is always necessary.

....there are some changes coming around the corner for me..personal things that I should have done/fixed a while ago. I'm feeling better already :) Stay tuned.

No more sleeping in...

I don't know what I did to my BB to make it hate me, but the last 4 mornings it's decided to not wake me up. I don't know what's wrong with it. I need to take it to the cellular phone Dr but I just don't have the time and I feel dumb. I mean, I should be able to work my freaking alarm clock on my Blackberry... I've been doing it for 3 years on two different models. I just don't get why it decided to stop working now. I must have done something with the setting...

But luckily my body wakes itself up with minutes to spare so I'm not "late" to work. However, this morning was breaking point. I miraculously woke myself up at 7:11 am, jumped in the shower, dried my hair while simultaneously brushed my teeth, got dressed AND managed to slap on some make up and was out of the door by 7:30 because I had a live event running at our corporate headquarters at 8:00. I made it just in time.

One thing that I hate is being late....soooo I gave in and bought my first alarm clock of my very own. Sad, right? I've just always used my cell phone and before that always had my mommy to wake me up. Here she is:

She's not much and I'm a little nervous about her. I mean, what if she's not reliable..more like, What if I set her wrong?

Don't worry though, I changed my whole room around so she'd have a proper place to sit next to my bed! I think she and I will get along. Let's hope.

Lots of Changes and Good Times To Come

Things have been super crazy the last couple of weeks with work and Jamie's Wedding. I really haven't even been able to breathe. I looked at the calendar today (granted I look at my calendar everyday) and noticed that it's the 15th of SEPTEMBER. That means it's the middle of the month which means I'm going to Rexburg next weekend for this girl's birthday:

I'm helping her to plan a little get together.. It's a week away so I realized today that we need to really get on it to have e-vites out by Saturday! I'm sure it will be something marvelous!

Since it's the 15 of September it also means that Bud aka Elder Coleman Wade Hansen aka my favorite missionary/boy/brother in the ENTIRE WORLD is coming home in three months. That's less than 100 days. I can hardly stand it. I just miss him so stinking much. I'm starting to have dreams about seeing him at the airport and getting one of his super big bear hugs and then talking about music and cool shenanigans until we are blue in the face. Seriously, I love him:

omg.. this pic explains it all :)

But I think that the Wedding is definitely bloggable material. The photographer said that pictures won't be done for three weeks (who knows why)...But we took this one at the Temple for Cole since he couldn't be there and since EVERY picture he sends us has him doing the whole "hang loose" thing! we love it.

I could go on forever about all of the happenings of this weekend but I will try to sum it all up the best I can. I will just say that I know my mom was ready for me to head back to Utah before the Wedding even started. It's not a secret that I have weird quirks. I just like to have things a certain way and I'm a bit of a ..well.. control freak. SO when it was time for decorating Friday morning, there were some tense moments, some angry/snappy words and glares exchanged. However, when the decorating was complete on Friday, Mom and I (with the help of Sherri Roche and Dad) put together a really cute set up for the reception.

We of course learned some great lessons from the whole weekend and the planning process that goes into a wedding when you have people in different states trying to put one together.

1.) communication is ALWAYS key

2.) always trust "the list"

3.) Tablecloths are a BIG deal.. I promise (this was surprisingly the source of mom and my headache on Friday.)

4.)Flowers, although super expensive, are the most important decor.. which we successfully went out with a bang. They were SLAMMIN' :) ..thank you Nyssa Floral.

5.) Transporting cake is not an easy task

6.) Break in your new heels before the big day

I could go on and on but I don't want to bore anyone. I also don't want to offend anyone by going into the little hiccups that we had the morning of the wedding. I look at it now and just bust up laughing (sorry Jamie but it's too darn funny.) We'll just say it included two right shoes, funky bangs, a left behind slip and some tears. I will add that all of these things seemed to be huge at the time but I was able to keep my cool (i think) and each of them were taken care of. Minor hiccups.

The second I saw them walk out of the temple holding hands and smiling..none of the little hiccups mattered and it was smooth sailing. They are sealed for time and all eternity!! We had a small group at the temple but it was a perfect small group of people we love. I can't explain how beautiful Jamie was and how happy they are together. It's kind of sickening.. in the best way possible! Breathtaking you might say.

The reception was great as well--simple and great. I think the best part for me was knowing that I helped to make it happen! I had a couple of friends from the ward tell me they want to hire me for their daughters wedding.. haha!! I would so help for funzies. I think it's less stressful doing it for someone who's not in your family. I don't know why.. OK, yeah I do!

We had great food at the reception (thanks to Dad, Costco and Black Canyon's Pies..mmm). Lots of people came, we had so much great help from friends and family and we had a lot of fun! I don't know how many pictures I will be in at the reception since I was running around playing hostess and what not but I had fun. We were all dead tired by the end.. I mean dead tired (we didn't even make it to church the next day) I know.. so bad. But It was great! I can't wait for pictures to come back.

Most importantly-- it's official.. we have two new additions to our small family. James and Regan, my first niece. She's 14 so it's a big change for us, but it's still fun. Now, i'm house sitting and staying with her for the week while Jamie and James are in St. Lucia for their honeymoon (LUCKY!) So we're getting some bonding time. ...Lots of Justin Beiber and Miley Cyrus up in here but it's good :)

NBD..

I was flipping through the channels today and decided to watch "My Big Fat Greek Wedding." I hadn't seen it in a long time and I forgot how funny it is! I especially got a kick out of the intro of the movie... The father tells his daughter that she's getting old and she needs to get married. Now, I'm not saying that my Dad has done this to me. On the contrary.. he's never even mentioned it except for the time I told him that I'd maybe like to serve a mission and he replied with "you should get married instead...." Thanks Dad?

I'm sure any single, normal mormon girl can totally relate to the daughter in the movie as she goes on to say the following (Please note that I nixed the word "Greek" that she uses and replaced it with "Mormon."

She says: "...Because nice Mormon girls are supposed to do three things in life: marry a mormon boy, make mormon babies, and feed everyone.....until the day we die."

HAHA. I'm not complaining... It's totally a good plan. I'm just a little touchy about the subject because since my older sister is getting married.. a handful of people have come up to asking, "When are you going to get married?" or "Well Jenn, you're next...right?!"

Seriously??? You need to step off and get off my back, yo! If I was really concerned about it at all I would agree to an arranged marriage or something....

Oh wait, we don't do those.... HA!

And for the record--I'm only 22! Thanks people :)

Eat, Pray, Love.

Finally saw Eat, Pray, Love tonight. I knew it was going to be an inspiring one.

I wouldn't necessarily say that I really believe in the importance of the whole going on a "spiritual journey" or taking time out to "find yourself." BUT I am a firm believer that everyone needs to know who they are and what they stand for. So if that means you have to pick up everything and get out for a while then I'm all for it. It's important that we work towards becoming our best self. And honestly, I would LOVE to do everything that Julia did in the movie....

We've all felt like we weren't going in the right direction before and because we are all so unique we experience this in completely different ways. The whole time I was watching the movie I kept thinking about the fact that I've graduated from college and moved straight into this new place where I don't know anyone and I've gone straight into a job that I really do enjoy (no matter how stressful it is right now) But I can't help but think, Did I leave anytime to travel and see the world? Am I settling for safe when I know that I meant for something great? Do I like the road I'm heading down?

Anyone who knows me will agree that I'm a little on the obsessive compulsive side when it comes down to a lot of things. Trust me, I don't necessarily like this annoying trait about myself but the fact of the matter is that I am who I am.

There's a part at the beginning of the movie where Julia is in Rome with a new group of friends and they talk about how each city can be described with one obvious word. Julia is then asked what she believes her word is. This would be a word that really describes you and your life.

It's possibly that this hit me so hard because I was faced with this yesterday at work as I was trying to answer the question, "what do you enjoy in your spare time?" I spent a good 30 minutes worried about the picture I was going to submit (had to look good since it was going out to ALL Franklin Covey employees) and the one sentence I was going to use that described Jennifer Hansen. I knew that it had to be good because I wanted everyone to take me seriously as their meeting planner. I honestly don't know why I was so worried about it and why I had such a hard time doing it.

Then came the part of the movie when someone said "Maybe you're a woman in search of your word..." I really feel like that is the stage that I am at in my life. I know that I am a daughter of God and that I have great potential. But I think that I'm still searching for my word. I don't think that I have to drop everything and take a trip by myself to Rome, India and Bali for a year to figure it out (as much as I would LOVE that) but I know that there are so many different adventures to be had in my life as I try to figure out my "word."

I don't know if that make sense when I type it out but it makes sense to me... Oh and I even tried to do the whole "Silence" thing where you take the peaceful route of just being and not talking.. every thing is supposed to be calm. Well, I lasted about 5 minutes. I would have lasted longer but Jamie threatened to throw my BlackBerry out the window. This just proves that so many people get wrapped up in material things and virtual relationships(I'm one of the worst) that we forget to open up our pretty little eyes and pay attention to the things that really matter. This has really been bothering me about myself and it's totally time for a change. I think I'm really going to start meditating or something. I need it. There's too much crap that goes on up in my brain.. It would be beneficial for me I think.

This was a random post but for some reason I can't wrap up how mind blowing this was for me...

EAT, PRAY, LOVE

September?

OK, check it. Summer is pretty much over. I busted out the cardigan today for work and wore it the whole day (granted I wore a short skirt and sandals, but still). Tomorrow is officially September which means we are one step closer to breaking out the Fall decor and hoodie/cardi/sweater shopping. Bring on the fall-wear!

September also means three big things:

#1. It's the last month of the VA training surge at work. Don't worry that I will be handling/planning the logistics of 200 VA events. It's big. Things have gotten so crazy at work but thank goodness I have wonderful assistants. They rock my work.

#2. Alex is leaving tomorrow. Don't worry, I told him I'm not going to throw a tantrum as I sent him out the door will a 24 pack of Diet Pepsi..But I'll admit I'm a little emotional about it. When he came I had just moved into my new apartment so I was starting fresh anyways, so basically I just had a month delay of going back to where I was at the beginning of the summer when I didn't have a job or any friends in the area... But this time I'm still starting fresh but from a good place with a secure job. I have an apartment that I love, a great roommate that I'm still getting to know and I'm starting to go to a ward that I think I'm really going to enjoy. So I'm thinking that this time I'm really going to have to make an effort and I'm OK with that because I know I'm in a good place. So watch out!

#3.. and this is the BIG one. WEDDING PLANS. I was talking to my mom today and we realized that we really only have 11 days to get all of these wedding plans complete. I told mom that this wedding is really a reflection on my planning skills but really people, don't judge too hard! We're planning a wedding that is going to take place in Idaho while mom is there and Jamie and I are in Utah. We're going to make it chill and darn it, we are going to look good and have fun! I told mom that we would bring it all together the Friday before and my job is going to be DETAILS, DETAILS, DETAILS (which I just can't help) and my other thing is to "make sure things don't look ghetto!" I think my mom was offended by that comment because she was all "OH, you think I'd make it ghetto?" hahaha oh mom!

But It's been confirmed that I'm totally a planner. I love this. I love detail. Give me a pen and a piece of paper or my Blackberry for that matter and I will go through EVER second of the event and I'll have every detail dowwwwwn..from traffic control to the silverware holder!

....I'm just glad Jamie is getting married first so it will ease mom into it for when it's my turn!

whew.. 11 days... So much to do!!!

Events.

This week I've been helping my friend Alex with the sale (we like to call it an "event,") that he was in charge of putting together. The sale was today and since I had some prior engagements I had to attend to, I was only able to go to the sale for about an hour this morning. But Jamie and I wanted to make sure we were there to see the final product all put together...This little Gem of a quilt was her "must buy" item of the morning! :)

I could go on forever about all of the cool stuff at the sale and how much fun Alex and I had rummaging for the old stuff but I won't. Just take my word for it! Really though, this old house and school will go down as a highlight of my summer.

This is a pic of some of the stuff in a room Alex staged for the Event--I have to give him a big shout out.. It was awesome.

After the event Jamie and I drove to Glenns Ferry for a Bridal Show at Grammy Stump's. It was so much fun spending time with all of the Aunts, Grandma, my mom and especially this little cutie...

This is my baby cousin MaKenzie. She is pretty much one of the cutest babies EVER. Remember cabbage patch dolls? Well, she's WAY cuter! .. I just need to find someone who will love my chubby cheeks and thighs like we all love hers :) haha. Really though, she's adorable!

OMG.

I will be the first to admit that I like gifts. I'm also a fan of unexpected gifts! Alex showed up for the RHWNJ finale yesterday with a "Hunchback of Notre Dame" gift bag in hand. I opened the card and it said, "sometimes friends don't need a reason for gifts." I pulled the yellow tissue paper back and before I could make out what the object was I said, "OMG!" I pulled the object out of the bag and realized it was a mug with my favorite candy in it! I turned the mug around and it simply read "OMG" in black letters right across the front. hahaha, really though.. great gift--He knows me too well!

Laughing.

There are so many different stories I could write about from my experiences this weekend. Really though, I think it can be summed up with "Laughter." There are just some people who can make me laugh more than anyone else. I mean it. People who can cause you to laugh so much that your stomach hurts well after the night is over. That happened this weekend.

The topic came up about laughter because we were laughing so hard that we starting laughing about the way we were laughing.. if that makes sense. For a minute I thought that I probably need to control my laughter because #1.) I'm super loud and it sometimes embarrasses the people I'm with. #2.) Sometimes I start shaking really hard sometimes causing spillage of drinks I may be holding at the time and#3.) Other people sometimes think I've been drinking or smoking things that I've never drank or smoked!!

For example: our waiter, Pepe, last night asked me what kind of Cigarette I had been smoking. Really? Can't a girl just laugh her natural laugh without having to worry about toning it down?

Like I care though.... Mary Poppins taught me not to!!

Mr. & Mrs. Andrus

McKenzie and Austin's wedding reception was absolutely gorgeous. It was such a cool experience watching them walk out of the temple sealed for time and all eternity to her love!! Of course, I immediately started to cry when I saw them walk out, but it was only because they are such a happy gorgeous couple.. and it didn't help that I asked Austin how he felt and he said, "I am the happiest i've ever been." Seriously, so cute.

I forgot my camera but megan should be posting some pics soon. But a good wrap up of the whole night: We stayed all night. I couldn't stop starring at the darling couple. I didn't catch the bouquet (some little girls did.. wtf?) McKenzie has a hot uncle. I was in the slide show (but they were pics from HS..can you say chubbbbbby?). I only cried a little. They cut the cake while I yelled, "kiss her already!" Really.. it was such a fun night. Perfect reception!