Fun./Steel Train

I'd been waiting for concert since I purchased the tickets in July; that's a long time. Kenzie and I made a day out of it and did some light shopping/dinner at the Gateway before heading to the concert. I even ran into Flo and Janna in the bathroom at the mall. It was magical.

Concert time finally rolled around. We finally found places to park our cars and made our way to the Venue. There was a crazy rap/ghetto/sketchy concert going on right next door and well, long story short, Kenzie and I weren't in the right line for about 30 minutes and no one told us. They were frisking people hardcore to get into this concert for something called "Nicatina?" .. something like that. We were totally out of our element but we loved it.

We finally got into the line we were supposed to be in and from there and everything was great. I had two extra tickets and so I gave them to the bf/gf combo behind us. They didn't have tickets yet and I thought, well.. these would just be going to waste, so why not make their night?? I should have at least asked for 20 bucks.. but, I'm nice like that! I'm sure I made their night. I don't get too many opportunities for service lately so.. there you go! It totally counts. So we made a couple of friends :)

The concert was a blast. I'm a little bummed that the lights were so crazy cool that my pics really didn't turn out but I took video! Here's what it was all about:

Things I will admit:

1.) I love both of these bands and they are both great live.

2.) Lead singer of Fun., Nate, is Hot in a ball cap... Especially with his swoopy bangs.

3.) Pretty sure Nate has a bob hair cut..and it works for him.

4.) Fun. had the greatest "Fun." sign that changed colors!

5.) I'm in love with Jack Antonoff, Lead singer of Steel Train and guitar/song writer for Fun. He is one of the best Live performers I've ever seen. Really. He knows how to put on a stellar show. He was jumping like crazy (even in his skinny skinny jeans), does face melting guitar solos, and has amazing pipes. There was one point where he chucked a tambourine.. great show. He was just as great with Fun. as well! Again...LoVe!

Videos will be posted on my facebook page!!

I really shouldn't be allowed to watch TV...

Whenever I have to book a hotel in a new city, I always jump on google maps. Today at work I needed to find a new hotel in the Manhattan area and this is what came up on the screen:


The first thing I noticed... "The Upper East Side." So, being a Gossip Girl fan I spent about 10 minutes scoping out the area. I even caught myself thinking "S and B live there and Dan lives wayyyyy over there" and "Oh LOOK, there's Columbia...not to far for them to take the cab each morning to school."

Ridiculous.

It's like sometimes thinking that I'm really friends with some of the Housewives, or really caring about what happens on 90210 or crying at least once EVERY time I watch The Biggest Loser...

I really shouldn't be allowed to watch TV...

Mom weekend!

This weekend the madre came for a weekend of fun. Aka: Shopping, movies and eating out. Oh and we did Frightmares for the first time. I love everything about my mom being here. I spent most of the weekend trying to convince her that she and dad need to just move to Utah since Cole is most likely going to come to SLC when he gets off the mish in December, meaning that all of her children are here. Of course, Dad would never go for it but it's worth a try!

Highlights of the weekend:

1.) Shopping at Tai Pan. Mom is obsessed with ribbon.. Especially Christmas ribbons. Well, there was one point in our Tai Pan trip (in the midst of each of us picking a new theme for our Christmas tree decor) where mom picked up a spool of red and green christmas ribbon only to have Jamie grab for it (she was hungry and wanted to leave) and mom slapped her hand away. Funny. Well, of course Jamie has to finish the fight (if you can call it that) so she picked up a spool of ribbon and chucked it at my mom. Of course, Jamie thought mom would catch it and didn't mean to hurt her or anything but instead it hit her right in the face. omg! Although funny, it was completely embarrassing. Hansen girls are not the most quiet people in the world and we tend to make a scene where ever we go. But really, try having everyone in Tai pan stopping their Christmas decor shopping and starring at you inches from calling the cops with claims of domestic violence.

2.) Frightmares. I love everything about fall and Halloween and Frightmares really sums up my love for it. I love the fog, the orange lights, the screams, the candy apples, the harvest smells and of course, the creepy people. The only thing I didn't like was that I was with a bunch of chickens. This meant that I had to lead the pack through the haunted houses.. Mom made the Frightmare experience all the better. We were chased by psychos with chain saws and made some skeleton friends. I especially loved it when a worker in costume would try to scare my mom and she would growl back at them. Every time. Funny Stuff.

3.) I will never get tired of spending weekends with my mom. It's all fun. Of course, it wouldn't be a weekend with mom with out her crying when we separate. I know I get the crying gene from her. I'm not joking. She cries everytime. What a good mother :)

Here are a couple of pics from the weekend:

My Thoughts Exactly.

"Whatever happened to chivalry? Does it only exist in 80's movies? I want John Cusack holding a boombox outside my window. I wanna ride off on a lawnmower with Patrick Dempsey. I want Jake from Sixteen Candles waiting outside the church for me. I want Judd Nelson thrusting his fist into the air because he knows he got me. Just once I want my life to be like an 80's movie, preferably one with a really awesome musical number for no apparent reason. But no, no, John Hughes did not direct my life."

--Olive, "Easy A"

funny movie. I didn't stop laughing.

Everything.

This weekend was everything! I was able to listen to all of conference and on top of it all was able to meet up with my favorite Canadian, Mandy Atwood.

There is just something about walking downtown that is incredible. We walked around, looked at shops, chatted about everything, put money in the guitar case of a really cute musician at the gateway (embarrassing story, I went to drop the money and it started to blow away.. omg) and we even stopped to eat some amazing Brazilian food outside at the Braza Grill Express.

Neither of us had ever eaten Brazilian food and we felt like trying something new. We made a good choice!

2 things we decided while chatting:

#1-We both secretly like men with a little art work on them (I was shocked when Mandy shared the same interest.)

#2-We only get hit on by weird, creepy and awkward men. No joke. Although it is rather humorous.

All-in-all, this weekend was amazing because of Conference. I've never been so grateful to be a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and to have a family who loves me no matter what. I am especially grateful to have men in my life who are worthy priesthood holders and for a brother who is faithfully serving a mission for the Lord.

Every time they talk about missionaries during conference I tear up.. I really can not wait for Coleman to come home! Only 2 1/2 more months. I can't wait to hear his stories, to hug him and ummm.. SHOP for him!! I seriously miss buying clothes for my favorite Bud! Every time I go shopping I have to steer myself away from the guy section because I haven't had any men to shop for. Christmas shopping here I come :)

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