12-12-12

For the inner numerologist and positive thinker in all of us, today is December 12, 2012, or in other words “12,12,12″. Are you planning anything significant?

 

Today will be the last of the great repeating dates to occur in our lifetimes unless you’re planning to live until Jan. 1, 2101.

What will you do to make today memorable? 

O Christmas Tree

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree how lovely are thy branches...

Here's a little snippet of an email from my missionary son this week:

Well I hope everybody is having a great holiday season, because I sure am. The only times I am a little homesick is seeing the Christmas trees in the store and wondering if the tree is up at home already, because I know how its always up around Thanksgiving if not before and thinking if Tanner (our dog) is sleeping underneath it.  

Well there is no Christmas tree this year at our house.   

Every year I usually work on putting up the tree the week before Thanksgiving but don't turn on the lights til Thanksgiving Day.  As a little country girl I absolutely loved the Christmas tree.  It's one of my very favorite memories and one of the things I really love about Christmas. 

This year being in a small city apartment we decided to have a fancy fireplace mantle instead.  So, I lent my large and small artificial Christmas trees to very good homes this year where they are decorated spectacularly by two very special daughters.  Also, I was invited to decorate our office Christmas tree and so I'm gonna be just fine....





Work Tree

1+1=3

I love this equation that doesn't make any sense unless it's applied to announcing a new baby!
So today is the official BIG Announcement!  My daughter is going to have a baby in April and I'm going to be a Grandma!  I can now officially post it on my blog.  Of course we can hardly wait to have a baby in our family again...it's been almost 20 years!  We are so happy and very excited for grandchildren to come into our home and to be called Grandma & Grandpa Nelson!!!

Run Like the Wind

I think the start of the Jimmy Fallon show where he's running is so cool!


This is my bus I ride to work "FOR FREE" every morning at 7:22am and every night at 5:07pm


and a bus stop where I usually wait...only I ride the 213



And this would be me last night after I missed my bus (well kinda...no cell phone, sun glasses or sleveless dress).  I shouted and waved and it left me.  I didn't want to wait another 30 minutes for another bus so I whipped off my high heels and took off down the hill, running-barefoot and in a dress!  Through parking lots, through the Student Union Building, past the Book Store, trying to beat the bus to the Stadium lot bus stop WAAAYYY on the other side of campus!  I'm sure I did not look as cool as Jimmy Fallon does running (darn it). In fact, I'm sure it was not a pretty sight...but the important thing here that I wanted to record on my blog is that I MADE IT!!!!!  I ran my buns off...barefoot...and I caught my bus home!!!

10-11-12

How often does 10-11-12 roll around? Let's celebrate this cool day with an open challenge! 

The world can seem like a difficult place full of conflict and frustration, but kindness still finds a way of pushing through it all to make our days brighter.
Yesterday I had 3 sweet random acts of kindness given to me that really brightened my day:
1. A pkg I'd ordered arrived and whoever had packaged it had thrown in this little brown box with 3 tubes of free lipstick!
2. I received a very, very thoughtful and sweet "I Love You, I'm thinking about you mom" text from my son which totally made my day.
3. When I went to brush my teeth before bed, my hubby had left me a brand new tube of toothpaste - out of the box...right next to my toothbrush.  Very sweet!
Check out these thoughtful acts and be inspired. What can you do to make someone's 10-11-12 a standout memorable date?

Fire Fire Fire!

At 12:30am my hubby pulls the covers off of me and wakes me up saying: "Wake-up! We have to get out of the building. It's on Fire!!"  I pull on my clothes, a jacket and my glasses.  As I'm exiting the front door a Fireman tells me to hurry and leave.  The smell of smoke is really thick.  Outside our apartment are a lot of firemen, trucks, lights and emergency vehicles.  People and dogs are scooted up to another building out of the way.  We're all wondering what's going on. We wait outside while the firemen go in.  We can see them through the windows going through our apartment.  Finally they come out with a large white box.  It's someone's dryer and it's in flames and tons of nasty grey smoke is billowing everywhere.  They put out the fire.  Then they bring in giant fans to get rid of the smoke.  We wait and wait for them to give the OK to go back in.  We are finally given the OK to go back in and it still smells like smoke.  I fall into bed and cover my head with the covers to block the smell.  It's now almost 2 am.  A lesson learned:  grab your keys, wallets, purse and ID!

Good-bye Andy

This post will really date me...but you already knew I was old.  Well...or that I loved to listen to old music.  When I was a little girl I LUVVED to listen to my mom's old records on this very old record player and one of my absolute favorites was this Album.

In Memory:  Andy Williams

 

I would prop up the album cover and stare at this dark haired handsome man the whole time, playing it over and over again.  Christmas just wasn't Christmas for me without his music.

Of course he sings much more than this.  He's very famous for a song called Moon River from Breakfast at Tiffany's and I have to admit his voice is still one of my favorites.  I can hear him sing each song listed. 

Sleigh Ride, The Christmas Song, Blue Christmas, O Holy Night, I'll Be Home For Christmas, Wh ite Christmas, Silent Night, It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year, The Bell's of St. Mary's, Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!  Angels We Have Heard on High, Joy to the World, O Come All Ye Faithful, Jingle Bells. 

Thanks for the wonderful music and the memories Andy.

-Always a fan

 

Listen to one of my favorites

Gold Medal

"Mom's doing it too?"

1:01.16 - 68.9 mph SLED 5

We did an olympic sport last night.  The Bob Sled.  We came in first of our group earning our 3 man team and driver a GOLD Medal!  Yeah!  The event was a company party in Park City, UT with rides up the mountain on the ski lift tram and then down the mountain on the Alpine Slide and then the Bob Sled ride.  I really liked my son's comment when his dad sent him this picture.  It was a really cool minute!

So Me

I received one of those funny email forwards today.  Enjoyed reading through all the funny cartoons til I came upon this one.  My family will attest...this is SO ME!!!  I never rise at the crack of dawn.  I do not wake up cheerful. I do not move quickly.  I do not like morning sounds.  I'm sure those of you who do; probably consider me a morning grouch.  Guilty as charged.

Labor Day Weekend

Little Princess

Absolutely Precious

I've been looking forward to sleeping in on a Monday morning past 6:15am for a very long time.  Add to it the day off and some pay...and it's pretty darn exciting.  Now add to that an out of town trip, holding a brand new baby, a sweet baby blessing, lots of family, a missionary letter with pics, good food, beautiful weather, a long walk down a country road with your hubby, 2 dogs and 2 hillarious little boys and you've got yourself a fabulous Labor Day Weekend.

Happy Anniversary Baby #29

Last Saturday my hubby and I celebrated 29 years of marriage.  Our day traditionally starts with a song titled "Happy Anniversary Baby" by Little River Band.  I don't think we've ever missed a year of playing that song.  It started with an old cassette tape, then a CD, and this year I played it for him on my phone from YouTube.  We decided to spend the day at Hogle Zoo.  We are both softies for cute baby animals and the weather was absolutely beautiful for just walking around.  We ate lunch at the BEAST-RO and enjoyed holding hands, talking, laughing and just being together.  A late dinner at Red Lobster and pink roses. Happy Anniversary Baby - I Love You!

When in Rome...(or Utah)

What's that old saying? "When in Rome do as the Romans"
We are in Ute territory.  Everyone is going to the Ute game and so...we went too.

It was our first ever Utah game in the famous Rice Eccles Stadium.  It was like veins of red blood flowing down every sidewalk towards the stadium.  Everyone was wearing red!  Luckily, we too had purchased our red so we fit right in.   Yes, we were in nosebleed section 54 rows up (only 6 from the top) but that's OK.  We were there and it was fun.  41-0  against No. Colorado.  Go UTAH!

Another Blog! Explanation please...

Yes, another blog. 
While Google and I would "seem" to be good friends with all of the blogs and email addresses I've started up in the past year...they wouldn't let me have my old blog back.  It was connected to an old email which is now gone.  In the past year my life has gone through 7 life changes; luckily all for the better; and so I feel a new blog fits my life now.  So...a new blog it is.  Here's the explanation of the new name. 
Janna Banana II or some other sequential type of banana name didn't really fit anymore and besides her bunch has all left the nest.  Of course there will still be blogging of awesome get togethers with the bunch, but now it's just down to 2 old dogs.  Yes, while me & hubby are aging, I'm talking about our two geriatric dogs which we've promised the bunch we'll care for in their old age (atleast for 2 more years) and of which there will probably be several pictures posted doing hilarious things the bunch are missing out on.
I've been trying to come up with a name that was unique to me for several months now. Here's how I came upon my new blog title:
I have absolutely wonderful memories of growing up in the country on a small farm outside a small Idaho town. Raiding the raspberry and the pea patches. The smell of the purple irises and lilacs in the spring. New baby goats and swinging on the old swing set. Those will always be a part of me.  But now I am a city girl. I love the diversity, the convenience, the abundance, the sounds and lights of the city.  So, while the proper spelling of "City Girl" was not available (again taken by Google) you will now understand the "misspelled country flare" I've given the title of my new blog.  
See ya 'round......