All Things Jenny and Garret

Why are Boy Razors Better than Girl Razors?

2012-01-29T17:00:00.000-08:00

This morning, Garret got mad at me when he caught me using his razor to shave my legs.

"Use your own!" he said.

"Mine sucks, I like yours better!" I said.

"Well that's just too bad." he said.

Unfortunately, I did not win this battle today, but what Garret doesn't know is that I use his razor all the time when he's not around.

The reason I like his better than mine is because it gets a much closer, cleaner shave AND hair doesn't get all clogged up in between the blades. I know that you might be thinking, "well Jenny if you rinse the blades out regularly then they won't get clogged." I do rinse them out, but the thing is with a girl razor you have to rinse them out with EVERY stroke and even then they are still clogged because there is no opening in the back. When I use Garret's razor I can go at least 3 strokes before rinsing and there is not one speck of hair left in the blades.

With all the fancy things they are doing with razors these days, you would think that they could create a lady's razor that has both the awesome effects AND the ability to go 2 or 3 strokes without getting clogged.

The perfect razor would be a combination of the men's Moch 3 and the lady's Shick Intuition (you know that one that has the soap all around it so that you don't have to use shaving cream and it leaves your legs silky smooth).

Until this one is invented I shall have to continue to use Garret's while he is not looking.

The Monopoly that is Maternity Clothes

2012-01-22T18:58:00.000-08:00

I have been on the hunt for a good pair of maternity jeans that aren't totally lame and from the 1980's. I finally found a pair at Target, although I was deeply disappointed when the price was pretty much double the price in that exact brand of jeans that weren't maternity. What makes these jeans so special? The extra elastic waste band that extends up to my bra line? Alas, I submitted to this ridiculously priced pair of jeans (keep in mind that what I think is ridiculous might just be normal. Ever sense I have started couponing, buying anything at full price is a tragedy) because if I didn't I would be doing the jimmy-rigged rubber band apparatus to my not maternity jeans (which doesn't work that well) or leaving them unbuttoned with the belly band, which ultimately meant that my pants would be falling down all day (I might not be big enough for that yet, because a lot of people have told me that it really does work).

This leads me back to my original question/complaint. What makes these jeans so special? NOTHING! Other than the fact that they give ultimate comfort and are the only thing that I can wear these days. Clearly the retail Gods have discovered that being pregnant never goes out of season which means that no matter what, this kind of clothing will always be in demand. To the retail Gods, I call you all jerks! (because that's the only thing I can do about it) We pregnant women are sacred vessels, how dare you take advantage of us in such a way?! I complained to my cashier while purchasing these jeans and he gave me a look of terror that said, "please don't shoot, I'm just a cashier," but still scanned my jeans and swiped my Visa card. sigh

Being Pregnant is Awkwardly Awesome

2012-01-05T15:19:00.000-08:00

First off, I just have to say that whoever said that being pregnant was a wonderful experience because it was the beautiful miracle of life, totally lied. I mean yes, it is the miracle of life, but it's not beautiful and wonderful. Unless they enjoy puking all do or feeling like you are going to puke all day, wishing that you would and then when you finally do, not feeling better. At least with the stomach flu you feel better after you throw up.

Currently I'm at that awkward phase where I'm clearly bigger and unable to fit into any clothes, but maternity clothes are just too big and people don't know how to approach me because they think I might be pregnant, but asking would be too weird. I mean what if I weren't pregnant? It's no fun to be that dumb person who just assumes that you are pregnant and asks when really it's just an obscene amount of weight gain so now that person is just a jerk for calling you fat.

The other day at church a woman in relief society was probing about my rapid weight gain. This is how the conversation went:

Lady: So, how long have you been married?

Me: Two years

Lady: How many kids do you want to have (awkward stare at my stomach)?

Me: A few

Lady: How many kids do you have now (awkward stare at my stomach)?

Me: None right now.

Lady: When are you going to have kids (yet another awkward stare at my stomach)?

At this point I figured I better say something because it was clear that she was struggling with the inner conflict to ask or not to ask.

Me: Oh well, I am pregnant now.

Lady: I KNEW IT!

I hope to have many more awkward conversations just like this one with so many more people.

The Finger!

2011-08-11T12:48:00.000-07:00

The other day I was driving home after a rather frustrating day of work and there was a man tale-gating me even though I was already going 5 over the speed limit. When I finally had the opportunity to merge over he slammed on his horn. I proceeded to give him the finger. I held my hand that brandished "the bird" out and allowed it to follow that dumb Toyota Tacoma until it was completely passed me. The driver also had a few expletives that he chose to yell out his window at me. Naturally, being the girl that I am, this has consumed my thoughts.

First of all, I have to say that I have never done that before. It was definitely a moment of weakness and I have to blame it on the fact that I really did have a rough day at work and there were many things happening that were completely out of my control, but again I do recognize that this was a moment of weakness on my part.

So, while I began to stew over this incident, I came up with many conclusions. First I kept thinking to myself about how I'm such a hypocrite. How dare he tale gate me and how dare he get mad at me for not going fast enough! When, just about every morning I get annoyed with every car in front of me while driving down Legacy Parkway for not going fast enough. Never mind that they are just following the speed limit because it's only 55 on that road, but that is beside the point. So really I am no better than this guys because I feel the exact same way that he does everyday. Then, I decided that I am not hypocritical because when I do get annoyed I keep it to myself and I don't act on that by honking at people. So, it was OK for me to be upset with this stupid guy in his stupid Toyota Tacoma. It was not however, OK for me to give him the finger and I think that I might always feel bad about it. I will say that it did feel kind of good to let out exactly what I was feeling at the exactly right moment.

Allergy Testing

2011-08-09T15:32:00.000-07:00

This morning I went in for Allergy Testing. Apparently I am allergic to many things...

The Times When I Love My Job

2011-06-22T16:36:00.000-07:00

I work for a company that provides homes and working programs for adults with various intellectual and physical disabilities and have been for almost 4 years. I started when I was going to school in Logan as just a direct care staff member. I would go into various homes and basically just help each individual accomplish basic and diverse daily living skills. Majority of the individuals who I worked with were fairly independent in these regular tasks and needed minimal support, but there were a few who needed almost total assistance. I was a direct care staff member for about 2 years and then when I was working in Ogden I was placed in the Day program, after that I was bumped up to an administrative position.

Now I work in Salt Lake City, still on an administrative level. Because I am on the administrative level and a supervise a few programs, I am unable to spend a lot of positive time with any of my clients. Most of the contact I have is usually regarding some form of a behavioral incident or a conflict. Even though this is the case, there are still a few days that I get to spend out in the community with my clients and not stuck behind my desk.

Yesterday was one of those fun days. Every summer we take our entire group to Lagoon. There are a number of staff members who don't really enjoy this day, usually because they end up getting stuck on bathroom duty (I always avoid that job like the plague). This year I spend the day with a girl names Sherry. Sherry is 22 years old and was recently released to our work program from high school. I love spending time with Sherry because she has an amazing imagination. On the first day I met her, she declared to me, "I need to learn how to work with animals because I want to get a pet and my mom won't let me get a pet until I am responsible enough."

"What kind of pet do you want to have?"

"A Dragon!"

Anyway, yesterday I was first, so impressed with Sherry because she had no fear. She went on every single ride without any hesitations. There are many rides that I automatically assumed she would be too afraid to go on, but she would have preferred to go on every ride at least 10 times each if we had the time. I on the other hand, would not go on certain rides because I was too scared. The second thing that I loved about being with Sherry yesterday was how happy she was the entire time that we were there. She was just so excited and we couldn't get to each ride fast enough. On the rides, while the rest of us were screaming, she was laughing with pure joy. Because she was so excited, while the rest of us were standing in line chatting about who knows what, she was roll playing how she would go home that afternoon to tell her mom about her day. She considered all the questions her mom might ask her and how she would answer them. If she noticed that we were looking at her or listening, she would simply tell us, "oh I'm not talking to you, I'm talking to myself about what I will tell my mom when I get home..." and then she would continue on. Often, I will go into the work program during the day and catch her talking to herself. She says that she does it to keep herself from getting bored.

It's days like yesterday that really remind me why I love my job. It's nice when I get to take the opportunity to spend one on one time with the individuals that I serve. Sometimes it can be hard and a little unpleasant, but most of the time it's an opportunity for me to take a step into a world where things are not as complex and people appreciate the more simple things in life.

A Booger to Pick!

2011-04-12T08:22:00.000-07:00

In my math class there is a kid who is kid who I made the mistake of sitting next to for the first week or so and then i realized that I should find a new seat. This kid is of the more nerdy type, but more the annoying kind. He's very obviously fresh of the mission because in almost every comment that he makes he has to talk about his mission. To me this seems a little odd because it's a math class so it doesn't really make sense to talk about your mission at all, plus the teacher is catholic so he so clearly doesn't care. I have also heard him make comments like, "Naturally, everyone knows what a Z mega thousand drive is with blah blah blah and this and that on your hard drive and you soft drive..." Really? Everyone knows what that is? Or there was one day when he wouldn't stop talking to the poor girl on the other side of him about his iPod and how he got to go inside the temple in street clothes because he left his iPod there and it was just so amazing that he got to walk around in the temple in his jeans and hoody..... seriously?

Anyway, yesterday I was only 5 minutes late for class and when I walked in, another student who is always at least 30 minutes late was in my seat! everyone knows that even though it is college and your seats are not assigned, if you sit in the same seat for an extended number of times that seat becomes yours! Because this other guy was in my seat I was forced to sit next our nerdy friend. So I'm sitting in class taking notes and things when I see in the corner of my eye his left hand rise to his nose. He then inserts his left index finger into his nose and pulls out a booger. He then examines this booger, rolls in in between his index finger and his thumb and then proceeds to wipe it on his seat! OK, I understand that sometimes you totally have a booger to pick. It happens to all of us, but there is an appropriate way to pick the booger. If you must pick it and you don't have a tissue or anything, don't wipe it on the chair you are sitting in so that the person to follows you has to set in it or possible touch it. GROSS! GROSS! GROSS!

The Augusteum

2011-03-21T08:31:00.000-07:00

The book that I am currently reading is Eat, Pray, Love. So far it is pretty good. The beginning was a little slow. I didn't particularly like the first few chapters where she laments continually about her divorce and her affair, but once I got passed that and into the traveling I have found it to be quite entertaining. Anyway, yesterday I read a part that was interesting, thought provoking and even profound.

In these few paragraphs she is talking about the Augusteum in Rome. I'll just quote her directly because my describing it really isn't as good as the words that she chose:

This big, round, ruined pile of brick started life as a glorious mausoleum, built by Octavian Augustus to house his remains and the remains of his family for all of eternity. It must have been impossible to the emperor to have imagined at the time that Rome would ever be anything but a mighty Augustus-worshiping empire. How could he possible have foreseen the collapse of the realm? or known that, with all the aqueducts destroyed by barbarians and with the great roads left in ruin, the city would empty of citizens, and it would take almost twenty centuries before Rome ever recovered the population she had boasted during her height of glory?

Augustus's mausoleum fell to ruins and thieved during the Dark Ages. Somebody stole the emperor's ashes- no telling who. By the twelfth century, though, the monument had been renovated into a fortress for the powerful Colonna family, to protect them from assaults by various warring princes. Then the Augusteum was transformed somehow into a vineyard, then a Renaissance garden, then a bullring (we're in the eighteenth century now), then a fireworks depository, then a concert hall. In the 1930s, Mussolini seized the property and restored it down to its classical foundations, so that it could someday be the final resting place for his remains. (Again, it must have been impossible back then to imagine that Rome could ever be anything but a Mussolini-worshiping empire.) Of course, Mussolini's fascist dream did not last, nor did he get the imperial burial he'd anticipated.

Todya the Augusteum is one of the quietest and loneliest places in Rome, buried deep in the ground. The city has grown up around it over the centuries. (One inch a year is the general rule of thumb for the accumulation of time's debris.) Traffic above the monument spins in a hectic circle, and nobody ever goes down their- from what i can tell- except to use the place as a public bathroom. But the building still exists, holding its Roman ground with dignity, waiting for its next incarnation.

I find the endurance of the Augusteum so reassuring, that this structure has had such an erratic career, yet always adjusted to the particular wildness of the times. To me, the Augusteum is like a person who's led a totally crazy life- who maybe started out as a housewife, then unexpectedly became a widow, then took up fan-dancing to make money, ended up somehow as the first female dentist in outer space, and then tried her hand at national politics- yet who has managed to hold an intact sense of herself throughout every upheaval.

I look at the Augusteum, and I think that perhaps my life has not actually been so chaotic, after all. It is merely this world that is chaotic, bringing changes to us all that nobody could have anticipated. The Augusteum warns me not to get attached to any obsolete ideas about who I am, what i represent, whom I belong to, or what function I may once have intended to serve. Yesterday I might have been a glorious monument to somebody, true enough- but tomorrow I could be a fireworks depository. Even in the Eternal City, says the silent Augusteum, one must always be prepared for riotous and endless waves of transformation.

Coincidentally, I read this exact part while Garret and I were sitting in his Dad's hospital room in the Bone Marrow Transplant unit keeping him and his mom company while nurses and CNA's came in and out checking his temperature, blood sugar levels, putting a pic-line in through his arm that will run all the way to his heart and trying to establish whether or not he has the influenza type A-1 or the other type (I want to think it's type B). While we watched all of the commotion, these few paragraphs shed some light on the hole situation for me. One minute the Nurses and CNA's came in with full on protective clothing because they though he had the flu then they came in without the protective clothing saying he didn't have the flu. An hour later they came back in with protective clothing because they redid his labs and now he has the flu again. We and Garret's dad could do nothing but just watch and accept it. Cancer, like many things in life, is one that simply happens to you and not because of you or by you. Sometimes you fight it, and other times you sit and wait it out, hoping that the you who comes out the other side is still recognizable.

Many people say that life is short. I think I might disagree with that and say that life is actually long, but it just goes by fast. I only say that because we go through, experience and accomplish too many things for it to really be short.

The Apple Doesn't Fall Far from the Tree

2011-03-03T12:01:00.000-08:00

Growing up we used to make fun of my Dad because he used to eat everything watered down. I don't really know why he did, but he did. I have very clear memories of him taking a tall glass and only filling it half way with Orange Juice and the other half with Water. "Who likes watered down juice?" I thought to myself.... well maybe it wasn't that exact phrase. I was pretty young, so maybe it was really just "GROSS!"

Anyway, I have discovered that I do the same thing. We have these awesome new water bottles that I bought at Costco (best store ever!) that are extra big and amazing and I really like those Crystal Light packets that are meant for a normal size bottle of water, but I just fill up my big water bottle for just one of those packets when I should probably just use two or at least 1 and 1/2 packets. The other day I had my bottle of water and I put my packet of Crystal Light in it and Garret said, "Oh, what flavor is that?" I responded, "Strawberry, why?" He proceeded to tell me that he loves that flavor and put his hand out for me to give him a sip. Just before he went to take a drink he stopped and asked, "Did you only put one packet in this? Because if you did I don't want any, it tastes flat." I took a sip and said, "It tastes just fine! You can't put too much stuff in because then it's too strong and it ruins the whole drink, but if you're going to be a baby about it I'll put a little bit more in." So, I did and took a taste and all I could think was that it was now ruined because there was too much in it! It was in that moment that I realized that I like my drinks watered down just like my Dad.

Maybe I am Made of Tin

2011-02-07T08:25:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was fast Sunday and to be completely honest, I really don't like fast Sundays. Here are some reasons why:

I just hate when people get up on the stand and start balling so hard that you can't understand anything they are saying. When people start going on and on about their feelings, I really just want to get up and scream out, "I don't care about your feelings!" Yes, I know this is incredibly rude which is why I keep it to myself, with the exception of now because I'm writing about it.
I understand that many couples struggle to have children. I have not had to experience this trial so far in my life and I really do feel for those who are faced with this trial. In fact I do have many close friends and family members who are currently faced with this trial and it can cause large amounts of undue stress and anxiety to a person who is very undeserving. That being said, if it is not appropriate for you to blatantly discuss your sex life in public, how is it appropriate to covertly discuss it? Do you realize what you are really saying when you say, "we are desperately trying so hard to have a baby..." There just has to be a better way to discuss your desires to be blessed with a child over the pulpit.
Is the poor Deccan who walks around the chapel with a microphone really necessary? I understand the importance of having that for those who are unable to walk because really everyone should have the opportunity to share their testimony if they feel so inclined, but the problem is that as soon as one person uses it, everyone decides that they should use it and majority of the time, those who are using it are perfectly able to walk up to the podium. If you are an able bodied person, you are perfectly able to use both legs and walk up to the pulpit to share your testimony just like everyone else in the chapel. If you are the 15 year old boy who was seen running down the hall before church started, you do not qualify for the microphone to be brought to you in your seat! Everyone else got up and walked to the pulpit, why can't you?!
On my mission, it always worked out that the one Sunday out of the entire month that an investigator, who was already on the fence about the church in the first place, could come to church was always fast Sunday. Without fail, this always happened. And, without fail, the one ward member that everyone wishes would keep their testimony to themselves gets up to share it. You all know the one I'm talking about because every ward has it. It's the one who talks about Kolab and bursts out into random bits of song. It's the one who talks about their own personal revelations regarding the second coming and being translated in their lifetime.

I'm totally aware that I sound like a completely heartless person, but I think that I'm just voicing the things that you all are actually thinking while you are sitting in your own fast and testimony meetings.

Does Anyone go Trick or Treating Anymore?

2010-11-01T06:43:00.000-07:00

Now that we are awesome adults and own a house, we were super excited to hand out candy for halloween! We went to the store and bought more candy than we should have, made sure to be home all night and we even checked to make sure that our porch light was on at least five times through out the night. Then we waited and waited and waited and no one came!!!!! Ok no one is not exactly true. We finally got one at like 8 PM and then only three more by 9 PM. Does anyone go trick or treating anymore? I know that some wards do Trunk or Treat, but I don't recall my ward doing that. I remember growing up and going to doors where people had completely run out of candy because there were so many kids out. This clearly wasn't the case this year.

When anyone did come to the door, it was as if ringing the door bell wasn't enough, they had to ring, bang on the door three times and then ring the bell three more times. For real, if we didn't hear it the first time, aren't going to hear it the second and third time! When we answered the door they just held out their bags and gave us a blank stare as if we were to just give them candy without practicing any of the pagan rituals that are required of trick or treating. Don't they know that if you want candy, you have to say the magic words?!?!

I hoped that this year might cure me of the Halloween Scroogism that I practice (which I inherited from my mom), but alas it has not. Now I have nothing but disappointment and too much candy. Halloween has failed me once again.

Man's Best Friend

2010-10-22T08:37:00.001-07:00

I used to think that dog lovers were kind of crazy. Well, maybe I still do a little, but maybe now I am more understanding of why people love their dogs so much. I just don't understand why dogs must be treated like people. THEY ARE NOT YOUR CHILDREN! Growing up, we always had pets. We mostly had cats, but we dabbled in birds and hamsters too. We only owned a dog once. I can't even remember what kind of dog it was, but I do remember that we all loved it with the exception of my parents. This may have been because the dog was impossible to potty train, chewed on everything and peed on everything. When we moved to Germany the first time and had to give him away, I don't remember my parents being too upset about it. Needless to say we didn't always live in a dog friendly world. We did, however, grow up in a cat friendly world. Don't worry, we weren't like the cat lady. We just always had cats because they are easier. They are so independent and they don't really require any work.

On my mission I hated dogs because people would use their dogs as an excuse to not talk to you. Almost every house had a dog and they all barked when you knocked on the door. For some reason barking dogs cause people to become stressed and get frazzled. I often wondered why they had dogs if they couldn't handle the barking. It was like they were saying to me oh I can't talk to you because my dog as barking I just don't know what to do. Don't use your dog as an excuse! Just man up and say no!

Now we have a new house of our own and a dog. It's a dog that Garret has had for a while, it's just been at his parents' house. I'll admit, in the beginning I never wanted a dog. They jump and shed and lick and they are dirty, but this dog isn't really like that. Her name is Precious, and she really is precious. She's a pomeranian and looks more like a huge fluff ball. She hardly ever barks and is already house broken and kennel trained. There is nothing better than coming home and having someone or really something be happy to see you. She doesn't judge you or act grumpy, she just wags her tail and runs around you in circles because she's just so happy that you are home. It really is a huge self esteem boost. She sits with you when you sit, walks with you when you walk and snuggles when you want to snuggle.

I now understand why people call dogs a Man's Best Friend. It's true! They really are! I mean cats are great, but they are kind of snobby and they only want to be nice when it's on their terms. Precious will never be viewed as one of my children. She will always be a dog and not a human, but at least now I don't hate dogs anymore.

We Have a House!

2010-10-14T07:29:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago we finally signed our mortgage papers and moved into our house!!!!

I found that the whole signing of the papers was very anticlimactic. I'm not really sure what i expected, but it definitely wasn't what happened. All we did was go in, sign a bunch of papers and then leave with a book of all the papers that we signed. When I say book, I mean BOOK. Holy Cow! It's like a really very boring novel. Anyway, what everyone has said is true, there are a lot of signatures and it does take some time, but for some reason I though it would be bigger. Maybe I should have requested fireworks or something. The numbers of it all were a little bit daunting, but I guess that is to be expected. Honestly, I don't feel any different. It's like your birthday when everyone asks you if you feel older. Well, no I don't feel any older, it's just a day like any other day. Being a home owner doesn't make me feel any different. On the other hand, I love my house! I also do recognize that it's pretty awesome that we've only been married for a year and we already own a house. We also celebrated our one year anniversary the day after we moved in. I would say that's a pretty dang good anniversary present to ourselves.

Now some disadvantages to having your own house...

There is no maintenance man. In our last apartment our AC broke at least twice! In the end they ended up just having to get a new AC unit all together. When the AC did break all we had to do was call the maintenance man and he came and fixed it. It was great! Now, if the AC breaks we don't have a maintenance man to call. We are the maintenance man, well lets be honest, Garret is the maintenance man.

We don't have a lawn guy who comes to mow the lawn and water it. Technically right now that's not a problem for us because we don't have lawn, just weeds. These weeds are killer weeds too. Not the kind that are green and could kind of pass as grass. They are like little mini trees and very indestructible. I'm pretty sure they will consume our house one of these day. I'm praying for for snow to come sooner so that it will cover up our house-eating weeds. I personally think that we should just make the entire backyard into cement and maybe put a pool in. That is so much better than a lawn that you have mow every week. I HATE YARD WORK!

We noticed some strange things about this house. It's brand new so all in all it's a great house, but there are a few things that it is lacking. In the bathrooms there were no toilet paper holders or towel racks. maybe it's just me, but I thought that homes came with those. Luckily we noticed that there were no rods in any of the closets before we signed any of our papers so we actually requested that those be put in. Another strange thing was that in the basement where the washer and dryer go there were faucet for the hot and the cold water, but they weren't actually hooked up to the water. There also weren't any electrical outlet hook ups. Unfortunately we did not notice that before or we would have requested that it be fixed. There was so much detail put into this house as far as the craftsmanship and the materials used, but there were just those random things that were not done.

Over all, we're so happy to be in our house. We honestly thought it would never happen.

Now I just need all of you to come and be our guests! Who's first? Any takers?

The Waiting Game

2010-09-22T08:56:00.000-07:00

If there is anything that I have learned since starting this whole buying a house process it's that there is so much involved. I mean just to submit an offer we had to sign like 50 pages of forms stating that we wanted to submit an offer before we could actually submit an offer.

This time last week we were supposed to be closing on the house and moving in, but there were some complications. Luckily these complications are not our fault, but none the less we are the ones who are suffering. Because we are getting an FHA Loan, there are a number of requirements and inspections that the house needs to pass before we can get our loan and close on the house. Every time FHA comes back with another thing that needs to be accomplished the builder says he "didn't know" these things needed to be done. So then he does it and then we have to wait until all the paper work goes through. That is what we are doing right now, waiting. It has been almost 3 weeks since the last repair was done and we have heard NOTHING. Not to mention that now because we have exceeded our allotted time for closing we have to pay a fee, which the builder refuses to pay even though it is kind of his fault that we have had to extend our closing. The longer we wait, the more fees we have to pay. I hope that I never have to buy a house again!

On the more positive side, we were at RCWilley last weekend and found this awesome couch that was on sale for half of it's normal cost and we were actually able to pay cash for it! The Even better part about it is that it's RED. I know that's kind of bold, and Garret doesn't really like it, but because he is a wonderful husband he said that I can get whatever I want. I think it would turn out pretty good. So now I have this wonderful couch waiting for me in a warehouse somewhere, if only I had a house to put it in.

A Happy Homecoming

2010-09-02T07:15:00.000-07:00

My big brother, Chris returned home last night after 6 months in Iraq. I feel so honored to have real life heros like my Dad and my brother in my family. We are all so happy that he is home and safe. It's just too bad we all couldn't be there with Lindsay to greet him on the flight line.

For those of you who know my brother, you will notice how skinny he is! He lost about 20 bounds or maybe even more while he was gone. Mostly because they don't really have much to do during their down time so they go to the gym.

You Are What You Eat

2010-08-17T06:29:00.001-07:00

This last saturday Garret was working all day which left me to entertain myself. I noticed on our Netflix Instaplay there was this documentary called "Food Inc." I'd heard a little bit about it and my interest was peaked. I could not believe what I learned! Needless to say I am so amazed at how much of what we actually put into our bodies is not food. I don't think that I can buy meat from any commercial companies anymore. I used to be a nay-sayer and poke fun at the "all natural hippies" but now I think I just might turn into one. OK maybe not a complete hippie, but I've definitely had to reevaluate my eating and shopping habits.

Yes, I am aware that documentaries such as this are meant to shock people and almost scare them into action, but I really do think that much of this is true. We, as a nation, are not healthy and I think a majority of this problem is a lack of knowledge. We just don't really know what is actually in these products that we call food.

Here are some things I've started to consider:

Just because it says "Fat Free" on the label, doesn't mean that it is healthier for you. Often times when the fat is removed from a product there is usually more sodium and/or sugar added to the product which in the end negates the fat free product. Also, just because it says "fat free" also doesn't exactly mean that it's fat free. I'm not sure of the exact facts on this so correct me if I'm wrong, but it is my understanding that legally the label can say fat free on it if it is below a certain percentage of fat.
If the ingredients label lists items that you can't pronounce, then you probably should not be putting it in your body. Compare your regular food products to food products that say "All Natural" on the label and you will see a difference in the ingredients. The All Natural labels truly use all natural products.
Don't eat anything that says "Enriched" on the label. If something is enriched, that means things need to be added to it in order for it to be safe for you to eat. You will see this most commonly with bread and other wheat products. If the label says "enriched wheat flour" that means they have bleached the flour to make it white. When the flour is bleached, all the nutrients from the wheat is removed so food companies have to add nutrients back into it. Will someone please explain to me why flour has to be bleached in the first place?
Eat meat that is cage-free and grass fed. These animals are not mass-produced, treated more humanely and less likely to have e coli. If they are not cage-free and grass fed, this usually means that they are corn fed. Corn fed animals are something that you might want to avoid. Corn fed animals gain weight at an exponential rate and it is unhealthy for the animal. Not to mention, it lessens the quality of meat that you as a consumer are paying for. It's ironic that we as a nation are the most obese nation and now our animals are also the most obese animals. Does anyone else sense a pattern here?
If your budget is tight, shopping at your local Natural Foods market will not be easy. I went to one last night to check out the prices and I went into total sticker shock. Almost $30 for two chicken breasts?! Holy Cow! It's hard to go into this life style simply because it's just not cheap, but markets like this have to compete with large food corporations in order to stay in business. The more we buy the lesser the prices will be. Luckily I found out that Wal Mart has a reasonably priced selection of cage free grass fed beef and chicken products. I generally don't shop at Wal Mart, but it's impressive that a large corporation is actually listening to the consumers and giving them what they want. It's also wise to shop local. During the summer we have wonderful opportunities to shop at any local farmer's market. The great thing about a farmer's market is you are getting fresh product and you are supporting your local businesses. Farmers are able to keep up to 90% of their profits from what is sold at a farmer's market. Also, look into food co-ops. Here in Utah there is a great food co-op called Bountiful Baskets. It's very affordable and the products are all natural and fresh. Anyone can participate, just google it online.

I am for sure not claiming to be an expert on all of this, and I'm certain that some of my facts are not exactly all accurate, so if you see something that is wrong please feel free to correct me on it.

House Hunting

2010-08-04T14:29:00.001-07:00

Garret and I have been looking at TONS of houses online for a while now. We're just so tired of renting a small shoe-box size apartment for more money than it's worth. A few months ago we looked into a mortgage payments to get an idea of how much we would be paying monthly and turns out that we would be paying pretty close to what we are paying now for rent. The choice was obvious! We finally were able to go look at houses with a realtor on saturday and we found the PERFECT house at the very end of our hunt for the day. It's brand new, built in 2009. Has dark hard wood floors and tiles in the kitchen. The counter-tops are a light garnet and the stove, fridge and microwave are stainless steel. It has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms upstairs and the basement is framed for 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 1 laundry room and a family room. The biggest down fall is that they yard is pretty much non-existent so we'll have to put a lot work into it, hopefully not a lot of money.

We put an offer in this passed monday and yesterday got a call from our agent saying the builder has accepted our offer! We close september 15 or somewhere around there.

If only I had furniture to put in it...

For School

2010-08-02T06:36:00.000-07:00

Some wise guy from the administration at my school has decided that everyone should make an E-Portfolio for themselves so that when they graduate they can go to prospective employers and say, "Hey check out my website and look at some math problems that I did!" And naturally, this prospective employer will say, "Gee golly! I will hire you because you have this nifty website of math problems."

What the administration realized is that it was a really dumb idea after all and they are not going to require it to graduate, but they still wanted every student to participate. Well, if it's not required to graduate, then how will they get anyone to participate?

"Oh, wait, we'll just require it as a part of their grade for any general education class that each student takes and we'll hold the teachers accountable."

Lucky for me, my math teacher does not care if I start my own E-Portfolio website or not so I am posting this on my blog so that I can say I've posted something online.

Sometimes I wonder if anyone ever really asks the students what they think about all these dumb required programs that they think are for our benefit.

The Sand Dunes, A Broken Arm and A Drunk Driver

2010-04-27T16:05:00.000-07:00

A few weekends ago we went to the Little Sahara Sand Dunes in Central Utah (near Delta and Tooele). Garret and I recently saved up enough money to buy a four-wheeler and I might add that we are very proud to say we did it without having to go into debt- WOOT WOOT! Anyway we decided to join Garret's boss and some friends at the dunes for a weekend. It was a blast! I had never been out there before and I was so amazed at how large the area was. You'll see in the pictures that it was sand hills for miles and miles. The fun was endless!

About 4 hours after we got there, TJ, a friend who joined us, took a jump on his dirt bike too high and too fast and broke his arm. We made a make shift brace from a part on his bike and drove him to the nearest emergency room where they gave him plenty of drugs for the pain and reset his arm.

TJ on his first dose of drugs.

In the picture above you will see that his wrist was broken in a way that caused his bones to overlap on each other. OUCH!

A broken arm will never keep TJ from riding. He may not have been able to ride his bike for the rest of the weekend, but he was still able to have some fun.

After a long drive home and a wait in yet another emergency room for TJ to get better medications for the pain, we found out that TJ would have to get surgery on his wrist. After the procedure, he would have, permanently, one plate and 8 screws in his wrist. I'm sure you are wondering if it was really worth it. I guess that is up to the individual. TJ feels that it was totally worth it and that he will be back out there as soon as he can get back on his dirt bike again, however, he is considering investing in a four-wheeler because they are slightly safer. Imagine what would have happened if he didn't have a helmet on!

After the last visit to the ER, TJ's girlfriend, Heather, and I were waiting in the Walgreen's parking lot for Garret and TJ to get his prescription filled when Heather noticed a car driving very recklessly. She hopped a curb while turning right, nearly hitting all the cars she passed and swerved into the Walgreen's parking lot. She then proceeded to bounce off the cement barrier in the parking stall at least 6 times. When she attempted to get out of her car she 1) Could not even stand on her own and 2) Her car started rolling away preventing her from getting out. She then got back into her car and laid her head against the window. We called 911 and made a report. Later that night the an officer called to get a statement from me and told me that she was so intoxicated that the local jail wouldn't take and that she had to be admitted into the hospital. It's amazing that she arrived to the Walgreen's parking lot without hurting anyone.

More Powerade than We Need

2010-04-03T13:42:00.000-07:00

About a week ago Garret called me and told me that Smith's had 32 oz bottles of Powerade on sale for $.25 each and that he was going to the store to get some. When he said "some" I was thinking maybe 10 or so. 30 minutes later he called and informed me that he bought 8 cases of Powerade. The total cost was $32 and our savings was $112! Now we have Powerade to last us a lifetime (not really, that's an exaggeration) and no place to put them. Our apartment isn't too big and we've already used all the storage space.

Here are 4 cases right inside our front door.

4 cases under our futon couch.

We've had them for almost 2 weeks and we've only completely finished off 6 bottles.

Long time no blog...

2010-03-17T18:02:00.000-07:00

It's been about 8 months since my last blog update and I'm feeling a little out of the loop on the blogging scene! I've missed out on what everyone is up to and I haven't been doing very well at keeping all of you updated either. (I guess it's a little narcissistic of me to assume that I have this great following of other bloggers, but lets face it ignorance is bliss and if assuming that makes me feel better about myself than that's what I'm going to do).

So Garret and I got engaged and did a crash course in wedding planning. After hearing about what everyone else wanted me to do and also about all the other wonderful things I could do myself to save more money, I found myself going into information over load and wanting to pull my own hair out. Instead of taking the extra thrifty do-it-yourself-in-a-stake-center approach I chose to find a venue and pay others to do it for me. This, I think, may have been the best decision of my life!!!! To all you soon to be brides out there: when everyone tells you to take the hight road and go cheap on the wedding, DON'T DO IT! Just pay someone else to stress out for you. You'll be happier, your family will be happier and your lucky groom-to-be will actually still want to marry you!

The wedding was great, low key and super chill. I was able to use my two favorite phrases for the day, "I don't care" and "do whatever you want."

Here are so photos of the day:

We were lucky to take a short, but very fun honeymoon to San Diego. The highlights of the trip were eating real authentic Mexican food, which we thoroughly enjoyed, going Kayaking and going to Sea World. Unfortunately, we both had to get back to work so we only spent five days in San Diego. Here are some photos from that (you will notice that there are mostly only pictures of one of us at a time, but not any of us together. This is because we didn't have a third person with us to take the pictures and we lack the motivation to ask anyone to take a picture of us together.):

The best Salsa of our lives!

The whole time we were in San Diego, Garret kept saying he wanted to eat at a restaurant that sat over the ocean. We did and were very satisfied with the view, but were slightly disappointed in the food. Guess we were only paying for the experience.

"Look! It's the ocean!"

Many people were specifically avoiding these seats, we on the other hand were hoping to get soaked.

Garret's first In'N Out experience.

After five days of literal paradise we came home to this:

Shame on us for thinking it would actually take care of itself while we were gone.

We've also gone through our first Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Valentine's Day and move in this time as well. Garret got a new job in Clearfield, which meant that the only thing we were doing in Morgan was sleeping, literally. We have found a great apartment in Layton, right across from the mall and are happy to enjoy a shorter commute to work and school and more time with each other. Not sure if this country boy will be able to survive the city yet, but I guess we'll find out won't we.

Exciting News!

2009-07-11T10:14:00.001-07:00

Just this last Wednesday, July 8, Garret Proposed and I accepted! The big day is October 2nd so mark your calenders and let me know if you would like an invite.

A Lot of Catching up to do!

2009-06-09T15:55:00.000-07:00

Well...... it's been a while since march 31 so this may be a long one. Over General Conference weekend we had a huge family reunion to celebrate my Grandma Carolyn's 80th birthday. It was a great time and way too short. My dear friend and old college roommate Malisa Twelves did some amazing family portraits for us. Here are a few of those pictures on the left. Malisa really did a spectacular job of capturing all the different personalities in the family.

May was the month of road trips and traveling for me. May 8th was my nephew, Carter's birthday so I drove out to Colorado for the birthday party. Can't believe how big he is getting! My sister Tracee and I stayed up late the night before the party and made a scavenger hunt for Carter's party the next day. It was such a blast. Not sure who had more fun, the kids or the adults.

The following weekend I went to Sacramento to visit the mission with Richie Uminski. Unfortunately I was too lazy to take pictures when we got there, but on the way there we drove by the salt flats and we had a great time taking pictures of that.

Finally, for memorial day weekend I went to Seattle to visit family. My dad was in town from Germany which made getting out there even better. I stayed with my Grand parents in Gig Harbor and then ventured out to a few places during the day. Luckily my Crazy Grandma Mary had a show that weekend so we got to go see that as well. Here are some photos from my adventure down town with Uncle Jack and Aunt Mary:

Uncle Jack took us too his favorite part of Seattle, the Sculpture park. On the left is his favorite sculpture. On the right is us being rebellious and pretending to touch the sculpture even though the sign says not to.

The Space Needle

And last but certainly the most important was that last friday, June 5, was my birthday!!!! Yup I turned 25. I'm a quarter of a century old. I don't really feel like I'm that old which could be a problem because here in Utah that is ancient. Some friends and I went out to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. I had no idea how popular that place is. I think we waited for our table for almost 2 hours! It's ok, the cheesecake made it worth the wait.

After a whole life time of searching, Olivia finally found a real life Dingle hopper. Now she can comb her hair just like Ariel did in the Little Mermaid!

Holi- Festival of Colors!

2009-03-31T20:25:00.000-07:00

My English teacher would kill me for using Wikipedia, but it just says it way better than I ever could. According to Wikipedia: Holi, also called the Festival of Colors, is a popular Hindu spring festival observed in India, Nepal, and countries with large Hindu diaspora. Diaspora meaning a large body of Jews living in countries outside of Palestine. The tradition behind this festival is to celebrate a young man who defeated an evil witch by killing her. At the festival they have a huge fake witch in the middle of the crowd and they set it on fire and then everyone starts throwing colored chalk everywhere. I think they intend for it to be an enlightening experience of sorts for everyone, but most everyone just shows up for the colors and then they leave as soon as that is over. It was definitely a blast. I'm pretty sure that for at least a week everytime that I cleaned my ears the Q-tip came out purple or hot pink, every time I blew my nose my snot was purple and my nails were permonantly pink for a while as well. That's not the worst of it. Some of my guy friends' faces were permonantly pink because the were sweating and the color stuck to their faces and died them for a few days. Too funny.

Here are some pictures from the event:

The Witch:

Thunder Down Under

2009-02-23T11:54:00.001-08:00

Nothing says Valentine's Day with the girls like Las Vegas, WOOT WOOT! Some girlfriends and I decided that sense we are single, why not just skip the worst day of the year all together and go to the city of sin and be super sinful (ok well not super sinful, and maybe not sinful at all, but I'm sure I had you guys going there for a minute). Being single kind of sucked at first, but I'm slowly realizing how awesome the freedom is!
We drove down on friday the 13th and had a blast the whole way.

There are supposed to be 4 of us in this picture but Kayti had a hard time with her aim and she kept cutting herself out, luckily someone in the gas station came to our rescue and took a picture for us:

To be completely honest we had only three goals for this trip: 1) Take a lot of pictures, go crazy with the pictures. 2) Get married at the drive-thru wedding chapel....... to each other. 3) Eat at a Buffet. So only goals 1 and 3 happened. Unfortunately we could not marry each other. I just don't understand this! :) We also went to the temple first thing, we figure we might as well feel the spirit for at least two hours of out trip. The Las Vegas Temple is gorgeous. Who would have thought "Sin City" could have so many not so sinful people.

Here we are at goal #3. We ate at the Rio Buffet. It was so good! Clearly Olivia loved the Dessert table:

We also met these way nice guys, Trammel and Chris, in line while we were waiting to get in and eat:

The best part of the whole trip were the Thunder from Down Under boys. It just doesn't get any better than this:

Christmas in Europe part 2: Germany's Philly Cheese Steak

2009-01-08T16:17:00.000-08:00

Pretty much the best thing ever to eat would be a Doener Kebab. SO DELICIOUS! A Doener Kebab is your choice of Lamb, Beef, or Chicken (most common is Lamb), cooked on a vertical spit and stuffed in a pita with lettuce tomato, peppers, cabbage and onions and then topped with goat cheese and some special sauce that I have yet to figure out the recipe for. It is the most delicious thing ever and I have the official approval of that from my brother in-law who is the pickiest eater ever. If he likes it, it must be good. The entire trip to Germany, I craved one of these. It is just a shame that they don't make these here in the US.

Christmas in Europe Part 1

2009-01-01T11:38:00.000-08:00

One of the greatest, no actually THE greatest advantages of being a military brat, is it involves traveling to awesome places. Lucky for me my parents are still enjoying that perk and as one of their offspring so am I. My mom and dad are living in Germany, and have been since 2004 (this time). So this year my sister, Tracee and her husband, Rob and I took the eight hour flight to Germany so that we could see Europe for two weeks. I have already been to all the places that we have gone to so far. being the youngest I have also been the lucky one to live here for a few months at a time over the past 5 years, so for me it was almost like going home for Christmas. I have one more day left and I must say that it has definitely been a great trip. We flew out of Salt Lake City on December 21. Salt lake had zero delays and was an easy flight, Chicago on the other hand was not so much fun. Everyone says that if you can avoid flying through Chicago you should, it will make your trip that much easier. For one thing, I though Logan was cold. Logan has nothing on Chicago. We were inside the airport, no where near and open door and you could feel the cold. Oh my gosh!!! Luckily our flight was only delayed 2 hours, the young man sitting next to me on our flight to Germany had been in the Chicago airport since 5 AM that day, our flight for Germany was leaving at 9:45 PM. Suddenly my two hour delay did not seem so bad.

We passed the time in our two hour delay by being the obnoxious people who camp out on the airport floor and play cards. some people even inquired as to what we were doing because we were having so much fun.

While we were playing cards, we finally discovered what the cause of all these delays were.....
NO FLIGHT PLAN!!!!

We arrived in Germany and my parents took us immediately to Rothenberg. It is a medieval city in Germany, and also a Clinton family favorite. we are there so often that we have a standard hotel that we stay at and a restaurant that we eat at. it is definitely one of the gems of the country. words don't quite do it justice, but pictures do!!!

There is a wall surrounding the city. during WWII, part of that wall was bombed, so in order to repair, the town invited people and organizations from all over the world to buy a meter of wall, and then their names would be on that meter of wall that they purchased as it was rebuilt.

Apperantly there is some confusion as to how you spell Tokyo:

Thanksgiving

2008-12-02T12:44:00.000-08:00

What a great weekend we had! Clint and my Cousin Braedon and I went to Grand Junction Colorado to spend time with my sisters and nephews. Normally when I go, I can only spend about 3 days which means I arrive late on a Friday night, stay all day Saturday and then leave mid morning Sunday. This time we spent 5 days, which was so great. I don't think that it was the actual Thanksgiving dinner that made it so wonderful, because really we only had the Thanksgiving dinner for about 10 minutes and then it was over, it was more the whole weekend and the day leading up to the dinner and the days after that we were able to spend together. One thing that we did enjoy the most was playing games. Nothing beats games with the family! I'm not sure yet which was better sleeping in or no school and work. They are definitely tied. I don't remember the last time I had that many days in a row without and agenda.

Here are some pictures from the weekend:

My sister Kelly with the Race Car. My nephew Carter had control of the camera for many of these photos.

Clint and Me Playing the Wii. We were boxing and Clint was totally beating me up!

Jenny Cakes!

2008-11-22T21:35:00.000-08:00

My Freshman year of College I dabbled in Culinary School, at the Art Institute of Colorado in Denver. As fun as it was, I realized that maybe being a professional Chef was not exactly for me. I wasn't really interested in signing my entire life away for my career, plus I enjoy my Sundays and holidays off. One thing that I did gain from Culinary School is cakes. I really enjoyed my bake shop classes and I found that I am semi-talented in the cake making area. I did a cake today for my dear friend Nate Armstrong. I've never really done any cakes for people who aren't friends, but if I had I'm sure it would not be near as special. I think I put more into my cakes when they are for someone that I'm truly friends with.

This has to have been the most enjoyable cake that I have made yet. My favorite thing to do is kind of sit in the background at the weddings and listen to the comments people are making. It's the only way to get an honest opinion.

This is me when I was 19 at cooking school.

November 13, 2008

2008-11-13T10:54:00.000-08:00

I did it! I joined the millions of bloggers. Not sure if I'm cut out for the blogging crowd yet, but I figured I should give it a try.

So here's a little bit about me. Lets start with the basics, My name is Jenny Clinton (no I'm not related to Bill and Hillary). I am 24 and loving life! I currently live in Logan Utah Monday through Thursday of every week and Friday through Sunday I live out of my car. I'm in college, which has always been a pretty loose term for me. After two other colleges, many "semesters off" from school and a full-time LDS mission I have finally been able to decide on a future for myself. I currently attend Salt Lake Community College and am studying American Sign Language Interpreting. I first started learning Sign Language in High School. There was a Deaf boy on my swim team that i thought was incredibly cute. I knew that the only way I could date him would be to learn his language so I did. We went on a few dates, and then he graduated and I graduated and we lost touch. Sometimes I wonder where he is now.

My Dad is in the Air Force, so this makes me an Air Force Brat. I've lived in three different countries, who knows how many cities, and we're not even going to get into how many houses. I have loved every minute of it. Some people may say that it's hard to move around so much, I say when and where. I suppose it would have been nice to live in the same house growing up or to have some roots somewhere, but honestly I have never experienced that so I wouldn't know the difference. My parents currently live in Germany (for the second time). It is hard to have them so far away, but I do look forward to "going home" when it is Germany. Needless to say one of my Favorite things is travel.

I had the opportunity to serve a full-time LDS Mission in Sacramento California in the Deaf program. This has changed every direction that my life was going. Not that it was going in a down hill direction before my mission, it just helped me figure life out, which I was in need of. It is amazing what can happen when you open your eyes and see what Heavenly Father has in store for you. This I will forever be thankful for.

I'm dating a great guy, Clint. He is wonderful. We try to spend as much time together, but we live in two different cities (luckily only about two hours apart) so this only leaves the weekends. So far they are the best weekends of my life. Clint is the best Saxophone player in the world, and this is no exaggeration. Sometimes I wonder what he is doing with a girl who knows nothing about music and couldn't carry a tune to save her life.