In case of a fire, head to room W518...

because you will get out of the building quicker than if you follow the rules of your superiors. We had a fire drill today. Mind you, we have been in our new building since February. Luckily the place hasn't burned down in the past 8 months. Since this is a drill, it is suppose to be a "secret." Nothing in the CLPC is a secret. Everyone knows everybody's business and we have our own form of Wisteria Lane. The impending doom was to hit around 2. I work with some exceptionally bright offspring and we decided ahead of time to go around 1:45. This was a very good and well thought out plan. Not really, it more came from our lack of patience. Try unloading 5 floors of cubicle junkies in about 5 minutes with 4 stairwells. If we passed, we need to up our standards. A fire drill should not take 30 minutes. First of all, it's freezing outside. Why not pick a day in the summer? Lets instead pick a day where half the building is not wearing coats because we have not yet embraced the current state of the climate we live in. Also, you would think, we would have had this drill 8 months ago when we moved in. We do things different. Our boss also has no sense of direction. "Let's meet at the SE corner of the 3rd floor parking ramp." After making almost a complete lap, we found our boss at the SW corner. He needs a compass for Boss's Day. That or he could just give us his cell number, then problem dissolved. We stood in the parking garage for about 20 minutes till they gave it the "All Clear." (Thanks Ross) Now if this were a real fire, it would be mass chaos. It was a 10 minute wait just to get out of the building. Could you imagine if this were a real fire? All I could think about was the episode of The Office (Stress Relief) when Dwight stages a controlled fire and everyone goes mental. I haven't tested the windows on the 5th floor, but we do have a printer/copier near us. It might break through. Still haven't found an overhead projector.

Let's just leave it at, if there is ever a fire at 1200 Locust, the crew on the 5th floor will probably be stuck in the stairwell or in the halls. Or you will find Josie hiding in the bathroom standing on the toilet seat. She will be hiding from the people in the green hats with flashlights. Instead of posting laminated posters with directions on how we should get out, we should just put these up for the 5th floor:

Colds, chocolate, and snow...oh my!

Well we have been officially hit with our first wave of sickness in the house! Jake caught a cold. He was battling it all week and finally gave in! He is doing much better but has passed it onto me. Saturday was a rough one but today I am back to just sneezing. I feel like colds are the worst! You either are sneezing, coughing or having snot drip out of your red nose. Never fails. Michael is just keeping his fingers crossed that he doesn't get it!

Another adventure was Zoey this weekend. Michael ran and errand with Jake as I took a shower. He left the dogs out. Never a good idea. This is probably the only thing we have ever really differed on. I know my dogs, I do not trust them when they are unsupervised. Hawkeye, well, he's Hawkeye. He doesn't care. Now Zoey...well she is a superdog from another planet. She gets into anything and everything and I swear she has Kinnick (our cat) on her payroll! The cat goes out of his way to knock things over for the little beast! Anyways. I came downstairs from my shower. Low and behold I find a empty bag of chocolate cover peanuts on the ground. Hawkeye is just sitting there, while Zoey is perched on her pillow licking her chops. Fantastic! First thing that ran through my mind was she was going to die. This dog weighs all of 4.5lbs and ate a 18 oz bag of chocolate and peanuts. It didn't take long for her to start vomiting every where. We kept an eye on her and eventually she stopped. I kept waking up in the middle of the night to see if she was alive! Sure enough, this morning she as licking my face with her nasty puke scented morning breath. At least I woke up to something! She was back in normal form, chasing the cat and getting into everything this morning! Glad to have the spazz back!

Snow...oh snow. I don't mind the stuff really. I just hate driving in it. I think it's absolutely gorgeous when it falls on all the tress and leaves that beautiful blanket of white. Although, I was not excited to see it in October. The beginning of October. Scares me a little but we will see what this fun winter has in store for us. I guess a lot of evenings at home with a movie! Thank goodness for Netflix! Saturday kicked off movie time for sure. I drooled over Mr. Jackman in Wolverine and then gazed googly eyed at Clive in Duplicity. Horrible I know. Not to mention, Tom was amazing on Smallville this week! =)

Weekend recap:

Friday we were lame and watched Smallville while eating pizza! I did shut myself in my room for an hour to listen to the new Michael Buble CD. AMAZING.

Saturday we had the pleasure of our first snow, drooling over movie stars and screamed until the Hawkeyes won! Then I was way too hyper to go to bed. Luckily Cinderalla Story was on on ABC family at 11!

Sunday I slowly got over a cold and watched a whole lot of football.

All in all, this weekend was a lazy one. We haven't had one in quite sometime so it was welcomed! At least we can be lame together!

My "Other" Michael...

The other Michael in my life came out with his new CD "Crazy Love" and it's spectacular! "Cry Me a River" has to be my favorite song thus far. I have only listened to the CD 4 times so it might change! If he comes back to Des Moines, Jana and I will be there! Then, once again, I will be on the "Michael Buble" 3 month high of his concert! It still makes me giddy thinking about it! How could you resist this face?

Almost as bad as resisting this face:

Alert, Alert...Hot Water Main Break!

I will not be mentioning any names but my own during this post. I do not want the other party feeling any more embarrassed, but I did get permission to share this tale with you all.This friend didn't mind if I used their name, but I'll leave it a mystery!

I received a frantic phone call from a friend this evening. This friend was in a complete uproar. They proceeded to tell me that yesterday morning when they took a shower the water was freezing. They were in and out in a matter of a few minutes. After a full work day and a 2 hour work out this person once again retreated back to the shower. Looking forward to a half hour hot shower, they were astonished to find out the water was once again artic cold. Now, after 2 ice cold showers you might think that something would be wrong. They went off to bed thinking all would be magically fixed in the morning. As the sun rose on this Tuesday morning, my friend stepped into the shower for a third time. Greeted again by freezing water and a short shower, my friend went off to work. As this person sat brewing in anger they finally decided to do something about it. After work they checked the water one final time and still no hot water.Now, before I give you the rest of the story, lets recap:

1 - Shower was freezing on Monday morning.

2 - Shower was still cold Monday evening

3 - Shower was once again, freezing on Tuesday morning.

4 - After testing the faucets and shower again after work, the water was still ice cold.

To me a big red neon sign saying "WATER HEATER" is flashing in front of my face. That is not what this friend thought. They decided to call the Des Moines water utility and complain that their hot water does not work and someone needs to fix it. They explained to the representative that they hadn't seen any news about a hot water main being broken and that they can't believe no one else complained yet. This representative then asked if this was a joke and hung up. Now, since we are learning all about On Your Side service, this was not a hard close and not very customer focused. But honestly...what would you do? I then asked my friend, if their pilot light went out on their hot water heater. Respone: "Sarah, that is the cities job, I can't check the pilot light, it's a hot water main break, how can I fix that?...geez". I didn't laugh at this moment, but explained what a hot water heater was and walked them through how check and re-light. After 5 minutes of directions, KAPOW! Hot water again. My friend thanked me for my time and hung up absolutely mortified. I then laughed for a good 3-4 minutes. I wouldn't have found this as funny but this person has been a home owner for about 3 years. We all have our moments! Sometimes are frustrations block us from reacting the way we say we would! I am very sure this friend has seen moments like this from me!

Just another day at the Janzen house....

Lollipops and Rainbows

This past weekend was my nephew, Eli's, 2nd birthday. It is still astonishing to me that he is 2. It shouldn't since Jake and Eli are only 3 months apart. I guess it makes me accept that fact that Jakey is 2! I have no idea where time goes! But Happy Birthday Eli! We love you!

On a different note, this past week as been a tough one. It seems like things were going down hill not just for me, but for other people I care about! Mine seems minute to everyone else, well I think it does. Last Sunday we stopped by Dahl's for about 5 minutes. It only took that amount of time for someone to break into our car and steal my purse. Yes, going the the hassle of canceling credit cards and bank cards is a pain and having to go get a new license can be very time consuming event. They can all be replaced. Not so much my Ipod. I was completely crushed when I realized my Ipod was in my purse. That was my "hey you need a me present" gift to myself in July! I loved that gadget! It was my BFF during work! I mean, if I could get away with talking to my co-workers all day, I would, but my Ipod helped me get through those few hours we have to work! I really do work more than that. Although, Michael sure thinks I don't! I have my old little 8GB Ipod, but it isn't the same as my 120GB. I know I shouldn't dwell on this because it is just an "item" but I will miss Isis the Ipod! That was most of my fiasco from last week. I did manage to step in dog pop 4 times at my parents house and get stuck in a down pour! Those were just bad luck, I hope! Then this weekend I had some personal things going on that were just unnecessary. I was at my wits end! I felt like I could maybe just scream or let it out somehow. Then it started to rain. Since we have been living in our own idea of "Forks" this week, the rain seemed routine. I looked up at the sky and noticed a rainbow. I recalled that I saw one on Monday also. All of a sudden I had a flashback, sitting in Sunday School throughout my years, remembering God's promise to Noah. God's promise was in reference to the flood, but he used a rainbow. It just reminded me that God can give you many challenges but that He always promises to take care of you. In closing, I feel this verse has really hit me hard today. Especially after my One on One! =)*

(The rainbow from Saturday)

Matthew 6:34:

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own"

Most important meal of the day

On Friday evening, we received a call that Michael's brother, David, was coming home for the weekend. I am always delighted to have David come home for a visit. It is still an adjustment not having David be 10 minutes away or just having him drop by. He won't say it, but Michael misses him! He came home for the weekend and was staying with us so I had to make a special breakfast for him! As a single male, who's cooking spans frozen pizza for dinner and french silk pie for breakfast, he welcomes any home cooked meal. The man still eats like a college student! He so needs a woman! I thought I would whip us something special. I made homemade buttermilk biscuits which Jake yelled "bitscuts" for the 20 minutes it took to prepare them. I chopped up the pepper and threw them into a pan with the hash browns and cheese. I pulled out the snazzy GTS Pro for the eggs and "Formanized" some sausage. Within 20 minutes we had a delicious breakfast!

Sausage and Cheese Omelets
Cheesy, pepper hash browns
Buttermilk biscuits,
Sausage
and OJ!
AMAZING!

The Stalker and The Runner say "I Do"

If you were to tell me 3 years ago that this would have unfolded the way it did, I think I would have laughed in your face. You always joke about meeting some random stranger and being swept away on this heartfelt, romantic love affair. How about falling for the strange bald man that comments on your Iowa State t-shirt at a downtown Starbucks? That one sentence of "Nice shirt", brought these two a love started on their obsession of coffee. Now, 3 years later, I got the privilege of being a part of their next chapter.

These two complete one another more than PB&J. It's amazing to witness pure and wholesome happiness. To watch two people fall so crazy in love for one another, that it makes everything seem possible. In the 3 years, 10 months and 9 days I have known Jana, I haven't seen as happy as she is today. She is naturally a happy-go-lucky person but Jeff makes her smile to the point you can see her gum's and all the fillings that reside in her mouth! =) You can't help but find yourself doing the exact same thing in their presence. I can be having the worst day and they can turn it all around for me. I usually leave with my side hurting from all the laughter. They fit together like a perfect puzzle. One where no pieces are missing or pieces that have to be forced into place. They make everyone around them, want what they have. I am thankful to God everyday, I have found my glue that holds me together. Ok, I am starting to talk like a Hallmark movie. I just want to say:

Congratulations to Jana and Jeffery! I love you both very much! Thank goodness I remembered that weird man at Starbucks on that fateful day! I wish you many pumpkin spice lattes in your future!

**I do have a Matron of Honor Speech. I am still not sure if a re-do will happen, but I will post it if not!**

Here are some photos that are from that day. I am not a photographer by any means but I offered my services....thankfully, they turned out okay.

*The flowers*

*Vows*

*Ring Exchange*

*Sunset Ceremony*

*Happy Family*

*Beautiful*

*3 Stooges*

*The Stalker and The Runner*
aka
The Trimbles