GLEE = GLEEK

Yes I am a GLEEK. So much so, that I sped as fast as I could go without having the opprotunity to get pulled over, to get home by 4pm to watch Oprah. The whole cast was on. Are you kidding me? Mr Shue?! Did anyone else see Puck's tight shirt?! Oh my wow. I sat glued to the TV for the first time in weeks. It made me want to slush myself! I cannot wait for Tuesday to come!!

Marathon needs to be in the works Jana!

Zippy McZippy

Our red SUV, Ruby, is currently at the "hospital" getting a band-aid. Well, that is what Jake says anyways. We got a Dodge Avenger SXT as a rental. Now, I am used to driving a SUV not a zippy car that you can weave in and out of traffic with ease. I find myself going a lot faster then I think I am. Whoops. No tickets yet! I don't think I would ever buy one though. You cannot see out the back and you have about 5 blind spots on the sides. Plus the seats are more like racing seats. Not the most comfortable. It is a fun car to zip around in. That is about it. Nothing too exciting. I will say "Imma Be" sounds pretty fantastic blasting through the speakers. I miss Ruby though. Can't wait to get her back tomorrow!

Mystery solved

We had a minor incident with the car this weekend. Surprised? I am not. We were washing it Sunday and noticed a huge scratch all the way down to the metal of the car. I of course, freak out. It is on the other side of the car. Not the side we are getting fixed. Perfect! Michael, of course, had a fit. We thought that someone hit us either at Wal-Mart (go figure) or Hy-Vee. At church we had parked on the end so no one could have hit us there. Target, we parked in the middle of nowhere and no one was surrounding us. That left Hy-Vee and Wal-Mart. My annoyance level reached a high point after that.


That is the story leading up to today. We had to take the car to the Doctor (That is what Jake calls it) to get it fixed from the other accident. As Michael was taking Jake's car seat he noticed something. There it was, on the table saw, red paint that matched our car. Turns out, Captain Car Lover Fanatic scrapped the car himself. He had moved the table saw on Friday to cut something and didn't move it all the way back. Thus receiving the huge scratch on the side of the car. When he told me, I busted out laughing. Not the reaction to have, but it was funny. Michael is so anal and OCD about cars. He usually is the one that tends to harm them. With his Stealth, he pulled out of his parent’s garage and forgot to move the grill and put a deep scratch along the passenger door. There was another minor scrapping accident with the LS too. Lucky for him, he asked the repair guy today if they could fix it for him. They said yes. It will only cost us $40 out of pocked. I still think it's funny.

Easter

We went to church last night. It felt a little odd not going on Easter Sunday. We knew this morning would be crazy and it was. Turns out we forgot a main part of our dish....cheese. Well Target, closed. Total sock in the stomach for myself and about 30 others people that didn't know they were closed. I think the worst part was they didn't even have a sign on the door. Oh well. Dahls of course, always closed on Easter Sunday. We got to Home Depot and they didn't open till 9. We drove around until we found a Walgreens. Thank goodness for Walgreens and their over priced cheese! At this point, I didn't even care! We headed back to HD and got all the flowers we needed. The rest of the morning sped by so quickly. With cooking, getting ready and just cleaning up as we knew we wouldn't be home till later. Next thing we knew, it was time to head out. 

After a lovely 45 minute drive with my amazing family, we were at Grammies. After chowing down on one amazing meal, it was time for the moment I have been waiting for. 40 days and now, sweet, delicious, smooth, creamy chocolate! I was very impressed with my self. I have only consumed by peanut butter egg and still have my cadbury egg after I finish this. I did have a slice of cheesecake that was absolutely amazing. I don't know if it was because it was so yummy or if it was because I hadn't had sweets in so long. It was amazing. The boys opened their baskets and had a pretty easy Easter egg hunt. They hit the candy load! Goodness. We got to meet Jerry and Jo's new puppy, Maggie. Can we say adorable?! I love her already!! She is so sweet and you just want to cuddle her! We had a great afternoon with family and I cherish these days more then anything! We are now sitting at home, snuggled up, ready to spend some alone time together. Ready to take a breath and just relax! Here are some photos from today.

The boys

Opening their baskets!

Finding eggs

Counting all the eggs they found

What face is this? Candy face!

Chipmunk due to candy stuffed face

Tom Selleck?

Running off energy and sugar

I love these boys

Operation Day Before Easter

Today was, well, chaos. Complete and utter hysteria mixed with non-stop moving and a dash of attitude. My bad on the attitude. We started the morning off bright and early! Michael had to spend the morning at Chad's working on some projects. I was lucky to spend the morning with my parents. We went out to breakfast and then headed over to any parents/grandpa's worst nightmare...Toys R Us. We all grabbed a few things that we needed and probably a few things we didn't. Isn't that how it always goes? Jake was extremely good. Actually, going back a little, at breakfast and elderly couple stopped us as we were leaving. The man said that he had been watching Jake the whole time he was eating. He was very surprised at how well behaved he was. I will have to admit, Jake is an extremely well behaved child. We have been very blessed. It was just nice to hear it from an outsider! Anyways, after the Toys R Us run, my parents came over to see the new floor! We got a stamp of approval! We always take my parents approval rating very seriously! They usually know what they are talking about!

Michael got home about 5 minutes after my parents left. Jake had a slight meltdown because he wanted his Easter goodies today instead of tomorrow. It was decided it was nap time, so Michael put him down. 20 minutes later, the kid was singing and talking and counting and just being himself. I went in and told him he at least needed to lay down. 10 minutes later he was back to talking and singing, 20 minutes after that he was jumping on his bed and running back and fourth on it. At this point, I knew a nap was not in the cards today. We spent a good half hour playing outside and then it was time for us to leave. 

We had decided to go to church tonight instead of tomorrow. Yes, it is Easter Sunday, but I believe what I believe, it shouldn't matter on the day. Last year we went to the 11am service on Sunday. Can you say insane? I miss the days of having it at the Well. Yes it was a huge arena but 14,000 people could fit in there. We agreed to go to the 4pm service. Now, you would think, 4 pm, people are still out and about, running errands, enjoying the weather right? W R O N G. We were on JC Parkway and the traffic was chaotic. There were traffic signs and cops everywhere. It took us about 2 minutes to register the fact, it was church. We got there at 3:45 and wow. There was no where to park. People were parking blocks away. We thought we would give it a try. Turns out, there were a few spots right up front! Score one for the little people! The Bridge was completely full so we didn't have much hope for finding a seat in the main sanctuary. Again, 2 seats available in the noise bleed section! Ha! Church, as usual, was amazing. It was sort of fun being the first service of the 7 for Easter. We got the reactions by the Pastor and others when they first saw what was going on and the glitches! Just added to the environment. As they do almost every year, it started with the scene from "The Passion of the Christ" when He awakes and He walks from the tomb. I get goosebumps and tears everytime. The music, fantastic. The sermon, always takes my breath away. Pastor Housholder just has a gift. I have heard many Pastors in my life, and he is by far, my favorite. You never want it to end. You are always so into everything he says. Your mind never once wonders off and the passion in his voice, it just starts you on fire all over again. We are truly blessed to have people like him that share their gifts to all of us. I love that he just reads the Word. He doesn't have to fill in gaps or make things up. He tells you how it is straight from the bible and if you don't believe it, he wants you to challenge it. Of course there is always a dash of humor! At the end of the sermon came the climax tear moment. He had about 25 people fill out a poster board with how they felt before the had Christ in their life. The song they picked, suited the purpose. The selected "Fix You" by Coldplay. Even though they aren't a "Christian" band, it just added even more to the moment. They each walked up to the middle of the stage and shared it with you. One lady had divorce, another man had money, a high school girl had body image and a few others had feelings like loneliness, scared, self righteous, and greedy. It was heartbreaking to see how these people felt about themselves. After all 25 went through their boards, they all lined up into a line across the stage. The climax of the song hit, and one by one, they flipped over the poster board and it had how they felt after knowing Christ. That of course, just made the tears flow over! And it's making my eyes water now. It was so powerful and a wonderful experience for all of us to share. Pastor Mike then had the congregation text the word that described them before and the word that described them after. As the final song played, all of our texts were broadcast on the jumbo trons! It made you, in a way, realize, you are not alone in this battle. It is a battle. Everyday. No one is perfect. After an emotional service we then had to run a few errands.

You would think after a service like that, I would be cool, calm and collected. Do you not know me?! I panic. If things don't go the way I planned out, especially when it causes what tonight caused, I tend to freak out. I apologize Michael. We headed to Walmart. Esssssh. Not my most favorite of places. After carting all over the store, we left with about only 75% of our list completed. They were sold out of everything. We had a high school girl checking is us out. Usually they are the quickest. This one kept texting, yes, texting while she was checking us out. What in the world? We spent 10 minutes checking out. We only had 25 things! Craziness. We then headed over to Super Target. We had about 15 things left on our list. We got 2 of them knocked off. 2. Really?! Not to mention high schoolers and Target. I don't know what it is but honestly, mature. Please. We were in a hurry and these three Best Friends Forever and Ever X 3 were perfectly spread apart in the main isle. You couldn't pass them without running over and breaking their frappuccino filled bodies. Of course they had to walk the whole way in the direction we needed to go. The giggled and laughed and talked about some guy named Ben. I was about to give this Ben a call and tell him to tell them to move! I have never seen a traffic jam in Target before, but these BFF's caused one! Can I request a horn on my cart? We then headed to HyVee. We knocked another 4 things off our list. Again, with the people that leave their carts in the middle of the isle or block the isle completely. Michael just kept laughing. It was literally down every isle. There were no helpful smiles today! We had about 9 things that were sold out every where. We stopped by Dahls and they were our saving grace. We found everything we needed and were out of there in a jiffy. 2 hours later, we had everything we needed. What a fiasco. We finally got home at 8:30. Long day.

I then spent the rest of my evening making Easter baskets and filling up all the eggs. If you don't know this already, I gave up candy for Lent. I think stuffing these eggs tonight was my true test. All the Swedish Fish, M&M's, Reese Peanut Butter Cups, Snickers, Cadbury Eggs and Jelly Beans were staring at me intensely. Every time I dropped a piece on the table, I want to eat it. This was honestly my big test. I passed. I didn't nibble once. I did sniff the peanut butter egg package and drooled at the sight of the Swedish Fish. I made it this long, I can't break with only a few hours to go. I was thinking about staying up till 12:01 and celebrating the resurrection with a Cadbury Egg. Then I thought about it. Easter is not at all about candy or gifts. It's about celebrating the ultimate gift. One that no one else can give. No amount of candy can ever fulfill that!

Now as I listen to Hawkeye snore, Zoey chase Kinnick (this has been going on for 45 minutes), Michael playing his game with David aka yelling and not using their inside voice, while Jake is sleeping sideways with his feet hanging off, I can say, I wouldn't ever change a thing! Janzens = chaos and zoo like tendencies. We are always welcoming new members! =)

The Last Song

Due to having a half day Thursday and for some reason, a ton of energy last night, I finished my book. I think this is the longest it has taken me to read a book. Not because it was a horrible book but because we have been so busy. A month, wow, a month to read it. Give me a break. I started reading last night at 11 with only about 100 pages to go. At 12:30, about a box of tissues later, I was done. I always know going into read a Nicholas Sparks book, that tissues are a requirement. 

This book hit a little close to home with me. I could relate to the main character, Ronnie. I think almost any woman that went through teenager years can. I was not like her by any means, but just her thought process and the experiences she went through. The part that got me was, the father-daughter relationship. That was the hard part for me. I think because she hated, and I mean, hated her father in the beginning. She had reasons to, but I just couldn't imagine hating my dad or mom like that. I think too, I'm such a daddy's girl that not being about to talk to my dad would literally drive me crazy. Plus, a big factor in their relationship is music. Which, my dad and I share common interest in that. I think the father-daughter moments are what got me in the book. Just watching it grow from hate, to tolerate, to love. I won't ruin the book for anyone if they want to read it. 

Of course the love story. The whole rich boy falls for the plain girl next door. It was interesting to see how their relationship develops but you figure out that they just can't live with out one another. No matter what his mom says. Everyone had a first love, and you can pretty much relate to that in the book.

There were side stories that were wrapped in to just complete the book. For some reason, I love reading books that are from the perspective of so many people. Just going through their thought process and seeing how the event before impacted them, just fascinates me. Each chapter was through the eyes of someone. Usually Ronnie, Will or her dad, but there were a few others. I think it keeps me more interested. 

Overall, I would read this book over again. It just goes to show that things aren't always as it seems and people can grow and change. Even if you have to give them a few chances. Of course, that family, is the root of it all. Your family always loves you, no matter what you do or say.

Perfection

11 AM started off a mini vacation for myself. Half day today and off all day tomorrow! I picked up Jake and we headed home. Michael was working from home today so it was nice to have him around! Jake went down for a nap pretty quickly and I was excited to get my afternoon started! I put on a tank top and flip flops and made a fresh pitcher of lemonade. I grabbed my book, a glass, my sun glasses and my iPod and headed out for a relaxing afternoon of reading. Just sitting here on the deck, soaking up some Vitamin D, made my day. I love being able to watch my glass sweat and see the beads of water pool at the bottom of the table. It's a reminder of warm summer days that are heading our way. I spent a good 45 minutes reading until the noise started. I looked over and there were about 6-7 men working on the road. We have a few meteor craters that crash landed onto the street. These potholes are ridiculous. Well they were out fixing them. At first, I admit, I was annoyed. I was trying to enjoy the sun and get my read on. I was annoyed until about 5 minutes later when the sun got so hot, the shirts began to come off. What?! Am I in some weird dream?! You couldn't really see their faces but you could see their 6, 8 and 10 packs. Wowza! I had no problem with the noise after that! Another 30 minutes later, 5 chapters accomplished and 2 glasses drank, I headed in. Jake got up and we had errands to run!

Michael let his license expire. Whoops. It expired in December. He was a little panic because he thought he would have to take his test again. Turns out, you only have to if you let it expire over a year. Good to know. We then headed to Gordman's to get new pillow for the living room and pick up some clothing for our growing 2 1/2 year old. We stopped by Farway and picked up some potatoes and steaks. Fantastic! I was so pumped! We started cooking when we got home and had an amazing family meal. Jake of course wanted a turkey dog instead of steak but he ate everything else! It was magnificent! I am excited because I left overs for lunch tomorrow!!

Tomorrow is a lovely day off work! I need it. Plus, it's suppose to storm! I can't wait. I love thunderstorms! They are so fantastic! Downside is I will have to keep Jake entertained inside! Shouldn' be too hard! Right?! Ugh, we will see!! Today was amazing and perfect! I wish all days could like this!!