Disneyland - the middle

One thing I loved a lot about Disneyland is you could always find someone who would take your group's picture if you'd return the favor.  Most of the time, people were pretty good too.  I love this shot of us on Main Street.  

So I spent lots of time looking longingly at the sparkly Minnie Mouse ears and after going back in forth in my mind about it and mostly talking myself out of it, DeAnne kindly bought each of us a set and I wore them proudly all day.  Seriously, they're cute right?  And mouse ears on a woman of my age (that would be 26, in case you've forgotten) isn't weird or lame, is it?  Yeah, I didn't think so either.

DeAnne was getting over bronchitis so every afternoon she went back to the room to rest so on Monday afternoon, Michelle and I hit all of the classic rides.  Here she is on It's a Small World.  

Here's me - I loved this ride.  Yes the music was obnoxious but it was just cute and fun.  Another thing I loved was The Tiki Tiki Room (no picture.)  Yes, cheesy, but I loved the birds and the dumb jokes.  Okay, and the pineapple whip was awesome too.

So I learned early on that Michelle was not the most skilled at taking the self-portrait.  Case in point here...I'm posting only because it's a great shot of me haha. I think we're on the Teacup ride (also fun.)

We took Mr. Toad's Wild Ride next which came highly recommended and did not disappoint.

My ears are a little crooked here but I had to post a shot outside the castle.

Okay, and to prove that I only post attractive pictures of me, I have to add this shot of our first time on Space Mountain.  I loved this ride so much - easily my favorite Disneyland ride.  I honestly thought I might die the first time we rode this one just because it was so dark and I had no idea if I was going to be decapitated or whatever.  But look at this picture of DeAnne - seriously...have you seen a more bored out of their mind expression while Michelle and I are obviously having the time of our lives???

So I don't know if you remember that on the day before, we rode the Grizzly River Run and got a little damp.  Well, at the end of the day, we decided to try out Splash Mountain and again Michelle promised we wouldn't get that wet.  Well...we got wet.

Seriously drenched!  It was horrible.  We left puddles wherever we went.  I will never again mock those people who bring rain ponchos on the water rides.

After this ride, we went to the bakery at Pooh's Corner and had two of my most favorite treats ever:  the white chocolate chip cookie and the peanut butter sandwich.  Those two items alone are worth a trip to Disneyland. 

Okay, the finale is coming soon -- stay tuned for our once in a lifetime trip to Club 33 plus me and a lot of people in animal costumes.

Proof for the non-believers

I have much to share but very little time to do so...so while you wait for my latest installment on my Disneyland trip and a report on the gifts I received from work people, watch this video from last weekend's SNL.  Yes, it's irreverent, etc. but watch until the last line from Jesus, will you please? :)

Baking Day 2011

Here's me and my friend Tricia in a sort of crummy timer photo but at least her eyes are open.

For the last several years (five? I'm not really sure exactly...) Tricia and I have gotten together in December and spent an entire day baking.  Yes we have matching aprons, thanks to Tricia.  But I cannot express to you how wonderful it is.  I look forward to it all year - seriously.  That's how great Baking Day is.

And look at our sustenance...yeah we didn't eat that many grapes.

I packed up half of my pantry to bring to Tricia's because she has two ovens and a beautiful kitchen.  And you think I'm kidding but look - that truly is half of my pantry.  At least.

This year was a little different because Tricia only has one child left at home, 14 year old Mary, who was at school all day.  So instead of all of these teenagers bugging us all day, we were all alone at her house and it was kind of weird.  I posted this on FB but in past years, Adrian and Anna would be there helping us or running to the store to get some forgotten ingredient, Robert would either be sampling, entertaining us or even better, running to get us some Subway.  Emy and Mary were always the best taste-testers so even though the big kids are gone, Mary came home and tried everything out.  I love it that Mary requests and expects me to make certain things and of course, I do just that.

Yes, we went through more than five pounds of butter.

There are a few standbys in our Baking Day repertoire but this year we tried to mix it up a little and make some new things.  I made: chinese noodle cookies, peanut butter cup cookies, peppermint meltaways, cookie dough fudge (which was a fail), mint magic bars and caramel chex mix.

Tricia made toffee, peppermint bark, sugar cookies, almond raspberry shortbread cookies, orange truffles (another fail), peppermint bark popcorn and crunchers,

I bought some super cute Martha Stewart treat boxes I found at Marshall's for a fabulous price and I put boxes full of love together for work people, visiting teaching sisters and my home teachers.

I love that I have homemade gifts for people at Christmas time but I love more the time spent with Tricia. We are completely comfortable sharing a kitchen, we talk about everything under the sun, we laugh hysterically and sometimes we don't say anything at all. Even with a couple of recipe misfires and even though I came home completely exhausted and half of my pantry is waiting to be put away, we still had a fantastic day and I can't wait until we get to do it all again.

Be a better blogger

So if you look at the archive on my sidebar, you'll see that 2011 has not been a good year for blogging. In fact, this entry is only my 30th for the entire year.  That's kind of sad, isn't it? I think it is.

I was thinking about it and I've come to the conclusion that I just never think to blog about the normal stuff I do every day.  For example, yesterday I brought Denae's mint brownies to work (and received no less than 3 marriage proposals: from one married man plus from two gay men.  The mint brownies are pretty powerful so consider yourself warned!)  Then after work I stopped at the King's, we ate some pizza and then I went to my last Young Women in Excellence night for the year.  I mean, it was certainly a fun day but I'm thinking the only person who wants to read a detailed account of my day is Kim and that's only because she's so far away in dang London.  But do you know who else is interested in my minutiae?

Me.

So here's my point...I'm going to try and blog about stuff I would normally never think to blog about.  Why?  Well, it's not for any of you, really. I mean, I love comments and I love feedback and I love the friends I've made through this blog (seriously, blogging has truly blessed my life.)  But it's because I went back and read some of my past entries this week and I love love LOVE that I have this little record of my life since 2008.  My blog isn't the greatest blog out there.  I haven't even updated my layout since I started, pretty much.  I'm not the best at putting pictures on here.  I know I blogged too much about television shows and I've also left a lot of the good stuff out because I'm a chicken but you know what?  I still like this blogging thing a whole lot.

So here's to more blogging in 2012!

Disneyland - the beginning

It's long past time that I should recap my trip to Disneyland, wouldn't you say?

So if you are a devoted reader of my blog, you will know that this was my first ever visit to the Magic Kingdom.  I'm not sure why I never went until now but it really was well worth the wait.  I went with two friends I've known for more than 20 years, Michelle and DeAnne.  They'd both been before so really, the trip was all for me. ;)

We stayed at the Grand Californian which was simply beautiful.  I loved being so close to the park. Here's the view from our hotel room the night we arrived.

Michelle surprised us right from the beginning by having these super cute, personalized pillowcases for us.

We got in kind of late so we decided to just walk over to Disneyland and check things out.  I loved all of the decorations for Halloween!

We got to Main Street in time for the fireworks - hurray for the photo bomb in our first group shot.  And please note the first timer pin, which actually did nothing for me...maybe it works better for kids?

Michelle will kill me for putting this picture up but I have to...so in her hand is this little bottle called "Fresh Drops."  She bought it at Safeway before she took a bunch of girls on some soccer trip.  This stuff is actually kind of magical - you drop a few drops into the toilet before you go...and guess what?  No smell.  Seriously.  It totally works.  I thought you'd all like to see this because it would make a great Christmas gift for that special someone in your life...seriously...

Okay, first day is done and now we're onto day two - the first full day of fun.  We went to California Adventure first and our first ride was The Little Mermaid.  Okay, so maybe not the best choice but there was also no line.  It was darling and fun - just not that exciting.  Oh and please note the new bag I bought for the trip - big enough for my wallet, camera and phone and super cute as well.

After our first ride, we took a quick photo together...love these girls!

We had reservations for brunch at Ariel's Grotto and look who we got to meet first off:

We sat outside, in perfect view of the closed-for-repairs California Screamin' (sadness) and waited for brunch to begin. I love my Michelley - isn't she pretty?

The food took forever to arrive so we posed with princesses while we waited.  I told Cinderella she had lipstick on her teeth just before we took our picture together.  I mean, wouldn't YOU have told her??? She's Cinderella, for goodness sake.

Belle showed me how to pose - I've got to work on how to position the hand, just so, I'm thinking. And no it's not one bit strange that a bunch of adults were taking pictures with the Princesses. Why ever would you think such a thing?

Michelley had to be with Snow White because, hello - they look alike!

Well, we waited and waited for brunch but they had something go wrong in the kitchen so we didn't get to eat.  So sad...so we left and got a corn dog (yum.)  DeAnne and I rode Mickey's Fun Wheel (swinging...I loved it when I thought we were going to sail on into the water!)

Next we went on Tower of Terror - twice.  Can I just say how much I adore that ride?  Here's the pic during my first ride - please note that I laughed my way through it, as you can clearly see.

The second time, we decided to pose and did a little jazz hands aka Just Jack!

We did a bunch of other rides too - Soaring over California, Monster's Inc, the Muppets, Turtle Talk and more.  At the end of the day, we went on the Grizzly River Run.  Michelle assured us we wouldn't get that wet.  She said "it'll just be a mist."  So we went...and as you can plainly see, we got pretty wet.  

So that's our first two days...stay tuned for more (before 2012, I promise!)

Did you know...?

That I'm the thirstiest ever on Sundays? I cannot drink enough water on days like today.

That going to a Messiah sing-along is sure to fill you with the Christmas spirit?

That despite the influx of Christmas spirit, I might not put up my tree this year?  I'm just not feeling it.

That sometimes your prayers are answered by a sweet little 4 year old girl who invites you to sit with her during church and then proceeds to hug and kiss and love you right out of your mini-funk?

That yesterday I filled 7.5 bags up with clothes that are too big?  

That it's physically impossible to ever really be done with laundry?

That whenever you feel like you have problems, people get up during church and talk about their pain and then you feel like a total dork because your life is so dang good the way it is?

That my mom is the absolute best because she is going to wrap all of my Christmas presents for me?

That my hair is the longest it's been since I was like 5 years old?

That I'm spending one whole day this week baking treats for people I love with one of my most favorite friends?

That I can't think of anything else to say?

I'm thankful for...

Because I'm waiting for a cheesecake to cool enough to put it in the refrigerator and because I have too much on my mind to sleep tonight anyway, I thought, hey, why not blog?  So without further ado, here is a list of things I'm thankful for (but no pictures because I'm lazy...don't hate.)  I'll get the meaningful/serious stuff out first...keep reading for the lighter stuff.

I'm thankful for my life.  It's not perfect.  It's not easy.  It's not always rosy.  But it's a good life and I like it most of the time.

I'm thankful for my family.  We're not perfect but when it comes right down to it, we really love each other.  I know it and they know it. There is a peace and contentment that comes from that knowledge that cannot be matched.

I'm thankful for so many people I can't even begin to name them all.  But basically, if you read this blog, you're probably on this list.  If you text/call/email me, you're on this list.  If you call me Jeanellie or Sister Shaw or Sh-Shaw or Shimmy-Shimmy-Shaw, you're on this list.  If you smile at me, make me laugh, hug me or tell me you love me, you're most definitely on this list - and quite possibly near the very top.

I'm thankful for my testimony.  I'm thankful to know that my nature is divine.  I'm thankful to know that we have a living prophet on the earth today.  I'm thankful for Joseph Smith.  I'm thankful for my older brother (and yours) Jesus Christ. I'm especially thankful for prayer.

I'm thankful for work -- both in the church and in the world.  I have been blessed with the greatest calling and I've been blessed with a wonderful job, working with (mostly) wonderful people.

And on a slightly lighter note...in no particular order

I'm thankful for my iPhone, the color red, crushed ice, my ability to bake, cute pajamas, and that I'm a girl and not a boy.  I'm thankful for makeup and hair dryers and pretty purses.  I'm thankful for music - especially the new Michael Buble Christmas CD and pretty much any show tune. I'm thankful I weigh less this November than I did last November. I'm thankful for Eclipse gum and bagel thins with peanut butter.  I'm thankful for the movie "Pride and Prejudice."  I'm thankful for sheets and pillows and blankets and memory foam mattress toppers.  I'm thankful for those dark chocolate acai berries at Costco.  I'm thankful for fun watches and cute earrings. I'm thankful for inside jokes.  I'm thankful for babies and cute little kids. I'm thankful for hope.

There's the timer!  I can put my cheesecake in the fridge now - yay!  Happy Thanksgiving to all and to all a good night!

Happy birthday, dear Cindy

Singling out one special young woman is a risky endeavor for me because others could be sad that I haven't done the same for them.  But I hope each girl who is part of my life knows for a certainty that they matter to me, that they hold a gigantic place in my heart, and that, truly, they ARE my heart whether I've blogged about them yet or not.

Today, November 21, is the 19th birthday of a girl I first met back in February of 2010 through my calling as assistant stake YW camp director.  She wasn't in my ward but I knew of her and I knew her older sister.  I called her "Cynthia" for the first little while because that was the name on my list and I was too busy to ask her what she preferred to be called.  I soon realized that while Cynthia is her given name, she is totally a Cindy.

Cindy didn't understand anything I told her about camp at first. I think it was because the lingo of camp, the schedule of camp, and everything ABOUT camp can seem almost like a foreign language to a newcomer.  As a newly baptized member from a recently re-activated family, she’d never been to YW camp before and now she was expected to serve as a Youth Camp Leader, teaching the young women who were younger than her all about the way we camp in our fabulous stake.

I remember exchanging phone numbers with her after seeing her face go blank while we were training and instructing the girls in all that they would be doing that summer.  I remember telling her to call me, anytime at all, with her questions and I’d give her a YW Camp 101 training session.  She finally did call me one night, at about 11:30 PM and we talked for quite awhile.  I remember trying hard to not talk too fast because when I’m excited or passionate about something, I talk fast.  But I wanted her to love camp as much as I did.  I wanted her to be excited about this amazing adventure she was about to go on.  I wanted her to be as awesome as I could see that she had the potential of being.

We got to camp and she was just that – awesome.  Like the other girls in what turned out to be my last year as assistant camp director, she was positive, happy to serve, fun, spiritual, kind, loving and patient.  (I still can’t believe I had an entire group of girls exactly like her during my last year of service in that capacity – what a way to go out!)

We had a special program one night at camp and I went around hugging each girl, one by one.  I told each girl how much I loved her and meant it with all that I had.  When I got to Cindy, I told her I loved her and thanked her for coming to camp and then she said something to me that my still single and childless self will never ever forget.  She whispered in my ear, “will you be my mom?”  

You see, Cindy’s mom left their family about a year and a half prior to our meeting. I knew this before meeting Cindy but that question was still so unexpected.  “Will you be my mom?”  I told her, yes, of course and that I would always be there for her, whenever she needed me, however she needed me.

After camp, we saw each other occasionally in the halls at church and at mutual activities.  We always hugged each other tightly, laughed, talked, and caught up on our lives.  Of course, we texted now and again whenever we happened to think of each other and then things changed a little when we started getting ready for our pioneer trek this past summer.  Cindy and I started walking together to prepare and I think that’s where we really started to bond.  We shared secrets, hopes, dreams and of course, lots of laughs on those walks.  We realized right away that we had a connection between us that was different than one we had with anyone else. We introduced each other to our families and I bonded quickly with hers and she just as quickly with mine.

On trek, she would frequently find her way to me, stopping for a hug or to tell me something she’d experienced.  I loved that she sought me out but I loved more watching her grow from the trek experience itself.  She took her role as big sister very seriously and worked so hard to be a good leader and family member.  Once trek was over, we started spending even more time together – movies, shopping, dinners, road trips and on and on.  We never seemed to run out of things to talk or laugh about.

Cindy is fun and smart and hilarious and talented and loving.  She is a spiritual giant who teaches me so much and makes me want to be better.  No, she is not perfect.  At times she challenges the people who love her the most but she is also the most loveable girl you will ever meet. My mom has taken to her almost as much as I have.  They sat next to each other when they came to watch me in our recent youth musical program and Cindy told me later that night “your mom held my hand the whole time.”  It was all I could do to not cry when she told me that. I love that my mom loves my girl almost as much as I do.

I don’t know that I feel like Cindy’s mother or that she feels like she’s my daughter.  The term "best friend" doesn't really cover our relationship either. I just know that long ago, before we came to this earth, she and I decided that we needed to be in each other’s life at this time.  We needed someone who would love us unconditionally.  We needed someone who knew exactly what we were thinking pretty much all the time. We needed someone to support and lift and guide us.  We needed someone to just be there when we needed a friend.  We needed someone who would fill a void that each of us had in our lives – a void that we both thought we were doing a pretty good job of managing but one that was in desperate need of filling.   

I sent her a text recently where I said “every time I think it’s not possible to love you more than I do, I talk to you or see you and then I just love you more.”  She responded, “I know.  Every time we laugh, I’m like ‘how did I ever have fun before?’” That’s really how it feels for me.  I can hardly remember what life was like before I knew her and I certainly cannot fathom my life without her in it.

Happy 19^th birthday to my darling Cindy Bob.  FYI, you seriously fill my heart with joy every single day.  Thank you for being such a light and a blessing in my life.  I love your guts!

Most Excellent

Tonight I had the great pleasure to attend a Young Women in Excellence night for one of the wards in my stake.  It came at the end of an especially trying day at work which was followed by an afternoon of dance festival meetings at two opposite ends of town, a 15 minute stop with Meesa for a quick dinner and then a drive through rain and traffic to yet another opposite (lol) end of town.  So basically, my day was kind of, well, it was pretty much a stinky day.

I arrived at the church and walked into the room where the special event was to be held and was immediately greeted by a chorus of "Sister Shaw! Sister Shaw" from the girls.  (Seriously, how great is it to be me?  Trust me.  It's really great.)  The program began and after the opening prayer, we stood and said the Young Women theme.  The Holy Ghost bore witness to me so powerfully that the things we were saying were true.

We are daughters of our Heavenly Father, who loves us and we love Him.

We will stand as witnesses of God 

at all times, and in all things, and in all places

as we strive to live the Young Women Values, which are:

Faith

Divine Nature

Individual Worth

Knowledge

Choice and Accountability

Good Works

Integrity and

Virtue

We believe as we come to accept and act upon these values,

we will be prepared to strengthen home and family

make and keep sacred covenants,

receive the ordinances of the temple,

and enjoy the blessings of exaltation.

Three of the young women then took turns talking about important activities they had participated in this year:  Young Women Camp, Pioneer Trek and various service projects.  At some point, I leaned over to Meg who is in the stake YW presidency with me and said, "we have the best callings!" and she agreed.

The girls then sang "My Grateful Spirit Sings" which was one of the songs we sang in our recent youth musical.  I could no longer hold back the tears as I looked at each one of their beautiful faces and thought "I love each one of these girls."  I'd had a feeling like that once before, many years ago, when I was a newly called ward YW counselor, wondering if I'd ever be able to love all of the girls in my stewardship.  I'm grateful that even though my group of young women is much larger now, I have been blessed by my Heavenly Father with the capacity to love each one of them completely and unconditionally.

The young women each then took a turn describing a personal progress value project they had completed or were still working on.  Three or four of them mentioned our recent musical and what an impact it had on their lives.  I love that our stake programs, while sometimes challenging and often time consuming, provide faith-promoting and testimony building experiences for our youth.  The church is so great!

I'm so grateful for the blessings I receive because of my church service.  I'm thankful every day that I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  I know that I'm a daughter of God and that He loves me.  I know that Jesus Christ is my brother and that He died for my sins.  I know the Bible and the Book of Mormon are the word of God.  I know that we have a living prophet on the earth today and he is Thomas S. Monson.

Sweet is the peace the gospel brings...every minute of every day.

Tell me what you want, what you really, really want

I want to have normal sleeping habits.

I want to blog about my Disneyland trip.

I want to blog more, period.

I want to be able to wiggle my nose like Samantha on Bewitched and have my house clean and laundry done.  And let's be honest, I'd be pretty cute wiggling my nose like that.

I want to start listening to Christmas music, and yet I don't.

I want to get to work on time.

I want to be a better daughter, sister and friend.

I want to use the phrase "waxing and waning" in a sentence and not sound like a dork whilst doing it.

I want to also say "veritable cornucopia" more often.

I want to know why chargers will no longer fit into my iPhone properly.

I want to know if I should baby my breaking phone along until the new version comes out in 2012 or if I should just suck it up and get the dang 4S.

I want to see Kim while she's so close and yet so far away in Utah and not in dang London.

I want to not freak out about all that's required of me in my life.

I want to be able to read a complete book in less than three months.

I want answers to the questions I'm obsessing over.

I want to upload this year's camp videos to Facebook and to have it actually work on my first try doing so.

I want to fly across the country so I can see Callie and hold baby Maggie.

Brazenly lifted off Facebook

I want to be able to look at this photo of them and not weep.  (My Callie is a momma!)

Oh, Idaho! (Part 2)

One of my favorite things about my weekend in Idaho was visiting the Rexburg temple.  The girls and I went first on Friday and took a couple of pictures (and soon after that was when I accidentally erased my SD card.)

This really is my new favorite temple. So beautiful.

Gorgeous girls

Late Friday night, I was emailing with Kim and I told her I was planning to go to the temple Saturday morning to do an endowment session and she asked if I was going with my favorite guy Greg.  The crazy thing is I hadn't even thought about asking him.  I'm so used to just doing everything alone, you know?  But I texted him at like midnight and he said he'd love to go (to the 9 AM session, in fact and we texted until 1 AM! Don't you love college life???)  Thank you, Kim, for the suggestion!  Greg's cousin Stephen plus their roommate Juan came with us.  It was such a treat to be in the temple with them.  I've known Greg since he was around 12 years old and I have loved watching him grow up.  He's just amazing and awesome.

Stephen, me and Greg.  

After the temple, I picked up the girls and we went to Bear World!  

The girls learned on this trip that I'm sort of obsessed with wildlife so getting to drive through a little park and see bears, elk, mountain goats and even a moose is really my idea of a good time. I won't bore you with a bunch of animal pictures but will include this one because this was quite possibly the coolest, most Zen bear you will ever see in your whole entire lives. 

Seriously.  Can you believe that guy?  He was so awesome.  Next we went into the gift shop and petting zoo and took all sort of fun pictures (all the while, talking in our Southern accents, remember.)

 

Nikki & Emily.  Seriously - how can you look at this picture and not laugh?

 

Sarah looks like she was trying to scare Cindy and succeeded!

After Bear World, we went back to campus and got Kristina.  We may or may not have driven around town with Sarah in the back of the car.

We got some Creamery chocolate milk and then went back to the temple and took a bunch of pictures. It was super windy (love that about Rexburg...um...not) but I got this beautiful shot of the girls.

I still can't believe how blessed I am to have these girls in my life (as well as the others who weren't with us that weekend...you know who you are!)  They truly fill my heart with joy and make me forget that I'm kind of old.

 

After the temple, we went to dinner with Greg and Stephen at Pizza Pie Cafe again.  

Love him.

Stephen makes the best faces.

After dinner, we took Kristina home and then went back to Sarah & Emily's apartment.  We hugged good bye and I of course, started to cry.  I'm such a baby. (Thanksgiving will be here before we know it!)

Sunday morning, Nikki, Cindy and I went to church with my friends, the Brownings.  

Sherry's husband was my bishop while I was YW president and it was so fun to get to see their new home and to see how much their kids have grown in the two years since they moved away.  I love their youngest son, Ryan.  He was one of my favorites when I was in Primary.

After church, the girls changed into road trip clothes (please note Cindy's shoes.)

Then we were off.  It was such a long drive but the girls were good and stayed awake for most of it.  Nikki had her laptop so we watched (I listened of course - I WAS driving after all) Despicable Me and 17 Miracles.  When we got close to Spokane, I texted my friends Richard and Sue to see if they wanted to feed us and let us use their bathroom and of course they did.  

Sue was out of town but Richard (who used to be my home teacher) put out a spread that she would have been proud of -- sandwiches, salads, juice, and all sorts of healthy food.  It was just what we needed to make the last five hours fly by even though it made me wish, again, that Richard and Sue hadn't moved so far away (notice a trend...my friends are all moving away from me.)

All in all, a fantastic trip filled with fun and laughter...so much laughter.  I want to try and remember some of the funny things we said like "I've got to pew" but it's after midnight and I'm brain dead.  Loved the trip, the time with the girls, our fun memories, eating at Costa Vida, and on and on.  I'll be ready to go back when the snow melts, girls.  Let's plan another trip now!