Dad

He died this morning. Be back soon.

I really just wanted to blog about the Bachelor but...

I started writing my thoughts about this week's Bachelor but was interrupted with some bad news a bit ago. My dad is in surgery in a hospital in AZ right now. He has a blockage to half of his heart and both of his legs and internal bleeding that doctors are currently operating on to try and fix. I'm not close with my dad so I don't know exactly how I feel. I know I'm sad for my sisters because they're sad but I feel mostly empty. My relationship with him hasn't been great since he and my mom started having troubles, eventually divorcing when I was in my 20s. I also wasn't expecting (or wanting) to have to deal with hospitals and stuff like that so soon after Rick's passing. So rather than dwell on what's occupying most of my thoughts, I'm going to finish the Bachelor portion and just hope I can ignore the knots in my stomach.

So last night, I had the great pleasure of going to my friend Jazzy's house to watch this week's episode of "The Bachelor." Today, Jazzy, Holly, Lindsey, Jill & I emailed a whole bunch of our thoughts and observations. This is the best show to analyze and discuss. Maybe because it's really so meaningless and just nothing?? But we love it all the same! Here are my random thoughts:

• Do we really need to see a full 15 minute season recap before we start the show??
• How long has it been between the Seattle dates and these New Zealand dates? They all acted like it's been months and months the way they all jumped in his arms and wrapped their legs around him.
• The first date with Jillian was almost painful to watch. She was pouring out her heart and soul (apparently) and every statement sounded like a question. She kept talking and talking and talking like she was trying to talk the both of them into admitting something was really happening between them. I just wanted her to shut up. I think Jason did too. He looked pained when she said she was falling for him. The guy cannot hide his emotions at all (mad props to Jazzy's husband for pointing that out to us!!) We knew from their first real conversation that she was a goner. But then there was the porn scene while they were in the hot tub. I kept saying "um, people, this is an 8 PM show!" Ick ick ick.
• Molly has horrible hair throughout this episode. We'll of course forgive her the bad hair after the bungee but not for the rest of the episode. And her clothing choices. ICK! The sweater vest with the cami underneath! The dress at the end! Not good. Jason didn't look as pained talking to her but he still didn't look that into her, in my opinion.
• I love Melissa. He seems smitten but really, who even knows.
• Why is it that Jason's response to the deep, love-filled speeches from the girls is to just kiss them. Do the producers either edit out his response or tell him not to respond?
• Why does he wear such horrible clothes? The girls are all dressed up for their dinners out and he's in jeans and long sleeved t-shirts!? And that suit at the end! It looked like it probably would have fit him when he was in high school. It was horrible!
• I really want to believe they don't ALL sleep with him. I mean really. How could the girl who gets the final rose feel knowing he just slept with two other girls the week before? Seriously.
• We have to wait two weeks to see what personal thing happens at the after the rose taping? I read a theory online where they said that maybe he proposed and they brought in Melissa's family without an audience so they could meet him? But then I read another theory about STDs and unplanned pregnancies so who knows.
• DeAnna. Sigh. I will be so hacked if she gets added into the mix. I just hope she's a red herring or whatever. Please. Let her be a red herring.

Okay, this only took me 4 hours to write. Was it worth the effort? Oh probably not.

Weekend Roundup

I need to recap my weekend before I talk Bachelor so there will be two posts today. (Lucky, lucky readers.) Here is what happened this past weekend:

• Saturday I had the great pleasure of sleeping in until 8 AM. Pure heaven.


• Later that day, we celebrated my nephew Jaxen's 3rd birthday.
  


• I also got to hold this cute boy:
  

• I went to the Valentine's dinner dance that night with my friends. They sat us at tables and we sat by people we didn't know, which would be fine, except half of our ward was at the table across from ours so I made the executive decision to move. Alberta's husband was a little taken aback but I just said "let's move" and stood up. We got to the table with half of our ward and it was so much more fun sitting with people we knew. After the lovely dinner, there was some entertainment and then they started the dance. My sweet friend Greg showed up and asked me to dance the first dance, happily telling me I was his first dance after his mission. Later a swing type song came on and he MADE me go out and dance with him. I have never swing danced so I felt like an idiot and laughed the entire time but it was very fun. His mom told me that my being there was the main reason he came to the party that night. It is impossible to not just love that kid.


• I came home and baked two carrot cake's worth of cupcakes, so like 5 dozen cupcakes. I had the idea to make them to bring to Rick's memorial service on Sunday since he and his family love them so much.


• Sunday morning was Greg's homecoming talk in his ward. They only had one youth speaker, a rest hymn and then it was time for Greg. It was his turn to speak at 9:25 AM and I looked at my friend and said "oh no, can he really talk for 35 minutes?" Well, his talk was amazing and it felt like 10 minutes long at the most. Yes, I'm quite biased but he loved his mission and spoke so eloquently about why he did and what he learned while serving Heavenly Father these past two years.


• I came home and decided to make another batch of cupcakes plus I frosted all of them. I wanted there to be enough for the reception after the memorial and then to have enough for Michelle's family to enjoy at home. I got it all done though and arrived at the church on time. Phew!


• The memorial service was so wonderful. It wasn't really a funeral as there was no casket there or a burial afterward. It truly was a celebration of his life, a tribute to the amazing person he was, to the love he had for his family, etc. The Lutheran pastor was really great. He knew Rick well so it wasn't one of those services where he was just reading from a script. He spoke from his heart and had personal stories about Rick to share. Rick's best friend, brother and brother-in-law all spoke as well. The church had a reception after and then the family, Rick's best friends and I all went over to Michelle's house to just talk and relax. I ended up staying late, talking to Michelle for a long time after everyone else had left. She is still in shock, feeling as if Rick's on a trip and she's just waiting for him to come home. It's so hard...

So a good weekend -- highs and lows...but things I just want to remember so totally blogworthy to me. :)

Love Week Finale -- A V-day memory

Four years ago, I was coming out of a funk. I'd been dealing with something awful at work and I was in a crying-every-day, seeing-a-therapist-for-a-couple-of-months depression. My friend Alberta invited me to come to our stake's adult Valentine's Dinner Dance with her and her husband and an elderly single sister from our ward. I'd gone with them the year before so it was our new tradition to go together. Valentine's Day isn't necessarily the most fun day ever when you don't have a Valentine. But going to this activity isn't so bad as a single girl because we visit with friends, enjoy the dinner and then leave before the dancing really gets going. The youth from our stake are usually the waiters and waitresses and it's generally a nice night.

Not long ago, I blogged about Greg, a recently returned missionary whom I adore. Greg was one of the waiters at this event. Normally the waiters leave as soon as the dinner is done because teenagers would rather be anywhere than with a gym full of adults on a Saturday night. Well, that was not the case this year. Greg and some of his friends were also part of the upcoming stake production of "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers." They were loving being on stage so they offered to sing a number from the show before the dancing started. They sang "Sobbin Women," soaked in the applause and then the DJ got the music going for the dancing.

I was visiting with my friends when I heard Greg's voice over the noise in the cultural hall. He was still onstage with a microphone in his hand and he's looking across the crowd to where I'm sitting. He said "I'd like to dedicate this song to Sister Shaw and ask her if she'd please dance with me?" Then, that cheesy Celine Dion song "Because You Loved Me" started playing and he came running off the stage to give me his arm and lead me onto the dance floor. We danced a bit and then the other boys started pulling the "May I" bit from "Seven Brides" and they all proceeded to cut in, one by one. Later that night, I hugged Greg's mom and thanked her again for raising such a sweet and thoughtful son who wasn't one bit embarrassed to dance with someone old enough to be his aunt (ha.)

So I will go to the activity tonight, surround myself with married couples and try not to feel too conspicuously single. When the music starts and we get ready to leave, I'll smile at the memory of a sweet 17 year old kid who helped to give me a lovely Valentine's Day. I hope all of YOU have a wonderful day, however you're celebrating.

Love, love, love...
Jeanelle

More Love - 3 days in a row!

Okay, I was able to come up with more love for you today. Not a lot, just a little. But a little is better than nothing, right?

1. I went to Trophy Cupcakes at lunch with one of my friends from work. I love this place. It's cute and the cupcakes are perfection. We went for one reason -- the Valentine's special, pictured in the lower left: chocolate raspberry with raspberry chocolate ganache filling.

Now if I was a good blogger, I would have tasted this cupcake before writing this post but I haven't. I want it to last so I'm saving it until tomorrow. Or not. The other cupcakes are for my sister, brother-in-law and my friend Kim. If you lived near me, I would have gladly bought you cupcakes. Honest.

2. I bought a new camera last night and I love it. My boss gave me a nice gift card to Costco for Christmas and the camera I've been eyeing was marked down $70. I couldn't resist! I love that it's lighter, brighter and no lens cover to take off whenever I want to take a picture (unlike my old camera.) AND it recovers so much faster than my old one. Love that. Now I just have to figure out how to really use it.

3. And finally, I am in LOVE with this commercial, and more specifically, this little girl.

Another Love Post -- beauty products edition

After I blogged my love post last night, I grabbed my lip balm on my nightstand and thought "I need to blog about my most favorite beauty products." So here's a little more love coming your way!

Lip balm I love: Carmex Mint click stick. I really like Burt's Bees too but I prefer the Carmex stick because it's a little thicker and stays on better while I sleep. I hate waking up with chapped lips.

Hand/body lotion I love: No Crack Hand Cream - unscented. I buy this at Restoration Hardware or off of eBay but it's really the best lotion for my skin. I love that it's unscented and it's not greasy at all.

Icky dry heels lotion I love: Bath & Body Works Heal of Approval from their true blue spa line. I only buy it when it's on sale but it really does get rid of icky cracked heels. Not that I have those. My feet look as nice as these. In fact, those are my feet! How did they get this picture??

Makeup I love: anything from Mary Kay. I am a Mary Kay girl. 95% of the makeup I wear is Mary Kay and I have two items in particular that I love. The first is the Minerals foundation.

I love this stuff so much! It covers my imperfections and still leaves me feeling like my skin can breathe.

The other thing I love is the highlighting pen. I used to wear concealer but I like this better for covering my dark circles under my eyes. It's more lightweight and it's fun to paint on.

So there you have it -- more love! Hope you're having a love-filled week!

A Love Post

In honor of Valentine's Day this weekend, Denae, Celia, Holly and others are blogging all week about things they love. I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon for at least one day's worth.

My newest favorite thing is my Scentsy plug in. I got it for Christmas from a friend who sells them. If you haven't heard of them before, it's a 25 watt light bulb in either a plug in or table top ceramic warmer. (Mine looks just like the one pictured below.) You put cubes of scented wax into the bowl of the warmer and the wax melts and makes your room smell yummy -- and without a flame. My current favorite scent is sweet pea and vanilla.

I love downloading applications onto my iPod Touch. This weekend, Michelle's daughter and I passed time at the hospital finding fun new apps to download. My two favorites are Bejeweled 2 and Sally's Salon. My dear little friend downloaded a cool flashlight one that I think I will get next. They have seriously everything on there -- even a level.

I've been on a Subway kick lately. Six inch turkey breast & ham with cucumbers, lettuce, pickles, and spinach on whole wheat bread. Yum.

I really love my reusable shopping bags and use them for everything. I love that they hold much more than plastic bags and I almost always remember to bring them into grocery stores. I still struggle to remember to bring them into Target but I'm getting better.

And finally, this is going to sound weird but I love my boss. Not in a weird crush way at all but he is just such a great person to work for. I love that he is totally supportive of whatever I want to do and he is always grateful for everything I do for him. Plus he thinks I'm great so how can you not love someone who thinks you're great? I finished my project management classes this week (I'm now the proud owner of a master's certificate in project management, thank you very much) and he told me he was proud of me. I needed that this week.

And those are some things I love today.