Ah....Young love... :)  

April.  The month that Joe and I decided that we couldn't stay away from each other.  So we decided to get married. :D  And let me tell you!  It's been a roller coaster ride that made me want to throw up over the side, or gave me such a high that I didn't ever want to stop.  And for the most of it, I haven't wanted to!  That's good after 15 years, right?!

Joe and I met in junior high school.  I was the cute little flute in the front, and he was the cute little trumpet in the back.  Who would've thought that almost 20 years later we'd be married with 6 kids and a mortgage?  Life has changed a lot since then, but I'm so glad that I've been able to spend most of it with my best friend.  

15 years you guys, 15 years!  Wow, where has the time gone?

 April 19th, 1997

 Me

 I think we look like kids right here.  Oh wait, we were!

 Wow.  We're so young.  We thought we were so old, hahaha!

Like I said, young love. :)

Spiritual Directory Assistance

I initially got this from Facebook, but then went and searched it online.  It's off of a blog that's for helping with lessons and stuff.  I love it!!!

I'll be printing this thing out, and glue it into my scriptures.  :D

-Janna

An exercise update....and some pictures.

I've decided to give y'all an update with my exercising.  I've been running pretty much when I decided to start way back when.  Although there was a time that I somehow damaged my foot and I have to stay off of it for almost two whole weeks!  And then it was hard getting back into it after that.  But for the most part I'm doing it.  And I'm happy to say that I definitely feel the difference.  

Just to give you and idea of what it was like for me.  When I just started out running, I would walk for 5 minutes, and then run for like 2 minutes.  And do that for a full 20 minutes.  That was okay for me.  Not too bad.  Over the month it would increase to doing more running, than walking.  By the time I was doing a quarter of a mile, it was REALLY, REALLY HARD!  I was seriously, and pathetically out of shape!  ...Come to think of it, I still am really out of shape.  But better. :D  Anyway,  by the time I got up to running a whole mile without stopping, it was hard work, and I was going really slow.  In fact my running was probably fast walking for a lot of you.  By the time I was done, my skin would be all red, and I would be sweating buckets.  Plus feeling like I wanted to crash on the bed and go into a coma.  It would literally take me an hour to feel totally fine afterwards.  

I will say, the first thing I notice about my running, was that my knees were killing me, and my right hip.  So I decided to look up running techniques, and found out that I was running horribly. Once I figured out what I needed to change in my running, my knees stopped hurting and my hips after that. :)   Nice huh? 

After I had to stop to let my foot heal, I decided not to push myself so hard, because I found out that if I would let my body recover, I was better able to accomplish more of what I wanted, which was to lose some weight, and tone myself up.  

So now what I do, is I exercise 3 times a week, doing at least two miles, depending on how I feel that day.  And let me tell you, some days I'll just walk, because I'm just not feeling good that day.  But most of the time I do run at least a full mile non-stop.  I will make it to 3 miles, but right now, I'm working on going faster.  

You know what the best part about all of this is though?  I can go up the stairs and not get winded, or I can take a walk and not feel tired.  I don't feel like my blood sugar is going crazy.  I have more energy.  I feel like I've accomplished something.  I can do more things with my kids.  I've lost weight.  I've toned up, my clothes fit better.  The treadmill that I spent a bunch of money on is actually getting used and not being a clothes hanger.  I could keep going!

Here's another thing that I will say.  Running has done me better, than just walking.  Even though I could easily walk two miles instead of running most of it.  I've noticed a big difference.  My upper body is a lot better off, and my core muscles are stronger.  Plus, I just BREATHE easier, and I don't get winded like I used to.  And I've spent years walking, and didn't have those benefits.  

So there you have it.  My exercise update.  :D

Now for some pictures.  Enjoy!!  

 Anthony and Kevin playing on the slide at the Payson park.  The static was really strong that day!  Probably from the storm that was blowing in that day.  

 Payson Lakes.  I was trying to be artistic. :)

 Megan.  She just got her new glasses that day.  She's such a pretty girl!  And she's growing up so fast.  I don't like it. 

 Me.  This shot is definitely better than others that I've taken of myself.   :)

 Payson Lake.  I was playing with a bunch of filters on my iphone.  If I look at it too long, I feel like my eyes will water. Hahah!  

Me in my car.  I was trying to be artistic with this one too.  

Pictures

This summer I've been taking a lot of pictures.  And what's crazy, is that all of the pictures below are from my iphone.  I downloaded an app that lets you tweak the pictures you take, and I've been having a ton of fun with it! :D  Enjoy! 

Joe just turned 33 when I took this.

 Me.  I was sitting in the car trying out my new app. :D

 This is Kevin.  14 months old.

 Abigail Emma, 4.  Amanda, 7.  They were sitting in the back yard playing when I took this.

 Crystal, 15.  Megan, 11. Anthony, 9. Amanda, 7.  Abby Em ,4. Michael, 3.   We were at the 2011 Payson Scottish Festival.  Behind them was where the bands were competing.

 This is Grandma Wells with Michael and Kevin.  We were at the Payson swimming pool getting ready to go, and the kids were really, really cold!  Luckily grandma was there to help them warm up! :D

 This is Kevin at the Santaquin South park. The one with the water pad.  This was the first time that I put him in a swing.  He was LOVING it. :)

 One night in August, the power went out because of a lightning storm.  It was out for a good 3 hours. I found Kevin like this just after I had finished getting dinner to the little kids.  It was so dark that I didn't notice that he got a hold of the Nutella.  He loves that stuff. 

 This is Megan.  I took this picture the same time that I took the one of Kevin sitting on the steps and the one of Joe.  She's looking more and more like a young lady.  It's scares me a little, I'll admit. :o/

 This is actually an old picture that I took a long time ago.  If you notice, Michael has a little lamb doll that hes "nursing."  I asked him what he was doing, and that's what he said.  And then he just turned back to the T.V like it was nothing big.  I thought it was so cute that I took the pic.  

 This one is of Grandma Wells teaching piano to Abby Em.  This one's an older picture too that I tweaked.  

 Joe and baby Kevin.  Just a week ago, right at the end of August, we went up to Blackhawk and camped over night.  This one was taken when we were setting up the tent at 10 the night we got there.

 This is me, and Megan, Anthony, and then Joe, Abby, and Kevin in the background.  I actually didn't mean to put them in the back, so I was happily surprised that I got them in there. :)

 This picture was taken up at Payson Lakes.  We were hiking around the lake.  It was an easy nice walk.  And very pretty.  ...Although the Lake looked really dirty.

 Anthony at Payson Lakes.

Joe and Kevin.  We forgot our stroller so we had to hold the baby the whole way around the lake.

 Best buds. :D

 Naula came with us camping.  It was fun having her with us.  She's a good dog.  The kids kept fighting over who would walk her.

This is pretty much the view around the whole lake.  It's very pretty up there.  And we also found out that the camping spots up there are a lot better than Blackhawk.  So I think next time we go up Payson, we'll go to the campsites at Payson Lakes.

Well, I hope you enjoyed the pictures.  It's been a lot of fun taking them, and I'm sure I'll be posting more later.  Who would've thought a hundred years ago that we'd be able to take these pictures with a little hand held device?  Such a blessing!! :D

A 5k....or is it called falling over and wanting to die?

Okay, this is me....sort of...

But, hopefully I'll become something more like this

I don't even need to look all skinny and pretty in exercise clothes. I just want to be able to jog/walk a 5k without falling over and dying!

I would LOVE to be able to jog a whole 5k without stopping, but it's kind of a far stretch because I couldn't do it in high school back when I was skinny. But hey, a girl can dream right?!

Okay baby steps here.... I'm doing the "From Couch to 5k" exercise plan. I'm just starting out so what I'm doing is warm up for 5 minutes, and then jog 60 sec. and walk 90 sec. for 20 minutes. Then cool down with a 5 minute walk after.

I've been surprised at how fast it goes. Usually looking at the clock makes it feel like it's taking FOREVER, but timing it like that makes it go fast.

My only worry now, is that I'm doing it really, really slow. And I know that I am. Joe tells me that I walk really slow, but hey, I walk two steps to his one! Whenever I walk with other people their fast walk is a jog for me. I can't keep up! Does anyone else have this problem?!

Well, I plan on doing this thing through to the end. That's usually not a problem for me. The problem for me is to keep going AFTER I'm done with the program. I've always been on the tip of being into good shape, but something always throws me off. (i.e having babies, going on vacation, etc.) Those things aren't in my plans for a good while, so hopefully I'll be able to keep going.

If you have any good advice, please tell me!

The prophet said to plant a garden, so that's what we'll do.

Do you have the song going on in your head?? Haha!

I couldn't help but sing that song while we were putting our garden in this year.

Our garden.

It's nice and big. Hopefully by this fall, it'll be filled with huge plants that are giving us a ton of yummy food! :)

Strawberries....with some weeds mixed in... I should get the kids to pull those out.

For our family prepardness this year, we decided to fix up our garden dirt. Our garden didn't do too well last year, mostly because the dirt was mostly clay and rocks. And I dare say that if the rocks weren't in the dirt, the plants probably would've done worse.

This year we got our friend Jeff Rowley to bring us two truck loads of dirt. And then we went to Olsen's and got some nutri-mulch. I'm crossing my fingers that our garden will do better! There is still a lot of clay in there, but hopefully by next season it'll be a lot better. If you know of a good place to get some sand, let us know. :) We'll probably put some in at the end of the season. And we're hoping Jeff will give us some of the leaves off of his trees this fall.

Our next thing that we want to do is get some water containers. :D

Owl City

This July, Joe and I have the opportunity to go to the Owl City concert at UVU. I'm so excited!

Anyway, I've told various people the reasons why I like him so much. So I'm going to say it here again.

His music is clean and easy to listen to!

Here's what he has to say about it:

Sometimes I’m asked why the music I create tends to sound like it does — why the optimistic flavor? Is that because you’re an excessively happy person? Do you ever have bad days? It’s an innocent question and I enjoy answering it because music has always been my way of “dealing with life” by way of escapism. Rather than create art that mirrors the inevitable dark days I’m plagued with just like everyone, I prefer to let my daydreams carry me away into places where one can go anywhere, do anything, be anyone, in a way that only the mind can allow. And rather than express whatever angst and malaise that gets dealt my way by writing profane songs littered with curse words or crude allegories or sexual vulgarities, I’d rather spend my time imagining how immensely BEAUTIFUL this life has the perfect potential of being. Of course, each artist to his or her own, but somehow “portraying true, gritty hard reality” tends to make me sick, whatever the medium of art. I can’t even watch an R-rated movie without feeling violated and totally nasty.

--Owl City

The rest of his entry is on his blog under, Cue the Sun, if you'd like to read the rest of it. I guess I shouldn't be surprised to find that he's quite a good writer. He paints vivid pictures in my mind with his lyrics, so why wouldn't he with his blog entries? Ha ha.

Take a look at it. :)

http://www.owlcityblog.com/