Zumba Party!

Back in November of last year I was at the Orem rec center when I saw a bunch of ladies waiting anxiously in line for something. I saw a lady in my ward, so I asked her what was going on. She said, "zumba!" I had seen flyers for zumba, but had never really thought about going to a class. For some reason I decided to try it that night. Ever since then I have been hooked. I have made a lot of good friends, and look forward to it every week. Part of the reason I love it so much is because I have an amazing teacher (trust me a great teacher makes all the difference!) She is an amazing dancer, and so much fun! She really works your butt off too! Well, because she is so good, better opportunities came her way so she is leaving the Orem rec center :(

To thank her a bunch of us decided to throw her a surprise thank you party. We had yummy food, a DJ with awesome music, and of course tons of dancing. We invited at least 70 people, but only 15 of us could make it. We still had a great time though! I made my delicious creme puffs, only this time I tried a new strawberry creme filling along with my usual banana. The strawberry is my new favorite!

How low can ya go??

I was on the way back up...I got low...

My friend Karen and me

Karen, Ana, and me

The gang who came out to party!

Karen made this cute poster! Cecilia and me

Yuki

We don't need to buy expensive toys for our dog...


She is happy to chew on our hangers, shoes, dirty socks, and any thing else we leave lying around.

If I ever meet a cuter dog, I'll be damned.

If you think there is a cuter dog on this planet...you are wrong :)

When the hubby's away....

...the wife plays!

Dan is playing in an all-nighter softball tournament in Delta. I had planned on laying low, cleaning the house, maybe eating a whole package of Oreos...er...broccoli... and watching a Lifetime Original Movie, but my friend Hailey called and asked if I wanted to play on her co-ed softball team, so I played a little softball of my own.

After our games Danica, Hailey, and I decided to do a little shopping. We went to the mall and looked at sunglasses for about 30 minutes... none of us decided to get some in the end. We ate some dinner, then went to Kohls where I do "expect great things." Oh Kohls. I could close my eyes and fill my arms with the first things they made contact with, and love it all. I had $10 in Kohls cash, and a coupon for 15% off my entire purchase...so of course I had to use them. I got some really cute shirts and a cute pair of jean capris. I called Dan on my way home and told him "I had found a few things I liked at Kohls" He then asked, "how much did you spend?" Before I could answer that question I had to tell him how much I had saved with my coupons and Kohls cash. He guessed I had spent more than I actually did though, so I guess I still have some money to spend :) JK.

When I got home I managed to take a bath, actually shave my entire leg (even above the knee), whiten my teeth, do the dishes, paint my finger nails, and write this post. This is what I call a productive evening.

Tomorrow morning I am going to a Zumba party from 11-2 which I am so excited for! I sure miss Daniel, but it's amazing what you can accomplish when you don't have a cute husband to distract you!

At a master's zumba class...us girls and our amazing teacher (in the pink). I just hate when I have a post without a picture, so this will do!

Graduation, what's next?

Today was Whitney's (Dan's sister) graduation from Salem Hills. They had the graduation ceremony outside on their football field. It was a nice sunny day, and they even had three sky divers come and start things off which was really neat! (one of the benefits of being a brand new wealthy school I guess). It was the usually ceremony...national anthem followed by rifle demonstration thing, class president and validictorian speak, principle speaks, choir sings, then each senior takes his/her turn walking up to get their diploma where you also get/have to strike a pose and get your picture taken while they read your name. Whitney looked really cute, and didn't trip or anything. I was hoping someone would to make things a bit more interesting...but the afternoon was accident free.

The last sky diver carried the flag down with him (obviously lol)

Whitney is a great sister in law. She is so kind and easy to talk to because she can relate to really anyone. She instantly made me feel welcome in the family, and is fun to be around. After the ceremony we went back to Dan's parent's house to eat and visit with the family that had come. Whit got a brand new laptop, and Dan had put a bunch of programs on it so it would be ready to use out of the box. We had some fun with her at first because we wrapped up one of our old, excuse me, ancient, laptops and gave it to her as a joke. She was polite and laughing, but I'm pretty sure she knew something was up because I forgot to include the power cord, and the hard drive was missing. Then Dan came out with the real, new laptop, and she got much happier :)


Throughout the day I was trying to remember how I had felt the day I graduated. Mostly, I think I was relieved because as fun as high school was, I was ready to move on (and move out lol). I was ready to enjoy the summer then start college and be on my own. I don't think I was scared because I had a pretty solid scholarship and plan laid out (which never really happened like I thought it would, but that's okay because it's better :) I remember I was a bit sad that all of my family couldn't be there to see me, and see how much I had accomplished. The only thing I regret looking back is on the last day of school Tacy and I just left instead of sticking around to sign yearbooks. At the time I didn't care, but it would have been fun to look back at it now and see what everyone had written!

I thought it would be fun to put up some pics of my graduation. That night a bunch of friends and I met up at Mckell's house and took some pictures. It is so funny how people go separate ways. I have not seen most of the people in the pictures since high school...but I am glad I was there for the pics because it's so much fun to look back at them now! The resolution and quality is poor because I had to scan them in.

Tacy and me just after Graduation ceremony

The above pics were at Mckell's house; starring: Devin, Ivan, Chris, Tim, Troy, Josh, Tacy, Mckell, Alex, Megan, Alisa, and me!

The 2006 Sterling Scholars, I was foreign language

All the Brickey family that came to support DJ and me
*Side note* I later found out that Dan and his family had been in the exact same area outside the Mckay Events Center that day taking pictures because his sister Bridgette graduated with me*

Anyways, CONGRATS WHITY! Also my sister Ximena is graduating Friday, so it will be fun to see her accomplish the same thing!

Swagger

This truly is the summer of softball for us! Dan plays in Payson on Mondays and Wednesdays with some friends. They call themselves "Swagger". It's been so much fun to watch because they are one of the best teams in both leagues, they like to have fun, and Dan is playing great!





We also play together on a co-ed team here in Orem with some friends. It has been a lot of fun playing on a team that is so skilled and likes to have fun! Dan and I have spent a lot of time practicing so I can improve and have more confidence, and it has really been working! I actually feel comfortable out of the field! I still have a long ways to go, but I am glad I have the chance to play with my hubby :) The weather has been pretty wacko every week, but none-the-less the softball games go on!

What Does Mayhem Really Mean??

So, I finally decided it was time for a new header. Dan was so kind to point out that "meyhem" was spelled wrong (it had only been that way for two years now). I wanted to double check the spelling, so I typed it into google. Yes, I am an idiot, and *choke* Dan was right.

When I chose the title for our blog i was thinking "Jensen Mayhem...ya know because we are crazy fun, or maybe crazy period." But the actual definitions are far more violent:

"the willful and unlawful crippling or mutilation of another person"

"the criminal act of disabling, disfiguring, or cutting off or making useless one of the members (leg, arm, hand, foot, eye)"

"Violently depriving another person of a body part to render less effective that person's defense of self."

Now, crazy as we may be, Dan and I sure don't go around chopping off arms, or mutilating body parts. We can't even watch Dexter do it.

I am pretty sure it's time to get a new name for our blog. I will certainly look up the definition of whichever name I come up with before hand :)

Mother's Day Creation

I have to show you guys the gift Dan came up with for his mom. I thought it was hilarious, thoughtful, and very creative! He used gimp to design the cover and then we had each of the kids and Lorin (dad) write a letter to their mom about why she is so great. I scrap-booked them together and the last page had a picture of all of us kids that we took in his parent's field. His parents spent the week on an island down by Guatemala scuba diving so we were able to keep this a surprise. His mom loved it!

Sue pulled this out of the gift bag, and didn't even look at the cover for more than a second because she thought it was a real self help book we had bought from "Barnes and Noble." LOL, once she looked at the first page she realized it was not and went back to read the entire cover.

Whitney, Dan's sister, was sick, so we only took four pictures, and were able to get this! We even had the family dog looking at the camera :)


We also went down to my family, the Brickey's, house later that evening for a weenie roast, where there was never a short supply of perverted weenie jokes :) (Thanks Mandy for the picture lol).

Everybody keeping warm around the little fire!

Happy Mother's Day!

Evacuate the Dance Floor...

Boy, Latin people sure know how to party, and weddings are no exception! One of my zumba friends got married tonight, and invited me to the reception. It was sooooo much fun! There was a full dinner with lots of different kinds of rice and chicken and other salads/sides, and usually I am not a fan of authentic Mexican food, but this was delicious!

The Bride and Groom

Zumba girls along with the groom

The real fun began after dinner...they had a dance with a DJ and all. It was so fun, they even played a few zumba songs, so all of us zumba girls broke it down and showed the crowd how it was done. When I was younger I used to go to quinceaneras (latin parties to celebrate the 15th birthday) a lot, and they would have big dances as well, but it had been years! I tried to no avail to get Dan out on the dance floor, but he did get some fun pics while he sat and watched me have fun :) Eventually, Dan gave me the ultimatum to leave now or walk home because he wanted to catch the last few mins of the Jazz game...I almost considered walking because I was having so much fun.

Did I mention how much fun the night was???

Jazz lead 3-1

We went to the Jazz game last night. I had never been to a playoff game before...you think the crowd gets into it during the regular season, well it's 10X louder and more intense for the playoffs. It was so much fun! The Jazz played really well, and besides the first few minutes, they were up the entire game! I was hoping to win a free shirt or something, or at least get my minute of fame on the "kiss cam", but that never happened. People got really creative with their posters; I was impressed. My favorite one was this one: "Nuggets are the worst part of the chicken". Notice they are right behind the Nugget's bench...hilarious.


The half time show didn't look very promising at first, but I am still losing sleep until I figure out the secret behind it! It was a magic show and I can't remember the name of the act, so I will make it up, "Changing outfits in magical record breaking time" Yeah, the assistant changed outfits in the blink of an eye...like ten times. Sometimes she was in plain site too... Sheesshh...for those of you who saw it or know the trick, please share :)

We sat on the third row of the upper bowl at center court...we had the perfect view

And now, off to Denver they go to win again...let's hope!

Another Banana Cream Delight!

Today was a slow day at work, so bored as I was I thought about what I could do to pass the time. Yes, my dishes needed to be washed, and I still haven't quite started spring cleaning yet, but really where's the fun in that?! So, I pulled out my handy-dandy cookbook and found another recipe that was calling my name...Banana Cream Pie. I have been in a banana mood lately. I made everything from the crust to the whipped cream from scratch. My cookbook made "fluting" the crust look so easy, but for the life of me I could not get it to look just right. Being that it was my first time making this, I was a frantic mess around the kitchen trying to do everything at the same time. I had a lot of fun though! Cleaning up the mess afterwards was a different story. My pie could've passed as a Villiage Inn pie, it was that good!

This was my fluting at it's best lol

I soaked the top bananas in fresh lemon juice then added a bit of lemon peel on the top. It was delious!

I had so much extra filling, so I used a graham cracker crust I had on hand to finish it up!

After work Dan and I headed down to Payson for my sister's 17th birthday party. It was a lot of fun, but I have not been around high-schoolers for many years, nor do I want to be...please tell me I was never that loud or immature lol!!! We played Catch Phrase, Heads up 7 up, and a bunch of other games. My sister got some new Nike tennis shoes. They are so cute! Here are some pictures of the fun :)

Happy Birthday Kelee!

Betcha Didn't Know I was *This* Sweet

I now realize that the cookbook Dan gave me for Christmas was one of those gifts that keeps on giving. Luckily it's been one of the few gifts I have gotten that hasn't sat collecting dust since I got it (i.e. my cuddlebug...one day I will start scrap-booking again, and my sewing machine...one day I will learn to sew!)

Tacy and Benny invited us over for dinner tonight, and I offered to bring dessert. I was flipping through my cookbook looking for something delicious, but also not *too* complicated because I know myself (meaning melt down if it did not turn out right!) Now, I'm not the most experienced chef, but these banana cream puffs turned out perfect! They are definitely not the most healthy treat, but well worth the calories! Let me know if you want the recipe :)

Bon Appetit!