Happy Tax Day!

It's probably been about a month since my last update...too much going on in my world!

At the moment my biggest news is that I'm moving back to Utah soon! I'm currently job hunting and will be living in Utah for at least the summer. In the fall I'm not sure what the plan is quite yet, it will depend a lot on the job opportunities I find in the next few months but I definitely need at least a few months at home with my family and friends to recharge my inner happiness! I miss you all sooooo much!!!

This past week the kids and I have been sick so its been a pretty exhausting few days. On Easter Sunday I taught Sunday School through coughs and sniffles but my lesson seemed to go well.

It is of course Tax Day today...got my taxes done weeks ago but held off filing till the last minute. Luckily TurboTax made it nice and easy! Given that my taxes are pretty plain and simple I probably could have just done it myself for free but given that numbers and anything to do with government is not my forte I opted to pay the money to save myself any additional headache and hastle...totally worth it! Haha

No pics really for today's update but I did just update my pics slideshow so check that out up above ;)

Love to everyone!
XOXOXOX

No School

My kids are out of school for two weeks and its been pretty busy around here. This week we visited the wax museum in Times Square and it was a lot of fun:



We also celebrated St. Patrick's Day with green pancakes, green eggs and ham and green milk as well as some fun green dress up stuff left by sneaky leprechauns:


And one day we made homemade pizza...Mine ended up being heart shaped and was super yummy!!!


Tomorrow morning I'm off on a very early train to Washington DC. My boss has a conference there this week so she took the kids down there too and I'll be watching them while she works. I'm excited because I'll get to visit the DC Temple while I'm there :) Look for a full DC report next weekend! Have a great week everyone!

XOXOX

Loving Trader Joe's

There's a grocery store out here on the east coast called Trader Joe's....sadly it isn't in Utah but is in NV, AZ and along the west coast as well.

I've been here for 4 years and I'm just now realizing the awesomeness of this store! I will totally miss it when I'm not here anymore.

Why do I love it? It has some of the most awesome food items and its all really reasonably priced :)

Some of my favs:

These white cheddar corn puffs first caught my eye in my boss's cupboard because my best friend Aubrey and I are obsessed with white cheddar popcorn. I tried them and I became hooked! There's another product at the regular grocery store called Pirates Booty which is also delicious, but the great thing about these is 1) they actually taste better in my opinion cause they're puffier and 2) the bag is twice the size and costs less! YAY!

This I just discovered today...this rice comes in little plastic bags. You take out a bag, cut a small hole in the corner and put in the microwave for 3 minutes...VOILA, perfect rice! May not seem like a big deal but after you've worked for an oriental family who has rice with every meal and you've spent almost 2 years scrubbing sticky rice out of the rice cooker every night, you will TOTALLY appreciate the genius of this item! LOL

These cookies are soooo good! Its basically a candy cane flavored Oreo and they are so yummy! And if you think THESE are good....try to super deluxe kind that are covered in dark chocolate and crushed up candy canes...to die for!

This is another one I just found today...dark chocolate covered Edamame! Edamame is one of my favs ever since my oriental family introduced it to me. Its so good and so healthy! This is of course the UNhealthy version LOL Trust me, these are yummy and addictive to snack on! Trader Joe's has a bunch of chocolate covered things like this....choc grahams, choc caramels, choc pistachios, choc espresso beans...I sat there starring at all of them today in aww of how good it all looked! I'll probably try them all before I leave! hahaha (well except the espresso beans but whatever!)

Anyway......this is my Trader Joe's plug....that place is just awesome!

Time & Movies

So is anyone else completely annoyed by day light savings time? Yes I know, we get that extra sunshine at the end of the day...but seriously; losing an hour of sleep and having to once again wake up in the darkness??? UGH! I hate it, it makes me feel so much more tired (and I even went to bed early!) Not my favorite time of year. I'm feeling jealous of Arizona since they ignore daylight savings time. In fall I'll love it again when we gain our hour back but for now, its bugging me.

Moving on...lol

This weekend I got to hang out with the kids I used to nanny while their parents were out of town and it was a ton of fun. Its weird seeing them so much older now from when I was there with them 4 years ago. Rachel is now driving! That is nuts!!!

Time goes by so fast....in some ways I feel like I've been in NY/CT forever, but in other ways it seems like there's no way I've been here as long as I have. As much as I'm ready to move on to the next part of my life and very ready for that to be in a new location it still is sad to me to leave my life here. It will be strange to tell it goodbye.

On a totally different note, I finally saw Batman The Dark Knight this weekend. I've had people telling me for months how I need to see that movie and have put it off for two reasons:

1) The Joker terrifies me! (Seriously, I had nightmares about him just from the trailer!)
2) Batman Begins bored me to tears! I don't know, I just didn't like that one...I felt lost and bored the whole time and even fell asleep in the middle of it.

But this weekend the kids found out I'd never seen and thought we should watch it. I was actually surprised I did enjoy it (though Joker STILL terrifies me! LOL)

Another movie I saw recently while in Utah that people had been telling me for ages to see was Transformers which I loved. There's lots of movies out there I haven't seen but have been meaning to see for a long time. A friend of mine and I have been talking about movies a lot the last few days and my list keeps on growing.

Anyone have movie suggestions? Things you've seen lately or movies you love that I ought to add to the list? :)

Hope everyone has a great week!!!

Kennedy Katherine Shaner

Such a cute baby! I think she looks a lot like Seth, especially in this first picture :) Congrats again you guys!!!

A Big Blessing In A Little Package!

So this morning I woke up around 5:30 am (thanks to the snow plows outside my window!) and found on my cell phone a very special text from my best friend, Aubrey....she was on her way to the hospital to have her very first baby!!!

I'm so very excited for Aubrey and her husband Seth!

Kennedy Katherine was born at 1:27 pm! She is 6 lbs 13 oz and 19 inches with blue eyes and brown hair! I can't wait to see pics of the new little one and am even more excited to get back to Utah to see and hold her! I may not be a blood relative but dang it, I am one proud Aunt Pana!!!

CONGRATS YOU GUYS!!! LOVE YOU!!! XOXOXOXOX

Update Time!

Its been over a month I think since I've updated this blog....and my dear Martha Jane is probably annoyed by it so here we go: BIG UPDATE!

This past month I got to go home to visit Utah for 2 weeks. It was so great seeing my family and friends. I hadn't been home for a visit in a year, and as my last two visits home were so full of drama, I was in real need of a good happy and successful vacation!

One of the best parts of this vacation was the fact that Utah has so many temples and this time I was able to go inside them! My goal is to visit all the temples in Utah this year and I also want to see as many other temples as I can. My goal for this trip was to make it to as many temples as I could and I certainly made it to a lot of them!

BOUNTIFUL: I got to visit the Bountiful Temple with my friend Kate. This is so wonderful because Kate wasn't able to come to Manhattan for my actual endowment so it was great to finally be there with her. We both got a little emotional as we waited for the session to start and that was very special...we could both feel the Spirit so strong. The really neat thing about this visit was that this ended up being the first time that I got through the session without help from the temple workers! That was such a neat thing for me!

ST. GEORGE: I attended the St. George Temple with Jim and Jeannie Fowler. Jeannie is my half brother James's mom and Jim is her husband. We've been close to them my whole life and it was very special to go to the temple with them. I was able to take one of Jim's family names through the temple that day and that made it extra special for all of us!

LAS VEGAS: I visited the Las Vegas Temple on my own and it was a very special day. I was able to do a session and do some sealings afterwards. Of all the temples I've seen I think Las Vegas's Celestial room is my very favorite...it is sooooo beautiful!

LOGAN TEMPLE: The Logan Temple wasn't on my list of planned temples to visit. I certainly wanted to but I hadn't planned to go to Logan at all. That morning the plan was to meet my friend Mindy in Ogden and she was driving down from Logan. I had planned to go to the Ogden Temple before she got to Ogden later in the day but when I got to Ogden I found that the Ogden Temple was closed for a few weeks. Determined not to miss my planned morning temple visit I made a last minute decision and drove the rest of the way up to Ogden (texting and calling Mindy frantically - since she wasn't ANSWERING! lol - to try and catch her before she drove down as I was instead coming up to her!) It all worked out and I was able to get into a session at the Logan Temple!

PROVO TEMPLE: Again, Provo wasn't officially on my planned list. I had originally planned to attend the Timpanogas Temple with my brother James and sister-in-law Martha. Unfortunately the babysitters came down with a yucky flu bug and weren't able to take my little nephew for the morning so Martha ended up staying back. James suggested that we go to the Provo Temple instead and I was perfectly happy to change the plans. It was so special being with my brother in the temple! Timpanogas is still on my need to visit list...Martha, next time I'm home its you and me!!!

While I was home I also got to visit the Salt Lake Temple with Aubrey, though timing didn't work out right for a session and we ended up doing Initiatories instead. I can't wait to go back with her and do a session as Salt Lake is one of my very favorite temples. Also, with my brother and his family I got to visit the Draper Temple open house which was also very special being able to be inside a temple with my little neice and nephews!

The rest of my trip was spent seeing as many friends and family as I could and it was so great seeing all of you!!!

Lots of love! XOXOXOX