That One Time I Had A Birthday!

Me, Cosmo and Kailee.
After the picture was taken I asked Cosmo why he wasn't looking at the camera...
He motioned that he was kissing my head. Best picture ever.

So once upon a time I bought a ticket to the last football game and I went with my fantastic roomie Kailee. We went to the beginning, then at half time went home for snackage, and went back for the end. It was sad how bad our team was. BUT we had fun, and got a picture with Cosmo, so that's pretty awesome I think:) This Saturday is the Homecoming game. It should be sweeeeet!

Jake, Emily, Kailee
"Giraffe"
On my birthday! :)
Jake, Miranda, Emily, Kailee, Me
My Birthday Celebration @ Jake's apartment!
Emily, Me, Kailee
Laughing roomies... We're like best friends:)
Brittney (and Jesse) stopped by for a little bit to hang out...
It was an excellent birthday:)
Jake, Miranda, Em, Me, Kailee (& sadly minus Mike)
Notice the beautiful JW (j.wride) antlers on Em's head ;)

My actual birthday this year was AMAZING!!!!!!!!! I woke up and went to my 8 am class. It was a good class, and after I had a meeting with my professor Peter (a good friend of Heidi's), and he wished me a happy birthday and we had a super good chat. Then I went home and watched Glee!!

After wards, I went to my diving class and Natalie Luehr had brought me two flowers and a note, and the entire diving class sang me happy birthday in front of a huge group of people. I was able to actually do the back dives we'd been working on, even though I was scared to death.

Then, I went on a little lunch date with Ethan Watts. We went to Chick-Fil-A and got some DELICIOUS food!! And then I got a free shake from Iceberg because it was my birthday! I got a birthday cake shake, of course :) It was delicious. On the way back to classes, I was driving my stick car, so Ethan decided to feed me... It was the most ridiculous thing of my life. He started out giving me reasonably sized bites, and it was all good until he started stuffing my face quicker and quicker with bigger and bigger bites until I was laughing so hard that icecream was literally everywhere in that car. It was gross. But some of the most fun I've probably ever had.

After I dropped Ethan off, I went and got changed for my last class of the day. When I met up with my class, a friend Jenny gave me a flower:), my TA brought cookies for the class, and my class sang me happy birthday! This is my Intro to Outdoor Recreational Activities, so for class we drove to Utah lake and went kayaking!! It was absolutely incredible!!!! I kayaked halfway across the lake, then on the way back we went through thousands of reeds where I was only a few feet away from a Great Blue Heron. It was beautiful and was so still. Then I spent thirty minutes kayaking out of the reeds to find the rest of the class. It was remarkable. And lucky for me, since it was my birthday, no one tipped my kayak! :) Just as I was kayaking up part of Provo River, I kayaked through probably 100 ducks. They were on both sides of me, and they were right next to me. I've never been so close to so many beautiful ducks. It was remarkable. The entire night was AMAZING. What an incredible experience.

Michael and I then went to a talk by Brother Randy L. Bott about the Family. I was so glad I went, it was a really well given talk and it was a good reminder of the importance of families.

I then picked up Emily, Miranda (who I met that day), and Kailee and we drove over to Jake's apartment where we met up with Jake and Mike. At this point we'd been spending a lot of time with these boys. We met Mike on Friday (Jake i've known for a long time now), and hung out with Jake and Mike Friday, Saturday, Monday?, Wednesday (then Thursday, Friday, and Saturday!). It's been a really fun week. Let me just say. We ate lots of yummy food and played guitar hero and just hung out. Jesse and Brittney stopped by and Brittney played Phase 10 with us for a while, while Jesse and Jake hung out some. I was so lucky to have all of my favorite people over at Jake's for the PERFECT ending to the most wonderful Birthday I've ever had.

Me and Karrae Brunner
"NERD"

Natalie, Me, Kenny

The first group of people (who actually showed up on time)...
Anna Tomaselli, ??, Ethan Watts, Catherine Caramella, Lisa Mackley, Karrae Brunner
Me, Miranda Johnson, Emily Snow, Michael Slawson

ROOMIES!
Dani, Brooke, Me, Kailee

My absolute best friends:)
Mike, Me, Kailee, Jake

Old friends from Alta
Rani, Me, Ty

Best birthday surprise EVER!!!
Charli, Me, Jessica, Beau

sissssters :)
Rani, Rachel, Me!

Gotta love my friendsss!
Jake, Me, Mike, Court
(*Notice that face on the bottom of the shirt is Court's)

More Alta FRIENDS.. AND, they brought me flowers!!
Teri, Me, Kelsie (Love them to DEATH)

Me and Kailee with our Birthday
Extravaganza sign on our window!

Me and the wonderful Ethan Watts

He makes me smile:)

Best friends for who knows how long.
Love Anna Tomaselli sooooo dang much!

Me with the legendary Michael Slawson
My bestest friend ever.

Two of my best friends!!
Michael, Me, Ethan :)

So Thursday was the Kailee + Jenna Birthday Extravaganza! Before the party I got a call from Michael Slawson who told me to meet him in the parking lot... I walked out to find him in a car with Catherine Caramella... I got in the car and we started driving. To my pleasant surprise!! On the fence as you drive up towards I-15/the mall, my name was spelled in the cups there. If you know Provo, you know what i'm talking about. It was awesome!! Especially since I've always wanted my name up there, and Michael knew that:) When I got back we headed over to the party. There were actually a LOT of people who stopped by at different times of the night, and I was super excited about it. It actually shocked me that no one from my freshman year stopped by, but I was more than satisfied with who showed up. It really meant so much to me that so many people were willing to stop by even though they were busy! SO THANK YOU FRIENDS!! (And I apologize if you are not pictured... I still adore you.)

Me all dolled up for conference weekend!

Emily and I all dressed up and adorable ;)

SOOOOOOOO.... Emily and I have been getting all dressed up the past few days. It's been super fun. And these are a few pictures from our random adventures.

Kai and I with Jericho Road (good friends of mine)
@ the Women's night at the Bookstore!

Kai and I went to Women's Night at the Bookstore where we got autographs and pictures with authors, musicians, artists, etc. It was a suuuper awesome night. And I was so glad to have Kailee with me:) I even got to meet her family!

As for the events not pictured... That would consist of the hang outs with Jake, Mike, Miranda, Kailee, Em and I. So I will summarize them here: Kailee and I went to Jesse's house last Friday where we hung out with Jesse, Brittney, Austin, Court, Jake, and Mike. We went out for ice cream and just had a good night. Then Saturday after the football game, Mike and Jake invited us over to Jake's apartment were Em, Kailee and I went and watched Angels and Demons after taking an outrageous trip to Macey's for some snacks:) Monday night we all played games at our apartment (Em, Kailee, Me, Jake, Mike)... Okay, we played phase 10. But hey! It's my favorite game! Then Wednesday was my birthday hang out mentioned above. Thursday after the Birthday Party Extravaganza- Court, Kailee, Me, Miranda, Emily, Mike and Jake all went to Jake's apartment where we watched Prince Caspian and all hung out. Friday, Mike came over after his Mission reunion and we set up and played Book of Mormon Who, and Let's Go Fishing. It was super random, but quite fun. Saturday afternoon we went to Jake's parent's house for conference. His family was great, and his mom even made us sandwiches and brought out snacks! Mike, Me, Em and Jake were there. After wards we went to Target so Em could shop for some new work clothes (SHE GOT TWO JOBS!!). It was fun, ha ha. We then re met up with them, and Jesse, and Nate Day, and brought along Miranda and we went to Chili's in AF where we all just hung out and talked, and ate food (thanks to Mike sharing!).


Anyways, that's all for now. More confessions to come.

- J

That One Time I Was in the ER

Do I bring you joy? Probably.... But my guess is because you read this weekly (okay... we all know I don't really blog weekly!), and you find my life so outrageous that it brings you said joy. It's okay... I don't care how you find that joy, as LONG as I am a part of it ;)

Did you perchance see on facebook I was in the ER? Do you not have facebook? Are you perplexed by the even thought of me being in the ER? Well, thank you for your concerns. I appreciate it. People obviously don't think about me enough... so I thought i'd take a trip to the ER, just for kicks. KIDDING. But allow me to start from the beginning...




Well once upon a time, Elise (formerly Gorbutt) was about to have a baby. And because as a society we have showers for unborn babies, Natalie and I drove down.... well up... to Logan, UT where the beautiful Elise lives. It was a suuuuper easy drive there. Went easy peasy. Found the place and made perfect timing to make it to the shower on time. We were thinking "man! we have great luck! way to go us!" The shower was wonderful and I'd just like to point out that my adorable gift (which I regretfully didn't take a picture of) got THE BIGGEST "awwwwwwww" of the whole shower! Let me tell you... It was WELL deserving of those aww's. In fact, it really was the best gift. (Okay, now, i'm probably a little biased.) So, as the shower ended, Nat and I said our farewells and hopped in the car. We were pretty sure we knew where we were going. In fact, Natalie was suuuure of it. I trust my big sister. Well, not any more ;) Actually, I'm gonna be honest, I totally thought she was right, even down to the obscure smell she pointed out we smelt on the way up. (I did remember the smell....) Weird that we both remembered a smell we hadn't passed before.... Oh well. So eventually we turned on our GPS to realize we were definitely NOT going the right way. So naturally, we turned around and started following the GPS. yes, we looked at directions on the gps before we followed them- they made perfect sense. UNTIL we started driving. I swear God had it out for us that day. The journey home started with laughter, soon turned to just plain irritated accompanied by frustration, followed by straight up fear. It was pretty, all the fall colors.... Then bumpy..... Then rocky.... Then just freaky. Imagine for a second driving stick shift on a super narrow, steep, downhill, ROCKY road with a drop off one one side. Yep, that was like half our trip. Amidst our freaking, I stayed calm so Natalie could freak. It was when we realized we had no cell service that it got intense.

WELL. Confession. I have a very unique relationship with God. In addition to the prayers I respectfully pray each day, God and I have conversations. I will say out loud, "Oh hello God, its been a wonderful day. Thank you for the sun!" or "Well God, that was a clever one, one point you, one point me." We have these conversations daily. SO, the entire drive in the Logan wilderness God and I chatted. Natalie thought I was loco. I told God that he was a funny one, and appreciated the humor in the situation. I told God that I recognized that he was probably protecting me from some car accident by driving randomly, or that he gave me the opportunity to see such beauty I would have never seen otherwise. God and I became real close on that trip.

Well, to make matters worse, I have no AC. Imagine driving in the heat of the Utah summer with no AC. NOW imagine your windows rolled down for some nice fresh air, and then BAM tons of dust flowing into your car. Now, just for kicks, lets say you're allergic to dust and you stop breathing. And, you get to borrow your sister's inhaler so you can breathe.

Then, all of the sudden, as you think the GPS really is just leading you to the depths of Logan, you turn and see a road! Not a fake rocky dirt road, but a for real road, with lots of cars and even lines and cement. And in an instant, cell reception. QUICK. Call mom, call kenny. Text lover boys. Be told adoooorable things by said lover boy. Feel better. Get excited. Find the real road, and get home!

The pretty scenery in the beginning...
When we still thought we were on a "real" road.
The view to the left (other side was the drop off)...

The time we finally SAW THE ROAD!
aaaaand found hope :)

Well, as we were driving back in the hot, dusty car, I started feeling really sick. Like really sick. I was nauseous the ENTIRE trip and even threw up. I was in a lot of pain, and seriously just wanted to give up and just live on the side of the road, or die. Well, when I got to Natalie's home, Kenny gave me a priesthood blessing, and I headed home.

Unfortunately for ME. I was now 2 hours late to pick up 3 people for a j.wride/allred concert that was in SLC (which I had passed an hour before), and I was super sick. BUT, my roommate Kailee drove and we picked everyone up and started our drive. Jesse Wride let me know they were already on stage, I freaked, and we drove. We made it there in time for their last song. SUCH A MAJOR BUMMER. But, we got to hear Allred. Not gonna lie. He's kind of amazing. I loved it when I wasn't puking.... Even moooore unfortunate for me I ran in and out of the room probably two dozen times, throwing up in the bathroom, cooling off, and going back in. I swear, everyone thought I was nuts.

Kailee, John Allred, Me

Court Eccles and I
(He and I went to HS together, for the record.)

Court, Casey, Jesse, Jenna, Austin, Kailee
(the girls w/ j.wride)

Melissa + Nate Smeding + Me

Melissa, Kailee, Casey, Me
(before Allred performed)

We finally got home, and I was SUPER ill. I didn't really sleep at all, but when I got out of bed in the morning I felt as sick as I think i've ever been, and was in ridiculous pain. I called Blue Cross and they told me to go to the ER immediately. Rani picked me up and drove me me to the hospital. The admitted me and put an IV in and started me on morphine and who knows what. Apparently abdominal pain is pretty scary/serious. After over 5 hours in the ER, they diagnosed me... Word on the street is that I have a stomach ulcer. One good thing though- I had lots of visitors. Rani stayed with me the whole time. Megan (my roommate) visited. Two boys from the Elder's Quorum visited me. And then Michael Slawson, and Kailee, Brooke and Dani (my other 3 roomies) all came. It was great. Well, NOW I am on the most ridiculous diet. I pretty much eat saltines, applesauce, and mashed potatoes all day every day. That's it. Look at what I CAN NOT eat. It'll make you laugh in disbelief.

Well, its been a pretty crappy week. Simply because I haven't been able to go to any classes, and I missed half a work week (Sunday in ER = missing out on 80$). And i'm foreeever behind and I have just been sick, and I got called a boy by some lady in Wendy's.... And it's just been rough. But Monday I get back to classes and I am SOOOO EXCITED. Seriously.

Anyways, thats all for now. More confessions to come.

- J

f.y.i. Next time I post, it will no longer be teenage drama .... SAD.

That One Time I ALREADY Forgot To Post Every Week....

Once upon a time I was a lonely blogger. Just my mother and the occasional sister to read about my dreadful life. Then I came to Utah and BAM! Just like that I all the sudden became a cool person and had real things to blog about. Therefore, I have been an avid poster, even if its just my mother reading my blog (Thanks Mom!). BUT to my pleasant surprise I looked today and I had 11 followers. Yeah, that's not a ton! But hey- that's more than I thought I had, so I'm satisfied. And by satisfied, I mean that I feel like the COOLEST person right now:) To quote a rather brilliant musical, "Whenever I see someone less fortunate than I, And let's face it, who isn't less fortunate than I? My tender heart tends to start to bleed." I am going to be completely honest for a second. I do not think I am as cool as I seem to think I am. Aka, It sounds like I think I am the most awesome person around, but in reality, I'm pretty much a loser:) So I may get a chuckle out of you when I boast of my wonderful talents, but in reality you the reader are probably about 15.437 time cooler than I. (Take into consideration that this was an average, so you could be much cooler.)

Enough about how UNCOOL I am. Let's go back to the fact that I adore you because you read my blog and comment on it, and you even think I am funny sometimes. THAT is the best part of my week... When I get on and see that someone got a laugh out of something I said, OR thought I was funny.

**Attention future husband, if you are or will read this at any time,
if you think I am funny... You are a shoo in. Seriously.
Thinking I am funny, and being funny yourself.
THAT is the way to win my heart:) **

This week I had the ultimate pleasure of going to Ask for the Future's LAST concert as a band. They broke up recently, and Monday night was a birthday party for Porter who passed away a little time ago. It was kind of depressing as we sang happy birthday to him and ate some cake... It felt wrong. But all his friends and family were there, and it was a nice way to remember him. I love that band. There is something SO great about good music produced by good guys that is appropriate, fun, and just enjoyable. You don't see much of that anymore. It's a shame.

Me, Em and Kay

I love us :)

Ask For The Future
(p.s. their t-shirts are THE coolest!)

Us at the END of the concert/party.
They are SO good for coming with me:)

Kay, Em, and I were quite chilly!
The t-shirt quilt my mom gave me SAVED the day!

Last weekend we also watched the BYU vs. Air Force football game. HELLO BYU?! What the heck was that?! It was awful... BYU played such a crappy game, its just kind of sad. Maybe they will do better THIS SATURDAY when they play florida state. An apartment in my ward threw a viewing party. We packed the room (pictures do NOT do it justice.... my camera died before the masses showed up), and all brought lots of good food to share. It was AWESOME.

The 'loyal' viewers.... BYU fans ALL THE WAY.

Em and I (Air Force supporters)
Let me clarify... I was SOOOO conflicted.
Do you vote for God (byu) or AMERICA (Air Force Academy)???
Really though... It was 9/11 .... I had to cheer for Air Force.
It was a tough choice though....

Jon, Em and I watching the GAME

Michael supporting America
(while still cheering for BYU!)

Sailing in Deer Creek!!

My RMYL 123 class :)
* well... half of it anyways..

After sailing, I was cold and wet....
SO naturally, I laid out while everyone else finished sailing :)

Me and my sail boat and boating partner....

So, in my Intro to Outdoor Recreational Activities.... We learned how to sail. It's a LOT more complicated than I ever thought it would be. And, the water was freezing... so I hated it when our boat would tip a little and I'd end up soaked. BUT it was super fun, so it's okay!

Michael Slawson and ME

I love him So much...
He's like the brother I was never lucky enough to have:)

Michael, Me, Corbin, Ethan :)

Michael, Me, Corbin, Ethan and Brittany

My good friend Corbin Sterling (who's actually an incredible musician) came in town for ONE night, so naturally, we HAD to see him! (Wow... I just used "so naturally" more than I ever have in my life IN this blog post.) We all met up at denny's to play. There were people from the past 3 years (freshman in 2008, freshman in 2009, and freshman in 2010) that had known Corbin one way or another, and came to see him. It was super fun. Eventually they kicked us out because only like 5 people ordered and we were taking up space... BUT it was great.

Anyways, that's all for LAST week.... Aka the week I forgot to post about. BUT this past week is coming up tomorrow with all the goodness from this past week. You'll love it.

More confessions to come, soon NOT to be teenage drama ;)

- J