Finally!!!

Years ago Jergens lotion had a Shave Minimizing lotion that I used on my legs to make the hair softer in between shaving. It was awesome. Shortly after I started using it stores stopped carrying it, but I could find it at Big Lots for about another year...then they stopped carrying it. Oh well. I was bummed, but what do you do.

As soon as I figured out that the lotion did what it said it was going to do, I thought, they should put this in deodorant, that would be way more useful than in a lotion. And it never happened.

Then, this morning I saw a commercial for this:

FINALLY!!! I am so excited for this! I use Dove deodorant anyway, so this is great!

Why didn't they listen to me earlier?

If you loved Twlight

You may want to stay away from this post. This is from the always entertaining Apples at the Chapel. He had some thought provoking views on the underlying purpose of the first Stephanie Meyer book.

Susan G. Komen: Race for the Cure

Saturday May 9th was the Race for the Cure (breast cancer) down at the Gateway. My sister-in-law Audrey has been preparing for this race for months, and I told her right at the beginning that I would be there with her. I am so glad I did! It was such a good time.

Keep in mind that I signed up and everything before my diagnosis, so it seemed all the more important that I complete this race. It ended up being me, Audrey, Emilee, and Audrey's friend Kristin (is that right Aub?). We had a grand old time and completed the race in a modest 2 hours, if I remember right. My little pedometer on my phone informed me that I took approx. 8500 steps during the race. In a normal, busy day at work I take about 4000, usually less. So that was good. We already made plans to do the race next year, but Audrey says we are running it. That may take more training than I put in for this one. But I am down. Count me in for next year. Here are some pictures:

All the people in front of us. I even zoomed in a little, so you can get a good idea of how many were there. It think it was more than 18,000.
Here are my walking buddies. Kristin on the far end, Audrey in the middle and Emilee at the end.
I felt left out, so I took a picture with Em. Check out our sweet glasses!

Amy and Nik made this cool sign and, along with them, my parents (which was a surprise) and my mother-in-law, Jeanne were waiting for us at the finish line. It was an emotional moment.

Here are the champions! We all had such a great time and I am so glad I decided to do this with Audrey. Thanks for letting me tag along!

Anniversary pics

No, not those ones!!

Aren't we cute!
This is Adam Pavkovich, he is my favorite player, but he sucked it up every time at bat. Nik pointed out that at least we don't have to worry that he will be called up! These are our Rally Caps, cause we were loosing big time. It didn't work.

(can you see the Port line in my neck on the right side. I think its pretty noticeable)

Happy Anniversary Baby!!

(look how hot he is! Can you blame me?)

Yesterday was our 3rd wedding anniversary! There was a lot going on so I didn't get to a post, but I hear that my mom managed one. Anyway, I just wanted to say a quick 'I love you' to my wonderful husband and let him know that I am more and more glad to be with him everyday. He has been extra good to me in the past weeks and months, and I only see good things ahead. Thanks for risking getting kicked out of the HHC for me baby! Love you always.

Lena

Tilt Shift Photography

A little while back I was introduced to a photography style called Tilt Shift. It is the ability to make a real life photo look like a photo of a miniature setting. I LOVE IT!! I desperately want to figure out how to do it, but I think you need a different type of camera than I have. Reading the directions it tells you to do things you can't do on my digital camera. Oh well. In the mean time How About Orange found a great website that will create the effect for you, with an existing photo! Here is one I made from a picture of the San Diego Zoo. I love it!!

Tilt Shift:

Original:

Angels and Demons

Before you read this, if you are excited to see this movie, like I was, just go see it. Read this later.

Ok, it was good. Not great. Good. I went with a couple friends who had recently re-read the book in anticipation of the movie. Apparently that was a bad idea. It was a couple summers ago when I read it last, so I was not as familiar with the intricacies of the plot. They changed a lot to keep the flow in 2.5 hours, which is understandable. But they changed the ending. I won't say what they did, but it worked. Just not like you wanted it too.

This was a typical Dan Brown movie as well (it saddens me to think that that term means anything but "stellar"), with the predictable twists and hidden bad guys. Is that confusing? Nik, having not read the book before, felt like he knew what each turn would bring. Plus, its Dan Brown, so you know that the way it looks like it is going to end is not how it really ends.

There was more gore in the movie that I was expecting. I always forget that this book was graphic. I seem to be able to glaze over it more when I am reading it. I will say that with all the gore, they did not re-visit it. They would show it once for shock value, then just imply the rest. But there were several scenes of "oh, gross!!". Also there is a lot of 'shaky cam' employed. Nik and I tend to get a little motion sickness when there is a lot of this, and it was border line. Don't know what I am talking about? Think 'The Island', or 'Quantum of Solace'.

I can't decide how this compared to Davinci Code. Some said it was not even close to as good, some said it was at least as good, and others said it was marginally better. I would like to say it was better, just because I liked the book so much more. But I just can't bring myself to do it.

Grade: B-

Thanks

To Tom and Liz for a great night in. It is always a pleasure to see them and their adorable little boy. Liz had a great dinner of left overs for us and we had a good time talking and watching tv. It was good to get out of the house, but not really have to do anything!

Real Quick!

Pigtails and Snails is having another quilt giveaway! I love her stuff. I am hoping to get some extra entries by blogging here, and to spread the word! Check it out and enter if you are interested!

More pictures

Here is the next installment of my pictures taken at my sister in law's house. These are of the landscape...so to speak.

More pictures!

I am doing my next group of photos in different installments. Here is the first:

My step-brother-in-law just got a cool old/new boat that I thought was so cool! I took a bunch of pictures of it, but none of them turned out as good as I thought. But here are a couple anyway. Also, Allie was so darned cute "driving" the boat, I could not resist!

Trip home from Cali

I know it has taken a very long time for me to post about this, but here are a few pictures from the last day in california.

LAX!! I was so excited for this big sign. I took several pictures out our car window.
Us on the beach!
Me on the beach:

Nik on the beach: (notice how empty the beach is? Maybe that is because it was 40 degrees outside that day)

Us on the plane home:

One of the many picutes I took out the window on the ride home:

Oh, and we have the few picutes Nik took at Lilly's wedding on Tuesday up on our gallery. Go to web.mac.com/nikenglish and click at the top on the Gallery Link.

Update (long)

I have been really slacking on the blogging front. I have had a few things in mind to put up here and it has just never happened. So here is the photo update.


We hosted a table at our Vacation Destination themed ward party, it was a lot of fun, and here are some of the highlights! My decorations:

The table:

Talina and David:

Our new friends (that I just found out are moving again):

Chris and Kim: the only ones to take my 'dress up' advice

Me and Nik! Notice that I won that poker hand!

At Enrichment a couple weeks ago they talked about container gardening and showed us this way awesome way of starting sprouts to plan later, that involved newspaper. We were given some sheets of news print, soil and some seeds and told what to do. I was so excited for this, but had little luck for weeks. I finally stuck them in a big Ziploc bad and put them on a shelf in my laundry room and for got about them. I remembered on Wednesday and pulled them out to see this:
Sprouts! I was so excited! I have to be careful now and take good care of them till they get their second set of leaves. Then I can plant them!

This beautiful frog was given to me by my Father-in-law and his lovely wife Kayleen. I have to say that she has some wonderful taste in frogs. She always finds the most awesome figurines. Thanks guys!

The adorable bear was given to me by a couple in our ward whose daughter makes them. I fell in love instantly! I have been hugging this little guy for days. He is so soft and so cute, I can't get enough!

I was lucky enough to go to dinner with a good friend of mine Auschel a few nights ago. We have been trying to for months to get together and I am so happy it finally worked out! She is pregnant with her first miracle child, a baby boy, and I could not be happier for her. She is such an amazing lady. Thanks for always being my friend Muffin!

Two Saturdays ago some of my bestest girlfriends and I ventured out in the middle of the Salt Lake Marathon to visit the Temple. It was a near impossibility, but we made it in one piece, and had a grand old time. While we were waiting for a trax train I took some pictures of our surroundings. I just loved the light! I would of have stayed another hour, but our train came.

And finally, the temple. I desperately wanted to stay and take pictures of the grounds, but we were all starving from our 4-hour session in the temple. So I decided to forgo the photo shoot for some food. It was a good decision!