Adventures in Plumbing

Our downstairs bathroom has always been a bit temperamental. Pretty much any time you put more than 2 squares of toilet paper in, it clogs up. So we have have both had our fair share of plunging it until it starts working again. No big deal.

Well, today was different. I was standing in the bathroom getting ready to fix the problem when my loving, well-intentioned husband swoops in to "help me". Normally, I am happy to let him handle any bathroom related repairs. But since this was an easy fix, I explained that I had it under control. He wasn't having it. He insisted on jumping in to take care of it, so I took a step back and watched while he proceeded to explain how to fix it (as if I didn't know). He stuck the plunger in, flushed the toilet, and whoosh! Water overflowing everywhere.

After about 30 seconds of yelling he was finally able to turn the water off, but not before the entire floor of the bathroom (and his socks) were covered in about half an inch of water. I was safely out of harms way standing in the hallway, watching the master plumber. Lucky for him, it was "clean" toilet water.

Now, the bathroom is clean, his socks are in the washer, and all is right in the Jansen house again. But don't think for a minute that I won't use this against him, the next time he tries to teach me about household repairs.

Road Trip

On Monday morning at 4:45 AM JJ, Rick, Barney and I started out on our 31 hour cross country drive from Phoenix to Charlotte. Due to my husband's overachiever-ness, he wanted to be back in Charlotte for workouts on Wednesday. I was not thrilled about the prospect of going 31 hours in two and a half days, but you gotta do what your husband's gotta do.

In order to pump myself up for the drive, I convinced everyone to make Fort Worth the first stopping point. It was a 15 hour drive so it was good to get a big chunk out of the way, but my main motivation for getting to Fort Worth the first night was the thought of Fuzzy's fish tacos for a late night dinner. It really doesn't get much better.

The road trip was nothing short of exhausting, but we did make it! Here are a few notes from the emails I sent to friends and family during the journey:

DAY 1- Phoenix to Fort Worth, TX (Arizona, New Mexico and western Texas)

1. Wilcox, AZ- a restaurant called Salsa Fiesta with a Miller Light banner out front advertising "Now serving Chinese food"
2. El Paso- Barney will only go potty in grass so we had to drive around trying to find some green space. A lot harder because El Paso is about the brownest place on earth. We did find a church with some dead grass where he happily peed, but not without getting yelled at by a church elder for not cleaning up after the dog. I'm sorry sir, would you like me to blot the area where he peed with a paper towel?
3. About 30 miles outside of El Paso- being stopped by border patrol to confirm that we are in fact American citizens. Excuse me, but we couldn't be any whiter if we tried.
4. Just before I-10 turns into I-20- Rick was pulled over for going 83 in an 80 zone...really? But don't worry, I got to witness my husband drop the "I play in the NFL" line to the cute female cop to get out of the ticket. I'm so proud.
5. East of Odessa- a man had to pull his car over because he hit a tumbleweed and it got stuck to his bumper.

DAY 2- Fort Worth, TX to Atlanta, GA (Eastern Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia)

1. Just outside of Monroe, LA- JJ got another chance to drop his "I play for the Panthers" bit. He was driving in the left lane, and in LA the left lane is only for passing. I don't think he would have been given a ticket even without name dropping the Panthers, but he just couldn't resist. Also, it was not a female cop this time. Just a short bald man, who's only response to JJ's NFL status was "Cool". Cool indeed.
2. The anti-littering campaign for Mississippi is "Pick It Up Mississippi". Not as cool as "Don't Mess with Texas", but good try. Maybe someone should pick up the budget for the state's marketing department.
3. Midway through Mississippi- Rick pulled a rosary out of his pocket and prayed. Now I can't be sure of his motives, maybe it was a positive way to fill time, or maybe it had something to do with the fact I had just started my driving shift...you make the call.
4. No one was pulled over in Mississippi. (In reference to #3 I am the only one who was not pulled over the entire drive.)
5. I slept through most of Alabama so nothing really interesting to report, except that they do not have skim milk. Just whole milk. And boiled peanuts. At the gas station.

Tuesday night in Atlanta we were lucky enough to meet up with Kathy, Bill, Courtney and Jason to celebrate Courtney's birthday at Terra Terroir in Buckhead. We had a great meal, and it's always good to see family!

Day 3- Atlanta, GA to Charlotte, NC (Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina)

1. I slept the entire way so I missed out on any potentially interesting moments. Oops!

Well at least its over...for now. We will have to do this drive again at some point, but I think I can convince JJ to take a little more time next time.

PAO

What an amazing weekend! We just got back from Dallas after enjoying a few days at the Pro Athlete Outreach conference. I think it would compare to FCA (we didn't have Fellowship of Christian Athletes in high school, so I'm just going by what I've been told) for grown ups. We had amazing speakers and workshops, two incredible worship bands and an awesome time bonding with teammates and their wives. The Panthers were well represented with 14 players and their wives, I think the most of any team. We also got to see some of our friends from the Packers and some old Notre Dame teammates

All of the speakers offered incredible insights and really made you put your own life in perspective. If anyone is interested in adding some Biblical education to your life, I would highly recommend looking up Dr. Voddie Baucham. He is a pastor at a Baptist church in Houston, and is probably one of the most intelligent pastors I've ever heard speak. His knowledge of the Bible just makes you want to learn more.

One of my favorite speakers for the weekend was Priscilla Shrier of Going Beyond Ministries. She is from Dallas and has a gift for touching the lives of everyone who listens to her speak. She spoke twice, once to just the women, and I was really moved by her sermon about the seasons of life and trying to enjoy where you are currently as opposed to trying to rush through the difficulties to get on to the next stage of life.

The chaplain for the Detroit Lions and his wife, Dave and Ann Wilson, spent three sessions talking about marriage (the keys to a successful marriage, conflict resolution, and sex in marriage). Their openness and honestly was so helpful and made for great discussion even after they were done speaking. If your itunes needs a spiritual boost check out Anthony Evans and Michael Boggs. Both are incredibly gifted.

Not only were we blessed with an amazing conference, we were also blessed by the Dallas location and were able to see lots of our friends from college (when do you stop referring to people as friends from college and start calling them life friends???). So thank you to Katie, Maggie, Emily (and Jacob!), Geoff and Bobby for spending time with us during the breaks in the conference. It makes me so happy to see old friends again, and it just makes me want to move back to the DFW area.

Vacation! Part 2, Napa

After 2 fun days in San Fran, we headed north across the Golden Gate Bridge to wine country. After all the amazing things we have heard about Napa we finally got to see for ourselves. We didn't waste any time after checking into our resort, the Vino Bello Resort, we headed out for some lunch at the Oxbow Public Market. Then it was time for some tastings!

First, we went to Darioush at the recommendation of the concierge. Very interesting Perisian themed winery with pretty good wine (the most interesting was a Viongier which neither of us have ever tried, we liked it and bought a bottle). Next we went to Hagafen, a kosher family run winery right next door. It was a lot smaller, and in my opinion a lot more fun. We really liked every wine we tried there and they were very generous with the number of wines we tasted. What was also interesting was all of the letters from the White House framed all around the tasting room. Apparently this is the winery the White House calls any time they have any dignitaries from Israel in town for a meal! Very cool. Next was the winery I had been looking forward to ever since Emily told me about it. Del Dotto has two locations and we went to the historic caves location. On the tour we learned about the barrels and how they effect the taste of the wine. They only do reds, and boy do they do them well. We had so much fun tasting the wine directly from the barrels and exploring the original caves built in the 1800's they use for storing the barrels. Highly recommended! We finished the day with dinner at Fume Bistro, really good food and close the the resort.

Persian themed Darioush Winery

Hagafen, the kosher winery

The historic caves at Del Dotto, happy to get out of the rain!

Day 2 in Napa was also Super Bowl Sunday. I totally forgot about it when I booked the trip, but luckily JJ wasn't too upset about it. We were still able to watch the game after a few tastings. We went to Artesa first down in the Carneros area of Napa and stumbled on to a sale for industry people. With a little effort we were able to get an invite and take advantage of 50-70% off the wine that we had just tasted. Talk about good timing! We were able to taste about 8 more wines for free and buy some really great wine at crazy low prices. The view from the winery was spectacular! Next we went to Domaine Carneros to taste some sparkling wines. I love sparkling wines and theirs were no exception! Also, the building was modeled after the family chateau in Champagne, France. Not too shabby! After watching the game at our resort, we went to dinner at Taylor's Automatic Refresher and had fabulous burgers.

The Carneros area of Napa Valley

Artesa winery, built into a mountain

Domaine Carneros, really good bubbly!

Day 3 we hopped in the car and drove up to Calistoga at the north end of the valley. The drive was gorgeous! I can't wait to go back to see it during the fall when ll the grapes are grown. We went to Sterling Vineyards first, where their claim to fame is the arial tram ride up to the winery on top of a mountain. That was the highlight of the tour because the wine wasn't necessarily the best. Still worth it to see the valley from up high though. Next we went toCastello di Amorosa (this is the castle that Jake took Vienna and Gia to on this season's Bachelor!!!). It is a recreation of a Medieval Castle and we realized quickly that it wasn't going to be enough to just taste the wines here, we decided to come back later to take a tour of the entire castle. AMAZINGLY beautiful! To fill our time until the tour we went to V. Sattui for tasting and a gourmet lunch at their deli. After lunch we decided to try some of the wineries of the beaten path and ended up at August Briggs (recommended by Emily). Very tiny family run winery with fantastic wine. We liked it so much , we signed up for their wine club! Another speedy tasting at Cuvaison before heading back to the Castle. Great chardonnay at Cuvaison! The tour at the Castle was worth the wait, and so was the wine. We really liked everything they had. On the way back to the resort we stopped at Redd and ate a quick dinner at the bar. Their bar menu was recommended to us by one of the locals who did our tasting at Artesa. Great fish tacos, but not as good as Fuzzy's in Fort Worth

Driving in to Sterling Vineyard

On the tram to the top of the mountain at Sterling

Castello di Amorosa

In the Queen's chair at the Castle

JJ's new friend

The last day we stopped at one winery before driving back to SF. We went to Domaine Chandon for some sparkling wine. It was a beautiful winery with great bubbly. We had a relaxed tasting and then headed back to the resort to pack up all the wine we bought throughout the trip. We ended up bringing 4 cases home!! Good thing we flew Southwest where they don't charge for checked bags! It was a perfect trip and I can't wait to go back to visit during harvest!

Vacation! Part 1, San Francisco

JJ's birthday was at the end of January so we combined that celebration with an early Valentine's Day celebration and headed to San Francisco and Napa Valley Feb 4-9. Seriously one of the best vacations ever! And only like the 3rd or 4th time JJ and I have flown together! We are usually flying out to visit each other or I am trying to keep up with all his football travels.

JJ's actually birthday- I made Texas Sheet Cake!

Again, thanks to Trip Advisor and Emily (who lives in the Bay Area) We had an amazing trip planned out and I just have to share all of the activities!

We got in Thursday morning and spent the day wandering around Fisherman's Wharf (right near our hotel). It is totally touristy, but it was nice to walk around near the water and see the sea lions too! Obviously, we had to have clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl at Boudin, the go-to for sourdough bread in San Fran. JJ did point out something that I had never really thought about...why is New England clam chowder one of the things that San Francisco is known for? My only thought is because they are known for sourdough bread there, and what goes better with sourdough bread than clam chowder? If anyone knows the real answer I would love to hear it!

Next we wandered up to Ghiradelli Square and sampled and purchase some delicious chocolate to bring home to my parents. We also walked right by the most adorable tea place Crown and Crumpet. Yes, it was quite possibly the girliest place in SF all decorated in pink and flowers, but JJ being the good husband he is joined me for afternoon tea. Really good tea, and fabulous scones. Life doesn't get much better than that.

After a brief nap back at the hotel we headed out to Pier 33 for our bout ride and night tour ofAlcatraz. Of course, it was pouring rain and we had prepaid for our tickets, but other than that I was really excited to go! I thought the tour as really interesting, glad we had the audio guides otherwise it would have been really boring. Because of the rain and the fact that we had to walk back to our hotel, we just ducked in to a random restaurant near our hotel for dinner, it was nothing special so i won't even bother linking it.

View of Alcatraz from the boat

Friday we got up early to try to find a battery for my camera, luckily there were about 6 different camera stores at Fisherman's Wharf. We then "hopped on" our tour for the day, Mr. Toad's Tours (and yes, I did chose it because of the name, but it had awesome reviews too!). We rode around in a funky 1930's open air bus. The weather was gorgeous and this tour was a perfect way to see the city. We drove around for 4 hours through downtown, Chinatown (if you go, try the House of Dim Sum near the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory for killer shrimp dim sum and awesome egg rolls!), Golden Gate park, Nobb Hill, Presidio, Pacific Heights and much more. The guide was very fun and knowledgeable so if you go, ask for John Francisco, no joke.

Mr. Toad's tour bus

Golden Gate Bridge

Postcard row, perfect!

That afternoon we met up with Emily and a few of her friends from law school. She took us on an amazing culinary tour of SF! We started out in Union Square and enjoyed some cream puffs at Beard Papa's in the mall. If you go, vanilla was my favorite, but we also tried chocolate and caramel. Next we went for some fried rice at Katana-ya. Seriously far better than any other fried rice I've ever had. It wasn't greasy at all! Next we went deep into the heart of Chinatown to the Vital Tea Leaf and sampled about 20 different Chinese teas. The hostess who was serving us did a really good job of telling us about the teas and all of the health benefits of each one. Very interesting!

Even after all of our snacking, we were ready for dinner at Incanto. A restaurant that features a Food Network chef and boasts about using the whole animal in their cooking. This was pretty adventurous for both JJ and I, but we really loved everything we tried! (I did have to pass on the duck brain though...I just couldn't do it)

Happy to explore one of the most beautiful cities in the country and so happy to visit Emily in her new surroundings! Next, we were off to Napa!!

So far behind!

I think life moves at warp speed when we are back in Phoenix, because I just realized its been a month since I wrote anything! And there has been plenty to write about! I guess I will try to fill in the gaps with the next few posts...

Right after all of my TCU friends left (after a disappointing Fiesta Bowl) JJ came home for the off-season. We had about a day or two before Molly, one of our closest friends from Green Bay came out to stay with us for the Packers/Cardinals play-off game to watch her husband. Phoenix was football central for us this year but I guess I am bad luck for all the teams I support because the Packers lost to the Cardinals in one of the craziest games I have ever watched. Well, we were disappointed for Molly and Mason for about 15 minutes after the game, because then we realized that this meant their off-season had officially started. And that means its time for the fun to begin!

Originally Molly's trips was scheduled for 4 days, enough time for her to escape the snow in Wisconsin and have some fun with us in beautiful sunny Phoenix. After the Packers lost we decided that it was not in her best interest to go back up to the snowy north and that she should just stay here with us and have Mason fly down after wrapping things up in Green Bay. So Molly's trip was extended by 10 days. Once Mason got into town, the vacation began! The weather was perfect, so we spent the days golfing, playing tennis, hiking, shopping and exploring all of the fine culinary options Phoenix has to offer. It was like a vacation for us too, and we didn't even have to pay for flights!

Now, let me just say, there are VERY FEW people in the world that you would be able to deal with as house guests for 10 days. I mean, in all reality after about day 4, people stop being polite and start getting real (where have I heard that before?). But we really had fun the entire time they were here. Probably because after a few days, Molly and I realized we could yell at each other's husbands the same way we yell at our own to clean up their dishes/pick up their laundry/take a shower/get off the couch. I have always wondered what communal living would be like, so I guess that answers that!

We had so much fun that we are already discussing our trip up to stay with them this summer when Phoenix is 112 degrees and you burn yourself on the steering wheel every time you get in the car. Ah the benefits of having friends all over the country, vacations are so much cheaper when you don't have to pay for a hotel!

Sorority House, Part 2

The day I moved out of the Theta house at TCU was one of the saddest days of my life. As much as I was excited about graduation and "becoming a grown up" I was truly sad to leave that unique living situation. Having so many friends under one roof is unlike any other housing set up. Don't get me wrong, I love living with JJ but he is not as fun to share clothes with or discuss the intricacies of greek life. Luckily a few weekends ago, TCU fans from across the country converged on Phoenix (for our first ever BCS appearance) and I was able to relive the sorority house days.

Almost all of my favorite Theta friends were in town for a few days and four of them were staying with me. It was a bit comical between running out of hot water after two showers, blowing a fuse because of too many blow dryers going at once, and a dead car battery because we forgot to turn off a dome light after checking ourselves out before exiting the car. It reminded me of all the good times in college, staying up late talking, watching trashy reality tv, and of course eating and drink to our hearts content while playing board games. Does life get much better?

The house was eerily quite after I dropped the final group off at the airport, but luckily I only had to wait a few hours before JJ got home from his cross-country drive with my father-in-law and Barney. Talk about a 180 degree turn around! Plenty of hot water, no hair dryers and straighteners plugged into random outlets throughout the house to avoid another black out, and no giggling late at night while trying to fall asleep to recover from the night's activities. Well, maybe a little giggling, but mostly over things Barney has done during the days.

There is nothing like reliving the glory days of college with all of your favorite people in one place. I just wish the football game has turned out better!