winner

By random selection the free pedi goes to....... Miss Lauren.  Congratulations. 

senior prom

Sweet Taylor at her Senior Prom with her friend Michael.

Such a handsome pair!

and they had lots of fun!

We sure are proud of her!

feet time

andhannie's first giveaway.  by random selection. 

leave a comment to enter. 

you may be the winner of a free pedicure with Hannie at Private Design. 

It is SPRINGTIME and I am HAPPY!

So, I am in the mood to be generous. 

Maybe you will be the one to benefit.

Sending love to all your winter feet....

xo,H

comments must be submitted by midnight on  4-15-10

and then we went dancing

Thirty-four years have arrived. 

Yep, I turned 3-4. yesterday. 

and between v-m, e-m, t-m, and f-b, the count is 67 happy birthday messages.

That's love.

It all started on Thursday when my sweet bff showed up at our salon with this beautiful gem of an arrangement.  ...just one of a billion reasons i love her...

and kathy brought me a dozen of these:

I forgot to take a photo of the acutal ones, and she gave me an assortment. 

They were yum, I shared, of course... and if you would like some of your own,

CLICK HERE

later that evening, we met Gayle and Darrell and they treated us to

dinner at Bountifuls latest pizzeria.  It was quite delish.

CLICK HERE

and, although I am not really an after dinner dessert person as of late, I wanted to try out the newest ice cream

establishment in our neck of the woods.  I think you should too.  It was tasty.

CLICK HERE

On my actual birthday, I met my mom and sisters at Toasters for lunch.

It is nothing fancy, but it is one of my newest lunch loves.  It should be yours too.

CLICK HERE

Last night Tara had us over for pizza, salad, drinks, and "Mini's"

CLICK HERE

And, THEN we went dancing. 

I have a sore knee and bruises to prove it.

I told everyone I saw in SLC that it was my birthday. 

Consequently, I made more friends.

Thank you to everyone who made my day special. 

Kisses.

hired

Time and again I come home to amazingly yummy fragrances of dinner floating to me from the kitchen.  Perhaps this is the result of more often than not, a later arrival home from work than the hungry and tired husband unwilling to wait for my culinary suprises?  Or, could it be, because the wife never plans ahead, making it a "must" for the said husband to fend for himself at dinner-time?  Even more likely, it is because the said wife is not so talented in the culinary department, and the opposite is true for husband.   Nonetheless, and regardless of the reason for the wonderful aromas that continually cloud my nostrils upon entering my home in the evening... I am simply saying: HIRED. 

Ryan is such a great cook and I am truly impressed.  He thinks I just say this to get out of pursing the sport, but really... c'mon.  If you know me, you know it's true!  I may have some talents, like spottlessing a home in a whirlwind record time, but home-cooked meals ain't my forte!  Hence, I am again discovering many other reasons why I am grateful I married. 

 ...thanks babe.  dinner was simply fab tonight.  yum.

hero

G.I. Jann left E.R. nurse job at age 50

to join the Army

                      Afghanistan » 'I see these kids do it. And that's when I know I have to keep going.'



By Matthew D. LaPlante

Sprained ankles and severe head trauma. Head colds and terminal cancer. Dying children and hypochondriac adults. After decades in the emergency rooms of hospitals throughout Salt Lake County, nothing fazed her.


And that was a problem.


"I didn't feel like I was growing in my E.R. job," she said. "I wanted to do something that would be a challenge -- something that would force me to grow."   So, at the age of 50, she joined the Army.


The decision shocked many of the people around her. "They thought I was crazy," said Griffis, one of the oldest junior officers in the Army. "I think they were proud of what I was doing, but they definitely thought I was nuts."  And sometimes, as she prepares for a tour of duty with a mobile Army surgical unit in Afghanistan, Griffis wonders whether they were right.


"Whenever I'm tired and dirty and we still have half the mission left to do, that's when I struggle," said Griffis, who completed her pre-deployment training with the Utah-based 934th Forward Surgical Team last week at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. "And then I see these kids do it. And that's when I know I have to keep going."


The 53-year-old could easily pass for 40. And decked out in combat fatigues, a helmet and body armor, and carrying an M16 assault rifle, the platinum blond soldier doesn't look as out of place as she sometimes feels. But as she worked her way through target practice, a combat driving course and a simulated suicide attack during training, she sometimes felt as though she stuck out.


"I think it's hard for them, putting up with me," Griffis said of members of her team, most of whom are young enough to be her children.


But 934th commander Roger Beaulieu, who will lead the group to one of the most dangerous places on the planet, says he wouldn't put up with a soldier that wasn't an asset to the small, tight-knit team. Griffis brings decades of experience handling trauma cases, not to mention a quirky sense of humor and a caring instinct for her fellow soldiers, he said.   "She has different life experiences that will bring a fresh perspective to our mission," Beaulieu said.  He said that Griffis' lack of familiarity with the military side of things "will fall into place -- that's the rest of the team's job, to help her get up to speed with all the nuances that come with military life."


Back home in Utah, the initial shock at Griffis' decision has given way to tremendous pride and an outpouring of support.


"When she first decided to do this, I asked her, 'Are you serious? Are you sure you want to take this on?'" said Griffis' friend Hannie Bailey. "But to be honest, I can't say that it really surprised me, because Jann is the kind of person that cannot sit still. She always has to be doing something physically active and she is constantly switching gears -- she can't do any one thing for very long before she gets bored."   Bailey suspects that her friend is being hard on herself when she expresses worries about not keeping up with the younger soldiers. "She's very competitive," Bailey said. "She just won't let herself get old -- she can't accept that and she won't allow it."


For her part, Griffis no longer feels as though she's seen it all. During two weeks of training at Miami's Ryder Trauma Center -- one of the busiest trauma hospitals in the nation -- her team treated victims of multiple gunshot wounds, severe burns and even a man who was attacked with a machete.   "I saw things there that I had never seen in my whole career as a trauma nurse," she said.


She knows that the coming year in Afghanistan will bring more once-in-a-lifetime experiences. And so now, more than ever, she's confident that while her decision to join the Army may have been unconventional, it was also the right choice.

mlaplante@sltrib.com

Voices In their words

Over the next year, soldiers from two Utah-based medical units in Afghanistan will share their stories in the pages of The Salt Lake Tribune, at blogs.sltrib.com/military and on personal Web sites, such as the blog written by Jann Griffis: jannieinafghanie.blogspot.com