The Jan's Friends Update

Larsen Family portraits

2009-01-09T16:31:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile since we've had a family portrait taken. So this year it was my birthday present. Kelly and Nancee had had their babies and felt like they were back in shape--so it seemed a good time to capture all of us.
It was great! 3 hours at JC Penney with all the little kids! TOTAL CHAOS! We couldn't get everyone to smile, sit up, and look at the camera at the same time.

Back Row: Dave, Harry, Sandi, Mark (Kelly's husband)
Middle Row: Nancee (Dave's wife) with Andrew, Me with Baby Kelly (Dave & Nancee's newest), Rich with Roko (Kelly & Mark's baby), Kelly
Front Row: Nathaniel and Sabrina

And Andrew wanted NOTHING to do with any of it.

2008-09-30T11:21:00.000-07:00

Recently I discovered that my son-in-law, Mark, who I love, spelled jansfriends wrong when he set up my blogspot account. So I had to start a new one. From now on all of my posts will be at http://www.jansfriends.blogspot.com/.

2008-09-22T13:10:00.000-07:00

Halloween From The Moon

As she hung from the moon, she tried to remember how she managed to lose her broom. Was it a sudden gust of wind? Did she fall asleep? And where is it now? How was she ever going to make it to the house on the corner where they hand out the full size candy bars before they're all gone? And what is her mother going to say? Why oh why did she trust that old woman who told her the broom would add that little extra something to her costume?

Next Halloween she is going as a Princess!

(Want to see more Halloween drawings? Go to http://www.jansfriends.com/)

The women

2008-09-05T13:34:00.001-07:00

When I was in high school, I did modern Dance. I loved Isadora Duncan and Alvin Ailey and Martha Graham. I remember going to see Martha Graham when she was old but still inspiring. I also went to see the Alvin Ailey Dance Co. and was amazed. I took one year in college and then found that I really didn't have all that much talent and I really didn't have the body for dancing or the pony tail.

Anyway, this past week I finished painting 15 foot flats with portraits of jazz singers for MJC's Jam and Jive. (If I ever get the pictures out of my camera, I'll post them. They turned out pretty great.) It's a modern dance recital and it got me remembering these doodles I had done years ago. The first woman is a drawing I did for a card that Kelly gave Lori Bryhni-the Dance teacher at MJC. It was sort of me if I could be a dancer-I would just stand there. The others are drawings of other dance poses I thought I could pull off (of course this was like 10 years ago-now I don't think I could do any of them and I'm a lot rounder now). I think they could go in any order and make a dance.

About the hair- It's my mom's. She wore her hair like this in the 70's-of course so did every other woman.

I think these women are great and funny.

2008-08-20T14:13:00.000-07:00

Kelly Athea Larsen

Born August 19, 2008

9:02 pm

7lbs. 15oz.

19" long

I Love Being a Girl

2008-07-24T00:28:00.000-07:00

Recently, I was asked to illustrate the Young Women's theme for our Ward (Church). I had a great time drawing girls. I love being a girl. I have always been grateful to be one. Pink is my favorite color (though lime green is a close second). I like dresses and cute shoes. I loved my Barbie doll (of couse I also love my toy dinosaurs). I love that girls are sensitive and nurturing and emotional and sentimental. And yet we're tough and resillient and way smarter than boys.

So let me tell you about the girls on this poster:

A young woman wh o knows her divine nature knows she is loved by her Heavenly Father and her earthly parents. She is happy and sometimes silly.

Have faith. It will make you both strong and sensitive.

As daughters of a Heavenly Father, we are nurturers and so we look for opportunities to help. As friends we support each other as we struggle to be in the world but not of the world.

Raise your hand! Study. Know the answers. Volunteer. A young woman who has knowledge knows her individual worth as a daughter of God.

Be thoughtful of your choices. Be careful of the consequences of the decisions you make. Your Heavenly Father loves you and knows you and will help you.

Be grateful that you are a beloved daughter of your Heavenly Father. Celebrate your life. Be happy (and sometimes silly)!

Romeo, You Idiot

2008-04-15T12:27:00.000-07:00

I received an e-mail from Kyle Thompson of Headlands School asking if I drew on the flats that I painted for theater. Yes I do my own drawings-I would love to e-mail Kyle back but he didn't leave me an address when he contacted me from my website, jansfriends.com. So I thought I would just put it in my blog and hopefully he'll read it.

Harry (my 15 year old) is currently playing Romeo in his school production of "Romeo, You Idiot". A week before they opened he asked me if I could help paint the set. So in 3 days I painted the set. My daughter Kelly came to visit one day and she helped. My sister is visiting from Utah, so on opening day when I was really frazzeled, she and my husband came and helped me finish up. There were a lot of little details I would have liked to finish, but it looked good enough. You can't really see from the pictures very well how cool the texture for brick turned out on the Montague house.

The play was really funny. Harry was terrific. We were very proud of him. I enjoyed being his mom who painted the set- in the program we were listed as "Harry Larsen's Scenic Family" under special thanks. Next fall they're planning to do "Dracula". I would love to paint that.

The New Baby

2008-03-15T10:39:00.000-07:00

Our new baby, Roko David Teller Ashurst, is finally here. He was born Friday March 7 at 10 pm. He's just a little thing not even 6 pounds. But he's beautiful. Kelly worked very hard to get him. For nearly nine months she tested her blood, took insulin, and kept her sugars more normal than she has since she was diagnosed diabetic when she was 14. She was amazing. And then with quiet courage she went through the long slow labor of a woman with preeclampsia that yielded our sweet little Roko.

It got me thinking about all we go through to have kids and then to keep them safe and happy.

As soon as that baby is born you start thinking about how inadequate you are and how did you ever think you could take care of this tiny little thing. But you do take care of him. What else can you do? Pretty soon your whole world is devoted to your children--and it never stops.

While Kelly was in labor, I had to leave the room because she could see the pain on my face from watching her pain. I would have gladly gone through her pain for her, just as I would have gone through all the other pain she has suffered in her life so far. That's what we do as mom's. We want to keep our kids safe and happy with no worries, no pains, no problems, even as they grow up and make us let go. So Kelly and Mark have a new couch because Roko needed a really cute place to be cuddled. I rushed out to Motherhood to buy Kelly a cute new outfit to wear home from the hospital because I remember how badly you want to look normal after having a baby.

Kelly is my baby and she always will be. I want her to have anything and everything to make her safe and happy. Whatever it takes. I am so grateful she married Mark, who sort of feels the same way.

And now my baby, Kelly, gets to enjoy all of those wonderful worries for Roko, her baby, as he grows up.

-Janette (Kelly's mom & Roko's gramma)

Art Lessons

2008-02-29T08:25:00.000-08:00

Last week I taught art in my granddaughter's 3rd grade class. She goes to the same school her mother and aunt and uncles went to. I was even a teacher's aide there when my kids were little. So I know the principal, but not too many of the teachers anymore. I love 3rd grade. It's the best grade for art lessons. The kids know a little but not so much that everything is boring. They're not too cool yet to be interested in new activities.

Then I thought- it's not fair to just get art lessons in one 3rd grade-the one lucky enough to have Sabrina in it-I should really teach a lesson in all 4 3rd grade classes. And of course the teachers were thrilled because art is something that has really been forgotten in schools these days. It's such a shame because there is so much more to it than coloring and why is music so much more important---Oh don't get me started!

So....like I was saying, I taught art last week in 3rd grade. I taught a monoprinting lesson that I developed back when I was teaching for the county. It is a great lesson. Kids get to draw on sheets of styrofoam then print them in colors that blend the primary colors into secondary colors. The prints always turn out great-the teachers are always impressed.

After the first day I remembered why I don't teach art anymore. It's messy and it's like being on stage for an hour doing a monologue. You have to be constantly alert to problems-kids who don't like the way it's turning out, kids who make big mistakes because they weren't listening to directions, teachers who want things done their way (and it may not gel with my way). Then when it's all over I have to bring home the mess (the trays with paint, the brayers) and clean it all up.

Don't get me wrong, I love it while I'm in the middle of it and if I had a classroom where everyone came to me it would be a lot easier.

I did get a lot of drawing ideas from kids--singing frogs with a cow jumping over the moon, space aliens--I did lots of new drawings.

Kids in 3rd grade have a lot of imagination. It's too bad they don't get more art that isn't just drawing and coloring.

--Janette

My first BLOG: How I Love Fake Spring!

2008-02-18T18:50:00.000-08:00

I think blogging is so cool, I thought I would try it myself. And I thought for my first blog I would say how much I LOVE FAKE SPRING! Every February, just when I think it will never stop raining, the sun comes out and we all hurry outside and dangle our feet in the icey cold pool. We rush out and buy cute summer clothes. We ride our bikes. I start to worry about how I will look in my swimsuit this year. And then, almost before I can wear my new short sleeved blouses it starts to rain again, and I remember it's still February. But you know this FAKE SPRING really helps me get through the rest of winter until the real one comes along.