- I cannot get enough Cheerios lately. Some days I eat a big yummy bowl of them two or even three times a day. Nom nom.
- Abby has learned that shaking her head means no. She is not shy about showing her thoughts when there’s something she doesn’t like. Her mom isn’t shy about shaking her head no either, so things are getting interesting between the strong willed child and mother.
- She’s also obsessed with chewing on flip flops. Ewwww.
- And she’s wild about other people’s painted toe nails. Consider yourselves warned.
- Still haven’t done anything about moving our scenic auction purchase to our house. On a higher note, I’ve already doubled my money by reselling the other various photo-related goods I picked up at that auction on eBay, and have many more to sell. Hooray!
- I want my cousin Hannah to make our wedding invites the next time Jon and I get married. Super stinking cute! (At least, I’m assuming she made them…am I right, Aunt Liz?)
- We still haven’t even discussed possible names for the baby. When I suggested that maybe we should start discussing it, Jon said, “We have a name – Waylon.” Good grief. We are not naming the kid Waylon. Poor, poor nameless baby.
Recent Randomness
May 18, 2012 2 Comments
My Favorite Quotes of the Week
May 11, 2012 Leave a Comment
A couple of random quotes I’ve appreciated recently:
- ”Invite people over, even when your house isn’t perfect. You don’t have to be perfect. Perfect is scary for us normal people.” – comment by Angie on Making Couple Friends post at (in)courage
- “Most people who go to college, for example, they go for four years, and they spend a lot of money to do it, and they don’t get any income during that four years, but what they’re learning is information that will eventually make them valuable to somebody. It’s exactly the paradigm with photography. You have to think of it as college. If you’re just starting and you’re just thinking about it now, expect to take four years of learning the craft, learning some trade behind it, and spend some money, spend some time and resources, and when you come out of that, you will probably be at a point where your earning college grad money.” Dan Heller, in this interview. LOVE this thought this week because it reminded me (and reassured me) that it’s going to take time and hard work and lots of learning to make them happen…they aren’t going to happen immediately or over night. Duh, Jen.
- “God does not expect me to be qualified, He wants me to be obedient and unafraid.” – Tresia, from her blog post Under Qualified
Why I Need to Stay Away From Auctions
May 7, 2012 4 Comments
For an unofficial Girls Night Out outing last week, Tresia, Grandma Connie, Abby and I went to an auction. A couple who owned a photography studio had retired and were moving on to bigger and better things; we thought there could be some cool photography related paraphernalia for sale. so we decided to check it out.
The auction ended up being mostly random household/garden items, with a few photog supplies and props thrown in. I purchased a few things, but nothing all that exciting.
Until…
The auctioneer announced near the end of the sale that they would next be selling the outdoor scenes/props, etc. Interesting. The owners had lots of outdoor photo sets, and they were going to sell all of the pieces and parts one lot at a time. I was fascinated, so of course we had to stick around and see how it went. (By that time, most of the crowd had vanished.)
Stuff was selling totally cheap, probably because they were huge pieces of structure that you couldn’t easily move. The first random items I bought in this part of the sale were these two concrete culverts. I have no idea why I bought them, other than the fact that Tresia made me. I didn’t take a picture of them, and I don’t know what on earth I will do with them, or even how the heck I will move them since they each weigh a ton, but I own them. And I paid $1 for the pair. (Oh, Tre, by the way, I’ve decided to give you one of them, since you were so encouraging as I bid on them. Consider it a symbol of gratitude.)
Then we came to this little shaded structure. It was totally rustic and cute and had loads of charm. It was something that I could see in our yard (more than anything else that was being sold, at least).
Isn’t it kind of cute? I think it’s neat. The auctioneer had to beg someone to bid $5.00 on it ($5.00!?!?!?!), and I couldn’t pass it up…another girl jumped in and upped it to $7.50, I went for $10.00…and won! (But $10 was my max, for real.)
I was totally excited until Tresia and I walked around to the other side of it and saw that there was a whole other wing to my little structure. It is stinking huge. There’s another section to it that we couldn’t see when I was bidding.
See what happens when I think to myself, “Gee, wouldn’t that look cute in my yard? With a little swing or bench underneath it?” I have GOT to start thinking things through a little bit more. I have owned this thing for 5 days now, and still haven’t come up with ONE legitimate spot where it would look good in our yard.
And then there is the issue of moving it. This is the point in the story when I decided to ban myself from auctions for the indefinite future. Tresia and I were standing and gaping at my purchase, and the seller joined us. We asked her if we could come back in the next couple of days with some manpower to help us move it out of there; she said, “Oh, of course! And you’ll probably need to bring a tractor with you to dig up the logs. And it’s assembled with 8 inch steel rods, so they’ll need something to get those out with, too.”
Oh. My. Word. A tractor and 8 inch rods for a $10 impulse buy. Jon was going to kill me.
He always tells me, “No more furniture” when I go off to auctions. At least I held true to that, right? It’s definitely not furniture.
Well, he didn’t kill me when I told him about my purchase later that night. I believe his exact response was, “Well, we can always use it for firewood.”
True.
And his next words were, “So, can you go to an auction in Sargent for me on Saturday? But don’t buy any furniture.”
Good grief. Heaven help us.
Over the Past 24 Hours…
April 3, 2012 Leave a Comment
- Abby went from taking her first wobbly steps to walking across the room. When she decided it was time to walk, she meant business. We are in big trouble.
- While getting ready for work this morning, I lost a contact, gagged on my oatmeal (my gag reflex has been AWFUL with this pregnancy), and got a bloody nose.
- Abby survived sleeping in her crib covered up with a blanket for the first time…we avoided suffocation, which is always a good thing.
- Jon is happily working late because the BRAND SPANKING NEW John Deere tractor finally arrived.
- I have started five new craft projects, including sewing an Easter bunny and a quiet book for Abby, creating play mats for my nephews, and a cute, yummy treat for my secret pal at church. After almost 6 months, I’m rediscovering my sewing machine and it feels wonderful. And a little scary. But mostly wonderful.
- I’ve been praying for confirmation about a big decision, and I *think* I received it yesterday. Is it awful to pray for a SECOND confirmation, just to be sure I’m not misinterpreting? Hmmmm.
- Landscaping plants have been ordered after two months of planning and saving! Now if only our nice, warm, sunny weather would return.
Hello Monday
March 12, 2012 Leave a Comment
Hello darkness in the morning courtesy of the time change…and hello lovely, long, light-filled evenings. (Spring is coming!)
Hello smiley Abby first thing in the morning…who happens to be adjusting to the time change better than her parents.
Hello 70 degree weather!
Hello week leading up to the indoor garage sale. Let the purging of cozy house items continue!
Hello new books to read. (I’m currently reading “The Me Project” byKathi Lipp. What are you reading?)
Hello (and a speedy goodbye) to a yummy in my tummy piece of Samoa pie. Mmmmmm.
Hello list of 1,236 things to accomplish at work this week.
Hello piles of laundry that didn’t disappear over the weekend. (On the plus side…a BIG hello to a week full of hanging-clothes-out-to-dry weather!)
Hello things to ponder after attending an awesome church conference over the weekend.
Hello, hello, hello!
My Stinking Facebook Addiction
March 5, 2012 1 Comment
I heard this somewhere recently, that Facebook is even more addicting than cigarettes nowadays.
At first I was like, “Uh, yeah right.” But they explained that it’s because Facebook is soooo accessible. Totally true! If I’m at work, I can check Facebook anytime I want, all day long. And it’s even worse if you’re like me and have it on your phone, too. I’m really truly able to check it anytime, day or night, 24/7.
And it IS addicting. At times, I’m totally grossed out by how addicted I am to it. And I think I can honestly say that 85% of the time, I’ll often get onto Facebook out of sheer boredom, which isn’t exactly a good reason. At all.
Which is why I have declared Sunday at Facebook-free day. Well, it’s one of the reasons.
I’ve been slowly working at making Sunday a true day of rest. I think the Lord knew what we needed when he declared Sunday to be a day of rest. We need time to unwind and be still and calm and unwind and relax and just be. And it’s hard (for me, anyway) to do that when i am constantly hustling and bustling and “plugged in.”
So I’ve been trying to make Sundays a day where we go to church as a family, and then come home and just chill.
No laundry, no scrubbing toilets, no paying bills. And NO Facebook.
Lots of reading, and naps, and REAL down time.
There’s something freeing about breaking the Facebook addiction…about having the power to look at that little icon on my phone and CHOOSING to ignore it for 24 hours. I’m liking that feeling.
So just know that as much as I love all of you, any attempts to contact me on Sunday via Facebook will be ignored until Monday morning rolls around. (You can always call or text me, however. I’m not THAT unplugged on Sundays.) 
Just Thinkin’…Couple Friends
March 1, 2012 Leave a Comment
Not much to blab about today, but I wanted to share this link from (in)courage with you about making couple friends. I thought it was interesting and worth sharing. Our church congregation doesn’t have many people our age (late 20′s, early 30′s), and creating supportive, authentic friendships is something I’ve been thinking about lately. I’m not sure what I’m rambling about…except to say that this post and all the comments were kind of thought provoking.
The Sun’ll Come Out Tomorrow
February 28, 2012 5 Comments
When I was little, my all-time, #1 favorite movie in the whole world was Annie. The 1983 version. Classic.
We had a free movie channel this weekend, and Annie was on!! Yippee!! I settled in with pizza, a Coke, and Doritoes (this pregnant lady’s favorite meal, not that I could taste it, thanks to my stinking cold) and watched it while Jon was out in the fur shed (he’s not the Annie type – I know that’s hard to believe). And even my kid loved it. A girl after my own heart. Yes – the Annie tradition will carry on! I still knew every word to every song and sang at the top of my lungs, and Abby stood in front of the tv and did her bouncy happy dance during the entire movie. It was fabulous.
I felt like I was 7 years old again. Except I was really a 32 year old hormonal lady who cried during the movie as much as she sang.
Good times!
Pity Party for Moi
February 27, 2012 3 Comments
I think I have been sick more often this winter than I have been in my entire life. Ugh.
Abby was kind enough to share her monstrous cold with me last week. At least I think it’s a cold. I haven’t been to the doctor, so for all I know, it could be something exciting like pneumonia or pertussis.
Whatever it is…it. is. miserable.
Stuffy head. Headache. Congestion. My ears have been plugged for four days now. I haven’t been able to taste food or smell in 4 days (which has actually been a nice relief from my sometimes gassy husband. Sorry if that’s TMI.)
It’s been all I can do to just keep us alive and fed during this round of illness. Jon was the lucky one who somehow escaped it…although he says he had it, too. I don’t think he did. We haven’t gone through enough Kleenex for him to have had it, too.
I keep telling myself that someday I will have the energy and motivation to do more other than lay on the couch and watch my child play. She finally got to feeling like herself again after a week of this crap, so I know I’m in for it for a couple more days, at least.
Really, I guess I should try to enjoy being under the weather, because as soon as I start feeling better, I’m going to have to face the mounds of laundry and dirty dishes that have been piling up around the house. So here’s to being sick!
Pity party over. Thanks for letting me moan around a little. See ya tomorrow!
The Thing I Miss the Most
February 13, 2012 1 Comment
Dear Country Life,
I love you dearly.
You and I have a deep connection that goes beyond muddy roads and cow manure.
You know that I wouldn’t trade you for city life anywhere.
But I must say, the one thing that could make our love perfect and complete is if I could live my country life but still have our garbage whisked away in a garbage truck weekly. Oh, to have the garbage truck grace our driveway on a regular basis.
Maybe I should be writing this letter to the garbage man.
Sincerely, Jen
Dear Garbage Man,
I miss you. DEARLY.
I miss being able to thoughtlessly throw all – every single little piece – of our garbage into the trashcan and forget about it until trash day, when you would faithfully appear to whisk it all away.
For nearly five years now, I have devotedly and dutifully (if not always happily) sorted our garbage so that the non-burnable items would be separate from the regular trash, which my hubby hauls out to burn.
I hate sorting trash.
How I long for the days when tin cans, rotten lettuce, and tin foil could live harmoniously with the rest of our trash in our trash can until the day YOU would come and take it all away, no questions asked, no sorting required, no requirements on what could and couldn’t be included in my trash bags.
I don’t miss you enough to move back to civilized city life…but I just felt it was important to let you know that of all the comforts of life in town, you are what I miss the most.
Sincerely, Jen
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