15

DAY 15: A PHOTO OF YOU AND SOMEONE YOU LOVE

My man.  You all know I love him.  This was taken back during our dating days.  He was so in love with me, I wasn't quite sure if I was in love with him... but he had a certain hold around my heart that I couldn't shake away.  

I am usually drawn to people who's humor is dry, witty, and clever.  Trav's humor is ... well, dorky.  Kinda dumb.  He and his twin brother and dad all share the same kind of humor.  The kind that makes me shake my head and not usually even smile.  Then again, I can be a stick in the mud.  This photo was one of his seemingly hilarious moments that I found, well, endurable.  

And, we fell in love and got married.  The End.  And lived happily ever after.

my husband is a fart

My husband is hiding a secret from me.

I really love surprises.  But then, once I know there is a surprise, I'll do everything in my will power to find out what it is.  I can't help it.  It's the "adventurer" in me??  It's all those Hardy Boys books I read when I was younger.

Anyways, he keeps sending me texts all day about how excited he is for this surprise to take place.  And it's killing me.  Because unlike any other times he's aimed to surprise me, he's left no tracks.  No clues amidst his emails (yes, I've scoured, and yes, that's legal).  No clues on his phone.  NO CLUES ANYWHERE???

I won't find out til Friday.  That's 3 more days.  Phooey.

Usually, I'd use my feminine wiles on him and pull something outta that tight-lipped mouth, but ... if you've seen me lately, I'm not feeling very femininely wily at the 36-week, practically-crippled-with-this-back-problem stage of the preggo game.  Shucks.

I'll let you all know what it is once it happens.  I'm just posting this to remind you that you are ALL on my side.  And if you know anything, report it immediately.  Gracias.  Muchas.

***

DAY 14: A PHOTO OF ONE OF YOUR FAVORITE FAMILY MEMBERS

I'm pretty sure I could pick favorite things about each and every one of my family members... but Suzy came to mind.  My first niece.  I'd always liked kids - I babysat like a fiend growing up.  But, I never understood a true love until Suzannah was born.  Oh.My.Goodness, I was obsessed.  I loved that perfect little angel like no one else.  She still and always will hold a special place in my heart.  Can't believe this was taken 5.5 years ago!  Ahhh... seeing this pic makes me all the more eager to give birth to my sweet angel.  I love you, Suz!

titleless

I went to get doughnuts this morning.  For the fam.  Before Trav left for work.  Something about being 36-weeks pregnant, and already surpassing the 30 lb. weight gain marker, and not caring anymore......

I'm sort of a doughnut snob.  HATE any doughnuts from the gas station.  Krispy Kreme are my fa-zav-or-ites! but they are also a good 10-15 minute drive from my home and a bit pricey.  I opted for the closest option, thus equaling less time in my freezing car.  It's a dark, ol' dingy place, and the doughnut selection isn't always the best, buuuuttt... the lady there is super nice and it's reasonable.

"HIIIIII!!  Happy MONDAY!!!!" the Asian lady squealed, as I walked through her door.  "OH A BABY!!!  HOW MANY MORE WEEKS???"  She was now jumping up and down and clapping her hands.  Every time I come to this place, I silently wonder if she is on some sort of happy-drug.  But then, I mentally reprimand myself and try and think the best... that maybe she's just really this happy, all the time.

We chatted for a bit, during which I watched her, amused, for most of the time.  I decided to get a dozen doughnuts, just so I could keep some in my freezer to save for later snacks.  I'm smart like that.

I ended up with 15 doughnuts, 2 cinnamon rolls, and 6 doughnut holes ... all which she considered "a dozen". And all for $5.  And this is how it is EVERY TIME WE GO.  Sure, the icing is spread a bit thin, and the doughnuts might taste a tad stale... but really?  $5 for that?  And a slice of happy on the side??  I'll take it.

***

To continue on with my Photo-a-Day exercise... today is DAY 13: A PHOTO OF YOUR BEST FRIEND[S].

I have a lot of great friends.  I could say my husband.  Or my sisters.  Or my mom.  I could pick a best friend from every place I've lived... but my college buddies take the cake.  Maybe it's because I stink at keeping in touch, and with these ladies... well, we actually have kept in touch.  Maybe it's because they seem more like sisters to me than "friends."  I don't know.... I just love them and love our memories.  Without further ado, my pals from the Northern land:

weekend in review

It truly has been a nice weekend.  Husband has been with us for all of it - not including his homework and times he had to run into work - and we're both loving it.  I've been really sentimental watching Bells and he together... there's just something so sweet about their relationship.  It makes me really, really excited to bring another girl into the mix of this family.  I know every dad wants a son, but honestly, Trav is a terrific father to his girl(s).

We just laid low together the past couple days.  So low, in fact, that I can't really remember much of what we did.  Which just goes to show the extent of my brain-shrinkage this pregnancy.  Want to hear another story about that??  Keep reading...

***You might remember the post I did on Shutterfly a couple posts back.  The one where I was supposed to rave about their website and hence receive 50 free Christmas cards.  Ya, well, I did it.  And then went to bed that night.  Then I woke up Saturday and decided to log on to my blog to see if I received any comments.  Two comments.  To which people replied about how they did the same thing with Shutterfly.  Weird, I thought. Why would they say that??  I DID it with Shutterfly too...  And then I got a sick feeling in my gut.

Glancing back at my post, I realized I wrote ALL ABOUT SNAPFISH!!!!!!!  With all my links linking to Shutterfly.  Perf.  And that's the post I sent in to Shutterfly as well.  Let's just say, Bella learned some new words this weekend... words that are usually reserved for frustrating sewing projects.  I'm still working on backtracking that venue...  I quickly switched my wording and re-sent my blog post... but I doubt if I'll get any free Christmas cards this year from Shutterfly... wait, Snapfish..., no Shutterfly.  Why do they all have to start with "S's"??***

Other fun weekend events:
- We finally visited our town's public library.  It's huge and I'm in love.  The children's section is amazing.
- I found a new music store in downtown and fell in love for a second time.  Trav let me buy THREE new Christmas music books.  I've been tickling those ivories all weekend long...

- We took a couple walks as a family, since the weather has been in the 60's!!
- I got a good night of sleep last night.  Still woke up thrice to pee, but was able to fall right back asleep.  AMAZING what a good night of sleep will do for ya!
- And since today is due for another photo of me on my photo challenge (Day 12), I'll just make the above photo count.

That's all, folks!  Thanksgiving Week has begun!!

day eleven

How appropriate!  I was just snuggling into our chair and a half, skittles by my side (this baby is going to be high on sugar when she comes out), ready to pop in one of my favorite movies (rented from the library), when I thought, "Maybe I should see what photo I'm supposed to post today and see if it's an easy one."  Wa-la!

DAY 11: A PHOTO OF YOUR FAVORITE MOVIE

I have loved this movie for a long time, first being introduced to it as a young girl.  The last time I watched it was shortly after we were newly married and I was aiming to educate my husband on all the classic musicals he had never seen growing up.  Most of them he endured (Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Sound of Music, etc.) but this one he LOVED, which made me so happy.  Tevye has always reminded me of my own father - somewhat by his looks, and somewhat by his stubborn spirit - thus endearing me to him even more than already possible.  I bawled my eyes out when the second daughter decides to leave home to be with her imprisoned husband in Siberia, and Tevye sings the song with her at the train station.  Something about being newly married and living far away in Mississippi and missing my family like crazy struck a chord inside me while watching that scene.  

Anyways, I'm off to watch it now... while little lady sleeps soundly upstairs, husband plugs away at work/school, and little baby pummels away at my insides.  This weekend's been interesting, so come back tomorrow for stories and pictures... Happy Lord's Day!

ten

DAY 10: A PHOTO OF YOURSELF AS A BABY

Kinda a silly day.  And I have nil to say about this photo, 

since it sparks no memories.  But, there I am!  

***

It feels hours later than it is: 6:30 p.m.  My daughter is being attended to by husband, which is a wonderful luxury, seeing as he's been M.I.A. this past week.  She's been incredibly hyper ALL.DAY having him home, which was funny at first, but now... I'm ready to put the chatterbox to bed.  So, peace y'all.  I'm off to enjoy a quiet evening.

la familia

DAY 9: A PHOTO OF YOUR FAMILY

I've posted this photo before - at Christmas, when my family was last all together.  Since this photo, we've added one sister/daugher-in-law (Hi, Kellie!), and two babies are on the way (mine and Kate's).  If Kate's is a another girl, it'll bring the total to SIX granddaughters!!

I'm grateful we took this photo, since this Christmas will be different in many aspects.  This will be our first one with just our immediate little family of three (possibly four??).  I'm actually looking forward to not traveling for Christmas for the first time in eight years!!  But, I know family will be missed...

And this is my other beloved fam: the in-laws.  Dear folk.  They also live in the same town as my parents do... so it makes traveling convenient - and hectic, trying to split the time.  Also taken last Christmas, we have increased in size by two grandchildren as well!  Little Roman, born to Tommy and Olivia in March, and our sweet pea due so soon.  As hectic as Christmastime can be, rushing to and fro between parents' home and splitting the time "evenly" with siblings... family is so dear and we are truly blessed.

----------------

UPDATE FROM YESTERDAY:

I was able to take an hour nap, while my daughter slept her [previously] regular three-hour chunk.  Ahhh... what a splendid mood I was in upon waking!  And husband should be home soon from his trip, so that lifts my countenance even more.  Thanks for all your well-wishes!

maybe not my fav...

... but the most oft-listened-to and attention-grabbing musician filling my life these days.

DAY 8: A PHOTO [VIDEO] OF YOUR FAVORITE MUSICIAN/BAND

stability - even at 26

DAY 7: A PHOTO OF SOMEONE YOU LOVE

I love these two: my parental unit.  This was taken recently, when they visited South Korea to see my sister and bro-in-law.  I believe they were on some sort of bike ride.  I love how ruggedly handsome my dad looks, and I love my mom's beautifully aging face.  I say, "beautifully aging" because I love how my mom is aging.  I only see her *maybe* twice a year and each time, it surprises me at how her age is showing.  But, I love it.  I know she'll read this and think, "Thanks, Jen..." but I really do love her wrinkles and skin.  She's 56.  Thirty years my senior.  She has lived the majority of her life as a mother of five, rearing and training, weeping and praising, through sorrow and joy.  She's loved my dad and he's loved her.  They've fought through difficult times and taught us children what it means to be honest and genuine and true.  My mom's not concerned with striving to look younger than she is.  She doesn't do the fluff and foo-foo.  She just is who she is, and she's content (or learning to be...).  I am blessed by her.

My mom's parents divorced when she was thirty-years old.  When I was a child, I remember her telling me the story of when she heard the news and how she wept.  I remember thinking, "But you were thirty, Mom.  It's not like they were really your parents anymore..."  Oh how naive I was.  The stability and truth and joy the union of my parents brings me is undeniable - even as a young mom myself.  Thank you for that gift, Ma and Pa.  I love you two.

good ol' days

DAY 6: A PHOTO THAT MAKES YOU LAUGH

I was an RA/ARD my sophomore/junior year of college.  At the commencement of every year, there was the Leader's Challenge.  Where each staff had to put together some sort of skit, song, dance, etc. to hopefully impress the judges and win the Paddle!!!  It's traditions like these that make life fun.

My junior year, we meant business.  We wanted that PADDLE!!  And in order to do so, we knew we needed cute outfits, a good dance/skit, and perfect hair.  The ladies with long hair (half the girls on our staff) decided to loosely curl each strand to create a head full of lovely ringlets.  And the girls with short hair decided to tie our strands in rags the night before the Leader's Challenge, in order to create a Shirley Temple-like do.  Mm-hmm... Shirley Temple.

Except my day was super busy the day of the Leader's Challenge.  I had class all day, then work for a few hours, and then I had to race over to the challenge.  Which meant I had to be ready for the challenge before work.  Speeding home in between classes ending and work beginning, I began taking the rags from my hair.  Staring in horror at my reflection in the mirror, I quickly called Amy and screamed, "What have you done to me!!!!!!!"

Oh well... the rest of the "rag ladies" were freaking out as well, for atop our heads was no Shirley-Temple do.  I sucked it up, went to work (which was the campus LIBRARY!), even took my picture for my student ID the next year, laughed it off and proceeded to the Leader's Challenge --- where we WON THE PADDLE.

Ahhh, the good ol' days... where crazy was normal and hair was everything.  

day five

DAY 5: A PHOTO OF YOU

This is one of the few photos from our honeymoon that we still have.  Shortly after we returned from our honeymoon, we moved.  Then, three weeks later, we moved again.  And thereafter, our computer crashed/burned/died, taking with it all our never-backed-up-files, including honeymoon pictures.  Sad.

I remember quite vividly taking this photo.  I was waiting for my husband to come out of the freezing ocean.  You see, honeymoon wasn't going so smoothly.  Lots of reasons why... but mainly, we just couldn't connect.  That, and I had never slept [or not slept] with a man who snored before.  That, and we were stuck on a remote, uninhabited island with rocky, shark-infested beaches; wind that whipped the sand in your face; and no place to eat except a pizza parlor.  Something I would die for now, of course.  But, back then, I just had a plain ol' bad attitude.  I had a lot to learn about marriage and life and loving others and... well, I still do.

And well, I chose this photo because it makes me laugh a little, remembering the Jenny of back then.  That, and I simply have very few single photos of just me.  Happy weekend!

Totally love-hate

I'm a knitting fiend right now.  I'm on my third hat in four days.  But, this is totally me.  Knitting and I... well, we are almost constantly on a love-hate relationship basis.  I either love it and can't let the needles leave my fingers, or I hate it and never want to see another skein of yarn within twenty feet of me.

Here's Bella's hat:

She TOTALLY loves it (which makes me feel like a hero) and couldn't wait to plop it on her head as soon as I finished.  You can't see that well, but I knit double-stranded: the variegated red along with some sparkly red yarn, so it shimmers.  Always a plus in any little girl's book.

Her favorite part?  The little "tail" at the top, so she can pull it off.  She also loves that Baby sister has a matching one.

I simply can't wait to see both my girls in red hats, giving me a piece of sunshine in this already-dreary winter...

DAY 4: A PHOTO FROM THE LAST PLACE YOU WENT ON A HOLIDAY
I don't know who says, "holiday" anymore in lieu of "vacation".... but ya.  My mom is trying to convince me to name Baby's middle name "Holiday", since she's due around Christmas.  No thanks, Ma.  She thinks it's darling, which to that, I have to say, Then why didn't you name any of us that??

Without further ado:

Bella and Mama atop some rock in the Rocky Mountain National Forest.  How I LOVE this place.  You probably remember that we "holidayed" here during our birthday weekend.  What a blast.  I'm in dreadful need of a holiday right about now.  With Thanksgiving, Trav's two extended trips scheduled, Christmas and our second-born due all within the next six weeks... I'm kinda having frequent melt-downs.  Can I re-take this holiday???

candles and rain

Mmmm... Happy Veteran's Day, all!  A HUGE thank you to my grandfathers, Trav's grandfathers, my bro-in-law, my cousin, and my husband.  All military vets.  Being a military wife, I know firsthand the sacrifice that these men [and women] make on a day-to-day basis.  I used to think of "sacrifice" as only applying to giving your life for our great nation, but I know now it's bigger than that.  It's giving up the freedom to choose where you live.  The freedom to be with your family every day.  The freedom to switch jobs whenever you want.  It's giving up the freedom to take vacation whenever you so desire.  It's being a stranger in your own home, to your own wife and children.  It's fighting for/supporting/being under someone you may not completely agree with 100%.  It's something bigger than yourself.  And I appreciate EVERY man and woman who has given time and a part of their life to serve in the military.

(Showing Bella the photo on the left of her Daddy and Uncle Tommy, I had her point out her Daddy.  She did so correctly [he's on the left] without hesitation.  But then, cocked her head and said, "But Mama, there's TWO Daddies!")

Given this holiday, Trav was given the day off, thus graciously giving me the morning off by taking Bella on some rendezvous.  I'm snuggled up inside, smelling my autumn candles and watching them flicker slowly as the light rain falls outside.  This is the first day that seems like fall/winter.... dreary and cold.  But with my yarn on my lap and the candles burning, I'm enjoying the coziness of it all.  I'm nearly done with Bella's hat... and when I finish, I'll post pictures to share.

DAY 3: A PHOTO THAT MAKES YOU HAPPY

I came across this picture of my lil' sis and I approximately five years ago.  Our good friends from college were hosting a barn dance at their farm in Northern Minnesota that evening.  This picture makes me happy for a number of reasons:
1. I remember feeling skinny and cute in my outfit.  I rarely feel that way anymore, for obvious reasons.
2. I'm with my sis.  Ahhh, I miss her.  I truly do.  She and I can be goofy, serious, mad, happy, goofy... and none of it is for show.  I love her (and my other sis, too).  I'm beyond grateful to be giving Bella the gift of a sister.
3. My college days were some of the happiest and most fulfilling of my life thus far.  I LOVED my friends, I LOVED my church, I LOVED my classes, I LOVED where I lived, I was content with who I was and felt as if I knew myself fairly well.  I miss those days...
4. I was amongst a number of real cowboys/girls this evening... what could be better??

Day two...

DAY 2: A PHOTO OF YOURSELF A YEAR AGO

I have to admit, this day brought me looking back at my blog a year ago.  Blogs, for all their dorkiness, are wonderful pictorial journals and I will gladly take the nerdy title of "Blogger" for this perk.

A year ago yesterday, Trav was leaving for his third deployment of the year.  Winter was setting in, and I was probably putting up a wall between us so that it wouldn't be too difficult to be alone, and it was an altogether dreary time. 2010 has been immeasurably better than 2009.  I know I complain about Trav working too much, but looking back... I realize I'm thankful that he has a job, and I'm incredibly grateful he has been home mostly every night recently.

As for that other little fart in the picture... seriously?!?!?  Was she really that tiny?  And not even talking??  Oh my word... I need to treasure her youth more... it's going too fast.

I knit my first little something for Baby S yesterday: a little red hat.  I'm extremely hopeful she'll be coming in December.  Bella saw it and wants one of her own, so I'm beginning on a second hat for big sis.  Bring on the matching!  ;-)

Photo challenge: Day 1

I want to take more pictures.  Of things that are not necessarily my daughter.  I love my daughter.  But, 99% of my photos are of her.  My dad is an amazing photographer and growing up, many of my memories of him are of him fiddling with his [non-digital] camera and sorting through all the developed film.  I don't think we ever got professional pictures taken... which is quite possibly why I despise Sears and JC Penny photo shoots.  My dad would always scout out some local scenic treasure (which isn't hard to do on the central coast of California), drive our family of seven in the Club Wagon, set up his tripod and shoot away.  We have albums upon albums of our family growing up in my parents' home.  I want to mimic that.

So, I'm doing the 30-day photo challenge.  Kinda silly, but kinda inspiring... want to join?

DAY 1: YOUR FACEBOOK PROFILE PHOTO

I've already posted this photo before, but here it is again.  I really like this photo, because of the rarity of Trav and I being in a picture together!  I'm just really bummed that Bella isn't with us, cuz then this could have made a perfect Christmas pic.  I want to get out and take a bunch of pictures of our fam in order to have one to send out this Christmas season, but I keep procrastinating/forgetting/etc.  MUST DO SOON!

Let me know if you want to join on the photo challenge, as I'd love to follow your photo journey!