Live in the sunshine, swim in the sea, drink the wild air. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

This past weekend greeted us with abnormally warm weather, so I laced up my old tennis shoes, and headed out to our local nature area with Kody and my camera in tow.

Poor Kody gets tied to stumps while I take photos. Next time I'll have to sweet talk someone into going with me.

I didn't get a ton of pictures because Kody wasn't in the mood to be patient, and I wasn't feeling terribly inspired, but that's okay because I still got to spend an hour or so enjoying the gorgeous day. It's amazing how much better sunshine and fresh air makes one feel. I love warm days in the midst of winter. They're a ray of hope telling us that spring is coming. We've just got to hold on.

:j

One of these things is not like the other....

A few months ago, my friend group got really into the Meyers-Briggs personality tests for about a day ... or maybe a weekend. We all took the personality test to figure out which 4 letters defined us. If you've never taken the test, you can take an abbreviated version of it HERE. It really is extremely interesting, especially if it's Momma taking the test. Here are a few quotes she said while taking it...

To my sister in law - "What, you're already finished? I'm on question 16." (Of 72 questions)
Reading a question aloud -  "'Do you prefer the scientific method?' Hmmm...I'm not a huge fan of scientists, so I'm going to say no."
To my dad - "Jackson, I could take this quiz for you much better than I could for me because I know you so well."
On question number 25 of 72 "How long is this quiz? I don't have a good attention span."

After taking the quiz, I quickly realized how different I am than the people I hang out with. Which is in no way a bad thing, but it is something that I find intriguing. I test as an ENFP or ESFP depending on the day. Most of my friends were ISTJ's or ESTJ's. Momma was an ESTJ. My sister-in-laws were ISFJ and INTJ. All of these are almost the exact opposite of me, so I guess it just proves the fact that opposites attract.

Which makes me happy because let's be honest, life would be boring if we were all the same. It fascinates me that I am a rather "grey" thinker and I'm surrounded by people who are "black and white." I love that I am an outgoing extrovert, but my family is full of introverts. I think it's wonderful that I am a peacemaker - almost to the point of being annoying, and my friends are good at 'critical conversations.' I'm enthusiastic, friendly, creative, and loving. I can get overwhelmed easily by stress, I lack a sense of routine, and I avoid conflict like the plague.

Hence the reason opposites are so important because it's really good for me to be around people who are structured. I need someone in my life who thinks in a more logical fashion when I'm bouncing ideas around every which way. I respect people who can communicate ideas or criticism in a precise way that causes others to listen and take note.

The beauty of it is the way God created each of us to fit together. My weaknesses are someone else's strengths for a reason. I was given my traits for a reason. You were given your talents for a reason. It amazes me how perfectly individual we are - no one is like the others, and no one is without purpose. Only a creator with an infinite amount of creativity could do that. And that is mind-boggingly beautiful.

:j

Text it to me

When I was in school, if I needed to talk to a friend, I had to call their house. I couldn't just call their personal cell phone; I had to actually call and ask for my friend. Some kids were cool enough to have their own line, but usually it was a shared thing, so if Momma needed to use the phone, I had to stop listening to my friend breathing on the other end, and get off the phone. Kids now have it good. They don't have to politely ask for their friend to come to the phone, they get to just text their friends when they want to.

And here is my confession for the night: I'm a terrible texter. It's not necessarily me though, it's my phone. I use this system called Swype, which means I never lift my finger, so I can text 94 words per minute. (I might be exaggerating a bit.) It sometimes results in some miscommunication, but most of my friends just ignore it anymore because it's to be expected. I thought I'd share a few of those with you tonight.

My side of the conversation is in blue.

Attacks | Starbucks pretty much the same thing.

It foots me might be a new thing, you never know.

1,000 mites - apparently she had bed bugs.

 

I don't know who I was being, but I'm sure it applied.
And pay no attention to the table runner scarf photo.
I'm not to be trusted after a certain time at Target.

I have no clue what i was trying to say here, but it sounds exciting.

Shying is a legitimate word, right?

I think I accidentally called Raylene a peasant here.

We gleaned our hearts out that night.

I think she was going on a date with Hitler or something....

But today, I went a little overboard with my miscommunication...

I would advise against drinking the kool-aid at my parties.

Unfortunately this happens a lot, so this may need to become a new regular post on the blog...

:j

My 5 Favorite Posts

Warning: This post is kind of a pseudo post. You know how sitcoms sometimes have a flashback episode because the writers are too lazy to come up with new material? You're looking forward to a new episode, but it turns out to be a bunch of old episodes just mashed together. This is that episode. It's like the Women Tell All week of The Bachelor. Interesting, but really, you just want to know who gets the final rose. #SorryNotSorry

As I reflect back over the year, I thought I'd share my 5 Favorite Blog Posts with you.

1. The Toaster, The Jogging Stroller & Gma's House 

2. Let's Be Ladies

3. Online Dating

4. The Art of Journaling

5. The List

Here's to at least 5 more favorite posts in 2013!

:j

Happy Birthday, Cash!

One of my favorite people in the world turns three today.

It's amazing how he gets cuter and cuter every year.

He's at the age where everything he says is hilarious, and he has an imagination that includes monster trucks, dinosaurs, and playing doctor.

He definitely has learned a bit of sass in the past year. He can have a come apart with the best of them, but mostly he is just adorable and perfect. (Not that I'm partial or anything.)

I always knew that I would love being an aunt, but I didn't realize I would love it this much. When Cash calls me "Aunt Eny" it absolutely melts my heart. He and his little brother are such a blessing to me. I'm so grateful that I get to be part of their life.

:j

Christmas Newsletter

I always enjoy reading Christmas letters that families send out to update their friends and relatives, so I thought I'd write one for the blog.

Dear Friends, Family, and Internet,

I know I never write you letters, but those of you who read my blog know that I have an affinity for writing notes to random inanimate objects such as my house and car, so I figure I might as well write a letter to a real-live person(s). So here is my life update, in alphabetical order.

Career
I'm still working at Campbell, but I am now a "Mentor Teacher" in a partnership with MU. I love my job, but it's hard to explain exactly what I do, so I'm going to pretend like you aren't asking that in your head right now. I also love all the people I work with. (I'm adding that in case any of them read this.) The highlight of my school year was creating this video for our students. Okay, it might not actually be the highlight, but if I don't publicize myself in my own Christmas newsletter, when will I?

House
This year marks 3 years of home ownership. I finally crossed the threshold into adulthood when I re-financed this year. Luckily for dad, I have not had many hair-brained renovation ideas lately, so it's been fairly quiet around the house. I did however procure a new chair from Momma's basement to spice up my living room, and I finally got the shelves in my kitchen lined. (Every accomplishment should be mentioned in a good Christmas letter.) My goal for 2013 is to get the exterior painted, so I'm slowly trying to commit to a paint color.

Kody
Big Kody Dog is doing quite well. He is currently lying at my feet watching a Hallmark movie. He is still a bit of a pain, but he keeps me safe and entertained. The highlight of his year has been harassing the meter reader and getting a new, deluxe water bowl. (The key to a worthwhile newsletter is making things seem like a bigger deal than they actually are.)

Life
I traveled to 2 new locations this year: New Orleans & Seattle. In NOLA, I consumed gallons of seafood, and in Seattle, I drank a latte from the original Starbucks. I also made it down to Springfield multiple times to see friends from college.
When I'm not traveling, I enjoy teaching the 2-year-old Sunday School class at my church. I've been doing so for 5 years, and I'm proud to say that I have not changed my repertoire of children's songs in all that time.
My friends pressured me into chopping my hair off this year. I donated almost 20 inches to Locks of Love, so the past month has been spent trying to re-learn how to fix my own hair. It's been a learning experience, and sometimes I awkwardly reach out and touch strangers with long hair in envy.

Love
I am sure most of you skipped straight to this paragraph to find out if I'm in a relationship yet. The answer is no. I'm still single, and no, I don't know why, but thank you for asking the inevitable follow-up question. I know many of you were expecting an invitation for a 12/12/12 wedding, and I'm sorry that instead you received an extremely glittery Christmas card that caused you to pull out your vacuums. Fingers crossed for 11/12/13.

I can't end a Christmas letter without recounting God's faithfulness to me throughout the year. "He has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy!" -Psalm 126:3 Seriously, I am constantly amazed at His goodness.

Well that's my 365 days (wait, was it a leap year?) summed up into a newsletter. Next year, I'll try to get fancy and print it on snowflake paper. I can't wait to read all of your letters.

Warmest Regards,
Jenny

First Grade

A few weeks ago, I mentioned my memory box at Momma's house, and the little pieces of our childhood that she saved for us. I stole a couple of things from the box, so I could blog about them. One of the items I stole was a book of letters from my fellow first graders.

It was simply Handwriting Paper with notes and pictures from my classmates stapled together.

My friend Connor drew this photo of me. Apparently I had big feet as a 1st grader.

I doubt it meant much to me when I was in first grade. I'm sure I simply brought it home, gave it to Momma, and went on with my day.

A lot of the letters are from people that I was in school with from kindergarten to senior year. I have no reason to keep this little book except for the fact that it makes me smile. Which is enough of a reason for me. (I'm a bit of a hoarder.)

I love the innocence in each note. There is something about kids that is so honest, yet so sweet. I love the genuine kindness that exudes from the pages.

And I just can't get over the adorableness of first grade spelling. It's perfect in its own little way.

Adam and I were square dance partners at the annual Kindergarten square dance showcase. I think there is a video of it somewhere...

Yesterday I participated in the Blogger Day of Silence to honor the victims from Sandy Hook Elementary School. Those victims included children just like my first grade classmates that were in the middle of reading, writing, and learning. Tragedy is not a strong enough word to describe the loss of those precious lives. I can't even think about it without tearing up. So much darkness. So much anguish. 

My dad brought up the old Christmas carol, I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day, and I love how well the third & fourth verse illustrate what so many are thinking.

And in despair I bowed my head:
"There is no peace on earth," I said,
"For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men."

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth he sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With peace on earth, good will to men."

The line God is not dead, nor doth he sleep hits me hard. He is alive and knows our pain. No amount of blogging, talking, or news coverage will take away our sorrows, but even in the darkest of valleys, the deepest of questioning, and heaviest of sadnesses, we are loved by a God who came to earth as a baby to set us free and put hope into our hearts.

:j

Day of Silence

It's the Most Wonderful Time...

 I love Christmas, and I love decorating, so Christmas decorating is one of my favorites. In fact, I have 7 totes full of Christmas decor, which in my opinion is a lot for a single girl who has simply collecting things here and there from garage sales & family member's basements. I typically don't use it all, but I like to have options when I'm decorating. I thought I'd link up with Kelly's Korner, and give you a quick tour.

First off, I love Nativities. I think I got it from my Momma. Here's all my nativity stuff. I learned from an interior decorator a while back that it's best to group things that are alike together. Therefore all of my nativity stuff ends up together.

I picked up this hoop art at a garage sale for a quarter this summer. 

My grandpa brought back this nativity set from Isreal. I love it so much. This is the first year I've used the lace table cloth around it. (I stole it from my Momma's garage sale this summer.) I like the way the table cloth sets off the nativity.

 All of my Santa items go on the table in the living room. The green glass is so versatile. It's on the table all year, but goes from season to season perfectly.

My kitchen table center piece. Just a lazy susan and mason jars. Nothing too fancy this year.

This year I started a Jesse Tree. The verse above the tree is Galatians 3:29, which reads "If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring & heirs according to promise." I'm hoping to blog more about my Jesse Tree soon, but for those of you who don't know, it is essentially the lineage of Christ. Each day a new ornament goes on that represents a different person in Christ's family tree. The reason I posted Galatians 3:29 above the tree is because it tells us that if we've accepted Christ, then we are part of Abraham's offspring, so therefore it is our family tree. Pretty amazing.

Some people make their ornaments for their advent calendars, and some people buy them. I just used traditional ornaments, and drew the symbols on with a Sharpie because I'm classy like that. Hopefully I'll get to post about it soon, but until then, you can Google "Jesse Tree" and find some information. It isn't the most well known form of an Advent Calendar, but I love the idea of teaching my future children how the stories in the Old Testament point to the birth of Jesus, so that is why I'm choosing to have one.

Something I need more of in my Christmas Totes is snowmen. I'm majorly lacking in the snow department. This little guy is basically the only one I've got.

I don't have a "real" Christmas tree. I just use this cute little pink one. Someday when I'm married, I will have a big tree, but for now, this is all I need.

 Hanging next to my tree is a photo holder which I use to display my Christmas Cards.

I'm so glad you stopped by for the tour. I wish you all could come over and take a real tour while I feed you Gma's peanut brittle & chocolate chip cookies. Until then, this will have to do.

:j

Speaking of....

1. The weather has been crazy lately. It feels like spring break when it should feel like Christmas.

2. Speaking of Christmas, I already sent out my Christmas cards. Warning: Some have a lot of glitter. To the point that they are pretty much a card made out of glitter. I just can't help myself. I love sparkly things, but consider yourself warned before you get attacked by glitter.

3. Speaking of glitter, my dad does not like glitter because it just ends up having to be vacuumed. Momma and I were working on decorating her mantle last weekend, and while we were worried about weather or not it needed more Christmas ornaments, snowmen, or glittery trees, he was worried about how easy it would be to clean.

4. Speaking of cleaning, my car is a complete disaster. Seriously, Internet, I cringe when I get in it. It's bad. I may need a car-cleaning-intervention. Okay, I'm making a deal with myself, until I clean my car, I can't go to Starbucks. 

5. Speaking of Starbucks, I was cleaning out a closet and found 3 Starbucks gift cards. They had nothing on them, so I got my hopes up for nothing. 

6. Speaking of nothing, I don't have anything to write here, so I'm just going to end this sentence with talking.

7. Speaking of talking, my cheerleaders, cousins, & sophomore girls have introduced me to this revolutionary stage of dating called the "talking" stage. I'm still not exactly sure what it is, but I know it involves a lot of winky faces and texting.

8.. Speaking of texting, my friend, Raylene, can attest to the fact that I am a terrible texter. The other night it took me 4 tries to send a message that made sense. 

9. Speaking of cents (it's a stretch, I know), I got a new wallet...to hold all of my cents. I also got a new purse. Wallet and purse shopping is difficult for me. When I need one, I can't find one I like, but when I don't need one, there are about a million that I love.

10. Speaking of love, I love weather. I'm trying to tie up the circle, but this one didn't work out so well. Although I do find weather very interesting.

:j

The Sibling Contract

This weekend I spent some time helping Momma get her Christmas decorations out. And by helping her get her Christmas decorations out, I mean, I spent some time going through my box of childhood memories while she sorted through her dozens of totes of Christmas stuff. Momma has a box for each of us, and it is filled with random things like art projects, favorite toys, yearbooks, and that kind of thing.

While looking through my box, I stumbled upon a few contracts that my brothers and I had created. You see, growing up, Justin was a bit of a neat freak. He made his bed every morning. He kept our books in alphabetical order. He organized our toys. And he hated it when Josh and I would go into his room and mess it all up. In order to keep us out of his room, he decided to type up a contract that laid out the some rules. Basically, Josh and I had to stay out or else we owed him $3.... and if we didn't have the money, the fine would begin accruing interest.

We had to sign the contract, and then he held us to it. This resulted in me creating a contract to keep him out of my room because all he ever did when he was in there was tell me how I needed to clean it. In fact, his son has taken up the same habits. When Cash walks into my room, he tells me that it's a mess, and I need to clean, and he's usually right.

I don't know why Momma decided to keep these silly contracts and the notes we passed back and forth about them, but I'm glad she did. They remind me of the fun and fights we had growing up. It wasn't always easy being the youngest and the only girl, but I personally think I have the best birth order possible. I've been so blessed to have 2 big brothers to show me the ropes & keep me humble.

Luckily we no longer need to write out contracts to get along, and I now have the best sister-in-laws on my side should any disagreements come up.

:j

Birthday Card Placemats

I have a friend at work named Jen. (Great name, right?) She is extremely creative. I take her sons birthday photos every year, and we're always doing fun things like smash cakes & balloons. The other day she shared this idea with me, and I just had to share it with you all.

Every year, Jen takes her son's birthday cards and turns them into a placemat. Then on special occasions, they get the placemats out, and the boys can see all of the sweet messages that have been written to them over the years. I told her to send me a photo, so I could blog about it because I think it is pure genius.

Here's what you do....

1. Gather up all of the cards that you are going to use. (They don't have to be birthday cards. You could do Christmas cards, wedding cards, or just random paper goods that you have around the house.)

2. Fold them so you can see both sides, or you can cut them to keep the portions that you want. 

3. Arrange them so that they are the size of a placemat. (20" x 14" seems to be the standard size, but you can make it however you want!) 

4. Glue them together. You can use whatever glue you want.

4. Take them to your local office supply store or Kinkos to be laminated.

Here are Jen's placemats...

The front of the cards on one side of the mat

The messages on the other

:j

Happy Pi Day!

Today is the 14th day of March, therefore the date is 3.14, therefore it is Pi day, therefore I have an excuse to make pie.

This afternoon I whipped up a Nutella Oreo Pie. Also known as a NOP. You've never head of a NOP? Well to be quite honest, I hadn't either until this afternoon when I looked in my fridge and noticed that I had some cream cheese that needed to be used. And it wasn't any cream cheese, it was Panera Hazelnut Cream Cheese.

And you know what else I had in my pantry that had hazelnut? Nutella. And that is how the NOP was born. I almost named it Orella Pie but I was afraid people would mispronounce it.  In order to get the O in NOP, I needed an Oreo pie crust, so I ran walked up to Price Chopper to get one.

I'm going to take a quick minute to tell you about my experience on the way to the grocery store today, so if you are more concerned about the pie, skip the following paragraph. If however, you care about my life and death experiences, please read on.

 I live about a mile from the grocery store, and the weather is perfect, and my car is in the shop, so I decided to walk. I would ride my bike, but the back tire is broken, and I don't have anyone around to fix it for me, so I have to depend on my legs. (That is a plea for help should there be a handsome, single man near my age who just so happens to be able to fix tires and wouldn't mind being paid with NOP. It wouldn't hurt if he could also fix cars that make funny grinding noises as they turn.) Anyway, to get to the store, I take a short cut over a ravine (read drainage ditch) on a stone wall. So I'm balancing along this stone wall, and there in front of me is a garden snake. I startle easily, and so I jumped, but thankfully I have the reflexes of a cat and was able to maintain my balance without falling. This in turn scared the snake, so that it slithered away into the wall, and I was able to go forward in peace. I told Momma about the 4 foot snake that tried to attack me, and her reply was that garden snakes are usually only about a foot and a half long. So I can only conclude that this snake was the Shaquille O'Neal of snakes, or that my fright makes me exaggerate.

On to the pie. Here's what you need....

1 Oreo Pie Crust

8 oz of cream cheese

3/4 cup of Nutella

Splash of Vanilla

12 oz whipped topping

Oreos for garnishing (which leaves plenty of Oreos for eating, so be sure to get the Double Stuff)

First, mix the cream cheese & Nutella

Beat it really fast to incorporate as much air as possible.

Add in about 8 oz of whipped cream. (Leave enough to cover the pie at the end.)

And throw in a splash of vanilla because vanilla makes all baked things better.

 Pour mixture into pie crust.

Cover with remaining whipped topping, and add an Oreo garnish for good measure.

Refrigerate for a while, and then enjoy!

:j