my kind of tender mercy

Phew! I made it back to blogging! For the past two weeks I feel like I haven't had a chance to sit down, let alone blog. Here are just a few of the things that have been going on:

*I took a fun trip to California with my friends for our annual scrapbook convention where we get to see all the newest products coming out. I had a great time, and because I'm a 'designer', I got TONS of free products that aren't even in the stores yet!
*My parents were in town for my nephew's mission 'farewell'. It happened to be the same weekend I was in California, so I hardly got to see them, but fortunately they were able to stay with the kids while I was gone, so that worked out.
*My in-laws were in town (they came two days after my parents left) for Dave's nephew's baptism. They have been BUSY house-shopping and finally found a house they put an offer on. It's always fun to have family in town.
*Dave was called as the new Elder's Quorum President for our ward. He is going to do a great job! He is super busy and I've been trying to help out where I can -- printing this and that, getting this phone number, etc. Mainly, though, I haven't even seen him much because he's gone so much. I'm hoping that eases up a bit. I think it will.
*It is my month to teach sharing time. That is always added responsibility! But, I love, love, love working in Primary.
*Soccer has started -- practices, coaching, games, you get the idea. My TIVO is so full-- I haven't had a chance to sit down and watch much (besides 24) lately!

Anyway, I'm SURE I'm not as busy as most of you. But, I just wanted to share a fun tender mercy that happened a few weeks ago. I was feeling a bit down one day -- nothing in particular, just the type of night that you want to get in your pj's at 6:30 p.m., put the kids to bed real early, pull out the carton of ice cream and watch a chick flick. Instead, I drove over to my sister's house to play games and visit with my parents. I was leaving for CA the next day and new I wouldn't see much of them.

They let me chose which games I wanted to play, so I chose my favorites -- Scrabble and Settlers of Catan. I sat in the middle of the table so I could play both! I played Settlers with my nephews while I was playing Scrabble with my sister and her husband and my parents. About 1/2 way through, a new episode of Monk came on (my sister and her family are fans, as am I). So, we watched that and played during the commercials. We were also eating ice cream. I sat back and thought -- this right here is a tender mercy! I'm eating ice-cream, watching Monk, and playing two of my favorite games at the same time, surrounded by family. Can life get any better? Well, it did -- because I won BOTH games! (My mom and I were on the same Scrabble team, so I can't take all the credit! She kept apologizing for picking 'bad' tiles -- like the X, the Z, and the Q. I had to convince her those were the best tiles she could pick!).

As I was driving home at 11:30 p.m. that night in the quiet drizzle of rain, listening to awesome 80's songs on the radio, I was really happy. It doesn't take much more than family, food, and fun to get me out of a bad mood! I pulled in our driveway, and was a little confused because we had been toilet-papered! There was shaving cream and toilet paper everywhere! Crazy! Here are a few photos. My first thought was 'what the heck?'. My second thought was 'I'm leaving for CA tomorrow. I don't have to clean this up!" Nice, huh! But the kids and Dave had a great time cleaning it up.

So, next time you are feeling down, pull out your Scrabble game, get out the ice cream, turn on Monk, and call me up!

Fresh-squeezed Lemonade

On MLK day (or is it Civil Rights day?), the kids wanted to have a Lemonade stand. They had been begging and talking about it for a while, so I figured it was a good day for it. We have hundreds of wonderful lemons on our tree out back, and they love to juice them with our new citrus juicer. They worked all morning on making the sign for it, squeezing lemons, and getting everything ready. We headed down to the park and set up a table for the stand and we were up and running. They invited friends (here is Eden with Olivia Gallman)to help them sell and it turned into a very fun day for all of us. We called friends to come by and 'support' the kids -- and they stayed to visit. It was a beautiful day -- in the 70s -- perfect for January and truly delicious freshly-squeezed lemonade! I had to run home twice to refill the 4-quart pitcher! The kids ended up making about $20, thanks to generous patrons who paid $.25 for the glass of lemonade and gave the kids a $.75 tip! They had so much fun flagging down cars, and they even sold lemonade to an entire birthday party of girls! It was a memorable day for all of us. After taking out money for tithing and to pay me back for the 'change' I started them out with, we all loaded up into the suburban and took their friends out for ice-cream and treats and to the dollar store. I think they now have about $3 left!

Here is a photo of Teya -- this is what you get (if you look close) when you mix lemonade and sand (from the park). She was FILTHY!But, it was a fun day -- we didn't accomplish anything else but making some fun memories -- but that is more priceless than checking things off a list!

I love Teya

I am so loving hanging out with Teya each day. She is seriously FUN. She is easygoing, entertains herself when I need her to, and is fun to play with. Here are some funny things about Teya. I am trying to teach her to say "Yellow" instead of "Lellow" (hey, it used to be only 'amarillo' in her avid Dora days, so Lellow is an improvement). So, we were looking at a book the other day and I was pointed to something yellow and said, "Yuh Yuh Yuh Yellow". Teya repeated "Yuh Yuh Yuh Lellow". I laughed. She thought we were playing some sort of weird color game, so she started pointing to all the other colors and saying, "Yuh Yuh Yuh Green" and "Yuh Yuh Yuh Purple" etc. It was so funny. Now, every once in a while she'll say, "Let's play the Yuh Yuh color game!" So. I guess it is safe to say that she totally missed the point of that one!

She also won't smile for my camera anymore. Below is the typical face I get now.

Another game we love to play is "I spy". Playing it with Teya is quite entertaining. First of all, you need to spy something very obvious - like her shirt or pants. But, she comes up with quite creative things. The other day she said, "I spy something windowish" (it was the window).

Another game is the animal alphabet game. You think of an animal and tell the rest what letter it starts with. When Teya plays, she doesn't really know her letters per se, so the level of difficulty rises exponentially. She will randomly choose a letter and say it starts with that, but in reality, it could start with any letter. So, lately, Horse started with D and Octopus started with Z. But, it is still just fun.

I know I spoil her, since it is just her and me at home these days. Maybe that's why she doesn't want to be potty-trained. I cuddle her up all the time and 'hold her like a baby'. We have so much fun together that possibly, subconsciously I want to keep her at home, so that means wearing diapers, since she knows she can go to pre-school once she gets potty-trained. Who knows, but in the meantime, I just love being with her.

Happy 10 year anniversary!

Today is our 10 year anniversary! Yeah us! :) We went out Saturday night to celebrate it -- and we are also going to go to Hawaii later this year to further celebrate. We are all about the celebration!

So, we went to Maestro's Ocean Club for dinner. Reservations only. About 1/2 the items on the menu don't have prices (i.e. Mkt price), etc. Fortunately, a subcontractor had given Dave a $200 gift certificate to the Ocean Club. So, we did our best to spend it all. It wasn't that hard.

I ordered the special -- an ivory salmon -- pure white goodness straight from Alaska. I thoroughly enjoyed it. We also got clam chowder and lobster garlic mashed potatoes. Dave had a surf-n-turf of filet mignon and scallops. Add a Diet Coke, and you have a grand total of $163.00! Isn't that crazy! My salmon (and it was JUST the fish on the plate, no sides of rice or veggies or anything) was $43.00. I couldn't believe it. Glad I didn't know the price until well after I ate it -- because I probably wouldn't have enjoyed it as much! But, it sure is easier to spend someone else's money! :)

We were contemplating dessert (not knowing how close we were to the $200), when a waiter came up to us with a chocolate cake and a candle in it. I about blurted out that he had the wrong table, when he placed it down and it said "Happy Anniversary" in chocolate drizzling! It was so cool! I would have taken a picture of it if I had my camera. (This blogging and scrapbooking thing has me taking pictures of all sorts of weird things). The cake was heavenly (and free!). Our waiter was simply delighted with his $38 dollar tip, and we left with incredibly full tummies and smiles.

Then, in true Dave and Jennie fashion, we left the world of high-fashion and valet parking for a local punk-ridden movie theater and watched "Paul Blart: Mall Cop". I'm sure we were slightly over-dressed, but we laughed and enjoyed it along with the rest of suburbia.

So, ten years has come and gone. I can't remember not being married. Life is truly a blessing for us. Dave is a wonderful husband and father. We have three incredible kids -- and I'm not just biased, ask anyone who knows them! Life is good -- especially when you get to each $43 salmon for free!

Our 1.2 seconds of FAME.

So, last week, Dave and I went with our friends the Stapleys and the Carrolls to the Fiesta Bowl. We had FRONT ROW SEATS. Right behind the Ohio State Endzone -- dead center. It was so fun to watch a great game so close. The final touchdown by Texas was about 15 feet away from us -- if even that! The net they raise for the PATs and field goals was right in our faces.

Anyway, right after OSU scored their seconds field goal, the camera was right there and got a close up of Dave and I given' em the 'hook em horns'. We were on national TV for about 1.2 seconds. However when we went to see it at our friends' house, they have HDTV and we watched it in slow motion, so it was more like 3.5 seconds of fame! Woohoo! Our kids think we are truly the coolest now!

FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY!!!

I bet you are DYING of curiosity to know what FINALLY happened. Well, watch this little video of Eden first.

For over 3 weeks it has been hanging on. Eden is the most stubborn person in the world when it come to her loose teeth. She refuses to let ANYONE within touching distance. NO ONE is allowed to touch it. No amount of bribing, begging, teasing, etc that came from everyone who hung out with her over the holidays made any difference.

So, FINALLY, yesterday, she touched it and it came right out. Of course there was no blood, it had been hanging on by a sliver for so long. Anyway, the tooth fairy still gave her a dollar. I thought she'd get less since it was such a long, drawn-out experience. But, that tooth fairy is just too nice. :)

Our Merry Christmas

My favorite part about Christmas is acting out the Nativity on Christmas Eve. We had a great group this year. Eden was in charge of assigning all the parts. I had borrowed some great clothes for costumes. We were set. Here is the story of the night in pictures.

We told Teya to go get dressed for the party. She came downstairs a few minutes later wearing her 'party' dress.
Megan was Mary and she ran out just as the play was supposed to start and came running back in with a towel in her belly to make her look pregnant. (Dave is always the donkey...)
Here is one of my favorite photos -- the shepherds are 'sore afraid' of the angel they saw!

Here is the whole 'cast' at the end of the night!

And, in case you didn't notice in the above picture, here is our 'baby Jesus'. (We couldn't find a single doll in our entire house). This is what Eden came up with for the play. Teya really had a hard time sharing her neon green care bear with everyone that night.

Hope your Christmas was a Merry one!