See You in Two Years

 Little Chris!

 Today, we dropped off my brother Chris at the airport.  It is the last time that we will see him for two years.  We will write letters back and forth and get calls from him on Christmas and Mother's Day.  He will be serving a mission in Mexico City, Mexico for our church.  I miss him already, but I know that he will be a great missionary.  I saw this group or something on Facebook that had a definition of missionary that I liked.
Missionary: someone who leaves their family for two years so others can spend eternity with theirs.

Here is the family plus Shelly's BFF who happened to be spending the night.

Liza and Chris (Then and Now)

 Shelly and Chris

Johnny and Chris

Mom and Chris

 Dad and Chris

Unloading at the airport

Saying goodbye

Dad helping Chris with his luggage

Watching Chris walk into the terminal

Chris will be spending a couple days with my grandparents out in Utah before reporting to the MTC this Tuesday.  I'm in the process of setting up a separate mission blog for Chris.  I will be posting his emails and typing up his letters for the family.  I'm hoping that I can make it into a book when he gets back and give it to him as a coming home present in 2 years.

 You're going to be a SUPER missionary, Chris!

A Plan

I've known that this unfortunate anniversary has been coming up for a while now and I've been dreading it.  I had really been on the fence about whether or not I wanted to share, but while I was visiting Doug's grandma she put a printout of this article in my hands to read.  It portrayed writing as therapy, so here it goes.

Christmas morning 2009, eight months ago, I woke up and jumped out of bed. We had been trying for several months to get pregnant, I had religiously been taking my prenatal vitamins… and I was a week late. I had already wasted several of those overpriced pee sticks, so I had made myself wait this time. Doug was still sleeping, so I tiptoed to the bathroom, turned on the nightlight, and took the test.

Two very clear dark pink lines, a positive result.

I ran to tell Doug, who honestly seemed a tad bit more nervous than excited.

I then started brainstorming all of the fun ways I could tell my parents that Christmas morning and even Googled for ideas online. I couldn’t really find anything that could be done without advance preparation, so I found an empty box, wrapped it, and put a label on it – To: Family.

We arrived at my parents' house and I did everything I could to hurry the family to the basement for opening presents. Present after present I waited, until we came to the last present. From: Jenny and Doug, To: Family. My dad opened the box, dug through all of the tissue paper, and then looked at me with a confused face when he had found nothing. I announced to the family that, “Our present won’t be arriving for another 8 months or so…(silence and blank stares)... I’m pregnant!!!”  I then called all of my sisters who were ecstatic. I was literally floating.  It was amazing to think that a little life was beginning inside of me.

The last few crappy months of my husband having to live away from home for work, my car breaking down and being unfixable, my childhood best friend dying in a sudden car accident, and my new kitten being tragically killed in my home were over. I was pregnant and things were going to be good again.

Then a little more than 24 hours later, I started bleeding.  My pregnancy bliss ended rather quickly.

My doctor confirmed it. I had been pregnant for 5 weeks and 5 days. 

Please don’t ask me when I’m going to have kids.

I was supposed to have a baby TODAY.

I’m still not pregnant.

It turns out that the Lord has a plan for me.

It just happens to be different from the one that I had for me.

Staying Busy Before School Starts

I came by the old house to pick up an extra old computer for parts and an extra mini fridge for my classroom this year.  Mom and dad got Liza one while she was in the dorms, but now that she has an apartment (with a full-size fridge and such) I get to use it!  It's weird going to the "old house" now.  My parents bought basically all new (well, craigslist slightly used) furniture for the new house, so the old house is still furnished.  It just looks kind of abandoned.  The construction is progressing though.  Here is a picture of how it looked today.

I decided on my way driving over that I wanted to surprise my mom with lunch because she seemed kind of down and a little overwhelmed after her first day of school. (I've had experience with this.) I had originally planned to work on my classroom a little more, but I realized once school starts I won't be able to do things like this.

Chris, my younger brother (I can't say "little" anymore) was at the old house packing up his room into storage containers because he'll be away for the next 2 years on his mission.  He helped me out by putting the mini fridge in my car (hopefully I can get it out).  We had some downtime before lunch time, so we hung out and talked.  He packed boxes while I cleaned out the refrigerator. (The big one in the kitchen that was empty of food, but full of crumbs and spills.) We still had a while before we were going to pick up lunch, so I took out some old boxes with pictures.

I found all of these treasures!  I LOVE LOVE LOVE pictures!

This picture of my parents was taken on my birthday... just 9 years before I was born.

 This is a picture of my parents at what looks like an engagement party, although it was referred to as a candle lighting party or something like that.  They look so skinny!

 These are two of my parents' engagement photos.  Nice pants dad!

I remember looking at this picture when I was a kid.  My dad painted the ceiling in an attic of a house like this for my mom when they were dating.

Kate in a Halloween costume and Heather in a pageant gown.

Finally this is a picture of the "old" house (same as pictured above) about 2 additions ago.

This is a picture of my sister, Bekah, and I that was put on the front of a Girl Scout Pamphlet.  I didn't know that it existed, but now that I think about it I do remember some sort of photo session at this weird Girl Scout store. 

While we were talking, I decided that I wanted to bring lunch to both Shelly and Johnny as well as to my mom.  We both jumped in the car and headed over to Subway to get lunch.  Somewhere in my mind I pictured walking up to the offices of the schools saying, "I'm bringing lunch to my brother/sister." and that they would just send me to their room or to the cafeteria to hand it over to them. 

Johnny's school buzzed him down to the office and he thought he was in trouble.  Shelly's school is run like a prison and they would not even let me get within 10 feet of the cafeteria with "outside food."  This teacher hallway monitor reamed me out for even trying to go to the cafeteria.  I was expecting something like, "Oh, that's sweet that you're bringing your sister lunch!  Walk right in!"  

What I got was:

Mean Teacher - "MISS, Where are you headed?!"  

Me - "Um, to drop off lunch for my little sister in the cafeteria.  I already checked in with the office." 

MT - "WHY?"

Me -  "I thought it would be a nice surprise for her first week back to school."

MT - "NO OUTSIDE FOOD!  You need to stand in the office and WAIT for her to come out." 

Me - "Well, they buzzed her 10 minutes ago and I don't think she can hear in there."

MT - "Well, YOU CAN'T go in the cafeteria!  So WAIT in the OFFICE!"

Another teacher that happened to be in the office and saw my obvious frustration was nice enough to try to locate her in the cafeteria just in enough time for the ending lunch bell to ring.  I understand trying to be safe and secure, but that teacher was just rude.  We stood there and watched her yell at students the whole lunch block while we, "waited in the office." 

We were actually able to get visitor passes at the elementary school where my mom works and ate with her in her classroom.  Her room is really coming together.  We also got to meet her class as they were leaving the cafeteria.  It kind of got me excited about starting school again this year.

Visiting Grandma

Doug's little sisters, Katie and Allie, are out here visiting us from Utah for a little over a week this summer.  I decided to go with them out to West Virginia to stay at Grandma's house this week.  It's quiet out at grandma's house and there's not too much to do in the small town that she lives in, but we've found ways to stay busy.

Leslie, Doug's aunt, was visiting grandma as well so we got to hang out with her a little bit.  I think Allie and her became BFF's the two overlap days that we got to spend with her before she headed back home.  Here are some pictures of Leslie doing Allie's nails.

We went to the local library and checked out some books.  I sat down in the children's section reading Sharon Creech's book, Finding Redbird. Allie started up a conversation with a little boy the same age as her in the library and before you knew it they were best friends playing a game of Monopoly.  I got Katie started on Walk Two Moons, one of Sharon Creech's books as well which happens to be one of my my favorites. Doesn't she look so studious in this picture of her reading!

Then later in the day while Grandma and Katie went to the grocery store, Allie and I decided to go to the playground at a nearby elementary school.  I was able to snap some pictures of her hamming it up there.

I love this picture to the right.  It reminds of me of Doug's face when he sings to the Rick Roll song in the car.  If you don't know about the internet phenomenon of "being Rick Roll'd" click here.  Allie decided that she wanted a shot of me as well, so here is a picture of the all natural, unplucked, unbrushed, no make-up, air dried hair... Jenny as photographed by an 8 year old.  (She didn't do a bad job!)

We then came home for our nightly ritual of sitting of the porch while eating some yummy icecream cones and counting bats as it gets dark.  Grandma needed to water her front plants, so her and Allie had a little  unexpected fun with the water hose.  It started with, "Grandma, can I wet my hair down a little bit?"

You may ask, "Where was Katie during all of this?"  She decided to take Leslie's advice on "the best nap ever" which occurs on the front porch swing at Grandma's house.

Grandma also is teaching me how to knit.  I'm starting out with a scarf.  I think we'll be going to the knitting group tomorrow so I can show everyone my newly obtained mad knitting skills.

Below is the start of my FIRST EVER knitting project.  It started out a little rough at first, but I've started to get the hang of it now.  I don't think I'll be knitting any sweaters anytime soon though.

Ramen Ripoff??

Those of you that know me personally, know that I LOVE Ramen noodles, like A LOT.  Many people told me that this "phase" would end.  They told me, "After you eat them every day in college, you'll start hating them."

It hasn't happened, not yet... not EVER.

My favorite is Chicken flavor.  If I want to switch things up a bit, Cajun Chicken flavor.  I used to follow the directions on the bag and cook it in the broth, but now I boil the noodles, drain the water, and then put the seasoning on the noodles.  When I'm traveling, I'll usually bring a Cup O' Noodles for the plane ride and ask the flight attendant for some hot water. 

Well, I stumbled upon something VERY unsettling today.

Captioned: Cup O Noodles is ripping us off!

I didn't want to believe it.  I knew that there HAD to be a reason for this!  Upon further investigation, I discovered the following:

The "secret" to the Cup O Noodles and the explanation for that space

if you want to skip ahead is at 5:26 on the movie.

All is right in the world once again.  Hmm... I think I feel like having some Ramen about right now!

Really REALLY Old Books

We've been going through all kinds of stuff in the house while moving and came across these...

These are some really old books that my dad picked up in Germany while serving his church mission there in the 70's.  He has had about 20 or so of them on the tallest shelf of our library ever since I can remember.  He told me the story of them while I there this past week.

There was this older lady that Dad and his missionary companion were either visiting with or staying with (I can't remember).  Apparently in Germany once you're past a certain age your children can take over your estate.  She was going to be getting to that age soon and I guess there were some issues with her children being rotten or something.  She knew that they were going to sell her house from under her and she didn't want them to get these books.  They were from her late husbands' prized collection.  She told my dad and his missionary companion that they could take whatever they wanted.  So, my dad, with the little money he had, fit a bunch of these small books into a box and shipped them to his mother in Montana.  They were waiting for him at home when he returned.

Coolness Factor... These books are over 200 years old!  They're also in super awesome condition.