Posts filed under 'Funny'
My favorite holiday is July 4th. I might have mentioned that before. This July 4th there’s a burn ban, so no fireworks for us this year, except on tv. But I have been enjoying one of the tastiest crops of watermelon this year. Each one I’ve picked has been sweeter than the last. (My favorite place to get them is at Sam’s – they’re big, seedless, and less than $5.) So, this weekend, we’re planning for said watermelon, a few times to go swim, barbeque eating, and homemade ice cream. I think that should about do it. Anyone else have plans for the 4th?
July 3rd, 2011
About a month ago, I bought this and then I sent the following email to my mom, my sisters, and my friend Leah, who owns a Petunia Picklebottom diaper bag. If you don’t know that I love bags and purses, you should know i love bags and purses.
Had to share my latest find… I wanted a new diaper bag for this
baby so I got on amazon to check them out. Well the ones I liked were
running 70-80$, so I decided to wait a little while. Plus, I like to
put my hands on a bag before I buy, to see if it’s big enough, etc.
Today I went to TJ Maxx and found this petunia pickle bottom bag
(google them if you want). It’s red silk and has a zillion pockets, &
comes with changing pad and wipes case. Plus the handle unclips to
hook it around your stroller.
The “original” price onthe tag was $145. TJ Maxx marked to $59,
but they red-line clearanced it at $29!!!
I know Kevin is thrilled (yeah, right) abt this, but I thought the
rest of us girls would be pleased. 
Oh, and even if it’s a boy, I’ll drop the dipes and wipes off if I
leave him at church or whatever – this bag stays with me!! ;)
July 2nd, 2011
Last week was Vacation Bible School. Our church holds it at night, which always makes for a very long and very tiring week. But I am thankful for all of the volunteers (especially male!) whom we would miss if we held it in the morning.
These are pictures of Kennedy & Carlee’s water play day, which is what the kiddos under kindergarten-age get to do on the last night of VBS. (Since they don’t get to participate in many of the things the big kids get to do.)
Kennedy playing with water and shaving cream (cleaning off the tarps). She’s always so busy. Good thing she knows how to pose.
I told Carlee I wanted to take a picture of her (she was busy climbing up and sliding down the water slide). Carlee ran right up to me, maybe a little too close!
And, a bonus pic. Found this book on display in the church library.
June 19th, 2011
You’ll have to bear with me… My gmail is acting up and not wanting to support my browser right now. (Just wanted to point out that that phrase never would have been used 30 years ago… “’supporting’ & ‘browser’ in the same sentence? Ludicrous! And what’s gah-mail, anyway? I don’t want none of that in my mailbox.”) So since my mail domain doesn’t want to work, I can’t post a picture of our latest and greatest news of the moment.
…which is, Carlee will be a Big Sister. Yep. We’re expecting Baby #4! I’ve been calling it “Cuatro”, to keep with the C/K theme, until we figure out if it’s a boy or girl [on August 4th].
Warning: some of this might be TMI. Proceed with caution.
Colby has been asking for a baby brother for a long time now, and we felt like we were done having kids of our own (especially after the drama/trauma we had to endure with Carlee’s after-birth). And, when I had to endure the Mellow Yellow Liver Quiver , my gastroenterologist said something to the effect of “It’s a good thing you had 3 healthy pregnancies already…”, which I took to mean, “It might be impossible for you to get pregnant again.”
So, Kevin and I were looking into some other options, pretty casually. I’ll leave it at that. We went on our trip to Washington at the beginning of May, and I took all my Monthly Supplies with me; according to my calendar, I was supposed to start then and I didn’t want to have to buy things there (which was actually moot, since the airline lost our luggage and I had to buy toiletries anyway). But as we went through the trip, I kept feeling nauseated and really really tired, but I just thought it was because we were up in the mountains (motion sickness?) and because I was on vacation and wanted to sleep. Plus, my grandmother passed away while we were gone, and I was trying not to think about that.
The kicker though, was that I didn’t want to eat sweet stuff. That’s pretty much a tell-tale sign for me that I’m pregnant. I usually have a HUGE sweet tooth and was looking so forward to ordering dessert at these fine restaurants in Oregon and Washington.. but I just couldn’t. And, Kevin got peanut butter and jelly for us to make sandwiches.. between that and the Gatorade we drank on our hikes, I could barely get through our lunches on the road. I also kept needing to stop and pee, like every half hour.
While on our 4-hour excursion through the mountains from Carson, Washington, to Seattle, we stopped at a gas station for a potty break and I lost my lunch.. tossed my cookies… hugged the toilet. So to speak. Again, I just thought I had motion sickness. But I told Kevin, “I haven’t started yet. Maybe I am pregnant.” And, Kevin said to me, “Well then we’ll just have to name him ‘Carson’.” (being the town we just left) So, we got through the rest of the trip okay [we still need to post pics, ahem, gmail!], and had a very very very VERY bumpy (and nauseating) plane ride from Houston to College Station, which thankfully was only 20 minutes long, but was tortuous for a very newly (and not knowing!) pregnant woman.
The next day after we got back from Washington, I was still feeling sick but still not really knowing why.. Alicia had had a stomach bug, she told me, and I thought maybe I was catching it. Then Kelsey (our adopted Aggie, now engaged to Tim – whoop!) came over and told us good-bye for the summer – she is again at Sky Ranch Camps, this year as a coordinator, in charge of and leading/directing the counselors and staff. She mentioned that Tim’s best friend’s wife is expecting and due at the beginning of December, which she thought was so cool, because Tim & Kelsey’s wedding is at the end of December, and there would be a newborn at their wedding! I immediately thought to myself, “Do I have a pregnancy test handy?” because that story immediately made me think that I’d need to know if I was pregnant – because my kids are flower girls and ring bearer at their wedding… the due date of this baby is completely crucial, you see.
So, right before Kevin got home that day, and right before my grandmother’s viewing that night, I took a pregnancy test. I have a picture of that too, dang gmail. My friend Amanda came over to cook us all dinner, and I pulled Kevin aside and showed him the picture on my phone, which he couldn’t believe any more than I could. But we were also very very thrilled.
The downside to finding out that information on the day of Grandmother’s viewing is that I felt like I needed to tell everyone right away, even though I have had several friends (meaning 5 now…) who have had miscarriages early in their pregnancies, even after hearing the heartbeats. The upside is that ALL of my family got to be in the room together to hear the same info. And, Kevin’s dad came to town for the funeral the next day, so we got to tell him too, followed by Kevin’s mom later that afternoon, and Kevin’s sister & fam that week. I did tell them all to wait until I at least went to the doctor the first time (at the end of May) so that we could make sure everything looked okay – plus, I wanted their prayers and love and support more than anything in the world.
Another cool fact – according to my calculations, my original due date is January 10, 2012, which would have been my Papaw’s 100th birthday. (He was my mom’s dad, who died almost 20 years ago to the date we found out we were pregnant.) So far I’ve been to the doctor twice and had 2 ultrasounds, both of which have given me earlier and earlier due dates. After Carlee’s birth, we decided we’d go with a hospital birth but I made it clear that I don’t want any unnecessary medical interventions (drugs, IVs, etc.). I really like my doctor so far (a new one to me) and have heard good things about him in the delivery room. I think the trick will be convincing the nurses of my birth plan.
My official due date (for now!) is December 28th, 2011, which will make a nice Christmas gift/tax deduction this year. ;) I’m 12 weeks + a few days along right now, and so far I’ve been sick a lot at night. So far I think I’m having a boy, and Colby pegged that Carlee would be a girl, and he says this one is a boy, so I’m sticking with Colby’s odds. :) I want him to have a little brother so bad – Colby’s such a great kid and I would love to have another Colby!
I know I’ll have lots of other stories (and pictures.) as I think of them. I posted this on Facebook about a week ago, if you’re friends with me, so you can see the sonogram picture there. I have a friend who thinks she already knows the sex of the baby, by the 11 week picture. I’m saying this sarcastically because it is SO too early to tell… maybe maybe in 1-2 more weeks we could find out, but I’m good to wait another 6 weeks to find out for sure. Even though the wait is already killing me! :)
I’d appreciate your prayers, especially as I get through these rough patches of sickness and lethargy. And, once I feel a little better, hopefully I’ll be blogging more and not overloading your brains with long stories.
June 17th, 2011
Photo taken March 2011.
Clearly this is not an ice cream stand, at least not to those who are older than 8 years old. This is part of a playground near our house. We went during Spring Break, and our usually very quiet playground was overrun with older school-aged kids. My kids were trying to play with the big slides and things but it was getting harder and harder, with more people around.
So, Kennedy walked up to this window and said, “Who wants ice cream?” And Carlee ran over to her and said, “Me!” And we played a game with lots of questions. .What kind do you want? .How much is the ice cream? .Do you want a cup or a cone? Eventually, the other [older] kids decided these little ones were okay to play with, and they started asking for ice cream too. Colby took the money.
I love imaginations.
June 6th, 2011
Picture taken February 2011.
This might not seem so interesting to someone who’s not me, but this was actually Colby’s 2nd visit to the dentist. On the first visit [last August], Colby was so Not Interested in having someone touch his teeth. He sat in my lap for about 2.4 seconds before going to the other side of the room and not budging. I seriously thought I might have to start Colby’s therapy fund.
But, the dental hygienist [why don't they just call them tooth cleaners?] gave us great advice – to let Colby use a battery-powered toothbrush, so he’d get used to the vibrations. We did, and he did, and 6 months later, of course he did a super job. As if all my pep-talking beforehand was like Charlie Brown’s teacher – ‘wa-waa, wa-waa, wa wah-wah, waa.’
June 4th, 2011
I think that song* would be on the soundtrack of my life right now… ”saying AYO, gotta let go!”
Let me briefly recap the last 3+ months for you.
February – Kevin’s grandpa passed away, followed by the memorial at the DFW National Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery in March. Also – my foot doctor cleared me to start running again – Hallelujah! And, my dad returned to work full time, another Hallelujah.
March – I decided to start training for a triathlon! I’m not such a good swimmer, but I do enjoy running and just got into the biking phenomenon. Love LOVE [race] biking, lest you think I ride a Harley.
April – Kennedy turned 4 years old. And yet she started acting 2 again. Now it’s like I have two 2 year-olds in the house.. I’m so ready for her to start preschool.
May – too busy to recap in this post, but here’s the Reader’s Digest condensed version -
1. Kevin and I took a trip to Oregon/Washington. Fabulous. Highly recommend it. I’ll be devoting an entire post (or two, or three) to it.
2. My grandmother passed away while we were gone. I wrote her obit in a hotel room. More on this later.
3. Also while we were gone, my parents started renovating their kitchen. Now finished, but wow it was a mess – my mom had to put everything into her dining room, and she felt like she was on that show Hoarders. I’ll try to post pictures of that too.. you’ve seen some of the before pics, you just didn’t know it.
4. Kennedy had her first dance recital. I laughed, I cried, but I wasn’t stressed. She did a superb job and can’t wait for dance next year. Pictures and a post to follow.
5. Colby finished Kindergarten. He also turned 6 earlier this month. I also laughed and cried. His teacher was such a sweetheart, and she’s moved to DFW. Pictures of him to follow too [oh and lots of stories. he is one funny kid.]
June – (and I’m so not kidding about this one) Carlee is going to the potty. Like, for real, she’s wearing panties all the time, even at night, and even when we are out in public. She has a chart for going #2 and when she goes 5 times, we all get to go to Red Mango for frozen yogurt. She’s been twice so far – once yesterday and once today. You should see the big kids trying to encourage her on the potty. ”Don’t you need to poop, Carlee?” Hilarious.
More to come. You won’t believe how big and grown-up my kids are getting… I can’t believe it sometimes either.
*that song = Dynamite, by Taio Cruz.
June 3rd, 2011
Colby broke out in a rash on Monday night. (He’s allergic to penicillin.) This is him on Thursday… looking so much better, if you can even believe it.
When he looked in the mirror, he thought it was pretty funny that he had polka dots (his term). But in the car he told us, “I am not enjoying this itching.”
February 19th, 2011
I love how much Colby is reading. I knew he was reading but really didn’t realize it until his Kindergarten teacher stopped me and told me what a great job he is doing! She also told me she’s been bragging on him to the First Grade teachers! Look out! He received the leveled readers at school, which has just pushed his ability further.
His writing is something that has just come to light with his entrance to Kindergarten. I have always been a good speller but when I was little I’d look up a word in a dictionary or ask how to spell it. Colby hasn’t figured that out yet – he spells everything phonetically, not asking for help but being very sure in how he’d like to get his point across. Consider, items A&B.
Colby wrote the names of many relatives & friends: Ally, Tyler, Colby, Grandmom, Ryan, Keith, Kennedy, Alicia, Granddad, Cooper, McKay (the biggest head-scratcher “muka”), Carlee, Belle, Doc, Ben, Dad.
Colby also wrote the names of vehicles: planes, cars, helicopters, trucks, hot air balloons, balloons, stacks (whatever that is).
So great.
January 26th, 2011
Just wanted to let the blog readers know that I’ve been on hiatus for a little while because of 2 things -
1. I had foot surgery 10 days ago. Recovery was painful the first 5 days but now it seems to be better. The doctor says my foot looks great and that this surgery went better than the other 2. He has researched and changed the surgical technique and added 2 strands of wire in each foot, all because of little old me. Kevin thinks the doctor should name it the Jenna-knot.
2. My dad had a heart attack on Tuesday and sextuple bypass surgery on Wednesday. He had over 90% blockage in each artery. He spent a few days in Critical Care Unit but is now in a regular room in the hospital. His blood pressure is still a bit high so they’re not releasing him just yet but he’s off the oxygen and breathing on his own, plus he’s able to get up and walk well. I will tell the whole story later, but that’s where most of my time and energy has been this week. I realize that I still need to finish out the 365 project (and I do have the pictures waiting).
Please please pray for my family right now:
- for my dad to be able to breathe well enough to sleep. If you can imagine, he’s very very sore from the surgery, so taking a deep breath is very hard for him. It’s hard to get into the good restful sleep he needs, plus he only wants to sit up because it’s more comfortable.
- for my dad’s blood pressure to go down. Sleep will help this, as will exercise. His body has been through quite a lot of trauma – the surgery alone took 5 hours to complete.
- for my mom – she is spending all of visiting hours (9-9) up at the hospital, and I’m glad she can and does. (It’s what I would do.) And pray that she would be able to rest at night without my dad there.
- for my sister Alicia – she is still in chiropractic college in Houston, so it’s hard for her to be in two places at once. And, although I know she’d rather be here right now, she has less than a year left of school before she can take over Dad’s practice. But, pray that Alicia can do well in school and that she can help Dad as a medical professional.
- for my sister Katrina – she is looking for a job. Pray that God would show her exactly what He wants her to do and give her the energy and wisdom to do it. Also pray that she could help Mom out with Dad’s recovery and not feel like she’s in the way. I am thankful that my mom doesn’t have to come home to an empty house while my dad’s in the hospital, because Katrina is there.
- for Kevin and me – we are emotionally and physically drained right now, so I don’t want it to take a toll on our marriage. Pray for rest and for discernment, especially for Kevin at work and me with parenting.
- for our kids – they have felt the stress of the week’s events and have been at each other’s throats a bit. Carlee won’t stop saying “shut up”, and the other 2 won’t stop tattling on her. This may or may not have something to do with the fact that we’ve been watching The Incredibles a lot lately. Pray that we could take a bit of a break from watching movies (now that I’m feeling better) and we could play with the great toys and games we got for Christmas. The kids have been great helpers this week, with yardwork and laundry and cooking, so I’m very thankful for that.
The kids were pretty devastated that they couldn’t see their Doc while he was in CCU. But they have been the sweetest prayer warriors, especially Kennedy, praying for the surgery and for Doc’s heart to get better. Colby drew Doc pictures of a heart and wrote things like “Doc, I hop your horte gest bedrr.” [More on phonetic spelling later.] Carlee asks, “Doc get better? Go see Doc?” and then lays her head on his hand when she sees him.
It’s very hard for us to see Dad not up and moving about like he usually does, and I know he’s going to have to sit still even longer. I’m praying against any sort of depression he might have or get from “just sitting around”. The doctors say there’s a corner you have to turn before progress goes forward faster, and Dad hasn’t gotten there yet. I’m praying for the corner.
I am very thankful also for this blog and for Facebook, to keep people updated. I didn’t have to tell the story 15 times at church today – most people knew from Facebook, or heard from someone on Facebook. (By the way, if you’re on Facebook, I’m Jenna Stephenson Grubbs, and my picture right now is of Cinderella’s castle from Disney World. I probably should change that, at least for now.)
Thanks again, friends and family, for lifting us up to the Father.
January 10th, 2011
In honor of my third (and final) foot surgery tomorrow, I took the kids and met Alicia and Amanda for lunch at Rosa’s today. Rosa’s tacos are super yummy. And, they serve tortillas and honey with every order. Colby asked Amanda to use honey and draw a picture of a car on his tortilla. I’d say she gets an A for her Tortilla and Honey Art Project.
December 29th, 2010
Carlee’s cute face.
December 28th, 2010
We were the glad recipients of several gift cards this Christmas. One was for JCPenney, which is not a very big store in our area. So we decided to meet up with Grandmom at the North East Mall.
Kevin wanted to pick out a new hat. He says his head gets cold because he doesn’t have any hair. Kennedy tried this one on. Silly girl.
I also got a gift card to Cato’s for my birthday and then picked out this sweater combo.
December 27th, 2010
Merry Christmas, from Alicia’s face.
Kennedy took that pic and unfortunately it’s the only picture I have from my phone of that day. [sorry, Leesh.] I know Kevin took some with his camera. We spent the day at various gatherings. Breakfast was just the 5 of us at home; we opened our presents, played with our presents, and ate Butter Braids – yum! (Colby’s school fundraiser) Lunch was a Christmas feast at my uncle Philip’s house with my dad’s extended family, and then dinner was [by request] spaghetti and meatballs at my parents’ house with my parents and sisters.
The weather turned a little cooler today, so it was nice to sit by the fire and enjoy Christmas in a sweater instead of in shorts, which was what we had been wearing since last week. Although, it was nice to let the kids go outside and play on the trampoline every day instead of worrying about having to pick up their toys inside. Plus, now they have new toys to play with, since it’s Christmas!
December 25th, 2010
A friend from church was so kind to invite us over for some Christmas cookie decorating. I know the kids enjoyed playing in the icing, eating the icing, and then dousing the cookies with sprinkles. And I enjoyed eating.
December 21st, 2010
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