brr!

I am so cold! The longer I live in Texas the more wimpy I get when it finally gets cold around here. It's actually warmer in Detroit right now, so I guess I'm being pretty rational ;)

Next week is Halloween! Gracie is going to be a Pegasus. We put the costume on her last week and she was making these funny growling noises the whole time, like she thought she was some sort of evil monster. It was SO cute. I am going to have my Mom send me my prom dress and possibly go as a "guardian angel". I went as that for Halloween right after I graduated. The dress is pink, so at least I'll sort of match Gracie somehow. Here is my prom picture, purely for nostalgic purposes:

This was taken 12 days before my 18th birthday, I haven't changed much have I? At any rate, that dress has had many good uses. I wore it then, for Halloween, my sister wore it for Halloween and she wore it to my wedding. It cleans up very well and the cut is fantastic. I meant to take it home with me when we were in Michigan last but I forgot about it. It will be nice to finally have it back.

In two weeks Forest and I are going through the Temple for the first time. We are so excited! We got all of our clothing the other day. There were two dresses that I looked at, one was on sale and the other wasn't. As we are first time buyers, we were able to use a 50% discount. I tried on the one that was on sale and it was nice, but when I tried on the second dress, I knew I had to have it. It was twice as expensive (although I only paid 23 dollars for it anyway) but I just loved it so much that it was worth the extra cost.

When we are Sealed in December, we are going to have a full house! My parents are coming on the 21st and Forest's sister looks to be coming on the 26th. I am going to push the Sealing to Saturday as well, which may work out for some who wanted to come. It's going to be a busy few months!

more stress...

I was in tears today over this whole house thing. We had some miscommunication (I won't go into the entire story) and it made me feel terrible. There is a chance we might lose the house because of it, but hopefully it won't come down to that.

To make matters worse, Forest called me earlier tonight and he was stuck with a flat tire. He put on the spare and it was low on air. He drove to a gas station and of course has no money on him so he had to pay a fee to use the ATM just to get a few quarters for air. Sheesh! Yesterday I locked my keys in the car outside of Jennie's apartment. I had just gotten back from speech therapy and Jennie was in Keller at the church. I thankfully didn't lock Grace in the car. It was pouring down rain and we had to sit in the breezeway while Allstate's motor club took an hour to come rescue me. Grace was being so cute and good when she could have easily been really grouchy, especially as that cut into her lunch time. I can't believe I am such a dummy.

So, it's been a long two days. I've worked 20.75 hours in the last two days I'm glad Grace is easy to take care of and makes me laugh or I would have had an even longer two days!

am I the only one?

I completely forgot that it's Spring Break! I woke up this morning at 6:45 to get ready as I usually do and then remembered that I'm taking Grace to speech therapy today. Then I remembered the reason WHY I'm taking her, because Jennie will be taking the girls to the Primary Activity today! This also means I don't have to work until 9. I got up an hour earlier than I needed to. Oh well, at least I'm ready to go now and can have a little bit of relaxation time before I go to work today. I'm just glad I realized that now or I probably would have woken everyone up!

Another minor hiccup in forgetting it's Spring Break is that I'm meeting a Realtor today about a that house on Reed. Our financing is pretty much sound (and way way within our budget, thank goodness) and if we love the house we're going to put a bid on it soon. We still have 3 months and a few weeks until we want to move in, which may cause some issues, but we have a few different options for dealing with that. The earliest we can close is in May, depending on what kind of financing we are able to get. I'm so excited, this has all just fallen into place. Even if that isn't the house we end up getting, knowing that we'll be owning our very own house in just a few short months is a feeling that I thought we wouldn't feel for a very long time. I need to be careful with my feelings though, I find myself wanting to pre-decorate this place and I shouldn't do that just in case we lose it or we end up not liking it! I imagine it will only get worse when I actually see it...

Since I don't have to leave for another hour, I'm going to either try to get my husband up (he's so lazy in the morning) or snuggle and chat.

don't shoot me santa

One of my favorite bands, The Killers, has an awesome new song and video out for the holidays called Don't Shoot Me Santa. I had to share, because it is far too funny not to. As a bonus, if you use Itunes you can download it there and the proceeds will benefit the RED Campaign. Enjoy!

conversations with kids

I had a very funny conversation with Alexa the other day that I thought I might share. We got on the subject of having babies, and she asked if I wanted to have a baby. When I replied, "I really want to, but I might not be able to have one", the rest went something like this:

Alexa: (In a high pitch "ahhhh" kind of voice) "You can't have kids?"

Me: "I might not be able to have my own, but we don't know yet"

Alexa: "Why not?"

Me: "I have a condition that makes it really hard to have one, but I know someone with it who has 4 kids, so there is hope!"

Alexa: "If you don't have one will you adopt?"

Me: "Yes, if it comes to that I think we will adopt"

Alexa: "I know! You should adopt a little girl who is my age and I can be her best friend!"

Me: "That sounds great, but if I adopt anyone I can't come take care of Grace and hang out with you guys all day."

Alexa: "Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Then you shouldn't have a baby for a long long long time!"

Me: "Alright...if you insist"

I can't imagine what Grace would say at the possibility that I will eventually have to leave her. I guess Alexa answered it for me!

ode to my husband

My husband is doing the dishes while I sit here and warm up. We just got done grocery shopping and for some reason I feel frozen to the core! We bought a mega-pack of hot chocolate so I'm all set. We bought some gloves for Forest because his hands are already very dry and dish washing makes them worse. Too bad we didn't know they were pink! I found this very funny, so I snapped a picture.

Oh, Forest, how I love you so, pink gloves and all.

six things

I first picked this up from Meredith and saw that everyone else joined in. It's going around like the flu, now I have to do it! ;) I'm not sure I can think of six interesting things about me, but I'll try!

1. Human Calendar: Although I am not so great at it anymore, I used to remember everyone's birthdays and anniversaries. I have 40 first cousins and my parents both have 5 brothers and sisters and I know most of their birthdays. Now I know everyone's birthday and anniversary in Forest's family (although three of them shouldn't count, his twin sisters share a birthday with my Mom, our niece shares a birthday with my Grandpa and his parents were married on my birthday!). I also remember pretty vividly details about family gatherings, what took place there, where it was, what day it was, things like that.

2. Radiology Major: When I left High School I had already finished college credits in Patient Care through a program called Allied Health. During my senior year, we were able to shadow nurses and doctors in 6 different areas of a clinic and get a feel for what type of profession we would want to go into. I fell in love with Radiology pretty much right away. I still wonder if my love for pictures had anything to do with that. I was set to start the Radiographer program in 2003 after spending two years finishing my prerequisite courses. In the summer of 2002 none of my classes were running, so I was working none stop. I met Forest in June and met him in person in August. I went back to school in September and only lasted a month. I had the worst case of mono I have ever seen. I was dead-in-my-bed sick for 6 weeks and was still feeling the affects of it for months after that. I had to drop out of school for the semester. Before the spring semester started, I decided to move to Texas to be closer to Forest. I never did go back to school because I knew we would be getting married and starting a family. My plans haven't panned out like I had hoped, but I'm glad I can be there for the Dendy's instead of taking care of irate patients!

3. My Nickname: My nickname is Jennibee or simply just Bee. It started when I was 9 years old, in 4th grade. I was a bee for Halloween and unfortunately we do not have pictures of this! Just a few months later, Blind Melon released "No Rain" which had a little bee girl in the video. My Mom and my sister, Crystal, started calling me Jennibee as a joke and it eventually just stuck. That was 15 years ago and they rarely call me Jenny. My dining room is also bee themed, as giving me bee related decor has become a norm in our family. I started collecting Boyd's Bears when I was 11 and they pair nicely with bees as well. When Forest and I were married, we were taking photos outside in front of the chapel. My friend Nicole was fixing my train and noticed that a bumblebee was trying to pollinate my dress! It was the biggest bumblebee I have ever seen and we figured that was a good omen that we were going to be a happy couple.

4. Ich spreche Deutsch: I learned how to speak German in high school and college. I am very rusty these days, as there aren't many german folks down in Texas. I could never speak it very fluently, but I can read it pretty well. It's a fun language to learn, even if it's not the nicest sounding one. I have quite a bit of German heritage, as does Forest (Grabert comes from Gräber, which means "Graves") so I married the right person to have a last name that fits my own heritage!

5. I'm a Nerd: I know that this doesn't sound interesting, but how many girl nerds are there? ;) I have pictures from high school to prove it. Actually, I consider myself a nerd because I know more than one should about particularly nerdy categories. I love science fiction (Star Wars is one of the greatest movies ever made!), I play intelligent video games in my spare time, I know HTML backwards and forwards, I know the first 20 of so digits of Pi by heart, I get excited when Forest buys new computer guts and I get to help him fix computer hardware. Forest and I go pretty perfectly together. My Dad is kind of a "nerdy" guy, but in a much cooler way than I am. He always told me that I needed to find a husband that could fix my computer because he wasn't going to be doing it for me for the rest of his life. He also told that to my sister. Forest and Rob (my brother in law) both work in IT and my Dad hasn't had to fix either of our computers in years.

This was taken at my 16th birthday party in 1999. From L to R: Amanda, Rachel, Dane, Me, Sarah is behind me, then my cousin Jessie, and my brother Keith. Notice I am wearing a Star Wars shirt. I also had braces and glasses (I wear contacts now). I was always proud to be whatever I was, I am proud to be a nerd, it gives me a little character!


6. Music: I don't like silence and I love music. So, whenever I'm home and not watching TV, my music is on. I sing and dance while ironing. The vacuum noise competes with Pink Floyd or the Beatles on a regular basis. My cell phone is used more as an MP3 player than a phone. I'm listening to music at this very moment (The Birthday Massacre - Movie, awesome song!). I'm not partial to any one type either, I love most kinds. I have a list a mile long of favorite bands. I'm a singing non-singer. I thankfully know I can't sing very well or I would be one of the people Simon makes fun of on American Idol. My music appreciation is attributed to my Dad who has excellent taste in music. Unfortunately for us, he would find something new, get hooked on it and play it until we threatened to use the CD as a Frisbee. I am glad I didn't inherit that trait! When I was visiting them this August, it was the new Meatloaf album. After 29 years of marriage, I think my Mom has learned to let that one go ;)

Hey, I didn't do half bad...I suppose even I am interesting ;)

so clean you can eat off of it

Towards the end of my "shift" at Jennie's, McKay and Alexa decided to play with bubbles in the kitchen sink. Grace crawled in to see them and was laughing as they created a mini bubble bath. Grace loves her baths, so I'm sure she assumed it was time for that. They started to pick up the bubbles and put them on their heads and soon Grace was covered as well. Jennie came in to find all three of her girls, soaking wet and covered in bubbles. So, what else to do? Let them clean the floor! Grace was in fits of giggles and when that happens, you can't help but laugh too. I got a quick picture on my phone of the aftermath, although they were all moving so it's not the best quality. It's rather small, but you can still see the bubbles across the floor!

happy peanut butter lover's day

I found out today is an obscure holday, Peanut Butter Lover's Day. Why not celebrate peanut butter? It is oh-so-delicious, especially when paired with chocolate. It is not so much when you pair it with peanut allergies or salmonella, though.

Yesterday was my Dad's final day of work. It is hard to believe he's retired! When I go home now he and I can hang out while my Mom is at work. We'll get online and play Fear for hours on end! I remember years ago when we used to game online together. The game speed was incredibly slow, I don't imagine I would have much patience for that speed now, living in the fast world that we do. We had an ISDN connection back then (which was better than dial-up, but not by much) and the lag was so horrible, but we didn't know how much better it would get!

I also had my own website back then, although much different than the one you see today. It was full of flashy gif's and backgrounds that you couldn't read anything on. I didn't know how to use tables so everything was in one big chunk. While the domains are still there, the HTML files were deleted years ago. It would be interesting to see the code I wrote back then and compare it to now. Once you get the knack of HTML, it's not really too hard, but I can tell you that I've been tempted to yank out my already thinning hair on more than one occasion when learning it all. It's been worth it though, not many people have the patience for this and I'm glad I achieved something!

Speaking of achieving things, I'm having a long debate with myself over what I want to do next in my life. I've been married nearly 3 years now, so far I think Forest and I have got that figured out. We haven't been able to have kids yet, although I'm sure it'll happen sometime, so we have that to look forward to. But what until then? I've become a chronic cleaner of my apartment and I take a lot of walks. Having one car is causing a problem with me finding another job because Forest never knows where he is going to be on nearly a daily basis. Our lease is also up very soon and we want to get out of this apartment. We're thinking of renting a house because I don't think we could afford to buy one at the moment. It'll be an interesting next few months! So, I'm hoping, praying and wishing that something falls into my lap or I have a epiphany as to what to do next for the time being. Suggestions from my wiser relatives are appreciated!