An announcement I would have made Monday if it weren’t for GoDaddy.

No Comments
Posted 12 Sep 2012 — by Mrs. Jenna
Category blog bidnass, I am awesome, please and thank you

So, Monday afternoon a super awesome thing happened:

Jack Osbourne Finds Naked Photos of Ozzy, World Mouth-Vomits In Unison

Okay, so the story headline itself isn’t what’s so awesome, it’s the fact that I WROTE IT.

Yes, my loyal readers (all 6 of you) – I’VE WRITTEN FOR MAMAPOP.

(cue crowd-deafening cheering and applause)

I’m on a trial basis for the first couple of months, but every Monday afternoon, check over at MamaPop.com to see my newest installment of celebinsanity. I just made that word up. Not sure if it works. Nahhhh, what the hell. We’ll just say it does.

ANYWAY – I wanted to share all this fun news with you on Monday, but GoDaddy decided to eff up EVERYTHING and I couldn’t access my site. Or my email. Or my lifeblood. What makes me crazy is that all the (local) coverage about their outage indicated that the downtime was affecting “mostly small business owners”. Uh, exqueeze me? Baking powder? I will most definitely stand up and say I am not a small business owner. If anything, I maybe break even after paying for my domain and hosting. So, GET THE FACTS STRAIGHT, YO.

Tomorrow: The end of an era.

No Comments
Posted 09 Sep 2012 — by Mrs. Jenna
Category Abigail, motherhood, not so much

Tomorrow, I go to work. I haven’t worked a Monday since my return from maternity leave. At the time, 32 hours a week was enough, and I was able to spend an extra day with Abby. Just her and I…Abby/Mama day.

Granted lately, it’s been more like Abby/Mama/Laundry day, or Abby/Mama/Clean the House day. We were still spending time with each other, she’d help me “fold” laundry, or come with me to the grocery store. It was time I cherished, though.

It never occurred to me that I was essentially taking a 20% paycut by not being at work that one day a week. I mean, I *knew* it, but I didn’t really feel it. Now? I feel it. I’ve been struggling to stay above water financially. I’m not in trouble, but I feel like I’ll be there soon if I don’t fix something. So, I decided to go back to work full time.

I technically started back full time last Monday (Labor Day)…which was awesome. Do you know how many holidays fall on Mondays? Pretty much all of them. I haven’t gotten paid for a Monday holiday since 2010.

However, tomorrow I actually have to go to work. Abby actually has to go to daycare. I haven’t really brought it up to her. (Which should really come to no surprise to her since she graduated to preschool last Wednesday and I had no idea. Like – I brought her to her old classroom, only to find all the shit in her cubby, in fact her cubby itself was not there anymore. NO IDEA THIS WAS HAPPENING.) I feel like she might be okay with it, as long as I don’t do something stupid like say “Hey! Instead of Abby/Mama day – you’re going to daycare today. And every Monday from here on out! Yay!”

Although I lost sleep over it last night, I think tomorrow will be okay. I’m going to attempt to ignore the fact that I’m PMSing and I’m probably going to cry, but I’ll be okay! RIGHT?! RIGHT.

Milestones: State Fair Edition

1 Comment
Posted 04 Sep 2012 — by Mrs. Jenna
Category Abigail, motherhood, paparazzi, The Hubs

(Sidenote before I dive into this post – HOW IN HOLY HELL IS IT ALREADY SEPTEMBER?! AndPlusAlso, my birthday is next week. Start thinking of gifts to send me starting…now.)

This past weekend, we visited the State Fair. “The Great Minnesota Get-Together,” as they call it…which I think is rather hilarious since it makes it sound like an event with all your old friends, when really it’s more like “weirdos and families crawling out of the woodwork to stuff their faces and ride totally unsafe rides.” (No, REALLY.)

The hubs and I try to make it to the fair at least twice every year – once with friends (AKA adult night) and once with Abbers. This year was no different. Saturday was our adult night – we went on some rides, had a couple beers and ate until there was no room left; Pronto Pups (corn dogs), Dippin’ Dots, Fried Pickles, Garlic Fries…my mouth is watering. The hubs played a game and won me a stuffed unicorn (from Despicable Me – “IT’S SO FLUFFY!”). ANYWHO, Sunday rolled around and we waited until dinner-time to head to the fair since it was hotter than Hades and being around a bunch of sweaty people eating in the hot sun is not an ideal situation.

We grabbed some french fries and headed to the Kidway (like the Midway, but only for kids) and Abby was eager to go on rides. She’s a huge fan of the rides at the Mall of America, so this was like heaven, and made a bee-line for the bumper boats. The lovely carnie said she was tall enough to ride by herself. Josh and I looked at each other, knowing THIS was going to be her first solo ride, and agreed. I handed over the 4 tickets it cost to take the ride, and she was off.

20120904-104051.jpg

Like a boss.

Granted, that whole “steering” thing was an idea she didn’t grasp well, as she pretty much spun in a circle the whole time, but she LOVED it. As soon as that ride was over, she wanted more – but the hubs and I decided to join her for those. That was enough growing up for one day.

Then we made our way to the Midway, where we played more games, and Abby won herself a totally generic Nemo fish, and the hubs won her a lion. We walked by the side-show tent, and other rides, and I got excited for the day when she and I can go on the big rides together. We’ll take this one step at a time, though.

20120904-104401.jpg

Adult night.

20120904-104420.jpg

Forgive my special snowflake face.

20120904-104444.jpg

IT’S SO FLUFFY!

20120904-104846.jpg

This old guy was just rad.

Brain dump.

No Comments
Posted 20 Aug 2012 — by Mrs. Jenna
Category Abigail, marriage, motherhood, paparazzi, TheRapists, toddler business

I want to have a real, awesome post that makes all sorts of sense and is hilarious, but my brain is in the process of trying to straighten itself out right now, so you’re stuck with this. My bad.

  • Tomorrow morning I have an appointment to see my psycho-theRapist. It’s supposed to just be a check-in, but I’ve decided I’ve had enough of the crazy pills. I’ve been doing so very well lately, and because of this, I’ve been forgetting to take my pills. Like, I think the last time I took one before I remembered to this evening was on Friday morning. Now? I’ve got the head-spins and feel loopy. I don’t want to feel this way because I’m NOT taking something. So, it’s time to start the descent.
  • Abby is on day 4 of potty training. She’s doing really really well so far. Only a couple accidents today, and a FULL ON REQUEST to go poo-poo on the potty. (And she did.) This is just so awesome to see her able to take charge of something that SHE has control over. We have our final weekend away this weekend (THANK GOD), so we’ll be doing a 5 hour car ride with her sans diapers. This, for the most part, scares the shit out of me. But I know she can do it. I know she will have accidents. This is all part of learning. And I cannot WAIT until she has got it down.
  • We celebrated our dear friends’ wedding this past weekend in lovely Brainerd, MN. I was Tory’s personal attendant and never had more fun being someone’s bitch. (I keed Tory, I’ll be your bitch anytime.) It was an awesome locale and Tory (and Brandon) did a great job with the decor and plans. There was a slight mishap with a golf-cart later in the evening that left one friend needing 20 stitches to the face and another with a broken clavicle (yeah, I don’t think anyone wants to hear the details of that drunken joyride), but beyond that and a little rainstorm prior to the ceremony, the weekend went off without a hitch. Here’s a photo of our crazy group of friends, courtesy of Lisa Quinlan Photography:
    Yeah, I’m totally getting my ass chewed on. We’re professional drinkers, we are. I also apparently have no fear of making an fool of myself and got full on ERMAGERD.

That’s all for now. I’m being summoned for round two of get Abbers to sleep.

I’m home. Sort of.

10 Comments
Posted 07 Aug 2012 — by Mrs. Jenna
Category blog bidnass, other people are awesome

I got home from New York around 2:30 in the afternoon on Sunday. I was essentially brain dead after staying up all Saturday night with my roommates, laughing until I was asthmatic and crying. Previous days included drinking, walking, going to parties, schlubbing bags of shit I probably didn’t need through the hotel, making people laugh, people making me laugh, and being happier than I ever could have assumed I could be without my family by my side.

For some reason, this year’s BlogHer was…bittersweet. I’ve come to realize I have this magnificent group of friends that, to some, only live on the internet. I know this is a lie. I also know that people don’t understand how I can feel so strongly towards this same gaggle of people when I “barely know them.”

I guess what it amounts to is, unless you’ve ever experienced this kind of friendship, you will never know. I know that I have about 15 people who have my back not only via the internet, but in real life. These are TRUE FRIENDS. We can reconnect after a year of not seeing each other like a moment hasn’t passed.

Do you know how I know all this? I woke up this morning and started getting ready for work, and realized that just two days before, I could wake up and see any of them right then and there. Today, I couldn’t. And it seriously feels like I left part of me in New York.

Please, don’t get me wrong, I love my family and being home. THEY are home to me. They are my heart and soul. And I love my “regular” friends too. But sometimes? It’s nice to have people who live your life nearly the same, but different in their own ways. We are all the same deep down. We write. We blog. We live our lives in the open. We are people reaching out to find others who can relate. And I’ve found a bunch of them who I never want to lose as friends. Not in a million years.

 

This post brought to you by: Mandy, Mae, Morgan, Tiffany, Krystal, Jill, Charlie & Andy, Jen, Ari, Chelsey, Jess, Alena, Jamie & Jon, Miranda, & Suzanne and anyone else I’ve left off.

← Previous Entries
Next Entries →