Archive for the ‘motherhood’ Category

Milestones: State Fair Edition

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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.

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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.

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Adult night.

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Forgive my special snowflake face.

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IT’S SO FLUFFY!

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This old guy was just rad.

Brain dump.

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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.

My kingdom for a free weekend at home.

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Posted 18 Jul 2012 — by Mrs. Jenna
Category house stuffs, marriage, motherhood, toddler business

This week marks the beginning of a six week period of time where I will not rest my head at home on any Friday or Saturday nights. Six weekends of being away from home. Six weeks of unpacking and repacking suitcases and duffel bags, restocking travel shampoos and on certain weekends, kissing Abby goodbye for a few days.

Don’t get me wrong – not one of the weekends I’d skip. They’re all full of family, friends, weddings, anniversaries, birthdays and MOTHER EFFING BLOGHER IN NYC (I’ll try to save that for another post, because the internet isn’t annoyed enough with all that already). It’s just insane to me, that yet again, the hubs and I can say “We’re not making any plans this summer! Let’s relax!” in April and then suddenly every plan was made within the next six weeks. OH THE IRONY.

In my mind, this is all the ultimate test of my anxiety and whether or not I have it under control. I mean, for most people sans crazy problems, this sort of social schedule would throw half of them over the edge. Me? I’m already losing sleep. NOT GETTING PANICKY, LET’S NOT PANIC…just not sleeping well. Which sucks. And then tends to make me more anxious. And then I go to BlogHer and my anxiety almost kills me to the point where I almost vomit and shit myself at a table of 20 bloggers ON MY FIRST NIGHT THERE…<wraspy fast breathing> OH WAIT. That was last year.

I forgot I’m not talking about #blogher12. And I also forgot this isn’t Twitter. (Which, PS. If you don’t follow me on the Twitters yet, you totes should. I’m there way more often than I am here.)

And since it’s been over 2 weeks since I posted last, here’s what I’ve been up to:

  • Painting the exterior of our house & garage. (NOT FUN) (buy our house)
  • Getting a new garage door hung (buy our house)
  • Hauling rocks out of our backyard where a kennel once stood. (buy our house)
  • And general toddler business, like trying to potty-train and re-sleep train Abbers. (buy our house)

Did you see what I did there? It’s called “Shitty subliminal blogger messaging.” Don’t you suddenly feel like buying my house? I thought so. LUCKY YOU – we’re planning on putting it on the market early this fall! Hence the painting and rock hauling and caring about garage doors. Mama needs more space and if we’re planning on adding another germ-magnet to the family (NO I’M NOT PREGNANT, MOM) we need more usable space. And a better school district. And a two car garage. And three million dollhairs. And a McDonald’s Coke machine in my kitchen. You know, typical wishlist items for the possible “forever home.”

So that’s me in a nutshell. I’m going to try to get a few more posts in here after each weekend of madness so you can follow along with all the fun. But we all know what a half-assed blogger I am. I make and break promises like Justin Bieber influences lesbian style around the world.

image courtesy of wwtdd.com

Internet = Sparkly Unicorns

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Posted 31 May 2012 — by Mrs. Jenna
Category Abigail, marriage, motherhood, other people are awesome, paparazzi, RAD, The Hubs

(Sparkly Unicorns = Magic. Therefore, the Internet = Magic.)

Many moons ago, when I was newly with child (and let’s face it, before that even), I was on a website called The Bump. I met many wonderful ladies there – many of whom I’ve since met in person and have become internet friends with.

One of those ladies I referred to as “Bacon.” It became apparent that we lived in a fairly close proximity to each other, but we never met in person. Until Yo Gabba Gabba. Finally we’d broken the ice. We became Facebook friends (which is pretty serious, as far as I’m concerned) and had windows into each others FB lives.

When Bacon…I mean Melissa was looking to build her photography portfolio, I quickly volunteered myself and the whole family, because DUH.

I should revise the formula in the beginning. Melissa = Sparkly Unicorns = Magic.

 

Magic.

 

T’was a holiday weekend.

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Posted 29 May 2012 — by Mrs. Jenna
Category motherhood, toddler business

The hubs, Abbers and I spent the holiday weekend at my parents home in Wisconsin. We were able to spend three and a half days there, and the weather for the most part cooperated.

Being at their home feels so much more…home-y to me, and I didn’t even grow up in that home. In fact, I never even lived there. But there’s something about it that just resonates family and togetherness. And that’s exactly what this weekend was about – breakfasts together at the kitchen island, drawing together in chalk on the driveway, and playing in the backyard.

Our home has these things, but they just don’t give me that feeling. Maybe it’s the fact that I’m with my parents – my family – that gives it that feeling. I only see them once a month or two, so it makes long weekends like this one that much more special. Having Abby there makes the time even more important to me. She loves her grandparents and loves the space their house and yard provide her. Nothing makes me happier than seeing her interact with them.

Even more awesome was taking her to the Memorial Day parade in my home town, where we watched the high school marching band perform (the same band I was in) – and sharing that with Abby. I started out cheering for them, but then noticed they weren’t marching with the colorguard (which is what I was in during marching season) – when I began yelling “WHERE’S THE COLORGUARD?! WHERE’S THE TWIRLING FLAGS?!” The people on the curb next to us were laughing at first, but then seemed concerned about my dire need to see the ladies and their flags. I was close to asking shouting at the band director (who was the same as was my band director 15 years ago) where the hell they were, but he seemed totally indifferent about even being there, so I let it go. The last time I saw him was a couple years ago, getting drunk at the same bar I was. Awwwkkkwwaarrddd.

I didn’t really take any pictures this weekend, save a couple of a kick-ass storm that blew through on Saturday night. I didn’t even take the fancy camera out of it’s fancy camera bag. While pictures of the weekend would have been nice, it’s almost nicer knowing that those images are in my mind and are mine alone, to recall and cherish and keep secret.

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