Baby Jenna in a basket

Jenna got creative this morning while playing and decided she wanted to use this basket as a chair. Then she discovered that she can carry her booster seat and planted it in front of the sliding glass door for a good view of the "wane" (rain). She is awfully funny these days. A typical conversation goes one of two ways:


Jenna: Mommy?
Mommy: Yes?
Jenna: Mommy?
Mommy: Yes?
Jenna: Mommy?
Mommy: Yes?
Jenna: Oh goodness!

or......

Jenna: Mommy?
Mommy: Yes?
Jenna: Oh maaan!


No wonder I called my mom today to talk about nothing. She also likes to say, "Hold you Mommy!" with this fake little pout. And "Daddy home" even when it's first thing in the morning and it's a looooooooooooong while before he actually gets home. It's funny how Jenna totally changes once Jake walks in the door. She is crazy hyper and giggly and just plain excited to see him. And I pretty much feel the same way!

Bleeding Love

My heart is crippled by the pain that I keep on rosin'?

This was on our way to a free dance performance in downtown Cleveland. (Lesson learned: you really do get what you pay for!) I wanted to post it a couple months ago when I got home from our trip but forgot to do it. Jenna loves this video and will watch it over and over. Oh wait, that's me. We miss you girls!

Here, there and everywhere

Today I needed to mail some papers to Jake's parents and send a fax so I ran over to Kinko's, which conveniently happened to be a FedEx Kinko's. I figured I could kill two birds with one stone and that saved me a trip to the post office which meant one less long line and one less place to haul Jenna. Great. However, when the lady told me it was going to be $63 to mail a manila envelope to Canada, I decided to check out prices at the Post Office. So off we went. After pulling into the Employee Only driveway, I realized where I needed to go, backed up and pulled into the right place. I unloaded the stroller, got Jenna buckled, grabbed my purse and all the papers I needed but didn't see where the entrance was. I asked a guy who was unloading mail from a truck and he led me inside then told me this was a pick-up only location. What? Since when do pick-up only post offices exist? Probably forever, but I didn't know that. He told me where to find a REAL post office and then watched me struggle as I tried to back out of the narrow door with a stroller, sweat rolling down my face (it's 75 here today). Thanks, Mr. Postman. We finally got everything sent off and it did not cost $63, not even close.

Other things on my to do list:
wipe up the egg from breakfast off the floor
unload/reload the dishwasher
figure out and prepare dinner for the missionaries
get a haircut (to fix the horrible "trim" I got that was a little more than a trim. good-bye hair.)
fold laundry (from last week)
DO laundry (from this week)
and last but not least.....
watch Oprah (from yesterday)

Better get a move on it......

This morning was difficult. Jenna refused (again) to wear a diaper or the princess pull-ups I got for her. It was a battle and honestly, I wasn't sure how to fight it. I gave her the choice of wearing a diaper, pull-up or big girl undies but she just kept screaming, "No no no no no." Somehow, I finally got the big girl undies on her and she was happy to sit on her potty and watch a show while I hopped in the shower and got ready for Lorenzo to come. Jenna has a love/hate relationship with Baby Lorenzo, the little guy we watch a few times a week while his mom takes an English class. She gets so excited to see "Weh-zo!" but Weh-zo is a sensitive baby and does not like to be put down and today Jenna acted out when I couldn't give her all the attention she wanted. She started playing with things she knows she's not supposed to touch, like Grammy's figurines that are displayed in the living room. She kicked a few times and there were some tantrums thrown in there, too. So, after Lorenzo left, I sat in the rocker with her and read some books and talked to her about what happened. She seemed content and I put her in her crib for a nap. Thirty minutes later she was still calling for me so I went in to check on her. She was still laying down (she usually stands up in the corner of her crib when she cries) and I said, "What's up, Jenna?" She whined and I told her to use her words. I was getting a little impatient because my leftover pizza and episode of Oprah were waiting for me but then she said, "Mooooomy! Ho-jew!" (Hold you.) Oh, man. I couldn't resist. I picked her up, wrapped her in her blanket and snuggled the crud out of her. Her eyes were half closed when she said, "Mommy? Bunny. Hi, bunny." Love it. Now I've got something cute to remember when she's on the floor screaming! Think bunny!

Glad to be awake....

In last night's case, a dream is not a wish my heart made when I was fast asleep. I don't know if it was because I watched "Living with the Wolfman" and "Kitchen Nightmares" back to back after chatting with my sister or the huge dead rat that was in our driveway two days ago. But my dream involved a huge orange foot-long salamander that burned one of Melissa's fingers down to a nub and a hungry wolf that we were trying to hit with a shoe. The missionaries were in it, probably because in real life, we had them over for dinner last night, although I didn't recognize the missionaries from my dream. It was so weird! How's your finger, Miss?

Tagged

Seven random things about me:

1. I watch "Stylista" and secretly wish I was a contestant on the show.
2. When I was in college, I lived off of Easy Mac and Marshmallow Mateys (a Lucky Charms knock-off).
3. I just took two bites of chocolate frosting.
4. I think grocery shopping is fun mostly because I get to spend money without feeling guilty. We have to eat!
5. My least favorite chore is laundry, specifically folding laundry. I might get it washed, but it'll probably stay in the basket for a few days. (Jake: "Jill, are these clothes clean or dirty?")
6. Swimming laps is relaxing to me, at least for the first two. Then it's a struggle.
7. I don't really like anything green. Broccoli and green beans are disgusting. I do eat spinach, but not cooked. Bell peppers are okay on some days.

Thanks, HJ!

I drove to Sacramento on Thursday to pick my sister up from the airport and it was the most enjoyable two-hour drive I've made! I drove through the hills of Pleasanton, over the Altamont, through Tracy, hopped on I-5 and headed north to Sacramento. The trees were turning colors and even though it was warm, there was that autumn haze hanging around (or was that just smog?) As I drove through Stockton, I thought about the majority of my dad's ancestors who lived in the area. And as I passed by all the farms I thought about that onion smell that I love this time of year. (The only smell I get out this way is gasoline and exhaust!) For a couple of hours Prop. 8 wasn't an issue, no one was protesting outside the temple and the economy was great. And I just enjoyed California. Where is all this nostalgia coming from??!
Anyway, having my sister out here was awesome. If I had to come up with one word to summarize the weekend it would be ROSS. We went on Thursday, Friday, Melissa went again on Saturday then we went again on Monday. Ross doesn't exist in Ohio so my sisters have to take full advantage when they come to visit. Our Thursday trip was just okay. I came away with a shirt for $4.99 and a dress for $13.99. The next day we went to a different Ross and SCORED. Among other things, Melissa found Christmas dresses for the girls, we got matching purses and I found some brown closed-toe shoes to wear to church in the winter. Melissa went back on Saturday with our brother and on Monday, we rode BART to San Francisco and hit up the mother of all Ross stores. It was three stories. There were rows and rows of size 8 1/2 shoes. There were more purses than the two Ross stores in Modesto combined. It was awesome. I came away with a different purse because the zipper on the original one broke the first day I used it. And Melissa found enough outfits for the girls to last 5 years. We were in shopping love. Until.... we got home and realized the check-out lady duped us. Some of the outfits Melissa bought for the kids were marked down but upon inspecting the receipt, we noticed she was charged full price and the checker tore the tags off! That was pretty annoying.

Other than that, we had a great day in San Francisco and thoroughly enjoyed our meal at Mel's. That chocolate oreo shake was killer! I could have had two more of those. I'm so glad Melissa was able to spend a few days out here. Thanks Nate for "letting" (I know you hate that) her come! See you in a few more weeks!! These pictures were actually taken when my other sister came to visit earlier in the year, but I couldn't have a post without pictures!

Oh, Mama! It's Obama! And other election results....

Last night was weird. I didn't really care for Obama or McCain but as I watched Obama win, I just felt kind of nervous. And I was hoping that all those people cheering for him weren't being deceived but that he really will bring good change to our country. I was reading an interview with him and his wife in Parents magazine (thanks Emma & Leah!) and they seemed like really great parents with good values who are trying to teach their daughters to be respectful citizens. I hope he brings that to the White House. I do have to admit that it's pretty cool that the next President will be African-American.

It's also pretty cool that it looks like Proposition 8 will pass, keeping marriage between a man and a woman! I've read that there are still millions of absentee ballots to count and problems arose while counting San Francisco ballots. Some news stations are reporting that it will be a couple of days before anything can be determined for sure. However, msnbc.com says 98% of precincts are reporting and it's 52% for Prop 8 and 48% against. It will be awesome if it really does pass!

My vote also goes out to Jenna as the cutest, funniest little girl. Oh wait, she ran uncontested! Hehe! Today we heard an airplane in the sky and she pointed to it and yelled, "AH-PAY!" When I asked her where the airplane was going she said, "Hi-o." I asked, "Who lives in Ohio?" And she replied, "Sydney! Macey! Sydney!" We've started babysitting a little baby in our ward whose mom is taking an English class at the junior college. She is from South America and doesn't speak much English so she's trying to learn (what a good example she is!) Jenna loves the baby and when he cries she says, "Ohhhh baby. Sad." And does this fake little crying face. It's so funny! She also loves to "cook." A few days ago she set up a very elaborate kitchen on the bench outside and was lifting the lids to her cookware and declaring it "hot." She's been doing this for a while but that day she got a little more creative with her ingredients which included leaves and a little bit of dirt. And yes, she is only wearing a shirt and crocs because that day she refused to wear a diaper or big girl undies! And yes, I cleaned up potty about 10 times that day. Story of my life these days..... cleaning up potty and getting songs like, "If you can read a-y AY! then you can read way and pay and can you can read ray and tray and you can read AY! C'mon give it a try all you need is a little a-y!" stuck in my head.

H-A-double L-O-W-double E-N spells....

HALLOWEEN! We had so much fun yesterday getting ready for our ward halloween party. Jake and I signed up to decorate a classroom for the trick-or-treaters and to make a dessert so Jenna and I got up early to make a cardboard cemetery scene. Jake cut a hole in the headstone and then got behind it to make scary noises when the kids stuck their hand in to get candy. Some kids got freaked out! But I guess that was kind of the point! Then I started to make a brain cake but realized I didn't have any eggs. Who runs out of eggs?! So I went to plan B and made some monster eyeballs. We got Jenna dressed in her little ballerina costume, picked up our car from the shop (several hundred dollars later....) and finally made it to the party. It was the best ward party ever! Two bounce houses, pumpkin bowling, face painting, cotton candy, popcorn machine, pirate walk, baked potato bar and more! It was so fun! We let Jenna go in the bounce house and she was cracking up. It was so funny. We were all done by 7:45 so we came home, put Jenna to bed and watched "Indiana Jones" with some friends and a bowl of ice cream. It was a great night!