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Any Excuse to Celebrate

Written on May 29, 2012 by Jennifer in Hallmark, Little Monkeys, Pictures, Quirky Me

As I left to attend a celebration hosted by our running coaches in honor of our first half marathon last week, Tate pointed that we’d already celebrated-more than once.

“Isn’t this, like, the hundredth time you guys have celebrated?” he asked. It was a fair question.

My girls and I first celebrated by going out for Mexican after the race, then going out for dinner and drinks at a swanky restaurant later that night. A few days after the race, we got together again for another celebratory dinner and drinks. And now I was heading out to celebrate. Again.

What can I say? Thirteen point one miles seems like a great excuse to have more than one celebration.

Life is just more fun when you can recognize even the smallest victories. That’s why we celebrate the tiny things in our house.

It’s Friday and everyone’s alive! Let’s celebrate with s’mores and margaritas!
There’s sunshine and it’s 75 degrees! Let’s invite friends over for an impromptu bar-b-que!

And we celebrate the true milestones.

First day of summer vacation! That sounds like an excuse to get ice cream!
Carson brought home straight E’s on his report card! Let’s order pizza!

Ella had her very first dance recital last week and if that’s not a milestone, I don’t know what one is. She spent months learning her tap and ballet dance moves, set to the popular musical stylings of The Little Mermaid. On the day of the performance, I fixed her hair in a little bun and even let her wear a little blue eye shadow.

Her performance, well, it was wonderful of course. Eight little girls, ranging in age from three to five, each trying so hard to remember their steps, I’m sure you can imagine the talent. Ella concentrated so hard while dancing, her tongue sticking out with each step.

Obviously we had to celebrate the tiny dancer’s debut. Tate and Carson presented our ballerina with flowers after her stunning performance. She wanted a special treat on the way home and thought ice cream would be the perfect way to celebrate.

Carson vehemently agreed. “Mom,” he said, “it’s Ella’s first dance recital, we HAVE to get ice cream to celebrate!”

I certainly wasn’t going to argue with that logic.

Thanks so much to Hallmark for inviting me to be a part of their Life is a Special Occasion campaign this year. Life truly is a special occasion, each and every moment.

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All Grown Up

Written on April 16, 2012 by Jennifer in Hallmark, Little Monkeys, Pictures

An artist at work.

Ella is adamant about two things. One, she really dislikes mornings, or being woken up in general. And two, when she grows up she wants to be a mommy.

“I want to be a mommy, like you,” she tells me, sentimental and teary eyed as if being a mom is the most beautiful thing in the world. (It is, by the way.) (Usually.)

Surely she’s not just saying this out of some human biological urge, but because she sees how awesome I’m doing as a mom and wants to emulate me, right? RIGHT?!

I always knew that I wanted to be a mom, too. So many of my childhood memories center around playing “house,” where I lived with my husband (Mark, then Robert) and our endless stream of babies (Melissa, Tracy, Lisa…). Even as I grew older and discovered that there was so much that I could do in life, I still wanted to be a mom, but I also wanted to go to college and study for a career.

Ella is painting her Hallmark Recordable Storybook Canvas.

While she is unwavering in her decision to be a mommy, she told me awhile ago that she was going to be a painter someday and the other day that she wants to be a “computer worker” when she “gets big.” The day after that when I asked her about being a computer worker, she sighed and said, “No Mommy, I’m going to be a ‘money lady.’”

Well, DUH, obviously. I don’t know what it means to be a computer worker or a money lady, but I’ll do whatever I can to help her. Maybe there’s a summer camp I could send her to for future money ladies?

Carson is adamant about A LOT of things. He loves cinnamon apples, he shouldn’t have to share the Wii with Ella, thunder and lightning are some of the worst things ever, and when he grows up, he’s going to drive monster trucks.

Hallmark's Kids Encouragement Greeting Card to Celebrate Another Great Report Card

We recently celebrated his fifth straight all E’s report card from Kindergarten. Learning comes easily for him and I think that he can be anything he wants to be when he grows up. Of course, I am at least 75% certain that he’ll become a engineer like Tate-I swear I can see those analytical wheels spinning in his little brain when he thinks. But like Ella, I will help him to grow up to be whatever he wants to be, whether it’s a monster truck driver, engineer, or even a rodeo clown, though I’m keeping my fingers crossed that being rodeo clown doesn’t turn out to be his life’s passion.

I love their imaginations and certainty about their futures. While they’re little they can dream as big as they want to dream without life’s responsibilities making their career choices for them. It’s fun to imagine who they’ll turn out to be, but for now I just want to give them every opportunity to find out who they want to be.

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I’m honored to be working with Hallmark this year for their Life is a Special Occasion campaign. Hallmark provided me with the Recordable Artwork and Kid’s Encouragement Greeting Cards and as always all opinions are my own. Ella was thrilled that I finally let her paint, it’s something I usually fear(!!), and Carson loved getting real mail!!

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Not The Museum of Clean

Written on March 22, 2012 by Jennifer in Hallmark, Pictures, Quirky Me

There was a segment on CBS Sunday Morning recently that featured a museum dedicated to the history and promotion of cleaning. It is called The Museum of Clean. Clever name, right?!? It’s in Pocatello, ID just in case you’re interested in visiting. I’m telling you about this because of the man who was featured on this segment, Don Aslett, spent his entire life savings to build The Museum of Clean. He must really like cleaning. Mr. Aslett said something that I’ve been thinking a lot about.

This is what he said, “How you clean will be how you live. That’s just the way it is.”

Hmm.

The truth is, I’m just not a very good housekeeper. My home is not filthy, I just wouldn’t recommend eating dinner off my floors. The toilets are as clean as toilets can be, I change the sheets on the beds…sometimes, the microwave is clean, and we don’t have roaches or any other bug problem for that matter. For me, there are far more important things in life than having dust-free bookshelves and perfectly vacuumed “vees” in my carpet-like watching Mad Men on Netflix for six hours straight or taking the kids and a picnic lunch to the park on beautiful days.

Cleaning isn’t something that I overly stress with my kids, either. I’m more concerned about them playing and using their imaginations as much as possible, doing well in school, and learning to be kind to others than I am with their ability to make their beds so perfectly that a quarter bounces. We do have simple rules about putting their dirty clothes in the hamper and clearing their plates from the table after meal time. They are expected to help out around the house and not be complete slobs, but unmade beds and their messy playroom do not bother me. This is why doors were invented! Messy bedroom? Shut the door and voila! Instantly cleaned!

There are times, though, when the clutter and toys get to be too much. Piles, piles everywhere!! I’ll get a sudden urge that the house must be cleaned RIGHT AT THIS VERY MOMENT. This is usually right after I’ve stubbed my toe on a monster truck or misplaced one flip flop, only to find it and twenty other missing items under the couch.

When these bursts of cleaning energy hit, I get the kids involved as much as possible in the endeavor so that when they are grown up and married, their spouses won’t think that I never taught them about cleaning. That, and the fact that the vast majority of messes in the house were created by them. We do have a rule-more of a guideline, really- that in our house, as a family, it doesn’t matter WHO made the mess, but EVERYONE will help to clean up.

Seeing the entire playroom floor covered with toys and saying, “Clean it all! Clean it all, right now!,” typically results in a two-way meltdown between Carson and Ella. Instead, I’ll tell Carson to find all the monster trucks and put them back in their bin and I’ll tell Ella to find all the dress-up costumes and put them away. Giving the kids specific instructions helps make cleaning a little less horrible.

I also set a timer for 30 minutes and tell them that all the cleaning has to be finished before it rings. Not only do I get a hearty chuckle from watching the kids run around cleaning while trying to beat the clock, it gives us an actual ending time so that we won’t feel like we spent HOURS cleaning.

I haven’t always been this laid back about cleaning, but the older I get, the further down my priority list cleaning falls. There’s just SO much more to life than a perfectly cleaned house.

So thank you Mr. Aslett of The Museum of Clean. You are exactly right. How I clean is exactly how I live: If it’s important, it deserves my attention.

This post is sponsored by Hallmark for their Life is a Special Occasion campaign. While Hallmark is compensating me for participation in this campaign, all opinions expressed are my own. Have I mentioned how honored I am to be a part of this campaign? THIS is way better than cleaning a toilet, that’s for sure!

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Telepathic Friendships Probably Explain My Lack of a Cute Nickname

Written on February 10, 2012 by Jennifer in Hallmark, Quirky Me

I don’t know how many times I’ve read Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. Fifty times? A hundred? As dysfunctional and messed up as those women in the story were, I have always read with envy, about the lifelong friendship between Vivi, Teensy, Necie, and Caro. They share an intimacy that can only be found between people with a long history. I mean, they even have nicknames for one another.

I don’t have any friends like that. Sure, I have lots of wonderful friends, but none that I can claim a lifelong bond, filled with childhood stories, teenage angst, first phone calls to announce new babies. And I wish someone had given me a nickname, silly as that sounds.

We moved from one state to another when I was a child, and this trend continued as an adult. (Five moves in nine years, but who’s counting! Certainly not me!) I never really had the chance to create history with friends and I’ve found it so hard to maintain close relationships with those that live hours away in other states.

Thanks to Facebook, I still keep in touch with many of those friends I’ve made along the way. There’s always a burst of excitement and an exchange of chatty messages when you first reconnect, but then once you’ve exchanged years of marriage, number of kids, current city, and work situation, these friends just become another part of my newsfeed.

With my current set of friends, most of our interactions are through social media and text messages. We get together when we can, time carved between one son’s soccer practice and another’s husband’s work schedule. I don’t think I’ve ever been the one to initiate one of these get togethers, usually I just come along for the ride. My friends are basically my social secretaries, setting up our adult playdates.

Blooming Expressions Vase, courtesy of Hallmark

I’m not the best at reciprocating. I function under the assumption that my friends are telepathic and magically know how often I think about them-usually hours too late. I’m always forgetting birthdays, mammograms, and grandma’s surgery. I text when I should pick up the phone and call.

I’m much better at the face to face friendship, when my girlfriends are sitting right there in front of me. Need someone to listen or laugh at the ridiculous morning you just spent wrestling your two year old into her car seat? I’m totally your girl. Need someone to remember to call you and encourage you? I WISH I was that girl. It’s those behind the scenes friendship duties where I fail too often.

Life gets in the way. Responsibilities of motherhood and marriage, work commitments, and laundry get in the way of me making a real effort to be the kind of friend that I wish I was. All those things? They are petty excuses. It’s no wonder that I crave a deeper intimacy with my friends. I know I need to do better and nurture these friendships for them to grow and prosper.

I made that resolution this year-well, I made the same resolution the year before, too, if I’m being totally honest-to call and initiate more with my friends. There’s a million and one things I could do to be the kind of friend I want to be. Thoughtful gifts and cards, phone calls, lunch dates…I just have to DO those things.

Maybe one day I’ll end up with a cool nickname after all.

All this talk about friendship is brought to you courtesy of Hallmark for their Life is a Special Occasion campaign. While Hallmark is compensating me for participation in this campaign, all opinions expressed are my own. They sent me the Blooming Expressions vase that I gave to a a very good friend of mine-who I actually called and invited to lunch. I KNOW!

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The Good Guys

Written on January 24, 2012 by Jennifer in Hallmark, Little Monkeys, Pictures

It all began with Blue’s Clues, Carson became a devoted clue finder as a toddler. His love for Blue extended into books and songs, and into his imaginative play. Then it was Thomas the Train and All About John Deere movies that led he and his sister to play for hours on end, chuffing, plowing, and absorbed in their elaborate play pretending to be engineers and farmers.

I know that watching too much TV is bad, but I also know that movies and shows have inspired their love for not only reenacting the stories, but extending the stories with their own imaginations into epic adventures.

Our Saturday mornings are usually devoted to pajamas, waffle consumption, and cartoons. I somehow slept through the waffle portion of the morning and awoke to find Carson and Ella absorbed in the pages of a Tintin comic book instead of staring at the TV screen. While Ella and I enjoyed a girls weekend away several weeks ago, Carson and Tate had a boys weekend complete with pizza and a trip to the movie theater to see The Adventures of Tintin-where Carson has found new source of inspiration.

After school last week, I could hear them in the other room playing, caught up in an elaborate scheme to find the clues while getting away from the bad guys.

“Come on,” Carson yelled to Ella, “we can hide in here.”

“Tintin!” Ella called to Carson, “the bad guy has me! Save me, Tintin!”

They went on like this, replaying scenes over and over, changing the details to include sword fights and capes. Running and hiding, they laughed and yelled and pretended to be in great distress. I stealthily peeked in on them and they immediately froze when they spotted me, too shy to continue their acting. I begged them to go on, to show me what it’s like to be the good guys.

But it’s not the same with someone watching, so I left them and listened around the corner as they picked up right where they left off in their Tintin adventure, defeating the bad guys with great gusto.

I’m so excited to be partnering with Hallmark for their Life is a Special Occasion campaign this year. I will finally be forced to learn that there is only one “s” in “occasion!” Of course, I am also so excited for the chance to share the stories from our life.

Hallmark is compensating me for participation in this campaign. As always-all opinions expressed are my own.

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It’s because I desperately miss the share function on Google Reader

Written on January 20, 2012 by Jennifer in blogging, Hallmark, Quirky Me, Randomness

How has it already been a week since I last posted?! Grand plans I had! There were so many times this week that I thought, I need to sit down and write about this. And yet.

I’ve just recently signed on with Hallmark as part of their Life is a Special Occasion campaign. I’m really excited because I will now have no excuse to not write here in this space and talk about the little, big, and everything in between events happening ’round these, here parts. I’m also excited because, well, it’s Hallmark!

Continuing with the theme of: Talking About Myself, here’s what I’ve been talking about on my Babble Voices blog, Southern By Proxy…(I’d be so honored if you’d visit me there. Yes, of course I realize that it’s a lot to ask. It’s just that, I miss you, my regular blog readers, and I feel like I’m fumbling around over there trying to find my voice and the type of post that “works.”)

* Carson has nightly homework in Kindergarten-yes, KINDERGARTEN-and I’m just trying to figure out what the point of busy work really is.

* I got grazed by the sleepover bullet and I’m hoping that I don’t get hit with it again any time soon.

* Don’t get your panties in a bunch, but I don’t really think it’s that horrible when someone says to you, “you sure have your hands full!”

And now to the more selfless portion of the program: I want to start a feature on either Thursdays or Fridays…or you know, whenever the mood strikes, to feature great posts I’ve read around the Internets. With the share function gone from Google Reader, I just feel like I never get to tell the world what they should be reading. It was one place I could be totally bossy and get away with it.

Jennie’s posts are always thoughtful and insightful, but I love this post-it’s romantic in a the very best of ways. Eight.

Having devoted a good portion of January to unsubscribing to EVERYTHING in an effort to manage my email better, this post by Marinka had me chuckling out loud (COL).

I love reading birth stories, I think in another life I’d like to be a doula, and I loved Emily’s birth story about her precious fourth baby, Paul Richard.

And that’s all I’ve got for now, folks. Any good news to share?

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