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Note to self: Music choices for children

Welcome to my new series, Note to Self. In this series I will simply post the mental notes to myself I usually leave and lose in my mind. Without further ado, my very first…

When your 6 year old daughter asks to listen to music “with a girl singing” - don’t play Madonna. Songs titled “Into the Groove” and “Lucky Star” seem innocent enough - until you watch your daughter lip-syncing the lyrics, “…touch my body…”. That’s just wrong. Very. Wrong.

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Published
by
jenny
on August 9, 2008
in 365, Mutha' Hood, Not So Much and Note to Self
. 8 Comments

08.08.08 - (Guest) Fridge Friday

It’s time to give a little screen time to an East Coast fridge! My friend Jen (no blog, but yes… yet another Jen) sent me an email earlier this last month (yes, Fridge friday was on an extended vacation) that read:

Jenny - I was thinking of you the other day when I came home from a trip out of town and my mom said, “I cleaned your fridge.”  It was so shiny in there I took pics…

One email led to another and shazam - my newest guest fridge! Jen and I have been friends for… my goodness - years! I think we (my hubs, my son and I) crashed her Christmas party back in ‘01. It was there I tasted my first Hot Buttered Rum. Ka-Pow! I think we crashed it because of Blozulfog. She always takes my to crash parties of her friends… and then they become my friends… Can you hear the birds singing? Sadly, Jen and her hubby moved a few (several… too many!) years ago… and have had 2 babies since! 

I’m reminiscing for a moment… I remember my husband and I had a party. 10 couples came… 5 of the 10 women were named some form of Jen, Jenny or Jennifer… and 2 of the couples were “Jen and Dave”. This “Jen” was one of the “Jen & Dave” couples. Remember that Jen??? 

Another thing about this Jen, that endears me to her - is her appreciation for dancing and 80’s music. I mean… she has a great name, is a friend that dances, loves 80’s AND she even told me about a song called 27 Jennifers! Oh - and she’s a mommy. I love mommies…

Now, here are a few words from Jen, about her fridge:

Continue reading ‘08.08.08 - (Guest) Fridge Friday’

Published
by
jenny
on August 8, 2008
in 365, Bloggy Bloggy, Eats, General and The Love
. 10 Comments

A post in which I make fun of my pantry-keeping skills.

I decided to clean out my pantry recently. It was like a great big junk drawer of canned, boxed and bottled food. Apparently I have been stocking up on the necessities. I am such a “nester”…

Apparently, every family of 5 needs THREE 40 ounce bottles of BBQ sauce. Yeah, because my kids use BBQ sauce instead of milk in their cereal.

Chocolate syrup. Keeps the marriage alive. Just kidding. You can NEVER have enough of the syrup that is chocolate…A.K.A. “The Nectar of All Things Good and True”. I mean, really… What if a school bus full of children broke down in front of my house and I had an insufficient amount of chocolate syrup for making chocolate milk? How embarrassing. 

I guess I could always offer them…

What is this all about? One might think I operate a soup kitchen… or a healing clinic called, “Bring Me Your Sick, Your Sore Throats”. Nope. I just harvested a bounty of canned chicken broth… for all the soup I make in the summer. Ahhh… nothing like sipping on steaming hot bowl of soup In. The. Summer.

Tomatoes anyone? My kids HATE tomatoes, but - by golly - I am gonna keep these diced, sauced, crushed, whole, canned, red orbs in my pantry. I wait for the moment enough of their young taste-buds die off and the children realize tomatoes won’t gag them to death.

Oooh - a vinegar bar! I look at this line up and I am reminded of Bubba Gump…

…white wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, Balsamic vinegar, red wine vinegar, rice vinegar, vinegar-vinegar…

***Note: One item that was NOT in my pantry…. Oreos. Because I ate them. All. 

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Published
by
jenny
on August 7, 2008
in 365, Eats, Fa' Real?, General and House
. 14 Comments

Letter Fail

I showed this letter to my husband and commented on the ill-use of “you’re” (2x) and “friend’s”. My husband’s reply: They’re selling cars, not diplomas!

I think this is a very nice letter, but I think their should be someone who spel chekcs and grammar chekcs there letters to custamers. I think if the company did that, they wood appear more perfessional.

Since I used to be a teacher - I HAD to used red “pen”… I couldn’t resist!

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Published
by
jenny
on August 6, 2008
in 365, General and Not So Much
. 19 Comments

The Mid Summer Triathlon - through the eyes of Jenny.

My apologies - this will be one of those long posts. The kind-of post successful bloggers advise against. But for the sake of time and being sure to get this down, I’m going to just go for it. Is there a blog award for longest post???? If you bear with me, I promise to post a video in here somewhere in which I make a fool of myself as I demonstrate the sounds of a man I encountered during the swim who I have named, “The Blubbering Swimmer”.

In case you didn’t know - I did this:

I did it! I did It! And here’s proof I finished:

And I didn’t need one of these:

Continue reading ‘The Mid Summer Triathlon - through the eyes of Jenny.’

Published
by
jenny
on August 5, 2008
in 365, Eats, General, Jenny Jen-Jen, Swim/Bike/Run and The Butt Series
. 28 Comments

A Post-Race Video

Why? Because I am soooo multi-media.

Why? Because I want you to see the ridiculous mega-shades I got at Target for $12.99, and it’ll be funny in 10 years when my children see this video. They’ll be all, “Moooooommmm! I can’t believe you wore those!” And I’ll be all, “I know!”

Why? Because I intended to take one or two short videos prior to my race and I never did… for I was too busy taking pictures of my transition area and Freaking. Out!

You know what? I’ve never seen what it looks like when I talk with my braces. Dudes, I totally have that funky braces-lip-thing! I am so glad I don’t have to look at my mouth when I talk to me. Also, I was not intoxicated in this video… I was flippin’ tired! Gosh! That happens when a girl swims .92 miles, bikes 24 and runs 6.2 miles in under 3 hours - she gets tired and talks like a drunk!

Update - I think the rib went back to where it was supposed to be. Yay! It doesn’t hurt anymore when I breathe in. The only discomfort I feel right now is in my shoulders, butt, more butt, legs, neck and arms. That’s all. And, My People, it was TOTALLY worth it :)

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Published
by
jenny
on August 4, 2008
in 365, General, Jenny Jen-Jen and Swim/Bike/Run
. 10 Comments

The missteps of others…

Oh how I love thee!!! I want to take this moment to thank FAIL Blog… Thank you for bringing knee-slapping laughter to my life. I do feel bad for the fella in the video below, I really do… No. Really…

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Published
by
jenny
on August 4, 2008
in 365, Funny Funnerson and General
. 8 Comments

I finished my first Olympic Triathlon today.

How’s that for a gripping title?

I have a wonderful story to share about my first Olympic triathlon, that was also my first coed triathlon… but the lengthy details (such as the “Blubbering Swimmer”) will need to be shared later - hopefully tomorrow.

I must share a little though, but quickly before my Tylenol PM kicks in…

  • The weather was PERFECT. Completely cloudy. The water at 67 degrees was warmer than the air. I had no worries about overheating. I mean really, it was incredible considering it should have been cloudless and 80. I’m a wimp when it comes to heat…
  • I finished, and cried a little at the finish line for all the relief and happiness I felt. 
  • I finished in 2 hours and 55 minutes and whatever seconds… I didn’t know if I would finish in under 3.5 hours, so imagine how happy I was to cross at 2 hours 55 minutes!
  • My butt hurts. The part where you think it’s all padding… but it seems there be some muscle in there.
  • My legs ache, mostly probably from the over 4 hour drive home. I probably could have used a bit more stretching. Though we did stop for an hour to shop at the Nike and Helly Hansen outlets! I found a great winter coat - all army green with a furry thing growing on the lid.
  • Oh, and I have cramps. Because I started my period today. Yes, today. We always feel 100% on Day 1, don’t we ladies? All those burley fellas passing me today - they never have to consider THAT risk on race day. Last night I could tell the tide was-a-changin’, but I have a 5 day window of “normal” so… I’m just glad Aunt Flo decided she didn’t want to bother me until the afternoon.
  • I burned 1,514 calories in that 2 hours and 55 minutes. 35% of which was from fat.
  • I drank a fair amount of green lake water, but never got attacked by man-elbows. I was spanked on the butt and grabbed by the foot and part of my right shoulder was swam over, but I could tell each incident was not intentional. And for the record, I ended up slugging two people of my own. Hey Dumblond - it was just like you said, I AM hardcore!
I want to thank everybody for your comments full of encouragement on my last post. I wonder if you’d be surprised at how very much your encouragement fueled my strokes, pedals and strides… and breath :)
Oh. The medicine is working it’s magic of gentle mercy. Nighty night…
Published
by
jenny
on August 3, 2008
in 365, Jenny Jen-Jen and Swim/Bike/Run
. 21 Comments

Can I tell ya’ll somethin’?

I am officially nervous. My heart is beating a bit fast, my hands are shaking, and my chest feels a little twisty.

I am getting my gear together for Sunday. Sunday? What’s so big about Sunday? Nuthin’, really… except the biggest challenge of my life - gah! OK, with the exception of the epidural “incident” during the birth of my first child, but you don’t want me to go there… back labor… it was ugly.

Sunday I am taking on my longest triathlon distance (an Olympic distance - a .92 mile swim, 24 mile bike and 6 mile death march run). I have done 5 sprint triathlons since 2001. Started doing them for baby-weight losing goals. The sprint distance is great, but I thought it was time to stretch myself, and today is the day I need to get my gear together.

As I debated which race number strap to wear, MEN came to my mind. Triathlon-y men! Competetive, prolly-gonna-be-knocked-out-by-a-MAN-elbow-during-the-swim-kinda-MEN! This is my first coed tri! What was I thinking? I’m gonna get pounded… or at least dunked like a poor little, sweet rubber ducky during toddler bath time. The horror!

Continue reading ‘Can I tell ya’ll somethin’?’

Published
by
jenny
on August 2, 2008
in 365, General, Jenny Jen-Jen and Swim/Bike/Run
. 15 Comments

I still got it!

Friends. Family. Fellow graduates. Mostly family, this may be a little edgy for summa ya’ll. AND there is a curse word, more than once, and it was PAUL who started it! 

This situation occurred last night, as best as I can remember:

Husband: Dude. “So-and-So” (a woman!) just gave me an award (or something) on Facebook.

Me: Dude. She hasn’t even made ME a friend! Why hasn’t she made MEeeee HER friend? 

*Insight: This is someone from college and prior to our dating, Paul and I traveled in different circles. I never fit in that circle of people, which I am fine with. It is just weird because… who doesn’t absolutely dig me and want to be my friend? I mean, maybe I was a little hyper… a little spaztic… but c’mon. I was 18! I was also boy crazy. Anyway…

In my head: She can’t give him something if she’s not friends with me!

Husband: I said FACEbook. Not ASSbook.

Me: *GASP!!!! Hands covering mouth* What are you saying? Are you saying I have an ass-face?

Husband: No baby. I’m saying that with an ass like that who’s gonna look at your face?

*THWACK!!!* Right on mah tushie!

Ya know folks, after 13.5+ years of marriage, it feels good to know my husband still likes my butt… And, ya know… it’s fun when he gets a little “fresh”. Gah that makes me sound twice my age… “fresh”… 

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Published
by
jenny
on August 1, 2008
in 365, Fa' Real?, General, Jenny Jen-Jen and The Hubs
. 9 Comments