Sharing My Jennarocity

11 and a half years ago, my friend Kate brought me a little black ball of fur and dirt and I named her Bella .  Bella was the sweetest puppy..... who became the sweetest young teen.... who became the sweetest young lady..... who became the sweetest middle-aged lady...... who is now the sweetest, most distinguished older lady of any dog that has ever lived.  I did a photoshoot tonight of my sweet Bella Girl. It's never lost on me, how wonderful this dog is, who's been my best friend and companion for the past 11 years. She came to me when I was so lonely and so ready for a family. She was with me when I got married, become a stepmom, and then had a baby. She was with me when I bought my first house. She was with me when I went through a divorce. She's with me now, laying on my bed, with her grey face and paws, as sweet as she's ever been.  She'll be 12 in February and she's showing no signs of being a 12-year-old dog. She's spry, she hops upstairs, she jumps ...

I'm sure you are thinking "Oh great, here comes another person with her entitled, uneducated opinions!" Don't worry, you guys. It's not going to be that kind of a post.  Research soothes my soul. Google gives me comfort. I know that the answers to my questions or queries lie on the internet in some form. It might take me a lot of digging to find what I am looking for and I might have to wade through a lot of opinionated drivel, but I will still end up finding an answer. It has been no different with COVID-19. I immediately started reading articles and studies about past pandemics and virus outbreaks. I would only read ones that were from before all of this happened so that I could get some good info from actual scientists and not journalists from some random website trying to get clicks. In the beginning, most of my Googling focused on how governments and societies have handled past pandemics and epidemics, along with ways they've succeeded and ways t...

"You haven't seen American Grafitti ?" my dad says, in a shocked voice; the same shocked voice he had when I was 27 and told him I'd never seen one Star Wars movie.  So tonight, I watched it.  American Grafitti, not Star Wars .  Now, I'd seen movies like this before... Dazed and Confused, Superbad... those "it all happened one crazy night" coming-of-age movies that totally capture a specific period of youth in a specific decade of time. In this case, it's a movie made in the 70s, set in the 60s.  Just a little American Graffiti Trivia from good ole' trusty IMDb.... It was released in 1973. It cost $777,000 to make and grossed $115 million worldwide - it's one of the most profitable movies ever made. It was the second production of Lucasfilms, with Frances Ford Coppola as the director. Apparently, George Lucas had trouble finding financing for the film and after seeing how much money it made, Coppola said he never quit...

We are all going through something very similar in this world right now - the threat of COVID-19, not only on our health but on our lives and economy. As much as it might not feel like this right now, the fact that we are all in this together is actually a really good thing. It's not often that events bring a world-wide sense of togetherness of one single shared experience. Unfortunately, those events are usually tragic in nature (the Royal Wedding notwithstanding). If we are all in this together, it means there's probably a lot of the same fears, anxieties and stressors that we are experiencing. How do we handle this in a productive and positive way? Here are some tools and tidbits you can use if you are experiencing anxiety this week.  Defining your anxiety. The definition of anxiety is a feeling of worry, nervousness or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome. I'd certainly say we have an uncertain outcome on our hands, w...

Happy Thanksgiving Out There!!  I saw a picture on my "memories" on Facebook this morning and it reminded me that 9 years ago on Thanksgiving, I brought home a two day old 6 lb baby named Avery Grace Whitehead. It was so cold that day - the whole week hadn't been cold, but that day, it was. She looked so tiny and I couldn't believe I was now in charge of another human being!  One of my favorite stories in the whole Bible is in Joshua 4. At this point, Moses had died and Joshua was leading the Israelites into the land of Canaan. They'd be wandering in the desert for 40 years at this point and gone through A LOT. Remember - they'd be slaves in Egypt but escaped slavery with just a little bit of God's help and survived in the desert with just a little bit of God's provision (obviously, I'm being funny - the entire reason any of that happened was entirely because of God). The Israelites had to cross the Jordan River, which flows just south of...

When I saw Frozen  Thanksgiving week of 2013, I knew that the movie was incredibly special. I hadn't heard much about it and I had no idea what to expect - but the moment Idina hit those notes of THAT song (no need to say it, we all know "that song,") I knew this movie was hands down, one of the best animated movies I'd seen. The humor was top-notch, ALL the songs were on fleek (are people still using that term?), and for once in the Disney universe, the focus wasn't on princesses falling in love, but being there for one another. The movie was beautiful, there was a twist ending - I mean, the movie had it all. It was also one of the first movies Avery sat through at a theater at the time - she was 3 - and on the way back from visiting her grandparents in San Antonio, we had already downloaded the album and listened to it numerous times by the time we got into DFW.  Without a doubt, the first Frozen movie was lightning in a bottle - these things just don'...