Sharing My Jennarocity

NO, I am not pregnant. Just putting that out there.   I've been giving alot of thought to it lately, though. I know my parents are reading this, thinking I am nuts for even writing those words or considering another one, but I can't help it.   It's weird when you have two kids that are yours but aren't yours, but you still have to pay for them and take care of them and they are still your "kids" but you didn't give birth to them. We have three, but most of the time, we just have one. And she's my one and only. Jason has three but I really only have had one. I have those inclinations, like most peoeple do after having one, to have more because I love Avery and she's so much fun. Sometimes, it's not always fair to me, in that regard. Jason and I didn't even know if we wanted one at all, before Avery. Then we had her and she's such a joy. I didn't want anymore, not until recently.   There's so much that goes into it. D...

I made this wreath from the burlap and wired ribbon I used for Christmas trees, and I wire hanger. I am actually pretty impressed with how it came out! And it took me 15 minutes? I wish I could have made a bigger one, but I just had an idea for it right after I decided to through all of that away and changed my mind, so I wasn't about to make a run to Hobby Lobby for a wreath ring.   Not bad!   That frame is wooden and I got it at a garage sale for $1. It came with a frame of a Jesus-looking man, but I didn't keep the painting. I just wanted the frame.   I also got this painting/frame combo at the same sale for $1. I really wanted just the frame, as it's gold metal and really neat looking.   I put the picture up one day, just to see how much space it would take up on the wall, and suddenly realized that the colors in the painting actually went with the rest of the room. Then I thought, hey, I have no ugly-art-conversation starters? So I just l...

Avery has always loved books. She used to love to chew on them too. She's always loved to be read to, to look at them, and to be told stories to. Here are some pictures of her with books over the last couple years...             Well, that trend has certainly continued. Now, it's really cool because she is starting to tell us "stories" by the pictures she sees.     And of course, Bella is NEVER too far away. Or, in most cases, she's right in your face.   I so hope Avery continues loving to read!  

Well, I have, yet again, begun the dieting process. These 35 pounds have been a burden on me for far too long. This time I feel really different about it. I have started a 90 day challenge, which includes no sodas, no fried foods, no sweets, 72 ounces of water, and exercising 3-5 times per week. The first couple of days were hard, mainly because I didn't realize how much I just grabbed what I wanted, when I wanted. But today, it's not so terrible! Along with this, I have also begun increasing my fruit/veggie intake and lowering my carb intake. I HATE fruit, but I have made two large fruit smoothies, consisting of nothing but fruit and a bit of skim milk, for two days and I have probably ingested more fruit in two days than in my whole life, no lie! So, it's going well. The exercising has been a challenge. But I keep thinking, "Just do the best you can and give it all you've got for 90 days. Your summer-you will be happy you did!"   The main reason I am ve...

I have been giving alot of thought lately to what is my real house style. What do I really want my house to look like? What colors do I like? Furniture? Accessories?   I guess I am not really one to pour over Pinterest all the time for decorative ideas. I mean, I do. Just not all the time. I follow decor blogs because I love to see ideas people have to decorate, especially when it's really cute but inexpensive. But if I really want to get carried away with a house, the decor of a house, the architecture and layout, then all I have to do is watch a Nora Ephron movie.   It doesn't matter which one, they are just all beautifully decorated houses. I mean, houses that only incredibly rich people could afford to live in, but hey. I am getting carried away here, right?   You've Got Mail - every time I watch this movie I want to lay in that big poofy bed and I just love the warmth of her house.       And who wouldn't want to read a book in ...

We got a potty a few months ago and tried it a couple times, but Avery just wasn't ready. In the last month, she tells us every time she is going to the bathroom in her diaper, she wants us to change the diaper as soon as she goes, and she is normally dry after a nap. So, since I have been off this week, we thought it would be a good opportunity to start the training off again.   I hate that it's so cold, but we have gone by the "nothing on the bottom method." We attempted to let her wear big girl panties, but Sunday she went tee-tee in them twice. We just thought it wasn't enough of a difference to allow her to know she needed to use the actual potty. She didn't really want to get on the potty at first. I assumed it was because she didn't like being on the big potty so I went and got her a little potty. That doesn't work at all. She thinks its a toy and hasn't gone on it yet. But by Monday, she started really catching on. She went in the pott...

Well, in the last two weeks, I've gone to the office one day. It's been nice, for sure. Like, really really nice. I go back Monday, I am sure by then, I will be ready, but today, I enjoyed spending the day with my sister and the three kiddos!   I took the kids to the Fort Worth Science Museum and we had a great time! Leslie got to come with us and I am so glad she did, it was so nice to have an extra set of hands! Here are some pictures! Sophia laid on the bed of nails, pretty cool!       Jenna and Leslie's Day of Fun! (oh and Avery picking her nose, apparently.)           They even had a play grocery store. All of the food was in carts, so the shelves were bare!             

Jason and I spent $59.99 on the best invention ever. It's called a Roku . And it's awesome. When our Wii decided to stop picking up wireless signals and become useless, we were scrambling to figure out what to do because, you see, our Wii had become our Netflix streaming devise and without it, we just didn't know what we would do. So, I started asking around. I got two responses, either go with the Apple's version or Roku. Those were the best bang for your buck.   So I went to my Walmart, picked one up, and it's been amazing.   Netflix is only one of many things you can stream through this machine. It comes equipped with Pandora, Crackle (streams TV and movies for free, but not usually well known ones, but lots of cartoons), Hulu Plus, Disney, Netflix, Amazon and a couple others. They even have a new release channel, where the movies cost $3.99. Much better than a $5.99 pay per view. However, on their channel, you can download about a hundred o...

I guess I am a little, behind? I mean, it is November 29, my in-laws just left from the Thanksgiving holiday two days ago and we are still catching up on laundry from the long weekend, but I guess I am behind. I hate Pinterest. I hate Facebook. I hate Instagram. Sometimes, I do. Because they make me feel pressured and inadequate. But I will not bow down to the pressure, I say! I will decorate when I am GOOD and READY!   Ok. I am good and ready.   I got out my boxes of Christmas decorations, which, at our previous smaller house, were pretty adequate. Yeah, it's kind of just a joke in this house how much stuff I will need to make it a Winter Wonderland. But, you can only do so much, right? I will go get some stuff at Hobby Lobby this weekend, in the form of ribbon, garland, and whatever I can find on sale. We are also focusing on lights for the outside this weekend. Let's be honest, that's going to be a a miracle if it looks halfway decent. Lights are pricey and le...

I got the BEST surprise today!!! My friend at work had P90X and I asked her to burn me a copy. So I brought my empty DVDs to her a while back and today, THEY arrived! I cannot wait to get started! I hope Jason will do them with me, it will be a great thing to do together! Now, I am a little bummed choir is tonight, I hope I have time to get around to my exercise! At least I did my yoga this morning!

I started Yoga 2 weeks ago Monday after I realized how incredibly inflexible I was. I would get up in the mornings and found this Power Yoga show on my Ion channel from 6:00 - 6:30 and it looked like something I would really enjoy. I have tried yoga classes in the past at gyms and have really hated it. For a beginner that is as inflexible as I am, I just think an hour is way too long. I love this show for 2 reasons: 1) it is only 30 minutes long, which is about as much as my body can tolerate, and it's on 6 times per week and I do it almost every day and 2) The theme of the class changes every day. We started off my first class doing forward folds and it's incredibly embarassing how little I was able to do. Just folding foward sounds so easy, but I can't even touch my toes from a seated or standing position. We have also done strength and stamina, binds (different positions while holding your hands together behind your back) hips, abs, and all types of other exercises. I di...

So, you all might have noticed a have a new ticker at the top of my blog that I haven't mentioned. Its a weight loss ticker, starting at my 179 and the weight I want to lose, 34 pounds. I have not mentioned it because I put it up as a method of accountability and I haven't wanted to actually start using it. I thought it to be pretty brave of me to post my weight at all, but I am really not one of those women who care if others know my weight. After the baby was born, my weight came off pretty quick and plateaued at 179. That is officially 13 pounds over my heaviest pre-baby weight of 166, which is 11 pounds heavier than how much I weighed when I met Jason. To recap....comfortable weight for me is 145, weight when I met Jason is 155, weight at pregnancy was 166, and I am at 179. I seem to be having a huge aversion to losing this weight. I have started yoga which is something I really enjoy and need very much. But yoga is not enough cardio to lose weight. I can't seem t...