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Name: Jen
Country: United States
State: Arizona
Metro: Phoenix
Birthday: 8/26/1977
Gender: Female
Interests: attachment parenting - babywearing, co-sleeping, gentle discipline; organic cooking; vegetarianism; yoga; dark roast coffee - can't get enough starbucks; environmental protection; herb gardening; crocheting; reading; sign language; travel; music (love ben harper, amos lee, grateful dead, john legend, live, audioslave); animal rights; outdoor sports; home organization; culture; the arts
Expertise: I am an earth-loving, baby-wearing, gentle mom to an adorable walking-tall, hip-hugging, vegetarian-eating 2 year old headstrong girl. I can't go a day without coffee, music, a trip to the gym, some time outdoors, fresh foods, and reading or signing with my daughter. I spend too much time on ebay and at IKEA and talk too much on my phone while driving! I love long walks, stargazing, gardening, reading and yoga. I hesitate to admit that I love to watch survivor, american idol and big love, but give me a documentary or a interior decorating show and I'm just as happy! I love to try new gourmet recipes, always enjoy hosting holidays at my home, and love spending time in my pool in the summer. I have a small group of very close friends and prefer intimiate relationships and friendships with a few people over casual acquaintances.
Occupation: Sales
Industry: Other
Message: message meEmail: email me
Member Since:
4/24/2006
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| Today is my 6th year anniversary of living in Arizona. And guess what lovely present my husband and I woke up to this morning?
Our...................
first..................
SCORPION!!!!!!
INSIDE my lovely new home!
Ugh!
My little arachnid-loving 3.5 year old found it and said "MOMMY!!
MOMMY! I FOUND A SPIDER! IT’S A DIFFERENT KIND OF SPIDER!"
Gross....gross....gross.
It was making its way across our kitchen floor, without a care in the
world. I am freaking out! I just moved into this house and I can’t
take knowing what else might be hiding in here.
I am still itching from it....my daughter just wants to find another one so she can "pet" it!
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| Wow! Has it really been since October that I contributed anything worthwhile here on xanga? Amazing how quickly time flies. Things have been very busy in my life, so I am going to share a synpopsis here which may resemble a holiday letter (hehehe).
October 2007
We finally got an offer on our house, which means (yea!) we get to move into our dream home soon! We spent the month having a couple garage sales, packing, packing and packing some more, and celebrating Halloween with our adorable Uniqua! Well, I took her trick or treating, Mark was in San Diego as he had to leave the week before due to the fires that hit there...his company was evacuated which was very nerve-wracking.
November 2007
We spent the first weekend of November in Los Angeles having an early 7th anniversary celebration. We saw Ben Harper in his hometown which was fantastic, and also enjoyed some great dining and a gorgeous view of the Hollywood Hills from our 14th floor hotel suite.
We closed on our old house on November 15th, which meant moving in with the inlaws for a few weeks. That was trying as Katelyn preferred to go from person to person trying to get the answer she wanted. If mommy said no, she would go ask *mema* who would often say yes...Additionally Mark was out of town for a week so it was just me against the grandparents LOL.
We celebrated Thanksgiving with family and during that time I had a slight health scare (everything is a-ok now thanks goodness) but that made the time at my inlaws even more stressful).
We closed on our new home on November 30th and we began the process of moving in and decorating. It truly is our dream home at this point in my life and we couldn't be happier!
December 2007
We started settling into our new home just in time for the holidays. We went from a downstairs with no furniture to filling it up with beautiful furniture from Pier One, Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel and World Market (my favorite stores). It truly made our house feel like a home. Never in our life have we splurged on anything but we were fortunate to get a lot of money back from the sale of our old home that we were able to do things the way we wanted to this time around.
We hosted a small Christmas dinner this year, smaller than normal, as not all of our family was able to make it in for the holidays. We had a pleasant time and also went on our traditional zoo lights walk on Christmas Eve.
We also hosted a New Years party this year - most of our friends had also sold their homes (as they were moving into our new community as well) so we were the only ones WITH a place to host a party. It was a lot of fun but LOL we were all tired way before midnight (we must be getting old!)
January 2008
My mom and her fiance came to visit us at the beginning of January. It was the first time that we met her fiance and he is very nice and makes her extremely happy, maybe the third time is the charm! It was exciting to have our first houseguests in our new home! We spent a lot of time working on wedding plans as we will be hosting the wedding in our new home. We have a lovely foutain and ampitheater in our new community where the ceremony will be held, and then we will come back to our home for a backyard poolside reception.
After my mom went home, Katelyn and I left a few days later to visit my little sister in Ohio. It was the first time I had ever been out there, and I met some of my family for the first time in my life. I wasn't sure how it would be to sleep in the home where my father had once lived (if you know me personally you know that I never got a chance to know my biological father and only learned that my oldest sister Tiffany and I had a little sister when I was 18 years old) but it was comforting and homey at the same time. Katelyn had a wonderful time with her Aunty Ashy and Uncle Bobby and we worked on some of the details for her upcoming wedding as well. We truly are two peas in a pod as we spent hours upon hours laughing at others myspace pages, watching ridiculous tv shoes (My Big Redneck Wedding, anyone?) and people watching at flea markets and restaurants. I was sad to go home but we had a wonderful time and I can't wait to visit again.
When I got home they had started building our pool...I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will be ready in time for my mom's April 11th wedding!
February 2008
Katelyn and I spent the first weekend of February in San Diego. We coincided our trip with Mark's monthly visit out there and enjoyed some time at the San Diego Zoo, the Wild Animal Park, as well as bowling, shopping, and (yum) finding two fantastic vegetarian diners...we will be back at both very soon!
The week after we got home I had my foot surgery. This is something I have put off for YEARS and it was time to get it done. I have terrible bunions on both of my feet and for the last few years it has impacted my ability to buy new shoes (yikes!), exercise and just generally feel good. So I finally gave into the nagging from everyone and had the surgery on Valentines Day (how romantic!!). The surgery went really well but I now have no use of my foot for three months. I have to keep it casted for 4 weeks, using crutches, then I will get to use a walking cast for another 2 months. Then, when all is said and done, I have to do it all over again with my right foot....ugh! All this sitting is allowing me to catch up on a lot of things, but I am such an independent person I hate having to depend on my husband for everything!
I was saddened when I woke up from surgery and found out what happened at NIU. It hit me even harder as I am an alumnus from there and still know many people who live there and also who attend school there. My cousin was actually one to witness the events and being a former soldier he tried to do what he could to help all the victims....it is all just too sad and overwhelming and I am still at a loss for words over it all.
Well, that is the last 5 months of my life in a nutshell! If you've read all this then you must be stuck in a chair like I am (hehe) but I appreciate all my xanga friends and promise more regular posts again.
Hope life is treating everyone well out there in xangaland!
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| so much going on here...so little time to blog. new post coming soon, but you can always check out my life happenings on my myspace page (same user name there).
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UPDATE: My husband is home safely....it was SO much worse than he let on to me over the phone!
My husband took off this morning for his normal monthly trip to San Diego with the fires in the back of his mind but not giving it too much thought. When I woke up and checked the news I realized how bad and how close they were to where his office is.
Sure enough, his office was evacuated this morning, before he had even picked up his rental car. He headed to the hotel, figuring he would just work from there. The lobby was FULL of people crying and devastated as they had been evacuated and one woman had actually lost her home. He was able to get a room, since he had reservations, but even now many are waiting in hopes that someone won't show up for their reservation and that they will have a warm place to stay.
So as the day dragged on I began wondering why exactly he was staying. After all, his office is closed, and it is complete devastation everywhere. He just kept saying that he was "fine" and that he couldn't smell the smoke anymore (yes, because he had gotten USED to the smell). A couple of hours ago I saw that there was a mandatory evacuation on the very road that his hotel was on. I called him begging him to please come home. Turns out the evacuation was on the other side of the road. So apparently HIS side was okay but if he walked across the street to eat he would technically be required to evacuate. We decided that is just too risky.
He is on the way to the airport now. It is all just so heartbreaking.
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