Ode to the poof

FOREWORD

I, Bryan, Jenny's husband have been asked to pen the following foreword for the Ode to the Poof. It has been my pleasure to wake up to the "poof" almost everyday for the last 8 years sometimes in abject terror and at other times in absolutely hilarious hysteria. I personally, would not change her poof for anything (just stating that as a matter of record.)

The author, Jenny, has written the following Ode to the Poof in order to explain her current state of mind and emotional state whereas it concerns her unnaturally horrifically curly hair that has plagued her waking existence for longer than many would care to recount. The following historical account of titles and pictures is meant to be a humorous, quick synopsis of the many iterations of her hair in its many unfortunate forms for all to revel in the sheer curly freakishness.

Sincerely,
Bryan

Ode to the Poof
by
Jenny

It all started innocently enough in 1978, with a bright future and the hope of straight hair. I would not know the frustration and horror that curly hair would bestow upon me.

Little tendrils of things to come...

and so it begins...

Mom's attempt to tame it with a bow

getting bigger...
the "broccoli stalk" look

the "mullet"

the "WTH!!!!!"

let's try it long (maybe that will help)
the "bangs"

THE END?

FINALLY-Christmas

We had a busy Christmas/New Years holiday this year and although I LOVE the holiday's and fun that come with them I was glad to be back to our normal routine. Now it's time to organize and get the house ready for baby Rogers!

Pre-Christmas
- Lunch and Tree hunting with the fam
- Annual Downtown trip to see Santa (tradition since before I was born)
- Candlelight Communion at evening church
- Family Talent Night (SO much fun)

Christmas Eve

Bryan and his tiny family part 2
I made Christmas Eve dinner - Potato soup with salad and rolls YUM

Opening Christmas Pj's, wrestling, hugs, looking at his hair in the mirror,
Calie's gifts and Cookies for Santa

Christmas

Christmas day was very overwhelming this year. Both Gabe and Audrey were completely overwhelmed and at one point Gabe went down stairs and wanted to be by himself. Bryan went down to see about him coming back up and Gabe told him that he was sad. :(
Overall though it went good and it's always the best time getting to spend Christmas with family.

Can’t stand to eat at home, always want to eat out!

Before getting pregnant I planned meals weekly trying to only eat out maybe once a week if that.

I’m not talking about wanting donuts and fried chicken constantly, because thankfully I do not. However, I can’t stand the thought of eating at home, unless it’s cereal. And that’s not one word of a lie.

Like the thought of cooking chicken or hamburger – Ew. Thinking about eating a salad at home – No thanks.

I’m not sure if it’s the thought of preparing food at home, or just the fact that I am completely tired all the time right now. It just seems so much easier to run out and pick something up, even when I could have been perfectly capable of making it at home. Our pocketbook, however, is not liking this one bit.

Dinner time is a struggle. Nothing sounds good. So funny that you need to eat for baby, but it's hard when the thought of ANYTHING makes me sick.

Gabe's going to be a big brother

We will soon be a family of four!!
Peanut will be joining the party in July and we can't wait for this new adventure.

Thanksgiving

I read a verse the other day that I've been mulling over:

"And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else. Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

Thessalonians 5:14-18

In All circumstances...

Learning to be thankful - even when I cannot see, hear or understand what God is doing or how He is working - is authentic thanksgiving and the direct result of a living, active and personal faith in God. We often hear that we need more faith in order to be more thankful. I don't think so! We operate in faith every single day. We flip a switch believing in faith that light will appear. We turn a key believing in faith that a car will start. We even go to a doctor we hardly know who scribbles an impossible - to - read prescription which we promptly take to a pharmacist we have never seen. This unknown druggist proceeds to fill the prescription, giving us a medicine with a name we cannot even pronounce. And we take it - all in blind faith!

I believe that instead of pleading for more faith, we need to exercise the faith we already possess. As we continually step out in faith, not only will that faith grow stronger, but we will begin to trust God more, naturally developing an attitude of thanks. Faith does not believe that God can or will act. Faith believes that God is answering as we pray. And that truth, will send us to our knees in praise and thanksgiving.

I love this little quote. I think most of my life I've leaned more on the worry side, but I'm learning to lean more on the faith side more and more.

Hope is the anticipation that the outcome will be good.
Worry is the anticipation that the outcome will be bad.
Faith is the anticipation that whatever the outcome, it will be for our good.

I love love love this time of year! We had such a wonderful day with my family.

I'm grateful:

-for my family
-for laughter

-for yummy food
-that I have a husband I can discuss the world with and who gets me
-for my Punkybutt. He brings SO much joy into my life

-for nice neighbors
-for a husband and son who forgive me easily
-for unconditional love
-for my friends
-for the wonderful teachers Gabe has at church (and will have at school) who go out of their way to help us bring up our children in knowledge
-for the way Gabe says "ok sir" when we tell him to do something
-for the breathtaking beauty of the world
-for a husband who's my very best friend

-for parents who love me and support me every day
-for trials that make me stronger
-that we have insurance
-for a loving Father in Heaven I feel even closer to in my struggles
-for naps
-for hugs
-for helpful hands

-that Gabe wore Jaden Man's roller skates and helmet almost the whole day

Happy Thanksgiving

Trick or Treat

"Come on JadenMan, lets go get MORE candy!"

2.5

That's what Gabey Monster is.

2 and a half-years-old.

And boy does he ever let us know it.

I've heard people say two-year-olds are either adorable or horrible. For the first half of his life as a two-year-old he was the former: adorable. I can't get enough of the smiles, the snuggles, those soft, squishy hugs.

But now he's reverting to the latter...the "horrible" part is kicking in in full force. Yep, that MONSTER part of being two is coming out quite nicely.


He says "Mine" with toys whether they are his or not.

I was talking to him in the car and he does this thing with his eyes that I swear to you he's rolling his eyes at me.

He won't go to his class at church. He wines, cry's and his whole body goes limp.

He swats away at people who are trying to be nice to him with an angry look.

When you want him to do something, he takes his sweet ol time.

He says "Stop it, Don't, I hit you, I kick you"

When he doesn't get his way he crosses his arms, shakes his head and sighs.

If we try to help him he says "NO I DO IT!"

Throws his toys when he's mad

We'll still keep him...I mean, look at him...how could we not? Monster or not, we adore this child with all our hearts.

We'll keep him because miraculously those three to five minutes of brightness out of the day make up for all the monster stuff the rest of the day....at least in my book.

The Patch

We went to the Pumpkin Patch yesterday and it was so much fun. I think it's by far one of our favorite family traditions. The patch, cooler fall weather, leaves on the ground, corn mazes, John Deere tractors, kettle corn, kid rides and the animals of course. The Ahls crashed the party which made it even more fun.

FINALLY...Sunriver Vacation 2009

Last year my family all went to Sunriver for the week and Bryan, Gabe and I weren't able to tag along because of work. This year, however, Gabe and I got to go! Due to Bryan's work he wasn't able to go though and that was a bummer, but I'm excited for next year when we ALL can go as a family.

We left around noon on Sunday September 27th. I headed over to my parents around 9:30 that morning and we started packing up the van and truck. Bryan came over to help after going to first service. It was a wonderful surprise and nice going away gift to both Gabe and I. We said our goodbye's and left. It was all bittersweet. I didn't like leaving Bryan behind, but I was excited to go on a little vacation too.
Gabe slept almost the whole way there and surprisingly the drive there went fast. We got there around 4ish and check in isn't until 4:30 but the house was ready for us so we got the keys early. We got to the house, picked rooms, unpacked, relaxed looking at the Sunday ads and watched the boys play with the fun new toys the house provided.

Gabe didn't eat most of his lunch before falling asleep in the car so he was hungry before any of the rest of us were. He insisted on wearing his helmet on while eating...funny boy!

We all went for a walk to the village. Nathan and Jaden rode their bikes and Gabe had a hard time making up his mind what he wanted to do. Ride his bike or walk pushing the lawn mower. Gabe and I went back to the house a couple times and I was getting frustrated with him, but when we went back for the last time he saw a deer and was SO excited. SO we ended up having a special moment just him and I, well AND the deer. lol

Oh and Gabe kept riding the bike into the pushes and falling off. He then would say "Help Mommy", but I had to get a picture first. :o)

That night we had a pizza from Blondie's in the village with salad and after bath time the boys got a small gift from Grandma and made cookies together.

When I came to bed the first night this is what I found...

...Although I LOVED getting to snuggle with my little man every night and morning, it was not fun sleeping with him. He moved ALL over the bed, hitting and kicking me. Needless to say I didn't get much sleep.

He also fell off of the bed one time, but my mom and I had piled some pillows and this huge down comforter on his side of the bed so when he did fall the sound was more like a POOF rather than a THUD and he stayed asleep. lol

Day #2
We didn't do a whole lot which is actually nice. The boys played in the morning. It was Julie's cooking day so she made us all breakfast, lunch and dinner. We went on a bike ride/walk...put the boys in the trailer that was only meant for one...Gabe wasn't happy about that. Got a YUMMY iced white chocolate mocha from the cute coffee shop in the village, Bellatazza. When Gabe took a nap I stayed in the living area downstairs and read for a while and then we went on a drive...we looked for deer, saw where the fam stayed last year and also looked for the house my friend stayed in just a few weeks before. Gabe was up when we got back. I guess he took a really good nap too because he had a hard time going to bed that evening and was up till about midnight.

Before trying to put Gabe down for the night though we went out on the deck to say goodnight to Gma and Gpa who were in the hot tub and Gabe wanted to go in so I stripped him down to his onsie and he was excited! But when Audrey came out and put her feet in he was pretty concerned. Don't know what he was saying to her, but his face is priceless!

Day #3
My day for meals. These were my choices:
Breakfast - Breakfast Burritos
Lunch - Tuna fish in pita pockets with grapes and chips
Dinner - Bobbie's Chicken with rice/couscous and broccoli

Side note - I think I gained like 20 pounds that week. We ate SO much food. I am not used to eating 3 HUGE meals a day. I normally eat very small breakfasts and lunches if that. Not going to do that next year!

We let breakfast settle and then headed to Maverick's to go swimming. We had the place to ourselves. They turned on the fun Kids Splash Pool with Slide and Splash buckets. That little area is so cool. The boys had a blast! Gabe went down the slide, they played with the balls, swam like little fishies, Gabe took one of the foam noodles and pretended to be an elephant. It was great fun!
Mom, Gabe and I went for a bike ride and we saw this little thing all by itself eating. It let us get really close to it. SO cool. We saw about 8 all together, but when we rode by we scared them so they all ran away. Love the way they run. We were like did you see that Gabe, but NOPE he was passed out in the bike trailer. lol
The boys got crazy running on the couch, jumping off and tackling each other.

Day #4
We woke up to a dusting of snow this morning and it was SO cold. Apparently, Sunriver got a ton of snow a couple days after we left. We just missed it.

We relaxed and hung around the house most of the day, played cards, the boys danced, we tried to get a picture of the cousins together and laughed.
In the afternoon, Dad, Nathan, Julie, Jaden, Gabe and I went to Maverick's for swim fun #2 and we polished off the evening with YUMMY Potato soup, salad and rolls. We all tried to stay up and watch a movie, but about 30 mins into it everyone was starting to doze off so we called it a night.

Last Day
Yummy powered sugar doughnut holes for breakfast.

Time to pack up, clean up and go! We stopped at the coffee shop for the last time and went to a few of the shops and then left. Before going home we stopped at this neat outlet mall in bend. We shopped, had lunch, walked around, got gas and headed for home. We were SO excited to get home to Bryan.