Today was such a wonderful day! I really have numerous things to be thankful for...family, good food, clocks falling back...
My mom, my stepsister and I hosted a Wildtree party today, and we had a great turnout, plus it was a boatload of fun! So, I spent yesterday evening at my moms cooking with my mom and stepsister and I had a blast! Then, today, it was great to spend the afternoon appreciating great food with great company.
Today was also my Father-In-Law's birthday, so Tim and I went over to his parents for a bit this eventing. Whenever we are with our families we laugh so much and always have a great time. I love spending tons of time with my husband and our furry children, but I also love that we are surrounded by so many wonderful people that we can share in fellowship with.
Sunday, November 3, 2013
Saturday, November 2, 2013
November 2, 2013: Books!
On this, the second day of November, 2013 I am thankful for books, and having time to read them. Growing up, I used to read voraciously. However, when I went to college, I spent all of my free time reading for classes. Now that I have more free time, I read every night and most days on the weekends.
Right now, I'm absorbed in the world of Westeros (George R R Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series). I just started the third book, so I will be caught up to the HBO series soon! There is nothing like reading to take your imagination on the most wonderful of adventures.
Happy Reading!
Right now, I'm absorbed in the world of Westeros (George R R Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series). I just started the third book, so I will be caught up to the HBO series soon! There is nothing like reading to take your imagination on the most wonderful of adventures.
Happy Reading!
Friday, November 1, 2013
28 Days of Thanks
For the month of November (through Thanksgiving, anyway) I am going to post one thing each day that I am thankful for. I suppose this a great practice for all year round, but I'll start with a month of Thanks. This was inspired by a few statuses I saw on Facebook this morning, and I thought it was a great way to circumvent seasonal dreariness (especially with Daylight Savings coming up...).
So, November 1st, 2013. I am thankful for so many things today, but most of all I am thankful for my husband. Tim has been my rock, my laughter, and my best friend for almost 4 years. He is the most wonderful man.
He is so many things, but most of all, he is an amazing husband!
He is so many things, but most of all, he is an amazing husband!
And seriously, how could you not love this face :)
Friday, October 4, 2013
MAINT REQD
Tim found a website a few months ago that publishes 100 word stories, no more and no less. It sounded like a cool idea, and hey even I have the attention span for a 100 word story. This is a story I threw together for it, but never sent in. Don't read too much into the content, I am just intrigued by the idea of the Quarter Life Crisis and what it means for my generation. Also, this is the first time I've ever allowed anyone that isn't my teacher or my family read something I wrote...
Here it is :)
Here it is :)
_________________________________________________________________________
Maint Reqd
MAINT REQD lit up the front of my dusty dashboard. Another
problem to solve with the good old Cavalier.
“MAINT REQD,” the light says, but is it the car that needs
it or me?
They call it a ¼ Life Crisis. I call it limbo – ready for
life to move on but unsure how to begin. I am stuck in a place I swore I’d never
return to and a job that insults my intelligence, but it’s a job and more than
most have.
But the light says MAINT REQD and I wonder how long I can
put it off.
_________________________________________________________________________
Let me know what you think.
Here is a picture of my dog being cute to start your weekend off right :)
Monday, September 30, 2013
Dog Gone It! The ugly truth behind pet adoption.
Rescuing an animal from a shelter or animal services can be a great act of kindness, and I've heard it can also be incredible fulfilling. However, I know it can also be incredibly frustrating and even heartbreaking at times.
Tim and I recently tried to adopt a rescue dog. As some of you may know, I have wanted a dog for about 6 months and have been trying to convince Tim of the same thing, but he has been far more rational than I am capable of and has wanted to wait.
Enter Buddy.
After showing him to Tim, we decided to actually call up and find out more about him.
The description from his foster mom sounded great, so we set up a time to meet him. We did, and totally fell in love. We stayed there for about an hour and just petted Buddy the whole time.
So, we filled out the adoption application online. And I let his foster mom know that we were going to apply, and she sounded pleased and hopeful. Waited all day Thursday and all night only to get an email this morning stating our application was denied.
Seriously?
I tell this story to illustrate a few bumps on the road to pet adoption.
2. The kind folks who work at shelters/rescues are not always right. Many folks feel that crating a dog is cruel or that not being able to be with a dog 24/7 is unfair to the dog. I, however, live in reality and know that it is a rarity that a family has one person that does not work full time. A friend of mine had to convince her dog's shelter "mom" that she was the right person to take the dog home. If you feel very strongly that you could give the dog a great home research the breed, research training and dog care and bring all of that passion and information with you and fight for the dog. You might just surprise the employees and volunteers.
3. Adopting from a shelter or rescue can still be fairly expensive for some people, but those costs are necessary for the organization to continue to provide food, a warm bed, and vet care for the animals they bring in. And it sure beats the $1000+ you'll pay at a breeder.
If some of these roadblocks get you down, don't give up on rescuing a dog. Re-evaluate the shelter you originally went to and try a different one.
Tim and I didn't give up. We went to Noah's Ark this weekend and found Lizzie. She is an absolute doll and will actually be a better fit for our family than Buddy would have. We get to bring her home tomorrow and we couldn't be happier that we gave rescue a second chance because at the end of the day, all animals deserve a second chance.
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Private Lives
I know. I know. It has been nearly three months since my last post. Sorry.
I have an interesting topic to write on today... Privacy.
First of all, this is not a rant, nor is it an excuse. It will be an explanation and an examination. I will start out with a fact, followed by a story... and I hope you all see the irony. Fact: Tim and I are very, very private people. We prefer not to share much about our personal lives with people outside our families or our friends. We are more than happy to publicly obsess over Walt Disney World and our trips there, discuss books and film, fun restaurants and adventures we've experienced, but that is about as far as it goes. Our hopes, dreams, fears, frustrations, etc. our aspects of our life we prefer to share only with those close to us. Funny enough, our first date was to see a play at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier in Chicago, IL called Private Lives by Noel Coward. Great show, by the way - awfully funny.
This idiosyncrasy is why I find myself avoiding blogging. Each time I think, "Jenna, you should post something on the blog, its been awhile." All I can think is that I do not want to broadcast my life to the greater internet audience. Some parts, sure, but others... not so much. Then, I look at other blogs and on Facebook and see that others have no problem posting about the same topic that gave me pause. Am I the minority? Are there more people like Tim and I that maintain a "public life" and a "private life"? Probably.
There is nothing wrong with openly sharing on social media. All that matters is posting what you feel comfortable sharing with everyone you know (and strangers too depending on your privacy settings). In fact, sometimes I wish I was more comfortable with it - social media provides an excellent vehicle to voice opinions and to find others who are like minded, or even to find those who disagree and broaden your own horizons. However, I grow very nervous when I think that posting that 113 word rant about ultra-conservative politics is going to illustrate to the world that I am a moderate or a liberal (I will not say which I am). Having been raised in a home where political beliefs are not necessarily a matter to be discussed in polite conversation, I naturally hesitate to post that rant. Or, when I stop myself from a public feminist rampage when I read a status on Facebook that states women who pursue careers outside of raising a family are somehow further from God because they abandon their "God-given feminine" attributes in order to succeed in the business world. Aside from the hypocrisy of that response, the world would then see me for a raging atheist and feminist (which is not necessarily true).
Social media has given a voice to so many people out there who otherwise would be afraid to share those opinions and that is amazing. It has connected people across the nation and even across the globe in ways never before imagined, but is all this connectedness really a positive phenomenon? Is it actually "progress" that I now know an acquaintance of mine just had a massive argument with her boyfriend of two-minutes and is not sure if they are going to make it? Like any new technology, social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, and even Blogger and other blogging domains bring new ways of improving the world around us, but they also bring with a need for a redefinition of social interaction as we know it. New social guidelines and suggestions for polite web-based social interaction must be discovered and learned. Or maybe the world around me is just changing and I am the backwards one. Who knows?
Okay, maybe that did turn into a bit of a rant. However, I think that there is quite a feast for thought. And I also think that I certainly blog to my little hearts content while still maintaining a distinction between our "public lives" and our "Private Lives".
Thanks for sticking with me :) and tune in next time for a new recipe that I came up with on Sunday!
I have an interesting topic to write on today... Privacy.
First of all, this is not a rant, nor is it an excuse. It will be an explanation and an examination. I will start out with a fact, followed by a story... and I hope you all see the irony. Fact: Tim and I are very, very private people. We prefer not to share much about our personal lives with people outside our families or our friends. We are more than happy to publicly obsess over Walt Disney World and our trips there, discuss books and film, fun restaurants and adventures we've experienced, but that is about as far as it goes. Our hopes, dreams, fears, frustrations, etc. our aspects of our life we prefer to share only with those close to us. Funny enough, our first date was to see a play at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier in Chicago, IL called Private Lives by Noel Coward. Great show, by the way - awfully funny.
This idiosyncrasy is why I find myself avoiding blogging. Each time I think, "Jenna, you should post something on the blog, its been awhile." All I can think is that I do not want to broadcast my life to the greater internet audience. Some parts, sure, but others... not so much. Then, I look at other blogs and on Facebook and see that others have no problem posting about the same topic that gave me pause. Am I the minority? Are there more people like Tim and I that maintain a "public life" and a "private life"? Probably.
There is nothing wrong with openly sharing on social media. All that matters is posting what you feel comfortable sharing with everyone you know (and strangers too depending on your privacy settings). In fact, sometimes I wish I was more comfortable with it - social media provides an excellent vehicle to voice opinions and to find others who are like minded, or even to find those who disagree and broaden your own horizons. However, I grow very nervous when I think that posting that 113 word rant about ultra-conservative politics is going to illustrate to the world that I am a moderate or a liberal (I will not say which I am). Having been raised in a home where political beliefs are not necessarily a matter to be discussed in polite conversation, I naturally hesitate to post that rant. Or, when I stop myself from a public feminist rampage when I read a status on Facebook that states women who pursue careers outside of raising a family are somehow further from God because they abandon their "God-given feminine" attributes in order to succeed in the business world. Aside from the hypocrisy of that response, the world would then see me for a raging atheist and feminist (which is not necessarily true).
Social media has given a voice to so many people out there who otherwise would be afraid to share those opinions and that is amazing. It has connected people across the nation and even across the globe in ways never before imagined, but is all this connectedness really a positive phenomenon? Is it actually "progress" that I now know an acquaintance of mine just had a massive argument with her boyfriend of two-minutes and is not sure if they are going to make it? Like any new technology, social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, and even Blogger and other blogging domains bring new ways of improving the world around us, but they also bring with a need for a redefinition of social interaction as we know it. New social guidelines and suggestions for polite web-based social interaction must be discovered and learned. Or maybe the world around me is just changing and I am the backwards one. Who knows?
Okay, maybe that did turn into a bit of a rant. However, I think that there is quite a feast for thought. And I also think that I certainly blog to my little hearts content while still maintaining a distinction between our "public lives" and our "Private Lives".
Thanks for sticking with me :) and tune in next time for a new recipe that I came up with on Sunday!
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Change is the Only Constant
Oh, hello there! Long time no talk (post), what?
Anyway, I have a darn good reason for not keeping up to date this time - several darn good reasons!
And, well, that's all for now folks. Tune in next week for another installation of my ramblings (don't hold your breath for next week - at this rate I'll post again in June...)
Anyway, I have a darn good reason for not keeping up to date this time - several darn good reasons!
This is my You-better-accept-my-justification Face...
(I got a hair cut too...)
Reason #1: I GOT A NEW JOB!
I started working at NIU in the Office of Admissions at the end of February. I am an Office Support Specialist for the Transfer Center. I am starting out at the bottom of the totem pole, but I have so many opportunities to grow here. Bonus: I get my Master's degree for FREE!!!! The only question remains... What to get my Master's in? Any and all suggestions are welcome. The options are:
- M.A. in Public Administration
- M.A. in Political Science (pipe dream, I know)
- M.A. in History (even bigger pipe dream...)
- M.S. Ed in Higher Education Administration
Reason #2: TIM AND I MOVED!
We finally moved to Byron (did not make sense for both of us to commute to work), and our new apartment is just adorable! Here are some pictures that do not do it justice (also keep in mind, Tim and I are the worst unpackers - we've lived here for almost a month and still have tons of boxes)
 |
| The kitchen, obviously |
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The Coffee Station (although it looks awfully messy)
New Loveseat (and Tim)
The "Loo" as our friends across the Atlantic like to call it
Tim's Library (soon to be complete with a green banker's lamp)
And among other things...
I finally started working out again. Got my Byron Park District pass and I've been swimming or playing trying to play raquetball or walking the track almost every day. I've also been making healthier food choices (YAY).
Sabrina got KittyKaps
And, well, that's all for now folks. Tune in next week for another installation of my ramblings (don't hold your breath for next week - at this rate I'll post again in June...)
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