About Me

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Texas, United States
Hello! Welcome to my blog! I'm Jennifer, but most people call me Jenny. I'm a small town Texas girl, born again Christian, mommy to 2 beautiful boys, wife to my high school sweetheart, scrapbook supply junkie, and occasional paper sniffer. :) Here you will find bits and pieces of my scrapbooking projects, daily thoughts, and just general randomness. Enjoy and thanks for reading!

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Credit Card Perks...

Gotta love it when a credit card company offers perks that REALLY work! We got a credit card offer in the mail back in January that sounded really great. They offered a huge discount for travel, and since we are traveling to Disney World this summer, we researched it and decide to go with it. Today, we checked our account and the discount points were there! With a couple of clicks of the mouse, $400 disappeared from our statement right before our eyes! We had already purchased our airline tickets with the credit card, so the $400 off was basically equivalent to hubby and I getting our airfare for FREE. Woohoo! Gotta love that! :)

I love traveling, and I cannot WAIT till June! June is going to be a really fun month. Before we go to Disney World, a group of our friends from an online scrapbooking message board (Have Your Way With Paper) are meeting in Dallas for the weekend. We are all going to The Great American Scrapbook Convention together in Arlington. It is going to be SOOOOOOO much fun, and I am all kinds of excited! I have "known" most of these girls for several years now, and to finally MEET them in person and hug their necks is going to be ah-mazing. To my HYWWP girls...the countdown is ON!!!!!!

Monday, March 30, 2009

School Picture Day Tomorrow!


Evan has school picture day tomorrow. We went to Abilene today and got him a new outfit to wear. I had to buy a size 7 for him....SEVEN!!!! It looked huge, but when we got it home and tried it on him, it fit. Wow...he's getting so big.

We went grocery shopping today as well....that's always fun! Ugh. I really do not enjoy grocery shopping. Anyway, I bought lots of fresh fruits for us and tried to plan out some meals instead of just buying stuff. I came home and made meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and corn...it was GOOD! No complaints from my family...they all had seconds. :) While I prepared the meatloaf, I went ahead and made a second one to freeze for whenever we wanted to have more. I used a recipe from here: Freeze Happy Pretty neat blog by a fellow scrapper....it gives you some great recipes that you can make ahead of time and freeze. Anything to save time in the kitchen is a good thing to me!

After supper, my sisters and I went to the track and walked 2 miles. Beautiful weather this afternoon, so it felt great to get out and walk. I really want to get better about walking...my goal is at least 2 miles 3 times a week. Doable? Guess we'll see!

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Ahhh, the weekend

It went by WAY too fast! Had a good one, though. Friday night, Van had a photography workshop he had to help teach, so the boys and I stayed home, popped popcorn, and watched Bolt. Cute movie. Saturday night, we went to my sister's house and had homemade stew and cornbread with smoothies for dessert. Yummy!

Today, we went to church, went out to eat with my parents and sister's family. Tonight, we went over to Van's parents' house for supper. The boys played baseball in the front yard after we ate...and when I say "the boys", I mean Van, his brother, and his dad. LOL! Just got home and got the boys in the tub. Evan has picture day on Tuesday...not sure what he's going to wear yet. We may take a trip to Abilene tomorrow while Evan's in school so that we can exchange Aaron's Easter outfit I bought at JC Penney. I got it home and realized the pants were a different size than the top (it was all on the same hanger), so hopefully we can exchange the pants for the right size.

I got a few layouts done this weekend. I finished up some Design Team projects for 52 sketches...52 weeks and started on a circle acrylic album for Evan's bday pics from August. I swore after the last acrylic album I did that I would never do another one because of all the pre-planning and thinking backwards you have to do for it....but yet I find myself making another one. I'm pretty sure this will be the last one I make! I'm not too happy with the way this one is turning out so far, but at least it's getting done. I'll share pictures soon.

Hope everyone had a great weekend...I'm gonna go finish up another page! :)

Thursday, March 26, 2009

T-Ball Practice Pics!

I always tell myself not to take so many pics, especially of events like T-ball, but I just can't help it! They look so cute in their little Cubs hats! We had practice again tonight, and I'm really impressed by how good the boys on the team are getting. It's so cute watching them learn how to play the game.

Here is Evan with his best buddy, Isaac, after they ran their warmup lap...


Here is my nephew, Austin...he looks like he's having the time of his life, doesn't he? LOL



And my personal favorite shot of the afternoon. Just look at that concentration!:



After practice, the boys and Van came home to eat supper, and I went up to the track and walked 2 miles. Felt good! We're supposed to get some pretty nasty weather this weekend, starting tomorrow....:( I probably should have gone grocery shopping today so that I wouldn't have to get out at all tomorrow, but that didn't happen. Maybe I'll just make the pizza delivery person get out in the weather instead...hehehe.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

American Idol

So I just watched tonight's episode. Some pretty good performances, but I still have my favorites. Who do you think is going home? Here are my picks for bottom 3:

Megan Joy - She bugs the crud outta me!!! I don't know exactly what it is....maybe the way she never changes emotion, only has that silly grin on her face the whole time she sings? or maybe her annoying little twisty dance during all of her songs? or maybe it's the way she over pronounces her words, trying to sound all jazzy and stuff? I don't know...but she is #1 on my list of "They-need-to-leave-NOW" contestants.



Michael Sarver - Sorry, Sarver...it's time for you to go. He just doesn't compare to the other guys in the competition. Have you noticed that weird mouth thing he does too? Ugh, so annoying!




And last but not least,

Anoop Desai: Anoop Dawg, you need a personality!! Seriously, I am so bored with you. So his song wasn't too bad tonight, but there's just no originality there whatsoever. And does he put chapstick under his nose before he sings, or is that SWEAT? Ewwwwwwww.



So there they are, my pick for bottom 3. I wouldn't be sad to see any of those 3 gone. Danny's still my man. :) Adam rocked tonight too...thank GOD he took off that ugly nail polish! Allison...that girl is AMAZING to be only 16 years old. She acts like a professional already and reminds me a lot of Kelly Clarkson, whom I love. So....we'll see tomorrow night I guess! Thoughts?

Middle of the Week


Well, it's Wednesday. I'm supposed to be at church right now, but I had some work I had to catch up on, so Van took the boys and I stayed home. I just finished one of the projects I was supposed to get done (Design Team work), but I have about 2 more to do. I'm going to go cook supper here in a sec too for the boys to have when they get home. Other than that, today was a pretty quiet day. Aaron and I snuggled on the couch this morning and watched Blue's Clues together. I'm gonna snuggle with him all I can while he still lets me! :) Evan had a great day at school. He came home starving, as usual. I don't know how we're going to afford feeding these boys as they get older....

Leave me a comment and tell me how your Wednesday went. Hope you are having a great afternoon!

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Scribbled-On Dreams - Devotional

This really touched my heart today, and I hope it does the same for you.

Scribbled-On Dreams

© 2009 by Marybeth Whalen. All rights reserved.

24 Mar 2009

Marybeth Whalen

"Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders you have done. The things you have planned for us no one can recount to you; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare." Psalm 40:5 (NIV)

Recently I learned that a book that I had given up on was miraculously going to be published after all. I was amazed at God's power and His timing. I was ecstatic that He opened doors that I thought were shut forever. As I dug out the original notebook I had once designated to hold the papers and notes I would need for this project, I was shocked to find that almost every page in that notebook was scribbled on by my youngest child. Her artwork made every page unusable! I chuckled to myself as I closed the notebook and went in search of another one to us e instead.

Later I reflected on my decision to hand over that notebook to my child. What had made me do that? I knew that it was because the project was, in my estimation, worthless, forgotten. The notebook represented something that would never be. It epitomized the death of a dream. Why not let my daughter fill in the pages with her toddler scribbles? I must have reasoned that nothing else would ever fill those pages!

And yet we serve a God who can blow new life into a dead dream. I had forgotten all about the book I once yearned to write. I had moved on in search of a new dream. But God had not forgotten. His plan was different—and longer—than mine. His vision was further reaching. His outcome never consisted of me writing my dream off as worthless and unachievable. Instead He wanted me to trust in Him even when the situation looked hopeless.

Do you have a dream that looks dead from where you are standing? Have you thrown in the towel, chalke d your efforts up to experience and moved on? Just don't move so far that God can't bring you back to the dream when He is ready. Don't fill in the pages of your notebook with hopeless scribbles and not give Him room to fill the pages with His Word, words of life and hope and vision. Yes, surrender your dreams—holding onto them lightly and always keeping His plans as your purpose, ready to lay down anything He asks because no dream is more important than Him. But also remember that God loves to bring about the unexpected, throwing us little surprise parties that bring joy to His Father's heart.

My notebook now serves as a reminder—in childlike script—of God's ability to overcome the impossible and open doors that were once slammed shut. I wouldn't trade those scribbled-on pages for anything! Now I look forward to filling the pages of a new notebook with all new dreams. Dreams that were handed back to me when I least expected it.

Dear Lord, pleas e help me to trust You when things don't work out and I have to surrender my dreams. Help me to rest in the fact that You see things from a much bigger vantage point than I ever could. Help me to know that You always have my best interests in mind, even when You close doors I wanted open. And help me Lord to be ever mindful of Your power that is always at work—even when I can't see it. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

Monday, March 23, 2009

T-Ball Time!



Evan's first T-ball practice was tonight! Van is coaching this year, and we have a great little team, the Cubs. Several of Evan's friends in his class at school are on his team, as well as his cousin Austin...so that's really neat and going to be lots of fun. It was SOOO windy today, but the boys did great. Aaron had fun running around and spinning in circles while saying, "Whoa, I get bizzy!" It's so cute how he thinks he's just as big as all the other kids! :) We have practice again tomorrow night...hopefully it won't be so windy.

I just recorded Little People, Big World and Jon & Kate Plus Eight on my DVR...gonna get the boys in bed so I can watch it without interruptions. Good night!

Sunday, March 22, 2009

New Sketch is up at 52 Sketches...52 weeks!

Come on over to the sketch blog and see Julie's new FABULOUS sketch! Be sure and visit the gallery to upload your interpretation of the sketch and see all of the inspiring layouts made by fellow scrappers. This week's prize is AWESOME too! ;)
52 Sketches...52 Weeks

Saturday, March 21, 2009

1 hour, 4 minutes, 16 seconds...

That's how long I was on the phone with a Disney World representative this morning. Yeah....1 hour, 4 minutes, and 16 seconds. I woke up at 6 a.m. on the dot to call and make our advanced dining reservations for vacation this summer since we are now 90 days away from our trip. I sat on hold for probably about the first WHOLE HOUR while waiting for a rep to take my call....and the whole time I was on hold, they were playing Disney music. I set my phone on speaker phone while I talked with hubby for a while...wrote some things down...picked out my clothes for the day and got them ironed...and took a shower. Yes, I took a shower while I was on hold...and I got completely done and dressed by the time they FINALLY picked up the phone. Ugh. How annoying. But, it turned out well because I was able to get reservations at every place we wanted to eat, and they were able to sign us up for the exact times we wanted the reservations to be...so, it turned out great, but man...waiting that long on hold is absurd (not to mention the music kinda made me wanna pull my hair out strand by strand).
Photobucket

Friday, March 20, 2009

Whew....

Having a garage sale is HARD WORK! I have been pricing stuff all day long for a garage sale with my sister tomorrow. It's amazing how much crap can pile up in only a short while. I tried going room by room with a box and cleaning out absolutely everything, but that got old real fast. I made it through a few rooms, but now I'm just focusing on getting it all priced and in the car to take to my sister's house. I still have so much to do...better get off the computer!

Welcome!


Welcome to my blog! I'm still trying to figure this all out....it could take a while. LOL! I hope you enjoy looking around and learning a little more about my family and me.