Her Mind Wanders

An Aunt Again!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer from Ohio) — Mon, 16 Jun 2014 04:24:00 +0000

That I am!

Little Mr. N arrived on Wednesday.

No words to describe how precious he is.

Today's Smile:

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer from Ohio) — Mon, 02 Jun 2014 12:48:00 +0000

The bunny sitting at the side of the road scratching behind his floppy ear.

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer from Ohio) — Sat, 03 May 2014 01:41:00 +0000

Brewing the coffee...

Clearing Out The Cobwebs...

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer from Ohio) — Wed, 30 Apr 2014 03:29:00 +0000

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer from Ohio) — Mon, 28 Apr 2014 15:09:00 +0000

Turning on the lights...

Testing...

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer from Ohio) — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 17:54:00 +0000

Just making sure I remember how to do this!

Acorn: 2002-2010

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer from Ohio) — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 15:34:00 +0000

It is with a very heavy heart that I report that my first pet ever (Sorry Bubbles the goldfish - you don't really count) had to be put down this past week. This has been extraordinarily sad for Daniel and I and I am having trouble enjoying the idea of my regular routine without the comfort of Acorn around. I feel awkward since I am an adult, she was a cat, and life is life. However, she was the BEST cat ever and my sister is quick to remind me that these last few months in general have been an amazingly stressful time for our family.

I have missed blogging and hope to return to it soon, but I have been reminded a lot lately that time escapes me quickly, so we will see.

With sadness,
Jennifer

Twilight Tide Pettiskirt GIVEAWAY!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer from Ohio) — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 17:42:00 +0000

Twilight Tide Pettiskirt GIVEAWAY!!!!

My Twin?

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer from Ohio) — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 02:37:00 +0000

Tonight Little Pixie turned to me and said

"Wouldn't it be funny if Ashley Tisdale was your twin and you guys didn't know it?

She then went on to tell me that we really looked alike and the only difference was that she was probably just a little bit taller than me. I explained that I was barely 5'1" and she was probably lots taller than I was. I didn't want to squash her fantasy so I didn't add in the part about how I don't look anything like her, but I am flattered non the less. There is nothing like a heartfelt compliment to make you smile.

Side Note: Little Pixie is more observant than I thought - it seems Ashley Tisdale is only 5'3".

Put-In-Bay Anyone?

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer from Ohio) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 13:49:00 +0000

Okay, this is definitely self-serving, but I thought that I would try my hand at winning a weekend at Put-In-Bay, Ohio. All I have to do is include the following links in a blog post and I am entered. I debated about taking the time to do this, and I figured if I have to think about it this much, I may as well. I have been curious about Put-In-Bay ever since we moved to Ohio, but have never been, so this would be a great opportunity. Mind you, we are not filled with extra time at the moment (in fact, we are pretty much in the deficit), however, if someone were to give us a free trip, it would be rude not to accept it. So, if for some reason this comes our way (or if anyone else would like to offer us a free trip!), I will assume that God wants us to have a little break!!!

Ohio Put-In-Bay

Put-In-Bay Resort

Put -n-Bay Online

Disclaimer: I have a sneaky suspicion that my favorite sister might offer me a "free" weekend visit at their home in PA upon reading this post. I miss you tons and I am working on it!!!

Do pickles cause insomnia?

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer from Ohio) — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 04:21:00 +0000

On one of Skyman's first visits here, he was eating a McDonald's hamburger and singing the praises of pickles. I went and got a jar of pickles to give him a few extras and after two, he held up his hand and said:

"I'd better stop, when I eat too many pickles, I can't sleep!"

I have never heard of that before and didn't really put much stock into what he was saying, however I am now re-thinking his theory. It is 11:30 p.m. and Skyman is still awake and I served pickles with dinner!!! What is it going to take to get this boy to fall asleep. He had his usual snack, bath, and story and was in bed at 8:30 p.m., but sleep has alluded him. So far he has:

played with every toy that he can think of and set up elaborate toy scenes on his bed
come down and asked for water
come down and asked for crackers twice
come down and asked to sleep on the sofa
dropped his flashlight and caused a ruckus while he was looking for more books to read
knocked several toys off a shelf while looking for a tractor
asked me to read him a book

I am definitely not suffering from insomnia so I think that I am going to turn in and hope that sleep visits Skyman sometime.

Just a parting note: Skyman and I were talking today about different animals that he liked and out of the blue he said:

"And don't ever bring up clowns. I am scared of them...I think it has something to do with their noses"

Newsflash:
Certain foods can interfere with sleep. Salty foods, tomatoes, spinach, smoked meats and pickles trigger the release of adrenaline which can keep you awake.
(Google Search 11:46 p.m.)

It Has Started

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer from Ohio) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 04:59:00 +0000

Today was my first taste (with undoubtedly many more to come) of a stranger contributing to a parenting situation. Although all ended up fine and it wasn't that big a deal, I do realize that I am going to have to develop some thicker skin for the future.

I picked up Little Pixie, Monkey and Skyman from school today to take them to a Dr. appointment. Foster Mom met us there and has been great on helping me slowly get acclimated to parenting these three (we still just have them on weekends). When we arrived, 2 of the kids jumped out of the van, but the third was missing. I turned around to see Monkey still in her seat with her head down, arms crossed, and the look that says "I am firmly planted here and do not plan on moving". Monkey enjoys huge amounts of attention and regularly employs drama (usually in the form of anger and temper tantrums) to get it. She declared that she wasn't going in and sat stoically. I ignored her and played with Little Pixie and Skyman while we waited for Foster Mom to arrive. The worst thing to do with Monkey is cater to her at these times because it is exactly what she wants and it feeds what we are trying to break her of. Foster Mom knows this better than anyone and when she saw the situation, she told me to just shut the van and head towards the building to give Monkey a moment to realize she needed to shape up and get inside.

We weren't going to leave her out of view, but I am sure that it must have looked that way to the lady that was sitting in the car next to my van. We arrived at the front door of the building and heard "Ma'am, ma'am!" We turned and Lady #1 yelled "the little girl in your van is crying!" I was glad Foster Mom took over and explained that we were aware of that and we were letting her work it out for a moment. However, we now felt under scrutiny and a little concerned that Lady #1 would try and get more involved, so Foster Mom took the other kids in and I went back to the van. I opened the door to Monkey screaming (not unexpected) and even then it took me a moment to convince her to get out and head in with me. She made it very clear that she was not happy about this and stomped her way to the building. Halfway there I heard "Ma'am, Ma'am" I didn't want to turn around as I couldn't imagine what Lady #1 would say now, but I did anyway and heard "your little girl left her shoe in the parking lot" Sure enough, Monkey had stomped right out of one shoe (probably purposefully) and I hadn't even noticed. I retrieved it, put it in my pocket and thanked Lady #1. I felt like maybe I should have a conversation with her as she was following us in, but I just didn't feel like I had it in me, so I just held the door for her and went on my way.

Monkey was now in the wrong waiting room (on purpose as she knew where we were going) with her other shoe laying in the middle of the floor. I put her shoes under a chair and told her to come on as we needed to get to our appointment and if she didn't want her shoes, we would just have to hope that they would still be there when we came back through. As I expected, this upset her, so she grabbed her shoes and put them on dragging out every little motion so that it seemed like 2 hours before she was trudging towards the correct waiting area. A few feet outside of the door, she leaned against the wall and staged another "I'm not going in" pose and I just kept on going. Foster Mom and I could both see her from the Waiting Area and didn't feel the desire to cave in to her games. However, it was only about a minute or two before Lady #2 stuck her head in and said "Does anyone know that there is a little girl standing out in the hallway..." Foster Mom again came to the rescue and said "We know, thanks." A few minutes later Monkey strolled in and was fine for the rest of the appointment.

My gut tells me that this was a minor incident with minor stranger involvement and I do think that everyone had the best of intentions, but it sure was annoying.

Blushing Buttercream Pettiskirt GIVEAWAY!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer from Ohio) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 01:25:00 +0000

Blushing Buttercream Pettiskirt GIVEAWAY!!!!

Weekend on the Farm

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer from Ohio) — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 06:02:00 +0000

We spent Saturday and Sunday visiting Daniel's parents (this is the first weekend in quite some time that we have not had the kids) and as usual our time was packed full. Here is what we did:

Told them a lot about their future grandchildren!
Went to Sears to exchange Daniel's Christmas Dockers - not having a Sears close to us really hinders exchanging gifts from Sears.
Went to Staples - picked out some computer accessories that were needed. I picked up a bonus of Post It Subtraction Notes and Word Pads that were clearanced for 50 cents each!!!!
Went to Radio Shack - Mother decided that it would be a good idea to have a Weather Radio so we helped her pick one out.
Ate at Steak & Shake - I love their skinny fries!!
Went to church - it was loose change Sunday and as we were heading out the door Mother handed us each an film container filled with a variety of coinage!
Went out for Sunday Dinner at a local restaurant
Hooked up Mother & Father's new DVD player - they got some DVDs for Christmas, but didn't have a player, so they invested in one, but needed some assistance getting it set up.
Set up a printer switch box so that Mother can print from the laptop & the desktop
Updated the laptop and ran all it's diagnostics
Remote Control Intervention: We went through the 5 or so Universal Remotes that they have and found one that we could program to run all of their components and gave a Tutorial on accessing the VCR, DVD Player, Satellite, and Broadcast TV
Hooked up the TV in Mother & Father's bedroom to get Broadcast TV
Took some pictures of me by one of the tractors and on the forklift and sent them via cell phone to the kids - We figured that this would give me a little more "farm cred" with Skyman who is not sure women know things.
Played a game of Ticket to Ride - Daniel and I tied!!!!
Hooked up our Wii and played a few games - Mother gets a kick out of watching us play and provides commentary throughout. She gave the Handbell game on Wii Music a try, but was not too successful.
Reprogrammed the garage door buttons in Mother & Father's new car to work correctly.

I think that about sums it up and it is way past my bedtime....

Firsts

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer from Ohio) — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 04:10:00 +0000

Since we are starting at this parent thing a little differently than most, we have already been experiencing a lot of firsts. So far we have had:

(Just a little note, for now I am going to refer to the 10 year old as Little Pixie, the 7 year old as Monkey, and the 6 year old as Skyman. I am still not sure if I will keep with that, but it will work for now.)

First Fever: Little Pixie had that the very first weekend that we had them.
First Loose Tooth: Monkey had one causing her considerable distress during one of the first visits
First Lost Tooth: Monkey lost a different one brushing her teeth one night. We got a quick run down on the Tooth Fairy and surprisingly enough she left Monkey $1.00, exactly like she was expecting.
First Vomiting: Skyman was the winner with that one right as we sat down to dinner one night.
First Hugs: I honestly cannot remember, it seems like we have all been hugging forever!
First Kisses: I have given cheek kisses tentatively (so as not to scare them away), but the girls returned them immediately and showered Daniel with them too. Apparently we have graduated, because the night we talked to them about adoption, we were surprised with lip kisses!
First "can I get my ear's pierced" questioning: Little Pixie didn't waste much time with that one. We explained we will have to talk about that later.

Bonding

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer from Ohio) — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 05:39:00 +0000

It was the night that we had told the children that we were working to adopt them and I was saying good night to the girls. Little Pixie (I am torn on if I will keep this nickname here or not. It doesn't seem quite right, but I haven't thought of anything better, nor have I thought of anything for the other two...) was in the top bunk and said "Jenny, if you adopt us...."

I held my breath for something deep...

"would you buy me Bendaroos?"

Chia Pets and Chicken Thieves

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer from Ohio) — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 01:34:00 +0000

Right before Christmas my sister told me that my nephew Jonathan had seen a commercial for Chia Pets and was infatuated with them. He was going around the house talking about Chi Chi Chi Chia and how he wanted one. I could not pass up this opportunity. For years now I have wanted to get everyone in my family a Chia Pet for Christmas and every year I decide against it. Chi Pets just look like so much fun and so silly that they intrigue me. I figured one of these years someone would actually ask for one for Christmas, but I would not have guessed that it was going to be my 7 year old nephew.

Somehow in all the confusion of the Christmas celebration, I was out of the room when Jonathan was given this particular present to unwrap. I saw him about 10 seconds later and I can only imagine how priceless the original reaction must have been because the delayed one was amazing. He was standing there looking like he was holding onto a million dollars. He was almost speechless with glee and my sister said that it looked like he was actually going to produce tears of joy. He finally spoke and the excitement came flooding out with a neverending string of Chi Chi Chi Chias. I would have paid $100 (don't get any ideas, Chia people) if I knew that it was going to make him that happy. Definitely an adorable moment.

Later in the week I was able to visit my Grandpa at the Care Facility that he stays at. He is 93 years old and up until a year ago, he was living on his own and enjoying a slow, but routine life. Unfortunately he had what appears to be a stroke or something in that category and became incapacitated for awhile and has never fully recovered. He had to be admitted to a Nursing Home and he has a lot of physical limitations. He seems to be mentally sharp most of the time, but he has no desire to get involved with any activities or do anything but stay in bed. He enjoys it when people visit him and he loves it when we read the Bible to him, but other than that he likes to sleep. Because of this, he gets pretty confused on the days and the times and sometimes says things that don't make sense and you can tell that he is referring to something that he dreamed or that happened to him many years ago. On this particular visit right before I was going to leave, he asked if he had told me about his horses. He had been sharp the whole visit, so I was not concerned that he was losing ground. I think that he was just remembering a dream, but it seemed real to him. Either way, he was so happy and animated while telling me this story, I didn't care. I thought it was cute and it made me smile.

He told me that he had two horses that he loved very much. He said that they used to nuzzle him and they were great horses. He said that his family was having trouble with chicken thieves and those horses found some sort of platform way up high to stand on and they took up buckets of water. They waited up there until they saw a man go into the hen house and then they started dribbling water on top of the hen house until the man came back out and then they just let him have it with the all the buckets of water. My Grandpa was so tickled over this and then he finished it off with..."I have no idea how those horses got so smart!"

Family of Five Forever?

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer from Ohio) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 03:08:00 +0000

I know that I have been MIA lately, but things have been busy around our house. Remember those 3 children that we did our first Foster Care Respite for? Well, we have had the opportunity to provide Respite for them several more times and we have started the process to try and adopt them!!!!! There have been a bunch of circumstances leading up to this, but we feel that it is all of God's leading and we are moving forward. The oldest girl is the one I referred to as Little Pixie and she is 10 years old. The middle child is also a girl and she is 7 and the youngest is a 6 year old boy. We have all gotten quite attached to one another, but there are a lot of hurdles still to get over. They are currently in a wonderful Foster Home, but they can just not adopt them (they already have 11 children!!!!). So, as of right now, the kids are coming to our house each weekend while we work out all of the details. We were able to tell the kids our intentions this past weekend (their caseworkers and everyone involved thought that it would be good for them to know) and it went exceedingly well. They seem to be very pleased with this idea, which makes us feel great...and petrified. How in the world do we become parents to 3 little children???

Little Pixie informed us this weekend that being a Mom and Dad was easy...all we have to do is feed them, bathe them, and put them to bed. Oh, and if they get invitations to Birthday Parties, we have to decide if they get to go or not.

Do you really think that is all there is to it, or is she pulling my leg?

Merry Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer from Ohio) — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 05:26:00 +0000

I am heading off to bed, but I noticed that it has been Christmas Day for the last half hour and I thought that I would take a minute to wish everyone a very Merry and Blessed Christmas. I hope that you have special and beautiful moments with family and friends, a lot of laughing and smiles, and a bit of quiet like I am getting right now to reflect on The Baby and the Manger and all that we have been given.

P.S. I started my wrapping tonight and the cats always want to help. They were especially involved this time with Acorn trying to eat every ribbon that I tied and Roscoe acting generally a little spooked and squirrely. He loves tissue paper and kept trying to dig through my tote that I have filled with all sorts of tissue, gift bags, etc. I kept shooing him out because he has a tendency to shred it, but I got distracted for a minute when I saw Acorn dragging away one of my presents. I rescued that and looked over to see Roscoe looking very suspicious in the tissue...peeing. So there went about 1/2 my tissue and a lot of clean up time (made much shorter by a very helpful husband), but I gained a silly story to share with you all.

Merry Christmas!

No Self Control

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer from Ohio) — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 04:25:00 +0000

Today I decorated Christmas Cookies. It is one of my favorite things to do during the Christmas season and it has been a couple of years since I made time for it, so today was a big day. I had already baked the 15 dozen cookies, so I could focus entirely on making the frosting and decorating them. It was pretty fun for the first half and then I started questioning my sanity and by the time I was decorating my last cookie, my feet and back are aching and I was vowing that this would be my last year of doing this. But then I looked at all the fun cookies and I changed my mind (as I do every year) and got excited again about delivering Christmas treats to my neighbors and friends. Every time I decorate cookies, however, I have absolutely no self control and I end up eating about a pound of frosting, a bag of chocolate chips and half the cookies. I am exaggerating just a bit, but here is the pattern and this part is pretty accurate:

I make the frosting and feel that it would be wasteful to just put the beaters in the sink without eating the frosting off of them and since there is just me, I polish off both of them.
I divide the frosting into 5 different smaller bowls to make the different colors and I notice that if I use a spatula, I can probably get a bit more frosting off of the big bowl before it goes into the sink and so I eat that.
Then I get out the sprinkles and colored sugar and chocolate chips and this starts the random eating of chocolate chips throughout the rest of the day. I honestly don't even know I am doing it half the time.
Then I frost my first cookie and I usually need to eat that one just to make sure that it is okay and I am not going to poisen anybody.
As the frosting continues, a few of the cookies inevitably break and it just makes sense to eat those...but not before I frost the broken pieces and add some chocolate chips.
When the task is finally done, there is usually just a little bit of frosting left in each bowl...not enough to save, but definitely too much to just throw away, so I clean those out too.
By this time I have entirely overdosed on frosting, but I still feel the need to eat one more cookie when I am packaging everything up and grab a few more chocolate chips.
And now that it has been a few hours since the cookies were done and delivered, you know where I just was? Out in the kitchen eating two more cookies (I saved a dozen or so for myself) because I actually felt like I needed a snack for staying up late.

Am I normal and will I ever get to sleep tonight?

Taste of Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer from Ohio) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 04:23:00 +0000

I love Christmas foods, specifically desserts. I cannot tell you how exciting it is to me when the seasonal flavors start showing up in late November, but unfortunately I am a lot of talk and not a lot of action. I pine over these items, I drool over these items, and only occasionally do I indulge in these items. Here is what is tempting me this year:

First and foremost, the Peppermint Chocolate Chip Shake at Chik-fil-A has totally distracted me. It looks amazing and my sister who was lucky enough to have one, no wait was it two, no it was THREE, tells me it tastes amazing too. But alas, the closest Chik-fil-A is 45 minutes away and although I almost think it would be worth it, I haven't had time to drive 45 minutes for a shake.

Then there is Dairy Queen's Yule Flip Peppermint Chip Blizzard. I had one of these last year and it was a Christmas celebration to remember. It was all sorts of goodness and I am really hoping to get one this year.

On a slightly different flavor note, Red Robin is offering a Gingerbread Shake and some other Gingerbread drink that I cannot find on their website right now, but I did get an email on it. I have not had a Gingerbread Shake before, but I would like to start.

Slightly less exciting, but definitely worth a look is the Mint Chocolate Swirl Shake that Arby's is offering. Mint and Chocolate is always a favorite, so I think it could be a winner.

An annual tradition around here is the classic McDonald's Eggnog Shake. I cannot find it on their website, but it appears around this time each year and I usually have at least one.

I also have to add that I love frosted Christmas cookies. Not only do I love how they taste, I am overcome with how they look. I saw these particular cookies from Eleni's New York and I was almost ready to throw all my common sense out the window and spend hundreds of dollars to fill our house with them. I am warning you, if you have even the smallest interest in decorated cookies and you look around this site, you might never pull yourself away. Proceed with caution...

And last but not least is the Twisted Peppermint and Frosted Orange Cream hand soaps at Bath and Body. Of this whole list, these are the only things that I have sampled so far and they aren't even edible (as far as I know). I have these at each of our sinks and they smell amazing. I honestly want to eat my hands every time I use them!!!!

Well, now that I am entirely craving ice cream, I guess I need to head off to bed...but not before I wash my hands....

Week in Review

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer from Ohio) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 04:24:00 +0000

Well the last few days are already starting to fade from my memory banks, so I better document quickly.

* I almost got caught up around the house, but then I didn't and now I am way behind once again.
* We had a low key Thanksgiving in Indiana with the in-laws
* Had our first Christmas celebration the day after Thanksgiving (Daniel's extended family in Indiana). Went well.
* We respited (not a real word, but I am claiming it) again on Saturday and Sunday. We had a 10 year old girl who I will call Little Pixie. She decorated our house for Christmas and it has never looked so "full" of Christmas before.
* We became proud Wii owners. Ordered the Wii, received the Wii, Daniel hooked up the Wii, Daniel went to get a snack, we both came back into the living room just in time to see Roscoe (the orange cat) running away from the cord that goes to the Sensor - the cord was chewed in half!!! We were not thrilled. Daniel became educated online and we were able to use 2 lit candles in place of the Sensor Bar temporarily (amazing isn't it?) and then we invested in a Wireless Sensor Bar. It is tons of fun.

Respite Anyone?

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer from Ohio) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 04:36:00 +0000

I am sorry that I have been MIA for awhile, but it has been nuts around here. First and foremost, my husband and I are now official licensed Foster Parents!!! To celebrate, we provided respite for 3 siblings last weekend whose Foster Mother was sick. It started out a bit on the frantic side as we got the call on Friday morning and they were interested in us taking the kids that same day. We had one big problem, however...we only had 2 beds. So, they decided to wait until Saturday to drop off the kids and we spent Friday afternoon, evening, and Saturday morning buying a set of bunk beds, mattresses, bedding, groceries, etc. Then there was cleaning out the rooms, getting everything in place and finding our minds that we lost somewhere in the middle of it all!

So, we went from a family of 2 to a family of 5 for 2 days and it sure was exhausting. The kids were 10,7, and 6 and for the most part it worked out pretty well. The oldest, however, got sick which certainly put a damper on her time. All in all, everyone survived and I think that we just might do it again sometime.

On Monday I kind of felt like I had been run over by a bus and so I was pretty slow going and didn't even wash the sheets or towels from our little visitors. I decided that could wait until Tuesday and guess what...a call came at 10:30 p.m. on Monday asking if we could house a 13 year old girl for the night. Thankfully my always thinking mother-in-law had given us an extra set of sheets for the full size bed one time and so we were able to freshen the room up before she arrived at midnight. This was a very short visit as she had to be at school at 7:20 a.m. the next morning (did I mention that school for her was 1/2 hour away and that it was snowing!!!) Once again, we all survived.

So, I am just now starting to get caught up on everything and hopefully will be blogging a little more regularly....maybe.

A Fairy Tale

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer from Ohio) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 03:25:00 +0000

Once upon a time there was a little girl that grew up, but was still a little girl in her heart and although she didn't have any children of her own (yet), she loved to look around the magical Internet and see what lovely things were available for children. She found all sorts of fascinating items and websites and blogs and one day she visited My Mommy's Bracelets and saw a wonderful Christmas Contest. There were all sorts of prizes, but she couldn't take her eyes off of one special prize. It was the most beautiful red and white Pettiskirt she had ever seen. It was being donated by the delightful woman who created Lucky Gabi. Oh, if only she could win that.

Although it would be inappropriate for her to wear that now that she was grown up, it would be just as fun and even more adorable to give it to her little niece, Gracie. So, she entered the contest and went about her regular life. A few weeks later, the grown up girl was surprised to receive an email from My Mommy's Bracelets. The email said that she was a winner in the Christmas Contest and can you guess what she won...the most beautiful red and white Pettiskirt she had ever seen. There was much joy and celebrating and the girl could not stop smiling.

German Women and Heated Seats

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer from Ohio) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 17:39:00 +0000

These 2 topics are totally unrelated, but I thought that it made a catchy title!

I have been feeling a bit under the weather with a migraine, but was cheered up today when I headed into town to mail some letters. I live outside of a small town in Ohio of about 1600 people. There is a library, a post office, a gas station, a pizza place, and a few other small businesses. The Post Office and the Library, however, are my favorite haunts. I was paying for my stamps and a woman walked in, looked at me, and in a thick German accent said:

"Ack! It has been many years since I have seen someone so tiny. What happened to you?"

Oh my, I knew that this was going to be good. I proceeded to have about a 10 minute conversation with my new friend and it did not get any less funny. I wish that I had an audio clip to post, but we are just going to have to rely on your imagination for the German accent and my memory for the conversation. We talked about our life, our health, how we see the same Dr., and a plethora of other things that she asked questions about and it honestly was almost more than I could handle, it was so funny. We ended it with her trying to describe where she lives and saying that I should stop by sometime. I said that I might and she said I should...

"I have lots of things I could share and teach you. You know I was supposed to die twice, once when I was 4 and once when I was 16 and here I am today."

I said that I thought she might just live to 122 at this point, but she corrected me:

"Ack no, the doctor says 115"

And she was serious. Oh, it was priceless and I am still smiling.

As for the heated seats, I have said it once and I will continue to say it until someone stops me. The heated seats in my van are a gift from God. I hope that the person that created heated seats is living a happy and comfortable life somewhere knowing that they have made mankind better. Every time I push that little button and my seat starts to heat up, I become the "good" Jenny, the one that is happy and pleasant and caring and wants good things to happen to all people. I am a better person because I have heated seats!!!