Thursday, December 15, 2011

Another Facebook Update: Nov-Dec 2011

The end of the year lends itself to reflection over the past year. I thought it was time once again to copy over some Facebook Updates. This serves two purposes:

  1. An archive for me of my daily thoughts/activities over a long stretch of time
  2. A time capsule view of my life, for those blog readers without Facebook access (which is most of you).
Of course, it has been a really long time since I did this last, so it may get long. I may split this into several posts.

For those of you unfamiliar with Facebook, these are short updates that can be posted on something like an electronic bulletin board, for all your "friends" to stop by and see and comment upon. Where it seemed pertinent, I have included some friend comments/responses (names edited). I have also interspersed some of Jeremy's posts, from his own wall. These are labeled "posted by Jeremy" at the top.



November 3, 10:42 PM
Turns out I know almost as little about managing a bevy of 6 to 8 year-old girls as I do about basketball fundamentals. Should be a fun novice season as a parent volunteer coach.
  • Jeff J Coach Jenny? Awesome. Tell them to lay off the hot-dog dunk competitions until they have their lay-ups down. Tee hee.
    November 4 at 12:07am · 


  • Jennifer : dunking and lay-ups? Right. I have one 2nd grade Magic Johnson, who ignored everything I said at practice to dribble loops and lay-ups around everyone. Then, I have a 1st grader who tried in vain to just dribble in place (she gave up after 10 minutes to instead just lob balls randomly at the ceiling). In between, we are working on remembering not to travel or double-dribble. Shooting will have to come in a later week, I guess.

November 4, 2:25 PM
Wow, rough day for my ego. First my professional society sent me a free "teaser" 6-month life insurance policy...but got my date of birth wrong and made me 19 years older than I am. Then, a woman at work walked by, looked at my midsection, then blurted out, 
"Oh! You're not pregnant...AGAIN!?!?" 
"Uh, NO, actually I'm NOT, thanks. But I am on my way to burn these pants, apparently."

November 5, 2:26 AM
Got to sneak out tonight for a short dessert-date with my husband, and only had one child along (the quiet one). Very nice. But maybe the chocolate, plus two cups of black tea, was a mistake at 8 PM. Now it is 2:15 AM. Hmm.

November 5, 11:13 PM, posted by Jeremy
In a departure from the usual routine, the middle row all fell asleep and the back row all stayed awake on the late night drive home from grandma's house. For those keeping score at home, that's a 4 year old and a 7 year old wide awake at 11:00 at night, and Jennifer, the 10 year old, and the 9 month old asleep. Of course, the 9 month old was the last to fall asleep.
Jennifer  Well, I *DID* get in the middle row to set the 9-month-old a good example, after all. I am nothing if not thorough in executing my duties.

November 9, 10:07 AM
I took about 25 shots to get this and it was still the best that I could do. I need a longer living room, so that I have room to crawl backwards while focusing the camera - Baby H. would see me and lunge towards the camera at a race-crawl speed. ;)

November19, 6:58 AM
What kind of a sadistic 9-month-old would sprawl contentedly across MY bed, arms flung wide, 6 days of the week, to sleep in well past 9 AM, but on only Saturday, be wide awake and ready to play at 5:45 AM?
And announce this fact by leaning over and spitting up directly into my ear?

November 19, 10:47 PM
For a school fundraiser, the 5th graders made cookie dough in the school kitchen, packaged it, and sold it. The label on the container includes instructions on how to "unthaw" the dough. PLEASE tell me this is not how the 5th grade teachers speak to my son who must someday take the SAT.
  • Chris S This is America. Someone might try to deep fry the cookie dough. Have you seen what happens when you drop a frozen turkey into a fryer?
    November 19 at 11:10pm · 
  • Jennifer  Please note: "unthaw" is not MY choice of vocabulary. That is what is written on the hand-made label, in two places.
    November 19 at 11:14pm ·  ·  2
  • Sara H a common Michigan-ism . . . I had been living out West most of 10 years before my western-born husband pointed the ridiculousness of it out to me when we heard it from another Michigan transplant. I hadn't blinked . . .
    November 19 at 11:21pm · 
  • Susannah C I think it comes from the fact that the weather changes so drastically every 20 min. If you've had snow, warm sunshine and then a sudden snow squall, you need some verb to describe what's happening to your toes. After enough cycles, it's easy to get confused.
    November 20 at 12:20am · 
  • Laura V DE-THAW!!!! Emphasizing the "DE" in order to illustrate the difference!!!
    November 20 at 6:45am ·  ·  2
  • Amanda F Ugh - disturbing - no excuse for that - unless of course they are instructing you how to freeze it. They probably also say irregardless.
    November 20 at 7:46am ·  ·  2
  • Jane M Give the teacher a break now...we all have brain farts when we are under stress....and I can say with confidence and experience that working with 5th graders in a kitchen WILL be stressful. ;-)
    November 20 at 4:19pm · 
  • Stacey G GROAN!
    November 20 at 4:23pm · 
  • Cathy S This Michgander didn't blink at it - I can so totally see me saying the same thing...... I HOPE I'd use "thaw", but the other sounded so natural......
    November 20 at 4:25pm · 
  • Lori S I second the "groan" . . . .
    November 20 at 7:07pm · 
  • Bryan G Language does this all the time. The plural of child was childer, but the -er ending became unfamiliar, so people added the -en plural to a word that was already plural, making it children. Someday unthaw will just be another word with an interesting story behind it.
    November 20 at 10:05pm ·  ·  1
  • Bryan G I couldn't help checking, and the dictionaries define "unthaw" but call it non-standard. Soon enough that will change, like the relative neologism "flammable" all but supplanting "inflammable."
    November 20 at 11:01pm · 
  • Jennifer  yeah, Bryan G, you had to pull out my personal nemeses, the flammables. :)
    November 20 at 11:51pm · 

November 19, 10:49 PM
Getting to work with people you enjoy is a privilege that should not be taken for granted. Had a nice time tonight with colleagues at our department dinner.

November 21, 10:22 AM
My 9-mo-old just successfully pooped on the toilet. Just goes to show, the 4th time around, MOM is easier to potty-train. And, everyone gets a lucky basket eventually if they throw the basketball at the hoop enough times. (To mix some metaphors.)
  • Jennifer  Not to discount the possibility that she is just brilliant, of course. ;)
    November 21 at 10:31am ·  ·  3
  • Curt A So she threw the poo into the potty like a monkey and was lucky enough to make the shot?
    November 21 at 11:59am ·  ·  2
  • Stacey G I don't know. I still, after potty training 8, consider it the hardest part of parenting thus far. Yay that you may have an easy one on your hands!
    November 21 at 1:55pm · 
  • Jennifer ‎Curt: Yes, that was exactly thot was exactly the image I was trying to create. When Helen and I are home alone, sometimes we get bored and have to invent activities.
    November 21 at 2:20pm ·  ·  1
  • Curt A Jeremy and I used to do the same thing but we were a bit older than her.
    November 21 at 3:14pm · 

November 28, 9:59 PM
‎Jeremy  just baked homemade sourdough English muffins. I love this man.

November 29, 6:14 PM, posted by Jeremy 
‎"Sorry I burned the chili. At least now it has some flavor." -- Jennifer  Do you know how to make chili have that smoky flavor? You burn it, that's how.

December 5, 10:45 PM
This week, Jeremy  made homemade bagels (apple cinnamon and maple pecan). Did I already mention how I love this man?

December 5; 10:49 PM
My 10-yr-old son turns out to be a super shopper. Who knew? He is loving spending his own money (allowance and yard work) on presents for everyone. He has been hunting down bargains in the ads and I get the pleasure of a quiet outing with him to make purchases.

December 5, 11:40 PM
No longer content to simply dismantle the *contents* of my kitchen drawers, now she has decided to go after the drawers themselves.
Yeah, she really did all this herself. I did find at least 3 screws on the floor, that apparently fell out in the process.

December 14, 8:58 AM
Hey Mom? I wish Uncle Jeff  lived next door to us so he could be our neighbor and I could walk over to see him. (from the 4-year-old who occasionally channels Uncle Jeff.)

December 14, 8:58 PM
Mom? Mom! Wake up! [a few minutes later...] Mom? How can you read a story with your eyes closed??! [Mysterious half-smile from me. Impressed chuckle and dawning look of admiration from the 4-year old. ] Is it just that you are AWESOME!?
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