Vball Sunday

We initially planned to spend the weekend in Evansville visiting my sister and Alex for her birthday. Then the weatherman brought his continued bad news and we decided to postpone those plans. This meant we had a whole weekend of nothing planned. That doesn't happen very often anymore and while it isn't normally my favorite thing I chose to enjoy it this time. We rented movies from Redbox and his from the weather. We watched "Captain Phillips" (oh my goodness! It was SO good. I do love anything that has to do with Navy SEALs, though, so take my love for what it's worth.) and "Redemption" (I think this was one of the most thought provoking movies I have ever seen. The movie is about a homeless man moving into a rich man's London flat while the man is in New York for half the year and it was just incredible. It really illustrated the parts of homelessness that we don't normally read or hear about in the news.) We also watched a terrible movie called "The Lifeguard" which said it was about a woman struggling with her upcoming 30th birthday (hello! That'll be me in a few years ;)) so I was instantly interested. It turned out to be super lame and vulgar. I hate when that happens. At least Redbox is super cheap so getting a dud every now and then isn't the most awful thing ever.

By Sunday we were tired of movies (and my memory may be failing me on the if we watched all of those movies during the same snow storm as we've had so many snow days that they all run together for me) and got to get out of the house to see Grace's travel volleyball team play a tournament in Lawrence.

G-force is #4

Grace getting ready to hit it back over. 

Big serve by G!

Grace's game has improved so much over last year that we were shocked. She gets each serve over and is an integral part of the team's return game. Yay, Grace! She's also as tall, if not taller, than her Aunt Jenna now. That's ok. She wanted to be tall for volleyball purposes. I never had such desires as I love to watch sports but I never experienced enough passion towards a sport to stick with it and try to play well. Her efforts have certainly been rewarded and I think that's awesome.

Her games were at this wild place with an arcade in it. You had to pay $5 to get in to watch the games but you also got $5 in game play for that. Cha Ching. Jackson and I found their pop-a-shot and put my new depth perception to the test. LASIK VICTORY! I beat Jackson in every single round. That has never happened before and I was ELATED. I cannot wait to challenge Derrik and Kort to a rematch at Dave 'n Busters! :)

That pretty much wrapped up our quiet weekend. We both had MLK Jr. Day off so we went to breakfast together before I spent the day at the spa celebrating my best friend, Amber, turning 30. Yes, that was my second spa visit in 11 days. Yes, I realize that life has been good to me! :) I know, I know, it is so weird that my friends are all turning 30 this year and I'll only be 26. I simply cannot explain it. ;)

Lounging on the job...

I feel like it has been a bit since I've posted an adorable photo of MacKenzie. This time she was "helping" me fold and put away laundry by resting on the Valentine's dish towel that I folded and needed to put away. She's such a goof! 

Vladimir

After my expensive commute where I ripped something off the Audi Jackson decided he was going to find a new car for me and convince me to finally trade. I had been hesitant to because the Audi was paid off and I loved actually owning my car. I also have very specific criteria for my vehicles including a top that goes down. As Guy says, "if the top goes down, the price goes up." I had my heart set on getting a newer Audi convertible but their price tags left me with severe chest pains. (Yes, Jackson has succeeded in making me the most conflicted person ever. I love luxury items. I always have. BUT he's made me so price sensitive that I can't buy them without guilt and HIM talking ME into it. No one could have predicted that back when I met him in 2005 and scoffed at his 51/50 rule!*)

*This now infamous rule states that if something costs $51 and you only have $50 to spend, you cannot afford to buy this item. I heard this rule and immediately offered the option of charging said item to a credit card. It is a wonder that we ever married after that conversation. I was horrified of how this cheapo would go through life. Ha! My how things have changed. :)

VLAD!!!

Anyway, Jackson had a slow day at work so he scoured the internet for a new ride for me. He found a Volvo in Texas and emailed me the link. I started to delete it because I wasn't looking for a Volvo. He convinced me to just take a look at it. I did and I was blown away. It was a 2011 with less than 35k miles on it for about $15,000 less than the Audi I was looking at previously. I dutifully read the Carfax and then put a call into Guy to contact the dealer for me. He worked his magic and the car was mine! OK, so I did have to talk to the car dealer in Texas, Colt (I'm not kidding. Colt. From Texas. Hilarious. I accidentally sent him an email addressing him as "Colts" because I'm just so used to see that written around here. Whoops! Thankfully he saw the humor in this typo and didn't key the car before sending it to me-ha!), a few times. It was my first time interacting on deal as a buyer. I see why people don't like car buying now. It was just kind of stressful!

Tangent here: I love banking with J.P. Morgan Chase. (I loved them long before Jackson joined J.P. Morgan Asset Management so I'm not just saying that because he works for an affiliate.) They have ATMs almost everywhere we travel to, our rewards credit card is awesome and their iPhone app is incredible. Chase doesn't really care about me, though. While their associates are kind when I have to interact with them (which isn't often due to said ATMs with deposit functions and their awesome app), they don't know me and never go our of their way to provide incredible customer service. The same is simply not true for my Mom's trusty credit union in Marion: Riverside Community Federal Credit Union (they used to be Charles Street FCU and I'm having a hard time making the switch to their new name). I needed to finance the purchase of the Volvo until we sold my Audi in the Spring and they made it SO EASY! I was able to give them all of my info over the phone, email my proof of income and then they sent the papers to be signed along to me via my Mom. I never even had to go to Marion! I met Mom one morning at the interstate exit that I use to go to work in the morning and signed the papers. Note: I understand that my Mom's willingness to be a courier was the real reason that I didn't have to go to Marion, but they were kind enough to arrange for her to get the paperwork for me. Riverside didn't charge me silly fees to wire the funds to Texas and even sent me a separate check to use to pay my sales tax at the BMV. The folks I worked with were so friendly, prompt and knowledgeable. It was seamless. I just don't think it would have been that way with Chase. Riverside also had much better rates than the large banks which I found interesting. So they're cheaper and nicer. Winning! OK, end of tangent. I just think that a great experience should be shared. :)

Anyway, my car arrived late on a Thursday via a three car hauling truck. They delivered it right to my front door (after some terse discussions because the delivery was about 6 hours later than they'd scheduled for it to be without notifying me) and I drove it for the first time to class the next morning in Carmel. I can talk on my phone through the car now! I know that isn't a new feature for most people but my Audi was a 2006. That didn't exist back then! I can also keep my iPod plugged in and it plays through the car's system perfectly. Ahhh technology!! It is so lovely.

Everyone has asked me if having a retractable hard-top has made a huge difference in road noise. The answer isn't available because I didn't notice road noise in my other cars. I've almost always had soft-top convertibles so I think I'm immune. The hard top actually gave me a small panic attack the first day I drove it. Why? Because it looks so much like a normal car when the top is up that I felt like I'd given in to my old age and gotten a normal car. Thankfully I quickly remembered that the top will go down when and if Indiana ever thaws out and all was well with the world again. It isn't easy being a crazy woman, folks! ;):)

The trunk is quite large since the top sits in it when down. It has all kind of mechanisms that have to be in place to drop the top. I didn't put much thought into that so when I went to put my laptop in the trunk for the first time I was startled and overwhelmed. I had to laugh at myself when I just placed the laptop on top of something and hoped for the best-ha! (All was fine and once I wasn't standing outside in -16 degree temperatures I figured out the trunk. Whew. Maybe I'm not as old and out of touch as I initially feared!)

The world's oddest trunk

Much to Jackson's dismay my new car will be named "Vladimir" because it looks more masculine than feminine to me. :)

Jax is (almost!) 4!!!!

Our good buddy Jax is going to be FOUR on February 2nd. Since we are going to be in Florida for his big day and because Jackson was going to be out of town the night of Jax's party we took him his gifts from us early. Let me be real here: Jackson wanted to see Jax open his gifts from us so that they could play with them TOGETHER. Jackson is just an overgrown little boy at heart and these action figures (called "mashers" because you can mix their parts together) called out to him just like they did to young Jax. :) (Sorry to out you, babe.)

Jax opening his "bad guys" action figures!

I cannot believe Jax has been around for four years already! He's really my first experience with my close friends becoming parents and I've enjoyed watching him grow up more than I ever expected to. Admittedly when friends announce that they're expecting I have a thought of "another one bites the dust" but that just hasn't been true for Heidi and Andrew. (I think we actually see them more now than we ever did when it was just the two of them!) They've done such a great job raising Jax and now Jocelin, too. He is not quite four and understands the importance of saying "thank you" when he gets a gift. He proclaims each gift to be his favorite and is just the sweetest little guy ever giving hugs and heartfelt gratitude for very small presents!

He even let Jackson play with his new toys with him for over an hour! This was followed by a rousing game of "SCARE ME!" where we hid then jumped out of our hiding spots yelling when someone passed so they'd be scared. I haven't a clue how this "game" became so popular without a marketing campaign but we've also played it with Alex- ha! (As I expected, since she's my soul sister, Joss was cool with the game until it was her who got scared and then all bets were off and she cried. That's my girl! Silly boys!!)

His new "mashers" and a noise-making frog we just had to get him when we were in Palm Springs a few weeks ago. 

We are so proud of Jax and we are lucky to be his honorary "Aunt Jenn and Uncle Jack." 

And no trip to Heidi and Andrew's is complete without time spent adoring how cute Jocelin is! :)

CHEEEEEEESE!!!

Little sis takin' a load off!

Snow, snow, snow

Still snowing.

I'd like to tell you that I haven't posted in quite a few days because we've been so busy. That would be a lie. I haven't posted because we have not been busy. This has been a particularly horrible winter and we've been in the house a ton. We're also adjusting to Jackson working in hospitals and health clinics and our immune systems have been working overtime. His is better than mine. I've been sick so often recently. I'm tired of it!

MacK is even bored!

My eyes are healing nicely from the LASIK. I cannot believe that I wake up being able to see. I can watch movies in bed without worrying about breaking my glasses. I can put a sweatshirt on without ripping glasses off my face. Amazing. I'm not one of those people who says she wishes she had the surgery a long time ago. It was expensive and I wanted to be in a good financial place before dedicating those kinds of funds to something that I wanted versus something we needed. I appreciate it now more because we had to save the $4,000 and watch it leave our accounts on the day of the surgery. (Note: I saved it in a limited-purpose flexible spending account AND my HSA so it actually cost us substantially less than $4k once you factor in the taxes saved, but I won't bore you all with my tax wizardry like I do Jackson!) 

Juicer! 

I think our biggest recent excitement was watching "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" (watch it for free here: http://www.hulu.com/watch/289122) and deciding to buy a juicer. I know, I know. We are suckers. We've made a few juices already (orange- yum!, orange and carrot- still yum!, pear and apple- ehhh, and added the juice instead of water to our green smoothies to get extra vitamins!) and plan to keep experimenting with more. Right now we are just kind of having fun with it. We plan to get more intense and really do the juice fast discussed in the movie when we return from Florida in two weeks. Stay tuned! :)

Go Bulldogs!

When Butler University moved to the Big East we were excited to have some higher caliber schools coming to town to play them in hoops. We scored tickets to the game versus Georgetown because they're traditionally a powerhouse and we wanted to see a good game. We were not disappointed! 

Earlier in the day I was at the spa at the Conrad with Heidi celebrating her 30th (gasp! Why do my friends age and I don't?! SO WEIRD!) birthday when the valet mentioned that Pacers star Roy Hibbert would be at the game since he was a Georgetown alum. I knew that he was a graduate but I didn't think about him going to the game. I dutifully packed my Georgetown t-shirt AND my Pacers t-shirt with Hibbert's name and number (my favorite, number 55) on the back just incase I got to meet him as I did with Coach Crean. I was not as lucky. It turns out NBA stars aren't as friendly as college basketball coaches. So be it. It was still fun to see how huge he was compared to everyone around him. 

Side note: Have I talked about the spa at the Conrad before on here? I cannot remember. It is incredible. Go. Go now. Go often. It isn't that expensive and you get free valet parking and full use of their incredible facilities for the day with one massage. I love it there. LOVE IT. 

(http://www.evantoddindianapolis.com/) Ask for Tammi and you'll never regret it.

The guy in the red sweater is Roy Hibbert

Hinkle is such a cool place to watch a game...

BUT THEY DO NOT HAVE INSTANT REPLAY AVAILABLE!!

I wish I could tell you that Butler won. They didn't. They lost in overtime. I wish I could tell you that I cannot wait to go back for another game. That would be a lie. You see, Hinkle likes to keep things old school and doesn't have a replay board. This does not work for me. I have not built the attention span to watch sports in realtime while surrounded by thousands of fellow fans without the assistance of  replay board. My thoughts went a little something like this, "Oh, look a priest is sitting by us. That's interesting. *Crowd goes wild* Did I miss something? I'll watch the replay. OH! THERE IS NO REPLAY!"Imagine that for an entire game and you'll see why I am boycotting Hinkle until they catch up to 1992 technology.

We left the game and grabbed wings at our favorite spot (Ale Emporium) before the Colts playoff game. The Colts lost. What a bummer of a sports day for Jackson. I kind of wanted the Colts to lose so I'll call it a mediocre day for me. ;) 

Sun puppy

My paws are wet with dew

I'll have my breakfast now

While we're all snowed in Ms. Heidi is relishing in her retirement to Southern Florida. She takes daily walks where the biggest concern is dew making her paws wet. No snow. No ice. She's getting plenty of attention and has a lot of fun keeping Aunt Kathy and Uncle Bob company. Oh to be a dog! :)

SNOWMAGEDDON

Saturday morning we headed over to Plainfield to meet my friend Jenny's new baby boy, August. He was so little! He ate, cried for a bit (just long enough to scare Jackson who was holding him at the time) and then slept. What a good little guy! 

Nervous Jenna with a hungry August

Jackson looked a little more at ease...

Until August got upset! Whoops! :)

Dad showing us how August prefers to be held!

We wanted to be sure that we met August before the snow to end all snows arrived. The weather people succeeded in selling every loaf of bread in the city.

The bread aisle at Marsh

We were silly and didn't stock up on milk. We should have. Clearly everyone else bought 17 extra gallons because by the time we hit the store there wasn't a drop of the white gold in sight.

Trying to go for a walk during the storm

My adventurers. Look at MacK's face...she was not pleased.

This stuff is getting deep

Taking a break while shoveling the driveway

Building a snow mound

Making snow angels (sunglasses due to LASIK) 

Exploring the winter wonderland

Cutest snowbunnies EVER!

We didn't get to see Jax and Joss until Monday night when our power went out and we went to their house for refuge, but we did get the most adorable photo of them playing in the snow.

Carrying MacKenzie out to pee

I made a quick video of our explorations Saturday night. I cannot remember the last time it snowed like this!


The entire city pretty much shutdown. We did not leave the house on Sunday. Ball State was closed on Monday as was Jackson's location for the day. As I mentioned above we finally escaped (AND DRANK MILK!) at the Porterfield's house on Monday evening when our power went out. We were worried about the cold temperatures? Nope. We didn't want to miss the National Championship game. I rooted for FSU all year since my friend Kort is an alum and they did not let me down. What an awesome game! After the game we got word that our power was back on so we made the scary drive home.

Typical scene: Porkchop (Andrew) relaxing, Joss moving around, Jax and Jackson wrestling with MacKenzie looking on...these are my favorite evenings! :)

Joss hasn't learned to love football yet! ;) 

She does love to take "selfies" though!

Ball State closed again on Tuesday! Hooray! Jackson made it to Carmel in about 3 times the normal time that morning for work. I worked remotely on Wednesday due to Muncie being the world's worst about plowing. Thursday I finally went to work only to have the snow mess up my car on the way home! I had to pull over and call a tow truck. Thankfully a co-worker was still around and lives close to us so I got a ride home with him. Friday I worked remotely again as my car was in the shop. All of this snow did save our gasoline budget for the month! ;) We are hoping things return to a little more normal this weekend as we are tired of being in the house!

Oh that piece goes under the car? Nice. Glad to have it ripped off and in my trunk! :(

Be Present

I read this blog post: http://jarridwilson.com/why-im-getting-a-divorce-in-2014/ and got linked to this video and I'm feeling very challenged!



Then I red this:
http://journal.brad.ly/entry/13942772/social-notworking

And watched this:
http://www.artthesystem.com/2013/12/after-i-saw-this-i-put-down-my-phone.html?m=1

And then I quit Facebook.

New Year...New snow!

We got home from our trip West just in time to meet up with my best friend from high school, Ash Cox's, family. Ash is currently deployed with the Air Force, but it was awesome to meet his little tribe! 

The shirt says it all!

Not so sure about Jackson...

Lovin' the milkshakes 

Not so sure about Jenna either...

We enjoyed catching up with Ash's wife, Ana, too. I cannot believe my friends from high school are old enough to have three kids already. How do they age and I don't? It is so strange.

That evening we had Susie over for the annual cabbage roll dinner. It was so good!

Cabbage for good luck!

We got some snow so we made MacKenzie go and play in it.

She blends in!

STOP THROWING SNOW AT ME!

She doesn't love when the snow sticks to her paws so she was not super impressed with this storm. Poor thing.

I'll be here if you need me

I got to work from home because of the weather and when I came back from a potty break I found MacKenzie had taken my seat!

Friday morning I had LASIK eye surgery. All went well and I got to come home and take a mandatory nap. I wish I always had assignments like that on Friday mornings. That evening we got to watch Gunner Porterfield while the kiddos were at their grandparents and Heidi and Andrew stayed downtown to celebrate her bithday.

Pretty puppies

MOVIE NIGHT!

Jackson, Gunner, MacKenzie and I all snuggled in for a movie that evening. I could see the screen without my glasses. Amazing! :) Here's to hoping my vision continues to improve and my eyes stop stinging.