Category Archives: Jenny

01.11.09
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Before Photobucket and Flickr…

Jenny had learned that some wedding cakes have a bride and groom on the top.

“Did you have that, Mommy?” she wondered.

“No. I had flowers.”

“Oooooo.” Both girls thought that sounded lovely. I am continually fascinated by the subject matter that attracts my daughters. These are conversations I would never have had, had I not a few girls. I don’t consider myself overly feminine or interested in frilly things, but the boy world seems to revolve around sports, weapons of mass destruction, and inventing games that include an element of risk to life or limb or property. Every now and then, it is pleasant to discuss things that do not involve violence.

I told the girls that we could look at my wedding pictures later to see the cake. When later came around, they jumped for joy. As I headed toward the bookshelf where the wedding album (unopened for several years) is stored, they ran in the opposite direction.

To the computer.

“Girls, allow me to introduce to you the world of high-gloss…”

01.05.09
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How I spent my Christmas Break

Last night, on the way home from an Epiphany party, one apparently introverted 5 year old complained:

“All we do is party, party, party -“

It is a rough life.

“We’re done!” I interrupted her. “No more parties for all of January.” (Oh. Except for my husband’s promotion tomorrow – minor social event – not really a party, right?) “Now, we’ll just do school, school, school.”

“Oh…”

That’s right. Work hard or play hard. No time to sit around and stare at the walls.

09.19.08
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Birthday Girl

Bill was under strict orders to be in his barrack room at a certain hour to get an update. I knew I was in labor, and I happened to have an appointment with the midwife that morning. She confirmed what I knew, and I went home to call my husband in Kosovo, make final arrangements for the kids, and try to rest until it was time to have the baby.

Three other times I had gone into the hospital to have a baby. I would turn to my husband and ask, “Are you ready for this?” You can never truly know how much your life will change when you bring a new life into it. It is a wonderful and terrifying thought. I think often about Simeon telling the Blessed Mother that a sword will pierce her heart. I wonder if she heard those words with the same optimism with which I usually face a child’s birth, despite knowing in my head the physical, mental and emotional difficulties that lie in raising that child to adulthood.

This time, with a deployed husband, I wasn’t ready. I wasn’t optimistic. “I don’t want to do this without you,” I sniffled on the phone. Of course, ready or not, babies come.
And five years ago today, Jenny joined our family. Bill was able to listen on the phone, and we had a videocamera taping the event which he watched later. My sister held my hand and got to watch her goddaughter enter the world (it took her a good 48 hours to recover from that experience). It was a calm, peaceful birth. It would have been perfect if Bill could have been there.

Happy birthday, darling daughter. Beautiful, perfect, five year old bundle of sweetness.
07.03.08
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Let’s get one thing straight

I get a little annoyed when my kids throw garbage on the floor of the van. Normally, I discourage the consumption of food and drink while driving, and my kids know not to even ask for ketchup if they are lucky enough to get a drive-through meal. Despite this, the floor of the van looks like the inside of my toaster mixed with a city street following a ticker-tape parade.

I persevere in my efforts to keep the van in order, and even on our long journey East reminded my children to be tidy. At one stop, I handed out lollipops and waved a plastic bag at Jenny. “This is for trash,” I told her as I placed it within arm’s reach.

Back on the road, I hear Peter announce matter-of-factly: “Garbage!” He’s my best one for keeping things neat and putting trash in the proper receptacles. But he couldn’t reach the trash bag.

When his words fell on deaf ears, he repeated it: “Garbage!”

Nothing.

“Garbage!”

Nothing.

“Garbage!” Same tone, same volume, same response. The kids were engrossed in a video and all other sights and sounds were blocked.

Up front, I had finally had enough. I turned the volume down on the movie (that always gets their attention), and said, “Jenny! Please take the trash from your brother. You have the bag.”

“I.am NOT.the GARBAGE WOMAN!”

Well, now. Peter threw the wrapper on the floor.

05.23.08
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Daughters

Tomorrow, the boys are going to the national cemetery to place flags at the headstones. I spoke with the kids about honoring the dead, and, in particular, for remembering those who fought and died for our freedoms.
As we drove by the cemetery, the kids noticed that some graves had flowers.
“Mommy, we’ll put pretty flowers on your grave,” said Jenny.
“What kind of flowers do you like best?” Katie wanted to know.
“Whatever you see that is prettiest,” I told her.
It really won’t matter to me. I’m just happy that their little hearts are already committed to making my final resting spot beautiful.
05.20.08
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Time with Daddy

Here on post, the Knights of Columbus host three wonderful events: a father-son pancake breakfast in the fall, a mother-son pancake breakfast around Mother’s Day, and, their most popular event, a father-daughter banquet in the spring. (Another group sponsors a mother-daughter tea in the spring.)

Bill took Katie and Jenny to the formal event that included dinner and dancing. He wrote about their evening here. This photo came in the mail a few days ago, and I just noticed that he had scanned it in.
Dancing with Jenny.
It’s a good thing he didn’t have Mary along too!
05.13.08
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Geography Bee

We’ve told the kids we’re going to visit another city this coming weekend.

We’re going to the capital of Kansas.

What is the capital of Kansas? If you ask Jenny, she’ll tell you it’s Peka.

Why? Well, that’s where we’re going TO: Peka.

04.22.08
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The art of digital photography

The best thing about digital photography is the ability to take lots and lots of pictures and merely delete the bad ones. If you have kids who want to express themselves through this medium, you won’t have to pay a ton of money to discover two dozen blurry shots of stuffed animals.

This is Pink Puppy. I fear Pink Puppy will one day accompany a certain daughter on her honeymoon.

Every so often, a kid takes a shot that makes me laugh. I’m pretty sure Jenny is the photographer here. I think kids will ham it up differently for each other than for mom.

Love the eyes.

So what if I have to download 30 or 40 pictures…of pictures…

…to get to the one good one? It’s worth the time.
Aloha!
04.19.08
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What child is this?

Fritz set his alarm by himself with no prompting so he could get up early to watch cartoons.

***

Yesterday, Fritz asked me if he needed to watch his Latin DVD. No, we had done Friday’s work on Thursday. Peter the Parrot must have heard us. A few minutes later, he came up to me waving the Latin DVD.

“Mommy, I watch Latin DVD?”

***

Wednesday morning, Mary had her well-baby checkup, but I didn’t have time to stay for shots. When I went back in the afternoon, Katie and Jenny begged to come with me. As the nurse filled out all the paperwork, my girls stared at all the stickers and lollipops. Since once I actually had a nurse at a different facility tell my kids that only the child getting shots could have a sticker (prudently protecting the government’s pennies, I suppose) and not wanting them to get their hopes up, I told them they wouldn’t be getting anything.

Jenny asked, “Can I have a shot, Mommy, pleeeease?” And since I admitted to her that she’s due for her DTaP booster, she’s asked me every day since when I’ll take her back.