pictures galore

I uploaded these in backwards order, so I guess I will just leave them and explain them that way too! (less time/work).
On December 18th, I hosted our 5th annual Family Christmas Party. Every year we play some kind of game. Some of the past years we have played Christmas Win, Lose or Draw, Bunco and this year we played Minute To Win It. 19 rounds to be exact! It was SO FUN! We drew numbers (either a 1 or a 2) to determine teams. The rule was that everyone on the team had to play at least one game. Each person had given me $10 ahead of time so that I could purchase the prizes--which were $20 gift cards. Since we had 16 adults playing....a total of 8 gift cards were purchased to all different stores/restaurants. Once we figured out which team won the most games, then we had each person on the team complete a timed challenge to determine 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. place. It worked out perfectly. 1st place person got first choice of the gift cards..and so on. If any of you want to copy this idea for a party, feel free to contact me and I can give you lots of pointers that I figured out along the way! :)
Here is a picture of my niece, Jessica, playing High Roller. This is a pic of Jess playing Stack Attack.

My nephew, Cale, playing Do You Hear What I Hear?

My dad and nephew, Craig, playing Yank Me.

My uncle John and brother, Doug, playing Breakfast Scramble.

My nephew, Cale, playing Noodling Around.

My niece, Jess, and her mom (my SIL), Teresa, playing Dizzy Mummy.

My HILARIOUS SIL, Pudgy, playing Face The Cookie.

My brother, Doug, playing This Blows.

The Battle of the Matt's! My nephew Matt and my hubby Matt playing Don't Blow the Joker. By the way...neither of them could do this--even with 2 tries each. But I did it and showed'em how it was done the first try! :)

Me and my new great nephew, Marshall! What a DOLL! He's only 3 weeks old! (8 lbs)

My beautiful and sassy Santa girl, Brooklyn!

Brooklyn and my great neice, Alexis!

Me and Kinley girl! (and that is my adorable great nephew Kyen in the background!)

And now here we are at some random pictures that I took one night for no reason.

Me and Matt....more in love than ever!

Me and my pretty little Christmas girl!

I know I'm partial, but I think she is just beautiful!

And lastly, one of B and her best girlfriends F and T at their Christmas Party~!

And that's it for now! I'm sure there'll be more to come since Christmas in in 5 days!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS Y'ALL!!!

Maybe someday...

Maybe someday I'll be a blogger again. I want to be. I miss it. I miss all my friends and your comments, but for now, I just can't do it. Even though I want to..and I think of things that would "make a great blog post" all the time, I just can NOT seem to get my booty in here and actually take the time to think it through and type it out...not to mention taking the time to actually upload photos.
BLAH!
That's what I feel like. BLAH!
I don't know what's going on with me lately, I'm definitely changing. Hopefully they're changes for the good...right now it's all a bit weird and foreign to me. I've never been so disconnected before. In ways, I love it and I feel so free and in some other ways, I feel a bit lonely and left out. I guess (as much as I hate to admit it) I'm realizing that I'm not really THAT important. All these things I was SO involved in...things that I thought practically couldn't function without me...are doing JUST FINE without me.
Even Facebook....I've been off for a whole week now...and no one has even seemed to care or hardly even notice. I think maybe 3 people have asked me about it...which is TOTALLY fine, because quite honestly, I'd rather not talk about it a whole lot...but I guess I just expected a least 25% of my 300+ fb friends to say "OH MY GOSH WHERE IS MY FAVORITE PERSON JEN???" ha ha ha ha..I'm just kidding, I don't have THAT much pride...but...it's just humbling I guess to realize that everything goes on just fine without me. The children's department at church, the PTO, the kid's class parties, blogging, facebook , etc.
Wow, does it sound like I'm throwing a pity party or what? I'm NOT. :) I'm actually quite content at the moment...just reflecting on what's been going through my brain lately, that's all.

What I was really getting on here to say is HI! I hope you have a Merry Christmas! and if I don't talk to you again before then...HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Please feel free to e-mail me anytime!
jennimatt10@hotmail.com
Love,
Jen

Here's a topic for ya...

So, my hubby and I had a fight conversation last night about what defines "flirting" versus "being nice" to someone of the opposite sex.
He is very conservative, in that, pretty much everything other than a nod hello is flirting.
Me, apparently the liberal on the otherhand, is oblivious to the fact that anyone could read more into my giggly conversation than what is intended.
It's actually quite an oxymoron, because by nature, I am QUITE intimidated by men in general. I practically avoid conversations, interaction with and even looking at men other than my dad or my husband. Of course, there are a few other exceptions, like close friends and other family members that I am comfortable with, but for the most part...men freak me out. I've always been this way and even now I struggle with my face turning beet-red when a man I am unfamiliar with talks to me. It's some kind of odd and very irritating natural reaction my body exhibits when I feel uncomfortable. It's totally embarrasing and it's probably part of the reason that I just try to steer-clear of these types of situations.
For instance, the doctor I work for---I rarely ever see him, just occasionally when I go to pick up my paycheck, he'll be there. Because he is my boss and my job is bascially at his mercy, I am very intimidated-feeling by the relationship between us. I constantly stutter over my words, my face stays flushed and I almost always leave feeling like a COMPLETE IDIOT because of something I said that didn't even make sense because my heart was pounding. I don't know what is up with that but I HATE IT. (imagine you're having a conversation with the President of the United States---and you want to make a good impression...)
Well...Matt sees that as me being flirty. He thinks that somehow, that is sending a message to the guy that I'm interested in him.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!which is just astounding to me that after 13 years together, he doesn't know me better than THAT!?!?!?!

Anyway, this is a recurring problem in our relationship, because as those of you who know me very well know, I am a talker and a joker, silly and giggly and I can be quite sarcastic at times with people who I feel really comfortable with. Well, all of those things-when done by me with another man-are considered by my hubby-to be flirtatious. There aren't too many men who ever make it that far with me...meaning that I ever become comfortable enough with to let my "real" self show...but there are some. Every 10th or 15th guy we come across-whether at church or elsewhere, I might just click with....as in--I can tell we have a similar personality and the comradare of sacrasm and jokes just flows. It means NOTHING romantic...just that we "get" each other and it's innocent fun to just joke around. Not like hiding it from our spouses...but right in front of them.
I'm trying to think of an example....Okay, here's one...a female family member of mine and her boyfriend came to one of my classes at the gym. Afterwards they came over to talk to me and he said(sarcastically) "I thought you were going to work us out." To which I replied, "HA! I don't think ya'll are tough enough to handle the kind of workouts I dish out!" Then we all laughed and that was the end of it.

I hope I am not crossing over some invisible line right now by telling you all this, but who knows. I am forever getting reprimanded for saying too much. Ugh.
But I really need to understand this. Am I actually crossing a boundary by being jovial with other men----other women's husbands?
Does it bother you when your husband talks to/laughs with/jokes with another female?

I can honestly say that I have a few female friends who are like this with MY husband and it doesn't bother me AT ALL.
First of all, I am COMPLETELY secure in my marriage. I know he wants me and I want him and that we are committed to each other for life.
Secondly, I am also very secure in my relationship with these particular females. I know them, I love them and I actually appreciate their thoughtfulness to talk to my husband and I love it that they like him enough to joke around and punch him in the arm every now and then.
Ironically enough, I actually PREFER my good friends to be this way with him. He likes it...which makes him like them better...which means he likes me to spend time with them more...which in the end...means I get more girl-time with my best friends. :) YAY!

I'm sure I'm not the only woman who deals with this issue...so maybe some of you can give me some ideas on how to resolve this issue. It's a lose-lose deal because I either
1) Be myself, end up being "too friendly" and making Matt mad
Or
2) I keep to myself, don't talk or joke (which is SO NOT me and actually seems rude and stuck-up) and keep the peace. (except I end up resenting hubby for "forcing me" to be someone I'm really not.)

Ahhh....help!
And if you think that I AM INDEED being flirty, please don't hesitate to tell me. If he's right, I want his opinion validated.

This can't be happening...

Wow, all it took was a horrendous dream nightmare about my little boy playing with some other little boys, finding a loaded gun which they thought was a toy and shooting himself in the face to wake me up. Yes...that is what I dreamed last night. UGH! Thankfully even in my dream, I turned to God and in my despair and desperation, He heard my cry and healed my little guy and confounded the doctors. Right before I woke up this morning, I was running through my church telling people what God had done for us! What a night. From one emotional extreme to another!!

Anyway, I certainly woke up with a very different mood/attitude/mindset than I've been having lately. The first thing I wanted to do was go grab him up and just hold him in my arms and NEVER EVER let him go. My eyes well up with tears just thinking about this whole thing right now. BUT...I honestly think either God gave me that dream or He is using that dream to show me some things.

Somehow, lately, I've slipped back into the old me--the one who resembled a chicken-with-her-head-cut-off. I've suddenly acquired more responsibilities than I feel capable of handling and therefore anything that interferes with my agenda, is nothing more than a nuisance. So if you do the figuring---that means that the kids have been DRIVING ME NUTS. They are constantly needing something...whether it's for me to tie their shoe, listen to them read their homework, play a game, watch a movie, watch them perform a song together, etc. When I'm trying to do something (and I ALWAYS AM)...that kind of stuff is such a bother.
But why OH Why????
As I read back thru that stuff I just listed there that they always want me for, I think--what an HONOR for them to be wanting me and needing me! There will be a day, and sadly it's probably not that far off, when they won't want nearly as much to do with me. And without a doubt, I will MISS THIS exact time. Or what about my dream...what if, God forbid, something unthinkable ever did happen to one of them...how much would I wish with all my heart that I could come back to this day, when everything was "perfect". What seems like chaos now would look like heaven to me then.
A good friend of mine said to me recently, "If we're too busy for them now and show it by never looking up from our computer screen/book/phone, etc...then eventually they are going to stop coming to us at all."
Oh how true that is...and how it breaks my heart. How many MILLIONS of times have they been talking to me all the while I was texting on my phone or typing on the computer or reading thru FB. Sure, sometimes I'm doing something important and they really do need to wait...but the VAST majority of the time, giving them my attention is a zillion times more important than whatever it is that I'm so preoccupied with. I can't STAND when my own mother only half-listens to me...and yet here I am doing it to my kids and thinking it's not that big of a deal because what they are saying is silly kid-nonsense about what so-and-so said at school today. WHAT AM I THINKING?
Anyway, I know..........if you've been a reader of this blog for any length of time, you've read many posts like this one....but today, this is what is going on with me and I just needed to write it out/share it with you. I'm sure we can ALL always use a reminder to SLOW DOWN and put priority on the things that really matter. It's days like this that I'm tempted to throw all electronics out the window and go back to a simpler way of life. :)

Signs of Christmas...

So, we've been busy at the Jones household this weekend! Away with the pumpkins and scarecrows, in with the Nativity, Santa and a sleigh-full of Christmas decor!
(sorry I had to post each picture individually through Picasa because Blogger was giving me trouble again).

The tree is up and gifts are wrapped! (It looks so much prettier than this in real life!)

Stockings have been hung by the....windows?!?.....with care! (no chimney...so this is the next best thing!)

The table looks grand with it's pinecone and berry garland spread across it. (too bad it's TOTALLY in our way when we have dinner!)

The "sitting area" looks all cozy with two snow-capped evergreen trees on either side!

Brooklyn's turquoise, hot pink and lime green tree is up and sparkling through our front window!

The entryway is ready! There is a big wreath on the outside of our front door...but you can't see it thru the glass..I thought you might've been able to.

Christmas Cards have been made! (but they don't all look like this...so if you get one and it's different, don't be surprised! :)

Personal Privacy...

Well, if you're reading this, that means you are someone I trust! :)
I had to make my blog private today, sadly, because of a couple of very, very, VERY disturbing comments that were left on my work-out blog. Since I link between the two (blogs), I decided to make this one private for now as well...just to be on the safe side. Even though I HATE to be "private" and therefore potentially miss ministry opportunities as well as the ability to make friendship with people from all over the world...I can't compromise the safety of my family or me...and today was the first time in all my years of blogging (going on 5 years now!) that I've ever felt threatened. Yuk!

So anyhow, thanks for being a reader and my friend! I'm so glad that I've been able to get to know you all, and hopefully have encouraged and inspired you at some time!

I know I've been slacking MAJORLY on updating this lately...but such is life. If there is anything I've learned in 2010, it's that my FAMILY comes FIRST....and right now, they need me!
Love you all!
J.

Brooklyn--She's cute no matter what!

Last week at Brooklyn's school, they had the opportunity to dress up each day according to a particular theme. Monday was Crazy Day. As you can see...my girl can get SOME kind of CRAZY! She has on leggings that are a different color on each leg, a boot on one foot, a flip-flop on the other, shorts, shirt, scarf, hat, headband, 2 diff. earrings and a wild hair do.

Tuesday was Nerd Day. We really didn't think we were going to have anything good for this day, because of course, none of us are nerds around here (ha ha)...but we managed to do her up pretty nerdy, I think!

Wednesday was Retro Day and again, we were unsure of what we could possibly use for this. But....I remembered I had this shirt in my closest that was a bit retro-y and Brooklyn had gotten these cute "shag" boots recently. Then we found this cute short jacket in her closet to top it all off. We did her hair flipped out with a big "bump-it" in the back and she looked like she came straight out of the 50-60's! SO cute!

Thursday was BY FAR our favorite!!! PROM DAY! There was no question about what dress she would wear...the delimma was HOW we would do her hair! (If you don't know this about me....I love doing hair!) Anyway, I did her whole head in ringlet curls and then we pulled it over to the side and I pinned it up on top and put a rhinestone pin in..then covered the whole thing with silver sparkle hair spray! She looked GORGEOUS! I went up to the school that day and had lunch with her (so I could spy out all the other prom get-up) and I could quickly see that I was a bit over-the-top with her hair do. Some of the other girls had pretty dresses on....but no ones hair looked like they were ready for ACTUAL prom, like Brooklyn's. ha ha...we don't care. We had FUN! :)

Lastly, Friday was Spirit Day. It was all about getting as Orange and Black as possible. We weren't allowed to paint her face or color her hair...so we were limited....but I think we still did pretty good! I got an old pair of her white canvas shoes and painted one black and one orange. She wore one orange sock (with the black shoe) and one black sock (with the orange shoe). She made herself a choker necklace and a bracelet out of orange and black beads and put on a black lace finger-less glove. We put ribbons in her pixie pig tails and she was ready to Rock It!

I think I had more fun fixing her up during this week than I have since she was a baby and I could dress her up and put bows in her hair! She was so cute and aggreeable to let me do whatever I wanted! One thing about my girlie...she's got style! :o)

So Many Pictures!

I finally pulled the SD card out of my camera and downloaded all 67 pictures!!! to my laptop. Even though I've been downloading them to my regular PC, for some reason Blogger won't let me upload them from that computer (??!!??)

Anyway, now I'm finally at a place where I can do it....so forgive the MASSIVE amount all at once...but at least I'm finally posting them! :)

These first 2 pictures are of Brooklyn on her first day back to school after having her tonsils out. I know she REALLY did not feel like going.....but I hated for her to miss any more days. After I saw how miserable she looks in these pictures, I wished I had let her stay home one more day. Oh well.....

Here she is with her girlfriend at a football game. They learned a cheer and were going to perform it at the pre-game show.
Just got out on the field!

Here they are with the varsity cheerleaders performing their routine....so cute!

Grant watches the game while he sips on his Coke.Here's one of me...all ready for the game!

Brooklyn wanted me to paint her WHOLE face for the ballgame this time!!

Grant just wanted a little bit of paint....but ORANGE hair!
This is one of my BEAUTIFUL BUDDY Rene!! I love her!

This is a gross one for ya! This is a pic of a Black Widow Spider that I killed in our garage. This is the 3rd one in the past couple of weeks!! CREEPY! And do you see all those "sacks" of babies? One time when I went to kill them, babies started going everywhere! There will millions!!

The Secret Keeper Girl Live Tour was back in town, so of course, we had to get all glammed up and go!! Here is me and my SKG!

Emily & Booklyn all dolled up!

The 4 of us: Brooklyn, Me, Emily & Tammy.

Here's a really interesting one for ya...my lunch! ha ha...I took a picture because it just looked SO healthy...physically and spirtually. Love feeding my spirit man while I feed my body! BTW: That Sonic cup is full of WATER! :)

This is another no-real-reason pic. I was cooking dinner one night and realized I looked a wreck...I had 15 minutes to "get ready" before Matt would be home from work so I slapped some make up on and ratted out my hair. This was the end result. I love being able to faux-get ready in such a short amount of time. I remember a day (back in my teenage years) when I would have required at LEAST an hour to be presentable (or so I thought! ha ha)
Lastly, here is one of Brooklyn and her buddy at the hometown rodeo we all went to a couple of weeks ago. They looked so cute!

At the end of this week (hopefully) I will post a really fun photo shoot of Brooklyn from every day this week. It's Crazy Week at school and my girl can GET SOME KINDA CRAZY! Today was "crazy day". Tomorrow is "Nerd Day". They are also having prom day, spirit day and something else that I can't remember right now because it is about 2 hours PAST my bedtime! G'night y'all!
Ps. If you haven't been to my blog in a while, be sure to read the last post I did called "Personal Letter" to catch up on the happenings of our lives currently! :)