Christmas In July

It is currently July, and the middle of the summer.  The time of year for pool parties, sitting on the porch, popcycles, killing mosquitos and flies, catching fireflies and listening to people shooting off their left over fireworks.  Back to school is just around the corner, and the stores are starting to put up some displays for fall.  The Hallmark channel usually plays a lot of their made for tv Christmas movies to celebrate Christmas in July, and it always gets me in the holiday mood.

Not Just A Walk In The Park

Remember growing up, one of the best places on the face of the earth to go to was always the park?   Every time your parents would ask if you wanted to go to the park, you get so excited and the answer was always,"Yay"!!  Parks offer entertainment for everyone.   A playground for kids, ballparks for school, city and church league sports, benches to sit and enjoy the day on, and over all - peace.  A place to get away from your job, get out of your house where nothing needs done and you have no responsibilities.  My family has the advantage of living right next door to a park.  It has it all.  Beautiful scenery, comfortable benches, pretty trees, sports fields, a playground, a couple of bridges for kids to play on.

When we moved into our house and right next door to this treasure, we were so excited to get to go into it any time we wanted.  But there was no way for us to predict how the park was to become such a part of our everyday lives, that it has turned into an extension of our house.  And just like inside your home, their are good parts...and bad parts.

Nobody Puts Baby In The Corner

My job is to run an in home daycare.  It's not always what I wanted to be.  When I was a little girl I wanted to be a hairstylist named Debbie.  Then as I got older, a secretary, and then finally a photographer.  I thought I would have a big career doing something amazing somewhere wonderful.

But...when my daughter was born, I first worked 3 days a week.  My 4 days at home with Tatum were pure bliss.   I had a 4 year old step son who would come over and I felt so complete, so full of love.  Exhausted, but it's funny how you don't remember that part so much.  When I opened our home to watch other people's children, I thought every day would be magical.  Full of sunshine and shadow puppets.  Kids sitting in little chairs in a row listening to me and being quiet while I read aloud my favorite children's storybooks.  Everybody being good and getting along and staying clean and relatively quiet.  But the reality is...

A Day In The Life Of Finn

When my husband Bret and I were growing up, we both had dogs.  He had a german shepherd and I had a labrador retriever.  I grew up with my lab - she was the calmest, sweetest thing.  She would lay around all the time and just be the most loving, faithful servant to man you can ever imagine.  In the first years of our marriage, Bret and I always wanted a dog, but never lived anywhere big enough to accommodate one.  But then we bought our house.

We had been thinking of getting a dog, but had never got the ball rolling.  Then one day we went hiking out in the country, at a park next to a farm.  One of the farm dogs snuck over to the park and proceeded to hike with us.  She was the sweetest little thing and we all fell in love with her instantly.  In fact we were so enamored with her, that we weren't really paying enough attention to our young daughter who got into a couple of scrapes.  She would complain and ask us for help but we would just say, "Tatum , get up and come over here to see what this amazing dog has just done!"  We figured it was time to start our hunt for the newest furry member of our family. So we went home and started looking for dogs online.  We found a chocolate lab in a nearby shelter named Finnigan who needed adopted a.s.a.p.  So that Monday Bret went to look at her and ended up bringing home !  When we first got her, she was very weak, scared and very quiet and loving - a very faithful servant to us.  But then she started getting used to the good life, and getting fat and spoiled and her true personality shone through.

I once saw a blurb about A Dog's Life.  It showed a dog's daily schedule:  6:00 a.m. Go for a walk - MY FAVORITE THING!  8:00 Breakfast - OH BOY!  MY FAVORITE THING!  12:00 Go out to check the mail - MY FAVORITE THING!  And so on....

Tatum's First Halloween Party

In our neck of the woods, we are having extremely cool weather for July.  It is downright sweatshirt weather in the morning/evening, and it feels more like the beginning of October.  And October reminds me of one of my favorite holidays - Halloween.

When I was a little girl I absolutely loved dressing up in a cool costume and trick or treating around to my neighbors, who every single year were so nice to make such a big deal over how clever/creative/original my costume always was.   As I grew too old to trick or treat, my mother put together an amazing Halloween party one year for me and my high school friends.  The highlight of it was a scavenger hunt she put together for us, starting at our house and leading us to the very end of our road - which was a graveyard!  Nothing is cooler then having a Halloween party scavenger hunt with your friends in a graveyard, and I have always remembered it.

Then as I became an adult and had kids, we would always get invited to my friend's Halloween parties they would put on for all of our kids.  it was such fun to dress my kids up and watch as the party hostess would always be so creative with themed snacks and games, and I ALWAYS wanted to get to host such a party - but our house was v-e-r-y small.  So I was always so frustrated.

Until we bought our new house.

Hello world!

Hello!  I'm so excited to be writing my first blog.

Let me start by introducing myself.  My name is Jayne Jennings and I am 35.  I am a Christian, and belong to our town's 1st Baptist church.  I am married to my sweet, smart, funny and patient husband Bret.  We have been married for 16 happy years.  We have two perfect children - Bret's son (my stepson) Tommy who is 17, and our daughter Tatum who is 13.

When I had Tatum, I had such a hard time leaving her to go to work, that I eventually decided to just start my own daycare out of our house so I could stay with her while still bringing in a paycheck.  That was in 2004 - a lifetime ago.  In the last 10 years, we have had dozens of babies/toddlers/big kids in our home.  I have cleaned up so many body fluids, spent 10 minutes at a time cooking breakfast and lunch every day, then spending 30 minutes at a time cleaning up after breakfast and lunch every day.  I have had my hair pulled, glasses broken, muscles pulled, toes stubbed, foot bottoms bruised by *%$# legos and Barbie shoes left on the floor.  When I sit down for story time, I usually have one attentive toddler on my lap, two crawling all over me, and one baby trying to rip the book out of my hands.  My reflexes are spot on - I can be talking on the phone, catch a toddler who has climbed up on the barstool and decided to randomly jump off (this happened Friday) on my way to catch the baby that has just learned a new fun trick - climbing on the kitchen table, but not knowing how to climb down safely.