New Blog

Our blog has moved
http://ourculdesacllife.blogspot.com/

Three already?

How are you possibly three today little one? You stole my heart from the second I saw those long fingers of yours draped across your swollen little newborn face. Yes, your birth was so far the most horrendous event of my life, but I have amazing little you to show for it. Now I know why mom's get so sad when their little ones start kindergarten. Because you are our little friends, our constant companions.


My social butterfly, what are you going to do when the motel closes, & you no longer have a job helping me at the front desk? When you will not have the old grumpy veterans to hollar up at from behind the front desk, "Hi, what's your name?
WHATS YOUR NAME? {not hearing you the first time}
Huh?
My name's Maren.
Marilyn?
No Maren!
Mary?

What would you do without your Nana blanket, Zephyr, juice, chocolate, music, & Hannah Montana?

You make my heart melt when you say, "you my best friend mom". I know the day will come when your teenage moodiness will make you think otherwise; but I will still love you.

I love your sassy side, your bossy side, & your "I not like bees" side.
I love your comedic side, your cuddly side, & your, "I like chocolate" side.

We are in this together kid, this stange wonderful journey of life. I promise to try my hardest to teach you, & care for you. I will make many, many mistakes. But you will never have to mistake how much I love you.

Love always,

Mom

No we have not moved in yet! Every time someone asks, I tell them, "probably two weeks." Two weeks has turned into four. The shutters have been ordered, wood floor is sitting at the Wood Warehouse still, the weeds have been mowed, HUGE Elm trees pruned a bit {The rest of the trimming is going to have to be done by a professional}, & I am SO over painting, that I have hired someone to do the basement for me. Our neighbors have offered their power tools & help the cul-de-sac monstrosity a little beautification.

I would post pictures of the ugliness, but the computer geeks told me my USB ports are fried. I even got a new camera for mothers day. I will figure out a way to post some.

You will all be jealous!

No winter lasts forever, no spring skips it's turn.

-Hal Borland

Anatomy According To a Toddler

Maren & I took a little trip to visit my dear friend & her two kids in Las Vegas a few weeks ago. Every night the three kids would take a bath together. One of the nights I was doing the dishes while Heath was on bath duty, when she came downstairs cracking up. While she was watching the kids, her four year old son stood up out of the water, & Maren looked at him & exclaimed, "Oh my gosh, I can't believe it, it looks just like my dads!"

We laughed, & then I started explaining to her the whole who has a penis, & who has a vagina bit. Bagina, she giggled, making it even more hilarious! When we came back to the SLC I started asking Maren about in front of Devin in hopes of evoking a "Bagina." "Jessica" he hissed! Clearly he is not as comfortable talking about it to her as I am. Me: "Well what should we call it then?" Devin: "I don't know." Sounds like he needs this book, Amazing You. I think he may be uncomfortable because these words sound too grown up to be coming from a child's mouth.

As easy as it would be to give it a cute little nickname like chick, noni, va-j-j, woo woo, or cookie, one article I read said that giving nicknames weakens the power children have over their own bodies. And that Using proper terminology empowers children. Using "grown-up" terms make them feel more comfortable when talking about any health issues or even if someone has touched them improperly. It makes them realize that their private parts are special and important. Oh, so liberal!! Not trying to make light of it, because I do agree with all of the above. So everyone, teach your children the proper terminology for their organs.

Drum Roll Please!

After signing & initialing about 100 papers, we are official home owners! Reality has not quite set in, but that will be hitting real hard, real fast. For the past two years as compensation for living the motel life, we have have not had to pay rent, electric, heat, not even toilet paper. As nice as all that has been, how nice is it going to be to have our OWN, private, quite, home?!!!




As our adventure comes to an end, I will recap some of our most eventful moments these past two years. Lets start out with my second most terrifying motel moment "Up in Smoke" This traumatic story never did make it as a blog post, don't know why. Maybe it was because I was so traumatized. I did send out an email to many of you, detailing the story. But I bet many of you do not know the story. And, I would love to know what you all would have done. Would you have been the safe chicken {literally running around with my head cut off}, or the hero, whisking the man to safety?

Most of you have heard me say that living here at the lovely Scenic Motel is never dull. That was especially true yesterday. After an especially chaotic afternoon, I arrived back at the motel running forty minutes late to cover the evening shift, I tossed Maren in bed, checked in some guests, had some beautiful flowers delivered to me from my dear husband, and found something online to make for dinner. Devin came home shortly after and on my way out to the grocery store, I noticed the most ancient man baby stepping it up the stairs at the now closed restaurant that basically shares our parking lot. I watched him asking Devin if I should go help him? Devin's reply was, "maybe, so he doesn't break a hip". He seemed to be slowly but surely making it to level ground, and the chicken had to marinated for at least an hour, so I jumped in my car and drove away.

Back at home about forty minutes later, I realized I had forgotten an ingredient. I jumped back in my car and ran back to the store. When I pulled up the second time, I noticed a white car smoking in the resturant parking lot. Great I thought, now what jack ass has park there car there and left it? getting closer I realized the car was on, and it sounded like the gas was being pushed. Holy shit, the old man is in the car engulfed in smoke! I called 911 from my cell, trying to recall our address through my panicking brain and explain the situation. I literally had a hundred things running through my brain, one being; wanting to help this man who's car I didn't dare get too close to because/ now, seconds later the hood of the car was on fire and I knew I could not get him out myself especially since he could barely walk to begin with. I told this to dispatch after she told me, "now this is what I want you to do". In a matter of seconds, I heard a loud pop, and now the entire front of the car was in flames! By this time the old man was feebly waving an arm at me as I am screaming and swearing at the dispatch lady. I had to look away from this man who I just knew was going to die in front of me. At one point when I was thinking again about trying to get him out, I asked the dispatch lady how long it takes for a car to exploded? She just told me for the 20th time to calm down. Do cars still exploded these days? I am running around the parking lot screaming for help, I ran inside and yelled something at Devin, and then ran back out to the parking lot as two cars pulled in and a young man a lady, pulled him out. I ran over, telling them to get away from the car because it had been on fire for awhile. I jumped in the lady's car to move it since it was so close to his burning car as they carried him away.

Finally the firemen arrived, and seemed to have a really hard time getting their hoses on! I stood by basically in shock and speechless as Gene {feeble old man} was asked the classic state of confusion questions. "Do you know what year it is"? He didn't know, and thought it was either Friday or Saturday. But he did know that his jogging suit was blue. Oh, and his blood sugar was dangerously high which maybe accounts bits and pieces of the situation. The young hero left declining to leave his name, and Stacey the other life saver was still sitting next to Gene holding his hand. Stacey told me she had heard me screaming while she was driving. Anyone who is familiar with this area knows how busy and loud the road is, so i can't believe she heard me. I told her how horrible I felt that I didn't dare try and get him out myself, and she reassured me that she wouldn't have either had she had a child. At this point I could feel the aftershock of emotions creeping up. So I leaned down, and told Gene to take care as I patted his leg and excused myself. Devin who had been watching the front desk and baby, came out and I lost it. But I had to snap out of it because Devin had people at the front desk and our yogurt covered baby needed to be bathed and the whining neurotic dog let out to pee, and my chicken was done marinating.

Today I was driving to my haircut appointment with the windows down thinking what a beautiful day it was, how much I love the fall, and many other sappy feel good thoughts. This is where I tell you all how grateful I am for you, and thankful each of you are my family and friends. I am also thankful there are people braver than myself. Now go hug and love your significant other, kids, pets or coworkers.

Love, Jess

Privacy

A couple months ago, I was in our one & only bathroom, when Maren barged on in. For the first time I said, "Babe, I need my privacy." I knew she wouldn't know what I meant, but then, her eyes got all big, and she said, "Oh ok, I find it!" & started rummaging through the bathroom drawer. This past week, Devin told me that she came into the office with one of my O.B.'s. When he asked her what it was, she exclaimed, "Mom's privacy."