A Little Change Of Plans.

Life doesn't always go as planned. I feel that the more I try to "plan" things in my life the further away I stray from the plan. I have worked at Budweiser since I was 20. When I started there I wanted to go to school to do business or marketing. When I got pregnant with Lexi that quickly changed. I figured I needed to do something that would benefit us in the long run, something with a good schedule and great benefits. I had ALWAYS wanted to be a teacher and decided with a baby coming that it would be a good idea to start taking child development classes and go from there. I continued to work at Budweiser while I was pregnant and when I had Alexa, Eric and I decided it would be more beneficial for me to stay home with her. So for the first year I stayed home with her and went to school. It was hard with me not working and I got lucky enough and got my job back at Budweiser in the graphics department. This was a great position because it was so flexible with my hours. I was able to go to school and take whatever classes I needed. At the beginning of this year I was planning on quitting Budweiser because I had to do my student teaching which was 4 months straight. Thank goodness I didn't do that because I have had the most difficult time with finding a teaching job which is expected with this economy that we live in. I thought for sure that I would be able to apply to a few districts and get a job. I had this whole thing planned out and as months went by and after apply for NUMEROUS jobs in districts all within an hour drive of my house I got really discouraged. I was getting burned out working two jobs. I would sub in the mornings and then go to Bud in the afternoons and it was tiring and a waste a gas. I loved subbing but it was hard having to wait for a paycheck. In October a position at Budweiser opened up. I was super hesitant on whether to apply. First being that I would have to give up subbing all together because this would be a full time position and second because I didn't want to get rejected again for another job. After talking to Eric and some friends I felt good about my decision to apply. I had filled in for this position a few times during the strike so I knew what I would be going in to. Long story short I applied for this position, had two interviews and finally got the job! It is a lot different then working in the graphics department which I am really going to miss, but I think it is a good move especially for now. Hopefully one day I will get the opportunity to use my credentials and my love for education in the classroom, but for now I will sell beer! My new position is telephone sales. Pretty much I call smaller accounts and take their beer order over the phone and I will go visit accounts in my territory a few days a week! Hopefully all of this works out!!

part of my letter... :)

It's the most wonderful time...of the year!

One of my most favorite things about Alexa's school besides the teachers is the amazing Christmas program they put on. This was the 31st Christmas program!! There is so much time and effort put in by all the kids (ranging from 2 1/2 - 6 years old) and the teachers. I always know when they start practicing because Alexa sings non stop and I love it! This year it was held at Citrus Valley High School instead of REV. I got the opportunity to go early and help with some of the set up. The owners of the school put all the decorations in a U-HAUL and set them up! Miss Kaye sets up whatever will fit in their living room ahead of time and takes a picture of it so that she has an idea of how she wants things to look on the gigantic stage and then takes it back down and loads it in the U-Haul to set it up at the high school.
This year's program started out with a slide show and I got teary-eyed! I love seeing all those smiling faces and friendships being built. Alexa has been at this school since she was 2 1/2 and a lot of kids in her class now have been there with her. It is such an amazing thing watching these friendships grow.  After the slide show came the singing and dancing of each class. Alexa did such a great job! She really has come out of her shell since her first program 4 years ago! Eric and I are such proud parents :)

Gosh she is so beautiful!

One exciting week...Two Milestones

Who would have thought that in just one week my baby would get to experience two milestones. These two milestones were exciting and emotional (very emotional for the momma) Well on August 27th Lexi officially started Kindergarten. This is something that we have been preparing ourselves for. Even though she is still at her same school it was still a very big deal for her and me. We decided to keep her there because she has been talking about being in Miss Debbie's class for the last two years, her friends that she has been in school with since they were 2 are still there and of course because we absolutely love the school and everything that they have to offer.  To help with the excitement Lexi and I made a paper chain to count down the days until Kindergarten started. She loved this. The weekend before school started we went shopping for school clothes and she picked out the outfits she would wear for that first week of school. The night before we packed her lunch and laid out the outfit that she chose. As soon as she went to sleep Eric and I decided to write her a note and make her a little sign. She was so excited when she woke up and saw this. I even snuck a little note into her lunch box (which she insists on having a note EVERYDAY of the week :) ) We got ready for the day, I took some pictures and then we were off. As soon as we pulled into the parking I felt a little anxious for her. She was totally fine and very excited because this is the same place that she has come every week since she was 2 1/2, but for me this was the first day of her whole school "career" They decorated the front with a nice Welcome banner and some colorful balloons. I took a few more pictures of her and then we headed in and straight up to the "big kid" classroom. We hung her backpack on her hook and then went inside and found her name tag and pencil box and where she would be sitting. I snapped a few more pictures and walked her to the play yard where she kissed and hugged me goodbye and then ran off with her friends.
As soon as I picked her up she was telling me all about her day and everything that she learned. I love that she LOVES school and I only hope that she will for the rest of her life. I still love school and I am old (kinda haha) Her favorite thing to do is homework and she loves to read her letter of the day books to us :)

She LOVES iCarly and had to have this backpack that is bigger than she is! Haha

She was so excited!

Her backpack hook :)

She looks so grown up!

Her name tag and pencil box...too cute! :)

 Then comes the second milestone... September 1st (not even a whole week after she started kindergarten) she lost her FIRST tooth!! It has been loose since the 4th of July where she claims that the bacon she ate for breakfast made it loose. At that time it barely moved, but over the weeks she kept pushing on it with her tongue and it kept moving to the right. It looked like she had lost a tooth because there was such a big gap from her pushing it. She begged Eric to pull it out for a couple weeks, but he couldn't/didn't want to hurt her and I definitely couldn't do it. On September 1st we went to dinner at La Mexicana and before we got our food Lexi was asking her to dad if he would pull her tooth out when we got home and he just said we'll see...I don't want to hurt you and I don't want you to cry and she insisted that she wouldn't cry. Well we got our food and Lexi takes one bite of beans and out comes the blood...no tooth, just blood. Ewww I know! I hadn't even taken a bite yet. It was still in there and Eric had no choice but to pull it out (it took a good five minutes and the waitresses were looking at us like we were crazy) Good thing we were the ONLY people in there :) She didn't cry at all...just made a couple little noises and out it came! I think I was more nervous than her and I am pretty sure Eric was more nervous than both her and I. We told the waitresses that she had just lost her first tooth and they were so excited for her, it was cute.  Lexi and I went to get Frugos to celebrate and then when we got home she wrote the Tooth Fairy a letter and was asleep in no time! She woke up soooo early the next morning and was very excited to find a letter and a special glittery $5 bill from the one and only Tooth Fairy! I had to tell her that the tooth fairy gives a little extra for the first and last tooth;)

I finally made it!

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. 

The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.”

-Dr. Seuss

Last Friday I spent my last day in my Kindergarten class for my student teaching assignment. I remember how nervous and scared I was back in February when I started and now I feel so confident and happy being in the classroom. I had such an amazing mentor teacher that was such a great role model for me. It was bittersweet to leave. I am excited to be done, but I was really sad to leave. Those 14 weeks flew by so fast!

A little update + some pre-Easter fun...

I have been a busy momma these last couple months and as much as I love Spring I can't wait for Summer! I am excited to be done with school (for awhile) and am very excited for the beach, vegas and who knows what else. I am half way done student teaching and it has flown by! I am loving every minute of it and I have learned so much from my amazing mentor teacher. Eric has been working a lot which is a great thing and I am so very grateful for him, but I know that he is exhausted. I can't wait to have a career so that he doesn't have to work so hard.
On another note...since Easter is tomorrow we decided to have a glow in the dark egg hunt tonight with lexi and she had a blast! Thanks to pinterest I found this great idea! Since it was such a success I definitely want to have a little party with all the kids next year and do this! Here are a couple pictures from tonight...

 

I tried to get pictures of lexi with the eggs, but since it was dark all you could see were the eggs:/

This is a LONG one...Reflecting back 5 Years

I didn't think I would feel so emotional over Lexi turning FIVE, but here I am feeling really emotional about my little baby growing up. Tomorrow morning she will wake up and tell me that she is five. (She told me those exact words tonight as a tucked her into bed) Even though she won't technically be five until 8:53pm! :) I spent about 15 hours making her a book on shutterfly a couple of weeks ago and I received the book in the mail today. Seeing all the pictures in the book brought back so many memories. Thinking about 5 years ago is a little hard to remember, but here are the things that I remember the most about that day...
    A couple weeks after my baby shower I went into pre-term labor at almost 34 weeks. I remember calling my doctor's office and the nurse telling me to count how far apart my contractions were. Contractions! I don't even know what they are suppose to feel like so how do I know that I am having them? So I counted what I thought might have been contractions and called the nurse back and she told me that I needed to go to the hospital because I was in labor! I freaked out. First of all because I wanted her to stay in there until she was to term, I just wanted her to be healthy. Second, because we were not ready for her to come. We (or should I say Eric) had just started remodeling and fixing up the house. Anyways, we go to the hospital and they admit me and after getting the monitors hooked up they tell me that I am having contractions and I am dilated, but they want to stop them. Those shots they gave me hurt so stinkin bad and they didn't work right away so they had to give me something else. A few hours later they got them to stop and we were on our way back home. You would think that I would have started preparing more for her to come after this, but nope. I was still working so I was exhausted everyday when I got home. I hadn't washed one thing, but the doctor told me that she would stay in there for a while longer so I wasn't too worried. Then I went off work at 36 weeks. I relaxed, hung out with friends and just enjoyed my time off. Lexi's due date was March 26th and I still had about 4 weeks until she would be here or so I thought. At 4am on March 6, 2007 I woke up because I thought I had peed the bed. So I changed pajamas and went back to sleep. I woke up to some cramping around 8am and went to the bathroom and that is when I freaked out a little (again) I am pretty sure that nasty mucous plug thing just fell out so I called my mom and Ashley (since she had gone through this just a few years before me) and asked them if they thought that's what it was. I called the hospital and told them and they said to come on in! So I called Eric at work, took a shower, dried and straightened my hair and took my sweet time getting ready. I felt fine, just a little bit of cramping.  They admitted me around noon and hooked me up to all the monitors and gave me my first IV ever. I think I was more scared of the IV and epidural then actually giving labor! haha. After checking me they told me that my water had broke (so I didn't pee the bed after all! haha) and that she would be here that same day and that we would be leaving with a baby this time. So I called all of my close friends and family and had so many visitors. I actually enjoyed labor! I was in pain for a little bit, but got the epidural and then I was the happiest girl in the world. How many people can actually say they LOVED being in labor?! A little after 8pm it was time for me to push. I was watching American Idol and before it ended our baby girl was here! Alexa Ululani Jennings was born at 8:53pm weighing in at 7lbs 9oz and 20.5 inches long and she was THREE weeks early! I would have had a 10lb baby if she would have came on her due date. Since she was early and I was only out of work for a week, I had nothing ready for her. I hadn't washed her clothes and our house was in pieces. Thanks to my amazing best friend, Amber and mother in-law they went to our house and washed her clothes and brought back her outfit that she was going to go home in. We stayed a few nights in our home and then thanks to Ashley and Brandon they let us stay in their home for a week while our house was getting finished. It was definitely a crazy first few weeks, but I wouldn't change a thing. My mom even took a couple weeks off work to help me while Eric was working:) I am so blessed to have such an amazing family and wonderful friends.
So here I am, five years later with a healthy, smart, amazing little girl. She has taught me so much in just five short years. She is so smart, it is crazy. She remembers every little detail. Even things that happened a couple years ago! Her personality Her love for her family, animals, singing and dancing is simply amazing. Looking at the book I made her makes me very proud to be her mommy. Every day she teaches me how to become a better mom. God has blessed me with a little angel. Lexi bean, mommy  and daddy LOVE you so much!

March 6, 2007

March 3rd, 2012

Movie Night. New Camera. Oobleck!

The weather this last weekend was perfect for a movie, cuddling and a fire so that is just what we did! But before the movie I wanted to play with the settings on my camera that Eric got me for Christmas and who better to test it on then my beautiful, sassy daughter:)

Her and her dang peace sign! haha

She even had daddy making the peace sign :)

A little too vibrant, but she is still so gorgeous!

One of my New favorites<3

After playing with my camera we watched our movie and thanks to Pinterest I saw marshmallow popcorn on one of the pins and decided to make a Marshmallow Caramel Popcorn! I found this recipe on cooks.com

1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. butter
9-10 marshmallows
12 c. popcorn

Microwave brown sugar and butter for 2 minutes. Add marshmallows. Microwave until melted, 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. Pour over popcorn.

I ended up cutting the recipe in half because Eric doesn't like sweet popcorn and I would pretty much end up eating the whole batch! haha. It is so easy and SO good! It is almost like a popcorn rice krispy treat.

To end our 3 day weekend I decided to make Oobleck with Lexi. For those of you who don't know what Oobleck is it a non-newtonian fluid.  Which means that it acts like a liquid when you are pouring it, but it is like a solid when a force is acting on it.  When you grab it then it will ooze out of your hands, but lay it on the table and it feels solid. This was something that I remember doing is Mrs. Thatcher's 5th grade class! Lexi is a little young for the scientific part, but I knew she would have a blast playing with it!

Waiting for me to stop taking pictures so that I can help her make Oobleck

The only two ingredients you need :)

Mixing it...

Experimenting and playing with it :)

 There are many different ways to make this, but the easiest is with Cornstarch and Water. You can also use white glue and borax and it will give it a different feel.

1 1/2 Cup of Cornstarch

1 Cup of Water (maybe a little less...I would add it in slowly or the mixture will become too watery)

A few drops of Food Coloring (optional)

There is also a book called Bartholomew and the Oobleck  by Dr. Seuss that can go with the experiment

Venting... followed by some adorable pictures :)

A couple weeks ago I started to advertise our golden babies. I was a little scared because I knew that it was a horrible time of the year to try and sell puppies since they wouldn't be ready until after Christmas but before everyone got their tax returns. To my surprise I had a TON of e-mails. I spent all last weekend e-mailing and talking to people who said they were "interested" and then on Sunday when we had people scheduled to come see them only TWO people showed up. TWO out of about 12 people that I had talked to. We had a nice lady and her daughter pick an adorable, chubby little girl and then I had another lady come from Pasadena. She spent over an hour here picking out her puppy, which is totally fine with me because these little furry babies are going to be with you for a very long time and you want to make sure you pick the right one. So after Eric explaining to her the difference between the males and females and then having to show her the difference between the two, she still hadn't picked. (This would also be during the Steelers playoff game and it is now almost half-time) I talked to her for a while and told her to take her time and then she picked one! She asked if she could write us a check and we were very hesitant, but since she drove from Pasadena we felt bad making her go to the bank so we took her check for her deposit (which is non-refundable). She told me I could cash it that day and then she would pay for the rest when she picked her up. So Monday morning I deposited the check and please tell me why I get a TEXT not a call... a text saying that she changed her mind and she doesn't want her anymore?! I tell her that I already deposited it and that it was non-refundable like it was stated in the ad and like I had told her and asked her what she wanted to do and she never responded. Tuesday the check clears and by Wednesday the check had been canceled and good ole' B of A charged me a returned check fee! Ughh I was so irritated. I understand people change their minds on things all the time. We would have given her the deposit back if she would have freakin called me back, but nope she just canceled it and didn't even tell me even though I told her I deposited it. After 3 days of calling her and trying to get a hold of her she sends me a text saying she will send me the cash for the returned check fee. At least she responded to me...okay I am done venting :) Here are some recent pictures of our adorable golden babies!

Catching up...

I am already being a slacker with my blog and now it is time to catch up! So just a heads up I am going to have some random pictures and whatnot of the last month:) I have a really bad habit of getting into something and then giving up on it, it probably doesn't help that I am so forgetful! I even asked Eric last night if there is something I can take for my memory "loss" and he just responded..."That is what happens when you get old!" haha

Well we had such an amazing Christmas! Really, we are so very blessed to have such wonderful families! As a tradition we spent Christmas Eve at Eric's parents house and had a sleepover then woke up at 4am and opened presents! (Yes I did say 4 AM!) Then after breakfast there we went to our next stop...our own house and did our Christmas there. Lexi is so very spoiled from EVERYONE! Santa even brought her a whole new big girl room with a new big girl bed. I really wish I would have gotten her reaction on Video :( Then we went to my parents house and got to spend a couple hours there with them before they headed back over to our house with my sisters and their boyfriends. I was sad to see Christmas go. I felt like I spent so much time decorating and making things and then it was over just like that.

Daddy helping Lexi get ready to ride her new scooter the day after Christmas

Our beautiful baby girl the day after Christmas

December 30, 2011- Our Sweet 8 Month Old Puppy with one of his siblings :)

To finish our exciting year we went Go-Kart racing! and no surprise...I am horrible! I had so much fun even getting lapped 3-4 times by the other 8 people that I was "racing"

Before the Race with his game face and me with my new dark hair! We spent New Years Eve in Beaumont with some friends :) What a great way to bring in the New Year!

Daddy & Lex at Midnight at New Years Eve!

Woke up one morning to TEN puppies that escaped their bed! Good thing they are so cute ;)