mommy jenner

Happy Birthday, Mommy!! (that's me!)

2010-12-27T11:17:00.000-08:00

My favorite birthday gift this year? Snow!! About 6 beautiful inches of it! Rare for NC. My second favorite gift? A lovely Parisian fabric apron with cute geese on it, a handmade potholder, a very old book of English poetry and a super ridiculously large but wonderfully convenient collapsible sun hat! (aka sombrero!) Turning 29 isn't so bad after all!!!

2010-12-27T11:00:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas 2010 from the Nelson family!

Sam and Daddy's Y-Indian Princess Weekend

2010-04-20T07:39:00.000-07:00

How-how!! Welcome to Arapahoe Nation's spring gathering at the coast! Sam and her Daddy had a great time this past weekend at Camp Seafarer, located on the point where the Neuse River meets the Atlantic Ocean. This YMCA camp has a big sailing program, from little sunfish boats to larger sail boats, but they have all kinds of other activities too, as Sam and Byron found out on their 2-night camp-out with the rest of their Fire Dancer tribe. They participated in their tribal gatherings, swimming, canoing, archery, group games, and even a shark tooth hunt, where Sam won third prize for digging up a 1-1/2" shark's tooth! (The camp had dredged up a big pile of debris from the ocean floor for this activity, the pile was huge!) The two had a great time, and now I am hoping to sign up for one of the camp's Mother-Daughter or Family Camps. I wanna go to camp, too!

Visiting grandparents at 2840

2010-03-05T07:39:00.000-08:00

Sam and Byron's Y-princess fall outing at Camp Kanata

2009-10-28T05:57:00.000-07:00

hi, here's a photo of Sam and Byron's tribe at their Y-Princess camp outing on Sunday.. (oops, sorry, wasn't able to copy and paste from my email, just try to picture it in your heads... :) )
Sorry we don't have any other pictures, yet anyway, Byron had forgotten to bring his own camera.

anyway...
Some of the highlights of the day were, a 2-mile hike through the woods, soccer game, arts and crafts, a cook-out, and the big ceremony. There were several hundred to maybe a thousand dads and daughters in the amphitheater. The ceremony was led by the chief of all the tribes, nicknamed Moose. Whenever he hit his tom-tom (drum) all the talking in the whole place ceased. The ceremony started with a processional leading to a fire arrow being shot into the lake, an explosion of gun powder that started the huge campfire, and lots of drumming, of course. The leaders of the ceremony wore Indian headdresses. This is all secondhand news, of course, as I was back home with Colby, no moms allowed. :)
In the spring, dads and girls will all return to this camp for another huge gathering, this time they'll spend the whole weekend here, 2 nights away from mom!

love, jenner

oct. 19 2009

2009-10-19T09:51:00.000-07:00

We're finally all healthy here, (knock-knock on wood). Sam and Colby both had a cold over the past couple weeks, Sam missed a couple days of school. fortunately Byron and I didn't catch it. I felt a little yucky Saturday, but I think it was from eating too much bean dip the other night, made me go and go and go...yuck.

Pretty day here, glad that el nino or whatever has left us, too.

love, jenner

Snow Day make-up Day

2009-01-26T07:02:00.000-08:00

Well, Sam was still very upset about going to school Saturday morning. She fought every step of the way, even refusing to get out of the car when we got to the parking lot. Just she and I had come, and we'd parked so we could both go in to enjoy the nice little "moms and muffins" gathering before school that had been re-scheduled from tuesday (snow day) to Saturday. Even that wasn't motivating for her. (it was for moms and kids)

But afterwards, at noon, we picked her up and we all went to Carrabas, the Italian restaurant for lunch. It really was quite nice, nicer than Olive Garden. They had great service. Of course it was lunch time, but we didn't feel like they were trying to rush us out the door like some places. Great bread with seasoned olive oil, and they even gave each of the kids a lump of pizza dough to play with while we waited. Sam and Colby were fascinated by watching the chefs cook in the open area, and they had a bar up there where you could watch them flip pizza dough and fire up the flaming grills, and it was fairly empty, so I took them up there and we sat there and watched awhile. Colby would call out "fire!!!" every time the flames from the grill went shooting up. I had a very good dish of seafood linguine, the leftovers of which I will still be eating for lunch today!

This morning was another nightmare, as Sam did not want to go to school, and we were fifteen minutes late. too much drama for a monday morning. need some more coffee.

more later,

love, jenner

Snow Day

2009-01-21T06:47:00.000-08:00

We got snow!!! Woke up Tuesday morning to a white winter wonderland, with lots of flakes still falling down! Daddy and Sam were bundled up and playing outside before 7 am, while it was still dark. Colby got out later and tried out the sled. There were many more ventures out in the snow all day long, as schools were closed and people were advised to stay off the roads until they were plowed; thus, Byron stayed home from work, too. Cold temperatures and chilly winds kept us running inside for hot cocoa often. We got about 4 or 5 inches in all.

Today it's beautiful and sunny, though still cold. Sam's still off from school, though we might spend more time inside today, just enjoying the sights from inside the warm house. (or so I'm hoping, as I'm not as crazy about standing out there in the snow in sub-freezing temperatures as they are, or as I used to be when I was a kid growing up in frigid Wisconsin!)

Beautiful icicles hanging from the roofs today, hope to take more photos later.

mommy jenner

Made 12 sales so far on etsy!

2008-05-09T15:25:00.000-07:00

Hi! This week was sort of exciting for me, as I made 5 sales on my etsy site, http://jennerosity.etsy.com. I think what helped, too, was that someone "found" me and featured me on this website, http://www.wickedlychic.com/. I was yesterday's "today's pick", the featured independent business of the day. So I was excited, free advertising! and seemingly those 4 sales yesterday may have come from that! So I'm learning the importance of getting connected and getting my name out there. The photos above are new items I've recently listed on http://jennerosity.etsy.com.
I'm hoping to keep up the sales and find some consistency and routine in all this, yet I always want it to feel like "art", too, at least a little bit. I know, it's 98% perspiration and 2% inspiration, or so they say, but I don't want to get caught up in the numbers.
adios, amigos....

2008-05-07T08:22:00.000-07:00

Beautiful May. Beautiful season of mothering. How it goes by so fast, and I need to stop and record each beautiful thing about it. It's such a blur. Colby's asleep, still hanging onto that morning nap, but has given up the afternoon nap, choosing to go to bed early, around 7 pm each night, instead. He's almost 21 months old! Seems just yesterday he was in my tummy, as I enjoyed wearing maternity clothes (enjoyed??) for the last time, at age 40!

Sam's in her transition preschool class, 9-1 mon-friday, and it makes me tear up to think that after these 3 wonderful years of preschool, she'll be moving on to kindergarten, sniff, sniff, this July already! (year-round school at Adams elementary). She's becoming such a big girl! Still so silly, but learning so much, can't believe all the reading and writing skills she's showing us lately.

Aunt Cyndy visited the past couple days. They had fun playing barbies, we went to the park together. Byron had the day off, I let him go visit Shon in Wilmington, for some treasured "guy time", which he doesn't get very often these days.

more later,
jenner

just another day

2006-11-16T13:06:00.000-08:00

Babies wouldn't be so bad if they didn't cry so much. I mean, don't get me wrong, I am absolutely in love with my little man Colby, the way he gazes up at me with those adoring eyes, his face breaking out into a huge gummy grin that says "I'm so excited I can't contain myself!!", and makes me wonder what I ever did to desserve such a beautiful child. (I did nothing, I don't desserve the honor of being his mom!) anyway, though, .... he cries so much. And he sleeps so little. I must hit that button on the stove for the exhaust fan a couple dozen times a day, as the roaring white noise seems to calm him a little bit, sometimes. Or sometimes it just calms me in a strange way, or at least it covers up the sound of 4-year old Sam who picks this moment to join in the chorus of crying with her whining. well, now she's asking for a snack, so I'd better go.

I love being a mom, yes I do, it's just, days are hard and long. and years fly by. hopefully only the sweet memories will last.

Blurry Snapshots of a Mush-Minded Mom (View from a Spinning Diaper Bag)

2006-11-02T12:45:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer:
Since this mushy mom's mind is so scatter-brained from the daily whirls and thrashes through diaper changes, whining episodes, dashes to the potty, infant crying sprees, loading and unloading all that STUFF in and out of the car, forgetting things, spilling things, rushing through showers, flying downstairs with barely my undies on to put out more fires from the 4-year old drama queen, etc, etc, these posts will often not be in complete sentences. I can't even believe I just wrote a complete, fairly understandable sentence. Did I? So, with that disclaimer in mind, here's some snapshots of my day..

Dappled sunlight through fall-colored leaves, while eating breakfast, nursing 2-month old Colby, and digging out "dinosaur eggs" from 4-year old Samantha's Dino Egg Oatmeal....

Whining Crying about not wanting to go to MOPS "Mommies' Meeting" with me,

Finally out the door. Nursing Colby through half of meeting. Took on too many errands afterwards, my mistake. Dragging Sam through Kohl's, rushing like a speeding bullet to bathroom, while Colby in my strapped on Snugli baby carrier, screaming and flopping against my chest, since I hadn't even had time to strap him in properly.... Looks on people's faces at customer service desk near restrooms as I drag screaming Sam into bathroom,.....Just Made It!!!! (Sam just made it, didn't pee on herself, as I'd envisioned was going to happen, thank God we made it!!!)

ok, now she wants to use the computer to do her online coloring or spelling or whatever... later !!!

Dreaming of the DR...

2005-07-07T12:25:00.000-07:00

Hi, I'm blogging again, guess that's the term you use. Sam's napping, my fingers are flying.
I was surfing around the dr1 website, reading some blogs of people living there, and my mind starts daydreaming of how wonderful that land is...how much I enjoyed living there over ten years ago, and how much I'd love to go back, like we did for our honeymoon, but this time maybe to live...???? So I found a website of a web designer, makes me think, hmmm, Byron could do that, make websites for the tourist business people there. ahh, a nice dream. but not a reality while he has his mother to tend to, as her only child. oh well. better hurry back up there before sam wakes up!

later, jenner

cooped up

2005-06-29T07:54:00.000-07:00

good morning. think I'm going crazy, another rainy day, cooped up with my wonderful darling daughter Sam, yet I can't think straight to play another game of little people village or Flik and Dot ant stories or fairy turning sam into a frog. house is a mess, mother in law coming this weekend, gotta clean up, still haven't showered, have no focus, what am i doing?????
trying to clean kitchen with monitor on so i can hear sam playing in her room, yet the computer is such a distraction, ok, just to express my thoughts a few minutes, then i'm done. at least i have a playdate planned for tomorrow, to go to Bee's house where 2 other mommies will have their kids. spilled coffee on futon this morning, laundry still in piles, gotta go. chocolate donut frosting on kitchen floor. gotta go, gotta go, gotta go.....

jennner