We wish you a merry Christmas....

Drat, this should have been our Christmas card. :)

I created these props with felt and stiffening spray. I am ridiculously proud of them. Especially the elf ears (that's on the Nani blog).

I also have a few Christmas pictures on the Nani blog.

Nadine turned 4. And Halloween.

Grandparents, I am so so so so sorry for the lateness of this post. I suck, and I kept forgetting.

Nadine's birthday is the end of October, and then we also had Halloween. Pictures are on the Nani blog. Our Family Costume is nerdy and fantastic and worth a look.

Also, I made Nadine a minion cake for her birthday. It turned out AWESOME. Seriously;
best. cake. ever.

It was surprisingly easy, but very time-consuming (they had me harden the frosting in the fridge, between layers/colors. SUCH a good tip). If you follow the link, you'll be amazed at what are all those edible parts of the cake.

"Two hearts beating wildly..."

I was 12 when my youngest sister was born. She was the 5th of five girls, and I was the mother hen. I love the special connection that comes with sisters, and Kelsey and I had a great bond because of all the time I spent mothering her.

She was six when I went to college. I graduated college and moved back home for a bit, but I haven't lived at home in more than 10 years. And I spent all of my twenties enjoying friends and being gone a lot. Which means, I didn't get to really know Kelsey, and she was stuck in a time-warp as a tween.

This summer, Kelsey graciously volunteered to drive across the country with me and Nadine. That's right, my busy senior-year-in-college sister, who spent the summer on two (two!) foreign music internships, gave up two weeks of her life for me and my family. To help her frantic sister pack frantically. To drive from Maryland to Las Vegas. To help with a 3-year-old. Driving mostly sitting in the passenger seat.

She is a champ.

I very much enjoyed those two weeks with Kelsey, and I especially enjoyed our four days in the car. She is a remarkably good traveling buddy. I loved getting to connect with her as adults; I know she has felt separated from us other siblings. Whitney, my next youngest sibling, is five years older than Kelsey. It can't have been a fun position to hold, to watch all your siblings grow and not be at that point yet; then to reach that point, and have your siblings (or at least Jen) think you're still 12.

To make a long story short (too late), I am very grateful for our four long days stuck in a car, driving eight or nine or 14 hours a day. I feel it cemented my bond with my sister Kelsey.

(Non sequitur) And now she's getting married! I am so excited for her and Daniel. Truth be told, I have been secretly hoping for this event for five years. Kelsey and Daniel were friends in high school, then dated the last bit of high school and their first year of college. Daniel was gone for two years serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; he recently returned and they're getting married in December.

I began this post with my recollections of young Kelsey, because I was blown away how old (in all the good ways) she looks in these pictures. And how happy they both are. I love watching the interactions of couples in love.

Kelsey asked me to take their engagement pictures, and I was excited to use them as guinea pigs. I am not a terrific photographer, but it's a hobby I greatly enjoy, and I have a nice camera and good photo editing software (that I can't fully comprehend yet...). I am really proud of these pictures, though their success is largely due to the subjects.

We took the pictures at my parents' cabin in southern Utah, which is my Happy Place (I think that goes for all my siblings as well). It has many wonderful places for pictures.

They're such a great couple.

Our mom designed the railings. I've always thought that was cool.

Aren't they cute?!

She's beautiful.

Have you ever been photo-bombed by a horse? I have. (There's a horse butt behind Kelsey's shoulder. It cracked me up. I was distracting.)

 Ahhhhhhhh, love.

***************************************
I also made my family guinea pigs for my photography. We found a great place for family pictures, so I decided to experiment. The lighting wasn't great (curse you, shadows! Though also, hooray for shadow-creating-sun in Washington!) but I am happy with the result. We could re-do the pictures, but I am lazy and I don't want to get dressed up and drive out there again. LAZY.

I do love this picture. Hellooooo, Puget Sound!

The rest of the pictures are on the Nani blog.

That's all. Whew.

This post will make all the other posts wet their pants!

Alrightie, this post is about The Move. Where we drove 3,780 miles across the country, basically coast to coast.

We had two 14-hour + drives; I pushed my luck because Nadine did ridiculously well on the drive. I was so pleasantly and gratefully surprised.

My wonderful sister Kelsey allowed us to fly her out to drive across the country with me and Nadine (Todd drove his car). We drove caravan-style until Nebraska; then Todd drove to Salt Lake and we drove to Las Vegas. Todd took his anesthesia boards on the 29th, so Nani and I spent time away from Washington so he could devote his time to studying.

We were supposed to spend Independence Day apart, which was sad, but then Todd surprised us by making a less-than-24-hour trip down to Vegas. What a great guy.

Here's our Maryland house while I was being Crazy Packer Woman. The Army couldn't schedule movers for us (grrrrrr to them, and for waiting until two weeks before our move to finally tell us the truth), so I packed the house, with the help of my wonderful friends and Kelsey.

We're still fighting with the military to try to get this all reimbursed, and it looks like we won't, because of a weight miscalculation on our movers' part; so the moving saga continues. Arrrgh, Army!

Here's our huge ABF truck. We packed 27 linear feet. Holy crap. My wonderful father-in-law flew out to help, and we are so grateful, especially because he was so great at fitting everything tightly together in the truck.

We have been very happy with ABF, except for the weight problem. (The Army reimburses based on weight, but ABF charged us based on how much space we took up in the truck. So instead of the Army reimbursing us the entire amount we paid to ABF, on a last-minute move because of the Army's incompetence, they will only pay us what ABF mistakenly said was half the real weight.) But I digress....

Our last night on the road, we stayed in North Platte, NE. It's basically in the middle of nowhere, but it happens to be the headquarters of Cabela's, so they had astonishingly nice hotels (yay!). It also had this hilarious sign on their gas station.

While I was in Nevada, all four of my sisters happened to be there too (for a blissful week window). We haven't all been together in nearly three years, so of course we had a Ripp Girls night. Unfortunately Mary and Ashley weren't able to join us, but we had Maren, Kelsey, Maggie, Whitney, me, and Lindsay. Beautiful women, and some of my favorite people.

I didn't contact anyone while I was in Nevada, and I apologize, but the women above are my excuse for not seeing anyone else.

I have many other pictures from our time with my family, but they're on the Nani blog.

But before you click over, here's our house in Washington!

I really enjoy this house. I like the layout, I'm so grateful for the backyard, and I love having a garage. And surprisingly, I really enjoy Washington so far. That's easy to say in the gorgeous summer, but still. I like it more than I thought.

I'll attempt to show the layout, for those who haven't seen the house (which is most of you).

Here's our front door. (I took this in the kitchen.)

Facing the front door: to the left is the stairs, to the right is the family room.

The family room is still a work in progress, but I have our curtains up, the TV works, and all the furniture is in the right spot. Phew.

Randomly, one of my favorite things about the house are the wide stairs. Well, that and the fact there's only one set of stairs in the entire house, and no stairs to climb to get into the house (again, garage!!!!!).

I'm now a bit embarrassed to be posting a picture of our stairs. Ah well.

The kitchen is HUGE. And it has a gas stove. And it's my dumping ground for boxes. BUT, all the boxes are out of the garage!!! Now it's time to organize the house. As you'll see in a few pictures.

We have a wall of shelves. We didn't have nearly enough shelving space in our MD kitchen, and I've apparently been traumatized by it.

On the left is the valence material that was in the house before, and their opaque window covering; on the right is my fabric choice, and thermal curtains to block the sunset-facing windows (we don't have AC, and though the mornings are gloriously temperate, that direct sun bakes the house).

The dining room is in a walkway between the kitchen and the family room, in a corner. One window faces east, the other west (with thermal curtains), so I got these fantastic curtains to tie the room together. I LOVE LOVE LOVE these curtains. Love. They sold as only one panel, so I cut the panels in half and then sewed the cut side. I am so thankful I can do that kind of sewing.

Next to the main stars, down three steps, is the living room, a hall pantry, a 4th room, a bathroom, and the garage entrance. (The hallway to the 4th room, the pantry hallway, is straight ahead. The door in the far right is to the bathroom. Next to that door is the door to the garage.)

The living room has the computer, treadmill, and a couch. Right now it's a catchall, but soon it'll be nice and sparse. For Nadine's toys, I'm sure.

The pantry is basically two shelved closets, and it's AWESOME.

This 4th bedroom will be the toy room/sewing room. I don't want to think about organizing it.

The picture below was taken in the living room, with my back to the hallway (the exact opposite of that first picture of this room). To the right is the living room, and to the left is the kitchen and further through that is the dining room.

Upstairs are the three bedrooms AND the laundry. Upstairs laundry was one of the top three renting points of this house.

Our room is a nice light blue, though I'm afraid of how dark I'll feel in the winters, so I got fun yellow curtains for our window. It brings out the yellow in our quilt and I love the look. I also cut these curtains and resewed them.

Here's the guest room. I try not to think about this room yet.

 Aaaaaaaaaand now, ladies and gentlemen, the moment you've all been waiting for.... ;)

THE GARAGE

 I know, I know. It looks like . . a garage.

But we haven't had a garage in four years, and I've missed it greatly.

The other major renting point of this house is the huge backyard. Seriously huge. We also haven't had a real backyard in four years, so we're trying to remember to use it.

Bucket list, check!

One of the things I've always wanted to see is the sand dunes and tall grass of the Carolinas' beaches. We took advantage of our proximity to North Carolia (for the next 28 days!) and visited a few weekends ago. It was beautiful, and the weather was perfect (and we had a beach-front condo at an off-season price--eureka!). I have many more pictures on the Nani blog, but here are a few to tempt you.

Apparently the dunes and the vegetation are a natural barrier between the homes and the ocean. Picturesque AND useful.

I love this man.

Y'all ready for this?

Da na na nana na nananana na na na nananana.

Hee.

I've updated the Nani blog with lots of pictures. It's a good one.

We caught the DC blossoms at the perfect time! I have been hoping for this our three springs here (actually, I have wanted to see the blossoms for 15 years). It was spectacular and stunning. I took about 25 pictures of the blossoms and the Jefferson Memorial in the background, to have one to frame for my wall-o-Jen-pictures. I'm so excited!

Nani updates and a Facebook farewell

I added a very few pictures on the Nani blog. She's cute, so it's worth the click.

Hopefully my blog presence will increase (a bit) now, because . . .

I'm quitting Facebook.

Phew.

I feel so free.

And apprehensive.

(Please don't think I'm passive aggressively writing this to make others feel bad.
I'm just explaining my feelings. Blogging, if you will.)

I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook.

• It's a great way to keep in contact with people.
• It's like approved voyeurism.
• I get a high when people comment on my posts (lame!).

But at the same time,

• Facebook keeps you in contact with people
• it's approved voyeurism
• using it makes me feel euphoric. I'm quite addicted to it.

I'm not horrifically addicted. I generally only log in once a day, and luckily I don't have the app on any devices. But I log in EVERY DAY. When I could be interacting with my child. Or exercising. Or cleaning. Or napping. Or reading. Or actually personally contacting my friends.

Facebook facilitated me becoming "friends" with people with whom I had hoped to never interact again. I know I could've declined their friend requests, but I have guilt doing that (lame!), and I was also overcome with curiosity about whether high school mates had continued to wreck their lives.

Facebook was also good at keeping me in contact with select few individuals, but I've realized I can't stay on it just because it's my way of staying up to date with these people.

And most importantly, constantly seeing the random, whiny, menial thoughts of "friends" caused me to really, really dislike them. The following sums it up perfectly:

(In the interest of full disclosure, I have also severely limited my time on Pinterest. While trying to mitigate my depression, I realized the only thing Pinterest accomplishes for me [except recipes] is that I negatively compare myself to the other moms there. And that's lame and terribly destructive.)

Facebook is far too efficient at quenching my thirst for drama, so it has to go. It has to go because I waste a lot of time on it. It has to go because there are few relationships that can be fostered only on Facebook. And it has to go because sometimes I find myself thinking of my life in terms of status updates (lame!).

Plus, not having a Facebook account will justify sending out Christmas cards.

It's me again

Hi! Um, yeah. Another blog hiatus. I'm noticing a pattern here. I have a myriad of reasons to explain my lack of presence, none of which I will go into [yup, this time I'm that person on Facebook who posts cryptic statuses (which is totally lame)].

But really, I'm just too lazy to post any more. Sorry grandparents.

I've posted some recent pictures on the Nani blog. She turned three while I was blog-gone. And went to Nevada. And met Santa Claus. And got excited about Christmas. And now it's January.

In other news, we are supposed to find out this Friday where we will be stationed next. I am really nervous about it. Most places in the Army are hot and humid and have snow. And are east of the Mississippi. Please cross your fingers for us that our assignment is Seattle. I really need to be on the west coast. Plus, it's close to Tillamook, Ore, so we should have cheaper access to their cheese.

I'm here, no worries

Wow, I haven't blogged in nearly three months. Yikes. There are some recent pictures on the Nani Blog.

We went to New York City last weekend. It was quite fun, but I think it's a trip that must be made without a toddler. I don't get the whole New York thing; it's just another big city. Though I did very much enjoy the 9/11 Memorial, which was far more emotional than I anticipated.

Also, we went to Mood fabrics, from Project Runway.

"Thank you Mood"

The Memorial and Mood were the only NYC items on my list. Check and check.

We even saw the Statue of Liberty.

Gold

When taking pictures of our favorite subjects, there are exceptional shots we always hope to achieve. The Shot. The one you immediately want to print and hang on your wall. The really tough to get shots (well, for me--many of you bloggers are amazing photographers; I don't know how you choose which of your many amazing photos to display).

I got The Shot of Nadine last week while we were in Richmond. As soon as I took it, I got ridiculously excited and couldn't wait to get home to see it on the computer and edit it and send it to be printed. It's that good. Wanna see it? (Yes, this is purely a brag post.)

Practically perfect in every way

I posted a video on the Nani blog. Nadine is singing the "Months of the Year" song that I learned . . . in elementary school? (Probably right after we learned "Home Means Nevada.") Do you other BC people remember learning the "Months of the Year" song, or am I totally mis-remembering where I learned it? Maybe it was in church . . ..

(Random church insert: We sang a song about the primary colors [which are one, two, three--red, yellow, and blue] and, because the part of church devoted to children is called Primary, I thought those were the colors of Primary. Kinda like school colors. I was embarrassingly old, probably nearly high school [or even in high school!] when I put together that the church's Primary doesn't have official colors, but that we were actually singing about those primary colors that form the foundation of all other colors. Heh.)

Regardless, I taught it (the months song) to Nadine, who learned the words in a ridiculously short amount of time. And I had to get it on video, because it's so cute.

It seems like a rather blustery day

Last Friday night, we were chatting with the newly-arrived Whitney, when suddenly the Creepy Wind started up. The kind that whips around the house (which is impressive to do in a townhouse) in ghostly noises, and shakes the trees from side to side. Then the lights started to flicker. Then the lights went out. For 27 hours. I am very grateful we got our power back as quickly as we did, and that it was a limited outage, which meant many restaurants 15 minutes away were open.

The storm was incredible to watch. Not only did we have winds of more than 60 mph and pelting rain, but we had near-constant lightning for at least 40 minutes.

The next day, we found this as we drove down one of the back roads.

It's a tree branch. Lying on the power lines. Suspended above a road. So cool!
(The desert rat in me is still amazed the east coast tree branches are as big as southern Nevada's trees.)

We slept in the basement the second night. The temperatures were up to a muggy 100 degrees, which made for very hot nights. Nadine enjoyed wearing my headlamp, so of course I got pictures, which are on the Nani blog. Nadine was a very good trouper through the entire outage, even though she didn't want to sleep in the basement (mmmm, I'm grateful for basements).