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Just Another Jenny

Jenny19days

I was born on September 5, 1977. My parents named me Jenny Michelle. My dad liked the “Michelle” part, my mom liked the “Jenny” part, and, apparently, so did the rest of America. Except the rest of America preferred to name their daughters “Jennifer” and call them “Jenny.” I was not so lucky. For most of my life I have wished the presumed “ifer” was part of my name, just because it would make it easier. But, oh well, it could be worse.

So I entered school in the early eighties with many Jennys. I graduated high school with a few, and joined legions at college. As a matter of fact, in my freshman “suite” (which is a fancy name for two cinder-block-walled bedrooms and a one-holer bathroom), there were three of us. Three out of four. The other girl’s name was Arlyce. Lucky!

Now I am in my 30s, and like most of the other Jennys (though many of us have taken to deleting the -ny, I have stubbornly kept mine) I am a wife and a mother.

And, like myriad Jen(ny)s on the interwebz, I am also a blogger. With a unique voice, if not a unique name. I’m Just Another Jenny. But also, I’m really not. And as thousands of Jennys come of age, what I hope for us is that we all find our voices, speak the truth, and mother our children in positive ways that are anything but ordinary.

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Almost Famous

itouch
(photo by Tricia’s husband Ben)

The other day, after I helped my famous Uncle Paul set up his new blog, Redneck Latte, (which you should totally go read just as soon as you’re done here, cause he’s hilarious!) he did a very nice thing and ordered me a fruit bouquet. You know, fruit cut to be shaped like like a bouquet of flowers. Which is a genius idea and was very thoughtful of Uncle Paul. The bouquet had cantaloupe, honeydew, pineapple, and chocolate-covered strawberries, which I may or may not have immediately eaten five of as soon as I ripped the cellophane off. But anyhoo, after I received it, Uncle Paul called me to tell me he had a very interesting conversation with the woman who worked at the fruit bouquet place. It went something like this:

Fruit Bouquet Lady: What do you want on the card?

Uncle Paul: “Thanks for all your help. U-P”

Fruit Bouquet Lady: What does U-P stand for?

Uncle Paul: Uncle Paul

Fruit Bouquet Lady: Uncle Paul? Like the blog?

Uncle Paul: Uh…yeah. I guess you read Mommin’ It Up?

Fruit Bouquet Lady: Yeah! Did you start your blog yet?

Uncle Paul: Um…yeah. I started it yesterday!

Needless to say, Uncle Paul was pretty stunned. But the point of this conversation is…we’re flippin’ FAMOUS!! Some random lady at the fruit bouquet place READS OUR BLOG! (Please, fruit bouquet lady, step up and identify yourself! We want to know who you are!)

I was so excited about this blogtastic reader sighting that I waited until the next night to tell Emily about it so I could tell her in person. Because we are big dorks, we practically jumped up and down with glee! It is quite gratifying to know that someone other than my mom reads us and knows who we are!

So, since we are like, suuuuper famous and SUCH a big deal, Emily and I decided we really needed to commemorate our fame in a very tangible way. Like by pretending to put our hand prints in the dirt in front of the Tom’s Corn Maze sign, since they haven’t invited us to the Hollywood Walk of Fame yet (although I am checking my email frequently for that invite, ’cause I KNOW it’s coming!)

Almost Famous

So next time you see us, if we’re acting like we’re a little big for our britches, well, you’ll know why. Not because I’ve upped my Hershey bar intake or Emily’s fallen off the Weight Watchers wagon. Rather, because of a good old-fashioned ego boost. We’re now pretty much convinced that we are like the First Family of the blogosphere. Kind of like the Baldwin Brothers are in Hollywood, you know. Except we’re female, and we’re cousins, and there’s only two of us, and we’re both successful instead of just one of us…wait…where was I going with this?

Oh, right, we’re COOL! Tell your friends!

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An A-maze-ing Day

So corny, I know. Corn. HA! I crack myself up.

In any case, as you may know, I’ve been working with Weight Watchers to promote their current campaign, Lose for Good.
Photobucket From LoseForGood.com:
For the second year in a row, Weight Watchers is teaming up with its members and Online subscribers, as well as local communities, sponsors and our charitable partners Share Our Strength and Action Against Hunger, to fight hunger and promote healthy living. As you lose weight from 08/30/09-10/17/09, Weight Watchers will donate up to $1 million to help feed children and families in need.

It’s a fantastic campaign and has been a huge success so far – as of tonight, Weight Watchers estimates that their members have lost 3.5 million pounds during the campaign. That is life-changing for their members.

So because of our belief in this campaign (and because we love to have a good time), our very good friend Amy and I decided to get some of our very favorite local bloggers and their families together so we could spend a fantastic fall afternoon together for good.

We met at one of the hottest spots in my little town (one of the two spots that are currently hot, the other being the brand new Mexican restaurant that opened about three weeks ago. The one where I may or may not have eaten five times already. *ahem*), Tom’s Maze.
toms maze
(Photo by Erin)

Tom’s Maze is eight acres of this:
toms maze row
(Photo by Erin)

At least that’s what it looks like as you go through it. Here’s what it looks like from above:
toms maze arial

Is that cool or what?

But before we could take on such a task, we hung out around the campfire.
toms maze campfire
(Photo by Tricia)

sammy chilling toms maze

We had lots of food… but what’s a party without dessert?
lose for good
(Photo by Erin)

(I know what you’re thinking. Lose for Good cookies, isn’t that ironic. But that’s the beauty of Weight Watchers… nothing is an absolute no-no, you just have to count your points. And I was saving up my flex points all week for this, people!)

And what’s a campfire without s’mores?
kate smore toms maze
joshua smores toms maze

We had a great time in the maze.
toms maze emily's boys

sophie toms maze

We finished just in time to watch Tom’s famous Pumpkin Chuckin’ Canon – this thing shoots pumpkins a half a mile. At least that’s what they say – I lost sight of it after about one second! It’s better to watch it at night, when Tom chucks pumpkins that glow in the dark!
toms maze pumpkin chucker
(Photo by Erin)

We had so. much. fun.

But the point of the day was to help out with Lose for Good and to collect canned goods to donate. Our friends? They really stepped up.

When I got home, we emptied the bags from our trunk, and here’s what our kitchen looked like.
Zi6_0105
(Lousy photo by yours truly)

That picture doesn’t do it justice… but I got out my bathroom scale (from the back recesses of my closet)… and I was blown away.

That’s 100.4 pounds of food.

I was so amazed at the generosity of our friends, and so thankful. I am looking forward to delivering it to our local food pantry, where I know it will go to good use.

So a huge thank you goes our to our party attendees and their families: Becky, Ashley, Erin, Tricia, Katie, Cortney, Emilie, Marianne, Andrea, Carrie, Kandi and my co-host, Amy. I truly can’t believe that a year ago, I didn’t know these people. (Except Emilie…and Marianne…and Ashley…and oh yeah, Jenny). I think I speak for Jenny when I say that we are so, so grateful to have had such wonderful people come into our lives. All because two people fell in love started a blog.

*sniff sniff*

I also want to thank Weight Watchers for inviting me to be a part of the Lose for Good campaign, and for sponsoring the food at our campfire – it was amazing, and I promise I counted my points!

Kind of.

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