Speaking your language (and a ? on behalf of the local singles)

Last night was amazing. When I go many, many days in a row with things to do (even fun things - which they usually are), I start to long for a recliner, a tv, and a long stretch of evening with nowhere to be.

But as great as last night was with it's recliner, and it's TiVo'd Bachelor, and it's Bible Study catch-up....the days leading up were treasured as well.

Monday night after work, I went out to eat with a sweet friend. This particular friend and I are starting to get a reputation around town for being "those girls."

And by that I mean the ones that go to a restaurant at around 6pm and sit at their table until the place closes. The kind that tie up one table for 4 hours, the ones whose families start calling to make sure they are still alive out there somewhere, and the ones that waiters love to hate. We feel bad about taking up the table, but we also feel talky.

Tuesday night I reprised my role as assistant to Marsha, aka Love Language Extraordinaire. For many years Marsha has been teaching a love language class through the church. This year she is doing it in a town nearby and having the group meet at a local restaurant.


I have helped Moesha for several years, with my main job being.....DVD Coordinator.


Or as I liked to call it back in college (when I ran the slide show with the song words during worship)....the Spiritual Technician.

Sadly, the Spiritual Technician isn't what she used to be.

I couldn't get it the dang thing to work.

Put the DVD in. Hit play. Blue screen. Hit play harder. Blue screen. WHY ISN'T IT WORKING!?!?!!?

Turns out it was switched to "VCR mode", as one of the men taking the class pointed out with one click of the button.

Oh.

I see. I didn't realize we were working with one of those prehistoric "VCR devices" my grandfather used to tell me stories about.

Marsha hosted about 7 husband and wife couples for the study. They were so funny! I think they will definitely benefit from Marsha's great teaching, and even though I'm not married, after sitting through her class for several years - I am schooled in the LL's. It really is revolutionary for marriages and all relationships in general!

One thing she uses in the study are some excerpts from Mark Gungor's "Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage." (Hence the need for the DVD coordination).


These videos are hilarious! HILARIOUS. Look up his "tale of two brains" on youtube, watch with your husband, and prepare to be amused.

Marsha's repertoire of Gary Chapman literature.


I usually re-take the love language test every couple of years to see if I am still the same, which I was this time around. 10 - quality time, 8 - physical touch, and 6 - words of affirmation.


It was a fun night!

And on a totally different note, I have a question for all you singles (or used-to-be-singles) out there. (Wait, that's everyone).

Dear Everyone, I have a question.

There is a lady at our church (who is married but has a heart for singles) and is wanting to get a Singles Ministry going. She asked what I thought about it and I said, "More power to ya, sister."

I told Phoebe about it.


I could tell she had some concerns.

And we do too.....I've never been involved with such and have heard that those kind of situations are a breeding ground for awkwardness. And after some horror stories I've heard from others - I'd have to agree. It seems like a tricky business to me.

SO....anyone have any words of wisdom for me to tell this kind woman trying to get this thing going? Any do's or don'ts?

She wasn't sure what direction to go with it...Have married couples speak? Make it more like a place to "meet people" (alert alert awkward alert) or have someone teach a Bible study?

All suggestions and/or horror stories welcomed!

Weekend Fun has resumed

I know what you're thinking.

How could anything that happened this past weekend compare to the Friday rendevous with the Holiday Armadillo?

How could it get more exciting?

Well, The HolArm was just a precurser to the fun times ahead during the rest of the weekend.

Saturday I was up bright and early and headed to the Performing Arts center to join up with 700 screaming college girls at Zeta Tau Alpha State Day.

Basically each year all the ZTA chapters in GA come together at a school for ZTA Day and this year it was at Georgia Southern. Which is exciting in itself, but it is made REALLY exciting now that Marlee is a Zeta-tater at UGA. And then add on the fact that Marlee's mom is an amazing photographer and was asked to take pictures at the event and you have a recipe for a fun Saturday.

Especially since Moesha asked me to tag along with a big camera and snap some pictures too! I took about 4 billion and got about 3 good ones, but I carried the heavy equipment and (successfully) made sure Marsha (still on mend from a broken ankle) didn't fall down the stairs, so all was not lost.

This is the only picture is Marlee's and is the only one on Facebook I can find from the event. Typical sorority fun.


I had to leave the event early to head home and get ready to par-tay! Matthew and Larsen were in town and we were heading down to Savannah for a wedding shower/oyster roast that some of their friends were giving.

The guests of honor. How about the babies these two will make? Are they going to be pretty or what?


The party had a fun theme with the intent of helping M & L be more able to entertain when they are an old married couple come April.


There was some yummy food inside.

But the main attraction was outside.




I employed Alan Tyson to be my oyster distributor. I was unable to shuck my own due to not wanting to get oyster juice all over my camera as , um, delicious as that sounds - but Big A fixed me up right on multiple occasions. That man knows he can set up a good steamed oyster/saltine combination. They were so good!



Party peeps! Larsen and Matthew have such fun and crazy friends! They are all so sweet hilarious.


The sister-in-law countdown is on!


Daddy and Matthew with the Bentonator himself.


I always want to make sure to get pictures of Andrew because I feel it really takes the coolness of this blog up to a level that would be unachievable any other way. Thank you, Andrew, for what you do for jennababe.blogspot.

Two of my favorite ladies!


Me and Larsen with our mamas!


Once the party was winding down, Jim (Larsen's stepdad whom I love!) asked Matthew to kind of help him out on directions for them to get back to their hotel in Savannah (the party was on Wilimington Island).

Because my brother apparently still lives in the 1990's, he got out a paper plate and pen and started drawing a map.


He even wrote, "You are here." The man will never live it down.


Thankfully Tripp, a man of reason, suggested printing off the direction on this newfangled website they have now called "Mapquest".

My favorite part of the night was listening to all these guys telling stories from their college days. Most can't be repeated on this family-friendly blog, but we were all laughing so hard.


The best story of the night was one my brother told about the time he decided he was going to start biking (just one chapter in a really long book about his rocky path with fitness).


Let's just say the endeavor started off with a $79 Huffy bike from Walmart and after a treacherous 2 mile trek complete with broken handle bars, almost getting run out off the road, and a realization that no cardiovascular endurance and stumpy legs don't mix.....he ended the night by taking the bike back to WM and exchanging it for a deep fryer.

And that, friends, is the Tyson fitness philosophy in a nutshell.

It was a great night!


On Sunday I went to church and met back up the ZTA's! Marlee had some of her cute college friends staying with her for the weekend, so we all went to eat at The Beaver House after church.


Cutest girls ever. I really loved them.


After we ate it was back home for them to pack up and head back to The Ath (lame). But, no trip to the Hagan's is complete without a little Just Dance.






After they left, Marsha, Tricia, Phoebe, and I drowned our sorrows the only way we know how. With Super Mario Bros.

These girls may come and go, but Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Yosh will always be here for us.


Bookending the weekend was dinner at Mellow Mushroom with these cuties.


Whew! I'm tired! But I loved every minute of it.

As Easter nears

This past Easter, we had an unexpected visitor come calling.


Some other words to describe this visitor would be shocking, confusing, terrifying, disconcerting, and - to every one's surprise - quite festive.


When the Holiday Armadillo came almost a year ago....


....I was shocked to the core.

I had never seen this type of creature before, especially not in my slow, sleepy residential neighborhood - a place where parents still let their kids run around outside without fear of kidnappers, murderers, or gigantic turtle-like creatures with huge alligator tails and claws that haunt me still.

We haven't seen the Holiday Armadillo since he (I'm assuming) made the long journey to the pond behind the house last year.

Well.

I don't know if it his little (yet still too large for my comfort) brother was getting in late to town for Valentine's Day or if he's just a very punctual monster heading in early for Easter, but on Friday afternoon - this big fella greeted me upon my arrival home.


I did not freak out. I calmly pulled around the culdesac, parked, and got out my camera - then I got out and bent down to shoot (with my camera not a gun - for all you PETA reps).

My photo shoot was suddenly disrupted when an incoming car made it's way to me. At that point, a couple of things happened:

1.) I got embarrassed

2.) I acted all cool and nonchalant and like I wasn't outside in dress pants fixing to sit down on gravel to get a good shot of a turtle.


My hopes that the truck would pass on were shattered, and before I knew it, I was in a lovely conversation with a nice man about the history of alligator turtles. He also regaled me with stories about one he came upon recently in his garage.

(THEY'LL COME INTO YOUR GARAGE!?)

(That's what I wanted to scream.)

(But I didn't because, you know, playing it "cool".)

He told me that he took a shovel and turned it around backwards then put the handle near the animal's mouth in hopes that it would chomp down on it and he could move it to a more appropriate location.

I pretended to listen while mentally adding that scenario to things someone will NEVER see me do because obviously the turtle could eat it's way right up that shovel - destroying wood, metal, and eventually my arm.

But, I let the crocodile hunter continue until we had exhausted all the topics concerning alligator turtles (which took like all of two minutes).

After he left, I hopped back out to grab a quick pic of the subject of our discussion.


I love how Mr. Turtle tried to use leaves/debris to camouflage himself against predators (or men with shovels or women with cameras). I mean really, I barely saw him thanks to that one leaf and that one sprig of pine straw.

After snapping (haha) a few pics of the big guy, I retreated to the safety of the house. I came back outside later and just as quickly as he had come, he was gone again.

Perhaps we'll see him again come April.


But until then - Happy Belated Valentine's day....from my Holiday Armadillo Alligator Turtle to yours.

Allow me to introduce myself

Well hi there!

My name is Jenna.

I used to blog here like 8 years ago.

Apparently I REALLY loved that froyo and just couldn't bear to post anything else for approximately 3 weeks after sharing about that experience. I told ya'll I liked the yogrit.

Truth is, as we all know, sometimes life gets crazy and things start falling off the to-do list for lack of time. Or lack of creativity. Or lack productivity.

But, I'm going to go with lack of time. Sounds better than saying I'm lazy with no good ideas.

All is going pretty well - just busy with work and fam and friends and college girl Bible studies and Brad Womack and more work and a more friends and more just rocking along.

Anyways, I just wanted to stop in and said hi! There are some fun times on the horizon (this weekend for example!) that should produce some of the good, long, picture-filled recaps you have come to love/tolerate. :-)

And because it feels wrong to write a post with nary a picture to behold, I will add this one of my little lovebug godson on Valentine's.


A cute boy snacking on some heart-shaped buttered toast on VDay. I'm pretty sure the Heartbreak shirt says it all.

Happy Friday!