JustJenny

This morning could have been a disaster. Here is what happened five minutes before it was time to leave the house to drop the boys off at school on my way to work. Son: “Hey mom, do we have a USB port” Me: “huh?” (this was kind of a weird question) Son: “A USB port, do we have one?” Me: “Yeah, you have one on your netbook. “ Son: “Oh yeah, I forgot” Me: “WHY”   Son: “I need to print a rough draft of my paper and I need to save it on my flash first.” Me:    “When” Son: ‘Now” I immediately thought, “ What , we have to leave in five minutes. You should have done this last night! Why didn’t you do this last night?” This is what I wanted to say. I am sure we would have spent at least 5 minutes arguing about all of this. I may have then went off in to a lecture and 15 minutes later we would finally be printing the paper and rushing to school late and angry. That is what my parent’s would have done. That is what good parents do; take advantage of ever...

My boys do not really have the opportunity to be embarrassed by their dad since he is not around but if he were,  my kids would be more embarrassed of him than me. Yes, that is correct. A recent study found that teens and young adults are more embarrassed of their dad than they are of their mom. Dads dress funny, aren’t embarrassed of driving funky cars and their teens aren’t having it. Read more about it at mailonline . Okay so maybe this study was done in the U.K but kids are kids right! I just want to say, I don’t remember being embarrassed of my dad but he was always styling, drove nice cars and was really nice to my friends.  But I kind of always knew he wasn’t the norm. My parent's and siblings Aren’t you glad I am off today and had time to find and share this information. P.S. I think "dad's" are really important (that's why we spend so much time with mine), I just thought the article was kind of cute and funny when I read it. ...

I’m not sure if I would really call this the highlight of my weekend but it was definitely cool and unexpected. I drove to Patterson to pick up my son who was spending the night at his best friend’s house. His friend used to live down the street and we all got to spend lots of time with him. His mom remarried and now they live about 45 minutes away. The boys miss each other more than 14-year-old boys would like to admit, so I made a commitment to drive to Patterson once a month so they could hand out. When I went to pick up my son, his Mom took me to her friend’s house. I did not know until we got there that I would be working. The friend is from Africa and once a year she goes to the flea market about 30 minutes away from where they live to purchase one year’s worth of cassava leaves. Apparently, it is a staple in many African dishes. This is only one of the four boxes. And we already took some out before I took this picture. We picked the leaves off and I had to pull ...

Here is an outfit I wore to work this past week with garage sale finds as key pieces. I know it's blurry, I had a hard time taking a picture of myself. Cardigan (Mossimo) about .75 cents Black Tank (Forever 21) . 25cents Skirt (sunny leigh)  FREE Shoes (a few months old) paid $12.99 at Ross The cardigan was less than a dollar because it was sold as a group at one on the garage sales I visited in my  june post and the black tank 25 CENTS at another garage sale. The best part of this outfit is this stunning skirt that a wonderful friend from work gave me. See it is possible to look cute on a budget!

This morning was amazing. When I woke up at 6:15 am the shower in the first bathroom was already running. I could hear the sound of water dripping and teeth being brushed in the other bathroom. Chris emerged from the bathroom already dressed his cloths matched and everything. I made breakfast while my other son got himself dressed and ready for the day. This may not seem like a big deal to you but I remember a time when it was just me in the morning literally dragging my little boys into the shower, nagging them to brush their teeth (sometimes pinning them down) and arguing with them about their cloths. You try convincing a 5 year old that while that florescent stripped shirt his Grandma gave him may be his favorite shirt EVER he can't wear it to school. Weather your kids like school are not, the first day can be really stressful for any parent. It can be just a little bit harder when you are the only one trying to do everything. If your still feeling a little over...

It feels like social media has always been a part of my life. I may not manage it well, but I am connected EVERYDAY to EVERYTHING and EVERYONE. Like many others, I was very reluctant at first to join the social media craze. At 29, I felt like I was too old to join MySpace, is it still around? Does anyone even remember MySpace?   Anyways, back to how my social media addiction began. I have a few younger cousins, who were in college at the time that pushed me into joining. I reluctantly complied; it was the only way I could keep in touch with them. I had no choice but to accept that the days of calling your loved ones on the phone or sending thoughtful letters were long gone. I really didn’t want to lose contact with my little cousins who are like sisters to me. After about a year of contemplation, I reluctantly joined. At first, I did not really like it.   It felt weird and kind of silly but I did like being able to find music and I loved all the cute page layouts. ...

I cannot believe another year has passed. This year Greg is an 11 th grader and Chris a 10 th grader. It feels like just yesterday that I dropped Greg off at kindergarten and Chris at pre-school (Nana’s house). This weekend I passed up the opportunity to go to Nevada with my parents. They have friends who have a great place in the mountains with lots of land, quads and access to a beautiful lake. Hmm, I am starting to re-think my decision. School starts on Wednesday and I did not want to be coming home late Sunday night stressing out about doing laundry, getting school supplies, cleaning backpacks and everything else that needs to happen in preparation of the first day of school. I work full time so the weekends are my only chance to get all this stuff done. It turns out the boys just wanted to hang out with me and “just me” all weekend anyways so luckily I made the right decision. Our weekend has been great. Here is what we have done so far: Friday Night: B...

I have been home for three full days now and the kitchen is a mess, I still need to vacuum and the cat needs a bath.                                        I really have no excuse because every other Monday I get to stay home due to my 9-8-80 schedule, which I love! I will admit it is rough working 9-hour days especially with a one hour commute each way but the extra days off really help me keep up on the everyday things that a working mom STILL has to do.   Okay, so maybe I am  a little behind but that extra day still has  only 24 hours, so I cannot work any miracles. I would hate to see what my bedroom would look like if I did not have that extra time at all. Yikes!   I really need to keep cleaning but my oldest son Greg says, “Hey Mom, you want to watch a ...

It’s been awhile since I have taken the time to coupon. I actually got pretty good at it. I really enjoyed looking for deals and saving tons of money, but it does take time.   Time is something that I just can't seem to find enough of these days. So, over the last few months I have stopped couponing.  Inspired by my recent reduction in pay and a Facebook post by The Krazy Coupon Lady, I decided to spend a little time and take a small trip to the store using coupons. Here is what I got Look at my savings So maybe a lot of this stuff is junk, but the kids only have a few weeks left of summer break and had friends over yesterday, so I was going to buy them some crappy food as a special treat anyways. I figure if I am going to give my kids and their friends soda, an 8 oz serving is better than a regular 12 oz can.  Right? Everything except the Activa was purchased with a coupon but it was on sale for $1.88 which is a GREAT price so I couldn’t p...

I convinced some friends of mine to take a mini vacation with me over the weekend. I wanted to stay a night or two but that wasn’t in the cards for them. So, we took a two hour drive to Santa Cruz California. I was reluctant at first because I myself LOVE driving up the night before, having a great dinner, staying in a fabulous hotel and waking up at my leisure in the destination of my choice. So the idea of driving 2 hours up and back in the same day on top of a long day of activities was kind of stressing me out. Oh and the memory of driving up hwy 17 with only two lanes and no shoulder as we approach that one part of the curvy road where the huge tress on each side of us reach up over the top of the cars hold hand and block out all the sun was still haunting me and didn’t help! I decided to suck it up and be a good sport. So, I invited a good friend to share the drive with me. I am an early bird while he is a night owl so it was perfect. I drove in the morning while he slep...

I told you I was hooked ! Here are just a few of the things I snagged in July. Some of the clothes and kitchen items I purchased have already made their way into my drawers and they are quite comfy so I didn't dig them out. But this is still a good representation of what I snagged this month. Everything you see here cost me only $23.25 from 3 different garage sales. In case you can't see, I got a great devil egg dish for my Mom (.50) that she has been wanting for ages, 15 movies, 10 ceramic dishes for baking deserts ($1 for all of them),the twilight books that I just might read now that they only cost me $1.50 and all this other cute stuff! I know I am behind on the twilight thing but I wasn't all that interested. Since I was able to snag the books at a steal, I might as well check em out and see what all the fuss is about! That's the great thing about garage sales, you can try stuff out you weren't really willing to pay full price for in the first place. ...

The Big Latch On is just one of the activities that celebrates World Breatfeeding Week  and it is happens THIS weekend!! Friday and Saturday. Check it out. World Breast Feeding Week is August 1- 7th.