Grab a Tissue!

Okay ladies- you have to see how precious this is!

Turn up your volume, and enjoy a 4 1/2 minute music video of my wedding day!

Makes me cry everytime I've watched it! (About 300 times now)

You'll even get to see my maid of honor, LINDSEE LOU catch the bouquet!!

**Update**- I should probably give credit where credit is due! My AMAZING videographers at Artista Media did this for me! They are HIGHLY recommended!

Love ya'll!

Selective Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Disclaimer: Jen the Newlywed is not a licensed therapist or psychologist. Her diagnosis of herself or others is purely fabrication and entirely made up out of her loony bin imagination. Jen the Newlywed cannot prescribe any medication to you or your loved ones. She wishes she could. Because, let's face it, Valium can be necessary at times.

Dr. Jen is in today, and I have diagnosed myself with Selective Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, or SOCD. Allow me to elaborate on this diagnosis...

People with OCD are very particular about things, they want control of everything, and things have to be just so. If things aren't the way they want them to be, they get a little panicky and frazzled. They may even throw a fit. They are anal about details and it is not an option for you to "mess with" the way they think things should go.

Then there is me, someone with Selective Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Meaning, I am not OCD about 99.9999% of the areas in my life, but there are a few areas that raise concern.

I have a notepad on my desk at work, that I write down pretty much everything on. I am very particular about this notepad. Sometimes one of my co-workers will write on it. As soon as they walk away, I rip off the page that was written on by anyone other than me, and I RE-WRITE everything that was on the page on a brand new page. Weird.

When I am at the grocery store, when I get to the check out line, I am very particular about the order in which I unload the items onto the conveyor belt thing. All things cold go first. Then all other food items that do not need to be refrigerated, and then, finally, all non-food items (household cleaners, etc.).

I have to finish songs. You can't leave a note unresolved. For instance, if you were to walk up to me and sing, "Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti".... and then dare me NOT to sing "DOOOOOO!" I would fail miserably at that dare.

I don't care where I am, what I am doing, or what emotional state I am in.... I could be alone in a cave where I have been lost for 3 months and have no food and laying down taking my last breaths and on my way to be with Jesus... if YMCA came on the radio, my arms would fly into the air. Jesus would welcome me into His kingdom as soon as I completed the letter A.

I cannot watch television for any length of time without some sort of blanket.

What I am getting at here, is that I am generally pretty non-anal in my life. But there are some things I am just ridiculous about. I have to be in control. And if Grant tries to unload the cart with the bread first, he gets snapped at.

I have also found this to be true when it comes to trusting in God. Grant and I are in a season of trust right now (more on that in a later post), and I have found that there are certain things I am willing to give up control of, and other things I find myself to be clinging to.

It is like I am saying, "Okay Lord, I trust You, but only in areas A, B, and D. You can't have C yet though. I know better than You on that one and I am afraid You will mess it up".

The last few weeks I have really been trying to give EVERYTHING to Him, even the scary parts. It is so silly to me, cause you would think that those "scary parts" would be the parts I would be gladly throwing off of my shoulders and passing on to Him. Lord knows I am not smart enough to be handling anything in this life on my own!

I have found, however, that when I DO give it to God, and allow Him to have total control, He covers me with His peace. I know that I have put my burdens in better hands.

Romans 15:13 says, "May the God of hope fill you will all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit".

I love when the Lord gives me little reminders like that. He is so much wiser and stronger. He is all knowing, all powerful. Praise the Lord that I am not in control of my life!!

Afterthought: If I am sitting in church and the person in front of me has a tag sticking out of their shirt, I tuck it back in. Even if the result of this behavior is the unsuspecting member of the congregation turning to me and giving me an odd stare, I just say "Sorry! Your shirt tag was sticking out!", and the 96 year old man goes back to listening to the sermon with his special hearing device. Grant looks at me in horror.

And Then He Bloomed

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend! I know we certainly did!

Good Friday was extra good for me since I got to take the day off! Katie and I met for lunch at Chick-fil-A (our usual) and then spent some quality time at the Target. This was a good moment for us:

Jen: It is so beautiful outside today!
Katie: I know! Me and Mo were thinking about going out to the levee and riding bikes.
Jen: You could drive a Chevy to the levee...
Katie: It will probably be dry.
Jen: Yeah....
Target Employee: (shakes head in disbelief at the conversation that has just taken place)

Anyhoo, Friday night Mo & Katie came over for fajita/margarita night. We have such a ball when they came over, those two are such a blessing in our lives! (You can see how precious my Katie is for yourself at her blog).

Saturday morning husband woke me up at the butt crack of dawn to go to New Orleans. We went so early because Grant and his dad and his brother went off shore fishing. Yawn. But the ladies had fun! Ronda and me and Grant's mom had a lovely little meal at La Madeleine and saw a movie that none of our husbands would ever watch with us EVER. We saw "The Other Boleyn Girl" starring Scarlett Johansen and Natalie Portman. I have read the book and LOVED it and had very high expectations. That was an INTENSE movie! It was alot of drama and ambition and betrayal and decapitations. Very well acted and very fascinating for me since I am a huge nerd and for some reason I am a little bit obsessed with the entire British monarchy, specifically the Tudor dynasty. I'm so weird.

Anyways, we went to church yesterday morning in New Orleans and then came back to Grant's parent's house for our Easter lunch. Grant's grandparents joined us and we finished off our Easter weekend with a very intense game of "Sequence". Has anyone else ever played Sequence? It's part board game, part card game and I get a little bit too into it. I was playing against my husband which makes me even MORE competitive (for the record, my team won, BOO-yah!)

So I wanted to share my favorite little Easter story with you. My precious sister, Jaclyn, had the cutest little voice as a little girl. She talked like she had a bubble in her throat and also couldn't say her "R's" and that has always provided quite the funny little quote. Anyways, we have a home video of all 3 of us sisters as little girls one Easter Sunday morning. We are all in our matching pastel dresses with big bows on the back and our white hats, white shoes, white purses. Daddy is talking to us as we are opening our Easter baskets. Then Dad zooms in on precious Jaclyn, who was about 4 or 5, and says "What is today, Jaclyn?" and she says back sweetly "Easter" (pronounced without the "R" of course). Then Daddy says "And what happened on Easter?" to which Jaclyn replies:

"Um.... Jesus died... and then.... He bloomed".

Silence

Mom: "That's right baby, He aROSE, didn't He?"

Jaclyn: "Uh huh"

Melts my heart :)

Things I'm Looking Forward to

1. Today is my Friday because our office is CLOSED tomorrow for Good Friday! I plan on sleeping in. And that is as far as I have planned!

2. Easter! Grant and I are heading to New Orleans to be with his family. I love Easter, it really is right up there with Christmas. There is nothing greater than celebrating our Risen Lord!

3. Family Vacation! Grant and I are joining my family in April for a few days in the Texas hill country for some much needed R&R.

4. At this family vacation, I plan on having atleast 1 of my 3 nieces in my arms at all times. Aunt Jenny is gonna be giving some loving. And lots of kisses!

5. In April, THE OFFICE is returning to my television. Be still my heart.

6. In May, my twin nieces, Juliet and Scarlett are turning TWO (unbelievable!!) and my little Parker is going to be ONE! Those girls are growing up far too fast!

7. Also in May, me and my Lindsee and my Jo are having our Girls Weeked 2008!! (We spell it WeekED instead of weekEND because Lindsee makes a cake each year and the first year we had Girls Weeked she misspelled the cake and I think I almost peed). Sadly, our Sally Ann cannot join us this year, but we are thinking of her and praying for her and her new little boy growing in her tummy! :) To see pics of Girls Weeked 07, click here.

I will leave you with this little picture of Grant and me at Scott & Lauren's wedding a few weeks back. Can you see his camouflage vest peaking out there? ;)
















Oh, and one more thing! Tomorrow is my blog-a-versary! That's right, I did my very first post one year ago tomorrow! It's fun to look back and read the things I wrote way back then. It has been a joy in my life and such a creative outlet, as well as a way to meet some amazing people!

I love you ladies!

I'm True to Who I Am

Let's get right to it.

This little bundle of cuteness is Brooke White, my new favorite on American Idol. She is sweet and adorable and she sings well and she plays piano and guitar and I love her. Precious.

Jason "Long Eyelashes" Castro is my favorite boy. He also is a Texas Aggie and he gets cool points for that. Great voice, and he seems like a great guy.

Can we just have a moment for Paula "True to Who You Are" Abdul? I am so entertained by her. Mainly because she can't utter a complete sentence. I also think that 98% of her critiques use some variation of the "true to who you are" phrase. That's what I love about Paula. She is true to who she is. And does anyone else think she claps like a seal?

Moving on! I had a fantastic weekend here in Baton Rouge, because my dearingest darlingest Lindsee Lou came to see me. This was her THIRD time to visit me here and I am ever so grateful. We had two quite unsuccessful shopping trips (bermuda shorts look more like cruise director shorts on me) and some incredible cheesecake called Ultimate Snickers. Holla.

Lindsee and I then headed over to have a 2 hour lunch date at Chick-fil-A with my Baton Rouge bestie, Katie. It was so wonderful for her and Linds to meet, and I sure do love me some waffle fries!

We also had a wonderful time at Chase & Ronda's house. Chase is Grant's brother, and sweet Ronda is the one who had the brilliant idea of introducing me and Grant. And for that I am forever indebted to her! (To see pics of our weekend together, go to Lindsee's blog!)

Today I did not get a chance to get my Diet Coke in the morning and I have had the worst headache the whole day because of it! I sure have trained myself to be dependent on caffiene! Goodness! I ate a snickers bar to take the edge off. Don't worry, it was the "fun size".

There is a wind advisory here and Grant and I decided to take a walk. That was a brilliant idea. We walked for a mile, but the wind was so intense I think I did the equivalent of 300 lunges. My thighs are going to feel fantastic tomorrow!

Off to finish folding clothes!

Girl, this is MACdonalds!

I had to go to Office Depot yesterday for work. I was preparing for this morning's trial when I realized I needed some more labels for the exhibits. Off to Office Depot I went. Right next door to Office Depot is a McDonald's, which everyone here at work agreed upon. I wrote down everyone's order on my pink post-it notes (very Elle Woods) and off to the store I went.

Office Depot was oh-so exciting. Those people tend to have the personalities of a potted plant.

Anyways, so after my lovely time at the Depot, I headed over to MickeyD's. The drive thru line was wrapped around the building, so I decided it was quicker to go inside.

I walked in and see lots of people just staring at the big menu on the wall. I don't know who is still going into McDonald's and browsing the menu. It doesn't really change, people. It's the same stuff that it has always been. It should not be taking you fifteen minutes to decide what you want. Burger. Chicken. Fries. Those are your options.

Anyways, I was standing there, and the guy in front of me finished paying and stepped to the side. The girl behind the counter just gave me this blank stare, which I guess meant "You can order now". This girl did not look like she was having a good day. She had this look on her face that I've seen before.... the look of "I am here because I have to be and I am irritated with you idiot people and I am looking at the clock every ten seconds to see if my shift will be over soon and I don't like it when people like you are all smiley when I am not smiley". That's the vibe I got from her.

I said "Hello! How are you today?". Blank stare. "Okay then!". I pulled out my pink post it note and began to read off my 12 orders (exaggeration). Little Miss Happy Face read me my total, and I pulled out my wallet, and took out my Visa.

I don't carry cash very often. I know I should. But I find that I spend money faster when I have cash on me. So I didn't have cash on me, and told everyone at work that I would pay with my card, and they could all pay me cash.

Just as I am about to swipe my card in the little machine, Precious Peach grabbed my hand and dryly said "The machine's broke". I kinda was wondering when she was going to let go of my wrist, but I said "Oh, okay, well can we use this machine over here?"

"They all broke"

"All of your credit card machines are broken?

Blank Stare.

"Okay then, well never mind! Have a good day!"

I was almost to the door when Sweet Precious said " 'scuse me!! How you gonna pay fo this?"

I kinda stood there a minute, confused. "I'm not gonna pay for it. I don't have the money. Unless you take a check... do ya'll take checks?"

Sweet Precious rolled her eyes at me and said "Girl, this is MACdonalds!"

Now I was getting kinda irritated. I said "Well ma'am, if you can't take a check than I can't pay for this".

"But I already put your order in"

"Well then cancel it!! It's not my fault your credit card machine is broken. You haven't started making the food yet anyway, just cancel it!"

I was somewhat ashamed of myself for talking back, and somewhat proud of myself for standing up for myself. I was somewhat looking around the place to see if the team from "Punk'd" was about to jump out at me or something. Because, you know, I'm a celebrity.

Sweet Precious and I had a little stare down. She rolled her eyes at me for the twenty millionth time (not an exaggeration) and as I was walking out the door, I heard her say to herself "Sassy!"

That's right ya'll. I'm sassy!

Predictions

Okay, as sweet and precious as she is, I think this little lady is going home tonight. When Simon uses the word "horrendous" I think that is a bad sign. Also, she destroyed that song...Pretty smile though!

I wish that Amanda was going home though. I am over her. I think she is cool and all but she needs to be singing with a band at some cool bar Los Angeles or something. Too nasal for me....

Everyone says that Carly here is one of the frontrunners. Am I the only one who doesn't get it? She has a powerful voice and her pitch is good but her tone is kinda painful for me.... I'm not so into it.

Also, those pants do nothing for her! :)

Last night was a good show, Chikezie really impressed me. Poor little David forgot his words. That was sad and stressed me out for him! My favorite girl, Brooke, did a great job, but did anyone else feel like she was panicking up there? She seemed really tense and stressed, and as soon as she finished the song she immediately began crying. I was yelling at my TV "Breathe, honey. Relax!". She still did a good job though.

Does anyone else have any thoughts on this subject? :) You know you do!

Trouser Jeans en Espanol

We had a wonderful Texas weekend! I got in to Houston on Thursday night. Friday morning when I woke up I got to see my sister Jaclyn and her precious baby girl, Grace. That child is unbelievable. She is cuddly and smart and can stand up without holding on to anything! She has all kinds of tricks and she giggles and she fed me cheerios, which was very kind of her! AND, my LINDSEE came over too! Mom, Lindsee, Jaclyn, and Grace joined me for lunch at The Olive Garden. I said "lets go have soup, salad, and breadsticks!". I had no soup nor salad. I did have breadsticks though. And they were delicious!


We went to the mall (PTL!!) and shopped it up. I was really on the hunt for some trouser jeans, cause I have yet to buy a pair. So Linds told me that Old Navy had some that were well priced. We walked through the different sections and couldn't find any. So I saw the Old Navy employee with her little headset on, and I stopped her and said, "Excuse me, where are your trouser jeans?". She just stared at me blankly and said "Um... trouser... jeans? What do they look like... are they high waisted? I don't know what those are". It is my personal opinion that if you are working in a retail store in the mall that sells women's clothing, you need to be up to speed on things like that. Trouser jeans. Learn the term. She might as well have said "Capri pants? What are those?". We did not find trouser jeans there, but we did purchase 2 cookies each from the cookie company. That was a highlight. (By the way, I later returned to the mall and bought some trouser jeans from Ann Taylor Loft. Super cute. Excellent purchase!)


Friday night Grantley and I had to go to the rehearsal dinner for the wedding. While waiting in the restaurant for our party to arrive, I ran into several people from highshool, which is always so weird! But fun! The dinner was delicious and we had a great time.


Saturday Jaclyn and my mom and Grace and me all got mani/pedi's. Ya'll it was hysterical. Jaclyn was sitting in her little chair and one of the ladies who works there decided that Jaclyn needed a magazine. So she sweetly handed a magazine to Jaclyn and said "here you go honey!". Jaclyn said "Thank you!". After the lady walked away, Jaclyn said "JENNY!!!". When I turned to look at her she was holding up the magazine that was given to her: People en Espanol!!! She gave her a spanish magazine! We were not really able to control ourselves. Mom couldn't even look at us or acknowledge the People en Espanol cause she knew if she started laughing we would never be able to stop! CLASSIC!


Saturday night was the wedding. For the record, I wore a black dress with a black shrug, gold earrings, and a long black beaded necklace. It was really cold out so I also were my black pea coat, so the outfit didn't even matter so much! (Thank you everyone who commented! Ya'll were very helpful!) Lauren, the bride, looked beautiful. It was a gorgeous day and everything went so smoothly.


We drove back last night. Daylight savings was getting the best of me this morning. It felt far too early to be waking up! Not to mention that my husband kept pulling me back into bed as I was trying to get ready. He kept saying, "No work! Sleep!". I couldn't agree more, but I had to keep going :)


So here I am now, at work, pretending to be very busy with all this typing. They have no idea I am updating my blog :) I will leave you with a verse that kinda jumped out at me last night:


But I will trust in your unfailing love
My heart rejoices in your salvation
I will sing to the Lord
For He has been good to me
Psalms 13: 5-6

Happy Monday, and have a wonderful week!

Help Me!!!

Ladies, I need your help.

Grant and I are leaving town tomorrow night to go to a wedding in Texas (yay!). However, I am at a total loss as to what to wear. Allow me to explain...

The wedding is outdoors.

It is at 4:00 in the afternoon.

My husband is an usher, therefore he is wearing a tuxedo.

And...here's the hard part.... the vest that the groom has chosen for his groomsmen and ushers to wear is.... camouflage. Hunting camouflage. With leaves on it. I was envisioning military camo. But when husband came home with the tux tonight, I learned the difference between hunting camo and military camo. We are wearing hunting camo.

What do you wear to an outdoor wedding at 4:00 when your date is wearing a tuxedo with a camouflage vest????

HELP!!!!!

March On

I've had this little song in my head all day. I am not sure where it is from, I have known it as far back as I can remember. I used to have all these little Bible song sing-a-long videos as a little girl, and it may be from one of those. But as Grant and I drove back to Baton Rouge from New Orleans this morning after a wonderful wonderful weekend with his parents, I couldn't help but sing it on this sunshine-y day. It goes like this:

It's a happy day, and I thank God for the weather
It's a happy day, and I'm living it for my Lord
It's a happy day, and things are gonna get better
Living each day by the promises of God's Word.

And that is all it is. But it is just so BEAUTIFUL today. Grant feels like the luckiest husband in the world today because I MADE him go play golf! As much as I love Sundays at home with the hubby, I also know that to pass up a "golf day" like this is a crime! Plus, I am also enjoying the E! True Hollywood Story on Renee Zelwegger and napping next to our little Moxie dog.

So here we are in March. (Can you believe it?) 2008 is moving on along at rapid speed. Grant mentioned today how blessed we are. I couldn't agree more. Just the fact that we can go buy groceries every week without sweating the bill is something we take for granted. Sure, we can't fly off to Europe on a whim and I can't buy this new Coach purse I've had my eye on, but the Lord provides food for us every week and we just swipe the debit card without blinking. I am going to make it a point this week to thank God for the "small stuff". I'll even thank him for these comfy gray lounge pants I am wearing. They are nothing short of a blessing.

I was giggling at how many comments I got about Jon & Kate Plus 8! It looks like I am not the only one who enjoys that show. Tomorrow night is the episode showing them skiing. I cannot imagine keeping up with all those kids on a mountain. I can't keep up with myself on a mountain!

I hope all my ladies have a blessed, blessed week. Thank God for the small stuff. And don't sweat the petty things. Also, don't pet the sweaty things. :)