Some Video Fun

Christmas was great in Cleveland. We are staying pretty busy doing fun stuff, so I won't write much now, but here is a video of Alixa helping Jenna with one of her new favorite pastimes.

Cold (Cleveland) and Colder (Wisconsin)

I want to start this entry on a bit of a sad note. Well, I don’t really want to, but I am going to anyway. Thursday marked a very sad day for the Winns, as the family cat of over a decade had to be put down. Chewie was an old cat, and recently seems to have suffered from kidney failure, which means that he had definitely lived with the right family. Chewie was a stray who was found by Jarom’s neighbor in the parking lot of a Costco as a kitten. As was the case with all the other cats that the Winns have had, Jarom sort of took majority ownership and spent more time playing with him than anybody else. They loved to wrestle, and over the years messing around with Chewie became a fun part of coming home to visit Delaware. He would always come running up from the backwoods when Jarom would call his name from the back deck. Sadly, we are in Cleveland so Jarom was unable to go with his mom to the sad appointment. Mostly I am sorry for Nancy, who doesn’t handle these sorts of things well. It is hard enough for her to say goodbye to her kids at the airport. I guess it is a good thing that he was a good enough cat that tears were shed when it was time for him to go. Anyway, we will certainly miss him, but he had a good run.

RIP Good Buddy

This week was Jarom’s first at his new job and he spent it on the road. He had several days of training in Madison, Wisconsin, learning the computer system that the hospital in Richmond uses to manage patients. The training was nice enough, but the weather was awful. Usually Jarom doesn’t mind a little cold weather, but this was a whole new level of chilly. The temps got up to around 20 in the middle of the day and down below zero at night. One evening Jarom walked to a TGIFriday’s that was about 2 blocks from the hotel and almost didn’t make it. As he considered the possibility that he might freeze to death in an office parking lot a hundred yards from central heating, all he could think about was how on earth the Green Bay Packers play football games in this stuff in the middle of January. Brrr.

Jenna, sitting up in one of Lix's favorite outfits, and in her first "big girl bath"

But he did make it back, and even brought a new company laptop with him, which I am using to post this. He got back to Cleveland on Thursday night, just in time to spend Friday helping Jenna get better. Alixa had a little cough/throat malady last week and she seems to have transferred that on to her darling daughter. What a great mom, eh? Thursday evening Jenna began to make a wheezing sound when she breathed. They went to a local urgent care facility, and she was diagnosed with the Croup Virus. There isn’t really much that you can do for it, but she continued to get worse during the day, so they made a second trip, this time to a pediatric ER nearby. They treated Jenna with some steroids and a nebulizer, which seemed to help. It was at least enough to allow the poor girl to get some sleep (and her parents and me). She seems to be recovering nicely today and even felt well enough to go with her mom to the local tennis club to watch her dad and opa play in a tennis tournament. They performed at an alarmingly mediocre level, finishing 3rd out of 5 teams.

The ER had cute penguin gas masks, but Jenna still didn't really enjoy the experience

The only sad part about Jenna’s recovery is that she has stopped making her cute raspy barks. We have tried to get a recording of it, but have yet to be successful. The best analogy that I can make is that she sounds like Copper from The Fox and the Hound, at the point where he meets Todd. It’s hilarious. The remaining Hegewalds are starting to arrive, with Abe showing up today and Zak and Sam landing on Tuesday, so the house is going to be filling up for Christmas. Hopefully everyone is enjoying the snow that seems to be falling all over the place. Merry Christmas!

The light at the end of the tunnel

What a week in the life of the Winns. Last Sunday Jarom and Alixa went to their old ward to say goodbye to their friends and had a wonderful dinner with the Zufelts, who they will miss now that we are leaving. Monday was spent closing cable accounts, returning library books, packing up clothes and assorted other stuffs, and generally getting ready for about 6 weeks on the road. Monday night Jarom had to go to campus for his final squared. On Tuesday morning we all got up and headed out early so that Jarom could be at school by 8am to present his master's project. He left Alixa and I in the car to sleep, and was back by about 8:10. It turns out that he had misread the email that gave the presentation schedule and he wasn't supposed to present until 10am, which would explain why there wasn't anybody there yet. Unfortunately, Jarom had an interview for a job in Richmond at 3pm, and Richmond is 6-7 hours away. An executive decision was made, and we left. Jarom called his professor from the road, and he was very understanding and accomodating, and it shouldn't prevent him from getting a diploma.

The drive went smoothly, and at about 3:00 Jarom once again left Lix and I in the car and headed in to try and get a job. The interview went well, and he was offered the position of Prelude ADT Support Application Coordinator for Bon Secours Hospital System, Inc. The job title is pretty self-explanatory, but I have been surprised in the past by the level of intelligence among my readers, so I will go into further detail. Jarom will be helping to change the hospital's patient care system from a paper based model to an electronic model. In truth, I can't tell you much more than that because Jarom doesn't really know anything else. The whole process has been very accelerated. Jarom will actually start tomorrow by heading to Madison Wisconsin, where the predicted low on Tuesday is -7 degrees, for a week of training. But he is very excited to be starting a professional career, and the company is great and there are lots of perks like vacation days and relocation assistance and a salary, none of which he has ever had before.

After getting the job, we continued on up to Delaware to reunite with Jenna, who had been hanging out with Grandma for the last ten days. It was late when we arrived, but we woke Jenna up and she seemed very happy to see her parents, much to Alixa's surprise. The next two days were spent faxing employment contracts back and forth and getting to see all the new tricks Jenna had learned, like only drinking warm bottles and pooping up her back. By Friday it was time to head towards Cleveland, where we would settle down until after Christmas. It has been a bunch of years since the entire Hegewald clan has been together, but everyone will be in Ohio in another week. Jenna got a new, improved jumper so that she can demonstrate her skills to Mimi and Opa, who are appropriately doting as first time grandparents should be. Jenna is getting chunkier by the day, and is starting to turn into a real person. She talks a lot, mimics people, grabs things, rolls around, and is generally curious about everything that is going on around her. She will be six months on Christmas, and Alixa is very sad because she misses her little baby girl. This is bad news for Jarom, as she will undoubtedly begin asking for another baby, especially since he now has a job. Jarom is content with just the one for now, and is very sad that his new job will take away the days that he got to spend alone with Jenna, but I guess those are the tradeoffs that you have to make if you want to have any money.

The next few weeks will be good ones for us. We will be in Cleveland until the new year, and then we will go back to Delaware to join Grandma and Grandpa for a trip to the Cayman Islands. I say we, but I really mean everyone except me, not that I'm bitter about being left out or anything. I guess the trip is to celebrate Jarom finally finishing school, and they are extremely excited about it. Then Jarom is off to Madison for a second training week and then we will move down to Richmond about January 15. The company has some apartments there that we will be living in until Lix is able to find a house that she likes. So in general, a lot of big changes going on here, but all very positive ones, and we are very excited about them.

Every town, has its ups and downs...

As I write this post I am getting a little misty-eyed, because it will likely be the last installment from my Knoxville base of operations. It has been a bittersweet week in the Winn household. First and foremost, Jenna is missing. She is spending a wonderful week in Delaware with Grandma and assorted other homeless family members who don’t believe in paying rent. Immediately after Jarom and Alixa left last Saturday, she caught the diarrhea bug and has yet to stop pooping. It is certainly a good thing that she is so cute and that Grandma loves her so much, or she surely would have been FedExed back to Tennessee days ago. She is sorely missed by her parents, who have seen her via webcam most every day. She doesn’t seem to really understand what is going on though, and mostly enjoys hitting the keyboard repeatedly. They are very glad that they aren’t around for the messy diapers, and are enjoying their beauty rest, but are quite anxious to get back to her on Tuesday. She won’t say it because she is polite to a fault, but Jenna is also excited to be done with Grandma, who can’t quite figure out how to do her hair.

As you can see, the hair is a mess, but she is very smiley anyway

The reason for Jenna’s absence is that Jarom and Alixa will be leaving Knoxville and having a kid around makes it harder to tie up loose ends. Lix has worked more at the Olive Garden this week than she has in years, and as a result we are all filthy rich. Then she noticed that the Camry had a flat tire. So Jarom took it in to get a tire replaced, came out with 2 new tires, some new brakes and a few other stuffs, and now we are all flat broke. Those were good times, being rich. Oh well.

Jenna has been spending a lot of time in the tub because she keeps pooping. She doesn't mind because the tub is her favorite place in the world.

Jarom is almost finished with school, again. He has a final presentation in one class and has to present his master’s thesis (sort of) on Tuesday morning at 8, after which we will immediately head north, whether he passes or not. Even the nice weather is finished here, so there isn’t much keeping us. We looked out the window this morning to see snow falling, which was quite a shock. And last but definitely not least, Jarom put his motorcycle Roxy on craigslist to see if there is any demand for her. He doesn’t really want to sell her, but he will hopefully be getting a real job soon and thinks that a car might be more practical, not to mention the decreased risk of being run over.

Jenna and Grandma enjoying her very first snowfall

It will definitely be sad to leave east Tennessee. She has been very good to us over the past 18 months, but it is an exciting time for the Winns as we try to figure out where we will end up next.

Best....Christmas.....Present.....EVER!

Happy belated Thanksgiving to everyone! Jarom and Lix took Jenna on a long car ride to Delaware where they found a house full of 35 people for a few days. It was a great time. But before they left on vacation they took advantage of their friends’ kindness and sent Jenna off to be babysat while they went to the last home football game of UT’s season. Once again, Jarom was able to get some tickets from his football players on the 50-yard line, and once again the Vols delivered a good win. They stayed through a little of the fourth quarter, and at that point decided that 4 hours was probably enough of an imposition on their free babysitting service. But Jenna behaved herself, which is always nice news to get.

Also prior to leaving, Jarom gave Alixa her Christmas present, because he is really bad at reading calendars and because Lix loves getting things. I must offer a disclaimer stating that Jarom is not particularly proud of the present that he purchased, but it was the thing that Lix wanted more than anything else in the world, so he got it for her. One day after picking her up from work, he asked her to go grab him something from the living room, where the gift was sitting on a chair. It took her a few seconds to notice it, after which she reacted much like the kid in this video-



The gift in question is a leopard print snuggie, and Alixa has worn it every single day since she opened it up. She even has several design improvements, including pockets for hands, pockets for feet, and a tie so that you can walk around in it without getting a “butt-draft.” Maybe Jarom can turn those ideas into a job, since he is struggling to find anything else.

Jenna is still trying to grow into it

On Monday afternoon Lix and Jenna went with Jarom to studyhall where they met some of the football players and dropped of some cookies, and then the crew left Knoxville and drove 10 hours up to Delaware. All of Jarom’s siblings had come home, and there were also 5 cousins, some with families. So the house was crowded and full of babies. Sleeping in was pretty much impossible, as was going to bed early. Basketball and football were played, and three TVs were equipped with Xboxes for large-scale Halo games that went on until the wee hours of the morning. Huge quantities of food were consumed, especially on Thanksgiving, when about 7 more people joined us. Lix got to go see The Blind Side, her favorite story in the world, and loved it. She also got a haircut from Kristi and is quite pleased with the results. On Black Friday she got up to feed Jenna at 4:30 and then went to Walmart to get a Tomtom GPS for $60. It got some use on the way home and she loves it. Lix is very excited about not getting lost all the time when Jarom gets a job and they have to move to a new city. There was also a sale at Carters, where Alixa got about $9,000 worth of merchandise for about $50 (dollar amounts are approximations.) But mostly they enjoyed the company of so many funny family members.

Just a couple of cute pictures of the Winn ladies

Jenna spent the better part of her vacation in Grandma’s jump-jump, which is a little bit springier than her own. Every morning Jarom would take her downstairs and put her in it while he ate breakfast, and she would jump happily for an hour or more. Which brings me to Jenna’s latest animal impression, the springbok, a type of African gazelle. Enjoy the two videos that follow, and see if you can tell which one is Jenna (it works best if you watch them simultaneously)-





Alas, as all vacations do, this one ended. So on Saturday Jarom and Alixa left Delaware. Only this time they didn’t pack Jenna. She gets to stay with Grandma for 10 long days, while Lix works a few final shifts at the Olive Garden and Jarom finishes up all of his schoolwork so that he can get his final degree. They are both very sad to have left her, but confident that she will have a wonderful time and be very spoiled by Nancy. It will be nothing but warm bottles and licking sugary things and shopping trips for cute new baby clothes I am sure. Word on the street is that she doesn’t even miss her parents yet and has been very pleasant. We shall see how long that lasts.

Today was the Winn’s last Sunday in their new ward, the one that they were sent to a few months ago. After sacrament meeting one of the counselors came up and asked if he could speak with them for just a moment. They looked at each other and smiled because they knew what was coming. The three of them sit down in the room and after some brief chit chat the counselor asks them how long they are going to be in the ward. They informed him that they will no longer be there, and they apologized for not being able to take the callings. They are looking forward to being done with this phase of life, where they are constantly moving from apartment to apartment, never staying anywhere for more than a year or two. There are some job possibilities on the horizon, so we will see what happens. I will be sure to let you all know as soon as I do.

During and after pics of the trim

Dictator?, I don't even know her!

It is November 16, and it was over 70 degrees and sunny in Knoxville today. This is definitely the time of year that the Winns will miss when we leave in the increasingly less distant future. Presently Jarom and I are keeping each other company while Jenna and Lix visit the Hegewalds on the shores of Lake Erie. Word on the street is that they are having a good time. Alixa has been golfing more in the past week than Jarom has, something that has never happened before. Jenna is getting to know her grandparents, and they enjoy playing with her while Lix golfs with Opa or plays tennis and canasta with Mimi.

Lix and Jenna in front of the fence Jarom climbed over to briefly rescue a kitten

Jenna with a bow in her hair (no glue needed)

This weekend was also the second installment of the Jarom vs. Alixa fantasy football feud. Jarom took game one in the first week of the season, but Lix came into this week’s matchup as a 63-point favorite. That is a spread that any fool would love to take, but since I am not a betting man, I refrained. And it was a good thing too, because not only did Alixa win, but she also covered the spread handily, outscoring her emasculated husband 158-82. Jarom might have to rethink his decision to allow his wife into the league if she keeps beating the tar out of him, because it really isn’t good for his fragile ego.



Before she took off last week, Lix decided to try feeding Jenna some rice cereal, a trick she had been looking forward to for some time. It was an unmitigated disaster. It was messy, of course. That is to be expected. But it was so much worse than that. First I must explain something to you about Jenna – when it comes to her food, she does not mess around. Her hunger typically arises fairly quickly, meaning that she can go from happy to extremely upset in about 5 minutes. You should really use that time wisely to make her a bottle, because if you don’t she will explode into an angry rage. Well, it was feeding time on Thursday when Lix made her the rice cereal. She seemed to enjoy chewing on the spoon, but she wasn’t really getting any food as it was mostly falling all over her and the table around her. Since she was still hungry and the 5-minute window had passed, she began to scream at the top of her lungs inconsolably. The real problem is that when this happens she is unable to calm herself down enough to eat once you do get the bottle ready. So Jarom and Alixa had to spend about 30 minutes with a Jenna siren going off until she finally ran out of gas. Needless to say, the next rice cereal session will be done in between feedings when she is not hungry at all.

Sometimes Jenna gets tired of holding her head up and just lays down. Unfortunately, sometimes there is barfus where she lays her head. She doesn't care.

Another funny story from last week involves Jarom and a fellow student from his ethics class who we will call Hubbs. This class is mostly a big fat waste of time, spent debating ethical dilemmas with the other students. In class environments that center on debating issues Jarom can sometimes become a dominant figure in the discussions. Perhaps other people get their feelings hurt when he points out the glaring flaws in their arguments, or maybe they are just jealous of his stunning good looks, but there have been flashes of hostility from fellow students in the past. However, what occurred a few weeks ago was unprecedented. Amid a discussion about whether it is acceptable for a beer company to sponsor a high school Jarom stated his view that such a scenario seemed inappropriate, particularly given the constant issue of drunk driving and teenage deaths. At the end of his little diatribe, Jarom paused, and then finished. At the pause a friend of Hubbs began to squeeze in his two cents, only to be cut off by the end of Jarom’s thought. Immediately Hubbs said, in a voice that was loud enough for the whole class to hear, “Hold on, the dictator is speaking, nobody else is allowed to say anything.” Well, dictator is hardly the worst thing that Jarom has been called, and he isn’t new to being called out in public either, so he simply laughed it off. One week later, he got an interesting email from Hubbs-

Dear Class,

I just wanted to apologize to the class for my outburst during last week’s class. I said some things that may have offended some of you and there was no excuse for that. I let my emotions get the best of me and I promise that I will not let it happen again.

Thanks for your understanding

He isn’t sure if it was self-motivated or if the teacher had a hand in suggesting the apology. Any thoughts? And feel free to call Jarom dirty names if it will make you feel better.

This video is the greatest taunt/celebration I have ever seen. Lix should have used it after her epic win.

How to save a life, Part II

In an effort to become card-carrying members of PETA, the world’s most reasonable institution, Jarom and Alixa have decided to ease the pain and suffering of small mammals everywhere. Last week those efforts were focused on the unfortunate plight of SquirrelBob, who was saved from the angry claws of Caspian. This week it was a more conventional animal rescue. Thursday morning Alixa had to get up bright and early to go to a doctor’s appointment, where she was the not-so-happy recipient of three, count them THREE, shots, including one for tetanus. This is not really pertinent to the story at hand, but she has been whining about the pain in her arm for the past few days and I thought you should all know what a big sissy she is. More on her sissyness to come. Anyway, after her appointment she went to work, leaving Jarom to tend Jenna during the day. Since Knoxville’s beautiful November weather has arrived, it was about 65 degrees and sunny, so those two left for a leisurely afternoon stroll. There is a wonderful walking path that goes from our apartment to a pretty park about 2 miles away. This path goes behind the local Walmart/Sams Club complex, which is where Jarom heard some meowing as he walked by. Some investigation led to the discovery of a kitten on the other side of a fence, which seemed to be stranded. With Jenna, there wasn’t anything he could do, so he went back home and waited for Alixa to return.

A few hours later, as light was beginning to fade, the Winn clan got in the car to attempt the rescue. It began with Jarom scaling an six-foot high chain link fence that was severely overgrown with vines and weeds, was not particularly stable, and had sharp prongs on the top. Summoning all of his abilities from his past life as an Olympic gymnast, Jarom was able to get up and over the fence without incurring any significant injuries to himself or his clothes. He next had to tromp through some dense underbrush for about 30 feet to get to the kitty, which promptly ran away from him and hid beneath some rocks in a little cave. The next 20 minutes consisted of Jarom and the kitty meowing back and forth while he twisted his arm into the cave and tried to get the neck scruff to be able to pull the little guy out. He did eventually succeed, and found a very cute, surprisingly healthy looking cat. Leery of passing the kitten over the fence to Alixa, Jarom tried to find a path back to the jogging trail that went around the fence. No such luck. So the kitten was handed over and Jarom began scaling the fence again. Unfortunately, before Jarom had even reached the top of the fence, he heard Lix began to yelp “Oh no, oh no, oh no!” After working for about 45 minutes to rescue the kitten, it took Alixa approximately 5 seconds to lose him again. This time he ran into the bushes off the path, and with no cave to keep him from running, there was no way that Jarom could get him back. The only consolation is that Jarom is pretty sure that he saw a momma cat as he was leaving, which would explain why the kitten seemed to be so healthy. So perhaps it is for the best that he gets to stay with his mom. Alixa’s defense for her inability to hold the animal? She was worried that the kitten’s razor sharp claws might slice through her jacket and get to her arms. She has been apologizing to Jarom ever since. Hopefully the little guy is okay, and I guess the Winn’s will just have to wait a little longer before they get their first kitty.

Also this week Jarom took his comprehensive exam, which is a test that all grad students have to take before finishing. He had to answer several essay questions from 3 teachers that he has had over the past 18 months. We don’t really know what happens if he fails it, but he’s heard nothing from any professors yet, and in this case no news is good news.

Alixa’s big news this week is her complete 180 on her stance regarding feeding sugar to her baby. On Friday they ate at the Olive Garden, and Lix tried dipping Jenna’s pacifier in Diet Coke, and then regular Coke (Jenna’s not a big fan of the diet.) Today Jarom found a Special K bar wrapper next to Jenna’s play mat. Lix told him that she had been playing with the wrapper, and sheepishly added that she may have given her some of the frosting. It is a slippery slope and she is sliding down it pretty quickly. So all of you grandparents who have been threatened by her against feeding Jenna, take note.

How to save a life

On Halloween Eve, Jarom and Alixa found themselves watching some TV after laying Jenna down for the night. As they were watching the Lakers play the Mavericks, there was an odd sort of squeaking sound that mixed in with the sound of the basketball players running up and down the court. After muting the TV, they determined that it was an animal sound, and that it seemed to be coming from outside. Ever the paranoid mother, Alixa thought that it was probably a colony of bats that had broken through our bedroom window to roost in our room and eat our daughter. As he is wont to do, Jarom humored her and trundled up the stairs to fight off the echolocating beasts. You may recall that this is not the first time Jarom has been called upon to fight off winged mammals. But alas, he opened the door and found nothing but a happily sleeping baby. He checked the window for any structural weaknesses that could be taken advantage of, and it was then that he saw Caspian sitting in the backyard. Caspian is a white cat that belongs to some neighbors of ours, who happen to be coworkers of Alixa’s at the Olive Garden. Being kindhearted animal lovers, we have offered him wonderful treats of tuna in the past. As the result of what I am about to share with you, Caspian will never get tuna from Lixi again.

Jarom came back downstairs to share his discovery with Alixa. They went out the back door to see what Caspian had managed to catch. The cat was immediately startled by their presence and backed away from his prey, which they saw was a baby squirrel. Caspian is clearly a well-fed cat, because he wasn’t particularly interested in eating the SquirrelBob, but was basically just playing with him and scaring the bejeepers out of the poor little guy. After a cursory examination, Jarom declared that although probably in shock, Bob had not sustained any major injuries and seemed to be functionally fine. However, due to the shock he wasn’t running away, so Jarom proposed that maybe the circle of life should be allowed to run its course. Alixa was vehemently opposed to this, even though it had been less than one hour since she guiltlessly watched a mouse be killed by yours truly. Confronted with this inconsistency, she replied, “I don’t mind the circle of life, I just don’t want to listen to it taking place outside my door.” In her defense she did scold the mouse that I had eaten for not dying quietly enough. I guess she has very sensitive ears.

So she grabbed the mouse box from the pet store, and Jarom did his best Steve Irwin and rescued the little guy. They brought him into the house to take some pictures and make sure that he wasn’t too injured to be released. Jarom, having once had a pet squirrel, considered keeping him for a little while, but an unfortunate incident in the Hegewald household years ago convinced them that it was a bad idea. A gray squirrel had come into their house via the fireplace and left a trail of sooty footprints everywhere and chewed through one of their couches. So they took some pictures of Bob and let him snap out of his Caspian-induced stupor, and then took him back outside and watched him scurry up a tree. Apart from a bloody nose, Bob didn’t seem any worse for the wear and now has a particularly valuable life lesson that will hopefully let him live to be old and gray (badoom-chhh!)

The scene of the crime, with a shellshocked Bob

He was a little reluctant to leave the safety of his box

Lix, happy to have rescued SquirrelBob

Isn't he so cute?

She's a witch!

Jarom and I have been pretty lonely this past week because Lix and Jenna went to Delaware for “Halloween.” I put that in quotes because the real reason they went is so that Grandma can see Jenna, and whenever that happens they say it is for whatever holiday or event is closest. So we will be getting baby clothes on Flag Day and have visits for Spring Equinox and the like. Jarom has been pretty bummed without his family, but the girls had a great time visiting and got to see the entire Winn clan while they were there. They got home today, and Jenna doesn’t even recognize her dad anymore. It’s sad.

Jenna's grumpiest face ever

Uncle Jason risking Jenna's life. She seems happy about it.

Frogman, who is now in heated competition with Fufu for Jenna's love

Jenna and Luke

Jarom did get to visit the dentist while he was alone, which was no good. He had one minor cavity to be filled. He hates the dentist and hates the things that they do to him there, but he does very much enjoy the numbing agents that he gets. His dentist in Provo was the best because they would give him Nitrous Oxide, which he highly recommends to anyone and everyone. Here it was just a shot of Novocaine, but the tingly sensation that comes along with it is the same. It is a good thing he is far too cheap to ever consider taking up a drug habit.

Yummmmm

Since it has been a slow week, I will share an interesting thought that I have had. The arrival of Jenna, and really any small baby, has inevitably produced occasions wherein one of her parents will thrust her up into the air in the same way that Simba is held up by Rafiki at the beginning of The Lion King. The interesting part is that this action will always be followed by the singing of the accompanying song. Nobody knows the words to that song, because it is in Swahili or some other African language, but everyone has their own version of the words, and they are all unique. Alixa and Jarom each have a distinct version that they claim is correct. For a fun game, ask some people that you know (boyfriends, neighbors, coworkers) for their version to see if it matches with your own. For easy reference I will give you the actual footage for comparison. You really only need to watch the first 30 seconds, but keep going if you want to.

Places to be

I hope you all enjoyed the video from last week. Along with her newfound ability to spit, Jenna is starting to seem like she has places to go. She refuses to stay in one place if you set her down, rolling over until she runs into something, and doesn’t like to be held most of the time. She squirms and tries to sit up, bounces up and down on her legs, and generally shows an interest in being somewhere else. This is terrible news for the Winns, who recently had a visit from their friends Brad and Amanda and their two-year old Addi. Said visit made it quite clear that nothing in the house is baby proofed in the slightest. Jarom is hoping that Jenna will sit tight for a few more months so they can just worry about it when we get wherever we are going.

Jenna's new Bumbo makes her look even squattier than normal

The many smiles of Jenna

Speaking of wherever we are going, Jarom has been getting a steady stream of rejection letters for all the jobs he is applying for. But he continues to plod along, with much help from his employment specialist, Alixa. She does a great job of finding things for him to apply for, and then he just has to fill out applications and write cover letters and stuff. She seems to genuinely enjoy it, so who is Jarom to deny her that pleasure? But back to the visitors.

Knoxville's Sunsphere

That's birdpoop in Lixi's hair. It was a traumatic experience.

Jenna and her mom, and Alixa

Lix thinks this is a very cute picture

This is where Alixa wants to sit next time they go to a game. And Amanda seems to think she is at a KISS concert or something.

Brad and Amanda rolled in on Sunday evening, upset that the Eagles-Raiders game was not to be found on Knoxville basic cable. At least there was a Phillies game on. Monday morning everyone except for Jarom got up and headed out to Dollywood for a fun day of amusement parking. It was a nice day, albeit a little chilly, and admission was free thanks to Brad’s job at Hershey Park up in PA. The only downside was that Addi was sick enough to merit a visit to the ER, where they were told that she had strep. On Tuesday Jarom joined the group and they walked around downtown Knoxville, climbing the sunsphere and visiting Neyland stadium. The short visit ended on Wednesday when they headed back north by car and Lix and Jenna headed the same direction on a plane. Now Jarom is all by himself in Tennessee while his wife and kid enjoy an eight-day vacation with Grandma. They are enjoying themselves so far, which is good because it makes it a little easier to listen to Jarom crying himself to sleep each night. He is really quite a baby.

Motorboating

Jenna has started to be quite the mimicking robot, and her most recent past time is motorboating. She is still working on it, and mostly just spits all over herself and everything around her. But she lays in her crib at bedtime and practices by herself a lot, so she'll be a pro in no time.

OMG, BTR L8 THN NVR

Some of you may have received a text message this week from an unlikely source – Alixa. If you did not receive a text message, don’t worry – it just means she doesn’t like you very much. After living in the stone age of cell phones for the past eternity, the Winns have finally stepped into the light, sort of. You see the Olive Garden has a little deal with Verizon that gives their employees a discount. When Omi and Opa heard about that, they decided that Lix should get back onto their family plan so they could enjoy the savings. This means that Alixa is now able to send an unlimited number of text messages to anyone other than Jarom, who is still resisting the inevitable. Maybe when he sees how useful the service is to Lix he will break down and spend the extra $10 each month. To make Lix even happier, she got a new phone. It’s a fire engine red Samsung slide phone with a QWERTY keyboard so she can text super fast. It’s awesome.

This was dangerously close to being the last photo Jarom ever took

Jarom is still enjoying his job tutoring football players and trying to keep them from failing out of college. This week he had to pay off a bet that he lost when Florida beat the Vols a few weeks ago. A coworker of Grandpa Winn said that if UF won he would send Jarom a Florida tee shirt to be worn on campus. Jarom did him one better and wore it to the football team study hall, where he received a good many questioning looks and mean-spirited questions. But he survived, and got a free shirt out of the deal. He also got a couple of free tickets for the UT-UGA game from one of his players. So this morning everyone got up, loaded the diaper bag with every conceivable necessity and followed the flow of people towards Neyland Stadium, home of over 100,000 crazy people. It was a chilly, rainy morning but the sun came out a little and the rain stopped in time for the game. Everybody seemed enamored with Jenna, from the security guard who ignored their bag at the gate (if you ever need to get firearms in somewhere, babies are the key) to the ticket agent who gave them seats on the 50-yard line to the fans who were sitting around them. They tried to see if there were any other babies in the stands, but never saw one. I guess we aren’t in Provo anymore. It was a great experience, and a great game. The Vols delivered a beat down to the bullpuppies, which made for as loud an environment as you can imagine. Jenna didn’t seem to mind it too much, and was even able to sleep through a big chunk of the second quarter. Lixi noted that this is the only time she has ever rooted against Georgia, and I feel her pain. Along with the Philly Phanatic, Uga is one of the best mascots in sports, a position he cemented when he attacked an Auburn player after scoring a touchdown. Interestingly, it wasn’t the only dog attack on a Tiger, so I don’t know what Auburn’s beef is with canines. Anyway, they stuck around until after halftime, when Jenna started to get a little fussy.

All thugged out for a chilly gameday

Pretty good seats

After getting home, Jenna got some food and then decided to barf all over Daddy. She needed a bath anyway, so they threw her in, where she promptly decided to poo. Alixa could not have been more horrified, quickly pulling her out of the tub and putting her on the toilet, where she finished doing her business. I guess we will go ahead and call her potty trained now. After all that she crashed and will probably sleep for about a day. She loves to sleep for long stretches of time, and loves to rub soft things like blankets on her face as she falls asleep. These are a pair of typical Jarom behaviors, and along with some other signs they have convinced him that he is definitely Jenna’s dad and that no paternity test is needed. Alixa had so much fun today at the football game that she wants to go to another one. If they do, they will definitely get a babysitter for Jenna so they can stay the whole time and not have to worry about dirty diapers and bottles and stuff. Send Alixa a text if you would be willing to watch the rat!

Post game unconsciousness, with Fufu and her soft green blanket

Alixa's first cross-stitch project for Jenna. It took forever and it turned out really nicely.