Doll Baby

Life in Richmond is coming along swimmingly. Jarom is learning lots of stuff at his job and is slowly becoming a more productive employee. Alixa is getting more comfortable in her new role as a housewife, and is doing a great job taking care of Jenna and Jarom. She does the dishes, the laundry, runs errands, and even irons Jarom’s work shirts. It seems as though the record shattering snowfalls have stopped, and we are enjoying sunny, if not warm, weather. A few weeks ago Lix decided to give her testimony and mentioned that we were new here, much to Jarom’s chagrin. Immediately after the meeting ended, a line formed of people who wanted to introduce themselves and invite the Winns over for dinner. Nice gestures, to be sure, but not really Jarom’s style. As this was happening he was talking to an old friend who lives in the area and he mentioned that he is usually just happy to come to church and blend into the background. I guess there is no chance of that happening now. Alixa has already gotten into the local recipe group and they went to a get-to-know-you dinner with some other new families as well this week.

This past weekend was highlighted by a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Winn, who drove down on Friday for a 48-hour stay. They came to see their grandbabies and celebrate their recent call as president of the Salt Lake City Utah mission. Jenna was thrilled to see Grandma, who was even more thrilled to see Jenna. Alixa was thrilled because it meant a trip to the Cheesecake Factory. They got to show off their new house and hang out with family, which was great. The closing for said house was supposed to take place on President’s Day, but banks are lazy and don’t work so it got pushed back 24 hours. So on Tuesday Jarom left work early and he and Alixa headed over to the lawyers office prepared to sign papers for hours on end. The process was much quicker than they expected, and they now have the keys. They’ll be moving their stuff in this weekend and personalizing it for the next several years.



Some people celebrate important life events by having a party or going to DisneyWorld. The Winns chose instead to go to the DMV, where they would deprive Jenna of a nap while waiting in the lobby for about 45 minutes. They needed to register two cars, a task they had already attempted one time, only to be rebuffed because Alixa lacked sufficient evidence that she was living in the state. This may sound familiar to you. This time, the Winns were armed with an array of identification, including passports, drivers licenses, and social security cards. They also brought the deed to their newly purchased home, home insurance information, title insurance forms, and several other documents with their new home address and Alixa and Jarom’s names. As you might imagine, this was not sufficient for the DMV, whose motto is “We will try our absolute hardest to find a reason to NOT help you do what you are trying to do.” But Jarom was at the end of his rope, and refused to leave when the hard-to-understand Asian lady told him she couldn’t help him. She finally relented and got her manager, who came over and sifted through the pile of documents spread out across the table in a not so subtle attempt to get their identity stolen. It was a Festivus miracle! The manager is the one DMV employee on earth who was willing to help out a customer. I don’t want to undermine her charity, but it is also possible that the presence of Jenna may have been the reason for her assistance. It was clear she was a little grumpy, but was still doing things that amused the neighboring clerks to no end. The lady on either side of us, both black, kept telling us how cute she was and calling her “Doll Baby” in a deep southern drawl. After two hours, they were finally able to get a pair of new license plates and hopefully won’t have to go back to the DMV for at least 5 years. With any luck, someday soon hospitals and doctors will be run with the same mind-boggling speed and efficiency as these other government offices.

SAHM

Mitch said it would be ok if I borrowed the blog space for a post.

The last few weeks have really been a transition for me. I went from being a work-a-holic to a stay at home mom. I know I wasn’t working a ton before we moved to Virginia, but I was working and contributing to the household income. And I really enjoy working. And it was nice that Jarom got to spend so much time with his daughter while I was at work. He really enjoyed the days of just him and Jenna. But now real life happened, and we are a typical husband/wife duo. He works at the office all day, and I work at home all day taking care of a 7 month old. I had a really hard time feeling like I was doing something worthwhile.

For those of you who know Jenna, she is pretty much the easiest baby ever. She is on a very predictable schedule, she plays by herself for hours, she eats really well and sleeps even better. So I had a hard time filling my days. I would try and play with her but she really doesn’t need me to play with. She is just fine playing by herself with her toys. She also takes two really long naps every day, so that was time that I had to kill also. I couldn’t really do any housework or unpack because we are in a furnished apartment that really isn’t that big so housework takes maybe an hour. So I was getting pretty bored.

After the first week, I stopped moping around and found stuff to do. And now that we are moving into a new house, stuff to do has found me! I have become the secretary making all sorts of phone calls to get things done for our house and to register our cars. I had to shop around for insurance and that has taken a couple of days. It was also pretty stressful because we close on Monday on our house and needed insurance by then. Also, what is up with insurance companies charging double what others charge for the same coverage??? It was a bizarre but incredibly useful learning experience. I now know all there is to know about home insurance and auto insurance. I finally got everything settled with that. I have also decided that staying in the house all day is depressing. So, Jenna and I take field trips every afternoon in between her naps. Sometimes we run actual errands, but sometimes we just hang out with McKenzie and Kenna (Jenna’s cousin and her mom) and go to the mall or a store to window shop. Those are always fun trips.

I have also had to make a conscious effort to stop feeling like I need to be working. I know that Jenna needs me and we are so blessed that Jarom has a good job that enables me to be home with Jenna. So I have relaxed and started enjoying my baby. Here are some fun things she does every day.

- Every morning, after she wakes up, she will just lay in bed and talk to herself for about an hour and a half. I like this time of day because I can still doze and I love listening to her. When I do get her up she has tons of smiles for me. That is the best part

- She is usually very hungry after sleeping for 12 hours, so she eats a big breakfast. She usually is waiting with her mouth open for me to shovel in the next bite. It is very cute.

- Then it is bath time. Jenna loves nothing more than being in the bath tub. I sit and watch her as she plays. It is pretty much like sitting in the splash zone at Sea World both because Jenna is getting chubby enough to look like Shamu, and because she splashes so much that the entire bathroom is soaked when we are done. She also loves the “baby in the bathtub”. There is a metal fixture in there that she can see her reflection in. She thinks it is so great. She tries to share her toys with that baby and laughs and talks to her the whole time. It is hilarious.

- Then it is naptime. In the afternoon, we run our errands and usually have a crawling lesson. These don’t go so well because she is so good at sitting up, she would rather do that. She has also become a master reacher. The child's wing span increases by about two feet if she sees something she wants. But she is getting close to crawling and if you put her knees underneath her, she will sway on her hands and knees for a good two seconds before she lunges forward and gets what she wants. I guess I need to put her toys further out of reach.

- We also have walking lessons. I hold her hands and she takes steps all by herself. She can also stand if she holds on to something, like a chair or coffee table. Who knows, maybe she will just start walking and never crawl at all.

- We usually squeeze in some jump-jump time in her doorway jumper. She still loves it so much and has a blast in it. She gets pretty good air too. We are worried one day she will jump right out of it.

- Then daddy comes home and it is dinnertime and play time with daddy. Jarom is sad he cant be home all day having so much fun with Jenna, but someone has to earn the money!

So, as you can see, we have a good time together. It is a hard adjustment, but I am happy for the time I get to spend with my baby. I was considering looking for a part-time job but I will probably put off that search for the time being. We are so happy to be here in Richmond. It already feels like home, like we belong here. If all this snow would stop, it would be that much better.

Seriously, it never snows here

One of the big selling points about Jarom’s new job, apart from the fact that it was available and that they would take him, was the wonderfully mild winter climate of Richmond, where all the locals swore to us that it never snows. LIARS! We have been here for 3 weeks, and presently experiencing our second major (6+ inches of snow) winter storm. The snowfall is a lot, but it wouldn’t be so bad if the city were equipped even a little bit to handle it. There are something like 20 city-owned plows, which means that there are many streets that still had ice on them from last week’s storm when last night’s storm began. But it does make the town look pretty, and it allows Jarom to work from home, which Alixa and Jenna love.

This is how people in VA react to a forecast of snow

Last Friday, before the snow shut everything down, Jarom and Nate played for their ward in a churchball game, the first such game Jarom has participated in since he was 17. It was eerily similar to the many BYU intramural games he played in. It was mostly 20-somethings trying to recapture the glory days of their athletic careers, the refs were sub par at best, tempers were hot and a fight nearly broke out (of course, involving Nate.) We were even lucky enough to have France Nielson, former BYU student body president, on the opposing bench. Jenna and Lix showed up to support the team, and we learned that Jenna really loves watching sports. Neither her toys nor the other kids were interesting enough to steal away her attention. She loved the loud noises and action. Jarom could not have been more proud.

Jarom’s job benefits kicked in on February 1st, which meant that Jenna got a trip to the doctor. She is developing fine, even though she still can’t crawl and all of her cousins can. She also got 5 shots, which made her sob uncontrollably while Alixa felt terrible. But Lix liked the doctor and is excited to be making repeat trips to the same physician, a luxury that Jenna has yet to experience.

Lix has tried to teach her to crawl, but she can't figure it out

February 2nd was Groundhog Day, and also Alixa’s 25th birthday. She got a new set of scriptures, some clothes, some flowers, a car ipod attachment, a gym membership, and a new house. After looking for a few weeks she found a nice 3-bedroom, 2.5-bath place in an area that she loves at a price Jarom liked. It has a nice back yard with a big deck and some large boulders, a wonderful kitchen, and a bedroom just for me. Lix put all her vicarious house-buying experience to use and put in an offer that was accepted and will close on February 15th. And then the Winns will join the popular “I have several hundred thousand dollars of debt” demographic. But they are thrilled about the house and excited to not live in an apartment anymore.

There is no fridge, so I guess it will be all fresh food, Kramer style

Lastly, Jarom received news that he passed his certification test, which means that he can start doing actual work. In order to be certified, he needed to score at least 80% on each of two tests. The results arrived today: 81% and 82%. He figures why work any harder than you need to, right? He was never particularly worried about it, but it is definitely a relief to have that behind him so he can really get into his new job.