Food for Thought

Eating around the Winn house is always a little bit of a tricky task. Although I can’t confirm or deny this rumor, it has been said that Jarom once went 11 years without eating anything that wasn’t a peanut butter and honey sandwich. And it would seem that Jenna has inherited her father’s finicky taste buds. Which is why she is two years old and still being fed a steady stream of baby food, as in the baby food that comes in the jars for the 8-month olds. But recently we have begun to see drastic improvement on the Jenna-eating-stuff front. She has improved her eating speed, which is one of Alixa’s biggest pet peeves, so that she can finish a lunch or dinner in less than 45 minutes. She has also been surprisingly adventurous in trying new foods and being open to liking them. And she is even pretty good about it when she tries it and doesn’t like it. The overall effect of this new behavior is that the number of times per day that Lix wants to shoot herself has gone down by 3-4, depending on how many meals Jenna eats. And her imaginary food skills have been improving along with her real ones. She regularly cooks pancakes and cupcakes on Kenna’s play kitchen, which are always sold for the low low price of six dollars. And one of her favorite things to do while taking a bath is to make Diet Coke salads for her mom or dad. If you are interested in that salad, here’s the recipe: pour bath water from a small cup into a bigger cup until the bigger cup is full. Serve at room temperature, and probably charge $6.

Blake has been pretty good about eating as well, and as a result is getting pretty big pretty fast. Lix even tried to give him some rice cereal for the first time, and it was just as successful as every other kids first solid food. A whole lot of spitting and drooling, but he started to figure it out a little bit and when it was over we just threw the bumbo into the bath with the baby and washed everything down.

But the big news around here hasn’t been about food, but where that food is being eaten. And it isn’t in Richmond anymore. Jarom was originally scheduled to work at Bon Secours until September 16th, but on the 8th he got a call from the HR guy and was told that they would go ahead and pay him for the last week but that he didn’t need to bother coming in. Jarom thought about arguing, but didn’t want to end on a sour note so he took the deal and decided to head up to Delaware with the family for a two week vacation before heading down to Dallas.

But first there was the little matter of packing up the house into the two Relocubes that had been dropped off at the house. A big chunk of the work got done on Saturday, thanks in large part to Brooke (who watched Bo) and Kenz (who watched Jenna) and Nate (who helped move the few big items that we had, including and not limited to the futon mattress.) It was quite hilarious when Kenz came by to drop Jenna off in the afternoon, because both of the Ennas came in and looked at the now-empty living room and asked “where’d the toys go?” After explaining that they were in boxes that would go to Texas, Lix told Jenna that she could watch a show while she ate her dinner. This seemed to calm her down, or at least distract her from the missing toys. So she ran back into the living room only to come back again with that same confused look on her face, asking “where’d the couches go?” So she got to watch a show while sitting on the patio furniture that was set up in the living room. Please don’t judge us too harshly.

Sunday was the last day at church and a sort of farewell day to many of the wonderful people that have been so kind to us during our 2 years in Richmond. Jarom will definitely miss the organ player from this ward. And Jenna will definitely miss going to nursery with Courtney. And Lix will miss recipe clubs with Suzie and Brooke and all her other lady friends. We will miss the YMCA and the great ladies that have taken such good care of the kiddos, especially Miss Evy. I’m sure that there are far too many people and things that will be dearly missed to write them all down, but I think it is safe to say that Richmond became a happy home for this family and we will be extremely happy if Dallas can just come close to matching it.

On Monday things got a little tougher, and Jarom and Alixa’s marriage got challenged a little bit. You see Jarom is a planner, who likes to take his time and think about all the angles and possibilities and options before he starts working. Alixa is a doer. She just wants to jump in and start throwing stuff in boxes and putting those boxes in the cube. I don’t want to take sides and say which is better, but Jarom’s method is better. The Winns once again had some life saving babysitters/helpers to get the last few things into boxes, and then Lix took the kids and headed for Delaware, leaving Jarom with the last few things and the unwavering demand that Jenna’s tricycle and her water table not be left behind. After some creative packing, for which he is unreasonably proud, Jarom was able to get everything packed except for a pair of stools. It helped that they sold a bunch of stuff to the buyer of the house, which also means that there will be a new washer and dryer and television when we get to Texas, which makes Lixi very excited.

Now the crew is in Delaware, hanging out, enjoying the company, and counting down the days until they drive 24 hours to the lone star state. I apologize for the lack of pictures, but I’m living in Bruce’s office and my stuff is all in boxes and I just don’t feel like rummaging to find the camera cords. So instead I will start a quotes segment, which is a blatant ripoff from my sister Annie. They are all from Jenna because she’s the only one that is funny right now.

Jenna: Mommy, I like your legs. They’re prickly.

Dad: Jenna, are you cute?
Jenna: No, I’m just trying to help this choo choo train find its mom.

Jenna(to her Mom, who was lagging behind): Let’s go Mommy, chop-chop!!

Now that Jenna is saying more and more funny things this segment will probably start showing up more often. And there will be more pictures once we get to Texas. Happy driving!