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!

Second Honeymoon

1 Corinthians 13:11 – When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

Now that Jarom is over the hill he no longer does birthdays in the same way that he used to. Where once he had huge parties with tons of presents and all of his buddies and the occasional bounce house, now he has destination birthdays with his wife. And for their first destination birthday the decided to head down to Dallas and find a new home, since they have to be out of their current home by next Tuesday. So they arranged for some baby sitters, sending Jenna off to the Bleyls and Blake to stay with the Hoffmans. The original second honeymoon plan called for a Saturday afternoon departure, but Hurricane Irene canceled their flight and they had to bump it up to 6 in the morning to get out before the rain came. They felt a little bad about leaving town while the kids and I stayed here to weather the storm, but the fact that they could sleep on the plane and not have to wrangle any toddlers as they walked through the airports made them quickly forget what terrible parents they are.

Jenna and Kenna on their way to the candy store

In Dallas they met up with Nate and Kenz, who had already been there for a couple of days without Kenna, who had been staying at our house. They had already visited about 40 houses and had narrowed the search down to two areas, which made Alixa’s job much easier. The Winns instantly fell in love with Frisco, which is a relatively new suburb about 40 minutes north of Dallas. It reminds them very much of Las Vegas, in that the communities are all planned, with running trails and community pools and playgrounds, the roads are ample and well built, and the schools are spread out inside the neighborhoods. It didn’t take very long before they could see themselves spending a lot of years there. The house hunt was great. All those long hours of research that Lix has put in watching House Hunters and HGTV’d and My First Place really paid off. Their first love was a house that wasn’t actually on the market, but had been recently. It was pretty much perfect, but a little bit more than they were hoping to spend. Day one ended with a trip to the Cheesecake Factory, a Winn birthday tradition, with Nate and Kenz and a lot of thinking about the many houses that they saw. Day two started with second visits to a couple of their favorites from the first day and then a few more new houses. And it was in those new ones that the Winns found their new home. It’s a lovely 4 bedroom place with a cute backyard and close proximity to a pool and a park. And they really liked the way it was decorated, so they decided to put in an offer that day and asked for all of the furniture with the house. Sadly, the sellers didn’t go for that, but they did agree to leave some nice couches, a grill, and the coolest little girl bed you have ever seen. And now we will have a place to stay when we eventually get down to Texas in a few weeks. Happy birthday, Jardog! Enjoy paying it off for the next thirty years!

Jarom was hoping to get the sticks on the wall, but had to settle for the leather couches instead

This is the bed/playhouse that is the real reason they bought the place

After a very successful house hunt and 3 day break from the kids both Jarom and Lix were very excited to see Jenna and Blake again, and they were ready to have their parents back as well. Both babysitters were excellent and we couldn’t be more thankful to have such nice folks as our friends here in Richmond. It will really be sad to have to leave them when we go. Courtney was great and took Jenna down to the river and let her sleep in her bed with her every night. I’m sure Erik was just thrilled about that. And the Hoffmans did great with Bo, although they may have decided that they can wait a little while before they decide to have a second baby.

Now the focus is on getting out of this house. We have started to pack up, and decided that since we are picking up some furniture in Texas we can leave some here and sold a few pieces to the guy who is buying our house. It’ll save on moving expenses and keep old man Jarom from throwing out his back as he carries heavy dressers down the stairs.

The only real negative development that has happened lately is that Jenna has sort of quit taking naps. It has become quite a struggle to get that girl to lay down and go to sleep. She will scream and cry bloody murder until you open up the door to get her. After some trial and error we found that if you explain to her that she needs to stay in her room and offer to let her keep the door open a little, she does okay. Perhaps she just doesn’t like the feeling of isolation. However, now that the door is staying open she can get out and try to come downstairs, where she knows she is not supposed to be. So both Jarom and Lix have caught her quietly tiptoeing down the stairs and crouching behind corners and furniture as she tries to avoid being detected. Once she is caught she will sheepishly grin at you as you ask her where she is supposed to be, to which she will answer “in my bed” before heading back upstairs. On days when she doesn’t nap this will happen repeatedly as the parent sends her to bed and she sneaks back down. But it is pretty hard to get mad at her when she is so stinkin cute.

Here's a little clip of Bo laughing. Bonus points if you can name the song that Lix sings to him to get him to start.

Disaster Movie

Summer vacation continues for Lix and the kids. After spending 10 days lounging by the pool at the Winn house in Delaware they drove back to Richmond, picked up a top-five nicest person in the world, and turned around to head north to Ohio. The car had two adults and 3 kiddos 2 or younger, so the drive was filled with stops for all sorts of reasons. All things considered, the kids did pretty well and the parents were spared the hassle of strangling them. Once in Ohio the standard Hegewaldian vacation activities ensued. Lix went golfing a couple of times with her dad, played very well, and informed Jarom that she would now like to play golf “all the time, like every day.” Sadly, there is not always a pair of willing free babysitters like PJ and Mikah to allow her to do that. There was also a trip to the tea house for some crumpets with the ladies, a required event for visitors. The highlight of the trip, aside from getting to see the family, had to be the trip to Sandusky to drive through the wild animal safari. In the interest of full disclosure and as you will see from the video below, there was not a wild hair left in any of these animals. They have been well trained by the hundreds of cars that pass through daily, and are perfectly happy to stick their giant heads into your car and drool all over your clothes and blow snot on the side of your car while you fearfully fling the last of your elk food at them in a desperate attempt to get them away from you. Jenna loved seeing all the big, big, big, big animals, and I believe that a good day was had by all. After a week Lix picked Brooke back up and moseyed on back to Virginia, where Jarom and I were anxiously awaiting their arrival. Being single again after having a family is cool for a day or two, when you get to enjoy the peace and quiet and not worry about diapers or naps or feedings, but it gets pretty lame pretty quick.








Back at home, Lix has unleashed her full attention span on house hunting, and is having the time of her life. She will be sad when the search is over. Bo continues to smile most all of the time, which is great. He is getting better at rolling over, though he still can’t figure out how to get his arm out from underneath his body, which is rather amusing. He has also begun his first lessons in standing up on dad’s hand. Sometimes he likes it and smiles, other times he gets scared and cries a little. But Jarom keeps working on it. Jenna is still running everywhere she goes, and has incorporated broad jumping into her locomotion. This is categorized as hopping like a kangaroo, which she will tell you over and over while she does it. She is usually found singing a song as well. She knows the words to a half dozen or so tunes, but she rarely sings those ones. Usually it is just an unintelligible string of sounds that sometimes seems Asian and other times seems extraterrestrial. And of course, she sings LOUD, just like her mom. She has also begun a negotiating phase where she will say “okay daddy, this is my deal,” and then proceed to explain about how she is going to watch a show and then go to the mall to see the fishies and throw money in the water, without the slightest mention of what she is going to put in to get all of her things. Oh well, she’s cute.

Who wears the Bumbo best?

Also, this may be my last post because the world is ending. On Tuesday afternoon a 5.8 magnitude earthquake hit two score miles up the road. For people in Virginia, earthquakes are pretty far down the list of expected disasters, somewhere after Mothra attacks but before the possibility that the south didn’t actually win the Civil War. So even though the quake lasted for about 30 seconds and shook hard enough to knock stuff of the walls and generally scare the bejeepers out of many people (Lix included), many weren’t even sure what had happened. In fact, Nate was driving through a construction zone when it happened, and just thought that those tractors were really rumbling today until he later spoke with his wife. Jarom thought it was pretty cool, especially when he was told to take the rest of the day off to make sure his house and family were okay. There was an aftershock the next night at 1 am that was in the 4’s, but Jarom was the only one who felt it because everyone else was in bed. And now there is a hurricane bearing down on the east coast to wash away all the rubble and debris that the quake left behind. Somewhere in Georgia, Laurie Slaugh is freaking out right now.
In other earth shaking news, Jarom is turning the big 3-0 in less than 24 hours. This embarrasses Alixa greatly. Jarom isn’t sure the math has been done correctly because he doesn’t feel like he should be thirty. When he thinks of thirty year olds he thinks of the guys that taught his church classes when he was in grade school, and there is no way he is as old as they were. He can still do all the things he could do when he was twenty, or at least he thinks he can. It’s a sad day, for sure.


This is Alixa's submission to the mother of the year award

Who shot JR?

This is a very bittersweet post to write. The Winn family is leaving Richmond and headed for the Lone Star state. This all began a few months ago when Nate got a call from a recruiter about some job openings in the Dallas area. One of the questions that he was asked was “what would keep you from leaving your current job?” And one of the answers to that was that he really liked living near his brother. So he decided that he would only look at jobs with Jarom, so that they could move together should an opportunity arise. So they both spoke with the recruiter and outlined their wish lists for a job and he told them that he felt very confident that he could find two positions in Dallas that would work out, although maybe not with the same company. After a few weeks they heard from Parkland Hospital that they wanted to interview them. So they flew down to Dallas on Sunday, interviewed on Monday and came back Monday night. They both left the interview feeling very good about the people and the company and the opportunity. Then it was a two-week, very anxious wait. The Thursday before they had to leave for Kentucky, Jarom and Nate had scheduled a golf match against the Bleyls. Things weren’t going well, and they were down two points after two holes. In the middle of playing the third hole, they got a phone call from the recruiter telling them about the offers they were getting from Parkland. It should be noted that they immediately turned things around in the match, winning 6 of the remaining 7 holes, including a game-changing 80-yard hole out for birdie on the 17th. When they got home they shared the good news with their wives, and then told them about the job offers.

Some holdouts from the last post. Lix finishing the deck and Bo in the jumper.

All of this happened about 60 hours before both Jarom and Alixa were planning to be out of Richmond, Jarom to Kentucky and Lix up to Delaware with the kiddos. So they called up their realtor and started cleaning and putting stuff up in the attic so that the house could be listed and people could come check it out while everyone was away, thus eliminating the need to be constantly cleaning and leaving whenever someone wanted to come see it. Given the short time frame, I think they did a great job.

We are all very excited about this new opportunity, and for some reason completely convinced that we will enjoy Dallas. But we will be very sad and miss Richmond. This has been a great job for Jarom, and he has very much enjoyed his coworkers. It is nice to be within a few hours of so many family members, whereas Dallas is not even within a few hours of the state border. And we will certainly miss the many wonderful folks who have become such good friends to us in such a short time. Without a doubt, this has been the place that has felt the most like home of all the places that Jarom and Lix have lived.

But as we learned from Seinfeld [the opposite], the Universe has a way of evening itself out. So all the excitement of the new job had to be offset somehow. Enter the Winn’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. It came on Sunday, July 31. Jarom began the day on Saturday evening by driving to Kentucky after finishing most of the work to get the house ready to show. He arrived in Kentucky around 10 and headed to the hospital for his first night shift. As some of you may know, night shifts are not fun. At 7 am he finished up and headed back to the hotel to get some sleep. It was around this time that Lix was getting up with the kids and preparing herself and them for church. Now Jarom would never claim that he is a big help when it comes to getting ready, but at least he is an adult that can put on some shoes or grab some diapers or put a kid in the car. But poor Alixa was all on her own, and Bo decided that he wanted to sleep in, and Jenna was a little bit grumpy. But they did make it to church, where they didn’t have the back open so Lix had to squeeze into a row with some other people and then Bo wouldn’t eat quietly. After church Lix had to make sure everything was picked up and tidy and then she was off to Norfolk to visit her uncle Kevin. It was a sad visit because Kevin has cancer and is not doing very well, but she was very glad that she got to see him. After letting Jenna run around with some of Alixa’s cousins for a while, they packed the car back up and headed north towards Delaware. But Jenna had some scrapes on her legs and wouldn’t stop crying and Bo was fussier than usual, so she decided to stop at Friendly’s to feed the kids and have a break. Poor choice. Jenna fell down again and proceeded to cry for the duration of their stay. Both children pooped particularly messy diapers and had to be changed together on the changing table, which is quite a balancing act. Finally it was back on the road. Around this time in Kentucky, Jarom was waking up and headed out to the car to grab a few things that he had left in the trunk. As he walked past the windows, he noticed a few spots on the back seat, and opened the door to investigate further. It was a fairly hot day in Kentucky, apparently hot enough to blow the top off of the unopened can of soda that had been sitting in the cup holder. There were sticky bits of soda everywhere. The dashboard and windshield were covered, the seats, both front and back, and the ceiling. Jarom headed up to Walmart where he bought some wipes and spent an hour or so scrubbing down pretty much every inch of the car’s interior. He had gotten nearly all of it cleaned when Lix called him to commiserate about her day. They chatted for a bit, sharing war stories and some tears. But it wasn’t over. Shortly after that call Lix was driving through a little hamlet in southern Delaware where the speed limit drops from 65 to 35 and got caught in a speed trap. She was sobbing uncontrollably now, but the officer had no soul and gave her the $130 ticket anyway. Hooray for stupid cops.






But the day did eventually end, and luckily for Lix it ended with her at Nancy’s house, where she could take advantage of Jamie’s wonderful hospitality and spend many hours lounging by the pool. Which is exactly what she did for a week. That house is Jenna’s favorite place in the world. Each morning would begin with Jenna waking up and asking to go play with Hailey’s toys, of which there are many. After playing with Hailey and her toys for a while, she would then ask to go swimming. So it was into the swimsuit and out to the pool, where she would immediately head for the diving board and begin jumping off and swimming around all by herself. And you’d better not try to help her. She was very brave and got very good at maneuvering in the water. There was also a day trip to the Brandywine Zoo and a drive up to Lancaster to see our favorite Amish friends, the Boyds. Jarom even came out for a few days and had a great time swimming with the kids.



And while they were up north they got some more good news in the form of an offer to buy their house. So it only ended up only being on the market for about a week, which was fantastic. There are still the standard inspection and closing hoops to jump through, but they should be out on the street by the middle of September. So now Lix has to really get into her house hunter mode, and nothing makes her happier. As an added bonus our Delaware state trooper friend Officer Dear managed to get Lixi’s ticket taken care of, so we won’t have to deal with that mess. Hooray for knowing cops!

Jenna was very afraid of the goats, but was eventually brave enough to graze its tail

And now Jarom is back in Richmond while Lix and the kids are off to Ohio to visit her parents. Jenna will surely spend her time jumping off of their diving board while Bo perfects his rolling over techniques works on standing up. Jarom will stay busy missing his family and taking care of the myriad things that have to get done in the next month so that this move can go as smoothly as possible. It has been a hectic few weeks, and the next month will be very busy and very stressful I’m sure, but we are all excited about this move.

From one Commonwealth to another

The past few weeks have been highlighted by several wonderful trips to Ashland, Kentucky, where Bon Secours has a hospital. Whatever it is that Jarom does at work needs to be done at that hospital, so he had to travel out there for a week to do some stuff. He doesn’t mind the 6 hour drive, the staying in a hotel and the eating out all the time, but he definitely hates leaving Lix and the kids. While he was there Jenna learned that daddy was in Kentucky, and decided that she does not like Kentucky because it takes her daddy away. But it was only for a few days, and then he was back and performing his favorite parenting task, putting Jenna to bed.

If it is humanly possible, Jenna has increased the amount of time she spends talking. She pretty much doesn’t ever stop, and her vocabulary is growing every day. Recently they have started to work on her Spanish, and Jenna has grown quite fond of it. She enjoys learning new words and practicing the ones that she already knows, and will often ask how to say new things in Spanish. Most of what she knows comes from a book that she reads. It consists mainly of animals, colors, numbers, and a few household items. She also knows please and thank you. Her bilingualism has proven to be quite a crowd pleaser at parties and other adult gatherings. The other thing that she started to do the past few weeks is sing the hymns in church. She has always enjoyed the music, and has been helping to conduct for many months, but singing along is new. She does pretty well, and it’s pretty cute.

Bo has been doing stuff too. His personality is starting to show more and more, and his parents are very pleased to say that it is delightful. If you had asked either Lix or Jarom two years ago who the best baby ever was, they would have told you Jenna. And she was pretty good. She slept pretty well, didn’t cry a whole lot, and was pretty smiley. But compared to Bo, she was a menace. We can probably count on two hands the number of times that Bo has actually cried. He grunts sometimes, and will sort of yell at you if you take his bottle away to burp him, but as far as real crying goes, nothing. And he is as smiley as any kid I’ve ever seen. When you go to get him out of his crib after a nap or in the morning, he just smiles and giggles at you. Half the time you can’t get him to put a binky back in his mouth because he won’t stop smiling at you. And he loves to talk to you. He will sit and mimic the sounds you make for as long as you want. It is one of his favorite games. He is also figuring out how to play with toys, and enjoys swatting and grabbing at things, especially if those things make noise when he touches them. And the young men at church can’t get enough of him. Part of that is because he is a pleasant baby, but most of that is due to the fact that the Gayton ward has the most maternal, loving, baby-hungry group of 14-18 year olds in the world. It is quite strange and very amusing.

This past week Lix crossed off another thing from her home improvement list when she stained the deck. Her original plan called for one can of Thompson’s Water Seal (Honey Gold tinted) and 1-2 hours in the early morning before it got too hot. At about 10 Jarom was sent back to Home Depot for another can, with a third can being purchased a few hours after that. So the budget and the time frame both tripled. But she finished it, and now the deck looks like it has been rain-xed. And anyone within a 50 yard radius of the house got to listen to her singing along with her music at 100 decibels. She sings beautifully.

And now Jarom is back in Kentucky, where he will be for the next 3 weeks. Nobody in the family is overly thrilled about that, but I guess these are the sorts of things you have to do if you want to keep the really nice job that you have.