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.