Right Now with Jenn-o: Real One

REAL ONE

I had an epiphany, a REAL one, on Saturday 05/04/13. I was laying Allison down to sleep. We had come home from a Cinco de Mayo party and she had fallen asleep in the car. Her little tired head was snuggled into my shoulder and when I started to lay her down she opened her eyes, smiled, patted my face and then went back to sleep. I just stood there half stooping over the bed with my arms around her. As I held her I felt a weight that had been sitting on my shoulders melt into my bones. Taking deep breathes I could feel that sense of rightness roll into every part of my body. This is my life. Everything I do is for my family. I don’t want to write about my job. It is not the focus of my life but recently there have been changes made at work, reorganization. That word should not be a scary one but when it starts floating around an office it is scary, layoffs always follow and then a redistribution of the workload. It happened at my work two weeks ago and we are all still reeling in the aftermath. For two weeks my old friends “Panic Attack” and “Indigestion” were unwanted house guests. They were interrupting every waking and sleeping moment of every day. Literally I was waking up every hour at night in a cold sweat to worry over how I was going to set up a spreadsheet. That is ridiculous. After the dust settled from the reorganization, I and one other woman were left standing from our formally 10 employee strong group. It made my head spin. Suddenly I had a whole new group of people to work with, a new boss, new expectations and new reports to complete with a whole new set of deadlines. The old work that I had was still expected to be completed and now I was supposed to figure out how all of this was going to happen in three days. Needless to say I freaked out. I was still going to work, answering emails and the phone but on the inside I was losing my mind. I got sick everyday (you fill in the blank here) and had blinding headaches by the end of every work shift. But Saturday night I realized that all of the worry and grief was nothing to the importance of my family. I will learn how to do the tasks that are being set before me. I will learn to deal with the new deadlines. I will eventually hand my previous work over to someone else that is now responsible for it. I will learn a new rhythm with my newly defined position. These things will happen and I am no longer going to let the worry rule my life. I have a job so that I can one day buy a house for my family. I have a job to provide a good life for my family. I do not have a job to fill my day with something to do; I can do that just fine on my own. I do not have a job to give myself a sense of identity, I have that already; I am Jennifer McAlister Miller. Go back and see the second Blog that I wrote and you will see all the things that make up me. I am not my job. This idea may not work for everyone else. This is my epiphany. My job is not my life it is a means to living my life. Something that I did not want to happen has happened; so now I get ahold of my racing heart, snuggle my baby and lean on my husband. We will move on and make it because what is life if we are not enjoying each other? Worrying about a job will not help me be happy when I spend time with Allison. I will worry about work while I am at work and I will revel in all the fun that is my family.

Now let me show you the fun I had at the 5^th wedding anniversary celebration of my friends Noelle & Jason and April & Dustin. Twenty-six people and one fluffy white dog made the trek out to Parker AZ to play in the desert heat. Five years ago my friends had a double wedding, the one and only one I have ever been to, and it was a REALLY great party. So now we are going back out to the Desert Bar where it all happened to have another party. Families have gotten bigger and babies have grown up and we all rekindled the fun of the first party for this celebration. The Colorado River was chilly and that was good for cooling down sweaty babies and scorched toes. The Bluewater Casino and Resort offered gambling fun for the adults and a swimming pool with a waterslide. All of the kids had a great time flying down the slide and creating their own “lazy river” by swimming relentlessly in a circle. Watch out for Jason the ambushing speed bump!

On our balcony a pigeon family made a nest and laid an egg! Allie decide that it was her responsibility to wake the little family every morning, especially when she was naked.

Disclaimer!!! Naked baby ahead!

Complete change in topic with no tie in! Here we go.

Terry and I got married and we went on THREE honeymoons! Yes, we were spoiled by people that love us and I have always been very thankful for the generous gifts that we received. So in February 2009 Terry went to Honolulu Hawaii. We stayed at the Wyndam at Waikiki Beach Walk and for a week enjoyed beautiful beaches and tropical weather. It was sunny and warm in the morning and rained in the afternoon. The night we went swimming in the pool there was a thunderstorm over head, it was spectacular. While we were there we went to the Dole Pineapple Plantation and bought a pineapple. At the plantation they taught us how to plant our own pineapple by twisting off the top leaves and then putting it into a pot with dirt. It is that simple. It is not that simple though to get a fruit to grow. Even at the plantation it takes at least two years to get one plant to bear one fruit. So after four years of carefully tending our pineapple plant a cute little pineapple fruit has grown. I can’t wait to eat it!

And for some Right Now … This is what I think Medusa’s Gardener might look like. It is very creepy every time I walk by, I’m just waiting for that statue to jump up and scream.