Aprils A-to-the-Zizzle: J

J is for Jess.

Let's be honest, most of us who blog think we have something interesting to say, which means we think we're interesting people.  Some of us are mistaken, but hey, we can't all be winners.  As such, I figured what better way to prove how interesting I am than by dedicating an entire post to the awesomeness that is me?  (Humor me, guys.  I need the confidence boost.)

So, for the post ALL ABOUT ME, I decided to share with you guys some of the things that make me, well, me.

Louisiana

Ah, the southern state in all of its country, backward, deep-fried glory.  Born and raised here, I have spent many a day swimming in the creek, sucking the heads of crawfish (because that really is where the good stuff is) and parading down Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras (and yes, it's a ridiculous celebration, but we just can't seem to grow out of it).

As a teen I swore that someday I'd get the flock out of dodge and see the world.  Get away from the rednecks and their pickup trucks and rebel flags.  I was so serious about moving away that anytime a relationship got to the point where the guy started talking about the future I was like, "Later."  I wasn't planting any roots, no sir.  So what happened? I turned 19 and moved to Tennessee.  Because it's SO different from Louisiana.  Ha ha ha.  Truth:  the only differences between Louisiana and Tennessee are that the food is more bland, cars are MUCH worse and people say you'ins instead of y'all.  Oh, and Tennessee has hillbillies while Louisiana has rednecks (I have no idea what the difference there is).

Seriously though, I love Tennessee.  It's one of the most beautiful places in North America that I've seen. I lived there for a year, and I never got tired of the view. I did get tired of snow and ice on the roads.  Daredevil, I am not.  Plus my Dad lives there with my stepmom and my two baby half-sisters, so I enjoyed spending some actual time with them instead of a measly two weeks in the summer and week at Christmas. I made some great friends and gained some experience, but about seven months in I realized that - gasp! - I missed Louisiana.  What?! What was wrong with me?  I couldn't figure it out, but I couldn't deny it.  The 'ol bayou was calling me home.

The older I get, the more I appreciate my home state, and I notice more things now that are beautiful and unique about Louisiana.  The trees, for example.  Louisiana has some of the most whimsical, beautiful old trees. We all know the food is better here.  Basically I could talk about Louisiana and how great it is all day, but eventually you'd get bored.  If you just crave more, check out a previous post about Louisiana and the myths surrounding it here.

Family

Mine is big, loud, obnoxious and full of some of the most crazy and fun people I know. My mother's side of the family is the side I've spent the most time with in my life.  My grandmother was one of 13 (thirteen!!) children of a poor preacher/sharecropper and a full-blooded Seminole Indian.  They had an outhouse and almost never had meat to eat and spent a LOT of time at church. My grandfather is one of 5 children, and although my great-grandmother is still living at 95, I have no idea what she or my great-grandfather did for a living.  I do know great-grandpa collected tennis balls and sent them to children in Honduras.  His entire legacy is tennis balls.

My family on my father's side spends a great deal less time together.  My dad has three brothers, one of which lives in Tennessee near my dad, one in Oklahoma and the other in Maryland.  My uncles are great, and I wish I could see them more often.  (Long-distance family is one reason I'm thankful for Facebook. Otherwise I'd never get to talk to them.  For real. Like, ever.) My dad's parents passed away in 1996 and 1998.  They had a doll shop and made porcelain dolls.  It was the coolest place, and my grandparents would take me with them to the shop and teach me how to use the kiln, how to paint the faces and dress them.  I always considered myself their favorite grandchild, and I suspect I was right because they called me Miss Priss, and the doll shop was called Miss Priss.  My dad and uncles gave me the stained glass shop sign after my grandfather passed away.  It is one of my most treasured possessions.

Altogether (counting step-family, because they're awesome and I consider them real family), I have eight uncles, eight aunts, twenty-one first cousins, seven second cousins, two brothers, four sisters, my mom, my dad, my stepmom, four grandparents, and one great-grandmother.  Whew.

Then you have MY family; that is, my husband, me and our two daughters.  I blogged about them the other day, so you know they are my whole world.  Hubs is my Prince Charming, my rock, my supporter, my sexy stud muffin   He's also a wonderful father.    My kids are hysterical, frustrating, sweet, beautiful, precious little  fascinating people.  Their personalities are so completely different, but they're best friends and are so much fun.  It's such a joy watching them grow and start to figure out who they are, what they like and don't like, what their interests are.  I love every moment of it.

Faith

Like I said, my great-grandfather was a preacher, and my family has always been very involved in church activities.  As a child I probably spent more time at church than anywhere else.  Now, as an adult, my faith is extremely important to me, and I am actively involved in my church.  It is also important to me and Hubs that our kids are raised in church and know about faith and God and heaven.

My oldest child, at 5, is super-curious about where exactly Heaven is, and why do people go there, and what do they do there, and on and on and on.  It started when my stepfather passed away in 2011.  It was very sudden and she had a difficult time with it.  She was Papa's girl, so when one day he was there and the next day he wasn't, she felt very frustrated and confused and sad.  She reminds us frequently that Papa was sick and Jesus made him better, which makes her happy.  That happiness helps the rest of us to deal with it.

Each person is entitled to their own personal beliefs, and I would never force my opinions on anyone else.  If you want to know what I believe, ask me and I'll be more than happy to share it with you.   :)

History

My major.  My hobby.  My future career.  It's all wrapped up in History.   I love it, I can't get enough of it, and I can't shut up about it.  It's like this gigantic collection of stories - romance, war, comedy, mystery, drama - all rolled up into one book called Us.

There were so many fascinating characters throughout History: some leaders of nations, others seemingly insignificant people who contributed to the world in some way or left their words to help us better understand an event.  An everyday Joe who happened to be in the right (or wrong) place at the right (or wrong) time could change the course of history.  A guy who put his 99 arguments against the Catholic Church on the door of the church because nobody was home, forgetting the next day was a national holiday and EVERYBODY would be attending church....(led to the Protestant Reformation, btw.  Just in case you missed that day of class).   A little Jewish girl whose family was hiding from Nazis during WWII and kept a journal of what was happening around her... The son of a candle maker who went to work with his older brother at a printing press and learned to write, only to later be named one of the founding fathers of a nation...

Each example of one person who made a contribution to our world's history is a story, and each story is available to us to study, to learn and appreciate.  My hope is to share that love and excitement, so that others will develop an affection as well.

So, Louisiana, Family, Faith and History - four things that play a major role in who I am.  Of course there's a great deal more to me (my love for comedies, Aerosmith and vanilla oreos, for example), but you guys don't have time for that.  Neither do I, for that matter.  You'll just have to settle for a sneak peek of Jess.  For now....

See, what happened was...

I thought once I finished finals it would be rest and relaxation, maybe a little Christmas shopping here and there...

Afraid not.

First, the DAY I finished finals, Hubs came down with strep throat.  Over the weekend, Hayden started running high fever...trip to the ER revealed she also had strep throat.  Then, two days later, Anna catches it.  So I spent most of last week taking care of three sick children.  (Note:  Hubs is actually 28, but when he's sick, he might as well be a five-year-old.  Males.)

A couple of visits to doctors later, Hubs and kids are feeling better. 

Yay. 

In between taking the kids to the doctor and babying Hubs I was super-busy at work planning and decorating for our annual Christmas dinner.  My boss, the Pastor, is older and apparently has an abundance of free time to come up with these crazy schemes and decoration ideas - this would normally be cool, but since I'm the secretary, that means I'm the one who has to try and make his ideas come to life.  These ideas usually take two or three days to complete. 

Luckily I'm brilliant and was able to pull everything together, and our dinner on Thursday night was a smashing success.  Yay.

Friday I cleaned house, finished Christmas shopping, wrapped presents and started packing for us to spend the weekend at Hub's parent's house in Baton Rouge.  All in all a great day, especially when Hubs brought in the mail and I discovered a letter from my school informing me I made the President's List. 

Woohoo! 

I was so excited and moved that I cried.  It sort of felt like validation for me - letting myself know that hey, I can actually do this - even with a husband and two children and a home to take care of and a job to keep.  Just call me Superwoman. 

I rode that high all the way through the weekend, and I'm still feeling pretty giddy about it now.  Hubs put the letter on the fridge, which is adorable and lets me know he's super proud of me.  

Our "Christmas Weekend" with Hub's family went well.  The girls received entirely too many gifts, as usual.  We hit the jackpot with cash prizes and some gift cards and pretty awesome gifts.  Made it back home this afternoon, had lunch at my grandparent's house, watched the Saints lose to the Ravens (boo) and then went to church for our Christmas Candelight Service.  

Whew.  

So, that's what I've been up to - not that y'all really cared.  This vacation is turning out to be not so much a vacation as much as more work for Jess.  How strange.  

First day of school review and blog lovin'

Had my first day of school today.  (I was so excited/anxious that I woke up at 4:30am and could not go back to sleep.) I know first impressions aren't always accurate or necessarily a good indicator as far as professors go, but my initial opinions were good.  I'm taking six classes - all lecture classes.  Somewhere in the back of my mind I'm wondering what was I thinking?!, but I'm not going to panic.  Just yet. 

Of course, with my new super-busy schedule (school MWF and work T/Th) I will have a huge chunk of my blogging time cut out, which makes Jess a sad girl. 

So imagine my great delight when I got home to catch up on my bloggin pals' new posts for the day and discovered I've been given another blog award - by not one, but TWO of my blogging pals!

was given to me by both the wonderful Meg at O is Me and Amy at Life's Journey with a Smile.  THEN my pal at Jumble Mash gave me some Blog Lovin' today in her post, which is always awesome.  Nothing like some good blog lovin'! 

Thank you so much ladies!  I really enjoy reading your blogs and hope everyone will wander over and take a peek, because they'll love reading them too!

Note:  Since I just did the whole award/7 things about me/give the award away thing last week, I'm going to ask for a bye on this one.  However, in the next month or so I will be making another award and giving it out!

This day has just been a fantabulously awesome day! However, now I have to go read two chapters of my Psychology textbook and two chapters of a novel about Philosophy for Friday's classes. 

Cheers!

Back to School

Yessirree, I am going back to school tomorrow.  I know I've talked about this incessantly the past few weeks, and I apologize.  It'll be over soon, I promise. I've got my stuff all ready to go, my morning schedule all figured out (because I am having to completely change it up since I won't be able to sleep until 8 every morning anymore.  Sigh).  I haven't picked out my wardrobe for tomorrow yet, but I'm thinking casual.  Jeans, cute shirt and flip flops, maybe.  Don't want to overdo it and act like that creepy chick who has pocket protectors and a highlighter in ever color available (I only bought yellow, thank you).

Because I've been in education mode for months days, it's worn off into my subconscious. I'm dreaming about school-related movies, probably because I've wanted to watch nothing but school-related movies.  Last night I watched Dazed & Confused, followed by Porky's.  Starting to think maybe it's a sickness.  Or an addiction of some sort....

It wouldn't be right to keep my current affection for the institution of higher learning all to myself, so today I'm going to share with you my top 15 favorite college-based movies.

Editor's Note:  I originally thought about including high school movies in this list, but it would take forever to rank them, and there'd be way more than 15. 

15. Sorority Boys

This film is probably not on most people's favorites list, but it cracks me up.  I think maybe it's due to a lingering crush on Barry Watson from his 7th Heaven days.... 

It also has Heather Matarazzo, who I love.

 

14.  Sidney White

One of my guilty pleasures.  I think Amanda Bynes is just adorable in general, and she's super-cute in this film as well.  Modern-day Snow White, only at college and with sororities, dorks and an evil blonde girl. 

13. Back to School

I was a kid the first time I saw this, and it was shortly after "Ladybugs" came out, so I thought Rodney Dangerfield was pretty cool (hey, I was too young to appreciate him on his own). 

12. Dead Man On Campus

Zack Morris returns, but as an older, much hotter dark-haired version who parties.  Hard.  Tom Everett Scott is great as the serious student who gets mixed up in roomate suicide scheme. 

11.  Rudy

Poor kid who just wants to go to Notre Dame more than anything in the whole world.  It takes him practically forever to finally get grades good enough to get in, then he's so tiny that the football guys just beat the hell out of him for two years before he gets the chance to play ball for what, 9 seconds?  I just love Sean Astin.  He's like Scrappy Doo.

10.  American Pie 2

I know the majority of this film is over summer break at the beach, but it starts the last day of college...so there.

This is my most favorite installment of the American Pie movies.

9.   The House Bunny

I'm a huge Girls Next Door fan.  I also like Anna Faris.  I knew from the previews that I'd love this movie.  Pretty funny.  Not to mention Colin Hanks plays do-gooder love interest.  He's so adorable.

8.  Road Trip

Can't stand Tom Green.  LOVE Breckin Meyer and Seann William Scott.  Hilarious movie.

7.  Son-in-Law

One of my all-time faves.  I think I'm probaby outnumbered against the people who hate Pauly Shore, but I can't help myself.  This movie is great.

6. Revenge of the Nerds

I didn't see this one until I hit my twenties.  Don't know how I went so long without watching it, because I love it.   I'm a sucker for nerds.

5. Animal House

No explanation needed.

4. Accepted

First time I saw Justin Long in a film, and loved his character.  Jonah Hill is also hilarious.  Not to mention funnyman Lewis Black as a professor is awesomeness.

3.  Legally Blonde

Reese Witherspoon is one of the cutest chicks Hollywood has ever found.  Great movie.  Also, Luke Wilson is in it. Cutie!

2. Van Wilder

Ryan Reynolds - one of my addendum freebies.  YUM.  One of the best National Lampoon movies ever made (next to Christmas Vacation and Animal House, of course).

1. Old School

I think I love this film so much because the idea of partying with Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn and Luke Wilson is just crazy.  How fantabulous would that be?!  Plus, Will Ferrell doing that ribbon gymnastics routine is hilarious. 

Since I feel like it would be a disgrace to have a school post without mentioning my favorite high school films, I'm obligated to include them.  I'll just give a quick list because otherwise you'd be here all day.  In no particular order, my top 30 favorite high school movies:

Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Dazed & Confused
Can't Buy Me Love
Breakfast Club
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Grease
Clueless
Porky's
Bring it On
Better Off Dead
Never Been Kissed
Weird Science
Teen Wolf
Hiding Out
Varsity Blues
Say Anything
Hairspray
The Hot Chick
Scream
Just One of the Guys
10 Things I Hate About You
Mean Girls
Cry-baby
Superbad
John Tucker Must Die
Once Bitten
The Faculty
American Pie
Carrie
Juno

Do you have any idea how many high school films there are?  It's ridiculous.  It was REALLY hard to only pick 30!

Backpack Breakdown

Since school starts in twenty days (!!!), I decided it might be a good idea to start thinking about a bookbag.   I thought it would be easy.

Wrong.

Do you know how many options there are now?  It's backpack-a-palooza on L.L. Bean's website, and apparently Amazon also got the memo.  I'm not the most decisive person by any means, and when given too many alternatives, I tend to get overwhelmed. So now thanks to Mr. Bean and company, I have all of these options floating around in my head:

I can get the old-school backpack

 

which now comes in a variety of designs (original, original plus, original deluxe). 

There's the booksack for the student who might occasionally get a whim to go hiking

There's Critter packs (are people bringing their pets to school now?)

Quad packs

Turbo transit packs (makes me think Autobots! Transform and roll out!)

Apex packs

and Messenger Bags

These are all just by L.L. Bean.  I was afraid to look anywhere else.

Since I'd like to think of myself as up-to-speed on style, I'm favoring the messenger bag.  The bag doesn't look that roomy, though, and I worry that it won't hold everything I need.   The kid in me would like the original LL Bean (in a larger size) in that bright red, with my initials in a cute little diamond shape. 

You think I'm kidding, but I'm not. 

Then on Amazon I saw a messenger bag that was super-cute

for $319.  The hubby didn't even say anything when I showed it to him.  He just started laughing.  I didn't think it was funny. 

Decisions, decisions.

I guess I could always just use my daughter's Elmo backpack if need be.

Life.

I've been out of the blogging loop for a few months, so I thought I'd take this post and play catch-up to whoever is willing to read...

Next month I'll hit the one-year mark of working at my church. I still love it. It's a rewarding position for me because I can utilize various skills in so many different areas. My boss, the Pastor, is one of the most encouraging and supportive people I've ever worked for. My work load has been steadily increasing over the past few months as members of the church have realized my talents and abilities, causing them to assign new projects to me. Somewhere in there I was apparently promoted from the Pastor's secretary to the Church secretary. Not that it's a bad thing, I just now seem to have so many more people telling me what to do. It can get a little trying sometimes.

My kids are now two and a half years and eighteen months old. The eldest thinks she's the boss of the baby, which leads to a great deal of time outs. I'm not the biggest fan of "time out" punishment since I was raised on the switch discipline. You know, mom tells you to go outside and pick out a switch off of a bush. You bring the switch inside so mom can whip you with it. It was a mind game, and it was effective. My children are really well-behaved, which is something I'm proud to say honestly. Obviously with toddlers you have moments of exasperation and feel the urge to pull your hair out (or just run away), but for the most part my children are funny, curious, and really smart. I worry sometimes about how good of a job I do as a mother, but I think that's normal. My husband is a great father, so he helps out a great deal as well.

I'm excited to say that I will be a college student again come August 18th. I have been debating going back to finish school for the past few years, but with marriage, babies, bills, etc., it just kept getting pushed back to a dark cobweb-filled space in my mind. One day in the beginning of April I was talking to my younger cousin (who will be a high school senior this fall) about how exciting it is to graduate and go to college, when I realized how jealous I was of her. So young, so many opportunities right in front of her. At that moment I said to myself, "What are you waiting for?!" I went home, filled out the financial aid stuff and applied for readmission. Exactly one month later I received my acceptance in the mail. Got advised, scheduled my classes and even decided on a major. I've been so excited that I've already bought all of my supplies. My husband has been so extremely supportive, and he also says he's psyched because he's married to a college chick, which is "hot" to him. Hahaha.

I'm a little apprehensive about how I'm going to balance being a wife, mother, student and secretary all at the same time. I have a great suppport system, so I know I shouldn't worry too much. We'll just have to see how it goes...