Obviously I’m not a parent, but I do find parenting absolutely amazing and especially in these times. I just read Heather Armstrong’s (Dooce.com) book, It Sucked and Then I Cried about having her child and dealing with postpartum depression. Pretty honest and incredible stuff she talked about. Incredibly brave.

She also partakes in “Momversations” which I think is an amazing site full of women discussing parenting and other interesting topics. (I am totally internet stalking her.) Anywho, recently the husbands of some of these women discussed why men get a bad rap as a parent and I found this rather interesting. I think society is definitely changing and I think fathers are very much an becoming an equal parent.

I finally got around to making a list of my top 100…well, it ended up to be 127 favorite songs of my 29 years of life. It was super fun to go through them and remember why I loved these songs in the first place. So randomly I will post ten at a time and give a little explanation. They are in alphabetic order backwards (Z-A by band name), don’t ask me why i did it this way.

127
Age of Aquarius | 5th Dimension
This song takes me back to when I rode in the semi with my dad across the county and he popped in this cassette tape and I remember thinking WTF is this and then when the song shifted to the awesome disco part he started belting out “Let the Sunshine in” and from that moment on I loved this song.

126
Time of the Season | The Zombies
This mellow, chill vibe of a song has been a favorite for years. Who can resist the lyric “Who’s your daddy”. Fabulous.

125
Bust A Move | Young MC
This is a classic. “This is a jam for all the fellows, trying to do what those ladies tell us”. I don’t remember a time when I didn’t love this song. Nick and I have been known to battle rap to this jam. “You want it, you got it”

124
Island in the Sun | Weezer
I love Weezer and I love their originality. This song is just relaxed and hip :).

123
Brown Eyed Girl | Van Morrison
Oh c’mon I had to do this. Us brown-eyed people get no love, this is our anthem if you will. Not only is this an awesome song, it also reminds me of my Aunt Dee. “Hey where did we go, days when the rains came, down in the hallow, playing the new game, laughing and a running, hey, hey…”

122
Into the Mystic | Van Morrison
Yes, Van Morrison, one of only a few who got on this list twice. I fell in love with this song when I was nine. It was on a soundtrack to an awful movie (Dream a Little Dream). I listened to that tape over and over again. This song is so hauntingly beautiful. I always imagined it playing at my funeral. I was extremely pissed when they used this song at the end of American Wedding and that they had The Wallflowers cover it. Yuk. Glen Hasnard’s version isn’t too bad, but the original is amazing.

121
With or Without You | U2
I think I got the Joshua Tree tape from my step-dad a long time ago, but I don’t know that for sure. I remember someone gave it to me and let’s just say this song was played over and over again. Painful, tragic and beautiful. Oh, I love U2. “On a bed of nails she makes me wait”

120
One | U2
Another U2 song, with good reason. One’s lyrics are incredible, it is poetry. “Did I ask too much? More than a lot. You gave me nothing, Now it’s all I got. We’re one, but we’re not the same.”

This just gave me an idea for my own soirée. Love this!

Today marks three years after losing Ryder to cancer. This e-mail came to me from my aunt Jan and if you don’t know about the dimes, might want to read Dee’s story, which is going to be in the DM Register soon!

“Today, it has been 3 years since Ryder’s passing. I was talking to Jenni on the phone and told her I could not believe he did not leave me a dime some where this morning. So, I get off the phone with her and not 5 minutes later, I am cleaning a shelf in the kitchen and there are 3 dimes. So, I am hearing his voice very vividly saying to me, “You want a dime Jan well, I will give you 3!” As, I tell Jenni this she says, “Mom, it has been 3 years!” So, that is why I received 3!”

Yeah, so I’ve been busy. July is nearly over and I have no clue where it went and someone completely hid June.
I’ll sum up some more of the interesting points…

Drea graduated (yeah in May, i told you i’m a bit behind) anyway a bunch of us headed to harper’s ferry to celebrate, where we rented a house. it was pretty awesome. Is super chill, we drank, ate, relaxed, played lawn games and drank, did i say that already?

Engaged & Babies! So Jeff and Iulia as well as MH and Megan got engaged. Then our friends Ryan & Lara, Zach & Amy and Kevi & Julie all are expecting their first child.

Garage Sale. My mom talked me into doing a garage sale with her, it wasn’t as bad as I thought and we ended up making over $100 dollars, so that was nice. I don’t think I’ll do another one for about 10 years. I think the highlight were the crazy Christian ladies that came at the very end and mom giving them a free nativity scene, their refusal because Jesus looked too old. Apparently this nativity scene wasn’t Biblically accurate because everything in the bible is completely true.

Dad and Tim turned 51! Both visited them on their birthdays, hung out a bit.

Got a “new” computer. Well, again, Nick got a new computer. I got his hand-me-down, though I did get and iPod Touch which I’m in love with.

July 3, 2009. One year before we tie the knot. To celebrate we headed to the Temple/Centro to check it out. Had a great dinner, couldn’t hear 80/35 which will be a factor in 2010. The parking was a little difficult, but I hope my guests will understand. Afterwards we headed home where Nick proceeded to drink a lot and play Wii Bags. It was super entertaining.

Fourth of July. We headed to mom’s for bit, where some strange family pictures went down. Then Nick headed to the Barnstormer’s game with his dad, brother and grandpa. I headed to meet up with Kari, Andie, Connie and Lauren.

July 9, 2009. Marked Mom and Tim’s 15th year anniversary. Holy shit, fifteen years. That is so crazy.

Basilica Block Party. Nick and I headed to Minneapolis to see my favorite, Matt Nathanson and his favorite The Hold Steady play at the Basilica Block Party. Had a fabulous time. Matt was awesome, as usual. I almost fainted on a guy in a wheelchair, but some stranger caught me, how embarrassing. Don’t quite know what that was all about. Got our picture with the Pope. The Hold Steady were fun. We also did some shopping at Nicolett Mall, ate lunch at The News Room and had amazing drinks at this tequila bar, Barrio. After the block party had some drinks at Bank (the bar in our hotel lobby) where I had an incredible Raspberry/Chili Martini. Then brunch the next day at Hell’s Kitchen (not affiliated with the show or Gordon Ramsey). The place was super cool. The atmosphere is super creepy and the artwork was so awesome. The food, delicious. The make their own peanut butter and I was skeptical because how good can peanut butter get, oh it can get good, it can get awesome.

Wedding Plans. We have made a lot of decisions. We have a florist, who is so fantastic, she got me all crazy about flowers. We (obviously) picked out venue, it is perfect and we fell in love with it right away. I found a dress, haha, haven’t pulled the trigger, I just have to rationalize it to myself. Found a non-cheesy DJ. And after five, yes, five cake tastings I found my cake! Much love to my cake tasting crew (Kari and Mom) for putting up with my indecisive, craziness during this process. So it is coming together, I have to buckle down on the invitation design, but I feel pretty good about it.

And that is two months worth of my life.
basilica block party pictures
harpers ferry pictures
Derek’s harpers ferry pictures
fourth of july pictures