Landmarks

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESSIE!! (Or for the unfamiliar, my kid sis, Jessica Simpson). She will kill me for this picture, but I simply love it, I made her pose for it, surrounded by all her flowers after her Senior Recital in Dec '07 at Auburn from the School of Music. God love her, she could sing that other "Jessica Simpson" under the table!

I love birthdays! I just cannot tell you how much. In fact, I would assume they be birthweeks instead. I think 24 hours are just not enough. In college, my roomies would count down the clock until that official midnight hour and bombard the lucky birthday girl in her bed....dousing her with confetti and the every popular "party panties." (which were a lovely pair of hand decorated undies picked up at the local Supercenter that I believe all 8 of us could fit in!) Not sure the significance in the PPs, but good gracious they were funny, and I know when I finally moved out of the McKee House I was still finding confetti in my bedrails! Man, I love birthdays!!

So today my beautiful, talented, brilliant, motivated sister is the ripe old age of 24. And is in her second semester of graduate school at FSU to become a music therapist. I am so very proud of her and the young lady she's become, she surprises me more every day. I cannot wait to see the amazing things she does with her career, I am learning so much about it, and she's such an inspiration to truly do something you love!

So here's to you, Jessie Messie (hehe), I love you tons! Love, Jenn Jenn

(Normal pics now of Jessie standing upright so she will still claim me as her sister....)

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Now another weekend event in our family...My fabulous parents celebrated their 33rd year together. He-llo. What a blessing! They're just fabulous! I can't tell them enough. I want love like that. They are my inspiration. They have been there for me and loved me like only a parent could, I am so thankful to have shared 29 of the last 33 years with you! I love you, Mom and Dad. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!

Welcome to the World!

The newest OOC'er was born Friday, Jan 16th to Felix and Tara Verdigets! Happy Birthday Blair Elizabeth! You are absolutely perfect in every way! I cannot wait to kiss those chubby cheeks!! You join a simply fabulous second generation of rockstars....meet your future roomies, boyfriend, and friends for life! There's Miss Katherine Lee Crowe....the latest addition, I have a feeling you girls are going to be nothing but trouble together! Your moms will have yall in matching searsucker and monogrammed jumpers til you beg for mercy. And William Hunter Grimes....look out now, this little man will steal your heart!

And Miss Catherine Harper McClendon....another angel in our bunch. You're gonna love her too. She's be dancing away with her big sis in a "bop line" anxiously waiting for you!

And our first addition ever...Miss Priss herself, Elizabeth Towns McClendon. Or TT Junior. She will keep all you little ducklings (and our future ducklings) in line.

A Time for Everything

People, I have finally embraced the world wide web. Reluctantly. I am afraid I will be that blogger that get's excited about my new blog and loads it up for the first few months, only to grace you with monthly postings after a while.... This is what I fear. Not that I'm looking at my glass as half empty, but let's face it--I'm an engineer--someone should have filled that dad-gum glass up to begin with in my opinion. Actually, I have had a half empty glass lately, but I'm filling it back up. I suppose you may find this blog as a place for me to vent frustration sometimes, to fill in some blanks for some of you, to keep my friends, family, and loved ones up-to-date on my life, and hopefully to share new people, places, and adventures with you....for my life has taken a new path I, myself, didnt expect to take. Here we go. Several months ago, I found myself 28 years old with a failed marriage. It was one helluva fight, one that was for the most part private, except for the very few we let see through us, but at the end of the day, we didnt laugh, we didnt love. I knew I had disappointed my God, my family, my friends, even my boss (considering Bryan and I worked together).... I felt every emotion you can imagine. I was angry (mostly at myself...well, ok, him too), I was depressed(woe is me), I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs (think I did), I wanted to cry (til the well ran dry), I wanted to throw something (check), I wanted to run (yup), like a child I wanted my Mama and Daddy (had 'em). I am very much looking forward to this new year, in a new home, "technically" in a new city (I just crossed the river from Phenix City, AL to Columbus, GA--so now I'm a Georgia Peach I suppose...), with this new road ahead. This past year has reminded me of aBible verse, or a few actually) that we all know. It's an oldy but a goody....sometimes the ones you've quoted, or sang, so many times, take on a whole new meaning when you really listen to the words. I quite possibly have felt 90% of these emotions in the very recent past...talk about a rollercoaster. I am now looking forward to dicovering my new purpose...and to planting, healing, dancing, loving, and of course, laughing. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.