Cute kid story #2

A couple of weeks ago, I made the mistake of getting bangs again. When I went back to work the next Monday, I found that my hairstyle is almost exactly the same as Allison's. She's my favorite little left-handed Scorpio, but I still don't want to have the same haircut as a 5 year old.

Allison walked by me this morning and Kim said, "There goes your hair twin." Then she says to her, "Allison, do you and Miss Jenna have the same haircut right now?" Allison's response was, "Yea... except Miss Jenna has more gray hairs than I do." Sounds like I may need to start dyeing my hair again...

Cute kid story

I'm going to try to be better about remembering to write down the funny things that the kids at the CDC say. My personal favorite was from a week ago when I was talking to Emily (the most theatrical little redhead one will ever meet). Here's the conversation:

Jenna: "Ooh Emily, I like your pretty pink nail polish."
Emily (holding up both of her pointer fingers): "Thank you... it gets scraped off of these ones when I pick my boogers."

I stifled my laughter and my stomach churned a little at the same time. Then I immediately went to tell Kim because you can't keep a conversation like that to yourself.

Security!

I forgot to write about this on the day that it actually happened, but I'll try to describe it now...

I went to the airport in Lexington last week because I was flying back to CA. I made it past security without a problem, then went to find something to eat since it was 5:30am. I bought my overpriced muffin and orange juice at a little coffee shop there and began eating my breakfast. Once I had almost finished eating, I heard over the loudspeaker in the airport, "Will the passenger, Jenna Boyd, please report to security and ask for a supervisor" (they said this twice in a row). I immediately pick up all of my things and go to security because I don't want to hear this lady on the loudspeaker again. I go to the security checkpoint, tell the guy who I am, and ask for a supervisor (I'm such a good directions follower). Anyway, he gets the supervisor and she asks me what I do for a living. I tell her, "I'm a volunteer with the Christian Appalachian Project." She asks if I do any type of construction for a living and I tell her that I'm working with 3-4 year olds in a child development center. They said that they had found some glass in my CHECKED baggage and they weren't sure what it was. I told them that they were bottles of jam from the Amish bakery in Brodhead, KY, and that I was bringing them back to CA as Christmas presents, "because it's Christmastime," I said somewhat sarcastically. It was pretty funny answering those questions, though, because I couldn't have sounded more innocent... Christian Appalachian Project, working with toddlers, Amish bakery... could I sound like less of a terrorist?! They ended up letting me go and I didn't have any other problems making my way back to Orange County.

Stalker!

I should have written this blog awhile ago, but better late than never. Here's the story... at the beginning of December, I was on facebook and found an event for "Christmastime at Traveler's Rest Plantation." It was in Nashville (about 3 hours from our house), it was a dinner and dance (2 of my favorite things), and Matt Wertz and Brandon Heath were playing at it (Matt Wertz! I love him!). It said that it was a global invitation on facebook, but I wanted to check and make sure that anyone could go to it before driving 3 hours to Nashville. Kim and I called Traveler's Rest Plantation to ask about the event and they said that there wasn't anything scheduled for that Saturday. I decided to email the creator of the event and these are the emails that went back and forth:

Jenna: I had a couple of questions about the event on Saturday night... first of all, is anyone invited to it? I know that it said you can invite your friends, but I just happened to see this event online and wasn't on the original guest list... I just wanted to double check and make sure that we don't get turned away at the door since we're driving from Kentucky. 2nd question... is it still at Traveler's Rest Plantation? We called today to ask about the first thing and they said there wasn't an event scheduled there for Saturday night. I wanted to double check on that, too.

Girls Who Thinks I'm a Stalker: Hi there, Jenna. You can definitely bring people, so come on down. And as far as I know, it's still at Traveler's Rest...but I'm not on the party planning team. Can you tell me who invited you? They may have a better idea than I...

Jenna: Thanks so much for writing back! I had just stumbled on the event when I was looking for Matt Wertz concerts on here, so I wasn't technically invited by anyone... that's why I had wanted to check before we came down there. It sounds like they'll let us in, though, so that's good to hear :).

GWTIAS: Just so you know, though, this isn't a Matt Wertz concert in any way, shape, or form. This is Christmas party for friends who are interested in supporting a cause that is very close to the hearts of a group of guys down here.

Because this isn't a fan forum, you probably shouldn't travel all the way down. I have let the team at the door know you might be coming, and if they're uncomfortable with you being there, they may turn you away. I know it sounds extreme, but there have instances with "fans" at events like this in the past and we're all pretty protective over Matt and the rest of the guys.

Thanks for understanding, Jenna.

Jenna: Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry and I totally understand protecting them! I thought that they were playing music for this dance and that it was going toward this cause. We won't be coming down now because I don't want to be thought of as a stalker. Thanks for clarifying and don't worry, we won't be there on Saturday night.

GWTIAS: No no, it's totally fine, Jenna. And I'm sorry I had to draw such a hard line. It's just that situations have cropped up in the past and no one had known how to respond. So perhaps I'm a bit knee-jerky in my responses.

Thank you thank you for understanding. I sincerely appreciate candor.

So there's the story of how I became known as Matt Wertz's stalker.

Santa's List

During play time today, Kylee (she's 4 years old going on about 75) came over to me and asked, "How do you spell 'squirt in the face with soap?' " I asked her why she would need to know how to spell that since it was kind of a strange request. She said that she was writing a letter to Santa and telling him about all of the bad things that one of the other girls had done this year. This kid (who I'll leave nameless) bites and smacks the other kids AT LEAST once per day and she usually picks on the weaker ones. I just thought it was hilarious that a 4 year old would think to write a letter to Santa listing the mean things that another kid was doing. It was especially funny because Kylee is one of the sweetest children that I've ever met and I've never imagined her wanting to get another person into trouble. I guess writing to Santa is her way of sticking up for the other kids, though.

Christmastime is here...

As we were driving to the gym tonight, the Amy Grant version of "Walking in a Winter Wonderland" came on the radio, so Jessica and I were pretty excited... a) because we both have a childhood love of Amy Grant music and b) we both have a love of Christmas music and will listen to it throughout the entire year. Anyway, Jessica somehow figured out that Kim and I had misunderstood the words to it and she explained the song to us. Its meaning completely changed for me tonight, so now I'm going to attempt to explain what I'd thought it was saying during the past 29 years and then write the actual words. Here's the part that I had REALLY misunderstood...

JB version:
"In the meadow we can build a snowman, and pretend that he is parson brown." (I just thought that they wanted him to be the shade of parson brown, instead of white. Like when you say the trees are forest green or her shirt was royal blue).

AG version:
"In the meadow we can build a snowman, and pretend that he is Parson Brown." (Turns out a parson is some type of preacher).

JB version:
"He'll say, 'Are you merry?' We'll say, 'No, ma'am, but you can do the job while you're in town." (I thought they were talking to the snowman and were saying that they were going to be happy when they got to see the Christmas lights in town. Just like I always am when we walk around Balboa Island on Christmas Eve). I guess it doesn't make sense that they would say, "No, ma'am," to the snowMAN, but still, it sounded polite.

AG version:
"He'll say, 'Are you married?' We'll say, 'No, man, but you can do the job when you're in town." (Parson Brown is a preacher, so he can do the wedding ceremony when he gets to town). I looked this up and this song was written in 1934... who used the phrase, "No, man," in 1934? I didn't think that expression came along until the 60's or 70's.

Anyway, I never knew it was a love song. I just assumed it was about friends hanging out in a winter wonderland. Now that song has a completely different meaning for me and I don't know if I like it as much anymore... (ok, I'll totally sing along with Amy Grant when it comes on the radio, but it won't be the same).

Surrender

I've been having trouble surrendering some things lately and I finally figured out what I've been doing wrong. Every time I'm led to surrender something, I ask God to take it out of my hands or to help me let go of it. The problem is that I usually end up taking back whatever it is that I've said I would give up. This is because I'm depending on myself to give up something and I'm not letting God take control of it, even though I've been asking Him to do that.

I realized the other day that I'm called to be obedient when God asks me to give something up. I shouldn't be questioning Him, taking it back, or thinking that something better will happen once I've truly surrendered it. I only need to be obedient and trust Him. This is such a simple concept and I don't know why it took me so long to understand it. I'm constantly striving to listen to God's voice in my life, but that has usually meant that I wanted to listen to Him telling me what to do. I don't think I realized how important it is to obey when He tells me to get rid of certain thoughts and actions as well. I've felt some more peace over the past couple of days because of realizing this. When I've wanted to start taking something back into my own hands, I've been able to remind myself that God has asked me to give this up and I need to follow through on being obedient to Him. That's what I want to be better at now.