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**SPECIAL DAY ALERT**

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Today is a very special day.


Today my sister became a mother, my brother-in-law became a dad, my parents became grandparents, my brothers became uncles, and my sister and I became AUNTS!


Today, after many days (or two extra weeks) and much anticipation, we welcomed a handsome little man into our lives!


Please meet and welcome to the earth Scout Minot Ferrara, my nephew!





I am learning little things about Scout every hour. He was over 8 pounds and 21 inches. He has brown eyes. And he has a full head of dark hair!

Kacy and Matt, I am so thrilled for you and your new, cute little family! I am looking forward to years of getting to know Scout and watching him grow up!
My parents get to fly to Ohio tomorrow to see Mom, Dad and Scout, but photographs will have to do for me!
Wow! It’s been a special day. I am so thankful. How beautiful. How lovely. How wonderful.
xo
jenny


of labor-day’s weekend

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This past weekend I decided last-minute to make the journey back to my parents’ house in Minot for a few days. I hitched a ride with my good pal Paul, and we took the scenic route through small town, ND. Usually when I go to Minot, I’ll head north then west, or west then north — but we took the backroads, clear-cut diagonal route.
From our stop in Harvey, ND — payphones, roast beef sandwiches, and the most delicious and gigantic ice cream cone of the decade — for just $1.50!
 Me & my delectable treat. Drooling thinking about it.

A farm in Harvey, ND


• • • • •


I was invited to attend the Black Eyed Peas concert with family and we had a blast. Good music and great company for such a worthy cause — Minot flood relief. Josh Duhamel made an appearance and some heartfelt opening remarks, then Fergie and her crew rocked the stage. It was unforgettable!
 My sister & I before the Black Eyed Peas concert

Waiting for the concert to begin…with thousands of other people! The turnout was unbelievable.

BEP lit up the sky with lasers and confetti! **WOW**

 Aunt Kelly, me, cousin Lindsey and Uncle David after the concert!  
• • • • •

There was plenty of family time and relaxing — grilling, games, and good company! I was never bored, hungry, or tired. Just right.

Mom & Grandma ponder garden things. Wish I could have gotten a soundbyte from this conversation.

After dinner, a ginormous and somewhat competitive game of croquet occurred. No one was hurt.



Croquet champs, “Team Alice” 

Olive: still cute, still doing Olive things
• • • • •
I am back in the studio — which isn’t too far, since I just converted the garage at my house into my studio space! (!!!!!) I am so excited about this. I literally walk 25 feet from my studio and I’m at my house. Can I get an AMEN to NO MORE DRIVING HOME FROM SCHOOL AT 3am?!? 
I hope you enjoyed Labor Day Weekend as much as I did. I am so happy to be in a new place (finally settled) and loving the season. This. Is. My. Favorite. Time of year! Fall, fall, fall, fall, fall.
best,
jc

the lowdown, down low

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I won’t lie — today was tough. There was nothing particularly tough about it, but I couldn’t quite feel okay. Blame it on the disorientation of a new home, the piles upon stacks of items I have no place for in my room, and homework that I couldn’t find time to complete. About had a meltdown over I-Don’t-Know, but managed to keep it together. I just had a mediocre day.

Self-pity aside, I have some great roommates (four of them!). There is also a friendly dog in the house that has taken to me…

A friendly dog, brought to you by Instagram

…and the shower works better than my last place. I am learning the art of downsizing, and over the course of the past few weeks have given, given, given away like crazy — something that makes me feel so good. Less is more.

Finally, my sister Kacy (and her husband Matt) is due to have her first baby any moment now (and my first nephew!) and I am getting extremely antsy!

And finally finally, here are a few things I found quite neat:

01. Freecycle
B. These numbers from the exclusively B&W Shiro to Kiro:

III. This magical place from Design Love Fest:

 (PS: I love everything about this lady’s blog! Everything!)

04. Oh. My. Gosh. Lab Partners:

e // The Branding 10,000 Lakes Project by Nicole Meyer! Branding a lake a day with some groovy design. So, neat! Too neat!

Take care, be well —
j

ready, set, go

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I am in a new place — it’s uncomfortable as new can be. It’s exciting. It’s…new, to me.

Just looking for patience and kindness and determination and rest. I’m exhausted.

The only thing today — and moving — has made me long to do is give away everything I own and travel anywhere. Sometime.

Here are a few snaps from this weekend…

Be well, friends!
j

the jubilation that is…the last day of my summer!

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I don’t map my days out very well. I actually don’t really think about what I’ll be doing until my alarm goes off and I think, “I have nothing on my agenda today. Splendid.”

Today was one of those days, I decided (contrary to yesterday’s suggestion that today would be hectic). I did little to nothing of importance and it was beautiful.


 

Goodbye, free time. Goodbye, summer. Goodbye.
xo
j

worth mentioning: my parents

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I completely failed to address a momentous occasion that occurred this past week. My parents celebrated 30 years of marriage on 14 August. That’s 30 years of hanging out with each other all the time, raising kids, dogs, (and at one point, a duck), kids that acted like dogs, and picking up after kids and dogs.

All joking aside, I am extremely privileged to have such wonderful parents. I recall days when Dad had more hair and Mom had three toddlers in tow at any given time, two of them crying (on behalf of all the times it was me crying, I’m sorry Mom). Oh, the things they’ve been through…

• Orchestrating a family of seven for church every Sunday, and getting there on time (or seven minutes late)

• Single-handedly raising five children through:
      * Diapers
      * Surly childhood days
      * Sugar highs
      * Cooking lessons (24/7 supervision of the stove)
      * Surly Pre-teen years
      * Surly Post-teen years
      * Etc.

• About 23948719234 birthday parties

• Talking their girls out of wearing boys’ clothes, talking their boys out of wearing girls’ clothes

• Driving lessons

• Plenty of car accidents (I will take the blunt of the blame on this one)

• Buying a lake cabin, knocking said lake cabin down, building a new lake cabin

• Moving kids around (or in some cases, kids moving back in 🙂 )

• Florida, New York, and Oregon family vacations (In Dad’s words, “We were there!”)

• One child’s wedding

• Two minivans 

• Three dogs, 90 billion turtles

• Four other childrens’ breakups (not mentioning any names here)

• Proms x 1001349

• Five high school graduations

• Zero children joining the circus

• Coordinating 2349587 dentist, doctor, chiropractor, and orthodontist appointments as well as emergency room visits

• There isn’t even a number that exists to explain how many times the toilet overflowed

• Etc.

I haven’t been around all 30 years to witness the extent of their marriage, but from what I have seen I am completely enamored. I could only hope to be as lucky to someday experience their kind of love and happiness.

Without them…there would be no me!

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xo
j