That's What Jenni Said

How many kings step down from their thrones? How many lords have abandoned their homes? How many greats have become the least for me? And how many gods have poured out their hearts To romance a world that is torn all apart How many fathers gave up their sons for me?   This is the chorus from a new Christmas melody that has been making its way around the country this holiday season. It's absolutely beautiful both in sentiment and tune. You can hear the song on the blog of one of the band members here .

Christmas morning J awoke to discover that he had slept 15 hours. Happily, he felt much better. The two of us excitedly rifled through our stockings to see what Santa had brought us. He always brings us sweet and useful treats like chocolate and bubble bath. We played with the pups for awhile, had a quick breakfast (green chile egg burritos) and then got down to the fun business of opening presents. Our family and friends were very generous to us this year. J received a lot of dvd movies he wanted, clothes, his beloved weather calendar (from me), and an mp3 player he had his eye on (also from me). I received a lot of presents as well. One of my favorites was the 7th edition of The Professional Chef , sent by J's older brother and wife in Seattle. I simply adore the cookbook/textbook. It's the standard used at the Culinary Institute for training new chefs. So, in theory, once I work my way through the whole book I should be a quasi-pro. Another one of my favorite was the Fuj

By the third day of our vacation J and I were feeling pretty settled into our snowy accommodations. The pups had both finally oriented themselves to the deeper snow (Poor Jenna had such a hard time at first because she would sink way down and it was a struggle for her to walk/plow through the deep snow) and we were delighted to have another day of recreation together. In the morning we drove out to the White Mountain Cog Railroad to visit the museum and gift shop before our legendary ride on the Cog train. It was another spectacular event! Following a quick brown bag lunch we had brought, we boarded the train to ride halfway up Mount Washington. The tracks actually continue onto the summit but with world record wind chills it is just too cold for the workers to run the train all the way in the winter. In West Virginia, J and I had previously ridden a steam train that zig zagged its way up a mountain side. This, this is totally different- the steam engine pushes a passenger car stra

Sunday morning J and I slept in, enjoying our vacation. When we finally dragged ourselves out of bed, I made a hot breakfast for the both of us (eggs, bacon, toast, apple cider) and then we were off adventuring. Our first stop was the White Mountain National Forest to do some winter walking. The forest is truly spectacular- over 880,000 acres of wilderness purchased and now maintained by the federal government. New Hampshire was in a selling pattern to raise cash, auctioning off a lot of state late to the highest private bidders (mostly logging companies). The feds became involved in the purchasing frenzy in the early 1900s with the passage of the Weeks Act. President Taft signed the Weeks Act into law on March 1, 1911. The law authorized the federal government to purchase lands for stream-flow protection, and to maintain the acquired lands as national forests. Initially, eastern lands along navigable watersheds were considered. As the years progressed however, the Forest Service

The alarm buzzed at 3:45am and as I slid over to J's side of the bed to turn it off I grumbled. I hate getting up early in the morning for road trips. I am *not* a morning person. We loaded up the last minute items in J's car-we had done most of the packing the night before- and then we were off on our Christmas vacation. I was so excited. A white Christmas was waiting for us in Conway, New Hampshire. The roads were easy and the traffic was light. It was a smooth trip all the way up to New England. We arrived at our cozy little cabin, unpacked everything and then ventured out into town to pick up groceries and to eat dinner. There is a smokehouse bbq joint that was highly recommended so we enjoyed dinner there and it was delicious. Moat Mountain Smoke House 3378 White Mt Highway (Rt 16) North Conway, NH 603-356-6381 After dinner we put away the groceries as we listened to Christmas Carols on the xm radio (we got the indoor docking station just for this purpose) an

Friday December 21st was a great day for me professionally and personally. At the office we finished a major project team deliverable and I was still flying high from finishing my individual assignments on Wednesday- 2 more technical manuals/papers. Two of my coworkers brought me Christmas presents and that added to my holiday cheer. In addition, we had our annual Christmas party and work and J volunteered to drive to Rockville on a company errand so he was able to stop over and enjoy the festivities as well. It was great to finally introduce him to all of my coworkers who have heard so much about him over the past year but had yet to meet him until then. The food was great- Iranian cuisine, and I received a Starbucks gift card during the gift exchange. I got home pretty late from work [8pm] and J and I set about packing for the trip. It took us an hour or so to pack everything up, then we enjoyed a quick dinner before J went off to bed [he was driving first shift in the a.m.] and

  Today we officially finished all of our Christmas shopping. It was a fun and stress-free shopping season. The majority of our gifts we purchased on Black Friday and the rest we purchased online, avoiding the crowds at the malls. Went to a Christmas party for the Women's Fellowship group and learned a new game called 'Mad Gab'. I wasn't the best at it but I wasn't the worst either. The food was good and the company was even better. One of my favorite friends, Irma, was there. She has a very infectious laugh and is always full of such joy and optimism. I really enjoy being in her presence. Church was very special on Sunday as a couple we are friends with had their little baby girl baptized and we all came up to the altar and gathered around her to pray. I'm a mushy girly girl so you know I cried. One thing I really love about the Christian Church is the pervasive sense of love that permeates throughout the entire congregation. It's nice to enjoy a sens

So it's almost the end of the year and my progress is this: 9 pounds down since I rededicated myself to giving this weight loss plan serious consideration in the fall. Nine pounds isn't a lot, I know, but it's something at least and I've kept it off. It's especially a positive sign that I've been losing over the holidays while most people gain, right? Actually, 9 pounds conceptually *is* a lot. It's 36 sticks of butter. Ugh. Glad its off my bones! Keep praying for me. Little by little I will get there. Watching all the Victoria's Secret holiday commercials is really motivating me. I can feel the thin and healthy me just waiting to break out again and strut her stuff...

Saturday morning J and I worked at our church's food pantry. We served about 36 familes and it was a great experience. We are signed up for duty once a month. I don't know who has the job of soliciting the area grocery stores for their cast-offs but they do amazing work. We were handing out not just standard pantry fare of hamburger meat and chicken, but also quail, roast pork and filet mignon. There were the best brand names for fresh and dried pasta, roasted red peppers in fancy jars, and all sorts of ingredients for an epicurian's ideal kitchen. We had an entire line of gourmet cheese to distribute (brie, true parmesan, several varieties of blue, edam, herbed goat cheese, etc.), most $10-$25/lb, and a lot of that imported. Although I tried diligently to get the families to take their share of this amazing bounty and gave them easy ideas on how to use the cheese, a lot of them shied away from the cheeses they had never tried or heard of (They kept requesting American, w

The hubby and I are pet/house sitting this week for my best friend. What an adventure. Her dog and our youngest dog Julia are thick as thieves. They run, play, jump, and romp together with boundless energy. Proving the nocturnal nature of dogs, they stayed up all night long last night [our first here] playing and making a rowdy ruckus through the house. Needless to say the humans did not get a lot of sleep! Then the dogs slept all afternoon, storing up their energy for what is sure to be a second night of shenanigans. Also, you've never seen anything till you've seen one double bed fit 2 adults, one 80 pound dog, one 50 pound dog, and one 30 pound dog. Talk about crowded!

Thursday was a day for making memories. A good friend was unexpectedly in need of some biblical pastoral counsel so I took the afternoon off work to journey with her to a man of God we'd been referred to see in D.C. A pastor at a Baptist church near Howard University (New Bethel), he was quite the wise man. His words were exactly what we needed to hear. I came expecting to provide support for my friend but instead found myself just as moved by his counsel as I hope she was. He spoke of God, our mission in life to allow God to perfect us (and how, when he's helped us to overcome one stranglehold, God will soon spur us on to dislodge the next- it's a long road to perfection), and the enemy who stands at the constant ready to distract us and disrupt the mission. He gave us practical and specific advice on discerning the word of God (be in the word every day until God's word is so familiar that no enemy of his can mimic it and lead us astray without us being aware of t

I did it! I finally found a dress for this year's National Chamber of Commerce Holiday Reception. I wandered by it at Macy's today while shopping with my friend Rho ( http://pi-girl.livejournal.com ). I went onto Macys.com to find a picture of it to show you and in doing so discovered something interesting. If you buy the dress online and fit standard sizing [12 and below] you can pick up the dress, normally $109 on sale for $81. However, if you are plus-sized [14+] you can get the same dress, also normally priced $109 on sale for $71. This has to be a first in my experience- plus sized outfit by the same designer priced cheaper than the smaller counterpart. Odd, don't you think? In any case, I'm happy to report that in the store the dress was even more deeply discounted than either dress price online. Woo! Plus, Rho (COUPON QUEEN!!!) had a 20% off coupon and I got an additional 20% off for opening a Macy's account so the dress was really a bargain. This was ac

Made this for dinner tonight and it came out delicious so I thought I would share. It’s full of fall/winter veggies, quite healthy, and under 500 calories per serving. Yay for eating delicious and healthy. It’s my personal adaptation of a similar recipe on epicurious.com… Servings: Makes 4 servings. Ingredients 2 teaspoons ground cumin 2 tablespoons dried thyme 4 skinless boneless chicken breasts 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 large onion, chopped 3 garlic cloves, minced 1 large baking potato, peeled and diced I large sweet potato, peeled and diced 1 cup dried apricots 1 14 ounce can diced tomatoes with green chile ¾ cup white wine [we use the cheap wine in a box] 1 teaspoon cardamom 3 whole cloves 1/4 -1/2 stick of butter Garlic salt and pepper Preparation Mix cumin and thyme in small bowl. Sprinkle chicken with spice mixture, then salt and pepper. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onions; sauté until golden, abou

Found this great travel site- Trav Buddy: http://www.travbuddy.com/jenniparks It was recommended to me by my friend Tracy. It has a strong international membership and people on the site are very friendly. You can share travel ideas and reviews and find travel buddies and that sort of thing. I really like it so far. If you join, add me as a friend (the above link takes you to my profile).

Sometimes I miss the "safe space" that livejournal provided to create locked blog entries. On the other hand, being prohibited from creating "tell all" entries online due to a lack of a protected forum in which to do so means that I must share these details in person with friends I lean on, bringing us closer together in ways that chatting online never could. Also, I know on some level that the "safe space" that lj afforded was merely an illusion- as evidenced by the repeated times that trust was breached by readers. So I will just vaguely express my feelings on the series of events I experienced last week in a simple summary- people can be pretty crummy and when you focus your life on what is right and good it turns your stomach just a bit when you have close encounters with others who  don't share this focus. A mixture of revulsion toward what they are embracing and sympathy for the life in Christ they are forgoing. I also want to reiterate that be