The Life of Jennifer

The inlaws are coming! The inlaws are coming!

2008-11-20T09:12:00.002-06:00

And we couldn't be more excited. We have been waiting for them to see where we live since we moved here back in May of last year. Bobby's parents, sister & grandma are set to arrive sometime tomorrow evening and they will be staying until next Wednesday. About 3 hours after that (give or take a couple hours) my parents will arrive and stay until the following Tuesday. Lots of family all around! This is so fitting that everyone will be here for such a joyous occasion this coming week because Thanksgiving is my favorite time of year/holiday. Oh, wait, did I forget to mention what the joyous occasion is?? Bobby's ordination service is Sunday! Technically, Bobby was ordained by the Presbytery a month ago, but we waited until now to have his official service so that his family could be a part of it.

Pretty soon he'll get to do the two-hands-raised benediction!

Cutest animal pictures ever

2008-11-06T10:35:00.002-06:00

And no, they're not even my animals! I know... doesn't seem possible. But one of them looks a lot like one of mine, so it sort of counts...

http://tinyurl.com/24tb2k

I thought it would be good to give you all a nice light-hearted post after my previous election day one that I don't even want to talk about! ugh.

Election Day Reflections

2008-11-04T08:41:00.007-06:00

I voted at 8:30 this morning and was the 24th voter in our precinct. Shockingly, they had electronic, touch-screen voting machines. The reason I'm surprised by this is that we live in a very rural township, in the 3rd poorest county in Pennsylvania, no thanks to John Murtha. And speaking of Murtha... after all the national airtime & publicity he has been receiving, it was very weird to see him on our ballot. (If you're not aware, he called his constituents - western PA - racist & redneck. Nice guy.) He's also infamous for this. Obviously, I did not vote for him. Another observation, and this one should not have been a surprise to me... but the ballot was so short! I think there were only 6 items on the entire thing. It took only a couple minutes to fill the whole thing out compared to the cumbersome ones we had to fill out in St Louis in recent years. When I finished, I said out loud, "that's it?!" I got a weird look or two. So now we just wait and see what happens.

On another note, the weather here today is beautiful! As I remember past election days, I mostly remember rain. Especially when I was little, I would "work the polls" with my aunt & grandma, either handing out pencils & buttons, or helping the workers, getting them drinks, etc., I always remembering standing out in the cold rain. But there is no precipitation in sight today, just 70 degrees and sun. I wish I had the day off like Bobby does...

Jedi again

2008-11-03T09:04:00.002-06:00

We had a little costume party with our Youth Group last Sunday night, and since I had spent so many hours making them a couple years ago, I declared that we were to be Jedi once again. The reaction wasn't quite as good as it was with our Atherton friends a couple years ago. Maybe adults are just more polite and complimentary than teenagers. But most likely I think it was because this crowd just was not much of a Star Wars-watching group. So sad. (And no, I am not a geeky Star Wars fanatic - just enjoy the movies, that's all.)

So here is a picture of us. The quality is poor because I saved it off of facebook and had to crop out the youth group kids in the picture.

Extreme Makeover - Hair Edition

2008-10-29T14:06:00.008-05:00

Ok, so it's really not that extreme, I just wanted a clever title. After much deliberation, I got my hair cut last night. The blahs of the season change (even though this is my favorite) hit me and I needed a boost, so I got it in the form of a hair cut & highlight.

(these are simply NOT the greatest pictures of me so just look at the hair)

Before: Tuesday 5 pm

After: Wednesday 3 pm

You can't really see the color very well in these pictures, but it really is much blonder than yesterday.

He is ordained!

2008-10-18T15:18:00.004-05:00

(I hope I spelled that correctly...)

Bobby just called and said he was unanimously approved for ordination in the Presbyterian Church in America. Woo hoo!!! I didn't get many details except that he only got 3 hours of sleep last night, preached horribly (I'm sure that's not true), and is extremely drained. He now has to sit through a transfer & a licensure before he can come home. I probably won't see him for a few more hours. I've already cleaned the whole house, packed away our summer clothes, and baked these yummy cupcakes waiting, what else can I do?!?! I'm so excited. :-)

This is it!

2008-10-17T08:39:00.002-05:00

Bobby leaves tonight for the Pittsburgh Presbytery Retreat and tomorrow morning/afternoon (Saturday, October 18th) he will have his final round of ordination exams - typically referred to as the revered (and dreaded - in my mind) PRESBYTERY FLOOR EXAM. oooohh!!! Sounds scary, huh?

I will update as soon as I am notified of the result.

West Virginia football

2008-10-13T18:57:00.012-05:00

A couple of weeks ago we finally got to go to a WVU football game. It was great and fun, but unfortunately we had to sit in the student section (which is general admission.) So not only did we feel super old being surrounded by a bunch of teenagers/early 20's, but we were mortified to hear how there can be many uses for that awful 4-letter curse word! You know the one I'm talking about. By the end, it was almost funny to hear how many times it can be used in one sentence. Ok, so it wasn't funny. But the overall experience was interesting & sometimes entertaining. So here are some pictures and some highlights of the game.

Tailgaters before the game. I was really impressed with how many people & campers there were. This photo really doesn't do it any justice.

Before the marching band took the field, I spotted the twirlers practicing, which would normally delight me. However, if you look closely at the one wearing pants, you'll understand why I had a different reaction.

Ok, so these two (and another one that you can't see) were quite the characters to say the least. The one with his arms up in the air did a count-down to when the band would be taking the field for pre-game. I am not kidding. He would shout, "4 MINUTES UNTIL WE SEE THE BEST BAND IN THE WORLD!!!" Then he would repeat that at 3 mins, 2 mins, then counted down from 1 minute to 0 seconds, all while jumping up in the air & waving his arms. What a loon! Fortunately he calmed down during the game or we wouldn't have been able to see (or hear) anything.

Bobby & I trying to fit in as WVU undergrads.

This was another highlight... I couldn't wait until the game was over to hear the entire stadium sing "Country Roads." It was really cool. This photo also shows the final score: WVU 24, Rutgers 17.

Corny?

2008-10-02T10:02:00.002-05:00

This post isn't really about me so I hope Danielle won't be mad, but in an effort to find something witty for her to see, I found this picture and couldn't pass it up.

I guess this is when you know you've "truly made it"... when someone carves your face into a cornfield!

Onto Round 3!

2008-09-16T11:35:00.002-05:00

To follow-up on yesterday's post... he passed! Bobby made it through his orals last night and so that makes 2 down (written & oral), 1 to go. The final round is the Presbytery Floor Exam which will be on October 18th. If there are any (and I know there are) other wives whose husbands recently went through this, did you go to their floor exams? I was thinking about going (I think I can), but heard from someone recently that I might want to reconsider. Any thoughts?

Bobby's Big Night

2008-09-15T08:26:00.003-05:00

Tonight is the night... Bobby will be meeting with the Candidates & Credentials Meeting for the Pittsburgh Presbytery for his oral ordination exams tonight at 6:30 pm EDT. I know I'll be going crazy waiting for his phone call telling me whether or not he will be recommended to the Presbytery for Ordination!

Meghan McCain

2008-09-11T11:41:00.003-05:00

Some of you may have noticed the new link I have listed over on the right hand column for Meghan McCain. And maybe some of you have even clicked on it to check it out. No, Meghan is not my new friend (even though I did request her "friendship" on facebook... but she hasn't accepted me yet, probably just a little too busy right now.) She is the daughter of John McCain and she has her own blog which she updates nearly everyday (my favorite kind!) with updates, pictures, & stories of the campaign trail for her dad and her book signing. She just wrote a book titled, "My Dad, John McCain." The blog is awesome, I love seeing & reading about all the stuff that happens behind the scenes, like pictures of them all eating pizza on the bus and Piper Palin goofing off, acting like a7 year old. You should check it out: McCainBlogette.

2 out of 3 isn't bad

2008-09-09T09:27:00.003-05:00

Football season is back and of course it is the highlight of the fall season in our household. (Although it may be taking a backseat to ordination this year.) This past weekend was really good for most of our teams. Pittsburgh (Steelers, not University) and Oklahoma totally dominated their opponents, but West Virginia, on the other hand... not so good. The only positive thing about WVU losing is that since they are the only team out of the 3 we have a real chance of getting tickets to a game for this year, maybe it will be easier if they aren't so good... Is that actually something I should hope for? Probably not.

Can you guess what this is?

2008-09-04T14:25:00.002-05:00

If not, I'll tell you. I found this picture on the front page of Wikipedia today. It's actually The Golden Gate Bridge (in San Francisco) seen through rain drops on the window of an automobile. Cool, huh?

Summer of 2008 - a recap, or even better, a "summery"

2008-08-21T14:39:00.033-05:00

So, we're nearing the end of summer, even though it is now starting to get a little bit warmer. But don't worry about us, it's only going to be in the upper 80's and still in the 60's at night. We're fine.

But anyway, since it's close to the end of August, I thought I would list all the things I loved doing (and when) in the Summer of 2008.

Our new car (Dodge Caliber). Purchased June 13, 2008.

The Dark Knight. Seen opening night and a couple weeks later.

Bethany Beach. Vacationed Memorial Day 2008 and July 24-26, 2008.

The weather. Enjoyed all throughout the month of August 2008.
(yeah, I'm really obsessed with this month's weather, but we do need rain!)

The Olympics. Viewed August 8-24, 2008.

Family in Oklahoma. Visited July 11-15, 2008.

Cakes. Baked & decorated on various dates.

My mom's birthday. Celebrated at Outback, 7/28/08.

These crazy cats. Played with, everyday.

The GVPC Youth Group and their Leader/Director (soon to be their Pastor!!) Spent countless hours with, all of 2008.

And last but not least, Brad Paisley. Seen in concert, August 17, 2008.

Photobook

2008-08-18T12:27:00.004-05:00

Recently I came across what I think is a great idea for a keepsake, memento, souvenir, etc... It's a photo book from Shutterfly. I wanted to give the kids in our youth group something to capture our memories from our trip to the beach last month and I remembered seeing Currie & Abby's cool book from their Grand Canyon trip a couple years ago, so I shopped around and found this. At the time when I started the project, they were on sale for $10.89, but of course when I finished and checked out a few days later, the price went up to $12.99 each. Oh well. I took all the kids pictures and compiled them into this creative little album. We presented the books to them yesterday and they all seemed to really love & enjoy them. I know I love ours! I wish I could post it so you can see how awesome it turned out, but can't do that b/c of the privacy of the kids. But trust me, it looked good!

Drive-In

2008-08-15T15:09:00.003-05:00

I have not been to a drive-in movie theater in forever. I can't even remember going to a drive-in, it's been that long, I was probably less than 5, who knows? So when we moved to Greene County and started attending church (and working) in this town called Carmichaels, I was thrilled to see that they have an old (everything is old here) drive-in theater. Well, it took The Dark Knight to come out for us to get there and we're so glad we did. It was awesome. And clearly I'm not just talking about the theater - we love TDK! We've only seen it twice so far, and there will be more to come. I think we've seen Batman Begins (the first of the good Batman movie with Christian Bale) close to 100 times, I'm not kidding.

So here we are, pulling into the Sky View Drive-In. Notice the very nice welcoming sign below, "NO OUTSIDE FOOD ALLOWED."

Waiting forever for it to get dark enough to start the movie.

Even the Caliber was happy to be there.

Oh, and something cool happened during the movie. Not only did it start storming, not bad, but there was lots of lighting, but BATS were flying in front of the screen. How cool is that?!? Bats flying in front of Batman!

Hiking

2008-08-13T13:27:00.012-05:00

The weather has been so beautiful here lately. I mean, absolutely GORGEOUS, Danielle. If you don't believe me, here is the most recent 5 day forecast. Yes, I like to rub it in.

Anyway... this past Saturday, Bobby and I, along with a girl in our youth group, drove to Coopers Rock State Park. Of course I'm going to provide you with the Wikipedia link - here. I didn't have grand intentions for hard-core hiking, I just knew it wasn't going to be too hot and I wanted to do something outside. So I researched the park, printed out copies of maps and trail descriptions, etc., and as it says on Wiki, "Coopers Rock is home to a well-developed system of nearly 50 miles (80 km) of hiking trails." We found the park just fine, but could we find a trail? Nope. We spent the first half of our time there walking on roads and driveways, but there wasn't any traffic so it wasn't bad. Then we started looking harder for a trail and gave up and walked down the side of a mountain until we remembered that we were going to have to walk back up this incline to get back to the car, so we sat for awhile, chatted, and trekked back up to the Caliber. It was a really nice time, but next time I want to really find a trail!

Me, looking bad but having fun, with Julie.

Let the Games Begin

2008-08-08T08:51:00.003-05:00

I always get so excited about the Olympics. I just love them. Maybe it's because I have to wait 4 years for them to come around again and the hype just keeps building. I really don't know which I enjoy more, summer or winter. I think summer because there are more events that I really get into, whereas winter, ice skating is really my only passion. But with summer, there is gymnastics, swimming, diving!, synchronized swimming, tennis, trampoline, beach volleyball, equestrian, and who could forget badminton?!? Little known fact about me... I once aspired to be an olympic diver. yep.

I practiced my swan dives, jacknives, and back dives off of my parent's diving board for hours and hours when I was kid.

Unfortunately I never took my skills beyond that.

As for swimming, I do a nasty kickturn. Watch out Michael Phelps.

Can't complain about this forecast

2008-08-07T10:17:00.003-05:00

Not bad for mid-August. Not bad at all.

Bobby 101

2008-08-05T14:41:00.005-05:00

This post is all about my husband...

I found these questions on a friend of a friend’s blog. Sorry that I didn’t request permission, but I’m sure you’ll never see this so I’m not too worried. I'm just curious to see if that friend recognizes it. Actually, I'm most curious to see if Bobby even will see this post. I think he rarely checks my blog.

1. Who is your man? Bobby Glen Griffith, Jr

2. How long have you been together? Married 5 years & 5 months. Engaged for 6 months before that. Knew each other 6 months before that.

3. How long dated? We didn’t really date since we were 1100 miles apart

4. How old is your man? 31

5. Who eats more? Bobby (and WAY faster too!)

6. Who said "I love you" first? Me!

7. Who is taller? Him, by about an inch or two…

8. Who sings better? Definitely Bobby. But that’s really not saying much since I’m tone deaf.

9. Who is smarter? Bobby. See, I’m humble enough to admit it.

10. Whose temper is worse? The answer is Bobby again.

11. Who does the laundry? Me, all the time

12. Who takes out the garbage? We share, but usually me. I have to clean out the cat litter box too.

13. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Uh, is that when you’re in the bed, or looking at the bed? I guess I do? For now.

14. Who pays the bills? Me (mostly)

15. Who is better with the computer? Neither

16. Who mows the lawn? Neither usually. But he does more than I do, since I’ve never done it.

17. Who cooks dinner? Bobby

18. Who drives when you are together? Bobby 70%, Me 30% (I always have things to do in the car, like put on makeup, etc., but I don’t mind driving at all)

19. Who pays when you go out? Gift cards

20. Who is the most stubborn? I don’t know… I think me.

21. Who is the first to admit that they are wrong? Not sure about this one either. But since I said that I was most stubborn, I guess that means I’m not too good at admitting when I’m wrong. So it must be him. And no, it’s NOT because he’s never wrong, believe me!!

22. Whose parents do you see most? Mine, they are closer. But even when they weren’t, they came to visit us more.

23. Who kissed who first? Hmmm, not sure, I think he did.

24. Who asked who out? Not applicable

25. Who proposed? Duh, him

26. Who is more sensitive? Me

27. Who has more friends? Right now, neither of us seem to have any friends. L But normally, when we’re living in a place where 20- or 30-somethings actually have a presence, I think he does. He’s better with picking up the phone and calling people. I’m always too worried that I’ll be calling at a bad time and will bother people. Seriously, that is the real reason that I’m so bad with keeping in touch!

28. Who has more siblings? Him. He has one, I have none.

29. Who wears the pants in the family? I have to say he does, but I feel like the silent, undercover leader sometimes. heehee

30. What does your man love most about you??? Probably the fact that I am ok with him working several jobs, still being in school at age 31, playing in a band with teenagers, and that I take out the trash. (see #12) haha

My alma mater

2008-08-04T12:43:00.002-05:00

The 2009 Princeton Review College Rankings just came out and I love to read these things. Of course, the first place I check is to see my alma mater, Grove City College's rankings, and here they are:

Rank	List
#6	Alternative Lifestyles Not an Alternative
#11	Don't Inhale
#7	Everyone Plays Intramural Sports
#2	Future Rotarians and Daughters of the American Revolution
#4	Got Milk?
#3	Homogeneous Student Population
#14	Is It Food?
#4	Scotch and Soda, Hold the Scotch
#5	Stone-Cold Sober Schools
#19	Most Conservative Students
#4	Most Religious Students

Oh, and I have to mention that while GCC is #5 on the Stone Cold Sober schools list, WVU (where Bobby works & takes classes) is #4 on the Best Party schools list. Don't worry, he's NOT proud of that.

We survived!

2008-07-28T10:06:00.002-05:00

Ok, not only did we survive the beach trip with 9 teenagers, but we had a WONDERFUL time!

I mean, really, it was great.

There are times when I wish I was still the kid in youth group (even though I never was a kid in youth group, since my church didn't have a youth group when I was a kid...) I think it would be nice to not have any responsibilities. Just show up to youth group on Sunday and Tuesdays, eat the food that someone else prepared, make a mess that someone else will clean up, and more specifically, show up & enjoy a trip to Delaware that someone else organized, planned, stressed about, etc... but this time, it was good to be the one in charge because I got to plan a trip that was tailor-made to do exactly what I wanted to do - which was... sit on the beach, bask in the sun, shop on the boardwalk, and swim in the ocean for 2 1/2 days. And I'm pretty sure the kids had fun too. haha. No, I know they did. In fact, when we were sitting on the beach Friday afternoon, 4 of us laying out on our colony of beach towels and umbrellas in sunny, 85 degree weather, 4 kids (including Bobby) were riding waves in the ocean, and 3 were standing on the water's edge, I said, "If you aren't having fun right now, there is definately something wrong with you!"

Sure, we had our little moments... sunglasses and prescription glasses were lost in the ocean, wallets were left on the beach, sunburns & shellfish allergies, the a/c breaking in the van on the way home, and a harmless prank by the girls that left us with a cranky 14 year old boy, but all in all we had a really great time. All of us.

The fearless leaders.

Beach-bound

2008-07-23T18:40:00.002-05:00

Yes, folks, Bobby and I are driving to Bethany Beach, Delaware again tomorrow. We really love it there. But this time we will not be staying in our usual place, which is the plush condo which overlooks the private beach, that's only about 100 yards away... this time we are going to be staying at the Bethany Beach Christian Conference Center with 9 teenagers from our youth group. (and we're the only adults going!) Sound fun? I hope so! It definately won't be our usual quiet, relaxing getaway, but it should still have it's perks. And I'm sure it will be quite entertaining, that's for sure! And we may be a little further away from the beach this time, but not by much. The camp is only 2 blocks from the ocean. And it's still Bethany Beach, so it's still going to be very nice & quiet. (hopefully) I'm pretty certain that the worst part of our trip will be the drive down & back. It should only be 6 1/2 hours, but we'll be in a 15 passenger, smelly church van. yuk. And we have several kids that get very carsick. Super. Maybe instead of the LoBall (Java Monster) I was planning on drinking tomorrow morning, I should knock myself out with something stronger, and with the opposite effect of caffeine... just kidding. I'll post pictures when we get back!

Gardenless

2008-07-02T10:24:00.003-05:00

We made the decision not to put in a garden this year. I'm sad about it, but the reality is, we just don't have the necessary time to devote to it. Compare last year's schedule to this year's:

Jen (last year) - no job, no youth group, at church on Sunday mornings, part-time helping out with farm animals, taking care of our own 3 animals

Jen (this year) - job 9-4 monday thru friday, youth group sunday nights 5-9, youth group tuesday nights 4-9, at the church everyday except (most) Saturdays, part-time helping out with farm animals, taking care of our own 5 animals

Quite a difference, huh?

Now check out Bobby's...

Bobby (last year) - work at WVU June & August 20 hours a week, July's off, no classes, no youth group, at church Sunday mornings

Bobby (this year) - work at WVU June & August 20 hours a week, July's off, 3 summer classes, youth group (see hours under my section, plus more), office hours at church once/twice a week 9-4, studying for ordination, at church several days a week

So I'm sure we could have squeezed in the garden, but when would we have time for blogging, playing guitar hero, reading, watching tv, and responsible things like cleaning?!?