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jennycain
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Country: United States
State: Arizona
Metro: Tucson
Birthday: 5/11/1982
Gender: Female
Interests: I love visiting with friends, eating out, curling up with a good book, making s'mores, cooking, margheritas and pina coladas, sleeping in, cats, caroling, and, of course, hanging out with my hubby, Phil.
Expertise: Teaching elementary music, piano (I don't know how "expertised" I am yet....)
Occupation: Education/training
Industry: Education/Research
Message: message me
Website: visit my website
Member Since:
8/2/2005
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| Phil and I are trying an experiment - combining our blogs. So, Phil's blog site, formerly titled "InspiredElectrons" is now renamed to "InspiredMumblings". Posts from either one of us will be intermixed throughout the site. I also like it because it will not require a subscription/login/personal info to leave a comment.
Phil imported as much as he could from this site. Everyone should benefit - Phil's friends will see a lot more
photoblogging from moi, and my friends will be enlightened to the inner
workings of Linux (good luck with that!) or political rantings. So, change your bookmark to Philip and Jenny Cain: InspiredMumblings
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| I had the wildest of weeks. Something very bizarre happened on Sunday night. It was something that has never happened to me while living in Tucson. It was a glorious surprise, a gift from heaven.
SNOW!!! This is our neighborhood Monday morning. Isn't it awesome?? Now, you gotta realize that is so very rare for Tucson, it's almost unbelievable. Snow? On the ground? In town?? In our neighborhood?
It started snowing Sunday night. We were over at Tristan and Katie's house.
This is them.
There were other friends there too. It was a cold, rainy/sleety night in Tucson. We were grilling hamburgers and watching the football game and chatting. All of a sudden we look out and there are the HUGEST snowflakes falling! No joke, no exagerration, these flakes were 3-4 inches in diameter. But they weren't sticking to the ground, just your clothes. We were so excited to see snowflakes falling that we, of course, all ran outside and tried to catch them in our mouths.
We continue with our evening. A little later, we look out and the ground is white. NO WAY! So, we all grab our jackets and run outside. Our cars have several inches of snow on them. The ground is covered. The sidewalk is icy. The snow is still falling. Woo hoo! The snow on the cars was perfect for snowballs. We probably played outside for a couple of hours. It was the coolest thing ever.
Here is the group: Back - Jimmy, Kristie, Katie, Tristan, me, Phil
Front - Matt, Sierra, Neal
fyi - That bright spot is not a street light, it is a snowflake.
I decided to build a little snowman. Funny story - the next day, when all snow was gone everywhere, Katie came home from work and the only thing left was my snowman!!!
After hours of playing outside, we trooped inside sopping wet and had hot cocoa or coffee and watched a movie. When I got home I took some pictures of our yard, and this one came out way cool.
The next morning I wake up, shower, and check the news. There is still snow everywhere.
I was nervous about driving on icy roads. There are no fancy machines that come around and de-ice the road or snowplows when it snows, because it NEVER DOES! Come to find out, all of the schools were either starting late or shut down for the day. The roads were iced over, we had 78 bridges that were completely shut down, making it practically impossible to get anywhere (bridges over all the many washes out here). A snow day!!! Unbelievable. Now, those who deal with snow all the time - before you make fun of us for having a snow day, please re-read the previous sentences. Well, my district was opening at noon. Fun! So I changed back into my jammies, made some chai tea, and popped in another disc of Gilmore Girls, season 1. What a great morning.
Sometime mid-morning, Keeley comes over to see our snow. She did not have any at her house, as the snow decided to not stick on the ground in the northwest section of the city. The snow was well on it's way to melting by then, but still enough to take a picture.
I went to school at noon, thinking it was pointless to go in anyway. I have most of my classes in the morning on Mondays, so I was going in for 2 classes. I get there and there are probably 30 kids in the entire school there! Some classes only had 2 kids show up. I mean, if you were a parent, and your kid was already home for the day, why would you send them in for only 2 hours? It all had something to do with if the district opened the schools and served lunch it still counted as a day and they could get money from the government for that day. Stupid. So, it was just the weirdest day at school. It felt like a work day, but there were some kids there. Everyone either was watching a movie or playing on computers or doing an art project. I didn't teach any classes b/c of the small numbers.
By that afternoon, it was all melted. Yesterday was a beautiful, 65 degree day, and I kept asking myself "was the snow all a dream?"
There are a few more pics on my flickr site
and my cute hubby has a sound recording of the snow melting on his blog
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| I had a blast this weekend. It was great to have an extra day off. Friday night I had dinner with my friend, Melissa. We ate at this little Italian place, and I had the best prime rib au jus sandwhich ever! Melt in your mouth good. Saturday I slept in late, of course. Phil had to go to work early, so I went to the mall and wandered for a bit. I visited my friend, Katie, who was working her last day at Bath and Body works. Then I wen to church and enjoyed the evening with Phil Sunday I played in the snow!! Yep, there was snow on Mt. Lemmon. The ground up there was completely covered with a whole 2 inches of snow :). Hey, it was enough to make snowballs, snow angels, and a mini snowman. I went with my brother, Serene and Belle. It was Belle's first time in the snow. We had a blast!!! Here are some pictures from that: 
We had so much fun!!! There are more pics here. Sunday night I spent some time with girlfriends and we had a Gilmore Girls fest. Fun times. Our pipes froze Sunday night due to 20 degree overnight weather! When does it ever get that cold here??? Anyway, we were lucky, no breaks. We have only a few inches of pipe exposed where it comes out of the ground and goes into the house. We have never had the pipes freeze before, so now we know. We are very thankful there was no pipe bursting fiasco to deal with yesterday. Many people in Tucson had that happen. Monday we slept in really late (b/c we stayed up really late!!) and just puttered around the house, finished a movie. We had our friends, Tristan and Katie, over for dinner - chili and cornbread, yum! and played some N64. I went to bed pretty early. I had the weirdest sleeping pattern last night. I went to bed early, woke up at 2 am really thirsty (dont you hate that?) and burning hot. That was probably from the electric blanket being on high. Phil came to bed and was freezing, so I didn't adjust the blanket. And from then on I woke up every hour really hot, even though I had changed into a Tshirt. I had really weird dreams, and a nightmare. It was about this movie I saw years ago with Kim, and now they are coming out with the remake. All I have seen is the previews for the new remake of "Hitcher". It was this really cheasy 80's horror flick. But I had nightmares about it for some reason last night. It must have been the chili. Needless to say, I woke up refreshed (ironically) and ready to tackle my day. It is super windy and cold here today, so I hope I don't get blown away! | | |
| New Year's Eve we spent with our two friends, Abby and Matt. I met
Abby when I was out in Chicago for the summer where I was a camp
counselor. Now she lives here with her hubby. Small world! Anyway,
we went to Texas Roadhouse (yum!) and then went to our house to play
Scene It, Friends edition. We opened the bubbly (ok, ok, it was
sparkling cider), toasted and cheered the new year in, said good night,
they went home, we went to sleep :) It was a fun, relaxed evening.
Here is a picture of us at midnight!
Back to work today after two glorious weeks off. Man, did I enjoy
those. Especially the last week, because it went by soooo slow, and I
accomplished a lot. I painted some rooms in my house, which turned out
beautiful and perfect in colors. I spent a lot of quality time with
friends (which sadly doesn't happen much during working months). I
slept in almost every single day. I read a lot. We watched a lot of
movies. We ate out a lot. I feel so relaxed and refreshed!!
Today was a good day. It feels good to be back. I really enjoy
what I do, and the start of a semester always has a freshness to it.
Everyone has a more lively step, a more ready smile, renewed
commitment, a new muster of courage, and inspiration to try new
ideas.
I've always said second semester goes by extremely fast, and I hope that holds true this year. I mean, I'm always looking forward to my next break. But this is a year where I am on survival mode half the time, because that it just how the cards played out this year, and I want it over as soon as possible. Next year I will be at one school only, full time, and that is going to be fabulous. I am really, really looking forward to that.
I have had some difficult circumstances in previous months, and it has been hard to accept that this is where God wants me. I keep asking him, why couldn't you have done it differently, done it my way? God is showing me that in EVERTHING I am to give thanks. He is showing me how to forgive on His terms, and that I am to pray for those who persecute me and love them as Christ does. This is not an easy task. Nor am I a very good listener some days. But with my submission and prayers come forgiveness, compassion and love that could not have come from doing things my way. It is a constant struggle, but when is it not?
So, I'll end with a quote from John Piper, from his book "Life as a Vapor".
"Life is short and eternity is long. Very long. It is a long time to regret a wasted life."
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| It always amazes me when a new year starts. I think, "how could it be the new year already?" However, leading up to it, I am impatient for it to arrive...mostly because I'm anxious for my winter break.
Anyway, I had a wonderful Christmas! We spent Christmas Eve with the Cains. Here are a few pics from that.
 
 
Our Nephew opening presents - he was quite good at it
Phil opening his favorite candy - Ferroro Rochers
After Christmas Eve with the Cains, we headed up to Matt and Serene's house for Christmas with the Harrisons. It was fun to do it this year at their new, big house. Christmas morning was a blast with little Belle and her craziness. Our new niece, Kierra Noelle, or Pumpkin Doodle as Belle named her, is adorable and precious! She is so tiny and she just slept the whole time. Anyone could hold her and she would just sleep on, waking only when she was hungry. Here are more pictures:
Big sister Belle and little sister Kierra
Tim and Meghann
There are many more photos on my flickr site - www.flickr.com/photos/jennycain/sets
Happy New Year!
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