Jenn and Sean

I heart Christmas

2010-12-12T19:40:00.000-06:00

> Can I just say, I love Christmas! Christmas lights, carols,
> shopping, Christmas cards, wrapping paper, etc., etc., etc. I love
> it all. And the very best part of this Christmas is that it is
> Peyton's very first Christmas ever. I am so excited. She may not
> remember anything and she'll probably have no clue about what is
> going on, but it'll be entertaining for mom and dad at least.

Peyton 3 months, by JENNIFER ROBISON

2010-06-11T16:02:00.001-05:00

I'd like to share my Walgreens Photo Center photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.

HapPEY Easter!

2010-04-07T13:08:00.004-05:00

Well I know it's been awhile... and I should have had loads to blog about... and, well, technically I guess I do... but I've just been too distracted to share. So... check me out I made a movie. :) We had a fabulous 1st Easter with Peyton. We made it to church and all looked stunning. Peyton actually slept all the way thru the service... Way to go Peyton. We had a spectacular lunch and then somehow managed to get some pretty pictures out of the event. Peyton wanted to show off her pretty Easter dress to Bibi so we headed to the Fanning domain for the rest of the evening. Not really sure why we didn't take any pictures over there, but I think by that point I was a little bit out of it. I have to admit that it's pretty tiring to get a 4 week old ready and going so early in the morning and myself as well. I mean, heck, I started getting ready at 5:30 and walked out the door at 8:50ish. That doesn't bode well for when I go back to work...SIGH...I'm dreading that day. :(

Anyway for all of you who are interested... here's our first Easter pictures. ENJOY!

The Bump

2010-02-14T21:23:00.003-06:00

Well it is almost time for our sweet little "blueberry" to arrive. Hopefully the nursery will be finished before she gets here. It's almost done. Just a couple more paint touches and then settling everything in. We've had lots of help, so a huge thank you to all those involved. Now the stress begins about being out of school for 6 weeks. YIKES! that's a lot of lesson plans.

Today is Valentine's Day and since my husband is such a romantic and extremely excited about Peyton's arrival, he bought me an extraordinarily thoughtful gift. I wish I knew how to use it a little bit better, but here is a picture from our first real go at it. I figured I needed one more baby bump picture and I saw one like this on a website somewhere. Not perfect, but pretty good if I do say so. :)

Hmm... what's going on?

2009-12-22T17:13:00.010-06:00

Well... last time I promised great things and I have not delivered. Thanks Ashley for calling me out, so I'm gonna update again. As far as life goes it's been pretty quiet around these parts. How about I answer some frequently asked questions.

How far along are you?

Well I am officially as of this day 28 weeks along. I can't believe I've only got about 2 months left. My doctor tells me I will probably be induced... because diabetics have big babies... so I don't actually anticipate making it all the way to my due date.

When is your due date?

Officially it March 14th, but as I said before I don't expect to get all the way to that day. I will fight tooth and nail to make sure it doesn't happen before March 1st, unless this child makes up her own mind.

Have you picked a name yet?

Yes, actually I picked a name a couple of years ago. We are going to call her Peyton Layne. I chose Peyton because I like the name and how it sounds with Fanning. And I chose Layne because it my mom's middle name. I wanted to keep part of it in the family. Had she been a boy the middle name would have been James, which is Sean's dad's first name... although he is called by his middle name Mark. Fortunately for me Sean didn't have any arguments with my name choice. Piece of cake.

Have you done the nursery?

HA! If you know me, then you most likely know I am the biggest procrastinator in the world. Actually when I thought she was going to be a boy I had it all planned out. When I was told she was a girl it kind of threw a kink in my thought process. Don't get me wrong, I am ecstatic that she's a girl, but knowing Sean's side of the family I was just sure she was going to be a boy. I mean on his dad's side of the family it is Mark and his sister, then 5 boys, and then 3 of those boys have each had a boy. I just knew we were going to follow the trend. So anyway... I did finally decide on a nursery. So here is a picture of what it looks like so far.

Isn't it great? Ok, but seriously this is what I'm hoping it will look like...

How are you feeling?

I really feel pretty good. I don't have to remind myself that I'm pregnant anymore. My growing belly and her frequent kicking are reminders enough. I am a little tired now though. It takes quite a bit more energy to do things like walking, climbing stairs, sleeping, etc. I did start shifting furniture in my classroom so that I can do less moving around and less up and down off the floor. Here are the long awaited baby bump pictures just to show you how we're growing. My grandmother did tell my father after we saw her at Thanksgiving that I look good as a pregnant woman. Otherwise I and my sisters are too thin and I look good more filled out. I am having flashes of my earliest years when I was really rolly-polly and had the chipmunk cheeks, but thanks for the compliment Mamaw.

18 weeks

At Thanksgiving... about 24 weeks

Christmas week... 28 weeks

As far as the rest of life is going. My job is slowly killing me :), not really, but man it's wearing me out. My grandmother fell and broke her arm fairly badly so we're going to Dallas over the holidays to see her and the rest of the fam. I am working diligently on the office/nursery because I have furniture coming in the middle of January and have to have a place to put it. The week of Halloween I was rear-ended and I finally got my car back from the body shop in the middle of November. That was quite an experience. More on that later I guess. Sean has been very sweet and he can't wait for Peyton to be here. I'm looking forward to my weekly doctor visits starting January 4th. Gotta love high risk pregnancies. :) I think that about covers things for now. I'll be back soon to let you know how Christmas goes. Hope you all are enjoying some time off and are excited for a fabulous Christmas and a stupendous New Year.

The Baby Bump Update

2009-12-06T15:08:00.002-06:00

Well life has been very busy...and I know I promised baby bump pictures...but, somewhere along the way I have misplaced my camera cord so I am having difficulty getting pictures onto the computer. So they'll get here as soon as I can find that silly cord.

I have determined that this child has a very interesting personality. This past Monday I went in for a fetal echo cardiogram and got to see "blueberry's" heart. It was pretty cool. The funniest part about it was that during the ultrasound to look at the heart, they also stopped to record that heartbeat and measure the rhythms. Well when the technician stopped she just left the little device sitting on my stomach. Apparently blueberry found that to be entertaining because her kicks stopped happening in my side and all of a sudden there was a rapid movement right where the device was. It was like she was using it as a punching bag...you know the kind that hangs like a bubble and boxers hit it rapidly. Even the technician could feel it.

So later that evening when Sean got home I was telling him about what had happened. We also decided that since I had reached my third trimester we would try the fetal heart monitor that Sean bought several months ago. It has this quarter size microphone that you press on your stomach and listen for a heartbeat. Well blueberry decided that this was a game too and she would hit it and then I would move it and she would follow it and hit it again...I would move it, she would hit it...I would move it, she would hit it. We decided to try it with Sean's thumb and sure enough she hauled off and hit his thumb too.

People keep saying that it isn't surprising for her to do this, knowing who her mother is. I don't really get it. :)

Oh Blueberry what will you be?

2009-10-13T20:04:00.003-05:00

Well as of this week I am 17 weeks pregnant. Next Wednesday, as long as Blueberry cooperates we get to find out what it is. I think the closer this day gets, the more excited I get. Up until now, it's just been weird. I think knowing what the baby will be will make it a little more real. Not to mention the fact that the bump has just recently appeared. (Pictures to come Amanda.)

I know a lot of moms have a gut feeling about what their baby will be, but I can honestly say I have no clue. I don't have a preference one way or the other. I bounce back and forth on how much fun one or the other could be. Frilly tutus and hair bows or planes, trains, and automobiles.

Anyway, we want to know what you think. Answer the survey to the right and we'll see how good you all really are. ;) Invite your friends to guess too.

Lego my Prego

2009-09-20T21:38:00.008-05:00

Well yep, it has officially happened. Mom and dad and Mark and Sarah will have their first grandchild. Yea for you guys! Now I, on the other hand, am a little more anxious about this whole thing. I mean, Sean and I decided that "if it happens it happens", but we expected it to be a little more difficult than this. So as of this moment I sit at about 14 weeks pregnant...I think. The due date is estimated at March 14th. Wahoo for Spring Break. I guess it will be nice not to have to really go through the summer being preggers, but the thought of writing 6 weeks of lesson plans is rather daunting at the moment.

I think we may have just about killed our parents because we told them at about 8 weeks and then told them they would have to wait another 4 before they could tell anyone. Sorry about that, but thanks for keeping the secret. :) Finally, everyone can know about blueberry. Blueberry was the code name we used so we could talk about it without actually talking about it. Why blueberry? Well this website that I've been getting information on said at about the time we told the immediate family, that blueberry was about the size of a.... you guessed it... a blueberry. And the name stuck. As of right now the website says that blueberry is about the size of an apple. Not really sure why they only refer to it as food, but whatever.

I've been very fortunate not to have terrible morning sickness. It was not always fun, but I can't really complain about it in comparison to what I know other women have gone through. I am exhausted though. And working with my first graders can be really tiresome. Sometimes those hormones get taken out on those little guys...I'm sure they'll forgive me though. Anyway.... more info later. And yes I'll include a baby bump picture at some point.

Blueberry say hello...

2009-07-31T18:44:00.002-05:00

So I'm not sure how many of you have had the privilege of living in a new neighborhood development, but Sean and I have been so lucky. Or at least I thought we were lucky until they started springing up houses behind us. Today was nice and rainy and rather peaceful...until it stopped raining and the lunatic construction workers came out to put a roof on a house. Literally since about lunch time today they have been up there with their silly little hammers banging nails into sheets of plywood and now they're hammering all those little nails into the black paper stuff that goes under the shingles. I am this close to walking over there with Sean's FatMax (his really heavy duty hammer) and showing them a thing or two about hammering....all....day....long. I truly believe I may lose my mind. The saddest part about the whole thing is that there are 2 empty lots on each side of our house with SOLD signs in the grass. That means I have the blessing of 4 brand spanking new homes to be built in the near future right by my eardrums. Thank you Jesus that school should be back in session and will have the opportunity to miss the hammering for the most part. But then wait... what's better?...hammering?....or a class full of loud first graders? I think I'm screwed either way.

Wal-Mart

2009-07-22T10:29:00.003-05:00

Ok so the other evening Sean and I decided to go to Wal-Mart and buy Rumikub. It's a game I recently learned how to play and we really needed some entertainment. So off to the Porter WalMart we went. As we pulled into the parking lot at about 8:30, Sean made a comment like "Creepy". He was speaking of the unusual concoction of guests that were moving about the parking lot and heading through the doors. Ehhh, no big deal I thought. We start strolling around, Sean heads off to look at fish stuff on one side of the aisle and I go to the other side where the colorful new school supplies were proudly on display. I found a great lunch box hanging on the wall.

Well as I passed that fabulous lunch box for about the 4th time, contemplating whether a $9 lunch box, as fabulous as it may be, would really get that much use, I hear a small commotion. Three full grown men come around the corner speaking gruffly and kind of shoving each other around. So I'm down the aisle from them thinking... "seriously, you are full grown, quit it with the rough housing." Only in the following few seconds I realize, these guys aren't playing this is real. One has another in a headlock and the third is throwing punches.

Now I'm beginning to hear yelling and 3 more people come up on the ordeal. Only one of these guys is BIG, like hulk hogan-ish, and he's yelling at them to stop, we've called the cops, get to the font of the store. (I think he may have been an off duty cop.) Somebody else is kind of trying to break it up. And then I hear one of the guys in the fight go, "He's my little brother." Now I don't really know who were the brothers, but I think that the guy in the headlock and the guy administering the headlock were the brothers. Holy cow...so surreal. By now a crowd is gathering going "what happened", "what's going on." And I'm thinking to myself, I watched the whole thing go down and I have no clue.

So Sean and I walk away, go get our game, keep an eye out for any repeat performances, and get the heck out of the twilight zone. After that ordeal we need some comfort food, so we head over to Burger King and with the lovely information we received from Beep and Amanda about the Oreo shakes with the ginormous straws, we make our decision and head back home.

Just because Sean deserves bragging rights, he beat me at Rumikub.

2009-07-14T18:25:00.003-05:00

Okay so here are the long awaited Cabo pictures. The waves were huge... The service was spectacular... The sites were amazing...a beach in the desert. Thanks so much Mark and Sarah. It was better than I imagined. Now aren't all the rest of you jealous? I will say though, if things don't start looking up around here I just might think about moving there asap. Sean can teach scuba and I'll just hang out. Maybe there are some kids I can teach in Cabo. What do you think?

Cabo Wabo Sunday

2009-06-14T10:48:00.005-05:00

I am so very proud of myself for blogging to you on my vacation. This one goes out to the new baby mama and baby daddy in our lives (Beep & Amanda), congrats on your new lil man Kingston.

Just wanted to show you a few pictures of the beach in Cabo. We got here on Friday and the surf has gotten more and more rough as the week has gone by. Check out these waves.

A Tough Day for Sean

2009-06-05T22:56:00.003-05:00

Poor Sean had a hard day today. Nothing went right, people are not very bright, and he hasn't had enough sleep. Sounds like a very bad combination to me.

So because of his difficult day he decided to take a load off this evening with a drink and dessert. (Notice the margarita glass and the spoon.) He really didn't want me to post this, but I figure he's already had a bad day, this really wouldn't do that much damage. :) Sorry babe. Hope you feel better now anyway.

Memorial Day Weekend

2009-05-23T13:14:00.003-05:00

So we are coming down to the end of the school year. Kids are crazy, I'm exhausted, and the mountain of paperwork is growing. I can't wait for summer. Fortunately it's only 7 more days. The best part about it is that we have plans to keep kids moving and out of our hair while we finish re-packing our classrooms.

I'm not really sure why re-packing has to occur. I mean I know it all has to be straightened up so that a good cleaning can happen (if that's what they want to call it), but do I really have to try and cram everything into the closets and clear off any piece of furniture without wheels? What a pain, surely there is a better option than that.

I have to get myself into minimalist mode right now so that I can clear out all that stuff that doesn't have to be there. So with that in mind that's all for now.

2009-05-23T13:12:00.001-05:00

Technology is cool

The Lip Gloss

2009-02-06T18:06:00.004-06:00

This tube of lip gloss can be viewed in a number of different ways. Sean sees my gloss as both a science experiment (does it really have a taste) and a way to rehydrate his parched lips (yes bubblicious is very manly). As we were watching T.V. Thursday night he made a comment about how "this one tastes" (which is unlike his grape scented one). I thought nothing of it, as it is a fairly normal kind of statement for him, and I really didn't care to question it and find out more. At least, that is, until I began getting ready for bed and gave him his goodnight kiss...

Which leads us to yet another way to view the tube of lip gloss. I do not really car for the fruity festive flavored glosses due to the face that I don't like the taste they leave in my mouth. So why, you ask, do you even have that cute fruity tube of lip gloss? The answer is elementary, my dear Watson... literally. You see, I view this flavorful tube of lip gloss as a classroom management technique. It is a way to entice young, gullible children into doing what I want. Although in my first grade world, we do not refer to this tube as lip gloss, but we call it a "smelly". What is a "smelly" you say? A smelly is used to put a pleasant smell/scent on a child's hand to compliment and encourage good behavior. In fact, Thursday was the first time in a long time that I fully utilized the power of the "smelly". I busted that sucker out and blessed the hands of approximately 45-50 students between the ages of 5 & 7 for good behavior in the cafeteria.

Now in case you haven't put 2 and 2 together yet, let me spell it out for you. The hands of 50 children were touch by this tube of lip gloss today, as were my husband's lips, and consequently mine as well. Yes, ewwww, my sentiments exactly.

Moral of the story---if you are married to a teacher, make no assumptions as to the purpose and use of any colorful, flavored, common object.

Teacher Trouble

2009-01-27T19:38:00.002-06:00

Well this past week proved to be full of kiddo drama. I can't even comment on some of the behaviors that have been exhibited in my classroom. Let's just say I had a girl get felt up, some over exposure, and some inappropriate moaning noises and gyrating motions. Ughh and then I had to call and talk to parents about them. I was as red as a beet on the phone. I hope I didn't cost myself my job either 'cuz I kinda made the Assistant Principal's son spend 10-15 min. walking, sitting, standing, repeat. I guess if the pink slip isn't in my box in the next few days, no permanent damage was done. Ummm...anybody got a job opening for me just in case?

I LOVE CHRISTMAS, but NOT this WEATHER!!

2008-12-24T00:16:00.004-06:00

Ok so I know I have not been on here in a while and I will not make any excuses, although I know I could come up with about a million. I do finally have something that I feel is worth commenting on and that unfortunately for you is the weather.

Seriously... sometimes I just wanted to look up to the sky and go "ok big guy what's the deal? Who did you turn the weather controls over to and could you please train them better?" Monday this week the high was about 40 degrees. We were walking around in sweaters and coats and all that fun winter garb. Then I wake up on Tuesday, check the weather and prep myself for 70 degree misty nastiness. How is anyone supposed to stay well in this nonsense. I really don't care which way it goes, but just go one way. It's kinda like driving behind kranky whilst he listens to the chipmunks singing christmas don't be late. (You'll have to ask him about that.)

We did get to see snow this year and that was kinda fun. Mattie wasn't quite sure what to do, but she sure did look cute in her coat.

My favorite part of Christmas is the lights and they were pretty fun out in the snow too.

So... it is now officially Christmas Eve and the forecast for today is 72 and sunny. I guess we won't be having a white Christmas this year. What else should we expect in Texas? Who knows, miracles happen...just ask Mary and Joseph.

The Weekendlong Project

2008-10-05T21:39:00.007-05:00

So we decided that we had too many left over bricks from when our house was built and we were tired of them hanging out in our garage taking up much needed space. The solution to this problem turned out to be a patio. We just figured we would use the left overs to build an extention to our patio. We got an idea, drew up the plans and found out that we didn't have enough bricks. Solution to this problem came in the form of left over patio bricks at gran's house. It only took 2 trips to get more bricks than what we needed and now the space that we took our bricks out of is filled with the leftovers from gran's house. The best laid plans, right? Well after a full weekend of work with help from Mark, Sarah, Jordan, and a little from Chase, we finally completed our project and now have an extended patio. My favorite part of the whole project was going to the landscape supply place for the sand to put under the stones. It was too much fun sitting in Chase's truck watching a machine dump a truck load of sand into the bed...thanks for that experience Chase. Not only that, but Sean also got his favorite part, the............ .........................................................fire pit. :)

Now we're just waiting on the pool plan to go through. Any volunteers for that project. R-I-I-I-I-G-H-T. We'll keep dreaming.

The patio

2008-10-05T17:35:00.000-05:00

Last day before school 2

2008-09-24T19:17:00.000-05:00

Well lucky me I get to have two nights before the first day of school.
Kind of crazy cuz we went to school for 13 days then a hurricane named
Ike gave us 10 days off, so essentially it's like starting school all
over again. Thanks to Mark and the oil business we get to chill about
25 rows away from home plate at the Astros v. Reds game. Go Stros!
Here's some empathy for all of the teachers who are adding extra Ike
kids to their classrooms. Thanks for your help.

Ike 1, Jennifer 0

2008-09-16T17:28:00.002-05:00

Ok so I am sure you have seen the reports about hurricane Ike or are currently feeling the effects of him yourself. It has been 4 days since he came to town and we are still living and breathing. Some of us not breathing in a pleasant smell, but sewage happens. We are especially appreciative of the generator that Kranky has so graciously provided us...please God don't let the gas run out. It has been rather surreal to watch people wait 2 hours in line to get gas and the mass hysteria that a new palette of ice can cause. I have much respect and admiration for the police officers that are out taking care of looters and keeping the crowds in check. We are still waiting on electricity, which can make some people a little cranky. I got a little annoyed at a woman in the line to go into the grocery store yesterday who first of all was trying to manipulate things and second of all kept asking "when do you think we'll get electric?" I'm not totally sure what she thought she was asking, but I kept envisioning all of us walking around zapping each other like electric eels or something... she would have been my first target. Due to our generator and the powers that be, we finally got Internet service today. Woohoo!! Boy I missed my Internet.

Definitely this hurricane was worse then the last one we went through (Rita). As you can see Ike pushed a tree over onto my parents' house. That big jerk. I have to say I was pretty freaked out after that storm when we got to my parents' house and found that tree on top of it. What was even scarier was the fact that it crushed the corner of the roof and started letting water leak in. The paint started peeling and sliding off the wall, the corner of the room was soaked, there was a crack in the ceiling, and water was dripping into my mom and dad's room. Fortunately for my parents it could have been much worse. I am still amazed at all the trees down that fell over and pulled up the roots...what a wind.

Thank God we still have it pretty good. Lets pray the nice weather keeps up.

Ike 1 Geraldo 0

2008-09-12T17:47:00.001-05:00

There is nothing funnier than a repprter who gets a little ego check.
At least Ike is entertaining.

Check out this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J52xbx2__OY

Jennifer Fanning
Jrobis34@aol.com

2008-07-07T17:04:00.001-05:00

Happy Birthday U.S.A.

2008-07-07T16:44:00.005-05:00

Well another birthday has come and gone...this time for the grand ol' US of A. We had a good time besides the heat and the short lived THUNDERstorm. We followed our usual tradition and went to the parade in the morning. I have to admit that the parade was not very good this year. Puny floats, political campaigning, and huge gaps made it a little too difficult to sit all the way through. So we crossed the street and made ourselves feel a little better by stuffing our faces at the Fuddruckers. Our goal was to spend the rest of the day in the pool, but of course somebody had a different plan and the whistle blew to get out of the pool due to thunder and lightening. I did learn something through that experience. My father has a VERY healthy respect for thunder and lightening :) After a fabulous BBQ dinner at home we set out for mass chaos at the town center where we ran into the corn guy (our PE coach) and several other friends. We staked out the perfect spot to watch the fireworks. I LOVE FIREWORKS!!! What a great birthday party!

My my time files...umm flies

2008-06-17T16:52:00.002-05:00

So it has been over a month since the last time I blogged. Crazy how that happens. I once thought, how is it that you lose track of time? They always said "it seems like just yesterday..." and I didn't really have a concept of that. Well I guess I do now. Since the last time I blogged we have celebrated Sean, Chase, and Emily's birthdays, graduation has come and gone, thank God the last day of school has arrived, etc., etc., etc. So I guess you just keep living without paying attention to all the blipps on the radar, until you look back and think where did all those hours go. So although a lot has happened, I guess I wouldn't really say you have missed much. I have spent numerous hours in professional development and Sean has kept on truckin' in his job. Life as we know it continues. Man... we gotta work on that. July should be more impactful (I don't think that is really a word...school is out, get up off my back about it). BEACH here we come (in 25 days).

P.S. HAPPY 2 YEAR ANNIVERSARY

BEEP AND AMANDA

EMILY AND CAMERON!!!!

school ain't so cool

2008-04-30T19:40:00.002-05:00

So here is a shout out to all of my teacher friends who are dealing with end of the year assessments, TAKS testing, grades, and uncontrollable children. We still have a month left to go and I couldn't talk over them with a mega and a microphone. It's a circus everyday and I couldn't be more tired. It's not like I really want to be there that much either. Now slap some parental units on top of this end of the year sundae and you got a situation enough to make you sick. You know things aren't so swell when teachers crave jeans days. How pathetic is that? Jeans... who knew they could be so pleasurable?

So again to all my teacher friends... good luck and God speed on the next few weeks.

zoo pics

2008-04-26T22:55:00.001-05:00

It's a ZOO out there

2008-04-21T17:52:00.007-05:00

Sean took me to the zoo for my birthday on Monday, since I had the day off. I definitely felt like a kid again. It is amazing how there is a whole other world out there. I think one of my favorite parts was the orangutan that was sitting up against the window just looking at us looking at him. You could tell he was hot because you could see the sweat on his forehead. He kept putting his chin on his arm right up in the window. I felt sorry for the guy and wished I could take hime home with me.

Another cool thing that they had going on was an exihbit where they were going to put cheetah cubs with some Anatolian Shephard dogs. The dogs are supposed to become protectors of whatever species they are connected to. They were huge dogs. Unfortunately the cheetahs weren't there yet so maybe we'll have to go back to see them.

I don't have a picture of it, but one other of my favorite things was an otter. He just kept swimming laps in his "aquarium." When he would go under water you could see the water just streaming off of him because of the oil on him.

Sean's favorite part was the monkeys too. Although, I would have bet it all on the sea lions or some other swimming creature. So be a kid again and go visit a zoo; promise you won't be dissappointed.

First Blog

2008-04-20T21:03:00.000-05:00

Ok so Sean and I decided that if everybody else is doing it, then we should be too. So here is an attempt at doing this blogging thing. Really I don't think we have anything interesting enough to really blog about so we may just make something up and see if you can tell what is real and what isn't. Tee hee hee. How crafty are we? I was once told by a wise person, don't let the facts ruin a good story so that is what we will do. Hope you can find something on here worth reading :)