Sunday, July 20, 2008

Some questions for my new cyber friend...Jennifer

OK, here are your questions Jennifer!!!
1. How did you meet your husband?
2. Soo, Carson is adopted (and the story is beautiful)...tell me the story of Griffin.
3. How did you come up with your kids' names? (I knew we should be friends because my uncle's last name is Griffin and I always thought that was such a great boy name)
4. Is it just you and your sister or do you have other siblings?
5. Where were you born?
6. Where did you go to school?
7. How do you know Sarah/Bekah?
8. How long have you been an administrator?
9. What's your favorite part of your job?
10. If you weren't an admin. what would you be?
11. Favorite vacation spot.
12. Favorite restaurant.
13. Favorite thing to do in your spare (ha ha) time.
14. If you didn't live in Texas, where would you live?
15. 1st thing you do when you wake up in the morning?
16. Last thing you do before you go to bed at night?
17. Finally...what do you want God to say to you when you get to heaven? (Have you ever watched "The Actor's Studio" with James Lupton? Anyway, he always asks that...that and your favorite curse word...which you can count as #18 if you'd like:)

8 comments:

Sarah said...

I just needed to tell the readers that Jennifer is on vacation this week. She may have internet where she's going...so she may respond this week. But, there may be a little bit of a lag before she does.

Jennifer said...

Thanks to Angie, I get to answer questions and not feel so insecure about not getting picked for this game. SO here goes. If I get kicked off of the RV Resort's internet, though, I'll finish up from home on Saturday. I'm sorry it is soooooo long. I tend to be too wordy...

1. How did you meet your husband?
Daryl was my boss at a restaurant in Lubbock called Gardski’s. I was going to Tech and interviewed for a wait staff job there. He interviewed me and knew that with no experience he couldn’t hire me for wait staff, but REALLY wanted to get to know me so he hired me as hostess instead. He asked me to make his Halloween costume and to go to a Halloween party with him – I did. I had to quit my job at Christmas because we were dating and that was against the rules.

2. Soo, Carson is adopted (and the story is beautiful)...tell me the story of Griffin.
WELL, this is a long one so get a Diet Coke and put on Backyardigans for the kids before you read… Ready?
When Daryl and I first decided to start our family, I got pregnant really easily but our first pregnancy ended in early miscarriage. Pregnant again and carried the baby for quite a long time before another tragic ending. From there, we sought intervention from an infertility specialist who ran LOTS of tests and could find no reason for the reoccurring miscarriages so she suggested we try again only this time we could not get pregnant. Months of medications, shots, hormones and more tests resulted in another pregnancy – twins – lost one early and the other later. If you’re counting that’s 5 times we went through this terrible heart ache! So we decided we were going to grow our family through adoption. Thus, Karsen. Fast forward 2+ years. Remember we were having difficulty getting pregnant before Karsen was born so I wasn’t regularly taking bc. We thought about adopting again and even requested the paperwork to get started. We had saved some more money and I started to look through the paperwork to see what we could use again and what would need to be repeated. All the while, I was busy with my first year as an Assistant Principal and it was TAKS season. Everyone in the office at school had the stomach virus. We passed it around. Everyone got better – except me. I was nauseous everyday and really tired. After about 4 weeks I told Daryl one night that I had had enough and was going to the doctor the next day to get a shot or something because I just couldn’t kick the stomach virus. Later that evening, we were on the couch watching TV when a pregnancy test commercial came on. He looked at me and said, “You think?” “NO WAY!” I said. But I had some tests left over from our infertility days so I took one. Convinced that the reason there were two lines was because the tests were so old, Daryl went out to Wal-greens and picked up a two pack. Again, two lines before I could even get my pants zipped! I was about 14 weeks pregnant at that time and his name is Griffin…. I really feel like I’ve “shorted” Griff on his story because there is so much that is really unique about my pregnancy with him. I think I’ll work on that as a blog post for the future.

3. How did you come up with your kids' names? (I knew we should be friends because my uncle's last name is Griffin and I always thought that was such a great boy name?
Being a teacher, I needed unique names so I wouldn’t have any negative thoughts or feelings toward my children. We saw “Carson” while looking through Daryl’s yearbook and changed the spelling to Karsen. We tossed around lots of girl and boy names once we were “out of the woods” when I was pregnant. We didn’t find out the gender of the baby so we settled on Audrey Beth for girl or Griffin Dean for boy.

4. Is it just you and your sister or do you have other siblings?
It’s just Janet and I. I’m 3 ½ years older than her and couldn’t ask for a better friend.

5. Where were you born?
Born and raised in Brownwood, Texas.

6. Where did you go to school?
Brownwood High School, Texas Tech University for Bachelor’s and Master’s

7. How do you know Sarah/Bekah?
Sarah and I met just before her first year as AP at the district’s Teacher of the Year Gala. We recently celebrated our first anniversary of knowing each other when I went to her house to dress for the gala and Jeremy brought us Large Dr. Pepper’s (sorry KJ) from McDonald’s. I feel like I’ve known her for much longer, though, because of the times we have shared. I love you, friend!
I met Bekah at church for 37 seconds and then got to know her better at Aaron Brothers and Wal~Mart. Of course I feel like I know her well, too since we share the Toaster Car sighting.

8. How long have you been an administrator?
I finished my 3rd year.

9. What's your favorite part of your job?
I have 2 favorite times of day at work – the first is “Curb Duty” – I meet kids on the curb and open car doors for them and welcome them to school. It is great! I also love cafeteria time because I get to really connect with kids in a meaningful way. My favorite part of my job is talking to teachers and helping them solve problems or take care of things that just need attention.

10. If you weren't an admin. what would you be?
Probably a nurse. I started out in nursing school but couldn’t take the smells. Now that I’ve changed 4, 395 diapers and cleaned up lots of vomit, I’m pretty sure I could manage.

11. Favorite vacation spot.
The best vacation ever before this week would probably be Cabo San Lucas. But this week seeing my kids enjoy themselves and experience new things has been amazing so I may have to change my mind…

12. Favorite restaurant.
Those that serve food.

13. Favorite thing to d0 in your spare (ha ha) time.
Blog! Blog-stalk! Look for KJ! I also enjoy scrapbooking but don’t ever have/make enough time to do it.

14. If you didn't live in Texas, where would you live?
Anywhere costal would be fine.

15. 1st thing you do when you wake up in the morning?
Weekdays, turn on the shower then brush my teeth. Weekends, wander into the living room to see if either of the kids are awake yet or just Daryl.

16. Last thing you do before you go to bed at night?
Before I go to bed? Check the garage to see that it is down and check to see that the doors are locked. One of our friends’ home was burglarized while they were home sleeping and it really freaked me out! She doesn’t live nearby it just haunts me that things like that really can happen to people like me…

17. Finally...what do you want God to say to you when you get to heaven? (Have you ever watched "The Actor's Studio" with James Lupton? Anyway, he always asks that...that and your favorite curse word...which you can count as #18 if you'd like:)
I have never watched “The Actor’s Studio” but will give the questions a go…
“So, Salyards, Didn’t you love the way all of that worked out?”

I can’t resist #18. One of my friends in Lubbock always said crappitydamn. I like that. I don’t know which 4 letter word gets the most air time from me. I try not to play favorites. There are several I refuse to say, one is “Juicy Cock!” Just ask Sarah why.

Sarah said...

Yea!! Don't we all know Jennifer a lot better now?!?! That was soooo fun to read!
I feel like I've known you longer than a year as well...Readers, let it be known that Jennifer was a GODSEND to me this year--both professionally and personally. He truly placed her in my life for a reason. Thanks for being my friend! I love you!

Rebekah said...

Jennifer--love your answer to the God question. Wouldn't that be great if He did say that? It would make me smile.

Toaster car forever! "tengo un camera!"

The Robertson Family said...

Wow -- amazing story about Karsen and Griffin! Thanks for sharing.

And funny about picking the names...my mom and sister are both teachers and every time I suggested a name for Tate, one of them would go, "Oh my gosh NO, I had a so-and-so in my class and he was ROTTEN." Between the two of them, it seemed like all names were off limits. Luckily they hadn't had a Tate.

KJ Druyvesteyn said...

It's SOOOOO true about the name thing. Since I taught for 13 1/2 years (GASP!), I was pretty sure that I was going to have to pick a Russian or Vietnamese name for my children. However, since we have such a long last name, I thought it would be cruel to name him Vladamir Druyvesteyn. So, thank the Lord that we could settle on Landon.

I'm laughing at #15..."or just Daryl." I can feel the love from here. : )

pink is the new black said...

YEAH! For the great info Jennifer! Fun times for sure...I just talked to KJ...you had a sighting today at the zoo, huh! I was at Graelyn's 1 year check up so I missed the zoo, bummer! Thanks for the info, such fun to read!!!

Lisa said...

I don't even know Jennifer, but I feel like I sort of do now! I am a friend of Angie's from grad school...

~Lisa~
(mommy to Eli, 8 mos)