Posted by Jenna on Mar 9, 2010 in
General Jillie had another wedding shower this past weekend in Beaumont at Monica’s house on Saturday morning and we had an absolute blast. My mom and sister drove in from Abilene on Friday afternoon and I drove to Beaumont to spend the weekend with the girls Friday right after school was released. We had dinner at the Crawfish Hole in Winnie with Nana and Papa and everybody and then spent the evening decorating for the shower. We stayed up until about 1:00 AM decorating and laughing and having a good time and finally crashed before the shower the next morning.
Jillie’s last shower was absolutely perfect. The food was wonderful and she and Jake got lots of great gifts! We had a great time.
the beautiful bride-to-be
Nana did an AMAZING job on all of the flowers!
sisters ; )
cousins…those of us who were there…
Amelia & Elise…beautiful little girls
all of the gifts!
After the shower we headed out for a late lunch with the whole family and all went our separate ways.
Sunday was another busy day with more wedding showers, this time for my cousin’s fiance, Autumn. They got TONS of great gifts and we are really excited for them to be getting married in just a couple of months.
It was a wonderful weekend…we also went to the John Mayer concert…but that’s a post reserved for itself!
Posted by Jenna on Feb 23, 2010 in
General A couple of weekends ago I took a Friday off of work and got a substitute to cover my classes so I could leave early for my sister’s bridal shower in Abilene. It was great to see my family and we definitely had LOTS of fun together.
We were able to drop off my bridesmaids dress for the wedding to be altered…the place was pretty shady and smelled awful, but apparently she’s a great seamstress, so I guess it was worth the experience. We also spent some good, quality girl time shopping for shoes 
and dresses to wear to all of the wedding events coming up in the next few weeks.
Jillie’s first bridal shower was Saturday morning. We all got up early and congregated in the bathrooms to get all dressed up for the big event. We had so much fun!
my sister – the beautiful bride to be
My mom & sister
The cousins…who were at the shower…there’s MANY more of us!
all of the loot for the soon-to-be newlyweds!
Shower #1 or the “Abilene Shower” was a huge success and we all had a blast being together for the weekend. Can’t wait for shower #2 in Beaumont…just a couple more weeks!
Posted by Jenna on Jan 31, 2010 in
General,
Travel Our baseball trip is really starting to come together now! Our train tickets arrived at Matt’s office the other day and we finished ordering all of our tickets for the baseball games this weekend. We knew tickets at Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium would be the most expensive of the 5 stadiums we were visiting…but HOLY.COW. It was unbelievable to see the markup on the tickets. The game we are seeing in Boston is a game against the Phillies, so it was a “Black-out” series and when tickets went on sale Saturday morning all they had left was standing room only. I don’t know what prompted Matt to check Boston tickets Saturday morning, but he did…and we both ended up “sitting” in the “Boston Red Sox Virtual Waiting Room” for tickets to the game we wanted and then we ended not even buying anything because they only had single seats left. We ended up getting AMAZING seats off of StubHub…but paying more than I’ll ever admit for them…front row seats along the first base line…technically field level seats, but there are like 5 rows in front of us. So…really, I guess they are more like row 6…but whatever…it’s row 1 of our section. Make sense? Good.
awesome, huh?
Our tickets at Yankee Stadium are on the second level along the 3rd base line and while they were expensive…they weren’t anywhere close to what we had to pay at Fenway. Yankee’s tickets aren’t on sale through their website yet, so we bought these straight through StubHub and didn’t even wait around to see what we might be able to get from MLB.com. They are playing the Astros when we are there, so we know it won’t be a “Black-out series”…haha…but they sell out their games no matter who they are playing, so we went ahead and bought them.
pretty dang sweet, huh?
Now that we have all of our game tickets and transportation lined up…we just need hotels to stay in! We will be booking those in the next few weeks! Hurry up, June!
Posted by Jenna on Jan 27, 2010 in
General I am totally and completely in love with Ann Taylor LOFT. This is definitely my new favorite store. They actually have a petite section in the store…unlike other stores where you can order petite sizes online…but you have to do so without trying them on. I went in looking for jeans and was skeptical because pants NEVER fit me correctly and boy was I surprised! I walked out of the store with two pair of jeans that were buy one get one 50% off and a pair of $80 winter dress pants for $29. When I walked in the fitting room with those pants and they fit EVERYWHERE…waist, hips, thighs, and best of all…LENGTH!…I almost shed tears right then and there! I think it was probably the first time in my life I bought a pair of pants that did not require some sort of “fixing” to make them fit me properly. It was one of the greatest days of my life!
Thank you Ann Taylor LOFT for catering to the vertically challenged shopper!
Posted by Jenna on Jan 27, 2010 in
General,
Travel As we mentioned several months ago, Matt and I are planning to take a baseball lover’s trip of a lifetime this summer. We have finally started making travel arrangements for our trip and we are so excited. We just wish it wasn’t still so far away! We’ve booked our plane tickets to get us to our first city and baseball stadium and then home from our last stop on the trip. We are both trying REALLY, REALLY hard to pack in carry-on sized suitcases so we don’t have to deal with checking bags. It’s just so annoying and frustrating and even worse now that you have to pay to checked luggage. Matt will totally be able to pack and carry his suitcase on the plane…me on the other hand….that remains to be seen. A week is a long time and will require lots of clothes 
.
We’ve also booked our train tickets. We will be taking the Amtrak train between Baltimore, Philly, New York and Boston. We are both really excited about this. I’ve never been on a train before, so I’m looking forward to it. This is the other reason we are both trying to pack in carry-on sized luggage…you can’t check luggage on the trains we are taking and it would be a huge pain to deal with a big gigantic suitcase on a train and in a train station.
Last night we were able to book the first of our game tickets. The Baltimore Orioles already have their tickets on sale, so we found so pretty good seats at Camden Yards and bought our tickets for the game. We looked at tickets for our other games on StubHub…but because they are because sold by season ticket holders, they cost more than if were to buy them from the teams we are going to wait until the other teams put their tickets on sale before we buy them. If we need to buy them through StubHub to get good seats, we will.
We’ve got hotels for each city picked out, but will book those in the next several weeks. We are also deciding on other things to do in each of the cities we will be visiting other than the baseball games. We will be in New York for almost 4 days and since Matt’s never been there…we have lot’s to do! We also plan on trying one of Bobby Flay’s restaurants while we are in New York.
We are getting so excited about our trip…I wish it was closer to June than it is.
Posted by Jenna on Jan 10, 2010 in
General,
Random We had a wonderful Christmas with our families and these are just a few of our favorite gifts!
my new Dooney & Bourke purse from Matt’s mom & Kevin
Matt’s new boots from his dad & Michelle
my cowboy boots from Matt’s dad & Michelle…I’m in LOVE!
new purse from my parents…it’s super soft leather by Steve Madden
Cookbook holder from my brother
piece of art from my sister & her fiance, Jake…not sure where it’s going.
Matt’s new drill…he’s actually looking forward to some future projects around the house!
Our new lamp for the living room from my parents…we absolutely LOVE it!
We also got quite a few additions to our clothing collections, Matt got some new hunting gear, a whole host of gift cards to various stores and restaurants, and I got several new pieces of jewelry!
Posted by Jenna on Jan 1, 2010 in
Family,
General Christmas always seems like a whirlwind for us because we are so busy and because we have so much family to celebrate with. We started our celebrations with Matt’s dad and Michelle on the 20th. They came to our house this year for a yummy dinner of roast, mashed potatoes, and green beans, boudin dip for appetizer, and key lime pie for dessert. We also celebrated Matt’s birthday the same night. Unfortunately…there are no pictures from this evening on my camera.
On the 23rd, we took gifts to Ben and Jack and had dinner with the Donaldson’s. Because Jack is so little, they didn’t come to Christmas at the grandparents’ house this year, so we gave the boys’ their presents early.
Christmas Eve, we spent some time with my family when they got to town and then headed to Cypress to celebrate with Matt’s mom, Kevin, Danielle, and grandma. We had minestrone soup, turkey, lots of dips, cheeses, fresh veggies, and of course, the cookies. We had dinner, visited for a while, and then opened presents. Again, same story…no pictures.
Christmas Day we got up early and made blueberry muffins and coffee and then started opening presents at our house with my parents and sister and brother. We had a really nice morning and then loaded up in the Tahoe and drove to Beaumont to enjoy the rest of the day with my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. We ate ALLLL day long, opened presents, visited, told stories, and laughed a lot.
the “kid” tree at Nana & Papa’s house…it is decorated with ornaments we made as little kids in school
getting the snacks ready…
the “BIG” tree…with new and different ornaments every.single.year.
roasting marshmallows…
We had a great Christmas with our families! We are truly blessed and that was abundantly obvious this year as we all gathered together to celebrate and be thankful.
Posted by Jenna on Jan 1, 2010 in
General January - we celebrated New Year’s Day with Jeff, Alison, & Ben at the Houston Zoo and then lunch at Chuy’s. I think this was the first New Year’s Day in my life that I didn’t eat the traditional black eyed peas and cornbread…however, refried beans and tortillas were a good substitute!
February - we started obedience school with our dog, Bailey and celebrated Valentine’s Day with cousins.
March - we finished our 5 week obedience school with Bailey and she was awarded “Most Improved Dog”. I also attended the Taylor Swift Concert at the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo with my aunt and cousins.
April - we celebrated our 2nd anniversary on the 28th, celebrated Easter with my family in Beaumont, and traveled to Abilene to visit my parents and sister and brother. We also had our first crawfish boil of the season…in ABILENE!!!
May - we attended the annual crawfish boil at Jeff & Alison’s house and found out that day that they were expecting their 2nd baby! We celebrated Mother’s Day with our families that same weekend, and the next week, because of some medicine I was put on, I had to give up drinking Cokes…that was probably the hardest thing I have ever done.
June - I finally got out of school, had 3 MRI’s done on my brain, and moved my family back into their house after Hurricane Ike in 2008. We also took a vacation to Washington D.C. for a week and thoroughly enjoyed our time there.
July - we celebrated 4th of July at our house by grilling and having Jeff, Alison, & Ben over for the afternoon and then took Ben to the park to watch some fireworks. We also celebrated Nana’s 70th birthday and threw her a HUGE surprise party at my aunt’s house. I took a trip to Abilene to work on stuff for my sister’s wedding and we spent some time out on the boat with Matt’s dad.
August - I started attending a once a week ladies Bible Study with some girls from church, my mom & sister came in town for my cousin’s baby shower to celebrate their twins, we did a big volunteer project with our small group at church, & a new school year started.
September - we put together boxes for kids in Honduras to receive for Christmas and continued trying out new recipes.
October - we toured the Terra Cotta warriors at the Museum of Natural Science, spent two wonderful weekends at the Ranch with my family, and went trick-or-treating with Ben dressed as Buzz Lightning (Buzz Lightyear), and we bought a new car.
November - we celebrated Thanksgiving with my family and finished out the thanksgiving with some quality girl shopping time and some quality guy time…doing whatever it is that they do. We also picked out our Christmas tree right after Thanksgiving…the earliest EVER!
December - Matt and the guys in my family took a hunting trip to uncle’s ranch outside of Commerce, I met my sister and mom for her wedding dress fitting, had a baby shower for my cousin Alison and baby Jack graced us with his presence the very next day, celebrated Matt’s birthday with a very tasty meal at Lupe Tortilla’s, kept Ben since we were both out of school, finished Christmas shopping and wrapping BEFORE Christmas Eve (a FIRST!), celebrated Christmas with both of our families, and had a very relaxing week at the ranch with my family outside of Fredericksburg. We went to dinner at Pappadeaux for New Year’s Eve and listened to the fireworks in the neighborhood, and I was asleep before 2010 even got here!
While 2009 was not filled with quite the excitement that 2008 was, we had a wonderfully relaxing year and have enjoyed getting settled in our house and with our dog. We’ve added some furniture and some decorations and hope to continue doing so in 2010 as we make new memories and add to the old one’s. In 2010 we are looking forward to my sister’s wedding and watching my new cousin, Jack, grow and change and become part of our big, crazy family! It will be a fun and exciting 2010!
Posted by Jenna on Dec 16, 2009 in
Family,
General,
News My cousins, Jeff and Alison, had their second baby boy late Sunday night. He surprised us 3 weeks early, but everybody is happy and healthy. We waited for Baby Jack to make his debut into the world all afternoon and he finally graced us with his presence at 11:58 pm. He was a teeny tiny little guy, weighing only 6 lbs, 6 oz and 18 1/4 inches long. We prayed long and hard for him to be born healthy and without complication, since Alison dealt with some pretty serious health issues throughout the pregnancy and God was faithful. He is absolutely perfect – what an AWESOME God we serve!
Big Brother Ben was completely enthralled with little Jack!
I’m already crazy about this adorable little guy! What a great early Christmas surprise. I can’t wait to watch him grow up.
Posted by Jenna on Dec 16, 2009 in
General This is what Christmas looks like at the Manges household…we order as much as we possibly can because not only does it get delivered directly to the front door, but it also prevents us from having to spend as much time out in the stores. On one particular day last week, I came home from work to find 7, yes, SEVEN boxes on our front porch! Our office, hall closet, and underneath our bed look like Santa’s workshop.
