About

I'm Jenna. You probably know me. Probably. Together we shall weather storms and stories of screaming babies, piranha children, poosplosions, totally irrational thoughts and emotions, and yes, even love. And I'm going to tell it like it is. (Okay, don't hold me to that. I may or not use a hefty dose of hyperbole.)

Are you wondering about the title? You're wondering about the title, I know it. "Love &". Doesn't it make you just need to find out what's on the other side of that ampersand? Doesn't it just make you itch with the feeling that nothing (particularly titles) should ever end in an ampersand? It does, doesn't it. It fills you with an unfair sense of suspense, in need of closure. Well, I can fulfill this need. I wish upon you love and something else at the end of every (I think) post. Love and prolactin. Love and sleep deprivation. Love and science. Love and pizza. Love and EVERYTHING YOU'VE EVER WANTED.

Now, perchance you wandered to the about page to learn about me, Jenna. (Blasphemy!) I could tell you my life story. If you want to know my life story, you'll have to read the entire blog. And steal my journal, and read it. And interview my parents, childhood friends and teachers, and college roommates, because I didn't journal much before May 2012. (You didn't think I'd make this easy, did you?)

But, fear not, reader. I just wrote a list of 50 Random Things About Me.

1. I was born in 1989 in Mesa, Arizona. I don't think I came out of the womb singing opera or tap dancing.
2. When I was really little, I was obsessed with The Lion King. I was so obsessed, that when I couldn't fall asleep, I would continue the story in my head. Simba and Nala's cub, I decided, was a girl cub, and her name was Kiara. Imagine my shock when The Lion King 2 came out, and... they had a girl cub, and her name was Kiara. I was convinced I was psychic. Only then after I watched the movie and discovered how lame they made it, I decided that I didn't like The Lion King anymore. I was scarred forever.
3. I really don't like pet hair. So much so that I refuse to ever get a furry or hairy creature as a pet ever again. I do like cats though, so I might someday get a Peterbald cat, because those are the only good-looking naked cats I know of.
4. I have a daughter. Her name is Amelia Rose. We got Doctor Who nerd points for naming her that. I also have a son named David Alan. He was named after two great uncles, one on James' side, and one on my side. We didn't get any nerd points for that. We almost named him Dragon instead. That's his nickname, though, and we do get nerd points for that.
5. I went to BYU for college. I got a B.S. of Neuroscience. Turned out to be handy in parenting.
6. I have a two-legged unicorn toy. It is cute. His name is Rex. He was originally my little sister Jessica's. Every time I saw him, I said, "IT'S REX! YAY!" (I was probably 16 or 17.) One day, Jessica announced that she had given Rex away to a friend. I was devastated. I made a very sad face. And for the next month or so, I'd remind Jessica about what a horrible person she was for giving Rex away. On Christmas morning, I opened a present from Jessica... It was Rex. "REEEEEX! YOU'RE BAAAACK!" The whole thing had been an elaborate deception.
7. Driving scares me. I've never gotten in a crash or even gotten a ticket, but it still scares me a ton.
8. I have been called as a chorister in nearly every LDS ward I've ever been in. Consequently, I'm a little bored with the calling.
9. In general, I don't like games. Every once in a while I'll play just to be a good sport.
10. I tend to be rather anxious about receiving gifts because I don't like "stuff". I try to get rid of things I don't LOVE because clutter makes me shudder.
11. I'm a little bit perfectionistic about gift wrapping.
12. I have toe shoes. I love them. They are the first shoes I have ever had that have allowed me to run at all without getting extreme pain in one side of my body the next day.
13. For a little over two years, I made a pie each month in order to perfect my pie-making skills. After the two years were up, I discovered I no longer liked pie enough to spend the effort making it. (Too much pie! Blasphemy!)
14. I have had only one (or was it two?) piano lessons. I'm actually pretty good at playing hymns though, sometimes better than pianists with several years of lessons under their belts.
15. I am learning Serbian. James spent two years in Serbia and speaks to Amelia in Serbian. I decided that they're going to converse in gobbledegook, I wanted to understand what they were saying.
16. I struggled with a pain disorder from my teenage years up until I started eating nutritarian when I was 22. Since then, I only really notice fibromyalgia flares when I eat lots of junk.
17. I practically proposed to James. We weren't even dating. We have a complicated love story.
18. When I was pregnant, I never wanted to be pregnant again. Once Amelia popped out, I changed my mind and decided I wanted at least ten babies. (I'm crazy, I know.)
19. I had some pretty major triple-curve scoliosis as a young teenager. I wore a back brace, but that sucked and didn't really do much, so I had spinal fusion surgery and grew four inches in one night. I now sport titanium rods in my back.
20. Remember how I hate pet hair? I also hate people hair, including me hair. One of the best things I've ever done has been to hand James a hair buzzer and tell him to cut it all off. Letting the buzz pixie grow out has also gotten me many compliments on how cute my hair is. Score.
21. I left BYU less politically conservative than I had been when I entered.
22. In elementary school, I played the clarinet. In junior high, I switched to the bassoon. In high school, I played the bassoon AND the mellophone. I didn't bother getting expert at any of these.
23. I once went rafting in some river rapids in Costa Rica. I was dumb and wore my glasses while doing so... Thus, when everyone on my side of the raft was catapulted several feet into the air before we fell into the river, I lost one of the lenses. The rest of my Costa Rica trip was not so fun.
24. I think the Old Testament is the bomb.
25. When I was really little, and I was all by myself, I would pretend I could float to the top of the ceiling. Sometimes, I was convinced I had succeeded. I don't think I was high or anything...
26. I worked as a medical scribe in a fertility center for a little over a year. Consequently, one of my passionate interests is fertility. If you ever want to have a nerdy conversation about how cool sperm is, let me know.
27. I have a complete overbite. When I was twelve or so, the dentist commented that I should probably get braces. My dad (probably freaking about about money in his head) was like, "No way! Her teeth are awesome!" ... And I felt like I should diffuse the situation, and I was thinking that having braces would suck, so I said something along the lines of, "No, it's okay. I want to have an overbite. I've heard it's actually an advantage for bassoonists." I now regret this. I totally wish I had gotten rid of my overbite and got my teeth to be less crowded. Oh well. Anyone have $4,000 to contribute to the cause?
28. I'm a book addict. I liked fantasy and science fiction most before I had Amelia. Now I can't read enough parenting books.
29. I recently realized that I am happiest when my home is filled with people. This may be one reason I want lots of babies.
30. I was really confused when other moms talked about a wonderful newborn smell. I never noticed Amelia having a newborn smell. I felt jipped.
31. I remember scratching at my chicken pox when I was a kid. It might be my earliest memory.
32. I did too much in high school. In addition to the typical six classes, I also did marching band before school every morning starting at 6:00 am. I also took a class after school. In fact, between extra classes and marching band practice, I was on campus on Mondays from 6:00 am straight through until 9:00 pm in some sort of class or practice. You can imagine how much I resented any homework assignments that were assigned Monday and due Tuesday mornings.
33. I went to detention once in elementary school... for playing with my food at lunch time. I was mortified and I don't think I ever told my parents.
34. Also in elementary school, I was known as the "cat girl" because I'd act like a cat.
35. I kissed a boy in first grade. I did it because he was annoying me and I thought it would be an excellent deterrent. It was.
36. My blood type is A+.
37. In sixth grade, my favorite animal was the manta ray and I wanted to be a marine biologist when I grew up.
38. I find most grown-up movies at least a little bit distasteful and have no desire to have copies of them in my house.
39. As of this writing, I weigh about ten pounds less than I did in high school.
40. When I moved out of my parents' house and went to college, my dad changed his ringtone to belch sounds because the house was too quiet without the melodious sounds of me burping.
41. I grew up in Arizona. I'm convinced that no one should live there. It's a desert wasteland. Or at least the Valley of the Sun is. Yeah, no. Not living there.
42. I was really good at Spanish in high school, and I never even studied for it. I promptly forgot it all after graduating. Well, maybe not all of it, but most of it.
43. I love it when being lazy can coincide with good parenting. Like not freaking out too much when kids get exposed to germs, for instance.
44. Apparently, when I was a baby, I smeared poo all over my dad's back while he was napping.
45. In second grade, I wanted to be a teacher. I remember, though, that once I was trying to sound out the word medicine and I could not for the life of me figure it out. I asked for help, and once I realized which word it was, I was embarrassed and decided I probably wasn't smart enough to be a teacher. I also decided this to be doubly true when the teacher asked us what one minus two was, and I said one instead of negative one.
46. I got all ready to go to medical school while I was in college. And then I didn't apply because it didn't feel like the right thing to do at the time.
47. In retrospect, I wish I'd joined choir instead of band. I can sing fairly well for not having done so and for never having gotten professional voice training.
48. I really like the idea of living in Sweden. Temporarily.
49. In junior high, I collected empty Dasani bottles. Then I decided collecting things was a dumb hobby and threw them out. In retrospect, maybe the lesson I should have learned was that collecting Dasani bottles was a dumb hobby.
50. I was in a gifted program as a kid. Thus I was supposed to learn algebra in sixth grade. I didn't actually understand the abstract concepts required to graph out functions, but I had memorized how to do it, so I could do it anyway. So they thought I was good at math, when really I was terrified because it made no sense. It wasn't until the end of seventh grade that I had the "aha" moment and understood math. I have since learned that many kids' brains haven't developed enough to understand abstract math concepts until after they are taught them, so they memorize how to do it instead of why it works.