The day to day, comical happenings and sweet moments from my life as a nanny.

Monday, July 11, 2011

Jenna

I just need to brag for a little bit.
So I spent the last week (with LOTS of help from Angie and my friend Nikki) trying to pull off a couple surprises for my best friend.  Her birthday was Thursday and we just moved into a new place so I wanted to give her a complete room makeover. Jenna and I have been friends for almost 6 years now and we have moved more times than I can count, we've been through ups and downs, have had seasons where our friendship has been anything but stellar, and have walked through so many storms together. Through all of this having a place to call "home" has not been top priority so I felt it was time to start building up "real" rooms and a place that we can come home to.  
Jenna is incredible. I'm not sure where to even start.  The first time Jenna and I ever hung out was really not planned. We were all hanging out in my dorm room and we had a few mutual friends....well..our mutual friends all decided to leave and I was studying so stayed behind. Somehow Jenna was left behind too and long story short we spent the next several hours sharing our hearts with each other....and the rest is history.
We've been pretty much inseparable since then....minus a few tough seasons we walked through.
My favorite thing about Jenna is that we tend to have very eventful things happen during what should be normal days. She is the only person that can live through these events, laughing and making them into adventures instead of being frustrated and negative.
We moved all the way to Nashville and faced southern culture shock together, with no money and not even knowing where we would live. We saved money in jars to rent an apartment and moved in with no furniture, slept on sheets on the floor, saved again in jars to buy a couch from Big Lots, spent months working odd jobs and looking for change to buy food off the dollar menu, had our first garage sale experience in the pouring rain, have moved several times by ourselves, worked at 3 am putting furniture together in the Pier 1 parking lot in the snow....these are just a few examples of the things we have survived through together.
We've worked through the tough times and have been able to be honest with each other and grow our friendship stronger through them. We finish each other's sentences, wear the same clothes without even planning it and confuse our parents on the phone because we sound like the same person. She's the person I can stay up with till 3am talking about boys, life, God, the future and dreams. We've shared nanny jobs, had all our college classes together, were roommates all through college and have even traveled together.
   The funniest thing about it all....we could not be more different.   Jenna keeps me on track by being realistic and logical, she's a first born. I'm the middle child, spontaneous, leap before thinking type.    We balance each other out.    She made a spontaneous jump with me when we decided to go get two little puppies one day.    Pretty much she's amazing and we've both grown so much as individuals and in our spiritual walks because of what we have walked through together.
I thought it would be fun to share some photos through the years....Jenna, please don't hate me.











           typical night












                   (This was for graudation....funny part....the matching dresses was not really planned)

                 (drove a uhaul for the first time to get the couch we saved up for)
                     (we we're REALLY excited to get a vacuum)
                   (when we were jobless we would go to Ross and just try things on)
    (Our first Southern garage sale experience)





So now that you've had a little back story here is what we did for her birthday:
(My computer is totally full so couldn't edit any of these...but was to impatient to wait to post them)
Before:



 
 Before                                                                                                   after
 My little helpers

Gross lamp/night stand








 we had a midnight visitor
 Also...note...never make coffee when you are completely sleep deprived and being asked several questions by a five year old....you will almost blow-up the coffee maker and need your boss to come to the rescue


Sawyer wanted to help so he fell into the teal paint








 almost finished with the accesories


 Angie's coffee vs. my coffee.....I like my straight up strong
 wall art
 we thought Jenna might like this
 we really wanted to play a joke and make some real cheesy BFF canvases
 TADA! Finished product





So that is the end to this super long post....pretty much I adore my BFF

2 comments:

  1. Beautiful! What an amazing friendship you have with Jenna. I bet she loved it! I came from Angie's blog :)

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  2. That is absolutely positively THE most beautiful gift! I can't stop looking at the pictures of the finished product!! I'm so glad you have such a dear friend :)

    (I also discovered you through Angie's blog :) )

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