Category Archives: Flashbacks

Age 11 6th Grade: Jenny Got Ran Over by Her Grandma

This is the 8th post in a 12 week series joining
Mommy’s Piggy Tales to record my youth!

1990-1991
6th Grade
Jenny Got Ran Over by her Grandma

In 1990 I entered the 6th Grade and turned 11 years old. This was actually a pretty big year for me, but I wouldn’t realize it until adulthood. I started ballet, met one of my best friends in the world, started getting insanely boy crazy, started writing a lot, and felt God calling me into youth ministry. I was much more used to the Middle School now although I always got nervous in the beginning because there were many new teachers. Once again I had some trouble with my locker and had to carry all of my books around in a back pack everywhere that I went.

One day after school was out I walked outside where my maternal Grandma was waiting in the car to drive my sister and I home. My sister was already in the front seat and I could see that she and my Grandma were having a fight. I got to the car and opened the back door. My back pack was so heavy because I was carrying all of my books with me that I had to toss it into the car first. Before I could even get into the car my Grandmother drove off! She’s down the block with the back door wide open and I’m standing on the sidewalk screaming “Grandma!”. That’s not the worst of it. When she drove away…she ran over my foot with the car! Yep. Kids were standing around laughing and making fun of me, but I didn’t care. I was a little preoccupied with the fact that my Grandma just ran over my foot and then drove away and left me there!

I don’t remember how long it took her to come back around for me, or what made her realize that I wasn’t in the car (I don’t think she made it any further than the stop sign…and I think I even walked over to the stop sign and got into the car). The story that I heard was that my sister was upset for some reason and said that as soon as I got into the car that she was going to jump out of the car. When I tossed my heavy book bag into the back seat, my Grandma thought that it was me getting into the car (since her eyes were on my sister and she felt a “thud”), and she sped off in hopes that Jess wouldn’t jump out of the car. None of us remember why Jess was upset and wanted to get out of the car, but I know that I’ll never forget being run over by my Grandma in front of half of the school!

Don’t worry, it didn’t really hurt that bad and my foot was fine by the next day.

Just for the fun of it, although it’s completed unrelated to being mowed down by one’s own grandmother ;), here is a watercolor painting that I made while in FL that July. I’ve never been much of a painter, but I’ve always liked this picture.

My Piggy Tales:
*My Birth Story: I’m always late!
*Ages 3-5: Dancing in a box
*Age 6 First Grade: There’s a bra in my lunchbox!
*Age 7 Second Grade: Bossy Wheels and Shady Deals
*Age 8 Third Grade: I will not talk in class
*Age 9 Fourth Grade: I didn’t really need those fingers anyway!
*Age 10 5th Grade: Nothing’s Scary in the Fifth Grade
*Age 11 6th Grade: Jenny Got Ran Over by her Grandma
*Age 12 7th Grade: Youth Camp Stinks
*Age 13 8th Grade: “Talent” Show
*Age 14 9th Grade: (N)O Christmas Tree
*Age 15 10th Grade: The Newsboys Wouldn’t Ditch Their Friends
*Age 16 11th Grade: Acrophobia Gets You the Good Seats
*Age 17 12th Grade: In School Suspension

My Young Adult Years
*Dreams and Aspirations: The Long Road There
*Friends and Fellowship: Friends Don’t Get Friends Grounded
*My First Job
*How I Met Cool Daddy Part 1
*How I Met Cool Daddy Part 2
*Colonel Mustard on a Rollercoaster with a Plastic Fork

Coolest Family on the Block is committed to helping you find creative ways to have fun and make memories with your family all year-long. Don’t miss an idea, tip, or trick…subscribe and have updates sent directly to your email!

Posted in Flashbacks, Jenn, Mommy's Piggy Tales

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Tags: humor, Mommy's Piggy Tales

10 Days of Christmas PJs! Day 10: 2010 Part 1

Dec 24

Posted by Jenn Rian

Merry Christmas Eve, everyone! Here we are on our 10th Day of Christmas PJs…but I can’t show you our Christmas jammies photos from this year yet because…well, we haven’t taken them yet! I didn’t think that through when I came up with this whole thing. Oh well.

So…for this post I’ve decided to include one (or two) photos from each year that I’ve posted so far to tide you over until I can post photos of this year’s jammies.

Enjoy.

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

10 Days of Christmas PJs:
Day 1: 2001
Day 2: 2002
Day 3: 2003
Day 4: 2004
Day 5: 2005
Day 6: 2006
Day 7: 2007
Day 8: 2008
Day 9: 2009
Day 10: 2010 Part 1 You are here 😉
Day 10: 2010 Part 2 Still to come!

If you’re looking for ideas for your Christmas PJs tradition check out my post 10 Ways to Shake Up Your Christmas Pajamas Tradition

What are your Christmas pajamas traditions?

Other Christmas Posts
*Dear Santa: Part 1 Writing a Letter to Santa
*Dear Santa: Part 2 Mailing a Letter to Santa
*Dear Santa: Part 3 Paper for Writing to Santa: Free printables and more!
*Dear Santa: Part 4 Emailing a Letter to Santa
*My Letter to Santa 1984
*10 Ways to Shake Up Your Christmas Pajamas Tradition
*Phone Calls from Santa
*Uncle Ugly’s Christmas Sweater Jamboree Rules
*Uncle Ugly’s Christmas Sweater Jamboree 2010 Photos and Winners
*Traditions, Truces, and Cartoon Moments
*Food as Tradition: Norwegian Butter Cookies

Coolest Family on the Block is committed to helping you find creative ways to have fun and make memories with your family this holiday season. Don’t miss an idea, tip, or trick…subscribe and have updates sent directly to your email!
*Subscribe via email*RSS*Facebook*Twitter*Networked Blogs*Blog Frog*

Posted in Christmas, Christmas PJs, Flashbacks, Holidays, Traditions

10 Days of Christmas PJs! Day 9: 2009

Dec 23

Posted by Jenn Rian

2009 brought about more “new” for us. It was our first Christmas with the next generation, my daughter Adaline was almost 5 months old, and my sister was pregnant with her son. We took a group photo of all of us together in our jammies for the first time.

We ladies had knit pajamas with green tops and red, white, and green striped bottoms. There were candy canes on the tops which read “Holiday Sugar”. Adaline had a cute “1st Christmas” sleeper that was white with red stripes and had a few red and green presents on it. The little red hat that you’ll see her wearing was mine as a baby.

I had a harder time with the guys pajamas last year. I couldn’t find any pajama bottoms at all so I asked the guys to bring a pair from previous years (you’ll notice below that they each wore a different pair, one from each year, unplanned). I couldn’t find a top in my husband’s size either, so I had to get him a smaller size. He cut the sleeves off so that he would be more comfortable and then he and my cousin, Ben, tied the cut-off sleeves around their heads. Before the shirt was destroyed it was a green t-shirt with a gingerbread man with a broken leg that said “Oh snap!”. Tee-hee ;).

The girls.

Cousins.

Da Boyz

The whole crew

The Cool Family 2010

THE END

10 Days of Christmas PJs:
Day 1: 2001
Day 2: 2002
Day 3: 2003
Day 4: 2004
Day 5: 2005
Day 6: 2006
Day 7: 2007
Day 8: 2008
Day 9: 2009 You are here 😉
Day 10: 2010 Part 1
Day 10: 2010 Part 2 Still to come!

If you’re looking for ideas for your Christmas PJs tradition check out my post 10 Ways to Shake Up Your Christmas Pajamas Tradition

What are your Christmas pajamas traditions?

Posted in Christmas, Christmas PJs, Flashbacks, Holidays, Traditions

10 Days of Christmas PJs! Day 8: 2008

Dec 22

Posted by Jenn Rian

2008 jammies! In these photos I’m 10 weeks pregnant with my daughter and my sister just got married almost 3 months prior. The ladies received white pjs with red and green reindeer on them while the men got red “Grinch” t-shirts and red and black plaid bottoms.
And then the photo fun ensued.

Cousins

I have about 3.5 million (o.k., maybe not that many) pairs of Christmas socks and slipper socks. Do not ask me why I’m wearing plain white tube socks in the photo above. It makes me sad. I’m ashamed to show this to the world. A perfect opportunity for festiveness was entirely overlooked and for that I should be punished 😦

Just the girls

I shall show you my calf. Try to control yourself.

Go on, guys!
(my uncle ended up in some of these photos accidentally…
U.A. meet the bloggy people. Bloggy people, meet U.A.)

Hey, Santa you’re so fine, you’re so fine you blow my mind, hey Santa! Hey Santa!

The newlyweds with new fluffy furbaby, Sammy.

We like to hold dogs in photos so that it appears they don’t have any heads. That’s just how we roll.

And our really bad Cool Family pic of 2008
(this was the best one there was, people)…

…at least it was better than this one! (????)

10 Days of Christmas PJs:
Day 1: 2001
Day 2: 2002
Day 3: 2003
Day 4: 2004
Day 5: 2005
Day 6: 2006
Day 7: 2007
Day 8: 2008 You are here 😉
Day 9: 2009
Day 10: 2010 Part 1
Day 10: 2010 Part 2 Still to come!

If you’re looking for ideas for your Christmas PJs tradition check out my post 10 Ways to Shake Up Your Christmas Pajamas Tradition

What are your Christmas pajamas traditions?

Posted in Christmas, Christmas PJs, Flashbacks, Holidays, Traditions

2 Comments

Tags: Christmas, Holidays, pajamas, photos, tradition

10 Days of Christmas PJs! Day 7: 2007

Dec 21

Posted by Jenn Rian

2007 was a veritable Pajama-Fest. I’m not really sure what that means, but I found matching pink pajamas with red and green ornaments on them for me, my sister, and my cousin, and also for my mom and aunt. The fellas got red and black plaid flannel bottoms with mock santa suit t-shirts that say “Does this suit make me look fat?”, and I also got matching bottoms and a red shirt for my uncle. The “grown-ups” didn’t want their photos taken and especially wouldn’t want them posted on here, so too bad for you.

Yes, we are weird.

And I’m perhaps the weirdest of them all.

Cool Cousins.

Cooler Cousins.

Cool Daddy and the Cool Fellas.

Da Boyz still keeping it cool.

Gee whiz, fellas, Christmas pajamas are swell.

Sissy and Matt

Cool Family: 2007 Version

And I like to end it with some more weird. Just to bookend it.

10 Days of Christmas PJs:
Day 1: 2001
Day 2: 2002
Day 3: 2003
Day 4: 2004
Day 5: 2005
Day 6: 2006
Day 7: 2007 You are here 😉
Day 8: 2008
Day 9: 2009
Day 10: 2010 Part 1
Day 10: 2010 Part 2 Still to come!

If you’re looking for ideas for your Christmas PJs tradition check out my post 10 Ways to Shake Up Your Christmas Pajamas Tradition

What are your Christmas pajamas traditions?

Posted in Christmas, Christmas PJs, Flashbacks, Holidays, Traditions

7 Comments

Tags: Christmas, Holidays, pajamas, photos, tradition

10 Days of Christmas PJs! Day 6: 2006

Dec 20

Posted by Jenn Rian

2006 was a big “pajama” year for us. For the first time I was able to find Christmasy pajama bottoms for the guys in my husband’s size (if you can’t tell, he’s a giant aka 6’3). My sister picked up the “Elves Gone Wild” shirts but forgot one for my cousin 😦 so we supplemented with a plain red shirt for him. The ladies pjs had a red top with Santa on it that said North Pole Celebrity and pink pants with Santas.

Cousins

The Fellas: Cool Daddy, Ben, and Matt (my (almost at the time) brother-in-law)