The Schmidt Sphere

a lovely little garden

2011-04-26T21:39:00.000-04:00

so, although i didn't make my 30 before 30 for a number of reasons, this weekend i was able to accomplish something (with A LOT of help) that i wasn't sure i would ever be able to accomplish...we now have a lovely little flower garden out front and nothing has died yet. SUCCESS! my mom came over on sunday and helped mark and i overhaul the garden plots out front. we started with weeding what hadn't yet been weeded, moving the junky mulch, removing a non-functioning weed protector sheet, tilling up the good dirt, adding better dirt, removing the HUGE roots (we don't know what they are roots FOR- but that's another story), buried flower pots and dog bones, toys, iron pipes, darts, pieces of a ceramic something-or-other, and everything else you would think couldn't possibly be buried in someones front garden, and then finally planting the flowers. last night and tonight i finished mulching and finally took some photos. i'm sad i didn't take photos before and during, but the after shots are pretty great:

#13- put myself out there

2011-02-28T15:53:00.000-05:00

so today i had a 5-hour interview for a new job. the reason i'm not keeping this hush-hush is because i've been very honest with my boss about this prospect, and i'm quite excited about it. i haven't interviewed for a job in a while, and after having sat on the other side of the table in a number of recent interviews, i've got to say- interviewing is exhausting! don't get me wrong, i had a great time and walked away feeling good about everything i did and said, and feeling good about everything i heard and learned. overall, a success regardless of what may happen down the road. but, as i said, i'm exhausted! being an introvert, it was a long day to be "on" the whole time and i made the mistake of refusing coffee this morning, which i sincerely regret. at the end of the day, it was great to put myself out there and go for something i really want. change is hard, and who knows what will come of this, but it was nice. nice to go after something, nice to try.

#14- be horrified

2011-02-27T12:01:00.000-05:00

yesterday i went to get a haircut. when i got there i was waiting for a few minutes, and then i overheard the following: "have you told rachel that her lady is here?"

i am the "lady." ew. i was disgusted, i don't want to be a LADY! i want to be a GIRL! or something else that's maybe more age appropriate, but i don't think i'm a lady yet. ladies are old. and of course this all happens within a week-ish of my 30th birthday. ugh. horrified.

#15- conform

2011-02-27T11:51:00.000-05:00

last week i did it. i finally got an iphone thanks to verizon. i've hated my blackberry for the past year and a half, and it has been so nice to finally be able to have a phone that's easy to use, and nice, and just lovely in general. i am now a part of the apple masses.

#16- have FUN at a museum & #15- spend more time with mom

2011-02-21T08:48:00.000-05:00

this is a combo pack. as a museum studies grad student, over the past two years whenever i was in a museum it was usually for school. granted, it's still fun and interesting and all that, but i'm there to think about the museum in a different way than a normal visitor. this was also the case on saturday, when i decided to go to the maryland science center in baltimore to do an exhibition review. i thought it would be fun to see if my mom wanted to go, so i invited her along. we first went through the exhibition i had decided to review, and then just had fun! there was a lot of cool stuff to see and do there and i would highly suggest it for anyone with kids. i felt a little weird at times because some of the exhibitions were definitely geared towards kids, so when my mom and i were playing we were the only adults without children. eh, maybe it seemed weird, but it was a lot of fun and reminded my why i love museums so much.

after spending a couple hours at the science center, my mom and i decided to do a little shopping and then grab a leisurely lunch. it was good to just relax and not have to be on a schedule of any sort and just hang out however we wanted. it was a nice treat for the both of us and should definitely happen more often :)

#17- let him pick the movie

2011-02-21T08:39:00.000-05:00

mark and i are pretty good about sharing the television and watching the same (ish) things together. however, i do tend to wiggle my way into watching "pretty little liars" some nights while mark is doing homework or something and just wants something in the background. he hates "my trash" tv, but usually just rolls his eyes and tolerates it. when it comes to movies, sometimes we're on the same page and other times we're not even reading the same book. so friday we decided to go to a movie and i let him pick. i said what i absolutely didn't want to see, he narrowed it down to two, and i said i was fine with either. we ended up seeing "unknown" with liam neeson. the first 3/4 were good but the last 1/4 was eh. THEN on saturday night we stayed in (the boring lives of grad students) and mark asked if i wanted to watch a movie on demand...he had a great one picked out. it was about the civil war, called something like "riding with the devil" and toby mcguire was the lead. i generally don't like period pieces, but agreed since he seemed excited. it was good, but SO LONG. it probably wasn't even that long, but it felt like forever. my good deed is definitely done :)

#18- exercise

2011-02-21T08:31:00.000-05:00

my exercise regimen comes in fits and starts. sometimes i exercise almost everyday and then other times it may be months before i put on my pair of sneakers. friday (a lovely day off) mark and i decided to go for a 4 mile run, our first since the marathon. in all honesty it became a 4 mile walk because it was a bit warmer than we expected and it was just nice to be outside! i won't mention the fact that i am so out of shape for not having run in so long, we'll keep that under wraps. then on saturday and sunday (and later today!) i FINALLY started the p90x tapes that i borrowed from my friend, rachel, a billion years ago. i know rach is reading this and i want to hide in shame, but if it helps, i'm sore all over and couldn't do all of plyometrics...rather, i couldn't do MOST of plyometrics...hopefully that will change over time! either way, i'm excited to be exercising again and am loving the soreness a little bit. it's been too long!

#19- take some time off

2011-02-21T08:27:00.000-05:00

now this hasn't really been a problem for me- i'm a big advocate of using any time off i may have, whether it's comp, vacation, personal, or sick. in the federal government leave system i get far too many sick hours to use them all, but i refuse to let my comp hours disappear in their "use or lose" fashion, and the same goes for vacation. this is a 3 day weekend and when i found out last thursday that my boss would be working from home on friday i decided to swoop into her office at some point and make a case for how i would like the day off on friday. in the end, i got my day off and it was amazing. i plan to take a few more just like it over the next two weeks :)

#20- read for school

2011-02-21T08:23:00.000-05:00

in my last post i discussed my distaste for reading related to school, but this week i had to suck it up. last week in class i felt like i couldn't contribute as much as i wanted to because i hadn't done the readings, but this week i was determined to do them all, and i did. granted, they were fairly short, but it felt like an accomplishment. i'm not sure how often this will keep happening, but it was nice to get it done at this once this semester ;)

#21- read for fun

2011-02-14T20:27:00.000-05:00

again, no photo, which many people think is a complete jip on a blog, so i'll keep this short :)

grad students don't get to read for fun, it's against the natural order of things. this is one thing i hate about grad school because i love to read, but mainly i love to read what i WANT to read, not the things i have been assigned. saturday i had some time on my hands (ahem, because i wasn't reading for school) and took a trip to the local library and picked up a book from a new mystery-writing author that i have come to enjoy. it's monday and i'll be finishing the book this evening, which is exciting but a little scary. now that i know i can read a 400 page book in 2.5 days, my schoolwork is in serious trouble...

#22- get outside

2011-02-13T19:20:00.000-05:00

unfortunately, i didn't snap any photos this evening. it was a bit dark went mark and i went for our 40 minute stroll, but it was nice to get outside. today was a beautiful day and even in the middle of february we were lucky enough to enjoy our lovely neighborhood view of glebe bay and it's glory!

#23- try a new restaurant

2011-02-13T19:15:00.000-05:00

one of my best friends, meghan, called me on friday morning to let me know she was in dc for the weekend. it was a great surprise, and so a few adjustments to my weekend plans needed to be made to accommodate the great news. on friday meghan was kind enough to come the museum to eat lunch with me and just take some time to catch up, the two of us. saturday night we made plans to get together in the city for dinner with a few other people (mark, jessie, missy, jon, and one of meghan's old friends from work).

luckily, two of the three restaurants that meghan wanted to go to while she was in town were new to me! we decided on the grill from ipanema, in adams morgan. anyone who is a geography buff can guess that it's a brazilian restaurant- and we were not disappointed. the food was really good and the drinks were delicious. the only complaint we had was the service, it was horribly slow, but when in good company, it didn't matter that much.

here's a quick shot of meghan and i after dinner:

#24- gain a new perspective

2011-02-12T10:00:00.000-05:00

i also like to call this one "no more pity parties." everyone has problems and that's just how it is. but, it's true that happiness is a choice and i am supremely guilty of making the wrong choice at times. within the past year i've tried to change my outlook on life but it hasn't always worked...actually it's pretty cyclical. sometimes i'm just in a "woe is me" mood that may last for a couple of weeks. and sometimes i'm in a "life is lovely" mood that could also last for a couple of weeks. the truth is, i have it pretty nice. instead of thinking "argh, i have to go to work" i really want to start thinking "oh, i GET to go to work!" and i GET to go to school, and i GET to put food on the table and i GET to pay a mortgage and i GET to have a new car payment and i GET to do a ton of other things that may seem like a pain sometimes, but i am really lucky to get to do them. so many people are in dire straights these days with work, money, food, and life in general. my job, although sometimes frustrating, has enabled us to buy a house, buy a car, put food on the table, and allowed me to get into grad school. i should be more thankful for that. granted, i'm not expecting to be susy sunshine everyday (i'm not trying to set myself up for failure!), but i hope that tweaking my perspective just a little bit will allow me to be happier in general, and then to pay that happiness forward.

this is me not having a pity party:

#25- have fresh flowers in the house

2011-02-10T20:28:00.001-05:00

i LOVE the sight of fresh flowers in the house, but usually i pass them by at the market because 1. i have the amazing ability to kill any form of vegetation, and even though flowers in a vase have already been picked, they're lasting time is greatly diminished in my presence, and 2. sometimes they can be expensive and/or feel a bit like a luxury. but alas, i love the sight of them nonetheless and sometimes you just need to give in to the things you love. so, tonight on my way home from work i stopped by trader joe's for eggs, marinara sauce, and three bunches of beautiful, fresh flowers. here are a few snapshots...

there are two vases in the living room, one on the coffee table and one on the mantle:

then there is one vase on the dining room table, of white hydrangeas, which was also the majority of my wedding bouquet, and i love them:

it makes me happy to see all these beautiful, living (not really), non-wilted flowers around our house- at least for the time being :)

#26- blog

2011-02-09T22:38:00.001-05:00

um, i don't consider #26 a cheat. i may have blogged more in the past two weeks than i have in the previous two years. the real kicker is that i plan on holding fast to my blogging over the next month during my 30 for 30, and then hopefully beyond! there are no photos to accompany this accomplishment, because again...it's past 10pm and i've had another full day of work and class and i don't want to hit you with a "tired jenn" photo two posts in a row!!! :)

#27- eat dinner by candlelight

2011-02-09T22:34:00.001-05:00

i've never done this. ever. mark couldn't believe that i'd never eaten by candlelight- and as the logical partner in this relationship, he felt like at some point during a power outage i must have eaten by candlelight. maybe, but i don't think so. at least it didn't leave a lasting impression.

mark and i received beautiful candlesticks for our wedding from mark's aunt lynn. the candlesticks were given to aunt lynn and the late (and infamous) uncle iggy on their wedding day. the gift means a great deal to both mark and i, but until now we hadn't put these lovely sticks to good use!

granted, i look exhausted...mainly because i was. this photo was taken at 10pm after a full day of work and then class. also, we may or may not have eaten chick-fil-a by candlelight. good thing i didn't specify "eat a FANCY dinner by candlelight" then i'd be out of luck!

it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that as soon as i took the photo, mark asked if we could turn the lights on. it shouldn't come as a surprise that i refused his request.

#28- paint my nails

2011-02-09T22:30:00.000-05:00

it's not really a big deal, not to most people. then again, maybe i'm not like most people. i used to have acrylic nails in college and for a couple of years afterwards, but they were expensive and quite the time commitment every two weeks. since then, i've enjoyed keeping my nails fairly short. they aren't very strong, so when they get longer, they get flimsy and break easily. anyway, this is all fairly boring, but to cut the chase, i hardly ever paint my nails. again, even paintings nails is a long process, because if i'm going to do it, i'm going to do it right: cuticle trimming, filing, buffing, base coat, two coats of paint, and a top coat. plus drying time, which lasts forever. or something close to it.

with that being said, i really like the way my nails look when they're painted, even with a clear coat...which is sometimes all i can handle. BUT, i recently saw a color on a friend at work that i really liked and decided to try. gray-ish polish is all the rage these days, and this is an OPI color called "you don't know jacques"

it's a little hard to see, but i've had it on since sunday (quite possibly a new record) and it hasn't chipped and is pretty much staying put- success! maybe this will become a new trend for me? maybe.

30 before 30

2011-02-06T12:49:00.000-05:00

yesterday officially marked 30 days before my 30th birthday. to celebrate the occasion, i have decided to do 30 things before i'm 30- things that i've either never done before, or that i want to do more of, or something in between. it's my 30 before 30, so luckily i get to make the rules :)

#30- buy a new car

in 2001 i was fortunate enough to be given the "red robin" from gaga (my great grandmother). the red robin is a 1996 oldsmobile cutlass supreme. to my amazement it has lasted me through 2011. granted, there were many repairs and thousands of dollars that i sunk into the red robin, but it was all worth it. the red robin saw me through the last 2 years of college, my first (few) job(s), my first apartment, our engagement and wedding, most of grad school, and the purchase of our first house. but, over the past few months the repairs just came to be too much and we've had to just park the red robin for a few months and live with one car, which has been tough. over the past couple of weeks mark and i have been talking about a new car. i've been hesitant given the upcoming, anticipated changes in our lives, but i couldn't deny that having one car while we both commuted has been hard. both mark and i were in agreement about getting a hybrid, and of course, the prius is the best hybrid out there. we also decided that we'd prefer not to buy brand new due to the immediate drop in value and the certified, pre-owned was probably the best choice. after some research with carmax and local toyota dealerships, we decided to make the trek to a dealership about 45 minutes away due to their inventory. fortunately, they also offered us a great trade-in value for the red robin, and we just had to jump at the offer. unfortunately, we didn't drive the red robin to the dealership and just had to cross our fingers that it would make the 45 minute drive today. the dealership was kind enough to let us take the 2009 prius (now officially christened the "silver bullet") home yesterday and drop the red robin this morning. although the coolant leak in the red robin nearly choked mark to death, we made it! before we drove off, i snapped a "goodbye" photo with the red robin:

it was sad, but has been a long time coming. to make me feel a bit better, i also decided to snap a photo with the silver bullet:

the silver bullet is fantastic and i officially love it already. since this is my first purchase of a new-ish car, we'll categorize this under "things i've never done before"

#29- have more people over

although #29 happened on the same day as #30, i am not going to consider that cheating. since mark and i moved into our new house at the end of last august, we only really started hosting and having people over around christmas when we felt the house was finally in a decent working order. since then we've tried to host a bit more and have more people over whenever we can, and we want to continue the trend. last night we were fortunate enough to be able to host dinner for our friends hannah and rob. hannah is a friend of mine from school, and our bond of friendship was fortified last summer as we both had to endure two painful classes- our digitization class and our cultural consumption of early america class. both were horrible and although i try to block them out from my mind, i'm glad that i was able to meet hannah through them. rob is hannah's lovely hubby, who is also an amazingly impressive runner. when rob talks about his marathon times, i just smile and nod, since it blows my mind that he can run that fast and i'm ashamed to tell him my times- ha!

anyway, hannah and rob live on capitol hill in dc but were kind enough to make the trek out to edgewater last night for a taco feast. although i didn't snap any photos, all of us had a great time catching up, building a fire, chatting, and eating until we couldn't eat anymore (well, at least i ate myself into a food coma). so, although this is only the first in a greater series of instances of hosting, we're off to a great start!

house photos...finally!

2011-01-23T19:57:00.001-05:00

we're not done with the house yet. but here is a sneak peak at some of things we've done so far...

mark and i on the day of closing in august

when you enter the front porch, this is the view to your left without furniture

with furniture, and a lovely view of the water

and more furniture

as you enter the front door, this WAS your (mint green) view to the left

this IS your far more neutral view

mint green view from the stairs of the living room and front door

netural view from the stairs, with a bunch of our junk by the front door, since we were about the leave for philly when taking these photos (yes, i snapped them in november and finally posting them now)

a close up of the living room. as a point of reference, the windows are to the front porch

our purpley powder room on day one

aside from putting the toilet seat down, not much has changed, but there are plans for a better paint color in our near future

the yellow kitchen on move in day

ah yes, much better as soft pumpkin

another view into the dining room (standing near the fridge in the kitchen, in the doorway to the study)

yay for pumpkin! also, we've added shelves to one of the walls now and plan to hang a beautiful piece of artwork on the wall above the buffet once it arrives

this was the previous owners laundry room, but we asked them to move the laundry machines to the basement so we could use this space as a study. it's a room off of the kitchen and on the other side of the wood wall you see is the front porch

a bit of a messy view from the kitchen

empty on move in day, from the brick wall (still in the study)

from the opposite corner of what you just viewed

i'm not going to show everything upstairs because we haven't painted any of the 3 bedrooms yet. the two smaller bedrooms are both this blue color. this is the guest room, and then there is another just like it, but a mirror image. the master is a gross brown, so we'll show those photos after we paint it the silvery green color we've had for a while now

from the back of the yard. that thing on the left was the POD the previous owners were using. it's since been replaced with our two cars...one of which is broken...but that's another post altogether


another view of the yard...

finito! we hope that if you haven't had the chance to visit yet that you will soon!

the holidays, 2010 style

2011-01-23T19:27:00.001-05:00

so i pretty much missed holiday blogging this year, but i feel like you'll forgive me once you see the brief overview below, outlining just about all of the fall and winter 2010 holidays...

me, clearing the guts out of our first halloween pumpkin (yes, it's true, we haven't previously carved a pumpkin together...shameful)

mark, doing some tracing on our REDSKINS pumpkin!

he's pretty amazing, that husband of mine

finito! SO good!

thanksgiving brought us to philly and my first cheese steak at pat's

i got a whiz with onions and green peppers. eh, it was fine, but i don't think i was prepared for all the meat on the sub, it was a bit overwhelming

we were lucky enough to be able to spend wednesday before thanksgiving with meghan and alex. we went to the mutter museum, saw some gross stuff, got coffee and a fabulous dinner in town- PG representin' in philly!

us on thanksgiving

and we'll just skip right to christmas! this is mark and i with our lovely nephew, andrew, and his cutie-pie sister, taylor, on christmas eve

she's adorable, i just can't get enough

andrew takes after his dad, he prefers to be shirtless.

the schmidt clan the day after christmas. taylor was christened on the 26th and mark and i were able to host the after-party since we're so close to the naval academy chapel- score!

these were actually baked in early december for a thing at work, but i thought i would throw them in here. my first attempt at sugar cookies from scratch. they were alright, a little crunchy, not so chewy. i always prefer a chewy cookie, so maybe next year i will perfect the recipe. or just buy them :)


mark and i also decided to host a little new years eve soiree. family-friendly, of course :)

the morgan's gettin' their party on

like i said, prefers to be shirtless.

there may or may not have been a small fire on our porch involving sparklers. i'm just sayin...

the lovely louisa

andrew is such a friendly guy

the lovely ladies! louisa, rachel, susan, jenn, jackie, and rachel

we were a little too boring for rock, but he tolerated us as best he could :)

2010-11-13T11:59:00.003-05:00

on halloween this year, mark and i were fortunate enough to complete the marine corps marathon in dc. we trained for about 6 weeks, which as you may know, is horribly inadequate. needless to say, we were both pretty nervous. this was mark's first marathon and my second. i trained for about 7 months for my first marathon, so 6 weeks was a joke and i knew it. up until about 1 week prior to the race i was wondering whether or not i was going to go through with it. BUT i knew that last year when i saw everyone on the metro with their race bags i was really sad that i didn't share in their mixed emotions of excitement, nervousness and general comradery. so, we ran. and as it turns out, we ran well. mark finished with an awesome time of 4:33 and i finished in 4:54, which happens to be 9 minutes faster than my marathon race time in 2008.

here are a few shots of us before the race. mark stretching and us freezing a bit before the sun came up:

i don't have any shots of us after the race since my camera was a in a bag and the bag was in a truck that was too far away for my jello-like legs to handle without a long rest. by the time we got my bag and took off my shoes, all i wanted was for the medics to fix up my toes (some unsavory things are still going on there, but i won't bore you with the details) and get home to rest!

a girls weekend in boston

2010-11-13T11:06:00.017-05:00

long, long ago in a faraway land a few of us ladies got together for an extended weekend. since meghan lives in boston, courtney was visiting for a conference and suse was just a short bus ride away in nyc, i decided to hop a flight to beantown and have some fun. of course, we were all sad that rachel wasn't there, but knew we'd make up for it soon. since it's taken me 5 months to download the pics from my camera, i felt like it was alright to post about our trip now, even if it is so late in the game.

one of our first orders of business was to explore a local island that has an old, kind of creepy fortress on it. i think someone else got the fortress shots, but here are a few of us on the ferry:

and below is the lovely view of the boston harbor from the ferry:

later that night we decided to go out for a night of dancing and general good times. of course, it took us a while to get it together:

and finally:

once we arrived at 'da club it was a pretty exciting time, full of crazy stage dancing:

girls in skirts that left little, er, nothing to the imagination:

and boston's version of the jersey shore boys:

of course, we needed some obligatory historical boston photos before the weekend was complete, so we took our own educational tour of the city later that weekend:

and since we didn't want to take ourselves too seriously, just one quick fun shot:

what a great weekend, thanks ladies!

so it's been a while

2010-10-30T11:21:00.005-04:00

in an attempt to avoid the school work that i have to do i decided to FINALLY write the blog post that's taken me two years to write- so here it is.

needless to say mark and i have been through a lot in the past couple of years. we're both in school these days, mark getting ready to graduate from UMD in may with his MBA and MPP (master's in public policy) and i'm roughly in the middle of my MA from GWU in museum studies, set to graduate next december. i'm still working full-time and mark has been interning on top of school, so relaxation is hard to come by these days.

on top of that we bought a house in august right outside of annapolis, right on the water (photos to come soon, i promise!) and we couldn't be happier about it. in the small snipets of spare time we find each weekend, we're busy painting, patching holes, hanging photos, and everything else it takes to make a house a home. there are so many amazing qualities about our new house, one of which is the super huge wrap-around front porch facing the water! the second is the proximity to a trader joe's. i've missed living less than 5 miles from a tj's in the past 2 years, so it's good to be back.

and finally, tomorrow will end our recent bout of marathon training. that's right, we've also managed to sign up and train for the marine corps marathon (although probably not as well as we should have). this will be mark's first marathon and my second, as i ran the MCM in 2008 as well. yesterday was the expo where we picked up our packets, free shirts and bought a few last minute goodies. we're both excited and nervous and praying that we just FINISH since we know our training has been less-than-ideal. if only my legs could just look like this, i think they'd carry me over the finish:

i apologize that this post hasn't had any real photos, but i promise they will be up of the house and of us in the next couple of weeks!

happy birthday mama chewners!

2008-09-29T21:36:00.004-04:00

my mom turned a-certain- age-where-it-may-be-viewed-inappropriate-to-mention-at-this-point this past saturday :) mark and i went out to celebrate with mom, dad and allie to the rusty scupper in baltimore. my mom is a huge fan of their cream of crab soup, so of course we all had to get our own bowls- and i must concur, it was quite yummy! after lunch we retired back to the chewning house for a bit to hang out and eat some of the delicious pumpkin caramel pudding muffins i made in honor of mom's bday :)

happy birthday momma!

happy belated birthday to a princess!

2008-09-29T21:32:00.002-04:00

last friday, princess alana turned 5 years old! we heard that she had a cowgirl/cowboy party with six shooters, cowpeople hats and a horsey cake, we just wish we could have been there :)

happy birthday alana!

us with alana this summer at the beach

so many updates!

2008-09-23T19:27:00.003-04:00

it has been quite a while since i've updated the blog, for which i profusely apologize! a lot of changes and events have kept the mr. and i busy since mid-august. mark dove head first into his mba program and i haven't seen him since :) in all seriousness, mark does spend quite a bit of time working on homework, meeting with groups, studying, doing extra activities and attending club meetings- but he's enjoying learning and maybe he will one day learn to relish in the extacy of 5 hours of sleep a night. maybe. one day.

my new job at the Holocaust Museum has kept me very busy during the days, for which i am extremely thankful! being busy and wrapped up in a number of things helps the days go by faster and brings a sense of accomplishment (usually!). since i'm a little past the one month mark, i'm starting to take ownership of certain things, which i love.

although quality time with one another has lessened quite a bit from the amount of we got to spend during our "summer of unemployment," we've managed to make some great friends through work and school and have gotten to hang out with them on (super fun) occassions and there will certainly be more of that to come!

also, in other, wonderful and beautiful news, alexandra olivia schmidt was born on sunday, september 14th! lexi's parents are mike (mark's older brother) and diane (awesome sister in law) and her big (5 years old this friday!) sister is alana (best. princess. ever.). congrats to the fam!

Morgan-mania

2008-08-10T13:01:00.007-04:00

this past week we were SO lucky to be able to spend some time with mark's sister, susan and her husband shawn and their 5.5 month old son, andrew! although it was a whirlwind tour for susan and shawn, we felt like we were able to see them quite a bit, and enjoyed every minute of it! the main reason for their trip from hawaii was that it was time to get andrew baptized in the church. plus, a little pool time never hurt anyone :) below are some photos from the week:

mark and andrew upon andrew's arrival in town

uncle mark lovessss to play airplane

some kisses from daddy shawn before pool time

mamma susan and andrew

family portrait, and andrew's first time in a pool!

i had to sneak some baby boy time in the pool, he's just the coolest kid ever

susan and andrew right after andrew's first time under pool water- he's gonna be a swimmer like mamma

mark and shawn setting up the grill after pool time

dad schmidt enjoying some sleepy baby love

at the schmidt's for some time with family and friends

the baptism, with Godparents, sebastian and amy

mom and dad schmidt with andrew after his baptism

mark and i with susan, shawn and andrew

mark with andrew after lunch in annapolis

andrew with mom schmidt

the cutest nephew i've ever had

i told you uncle mark loves to play airplane

mark, me, susan and shawn before they headed out of town back to hawaii :(

Working Girl

2008-08-07T15:13:00.004-04:00

Hooray! After a few months of being unemployed and near the point of stressing out about it, I got a wonderful job offer with the Holocaust Museum this afternoon! It's the job I REALLY wanted and I think it's going to be a wonderful experience and opportunity. It's certainly a step in the right direction, as I've wanted to get into the museum world for a long time and I'm hoping to get into a graduate program for next Fall. Everyone in the office is very upbeat and extremely nice and welcoming, so I'm looking forward to working with them. It's been fabulous having the summer off and just hanging out with family, friends and Mark, but I am so thankful to be getting back into the "working world" in a few days! Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and prayers during this transition period for Mark and I, we're grateful to you all!

puppy time!

2008-07-31T16:16:00.006-04:00

i got a call from my mom on tuesday afternoon. her and my dad were going to go pick out a puppy. YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!! my parents had been talking about getting a 2nd lab for a while, a playmate for their awesome and amazing yellow lab, buddy. they have gone back and forth and been seriously talking about it for a couple of weeks. they found a breeder north of baltimore whose puppies had just turned 8 weeks. they decided to get a black male lab, and name him "moose," which i think is adorable and certainly fitting. below are some photos...of course i had to go over and check out the new chewning addition!

with moose and buddy before my sisters got home from camp

gettin' some puppy hugs in

puppy kisses are the best, and moose dishes them out like a pro

my dad came out of the house once the girls got home and surprised them, this is allie learning that they just got a puppy!

katelyn holding moose for the first time, it's true love

brothers, checkin' each other out

a little doggie butt sniff never hurt anyone...

there were a lot of friends that wanted to see moose, so he tired out quickly and learned fast that the only place where little hands can't reach you to pick you up is under the minivan, so he tried to catch some shut-eye

my dad let it go for a little bit, but he needed some more playtime/male bonding with moose

after almost everyone was gone, we brought the crate inside and moose mosey'd on over and was so tuckered out that he didn't even care that his little bum wasn't in the crate before he fell asleep

4 animals and the zoo

2008-07-27T21:15:00.007-04:00

this past weekend mark and i decided to have my little sisters over. we thought a fun time would include a trip to the national zoo, a dip in our community pool, some dinner and a netflix. obviously, we didn't feel the need to photograph the pool, dinner and netflix, but we had a great time with the girls and below are a few fun photos from our zoo trip!

it was a hot day and the panda's were all inside, lounging

katelyn, toucan sam and allie (i was starving, where are my fruit loops?!)

in her spare time, allie also screeches like an eagle.

"come and knock on our door..." oh wait, katelyn is too young to know that tv show...

looking up at a sleeping porcupine whose teeth need some serious attention

the three of us crazy ladies

a HUGE hippo in the water

the meerkats took some time out from the manor to pose for this photo

golden tamarin with it's baby on it's back

i'm pretty sure we posed with almost all of the bronze animals around the zoo

a cuban croc who liked to show off it's teeth and yellow-ish mouth

posing before we leave- the trademark lion photo

a 14th birthday

2008-07-25T15:52:00.003-04:00

on july 19, 1994, my little sister, katelyn, was born around 9 am. and i saw the whole thing. seriously. everything. it's a day i'll never forget, for various (obvious) reasons. this year she turned 14 (ah!) and is about to start high school (double ah!). mark and i were lucky enough to be able to spend the day with the chewning clan down at a family friend's home on the severn river. we spent the day on the dock, swimming, eating and taking turns enjoying the sea doos! at one point, i took katelyn and allie (my 11 year-old sister) out on a sea doo. i was a little nervous that i might throw them off or something if i went too fast, but eventually we ramped it up a bit and had a great time. once we decided to turn around and head back, the sea doo started acting funny and then katelyn uttered the worst words of the day, "jenn, i think we're in the grass." i looked down and realized she was more than right. the one warning we had gotten from our family friend was, "don't go in the grass, if you do, you could ruin the sea doo. you have to turn it off and pick the grass from the engine." we weren't anywhere near the coastline, so i was confused how there was so much grass as far out as we were. none the less, i had to jump down and try to pull the sea doo farther into the center of the river. the grass was weedy, thick and not so pleasant on my legs- i tried not to think about what was living in it. after a couple of minutes, i asked kate if she wouldn't mind helping since i couldn't do it alone. she was SUCH a trooper and jumped out and we pulled the monster to safety while allie supervised. after a long time of picking out tons of grass, we made our way back. everything turned out fine, but it was not the best part of the day...

after cake with everyone, we went out the dinner to celebrate! good times had by all :) here are a few photos from the day:

allie, down by one of the sea doos and the dock

allie, swimming in the riva'

all of us with, ready to dive into some delicious birthday cake!

beach vacations

2008-07-18T09:32:00.009-04:00

i apologize for the lack in postings lately, but for part of the time mark and i were lucky enough to spend 2 weeks with our families at a couple different beaches. at the end of june we made our way down to fernandina beach, florida with mark's parents and mark's brother's family to visit some more extended family down there. the weather was perfect and the beach waves were awesome! it was nice to spend a little over a week with everyone :) on our way back up the coast, we stopped in myrtle beach to stay with my parents and sisters for about 4 days and enjoy the sun and surf some more and we even watched 4th of july fireworks over the water, which were beautiful (and also the anniversary of mark's proposal last year!).

check out some of our photos from the trip below:

we visited my nan in micanopy, fl on a side trip while we were in fernandina- she just turned 85!

mark and his grandma on uncle willie's tour boat of amelia island and part of georgia

princess jenn and princess alana on the tour boat :)

us in fernandina before we went downtown to tour the shops and eat some ice cream

i finished knitting my 1st scarf while we were on vacation!!!! yay, now i'm ready for winter (but not mentally!)

dad schmidt and alana in the waves

dad schmidt and mark wading in the water

us at fort clinch

us on the beach for the 4th of july fireworks

mom and dad chewning waiting for some fireworks on the 4th

happy dad's day!

2008-06-19T12:23:00.005-04:00

since mark's parents were in georgia during father's day, dad chewning was lucky enough to have us all to himself! we headed over to my parent's house early sunday afternoon for some grilling out, croquet and pool time! there was a good time had by all, and we even got to see my grandmother, uncle timmy and my 6 year-old cousin griffin! also, as it turns out, i am now able to draw the conclusion that i'm horrible at croquet.

just a few photos from the day:

papa chewning, chillin' poolside in his cabana gear

although he's no where NEAR being a papa yet, mark decided to kick back and relax too...i suppose it was for practice or something :) - nice farmer's tan too!

and we can't leave out of favorite boy, buddy! he made sure to enjoy the day by sneaking human food whenever possible

moving days and a 30th birthday!

2008-06-19T11:48:00.007-04:00

we woke up early on friday, may 30th in anticipation of a momentous day- mark would leave the army and we'd pack up the u-haul and head to maryland! for some reason, u-haul didn't have the same thing in mind...

we called and called and u-haul just didn't have any trucks available for us, even though we'd reserved one well in advance. mark was finally put in contact with a district manager and he pulled some strings and got us a "for-sale" u-haul (aka. a junker) that was 26 feet long, had a diesel engine and was a stick-shift. the thing is, i grew up on a stick-shift and that's what i learned to drive on, but mark, although he does have experience, doesn't have as MUCH. therefore, it was decided that i would drive this monstrosity. the size wasn't so bad, but the gears were so hard to shift and the shifting was so fast due to the engine, it was nerve-wracking. after getting the truck back to the apartment, i started loading it with boxes while mark went and took care of signing out of the army. after a while, mark returned and working together went a heck of a lot faster. however, we didn't pull out of newport news until 9pm- way too late to move into an apartment that night back in maryland. we decided we'd stay at mark's parents house that night and move into our apartment the next day, the 31st, and mark's 30th birthday! this kind of ruined all the surprise plans i had made for his bday, but i knew all of that could be done another time except for one thing...

anyway, since the truck was so cumbersome, we decided to take route 17 to route 301 to maryland instead of I-95 in case there was road work or traffic or the woodrow wilson bridge lift, etc. after filling up with gas around 11:30, we were just a few miles from MD- yay! that's when things took a turn... i was following mark, who was in our car, we were on a 2 lane road, 4 miles from the potomac and it was pitch black. that's when i saw the buck in the left lane (we were in the right) and knew it was going to be baaaad. mark saw him too, swerved right to avoid him, but the buck jumped at mark's car, was hit and starting spinning in the air. i swerved hard left to avoid mark's car and the deer, thought i was going to tip the truck, so i over-corrected and swerved right, avoiding everything. we both pulled over to the side of the road and mark called, said he was OK but the car was messed up, but drivable. we eventually pulled in to a hotel parking lot, took a look at things, called mom and dad schmidt to tell them about it and have them call insurance and then we proceeded to the weigh station in maryland across the bridge. once at the station, we contacted local authorities who were a tremendous help. we found out the deer was still in the road back where we hit it, it had a broken leg and was put down. we felt horrible about it all, but knew there was nothing else that could have been done and we were both SO lucky to be OK. we didn't pull into the schmidt's until 2:30 am and immediately went to bed. the next day we assessed the damage in day light...
not as bad as it could have been, and again, we were so thankful to be safe!

after a tiresome day of packing up, we were so incredibly fortunate to have the help of mom and dad schmidt, dad chewning and sister allie chewning, to help us move into our place in college park! they helped the process move SO MUCH faster than it would have if it were just mark and i! the goal was to have everything in the apartment by 4 pm- and we had everything unpacked by 3:30! the reason i had a goal was because i had planned a little surprise for the bday boy at his favorite restaurant- the marrakesh in dc! yummy moroccan food with a few of his family and friends :)

after dragging mark on the metro and promising him we wouldn't be out late and that it was just going to be the 2 of us, we arrived and were seated with some of our favorite people!

the chewning girls (with gina and part of cousin becky) enjoying some dinner

dad chewning looking kind of exhausted after a long day of heavy lifting

our friends, meghan and alex, enjoying some tea

us and mom and dad schmidt!

not only was the food absolutely delicious, filling and really fun to eat- but the entertainment was incredible!!!!

the belly dancer in the middle of dinner was so great, had tons of acts and even balanced this real sword on her head for an entire song!

the tea-man was also quite entertaining, as he poured tea into little tiny cups from several feet in the air

HAPPY 30TH BIRTHDAY, MARK!!!!

memorial day weekend

2008-06-19T11:19:00.006-04:00

phew! a lot has happened since our last update...so we'll start from the beginning...

mark's last day with his unit in newport news, va was friday, may 30th, which also happened to be the day that we were scheduled to move back up to maryland. since we knew a lot of preparations were going to be made during the week leading up to may 30th, i decided that my last day at work would be friday, may 24th so that i could tie up any loose ends, etc. prior to moving. may 24th also happened to kick off memorial day weekend which was JAM packed full of stuff for us to do...up in maryland :) we were traveling up to sign our new apartment lease on the morning of may 25th and then that same day our friends, laura and justin, were getting married. sunday was a bit more relaxing, but since it was right after my mom's knee surgery, we were trying to help as much as she would let us around the house and with my sisters. monday we were planning to spend some time with mom and dad schmidt...but things turned a little "horrible" - but more on that later.

all in all, it was a fantastic weekend! laura and justin's wedding was absolutely beautiful and SUCH a fun time! it was held at the historic oakland mansion tucked back in columbia, maryland.

justin and laura mingling during the reception

mark and i with the lovely bride :)

the wedding was just perfect, the weather was amazing, as it was all outdoors, the dress was gorgeous, the flowers were stunning- all of it was just fantastic- i was so proud of laura for working so hard and putting it all together so flawlessly! congrats to the happy couple!

now, onto the drama of the weekend...on monday we decided we would leave my parents house, head to our new apartment (lease signed and check written on saturday), go to ikea and then head to mark's parents house before leaving town to go back to newport news. WELL! upon entering our new apartment (with 2 carloads of stuff already unloaded and locked into the bedrooms), there was a funny smell that mark noticed. so, i quickly turned to the living room outlet that i had left a new air freshener in to get the "new paint" smell out before we moved in...it was GONE! i was pretty annoyed since it was one of those super nice ones from bath and body works, but thought maybe someone put it in a kitchen cabinet or something (workmen were still doing touch-ups, etc.). as i entered the kitchen i saw things on the floor that i was only familiar with because i had watched a few recent episodes of "verminators" on tv. so i wanted to confirm with mark, and i asked, "are those roaches?!" and he replied, "yup." we were both pretty sick to our stomachs. these things were at all stages of life and death and everywhere in between. i opened a drawer and one scurried. that's when i started to cry. i couldn't live like this! mark had already called the landlord who said he knew about them and had gotten some RAID. mark told him it was good enough and wouldn't take care of the real problem and that we wanted someone professional. the guy agreed and said OK. so then, as i opened what would be our master bedroom, i saw a few huge ones on the walls and freaked even more. i told mark that he needed to call the guy back and that i wanted proof of a professional or we'd reconsider the lease (some other "sketchy" things had happened earlier that we weren't too happy with but thought we might be able to live with- this was just too much). now, needless to say, we were trying to think positively and be patient. so, mark left the message and we headed to his parents house after a lot of photo taking and documentation of the issue. once we got to mom and dad schmidt's, the landlord called us back, said we were asking too much and said we could have our money back. i WHOOPED for joy! mark and i were so glad to be rid of that place, you have no idea! however, this left us with a bit of a dilemma...we'd have to stay in town another day (tuesday) to get our check back and to try and find another place to live before we moved up in 3 days... yikes!

to spare you the details, we got our money, voided the lease and even got a check to reimburse me for the stolen air freshener...and then after a few hours of looking in college park, we found an AMAZING apartment in a gated community, with a huge gym, a nice pool, a free internet cafe, a free parking garage and a lovely view. and the kitchen, my favorite part of the apartment, is HUGE and has an island- i love it! we're almost done decorating, so i'll post photos soon. needless to say, everything does happen for a reason and we are much much happier now than we would have been at the roach motel! visitors are always welcome!!!!

scratch that

2008-05-12T21:05:00.003-04:00

this past weekend we made our way up to maryland to spend mama's day with our mama's and to take a look at a few possible apartments for our pending move north. luckily, we narrowed our search to 2 wonderful, affordable apartment choices! we have already heard back from one, letting us know we got the unit we wanted, and we are waiting to hear back from the other (a bit larger) to make our final choice...woo hoo!

we were also able to spend some quality time with our families- friday dinner with the schmidts, making dinner for mama chewning on saturday evening (yummy steaks, trimmings and homemade lemon merangue pie by katelyn), and taking mama schmidt out for lunch sunday! - a weekend filled with meals and family is just what the doctor ordered- we had a fantastic time visiting and prepping for the move :)

ALSO, on sunday morning, we found out some even more wonderful news than i wrote about last week- mark has been accepted to UMD's MBA program! YAY! it's something we were hoping would pan out and mark and i are very excited about this opportunity, obviously. therefore, chinese will take a back-burner, and hopefully he will be able to learn the language in the future, maybe while he is working, etc. it's an achievement for mark and we are SO excited about whatever is in store for us next...maybe a job for me?! :)

below is a photo of us on sunday after the great news~ note: i recently requested blonde highlights from a new hair stylist...not quite what i got, but i think i might be diggin' the new 'do anyway...

go terps!

2008-05-08T12:28:00.003-04:00

YAY! today is the day that mark, my fantastic husband and favorite person, found out he got accepted to UMD for this fall! the plan is for mark to primarily concentrate on gaining language fluency in chinese along with taking some business classes. hopefully there will be some co-op opportunities with various businesses and/or agencies along the way as well, which would be awesome!

since we're coming up this weekend for mother's day and to look at places to live, we might just have to take a drive through campus and breathe a sigh of relief for a decision we have been hoping and praying for for a very long time ;)

SO our plans are starting to take shape instead of being that irksome shadow we were forced to deal with for the past few months, which is HUGE for us. now we're just going to concentrate on finding a great, affordable place to live and getting me a jobby-job!

we hope all of you are well- see ya on the other side of the potomac!

like the wind

2008-04-30T12:11:00.004-04:00

through much of my life i hated the act of running. i found it boring, tiresome and extra boring. however, a few years ago there were no other cardio machines available at the gym and i hopped on the treadmill. walking seemed lazy, so i amped it up a bit. to my astonishment, i was running- and liking it! after a few weeks i thought to myself, "if i could do a marathon that would be the ultimate accomplishment." well, registration for the 33rd marine corps marathon in DC opened up today, and i signed-up :) i've been training for a little over a month, running about 4-5 times per week and will continue with that through the marathon in late october. it's been great so far, even though some nights i would much rather plop down on the sofa and veg out- i've literally got to change into my running clothes immediately after getting home from work or else i somehow find a way to justify sweat pants and a nap. i'm sure it will be hard and cumbersome at times, but i'm REALLY excited about it and try to keep myself motivated with thoughts about how lucky i am to have a fully functional body that allows me to do something like this...perspective is everything. if anyone else is interested, i definitely encourage you to sign up...spots are limited though so HURRY!!!!

http://www.marinemarathon.com/

Family Fun Time

2008-04-09T16:24:00.011-04:00

this past weekend we were graced with a visit from the chewning's! it was nice to spend some QT with the fam and have some good times along the way. friday after a late but delicious dinner (i- jenn - am still learning the fine art of humility with regard to my cooking), we opted to play a game. eventually, we decide on "scene it" and mark and vera (jenn's mom) proceeded to kick the butts of the other teams. doug (jenn's dad) and allie (jenn's littlest sister) received 2nd place, while jenn and katelyn (jenn's younger sister) were shamed to a lowly last place. we retired after games and rested up for the fun-filled day at busch gardens on saturday!

below are a few photos from saturday's adventures. it was a bit overcast outside, but that kept away enough patrons that we were able to ride rollercoasters with virtually no lines all day- fantastic!

the ladies, enjoying the nostrils of one wise-looking tree...

the whole gang :)

katelyn, enjoying some of the aviary's main attractions

after the days festivities, we all were thankfully able to take mini-naps and lounge around once we got home. following some yummy lasagna, we headed over to the chewning's hotel for some swimming/hot tubbing/NCAA tourney watching :)

it was sad to say "adios" to the family on sunday after more stuffing-of-the-faces, but we know we'll see them soon...very soon ;)

March 6th- Best Day Ever! (aka Jenn's Birthday)

2008-03-06T20:33:00.009-05:00

27 years ago, jenn was born at 3:11 pm to her tired mama and her nauseated father.

anyone that knows jenn, knows that she starts celebrating her birthday around the 3rd week of february and continues to celebrate the whole month of march- it's quite the holiday, at least, in jenn's mind.

this year, it was decided that sandwiches would be the dinner of choice, as that is one of jenn's favorite foods...so off to schlotsky's we went, jenn sportin' her "birthday girl" sash, courtesy of katelyn...

at the deli, jenn enjoyed some of her favorite things, a nice and fizzy fountain diet coke and...

a delicious veggie sammich!

after the fun-filled times at dinner, we headed home for another of jenn's favorite things- eating some yummy dessert in pants with an elastic waist...thank goodness for mark's old army sweats!

woo hoo for strawberry rhubarb pie!

birthday wishhh ;)

the one who started it all

2008-02-26T14:22:00.003-05:00

today is a special day, folks: it's michael schmidt's 32nd birthday! many happy birthday wishes to mike! apparently, he was a good enough kid that it prompted 2 more from mom and dad schmidt, so we're guessing he didn't show his true colors until around age 5 or 6...just kidding...sort of...

andrew cole!

2008-02-26T14:19:00.003-05:00

happy belated "actual day-of-birth" to andrew cole morgan, who was born yesterday, february 25, 2008 to the lovely susan and shawn morgan!!!!!

we can't wait to see, hold, pamper and hug our new nephew :)

photo link and a special shout-out!

2008-02-22T09:37:00.008-05:00

in case you lost the email or there was a technical error- below is the link for people to view the gazillions of photos taken by our amazing photographers at the wedding:

http://www.documentaryassociates.com/clientLogin/

Event ID is: jchewning

and in case you wanted to view the gazillions of photos WE took on our hawaiin honeymoon, here is the link for those:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jennlynn306/Honeymoon

ALSO: today is a very special day. not only is it friday (woo hoo!) but it's also SUSAN JEAN'S BIRTHDAY! 27 years ago today, mark and michael schmidt were blessed with a little baby sister and their parents, jan and jack were able to breathe a sigh of relief that a girl was born instead of another rowdy boy :) (just kiddin')! happy 27th birthday to the oh-so-pregnant susan!

ah! a new post!

2008-02-20T14:35:00.005-05:00

alas, a blog update! i have recently been getting some "heat" from others about not promoting enough voyuerism into the lives of my hottie husband and my-sassy-self. my deepest apologies :)

the reason for the lack of an update is that simply, there isn't much to update :) we have finally settled back into "life after the wedding" and are *thankfully* able to recognize our apartment as an actual home instead of a storage unit. we have put away all luggage, christmas gifts, honeymoon trinkets, the massive wedding prep binder (aka THE BEST BINDER EVER!), etc. and are settling into daily life again.

we (i) decided that i wasn't such a big fan of the question asked everynight, "what should we do for dinner?" and have thus developed a plan to utilize every cookbook we have and make a weekly menu on saturdays or sundays and stick to it! granted, this week is the first we have put this new idea into practice, but it is going fabulously! thanks to everyone who has contributed to our massive and well-rounded library of culinary delights, we'll have to have you over one night to show off our mouth-watering masterpieces.

there are a few additional bits and pieces that we want to share, but we also want to keep you coming back, so we'll leave this post as is for now :)

hope everyone is well!

holla!

Welcome!

2008-02-04T15:25:00.000-05:00

welcome to the schmidt sphere! since the wedding website was so successful, we thought this would be an easy way for people to keep tabs on us and our newlywedded bliss :)

we sincerely hope that everyone had a fantastic time at the wedding and enjoyed it as much as we did! although it went by WAY too fast, we are so thankful to everyone who was able to help us celebrate our marriage. for those of you who were unable to attend, we are so grateful for your love and support, as we certainly felt it on december 28, 2007!

after the wedding, we were able to escape to the tropical paradise of hawai'i for our honeymoon (yay!). we had a wonderful time and were able to do SO many amazing activities, thanks to everyone's generousity. below are a few photos from our fantastic trip...

mark's ready to take naia home!

jenn getting a kiss from naia!

new years eve fireworks, you can tell how exhausted jenn was from jetlag

us on one of the mokalua islands we sea kayaked to

the mokalua islands from flat island, which was also kayaked to

us testing out our trusty surf boards

mark was the surf master all lesson long!

jenn shakin' it and tryin' to perfect her hula

the breathtaking hawaiian sunset at the luau

there's nothing cooler than swimming with sea turtles!

awesome statue on the bottom of the ocean floor

mark in his scuba gear

jenn enjoying the signature "catatonic" on our cocktail cruise

mark lettin' loose on the cruise

sunset views on the cruise

after a yummy dinner with susan and shawn at cassis

what we saw as we entered kualoa ranch

gorgeous

jenn on horseback

mark giddy-upin'

lazy boys

on our hike

views from the lighthouse

more incredible views from the lighthouse