Jen Russum

Now don't get too excited Cheri or Beth...we don't plan to give you grandchildren ANY time in the near future. However, I am diving into this possibility of studying moms and the Internet (see my last post if want to hear about all my current life-changing decisions) with my semester project. I am in a class called "Digital Literacies and Social Networking" and it's all about participating in an online community. This class could not be better suited to my interests as I test out these Rhet/Comp waters and consider changing the focus of my PhD program. So for the next four months, I will be a "mommy blogger" of sorts. If you see me entering weird "giveaways," doing crafts, or having "linky parties" on my website, don't be surprised. I am studying a culture by participating in it. As of right now, I hardly know what the above terms mean, but that is all a part of the research.

Clearly, the main problem with my research project is that I don't have children myself. I am not a mom, but I want to study them. A few of my classmates suggested ideas to get past this obstacle... take pictures of someone else's kids and blog about them (inconvenient, if not somewhat creepy), have children of my own (first of all, no thank you, not right now, we are waiting a few years, etc. etc. Not to mention that it is biologically impossible for me to have a child before the semester is over in May...), and then there was this idea, which is definitely the best option I've heard of thus far...





Yes, I'm talking about a return to the flour babies of middle school and high school Home Ec classes. I might even have to start a new blog: flourchild.blogspot.com. I wonder if that one is taken??? Don't get me wrong. I am not making fun of being a mom. I love moms, especially my own. I have also loved watching some of my closest friends become mothers over the past few years, and I have been trying to learn everything I can from those who were brave enough to be the first to enter into motherhood out of my circle of college girlfriends. I hope to be a mom someday... just not today...or tomorrow...or this year. So if I am forced to have a baby for this project, it's going to be born on the baking aisle of the grocery store...

How many of you can say that firetrucks and ambulances arrived at your work twice in one week (hospital workers don't count)? Neither could I until this past week. And not only did I have a 9-1-1 emergency twice in one week, but I had a visit by a big red truck to EACH of my jobs. I like to keep things even. If Sola Coffee Bar gets a visit by Mr. Fireman on Thursday, then you better belive that the Arizona State University Language and Literature Building is going to demand the same visit the following Monday. People say my schedule is too busy, but I like to think that the more jobs I have the more I can utilize our civil workers and make sure tax payer money never goes to waste.

Now let me start by saying these emergencies were kosher, mild, almost mundane. No one got hurt. But just because I think it's so weird to have an "emergency" at both my jobs in the same week, I feel I must explain.

I work Thursday afternoons at my church's coffee shop in the heart of Old Town Scottsdale. It's a cool, trendy, little rocker joint with cement floors, exposed beams in the celing and a turntable that's constantly spinning albums like The Black Keys and Ryan Adams and other people that I'm not quite cool enough to know much about. The 20 year olds that manage the shop are both musicians and rock music is their thing. Yes, I have two managers that are the same age as the students I teach... Anway, our shop serves great coffee, offers a cool atmosphere, and helps our church be a part of our community. Last Thursday, I arrived to my shift at 2pm and soon noticed that the lights were blinking on and off occasionally. About every 20 to 30 minutes, I would notice these little power surge-spasm-things until finally at 5pm the power turned off completely. Since other buildings around the block still had power, I knew it was something specific to our building. Thanks to the ever-faithful head lamp I keep in my car (seems nerdy, but you have no idea how often it comes in handy... think flat tire at night sort of thing), I was able to work my way into the back office, find the fuse box, and try to play Electrician. However, according to the fuse box nothing was wrong, no shorted circuits, nothing. I finally called our pastor, Heath, and he came down to check it. Meanwhile, I am tyring to clean things up around the shop as best I can with no electricity, since Heath told me I could close up early. Right when I am about to stick my hands in a sinkful of warm, sudsy water to finish the dishes, Heath comes back in and tells me to "get out of the building now." The fire department says we have to evacuate the building. Evacuate, really? I'm not afraid of the dark.

It turns out there was an old electrical line sparking and smoldering above our building. Doing the dishes could have been the death of me, I guess, but instead I got off work an hour early, which was a lovely surprise. I left the shop just as two firetrucks and a first aid car were pulling up, and shoppers in Old Town were lining the sidewalks to watch the drama unfold. I guess they got it fixed, because I got off work late tonight and I defintely had to wash ALL the dishes.

So fast forward past the weekend. On Monday morning, I dropped my lovely girlfriends off at the airport and headed to ASU to get a little work done before classes started on Tuesday. The university was closed for MLK Jr. Day, but thankfully a door to the English building was unlocked and I was able to get into my office on the third floor. The building seemed desolate on the holiday. I worked for about an hour and then left my office to grab some papers off the printer down the hall. As I left the printer room, I was greeted by smoke, yes visible smoke, all over the hallway around my office door. I freaked out and ran into my office to save my computer and my books (pretty sure they don't teach you to run toward the smoke and save your personal belongings in all the those fire safety courses you take in elementary schools...but I defied my childhood schooling and preserved my laptop anyway) and then ran down the hall, away from the smoke this time, to an outer stairwell. When I got to the stairs, I stopped. What should I do? Just leave and hope it was something stupid like someone burning popcorn in another office. But what if I left and learned later that day than an entire academic building at ASU burned down because I didn't notify anyone? I didn't really want to make a big deal about it, because I knew that most likely it was nothing. I couldn't see any flames, feel any heat, and by this point (I kept sticking my head back through the doors to gauge the situation) the smoke was diminishing, not growing. I tried to call a few administrative offices on campus, but of course, no one was there because of the holiday. Finally, I decided I needed to be a drama queen and call 911, even though I didn't want to. I just couldn't ethically leave the building without notifying SOMEONE and the only someone I knew how to get a hold of at this point was the fire department. Three minutes later two fire trucks were pulling up to the building. An ambulance arrived a minute later. And a minute after that the Fire Batillion from the next town over arrived. Apparently, they really try to prevent state universities from burning down. Right after they arrived, a little old lady walked down from the 3rd floor to explain that she had burned a plastic plate in the microwave, which had caused all the smoke...

As fun as these little adventures were, I would love to go at least a few weeks without seeing any fire trucks or ambulances on the job. I just don't get paid enough for that sort of thing to happen regularly...

I don't know if I fully considered when I was getting married that I was also joining a perpetual sports team. A sports team that is always in season. My husband is athletic and loves all things athletic, and sometimes my life is so sports-centered (or "SportsCentered"... if we can only catch the game on TV) that I can hardly believe it. Now don't get me wrong. I am a sports girl. I love my Seattle Mariners and Seahawks, mourn the loss of the Sonics, hate the Cowboys and the Yankees with a passion, love my TCU Horned Frogs (our Rose Bowl Victory is a whole other post) and the Washington Huskies, anxiously await the day I get to fill out my March Madness bracket, and I even do some fairly sporty things of my own like running regularly, playing tennis sporadically, and dreaming of playing basketball again (though I don't have the guts to actually do it).

But Micah takes sports loving to a whole new level. His favorite thing in the world is the NBA season, so his excitement will only increase each month between now and the playoffs in late spring. He also loves football and played for a year in college. He is one of those annoying people who is fast and strong for basketball, football, and track, but can also run a half-marathon without any training whatsoever, and maintains sculpted biceps even when he takes a year off from weight-lifting. It's infuriating and admirable and envy-evoking all at the same time...

However, over the years Micah and I have enjoyed many different sports activities together from sitting almost front row at one of the final Sonics games, to some amazing Husky football wins at the UW stadium (sorry USC!), challenging some teenage boys to 2-on-2 basketball at the gym (yes, we won), and running lots of races together from 5Ks to half marathons.

2011 has already been so sports-filled, I hardly know where to start and we are only two weeks in. It all began with the TCU Rose Bowl victory on New Year's Day (honestly, one of the best days of my life). Last week I took Micah to his first Suns game. (Side note: I hate the Suns. I have hated the Suns since the 4th grade and the days of Charles Barkley. But since we live so close to the amazing Suns collesium, I gave in and bought Micah some tickets for Christmas so he can get some real-life NBA fulfillment). The very next day we volunteered at the BCS National Championship. We didn't actually watch the game in the stadium, but we got to be a part of all the pre-game action for free.

Finally, this weekend is the sportiest weekend yet. On Sunday, Micah and I (and three of my girlfriends from Seattle!) will be running the Phoenix Rock and Roll Marathon. Micah, Bekah and Ashley are running the full and my best friend, Sarah, and I are running the half. A full marathon is just not for me... since I lack Micah's natural athleticism, I am perfectly content challenging myself with 13.1 miles. Training to run the full 26.2 does not interest me in the least. But I am so excited for Micah, Bekah, and Ashley to conquer that beast.

And on another side note, I have been dealing with a weird scratchiness in my throat since Wednesday. Please pray that I do not get sick before this race. I have been training so hard for three months and I am hoping to take 10-15 minutes off my last half marathon time. I will be back with pictures and results next week. Until then, here are some peaks at our sporty life these past few weeks...

I have been a member of a book club for almost three and half years now. Let me clarify though... I am a satellite member of a book club in Texas. My friends and I had the idea to start a book club as a way to read, get together once a month for a meal, and just stay updated on life as we began to grow apart, get married, have babies, etc.

We didn't know if it would really last when we started. Sarah tried to convince us to have a movie club instead... but amazingly enough, it's been almost three and half a years and book club is still going strong. Unfortunately, right after we set up our club and figured out how it would work (we rotate through who picks the next book, and that person also hosts dinner and dicussion when the month is over), I moved back to Seattle. However, I still try to stay involved in book club as much as possible. I read the book most months, and sometimes call in during discussion and give my thoughts. I also have picked a couple of the books over the past few years - either when visiting Texas or when friends were visiting me in Seattle. Yes, we had book club two days before my wedding. In fact, I hosted a book club lunch immediately before my bachelorette party started. Like I said, we are pretty committed. We even have t-shirts (see below).

Over the years, our book club has taken the official title of "The Yet to be Named Book Club." We even have a blog, although we haven't really posted anything on it yet. In the coming weeks, I will post some of my favorite reads since book club began. But until then I will just leave you with some book club photo goodness. I definitely encourage you to think about joining or starting a book club. It's a great way to make new friends, keep in touch with old ones, and have accountability for reading on a regular basis.

First of all, you should know that I hate baking. Now that I am a wife, I am learning to like cooking. You know putting together creative, healthy dinners a few days a week. Surprising your husband with something he likes. (Last night I did bacon-wrapped steak, cornbread, and bacon and cheese mashed potatoes for the six month anniversary... Didn't really fit into the healthy category very well, but it won top honors in the "husband loves bacon" category.) But dinner is one thing, baking cookies and cakes is quite another. It's not that I 'm bad at it - my mom says I have a knack for getting cookies to bake perfectly - it's just that I never really liked doing it.

In the past, I didn't really enjoy cooking or baking because I was sharing a kitchen with other people, either family or roommates. I had limited storage, limited time, and never really felt like cleaning up someone else's mess in the kitchen before I proceeded to make my own mess by baking. Now that I have my own kitchen, I decided to give baking another try. Today I made Brown Sugar and Spice Cookies. I discovered two things. 1) I still don't really like baking. It makes too big of a mess. It takes too long. And then I'm tempted to eat too many baked goods when I've finished. 2) These cookies are really good! I've restrained myself to only four so far! So despite my negative feelings toward baking, I am going to pass along the recipe to you. You bakers out there will love these!

I orginally got this recipe out of a magazine. I clipped it a year or two ago and never actually made it due to the kitchen annoyances listed above. So today I tried it, but with a few modifications. First of all, I discovered that the recipe says it yields 30 cookies, but it's more like 15... so I had to basically make two separate batches of dough (see why baking irks me?). But with my new modified recipe, which should actually make about 30 cookies, this recipe is not hard to make at all. I also discovered it needed more flour than called for, because my first batch of dough was way too sticky. So here it is with my modifications. They should turn out great!

Brown Sugar and Spice Cookies
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
2/3 cup butter, softened (slighlty more than a full cube)
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs
3 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. nutmeg

Topping:
2 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
Dash of brown sugar
Dash of nutmeg
Dah of allspice

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. To prepare cookie dough, combine first three ingredients (sugar, brown sugar, and softened butter) in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and eggs, beat well.
3. In another bowl, mix together the rest of the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, and all the spices). Whisk it together, so it's well mixed.
Add flour mixture to sugar mixture and mix at low speed until well blended.
4. Shape dough into balls and place two inches apart on baking sheets coated with cooking spray (if dough is too sticky, sprinkle a little more flour in the dough and stir). Flatten cookies with the bottom of a glass. (I sprayed the bottom of my 1/4 measuring cup with cooking spray for flattening and it worked great!)
5. To prepare topping, combine all the toppping ingredients in a small bowl (sugar, cinnamon, brown sugar, nutmeg and allspice) and stir together. Sprinkle evenly over all the cookies.
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 9 minutes. Cool for ten minutes on pans, then move to plates or wire cooling racks.

These cookies are soft, with a mild spice flavor that is not too overpowering! And there are approximately 65 calories in each cookie. Enjoy!

Today, Micah and I have been married for six months. We have never been anniversary people. We dated in high school and when other young couples were putting gifts in each other's lockers in honor of their seven month anniversary, Micah and I weren't even sure when we actually started dating. Even when we dated again after college, there were no special dates on the calendar. We aren't heartless... we just never took the time to figure out the whole anniversary thing. But now we have a real anniversary (the kind you get freebies at restaurants for), July 11th, and today is six months past that date. We actually celebrated this weekend in the midst of all the BCS Championship mayhem in Scottsdale.


And since it's been a full six months since our wedding day, I thought it might be time to FINALLY post a few wedding pictures. The pics are good. Really good. Because our photographer, Alex, is AMAZING. And if you think the pictures are amazing too (which I know you will), I will let you in on a little secret... this was her first wedding shoot. Seriously. A rookie... but definitely Rookie of the Year. She also does engagement shoots, family shoots, babies, you name it. In fact, here is a peak at one of our awesome engagment shots...


And Alex grows more and more fabulous as she gains experience. I kind of consider myself her PR agent, so if you like what you see, please contact her. To see her site, click here. She is based out of Seattle, but she can fly to you and make you look awesome in photographs for any occasion. Here are just a few of our faves from the big day:

In my uncertainty over what to read next in Scripture, I have turned back to the ever-faithful Psalms and Proverbs this past week. I have been slowing down the pace, just reading a Psalm a day, and about half a chapter of Proverbs. I love these books - comforting meditations and praises in the Psalms, timeless wisdom in Proverbs. My uncertainty has also led me to more prayer... instead of trying to figure out a reading plan of my own, I turned to the Father last week and asked Him to reveal to me what He would like me to read and how He would like me to learn His Word this year. I am still waiting to see what He reveals and until then I am soaking up these Psalms...


Here are some things I am thankful for today:

A small kitchen. Yes, someday I dream of having a big beautiful kitchen with hardwood or tile floors, lots of cabinent and counter space, and plenty of room to hosts lots of friends. But today my small kitchen seems just right. I take fewer than two steps to make my latte in the morning. No steps to the fridge, which is right next to my beloved espresso machine, one and a half steps to the sink behind me to wash my dishes. The whole process takes less than five minutes and minimal movement. Our kitchen is just right for newlyweds, and I feel blessed by it.

Speaking of my espresso machine, I am also thankful for these sweet girls who pitched in and bought it for me as a wedding gift. Living with these girls last year was such a sweet season of life, and I am so thankful that I got to spend my last months before getting married with them. And I am very excited that a few of them are coming to visit this weekend!

It's official... I finally bought my first Groupon today. I have been a Groupon member for a couple of months now, but nothing has struck my interest until today. I somehow missed the $25 for a $50 gift certificate to Nordstrom Rack day... I would have been all over that. I briefly considered buying Micah a three-hour grilling class for $49 as a stocking stuffer, but we were trying to cut back on Christmas spending this year, and he still hasn't used the Weber's Way to Grill cookbook that I got him in the fall. (Mental note: re-establish Micah's once-a-week cooking night this semester...)

So today is the day. I finally broke down and bought a Groupon to a little indie ice cream shop in North Scottsdale. It's called Sweet Republic and I have been wanting to go there for months now. This place was recommended to me by my best friend's sister. Tamara lived in Phoenix for a short stint this past summer and the one place she said I HAD to go to when I moved here was Sweet Republic. In fact, I have tried to go to Sweet Republic already. Like invite another couple over, put the address in the GPS, and start driving north up Scottsdale Road tried to go there. But somehow this little dessert date night took an unexpected detour to some resort off Scottsdale Road where we listened to a band play in the lobby and ate overpriced appetizers on the patio. I have to say it was a cool resort and I would love to go back there and stay the night in one of their amazing bungalows, but it didn't satisfy my ice cream craving that night (a craving I have most nights, let's be honest). So now there is no excuse and there shall be no detours. I have a Groupon for $5 for $10 worth of ice cream at Sweet Republic. Ice cream craving soon-to-be-fulfilled.

Recently something that happened to me that I never want to experience again in my life - my car got towed. It was horrible. Besides the fact that it is expensive and inconvenient, there is something about getting your car towed that makes you feel vulnerable. Someone just takes one of the most expensive possessions you own away from you and leaves you stranded no matter where, no matter what time of day, regardless of if you have someone with you, with no concern as to whether you are safe or have your cell phone on you. It is an awful feeling to say the least. Thankfully for me (I guess I can find a few things to be thankful about in this situation...), my car was towed from ASU's campus, it was the middle of the day, and I did have my phone on me.

So here's the deal. I have a problem of being late to school. Not late so much as lacking enough time to get from my parking spot on the far northeast corner of campus to my class on the far southwest corner of campus. We are talking a 20+ minute walk here. So if I don't arrive to school at least twenty minutes early, I will be late to class. To avoid it, I often end up parking close to class and paying at a meter. Let's just say I have spent quite a few extra dollars in quarters in addtion to the stupid $400+ I spent on a parking pass. At least they let me go to school for free... because I will be giving them thousands in parking money by the time this degree is finished.

Anyway, this particular day was the last day of class for the semester, which is usually a very happy day until SWAT towing gets involved. I was late as usual, but I knew class would be UBER short. We basically just had to fill out our evaluations and go. I looked for one of my usual meter spots, but apparently EVERYONE decided to attend their classes on the last day and there were no open spots to be found. Knowing I would be inside for such a short time I thought "I know! I will just park in this spot at Chili's, run to class, fill out my evaluation, order Chili's for lunch and come back over and pick it up." I thought I was a genius - getting to class on time AND grabbing delish enchilada soup for lunch on my way to work - until I walked back over to Chili's thirty minutes later and my car was gone. Here I was - semester completed, enchilada soup in hand, and no Mazda 3 anywhere. Those jerks. I called the towing company crying and told them I was a paying customer, holding a bag full of Chili's food at that very moment! They curtly infomred me that even if I leave the premises for a minute, my car can be towed. Awesome. They didn't actually know if my car was on its way to their impound yard, because their scanner was down, but they kindly informed me that it probably was since they "tow cars from the ASU Chili's ALL the time." And apparently I missed reading this little sign (okay, it's a pretty big sign but it was definitely on the other side of the building, a good forty yards away from where I parked)...


At this point I had a little breakdown, not because my car was gone or I felt unsafe or anything, but because I had a moment of loneliness. I called Micah who was at work and he didn't answer. I knew the chances of him being able to leave work to get me were slim anyway. Then I sat down on the curb and felt sorry for myself. If I had been in Seattle or Fort Worth I would have been able to think of a zillion friends or family members to call and pick me up (or at least ten), but here I was in Phoenix and I felt like I had nobody. I mean we have been meeting people and all that, but I sat there and thought, "Who do I know well enough that could come pick me up right now?" I pictured myself sitting at ASU all day long.

However, I called the coffee shop where I work (owned and operated by our church - it's awesome) to tell them I would be late to work if I even got there at all and within minutes my pastor's wife, Lisa, was calling me. "Hi. Heard you are having a bad day. I'm coming to get you." What an amazing woman. Within twenty minutes, Lisa was pulling up in front of Chili's, taking me to good ol' SWAT and teaching me how to evade camera speeding tickets on the way there (not that she was actually speeding - she was just telling me funny stories to cheer me up). SWAT was so shady/amazing (people behind tinted glass that you can't even see as you hand $135 to them for babysitting your car for one hour) that Lisa and I considered going into business. We figured we have much better phone personalities than the rude woman who answered the phone when I called (We're thinking something like... "Hello! It will be $135 to retrieve your car. Please don't forget cash. See you soon! Hopefully...or the price will increase $25 per hour. Bye!), and our husbands could drive the truck around together.

Within an hour, I was driving away in Cori the Mazda after thanking my sweet friend Lisa. I realized that God really is blessing us with amazing new friends in Phoenix, and I have an awful shoe polish tag from the towing company on my windshield to keep reminding me of God's goodness day after day...at least until I figure out how to wash it off.

Well, our blog got a makeover right in time for the new year! This is just a shout out to Jenn from Munchkin Land Designs. She does customized blogs for an incredibly reasonable price. She is great to work with. In fact, she had a BABY in the middle of completing my order and sent me an e-mail early in the week that went something like this:

Hi Jen,
Just wanted to you let you know that I had a baby yesterday - a beautiful baby girl. I was just wondering if it would be okay to get the draft of your blog finished by this weekend. We are planning to leave the hospital later today. Just let me know if this is a problem. Thank you so much for your patience.

Thanks,
Jenn

Are you kidding me? E-mailing clients from the maternity wing at the hospital and doing a little post-partum blog design. I told her to take her time - weeks if she needed it. Of course, she didn't take weeks because she is a hard worker and runs an excellent business. So if you want a face-lift for your blog, check out her site. Blessing to Jenn and her whole family!



Link to Jenn's Blog: