i was born jacquelyn la dawn eades.
starting grade school i went by jackie. obviously i had no say in that, i was 6 years old. then when i went into fourth grade, we moved to idaho and i wanted to go by jaclyn. then in fifith grade i went back to jackie.... dont remember why. and then in high school i remember wanting to change it back to jacquelyn but thought it was too different and i wanted to fit in. (which is absurd now to think that i thought that!!! why wouldnt i have fit in just because my name wasnt heather or jennifer? silly!) then right after high school we moved to vancouver and i started going by jacquelyn again! so anyone who knew me growing up calls me jackie and anyone who has met me since high school knows me as jacquelyn. well except for some people who decide when they meet me that i must really want to be called jackie, so they call me that automatically! if i introduce myself to someone as jacquelyn, it seems a bit silly to assume i meant to say jackie and just call me that. dont you think? and if anyone has to call me that (family) i prefer it jacque... that would make a whole lot more sense than jackie... there is no ck in the name jacquelyn, now is there? (=
as for the name gwen (some of you are still in the dark about this one) justin started calling me that when were friends, before we were dating. since i liked the name so much and we were convinced it could have come from the name jacgwen (= anyways, so all his friends know me as such... but it is a lot of work to keep up with which name to refer to myself as around certain people. it used to come naturally but not so anymore. now it depends on who i see more. (of course i will never be confused about jackie!) most my close friends call me jacquelyn, but when i go to church, they all know me as gwen. so i cant all of sudden introduce myself as jacquelyn at church, people will think i am an imposter and throw me out in the street! ok that is silly, but i just want you all to understand how much work it is to have four names! even though it is entirely my own fault!
oh and most people from california that i know call me jaq! which i think is cute(=

(= i cringe when i hear someone call me jackie, i amost dont respond! maybe i should stop responding to that, so that people ( mostly family) will be forced to conform(=

i am writing about this next particular subject so that some other poor soul wont happen to make such a foolish decision as i so did!
well tonight i decided to make mashed potatoes for justin and I. we only had 3 small red ones, but i figured that would be just enough to fill us up. i didnt really follow a recipe.... i mean how hard could it be to mash some potatoes?? well... i poured some milk in and scooped a spoonfull of butter into the bowl and began to beat the potatoes. now you might be saying " how is this a foolish story?" well since i have such a love for garlic, i of course was excited to chop some fresh cloves and toss them in. i was only going to use 2 cloves, but then i threw an extra one in at the end. furthermore, we dont have a little garlic chopper so the pieces were pretty big. the first bite i took just about burnt off my mouth! 3 cloves of garlic mixed with 3 small potatoes!!! bad idea! so justin and i had to sift through the potatoes with our tongues and spit out the chunks! my mouth is still on fire!!
naturally justin rushed to the store so that we could put out the fire in our mouths with some delicious icy cream (=

This weekend I went over to my aunt Aletha's house for some tea and cake with my other aunts and female cousins and their girls. I think there were 13 of us altogether. My mother and her sister are a year or two apart, but they got married and had children at totally different times in life . My aunt Aletha's kids are 10 years older than my siblings and I.. to the month! it is kinda weird! but we all actually are having children about the same time. so anyways, there was lots of giggling and sipping and nibbling... well the nibbling turned into chowing on finger foods and homemade eclaires!! and a yummy combination of strawberries dipped in sour cream and then rolled in brown sugar... it sounds odd I know... i wasnt going to try it but then my sister did,(if she thought it was grosse i probably would too) so i thought i would give it a whirl. yum! my tea was very interesting though. i thought i would try the Dandelion tea. it sounded weird and smelled kinda funky....my hot water sat with the tea bag in it while i fed dahlia for about 20 minutes, and so when i got to it, it was extremely bitter and cold! so i put lots of sugar cubes and cream in it. but sugar cubes dont melt very well in something cold...and it still needed more cream. so i used some powder creamer... bad idea! it was so lumpy and nasty! it was quite the experience! i quickly washed it down with some ice water and moved on to the other treats! i hope this story doesnt turn anyone off to dandelion tea... given a whole different set of circumstances, i am sure it would taste fabulous (=

Dahlia was super fussy though since she just got her shots.. well it could have been from her tooth coming in too... but for whatever reason she wasnt happy most of the time. but i was in a good place to have a fussy baby... mommies everywhere! i guess there was one boy there... Jerika's baby Jonas. (my sister) but he fit right in with all the other cute babies just fine. he added a little testosterone to the bunch to keep us just under control (=

on the way home, I decided to take a different route than I have before. mainly since the sun would have been in Dahlia's eyes and she needed to fall asleep. so i headed out into the woods on some back roads and somewhere took a wrong turn.... i ended up making a big loop practically back to where i started... but oh well dahlia was snoozing by then so it worked out. taking her places when the sun is out is frustrating... i cover one of the windows, whichever side will most like be in the sun, but when we turn the sun goes in her eyes from the back or the other side window.... so i am constantly reaching back there and adjusting her viser thingy..... what do other people do? i cant cover all of the windows or i will drive like a maniac and ram someone! she hates the sun in her eyes and will not sleep when it is. sometimes i wont turn at all if she really needs to keep sleeping, ill just drive for a while.... its actually really nice... peace and quiet and time to think... i do my best thinking and praying on the road! too bad gas is so expensive, it seems a bit wasteful just for a little peace and quiet )= we were going to pick up some baby sunglasses today at target, but neither justin nor I could remember what in the tarnation it was we needed!but i am getting some tomorrow. hopefully they dont turn into a chew toy...or better yet we could get her some goggles.. that would work so much better!!

we spent an entire week up at Justin's grandparents while they were out of town.  it was so refreshing and relaxing! they have a big house right on the sound! Their kitchen is quite a bit bigger than ours here and it was so great to actually have enough counter space to make lunch on!  While feeding Dahlia I would either watch a baby story on TLC or the food channel. The baby stories made me cry several times, reminding me of when I gave birth to Dahlia... it brought back wonderful memories..... I know it wasn't long ago, but its amazing how long it seems! she grows so much so fast! I didn't really get too many tips from the food channel though, but it kind of inspired me to try to make more things at home. I am a slacker with that(= my poor husband always asks me what is for dinner... and I never haven't really thought of anything. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that he likes to eat CRAP!  we like totally different stuff, so I will want a salad or something and he will pop in a pizza. It is bad enough cooking for two, but one is even worse! so I told him that I am going to come up with some sort of eating plan that we both can enjoy. not sure how that is possible...but I am going to give it my best shot! so we are slowly adding healthy foods into his vocabulary.. things low in saturated fat, sodium, sugar.. a lot less processed....ya know all the stuff he loves(= 
well for starters..  yesterday he bought ALL NATURAL doritoes instead of the regular ones(= oh and he bought lowfat ice cream too......ummm well..... at least he is making some effort. this could take quite some time to get him eating better, but we gotta start somewhere! I dont blame him for not liking most vegetables, they are interesting and take time to get used to. I never really liked much till I was 20 or so. I just knew they were good for me and decided to eat more of them. like bananas for instance (i know they aren't vegetables) i have never liked them. my mother would always suggest them for a snack and i would get so irritated! finally this year, after giving birth, i started eating them. only because of the fact that they are so good for me, and now I love them. But only if they are at that perfect ripeness... which is a bummer since I would have to buy them every couple days and I hate going to the store that often. same thing is avocados. I never would touch the nasty things! sure i would eat guacamole but never a slice of avocado on my sandwich... and now it is a must! so yummy! I dont think i will try to shove those down his throat quite yet..... those aren't for beginners.

are you much of a label reader? it is amazing to me how many people don't read labels! When I was in high school i would always look at the nutrition information on things and people would always get on my case about it... saying " what are you readng that for" ... "you dont need to worry about that"... how ridiculous is that! I dont need to worry about what i am puting into my body? that is ludicrous!!! i was so confused! people who make food for us arent concerned with out well being...so we need to be.  they are concerned with how much money they will be making off of suckers like us. they put little notes on their boxed crap that says "now with twice the calcium!" or "no trans fats" oh sure, but loaded with artificial deliciousness and extra saturated fattiness...not to mention totally processed and lacking any nutrients!  do we really blindly buy things simply by looking at the cover? furthermore..... sugar is in everything! a while back I was buying some turkey meat and I thought, what else would they put in here.... and low and behold SUGAR! I dont remember at thanksgiving saying "please pass the sugar I would like to add a teaspoon to my turkey dinner?" I am confident turkey tastes delicious without it!