Search Results for: girls night out

One of the perks of being a Realtor is that sometimes I’m privy to info/deals that I wouldn’t otherwise know about. That said, as we were being interviewed I stumbled across this golf cart just sitting in a homeowners garage. #Score!

Turns out this seller’s daughter graduated from high school last year, and therefore had no use for this cart for trips to their neighborhood pool. In short, it was sitting in his garage with no where to go. BOOM. Last Saturday I had it delivered to the house and the result is the pic above.

I never wanted or needed a cart with brush guards, muddin’ tires, and/or running boards. Stretch as it is, I got this sled for what 10 year old good golf course carts are selling for. We kinda look like a clown car bouncin’ around.

Just FYI, golf cart sales are absolutely nutty right now.

Tonight was our maiden voyage with the twins. They (and Finley) LOVED the wind in their hair and the scenery as we toured around the neighborhood.

Thanks for letting me share pics of our girls!

Franklin

On April 1, 2013 (I started writing this post on Tuesday), I belted out on Facebook, “Hello! Yes we are twins and our parents are scared $#!^less, but we think that’s funny. See you in the fall!!! w/Jennifer Sparks Jones.” Of course the comment was complete with a shiny new ultrasound image of what turned out to be two little girls.

Immediately after I posted, Jennifer and I met Stephen and Townes at Mr. Friendlys where we watched my phone jump and vibrate around the table. While a good many friends immediately thought, “April Fools…” most buds, like us, were in shock.

Fast forward one year later, and it has been one big ride. While I suppose I do my part (in my mind, anyway), after this adventure I may never look at Jennifer quite the same again. I’m totally impressed. The amount of work involved with twins is on a level I wouldn’t have believed from anyone. I just didn’t know, and I was wrong. Here’s a quick story; While I was at Eastminster Day School registration I was presented a few options. I immediately called Jennifer to get her choice, none of which were full time opportunities for either child. After a few seconds of thinking and me telling her that I had six women staring at me, she stunned us all with her answer: “Put one in Monday/Wednesday/Friday, and give the other the Tuesday/Thursday spot.” Ok, what? After confusing the side of the room I was sitting, I called Jen back to ask about her logic. She answered, “Babe, having just one (kid) for five days will be so much easier than having both for two or three (days).” In short, she can do stuff (grocery shop, Target, bills, eat lunch with a friend, whatever) with one child in tow, but can’t do squat with two.

Now that these sweet girls are about seven months old we’ve turned a good corner! They are pretty much sleeping through the night and plowing through rice cereal and fruit/veggie stuff. Honestly, if Nora would keep her loud a** mouth shut, Ivey would have been sleeping through the night a while ago. Nora F. Jones is L.O.U.D.

It’s been a lot of work around here since I put that ultrasound post out there. That said, as much as I’ve enjoyed watching our now four year old Finley grow, I’m crazy excited about what the future holds with our awesome ‘twinks.’

FJ

Zero score and seven years ago a woman stepped forth, upon killer heels, a 30 something, conceived I’m not sure where and don’t care, and dedicated to the proposition of marrying a dumba**.  Ok I started with the, “Zero score and…,” thing and just went with it.  It’s late…

On Monday, Jennifer Sparks Jones and I will have been married for seven years. Whoa, what a ride. Like I tell people when they ask me about the twins, “Well, a few years ago I was going to Za’s every single Thursday night having a cocktails with a few hundred of my favorite buds and out of no where I’m a family of five.” Confuse me?

Needless to say, even though we’re still early in this stage of marriage they call ‘forever’, my wife has certainly been a life changer for me. For instance, she’s the one that suggested I enter the real estate industry.  Now, for better or for worse for her, I’m full tilt addicted to this job, and she’s the one most responsible for her then 30 something year old boyfriend entering this career.  Sure it’s a lot of odd hours (maybe that’s just because I stay up late), and weekend heavy, but I can’t thank her enough.

Real estate blah blah notwithstanding, what I’m most proud of about my wife is how awesome of a mother she is to our girls. She is super mom to our four year old (some might say overly so…haha), but the way she’s handling the twins raises my eyebrows. I know it’s only human to get frustrated, but in front of our three girls at least, Jennifer just calmly handles what needs to be done no matter what time of day or night. In the meantime, while I think I’m a pretty OK dad, many times I lean my head back, close my eyes, and grit my back teeth. Is she perfect regarding patience? No, I don’t guess so. That said, this is my little blog diddy about my wife, so I’m going with it. What I’m getting at is, the way she handles our kids impresses me every day.

That all said, let’s get back to fun anniversary talk. My wife is gorgeous, and that’s just that.  She’s ever youthful, too.  Jennifer is one of those that can say it’s her 29th birthday over and over, and many that don’t know her well enough to know better believe her. Just about everyone I know thinks she’s younger than me. Much younger, actually. #Nope.

Babe if you’re reading this… Happy Anniversary!!! Let’s do it again soon!

Just as a side note: Friends/family in attendance of our wedding seven years ago still thank us for having one of their favorite weddings ever (males, that is). Why, you may ask? The ceremony began at 3:00 PM, and we were all hitched up by about 3:08.

Franklin

If you live in Columbia, SC Wednesday was, for better or worse, “special.” On one hand we had the awesome experience of hanging out with our kids in a powdery white world we rarely get to see. On the other hand, we had the ‘Get me the crap out of here…I’ve got stuff to do’ experience of being cooped up in our living rooms with no where to go. If we’re all honest, I think we all lived both, with the former illustration trumping the latter (hopefully).

Now that I’ve typed the first paragraph, here’s the last two homebound days in a nutshell; Like all kids, our four year old was about to bust to see the snow. “Where’s the snow, daddy?” “You said it was supposed to snow, daddy.” “Quinny’s mommy said it was supposed to snow.” “My friends think it’s going to snow.” Then, just before bedtime on Tuesday night, the sky dropped flakes that would make Rudolph happy. Of course our girl went nuts as we opened the windows and caught as much snow as we could on our tongues (maybe 1, by the way). The buildup to Wednesday morning was unbelievable. Even I was excited.

Fast forward to about 10AM Wednesday morning and Finley looked like she stepped out of a winter edition magazine cover. #CutestThingEver As we held hands and walked down the front steps, we were greeted by one of her friends that was ready to play in the white stuff. About two minutes went by and the two cuties were making snow angels in the front yard. Then…BOOM. After all that hype, Finley got some snow down her britches that of course hit her overly sensitive pink buttock. Oh my goodness that was it! I mean, if you could have seen it you would have thought a princess’s ass was on fire. Of course this instantly concluded playing in the great snowstorm of 2014, and within minutes she was in her room changing duds. What ensemble did she grace us with, you may ask? – A pink leotard that fit like a Smedium on a person that needs a Large, Matilda-Jane skirt, and flip-flops with straps on the back. Um…Confuse me?

After a few hours passed we ended up walking a few laps around the neighborhood, and she later had a fun play date (indoors, of course).

Oh well, I’m just chalking it up as funny and a good story. If you saw our pics on Facebook you saw we had a big time together!

This all said, I loved hanging with my girls these last two days but my car will dang sure be at a listing appointment, hanging a sign rider, or parked at CB-Midtown on Thursday.

Oh yeah…The twins were pretty good today!

Thank you!

FJ

PS: Ugh for Atlanta. 😐

This blog post needs to begin with a disclaimer; I don’t know squat, and yield all tips, tricks, and good ideas of the parental trade to my wife. That said, when it comes to getting a newborn to go to sleep there’s one thing that I can share.

I’m not sure of the correct term for the product, but the “sling” in the pics above is like a soft magic bucket. Four years ago I used this papoose(ish) device to get Finley to sleep, and I’ve now introduced it to the twins. For instance, Nora was having a hard time tonight so I loaded her in the “sling,” and Finley and I walked her to Hand Middle School which is three blocks from the house. Nora was asleep by the second block.

After we put a sleeping Nora in her crib, I loaded Ivey in the contraption. As you can see in the top pic above, she had “the big eye.” Translation; She was wide awake. After five minutes of walking around with her swinging from my neck, she was in a deep sleep. I’m not sure what it is, but maybe the marsupials are on to something.

Disclaimer 2: I’ve heard these devices have been recalled. Hmmm. I hope this blog post doesn’t land me in the clink. If no one turns me in, and I remain a free dad, I may be hitting up ebay for a second sling so I can hang both girls around my neck at one time.

Disclaimer 3: I’m pretty sure we took Nora to Hand, and it’s Ivey in the pics. If not, and someone calls me out, I’m gonna be a embarrassed! #WOOPS

When it comes to little babies I may be a one trick pony. That’s OK, because dang if it’s not a super valuable trick. In short…to all dads out there, this thing works for me.

Night night!

FJ

Tonight a few members of the team are in beautiful Charleston, SC.  While the pic above may give the illusion we’re here to kick up our feet and enjoy the sights The Holy City, we’re actually here to learn from the best and brightest real estate minds in the country.

Wed. night Elizabeth, Amy, I cruised to Charleston to attend a three day online platform real estate conference.  Now, if you know me, you’re well aware this isn’t my style, as I rarely leave downtown Columbia, SC.  That said, one of the reasons we joined this particular group is to be part of a culture that can make us better Realtors for our clients.  It’s working.

The pic above is the three of us riding in the bucket seat of a pedicab in Charleston.  While this 10 minutes was good fun, most of our hours have been spent in a big room with the best and brightest of our industry.   I’m not quite sure how to completely convey this point, but here goes:  While we may be raising the bar in The Midlands, we’re not squat compared to some of the teams at this conference.   Some of these teams are hard core gangbusters, with monetary budgets and accountability systems that I’ve never even thought about.

This has been an eye opening experience, to be sure.  Am I ready to get home to see my girls?  Oh, yes.  Am I ready to punch the gas a little more at the office.  Oh, yes.

Hopefully a few days away from the office will make us better and more efficient Realtors, of which, our clients will be the biggest winners.

FJ

I hit a little bit of a wall today. Somehow I caught a tinch of a sinus infection on the same day I’m “cleansing,” which means I don’t eat anything for two days. So, other than sleeping about three hours last night, consuming about 250 calories today, and a feeling that the other side of my nose is on fire, I’m good! Things were so kinked up today that I emailed my friends at www.MidlandsBiz.com to pull my ad. I just didn’t think I’d be able to blog tonight and wanted to avoid the pressure of ad clicks finding dormant content.

Hopefully a couple of hours at Doctor’s Care has done the trick. While I usually just ‘tough stuff out,’ if I got Jen or one of the girls sick, it would be major awfulness. This line of thinking had me wondering if I should bust a hotel, or maybe sleep in the floor of one of our vacant listings. 🙂

All this said, I thought tonight would be a good night to post a few pics of the twins. After all, they’re the cutest things that have ever breathed air this side of Pluto. Further, I know there are quite a few friends not on Facebook that want to see a pic or two.

Whoa… I need to stop typing and get horizontal as it’s now 2:10. Next feeding is at 3, then 6, then Finley to school by 9, and I need to be ready for any or all of them.

Nite, nite!

Franklin

Last week Jennifer and I announced on Facebook that the twins have arrived! While the girls aren’t home yet, we’re blessed to report that they’re healthy and progressing splendidly at a fine NICU facility in-town.

While my sweet wife obviously did ALL of the heavy lifting these past spring and summer months, the bed rest part had me doing a few extra chores. With a lot of help from friends and family, we made it to the finish line. That said, one of the most difficult facets about having same-sex twins is naming them. Here’s how “Ivey McGuire” & “Lenora Franklin” shook down.

First of all, we love our four-year-old girl’s name, Finley Sparks Jones. “Finley” is from my side of the family from the Upstate, and “Sparks” is Jennifer’s maiden name. Fast forward to today, and Jennifer was in favor of one of the twins having the name “Lenora,” for her grandmother. Well, knowing “Nora” was all set made the decision even more difficult.

To complicate matters, I wanted to keep the “Franklin” thing going. I’m named for my uncle who passed away at the age of seven, and there are about 10 “Franklins” in a row up the line. Seeing as how I’m not going to have a boy, and none of my other family members had a “Franklin,” Jennifer was generous to keep it going. Stay with me…

Now that we had “Franklin” set, we needed to decide if we wanted a double name like “Mary Franklin” or “Sally Franklin.” Given my preference for convenience, we opted against it. I just couldn’t imagine saying, “Mary Franklin” a billion times, and “MF!” wouldn’t do. At literally the last few hours before we were forced to decide, entered “Ivey.”

The night before the decision deadline, their names were Ivey Franklin Jones and Lenora McGuire Jones (McGuire is Jennifer’s great grandmother). Well, after some deliberation and comparing names on a computer screen the next morning (with friends at work, too), we decided that “Lenora McGuire” was too “grandmother-heavy,” and switched. Welcome, Lenora Franklin and Ivey McGuire. There ya go!

WHEW! I’m so glad that’s over, as I’m not sure I’ve ever been asked a question more than “what are their names??” Truth be told, it was my fault for waiting till the last minute. In the end, however, I think we got it right and hope Finley, Nora, and Ivey love their names, respectively.

Sorry for all the personal posts lately!

Thank you!

Franklin