As many of you know, 2018 was self-recognized by my wife as “The Year of Jenny” – not only (1) because it commemorates her first year of (theoretical) parental freedom, now that all four of our kids are in school full-time, but also because (2) she turns 40 years old on May 25th of this year!
My beloved wife has made it very clear that she “doesn’t want anything,” to mark her momentous transition to another milestone decade. So, I have conceded not to throw a huge surprise party (although what constitutes “huge” is debatable, in my mind).
What I have opted to do instead is make an effort to reach out to the many friends and family who love Jenny for all her awesome qualities. THIS IS A SURPRISE TO JENNY, so I’m using this format as a means to communicate to as many people as possible.
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| Mary Carol's birthday gift to Jenny May 25, 2010 |
The jar pictured above is my inspiration. It was gifted to Jenny by our eldest (Mary Carol) on Jenny’s 32nd birthday, when MC was four years old. It is filled with 32 adjectives and descriptions of attributes that Mary Carol loved/loves about her mom, and it has resided next to Jen’s sink ever since. Obviously, it’s meaningful. I want to create an encore performance by extending an invitation to each of you to select an adjective and then explain why you chose that particular word/phrase as it relates to Jenny Hills Kraus.
Ideally, your explanation would take the form of a memory or story of a shared experience. They don’t need to be long (although they can be), but it would be awesome if each could be accompanied by a photograph or two. The image would ideally be of you with Jenny, but it could also be of something that will remind her of your story, or just of you (maybe during a specific time period that would carry significance for her).
I have brainstormed to come up with an initial list of adjectives. Originally, my plan was to have 40, but I certainly don’t feel that we have to limit it. If you would, please give it some thought, and if willing to contribute, reserve your adjective through the comment box at the bottom of the page. If you come up with another word not on the list, even better – just throw it out there. [NOTE: I have a feeling lots of people will be vying for a lot of the same words (funny, goofy, kind, loving, silly, thoughtful, etc.); we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Maybe I'll accompany her "electronic jar" with a thesaurus, as she does love a good, underappreciated word.]
Once I assemble all of this info, I plan to put it together on-line -- via this blog -- so that it can be shared with her on her birthday. I can make permissions (access to the website) such that she can be the only one who sees it, or certain entries, if they are personal to the point that they aren’t suitable for a general audience. If you are concerned about this, just mark your submittal as “CONFIDENTIAL” when you email/mail it to me, and I will make sure to keep it private.
Finally, I am going to make an effort to send this to people from all stages of Jenny’s life (early childhood/grade school, high school, college, work, school, church, family, etc.), but I will most certainly miss people who should be on the list. Please forgive me if I omitted your name! If you know of people who have a relationship with Jenny, please share this link with them. HOWEVER, PLEASE DO NOT SHARE THIS LINK VIA SOCIAL MEDIA. One Facebook post could make this a lot less of a surprise.
I think that’s it for now. I will make updates to this site as this process unfolds. Thanks in advance for taking the time to read all this. I really hope you’ll take a little more to share a memory, perspective, or just a birthday wish. I AM CONFIDENT THAT IT WILL MEAN A TON TO JENNY.
Cheers,
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| The Crew, celebrating Jenny's birthday a couple years back |
1 comment:
Many words for Jenny. Some that come to mind are loving, passionate, emotional, responsible, talkative.
Memories that come to mind:
Attempting to teach Jenny accounting when she transferred from DePaul to Miami for one semester. We sat in the dining room at our house on Lancelot and attempted to learn accounting theory. The approach that Miami was using at that time was not good. There were many tears, which did not augment the learning process.
I am amazed at Jenny's capacity to love and care about people.
I am not good with sending pictures. Don't have many and don't know how to send them.
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