off to school...

6:30 am came awfully fast this morning. the kids did great getting up and getting ready for school. we were out the door by 7:30 and at school in plenty of time. of course joshua didn't want me to walk him into his class so i let him go off on his own. and jordyn and i made our way to her class! on the way, i stopped to talk to their art teacher close to her classroom. i looked over and jordyn made her way through the doors and into her classroom. i followed her into her room and she was already there, had given her teacher a hug and they were unpacking her backpack. she didn't even look back to find me. i had to walk in to say good bye. she did great - not a tear. she didn't care if i was there or not! she was off to school like a big girl! wow. i only teared up a few times. but with her being so brave it was easy not to completely fall apart emotionally!! today, i will pick her up at lunch time and she will have tomorrow and thursday off. and then she will go back on friday. i pray that she will do just as good friday as she did today!!

school bells ringing...

last week ended our summer break. this week school starts. i had every intention of getting back on a "school schedule" last week, early bedtimes, early mornings so that we would be ready for this week. it didn't happen. last monday morning came way too fast. and then wednesday i woke up really really sick (more on that later). last night the kids did go to bed at a more decent hour - although none of them fell asleep when we put them to bed. after a morning full of church and an afternoon at the pool - they were still awake at 9:00 pm. and this morning they woke up at 7:45, which is closer to our school wake up time but not quite. tomorrow is going to be a shocker for all of us. here is a little recap of what has been going on here in the last week...


today (and this week ahead)...

last tuesday, we found out who the kid's teachers are for this school year. i don't know much about the teachers in any grade but since finding out, i have heard wonderful things about josh's second grade teacher and jordyn's kindergarten teacher! this morning we headed out to union academy for our open house. we were loaded with school supplies and excitement! josh couldn't wait to get there and see his friends and find out who is in his class. jordyn didn't know what to expect. we went to jordyn's class first, she did tremendously well, a little bit apprehensive but very curious. she walked around the room and checked things out. she asked her teachers a few questions. one time while we were there, she said she didn't want to go and that she wanted to stay home with me and the baby. and then she was off and met a little boy and showed him around. when we left she hugged both teachers and said she would see them in the morning! i still can't believe my baby girl is going to kindergarten. i expect this week to be a bit of a transition for her and for me too. i am sure there will be tears from both of us.

joshua has the school thing down! he went right into his room and saw one of his friends and was excited to learn who was in his class from last school year. most of his friend's are in different classes but he is in class this year with a lot of girls from last year. he was most excited to find out that a little girl he has known since he was a toddler is in his class again this year!! joshua and her have known each other since before they were two. our families went to our previous church together and they grew up in nursery and the children's church together. i am glad they will be together again this year too!! he is ready to start school tomorrow!!

jordyn will have a staggered entrance for kindergarten this week. she will go tomorrow a half day and then will not go again until friday - which will be a full day. so i will still have her home for part of the week. i think it will be a good transition for her to go a little at a time. but then next week, she will be in school for real! joshua will start tomorrow full days and for the rest of the week. no transition time for him!!!

last week...

i had fully intended to make last week this wonderful week of fun for the kids until i got sick. monday, we did our school shopping for clothes and shoes and i took the kids out to lunch to mcallister's - their choice, i was so excited it wasn't mcdonalds!! tuesday, we went to the pool with heather and jeremiah. when we got there, the wade pool was closed for an hour and a half, but we had fun in the splash park until it opened. that night, the kids went over to miss patti's house. her daughter, heather watched them while the adults went out. that was a late night and they had a blast there!! and then on wednesday morning, i woke up and felt like I had been run over by a truck. i could barely lift my head off the pillow. my body ached and my head hurt. i had no energy and was so weak. it was a rough day. patti watched my kids at her pool that afternoon because i had a midwife appointment. i also had to take the o'sullivans test - which is the test for gestational diabetes. i had to fast for 2 hours and then drink that yucky sweet flat soda beverage and wait an hour and then have blood drawn. and i did that all while feeling so sick. it was no fun.

and the next three or four days are a blur. it was all i could do to keep the kids entertained so i could rest. they watched a lot of movies over those days!!! we didn't go anywhere until church yesterday. we had to reschedule jordyn's sleepover party because i just couldn't have her little friends here and have fun with them while i was feeling so bad. i was feeling somewhat better on saturday. so i used the energy i had to work around the house, mainly in the girls' room. which i am so excited about and will have to share in another post with pictures!! and yesterday, jamil was out of town with our pastor so my sister helped me with the kids all day (church, lunch and pool!).


so that is what has been going on around here over the last week. now that i am starting to feel better and we will be getting into a new schedule, i plan to post more reader friendly blogs, some things with some more depth and pictures and less of these what's been going on around here recaps. hang in there with me... i do have lots of things in mind that i want to share, just haven't had the energy or a chance to really focus on what i want to say. but i will get there. it's been a year since i started this blog and i have some ideas and fun things i would like to do with my blog in the upcoming year! stay tuned...

laptop down...pictures found!!!!!

ok, so it seems like there is always good news with bad news! a few months ago, my laptop (refraining from calling it precious here, since it isn't a breathing thing) crashed and i lost everything. and i mean everything i had saved on it -- pictures, passwords, saved blogs, etc.
well, bad news first... is that my laptop just hasn't been the same since it crashed it does a lot of crazy things. after it crashed a friend of jamil's restored part of its hard drive so it worked somewhat. well the other day it wouldn't start up at all. jamil is working on installing another hard drive. so for the past few days, i have been using our old desktop. well, this morning i was posting on baby j's blog and i was looking for a certain picture of josh - from 2000 - when he was born and started looking through the desktop's files and i found all of 2007 - the whole year i had been missing!!!!! i am so excited!!! now i am just without the first part of this year - jan - april 2008.

i am praising God for this find!!! i know i looked on this desktop a month ago in search of these pics and couldn't find them - but now they are here!!!!

now, i am praying for my laptop to start working and be reliable again!!!

baby's name....

on our baby j's blog i posted the name we have chosen for her!! i haven't been using her name when i write because we hadn't decided on spelling. i think we have decided so check out the blog to read it!!!

happy 5th birthday jordyn!!

on july 12 2003 at 12:27 am,
jordyn alexis made her way into the world.
she weighed 7lbs 1oz and was 19 3/4 in long!!

jamil and i left for the hospital around 9:30 pm on july 11, after we had josh in bed and someone to watch him. by the time i got into the hospital and into a room at 10:30 pm my contractions had stopped. fearing they would send me home, my doctor decided it was best that i stay because i had made progress since that afternoon at my appointment - i was 6 cm dialated.
instead of giving me pitocin, my doctor broke my water. by 11:00 my contractions resumed. and my midnight they were very frequent and very painful. at 12:27 am -- jordyn was born!! i was so excited to meet our little girl!

jordyn on her first birthday!!!
such a sweet girl!

jordyn was a little tiny girl on her first birthday - i can't get over how much hair she didn't have at this time!!! it was around this time that we found out we were expecting baby #3! and she would be a big sister!! crazy to think she would be a big sister.

jordyn on her second birthday!!!
pretty in pink and look at her hair!!!

jordyn's hair really grew in a year! she was already a big sister by her second birthday - she was so little to have such a big title. she was a great big sister - see her holding jesiah's pacy. she would always tell us " 'siah crying!"

jorydn's third birthday!
a little princess!

jordyn loves to dress up and be a princess!! she is a girlie girl! and honestly i love it!!!
she had her friends over for a princess party and she is ready to get the fun started!!!

jordyn's fourth birthday!!
her favorite way to pose for the camera started here!!

every year after jordyn was born, we celebrated her birthday at the beach until this year! she started doing this pose last year on the beach. and as you will see she still does it!!!

jordyn's fifth birthday!
such a little diva!!

since our beach trip was cancelled this week, we threw together a "little" cook out for our closest friends and family. one highlight of the day was that my sister was here to celebrate!!!! she bought jordyn this tiara, sash and wand!!!! here she is posing before her party started!!!!



it is really hard for me to believe that she is five years old. wow. she will start kindergarten in two weeks, and i am really not ready for her to go. she is ready - mommy is not. i will really miss her. i am having a hard time thinking about taking her on her first full day!!! i know she will love it. she is excited to go, although i think it may be a hard transition for both of us!!

jordyn is a very sweet girl. she certainly has her moments when she can be quite demanding and very dramatic. she loves to be the center of attention. she is very kind to others, unless she isn't getting her way. things go much smoother if she gets her way. but who has their way all of the time. we have seen a lot of maturity in jordyn over the last few months. she is content to play with her barbies, dolls or dress up. she causes little trouble, unless she is getting into something she isn't suppose to!!! jordyn is very compassionate and already has a heart for Jesus! she says some of the sweetest prayers at night!!! she loves pretending she is a mommy or a doctor. jordyn is really excited to have a baby sister in a few months!!!

five years ago today...

i had just begun contractions and was in labor with jordyn! it is hard to believe that was five years ago. i remember the day quite well. in the morning, my mom left to drive back to pennsylvania. she had been here the week prior hoping i would go into labor while she was here. jordyn didn't cooperate, even after my mom made me walk around a park uptown in the hot humidity!! after she left josh and i got in the van to head over to the siskey ymca where we were meeting some friends to take a yoga class and play at the waterpark. when i got into the van, i had a dead battery!! my friend stephanie came to my rescue and took us to the ymca and to get a new battery for the car. we rushed home to have my brother in law install the battery so that i could leave to go to my doctor's appointment. at my doctor's appointment, i was 3 cm dialated but not in labor. we actually set up an induction to be scheduled early the following week on a day he was on call. this doctor delivered josh and i wanted him to deliver jordyn too. i returned home from my appointment and within an hour, around 5:00 pm, I started having regular contractions. that was five years ago today!!

home bound....

...and catching up.

beach trip update...

we returned from the beach on monday afternoon. we were suppose to leave tomorrow for our second beach trip but we are not going. as i mentioned before the trip was uncertain because of my grandfather's surgery. he is doing well , but isn't sleeping well and has some discomfort - so we have postponed the trip. unfortunately, we are not sure if we will be able to make the trip according to its new dates because they fall when josh and jordyn will be back in school.

so, we are home and planning to enjoy the last few weeks of summer vacation before school starts. i am sad to not spend the time with my grandparents at the beach. the kids are disappointed but when i told them all the fun things we will do at home, they got over it!!

trip to georgia...

we spent the last week of june in villa rica, georgia. we went to visit our friends, the wilkerson's who moved there in november. we had a great visit with them. it was a house full of 6 kids - wow i got a taste of what that was like. it was like having three sets of twins who were seven, four and three years old. the wilkerson's three boys are the same ages as my three kids. so it was a crazy time - especially when it came to feeding them all!! we spent the first day catching up and letting them play at home. we went to a water park another day. and on our last day there they went to air jump usa - micheal was gracious enough to allow steph and i to grab some lunch without kids while he watched them play there.

stomach virus & traveling...

on the day we were leaving, joshua woke up not feeling well. he felt warm and was very lethargic. as i was taking the little ones to the potty, he threw up in the car. we hadn't left yet so we got him cleaned up and headed out. he threw up once more while we were traveling through downtown atlanta -- where 6 lanes of traffic were merged into one lane because of construction. fun, fun...there was nothing i could do for him. he was pathetic. i felt so bad for him. by time we made it home 4 hours later - he had diarrhea. it was not fun traveling with a sick kid. he was a trooper though. because he was sick, we had to miss church the next day. i was so bummed to miss church.

on monday morning, i took the kids to lunch and the library. while we are at the library, jesiah informed me he had to go potty. and that is when he started with diarrhea!! by the time we left for our beach trip he was feeling better. we thought we were done with this illness until...

monday, as we were leaving to come home from the beach, jordyn came down with this virus. we thought she had escaped it. she was so sick on the way home, she slept nearly the whole 4 hour trip. she was so brave and didn't complain at all. i felt so bad for her. she started feeling better on tuesday afternoon.

and some where in the midst of all of this, jamil and i had it too. we are finally recovering from the nasty virus. i have spent the last few days cleaning and disinfecting!!!

what's next...

today, we stayed home and it hasn't been a good day. the kids are full of energy, yet because of all the sickness and traveling i have no energy to take them anywhere or do anything big and exciting. they are on each others nerves and i am frustrated with their bickering, mainly the older two. jesiah is content to play. i just need some peace and quiet and some time to figure out what we will do over the next week since we won't be at the beach. i am sure we will go to the waterpark a few times, maybe catch a movie, go to the library....

saturday is jordyn's fifth birthday. i can't believe she is turning five. wow. this will be the first year we will be at home for her birthday - usually each year we are at the beach. she is looking forward to her all girl sleepover party that we have planned in two weeks! we have invited seven of her little girl friends to do a sleepover with a lot of girl fun. we will do makeovers and paint nails!!!! so since we will be home on saturday we will have some friends over for a little last minute cookout in honor of her special day!!! lucky girl gets to celebrate her birthday twice!!!

beach bound......

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tomorrow we are leaving for the beach! we are taking a family vacation to carolina beach. we haven't been there before and we are so looking forward to it. my friend, teri and her family have a beach house and we are able to use it for a long weekend. what a blessing!!! we will stay there through tuesday. we plan to chill out and have fun with the kiddos!! this trip originally started out as a trip for just jamil and i, but then we added in the kids for some extra fun!!! no really, we decided to take them because we were not sure if we would be able to make it to our beach trip to the outer banks this year. we go each year with my grandparents and my mom. a week ago my grandfather had hip surgery and at first his doctors didn't want him traveling but he is doing so well they said he should go!!! when we thought the trip was off - we decided to take the kids to carolina beach and jamil arranged his schedule at work to have a few extra days off. so because of that arrangement he can't take off both sets of days. so i will go to the outer banks with my mom and the kids!

all of that to say... we are going to the beach through tuesday and then we will be home for two days and leave again on next friday for the outer banks!! i love the beach and i am looking forward to having some good times with jamil and the kids!!!


my posts have been very far and few between and will continue that way until we get back from the beach - i don't think i will do much blogging there - i am going to take a break. i hope when we get back from the beach i will have a new found love for blogging again. i haven't been having as much fun with it as i once did. i hope when i return i will enjoy it again and be able to post some worthwhile stuff!! i was talking to my friend, jess about blogging a few weeks ago and was sharing with her how i felt like i was in a slump. she was a great encourager and gave me some good ideas so that i can press forward. so perhaps while i am "on vacation" i can use the time to get motivated to improve my blogging!!! so for now i will be on a blogging break!!!!


oh, notice the quotes around on vacation. i always have to do that b/c you know as a mom we are never "on vacation" when the family is around!!!! but still it will be a great time!!!!