Life changes forever...

I can't even begin to express emotion right now; but I needed to document this somehow. We've lost a treasure, my brother, my friend, a father, a son, an uncle. My brother passed away on Monday, August 6, 2007 and it was very unexpected and has left us all in utter shock and sorrow. There are no words to describe how special he was and will always be to me. We talked each day! How proud I am to have been able to just call him, or hear from him each day and know the 'little things'. We had so much fun talking about life, kids, and just 'stuff' as he'd put it. I will write a special page all about him someday soon. I am so sad that Jesse will never know his Uncle Mike the way I had hoped for him too. Jesse is so small that he won't even remember the times they have shared together. I know that some of my close friends and family read this from time to time, so I will ask that each of you pray for Mike's children - they have a lifelong journey without their father. Those shoes can never be filled, Mike was a very involved father and spent every second with them that he had when he wasn't working. Haleigh is 9, Nicholas is 15. Please remember them in your prayers.

You can view/sign the obit/guestbook at:

http://www.legacy.com/Link.asp?I=LS000092314579X

Lazy 5 Ranch

We spent the day at the Lazy 5 Ranch - saw some really neat animals up close, some even stuck their heads in our vehicle!! We bought some food to feed them and had a blast. Ezra seemed more eager to play at the pirate ship playground while Jesse was amazed at all of the 'cats'.... EVERY animal is a cat right now. HA!!!

Everything IS bigger in Texas!! ((Hotter too))

I've not posted in a while! The month has just gone by so quickly! July 4th came and went with a n'hood bang! Some of the people in our community indulged in a 'big' firework show ... of course they were not legal fireworks, but they were great to watch from our back yard! We even enjoyed them for a few days after the 4th!!

July 14 we took the boys on their first flight out of state! Both of the boys did terrific w/ airport chaos/customs/etc - flights went smooth and we had a wonderful trip! The only discouraging part was leaving our family! We miss them dearly and absolutely enjoyed our time with them!! I will upload and add a link to more pics once I organize them; but for now here's a few w/ some comments on when/where they were taken.

Splash pad fun!

Of the 2 pool locations in our n'hood, this one is the one for 'families' really... it has the fun splash pad and a 3.5 foot deep pool for kids and parents to have fun!! We're going several times a week!!

Home for the summer

We've started off summer w/ the boys at home! The last few years I've worked, and Ezra's been in summercamp style daycare during the summer, and he really enjoyed it; however, it's VERY costly!! Since we have several pools in our community, we've decided to stay home this summer and pack each week with field trips to the park, pool visits often, libraray visits, lunch out with daddy once a week, the local Zoo, Ray's Splash Planet, Discovery Place, and so much more!! Even though that sounds like alot of stuff, it does not even add up the the summer camp expense, and the biggest bonus is that the boys get to spend alot of quality time together!! This is the first time since Ezra's lived with me that we will have spent the whole summer together, and I'm looking forward to it. Ezra's just pleased that he's not in school, in general!!

Jesse's changing in remarkable ways, he's communicating more with signs and learning words. I wouldn't say that everyone would know what he's saying, but he's giving such effort to learn words!! This week he has learned to put his 'quiet stick' up to his mouth and say shhhh shhhh shhhh. For anyone who doesn't know, that's his finger, HA! His 8 teeth are coming in, four of them are the outer incisers, and the other 4 are molars. All but 3 have broken thru the skin right now, and he's still having miserable moments; but overall, has been such a trooper with so many teeth coming in at once. We have been giving lots of hugs, and cuddles to make him feel better!!

Splish Splash - Run Run Run!!!

The boys and I are spending alot of time at the n'hood pools - our n'hood has 4! Two adult pools and 2 toddler pools. We also have FUN home owners fees, just in case you're curious.... HA!


The boys love it, these pics are of the boys taking a pool break. Jesse really spends most of his time at this splash area - it's easier for me with him there because he's not restrained to me holding him in the big pool w/ Ezra or having to stay in his float. He just wants to run!!!! Ezra takes pool breaks and comes and plays with Jesse in the splash area.

Memorial Day Weekend

I've been really slow on posting lately, and I'm trying my best to do better! Memorial Day weekend was spent at home, hanging out, near the baby pool... we went to the lake again Saturday for a bit. We have a favorite Chinese restaurant to eat at that's close to the lake park that we enjoy, so we made an afternoon of it. Jesse and Ezra absolutely enjoy throwing rocks into the lake, Ezra tries to skip rocks - while Jesse copies Ezra by throwing them into the water to make them splash. Jesse eventually just sat down in the water on the rocky banks and just got muddy!!! He was very upset when it was time to go. He absolutely is at peace outdoors, and I'm so grateful for that!! We grilled out each night this weekend, including tonight. With race traffic, and lots of race fans who are camping, we didn't go anywhere locally, just stayed in. We live so close to the Lowes Speedway, we just opt to stay home or go out to the lake - somewhere away from the track!! Tonight Jesse and I sat on the patio tossing small rocks into the baby pool and watching Jonathon and Ezra play soccer. Jesse's getting in what looks to be 7 teeth, 3 of which are molars. So it's been a pretty touchy weekend for the little guy. He also fell this weekend and popped his eye on the corner of the coffee table, thank heavens I replaced our old coffee table with a safer wooden one w/ rounded edges or he'd have been cut!! He recovered quickly and has a small bruise, but it's definitely happening more often. He's so interested in exploring that he loses his balance!! Overall it was a nice weekend with the family! Beautiful weather, and lots of fun!!

The tragedy at Virginia Tech has us all evaluating safety & security, and questioning whether our children's schools are safe. Whether it be daycare, elementary, middleschool, highschool, homeschool, etc. Well, for us - there was a little taste of fear yesterday, and thankfully the school was prepared, and reacted and Ezra was safe. I arrived at school as usual at the back entrance, we use the back entrance because of his classroom location, and fewer car riders are picked up there in general, the school is set up well for getting car riders in and out quickly... when I arrived, I drove past North Mecklenburg High School, it's merely a few hundred feet away from his school. You could walk there in a matter of 2 minutes. Police were lined on the street, most of the Huntersville Police Department were there, and I felt like 'something' was wrong, but it looked like business as usual as I approached Blythe Elementary where Ezra goes. It looked normal that is until I parked my car beside the same mom I usually park beside and we wait on our children. Then, we noticed that all blinds were drawn, all doors were locked down and there was NO sign of movement or life around the building except for us moms. The other mom walked up to one of the officers, who was readily standing guard of all entrances of each school, and she asked 'what is going on? why isn't the school letting out'... he told her 'mam, we have a safety issue, and all 3 schools are on mandentory lockdown, this is not a drill.' When she told me this I must say I felt nausious, thinking about V-tech, and the possibility of something scary going on inside. He did reassure her that there were no security issues INSIDE of Blythe, and that we'd be allowed to pick up our children once they secured the area. 25 min later, Ezra came out; as he was coming out, most of those police cars went flying by the school with sirens on. The below article is the reason we were on lockdown. It's a tragedy, and it really was an eye opener for me. I commend the school system for having had a security measure in place, and for keeping my child safe.

Easter Today! Sunday April 8. 2007

Easter is today! Jesse woke around 6:30am as usual, and then Ezra was soon to follow around 7:30am. Jonathon was in bed - until around 10am. He worked until the wee hours of the morning, around 2:30am, doing freelance work. The boys enjoyed their easter treats! Jesse's basket included passy's, a peek-a-boo magnet book, some balls, and a bunny! Ezra's basket included a big Chocolate bunny and some other candys, and he also received a new football! Jonathon and I received small treats (Easter Bunny LOVES us!).
Jonathon took Ezra to see TMNT (Teenage Muntant Ninja Turtles, for all you 'SLOW' people)... said it was terrific. I didn't go, I had to go pick up work today; and Jesse was not feeling well. He's growing alot of teeth right now... and possibly has an ear infection. I may end up taking him tomorrow to the doc. He's tugging at the same ear, and it's a little red. No fever though. I do have some drops they called in for me the last time he had earache type symptoms, so I am using them as a precaution!
We had our Easter dinner, and discussed the true meaning of Easter with Ezra! We didn't do traditional dinner, instead we splurged for the first time in MONTHS and had 6oz filet mignons... we NEVER eat steak - it's a huge no-no, so we just stay clear of it! It was SOOO good!
Tomorrow we're going on a family fun day outing - Jonathon has the day off, and so does Ezra! I will work at night instead of during the day as usual to make up for the time out! I can't wait to go do stuff!!!

What's going on???

Nothing spectacular is going on really but I'll get you up to date... I've not posted on blogger in a LONG time; and yahoo group that was in use for our family didn't pan out... so here we go!!! I'm going to do my best to update this site weekly. Really, it's a journal for ME - so no pressure to read it. I'm not expecting any awards... Ezra's doing great in school and Jesse's growing like a weed...I've been really working hard with him on sign language and I see it paying off and I'm so glad that I have stuck with it! Jonathon watches the sign language tutorial and video with him daily and helps him too. He doesn't do it quite as much as I do, but he does do 'no-no' and drink sometimes with him. I'd rather show him no-no then tell him sometimes, and it works, he really does pay attention to the sing language! Ezra is learning signs too, and that's fun for him to do with Jesse - they sit and play together and Ezra will use signs for shoes, bear, cat, dog, bunny, etc. Jesse is so funny, you do the sign for book - or the video comes on to the part about book, and he grabs the Pat the Bunny book you got him. When we do shoes, or he sees the movie tutorial on shoes, he gets shoes. It's amazing. Ezra is constantly amazed that his brother can do stuff, in general. Jonathon's working hard for us; he's picked up alot of freelance work to supplement some income and help destroy debt. He's really pushing hard to get us in a much better position financially. I know the benefits from my being home with the boys far outweigh the loss of income we took from my staying home to work. Still, bills must be paid!!! So - I work from home and he works 2 jobs for us. He's a great husband, father and provider. Summer's coming quickly - and Ezra's looking forward to being out of school. We plan to have a summer of outdoor fun! Ezra will go to summercamp 1/2 of the time - we know how much he looks forward to it each year, but this year we'll likely only sign up for 1/2 or less. We're hoping to visit our texican family this summer too... haha Heather. Well, that's all for now - I'll try to update again during the week.