Happy Birthday Jonah!

Today is Jonah's birthday. He was born at 11:06 five years ago today. Here he is with his Daddy on his "Birth"day at Gwinnett medical Center.Here he is at a year old. I should have known he was going to be a mess from then.

Two years old...

We celebrated Jonah's 3rd Birthday in Savannah with his friend Grant Hampton. We had a construction party. Grant was only four days younger than Jonah. We called him "Wee Man" because he looked as if he could have easily been a year younger.
And, Jonah's 4th Birthday was last year. We had an alien party in the backyard. Jonah felt like he needed a "party" hat to be the birthday boy.
Breaking through the run through sign for his 5th birthday...

Happy Birthday Jonah!!! We love you!

Football Party

We celebrated Jonah's birthday football style. We had several Georgia Bulldogs (of course), a Cincinnati Bengal, a Green Bay Packer, a GT Jacket, an Atlanta Falcon, an Indianapolis Colt, and an LSU Tiger cheerleader.

Chris and I were officially the referees. Of course Chris was right in the middle of the game.

Jonah had a blast (and so did his Daddy). Of course, Jonah did not have to request Ibuprofen later in the day. Notice Gavin with the "medic" truck ready to take the injured off of the field.



Fumble recovery. Check out Jonah's Black out jersey!

A match made in heaven. Or is it? We all know that mixed marriages are doomed for failure!

Thanks to all who came to celebrate with Jonah.

Chronicles of Narnia

I know that many of you have never wondered what order to read the Chronicles of Narnia in because there are deceptive little numbers on the spine of most copies now that would lead you to read them in a particular order. Do not be swayed!!!

I asked my best friend, Nikki to write on guest post on the correct order of Lewis' beloved children's series because she could do it so much more eloquently than I. Her post follows...

In honor of the upcoming release of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, I have the honor of typing a guest blurb on "A Day in the Life." I was asked because I love the Chronicles. I was also asked because the order in which they should be read is one of my favorite soapboxes. I have what can only be call "strong" feelings about it. The original order in which the Chronicles were written is as follows:The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (L,W,&W)Prince Caspian (PC)Voyage of the Dawn Treader (V of the DT)The Silver Chair (SC)The Horse and His Boy (H & HB)The Magician's Nephew (MN)The Last Battle (LB)When you buy the books now, be it in a boxed set or as one large volume, the Magician's Nephew is the first book, followed by L,W,&W, then H & HB, PC, V of the DT, the SC, and the LB. This is not the best way to read these books, and there are a bunch of other bibliophiles with too much time on their hands who agree with me! C.S. Lewis did indeed at one point consider that a more "chronological" order (the new order) might be a better way to go. He however, never made any move to change them and finally decided that they should remain as they were. He wrote them in the original order, and the narrative was built on those lines. So much of the wonder of Narnia comes from the way in which the reader is slowly introduced to it in L,W,&W. The wardrobe and where it leads create a strong sense of mystery; you are intrigued and mystified by what lies inside. In MN, the word Narnia is stated almost immediately. There is no enigma, and there is an assumption of information. As a late sequel to L,W,&W, this is appropriate. As your very first introduction to Narnia itself, this is less than engaging. TThe texts themselves show that L,W,&W comes first with quotes such as "None of the children knew who Aslan was, any more than you do." If you're reading L,W,&W second, well of course you know who Aslan is. There are so many ideas, themes, and moments of character development that occur naturally in the original order of the Chronicles. Some of that is lost in the new order, and much of the magic is diminished.I strongly encourage you to read the books that have been a delight to me since I was in 7th grade. I have perused their pages many times and have always come away more enthralled and with an even greater sense of wonder. Go forth, read, and enjoy them yourself! Just do so in the best possible order!

So there you have it. Drop by your local bookstore or library today, and dive into the adventure. I assure you, you will not regret it!

Is it worth being friends with the nursery coordinator?

Have you ever noticed that when you pick your children up from the nursery at church, they always tell you that your children were good? Hmmm. I know my children. Am I living in a fantasy world to think that they possibly act better for someone else than they do for me?

Let me explain. My children were both screamers as babies. Some call it "colic," I call it "my boys screamed their bloody heads off until they were nine months old." Yet, I would always pick them up from the nursery at church- I went to every service offered, by the way, because that was my only break from feeling like I was going to throw them out of the window- just kidding (about going to every service, that is; not about wanting to throw them out of the window)- and they would tell me, "Oh he has been fine, he just started screaming like this," as she yells over my child who sounds like he should be in some excorcism type thriller film. I was blessed with this not once, but twice. But, I digress. My point is, I chose to believe that maybe they hadn't screamed the entire service and they had just started up, as they felt my presence approach the nursery. Not that I would have wanted them to call me out of the service to handle it anyway. This was the only break I got.

Was I fooling myself? I'll never know because we have moved since then, so there is no one to fess up...

But, now I am friends with the nursery coordinator, so I get to hear about the wonderful children that I have. You know this is going somewhere specific, don't you?

This past week, Daniel really wanted to go in Jonah's classroom to play with his older brother and his friends. When we told him no, he pitched the fit of all fits (okay every fit that is in front of other human beings is the fit of all fits, but this one was really bad). At that point of course, we had to follow through, and make Daniel go in his own classroom. He got to play with Mr. Cool Guy (his name has been changed to protect the innocent), who is Jonah's favorite teacher- apparantly, Jonah forgot to inform his little brother. Daniel goes into the classroom throwing toys and screaming, and Chris and I turn around and walk very quickly to the service without looking back, so that they wouldn't stop us.

When Chris picked Daniel up, Mr. Cool Guy said that he had pretty much screamed the entire time. I mean Daniel, not Mr. Cool Guy. Of course I am sure that Mr. Cool Guy went home and screamed for at least an hour. I'm sorry Katina that we are wiping your nursery workers out one by one.

Then, when I went by Katina's (nursery coordinator, if you haven't figured that out by now) house Monday morning, she let me know that not only had Daniel screamed the entire service but also that he had decorated his classroom wall with red crayon. LOVELY!!!!!

Here was Mr. Cool Guy's response to Katina about helping in the nursery this upcoming Easter morning:

"Sorry Kristina… I’ll be in AL.
But I did help decorate for the service… Daniel and I… little red celebration on the wall… it was the least I could do…
Cool dude"

Katina, he's going to Alabama. I would not expect him back any time soon. We have that effect on people. Sorry I can't fill in for him.

I wonder if I can sneak in there with a magic eraser before Easter?

I'm back!!!

To all (both) of you who have been asking why I have been posting so infrequently (not at all), I now have a computer, so I am back in the land of the living online. I currently have no way to upload photos, and am so busy trying to play catch- up after a week with no computer that I have absolutely nothing fun to post. We have been insanely busy, but with things that no one in this world cares to hear about. Jonah's class had a kindergarten field trip- Woo Hoo! We went to a four year old birthday party- double woo hoo! Seriously, why do I even blog?

US Government Concedes that vaccines are linked to autism

Recent Ruling

Father, Forgive him!

Blasphemous supper conversation:

Don't even ask how we got here.

The Man: Mama is the Queen.

...He is so right about that by the way...

Jonah: And, what are you, Daddy?

The Man: I am the King.

...He would like to think so, wouldn't he?...

Jonah: And, I am Jesus.

Father, forgive him, for he knows not what he says.