Elliana's 1st ISR self rescue swim lesson

Today was Elliana's first ISR swim lesson. She will be learning self rescue water skills over the next few weeks. It was an emotional and difficult day but I am so proud of how well Ellie did! They began today by working on holding onto the wall (or the pvc bar at the wall- lower for practice due to Ellie's size) She needs to gain confidence in the wall and learn to reach and go for it (not a person) when needing help or a way out.

Here is just a quick snipet of her lesson.

Looking forward to watching her grow and learn over the next few weeks!

18

This past Saturday, March 20th was a very significant day for my family.

A month and a half before my twelth birthay, in 1992, my dad died in a work related accident and went to Heaven to be with Jesus.

It was one of the hardest days of my life.

It rocked our world, and changed the course of our family.... forever.

This year marked eighteen years, he's been gone... 18!! Wow!

Such a hard thing to comprehend. I remember that day like it was yesterday.

I still miss him so much.

I still wish so desperately he was here to be apart of our future. To have been here for al of lives exciting (and diffcult) events. To have met his incredible grandkids, to have taught us all to appriciate music even more, to remind us always to laugh.

Yet life has moved on.

Soooo much has changed and we have all grown up.

My mom is remarried. I have a step father and 3 new siblings (:

We now live 8 hours away and each have families of our own.

Saturday was also a special day in a very different way.

11 years ago, in 1999, Jake and I made a decision to begin something together....

We began to sponsor a little boy named Mohamed Abeid. Mohamed lives with his family in Tanzania, Africa.

What makes Mohamed special is that he was born on the same day that my dad went to Heaven. March 20, 1992.

One of the things that comforted me that most after loosing my dad was remembering that Life begins and life ends. God gives life, and he ends life. It's a cyle we are all a part of.

It may be hard for others to understand, but for me it was comforting and special to know that I could help and support this little boy, who God chos to give life to, the same day tht he chose to take my dad to his heavenly home. Mohamed may not make it through this life, without sponsorship, and we were able to be apart of that plan.... pretty amazing.

Through the years we have kept in touch with Mohamed, watched him grow, and mature. Kept up with his studies and been amazed as his handwriting, and artistic abilities have improved greatly. He know writes us his own letters and draws wonderful pictures for us. It has been a wonderful journey to have been a part of.

Last Saturday, March 20, 2010, Mohamed turned 18 years old. He has grown into a handsome young man. Our little boy, is not so little anymore... and we are proud to have him as part of our family... and honored to havebeen able to be apart of his life.

Happy 18th Birthday Mohamed!

Bye, Bye Birdie Bottle... Blues

Another feat. Another milestone.

It has been over a week since Elliana has had a bottle. She loves her sippy cups. Heck, she loves everyone elses sippy cups too! I realized that it was harder for me to just give up the bottle than for Ellie. I want to comfort her, to make her happy, to soothe her. The most difficult for Elliana ME ,is bedtime. We were to the point where we really wanted her to start putting herself to sleep. To back down from the long 30 minute or so ordeal of rocking, bouncing, etc. to get her to sleep. But thats what she wanted. Thats what she loves. It was so hard to let go of that. So I gave in and went with the bottle.

It worked. She went to bed, on her own with her bottle. We just had to lay her down.

It was wonderful, It was peaceful.

After a few weeks of this I decided it was time to start weening the bottle. She is 15 months old now. So I tried it. I rocked her a bit, comforted her, then layed her down... this time with a sippy cup. A little fussing, A pushed away cup, and even some tears.

But it worked. She still went to sleep... within a very few minutes!

So Bye, Bye Bottle it was!!

Since then, Elliana has done so well with just the sippy cup for bedtime. What a relief.

...That is Until we began the Bye, Bye Bottle Blues...

The last 2 nights have been very hard for Ellie (ME!) Elliana has cried, and cried, and thrown fits, and tried to throw herself out of my arms... Just to get to bed. It breaks my heart. I want her to get peaceful rest, I want her to be happy.

I know the easy answer. I know what would work...

But I can't go back...

We said Goodbye to the bottle and theres no turing back!

NOT ME! Monday

Being brutally honest, and living to tell blog about it!
Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. "Not Me! Monday was born out of my desire to admit some of my imperfections and reveal a few moments I'd rather forget. You may find it therapeutic to join in and do the same thing!" You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.


As I went through this week, I certainly did not take notes on my Not me Monday antics so that I would definately have something to blog about today! I have a much better memory that to need that and I would never be so worried about such things! Nope, Not me!

I did not thoroughly clean off our lovely highchair this weekend for the first time since Elliana was 7 months old!! And I did not feel ashamed at how dirty is was and how much was hidden under that lovely seat cover! I take much better care of my children's things and would never put my child in something that dirty! Nope, Not me!

And as I was cleaning said highchair, which took place on the back deck, I surely did not watch as my darling one year old daughter picked up a (who knows how old) wheat thin that has fallen from whithin the chair somewhere. I did not allow her to put the cracker in her mouth and proudly walk off eating it as if she had found a prize! I would never let my child eat something old like that, that momentarily fell onto the deck. Nope, Not me!

At another point while outside this weekend I also did not leave my wonderful children unattended for mere moments as I loaded the dishwasher. While playing with chalk my lovely son did not decide to scribble all over the table with chalk just to rub it off with his hands, creating "chalk snow" All over his sisters head!!! I always keep a better watch over my children than that. I would never stand by and let something like that happen to my poor baby girl! Nope, Not me!

How about you... what things have you Not been up to??

NOT ME! Monday

Being brutally honest, and living to tell blog about it!
Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. "Not Me! Monday was born out of my desire to admit some of my imperfections and reveal a few moments I'd rather forget. You may find it therapeutic to join in and do the same thing!" You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

While trying to get some things done around the house, I did not leave my one year old daughter unsupervised in her highchair with some crayola beginning crayons (..and, ...a... oops! ...paint!) And I did not come back moments later to find her eating said crayons paint and covering her face and mouth with beautiful colors! I am more responsible than that and always watch my children closely! Allow my child to eat art supplies, and even photograph said incident, Nope, Not me!




I did not run out with a friend to walmart sat. night at almost midnight to grab a few things for Valentines day so that I could suprise my hubby with some chocolate. I am much more together than to forget a gift for such a special holiday like this one! No last minute late night shopping for me, Nope, Not me!


When I delived such said gifts to hubby, knowing (as always) he would not have anything in return; I also did not feel completely and totally stupid and humbled when I recieved the greatest gift ever!!! My hubby surely could not have gotten away with keeping such a huge secret from me and getting friends and family involved with this gift without me having a clue... And I definately did not become speechless when given this ,heartfelt, handmade, three-strand, personalized bracelet!! Nope, Not me!!!



After bathing my darling daughter, I did not take off my wedding rings and set them on the couch to apply her lotion. I would never be so careless with something so special and valuable. And dd surely did not hop up and instantly find the jewlry, tossing them, in attempt to avoid me getting them from her. I did not spend the next 30 minutes searching everywhere for my engagment ring which was missing so that I could find it before my husband got home! Nope, not me!
(**of course, it was my wonderful hubby who found the ring, after comforting me and calming me down from feeling so stupid, by simply moving out the couch. Your the best hubby, I love you!** )

SNOW on my PALM trees!!!

This past weekend we were part of History... For the first time in 10 years, it snowed in Charleston, ...Summerville in fact! Although I'm not a huge fan of the white stuff or the cold, it was very beautiful. The fact that we did not have to go anywhere, shovel, or deal with it much also made it all the more enjoyable.
snow began on friday afternoon/evening. I was convinced that it would not accumulate to anything and would be gone before we could blink. So... I got out my camera, bundled up the kids and began taking pictures of the falling white stuff!!


I just had to capture the fact that there was snow on my palm trees! That just doesn't even sound right! lol.. we've moved to the south/beach for a reason... oh well! (o:

Dinner, fellowship, biblestudy, and a few hours later... we were welcomed by quite a suprise when we opened the door to head back home. Not only had the snow kept falling but it was acumulating fast and even sticking to the roads! The men braved the weather, cleared off the cars for us, and we made the treck back home in the snow. Several more cars were seen in a mess of trouble and it took way longer than normal, but we made it home.... to this.

Jake got home shortly after, and we decided to go ahead and make the trip over to our small group. We northerners are used to this stuff and can drive in it, nothing to worry about! What we didn't think about was the reaction of all the southern charlestonites who don't know what to do in a snow storm flurry! We were amazed at how many cars we saw off the side of the road and even in ditches! The city had gone mad...

The excitment continued as we settled the kids into bed (already very late due to small group) made ourselves comfy on the couch with laptops in tow.... and the power went out. No way. It's cold, its snowing, the kids are asleep, its late... this can't be happening.

But it was.

Called my sister who I knew had not been home long either and found out that they did have power. She invited us to pack up and head there... but I hesitated due to the effort that would take and we decided to wait things out. I called to report the outage and no sooner did I tell Jake about the automated message I recieved the power was back! Relief.

So off to bed we went.

7am rolled around... sooner than we would have liked. Jake jumped up, late for work and hurried around to get ready. Disoriented and trying to figure out why he didn't get up we realized how cold we were.... and the fact that we again, had no power. We assume by the temperature that it had been out for several hours while we were sleeping, having gone back out around 3am. Bummer.

Jake cleared off the cars, got him self together, and headed into work. We were pleasantly suprised to see that the roads were very clear so the ride in was assumed to be an easy one. The sight outside was beautiful. Snow covered everything. As if God has laid a white blanket over the city. I absolutely love how the snows lays on each and every branch of the trees. It truly was beautiful.

Nathaniel woke up rearing and ready... He couldn't wait to pile on the clothes and head out to play. He had a great time playing in all our snow!

By Saturday afternoon the sun was out and the snow was melting fast... by Sunday, you wouldn't have known it even snowed. It came, it was beautiful, it was fun, and then it was gone.

Perfect Snowfall (:

Till the next decade! ...

Boys Night Out!!

Last weekend, at the last minute I found out about a show that was going on locally, in North Charleston. For over a year now Jake has been talking about wanting to take Nathaniel to see Monster Trucks. Somehow, we missed hearing about this one coming to town until the night before. As soon as I heard, I jumped online to find out details and look for tickets. Sure enough I was able to get tickets for saturday nights show. Jake was so excited. He decided not to tell Nathaniel but to let it be a suprise.

I was even able to go to a local motor sport store to get free pit passes so that they could go early and get up close and personal with the huge trucks! Nathaniel and Daddy were in heaven!!! Not sure who was more excited.

After visiting the pit, they found their seats and the show began. The first truck to come out, made hs way around the track, and then flipped upside down! One of the highlights of the show. Jake is always hoping this will happen. (we went several years ago to a show and noone flipped, he was so dissapointed)

They had so much fun watching and listening as the fork lift and rescue workers came out to flip the truck back over and clear the track. Everyone was ok and after several minutes the truck was back over and excorted off.

Round one, each truck started off with a "wheel stand" then rolled up over a row of crush cars.

Next up was the opsticle course competition.

A new addition to the show this year was the mechanical 20- foot tall, fire-breathing dinosaur!!

He picked up the car, bit it and spllit it in half... then crushed it into several peices. "With his sharp hands and teeth, Mommy!"

...Can we say amazement!?! ...Enjoyment!! ??!

Next up was the motorcross competition... Mommy is always amazed at the skill, speed and crazy tricks these guys pull off. Pictures are very hard to capture.

They boys had such a blast together, the look in their eyes, the excitment in their voices, and the stories (which lasted for days!) made it all the more special and so worth it. Sooo glad they were able to enjoy this special night together!