Hi all! Just wanted to enter a quick update as to our lives. I hope everyone had a great summer. Me, I'm just glad it's almost over. I am definitely one southern girl who does not like the weather in the south. The heat and bugs do not win me over!!

Well, I will carry on with my update. Jonathan and I have had a great summer. We have not been swimming as much as he would like but we have managed to get in the water many times. He now will jump off the diving board as long as there's someone to catch him. He will jump into the shallow end by himself as long as it is only 3 feet deep. He likes to walk around by himself and show off how tall he is already!

We have been to small fairs, carnivals, touring train shows, and more other things than I can remember at the moment. We are looking forward to a Very busy fall and a wonderful Holiday season. He already has a list going of what he wants Santa Calus to bring him for Christmas. The top of the list is a small red fire truck that he found a picture of in a catalogue. We ripped the page out and he put a piece of tape on the top. That picture now adorns whichever wall he feels will give Santa the best vantage point to see it and ensure its timely delivery. He has informed me that Christmas is too far away and that he thinks Santa should go ahead and bring it for him to play with now instead of waiting. I haven't told him but Santa already delivered it and it now resides on the upper shelf of my closet hiding for a few months!

I went to Baltimore for my friend Julia's wedding and left Jonathan for a very long three days. I had a great time and the wedding was almost picture perfect. Chuck and Julia both looked amazing and I am looking forward to seeing the pictures when they come out. My mother and his Aunt Pam and Uncle Franklin helped to take care of JT for me and to this date I don't know who was busier over the weekend. He had a great time with both households but I was grateful to see him when I returned and I think he was just as happy to see me. I gave him a small disposable camera to take pictures of his adventures over his "sleepover" weekend and when I returned he somehow had "3" cameras full of pictures. I heard he was such a paparazzi that his camera had to be continually replinished due to his desperate need to capture that one perfect shot. I haven't had those developed yet but when I do I am sure we will sit down and look over all of the pictures together so he can tell me all about his Grand Adventure away from home! Thank you to Grammy, Aunt Pam and Uncle Franklin for helping me out!

I am becoming very involved in my church. I go to North Star church in Kennesaw and I absolutely love it! I first started to go because I love the way our Senior Pastor delivers his message but have become involved in the Surviving Divorce ministry there and now a leader in the Singles Ministry. There are a lot of really great people there and Jonathan has made lots of friends in his Preschool class on Sundays. He just graduated to an older room and he made the transition smoothly. This new room has a huge train set and train table so needless to say, he is very happy to go to church on Sundays!!!

Speaking of trains, we just returned from a trip to Nashville, Tennessee where we saw and rode Thomas the Train! Jonathan was thrilled. My mother, Jonathan and I went and made a long weekend/mini vacation out of it. We went to the Adventure Science Center where they had a Dinosaur presentation as well as tons of inventive and creative hands on activities for children and adults. We went to two very cool restaurants. "Rainforest Cafe" was a tropical rain forest themed restaurant that had gorillas, elephants, zebras and lots of other touristy type things running throughout. Then we went to an "Aquarium" restaurant that was all decked out to make you feel like you were in the middle of the aquarium. We had to take an 8pm reservation but luckily they gave us a booth so JT just fell asleep with his head in my lap about half way through dinner. That was fine by me because that meant I actually was able to eat my dinner in piece and quiet for a change. Mom sat outside on a bench with him asleep in her lap while I walked about two hundred yards away to get the car. She said that he behaved better than he every had while I was gone. hahaha. We drove around Nashville and saw things like the original Grand Ole Opry and The Hermitage house. On the way back we stopped at the Chattanooga Aquarium to round out the vacation! Over all I think it was an unquailified success!!

Jonathan is starting to ask a lot of questions about where his Dad is but I am very grateful to both my father and Gerald for helping me out in that area. Charlotte and Gerald have let us spend the night on more than one occasion at their house up in Blairsville to ensure they get some bonding time with him. (Thank you by the way!!!) Jonathan loves his Papa (my father) and his Grandpapapapa (Craig's father) and just craves masculine attention. They both have really helped out by trying to spend as much time as possible with him. I also try to get him around my two brothers as often as I can as well so he has some men to rough house with and just in general be a 'boy'!!

He started Mother's Day Out at Marietta First Baptist church a couple of weeks ago again for this year and I just want to say a big Thank you to my mother for helping out so much with him! She watches him for me a lot of the time while I work and she is definitely a Godsend.

Well, that's all for now. I will try to post again soon with lots of fall news. He already has a Superman costume that I cannot wait to see him wearing. We will be trick or treating with Whitney and Lexi again this year and I promise to take tons of pictures!

Hope everyone is well and feel free to send along any comments!!

Love to everyone,
Sharona and the Baby Bear (Jonathan)

Our Latest Adventures

Well, my mother reminded me that I haven't updated this in awhile and that was good because I tend to forget all about it and end up apologizing to everyone months later for not letting you all know what's going on in our lives. [how was that for a run on sentence!!:) ]

First off, Jonathan was invited to his first birthday party for a friend from Mother's Day Out. We went to Kangaroo Bob's (an indoor inflatable/jumping playground area) and he had a Great time. The birthday boy was crying at the beginning and the next thing I knew J.T. was walking around with him, holding his hand and telling him it was going to be okay. That's my boy!!

My Mother, Father, Jonathan and I all put together a new swing set for my mother's house and J.T. loves it! He spends a lot of time there b/c my mother helps me out immensely with watching him while I work and he calls the new swingset 'Grammy's special, special playground'!

We had my mother's birthday party there and combined it with a 40th anniversary of owning the house. Everyone came over and we looked at old pictures and slides and just had a great time being together! Boy, talk about some 80's hair and I have to say that my 2 brothers definitely looked a little like a band member for the flock of seagulls! hahahaha

Other than that J.T. and I went to "All Aboard Days" in Kennesaw and spent a few hours riding trains, trains and more trains. We went to the local train museum and saw 'The General'. That's a locomotive that was in comission during the civil war and now resides there in the museum. Man, that train is huge and J.T. just loved it. He got a Thomas the tank engine painted on his arm and we saw 4 actual trains go through the center of town. Speaking of the center of town, My mother, J.T. and I have found a new favorite mexican restaurant right in downtown Kennesaw. We can sit outside on the patio and about 60 feet from the railroad tracks. Jonathan spends the entire time looking for trains! I think the boy has an obsession!!!

Well, that's all I can think of right now. I'll post more later when new things happen!

We love you all,

Sharona and Jonathan

I know, I know, where have we been???

Okay, I have to go ahead and so that I am sorry and ashamed for not having updated my blog in so long! There's absolutely no way I could include everything that has happened so I will give the cliffnotes version!

Jonathan is now 3 years old!!! Yeah! He had a wonderful (albeit a little cold) birthday party at East Marietta park. We grilled out hotdogs, played on the playground and had lots of bubbles. We waited until we were home before we opened presents because the wind tried to keep blowing them away. It actually took us 2 weeks to open all of the presents but needless to say he enjoyed everything. I think I'm the one who enjoyed the clothes the most but hey, he's only three! :)

Backing up a bit, Jonthan has been attending Mother's Day Out at Marietta First Baptist Church. His grammy is a member and he just loves going each week. He goes Tuesday and Friday mornings and has made lots of friends. He's going to go this summer for 4 weeks in July and hopefully those friends will be there as well. We're both looking forward to it!

Some of his favorite play spots are Kangaroo Bob's and Monkey Joe's. Those are indoor inflatable playgrounds where he can run and get crazy for as long as we hold out. There are couches, tables, computers with internet access, tv's and other things to keep the adults entertained while kids expend 'some' of their energy. If all other children are like Jonathan they very rarely ever run out of it!!!

He also loves to go to the Georgia Aquarium with his Grammy. Before he turned three they would go every few weeks b/c she has a season pass and he got in for free. He loves the whales and little worm like things that come up from the sand. He now likes to 'play' whale while he takes a bath and you can surmise for yourself what kind of mess that makes!

As far as this summer goes we are possibly planning a trip to the beach so I will definitely let you know if that happens. In September his Grammy and I are all headed to Nashville to see Thomas the tank engine at the train station there. We will actually get to ride him and he's going to be Thrilled!!!! We are also going to check out the zoo and others things and just make a fun weekend out of it.

As for me, I am doing great! I'm very busy some weeks and not so busy others and loving every minute of it. We've been in our little house now for almost a year and Jonathan now calls it home. I made him his first 'big boy' loft bed and he scrambles up the ladder every night to go to sleep. Right now he's scared of big monsters and big robots so he likes sleeping up very high.

He is still infatuated with trains and I don't see that coming to a conclusion anytime soon but who knows. His Grammy and I find ourselves doing outrageous things with an automobile just to be able to see a train drive by and sometimes have to just laugh at the absurdity of it all. I think he has us very well 'trained'!! hahaha

Well, that's all for now. Hope this fills you in a little on our lives and I promise I will try to be better about updating in the future!!

Love to all,

Sharona and JT