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)