Exhausted!

I can honestly say that I am not a whiner.  I usually can bounce back.  But these days it seems like I am constantly on the go.  Now that we are taking care of four children, I can see how in many ways I had it a lot easier with two.  Make no mistake about it, I love that my niece and nephew are here but man am I tired.  In addition to the daily grind of work, cleaning and taking care of family, Jasmine had a scare this week.  While driving in the van, Jasmine complained of severe chest pain and so I immediately rushed her to the ER at Cardinal Glennon.  Quite frankly it was scary and she was not exaggerating.  She seems to be fine now, but we are following up with additional testing and an echo cardiogram.  I am sure that she is fine.  I am starting to learn to not be concerned about things that I have little control over.  I think that is one of my downfalls in life. 


So after a week of meetings on top of meetings,  attending a resource fair for summer options for Jon, attending a workshop after hours on augmentative communication, along with  Parent Teacher conference, being involved in a hit and run accident with Ken's Cadillac, ER visit with Jasmine (now mind you she fainted last week in school but that is another blog entry) and a computer failure, the week ended on a positive note.  Friday night, we attended the church's talent show as a family.  On Saturday, the girls were able to go to a very nice birthday party on Saturday.  One of Jasmine's classmates, Concetta turned eight years old.   Her parents threw her a very nice girlie bash as Sweet and Sassy Spa in West County Mall.   The girls were very excited about attending.  One of the best parts was that Concetta's mom invite Renae to come along, even though Renae does not go to school with them.  The party was a blast.  Turning eight is not what it used to be.  We had a wonderful time and it was what we all needed to top off a a stressful and exhausting week.

The Sweet and Sassy Limo

 Renae's up do!  With glitter!

The girls at Concetta's house before the take off. 

The group photo 

The birthday girl, Concetta!



Introducing Gabrielle Jackson

Its not everyday that things seem to work out for teenagers who fall in love at a very young age.  I am  happy to say that I know of one success story.  My sister La Quita and her husband George started dating as teenagers.  Early on into their relationship my sister became pregnant with my niece Ericka and at that time of her birth they were also teenagers.  Despite the challenges of parenting young, they were able to preserve their family.   By keeping true to God's promises and protecting their family by keeping it first, they made it.  Almost twenty years later they are still together and very much in love.


For many years we have all teased my sister about having another child.  She almost always said no.  Sometimes even laughed in our faces. To her credit, she accepted responsibility when she had my niece at a young age and those early years were not easy.  As the years went on, the persistence of family and prayer, her heart began to soften. 


On Monday January 31, 2011, My sweet niece Gabrielle Jackson was born via C-section.  It was a long time coming.  It had been almost seventeen years since my niece Ericka was born.  The birthing process wasn't the easiest for my sister.  A C-section is surgery and is nothing to take lightly.  On Saturday February 12, we packed up as a family to visit sweet Gabrielle for the first time and boy is she a cutie.  Brings back memories of when mine were babies and I miss those days.  Below are a few photos that were taken that day.  I elected to take them in black and white because to me black and white photos are timeless. 

 Gabrielle and her maternal grandmother Mary

 Gabrielle

 Mom and Gabbi

My niece Renae and Gabbi



So Long to My Toothless Wonder

I absolutely loved the way that Jon looks without his two front teeth. So cute, so squeezable, so sweet. But like most good things, his time of being a toothless wonder is coming to an end. When I was helping Jon with his afternoon snack, I was rather surprised to see that one of his front teeth has started to break through. I know that soon after the other will as well. However, I noticed that the emerging tooth seems to be huge, relative to the one that came out. I am just not sure if there is enough room for two new teeth to fit in such a small space. My mom tells me that I have nothing to worry about. Everyone else that I talk to tells me that the teeth have a way of working themselves out. I just don’t see it. But then again, I’m no expert.


As with any milestone, I took a second to snap a few photos of him while he was bathing. Bath time is a time where I can typically get a lot of smiles out of Jon.  I am so glad that I was able to capture the emergence of his big boy tooth.  I hate to admit that part of me is sad that he is growing up.  It seems like only yesterday that I was bringing him home from the hospital. Time is moving so quickly, but that is a part of life.

 Big tooth, big smiles.

My very happy little big man.

Photo Junkies Class

The last year or so I have been going back and forth with the idea of taking a DSLR class. After my one “free class” at Schiller’s camera years ago, I have been turned off by the idea of attending the “free classes” offered at the area camera stores. Calling them sterile and blah is an understatement. I knew that it was time to try something new so that I could take my photography to the next level.  I just wasn't sure of where and how how I would find it.


For a while now I have wanted to get out of the comfort of taking photos in the automatic setting mode. Although it is safe, there are times where I feel that some of my photos could be much better, or enhanced if I were using the manual settings. Sometime in November I heard through the grapevine that the President of the Special School District Parental Advisory Council (I am currently a member of the council) was getting into the business of teaching  a DSLR course.  I was all over it and enrolled in my very first photo junkies class. My friend Donnell and her friend Heather co own the company the junkies. Both are moms and also amazing photographers. In between weddings, senior photo sessions and running their blog, I guess they somehow decided that it was time to start teaching classes. I am glad that they did.


When I showed up for class, I was impressed that Donnell and Heather stuck with limiting the class size. At registration, they promised that the class size would not exceed six students.  At a cost of $125 and two instructors, I feel as though I got more than what I paid for. Myself along with five other women were a part of the DSLR basics course. Although the title calls it the basics, it was much more than basic photography. This was a six hour smack down class covering all the basic aspects of digital photography. Six hours of aperture, ISO, shutter, histograms, highlights, color schemes, and other technical terms that I have not heard in years. In addition to this, we were also given numerous photography references/reference materials, as well as shown various photography accessories from stylish camera bags to lenses. The instructors were not intimidating at all and you didn’t feel like an idiot when asking questions. It was great.

Below are a few photos that were taken during the class, all of which were taken on manual settings (Oh yeah!) Of course I am a work in progress, but I am grateful to have had the opportunity to learn. The instructors allowed us to branch out and try new things. I am slowly letting go of my safety net of using the big A on my Nikon and it feels good to branch out. If interested you can contact the photojunkies.com or donnellprobst.com for more information about their courses. I highly recommend it.



　

The foyer in Heather's Home (using ISO). 

Learning to focus on a subject and fade out the background using aperture.

For some reason I felt a need to take photos of the art in the breakfast room.   The ISO portion of the class.

My friend Donnell, as I perfect shutter speed and ISO. 

The rest of the photo junkies on assignment



Our Special House Guests

So the last week or so we have had visitors in our home. Me niece and her younger brother are now staying with us. Unfortunately their mom fell upon hard times and made a selfless decision to allow them to stay with us until she is able to get stable.
　
I can honestly say that I have developed a new respect for mothers of more than two children. To say it is a challenge is an understatement. I have come to learn that every things takes time, much more time than with just two kiddos. Baths take longer, ironing takes longer, laundry NEVER goes away. Kids eat so much food. It seems like I am constantly moving. Like I said, it takes a lot to be a caregiver for a large family. My organized and time management skills have kinda gone out of the window. But I am learning my way. And the housework, the load is different. Man, it seems like every time I clean, I turn around and see that something else is getting messed up. But I guess that is a part of it.
　
Although things have been a little hectic, they have been wonderful. Now I get twice the kisses, twice the "I love your’s" and twice the hugs and not to mention, twice the laughs. What I'd also like to point out is that my niece and nephew are very well behaved children (for children that is). This has certainly helped in this transition process. I never imagined that I would ever be responsible for four children. But I can say that I feel honored with this responsibility. I absolutely love these children. Them being here has brought out the best in all of us. It has been an adjustment for us, but a good one. We are all learning to work together. I feel blessed and humbled that I am able to help out. I am hoping that my sister's luck changes and that she is able to get back on her feet more sooner than later. She is thinking that she will be able to secure a new house within the next few weeks. In the end her children love her and she loves them and they all do belong together. But in the meantime, I am in awe and in love with my large family.

 Jasmine with Calvin

Renae

Mother and Daughter Craft Time

Jasmine and I spent the evening together doing arts and crafts. What started off as a simple project, ended up being so much more than what I expected. I had it in my mind that Jasmine would cut out a few hearts by hand and maybe use some double sided tape or even Elmer’s glue to adhere them to card stock. Boy was I wrong. Although Jasmine is only seven, she certainly has her own idea as to how she likes to do things. The older she gets, the more complicated her ideas become.   I guess I better get used to it.
　

For many years now I have made all homemade cards for friends and family. My friend Kris introduced me to Stamp It Up and scrapbooking about nine years ago. The small scapbooks that I make for people and homemade cards have been a hit over the years. Although many people love them, they are often very much time consuming and I have slowly been trying to get away from always making home made cards.


Anyway, I tried to entice Jasmine by asking her if I could by her some Jonas Brothers and Justin Beiber Valentines Day cards for her friends but she wasn't going for it.  "I want to make them mama so that my friends can feel special."  And the next statement was "Mama, can we use your crafts?"  Of course I didn't say no.  I agreed to give her fill reign of my craft supplies and to my surprise it did not take Jasmine long to get the gist of using my cricket. It was quite impressive! I must admit that I was quite apprehensive about allowing her to use expensive equipment, however she is showing me everyday but she's growing up and she's capable of doing many great things.   I figured after today I may as well call my craft room our craft room. 
　

Below are a few of the pictures from our mother/daughter craft night. It was great. And in the end making the cards was the right thing to do. In addition to saving money on buying the Valentines Day cards, we were also able to have some time to bond.  

Jasmine after I finally gave in and allowed her full access the the cricket.

I showed her once, and that was enough.  *smiles*

Using my stamp set the design the envelopes

All of her cards for her classmates.  None of them could be the same.  I think that they are darling.

Very proud of the end result.

1.1.11: Out With the Old and In With the New

Yesterday was quite the New Year's Eve. My youngest brother Timothy celebrated his fifteenth birthday.  I cant believe that he is fifteen already.  But more crazy than that is the fact that we also had several tornadoes the St Louis area, particularly in my neighborhood. I live about one mile away from an area that was heavily hit and seriously damaged. Roofs were torn off of houses, cars were turned over in parking lots, my in laws were without power. It was a mess.  I mean you always hear about things things happening but you never think that it will happen to you.  And to top it all off I cant believe that I actually was out driving in the storm while the tornado happened. I can say that I learned a valuable lesson. For years, I kinda looked at the meteorologists like they don't have a clue.  But I can tell you this, I will no longer ignore the news and if they say there is a tornado watch, I will keep my rear end in the basement and listen.  I could have very well been hurt.  Trust me, lesson learned!
　
　
After we all got done being shook up by the natural disaster, we spent evening at home. Since my husband and I don't have as active of a social life since we had our children, we knew before New Years Eve that Jasmine was going to have a sleepover.  Ken and I allowed Jasmine to have a sleepover with her cousin. We decided that the kids were old enough to celebrate and could stay awake to bring in the new year. We watched movies and had champagne (kiddy cocktail for the kids) and feasted on crab legs. Of course I couldn’t resist the opportunity to take a couple of photos of the girls either.
　

I can honestly say that the best part of the New Years Eve celebration was allowing the girls to let loose and have fun.  The girls were pretty excited all night about it being New Years Eve.  We did not want to disappoint them.  They were excited about having a party.  It didn't matter that there were only five of us.  We let kids enjoy some kiddy cocktails (sprite and fruit punch).  They felt fancy because they got to drink from the crystal flutes "like the grown ups."

　

Jon wasn't one for the photos or the kiddie cocktail, he stayed firm in front of the TV.

Crab legs!!!

In between drinking punch, eating crabs and other finger foods, the girls decided to give a performance and played piano for us.  It was sweet.

　

At midnight, Ken, the kids and I went outdoors to celebrate. Well all of us except for Jon.  He didn't make it.   Ken was too funny.  He blew a horn of all things while the girls popped simple fireworks.

When it was all said and done the girls made it to midnight.  There were very excited about it all and then they went to bed. This is a far cry from the nights that I celebrated with friends but nonetheless a nice way to bring in the New Year.  There were a lot of ups and downs in 2010 and I am excited about what the new year will bring.