Trip to SC

Zoe Belle Jenkins was born August 1st. It seems like forever ago when Brian told us that he and Shannon were going to have a baby, and she is finally here. Mom, Dad, Sarah and I went down to see them all last week. Poor Greg had to stay home because he started his job at Children's Hospital, but hooray for the new job! He'll hopefully get to go the next time.
Of course I fell madly in love with Zoe and spent as much time with her as I could. I think I was a bit of a baby hog the first two days, so after that, I tried to share. We had a wonderful visit, it was terribly difficult to leave. Why do we have to live so far away from one another?
I'm trying to figure out the world of Skype, Brian said we can do video chats so I can see Zoe more often. But it won't be quite the same as holding her in my arms.

The last 7 months in a nut shell

Ok, so since I have joined Facebook this blog has been totally forgotten. I'm going to TRY to keep it updated at least monthly. We'll see how it goes.

But for now here is what's been going on since Christmas.


January- Greg graduates from Nursing School, we had a great party with wonderful friends.





February- I turned 40, oh my! Had a wonderful party thrown by my wonderful friends and husband.




March- Greg's 40th Birthday! Greg really didn't want to make a big deal about his birthday, must have been in denial :-) so we just had a party at home with friends. And I can't seem to find any pictures of this event. I bet he erased them from the camera!

April-Went for a wonderful Girls' Weekend at Jill's sister's lake house. And attended the CF wine opener, a fabulous event to raise money for a cure for cystic fibrosis.

May- Went to Chicago to see my good friend Andrea's baby Lucy.



June- Finished up the school year, and then taught summer school at the Autism school. I LOVE the children with autism! I'm always drawn to them in my classroom and in the summer I get the priviledge of working with a whole classroom of these fabulous children.





July- Back to Chicago. It is very difficult for me to stay away from Andrea's baby Lucy. I love her so much and it kills me that we are so far away. I get pretty weepy just thinking about it :-(
Sarah went with me this time and we had a wonderful visit. My little night owl went to bed at a decent hour and even got up early. The last morning she got up at 6:30 am to walk the dogs with Tom.


Love and miss you guys!!!

Merry Christmas

Well Sarah has been asking for the past two or three years for a cell phone, but hasn't received one, until now. She didn't even ask this year, I guess she figured she wasn't getting it. Boy was she surprised!


She hears it.





Finally she found it!

Christmas Party

We went to our annual Christmas party with our friends Friday night. This has been a tradition for the past 8 years, (I think). Santa has shown up every year to help us celebrate. Check out this picture from 8 years ago and then the one below from this year. Wow, my girl has really grown up.

Happy Birthday Baby Girl

Gosh, my baby girl isn't really a baby any more. I cannot believe that she turned 14 on December 9th. She really is a joy and the love of my life, even when she is acting like a true teenager :)

Happy Birthday Baby Boy

Happy Birthday to my sweet little Duncan. Today is his first birthday, and although he is rotten as all get out, we all love him to pieces.

We took him out for ice cream today for his special day.

Surviving the Wind Storm

Thanks to Hurricane Ike, Columbus got a major wind storm starting Sunday afternoon and ending around 9:00 Sunday night. We managed to come out of it without any major damage. Our power went out around 3:00 Sunday and it came back on about 11:30 today, Monday.
Greg was gone for the start of the storm, he and our friend Kevin were working on the brakes to the truck (thanks Kevin). Once the power went out and my cell phone battery was about to die, I was starting to get worried. I tried to call Greg to see when he would be home, but no answer. I figured I had enough juice in the phone to make one more call, I called Christa to come get me and Sarah. I didn't want to stay here by myself any longer, I swear I thought the house was going to blow down. Our tents out back did start to blow away, so I ran out and had to take one down by myself, it was falling down on top of me and at one point almost acted like a parachute and blew me away. As you can imagine, I was screaming out there and being very dramatic. I really felt like Dorothy in Kansas. I sure was glad to see Christa, but as we were getting ready to leave Greg pulled in to the driveway. I sent Sarah with Christa and Greg and I stayed here to hold down the fort, literally. The neighbors lost some shingles and our other neighbors lost one of their pine trees, that sucker snapped in half.
We spent most of the day today cleaning up the pool, there were tons of leaves in there but other than that we didn't have any damage.

The Jo Bro's Concert

Well the Jonas Brothers concert was fast approaching and the closer it got the more I realized that I did not want to go to another teeny bop screaming girls concert. So I let Sarah invite one more friend and I stayed home. My girl is growing up, Friday night she and Mason went to the Darby football game together and then last night the concert.

She took Mehgan and Mariah, and her cousin came up from Kentucky with two friends. All 6 girls stuck together and had a great time.






Sarah holding Silas, Mehgan in the back, Jordan, Lindsay, and cousin Michaela. Mariah is not pictured, we had to pick her up.

Sarah's first day

It's hard to believe the summer is over. Sarah went back to school this morning. She even got up with her alarm this morning, I didn't have to drag her out of bed. It must have been the threat of losing computer time if she didn't get up by 6:10. I have a few more days to enjoy before my official first day back. I head back to school on Monday, with a full classroom.

Good friends and trips to the ER

I couldn't wait for this week to arrive. I had so many things planned with my friend Andrea, she was coming for a visit from Chicago. We hadn't seen each other in almost a year. The week started off great, she arrived on Monday night and it was so nice to just be together again. Tuesday was going to be a day of relaxation and floating in the pool, until Greg called from nursing school and was on his way home, sick with that stomach flu that is going around, yuck!
I had to end up taking him to the ER, because he couldn't keep food down and we were worried about his blood sugar with his diabetes. The poor thing was soooo sick, I felt so bad for him. He did get to go home that evening but was in bed for about 36 hours.

So I sent Andrea to another friend's house (thanks Christa) so she would not get sick, and I travelled back and forth visiting her and checking in on Greg. He is feeling much better today and he is back at school. I'm sure he missed a ton and will have bunches of homework to catch up on.
So things did not go as planned but in spite of it all we had a nice visit. I hate to have to say goodbye to her today, but I'll just have to plan a visit to Chicago soon.

Weekend fun

This weekend I got some much needed rest. My back is still healing and the pain has travelled down my leg. So when Greg and Sarah went to visit family I stayed home, ahhh the peace and quiet was nice. But after a few hours I missed them like crazy.
Here are a few pictures of their trip.


Sarah with Mama Georgie's new dog Willie. He is Mr. Friendly.
Sarah sitting on the back of Papa Stan's motorcycle, she was too chicken to take a ride though.
This is Sarah's cousin Michaela, Sarah loves going home to spend time with her cousins.

Off to the Fair

We went to the Ohio State Fair today. I checked the weather on Monday and today looked like the best and coolest day of the week (last year it was in the 90's and Sarah's friend almost passed out on me). It was beautiful today.
Sarah invited Meghan and Mariah, they rode lots of rides and Greg and I ate lots of junk food.
YUMMY!

Hocking Hills

Well I made it, bad back and all. We had a great time this weekend in the Hills with friends. I was able to survive on Motrin only and enjoy all the activities we had planned. We had a gorgeous cabin which was very secluded in the woods. We drank plenty of alcohol, ate delicious food, played games, went for a hike, and just enjoyed each other. We found a little kitty who visited our cabin all weekend, she was pregnant and I was planning on taking her home, until a dog came to visit on Sunday and chased her away. I couldn't find her when it was time to go and I had to leave her behind. If you know me, you know I've shed a few tears over that one. But all in all it was tons of fun and we're planning on making it an annual trip.




This is my kitty, we named her Jackson, that was the name of our cabin.







Greg, swinging on a vine during our hike Saturday morning.







Our Saturday hike, with me trailing behind taking the pictures, I was a bit slow with my back, but I made it.







A picture of our cabin, It was very nice and super clean.




Christa and I chowing down some food.







The guys played lots of cards and had lots of drinks :)

Bad Back

Well I think I have been cursed with my Dad and Grandma's bad back. I was having a lovely day by the pool, when I bent over to pick something up (an 80 pound kid, she was struggling to get up on her own), when I badly strained my back.
I just got back from the doctor and I have plenty of drugs to keep me so doped up I probably won't even know what is happening this weekend, which really stinks because I have a very fun weekend planned with friends at Hocking Hills this weekend.
I'm sure I'll have to pass on the canoe and hiking. I may still be able to fish, but even drinking is out of the question with all the drugs I'm going to be on.
UGH!

Sarah's Pool Party

Sarah had her first boy/girl party last night. I was pretty nervous about it, but it went off without a hitch. She invited 15 kids, and 11 were able to come. We had lots of chaperones to make sure nobody drowned in the pool (my number 1 fear). The kids played badmitton and cornhole, ate pizza, pigs in a blanket and buckeyes. The kids were very well behaved amazingly enough for 12 teenagers. We'll definitely let her do it again next year.



Mason swimming with his new waterproof cast
and Alex D.

Baby Michael chaperoned too.







This is Briana, Sarah ate lunch with her every

day until she moved to a different Hilliard school.



A different Sarah, Sema and Heather, Mariah is


on the chair.



Briana, Sarah Mariah and Meghan on the chair.

Night time swimming, just before going home.



Courtney and I enjoyed a game of
badmitton too.

Duncan went for his first bike ride tonight in his little doggie basket.

Birthday Card

Duncan's Birthday card is finally out. This is not the photo that was used but it is very similar. It is an American Greeting card and I found it at Meijer. It is soooo cute, I can't believe my little puppy is famous :)

Duncan vs. Blackie

Sarah and Michael

Sarah holding Kim and Sean's baby Michael. Arent' they both sweet.

Can we come in now?