Adry's First Birthday

Day 29 (Tuesday, March 31)
And finally, I bring to you ADRYEL’S FIRST EVER BIRTHDAY!!

At midnight of the 19th, Ben and I woke him up to sing ‘Happy Birthday’. He wasn’t too happy, so I decided to make a tradition out of it ☺. I was born at 4 something in the morning, and I remember my mom waking me up as a kid to tell me Happy Birthday at 4am, and it was so exciting!

On the 21st we had his Sesame Street party at my parents’ house at which he got a million toys! And also some pretty cute clothes. My entire apartment is officially a baby play-place. I forget what it was like to have all this space to myself without tripping over dump trucks and bouncy balls.


First, I must extend some e-thanks to Pam and Les who spent HOURS helping my mom and I prepare for the party. They cooked nearly 100 mini hamburgers and also prepared a bunch of other stuff. Best ladies ever.

Pammy and Adry, who would not cooperate for any pictures.


Les and Adry

And also, thanks to Sandie for driving from West Virginia JUST for Adry’s party. Seriously- wow. Add her to the best ladies ever.


Hutch (Supa Dupa Hutch!) was amazing as usual, consistently a huge support! <3 <3 We love Hutch!



Here’s Ash and Duke attempting to get a good picture with Adry ☺. They always make me laugh!


Aaw, I thought this was cute! Alexz n’ Adry


Here’s some of the yummies we had! I thought the mini burger bar was such a great idea. I think my mom got the idea from Ginny Dillon (Ash’s mom).


Hutch and Alexz loadin’ up!


Alexz and Matt got Adryel this truck. He loves it. I put him in the back and push him around and he won’t stop giggling!


Stephan and Jamie got Adryel this guitar. I was so excited! I wanted a real guitar with strings rather than one of those plastic toys with buttons, because Adryel loves to strum.


There’s Ginny!


from grandma and grandpa Sanders. The big car was from the Jordans (Les, Mer, Tay)


Ben’s mom made the cake. She did such an awesome job! I’m sure it took freaking hours. It was delicious, too. None of those cupcakes were eaten at the partry, but I’m pretty sure that between Matt and I we devoured them within 2 days. Yay for losing weight!


This was Adry’s personal cake.


Ok, my box made it in this picture (bottom right)! I decided to start this tradition: I put topics and starters at the top of the box, like ‘I like you because…’, ‘my favorite memory of you is…’ etc, and party guests wrote a note to Adryel for him to read when he is older, and then slipped it in a slit at the top of the box. I’ve decided to do this every year: seal the boxes, collect them in a big tub, and give them all to Adry when he graduates from High School. Of course during his teen birthdays when “the box” is SO not cool, I’ll only have close friends and family do it privately.


mmm, cake!


The whole party!




I’d just like to point out that that is my little bro J in the background. Look how much freaking weight he’s lost! He looks amazing, but he won’t let me take a decent pic of him.

I had a really great time with the whole party. First birthdays are so exciting!

The earth is shaking, there are GIANTS in the land!

 Dear LiveJournal,
I just wanted to stop by and assure you that I AM ALIVE!
I am indeed alive.  Alivex2.
And today, in the midst of being alive, I was wondering where I stand politically.
1) I don't like when people just throw around the term "independent".  I think kids try to convince others (and maybe themselves) that they are independent so that they seem all open-minded.  I don't think I am an independent.
2) Although I would never consider myself liberal either, I thought I held a lot of liberal views.  I wouldn't vote against abortion or same-sex marriage.  I'm not a huge fan of George W. or the Iraq war.  I am against the death penalty.  yadda yadda.  yadda yadda.
3) But the more I think about it, I think my REASONS for being for or against such things are very right-winged reasons.  Republicans believe in very limited Federal government power, right?  Well, the reason I would never vote for outlawing same-sex marriage or abortion is because I think those issues are personal issues of the heart and the gov. should butt out.  I also don't think our judicial system is flawless enough to decide who lives and who dies.  I believe in the freedom to homeschool or unschool or to be educated however the heck you wanna be and I think they should butt out of that, too.  I think our healthcare system has some major kinks, but I ABSOLUTELY DO NOT WANT a Universal Healthcare system and the thought of one actually really freaks me out.  [My mom's friend's father just passed away from cancer in Canada, and the quality of the care he received there was very poor compared to here.  You get what you pay for, but I DO agree that there is a group of people who really fall through the cracks (make too much to get Medicaid, don't make enough to buy insurance, etc) and I think healthcare should be more accessible to them.]  Well, AnyHways, the more I think about it, the more I wonder if maybe I am just completely, totally OFF THE CHARTS right-winged.  SO radically right that I don't really trust the FedGov. to make ANY decisions for me.  I don't want them to regulate any part of my life.  Maybe this is also why I am a Southern sympathizer when it comes to the Civil War-- MORE POWER TO THE STATES, man!  And to the mom and pop stores that get crushed by corporations.  Maybe it's because I am so radically right that I haven't liked a single presidential candidate enough to vote for them since I've been old enough to vote.

Well, I better be going now.  There are very important things to do, you know.
LoveJess

Oh, and PS:  If you'd like a glimpse into the mind of T Matt Sanderz, who once said "well of corse i know ur saying 'you t-matt sanders, of corse it went well, ur like.... amazing' and i understand how it seems that way to most, there have been a few here and there that have sneered in my direction or made rude obscene gestures on my behalf. but to those people i say, get so therapy and forgive your father for touching you in ur 'no no places'", then check out his blog at  http://acgloserpunk.blogspot.com/.  That kid makes me laugh, so maybe you'll get a kick out of him :-).

I just went to take a drink of lemonade and completely missed my mouth.  I was a few centimeters shy.
Isn't that supposed to be something humans instinctively know how to do?
Aren't our hands and brain supposed to be coordinated in such a way that we can drink without looking at or feeling our mouths to make sure we are hitting the right spot?
Apparently I am dysfunctional.

Also, it is January 21st (my MOM'S BIRTHDAY, BTW!!-- HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOMMA!!!!) and I still have my Christmas decorations up.  Talk about being lazy and procrastinating!  I promised myself I would get that done today.

"And now for something completely different:"

I've been thinking lately that there are areas in my life I need to shape up. prune. refine. whatever.
1) I recently noticed I am in a spiritual rut.  Big time.  I'm walking into a glass door over and over and it's getting me nowhere.  I am BORED.  I am bored as heck with church.  I can't stand to wake up and go anymore (but I do).  I am even bored with reading my daily William Barclay.  I LOVE Barclay, but I've been skipping out on him a lot, lately.  I am bored with praying- I feel like me and God are at that stage where we are an old couple completely used to each other, but we try to set a date at a nice restaurant to spend time together and we just end up sitting there in silence because there just isn't much to say.
I need REVIVAL!!!

"I concede, my love, that I need your love
I'm before you, a broken man.
And it's only you, no substitutes, who can renew this soul again...
I'd rather burn for you than fade away,
I'd rather burn for you than go my way."
-Toby Mac

2) I need to STOP WORRYING! 
I think way too much about what has gone wrong and what could go wrong.

3) I need to FORGIVE MYSELF! 
I blame myself for a LOT.
I am afraid that if there is anything wrong with Adry I will blame myself for the rest of my life.
I will blame myself for not eating the best I could,
or for not going to the dentist or the Gastro Paresis specialist on time,
or for not controlling my blood sugar well enough,
or for forgetting my vitamins sometimes,
or for playing music too loud,
or taking too hot of showers,
or breathing too many cleaning chemicals,
or laying on my back and right side too often,
for not exercising,
or for dying my hair,
or for a THOUSAND other things I could have done better during pregnancy.

And yeah, maybe I could have done better.  Maybe I could have been more careful sometimes.  But I need to LET IT GO!  The past is the past and there's NOTHING I can change about it.  I can only move forward.  Of course I want everything PERFECT for Adry.  Of course I want him COMPLETELY healthy from head to toe.  Chances are, he'll be a perfectly happy and healthy baby boy, but if something happens to be "wrong" I know I'll have the strength to deal with it, tackle it one day at a time, and he'll still be by beautiful son NO MATTER WHAT and I need to find peace, faith, and assurance in that.
And, if anything happens to be "wrong", I so desperately need to not blame myself.
Let go. Move on. Grow. Strengthen. Seek beauty, faith, peace.

I need to focus on:
a REAL beauty,
a DEEPER truth,
an ACTIVE love,
what's REAL,
what's RIGHT,
and what's IMPORTANT.

So... I know what I need to do.
Now I just need to do it.

LoveJess

Jacob Stinks

Hahahaha.  I just found this video on my computer.  It's obviously from a while ago...  I'd never seen it before and had no clue I had it.

This is what Jacob does when he is bored:


YEP!  That's my little brother! :-)

Christmas/New Year's Eve Picture Post

This picture is of me and some of my mom's friends at her Christmas cookie exchange.  My mom's friends in this pic are: Irene, Les, Sandie, Pam

Christmas
Christmas was great.  I had a wonderful day with my family, and with Ben's family.

This was my parents' family room on Christmas morning.


Wahlah- Ben and I got a changing table from my parents for Christmas!  Ben's parents got us the matching crib.  I like the set a lot- I think it is very nice.


The traditional stairs picture- Matt, Ben, Reese Pete, Jacob, me.  I look terrible... oh well.  Every year on Christmas morning there must be a picture taken on the stairs as we wait to be welcomed into the family room with all of the presents.




Jacob got a sweet new guitar for Christmas.  I'm a huge fan- I think it's a pretty one.  I got him a fantastic strap to go with it, I might add.

Well, those are all of the Christmas pictures I have.  Later that afternoon Jamie and Stephan came over and we had a yummy lunch and ended the evening playing Pictionary, which was super fun.  OH MAN- Jamie has some funny pics of that on her camera that I wish I could share, but alas I don't have them :-(.

New Year's Eve:
Happy 25 Anniversary Mom and Dad!
Happy 3 Anniversary Jess and Ben!
Let me start off by explaining that on New Year's Eve I had the flu.  It was terrible and I felt like Death.  No- I literally felt like whatever I touched would die and decay before my eyes.  I had been puking all day and it took ALL of my willpower to get out of bed.  Sooo, PLEASE excuse the fact that I look absolutely terrible in these pictures!

Anyway, we started the night off by going to see the movie The Great Debaters, which I thought was really good, actually.  It surprised me.  I cried.  Pregnancy hormones are solely to blame for that.  Afterwards we went to the Japanese Steak House and we brought in the New Year there.


Excuse me, sir, our food is on fire.


Mom and Les= cute best friends


Dad and Ben got to play the drums...


...Jacob played the tamborein and Tay was a "monkey boy" (as the little Japanese man called him) along with Matt...


...and this little guy sang.  That was an interesting experience, lol.




Mrs. Sicko and Ben on their anniversary!


Ben, Jessi, Matt








Yep. They been married fer twennyfav years.








Do you see the little Japanese man in the middle of this picture?  At midnight he started dancing all around the restaurant like a monkey.  I was lucky enough to be the recipient of a very large monkey kiss on the cheek.

Well, those are all of the pictures I have for now!
Enjoy!
:-)

LoveJess