My blessed big day...

My oh my...I had another birthday ~not sharing which! Here's a pic of me with my precious offspring. I "fell off the discipline wagon" for a few days...succombing to all manner of sweet-stuff! Mom made me a scrumptious fudge cake!!! These guys helped Daddy make a coconut-iced chocolate cake and one of my biggest weaknesses ~ brownies! They surprised with an ipod ~ classic...good for my other addictions ~photos and music! Now I take my fave music to the gym to work off calories!

I have been blessed...the optimist in me's pressing for 100 or more years!
(BIG smile)

Three Year Old Baby Girl...A Princess?

I just can't get it to sink in...our baby girl turned three. Where does the time go? She's bold about telling us she is a princess. Daddy has brainwashed her and this is serious stuff...if you ask her..."What is your name?
She will respond "Princess"...this just cannot be healthy.

Well, she loves stuffed animals so we took her to Build A Bear and she chose A Princess Bear...go figure. We capped off the day with supper at the Rainforest Cafe in Towson

She loved it, even the make believe storms that brew overhead. However, upon our exit Mommy wanted a pic with that location's trademark animatronic alligator...nothing would do her...she was scared to death of it.
She kept turning to look and see if it was creeping up on her!


The funny thing is that for as just as sweet and cute as she is...there is a darker side which includes a temper with a shrill scream that would scare the living daylight out of a real alligator! She's unique and so very different than our first three kids. God knew what He was doing when He chose to send Jillian as our fourth and final blessing!

As we celebrated Kyle's birthday...

My precious nephew Kyle has anxiously anticipated the arrival of his fifth birthday since the mid-summer. What is it about kids? -They love the passage time! As adults, when another milestone appears on the horizon, we start say things like, "How can it be that I am yet another year older?" and -now a more vivid reality to me- "How can it be that Greta isn't here to be the life of our parties?"

So last week, the big day arrived and we celebrated in style! Our family has always made such a big deal out of birthdays. There's NOT a family birthday I can remember "not recognizing" in our Jones house! Last spring, we lost my sister - Kyle's Mommy in death. The arrival of the red-circled dates on our calendars have come with a flood of emotions. There's a void that quite simply can't be denied.

Last year, when we gathered to celebrate Kyle's birthday, Greta was not well and yet she perservered to bless Kyle with his birthday wishes! Even if I could savor the flavor of the frosting from the birthday cake nothing could come close to experiencing the sweetness of the moment. She was so very excited to have planned his cool CARZ party and organized his big boy bedroom with all kinds of transportation-themed stuff. The little guy just loves automobiles! (As one proud Auntie ~ I just have to interject here - he's very bright and can tell you the make and model of most any vehicle on the road! I'm equally amazed at his "sense of direction", which, for the record, he certainly acquired his mother's DNA!)

I wonder if my sister "had any thought" that Kyle's 4th birthday would be her last to share with him on this side of eternity? (Sadly, it was the last time Greta would see and hug Mom Mom Esther - our Grandmother for whom she was actively helping to plan a surprise 90th birthday party for - one she would not live to attend.) It was the last family event where we would gather under the roof of Greta's house. She felt God had made such great a provision ordaining the acquisition of her long-awaited disability settlement which brought her dream of home ownership to reality.

Despite biting, physical pain, emotional exhaustion and an oxygen tank that seemed to encumber her every move, she smiled through it, scrunching her nose up against his Kyle's precious face. She smothered him with kisses galore...NO ONE could cuddle like Gret! Her affectionate ways were so life size that the reality of her absence stings the eyes of those of us she loved and loved on! As she labored for each breath, she sat right beside her "little stud muffin" watching him widdle away at his steep pile of presents. I can vividly see my sister hugging Kyle Mitchell ever-so-tightly.

This year we tried to keep it light but it's hard not to drift back to times with her here. In our hearts she can't be replaced;it isn't like we can just go out and find another sister, daughter or mother to take her place. Grief is freaky but we are facing it head-on. She would want us to go on and keep making happy memories for her kids. We press on, loving them sweeter and deeper than before her passing.


The "Herbie the Love Bug cake" Kyle begged for was not an easy thing to figure out. But in honor of Gret's zest for life...and with the aid of checkered flag props and party supplies Aunt Candy had gathered...we pulled it off!

Kyle was elated that I came through with his request. You would've thought I told him he just won a trip to Disney World or free reign of a toy store! It brought a tears for me and yet a wide smile to my face when I became the recipient of "that trademark" - "cuddle bug" affectionate hug and kiss that felt so familiar now on my end of the love...a memory that is going to stick with me a longggggg time! A precious aspect of his Mommy that lives on!

My Dear Dad...

Today's date, September 11th, has always been special to me because it has always been my Dad's birth date! Sadly, since the terrorist events of 2001 it has been remembered for so many other things but to me it still has much happy significance because that was the day he entered this world.

This morning I spoke with Mom Mom Esther and she told me about that day 65 years ago today. At around 4 AM she delivered the 9+ pound boy, Walter Kemp Jones, Jr., we call Dad. She went into labor before midnight and Grandad Kemp made two different trips to "go fetch" country Doctor Hodous who lived a few miles away from their Winters Run abode.

With mixed emotions, as this is our first round of special dates without Greta, I must share that she always put a lot of thought into her gifts and cards for Dad ~or whoever. I remember many times of celebrating when we all still lived at home. The four of us girls would go buy something for him and he'd say (and still says) we should not spend our money on him! For some reason he has always had difficulty with receiving gifts but we get and give them to him anyway. Maybe that is just the one way we could rebel and "get away with something" I guess. I remember one birthday we got him a bike; other years we would buy him clothes like blue jeans because we girls liked to tell him how to dress. One year I remember buying him tennis shoes and tube socks because we would shoot hoops with him in our backyard. We knew and still know that we could/can not go wrong with purchasing something Messianic, Chet Atkins related or at the very least Wrigley's spearmint gum.

Dad's choice birthday meal is fried Salmon cakes with mashed potatoes and homemade rolls (which must even out for his meal to end). German Chocolate is his favorite birthday cake. Oh and from taking his lead...always with a side slab of butter "on the nose" for the sake of a birthday tradition!

This pic is of Dad on Greta & Howard's wedding day, October 11, 2003. Ironically Greta married a man who shares his birthday with Dad! (So Happy Birthday to Howard too!)

In closing this post today, Dad, I want to say that my prayer is that you will remain as healthy and as steadfast as you are in your faith and desire to share the good news of Jesus Christ with others until He comes to get us all! I SURE DO LOVE YOU! Your oldest daughter and little tacker, Terri Dawn!

Baby boy had a b-day today!

Our sweet baby boy..."JB" turned six today! I look at him and still am in awe of how God brought him to us. I was due to have him the week of the 2001 terrorist bombings but went into premature labor five weeks early. It was a scary ride to the hospital because my water broke at home and I was hemorrhaging (due to what we would later find out was a partial placental abruption). He was born just a few hours later at the local hospital-certainly not where I had intended on delivering him but Gid had a plan! We thank God for sparing both of our lives!

Jared Benjamin was born screaming and he has "been-jammin" ever since. He is a smiling kid who is trying to learn to pay the mandolin. He seems to always have a song in his heart and that often comes across his lips. He loves to sing his original songs he makes up himself. Some lyrics are so deep and rich that they give me those goose-chill bumps!

We are so blessed to have been given this precious life to raise...we pray that as he grows he continues to follow close in the steps of Jesus Christ.

A teenager in my house?

It happened today...our oldest child became a teenager! I can't believe it! It does not seem possible that it has been thirteen years...it seems like we just learned that we were expecting for the first time! It was not hard to believe when he was born because I was a few days getting around to delivering him! It was a memorable event. He was a big boy of "nearly" 9 lbs!!!

I endured two boring days of induction(s) with little progress; it became a concern. So when the doc started talking c-section...Bill laid his hands on my abdomen and asked God to intervene...that very second my water broke and in several hours we held our first born -a boy!

William "Josiah" is an amazing young man. We are so elated that he knows the Lord and pursues the holy things of God. It is our prayer that he remains faithful in both the biggest and smallest challenges of life. He has many talents, is an avid reader, enjoys music and loves playing the guitar. He is a wonderful person!

He's a joy to our souls and we are thankful for his life. We praise God for sending him to us to parent and ask the Lord to help us to continue to nurture him in the day in and day out of life! Amen!!!