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!

Another Tribute To Greta....

This weekend is the nine month marker since Greta's passing. We continue to rejoice in her place now in Heaven with the Lord. We celebrate the life she lived here on Earth for nearly 39 years.

This montage of photos set to Brad Paisley's, "She's Everything" with the help of "slide.com" gives some idea how we (her loved ones) still feel about Greta and how much we miss her unique place in each of our lives night and day! There are so many things in this song that really were her...especially the
I want a piece of chocolate, take me to the movies, a Saturn with a sunroof with her brown hair a blowin', fighter when she's mad, a lover when she's lovin', stealer of the covers, etc. as mentioned in the lyrics. She may be gone from our sight but she is never far from our thoughts ~still!

Hey...grab a box of tissue 'cause it's a tear jerker!

My answers...

All About Me?


If you haven't posted about yourself yet, copy and paste to your blog and fill in your own answers! :)

Terri's Answers:


A) Four Jobs I've had in my life:
1.) Security Guard and salesclerk in department stores
2.) Darkroom Tech for the local newspapers
3.) Bank teller & new acounts representative
4.) Sr. Mortgage Counselor

B) Four Movies I Would Watch Over and Over:
1.) October Sky
2.) Facing the Giants
3.) The Notebook
4.) Fox and the Hound


C) Four Places I have lived:
1.) Street
2.) Forest Hill
3.) Street
4.) Edgewood and soon back to Street again!

D) Four TV Shows I watch:
1.) Extreme Makeover Home Edition
2.) Deal or no deal
3.) CMT countdown
4.) The Local Morning Show


E) Four Places I have been on vacation:
1.) Puerto Rico
2.) Gatlinburg, Tennessee
3.) Florida
4.) In 2000 camped across America in just 25 days


F) Four People Who call Me Regularly:
1.) Mom
2.) My sisters
3.) Esther
4.) Kipper


G) Four of my favorite foods:
1.) Shrimp
2.) Filet Mignon
3.) Mom Mom Esther's Pinto Beans w/homemade cornbread
4.) Lasagna


H) Four places I would rather be right now:
1.) With Jesus
2.) At a spa getting the royal treatment
3.) Sunning on an Hawaiian Beach
4.) Touring Israel


I) Four friends that I think will respond:
1.) April
2.) Lindsey
3.) Debbie
4.) Carolynne

J.) Things I am looking forward to this year:
1.) Getting healthy spiritually,physically and emotionally
2.) Building and moving to our new home
3.) Pursuing my photography at college and in the field
4.) Teaching and traveling with our kids

Now copy and paste into your blog area or email to me directly, changing the answers to reflect your responses. Leave a comment to let us know you have responded.

Reflecting on 2007 & my prayer for 2008...

As I reflect on the past year it would be easy to feel overwhelmed with sadness. In fact, 2007 was a year of pain for me and my family. The loss of my sister and best friend last April 12th brought things to surface in my heart that I never knew were there. I am only beginning to learn that the heating in life's crucible does that though. Wow, the depth of my humanity (that I was truly fashioned from dust) has become so real to me in my walk through Psalm 23rd's Valley of the Shadow of Death.

I am grateful for my circle of precious ones (you know who you are) who have patiently loved me through my stages of grief...praying for me, sending cards and personal notes, calling to check on me, hugging me, letting cry on your shoulder, lending an ear for me to vent as I have sometimes blubbered and even cussed through sobbing tears in expressing my dismay of seemingly uncontrolled circumstance. Thank you for being there...please know that I am truly indebted to each of you...you are true treasures in my life!

Most of all, Jesus has remained my closest companion through this tough time. My tremendous need for Christ to be alive in my everyday, within the caverns of my heart and a light in the dark crevices of my mind. He's been faithful even though my sins have been many. Boldly, yet in humble thanks, I say that I think I will not fully understand the depth of His mercy to me. Maybe in Glory when I meet Him and fathom that Hell is real and by the power of faith on Christ's shed blood my sins were washed away and my redemption becomes reality in eternity!

As we look forward to 2008, none of know what the coming year will bring. However, there is hope in our Lord Jesus Christ because He holds it all in His nail pierced hands and His grace is sufficient for whatever will come. My prayer is that you will grow in your faith, endeavor to praise and trust Him each and everyday, in each and every circumstance and in the trials of life be encouraged by others like I have been.

Finally, as a New Year's Eve blessing to you...Building 429 sings this song, so dear to my heart. It is an adaptation of an old hymn, "Grace That Is Greater". This You Tube time-lapsed video, of some picturesque places God fashioned, is well-worth savoring as you listen.

My prayer for you is that...
You have a Happy and Blessed 2008...
As your walk with the Lord becomes great!

Love ya all,
In Christ,
Ter

Kids' Christmas Collage

It amazes me that God has blessed me with four awesome children...in my humble opinion...very amazing models for my photo hobby to say the very least!

Merry Christmas

I recently ran across identical greeting cards which two of my three sisters sent to me a few Christmas seasons back. The message meant a lot to me as my one sister has now spent her first of all her Christmases in the presence of Jesus. I just felt like I should share the beauty and truth in the words of this card. The newly added pic at the top of my blog is one I recently took of sunset behind the Chapel at Willow Valley Resort in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

SOMETHING IN THE FLURRY
OF THE SEASON
MAY WE FIND
TIME TO DREAM
ABOUT THAT BLESSED HOLY NIGHT
THAT CHANGED THE WORLD...

TIME TO WONDER
ABOUT THE AWESOMENESS
OF THE DAY HE COMES AGAIN...

TIME TO REMEMBER
THE TRUTHS HE TAUGHT
AND EVERYTHING HE HAS DONE FOR US...

TIME TO GIVE THANKS WITH ALL OUR HEARTS
THAT GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD.

WISHING YOU
THE GIFT OF
TIME
TO SHARE WITH HIM
AT CHRISTMAS
AND ALL THROUGH
A BLESSED NEW YEAR.

(Author Unknown but published by THE WORD in the USA)