oops...

For anyone who has visited in the past few days and may have clicked on one of my new links and had it go to a "bad place"!! I am sooo sorry. This problem has been fixed and I will be much more careful in the future when I type in my links...

For future reference, please let me know if anything linked from here would be

objectionable or not family appropriate. I want the feedback!

Again, I am sorry for my carelessness!

Jen

baseball time again!

Saturday was official "Little League" Day in Washington. This means we have a parade and get beamed with candy of all sorts as we watch by the side of the road and all the players ride by in their coaches pick-up trucks! Then we all go to the local ball fields for the fun! ?
A jump house
Sno-Cones (It was like 40 degrees plus the wind-chill)
A dunking booth for the coaches and (insane) volunteers.
A home run derby
Hot dogs and Burgers
ummm...a raffle for local restaurant gift certificates...
and a beautiful (for a change) rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner...

Timmy is in the Major League this year. His team is the Rotary's. They won the championship last year, so we are hoping for some good games this year, for a change...

Here's a few pics of the day, taken by my friend Laurie...

the bailey menfolk...

I found this pic today...taken winter of 2004...
Are they handsome or what???

happy home birthday!!

My friend Nichole and I took Timmy and Nini to "Homebirth" Day at the Capitol on Thursday... Basically, we were there to support HR 1341, a resolution which if passed would create a study group for legalizing direct-entry midwifery... which would then lead to legalized home-birth as an alternative option to pregnant moms in Georgia. Twenty-three other states already offer this as a safe alternative to a hospital birth.

To quote my friend Tiffany, a strong homebirth advocate:

"You may want to know (if you are not a homebirthing mom yourself)....what will legalizing homebirth do for Ga??? In a word....SAFETY. This would require that anyone catching babies at home be licensed, certified, trained and educated. This obviously is important to improve the already fabulous outcome of midwives. Just the C-section rate difference is staggering....at the hospital the rate of C-section is almost 40% (yikes!!!! has a moms body changed THAT much in the past 10 years?!) and at home the rate is less than 5%.
BIG difference."

In my personal choice to have a homebirth, which for the record was a very thought out, prayerful decision, we chose what we did because we truly believed that we could have a safer birth at home with less unnecessary medical interventions. Our midwife had over 1300 births under her belt and MANY years of homebirthing experience in multiple states. She was the primary midwife to the Amish community for many years and during that time, gained much experience in rural, normal AND emergency situations (the Amish would avoid a transport to the hospital over anything!). She also is a trained EMT. This gave us peace of mind that she could handle anything that might arise. Our local hospital is a 3 minute drive, and the local EMT have an excellent reputation around here as well.

Anyway, enough of the talk...here are a few pictures of the day:
(If you click on any of the pictures it will resize them to a larger size and then you can click on the yellow square in the bottom corner to make them even bigger....)

The kids and I under the dome surrounded by homebirthing families!

I love my kids...they were such a big help!

Outside the capitol

Okay...obviously we need some to add photo etiquette to our homeschooling agenda, I laughed so hard when I saw the kids in these two shots, but you would think that the guy we asked to take the picture (he was carrying a huge professional camera) would have mentioned that he couldn't see NINI!!!

Timmy and Nini outside, with the golden dome behind them...

Typical siblings, standing as far apart as possible! :)

"Next week, kids, we are learning what the word "CHEESE" means..."

This was during the press conference...there were over 150 people there supporting us.

Nichole and the kids are on the first step to the left, and my midwife, Terri, is the one standing in the front with the brown suit/dress. She helped write much of the resolution and did much work to get it to this point...

Fox5 was there filming as well.

It was a very memorable event.

By the way, the resolution was passed unanimously!!!YAY!

It was so cool for the kids to see what happens at the capitol... I figure now they have a better grid for our american government lessons... I personally had never seen the house floor during session, it was sooo cool! ... We even called our representative, Mickey Channell into the lobby to talk with him about supporting the coming homebirthing legislation.

(Well, actually, my friend Nichole did all the talking, I stood behind her with the crying baby!)

Then we went shopping and had lunch...

All in all, it was an enlightening and exhausting day!

Jennifer Needs....

This was so much fun! I found this idea on a blog that I frequent...

I googled the words, "Jennifer needs" and this is what I found...

EVERY one of these are legitimate quotes from somewhere on the net....

It's a little long, well.....no, it's a LOT long but I couldn't stop...they are SO funny....


Jennifer needs...a cold shower (no kidding...this was the first link to come up!)

Jennifer needs...help (what else is new...)

Jennifer needs...passion (but you just made me take a cold shower...)

Jennifer needs...to be charged for her crime (I plead insanity...)

Jennifer needs...a smack daddy (what is a smack daddy exactly?? doesn't sound like something I want or need...)

Jennifer needs...to manage her relationship with her father so that he can become her mentor (okay mr. freud, whatever you say...)

Jennifer needs...to know your address (yeah, for me, the correspondence queen...)

Jennifer needs...to better undetand Trump's business (notice the typo...)

Jennifer needs...to stay away from Hope (that doesn't sound like it will fare well for me...unless Hope is a person, in which case...who in the world is Hope?)

Jennifer needs...to do some charity work and stop being so self-absorbed. (and how will that benefit ME?)

Jennifer needs... space (what's that?)

Jennifer needs...to stay away (from what exactly? hmmm...)

Jennifer needs...to be fired (that would be an interesting sight to behold at the bailey house)

Jennifer needs...an opportunity to connect with other kids (Yeeessss!!!)

Jennifer needs...help ( yes, I know...)

Jennifer needs...to grow up and get over it (ahh, the proverbial "IT" that requires getting oooovvver...)

Jennifer needs...the earth's energy in her life (um, yeeaahh...sure, whatever.)

Jennifer needs...to branch out and do something riskier (what could be riskier than frying green tomatoes with an infant on one hip, a 4 year old on the other, two little clowns playing hackey-sack behind me, and a big clown trying for a kiss...)

Jennifer needs...to differentiate (in Georgia that's what you say when you ate a "different one than she ate")

Jennifer needs...a better make-up artist (do I have one of those?)

Jennifer needs...help (okay, I get the picture...)

Jennifer needs...to retire (aaahhhhh....)

Jennifer needs...to get to the phone which has just fallen into a hole in the floor of the scary house. (yeah, and that carried a whole lot of relevance.)

Jennifer needs...to stop whining (but WHHHYYYYY???????)

Jennifer needs...to bring her run time down about 20 seconds per mile (now that's just funny...)

Jennifer needs...your prayers (of course)

Jennifer needs...help (okay, now that's just NOT funny anymore)

Jennifer needs...a real job, fast. (ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha...ROFL...that's "Rolling On the Floor Laughing" for those not properly trained in Internet Lingo)

Jennifer needs...you (well, that depends on who YOU are...)

Jennifer needs...a makeover (can it be the extreme home kind?)

Jennifer needs...to stop the crap (I think they call that constipation...)

Jennifer needs...to find a doctor (yeah, I'll need one if I do the previous suggestion)

Jennifer needs...to obtain thank-you cards (ahhh, the irony...)

Jennifer needs...to learn the art of communicating (I KNOW how to communicate!!! I talk and YOU listen!)

Jennifer needs...help (enough already...)

Jennifer needs...to deliver three more. (WHOA NELLY!!! Now you're talkin crazy!)

Jennifer needs...to let go (as long as you're not referring to chocolate...)

Jennifer needs...to return the puppet to evidence (Wait, I'M not insane...the puppet did it...)

Jennifer needs...to hide from herself (only a blond could accomplish that...)

Jennifer needs...to count the eggs in this nest (ummm, i think there are 7 in this one)

Jennifer needs...a method and a perfect alibi (what can I say, the puppet's obviously tied up...)

Jennifer needs...to eat (my chocolate!)

Jennifer needs...to take a small break (to eat my chocolate)

Jennifer needs...time (yes, yes, yes)

Jennifer needs...to put up a fence in her backyard (how did they know that...)

Jennifer needs...$24.00 (that'll buy the family dinner at Wendy's...)

Jennifer needs...to be whacked (HEY NOW! Let's keep it civil here!)

Jennifer needs...to be placed with a quieter family (that'll be the day)

Jennifer needs...those extra hugs ( :) )

Jennifer needs...a break (duh!)

Jennifer needs...to grow up (oh yeah, well whatever you say, bounces off me and....ahem..nevermind...)

Jennifer needs... closer supervision to prevent other kids from beating her ( ouch! )

Jennifer needs...to pee (we all know that 's the truth)

Jennifer needs...our feedback (YES! someone understands the blogosphere rules!!!)

Jennifer needs...to put dates on her jars ( ?????---yeah, WHAT----EVER....)

Jennifer needs...a change in scenery ( I'll take a few mountains, one beautiful stream, about 500 pine trees, and a beautiful blue sky please...)

Jennifer needs...to push a button (and what happens if I don't push it, Mr. Locke?)

Jennifer needs...a cup of chocolate chips to make cookies ( yum! )

Jennifer needs...the "shut-up" candle ( this one was my favorite!!! ROFL again!)

Jennifer needs...whatever she wants ("Suweeeeet", quoting Noelle who was quoting Jimmy....)

Jennifer needs...$400 (now we're getting there... I could buy that digital camera, Mom!)

Jennifer needs...to be prepared (I was in December of 1999...)

Jennifer needs...someone to discuss with her the concept of being trapped in a car under freezing water... (ummm, what can I say to that!?!)

Jennifer needs...help (maybe i do...)
Jennifer needs...help (i said, maybe i do)
Jennifer needs...help (please stop...)
Jennifer needs...help.... (seeing as how I am essentially having an argument with GOOGLE, maybe I do need help...)



TRY IT! IT IS SO MUCH FUN!!!!!

oh where, oh where has my mother gone?

Well, for those that don't know what in the world I am talking about... my mom has moved to Sarasota to live with my Aunt Barbara. I haven't written about this, because it is a very difficult thing. We pray that God will provide a place in the future that will better accomodate her being close to us. We would like to buy or build a house with a "mother-in-law" suite or a cottage in the back. But for right now, in this little house, things were just a little too cramped. I had hoped that she would stay close by, but she felt very strongly that she was supposed to be down there. I believe that it is for a "season" and a reason...
I have never been this far away from my mom, and it is kinda hard to deal with, to be honest.
I know that it is extremely hard for her as well, especially being away from the kids...so we will be posting MANY pictures and MUCH random info. so she won't miss anything.
Anyway, I love you mom and I miss you, and...there are three baskets of laundry that have been sitting in the living room for two days... ha!! :)
Just kidding, well...sort of...they ARE sitting there. :)
PS- See Mom, if I had my own digital camera, I could take a picture of them and post it for all to see!!! :)

ridin' in our pink cadillac... well, sort of.

My mom and I had a mini-Mary Kay party tonight in our kitchen. A friend from church had a goal to meet for facials and asked us, so we said yes. We had a ball, although due to the 6, yes, that's s-i-x children underfoot, and the fact that I was running late on dinner, it took us a tad longer than the usual makeover time allotment! Like a few hours longer! :) It's a good thing that we love Marti's company and that her son Joey loves to play with Chloe. (Chloe and Joey...isn't that cute...) That reminds me of a story...rabbit trail time....Last year for Chloe's birthday, when Marti took Joey shopping to buy her present, he stopped in front of the princess-dress-up dresses and pointed to a beautiful blue one and said (quite emphatically), "WAIT, Mommy, we HAVE to buy THIS for Chloe...she would look SOOO Beautiful!" (He was 2 at the time! so sweet....)
Anyway, back to the MK night. We had a great time and Nana looked unbelievable! I have never seen her look so good! Here are some pics of the evening!!

NANA PRIMPING...














NANA BEFORE...





















NANA AFTER...





















ME BEFORE...















ME AFTER















ME AGAIN...

smiley...

Hi all! Sorry it's been so long!

Emma is doing great; therefore, we are all doing great!

:)

Here's some pics from this morning:

my first ponytail!!

and click here for a little clip of emma cooing at her nana...

don't forget to turn up your volume...

fire...

we just recieved this via e-mail today regarding Tim's uncle (Kathy's brother) and his family:
Their names are Hugh and Bernice Powlison

They left at 2:00 on Tuesday afternoon to go to the doctor's office. While they were gone, their house went up in flames, possibly due to an electrical short. A plane flying over saw the flames and called it in to the fire department. When they came home at 3:30, the fire department had already put out the flame but they lost everything. They have been at a hotel for the past week and are moving today to stay with a church family. Their son and family are flying in today and their daughter and family are due in later on in the week. The insurance adjuster is coming in this morning and once the family arrives, together with the church will put together a 'needs' list or 'how to help' list to be shared with others. They have lost everything, if not to fire then to smoke and water damage.

In the meantime, please pray for the whole family as they deal with this tragedy and for wisdom as to how to proceed.

any prayers would be appreciated.

love,
jen and tim

i said, she said...

emma's doctor appointment was this morning at 11. She has been doing great with the exception of some congestion in the mornings. Yesterday, I started feeling yuck myself in the AM, and Chloe and Nini have been very congested as well. We also heard that the pollen count the past few days has been really high around here.
Anyway, today she woke up VERY congested and VERY fussy...
So I took her in and here's the account:
Dr. Rice walks into the room and says,"So, how's she doing?"
I paused and then said hesitantly, "Are you a Christian?"
She said "Yes", and I laughed and said, "Sorry to be so blunt, but let me TELL you about my week!"
I proceeded to explain the past week, vision and all. She was totally in agreement and said that she is an intercessor as well! Who knew... :)
She checked the ears, and said that one ear is completely clear,(Blessed be your name, Lord!) but the other is still red (Blessed be your name, Lord)...BUT is much better than it WAS...(Blessed be your name!)
She was so funny, she said "I'm going to tell you to do something that I don't usually tell anyone to do......don't take any more antibiotics! Continue with the garlic oil, chiropractor visits and the prayer and let's go ahead and see the ENT and get a second opinion about whether to do anything else."
She is so cool.

Anyway, please continue your prayers, and add in the rest of the family as well!
I don't know when the ENT appointment is yet, but will keep everyone posted (pun intended).
:D
Jen