Simple Pleasures...

The weather was wonderful today so we spent the whole day out! Javan had a party to go to in the morning and I'm sure if he had his way he would have spent the WHOLE day at Playworld Down Under.

Celebrating Nathan's 3rd




After the party we headed to downtown Chatt and spent some time at the Choo Choo. Javan was thrilled about this! The minute we pulled into the parking lot we heard 'Choo choo wain' from the back seat!



and then he had a meltdown cos Daddy wouldn't let him hold the camera bag and he was 2hrs past his nap time


but ice cream fixed that!


after some play time....



he took a nap and we headed to the mall for a little bit, enjoyed dinner at the Olive Garden and then headed home. I love days when we have no real plans - they always turn out to be so much fun!

~Veryll

A shower for Bentley

Bentley arrived 5wks early on Christmas Eve so we didnt get around to celebrating her arrival until last night. Trinity left Bentley at home with Daddy and big sister Brooklynn and got to enjoy a girls night out!




~Veryll

Congrats Cameron and Corrinne!

Cams and Corrinne finally tied the knot (12 April) in a intimate family ceremony and reception. So excited for you guys:)



Good luck with the move to New Zealand - cant wait to visit you.... SOON I hope!!!
~Veryll

Took Me Long Enough

Today Javan helped me plant our first tree in our backyard. He was excited about the whole process - we dug a good size hole for the root, got the tree in, covered up the roots and added lots of water. This was one of those "father son moments." When it was all done I got Veryll outside and we took photo's of our new tree to mark the occasion.

its a gardenia tree


Last year we planted lots of flowers in the front yard but they froze and died when it got really cold in April (around Easter). We planted some more but the birds got to them. We had nests on our front porch and listened to the birds most of the summer. I hope they dont bother our tree.
Jermaine

Stolen...

from clay:)

Veryll
what i was doing ten years ago?
- in college
- running (a lot - cross country training)
- working way too many jobs
- missing home like crazy (this one hasnt changed)

five things on my to-do list this week?
- get in another run for the week
- buy a bday gift for Javan's friend (party on saturday)
- attend a baby shower (friday) and a wedding shower (sunday)
- clean out my closets
- work on my mypublisher books

five places i have traveled
- seychelles
- mauritius
- bahamas
- jamaica
- london

five places i've lived
- chatsworth, durban
- phoenix, durban
- parkhill, durban
- cleveland, tenn
(thats only 4!)

five jobs i've had
- gift wrapper (summer job at boardmans during our christmas holidays)
- cashier (boardmans and woolworths)
- filing clerk (when i was 14 i worked at my dad's office)
- tour guide (i gave prospective students at Lee tours of the campus...fun stuff!)
- event planner

Jermaine
what i was doing ten years ago?
- enjoying my new girlfriend:)

five things on my to-do list this week?
- pay bills
- play b-ball
- go to church
- take pictures of Javan
- watch la lakers playoff game

five places i have traveled
- South Africa
- Manhattan
- Germany
- Italy
- Destin (Florida)

five places i've lived
- Nassau
- Freeport
- Cleveland TN

five jobs i've had
- FSR (Suntrust)
- Production (Ownens Corning)
- Teller (Amsouth)
- sales (Phil Driscoll)
- sales (His Song Ministries)

Phew...

This past weekend was certainly a busy but fun one.

Saturday I woke up miserable. The pollen was really getting to me. I've never had allergies but about 3, maybe 4yrs ago it all started and its not been fun ever since. I had to get Javan ready and take him to Jacob's birthday party and of all the days he decides to have a fit, it was this morning. He wanted to watch signing time and I thought perfect. It would give me some time to get ready and get our stuff together so we could head out the door. Well, I'm not sure what I did wrong but something didnt go according to his plan and he threw himself into a crazy crying fit. Talking to him calmly didnt seem to help, so I sat him in his naughty corner and told him when he was done to come get me. Twenty minutes later he did but then started the whole routine again...gggggggggrrrrrrrrr. We finally made it out the door and to the party a couple mins late but oh well. He played for a good while and and had so much fun. Once the festivities were winding down we left.



Javan crashed on the way home which was perfect. I had to hurry and get changed and head out to a wedding. Its been a little while since I've done a wedding and I was pretty excited to get back into this. I love event planning and weddings are just fun, lotsa work but fun. Everything went of really well...the only glitch was that the candlelighter wouldnt work during the ceremony but in the grand scheme of things, it wasn't major. I about panicked when someone mentioned that the cake hadn't arrived. So as soon as the ceremony had started I ran to the reception place and sure enough - no cake was set up yet. She had just arrived with the cake totally undecorated. OMG. But everything was set up in time for the ceremony and boy was that cake was YUMMY. I could have eaten that whole thing (well maybe not but I could have come close to it!!!). Erica looked amazing and Bryan was just happy to get hitched!

(I wish I had taken more pics - most of them are of her getting ready)

Needless to say I was exhausted come Saturday night and the pollen was starting to get to me again. I woke up Sunday morning even more miserable. So Javan and I stayed home. He slept in til almost 10am which gave me a chance to rest a little and then he wanted to read for pretty much the 1hr and half after he woke up. We spent the rest of the day just relaxing at home and playing outside. Javan and Leah played, Eleanor, Travis, J and I just chatted. Have you ever heard of those progressive dinners? Appetizers at one house, dinner at another, dessert at another? Seems like thats how we played on Sunday. We started at our house, then of to Leah's (Javan loves 'Leelee') and back at our house and when it was time to say goodbye, Javan wanted to walk Leah and Ms Eleanor home. We ended up staying over there and playing for another hour and by then it was dinner time. Travis and J wanted to get pizza but Eleanor decided to make one. We had pizzas and quesadillas for dinner and of cos enjoyed good company. I really thank God for our great neighbours - we couldn't have been more blessed.




~V

She used to babysit elephants!

The primary class at Javan's school is currently studying south africa for geography so the teacher asked me to come in and share some stuff with the kids. I get asked to do this pretty often and its fun though honestly nerve wracking when its the littlest of kids! Its not difficult to talk about my country - i have ZERO problems with that! It's just that you never know what they're going to ask you. Of cos i get the obligatory 'do you have lions, etc running around?, 'do you have tv?', 'do you live in huts' and one of the craziest things I've been asked (by an 16yr old actually) is 'do you have to walk over dead bodies in the streets?' moving on...

I thought I would just have the primary class but when I got there I found out that I would have to talk with the toddler class too ie Javan's class. Oh boy! I was curious to see what he would do. When they walked in, he sat in his place and when he was settled he saw me and his face lit up and he said 'MUMMY!' but then he was torn...he didnt know if he should listen to his teacher or if he should come to me. He finally decided that he wanted to come sit with me which was fine for a little while. one of his teachers eventually had to take him out cos he really didnt want to share his mummy's attention with his classmates:) the toddler class wasnt too bad...they really just wanted to see photos and oooh and aaaah over them.

The primary class ... well thats another story! They wanted to tell me about the pets and what kind of animals they have, etc. they did have some interesting questions when I showed them a photo of Jermaine riding an ostrich - they didnt know what an ostrich was. I even showed them an ostrich egg which was quite fascinating for them! Well later that day, one of my friends messaged me and told me that her little girl enjoyed laerning about south africa and she learned that i used to babysit elephants!!! I have NO clue how she got that out of everything I shared but I couldnt help but laugh:)

trying to get a photo with the class


~Veryll

I'm a proud Daddy!!!

Last Tuesday I had the rare opportunity to take Javan to school. Veryll left early for work and left us boys to get ready, eat breakfast, and head out the door. I got him ready and after breakfast, headed for school. When I arrived I got Javan out and we walked up the ramp toward the front door. It was cool to be the only dad there bringing his child to school:) When he got inside, he started walking to his class. I said 'bye' to him and he turned around said 'bye, bye' and continued to his class.

I felt so proud taking my son to school. To me life is about family and this is a moment I will cherish forever. I'm a proud Daddy!!

Jermaine

A Little Retreat

What a fun, relaxed weekend we had! I'm so glad the forecasts for stormy weather and rain didn't hold true cos that allowed us to have a great time up in Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg Friday and Saturday. We went with a fun group of couples from church for our annual retreat (I guess I can call it that since we decided last year to make this an annual trip!). There were 12 adults, 1 infant (Bentley) and 1 toddler (Javan)that went. We spent the night at the Riverstone Resort - I wish we could have stayed longer so we could have enjoyed all the amenities. Friday night we stayed in and just chatted the night away. Saturday J, Trinity, Kellie, the babies and I all slept in while everyone else headed out to a pancake place for breakfast. Later it was time for shopping, lunch at Connor's and then more shopping.
Kellie, Chuck, Eddie, Trinity and us. We shared a unit - there were 4 bedrooms to each one.

Javan roped Chuck into putting on his shoes for him!



Group shot - Beth, Scott, Jaime, Jeff, Tiffany, Jeff, V, Javan, J, Kellie, Chuck, Bentley, Trinity and Eddie

Looking forward to the next one!
~V

A Perfect Sunday Afternoon

Javan was laying on his floor reading on Sunday afternoon and when I walked into his room, this is what I saw


he was snoring so softly!!! I did get a video clip too:)

~V

They're back!!!!

So I had to laugh at the title of J's last post!!! Rody is a new kid(baby) on the block but have you heard that THE New Kids on the Block are reuniting!

Be still my heart:) Yes I am not ashamed to say that I owned pretty much all their music, every magazine they were in, knew all their songs, recorded their music videos and learned the dance moves. And yes I had posters of them on my walls:) I was a FAN...and I guess the fact that I'm excited that they're reuniting means I still am!!! I was 10 when Hanging Tough was released! Gosh that seems ages ago. But I can remember it pretty clearly. Every Friday night we'd have this music show come on tv and viewers could call in to pick a tune to be played and of cos I'd hope that maybe Cover Girl or even Step by Step would be requested!

aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh the memories!!!


and while everyone was all ga-ga over Jordan, all I can say is I *HEART* Joey McIntyre!

~Veryll

New Kid on the Block

On Wednesday March 26, 2008 a future friend of Javan's was born. Katie and Randy welcomed Rody into the world. I went to visit him during my lunch break and celebrate his birth. He was 8lbs 11oz and has fine blonde hair. Katie looked fantastic and not like someone who just had a baby. There was so much joy in the room as they both were telling me about the entire experience.

Sunday night we stopped by to visit with them so Veryll and Javan could meet baby Rody. Javan was actually really nice with him and wanted hug and kiss Rody and share his pizza with him.










we're so happy to share in their joy and pray many blessings over this new family.

Jermaine

Javan's First Visit To The Circus

We went to the circus last Thrusday at the McKenzie Arena and it was a blast. Before the show started we went down to the center ring to see the Zebra and let Javan play in the middle of the ring. We all had a good time but Javan was mesmerized by the everything - lights, the clowns, the jugglers, the acrobats and the elephant.








I am glad we took him and I can wait for the next one to come.

Jermaine