jonah's first easter

happy easter jonut!

unfortunately jonah is spending his first easter in the hospital. before this happened me and mom had plans of taking eggs to patrice and matt's house and dying easter eggs with jonah and wearing bunny ears and taking pictures and having a fun time celebrating jonah's first easter. its hard to not get sad when you think about it, but i am trying so hard to be positive. jonah could be doing much much worse than he is right now and i am so thankful that he's doing so well. in a way i am glad he's in the hospital where he is safer and in the hands of doctors. and honestly, i wasn't surprised when i found out he was in the hospital. i had been preparing myself for it just in case. i guess its a good thing i did. and now i am preparing myself for lots of (gentle) hugs and (gentle) kisses when he comes home again. pray that this will be soon and that he keeps improving. i am eager to find out what's going on in his little body. hopefully it is nothing too serious. whatever it is, God will give jonah the strength to get through it.

oh, and i WAS going to post a really scary picture that i took yesterday of Patrice attacking a chocolate bunny but i decided not to do that. i figure she sorta has a lot going on and that i should be nice. you can thank jonah for that trice. ;)

back from DC

i am back from Washington DC. actually, i have been back for 3 days, i just haven't had time to post yet. i've been too busy posting my tons of pictures on facebook. it took part of saturday night and all of yesterday but i'm done!

DC was awesome!!! we arrived there at about 10:30 on tuesday night and got our room assignments. i was with emily, cathy and angela which rocked! i was SO scared i was going to be with someone annoying or mean or someone who might steal my stuff, but not at all.

the rest of the week was pretty much all the same. wake up, eat breakfast, load bus, drive to DC (we weren't actually staying in DC), go to lots of museums and memorials, walk, eat lunch, walk, go to more museums and memorials, eat dinner, walk, go to MORE museums and memorials, load bus, ride to hotel, take shower, and crash. it was very busy but totally worth it.

i don't remember half the places we went or in what order we went to them so i'll just say what i remember. my favorite things we went to were the Arlington cemetery, the holocaust museum, and the world war II memorial. they were all amazing. the Arlington cemetery and holocaust museum were both so cool but in a sad, depressing sort of way.

the Arlington cemetery is just thousands and thousands of graves of former soldiers stretching on and on and on. i was really looking forward to seeing the tomb of the unknown soldier and the changing of the guard but after we walked all the way there they made us turn around. for some reason we couldn't go at the time and we couldn't come back because we had other memorials to see. it was disappointing but at least it gave us more time to look at other graves and things.

the holocaust museum was.... wow. there aren't even really words to explain it. unfortunately we were in a rush when we went and didn't get to read a lot of the things there but we still got the same effect. what was most amazing to me is that there were actually possessions of the holocaust victims in the museum, like shoes. there were so many shoes. there were also hair brushes and tools and clothes and all sorts of other things. another interesting/sad/cool thing there was a model of the process of getting gassed. it was hard to see but it really made you understand more. the whole museum did that.

other things we saw were the Vietnam veterans memorial, the Korean war memorial, the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials, iwo jima, the capitol building, like 5 museums, and a quick walk past the white house. we also saw Obama's car go by which was really cool!

here are some pictures of all those things.

capitol building....

Korean war memorial...

lincoln memorial...

Vietnam veterans memorial...

jefferson memorial...

white house...

world war II memorial...

arlington cemetery...

iwo jima... (this is probably my favorite picture of the week)

pretty cool places, huh? here are some pretty cool people too...

i'm so glad i got to hang out in Washington DC for 3 whole days with these awesome people. it was wonderful. :)

almost time for DC

today the 8th grade is going on a field trip to Washington DC!!! i am so excited but really dreading being away from jonah and everyone else. we aren't coming back until friday night. last night i told jonah he had to be really good while i was gone so i didn't have to worry about him. lets hope he listened. its gonna kill me to not know what's going on throughout the day. i will call mom to get an update at night when we are in our hotel rooms. that is the only time we are allowed to use our cell phones. i am also going to be worrying about baby stellan while i'm gone. he is having a very rough time so please pray for him. mycharmingkids.net.
i gotta admit.... i'm going to miss the computer while i'm gone. but i'm pretty sure i'll be having too much fun to really care. we are going to see tons of memorials and some museums and things like that. we are also going to have a dance on a ship tomorrow which will be really cool. please pray for our safety to and from DC. its a 5 hour bus ride. kinda dreading that part but i am hoping to sleep the whole time, if my brace allows it.
well...that's pretty much all for now! i just have to get through the school day and then its off to Washington DC!

this is the song i made up when i was little when peyton and amy lived in DC,

on the road again, til we come
to DC Washington.
we will have lots of fun!
when we come to Washintonnnnnn.

(you can't really gut the full effects by just reading it but whatever. just imagine me being little and cute and singing it with much enthusiasm). :)

a not so crappy day

for once i am going to write about school...but not in an 8th grade sucks post! hooray! i never thought the day would come. but here it is!

all this week we have been having end of quarter test which i actually kind of like because that means we don't have so sit through most of our boring classes and we don't have homework! Monday and Tuesday (we had a field trip Wednesday) we just took our test and then went to 2 of our core classes and did regular work but today we just goofed off the whole day. it was awesome! i stayed with my home base all day and pretty much did nothing. we took our integrated math test which was very hard (now this was a bit crappy) and then played games, watched tom and huck, played more games, and went outside. it was really fun! then we had lunch and went to our encores and pretty much did nothing there too. i had gym but we didn't have to dress out and we went outside. as long as we were being active we could do whatever we wanted so i just walked the track and talked to friends most of the time. i would have been playing soccer but we only had one ball and all the really good people were playing with it and i didn't want to play with them. i would just make myself look like an idiot. so anyhow, gym was kind of boring but i would rather it be boring then be inside playing stupid games that make you collide with stupid boys. refer back to 8th grade sucks-volume 1. jeez...i am STILL embarrassed about that. moving on...
in art we are working on self portraits so our teacher just showed us ways that we could paint them and that was all. then we went home! :) hooray!

i was VERY thankful for a good day. i really needed one. i was very worried about jonah yesterday (it was just one of those days...) and i was afraid today was going to be the same way. thankfully it wasn't though. of course i am always thinking about him and worrying about him to some extent but that is reasonable i think. i am just so stinking proud of him. he's so tough. i am ALWAYS bragging about him. i'm sure it annoys some people but i don't care. they can deal with it. :) i haven't heard any news on how jonah is doing today but i am hoping that God blessed us both with a good day. keep praying.

the power of prayer

i'm sure everyone has already seen the post on patrice's blog about jonah's perfect day but i just wanted to do one too and say how perfect it was for me too. there are no words to express how wonderful it feels to look at your sweet little nephew and know that prayers are being sent out for him all around the world and even more wonderful to know that God is actually answering them. there aren't enough thank yous in the world to show how thankful i am for everyone's prayers. i think yesterday gave so much hope to all of us that jonah may be okay. i have tried to keep an open mind throughout all of this and tell myself that he WILL be okay and that he is going to live for a very very long time just to keep myself from going crazy but it really helps to actually SEE that. i hope every day is as good as yesterday but if not, at least we know for sure that one day jonah was pain free and happy. every day like that is such a huge blessing for us and jonah. it was so much easier going to school today knowing that days like yesterday are possible. please pray for more days like yesterday (i know, i didn't even have to say that).

this morning i printed out a couple pictures of jonah and took them to school to brag about jonah and how i got to hold him. i showed them to one of the ladies that helps out in my science class and explained to her jonah's situation.

"this is my nephew jonah. he has a skin disease called EB."

"oh. i've never heard of the before. is it rare?"

"yes, very rare".

"well i'll be praying for him. does your sister believe in the power of prayer?"

(i laugh to myself) "OH YEAH." then i tell her how there has been this huge prayer movement for jonah and how awesome it is.

"is there a cure?"

"no"

"well, God can do anything."

and that was the last thing she said. i'm glad too. it was a good thought to be left with.

in love

i have to admit. i'm totally in love with this little guy named jonah. he is SO cute. he didn't really know i existed before....

but now he does!

he'll always hold a special place in my heart. forever and ever. i love you jonah.

a very tacky aunt

i saw jonah yesterday and he looks so good! his face is looking awesome except for the blister left by the tape but still... he looks so much better then when i last saw him. it amazes me the differences that happen in between my visits. i see him about every 3 or 4 days, although it feels like 3 or 4 weeks to me. when i first came in he kind of opened his eyes. it made me happy because it was the first time i had seen them open at all. it was really just a flutter but i'm pretty sure he saw me which is good. i don't want him to wake up when he's 2 months old and not recognize his aunt....even though i'm pretty sure babies don't really recognize anyone at that age. but maybe. i don't really know. i got to see patrice hold him and saw him suck on his bottle for about 30 seconds. it was really cute.






please keep praying for matt while he's dealing with a virus. he is not getting to visit jonah and i know that has to be hard. so yeah... just pray that he gets better very very quickly and that he gets to see jonah soon.

on a totally different note, yesterday was tacky day at school, and i was actually brave enough to dress up for it! and i mean REALLY dress up for it. this is really big for me. i'm not really the out going type. it was kind of scary because when i first walked into school i didn't see ANYONE dressed up and all the horrors of "what if i got my days mixed up?!" went through my mind. but it was all good. it WAS tacky day, just not many people dressed up. this surprised me. i thought everyone would dress up for tacky day, but apparently middle schoolers have to look perfect and popular and can never have any fun. i didn't get the memo.

at least there were a few other girls that looked worse than i did. it made me feel a little less stupid....

my hair was my favorite part. i have the perfect tacky day hair.



i didn't want to scare jonah so i unbraided my hair, took off my ugly blue orchestra shirt, my plaid pants, and removed my different colored eye shadows. i thought this look was much more fitting for an aunt.


hope you enjoy this post being that it took me 2 days to get it up here.
so much to do, so little time.