Family news

This is a little blog about this cracked up little family of mine and our boring little life. Since most of our family and friends live in other states, I thought this would be a fun way for you to check in and see some photo's, or find out what is new with us.

As we near the end of the school year we find ourselves busy with all kinds of activities. We have band concerts, and parties, fieldtrips, fun activity days, Girl Scout parades and end of year ceremonies, and the list goes on and on. Every night we seem to have something on the calendar, we live by it,it is our bible. Even John and I have our own activities. John is by far the busiest. He has taken a lot on this year. Thankfully he just graduated from a Business Leadership program that Target sponsored him for this past year. It involved an all day workshop once a month, plus he had to meet with his group and they had a huge projest to do. That was many nights or lunches together planning their project, and putting it all together. They put together a recycling day for the community here. It was nice they did a great job. They had fun activities and games for the kids, all with recycled products. They also had garbage trucks from all 3 of our local trash companies, that anyone could climb in and sit in and see how they operate. Then his group had to do a final presentation at their graduation. Their group was the best out of the 3 groups.

John has also taken on a few other electives. He got involved with the start up of a film club at our old theater in Chambersburg. He has done the advertizing for them, like flyers and membership cards. They meet once a month and show either classic or award winning films in the theater. John just wants to do it so he can watch a robotech cartoon with J.T. on the big screen. The other members of the group are primarily older, influential people in town, such as the mayor and other bussines owners. He likes to hob nob I think. He is also involved in the start up of a new comic book company, called Shot In The Dark Comics. He is their director of marketing, as well as one of the comic book writers. I think this is a life long dream for him. They all have their day jobs as well until this company gets up and running and some of the books are written and drawn, then published. Our friend Mitchell Heslop is one of the artists. He is a very talented young man. Also our neighbor Julie is involved as a director of something, I don't remember. (Julie is the female version of John, it's kind of scary). Anyway, as you see, He is a very busy man.
Mackenzie is now 10. She started to play the drums this year. She joined band and has really enjoyed it. I think that next year she is going to try out for the 6th grade jazz band. She is very musical, she also likes to sing, and has been in chorus as well.She has really gotten into music a lot this year, and was very excited when I gave her my old mp3 player to listen to. She has been involved with Girl Scouts this year. I think she had a really good time with that. Tonight is their end of year ceremony, and each of the girls have written something about girl scouts to share. She was able to go on an overnight campout, and has marched in a couple of parades, most recently on Memorial Day. Mackenzie is also interested in cooking, and has helped out a lot of times making dinner for the family. She is a huge help with the baby as well. She is the little mother. I have to tell her not to hold him so much, or to stop kissing him.
J.T. just turned 9 on May 12th. He got a Ripstick for his birthday, and is very good at it. (for those of you that don't know, a ripstick is a skateboard with only 2 wheels) He really enjoys riding that, as well as riding his bike. He has really been into making paper airplanes. For Christmas he got a calendar with a new airplane to fold each day, he has been behind so this week I think he has folded 3 months worth. They are all over the house. J.T. enjoy's attending scouts. He will be going to day camp this summer for the 2nd year in a row. He really loved it last year. He won 1st place in the pinewood derby this year. We only have 3 boys his age in our ward, so they participated with the other ward here. They have 17 boys in their ward, and J.T. was 1st place out of them all. He was very excited about that.
Both big kids got to design theri own rooms before Jackson was born. They turned out nice. Mackenzie's is very bright, with a lot of dots and stripes all over. J.T.'s room is black and white with a huge mural on one wall of his favorite comic characters. John designed the baby's room, so no surprise that it is baby super hero's. They are giant and a little frightening, I'm surprised Jackson isn't freaked out Our friend Mitchell did all of the painting in the boy's rooms.
As for Jackson, he is just the most adorable kid ever. He is so much fun to have. it is really neat to watch the other kids with him. They both love him so much, and fight over who gets to hold him next. They make sure he gets a kiss before they leave for school, and when they get back. They both take really good care of him. We are much more relaxed with Jackson than we were with the other two when they were born. I think that being older makes a huge difference. Jackson is a really good baby he only cries if he is really hungry, or needs something. He is very happy and likes to talk. However, he doesn't like to nap much during the day, but he sleeps good at night, He has slept 7 hours for the past 3 nights (usually it is about 5). He spits fountains, and smells like baby puke most of the time. He loves his softy cow and his sock frog. Most of all we just love him.
I just went back to work this week. I work part time for a local bank, and I enjoy it, but my first shift back was 10 hours (ouch!!). There really is no such thing as bankers hours. We'll see how long it lasts. I may end up quitting to be with the baby. I have been trying to get back in to the healthy lifestyle, but it has been harder this time. John and I have been helping run a Transitions class, hoping that would help, but we have been so busy doing other thins as well, its hard to get it all together.
Ok, for those of you who don't know Transitions is a weight management program that we run through our other business. We sell products through a company called Market America. Most of what we sell are health products, such as vitamins and supplements. Transithion is a low glycemic eating program run through the company. We have both had great success with it and lost quite a bit of weight (that is why we have Jackson). The vitamins and supplements we use are phenominal. they really have made us healthier and we have had numerous benefits. Check out our website www.marketamerica.com/grahams .
If you have any questions about the products, or Transitions lifestyle you can email me @ stgraham73@comcast.net or JohnGraham72@comcast.net .
Anyway, I plan on updating this blog as often as I can with fun tidbits from our family as well as lots of pictures. For now this is it.