Our plan to be interviewed by Bob Costas or the Today show; either one

This year at the Beijing Olympics, ONE family comprised 3 of the 4 slots on the US taekwondo team. The Lopez family. They medaled of course.


After seeing them, I became inspired. THAT is the way I can become my own little "Debbie Phelps -proud-stadium-seat-mom-watching-her-sons-sweep-a-sport." I'll train them all in the same sport and let them become a powerhouse, a well-oiled-machine, a force to be reckoned with, a 1-2-3 sweep on the Olympic medal podium!


Here they are in their spring karate kid training. (Actually, I think they were doing this BECAUSE they had watched Karate Kid. I am pretty sure of it. Everyone ask Jennifer Morgan about how they all arrived to Alayah's birthday wearing folded bandanas tied around their foreheads in true "Daniel-son" style. In fact, John Mark asked to be called Daniel-son while we were there. Hey! There might be more to this than I think!)

OR

as evidenced here, by Gabriel's obvious preparation for the backstroke, I could make them 3 parts of a 4 man swimming relay team!

Daniel would be best fitted for the 50M, or what commentators were nicknaming the "Splash and Dash." Perfect for Daniel, since right now he mostly just splashes, and then dashes outside of the pool to run around the perimeter.

John Mark's specialty would most likely be the 1500M Freestyle . . . it appears he just finished it here!

So, yes, I am not above pushing my children to fulfill my own dreams of Olympic glory. By the time they are in their early twenties, Michael Phelps will be only in his early forties. He could pull a Dara Torres and do one more Olympic run. Fourth man on the Jolly relay team.

It just might work.

Passin' the Pigskin (instead of the snake skin - see below)

In honor of the multiple nights we have had Gabriel at football practice, in honor of the kick off of Mitch's fantasy football draft, in honor of the first UGA game this weekend and the end of the Falcons pre-season, I am devoting this entire blog entry to FOOTBALL.

In order to do so, I must however, begin with pictures from March. Yes, folks, football still starts in the Fall, and March still falls in the Spring. But the football crazed folk in my house, start their football lovin' early . . . with one glorious day spent celebrating the advent of Spring Training at the Falcons Training Camp in Flowery Branch, GA.

Every year, for one day, Mitch takes the boys to literally stand on the sidelines of the practice field and soak in every minute of bear crawls, push ups, scrimmages, and two-a-days with the Falcons. They started this tradition when Gabriel was just two.

The picture below might give you an indication of just how close they really are. When I say they stand on the sidelines, I mean, they stand on the grass, on the sidelines beside the players, coaches, water boys, press, etc. This picture was taken without using a zoom lens.

This year, the boys scored a souvenier. They were standing there when one of the players, Joe Horn, ran right up to them to catch a pass. He dropped it, then picked up the official NFL football and handed it to Gabriel and the boys. The boys were speechless; standing there with their mouths agape. Afterward, they got several autographs on the football (which is being held by John Mark in the first pic) The players kept exclaiming over how the boys had one of THEIR footballs! Needless to say, it is now a Jolly family treasure.

Despite all the hoopla over the Falcons' new QB and coaching staff, despite all the excitement over the return of Univ. of GA football and a new bulldog to be "UGA," I am really excited about the Cowboys. As in the Rome GA Rec. Dept, Pee Wee Boys 7-8 yr old Cowboy team!

GO GABRIEL!

I am poignantly reminded that I am a mother of boys . . .

. . . everytime I glance at the real-live snake skin that has been sitting on my kitchen counter for the past two days, which John Mark found in the woods near Gabriel's football practice field.

Snake skin.

On the kitchen counter.

The National Weather Service issued us a warning. . .

So in March we had a birthday party for Daniel's 3rd birthday. He was/is kind of into Mickey Mouse, or as he likes to refer to him, "Dickey Mouse." I had an old Wilton cake pan of Mickey Mouse that my mom kept which she used for mine and my sisters' parties growing up. So it was a simple decision as to the Dickey Mouse theme.




What was trickier was who to invite since at this point he wasn't technically our kid yet and in fact could, at any judicial hearing, suddenly not be in our home anymore. To keep from having to "un-invite" folks and because I was still at that point hosting a party for someone who may or may not be allowed to be in our family, I kept it small. If you are a friend and reading this and weren't invited, just know it was because of all the red tape. As in judicial-red tape, not party-red tape like crepe paper. As you read on, you will be counting your blessings as to why providence kept you at home!



The day started out great. We had Mickey Mouse ears, as modeled by cousin Libby Kate.

We had cousins galore and a few family friends to party with us.

Take a good look at this crew. These are the few, the proud, the hard-core birthday party attenders because they braved tornadic weather to come. That's right, on the day I planned lots of outdoor fun, we had tornadic stormy weather that started right after people got in the door until after the party was over. We literally had the party in the middle of a tornado. This was the day/weekend that Atlanta, Rockmart, and all sorts of Georgia cities got hit with 3+ tornados in one day. One came right up the highway leading to our house. Although instead of turning left at the intersection headed toward us; it turned right. It was a very serious weather day. The tornado took some lives and destroyed a lot of property and homes. I am in no way trying to make light of it.

I am just poking fun at myself. I threw a party in the middle of a tornado for Pete's sake. I must say that is a first. I kept running to the bedroom where the weather tornado tracker was on and then running back to the living room to read a story or play a game or hold a pinata for kids to attack. At one point I made up a new game called, "Let's See How Many Kids Can Fit in the Bathtub While We Read Some Books." They were not so amused by that one. The lap babies seemed to like it though, perched on their mothers' laps.

Meanwhile, Daniel was the picture of Stormy Weather at his own party. Observe his face while we sang to him. It stayed that way the entire time.

For those of you who haven't heard; it is all official now with Daniel. Things were wrapped up in mid-June. We have his new birth certificate and new id information. It is finished!

Have You Hugged Your Librarian Today?

One of our favorite things to do is go to the Rome-Floyd Cty Library for Storytime. The librarians there do a fantastic job putting on a puppet show and leading songs/poems, etc. for the little ones. The summer reading program is great as well: they bring in professional puppeteers, singing cowboys, and a host of other interesting characters. (ha! no pun intended - but I'm going to leave it! :) )






John Mark and Daniel get a quick hug from our favorite librarian, Mrs. Barbara. Mitch's mom played the piano at her wedding and Mitch's dad performed the ceremony for her and her husband. She always makes it a point to talk to us and kept up with Daniel's progress in our family. She is wonderful.



As you can surmise, this was cowboy day. That is especially fitting for my boys, since almost everyday is cowboy day. Cowboy boots, holsters and guns are almost always donned. Sometimes the hat is added and on rare occasion, the kerchief. Today we were in full regalia, in honor of Mrs. Barbara, our hard-working librarian, no doubt.

Gabriel too had a dress up day associated with his library at school. In honor of Dr. Seuss's birthday (little known Jolly family fact: Dr. Seuss's nephew was one of my professors at Berry - how cool is that?!) the kids have a week-long literary celebration, culminating in a "Dress as Your Favorite Book Character" Day.

Gabriel is dressed as Peter from The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.

This Peter costume was a hot commodity around our house for awhile. The boys loved it; correction: they loved to fight over it. After Daniel broke the helmet, it was stashed in the attic for John Mark's Kindergarten book dress up day. With three boys, I have to preserve and ration these costumes. It took me too long to think of this one. Speaking of: all suggestions are welcome for Book Dress Up Day 2009.

All this is too cool. I mean, I do NOT remember dressing up to go to the library as a kid. Sure seems like librarians are "writing a new chapter" (ha!) in helping kids learn to love reading.

Remember to Hug your Librarian Today!

All New Season 2!!

That's right folks! After a long spring and summer of nothing but re-runs here at the Band of Brothers blog, we're back with an exciting line up of new episodes and never-before-seen-footage . . .

. . . of our Spring and Summer!

Ok, so I am more than a little behind. I do apologize. I could make up something suave about being on a writer's strike or something, but the truth is, I had a million things to do. Low on the priority list was organizing the pictures on the computer. Thus, in order to blog, I had to sift through hundreds (maybe even thousands) of pictures before I would find the ones I wanted for a certain blog. I hate to sift. That made blogging time consuming and laborious. So, I simply didn't do it until the pictures were organized. They are now and so I bring you Season 2 of our blog; which is really about our spring and summer, which doesn't make sense.

Since its an Election Year . . .

. . . I thought I would get you "in the swing of things" by having you vote for

JENNIFER'S MOST RIDICULOUS ITEM OF THE WEEK

I know that most of my readership tunes in for news and pictures of the boys, but since I have been lax in the past month in downloading pictures from my camera, this will suffice for your reading pleasure for a bit longer.

So, this week I encountered two things that I found to be utterly ridiculous. They occurred practically on the same day and I couldn't decide which one I should laugh at, guffaw at and stare at incredulously the most. So I decided I would let YOU, the people decide.

__ Option # 1: I enter through the automatic double doors of the Floyd County Courthouse for one of our multiple court hearings for Daniel. On said Double Doors is a sign listing the things prohibited in the FC Courthouse. Some of the taboo items are drugs, smoking, alcohol, firearms, CELL PHONES, video equipment, etc. I have passed by that list many times and am quite familiar with it. I also know that they don't even allow umbrellas upstairs so if it is raining you have to leave your umbrella at the door. I walked by the lists, put my file folder, copy of Jane Austen's "Persuasion" and my purse on the security conveyor belt to be scanned when the scanning device operator quickly let me know that unless I was a Juror, I couldnt' take my book upstairs. I was incredulous. I pointed out the lady in front of me passed by with a book. He said she was a Juror, only Jurors, can take books upstairs. I totally thought he was joking. I couldn't proceed with a book, but PEOPLE WHO ARE THERE TO WORK AND HEAR CASES CAN TAKE IN BOOKS AND MAGAZINES. He kept saying 'THEY' don't allow reading material. I have often brought books in my purse due to the 2, sometimes 3 hours one must wait in the hall for one's case to be called. This time I made the mistake of bringing an UNCONCEALED NOVEL, apparently without a permit to carry, into the courthouse. I kept asking for clarification. I asked if "Reading Material" was on the taboo list since cell phones clearly are and EVERYONE is walking around with a phone on their ear and several people were walking around plugged into Ipods. He wouldn't answer. He just pointed out the line. Apparently, cell phones are not prohibited enough to be enforced. Nor are Ipods, which can prevent people from hearing when their case is yelled out quite arhiacally by the bailiff from the courtroom doorway down the hall. Novels and Reading Material fall into a higher classified area of the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearm control division. I HAD TO LEAVE MY BOOK AT THE SCANNING DEVICE. Ridiculous. So, instead of reading for the hour I had to wait, I PLAYED WITH MY CELL PHONE.

__ Option # 2: (still a good candidate, just not as dramatic) John Mark gets an invitation to a birthday party for an about to be 4 year old girl. Nothing out of the ordinary about that. Except that the BIRTHDAY GIRL IS REGISTERED AT A DOLL/TOY STORE IN TOWN. What ?!!? Kids are registering for their birthdays now? Tacky. The store itself should be written up by the Better Business Bureau for even suggesting it.

In the spirit of Sesame Street, I guess her birthday party is "being brought to us by the letter E - for Entitlement." I'll use that in a sentence: "Some kids will grow up with an exaggerated sense of Entitlement because their parents let them register for their birthday parties."

You may vote now by leaving a comment. Please note: votes submited with hanging chads are not subject to a re-count.

God Bless America.