Living in Georgia

Wow, I'm still coming down off my high from the VP announcement yesterday. I don't want to turn this into a political debate, but I'm so excited about the prospect of a possible female VP who happens to have a baby with Down syndrome! Just knowing that she could bring some much needed change to Washington, making like a little bit easier for Ethan and so many others like him makes me so happy! Plus, anyone who is willing to challenge their own party for what they believe is right is OK by me. Anyway you look at it, this year's election is historic. I can't wait for the debates!! We had a lovely visit on Thursday with my cousin (3 or 4 times removed - I can never get it straight!) and her new son, Alex, who is 11 months. He is so sweet and the boys loved playing together. They used to live here in Atlanta but moved to Boston just before we moved down (and are now moving to California). Luckily, she comes down often to visit all her friends so we have gotten q

I know this email went out to most of you already, but I'm trying to reach as many people as possible - so please forgive the repetitiveness of it!! I know I've said in the past that I wasn't going to be selling PartyLite anymore. But then I got the new Fall catalogs and liked what I saw so much that I've decided to keep going! As Ethan has Down Syndrome, we as a family have decided to get as involved with the Down Syndrome Association of Atlanta as possible. On October 4th we will be participating in the Buddy Walk of Atlanta, helping to raise money. To help generate extra money, I'm hosting a PartyLite catalog party with proceeds going to the DSAA. If you would like to shop for a cause, please visit my website, www.partylite.biz/ellencornwell and view the catalogs. You can then contact me with any order you'd like to place. All orders need to be placed with me by Friday, September 5th. For those of you out-of-state, orders will be sent directly to you

Just a quick one tonight, as I'm exhausted and it's late. It was a VERY rainy day today. It rained HARD all night and until about 11:30 this morning. Parts of Georgia got about 10 inches. I'm happy as we need it for the drought we're in, however, it rained so hard that it's started to wash away the dirt we had flattened out in our backyard for the playset. Hopefully everything will be OK!! Ethan turned 7 months yesterday and is doing really well. Nothing new to report but he keeps progressing, which is all we can ask for. I'm so happy that we decided not to travel to Seattle, as Jack and Ethan are now suffering from colds. Figures! But at least we have a little over a week to get healthy before we travel to England.

It's been a pretty quiet weekend for us, with Daddy off playing soldier, but a nice treat after a busy week. My main goal has been trying to get clothes ready for our trip to England, since it will be about a 20 degree drop in temperature. I've been looking for cool weather clothes that both boys will fit into. Jack was playing last night while I was with Ethan and he sat down next to Stanley and told him, "Stanley, you go hide and then I'll come find you, OK?" He just couldn't figure out why Stanley wouldn't go hide. It's so cute to watch him interact with the dogs. He REALLY wants Stanley to play with him more. Hopefully one day, Stanley will! We're gearing up for a fairly quiet week. We had the remnants of Hurricane Faye drop over us last night (downgraded to a Tropical Storm now). We should be getting much needed rain all week long, which will keep us at home more this week. Hopefully our playset will delivered this week too!

We bought the playset for the boys yesterday! Now we just have to wait for them to deliver it. They told us it could be 2-3 weeks but they know we're leaving on the 6th of September so they thought they might be able to get it to us before then. We're optimistic, as Jack is so excited to have it. It's an enormous set (not like the metal swing sets we had in our youth!) - we will no longer need to go to the park. It has swings, a slide, a tire swing, climbing wall and cargo net to climb. Other than that, we're just finalizing the last details for our trip to England. I can't believe that we leave two weeks from Saturday. I've got lots to do - mainly pulling out fall clothing for the boys and making sure I have stuff that fits them. But we're so excited for this trip.

Whew, what a busy day. I'm sitting back, enjoying a birthday cocktail while I write this, waiting for Jason to get home from the airport. Before heading off to bed, Jack was up watching the Olympics. He has been having a blast watching the games every night. Tonight he found an American flag and was waving it around while watching. He was also humming along with t he theme music. Anyway, we spent the morning at the Atlanta Botanical Garden with some of his friends. He had a blast playing on the slides and in the water and told me as we were leaving that he had so much fun playing there.

What a busy day we had! First of all, the trip to the movies was a big success!!! BOTH boys really enjoyed it. I wish I had photos to share. Ethan sat on my lap watching the movie until he fell asleep. He was fighting it though. He kept trying to turn his head to watch even though he was yawning and wanting to put his head on my shoulder. Jack sat for most of it and then got a bit restless. He still watched the whole movie, he just needed to move around a bit. Luckily it was a pretty empty theater. Today we had a bobcat in the backyard moving dirt around to flatten out an area for the playset and a shed. It looks so great out there and Jack loved watching the tractor scooping and moving the dirt.

It's been another busy weekend and I'm wondering if it will ever slow down? Probably not! Oh well, at least it's full of fun stuff. Yesterday we had a birthday party for one of Jack and Ethan's friends. It was held at a place called The Little Gym and had lots of fun stuff for Jack to play on (set up like a little gymnasium). He was most upset when he had to stop to have cake. He was crying saying, "I don't want cake, I just want to play." Unfortunately, they had closed down the gym while the kids ate the cake (which Jack didn't since he still doesn't like cake). But then they all ate so fast they gave the kids 10 more minutes in the gym. But that only made it worse, in my opinion, as 10 minutes isn't enough. It only got him excited and wanting to do more. So it was big water works when we had to leave. But it was followed up with another get together next door at Maddy's house. Jason gathered everyone together for a BBQ in honor

We had a fun morning out on a "special picnic," as Jack likes to call them! We met the playgroup at a place called Rocky Branch Railroad and Old West Town. We rode on a train and played in play area but on the weekends they have shootouts and put on a show. It was pretty cool and the kids really liked it. On Ethan news, we got him officially set up for Speech Therapy. That will start the end of September, once we're back from our two week trip to England!!!! And for those of you who have been asking (or were just wondering) about the house situation, this is what has transpired over the past few days: We actually decided that we like a different house, which is two lots down from the one I previously mentioned. Here's the link: http://www.jeremyrutenberg.com/psm/asp/detail.asp?l=2&p=238&o=13 Anyway, we made the offer yesterday and it was a crazy lowball offer. We asked for them to remove a wall to open up the master suite "office" to make it i

Wow, I can't believe it's been so long since I've last posted a message. I guess it's been due to a combination of being really busy and not having much to say! Is that a contradiction? We've been letting Jack stay up late since Friday so that he could enjoy the Olympics. He really enjoyed the opening ceremony and has been in awe of the gymnastics. We went to a BBQ on Sunday night and just as we were getting ready to leave they put the ladies gymnastics on and all the kids say and watched. We had to drag Jack away. In other news, we're getting ready to do a really crazy thing. After only two months of having no debt and house payment, we're putting in an offer on a new home! We really had no plans to do this, but when we went to visit our friends on Sunday, we decided to drive around and look at the houses there. We had looked in there back before Ethan was born and fell in love with the place so we thought we'd just take a look and see how much i

The weather here has been perfect the last couple of days, almost fall-like. Very unusual for August. It's been in the low to mid 80s, no humidity and cool breezes. This is more like September weather than our typical 100 degree humid August days. After a few quiet weekends, the end of summer had started with a burst of activity. We had a birthday party today for one of Jack's gymnastics friends, we have a BBQ tomorrow, another birthday party next weekend, my birthday, Labor Day weekend, our trip to England and then Jack's birthday. Then a flurry of visitors in October and a week (or two) in Florida in November. I'm exhausted just thinking about it. Good thing we decided not to go to Seattle after all. Jack has become such a big helper for me and Jason. Every time I vacuum clean or do the dishes Jack wants to help. Now he's been busy working in the backyard with Daddy getting it ready for a playset in the next couple of weeks. It's great that he wants

Not much new to report so I'm just mostly sharing photos this time. Oh, for those of you in Seattle, I just wanted to let you know that we won't be coming after all. Jason's company decided that they didn't need his group to come out. I had considered still traveling out there with the boys but have decided that I don't want to risk Ethan getting an ear infection a week before our trip to England. Jack got an ear infection the first time we took him on an airplane and Ethan has a higher chance of getting them due to the Down's (not that he will, just that he has an increased chance) and I just don't wa nt to take the chance with such a big trip so soon after. So, you will all have to settle for seeing us in April!!! As you will see from the pictures of the boys playing and hanging out together, they truly enjoy spending time together, as you can see. Oh, and for those of you who I've been telling my couponing stories too, here are some good finds f