a baby is born!!!

sweet baby girl, Laurel Faith Jordan, was born at stephens county hospital in toccoa, georgia this morning at 8:11, weighing 8 pounds 6 ounces and measuring 20 inches long!!! what a beauty! congratulations to my brother and sister-in-law, jason & joy, and their baby girl! Laurel is my parents first granddaughter, the first niece for lindsay, adam & me, and ethan's little sister.

this picture was taken from lindsay's cell phone within minutes of her birth! can't wait to share more pictures and stories! hopefully i will get to see her next weekend if we go up to georgia.

please pray for joy's recovery and baby laurel to eat well and grow, grow, grow!

harry potter

what an exciting year to become a harry potter fan! the seventh and final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, will be in bookstores on july 21st; the fifth movie will be in theaters on july 11th; and universal studios is building a harry potter theme park!!!

i remember when the first book came out and people were going crazy. churches all around were banning the books. people, especially children started to idolize him. i didn't really care whatsoever...books and story characters that became as famous as harry potter did, seemed a bit looney to me. and i thought harry potter was so nerdy.

during my aol chat room days, when i was incredibly bored, i used to go into this harry potter designated chat room where i guess nerds and dorks would gather to chat about the latest book or something. i thought it was hysterical how famous harry potter became. he was ugly and nerdy. (and i was shallow and dumb) i said really immature things in that chat room like "harry potter is so hot" and "i want to marry harry potter". of course i was just mocking the obsessed people in the chat room and all over the world. i was acting really obnoxious....definitely not a "good" use of time. but sadly i found it amusing anyway.

then in my 12th grade english class, one of my classmates read a harry potter book (i think it was the first one) for some project we had to do. i tried making fun of him for it, but he said he couldn't put the book down, that it was really good! i thought, wow, even this guy likes it. but i still didn't have a desire to get into it.

one day during my first summer at college, i caught most of the first harry potter movie. it was showing on channel 5, our campus movie channel for everyone in the dorms. this is when i realized that harry potter was actually "cool" and i completely changed my mind about it being dorky. i really enjoyed the movie, or what i saw of it. the whole idea seemed fun. when the second movie came out, i decided i would read the books before i watched it. but i didn't have time to read harry potter, not with all my college courses.

during my third year of college, i roomed with melissa, katie, and brittany and all 3 of them had read all of the harry potter books! and they all love the books, especially melissa. i couldn't believe how many people around me had read them all. i don't remember any of my friends from high school or people there enjoying the books. but i started feeling like i was missing out on something, so i ordered the first 3 books. they sat on my bookshelf for almost 2 years. then one day, something magical happened...haha. ;) adam and i decided to start reading them. and about 9-10 months later, here i am waiting for the 7th book to come out and the 5th movie and super excited about the harry potter theme park.

it's still a bit looney but now i'm glad to be a part of it. adam and i have thoroughly enjoyed each book. i would read aloud as adam listened. often, adam would say "keep reading!" even when i'd stop for a second to take a sip of water and catch my breath. we'd read at night before bed, while driving in the car, we'd stay up late or spend hours at a time on saturdays to read. haha...i swear it's not an addiction. it's just been a lot of fun! and we finished the half-blood prince about a month ago.

we even tried to make butterbeer as we watched the 4th movie a couple weeks ago. it was so sweet so i think we will try a few different recipes or come up with our own next time. but it is so much fun! i bet the new theme park will have butterbeer!! :)

so if you are not into harry potter, i have to say you are missing out on some fun stories! and if you are a fan, maybe we can visit the park together when it opens! or see the new movie coming out. you know i'll be there. and can't wait to see how the story finishes. i'm kinda nervous if you know what i mean!