Clearwire...continued

Someone, other than my family and close friends, read my latest blog that I posted on Clearwire. They posted a comment asking for more information on my experience with Clearwire.

Well, we're only into day 2 of our Clearwire service although today was an excellent test of the service. It rained in the Charlotte area all day and it did not affect our Clearwire service at all. I was very pleased by that.

I want to tell you a little more about our setup. I have the Clearwire modem/receiver located right next to an upstairs window. This is almost an ideal location. There are 5 indicator lights on top of the modem. The more lights that are burning, the better the signal is. All 5 of the indicator lights are burning although the 5th one does goes out occassionally.

I also have the modem hooked into a Belkin wireless router. I did not have to reconfigure my router at all. I just plugged it in and it was ready to go.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I also signed up their VOIP service. I had to purchase their Linksys phone adapter for $15. The only difficulty I had was trying to activate the adapter on Clearwire's website. For whatever reason I kept receiving an error message when I typed in the adapters activation code. I finally called Clearwire's tech who indicated that my adapter was activated. I plugged my phone into it (a cheap 900 MHZ cordless GE), waited until I got a solid green light, picked up the handset and immediately got a dial tone.

( I now must deactivate my Bellsouth account and move my number over to Clearwire. I'll do that in a couple of days just to make sure that I am pleased with Clearwire's service. There is a 7 day cancellation window.)

I was asked about speed & online gaming. Sorry to say that I do not use the internet for online gaming so I can't comment on Clearwire from that perspective. I can say that that it is much faster than my Bellsouth DSL Lite that we have had for a couple of years now. I signed up for Clearwire's Premium Service (1.5 mbps/256 kbps). This was the package that Clearwire said I needed in order to have their VOIP service. I just ran a speed test (www.speedtest.net) and I recorded a 2.0 mbps/209 kbps speed.

Any other questions? I'm not the smartest one out there but I'll do my best!

Clearwire.com

I made the plunge today...

I have been doing some "research" into getting rid of our regular, old-fashioned, land line phone in favor of a VOIP company. In order to get rid of our land line (Bellsouth/AT&T), I would have to find a new high speed internet service. One of the companies that I have been looking at was Clearwire.com. They provide wireless internet. (I won't take the time to explain. You'll have to check it out for yourself - www.Clearwire.com.) One thing that I had not been as pleased with was the VOIP companies. Clearwire offers VOIP in some of its market but not Charlotte (or at least I thought and had been told.)

I went into Best Buy today and Clearwire had a little kiosk set up. I was pleased to find out that they did offer VOIP in Charlotte. It didn't take me long to decide to sign up. After all is said and done, my internet and phone service will only cost me $55 instead of the $85 that it now costs me with Bellsouth.

The great thing about Clearwire was the set up. It took me about 10 minutes to get everything set up. (I remember that, when I signed up for Bellsouth DSL, that it took me all night to get it running.)

So far so good. The good part, at least in Stephenie's eyes, is that we will be able to keep our current phone number.

May I Direct Your Attention To...

...Where's George! I came across this website some time ago but was once again reminded of it while in Virginia this past week. Where's George.com is a website where you can register (free of charge) and then enter the serial numbers from $1 bills in order to track them and see where they've been. While shopping this past week at Peeble's Department Store in Virginia, I received a $1 bill as change. The bill was stamped with, "See Where I've Been. Track Where I Go Next. www.wheresgeorge.com." Apparently that particular bill began it's travels in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

It's pretty interesting. So...before you spend those bills in your wallet, check to see if they've been "marked." If they haven't been marked, before you spend them, sign up at Where's George, enter the bill's serial numbers, mark them yourself (with http://www.wheresgeorge.com/), and then spend them. You will receive an email alert when someone finds your bill and enters it themselves so that you can see where it's gotten to.

Happy New Year!

P.S. - Check out our photo album link.

Christmas at Grandma's (in Virginia)

We celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve morning and what a morning it was. The kids were in our room before 7:00 AM. We read the Christmas story in bed and then went down stairs to open presents. The kids were very excited! A little too excited for us especially since Stephenie was not feeling well. She had a severe sore throat! Since we were going to leave for Virginia around lunch, we decided that Stephenie should go to an urgent care to find out what was wrong.

The doctor said that her throat was severely swollen and that she had an infection. The doctor put her on an antibiotic for the infection and a steroid to bring down here throat swelling.

After she got back from the doctor, we had a brunch and then got ready to leave! We finally got out of town around 12:45 - after a brief trip down the road only to realize that we had forgotten our coats!

We made good time! There was very little traffic on the road. Most people were already where they were going to go and the Christmas Eve parties hadn't started yet. We only saw two highway patrol officers the entire trip. We made the trip in almost record time. We didn't stop at all except to go to the bathroom at the Virginia welcome center. We also let the kids play a little bit before getting back in the van to finish the trip.

I have uploaded some pictures to my photo album. Click on the link that is listed on the right of the page.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Christmas at McAdenville, NC

On Sunday night, December 16th, our church, South Charlotte Baptist Church, went Christmas carolling to some of our "shut ins." Each one that we sang for appreciated it very much. Some of them were even brought to tears. It was a joy to minister to them in that way. After we carolled, we all drove (on our church bus) to McAdenville, NC, which is known as Christmas Town USA.

The entire town is lit up with lights. You drive very slowly through town to view all the lights. This year, many of us got out and walked through town. One of the older churches in town set up some plastic Christmas carollers, set up some speakers and play Christmas music for all to hear. Our group stopped and got our picture taken with those plastic carollers. It was very enjoyable.

Silas Walking

Jeremiah's First Basketball Game

Well, last week was Jeremiah's first basketball game! He enjoyed it. They won! As amazing as it sounds, he's the tallest one on his team. He still says that he would rather play football. (However, he's never actually played organized football.)

The entire family was there to cheer him on. He's going to have to miss his next game because he is in the wedding of one of his former teachers.

We'll keep you posted on how he does through his season!

AAAArgh!!! My Back!

For those who have any sympathy whatsoever...

I threw my back out while Stephenie was gone a couple of weeks ago (pinched nerve in my lower back). Well, as is normal, it took three days for it to work back in place! As soon as it got back to normal, I threw it out again. This time it has taken a whole week to get back to normal.

Stephenie just laughed at me!

Christmas Lights

Last weekend I finally got our outdoor decorations ups. It took awhile to "figure out" what I was doing since 1) I took out all of our bushes since last year and 2) we took down all the railing off of the front porch. Well, as you can see, icicle wrap the entire length of the front porch. I also put icicle lights around the eve of the side stoop and storage room. I then wrapped each of the porch poles. Stephenie had wanted topary Christmas trees that were lit to put by the front door. You can see from the picture that we got a couple. We purchased them at AC Moore, which is a store similar to Michael's.

Silas absolutely loves Christmas lights and Christmas trees. He gets very excited when he sees them all lit up! 'Tis the season to be jolly!

Titus @ the Emergency Room

Earlier this week, Titus began developing a very deep cough. We weren't too concerned at the time. Titus and Silas sleep with a cool mist humidifier in their room which normally keeps them fairly healthy during this time of year. (Our warm weather hasn't been helping much lately!)

On Wednesday night, Titus woke Stephenie up. He couldn't breathe! Well, that was a "no-brainer" that we needed to take him to the Emergency Room (which is only two blocks from our house). Stephenie was rightfully worried and upset so I took Titus to the hospital.

Once Titus got to the hospital, calmed down, and relaxed, he began doing a lot better.

The doctor checked his ears, his breathing, took a chest x-ray and found nothing. The doctor informed me that what he had was an upper respiratory infection caused by a cold. In other words...he had a very bad cold.

The doctor gave us a prescription for albuterol to use as needed for his breathing. (We've only had to use it a couple of times at this point.) Other than that the doctor said to give him Benedryl for his runny nose and congestion.

Titus has stayed home from school for the past two days. He seems to be feeling better today.

Mr. Mom

With Stephenie in Georgia, that means that I am playing "Mr. Mom" with an interesting twist.

On Saturday night, Mollie started complaining of a stomach ache. She threw up early Sunday morning. I've never been in this situation before but that meant that I couldn't go to church on Sunday. There have been plenty of times when I've had others call me to let me know that they wouldn't be able to sing, teach Sunday school, play the piano, etc. but I've never been the one to have to "call in."

We have a wonderful church family that "covered" for me by leading the choir, leading the congregational singing, and teaching my Sunday school class. Some of our church family also came to pick up Jeremiah and Titus so that they could go to church. I was proud of them. They both wanted to go to church.

The next interesting twist is the fact that now (Sunday evening) Titus has a fever. What's going to happen on Monday morning?!

Reminder of Logan

This past Thursday morning (11/29), we received a phone call from one of Stephenie's best friends, Sherry. Sherry's sister (Heather) and brother-in-law (Jarrod) were blessed with twin girls about 7 weeks ago. Unfortunately, on Thursday morning, Heather found one of the twins, Hannah, dead in her crib. This was almost identical to what happened with Logan. When Logan passed away, Sherry came to be with Stephenie. Hearing this brought back memories of Logan. Needless to say, Stephenie immediately wanted to go to be with the family. Having been through this same situation, Stephenie knew exactly what Heather was going through and what she would go through in the days, weeks, and months ahead. Stephenie flew out on Saturday and the funeral was this afternoon (Sunday). From what Stephenie told me, the family is doing well. Jarrod's father (the grandfather) is also their pastor. We got to know these folks when we lived in Georgia.

For those of you who read this, please keep the Scarborough Family and the Sellars Family.

Thanksgiving Day

Once again we had the opportunity to spend Thanksgiving with Stephenie's family in Virginia. We're thankful that we were able to also spend it with Grandma Henry. Stephenie's grandmother is now living in a nursing home. On Friday night, the entire family was able to go to the nursing home where we were able to participate in a service that is led by Mr. Ben, a wonderful man that goes to Stephenie's home church. We sang for awhile. The kids and I sang a couple of Christmas carols. Stephenie's brother-in-law, Ronnie, preached to end the evening. We had a great time.

Black Friday Eve!

Yes, I lost my sanity for a brief moment! Normally the ladies go shopping on Black Friday Eve. This year, I came up with the idea for the guys to go out on Thanksgiving night. I found out that CompUSA was going to open up at 9:00 PM on Thanksgiving night. I didn't think it was going to be a big deal. How many people would actually want to shop at CompUSA on Thanksgiving night?! As we (My father-in-law, brother-in-law, nephew-in-law, and myself) found out that a lot of people wanted to go shopping. The line was all the way down the front of the shopping center. We waited in line, just to get in the store, for about 45 minutes. Once you got inside there was absolutely no room to turn around. It took us over an hour to check out! The check out lines went all the way from the front to the back of the store. It was long night and one that I don't want to repeat any time soon! My mother-in-law and the other ladies were excited to get all the men out of the house for a few hours!

Chewy's Christmas Present

As you can see, Chewy is pretty comfortable. Last month, we broke down and finally got rid of the recliner that we have had for almost 10 years. When we moved to Charlotte, Chewy claimed the coach as hers. When we purchased a new coach last year, Chewy was not allowed to get on the coach. Chewy ended up kicking me out of the recliner and took ownership. When we got rid of the recliner she was suddenly homeless. As you can see from the picture, we purchased her a "doggy bed." She absolutely loves it! Literally, the only time she gets out of the bed is to go outside once or twice and that's it!