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!