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.