Lots to be thankful for

Here is the whole gang. I think we had around 50 people here. Sorry the lighting is so bad, I'm going to work on the coloring when I get back home.

2 new Kinseys- Jennifer is due Jan 21st I'm due Feb 7th. Jennifer is having a girl, McKenna Leigh, and We're having Josiah Larry. I hope to get a shot of Erin and Wyatt Daniel on Wednesday.

Big Belly Shot

Brielle thinking

We have so much to be thankful for this season. Here are a few pictures of our Thanksgiving.

Out of town

Hi friends,

For those of you that don't know, Eden and are Florida visiting my family for the holidays. My doctor has advised against traveling for Christmas because I'll be to close to my due date to travel. So, Eden and I extended our time in Florida to visit and have a resting time before Josiah makes his arrival.

I found a great ticket to fly home (Jacksonville to Greenville) on Friday. That should be lots of fun! I'm super big and traveling with a 17 month old. But it beats 12+ hours in a car with a 17 month old. Please pray for us. Pray our plane isn't full so I can get an empty seat next to me on each flight. That way Eden will have more room to play. Pray Eden is in a great mood and travels well. She's a great baby, but tends to get cranky when sleepy. Plus she is not into sitting still for more than a minute at a time. Pray that there will be nice people on my flights and the flight attendants will be sweet. If any of you have advice for traveling with a little one on a plane, I would love to hear it.

If you need to get in touch with me, e-mail me. Sadly, my cell phone does not get reception here.

I'll try to post some pictures of Thanksgiving soon.

Operation Brown Bag

This is one of the bags that was given in the love of Jesus.

This is Ms. Rose Griffin. Her husband Thurman was the pastor of our church for over 50 years.


The Members of Reddicks Grove Baptist Church that went out to share the love of Jesus

The personal visits meant so much to the residents at WRC

This weekend our church did a Thanksgiving project to help families in need and the nursing home residents at Williamston Rehab Center. We called it Operation Brown Bag because it was a continuation of Operation In As Much we did this past Spring. It was a wonderful success!

All of the people who participated were blessed and could say how each family who received a bag were so grateful. It was one of those times you could say it was more blessed to give than receive. We who gave the bags were blessed beyond words. With times being so tough, these bags were just a little way our church could say we love you and Jesus loves you.

My team went to the nursing home and we were able to give each patient a gift bag. We put things like socks, washcloths, tooth paste, tooth brushes, shampoos, soaps and a few sugar free snacks. The residents were so happy to receive the bags, but most of them enjoyed the visit just as much.

Let it snow :)

Eden got to enjoy her 1st snow this week. It snowed 2 different days. The first snow, Eden slept through, When she woke up Thursday morning snow was still coming down. So I bundled her up and ran outside so we wouldn't miss it. Larry took the picture. She thought it was so neat. It melted as soon as it hit us or the ground, so no snow men this time. Maybe we'll get some more this winter :)

Home again, Home Again....

We're happy to be home.

We had a good visit and enjoyed some time with Larry's family in Charleston and his Reunion. I'll upload some more pictures tomorrow. I am again using slow speed Internet and that always leads to frustration. This weekend we were able to use high speed Internet. Oh how I miss High Speed!!!!!

I wasn't able to finish the post below about the Citadel because I realized while doing it that Eden was pretty sick.

When I got back from the Citadel (Larry stayed to visit longer with friends) I realized that Eden wasn't doing well. I tried to give it the benefit of the doubt and Jeanne said she had done fine until I got there. Eden eyes were weak and as I was posting to the blog, I saw her pulling her right ear 3 times. Eden is not a fussy baby when she's sick. She only cries when she is in extreme pain.

It's never good for a toddler to get sick, much less on a Saturday and even worse out of town. It was 4:30 Saturday afternoon when I realized she would need to see a doctor. I was anxious and fearful because I didn't want to have to take Eden to the ER, and have to wait hours with her sick and expose her to hospital germs. I started to pray. I know God hears a mother's heart. I loved how He answered my prayers.

We found a walk in clinic that was open and would see a toddler. We took her to Health First in North Charleston. They were AWESOME! We walked in and I explained that Larry had our insurance cards and he was on his way. They said no problem. We were called back to the nurse's station for vitals and in a room in less than 5 minutes.

In the room they played contemporary Christian music. Their magazine were all Christian, they had books by Focus on the Family, and they had Bible verses all around. The Doctor was in within 5 minutes and she was super nice. She found that Eden had a double ear infection and bad sinus congestion. She was glad we went ahead and brought her in. Then, another sweet nurse came in to give Eden a hearing test to see how severe the infection was. I have never had this done at the pediatricians office. They found that their was no sound waves bouncing off her right ear drum and only low range on her left, which let them know how bad the infections were. They gave us prescriptions to help and wished us well. We were done in 25 minutes. It was one of the best doctor's visit I ever had for Eden. I was ready to break down and get so upset, but God gave us such excellent care for Eden. What a tremendous blessing!!! Who knew we would find a Christian doctor's office on a Saturday evening!!! God knew that's who!!!

Eden is doing better and is sleeping in her own bed now. I'm heading off to go sleep in mine as well. :)

Citadel (updated)

As the homecoming parade passes, it customary for alumni to take the field and salute their Troop as it passes. 10 years ago Larry was doing the same thing these young men were.

This is the barracks at the Citadel. Larry was in F Troop. They've redone the barracks, now they have central heat and air, and are much nicer than when Larry was there.

Chuck, Eric, Larry and Doug

Class of 98, F Troop

Go Bulldogs!

This weekend we're in Charleston celebrating Larry's 10 year college reunion. I was able to go with Larry to see a parade and tailgate for a game. Each time we've visited in the past there were never cadets on campus. It was different seeing the campus run like it did when Larry was there.

I have a whole new respect for the effort that Larry put in to being a Citadel man. When you see how the knobs live for a year, you find an awe that these young men (and now women) deal with to become Cadets. The knobs, freshmen, have to walk in the gutter at double time always looking ahead, ready to answer to any upper class men. They get yelled at and have to know the history of the Citadel and any other relevant information that the upperclassmen deem

important.

The Cadets lives are lived in a code of ethics and honor that I never experienced at my secular university. There is a brotherhood that these men share that is special. Their friendship will last their lifetimes because of what they put up with and how they shared their lives for the four years they were there.

One of the neatest thing we experienced while touring this weekend was going into one of the rooms in the barracks. Larry wanted me to see the new rooms and how they had changed. Even though the rooms were updated they kept the old lockers. Larry's name and '98 was etched along with the men who used the lockers before his time. As I looked into the young mans face, I said, can you imagine how your life will change in the next 10 years. His mom and Dad were also visiting and I was able to talk with her for a few moments. We all shared a neat experience. Larry relived the past and this young man gained a glimpse into the future. It was really neat :)

"Knocked Up"

Funny story to make you laugh. Eden and I went to Walmart this afternoon. I bought a 40-50 lb bag of Dog food. I had a stock guy help me load it into the cart. When we checked out, I asked the cashier if a stock man could help me carry it out. She paged for help, after a few minutes the manager walks over and asked what was the hold up. The cashier said, "This lady is knocked up and doesn't need to carry out that big bag of dog food." I just started to laugh. I said , "I like to think of it as expecting, but if knocked up works to get help out ...OK." The manager smiled. I could tell he was embarrassed. He helped me out.

Eden and Daddy

For some reason, my child can't seem to keep her tongue in her mouth. She loves to stick it out and play with it. Here is yet another picture of her with her tongue sticking out. This will only be cute for a few more years. For now, I still think she's adorable!!!