Christmas joys and woes

We're still not home from our Christmas travels, but I find myself alone in house with my sleeping child. Time to post!! We've had an eventful week or so. We headed to visit my family in Ohio on Wednesday the 22nd. We had great travel and the weather cooperated. Once we arrived, we ate dinner and I went with my sister, Abby, and mom to get a pedicure as part of my Christmas present. It was a nice "girls night out" that we rarely have the opportunity to enjoy.

The following day my sister and I ran to the next big town to pick up a last minute gift and then we were going to finish the grocery shopping. We left Kate and my two nieces with their fathers. On our way to the store, my phone rings. I answer the phone to hear Kraig say, "She's okay, but I just wanted you to know that Kate fell and she bled for a little while." He went on to explain that she had tripped going from one room to the next, and she must have bit her lip in the process. He handled the whole situations surprisingly well, especially considering that she had never bled before. Crisis handled.

We got to the store we needed to and picked out the gift. In and out in 15 minutes. Pretty good. We decided to stop at Taco Bell for lunch, as we frequently used to do when we would shop there with our mom. We went into Taco Bell and my phone rang just as I was ordering my food. It was Kraig again. "It has nothing to do with the kids," he says, "but you're never going to leave us alone again." My brother-in-law, Nick, had gone out to start our car so they could take the kids down to my mom's house for lunch, and somehow the keys managed to get locked inside the car while the car was running. We tried to use the car remote through the phone to unlock the car, but it did not work. I changed our order from "here" to "to go," and we headed back home. By the time we got back, the car had been running for nearly an hour, but we saved the day. Abby and I headed back to town to finish our shopping.

The next day was Christmas Eve. Kate developed a fever that afternoon, and she was up not feeling well most of the night. She had no other symptoms but being cranky and feverish, but she was most definitely out-of-sorts. Her fever reached 103 degrees in the middle of the night, and we headed to the ER around 8:30 Christmas morning. We were in and out relatively quickly. Fortunately, the doctor found no signs of infection or anything. He ruled it a virus, and we went home to open presents. The rest of our stay with my family was pretty miserable because she was feeling awful and not sleeping well. Lots of fun!!

Sunday morning, we headed to Pennsylvania to visit Kraig's family and Kate still had a fever. She slept more of the trip than she has ever slept in a car, so we were grateful for that. Sunday night we opened presents here and she seemed to be in a little better spirits, but she still had a fever. Monday she was still pretty miserable, but she seemed to perk up in the evening. This morning she woke up about an hour before she normally does and Kraig offered to take her so I could get a little extra rest. Praise the Lord! Her fever seems to be gone and she ate mass amounts of food at breakfast time. She's also taking decent naps today, so it seems like the virus must have run it's course. Not great timing for a sickness, but I'm glad she's doing better. She's wearing me out!!

In other news, a guy from our church who has been waiting on a heart transplant for a long time finally got one on Christmas day. The surgery went very well, but afterwards things got a little sticky. They had to go back in and explore things, but he seems to be doing better now. He and his family, the Flynns, could definitely use your prayers.

I also have a sweet friend from college who is on hospital bed rest with her twin boys right now. One of the baby's water broke on Thursday and they're keeping her in the hospital until it's safe for them to be delivered or until they have to deliver them. The baby's are almost 29 weeks at this point, but they are much to small to leave their Mommy right now. Please pray for her and her family. She has a toddler at home, as well, and their hospital is a good distance from where they live. Pray for the strength of the babies, that they would mature quickly and be able to be born healthy. Pray that they are able to stay in for the next eight weeks that they're hoping for. Pray that no infections develop and that she not go into labor on her own. Pray for her husband as he juggles work, master's classes, a toddler and being away from his wife. Pray for her, too. For her strength, mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually to get through this trying time. Pray that the doctors would make the best decisions for everyone involved. It's a scary situation, but it's nothing God can't handle!! I wish I could do more than pray, but I'm glad if there is one thing I can do it's plead to God for them!

It's almost time!!

We're headed to Ohio on Tuesday to spend a few days with my family. We haven't seen my parents since July, so it's about time! I'm excited to spend time with them and to get away for a few days. We'll stay with them until the day after Christmas, and then we're headed to Pennsylvania. We're praying for safe travel and good weather. It'll be fun, especially since none of them have gotten to see Kate walk yet. That's right, she's walking! She's been experimenting for a few weeks, but Tuesday she took off and hasn't stopped! I know she's a late bloomer, but we're so proud!!

I'm so excited for Christmas, spending time with family and for seeing Kate enjoy all the festivities. I love Christmas, and I'm so thankful that God gave us such a special holiday time to remember his gift of Jesus. What a gift that is!!

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I pray that you'll all be blessed by the season and remember it's true meaning!

TV shows we love

We watch too much television, for sure. There are some shows out there that we just love and I wanted to share those with you to make sure you're not missing them! I'll just mention our newest favorites and leave out the oldies like Grey's Anatomy.

The newest show we love is Mike & Molly, which airs on Monday nights on CBS. Mike is Billy Gardell, who has been in a number of shows like My Name is Earl and Yes, Dear. Molly is the fabulous Melissa McCarthy (Aka Sookie from Gilmore Girls). It's a comedy based on two overweight people who meet at an over-eater anonymous meeting. Sounds lame, but it's hysterical.

On Tuesdays, we watch Parenthood. We LOVE Parenthood, which airs on ABC. It's an hour long, family comedy/drama that has lots of recoginzable cast members such as Lauren Graham and Craig T. Nelson. The show is about a family of four siblings and all of their individual families. It deals with a lot of topics like teenage drama, love, marriage, parenting and family, but I especially love the grandson that they've recently discovered has Asperger's (a form of autism). I love the way that they're very real about life and they don't try to make things all happy and cheery all the time. And I love Lauren Graham.

Wednesdays--We watch The Middle on ABC. As imdb.com describes it, it's about "the daily mishaps of a harried woman and her semi-dysfunctional family and their attempts to survive life in general in the city of Orson, Indiana. If you're a mother, it will speak to you. Seriously. It's hysterical. Patricia Heaton (Ray's wife from Everybody Love Raymond) plays the mom, Frankie Heck. Neil Flynn (the Janitor from Scrubs) plays the dad, Mike Heck. Their kids names? Axl, Sue and Brick. Seriously.

Those are the newest shows we love. Other faves you should check out would be Big Bang Theory on CBS Thursdays, Pawn Stars and American Pickers on History, and Chopped on the Food Network.

What are you watching these days?

We're leaving for Christmas in 16 days?!

Where did this year go? I feel like it's flying past me and I'm missing it.

I love Christmas. I love the decorations. I love giving gifts. I love the music, the sights, sounds and smells. I love the reason that we have to celebrate. This year, our church's sermon series for the month of December is "Advent Conspiracy." We're talking about the commercialism of Christmas, the wasted money, and the great need there is in the world. And, of course, we're talking about putting the focus back on Jesus. The next two sermons are "Spend Less" and "Give More." I love it!! I'll admit, it's easy to get caught up in the hype and spend more money than you have to buy gifts, especially if you have kids. But I love the challenge of this sermon series. We're not cutting back nearly as much as I would like to. I'd like to completely skip the presents all together, but no one agrees with me on that. We have done some super sale shopping and are making a few homemade gifts, but that's pretty much the extent of it.

We'll be giving to the church's project this month (and every month), which is to raise money to build wells in Africa. Last year they built four wells, this year we're hoping for more. November's project was collecting food to stock a local food bank. We were the ONLY church contributing to the food bank this year. All three ministers spend an afternoon a week helping out at the Boys & Girls Club. Kraig always comes home with a story about an awesome kid he's working with that is in need. Last week, the kid he worked with has several siblings that are all living with their grandparents because their mother abandoned them. They need winter coats. The grandma actually said, "I hope they don't get name brand coats and think that they'll always have name brand stuff." It's heartbreaking. I'd much rather give up my Christmas presents to help these people. I feel very blessed that we have everything that we need to provide for our family. God always provides!

In the meantime, I wish Kate would take a nap!