The Flu bug hits

It is Spring Break. Two weeks of not getting up and fixing breakfast and lunches and rushing Faith off to school. Two weeks of no homework and spelling tests. Right now it is a beautiful morning and promising to be a nice day. BUT, Faith has the flu (or at least she is getting over it) and we are stuck here at home.

Faith woke up Sunday morning and requested breakfast but didn't eat much. She put on her clothes for church and then came and laid back down on the couch. She told me that she did not feel good. I went and felt her forehead and it was burning up. I took her temperature and it was 101.5. So, she put on her pajamas, took some Tylenol and stayed home from church with her daddy. Monday, Kevin took her to the doctor and found out that she had the flu. She had the flu strain B which the flu shot that John Derrick took was useless against. The doctor told Kevin that we would all probably get it.

We are a fairly healthy family. We get a cold or two a year. Faith has only had strept throat once and several ear infections as a baby. Never enough to have to have tubes or anything. John Derrick has had maybe two ear infections in his 4 years of life. He hardly ever gets sick. NOBODY has ever had the flu at our house till now. I am still hoping that the rest of us will not get it and Faith gets completely over it soon. So if anyone of us was to get sick, lets get sick now and not next week when we are planning on going to the mountains.

My Brave Girl

Faith decided to get her ears pierced for her birthday this year. I was a little surprised that she wanted to because she has a VERY low tolerance for pain. We had talked about it around Christmas and I told her that she needed to wait till her birthday. When it got close to her birthday she told me that it sounded too scary and that she would wait and I was fine with that and nothing more was said. On the day after her birthday, Kevin went and picked her up from school and he was going to take her on a few errands before they came home. He called me and said that Faith wanted to get her ears pierced and he was going to take her. First, I was a little shocked to hear that Faith was ready for her ears being pierced. Second, I told him that she couldn't do it without me. He didn't quite understand why he just couldn't just take her himself. Well, I am her mother and I know a little bit more about jewelry then he does and this was a big step for her and I had to be there.

I had to get ready so Kevin took her to Wal Mart where he needed to get something and stopped in the jewelry department to let Faith find out what they did. They explained everything and then they came and got me and John Derrick and it was off to Wal Mart. I left my camera at home, luckily Kevin had his phone with him. The ladies there were so nice to us. They both stopped what they were doing and gave their complete attention to Faith. There were several customers waiting, but Faith was the only one they were concerned about. Faith picked out her studs and chose her birthstone which is the Aquamarine. She got both ears done at the same time and was very brave and didn't yell or start crying. She did try to jump up but I was holding her hands.

You can't see the earrings in this picture but note the happy face. She was so proud of those earrings. That night when we got to church for Wednesday night services she was showing everybody her earrings. It was so cute. She does look a little bit more grown up but she is still as beautiful as ever.

A House Full of New Stuff

I finally got my Christmas present!! My new table and chairs. I am sooooo happy. My old table was my grandmother's and had to be at least 50 years old. It only had 4 chairs and 2 of the chairs were falling apart. The weaving in the seats was coming undone and there were bigs holes in the seats. John Derrick had to sit in a booster seat so he wouldn't fall through and Faith just had to tough it out. It was quite embarrassing when we had company over.

Kevin and I was able to get a Friday night away from the kids when we got the table and chairs. I had found the table and chairs that I wanted at Ikea in Atlanta. So we dropped the kiddiwinks off at Grandmommy's and Granddaddy's on Friday night, and went off to Atlanta. It was a great weekend. Since we didn't have the kiddies, we waited till we got to Atlanta that night to eat. I used Kevin's TomTom and found out there was a Cheesecake Factory close to our hotel. I had been craving cheesecake for about a week and there was no question about where we were going to eat. It was 8:00 on Friday night when we got there, and I thought there wouldn't be too long of a wait. When we walked in, it was packed. Kevin went up and requested a table for two. The man told him to go and wait for our name to be called. Kevin asked if we needed a pager, but since it was just the two of us, there was no wait. We also got a booth which was really nice. Dinner was delicious and the cheesecake was "to die for." After we ate, we went on to the hotel. Kevin always stays at Holiday Inns when he travels and he has platinum status on his Priority club. He gets upgrades on his rooms when available and tonight was one of those times. We were upgraded to a suite so the room was HUGE with it's own kitchen. Too bad we were only staying for one night.

Saturday morning, we got up and went to Target first and then off to Ikea. If you have never been to an Ikea store, I suggest you go whenever you are near one. It is such a neat store and it is fun to just go and look. Since we don't get to come to Atlanta often without kids, we took advantage of the time and our income tax money and went SHOPPING! We got a table and six chairs, a bookcase for the living room, a bookcase for John Derrick's room, three different wall shelves, and assorted odds and ends for the kitchen. We even came way under budget which just made the weekend even better. You may be wondering how we got all this home. First, all the furniture is put it together yourself so it was all flat and we also borrowed my dad's truck.

It was a wonderful weekend and I hope we can do it again sometime soon. My house is getting full but it is starting to feel real cozy. I love my table and the bookcase in the living room. I'll have to take pictures soon.

I have a 9 year old!!

Exactly 9 years ago today, my life changed completely by the birth of my daughter. I can hardly believe that she is already 9 years old, just one more year before she is in double digits. Faith is the most precious girl, right now she is playing on the computer with John Derrick. He couldn't ask for a better big sister. She has grown up a lot this past year but still she is little girl at heart. Her favorite color is purple, her favorite food is spaghetti (and pizza and "grandmommy's chili"), she loves fairies and Webkinz (she has 12 now). Her best friend is Charrienne and Charrienne is a good choice for a friend. She likes to play on the computer, play Wii and watch Spongebob on TV. Don't worry she is active also. Now that the weather is warm, she and John Derrick like to go out the backyard on play on the swingset and catch bugs. She is in third grade and her teacher is Mrs. Reginia Wright, and she is doing great in school this year. She even won the Cougar Award. She is going to participate in Lads to Leaders and Leaderettes this year. She is going to do scipture reading, Bible bowl and songs of praise and I am very excited for her.

This is Faith's birthday cake that I made for her this year. She wanted a Webkinz birthday party so I made a picture of one of her Webkinz. This is Hoppy the frog (she had to pick out the one with the most colors). We had her birthday party of March 7 and it was just family. It was a beautiful day outside compared to last year when it had snowed the night before. She requested "grandmommy's chili" for her birthday lunch and even though it was warm outside, it tasted good and it is a simple meal to make because it can be cooked in a crock pot.

Lane and Kristen are moving to Houston, TX in a few weeks so Mom and Dad wanted some family pictures taken before they moved away. This is the picture of Faith and John Derrick. I absolutely love it. I haven't had their pictures taken together in a long time so I really appreciate this picture. Aren't they so beautiful.