New Laptop

I finally have a new laptop that is working. Tonight we installed Windows 7 onto it (got a huge discount because Newegg.com was WAY wrong in how they handled our laptop issues) and it's working beautifully now. I had no idea that Vista was so rotten, but apparently everybody else in the world does. Every time I loaded a page it would be filled with gobbledygook and I'd have to refresh it.

So, I think I'm up and running now.

That means more pictures...that means more videos...that means more blogging! How exciting. At least for me anyway, I don't know how many of you are actually following us anymore.

Today, my great aunt Joyce (see picture above in swing) had a stroke. We prayed and prayed and I just found out that all signs are pointing to a full recovery! Praise God! Apparently the first few moments after a stroke are really important and they were able to administer an enzyme to help restore full function. For a woman struggling with Alzheimer's, having lasting effects of a stroke could mean huge changes for her future. My great uncle must have acted extremely quickly and realized exactly what was going on, because he called 911 and saved her. What a blessing! So, we are praising God tonight that Joyce is well. She is like a grandmother to me and I love her dearly.

In other news, Sam is having his first sleepover (at our house, anyway) tonight. His BFF, Trathan, is gracing us this evening. It's already been a hoot.

Now on to learning more about Windows 7...which was my idea. :)

More Ice

I don't have any pictures to prove it, but I would wager that by morning we'll have a few more limbs down. The trees were already bending pretty badly this afternoon. I suppose if it keeps on like this all night, as Ray says, we may even be without power by morning. If that's the case, we're leaving town. I don't know how much more I can handle of no water!

In other news, I have accepted the position as children's minister at Perkinsville Baptist Church. I'm very excited to be able to take on this role and work with so many parents and children who I already love.

Sam has continued to read and has begun working on chapter books. I guess they're kindergarten level, but still, that's something.

Carolina is still progressing in every area. Her new phrase today was, "uh oh, I dropped it." I was impressed because it was a full sentence with a new word. I can hear her repeating a lot of phrases Sam says all the time, so I know he's just moving her along.

Other than that, I suppose there's no new news. I hope everyone out there is staying warm.

It's About Time!

Finally! We have reconnected with the world again...our water is back on, we have electricity, Bill is home (where he belongs) and we are enjoying life.

Before all the craziness occurred, we wanted to take some Christmas photos. Here are a couple taken Christmas Eve.

Carolina is sitting in my old rocking chair from when I was a little older than her.

We were so happy and carefree that night...little did we know that the next day would bring the worst ice storm in many years for our town, as well as FIVE days without electricity or water!

A family photo in two feet of snow. This was taken in our front yard.

Speaking of front yards...this was ours the (Christmas) morning of the ice storm. I don't know if you can see the icicles on the fence, but there was ice everywhere.

We still have a lot of trees down. You can see by these photos that the ice was almost a half an inch thick on our trees. Today it just looks like a mess, but on Christmas morning, we could see who the culprit was that took them down.

More trees...


Our Pussy Willow tree in the backyard.

Our Willow tree took a lot of damage, but not nearly as much as I anticipated.

Our front porch. Praise God these trees didn't fall on the baby's rooms.

Extremely thick ice.

I'll leave you on a happy note. Two days before Christmas,

the kids finally got to build their snowman.

Garage Sale! For Those in Southwest China

Garage Sale!! January 14th - all day long.

We are trying to clear out our garage. Please come out and make an offer on anything you see. Lots of furniture, electronics, clothes (maternity, women's size 4-6, men's tall large and baby), toys, DVDs, books, washer, dryer, etc - including a leather sofa (CHEERS brand) and two love seats (very good condition). Make an offer!

Please help us clear it out.

Stop by the garage on January 14th or post a comment (I won't publisn any email addresses) to arrange another time this week.

Directions:
It is in 金实小区（Jin shi xiao qu） just south of Bei chen. There are a few short streets off of Beichen lu that go toward BeiJing lu. Coming from the Wicker Basket area, if you take the road that curves to the left and doesn't actually connect to Beijing lu, it is called 金秋路 (jin shi lu), there will be a complex on your right: 秋实园 （Qiu1 Shi2 yuan2）. I'm next to bldg 637 in garage #270.

Post Ice Storm

We have had electricity for six days now and I am still just as thrilled today as I was when it came back on. I absolutely LOVE having running water. Flushing toilets, washing my hands, washing the kid's hands, taking showers, drinking it...I can't say enough good things about it.

It has also been bitterly cold here. About 8 degrees when we wake up and there's still a ton of snow/ice on the ground. We're getting intermittent snow flurries too, but nothing that's sticking.

My tropical baby isn't so sure about all this cold. I keep slathering both the kids' faces in petroleum jelly before we go outside and Carolina's skin is still suffering. I have to seal her skin every night before she goes to bed and then again in the morning. I think it's pretty common with institutionalized children, but she is a big scratcher. Her arms and legs are constantly bleeding. I've finally fixed her legs and they look somewhat normal again, but her arms are getting the brunt of her scratching now. And before you say it, I keep her fingernails clipped down to the shortest they can possibly be. She just works hard.

Another issue she is having is that she will only chew once or twice before she swallows. She literally causes her eyes to water by swallowing such huge chunks of food. We're having her evaluated again just to make sure we're not missing anything important.

But, on the whole, Carolina is doing great. Sam is also quite healthy at the moment. He is reading everything he can see. He reads billboards, books, commercials...whatever has letters, he's reading it. We're one big happy family, despite the cold.