Fall is here!

I thought about posting these in several different posts, but you might miss something that way! So, here are a ton of pictures depicting our most recent days (which have been filled to the brim with excitement).

The above photo and the next one are here at our house and were taken today.



Let me get to our Florida photos that I've neglected for too long. We went out on Fran's boat in the Indian River in New Smyrna for a little fun. Sam loved riding in the boat, though he felt it was a little windy.


He especially enjoyed driving the boat with Fran and then, when we were anchored, with me.





We went to a "disappearing" island, which was really a sandbar that appeared and disappeared with the tide. It's quite a large sandbar though. We had fun practicing walking (yes, Sam is walking when he doesn't have somewhere he wants to be quickly - that's when he crawls) and playing Frisbee.



Here's a photo of Bill with David Hudson, his best friend from childhood. They were at Vickie and Dan Watson's acting studio in Lutz, Florida. I have some photos of Vickie and Bill, but they didn't turn out very well. Vickie just had a baby too - she's a teacher from their high school. Can you believe they all keep in touch this many years later?


Next I have a random photo of Sam playing the piano. He loved the one at Karen Hester's house. He could barely reach the keys, but loved making music.


By the way, for those of you who heard about the Medtronics recall on their defibrillator leads, Sam was no affected by it. Thanks for your emails and concern. Dr. Buck, our favorite doctor in the WHOLE world, called to let us know Sam is not in any danger. Thanks, Dr. Buck!

Moving on, we went to the fair last week with Adam and Kendall. We had a fantastic time - I just LOVE the fall in North Carolina. The weather has been unseasonably warm, but the fair made us feel somewhat normal for this season.

Here are Adam and Kendall. Adam's a real photogenic guy.

Adam took this one of Sam. We love how it highlights his beautiful curls and smile.

Here's one of me and Adam together. You might be noticing that I'm much thinner than days past. I'm continuing to lose weight due to the meningitis. I, obviously, don't have meningitis anymore, but the effects will be felt for a while. I still get headaches and neck aches and I have to eat a ton of protein just to break even with my weight. Hopefully I won't go down anymore.

Here's the family trying to make funny faces. I love the circular action of this photo.

We were in a tent eating our sausages when Adam said we needed to take a photo of the food for my father. He has books and books of his photos of food. Anyway, as Bill was taking the "normal" photograph of the sausage, he started getting very animated and directing Adam to "work it." This was the end result after about four or five very funny photos.

Our neighbors, the Jones family, along with some folks from our church, got some free pumpkins, bales of hay and mums from the fair. They set some of them up outside their house and I just had to get photos.

Here is Sam with Eden. She wasn't quite as sturdy as Sam was - she's a little peanut just like Sam and a couple months younger.

Hope you enjoyed the photos - I'm sure you'll agree that Bill is a fantastic photographer. He is such a talented man and I am grateful to be the recipient of his many gifts.

Disney World

We just got back from a trip to Florida where we went to a big conference and then took a few days of vacation. We had a fantastic time seeing Bill's old friends in Brandon. We were surprised at how many people remembered him from his music internship days, and even youth group days, at Bell Shoals. Everyone welcomed us with open arms. I can't stress how much we needed the encouragement and prayers that we got during the conference.

Afterwards with went to Winter Park to stay with our good friend Fran. We had an extremely relaxing time with him when we went to Disney and then to New Smyrna to see his parents. I'll post pictures of New Smyrna later, but for now, enjoy our pics from Disney. I will say this, it was exactly what we needed after the month we had!

Poor Sam didn't get much sleep the entire trip, but he really did enjoy himself at Disney. All the sights and sounds were a little overwhelming at first and we didn't actually get to ride anything until about two hours in. I had to feed him, change him...this and that got in the way of actually doing anything at the park.

I was so excited when I found out we could go around Halloween-time. I've never been to Disney during Halloween and was excited about the decorations. The greenhouse at Disney put small pumpkins (the size of a grapefruit) into a Mickey mold and made whole Mickey-shaped pumpkins. Here we are just before getting kicked out (we didn't buy tickets for the Halloween Bash after 7pm and had to leave - but don't worry, I got three free tickets out of it!).

Here is Sam having his first bite of gigantic turkey leg. He LOVED it. It was a bit too heavy for him to hold alone though.

Sam took an instant liking to Fran and had to be held by him on more than one occasion. Fran even volunteered to keep Sam while we went on the Haunted Mansion ride. We were a bit nervous leaving him about 50 feet from us while we were inside, but Sam slept most of the fifteen minutes we were gone. Phew. Fran knew just how to make Sam happy.

Sam and I went on the Winnie the Pooh ride, which used to be Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. It was essentially the same ride, only a story from Winnie the Pooh was being told instead. I was a bit disappointed, actually, but Sam didn't care one bit. He loved it.

Here are the guys just before they went on Splash Mountain. Don't worry, Sam didn't go with them.

We've had our hands full since we have been back. It's a special week over at Southeastern and we got to set up a display table yesterday. We went to the fair with my brother and his wife last night and didn't make it home till late. I'm a bit delayed in emails right now, so please forgive me.

Happy Birthday Sam!!!

Sam's birthday is only two days away! He'll be the big ONE.


We had a great party yesterday at our home in Raleigh. We had a lot of folks come from all over to celebrate Sam's life. He even had two of his girlfriends come too.

We served NC BBQ and SC BBQ. SC BBQ is mustard-based and NC-style is vinegar-based. We had roasted sweet potatoes and red potatoes with parsley (for the kids too) and cole slaw with a veggie tray. It was delicious!


There were so many great photos. I'll try to describe each one and what is happening.

Sam having fun with his guests.

Sam's guests having fun with his toys.

Some of the taller guests enjoying BBQ sandwiches.

Looking forward to the sweetness.

Blowing out the candle.

Sam's first taste of sugar. I think he likes it!

And now for the PRESENTS!! Here's one from the Carsons.

Reading a book from Jenny

Investigating Aunt Beth's turtle.

Making music on his new piano from Nana.

"Hurry up Jenny!"

Look how big this gift from Grandmommy, Granddaddy, Uncle Adam and Aunt Kendall is!

A red Radio Flyer wagon!

Aunt Gina and Sam.

After the party, Sam and Nana having fun.

Pumpkin Pickin'

We went to Hillridge Farms yesterday to go pumpkin picking with Sam and Bill's mom, Gerry Ann. It was a little disappointing that they had actually purchased all of the pumpkins from Enloe, complete with barcode, and just set them out in a field. But, at least it was still a local pumpkin patch.

We had a great time! When we came home, there was a surprise waiting for us - or, more accurately, for Sam. It was a gift from his grandmommy and granddaddy in Thailand! We had his first birthday party today and it made it just in time. His actual birthday is on Tuesday, October 2nd. I'll post photos of that later.

Just to emphasize, Sam is a completely normal little boy. This defibrillator has not slowed him down one bit. He even got another tooth this week and a molar is coming in! That makes seven that are out so far. He'll be walking soon!

Brugada: What is it?

We went over to our neighbor's house today to play a little. They have a little girl named Eden, who's a few months younger, and Sam loves being with her. This is his very first pumpkin to touch.

This one looks like a wedding photo, in my opinion.

Lots of folks have been asking for a more succinct version of what happened with Sam over the last few weeks. Most of you got the daily blog update and a few newsletters, but I wanted to kind of put everything into perspective with this blog.

We'll start at the beginning:

October 2, 2006 - Sam is born and is extremely healthy. He has no health problems and is only on antibiotics once during the next 11 months.

Fast forward to:

August 23, 2007 - Sam wakes up with a fever. I gave him Tylenol, but it wasn't enough to cut the fever. It spiked around 11:30 in the morning to over 102 degrees and as a result he had a febrile seizure. We called an ambulance, they took us to Rex Emergency Room. Sam appeared to be recovering fine, so they sent us home and told us to give him Tylenol and Ibuprofen alternately for the fever. They think he has a summer virus because of a rash that appeared on his trunk at the hospital.

August 23, 2007 - At 8:30pm his fever spiked again to over 102 degrees and he had another seizure. We called 911, again, and this time the (very smart) EMT took an ECG of Sam on the way to Rex. Sam's heart rate was beating very very fast - they call it ventricular tachycardia, which prevents the blood from circulating properly in his body. The sirens come on and we jetted even faster to Rex. While at the Rex ER, Sam had several more abnormal ECGs. He was transferred to UNC Hospital for observation. He was given more medicine to keep his fever down, which stayed above 101 for the next two days, despite the meds.

August 25, 2007 - A cardiologist (we were in the pediatric cardiology ward) says they have contacted Dr. Buck, a specialist in rhythm. He has asked them to perform several tests to see if Sam has certain heart disorders. Brugada was one of the ones they checked on. Sam was discharged this day.

August 30, 2007 - I have a terrible headache and stiff neck. It was so bad I made Bill take me to the ER. I had a spinal tap and they determined I had viral meningitis. I was admitted to the hospital.

August 31, 2007 - Bill took Sam to see Dr. Buck regarding Sam's tests done at UNC. Dr. Buck says that Sam has something called Brugada Syndrome.

What is Brugada? "This is an inherited arrhythmia that causes the bottom chambers of the heart (the ventricles) to beat so fast that they can prevent the blood from circulating efficiently in the body. When this situation occurs (called ventricular fibrillation), the individual will faint and may die in a few minutes if the heart is not reset." (check http://www.brugada.org/ for more information)

The defibrillator will help reset his heart - it is a "safety net" for him.

Same day - Sam is put on a heart monitor during nap times and evening sleep to check if his heart is in danger. Bill's mother came up from SC to help. I am still in the hospital. We are told we qualify for a research study and Sam will have his blood checked for genetic markers of the disease. If he has them, we will be checked as well.

September 1, 2007 - I am released from the hospital, no longer contagious, with at least a month of recovery ahead of me.

September 5, 2007 - Sam has surgery to implant a defibrillator. It actually has to go into his belly because he is so little there is no other space for it. The leads are attached to his pericardial sac. They went in through his chest - a small part of his sternum was cut. While he was being transferred to his hospital bed, the device malfunctioned and shocked him 20 times in 24 minutes (with us watching). Poor little guy. The therapy portion of the device was shut off for the next few days to monitor him and figure out what went wrong.


September 9, 2007 - We all determined it would be okay to turn the device back on. There were no misfires and Sam was released on September 11, 2007.

September 14, 2007 - Bill and I have ECGs to see if we are in the clear. Bill's has a slight abnormality, but nothing has been determined. Mine was fine. Sam was also checked out this day and is doing well.

To this day there have been no misfires of the defibrillator. We count it a blessing to have Dr. Buck as our cardiologist. He has treated Sam so well and has been meticulously scrutinizing the device and Sam. Sam has a few problems with his bowels now, because the device (adult-size device, by the way) is so large and is pushing on his tummy.

September 24, 2007 - 10:10am Sam has an appointment with his pediatrician
September 28, 2007 - 8:00am Sam has an appointment with Dr. Buck, cardiologist

We are so grateful for everyone's help during this time. As you can see, it happened in only a matter of weeks. It has been life-changing, but we know God is in control.

At the Park

We are trying so hard to return our lives to some semblance of normalcy. I guess the fact that we're "trying" proves that it's not normal, but maybe one day...a girl can dream, right?

Sam's recovering well - he is doing everything he should be doing at this season of his life. Today he even got up from a sitting position in the middle of the living room floor and just stood there for a long time, looking at me. I had time to call Bill in to look and Sam still just stood there. Bill's mother is visiting and she is really hoping he will walk during her trip. He might just.

He's having some real trouble with his tummy right now - apparently the defibrillator is squishing his insides a bit so he's not sleeping through the night because of gas pains, he's spitting up again and he's just plain uncomfortable. So, we've started him on Prevacid and Mylanta and we'll see how that does. Not much we can do except wait for him to grow into it. If you want to see a picture of it, scroll down a bit to my last post.

I went to my doctor yesterday and he told me meningitis is actually considered a "major" illness. I was shocked. He said it'd be a while before I will feel normal again. So, with everything that my doc said, Bill is (strongly) encouraging me to rest more. But, I convinced him it would be fun for all of us to go to the park today. Here are some photos...

Sam loved driving the truck.

We rode the swing together, but riding it alone seemed to be his favorite. Look how teeny weeny he seems.

We went to Goodberry's Frozen Custard afterwards or a treat. Sam loved walking around the brick wall.

Tonight we took pictures of Sam's curly hair. We're cutting it tomorrow since it's in his eyes. It'll be his third haircut, but I'm always scared that the next haircut will take away his beautiful curls. I thought some pictures would help me remember.

We were playing a funny game together, so he was laughing a lot.