Blogging - A Family Affair

Sorry for the lack of activity today. I actually started a new job and today was my first day. It was spent in your standard first day orientation - getting your computer, learning how to submit expenses, etc. My mind was definitely on blogging (and about a thousand other things other than what was being talked about - it was pretty dry) - but I decided to lay off the blogging in the name of trying to make a good first impression.

If you've been here with me since I started this blog back in October, you might remember a post I did on my brother's blog. He is a Pastor here in the Charlotte area and, while his blog is very different than mine in terms of its content, it's definitely a cool blog and he posts some interesting and inspirational stuff. I read it every day. Recently my sister also joined the blogosphere. Her blog is all about her life - her family, her job (she's a great elementary school teacher - fits her personality perfectly!), her hobbies, etc. I'm so impressed with how quickly she's picked up the whole 'blogging' thing. She's posting tons of pictures, cool links, all kinds of stuff. It's definitely not type of blog as my brother's or mine - but it's a good one and I'm proud of her. Check it out HERE.

Our New Little Girl

As I've mentioned in earlier posts, my friend Carlos Whittaker and a team of 15 bloggers are in Uganda this week as part of a Compassion International trip. The bloggers are posting videos, pictures, and stories of what they're seeing there. After watching and reading these stories, we made the decision to commit to sponsoring a child in Uganda. $32.00 per month can and will make a difference in her life and we are excited about getting to know our new little girl.

Her name is Phinah and she is 3 years old. She lives in the Budimo Village of Uganda with her parents and 3 other children. Neither of her parents have regular jobs. In this area of Uganda, adults that are employed full time average an income of $2 per month. Her village is in an area that is heavily affected by HIV/AIDS. Our sponsorship will get Phinah in a program that will provide her with health screenings, supplementary food, education (school fees, clothing & supplies), and communication and life skills training. We are excited about the opportunity to communicate with and get to know Phinah. Welcome to our family!

If you'd like to sponsor a child and make a difference in an area that desperately needs it, here is the link to do so.

This is What I'm Afraid Of...

As the parent of an increasingly mobile, very inquisitive toddler, this is what I foresee in my not-too-distant future:

2007 - The Year in Review

Happy New Year to everyone from those of us here at Thirteen Thoughts (ok - it's just me but Happy New Year anyway). I can honestly say that I've never, ever been happier to have a year come to an end than I was on Monday. 2007 was a very eventful year for me & my family and, unfortunately, one of my worst years on record. Here are some of the year's lowlights and highlights:

The Bad

• Finding out that my dad has cancer - a shock to the whole family and something that we really grieved over for the first few months of the year and are still coming to grips with
• The death of Britney's grandmother - really important figure in her life and, even though she was 98, we were all very sad to see her pass
• Multiple house problems - a flooded dining room, multiple appliances that died and had to be replaced, and water-damaged/warped hardwoods that had to be torn out and replaced
• Drought - in addition to the obvious water shortage issues brought on by the drought, it has also completely killed our yard. We inherited the worst yard in our neighborhood when we bought the house and after 2+ years of work and more than $3K spent to get it repaired and looking good, we're now back to where we started.
• Illnesses - this Christmas will go down as the Christmas from hell as everyone in the family got a taste of the stomach flu. Christmas dinner cancelled, entire families in quarantine - you get the picture.

So, as you can see, this year has been trying to say the least. In looking back, however, there was plenty to be happy about in '07 as well.

The Good

• The birth of a healthy baby girl - January saw the arrival of a beautiful, healthy baby girl and we could not be happier and more thankful. Bailey is smart, sweet, healthy - all the things you hope and pray for when you find out you're expecting. Easily the highlight of the year for our family and one of the most amazing experiences of my life.
• Job successes - I got a promotion in September and was recognized for 2.5 years of hard work and achievement.
• Improved outlook for Dad - when my dad was first diagnosed, the initial prognosis was really poor. After several months of tests and treatment, the outlook has improved quite a bit and we are all thankful and hopeful that there is more improvement ahead.
• More time with family - the events of the year (births & deaths) allowed us to spend more time with our extended families and we are thankful for those times together.
• Near misses - sometimes the best things to happen to you are the things that you narrowly avoid - my niece & nephew walking away from a serious car accident, being at home when our dining room started flooding, Bailey coming around quickly after initially having some serious breathing problems when she was born, etc.

So...there it is - another year come and gone. 2008 will certainly hold new challenges and, hopefully, new successes and reasons to celebrate. Here's hoping that this year is better than last - but if it's not, at least we know that we can withstand quite a bit and still come out OK.

Happy New Year!

Trip Recap...

What a trip. Four flights, two layovers, one flight delay, lots of Advil, several 'what a cute baby', several more annoyed co-passengers. Oh the joys of travelling with a baby.

We had a great trip to Arkansas to celebrate Britney's grandfather, Jim McKinnon's 100th birthday. What an accomplishment!! We're all very proud of him and how well he's holding up. He had a great turnout at the party - several people coming from California, Illinois, etc. just to be there with him on this special day. He was born in 1907! At that time, the United States was only 46 states and there were only 144 miles of paved road in the entire US. Only one out of every 200 men reach 100 years of age. We're all hoping to be there with him when he becomes a supercentenarian (110 years old - something that only 1 in 1000 centenarians achieve!).

Jim is a huge Arkansas Razorback fan so to honor his special day, we dressed Bailey in her Razorback cheerleader outfit. She was quite a hit with the crowd at the party and her great granddad loved it. This was her 4th trip to Arkansas, so she's gotten to spend some good time with him this year!

The rest of our trip was spent with family and friends - getting Bailey some time with Nana and Papa Bill, and her aunts, uncles, and cousins. We also took her to the Pumpkin Patch for a short photo shoot. She didn't really enjoy that part of the trip (see 2nd photo) - but we got some cute pictures! She liked sitting in the hay much more than she liked sitting with actual pumpkins. She also, apparently, does not like wagon rides and has a strong aversion to gourds. I left those pictures out!

He's the Man

I got to spend some time with my family last night watching my nephew Bryson's football game. He's a 9th grader at Sun Valley High School and is a big time contributor to his team. He had a couple of really nice catches last night and, even more impressive, did a lot of little things to help his team win - down field blocking, tackles on special teams, etc. I'm proud of how fast he's progressed - and his coaches must be too. Check this out:

http://www.svhsprospects.com/class2011.htm

I Win!

OK - just to settle a little family debate, here are the most recent rankings of the local universities in our area (according to US News & World Report, the widely accepted authority on undergraduate program rankings):

8. Duke University
28. UNC - Chapel Hill
30. Wake Forest University
35. Georgia Tech (the people doing these rankings must've gone to Georgia)
59. University of Georgia
67. Clemson University
75. Baylor University (in case you wondered where they fit into this picture)
85. North Carolina State University
112. University of South Carolina

Brotherly Love

Most of you that know me know that I have an older brother named Blake. Blake is 7 years older than I am and lives in Indian Trail (about 5 miles from us) with his wife, Angie, and their 4 kids (Brianna, Bryson, Brett, and Brad). I grew up idolizing my brother. Every kid idolizes their dad - and I certainly did that too - but my brother was a more 'realistic/attainable' idol - if that makes any sense. He did stuff that I did - played sports, talked to girls, whatever. My dad was a preacher - and I, as a kid, was not into trying to be one of those! Blake and I don't see each other as often as I wish we did due to busy schedules, kids, etc. but I still look up to him and think he's a pretty awesome guy.

I bring all of this up because Blake could use your prayers and encouragement. Blake, like my dad, is a pastor and started a church about 5 or 6 years ago. Most people that aren't from a pastor's family don't understand what that entails - how hard doing something like that is. Blake has done a great job getting his church up and going (check it out at http://www.weddingtoncc.com) but it hasn't been easy and it still has a ton of challenges ahead.

Big, established churches offer things that small, start-up churches can't. People are fickle and lose interest or their kids make friends that go somewhere else. The pastor preaches on something that pushes somebody's buttons the wrong way. Another church opens around the corner with better coffee and donuts. There are a thousand reasons that people use to find fault with what a church is trying to do or to explain when they disappear never to be seen again. The ebb and flow of a church and a congregation can be a choppy ride and, trust me - I know first hand from two different pastors, it can be frustrating and discouraging to the man that's trying to do what he feels called to do. Take some time to pray for my brother - that he will feel that he's doing just exactly what God wants him to do, that he'll have wisdom and discernment to deal with the barbs that sometimes come his way, that he'll continue to "fight the good fight".

Oh, and by the way, his blog is cooler than mine. You can read it here:
http://blakebouldin.typepad.com/blake_bouldin/

B..R..U..T..A..L

Dear Lord - give us some relief! Last night was absolutely miserable. Bailey woke up at around 10:30 crying. She was so upset, nothing could calm her down. We tried everything...walking, dancing, driving her in the car, putting her in the bath, giving a bottle - nothing worked. We ended up in the Emergency Room at 3:00 AM where they had to give her some numbing drops in her ears and Tylenol with codeine. It was awful just listening to her scream and cry and knowing there was nothing we could do.

So...Britney's got baby duty today and I'm headed to work on 1 hour of sleep. Lord, please help her antibiotics to kick in ASAP!!

Sick....Again...

Looks like little Bailey is having a tough fall. We got home from a tough trip to Arkansas on Wednesday and now she's sick. Fever, runny nose, cough, etc. Poor thing - she's pitiful when she doesn't feel good. Hopefully she's building up her immune system! We kept her home from church so she wouldn't get the other kids in the nursery sick.

I'm So Proud

I'm so proud of my wife. She's strong in ways that I'm not and does things that I could never do. She's the "spokesperson" in her family and on Monday, her family asked her to deliver the family remembrance at her grandmother's funeral. It was unbelievable. There was not a dry eye in the place and we heard from every single person there how she had just 'wowed them' with her words. She didn't even do it using notes and she only found out she was speaking about an hour before the funeral. I told her what I'll say here - it was literally the best eulogy I've heard. I'm so proud of her. She ended it like this:

To the great-grandkids, she was Maw Maw
To the grandkids, she was Grandmother
She was Mother to Peggy and Tom
She was a devoted wife to Jim (She called him Jimmy)
She was sister to Alma, Mildred, and Buddy
She was daughter to Arthur and Beulah
But, most of all, she was Katheryn and we will always love her

Awesome.

Sad Day

It's a sad day for us. We say goodbye to Britney's grandmother today. She passed away this morning after a brief illness. We'll be heading to Arkansas in the next day or so. Please keep Britney and the whole Thompson/McKinnon family in your prayers.