More February Pictures taken with My New Camera

Still learning how to take pictures with my new camera. Loved all the advice I got from the last post on my first round of pictures with this wonderful camera. Keep the advice coming!

Fun Friday: Some Really Amazing Pictures

As you can see, not just any ordinary camera took these pictures. I got a professional camera! I have been drooling for one for years and if anyone knows me or reads this blog at all you know how crazy I am about pictures. I just got the basic professional camera from Canon (Rebel XS 1000). The Best Buy guy said since I was a little overwhelmed with the lens to just get the basic one (it was on sale of course), and then in a a couple of years you can get a better lens for my Canon (many different ones will fit...although they are pretty expensive). This is my 30th birthday present from Charlie and my Christmas present (my 30th birthday is this September)...God is so good to always provide us with what we need and more! I have such a huge passion for taking pictures.

I am still learning about all the different settings and so if you have any advice on how to take the best pictures possible for this camera or professional pictures in general please let me know (Charlie took the last picture).

February 2010 Pictures

Movie Monday: Jackson and Abigail Playing with the Rocket

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

For Christmas Jackson wanted: golf clubs, a rocket, and a Captain Feathersword book. The rocket, my parents got in a specialty toy shop in Greenville. As you can see, we have had a great time with the rocket!

Video of Charlie and the Kids Playing in the Snow in the Beginning of the 8.6 inches We Got!

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Revelation 19:6-9

"I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude and as the sound of many waters and the sound a mighty peals of thunder saying, "Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready? And it was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. And he said to me, "Write, 'Blessed are those who are invitied to the marriage supper of the Lamb.'" And he said to me, "These are true words of God."
Revelation 19:6-9

This is how Love to Eat, Hate to Eat (Fitzpatrick) ended. I am so glad I finished this book. So far, new goal for this year of reading 15 pages a day (Monday-Friday) has been such a huge blessing for me. Next book is my last Fitzpatrick book for a while, Idols of the Heart.

Another goal for this year is also going well, loosing the last 10-15 pounds from Abigail. Fourth week on Weight Watchers and I have lost 5.2 pounds! Feel free to ask any questions about Weight Watchers here.

Things are pretty crazy this week. We now have a "for sale" sign in our yard. If anyone is interested in a one story, 1400 sq house, with garage and fence, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, email me at emilywallace80@hotmail.com (house is in West Columbia, zoned for White Knoll).

Also, I found out today that it is going to take 4-6 weeks for us to be completely covered health insurance wise, so pray that nothing major happens in these weeks for us!

But I know God is in control of all of these things and he will work them out for our good and His glory.

Believe it or not, none of these issues are really "stressing" me. However, what is bothering me right now is that we have noticed that Abigail is not regressing with her speech, but not really progressing either. Today, I had another speech therapist friend look at her top lip frenulum, and she said it was really really tight up there, and this has been really bothering Charlie and I a lot recently. I was able to talk to our doctor today and she has referred us to go see Dr. Anna Bouknight soon for Abigail. We know she is going to have to have it clipped, so might as well do it now so she will never remember it, and to make sure it does not affect her speech. It was just last March we had Jackson's double frenulum surgery, and I cannot believe we might be doing it again this March. Just pray for the doctors to have wisdom in what is best for my baby girl in the long run. She is getting in all her molars right now as well, so that could also affect her speech as well. Unfortunately, these frenulum issues are hereditary.

Update on Jackson and What God has taught us This Week:

The above pictures are taken at the many trips to the doctor’s office. I was trying to take a picture of his rash.

• Wednesday he broke out in a rash all over his body and the doctor said I had to come in so he could examine it. Of course Charlie and I try to be doctors online and we read on WebMd that if your child breaks out in a rash after he has the flu that can mean that he has toxic syndrome and certain organs could be shutting down and he could die (but that it is rare and only 5 percent means this)
• The doctor did do a complete examination on him, but he did not take blood work (they did blood work on Monday) Jackson has not had a fever since Monday night and his ears are not infected and they did a Strep test Monday and it was negative. He was actually laughing at the doctors yesterday, and yesterday afternoon he did not sneeze or cough that much. The doctor said at first it looked like the Strep rash. But he concluded that it was just Jackson's reaction to the flu (but that this type of reaction is rare). He is doing so much better, just real tired.
• Jackson being extremely tired and bored is a bad combination. I did everything I could today to keep him entertained. We watched 2 episodes of the Doodlebops, watched a Cedarmont Kids DVD, and watched Mickey Mouse. We went outside and played…we even played kitchen and he made eggs. But, he normally gets out of the house a couple times a day, and I think he is going stir crazy. He even threw himself on the floor at one point!
• Jackson can say “cracker” now when he wants a cracker…yeah!
• He loves to say “boo” and “moo” and tries to make a barking sound when he sees a dog or even a picture of a dog. Every day he communicates to me more what he wants and he is a great helper. He even helps me unload the dishes, put up his toys, and put his diapers in the trash. I learned after sitting in Rene’s Sunday School class that if you expect a lot out of your 1 year old….they will most of the time rise up to those expectations. They understand a lot more than we think they do. I will have to blog about Rene’s Sunday School class. It was unbelievable, and I am hoping that she will teach a seminar on what she does (she teaches the older 1’s).

Two new great discoveries:

1. Cup/Bottle id tags. Go to http://www.inchbug.com/ Have y’all heard of these tags? This is so great especially when your little ones go off to the nursery. They are $11.95 for 4 of them
2. If you need Diaper Bag ID tags e-mail Katherine and tell her what your diaper bag colors are and she will make you a very cute ID tag, and if you are in SC you will get it the next day. They are $4 each and her e-mail is sinclair_t@bellsouth.net.

What God has been teaching us:

1. I guess I have been wrongly dwelling on some people’s weaknesses in churches in general. Well, God spoke to me yesterday through His Word - unbelievable. I had not been reading the last four days because of Jackson’s high fever…but God knew what I needed to read and when.
2. My reading for yesterday was 1 Corinthians 10-13. In Chapter 12, Paul is explaining how the church is one body but many parts. Paul states, “Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body…..If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.” Do we really as church members believe that? Do we believe that God has arranged the parts of the body just as he wanted them to be? Some people have gifts of teaching, some have the gifts of encouraging, some administration….but it seems to be that I want everyone to have the gift of teaching or encouraging. But, that is not how God wants it to be!
3. It is interesting that right after Paul speaks about how everyone in the church has different gifts and different roles he speaks about how important love is. I had never really tied the two together. I had made the connection of the use of spiritual gifts and using them in love….but not loving every person in the body of Christ. Do you think I am way off?
4. Paul basically says that if he has faith that can move mountains, BUT IF HE HAS NOT LOVED, HE IS NOTHING. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to flames, but have not loved, I gain NOTHING. It seems that Paul is saying if you have all of these spiritual gifts in the church but do not love you have nothing and gain nothing. If you do not love all the different members in the church in ministry you gain nothing. Instead of focusing on what is wrong with the members of the bride of Christ maybe we should focus on loving them….doesn’t that mean we need to love all of them?…even their weaknesses? Are we, as ladies, really loving everyone in the church? Or are we trying to “fix” everyone? Are we “loving” them when we slander them? I think if we try to help people without loving them we gain nothing. Again, God has arranged the parts of the body just as he wanted them to be./

Jackson has the Flu....Sad!

After 3 trips to the doctor this week, we have finally found out what is wrong with Jackson...he has the flu (they actually have a flu test that they did up his nose). This morning he had a high fever again (over 102) and just looked completely dazed. It really scared me....he could not even hold his head up or keep his eyes opened. He is highly contagious so we will all probably have it, so pray that we have enough strength to take care of him. He sometimes looks so sad and sick, and he wants me to hold him constantly and reaches up for my neck many times during the day. My doctor was not comfortable giving us tamiflu because of the side effect of hallucinations is high with children under 2 years old, and it only helps them get over it faster by like 1 day. So pray for Jackson. Children under the age of 2 can have complications with the flu such as getting pneumonia. He did not get his flu shot, but believe me we will all have the flu shot at the beginning of October next year. However, the nurse said that they have had many children come in with the flu who had the flu shot this year (so they are not sure if they predicted the right strain of the virus this year). We are not sure where he got it from but we will be here at the house for the rest of the week trying to get better. So keep us on your prayer list. Thank y'all!

How I am treating the Flu:
1. Like any other virus, with a fever, I am giving him children motrin every 6 hours. Tonight I am going to wake up at 3 am to give him his motrin so he does not have such a high fever in the morning.
2. With saline solution up his nose when his really congested and then we blow the mucus out with a blue suction instrument that they gave us when he was born at the hospital.
3. When he is coughing or real congested we go to the guest bathroom and turn the shower on real hot and let the steam break up the mucus.
4. Let him take some naps in our bed with me propped up on pillows
5. I am feeding him with his bottles and formula at night. He is not eating much of anything and he has already lost 1 pound and the doctor said he could loose another one before the flu is out of his system. Last Wednesday he was 22 pounds and 10 oz, today he was 21 pounds and 7 ozs. Today, he only ate 12 ozs of whole milk, and then 6 ozs of formula and 1/2 cup of grits. I even offered him rainbow sherbet and he wanted no part of it.

If anyone has any more suggestions, I am all ears!

Lots of Thanksgiving Weekend Pictures!

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend until today. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at Mimi's here in Columbia, and Jake and Jackson had a fun time playing together. Then, my parents came Friday and we went shopping on black Friday (Gigi got Jackson a little broom) and then of course on Saturday we all went and watched the Gamecocks lose again....I cannot even write about it. Remind me never ever to go to a Clemson/Carolina game ever again. I just get way too upset about us losing to Clemson, and it is just a game. Anyway, our good friend Carol (from Sumter) came to stay with us and Jackson ran a little bit of a fever with her last night so we left the game early. Well, this morning Jackson wakes up and he was on fire. His temp. under the arm was 102.4! Ah! Carol is such a great friend and God knew that I needed her this morning. We immediately gave him Motrin and the fever went down to about 100 within 30 minutes. We did go to the doctor and the doctor said his throat was red, and they did a strep test, but it was negative and his ears had a little fluid but no infection. The doctor said he just has a virus combined with teething. It was so scary his temp being that high...he was shaking all over. Pray that we glorify God in our actions even when Jackson gets sick through these winter months!

We Got a New Digital Camera!

They called me Monday and told me it would be $330 to fix my camera and that it would only cost half of that to get a new camera. So Happy early Christmas to me....we got a new camera! They have come a long way just in a few years in the quality of the camera (we got a two year warranty on it). Last night, we had the Family Thanksgiving dinner/program last night at the church that both the children's ministry and the music ministry do. It went really well. We were expecting 300 people and ended up with at least 400 maybe 450. The children did a great job singing and the pictures above are from this event. Happy Thanksgiving!