My poor toe!

Yesterday I went to the doctor because I have had an ingrown toenail for over a month now. I am a little stubborn and tried to get it out myself. However, I finally realized that maybe this needed some professional help. I am not a big fan of going to the doctor. I will procrastinate until it is absolutely necessary. My toe was starting to hurt a lot, so I decided to finally go see what the doctor could do. Kim kept Hannah for me. (Thank you so much for that, Kim!) I was nervous about going. I am not a big fan of feet in the first place. I am not as grossed out by them as much as Rachel, but I just don't like people to touch my feet. Everything went okay. I didn't feel a thing, but he had to take my whole toe nail off. Luckily it stayed numb from the shots until about 3:00 this morning. It has been throbbing on and off all day. I have been taking Aleve and my sister, Amy came over to help me out today. She was a life saver! I had to take the bandage off today and without getting too much in detail, I will just say that it is gross. I had to sit back and close my eyes for a minute to keep from getting sick. If it had been the toe of someone else I could have looked at it and not have it bother me. However, looking at my own toe made me a little weak in the knees. It is feeling better now. I am just trying to stay off of it as much as possible. Luckily, Hannah has not started to crawl yet so I can keep her in one place without having to move around too much. It will take a while for it to grow back and I am hoping by the time open toe shoe weather gets here it will be looking half way decent. No one wants to see some nasty toes hanging out of sandals, especially me!

A little nicer news, Paul's birthday was yesterday and we went to David and Susan's for a Birthday dinner last night. Dinner was very good. Addi kept us entertained by dancing. We watched the Birmingham auditions for American Idol. I am happy to report that the majority of the strange people were not actually from AL. Anyway, Paul, we hope you had a Happy Birthday! We also hope that you & Kim feel better soon!

Revenge of the Chickens!

This past weekend was our congregation's 2nd annual "Survivor" Retreat at Indian Creek Youth Camp. It was so much fun. We split up into 4 different tribes and had several competitions. We also had Bible class and Devotionals. The theme was from I and II Corinthians. We called the weekend "Revenge of the Chickens" because last year we had to chase chickens into a box and they ended up in the woods. This year Hannah & I were on team "Foot." (The top picture is our team) Josh was on team "Ear." It seemed perfect that way since Josh's ears are a little bit on the big side (they are not really that big but we just like to give him a hard time about it) and my toes are like monkey toes. So, we had a laugh at ourselves saying they put us both on the right teams. Team "Foot" put up a good fight but we came in third. We did win first place in the scavenger hunt. Team "Ear" was the overall winner of the weekend. For those of you who missed it, you missed a lot of fun. It was very tiring but it was worth it. It is always a great thing to be able to fellowship with your brothers and sisters in Christ. I can't wait until next year!

Sunday was our friend, Shana's bridal tea. Shana and Mark are getting married on St. Patrick's Day this year and we are so excited for them! She had a great shower! We went to worship at Adamsville Sunday night since they had the Area Wide Youth Devo afterwards. After the weekend was over we were exhausted.

I must say one more important thing. Last Saturday was Levi's birthday! He was 2 years old! We celebrated at the Retreat with a Thomas cake. He is such a sweet ball of energy! In the nursery Sunday morning I was trying to get Hannah to go to sleep and she was fighting it. She started crying and he said "It's okay Hannahs, don't cry." What a little sweetie! Josh, Hannah, & I hope you had the best birthday!

P.S. Sorry about Hannah's picture being turned on the side. I had already downloaded it onto the computer before I realized and now I don't know how to turn it around.

4 Month Check-up

Hannah went for her 4 month check-up today. She weighed 15 pounds and 4 ounces and was 26 1/2 inches long. She is getting so big and growing out of her clothes fast! She will start to eat meats (if I can handle feeding them to her) and then some table foods soon. She had to get 4 shots today. All moms (and dads) know that this is very tough to watch. Hannah was laying on the table happy as could be because she only had on her diaper. Then she had to be given 4 shots in the leg. She cried and poked her bottom lip out with the first one but the last three she was screaming. It is so hard to see your baby in pain. I know it is better than if she got the disease she is being vaccinated for, but I wish they could figure out a better way to give it to them. She seems to be handling them well. Right now she is laying in her bed talking and I am sure she has her blanket over her face. That seems to be her favorite thing to do these days. When she gets quiet it scares me to death. Today was the last time that Hannah will get to see Dr. Edwards. He is retiring on 1/31 and I am so sad. Dr. Edwards was my pediatrician and I trust him so much. He said he was like an old pair of tennis shoes that people seem to be comfortable with but need to get rid of them. He has the best sense of humor and will put any parent to ease. Luckily his nurse, Melissa, will still be there and another doctor he has approved will take his place. I guess we want to be selfish and keep him around forever, but he has his own life to live. Hopefully, we will like the new doctor. If we do not, we will probably go with Dr. Smith. He was Josh's pediatrician and the Courington family seems to trust him as much as we do Dr. Edwards. Well Hannah is quiet now so I guess she has fallen asleep. I need to go move the blanket from over her face. By the way, it is a blanket that has holes in it. So she is likely not to suffocate, but it still makes me worried. What can I say, I am a mom! Worrying about my child is my job.

WAR EAGLE!!!!

Most of you probably know that Auburn won their bowl game. Yipee, Skippy! In Alabama there is a media frenzy that is driving me crazy - they call it the "Saban Era." I am happy that Alabama finally settled on a good coach. I hope he will turn the program around and win a few games. However, it is a little disturbing and ridiculous that Fox 6 News would interrupt regular programming to wait on Nick Saban get off the plane! Do they know he isn't the president? It is humorous. Most (not all) AL fans and the media are acting like they already beat Auburn and won the National Championship. Good luck to them but there is still a lot of games to be played before we find out what the Alabama program will do. I am ready for next season and may the best team win. In the meantime, will channel 6 just play the Rachel Ray show and leave the sports reporting to the regular time slot and ESPN?

In other news, this week has been great. Hannah has been her usual sweet little self. We only went out one day this week. We went to the Galleria and Hannah sat in her stroller the whole time. She is a great shopper. The rest of the week we stayed at home and just enjoyed not having anything to do. We took down our Christmas decorations (it is about time) and tried get the house put back together. Yesterday was an interesting day. It started at 4:30 am when I woke up to the tornado siren going off. Josh had already left for work. So I turned on the tv and they said it was heading right towards us. So I got Hannah out of bed, fixed her a bottle, grabbed a pillow, flashlight, and radio, and to the linen closet we went. Hannah is just looking at me like "This is new. Why are we in here?" It did not seem that it really got that bad at our house. I was in the closet so it is a little hard to hear. Well they finally said it was past us so I went back to bed, but Hannah was ready to play. I never did go back to sleep. Later in the day, Clay & Emily stayed with me a little while so Amy could grocery shop in peace. We had fun. Also, Lauren came to exchange Christmas presents. We haven't had the same schedule in a while and this was the first opportunity we have had to do something together. Then last night we went to Costa's to eat and it was an experience. After watching a man throw up and then having a not so bright waitress, I will say it will be a while before I care to go back there again! The fellowship was great but maybe next time we can fellowship at another restaurant.

Happy New Year!

It is the year 2007! Everyone always says that the year has flown by when it becomes a new year. This time I agree. This time last year I had just found out I was pregnant with Hannah. It is hard to believe that she is already 4 months old. She made our year the best year we have had so far. I hope everyone had a great year! I am looking forward to 2007. I know it holds a lot of memories to be made. Hannah will grow so much this year and I am looking forward to watching her experience life. She rolled over for the first time on Saturday. Her cousins Emily & Clay were cheering her on by saying "Go Hannah, Go Hannah." She worked so hard to get that little arm under her and when she was finally over she just looked at us like "Okay, What do I do now?" I know in 2007 she will reach many more milestones - scooting, crawling, first tooth, first words, walking, and so much more. It should be a great year - Lord willing!

My year will hopefully start out on the right foot if the Auburn Tigers win their bowl game today. They are playing in the Cotton Bowl against Nebraska. I do not doubt they will win but I must go & help cheer them on to victory.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!