As you can see I have added a "poll" to the right side of the blog. This blogger stuff is so easy it's scary!! Anyone can vote, so PLEASE do so. I am curious to see what everyone else thinks this bambino is. You don't have to have a blogger account or anything ...just simply select your answer! Happy voting...
Those of you that live in the Tuscaloosa or surrounding area are aware of this because it has been in the news so much lately, but I thought I'd post it for the benefit of those that read the blog from other areas. Last Saturday radio personality Rick Burgess from the Rick and Bubba show (actually nationally aired, but most popular in the southern states) lost his 2 1/2 year old son, William Bronner Burgess. The show is not a favorite of mine, but is extremely popular for its "Good Old Boy" humor. One thing that I have always respected about it though is that both hosts make no secret of their walk with God. How easy it would be for them not to get into such a "controversial" topic...but they did it nearly daily.
Rick was speaking at a youth conference in Tennessee when his wife and 5 children were at home in Birmingham enjoying the newly fallen snow. Later that night as the children settled in to watch a movie mom Sherri decided to go and take a shower. When she came out Bronner was missing. Her worst nightmare was realized as she ran to their backyard pool. Somehow Bronner slipped out without anyone noticing and either found a door unlocked or was able to unlock it himself. Perhaps he wanted to go back outside to see the snow, but for whatever reason he drowned in their pool only to be found by his sweet and devastated mother, Sherri.
Rick was immediately told of the news and his best friend Scott Dawson, who was running the youth conference in Tennessee wanted to travel back with him. Rick thought about it for a split second and then asked him to stay behind to keep fighting the good fight for all of those teenagers. What an unselfish act on his part. Three days later Rick did something I don't think I could ever do...he spoke at his own son's funeral. The result was truly amazing. We may never know how many lives Bronner saved in his time of death. The church was open to the public and was packed out on a weekday...everyone having taken off work to attend the funeral of a little boy that most of them had never even met. Rick says in this service that he felt God calling him to speak at the funeral, to use his place of high visibility with the media to draw people near to God and challenge them to strengthen their connection with him. He said to Rick something along the lines of "I want them to see you and be perplexed and know that you could not do this without me."
The service is in three parts and I am telling you it is one of the most powerful things Jeff and I have ever heard. If you can't take time to listen to all of it I would say at least try to listen to the 3rd part. You will not be sorry that you did. Rick never cried...not once because as he said- Bronner is with the only person who could love him more than me... WOW!
www.rickandbubba.com or
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=rick+burgess
Well over the weekend Tuscaloosa and the surrounding areas got a little snow! Of course people around here were acting like it was a blizzard, but it actually ended up being a little over an inch. Of course, by the time I got out to take the pictures a lot of it had melted. Anderson was with my mom for the weekend, so some of these pics are at our house and some are ones she took at hers. I especially love the ones taken from our back deck of the woods behind our house. We love that we have so many trees to look at during all the seasons! It makes you feel like you aren't even really in a neighborhood! Enjoy...Brrr!
Now the ones of little man from Mom's House...
The "good" was a ton of good food...the "bad" was a sick baby and the "UGLY" would be WALGREENS!!! AGGHHHH!!!
The plan for this weekend was to let GiGi (my mom) have some quality time with Anderson while Jeff and I finished up some projects around the house...cleaning out the garage and cleaning out closets. Jeff had an attic door installed for the space above our garage for extra storage in order to make room for his manly garage. I will be sure to post pics when he finishes it. He is painting, installing metal cabinets, staining the floor, etc...an all out man cave type room for my hubby the handyman is the goal!
Well Anderson came down with the croup Wednesday night, but after a trip to the pediatrician and a couple of strong prescriptions later he was feeling better and we decided he was OK to spend the weekend with GiGi...my mom was not going to give up on her time with the little man easily! She is also an RN so he was probably better off with her in the first place! HA! So, mom came down to Tuscaloosa Friday morning and we went to lunch at the Yacht Club, since we NEVER use our minimum in the winter months. The club has tons of animal statues due to the owners love of art. It was a feast for Anderson's eyes. He even said a new word as we walked out the door and past a pair of statues by the door...COUGAR. Yep, it was just that... a statue of a cougar. He also said strawberry while at lunch. They are his favorite food, but he hasn't ever actually called them by name! After lunch mom loaded him up and was off to her house for the weekend with me, of course, calling about 5 times a day!
Meanwhile, Jeff and decided to head out for dinner Friday night since we never get to do that alone anymore! We had an excellent dinner at Chuck's Fish. I ordered a steak and managed to eat all of it and hold it down! Miracle of all Miracles!! The next day we woke up to snow, which made me sort of sad. It was Anderson's first snow and we missed him, but my mom took lots of pictures of him playing in the white stuff at her house! Jeff and I began work on our projects and although we tried we really didn't manage to get all that much actually completed...but progress is progress, right? Saturday night we headed out for dinner again...what a treat! Twice in one weekend! This time we hit up one of my favorites... DePalma's Italian!! They have incredible salad and pasta. We ate until we were stuffed and yes my friends...I managed to enjoy and keep my meal...again!!!
Sunday we headed up to Birmingham to attend The Church of the Highlands. Jeff and I joined the church back in September because they opened a Tuscaloosa campus. This was a church that I attended when I lived in Birmingham, so when I heard they were opening a campus in t-town I begged Jeff to go and visit. We were in a church already, but once we visited C of H we knew it was where we were supposed to be. We both committed to helping with the church plant in Tuscaloosa and it has blessed us immeasurably. We LOVE our new church home! Since we have been going in Tuscaloosa we have been wanting to visit the "big" parent church in Birmingham to check out their new facility. We went and were really wowed by how big it was. Last Sunday they had 8200 people in attendance during 3 services. AMAZING!!
And to keep with the gluttony...we went to lunch at my Birmingham favorite SURIN!! Thai food is the best and I swear I could have eaten a gallon of the coconut shrimp soup! Afterwards, we headed to mom's to pick up Anderson. We got there a little before he woke up from his nap...and when he woke up from his nap it was clear that something was wrong. He was feverish, raspy and VERY cranky! My poor mom kept saying I swear he wasn't like this all weekend...I swear I would have told you he was this sick....Please let him come back...poor thing, she was so scared we were mad at her. We loaded him up and called the after hours pediatrician. As we drove home we waited for a returned call...and waited...and waited. After reaching Tuscaloosa an hour and 20 minutes later we decided to go to Med Center North instead of braving the emergency room and its millions of germs and shady characters. Of course the returned phone call came as we pulled into the clinic...thanks for the prompt service!
So we are there for two hours all said and done and turns out Anderson's croup developed into a severe head cold/sinus infection. With two prescriptions in hand we head to walgreens the only remotely close 24 hour pharmacy (it is now 7:00 on a Sunday night). They were so busy that we waited for 30 minutes in line just to drop off the prescription. We headed home to get Anderson in a steamy shower to get the funk out of his head and then I was going to go back and pick up the medicine. At 8:00 just as I was about to leave they called to tell us they were out of BOTH medications! Are you kidding me??? I was so ticked...how do you run out of the most commonly prescribed antibiotic on the face of the earth! So at 8:30, an hour past his bedtime, we finally put the monkey to bed and prayed that I could get the prescription to our pharmacy to be filled first thing Monday morning. He tossed and turned all night. At one point I went in and held him and rocked him, which seemed to help a little, but it was still a restless night for all of us.
So now at 10:00 am, 14 hours later, my baby is finally medicated and sleeping...what a weekend!
