Of ER visits and Goodbyes...

Things with which my weekend consisted...

Friday night, actually Saturday morning around 3:00am, Little Man woke with a horrible barking, dry cough. He could hardly talk and got very upset, and was having trouble breathing...

I immediately gave him a dose of benadryl in case he was having an allergic reaction of some sort. After a few minutes and he was still having trouble breathing without a major Darth Vader sound, we took him to the ER...

I want to shout out for the local ER, they have a separate ER for children!! I was so very impressed by that. We didn't have to wait at all to be taken back and treated. Maybe that is a common thing in some places, but it hasn't been my experience in the past when I had to make ER visits with the kids...not that we've done it much, but we have a few times in the past twenty years of parenting...

They gave him two breathing treatments and a dose of steroid--that did the trick, got him very jazzed!!

He has croup and a bronchial thing...so we are doing breathing treatments every four hours and as needed plus five days of steroids...(Read-hyper little hulk boy)!

Lauren left Saturday to go back to Little Rock...twice...

The first time Andrew took her to the airport and they had over booked the flight, so they had to reschedule several people...

They came home for a few hours and I took her back...off she went...

She left on the midnight train to Georgia...actually the 8:00 plane to Little Rock, via Charlotte, but that doesn't make for very good song lyrics now does it?

So we sadly said goodbye and are moping around today adjusting to her being gone, again...

How about something easy to fix and comforting to eat?? I need some soup, maybe Potato and Leek, but I don't feel like doing all the work...

How about some piggies in a blanket...

Quick and easy...cocktail sausage and some crescent roll dough cut into strips, add a little non-stick spray. Put in the oven for twelve minutes or so...voila...add mustard and enjoy...

Digging up Bones, err...roots?

Yesterday the kids and I drove down to a little place called Gibson, North Carolina. This is where one side of my family originated...well, where they settled when they came here from Scotland, anyway.

There is a family cemetery there and a lot of things that have the Gibson name. There was once an old home place where my great, great grandfather was born. His dad lived in the house until his death in 1907. At one time it was turned into a museum, but I was told that it burned down.

After coming home, we spent time on the computer researching the family name and finding out who was who. We especially enjoyed reading the different names of our ancestors.

My Front Porch

Welcome to my humble abode!

Come on up and sit a spell!


This is what I was doing most of yesterday evening.

Just sitting on the porch with my feet propped up on the rail...

Watching the clouds, reading magazines,

...and looking through my basket of treasures...

These are some of the treasures Megan and Noah and I picked up from the shoreline on the Outer Banks...

The colors and textures are amazing...

especially for a colors and textures freak like myself...

God is such an amazing artist! His work is so beautiful! The colors and lines and textures excite the senses and delight the soul!

The weather was perfect for just sitting on the porch, catching the breeze, listening to my chimes sing their song...looking at the cloud formations, and watching two humming birds flutter around drinking from the feeders...God offers such and array of delights and gifts for us if we would just slow down and sit quietly and open our eyes...

Boats

I have always had a fasination with boats and anything nautical. I especially love to see boats lined up in a row like these. The colors and the repeating pattern of the boats are just beautiful to me.

Just thought I'd share what I was thinking about today.

More from the road...

Scenes from the road...

Rodanthe, North Carolina

For those of you who are fans of Nicholas Sparks, you may recognize this house as the house that was used in the movie, Nights in Rodanthe. It was more dressed up with nice shutters and such for the movie, but it is still recognizable as the Inn where Richard Gere stayed in the movie.

As we were driving down the Outer Banks toward Ocracoke, we passed the house. It was empty and there were other people milling around taking photos and others that were walking along the beach enjoying the water. It is a very nice location and the sand and surf were nice also. It can be rented if your interested, however, I am sure it is a bit price-y.

I read somewhere that it was about $5400.00 a week in the peak season. But in 2008, it was hit by a storm and sustained damage which was evident in some of the photo's I took. So I am not sure that it is still available as a rental.

Let the record state; I am NOT a Richard Gere fan. I am however a fan of Nicholas Sparks, I have read all of his books, except for the last one, The Lucky One, which came out last year. I actually didn't realize that he had a new one out. Today I read about this one and a new one coming out in September called The Last Song. Looks like I have some reading to do...

UPDATE:
Since this post, the house has been moved to a new location. You can read and watch it here.