Operation Christmas Child 2009- COMPLETE!

Collection week is over... please visit this link to read about how we did at our local relay center.

FCC Erwin Blog

Once again, THANK YOU to everyone who participated whether is was through donations, volunteering at the relay center or praying for this mission. Because of you, we hope over 8 million children will have a wonderful Christmas this year!

*Katie

Venting

If I may, I would just like to vent for a few moments about my class. This is the most unorganized/frustrating/religion losing/anger management needing class I have ever attended in my life for the following 5 reasons, not listed in any particular order:

1) Since August 15th, I have probably turned in well over 20-25 assignments. I have gotten back 3, yes 3, grades and this class is over December 5th

2) I have emailed my professor numerous times about questions that I have and have only gotten 1, yes 1, reply.

3) We have skipped and/or omitted at least 3, yes 3, assignments that I think are pretty important. Ex- LESSON PLANNING!!

4) I received an email last Wednesday saying that my grades should be up soon. This was after a motivational speech with the director of our program. I still have yet to see, one week later, a SINGLE new grade posted.

5) Outside communication is slim to none. If you don't talk to her in class, you can forget it.

Thanks for reading. I feel better anyway.

~Katie

Operation Christmas Child

Many of you know about the mission called Samaritan's Purse. Each year around this time, SP does a ministry called Operation Christmas Child. This is where they ask those of us who are able to pack a regular size shoebox full of necessities and goodies for children all over the world. The boxes are then packed up and sent to different countries and handed out to children as Christmas gifts. Sounds simple right? It is but there are some things you need to know.

1) We are asking your to use a REGULAR size shoebox. We know you mean well when you fill a boot box but the boxes are placed in larger shipping boxes and we MUST average 14 shoeboxes per shipping box. Field teams place their "orders" for the boxes and SP decides how many of the larger shipping containers to send them based on the avg of 14 shoeboxes per shipping box. If they place an order for 140 boxes, they will receive 10 shipping boxes. If some of the boxes only have 11 or 12, someone is getting left out.

2) If you do not have a regular shoebox, the plastic containers from the Wal-Mart (some people actually buy them to hold their shoes) are perfect. Not only can they carry your items to the child but the child can then use the container to help out their families. Many families have to travel/walk to get clean water and the container serves as the perfect child size container for them to help carry water back to their home. Many of them are too small to carry the large containers their parents do.

3) Many of these children need basic things such as underwear, socks, soap, toothbrush, toothpaste, etc. While we hope you can send a toy or fun thing in your box, they also need the bascis too. Please try not to forget to pack these items along with something fun.

4) Shipping is $7 per box. This is not mandatory for the shipment of your box but is extremely helpful. If you have more than one box, please place all your money in the envelope in ONE box only. They will remove the money anyway and this just makes it easier. IF you want to pay online, you will be able to print your box label on your home printer. It comes with a UPC type code and you will be able to TRACK YOUR BOX!!! That is so amazing because you will know where your box ends up.

5) If you want to send a box but are unable to get out to shop or are too busy, I am offering to do the shopping for you. For only $25, you can "adopt a box" to send. This amount covers all the items AND the shipping! If you are interested in doing this, please contact me ASAP! We start collecting boxes on 11/16 and they have to be ready to go to Boone, NC (the main shipping place for our regions) by Sunday afternoon. Either leave a comment here or call me @ 423-361-4893.

6) Here is a list of things that can be put in boxes and things to NOT put in the boxes.

TOYS small cars, balls, dolls, stuffed animals, kazoos, harmonicas, yo-yos, jump ropes, small Etch A Sketch®, toys that light up or make noise (with extra batteries), Slinky®, etc.

SCHOOL SUPPLIES pens, pencils and sharpener, crayons or markers, stamps and ink pad sets, writing pads or paper, solar calculators, coloring and picture books, etc.

HYGIENE ITEMS toothbrush, toothpaste, mild bar soap (in a plastic bag), comb, washcloth, etc.

OTHER Hard candy and lollipops (please double bag all candy), mints, gum, T-shirts, socks, ball caps; sunglasses, hair clips, toy jewelry, watches, flashlights (with extra batteries)

A PERSONAL NOTE In a separate envelope, you may enclose a note to the child and a photo of yourself or your family. (If you include your name and address, the child may write back.)

DO NOT INCLUDE: Used or damaged items; war-related items such as toy guns, knives or military figures; chocolate or food; out-of-date candy; liquids or lotions; medications or vitamins; breakable items such as snowglobes or glass containers; aerosol cans

Trunk or Treat...or Not

Last Saturday, Halloween, we had our annual Trunk or Treat at our church. Unfortunateky, yet not surprisingly, it rained. Since we couldn't very well stand out in the rain and hand out candy, we moved into the Fellowship Hall and set up "stations" there. We had quite a few people from church show up to hand out candy and a few of us dressed up. We started at 5:00 and ended about 7:00ish. I think we ended up having over 300 kids come through and get candy. At the end of the line we were also handing out flyers for Operation Christmas Child but that is another post all its own. We also had a group from Campus House at ETSU come over and play live music for everyone and we also a group line dance for us!

A couple from our church, Tommy and Kathy, had planned a get together for those who came and handed out candy. We had every thing imaginable...they really outdid themselves. We had pizza, popcorn balls, candy corn, brownies with icing, moon pies with icing (I'm dying here), candied orange slices, drinks, etc. It was amazing!

It was nice to see everyone come out and get together for a fun activity and just spend a nice evening together. I have posted some pictures below.

Kira was a caterpillar

Kathy and Tommy

Jack and Beverly

Lori and Andrea (Aaron?)

AR was a "chick magnet" hehe

Seth's Birthday

October 7th was Seth's birthday which fell on a Wednesday this year. Wednesdays are his LONG days and he doesn't usually get home until 10:15 pm. Since he is gone all day, I usually try to work extra this day. I went in at 6:45 that day since I wouldn't see him anyway. Since we didn't get to spend any time together that day, I told him that we could go to Pigeon Forge that weekend and go to Bass Pro. He could pick out his birthday present there since I had no idea what to get him. He had school Friday so we didn't get to leave until 6:00. It was about 7:30 when we got to Bass Pro and getting ready to pour the rain. They didn't close until 10 so we had plenty of time to shop. He found a couple small things that he wanted and we got Nattie a bag of rawhide chewies.

Last time we went in August, we found a jacket that he really liked and it was on sale. Under Armour is rarely on sale and I tried to get him to go ahead and get it. He wouldn't and told me he didn't need it so I thought, "Fine, I will just get it for you for your birthday." I tried to find it online but I couldn't find it on sale and I wasn't sure what size to get. I knew what size fit him but he has to wear it over two or three layers of clothes. I figured we would just wait and get it when we went down there. Needless to say, they didn't have it. Apparently, the ones we saw in August were leftover from last year. They had one left in a medium but that is not his size. They had new ones, which looked almost identical, but they were definitely NOT on sale. Anyway, we fussed about it for about 30 minutes until he finally gave in a tried one on. He said they were too expensive for a jacket but with Under Armour, you get what you pay for. He only has a couple new hunting clothes that were bought for him. The rest of what he has is hand me downs or just a quick fill in from the Wal-Mart that do not fit him like they should. If he is going to wear it and it fits him, I don't mind to get it.

While we were there, the power went out so it was almost impossible to look for anything in the dark. We finally got everything we wanted/needed and went to the checkout. We have a Bass Pro credit card and since my school was on it, we had accumulated quite a few points. They come as cash rewards so we got about $40 off our purchase. Seth got gift card for his birthday that he used on some stuff and we ended up getting out of there spending only as much as the jacket. It was like we got everything else for FREE!

Since we were already down there and had Season Passes to Dollywood, we thought we would run through their Fall Festival. Not much was different except the decorations and some booths set up for individuals. We got a roof slate welcome sign and some Kettle Corn while we were there. We didn't stay but maybe 2-2.5 hours but it was so nice because it was cloudy and cool. We also stopped by the Christmas Place...wow! I had never been there before and Christmas is my favorite holiday. You need an entire day (or two) to look at everything in that place. We found a couple ornaments for our tree, a CD, a couple tarts for our warmer and a set of wooden deer to put next to our tree (they were 40% off!). We had a really nice time and found some nice things. Here is a picture of his new jacket which he takes very good care of by the way.

Doctor visit

Many of you may know that Seth had surgery on his ankle back in August to remove some hardware from a previous surgery. The original accident happened in 2005 and he has never been able to walk very well since then. Some days are worse than others and most of the time it is really bad after he has been working all day mowing or walking around. The doctor gave him some arthritis medicine earlier this year to help with the arthritis but we decided to go ahead and try surgery to see if it would help. The surgeon said that when he went in to take out the plate and screws that he would also cut off the bone spurs that restricted alot of Seth's movement. We decided to do it now because Seth graduates in May and we didn't want him to have to take time off from a brand new job to have a surgery.
We went August 12th for an outpatient procedure and after about 2-3 weeks, he was starting to improve. We had a hard time getting the incisions on the outside of his foot to heal but we kept bandaging them tight and they finally started to heal. About the second or third week of September, Seth was starting to move pretty well and not have as much pain. He felt so good one day that he walked all the way across campus to get something to eat with a friend. That was when the pain started coming back. He has more trouble ever since and actually told me he wished he never would have had the surgery.
He went back to the doctor this week and they did another xray. It looks much better than before the surgery but the doctor said that it is very inflammed and he has less movement now than he did two weeks after the surgery. They ended up giving him a cortisone shot to see if it would help with some of the pain and told him to really work on stretching it every day. Some mornings when I get off work, I will wake him up by stretching his foot. It is easier for me to push him because I can't feel when it hurts. I know it does hurt but he has to get some movement back in it. He has discovered that by changing his shoes every couple of hours, he can keep the pain from getting bad. He thinks it is because he is changing the position of his foot. He rotates between his boots, tennis shoes and Crocs He also says that he thinks the cortisone shot is helping.
Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers that he will be able to gain more movement and have less pain in his foot. He is back to hunting a little so that is a good sign. It makes me a little nervous thinking about him climbing up a tree but he says he is ready so what can I do?

It's been a while...

Well, since it's been almost a month since I posted for real, here is a catch up of what we have been doing since August.

August 12- Seth has surgery on his ankle to remove hardware from a previous surgery and to remove bone spurs

August 15- Katie starts graduate program at LMU in Kingsport

August 29- Seth starts his LAST YEAR!!! at ETSU

September 1stish- Katie's job decides to offer 40/week OT that she can have. She accepts approx. 4-8hr/week...let's not overdo it folks.

September 3rd- Seth's grandmother, from his dad's side, passes away...viewing, funeral, family visiting for the next week or so.

September 6th- Katie buys a Cricut with her OT $ (you know, it's a scrapbooking thing...still have yet to really play with it).

September 10thish- The Jones family decides they will have no life from now until May. It's sad but true.

September 13th- Katie volunteers for another project (at church) that she really doesn't have time for.

September 26th (tomorrow)- Seth starts deer season...now Katie is single until January :)

That is our life as of right now. We are busy and trying to get everything accomplished on time until the grass stops growing. I am ready for fall, Apple Festival and winter break ha! Hopefully I will be able to blog a little more regularly than I have been now that I am a bit more adjusted.