Why I work for my insurance

$2,704.00 spent on home health care and pharmacy for one synagis visit for Chelsi....mind you this is a monthly charge every month for 6 months.  We pay $0.00!!

The perk to my work.

Yuck STREP!

Chase had a lot of trouble breathing Friday night and early, early Saturday morning so off to the doc's we went.  Fully expecting to hear something about his reactive airway disease the dr tells me has bronchitis and strep!  Nasty.

 So we've spent the last few days with mommy playing doctor, more than mom; administering meds to 3 of our 4 kids.  Took Kaelin to the dr today since she's been running a temp and she has strep too!  Cole has a cough, so it's expectorant for him and Chelsi has a stuffy nose, so it's Ocean Spray for her.  On top of the strep Kae and Chase both have colds, so they're also getting expectorant.  Then there's the constipation for two of them.  That's kind of personal, so I won't say which two. :)  

We have so many meds lined up on our kitchen counter right now it's crazy.  We go through medicine droppers and cups.....too many to count per day.  At least Chase is done with his steroids.

Oy!

We have a new pet in the house

M had a cat that A's not real thrilled about it so since we thought we had a mouse in the garage, we took him.  He's enormous!  The boys all worked on a cat house for him and before Brian had seen him, his plans for the house were WAY too small.

Here's our Kitty 고양이.  Kaelin named him, what else, but "Kitty".

Got milk?

Some new pictures

Glasses seem to be a hit with our girls.



My sweet girls in black and white.



Chelsi's sweet pout and lower lip.



Chase kind of looks like an angel, but trust us, not often.  :)



Mom and Kae have girlie time.

3rd Synagis Round Tomorrow

We have a new nurse too.  Please say a little prayer these will stop hurting Chelsi.  She's uncomfortable around the site of the injections for the first day and a half. 

I am VERY grateful our new insurance for 2007 has quickly agreed to cover these, in full, as well.  These are VERY expensive injections...I believe around $1,000 and we're not responsible for one penny.

For anyone who doesn't know what Synagis is (I didn't know before Chelsi); Synagis is an injection that can be given to prevent RSV in premature and other babies that are more at risk for contracting this terrible virus.  This virus kills and it's absolutely necessary for a baby born as prematurely as Chelsi was (10 weeks) to have this for the first two years.  She missed the first season as she was in Korea the entire time they do it (November through April), so we've been doing it since this past November.  Anything to keep my baby from being hospitalized with a life-threatening illness.

Chinese Squeaky Shoes

Well, I know that they're all the rage with Chinese adoptive families and our girls are Korean, but they're just the cutest shoes ever! Someone was selling some pretty cheap online, so I had to get a pair for Chelsi. I thought now that she's really walking she'd think it was pretty funny and also encourage her to walk more. It worked! She walks everywhere when we put them on her and we know exactly where she is :pToo cute, come see.

AHHHH!!! Learn Korean Overload!

I REALLY would like to learn, at least, some Korean.....write and speak.  I'm understanding some of the consonants and vowels, but if you don't know the romanization it doesn't help.  I'm really struggling.  I have a wonderful Korean language exchange partner who's been EXTREMELY patient with me.  It's just hard when you can only email once a night and not hear anything.

I had the bright idea of trying to find an inexpensive book and cd combo, as funds are limited.  I thought then I could listen in the car and study at lunch time. 

I'm so overwhelmed looking for something.  I'm afraid of wasting money and getting something that won't teach me correctly or getting something that's missing and important component of learning the language. 

I just want to get something that's helpful and can get me started.  WAH!!!!!!!!!!!

Chelsi’s officially a walker

Okay, so I wrote "She Walked" on 11/23/06.  Apprarently those few steps was all she was going to do for awhile.  But, this past week, she's REALLY been walking, not just a step here and there.  Chelsi actually uses walking as a mode of transportation about 80% of the time now...at least.  Almost 16 months, but she's there.  Really, she's on time, by any standards, let alone a 30 week preemie. 

Oh, and not only can she walk, she's added to her vocabulary.  She's now rolls it up (as in Pat-a-cake) and says roll it up at the same time.  She's really just starting to take off.  It's so amazing!

Go Chelsi go!!!

I hate you mom!

Okay, we've all heard this from our kids a million times.  Most of us would be pretty well off if we had a dollar for everytime we heard it from all of our kids.

I heard it from Chase today, but because I "threatened" to take a picture.  :)

He told me I was mean and he hated me.  Can't help but laugh at him. 

Here's the story:

I was doing dishes and the boys were watching their youngest sister (keeping her out of the kitchen).  I could hear them pulling her pull toy up and down the hall as fast as they could.  They started doing it because she was laughing at them, then she just became disinterested.  Our hallway is hardwood, so I told them to keep the toy off the hardwood, to which they looked at me like "whatever".  So I told them if they didn't quit I'd take a picture of them playing with a baby toy (6 and 9 years old).  Chase says "you don't have your camera"....ha ha Chase I keep it in the kitchen.  When he found that out he started telling me he hated me.  So afraid someone might see him playing with a baby toy.

You have to laugh.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2007

Great new year.  I've had influenza for the past 3 days.  If I took a picture of myself and posted it here you'd see what death walking looks like.  I look bad on a good day; the past 3 days have definitely been bad....maybe a cross between some sort of meth addict and.....well, nope, that's about it.

On a worse note, my sister had her purse stolen on New Year's Eve.  Happy New Years M.  I don't know why people (kids) can't find something better to do then cause chaos in someone else's life, thinking it's funny or a game.  I know kids did it when we were that age too, but, guess what.....not impressive to the girls.  Thanks for making her night suck!

Aside from all that we're all well.  We think we found a mouse in our garage while putting away the Christmas tree (M, where's your cat).  The kids are happy and healthy (so far so good) and Brian has been wonderful while I've been sick.  I mean I haven't been able to move.  This flu stunk!  I'm ready for a normal life again.