2 more months

have passed.....


Volleyball and track are over.  Chase's foot, hopefully has healed.  Almost a month in the boot, finally got his new orthotics Monday.  Hopefully, they will provide enough support for all the running he does on his growing body.  He did get to run 2 regular meets and somehow got into districts.  That's all the further he made it, but pretty proud of him for going to every practice hurt not knowing if he'd really get to run.  He's turned 16 and gotten his license. He has a job interview in June, so hopefully, this goes well.  I'd like to see him work as much as possible this summer and save up so he won't have to work much during the school year and focus on his grades.  He is still dating the girl that asked him to the school dance.  We all like her.  She's very smart and very friendly.  They seem to get along great.  She may be changing schools, so who knows.  Kaelin did very well in track.  She ended up getting a track medal from the coach (in addition to the medals from the meets) for being the most improved.  This was mostly because she is the only 7th grade girl who volunteered to run hurdles and she improved her time every singe time even though she's never done anything like that and at 5'1" I doubt it's easy for her.  She also got a hustle medal for volleyball at the school banquet.  She put it all out there at every practice and every game.  She always got there.  She finished the semester just 3 percentage points from getting a 4.0.  I'm extremely proud of her for her grades.  She's never been my kid with the highest grades, but this year she pulled it all out and worked SO hard.  I know she can do anything she wants.  Chelsi finished 2 points away from a 4.0 for the semester and got a 4.0 for the 1st semester.  She graduated from elementary and is onto middle school.  Her teachers and little brother will miss her.  She has introduced me to a lot of parents as she's very popular with the parents.  I hope she continues to be a good girl.  Jaemin improved all of his grades.  He continues to read at almost 3rd grade level.  Chelsi comprehends post secondary!  Jaemin however has continued to make great strides.  His teacher sent me a very kind, end of year, email to say how much she has enjoyed him and though his flapping began to get worse she can see how hard he works and how much progress he has made.  He is really getting his words and thoughts out now.  It's so amazing sometimes to hear him speak.  He's understanding better without always having to watch others.  His therapies are doing good so hopefully they allow them to continue with his IEP.  We've been lucky to have a district that does this for him so willingly.  He doesn't actually qualify, but they've seen what's done so far and continue on a professional opinion.

We had the last day of school and afterward I took them out to eat, to the movies and for ice cream.  They're tired and it was good.  I hope they have a great summer.  They've had a really good year.

So fast

The older your kids get, the faster the time goes.  Every mother ahead of me in the parent stage told me this, but until you get there you don't believe it.  CRAZY!  It's been a good couple of months.  We had a little rough time when my grandma passed away suddenly and I was sick for a month and when I got better and went to work I made it a whole day before I got a stomach bug.    Our house has been started and is already under roof.  I can't believe we're leaving this house after 20 years!  But, the new one is looking so nice and the smaller lot, appealing.  Chase and Kaelin have started track.  Chelsi wrapped up gymnastics and as bad as she wanted to do another session because they hired such a fantastic instructor, we decided that we can't handle one additional thing with the house.  Kaelin is overlapping track with volleyball.  She's not playing with her school, but the coach she landed last year who is just phenomenal.  She's always so impressed by Kaelin and continues to teach her new things step-by-step.  We're spending every weekend cleaning ours house, working weekends at our jobs, grocery shopping, catching up from the busy week and cleaning up and doing work at the new house to save money.  Once we sell our current house we'll be in great shape.  We've had so many lookers but only 1 couple actually had their house already listed, so no one has been looking that seriously yet.  Good feedback so far, so we just wait.  Cole continues to work full-time, Chase with track and football in the mornings (weights).  I think Cole finally stopped growing which he should be thankful for since he now has to buy his own clothes.  Chase has hit 6'2" and is not 16 yet.  Chelsi is down to just concentrating on school since gymnastics ended and Jaemin continues to work on his deficits with all 4 therapies 150 minutes/week.  She gave up candy for Lent and Jaemin gave up electronics and candy.  He's not going into tablet withdrawal yet, so I'm impressed.

I don't have lake view pics yet, but Chase spent some time fishing when we were working on it last week.  I love that him and Jaemin just sat quietly down by the lake together.

Out of order Christmas

I really did get out of sorts this year.  I didn't even do our annual Christmas photo, so no cards this year.  But, I mentioned doing a Christmas video card and the girls wanted to do that....SOOOOO....the choreography is totally them.  I just bought the music and Jaemin was in charge of operating the tablet while I video taped.  They had such a great time!  Christmas was good and I got to have some time with my sweet new nephew (Godchild).  Love him too!

Christmas card 2016!

K and Aunt M

 C and Aunt M

 C and Aunt M (She got 3 of the 5 with her)

 She's so good with the baby!

J's Christmas Party.

 More Christmas Pics

My Christmas Elf (2016 Program)

So busy and behind

This has just gotten so last thought to me.  I've been so bad about a lot of things I used to be so good about. I haven't even written the foster moms in 1 1/2 years.  I used to do that every single year without fail.  Mrs. Kim, Mrs. Kim and Mrs. Jun, if you ever read this, I'm sorry.

The activities have become so busy.  Not that we're over-extending the kids, but by the time you multiply an activity by 4 and then try to work; it's crazy.  We're a little laid back at this point with Chelsi only having gymnastics, but Chase is still weight lifting for football, so we just need to make sure he always has rides and track and volleyball are soon to be starting back up.  Then, the real fun begins with swim lessons....I think we'll try to break Kaelin from volleyball from the summer since we'll start back in with volleyball for her and football for Chase and possibly Jaemin when school starts back up.  That will be a crazy we've never attempted before.  If Chase could sell enough lures to make a few bucks a month for gas and then clean his aunt's house like he does now, that could suffice for a job.  Hoping that works out for him.  Football is hard to work during AND keep A averages in school.

Our house will start as soon as the weather cooperates, so hopefully, we can move in before school starts.  That alone will be enough for summer activities.

But, tonight was about Chelsi.  I don't know what happened to the invite, but apparently school mailed it on 1/6/16 and we just got it tonight (1/12/16) and the awards ceremony for high performance on a state exam was tonight.  Brian had to hurry up and get her there and then take her to gymnastics.  Chelsi does NOT like to miss awards.  She definitely lives for those.  I hope that continues.  I usually do the gymnastics run, but it's been so crazy with trying to sell the house, build the house and just keep up that I haven't gotten to spend time with Jaemin, so that was mine tonight.  We hadn't read all month yet, so we read for an hour and then worked on the easy times tables.  He's ahead in math since he's already finished the subtraction and additional goals for 1st grade.  I hope he always continues to be this smart about math.  That's great!  But, Chelsi got her award.  I know lots of 4th graders get these at this age, but as high as she scored....it should be a occur every year.

Cheerfair 2015

I've never used my DSLR Canon 60D for a video camera and never will again.  It didn't record sound and only records in pieces.  Oh well.....never again.  So here are the moves, but no cheer and music.

 :(

Bump it up

I picked up Kaelin from volleyball practice tonight and she was SO excited.  There's an 8th grade tournament coming up and 3 of the 12 7th graders were asked to dress out and confirmed they would get playing time at that level.  That means she would be playing with all level 1 club girls.  She and 1 of the other 7th graders are not club at all....the 3rd is level 1.  So proud of her.  I know she'll hold her own against the 8th graders.  Can't wait to go.

Football and Volleyball 2015

So, we're pretty much half way into both seasons.  Chase is getting to play a little bit more.  He had a great night last night (probably his best ever with hard tackles and great blocks), so we're hoping he'll have more confidence in his newer position.  Almost had 4 interceptions, but did get 1 great one and hit the quarterback.  Kaelin got the starting setter position for her team, which was great considering out of 12 there are only about 3 that aren't club girls and she's one of those 3.  Her Parks and Rec coach this Spring and Summer was amazing and taught her so much.  She's enjoying this and I know she really wants to play club, but I just don't know about the time and $$ commitment.

New baby soon to be

My sister will have my newest nephew in late October/early November.  Jaemin is still having trouble understanding why we were having a baby shower when the baby was still 'in there'.  This was my first real shower and I wanted it to be elegant for her because she is elegant and she always makes everything nice for others.  I'd been planning it for over 2 months and texting my cousin bak and forth so her and my aunt could participate.  Luckily, my cousin is younger and knows what people actually do at showers nowadays, so she took care of games, prizes and eatery.  My aunt brought some good fruit and monkey bread.  I made egg casserole, french toast casserole and got the decorations and cupcakes.

A girl at work made some cupcakes that I had found a picture of I wanted them nice and simple, so she just did white cake mix with white icing and made pretty, simple, elegant little flowers.  I sprayed blue icing spray on each one of them so they'd still have some white edges.  Got a huge glass platter at the Salvation Army and put my moms glass cake plate on that for a cupcake display.  I got the vases at the Salavation Army as well and then used my 40% off coupon at Hobby Lobby for the burlap roll.  I have the beautiful lace table cloth my great great aunt/uncle gave us for our wedding 21 years ago and put the burlap on top of that.  See the baby's room is pretty much shabby chic and I wanted to keep in with her theme.  I got the flowers on sale that day thanks to my cousin's alert.  I wrapped them in extra burlap and let baby blue chiffon ribbon fall inside the vase around the burlap.  I thought it all turned out really nice on a very easy budget.  I also borrowed my mom's (family heirloom) steamer trunk for the gift table.  My sister loves this trunk, so I knew she'd appreciate it.  I think everyone liked the food and the games and my sister got a lot of great gifts to get her started.  She still has 2 showers to go, so it's a pretty good start to being ready for that baby!