Awards for the Girls

Only the elementary school does awards (the older boys can only get state test awards).  It was sort of chaotic, to say the least.  And it's still kinda, well, dumb, but they got awards.  I'm not saying the awards they give our are dumb, just that they give these great door prizes that only the kids who don't get academic awards can get.  So, yeah, they incentives for not trying as hard.  Kaelin got the Presidential Fitness award as usual.  I told her to strive for top sit ups or fastest mile next year.  She can do that.  She's very strong and athletic.  Chelsi got a Music award and Reading award.  That's a whole other topic I won't go into.  I know my child is tops and that's all that's important.  Chelsi was the only one of the girls I could catch out on the floor that morning, so I took their pictures with their awards tonight.  She's admiring her first, of many, medals.

What a day!

And I don't mean in a good way.  Stressful and tiring.  First of all, I have a sore on my mouth from all the stress of the cost of the vehicles last week.  Makes eating really painful and just moving my mouth painful.  Then, I go to UPS to pick up the triangular colored pencils I bought Jaemin, for Korea, and they shipped them back to the store.  UGH!  Walmart, was, well......Walmart.  Enough said.  I went to get gas and wasn't sure what side the tank was on for Cole's car......and I got it wrong.  Got home and decided I was never going to have time to cut the boys' hair before vacation and it was getting LONG!  So, I started with Cole, then Chase, then thought what the heck I may as well get Jaemin's hair cut.  Thank God he's a sensory seeker and LOVES getting his hair cut with the trimmers.  He's a really great customer that Jaemin.  Then, Kaelin decided it was her turn.  She just couldn't stand it anymore, so it's short now.  Still had to eat and clean up and go through all the school supplies they sent home today.  The septic guy decided he was going to work on our lines this week, the roofer decided he was going to roof this weekend, which means I had to call the gutter guy to let him know it will be his turn.  Then, next week we have to get our screens out and rescreened.  Our home repair will be all done after that and I will breath.  Then, we go on VACATION!  I'll be needing it, by the way.

Oh...and one funny thing for the night.  Got our phone bill to top it off...it was $10 higher.  I called to find out why and they inform me there was a late charge on it.  UUUhhhhh....we have auto pay.  they put it on our credit card automatically every month....ummm...so we can't be late.  She explains there must have been a glitch.  You think so?  I did ask her to put a note on our account about what happened so they'd believe me if it ever happened again.  I never thought I'd get a late charge for that.

You could literally hear it

going out of our account, I swear.  :)

We sold our old truck Monday, bought our new truck (older) Tuesday.  By Wednesday we had it in for new tires, which it badly needed as the others were bald and unbalanced, and an inspection.  That's when we got the news.  It needed ball joints, idler arm, lugnuts, replaced side mirror glass and an alignment.  We kinda figured by the condition of the current tires it would need an alignment, but all of this was to the tune of $1300.  Didn't make the buying price seem quite as good.  But, what can you do?  Just deal with it.  By Thursday I drove Cole's car into work so he could have practice driving it to school.  It lost power on my way to work and I could barely make it up the hill.  Time for a new catalytic converter.  $200  Brian says his truck's rotors need turned, but since we don't drive it much we'll wait for now.  I'm worn out on car repairs.  We are very thankful that's all it was for Cole's car after Brian's truck repairs...yikes!

I did get really good news though.  The oddest thing I think I've ever heard of as far as specials and discounts go, but I called the hospital to pay for Cole's last cardiology bill, which is normally around $1,000, but this one didn't have an MRI or stress test on it, and they told me as soon as I called that if I paid it off that day they would knock 50% off for a special they were having for the month of May.  Holy cow!  Of course I paid it off, I was going to anyways, but now it's that much more I can keep in my HSA to put towards Cole's braces or his cardiology in December which will come to about $300 for my 20% out-of-pocket, now that I've met my high deductible.

I'll take any break we get!

Fun for all

We had 3 things going on in one day, so we just had Chase decide what he wanted to do since it was ON his birthday.  The family thing, we didn't realize was today until after the first two things came up and Chase had already decided we'd go to the adoption picnic.  This is a place we can go where none of our families are stared at or talked about.  This is a time when we can be with families that look like us.  There were only a few families there, but it was still great food and great company.  The boys did some fishing and Jaemin finally got to use his fishing pole for the first time and fish.  He really did enjoy it, but doesn't quite have the patience for it...yet.  I think he actually could though.  The boys weren't really catching much, but did some frog hunting for fun.  I brought a birthday cake so we could go ahead and celebrate there.  It was fun and Jaemin was pretty well behaved.  I think they all had fun and Chase caught himself a nice bullfrog.

A little towards Korea

I know that Make a Wish is real and I know that our meeting with them was real, but now that it's 2 months since Cole's Wish Granters, Sarah and Juneall, it really seems like it was this distant memory sort of dream.  Almost like it only happened in my head one night.  I know it's real, but it's sort of an argument with myself.  Cole is asking too.  Almost like he thinks we could possibly know something he doesn't.  I want to believe it's just because they're trying to make Korea happen and it's a very tall order, but I guess just as easily they could be trying hard to make his #2 come true for the shopping spree.  Maybe it's just as hard?  I don't know.

In the meantime, the saving towards Korea has not stopped by any means.  We have no idea if it's possible through MAW, so we're continuing on our 6 year journey of saving for us to all go together.  One of the things we came up with was to tell our 2002 pick up and get something not quite as nice, since he only uses it for hunting and fishing.  Remember we bought that truck 3 years ago thinking we needed the 4 doors so we could all ride together easier.  THEN....came Jaemin 2 months after we bought it and we could no longer all fit in it.  Brian's only driven it 7,000 miles in 3 years and that's just crazy to even have it.  I realize it's not a nice fancy truck to a lot of people, but it was to us.  We sold it last night and ended up finding a 1996 Chevy 4x4 to replace it.  Can't beat it for under $3,000, a few more miles, but it's the same year and make of truck we traded for our Ford 3 years ago.  BUT, it has a vinyl floor instead of carpet because it's a knock down, which is totally awesome!  The kids' dad, that we bought it from is a transmission guy and just replaced it, so we're praying we have many years of driving it.  It's a little rough, but not too bad.  After all was said and done and we did the math, we were able to put $6,000 towards Korea.  That's a massive chunk!  We're pretty much at our goal of where we need to be since we sold the truck and we're praying hard for no major, unexpected, expenses that would drain it again. 

I've been so excited that we might get to go, that I bought the bigger 3 kids passport carriers for the plane ride, so they can just keep them around their necks as we travel.  They even got to pick the colors and they were only $5.  I bought myself a pink one so I can carry my passport and Jaemins.  Brian will use the black carrier my grandma bought me before we went in 2009 for Jaemin.  He can carry Chelsi's passport and his own. 

 

I even called a travel agent, in Chicago, that someone on one of our adoption Facebook groups recommended.  The lady said she could get a pretty good discount if we went their preferred airlines.  I asked her what the going rates for this May were so I can have a better idea.  She said about $1500 for adults and $1300 for kids.  I asked her who the preferred airlines were and she said KAL or Asiana.  Whooohoooo....my preferred too!  I asked her when we should call and she said by January because by March they'll be pretty much full and with 7 of us to keep together, the earlier the better.  So excited to think that I can possibly start calling in December after Cole's heart check.  I will be so over the moon when Korea is real. 

Making a list...

Along with a list of things we want to buy in Korea, a list of things to bring to Korea and a list of things we should try to, slowly, buy over the next year to bring to Korea.  For now, most of that list is coming down to things to make the trip pleasurable for Jaemin and, in turn, for all of us.  I've been perusing other blogs and educational sites reading about inexpensive, non-noisemaking ideas for activities for kids on planes.  But, I'm mostly interested in sensory activities.  This is hard because he seems sensory seeking and most of those activities are ones where he would need to be up and around.  This is tough...can't do that on a plane.

I'm going to make a big ziplock bag of crafty things that I don't care about like those fuzz ball things, yarn and beads.  I'm planning to bring floam in a taped ziplock for a fidget toys, maybe a stress ball or two.....found some at the $1 store, but if I can get some free, I'm going to start watching for them.  I also saw these great I Spy lap bags that people are making on Etsy.  I can't afford $20 + shipping, so when I googled how to make one myself I came across a lady who took a pencil case and made one.  So, I'm thinking I'll make 3.  I can stitch them together, then 1 lays across his lap and the other two would weigh that one down on either side.  I could fill each one with different types of items for him to find making it a weighted lap bag, fidget toy and game all in one.  In my head this makes sense, but we'll see.  First I have to find tiny little toys and items to put inside with the rice and beads.

I put sugarless gummies on my list for this week.  Cole says they're nasty, but Jaemin will eat just about anything.  Supposedly, chewing something like gum (which just isn't possible for Jaemin) is good for a sensory 'work out'.  I'm trying to keep the sugar level for Jaemin down as there seems to be a pretty direct correlation to some of his stimming and this.  While Jaemin's been in bed for an hour now he is calmer tonight.  We're implementing a no tv, no iPod 1 hour before bedtime.  It stimulates him much too much.  We're making it part of his Korea social story so that, hopefully, when we fly we can say 'one hour before Jaemin sleeps Jaemin can't play iPod or watch tv'.

If the flight doesn't go well next year I wish the other passengers could know just how hard we tried to prepare.  Our trip to TX is our little trial run. Yikes!

Our new additions

Last week I posted the kids waiting for a new addition.  There were 4 kittens born to Cuddles in several hours.  When we went to bed there were only two kittens and by morning there were 4.  We ended up with 3 calicos (one was tortoiseshell) and 1 white kitten with brown spots just like momma.

Unfortunately, one of the beagle pups got out of his kennel while we were at work and got our tortoiseshell kitten.  We were going to keep that one for Chelsi, so we're a little bummed and now the pups have to be closely supervised while out or they can't come out.  Needless to say for the rest of that day he got sent to his room.  Chelsi picked out the kitten that looks just like Cuddles, so that's the one she'll get.  And the other two calico females, we'll have to find homes for and then get Cuddles fixed this summer so there will be no more kittens.  They are pretty cute and starting to move around a lot more now and their bellies ARE fat!  Momma takes good care of them and if you hold one and it cries she comes running and gives you a dirty look until you put it back in the house.  They still haven't opened their eyes, but should soon.

Just a couple days old....you should see them now.