Has it really been....

a couple of weeks?  It's been so busy, literally, life is passing before my eyes.  We're almost to the 1 1/2 week football break.  That will be better.  My birthday is over, not that that was anything time consuming.  Dad was visiting for a few days.  Chelsi's still in gymnastics.  Trying to take off every, warm, Friday to take the kids swimming at Lois'.  School is almost here!  Whew.  Maybe then I can breathe.

High school football is somewhat consuming, but not as bad as I really had it worked out in my head.  Brian gets him there at 6am 4 days/week and goes to work.  Either I pick him up a little after 7:30 or sometimes another mom does for us and get the other 3 younger ones wherever they need to go and get back to work.  Kaelin's been doing pretty good babysitting Jaemin 2 days/week.  Jaemin likes staying home with her.  Chase has to sell discount cards to help with football and at $20 a pop they're not that easy to sell.  But, he's trying.  Last night was mom's night and parent meeting for football.  All about the expectations for the boys, the program, etc.  They wanted moms to understand what their sons did, so we had to go through our son's position's drills.  I didn't fall, so though I'm very uncoordinated, I'll call it a success!

Cole's car is still out.  We're trying to sell as is.  He wants a truck to haul fishing poles in, so we decided it wasn't worth sticking money into it that we wouldn't get back out of it, but so far no bites.  We've had to put limits on his driving since he's driving our gas hog truck.  He's not liking it, but that's life.  Better save some money if you want to pick out your own vehicle!

We got an email from Kaelin's agency today.  Korea has received the letters we mailed a couple of weeks ago and her foster mother has asked for direct communication.  We're hoping this is a good thing.  We're really excited and hoping for communication.  We do not know how much it will be or if they just really wanted to be able to check the blog.  I'm hoping for emails, Facebook, anything.  I know it makes Kaelin happy.  She knows Mrs. Kim loves her.

Gotta go.  It's my only rest night!

Snorkel Tests and No Posts

The last 2 weeks have been a total blur.  We had two weeks of swim lessons 4 times per week, plus gymnastics on Wednesdays, plus summer school, plus my birthday, plus some of us getting sick.

Kaelin's poison ivy is totally gone, but they have her on so many steroids, she is still on them.  Just a few more days.  Found out she and a few other kids all got it at school of all places.....bad teacher.  Tsk, tsk.  Jaemin had a stomach virus which Brian and I got, but not as bad.  Then as soon as he started feeling well, we had to take him to the ER to find out the reason he could barely talk was because he had strep and his tonsils were touching his uvula completely.  Poor boy!  Found out strep was going around summer school.  Needless to say, summer school was not a hit.

My birthday was pretty good.  Though I think people forgot (which is normal with it being in the summer), Brian went to a lot of trouble to make reservations at this far out (far away) winery I kept seeing and wanted to try.  It just looked so pretty.  He called my sister and brother-in-law and got them together with us without me knowing.  He tried to get my cousin and her husband, but they had plans.  40 is fine.  Just another day and another number.  Jaemin did say, Sunday, though that my birthday was not over because there was no cake and ice cream.  I agree buddy!

This week, we're trying to get some estimates.  And the girls did snorkel tests with the snorkel gear I found with our swim stuff.  One set was totally broken, but the other 2 work!  Yay!  Brian has a choice of Florida or Mexico if we go somewhere and wants Mexico, so we have a smaller town in mind and have found a place and Lois is all ready to be nanny for a week.  Cole even gets to wait until he turns 18 next year to apply for his own renewal of passport and it will last 10 years this time.  I'll work on the little kids soon.

Next on the list or agenda

We're trying to figure out what do do, if anything, next year, so after a friend of ours went to Mexico with another mutual friend we are thinking about that.  Jane raved about it and has been twice now.  The logistics for our family are a little different since there are only 3 of them and we have to talk Cole into the flying part.  But, with the help and a couple of other adoptive family friends, they're walking us through where to stay and what we want.  We're hoping for Akumal or Tulum and thinking since this will most definitely be our last vacation with all 5 kids, since Cole turns  18 next year and graduates, and this year is our 20th wedding anniversary, this will be worth spending extra on.  We can normally vacation, even at the beach , for $2,000 or less including everything.  This will be closer to $6,000 (not quite) by the time we get plane tickets, etc., but we can stay for an entire week and do so much and eat so much cheaper.  The stay isn't quite as expensive as the states.  We didn't go anywhere this year or do anything and may not as easily as Chase gets a little older and more into the football things he needs to.  Next year will probably be it for a couple more years.  I'm still a little unsure, but if we save what I hope to, I think we'll take the plunge.  The kids can swim in a cenote, swim and snorkel with turtles, rays and dolphins, zipline, jump from bluffs and the best part is my friend Lois offered to pay her own way and entrances if she can stay with us in return for watching the kids so we can have some alone time.  See, we haven't been away overnight and alone in almost 13 years.  This will really allow us to combine a vacation into a couple get away and  I've been wanting to do that with Brian for so long, but just haven't been able to get myself to leave the needs the kids have in us; especially Jaemin.  This is  the perfect way to do that in one plane ticket and stay!  I'd love to just do one night on the beach eating dinner alone with Brian.  How awesome would that be!!  Everyone keeps telling us we need to get away.  It's good for us as a couple.  This is my way of being able to do it without having all the anxiety.  Hoping it works out.

Still broken out

This poor girl of mine is still broken out.  It's even in new places.  The backs of her legs looks so bad.  Her face isn't awful, but you would think after 3 full days of steroids it would be better.  I was reading online and I'm kind of wondering if it's not systemic and it's kind of attacking her whole system. It can actually, in worst cases, damage nerves.

She's been doing benedryl and steroids for 3 full days and I slathered her in some cream tonight.  I'm going to see if I can get her in to OUR doctor tomorrow if I don't feel it's any better by morning.

No hands

This is from a couple of weeks ago, but I forgot to get it off my phone.  No hands for a round off single back handspring.  Now he has her adding a tuck to it.

Poor girl!

It used to be Chase who always got poison ivy outside, now it's Kaelin too.  She had it on her legs and a touch on her face.  Gave her benefit last night, but it was a lot worse this morning.  Went to the doctor to get a steroid dose pack today.  Poor girl.

1st day for Jaemin

It's not the first official day of school, but it's his first day of summer school and being with others outside the family.  Our school does it as enrichment and especially for kindergartners to ease them into this new world. 

I walked him to the library and spoke to the teacher for a moment and let him know I had to go.  His sisters are in the school too, but not with him.  He looked at me, a little scared, and went to sit down on the rug with the others as his backpack stayed tight to his back. I teared up, but he didn't see.  I've never walked any of the other four in.  He's my baby boy and growing up.