Fun!

We didn't take a vacation this year.  Everyone decided they needed a recovery year from Korea last year and well, after the money we spent to take that trip, we needed a down year or more.  But, the girls had earned Six Flags tickets, so we decided to spend a day there.  Cole was 'too grown up' to go, so it was a little cheaper.  Kaelin and Chase mostly wandered together and everyone once in awhile we'd all 6 be together or a parent with each set of kids.  We got a lot of rides in in the morning.  Hardly any wait at all.  Jaemin LOVED Thunder River.  He could not get enough.  He loved getting soaked and he did get soaked 2 of the 3 times we road.  He loved Looney Tunes of course.  All of the rides are his size.  I took him on Tony Hawk's roller coaster and that was enough of those for him.  We got Chelsi on a roller coaster and she even threw her hands in the air.  I road Batman with Chase and Kaelin. Kaelin closes her eyes as tight as humanly possible on all rides, but she WILL ride them.  Chase talks her into doing everything with him.  We went back to our car to eat our packed lunch.  We brought lawn chairs and the little kids' table, chairs and umbrella for them to eat in the shade and then it was onto the water park.  It was alright, but way over crowded, so a couple hours later we went back to riding rides.  It really wasn't too bad as far as lines go until after lunch.  The kids did so good, but were SO tired as are we.  It's way more fun now that they can all ride bigger rides.

First ride was the ferris wheel...totally had Jaemin and Chelsi happy while Brian and the big kids wandered to the bigger rides.

This was them getting brave enough to raise their hands on the little buccaneer ride.

And learning to wait in line patiently.

More rides and Jaemin attempting to wave at me while riding.

And I guess Brian attempted to take a picture of the big kids.....and yep....that's Chase actually smiling!  He's such a teenager lately.

Really great day with the family!

So Tiring

Every day that Jaemin stays home with Kaelin he ends up exhausted.  He fell asleep on the couch, shortly after I got home from work.  He was just lying down watching videos (he says legos) on his iPod and he was out!  So sweet he is.

For the boys

Cole got a replacement vehicle tonight.  Only problem is that it started smoking 10 miles from the dealership and they had to come back and get it.  There was a leak under it causing it, so we're thinking it could be the cooler line.  But, since it was a dealership, they paid for the towing and are keeping it a couple of days to fix.  I'm planning on asking for an invoice in case it doesn't get fixed properly.  I hope it was just bad timing.  We got a good deal on it and it was adult owned and looked well cared for inside and out, so I don't think there was any malice, just bad timing.  He's a little disappointed he doesn't have it yet, but hopefully it will be worth it in the end.  We're hoping this will be his vehicle for awhile and are putting full coverage on it.  He's helping pay for it so he has some ownership in taking care of it.  Then, when he's older and insurance is cheaper we'll transfer it to him.

Jaemin was told to go to bed tonight at 8:30.  Same time as usual when he stays home the next day, but he was in the middle of Ice Age, so I, as usual, gave into my little man and told him he could watch it a bit longer from his bed.  So spoiled my man is.  But school will start soon and he'll be introduced to the real world soon enough.

No Cats!

I think cats are fine.....as long as they're not too close to Jaemin.  Apparently, he had been outside playing and was holding Cuddles for awhile.  Kaelin brought him into Brian and Brian said his eyes were almost swelled shut and his body was covered in small hives.  Poor boy.  I came home about 45 minutes later and the hives were gone, but his eyes were still pretty swollen even after benedryl.  We told him no more cuddling with the cats.  He promptly told me that holding kitties make him sick.  At least I think he gets it.

On a good note, we sold Cole's car last night and today the podiatrist released him to work again.  So at least he got a few work hours in for the day.  Onto look at another truck tomorrow night.  Not sure if it will work out.  It's not extended cab and we're not sure if his 6'2" body will fit okay, so we'll find out.  The, back to looking!

Longest Week EVER!

It's only Wednesday.  I just realized that while bringing Chelsi home from gymnastics.   Chase did manage to sell his last football card when he and Brian went to moms to take care of the garden.  YAY!  One thing accomplished this week.  I have accomplished NOTHING at work all week.  Cognos has had glitches all week, making my reporting very slow and cumbersome.  Cole's off work all week with his toe and is getting grouchy.  We're STILL trying to look for a truck for him and possibly sell his car while trying to convince him he needs to be more appreciative of being spoiled rotten.  Which he is.  I know our kids do not believe it now because so  many America kids are so spoiled and get their way and get things they want on whims, but they are spoiled too.  Not as bad as many, but spoiled far more than we were growing  up.  We're trying our best to pull in the reins to remind them nothing comes without work and effort and rarely for free.

We got another email from Kaelin's agency.  Kaelin is now expecting a letter and gifts from her foster mother.  They said this will be the only time they will forward for them and it will be directly between us from now on.  How great is it that it will be here in time for her birthday.  She'll really love that.  I'm so happy for her and hope she can have a long distance relationship with her.  Her foster mother really loves kids....so does her husband.

Next week is a full week with no football.  No practice, no cards to sell, nothing.  Hopefully, it will just be a better week all together.  I'm hoping we can get good enough weather and talk the family into taking off work to go to Six Flags one day next week.  We'll see if I can talk the older men into it.  I don't know about taking them all by myself in the waterpark.

Please bring on a better week.

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.