Thursday, July 26, 2012
EEEEKKKK!
I officially made our hotel reservations IN SEOUL!
After so many years of saving and scrimping and praying for this trip, we have one more step down. I don't know when we'll find out which wish Cole is getting for Make A Wish and I didn't want to lose out on the great deal Fraser Place Central gave us through our agency, so I made the reservations. We can always cancel if need to up to about 1 week before. I don't really expect Make A Wish to grant a trip like that anyways, so I had to do it. Next year is our chance. Cole's still doing well and we didn't want his heart surgery to prevent it, so we're getting while the getting is good.
We are going to be gone for 2 weeks! This is the biggest trip we have ever or will ever do and such memories we will have. We're making a list of things to do and what subway or bus stops they're at.
Best part. Our hotel is a 2 bedroom (there are few of these in Seoul, especially downtown) that will sleep all 7 of us, free breakfast every morning and a pool if we just need to stay in a relax. We can walk to most things too. And another great, added feature, since this is where the girls and I and Lois stayed in 2009 we know the area a little bit. We're familiar enough to get around. One thing that makes it easier is a good thing in a foreign country. I've got days built in to spend a day in Gwangju where Jae and Chelsi were born and a day in Jeju where Kaelin was born, but I have yet to find hotels large enough, so we may not get to go to these places. It will be a bummer, but there's not a lot we can do. Later this year the director of Asian Affairs is having me drive up so he and his staff can try to help us in this area. At least I'll know by then what gets cut out or doesn't.
In a few more months we'll begin checking airfare to try to find something in the budget.
Friday, July 20, 2012
And she's going to Disney!
http://news.yahoo.com/donations-send-ohio-cancer-patient-disney-143917350.html
This little girl gets to go to Disney afterall. You see both parents have to sign off through Make a Wish, but since she has now received private donations her mom and grandmother can just take her. Great!
This little girl gets to go to Disney afterall. You see both parents have to sign off through Make a Wish, but since she has now received private donations her mom and grandmother can just take her. Great!
Thursday, July 19, 2012
I love to hear
Jaemin talk.
He's may be almost 4, but he's still 3 and starting to talk a little more like a 3 year old now. His vocabulary's getting a little bigger and he's putting more words together. Every little step makes me so happy to see him get through.
He's finally liking going to bed....especially when he goes to Papas on Fridays. Tonight he put his pullup and pjs on and came to the door and yelled downstairs. I was doing something and all I heard is "mom, are you coming?". He wanted tucked in, plus I had promised to read Dinosaur Roar before bed. I love laying in bed with him and reading to him and talking to him. Jaemin really is my sweet little boy. Wish I could say the same for his brothers. Oy! They've become such teenagers and all we get from them is smartness and eye rolling. But, I can still remember the days of cuddling with them and it gets me through it....frustrated, but through it.
He's may be almost 4, but he's still 3 and starting to talk a little more like a 3 year old now. His vocabulary's getting a little bigger and he's putting more words together. Every little step makes me so happy to see him get through.
He's finally liking going to bed....especially when he goes to Papas on Fridays. Tonight he put his pullup and pjs on and came to the door and yelled downstairs. I was doing something and all I heard is "mom, are you coming?". He wanted tucked in, plus I had promised to read Dinosaur Roar before bed. I love laying in bed with him and reading to him and talking to him. Jaemin really is my sweet little boy. Wish I could say the same for his brothers. Oy! They've become such teenagers and all we get from them is smartness and eye rolling. But, I can still remember the days of cuddling with them and it gets me through it....frustrated, but through it.
so glad to be done for the day
This week has been the week from you know where. Work is crazy right now because there are only 4 of us in our unit, however 1 has been out on medical leave for almost 2 months now and another left a couple of weeks ago....and somewhat in disarray. 2 of us are left to do everything for 4 and I'm conducting interviews to fill the vacant position. That alone has been a full time job this week. And my car, well it decided to throw yet another temper tantrum, landing it at the dealership service department for about the 7th or 8th time in less than 2 months. I literally had to crawl across to the passenger side to get out because the driver's door wouldn't open. I was locked in. Something bubbled, in the molding....they say, and caused the door panel to get stuck and it was stuck good because no one could open it. I left work early today to go to a friend's dad's funeral. I was SO happy to come home, not only because I am really so uncomfortable at those things, but because I was not thinking at all or thought wrong, whichever. I wore these wedge shoes and thought we wouldn't be standing much, so I could tolerate them. And we didn't stand much, but I couldn't tolerate them. I spent my standing time trying to lean on a wall to shove my heel to the back of my shoe to relieve the pressure in my toes.
Normally I would just tough it out, but when we were at Sea World in May I wore tennis shoes and I guess a combination of too hot of weather and feet swelling with leather that shrunk up on the water rides and I knew something was wrong. When we came back to the condo that day, I told Brian something wasn't right. I told him I felt like my toenails were going to popoff. I couldn't see anything because I had painted my nails. A couple of weeks ago my polish was wearing off and I noticed blood on the edges. I took off my polish to find both big toenails bruised badly, bleeding underneath...or had at one time and I knew. Then, a couple of days ago I wore close toed shoes for the first time all summer and came around a corner at work and someone else came around the other direction and I stopped too sudden and shoved my toes to the front of my flats. I took off my shoe and saw how grey my nail now was. It's disconnected from my skin in the middle now. They're both going to fall off...Brian says after the new nail grows in it will shove it off.
If I remember right, this is exactly what happened to Chelsi several months ago when her shoes were too small and we didn't know it. I couldn't figure out how she wouldn't notice......now I know. It's tolerable pain as well as your shoes conceal it a bit. I'm dreading fall and close toed shoes if they don't fall off and heal a little by then. They're sorta sore right now only from a couple of hours in heels. So relieved to be home, out of those shoes and off my feet.
And yeah, I bought new shoes that are a little bigger.
Normally I would just tough it out, but when we were at Sea World in May I wore tennis shoes and I guess a combination of too hot of weather and feet swelling with leather that shrunk up on the water rides and I knew something was wrong. When we came back to the condo that day, I told Brian something wasn't right. I told him I felt like my toenails were going to popoff. I couldn't see anything because I had painted my nails. A couple of weeks ago my polish was wearing off and I noticed blood on the edges. I took off my polish to find both big toenails bruised badly, bleeding underneath...or had at one time and I knew. Then, a couple of days ago I wore close toed shoes for the first time all summer and came around a corner at work and someone else came around the other direction and I stopped too sudden and shoved my toes to the front of my flats. I took off my shoe and saw how grey my nail now was. It's disconnected from my skin in the middle now. They're both going to fall off...Brian says after the new nail grows in it will shove it off.
If I remember right, this is exactly what happened to Chelsi several months ago when her shoes were too small and we didn't know it. I couldn't figure out how she wouldn't notice......now I know. It's tolerable pain as well as your shoes conceal it a bit. I'm dreading fall and close toed shoes if they don't fall off and heal a little by then. They're sorta sore right now only from a couple of hours in heels. So relieved to be home, out of those shoes and off my feet.
And yeah, I bought new shoes that are a little bigger.
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Something funny
Everyone close to us knows we've been saving for Korea for many years now. We sold and downgraded our truck to afford the trip among other things. We've worked really hard to save this amount. Well, we decided to refinance our house to the new, lower rates and the bank contacted us after we sent in our application and asked us a question that took us by surprise. We had to submit our bank statements and that's what set off the question.
Apparently, there are some rules through Fannie Mae that if accounts are above the norm they have to look at the accounts closer. We had the sale of our truck on that statement and that large deposit (It wasn't really that much considering it was a truck) threw up some flags. I explained that we sold our truck and downgraded. I didn't know there were these rules or flags in place and I've dealt with this loan officer for years. I told her I was a little disappointed they would question us about this deposit to the degree they did. There were more questions about it than I'm really going into here. She replied and explained to me that it was Fannie Mae and it was because our savings was higher than the average in America. WHAT??!!! Barely having enough to go to Korea doesn't seem like a massive nest egg, but apparently in banking world or in America it is. I told her not to worry, in a year the money will be gone after we go to Korea. :)
Brian's jaw dropped when I told him. We both had a good laugh for the night. I mean really it's not that hard to save the money when you are frugal and careful with your money and then sell vehicles you don't need, right? :)
Apparently, there are some rules through Fannie Mae that if accounts are above the norm they have to look at the accounts closer. We had the sale of our truck on that statement and that large deposit (It wasn't really that much considering it was a truck) threw up some flags. I explained that we sold our truck and downgraded. I didn't know there were these rules or flags in place and I've dealt with this loan officer for years. I told her I was a little disappointed they would question us about this deposit to the degree they did. There were more questions about it than I'm really going into here. She replied and explained to me that it was Fannie Mae and it was because our savings was higher than the average in America. WHAT??!!! Barely having enough to go to Korea doesn't seem like a massive nest egg, but apparently in banking world or in America it is. I told her not to worry, in a year the money will be gone after we go to Korea. :)
Brian's jaw dropped when I told him. We both had a good laugh for the night. I mean really it's not that hard to save the money when you are frugal and careful with your money and then sell vehicles you don't need, right? :)
1/2 way through
The orthodontist thinks Chase will get his braces off in December....yay! That means, literally, only 12 visits total. The original estimates from the other guys wanted reverse headgear, palate expander and this meant YEARS of treatment. Chase's teeth already look amazing! He's pretty fresh out of school and he said the newer studies are showing that only about 5% of kids actually need that extent of treatment as opposed to doing what we did and just wait for normal growth to fix some of it and then intervene for what may be left. In Chase's case it was his ectopic eye teeth that didn't want to drop down, gap in his front teeth and crossbite. None of it's there anymore. He even got his inside wire off today and is close to getting the bumps off his back teeth.
Cole is only on his 3rd visit and only has bottom brackets so far. He's only anticipating putting a few on the top to even it out a little. We settled for good enough treatment over perfection to a savings of about $3,000+. It will be barely noticeable in the end. Cole's issues were a crossbite in his back teeth because of a molar that was turned on it's side and pretty bad crowding in the front lowers. They literally zig-zagged across his mouth and all of this left him with a moderate overbite. The turned tooth was worrisome though. Same thing as Chase, they can eventually damage beyond keeping the teeth, which would cost us what we paid in their treatments anyways. Cole first wire looked like a U when it went in and after it was attached to the brackets, it looked like a U with crimps in it and one big indent. It had to go in a long way to grab that turned over tooth. His front teeth are already lined up. They're arched upward now, but he says they still need to come out because they were bent backwards and shouldn't have been. He says once they come forward into more of a U shape, not a flattened U like they are now (after straightening some) his overbite will correct more. His turned tooth looks really good. It's still turned because, well, it has a LONG way to go, but it's definitely moving. Poor Cole's in a lot more pain after each wire than Chase because his have so much further to move. I asked if we could have done anything earlier with his bottoms and he told me that the bottom fuses around age 4. He said there's no way you could anticipate this much at that age and this is the only situation. I felt better about that.
In the end both boys only cost about $4,600 total. That was after almost 5 years of shopping around, 2nd, 3rd and 4th opinions before deciding what route to do. I asked tons of questions to understand what our choices were and realized we were better off waiting until now. Now hopefully, we get a break before any of the others need braces. Thank goodness he gives a 5% discount for each sibling and 5% for cash payment.
They're going to have some pretty great smiles!
Cole is only on his 3rd visit and only has bottom brackets so far. He's only anticipating putting a few on the top to even it out a little. We settled for good enough treatment over perfection to a savings of about $3,000+. It will be barely noticeable in the end. Cole's issues were a crossbite in his back teeth because of a molar that was turned on it's side and pretty bad crowding in the front lowers. They literally zig-zagged across his mouth and all of this left him with a moderate overbite. The turned tooth was worrisome though. Same thing as Chase, they can eventually damage beyond keeping the teeth, which would cost us what we paid in their treatments anyways. Cole first wire looked like a U when it went in and after it was attached to the brackets, it looked like a U with crimps in it and one big indent. It had to go in a long way to grab that turned over tooth. His front teeth are already lined up. They're arched upward now, but he says they still need to come out because they were bent backwards and shouldn't have been. He says once they come forward into more of a U shape, not a flattened U like they are now (after straightening some) his overbite will correct more. His turned tooth looks really good. It's still turned because, well, it has a LONG way to go, but it's definitely moving. Poor Cole's in a lot more pain after each wire than Chase because his have so much further to move. I asked if we could have done anything earlier with his bottoms and he told me that the bottom fuses around age 4. He said there's no way you could anticipate this much at that age and this is the only situation. I felt better about that.
In the end both boys only cost about $4,600 total. That was after almost 5 years of shopping around, 2nd, 3rd and 4th opinions before deciding what route to do. I asked tons of questions to understand what our choices were and realized we were better off waiting until now. Now hopefully, we get a break before any of the others need braces. Thank goodness he gives a 5% discount for each sibling and 5% for cash payment.
They're going to have some pretty great smiles!
Monday, July 16, 2012
A moment of growth
For mom. Cole wanted to go to the local tractor pull. His friend had just texted him that he was going. So for him doing the dishes in return we drove him and picked him up. He even got a 10:30 curfew. I realize that's not all that late but he's only 15 and it was his first night out on his own. He wasn't complaining either, in fact I think he might have been a little surprised. He was waiting at the gate at 10:30 like I told him to so he followed the rules. As long as he can keep his grades up and (per his own words) wrestling doesn't make him too tired he may earn some trust for more teenager stuff. I'm not hoping for the going out part but happy with who he's becoming. This growing up and letting go thing is hard for moms.
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