Kaelin Day

Today is Kaelin's 12th birthday in Korea and tomorrow is her 12th birthday here.  Of course, in Korean age she's already 13.  We have a birthday party for cousins tomorrow, so we decided to do her stuff tonight since it's still her birthday somewhere in the world.  She wanted pizza, so we went grocery shopping and brought home some pizza and watched God's Not Dead.  Very interesting movie.  Anyway, Princess Kaelin wanted white cupcakes, so I found some with rainbows on them and bought some animal print candles for her.  She's moving on and I told her only one year until she's officially a teenager, though in a lot of ways age doesn't matter to teenagers.  You get a teenager based on biology not age....I've got 3.  I told her she needs to think enough of herself to do what's best for herself no matter what.  Basically, value herself.  I think she'll do well.  I have worries....always, but she's a good girl at heart and does try.  I see her as the child that will do what she needs to to succeed.  I see her going to college and providing for herself and finding  herself before she moves into a permanent relationship.  This is important for my girl.  We love her to Korea and back.

Last night, we took the 3 little kids up with us to the complex for the high school's first football game of the season.  It was close to 100 degrees, but we brought water and sweated through it.  The boys on the field had it much worse, obviously.  Chase was not going to get to play for sure.  He's a freshman and it was a varsity game and a hard and big one.  But, I just wanted to at least go to the game to see him step onto the field for his first varsity game.  We got to make a parent tunnel and cheer them on.  The lights went out in the stadium for awhile, there were tons of flags and just an all out long game.  It was moved to 8pm due to the heat and we left the stadium after 11pm with Chase in tow.  Chelsi and Jaemin fell asleep close to an hour before it was over.  Jaemin slept on me....HOT!  Chelsi slept on the bleacher on the blanket beside me.  That shower never felt so good.

Through all our tough times I hope for things to get better.  This is where the movie God's Not Dead is correct.  He is our hope.  The devil's advocate in the movie says we believe in God to make things better in bad situations.  But, the truth is that's when it's hardest, but that's what sometimes defines us and our real belief.  When you are going through hell and you still find the strength to believe in God, it does help you.  Free will will always exist.  Because of that sin will always exist.  We may not always understand why things are the way they are.  They don't seem right sometimes.  I try to believe and sometimes it's a struggle that there is some greater plan.  We just may not know or understand.....at the moment or ever.  I'm not the most devote to some by a long shot.  I'm not an avid church goer.  I don't profess my belief in God at every turn.  But, I'm not a closet Christian either.  I do believe.  My relationship with God is personal.  It's private.  I don't believe human man needs to be a part of it.  And I don't get all of my prayers answered and definitely not as quickly as I need or believe they should sometimes.  But I still try to believe that like my parents God only wants what's best for me and I can't know or understand that all of the time and that's where blind faith comes in.

Back to Kaelin and her birthday.  Some birthday pics and a pic from a couple of weeks ago of a 5K she did with her friends.  I was supposed to to, but I left to do mine at the track so I could watch Chase at football.  She decided she'd rather stay with her friends, so I let her enjoy!

1st Day Success

I told Jaemin I would call him after he got off the school bus to see how his day went.  He told me I didn't need to because "he was going to have a great day".  He really is such a good boy.

I did call and he told me his day was "awesome!" and then he said he couldn't talk to me anymore because he had to go potty.  All the kids did fine.  Just old hat for the older ones.  Even Chelsi didn't have anything big, new or exciting to report.  Jaemin was excited that his friend J is in Kindergarten and he played with her at recess.  I had emailed his teacher a couple of days ago to tell her how nervous I've been about this day because of his issues.  She reaffirmed that she had velcro on the underside of his desk for his sensory and she would keep on eye on him socially.  She called me this evening to let me know he really had a great day.  She said he actually initiated small conversation with her which was a big step since he didn't talk much at summer school.  To be clear, she said he only would answer yes or no to questions.  Nothing more.  He was all smiles when I walked him in.  Walking him all the way in was more for me then him.  I've never done that for any of the other kids, but I needed to make sure he was okay.  Nothing but smiles from him.  He's so happy he gets to go back tomorrow!  Chase said he was already on the bus when Jaemin got on and when he didn't see the girls Jaemin went straight to the back to sit with big brother.  So sweet that he let Jaemin sit with the whole time.  I'm so relieved that so far it's great.  I hope things continue.  His teacher says no worries....I will always worry.  I'm his mom.

Now, we just have to get all 5 through the whole year!

1st day of school

I really hope this year is great.  I have a lot of worries, but I do hope it's great for all 5.  I can't believe how fast the time has gone to get all of them in here, out of daycare and onto real life.

She's Okay

I was a little....  Okay a lot......worried about Miss Chels.  She had some symptoms and the doctor ordered a fasting glucose.  I called for results this morning and they said her glucose was fine but several others were abnormal including creatinine, lymphocytes and neutrophils.  Doing what I do for a living, that scared me.  She said she'd forward to the doctor and someone would call.  They finally called and said there was another number that indicated she had recently had something viral.  She did have several sores on her shoulder the other night that looked like the remains if chicken pox.  Not a shocker since I don't think that vaccine works very well.  Anyways, to be on the safe side we'll repeat the test in a month.  Pretty relieved right now.
And since my girl had to fast for 12 hours we went to McDonald's for breakfast.  She has tiny veins and blood draws are rough.  I couldn't promise the tech she would hold still since she's skiddish, so she had a guy come to hold her hands.  Well, Chelsi thought the worst and started in on the quiet crying she did when she came home as an infant.

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.