Tonight the grandparents came over and M and A came back over and she had 3 friends over after school. We fixed hair and makeup, then had some pizza with Hawaiian Punch in cute little pink wine glasses. They wore leis and lip gloss and bracelets. They played Wii, played outside (til it rained) and then played Catch Phrase and then Wii some more. All in all, she has good friends. They all 3 seem like very well mannered, sweet girls. I think she enjoyed her party. And the cake, was cute. The grocery store did a pretty good job with my request over the phone.
Friday, September 7, 2012
Kaelin's 3rd Birthday
Tonight the grandparents came over and M and A came back over and she had 3 friends over after school. We fixed hair and makeup, then had some pizza with Hawaiian Punch in cute little pink wine glasses. They wore leis and lip gloss and bracelets. They played Wii, played outside (til it rained) and then played Catch Phrase and then Wii some more. All in all, she has good friends. They all 3 seem like very well mannered, sweet girls. I think she enjoyed her party. And the cake, was cute. The grocery store did a pretty good job with my request over the phone.
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
I know
These are sometimes some of the sweetest words your toddler can say. I was driving Jaemin from speech to daycare and I said "mommy needs to tell you something.". Then I said "mommy loves you.". He just sweetly said "I know.". I am so glad he's confident in my love for him.
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Reasons why
A. While other parents are complaining about their kids who have never been injured at younger competitions, getting hurt now, I can revel in the fact that if my child isn't playing he can't end up like his teammates either.
B. He will have a body that still functions in high school, while some kids will have broken down parts from multiple injuries at younger ages.
C. Less grass stains to get out.
D. His weaker ankles can rest (kind of a cheat since it's another injury related reason, but oh well.
E. When they get their butts handed to them like they did today I can honestly say my kid had not part of it. There may not be an i in team, but if you have the same favorites in the game day after day, there's never going to be a u in it either.
So, here's to more losses until hopefully they learn to play to the kids' potentials instead of politics in a public school. These coaches have a lot to learn abut communication. Those poor boys were running in and out because they had no idea where they were supposed to be or go because they get mixed signals from the coaches.
Monday, August 20, 2012
Not sure what happened....I'm losing my mind apparently
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Lulls
So, for me. I'll continue to try and attempt to show my kids what's really important in life and allow them to enjoy their lives as they've been handed to them by God. Kinda like I told Cole one night as he was a little disappointed to have no classes this year with his closest friends. Sometimes, even if life isn't perfect and you're not totally happy, faking your way through a little can eventually get you to believing your life really is fine the way it is. I realize this doesn't capture all lives, but for his situation and some others it's true. He's been a pretty happy kid this school year so far (though it's VERY new), so maybe we're onto something.
Here's to everyone else's happiness.
Friday, August 17, 2012
Full School Swing
Friday, August 10, 2012
Happy Birthdays
The goggles were Ethan's idea.
Something's wrong with this picture.
Thursday, August 2, 2012
The next medalist in swimming
http://www.youtube.com/watch?nomobile=1&v=OTpeKagBBS0
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!
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
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
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
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
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
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Rite of Passage
We didn't stay on the river long, but long enough to see a few trains pass through which totally thrill him. He jumped off the dock and swam a little. He did great for losing the nap today! All the kids were pretty tired. I'm not sure how many times Cole, Chase and Kaelin went up and down the river.
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Lifelong lessons
Blessing #4 chose to try her hand, literally, at stealing. We walked in the door from Walmart and I handed her something to take in and she wouldn't take it. She was holding her side and I immediately had a flashback to being in the store and she was holding her side then. She does that sometimes, so I didn't think anything of it until this moment. She eventually showed me the candy under her shirt. And after a 5 minute prodding, she confessed she did, in fact, take it from the store. Disappointed doesn't begin to describe the feelings we both had. She's the child we had few fears for as she grows up. But, we have to remember that all of our kids are human and WILL make mistakes. I pray, though, it's not worse than this though. The life altering mistakes are my biggest fears.
So, I did what (I think) most parents would do and loaded her back into the car, took her back to the store and made her explain it to the manager. The manager was great. She got down to her level, explained that people go to jail for that everyday and they turn people in for that. She told her to learn from it and thanked her for being honest and coming back to confess. Then, she lipped 'thank you' to me and we left. Needless to say she is being punished at home, but I'm pretty sure going there and facing it was a lot of the punishment.
Seoul depressed
UUUGGGGHHH!!!!!
It really stinks finding something suitable for a family of 7! You have to keep in mind, if you're used to only staying in hotels in the US the rooms in Seoul are MUCH smaller unless they're serviced residence apartments, like we stayed at when we picked Jaemin up. However, one large enough, like Fraser Place Central, for us is over $450/night. Ouch! There's literally nothing else in comparison. Either they just can't fit us or it's the same price to get us in. It's also harder because you'll see a room that says 2 double beds, but you can only sleep 2 adults and 1 child max, according to their rules. I can't even find rooms big enough for 4 of us, hoping to get connecting rooms for the other 3 of us.
I found one alternative that we will go to if we have to and it looks nice enough, but it's up a very large hill on the side of Namsan and I think after a long day of walking that would be even harder on Brian and the kids. It's a 15 minute walk up the hill, is my understanding. But, it may be absolutely all we can afford.
Notice I'm trying to stay as close to the Namdaemun area as possible so we're not spending our entire stay on the subway.
Friday, July 6, 2012
New Addition to the Blog for Make a Wish
Make someone's wish come true.
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Where do we stand on Korea?
I even bought a bunch of scooter skirts for the girls to wear, on clearance at Kohls of course. It can be quite warm (HUMID) there in late May, early June, so I'm thinking comfort. Can't worry about shoes at this point, but they'll be limited anyways. Everything I buy myself, which isn't much, is with Korea in mind. I even found the last of the sandals I've been looking for for 2 years now. I finally found them on Amazon for $10. The ladies of the house are pretty much ready. Brian just needs some polo type shirts and maybe one or two more pairs of fairly nice shorts. Jean shorts and athletic pants don't go over well over there like the men of my house wear all the time here. I absolutely have to wait to buy the big boys' clothes. They're at those growth periods where they could shoot up inches at a time, so they'll be last minute on shoes, shirts and shorts. Jaemin...well I'll have to check his to be worn bin in his closet. I don't know if he even has summer clothes for next year. May have to raid the next 50% sale at Children's Place. Since he lost his diaper last summer we got another year out of most of last year's clothes, but that isn't going to happen next year. He'll definitely be in a size bigger.
While I'm SO excited that it's really getting close to being real, I'm still a little cautious since I know that all it takes is Cole unexpectedly needing his surgery or some large financial catastrophe and the dream is, at the very least, put on hold. But, for now I'm enjoying the fact that we're planning on it and it is probably going to finally, really happen after so many years of saving, planning and budgeting.
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Look what I found.....yes I have birthdays
I was laughing because Jaemin had blown my candle out for me. He just couldn't wait and before I was even ready he had it out! The one below, I think was actually the relight, that he blew out again.
More pictures from today
Our view from our really great, FREE, seats. No zoom.....actually, I think I had the lens the other direction, so the players were much closer than it looks. The foul balls were caught right next to us.
Oh well
Not the greatest game we've been to by far. And it was hhhhoottttt. But thanks to my good Cardinal fan Lois we brought lots of frozen water bottles and frozen wash rags for our necks. I caved too. I bought Brian a ballpark beer since he'd never had one and it was 106 degrees.....no kidding. I even bought a Cardinal water fan. Yeah I messed up there. I thought a different sign said $5.20. Must have been an item number. I had to pay $20! Kept Jaemin busy for a few innings and he and Chelsi never whined about the heat again. Jaemin was into it by the end and was ready to clap. Blood, sweat and tears...that's what they got from their fans today. More sweat though.