Renember Poppymopcorn, Yuh?

Dynamic Duo

2010-01-29T20:27:00.004-05:00

The boys and I were sick today- so we were cooped up in the house because the weather is pretty cold outside. It was 60 degrees yesterday and I can see the confusion on their faces. Todd had some obligations tonight so, after all day inside (we tried to ride bikes for a minute- was just too cold) we came back inside and went stir crazy some more. Here is what we came up with. The boys are Batman and Robin, if you can't tell. No, they have not seen the movie. We're talking about us after all. Kira was the costume designer with a bit of help from Mama on Batman's mask. She copied it off a ball they had been given. All this with construction paper and tape. Just imagine when she graduates to cloth and thread. I started teaching her to sew (I'm really poorly equipped to teach something I know very little about) on the sewing machine yesterday. We had pieces of cloth and thread everywhere. But came out with about 4 new outfits for her home-made doll. She is creative, to say the least (she did not get that from me). Todd's busy again tomorrow morning- who knows where that will take us!

When Mom's not looking

2009-12-26T00:21:00.001-05:00

Quiet Coffee

2009-11-30T15:45:00.008-05:00

Have you ever had quiet coffee? T did this am. He started feeling pretty bad yesterday and by this morning had a fever of 101. He had decided not to share it at work last night, so we slept in. Sort of. I awoke to the sound of a little menehune going through the cabinets- well, the bottom ones. Menehune are short. or so I hear. Back to the story. Lots of clinking of dishes, I was thinking " Oh wow, is my diswasher going to be empty when I get up?" ( I wish there was a house fairy.She's a sister to the the tooth fairy, right?) I hear little feet coming up the stairs and into our room. K goes directly over to Daddy and tells him she made his morning coffee. I see T start to melt. Then away she goes to do something else- to bless someone else, I'm just sure of it. I drag out of bed and get downstairs. As I am looking at the coffee pot to start my own cup, I notice that there are no used grounds in the pot. The pot was still warm, the carafe was still half full. Does the house fairy really exist? Did she throw away the grounds and clean it all up? My heart lept at the thought. Visions of breakfasts prepared when I awoke and the kitchen cleaned, filled my head. I had heard of these thing happening, but could it be? Here? at my house? Talking to K, I asked her about the coffee, how she made it and cleaned it all up. Perplexed, she looked at me and said, " I could not grind the coffee without waking everyone up". Well, yes, that's true. So she made him "coffee" -just without the loud part. ( Duh, I should know that, right?) Quiet coffee. Special, not only for the original thought to bring daddy a cup of coffee, but for the thoughtfulness to make it without waking the sick Hero. My sweet girl. It was brown from the instant Nestle Quik she put in it to make it chocolaty- you know, like what he gets at Starbucks. I am humbled, and feeling the need to take a play from her book. No menehunes. No House Fairy, but never have I been so happy to clean up brown dribbles on the carpet.

Sugar, the wonder-drug

2009-11-25T17:30:00.004-05:00

OK, this is not a posting against eating sugar. Those who know us, know that we don't feed the kids much sugar. Over the years we have gotten a lot of "feedback"for our decision (depriving our children of childhood, etc), but we have chosen to do this in our family. Let me just say, we don't think it's wrong to eat sugar, we have just chosen to eat very little of it (for many reasons that I won't go into here). However, one of the things I LOVE about that choice is that when they do have sugar, whether fruit or straight, they seem savor every bit. This is C after surgery soaking up the sugar- he did not cry after surgery, he was too busy looking forward to the sugar! It does have it's benefits!

HI-YA

2009-11-25T17:21:00.007-05:00

We are waiting for C to come out of surgery and just got a knock on the waiting room door. The doctor , Dr. Kim comes in and tells us everything went as planned. They repaired the right hernia and explored for the left, but did not find it. Ok, as I expected. Then comes a funny question. “ Does C take any type of martial arts?” Ummm…what? And after a moment I tell him “Uh, no, no martial arts, why?” “Well, there are two nurses on either side of him holding him down and as he is waking up he kicks toward the faces of both of the ones holding his legs in a perfect V.” Oh, dear- and this is after having surgery to the lower abdomen (both sides). Todd and I look at each other and feel much relief after we hear the doctor laughing. My next thought is that the Dr told us that he would need about a week to recover, but I’m thinking C may have other plans.

It was really pitiful taking him back to the OR. I usually do not prepare the kids much for what is going to happen, they all seem to do better when we are there with them and they are only given enough information for the time- and not too much time to think and worry about it. So, the anesthesia nurse went over the procedure with him, but maybe a bit too much detail too early?- the wobbly legs, that the anesthesia would smell like old gym socks- not pleasant things for him to think about for 45 minutes while we waited. He did well for about 5 minutes and then C started to cry and tell us no wobbly legs, he did not think he’d like that. He got more worried as the time passed. Now, I know some children like to know exactly what will happen and when- I was like that- but all of our kiddos (even K who likes to know everything and then asks a million questions) do better when we only give them the information right before or sometimes as it as happening - sometimes not at all. I think most of the fear is bound up in that waiting time, when they are helpless to do anything and cannot change the anticipated event. So, they cry, and cry and tell us how much they don’t like it. Talk about feeling helpless.

He put on a brave face,kissed Daddy bye and walked with me and nite nite (he got to keep it during surgery even though I am certain it is anything but sterile) all the way down the big, long hallto the OR. He did well, but after I lifted him to the table, they asked him to lay his head on the funny pillow. Ummmmm… no- don't think so. He did not like that idea;you could see the anxiety rising, but he did comply, with tears from those big brown eyes. We got him down on the table and they put the mask on. After a couple big breaths I told him to cry big ( the bigger the breaths, the faster it goes) and the eyes started rolling and he went to sleep. Oh my, just seeing my little one there- it was so hard to leave.

We got to see him in recovery and as we were walking in, before we even saw him, his nurse said, “he’s double fisting it already.” We walk in to see him sitting with a blue popsicle in one hand and a full cup of apple juice in the other. If that was not funny enough, he had a flexible thermometer stuck to the center of his forehead as well. What a sight, and what a relief. He proceeded to alternately drink and go back in and out of sleep. I got some good pictures. I know , I know, I am not usually the lunatic that wants to bring my camera into the hospital, but I brought it as well as my computer to download our photos from Florida. So when the opportunity arose, I just happened to have my camera. I will have to rethink my stance on camera addiction- I got some really cute pictures.
We got home and T took him to the door and we got our first BIG smile- Bear Bear and Fran Fran had sent a teddy bear with balloons to cheer him up! Thanks you two! The last picture is for you.
He has asked to lay down ( where is MY child??), so I am going to go sit with him. We have a lot to be thankful for this thanksgiving, not the least of which is me getting to share a piece of smelly, slobbery nite nite with one that I love.
With a truly thankful heart, Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

More pics from trip

2009-11-03T19:22:00.003-05:00

Por Mi Hermana, Holly

2009-11-03T19:08:00.004-05:00

Holly- these are for you. And yes, I know how long it has been since I posted :). But with no schoolwork, housework or other responsibilities, it just makes sense to post them now, before we get back to reality! Enjoy!

It's official....our new office is...

2009-04-14T14:36:00.000-04:00

Do you recognize the skyline? I do...

ATLANTA!! Who would have thought?? We did put it #1, with no hope in getting it as it has been overstaffed for quite some time. We are excited,to say the least and with some of the other choices on the list, we feel very blessed! Kira really wanted to go to Texas, but is very happy to be able to see her friends again. Now we wait for HQ to tell us what to do, but we will be putting our house on the very terrible market, going to find housing in Ga ( no dates yet) and then waiting to see what happens with the home sale here. We could definitely use your prayer in this. The housing market is bad everywhere, but we can't just sit and wait for the market to improve. We expect to take a loss, but pray for it to be minimal. We are expecting it to wipe all the equity and then have to write a check. We really would like for a buyer to purchase it and then we will not have to wrestle with all of the relocation appraisal issues we have been hearing about. We have 120 days to report to Atlanta, so that puts us at mid-August at the latest for the move. However, with school starting and all the therapy needs for Lian, I think we will have to be down there if we can manage it, by late July. Note:everything posted here is subject to change...and probably will to some degree- it is the gov't after all! Right now, we are focused on cleaning, pressure washing, painting, landscaping,you know, that stuff. We are hoping to get the house on the market on Monday. Anybody know someone who wants to buy a house in Richmond?? After that, we are going to try to spend some time siteseeing while we are still here ( trying to stay out of the house) and really spending some time with the kids. They are feeling a bit left out in all this. Toys boxed up,not being able to get everything out and make a mess, limited time with us b/c of the house prep etc, has left them not knowing which end is up. I keep reminding myself, it's only for a time! So , that is where we are in the process.
On another note, my surgery to remove the growth on my wrist went well. I have been on typing restriction and light duty ( yeah, right). My PT is going well, still not very strong,but am gaining flexability back. It was not very good timing for this whole thing, but I could not use my left hand at all before the surgery, and at least now, I can use it- even if I pay for it that night! The surgeon said they removed it well and that it was a very common kind of cyst called a ganglion cyst- it had just was close to my radial artery and beside a bunch of nerves ( hence all the pain). At least it had not entangled all that yet. I do have another in my right arm, but it's not causing any pain, so I will ignore it until we settle in ATL and then might think about doing the surgery again- maybe.

For now, I will be dreaming of all ATL has to offer- Braves games, aquarium, parks, RuSan's, Sam & Roscoe's and so much more- I think we'll be seeing more of what ATL has to offer than we did when we lived there last time!

Robin's Surgery

2009-03-23T13:58:00.000-04:00

Surgery went well. Robin will have a six week recovery. No blogging for at least three days. Thanks for all your prayers. -T

Kira and the Contrail ( especially for the aviators in the family)

2009-03-10T21:20:00.000-04:00

Contrail definition according to Wikipedia:

Contrails (short for "condensation trails") or vapour trails are visible trails of condensed water vapour made by the exhaust of aircraft engines. As the hot exhaust gases cool in the surrounding air they may precipitate a cloud of microscopic water droplets. If the air is cold enough, this trail will comprise tiny ice crystals.

So Todd was telling Kira that it was time for bed and she asks if she can do the wheelbarrow (on her hands with Todd holding her feet) to her room. Todd picks up her feet and starts walking. About halfway to her room she breaks a little wind, ok, a lot of wind. Not missing a beat, she looks over her shoulder at her Daddy, still holding her feet, and says "oh look, contrails". Yeah, honey, ummm, right. Maybe mommy needs to work more on teaching science- you know standard testing time is coming up soon...

Let the Countdown Begin-Second Try

2009-03-10T20:43:00.000-04:00

Ok- I posted a great, long post about the upcoming move, but was having trouble with the wireless internet. I had the whole thing written and went to post it and guess what- no service, so it gave the internet page not found message and when I tried to go back to the page, the post was GONE!!
So, this may be shorter than the original post.

I know there are those who don't like it when we talk about moving but it's coming and so we have to!

We got our list with the office choices on it and we went ahead and ranked them. After much deliberation we ranked them and sent it back in. Our top 6 are Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Miami and Phoenix. I really hope we don't get any lower than that, because the choices start being much less appealing. NYC and Newark are about at the bottom of our list.

We are spending every extra minute organizing, purging and packing. You really don't know how much stuff you have, til you have to go through it all piece by piece. The kids stuff was the most overwhelming- all the toys with about 100 pieces each, of course, with just one missing and things that don't work right ( but they still love) you know, the stuff... well, we are still working through all of that. One word for it- tedious.

So we find out where they are sending us- "needs of the Bureau," you know... the week of April 14th. So, it's 5 weeks out at this point. I think it will be a lot easier when we know where we are going and can start planning for that city. It's kinda like nesting. I am feeling the need to nest and can't yet.

More to post soon-

Dilenquent

2009-02-13T16:27:00.000-05:00

Yes, that's me. I'm delinquent. I admit it. I just have not been making time to post. It is a pet peeve of mine to say I have been too busy. I make time for the things I really want to accomplish, right? My perfectionism is showing, I think. I often want to just post a little bit, but then I can't think of the right way to post what I want to convey, or can't pick the picture I want to post (and posting all of them would take a year). So, I end up not doing anything. Sound familiar? It is the very thing that I am working on with Lian. It might take to long to do it - or it will be too hard, so we don't want to do it. Maybe that's why it bothers me when I see it in him, it's one of my faults as well. Hmmm...

So, I am posting, even though it has no anecdotes or moral to the story- and although it is not well written, it is well...written. And that, for now, is better than yesterday.

12

2008-09-01T23:11:00.000-04:00

This time 12 years ago, I was sitting in a cold ER room in Sevierville, Tn waiting to be seen over labor day weekend. OH, and btw, I had been newly married for just a few hours. I guess it's good to get the hard stuff out of the way first, right? I am told this is my silk anniversary. 12 years. It seems like we blinked and here we are. When did this happen? I married my best friend and the one who understands me the most ( well, tries the hardest, anyway). He is my heart and soul- Happy Anniversary baby!

Back to the picture , we were eating the best, sweetest organic peaches the other day and Copelan is munching happily on his pieces when all of the sudden, he looks at his half and yells, "aaaahhh...bug...cheach bug!". I look to see what all the commotion is about and he is pointing to the peach pit and having a fit. This is what I see.

The poor child has not had enough exposure to peaches. Since pesticide residue is a major problem on certain types of fruits and veggies, we try to do what we can to buy organic. Sometimes that means we cannot get them at a reasonable price, so we don't buy them. It has been a long time since we have had peaches, but these were exceptional. Juicy, sweet and just the right amount of tartness. Yum! The kids scarfed them down. All the kids , that is, except my highly suspicious Copelan. Until I removed the pit and tapped on it with a fork to show him it was really not a bug, he seemed mortified that he had that "duff" in his mouth. He said " it skeer me" Only after a good showing of non bug traits ( doesn't crawl, have legs and sounds really hollow) would he venture out and try another bit of cheach. I mean, you can't be too careful, you might take a bite and have it bite you back!

Yes, this is my boy, who upon seeing a spider crawl across the floor in the foyer, went screaming into the hall while his sister and younger brother went to look for it. " That skeer me too".

Sigh, so much for the protective brother ...at least for now.

On another note, the funny words are just coming out this week from the kids. I make guacamole and the kids are on a kick right now asking for it. So when they are putting in their requests, Kira's goes something like this...

" Mama"

yes.

"can we have some whack a moley"? Just as straightfaced as she can be.

Now whack a mole is a game she was given that has 4 hammers and 4 moles. you can imagine what you do with it. I dont make guacamole that way, but I think the guacamole/whackamole reference is pretty funny.

She also likes to fold daddy's goxer shorts (where do these things come from???)

If I am not careful, all these things can pass right by me while I am busy potty training and homeschooling and I can forget to stop & laugh- this is the good stuff.

Ummm, the reason my room is so messy is....

2008-08-24T21:26:00.000-04:00

We have been working on keeping the kids rooms clean. Right before bed, they clean up for the next day. When Todd went into Kira's room , it was a wreck. The explaination he got made all his resolve to make her clean it up- go right out the window. Here's the explaination:

Todd: Kira, why is your room so messy?

Kira: Umm Daddy, Copelan attacked my teaparty today. Pause. He went BLAAAAH ( think hands waving frantically in the air).

Todd:- a small snicker escapes his lips, then "well, maybe he can help you clean it back up in the morning"...pause, then all the resolve leaving..." on second thought, maybe you should go on to bed and clean it up in the morning"

Such a little brother- I did not see the incident, and Kira was a big girl about the whole thing. I know she was dissapointed that he did that, but she sure handled it with grace!

We are slowly getting the blog set up and are trying to do the music for the site. I have a lot more work to do as some of the versions of the songs I would like to have on here, have some inappropriate things. So bear with us as we make some changes.

We are looking into moving to a hard to staff RA- one in particular is Mc Allen TX. We dont know the details, but it looks like it would be much more affordable on one income than most of the offices that are options right now. We won't know anything til next week at the earliest.

I have more pictures to post, and more laughs to share, I just need to go to bed now!

Our Boys

2008-08-24T19:55:00.000-04:00

In Washington, DC picking grass on the mall.

Peek a boo- hiding behind a tree after chasing a squirrel.

Look at those lovehandles- ohhh, so sweet!

I have a hard time remembering how skinny he was just a few months ago

Photos

2008-08-24T19:43:00.000-04:00

So lovey- notice that Copelan is missing from the picture- he's having a don't touch me day!

Riding the Lion at the hotel- we have done this with the kids on each trip- now adding Lian!

Elton anyone? Just a typical day sitting at the breakfast table, thomas jammies, pink sunglasses and of course, his pink hair straightener- can't have a bad hair day , can we?

Translation

2008-08-22T17:26:00.000-04:00

So, we decided to join the rest of the world and set up a blog. The title needs a bit of translation and explanation to make sense. All of our children have had their own words or sayings. One day, when we settle down and stop moving, I am going to paint the stair risers with each of their little sayings. Kira has always been articulate and even at an early age would use adult words. She has very few that she still says the same way as when she was little. One of the few vestiges of her "learning vocabulary" is the word remember, or "renember" as she would say. That's right, renember. As I'm sure many parents did before us, we were so eager for her to learn to talk and not wanting her to grow up with speech problems, we corrected her when she mispronounced some things. Looking back, I would love to have a few of those back.
Copelan, on the other hand, was slower to talk and had pronunciation problems from the start. His little mind raced and he had a hard time getting his point across. Popcorn is a favorite with all the kids and as I was asking if they wanted it, Copelan, the consummate boss, was yelling, "Poppymopcorn!" at the top of his lungs. Translation: "Pop my popcorn". Manners aside, I think we have created a new noun for the English language. Now when he wants the fluffy stuff we hear "I want poppymopcorn " now. Sometimes we even get a "please". We are going to have some work to do on parts of speech when the time comes, but for now, ahhhh, so sweet!
Lian has also had some language delays. Only recently have we (his speech therapist included) realized that he is saying some full sentences- just pronounced completely differently and blended with all the other words in the sentence- no pauses. His speech is vowel filled, he just leaves out the consonants- no big deal right? ie: cereal is "eeea" with a raised inflection indication he wants it and is sort of asking. But there are a few words that he got down quickly- necessities, you know, nana ( looooves bananas), mama, and the best Lian word, Yuh. If you can imagine trying to say yuh, but then stopping abruptly at the end while contracting your stomach muscles, yuh- that's it. He was my yes man, I mean, Yuh man for months. I loved it! We would say Lian, did you do that? Yuh. Lian, do you like that? Yuh. Lian do you have two heads? Yuh. My yes man. Everybody needs a yes man in their lives, right? More recently, yes has given way to no. But when he wants to say yes, it's still YUH. LOVE it!
So soak it up, enjoy it and laugh, all too soon it will be a memory. Now if I can just renember what I was going to cook for dinner.... and it's not poppymopcorn.