County Fair (2013)

Every year we have gone on vacation and then come back to the little county fair in our area.  We had already lived in this county for several years when the fair started coming and it’s grown (at least in attendance) every year.  We usually wait until the last night and go in the early evening then have “dinner” there which usually consists of corn dogs, funnel cakes and deep fried sweets of some kind topped off with a huge sweet tea. 

This year Kylie was old enough to understand and enjoy the animal part of the fair, so that’s where we started.

This little farming area was great fun for little ones.  Plus, it was hot as the blazes outside and this afforded us a tiny respite from the heat.

This cracks me up.  What’s funnier than a little Asian girl milking a cow? 

After you made it all the way through you could get a treat and of course, Kylie chose chocolate milk.  You can tell how hot it is just by looking at her.  God bless Jenna and her friend Grey…they helped her all through this place so I was free to take photos.

And just like her sister, Kylie wasn’t afraid to pet the animals at all.  We sometimes had to remind her to use gentle hands, but otherwise she was great.  It was so hot, but a good time none the less.

Jenna took her friend Grey but they ended up not riding too many rides.  The line get longer every year and it’s just so expensive to buy ride passes.  But we do enjoy the food, people watching and just being out there in general.  It’s a good way to kick off the fall season and it has become tradition for our family.

Ah Summer…

The weather has been crazy this winter and so we are already planning our beach vacation for the summer.  Silly, maybe, but it’s getting me through these long, dreary, days!

I’ll hurry and wrap up our trip to Pensacola beach.  Most of the week we hung out at the beach and the pool.  We had great weather just about every day.  There was one day where we spent a good portion of the day driving down to other popular beach towns just to give our skin some rest from the sun.  We had scheduled professional family photos while in the area and we didn’t want to look like crabs fresh from the ocean!

Let me stop here and give a huge shout out for the condo we stayed in.  Our good friend Will B. recommended it as somewhere his parents had stayed recently and it was very economical.  The pictures on the website don’t do it justice.  It was much roomier than we thought and it was plenty of room for our family of four with one bedroom and a pull out couch.  My biggest concern was whether it was “ON” the beach.   So many hotels and condos say they are “on” the beach and it really means they are really close, across the street from, near a public part of or 300 years from the beach.  But this place was ON.  THE.  BEACH.  As a condo, it was in a building several floors high, but we were located on the 4th floor.  The owner has a reserved parking spot in the covered garage which meant our black truck was always cool and the spot was literally about 5 steps away from the elevator.  Once on the 4th floor, the elevator doors opened and about 3 steps away was the front door of the condo.  The beach walkway was probably 50 yards long.  It was HEAVEN.  I can highly recommend!

There was one day where Jenna and I went parasailing.  We debated on renting a pontoon boat but we passed on that idea.  Jenna really wanted to do a jet ski but we decided to parasail instead.  It was not Jenna’s first trip up, nor mine.  And I had a wrist camera they gave me where photos were taken just seconds apart the entire time we were up there.  Since I didn’t take my laptop, all of them are loaded on Steve’s PC…I’ll try to load them up later for some laughs.

But we did find a photographer who was reasonable and available the time we were there.  We ended up using Savanna’s Studio.  The weather for the day we selected was perfect and it was even a good hair day (to start with) for me.

The problem was that Kylie was not enthused.  We managed to get some decent shots but the pics would have been oh so much cuter if Kylie had be the normal happy girl she usually is.  She did great on the car ride down (which given her meltdowns surrounding being in a car seat was a miracle) and back and she loved the beach.  Restaurants and photos weren’t always easy.  Of course, this was the first “big” trip she’d been on since she had been home so I am sure some of her behavior was just her being out of sorts.

I was determined we were NOT going to do matching khaki and white.  I wanted COLOR.  I think we ended up coordinating pretty well.  And I got the color I was after.  That’s part of the reason I chose Savanna’s Studio was their spectacular use of color.  I didn’t want to be washed out into the background of the ocean.  And they did not disappoint!  Here are a few of the better shots.  And trust me…I had no trouble spending a ridiculous amount of money on the ones we did get.  I’m a sucker that way.  And if you need a photographer in that area, check out Savanna’s Studio!  You’ll be pleased, I promise!

This one of Jenna was one of my favorites.  There were some pretty corny shots but this is the most genuine of them all.

Don’t be fooled.  She is smiling, but just a little.  And just because we were letting her do whatever the heck she wanted.

What you can’t see in this one is the reason why Kylie was ticked. There was a bright pink stuffed monkey (hereinafter dubbed “pink monkey”, not to be confused with “green monkey”, “blue monkey”, “purple monkey” or “red monkey”) that we’d just bought her (and which started the monkey craze) that we refused to let be in the photos.  The dang monkey had a freakin’ eye patch!  But yes, the thing not only made most of the photos, but was toted everywhere from that point on.  She is her mother’s daughter (and so is Jenna) when it comes to stuffed animals.  Also notice the broken sail on the little boat?  That was a prop of the photographer and yeah it took Kylie about 3.2356 seconds to break it.  Fabulous.

At least it’s not a scowl but this was still early on and Kylie was not happy.

Yep, so my hair is blown all the heck and Steve’s back is about to break and if you look closely, Kylie has a big handful of my hair in her hand.  But she’s got a small grin, so this made the cut.

And this one pretty much sums up the whole experience.  Katie is just thrilled to be in the picture and basically thought it was playtime in the sand.  I’m all hunched over, hair blowing across my face and my breasts nearly hanging out of my shirt thanks to Kylie.  Kylie scowling at Katie for even thinking about having a good time.  Steve looks like he’s about to cry or laugh, who knows which and then Jenna who amongst all the chaos was managing to pose like a dang model.  Sigh.  This is the story of my life summed up in one photo.

But it was a good time and we were able to laugh about it later.  Like, much later.  As in, when I saw for myself that we did get several good shots.  And in the end, I’d do it again.  All of it.

Frozen and Transitions

Well, our heat’s out upstairs.  The low tonight is supposed to be in the mid teens and tomorrow night in the single digits.  All our bedrooms are upstairs, so we are making do with blankets and space heaters.  The A/C guy is coming tomorrow and I pray we don’t need a whole new unit.  That would STINK.

Today we had our transitional meeting for Kylie.  Since she has been home with us, she qualified for speech therapy through the state in a program called Tennessee Early Intervention Services (TEIS).  For those who aren’t familiar with this, it is a program of the state which provides a variety of services for children with a range of special needs whether it be occupational, physical, speech, developmental etc.  Kylie originally qualified for speech so thanks to the state of TN, she received free speech therapy two times a week for 1 hour each time.  We have grown to love her sweet speech therapist!  But the day she turns 3, she ages out of the early intervention program and hopefully morphs into the services provided by the public school system.

Today was our transitional meeting where we find out her test results and what, if any, services she qualifies for.  For us, we knew the only piece Kylie would even come remotely close to needing were speech services.  This is different than language services.  Speech is what she is saying and that includes intelligibility and language is pretty much the understanding of what is being spoken.  Kylie understands almost everything we say, but most of what she says isn’t understandable to anyone but us and most times we have no idea either unless she’s repeating something or she says something in context (like “Where Dad go?” after Steve has left the house).

At transition, there are three options.  1.  Qualifies for no services 2. Qualifies for drop in speech therapy. 3. Qualifies for the preschool program.

It’s quite a bittersweet issue because if you qualify for nothing it means your child is almost or all caught up (which is a good thing).  Alternately, if you qualify for the preschool program (which is like 4 days a week, 3 hours a day), then your child still needs help.  Because we have the blessing of a wonderful, Christian Parent’s Day Out for Kylie on Monday/Wednesday, we were hoping she would fall in the middle and just qualify for drop in speech where she could continue with her PDO program.  And during the meeting today, we found out that’s just EXACTLY what they felt would benefit her most!  And they can accommodate her Tuesday/Thursday open schedule, not to mention the school is closer to home than the facility she was going to for speech therapy.   I love how God just worked that right out!

And now, I leave you with something a lot warmer than my upstairs right now…

This is Jenna after we first arrived at our condo.  It was kinda overcast, but it was also late in the day…

Wishful thinking, but yes, you can see Jenna has already changed into her swimsuit.

Here she goes!  Literally the first time her little Asian feet have touched sand on a beach!

Before…

After.  Sans everything but diaper. 

Ah…these girls…

What I’ve Been Waiting For

Ah yes…for several years, I’ve waited for our beach vacation time to arrive.  If we don’t have a mission journey or trip to China planned, in the summer we usually spend a week at a beach somewhere.  Kylie had never been to the beach, so towards the end of July, we were off! 

The chosen destination was Pensacola Beach, Florida.  A friend of ours gave a glowing recommendation for a condo “on the beach” there.  I put that in quotes because we’ve stayed in several places that were “on the beach” where we still had to cross a busy road or walk 3 condo high-rises deep or hike 2 miles to the back of the condo complex to actually put our toes in the sand.  So, I was excited, but skeptical.  But OH.  MY.  WORD.

This was the view when I walked in…

Yep.  This beauty is really “on the beach”.  The owners have a parking spot in the underground garage (i.e. the truck was always cool) AND it was literally 2 steps away from the elevators.  The condo was 4 floors up and the front door was literally steps from the elevator when you got off.  It was super economical considering the location and the fact it was peak season. 

It was a sweet little place.  Plenty big for the 4 of us.  The owners were very kind and let Katie stay with us with no additional deposit.  Because the condo is individually owned, they have the right to refuse even a service animal (they have a no pets policy) but they didn’t.  And while I’d like to keep this little jewel all to myself, I also want to thank the Neals for allowing us to visit by sending some business their way.  You can find out more about the condo here if you are interested.  But if this doesn’t convince you, maybe this will…

No?  What about this?

It was very beautiful there.  We were able to make the trip down in a very easy 8 hours or so.  We left early and really just took our time and it was perfect.

I had waited so long for this.  And also to watch Kylie…I was praying she would like the sand because the beach is no fun if you hate sand.  And sand definitely can get on your nerves, but if I have to choose between the beach and the pool then beach will always win out.  Here is Kylie’s first few steps EVER onto the warm sand.  Judge for yourself…

There’s so much more to show you…so I’ll have to break it up into small posts…I’ll try not to stretch it out too long.  After all, it was JUST a beach vacation…

Just Life

I am happy to report…well…that there’s not much to report!  Life is rocking along.  Work.  School.  Church.  Repeat.

But since I’m trying to do better with my blogging and I’m still so far behind, I thought I’d keep on telling you about my summer.

I think we are heading into July.  Of course we had a big time down in Pegram as is our tradition.  And Steve enjoyed that all of the US celebrated his birthday.  Unfortunately, the actual day was a complete washout so we celebrated on the 20th down in Pegram.  Kylie enjoyed the parade mostly because they throw lots of candy and who doesn’t like candy?

Kylie loved her Uncle Bob!  I think he might like her a little bit too!!

It was a super hot day and the littles in the family enjoyed some pool time!

Jenna and her friend, Gracie, dressed up for the pageant.  It was rigged and so neither of them placed but they had a really great time dressing up.  How cute are they?!?

We had a great day (or two) celebrating.  It’s one of my favorite times of the year for sure.

Brrrrr…Icy Sunday!

So today has been interesting.  First, weather predictions had us getting several inches of snow this afternoon and very bitterly cold temps (for this area of the country, that is).  As time passed, they ended up changing the predictions.  What happened is the rain moved in while the temps were still in the 50s.  As it was still raining, the temps dropped quickly and drastically.  Which meant the rain turned into sleet and then a little snow to top it off.  The temps now remain below freezing and are dropping into the single digits overnight so who knows what the roads will be like in the morning.  Luckily, Jenna doesn’t go back to school until Tuesday anyway and Kylie doesn’t start Mother’s Day Out until Wednesday.  Our temps aren’t supposed to get about freezing until mid-day Wednesday. 

Kylie is supposed to have her annual follow-up with the plastic surgeon in the morning.  I’m guessing that’s not going to happen.  I’m a little disappointed because I really wanted to know what the timeline for our next surgeries are and how he thinks she is progressing, but I guess we’ll reschedule for the next few months.

Now back to catching up…to warmer days.  This past May was pretty exciting.  Our family celebrated a milestone birthday of my brother in law…

Then, my friend Jennifer visited again and we were able to cross an item off my bucket list in meeting SCC!

May flew by with the end of school and before we knew it, we were in full summer swing!  More to come on that. 

A Kylie Update

Since it’s been forever since I blogged I am having a little bit of a hard time figuring out where to start. We had a busy summer, but not because we were so busy, just because life got in the way (does that even make sense?!).  I fear I don’t have a ton of photos to prove we did anything this summer but we will just wait and see what I can come up with.  So since it might take me some time to get myself together, I’ll start with what you all really come here to read anyway, right?  (and don’t worry…and update on Jenna is next!)

Kylie is really doing well.  I’ll admit, at the beginning of the summer, I wasn’t sure Steve was going to survive.  Kylie was going through the things most 2 year olds go through…namely temper tantrums.  She seems to be coming out of that phase now, thank goodness, but you can still hurt her feelings pretty easily and her bottom lip pops out the instant you mention the spanking spoon.

A word about the spanking spoon…we used cheap wooden spoons and we had one in each diaper bag, each vehicle and the house.  We actually used them rarely, but we did use them.  Since Kylie isn’t potty-trained, popping her on the bottom very lightly made a pretty loud pop and she really didn’t like it.  I’m not here to debate whether spanking, time out etc. is right or wrong.  It’s what worked for us.  In fact, I could count on two hands the number of times we actually used it…after about 3 times, all we had to do was bring it out and she would start to straighten up.  The first few times we’d pop her bottom (I highly doubt she even felt it…her feelings were hurt more than anything and the way she cried she was just downright mad) she’d start crying harder and screaming and then we’d put her in time out which really ticked her off.  However, after just a few minutes, she’d decide she was over it and she’d straighten up.  Our biggest and most frequent battle was meal times.  Coming to the table would almost always result in a meltdown.  We pretty much stopped eating out because of her behavior.  But anyway, she seems to be improving on that front.  Thankfully.

In general, Kylie is happy and is quite the ham.

She talks up a storm.  Unfortunately, she’s probably about 20% intelligible.  She will attempt to repeat almost every word you ask her to.  And there are some words that she says that we can understand.  Milk is one and sounds a lot like “Meeelk” with her sweet, southern drawl.  But so much of the time she babbles off a whole story and I can tell she is trying to tell me something but I have no idea.  Shortly she will start her testing to see if she qualifies for services in the public school system since she ages out of Tennessee Early Intervention on her 3rd birthday at the end of January.

Physically, she is still on the small side, but is making great strides.  She is in about the 25%ile (or less) on both height and weight.  At her 30 month check up, she weighed 26lbs 7 oz and was 36 inches tall.  To give you some perspective, last year at this time, she weighed 22lbs, 4 oz and was about 30 inches tall.  She has shot up like a weed but the weight isn’t keeping up with her, so she’s still in 2T clothes.  She is still somewhat of a picky eater and doesn’t eat much meat, but the doctor isn’t concerned, so we aren’t either.

Kylie had her first dental appointment.  I started paying for her to be on my dental insurance this year so I figured we might as well have her teeth looked at since it’s free.

I gotta tell you, I was worried about the visit, but the little sweetie did SO well!  It wasn’t a long visit and Jenna had hers too so Kylie got to see her.  We are happy to report, she has 10 teeth on top and bottom.  The bottom teeth are a little crooked, but all in the right spots.  But because of her cleft, the top is a little bit of a mess.  There are 2 teeth there that appear to be out of the gum line and in the roof of her mouth.  But again, the dentist doesn’t seem too concerned…we just wait and see what happens with her cleft repairs and when the baby teeth fall out and go from there.  Another milestone.

We had took our first vacation this summer since we went to China and I was in desperate need of the beach (lots more to come on this).  We were very concerned that Kylie might not like the beach/waves/sand.  She does love the water though.  I needn’t have worried.

This is our last meal at the beach…at a Greek restaurant no less.  This was the way we kept her happy at the table (recall eating out was a challenge at this time and vacation was no exception).  She literally ate her meal just like this.  I kid you not.  Again, the kid is a ham and she really gets going if she knows you are laughing at her.

Finally, Kylie loves her jie jie.  I have never seen a love like these girls have for each other.   Jenna aggravates her just like you would expect and for some reason, it doesn’t bother her to hear her whining or crying because she is the cause of it many times, but when the rubber hits the road, this love runs deep

Y’all.  I die.  Jenna prayed so long for a little sister.  I thought the “new” would wear off pretty soon after returning from China, and honestly, there are times where Jenna is selfish and doesn’t want to be bothered, but hey, I’m that way too sometimes.  But in general, I can count on Jenna to take care of and watch Kylie anytime.  And not only does she watch her, but she has the best of time with her.  Having kids who are 10 years apart in age isn’t always easy, but for us, it hasn’t made their relationship any more difficult.  In fact, I think they love each other more because of it.  Several times, Jenna will come in from telling Kylie goodnight (she sneaks in after Kylie is in bed every night because Kylie whispers “jie jie!  Jie Jie!” from the bedroom) holding her heart and with tears in her eyes because she just can’t contain the love.  She told me one night, “I don’t know how you do it.  I just love her SO much!” 

Yeah, I know, baby.  I know.

She’s 12

Oh my word.

How did 12 years pass already?  How did this chunky monkey…

turn into this beautiful young woman????

12 years ago today, at the moment this post is set to publish, this girl came busting into our lives and they have never been the same.

She has made everything in our lives better.  Somehow her arrival sped up time…and I know in the blink of an eye, I will be posting a photo of her high school graduation.  And that almost makes it hard to breathe.

Jenna is getting close to being as tall as I am.  She is wearing the same size shoes as me and she’s turning into a wonderful young woman.

Jenna is the kind of big sister that a parent only dreams about.  She has experienced things that most people don’t in a lifetime.  I can easily envision Jenna and I being best friends in her adult life. I love her like nuts…

And today as we celebrate everything about her, I can only savor every second of the day today and the days to follow because all too soon, they will be memories.

Long Overdue Introduction

Back in January, right around the time Jenna and I did the Passport to Purity weekend, my van started to die.  We took it to a mechanic and discovered the fix for my 10 year old van with nearly 200K miles would be about $2000.  The van wasn’t even worth that. 

And the van wasn’t actually functional because it wouldn’t hold gas.  We were having to fill up with a gas can.  This happened the beginning of the week that Jenna and I were to leave for Chattanooga to do P2P that Friday.  NOT convenient.  So, we rented a car to drive there knowing the following Monday was a holiday and we could use the day off to car shop.

Monday started early and we dropped Kylie off with my friend Jill.  Because we drive our vehicles until the wheels fall off (or the gas tank falls out, as it were), it’s been a long time since we’ve been car shopping.  And since we weren’t expecting to have to buy a new car, we didn’t really know what we wanted.  So, it was truly an all day affair.

But in the end, we purchased a 2012 Toyota Camry.  The only “luxury” I wanted in a vehicle was a sunroof.  And I was pretty picky about color.  I do not want to drive a white, cream, silver or gold car.  I like the darker colors.  No offense to you all who drive those color cars.  I just personally don’t to drive them!

As luck would have it, they had just what I was looking for.  This is not the greatest photo but it’s the only one I have.

 

I have really loved the car and I haven’t missed the van too much at all.  I think the trunk of the car actually has more room than the back of the van did.  It’s not as roomy so I’m not sure what we are going to do on vacation when we have to drive for several hours with both girls AND Katie.

It’s been very good for our gas consumption because it gets so many more miles to the gallon with my long daily commute. And it’s got a bunch of bells and whistles that are standard now that weren’t 10 years ago when I bought the van.

I don’t name my cars, but if I did, I’d call her JP in honor of my friend Jill who kept Kylie ALL DAY LONG.  I can’t imagine this process with a toddler in tow.

And you might not be able to tell, but yes…yes it DOES have a sunroof! 

Mother’s Day 2013

Well.  Mother’s Day came and went and I don’t think I took a single photo.  It was a very great day/weekend, but I just didn’t document it like I should have.  I guess that’s what having a toddler in the house does to you.

I did have a productive weekend in that I got more of my spring cleaning done.  And since I’ve been on that kick, my very thoughtful daughter bought me gifts for Mother’s Day that were functional to that point.

I got a new laundry hamper for my closet.  I’ve always used the net kind that popped up and came with an old bed-in-a-bag.  Jenna was horrified and thought it was high time for a plastic hamper!

I also received a bathroom basket.  I have had the same one in the bathroom ever since we moved in and I guess she thought it was getting too small so I got a bigger one.    Steve wandered off and came back with new underwear.  I’m totally serious.  Functional.

But then I also got a gift certificate for the local nail salon which will be enough for a mani/pedi which it is past time for!  I did get to spend quite a bit of time with my fams and that was nice.  I did get at least on photo from the day.