Summertime Fun

It's been a few weeks since I've updated, so I'll do some catching up.

One night, we went to a Bee's game with Melanie, Tim, and Riley.
Abi having some refreshment

Abi with Mommy


Abi with Daddy


Melanie, Tim and Riley

Abi and Riley enjoying popcorn

(The only way we could keep them occupied was with food.)

This was my favorite picture that night.



Abi has recently learned to:

play video games (or pretend to at least),


fix her hair and brush her teeth,

and eat with utensils by herself...
sort of.


Kevin has had family over from Boston, so one night we had them over for a barbecue.


Abi and Savannah with cousins Zach and KC

The summer is starting to wind down and we are enjoying the break from the heat that has come with the recent rainstorms (well, I am anyway). Kevin just got his old job back at the airport, since he won't be teaching this next school year. I'm still teaching water aerobics, and filling in for people at my old job. Oakley's been lonely, but is hanging in there. And Abi just gets bigger and bigger every day. Look how big she looks!

Life's good and we're having a blast!

Goodies

When Kevin's mom got back from Japan, she brought back a bunch of fun stuff from the family over there, so I thought we should share.

Of course Abi got all kinds of stuff.

Here is the Totoro collection including pencil case, lunchbox, washcloths and key chains.

(Don't ask me why they have the same look on their faces.)

From the Ponyo collection, a Ponyo doll and stamp


and, of course, you can't come home from Japan without...


Hello Kitty!
Here's a couple of washcloths, hair bows, utensils, and even chopsticks. They put Hello Kitty on everything. No, I'm serious. EVERYTHING.


Here's some hankies with both the English and Japanese alphabet on them, treat bags, t-shirt bags (like the kind you get in the grocery store), and (here's the best part) face masks. You know, so you don't get SARS. I'm serious. Enlarge the picture if you have to.

She also got a doll of a character from a Japanese cartoon called "Anpanman," but we left it at Grandma Schmidt's house before I got a picture of it. His name is "Baikinman" or "Germ Man." He looks something like this.

This is what Wikipedia says about him:
"His ambition is to destroy Anpanman and turn the planet into another 'Germ World', yet he is perfectly content to play tricks, steal, and bully those weaker than him. He and Anpanman were born at the same time, making them physical representations of moral dualism. He has a weakness to soap, which shrinks him to the size of a fly. He constructs machines and thinks of intricate plans to counteract Anpanman's strength."


Kevin got this jacket that you wear indoors when it's chilly.

I got some socks, heart bowls, a fan...

this cute apron
and super-cute shoes.
Now I just need an outfit to go with them.


She also brought home all kinds of little things like key chains, phone charms, notebooks (made by prisoners) and little bags that were made by a friend of Kevin's mom.

It was like Christmas in the middle of summer. We would like to visit Japan one day as a family, but until that day, it's good to know that we have family there who are thinking about us.

Firework Fun

Yesterday was the 4th of July and we had a barbecue at our house with Kevin's family. Angela, Jon and Savannah came over, though Jon had to leave early because of work. Kevin's other sister Lisa was also there, but also had to leave because of work. The rest of us hung around so we could light the fireworks we bought the day before.

When Kevin's mom came back home from taking Gigi back to Japan, she brought back a bunch of goodies for us all, but mostly for the babies. Abi got these jammies and Savannah got a matching pair.

Once it got dark enough to see the fireworks, we bundled up the babies (because it was a little chilly, surprisingly enough) and set some chairs up on the front lawn.

Abi waiting for the show to start.

Kevin and his brother Aaron (aka the pyromaniac) were the show masters.

Once the fireworks started, Abi decided that they were too scary and Grandpa had to come rescue her.

Savannah didn't mind the noise, but she did look so cute!

Yes, I did take pictures of the fireworks like a hillbilly. Here was one of the good ones, though it's hard to capture on camera.

Oakley sort of pulled a weird face in this picture.

The night before last we went to Cyprus High School to watch Magna's firework show with my mom, sister Dorthy, bro-in-law Rory, their son Rowan, and my little sister Sarah. It turned out to be a great spot to watch because it's close enough to see the show, but far enough away to not be so noisy for the babies. I didn't have my camera, but wish I did because Rowan was glued to the fireworks the whole time. Abi, however, fell asleep about half-way through. God bless America.

Getting Better

So, things have been getting better. We were all pretty sick, but now we're on the mend and ready to enjoy the summer again, except now it's too hot to be outside. Oh, well. Like I said, things are better, but not before they got worse again. Abi was still running a fever when I last updated and one night we took her over to my parent's house to see if the car ride would make her feel better. While we were there she got really miserable, so we took her temperature; it was 103.8. Yikes. It about scared me half-to-death as I was scrambling to figure out where we could take her on a Saturday night. My mom and I ran her over to the urgent-care office and found out that she had both and ear infection and strep throat. She was pretty miserable. The doc gave her an anti-biotic and I breathed a sigh of relief thinking that she would feel better by the next day or so. The next day, she still had a fever and wouldn't eat. The next day her fever spiked again to the same temp as Saturday night. And the next day wasn't much better. Kevin and I decided that she needed to go back to the doctor. This time we got in to see the pediatrician and he gave her another anti-biotic which worked after the first dose. She's fine now, but she sure did make me nervous.

I'm working a little bit right now, filling in for a co-worker who is on maternity leave, so I have had a few late nights with early mornings the next day. The night of the 29th was the best, or should I say worst? Best because I went to see The Twilight Saga: Eclipse and worst because it was the midnight showing (well, 12:50) and I didn't get a nap before. I went, again, as the party crasher with my sis Mel and her husband's family (girls only). It was a lot of fun and the movie was pretty good, considering it's predecessors, I guess. The acting is slightly better, though still extra-cheesy. But, really, what do you expect? Anyone who has read the books can tell you sure, they enjoyed them, but they are corney, and what's corney on paper is super-corney on screen. The hair and make-up are also better, I think, but can I just say, "WILL SOMEONE SEND THE WEREWOLVES TO THE GYM?!!?" Jacob is all ripped from head to toe (probably from packing Bella around everywhere) and Sam Uley is just walking around with his gut sucked in. Sam, you're not fooling anyone, that belly jiggles with every step. A couple of sit-ups won't kill you, I'm sure. Anyway, I only got a couple of hours of sleep and had to work the next day. It was worth it. Kevin and I went to see it yesterday (he says it's not as funny as New Moon and that there's too much kissing) and then he took me clothes shopping afterward. Kevin picked out a couple of super-cute shoes for me and I found a couple of tops that I really like. We haven't been out on a "just-the-two-of-us" date like that for a little while, so it was fun.

Summer Sniffles

A few days ago was the first day of summer, and boy has it been hot enough to call summer. Summertime is a time for shorts and swimming and being outside and feeling great, am I right? So why is it the the first week of summer (and the whole week before) Kevin, Abi and I have been sick with a cold? And not just any cold; the cold from ... well, you know where. And just as we were recovering from Yellowstone? Here's how it happened.

Kevin woke up one morning about a week and a half ago complaining of a sinus headache. The next day, Abi had a runny nose and my throat was itchy and I was congested. After that, it sort of spiraled out of control and before we knew it, we were just a bunch of sneezy, coughy, snotty, gooey sickos buried under a mountain of tissues and vapo rub. The whole week went by and some things got better while other things got worse. Abi went from having a runny nose, to a stuffy nose w/sneezing, to a cough, and now she has a goopy eye and a fever. I'm basically struggling with the congestion still and am addicted to nasal spray. I know on the back it says to not take it for longer than 3 days, but if I can't breath and no pills help, what am I supposed to do? I can't eat, I can't sleep and I can't focus, so I'm going to sniff that stuff till this thing goes away, which it sort of is. Kevin seems to be doing the best now of the three of us, he just makes gross noises in the bathroom from time to time to get the extra phlegm up.

Sorry for the nasty update, but these things are sort of frustrating to me. I just feel so bad for Abi, every time I look at her eye, it makes mine water. Hopefully things get better soon and we can enjoy the remainder of the summer.

Yellowstone

It's been sort of a while since we have updated the blog and a lot has happened. Let's see if i can remember it all.

First there was Mother's Day. That was fun. Kevin got me flowers, which he has finally learned is something that I liked. While Kevin and I dated he never gave me flowers because he thought that it was a waste of money to buy something that was just going to die a few days later. It's taken me this long to convince him that it's something that I like and it's important for our marriage.

Then Kevin's mom was gone for a week. His grandpa who lives in Japan (we call him Gigi) wanted to come and visit us, since he's never seen either of his great-grandchildren here. He's 85 and doesn't like or know how to fly on his own, so Kevin's mom flies over there, picks him up, flies back, he stays about a week, then she takes him back home.

It's really a treat for Kevin's family when he comes, since they never get to see him, though he doesn't speak any English and Kevin and his siblings don't really speak a whole lot of Japanese, so the language barrier is kind of tough on Kevin's mom, who acts as translator the whole time. By the end of his trip, you can tell that she's tired of it. Each time Gigi comes, Kevin's parents usually like to take him somewhere, so this time around they decided it would be nice to take a quick trip up to Yellowstone with all of us. So, we booked a couple of hotels rooms and everyone arranged their schedule so that we could all go.

Our caravan

Two days before we were going to go, Kevin started to have a really terrible toothache. He called his dentist, but found out that they no longer accept our insurance, so I had to find another dentist that could squeeze him in sometime the next day. At his appointment we find out that he has a bacterial infection in his root canal and has to have it re-treated by an endodontist. All the while the pain in his tooth is getting worse, especially because the dentist had to poke around in there to find out what was wrong. So, we get an anti-biotic for the infection, a referral slip for the endodontist and a, "the best thing for the pain is ibuprofen." The next morning (after a long night of Kevin moaning in pain) Kevin gets out of bed and his cheek where his sore tooth is is swollen. It looked like he had a golf ball in his cheek. And he was mega-sore. And we were leaving to go out of town. Great.

Look how swollen his cheek is! Poor thing!

We started driving on Wednesday and from our house to West Yellowstone (that's where our hotel was) is about a 6 hour drive, but since we had 2 babies, a pregnant lady (Kevin's sister, not me) and an old man, we had to make several stops on the way so it took more like 7 hours. About half-way there, Abi started running a fever and puked all over the place. She felt better afterward, but as time went on, her fever got worse and she started acting like she didn't feel good again. So, now I had a sick baby and a swollen husband in pain. Double great.

Sick Abi.

We got to the hotel and began to settle in. We got the cars all unpacked and started thinking of someplace to go for dinner, since we were all pretty hungry... except me. I was feeling kind of dizzy and a little chilled. I could feel a fever coming on. I didn't sleep at all that night and neither did Kevin because he was in pain again. Could things get any worse? Maybe. The next day Kevin's car got a flat tire, but that wasn't too bad. We were already at the hotel and he has a full-sized spare for his car.

Sick Mommy.

Now despite everything bad that did happen, we had a blast. We spent all of that Thursday and Friday driving around Yellowstone snapping pictures and taking in the sights. It's a very beautiful place. One of the best things (for me, at least) is all the animals that you get to see up close there.

Bison are everywhere on the roads holding up traffic. A lot of times they just stand there and you just have to wait for them to move.

There were also lots of babies when we went.

This elk was jogging up the road and as soon as he passed our car, he ran right in front of Jon's (my bro-in-law).

Bighorn sheep (female)

Raven (was as big as a cat)

We actually did see bears, which was cool because I've never seen one in the wild before. This one was kind of far away, but I'm pretty sure it's a grizzly.

We saw Old Faithful (of course) and some of the other more famous sights there, but most of it is just driving around. On the way home, we drove down through the Grand Tetons and Jackson Hole, which, we decided, we would have to come back to one day on a separate vacation. We got home late Friday night, well, more like really early Saturday morning. Gigi really enjoyed the trip, but said next time he would fly up.

Our family in front of Old Faithful

Abi with Gigi at Old Faithful lodge

Abi always feels good enough for soda pop

Mammoth hot springs

Abi was feeling better this day.

Like I said, we had a really great time and we would like to go back one day when our family gets a little older.

May Already

I can't believe that May is here again, not that the weather isn't Spring-like or anything like that. I guess I have just lost track of where the year has gone. Things are rolling along here smoothly. We are all trying to keep busy, which can be all too easy. We are still working on finishing the basement at our house (well, Kevin's parents' house) and we are currently at the painting/flooring stage. This means that we are nearing completion. Now that's exciting news! We don't really have a time line of when things will be done, but I am hoping we will be completely finished in the next month or two.

Abi just had her 12 month doctor visit where we learned that she's right where she needs to be and that she's healthy (also great news). The doctor said she could eat pretty much everything that we do and that we don't have to buy any more formula or baby food. Yay! She hates baby food anyway, so the transition won't be very drastic. Abi has also started to walk on her own. She'll only take a few steps, but it counts and every day she gets better at it.

Kevin is wrapping up his year with the charter school and it will be his last. He decided to go back to school, so he can pursue a different career path. He will really miss all of the students he has got to know over the past couple of years there.

As for me, I'm still teaching water aerobic classes once a week and being a mom the rest of the time. I am still working on my weight loss goal and the numbers I see when I step on the scale don't seem to reflect how I am feeling. I feel stronger and more energetic and a pair of pants I had to really struggle to get into (c'mon girls, you know what I'm talking about) went on, freshly washed, with minimal effort. And yet, the numbers don't change, or don't change that much. Currently, I am 2 pounds lighter than I was that week, but I've bounced back in the past, so we'll see where it goes. The important thing is that I feel good, right?

We are all excited for summer.

Abi got a bike trailer that goes on the back of Kevin's bike for her birthday and she likes to ride around in it so we can't wait for warmer weather to go on more bike rides.

She is also big enough to appreciate things like the zoo, so we are planning to do that. Also, she loves to swim. Her favorite place to be is in the bathtub splashing around and playing with toys. Sometimes when she's cranky (because she's bored and getting into stuff she shouldn't i.e. the dog bowl, the toilet, etc.) I just put her in the bathtub and let her swim. We have this super-cute video of her in the tub splashing so much it got the the whole bathroom wet, but decided not to post it due to it's high level of baby nudity, but we've also got some pictures that are probably pretty safe.

This one is my favorite