Chinese New Year Celebration

CNY is February 7th, 2008. We enter the Year of the Rat. No Rats in our house, but we always enjoy going out to meet and eat with other families like ours. The girls especially like to don their "Chinese dresses" for the occasion.

In sickness and in health.....

Sickness has settled over our home. RaeAnne was the first to start complaining of a sore throat and her tummy hurt. Our thermometer is packed in a box....somewhere. But touching hot foreheads and being able to distinguish between a fever and no fever has become second nature here at our house.

A week ago Saturday we were going to our old house to pack and move. Hubby had a couple of extra helpers with a trailer lined up for the day. He left the house early and I was to get the girls ready and catch up with them there. RaeAnne drags herself into our bedroom, pale and hot to the touch. "Mom, I don't feel good." Okay, change of plans. Little miss Kendalan is sitting on the couch, staring off into space, her eyes glassed over, cheeks pinkish. I touch her forehead...Ouch! That is hot! Off to Express Care for the five of us. After a 3+ hour wait, a few tears and a positive strep test for RaeAnne, the girls and I are headed to the pharmacy and back home. The Doctor remarks to me, "It will only be a matter of time before the rest of them are positive for strep too." Lovely!

Kendalan crashes out on our bed after seeing the doctor.


Sure enough, next morning ZoraLin crawls in bed beside me at 2:30AM and says hoarsly, "Mom, my throat hurts!" Jordis comes upstairs looking like a walking zombie and she is burning up. Back to Express Care for another 2+ hour wait. Okay, now all four girls are on antibiotics. I am thinking to myself that maybe we will get everyone healthy soon. That is what I get for thinking! Here we are a week later and everyone is still coughing, hacking and/or running a fever! Kendalan wakes up this morning with a WHOPPER of a rash ALL over her body. So, off to ER this time. Over two hours later, we come home with another prescription for her, orders not to give her any more antibiotic and a maybe diagnosis of "a possible reaction to the antibiotics or a viral infection, but it could be from the high fevers?!" YIKES!


Kendalan's rash....what a miserable little girl!

Just playing around

Adoption video

I was checking out some of my Yahoo groups late last night and came across this link to a video presentation about adoption. Very moving! I also *know* several children who are in this video which makes it all the more exciting to see!!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=eeKEqsd2-xA

Kendalan's 100 Good Wishes Quilts

We had excitement when the mail person delivered a big box a few days ago. Kendalan's quilts are HERE! She was thrilled and very anxious check them out. Our friend, Pam, has outdone herself again! http://www.originalquilts.com/ She has been the midwife on three of the girls' quilts so far. The only sad thing....Jordis Li wants to know "Where are my quilts?" I explained to her several times that we collected the wishes and squares while we were waiting for her. Now Mommy just needs to find the time to put the quilt top together. (Yes, I have been brushing up on my sewing skills in the last couple of years!) I plan on putting together Jordis' quilt top and hopefully I can convince our friend to finish it for us. My sewing is better, but I am still not THAT good at quilting!

Our new house!

Several have asked about our new house, so here are some of the details. This house is technically considered a four bedroom house. However, one bedroom does not have a closet, a window and is Super small. A great room to have for someone who works the night shift and needs a dark space! Thankfully that is not me! So it is our guest room AKA Grandpa or Bubby's room just depending on who is here with us. For all intense purposes, we consider this a three bedroom house!

There are two bedrooms downstairs with a bathroom in between them. These are the Princess suites! The girls have always pretty much shared a room, this has been their choice. So when we were shopping for a house we had to think of this and involve the girls in our thoughts. When we decided that this was the top of the list of contenders, we told the girls that we would have to have two girls to a room. RaeAnne quickly called dibs on having Jordis for a roommate, thus leaving ZoraLin and Kendalan for roomies. We are thinking that this arrangement will change over time, but it is working right now. One nice thing we have noticed since being here....Daddy and Mommy are not having to share their bed as frequently! It seems since our BR is upstairs, the nightly visits have dropped dramatically!




We have had some new noises to get used to. We are between two busy roads with quite a bit of traffic day and night. We don't notice it during the day with our doors closed, the TV on and the girls chattering away. The other thing is, we have a train track fairly close. I have visited with others who live or have lived in this area and they said that you can almost set your clock by the trains! The girls were questioning "What is that noise?" one night after bedtime. I am surprised that RaeAnne and ZoraLin did not remember living in Texas. We had trains there all the time! Personally, I really like listening to the trains passing in the night. To me, each train has it's own individuality because if you listen carefully, you can hear the train's whistles have different pitches and sound totally different! (Okay, or maybe I have just grown to believe that and have watched too much Thomas the Train!)




Now for the good news/bad news. The good news....we have sold our old house! The bad news....we have to rush and get everything out by the end of the month! YIKES! We have TOO much stuff! Most of the things we have left to move are items that it would take too much time to individually pack, ie photos off the walls, dishes, clothes, etc. So we have been making frequent trips there and back with a load. We have someone who is going to tear down our playhouse and move it up here for us soon.

The front of our new house faces North. I have said that I never wanted to live in a north facing house! The snow/ice does not melt as quickly on the north side! Oh well, live and learn to never say never! For the time being, we do not have any houses straight north of us, there is one to the northwest and the northeast, but the lot straight north is still vacant. The backside of the house is a walkout basement that faces South. We have a pretty good sized lot stretching out behind us and behind that is a pasture with horses! So we get to see the horses each day!

My don't they sparkle!!

Today was a big day at our house. Not only did RaeAnne and ZoraLin start school here today, Jordis Li had her ears pierced!

We drove RaeAnne and ZoraLin to their new school this morning. We were able to tour part of the school and see each of their classrooms. RaeAnne was a little pale when it was time for her to stay in her class with Mrs. Kraus. ZoraLin was very quiet when we said goodbye to her in Mrs. Day's classroom. But watch out this afternoon when they came out!! They are both excited to return to school tomorrow! Yeah!

While the girls were in school today, we decided to check out the mall. Jordis decided that she is tired of being mistaken for a boy. So she had her ears pierced today! She was such a trooper! NOT ONE TEAR! In fact, after the first ear she got a BIG smile on her face!! Kendalan kept pouting wanting hers pierced too, but I will make her wait until she is 5 years old too.

Jordis was so excited about her new, blue sapphire earrings. She couldn't wait to tell her big sisters and show them! RaeAnne loves the color of Jordis' earrings, but she still does not want hers done!