ChChChanges!

Lots of exciting and fantastic changes happening in our household! Not quite ready to share them until everything is signed, sealed and delivered. But these are all for the good and I have been waiting a long, long time for them to happen.

In the meantime, we are getting so excited about our trip to Punta Cana; we leave two weeks from today! It's all I can do to work, what I really want to do is think about beautiful white sand beaches, clear blue water, fun little drinks in coconuts with little umbrellas and lots of sun and fun! Both kids are taking swim lessons and are having a ball. They had their first lesson last week and Caroline came running up to me when I picked her up and told me she was not a "rock sinker" anymore! It took me a minute to figure out what she was saying, but then it dawned on me that she has heard me tell many people that despite her floaties, swim vest and a pool noodle, she still "sinks like a rock" in the water! Some things get lost in translation, but are just too cute to correct.

I can't believe I got the kids passports in one week! I did the expedited service and was fully expecting it to take 3 weeks, but nope, just one week from submission! I am happy to know our government is on top of this!

If you haven't already, take your kids or just yourself to see the movie "Up". It is so good. Even my can't sit still, wiggly, non-stop talking, adHd kid absolutely loved it.

And of course I can't leave out a picture or two of my little beauties, here is one of Caroline on the day she had her talent show at school and her class did the cha cha slide, so I dressed her up kinda of hip hop!


I am so behind in catching up with everyone's blogs, I will be doing this over the next few days.

A very sad loss for our family

On May 30th, my beloved brother in law Larry passed away. Although he had been ill for some time, we are all so very sad about his passing. He was so much more than just a BIL to me, I had known him for over thirty years and he was so much fun, he was one of the kindest people I know and had the most loving spirit. I am so disappointed that my children did not get to know him as the Larry that we all adored. I was out of town all of last week for his funeral and to spend time with my sister and her sons, Caroline and Chase were with me. It's so hard to explain death to them, they don't quite get it. When I told Caroline that her Dja Dja Mischka had died and went to heaven, she went running into Chase's room and told him that Dja Dja Mischka went to "Kevin's house"! Too funny. When we went to the wake, Chase wanted to know why Dja Dja Mischka was sleeping in the box, he wanted to wake him up! Godspeed to the best brother in law; and as my sister always says... Pass on the Larry love.

Child Labor

I promise you, they beg me to do this:

No more whining allowed

Okay, at least for a while!

I finally pulled it together and got some things done so I don't have so much to whine about.

1. I booked a trip for the summer, yeah! We are going to the Dominican Republic for a week in July! I had a ton of airline points that are about to expire so I took advantage of that and we are staying at a beautiful resort in Punta Cana. We stopped there on a cruise a few years ago and really liked it so decided to go back and spend a week there. It has beautiful beaches and the water is just so crystal clear. The resort has tons of activities for kids, so that is a big plus. Now July just can't here quick enough! This will be the kids first time to a beach and they are so excited. I probably should have started with something smaller, after going to the Caribbean, the Texas beaches will look pathetic to them.
2. I found another brand of night time pull ups that don't leak, BIG YEAH! Although thanks Becky for the offer to send me the Kroger brand! I just wish I could get him out of those all together, but dear Lord, he just soaks them, they are so heavy in the morning I swear you could could crack a window with them. His doctor says not to worry about the night time training, that it will come eventually. I get him up to go to the bathroom at least 3 times before I go to bed and I don't give him any liquids after about 6 pm, but he still is wet in the morning. I guess we could always move into Depends after he outgrows these!
3. We have an appointment next week with a new doctor to look at his ADHD meds. I really think he has outgrown his current dosage because the kid is growing like a weed! We've had a really rough month behavior wise, hopefully we can turn that around.
4. I am holding off buying a new house with a pool and will just suffer through the summer going to the public pool and using the sprinkler in the backyard. (I know, a little whiny). We do have season passes to sea world and six flags (both have water parks) so we will probably spend a lot of time there.

That's all I got! If anyone can help me with how to get a U.S. passport for my kids, I would be so grateful. From what I understand, I need to send in their Russian birth certificates and their COC; it just makes me so nervous to send the originals of those documents. Has anyone done this? If so, did you have any problems getting the documents back?

A Proud Mama Moment

Today, this little kindergarten girl:



who just one and a half years ago hardly smiled and didn't speak a word of English:

 

And slept and lived on the other side of the world:

 

Stood in front of the entire student body of over 1000 kids in her elementary school and recited the Pledge of Allegiance!

I was so proud I thought I was going to cry!

Just a whiney post

I have been is such a funk lately and just can't seem to find anything worthy of a blog post, so I am just going to vent about all the trials and tribulations of what's going on:

. This economy sucks! Yes, I know we're in a recession and all, but I just feel paralyzed to do anything, I want to plan a summer vacation, but feel so uncertain of my job situation that I just can't do it. We are so due for a "real" vacation, I love visiting family and staying there, but having to make my own bed and clean up after myself does not constitute a vacation in my book. (No offense to you Gail, I know you feel the same way).

. I think Chase is outgrowing his dosage of ADHD medication. His behavior has been awful lately and it is wearing on my everlasting last nerve. A call to his pediatrician is warranted and I just need to put it on my "to-do" list. He does have an awesome teacher now and she is so calm and just tells me that we'll give it a week and if things don't change, we'll put our heads together and come up with a plan. I don't know what medication she takes, but I want some of it!

. I have a new blackberry phone with all these fancy features on it and I cannot for the life of me figure out how to download the pictures I have taken. I know I should just contact blackberry, but I just don't want to.

. Because of my first issue (see above), I am not inclined to buy a new house here in Austin right now and the thought of going through a Texas summer without a pool in the backyard is almost excruciating. I know, I am spoiled and my problems could be so much worse.

. My absolute fantastic, wonderful, kind (insert any other great adjective here) brother-in-law is back in the hospital with more complications of a this horrible, insidious, ravaging (insert any other awful adjective here) disease. It just breaks my heart to see what is happening to him and my sister. Godspeed to an end of this suffering.

. I am sick of broken, lost, missing piece toys! And I know this is probably a mommy mistake, but I have indulged my kids with lots of toys in addition to the ones they have received as gifts from family and friends. But dear Lord, if I find one more truck with no wheels, batteries pulled out, arms broken off, naked doll with "I guess I lost her clothes response", broken crayons, markers with no cap, absolutely no remorse, couldn't care less attitude toward it all, I am going to lose it! I had no idea that we have a third child living in this house named "not me", as in "who did it?, not me". I took the drastic step of taking all of Chase's toys away this week related to #2 above and have made it clear that he will have to earn them back one by one. So far it is Thursday and he still has no toys.

. I am tired of my 5.5 year old having to wear pull ups at night and still soaking thru them and the rubber sheet protector and having to wash and remake beds almost.every.day. And before you tell me to get pull-ups that don't leak, the only ones that I have found that do that are the Kroger brand and the closest Kroger is 200 miles away.

Okay, this post could go on for days, I have many, many more gripes, but I will stop and try to get on with my day. Oh how I wish it was 5 o'clock here! And yes, I do know it's 5 o'clock somewhere, but I'm just not in the mood for Child Protective Services to show up today!

The Easter Bunny found us in Chicago

Nothing like waiting until the last minute to finalize our Easter plans. At the last moment, I decided to take Caroline and Chase up to Chicago to visit their Toycha Gail and Dja Dja Mischka and their cousins Steve and CeCe. My BIL's health makes it impossible for him to travel and given the depressive situation that's going on in their house, I decided to liven things up with 2 kids and 3 dogs! Just what the doctor ordered! Since airline tickets at the last minute were prohibitively expensive, we drove the loooong trip. We had so much fun, I think we ate out every meal, we took the kids to one of those Benihana type restaurants and they got to use chop sticks for the first time, and what a show, the kids loved it! We played in the park, went bowling, went on an Easter egg hunt and just had so much fun. Easter Sunday, the big bunny found us and left the kids so many goodies, I don't ever remember getting so much stuff in my basket, I think they are a tad bit spoiled. We spent the remainder of the day gorging ourselves at this massive buffet in this beautiful restaurant that my nephew Steve manages; I think Chase ate 6 cupcakes from the dessert table! Caroline of course was all about the sausage. My cousin Mark joined us for brunch and filled us in on his latest mission trip to Cuba, what an incredible experience. Both kids were just in their glory; I swear that Caroline would rather spend her time at a funeral with family than spend the day at 6 flags! She just looooovvvves being part of a family, she could be the poster child for what adoption is all about! Unfortunately, I didn't take many pictures and the ones I did take don't really represent Easter, but here are some from the fun:

This first one is for my nephew Steve. When Steve was in college, I swear he kept this particular bar in business! Here's Caroline drinking out of a souvenir cup, training for her future college days... NOT!

Chase checking out his loot:


Forgive me for this one; my BIL Larry is such a good sport and enjoyed, I mean tolerated the kids doing funny things to him:

Can't leave the fur babies out. Here's Violet "smiling"!