School

School started in full force for all of this week.  Caleb started his fall program in Pre-K and Joey started KINDERGARTEN!!  I can't believe he is already a kindergartner!  His first day of school was last Friday, we all had a HUGE melt down on Wednesday morning.  But I am hoping we will be getting into a good routine soon.  I am also back in school and taking a huge leap this semester.  I will be attending full time with the intent of completing my Associates degree in Psychology this fall!!  So far it is really exciting and I have some very interesting classes.  I am taking:

Intro to Literature where I will be reading the novel "One Flew Over the Cookoo's Nest"
Sociology 101
Social Psychology where I will be writing a Children's Book (very excited think I have a fun idea!)
Physical Geology (this on is for my VERY inquisitive Joey that loves rocks!)

This will be a very full three months until Christmas for our family but an adventure I plan to enjoy.  After that I plan to transfer to Metro State University to continue studying Psychology.

2011

So far 2011 has been a very interesting and challenging for us medically, however I am hoping we are making a turn today.  I started the year with some VERY severe episodes of vertigo that were very debilitating.  They have gotten much better and today I had a lot of testing that confirmed that I have positional vertigo on the left side.  She did a treatment in the office and gave me a self treatment for at home.  She was a great Dr and very thorough and I am hoping to put these episodes behind me.  On another positive note I seem to be doing a lot better on my recovery from the major surgery I had 16 months ago.  Not where I am looking forward to being but a marked improvement.  I have started going to the gym consistently and that is a HUGE step forward.

Caleb is recovering nicely from his broken arm, we will have some physical therapy to get the last little bit resolved but he has come so far!!  He still has another challenge this year, he needs major dental work.  The poor guy has a mouth full of teeth causing all sorts of problems.  He will be having 8-9 crowns on his back teeth both top and bottom.  He will also be having his two front teeth removed to have an extra tooth removed that is causing problems already with his permanent teeth!!  So we are waiting to have that scheduled as of course they will put him to sleep to have all this done at one time.

Lee is closing in on the end of tax season, another week I will have my hubby back!!  He is doing so well outside of an annoying persistent cough.  And Joey is healthy as other...I feel so blessed with all my family overall healthy and most important together.

Life in Perspective

There are moments in life that bring life into a whole new perspective.  I had one of those recently, two weeks ago tomorrow at about 2:35 in the afternoon, an afternoon full of plans to run to the grocery store then get boys sent off with Grandma for swim lessons...all of a sudden came to a halt.  We had just eaten some lunch and getting ready to leave and Caleb jumped/fell off the bench and landed on his elbow.  He was crying and of course upset, I hustled the boys out of the restaurant because of his crying and got my first good look at his arm outside, standing him up on a bench and pulling up his sleeve...I am not sure that is an image I will ever get out of my head, it was VERY obvious his arm/elbow was either broken or seriously dislocated.  After getting him into the car and Joey being super helpful and just doing what needed to be done we headed out to the nearest Children's urgent care and a quick call to hubby to meet me there.  Now, I must say you definitely get ushered back quickly at the ER when your child is screaming at the top of his lungs!! 

Well a couple of xray's later we get the next blow, not only has he broken it he has broken it about as bad as it can get and it requires surgery to pin the bones back together.  I am floored, I expected to walk out of there with him in a cast of some sort but SURGERY?!?  Well, one ambulance ride to the main Children's Hospital and surgery the next morning and less than 24 hours after the fall, we were home.  Caleb is doing amazing although he complains that it is taking a "really long time" to get the cast off, but 4 weeks is REALLY long for a 4 year old.  

This is the first time as parents we have had to handle something so instantaneously an emergency and it has really hit me hard, reminding me once again how truly precious life is and each and every person that touches our lives.  Especially our littlest dependents.  I feel truly blessed by each and every one of my family and friends that are a part of our lives near or far.  Although I pray to not have any more emergency's in our near future I am grateful for the reminder or what is truly important in my life and having my life in clear perspective, it is way too easy to get caught up in the small day to day things that really don't matter.

Boys Update

Looking back over my blog, that yes, I am WAY behind on I am amazed at the changes in my boys!!  They are in their second year of preschool now and growing like crazy.  They both had birthday parties this year with friends from school and Caleb has a best buddy for almost a year now and Joey has had several girlfriends, although he is girlfriend free currently, the pickings are slim with only four girls in his class this year.  The boys are both learning to ski, Caleb in his second year and Joey in his third and they are picking it up well.  We are hoping to spend more time in the mountains this year so they can catch up to their cousins.  To this end Lee will be trying a new schedule this tax season working Saturday but taking off on Mondays as much as possible.  This will be our first weekend to try it out, I am excited!

They have also tried out several other sports now with ongoing swimming lessons, soccer, indoor soccer, t-ball, indoor rock climbing, golf lessons.  Joey has really loved all the running in soccer and Caleb is becoming a fish in the water.  They both love rock climbing, t-ball and golf so it is looking to be another busy summer!!  We can't wait!!

I am still busy recovering from surgery, I am a year into my 18 month recovery and I am looking forward to some more progress.  I am also back to taking classes after taking last spring semester off.  Overall our family is pretty healthy and more important all together.

Dusting off the Blog!!

Time to dust off the blog!! I can not believe it has been almost a year since I have posted. We have had so much going on this past year. The boys are getting ready for a hew school year to start...although they never really stopped, we kept them enrolled in a summer program with lots of fun field trips and other adventures.  The new school year officially starts the week of August 23rd.  Mama is going back to school the same week after taking spring semester off to recover from a major surgery in December.  Here are a couple of teaser pictures of the boys as I work on getting some other posts ready to bring everyone up to date on our household.

Updates

The boys first day of school outside before we head in. Mommy's little monsters!

First Day of School 8-24-09

Checking out Caleb's Cake!!

I'm 3 Mama!!

One Year Ago

One year ago today our family of three became a family of four as we all went to Fuling, China to meet an 18 month old little boy named Fu Bao Gao. Mama, Baba, Joey and Lao Lao boarded a bus for a 90 minute trip from Chongqing to Fuling to meet this little boy that would be coming home with us. We were all so excited and nervous as well. How would he react? How would Joey react? Is he going to scream for hour? Is he going to shut down and ignore us for days? All we wanted to do was hold him, hug him and kiss him but we knew he would not be ready for us at all. How do you explain to an 18 month old that they are going away from everything they have ever known in their short life?

Here we saw "Gao Gao" from across the room. He is trying to figure out what is going on!!

Brothers at Last!! And Joey starts taking care of Caleb right away!

One scared little boy, not too sure what is going on clings tight to Baba.

Brothers in every way!! Christmas 2008 the best of buds!

Getting to be such a big boy!

Baba, Caleb & Joey

What a year it has been, Caleb went from this scared boy to the most happy kid. Joey and Caleb love being together and are rarely apart! Caleb wakes up happy and goes to bed happy. We have been blessed with the most amazing children. Thank You God!! And happy one year "gotcha day" Caleb. WE LOVE YOU!!