New Year's Eve

I had the best New Year's Eve!! My mom and I were running to JoAnn Fabrics to look for more fabric (go figure) and we decided just to go to DQ and get ice cream for dinner. While there, my mom ran into a friend of hers who told us she drives all the way from Estero (~45 minutes away from the Cape) to see a Christmas light show set to music. We had never heard of this show and when she told us where it was we realized it was about 5 minutes from our homes!!!! We stopped on the way home and watched an amazing 45 minute light show! Fantastic and the kids LOVED it!!!! It was such a great surprise and I loved sharing it with all the kids who had a BLAST! Here are some videos from last year's show that I found on youtube:





Don't you love it when great things just fall into your lap?!?!?

Four Years Ago Today

I became an official mommy to the most beautiful, perfect, amazing, sassy little girl! On the 19th of December 2006, I first held Nan Zi Yun in my arms and she became my "Yunnie". On the 20th, it became official as I signed the papers and put my thumbprint on the papers that recognized legally that we were mommy and daughter.

Today, her most common nickname is Bop although she is also known as Big Boppa Flip Floppa, Baby Bop, Pippity Pop, Pip, Pip Pop, Doodle, Poppin, Yuncakes, etc, etc, etc. I'll never forget her two year old teacher coming to me very concerned that Regan did not recognize her name when she would call for "Regan". When Regan was asked her name, she would respond that her name was Doodle. I laughed when her teacher told me this story and did not share her concern! Regan rarely heard herself called by given name and therefore insisted it was not her name! At the same time, she also called me "Becky" because that is what Konnor calls me......again, just a phase and I was not concerned! So funny now because her teachers often call her "Raygee" or "RayRay" and have also nicknamed her a gagillion names!

I think it is amazing that God placed the most perfect little girl in my arms. She is a little Mommy's girl and I love her so much it hurts. My life is so perfect because she is in it.......I love this girl!!! I'll have to get a picture of her in her 'Gotcha Day " clothes and try to get them to post, but for now here is what I wrote on the one year anniversary:

The happiness I feel in this photo is unbelievable!

Still grinning like an idiot.

Little did I know, but I needed to appreciate this moment very, very, very much because for the next 11 months, Regan going to sleep and sleeping peacefully would not happen very often!

My first glimpse of her "aren't I clever smirk"!

I had to take the required picture in her "gotcha" clothes! She still fits (wish I could say the same for the clothes I wore that day!!!)

Here it is again! Her little smile!!

Warning: Sappy, dramatic posting from an emotional mommy ;)

One year ago today, I was given the most precious gift anyone can ever receive. In my arms was placed a red-faced, sweaty, slight odorous ;), bug bitten, but oh so beautiful and miraculous gift. I met my daughter, Regan NanZiYun. I have been thinking back more and more as this anniversary approached. Part of me rejoices for this day and yet the happiness is a little tainted because the coming months would bring such horror. I can't think of one without the other. December 19th, 2006 was the most amazing day of my life, but I think the day I will truly celebrate is the day my daughter was given to me again...the day she graduated from the hospital.

But, enough of the melodrama....only happy thoughts today! I remember the moment Yunnie was placed in my arms and I felt the weight of her and it became real. I began crying like a baby. She was smiling from the first moment and was thriving in the attention (it would all hit the fan a few days later !!!). I look at her now and think how blessed I am that I was chosen to be her mommy. She is such a funny, loving, active little girl with such a spunky personality! I can't even begin to describe how much I love my little girl, but it is the most amazing feeling.

Some Postcards

Like I mentioned in my previous post, we have been postcrossing!! Here are some of our recent postcards. I also have the kids signed up to participate in some round robins, where a group of individuals send each other postcards of a certain theme. The kids have already received some native animal cards, Disney cards, trivia cards, and are signed up for lighthouses, map cards, sticker cards, and more. This is so much fun!!!! (and educational :)

This is Samson, on of the most complete T-Rex fossils in existence. Sent from Liza in Oregon!
Sent from Iovanna who also writes a finnish phrase on the back as she is originally from Finland. Hiva Poika - Good Boy

Regan wrote in her profile that she loves horses and so Joanna in Poland sent her a horse picture~

This card is really pretty in person because the gold is really shiny! Kitty writes that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police actually do dress like this, but it is mostly for formal occasions and not for everyday duty.

From Beatrice in Lithuania!!

Ima from Romania sent Regan a picture of a horse farm located in northern Romania.

Konnor received this postcard from Hendrix in the Philippines. It is of a Philippine Tarrier. It is the size of a man's hand!! Hendrix writes that it is the world's smallest primate. Too cool! I have no idea why this saved with that huge white space. It is not like this in real life.

Michelle in Sydney sent this postcard. She also decorates beautiful cakes. This postcard was stamped with the coolest koala stamp!

Sabrina is a 19 year old girl from Switzerland. Aren't all of the stamps so cool?!?!

We have many more favorites, but they haven't been scanned into my computer. I'll have to do that when I have time. Probably my favorite is one of Pippi Longstocking. I loved those books when I was a kid. The card was sent drom Holland and has the cutest picture of Pippi. A person from Belgium even sent Konnor an extra envelope with pamphlets of the Battle of Waterloo and Villers Abby. She also put 8 stamps on the envelope!!

Our New Hobby

Through another blogger, we have recently discovered our new hobby!! http://www.postcrossing.com/ It is a site where you register to send cards to various places around the world. In return, you receive random cards back! Konnor and Regan have both loved buying postcards and stamps and then finding out where their postcards are traveling. They are even more excited to go to the mailbox everyday to see if they have received any postcards. So far, we have received and/or sent postcards to/from Australia, Finland, Germany, Switzerland, Holland, Spain, Brazil, Netherlands, US, Belarus, Italy, Japan, Sweden, China, Czech Republic, Russia, Canada, Phillipines, Portugal, United Kingdom, and Lithuania. Both kids now have maps hanging in their rooms to mark the countries they have sent to or recieved from. The video is of a contest Postcrossing had recently where you sent in pictures of yourself sending your postcards. Isn't it amazing that all of these pictures are from people going to their various mailboxes located around the world, sending postcards to foreign countries? It is amazing that all around the world people are uniting for a common purpose and interest. It really is a small world:) Konnor is located a little after 4:40 minutes into the video and Regan is just after 5:50 into the movie!!

http://vimeo.com/13809748 from ana campos on Vimeo.

I Love My Kids, but Man They Tire Me Out Some Days!!

Back before I had two, I always thought I wanted three;) I'll count my nephew, Konnor, as my third.......he did tell me today that I'm more of a mother to him than his own mother:( I love my kids, but it is hard to be outnumbered!!! I can't wait until summer when all I'm doing it working at KidSpirit, seeing a hospital homebound kid a couple of days a week, finishing my last pre-requisite course for the Speech Language Pathology program, and the rest is playtime and fix the house and yard time (desperately needed!!). Yay!!!

I Stink At Updating

Cub Scout Camping Trip - lots of fun!!
You can imagine the Dorito mess aftermath.

Nature walk

Wacky Wednesday at School and yes, she is eating popcorn as a pre-breakfast snack.

Shepherd's new leg. He LOVES it, and so do I!

Sibling love.

Obviously as seven months ago we went to India and I haven't even finished blogging about the trip. Anyway, pictures, pictures, pictures.

Flight and Quarantine Scare

Our flight leaving Tampa to Chicago left on time and Regan loved her first plane ride! We were in the very back row and I was so relieved because I didn't have to worry about her disturbing the people behind us. She loved flying through the clouds and picking through her carry on for what she would like to play with. The excitement of this flight was that it was the bumpiest I have ever been on. The fasten seat belt was on the entire 3 1/2 hours and the pilot came on several times to reassure everyone that everything was okay. The woman across the aisle from me had a very rough time and was obviously terrified. Regan was fine and actually fell asleep for about an hour. The landing was also the bumpiest I have ever been through and there were lots of claps and cheers when we landed. Regan was a little unsure of the landing and held on tight to my arm.

The Chicago leg of the journey started over an hour late. Something about how they couldn't take off without a head wind and so we had to wait for the wind to shift. Regan was a little shifty during this long wait on the plane, but overall did well. My mom was lucky that she had two empty seats beside her and so she was able to stretch out. Our airline was wonderful and the seats had monitors for every seat. Regan thought this was pretty special and loved that she was able to watch her own tv. I tried watching Ghosts of Girlfriends Past about ten times but each time it would start something would happen to interrupt my viewing. Bummer! Another favorite part of Regan's flight was mealtime. She insisted on ordering her own drinks and had a blast arranging her food on her tray. She was thrilled that during breakfast they had cantaloupe.
I have to admit that I was very apprehensive about the flight process with Regan. She is not known to sit still or have an inside voice and I was so worried she would lose it while on the plane. I am happy to say that she did great. She spent most of the fourteen hours of the second flight sleeping. She wanted to sleep on top of me and so I slept on our two seats and she laid on top of me and that is how she slept for several hours.

Once we arrived in New Delhi, we had to sit on the tarmac for an hour while we waited for a gate to open up. Once we arrived, Regan's stroller was no where to be found. I tried to find somebody who knew where it was, but no luck. There were several security guards with machine guns watching the flights disembark. Konnor thought that was pretty neat! Immigration had a huge line and so we stopped to use the restroom. It was one of the filthiest restrooms that I have encountered. Truly disgusting. What was so ironic was that it was right in front of the health checkpoints where they were checking everyone's temperatures to screen for swine flu. Signs all over about washing hands and proper hygiene and not 10 feet away was a cesspool of germs and filth.

At this point, Regan was absolutely exhausted and whiny and refused to walk. I go up to healthcheck point and realize that two of the healthcare workers are pointing and talking about me. They take your temperature by screening you with an infrared light that detects your temperature. Sure enough, I get pulled aside and she tells me that the light is showing that I am running a high temperature. She then takes out an oral thermometer, swabs it with some unidentified substance and tells me that I have to have my temperature double checked. Regan is crying and beside herself at this point, my brother has paid not attention and already gone through customs and my mom and Konnor are on the other side of the line hoping I get through.
The woman pulls out my thermometer and tells me it is registering at 100 degrees. She calls over somebody else who asks me a billion questions about whether I have aches, pains, sore throat etc. He takes my pulse and declares that I look hot to him (and not in a good way!). They allow me to give Regan to my mom and escort me to another waiting area outside the filthy bathrooms where they hand me a mask. I sit there with this scarlet letter of a mask with three other men who are obviously together and think this is all great fun. I could not share in their humor and I begin to cry because I am a cryer (something I so wish I could change about myself, luckily I'm a silent crier!!). Another gentleman comes over and tells me that I am being held and to hand over my passport and wait on the chairs. I am really, really scared at this point. One of the men waiting tells me that this was the holding area that we stay at until they send us into quarantine. After about 30 minutes or so I go into the office to ask them why I am waiting and they shoo me away and tell me to go sit down. Not wanting to cause an international scene I do as I am told but then realize that the other three men are free to mingle and so I go to the gate to give my mom the contact number of the agency and the orphanage director. I wanted her to have the information in case this didn't go well. The gentlemen who took my passport came out to look for me, but was fine when I waved at him to show him I hadn't jumped the fence ;). I return to my seat where I sit for another forty five minutes or so. My mom and brother are on the other side keeping the kids as occupied as they can. As I am sitting there, I realize that I am not going to be totally passive about this situation. I am usually very passive, but I felt fine and did not feel sick at all.

Another gentleman came out to tell me that they were holding my passport and I was being transferred to another area in the airport where I was going to be held in quarantine for 24 hours while they ran tests and continued to take my temperature. If I tested negative and had normal temperatures they would let me go at that time. If I didn't, I would have to stay in quarantine at a hospital for 5 days and receive medications. He tells me to gather my things for the transfer and I tell him that I do not think I am sick, that I had been carrying my daughter throughout the airport while holding a huge backpack and that I think I was overheated. I ask him to please, please retake my temperature. He looks at me with skepticism, but I ask him again to please take it, what could it hurt? He stated he did not know I was holding my daughter and that yes he would have it retaken.

He had me go to another checkpoint where they then took an axillary temperature. The health person calls my gentleman over and they begin to talk loudly with much gesturing and pointing at the other health point check. He tells me nothing and to return to my original seat. He then goes in and has another big discussion with the original official. That official comes out with my passport and I about cry again in relief. He gives me a huge lecture on calling if I feel ill and that they will let me go at this time. I come through to the other side with huge relief!!!

I couldn't get through customs fast enough. This whole time I was being paged to go to the information desk, but they would not let me contact information. The paging was from the airlines as they wondered why I hadn't picked up my luggage. It was now after one am and I was worried that my driver would not have waited as we were almost four hours late. Luckily, he was and so we didn't have to navigate the huge throngs of people outside waiting to accost you. I have never been so glad to reach a hotel!!

We've Arrived

Updates at www.happyshepherd.blogspot.com or www.journeytome.com

Rocking Worlds

Today I was walking through the mall because I realized I don't have a suitcase. I guess when I went to China I had borrowed Joel's. Somehow, it took me until today to realize that I didn't have anything to pack my clothes in!

So anyway, I'm walking through the mall and Regan is whining and begging to be picked up. Those of you who know us know that she wants to be carried, sit on my lap, or be somehow touching me at pretty much all times. I have been making her walk more and more because she is 3 1/2 and somedays feels like a ton. Othertimes, I am in a hurry and it is just easier to pick her up and go. As I'm trying to make her walk because I have things in my hands, I realized that this is the last week that my arms will only be devoted to her. That this is the last week that I'll be able to pick her up and carry her without leaving a little boy without a mom to carry him.

I think often about how not only is Shepherd's world about to be rocked, but so is Regan's. Don't get me wrong, we are so looking forward to finally bringing Shepherd into our family, but I also know it is going to be very difficult for Regan and probably myself to adjust. My heart hurts for her because I know that our dynamic is about to change. On the other hand, I also know that we are meant to be a family of three and I love Shepherd dearly. Some people may not understand how you can love a little boy living half way across the world based on a picture and some videos, but I do.

I picked Regan up and carried her through the mall realizing that this is a moment to be enjoyed because not only will my arms be fuller and busier, but pretty soon she will also be too big to be carried.

Just thoughts of the day. I'll post later about Regan and Konnor's week at soccer camp and our Home Depot projects!

I Have The Best Friends in the World!

I don't know how I got so lucky, because I am surely very guilty of not always being the best of friends (not intentionally, but somehow I never really have my life together!), but I have the best friends in the world!

Especially now, when life is CRAZY busy I have several friends texting, emailing, and calling to make sure that I am okay and to ask how they can help. You guys know who you are and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Thursday and yesterday, I spent ALL day on the internet and phone trying to get plane reservations to India. It seems that mid-August is the worst time to try to book tickets because people are ending their summer vacations. After trying to book online, I realized the online systems would not let me book a one way child ticket. I called the airlines directly and their solution to the problem was just to buy a round trip ticket and use it to get Shepherd home from India and then I could travel back to India sometime within the next 12 months. Um, not so much Continental Airlines. Two thousand dollars later and then I would be stuck in India?!?!? Where is the logic? The online airline places (especially one with a gnome mascot!) really irritated me as I would spend alot of time finding tickets and they would advertise one price and by the time you clicked on the "Buy Now" button, the tickets would jump up in price to almost four thousand dollars. It was all a scam, that initial low price.

Three travel agents later and they said they had super deals for me.....at three thousand dollars a ticket! Not my idea of a super deal. Seems they could not find plane tickets back to the US. I actually talked to somebody in New Delhi directly and although she was very nice, she had no solution to the problem and said I could just try to find plane tickets home once we arrived in India. Not a gamble I'm willing to take. I was on the phone all day yesterday so much that as I was trying to get the passports in the mail for the visas and buy some essentials my battery died. I can't wait to get that phone bill.

As it stands now, I still do not have tickets, but two agencies think they have tickets on hold for us. They both are closed this weekend so we'll see what happens on Monday. Unfortunately, we may be flying out of Tampa, Jacksonville, or Miami as that is they only way to make the tickets under two thousand dollars. Yikes!!!

Regan is also sick again. I think the crazy schedule and her stress is making her sick. For those of you who do not know her well, she is VERY clingy to me. She has a hard time when intially away from me although I know she is find once I'm gone. At home, she even gets jealous if I spend time with the dogs and so we have really been working on her acceptance of that! The only person she doesn't get jealous of is Konnor. I think it is because he has always been there, even from the very beginning while we were in China. She always wants to be held and carried and although I do think having a brother is going to be a positive thing for her, I anticipate she is going to have a very hard adjustment. We talk all the time about what we are preparing for, and I think she is really starting to feel it as she is extra clingy and does not want me out of her sight. So, I am spending time with just her and reassuring her, but she is having some rough patches.

Today, I"m trying to get her well, trying to find my phone charger, and going to paint some rooms in my mom's house. Tomorrow, I"m hoping to get my house repainted. Yay!!

Just Slightly Stressed

To say I'm just a little stressed is an understatement! I talked with Katie, my social worker, on Friday at 5 PM about time for travel. I was hoping to leave the first week of September. My mom is not allowed to take off from her job at the school district in the month of April because it is the end of their fiscal year (she is assistant director of financial accouting), I am in the middle of a couple of patients at the outpatient clinic that I need to follow up on bracing for the children, I could begin my first two weeks at the schools, Konnor could attend his first week of second grade, etc, etc, etc.

Katie said I had to leave the first week of August because my immigration paperwork expires at that time! Yikes! I knew it expired soon, but thought it would be no big deal to get an extension. For those of you not familiar with international adoption information, you must get preapproval from the Citizenship and Immigration services to bring a child back into the country. It depends on your completed homestudy, fingerprints from the Dept. of Homeland Security, and other things. I would probably be able to update my homestudy and get an extension with no difficulty, but she didn't want it to cause any problems with the US Embassy in Delhi. Vijay, the orphanage director, schedules our Embassy appointment to obtain Shepherd's visa to come into the US. She wants to schedule it right away because of the dates on some of my paperwork, including my 171H (immigration paper). Katie says the embassy appointment will probably be on August 10th. She wants me to leave for India on the 8th. Since I want to see the Taj Mahal before we pick up Shepherd, I will be leaving earlier!

I am so not ready. I have sooooo many things to do to be ready to leave work, and have the house ready for me to leave, and find boarding for the dogs. My grandmother is going to be watching Marmaduke, but Daisy is a runner and so she has to be boarded. That means of trip up to Gainesville to drop off the animals. Sometimes I feel like I am about to lose my ever lovin' mind! I can not believe that in three short weeks, Brudder will be home! Yikes!! I need to get off this computer and start getting stuff done!

All About "Brudder"

Regan wants to talk all about her "Brudder". This has become his new name although for official purposes he will be known as Asher Shepherd ;) Shepherd is waiting for us in New Delhi, India at the SOS Children's Orphanage. He was born on September 26, 2005 so he will soon be turning four! He is 3 1/2 months older than Regan. Yikes!! I will update tomorrow on the process from India, but it has been a breeze and I recommend this program for anyone. There are so many children waiting, it is heartbreaking. We will be leaving in 3-5 weeks to pick him up!!!!

*I will be taking Regan to see a Speech Language Pathologist in the fall again because I do not like how she sticks out her tongue when pronouncing certain words.

For more about Brudder visit: http://www.happyshepherd.blogspot.com/

The process for a waiting child from India is alot different from the China process. I sent my dossier in October and had to wait for the Indian courts to issue a NOC (No Objection Certificate) stating that they agreed to process my case - they had "no objection!". I got NOC on January 2 of this year. I then had to wait to go through the actual court process. Yesterday I received the call that I had received guardianship. This means that India agrees that I may be Shepherd's guardian. This came more quickly then I thought it would as they usually ask for updated or more paperwork and they asked me for nothing! I finalize the adoption 6 months after arriving home. Also different from China as the adoption was final in China and she automatically became a US citizen as soon as she touch US soil.

On top of all that, I started back to school! I am going to school to pursue a Master's Degree in Speech Language Pathology through USF. Many reasons that I won't bore people with.....I briefly thought about a Doctorate in PT, but it wouldn't change my job position or really benefit me. As a PT and an SLP, I should be secure in either job and will be able to provide for the family no matter how old I am, where I live, etc. I just finished my first semester and have make a decision about what to do for next semester!

This was taken in January. Sorry it is a video of my tv, I can't get my DVD player to work on my computer. I have another video from last month that I'll try to download.

Ta Da!

You guys are good!!!! More details to follow - I got a couple of emails "suggesting" I let the cat out of the bag!!! I'll post more later tonight! Can anybody guess sex, age, and country?!?!

Regan's Announcement

Regan has something that she would like to announce. Just for fun, if you think you can guess what it is, leave a comment with your guess. For those of you that might already know, please keep it a secret just to see if anybody else can guess!

Crafting and Maya's Party

Saturday, we headed up to St. Augustine to celebrate the birthday of my friend's daughter. Little Maya was turning two! We stopped at my grandparent's house as they live about 4 hours north of us. St. Augustine Beach is then another hour or so of driving. Regan was soooo excited to see her mama and papa and ran right into the house to see them. She didn't want to leave to go to the party, but we had to. The night before she slept for 5.5 hours and didn't sleep at all on the way up north. She slept about 20 minutes on our trip to St. Augustine Beach and didn't sleep at all on the way back to my grandparents! I think she was too excited to sleep. I had little sleep too, because I waited until the last minute to make Maya's presents. I made her two shirts and a bag and I also made Regan a shirt. It felt so good to be able to do some crafting.

I Love Summer and Bump Its

Summer is obviously wearing them out!!
Why can I never get a natural smile out of Regan?!?!?

Hard at work.

In progress.

Below is Regan ready to go out. She does this every day.....picks out her clothes, her accessories, and her shoes. Today she ignored shoes, but had a bracelet, necklace, sunglasses, and a "crown".

This was Regan when she was sick. She didn't eat for days and the only thing she would drink was sweet tea. So, I obliged. I like in this picture how you can see she is fingering her shirt. She has done this since she came home to comfort herself although she prefers my sleeve.

I officially am starting summer vacation. I still work two half days at the outpatient clinic, but it feels soooooo good to be off from work. I could so be a stay at home mom. I really, really want to be one. Anyway, on the fourth, we headed to Home Depot where the kids did a craft. Regan is so into crafts. This one had an extra special bonus as you had to use glue - Regan was in heaven!!

Tomorrow, we are heading to North Florida to spend a couple of hours with my grandparents and Regan is going to her friend Maya's birthday party. It is going to be a long day - about 12 hours travel total. We can't spend the night because of the animals, but I"m really looking forward to seeing my grandparents.

Regan's newest obsession is with Bump Its. Ever seen that stupid commercial for bump its? I say obsessed because Regan never does an interest half way, she jumps right in and talks, and talks, and talks about it. Wants to go to the library to get books about it, has to tell every one about it, etc. She wants Bump Its soooooo bad. I'm going to try to rig something for her, because there is no way I'm buying a ridiculous plastic hair comb for $19.99 (plus shipping and handling!).

Can You Explain

See how precious she is when she sleeps?!?! I haven't seen too much of that sleeping face lately and mommy needs her sleep! These pictures were taken almost two years ago, look how little she was!

Why it is 11 o'clock in the evening and my child is still not asleep?!?! We have always had sleeping issues, from day one. Just when I think we have conquered a particular stage of some sort of sleep disturbane, we move onto another stage that is equally exasperating. A couple of months ago it was staying in bed. I fixed that by shutting the door each time I caught her up and out of bed. She was not allowed to re-open the door. She HATED having the door closed. I only allowed it to be open an inch or two, but having it shut that couple of inches was something worth staying in bed for, apparently. It sounds mean, but it's better than catching her painting her toenails, climbing the headboard, playing mommy to our Great Dane, having a secret dance party in the closet and many other things (all of which I busted her doing when she was supposed to be in bed). I station myself outside of the door and I learned that the dogs are a dead giveaway. If they start stirring and coming out of the bedroom then that means she is up and moving around. The exception is when they are forced to lie under a blanket and get their backs patted as their "mommy" instructs them that they have to go to sleep because she is tiwerd (tired). So assuming my station and closing the door worked for a couple of months. Now....not so much.

Her new thing is that she will stay in bed and she starts singing musicals at the top of her voice, or having full conversations with herself, and chit chatting to her invisible friend. So, I pulled out my handy dandy door trick and.........it doesn't work!!! She is now perfectly content to sit in the complete dark and converse with herself. So, I can make her stay in bed, I can make her lay down, how do you make her fall asleep?!?! I was ready to go to bed an hour ago, but I can't because if I fall asleep before she does than the mischief she could get into is just too scary to even think about! It also doesn't help that she is worse than a teenager to try to pry out of bed in the morning. You'd think she'd get it that it's better to go to bed at a decent hour than it is to go through all of that morning drama. I'll be glad when this phase is over, but I'm a little scared to think of what the next one could be!!

Pneumonia, Cub Scout Camp, Adigators, VBS, and my new love - Noodle Man!

Before she started showing signs of being sick. You'd never guess she was not feeling well. She felt good enough for some Marmie love!!!
This week has been CRAZY busy! A week ago Friday Regan, Konnor, and I went to Sunsplash. Regan did great and actually was very comfortable in the water (a big accomplishment for her!). After a couple of hours she said she wanted to go to sleep. Huh?!?!? Regan never willingly goes to sleep! Long story short, she had a temperature of 103ish for the next day and on Sunday I took her to a convenient care as we had a really crappy night of very unpleasant things (I'll spare the details). She was diagnosed with bronchitis, but the MD told me to discontinue the breathing treatments I had been giving her because she said her lungs were clear. I ignored that advice because although I'm not an MD, not only could you hear the junk in her lungs (without the aid of a stethoscope), but you could feel her chest rattling. The next day I took her to her regular pediatrician and she was diagnosed with pneumonia and was put on steroids, continued breathing treatments, and continue with the antibiotics previously prescribed. Poor thing was so, so sick.

I started working summer school (bleh!). Konnor spent last week in Cub Scout Camp and he had a blast!!! He is so bummed it was only a week in length. He will officially start Cub Scouts in August, but this was his first official outing. They teach good morals, do fun things (Konnor is in love with archery now!), and the den leader seemed like a great guy. If I had one complaint it would be the mothers seemed a tad on the agressive, competitive (come on ladies, in the long run does it matter that your child's rocket flew up the highest?!? Let's just have fun!), inpatient and some were downright rude! Konnor got to take home the den flag at the end of the week because his pack leader said he was the most well behaved, mannered child in the den. What a compliment!!

Regan had been talking for over a month about the Adigator coming to host VBS. This year's theme was Crocodile Dock and VBS was held at the church that houses her school. They had a Crocodile sign out front of the church this past month and everyday she would tell me that she couldn't wait to go see the Adigator. Unfortunately, she missed the first day because of being sick and she wasn't feeling well the following two days as she was exhausted. She insisted she wanted to go though so although she was very subdued this week she obviously enjoyed going. Believe me, she would have let me know if she didn't want to go! The kids got CDs of some of the songs from VBS and Regan knows almost all of the words to about 5 of the songs. She obviously was enjoying herself although her face was pretty stoic throughout the whole week! Konnor also loved VBS and was so enthusiatic about the whole thing. I stuck around with my friend, Carolyn, every night for the first hour or so to make sure Regan was doing okay with the new situation and I was so impressed with how this church held an amazing VBS. It was truly awesome!!! The finale included a puppet show that I have included clips of in the following videos. The show was enthralling and I wish it had turned up better on my camera. It is amazing to me that the puppeteers are teenagers, they did so well. You can't see all of the details, but you can get the drift. I'm in love with the Noodle Man!

Mermie Hair

Regan insisted I take a video of her with hair that she HAD to have after watching it on a commercial.

Regan had a psychological and speech/language testing through our district yesterday. Long story that started about 6 months ago. I was so impressed with how well she attended for over two hours of intense testing. I'll post more later, but basically she scored high average or above average in all testing except visual motor. The child does not like to sit and color! I also had a private speech language test done several months ago as I was concerned about her immature speech and language. I guess I am just an over anxious mom in that area because she scored well on that one too! Yesterday, she blew me away with some of the things she was able to complete - things I had no idea she could accomplish!!

Experimenting with Video