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It's been a long long time.....

I think Facebook might be the death of my blogging. It is just so much easier! We have had a great summer, but it's almost over! We have visited several places around Atlanta with and without the kids-Lego Land, the Atlanta Botanical Gardens, and we even had an overnight zoo trip! Our highlighted trip was a vacation to Chattanooga, TN. We stayed in a very nice hotel thanks to Auntie Silka's hotel employee rate and could walk to the main attractions there. We visited the zoo, the aquarium, and went underground to the Raccoon Mountain caves. We really enjoyed our trip and Chasen said it best..."The best part of the trip was being together as family and loving one another"! I love this kid!

Spring Fling

Spring is here in Georgia, at least it was earlier this week! Spring break began with beautiful weather-sunny skies and the perfect temperature for outdoor play. Now it has been raining for two days! But we did end up with nice weather for all of the Easter egg hunts! The kids ended up with almost the equivalent of Halloween candy from the church Easter egg hunt. I'm glad that I did not put a lot of candy in their Easter baskets as well! Now that it's raining I'm spending some of my time indoors doing some spring cleaning. Though it's hard to tell because right after I clean a room it's covered with toy trucks or stuffed animals! But I'm getting to do some more time consuming chores like cleaning the carpets etc. Sophia and I had a girls day on Tuesday and went together to get pedicures. She was so excited to get her toes painted pink! She put her feet in the water with mine and enjoyed having a special time with mommy. We then went and go her hair cut so it really was a girly day! Chasen is enjoying a week free of homework and sight words! He is doing well in school and it looks like he will finish the year passing all of his standards. His speech is really coming along now, except that since he lost his top two teeth the "th" sound is not as easy! He is also developing an extreme southern accent. I'm not sure where that's coming from....he draws everything out. For example if he says "hair" it's "hare-er". I keep trying to correct him but Justin thinks that's making it worse. How does a kid develop such an accent with both his parents don't talk that way? It's pretty funny but I hope he grows out of it! We have also been enjoying our second year of the Atlanta Zoo. We went with some friends last weekend and the kids had a great time. We still have an overnight trip to plan that we earned last year and we are only a few months away from earning free merry-go-round and train rides. We have also discovered that they have a "mystery animal" to discover every visit. There are clues hidden around the zoo and we have to guess the mystery animal for prizes. In March we learned that the Bush Dog has webbed feet and is a great swimmer! Who knew? Justin is busy hatching baby chickens in his incubator this week. We are learning that the percentage of baby chicks that hatch successfully is very low. No wonder chickens lay so many eggs! It's fun to hear the eggs chirping and watching the babies come into the world. I had no idea it was such a struggle! They take almost a day to hatch out of their shells. We are keeping some of the babies and hope to give the others to some friends who are interested in chickens. Justin received 2 Polish chickens from a family friend yesterday that he is excited about. We really have a large assortment in our coop now!

Losing my gal.....

Recovery from my surgery is going better than expected. I ended up taking a few extra days off of work and am glad that I took the extra "me" time. I was able to go have lunch with Chasen at his school and get in a few extra naps. I returned on Thursday and everything will be back to normal (I hope) starting Monday. I could tell that my students had a week of substitutes though, they were not as diciplined as when I had left them! The bad news is, my expectations that I would not be able to eat anything fatty or unhealthy has so far turned out to be untrue. I was very careful at first after the surgery, only eating low fat and healthy. I think I even lost a few pounds. But at Chasen and Sophia's Valentines Dinner at church I had a slice of cheese pizza AND a cookie! Then I tried some eggrolls last night-nothing! So, what I thought might be a jumpstart to a new diet has failed. That means, until further notice I'm ok with eating whatever I want! NOOOOOOOO!!!!! I was really hoping that I would have to eat healthy, therefore temptations would be easier because I would have no choice in the matter. But so far, I'm am the perfect gallbladder recovery patient! Foiled again!

Goodbye Gallbladder

Sorry, there are no cute pictures to attach to this post! This week I had surgery to remove my gallbladder. I was shocked to find out that surgery was the solution to the bizarre stomach pains I had been experiencing this year. My stomach issues began last spring when I had several painful attacks where it felt like I was in labor. I had intense abdominal pain that lasted for 30 minutes or so and it was so bad that I thought that at times I might pass out from the pain. Around this time the Millers had returned from a trip to Alabama and complained that they had a touch of a stomach bug there, so I figured it was just a strange virus. But in December I had several of these episodes again. Some at home, one while driving, and another in the middle of a church service! There was not rhyme or reason why they occured, they just started and would go on for minutes or hours and then I would magically be cured! I decided to go see my doctor because it was clear that it was not a virus and that something was really wrong with me. I had labs done and was sent to the hospital for an ultrasound. The same day I received my diagnoses-gallstones! Gallstones are not like kidney stones, they don't just pass. Once produced, my body would always produce them and if they escape my gallbladder I could risk infection of my pancreas. So, my gallbaldder had to go! As far as the surgery, everything went well. I went in to the hospital at 6am and we left by 11:30 am. Both pastors from my church visted me to wish me well and my parents took charge and watched both our children and the puppies for the weekend. I have four incisions in my abdomoinal area. The kids are so interested in seeing my "boo boos"! I still am very sore but can walk around. I have only been on a liquid diet until tonight. And of course, now my stomach is not happy with me! It will take some time for my digestive system to get back to normal. So I guess tomorrow I'm back to liquids only! I plan to go back to work on Tuesday, but I may request an extra day if my stomach doesn't settle down over the next few days. I have also not been sleeping well so I would like to have at least one good night's sleep before returning to work. I have not been waking up in pain like other gallbadder patients have claimed, I have just been waking up every hour. I should be happy that I'm not screaming out in pain like others, but I am very tired and it doesn't take much to wear me out. I will keep everyone posted on my recovery and the changes that may come from this new lifesyle without a gallbladder!

Happy New Year and Happy Birthday Sophia!

Sophia turned 3 on December 28th and we had an Asian Appetizer Hello Kitty party in her honor. She had been practicing blowing out the candles for a week and did it perfectly! I loved how she smiled the whole time that we sang the birthday song to her and didn't shy away like I always did! She got lots of girly presents and Hello Kitty themed gear. Since Christmas and her birthday she has been dressed up as a princess every day. She now wears necklaces, rings, purses, and princess gowns all day long and to bed! We all knew that she liked girly things, now she has the accessories to be a happy happy girl! Happy Birthday to my sweet sweet baby and Happy New Year to everyone!

Christmas 2012

Santa came! This was by far the best Christmas for our kids. Both kids were so excited about getting ready for Santa and enjoyed putting out the cookies and setting up the stockings. We watched all of the Santa Claus movies and tried to answer as many Santa questions as Chasen could ask! Chasen woke up extra early Christmas morning and came running into our bedroom telling us all that he saw under the tree. He was so thrilled that Santa had eaten his cookies and left him a note. Everything under the tree was from Santa and Santa had even figured out where OUR presents were hidden! When Sophia woke up she covered her mouth in surprise and said "MEEEEEEE!!!!!" She really enjoyed opening her gifts and putting on her dresses right away! Justin and I were so happy that the kids really seemed to understand the magic of Christmas this year!

Santa and Such

We have been so busy getting ready for Christmas that I never had time to post our Santa pictures! I posted our Christmas card, I hope you enjoyed it either by the blog or through the mail. But the picture does not describe how excited Chasen was to see Santa! Chasen was very shy at first to see St. Nick. He had visited him earlier in the week at school for a picture, and when Santa asked him what he wanted for Christmas Chasen told him "You already know, I told you before!" Chasen had to tell Santa AGAIN what he wanted for Christmas-a cowboy gun. Sophia was scared of Santa, even though she had told me she was going to sit on his lap before we got there. Oh well, maybe next year. She was too shy to tell him what she wanted so I told him a pretty toy horse. Of course afterwards when everyone asks Chasen and Sophia what they are getting from Santa Chasen tells them Sophia isn't getting anything because she was too scared to talk to Santa and cried!

Merry Christmas from the Millers!

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We hope everyone is having a very merry Christmas season. Ours has already started with trips to see Santa and gingerbread cookies! The kids visited Santa for our holiday photo. Sophia was still scared and Chasen was shy. But he managed to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas and we found out that Santa likes chocolate chip cookies the best. I was so glad he didn't say oatmeal raisin! We are about done with our holiday shopping. I know I don't want to go into any more stores at least! A quick trip to Wal-mart the other day had me there an hour! We are all counting the days until Christmas on our advent calendar and we can't wait to share the joy of Christmas morning with the kids!

Puppies!

Leave it to me to spend all day at a chicken festival and come home with puppies! The Millers now have dogs-two of them! Meet Jelly and Bean-two sisters who we rescued. The kids love the dogs, sometimes a little too much. Sophia is a puppy stalker and would carry them around all day if she could. I think after the newness wears off they will be best buds. The puppies LOVE Chasen and of course the adults in the house as well. They really are good dogs as far as puppies go. I've had puppies before and I know they are a handful. They are playful for a while but would prefer to just sit in our laps all day if we gave them the chance. Once they are house trained I think it will all work out and I'm happy that we can give our kids the experience of loving a pet. The bunnies and chickens are fun, but they can't compare to the love of a dog! (My opinion only, Justin would debate over the love and joy of a chicken!)

Life Cycle of a Butterfly

Chasen found some Black Swallowtail caterpillars in our parsley garden a few weeks ago. We decided to keep them and see if we could "grow" some butterflies! We had various sizes of caterpillars and they grew and formed cocoons at different times. It took about a week for a caterpillar to go from the cocoon to the butterfly stage. We have had 2 successful hatchings so far! The first hatching had a broken wing and could not fly. We released him into the garden and we saw him for a few days resting on the butterfly bush. We hope he found a good home.... The next butterfly allowed Chasen to hold him for a few minutes before learning to fly. These are the pictures that I have posted. The last butterfly flew right out of the cage and into a new life! We still have some cocoons being formed and one or two catipillars still eating all of the parsley we can feed them. I have really enjoyed this little project, maybe more than anyone else!

Aquarium Trip

So my dear hubby told me yesterday that for the first time in 7 years I missed a month of blogging......boo hoo hoo! I blame Facebook! So, to make it up I posted a few of the pictures of our Georgia Aquarium trip last week! These pictures don't even give our trip justice, and words can't express the magnificence either. Justin and I got in for free last weekend because it was Educators Day. Bascially, they were trying to get teachers in to spark interest for field trips! We paid for Chasen and Sophia was free, so it was a great deal! We have not been to the Georgia Aquarium since 2007 and we were impressed by all of the changes. They now have dolphins and a dolphin show which was AMAZING. Being that we were educators, we got the behind the scenes tour which allowed us to view the TOP of all of the tanks. WOW! They seem like huge tanks when you are looking at them in the display halls, they are much bigger when you see the whole thing! We watched the whale sharks swim right by us. If we reached through the fence we could have touched them! Sophia shouted out "Whoa" every time a big fish or whale swam by. And the behind the scenes tour is not a shabby visit, there are displays and interactive exhibits throughout! We were at the Aquaium for 6 hours and we felt like we were rushing through! It was an experience we won't soon forget and I hope that we can take advantage of it next year!