MAYLIN2007

We had such a great time with our guide Judy last week, but I didn't get to put the photos up on the blog. We took her to Color Me Mine and painted pottery. She thought it really was kinda of a funny activity and store. Guess she would. Don't think I saw one in China. She couldn't believe people paid to paint and make a dish. I told her it was a form of relaxation. I don't think that helped much. The pictures of us painting are below. We also went to an ice skating event with our agency. It was so great to see our friends. Maylin loved the little girls and loved Judy's son Mike. She was constantly kissing him. For me, the highlight was all the little adopted girls running around the room we were eating in. They all were squealing. It was darling. Also, I loved watching my family ice skate. Jay had the guts to take Maylin out. This was gutsy because "Jay don't skate." Good thing my big kids can skate. They saved the day. Maylin was so cute in her skate...

Austin came home today! He is on a new medication and on a heart monitor. The heart monitor will come off soon tho'. He has a check up in 3 weeks. Thanks for everyone's thoughts and prayers. Austin was on TV and the radio for the Children's Hospital Telethon. They chose him since he is a regular. We are going to sleep in tomorrow...no school and just catch up. I even have a couple neighbor girls coming in to help clean the house. Its a disaster. Also, on Saturday Jay and I are going out!!!! Yep. Cool. We are going out with some very, very dear friends. It is a much needed date.

It is day 3 and Austin is still in the hospital. They have found he is having two kinds of irregular beats. He is having blocked beats and PVCs. In a small amount PVCs are normal, but he is having runs of them and frequently, plus with the blocked beats, it can be an issue. They are trying some new meds tonight hoping that will help. Maybe if things go well in the night we will get to bring him home tomorrow. He is in good spirits and feels well. He was on the radio and TV yesterday as they interviewed him for the telethon. It was great as it gave him a much needed change of pace. We are tired. Very tired. Jay is at the hospital by 8 p.m. and sleeps there all night. He leaves when I get there in the morning and I stay until he gets there at 8. Maylin hangs out with me at the hospital and my other two go to friends after school. My parents came and watched them Tuesday so that was great. We appreciate all the thoughts and prayers. Below is a picture of Austin being interview for the new...

These pictures are of our state's "recognition of our Chinese adoption." We appeared in court on the 22nd of Feb. The Judge swore me in, since I was the one who did the paperwork and he asked me just a few questions. After he talked to the whole family about our homestudy and how he was so happy to see a happy family that loved each other and was willing to open their arms to a once unfortunate child. He said he was so glad to see a happy family among the sea of unhappy families he sees every day. He was very kind and made the children feel great. He signed our papers and we took a few photos. We were so lucky to have Judy with us for our state's adoption too. What luck to have her for both. On the home front, Austin is in the hospital. Yesterday at school the office called me to his classroom. I was working, luckily in Alex's. He was having irregular beats again, but this time he had amost passed out. He was shaking, cold yet in a sweat, and his color was bad. Ba...

This week has been a whirlwind. SO much wonderful has gone on, and a couple not so good things too...guess it helps remind me, life isn't perfect. Our wonderful guide in Wuhan and Guangzhou came to our state for a visit. We had to share her with her other families, but I got her for 1 1/2 days and 1 night. It was so wonderful. We will always love her and be grateful for all she has done for us. We met the Passey and Cummings families for dinner one night. It was so great! Nate, being her ever wonderful self, brought b-day gifts for Maylin and Kenzie. The company was great and the 3 little Chinese girls were so cute together. Maylin loved Emily's coat and had to wear it, much to the dismay of Emily. You'd think Maylin would have understood. She didn't like it when Emily sat in her chair. It was too funny. They also got their own table and played with toys. They all got along well.All the girls were darling!Maylin is the one wearing the ear warmer on her head. That was pa...

We celebrated Chinese New Year last week, but due to our "gas station campout" we are getting the pictures up late. For our celebration, we had PF Chang's take out and these rat cupcakes. Thanks Tiffany for the idea! After dinner we made lanterns and Chinese wishes to hang on our door. We had a fun evening together.

Yesterday the news forcast snow. Two to five inches. That was it. No big deal. We have had that before, if not more. The news said it would hit between 1 and 3 p.m. I was on carpool. It was a beautiful day, that is until 2:55. Man, did the wind start to blow! I got all the kids and we were heading down the Alpine Hwy when I am not kidding you, this wall of storm just slammed into us. Okay, I don't mean a little snow storm, I mean an actual blizzard. You know those things with 60 mile an hour winds, snow, drifting, visability to the middle of your own carhood storm. Within seconds I couldn't see. It was a white out. I got to a light. I could tell it was red. I couldn't see anyone ahead of me, until the wind shifted and there in the middle of the intersection was a cement truck. Ok, so you know it has to be bad when you can't see a two ton truck. We sat there for 20 minutes and no one moved. No one could see to move. Having 7 kids in my car, I turned off and went into a g...

A couple of weeks ago I took Kenzie shopping for her birthday. Her b-day is March 6 and Maylin's is March 5. Maylin is easy to buy for, but Kenzie...not so much. She needs and wants some new clothes so we went to her favorite store, Justice. Its a tween store. Anyhow, we picked out some items and went into the dressing room. They have these funky curtains that have a latch as a lock. We went in and Maylin was taken in by the mirror, but as soon as Kenzie started to undress....you know where I am going with this don't you? Maylin started to undress. She got her pants off and then saw that she could go under the little bench that Kenzie was sitting on. She slid right under there lickety split. I didn't notice that the wall of the dressing room didn't go down to the floor. My mistake. So after a few seconds, I leaned over to see how she was doing and she was gone. I turned to the curtain and couldn't get the stupid latch undone. Finally I got out and went to the side o...

RSV stands for some fancy-shmancy medical term, but to me it is means "Really Sucky Virus". Yep and McKenzie, Alex, Maylin and I have it. We feel rotten. They said the cough will last up to 5 weeks! NO!!!!!!! Of course, due to age, they were mainly worried about Maylin. She is a little dehydrated, but her chest is not bad enough to do breathing treatments. The doctors said the worse will hit at days 5-7 and we are at day 4. They said to really watch her breathing then because things could change. She has had a fever of 103 the past 3 days. Kenzie and Alex had low grade fevers. I haven't, but still feel like I've been hit by a truck. After day 7 we should be feeling better, just with a month long lingering cough. Thought I would post this picture of Maylin before she was sick. The ones I have taken since, we all look terrible. Here she is trying to carry our cat. It is an outdoor cat, so when it does come in, she is tickled pink.

Today, Maylin was on one. I mean it. She was an absolute crack up. She told me "Nini dance?" And I said "You want to take dance?" And she said, "Yep. Nini Dance." I guess she got the bee in her bonnet because we take Kenzie to dance 3 times a week. She just kept talking like that today. Everything I asked her, she would answer. Usually with the word no. It was so funny. We went to court today to re-adopt. She wore clothes there. Woot! Woot! But as soon as we got home, off they came. But then she put on her coat and a pair of leggings. She put both legs down one pant leg. Because they were leggings, she could hardly walk and looked like Charlie Chaplin or a Mermaid trying to get around on land. She dragged the other leg around behind her. It seemed so difficult to walk that way, but she absolutely refused to take them off. So, she spent about 3 hours like that. She even ate dinner that way. Coat and all. She fell alot which I thought would discourage her, b...

UDATE: From noon to 4 the sun came out! At 4:08, the sky went dark and I am not kidding at 4:09 the snow hit like a blizzard. I can't see farther than my next door neighbors. They say we are in for 5 to 7 more inches of snow. That stupid groundhog. Last night we met Tiffany and Eliza, Lisa and the Passey's (except the crowd was so big and I forgot my cellphone so we never found the Passeys:(!)at a Chinese New Year celebration. Lots of great Chinese talent performed. There were singers, choirs, dancers, magicians and acrobats. We didn't stay the whole time because Maylin kept screaming, running away, etc because she wanted on the stage to perform too. It started out cute, but then got really hard when whe was pushing her way to the stairs of the stage. Eliza was well behaved and helped control Maylin for a bit with the wonderful snacks her mother brought. Way to go Tiff! Here are some cute pics of the girls in their celebration outfits. There were probably over 1,000 people....