I've Been Really Bad About Updating This Thing

For my long overdue update......

This past month has had many ups and downs so to say the least. I'll start with the downers that way my post will seem happier by the time you get to the end.

My mom is still in the rehabilitation center and it has really taken a toll on her. She desperately wants to get stronger so she can return back home, but in all honesty we haven't seen much progress. The physical and occupational therapy has helped to not allow her condition to deteriorate any further, but her strength has not increased enough to allow her to walk around without assistance. Her back is mangled, 9 fractures were shown in her last x-ray. Her heart can not with stand any type of surgery, so the fractures must set on her own. The doctors have her on a new pain management regimen that helps decrease her pain without completely doping up. The last one she was on left her like a vegetable, it was awful.

It's difficult to see my mom is this condition. It has been hard to take Amanda there because all she wants to do is crawl on the floor and I'm not comfortable in allowing her to crawl there. Micah has issues seeing his Grandma this way. There are times he doesn't want to go, but I remind him that by him being there helps Grandma. To make his time there more enjoyable he brings cards for them to play with, and he loves to draw pictures and write little notes to her. In all honesty I think Micah and Amanda's visits is the best medicine she gets, or at least that's what she claims.

Another unexpected event that occurred this month was our power poll outside was struck by lightening. This caused a short in the electrical and we lost power to half of our house. The lightening also shorted our A/C panel (No A/C for 2 days) and the electrical panel for our automatic sprinkler system. So this was an expensive nuisance to have to take care of in the middle of summer.

On a happier note, Amanda is doing wonderful. She is into anything and everything, and seems to want to play with everything but her toys. She is crawling very fast and can now pull herself up and walk along the coffee table and couch. She also has six teeth, with more coming. It seems like a new one pops up every other week. Amanda is still sleeping like a champ (knock on wood), and has not woken up in the middle of the night for over 2 months now! YAY!!! That's pretty good considering she's only been home for 3 months.

Amanda is also starting to talk/babble. She says, "momma", "dadda", "gagga", and "babba". The "momma and dadda" are not directed to Soowan or myself, so I'm not even going try and state that she's calling us that. One thing for sure.... she is starting to realize that when she does say momma/dadda, she's getting our attention. When Micah began to babble/talk we were sure of the fact that he was calling us momma/dadda until he learned his next word, "ball". Soon everything was "ball". He did this for about a month until he began to realize everything was NOT A BALL!!!

Micah is doing really good and is enjoying his summer a lot more now that it has stopped raining everyday/all day. He made his goal to read 50 hours for the summer reading program at the library. By reading 50 hours, Micah has been put into a drawing to win one of eight laptop computers donated by the Dallas Mavericks. He can't wait until August 18th when the city draws the winner's names. He feels confident his name will be drawn, so I guess we'll have to wait and see. We're just proud that he has read so much this summer, and the he set a goal and achieved it.

Next week we'll be going to Branson, MO for a little R&R. This will be the first time vacationing with Amanda. So we hope for the best and prepare for the worse, I guess. Our biggest issue will be having her sleeping in the pack-n-play. We're not sure how much she's going to want to do this. Also the other tricky thing is being in the car for 7+ hours. The longest car ride she's been on so far has been 2 hours and she did great. Praying she'll do just as well on this trip.

On a even happier note, Soowan and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary last week. For our big day Soowan took the day off and made me my favorite breakfast french toast, with strawberries, powder sugar and some bacon! He watched the kids so I could zoom out of the house to get him a card and a gift for our anniversary! This is the first time I've ever waited last minute to buy a gift. He was shocked by my lack of enthusiasm to shop. LOL!

One of our friends watched the kids so we could go to an adult restaurant. When we arrived the hostess took us to our table and there was a beautiful arrangement of flowers on the table FOR ME! Soowan took in a picture of my wedding bouquet to a florist and had them make up a beautiful arrangement with all the flowers that were in my bouquet! He gets major brownie points for that move!

Dinner was great, but the best part was when we were leaving the restaurant we noticed it had been raining while we were inside eating. Then we heard someone say, "Look! There's a rainbow!" It was so beautiful and was the perfect end to our perfect evening together. (Or so I thought!) We left the restaurant, picked up the kids, came home, put them to bed and we exchanged gifts! Soowan blew me away with the gift he got not only for myself, but for all four of us.......

A 9 DAY VACATION TO HAWAII DURING THE HOLIDAY SEASON!!! Soowan has tried to convince me for years to go away on a vacation during Christmas (since he has Christmas thru New Years off), but I would never budge. To me Christmas wouldn't feel like Christmas if we weren't at home. I did tell him a couple of years ago that if he took me to Hawaii for Christmas I would be more than 100% willing to go! I guess he took that to heart because we're going to Hawaii for Christmas!!! We'll be staying on the island of Kauai, right on the water! Another exciting thing is that I have a friend from high school who lives on Kauai and I'm hoping we'll be able to meet up with her and her family while we are there.

So there is my happy ending to this post which started off a bit depressing. I told you my month has been a bit of a roller coaster ride. Now here is a short video I shot of Amanda last week while at the park. OK, I know it's sideways because I keep on forgetting with this digital camera that I can't hold it vertical, but I always seem to do so. This short clip is way too cute to delete just because it's shown sideways. Just turn your head, or your screen so you can get the full effect!!!