Some Pictures of Summer

 Kylie's teacher did her hair.  Pretty!

 Playing at the Charlevoix fountain.

Date Night

Saturday Joel and I got a babysitter and went out for dinner.  We went to One Trick Pony and had some excellent food. It was nice to get away, just the two of us.  We had forgotten about Celebration on the Grand, but that's was okay, the restaurant wasn't busy.  After dinner we walked a few blocks and tried to see if some of the bars were too busy. We decided they were so we went home. What an exciting night we had!!  We are officially OLD.  I was more willing to go to the bar than Joel was, but that was because he was feeling run down.  He's got too much to do and not enough time to do it.
Last night when we got home there was a note on our door. The mason that will be redoing the neighbor's chimney has time and wants to start but our truck is in the way of scaffolding and he doesn't want any debris to fall on it either.  Um, the truck's front tires are off because Joel has been fixing the breaks (which has been a pain because of the all wheel drive but on his truck it's rear wheel drive breaks, I don't get it.  It's taken Joel awhile to have the time to investigate all this too.)  So, the mason will have to wait until the weekend when Joel can hopefully put the truck back together.  Joel's also working hard on buffing and staining some concrete counter tops.  Those are his jobs, I get the kids. I think I have the easier job - sometimes. If I were stronger and more knowledgeable, I could help him.  Because sometimes the kids drive me bonkers.

My example is this weekend Chloe was going up the stairs from 1st floor to 2nd and she stops at a step and bites it.  What?  I said "Chloe, don't eat the steps, yucky."  What kind of child does that?  I think she's still getting in some teeth too.  Sometimes for dinner, she is so cranky she won't eat anything.  We gave her two things of yogurt one day because she liked the feeling on her gums.

Speaking of crazy, Kylie did eat raw corn on the cob a couple of years ago.  She loves corn on the cob.

On Track

Chloe had her 18 month appointment on Friday (even though she's really 19 months). She is doing really well. She weighs 25.5 lbs and is 31.75 inches long.  For an 18 month old that puts her in the 60% and 48% percentile, respectively. She hasn't really grown since her 15 month appointment which is fine. I know 24 month pants on her are long.  When she was in the hospital in February, the doctors said she needs to get the RSV vaccine this coming RSV season.  Her doctor looked into how much to give and the cost and she told me Chloe will need 2 doses because of her weight for the whole season which is 5 months.  Each dose cost between $1500 and $2000 (funny there's a $500 swing in there)!!  What! Potentially $20,000 for the season!  She wanted me to call the health insurance to make sure it's covered.  I called today and the deductible has been met this year so it's covered fully this year and then in January we'll have to pay the deductible first which is no where near $20,000.  Thank goodness.

That's all I have time for right now.

What's Happening?

Almost two weeks since the last post! Whoops! And of course now when I find a little time to write, I can't think of much.  I'll start with this past weekend.

Sunday - I took Kylie and Chloe to the zoo.  We had a picnic by the front entrance and then went and strolled around. In the penguin building there was a little girl standing next to us that first coughed into her hand (like whooping cough) and then said "baby!"  and was going to touch Chloe's hand. I pulled Chloe into me and the little girls' mom told her not to touch.  I'm not sure if it was in response to my reaction or not but it made me scared. If that child was truly sick, why would she be at the zoo. But you never know.  We also headed over to Meijer Garden because Kylie wanted to and we have memberships to both places.  She wanted to see the swamp for some reason.  So we saw the swamp. Then it thundered a bit and I said "time to go."  What a busy day.

Saturday - Went to a wedding. Kylie loves weddings and seeing the "married girl" and getting to dance. It was a beautiful wedding, I give lots of credit to the bride and groom and all who pulled it off in a couple of months.  The father daughter song was "My Wish" by Rascal Flatts. That was the song in the e-card I sent myself from Faith.

Friday - I finally finished our story for Ella Bullis Foundation. I did it in pieces, so it wasn't too bad. Although, how can you not cry when you have to tell the part about your baby's death... I'll post here when I can, with a picture as I don't have a current family picture yet.

God Said "No"

We still don't have Internet hooked up, but the room looks great.  Every night I go and pick up the mess that the girls created.  It wasn't too bad last night.  Maybe because Chloe was busy throwing her shoes down the stairs instead of messing up the room : )

I wanted to share something I received in an email years and years ago. I think I got it from my brother-in-law, Paul.  It spoke to me then and it still speaks to me every time I read.

GOD SAID “NO”

            I asked God to take away my habit.

            God said, No.

It is not for me to take away, but for you to give it up.

I asked God to make my handicapped child whole.

God said, No.

His spirit is whole; his body is only temporary.

I asked God to grant me patience.

God Said, No.

Patience is a byproduct of tribulations; it isn’t granted, it is learned.

I asked God to give me happiness.

God said, No.

I give you blessings.  Happiness is up to you.

I asked God to spare me pain.

God said, No.

Suffering draws you apart for worldly cares and brings you closer to me.

I asked God to make my spirit grow.

God said, No.

You must grow on your own!, but I will prune you to make you fruitful.

I asked God for all things that I might enjoy life.

God said, No.

I will give you life, so that you may enjoy all things.

I asked God to help me LOVE others, as much as He loves me.

God said…Ahhhh, finally you have the idea.

Isn't it really good?  I think so.


I've been very bad about keeping up the blog, one main reason is the no Internet thing. But it just seems like I'm go go go now. Someone retired at work so my work load has increased, but so far so good.
I'm suppose to write 'our story' to send to Ella Bullis foundation so they can put it on the website.  I got that email the beginning of July and I said "I'll get it to you in a week." Well 3 weeks have past. Thankfully they are great people so it's okay, but I feel bad, like missing a deadline or bill payment - icky feelings.

Honestly, I don't know if I can write our story down. I know it in my head, but to think back to write something down is terrifying me. It's sad and it will make me cry.  I will do it because I said I would but how to get started.... Since we were featured on their site before there is a little story on us that I can start with.


Joel and I are both tired lately because Chloe seems to have issues during the night lately, where she's up crying. Sometimes it's just a couple of seconds, and I can get her back sleeping.  Other times something is wrong like last night, I think her tummy hurt and she pooped finally at 12:30AM and did settle down after that.  I like to sleep all night long, we need to try to head to bed earlier, that might help. It's funny because she is still a baby, like she was last year, except she doesn't have to eat during the night, so the encounters usually are quicker.  I've got to remind myself to enjoy it now, she won't be this little for long. All I have to do is look at Kylie and what a big girl she is getting to be.  Often now Kylie and I color together - it's the best.  Her favorite color is all the colors : )

Done, Sort Of

Well our upstairs is sort of done.  For the most part we have our living room back, not everything is back in it but we are working on that.  Our Dish doesn't seem to be working, I have no idea why. We have 2 receivers and the one we have in our basement works fine. It's seems because we didn't use the one for almost two months, Dish shut it off or something.  I need to take a look at the bill and give them a call. I hope the floor doesn't drive me nuts. I have the urge to swiffer it every time I go up there because of dust and cat hair and everything else. I'm sure I will get use to it as the time factor (don't have time) is influential. I still have to convince Joel we need to put the computer at an actual desk so if Kylie is using it, she sits properly. Before the remodel, the computer screen was on an arm attached to the wall and we sat on the couch either craning our neck or twisting our bodies to see the screen.

Chloe is so cute, I want to give her kisses all the time.  She is getting so smart too.  She will bring you things or look for something if you ask her to. I don't feel she is delayed in anything.  I think we always have these developmental session two weeks before we should because then they would see her walking and talking.  She doesn't do full sentences of course but it's coming.

I can't leave out Kylie, she is too cute too. Such a girl.  She will only wear leggings (no pants) when it's cold. Right now she mainly wears dresses with an occasional skirt and shirt thrown in.  But the dresses either have to be long or frilly so she can twirl or have sparkles on it. What have we (I) done!!  Just kidding, it's adorable now.  Hopefully she doesn't reach a stage where all she wants to do is wear black : )

Joel and I have had some conversations with Kylie about Faith.  She understands that Faith lives with Jesus now in Heaven with Aunt Jan-Al and Uncle Jason's dog and cat. She told Joel she wanted to go to Heaven to see Faith.  Last night she asked us who else is in Heaven and I said Mommy and Daddy grandparents.  "Only old people go to Heaven."  We told her no, all ages go.  We will have more of these conversations and I pray that we give good answers that she will understand. We did receive a grieving book for kids when Faith passed that was geared toward kids around age 6, looks like it's time to get that out and look at it. 

Astigmatism

Chloe's eye appointment on Friday went well. It was only an 1.5 hours, I thought it would be 2 hours.  The eye doc said she has a slight astigmatism (Astigmatism (uh-STIG-muh-tiz-um) is a common, mild and generally easily treatable imperfection in the curvature of your eye. The condition can cause blurred vision.) She doesn't need glasses yet, and we go back in a year to check it again because it could change. Now if we notice her doing strange things like bumping into walls then we would go before next July.   

That's all I have time to report now.  Our living room should be back to normal by next week (getting area rug and cleaning right now). I'll have to post a picture. Hopefully Internet will work.