I don’t want to go

I’ve been involved in the departure of a close friend. She’s leaving very soon and I’ve been with her during her pack out, shipping her car, mailing things to herself in the States and at the next post, and her final mani/pedi. Soon, we’ll go to her final dinner, and I’ll be going with her to the airport.

Today when I was helping her, I was carrying something to her car, and I almost started crying. Mostly out of sadness that she’s leaving. She’s been a rock in my life the last almost two years (she arrived in Manila a week after us). She’s one of the closest friends I’ve ever had. But also because I just had it hit that we’re going to be going through all of these same things very soon.

The departure date that we’re trying to get is not long from now. It’s with-in sight and it’s scary.

It’s scary because there’s so much to do. It’s scary because I’ll be leaving friends who have become family. It’s scary because I don’t know how the children will handle it. It’s scary because I’m going to be moving to a country that I’ve never visited before, and even though it’s a tropical paradise for many honeymooners from the States, I won’t be living on the beach, now, will I?

The good news (because without the good news, how would we live)?

I will get everything done that I need to do. I will meet amazing people in Kingston. The children will see that we are excited to go to the US and to Kingston and they will be excited because of that. I will learn Kingston and the surrounding areas just like I learned the parts of Manila and San Jose and Falls Church and Dallas when I moved to all of them.

So, even though it’s scary, I know that we’ll be ok. We always are.

There may be some uncertainty, but there always is. It’s always hard, but we get past those times.

We will again this time.

Friends, Public School and Seizure update

My dear friend (yes I feel like I can call her a friend, no I've never met her, that's just how it is in the State Department Blogging Community) at A Daring Adventure is going through an atrocious situation with the Fairfax County Public School system. She closed comments on this entry in her blog and forced me to publicly chide her for being so apologetic to me and the community. http://adaringadventure.typepad.com/blog/2011/02/discrimination-sorrow-anger-tears-pain.html

She apologized profusely to me because she hadn't been on the blog to update the Roundup Calendar or announce my topic. I said in my roundup entry that I knew something was wrong, and I was right. To my sweet friend who is going through something horrible, please know that we in the community love you and would (should) never hold you to standards that we wouldn't hold ourselves.

I commend you for your restraint, knowing that I would have a very, very hard time holding myself to. When someone offends us it's damaging, but we dust ourselves off and move on. When someone offends/hurts/damages our children we become a force to be reckoned with. My own son has been singled out in our gated community as one who shouldn't be befriended. Three times he's asked/attempted to play with the children here and they've ostracized him every time. Every time I see the kids playing around the community, I glare and dream about them getting a little too close to the car as I drive out (honestly...yes, then I realize that's crazy).

All this to say, that I understand your tears, I understand your need for restraint, and I completely understand your absence the last week and a half. When reading your post about what your son is going through and the horrible treatment you have received from the F.C.P.S. system, I cried. I cried for him, and I cried for you, who after fighting as hard as you can, can only hold him, and do no more. I know that exact feeling, and it's one of the worst in the world.

On that note, I want to thank those who've given their support and prayers for Malachi and our family. So far he's still seizure free during the day (that we know of) so we're going ahead today as if it's normal. John and I will take Malachi to the neurologist this week, hopefully we'll be able to get in. Here's what will happen:

We'll tell him it was a minor event, over short, full recovery. He'll order blood work to check the levels of medicine in his blood, he'll probably order another MRI and EEG (for which I'll probably shave his hair off because during the last EEG application through his hair was really difficult (read this to understand, it's the story of the previous seizure, hospitalization, tests, etc.)). He'll increase the amount of medicine Malachi receives, or add a second medicine, and send us home. Malachi may never have another seizure again, he may have another one on Tuesday. That's one of the worst parts of this, the not knowing.

I'll keep y'all updated on how things go. And for goodness sake somebody please sign up for the Roundup!

More Dreams

I had more dreams last night. I can't remember the one I really wanted to blog about, so I'll talk about the one I had after it. It was a continuation of a dream from another night. It involved luggage shopping, then a friend from elementary school was there. I gave her one of my things for her to buy instead and after she opened it I remembered why I wanted it. Then the checkout was this weird process and I had little frozen ice things the size of trading cards. I had written notes on them in a code that I couldn't remember for check out.

During trying to figure that out I was woken up by John who'd let me sleep until 7:20! Woot!

Our friends are coming to visit us tonight. I. can. not. wait. Lots of fun should ensue.

Girls Night Out

I went out with eight other ladies last night. We went to a Wine Bar and Restaurant called Tintos y Blancos. I had my first ever cosmopolitan and really enjoyed it! My friend said it was mild - that's probably why I enjoyed it.

After dinner we went to Sex And The City 2 (hence the drink choice). I know nothing about the series, so I'm sure there was a lot I didn't understand, but I really enjoyed the movie. I laughed A LOT.

I had such a good time with the girls and it was so great to get out with out the kids and the hubby. I hope to enjoy more time with the girls over the next year (they all leave next year).

Simon is having a very hard time falling asleep for his naps today. That's not normal. I won't get worried about anything unless it continues to happen though.

News

John came home on Friday with a few pieces of juicy news for me. The first thing he told me is a secret until after tomorrow morning - but I promise to share when I can. The second thing he told me was that our HHE is coming Monday at 1:30!!!!! I jumped up and down and cheered quite loudly when I heard that.

Apparently there are great benefits to the warehouse that's holding our stuff to keep it longer. That's one of the reasons we don't have our stuff yet. Grr. Sigh. It's still a lot faster than if it had been coming from a country other than the U.S. I've heard stories of HHE taking five or seven months to reach a person. Crazy! I can't imagine living on our welcome kit that long.

So when John's co-worker heard that our HHE was in country on May 3rd he told John to notify their boss. They used their experience and influence to quicken the process of getting us our stuff - thank you guys!! So at first they said Tuesday or Wednesday and then John got them to commit to Monday.

This is my first HHE arrival, and I really don't feel like having all those boxes around, so I think we're going to have them unpack everything. That means we need to have the house prepared for that when they get here. P (the domestica - in case you forgot) and I can do a lot of work for that tomorrow, but John and I are going to start today, we have some furniture to rearrange and we can do that today.

John interviewed a family on Friday and all the members have Maple Syrup Urine Disease it makes me very, very happy that I don't carry this (as far as I know anyway).

Last night we went to a party at the house of one of John's co-workers. We had a pretty good time but I'm still feeling a little weird around these people. There's a huge connection that I don't have with them that John does. It was pretty easy with a couple of mom's though. It's usually pretty easy with mom's though.

At noon I'm going to a house of one of John's other co-workers for a spa day. Apparently every 6-8 weeks someone hosts it at their house or apartment and they have people come in to do massages, facials, manicures, and pedicures. Everybody brings food to share and they just have fun together. I really can't wait! I hope the massage is nice, I've wanted one for a long time.

Well I'm off to go bake brownies for later!

First Outing

Yesterday we had our first outing as a family. We went to Simon's first Dr appointment. Simon checked out great! She was even impressed with him when he lifted his head and moved it from side to side. She didn't have his blood drawn to check his bilirubin number because he's been eating and waking more. She seemed pretty impressed with him.

He continues to eat about every three to four hours. He's pooping a ton! The Dr said if he doesn't start to have fewer poops in a few days we might need to worry about malnutrition. His pee diapers are usually huge! He tends to hold in his pee and let it all out at once. We've had a couple of leaky pee diapers, luckily no poop has escaped yet! He's having more and more time awake. It's unfortunate when it happens at night, but it's so much fun when it happens during the day!

We've had some visitors and some chill time. I love it when they ask me how I'm doing. After a baby comes it's usually all about them. That's fine of course, but it makes me feel important and loved when people ask how I'm doing and really want to know.

We had some friends come over who have a five or six month old. He looked so big to us! The last time we saw him was Christmas and I don't remember him being so big. But now that I have a newborn, he seems humongous!

Right now both boys are napping and there is so much peace in our home. I feel so happy and so blessed by what I've been given. I don't know how I got it all, I certainly don't feel like I deserve it.

I would be napping now too except I was showering and now I'm waiting to wake up the boy for a feeding. I have a Dr appointment this afternoon (having a bit of trouble with recovery), so John is coming home early to take me (still not driving). I'll make sure to nap after the Dr appointment.

I'm hungry...I think I'll eat.

The cold that won't go away...and other stuff

Remember the cold that I had a couple of weeks ago? Well it seems that Malachi did catch it and it was dormant until a few days ago. This cold never seemed to bring his spirits down, and on the first day that he was pretty sick, I had to work at keeping him laying down and watching t.v. He never seemed to get much of a fever if any at all, and he's barely coughing now. He is still suffering from nasal congestion and is still blowing some pretty colors (she says sarcastically). We skipped church today to keep his cold with in the family (hopefully). Malachi was supposed to graduate to the next class up today with his friend Kimberly, who I'm sure is very sad he's gone from church, again.

Yesterday morning we went to Costco with a couple who is moving to Ecuador in May and wanted to start stocking up with things that they need to bring down with them. We spent quite a while walking through the warehouse, but fortunately for me it was at such a slow pace that I didn't have too much of a hard time. I did take a break in the furniture section at one point, but so did the rest of the group. I found a leather chair and ottoman that I really like and would be good for nursing, and would serve to be just an awesome chair for our furniture collection (and would really be the first thing we bought for our furniture collection since we gave away our old living room furniture). I didn't get the chair and ottoman, but I did get a pack of socks! I've needed new socks for a while. I probably should've just gotten two new packs of socks and thrown away the old socks that are now hole-y. We went to a restaurant for dinner with them called City Diner. None of us had been there, and only two of us liked their food. I don't think Malachi liked his food either. But we were all really hungry and ate the food, even if we didn't like it. I'm happy for the two that did like it though, at least we all weren't eating food we didn't like.

After a short nap for Malachi and I we went to a couple's house (with their knowledge of Malachi's cold, and permission to bring him over) to have dinner and games with them while the kids played and watched movies. We've known this wonderful couple for over seven years now and have enjoyed living near them again, if even for a short time. We don't get to see them often enough and we really enjoyed our time last night. The adults sat in the living room for dinner and the kids sat in the dining room. After John and I had both finished our dinner and were enjoying the fellowship with our friends, we heard one of their kids yelling out to us that Malachi did something, to which he yelled out to us that he puked.

I took him to the bathroom to clean up, and asked him what happened. He replied that he took too big of a bite and choked on his food. He's done this once before...when he was two. I know that he didn't learn from this lesson because this morning he ate half of his clementine in one bite. /sigh

I'm really loving that John has tomorrow off. I wonder what we'll do...probably hang out and rest, my favorite thing to do right now.

My due date is in less than a month, weird, and cool. I love that he's chillaxing and growing and waiting until he's ready to come out. I'm still looking forward to a normal labor and delivery.

Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!! I love you!!

Christmas Day 2009

Oh what a day! The day we celebrate the birth of Jesus, our Lord and Saviour. Our first Foreign Service Christmas, and certainly a white Christmas.

The boys let me sleep until 8 o'clock, yay! After being up for 2 1/2 hours in the middle of the night the sleep felt really good.

We made ourselves presentable and prepared for our friend to come over (the same friend who was over on Christmas Eve, she's a very good friend) and she got here at 8:30. John and I were in the middle of preparing for breakfast and then Malachi and I started the arduous task of passing out the presents.



Us with our huge pile of presents, almost all presents sent to us in the mail made it on time. Plus John and I might have gone a little overboard this year.



Opening presents took a long time. We let Malachi go first (Lesson #1. I don't think we'll do that again because he then wanted to play with all of his stuff and needed us to assist in opening and putting batteries in and what not, and we just wanted to open our own presents) and that was not quick. I finally had to "police" how much time he took with each gift, plus he had a ton. During the gift opening John was making his monkey bread (so tasty!) and he had to get up shortly after we started opening our gifts to check it - and then had to keep on getting up. After his monkey bread came out, I had to assemble and put in my quiches. So unfortunately the time for John and I to open our gifts was rushed, and a little more stressful than it should've been (Lesson #2. Leave time enough for gift opening to be free of stress and not rushed).

Our friend got her ketchup as well as a scarf from Guatemala. She was nice enough to keep Malachi occupied with his new Animal Encyclopedia while John cooked.



After a delicious breakfast of quiche, monkey bread, and fresh fruit, we played with our gifts. At the same time that our friend had to leave, John, Malachi and I needed to get ready for Puerto Rican Christmas. We drove over to the Maryland side of the city and spent the rest of the day with some good friends (who grew up in Puerto Rico). They had a boy about five months ago (I think, I'm horrible at remembering when he was born), and Malachi loves going to their house to watch their big TV and see their baby. I also learned that he also really loves our friends, especially the husband, who got a running start to a hug around the leg. We enjoyed a really delicious dinner that they prepared for us, and we played a gift exchange game with their neighbor. I got a frame for three pictures, Malachi got his very own playing card set that's just like Mommy and Daddy's but all his own, and John got a pair of earings. That's right...earings. He was gracious enough to give them to me.

We drove home that night during a rain storm. Earlier in the week I had heard that it was going to be a wintry mix, and I was really afraid we were going to hit some icy patches, but it was warmer than I thought it would be and it was just wet. Not a hard ride home (except for the difficutly of seeing because of the shiny-ness of the road). Malachi went to bed almost on time, and John and I made it to bed early. We were all pretty exhausted. I'm very sad that I didn't take pictures at our friend's house. I had the camera - I was just lazy.

Over all, we had a great couple of days. My fears that it wouldn't feel like Christmas were proved wrong. We spent the days with some great friends, ate some good food, and really enjoyed our first Foreign Service Christmas.

Whew! Part 2

Saturday morning John went to the store to pick some things up and I cooked and cleaned. We were preparing for a visit from our friends from TX. The Salerno Family moved on the same weekend we did to a town two hours south of us. They got here around 12:30 and we went outside. The men grilled the hot dogs while the moms watched the kids play on the playgroung. Since hot dogs don't take too long to grill, the kids didn't get to play very long, but I honestly don't think they cared.

After lunch with them we hung out for a bit and then went back outside where everyone but the moms played tennis for a bit. My child and the youngest Salerno felt like coming in before everyone else, so I brought them in. The Roys and Salernos hung out for a few more hours and then they made the long treck home.

Saturday night it was John's turn to go to a movie with friends. I stayed home with the boy. The weekend had been so exhausting so I enjoyed just chilling the rest of the night. Malachi and I watched part of a move before he went to bed. John came home and we vegged the rest of the night 'til I fell asleep (around 10:30 - early, but so needed).

Sunday was normal I guess. Church, Chipotle, nap, Volleyball, and dinner. We had a lot of fun at dinner though because a bunch of us hung out at the grill. It was dark and a bit chilly, so I don't know how many more dinners will be out there. It's a nice area though, so it'll be nice to do it again in the spring.

Today was my first Life Group meeting for our church. I might have singed up for a few (Moms, Womens, Meals, Explore DC, and 2:42 (just eating and fellowshipping)). It sounds like a lot, but all of those are maybe once a month, except Moms which is every other week, and Meals is just on a need basis no meetings as far as I know.

So anyway, today I started the Mom's Group. There were a lot more people there than I expected. We had nine moms including me and the two leaders. Malachi was the second to oldest and there were a ton of babies and toddlers. We had a day mostly of just chatting, getting to know each other and then introductions. We're going to read The Power of the Praying Parent by Stormie O'Martian. I look forward to much insight into the power I have as a parent, and how to use it.

On tonights docket: shopping and dinner.

Whew! Part 1

What a weekend!

Malachi and I headed out to the car of Friday morning to go get his hair cut. After getting Malachi all strapped into the car and getting myself strapped into the car I tried starting the car - to no avail. The few days prior to that it would have a hard time starting and we thought it was due to the cold, even though it would get at least that cold (and colder) in TX.

I texted John and told him the problem, and he diagnosed it as a dead battery. I asked my wonderful neighbor Nicole if she could jump my car. Thankfully she had jumper cables and the time to jump our car.

Malachi and I made our way to the nearest National Tire & Battery. After checking us in the guy said that it would be about a 30-45 minute wait for our car. I asked if there was anything within walking distance of interest to a four year old (it's simpler to say that instead of three and four quarters year old). Another employee responded saying there was a Starbucks down the road and around the corner. Perfect! Malachi loves going to Starbucks and getting chocolate milk.

Either I didn't understand the directions or he miss-spoke. Either way, the way I went didn't work. I could see a major road from where I ended up, so I just headed that way. I ended up finding a Starbucks in a strip mall and I was so happy because I had dissapointed said three and four quarters year old with the news that I couldn't find the Starbucks. We got a very healthy lunch there consisting of fruit, salad, chocolate milk (for the boy) and fruit juice (for the mommy and baby). By the time we got there and sat down we had been walking for over half an hour, and had gone about a mile. It was quite exhausting for both of us.

After we ate Malachi said he wanted to go to a store. So we stopped in TJ Maxx and got him three outfits for winter and Malachi picked out a onsie for baby brother. I really love the idea of him buying clothes for his brother (he's done it twice now). I think it'll help him to grow love for him (hmm this could get confusing). After that we walked all the way back to the car shop. Did I mention that half the way is uphill and half the way is down? No?! Well it is...and it's very tiring for both of us. I guess I got good exercise.

After getting back to the store and waiting 10 minutes for anyone to come to the front room to help me, we hopped into the car and finally headed out to get his hair cut. It was WAAAAAAY past nap time by this point and I was starting to see signs of Malachi being tired, so I tried (successfully) to keep him awake on the way to the kids salon. After getting his hair cut, no wait - thank you God, we finally headed home. By this point we had been out for over three and a half hours. Everyone was very tired from the days events.

We got home and Malachi went down for a nap. It was so late into the afternoon that I knew John would be calling after work and I didn't want to go to sleep to be woken up. I also didn't want to put the phone on silent and miss a call in case he got news of where we were being posted. He called promptly at 4:30 and informed me of our next posting. Saddly we're sworn to secrecy (which we've mostly been keeping) because we "stole" the post from the new class. Things like that happen all the time, and they've surely been notified of the change already, but apparently our CDO doesn't want the class to find out who stole it until after Flag Day. What ever. We can share our posting with the cyber world Friday evening (their Flag Day is Friday).

That night I went out to a movie with some girlfriends. We went and saw Whip It. We had a really good time and we all enjoyed the movie. After that I was so wipped out from the day that I watched two Grey's Anatomy episodes and then went to bed.

I have to get ready for my first Mom's Group for church. I'm excited for Malachi and I to meet some new friends. In fact I have to leave in half an hour so I really need to get moving. I'll try my best to do the rest of the weekend later today.

VA Beach

I figured it was about time to blog about VA Beach. We had a really great time, thank you Matt and Julie for letting us stay with y'all.

We left the North VA area around 4 o'clock on Friday. Matt told us to take the "back way" because the highway would be really bad that day. We did so and saw some really beautiful stuff. It still took us about five hours to get there though. Aryn (their daughter) was in bed so we quickly put Malachi down and talked to Matt and Julie for about an hour before we all went to bed.

After a relaxed morning getting ready and letting the kids play we decided to go to Mt. Trashmore so the kids could ride bikes and play.




The Gills

Despite the name of the park (and yes it used to be a landfill) it was a very nice park. We had a great time walking to the big playground. We passed the skate park on the way there and stopped to watch a bit. Some of them were really talented. After letting the kids play for a bit at the playground we decided to start the walk back to the car so we could go home, have lunch and put the kids down for a nap. The parents enjoyed this kid free time to chill and talk. Shortly after the kids woke up it was time for the Gills to go to a birthday party and the Roys to meet a friend.

We hadn't seen our friend Curtis in years. I didn't think he'd even met Malachi but apparently he saw him when he was itty bitty. It was so nice to sit and talk and catch up. We sat at Starbucks where I didn't get a drink I enjoyed. After that we went to the boardwalk to see the beach and the touristy area because we didn't plan on beaching there. We went to a tourist store to buy a couple of souvenirs and then headed to the beach.


The Roys with Neptune at VA Beach


Curtis and me on VA Beach


Malachi on VA Beach

We then went to sushi with Curtis for dinner...mmm...shushi. It was very delicious. By the time we got home it was bed time for Malachi. The adults stayed up talking again and then headed to bed.

The next morning we went to church with the Gills, afterward we went to Ruby Tuesdays for brunch. After which we went home and all the girls and Malachi napped. After naps we beached it up! We went to the military beach thanks to Matt being in the Navy. There was body surfing done by Matt and John, sand playing by the kids, and I did get into the water but not for long. We had a really good time at the beach. There was also body burrying. Who can go to the beach and not be burried?


M is for Malachi


Malachi and Aryn

We had a delicious dinner at Texas Roadhouse (haven't been to one since we left Dallas...so tasty! We put the kids to bed after getting home. Then the adults enjoyed a game of Settlers of Cataan and a couple of rounds of Scattegories. The next morning we put our things together and after a group picture headed off. We decided that since we were leaving in the morning we could take the highway. There was a tropical storm off the coast so we got quite a rain storm in the beginning of the trip. It made for some really stressful driving. After about three and a half hours on the road we stopped at Chick-fil-A (another first in VA) for the free sandwich deal. As it turns out, I was the only one who had a team shirt (John's didn't make it to VA). After eating delicious CFA we drove the last hour home. Ahhh...home sweet home. Thank you so much Gills for letting us stay! We had a wonderful time with y'all.


Group picture take 3 - yay it worked!

Congrats Sarah!!

Congratulations to Sarah Roy who did her first sprint Triathalon today. I don't know her time yet because I haven't talked to her yet. I'm so proud of her though! This is a HUGE accomplishment, and it's awesome!

2 1/2 Hours...

...until our flight to MN. We're very excited to see home. John hasn't been home since our trip in March last year. I had the short trip in April, but it was just that - short.

John and Malachi are transfering tools from our old tool box to our new one. Apparently the old one was a gift to my father-in-law from my hubby and brother-in-law when they were kids. It's definitely time for a new one. Since the tool box needs to be moved by the moving company in a week, we figured it would be nice to have one that closed. :)

Tomorrow and Tuesday morning we're going through all of the things that we left in MN (in the in-laws attic) when we moved to Dallas. When moving down here we planned to come down for two years to do Christ For The Nations and then move back to MN. We thought we'd be getting our stuff from them after school ended.God had a different plan though. We've been down here for almost six years. We've enjoyed Texas so much, call Texas home, and call ourselves Texans. There's really nothing like the great State of Texas. TEXAS!

We hope to see some of our dear friends in MN that we miss, hopefully they'll be around and available to hang out with. I get to see my family and some family friends on Friday night. Saturday morning we come back home!

Whew! Seems like I've experienced my trip before I experienced it.

Normal

Things are getting back to normal I think. That is to say that our best friends are on their way back into town. Brandon and Cassi went to Austin for the school year (Brandon's in Law at UT Austin). Brandon's actually in town now. Cassi's a nanny and has to work another couple of weeks. But yesterday Brandon was at church, afterwards a few of us went to Simply Asia our favorite after church lunch spot (and where Ival proposed to Sarah just 16 months ago). The rest of the day was filled with Settlers, knitting, cleaning :(, burger making, and Arrested Development. It was such a great, great day. I hate to think what we would have missed out on if we didn't go to church which was our original plan.

I'm considering joining 24 Hour Fitness this summer to go to the gym with Cassi. I really enjoyed going with her when we were in Austin in February, and I think I'd really be able to get in shape over the summer if we went. Also, hopefully it would build a habit that I could keep up when we moved. I really do like exercising. I especially like running. So I don't know why I don't do it more often.

I'm in an Esther Bible Study. I really like the book of Esther, I'm learning so much from it. Unfortunately I'm not caught up. This is the first week where I've been so far behind (I only did one day of the five that I should've). So today I'm going but I'm going to be at such a disadvantage because of my lack of discipline to do my studies over the week. I hope it's taught me a lesson.

I hear John waking up so I'm off to get ready for work/Esther.

Love to all!!