Meg's retina is still good!!!

It's been about 6 months is since Meg's detached retina was repaired. Before surgery, it had been partially detached for a while so there was a risk that the retina wouldn't stay reattached or that the blood supply wouldn't totally reestablish and there'd be spots that wouldn't work.

But, at her 6 month check up it was completely attached with a good blood supply! YAY!!!!! We were so excited! Her Dr seemed to be very pleased, too.

Her vision in that eye is almost back to where it was before the detachment! We need to start having her wear her patch again to continue to strengthen that eye. That's gonna be a challenge as she hates it and hasn't had to do it much over the last 6 months.

We are so thankful for God's healing power and to Dr Elman, the folks at the surgery center and Dr Elman's office staff. We don't go back to see the Dr for another 6 months. We've been there a lot over the last 6 months and I'm gonna miss them a bit. They are the nicest people.

Preschool Picking

In the fall Kellie will be old enough to start preschool. I can't believe it and apparently I was in a bit of denial as I didn't start thinking about preschools until almost too late! Registration is in January for most of the schools around here and I didn't start really looking until late December!

Mt Zion, where Megan went won't work schedule wise for us. I loved that school and the people there and was sad about that!

So, I decided to start my search close to home. There are 2 preschools less than 10 minutes from our house. so I started there.

I was seriously considering not sending Kellie to preschool at all and just committing to taking her to activities at the library and such. But when we went to visit the schools Kellie went right in, sat in circle time and then went and played. At both schools I had to work hard to get her to leave! So, it seems she is ready and it's me that's not!

One school was my favorite on paper, but I decided to check out the other school anyway. It ended up being that my favorite on paper was not my favorite in person!And that the one whose pro list wasn't quite as long ended up being the one that my "mommy gut" told me was the one for Kellie. Funny how that happens! I like lists and rational reasons, but this time I had to follow my intuition and my heart.

So, Kellie is now enrolled in preschool. She will go 2 days a week in the mornings. Her class starts 10 minutes after Meg's, but it's only 7 minutes away. And the little sister of one of Megan's classmates is in Kellie's class (we see them on our walk to school every day), so Kellie will at least have a familiar face there!

Now onto potty training and getting her to talk more by September!!!!

New Years Eve and Day

New Years was my holiday to work, so we didn't have much planned. I got home at about 12;15 am on New Years Morning, Megan and Kevin were watching the fireworks from Baltimore. I joined them to watch the rest and then we headed to bed.
Kevin and the girls headed to Granny's for New Years Day lunch and I headed to work. I hear the kids had a great time, with lots of laughter and chatter coming from the kids table!
When I got to work I heard our hospital had the 1st baby of the New Year in the state and possibly the country! That brings good free publicity to the hospital! And it was a "normal" delivery- she came in in labor and wasn't a c-section- that's the real 1st baby way to do it.

2009 was a year full of difficult changes for my family. With the relationships between us girls and dad being strained and then Mom and Dad deciding to separate- our family looks nothing like we expected it to. The end of 2008 was the start of our attempts to heal our family and make it better. I pray that by the end of 2010 that we will be on our way to realizing that dream, to having a new/ better normal/

Happy 2010 to all of you. May it hold great things and may God hold you through it all.

Port Discovery fun

On the Wednesday after Christmas, we took Megan and Kellie and Cassie to Port Discovery Children's Museum in Baltimore. They can explore and role play and create.

Cassie and Megan both said their favorite area was Adventure Expeditions where you venture back into 1920s Egypt. (sadly we didn't get any pictures of that area- so much to do there that we forgot!)

Kellie really enjoyed the 50s Diner play area.

After Christmas

Grandma and Grandpa stayed with us from Saturday until Monday after Christmas. The girls always enjoy the time and attention. We went to church on Sunday, we'd missed the week before b/c of the blizzard and it was good to be back.


Pop Pop came for a visit on Sunday. The girls were excited to see him. Kellie didn't sit still long enough for a picture, but Meg did. They enjoyed showing him their new toys and he seemed to enjoy playing with the girls with their toys.



We spent some time recovering from all the festivities and trying out our new stuff!
I got a Shark steam floor cleaner, which I'd been wanting, but wouldn't spent the $ for. That came in handy as I could clean the floor quickly and it would be dry pretty much right away! I needed it with the muddiness that the melting snow and Christmas day rain brought with it!

Christmas with Kev's family

The blizzard the weekend before Christmas had cancelled our Christmas get together with Kev's family. Fortunately everyone was able to juggle schedules and we got to together the day after Christmas. It was good to see Grandma, Grandpa, Helen, Jennifer, Bianca and Sophia.

We enjoyed eating and catching up with each other. We are blessed that Megan and Kellie have cousins close to their age on both sides of the family. They really enjoyed playing with Bianca and Sophia. Megan and Kellie enjoyed opening more gifts and sharing the ones they had gotten the day before.

Each family got a "paper doll" quilt from Grandma and Grandpa- the dolls are on the quilt and the clothes sorta stick on- very cute! They enjoyed playing with that and I'm sure it will be enjoyed for years to come. Jane certainly put her quilting skills to use this year- she made Kevin and I a beautiful purple and cream quilt for our bed. Many other wonderful gifts were given and received, as well. But the best gift was time spent together.

Christmas Day

At 6:30 am the alarm sounded, we made coffee and woke the kids. Notice what came first- coffee!

The sleepy stumble of children to the Christmas tree is always so cute! Apparently the shimmer of the glitter and smell of the oats in the reindeer food the girls had spread on the lawn helped guide Rudolph and the rest to our house. Santa had left many gifts and had eaten his cookies and drank his milk. (well, his helper needed them after a bit too much Sangria at the Open House!)

We all loved the gifts from Santa and from each other (see shutterfly for more pictures of Christmas morning, I plan to update it later today!)

We got ourselves presentable and headed to Granny's! We ate a yummy breakfast and opened more gifts. The kids had a ball together, as always. It is such a blessing to have my sisters and their children around! And my mom, Granny, and brother in laws too! We are blessed!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve we went to Angie & Michael's for an Open House. I finally got to meet Lisa, my cousin Scott's fiance. She's a sweet and pretty in person as she is on Facebook! It's always good to get together with family and friends.

We stayed later than we had planned (that always happens!).


We had our camera, but never took any pictures! Sorry!


After getting the kids in bed, Kevin and I did some last minute wrapping and constructing. At 3am we fell into bed, the alarm set for 6:30 am so we'd be on time for breakfast at Granny's at 8:30.

December snows

We had 2 measureable snows in December. One was in early December (5th I think!) it was a nice pretty snow that came on a Saturday afternoon and didn't really create any issues.

The second came on a Friday night into Sunday morning Dec 18-20. It was a blizzard with about 16-18 inches of snow. When it started Friday night it took me over 2 hrs to drive 35 minutes home from work at midnight- so much traffic and bad roads. I've never seen so many cars on the beltway at midnight!

Because of this snow we missed seeing the Radio City Music Spectacular in DC and had to reschedule our Christmas get together with Kevin's family. But it was nice to suddenly have a "nothing to do and no where to go" weekend.

Megan and Kellie enjoy the snow very much. They like to make snowmen and sled and run around. I am not a fan of snow, but had to admit it was pretty.
Here are some pictures-

Christmas preparations

Over the last few years we've made Gingerbread houses at Granny's. We had a great time decorating and eating and laughing. The kids really are creative (and we adults try very hard to not help too much!).

With the rising cost of real Christmas trees and the infestations of critters that has occurred from real trees (one year mom and dad had baby praying mantis all over their house, we've had spiders a few years in a row) and the needles and watering, we decided to purchase an artificial tree. Those of you who know Kevin and his tree perfectionist, I was surprised at how quickly he chose one (and it was on clearance the day after Thanksgiving!). I miss the fresh evergreen scent, but LOVE having the tree up so early and not sweeping up needles 5 times a day!

Thanksgiving- Blog catch up

WOW! I haven't updated in a long time! Sorry, I know you've all been anxiously awaiting my next post! HaHa, So I am going to try to update you on the happenings over the last 6 weeks or so!

Ok, let's start with Thanksgiving.

We had a nice dinner with my family at Angie & Michael's house. I had to work from 3-11pm so they kindly had dinner at lunchtime!
It was quiet at work so they let me stay home until 7 pm, so I got some bonus time with my family.

When I got off work at 11:30pm, I picked Mom up and we went Midnight Madness shopping at Arundel Mills Mall. I almost gave up when we pulled into the parking lot, but little drive around to the other side of the lot and away from Best Buy and there was plenty of parking!

The Gymboree outlet was having a great sale and I got some amazing bargains on clothes for Meg and Kel (although I stood in line for about an hour- I didn't check the time on purpose, so I don't know exactly- it was worth it and I got to talk to some nice people and spend time with my mom.). Mom and I bought some Christmas gifts, too (Webkins at buy one get one free- that's a deal!). I think it was around 3am when we headed home. It was fun!

The rest of the mall wasn't very crowded, not much worse than on a rainy weekend, probably because everyone was in Gymboree and Old Navy and Starbucks!

As many of you know my parents decided to separate, and they went to settlement the Monday after Thanksgiving. It was a hard day all around. It is my hope that this will allow each of us to develop healthier relationships.

Megan said "Mommy, we usually make brownies for people who move in to our neighborhood, are we gonna make brownies for the lady who bought Nana and PopPop's house?" She makes me smile!

I am thankful to Aunt Sara, Uncle Fred, and their family for welcoming Dad to their Thanksgiving celebration.

So, that's our Thanksgiving! Hang on for a few more posts to bring us up to date!

Christmas Shoes by Newsong [HQ]

Christmas Shoes by Newsong [HQ]
This is a video of my nephew singing with NewSong at the Chick-Fil-A Christmas Concert. Samuel is the boy at the end, about 5 mintues in.
I think he did a great job!

Birthdays and Sunny Sunday

This weekend we celebrated my birthday and Michael's birthday. In our family if someone has a birthday near you and you are an adult, you have to share! We had a great time together, the kids played and played and played. And we ate and ate and ate (Ledo's pizza and cake and pie).

Sunday, the weather was beautiful, so we spent more time outside. Kellie learned to drive Meg's battery powered ATV and loved it. It is so cool to watch them play together and Megan is a pretty good big sister!

October in review

I can't believe October 2009 is history already! The girls have enjoyed playing in the leaves. It is so cool to see them have fun with such simple things!

Most of October was spent with at least one of us being sick! Both girls had fevers that went away and then they had ear infections a week later. Kevin and I both had sinus junk. The pharmacy tech at Target now recognizes me and welcomes me back!

Meg's every 3 month check with the retina specialist went well. Her retina is still attached and working and her vision is almost back to pre-surgery. So now she's finished with drops in that eye. She is doing much better in school. They've had a long term substitute teacher lately, so I'm anxious to see if things continue to go well once her regular teacher returns.

Kellie finally had her 2 yr check up, she's a tall kid- in the 50-75th percentile for height! She's still on the bottom of the weight chart, but that's to be expected. She has picked up a few new words.

Halloween was fun. Meg's school had a parade and party on Friday. Kevin went to help at the party, which thrilled Megan.

We went to visit Granny and Granddaddy Hurst on Saturday afternoon. The kids had fun running around like crazy folks!

For more pictures of the fun go to- http://kevginmegkel.shutterfly.com/1476

On Saturday Megan and Kellie went trick or treating with Meg's friend Amy and her brother Brandon (who is close to Kellie's age).

Well, that's the high and low lights of the month at our house.

Please continue to be in prayer for my family, as my parents house sold, the separation papers are in process, Dad will be moving away, and Mom will be moving too.

Please also pray for Grandaddy and Granny. Granddaddy had a heart attack and yesterday they put in a pacemaker and he is in the ICU. Don't know much else at this point.

Thanks!

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree

Megan has been struggling a bit in school. With her handwriting, getting her work done, staying focused, being motivated, and she's talking too much.

My mom gave me some of my report cards from elementary school.
Here's what they said
"When Virginia settles down, she does better work. She is a lovely child, but often seeks the attention of others through some form of noise
"There are times I have to push her a little"
"Is making satisfactory progress in most areas with the exception of self control"
I got some 3s in "writes legibly" (with 1 being the best).

Poor Megan, she got it honestly!

Hershey Park

On Saturday we went to Hershey Park (Kevin's company had some cheap tickets to a "private event"). We had a great time. The girls love rides and I love watching them enjoy the rides. They had such fun! Kellie wasn't too sure about the Frogger ride where they bounce up and down, but she endured til the end, with Megan holding her hand. The rest of the rides they both loved. It was a beautiful day weather wise, which added to how nice and fun the day was.

In typical fashion for us, the trip was not without a little "issue". It was a sunny day, sunnier than I realized it was supposed to be. So, I bought sunscreen at one of the stores in the park. Within minutes of applying the sunscreen Kellie broke out into hives, started itching, was pulling at her tongue, and her eyes puffed up. Washing it off didn't help, so off to the First Aid Station we went. I convinced the nurse to give her a dose of benadryl and within 30 mintues Kellie was better. Her 1st souvenir from Hershey Park, a pretty blue medicine spoon!

The chocolate factory tour was neat, and at the end we got Kit Kats. Meg and I love Kit Kats!

On the way home we stopped at a campground right near Hershey to check it out, so maybe next year we'll camp there.

September wrap up

I can't believe we are already a few days into October! I thought I'd do a wrap up on a few things from September. Most of the big stuff I already blogged about.

Megan and I went to paint pottery again, It's been almost a year since we've been there. We enjoy it, not sure why it's been so long. I made a pencil holder with different shades of purple on it (in hopes that if we use it I will be able to find a pen or pencil near the phone in the kitchen!). Megan made a cute puppy bank.







On Sept 18th Kevin and I celebrated 16 years of marriage. Seems like just yesterday and yet a lifetime ago! We met when I was 16, so I've been married to him the same amount of time that I spent not knowing him.



September pretty much was spent trying to get into the school routine. Megan doesn't like 1st grade, but goes without too much of a fight. She's struggling with learning when it's ok to talk and when it's not (she gets that from me- in 1st grade I stayed in trouble for talking!). She loves to draw and tell stories and is getting very good at both.

Kellie is starting to become very opinionated about everything, but is still my happy girl most of the time.

I'm enjoying the weather. Kevin is enjoying football season.

Well, there's the wrap up!

Boyds Bear Country- Camping- Gettyburg post 3

We had a late checkout on Monday. After doing all the getting ready to go stuff that we could do early, we headed out.

1st in search of a gas station with diesel. I never realized it's hard to find sometimes. We learned to go to a highway and look there, not bother looking "in town".

Then we headed to Boyds Bear Country. This place is huge and sorta overwhelming, but fun.

They have different theme areas and it's cool to look at all the stuffed items available. Of course, Megan was in heaven (she'd been there before- once when she was very little and then last year when she spent the night camping with G-ma and G-pa), but still loves it.

Megan really wanted a puppy and picked out a yorkie. Kellie got a puppy too, a chocolate lab like Cody- a dog we see on the way to school. Kellie isn't really into stuffed animals, but she seemed to enjoy it. It seemed she thought it was a big playground and not a store. Megan loves stuffed animals and wanted one of everything!

Then we headed back to the campground, finished unsetting up (what do you call that?), got hooked up and headed home. Both girls chose to ride with daddy (he's fun and had the DVD player in his truck), so mommy had a nice ride home all by herself. I bought some wonderfully juicy crisp Honey Crisp apples at the Catoctin Orchard (I also had a yummy raspberry crumb bar!) on our way home.

It was an enjoyable trip.

Below are some pictures- here are more- http://kevginmegkel.shutterfly.com/1449

Land of Little Horses and Gettysburg camping- Sunday

Sunday morning there was hope for better weather so we decided to do something outside.

As I headed to the shower I found out that our site didn't have sewer hookup meaning that either we had to be careful with how much water we used or we'd have to hookup, drive to the dumpstation to empty the tanks and then do set up all over again! Not our idea of fun...

I debated for a while and decided that I wanted a real shower (my showers tend to last 15-20 minutes), so I packed up my stuff and my Lysol and headed to the bath-house. YES, I took a shower in a public shower. But this place has the nicest set up. There are like 4 bathrooms in the bathhouse- each with a door, sink, toilet, shower , with ceramic tile walls and they were clean. They are bigger than our bathroom at home. So after a nice hot shower I felt refreshed.



We headed out to Land of Little Horses. They had horses (miniature and "regular"), donkeys, llamas, emus, sheep, pigs, goats, and some other animals. Kellie's favorite animal was the cat that followed us everywhere. Finally after 2 hours of hanging with us she finally let the girls pet her!
It was fun.
Below are some pictures, to see more go to http://kevginmegkel.shutterfly.com/1401

Camping trip #2- Gettysburg Fri and Saturday

Friday night Kevin, Megan, Kellie, and Emmett and the camper headed to Gettysburg for the weekend. I had to work on Saturday, so I drove up after work.
Kevin managed to get the camper into a not so easy spot in the dark (thanks to a little help from the campground folks and to the girls and the dog for being well behaved!).

They spent some of Saturday morning at the playground, then Grandma and Grandpa came to spend the day (and apparently brought the rain). The girls had a great time with G-ma and G-pa even in the rain and close quarters of the camper.

I arrived at dinner time in pouring down rain and it continued to rain all night. Rain is really LOUD in the camper! Plus we had a wooded site, which was surrounded by walnut trees with dropped walnuts every time the wind blew- that was loud too!

We spent the evening catching up and resting. And the sound of the rain lulled us to sleep.