Christmas 2010

The Holiday Season continues to roll along! Kendra had her Christmas dance program at the dance studio, and she did very well in her ballet and tap dances that they performed for the parents and grandparents.  Very fun to see how much all the girls have improved in just a few short years! After the program, we headed to a local restaurant with two friends in her class and their families and had a great time hanging out with friends.

My parents arrived safely from North Carolina on December 18th.  They spent the first 5 days with our family, then headed out to spend time with my sisters. We are hoping to get them back here before they leave after the New Year!

We had a great Christmas Eve celebration with my family, and then were able to spend Christmas Day with Dan's family.  Dan's parents and Aunt Darlene arrived from Park Rapids on Christmas morning, and we had a wonderful visit with them at Dan's brother's house.  The kids were spoiled rotten once again, and we spent the next few days opening packages, assembling toys, and just playing! Here are a few photos from the present opening:

I also received a very special present from my parents:

An incredible handmade quilt that my mom made for us!  Dan's grandmother had made him a flag quilt when he went into the Navy but it was stolen from his foot locker. When we remodeled our bedroom, I found a flag quilt that I loved for our queen size bed. When we upgraded to a king, I couldn't find a quilt that I liked anywhere. My mom took a photo of our queen quilt and recreated it for us by hand for our king size bed!  It is absolutely gorgeous, and we will treasure it always!  There are a ton of peices on the quilt, and even more impressive that she was able to make it without a pattern!  Matter of fact, it was so impressive that a man in the quilt shop where she was quilting with the long arm sewing machine offered her $1000 on the spot to buy it from her!  We are very glad she politely turned down the offer!!  She also made two equally stunning quilts for my sisters, so she has been very busy sewing this year! Each of our quilts are very different, reflecting the differences in our tastes.  Amazing how well she knows each of us to be able to pick the perfect colors and patterns for each of us!

Looking forward to 2011!  Happy Holidays to all!

~ Ali



The Moments That Matter Most....

In our crazy lives, it is nice when life forces us to slow down.  This has happened a couple of times in the past week. First, the evening of Kaylie's Christmas dance.  She has worked hard at ballet and tap since September, and the hard work paid off when her class performed their Christmas ballet and tap dance for the parents and grandparents last week. I was overwhelmed by the thought of just how far Kaylie has come in the past 18 months since she joined our family:

"We Wish You a Merry Christmas":



Ballet:

"Home" Christmas 2010:

The second came later in the weekend when we got trounced by a huge Blizzard! It has been 19 years since our area has seen a snow storm of this size! What fun we had being "snowed-in" for the weekend!  We hunkered down, baked cookies, listened to Christmas Carols, and just enjoyed spending time together. The kids were so well behaved all weekend, and just a joy to be around. I wish we could have been snowed in for another couple of days!

It struck me as we were frosting our 100th cutout sugar cookie that these are the moments that really matter.  My parents provided us with so many wonderful family memories growing up, but the times around the table getting ready for the Holidays are the ones that truly stick out in my mind.  I was a bit overcome with emotion as I watched Kaylie participate in these activities this weekend.  I thought of her friend back at her "China House" and realized what the true meaning of family is. It is more than having a mom, dad, brother or sister, it is sharing the experiences like this past weekend. 

I found it so ironic that with all the experiences in our lives, both my sister Pam and I took a moment to remember a snow storm many, many years ago where we were able to jump off our second story deck into the snow below! This particular snow storm brought back that memory for both of us, at nearly the same instant, despite the 100s of experiences we have shared with one another. Funny how we both keyed in on the same memory from so long ago.  I truly believe that "home is where the heart is" and the simpliest of activities within a family are the moments that you treasure forever!  

Round 1 of 3 snowblowing the driveway:

The whipping wind kept our flags flying high!

Some serious icicles!!

Kaylie made it out in the yard for this picture, but I had to go rescue her for the way back!

~Ali

Many New Gray Hairs this week....

Sometimes a mom just has to wonder what her children are thinking!  You think you have done your best to childproof your home and teach them to make good decisions.  But we all know that there are some lessons that kids just have to learn on their own. My biggest challenge this particular week has been my "normally" level-headed Sam. In the past couple of days he:

1. Stuck his tongue to a metal pole at school  - and managed to liberate several of his taste buds in the process!

2. Decided it would be "fun" to slide off our snowbank onto the concrete driveway on his sled Saturday afternoon after a Friday night snow storm.

He did not fair as well in his second escapade, as he managed to land square on his nose on the concrete driveway.  Dad, being the OCD driveway-guy he is, had already snowblown and shoveled to get every last snowflake off the driveway - poor Sam didn't even have a single snowflake to cushion his fall!

I was alerted to the mayhem by a shriek from the driveway, and opened the front door to find Sam bent over with a large pool of blood gathering underneath him. Not a scene any mom wants to see!  I did what any mom who has an EMT background would do - yelled for dad!  Just kidding (sort of), I did take care of him and evaluated the situation.  It took a few minutes to recreate the "scene of the crime" and to determine that his injuries were likely a broken nose and some road rash on his poor nose that was already twice the size it should be!  He had a gusher bloody nose - both barrels - and once we managed to get that stopped, we were grateful to learn that he had not broken any teeth.  He is recovering well, and all seems to be well with his nose so far. Our pediatrician said that there isn't anything more to do until the swelling goes down and it begins to heal, then we will determine if he needs xrays or a visit to the ENT. Likely it will just heal on its own, and he will look even more like his mom and dad who both broke their noses when they were younger!

If that wasn't enough to get my heart pumping, we had another unexpected event earlier on Saturday morning. I was brushing Kaylie's hair and a big section of hair fell off in my hand. This is not a good sign for her metabolic status.  We contacted her nephrologist today, and she is determining next steps.  Likely we will do some additional tests with our pediatrician here, then head back to Mayo once those results are in. In the meantime, I did not let Kaylie know what happened, as she really wants to grow her hair out longer.  I know she would be upset to learn that two clumps have now broken loose.

Finally, today was Kendra's turn.  We headed back to the pediatrician to have her ears checked.  Her ear infection is back in the left ear, but the eardrum perforation has improved and is healing.  When he examined the right ear, there was a 95% wax blockage, so they did an irrigation procedure to remove it. This was not comfortable for Kendra, but she was a trooper and they were successful in removing the blockage that has been causing her pain. Once he could visualize the eardrum, he realized that her right ear is very infected as well.  She was put back on oral antibiotics and ear drops, and will be having some new hearing tests and another exam in 2 weeks. Likely she will be heading back for surgery for her 5th set of tubes.  They would then repair the left eardrum during that procedure.

As long as she was not running a fever, they decided to go ahead and give her her flu shot. She then had a blood draw for her immune deficiency, and an xray to check progress on her arm that she broke last June. Good news for her arm is that it is now 90% healed!  Great progress with her slow healing bones! She was certainly wore out by the end of that appointment. Kaylie happened to go with me to the doctor, so she was also lucky enough to get a flu shot as well.  Now I have two little girls that are none too pleased with me!

Hopefully tomorrow will be the start of a better week. After all 5 of us puked through Thanksgiving weekend, then had the drama in the house last weekend, we are ready for a non-eventful weekend!

And, I am off to get another hair coloring kit to keep all the gray hairs at bay for another 4 weeks!

~Ali

A "Thankful" Thanksgiving...

If you looked at our Thanksgiving Holiday this year at face value, you might consider it a total bust.  I was looking forward to 4 days off of work, and time with family. However, fate had different plans, and it started with Sam waking up with stomach pains at 4am on Thanksgiving morning and with him throwing up by 5am!  He was terribly sick all day on Thanksgiving, so Dan and the girls went ahead with our plans to go to Uncle Keith and Aunt Brenda's, and I stayed home and took care of Sam.  Sam had a particularly nasty stomach bug, with over 20 hours of vomitting and lower GI issues as well.  In between throwing up, he had terrible stomach pains.

I thought the worst of it was over until Saturday morning when Kendra was in our room at 4am, and after two hours of crying she started throwing up, with me throwing up shortly behind her.  At that point Dan had to take over the caretaking of all three of us - I was probably the worst off of all us. I haven't been that sick for LONG time. Somehow it was even worse because it was a holiday weekend and cherished time off.

As I huddled under my blankets on the couch just hoping and praying for the day to be over yesterday, I had to stop and think about all that I have to be thankful for.  At one point when I thought my stomach was going to turn completely inside out, I thought about all the people in the world fighting illnesses like cancer and suffering the horrible side effects of chemotherapy. I couldn't help but think about my friend Jack, whose Anniversary Day to Heaven is November 27th.  While Jack's death was tragic and he left this world all too soon, he also taught me to appreciate every day and to live life to the fullest!  He will never be forgotten.

Life is funny sometimes with how you make connections.  Jack was an employee of mine who was diagnosed with nasopharynx cancer shortly after taking a position in one of my labs at work.  He fought his battle with cancer without a single complaint, and his only worries were about how his illness was affecting others.  What an inspiration Jack has been in my life. I have since developed a friendship with his family, who also happen to be Chinese and have provided a great connection to Chinese culture for Kaylie. Life seemed to come full circle on the day that we were able to introduce Jack's brother and parents to Kaylie.  Jack had been so excited that we were adopting from China. I know that he was with us as we introduced her to his family that day.

This year we have much to be thankful for.  We were able to witness a miracle with our own eyes as my sister Pam suffered a carotid artery dissection on March 4th and not only survived, but has thrived, despite the grim prognosis from the doctors in the weeks following the dissection and subsequent stroke. Never have I witnessed the work of God with such clarity. There is simply no other explanation as to why she was able to survive.  We are also tremedously thankful for the health of our family. While we have had some ups and down this year with illnesses, Sam, Kendra and Kaylie continue to do well and thrive. It is simply amazing to me to witness them growing up and learning so many new things each day. I cherish the conversations with each one of them, as they give us glimpses of how they view the world. I feel like they teach us way more about life than we teach them.  We are truly blessed, and very, very thankful.

~Ali

Not Our Proudest Parenting Day!

Yikes~ what a day!  I got up this morning worried about my commute to work, and a little grateful that I had conferences for the girls and would have a bit of a later start to work this morning. Then, we get the call that their teacher was sick and we have to reschedule conferences. No harm, I was ready for work so decided to head in earlier than planned. After a harrowing one and half hours on the road, I finally arrived at work glad to not be one of the cars in the ditch I had passed on my way in.

I just get seated at my desk and my cell phone rings - the elementary school secretary is calling - NEVER a good sign!  I answer only to find out that my girls are sitting with her in the office, and that there are NO kindergarten classes today! I am mortified - and helpless - as I am now an hour in a half in the opposite direction from them!  So, I start making calls to get a hold of Dan, and finally explain to him that we have made a horrible mistake and sent the girls to school on a day they had off!  Both of us were confused, but he headed quickly to school to pick the girls up. They were a bit shaken, but no worse for wear.

We then found out that they had made a mistake on their calendar and did not list today as a Holiday break for the kindergartners, and we were not the only parents to bring their kindergartners to school today!  At our school, parents are not allowed to bring the children to the classrooms for safety reasons (stranger danger), so we drop them off at the doors and Sam walks them to class.  Of course when they got there today, they only found other students, and no teacher! Made even worse because their teacher who would have been in the room happened to be sick today! 

To make matters worse, Sam of course found out that there was no kindergarten today, and of course was terrified about what happened to his sisters! Thankfully another teacher helped him figure out that Dan has picked them up and they were safe. UGH.  In one feel swoop we managed to traumatize all THREE of our kids! NOT our best shining example of parenting!  Suffice it to say, we will be double and triple checking the various school calendars in the future!!

~Ali

The Kindness of Strangers....

     One of the most difficult things about our current financial situation is accepting offers of assistance from others. Don't get me wrong, we are truly appreciative of all the help and offers for help we have received, but we are used to being on the giving end, and not so used to being on the receiving end. We have always enjoyed being able to help others when we were blessed with extra income, and it is so strange to be on the other end of receiving that help from others.  It is still difficult for us to accept the offers of help when so many others need it more than us.  We are fortunate to be getting the help we are with Dan's college tuition, and he is getting an opportunity to do something that he has wanted to do for a long time. I feel guilty about complaining about our challenges during this time. Unlike many others that are struggling during these tough economic times, we are fortunate that I have a good position at work, and fortunate that Dan is working towards a new career. 

     We are filled with hope and optism.  However, realizing those hopes and dreams also requires sacrifices right now for our family. Dan and I are willing to give up just about anything to ensure the security of our family, but we both struggle considerably more with our children having to give up the things they love. For the past two years, we have been able to get by with just omitting the "extra's" in our life.  As of July when Dan's unemployment assistance ended, we have had to look at tightening the belt quite a bit more.  We remain committed to seeing Dan finish his education, and he is doing tremendously well in school!  I don't know how he manages all his roles right now - caretaker for the kids, taxi service to and from school, tutor/homework enforcer for the kids, housekeeper and chef extrodinaire- oh, and by the way - full time college student with 6 classes this semester!  Makes my going to work each day seem like an all-inclusive vacation!! I have always known he was a strong man, but I am simply blown away by his dedication to our family and his education.

     As we navigate this new territory, we have had to make some tough decisions. One decision recently was that we had to end Sam's piano lessons.  This was a tough decision as he has taken lessons since Kindergarten, and I love to hear the house filled with music.  In the end though, we just couldn't make it work.  We notified the company where he takes lessons, and were shocked when they came back to us and offered to cover Sam's lessons without charge if he was willing to continue to practice and take lessons!! How amazing is that!  We will continue to keep track of what we should be paying each month, and hope to return the favor for another student in the future!  We are truly humbled by their generosity and kindness. I highly doubt they have any idea just how much this gift means to us.  And, this experience has taught us a lesson we will never forget, as we commit ourselves to doing our best to help others, no matter what our circumstances.  We have learned that even though we can't afford to give to our favorite charities right now, there are many ways we can still impact and help others, and this Holiday Season we will be doing our best to return the favor!

Here is a quick song from Sam to express our thanks to his piano teachers!!

The First Snow of the Year!

We just had our first snowfall of the year. It happened to fall with PERFECT timing!  The storm rolled in Friday night, and continued throughout the day Saturday.  The only activity we had this weekend other than Sunday school was dance class for Kendra on Saturday morning.  We took it slow and utilized the back roads to get there and back safe and sound.

We spent the remainder of the day playing outside in the snow and working on a cookie kit the kids got from Grandma and Grandpa Schroeder for Halloween. The kit was quite impressive - premade cookies, sucker sticks, edible eyes, frosting packages in green, white and black, disposable pastry bags with tips, and decortative wrappers for the completed cookie suckers.  So, we made up the frosting, and frosted two cookies together "oreo-style" with a sucker in between. Then the kids went to town making pumpkin, skull, and frankenstein faces on the cookies. It was the perfect activity for a snowy day!

After the cookies were made and the frosting was setting up, we headed outside to make a fort!  We had the old-fashioned igloo-making blocks and we all took turns building our fort one block at a time.  Here are some pics from the day:

What a fun time we had!  All five of us out in the snow for 4+ hours!  The only bummer of the weekend was that we lost power Saturday night due to the heavy snow taking down power lines.  We also have our own well at our house, so no power also meant no water in our house either!  On the upside, the candlelight conversation with my attractive husband after the kids went to bed was quite nice!!

This week also marked a big step for Kaylie.  She started a KIP program (Kindergarten Intervention Program) this past week to give her some extra help in school. She will now attend school on Mon, Wed, and every other Friday with her normal Kindergarten class, then will attend her KIP class on Thursday and the opposite Friday.  This means she will be attending school 4 days a week every week now, and will only have Tuesday home with Dan. Dan and I were both very nervous sending her off for her first KIP day.  It was like the first day of school over again!  This time without the security of having Kendra there by her side. Low and behold, she did just GREAT!  She loves school, and is thrilled to go to more classes.  She is doing very well and gaining ground rapidly since starting in September.

Ali

Taking Chances and Having Faith

We have been caught up in the whirlwind that is Fall in our house!  Dan is busy with 16 credits of classes this semester, the kids are enjoying mulitple day-a-week activities, and work continues to be very busy for me! It seems like things stepped up into warp speed once we hit September, and haven't slowed down yet!  The girls started school and are adjusting to Kindergarten.  The transition has went beautifully, with all three kids being happy to go to school. After school, starts the mad dash to Football 3-4 days a week for Sam, Dance for the girls 4-5 nights a week, piano, and Wednesday night catechism for Sam.  On Sunday's mornings, the girls are attending Sunday school at our church.  Dan has two night classes this semester on Monday and Tuesday nights and the rest of the week he flips back and forth between keeping up with homework for his remaining online classes and running the household at home.  Most nights, we just pass each other in the doorway, give each other a kiss, and say "Goodnight"!

As crazy busy as things are, we know they will slow down at some point. Sam wrapped up his first tackle football season with winning the Championship game for his league!!  It was very exciting to see the kids on the high school field running out as their names were announced over the PA system!  Especially heartwarming for Dan as it wasn't all that many years ago that his own name was being called on the very same field. A proud moment for us!  Good thing that Dan was on the field coaching- I don't think he would have made it through the game sitting in the bleachers as it was a very close game!  Sam will have his end of year party this week, then things will slow down a bit for him.

Sam getting his name announced at the beginning of the game:

Sam with Dad and his buddy Easton after the game:



In between sports and dance, we have had some time to enjoy Fall hiking and of course, the Halloween festivities!  We sort of missed Halloween last year with our entire family getting H1N1 in the same week, so this year we made up for lost time!  The kids had a total of 5 Halloween parties and Trick-or-Treating on Halloween evening, so got some use out of their costumes this year!

Spiderella:

Raggedy Ann:

Pirate Sam:

 Our Motley Crew:

Even though things have been a littel rough for our family lately due to the economy, we are so very fortunate in so many other ways. There are certainly difficult days when we question the choice to have Dan out of the workforce to go back to school, but when I see how much our children have benefitted from him being able to be home with them, to have him attend school fieldtrips, and just plain be there for them, there is no question that we are doing the right thing.  Work is so busy for me right now, I just can't imagine how much crazier my life would be if he wasn't home taking care of everything at home!  I am soooo spoiled to have dinner on the table each night (even when he isn't going to be home!) and all the cleaning and laundry done, in addition to him taking care of all the kids homework.  Money is tight and life is stressful at times, but we have a whole new appreciation for everything we have - most of all, each other.  It is certainly a big chance for us to take to have Dan work towards a completely new career right now, but I have faith we are working the right direction, and that we will be happier down the road as a result.  In the meantime, we are making the best of it and trying to laugh off the worries and stress!  So far it is working - one more year to go!!

~Ali