And more to say........

After Anthony's Mom passed away I felt we were stuck in this pattern of bad luck. My sister-in-law so appropriately called this a sh*t storm. Things kept going wrong. Car breaking down that shouldn't have because it is fairly new (hundreds of $ later for repairs), nasty cold zapping everyone in the house, stomach bug zapping only a few of us (thank goodness), a scare with lice. Yup, you read that right. I say a scare because we were told one of our children was exposed from someone in class at school. In all actuality we found no lice or eggs on our child. But with this said, we took no chances and treated with the nasty hair treatment . Rooms where torn apart, vacuumed, pillows and stuffed animals bagged up. Sheets, blankets, comforters laundered. What a project. All in the throws of planning a Funeral Mass and Coalition for Anthony's Mom. There is more. The sh*t storm hasn't ended yet. Our 8 year old English Bulldog, Sampson is declining. He is going blind, has an infection in his front paw, is on antibiotics, has lost weight. Life expectancy for a bulldog is 8-10 years. I do not think we could bear the thought of anything happening to Sampson right now.....

To add to the stress in this household right now, my work is causing all sorts of issues for us. Unfortunately we are a two income family. Northeast living, and especially Cape Cod living is not cheap. I only work part time 24 hours/wk. I am a nurse and have always worked since graduating from college. I love my job. I love neonatal nursing. I have been a NICU nurse for 17 +years. Anthony's Mom always covered the time gap with the kids for us when I was working and when my husband had to leave for work. It was easy for her to do, she was just a few rooms away. I mostly work nights 7p-7a and do not get home until 8:30 am. My husband leaves at 4:30am. So for those few hours when the kids where sleeping Nickie would be here. This would happen only once or twice a week at most. Great schedule, worked perfectly. Very easy. We always new at some point Anthony's Mom would not be here. Just not this point, so soon. So now we have a huge dilemma. Who do we get to watch our kids from 4:30a-8:30a one morning a week? My sister has been sleeping over those nights I have to work during the week, which has been wonderful. She is 31 weeks pregnant though and about to have little "Carter" in a few weeks (Yeah!!). I have been trying to work weekends mostly which helps with the 4:30 am thing since my husband only works M-F and is home on the weekends. Working every weekend is not conducive to family life though. Technically my hired schedule is for three eight hour shifts, not two twelves. I have been having, lets just say, a little turmoil with management about me not being able to do three eight hour shifts anymore. Working that third shift just makes us dependant on needing child care at 4:30 am. I may be looking for a new job if I can't continue my 12 hour shifts on the weekends. Lets add a little more stress to this household.........

With all this said (and there is more but purposefully omitted) I am hoping the sh*t storm is fizzling out. We are trying to pick up the pieces and move forward. Onward and upward. I am a positive person in nature and know we will come through this. I know in life things could be much, much worse. We are fortunate to have each other, love in our hearts, our health, a beautiful roof over our heads and food on our table. No more sh*t talk. The next post will be positive, I promise.

So much to say.............

I don't know where to begin. So much has happened in the past month. I am at a loss of how to start this post. I guess I will start with what has consumed us emotionally this last month. Anthony's Mom (Nickie) passed away unexpectedly on February 28th. She has lived with us for the past 12 years, ever since our oldest child was 5 months old. She was an intricate part of our family and helped us raise our children. She was a wonderful person and will be missed immensely.

As I write this, tears stream down my face (a frequent occurrence this last month). It is still very hard to imagine our household without her. Reality hasn't quite sunk in yet. I still feel she will walk around the corner and kiss one of my children or share an amazing meal she has prepared. I miss her laugh. I miss her ridiculous gossip. I just miss her. I won't claim to have had a perfect relationship with her. The relationship I did have with her was a nice one though. We knew each other very well after living together for 12 years. We were respectful of one another. Anthony and I always said if we had to make the decision over again to have her live with us we would without hesitation. She was a wonderful grandmother to our children. That is Priceless. Our older children will always have those wonderful memories of living so closely to her (physically and emotionally). I thanked her for that. We just wish Lily could have had those memories too.

Her in-law apartment is left untouched. Her place mat is still on the table. Her bed is still turned down for the night. Her clothes are still in the dryer. The thought of her not being there makes me cry every time. I am hoping time will help heal our broken hearts. We miss her so much.

I need to get myself together here. My children will be off the bus momentarily. So much else has happened since Nickie's passing. I will share soon with the next post.

Happy Chinese New Year!!

We have been extremely busy this past week celebrating Chinese New Year. We attended our local adoption agency's annual CNY party which included Chinese dancers, Chinese art exhibit, Chinese inspired silent auction and raffle, Martial Art presentation, Year of the Tiger arts and crafts for the children and Chinese buffet. We then attended a celebration in our home town presented by the Taipei Cultural Society of Boston, which was fascinating. The performances were amazing. All performed by Chinese-American children in and around the Boston area. Lily sat through the entire 1 & 1/2 hour performance with eyes glued to the stage. She truly was fascinated. We will be having a CNY celebration here at our house this weekend too.

Lily gets so excited with the words "Chinese Party". Now I know it could just be the "party" part of that phrase but I really do believe she is feeling connected with the Chinese part of the phase. Lately she will say frequently "Lily Chinese" and smile. She was mesmerized with the Chinese dancers, dragons, costumes, food and music at the celebrations we attended. I have made great connections and met amazing people this past week. I pray we can keep Lily's connection and fascination with her Chinese culture alive...........

Preparing for Chinese New Year

The Chinese dress has appeared again. She has worn it two times now. Yeah!!! Lets hope on Sunday she is still willing to wear it. Big party plans for Sunday. I am on the planning committee for the CNY celebration for one of our adoption agencies this year. Lily is so excited for the "Chinese party". She keeps smiling and saying "Lily Chinese" and "Chinese party".

Lily helping stuff the Red Envelopes.

Lily kept trying to sneak the candies into her pocket and laughing. Too funny.

New Hampshire ski weekend

Last weekend we adventured up to New Hampshire with some friends to do a little skiing/snowboarding. Lets just say Anthony, Gavin and Sophie had a great time. Poor little Lily came down with the Flu so I spent most of the weekend in the condo with her. I knew on Thursday when we were leaving that she was getting sick. She was coughing, but nothing else at that point. By Friday she had a mild fever, sore throat, cough, runny nose. We all ventured to the slopes for the day on Friday hoping she would be ok. I loaded her with Motrin and bundled her in layers. She did ok for the most part. At times she kept saying "Lily-mountain". Bless her heart. She wanted to ski on the mountain when she was watching her friend Sarah learn to ski on the bunny slope. I just didn't want her skiing feeling so awful so we didn't put her in lessons. Lily and I spent time in the lodge, in the car and by the outside fire for a while. By 3pm we had had enough hanging around so I took her back to the condo to rest while the others stayed. By Saturday she was absolutely miserable. Fever of 102, major runny nose, bad cough, crying that her throat hurt saying "mama, boo-boo" pointing to her throat. She barely slept at night because she was in a different bed and felt so miserable. I stayed with her in the condo on Saturday when everyone else went back to ski for the day. By Sunday she was worse so we left early after breakfast. So over all, not a great weekend for Lily or myself. The rest of the gang had a great time. Glad they got to enjoy the slopes. Next time I hope we all can enjoy the slopes together.

Sophie on the slopes for the first time. She has snowboarded before but never skied. She did awesome and loved it. By Saturday she was skiing black diamond trails. Little nervous when I heard that.

Gavin snowboarding. He loves to snowboard. He is so good at it.

Lily all bundled up on Friday. Making the best of the situation. Of all the weekends to get sick. In the 5 months she has been with us she has only once had a runny nose. That's it. Runny nose. Now we go away for the weekend and she gets some viral flu. Go figure.

Thank you Kimberly for the hat. Love it. Too cute.

Sarah learning to ski. She did great for the first time. Lily really wanted to join her.

Sarah and Lily in the lodge.

HAPPY 3rd BIRTHDAY LILY!

We celebrated Lily's 3rd birthday this week. She was so excited to have her party and open presents. We love to see her so excited and so happy.

For many reasons it is hard to believe she is three already. Regardless of her age, chronological or developmental, we love her to pieces. She makes us laugh and makes us cry. She is so smart and resilient. She is learning English at lightning speed. She is stubborn and knows what she wants and when she wants it. She is funny and loves to perform. Her dancing and singing "shows" are still quite comical. She LOVES clothes. As you can see with this post, she has on many different outfits. This all from the same day. Within a couple of hours to exact. The girl can't get enough clothes. I see a shopping problem brewing.........

Loves My little Pony. She wanted to play with everything as soon as she opened it.

Undressed again with a balloon clipped to her underpants. Oh boy. At least her undies are on. We had company!!

She loved her Dora cake. Well, looking at it and blowing out the candle anyways. She didn't really eat any of it. What she really wanted was Dora on top of the cake. Who by the way looked like she was sinking in quick sand. Dora, Diego and Boots wouldn't stand up so they kept being pushed deeper and deeper into the cake.

Lily did get her wish..........she got to get Dora off the top of the cake.

So, so excited about this present. She was actually laying on it to open it faster. She couldn't open it fast enough. Thank you Jackie.

Pregnant Renee and Cody. Twenty-two weeks pregnant. More than half-way there. Time just flies by. It really does. With everything. Soon we will be meeting little Carter. Can not wait for that day to come.

I finally got her to put on her Chinese dress. For a few minutes anyways. I have been waiting so patiently for this day. She absolutely refused in China. No "red couch' photo for us (she sat on the couch with her China sisters but in regular clothes). Would not have any part of the dress. One of the biggest screaming tantrums I have seen her have to date. She practically ripped it off her body. Up until now she has refused to put any of the Chinese dresses on we bought for her. I am trying to prepare her for the Chinese New Year party we will be attending on February 14th. Hope she can muster up her Chinese fashion sense on that day and wear one of her Chinese dresses. Please. She looked so beautiful in this dress. I just loved it.

Happy 3rd Birthday Lily. You are a beautiful little girl inside and out. We will love and cherish you forever and ever. We are all so happy you have joined our family. Only you could have completed our family. Only you could bring us so much laughter and joy. Only you could make us love you unconditionally. Only you. Happy birthday baby.

Girls weekend

Sophie had a cheer leading competition this weekend on Saturday & Sunday. This competition was 2 hours from our house so we decided to stay over and have some girl bonding time. Very fun, busy, and exhausting weekend. Friends, late nights, restaurants, swimming and a competition makes for a fun weekend.

Sophie and some of her team mates on Saturday during the competition. Sophie is a back spot. She is up front and on the right in this picture. She LOVES cheer leading and is very dedicated. So happy she has found an activity she really loves.

Practicing before the competition on Sunday.

Lily was loving every minute of being at the competition this weekend. All the girls were giving her so much attention. She loved doing pretend stunts with the girls. She ran around this huge conference room in between performances all day for two days. Hours and hours of running and stunting. She had a ball. When we left to come home on Sunday she was asleep in two seconds flat and slept the whole ride home.

We made time for the pool too. This was Lily's first time swimming in a pool. She doesn't look like she is having fun in this picture but she was. She was kicking and splashing around for about 1/2 hour. Not bad for the first time in an over crowded pool full of kids jumping and splashing.

This sums up the weekend perfectly. We were all so exhausted. Wish I could have been napping too.