Korea 2014: Week 24 and part of 25 - Changes

I'm in the middle of packing for our trip to Utah. Writing this blog post is on my to do list.  So lets do this really fast.  I probably wont even proof read.

This week was full of changes and indications that there will be a lot of change coming.  The biggest one of all was that BRANDON WAS ACCEPTED TO FLIGHT SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That still doesn't seem real yet.  

Here are some other changes that do seem real.  

Veronica is growing up.  She is always exploring.

I washed all the cars eats.  Getting all the covers back on was quite an accomplishment.

 The kids played in the pool.  Veronica likes to crawl across the grass to the pool.  I guess that's a good indication that we are winning against the fire ants.

 The girls told me that this is Mater teaching a class on how to drive backwards.

 Derrick loves becoming one with nature.

 On Thursday my friend Ashley let me know about a lady who was selling a bunk bed.  I've been casually looking for one for several months.  This was the deal I've been looking for.  She wanted $100 OBO and I got her to take $75. Within a few hours the kids and I had I'd gone to the store, picked up the beds, and set them up.  Here is what the kids room looked like before.

 Lydia was excited about the bunk bed, but she didn't want to give up her crib.  I told her a sob story about "the little baby who wouldn't have a crib" unless she gave it away.  That tugged at hear heart strings enough to let it go.

 I wasn't sure if anyone would want the cribs since they are older than the hills and gasp drop side cribs.  (Don't even get me started on my opinions on crib safety standards.)  But within 24 hours the cribs had found new homes.

 The girls had fun helped me set up the cribs.  Lydia was actually pretty helpful.  She was good at holding corners.  Both girls liked helping drill.  Charlotte pretended to be a sheep in a pen.  She'd say Baaa and then bite my hands.  Lydia got into it and pretended to be a pig.

 Charlotte took this picture of the me and Lydia putting the ladder on.

 And here we are drilling.  I was really proud of myself for getting the beds together. I didn't even have a picture to go off of for how they should look.  But I haven't been married to Brandon for seven years for nothing.  I got them together without much trouble.

 And here is the final product.  They girls love it.  Lydia has the top and Charlotte has the bottom.

 I wanted the bunk bed to go on the same wall that the cribs had, but that put the ladder right under the ceiling fan.  That wasn't safe AT ALL so we had to put the bed on the other wall. I don't really like this lay out.  I started thinking up how we could rearrange all the bedrooms to put the girls in a different room.  But then I found out that Brandon made it into flight school and so we will be moving in the nearish future.  So I think we'll just tough it out.

 Random pic of Derrick sleeping.  He went a whole week without a nap and then he started napping again.

 Veronica standing next to the bikes.  She is starting to stand on her own more often.

 We found a birds nest in a tarp on top of our fountain.  It was pretty cool.

 And we found another in the BBQ grill.

 Charlotte stayed up with my while I skyped with Brandon one night.  We took this group picture.

 See what I mean about Veronica doing what ever she wants.  She was seriously standing before I got the camera out.  I scooted the couch next to the piano after this.  That girl has Derrick's athletic ability, but none of his caution.

 Charlotte made this little city one night.

 This is a pool.

 Veronica got into the car all by herself.  She was so proud.  She kept waving excitedly at me.

 Derrick loves to play in the dirt - until the fire ants bite him.  The exterminator didn't spray in the garden.

 Another picture of Veronica just doing her thing.

 She loves to follow the kids around. She and Derrick are really similar right now.  They are actually neck and neck speech wise.  She makes all the sounds he does.  I'm really curious who will say yes, no, more, and other simple words like that first.  Derrick does have better understanding of language though.

On Monday I took a break from cleaning/packing and took the kids to the city pool.  It had a great beach entry area.  We all had a blast.  

 Derrick was afraid of the water at first, but by the end he was jumping into my arms in the two foot area.

 We were there for about an hour and a half before my friends showed up for our planned play date.  And then we stayed another 2 hours.

 The kids were really good.

 A few hours after we got home from the pool Charlotte and Lydia developed really high fevers.  They spent all of Tuesday laying around and throwing up.  It was not fun.  I hoped they would be better by this morning, but they weren't.  I actually ended up with the three older kids in my bed.  (Derrick wasn't sick, but he woke up crying.)

I took the girls to the doctor.  They were so listless.  The doctor diagnosed them with Noro Virus and told me to just keep giving them Tylonol like I had been.  I'm glad it wasn't anything worse. 

The girls are doing better now, but they are still sick.  Hopefully they get better by tomorrow because Brandon's parents are flying into Texas and we have lots of fun stuff planned.