I Stand Corrected....

I am terribly embarrassed to admit it, but I was mistaken in my last post when I said we would be celebrating our 25th anniversary next month. My husband corrected me through posting a comment that we are only hitting 24 years this year. Guess I didn't realize he read my blog so closely; better be careful what I say. Now he has no excuse for not planning out our Hawaii vacation celebration!

20 years!

Nope, not my wedding anniversary yet. In another month that will be 25. I'm not sure whether to call it a birthday or an anniversary, but today marks 20 years since I was first diagnosed with Type I diabetes. No celebrating, no cake, in fact, some years this day comes and goes without me even remembering. But I thought that 20 years and still in great health was worth mentioning:)  In fact, just two weeks ago I was at my endocrinologist's office, and my a1c is again at a steady, healthy target, and my cholesterols are great. As he has mentioned before, I am his only over 40 patient who is not on a statin, and he still sees no reason for me to be. Where I would certainly not choose to have T1 diabetes, I do think that it has given me a reason to live a healthy lifestyle. Now here's to a cure before I hit 40!

Daddy's Girl!

Today we celebrated six wonderful years with Jaelyn! And as she was from the beginning, she still is a Daddy's Girl. Here she is just a short time after we met her face to face...

And here she is today, with her same Ling doll...

She chose her usual favorite Chinese buffet restaurant; not the fanciest, but she loves being so independent, filling up her plate with as much rice as she wants! Nothing fancy today, but such a special day for us all. We are blessed!

And here are a couple sports photos from last week. What a contrast between Josh's district track meet, where he tied his personal record in the 800, despite pouring rain and hail (note the gray sky and the rain on my lens). This is after the first lap of two, and Josh is hanging with the pack.

 and just three short days later, the beautiful weather at Jaelyn's soccer game...

Mother's Day n' More...

What an amazingly gorgeous day today turned out to be! Following a special time at church with the entire family, we headed to a delicious seafood brunch at a local restaurant. The weather today was so incredibly beautiful that we actually chose to sit on the patio, something we rarely even do here mid-summer. It was a nice change from the spring we have had thus far. We were even entertained by live music.

Speaking of entertaining, here's Josh and Kellen preparing to down their first oyster shooters....

 Can you tell which son enjoyed it, and which son did not???

I always enjoy the handmade cards and gifts the most....

The difficulty of getting a photo without one child being silly greatly increases with the number of children you have. Here was the best attempt...

After brunch we headed home, changed clothes, and they planted the Daphne "summer ice" and a few other flowers that they bought me, as well as spread bark.

Spring is my favorite time to enjoy my yard. The vivid red rhododendrons are in full bloom, and my pink climbing vine clematis begins to go crazy! The variegated purple/white lilac they planted from a Mother's Day past is just coming into bloom, and the sweet smell is intoxicating. I can even smell it through my cold-stuffed nose! I thoroughly enjoyed my day with my family.

More P.R.I.D.E...

Last year in first grade Jaelyn received a P.R.I.D.E. award for her determination. Well this year she covered two more letters of the acronym, receiving an award for both Respect & Integrity!

The fine print on the award reads Jaelyn shows respect and integrity by listening when someone speaks, being polite, helping when someone is in need and always making positive choices. Jaelyn, your family is very proud of you and the choices you make. Keep up the good work! Next year Preparation and Empathy???

"Spaced" Out...

My parents came into town on Thursday night for the weekend, as they are graciously hosting a Creative Avenue jewelry fundraiser for our China Team on Sunday!

In the meantime, my mom headed to Seattle on Friday with Kaia and I, as Kaia an orthodontist checkup at Children's Hospital. It seems Kaia is now ready for spacers to prepare her for the alveolar cleft bone grafting/surgery that she will have in the near future. For the spacers and the regular orthodontia work we will use our local orthodontist that the boys had, Dr. Gardner. Kaia is a bit anxious about the spacers. The surgical work and overall care will be done by Dr. Hitesh P. Kapadia. We will be back at Children's in August.


The best part of our day though was seeing the tulips of Skagit Valley in bloom on our way home from Seattle! Last weekend was the peak of the season for the Tulip Festival, but it is not fun to go during the most crowded time, when everyone from Seattle travels up for the day (although last weekend was gorgeous). Although a bit muddy from all the rain we have had this week, yesterday was the perfect opportunity for some beautiful photos, as it was not raining, but the sky had some great clouds. I hope you enjoy them as much as we did!

Check out the red flowers captured in the rear view mirror!

Spring Caught Up...

Spring on Whidbey Island has finally arrived! Ever since returning from Florida, we have been eagerly anticipating it's arrival, and this past weekend we were not disappointed. So maybe it's not the 90° we had in Orlando, but a balmy 60° here is amazing. The garden department at Walmart was packed, as this past weekend was what everyone has been long awaiting for. Following Jaelyn's first soccer game of the season, we came home to plant some seeds the girls got while at Epcot Center, as well as seeds that Grandpa gave me at Christmas from his garden; cosmos, glardia, bachelor buttons, and calendula.

Let's just hope that I can do the seeds justice. For my 94 year old grandpa, his garden is his life! He is charge of all the flowers at the assisted living home he lives at. He tends them like they were his babies, and is very proud to show them off. If the seeds he gave me don't produce, I'm out of the will! Just kidding!  Here he is last summer next to some of the sunflowers he planted.

Another sign of spring....the TOLO girl ask guy dance! Here's Josh all dressed up for the evening. Despite being asked by two different girls within 10 minutes, he went with one "just as friends," which is just fine with this mama!

More sun predicted for this weekend; track and soccer photos to follow.