Mid Autumn Moon Festival. And mooncakes.

We celebrated the Moon Festival, with Chinese food for dinner, homemade moon cookies for dessert and catching the moon early in the morning. Rieley didn't get to see it at night because she goes to bed when it is still light outside. Daddy read three stories on the Moon Festival.

9-11

We will always remember the ones that were affected by this day. Families lost loved ones and many dear to them. We are blessed to live in a country that is free.

I was a teachers aide back in Channahon, IL when the terrorist attacks happened. We heard reports from the secretaries and watched tv in the lounge. I wanted to get in the car and get the kids, that at that time were at 3 different schools. But, we finished the day and then came home and talked of the events.

Bugs of the new school year.

Seems like my children have an attraction to viruses at school this year. Rieley has missed 5 of the first 15 days, 1 because we were in Dallas for an appointment for Bailey, 2 for virus(fever and sore throat), and then 2 more for a double ear infection and a sinus infection.
Bailey is home sick with a sinus infection and some kind of viral crap. No school for her until at least Wed. Tonight she was running  a 102 fever and feeling like SHIT, her words. Called back to doctor with more complaints, now also being treated for acid reflux. And, no school until Fri, unless she feels like going Thurs..
Hope tomorrow is a better day for all and no one else gets sick. Kyle got a flu shot today at Walmart for free for the students that go to his college. Waahoo, 1 done 5 to go.

Rieley starts Kindergarten 8/24/2011./Bailey's senior year begins.

Hard to believe Bailey is a senior in high school and Rieley is starting kindergarten. Would love to know where the time has gone, for me it has gone way too fast.

Rieley loves kindergarten and is in the dual language class, where she gets both spanish and english. It is a little rough now, but hopefully she will catch on soon. She needs to be challenged and this will be it. I, so miss my shadow all day. Kind of hard on mom, not having her here with me, knowing she is the baby. Tim says no more, boo hoo(I tried).

Bailey is carrying a full load of classes this year. She is 12th in her class of 230+ students, and with the load she has she should move up a few before graduation. She is involved in student council, FCA, church youth group and friends.

Dallas and injections.

We arrived in Dallas ahead of schedule, so made a pit stop at the mall to waste some time. Then it was time to head back and get the procedure done. Bailey would receive 4 injections into her neck, to help releave some of the pain. We arrive for the procedure at noon and were on the road by 3, but hit rush hour traffic leaving. At this point, Bailey was very hungry(hadn't eaten since 10 the previous night) and Tim not want ing to stop because of traffic. Well, after about an hour of driving, there was no around it, we stopped quickly at McD's and got food to go and once again had a happy patient. Plus, Tim, Rieley and I had not eaten either, and Rieley never once complained. She just goes with the flow and when stuff happens she just adjusts and is an awesome traveler. We got back on the road and made it to Abiliene TX to spend the night. Ate dinner at a Chili's , then headed to the hotel for the night. Up early the next morning for our final 3 hour drive home.

I wish I would have hired someone to clean the house before I returned. The 22 and 24 year old, are slobs and DO NOT know how to clean. I don't think they swiftered the entire time we were gone and with 2 shedding dogs, you can only imagine. The floors were disgusting, took me 3 times to mop them to get them presentable and don't even ask about the bathrooms. Next year, they will be locked out of the house while we go on our vacation, no joking here.

It wasso nice to be back in our own bed and no more hotels, no more restuarants and no more traveling in the van, for more than 40 minutes for at least 2 weeks until we headed back to dallas for the second set of injections.

East TX visit 8/2011.

We left Maryland early from the Stokes house and headed back to TX. It was the longest drive of our vacation and it sucked. We drove 13 hours Wed and 6 or 7 on Thurs. Enjoyed the visit at the East TX Easons and Tim was able to play a couple of rounds of golf with his brother and nephew and actually win, against Eric. The girls mainly hung around the house and visited and went to the movies on Sat, which was nice to have some down time. We were also able to swim in the neighbors pools while they were gone, nice saltwater pool. Before we knew it it was time to head to Dallas, for our next stop.

Visit to the Stokes in MD, 8/2011.

Oh, how I miss this family and all of Rieley's China sisters and their families. We were able to stop in MD and spend the afternoon and night with Rieley's foster sister and family from China. The girls played like they see each other everyday(really having not seen each other since last July), it was so neat to see them interact with each other. We also celebrated their birthdays, while there, even though Rieley's had been in April. Janel and Ron, fixed an awesome dinner and were the best hosts. We enjoyed just sitting around while the girls played and we talked and talked. When it was time to leave in the morning, we had a few tears from Rieley, wanting to stay just one more day and play with Jaden. We promised to get togehter next summer for a longer period, the girls a growing up way too fast. I, so want to be back in PA and be closer.

Visit to Hunter in PA 8/2011.

We made the trek out to see Hunter in Pittsburgh, since he was only going to be home for such a short period of time this summer due to research he was doing and getting paid for at Pitt. We got out there sunday afternoon, walked around, he showed Bailey some of the campus and had dinner.Dinner, was at the Cheesecake Factory, food was ok but dessert was awesome. Tim almost fell on the floor and the waitresses comment was, that is why the employees have to wear special shoes. We actually got to see them filming some of the new Batman movie. They were on the campus for 5 days, I understand now why movies cost so much. It was mind blowing the number of trailers, people, security detail and all else that is needed to make a movie. We then went back to the hotel to relax and visit until tim took him back to his apartment around 10. We met him the next morning for breakfast, then took him to work. While he was at work, we went back and walked more of the campus, did some retail therapy at the stores and then went to pick Hunter back up and headed to the Pitt Zoo. We stayed there for about 3 hours and then headed to shop and dinner. Afterwards we went grocery shopping with Hunter to stock him up on fruit and what he needed for the next week or so until he would come to TX for 9 days. The next morning, we checked out of the hotel and met Hunter for a quick breakfast at Paneras's, before he needed to go to work and we headed to MD. It was nice to see where he has lived for the past 2 years and summer. Tim has always moved him in and I have stayed here in TX with the other kids.