First Week Back in China... Year 5

The first week has been okay, although the weather has been really lame. The first Sunday we were back (August 2nd) it was gorgeous, albeit hot and humid but I'm used to that. Ever since it has been overcast and rainy (as i wrote this the sun came out and there are blue skies now). I love the lush green but I want a summer too dang it! The two stores we shop from aren't carrying Gabby's meat- A.K.A. Hormel Natural Choice. It's the only lunch meat that she likes AND it says "gluten free," which makes me warm and fuzzy inside (If you had a Celiac kid then you'd get that). AND, there are no over-priced pull-up diapers! Crap. So I may hang-on to the pull-up diapers I have now until later and use regular diapers. I also really miss my friends from last year. We had a breakfast today and it was so weird not to see them... The overseas life... a lot of hellos and goodbyes.

Gabby is getting use to the sleep patterns now- it usually takes a week. She is now running and giving Travis and I these huge squeeze-type hugs when we get home. It's awesome how happy she is to see us. Now I know how "dog people" (people who own and care for dogs) feel when they come home and their dogs are happy to see them. She is reading or trying to read all the time. She also loves to count, and goes from 1-14) but still keeps forgetting 5. It's so funny. We had six rocks laying in a row and she counted them and pointed to each rock and said the corresponding. She skipped over the fifth rock and said "six." I think she just hates the number five. She's also quite sensitive like me... whenever she seems someone cry, she always points it out and wonders why. In her books, if she sees someone cry, she'll say "he's crying, he's sad. Owie mommy?" She thinks if you cry it's because you have an owie so I've been telling her that people cry for different reasons. It's interesting to see the emotional intelligence side come out. She asks me all the time, "What you doing, momma?" She's a little human figuring out her world.

I made my first gluten free pizza crust yesterday. I used to LOVE making yeast breads and made the yummiest cinnamon rolls but the last three attempts (about 7 years ago) I killed the yeast and swore off attempting to make a yeast bread again. Anyway, last night Travis and I made a pizza and froze the leftover crust. I'm getting lots of good tips from these books I got about making and storing gluten free food and how to deal with parties, school, etc. We bought a foodsaver too so we can store cereal and other items. That will be really helpful.

Potty training update... she has pooped and peed for about 3 days in a row. Yippee! Trav sat with her all yesterday and kept asking if she had to pee or poop. She is so proud of herself. Now if we could just get her to start wiping her own bum...

The Nabisco shipment is in! I now have Triscuits and Wheat Thins! Yay!

Back in China...

Two words... STICKY and LOUD. Sticky because of the humidity and loud because of all those friggin' bugs in the trees. It's like living in the rain forest. The flight was pretty uneventful but in a good way. Gabby was awesome and did great on the airplane- cried a little here and there but nothing big. You should have seen us and all the looks we got at the airport, though. We went back with seven 50-pound bags and three carry-on suitcases that were probably 50 pounds each (that's where we load all of our heavy books). Travis told the lady that we had so much stuff because we lived there and that a lot of it was food for Gabby because she has a special diet (which is true). We didn't have to pay a cent even though we had an extra bag! Yippee! Anyway, Trav, Gabby, and I are acclimating well to our "other" home. It was raining cats and dogs when we arrived and the driver wasn't there to take us home so we took a van and paid too much. Oh well. Travis was completely soaked taking out all of our luggage- what a good guy. After we got in to our clean home with A/C, Gabby ran over to her play room and Travis and I ordered our favorite Chinese food. We watched "Pretty in Pink" because the cable wasn't connected yet. I fell asleep with my mouth hanging open and drool down the side of my face. I was SO TIRED. Chen came over Sunday morning and helped unpack us and ironed all our clothes and put them away. I missed having an ayi. While that was happening, Travis and I went to the bar, had some beers, then a pedicure and massage. While we were there we met one of the new counselors and the new school psychologist. We ended up going back to the bar for dinner and to visit with them. I love China! Now I'm back at work as if I've never left... it amazes me how quickly we adjust between these two worlds...

Stayin' at the Tebo's Place

Yesterday we moved into Travis' parent's place for the rest of our visit. We leave July 31st and I'm totally feeling the crunch to get things done. We have bought so much crap! We recently made two separate trips to Oregon for tax free shopping and went crazy. I have no idea how we're going to fit it all in six 50-pound bags. We'll probably just pay for an extra bag so we can take back Gabby's gluten-free food. There's a good chance we won't be home for winter break this year so we need to stock up. For the same "Hormel Natural Choice Turkey", I found two packages for 5 bucks at Fed Meyer. In China, it's $10 for one package. Crazy. I'll totally pay it but the mark-up is just insane.

Gabby will be SUPER tall!

I went on this height predictor thing on babycenter.com and it guesstimates how tall your kid will be but they have to be two years old... so I went on there and it said that Gabby will be 5' 11''. Holy cow! I hope they make longer pants by the time she gets older. I'm already stocking up on size 4T and 5T stuff for fall and winter.

Seattle Children's Doctor Appointment

As people know, Gabby girl has Celiac Disease so we saw the doctor today in Seattle (missed the stupid Bainbridge Island ferry!) to see how she's been doing. Our main concern is if she's getting gluten (wheat, rye, barley) or not. If she is, then we need to make adjustments and figure out a better treatment plan. Apparently, when we got her blood taken in June, someone messed up (Doctor? Nurse?) and didn't order a celiac test done... so the appointment, to me, was a waste of time. I was really looking forward to this appointment and it was a bit of a let down. Travis and I never feel like we get all the answers we need and we're always guessing and not sure. I wish someone could just tell me exactly what's wrong and what to do. Anyway, we talked about her having a possible food allergy because she still has runny poops (sign of gluten). We'll get all these test results back next week. He said she looked better but was a tad concerned about this rash on her body (possible sign of getting gluten). He also told us today, that a little amount of gluten here and there added up can be a cancer risk. I know we need to be careful but that's scary... only one crumb can hurt her so we have to always be vigilant. When she's older, we also need to get her tested for osteoporosis, just in case there is bone damage. On a more positive note- she's 95th percentile in height and 75th in weight and she is not low on any vitamins! Back in December her calcium was REALLY low. Yippee! We'll continue with the gluten free multivitamin, though. In other positive news, he said there's lots of research about Celiac Disease being conducted- possible vaccines, pills (like lactaid), and re-engineering wheat so it doesn't contain harmful gluten. He expects in the next 25 years that there will be breakthroughs, so that's hopeful. :)

Fourth of July Weekend

Oh man, it was a HOT one for the fourth of July... Trav and I rented a cabin two houses down from Beth and Josh in Tahuya, WA. It's about 45 minutes from Bremerton and a nice little spot with a gorgeous view of the hood canal. On Friday, Trav's parents came up for a little bit with Stuart and Wesley (Gabby's cousins) and we hung out in the cabin- busily watching Gabby and Stuart run around! Toby and Debbie came up later and spent two nights with us. We had an awesome time catching-up, playing cards, eating/drinking, and entertaining the kids. Toby and Trav went fishing and Debbie and I took the kids swimming at Beth's place.On Saturday, we went to "Tahuya Day" but missed the parade because it was stinkin' hot and the kids needed to sleep and had a barbecue at Beth's that night. We left Sunday afternoon completely EXHAUSTED. All in all, a fun, family time.

Yellowstone Trip

* I copied and pasted the following blog entry from my friend, Beth. Thanks, Beth for writing this! If you don't know- Josh is her husband and Harper is their one year-old. Go to her blog at http://zarling.blogspot.com/2009/07/were-back.html and http://zarling.blogspot.com/2009/06/able-to-find-computer.html for pictures and video.

We left at 5am on Thursday June 25th, after spending the night at Beth and Josh's place in Tacoma. Travis drove like a bat out of hell and got us to Spokane, with one rest stop trip, in 4 hours. We also stopped in Missoula and one other place. We got here in 10 hours. It was a great trip too. It didn't seem like that long- maybe 4. Travis drove the whole way because he gets nervous when other people drive. Fine with me!The babies did really well. Gabby watched "Nemo" and "Dora" the whole way. Don't let anyone tell you there isn't something great about in car DVD players. Harper had a few meltdowns here and there, but for a 11 month old, she was great. The adults had a great time too. We talked and snacked and napped. We got to the resort at about 4. We are staying at this cute log cabin. We took the kids around to show them the lake, which we are directly on. They both started getting cranky at about 6pm (mountain time), so we opted for takeout from a local steakhouse. The steaks weren't great, but the bread was TO DIE FOR! The boys went out on the lake in a rowboat for about 2 hrs and caught nothing (surprise!). Josh is working on teaching Trav how to fly fish on this trip. Speaking of, Montana has rivers everywhere. Josh now wants to move here (I think with or without me).We all went to bed at about 10ish. Kind of. Harper is teething big time (we think). There is another molar poking through. So she woke up every hour or two last night crying. Fun for everyone, including Trav and Cara, who were staying in the loft of the cabin and could hear all the hoopla. The 4 of us have come up with a agreement that we are not going to constantly apologize for our kids crying or doing other thing. All 4 of us have been apologizing and we don't need to. Those of you with kids know how that is though.

We had a long drive to Yellowstone. We did decide to hit this ghost town named Garnet on the way out though. It was an old mining town and it was great for pictures.

We finally got on the road, and after about 6-7 hours, we got to our condo in Island Park, ID, which was about 20 minutes outside the park. The babies were pretty good overall. Some whining, but way better than I thought they would be.

We had a FABULOUS condo, right on the fairway of the golf course. It had two rooms that were exactly the same size, so there was no "who gets the bigger room?" So we unpacked all our stuff while the guys got us some Subway. We then gave the girls a bath and put them to bed and we stayed up planning our trip over cocktails.

The next day we got up to go see Old Faithful and West Thumb, which is on Lake Yellowstone. In took us like 2 hours to get to the gyser once in the park, even though it was about a half hour drive. We kept stopping to take pictures of stuff, like a herd of elk or a bison or a waterfall.

We finally got to Old Faithful, but the eruption wasn't for like 45 minutes, so we ate some crappy food at the cafeteria. We waited for the gyeser and Gabby kept yelling "Come on Gyser!" We were right up front. There were a lot of teasers, but once it went off, it was awesome. I didn't really see it though, I was taking pictures.

We then went to West Thumb, which is a bunch of these boiling hot pools of all beautiful colors. We really wanted to swim in them, but your skin would melt off. After that, Cara, the girls and I were all Yellowstoned out, but the boys stopped at the Paint Pots.

We didn't know it would take forever or we would have gotten out too. We went back to the condo and BBQed steaks. Then again, girls to bed, planning and cocktails.The next day we were back off to Yellowstone to go to Mammoth, which was the old cavalry station and now is the center for adminstration of the park. There were a bunch of elk hanging around in this outlook area.

It also had these cool terraces made out of some mineral I am sure Travis could tell you about. By the way, he was in heaven there. Take a Science teacher to Yellowstone and you get to see a grown man cry (but not until the Falls!). We then went home and the girls took a nap while the boys went fishing. Josh was in heaven, and kind of hell (he was passing rivers left and right and not getting to fish) the whole time in ID/MT/WY (we went through all those states on the 20 minute ride to the park from our condo). Josh taught Trav how to fly fish and the boy is hooked now. The boys came home and we went to a so-so restaurant, aptly named Boondocks, because it was out in the boonies. On the way home we had a total road trip moment when Travis (who drove the WHOLE time, god bless him), pulled over because Gabby was hitting Harper. She needed a time out. It was so hard to not laugh because it was SO stereotypical road trip stuff. We got home and went swimming. Once the girls were in bed the boys went fishing again until dark.

Our last full day at Yellowstone the girls got some time off from the babies. We went on a horseback ride in a national park that was NOT Yellowstone, but where a bear had been shot, but not killed after attacking someone the day before. We had a lovely, although somewhat low key ride. I lost $20, and almost lost $40, but luckily Cara saw it fall. She spent the whole ride watching/smelling my horse fart.

The boys picked us up, actually Travis did, because Josh had been fishing the "PhD" river- as in if he caught a fish, it was the equivalent to getting to the top level of fishing. Well he did. He caught a 5 lb trout and no one around him caught anything. That was the highlight of his trip (although he may know better than saying that). We then went home and the boys went fishing again and we took a nap. After the nap, it was to our final stops at Yellowstone: Yellowstone Canyon and the Falls. First, let me explain that to get to the falls, you have to traverse this half mile trail that goes straight down. Not too bad going down, but aweful going up. Anyway, we get down there and it's AMAZING. The falls are beautiful and the canyon in gorgeous. Travis started to cry. We had been waiting for this moment and it took him a few days, but sure enough, the beauty got to him!

We got back up to the top, winded (except for my new hero, Cara, who carried Gabby the whole way) and happened upon a husband and wife arguing on whether or not to go down. Josh butted in and told them to do it. On the way out of the park, Cara put on some tunes from high school/early college and the boys seat danced. It was hilarious. We then went to a great pizza place. After all of this, we went home and packed.

The next morning we realized C & T had left their camera at the restaurant and so we had to drive all the way back to almost the park. Luckily, someone was there, so we didn't have to wait for it to open. We then went to McDonalds and then I proceeded to spill all 32 oz of my soda on the floor. That took another needless half hour. Eventually we were on the road. We drove to Coeur d'Alene and spent the night after dinner on the waterfront.
Today we drove from there to home and were back by 4pm. It was a lot of driving (we think about 1800 or so miles total) but it was the best time. I kept saying "I am having the best time!" We are going to try and make a road trip an annual event. The girls did well and we all had a great time with each other. So much so that T, C, and G are still at our house tonight and we are all going to the cabin for a long weekend together. We are still not tired of each other!