First Day of 1st Grade

Today Leonard, Gavin, and I took Kaleb & Noe to their first day of school. School actually started on Thursday, August 14th, but we didn't arrive back in Taiwan until August 15th. They were a little nervous to be in new classrooms with new teachers and new friends, but they quickly found some old friends to play with on the playground and jumped right in.


This year Noe will be in Ms. Hobbs' class. Her friend Julia has been in her class all 3 years which makes Noe quite happy. She also has Ainslee & Cedric from Ms. Yamazaki's class and Sheryl & Tansy from Ms. Paetzold's class with her again. 2 new little boys moved into our ward this summer- Evan & Danny and they are also in her class. (Danny was in our ward in Canada and they used to play together when they were babies).


Kaleb is in Ms. Walter's class this year. His friends Berkeley, Anica, & Katrina from Mrs. Winter's class are with him again. He also has Minji, Lucy, & Bridget from Ms. Yamazaki's class with him. Noe was quite upset about this and wanted them in her class again. Thank goodness they all get to play together at recess. I think we're going to have another fun year!


This is from the second day of school, but it was the first day they rode the bus this year. My big kids are growing up so fast!

Gavin misses his big brother and sister while they're at school, but he loves walking to the bus stop each afternoon to pick them up!

Home BitterSweet Home

It's 3:14 in the morning and my family and I are all wide awake, yep we're jet-lagged! We left Vegas Wednesday night at 9:23 pm. We flew to Seattle and then on to Taipei. After 17 hours of travel time, and another 15 hours of time change, we arrived Friday morning at 5:20 am with our 5 carry-ons, Gavin's carseat and stroller. However, our 10 suitcases did not make it. Of course, this makes me nervous as all of our back-to-school clothes & shoes, some Christmas presents, and my birthday presents are all packed inside. They are estimated to arrive Sunday afternoon, and I sure hope everything makes it safe & sound.

It's nice to be home and to sleep in our own beds, but I already miss all of our family and friends SOOOO much! I'm excited to see my friends in Taiwan, but sad too because several of them moved away this summer. I really can't believe that we're at the beginning of our 4th and final year here. The time has gone so fast.

My foot didn't fair too well on the flight over. In fact my left leg was swollen from my toes to my knee when we finally landed. I'm anxious about Monday with Len going back to work, the kids starting school and activities, and I still can't walk for long periods of time. We're thinking of getting a helper until I am well again, but I don't know if anyone would want the job for only 2 months. I might fly my little brother, Kristopher over to help too. Hopefully, we'll figure something out so life can continue as normal as much as possible. I hope you've all had a great summer! I can't wait to get caught up on all of your blogs!

Time for goodbye

We had a wonderful summer in California, Idaho, and Nevada, but unfortunately it's time for us to head back to Taiwan. Some family and friends came over to say goodbye.






Our little family sure will miss everyone when we're home. Thanks for a great summer everyone!

The incident regarding the toe

I've already shared the story of my broken toe and elbow, so now here's the pics:


Here we're home from Urgent Care where they told me I had a severely broken toe, but that they couldn't do anything to fix it.


My sore elbow and swollen right arm & hand. Remember, at first they told me it was just sprained. 4 days later they called back, "by the way your elbow IS broken, but we can't help you fix it."


After my surgery I was bandaged up for 11 days.


Every hour I had to ice my foot for 20 minutes. This cryo-cuff was very handy.


The doctor finally removed my bandages and stitches, and my foot seriously looks like it should be on the Bride of Frankenstein. Now I'm still in recovery wondering if the day will ever come that I can walk normally again- ugh!

May I offer you a drink?

I got lemonade and milk.


They're both really good.


OK, you can have the lemonade because I'm drinking the milk.

Visit to the Salon

Mom and I went to the salon to get our hair cut and colored. I wanted a cut like Paige Davis' new look, but the stylist didn't want to cut bangs for me. For now that's fine, but I'm getting bored with my same look and may still cut them in the near future. We had a fun girls day out.


Everyone thinks my mom is my sister. I agree that she looks young, and I think she's beautiful. I hope I age as well as her!

First Outing

After my stitches were removed, we finally used my wheelchair for something other than transporting me to & from the bathroom. We went to the mall to do a little shopping, and then we grabbed some dinner at The Olive Garden.

All's well that toe's well!

This morning I saw the fabulous Dr. Competent. I thought he was going to x-ray my foot, but instead he removed all my bandages and took my stitches out! My toe is still swollen and basically my whole foot looks like it belongs to the Bride of Frankenstein, but it feels so much better now. He said I can go ahead and fly home anytime, but that my toe will be in excruciating pain when the cabin pressurizes on take-off and depressurizes for landing. We came home to rebook our tickets, but the earliest we could get for all 5 of us is this Wednesday night. We won't arrive in Taiwan until Friday morning, so the kids will miss the first 2 days of school. I'm sad we'll miss the Lion Dance on the first day, but I'm happy they don't have to miss anymore! Plus, I'm happy to have another week with Leonard. I'm going to record my doctor's instructions here to help me remember:
I still need to ice and elevate as much as possible to prevent/reduce swelling and the pain from swelling.
I need to keep my foot dry for the next 2 days, and then for the next week it can get wet in the shower, but I can't wash it until the week's up or go swimming, etc.
In 2-4 weeks I need to have x-rays taken in Taiwan to make sure everything is healing properly.
For the next 4 weeks I have to wear my post-op shoe and only put weight on my heel when I walk (but yea! I can walk again =).
After 4 weeks I can slowly put weight on my whole foot, while still wearing my "special" shoe.
Once there is no pain in my special shoe, I can start transitioning to my regular shoes for a few hours a day.
Hopefully it won't take too long until I am walking normal and pain free again, however he said I may have swelling and discomfort for up to a year.
I am so looking forward to a pedicure once my foot is "normal" again!

Big Load coming through

Did someone order a big load of baby? Oh, I did. I love you Gavin!

Rub-A-Dub and Snuggle Bugs

At home, Gavin usually just showers with Daddy. While we were on vacation he had fun taking baths with...


...Isabelle,


Isaac,


and Noe & Kaleb!

Kaleb & Noe shared a crib until they were 6 months old, but since then they've always slept in seperate beds. While we were in Idaho they shared an air mattress, and it was so cute for me to wake up each morning to see them all snuggled up together.

They did the same thing in Nevada. I love my snuggle bugs!

Couch Potato, Lemonade, & Coconut Cream Pie

I just wanted to give a little update. I had my surgery on Tuesday, July 29th. After 4 1/2 hours at the Surgery Center, I now have 2 little screws holding the 3 pieces of my bone back together! I am now still in my "recovery" of elevated foot bed rest. My doctor told me he wants me in bed or on the couch with my foot elevated between my hip and heart at all times (while icing it 20 minutes out of each hour), unless I am in the bathroom, and when I bathe my foot needs to be wrapped in plastic resting outside of the tub. My parents have 2 tubs, but they are both upstairs. Their downstairs bathroom only has a shower stall, so needless to say I make quite a mess each time I use it. I am trying to be a good patient and follow doctor's orders, but it is SOOOO hard! I am seriously starting to sprout eyes on my couch potato body! I am trying to turn my lemons into lemonade though and have got to read A LOT of books.


Today I finished the Twilight Saga, and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I'm a sucker for happy endings and she did deliver that. However, the middle had 3 main parts that I can only describe as gruesome, incest, and fizzle. I know those are harsh words, but that's honestly how I felt while reading it. Now that it's over I am sad to say goodbye to characters that I've come to love though. I think I would like to be a member of the Cullen's family in my fantasy world.


My sister Amanda gave me this to read last week, and I loved it. It's about 2 Polish, Jewish children set in World War II. The author was clever in following the traditional fairy tale, but bringing it to life. I could see this story as being the real thing that the fairy tale followed in legend instead of vice versa. It is set in war times though, so of course there are very hard scenes. However, this war brought out the worst in people and I know that stuff really happened.


Historical fiction has to be my favorite genre. Continuing on the World War II theme I started reading the Children of the Promise series. The stories are built around a fictitious American LDS family and what they went through during the War. They also follow a German family who also joins the LDS church right before the War breaks out. These books terrify me, because it clearly illustrates how bad things happen when good people do nothing to stop it. The Nazi's and the Gestapo and all under Hitler's reign were horrifying people and I am so glad I've never had to live through anything so terrible. I just hope and pray I never will have to either.


I took a break from the series to read Breaking Dawn, so now I will return to it to read the last 3 installments. The saga continues in the Hearts of the Children series set during the Vietnam War. I will have to read that once I finish Children of the Promise. Thanks to my mom and sisters Mandy & Eri for letting me borrow their great books!

*Some more updates. Dr. Thorough looked at my arm x-rays and advised me to sling it for 10 days and the hairline fracture should heal properly. Since my arm was already broken for 4 days before the urgent care doctor could read my x-rays right, and since my toe was broken too and I couldn't do much anyway I've never got a sling. My arm is feeling better and hopefully it will continue to heal without it.
Leonard was able to take Emergency Family Medical Leave and flew to town last Friday night! After 6 weeks of separation it has been wonderful to be in his presence again. My family has been great taking care of me and my kids, but they have their own jobs and lives too. Plus I feel a lot more comfortable asking my husband to wheelchair me to the bathroom, instead of my 18 year old brother.
Friday night my sister Erika and her new husband Tom also came to town for the weekend. It was so great to see them again, and for Leonard to get to meet Tom. He fits into our family so well already!
This past Monday was my 33rd birthday. Originally, we were going to be back in Taiwan with my Lee parents and Kristopher. The day was a family holiday in Canada, so Len would have had the day off from work. We had planned on going to Hualien so I could make a big check on my life list and swim with dolphins. Obviously, that didn't happen, but I still had a great day. We had Fausto's Mexican food for dinner followed by a small birthday party. Papa, Mom, Len, Kaleb, Noe, Gavin, Amanda, Coleman, Kristopher, Aunt Debbi, Duff, Leslie, Megan, Dayne, Jamie, Erica, and Jack celebrated with me while we enjoyed my favorite dessert- Marie Callendar's coconut cream pie. I also got some lovely gifts, but I'll just mention my favorite one now. Leonard spent about 33 hours making a movie that is 33 minutes long entitled, "Jennifer Lynn - 33 beautiful years." He took pictures of me all throughout my life with my family, friends, hobbies, travels and set it to an awesome soundtrack of U2, Coldplay, Sarah McLachlan, Dave Matthews Band, Gwen Stefani, and Enya songs. It made me cry and feel so loved. I hope all husbands out there make their wives feel as happy as mine makes me!
I wish I could start uploading our pictures of our summer vacation before my accident to my blog, but that will have to wait until we are back in Taiwan. I did order another birthday present for myself which will be arriving soon- a new Canon Power Shot SD870IS. I am so excited!
Until that arrives I'm looking forward to this Friday when I go back to the Podiatrist and hope he has good news with a travel date for me to return back to Taiwan. As much as I don't want to leave Vegas, my kids do start school August 14th and my husband will need to go back to work and I can't wait to walk again too!

Happy 33 to me!

Originally, we had planned on taking the kids to Hualien to swim with the dolphins on my birthday. Now, I don't know when or if that will happen. But, I did have a very nice birthday still. I spent most of the day in my usual position on the couch with my foot iced & elevated. I had a great book (Breaking Dawn) to read though, so that helped to pass the time.

The best thing was that Leonard flew back to the States to help take care of me and the kids and we got to be together.

We had a small party with our fam, Aunt Debbi, and the Stewart's.

I received some lovely gifts- jewelry, bubble bath, gift cards, artwork from the kids, and my favorite- the DVD Len made me. I like birthday cake and ice cream, but pie is my favorite, so we also had some of Marie Callender's to celebrate- yummy!

Eri & Tom came up for the weekend to see Leonard, but they had to go back to Salt Lake the day before my birthday. It was still great to see them, and I had a great birthday!