Catching Up!

Since things got off to a very rocky start after landing in the U.S., we had a lot of cathing up to do while we are here with my parents.  I don't know of any other way to include everything over the last few days except to make a list...so here goes!

1) Took the kids to see Cars 2...the kids had a great time eating all the popcorn and wearing the 3-d glasses (too bad, Cars 2 isn't as good as the first one!!!)

2) Shipment was weighed and packed up!!!!! YEAH!!!

yes, the movers actually bring an electronic scale

before the movers packed it up

3) Took the kids for a picnic at a local park.  Jeremy keeps asking us when we get to go again!:)

4) Lizzy had her fist cleaning at the dentist!  No Cavities!!!! ( and no tears!!)

5) Mom and Dad's friends came to visit us....great food+ great friends= great time!!!:)

6) Of course, there was time for swimming!!:)

7) And bike riding!  Lizzy is riding a "big girl bike" now!:)

7) Went to church on Sunday and heard some interesting questions:

     Jeremy: " We eat Jesus???" as his eyes were wide and he looked shocked.  ( After hearing the priest explain what happens during communion.)

Elizabeth:" Why do we drink the blood?" she asked me loudly during mass with her face looking really disgusted. ( After hearing the same thing Jeremy just heard.)

In case you haven't guessed it already, we are Catholic...looks like they will have great questions for their Sunday School teacher.....oh wait...that's me!!!:)


8) Jeremy lost another tooth!!!:)  (Second one so far!)

8) Then, there's the tales of Lizzy.:) I know I will never have to worry about her doing anything she doesn't want to do.  Yesterday, we were at the playground, and there were some little boys there who were running around and not playing nice.  She told one of the boys that she was three.  He told her he was four.  She screamed at him that she was three and she was older than him.  He looked at her and screamed at her that he was four and that he was older than her.  She yelled at him again and then pulled up the short sleeves of her shirt and stood right in front of him( with her chest puffed out) and said, "Look at my muthles (muscles)!!!!" The little boy stared at her for a little bit and then went go get some of his friends.  When they came back over near her she started kicking at them and said," My mommy knows karate!" (I do take karate class, but that is for another post) as she was kicking in the air.  I don't know where she gets it...but she always makes us laugh!!:)

sumo wrestling???

Just wanted to share a little snippet with you of what is happening over here.:)  Hope you are all having a great summer so far!:)



Extraordinary Ordinary

For the first time since I arrived here in the U.S. almost three weeks ago, I finally feel like I can take a deep breath and completely exhale....I have to say that I never really truly appreciated being able to do that before this trip back home.  The past few weeks have been full of worry, anxiety...there were just so many unknowns....

But, now....things are extraordinarily ordinary...and I have to say that I am LOVING it!!!:)  This week since Jeremy has been home from the hospital, we have just taken it very easy.  I am proud to say that I have finally finished the inventory for my sea shipment which will be packed up on Monday ( had to be delayed amid all the chaos), and the kids are loving their "ordinary" life right now. My mom is home with us and out of the hospital, and we can just enjoy visiting with each other now. We've had afternoons by my parents' pool and fun with bubbles...just ordinary summer things.:)  It's funny how I had taken them so much for granted...

There is a saying that my aunt shared with my brother a few years ago and I don't know who wrote it, but I thought I would share it with all of you...

"Yesterday is history, Tomorrow is a mystery, Today is a gift...that's why they call it the present."

I hope that you can also make your ordinary today extraordinary.:)

playing catch in the pool

feeling so much better!

having fun!!!



bubbles!







more bubbles!



My Lucky Stars

I haven't been on the blog(very obviously) for a while...things got a little really crazy around here for a while. When you have a sick mom who was admitted to the hospital on June 7 and then a sick son who you thought had strep throat and gave him antibiotics on Friday and then on Saturday and Sunday saw the antibiotics weren't working when he had a fever of 104 which wasn't being controlled by Tylenol or Motrin. Then, you take him back to the doctor on Monday morning and he gets two shots of antibiotics in his legs and another one to take orally while you are trying to calm him down and dry his tears. Then, you get him home and his stomach hurts so bad, he can't walk so you call the doctor back and explain that the fever just isn't going away. Then, you get scared it could be malaria...and then doctor calls the infectious disease doctor at the nearest children's hospital and tells you to rush him over for the blood test because that may be what he has. You carry your son into the ER ( trying to hold back your own tears so he won't see you cry and get even more scared than he already is) and they take blood (while he is screaming) and examine him and he is screaming about his belly hurting and they take him for an ultrasound and discover he has a ruptured appendix, and he goes into emergency surgery at 6 a.m. after staying in the ER all night. Yep...that's a recipe for crazy all right!!! But, after the dust has settled and my close friends and family had my back the entire time ( Thanks to all of you!!!!), I am thanking my lucky stars that this happened here and not in Nigeria...the outcome could have been very different...but we won't even go there..

Here is my sweet smiling boy after a few days in the hospital and he was feeling better!:) He was in the hospital for 7 days on IV antibiotics because his appendix ruptured. I dont know how he does it, but God gave us angels for nurses and doctors to take care of my little angel.:)

 He just came home yesterday.:) He can't swim just yet (per doctor's orders), but we couldn't keep him out of the wading pool. I am so happy to see him smile again. When your child is in so much pain, all you want to do is make it go away, and I am so happy it is gone!!!:)

So, today, I am thanking my lucky stars for my mom and dad and brother for helping me take care of Elizabeth while I was practically "living" at the hospital with Jeremy this past week. Thank you to the nurses and doctors who took such wonderful care of Jeremy, and thank you to my husband and all of my wonderful friends and family for all of your love and support. I couldn't have gotten through this time without all of you there for me. For all of you, I am thanking my lucky stars!:)

14 Words

I have been absent alot on the blog lately since I arrived in California.  Things have been a little crazy around here...but, I think I can sum up my absence in 10 simple words...

Sick daughter

Sick son

Sick husband (in Nigeria)

Sick mom ( in Hospital)

Packing shipment

Okay, so, that was 14 words.....I have always been a very "wordy" person.:)

Hopefully, I can sift through this huge mess and get it ready to go by the 20th.:) 

It's not like riding a bike...

When I first got here with the kids on Saturday, my dad asked me if it feels strange to be here again while we were driving down the highway.  I told him, "No, not really."  He looked at me a little strange and said,  "Really? It's not different for you not to sit in traffic with people trying to sell you things?"  Then, I thought about my parallel life and how in Nigeria, Nigerian things are "normal" for me and in the U.S., American things are "normal" for me.  For some reason, it isn't strange to drive a car even though I haven't driven in six months.  It isn't too weird to walk into a grocery store and see such fresh food and clean floors...those things feel like getting right back on a bicycle....you never really forget.:)

But, I do think living in Nigeria has caused some serious atrophy to my neurons to allow me to operate a credit card machine to pay for the groceries.  I swear, the cashier had to reset the machine four times until I realized which buttons to push for "credit" and "accept"!!! Now, that is something that didn't transfer over to my parallel life!!! (Darn that cash system in Nigeria!)  But, I plan to give those neurons a very serious daily workout while I am in the States.:)

I had planned on going on about some other silly things that were giving me a little difficulty...but I just am not feeling the "funny" coming on tonight.  Some of you know that my mom has had several health problems over the years ( and especially lately) and today,she has another one.  She is back in the hospital and hopefully the doctors there can figure out what is going on.  She has been in and out of the hospital so much that you would think it is "old hat" for me.....like getting back on a bike and riding it down that road like so many times before.  But, every time she is in the hospital, it feels like I am learning to ride the bike over again...will this one have brakes to stop? Will the bike chain break?  Will I fall off?  It's funny how some things which seem so familiar are the hardest ones to understand.  Tonight, I am feeling like it's not like riding a bike...when she's back in the hospital, I have to relearn every time.

Craziness- Part 2

Making juice for Sunday breakfast

Why couldn't she do this on the plane???

What do 28 hours, a 103 degree (Fahrenheit) fever, 2 small children and two airplanes have in common????

A trip back to California from Lagos.

Let's just say, I've had better plane trips....

Maybe that is the understatement of the year...

It was a pretty tough trip this time...

Poor Elizabeth...antibiotics and every four hours with Motrin and Tylenol punctuated with a bout of vomiting somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean...

She is just like her dad...she can't sleep anywhere but her own bed...

Jeremy was a great helper finding the luggage twice..once in Atlanta and again when we landed in San Francisco.:)

I was glad we made it...I have to admit I think there was more than one two three four or five times I really didn't think I'd make it ...let alone the kids...

But, we did!!! And, after Jeremy slept from 2pm Saturday thru until 6 am today (with a 3 a.m. snack of a bowl of cheerios) we do have some smiles on our faces today ( I wish I could say that Elizabeth slept like that!!!).  Elizabeth is under the weather...but it shouldn't be anything a good 'ole American doctor can't fix.:)