Co-Workers

Survivor tonight! Whoo-hoo! Sorry, no new pictures today. We had trouble with the digital camera. Ella will be 6 months tomorrow so I thought I'd post a couple of pictures from the day she was born. My how she has grown!

Today, Ella and I met Ron at work and we all went for his goodbye luncheon with everyone from his building. We have known some of his co-workers since we've been here and met so many wonderful people along the way. It's been three wonderful years at Fort Gillem and it is a bittersweet goodbye. We are so sad to leave a good post, but so excited to be going to Hawaii.

I touched on a thank you at lunch but we are deeply grateful to everyone in Ron's building. One of his co-workers gave Ron some advice before we got married, "If your wife is happy, you'll be happy." It really goes both ways. Ron comes home from work everyday happy. He speaks highly of everyone there and really enjoys his job and the people he works with. I am thankful to everyone for making it a wonderful place to work and sending my husband home at the end of the day with a smile on his face. Ella and I are blessed to have Ron home with us, happy to be home and looking forward to another day. I know we are all thankful for the advice and well-wishes over the last three years.

Medical Miracles

Today my alarm clock slept in and she didn't wake up until almost 9am! I am loving this whole baby food thing...it must be keeping her full all night. Ella and I went over to the house to meet an appraiser for the re-financing. Then spent the afternoon doing nothing. Ella ate almost a whole thing of carrots and had some applesauce. She is really getting used to eating food and is now trying to grab my hand to guide the spoon into her mouth herself. Cheeky monkey!

At lunch last Sunday, one of Ron's co-workers told us a trick to get rid of hiccups. He said if we put a bit of red cloth on her forhead, the hiccups will stop. So tonight, after eating her carrots, Ella got the hiccups. I put the bottom of a mini raisin box (red of course) on her forehead and within seconds the hiccups stopped. I am not surprised, but am always amazed with what is probably a middle-eastern home remedy. Eastern medicine and home remedies are fascinating and way ahead of our western medicine. Who would have thought, but you should try it to see if it works for you.

Fall Season

I love this time of year! The weather was a little cooler today with a breeze. Ella and I relaxed all day...again and went for a walk in the afternoon. I had the bedroom window open and our bedroom now smells like fresh outdoors. As I kid, I remember drying my sheets on the line and crawling into bed to the smell of pure, clean, airy freshness. Yum!
Now, watching "Dancing With the Stars", I am getting excited about all the new season debuts coming up. In particular, "The Unit", "Desperate Housewives", "The Amazing Race", "Grey's Anatomy", and most exciting "Survivor"! Oooh, I can't wait! "Survivor" was a Friday night staple in Korea. My first year in Seoul, Kelly and I used to go for dinner and then come back and watch it. The following seasons, Kendall, Christine and I made a night of it and would watch it religiously over beers. I miss that. Now I have to deal with Ron asking me questions...we all know you can't talk during "Survivor"! Geesh! :)

Big Decisions

Oooh, I'm so happy the ticker worked! Ella and I rested all day today, it was wonderful. We have made some major decisions this weekend. We are shipping the Honda to Hawaii and selling my beloved Jetta. (Christin - by selling the Jetta, we get rid of a $500 car payment. The Honda is paid off and we hear drivers in Hawaii are terrible so why ruin a brand new car. Plus we want to buy a minivan as soon as we get back, the Jetta is just too small.)
We still haven't been able to sell the house. As a matter of fact, there hasn't even been anyone to look at it in the last two months. So we are contacting a property management company tomorrow and putting it up for rent. Renting will still be a little stressful but not as stressful as it sitting on the market for who knows how long. We can't afford not to rent it at this point. Maybe we will put it back on the market in a year or two. Time is flying by so rapidly! We leave for Hawaii in about 4-5 weeks. I can't believe it. You'd better be getting your plans together for a visit next year!!!!

Love It

Okay, I got this off Amy's Blog and it took me a minute to figure out how to get this placed. Hopefully it works. You should be able to see this "ticker" on the top of the blog. It will tell you exactly how old Ella is every time you log in. I thought it was soooooo cute!


We got the Jetta appraised at CarMax today and they offered us more than we owe on it. Awesome! We are going to ship the Honda to Hawaii and sell the Jetta this week. It is enough to get rid of the car note and give us a little extra. We'll get a rental car until we leave. This way, we no longer have to make payments on a car and once we get back from Hawaii, we'll succumb to the suburban trend and get us...ahhhh, a minivan! I can't wait! After our road trip, we definitely need something to carry all our (and by that I mean Ella's) stuff.

Oh So Close

Ella is doing so well and growing so much but she still can't roll over. She gets this far and then lays back. She seems totally uninterested in the whole thing and would rather try to sit herself up (she looks like she's doing crunches) than learn to roll over. Hopefully soon she'll get it.



Ella had her doctors appointment this morning and all is well. Her UTI has been totally cleared up and her little body took the antibiotics perfectly. We are going to have the ultrasound to check her kidneys just to be 100% sure. We really love our pediatrician, Dr. Ahn, and I'm glad she likes to rule everything out. She is sure the UTI was nothing out of the ordinary so not to worry.



We've started feeding Ella baby food again. This week we've had oatmeal and applesauce for breakfast, sweet potatoes and prunes for dinner. I've been mixing them and that seems to work. Today we had peas for lunch and dinner and Ella loves them. She's finally getting the whole food thing and actually opens her mouth rather than stick out her tongue. She's also able to sit up on her own as long as she's not distracted by anything. Once she looses concentration, she tips over. Such milestones today!

Computer Geek

Okay, Okay. Ella is her father's child. Could she be anything else looking at this picture?? I know they say kids these days start computers early and learn quick but the computer geek gene must run strong in this family. She looks like she'll take after both her father and grandfather. Ella loves to bang away at the computer like she knows what she's doing...smarty pants.

Tonight we had dinner with some old friends of Ron's. I can't believe Ella's almost six months and this is the first time Lorene and Megan have met her! It was nice to have dinner with them and Liz.

Tomorrow it's off to the pediatrician to check on Ella's UTI. Hopefully the tests come back clean and she is totally cured. Otherwise they'll have to check her bladder to see if it's refluxing into her kidneys and causing the UTI. All these things to worry about with babies!

We're Back!

Here we are at the Smithsonian.

Finally, we are home! It was a wonderful trip through the eastern US up to Canada. I am so happy to have seen everyone and have met some of Ron's family. It's nice to be back but sad to spend such a short time with everyone and then say goodbye.

We arrived in Silver Spring (just outside Washington, D.C.) last Thursday afternoon just in time for Ernesto to hit the D.C area. We had a great visit with Ron's Great-aunt Jean for two days and did some sightseeing in Washington. It was raining and miserable so we just drove around and went to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. We did walk through Arlington cemetery and saw JFK's grave and the changing of the guard but it was wet and had to use an umbrella to shelter Ella (later we would learn you can actually drive through it!). Look at what a big girl she is holding her own umbrella!


We really loved D.C. It's so beautiful despite the weather we had. We had dinner with Ron's Great-uncle Jerry, his son Tony, Tony's wife Karen, and Karen's son Christopher and his new fiance Kelly. Ella was so good the whole time...and so good the whole trip.

We left Washington on Sunday morning and arrived in Rocky Mount, North Carolina to visit Mary (Ron's grandfather's wife). We spent the night and headed back to Atlanta early Monday morning.

We drove straight though and got home safe and sound about 4 o'clock. Just in time for dinner. Lee grilled and we had potato salad, corn on the cob and BBQ chicken. So yummy! It was great to see Lee again (he goes to Georgia Southern University near Savannah) and see Dawn before she headed to San Francisco this week. I spent today sorting and getting the last of our things ready for Hawaii. They come tomorrow to take Ella's things and most of our clothing. As of tomorrow, we'll be living out of the suitcases we're taking on the plane. We leave mid-October (between the 12th and the 18th). I can't wait to get to Hawaii and get settled again so we can start to have you all visit us!

Au Revoir Canada

Tonight we had a farewell dinner at my Dad's. It was nice to sit in and relax. Tomorrow we head back to the US and onto Washington for a couple of days. Here's Ella with her new Baby Einstein book from my Dad's friend, Marilyn. It's been a nice visit up here and the weather has been comfortable with a nice breeze... it feels like fall and I love it! Up before the sun tomorrow... bien nuit, Toronto.

Pictures

I realized I never posted a blog on Saturday. We met up with friends from Korea in Niagara Falls for breakfast before we headed up here to Toronto. Here are some pics of Kelly, Erika and Ella at the Flying Saucer....



Tonight we went for dinner with my cousin, Lisa and her husband, Chuck and baby Amina. What a sweet pea, that one! Amina is so small, I can't believe how big Ella is now. I always think of Ella as such a little baby, but now that I see Amina, I realize Ella is getting to be such a little personality. It was a wonderful night and a great visit. I didn't get any pictures but here's one of all of us from Sunday at Ella's Christening.