Kamryn Update

On the 23rd we took Kamryn for her yearly visit with her specialist. There is really no change, one side was still at a 2 and the other went barely to a 1--not significant. When we started this process 3 years ago there were three options, take medicine and see if she outgrows, out-patient surgery and then surgery. We talked about it then and decided we would give the medicine a couple of years and see if she outgrows, well it has been 3 so we are moving to option 2. We are going to call the doctor to get it set up to do the diffusion (I believe that is what it is called), this is the out patient surgery. They are going to insert a gel that will move the tube from her kidneys to her bladder to an angle like it is supposed to. Once she has the surgery she will only have to take medicine for one more month and then no more taking medicine every night. Also, she will need to do yearly ultrasounds but no more VCUG's unless she gets another UTI. The VCUG is that horrible procedure she has to go through with the catheter--this is what I am looking forward to. We don't have a date set up yet, but wanted to give a quick update on what we are doing next.

Okay, all the shopping is done, most of the baking and I will get to the little decorating later--so I can post some of the pictures.

Lets start with my seat on the long flight, or actually my "pod". If you are ever going to travel for a long distance and you have a chance to fly Singapore Airlines Business class--do it, only way to fly. Below are the pictures of our seats, we basically had our own little area to ourselves and the back of the seat would pull down and then you had a flat bed to sit on--they even turn off all the cabin lights for the "lights out" period. After they feed you like a 4 course meal. I also had lots of movies, shows and music to choose from.

At the hotel they had this big train presentation set up. It was really nice, we were sort of surprised about all the Christmas decorations and festivities we saw over there. There were 3 train tracks that went around the gingerbread village--I would just watch it sometimes when I was waiting for my co-workers.

Here is a view from the hotel, some of the days were overcast. Overall the temperature wasn't too bad, it was not quite as warm as Houston in the summer, but believe it or not--more humid. There was only one day there that we had a lot of rain, otherwise dry just overcast--we were working overnights too, so we mainly just saw the evenings.

One of the girls that traveled with us is from Iran and had explained to us the "squatting" toilets, but until you see one--won't know what to expect. Below is one of the squatters, not really what I thought it would look like. You actually stand on it and go to the bathroom, it is safe to say--this is the closest I came to it, never got brave enough to try using it. They also use the hose on the right to clean off when done instead of using toilet paper. Just a different way of doing things I suppose. We learned when we were out in public, the first few stalls were the toilets we are used t0, the last few were the squatters--we learned to avoid. The picture below is of one of the squatters at the office.

One one our days "exploring" the city we went to China Town and Central Market--this is where you can bargain and good deals, realized we weren't not much of hagglers. We did find this new fish therapy. For 5RM (which is roughly $1.50) you can have these fish eat the dead skin off your feet for 10 minutes--we decided what the heck. Well we realized why so cheap, takes 8 minutes to actually get our feet in the water. Felt really weird and we did a lot of giggling, it really tickled. Below is me and one of my co-workers (Nooshin) that was traveling--we both did the "treatment".

Nooshin and Me

Our feet in the water

Downtown there are these 2 towers, they are called the Petronas Towers and at one point in time they were the largest buildings in the world, now they are like the 4th largest. There is a bridge between the two towers to walk across, we never got a chance to do that. At the bottom of the towers is one of the malls in town. One thing we learned while there is they like to shop. I think there were shopping malls everywhere. We went to like 4 and we found out there there were more.

Below is a picture of the towers with the mall at the bottom. We had to go out of the mall across the park and to a bridge to try and get a picture of the whole towers. They were massive and we were told beautiful at night, but didn't get a chance to go down there at night, maybe next time.

The trip was very nice and I would go back again--it was such an experience and even though I missed my family incredibly--I would never change the fact that I had this experience. The only thing I wish I could change is be able to experience with my family.

Greetings from Malaysia

Good day from the other side of the world. No pictures yet need to wait to get home to my personal computer--but I wanted to say Hi and give an update of my experiences. So, lets see--I have apparently eaten sardines and then I did willingly try squid rings. The food is interesting here, but I am a bit confused why Asians are so small--they fry almost everything. They also don't believe in boneless chicken or deboning before cutting. I have also had ice cream with beans and corn on the bottom. But all in all been a good and fun experience. Another thing apparently they enjoy here is shopping. We have been to at least 3 very large malls and apparently we are missing more. So you know I am loving this. But are you ready for it ..................................... I had fish nibble at my feet. Yes, you read correctly--there were fishing nibbling at my feet. There is this new fish therapy where you put your feet in this tub of water and there are these fish that nibble all the dead skin. It cost 5RM for 10 minutes (which is about $1.50). We realized why it was so cheap--takes 8 minutes just for us to get over the tickling, but once you get passed that it was actually pretty neat--and our feet were softer afterwards. I have successfully taken the trains and not had panic attacks--yes Zayne no attacks at the train station. We took the train into town and saw the towers, we didn't get to go up--but they are just awesome enough from the outside. There is a mall that sits in front of the towers and then there is a park in front of that -- was really pretty. Getting a bit sleep deprived. Last week we worked 10pm to 7am so we can work US hours--then we tried to get on Malaysian time to go sightseeing. Then Monday and Tuesday of this week we worked 10pm to 7am and then on Wednesday we worked 3pm-midnight (after getting off work at 7) then tomorrow we work 8am to 5pm, just in time to go back. Not that sleeping during the day is hard enough to begin with, but tack on construction work. There is all kinds of drilling and banging going on all day. So, that is why I am getting extremely sleep deprived. So that is about all for now--I will try to post pictures when I get back!

Polar Express

I know I am verrrrry behind on my blogging, and so much has happened I need to catch up-but I will do that later. We had an exciting day and in a week I am leaving for a trip across the world, will take pictures and try to post. Saturday we took a ride on the Polar Express and met Santa Claus. It was so cute and Kamryn LOVED it, I think Kyle kind of enjoyed it himself too. We took a plane ride up to the North Pole, on the way we had hot chocolate. When we got there Santa Claus came on the train and met the kids and passed out bells. Kamryn of course was her shy self, but started to warm up. On the way back we sang songs and danced in the aisles. It really was a lot of fun and Kamryn really enjoyed herself. She watched the movie over and over again on the way up to the train depot and back, almost made it awake all the way home--but not quite, she fell asleep on the way home. It was worth the drive to see how happy and excited she was. Below are some pictures of our adventure. Coming soon.....Thanksgiving and Malaysia.

When we got there they took a picture with The Polar Express in background

Train getting ready to leave

Kamryn looking for The North Pole

Kyle and Kamryn both looking for Santa

The North Pole!!!!!!!

It's Santa!!!!!!!!!!!!

Santa came by and said HI (or HO HO HO)

Kamryn dancing with the chef

Kyle wanted to dance too :)

Kamryn Meets SpongeBob

Okay, so anyone who knows Kamryn knows she really likes Sponge Bob. Well tonight she had the opportunity to meet the "little guy". A friend of mine from work came too, her son loves Sponge Bob too--unfortunately they were both scared to go near him. Sponge Bob was making an appearance at Chick Fil A today, so we made the trip--along with half the neighborhood. It actually looked worse than it was, we only had to stand in line for about 20 minutes. Below are pictures of our little adventure this evening.

Look who it is -- SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS

Kamryn is not real sure about the guy

Would only stand close enough for picture with dad's help

Kyra and Karter with SpongeBob

Kamryn's First Dance Recital

Little late on this, but better late than never. Kamryn started taking dance classes this summer and a couple of weeks ago they had their first recital. Actual dance lessons don't start until about 5, for the 3 & 4 year olds it is more like an intro dance with the Disney Princess', she was Sleeping Beauty. It was so cute and so much fun watching her each week learning the dance. She loves it too, on days we don't have class she will point out the building and tell me that is where she takes dance. She has one more week off and then they start back up. Below are pictures from her first show, hopefully many more to come.

Ready to go mom

Daddy and Ladybug before the big show

Mommy and Baby Cakes before the show

Here we go--sachet!

Aren't I graceful

The class lined up

Not real sure

The cute little twirler!!

Sleeping Beauty

Good job, now turn around and go the other way

Ms. Ruth and the dance class

The Wedding Pt 2

Okay, I am going to start by saying--bear with me, really could not decide on the pictures so there are a lot. First up, we are dressed and ready to go be the best flower girl. I kept getting a shadow in the picture, so not the best, but you can still see how adorable she was.

Here we are on our FIRST limo ride. She really did not know what to expect. She was unsure so mommy rode with her the first time. She seemed to kind of like it, but it could be because she got to ride around without a car seat.

Day was so back and forth with the rain. The limo took the girls to an area to wait while the guys were brought to the park. It was raining while we were in the limo, we got and waited on main street and it stopped. It actually even got a little cool, things were looking up. We got back in the limo and drove to the park, I got out of the limo to quickly get to my seats so they could walk in--and the rain starts again. But, Kamryn did GREAT. We figured they would walk in an when the bridesmaids went up on stage Kamryn would sit with us--nope, not our girl. She walked right up on stage and stood there like a perfect angel with the bridesmaids. We never practiced walking out, no problem--she did great again. I didn't get any pictures of her standing there--since it basically rained through the whole ceremony. Of course it stopped when the ceremony was over.

Kamryn with daddy after ceremony--she was so proud of herself.

After the ceremony the wedding party went to take pictures at other locations and would meet back up at the reception, Kamryn was welcome to go if she wanted--she wanted. Brian and Amanda said she did great, I think she really loved being a "big" girl. Here they are getting to the reception.

Now introducing Brian and Amanda Hake

Here comes the princess with her daddy

Here is the groom with his very proud mom!

Now we all know the best part of weddings--party time, and no loved that more than our 3 little terrors. Once we got to the reception hall all they wanted to do was dance and none of them ever wanted to leave the dance floor. They were so cute.

The three of them exploring and showing off.

Keelan got some solo dancing!

Kamryn LOVED twirling her dress.

Keelan dancing with her mom (when she allowed it)

I was trying to help Kamryn and Angela dance together.

Up next--group dancing--notice we are the only ones out there :)

Kamryn loved the dancing, starting to wind down--but did not want to quit.

I am not tired, I want to keep dancing!

As the girls started winding down they looked to daddy/Uncle Zayne for some rest but yet could still dance. Zayne really got his work out this evening--but he loved every minute of it.

Aren't they just the cutest, I really love this picture.

I am really not tired, but I will lay my head down--just for a minute

Dance with me daddy!!

Twirl me and throw me up in the air daddy!

Thank you daddy--I sure do love you

Okay, now I may be getting a little tired. Can I just lay my head here for a minute.

I may look like I am ready for bed, but I am still just catching my breath for more dancing.

See, back to dancing!!!!!!

Oh look who came to help daddy, I gotcha sis!

I just loved this, they love each other so much and you can really tell.

Even with all the rain, and other "little" challenges that we all faced this day--it was great. Besides the most important thing is that Brian and Amanda are married, they were happy and had fun.