Where we've been the past five days

We just got back yesterday from celebrating Steve's mom's birthday at Disney World. We all flew in on Thursday, spent Friday at Magic Kingdom, Saturday at Animal Kingdom, and Sunday at Epcot, and flew back Monday. Matt and his family also visited Disney's Hollywood Studios on Sunday, but we opted to return to MK with Rebecca one last time instead. There is only one roller coaster that she is tall enough for, and we rode it with her four times in a row!

This was a last-minute trip...we planned it in only four weeks, and got great military discounts on lodging and tickets thanks to Matt's 10 years of service in the Army. Rebecca and Gracie were free since they are still under 3. Matt just got a medical discharge and they are living in Tulsa with Gran and Grandpa until they move back to Korea.

Rebecca's favorite part was getting to meet Winnie the Pooh and friends. I will post more pictures later when I get a chance to go through them and collect them from everyone else.

Family Fun

Steve's brother Matt and his family and Gran came to visit us Saturday through Wednesday. It was Spring Break for all of us, and we wanted to hang out with Matt's family before they move back to Korea.

We went to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, where Rebecca and Gracie got to ride ponies, and Yeo Rae got to ride a mechanical bull.

We also toured the Space Center, which I would like to go back to when Rebecca is a little older and able to appreciate more of it, and when she will be less likely to get car sick (she christened Matt's car with massive amounts of really gross stuff...the fifth time in the last three months she has gotten car sick).

The rest of the time, we had fun playing Phase 10 and eating good Korean food, courtesy of our friend Jung's mom, and JiEun (Matt's wife). Rebecca was very attached to Yeo Rae (age 9), just like she was last summer, and wanted her to hold her, hold her hand, help her get dressed, sleep with her (to which we said no) and pretty much everything else.

Rebecca and Gracie had fun jumping on the trampoline together and shared lots of toys and hugs. Gracie calls Rebecca "Baby", which is really funny since Gracie is 8 months younger; but Steve's mom says it's because Gracie has been looking at lots of pictures of when Rebecca was a baby, and Gran referred to Rebecca in her baby pictures as "Baby Rebecca." Makes sense. But we could not get Gracie to say Rebecca or Becca. She did, however, on the last morning they were here, address Rebecca as "sister" in Korean. Very sweet!

More pictures will have to wait...it's late!

the light at the end of the tunnel?

It has been five weeks since I was diagnosed with allergies, and I must say that I have had a significant improvement in my level of functioning. I noticed it just a week or two after I had been taking allergy medications and attempting to reduce the offenders in my diet by at least 50%. I was hesitant to say anything at first, because I wasn't sure if the improvement was for real or just a short-lived fluke. But I think I can officially say now that during the last month, I have felt better than I have in the previous 3 1/2 years! Not that I have the normal function of a healthy 29-year-old...far from that. But I do feel incredibly better and more able to enjoy everyday life. My challenge now is not to push myself to cram in everything (social events, household projects, cleaning/organizing, etc.) that has been put on hold ever since I was pregnant. I am not doing a very good job of that so far, but at least I am still functioning well on less sleep than I should be getting.

Praise the Lord!