The Phone Call

Well, yesterday I got the call I have been dreading for a few weeks. I knew it was coming, but still wasn't quite prepared. My mom called and told me the results of my dad's last doctor's appointment. Cancer of the Bladder. With this diagnosis, there is good and bad. The good part is that all of his scans show that the cancer is contained in his bladder, and actually can come out in urine. So, they are very optimistic that once the tumor is removed, the cancer will be as well. The bad part is that Bladder Cancer frequently reoccurs. Which means that my dad will be subjected to some really fun testing every 3 to 6 months, probably forever. Apparently, he is thankful that Polariod Cameras aren't used as the doctor's camera of choice.
Now my one concern (and I'm hoping my parents don't mind that I'm talking about this in "public") is that both of my parents smoke. From what I have seen regarding Cancer of the Bladder, smoking is a major contributor to this particular type of cancer, and can interfere with cancer treatments that a patient is given. So, if someone has smoked for as long as my parents have, and you are dealt with this kind of diagnosis, how is it possible to quit smoking? Now, I am not judging them because they smoke, those that know me well, know I have done far worse things than smoke a cigarrette. Besides, it's not my job to judge. It's my job to love them, pray for them, and support them in whatever way I can. I just worry that my Dad will go through whatever treatments he needs to to get rid of this cancer, only to have it continue to return because of smoking.
Well, I'll keep you posted whenever I hear anything more and would appreciate any prayers.

It's a Girl!!!

We finally had the opportunity to find out the gender of our baby on Tuesday afternoon. After much searching, the technician finally found 3 lines, which apparently means that we are having a girl! I am a little apprehensive about the idea of having 2 teenage girls in my house in about 13 years....a little scary. Mark has decided that he will need to have a shop built. I told him to make sure I have my own padded room next to the shop. :) We are thankful for the blessing of another daughter and look forward to the next chapter of our lives as our family grows.

LegoLand

While we were in San Diego, we were able to go to LegoLand for the first time. I think it had just opened when we still lived there, but haven't had the chance to go. What a great place for little kids! Just about everywhere we went, there were legos for Maggie to play with. Which, I guess since we were in LegoLand, shouldn't surprise me, but still. They were in places that were pretty smart. Like, when we were standing in lines, there would be a line for adults to stand in and then there would be a central play area with legos for the kids to have something to do and everyone could keep their sanity.

They also had a fun water play area that Maggie could have stayed in all day. Did I mention that just about every day we were there, the weather was in the 60's?? This particular day, I think was about 68! Gotta love California Christmases!

Super-Charged!

My really cool dad got us some great seats to the Charger/Denver game. He picked them up for us a couple of months ago, when the game was just a regular game. We were pretty excited to go being that we don't get the chance to go very often. Then, the team actually started to win and Denver started to lose and this ordinary, end of the season game turned into a Division Play-Off game....and WE HAD TICKETS!! Awesome! Needless to say, we were VERY excited to go. When we got to San Diego, my dad told us that he wouldn't be offended if we wanted to put the seats on Craigslist or Ebay and make some money...the seats were going for about $250 a seat. After thinking about it for about a minute or two, we decided we'd rather go to the game. How often would we get a chance to go to a game like this?

After waiting an hour and a half to just get into the parking lot, we headed in to Qualcomm Stadium. We met my brother and his wife, Liz at our seats and had a great time! We had really good seats and got to see some terrific plays in the end-zone and of course, the Chargers stomped the Broncos so badly that their coach was fired just a couple of days later.

Now, if only they can keep the momentum going...maybe we'll get to see them in the SuperBowl!

Christmas in San Diego

After spending our first day in San Diego getting last-minute presents, we quickly got dressed to head to the Whelan Family Christmas Eve party. As long as I can remember, my dad's brothers and sisters have gotten together every Christmas Eve. I was glad that we had the chance to go this year. We haven't been since Maggie was 6 weeks old. Every year, our family seems to grow just a little bit more. This year, there was a new addition and 2 fiancees to meet. I think my Aunt Gee counted 22 great nieces and nephews. It's always fun to see all my aunts, uncles and cousins. A little overwhelming, but a lot of fun.

My mom bought Maggie this Christmas dress and a matching one for my niece, Kayla. Maggie didn't quite like the idea of wearing a dress (she kept asking me where mine was :) ). She finally gave in when she realized that the slip underneath made a neat swishing sound when she twirled. Maybe she might give more dresses a try.

This is a picture of Maggie with my niece Kayla, and my nephews Blake and Cameron. It's hard to believe that Cameron was younger than Maggie when he was our ring bearer 11 and a half years ago.

My mom and dad bought Maggie this cool LeapFrog ClickStart computer sysetm for Christmas. She thinks she is such a big girl sitting her at her "computer desk" playing computer games all by herself.

Of course, a trip to San Diego wouldn't be complete without going to Balboa Park to ride the carousel and the train. This time, even the butterflies and airplanes were open and she got to ride those for the first time.

Road Trip Entertainment

This is a video of Maggie (and Mark and I singing back-up vocals) singing to Laurie Berkner in the car. How could I not record it?! (Thanks, Matt for helping me with the video up-load!)

Road Trip!

So, we found out that our flight had been cancelled at about 11:00 am (our flight was scheduled for 4:45pm). We packed up our stuff into the car, made a few trips to stock up on snacks and tire chains and hit the road. We got to Portland (which had been basically shut down due to snow-fall) by about 6 or 7. Because they had had so much snow, the roads were pretty bad. Not only did they have compact snow on the road, but chains had been required all day, so they were very rutted and BUMPY!! This meant that in order to get through without giving us all whiplash, we had to drive not more than 15 miles per hour. Yikes. But, we weren't going to let that stop us! No way...keep on going. :) We continued on until we got to the town of Roseburg, which was about 2 hours north of the CA/OR border. We found a Best Western and CRASHED!
We figured that Maggie would get up at her normal 7:00 am and we would get up then and grab a bite to eat and hit the road. Maggie never sleeps in, even if she is up past her normal bedtime. Not this time. Our room was so nice and dark, that I woke up, rolled over looked at the clock and saw 8:00 on the clock. Whoops! Maggie was still OUT! So, that was how our day started. A bit slow. We got dressed, went down to the awesome FREE breakfast, checked the roads on the FREE Wi-Fi, and headed out by 9:30. A little later than what we hoped, but didn't let it phase us.
We drove on. And on. And on....I think you get the idea. We didn't even get to Sacramento until about 5:30pm or so. If you know anything about the state of California and where San Diego is compared to Sacramento....then you understand the drive we still had ahead of us. We really wanted to get there...nothing was going to get in our way. We pressed on and drove into my parents driveway in Carlsbad on Christmas Eve at about 3:30 in the morning, just as my dad was getting up to go to work. We were exhausted! Mark figured that we had spent about 18 hours in the car, just that day alone.
We praise God that we made it successfully, without any car troubles and with a 3-year old who travelled like a pro. We couldn't have made it without the prayers of family and friends...and a laptop that plays movies and an iPod loaded with Wiggles and Laurie Berkner.

Change Of Plans....

The Saturday before Christmas, Mark and I packed up the Yukon and headed over to spend a few days before our flight was "scheduled" to leave on the 22nd. We had a great time visiting and seeing how much Camden and Shelby have grown.

This is what we were driving into on Saturday morning....not looking like good travel weather.

Here, the kiddos are making grocery lists. (There was so much snow, we couldn't even get out to get T.P.!!)

Okay, so this isn't the most flattering photo of us, but I thought the boys would appreciate this picture that shows both Tara and I as the computer geeks we are. However, we are being crafty here. We are practicing our digital scrapbooking skills.

Here, Aunt Tara is reading the hilarious book, Olivia, to Camden and Maggie. I couldn't believe how intently they listened!

Here is Maggie in the snow, the morning that we were to fly out of Seattle.

Apparently, Seat-Tac International is not exactly prepared for this much snow-fall, and ran out of de-icer. Our plane would not be leaving on this day. We couldn't even get a new flight until the Saturday or Sunday after Christmas. Bummer. Well, let's just jump in the car and drive! It's only 1500 miles! Can you say Road Trip?

Are you ready for the results??

Me too! Unfortunately, we will all have to wait until January 27th to find out the gender of our baby. :( After 20 weeks of waiting, Mark and I and Maggie went to Dr. Rowles' office to find out if we were having a boy or a girl. The very nice technician tried her best to find out for us, however BabyLee3.0 wasn't quite cooperating. Not that he or she was being shy, just super active and wouldn't stop squirming around. It's a good thing this baby will be active, because we don't have one of those already! :)
So, the tech suggested that we come back at the end of January for another looksy. Not just to determine gender but for other measurements....this child would NOT stop moving! She did think that the baby COULD be a girl, but told us not to go out just yet to buy pink. So, you'll just have to wait and see. Stay tuned for the update!

What Month Are We In??

So Saturday, we decided it was finally time to rake up the leaves in our yard. Our neighbors have some great Poplar trees that provide us terrific shade in the summer. However, come Fall, the trees drop all their leaves into our yard. I guess that's the price we pay for getting the shade. As much as we are disappointed that we haven't had snow yet, we are blessed in the fact that we haven't had snow fall on our foot or so of leaves that have been sitting since October. So, since I am getting my energy back and breathing better, we decided we should tackle this job. We bundled up and headed out to the cold.

My job was to rake the leaves from the corners and out from under the swingset. Mark's job was to run the lawn mower over the leaves and frequently empty the mower bag into the dumpster. Maggie's job was, well, to keep busy and stay away from the lawn mower. As I started raking up leaves, the piles began to get really tall. So, we created a new job for Maggie. She got to kick the leaves to make a smaller pile for Mark to mow. What child, or adult for that matter, doesn't enjoy kicking huge piles of leaves that have just been raked up?

It was such a beautiful (allbeit, chilly) day, that we had to keep reminding ourselves that we were in the first week of December and not the first week of April.

Every once in awhile, Maggie took a slide break while Mark and I took a coffee break.

It's a strange feeling to already be reminiscing about when she was "smaller." I mean, she's only 3 for goodness sake! But, as we were taking our break, we were thinking about when we first got the swingset. Maggie was terrified of the slide. Then, when she wanted to use it, we had to lift her up to the top of the slide. Last Spring, we were teaching her how to climb the ladder, with one of us standing right there to catch her when she missed the top step. Now, she goes up and down like she's been doing it from birth. It's amazing how fast she is growing up and how much she needs to learn from us.

I didn't intend for this to be a PSA, but these thoughts just lend itself to what Pastor John preached about last week. How have I been spending my time, especially when it comes to Maggie and her spiritual growth? Yes, climbing slide ladders is an important part of childhood....but what about the most important part of her life? The part where Mark and I are supposed to be guiding her and instructing her in the path of righteousness?

Yes, Maggie is only 3. Next year she will be 4 and so on and so on. When is it the "right" time for this? NOW. Not when I think she is "ready to handle the gospel truth."

Now.

Can I Ride My Bike, Mommy?

That's what Mark and I heard this past Sunday afternoon at about 4:00. Mark had been trying to get her back tire to stay inflated, and had finally succeeded. Maggie knew this and woke up from her nap that afternoon wanting only to know if she could ride her bicycle. I tell you, you can't tell a 3 year-old she can do something before and nap, and hope she forgets about it. At least, not this 3 year-old! After trying to explain to her that it was getting dark and it was pretty cold outside (33 degrees and dropping!) she still wanted to ride her bike. Knowing that we are pretty blessed to be in December and still even have the option of taking a bike ride, we decided we better take advantage before the snow comes...or if it comes, I guess! We bundled up and headed out.

Here she is with gloves, hat, helmet and coat...oh yeah and capris (who dresses this kid, anyways...) ready to ride her bike.

Maggie really enjoys it when Mark gets his bike out, too. Fortunately, Maggie isn't so fast that I can't keep up with her just by walking next to her. We'll see if that changes next year!

Praise God for Albuterol!

Okay, so for the last, oh.... 6 weeks or so I have been hacking up a lung or two every night at approximately 6:15 until about 7:00 every night. Now, those of you that know me know that I have a pretty high pain tolerance, which means I usually don't go see a doctor when I need to and wait until someone makes me. So, after scaring the heck out of Mark and Maggie last night, I finally called the doctor to see if what they can do about the cough. I felt kind of silly going in, considering that during the day I show no signs of my cough or any illness. I was bit worried that the kind doctor may think that I was some freakazoid that was making stuff up...(does this explain why I put off going to the doctor??) Of course, when I got there, there was no cough to be heard and when he checked my lungs he was just as confused as I was. However, he didn't think I was a freakazoid, and still prescribed me some Albuterol. I asked him if there was a way to definitely check if I had asthma or not, he said, "Well, yeah, I could send you for a series of tests. Or you can just try this tonight when you start coughing and if it works, then you have asthma. If it doesn't then we'll check for something else." Hmm. Okay, I thought. I'll try it. I picked up my prescription this afternoon and waited for 6:00 to come. At about 5:45, my cough began. I used my inhaler thingie (yes, I am now not only a computer geek, but I have an inhaler to complete the outfit...)...anyways, it is now 9:20 pm and I have not had a coughing freak-out!! Woo-hoo!! I am so thankful!! If only I had gone in 6 weeks ago when this all started......

Tagged! By Rhyan

Maggie was tagged by Rhyan, so does this make her an official Blogger? Wow..kids are more technologically advanced these days....
Name/Meaning: Margaret Noelle Lee.....Her first name was my maternal grandmother's name (not my favorite name, but I loved this grandma dearly...) Her middle name was our first daughter, Rebecca's, middle name. Her last name is Lee...well, duh.
Age: 3 years and 1 week
Nicknames: Maggie May, MagPie
Favorite Activities: "Playing" Wii Bowling, playing any board games especially Hi Ho Cherry-O, The Very Hungry Caterpillar and CandyLand, any puzzle, reading to Gary.
Favorite Foods: Cantelope (only from Red Robin...) Chocolate Milk, Bread and Butter Pickles, Cereal
Favorite Music: Song: Chicken Fried or Johnny and June (yes, our daughter loves Country Music!) also anything from Laurie Berkner.
Favorite toys: Train/Car tracks, her Lil People toys
What Makes Her Happy: One word.....Gary!
What Makes Her Sad: Being "forced" to do anything...especially going potty before bedtime.

Maggie tags Shelby (Tara) and Camden (Tara)

Happy 3rd Birthday, Maggie!

I can hardly believe it, but last weekend, we celebrated Maggie's 3rd Birthday. We invited close friends and family to Abbey's Pizza and filled their party room! (okay, so there was one guy up there no one knew....but he checked out okay with Mark's mom and dad.)

Here's our nephew Camden, eating his tiny little piece of cake. Tiny bite by tiny bite. :)

Maggie had a lot of helpers when she opened up her presents.

This microphone was the hit of the night. Who knew that a hollowed out piece of plastic with a spring could be so entertaining??

We feel so blessed to have had these years with Maggie. There are times that I get sad that she's getting older and she is not a baby anymore. She gets more and more independant everyday. And as her personality develops, we can see just what a great little girl that God has given us.

Happy Halloween....a little late....

Although this wasn't Maggie's first Halloween, it was her first Trick-or-Treating Halloween. This was even the first time she picked out her own costume, Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. She's never seen the movie. However, if you are a parent, you probably know that awhile ago McDonald's ran a Happy Meal promotion where they gave away Madame Alexander min-dolls. The theme for these dolls was The Wizard of Oz. You can guess which doll Maggie got the one time we went during that promotion . Once we saw the costume at Target, she had her mind set. Mark even splurged for the red sparkly shoes (which were probably as much as the costume...but they'll get used during the holidays...).

So, back to Halloween. Our original plan was to meet with Matt and Tara at Mark's parents house and have dinner, then take the kids out for a little trick-or-treating, just for the experience. Then, according to the plan, we were supposed to go to Westside's Fall Carnival. However, the kids were totally into the trick-or-treating experience. I think the idea of getting candy made the whole thing more enticing. We wound up trick-or-treating until the kids were too tired and houses were out of candy. What a great time!

Here's Camden and Maggie...I mean Buzz and Dorothy doing their thing.

A New Job!

Well, it's official. Wednesday morning at 10:00am, I was hired to teach 4th grade at Mountainview Elementary School, here in Yakima. I am ecstatic!! A little nervous, but very excited! The school happens to be the same school that I did a long term 2nd grade class last year, so I already knew that I liked the staff and the principal. (There's nothing scarier than going into a school without knowing at least someone!)

The last couple of days, I have been busy with district seminars so I haven't had much time in my classroom. I am very fortunate to work with some very helpful and giving people who have worked hard to make sure I have furniture in my room. (I'm in a portable that was previously a before and after school care room.) Today, I have a "New to the 4th Grade" class with a seasoned 4th grade teacher at a different school. She will be introducing us to the curriculm, report cards and such. Hopefully, between now and next Tuesday (when school starts...) I will have a chance to get into my room and organize everything, maybe get some desks for the students, write some lesson plans, put up some whiteboards, cry, weep, re-write my name tags because my class list will change, re-organize the room because "it just doesn't look right"....you know the drill.

Like I said, I am super excited about my new job. I am up every morning at about 3:30 or 4:00, wide awake, thinking about my classroom. I know I will be running on adrenaline and Folgers (maybe a little Starbucks) for the next few weeks until I get into a groove. I'll let you know when that happens.

Until then, I'll just stock up on coffee and under-eye concealer.

Are We REALLY In the Mountains???

This past weekend, Mark and I took Maggie up to the mountains to do some camping. We have been once this year with our church group, but that was at a park near a lake. We had a great time, and looked forward to some camping in the woods. Mark had Friday off, so we left on Thursday night, hoping to get a walk-in site at the mythical Ohanapecosh campground. Unfortunately, due to some fallen trees, a lot of the sites were off limits and people who had actually reserved their sites were moved to the walk-in sites. Alas, we were looking for a campground to set up our monster tent at 8:00 on Thursday evening.

We didn't have to go far to find La Wis Wis, a campground Mark and I had been to with his brother and sister-in-law years ago. We were familiar with it, and were excited that they had quite a few spots still available. So, as the sun began to fade and darkness set in, Mark was setting up our tent.

Let's go back a bit, though. Back home in Yakima, we were facing the hottest weekend of the summer (our house registered at 106.9!!) and Mark and I were really looking forward to getting up to the cool air in the mountains. However, as we got further and further up the pass, the thermometer numbers in our car did not seem to be getting lower. In fact it was still about 90 when we got to the campground at 8:30pm! Add the moisture in the air to the temperature, and we're looking at a whole lotta' fun!!!!!!!! NOT! Wow! It was so stinkin' hot.

Anyways, Mark set up the tent, we got Maggie to bed and we sat and relaxed in front of the glow of our lantern. No way were we going to start a campfire in that heat!! The next morning, Maggie was anxious to ride her bicycle around the campground, so she and I went for a little walk. We didn't get far, when we noticed a campsite about 3 down from ours that was quite a bit bigger and a little more secluded. It happened to be open, so Maggie and I went back and told Mark about it. After hemming and hawing, we figured since Matt and Camden would be joining us, we should move to the larger site. Mark and I threw all our stuff into the Yukon, tossed our air mattress on top and carefully drove to the new site. We walked back to the old site, unstaked the THREE ROOM TENT and carried it, YES, CARRIED it to the new site. Needless to say, we got a few glances from our camping neighbors.

Once our move was completed, the heat started to set in again, we found our way down to the river. Whew! What a difference some passing ice water makes in the temperature! It was a good 10 degrees different down by the river! We stayed for awhile and Mark taught Maggie how to throw rocks into the water. We spent most of the day down at the river, we even brought down our chairs and set them in the water just to keep cool.

That night, we did light a small fire to roast some hot dogs and cook some s'mores. Maggie really likes all the components of "the s'more," but for some reason, when you put it all together, she won't have anything to do with it. Go Figure.

On Saturday, Mark's brother, Matt came up with our nephew, Camden. It was Camden's first camping experience, and we were very excited to be a part of it! We thought it would be fun to pile in the car and go up to Mount Rainier for the afternoon. Of course, we all thought it would be quite a bit cooler, but again, we were wrong. From what I understand, it was one of the hottest days on record up at the visitor center. So, we had some ice cream, looked around for a bit and then headed back to camp. When we got back, we took Matt and Camden down to the river to throw rocks and cool off. Aside from Maggie nailing Camden in the back of the head with a rock, I think we all had a great time!. ;)

Again, that night we lit a fire and roasted some hot dogs and made s'mores. Here is a picture of two very tired Lee's, ready for bed.

The next morning, it was much cooler.

Of course, because we were on our way home!

Some Things Never Change...Or Do They?

So, I was looking through some pictures tonight, and came across these of my nephew, Cameron. Mark and I took Maggie to San Diego this summer and I have told friends about how shocked I was to see how much Cam had changed. I know, I know, that is HAS been 3 years since the first picture was taken (October, 2005), but still...he looks totally different!

I did think it was funny, though that he has the same intense look on his face in each picture. And of course, each time, he DID get the brass ring!

San Diego Bay

This is kind of out of order, but hey, just be happy I'm getting my updates, in, right?

On the Sunday of our trip, we met with some of my Aunts, Uncles and cousins down at San Diego Bay. I always like to visit with family, unfortunately, it never seems like there's enough time to visit with everyone.

Maggie had fun digging in the sand. Give her a shovel, and she's content for a good hour at least. She really wanted to go in the water, but after mommy and daddy discussed it, we decided ug, I mean, uh, no..

This is what a little girl who has had too much fun looks like. She hardly ever falls asleep in my arms, and after playing in the sun and the sand, she just passed out. !pobrecita!

Weird Al

Okay, Okay, so I am a dork. I honestly thought Mark would have blogged about this concert, but I guess I will have to.

Mark and I had the, ah hem...privilege to see Weird Al at our local fair last summer and when we saw that he would be playing at the San Diego County Fair while we were there, we figured we had to go, and we had to take Cameron, too.

You see, I had no intention of going to the concert last summer, no offense, Al, just didn't have any desire to go. However, I do love my husband and thought that I should go because he wanted to go. We almost didn't get to go last summer, but thanks to some friends of ours who saved us some seats (the concert was free), we were able to see it. I have to say, this guy is a great performer! He really did put on great show and was very entertaining.

So, when the opportunity came to see him and take our nephew with us, we had to do it. Mark introduced Cameron to Weird Al when Cam was only about 3 or 4 years old. Cam was infatuated with Star Wars and Weird Al had just come out with a few Star Wars parody songs, Cam loved them. We had to play them over and over again any time he was in the car with us. When we asked Cam if he wanted to go to the concert he was so excited. When we go to the concert, he was so excited. He decided he had to call one of his friends to gloat about being there, and lo and behold his friend was sitting in the same box seat section that we were, just 2 rows behind us! Thousands of people at this concert, and this kid and his family are within the 25 or so in our box. Amazing. Needless to say, that made Cam's night even better. Good Times.