Coburn Kids

We’ll start off with my poor lil’ 4 year old, Adessa.  On Thursday it was her turn at the Dr.’s office and she got her kindergarten shots. She was so brave!  She didn’t cry or let out a peep once. I’m so proud of her.  The next day and so on has been a different story.  Adessa had a bad reaction to one of the shots and you can see her red, tender and extremely swollen arm below. It’s hot and the skin across it is tight and shiny from the swelling it hurts her to move it as well:

Now in terms of the great news… OUR HOUSE IS UNDER CONTRACT!  It’s so unbelievable that we were able to sell it in just 1 month. Daniel and I have talked about how we knew that we were supposed to come out here to IL, that it was the right thing to do.  And we knew that our home in UT would sell or that everything would work out but you always have those doubts and fears. We close around June 19th on it and what a huge relief and blessing it is! We had neighbors whose homes were on the market for 1 year+, in fact we still know one or two that haven’t sold.

Daniel and I are very happy right now!

So I was reading a friend’s blog today, about her daughter calling her the worst Mommy in the world.  This was both my daughters Gena and Adessa the last week.  I was the worst mommy, Gena was never ever going to give me a Mother’s day present (I asked her to clean and she refused to pick up her mess). Then Adessa had an accident yesterday and refused to change. So I’ve won the “worst Mommy in the world” award twice in 5 days. Though yesterday at the Doctors they both composed songs about me being the best mommy in the universe so all is forgiven apparently.

What made me write about this though is my 4 year old and what she told me. This is a serious case of a spiritual lesson gone horribly wrong!!  Adessa threatened that when she grew up, just to make me mad, she was going to smoke!  Wait… what?  The lesson 2 weeks ago in primary was about the Word of Wisdom.  How we should take care of our bodies and never smoke, never do drugs, eat healthy, exercise.  All the good stuff.  Except now my 4 year old daughter is threatening to SMOKE when she gets older if I don’t let her have her way. This is the worst way to punish me in her eyes I guess. Talk about a Primary lesson turned upside-down! I’m terrified of this girl when she becomes a teenager.

I had a wonderful Mother’s Day.  It started on Saturday when I went to the salon and got my hair done.  The on Sunday Genevieve gave me a beautiful plate and Adessa and Daddy gave me storage containers for my China that I’ve been asking for.  Daniel made me breakfast and later in the evening we went to my Sister-in-law’s house for a great barbeque.  The kids had a blast playing with their cousins and it was good times all around.

On Monday I took Gena and Caden to their new Doctor.  3 finger pokes, 3 shots, 2 physicals, 3 referrals and 1 exhausted Mommy. Gena doesn’t do shots well.  At… all.  The mere mention of a shot starts off a panic attack in her. All my kids are healthy, the Dr. couldn’t believe how big Gena is, she’s not even on the growth chart for her height.  She’s seriously tall.  Obviously she does not get this from me.

I have Adessa’s Dr. appointment coming up on Thursday which should prove traumatic for her and I. She has to go in for all her Kindergarten shots, as well as a TB test (out in IL all kids get tested for TB), and some finger pokes.  I expect a full scale meltdown.  Hopefully, maybe, not as bad as when Gena had to get her shots done for when she was starting Kindergarten.  That took 4 nurses to hold her down and me crying along with her. If that child knew obscenities she would have cursed and screamed every one. Instead the worst she could scream was “Bad Doctor” over and over again.

Fun times.  Fun times.

Starting on Friday, the girls were driving me crazy wanting to do something so I told them to get their swimsuits on.  Not to go outside though, considering it was 50 degrees.  You see, we have a big bathtub.  Huge.  So I told the girls they could swim in it. They were really skeptical but ended up staying there for 2 hours. They loved it!

Notice that Caden is holding a doorstop in his hand.  He takes them ALL off and walks around with them.

On Saturday we went to the Brookfield Zoo!  The girls had a blast and so did Caden. It was nice and cool so was wonderful to walk around. Pics below:

Caden’s very first ride!  We had to pry him off at the end, he absolutely loved it.

Ahhhh, look at how happy they all are!

In the kids Zoo brushing the goats.

Looking up at the T -Rex in the Dinosaurs Alive exhibit.

In the Kangaroo pouch.

Gena hugging the giraffe.

On Sunday the girls wanted to ride their bikes so we headed outside in the backyard to ride around the pond.

Gena!

Adessa! 

And last but not least, here’s what Caden was doing while the girls were riding their bikes.  The pantry was left open… he started helping himself. 

Every single day it’s been raining.  We’ve had 2 days of sunshine and the rest has been cold and dreary.  I do have to say how green everything is though, after living in UT and TX the green is a nice change but the weather is depressing.

Trying to get Caden some new therapists is proving the nightmare I heard it was. I was told back in UT by some ladies that to get services started again it would take 2-3 months in Chicago.  I talked to his wonderful therapists at the time and we hoped this wouldn’t be the case since Caden clearly qualifies and has been in Early Intervention since birth. Apparently not.

On Tuesday I was told Caden was having his evaluation for EI services, turns out the woman was only coming out to go over paperwork.  It took all of 20 minutes because I all ready had filled out all the paperwork beforehand.  Now it seems it’s going to take 1-2 weeks for them to even call me to set up his developmental screening.  And who knows when that can take place because apparently they are swamped and there are no openings right now, there was even talk of a waiting list, so his screening could be 2-4+ weeks away.  Once the screening is done by the Occupational Therapist, the Speech Pathologist, and the Developmental Specialist, from that point they state that services can take up to 45 days to start.  So we are indeed looking at a 3 month wait to start any type of therapy with Caden because of the bureaucracy. Despite the fact that he just had a developmental screening late Jan. and we have a Family Service Plan all ready.  Ugh.

Caden is so far behind in speech, it is absolutely painful to lose 3 precious months waiting for paperwork to be done. I think I’m going to explore private speech for him and see what our new insurance can cover.

So my goal for this year was to simplify my life.  Funny.  Things are more complicated and busy then ever right now with the move and just settling in.  In some strange way I need this stress in my life though, I function well under stress.  Better then without it as a matter of fact.  It keeps me focused, motivated, ready to take on anything and everything.  Where when I have no stress, things are just creeping along, I lose all ambition and just want to lay around.  So I’m actually thankful to have all these happenings in my life.

I promised pics so you can see some below!

Gena is loving school.  Truly and honestly loving school.  Everything is “terrific”. She loves the bus, loves her teacher, loves her class and is just adjusting so well!  I was so worried about her being the new girl. You can see a pic of her off up there on her first day of school. Adessa cries every day that Gena leaves for school because she wants to go to.

Above is Adessa’s new sitting spot, she’s taken over my laundry baskets. Oh!  Best part, kindergarten in Adessa’s school district is for the entire day. That makes me really happy, more so that I can schedule Dr. appointments for Caden and that Adessa can play with her friends and learn all day.  Right now she is just desperate for a playmate and Mommy can only play with her so much during the day.  Plus, she wants to get on that big yellow school bus so much.  I can see that gleam in her eye whenever Gena gets on or gets off it.

The kids have been having a great time exploring their new digs and the new neighborhood.  Below is a picture of Gena and Adessa doing a “cooking show” with their Easy Bake oven.

Then there’s the neighborhood kids, of which there are a ton.  Lots of boys and little girls. They all congregated outside in front of our house tonight.

And here’s Daddy and Caden watching them.

So much to tell, not able to do pictures yet either but suffice it to say we are all here in one piece.  Driving 1200 miles in 2 days with 3 kids… NOT RECOMMENDED. They actually did pretty good, only 2 or 3 melt downs, but hey, I was about ready to melt down as well after being stuck in a car for 10+ hours a day.

First off let me do a round of thanks to our wonderful ward members in UT who helped us move (especially JJ who is a genius apparently at fitting things into a moving truck), to my brother Ryan for moving and helping us chuck 1/2 our house into a dumpster.  To my sister-in-law, who was the fire I needed (seriously, if I could have that motivation every day I could perform miracles!) to stay on task and work me to the point of collapse. To my lilttle brother for driving with us, giving my husband a break, helping me to laugh and to load and unload the truck (only 1 more time Jason!)  To my parents for taking the time off work to help us move, drive with us, unpack, watch the kids, keep my sanity and a million other little things that made it all possible. To the new neighbors here in IL who have been so welcoming!  To our new ward members who helped us move in and whom I’ve met at church. To my in-laws who unpacked, kept the kids out of the way of heavy moving/falling objects. To my new neighbor Vito who has all ready helped us slide around one disaster by fixing the sump pump that flooded our basement. And a special thanks to Dix, Nebraska for showing us where all small town horror movies get their inspiration from.

We’re still a bit bummed to have had to leave UT and all the wonderful neighbors, ward members and my family, but we are settling in and really enjoying IL.  Not the weather though, which has been rainy, gloomy and biting cold. We got Gena registered for school, which was a task in itself.  You  have to prove your entire family lineage, show every identifying information that you possess that the spawn next to you is indeed your offspring, produce all tax records for the last a decade, give a DNA and blood sample, have your child thoroughly examined by every doctor/specialist/therapist/nurse in a 10 mile radius and then finally a utility bill. Wait…  a utility bill?  How can I produce that I just moved in 2 days ago?  Oh, call the utility company to see if they can print something off for you.  Call all of them, and am told that nope, we can’t print something off until you receive your first bill. As an alternative the school asks you to produce an IL driver’s license with your new address.  Great.  Drive down to get one.  Wait… I have to have a utility bill to get a license?  IT’S A VICIOUS CIRCLE!! The gas, power and water company hold all the power.  You can’t register your child for school without a utility bill, you can’t get a driver’s license without a utility bill, you can’t get a bank account without a driver’s license.  It’s a conspiracy.

We got it all settled though and today she took the bus to school.  We live a 1/2 mile from the school, apparently in her district everyone is bussed.  Gena was thrilled though to get to ride on the bus.  She is loving all the different things at her school like music class, Gym (they had P.E. at her old elementary but here, since they only have 1 recess a day, they have Gym every day as well). She attends a K-2 school right now.  Next year she’ll go to the 3-5 grade school which is right next to it.  Interesting they do that but perhaps better then doing portables and year-round schooling to fit all the children. We’re getting Adessa registered for Kindergarten as well and she’s excited for that.

Caden is being clingy.  You can’t put him down.  Whenever he sees me reach for my jacket he starts to cry, the poor boy thinks I’m going to abandon him or something. He was starting to get a bit of seperation anxiety when we left UT but this whole move has just bumped it up a notch.

I’ll try to get some pics up tomorrow!

So my kids told me I should tell more about our trip to Chicago on the blog.  The thing is, I took pictures of absolutely nothing relevant! So here are my pictures from my trip to Chicago.

First up is “The Blue Monstrosity”.  We named the car.  It was a requirement when I saw it.  I apologize if you love your Teal Blue PT Cruiser but honestly… being able to pick out your car from 3 parking lots away in a downpour is not my cup of tea. Great for a rental car though admittedly.

Next up is a picture of Daniel in the airport.  HAHA!  He doesn’t even know I took it.  He was talking to my mom at the time on the phone as well, in case you were ummm… wondering. This picture serves as proof to my children that airports are indeed boring places and not glamorous at all.  Look at those people in the background, having the time of their lives.

Next up, I thought it would be cool to show my kids a picture of us above the clouds in an airplane.  The 7 year old was not impressed.

“Look at this picture Gena!  See how cool that is, we were above the clouds.”

“Mommy… you just turned the camera upside down.”

“Wha… NO I DIDN’T!  That’s an actual picture of your Daddy and I in a plane above the clouds!!!”

“Mommy, if you turn that picture upside down it looks the exact same as from the ground. Why is that neat?”

*grumble, mumble*  I give up trying to impress my kids.

After a whirlwind couple of days, Daniel and I are back from our house-hunting trip to Chicago and have decided on a home!  Which was a heart wrenching experience trying to choose one as the original house we decided on we changed at the last minute.  We just didn’t feel comfortable and the one we eventually picked just kept popping into our minds so we decided it would be best not to ignore that feeling.

The kids had fun staying with Grandma and Grandpa and 4 days really is my limit of spending time away from my kids I found out.  I was dying to get back and be with them! We got all our paperwork for the new house signed today, checks sent off and now just have to worry about packing and selling our current home.  I have pics below of our new house.  The girls rooms are really cute, one of them is bright pink (for Gena), and the other is flowers (Adessa) and then Caden’s room was a guest room but it’s done in Maroon and Gold:

Daniel and I leave today for Chicago and we’ve been working like mad on our house! We met with the real estate agent on Tues. so we’re all set to start that process going.  So this week I’ve been taking pictures of the house and getting it ready to be sold.  One of the challenges in selling an empty house, as we will be doing, is it’s so hard for a buyer to picture what the house will look like with furniture.  So Daniel and I decided it would be best to do the house pictures before everything gets packed up.  I have to get a better picture of the outside now that the trim, mulch and everything else is done.  As well as to include the garage.  Just waiting for a nice sunny day! Figured it couldn’t hurt to put our house up here as well, who knows who might see it!

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Beautiful rambler home, 3 beds, 2 baths, priced to sell quickly
4318 Silent Rain Drive, South Jordan, UT 84095

$294,500

Rambler/Ranch style, stucco exterior. Built in 2005 with open flowing floor plan. Kitchen-Great Room combo, warm neutral colors. Stainless Steel appliances, island in kitchen, Corian counter tops, upgraded cabinets, pantry, recessed lighting throughout. Master suite has walk-in closet, double sinks and garden tub. New carpet throughout. Huge open basement with 2100 unfinished sq. ft., total square footage @ 4200. Attached 2 car garage w/ opener. Walk to Temple, churches and elementary school. HOA covers amenities such as gym, boat rides, basketball/volleyball courts, park/playground, swimming pool, lake, community events and more! Minutes from movie theaters, grocery stores, shopping and restaurants. Buyer/agent to verify all info.