It bothered me that much that I took Aubrey's right earring off to get it healed and closed up.  Tonight, we were able to get Aubrey in to have her right ear piercing redone (and they did it for free).  Of course, she remembered and knew right away what was happening as soon as the lady cleaned her earlobe and she panicked (but after a few minutes of crying, she did good).  Anyway, her ear piercing looks A LOT better now.  It is now centered and proportioned (I am such a perfectionist when it comes to some stuff).  I am relieved and glad.  I know having her right piercing off like that would bother me for the rest of who-knows-when.  I'm glad we finally decided to redo it and get it done.  I also don't want her to have regrets that her mom (me) didn't fix her piercing when she gets older and it becomes more noticeable.  You know girls and fashion/jewelry :)

Hope everyone has a nice sleep and Sabbath rest / weekend.

Usually Laurie is the one to post on the site, but tonight I felt it was my turn.

These past few months have been extremely busy for me personally.  Between Hexagon Metrology and Black Tie Solutions, I have put in more hours every day/week/month that I really care to admit.  So many hours of work acutally, that I havent spent more than a few days outside this entire summer.  If I was single, that wouldnt be much of an issue, but having a beautiful wife and two beautiful children, this is a little harder to balance.  Fortunately they understand and know that it will not always be like this.  Regardless, I've literally been stuck behind a computer monitor every night after I get done with long hours for Hexagon so I can get to work for Black Tie Solutions developing my client sites.  Most nights I've been getting to bed between 1 and 3 am.  That doesnt make it very easy to wake up early in the morning to go to the office for Hexagon.  Even still, I love my career, working both for Hexagon and for myself.  I take pride in what I do, I work hard and fast, and try to provide the highest quality service.  I do my best to make sure my employer and my clients get what they pay for.  In the end, I'm still left feeling a little tired and wore out, and even a little grumpy at times.

I'm writing my blog, Kimmy-style! :) I stuck a couple more updates below.

A New Pet

Jordan and Aubrey have a new pet -- a baby bunny!  We decided to call her (it's a she according to Jebby) Butterscotch, because of her color.  She is a pretty and cute little bunny.  You will see in the pictures (when I put it in later).  Jordan pretty much does good with her... though he is learning things that he should NOT be doing with her.  He's managed to drop her, put her in containers, under the blanket with him, let her ride their bounce-and-spin Zebra toy. ride Aubrey's bike, stuff in a boot. etc.  At one time, he told me that Butterscotch needs to be "warmed up".  And then, he proceeds to stick her in the microwave -- the kid's play kitchen's microwave.  I was debating whether I should allow him to proceed with his plan or not... Anyway, he stuck her in the play microwave and closed the door.  He pretended to push some buttons and then made the sound.  After a few seconds, he took her out and exclaimed -- "She's all warm now"!  My microwave is high enough that he can't and won't be able to reach it -- I hope!  I did give him a little talk as to why he really should not be doing that to a bunny or to any animal for that matter.  Jordan's a funny and imaginative little boy.

Feast Preparations

So far, so good.  The countdown is 12 days til the day we leave.  Jordan and Aubrey's paper chain looks soo tiny and short now compared to when we first made it.  There's just a couple more things that I need to get and do... and then the big task of packing it all up is planned for late next week.  I still need to call up our bank/CC company to let them know we will be overseas so they won't think the charges we are making on our card are fraud and block our card.  Also, we need to unlock our cellphone (or get it in roaming -- whichever), so we can still use our cellphones while in the Philippines, and lastly... I need to put a hold on our mail at our local post office for the days we are away.

I got the stroller that I ordered today -- it's the Joovy Caboose Ultralight Stand-on Tandem stroller.  It looks pretty cool.  Right now, I just took it out of the box but haven't assembled it yet.  I'm waiting until Jeb comes home so he can put it together for me -- I don't want to deal with the complications of assembling it together.  I'm sure I can figure it out, but it'll be so much easier if I just waited :)  So, I haven't test-run it yet.  I was going to attempt to put it together so I can test-run it and take the kids to the park this afternoon, but I decided against it. =P  Maybe later on this afternoon when Jeb comea home from work, we can try it out.  Jordan and Aubrey already knew where their places were.  I had it up and standing (without the wheels) and Aubrey automatically sat in the front and Jordan went to go sit in the back.  It's pretty cool.  I think the kids will like this stroller.

Also, I got my box of goodies for the kids at the Feast.  I ordered a bunch of little different things (coloring/activity books, crayons, stickers, glow sticks [they love this!], bean bag animals, little toys, canvas totes, etc) from OrientalTrading.com so I (with the help of Jordan, Aubrey and Tephi and Aunties :) ) can assemble a bag of stuff and hand them out to the kiddos at the Feast.  I'm pretty excited!  We'll have quite a bit of baggage to bring over =P  I asked my brother Charlie and confirmed it with my dad how many kids are expected at this years' Feast and they said about 170.  Whoa!!!  That's a third of the population of Feast-goers.  I asked them to have the age cut-off at 11 or 12 years.  It went down to about 50-70.  That's a little bit more manageable, but still quite a bit.  I guess we'll just have to "prioritize" in case I don't have enough for everybody.  I don't think infants need a goody bag yet.  But we'll see.  This is something that Jeb and I have been wanting to do for the kids at the Feast (especially when we go visit the Philippines) -- to make their Feast a bit enjoyable.  When people (and kids) are happy... we are happy -- and that's what makes a Feast a best Feast ever for us.

[Note: Meryl or Mom, if you are reading this... we want this to be a little surprise for the kids, so let's just keep it hush for now, thanks. :)]