Our Busy Life

--- written Labor day weekend -- Seems like time is just flying by.  I always intend to update the blog every week and it seems like the time just gets away from me.  So much has happened since the last post I'll try to catch you up on what all I can remember..

  

We had a great day at the Lake with my sisters.  The boys are really turning into ducks in the water.  Cheng has always loved the water, even in the tub at home he'll be content to stay in there forever if I let him.  It was all we could do to get him out of the water long enough to get on the boat.  Which is exactly where he always make a b line for when we get to the lake.   Nian is growing more comfortable in the water, which we are loving. While we are teaching the boys to respect the water, we also want to make sure they know how to enjoy it.  Nian was so excited to be able to touch the bottom at our swimming hole and even walked around with Uncle Tom without his turtle floaty.  Of course both boys Always wear their life jackets, even though Cheng would prefer it off.  Much like his mom at that age….. 

Last Saturday we took the boys for a much overdue visit to Dutch Village.  It'd been about a month since our last visit there.  It was busier than we had seem in prior visits but the boys did good with the few waits we had.  They just love going there.  Later that day we headed to cousin Kristi's to watch her girls.  Boy Ava and Cheng are two peas in a pod..  Busy, busy, busy…..  They had fun playing with new toys.  We headed out to get some dinner and have a picnic at the Airport park.  The kids loved rolling down the little hill and watch the planes coming and going. Ava found a few too loud, but she still had a great time.  The park there is really nice, so it's always a neat treat to head over there. They should have the observation desk open again too.  I remember going to that deck as a little girl on the rare occasions we'd take someone to the airport. Can't wait to see how it looks now.

BEEP BEEP Buss boys coming through get outta the way!!

Sunday the 27th brought us to our 6th month since Gotcha day.. I was hoping to make some homemade Chinese food but the day got away from us.  Both boys were tired from the prior day's activities and one of them was "touch" grumpy…  yikes.

This weekend we dropped the boys and Isabel off at my sister Brenda's and headed out for Joe's nephews wedding in Binghamton, NY.  It was a first for all of us.  I'd only been away from Nian twice since and those were my annual trips to Frankenmuth.  Both times he'd stayed home with Joe.  We've never been gone from both boys together, ever…..  Nian was super excited because they would be "camping" in Aunt Brennies living room. We got his pillow and blanket set up in there and he promptly told us Good Bye!!!   Oh little boy don't break mom's heart and be in such a rush, but of course I couldn't say that.  I won't want him to be afraid to go on his own away from us like that.  I want them both to be excited about the new adventure and enjoy the time.  Nian told us on the ride there that he was really excited and that we (Joe and I) could enjoy some peace and quiet without him and Cheng.  Love this kid…  Sometimes he seems much older than his 4 years.. Once we got the boys settled we headed back home to finish packing and tidy the house a bit.  I always like to leave the house clean when we go so I don't have to deal with it when we get back.

He's ready to go.

He wouldn't get out of the van even though we were just putting
our stuff in there and not leaving for another 30 mins..

Our ride out was it's own adventure.  We headed to Joe's parents to get them and brother/sister in law to head out.  It was a good but long day.  Most of the scenery we had seen before on our travels to Virginia, for me, and DC.  Once we got off the turnpike it was all new territory. Cleveland didn't see that big, at least not as big as you might think, or I thought. Well really when you've seen the cities in China believe me NOTHING here is "big"…  Pennsylvania was beautiful as usual, and New York was all rolling hills. I wish we'd had a chance to stop and explore a bit more, as is our usual custom when Joe and I travel, but we weren't traveling along and we really needed to reach our destination.  Rest stops……  Some of the best views and information I've gotten during my road travel here in the US have been at Rest Stops.  Or as NY lives to call them Text Stops Rest Stops…

Who knew I'd have to drive to Ohio for my first Pumpkin Spice Latte???

Rest stop I believe we were in New York, by Jamestown where Lucille Ball is from!

It was great to get picture updates of the boys today (Sept 3rd).  They headed to a bowling birthday party for Cydney.  First time bowling for Cheng so I told Brenda take LOTS Of pictures.  The both had a great time and Nian even got the high score.  Later we learned they went to breakfast, the farmers market, and also got to play at the park later in the day.

We made it to the hotel and got checked in with a few minutes to relax and freshen up before we headed over to the Welcome dinner.  It was great to see Vince and Alina, as well as the rest of the Buss family.  We haven't seen the boys in so long.  We also got to meet some family friends we've heard so much about.

The view out of our window is like VA and CO. Mountains all over, or are they rolling hills?  I don't know but it's so different from home. It's a little rainy here so the clouds are coming in all misty over the hills and the town seems to be tucked in between them. It's pretty quiet except you can hear the shower in the room next door, but at least you can't hear the people. Shew…  It's beautiful here and I wish we could spend more time exploring. 

Well Joe is sleeping in for a change today.  My "sleeping in" was til 7am..  But I was asleep before 10pm so I'll take it, no middle of the night interruptions.  Which I'll say now that both boys slept all night and until 830am yesterday at my sister..   That's just wrong.. WHY can't they do that at home?????   I should get moving here. We are so excited about todays events and can't wait to watch Vince and Alina become Husband and Wife.  I'm not sure if we have internet service here so I'll update the rest when I can and get it posted…   

-- updating 9.10.17 ---

We were able to walk around the town a little before the wedding.  I was starting to get a cold so off to the CVS we went for some cough drops.  Then we checked out a little park and  a walking bridge.  Still raining and chilly but it was fun.  The wedding was beautiful, full of laughter, family, fun, and especially love.  We all had a great time, and headed back to the hotel to get some sleep before the long drive home.  We were all in agreement to head out early so we could miss as much traffic as possible and we of course wanted to get home to the boys.

Foggy morning when we headed home. 

 A few weeks before the holiday weekend I took the van to the dealer we got the car from to get an oil change.  When I got home and looked at the paperwork I saw they noted we had a screw in one of the tires.  Not very happy that they never bothered to tell me that.  I had taken time off of work to do this so I wouldn't' have 2 busy toddlers with me in a small waiting room.  To say I was mad would be an understatement. Especially with our New York trip coming up. I miss my service guy at Kool Chevy...   Anyway, we got it fixed and then I noticed this bad boy after we got back home.  Luckily it wasn't on the new tire we got..  Joe took it in today to get repaired and hey didn't charge us a thing since we bought a tire from them.  Gotta love it.

They both had a great time at Aunt Brenni and Uncle Brinas and can't wait to go "camping" again.  Nian even wants to try real camping outside We'll have to see about that one.....

A few weeks ago I was able to pick up my ring.  I am so happy to have it back.  It's a little different design since it now has a half bevel to hold the stone and that moved the diamonds out a bit.  But I like it and pray this will be the end of our ring issues.  This is the 4th emerald we've had in this ring.

One night last week we got Aunt Shellee and headed out to papa and mimi's to pick some fruit off the trees in the orchard.  The boys had a ton of fun picking up the ones I dropped from up atop and even being able to pick their own.  Can't wait to hit the orchard this fall .

This past Friday Nian had his cleft lip revision surgery done.  It was a bigger surgery then either of us expect and it was a bit longer too.  We had Cheng with us, yeah I don't know what I was thinking either....  He was pretty good for most of the morning, but then he hit his limit, and frankly I did too......  Had I known we wouldn't be leaving the hospital until 3pm I would have made other arrangements for him.  We won't make that mistake again.   Nian is feeling good today, his lip and face is still quite swollen but he's able to talk more and he's eating good. Liquids for now.  We get to head back to the hospital on Thursday to get the stitches removed. That was a surprise to both of us, I mean I knew he'd need them removed but we didn't know they would have to put him under to do it. UGH....   This child of ours has been through so much already in his little lifetime.  While we wouldn't change anything about Nian or his special need, we are thankful that we do not have to repeat any of this with Cheng.  It takes a toll on this Mama's heart to see any of her boys hurting.

Tomorrow would have been Nian's first day of preschool, but  obviously he will not be able to attend this first week.  He was really looking forward to the new adventure of the Fantastic 4's class this year.  I took a few hours off of work last Thursday so he could check out his class room, meet his new teacher and her assistant, and have some fun.  There are 11 kids in his class this year, and about 8 of the are from his class last year.  It's nice to see some new faces too.

As you can see I have been meaning to update the blog since last weekend.  That's just how crazy our life has become of late.  And I don't expect it to slow much either. lol. oy vie. Fall is right around the corner and that bring so many activities as well.  We can't wait..

Thanks for stopping by, we appreciate you continuing this journey with us, all the love, support, and prayers. If you could keep Nian in your prayers this week we would be thankful!  Blessings to you all.