curse the captain

Ugh, I ate Captain Crunch this morning because my hubby lovingly poured me a bowl and now my gallbladder is taking it's revenge. It wasn't on my diet. Well, only two more days until it comes out. I am nervous about my surgery because they told me they have to pump my abdomen full of air to get the abdominal wall off of my gallbladder so they can cut it out and pin the opening, and also I really, REALLY want an IV in my arm and NOT my hand (it usually ends up in my hand because of my rolling veins). So yeah, if you could just keep those things in prayer... bleh, I'm going to go lay down.

Traveling with Tots

I have been wanting to do a blog about traveling with two young children. When we first left for Hungary in Fall of 2009, our daughters were 2 months old and 2 years old. These are things I wish I would have had then, that would have made my life a whole lot easier, but now I have them, so I hope they work out the way I think they will. 

Inventions that should make traveling with toddlers easier:

This is the "Traveling Toddler Car Seat Travel Accessory" 

Yes, they could have shortened the name, but this is still a really cool invention! I was looking at those carts that you put your child's car seat on to make it into a stroller, but man, they cost $70!! This simple strap that works with your child's car seat's LATCH system turns your carry on into a stroller!! And it only cost me $12 new on ebay including shipping!

This is a photo from a user on Amazon where this product
has 213 reviews, most of them 5 stars!!

The second thing I found is ideal for my 3 year old. In case you didn't know, a lot of airlines require that your child be in a 5 point harness up to a certain age, plus it's just safer. Instead of making your trip crowded with an unnecessary car seat, here is an invention that I purchased for Ksena. It leaves more room for her, and it's light and easy to carry onto the plane. My first thought was, man this is expensive! It retails between $70 and $80 brand new. But, I was able to purchase a used one for about $20 cheaper than the retail price, and when I got it in the mail, I was impressed with the high quality of the buckles and straps. This is the "CARES Child Aviation Restraint System" and turns the regular airplane seatbelt into a 5 point harness.

This pictures is from the manufacture.

I also found a butterfly pillow at Target that has a strap that we use in her booster seat, that I plan on strapping onto the upper strap so she can sleep comfortably. 

Something else I want to add is that we have decided not to travel with "Infant in lap" anymore because after checking into it, I found too many articles of plane accidents where the parent lived and baby died. I don't want to deal with that, for me it's worth the extra $700 for peace of mind. Yes, that is a lot of money, but it will make traveling easier (infant in lap is definitely NOT ideal... speaking from experience) and can you really put a price on your child's safety?

I would however still recommend that you request bulkhead seating. Of course, now airlines are charging for you to choose your seat, but I think it is worth the peace of mind for you, and everyone else on the plane, knowing you won't need to repeat, "Stop kicking the seat in front of you" for 12-20 hours each way. Plus, extra leg room, which means more wiggle room for your little ones when you are giving them a break from their seat. If it is a shorter flight, you might not care about that. I would probably not pay extra to choose seats for a 4 hour flight.

Another good thing which most parents know anyway, bring things to occupy your kids. My daughter didn't really like reading books on flights, but she loves to color, so we let her do that. It's also nice that they have those little TVs because we can put on cartoons or kids movies. You might want to check what will be on so you can check movie reviews to see what will be appropriate for you child BEFORE they watch it :). I would also recommend finding some child headphones. And pack snacks!! This is really important, especially if you have special dietary needs (my daughter can't have dairy).

My last recommendation about specific air travel: British Airways is GREAT with kids and international flights. I have never encountered a BA employee who did not ask if there was anything they could do to make the travel experience better for my kids. I know they are just doing their job, trying to keep the other passengers happy by keeping babies from screaming (the best they can) but to me, BA flight attendants seem to really mean it. Also, for missionaries and doctors they will discount your ticket on what is called a "humanitarian" fare, and I don't know if this is still true, but last time we traveled under this fare, we were able to take an extra check bag free per ticket!

I hope this was helpful!

Bible meets Breakfast

Every morning when I wake up, I feed the girls, make myself a breakfast shake (this morning it was half Attain from Melaluca and half Slim Fast because I needed to finish the can of SF... that is the only thing I can have in the morning that does not hurt my diseased gallbladder), and then sit down and read my Bible while drinking my shake. This morning I decided I wanted ice in it so I mixed it all together in a blender. While I was reading 1 John 5 I drank half of my smoothie. It was about being assured of our salvation in Jesus Christ and towards the end it talks about people in sin, and distinguishes that there is a sin that is unto death, and we shouldn't tell people just to pray about it. Then I went to get the second half of my smoothie and there was a little bug floating on the top. Normally I try not to kill bugs because my husband kills enough bugs for both of us (Ksena does too!), but I couldn't do anything for the poor guy, he was covered in sticky smoothie and he couldn't move. It reminded me of the sin that leads unto death, because the only thing I could do was rinse the half-dead bug down the drain as I washed the blender out. The smoothie was too much of a temptation for him and he gave in, and it lead to his death. That's like when we are living in unrepentant sin, we don't resist, and we don't feel bad about what we are doing. I thank God for the conviction that comes from the Holy Spirit. It's like next Thursday, they are taking my gallbladder out because it not longer does what it was meant to do, it doesn't work properly, it's actually hurting my body more than anything, so they are taking it out. Sin hurts us! We need to do everything we can to get it out of our lives. Of course we know we are going to fall short and sin, that is our nature, but we can take everything out of our lives that we know causes us to stumble, whether it be television, certain books, whatever. That was just my thought for today. God bless!

i let it slide again...

Sorry about the lack of updates! Things have been really busy and they are about to get more busy! We are going out of town this weekend to the married couples retreat at Costa Mesa, someone sponsored us, and we can't figure out who because only like three people knew we were thinking about going. God is so good!! I went to see the surgeon today and Thursday I can schedule my surgery, so that is exciting, and the surgery is going to be cheaper than we thought, still not cheap, but hey, we'll take what we can get!!

We were able to share at Calvary Christian Fellowship Ventura this weekend, and it was so awesome! They are such a cool church and we were so blessed!! We are really looking forward to our relationship with them in the future!

In other news, I was able to see Brandon's old jeans online (he lost 100 lbs and I am selling his old stuff on ebay!) and buy the airplane seatbelt/restraint that we wanted to get Ksena, that way she doesn't need a car seat and has more room, plus that's one less car seat we have to carry through the airport! We also got this thing that attaches Kati's car seat to our rolling carry on bag, and acts like a stroller, GENIUS!! Now we don't have to lug anything around and we can check the stroller with our other luggage. If anyone knows of a good carry case for our Phil & Ted - Dash stroller, please feel free to share. I have only read bad reviews about the one Phil & Ted actually makes for it. I should really dedicate a whole blog to travel and moving to different countries with a 1 and 3 year old, but I won't, I'll just keep posting on here.

That's all for now, we'll be sending out an official update soon, we are just waiting to see how some things are going to go before we make any announcements. Thanks for praying, the prayers are definitely working! Praise God!