Cookie Sales, Birthdays and Disney

I don’t really know how I get into these things, but some time back my best friend Jennifer asked if I would be interested in having Aimee join the Brownies. Jen had taken on the role of Brownie Leader and she thought Aimee would enjoy it. Okay, I say it sounds like a great idea. Aimee and I get to spend some Mommy and Me time together and Aimee will also learn some great social skills. Well, it was all going great until the infamous Girl Scout Cookie Sale arrived. Since we are such a small troop and all the girls are novice Brownies, we decided to aim low in our goal setting. Each girl was given a goal of selling 35 boxes of cookies. Aimee and I took on the challenge and are happy to report that we have broken even our wildest expectations. Thank you to everyone who has supported us, we love you for it. Aimee is extremely proud of her accomplishments and I have to say her confidence has grown so much. As for me, I never want to see a cookie again, selling cookies in Florida is a hot business. I have toured the neighborhood with a wagon, stood for hours outside our local grocery, harassed our friends and family, we even spent one morning outside our Chiropractor office (Thank you Dr Buckley – you are the best). Anyway, if you are reading this and were not ‘shamelessly’ approached to purchase cookies or have just been holding out, please just send money to our home address asap. We still have cookies and would be happy to share. We are just a few boxes off of our record.


Aimee the Brownie

January 26th marked yet another birthday in our home, our little Princess Cadence turned 4. Since Joyce was not home until late on Saturday we decided to celebrate on Sunday when we were all back together. Cadence has grown so much over the past few months not only in maturity, but also in height. She is still our little peanut, but she has definitely had a growth spurt. It is good to see that she is no longer the smallest in her class. I am officially no longer allowed to call her my baby, she gets very mad and insists that she is not a baby…She is a Big Girl! Like I tell all three kids, I don’t care how old they get, or how many kids they have of their own, they will all always be my baby.


Little Cady (sorry Big Girl Cady) turns 4!


Happy girl and her cash

Cadence was spoiled rotten as only a Choi kid can be. She was so happy to have her own special day after having to watch her sister and brother celebrate their birthdays over the past few weeks – I am grateful that the expense is over for another year. As much as I want the kids to grow up, I sure wish I could slow them down a bit. They are all growing up way too fast. I am so lucky to be able to stay home and watch them grow up, but I still feel that I don’t get enough time with them.

January 26th was not such a fun day for Aimee. A couple of weeks ago the whole family took a trip the Disney store where we bought a few items in their sale. Aimee used some of her birthday/Christmas money to buy herself an Aurora sleeping bag that she liked. Unfortunately a couple of days later, I noticed she also had some of the Pirates of the Caribbean fake jewels. Now, I knew I had not bought them, so I told her she had once chance to tell me the truth of how they got into our home. As I suspected, they had ‘somehow’ found their way into her pocket and she had brought them home. To say I was shocked and disappointed is an understatement. Aimee had every opportunity to buy whatever she wanted that day. After a long talk and a lot of tears, she admitted that she had more than the couple I had seen she actually had about 8 in a little drawstring bag. Now I know that the cost was minimal, but the lesson she was about to learn was huge. I informed her that the next time we passed the Disney store she would be returning the stolen ‘jewels’ and apologizing to the Manager, not to mention if I ever discovered she had stolen anything again, I would take her direct to the Police Station myself.


Okay, so I just wanted to include a picture of Johnny Depp

Aimee knows I do not make promises that I am not willing to keep, so after selling GS cookies on Saturday morning we headed to the Disney store. I felt like the worst Mom in the world as we walked hand in hand to the store. She was so afraid, but I knew we had to follow through. As Aimee looked around the store for a few minutes, I had a quiet word with the Store Managers (for some reason there were 3 on duty) and asked that they assist me in my daughter’s life lesson. I thought my heart would shatter into a thousand pieces as I watched Aimee put on her bravest face as she stepped up to face her jury. She was filled with remorse and was desperately trying to hold back her tears. The Managers were awesome and thanked her for being so honest and brave. They told her not to be afraid of coming in the store, but if she ever wanted something again and she didn't have any money, she should ask Mommy to buy it or let them know and they would hold it for her until she had enough money. She promised that she would never, ever steal anything again and said sorry. I was so proud of my little girl and we both had tears as we hugged. It was a long walk into the store, but a quick step out. Thankfully, Aimee has learned her lesson and I hope I never have to face that situation again. It broke my heart to stand and watch her, but I knew I had no choice. Sometimes being a Mom is a tough job.

Kindergarten is the new First Grade

I am sure many of you have heard of the show ‘Are you smarter than a 5th Grader?’ Well, I am beginning to wonder if I am smarter than a Kindergartener. Aimee started KG back in August and it is not how I remember school. I know I could read pretty well when I started school at age 5, but she is ridiculous. She is a voracious reader and I often have to remove a mountain of books from the bed after she has fallen asleep. Her newest KG skill is spelling – who knew you had to spell in KG? For a while she has had a reading list of words that she is tested on weekly, but last week they came home marked as ‘Spelling Demons’. Now when I was 5 and 6, we read and spelt words like dog, ball, girl, boy, then, saw, etc. Aimee’s words are guess, tomorrow, among, doctor, early, friend, people, balloon, birthday, quiet, hear, minute, children… She not only has to know how to read them, but she has to spell them too. The kid is 6 years old for goodness sake. Before Christmas I was worried she was not being stretched enough in her reading, but now I am wishing for those quiet days. Now we spend hours practicing her spelling words. Thankfully, we have not had any that are not the same in British English yet, but you know that day will come and then I will definitely not be ‘Smarter than a First Grader’. I am just grateful she loves learning; I can’t imagine how hard this project will be with Hansen and Cadence over the next couple of years. I do have to say a shout out to my favorite First Grade teacher Mrs P (cheers Shannon). Thankfully, she has been giving me some ideas on helping Aimee and we are making great progress.

Richard traveled to Detroit last week to attend meetings all week (he DID NOT attend the Motor Show he forcedly pointed out more than once, just in case I thought he was there having fun while I stayed home with 4 kids…), but was holed up at the Ren Cen in back to back meetings. I think he imagines me sitting on the couch eating bon-bons the entire time he is away ;-) Let’s just say, I was very pleased to see him for a few hours this weekend. He left again Monday afternoon for Brazil and boy do I miss him already? Thank heavens the girls are back to school tomorrow. Someone at the School Board is having a laugh; they gave the kids a 5 day weekend, not two weeks after the Christmas break. What the heck is that about? Don’t they know I look forward to my kid-free couple of hours each day?

The best of intentions...

Well, you start these things with the best of intentions and then before you know it, you are struggling to find the time to wipe your own nose let alone blog the mundane details of your day.

I cannot believe that the last time I wrote anything was January 5th – Wah!! Where the heck has the past couple of weeks gone? I knew I was getting older fast, but this warp speed is just not funny.

Alzheimer’s permitting I will try and recall what has happened since the last time we spoke. The first good news is that TK is back to his former self. He has had his stitches removed and life as we know it has returned. I would like to say it is normal, but it was never normal in this house.

One cute thing that happened was that Cady decided she needed some ‘fresh’ orange juice, so she decided to help herself. Check her out… Where did she learn this trick?


Cady and her very ‘fresh’ orange juice


Then January 9th marked a special day on the Choi calendar –
Our little guy turned 5!


I am a whole hand now!

I cannot believe how much he has grown over the past 12+ months. What a little character he is. He never ceases to amaze us with his joy of life, not to mention his constant talking. You would think that he would get bored of the sound of his own voice, but no, he continues to give us a running monologue of everything that is happening. I hate to admit it, but boy he can be annoying. If I was Aimee or Cady I would have laid some nasty trap for him by now. He is forever snitching on them for every minor misdemeanor. When Cady hits him, I find it difficult to chastise her – most of the time she has more patience with him than I would if I was her. That said, I could not imagine life without him. He is my boy and I adore him when he is sleeping. Since Richard was out and about on the day, we moved Hansen’s gift opening and celebrating until the weekend. If you don’t already know, I have a reputation for moving birthdays, anniversaries and even major public holidays to a more convenient date or time. Poor Hansen was no exception due to Joyce having to sit an exam in Boca Raton, his birthday was celebrated on Sunday 13th. He didn’t seem to mind and as usual he made out like a bandit. Mom and Dad went overboard (okay Mom went overboard, Dad just paid) with the gifts. It is hard not to go crazy due to our definite lack of masculine toys in the house. Thankfully, the balance has tipped a bit now and we are happy to report that Hansen is very happy with all his boy toys. Mind you so is Cadence, but that is another story.


Check out my cool gift

No good deed goes unpunished...

Richard dropped poor old TK off at the Vets early Friday morning to have his wound checked. Poor thing was not feeling good, he was kinda quiet and sorry for himself, and he is obviously uncomfortable. The Vet called to confirm that yes, TK did have an infection and would need to have surgery to ensure the wound is properly cleaned out. Since TK was going to be sedated, Rich and I decided that we might as well have the wart on his eye removed too. They would call me back with a quote before proceeding. While I waited for the call, I contemplated that even knowing that we were about to be hit with a hefty vet bill and a week or more of caring for a sick dog, would I still have picked up the dogs. The answer of course, was YES. I could not have driven by them and left them to a fate unknown. I could not have lived knowing that I could have done something and didn’t.

A few minutes later, I got the call that the operation would cost in the region of $420… Yow! But honestly, what choice did I have, the dog needed the treatment? I said yes and prepared to pick TK up after 5pm. On the way home from collecting Hansen from pre-school, I received another call from the Vet’s office to say that TK was sedated and shaved for his op and on closer inspection he had an nasty abscess under the skin and his face was very swollen as well as having three more masses/warts near his eye. It was no longer a simple flushing out of the wound and suturing, he would no require a drainage tube for a week or more. What? Could this get any better? Did we want all the warts removing and of course a higher bill due to the treatment of the abscess. Seriously, this helping out a stranger was proving expensive.

Richard collected TK on his way home and I have to say that seeing him was a real shock. Poor thing looked like he had gone 10 rounds with Mike Tyson. TK didn’t look much better either…  Richard was reeling from the price of the bill (almost $600) and poor TK was battered and bruised beyond recognition. It was painful to even look at him. All the kids wanted to know why he had a straw sticking out of his head and why he was wearing a medical collar. Poor old Widget just wanted to play; she had missed him all day. Unfortunately, we have to keep them separated for the next week or so, which in itself is a fun prospect. I spent the evening upstairs with TK, so he could rest and relax. It really broke my heart to see him in such a state. TK and I have been through so much together over the past 11 years. He truly knows me better than anyone and his undying devotion cannot be matched. We have lived in 9 different houses, in 5 different countries. Once upon a time it was just him and me, but he has since had to learn to share me with Richard, then Aimee, Cadence, Hansen, Joyce and more recently with Widget. He is such a special dog and takes it all in his stride.

So now we spend our days administering antibiotics, flushing wounds and trying to keep everyone separated for a while. There is no one to blame (except maybe Cady for opening the laundry door), oh life can be so much fun sometimes.

Giant Dog and the Little One

cont'd...

The trip to the store went particularly smoothly and we headed home with the inside of my van loaded with groceries. This should be the end of the story, but as we arrived in our development, I spotted two dogs running around the streets loose and obviously alone. I couldn't drive by and leave them, so I stopped to see if they would come to me....

Well, I guess the dog training paid off because both dogs came bounding over. Since the inside of my car was loaded with groceries, I had to get them both into the trunk area. Thankfully they were very obedient and jumped up without a problem. I want to mention here that they had been swimming in one of the neighborhood lakes and were soaking wet and very friendly. Eeeeww!

I took them straight to our main gate to see if they had been reported missing, and unfortunately was greeted by the usual incompetents. After leaving my name and number with them, I took the dogs home to wait for their owner to notice they were missing. Can’t take long right?

At this point I need to mention that the dogs were a small female Schnauzer and a GIANT male Labrador. This dog was so big; I didn’t know for sure what it was. It was the size of a Bull Mastiff or something – absolutely Huge! After putting my own dogs into the laundry room, I bought the wet dogs through to the back yard and then proceeded to bring in my groceries from the car. I gave the kids strict instructions to wait until I was back in the house, but of course true to form Cadence did not listen and decided it would be fun for TK (my unsocial Lakeland terrier) to meet his play date friends. All 3 dogs were together for less that 60 seconds, before the growling and gnashing of teeth started. TK made a smart decision that maybe arguing with the Giant dog wasn’t a good idea and heeded my advice and went back to the laundry room to bark from a safe distance.


This is my dog TK, he is now almost 12 years and is moodier than me when it comes to other dogs. He is great with the kids and they all adore him.

I then contacted our development security and the Humane Society to let them know I was willing to keep the dogs overnight, if necessary, but please could they let everyone know where they were so they could be reunited asap. The kids spent the next hour or so entertaining the ‘visitors’ by playing ball and feeding them snacks. We all settled down for a quiet afternoon (!) and I let TK out of the laundry room only to discover that he had suffered a puncture wound to the top of his head. It really didn’t look bad, but I called the vets office to get a 2nd opinion. We decided that TK could wait until morning when the Vet would be in again, but that Aimee and I would take the two lost dogs to have them scanned to see if either of them had microchips in and hopefully speed up their family reunion.

It was yet another mad moment of juggling dogs as we loaded them into the car, not to mention struggling to keep the big one under control – he was definitely taking me for the walk. The funny thing was that he was so big, that we did not have a leash and collar big enough for him. I had to use one of Widget's leashes as a collar and it only just fit around his neck. It felt so good to be out of the house, away from the constant barking, and over-excited kids for a while. The two dogs were amazingly well-behaved in the car so for a few minutes life was calm. At the vets office we weighed the dogs, the little one was a Schnauzer and weighed 20lbs, and the giant dog was indeed a GIANT Labrador and weighed a whopping 120lbs!!! Even the vet’s assistant could not believe how big he was, especially since he was just all dog and not in anyway overweight. Unfortunately, neither dog had a micro-chip, so we set off for home again. Rather than suffer the chaos at home, Aimee and I drove around the neighborhood for an hour asking any dog walkers if they knew the dogs. It also proved fruitless, and it was still very cold and getting dark, so we headed home. Of course, as soon as we arrived home the chaos ensued and it was obvious that we could not keep the dogs overnight, it was impossible for any of them to relax and I would need to be committed by morning. Not too mention that no one had called in the almost 5 hours they had been with us. What if the owners were away and whoever was pet-sitting them did not come back????

Poor Richard walked in the door at 6.20pm and was immediately sent out again to take the dogs to the Humane (No Kill) Shelter over near I95 and Griffin Rd before 7pm, when they closed for the night. During the loading of the dogs, poor Dr Liang rang to discuss Hansen’s blood-work results (see later entry for this drama).

What a relief when Richard left, the normal level of chaos resumed and for once the house seemed calm. Of course, he was heading out into the rush-hour traffic again, poor thing. Thankfully, he made it just in time and after making a generous donation to the shelter to ensure the dogs were well-cared for and confirming they would be okay until their owner came forward, he and Aimee headed home again.

The rest of the evening passed without real incident, other than my feeble attempt to clean up TK’s head – first shaving his fur and then cleaning up his wound. After having kids, it is incredibly what gross-ness you can stomach. There was no frantic phone call from a worried owner and the only real sound in our house was my constant worrying that the dogs would be okay in the shelter. I felt so bad that we could not keep them overnight. They were such beautiful and well cared for dogs, it was obvious someone would be heartbroken they were missing.

It was a real relief on Wednesday morning when the security gate staff called me to say that the owner had notified them. I immediately called the owner and told him that his dogs were safe and well. He was so pleased to know that they were okay as he had been frantic that they were out all night in the cold weather. He was so thankful and told me the dogs names were Luna (moon) and Sol (Sun). It was nice to know their names since we were still calling them ‘Giant Dog and the little one’. The annoying thing was that he told me that upon returning home on Tuesday he immediately called the security gate to report the dogs missing, but was told no one had contacted them and if they heard anything they would call him. They had only just called him prior to say that I had them at 7.30am on Weds. This was so frustrating since I had told them first at 2.15pm on Tues and a lot of pain and heartache could have been saved for everyone. I also want to add that the head of security had even typed up a flier and taped it on the gate office doors for visitors and staff to see. So how the gate staff did not know is a worry… (but, that is another story)

In comparison to Tuesday, Wednesday was a peaceful day, I even remembered to collect Hansen from school on time. Joyce and I spent a fun evening shopping for private school interview clothes for her, while Richard took care of the little ones. It was only when I returned home at 9.30pm, that I noticed that TK’s head was looking yucky. I cleaned it up again, and suggested we take him in to have it checked in the morning. We didn’t hear anymore from Sol and Luna’s owner, so I assume he got them back okay.


This is Luna - Ain't she cute?



This is the big guys himself, gorgeous Mr Sol

What's with this weather?

They say it is coming down from Canada. Well, I say tell the Canadians (and Vivian) to keep it! I live in Florida for a reason and it has nothing to do with being cold. Outside looks like winter, it feels likes winter and let's be honest for the first time in long time it actually is Winter. Thankfully,, it is set to all change again tomorrow. For those of you that are buried under snow and ice, I do not mean to offend, but honestly two days of winter and I am over it already. I love the cooler days this time of year, but going below 50 degs is just simply unacceptable. I am sorry, but there it is. I put up with mosquitoes, hideous humidity and even the odd hurricane for six plus months of the year, so that I do not have to deal with the cold. A deal is a deal, bring back the heat before I have to break out the scarves and gloves. I hope that by the time the tile floor finally warms up enough not to cause frost-bite, we will be back to the mid-70's.

Okay, so enough talk about the weather (I sound like my mother), I thought I would fill you in on the Choi House adventures. At 12.50pm on Monday afternoon, I received a call from Hansen's school informing me very politely that there was no PreK in the afternoon (that's next week). Huh? Oh s**t!!! Apparently, poor Hansen was the only kid in school whose Mother did not pick him up at 12.30pm. Whoops! And here I was languishing at home thinking how well things were going this year. Well, it appears that I have not got my act together and it is only Jan 2nd. Needless to say I dropped everything and jumped in the car to hastily rectify the situation (after making sure there was no way they wanted to keep Hansen another couple of hours). Joyce and the girls stayed at home, since it was too darn cold to go out (don't get me started on that again). So after being humiliated on arrival at the school and graciously accepting the first Bad Momma of Year award, Hansen and I decided to use the opportunity to go grocery shopping.

The trip to the store went particularly smoothly and we headed home with the inside of my van loaded with groceries. This should be the end of the story, but as we arrived in our development, I spotted two dogs running around the streets loose and obviously alone. I couldn't drive by and leave them, so I stopped to see if they would come to me....

Memories of the Holidays

Happy Girl Cadence





Hansen thinks is should be Christmas every day





Big Sisters hug

Part Deux...

Since the last (or first) post wasn't too tough, I figured I would try saying something else. Right now it is 10pm on New Year's Day and for the first time in weeks Richard and I are alone. All 4 kids are in bed already and Uncle Steve has returned to California for some peace and quiet.

Richard and Hansen are back to the daily grind tomorrow, but the girls and I have another few days of the holidays. I cannot believe how quickly vacation time flies by. It seems just like yesterday that we were grossly behind on our Christmas planning and wondering how we were going to survive spending 24/7 with each other.

The good news is on the whole we made it through without any loss of blood or limbs. Which is quite a feat since Richard and I have not spent this much time together with the kids for a long time. Joking aside, the past few weeks have been a lot of fun. The kids are of an age where the holidays are still filled with wonder and magic. I love seeing their eyes light up as the come downstairs Christmas morning. There is no greater joy than seeing life through your children's eyes. And it only gets better having loved ones around to share that joy with you. Not to mention having your own in-house chef/nanny/all-round good egg visiting too. Uncle Steve very kindly joined us for the festivities again this year and made Christmas dinner - Thanks Uncle Steve,you are the best! We all miss you so much already. We can take or leave the big guy in the red suit, but we could never have Christmas without Uncle Steve.

As usual, we went overboard with gifts. Every year I say next year will be different, but honestly it never is. Maybe next year...

New Year and a new start to the Choi blog

So we are going to try this blogging thing again. Quite honestly,I have no idea how successful this attempt is going to be since previous blogs have always fallen by the wayside due to lack of interest or not enough time. But here we are on the dawn of yet another new year, so I figured now is as good a time as any to try again.

I hope as I get more blog-savvy the content or at the very least the layout will improve. I am a complete blog novice and actually have no idea what I am doing. That said, I know many people who are less geeky than me who can do this, so honestly how hard can it be - right? You know who you are people...

One thing I have to set out at the very beginning of this whole new chapter in our lives is that I am making absolutely no promises that anything I write here is going to be of the slightest interest to anyone. Sure my Mum will read it, but who am I doing this for... You can all live without the minutia of my family's life. Well the real answer is for ME. As I get older my memory is beginning to fail and I would like some way of keeping track, so that if I am asked questions in the future, I will have a place to get all the answers of what I have done and where I have been. The second disclaimer I need to add is that just because I happened to have been born in England, it does not reflect or guarantee my ability to speak or write fluently or even legibly in English. The lines between British English and American English are blurry at the best of times, but since I will most likely be writing this late at night, who knows what language it will be in.

So back to why I feel the need to write a blog...

The main reason is because I am fed-up of people asking me if I have one. Now, at least I can say 'yes' with confidence and just direct those (poor sad souls) who believe my life is interesting enough to warrant a blog over here.