Beth, I , Leila and Jill- in some weird way I messed up and saved pic in black and white.

Warm spring wishes from Tans to you all :)

This what happens when you let your guest( under 6) run wild in your house. We thought what we heard was kids jumping off the bed in our master bedroom( which they did for a while), but then jumping turned into something brutal. One of the kids opened my dresser drawer and got out hammer and hammered our bed board. this is one third of damage done. I am thankful that nothing else happened, but starting from next pary, kids are not allowed in our master bedroom. Not even during sleepovers, when they watch tv before they fall asleep). I know it was partially my fault, but my kids know what happens when they touch something that mommy and daddy are forbidded them to touch. I was not thinking about other kids, and I really can not but everything away and lock down. But oh well, I always learn things hard way. But this is one expensive lesson to be learned........ take care , and tell your kids ask first , if hammering is allowed in Tans house.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!!!!!!!!! I am wearing costume named - I AM NOT READY, which pretty much means I am wearing pidjamas lol Leila is wearing Tiarra- sleeping beauty, then me, then Maire- soccer mom- tball mom, Reet- Estonian Air stuardess, and sija mummy:) Rest of the pics later( I just mentions that all girls on this Pic are Estonians :)

Happy Mothers day- and My Birthday fun...

ATTENTINON!!!!!- During the party one of the kids( I don't know which one, maybe it was one of mine ) took a hammer from top bookshelf and banged it against our bed footboard. Damage is done and it does not look pretty. I know who did it will not admit it but ask anyway.

Hi you all or hey guys J

Regina is feeling much better. I think I just have to shop in doughnut shop every day , because the moment I brought in her favorite sprinkled and chocolate dipped doughnuts she started feeling better- Such a mommas Girl J

I had my Birthday Party Yesterday. OMG. First , all of you who decided not to come, you have NO idea what you were missing out. It was the bestestestest party ever- for me J I want to thank you all of you from the bottom of my heart for coming and sharing some fun in Tan Style. I decided to do costume party this year. We had Botox lady- YES, pirates, skunk, skeletons- Disco dudes and groupies , mummies , college students, soccer moms, Renasanse ( sp) costumes, and Midnight priestess, and Chaplin, and Sleeping beauty, Myself I WAS NOT READY. Lol. People got confused when I told them that I was not ready, because I was wearing slippers, and couple of rollers and makeup and hair half done, and of course I was on my bunny jimmies , and when I told people I was not Ready, they looked at me like- Yo girl, what are you waiting for, go get upstairs and get ready. They even offered help in kitchen until I get ready. Lol. What a fun costume I had fooling people . I am soooooooo bad. Hehe. I was totally not expecting presents from anyone, but THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL THE BEAUTIFUL presents. J (((( Big hug to you all ))) JJJ

MENU-
Healthy Mediterian Pasta Salad
Salmon with Blue cheese and bacon
Wilted spinach salad with Red wine reduced vinegrette
Rice with beef , tomatoes and shrimp( My dh tasty specialty)
Creative cold cuts, deviled eggs,
Goat cheese terrine with walnuts and chives
Sourkraut with slow roasted pork backJL
Tiramisu/kahlua Cake
Jills devine Chocolate creations- Jill is my best friend here who makes the BEST chocolate candy yet. J
Crackers, cocktails, beer, cider, juices, water, sparkling water, soda, sweedish meatballs, tortilla sausages- you name it , we got it all J Thank you for making this party so fun and special for me J

People danced, sang songs, and made fools out of themselves. Smoke cigars and drank whiskey or brandy . Tequila shots were fired and hearts were broken….(((()))))

Regina and Gabriel had fun playing with other kids and I was so happy to see that Regina was up and running around. She was shy to come down to see my guest, but she and H, and M and exellent time and that what matters. J

I will post pictures sometimes next week, OR if I get rid of this banging head ace I will do it tonight.

OH, I almost forgot to mention- I went to National scrapbooking day and got 22 pages done. This time I worked on OUR album, kids albums can wait, because Diana and Nick need album also. It is 6 PM now and I am ready to do something else, Eat maybe- something Healthy for a while …….

Take care and I wish you all the Best Mothers day ever—Tomorrow, May 8th Is also my Birthday, I think I will go to Mall with my friend and get a pedicure and eat more Ice cream from Baskin and Robins, and do other fun stuffJ You all do the same- Enjoy your day- BE FREE !!!!!!
Diana

Regina is still little sick. She eats about 180 calories per day and drinks minimal amount of fluids. She will play for couple of hours and then she will lie down to just watch tv or do nothing at all. Today she stayed awake little longer and draw me a lot of hearts and other things for Mothers day J. Her gums seem very red and swollen and she complains that she can not swallow because her mouth hurts, but I checked her throat and it is not red. Piece as big as elbow macaroni will make her gag. She throws up once a day and mostly before bedtime. I really don’t know what is the problem L

Tomorrow we will have my Bday party and some of our friends are taking kids with them. Reginas Best friend is also coming. If Regina shows no emotions about the people or her best friend then I really have no clue what it is. I suspect that she might be really stressed but then again, I don’t really know. Tomorrow I have to take her to her new school, so they can evaluate her and she if she needs special assistance. The way she behaves now will guarantee that she will get that special help.

I see that she is hurting from somewhere but she is not really complaining, . She knows that pain will take her to doctors office and then blood tests, and then hospitalizations… etc. I don’t want her suffer, but I can not help her if she is not letting us know what is going on . J

We hope tomorrow is better day. J

:)

Regina is doing much better. She is more active now and eating a littlebit more. Gabriels rash seems starting to get under control. He is still very irritable and stressed.

Myself I am prepearing for party. On friday I will celebrate my 27th Bday. Invitations were sent out while ago and I hope people show up wearing costumes. I dont care if they come as pregnant Britneys ( or 10 different celebs all in once) or silly monekeys- most important right now is that they come all dressed up.

Menu is together and all I really have to do is go to grossery store , by food and prepear it. :)

OH, I am so exited!!!!!!

Tough day

Regina is not getting better. Infact, she is getting worse. She is throwing up whenever she eats anything. SHe throws up even pedialyte. Ntohing stayes in. NOTHING> This is so wrong. SO WRONG. She was supposed to get better not worse. She can not loose anymore weight, she has to start eating and stop throwing up. She does not have dierrhea, but she has looser stools. I wonder if tomorrow is her diarrhea day. Oh man, she is just not drinking enought fluids to keep her hydrated. I emailed her doctor in St Jude and he told me the same think I allready know. keep her hydrated. he also told me to take her to her doctor here if she is not getting any better and she even may need some IV fluids. This is not happeneing. Her MRI was good , so what is going on now??? Did she really get a stomach flue this time? Did she?

I have not mentioned this but in april 2003 she was also hospitalised with dehydration . Doctors did not find out why she was sick( same symptoms- vomiting and loose stools. All cultures came back normal). WHY????

OH, and Gabriel is covered with red ichy skin( thighs, cheeks, joint areas)

Back home :)

We are home now. Gabriel has weird rash on his body. He gets it when he drinks milk, or orange juice or eats bananas. It is weird. I hope it is not infectios. Regina is not feeling very well eater. She threw up again and seems down . her gums are red and swollen and she has no apetite. She still playes but is not herself. I think she got some kind of virus from St Jude. I saw a lot of kids really sick and not wearing masks. What happened with green mask rule??? Coughing, runny noses, fevers- did parents have not any idea what one sick infectios kids can do to hundreds with zero ANC. But who am I to tell??????

Top 10 most frequently asked questions in St Jude.



How are you?-Great
How is Regina doing?- Great
Does Reginas hair grow back already?- look and see
For how long will you be staying this time?-For a week
Did she relapse, that is why you are back?- Now she did not, we are here for a check-up.
What kind of meds is she on now?- None, she is medicine free
Does she have her central line still on?- Nope
How old is she-5and half
Did you made her pink little hat?- No I did not, I bought it when she was about 9 months old. I bought it from Gap.
Did you have fun at home?- We sure did.

I really did not mind answering these questions, but I got little tired telling the same thing over and over again. Why nobody asked what is her favorite food now, and how is she physically doing( Dr Gajjar did ask that), etc. ? Maybe next time. Lol

Our first 3 month check up is over. It was nice to being “ back” and visiting with Doctors and nurses. I feel bad that I did not take time to visit B clinic, because Reginas favorite nurse practitioner Kathy was probably wondering why we did not step in. Sorry Kathy. Every time we had time to go over there Regina was ether ready to nap or drugged up. L Better luck next time.
Many more appointments to come, and many more questions to be answered.

Di

Faces of brain tumor

I give you one link where you find lot of stories with kids and adults with brain tumors.
Plese scroll down the page and click to ALABAMA- COLORADO. Regina should be on page 41( california). Also take time to read other kids stories. :)

http://nabraintumor.org/faces.html

Thursday- U P D A T E

Dr Gajjar just told me that REginas scans were good :):):):):):)
Regina is still sleeping. This time anestesia really wore her off :) SHe opens her eyes once in a while and tells me that She is really sleepy today. And she is great sleeper, and sleeping makes her feel good :) lol

Next time we will fly over to St Jude 1st and 2nd August :)


Right now, as I am typing this, Regina is in MRI room getting her MRI's for brain and spine. :)
She had to get poked twice, because first time her line did not flush, they had to take her IV line out and poke her once more. She did really great. Thank you Ms H for being so nice and caring. :)
Yesterday she had functional MRI where she stayed awake and very very still. Which she did. I was told that they have not seen 5 year old that still yet( not even her nerves moved)/ lol.

After her functional MRI we went to Target house where was Purina sponsored Incredible dog show. It was good one, but Regina kept telling me that these dogs are way to big. She rather wathc small dog show. hehe. Then she played with other kids on Target house playset and was upset when I told her it is time to leave.
She did not eat dinner, because it was Lasagna. When we returned to Target house around 7.30pm, she still told me that she is not hungry. Around 8.30. I told her to go to sleep , but she started crying and told me that she has not played her gameboy yet. I sayed it is to late and she did not eat her dinner, so It is time to go to sleep. Then suddenly she was very hungry. She ate banana and whole box of strawberry cereal( single serving one). And she forgot all about her gameboy and fell asleep. :)

Wednesday.

Sorry for not updating yesterday. We had not that busy day, but I was little lazy . Yesterday Regina had Speech check up. They found it strange that she has 3 different ways pronouncing TH sounds. But other than that she is doing fine. Then she had another 2,5 hour Psych testing. She did OK. Not as well as 3 months ago, but well. She was much slower and did not think as hard as she was supposed to. So that took a lot of points off.

Then there was somebody doing sandwich buffe for grizzly house families. It was nice. Even Regina had some "turkey", well, it was really smoked ham but don't tell her that.

Now it is 12.46 and we are waiting 2.45 to arrive because then she will have her first MRI( funcitonal one). Tomorrow she will have sedated spine and brain MRI.

We are Here!

Yep! Back in St Jude. Flight was great. In Memphis we were stuck in airplain for 15 extra minutes, because door did not open. SO finally when doors opened and people started rushing out, we were stuck on our chairs, because the guy who was sitting on Isle seat just refused to let us go( I guess he had some issues). During the flight he made a huge deal out of off us making him stand up , because we HAD to use restroom. SOME people.

Today Regina had psych testing. 2,5 hours. SHe did ok. Not as well as first time IMO. Because she just refused to answer lot of the questions like 2+2 and 2-1. SHe just sayed IT IS TO MUCH FOR ME. I want to leave now. lol. Guy who was doing the testing told us that she did pretty well for her age group. TOmorrow we have another 3 hours with him. We will see then how well she does.

MRI's are on Wednesday 2.45 PM
and Thursday around 8 AM. Until then we just do some smaller tests like Endocrine, and speech and O/T and A/T .

IT has been really nice meeting all the other families who happen to be here same time for check ups :) Best of luck to them :)

Snow, sunshine and mountains....

Happy Birthday to My mom DOB 04/22/54

Back from Palm Springs.

We had a lot of fun. Palm Springs is absolutely beautfiul right now , at this time of year. 2 days we were there, weather was really beautiful. Nice and sunny. The highest was 99 degrees- I think. First day we went to Indian Canyons-Palm Canyon, Andreas Canyon and Murray canyon. The sceenery is beautiful , breathtaking. We did lot of walking and took lots of pictures, but there is something wrong with my camera and lot of the good shots have pinkish sky or glow to them.

On Thursday we did a l o t of walking. To much , I think. At firs we Took the 15 minutes ride with worlds largest rotating tramcars at the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway from bottom of the hill to the top of the hill. Again, the view we had from the tram, and from the top of the mountains were breathtaking. It was so peaceful and calming. Nature, snow, trees- hiking trails and we hikers. My soul was feed. :)

Then, after 3 hours in mountains we went to Living Desert ZOo and Gardens. WOW, botanical Gardens were in full bloom. It was different kind of good experiense under hot desert sun. Cactuses, butterflies, wild cats, giraffes- all together, under one roof. lol. Within its 1200 acres youwill discover over 450 desert animals and more than 150 species including coyotes, oryx, zebras etc. It was really beautiful.

We were soooo tired in the end of the day that even coffee did not keep my husband awake. He fell asleep while drinking his hot starbucks. hehe

We had made plans to go out and eat Las Casuelas Terraza, because on the previous night we went out and had margaritas there( thank you Kathy for recommending that place) My husband , who hates hates hates coctails had one of their strongest margarita was changed man after drinking it. So we went to go eat there , but we had no idea that on thursdays there are these HUGE street fares with HUGE mass of people and the traffic is pretty much shot down and there is nowhere to park. So instead of Las Casuelas we went to Casino close buy and their food was ok.
Now we are back home, tired, but happy and I am extremely glad that we did this trip before our St Jude trip. I feel more positive and energized and happy. Now let s hope that ST jude provides us with the happiest news possible and the time there will fly by as fast as possible. :)

Pictures will be added later- I have to do some serious editing to get the pink glow out of the pics. :)

D

Ready to relax????

Who wants to join us??? Tomorrow morning we are headed to Palm Springs. We will stay to Ranco Las Palmas- resort and spa( Marriot). It is 2 miles from city /downtown Palm Springs. We hope to have some much needed fun and cleanse our minds before Big ST Jude trip.
http://marriott.com/property/propertypage/PSPCA

Regina is on Antibiotics to get rid of her herpes virus, and seems like she is healing very well. I also dropped off Reginas kindergarten registration papers , which means in fall Regina will start kindergarten. I am exited and worried same time. I don't know how will she do , or how she will get used to group activities again. She is spoiled to rotten by me and I think school for her will be tough at first. As she sayes- We will see!!!

But now I have to pack my bags and head to LALa land. Good night to you all. Tomorrow is another day and we dont' know what it brings with it. Hopefully better weather and lots of smiles and good laughs.:)

-IKEA-

17,18,19,20,21,22,23,AND..

24tth of April--Can you count how many days left , before we fly to Memphis to Reginas FIRST 3 month check up? I am starting to get nervous and restless and stressed and all the things I don’t want to be feeling. Last year this time tumor was already present. I am not expert but I am looking her past pictures and I see how pale she was. She did appear little more tired and she felt very, very cold. I remember her teachers in school told me that She took longer naps and was very irritable and sad often. L I remember her school had this week- they have it every year, parents go and volunteer in the classes where their kids are. I Also went there and spent couple of hours playing with kids, reading books and just acting like kid herself, and that whole time I was thinking , Why Regina acted so tired and slow and sad . Little did I know. Week later ,( around -25 or 26th of april) I got a call from school. Regina threw up . They told me they were doing just some activities and she was on her way to the restroom after lunch , and out of blue she just started vomiting. When I picked her up , she was lying down in assistant Directors room floor, where they made her little resting place with pillows, mattress and blankets. When I picked her up she looked happy little girl , she gave me big hug and told me she loved me. I took her home and had to stay home for 48 hours( 2 days). 2 days no vomiting- then , the morning I was getting her ready to take her back to her TutorTime preschool , and she threw up again. There was stomack flu circling around in Tutor time...
….. Stay tuned for more….

Regina and Herpes( on her face)

• 3 days ago she had fever 101,6.
• Fever triggered her herpes plugs
• Now her cheeks, lip, chin is covered with big red bubbly patches.

One more thing to take care off. Again, I called her doctor and waiting his directions what should we do next to prevent it spreading to her hands and arms( she had couple or pretty bad herpes HSV I infections in Memphis. Now it is back.

DIana

Gabriel has lost his mind. " Mommy, one day I will be boy-girl, RIGHT???" HUH, he thinks he is princess Erica. And Regina is like - yeah, Gabriel- YOu are very pretty girl. I LOVE YOUR DRESS. lol. Regina loves layering clothes. She will wear her long sleeve shirt, short sleeve shirt, pantyhose, pants and S K I R T. lol. of course time to time she will wear knee highs also. She definitely has her own style, and I can do nothing to change it. I don't want make her unhappy by telling her what she has to wear. People tend to like her style a lot, and she gets lots of comments from strangers - oh, I love your skirt and boots, or your hat and pants are really matching well- lol kids.....

Get well vibes needed.

Regina woke up from her nap with 101.6 fever. She has been very weak today and not feeling very well. Please hope it is nothing very serious. SHe did complain that her upper chest( right side) hurts. But with recent limpings and other problems I don't know what to think or what really is going on with her. She probably cought cold yesterday while she and her dad went swimming. It was little windy.

This is US on Saturday afternoon before Going to Wiggles concert in Universal Amphitheater/ :) Concert was lot of fun. Regina was dancing and enjoying every m inute of it. Gabriel was little shy because he was not to happy about that huge crowd that showed up( about 6000 people). But he was ok with it :)

Today was absolutley beautiful day :) Sun was bright and warm, birds were singing and lizzards were taking over our backyard. After I picked Gabriel home from School, kids wanted to bike . So first time this year they took theyr bikes out to frontyard and biked about 30 minutes. Then it was my guitar lessons time and while I was in class, kids spent some fun time with daddy in the Mission Viejo mall :)

Regina, Heather and Gabriel after Trike A Thon. We want to thank all of you who chipped in and helped Gabriel raise money for St Jude. Trike a thon was fun and even Regina got a chance to trike around :) . Gabriel was triking all the round thumb in his mouth. lol. He is not a thumb sucker- he has never been thumbsucker. :lol Director Dan ( tutor Time) made a joke, that Gabriel is on his Cell, because he was veeeeery slow..... ;)

Wiggles and more...

Today we went to see Wiggles in Universal City. Wiggles was fun. It was funny and cute, and most importantly Regina Enjoyed it a lot. She danced and sang songs and was overall happy :) Thank you Make a Wish for Giving Regina and us oportunity to See Wiggles Live :) Gabriel had fun also, but he does not like big crowds( yeah- about 4000-6000 people), and lot of people screaming and yelling scare him a " little.

After Wiggles we went to our friends B party somewhere in San Gabriel(CA). Dinner was held in some chinese restaurant. Food was ok, but what ruined everything was - Birthday Girl found a Band Aid in her soup. After that we payed for our meals and left the place. Mood for me was ruined with that. I also had bowl of that soup- but before she found bandaid. Anyway- BOOOOOOOOO. Then we went to one asian Tea house where we ate birthday cake and drank some excellent tea, but waiter kind of screwed up our orders. Instead of Hot plum tea I got iced and then hot plum tea arrived and couple of minutes later another pot of Hot plum tea- lol - doubble order just for me. Tea was the best and cake was just right - if you ever ordered B cakes from Asian bakeryes, then you know that those cakes taste p e r f e c t l y right- not toooo sweet- just the way I like it. :) Everything is in right balance. Now we are home and ready to hit the bed. But the thought of eating soup made with USED bandaid makes me g*a*g.
Bon Apetit!!!

Our Schedule

Take a peak of our schedule
24 apr NW 116 depart OC 7:45 am
Northwest arrive: Minneapolis/stpaul 1:22 pm

Nw 558 Depart minneapolis/st paul 3:16PM
arrive: Memphis 5:15 PM


April 25th: 9am-12PM - Psych Testing

April 26, 2005:
08:45-09.00 Assessment and Triage
09.15-10.15 Endocrine Clinic Consult visit
11.30-12.00 Speech Consult
12.30-03.30 Psych Test part 2

April 27th
02;45-04.30 MRI Brain SJMB03 Funcitonal MRI

April 28th
07;45-09.00 MRI with IV sedation

09.00 MRI brain and spine with sedation
10.45-11-45 Sedation Recovery
12.30 No off Therapy

april 29th

08.30-09.30 Procedure( LUmbar puncture)

April 30th Time to fly back to CA.

I am not very grazy about our schedule. I wish we could fly back on 29th afternoon insetad of 30th. But oh well, Now I know with what I have to work with our future apointments.

Busy days..

My husband is finally home and sleeping most of the time. lol. Kids don't want to let him out of sight. Regina refused to let him go to gym yesterday.

Anyway, now he will stay here until may 10th. He will stay until my birthday and then he will take off until Gabriels birthday in June.

I want to thank you for helping Gabriel and I raise money for St Jude. You know who you are ;) Remember 2 More days before I have to turn checks in. :) HURRY!!!! lol

Something really cool happened couple of days ago. Make a wish called and asked if Regina was interested in Wiggles. And since she is, we got 4 tickets to go to see Wiggles on Univeral Amphitheater on Saturday , april 9th 5 pm. I AM SO EXITED. SHE IS EXITED- EVERYBODY be exited with us. Tomorrow , after I finish with my parent hour in Gabriels Daycare, I will go out and buy us something Wigglish- so when we go to see wiggles on Saturday, we feel more festive. :lol ( I am going nuts, right???). When Regina heard that she has chace to go to sees wiggles , she ran upstairs and got her wiggles underwear - lol. Today we went to Make a Wish offices and I got the tickets. They have fancy office. Very nice and very busy and very clean and professional. lol.

OH, And yesterday We ( my DHand I ) we went out for dinner and movie, We ate On THe Border( mexican restaurante), and then saw Miss Conginiality 2. Movie sucked big time. I was expecting something better, but I did not get what I expected. I hated that Benjamin bratt did not play in this one. And Sandra Bulloc did really bad acting job. It just did not feel right. Yes, we got couple of laughs, but that is about it.

We went to Michaels today and bought some inexpensive woodens shapes. Regina did all the coloring and styling :)

R E M I N D E R

Hey you all :) Don't foget to help Gabriel and I to raise some money for St Jude. :) . YOur generous donations are very much needed, to save lives Like Reginas.

We have 4 more days before we have to turn in the checks . On friday big Trike a thon will be held on Tutor Times playground, where one of the trikers will be Gabriel.

Make checks payable to St Jude Childrens Research Hospital
Memo line- Regina and Gabriel Tan

Please bring, or send Checks to following address:
Diana Tan
27715 Manor Hill rd
Laguna Niguel 92677, CA
(949) 290 6958

• . Remember, Cancer is the leading disease killer of American Children, and St Jude Childrens's Research Hospital is the leading Center for the Study of these diseases.( quote from St Jude Trike A Thon paper).

• St Jude is supported Primaly by public contributors

• St Jude researchers and Doctors are treating children with genetic immune defects and pediatric AIDS, as well as using new drungs and therapies to fight infection.

• St Jude is the world's largest pediatric cancer research center in terms of the number of patients enrolled and successfully treated. Since St. Jude opened in 1962 , it has treated about 20 000 patients from all 50 states and more than 60 foreign countries

Do I have to say more? I guess not. Your money will help save lives, and find cure. Please help :)

How cool :)

Check out what St kids are dreaming about. And if You read carefully you will find out what Regina loves and dreams about :) Anyway, I allready forgot about it. While ago, during Reginas treatment last year, there was box in B clinic waiting area , where kids insert their dreams , written on paper> I asked from Regina what she dreams, and she told me that She loves Rainbows, sunshine and butterflies. And now, I enter st Jude site and find her exact words published. How cool is that ???

http://www.stjude.org/quiltofdreams/0,6590,859_5137,00.html

Is tooo ,much wine good or bad??? Anyway, these are 13 bottles of wine we had to taste last Night. lol Not in particular order. Since I was unable to drive home last nigh( you would have never guessed), I spent a night in my friends house, and about 6 am I started driving home fro LA. It was one fast 45 minute trip. No traffic, but I still had headace and prior to that I only got about 3 hours of sleep.

Last Night I had a chance to leave my house and to do some things grown ups do sometimes. ;) About 12 Estonian chicks met up in Hollywood and did some wine tasting. It was something else...... lot of fun. These 3 girls are top 3 winners( top 3 best wines out of 14)- Meridian, turning Leaf, and Woodbridge

Help Gabriel to raise money for St Jude

School where Gabriel goes is going to Raise money for St Jude. Usuall I feel weird asking money from people, but since it is going to St Jude I feel confident :D

Quote from Tutor TImes Newsetter( Preschool)

ST Jude Trike-A-Thon

In celebration of the week of the young child, we will be raising money for St. Jude Children's Resesarch Hospital thorugh a creative learning experience. For safety reason , this event is for Preppers through Kindergarten only.

Throughout the week of 4/4-4/8, the children will learn a new concept about bisycle safety every day. On Friday, April 8, we'll hold our Trike-A-Thon. Students will do laps around the preschool playground structure on tricycles for fice minutes, rasing money through pledges collected prior to the event by families who wish to participate. Participants raising at least 35 dollars will receice a St. Jude t shirt. Those raising 75 dollars also receice a St Jude sport bag. Those Raising 100 dollars or more will also receive Bikewell Bear plush toy. ALL participants will receive a Bikewell Bear Trike License. .

We don't want children going door-to-door, but rather, to ask friends, family members or people at Mom and Dad's office.

Your support of this program will help fund life saving research and treatments for young children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases.
Ms. Kristen.

Tomorrow I will get a sponsor folder to collect pledges and hopefully , some of you will chip in to help Gabriel and I on this big mission :)

Diana
Send cash or checks to our home address;
Write check out to St Jude Childrens Research Hospital,
on memo line Regina&Gabriel Tan

Diana Tan
27715 Manor Hill rd
Laguna Niguel
92677, CA

WOman in Action. Today the weather was just perfect. SO after I dropped gabriel to shool I went to Hope Depot and got some plants and herbs and Orange tree. We had fun digging and planting and watering and enjoynt the perfect sunshine. :) Not to hot, not to cold . Regina loves gardening and she did little gardening also. She planted some marycolds and pumpkin seeds. She was really into what I was doing. :) Love that about her.

Regina tryes out her Dora the Explorer gardening kit that Easter bunny got her :)

My new Orange tree smells just great. Believe me or not- this is my first orange tree- we live in Orange county and I tnought life without Orange Trees in Orange county is just not right :)

Dancing in the .... ll, but what really happened was that our sprinkles have been giving us hard time, and I have to turn them on manually. (It supposed to be auot sprinkles, but auto is broken). So I had to run on a side of my house, turn them on and then run back to backyard and enter the house. lol fun.

Let the countdown begin

No , not how many days we have left before we go back to Memphis. We have way more important countdown to start. My dear husband is coming home from China on 4th of April :D:D:D We can not wait. He left on 21st of february, and now he finally comes home for a month :). I know for sure he can not read my blog- he has tryed and tryed but he can not acces it from his company in china. ( yeah, company blocks all kinds of fun stuff, so people would actually work......) lol
SO , we made a huge WELCOME HOME sign on old white sheet. Regina was a big help helpin me and SIja to decorate and color it. She took her time to make sure her work is perfect ;) Banner looks fun :)

Kids are doing great. Regina is not limping anymore, and I am trying to do everything in my power to make her sit right. Her apetite is really good- without the meds, I may add. :) And she is getting more and more interested in how one or other food is made. I am so proud of her. :)

I think I will find a great art school for Regina, because all she does is draw and when she is really into painting and has time , her artwork looks amazing- I don't want to waist that talent. My mom never enrolled me into enything. I also want to but her some dancin school, because whenever music is on, she starts to sing, eventhough she does not know all the words, she also starts dancing whenever her favorite singers like Britney , ashlee, jessica, jo jo, hilary or other fun artists start to sing. Her last favorite song is Candy shop by G Unit. lol. It is totally wrong song for her, but she knows lot of words from that song. lol

Gabriel is like almost 4 year old. Grazy and cool. lol He does not want to listen to the teachers in school. He loves sleeping and he does not want to wake up from his one hour nap. SO today he woke up 2. 45 instead 1.45. lol

Then I started takin quitar lessons once a week. Yesterday was my second lesson. I knew all the basic chords, and I have written bunch of songs, most of them are quite depressing, but I wrote them anyway . I want to learn more. I want to get more into complicated stuff. I want to start expressing myself through music. Before I moved to usa I can say I had pretty good voice, but 8 years have done its job. I don't have that good voise anymore. It is so rusted it is scary. My kids love it though. lol. They love anything I do. :D My first fans.

Sija is getting crafty also. She creats the weirdest grafts with yarn and rocks and glue gun. I guess we are very creative family - in a way. ;)

Take care and have fun.

Sweet Gabriel :D

I just love this picture. :D

One More Egg- jeyyyyy

Regina, Jill and Gabriel in hope to find more Eggs

Gabriel, Jacob( my best frieds son) and Regina , after Easter Egg hunt :D

Where is that egg I have been looking for past 10 minutes ?????

Happy Easter :) Meil oli tana taitsa lobus paev. Hommikupoolikul kaisime lihavottemaal lobutsemas. Meie naabrid kutsusid meid nende kirikusse kus nad igal aastal korraldavad lastele vaikese lihavotte festivali. Kohal olid ponid, vaike loomaaed , naomaalinguid tehti, lapsed hypata, liugu lasta , syya, raagiti ylestousmis pyhadest- kuidas alguse said, ja miljon muud asja. Ja see olil lastele koik tasuta. Rahvast oli murdu- sadu lapsi, ja koikidel oli midagi teha. Reginale meeldivad Ponid koige rohkem, nii ta soitisgi poniga paar korda. Gabriel kardab koiki loomi , kuid ta leidis hiljem tegevust kiriku manguplatsil kiikudes ja ronides. :) Lobus oli. Ah jah, Reginale ja Gabrielile meeldis ka cupcakisid kaunistada. Oleks te nainud kui palju neid oli- kyll keegi oli alles usinasti sadu kooke kypsetanud ja frostingu kah veel peale pannud. Laste lobuks jaid need jellibeanside, m&mide ja sprinkelsitega ara kaunistada ja syya. Regina ja Gabriel armastavad ainult frostingut. :)

Regina standing on line to wait her turn on slides. :)( beautiful Dana Point view - most of homes behind her have oceanview.

View from church- pictures are done with digital camcorder that only has 1.5 megapixles. But the view was gorgeus. Sun was shining and ocean was beautiful and blue. :)

Cupcake Heaven. Both of my kids really enjoyed decorating cupcakes, they really don't care that much about how they taste like, but if they can artsy and graftsy they are happy. Gabriel did not understand why he could not decorate all the cupcakes with chocolate sprinkles . :lol

Regina is really starting to like animals more and more each day. Ponys are her favorites. She took 2 turns and was really happy that she got to ride one . Gabriel on other hand is scared of all the animals- even mice. lol

Regina and Gabrielwere Ready to head to South Shore Church, where Easter Eggstravagansa was taking place. :)

My kids love eating dinner out of pots and pans- plain Rice and plain farfalle pasta.

P/T and O/T

Around 4,15 pm was time for Reginas physican therapy evaluation. We went downstairs to qym to get Regina out of that horrible hospital mode- I am not talking to you, I am not smiling at you- leave alone if you have no toys for me.!!!
Downstairs Regina was like a different person. Smiling, running , happy. She did not like when p/t bended her legs in every direction. She is waaay to felxible- much more than normal people are. Her perfect job would be competing for olympics ;)

Well, she has hyper ext of knees and mild mild calcaneal valgus. We have to get her custom made shoes with extra arch support and we have to make sure she sits right, holds her back straight, we have to do some streching exersises to make her flex all the directions same way. SO we have some work to do. She also has mildly rounded shoulders.
She has difficluties balancing on her left foot- right foot is perfect she can stay still for 10 sec, but on left only 2-3 secs.
P/T had no idea why she was limping the way she did. She told me that Reginas problem will keep her awake tonight. :) But she was the nicest person there. And her information not only was good for Regina, but also for me. She told me what will happen to Regina if her problems are not taken care now. She described 100% what my mom has .
My mom had 2 hip replacement surgerys and her toe bones are huge and her toes are growing overlaping each other and her knees are slightly together when she is walking. At least I got something good out of that horrible experience. :)

O/t was very very impressed how smart my little "Meatball " is( Regina nicknamed herself). She did everything and even more than usual 5,5 year olds do. He gave me whole list of things and activities I can do with Regina to keep her brain busy. I looked at some of the things on the list and she is already doing 8 year old activities. :) So No problem there. :) -

Today we went and did some shopping, bought candy for easter baskets and made couple of baskets to our friends. Tomorrow we are invited to couple of Easter hunts. I still have not made up my mind which one.

Home, Sweet Home!!

Kathy- I am drop dead tired and will not call you today, but we are home and I got lot of valuable info from P/T and O/Ts. Tomorrow I will post what Physical therapist told us and what ocupational therapist thinks about Regina. -

But here I go.

You wont believe your ears when I tell you about my days.
It started 6am on Wednesday morning.. I woke up, got ready and Regina and I headed to St Joseph. It was 7.14 when we entered. We were only ones there. It was 7.40 when we got invited in, and 8 am we were escorted to our waiting room. They gave us nice room separate from other patients.
So now you wonder, what so special about this day. Just hang on. I’ll get there.
We waited and waited, saw many different nurses and I told Reginas story about million times. Ugh. We waited more, saw couple of doctors, who told me that they want to admit Regina because they just want to. Lol.
Well, it was 3.15 PM when we finally got a word that Room is ready and Reginas MRI is ready to start. What do you think how happy I was to finally hear those words. LETS DO IT!!! I waited from 8 am till 3 pm in one small box doing nothing but watching Jurassic Park, Who framed Roger Rabbit and colored.
Nurses had no answers to me, they just said doc’s are trying to make some sense how to proceed with Reginas case. So , her MRI lasted about 2 hours. Good thing about it was that I was allowed to stay in the same room Regina was getting her MRI done. MRI was the loudest sound ever. Her poor ears, I know she was sleeping and did not hear a sound, but oh boy, that MRI was one loud thing. Luckily I was given earplugs and a pile of magazines. I was even given pillow and a blanket incase I will fall asleep.
Finally MRI was done and we headed to the recovery room. We waited and waited and waited and waited. We waited from 5 till 7.30. Nobody knew what to do next. Nurses had told doctors that we had left st Joseph and they don’t know where we are, Recovery room nurses were trying to reach doctor who wrote orders for Regina. Everybody was frustrated because nobody knew nothing. I was frustrated and crying, Regina was mad and hungry and I was not allowed to give her any food because recovery room nurses told me not to because they have no orders. Finally they took us back to ER gave us some food- FOOD. Funny thing is. ER nurse gave cook instructions not to send any nutty foods upstairs. “ SPECIAL PRECAUTIONS”. Guess what?? When we were ready to leave ER to being admitted around 8 pm, food delivery girl showed up with a tray that had paper on top of it- ALLERGIES TO NUTS. And you know what she made for Regina- PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY SANDWICH. At that point I was so mad and tired I said nothing. Nurse saw it and helped me find Regina some try food, because cafeteria was closed.
Finally when we got admitted to room 303 doc Wang called and congratulated me . I had no idea why he did it, so I asked what is the occasion. Lol. He said that MRI was clean-brain and spine both looked fabulous. He knew it about an hour and he thought I was informed about what was going on.
SURPRIZE!! I was not . Thanks to Dr Wang I finally got some piece of mind and calmed down. But I was furious why nobody told me the good news sooner. Why they made me wait and wait and wait and wait. Why recovery room nursed did not give me more info even though I requested , why why why why.

. We were being admitted overnight. Doctor showed up 7am. Told me some neuro blah blah blah blah docrtos have to see her and consult with me what to do.
11am- nobody is here. Nurses are telling me doctors are making rounds, but nobody showed up in our room. I am mad- again.

Finally I called Dr Wang. Kathys. Sister, who has been very helpful with everything, showed up. Whenever she was present everybody had answers to my questions. lol Well of course I was on a edge of tears- and I did shred little of those tears. I got the nurse to come into my room and oh boy, she had info for me. I bothered them the whole morning asking questions why, who , how long and non of them had answers for me. Why did they suddenly had answers to all of my questions? Was it because somebody else was in my room , was it because Dr Wang had called them or was it because they were sick of my constant persuasive pushy behavior . That is the mystery of room 303. Well, who cares now anyway. I got all my questions answered. Of course doctor showed up also and I got to know the plans for Thursday. They will send physical therapist up here, because Regina may need some physical therapy, then they will do echo on her, because when she was hooked up on to monitor it had shown some heart beat irregularity. And then we will make appointment to see neurologist. It is 1 PM right now. I was told we will stay here until late afternoon.
“Deep thoughts”
Here is like- Oh, Your kid had brain tumor. Let’s see if you have it too, let me feed you some really interesting information, and if you can not understand what I am saying to you, then you, mom have tumor for sure.
“ End of thought”


Don’t mind my negative mode. CHOC is the best hospital around here, and gives hope to lot of the kids. Third floor here is dedicated to cancer/ chemo patients. So I am feeling somewhat overwhelmed again. Kids have green masks on. They walk around hospital holding poles with medications, everybody wears LIVESTRONG bracelets.
There are hand washing stations everywhere and if you enter the unit from hallway you have to wash your hands for 3 minutes( auto wash).
Hospital is nice, clean and contemporary. There are lot of positive things about this place, but since It is me we are talking about ,I see negativity in everything ;)

Anyway, I wrote all this while being in the Hospital. All the emotions were fresh and untouched. All I went through is only my problem. Everybody else probably has only pleasant experiences with CHOC. If you have issues with what I have said ,email me and we can work things out. If not, that is your problem Lol

Tune in for more Tomorrow when I tellyou about our physical therapists thoughts and advise. That was our only positive experiense today :D

Happy Crappy Snappy update.

MRI was CLEAN :) whohooo.

I get into details sometimes tomorrow after we get discharged from hospital. Regina was still admitted because they deparately want to find out why she is limping.

OK. No I am going to drive back to CHOC. Reginais there missing me. ::)))

Thank you everybody for checking on us and worring about us.

Diana

All I can say- I had the worst day in my life( this year)

Update to -Little Worried-

We are back from doctors office. Dr Wang asked Regina Jump, walk, Run etc. And we both saw that she has difficlties with her right leg/feet. She is limping really hard and has hard time balancing on one foot. Then he looked into Reginas eyes about 20 times. He seemed very worried and did not say anything for a second. Then he told me that the best thing is to get an MRI tomorrow morning first thing. He thinks that her problems are due to her surgery back in last year. He told me he is not really sure why Regina is having difficluties walking and wants to be 100% sure that it is not tumor . So tomorrow Morning we are going to St Joshep hospital( next to CHOC) for MRI.
I am nervous wreck righ now. I don't know it to laugh of cry. Just the word MRI makes me shiver all over my body. :(
Thank you Kathy and Melissa.

Little worried.

I am going to take Regina to see doctor today. SHe has difficulties walking. She walks very stiff and steps flat on floor instead of heal toe , heal toe. And instead of toes pointing straight or little outwards, she steps with one foot really in>( I really don't know how to explane). She complains that her feet are not hurting but really weak. I Really am starting to get worried. .
She acts happy one moment and then suddenly she is very pale and tired. I don't know what to think . Please hope it is nothing major and serious.

Warm spring wishes to you all :D

More movies.

Today we went to see Little Nemo- adventures in Slumberland. Kids liked it, I kind of liked it. Something different for a while, people looked like people, animals looked like animals, no shooting, hard to understand jokes for kids- it was good.

Regina has been really good today. I don't know what she is planning to do, but she listens my every word. I swear, EVERY WORD. I tell her to clean up her mess, she RUNS to clean up her mess, I tell her to help clean up after my missbehiving son Gabriel, SHE DOES IT. I swear, she is planning to attack.....

Gabriels behavior is getting worse and worse each day. He just does not listen. And when I put her to time out zone , he will cry until he throws up and then I feel quilty for doing it and everything is fine until half an hour later. I just cleaned up theyr rooms and I really don't want to do it 10 more times today. I think I will threw away all the toys and replace them with toys that they can not lift or brake or - or even better idea- NO MORE TOYS in TAN's residence. Sounds like a plan.

Sija is still not home. It is 5.32 and she is somewhere in LA or stuck in traffic. She stayed overnight. Night away from bitchy houswife and kids who love her to pieces- what more do you need?

More rain and Sick Gabriel.

yep, it is raining again. It is nice and fresh outside, but it is R A I N I N G. What are we going to do with rainy weather?

Last night after Gabriel woke up from is afternoon nap he seemed a little out of space, he looked red and whiny and was not hungry- it never happens, he is always hungry. I took his temp and it was 100,3. My first thought was - me and Regina has to find a spot away from Gabriel- isolation, you know( St Jude is 100% in my mind all the time). He did not fall asleep until 2 AM, he was twisting and turning and twisting and turning and drinking awful lot of water. His fever was down todoay, but he still got rosy cheeks.
Why he had to get fever during the weekend? Why not on friday morning when all the doctors are working. Lets just hope that his fever will not return. :)

Then today when I woke up I went to doughnut shop and bought chocolate doughnut with colorful sprinkles. Regina is doughnut junkie. She could eat them for breakfast , lunch, dinner, morning snack, afternoon snack, and bedtime snack. lol/ But I am mean mom and only let her eat doughnuts for breakfast

My sister is going To LA today ( for a whole weekend), Interesting...????

Reginas quilt.- I don't know how many of you remember when I told you that I am making Reginas favorite Things/characters quilt. This is how much is done. She is pretty happy with it. I still have to connect all the squares and buy more fabric to do back of the quilt. :0

If you fall asleep in our house make up bag next to you- This what happens ....... Be aware- makeup artist in training ...

Regina and her brown locks :)

Cheescake factory should be banned. lol

That is just a thought. lol Today we went to the mall and there it was. Cheesecake factory with all it's beautiful cheescakes. You can not pass cheesecake without getting some for yourself. So I did. I got peanut butter cookiedough cheescake - one slice only. But it was sooooooooo good. Oh, and I had to share it with SIja. :) There goes my diet- whooooosh out of window...

Regina had fun in the mall. There was Easter bunny- and of course this one was life size one. AND she wanted to take a pic with easter bunny- again. So we did. After she colored her easter bunny pictures, ate some japanese teriaky chicken with rice and drank murtle beach green lime lemonade. And we went to candy store and she bought some of her favorite candys( it is kind of ritual, every time we go to Mission Viejo mall, we have to visit the candy store. :)

And then I saw the cutest hat , with hair attached to it. Regina thought also that it was cute, so we bought her blond one and brown one. :) SHe looks cute with long brown locks :)


I am off to gym now to run off those extra 300 sugar cals. :)

More past pics. This picture si taken on May 24th , 2004. Just 4 days before Reginas Surgery. We were still clueless. We had to carry her up and down the stairs. She did not walk by herslef anymore. She wanted to eat, but nothing stayed in, plus doctors told us to but her on a plain food diet( bread and rice and water. )

May 14th, 2004. Regina was diagnosed with Stomach flu and admitted with dehydration.. Looking at this picture I still can not belive that her brain had a evil visitor that was about to turn our lives upside down.

Constantine

It is starting to get weird. Constantine from American Idol is my favorite. I don't care how constipated he looks when he tryes to look hot- he is my favoirte.
Then Today , I went to see movie Constantine. I LOVED,LOVED,LOVED IT. It was so my type of movie. If you have seen it thenyou should . that is the way I always imagined hell be like. When I was growing up I had dreams like that, buring fire and skinless creatures etc. I was so taken in by this film I forgot I was in the movie theater. I felt like I was in that movie. How weird is that. Anyway, i know lot of you may disagree and lot of you probably even hate the movie, but I loved it. Again, after watching that movie I felt enery flowing back into me. And Keanu looked great- they should have make him look more sick.

I think Now I know why my son Gabriel is little girly. It is all in the name ;)

More about Gabriels School- Today when I went to pick Gabriel Up he was nowhere to be seen. His teacher ms Cla.... told me that G. Is with Ms. D. SO I went to other teachers classroom and she has no Idea where Gabril is. I got so PISSED. I was furious. This time I did not go through school looking for him. I went directly to assistant dr table and asked with LOUD clear voise- WHERE IS MY SON!!!! Assistant director- she is the nicest and calmest girl there went looking for him, and of course he was with somebody third. It is not the first time it happened. IF Gabriels own teacher does not know where he is Who does??? Maybe next time somebody will go there , take him and walk away with him( so what they have strong securtiy - cameras, door cards, computers etc). I am still pissed , mad , angry----


Regina Had a great day. :) She has been very creative and happy.

Sunday the 13th.

Again this number 13. lol. Anyway we had a pretty good day. Kids woke in in exellent mood. And behived pretty well. Of course Gabriel is the one WHO does not want to listen what I have to say. SO because of that he gets lot of little time outs. And time outs bring with it LOUD SCREAMS and TANTRUMS. He is behiving better now.

Around 11 am I took kids to movie to see Robots. I was surprised how well Gabriel behaved. He sat on his seat the whole time. Usually half through the movies he has to walk, and talk and run to the bathroom million times, but today he only wanted to go to restroom once. :) Both kids liked Robots very much. Regina did not understand lot of the jokes so I had to explain her what this or that meant. Because movie had a lot of " Big Kids" humor I got couple of big laughs out of it. lol
My kids usually want to have popcorn because of candy that comes wih kids meal, so today I told them I get them one kids tray and they have to share it. AND FIRST TIME EVER THEY FINISHED ALL THE CANDY, POPCORN AND SODA. Usually they take one piece of popcorn and I am stuck with tray that costed me 4.75.

Tomorrow is another day.... hopefully as good as today. :D

I believe...

Story of US

Ok honey. If you happen to read it somewhere in Asia, please make corrections ;) You know numbers are not my best friends ;0)


How WE happened.

It was cold November evening. Me and 20 other childrens/ people art managers Headed to Sweden to have some culture related fun. I had one suitcase with me and one pair really, really uncomfortable shoes.
Our cruise ship left 6 pm. And lasted for 12 hours( all night) We got teemed up and after we got settled in our cabins we went to discover the ship. Ship was called Regina Baltica.( thats how my DD got her name)
I got teemed up with one other girl. We did some shopping, checked out the view from balcony. It was fun. Then we discovered bars. We went from one bar to another( I think total was like 3 of them there). We , and 10 other girls ended up in a nightclub. Since I was poor under-paid worker I had not much to spend. I got one cocktail that consisted very little alcohol. But it was ok. I still had fun because all the other girls were lot of fun. Then when I was taking a brake from dancing, one of the girls in my group asked me to look at one group of guys. He thought that one guys was really cute. Well, I did. And when I stared at him- haha, one of his friends told him that I was staring at him. Heheheh. I really was not. I swear. I just was inspecting what I was supposedly cute guys. . He was cute. Then he asked me to dance. We danced for a looong time. It was lot of fun. After dancing I sat back to our table and left it that way. Then Some of our friends left and he wanted to talk to me. We spoke and spoke and spoke, and we discovered that we have lot of things in common- singing, we both played guitar, we loved dancing, etc. I did not speak much English at that time, so he did all the talking. J
He invited me up to his cabin, and of course I went. I just felt safe with him. He did not seem much harm- and he was not. My first impression of him was very good. So after we went up to his cabin he offered me to stay overnight. I said no. Before I left he kissed my hand and that was it.
I had his phone number and couple of days later I called him. Somebody else answered and I hang up. Then he wrote me couple of really nice letters and I did not reply.
Then one night, when I was in a party, I called him from payphone. We spoke for a minute and I told him that I miss him. J After that , he sent me ticket to come to visit him. I stayed for 3 nights. I got back home on 31st of dec.
Then In February I got another ticket from him. I went to visit him again. During my winter vacation. We stayed together for a months. It was fun months. I learned a lot about him. What he likes, what he does not, his favorite music, movies- etc.
Then on February 27th,1998 , when I was supposed to travel back to Estonia, he hands me envelope. I opened it and what I got surprised me a lot. He gave ticket to go to London. I told him that London was my very favorite destination and I wanted to go there. But I did not expect him to fill that dream for me. So , I took my one suitcase with not much stuff in it and we flew to London. J But that was not it. On our way to London I noticed a little box he hid on his pocket. I had a weird feeling. I mean, I was totally in love with this guy, but I did not expect a ring. I really did not. He was so unpredictable, and that what I liked about him. Somewhere in the middle of flight, he pulled out that box, opened it and asked WILL YOU MERRY ME!!!!! I swear, I must looked like a total dummy- stupid. I did not what to say, so I said YES. ( Of course I knew what to say, I knew he was the One and The Only).
I was 19 year old. 19!!!!!.( I am 26 now) I was on top of the world , partying, doing all the fun girly “stuff” and there I was accepting his proposal . Anyway. Now , here I am , year 2005- and I am still married to this guy. I have to beautiful kids with him , house, car, his love- I would not trade my family and life for anything. It is all fate. I was on right time on right place, and same happened to him. We were meant to be.
We got engaged 2 months after we met. We got married Year later we met, and Regina was born 9 months after we got married(09.19.99). Whewwww, that was fast. J Gabriel was born 22 months after Regina ( on June 22nd, 2001) . I moved to New Jearsey June , 1998, Wedding was December 28th, 1998, We moved to California on November( I think), 2000. And that’s were we are staying!!!!

Today me Regina and my sister went to SOuth Coast Plaza. It is one of the biggest and most luxorious( sp) malls around here . We saw easter bunny and decided to pay a visit. It was kind of fun experience since easter bunny was a puppet. There was man behind the wall, moving bunny around and talking to children. Regina loved it. Looks more real and kids are not scared of little cute Bunnys. :D

Life without Mikrowave and more

Today marks day 7 - Life without mikrowave. I can not belive I managed to live without mikrowave for that long , but of course then again - first time i ever used MW when i was 18- yep, I was old. Finally GE guy game in and almost fixed it- i still have to wait for part to arriwe, which will take another week, and then I have to hook it up MYSELF- thank you very much!!! That stupid part was only 26 dollars, serivce fee was 60 dollars, AND the biggest junk of money went for TOUCH UP( remove burnt area inside and repaint it - 5 minutes costed me whooping 90 dollar- So do the math, add all 3 numbers together, how much did you get??? if you got 176 dollars, you are absolutly right!!!! I hate when mikrowaves brake , and I dislike all the service people who overcharge for their work. But they are smart. THEY know we stupid housewives are ready to pay top dollar if only somebody could come in and fix what is broken. They suck, suck suck..:)

On a happier note- Regina had a GREAT day. She was happy and full of energy. After we picked up Gabriel from school, we went to bookstore and read some books. Of course Regina wanted to read HER way , which pretty much means --- ONCEUPONATIME THERELIVED PRINCEANDPRINCESS AND THEY LIVEDHAPPILY EVER AFTER the end..... lol

Gabriel wants me to read books for him, but before I could turn pages , he rans away and tells me that the book is really boring. HE CHOSE THE BOOK. lol

hehehee

Reginas Reinbow nails;D

Dress up party. lol

WEEEEEEE

Beautiful weather and beaches that suck.

Today is perfect weather to spend a day on the beach. So around 11 am we took our towels, toyr to Regina to play with and headed out to find that one right spot.

• laguna beach- sucked, because it was closed for cleaning
• Dana point beac- Sucked even more. We payed F(^(*(^&()_ 10 dollars and all we got was bacteria filled / water poor beach with signs all over blah blah blah. We did not see the signs, but thankfully one guy told us to leave the beach today because now it is the worst time to spend time at the beach. Yeah, got that right. Beach that usually is clean , nice and filled with happy people , looked like hurracane had hit it. It was bad. I felt ripped of. 10 dollars for 10 minutes was littlebit to much. So I made myself promise that during this summer season I will not return to Dana Point beach. HUH!!!!
• Regina is doing great. She got a little treat from her angel today and of course I was the one who had to use it. So, I gave her manicure and pedicure . Now her fingers look nice and colorful :D
• Gabriel started crying today when I dropped him off to school. I felt so bad for a poor guy. He was crying there and I had to leave. Mondays are the worst for him. He rather spend time home with me and Regina than go to school. But as day progresses he calms down and tuesdays are usually good days.
• I have been doing a lot of scrapbooking since saturday- total number of pages is 30. And more to come tonight.

I have a memory of a 100 year old.+ childs love

Today Me and Regina went to VOns( grocery store). I bought cart full of stuff plus sparkling water( 40 pack). So I unload the food to my car and drive home. At home something seems off. AND I GOT IT WHAT IS WRONG- I FORGOT MY W A T E R. Luckily store is only couple of minutes away, so offf to the store I go again. lol. I explain everything to manager and she friendly tells me to get another case of water. They sayed that it happens ALL THE TIME. lol;
I sure felt stupid. How could I forget it. ???

New**
Today when I came home from 6 hour scrapbooking marathon , Regina ran to me , hugged me really tight and sayed- Mommy, I Love you SOOOOO much. You are the best mommy. I missed you . I was speachless. While she sayed it, she had the sweetest smile on her face, her eyes had that happy sparkle in I havent seen for ages( she lost her sparkle during Chemo and all I saw was emptiness).But today, she has been the sweetest thing. She apologises every time she sneezes or coughs, she excuses herself when she wants to leave the room- and she gives me the biggest hugs in whole wide world. And of course Gabriel has to follow her lead. :)
I love my kids. :D

These are homes in our community that have the best views- and ofcourse are most expensice. Starting price is 1,3 million dollars. They are smaller, but VIEW costs .

The Jacket

TOday I went to see movie The Jacket http://wip.warnerbros.com/thejacket/

I had to go to see it because , my original plan was to see Constantine, BUT yahoo gave me wrong times for movies, so I was stuck with that and the Aviatior.

I really, really enjoyed it. There were parts I was not sure what the heck is going on, but in the end everything came together for me. And acting in The Jacket was exellent. ( You may disagree with me, who cares ;) ).
Go see :)

Apple Tree art( Estonia). This was originally huuuge apple tree behind our house , covering all the light that wanted to get in the house in my parents house. Some local artist put their heads together and made art out of our extra sour apple tree. Nice :D ( they owed it to me ;)

Hunger attacks/ Reginas meds.

yep!!! past couple of day I have been feeling horrible hunger. I wake up and I am fine, I could care less about eating, but when clock hits 4pm, I am ready to do everything for food. Yes, I meen everything. And If I dont't have food that I am wanting, I go out and get it. I am bad , bad and very unhealty right now. But really, I have been doing 40 minutes cardio every day- in gym, and I think that that is one of my hunger problems. i burn way to much energy, and only food can replace it, so that's why I am hungry. I have not craving for sweets, I mostly want sausages, cheese, cucumbers- DEEP fryed chicken. lol

Regina had little better day today. She still is coughing and she even lost her voice. But she has been acting better. When I started her on septra ( sp???) twice a day, her personality changed right away. She acted more tired, moody, she even wanted to throw up couple of times. She still gets tired after I give her meds , but she recovers from it after couple of hours. . I hate medications side effects. I remember in St Jude they tryed to give her oral septra, but she got very, very sick and vomited constantly after meds were given to her, so they had to swich it to Monthly IV one. One hour in medicine room and she was done, but even the IV meds made her very, very sick. She threw up 5 minutes afer meds vere hooked up with her IV line, and after reveiving meds, she slept most of the day. But then again, she was fine until next round( which was month later). Anyaway, I just wanted to write it down for my own records.

MY BACK is killing me. I can not do anything, sit longer than hour, take long walks. Pain is horrible. Last time I had lower back pains then when i was pregnant with Gabriel. After that I only had upper back/ neck pains. But now, all I do have is that stupid uncomfortable pain. Nothing works, not even chiropractors help :(

Gabriel had better day today. At least he did not dress up as a girl today. BUT Regina did dress up, and let me tell ya' , it was not princess outfit. Today Regina was SUPERMAN!!!!!!!!! Reginas best friends mom gave that outfit to Gabriel some time ago. But Regina decided it fits her better. So today, she was SUPERMAN. !!!!!! She sayed she is superhero. SHE IS MY HERO!!!!!!!

Hunger attacks/ Reginas meds.

yep!!! past couple of day I have been feeling horrible hunger. I wake up and I am fine, I could care less about eating, but when clock hits 4pm, I am ready to do everything for food. Yes, I meen everything. And If I dont't have food that I am wanting, I go out and get it. I am bad , bad and very unhealty right now. But really, I have been doing 40 minutes cardio every day- in gym, and I think that that is one of my hunger problems. i burn way to much energy, and only food can replace it, so that's why I am hungry. I have not craving for sweets, I mostly want sausages, cheese, cucumbers- DEEP fryed chicken. lol

Regina had little better day today. She still is coughing and she even lost her voice. But she has been acting better. When I started her on septra ( sp???) twice a day, her personality changed right away. She acted more tired, moody, she even wanted to throw up couple of times. She still gets tired after I give her meds , but she recovers from it after couple of hours. . I hate medications side effects. I remember in St Jude they tryed to give her oral septra, but she got very, very sick and vomited constantly after meds were given to her, so they had to swich it to Monthly IV one. One hour in medicine room and she was done, but even the IV meds made her very, very sick. She threw up 5 minutes afer meds vere hooked up with her IV line, and after reveiving meds, she slept most of the day. But then again, she was fine until next round( which was month later). Anyaway, I just wanted to write it down for my own records.

MY BACK is killing me. I can not do anything, sit longer than hour, take long walks. Pain is horrible. Last time I had lower back pains then when i was pregnant with Gabriel. After that I only had upper back/ neck pains. But now, all I do have is that stupid uncomfortable pain. Nothing works, not even chiropractors help :(

Gabriel had better day today. At least he did not dress up as a girl today. BUT Regina did dress up, and let me tell ya' , it was not princess outfit. Today Regina was SUPERMAN!!!!!!!!! Reginas best friends mom gave that outfit to Gabriel some time ago. But Regina decided it fits her better. So today, she was SUPERMAN. !!!!!! She sayed she is superhero. SHE IS MY HERO!!!!!!!

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This is house where I grew up in Estonia.IT was built in early 1950's. It had one bedroom for 3 kids, room for adults, livingroom and kitchen. Everything in it was extra small. We did not have central heating or indoors bathroom. To keep house warm during winter time , we had to light the fireplace and heathed the whole house. We also had barn, sauna( no showers, or watersystems in house) and huuuuuuge vegetable garden we had to take care of( weed, water etc. We also had fruit garden with apple , plum trees, white, red, and black currants. etc.

Cough.

Regina woke up today coughing. And it is very congested cough. Right now she is doing ok, occasionaly coughing. Seems like she does not have much energy eather , she looks very down today. . She is on meds that supposed to prevent pneomia . I have been giving it to her for a week( since St Jude shipped it to us), but I think they are not working. I wait until tonight, and if her cough is getting worse I will call her doctor. There goes my weekend....

Princess and princess- THIS IS WHAT I HAVE TO DEAL WITH E V E R Y D A Y , AFTER GABRIEL COMES HOME FROM SCHOOL :d

Let's get that duck... quack quack quack

Laguna Niguel Park- or part of it ;)

W A N T E D - proof that I am 5'6" and I CAN take a slide down ;P

Elephant Bar and more.

I promised Regina yesterday that I am going to take her to park. So today, 10.30 I did take her to local park. It was one crowded park. lol Somekind of moms club was out ther having fun, and all the kids were around 2-3 years old( about 20 of them). Afer 40 minute play I asked if She was hungry, and if she wanted to go to Elephant bar. Regina was exited about it. She USED to love elephant bar-chicken crisps and fish sticks were her favorite foods there. Well, today she wanted to order fish sticks- I had a feeling that she wont eat it, but I let her order it anyway. And knowing that her second fave was chicken, I got myself chicken- so what it was covered with grease. ANyway, food arrived and guess what- I WAS RIGHT. She hated fish sticks, but she had to eat it, because I told her this is our last time here. She had about 3 tiny bites and she was done, and she even did not want to tast the chicken- so I was stuck with chicken that I had to eat. I admit, it tasted good, but after eating that I got horrrrrible heartburn. So , we were finished with food- then waiter comes and tells us that kids meal comes with sunday. OH YEAH, she gets all exited about it. Then sunday arrives and she is like- WHAT THE HECK IS THAT .????? Huh??? She did not even taste it, I was furious at that point. But I kept my calm. I was so mad I ATE HER SUNDAY- I never eat disserts for lunch , but today was special day, and I knew Ice cream with chocolate sauce and whipped cream will calm me down. I was righ again- I did feel better after eating my daughters ice cream- add another 300 calories to 600 I allready ate. Then we got home and she was like- mommy, my tummy hurts. Yeah, sure honey, it hurts because you did not eat anything. NOW , REgina go open the refrigirator and find something to eat. ***** AND GUESS WHAT*****. Her tummy pain was G O N E !!!! Now I know the medicine. I can not stand when people lie to me( or kids).
Just let you know- I am ok now, she is playing her gameboy, but she still has not eaten anything. And I don't let her have snacks today- yeah, I am that brutal.

Gabriel is in school. He still has another 2 hours to be there. And then he will come home and poses as princess. UGH. What did I do wrong do deserve this????