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| On my first boat ride on the ferry to Put in Bay. |
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| On the golf cart at Put in Bay with Daddy. |
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| With my mommy on the ferry ride home. |
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| My daddy makes me laugh so much on the ferry home. |
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| I was in my first 4th of July parade and was the cutest Little Sparkler ever. |
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| My girlfriends, Abigail and Allison, I spent the week with at Lakeside. |
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| On the rocks at Marblehead. |
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| Lighthouse at Marblehead. |
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| "Tada" Jailyn says alot at sunset at Lakeside. |
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| The birthday Princess at Toysrus. |
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| Looking cute with my Birthday Presents. |
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| At build a bear with Daddy and Pretty Kitty I built. |
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| The birthday girls! |
Wow what a busy July we are celebrating all our birthdays still and the best is yet to come this month as we have Jailyn's birthday party tomorrow with Family and Mike and I will get some quality time later this month to celebrate our birthday's together on two dates. Well we went on our very first vacation with Jailyn to Lakeside, OH, up by Put in Bay. We rented a cottage and spent the week with friends at a gated community on Lake Erie. It was about a 4 hour trip by car and Mike and I were so excited to be getting away for some R&R. We are just busy people and needed a break and quality time with Jailyn. Jailyn traveled well and did well sleeping in our room in the pack in play. We know any deviation from her normal schedule still rocks her little world. She was a trooper and loved the trip and new experiences. Our vacations are quite different now than we have had in the past. Just busy with a 2 year old. It was hotter than heck, rained a bit and was quite an experience (not a pleasant experience at all). Time spent away and with our friends was terrific however our cottage ended up being flea infested. It rocked my world and I seemed to be the only one bitten all week (approx 100 times). Then the flee eggs came home in our car via Jailyn's clothes and she was bitten 2 days later (approx 100 times). I had to bomb the car and she was bitten so many times we ended up with an emergency call to her pediatrician in the middle of night....the saga goes on........ and I just want Jailyn to stop itching and our bites to go away and forget the whole experience. I was so upset and it all seemed like a bad dream and how could this happen to us. We have been through so much this past year as this was the last thing we needed. We are supposed to get the majority of our money back and will get our attorney involved to recoup everything as the owner of the cottage was great to allow her part of the rental money to be returned (she felt horrible ruining our vacation which was not her fault the rental company had renters in the cottage with animals of some kind with fleas in June which was against the contractual rules). However the rental company was the most unprofessional company who did not care about our well being. It was our problem and they did nothing to accommodate us and played the blame game. Enough about our flea bag vacation, I am over it and glad we are home. We are blessed our home did not get infested as we took all the precautions and we are okay. Just an emotional week with lack of sleep and my beautiful daughter is so eaten up with bites ( me too) it makes us sick and she has had to be on Benadryl all week and anti itch cream and not be outside in the heat. Not to mention it is her birthday week, Our birthday week. I think once we get our money back we need to take another trip somewhere pleasant before we roll into a busy fall. I think we are more exhausted now than we were before we went on vacation.
NOW all the happy stuff on Jailyn's birthday! Jailyn and I celebrated the day together and it is so special we share the same day as our birthday. It brought tears to my eyes how good God is that Jailyn was picked special for us to be our daughter. I thought about this day 2 years ago how sad I was waiting to be Jailyn's mom and how sad for Jailyn being abandoned the day she was born. However I praise God she was safely put outside the orphanage and placed immediately in foster care. I praise God for Jailyn's birth mom loving her enough and giving the ultimate sacrifice to make a forever family for Jailyn all the way across the world with Mike and I. I am so grateful and blessed beyond my wildest dreams. I love Jailyn so much and she is so much like us now and soooooooo happy. So our day consisted of a trip to Toysrus to go shopping with Jailyn's Jeffrey bucks and we had so much fun we filled the cart with stuff she liked (like I have had time to shop with our vacation ordeal) and got lots of fun stuff. Then to Bob Evans for Mac N Cheese and Green beans, then the party store for a BIG Happy Birthday Balloon (Jailyn loves balloons). She fell asleep on the way home and put her down for nap and was able to wrapped everything and get the house decorated for when she woke up. Mike came back in town at dinner time and off to Kenwood for dinner, build a bear and shopping then home for presents with Mommy and Daddy and a cupcake. It was all about Jailyn. Tomorrow we will cook out with the grandparents and Katie and Billy for her b-day party. Mike and I get to celebrate at Beltarra with a day date 11am to 11pm next week and Katie and Billy will watch Jailyn. We can't leave her over night yet so we will get a room for the day, have a couples massage and dinner at Jeff Ruby's and come home. Can't wait!!!!! Then the end of the month I got tickets for Mike's birthday (July 1) at Riverbend for Crosby, Stills and Nash. So another date we will have this month and that is the gift I gave Mike a date a month planned with a sitter for Jailyn every month until the end of the year. We have been missing our date nights and we have so many fun dates planned and time for the two of us that we can look forward too. I will post more after the birthday party tomorrow.
By the way I have lost 38 lbs and wanted to meet my 145 goal by my b-day however I am only 10 lbs off now 155. I finish the program this month in adapting and onto maintaining. I plan to beef up my workout and work to lose 15 more to be 140 and super fit by Christmas. So happy I have done the work and feel and look great. I gave myself the best gift ever the gift of health which helps me be a better mom and wife. Woohoo!!!!!! The best is yet to come and thanks for checking in on our life with Jailyn.
Love and appreciation,
Linette
