Jamie Update!

On Saturday I finally got to talk to Jamie on the phone! Unfortunately I almost hung up on her! I received a call from an “unknown” person, and I didn’t answer. I usually don’t answer if I don’t know the number, and especially if it says “unknown”. It never even crossed my mind that it might be Jamie. So then a few minutes later I received this “unknown” call again and answered. I didn’t hear anything except muffled noises, then “Kelly?” It sounded like a sales call so I sighed and said, “Yes…Hello?” Then nothing. Then a very quiet, “It’s Jamie…” “Jamie!!!!”

The first half of our conversation was a little awkward. Mom had warned me about the delay. When I would say something she would hear it 5-10 seconds later and vice versa. She was used to this but I wasn’t so about halfway through I finally got the hang of it and stopped interrupting her so much. And then of course there were all these things I wanted to talk to her about and ask her about and as soon as we started talking I couldn’t remember any of it, I just told her to tell me everything! Unfortunately we didn’t get to finish our conversation; we got disconnected while she was telling me about some kind of root that they eat. But we were able to talk for awhile so I have some information to share!

She has now moved onto the island of Ha’apai, Tonga. She is living with a host family as she goes through her training, which will last for another 2 months. She is with a really neat family. The dad is a police officer and the mom makes bread. So she has protection and good food! They speak Tongan and English and are really helping her to learn Tongan. They will usually talk in Tongan and then repeat it in English for her. She also said that sometimes they will be speaking and just mid-sentence switch languages. She said the mom has been great and asked her what she liked to eat. Jamie told her that she really likes vegetables so she has been preparing lots of vegetables for her. I didn’t get any details about what she has been eating, but she did mention that she had ONLY had diarrhea twice! Ha ha! Jamie’s not very picky so she has adjusted to the food well. She did say that she has been eating small portions, though they keep preparing very large meals for her. That is sort of a tradition for them, they feed their guests well! The family also has 4 children. I think they varied from ages 7 to 14. That might not be right, but it’s something like that. Jamie has been trying to exercise (Tongans are generally large people and she is afraid that she will gain weight) but she said that in Tonga people don’t exercise like they do here, it’s just not something they put any emphasis on, or even seem to be very knowledgeable about its health benefits. She has been walking with one of her new sisters, and wants to do some running but she can’t do it by herself. She said that there is some superstition there and if women are alone people will tell them that, “The devil’s gonna get ya…” She said at one point she was walking a short distance from one house to another and she was told that the devil was gonna get her.

She has been going to church with her host family. There are 4 villages on this particular island and they travel to another village for church. She said they have a truck and everyone piles up in the bed of the truck. I talked to her on Saturday afternoon, which was Sunday morning in Tonga, and no one was going to church that particular day because it was absolutely pouring, and I guess everyone has trucks and was going to get soaked. She said that the church atmosphere is different there than what she is used to. Their church places more of an emphasis on community togetherness rather than on God and one’s personal spirituality. I'm not sure what type of church it is. I know when we were looking up information about Tonga we saw that it was heavily Methodist and Mormon. I'm sure both of those denominations have done lots of mission work there.

She really likes the other Peace Corps workers. There are 25 all together in Tonga, though only a few are with her in Ha’apai. I know there is one particular male volunteer from Ohio whose company she has enjoyed, and they have even been singing some karaoke together at a Tongan bar. I will also get more details about this. ;)

Unfortunately Jamie is having a problem with mosquitoes. They are pretty bad in Tonga, though thankfully Malaria is not an issue. She said that one morning she woke up with 24 bites on one leg… 6 alone on one knee cap. She also said that there are a lot of bugs there. It’s not unusual to see lizards and cockroaches in the house. Eeek.

She said that she has no idea what is going on in America, and feels completely cut off from the rest of the world. I tried to fill her in on some of the latest news stories. She didn’t know about the miners in Chile being rescued so I told her about that. I also made sure to catch her up on Glee. :)

She has started to get a nice suntan, but she also has major tan lines since she has to wear shorts and a t-shirt if she goes to the beach. She said that there will be times when she is not working and can go to some of the touristy areas and pretend to be a tourist and wear a regular bathing suit, so that will be fun.

I am so glad that I was able to talk to her and hear that she is doing so well. She sounded very happy and that made me so relieved. I was confident that she would adjust well, but I had this awful fear of her getting there and being lonely and uncomfortable. I know this wouldn’t be like Jamie at all, but this was a big cultural shock and I just wasn’t sure how things would play out. But I was happy to hear that she is having the time of her life. I can’t wait to see pictures. She is hoping to have some online time soon. She said the other day she was having trouble getting a computer connected and it finally did and she was about to check her e-mail and then they had to leave to go to some training. Hopefully I will get to talk to her soon and get some more details. I honestly was so excited to talk to her that my mind went completely blank and I couldn’t remember any of the specifics I wanted. Here are a few pictures I found of Ha’apai, just to give everyone an idea of where she is!

A road on Ha'apai

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I thought this was kind of funny...here is Ha'apai, Tonga!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Beautiful!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Click here to see some more gorgeous pictures from Tonga! I tried to copy them here but they had a copyright.

Blast from the Past - October 15, 2005

So 5 years ago today, Ronnie made me the happiest girl in the world when he asked me to marry him. I thought I would spend a little time reminiscing today and post our engagement story!

At this time Ronnie was in his 2nd year of Medical School at the University of Louisville and I was in my senior year at Western Kentucky University. Ronnie was living in an apartment with his BFF Nic Winters and I was living at mom and dad’s house, commuting to school.

On Wednesday, October 12, 2005, Ronnie called me in the middle of the afternoon. It was rare for us to talk in the middle of the day. I don’t remember what phone plans we had at the time but we didn’t have many “daytime” minutes, plus I was usually in class or working and Ronnie was always, always studying. I remember being pleasantly surprised to hear from him, and only later found out that he called me to make sure I wasn’t at mom and dad’s house because he didn’t want me to intercept a phone call he was about to make to dad. At the time I was at home, in between class and work at the YMCA. So once he knew I would be gone to work he called to talk to dad. At that time my dad was working a weird shift – 4 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. He often took a nap when he got home from work, and on this particular day that’s what he was doing. So Ronnie called and woke him up. Dad said he was only half awake when Ronnie asked if he would be home that night, because he wanted to talk to him about something. Dad told him that he had to leave in about 3 hours to take Jamie to Club K in Nashville for pitching lessons. Ronnie said ok and that he would be there as quickly as he could. Dad said he laid back down, then flew up out of bed 30 seconds later when he realized what was going on, and what he had done. So Ronnie drove like a mad man 2 hours from Louisville to Scottsville. He said he walked in the door and Jamie and Travis welcomed him with sly grins and snickers, knowing what was coming, and not attempting to ease his comfort level. Everyone was eating dinner and they just stood up and walked out of the room. Ronnie said he knew they had to be standing on the other side of the wall listening. So he asked for permission to propose, and of course they said yes, and of course Dad apologized for being so oblivious and said that he could have just asked over the phone given the circumstances! I am still amazed that when I got home from work a couple of hours later than no one gave it away or even acted weird, that I could tell.

Two days later, on Friday, I drove up to Louisville for the “Cadaver Ball”…the annual Medical School dance. We got all fancied up and had a great time at the dance. I had no idea what had happened earlier. While I was on my way to Louisville, Ronnie was in a panic because my ring hadn’t arrived. It had been ordered and was supposed to arrive the day before, but hadn’t. So now it was supposedly on its way, and so was I. He was so afraid that the ring was going to arrive after I did….or not until the weekend was over! The ring ended up arriving literally minutes before I did. Whew! So on Friday before we left for the Cadaver Ball, he told me that he had a surprise for me the next day, but he wouldn’t tell me anything else. I’ll admit, this wasn’t at all like Ronnie, so I did wonder if something was up. Not that he’s not romantic, but when he was in Med School it was all study all the time. When we spent weekends together it consisted of us studying together, or him and Nic studying while Toni and I hung out. So the next morning he left to go to Steve Warrick’s house to “work on a project for school.” What did I do? I cleaned his bathroom. Then Toni (who knew what was up) and I went to Burger King and grabbed lunch. So we got back and I got dressed for our adventure. I had no idea what to wear, so he said just something casual, we would be outside. So I put on jeans and a t-shirt. When he got home I had to stay out of his room because he had to pack some stuff. We finally left, and as we neared our location I was told to close my eyes. When we parked I got out of the car to find Steve dressed in a suit standing by a plane. We were going flying! I had never flown before and Steve had just gotten his pilot’s license. I had been begging for him to take me up. I had to close my eyes again so Ronnie could put some stuff on the plane. Then away we went! I was sitting up front next to Steve and Ronnie was sitting behind me. We were up in the air for about 10 minutes and the motion sickness set in. They said I was jabbering a million miles a minute, then became completely silent. It got bad quick. I never threw up, but I think I was as close as you can possibly come to throwing up without actually throwing up. I took my headphones off (which allowed them to discuss the agenda for the rest of the day without me hearing), closed my eyes, and tried to go to sleep. I have no idea how long the flight was, but when we finally landed I basically fell out of the plane and laid on the runway for a good 10 minutes, recuperating. It worked out perfectly, because I was collapsed on the side opposite the back door so they were able to unload things without me seeing. When I finally got up I realized that we weren’t where we started, then panic set in because I realized that I would have to fly back home! Ronnie told me not to worry and that we would work something out. So we went to Steve’s grandma’s house and hung out while Steve got a boat ready. The plan was, as I was told, Steve had to fly home to Lake Cumberland to take care of some things for his Grandma. They thought it would be a great opportunity for me to fly and we could all hang out on the lake. So Steve got a boat ready and Ronnie and I set out…Steve supposedly was staying back to try to fix his jet ski and then was going to meet up with us. After we got out on the water I realized that there was a picnic basket – Ronnie had packed lunch! So we found a dock and had a nice romantic lunch on the gorgeous lake. Then Steve called and, darn it, the jet ski wouldn’t work so we wouldn’t get to play on the lake. Ok by me, it was kind of chilly. So Ronnie said that he wanted to show me this pretty place he had seen a couple of weeks ago. He had recently gone to Lake Cumberland with Steve…I thought just to play on the lake, but I found out later that it was also to do some scouting out and planning for this weekend. So we drive around and he finds the dock that leads to this place. At this point I had one thing on my mind. I had too much pink lemonade at our lunch and I needed to pee…bad. I am NOT the type of girl who will just squat and go, but I was desperate and there’s not an abundance of porta-potties on the lake. So I did what I had to do. Ronnie was begging me to hold it, and looking around like crazy to make sure no one saw me. He told me later that Steve was nearby and he was afraid that Steve was going to see me, ha ha! So yes, I squatted in the grass by the lake and peed about 5 minutes before I was proposed to. By this time it was getting dark and we were walking up a hill. It was next to an old corn mill and a waterfall, and was gorgeous. He’s leading me through this narrow path where you could see the waterfall. Suddenly I see light ahead. I was like, “Who did this?” Ronnie told me that the people who live behind the corn mill put the candles up every night. Did I believe him? Yep. We got closer and the scene is gorgeous – candles everywhere, roses everywhere, netting up in the trees, on a cliff by a waterfall overlooking the lake (Steve had been setting this up, which is why Ronnie was afraid he was going to see me). I quickly realized that the locals didn’t do this. So then Ronnie got on one knee, pulled out a beautiful ring, said some sweet stuff (I honestly can’t remember what…my head was spinning!) and asked me to marry him. Of course I said yes! We hung out at our beautiful little spot for awhile, then he said we should go because some friends were waiting for us. Along with Steve, our friends Brent and Jenn Duncan had driven down to celebrate with us! We were so excited…and I was even more excited to find out that Brent and Jenn were going to fly back with Steve so we could drive their car back…whew!!

Let the wedding planning begin! We got married on June 10, 2006, and then on June 8, 2007 we found out we were expecting our first little bundle of joy – surprise!! Five years later we couldn’t be happier – we are so thankful that God placed us together and for all the blessings he has continued to pour upon us. We have a wonderful marriage and two beautiful, healthy children. We can't wait to see what else our future holds!

At the Cadaver Ball

Practicing!

My Ring!

Me and Pilot Steve! Before the motion sickness set in...

Introducing - the future Mrs. Pridemore!

Mr & Mrs Pridemore to be!

The next day with the plane...that I didn't have to ride in!

Jamie Update!

Many of you have asked about Jamie...I finally got an update! She has safely arrived in Tonga and she called mom and dad at 1 a.m. last night...she is 17 hours ahead of EST so it was 6 p.m. in Tonga. She recieved a phone soon after arriving but the one she received was messed up so she had to get a new one, which is why it took us so long to hear from her.

As I type this it is 3:30 p.m. in Louisville, which makes it 8:30 a.m. on Saturday in Tonga. Crazy. She was supposed to begin her day with a 3 hour swimming/safety course. Since Tonga is made up of 170 islands she will probably spend a lot of time in the beautiful ocean! Then later they were going to see some kind of "fashion show" to get a better idea of the appropriate way to dress in Tonga. Women there are expected to be dressed extremely modest.

Here is Jamie's current address:
Jamie Ogles
Peace Corps
P.O. Box 147
Nuku'Alofa, Tonga

I believe this is her address while she undergoes her 3 month training period. After that she will be placed at a specific location and her address will probably change. I'll keep everyone posted. I'm sure she would love to hear from everyone! Mom had looked up the shipping rates to Tonga and I believe shipping a standard envelope/letter is 98 cents...not too bad considering she is almost 7,000 miles away! I'll continue to keep you updated as we hear from her. And again, I'm sure she would be more than excited to hear from her friends and family, or a stranger offering a kind word and encouragement! The next few weeks might be a little overwhelming for her as she adapts to a new environment, learns a new language, etc. Even if you don't take the time to send her a note, please take some time to say a prayer for her!

6 months!

Wow. I can’t believe we have been blessed with our little Kendall for half a year! Everyone is right when they say that time seems to go by much quicker with the 2nd baby.

Today Ella and I took Kendall to see Dr. Bindner for her 6 month checkup. Things went great. I’ve always joked that Kendall would weigh more at 6 months than Ella did at one year…I was right! Kendall is 17 lbs 7 oz (just below 90th percentile) and 27.25 inches (95th percentile). So she is still topping the charts! Ella weighed 17 lbs 3 oz (3rd-5th percentile) at 1 year old. :)

Kendall received 3 shots and 1 oral vaccine today, including the flu vaccine. She’ll have to go back in 4 weeks to get her 2nd dose. Ella also received a flu vaccine today. Based on her age, she could have received the flu mist, but since she has just gotten over a respiratory illness we didn’t want her to receive the live virus that is in the mist, so she got a shot. She hasn’t had a shot in awhile, but in the past she did well if we talked about it ahead of time to get her prepared (and mommy had a sucker in tow). But today I didn’t even think about her getting a flu shot until we got there and they asked if I wanted Kendall to get hers. So we didn’t have time to prepare and she didn’t know what was going on until we dropped her pants. Poor thing. She freaked OUT. I had to hold her down while the nurse gave her the shot. It was awful. I’ve always handled it well when the girls have received vaccinations but I think this is the first time I’ve ever gotten the panicked screaming before the shot. It was tough. Thankfully she calmed down pretty quickly afterwards and watched Kendall get her shots, and she did great. Kendall only cried for about 15 seconds after the shots. When we got home we took off Ella’s super sticky doctor’s office bandaid and put an Elmo bandaid on and that made her feel better.

Now for me and Ronnie, we are having a harder time than the girls shaking this respiratory infection. Ella is essentially over it but Kendall is still doing some coughing. I think I have full blown bronchitis. I used to get it all the time as a kid, but it’s been awhile. Yesterday was rough….hilarious in hindsight, but rough. Ronnie and I had both completely lost our voices so we had to whisper all day. Kendall thought all the whispering was funny, but Ella didn’t like it at all because it shook up her nap time and bed time routines of reading books and singing songs. My voice is back today but I can’t quit coughing and it hurts really badly in my chest. Ronnie and I were talking (whispering) last night and realized that this is the first time we have ever both been sick with the same thing, aside from the time that we got food poisoning from a rotisserie chicken at Wal-Mart. I threw that in there to remind everyone to NEVER buy a rotisserie chicken from a supermarket!!

Catch Up!

So today my sister asked if I had read her blog lately because she has several new posts up. This reminded me that our blog has pretty much ceased to exist and that I should at least put SOMETHING up so everyone knows we're still here. Let me try to at least catch everyone up with what is going on with us.
Right now the girls and I are in Scottsville because on Monday Jamie leaves for the Peace Corps. We are SOOO excited for her but still coming to terms with the fact that we might not see her for 27 months (3 months of training and 24 months of service). The reality of that hasn't quite hit me yet and I don't think it will until she has actually left. On Saturday we are having a family party, aka Jamie's Christmas, then on Monday she leaves for LA. She will stay in LA for one night and then head to Tonga. So, the great thing is that she is going to be serving in a beeeeeautiful place. Tonga is one of the Pacific Islands...it's near Figi...east of Australia and New Zealand. Think screen saver beach photo. Here ya go:

It's itty itty bitty. If you pull up a map you must zoom, and zoom, and zoom, and zoom, and zoom and then eventually you will see several little dots...170 islands which make up the Kingdom of Tonga. We were extremely excited to hear that Tonga is a Christian country...pretty strict in its Christianity traditions, in fact. She hopes to start a blog specifically about her experiences in Tonga, so when she does I will post it. It's difficult to be so conflicted. I'm so excited for her and know that she will do great things for the people in Tonga (she will be teaching them English) and will see and experience things most of us never dream of, but I can't help but be sad because when she returns Ella will be about to celebrate her 5th birthday and Kendall will be Ella's age. :( I try not to bring that up to Jamie but I can't help thinking about it. This past weekend she was at our house and Ella was "helping" Jamie with her Tongan vocabulary (she has to learn the language) and at one point I said, "Ella when Aunt JJ goes to Tonga..." and she stopped me mid-sentence and said, "No! No! She's NOT going to Tonga!" :( Anyway, we are hoping that Jamie will be able to make at least one visit home during her 27 months, and if not Ronnie and I would LOOOOOVE to take a little vacation to Tonga! Problem is it's crazy expensive to fly there....and we've got a lot of student loans that we have to start paying on next year! We will see!!!!
Let's see, what else.
The job search has begun!! Ronnie and I have made 2 visits to potential job locations for after he finishes up his ER residency next summer. About a month ago we visited a hospital in Murfreesboro, TN and yesterday we visited with our good friends Justin and Bridget Morgan in Henderson, KY. Justin recently finished up his pediatric residency and is working in a private practice in Henderson and told the hospital about Ronnie. They seemed extremely interested when we visited yesterday. This whole time I have been completely against going to a small town because I really enjoy being in Louisville. But I don't know. It was kind of nice being around friendly people who waved when you drove by even if they didn't know you, and everyone at the hospital was super nice. The part I most enjoyed was hearing everyone, and I mean EVERYONE at the hospital making references to the local sports teams. That is soooo up my ally. We are certain that we don't want to go back to Scottsville/Glasgow/BG area, but maybe if it was a different smaller town it would be ok. This is what we have been pondering. I guess we'll see what they have to offer and in the meantime we will keep making visits.
The kiddos...our kids rock. They really do. They are both doing great. Ella has been dealing with allergies/cold/CRUD mess for the last few weeks, like everyone else in the Ohio Valley, but she's been a trooper. If you ask her what her skin is called, she will tell you "epidermis." She's awesome. A funny expression she has been using lately is "last day." If she is talking about something that has happened in the past, whether 2 days ago or 6 months ago, it's "last day"..."last day I went to the dentist...last day when we saw Gavin....last day when we went to the hospital." It's really funny. As for Kendall, she is becoming such a big girl! She is sitting up now and it won't be long until she is crawling. She loves baby food (is anyone surprised?) but so far it doesn't exactly love her. She gets extremely constipated, which makes for long nights of crying and grunting, followed by an explosion which inevitably requires oxi-clean. She will be 6 months old on October 7th. I can't believe she is already half a year! Wasn't I just begging her to come out of my belly?
Ross has been living with us for the past couple of months and we've really enjoyed having him in our home. Ella especially loves hanging out with Uncle Ross. He has been studying for his EMT test...I'm not exactly sure what it's called, but he recently completed the EMT courses and had to take a national test to be certified and get a job. Anyway, he has been studying his bum off and it paid off. He took the test on Saturday and found out on Monday that he passed. Yay Ross!
Ok it's late so that is all for now, but hopefully that was a nice little catch up and I will get things going  a little more regularly now!

4 months!

Our wireless is still not working, so I’m still a blog slacker. :)

Last week we took Kendall to her 4 month checkup with Dr. Bindner. I can’t believe 4 months has gone by since our second little blessing arrived! Her checkup went great. She is still our chunky monkey…though she is no longer “off the charts.” She weighs 15 lbs 5 oz (90th percentile) and is 26 inches long (97th percentile). The rest of her checkup went great and it ended with 3 vaccinations – 2 injections and one given orally. Ella was pretty excited about Kendall’s shots (go figure). When the nurse walked in to measure Kendall she immediately asked where the shot was, and when Dr. Bindner came in she asked her the same thing. We’ll see how excited she is when it’s her turn to get a flu shot in the next couple of months!

Dr. Bindner encouraged us to go on and try rice cereal. We didn’t start Ella on rice cereal until she was 6 months old, but circumstances are different this time. Ella’s weight gain drastically slowed down when she was this age so we wanted to keep her solely on breastmilk until she was 6 months old to make sure she was getting enough fat and nourishment as possible. Kendall, however, has had NO problems gaining weight and Dr. Bindner thought it would help with her reflux. In the last week we have tried both rice cereal and oatmeal cereal but she hasn’t taken an interest in either so we aren’t pushing it. She still seems to have her tongue-thrust reflex so until that is gone we won’t expect results. Oh well…she’s getting what she needs!

Kendall is rolling all over the place now. She rolls all over the living room and in her crib. She also laughs all the time, especially when we make her dance. The first time she laughed was a few weeks when we were watching Glee and I started spinning her arms and singing “Rollin’ on the River.” :) The other day we had a little scare when she popped herself out of her Bumbo chair. She was sitting in the Bumbo with me in the kitchen while I was cooking and all of the sudden I heard a “plop” and she started crying. I turned to find her lying face down next to the Bumbo. Thank goodness it was on the floor! Needless to say she now only sits in the Bumbo when we are within arm’s reach! Kendall is a fantastic baby. The only “issue” we are having is that she is very, very Mommy-attached. Especially when we go to the YMCA. Some days (like today) the nursery workers have to come get me because she gets so upset. But they are great and have really been working well with her to help her get used to them. I didn’t expect separation to be an issue until later on and was very surprised when she started having trouble there. As long as Mommy is in view she is fine, but if I go away, watch out!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Kendall's 3 month pictures

A couple of weeks ago we had Kendall’s 3 month pictures made with Hollie Colwick. She took Ella’s 2 year pictures back in March and we loved her so she has become our family photographer. Kendall (who weighed a whopping 15 lbs at 3 months) was NOT happy during the photo shoot. Her reflux problems had been worse and since then she has been put on Zantac and is much better. We’re not sure which is helping more, the medicine or the fact that I’ve been trying to pay more attention to how much milk she is taking in. Since I’m breastfeeding it’s hard to know exactly how much she is taking in, but with her doctor we determined that reflux is partly the problem, but overeating is too. She was extremely fussy for about a week and a half and the pictures fell right in the middle of that time so unfortunately we didn’t get as many smiles as we normally would. When she was posing with Ella she was actually screaming the entire time. Hollie did awesome and I guess these shots were taken when she was catching her breath because it looks like she is sleeping! Anyway, here are some of our favorites…