Thanksgiving

It was cold. It's hard to travel with 2 kids, one being an almost-2-year-old-who-thinks-she-is-6-years-old. We had to leave early in the morning to catch our flight. My pants split, but that's a whole other story and it has nothing to do with HOW MUCH I WEIGH, so don't even start. I didn't get much sleep with Eliana flailing about beside me and waking up at 3AM to play.

But I am so Thankful that we were able to spend time with our wonderful family. I am so thankful for the delicious food and the fun times we had. We can't wait to come back for Christmas. Just make sure it's a little bit warmer without snow...please.

Some Miscellaneous Pictures

It's fun to spell 'miscellaneous'.


Murray and Dudley as I was leaving for my Road Trip. Sasha and Eliana right before I left.

ROAD TRIP!!!

Can you believe it? Two weeks ago, I left my kids and my dogs at 10AM on Saturday morning and didn't come home to them until late Sunday afternoon. I know! Aren't you so proud of me? My BFF (that's Best Friend Forever in case you didn't know) met each other half-way between our homes in Middle of Nowhere Florida. I was ready. I needed it. And, I enjoyed every second.

I left with Matt's navigator thingamajig in hand. A quick stop at the gas station food store for some water and a snack---Well, when in Rome---Honey-Roasted Peanuts and some sort of Gigantic, huge Reeses Peanut Butter Cup cookie (that I took one bite of and threw out, you'll be glad to know) and I was really on my way.

By the way, in case you've never used one, I really liked the navigator only becuase it's fun to try to beat it. She's really annoying when she tells me to slow down but I can get back at her just by beating her time. I beat her original estimated arrival time by only 3 minutes even after one potty stop. It was only 3 minutes but it was such a feeling of victory.

I actually had fun. I missed the dogs and the kids a little bit but not enough to ruin my trip. No, I didn't neglect to say that I missed my husband. I didn't. LOL (that's Laugh Out Loud in case you didn't know)!

So BFF Laura and I went to see Twilight, hang out and eat lots of yummy food. We stayed in a beautiful hotel on the beach. Even though it was too cold to even walk on the beach, we still enjoyed the sound of the waves and the gorgeous view.

Why?

This is why everyone should have a butterfly garden. This is why I love Florida---just a reminder that it is mid-November. This is also why, my dearest Matt, I should have a digital SLR camera. Imagine what the pictures would have looked like then.

Anybody publishing a Pictionary soon?

You can use this picture for the definition of BEDHEAD!

She's got the beat.

We were cleaning up from dinner and listening to the Blues station on the TV. Eliana must have felt it, because she took the 2 pens she had been "writing" with and started drumming. She's her Pap's girl, that's for sure.

School Lunch

Eliana and I had lunch with Sasha today. Much to my surprise they were having my absolute favorite lunch when I was a teacher; chicken nuggets (I'm sure there was some chicken meat in there somewhere), a roll, instant mashed potatoes (Yummy--the taste of mashed chalk), and gravy. I bought my drink of choice, (NO! Not wine!) chocolate milk and made it a meal. By the way, Sasha's school now serves VANILLA milk, too. Back in the olden days, when I was in school, we had a choice of whole milk or 2% milk and I think we had chocolate milk once a week. Now they get chocolate, vanilla or 2% milk, AS WELL AS, juice to choose from every day. No Fair!

Wouldn't you know it?

This is what Eliana does the day we go for pictures. I had already given her a bath but she snuck outside to play while I was cleaning up. I was only planning on fixing her 'do before we left later that afternoon.

Ouch!

Sasha was running from the backyard to come inside. She hit the patio and her feet went straight out from under her. She landed on her skinny little booty, ouch! we have a giant ice-pack used for Eliana's carseat in the summer time and it fit perfectly on Sasha's tushy. Eliana couldn't quite understand what was going on but she really made us both laugh when she started imitating Sasha's pose.

This Neighborhood is going...

...to the birds! This our local gaggle/flock/group/family of sandhill cranes and they were in our front yard a few days ago. This is Mom, Dad and their two babies who were so little and brown and a few months ago.

I love Florida wildlife..well, except for the alligators and the bugs.

Good Literature

Who couldn't use some good literature in the morning?

You learn something new every day.

Sasha: Hey Mom we had people from Africa come to our school today to do a show.

Mom: Oh cool. What did they do?

Sasha: They danced and sang songs.

Mom: I bet that was fun to see.

Sasha: Yeah and they said that sometimes they eat rice.

Please Elmo. Would you just shut up?

Eliana and I went to Target the other day for a birthday present and 2 cards. We walked out $200 later! No, someone didn't get a really good gift. Eliana was happy in the cart and I was riding high on my Starbucks so I decided to "browse" the toy section. My original holiday shopping plan was to wait for all the great sales that I am certain will take place in our not-so-thriving economy.

But in my Grande-Gingerbread-Snap-Non-Fat-No-Whip-Latte glee, I decided it was a nice day to shop for few (as if it were only a few) gifts at Target. Boy did I ever.

Please don't judge me when I tell you that my favorite purchase was the Elmo Live doll I bought for Eliana. I had been thinking about it for a while but wasn't sure how she'd react to it. So I gave her one to play with as we shopped. When she held his hand and then tried to share her cookies with him, I knew he would make a great gift. Ellie only shares her cookies with Murray and Dudley.

Target only had 3 left so I wanted to get it then. I easily distracted her with another toy and placed Elmo quickly under the cart. My victory at sneaking one by on Eliana was short-lived and we heard her high-pitched voice coming from under the cart, "Elmo fell down! A little help please." I tried to clear my throat as he was talking but she heard and started looking for him. Again, I easily distracted her, proud of myself, when again, "Uh oh! Elmo fell down. A little help please." At this point, I just ignored it as the mom next to me laughed hysterically and Eliana again wanted to find "Elbo". Is it illegal to kick an Elmo doll in the head?

I thought maybe he was done because it had been about 5 minutes since he last spoke. Just as I was about to breathe a sigh of relief, we hear, "Elmo thinks it's a good time to take a nap. Night-night." Fortunately, unlike MY child, he fell asleep quickly and we finished our shopping Elmo-Free.

When we got to the check-out counter, I told the lady to be very very careful when she scanned him under the cart. I did not want to hear another word out of that guy.

After we got home, I hid all of the gifts in a box in the garage but wanted to share them with Matt so he could see. As I carried the box into the house, Elmo woke up from his nap and was kicking the box, "Elmo fell down. A little help please." I felt a little bit evil as I carried the kicking, talking box into the house. I do think Matt was a bit worried.

I have to admit, he is pretty funny and as you can see from the picture, I probably should have bought one for Matt, too.

3 Years....

This summer, we completed our last post-placement report for Sasha's adoption. The paperwork is all a technicality for the Russian government but it still felt good to be finished.

I couldn't believe how fast 3 years snuck up on us. And yet, it feels like Sasha has been with us forever.

We just mailed the post-placement report to our agency who will then forward it to Russia. In the report, we have to include 5-6 recent pictures. I thought that the very last picture I chose was very Sasha (unless, she's doing her math homework--you do NOT want to see a picture of that.)



Das Vandanya Russia! Thanks for our beautiful daughter who hates milk, oatmeal and math homework with a passion. Thanks for the best loving, caring, patient and generous sister for Eliana. Thanks for such a funny and very energetic little girl who fits perfectly into our family.

Give me a break!

I posted some of this on Facebook last night because I was so disheartened by the negativity that was being expressed----on both sides.

Regardless of your political views, change is needed. Rather than criticize your country or your next president, be thankful that you CAN vote and think about the history that was made last night. Isn't it amazing that we will have an African-American President?

This was not a sporting event for crying out loud. It was an ELECTION. The people have spoken. And those who are booing or gloating should take a lesson from how gracious McCain and Obama were to each other last night. You can be mad/disappointed/sad/happy/excited that your candidate lost/won...but just remember that we are the UNITED States of America and your bad attitude has no place here.

A quote from Obama's speech last night: In this country, we rise or fall as one nation, as one people. Let's resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long.
And one from McCain:
I urge all Americans ... I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating him, but offering our next president our good will and earnest effort to find ways to come together to find the necessary compromises to bridge our differences and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world, and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited.

If you want to move because of the results of the election, please don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Go Vote!!!

Vote for a happier Eliana!

Please......

I didn't do it!

Matt took the girls, ALL BY HIMSELF, to a huge county fair!

Aunt Kerri thinks I drugged him but I didn't. I swear. It wasn't me.... They had a great time, well, except for when Ellie cried after getting off every ride.

Happy Belated Halloween

And then she picked up some rocks for her bag!

Her first doorbell!

The Cat and the Mouse!


Trick-or-Treat!!! Eliana got the hang of it pretty quickly. She's already spoiled so going from house to house and having neighbors love on her and give her things was...well, it was just like normal for her AND Sasha. We went with our neighbors across the street. Their son is Sasha's age and they are 2 peas in a pod. They also have a little girl who is 4 months older than Eliana. The 2 little ones walked around together while the bigger ones ran ahead gathering as much candy as they could. I can't even tell you how cute the mouse and the bat were. Just look at the picture of them holding hands.

Overall, we got a good stash, a few rocks, a bunch of pencils and some candy!