Okay, I already stuck my suburban housewife, full-time mom neck out on the line here, but can I mention again how much I loved Taylor Hicks??? 

http://www.gofish.com/video.gfp?gfid=30-1034734

'Nuff said.

S-s-s-s-s-saturday Morning

Snakes alive!!  Look what turned up in our back yard this morning.  David said, "Aw, that's not a big snake" but I beg to differ.  Any snake in my book is a big snake.  Guess he got lost on the way to the charmers' convention.

What a week!  Monday was my birthday, and we celebrated by going to eat lunch at our favorite Indian restaurant.  Mom and I went shopping in the rain, and got so wrapped up in the day that I forgot to take Melanie to speech at 2:00.  Oh well.  That night we ate out (again -- ugh!) at 131 Main, but all I could get down was a salad.  That Indian food really stays with you!!  Melanie's last day of preschool was Tuesday, complete with "promotion ceremony" and cute little kids waving to their moms and dads from the stage.  At least Melanie didn't pull her dress up in front of the crowd, but she came close.  I was sweating it! 

Before the program I was at Southlake having the kids in Christian's class make "thumbprint tiles" as a souvenir for three boys who are moving away.  Finished that, rushed to the preschool.  That night I spent 2 hours at our neighborhood pottery painting studio, painstakingly painting the names under all the thumbprints and making little bugs out of them.  By the time I got to the third tile I was losing my mind ... but they all turned out very cute, if I may say so myself.  I missed the final performance night of "American Idol" -- which I have really gotten into this year.  But there were plenty of re-runs.  And isn't the results show more fun anyway?  I have to say I was pleased as punch that Taylor won.  As David said, I would go to a Taylor Hicks concert in a heartbeat.  And from a closet Clay Aiken fan (okay, I admit it ... so sue me!) I was so blown away by the "new" Clay.  Okay, what is a middle-aged suburban housewife doing being interested in this kind of thing? 

I have a new iPod ... welcome to the 21st century, Liz!  But the darn thing is giving me more gray hair than I was getting naturally!  First I loaded it with tons of great music, but then it wouldn't load any more, so Quentin "updated" it, which meant wiping it clean.  Again, hours of loading about 12 CD's.  Then my storage space on my computer filled up, so I deleted all the songs from my library (on my computer).  However, the stupid thing also cleared everything OFF OF THE IPOD!!!  Grrrrr........ I was cussing everything: Steve Jobs, Steve Jobs'  mother and Apple and the way the wind was blowing.   Stupid thing.  So last night I started over, yet again.  I guess everything is a learning process.

Next week will be chock-a-block with appointments and meetings with the kitchen remodelers.  I think we're finally "go" with that.  David and I have a "date" Friday night ... well, he is playing the drums at a dinner theater, and I get to sit in the audience and watch.  Is that a date?  Saturday Lisa has her piano recital.  My trip to Kaz. is coming too close, and I have to shop for clothes.

We talked to Aida last night on the phone.  We thought it was about 10 a.m. there, but it still sounded like we woke her up!  She is so excited that I am coming, and we are probably going to drive to Taldy Korgan on Sunday!!!  I'm thrilled beyond belief.  It's a 3 hour drive, so we'll have to leave pretty early, but so what.  I am dying to go back to the Baby House and take lots of pictures of Melanie.  I hope Gulistan will be there (Melanie's caregiver).  Okay, now I'm excited.  And excited to be showing Debi all these beautiful sights!

 

Broadway, Here He Comes!

Friday night was Quentin's stage debut ... as Colin the little crippled boy in "The Secret Garden" as produced by the middle school at Southlake Christian Academy.  They did a tremendous job.  They left out a scene due to confusion of the stage crew and actors ... but the kids took it upon themselves to incorporate the two scenes together.  Very smart move. 

Friday Melanie had a small outpatient procedure.  We had to go to CMC to the One Day Surgery Center, where she was put under and Dr. Chen extracted one tooth that was growing in a strange place (very common in cleft kids) and capped another one.  It was one of her two front teeth, and was very brown.  Now she has two pearly white front teeth, and looks fabulous.  She did just great ... woke up without any problem, just wanted her "owie" out (her I.V.)  We were home by 2:00 p.m.

My parents are here, for the play.  They drove in Thursday afternoon all the way from Louisiana.  We're having a nice, relaxing weekend with them. 

Tomorrow I will be 46 years old.  Good grief.  How did this happen?  I guess all these years of birthing and adopting babies makes the time go by in a flash.  I just hope the next 46 go a little slower, ha ha.

Back to Kazakhstan, Part Trois?

This will be my third trip to Kazakhstan.  David has been back four times ... two adoption trips, and two playground trips.  I am really, really looking forward to this, and we leave one month from yesterday.  Debi's and my visas arrived on Thursday, and my plane tickets arrived on Saturday.  All we have to do now is pack -- and find somewhere to stay in Amsterdam.  I have a million emails out to Bed & Breakfast places; surely one will have a corner for us to flop into.  Then there's always the Hilton, but we want to stay somewhere with character!  We'll fly from here to Washington DC, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Almaty.  Coming home it's Almaty, Frankfurt, Munich, Charlotte.  (Then of course New Orleans for Debi).

Unfortunately I'm not as tech-savvy as David is, and I don't think I'll be taking the laptop.  I'm hoping I'll be able to find an internet cafe here and there, but the pictures might have to wait until we get back.

Got an email today from Aida, our interpreter during our Taldy-Korgan trip to adopt Melanie.  (See entries dated October 2004 for more about her!)  She doesn't work for WPA any more, but Debi and I will have a full day on Sunday before the rest of the playground folks arrive to visit with her.  She is sooo much fun to be around and I can't wait to introduce Debi to her. 

I had a nice weekend at Lake Lure with my friends Mona & Sue.  We went horseback riding (through a river!) and kayaking (boy do my arms hurt!) ate a lot, and slept; and read books.  Shopped a little.  Overall very restful and relaxing.  David and the rest treated me like the Queen of Sheba yesterday ("you are SO not doing the dishes, mom!")  Now if I can just get through this week of 1000 doctor appointments (Me, Melanie, Lisa), play practices (Quentin's play on Friday), my Mom and Dad's arrival on Thursday, speech therapy, and Melanie's surgery on Friday.  <phew>  Can't believe it's the last full week of school for the Southlake kids. 

It was a little weird being gone this weekend for 3 nights.  It's going to be quite traumatic for all when I am gone for 2 weeks.  David is planning a trip to Mississippi while I'm away, so maybe that will help the time click away quickly for the kidlets.

Did I mention the TSUNAMI?

Well, not really, but my blood pressure did spike just a bit, when a friend of mine calls me Wednesday while I was at lunch.  "I just saw on CNN that there was an earthquake off the coast of New Zealand!!  They're predicting a tsunami will hit New Zealand in 90 minutes!"  Part of me knew that David was inland, in a small town called Rotorua.  Still, all kinds of nasty pictures flashed into my mind.  I had no idea where David was staying ... so I called his secretary, just to set my mind at ease.  She didn't know either, but she did talk to someone at the hotel in Auckland, who said he hadn't heard anything about a tsunami warning, just a lot of rain.  Then not long after that, CNN reported that the tsunami warning had been cancelled. 

A lot of people thought it was silly of the Geological folks to send out an alarm, but ya know, I think I would rather they post the warning and have it be a false one.  You just never know ... Thailand and Indonesia (and Sri Lanka and Africa) come to mind.  I just hope that people in tsunami-prone areas don't get the "crying wolf" syndrome.

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

Just talked to David ... he was at the airport in Auckland, New Zeland, getting on his flight to come home.  It's been a long week ... not particulary hard or anything, just long and lonely.  (Imagine being lonely in a house with six people!!)  You know, things just seem to gel better when both of us are here.  At least I kept the kitchen clean (usually the dishes pile up as I'm too exhausted at the end of the day to do them ... I have more energy in the morning.  David, however, can't sleep with dirty dishes in the sink.  I am the Oscar to his Felix).  I semi kept up with the laundry.  Kept busy taking Melanie to her various appointments ... pediatric dentist on Monday, speech on Wed., speech on Friday, school Tues and Thurs.

Dr. Chen is her pediatric dentist.  Melanie has two teeth in the front which are hypoplastic, or enamel-less.  Dr. C. wants to do an outpatient procedure on her on May 19 where, under general anesthesia, she will seal and bond those two teeth, and get some clear x-rays since Melanie wiggled just a *bit* while they were doing them in the office.  Melanie just does NOT like people poking around in her mouth (for good reason).  Unfortunately her appointment isn't until 11:30, so we should have some great fun telling her she can't eat anything.  <sigh>  Oh, and my mom and dad are driving in the day before to see Quentin's play which is the night of the 19th.  Too much going on.

I have booked Debi's and my flights to Amsterdam and Kazakhstan.  We leave on June 14, arrive in Amsterdam on the 15th.  We'll have that day to rest and sightsee, then the whole next day to check out the red light district.  (Just KIDding!)  Saturday we fly to Almaty, arrive Sunday morning.  The rest of the crew doesn't arrive until that night, so we'll have Sunday to recuperate and maybe wander around a bit.  Monday the work starts!!  We have four days in Almaty (driving to Esik every day .. about an hour away).  Then we fly to Petropavlovsk (far north, almost on the border with Russia) for four more days.  Then back to Almaty Wed., fly out that night (after resting for about 8 hours) for Frankfurt, Munich and HOME. 

Did I mention that we're driving to Destin, FL the day after I get home???  <ugh>  Just make me a pallet in the trunk and give me an ambien.  Wake me up when we get there!