farewell to 2007

dear friends,

reflecting on 2007 makes my brain hurt. the only thing more hectic than moving with 2 and 4 year old boys would have been moving after baby girl's arrival. the first quarter of our year was totally insane. of course, rather than relax in the second quarter, we headed straight for 8 nights in guatemala. because we are unable to sit still. ever. let's see. then there was a beach trip, a disney trip, and 6 weeks after those we were back in guatemala. but this time, we didn't take a sitter and i was high on prednisone and valium because of my back. we are thankful that our boys are fantastic travelers.

the boys are actually still asking to go back to guatemala. they had the greatest time there. so, after bringing our sweet nk home we were faced with our biggest challenge to date. i was almost completely out of commission with a "significantly" herniated disc. i could barely walk and then began to lose feeling in my left hiney/leg region which was quite terrifying. d's birthday was coming up so i planned our first "location" birthday party at our city aquatic center. i needed to have a party planned that c would be able to handle if i was still out of commission. a couple of weeks after i had an epidural steroid injection i was finally pain free.


the rest of the year is a blur because we went back into our non-stop action mode with the now 5 and 3 year old boys. baby girl turned 1 and had a gala celebration along with baptism. we had good old friends in town for thanksgiving weekend. and we rounded out the year visiting family and friends. as i type, we are watching the tigers play in the peach bowl just as we've done many times before. we've been to the bowl twice and even got married while they were playing in the peach bowl eleven years ago. good times.


this has turned into a christmas letter instead of a blog post, hasn't it? oh well. stop reading if you're bored senseless. can't stop, can you? i'm like a train wreck. you just have to read to find out what insane thing i'll do next. think i can convince c to go to china with me for another baby girl next year? no, neither do i. but i'll bring it up from time to time just to freak him out.


love y'all for reading and calling and emailing and being great friends! we send you our heartfelt wish for a healthy and full new year.



much love,
k



ps: thanks to d.o. who took some of my favorite photos this year at d's party:

the black stuff on d's face is icing from the spiderman cake!

and a happy new year

we had a wonderful christmas and will be enjoying the new year with our new christmas camera! i might have driven the family nuts today with all the flashes. here's a favorite.

when you least expect it

i thought we were just sending letters to santa this year. when i asked the boys earlier in december if they wanted to write letters or go sit on santa's lap, they said they would rather send letters. that was before santa walked by the restaurant we were having dinner in tonight. we ended up in line for an hour after dinner. they were determined. they could not be persuaded to come back another time. they were psyching themselves up to talk to the big guy. if i'd known we were going to see him, i might have dressed them differently. i might have even brushed their hair. but i bet the picture wouldn't have been good then. it's our best santa picture ever. i can't believe it!

who says you can't get a good shot of three at once?!

wishing you a merry, merry, merry christmas!

baby girl has been so adorable in her christmas dresses this month. it has been such fun. her big brothers are busy writing (dictating) letters to santa. they are asking for candy. lots and lots of candy. they occasionally mention a toy or a bike, but mostly they are grieving the loss of the halloween candy and asking for more. most letters start, "i've been very good to my brother all day. well, most of the day." they even wrote a letter for their sister asking for some baby toys. yeah, like we need more toys around here. i'm such a grinch. to prove it, here's our new grinchy green wreath:

we're enjoying our full house this christmas. if you're reading this blog because you're thinking of adopting, start now and you'll have a full house by next christmas!!

and it's not even december yet

getting into the spirit! click HERE.

happy birthday, sweet girl!

the boys are in love with their sister and are excited about her first birthday. we feel so fortunate to have gotten her home before all of the changes in guatemala. she has blossomed into an active little crawler and babbler. she's been learning baby signs and calling us dada, mama, and baba (brothers...or bottle sometimes).

the guatemala 5000

www.jcics.org - click for information about the status of guatemalan adoptions.

now, if you've read that, you may look at photos of baby girl and her superhero entourage.






she has adjusted beautifully and is adored by her brothers. oh, and she's mobile!! the boys are going to have to put away what they don't want chewed.

at home

fond farewell

trip photos here! i can't believe i didn't get one of nk in the pool. guess i was always in with her.


stop by soon if you didn't today! we are open for visitors anytime. just give us a quick call to say you're on your way because we might get crazy and leave the house tomorrow. only if we're going directly to the pool though. this heat is unbearable after that beautiful guatemalan weather.


i hope you enjoyed the blog! i'll miss the chicken bus adventure.

long way round (our story)

once again, i'm wide awake watching these gorgeous babies sleep and wondering how c can sleep when he could be looking at them instead. it's hard to believe we've pulled it off! pulled what off? well, perhaps i should back up a little and explain.

my high school history teacher was always assigning us news magazines to read as homework. i suppose i was about 16 when i first read an article about all the abandoned babies in china. from that moment, i always pictured my future family as a mixture of cultures. as time went by and i read about adoptions in both china and romania, i started to feel drawn toward eastern european children. c and i talked about adoption for years - before we were even engaged.

when the day finally arrived that we were ready for a family, c presented me with a book about russia. we just knew that we were supposed to go to russia - and not just as tourists! we went to an informational meeting at our agency, but when we saw the cost of international adoption we were shocked. c was a resident and i was working hard to pay off our student loans. so, we thought maybe we'd have a biological child first and adopt later. we tried for a year and by then we'd saved the money to adopt. without a second thought, we filed papers to adopt in russia. that was four years ago this month.

eight months later, we had our darling d home. and we were hooked! we soon began another russian adoption and i think you're all familiar with those results. a came home seven months later (14 months after d). we called him our "surprise" because he came so fast.

as we drove to the airport last thursday, we were listening to the song from a documentary that we've been watching. it's called long way round. ewan mcgregor and a friend of his ride motorcycles from london to nyc - the long way round. they go through some places that were very familiar to us. the steppe near d's birthplace, orenburg, is so unique and the look of the kazakh people is so like a. we watched ewan fall in love with mongolia and read that he later returned to adopt a child there. that's what happens to us, too. we fall in love with these places and these people. and we keep traveling because we want our kids to know that nowhere is very far away and that people are all just people no matter where they live. we've been shown extraordinary kindness by people in guatemala and in russia. even if i never see ludmila (our translator) in orenburg again, i know that she and i are connected by heartstrings that stretch around the world.

so, as we drove toward the airport singing along to long way round, we couldn't help but think that we've sort of gone the long way round when it came to creating our family. our darling d, our sparkplug a, and our little princess nk are THE kids for us - we just had to go looking for them. God puts the right kids in the right homes every time.

for four years, c and i have been working on what we call plan a - getting the kids in the house. today, we begin plan b - preparing them to leave us one day. all the while, we'll be trying to show them how simple it really is to do little things that can have enormous impact on the lives of others. we adopted because we just knew we were meant to, but we occasionally do think about the difference we've made for these three little people.

loads of love from this russian-tajik-guatemalan-nicaraguan-american family


[this message was scribbled on a marriott notepad at 4 am and transcribed at a more reasonable hour. i apologize for its sappyness or incoherentness.]

lack of new photos

i was flipping back through the photos on my memory card on sunday and realized that some of the files i had uploaded here were corrupted on my card. so, i decided not to upload anything else til i get home and can back them up first. sorry, but i know you understand!

units

we've begun measuring the days in units of time.

breakfast buffet = 1 unit

getting ready for the pool = 1\2 unit

swimming = 2 units

waiting out tropical downpour of rain under the cover by the pool = 1\2 unit

bathing everyone = at least 1 unit

email and blogging = 1\2 unit, maybe a unit if we stretch it

watching spongebob in spanish = 1 unit

chatting and laughing with nk = 3 units

pushing the stroller aimlessly in the lobby = 1\2 unit

explaining a's heritage to other hotel guests = 1\2 unit

trip to mcdonald's = 1 unit

making bottles = 1\4 unit

washing bottles = 1\4 unit

stealing baby spoon from restaurant = 1\8 unit

we are really starting to get loopy. can' t imagine how we did this in moscow for three whole weeks.

daddy´s girl

i wasn´t very good about taking pictures today. will do better...



mr. a was asleep at 715 and i bet the others have nodded off while i´m here uploading and blogging. the pool really exhausts them which is a huge blessing since there is NOTHING else to do here. maybe we´ll go to the zoo again tomorrow. we really shouldn´t since we won´t get her passport back til monday, but we might be stir crazy enough to risk it.

oh, btw, my back is much better. still not picking the giant three year old up, but probably never will again! finally learned my lesson. lots of love and can´t wait to see you all on tues!

first batch of photos

little man fell asleep at take off

view from the plane!

foster mom and nk

big brothers saying hello

our little sleepers! (insomniac brother not pictured)

groundhog day

i know, i know. you want pictures. i keep forgetting my cord for uploading though. we're having a great day - even if it is creeping by very, very slowly. we swam til we were all limp and now we're having a little computer time. we have another fish in the family!

it's in the 70`s here and just gorgeous outside. the pool is heated, but we have to RUN to our towels when we get out.

the boys are in love!!! did i tell you that already? i mean, crazy in love with their sister. they were snuggled up with her this morning and she started babbling at them. d said, "mom, i think she's doing baby talk in spanish." he is in awe of everything she does. if she starts to fuss even the tiniest bit, he rushes over to hold her hand and cheer her up.

a still loves to wander the hotel telling everyone about his brother and sister and giving out various other misinformation. he still insists that he is 4 to everyone he meets.

well, we should go dry off.

(oh - did i mention that we have the happiest baby in the world? she just smiles and giggles all the time.)

visa approved!!

our flight yesterday was smooth and uneventful. we were able to upgrade to first class which was a huge help because the boys could move around so much more. they were so good and little a actually slept most of the way!

our sweet girl was "delivered" at 430 and was all smiles from the start. it was really hard for her foster mom to let her go. i was so sad for her and yet so happy that she was so loved.

our embassy appointment was smooth and easy this morning. we were back here and in the pool by 11. her visa will be ready on monday! we're just so relieved. i can't begin to describe it. i know i'll just be overcome with emotion when we finally board that last flight as a family of five.

now we just get to play in the pool and sit outside in the gorgeous weather til tuesday. i'll sneak back down tonight to upload some pictures.

jb-the package has been picked up.

tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!

twenty-four hours from now i'll be on a flight to guatemala. at 4:30 tomorrow, our baby girl will be placed in our arms forever. we are all excited beyond words!

i'll try to post tomorrow just to let you know that we are there and that we have our sweet girl.

tomorrow is my grandfather's 89th birthday and will also be his first great-granddaughter's gotcha day. how fantastic is that?

forecast

the good news: very nice temps!

the bad news: probably the kind of humidity that will make my hair ENORMOUS. you won't be seeing any of those mother-daughter photos from this trip.

FriAug 3
Isolated T-Storms
76°/62°

SatAug 4
Partly Cloudy
75°/64°

SunAug 5
Scattered T-Storms
76°/62°

MonAug 6
Scattered T-Storms
76°/62°

four days

it's hard to believe after a year of endless paperwork and waiting that we only have four days left to prepare! we leave early thursday morning and we'll have our sweet girl that afternoon. then, we'll go to the embassy for an 8 am appointment on friday. if our interview goes well, her visa will be ready to pick up on monday at 3:30. we'll fly home on tuesday, august 7!

we're spending this weekend packing and nesting and even unpacking the last few boxes from our move. it would be nice to be really moved in before we bring another kid home! oh, and i'm also spending some time in bed letting my back heal from a recent injury related to the three year old. we're hopeful that i'll be better in time for the trip. pray for my stupid bulging disc!!!

WE'VE GOT PINK!!!!

isn't it just typical that the day i was whining about the embassy they were busy issuing our pink slip? at long last i can annouce to you that we are leaving next thursday to bring home baby sister!!!

i got an email with the pink slip tonight and started booking things right away. i can't believe the appointment is so much earlier than i had expected! i don't know what to do first!

your tax dollars at work

we still don't have a travel date. not that we were expecting one yet - i'm just letting you know that we don't know. it's part of a sinister plot by our dept of homeland security. you see, if they prolong the agony and torture long enough, then you'll be so glad when you're finally in guatemala with your child that you won't pitch a fit over the long wait on your embassy day followed by another long wait once you are in your port of entry. you'll just suck it up and be glad to have your child.

it's a lot like the day we were fingerprinted (for the third time). the boys were being wild in the immigration office because it was three hours after our appointment time and we were still waiting to be printed. one of the workers came out and told us and another family to keep our kids under control or they would shut the whole office down. instead of yelling back at this insensitive woman who had clearly never spent three hours in a line with her 2 and 3 year old sons, we just had to nod and keep quiet. in fact, c and i said nothing at all in reply because we couldn't find anything to say that wouldn't have gotten us kicked out of there!

so, until baby girl's visa is issued and we land in the states making her a citizen, i'll just have to keep my big mouth shut and hand over as many notarized, certified and apostilled copies of my most personal and private documents as they request. you want my tax returns? sure. my birth certificate? no problem. the deed to my house? here it is. now you need my bank numbers, social security and college transcripts? i can have them tomorrow...in triplicate. you want the hundred dollar bills to be crisp and unmarked? you got it! (have i mentioned that our bank hates to see me coming?)

just waiting for pink

"we've got pink!" is an exclamation that you often see on the guatemalan adoption message boards. once the adoption is finalized in guatemala (also called "getting out of pgn"), the case is submitted to the US Embassy for a visa appointment. that appointment is called a pink slip and it is usually just a few days in the future. so...don't be surprised when we suddenly skip town because WE ARE OUT OF PGN AND ARE WAITING FOR PINK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

in other words, that precious baby girl is legally OURS and we're just getting a little more paperwork done to be able to bring her to the states. because we visited her, she'll be an american citizen when we land in this country.

post your questions - i know you'll have plenty!

in our hearts

we've been in PGN for almost six weeks now. i still have a heap of patience in me, but i will admit that i've been lurking a little on the yahoo group for guatemalan adoption. just checking timelines and wondering if i might get a call soon. i've seen lots of people come out of PGN in about four weeks and lots more who've been in PGN for months upon months. there's no way to know whether i'll be one of the lucky few or the frustrated many. so, we wait. and we wait happily because it's summer and the boys are out of school and we've been to the beach and we're doing fun things and enjoying our unscheduled existence.

we talk about baby sister all the time and if you ask the boys if they have brothers and sisters, they will each tell you that they have one brother and one sister. they include her in our family and in their prayers. now we just need her in our arms!

new pictures!!!

someone is six months old! the boys love seeing her in the clothes they picked out when we shopped for her.

good to be home

"Inherent in the concept of home is the concept of wandering." - Martin Heidegger

isn't it funny that someone can be such a homebody and such a traveler at the same time? i thought there was something weird about me until i read that quote at the bottom of an email from a friend once. i love, love, love to see the world and i also find immense joy in returning home and discovering the little comforts i'd forgotten. i wish baby n could be here with us, but i'm praying that our case will speed up. please pray for her and for us and especially for the employees of our embassy in guatemala and in the homeland security department. pray for them to put in a few extra hours to get these cases moving. pray for them to stop treating infant adoptees as potential terrorists. oh! and pray for little a's nose to heal. the stitches were taken out today and we just have to beg him not to pull off the steri-strips again. a huge thanks to our friend here who saw him on a sunday afternoon.

i think that closes this blog. thanks for reading and thanks for all your kind words. i have the best friends in the world!

love, k and the boys

ps-three years ago today we arrived home with d!

you asked for it

pepperoni, corn dogs and machine guns

even though i'm finally home and tucked into my very own bed, i need to post what i would have posted last night had i had the chance. i got sidetracked with packing and never managed to upload pictures or describe our evening.

after surrendering baby girl to the guatemalan mama, we wanted to venture outside the marriott. we hadn't been anywhere since sunday (unless you count c and a's adventure to the hospital). c asked the concierge about nearby shopping. i guess i should have been more clear about what kind of shopping i wanted. we followed her directions and ended up at a mall. i really wasn't looking to shop at the gap in guatemala city. the upside was that there was a pollo campero and we'd been told we had to try it. think of a really greasy bojangle's and you've got a good picture of pollo campero. well, until you factor in that the chicken tasted like pepperoni, the nuggets tasted like corn dogs and there was a guy with a large gun of some sort posted at the door. it seemed to make all the other patrons feel safe. not us. each time a let out one of his signature screams, we shrunk down in our chairs a little more. there's just no way for us to be inconspicuous in guatemala city though. we all became quite jealous of a's blend-almost-anywhere-look. people just assumed he was guatemalan and were stunned by his perfect english.

"does he still speak spanish" was a frequent question. especially at the end of the week when a had begun answering questions in spanish. c said thanks to him yesterday and a said, "de nada." pretty quick, that kid.

okay, i'm going to sort some pictures now and try to post before i pass out.

kidnappers

i feel like my baby has been kidnapped. it's just so miserable. please pray for our case to progress quickly. i can't wait very long before i'll have to execute the mexican kidnapping scheme. i'm thinking rental car, mexico, smuggle into texas... do you really need a social security number?

i just can't believe how much you can love someone in just a week.

there are three things that make this a tiny bit easier. one is d, one is a, and the last is the foster mom. she is fabulous. she is a great mom and i know that n will be happy with her. the foster mom, the dad and the big sister are all very sweet. n is their fifth foster baby so they are pretty good at this.

i took the foster mom out to show her the pool and around the hotel a little while we waited for the attorney's daughter. could not believe it when paramedics ran past me to get another little boy at the pool. will have to head downstairs now to get the scoop from the hotel gossips.

promise to post pictures late tonight so check in the morning.

good night

we are definitely growing on baby n. she can´t stop smiling at laughing at me now. such a doll baby! she was sweet from the start, but smiles and laughs and babbles more everyday. just when she´s getting used to us, we have to go. it´s better this way so we don´t confuse her too terribly. we´re just like grandparents this week. we get to have her for a few days, spoil her and give her back.

all of my babies are asleep in my room now. i can´t wait to get back up there! just wanted to read your comments. i love them!

¡hasta mañana!

shameless begging

as long as i have your attention this week, i'm going to use it to ask for something. please, please consider coming to the gala fundraiser for our agency on may 5. if you click the link to carolina adoption at the bottom of this page, you can find out more about it.

this organization does very, very good work all over the world. the difference they've made in our lives speaks for itself so that's all i'll say.

2 seconds ago

so many pictures!

hope you like them...

a kissed n earlier and told her that he missed her yesterday.

la niña dulce

i promise to come post tons of pictures later today. in the meantime, just wanted to write a quick note to tell you that a is doing really well. he acts like nothing happened. he ripped his steri-strips off when he woke up this morning so i had a moment of panic, but c taped him back up. we´re just trying to keep him calm this morning. d was pretty shaken by it, but is doing ok today. n is having so much fun with her big, crazy brothers. they love pushing her stroller around and showing her to everyone in the hotel.

the whole hotel was abuzz about a yesterday. there must be fifty adoptive families here and everyone had met the monkeys, of course.

so, we are back to enjoying la niña dulce esta mañana. tomorrow is going to be really hard. i think we will be back to visit her again soon. we´ve had such a great time excepting this tiny little incident of a nearly broken nose. just part of the deal with little boys really. might as well get used to it. the really, really sad thing was that he was being really good when it happened. wasn´t running! was just walking along carrying towels with c and didn´t see the step.

pobrecito

i'm sitting here typing and looking at this gorgeous girl who has slept most of the day away. we really wore her out this morning and before i tell you how, take a deep breath. i'm talking to you, nana. deep breath. we were at the pool this morning and a fell and nearly broke his nose. he just came out of surgery and he's fine. has thirteen stitches, but is watching tv and asking for pizza. we had just ordered a pizza when he got hurt.

i think n slept the rest of the day after all the excitement. running with mom and d to the room for c's wallet, passports and such. talking to the paramedics. pacing with mom. it just took it out of her.

i have to say that the marriott staff did a perfect job. they had a first aid kit out there almost immediately. the paramedics couldn't have been more than ten minutes. and they sent someone with c and a to the hospital. it's one of those days when i thank God for c's medical training. he's so calm under pressure. he knows that panic doesn't stop bleeding. he went into surgery with a and said that the pediatric surgeon and anesthesiologist were great. it's also probably the one time that i'm going to be thankful that it is a's third surgery. c knew to expect that a would try to yank out the IV.

well, n is fully awake now and is sitting here "talking" to me. trying to get my attention. i have a little while to lavish some love on her before she's back to sleep and i can give a some super-huge hugs and kisses and anything else the poor little guy wants. don't worry too much about him. we'll take great care of him and if his past surgeries are any indication, he'll be better very quickly.

(did i mention that this adorable little one is sitting here smiling and chatting with me?)

ps - the camera is in c's backpack which went to the hospital so no pictures for you today.

proud big brother

i don't want to call it too soon, but i think we've got another sleeper!!! she went from 8:20 straight through til 6. i'm thinking that is one great foster mom, right? she seems to like the crib, too. can't really ask for more. d was down there with her and he was the sweetest thing. so good and quiet while she slept. (i should explain that our suite is two levels with a sitting room down and bedroom up.) d really likes the pull-out sofa downstairs.

d is across from me right now on some power ranger website. c and baby n are reading over my shoulder. we should probably head out now to get some pool time before the middle of the day. the sun is something else here!

(did i mention that d loves to entertain her, feed her, dress her and hold her? he's soooo sweet.)

so sweet

they were right on time. the five of us were walking into the lobby when the four of them were walking in. that adorably chubby face was looking at us like "who the heck are these jokers and where on earth are they taking me?" we all went up to our suite so we could help her adjust to her surroundings. from left to right: you ought to know the first five, then there's the foster family (daughter and mother) and our attorney's daughter. thanks to e for being the photographer.

i will try to get better pictures of her tomorrow. didn't want to burn her retinas today!

she is sleeping sweetly now. d helped me give her a bottle and then we put her in the crib. she fidgeted for a few minutes and then conked out. i'm sure it won't be a great night of sleep though so i'm off to bed in a minute. knew i better post pics though or face the wrath...

not long now

jb - yes, antigua is so beautiful! the volcano was covered by clouds most of the time, but it finally opened up and we could see most of it. amazing! went a little nuts and bought a gorgeous oil painting at the gallery next to the jade store. couldn't really get into the jade though.

just killing time now in the exec lounge. should probably head back out to the pool. c and e and the monkeys were about to order pizza. i just can't stay in one place right now though. butterflies are gone and now i just want to get my hands on that baby. may the pacing begin!

there are sooo many babies in the hotel. lots of families visiting because of spring break. lots of big brothers and sisters visiting which is nice for the boys.

probably won't post til tomorrow so don't hold your breath, nana!

ps - d is 4.5 today! we celebrated his third gotcha day on friday!!! can you believe it??

okay, okay, here are some pictures

are you happy now?

just kidding. we´re still having a great time. the last picture is from the zoo yesterday morning. not much to say about it. a zoo is a zoo, but the boys had a blast. the other pictures are from antigua on saturday. (jb - no, it was just jose. no saskia and family.)

the hotel is pretty great, by the way. tons of kids and such a nice pool. breakfast is on a pretty terrace and the boys have probably eaten five watermelons in the last three days.

we have about four hours til we meet baby girl. i woke up with some pretty serious butterflies and it´s only getting worse. just so excited and nervous and a little scared that she´ll be ticked off about being left with the crazy americans for a few days.

we`re off to the pool now. the boys really do make the waiting easier.

don't know where to begin

we had a completely uneventful trip down to guatemala yesterday. hooray!

we are having a great time so far. a huge thanks to jb for hooking us up with jose! we had a fabulous trip to antigua today. zero traffic due to the holiday. just sailed right over early this morning and back late this afternoon. gorgeous weather, too. then, got some swimming time in and had pizza by the pool. just lots of fun. i actually keep forgetting that we aren't on vacation. that never happened in russia.

saw lots of chicken buses today and need to answer danny's question. it's chicken bus diaries mainly because i think that chicken buses are hilarious. do you know how many people fit on a chicken bus? always one more! it's really true!!

we are patiently waiting for baby girl's arrival on monday. it's so much easier when we have the boys to distract us. they are having a great time with e and i think she's having fun, too. it cracks me up to look at her face when we see something crazy like policia with machine guns or twenty people in the back of a truck. loco!

oh, and i have to say that those seven years of spanish really paid off. it all came flooding back to me yesterday and i've been chatting everyone up in spanish. the boys are upstairs watching spongebob in spanish so maybe they'll pick some up!

adios for today and happy easter tomorrow,
k

a bale of turtles

as long as i can remember, every family trip began with my father saying, "and we're off...like a flock of turtles." as we pulled out of the driveway after countless trips back into the house for one last thing, he would sarcastically utter that line. what began as sarcasm has become superstition. c and i have to say those words as we leave the driveway or we feel like the trip is cursed from the start.

i googled the saying just now to find out if it was something that other people said. what did i find? well, i found that other people say it, but that they say herd of turtles. i dug a little deeper and found that herd is not the correct term either though. it's a bale of turtles. odd, but still doesn't compare to a gaggle of geese or a pride of lions, right?

so, here's hoping that we won't forget anything mission-critical and that we won't repeat the sippy cup incident of july 2005. yes, that's right. d left a sippy cup of milk out when we were leaving for three weeks in russia. there's nothing quite like coming home to that smell!

land of eternal spring

i just checked the weather report for guatemala, the land of eternal spring. it's going to be hot with daily thunderstorms. oh boy. sounds more like the land of eternal august to me. kind of like my worst nightmare. at least on this trip we get to stay at the hotel with a/c. on the pick-up trip, our attorney requires us to stay at a certain hotel near the embassy. i checked their website and there is no a/c!!! i can do a fair amount of roughing it. i know, you're laughing now because you've never known me to rough it. a holiday inn is as close as i ever want to be to camping. but, really, the one non-negotiable for me is temperature. i had no problem with siberia in january because russians are not shy about using the heat, but central america in the summer with no a/c is quite frightening to me.

on another topic, want to see some of the stuff i've packed? can you believe how cute these little mary jane socks are??