Canoe trip

Our adoptive family group went canoeing on the Congaree river on Sunday. Talia, grandma and I went since I had to have another adult with the 4 year old. This is Talia's new best friend, Noah. We've gotten together for a few play dates but obviously not enough! Noah grabbed her hand and wanted to be within 1 foot of her all day. So dang cute.

Playdough madness

So cousin Nicky brought an playdough set. I looooove playdough. The kids attended for quite a while. Talia ended up making footprints, knee prints, and shoes with it. Always out of the box.

More lake pics

Family fest at the lake

Elias is practicing winking to get the ladies...Wow.


We were off doing something when these guys came out having raided granddad's closet.


And of course Bella had to get dressed up like Granddaddy, too!

House (98%) Ready!

After 1400 sq feet of carpet and vinyl, we are ready! There are still a few boxes to put away, but supposedly our house went on MLS today. I even took yesterday off and worked for 12 hours cleaning and doing. Jorge came over and painted like a master painter (just to touch up), mom sewed curtains for the bathroom upstairs and Janet made this place shine. It looks amazing. Yes, everyone says "Makes you wish you weren't leaving" which is true in a way. Yes, the house looks fantastic, but that's not why we are leaving. We want to be near my sister, and closer to our life, which seems to be in West Columbia and Columbia.

Does this ever work?

I got three of these when I stayed at Simpsonville in the Holiday Inn Express. Always on Friday morning, so obviously Thursday night is someone's mission night. Always the same message. Do these work? Does anyone say yes, that's the kind of Jesus I want? I use to listen to Unshackeled at 2am back in college-always coming home from a show from Chapel Hill or Durham. Many years I tried to find some info on that show, and finally I've located it thanks to Google. I just looked at it again and it is no wonder that I stayed away from church for so long...all the negativity and pain and death and affliction that programs like these use as "selling" points. Something to ponder, but dang, at 2am a good (dah dah dah dah-that's old fashioned kid organ music) stor y made the drive a little faster.

Sniff

Just when my flowers are reaching peak pefection...All lucious and thriving and beautiful...I decide to sell. I hope this is a deciding factor for a couple...They will not get my yard art.

Cold, hard truth

Bugs are weird. That's the cold, hard truth. This is one of our writing spiders that we have inhabiting our yard (and I've just asked it to kindly leave.) I've seen spiders. I've seen spiders' webs. I've seen bugs caught in the web of a spider and devoured. I haven't seen this mammoth of something wrapped in web and sucked dry. Whoa. It appeared to be a flying creature-perhaps a butterfly-that had the misfortune of flying the wrong way. Now, if I was a spider and something larger than me got caught in my house, I'd turn the other way and let it escape. I know my limits. Nooooo, this spider just wraps it up, licks her lips and begins dinner. When I saw it, I guess half the insect body fluid was gone and the spider's abdomen was expanding. Crazy. When it was done, she kicked it to the curb. I found the dry, empty carcass on the shrub below. I showed my agent..not exactly as excited about nature as I was.



Now I don't have a creepy story to share about this, but I was working in the yard today and this dragonfly (whom I love) landed on the fence, and stayed. I thought, I wish I had a camera since it was just hanging out. I got closer and closer and it just sort of stared and blinked at me. Cute. It hung out so long that I had the crazy idea to just go get my camera. It was still there! It actually left twice during its photoshoot but returned. If it actually landed on me, then I might be freaked out. Many people know that I once read the Native American belief that if you see a dragonfly nearby, that is a sign that you are working on a problem or have some sort of issue in your life. So what does "permanant residence" mean?

More drama

Our neighbor Liv loves to put on productions...She and Talia were using Talia's little clothes...


A bow...


Princess Tatarina!

Crossing Fingers

We offered a contract to this house on Thursday, but the owners (our third cousins) want to wait until we officially have our house on the market before deciding anything. We are getting carpet and vinyl tomorrow and Tuesday, and a being cleaned on Wednesday. Hits the MLS on Thursday. Someone can buy it on Friday! I can dream.

Takes a special kind of man

To run around with his balls hanging out...That's what those red things are hanging from the trailor hitch...Sorry the pictures are blurry. The back of the window says "Fear This." Heck yeah we'll fear this...Fear catching something. Bet there's dismembered deer parts in that there cooler...

What are we doing?!

This is completely brought on by us, but we are trying to sell our house again. Last weekend we spent yet another weekend at my sister's house, who lives in West Cola. At one point I "ran home" for some food for dinner and it took over 45 minutes! Then my sister tells me a house on the street adjacent to hers is for sale. We ride by, we like, we look online and it is owned by my 3rd cousin! Talk about a small world! Mike and I talk, we contact an agent who's card we've been saving for months and months and we start the ball rolling. Actually the agent, Ginny Sadreameli, sold the house to us 6 years ago (my chemo brain had her filed away as Gena so took a few moments to put two and two together). We've seen the house near my sister's and we really like it. It is an older ranch style house with a 1040 sq ft basement! Hello art room and storage! When we viewed the house on Friday I left a note for Jim and Louise, asking them to call me since I haven't seen them in sooooo long. When I first moved to Columbia 15 years ago they took me out for dinner and actually cooked dinner once in that very house, but I don't remember. So I am trying to figure how to tweak reconnecting with family and working a deal for the house that doesn't screw up the reconnection. So, we are packing and simplifying and cleaning and chunking stuff...We are going to put down new carpet and vinyl in the master bath, so hopefully we can get this house sold! Since we tried unsuccessfully last year to sell the house, I am a bit worried right now. But, I'm hoping everything goes as it should. We are planning to do everything we can exactly as Ginny says so we can get it sold!

Adoption. No news.

No idea how to summarize all this into a title...

Still in Simpsonville for Montessori training. Every single thing we learn is like..eureka...finally education makes sense. It always made sense before but the Montessori method takes everything...everything, that good education has and puts it in visual, kinesthetic and concrete terms. And the sequence...small, repetitive steps...everything done until mastery. Amazing.

More about me! Today was an taxing day on my body (and my phone), but still felt (needed) the desire to go to the world's BEST sushi restaurant. Blue Fire Grill. Wow. Little more pricey than I am use to, but such unique and scrumptious rolls and sashimi.. Julie and I found it from a recommendation from Nina, who was in our first class. She said her favorite roll was the Texas roll-steak, cream cheese and jalepeno. We scoffed too. The first night, we tried that just to prove her wrong and it was phenomenal! We ordered a second one for dessert. We've ordered one every week! We've gone every week too. Julie and I eat homemade turkey sandwiches so we can save up and go hog wild during our Blue Fire nights. Tonight we went with our instructors and one of their friends, whom we adored instantly. Tonight, Julie noticed a buttery delicious guy at another table, which led to one of our teachers going to talk to him, leaving Julie's number and then him buying all five of us drinks! Niiicccee.

So, the phone. Julie fell in love with Habibi, a CD rack of African decent, and we returned to Ten Thousand Villages to get him today. I, again, ran to the bathroom, where I proceeded to drop my BRAND NEW Blackberry curve into the toilet. Now that is actually the second phone I've disposed of via toilet water, but its been a while. My sweet little curve is only 4 weeks old! I've submitted an insurance claim, but will be, sniff, phoneless, until Friday at the earliest. This must be this week's test!

We had a great proposal for a birthmom this week, but the estimated total we 45K, so after a day of talking and thinking, we passed on submitting our profile for consideration. We are working hard to save, and our budget for this adoption is 35K. Another 10,000 would just not be wise at this point. So, we are thinking of the future and our financial safety. I hate being wise. We are sending another profile to a birthmom in Nebraska, but that is usually one of 6-8, sooooo...not high hopes. :)

Darkness...

So, Julie M and I are in Gray Court doing Montessori training again, and Monday night we were motivated and excited and goal-orientated to get some work/homework done. So, we're working along and I noticed a storm approaching (since I had the curtains open.) I continued working on my laptop, completely forgetting that A)I am here with my karma partner, Julie and B)her apartment was just hit by lighting. About the same moment that I decided I should for safety reasons unplug my laptop, the power in our hotel goes out. 1 1/2 seconds later Julie has flown down the hall and is knocking on my door. The monsoon has arrived and we could barely even make out the next hotel through my window. We did notice the rain flooding in my room, so a little break to take care of that. The trees were bending to touch the parking lot. The stop lights were out. Emergency vehicles were going down Fairview Rd. No business (except Pizza Hut-what kind of reprieve did they get??) had lights or power.
We really tried to pass the time. We looked at every file on my laptop, including every picture with Julie viewed with utmost patience. Then we started to drink. That wasn't on the agenda, but what else can you do in a power outage! After raspberry drinkies were consumed, we made our way down 4 floors to the lobby. There congregated every smoker in the building. Actually it was soooo hot on the 4th floor that anything was better than our room. As the night progressed, we drank more, we tried (honestly!) to share our stash, and we talked to random strangers. It is always interesting to talk to people that you ordinarily would not have the opportunity to talk to. That night Julie and I were sitting on the luggage carts right inside the doors. Most of the evening I talked to Randy from Delaware. We talked about superficial things, as new conversations go-they were there because his and his mom's car broke, the mechanics screwed up, mom was ticked off that they couldn't check in, he was on an 8 week leave from Chrysler because no one is buying the Durango. Later, as we drank more and more and more, Randy talks more (and his mother finally loosens up some). He has a 13 year old son that he hasn't seen in a year. His ex-wife probably has borderline personality disorder, and has forever. He asked me, el drunko on the suitcase mover, if that was bad. I gave him the most of my ability, that borderline was the worse of the mental illnesses because they are so resistant to treatment. He said that finally, I, drunkard on the furniture mover, finally explained things in a common sense language. Who KNOWS what I said! I hope I don't wind up on Jerry. We were talking about his son, and I urged him to get his son from his crazy mother, because time was a'wasting. He said, almost an admission of defeat, that he felt it was too late and he could do nothing. I tried to convince him that he could make lots of changes if he would get his son, but he didn't want to hear what I had to say. Interestingly, there are over 150 kittens at his work site and he risks being fired to save them. Interesting. Can't/won't save his son but won't let a cat die. Interesting.

And more artsy fartsy photos

I am obsessed with line and color and patterns. These 'mingoes rock. I took tons more pictures of the smelly birds-here are just my favorite.

Zoo pics part 2

Oh, the meer cats! I had my zoom lens and could not get one of them to stand up in typical freaky meer cat fashion.




Um, he's one and has no fear. Feeding the goats.