What big teeth you have!

Here Zufan meets my brother’s dog for the first time.  I love that brave little expression on her face.  There is so much more I should write about how she is doing, and I will soon.  Her language is right on target, maybe not where a “typical” 17 month old would be, but pretty good for having been home only 3.5 months.  She always has a way to get her point across, anyway.  Happy Monday, and more later!

Friday Funny

“Dear Profesora,  I have decided to drop your class because coming to the class inconveniences me.  Gracias.”

Ha!!  I find an 8:00 class just a tiny bit inconvenient, too!!  Correcting those compositions is no barrel of laughs, either!  This e-mail made me laugh, a lot.  Enjoy.  Happy, happy Friday everyone!

To-do list

I’m feeling the stress today.  There isn’t any one great problem, just so many little things to catch up on.  So, to help me get it under control, let’s write out the to-do list for today.

– Write the Chapter 3 exam for my 201 class.

– Get 2 lesson plans ready for tomorrow.

– Organize the taxes.

– Get papers notarized for Zufan’s re-adoption.

– Order snapfish prints for adoption post-placement report.

– Run 7-8 miles.

– Wash a ton of stuff because the 4 year old threw up twice in the night and the 8 year old wet the bed.  Sleep was a bit interrupted last night.

– Get some things from the store.

OK, that doesn’t look as overwhelming as it felt just a couple of minutes ago.  It doesn’t include taking care of the kids and getting the homeschooling done, but luckily the esposo is in charge of most of that this morning, and I have a couple of hours to work.  Maybe it just seems like more since IT IS SNOWING AGAIN!!!  Can you hear me screaming in agony?  Stopping the exaggerations now.  I better get busy.  Here are just a couple of random photos from the trip to AZ.  Happily, tomorrow is Friday.  And yeah, I am going to do a video post someday soon.  I’m waiting for the rest of you to get your videoposts up, too!  

 

The two littles happy in the RV park in Phoenix.

 

This is minutes after we arrived, and we were all very, very, extremely happy to get off the plane.  The outfit she is wearing has been hanging in the closet for 7 years, since big sis grew out of it.  It was so cute on Zufan, and I had a moment of awe dressing her and realizing that yes, I really do have a second little girl to wear the millions of girly outfits still hanging around.  Wow.

 

Playing in Grammie and Grandpa’s trailer in the RV park.

Out to eat.  See baby sucking on the empty fork?  Wishful thinking there!  She loved the chips and salsa (and everything else, for that matter.)

Hasta luego.  Getting busy now.

The Esposo and me

OK, so I’m “it” again, thanks to Lori, this time to write a romantic story.  Ha!  I’m not really the share-with-the-world type, even if I did have something outstandingly interesting.  Anyway…

Yes, we did just have an anniversary and it has been so many years that we have both lost count.  Maybe it was 11?  or 12?  Neither of us is a detail person, clearly!  Here we are, in the spring of 1992 when we first met, almost exactly 16 years ago.  I couldn’t get this scanned in anything other than pdf for some reason, so it needs a click to see it. 

sj2.pdf

Love that record player, huh?  And those sexy jeans (not!) and the fake mini-dreadlock (or threadlock) in my hair!  Ha!!  And luckily, the facial hair (his I mean) is long gone.  We met in a university library in Fargo-Moorhead, and the now-esposo was absolutely certain that we were destined to be together.  I wasn’t so sure, and held out for a long time as “just friends.”  But in the face of his absolute conviction, confidence, determination and faith in us, I was won over.  He is one of the most open-minded and non-judgmental people I’ve ever met, and that was his most attractive quality.  So here we are, still together, 16 years later.  With 3 of the greatest kids in the world.  And we are still in the library. 

Not the romantic story you were looking for, perhaps, but life hasn’t been all roses either.   Nevertheless, I know we are a great parenting team.  We have the same social values and intuition into what is best for our kids.  He is truly an awesome dad, to all 3 of them.  Zufan just yesterday added “pa-PA” to her “ma-MA.”  She always shouts the second syllable.  Very sweet.  So that’s what I’ve got for you.  Hope you like the picture.

Baby sign for bottle

Well, back to work and the real world again.  It is nice to be home, actually, except for the freezing winds today and huge piles of snow.  I have nothing unpacked yet.  Tonight the plan is to set the kids up with a movie and get things under control.  I’m way behind on my blog reading (and writing!), too!

Until then, here is a picture of Zufan asking for “biberon.”

Have a great Tuesday everyone! (All my 2 readers! Ha!) 

And Lori… I’ll do the tag soon.  Gotta scan an old picture first.

Still here, but not for long

Our flight back yesterday was cancelled because of bad weather.  Bad, bad, as in 8 inches of snow at home.  Crazy.  So we are on the way today in just a little while, if I can manage to finish packing.  Our clothing and other possessions seem to have more than doubled since we got here.  I’ll check in from the Arctic Circle in a day or two.  Here are a couple of pictures until then.  The first is near the top of Camelback Mountain and the second, well, little chubby girl loves the phone.  A lot.  As you can see.

Zufan makes a little noise

In the sidebar.  It’s nothing too great, but at least you can hear her screechy cute little voice.

Kid pix from today (Start at the bottom! Sorry!)

10:00 pm: sleeping with sister, where mommy wants to be right now!  And here I go!  Vacations can be hard work.  Buenas noches. 

5:00 pm, being entertained by big brother at Starbucks while mommy drinks a much-needed carmel macchiato during a pre-supper coffee stop. 

2:00 pm, drinking some “ah-wa” (agua) on the way to the next several stops to see relatives and friends (we had a BUSY day), wearing brother’s pirate hat:

11:30 am, swimming joyfully in the really, really cold pool.  Zufan was the only one never ready to get out.  Everyone else played a few minutes then made a beeline for the boiling jacuzzi.

9:00 am, all dressed up and on the way to meet Grammy for breakfast at the hotel (I LOVE this hotel, and love the complimentary breakfast, complete with make-your-own omelets, salsa, fresh fruit, yogurt, hot coffee and about anything else you could want):

6:30 am, mommy gets up to take a shower and leaves this behind (See my space in between the 2 littles?  Yeah, I get about 2 inches.  Not much wiggle room there!  But they are so cute.):

Baby in the sunshine

Everyone is still happy and enjoying the nice weather.  Hopefully later I’ll get some more up, but vacation busyness has been conspiring to keep me away from the computer.  Hope you are all doing great, happy Wednesday!

So good to be here!

We’ve been here since Sunday early evening, but I’ve been slow to get a post up.  It is SO nice to be here!!  My dad travels regularly for work and accumulates the frequent flyer miles, so we have been fortunate enough to make this trip 5 times now.  That is hard to believe.  The esposo never comes along on this one, and this is the first year that I have actually agreed with people who felt the need to tell me “you have your hands full!” along the way. 

Just a few highlights from the long journey west: I accidently packed the new movie for the big kids to watch on the plane in the checked baggage; all 3 kids stayed fully AWAKE during both entire flights; a glass of juice was spilled; a bag of Kix was shaken upside down; a banana was squashed into the seat; Zufan didn’t cry much, but rather yelled “ah ah ah ah” continuously; the lady seated in front of the 4 year old got an unsolicited 3.5 hour massage through the back of the seat; passing through security, I forgot to put my 0.05 oz lip gloss into a quart-sized bag, which caused the buzzer to sound and my bag to be searched for other hazaardous substances; my shirt looked suspiciously like a jacket, and I was threatened with a full body pat-down for hesitating to remove it; the 8 year old got a thread caught in the zipper of her boots which made them next to impossible to remove; I was “gently redirected” three times, once for attempting to take the 4 year old to the front airplane bathroom reserved for the 8 first-class passengers, once for taking the 8 year old to the potty during turbulance when the seatbelt light was on, and once for letting the baby crawl under the security table while I worked on that boot zipper thread.  

But overall, it wasn’t too bad.  Most people were actually very nice, patient, friendly, and I got lots of offers of help.  I guess my 96/60 barely-breathing blood pressure comes in handy occassionally.   I think I was extra chilled-out because I got up early Sunday morning and ran a 10K race before the flight, which I haven’t done for many months.  It was also the first day in many that I felt pretty much healthy.  And I will travel alone with the kids again, if only to defy those people who pointed out how not-empty my hands were!

The most interesting part of the trip over was that we met an airport employee from Chuko, Ethiopia, during our quick layover in Minneapolis.   Amazing what a small world it is!  I should have gotten his contact information, but at the time we were so rushed that I didn’t think of it.

The kids are having a great time here (of course!).  We are staying at an amazingly nice hotel, spending time with the relatives, swimming, going out to eat, shopping, and all the usual vacation stuff.  I really feel like I’m getting a break.  They miss the esposo back home, but hopefully he is getting lots of school work done so that he’ll be all refreshed and ready to play when we get back!  I can’t even express how good it is to be here.  So, so good.  We are so fortunate.  Time to get the crew to bed!  Maybe some pictures tomorrow.