'Tar (Guitar)

Spontaneous Reorganization

Chris and I spent the weekend reorganizing just about every room in our home. Apparently D decided to get in on the action.

Dancing for joy upon finding the bottom of the drawer.

Caption for the next several shots: "What is all this crap?! Purge, people, Purge!"

Caption for the next two shots: "Hey man, check it out - green duds. And frogs. Cool. These can stay."

Never Say Never

Dinkeneh never falls asleep randomly. Never. He sleeps at naptime. He sleeps at bedtime. He does not sleep at any other time. Ever never never.

Until tonight.

Mama's making dinner, Dada's fixing something in the bedroom.

Where is D?

Some Like It Cold

The homemade ice cream was a hit.

Is it already Monday?!

It must be this euphoric haze we're walking through that makes us so unaware of the passing of time. Unfortunately, I slacked a bit in the picture department this weekend, and I also forgot to break out the camera this evening when we dined with these fine folks. Thanks, 7w's, for the fantabulous evening, full of yummy food and even yummier conversations. We love spending time with you all!

I'll leave you with a story about our rookie parenting error #5919:

One of D's doctors recommends adding some dried fruit to his diet, so Chris and I dutifully head to the grocery to select some. We are looking over the organic selection, debating the merits of a variety of options, when we spy dried plums! Plums! Perfect! We love plums! Sold.

....

....

[stop laughing. laughing at rookies isn't nice]

....

....

All those dots represent the number of dried plums we fed to Dinkeneh within an eight hour period on Saturday. He loved them. We congratulated ourselves on how successful our first selection was.

Until one of us realized,

after the first unusually gooey, remarkably aromatic excrement expulsion,

that those dozens of lovely, deliciously sweet dried plums swimming in our D's tummy

were actually

prunes.

Three days later,

and we are still paying the price.

Please Say Hello to...

Sisaye Claire

Chris's phone rang today at about 3:00 pm with word that we officially made it through court! And of course, I was taking a nap and did not hear the phone for the first 30 minutes that he tried to call me. He said he was just about to jump on his bike and head home early when I finally picked up the phone. I spent the first 20 minutes hopping around the kitchen, alternating between laughter and tears. I couldn't remember who I was supposed to call, so I called my mother twice. To give her credit, she was very excited both times.

To be honest, I had a premonition that we would hear today. I couldn't sleep last night, but I felt really calm, much calmer than I have throughout this whole ordeal. And then this morning, I awoke feeling strangely certain that we would get news. And I wasn't anxious at all! So bizarre. I just double-checked that Chris had his cell phone on him (and that it was charged; he is notorious for forgetting phones and failing to juice them). I did my morning walk with D, then Betsy and I made plans to take the kids to a waterpark. I didn't check my phone until we were done swimming. When I saw that there was no news and it was 1 pm, I assumed that I had been wrong about my premonition, but I didn't feel bummed out at all. Just kind of thought, "oh, well." And started thinking about plans for the weekend. Decided to take a nap while watching old Friends episodes, and then BAM! Awoke to wonderful news.

Apparently I should have chilled out long ago :).

I am so excited that Chris got to be the recipient of "the call." I usually hog all of the great moments in our lives, and there have been several times over the last few weeks when I have threatened to "demote" Chris from call recipient because of his forget-phone-itis. I had even gone so far as to "test call" him and then rail at him when the call went straight to voice mail. But the excitement in Chris's voice and the look on his face when he finally got to retell "the call" were totally worth all my neurotic spasticness over his poor phone abilities. He was just too cute as he reinacted pulling the phone out of his pocket and "oh my gosh, it was Holt!" I love it!!!

Word on the street is that we won't be able to join the July 24th travel group, so for now we are expecting to head out on August 1st for an August 11th visa appointment. We did let Holt know that we are perfectly comfortable with traveling at short notice, in the hopes that they might find a way to fit us in to the July group. Please send good thoughts and/or prayers that everything from here on out moves smoothly. Also, please send some good thoughts and prayers our friend B's way. She and her husband are dealing with the same situation, and they did not receive good news today. Here's hoping that good news finds them shortly!!!

Thanks to everyone for your comments, emails, and phone calls over the past few months. They were very much appreciated. I love this blogging community.

All Evidence to the Contrary

He really did love the splash pad.



This video pretty much sums up the experience: run through the water, chase children, repeat. We had a blast!

Correction

Chris says the pictures with the CSA basket look "better." Whatever you say, dear.

And Still We Wait

We received word last Thursday that it will be another two weeks, "if not longer," before our second court date will be held. Just wanted to keep the inquiring minds up to date. It was a pretty crummy weekend. Wish we could have been enjoying the lake house or the Mehaber, both of which were infinitely better options than sitting around the house moping, which is basically what we did. The only highlight of the weekend: the CSA basket.


Way to work the fields, honey.

Six Weeks Today

Since we failed to pass court the first time. We were told that we would wait no more than six weeks for our second court date. We're still waiting...

Not sure what else to say about that.