Room with a view!

I am thrilled to announce that EVERYTHING, yes EVERYTHING in Baby Deetz's room belongs to Baby Deetz. I have cleaned out the closet and removed all that mysterious stuff you accumulate in "spare bedrooms" and now every single thing belongs exclusively to them. Now, I would be misleading you if given the impression that everything is IN ORDER. It's a mess in there. But at least I've weeded out the clothes/bags/sheets/pillows and other random things and now all items are exclusively for baby. That was quite a feat. I still think Alex thinks we've made this room for him.
Next steps:
1-Get the shelving unit into the closet so that all this stuff has a place to go.
2-Paint the walls
After we know for sure if it's a boy or a girl:
1-Stencil/word art the walls (Gears or flowers)

Here is my latest find- The Baptist Church by our house had a Children's consignment sale last weekend. I found this "Boon" brand frog that hangs on the wall for bath toy storage (it's back is a removable scoop for fishing out toys) for $3! I saw one at Babies-R-Us for $30! What a deal!

Irony....

I am not making this up. My doorbell just rang. The home owners association president's wife just came to get the sign. I wanted to ask if she reads my blog. She was standing at the door while I put the dogs away. I saw her starring at this.....

Question of the Day

Question of the Day:

"WHY are we still yard of the month?"

Answer:

"Obviously, they want Baby Deetz to see the award in person when they arrive home."

Side note:
I've suggested some new signage to the home owners association. "Yard of the 3 months and 5 days and counting award" or maybe even "Weed Patch of the Month" It's like those cheeky "My kid beat up your honor student" bumper stickers. Just a thought.....

People and things that ROCK!

People that rock: As you know I sent our additional docs to Columbia to be Apostilled on Monday afternoon. Well this morning I got a package at work and they had already come back. My first thought was- Ughhh. I screwed up and it came back to me. A business card was attached inside. Everything was already done! The card was from Patricia at the SC Secretary of State's Office, the same lady that helped me before on my little road trip in June! I was so thankful, I almost cried.... That was so fast! I had the package back out the door on the way to Flat Rock before 10:00am this morning. I sat down and wrote her a thank you note, I was so grateful for her helping us so quickly. Maybe things are slow in the SOS office, but in my mind I see a woman that went the extra mile, dropped everything and got it done for Baby Deetz. The most she could have had it in her hands was an hour before sending it back out. PATRICIA YOU ROCK!

More people that rock: Our church people. Chad was in a meeting last night and was giving a report about the youth department and his very busy summer. Someone, concerned for his mental health I suppose, asked him when we were going on vacation since we didn't take one this summer. He kindly responded that our funds and our time is spent on Russia and that would hopefully be our vacation this year/early next year. After he got home from the meeting last night, two church people had called the house- one offering a beach house for the week and another to use their house in the mountains! WOW. We were just at a loss for words at people's generosity in our lives. We have such a spectacular family, God is just indulging us with a spectacular church family too.

Friends that rock: You'll also notice the bringing home the baby "Ticker" has made another jump. Thank you friends!

Things that rock: I am little addicted to craigslist. I have never bought anything from anyone that have posted an add, I have found a few garage sales here and there to check out- but I mainly just LOVE looking at people's junk. Since everyone is local- it's a lot more intimate than ebay (which I also love). It always surprises me what people think they can sell and put a picture up for the world to see "I am trying to sell my 15 year old Lazy Boy. The fabric is torn on the right arm and it smells like my cat, but if you'll come pick it up I'll only charge you $15. Call Billy Bob for more info." It's like looking in 100 people's houses and looking at what didn't sell in their yard sale. Fascinating. Well last night I was perusing the "Baby Items" looking for a not so hideous glider/ottoman (didn't find any, they were all grody) and came across "Baby Rock Star Clothes" It grabbed my interest, so I took a peek and it was soooo cute. And $15 for the lot of stuff! So I contacted Rock Star's Mama and arranged a pickup at our local Pizza dive downtown. It was kinda exciting- like a stakeout. And look at how cool the stuff is....especially the little Chuck Taylors! Love it! Baby Deetz: you are going to be the coolest baby, surrounded by so many people that ROCK!!

Fondant makes you crazy.

My first Fondant class was last night.

Let me just tell you that Fondant is harder than it looks. Where as decorating with icing and piping bags is more of a "precision" art, fondant is more of a manual labor art. You knead the dough, pull the dough, roll the dough, incorporate gum paste (to make it more elastic and durable, and then stretch and cut, stretch and cut, smoothing it every step of the way. By the end of class I was in a full sweat! Who knew cake decorating could be an aerobic workout? This cake was to learn more "technique" than to be pretty- so it's a little bland. I ended up taking off a lot of the other elements and making it a little more appealing because I wanted to bring it into the office to share. So I added the flowers and the draped ribbon. Oh and I took off the giant thing that looked like a washcloth. I just couldn't bring myself to share an ugly cake. The inner Martha came out a little bit. I decided that even if you aren't OCD, cake decorating could make you that way. Every little bump and nick makes you crazy. You keep trying to smooth it out over and over again. I had finally come to grips with the tiny pin holes in the fondant where the ribbons didn't match up by the time I got home. Chad really was impressed with the cake, but then he said "Is it suppose to have the tiny holes in the top?" I gave him the look. You know the one.

Adoption news: Yesterday we sent everything we had to redo after the switch to Pskov to Columbia to be Apostilled. As soon as we get it back we'll send it back to the agency and then on to Russia. We've been getting a lot of questions about this.....WE ARE fully registered in Pskov, what we sent to St. Pete was sufficient for Pskov. BUT before we receive a referral we needed to do some papers specific to the new region. We still haven't heard anything and I really don't expect to anytime soon. But I could be surprised.... who knows! That's just the thing- we just don't know. I am feeling November. But I have a sinking feeling it's going to be next year. But I guess it could be tomorrow too. It's like cake. You just can't dwell on the little nicks and bumps or you'll go crazy.

"Z" is for Zones

O.K.- here we are....The last letter of the alphabet! I was searching for some facts about Russia just to tie everything together for you and came across this fun bit of trivia- The earth has 24 time zones. Russia is so vast that it covers 11 of the 24! Can you imagine living in a place so diverse and huge that if it was 12:00 noon in Pskov, it's 10:00pm on the eastern edge? Here are some more fun facts:

1. Russia covers about 1/8 of all the land on Earth (6.63 million sq. miles)

2. Capital city: Moscow, population 11 million

3. Population of Russia: 145.5 million

4. Religion: 59% Russian Orthodox, 36% Muslim, 3% non-Orthodox Christian, 1% Jewish

5. Education: Free to all citizens, children must attend for 11 years (age 6-17)

6. Highest point: Mount Elbrus in the Caucasus Mountain Range at 18,510 feet

7. Lowest point: Coast of the Caspian Sea, 92 feet below sea level

8. Holidays: New Year's Day (January 1 and 14) Russian Orthodox Christmas (January 7) Soldier's Day (February 23) Women's Day (March 8) Labor Day (May 1-2) Victory Day (May 9) Independence Day (June 12) Constitution Day (December 12)

And now for some weird facts:

1. During the reign of Peter the Great, any Russian nobleman who chose to wear a beard had to pay a special beard tax.
2. It is a criminal offense to drive around in a dirty car in Russia
3. The Russian tundra is melting for the first time since the ice age
4. Moscow has the worlds most used subway system
5. Microwave ovens were banned in Russia in 1976

I hope you enjoyed the alphabet, it was a fun way to pass a month for me! Now back to real blog life. Talk to you soon!

“Y” is for Yuri

Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin (March 9, 1934-March 27, 1968) was born in Klushino Russia to poor parents. Yuri had three siblings and was raised by his oldest sister while his parents worked to support his family. His other two siblings were sent to Germany during World War II and died in the German work camps. He dreamed of space and becoming a pilot. An early teacher fostered that dream and Yuri joined the Russian space program after a short career as a military pilot. The Russians had already sent a dog into space (her name was Laika and she sadly died just a few hours into her flight). But still, they thought that a human in space could work too. Yuri must have been one brave guy since it didn’t work out so well for poor Laika. On April 12, 1961 he became the first human to travel to outer space in the Vostok 1.
During his flight, Gagarin famously whistled the patriotic song "The Motherland Hears, The Motherland Knows" The first two lines of the song are: "The Motherland hears, the Motherland knows/Where her son flies in the sky". He was also recorded as saying “The earth is blue. How wonderful! It is amazing.” Anti-religious propaganda spread rumors that Yuri muttered “I don’t see any God up here” It was later revealed that Yuri was baptized and raised in the Orthodox Church and had a strong faith in God and that he was misquoted by a employee of the space program.
His whole trip into space only lasted just short of two hours. After his return safely home, Russia would not allow Yuri to make anymore flights into space in fear of loosing a National hero after Vladimir Komarov (See “V” is for Vladimir) died in space. Yuri began his training to re-qualify as a fighter pilot, he also became the training director of “Star City” the cosmonaut training base still in operation today. In 1968, during a routine training flight, Yuri died when the plane crashed near Kirzhach, Russia. He was only thirty four years old. Yuri and his co-pilot were buried in the Kremlin on Red Square, Moscow. Rumors and speculation surrounded the crash and the air base’s involvement in the crash, but to this day the cause of the crash is shrouded in mystery.
Originally picked because of his “small stature” and ability to fit into the cramped quarters of a rocket ship, Yuri was a brave hero that paved the way for space exploration. Just a little side note: The first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova, was also Russian and made a three day space flight in June of 1963.