One-way ticket

We bought one-way tickets to China today.  Yikes!  This has been a several day process.  Andy has been scoping out fares for the last week.  Then after purchasing them online, the airline confirmation page informed us in BOLD that our seats are not confirmed and may be not accurate.  What?!!  They can't confirm we are sitting together?  Can't you just picture it -- us and the kiddos scattered about economy class for the 14 hour plane ride.  I politely tell the businessman sitting next to Tori, "Here is her sippy cup, some books if she gets bored, and she'll need to go to the bathroom every couple of hours.  Have a good flight!"  :-)  Andy is going to call the airline to really, truly, positively, absolutely make sure our seats are together.  When Andy and I have flown together on international flights in the past, we try to get together and then if not we switched on the plane.  However, for the sanity of EVERYONE on board this is not something we are going to leave to chance!

The way it goes... CONTINUES

We have a new dishwasher!  Now that is the GOOD news.  The BAD news is that we might not have needed to replace it.  Ugghh!  When the guys were installing it, they realized that the new disposal needed to have this small plastic piece knocked out otherwise the dishwasher would overflow.  Hmm, that sounds familiar.  But our dishwasher was on its last legs and I am thankful to have a new one!  Thankfully, nothing else has decided to stop working. :-)

Easter cousins

We love baby Andy!  The kids were fascinated with their little cousin.

The hunt is on!  Becca was given instructions that she was only to find the really hard ones.  You can see her below climbing into a tree to find an egg.

The way it goes

Now that our house is perpetually clean and tidy, we are looking around and wondering why we didn't do some of this before.  Between painting, some minor maintenance things, and the new carpet, our house has never looked better.  I have heard others say this as well -- that when you get your house ready to sell, you do all these things and wonder why it took you so long to do them in the first place!  Then in this last week, our garbage disposal died and our dishwasher (literally) exploded.  Well, to be fair, it was more of a rapid overflow of water.  Last night as we mopped up the water, Andy was more worried about how if we replace the dishwasher (an inevitability) it might mess up the caulking and painting that took so much time (not as much about replacing the dishwasher)!  Hopefully, this is the last of these things and we can get the dishwasher replaced without disrupting when people want to come and view the house.   So far, we've already had a few showings.  Hooray!

Potty Training

Okay, I have refrained from potty training stories so far, but there have been two in the last week that I thought I needed to share with you.  Now I am not against sharing potty stories, in fact I am SURE that there will be many more interesting stories in the future (those of you who have travelled outside of the States and Europe know to what I am alluding).  I digress.  Last Friday, Tori and I were running a bunch of errands because we were having new carpet installed.  While we were out, I had to go to the bathroom.  Since Tori is in the throes of potty training, she cheers for others when they go just like we cheer for her.  I am sitting there and Tori exclaims in a LOUD voice, "Are you pooping, Mom?  Are there brown ones in there? There are! Yay, Mommy!"  Now I must state for the record that there were other people in the bathroom and I KNOW everyone heard her.  Ah, the joys of a two year old!  Today, Tori informed me that she needs to stand to pee and refuses to sit.  Hmmm, think she has watched Josh recently?  So stand she did and yes she successfully peed that way.  Though "successful" might be stretching it as the pee dribbled down her leg because as I tried to tell her SHE IS A GIRL! :-)  Do think she will believe me now that girls sit to pee?

MISSION: Shop like a crazy person!

I am currently in shopping mode.  While this may sound like a ton of fun, for me it is actually difficult.  Those of you who know me well, know that I have a frugal soul.  While I do like shopping, I am a bargain-hunter.  But alas, I have throw our budget out the window and am trying to shop for many of the necessities that will be difficult to get in China.  Some of them are obvious -- like clothes for Andy and I.  We are both on the tall side for the States, but in China I feel like a giant (okay maybe a slight exaggeration).  Just as an example, I bought a down coat while we were in China in January and had to buy a size XXL (this is a form-fitting coat that is not even baggy).  

But something that humors me is that deodorant is hard to find in China.  Hmm, I don't think I'll comment other than to say we bought the amount we thought we'd use in a year and got some VERY strange looks while checking out! :-)

Since the Chinese don't bake (most homes don't even have ovens), I have bought bulk quantities of cinnamon and baking powder.  Our garage (where we are storing everything) is looking a little like a small store!

Tumbling tot

Tori is quite active and being the youngest she lacks any fear.  We often wish that she would have at least a healthy dose of fear . . . Well, when she turned two, she got gymnastics lessons as a gift (hoping to put some of this energy to good use). We are just now getting around to using them many months later.  She went for her second class today and LOVES IT!  I mean, the chance to jump all over the place and then jump off of high places ("all by self, Mommy") is her dream come true.  Where did my baby go?

Below is a picture when as she said, "I got to jump on the twampoween!"