Busy Times!

So much to do, so little time to do it in. Especially when you do stupid things like send your passports and visa applications to the wrong place! Yes, I was in a rush, and not really sure about how things worked with applying for visas-- I won't bore you with the details, but it ended up costing me an extra week of time and $32 in shipping fees to get it all back. I finally got it sent off to the CORRECT place yesterday. Phew!

Lesson learned: SLOW DOWN.

(Don't know that it's actually learned yet, but I'm working on it!)

My house is transforming! Here's a picture of a corner of my living room we've designated for toys for Kelly. My living room hasn't had a place for toys in... hmmmm... at least 8 years. Can that be right? Wow. It's weird... I do admit, I like to have everything in it's place, and I'm sort of anal about decorating... so I confess, having toys in the living room is not exactly my thing. I guess if it were up to me, we would either (1) have a closed off section in the living room where Kelly's toys could be kept (but not seen), (2) I would not have them in the living room at all, OR (3) all of Kelly's toys would be brown and turquoise! (tee hee ;)

But Kelly's room is the smallest room in the house, so there just isn't room in there for them- plus, the living room, dining room and kitchen are all one "great room," so this is where we spend most of our time. It only makes sense for her to have her toys out here, right? So I'm just going to have to get over my anal decorator side!

I don't know if I've formally announced it, but we have decided not to bring the big kids with us to China after all. More than anything, it's a budget issue, but as we discussed it, we realized there could be blessings in disguise to it that we just don't fully realize right now.

There are so many things to do to prepare to get TA. You want to get everything done you possibly can before you get TA, because things could go super fast and furious once it comes, so you don't want to stress yourself out leaving everything to do until the end.

Last week, I got prescriptions from our doctor for our trip to China- that was a load off! I still need to fill them, but at least I have them now.

We went shopping for luggage, and baby and travel necessities this past weekend too. You just can't imagine how much stuff you need for this trip- medicines especially. You have to cover all your bases, from lice to diaper rash to everything in between.

We bought a few toys for our trip too... here's a picture.

Also, Nancy has been shopping for Kelly! When she read how Kelly likes to rock, she got her a couple of rocking toys. Aren't they the cutest?!

The Piglet is especially cool because it can rock OR it can roll! You just push this little button and you can have the wheels up, to rock, or down, to roll. Oh, Kelly is going to have a blast!

We're off to an orthodontist appointment for Caleb. I have more to post so I hope to be back tonight or tomorrow, but no promises. You just never know!