Last Day of Riding, My Other-Brother Has A Birthday, & The Song of The Week

Today is the last day of riding lessons.
They all went to the Agri-Center and everyone turned out.

I dropped by at lunch time to take everyone BAR-B-Q
and I swear it looked like everyone in Lauderdale County
had dropped off their kids!

Everyone was smiling and NO-ONE wanted to go home.

That is when you know that you are doin' it right.

I am going to miss these kids....
Of course..I am not going to TELL them that..but I will.



Today is also OTHER BROTHER'S Birthday.




3 years ago , during their father's fight with Cancer,
Rick had a massive heart attack.
We all treat him like a 3 year old who isn't allowed
trans-fats or artificial ANYTHING.
It is really sad the way we all hover over him and monitor his salt intake.. LOL!
..but not quite as sad as the thought of life without him.
We love him and his birthday's are a gift to him and us.

And Finally.....
The Song of the WEEK. After hours of deliberation
we have decided on

"LEAVIN' ON A JET PLANE"






Cause that is what we will be doing on Saturday morning.....

Going to get our baby.

Don't ask how..cause I don't know.

Don't ask who...cause I really couldn't say......
just call them Angels from Afar .......

All I know is that prayers were answered
with trumpets and a full chorus..............

God is and has always been good to us!

Stay Tuned.

So.....
How is your day going?

Not Leaving.
Consulate says they are booked on the 26th..Dragon fest 28th from 31st and the Consulate is not taking appt's from the 27the to the 1st. Some provinces are closing dates for bookings, due to swine flu. Parents have TA's and CA's but the local offices are saying "no go". and has been making it difficult for agencies to get appointments.
Rumor is Guandong is one of those, although our agency has not heard this.
Consulate says the closest date for appt. is June 9.
That is the WORST possible time for us to go.
So basically we have no idea when we will go...
Things do not look good for May or June.
Stacy has gone to State Rep.s Office to see if they can get us on the plane- Doubtful- but will try anything at this point.
Not a good day.

Happy Married Day to me and Happy Mother's Day to Ya'll!

This is what the kids call it.

When Caleb was little we would drive by the chapel where
we were married and we would ask Caleb if he knew what that place was.
He would say, "Yeah,Daddy- that's the place where Mama put on that dress and MADE you get married.

I just love this picture...He is just a pretty, pretty ,man.{SIGH}

Happy Mother's Day to all .

I hope you have a great one.

TO MY DEAREST SARAH

BEFORE


AFTER




I had a basket of things that didn't make the cut.......
which included my BLACK SHOES(SOB)..but I am trying to
remember that I am going to China and NOT Milan.

There is a problem, though:

These things are heavy.

Stacy seems to think that I am going to be stressed and exhausted by the time we leave Meridian and he doesn't want me lugging a 40 pound carry-on around 5 different airports,

so he is voting that we check my bag and pack a few things for us and the baby and he carry's that bag and the computer/document bag and I just carry my sling and (as he puts it)"my pretty little self".

A few more days like the one I had today - and I am going to agree with him.

So we may be 2 carry-ons and 1 small checked.....

Either way it is 5 less bags than we took last time...so that's cool.

And I promise we will post the whole time.

You guys are going to experience the comedic stylings of Stacy .

He did all of the posting last time and he was hilarious.

I really do dig him.

SOOOOOO..........

Our TA was dropped off at our agency this morning.

Now they are trying to see if we are still going to be able to get the same Consulate Appointment.

We will know on MONDAY

if we are to catch a plane

on WEDNESDAY!

FUN, huh?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY,BEN!

My little man turned 8 on Monday!



He wanted a "small party with lots of presents"...so that is what we did.



The Pettey girls made his cake for him and it was YUMMY!




He got lots of loot and lots of MOO- LA!
So... he was a HAPPY CAMPER!

Happy Birthday ,PICKLE!

We love you!

Travel Plans???? What Travel Plans!

So last week I get a call saying that things(I.E. Travel Approval)
may be held up.............


Because of THIS!

Things were held up for about a week....
BUT
It seems that we WILL be traveling.......
BUT
we will not hold out TA in our hands until FRIDAY.




Yes- it is taking a little longer than I had hoped...
OK...FINE..... a LOT longer than I had hoped-
But at least we have been told that we can still go.

So that's great.





So tonight -
I will ACTUALLY start packing our 2 tiny little suitcases
and our 2 tiny little computer bags
and pray that everything fits.

We will SERIOUSLY start checking out flight schedules and airlines.
Who knows.....we might even talk about hotels and what we would like
to do while we are there.

I have to tell ya...I am STILL skeptical.

I will believe it when I'm toolin' down the runway of LAX.





And so will my son.

He gets that attitude from his Daddy's people.
;)