T-Minus 7 Days

We are one week out from boarding a plane to our new home in Switzerland. Lots to do before then!

The biggest thing weighing on me is shipping our pets. It is becoming complicated and very stressful as it always seems to. Not to mention costly. So trying to iron out all of the logistics in a race against time. Nightmare is an understatement. Why is it always like this? Next time (?) I will let a professional pet shipper handle all of this, just tell me where to sign!

Today's PhotoADay theme is "Blue" which is appropriate because I've been blue all day. I wish an international move meant just showing up, but there are so many details, and then the realization that you are LEAVING your home and family, and all the good times to be had here in the States. Ups and downs.

I thought about "Blue" all day and really came up with nothing, but I do have a favorite little item right now, a little jewelry dish I bought at the beginning of home leave. I have subsequently taken it in my carryon for each leg of this trip, because it is so handy to have a place to drop my earrings and accessories at the end of the day. Or the odd button that's popped off the girls' clothes.

I think Neil will appreciate me using it. Sure, it's not putting things away right away, but it still has a bit of the "a place for everything ..." spirit to it. I love it. And it's blue (and white)!

Catch Up

Come on, we knew every day was a bit ambitious! But I DID at least take pics every day, so I back-posted the past four days.

Today's PhotoADay theme is "Taken From Above."

At this moment I'm sitting outside at my in-laws' house in Mesa, AZ, the setting sun warming my back, hanging out with my two dogs -- yes, my dogs, shipped here from Botswana -- just enjoying life!

Happy Wednesday!

Mmmmwah!

Nile found an egg in the backyard, laid in the grass by one of Grandma and Papa G's eight chickens.

She decided we needed to use it to bake a cake!

So we put on our aprons and she donned her toque (I came across that word for the very first time in one of my first weeks copy editing at Gannett and had to look it up! I can see it is not a very useful word to know.) and we went into the kitchen.

We ended up making two individual-size apple crumbles (sorry Nile, no eggs) from one apple, a bunch of oats, cinnamon, sugar and vanilla, and a lot of butter!

Today's PhotoADay theme is "From Down Low." We'll, that didn't happen.

But this is Nile in her chef gear, blowing kisses to her other Grandma in VA!

It's 4PM, Do You Know Where Your Baby Is?

Today's PhotoADay May theme is "4PM."

I missed that exact time, but got this pic of Pilar watching TV, chillaxing, at 6:05 p.m. Too funny!

Not sure what exactly we were doing at 4:00 p.m., but I think I was at an appointment with my sister-in-law, Becky.

The girls and I are filling our days with appointments before we head off; this morning Nile had her very first dentist appointment and I'm happy to report she has no cavities, her front tooth where she hit it in a fall from her scooter a few months ago was X-rayed and is OK, and she doesn't have to stop sucking her thumb till she's 5 1/2! Good news all around!

Little Man

Baby Logan is just the cutest thing ever. And I'm not just saying that because I'm his aunt!

Don't you agree?

Today's PhotoADay theme is "Us."

Nearly the whole family got together for dinner (taco salad!) and dessert (ice cream sundaes!) tonight. So all of US were together.

This pic of Logan -- in the moustache shirt I got for him in Botswana, made by Sticky Fudge (most adorable kids' clothing!) in South Africa, plus his whipped cream-from-a-spoon moustache and dimples -- was the cutest!

Collection!

Today's PhotoADay theme is "Collection."

Not sure how to interpret that, so here is a collection ... of photos of the girls today!

Nile with a bouquet (a collection?) of grass. I was laying out in the backyard and she wanted to be in her swimsuit, too.

Pilar swimming with Papa G!

Dots and a Movie

Today's PhotoADay May theme is "Snack".

I went out to dinner and a movie with my sisters in law Lisa and Becky and a bunch of their girl friends. Sushi at Blue Wasabi (me, when the food came out: "Um ... Why is the wasabi blue? Ohhhhhh I get it!") and "The Other Woman" at the theater. Cute chick flick-y movie. Glad I've kept a free movie pass in my wallet for the past two years -- came in handy!

Being the sugar fiend that I am, I got one of my favorite movie theater snacks, DOTS!!!! Love 'em, especially the pink and red ones.

Good times in the U.S.A.!

In other news, I figured out a way to upload and post pics using my phone and the iPad. PhotoADay May is back on track!