August Belt Test

For those wondering, we weathered Fay just fine. Lots and lots of rain, but no flooding in our area. We had a large tree branch go down in the back that thankfully missed the house and power lines. Other than many many sticks in the yard (and E's disapointment at missing two days of school), all's well here.

This morning E and I had our karate belt test; he for orange/white and I for brown. It sure is fun to do it with him, although I don't really get to watch him until the kata portion of test. Here's a video clip of our katas.

35 hours in a plane - totally worth it!

We got the green light to book our flights!! We leave Oct. 8th and return the 17th. Many of the families traveling at the same time as us are also picking up toddlers; should make for a wild and wonderful time!

Ethiopia, here we come!

Today we received Merete's birth certificate and tentative travel dates (we were told not to book anything yet). We're to arrive in Ethiopia October 9th, and leave there October 17. October 10th will be the day we meet Merete for the first time. Here's a new picture from his BC:

Littlewood Lion

Today was E's first day of kindergarten! After meeting his teacher and checking out the school on Friday, E had no hesitations this morning. He was up at 6:15, woke up up, ate a huge breakfast and headed off. But first, we took the annual back-to-school photo:


We then headed down the path near the house for the first time (well, for the first time with E as a student).


We made it to his classroom, where he found his table and a bag of goodies from his new teacher. She had given all the other kids goldfish crackers (which E can't have), but gave E Chex cereal (I love her already).


I headed to the Boo Hoo breakfast and meet many of the other kindergartners' parents. Later I walked over to pick him up, and he was flying high on the swing, having a great time. He was excited mostly because they didn't ask him to take a nap, but also because he learned a couple new words in sign language. Also, I'm not sure exactly how the food situation is set up, but somehow he managed to eat only his dessert for lunch, and he had his after-school snack in the classroom instead. I'm guessing he wasn't too hungry for lunch at 10 am (yeah, that's right, 10 am). We'll leave dessert out from now in hopes of getting him to eat a carrot or two instead. Dinner was celebratory tacos, and of course, chips and salsa.


In other news, we're hopping Fay doesn't make up take up a Hurricain day already!!

Party People

So much to celebrate today, one birthday and 4 new Ph.D.'s!

We first went to Emma's birthday party.













Then we went to Dr. Randy's party.













And finally to Tim's, for Drs Kim, Andrew, and Joey.

Even the kids ate it!

I experimented with more Ethiopian food this weekend. First I made new berbere, without the cayenne pepper so the boys could handle it. Then I made more wot with it, but this time with pork. I also made nitar kebha, which is clarified margarine (usually butter) simmered with many spices, garlic, etc, and then strained so only the tasty margarine remains. This apparently is supposed to keep in the fridge for months. Anyway, it is a common ingredient in many vegetable dishes that I've run across. This time I made atar allecha, basically a green pea puree. It was so good! The pork wot was also very good (I had the little shaker of spicy berbere on the side for the adventurous ones). We had left over injera from last time (which I had frozen and defrosted). It was okay, but I'm not sure the way I froze it was wise (I had rolled then frozen them; probably should have kept them flat). The best part of dinner though was that Camille, Ale and the boys came over for dinner (and brought over a really yummy chocolate cake)! Here's a shot-out to them with hopes their adoption progresses smoothly :-)