Happy New Year All!

We came back a couple of days ago from our post-Christmas trip to the Rockies. What a great time we had in Jasper, skiing at Marmot! I thought that Jonah would finally be old enough for ski lessons this year -- when we were skiing Smithers, we were told they had to be three -- but unfortunately, Jonah had to be FOUR at Marmot. Oh well. We had a great time anyway. We spent some time skiing on the kiddy hill, mooching advice off of the ski instructors about how best to teach Jonah how to ski on his own. We were told that the best way for kidlets to learn to turn is to use airplane arms. Basically, if you want to turn one direction, tilt your arms (one up, one down) so that you are showing your armpit to the direction that you want to go. Seems counter-intuitive to me-- I'd've thought it was the other way around -- but it totally works! So Jonah practiced going one way and then the other on the hill (still on the harness), and then we played red light green light on a slower run, so he "french fried" (kept his skis parallel) to go, and "pizza-ed" (snow plowed) to stop. It was the best ski trip we'd had, hands down!

Well, in all fairness, the dynamics between the members of the family were not at an all time high. Take five over-played, under-rested people and stick them in the same place for three days straight, and there are bound to be some clashes. Add to that the fact that my two sisters are a couple of pre-pubescent hormonal gals, and well, you can guess. But even so, it was a sweet trip. The second day of skiing, Jonah was right tuckered out by mid morning, so after lunch, I put him in the daycare at the hill for the rest of the afternoon, and had the chance to ditch my rental skis and go snowboarding on my new Roman deck. LOVE IT!! It was so much fun! And while I ski so that Jonah will soon be skilled enough to be off leash and we can zip around the hill together, I really am not a big fan of skiing. I never really got great at it, despite starting when I was four. So I started snowboarding at 16 and have never looked back -- until I had a small child who could not ski between my legs when I was snowboarding. So I've skied the last couple of years, but I think by this time next year, I will have respite from the skis, because Jonah will be able to hold him own.
When we arrived home on Monday, however, our happy holiday was abruptly ended by the smell of poo as we came into the house. My dogs were downstairs (Felix in the kennel, because he chews) and he had pooped in his kennel. Apparently they (both of my dogs, but not my mam's) had had diarrhea since we left. Every evening when John, our dog-sitter came to let the pups out before bed, there was feces. And every evening, John would clean and bleach our floors. Good Man! But I guess Felix had defecated on his rug in his kennel, so John replaced it with a pillow, so when I came home, not only was the brown stuff everywhere, but it was mushed into the pillow fluff that covered the floor! Excellent! I'm sure nobody wants anymore details than that (I'm sure some have already stopped reading -- sorry) but yeah. Gross. So not a great welcome home, and the pups are still sick, even a couple of days later. I finally called the vet today, thinking if it was something they had eaten, it should be out of their system by now, but the vet said, no, it could still be something they ate, so I've been instructed to have them fast today, and then start them on a different diet for a week or so, to reset their systems.
So yeah, generally good times around the holidays. My sister bought me for Christmas some sweet paper from Close To My Heart (she's a demonstrator), and an 8 x 8 album to scrap my trip to Ethiopia. So sweet! I love this Boom-Di-Ada paper:

And I'm also looking forward to soon starting a cloth album to send to my sweet girl, once the referral has been made. We will print out pictures from the computer onto cloth and then use other fabrics to scrap instead of paper, so that she can see pictures of the family and if she chews on us, no big deal. The Ethiopia trip pages I would really like to have the templates for them finished before I go to Ethiopia, so that when I return, it'll just be a matter of picking photos to crop and glue in.

I know, I know, I have nothing BUT time at this point, but even so, it is nice to think that somewhere in the foreseeable future, there is an end to this whole crazy deal. So I will keep my crafty self occupied for the moment, pouring my affection to this as of yet unmet daughter of mine, via scrapbooks. And clothes. Oh mercy! I went to the Children's Place Monster sale yesterday, and had to practice some serious self-restraint. One thing I can be sure of is I will have one stylish girl, once she's home.

Speaking of coming home, Karen is back with Phoebe. I thought of her so many times in the last couple of weeks, waiting with baited breath for any updates, and when I finally made it onto the computer this morning, was overjoyed at the many posts and pictures that she has put out since coming home with her daughter. I'm living vicariously through her right now, comforting myself with the mantra, "Someday my turn." Someday.