Big A's First Soccer Game!!!

Today was Big A's first soccer game! I was worried that it would get rained out, but fortunately the rain held off until this afternoon. Big A did very well today. In fact, she scored the first goal of the game!!! I was so proud! Of course, I was so busy cheering her on, that I forgot to snap a picture. Maybe next time. She got to stay in for the entire game. She did really well--although she does tend to zone out and forget to go for the ball at times. When she does go after the ball she does really well. She has a lot of control over the ball. I was really surprised. She even kept the ball from going out of bounds several times. Pretty good for a girl that has never played a real soccer game before. I still need to get her to hustle-- she can run much faster than she does out there on the field. She really seems to like soccer. I am so proud of my little girl!!! Here are some photos from this morning...

Two Sisters On The Field

My Little Soccer Players
(Little A Is Ready To Play, Too)



Before The Game

Go Bears!!!!

Keeping The Goal

We Did It!!!

Waiting For The Ball To Be Thrown In

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that our team won the game... 5 to 1!!!! Go Bears!!!

Doctor Death...

Today may be the longest day in history...time is just creeping by in slow motion. I am working in Locust Grove today, and the clinic is sloooooow. Also, my allergies were really acting up this morning--so I took an antihistamine, and I am soo sleepy. I never had "hay fever" until I moved to Atlanta--and it seems to get worse every year. So far the pine pollen is not that bad--last year, everything was yellow for months. I expect it any day now--yellow dust that just will not go away... It will be on every surface inside and out--yuck. And I will be even more stuffed up than I am now. What I really hate is the sore throat I get-- and this year I seem to be coughing and wheezing more than last. I have actually considered using Big A's inhaler a couple of times in the last few nights. Oh well, at least the weather is warm...

Tonight Big A has soccer practice at 6:30. I am going to be pushing it to pick her up and get her there by then. Traffic on 75 has been TERRIBLE the last few days. Tomorrow is supposed to be her first game, but I'm afraid that it might be rained out--that's what the forecast says anyway. I hope not. She is going to look so cute in her uniform. I can't wait to take pictures.

The last few days, I have felt like Doctor Death. In the past 24 hours, I have euthanized 3 dogs... They all were old and sick, but still it is not my favorite part of the job. Another one may be coming in this afternoon, too. Sad.

Biting Blues... Again

Well, not much to report this week--aside from the call I got Tuesday from the daycare, informing me that Little A had bitten a child... again. Oh, what will I do with that little girl. She is like a dog--she chew on rocks (as well as anything else that will fit in her mouth), she wallows in dirt any chance she gets, and she occasionally bites small children... I have tried to train her not to do this, but I can't seem to get it through her little head that humans are not supposed to bite. The teacher did tell me that the boy she bit was picking on her, but still she should tell on him, not try to eat him.... I picked her up from school early and had a long talk with her about it. I asked why she bit him...she said "cuz..." So I told her that she shouldn't bite people because biting other humans will make her sick. You never know what diseases they may be carrying. Maybe that will keep her from biting in the future, although it hasn't kept her from sucking on rocks....

In other news, my final Dossier documents have been sent to Russia, and my Ministry Letter has returned from Moscow and is now at the Sakhalin DOE. Hopefully, it will not take long for my documents to be translated and notarized, so that the Judge can review them and set a court date. Oh I hope it is soon---the wait is killing me. I am really nervous about court, but I am so anxious to get back to Russia to get "D". I cannot wait to get this whole process over, so we can settle into life again. Things will certainly be different when "D" gets here, but it will be a new chapter in life... I hope that this summer will be a great one for our new family.

Easter Adventures...

Our Easter was very nice. The Easter Bunny definitely spoiled the girls... I told him not to, but I guess he didn't listen. :) So now we have even more chocolate in the house! They still have chocolate from Christmas, Valentine's, and even some candy from Halloween! Time for me to start taking it to work! I really don't let the girls have a lot of sweets--I guess that is why it lasts so long. When Theresa lived in town, I could always count on her to eat the excess-- she is a junk food junkie. But, now, it just sits here....

After the girls played with their Easter surprises, we loaded into the van and headed to SC to visit my Brother and his family... Big A complained the whole way that we had been in the car "all day" (the trip is only 2 hours). We got to their house about noon. My poor Sister- in -law was busy cooking for the masses. You couldn't pay me to have a big family dinner at my house. Her entire family came, my Brother's entire family came, and people even brought friends along... the house was full. I am sure my Sister-in -law felt like she was in Hell... I know I would have.

While dinner was cooking, my Brother took us on a walk through the woods by his house. Of course my girls were definitely not dressed for a hike, but I didn't have the heart not to let them go. It was a fun little hike, although Big A's dress kept getting caught in the briers... The kids had a great time playing together. After dinner we all went to a local park. The intention was to have an Easter egg hunt, but we never got around to it... We were all to busy chasing the kids around the park--trying to keep them together is impossible...

The girls were very sad about having to go home... They wanted to stay longer to play, but it was getting late, and they had school the next day, so we headed back home in the evening. Fortunately, the drive home wasn't bad-- although it would have been nice if the girls slept on they way home (they didn't). Little A spent most of the drive home complaining about being wet ( she poured chocolate milk all over herself halfway down the highway)

Below are some photos from our Easter Adventures...

Goodies From The Easter Bunny!!!

Big A Checking Out Her Easter Basket

Little A Breaks Into The Candy

A Tree Fell In The Path!!

The Littlest Hikers

Not Even A Fallen Tree Stops Them!!

Boy This Tree Branch I Bigger Than We Thought!

Nothing Like Hiking In An Easter Dress!

My Little Nature Girls!!!

The Oldest Cousin!!

( 9 Years Old!)

Three More Brothers!!

Big A Climbing In The Backyard

The Youngest Cousin!!

Three Little Cousins Playing In The Sand

Big A Concentrates On Here Sand Castle

Easter Eve

It has been a very busy week. Work has been picking up-- thankfully. Today the girls went to an Easter egg hunt at a local church. They had a great time. The church was next to the elementary school Big A will be going to next year, so we stopped by to take a look. Of course the school was locked, but we looked in the windows and at the playground. Big A was impressed. "It looks like a real school", she said. I said that it was a real school. She said she was excited about going there next year, but she would have to get used to it because it was so different than her school now. I think she is a bit nervous, but excited about being a "big kid".

Getting the girls to bed was a bit difficult, they are very excited about the Easter Bunny's visit tonight! Speaking of the Easter Bunny...I think I hear him. I better go see if I can be of some help...

Finding The Eggs...

Little A Got One!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

The girls are busy fighting over the Easter books that Nana sent them today--so I will take this moment to write... Yesterday was nice--we just relaxed in the morning, then I took the girls to see 'Horton Hears A Who'. This was Little A's first time at the movies as a "Big Girl". She did really well--she sat through he whole movie with no problems. Big A loved it. She sat on the edge of her seat the entire time... Later, I mowed the lawn while the girls played in the backyard. While I was busy, Little A took the opportunity to play in the fountain and completely soak herself from head to toe. It was a busy day of play...

Today I spent catching up on work stuff and cleaning--not much to report. The girls dressed in their St. Patrick's best and headed off to school. Below is a photo of my two little Leprechauns.

Two Green Girls

The Easter Card And Books Nana Sent

Death Of The Sea Monkeys....

Today has been rough--very rough... It all started this morning. I had a breakfast meeting with another vet and her business partner (to talk about a job). Of course, I told them that if I met them on Saturday, I would have to bring the girls. Believe it or not they agreed to it--obviously they haven't been around a 5 year old and a 2 1/2 year old in a restaurant lately. But the breakfast wasn't the bad part. What happened before we even left for the restaurant started the bad luck theme of the day. I was making great time this morning--the girls were dressed and ready to go, and I was just about finished dressing myself, when Big A ran into room screaming that "the shelf fell! But it was an accident!" I ran into her room to discover that the dresser had fallen over--and with it went all the Sea monkeys!!! I ran to fill the little tank with new filtered water and began searching the rug for Sea monkeys-- not an easy task, as the largest Sea monkeys are only about a centimeter long, and the smallest are almost microscopic. Of course the whole time I was searching, I was screaming at Big A about how I have told her time and time again not to climb on the furniture.... So, for the next 30 minutes, I searched on my hands and knees (armed with a flashlight and a toothpick) looking for the tiny flailing Sea monkeys. I found about 10 or so--I carefully scooped them up with the toothpick and dumped them back into the tank. I am sure many more smaller ones perished on the rug, but I did the best I could... Of course, I was late for the breakfast meeting. But, I am a vet-- I have to try to save lives...even Sea Monkey lives. Unfortunately, only about 3 of the Sea Monkeys seem to be swimming around the tank now. The rest are just sort of hovering at the bottom, either dead or on their way out. I am sure that they all will be dead tomorrow, but I hope some survive. I did my best.

The breakfast meeting went okay...well except that halfway through, Little A announced "I wan go home!". And she kept repeating that statement through out the meeting... Oh well, I guess I won't get that job.

Then we had the house calls.... One was a 250 lb pot belly pig... enough said. I, of course, got lost going to one appointment, then had stand out in a hail storm for a while... It was not a pleasant day.

When we finally got home, I fed the girls dinner--Little A spilled her milk all over the table, the cat threw up in front of the door, and I have just about had enough. Hopefully tomorrow will be better...

Friday Family Night...

No major adventures to report tonight. Big A was supposed to have her first soccer practice tonight, but it was cancelled due to rain--or should I say drizzle. That was just as well because traffic was TERRIBLE this evening, and I was worried we would be late. So... we are having a quiet ( not really) evening at home. Actually the girls are going from room to room with matchbox cars and crashing them into each other. At this moment, Big A is instructing Little A on how to be a human tunnel for the cars to race through. I am sure someone will be hurt shortly, but until then, I can write without interruption. Of course, it is hard for me to think with all the squealing that is going on.

Earlier, the girls were playing a board game. Big A is really into games now. That is good--I never was much of a game player as a child, and I always envisioned quiet evenings with my family playing board games. You know, real wholesome, family fun. Unfortunately, I am still not much of a board game player, so I really have to make myself sit down with the girls to play. I hope that we can keep it up. I think that it is important to spend time together as a family like that... Usually, though our "game nights" consist of Little A throwing our game pieces in all directions and pretty much wrecking the game. Oh well, at least we are all spending time together -- instead of just vegging out in front of the TV or something....

Below are some pictures from the other night... Big A was playing with her pattern blocks, and decided to make a family portrait.

Two Proud Girls

From L to R: Nana, Mommy, Big A, "D", Little A, and a Leprechaun...

( I'm not sure how the leprechaun is related, maybe a distant cousin?)

Tonight's Game-- The Snail Race

My Soapbox....

I belong to several yahoo email groups... mainly Russian adoption groups. So I get daily digests of the emails. I just read one such digest, and one of the emails pissed me off. In the email, a woman was writing about her first trip to Russia to meet her referrals (a boy and a girl). She described how she accepted the referral of the little girl and turned down the referral of the boy--because he didn't seem interested in his surroundings and wasn't interactive. She got another referral of a younger boy and accepted that one. I don't know...this got me thinking. Why should we Americans get to go to another country and pick and choose which children that we want to take home. I guess, on one hand, it is better for the child not to get a mother that is not capable of handling any problems that he may have and is not capable of loving him for who he is. But, then again---what if he doesn't really have any problems in the first place... What if he is just incredibly shy or just not open to strangers, what if he just wasn't feeling good during her visit... Maybe he just lost his one chance at having a family, because some foreign woman decided that she didn't like the way he was acting.

I start to think about Little A- she never made meaningful eye contact until she was about one year old--she was not very interested in interacting with other people until she was about a year old, she still acts a bit standoffish at times, and she can be extremely moody. What if she had been an orphan in Russia. What if some American had gone over there and met her--would she have been picked... Not if that American was going over there expecting to find the "perfect" child. Fortunately, she was not an orphan, and fortunately she was born to a Mother who could accept and love her for who she is.... and, by the way, although she is still a bit quirky at times, she is just fine! I just don't think that I agree with the philosophy that we, as adoptive parents, should be allowed to pick and choose the child we adopt because of looks or personality, etc. We don't get to choose the children we give birth to... I think that if a person makes the decision to adopt a child from a country that institutionalizes children, they should be aware that they may have issues ---if they don't think that they can handle a child with issues, then they should not adopt at all.

Anyway, that is my soapbox for today. I hope that that little boy finds a loving home someday. I have seen first hand what happens to the children who don't... and I would not wish that on anyone.

Adventures Of Pirates And The Apple Tree Queen....

We had a good day today. We all slept late-- Little A actually slept until 8:30 (of course, it was only 7:30 regular time). That is pretty good for her... Then I did mountains of laundry, while the girls destroyed the house. A typical Sunday. Later in the afternoon, we all went in the backyard to play. The girls pretended to be pirates ( the play set was the ship), and I was the captain. The dogs got the part of sea monsters... Big A also had a first-- she climbed a tree! She was very proud of herself. She was so cute up there--I had to get my camera. Here is Big A in our apple tree.

Queen Of The Jungle

Amelia In A Tree!!!

(She typed this caption by herself. She wanted to write the entire blog, but I talked her into just doing a photo caption. :) )

My Silly Girls

Daisy Gets Some Love

Our "Snowy" Saturday

It has been a long Saturday.... First I had to go out in the "snow" to visit a cat with an abscess. The girls had to go with me--fortunately the cat's owner didn't seem to mind. She was very nice. She even made them some popcorn, while I flushed the cat's wounds and debrided the necrotic tissue.... Just another morning for the children of a veterinarian, I guess.

After the house call, the girls and I headed to the South Dekalb YMCA to sign Big A up for soccer. It is not the closest location, but I missed all of the other sign up deadlines, so this was the only choice. Sometimes I can be so slack. I really hope I can remember to sign her up for T-ball in April. I wanted to get her into spring T-ball, but I missed that deadline, too. I felt so guilty about that, but she didn't really seem to care. She said that soccer would be fine instead. I hope she likes it. And I hope I can get her to all of the practices.

After lunch the girls got to go to a friend's birthday party at The Little Gym. They had a lot of fun. I had never been to The Little Gym and I found it pretty impressive. I think I will look into the classes they offer...

All in all, it was a busy day. The girls had a great time at the party, and it seemed to have worn them out... It wore me out as well. :)

Below are some photos from the other night-- The girls were playing with their pattern blocks. Big A made pretty shapes. Little A made a " choo choo train".

My Creative Girls

Big A's Patterns

A Quiet Coffee Break...

I am having a cup of coffee-- enjoying the silence. Little A is still asleep for once. Usually she wakes up at 5:30 or 6:00 on weekdays. I should get the girls up already, but I just want to finish my coffee first.... I am also nursing some wounds. This morning I slipped ( I guess I accidentally "Pledged" the floor when I was dusting yesterday. I fell like a rock-- skinned my knee bruised my thigh, and skinned my elbow! Ouch! Maybe it is another sign that I am getting old before my time! :)

Yesterday was so nice outside! I had a few house calls in the morning. Then I took Big A back to the doctor. Her cough is out of control and when I listened to her lungs they sounded awful-- very wheezy. They said she was having an attack of Reactive Airway Disease (aka asthma). She got a breathing treatment and a prescription for orapred and albuterol inhaler. So far she is still coughing and wheezing, but hopefully the pred will kick in soon--I just dread the hyperactivity that comes with it! I thought she had grown out of this-- she hasn't had to use her inhaler for a couple of years now--oh well, hopefully this will soon pass...

After the doctor, we went grocery shopping. Followed by a leisurely afternoon in the backyard. I am so ready for Spring! It was just beautiful outside yesterday. Today, however, it is supposed to rain. I don't have any appointments scheduled for today, so I guess I will finish cleaning the house-- I was supposed to finish that Sunday, but after cleaning up all of the cat vomit and diarrhea, I got disgusted and took a short road trip with the girls... I started to finish up yesterday, but cut it short to take Big A to the doctor, so today is the day, I guess... :)

A Messy Sunday Morning...

It is not quite 8am and I have been cleaning up cat vomit and diarrhea for over an hour already!!! Not the way that I wanted to start my Sunday!!! Of course, when my cats get sick they cannot just stay in one spot to puke their guts out, but they have to walk through every room of the house vomiting along the way. It is not really the vomit that bothers me so much though-- it is the dips of diarrhea that have been tracked throughout my house from Bobbit's butt... I REALLY hate nasty animal messes in my house-- hell, I make people take off their shoes in my house because I like my floors to be clean and spotless. Imagine my disgust when I found drops of diarrhea tracked across my hardwoods this morning! Yes, I know that I am a veterinarian, so vomit and diarrhea should not really bother me-- and it doesn't, except when it is on my floors and throw rugs!! I think I have found it all and cleaned it up, but I need to go back through and inspect again. Then I need to clean and scrub this house from top to bottom. Not my idea of a restful Sunday morning! I have safely confined the cats, so that they will not continue to destroy my house-- they are not too happy, but that's life... I suppose I should treat them for their gastroenteritis... The problem is I first need to see who is vomiting. I know Bobbit is having diarrhea, but I am not sure she is the one that is doing the vomiting. Anyway, enough complaining...I better get back to work.

It I Saturday! Yeah!

It is Saturday---Yeah!!! I had intended to sleep late today, but Little A put an end to that plan by waking me up at 6:30 am. She just can not seem to ever sleep later than that. I guess I am lucky that she didn't wake up at 5:30--which is her usual time.

I think the weather is supposed to be nice today, so I may take the girls to the park. Last night I promised them that we would go to Moe's today. I had to drag them to a late house call appointment last night--they were very good. Fortunately, the client had two children, so the kids all played together while I examined the cat. The girls wanted to eat out last night, but I got out of it by promising a trip to the restaurant today... I really need to stay home and clean the house--amazing how it NEVER stays clean for long. But, the weather has been so cold lately, that the girls haven't had much outdoor time, so it will do them some good to get out for a while. It may do me some good as well-- I have been very stressed about money lately. I just had to pay my quarterly health insurance premium--and that has put me into my usual post health insurance depression. There is really something wrong when my health insurance premiums are higher than my mortgage payment!!! It is outrageous how expensive health insurance is in this country. No wonder so many people don't have coverage!!! Maybe if insurance was affordable to everyone, less people would go to the emergency room for a cold and never pay the bill-- thereby driving health care costs up further. That is my biggest gripe today... Socialized medicine is sounding better and better to me.... Too bad Canada is so cold, I might consider a move...

Right now I am just going to finish my coffee and try to accomplish something today.