We left Winnipeg on Wednesday night and flew to Chicago. We have been hanging out in Chicago for the past two days and leave here tomorrow morning for Kyiv. It's been a great two days, it was so nice to have this little vacation before we head to Kyiv.

Yesterday we went to Target in the morning, man I love that store....we do not have it in Canada, so it's such a treat!! In the afternoon we went to Woodfield Mall, the 2nd largest mall in the US. Only the Mall of America is larger and since we have been there many times so this mall was nothing spectacular for us, but we enjoyed looking around. Brad's cousin Lorne and his wife Kristin picked us up and the 4 us us went to TGI Fridays for dinner and then they came back to our hotel to visit more. We had a great time. It was so nice to see them, they have just moved from Phoenix and have never lived close to us, so it was extra special!

Today we headed downtown on the L train. Brad had his first visit to Popeye's chicken for lunch, we went to Navy Pier and the famous Wrigley's Field for a Cub game...what an amazing place....we are definelty coming back here again some day, hopefully soon.

We we take off tomorrow for Ukraine, so I am going up to my room to repack and get a good nights sleep!!!

OH, I can not get the spell check to work...so I hope I did not make to may mistakes!!

Well # 3 of bad things happened to me today. My friend Roberta & I went to Costco on our lunch break today. We were backing out of our parking spot,…we were so far out I was getting ready to put my car back into drive to go froward when bam the guy parked behind me backs up and hits me. I don’t even think he looked as I was in the middle of the isle when he started to back up. I was honking…but he said he did not hear me. Just what I need right now! We were joking when we told our boss some blind, deaf guy hit us at Costco!! :) :)

We got our official letter yesterday by FedEx….so we are now "officially" invited for October 3rd.

I can’t believe we are leaving in 11 days. I feel like such a rat not telling anyone what is going on.

Yesterday at 3:30 p.m. I got an e-mail from our agency and our appointment is October 3rd. YAAAHOOO!! We could not have asked for better timing. So we will arrive on Sunday at 11 a.m. Kiev time (3 a.m. our time) after flying on three flights and gaining 8 time zones!! It’s 2 weeks till we leave. We are not getting to excited yet. Once we receive our letter it will be much more surreal and once we get on the plane…..

October Appointments???
Someone just posted on the Yahoo board that the October appointments have been posted at the SDA. Not sure about the letters...we just have to wait and see.

WHAT A FIASCO
I went on the internet Wednesday night and figured out exactly what flights we were going to take and how much they cost. I called NW, gave the girl all the info, including the flight numbers. I must have told her 3 times that I was getting a price of $1810 Canada for both flights (I scheduled to come home a week later that Brad). She gave me a price of $1837, but I told her that it was still less than my flight, so I was not worried. So I take my old tickets with me to the airport (on my lunch hour) on Thursday to change them and pay the $200 American change fee per people. The d--b girl was quoting me in America and had me coming home on October 4th and not November 4th. What a dingbat. I spent over an hour there trying to get it straightened out. Well of course the guy can't rebook the flights and the prices change every day so I went back to work to figure out new flights, of course the prices went up so I had to change the flight from Winnipeg to Chicago and Chicago to Kiev. So now instead of leaving here on Thursday a.m. we are leaving after work on Wednesday and instead of taking 2 flights to Kiev, we are taking 3. AAAHHH!! D--b girl. Oh well, everything worked out and that's all that matters.

A MINOR UPDATE
I just off the phone with my agency. She told me that her girls were able to get through to the SDA about our appointment. Apparently the letters are not ready to go yet . She told me that they explained my situation and were told that our appointment would be on October 3rd or 4th. NO I AM NOT DOING THE HAPPY DANCE. Things change ALL the time. So we are going to book our flights tonight as this news gives us something to work with and Northwest is only giving me until tomorrow to rebook…and I hate, hate, hate to do things at the last minute.

@*%@## **%##*!@
I have until tomorrow to rebook my flight and I do NOT have an appointment!!

GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS
The good news is Chapstick is allowed on the plane….AWESOME.

The bad news, as Brad says, bad things come in 3’s. so it’s looking like this is my list;
1. kill washing machine.….although it’s good that it did not die when my sister and her 3 kids were visiting.

2. drill hole in stove wire and just about electrocute myself and burn house down…although that good that I did not do it.

3. not going to get letter before Wednesday September 6th when we have to rebook.

Well at least it’s a long weekend. I went out this my girlfriend Lesley who is in from Belleville, Ontario and some other friends last night. I have not seen some of the girls for a year or two, so it was nice. We are hoping to go out with her and her hubby on Saturday night. Brad is off to Regina, Saskatchewan for Sunday and Monday for the labor day classic…he is ecstatic, he has been dying to go for years.…go Bombers!! So I am going to golf with a friend and her sister on Sunday and then have lunch with her and another friend after and try and do some painting. Maybe I will get my mind off this adoption for a little while.