The Year in Review

No, not 2007; I thought I'd review for you our 2008, so far:

*Uncle Dean leaves us and goes back home to conquer the admissions board at Columbia and Chicago

*Mom and Dad Hadfield leave us to go back home and conquer the world of Lamp shades and little boys who, bless his heart, still need help with potty training (we completely understand that world, we are in that one with Molly; I think that world is called the twilight zone)

*Mom and Dad Graham (J. and Katie) take their crew to Cape Town and LOVE being there for 4 nights or so. Table Mountain, driving the coast, hanging out with penguins and so much more. Pictures to come as soon as they can be posted in less time than it takes for my kids to get out of bed in them morning

*Graham return to a waiting Mom Graham (Judy) who made it to Africa by the hair of her chinny chinny chin. Sadly, her luggage did not follow her to her destination for a few days, and she-with chin held high and a smile on her face- endured day after day of the same underwear and outfits (we did squeeze in a tiny bit of shopping so she'd have long pants for our malarial zone adventure to Victoria Falls)

*Mom Graham, Katie and the two big girls, Brynley and Madi, fly to Vic Falls to see a wonder of the world. We ride elephants, try our best to see crocodiles and hippos (no luck), have our game drive flooded out by torrential rains (we did, even though, get to see a leopard!), and fly in a helicopter over the falls. All this while covered top to bottom in deet and citronella. I could not relax as I felt I'd put my girls in mortal danger-call me over protective, but every small movement of dust or fly caused me to swat at my children.

*We return from our adventure to a still broken washing machine (this was not afor mentioned because the machine broke long before the new year began. Washing clothes at the neighbors or, more commonly, in the bath tub is no way to live I tell ya!).

*the kids escort Mom Graham, on her last day in Africa, to the kids' science museum and we all construct a mammoth building with foam bricks for over 2 hours; the kids were determined to build every wall and would have if the small bricks had not run out. No trip to Lion park for Grandma, instead she happily built foam brick walls and then, bless her, helped to put all the bricks away...what a Grandma!

*J. and Katie go about the dizzying project of listing all that needs to happen before we leave Africa (16 days and counting...) and all that must happen for us to determine where in the world (or at least where in the Dallas Metroplex) we will settle our family for the next very long time.

*Katie kindly tells John to stay away from the email he receives from his office inviting consultants to take a new case in Mbai India (no kidding, he really was invited to go there...could you imagine?)

so-there it is in a nutshell-the last 14 (or 16) days of our family's life. If my light wasn't emerald green right now I'd actually post some pics of it all too-sorry. Needless to say time is flying faster than a speeding bullet. Gotta go leap tall buildings (or at least teach a full day of school to my kids which is just as heroic).