Busy, busy, busy

Life continues at a hectic pace - which is surprising since Georgia is a laid-back country. We all joke about being on "Georgian time" which can mean anywhere from 10 minutes to 2 hours late for any event or appointment.

For example, when my kitchen floor, which was a beautiful wood floor when we moved in, rotted and warped from water seeping in through the concrete subfloor, it took weeks to get it repaired. The fix-it guys came to see the warping one day. The decided they would only have to pull up a few square meters of floor. Then they decided to come back the next day to start the tear out process. They told me they would be at the house by 10. They arrived around 11ish. They started working, then took off for lunch right around 12 and said they would be back in one hour. The came back around 2. They started tearing out the rest of the damaged section and realized that the rot and resulting mold was underneath the entire kitchen floor. This required a supervisory evaluation. Of course the supervisor wasn't available until the next morning. They said they would be in at 10. Once again, it was after 11 before they showed up...lather, rinse, repeat. Ultimately it was decided that the whole floor would have to come up and tile would have to replace the wood. This required a different crew, a different supervisory evaluation and also separate crews to remove the electronics (dishwasher, stove, fridge, etc.) and to remove all the lower cabinetry. So, a job that should have taken at most 3 or 4 days - really my kitchen isn't that large - took about 3 weeks. We ate out a lot.

But I digress. Ah, yes. Hectic pace. Today was a busy day. David went for a motorcycle ride with his buddies, they are trying to get in as many rides as they can while the weather holds out for them. Soon it will be too cold and icy to be safe on the bikes. As he was getting ready to go, I was getting the kids ready to go out to Bao Babi, the Georgian answer to Chuck E. Cheese (minus the big smelly rat-costumed minimum wage shlub). As I'm strapping the kids in the car, David says "Oh, I am going to have some people over for a bar-b-q at 4 PM. I look at my watch and it's almost 1. I said "Well, I'll try to be back by then". Nothing like last minute party planning.

I take the kids to Bao Babi, then we hit the vegetable market on the way home. I get home at 3:20 and David is still not back from his motorcycle ride. I work on getting Kyra to take a nap and David comes home at almost 3:40. He fires up the grill and I decide that, since it was his last minute brilliant idea to have people over, he can handle it. I am going to call my mom and chat a while. While talking to my mom, Kyra wakes - it's only been 30 minutes since I put her down. David's first set of guests have arrived, a bunch of Marines, and he is busy chatting and charring cow flesh on the grill. I take Kyra to him and notice that there is no food other than a bag of Tostitos, a pack of hot dogs and 6 pounds of steak. I decide to be a good hostess - Dave may have poorly planned things, but that doesn't mean guests at my house should be handed a piece of beef and a beer and call it a day- and I head into the kitchen and start working. While cooking and chopping and mixing, I also fed Kyra her dinner.

2 hours later I finally get a chance to sit and socialize. I had added a big dish of grilled veggies to the meal, potato salad, tomato and cucumber salad, chips, dips and had a pan of brownies baking in the oven. By the time I was able to join the party, almost every bite of meat was gone. I ended up eating mostly side dishes (thank God I had made them). As everyone was leaving this evening, I was busy putting Kyra to bed. David gives Blaine a bath as I head downstairs to the total destruction in my kitchen. I have just finished cleaning all the dishes, taking out all the trash and mopping the kitchen floor. Come upstairs and where is David? Already in bed asleep.

He must be tired from all that hard work grilling the meat and opening the beers.

OMG! An update!

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I have been neglecting the blog. Not intentional, I assure you, more like unavoidable. Life has been crazy busy in the past few weeks, and that, combined with a lack of computer (yes, it is still in the repair shop getting a new hard drive) has made updating this blog a bit difficult.

But now, I will summarize my life these past few weeks.

To start, I will say my daughter - she crawls. And stands. ON EVERYTHING. She's a climber, God help me. She finally learned how to get her fat belly up off the ground a few weeks ago and the same day she figured out (after crawling over to her brother and using him for leverage) how to get to her feet. After that, there was no stopping her. By the next day, she was climbing the stairs. Yes. Really. She can now manage 2 flights of stairs unaided. I hover behind in case she slips but so far, she has been pretty rock solid in the climbing department. Exhibit A:

This morning she decided to push her toy piano over to the bookcase and stand on top of that so she could pull books off of the shelf. No pictures of that, however, since I was too busy getting her down and could not take the time to stop for a photo op.

Also, I finally bit the bullet and left my children. You see, I have not spent a night apart from my kids since the day Blaine was born. The only 2 nights I have ever spent not under the same roof as my son, I was in the hospital for Kyra's birth. But the opportunity came for me to join David in Istanbul for 3 days at the end of one of his business trips and, since I have someone I trust unconditionally with my kids, I decided it was time to stretch the apron strings. So with a freezer full of milk (Kyra is still nursing) and assurances to the boy that I would be back to tuck him in in 3 days, I flew to Istanbul. And I'm so glad I did. Dave and I had a fantastic time - Istanbul is an amazing city and I fell in love with it. The kids did just fine without me (which is good, or so I keep telling my mommy-guilt-ridden conscience). The sights were amazing, the people wonderful, the food was a delight. And, the cherry on top? Istanbul has Starbucks. Oh yes. I will be going back.

There is more, but it's late, I'm tired and my bed beckons. I will try (but won't pinky swear) to update more tomorrow. Don't hold your breath.