A shopping day for Avery...

So yesterday was our 12th Wedding Anniversary. We actually went out to dinner on Friday for our Anniversary. We had a really great meal, stuffed ourselves, but had really great conversations about Avery and other things. About how we can't wait for our lives to change and have a daughter finally, and what that trip to China will really be like-surreal we think!!

For our Anniversary we went to Syracuse and looked for things for Avery's room. We are both getting excited to start her room and I'm ready to concentrate on other things besides dance for awhile. So, we went and looked at the wainscoting for her room, and brought home paint swatches to match her crib bedding. We got pillows and books for her room. We actually found the crib and changing table we want. We almost bought it yesterday but decided to wait until we got a little further on her room. The crib and changing table aren't real big and should fit in the room well, we wrote down the dimensions so we could see how they would fit.

We actually found these baskets yesterday that were made out of chinese newspaper. Really neat. I thought they just looked interesting but then when we looked closer you could see the chinese writing on them. So we bought a set of them. We didn't buy a lot but we bought a few things for her and her room. We're coming up on 11 months and by 12 months we should be starting her room. We've got to get past the Recital first. Can't wait until she's here, that first Summer she's here I'm not working at all that Summer, it will just be our time-can't wait!! All in all a great Anniversary!!

Have had a lot of updates from a foundation called Half The Sky who deals with the orphanages and welfare houses in China. It's just email updates. But when a tragedy like the earthquake happens they give you daily updates on the children and the different provinces of China and how everything is. It seems that most of the welfare houses and orphanages faired pretty well, and the children for the most part are fine. They are daily putting more children in the orphanages due to them losing their parents to the earthquake. They are expecting the death toll to rise to another 20,000 people at least. What a tragedy this is... and you never wish such a thing on anybody no matter who they are or where they come from. We are extra sensitive to this because we are going to have an Asian daughter and are always wanting to know what's going on in her country. I am thankful for the daily updates from this organization.

I can't wait to be done with the studio for a few weeks. I am still going to teach this Summer, have to!! But I think I'm going to give myself a little time off to do things for me, and so Gary and I can spend some time together. Gary and I like to kayak, and bike ride, and we need time to do that with eachother. Hopefully we are going to go on a big vacation in the Fall, I'm thinking Atlantis in the Bahamas, would be nice!!! I'm happy with NYC anytime!! Just need to be away and out of the studio for awhile. Time to just breath and not worry about the small stuff.

Have a Great Day!!!

Love to all,
~Alli