In No Particular Order...

Bat #2
We arrived home after picking my sister up from the airport and decided to grab a bite to eat before settling in for the night. Then my cell rang and it was ADT with the message, "Hello, we're calling to let you know that your alarm has been triggered in zone 17 (the upstairs motion detector) and need to know if you would like us to contact the police." Uh...YEAH! Thankfully we were nearby so actually beat the police officers to our house. My fearless husband went inside and at first was a little concerned when the cat's didn't come downstairs to greet him. Then he went upstairs and it all became clear. Moments later, once the officers had arrived, my husband came sauntering outside with a wadded up paper towel in his hands and let the officers know that everything was alright. The alarm must have been accidentally triggered when Bode caught his (2nd) bat of the season. Sorry sirs... our cat apparently has some aggression issues to work through when it comes to small rodents and flying animals.

Babies R Us
I have no idea how long we were in there, but we were in sorry shape by the time we left. I had no idea you could fit so many items into one shopping cart, all of which are absolutely "necessary" and couldn't possibly be lived without. Uh huh...I'm starting to think my sister might not have been the best person to take along on this trip. "Yes of course you need that! And that, and that and that..."

Target
Babies R Us was out of stock of Born Free bottles and training cups and a few other items, so after a well needed refueling we began operation complete the nursery #2 and braved our way through the Saturday afternoon Target traffic. One 12-month swim short and some well needed organizational pieces later we were on our way...but still no Born Free products, and the health food store next door was out of gDiapers.

Packing
We're 80% of the way to having Ashton Wondemu's bag packed along with our donations and gifts. Mike and my bag will be easy so I'm pretty happy about this. There was a minor episode of flipping out when I realized that NOBODY had Born Free products in stock (apparently people took the recent press on BPA to heart and now demand is wiping out the supply) but thankfully I found diapers.com who not only had the right Born Free products in stock, but they also carry gDiapers, and they also guarantee overnight shipping for free on orders >$50! Everything will ship on Tuesday and be ready to join our packed bags on Wednesday. Phew.

The nursery...I'll let the picture speak for itself!


Chevy Chase
Is there a more perfect way to end a lo-ooong Saturday of shopping, packing, and nursery prep than steaks on the grill and Funny Farm on the couch? I think not. And it gets even better when it's shared with a sister who also enjoys such quirky things as watching 1980's movies over, and over, and over and still finding them just as funny every single time.

Reservations
We booked our hotel in Dubai for next Monday in the Deira Creek region. We also booked the Hilton in Addis Ababa for the full 7 nights just in case we're unable to stay at HOH, but the reservations can be canceled without penalty through next week so we're not too worried. We're just relieved to have reservations set and confirmed.

This time next week we'll be on our way, 50 minutes into our flight to Dubai!