July 1- Happy Canada Day!

July 1-Tues 7:30 am. It's still Monday evening at home, so we'll be the first to say Happy Canada Day! Hope you all enjoy your day! Light a sparkler for us.....

It looks like it may be an exciting day here, as Svetlana called to say our Visa issue is now resolved (yay) and we'll have our meeting with Minister of Education today (Tuesday) at 11:30 am. If all goes smoothly we may be able to go to a babyhouse this afternoon. Very exciting! After waiting so long to be 'this close' to being parents, now that the moment may be here it feels soooo surreal!

Please note that we don't plan to put a lot of info about the child/ children we meet on the blog, until everything has been confirmed. This is just for security purposes, and don't worry we'll send updates as soon as we can!

Yesterday we had a stay-home day, just read and watched TV, napped in the afternoon - ahhhhh. It was very hot here (over 30 degrees C for sure) so it was nice to just curl up inside.

Like our first building, our new apartment is in a Soviet-era building, not very nice looking from the outside, but the apartment itself is very nice. The balcony looks into a central courtyard so we can see everyone else's balcony - reminds me of the movie Rear Window or maybe West Side Story. Everyone hangs thier laundry to dry on their balcony, as there are no clothes dryers here. From what we can tell this is considered middle-class housing. The cars are pretty fancy in the lot - new Volvos, Lexus, Toyotas etc.

We've noticed that the women aren't as dressed up as we were expecting- mostly capri pants and skirts. Could be fancier in the downtown area, and could be toned down because it's so hot here! The younger women dress fairly provocitively - low slung tight jeans, tiny tops and very high heels! I don't know how they can walk, as I keep turning my ankle wearing my Sketcher sandals (sturdy, flat walking shoes). Our building is at the top of a slight hill, so everywhere we go is down-hill, and then we have to go uphill to come back home. My calves are not happy!

We've tried some buns from the deli counter at Ramstor - buns with meat, cheese, or chow mein vegetables. Another counter offered pizza by the slice, hotdogs wrapped in pastry, and flaky pastry filled with cheese, chicken or veggies. These items were very popular with the other shoppers so we had to try them - very yummy!

We talked with Paul's sister Joanne last night, who's ready to give birth to their first child any day now - we're thinking of you Jo and Meb! We'd always figured we'd have our children around the same time, so this is uncanny timing!

Have a great day, and thanks so much for the comments and emails - they are very appreciated!
take care,
love N&P