Hello all!

We survived another day! I convinced Brian not to work for half the day, as we're not in our house yet, and it makes it incredibly difficult to get out with the kids here. I need way more hands for everyone's safety! So in the morning we went to Lal Bagh Botanical Gardens, a nice place to walk around, see pretty flowers, and be the center of attraction! The girls got a great experience being the center of attention, with many groups wanting pictures with them and just gushing over them. By the end, though, they had had ENOUGH of the pictures! "NO more pictures!" they both were voicing. We took lots of great pictures, Brian is working on getting them onto ellaanne.com now, so check them out.

Ella and Sacia met several little girls (and big ones too), one especially beautiful and gorgeously dressed one that you'll see in the pictures. Ella was very excited, but many of the younger ones didn't speak English much at all. She was taller than many kids 2 -3 years older than her, and even as tall as several grown women, which she was very proud of!

We had seen monkeys the last time we were there with Zachary, but we couldn't find any this time. Perhaps they were still sleeping or just not out and about yet. We searched high and low! The other animal that caused concern for us was the stray dogs that were around. Bangalore has a huge population of them, and there have been several occasions where they have attacked children. We took great care, and luckily the kids now do fear them, so will stay away and not try to befriend them, as they would someone's pet. Luckily for us, there are NO such dogs in the gated community we'll be living in.

We spend the afternoon cooped up here while Brian worked, then picked him up and headed out to Palm Meadows to meet another family, this one from Edina, MN. They have a little girl Elizabeth who is 7 1/2, and a little boy, William, who is 4. They also attend school at Indus. The girls immediately clicked and had a fantastic time playing in the upstairs indoor play area and while we ate at the clubhouse restaurant. Great food, but it took over 45 minutes before the food even arrived. By then the mosquitos were out, and we had chosen to sit outside by the pool. The pool and clubhouse area is absolutely fantastic, a little paradise! We'll take pictures sometime for you to see.

Anyway, though, it was great to spend time with another MN family, and to be out at Palm Meadows. It really is a retreat from the noisy, dirty parts of the city, but it is one terrible commute from our apartment in Kormangala! I got a little carsick, and the girls weren't too happy either. We don't have our Toyota Innova yet, but are renting one like it until ours is ready. Ours will have a DVD player, this one doesn't. I HOPE that will help with traveling! One thing that is worse this time around is the terrible speed bumps, especially bad around Brian's work. When we pick him up or drop him off, there are sooo many, and lots of curves. Very unsettling for the tummies.

Ella is busy now covering her mosquito bites from last night. The kids are all now awake, it's 6;15 am. We're adjusting nicely to the time.

Oh, the family we met last night (who happened to know Amanda's step-dad Stacy), told us of their air shipment experience. I just hope ours isn't like that! YUCK. Rats had been in their container, apparently, so they had quite a mess, and had to wash everything first.

We do hope to get to move into our house this weekend, and get our vehicle soon. We need to do some interviewing for a driver and other staff also. There is an OWC (Oversea's Women's Club) meeting this morning that I will attend (Brian will take the kids!), and that should help with finding help. I'm excited to go again, talk with the other expats, and have a little quiet time for me :).

That's all for (yesterday) now! Time to start a new adventure today!

Love to you all!