Did Someone Say A Baby is Coming???

It seems as if I have been pregnant F O R E V E R!!!! I have to say that this little girl will have everything that she could have ever imagined that she ever needed......

This past April my very good friend, Heather Mekesa arranged an online shower for Jim and I where our friends and family were able to purchase gifts for the baby and PricewaterhouseCoopers graciously paid for us to ship the gifts to us here in Moscow. I had no idea how many wonderful friends and family we had back in the states that sent gifts to my parents home for my mom to get ready for the movers.....and a special THANK YOU to my mom, Helen for the numerous trips back and forth to Babies R' Us and for getting all of the boxes ready for the movers....I'm sure she had NO IDEA what she was signing up for when she offered to help!!

The shipment arrived.....Shipped out May 5th and arrived in Moscow on the 23rd of July!!!

Here in Moscow my friends, Stacy, Mary Ann, Bonnie, & Amber organized a shower for me here - it was so much fun around 20 women came to the shower and the women the shower made up were from all over the world - India, Poland, Holland, Estonia, China, Slovenia, Australia and living here in Moscow has allowed us all to become friends! It was a great afternoon at Bonnie's apartment - Mary Ann and Bonnie made all of the food and we had carrot cake of course!

I also have to say that I took up knitting (it took me a while to buy into the entire knitting thing) but I did and I made a blanket for the baby which I have to say 'ain't that bad!!!

Here are a few photos of the crib and Jim putting everything together!!

She'll definitely be sleeping pretty in pink!

I think Jim has got a knack for putting baby things together......this Accountant has got it all!!!!

"Carrie?!?!? Stop taking these ridiculous photos!!!"

Fourth of July!!

Ahhhh the fourth of July in Moscow.....Jim read in the paper that the American Chamber of Commerce holds a 4th of July party out in this park WAY outside the city - there will be food, concerts, and of course fireworks! So a few of us thought we'd check it out.

Well there was food which you had to stand in LONG lines for and plenty of Budweiser (sold in 6 pack pounders ONLY) a white Statue of Liberty, and actually a pretty cool band. We staked out a table because Russian's love to 'save' places not only in line but also they like to 'save' tables and chairs. So after negotiating and I think our friend Jim even paid a Russian for their 'saved' chair we had a table and some chairs. We got some food and enjoyed the music.

We thought the event would be crawling with Americans or at least English speaking people....this was not the case. We also thought we'd be able to eat a good old fashioned American hot dog or hamburger - it is the 4th of July? NOPE - no American food and hardly any Americans - this is a party put together by the American Chamber of Commerce that Russisans just love to attend and that's what it was - Happy 4th of July Russia!!! TIR

Here is the Statue of Liberty

Here we are with our table.....you have NO idea what we did for this table!