First and foremost, there is no news. As we approach the holidays, and we continue to hear NOTHING, we are more and more concerned that Rory won't be here for Christmas. I've never doubted that he would be, but I am beginning to think we might be in some trouble here. Actually, it's the holidays THEMSELVES that cause the big dilemma. We know that the US Embassy will be shut down for Thanksgiving (I don't know how long) and the Embassy will be closed again for what we are hearing is (brace yourselves) most of December. So even if we DO get out of MOI tomorrow... I can see that this embassy thing is going to be AT BEST, bumpy. More ugh.

You know that saying that goes something like "Life is what happens while you're busy making plans"? Well, I'd like to take that person and punch them right in their PIEHOLE! We've been waiting to start the rest of our lives and at this point, it's just getting stupid. With the cold weather, I'm afraid that depression has set in at the Vaughn household.

Anyway, gotta be more postitive! So, I have so much to talk about besides stupid adoption stuff.

OBAMA WINS! That's awesome. I actually COULD NOT keep my eyes open for the initial projections on Voting night. So I had to wake up to the news that OBAMA won- I kind of knew that from what I could tell, but what made me SO, INCREDIBELY, UNBELIEVABLY proud was that Indiana went BLUE. Indiana, from this point forward, will not ever again be considered a shoe in red state... our votes will and did actually count! What an amazing thing to see a black man take the highest office in the land. I am so excited that when Rory comes home, that he will have the most powerful person in the world to look up to.

Also, we had our annual Bradford Woods overnight field trip with the fifth graders on the 6th and 7th. It was an awesome time. We hiked, fished, sang, played games, etc... and -the best part- all supervised by the awesome staff at Bradford Woods. Which means I just sat back and enjoyed the reactions of the kids and the beautiful scenery. It was great weather... the very last two warmish days of the year, because after that it got cold in a hurry!

Then, I came home, repacked and set back out for Girls' Weekend on Friday night. I love girls weekend with my girlfriends because you don't have to dress up, wear make up, or care about anything you don't want to. There was tons of fun... it always it. But, at the same time, we are all getting older, and you can kind of tell. Especially on Saturday night. Not so much on Friday. We can get a little roudy!

I'm off to Mom's for dinner and Survivor. BTW, if you watch the BIGGEST LOSER... how great that Brady was voted off... If I ran into his sneaky, lying, meddling wife on the street, I think it would be borderline theraputic to kick her butt! Next week should be great!