We are in Pittsburgh, PA - and have been since Friday! The bi-annual Mennonite Convention is awesome!! Our theme is "Bridges to the Cross".
Our new address is Room 2312 at the Westin. All mail may be sent to this hotel room from now until further notice. I'm thinking we'll be living here for at least a few years. There's a really nice Greek lady that cleans our room and makes our beds every day. And she gives us brand new amazing smelling soap. Her grandchildren are Ahmed, Abram, and Sophie. The room service is excellent - even organic food - yes - seriously. There's a coffeemaker in the room for brewing the Starbucks packets our new friend provides. There's a dock for our ipod. And last but definitely not least, I have the thermostat set at 62 degrees. Oh, and did I mention the cable TV?
Since arriving on Friday, when I'm not enjoying our incredible new home, I've been working my arse off. To the tune of 10 hours a day. I'm coordinating the seminars for the convention. There are about 60 of them a day. Fortunately, I have 12 tireless volunteers to help. So I've been taking notes of things to share. You knew a list was coming, didn't you?!
* Sage and I flew here. The taxi ride from the airport was $38.85. My debit card was "declined". My credit card was "declined". So I gave our driver every bit of cash I had...$39. A 15 cent tip isn't much, but I count it no small miracle that I had just enough money in my wallet!!
* I proceeded to my room without supper where I spent the evening feeling sorry for myself. I thought our cards had been stolen and I couldn't get ahold of Ryan. And I was hungry. But Sweet Sweet Baby Sage just never ever stopped smiling and cooing. Even after flying all day. She is seriously the silver lining of my life. Turns out there must have been a problem with the taxi's card reader, b/c my cards were fine.
* I had been here for 48 hours when I remembered that I have another child who is with his grandparents this weekend. Another reason to vote for me as Mom of the Year. I called them and he wasn't missing me any more than I had missed him. Thatta boy!
* Last night when we watched bowling on tv, the winner's name was Big Nasty. I asked Ryan to take up the sport.
* I had gotten way too confident at behaving in public and have been lowered a few notches this week. As we were walking through the convention center last night, Eva smacked me on the butt with her brand new huge lollipop (thank you Aunt Talashia), and I loudly said, "Watch it. You might break your lollipop. I have buns of steel." I remembered to lower my voice after I heard the snickers. No wonder people took me a little less seriously when I was coordinating their seminars today.
* Ryan and our youth group did a Servant Project today. He hauled a fridge down a mountain. Yes, I promise, he did.
* There's going to be a flash mob here tomorrow. Oh.my.holy.cow.I.am.so.excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!
* My eldest seems to whine most when we're away from home. My new strategy to curb Eva's whining is to make this horrific face until she stops.
As you can see, it works quite nicely.
* I'll try to write more again before we leave. But in order to get on the internet in my room, I had to talk to someone in India several times. And the most recent time, the guy fell asleep on the phone while he was helping me. I swear he did.