. Yesterday we went into the city to see the Flower Show.  Dan and Olia were more interested in where we were going to go to eat lunch!  The flower show was really nice.  I got some new ideas for my flower garden.  I found recycled glass mulch that can be used like bark mulch in a garden.  It was so beautiful.  I checked the website when i got home.  Now I know why it was so beautiful; it was so expensive! The website is closetheloop.com if anyone wants to check it out.  It is a recycling website, all of the materials are from recycled products.  I also saw a display that sold huge pots that are put at the end of drain spouts to collect rainwater.  Now I have Dan trying to figure out how to do that.  He thinks it will be easy. Olia had a problem with a fresh mouth after the Flower Show so she was grounded from TV yesterday and grounded from the computer for two days.  I don't know when Olia is going to learn that I will not tolerate her fresh mouth and that I say what I mean and I mean when I say. She also was not permitted to get ice cream at the Flower Show, something that she had really been looking forward to having.
   After the Flower Show we went to the mall. We purchased a new blind for our guest room which may soon be Olya's room.  We just are holding back our hopes and excitement until we really believe the adoption is going to happen.  The room needs new blinds and needs to be painted either way.  Olia and I have been looking for new curtains for her bedroom.  She found fancy, lacy, PINK curtains at the mall.  They were even on the clearance table! I tried to talk her into a different set, but she was not to be swayed.  There was only one set and we needed two sets because she has two windows in her room so we bought the one set and decided to go to another mall on the way home to search for a second set.  First we stopped at Walmart and bought a new TV for my bedroom.  My TV died a few days ago.  Olia also bought new headbands and furry pink pillows for her bed.  We had to stop and look at every cellphone in the department.  Olia is getting a cellphone for her 12th birthday.  SHe would like a blackberry.  I don't even understand all the new gadgets in technology.  I just have a regular cellphone, mine doesn't even take pictures.  Olia would like a touchscreen, but that isn't going to happen, they are too expensive.  Olia loves all the newest things.  She wants a cellphone with a fliptop keyboard, but I think that will snap off.
    We stopped at the second mall and found the second set of curtains.  Now I have to sew the top of them because they won't fit the rod that is currently on the wall.  Dan doesn't want to have to replace the rods. 
   When we got home, Olia took out her photo album and scrapbook. We made a scrapbook of her lifein Ukraine and her first summer with us. She needed to find something to keep herself busy because she couldn't go on her computer or watch TV. It was fun to look at all of the pictures and cards from almost two years ago.  We read the cards from people who sent us congrats on adoption cards.  Olia has changed so much in less than two short years.  We kept telling her that she was soooooo cute when we first got her.  She looked so tiny and didn't have much hair.  She was 9, almost 10, but she resembled a 7 or 8 year old American child.  When I look at these photos, it reminds me of how I feel when I look at baby photos of my biological children. It sort of squeezes my heart. She has really grown and filled out in her time in the U.S.  Olia also changed all the pictures in the picture frames in her room.  She read all of the cards to me from her 11th birthday party.  I am glad that Olia has momentos of her life in Ukraine and her life with us.  We need to go buy another scrapbook because all of the extra papers were just stuck in the back of the book.
    The first order of today is homework and then room cleaning.  Olia has become a typical sloppy preteen, but I am still the anal personality that wants clean bedrooms.  So she will be spending time putting things away in her room today and organizing her closet.  Dan and Olia are going for haircuts today.  Olia just needs a trim.  She has such beautiful, thick chestnut brown hair.  Olia has been twisting her hair back and putting it in a clip and then the hair hangs down over the clip.  Several kids have asked her if she was wearing a fake hair piece because it almost looks as if it can't be real!
    Renee is on term break this week.  She and a group of college students were on their way to a backpacking adventure in the Florida Everglades.  Renee loves the outdoors.  I guess all those years of camping paid off because she really loves and appreciates nature.  Their van broke down on the way, they were in South Carolina.  A group of them were just waiting in a restaurant while someone went to rent a car.  Renee said they were still all having a great time.  Youth find everything to be an adventure!