the pachyderm parade

somehow i've lived in birmingham for close to 15 years now and have completely missed out on this little annual treat.  this morning at 9:35, i ran across something online that mentioned the elephant parade downtown as the elephants would be walked from the train station to the civic center to prepare for the circus this weekend.  i had canceled a commitment i originally had today so that i could spend some dedicated time with my sweet little people, and so i excitedly thought that this would be a perfect spontaneous treat for us to all enjoy together.

the problem?  the elephants were supposed to come through at 10:00.

do the math with me:  25 minutes until scheduled go-time + a momma and three children casually eating breakfast while still in their jammies (love, don't judge) + a 20-minute ride to the civic center = probably not gonna happen.

i ran downstairs to josh's office and asked his thoughts on whether i should give it a try or not.  he yelled, GO! -- and the frenzy started.  i informed the kids that they needed to inhale their breakfasts while i ran around their bedrooms gathering up clothes, shoes, and coats.  at 9:45, we jumped in the car and started off toward downtown (still in jammies).  when we got to the suggested point of elephant-viewing, i stripped everyone down, tossed on their clothes, zipped them up into their jackets, and hit the streets with my camera and an umbrella (thanks to the 38-degree drizzle).

was it worth it?  you tell me...







i did realize a little something about izzy while we were there, though:  perhaps we should work on prepositions because "on your nose"...



is apparently easily confused with "in your nose".   ha!



on a totally different note, on my way to meet with a bride and groom tonight, i got a call from expedia letting us know that our flights back from ethiopia had been canceled.  not bumped up, not postponed...canceled.  when i first got the call, i immediately hit panic mode.  i rambled on and on about how we simply couldn't stay in ethiopia for several more days and that we had to get back to our other children in the states.  but then i stopped, i prayed, and i committed to trust.  as we started trying to work out a new flight schedule, it quickly became evident that unless we wanted to hang out in ethiopia for most of that week, we were going to have to scrap the whole itinerary and start with a new one.  so for almost two hours tonight, that's precisely what i did on the phone with the most patient and kind representative i've ever talked with (those wonderful attributes made up for the fact that she spoke about as much english as micah does).  and after digging and searching for quite a while, we now have flights that have us away from home for one less night - PLUS, it ended up costing several hundred dollars less than our original flights! 

here's hoping that the results of our language barrier doesn't have josh and me flying to estonia rather than ethiopia.