Chisle Hammer Anyone?

I keep adding as many things onto my list as I mark off, but some big things that have gotten checked off:

Domestic flights in Russia--booked! Utair Air and Vnukovo Airport, here we come! :)

Blood work--given. That was rather interesting. We are told it is best if we can bring blood work to the 8 doctor medical, but there is no "official" list of what to bring. So, here Doug and I are at the lab this morning, going down the blood work list like we were at the meat counter ordering steaks for a party. "Too expensive--take too long to get the results--why would Russia want to know ....(fill in the blank)? Well, would they? Does that disqualify me if the results come back too low/too high?? And so the delima went on. I'm guessing if it's not what they want, we'll just get stuck with the needle in Krasnoyarsk. (sigh)

Hotel in Moscow--booked! And a big-huge-score on that one! When we started this adoption process, we opened a rewards credit card. We don't use credit cards--too much trouble you can get into--but we agreed to keep it paid off and only put on the card what we would regularly spend anyway. We were thinking about getting an airline rewards card. When I found out that it would take 100,000 points for each of us, I knew that wasn't happening. I'm not sure I could find enough to charge in 5 years to get to that figure let alone a year. So, we opted for a Marriott Rewards Visa. We were given 20,000 points for opening it. The hotels in Moscow are outrageous--$300 US dollars and up per night, and it's not even the busy season (who in the world wants to go to Russia in the winter by choice????). I've heard Marriott gives an adoption rate, but I don't know how much that saves you as I didn't call to find out. We were short 7,000 points of the needed 60,000 to have all 3 nights covered for free. Never fear--Marriott Rewards lets you buy up to 50,000 points per year at only $12.50 per 1000 points. So, we are staying in Moscow for 3 nights for $87.50!! That is saving us $1000! That's a big Texas WHOO HOO!

I've been picking up entertainment to entertain ourselves on the 10 day wait. I've been told by another family that the only English speaking channel is ESPN and it's filled with hockey. Gag! I've got DVDs ready. I actually took some on the first trip, but we were so tired we never watched a single one. I bought a puzzle to work on as well. Doug kinda curled his nose at that one, but I bet by day 5 he's going to be diggin' my Snoopy puzzle! :)

On the agenda for tomorrow: Learning how to use my Beco Butterfly Carrier so I don't throw our little boy out of the window when I swing him on my back.