No Internet = Cranky Mommy

I know... it's becoming my mantra here.... and I'm sure I sound like a broken record. Losing our connection to the 'outside world' is unbelievably frustrating, irritating, aggravating, and every other "ing" word you can think of. We've finally become so fed up that we're switching services.... which will take at least 10 days... but most likely 2- 3 weeks the way everything works around here. I refuse to be cut off any longer than 24 hours again... let alone 5 LONG days.

Besides our internet being out, and me almost going hoarse screaming at TATA indicom, we've actually had another action packed week. Let me bring you up to speed.

• Matt has been extremely busy with the horrible situation up in Mumbai. He's had endless meetings, several teleconferences, and more e-mails and phone calls than I can even begin to keep up with. He's one highly sought-after guy right now - with security finally becoming as important as it should have been in the first place!

• Despite the solemn mood of the day, we really did have a lovely Thanksgiving dinner, spent with good friends and good company. We managed to devour a Butterball turkey and all the fixins you can think of.

• School was canceled Wednesday - Friday due to a cyclone and monsoon in Chennai. Our outside yard was completely flooded and we didn't leave our house until late Saturday afternoon.
  

• We awoke Sunday morning to a flat tire on our car, which of course is the only day that our driver doesn't work, so Matt was stuck changing it himself. It was definitely one of the more frustrating jobs for him as the car was parked in about 4 inches of water, the jack broke while lifting the car, our other jack had difficultly lifting the car high enough to take the tire off, and because the spare tire has NEVER been used in its 15 year existence, the lug nuts were corroded and wouldn't come off to take down the tire. Two and a half hours and hundreds of 4-letter words later, the tire was changed and the car was ready to go.
  

• Sunday we went to a Gingerbread House decoration at the Marriott Hotel. They have a great buffet every Sunday that we like to go to, and if we attended the decoration, we got a 20% discount for the lunch. Double Whammy! The girls enjoyed decorating the house with real cookies and candy... for about 5 minutes ... and then they were done.
  

• I hosted this month's BUNCO where we had almost double the amount of ladies we normally get to the event. We filled 4 tables and had a great time as always. I decided to do something a little different for winner's gifts and instead of following in the food theme, I made the 4 winners aprons. Bummer that I forgot to take a photo!

• Tonight we attended the Elementary School's Holiday Concert. Riley has been so excited about this night and singing on stage that she must have asked Matt no fewer than 20 times if he was going to take off work and attend the show. She told us she was singing, but wouldn't let us hear the songs - it was a surprise. I was required to arrive 45 minutes before the show to help get her ready in her 'stage clothes' which consisted of a multi-colored dress and a good hair-brushing after P.E. Unfortunately, in my haste of making sure I had the cameras, the snacks, the hairbrush, and the dress, I completely forgot to bring Riley's party shoes (aka - sandals). So for the show, she wore her dress and her ratty tennis shoes. I assured her that nobody would notice on stage - the photo below proves I was right... as always.
  

For those of you who've sent us e-mails, left phone messages, tried to Skype, or those who I meet up with in the bloggie world, please know that we're not ignoring you. We're a week behind here at Casa de Chaos and promise to get back in touch as soon as we can. Until then...

Thanksgiving Day

Decorating the Gingerbread House

Riley's Holiday Show

Notice the tennis shoes on the left... what about on the right on stage?