Last week continued...

Thursday: Back to the normal school/work schedule. Pursuant to our recent agreement, I asked Bevin if he'd like to have dinner with Christopher. He did, but when Christopher got home, he'd not eaten dinner (!?!) so we shared a big salad together and watched "The Firekeeper's Son" (a cute book-movie, BTW). Christoph had trouble getting to sleep so it was a late night for him. After I finally got him down, I did some legal work and conferring with Bonny before getting to bed a bit after 1am (which was crazy-late for Bonny on the East Coast!)

Friday: Got an Email from my attorney that sounds like she's frustrated, irritated and pretty much done with me. I still owe her close to $15,000 and the balance seems to be making her feel uneasy about going forward with me. Ugh. But I can't say I can blame her. It's a lot of money. After work/school, we came home and changed clothes quickly then headed to Aurora for Karaoke with Christopher's girlfriend, Saffron! It was totally embarrassing, silly, good fun! It wasn't a bar, it was traditional asian karaoke and so we had a private room with Christopher, Saffron, Shannon, Scott, Gwen and me. They brought yummy good-bye cupcakes too! Christopher's favorite songs were The Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star" and The Beatles' "You Say Goodbye and I Say Hello." I've put them on a CD he is taking to Santa Fe.

Saturday: After breakfast, we headed to the Rocky Mountain Arsenal Wildlife Refuge. Had a really fun tour around with a guide. We saw the full herd of Bison! And lots of mule deer. About 3 coyotes. Lots and lots of prairie dogs. Several hawks. The huge bald eagle nest (it's as big as a car!) The bees in their indoor/outdoor display. We made and guessed different animal tracks. It was really nice and super-interesting to hear the history of the place and the ongoing reclamation. Then we got Christopher's piggy bank and headed to the Young Americans Bank where he has an account. We had over $10 in change--mostly due to Grandma Mo and bedtime incentives. Then Keller, Kari and Steve came over for some playtime and to say good-bye. They gave him some really cool rock crayons. They look like a collection of stones, but they're crayons! Then we had a yummy dinner, including brussel sprouts, which Christopher had never had, but loved! Next, a visit and good-byes from Auntie Jenn before bath and bedtime.

Sunday: Breakfast of blueberry pancakes, packing and nearly time to head to the airport. I'm feeling a bit nauseous, but, for Christopher, I'm holding fast to my story of "this is going to be fun." It's really hard, though. I'm definitely having a lot of emotional turmoil and panic.