Tidbits

Sorry about being lax in posting, it has been a very busy week.  We let the turtle go because he was depressed and the kids were sad, but everyone managed to live.  Sveta's little friend Anja spent Friday night with us and she is so sweet.  She is also here with the Children of Chernobyl program and staying with another family just down the road from us, she also happens to live in the same village with Sveta in Belarus.  We usually let them get together several times throughout the summer and they are always excited to see each other.  This morning they called Anja's little boyfriend who is also here for the summer at another family's house.  It was fun to hear them all speaking Russian to each other and giggling.  Cherry is growing up big and she is so well behaved, and we are adding a new little dog to our family zoo.  It will be a male bassett hound.  He isn't even born yet, but is due on July 11th.  As soon as I have pictures I will post them.  There are so many things we have to do for the COC program and they keep us very busy.  Sveta is thrilled that next year her cousin will be old enough to stay with us too.  We are hoping to be able to get all the paperwork done to bring her.

Here is an article written in the Alexandria Times about the program. This is the Alexandria branch of the program, but you can still get an idea.  We all went to this picnic.

http://www.alextimes.com/paper.asp?paper=1

Sveta got her hair curled the other day and she was so pretty. Here is her picture.

   

Last night after the picnic David, the girls, and I got in the pool.  We brought  Cherry in!  She had her first go at swimming.

I think she enjoyed it!  She was a little nervous, but it always takes awhile to get used to the water.

Later I caught the girls pretending to be rock stars.

Picnic Pics

Sveta on the dunk tank

Bela IN the dunk tank

At the Chernobyl picnic

There will be a few posts from today because there is so much to post about.  The picnic was so much fun and the kids really enjoyed it.  They had a bouncy castle and a dunk tank, a pig on a spit, and tons of food to eat and some clothing for the Belarusian kids to choose from to wear for the summer.

The girls spent so much time in the dunk tank that they forgot to eat so when the food started getting cleaned up, I walked over to where Gabby was and hollered across to her, "You need to eat cause they are clearing up the food and once it is gone you are going to go hungry!"

Gabby said she wanted to go on the dunk tank one more time. 

This lady looked at me and said, "Can't you get her a plate?"

I said, "I can but I am not going to, she is 12 and she knows how to get her own food."

Lady said," Oh you must have a lot of kids with that cavalier attitude"

I said, "Why yes I do, I have five and they are all very independent and I am proud of that!"

A few tidbits

Last night Sveta decided she wanted to help do laundry, only they do their laundry by hand at her house.  She stuffed a huge bunch of clothes in the drier with laundry detergent.  Let's just say it was a huge mess.  Thank you Brittany for cleaning it up and showing Sveta how to use the washer.

When, Danijela was getting ready for bed last night she asked if she could sing me a lullabye that she made up.

"Never fear, Danijela's here, I love you, you are in my heart"

Beautiful!

And now we are off to the Belarusian welcome picnic, I'm sure there will be photos tomorrow!

We Finally Got Our Pool!

But they couldn't wait for it to be filled.

While I sat being lazy doing nothing and yes I know I need to mow the lawn.

Sveta is settling in nicely.  She has unpacked all her things and settled in to her old chores, which include taking care of the animals and sweeping the kitchen floor.  She just fit right back in with the family without any awkwardness.  She loves the air hockey table and at 6 am I heard her downstairs with Bela playing air hockey.  Danijela follows her around the house talking and talking and she doesn't even care that Sveta doesn't understand a word that she is saying, though she does know that Sveta speaks another language.  When I asked who was downstairs earlier she said, "I think it is Bela and Sveta, I heard her speak Russian and Sveta talks Russian."

Sveta gave grandpa a hat and candy cigarrettes for his gift.  Yes, they still have candy cigarrettes over there.  We laughed to see him with the hat and the cigarrette because he is not a smoker.

Sveta brought me some lovely presents, which include the beautiful tablecloth, candy, a jar of homemade jam, and some fish jerkey made from whole dehydrated fish.  It is very interesting indeed!

Sveta's here

Thank you so much to everyone who donated their money and prayers to get Sveta here safely.  She came in today and we are so happy!  Attached a picture of her she has grown so much in this year and her family sent so many nice gifts, that include: candy, fish jerkey, homemade jam, a tablecloth for me, and earrings and hair bows for the girls.  We try to send much home with her for the winter and this is where those of you who asked what you can do beside monetary stuff come in.

We need clothing, coats, toiletries, diapers, and baby items to send to her family.

Sveta is 11 and just about a size 12, she needs winter clothing, a coat, and toiletries, I also try to send home lots of treats for the whole family amd backpacks and school supplies.  I should be able to provide a lot of Sveta's winter clothing from my girl's wardrobes, but any donations would be gladly accepted, old clothing from your children etc.  Everything will go home with her one way or another, even if we have to send it in a box by mail.

Ira is Sveta's younger cousin, she is about to turn 7 and I would guess about a size 6 or 7 girls, she needs a winter coat, clothes,  shoes, socks, underwear, toiletries and school supplies, we do have room for a few toys, but not a lot.

Sasha is her little boy cousin and he is three, both cousins live with the family he will need clothing, a winter coat, shoes, socks, underwear and toiletries (baby lotion, shampoo etc)

Sveta's older brother recently married and has a new baby of his own.  It is a little boy who is 6 months old.  We are hoping to be able to provide a lot for his winter clothing.  Blankets, coat, sock shoes, diapers, any extra baby items you may be keeping around that you would like to get rid of.

Last year we sent a few clothes for the older brothers and parents, but not a lot.  The chidren are our primary concern.  The older brothers are Andrei and Sergei and as far as I can tell they are 17 and 19.  Andrei is the one who got married and she will be living with the family as well and they also have a grandmother who lives with them too.  All together 12 people live in the house. 

I appreciate all your prayers and donations so much and this family has been so blessed by all of you they are very appreciative as well!

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts and your continued prayers for them and this whole program are appreciated.

 

Turnip

Meet the latest addition to our menagerie

Turnip the turtle.  Grandpa found him while he was mowing the lawn.  Turnip brings our pet count to 6.  More pets than kids now :)

Company Picnic

It was an absolutely gorgeous day, not too hot and not too cold.  The perfect day for a company picnic.  The company David works for does this every year and this is our third year in a row.  It is the only time we see some of these people, this and the Christmas party.

Bela and Danijela headed straight for the bouncy dragon, while the older girls did the paddle boats.

There were snow cones, face painting, ball pools, bouncy castles, craft tables, and much much more.

To see how much fun we had check out this album.

Cherry really wanted a kiss from Gabby

And she got one.

Gabby has been conquered!

 

A bad day turned good!

Today we got up early and drove into DC to see some friends who were up from Georgia.  Our first visit was to the National Archives.  Seeing the Declaration of Independence, The Bill of Rights, and the Constitution was amazing and they even had the Magna Carta.  The good experience at the National Archives ended there.  If you are ever in DC and decide to go into the National Archives DO NOT eat at their cafe.  It went something like this...remember this is a cafeteria where you order in one place, get your drinks in another, and pay somewhere else.

Me: Hi ma'am this is going to be a big order so I am not sure how you want to handle this.

She: blank stare at me

Me: I mean do you want me to order the stuff and send it back to the table with each kid and then tell the lady at the register what I got so I can pay for it.

She: NO YOU TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT TO ORDER! (very emphatic)

Me: What I meant was I can't carry all the food at once (they didn't even have trays) so I was going to send the plates back with the kids one at a time.

She: NO YOU TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT TO ORDER.

I am standing here with 7 bottled drinks in my arms and Brittany standing beside me with the 7 chips.

She: WELL what do you want to order????? Read it all to me.

Me: Well I need a hot dog...

She: Do you have any hamburgers? (very abruptly)

Me: No

She: Throws her hands up in the air and sighs

Me: I need a hot dog, 2 fish and chips, one eggs salad sandwich combo...

She: I don't have anything here to make a combo.

Me: It says combo on the menu

She: WE DON'T HAVE COMBOS

Me: Well it says here that I get chips with each order.

She: YOU GET THE CHIPS OVER THERE YOU DON'T TELL ME ABOUT IT.

Me: You told me to order here.

She: HOW MANY HOT DOGS DO YOU WANT?

Me: Just one please.

She throws her hands up and sighs again and I look at our friend who is behind me in line, flabbergasted.

She comes back...

She: Here's your hot dog.  She tosses it at me almost rolling it off the plate, then stands there looking at me.

(Long pause while she looks at me)

Me: I would like a BLT

She: (and I am dead serious about this) I AM WAITING FOR YOU TO TELL ME WHAT KIND OF BREAD YOU WANT!

Me: I didn't know that (I hadn't even ordered the sandwich yet)

She: WELL I CAN'T MAKE YOU A SANDWICH IF I DON'T KNOW WHAT KIND OF BREAD YOU WANT.  IT'S ONLY NATURAL TO SAY WHAT KIND OF BREAD YOU WANT.

Me: Well I think you could have asked me.

Jason (our friend) breaks in now...

Jason: She didn't know what you wanted.

She: WELL I WAS POINTING AT THE BREAD (she wasn't)

Jason: I think we better go somewhere else. 

And then we were off to the Museum of Natural History, where EVERYONE is extremely cheerful and nice to the point where some girl knocked me over and one of the employees at the cafeteria ran over to see if I was okay.  The rest of the day was a wonderful time with good friends.  We had a wonderful time looking at the displays and it wasn't too crowded at all.  Here are a few pictures.

In order left to right that is Ben, Shelia, Jason, Samantha, Brittany, Gabby, Bela, David, Kassie Dani

They did one with me in it too.

The kids had a blast in the discovery room.