back to life

Well we have been back to everyday life for awhile now. Which isn't all that different from living in the States. We wake up and stumble out of our bedroom and kick a toy in the door way sending it crashing across the floor and and scare the dog to pieces, and wake the kids up. Or they wake us up. tapping me on the shoulder to let us know he(Benjamin) has to go potty. Or Adele wakes us up screaming, she probably started out crying but after we didn't hear her for twenty minutes she starts to get a little worried. Or else she manages to wake up Benjamin and he wakes us up. Children are a joy, just only after eight o'clock. They have a way of getting you up and moving in the morning. Chipper or not is up to you.

Then after breakfast we have chores, Benjamin makes his bed and it used to be his chore to feed the dog. But Adele has taken over. She walks from the dog bowl to the dog food with little fist fulls of food. Her fist can carry about 3 or 4 pieces of dog food so it takes her awhile but she stays at it diligently, for a good hour sometimes. And the dog eats every piece as she puts it in the bowl making it very hard to fill the bowl. But they just have a wonderful relationship. Sometimes she tries to use the scoop putting a fist full into it and dropping a few pieces, so she bends over to pick them up and drops the pieces that made it into the scoop. So she puts the pieces that she picked up back in the scoop and bends over to pick up the pieces that fell dropping those pieces so it goes for quite some time. She doesn't ever seem to get tired of it though. The other day I asked Benjamin to put some water in it. Adele ,I guess, thought it looked refreshing, so she dipped her pacifier in it and returned it to her mouth. I screamed horrified, and scared both the dog and Adele to pieces. Andrew and Benjamin both thought it was hilarious.

From there our day can take on different forms. Around 10:30 just like Abbi said to do, we sometimes have a snack. Today it was ice cream. That should take care of the kids blood sugar levels! We made sure it had nuts and bananas so it would be nutritious. Aren't you happy with us Abbi?

Today I have an English student coming over any moment. He is a twelve year old boy. We have been reading Benjamin's childrens bible but I think it is probably a little to young for him. It is a little bit of a challenge to come up with something for someone his age that is in simple enough English for him to understand. If anyone has any ideas I would welcome them. He likes to cook, we made cookies once but the kitchen is right next to the kids room and they are supposed to be taking their naps during our class.

Then dinner, bible story, and back to bed. I don't think days are really twenty-four hours I think they have shaved a few hours off and just let us think they are still twenty-four hour days. I don't know about you, but our days go by way to fast.

New at this!

This is the first time, I have actually managed to post anything. So bear with me. It is kind of hard to not treat it like a letter, and ask you all out there how you are doing. Well, I guess I can catch you up to speed.
We just got back from the States, I got back and on the second and my husband Andrew was delayed till the 11th. His passport didn't come in time, so I flew with our two children alone. What a trip! First we have a 5 hour drive to the airport, then the flight was about 7 hours, then we had a lay over in Poland for about 3 hours. (mind you this is in the middle of the night as far as the kids were concerned) Then we had a short hop over to Kiev, where after customs and passport check, I was met by some friends who took me on an hour long bus ride to the train station where we waited for another 4 or 5 hours to get on the train. Which was an over night trip down to Nikopol. Once we were on the train, we could make up beds and sleep. We had a whole little sleeping room to ourselves. Sheets and pillows are all provided, of course by then our bodies were telling us it wasn't time to sleep. The kids fortunately are excellent travelers ,in some ways, better then me! They had a blast playing with all the gadgets on the airplane, the earphones, and we were sitting in a the first row of coach so we had those neat tables that fold up and go inside the arm of your chair and it had a baby bassinet that could be attached to the wall. Then on the train the kids had fun hoping from bunk to bunk and back again.
Andrew was very concerned about me making it through the passport checks and customs. But again it was smooth sailing. I guess a woman with two children isn't suspected to be someone that might be a terrorist. So they didn't question me to much. By the time I got our luggage and went through customs There was no one there at all! They like to check your luggage and make sure you aren't bringing in drugs or guns or anything into the country. Well you all know me, and how I like to smuggle illegal narcotics, well there was no body there at all, so I got away with it.