Both Tania and Sasha need braces.

I must admit I will be glad to be done with doctor and dentists for a while. Both kids have had a root canal.

Sasha has had two fillings taken care of. Tania has 6 cavities and I'm not sure where we are with the fillings. I just know that we are not done.

Plus they both need to have their wisdom teeth removed and to have teeth removed to make room for their other teeth. Next month Sasha will have a total of 8 teeth removed and Tania will have 7 teeth removed. Tania would have 8 removed but she had already had a tooth removed in Ukraine. She told us that a rather large woman (to put it nicely) just twisted her tooth around until it came out. She didn't have anything to lesson the pain. Apparently when she had cavities filled there she also did not have anything to take care of the pain. She told me that she didn't have a shot before the dentist filled her cavities.

We went 4-wheeling just before Matthew's jaw surgery. Both Tania and Sasha were excited to go but Sasha was a little worried about snakes. As soon as we pulled the 4-wheelers off the trailer and hit the road, David found a little snake in the road. Of course he had to bring it back for all to see. The kids named the snake George. Matthew wanted to bring the snake home but I would not let him.

Matthew holding George.

Sasha holding George.


David found an even bigger snake!

Sasha looking for George after we let him go.

Tania and Katelyn are ready to go.

Tania and Sasha were all tuckered out.

This is the tree Tania killed. We are not sure what happened. David and Tania were out riding and David realized that Tania was not behind him. He went back to look for her. Tania was standing on the dirt road and the 4-wheeler was on top of this tree. Luckily Tania wasn't hurt but the 4-wheeler didn't fair quite as well. I am glad we made them wear helmets.

Dasha, Tania and Sveta reunited.
Sasha thought it would be fun to lie down on the people movers at the airport.

Poor Tania always has to sit in the middle of the car. On the way to the airport they were playing jello.

One of Sasha's rare smiles (they are getting more frequent)

Sasha getting a haircut.

Both kids on the computers.

I need to vent a little bit. All of these pent up feelings come from having a fairly difficult month. After I read the Keller's blog and of course Wendy's blog I just thought that I would air some of my feelings.

The last month in particular has been difficult. Our oldest child, Matthew, had jaw surgery last month and the recovery period has been a little more difficult than we had expected. David and I took turns sleeping on the couch in the living room while Matthew slept on a reclining chair. Sleeping was not very comfortable. But Matthew was in pain and we had to do whatever we could to show our concern for him.

Tania then started acting up. We don't know what set it off. We think part of it was hormones and we don't know what the other part of it was. David and I for a week and half we didn't know what kind of mood she was going to be in. Most of the time it was not a good mood. At one point, she said that we didn't like her. Where that came from we don't know. Over a weekend she got a little better but when she went back to school she was miserable again. Then on Wednesday evening David and I were asking her what whe wanted for dinner and she could barely answer us. I finally told her she could go to her room is she couldn't talk to us civilly. Tania tried to hide a little smile from me but it didn't work. I think she was glad that we were upset with her. The next morning she was still grumpy and I told her that David and I had had enough of her attitude and it needed to stop. She came home from school that day and you could tell she was trying to be better.

Let's see then there is Katelyn. She had pneumonia at the beginning of the month. She also had AP tests which was difficult to get ready for since she was sick. Then her friend at school was apparently molested by her uncle when she was a little girl. Her mother finally reported the incident and now she is probably going to be arrested for withholding evidence. So Katelyn has been worried about her friend. Then to top it all off her "boyfriend" in Colorado broke up with her. So everything has been a little dramatic at our house.

On Monday, (which is when I started this entry and really set me off) Tania and Sasha just got invited to a swim party for the kids from Ukraine and of course Sasha did not want to go. I just don't understand him sometimes. He never wants to do anything and yet he complains that it is boring here. We have made suggestion after suggestion and everything is boring. We have made him just go to some things and he ends up enjoying whatever it is that we do, but it is like pulling teeth to get him to do it. This is just the last event that has kind of a part of the rollarcoaster ride that we have been on.

On a better note, Sasha has really been coming out of his shell. The other day he was mowing the lawn and making some of the strangest noises. We haven't figured out what he was doing but he was happy. Then one night we were watching Napoleon Dynamite. At the very end of the movie, Napoleon dances as part of Pedro's election to be class presidents. I looked over at Sasha and he was dancing along with Napoleon. It was hilarious. We have also realized that we can't sit by a lot of people when we go to movies in the theatre. Sasha likes to talk and it's not a whisper. Also, the whole family went bowling the other night and Sasha took over watching the score board. We had our own commentator with us. (By the way, his english has really gotten better over the last couple of weeks.)

We have also found out that Katelyn is thoroughly enjoying EFY. Tania went to YW last night just because she wanted to go.

Things are looking up today. We will see what happens tomorrow.

I also thought I would add some pictures