Update on our new house

We are finally moving on the house again. Our builder forgot that we were putting the heating vents for the basement under the cement so we had to wait a week and a half for a part. Then between Thanksgiving and the weather, we got really behind schedule.

Vents in the basement.

The basement floor has finally been poured.

We've started framing - a little bit.

Framing after just a couple of days.

A little of more than a week later.

The kitchen, dining and family room area.

The back door off of the dining area.

The window in the family room.

Today's changes.

Tania's cheer

Christmas

We went to Arkansas to visit my parents for Christmas. My brother and his family came from Atlanta too. Both families went to Pea Ridge. A civil war battle sight. My mom used to volunteer at the museum.
Katelyn and her cousin, Ashley, displaying their bows.

Our Christmas dinner. We prepare as much food as we would for Thanksgiving so it is a great feast.

After dinner the kids were tired. We had them sit on that side of the table so that they couldn't leave the table.

Our new home

This is our lot. We bought it last April. Katelyn is standing at one side of the lot and Tania is standing a the other end. You can't see Tania very well but she is over by the fire plug and lamp post.

They dug the hole on Wednesday.

Poured the footings on Thursday.

Put the walls up on Friday and poured the walls on Friday.

Moving day. Yes, we sold our house and rented the house next door. The kids thought it would be fun to go for a ride in the atv trailer.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday they installed the initial plumbing, added the window wells, sealed the cement and started filling the garage and sides of the house with dirt.

Sasha's video

Sasha made this video in school. It's really fun to watch.

Snowbird and Car Repairs

My sister came to visit so we took her to Snowbird to ride the tram. When we arrived at the top of the tram, we decided to hike down to the chair lift to go down the mountain. It was a short hike but as you can see we had a good time.

Tania and Sasha had to change a tire for their Drivers Ed class. Since David wanted to change the brakes on the truck, he killed two birds with one stone. I'm not sure what all happened but as you can see the kids got quite dirty.

Save a Child Concert/Silent Auction

Check out the blog http://saveachildevent.blogspot.com/ for updated information on the silent auction and raffle items.

Clear the roads!

Yup, Tania passed the driving test. She now has a drivers permit.
As we walked out of the DMV, David suggested that Tania drive home (he was kidding)so I piped up saying if Tania was driving I was walking. Tania agreed.

For those of you trying to get your kids to pass the test, a fellow Ukranian parent let us know about a website called I Drive Safely. You can pay $15.00 to take a practice test with 100 questions. The kids can take it as many times at they want within 25 days. Tania said that this really helped her pass the test.

What a kid will do to get out of mowing the lawn!

Yesterday, Sasha jump over a sign at Buttercup Park and fell. The doctor thought he had a broken elbow, the radiologist thought he had two broken wrists. We get to see a specialist next week to find out his opinion.

Either way, Sasha is enjoying the attention he is getting. Apparently, after they finished with the doctor the second time he insisted they stop to show his friend Michael. He was with Michael when this happened and Michael just happens to live across the street from Buttercup Park.

It was good that they stopped. Michael's mother was worried about Sasha. She had him put some ice on his arm after he fell, went upstairs for a minute and when she came back down Sasha had left to go home.

Poor David did not have a good day yesterday. He turned on the sprinklers and everything worked. He went inside for a little bit and he could hear water running. He looked out side and the water pipe that goes to our garden had broken. There isn't a valve to shut this line off by all the other valves, it has a hand turn valve right by the garden so he had to shut down the whole watering system so he could fix the break. He had to dig down aways to get to the pipe, as he was digging he dug into a nest of ants who then bit him on his legs and arms. He fixed the pipe, turned on the water and the pipe broke in another spot. I was there when the pipe broke the second time. It sounded like an explosion. We will be fixing that pipe tonight - what a fun Friday night.

Anyway, with the sprinklers, the ants, some strange news from work and taking Sasha to the doctor twice - what a day.

Friends

Just another comment. It always amazes me the friendships you develop after being associated with people who have adopted or are think about adopting from Ukraine. There is just such an automatic bond with anyone who has been involved with this activity.

I talked with someone on the phone last night who will be leaving for Ukraine soon and the feelings that come out from that short phone call have been amazing. You hope that all will go well for them and you hope they will have an easy experience while they are in Ukraine and you are thrilled that they are going through this process. There is also a willingness to help with anything to make their trip easier.

I am always amazed and grateful that I have been able to meet such wonderful people since we have gone through this process. Everyone has been such a big help. Just having someone to talk things through when things are tough has been wonderful. It is always much better to talk to people who have gone through the experience because they understand more about what you are going through.

I know this is probably sappy but I know that many of you reading this feel the same way.

Language Skills

Last Saturday was a kids day. Tania had Dosha and Sveta come to our house and Sasha went to a birthday party for a friend at school.

Since Dosha and Sveta were over, I decided for lunch we would go to Crown Burger and then run a few errands. After we had ordered our meal, I told the girls they had an option. If they spoke English they could sit at the same table as Katelyn and me or if they wanted to speak Ukrainian they would need to sit at a different table. They chose to sit with Katelyn and me.

We all got a chuckle though when we picked up our food, we didn't get enough straws and Tania was left without a straw. She pointed at Sveta's straw and asked if there were any more of "those things". Sveta in her deep Ukrainian voice (I wish you could hear her voice, writing this down just does not give it justice) said, "Tania you should know that word by now". Tania was a little embarrassed but she also laughed at herself. In reality, I think she was just having a moment and she really knows the word straw.

Later that day we were on our way to meet Bill and Leslie at the movie theatre to see the movie Iron Man 2. After the movie Bill and Leslie were going to take Dosha and Sveta home. Well we ended up taking two cars since we had the three girls and Sasha and two of his friends wanted to come also. You would think that since we are now a family of six we would get a vehicle that could hold 6 people but no we just keep our two little cars. We do have a truck that can hold six but it isn't very comfortable.

Anyway, I called David to see what route he was going to take to the theatre. Sasha answered his phone and I asked him if his dad was there. He told me "he is in the wheelchair". I could hear David in the background laughing and correcting Sasha. He was in the drivers seat not a wheel chair.


Sorry to bore you with this account. We got such a giggle about both events. I had to write about it.

Apologies

Yesterday both Tania and Sasha were in trouble. David decided that they could not watch TV or play on the computer until they apologized to me. Apparently, David got home from work yesterday and sat down with both of them and explained what they had done wrong and what they needed to do to fix the problem.



Through all this I was at work. This is my busy season and I spend more time in my office than I do all other places combined. So I was with a co-worker going over my inventory of work that has come in and what has yet to come in when I noticed my cell phone ringing. Once I finally went back to my office, my cell phone had 47 missed phone calls! All from Sasha.



Sasha did get in touch with me and we had a really good conversation and he did apologize to me. In the back of my mind though I kept thinking he just apologized so that he could get back on the computer.



So I ended up going home for dinner. This is the first home cooked dinner I have had with my family during the week for quite a while. Anyway, Matthew announced that the dishes in the dishwasher were clean and needed to be put away. Usually, during the non busy season, I empty the dishwasher before I even start dinner so that as I am cooking I can put the dirty dishes in the dish washer and then after dinner everyone takes care of their own dishes and quite often David and I will finish up the few remaining dishes. I know I should have the kids do more but oh well. (We do make the kids do more when there are overly loud burps during dinner or Ukrainian is spoken at the table.) So to get back on topic, I sat there and said I was really to tired to think about doing dishes. So Sasha quietly got up from the dinner table and started putting the dishes in the dishwasher away. Even after the dishes were put away, David and I both thanked him and told him he had done more than his share and that we would finish. He insisted on helping with the dishes until they were all taken care of.



I think Sasha was truly sorry and I am a proud mother.



On a side note. Matthew made the best meat loaf that I have ever had for dinner. He is home on spring break from Utah State. If he can't make it in the world of mechanical engineering (his major), he can surely make it as a wonderful chef. The only problem with Matthew's cooking is he is a terribly messy cook. He takes after his Grammy (my mother).



One of my teenage memories is trying to help my mother cook Christmas dinner. It was hard though. I cleaned off a spot for me to work and I would turn my back and my mom would have taken over the spot. I did this a few times before I could actually work on the food item I was trying to make. I don't remember what I was trying to make but I do remember the cleaning up after my mom.



Many of my mother's friends have commented on how my mother is a messy cook. So it is not just me. She loves to have a spotless house but when she cooks look out.

Sumy School

Just to let everyone know. This is the e-mail I receive from Marina regarding the school.

Hi, Julie. You probably know that this school shares the territory and the dormitory together with another boarding school for gifted children who didn't have there own building. And as the orphanage now has only 37 children and there are about 200 children in the other school, it was decided to move the orphanage to another town - Romny whch is in our region but the conditions seem to be worse there. So that's all the situation - the territory and the building were given to another organization. Children are going to stay in Sumy until the end of summer if nothing changes.

Sergei is already in Romny, because he had some problems - bad company- here. So to avoid them he was moved to another place.

All the other children are fine. I go to school at least once a weak, trying to teach Pasha and Lena. But it seems to be not a very good idea as for English. My lessons don't work as I'd like. The kids like me to come, to entertain them. They like attention, I sometimes bring delicious things to them. But they know they will learn the language quickly in the USA (I think you noticed that by your kds), so no additional efforts are applied. And that's quite usual with all the children, I think. And I just love coming and seeing them.

Sumy School

Tania talked to Antonina this morning. It sounds like they are keeping all the kids who are in line to be adopted until this summer. I am not sure who they are moving out in the next few weeks. I think I will e-mail Marina tonight myself and try to get more information from her.
.

Sumy School

Tania just told us that she received an e-mail from Marina. Marina said they are starting to close down the Sumy school. Sergei has been moved to another school. It sounds like they are going to move some more kids in a couple of weeks.

Has anybody else heard anymore about the school?

A day with Sveta and Dosha

Sveta and Dosha came to visit yesterday. When Bill and Leslie came to pick the girls up, all three came down with makeup like this. We had a good laugh at them. They looked like little street urchans.

I thought that I would finally post some of these pictures from Christmas.

Sasha loved eating the turkey leg.

In some ways, Matthew and Sasha are a lot alike.

Katelyn and Matthew wanted to have a little fun opening Christmas gifts. So they gave Sasha a skirt that they purchased from DI. They picked out the skirt because after we had gone to dinner several nights before Christmas, Sasha drove home with Katelyn, Laura and I. David and Matthew called him and told him that he was in the girl car so he must be a girl. He did get a much nicer present from Katelyn and Matthew.

Likewise, Tania received a vase from Katelyn and Matthew. It's name is Fillmore. Fillmore is now proudly displayed on our shelf in our kitchen.

Stray Dogs

We sent Sasha out to sweep the back steps. Apparently he is in a very good mood because he is outside making dog noises. Matthew came upstairs and said "We have a stray Sasha outside."

David was laughing at me because I was laughing at both of them so much.

Grades

We are really proud of Tania. Her grades have really improved since the first of the school year. Her test scores have gone up. Which shows that she is understanding English. She is working hard on her homework.

We wish that Sasha would be be as interested in his grades.

Buy A Church?

So Sasha and I were driving home after dropping off Artem from soccer practice when we drove past the Roseboro chapel. Sasha knows that I would love to move and that we have been looking at lots so we can build a house. We drove by the chapel and Sasha said that we should buy a church and live in it. He said that the cultural hall could be our living room. We could play basket ball and have a cinema in there. I said that it would be great for going to church. We could just get up and we would be there. The bathrooms would be a little weird with the shower situation and stall for the toilets though. Sasha said we could just remodel the bathrooms.

I got a kick out of this idea. Where did he get this idea? Strange....

Later Katelyn and I went to the grocery store. When we got back Tania was watching the movie "The Sandlot". Wendy -- "Smalls" in this movie reminded me of your Alex.

Shhhhhhhh, We are evil, evil, evil.

Why are we evil? For two reasons.

First, I made soup for dinner tonight. I had bought some dried soup last October while we were in Arkansas visiting my parents. It's really easy to make. You just add water to the dried ingredients along with some canned chicken and enchilada sauce. So I started the soup while Tania was at dance. She never new that I added chicken. When she sat down at the dinner table she asked what was in the soup. I just said "I don't know, it came in a package." So Tania continued eating and ate a whole bowl of soup. It's amazing. If I had told her that I added the chicken, there is absolutely no way she would have eaten the soup.

The second reason we are evil is because after dinner, Tania was talking about getting together with Dosha and Sveta tomorrow night. She said that Dosha and Sveta had to ask "the" Bill and Leslie if they could go. David then said "If "the" Bill and Leslie agree to let the come then we should do something else". I think Katelyn was going to really lose it when David said "the" Bill and Leslie. We are having a hard time teaching both kids the appropriate use of "the". Usually we do try to correct them, we just had to have a little fun tonight.

Car Repairs

Since I read Wendy's blog about how frugal she and her husband are and about how James fixes their cars all the time, I thought I would add my little tidbit.

Matthew's car broke down last weekend. We originally thought it was the water pump. David called his friend who is very handy with anything mechanical for advice on how much this would cost us.

Luckily, our friend retired last spring so he has a lot of time on his hands. He said to come on over on David's day off and they would fix it. Well yesterday was David's day off so he took the car over to his friends. They took about an hour to diagnose the problem and realized that it was not the water pump but it was another part (I don't remember what it is called).

Now we decided the cost of a water pump would be around $300.00. The part we needed was only $75.00. So great we have saved a lot of money. The downfall on all of this is that if it had been the water pump they would have finished fixing the car yesterday. The cheaper part was in a much more obscure part of the car so they had to practically take the whole thing apart. Needless to say they are still working on the car today. I am so glad our friend has a heated garage.

Also, Matthew looked up on the Internet the estimated time it would take to replace this part. GM estimated it should take 16 hours. So we figure that if we had taken the car to the repair shop we would of had to pay about $1,200. in just labor. Thank goodness our friend and David are going to be able to fix the car.

Science Fair

Katelyn had us help us with her science fair tonight. She is measuring how well people take tests when they listen to music. Tonight Sasha, Matthew, David, Katelyn and I took an ACT sample test. There were four sections. The first section was quiet. Actually there wasn't any music playing but it wasn't very quiet. The second section had music with 71-90 beats per minute. The third section had 91-110 beats per minute with the last section having 111-130 beats per minute.

Matthew is a very quick reader and test taker. He finished every section before anyone else. Sasha was usually the second person done. David and I were always the last. After each section we would compare answers. By the time we were done David was pretty confident that he had done really well so he proposed that the person with the most correct answers get to win something. So we decided that the winner would choose where we go for dinner on Friday night.

By the time we were correcting the tests, we were laughing so hard. David was getting disappointed because he didn't do as well as he thought that he had. I was thrilled that I had the most correct answers.

The best part of it all though is how well Sasha did on the tests. The tests were the type where you replace a word or a phrase with a more correct word or phrase. It wasn't an easy test.

I was really proud of Sasha's ability and willingness to participate in our little activity. He has been speaking English for just over a year and yet he enjoyed helping Katelyn with her project.

Oh and I think we will go to Chili's for dinner.