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.