Prayers Needed

If you think of it please pray for my friend Nichole. She has cervical cancer and had surgery last week and they recently received some difficult news. You can read more on her blog here.

A night at the philharmonic.

This past Sunday evening Jon and I joined the rest of our team for an evening at the philharmonic. Brad's (our team leader) Russian teacher recommended that we go watch this trio of gypsies. For the most part gypsies here have a terrible reputation and so the language teacher thought it would be good to be exposed to a positive and different view of gypsies. It was really interesting and for the most part Jon and I really enjoyed the music. It was also nice to have an evening out without the boys, which is something we don't do enough of. When we lived in Novosibirsk we visited the local theatre a lot with our neighbor Nadia. She really exposed us to a lot of Russian music and art. For some reason though we haven't taken the opportunity in Samara to go to theaters or museums. Hopefully that will change soon.

Nook and Cranny

Nathan loves to hang out in every little nook and cranny now! The bathroom being one of his favorites. Another big favorite is standing up on the bottom bunk of his brother's bed. I don't have a picture of that one because the only thing on my mind is getting him down before he falls off. He is sure keeping me busy nowadays. It is kind of strange because this is the age that Josiah took his very first steps and it just seems so odd to me that Nathan is doing things that Josiah didn't do until he was a lot older.



Here he is boosting himself on a little chair behind the big sofa chair to catch a better glimpse!

Squeaky Clean Fun

Nathan loves to take baths with his big brother!

Tour Around Samara Part 5

CHAPAEV STATUE

DRAMA THEATRE

WAR MEMORIAL FOUNTAIN

SUNSET ON THE VOLGA RIVER

We Voted

In 1997 my mother and I became U.S. citizens. It was quite an exciting time for the both of us. Even more exciting was having the privilege of voting in our first "local" election. I remember wearing my "I voted" sticker to work the next day.

Since living overseas Jon and I have not been able to vote. Unfortunately, it is one of those things that we just had not taken the time to look into. Thankfully this year Jon looked into it and we found out we could vote on absentee ballot. As the weeks passed we wondered if our absentee ballots would ever make it to Russia on time for us to cast our vote and then mail it back. Last week we finally received the absentee ballot, we marked our votes, and the very next day Josiah and I walked to our local post office to mail them off. Now we are trusting in the reliable Russian postal service to get our ballots back to the States on time!

OUR LOCAL POST OFFICE

Our Cute NayNay

Lately Nathan has really been hamming it up for the camera. He is at a real cute stage right now. The other day Jon was holding him and said "Oh, if only he could stay like this for a while longer". Hmmmmmm, maybe daddy is thinking more about having a #3!

FYI

Just in case you stay in Israel and you need to dial out.......this is what you dial first.

Street Work

One morning last week Jon and the boys were eating breakfast and Jon heard that his car alarm was going off so he looked out the window and saw that some workers were setting it off to get his attention. So, he went downstairs and moved the car.

We had been having water problems. Like no hot water one day and then no cold water for two days (making the toilet situation quite lovely). Obviously they were there digging up to resolve the problem which took them all day to figure out. The funny thing is watching them work because one guy will be doing all the digging while 10 others stand around crossing their arms and watching.

At least all the equipment provides some great entertainment for the boys.

The hole gets bigger!



Well the hole is still there covered up by a ton of dirt with a flimsy plastic string around the work zone to keep people away from the area.

My Budding Photographer

The following pictures were taken by Josiah.........our future photographer.

Serious Bed Head

You really can't tell on the picture but one morning Josiah woke up with total bed head. So, Jon asked him "Hmm, Josiah, did you sleep good last night?" . Josiah answered and said "Yeah, and my hair sleep good too!".

We have a but problem.

In our home school Pre-K, I have been teaching Josiah some songs. The latest one has been "Row, Row, Row Your Boat". For some reason though Josiah can't get pass the word but.......... you know the part that goes "Merrily, merrily, merrily life is but a dream". Well he has changed the lyrics to "Merrily, merrily I kick your butt a dream".

Harvest

On September 28 we celebrated Harvest. Every year around this time we give God thanks for His plentiful harvest. At church they set up a table with the harvest (a lot of it is bought but some of it comes from people's dachas). After the service we have a little feast and crack open a big watermelon. These are one of the days that I look forward to!

Seeing all the fall produce on the street is a big reminder that the season has arrived and that pretty soon we will be buried in snow!

Rock Star

ROCKER FACE



For those of you who do not know this, Jon used to play the electric guitar in a Christian rock band during his college days. It was to his great delight when his brother Jay recently started playing the electric guitar. Jay got his daughter Kate an "electric guitar" too and thought Josiah would enjoy one also. Well we have been holding on to it for a while now and thought that his birthday party would be a great time to give it to him. He just loves it. He also has some great expressions when he plays the guitar. I think he is a natural rock star! Maybe one day daddy will break out his acoustic and electric guitar and teach Josiah a few tunes. Thanks Uncle Jay and family for the great present!

Third and final birthday party!

So I finally gave Josiah a real birthday party. I have to admit that it was a lot of fun but also a lot of work. The great thing about having a team with two families that have a bunch of kids is that I don't have to invite so many different kids. It was a Thomas the Tank Engine theme even though I think Josiah would have preferred a Transformers or Batman theme but I had some party decor given by some friends from last year so we went with the Thomas thing. We played "choo choo" bingo, the kids colored a train page, there were tatoos, lots of food, "Auntie" Alex read a Thomas book, yummy cake (everyone's favorite), and a lot of presents. Overall Josiah had a blast. I had a lot of help from Christina and her husband Shenya (yes, she is back from Ukraine and her husband is attending the Seminary). Heather was also a huge help......she is great when it comes to getting my dishes done : ). I was pretty tired by the end of the night but it was worth it just seeing how happy Josiah was. It was also great fun having the whole team together because in reality they really are like family here.

Cookie Dough Boy!

As I was preparing for Josiah's birthday party, Nathan got into the cookie dough bowl. Thankfully there wasn't hardly any flour left. He loves to eat cookie dough. I think he got that from watching his daddy and big brother. I also made frosting that day and he was totally into taste testing the frosting also!