Week #1 - Blueberry Muffins

I started checking out Pinterest over 2 months ago.  At first I really didn't get all the hype about it.  Then a lot of the bloggers I follow started raving about it like crazy; they even started posting about all the "pinning" they've been doing.  Overall, Pinterest is a great "bookmarking" site and an amazing site to get ideas.  So, I thought I'd give myself a 52 week challenge and pick one thing to bake from searching on Pinterest every week and preferably bake something that I have never done before.

So, this week I baked blueberry muffins............sounds boring, huh?  Well the truth is that I didn't even know I could get frozen blueberries here in Samara until a few months ago when my friend Sharon baked some blueberry muffins a few months ago.  Plus, I've never baked them in my life!  So, I went on Pinterest and searched for blueberry muffins and a gazillion pin boards popped up.  I found one recipe and tried it out.  The muffins turned out real yummy but not quite as good as the ones they sell at the Vons grocery store in L.A.

 

 

The recipe can be found here!

Harvest

We celebrated Harvest early this year with the church that Jon's been preaching at in Toliatti.  Harvest is a big celebration here in Russia.  Churches decorate a table with fruits and vegetables, have a special service, and usually have special treats after the service. 

 

For the last 5 Sundays we've been traveling to Toliatti since Jon

has been preaching on a series on the authority of Scripture.  It has

been a great time for all of us.  The church was really packed 

yesterday,this picture is only one part of the church.

There was a bunch of special music.  The head pastor invited 

several churches from the Samara Oblast and all the churches

shared music.This young lady had such an amazing voice. She 

seriously has the best voice I have ever heard in my life.

 

There was also excellent preaching

but I'm not partial or anything!

 

The service was exactly 3 hours long..............the boys did

great.  At one point Jojo turned around and told the children

in the row behind us to stop talking.  

 

The Harvest table!

 

Yes, I'm wearing a head covering.  This church is quite traditional.

Even though I usually don't wear a head covering in the churches

here, I didn't want to offend these sisters in Christ.

First Week of School

We officially began our school year last week.  Aside from a couple of rough starts to our days, I am happy with the way things went.

 

Jojo has started 2nd grade and he's afraid it's going to be really

hard.  His favorite subject once again is Math.  We use Saxon

Math and we both absolutely love it.  I've read several reviews

about this curriculum and people either love it or hate it.  He's

looking forward to Science but we won't start that for another 

week.  This year we added History and he seems to like it so

far.  One thing about living overseas is the lack of library books.

I often wish I could just go to the library and check out a ton of

books to help supplement what the boys are learning, but I've

been real thankful for Google books and the amount of free

material that is available through that site.  

 

Nathan officially started pre-school.  My friend Heather let me

borrow Heart of Dakota, Little Hands to Heaven and Nathan

is really loving it.  I have to confess that when I first looked 

through it I wasn't horribly impressed but I thought we'd try

it and thankfully Nathan is having a blast.  I feel a little silly

doing the "fingerplay" chant or song but I can see how effective

it is to get him to remember the sound the letter makes.

 

Turtle Cheesecake Truffles

If you haven't made these balls of yumminess yet, then get to it!!  The recipe is simple and the end result is absolutely delicious.  It's also a great dessert to make for summer because there is no need for baking.

 

You can get the recipe here !

Motocross Show

About 3 weeks ago there was a motocross show in the big square in our city.  It's always fun to do something different around here.  We met up with the Klassens at their home since they live within walking distance of the square.  Considering how large our city is, it wasn't as packed and crazy as I thought it would be.  I think Jon and I enjoyed it more than the boys but that's probably because it wasn't as easy for them to see all the action.

 

Group shot.

Bri getting pecked on by a raven.  This man was walking

around with it for photo ops.  

 

I know these pictures aren't great but the stunts were pretty amazing.

At one point they were flipping upside down on their bikes.

Sunflowers

On our way to Toliatti one Sunday morning I saw a sea of yellow on the side of the highway.  As we got closer I realized they were sunflowers! 

 

The cooking oil here is sunflower oil and lots of people eat

sunflower seeds.

 

Jon was nice enough to pull over and let me take a couple of

pictures. 

Vacation:Day 9 Heading Back Home

In all honesty it was hard to head back home after spending such a nice time on a beautiful island.  Due to the fact that we traveled on frequent flier miles, Jon was not able to travel with the boys and I until the flight from Germany to Russia.  Now that the boys are older it was really a piece of cake to travel by myself with them.  They also did a great job plus they love going on the airplane and hanging out.

1.  Bye - bye Mallorca! 
2.  We flew from Mallorca to Barcelona.  Poor little Naynay looks so tired.  It was quite an early morning for us.
3.  The airport in Barcelona is absolutely beautiful.  We had not eaten breakfast yet so we enjoyed a nice breakfast at the McDonalds in the airport during our 3 hour layover.  Believe it or not it was the boy's first time having a McDonalds breakfast!
4.  I just had to stop by the official Barcelona soccer league team store.  The amazing Argentine Leonel Messi plays for Barcelona.
5.  Thankful for Jojo's Nintendo DS, it keeps him occupied.  This was our flight from Barcelona to Frankfurt, Germany.
6.  We had 6 hours to kill in Frankfurt so we just wandered around a lot.  Nathan wanted to take a ride in this sports car.
7 and 8.  Being silly at McDonalds.  We tried to eat as slow as possible.  After dinner we went to our gate to wait for daddy.  I was starting to get nervous because he wasn't coming.  I even asked the attendant at the gate to check his flight.............his flight came in late but thankfully he made it to our gate on time! 
9.  Arriving in Samara is always a bit of a culture shock.  After waiting in a super long line to go through passport control we finally got to the window, got questioned, and then got our passports stamped.  Our suitcases were waiting for us and then our friend Zhenya was there to pick us up.  It was 4 am by this time and we got to see the sun rise on the way home!  Home sweet home!!!

Vacation: Day 8

On our last day of vacation we basically decided to just relax!  We needed a vacation from our vacation.  So, we visited a big grocery store that we also have here in Samara.  We enjoyed a nice lunch.  Packed up our suitcases and then went out for a nice dinner with my cousin and his family. 

 

This is Auchan (which we also have in Samara) but in Spain

it's called Al Campo.  I was so surprised by all the products

that are available in Spain.............definitely a ton more than

what I find in Russia.  So, we stocked up on a few items and 

very few because we didn't have enough room in the suticases.

 

Good - bye Coke Zero..............until we meet again.  The lemon

Fanta was also amazing and refreshing.

 

Near a nice little park by my cousin's home.

 

My cousin's apartment building.

 

My cousin Dario and his sweet wife Vilma.

 

One last look at the beach.  I am so thankful for the time

we got to spend in Mallorca!  It was an amazing trip.  I

hope I never forget all the beautiful things I saw and all 

the friendly people I met.  The best part for me though

was being able to spend time with my cousins and uncle.  

It makes me so sad to think that I did not have the opportunity

to grow up with my cousins.  Even though moving to 

America was in our best interest I feel like I missed out

on spending time with extended family.  It even breaks my

heart now that my boys don't have the opportunity to be

with their own cousins. 

Vacation : Day 7

By our seventh day we were all exhausted.  The boys didn't even want to go to the beach or drive anymore.  My cousin suggested we go visit some caverns.  They are called the "Cuevas Del Drach" or the Caverns of the Dragon.  The caverns contains one of the largest underground lakes in the world.  This was the boys first time walking through a cavern and at first they were interested but after a while it got a little boring for them.

 

My pictures inside the caves aren't that great because you can't

use flash.  At the end of the tour you come upon the lake.  Then 

we all sat down on some benches and some row boats lit up with

white lights came out with a quartet and organ and played

some pieces from Chopin, Bach, and Mozart.  It was beautiful! 

You then had the choice to exit the caverns walking or on a row

boat.  We chose to exit via the row boat!

Vacation : Day 6 Part 5

I promise this is the last part to our 6th day!  It was quite the long day for us but I think our last site was one of our favorites and we definitely spent more time exploring in this little town of Alcudia.

 

One of our favorite things about this town

were the city walls dating back to the 14th

century!!  We were having fun using our 

imagination and getting the boys hyped

up about us defending the city from pirates.

 

And of course there was a big cathedral!

 

The boys a bit delirious from our travels.

 

These are the remains of a Roman town but unfortunately we 

weren't able to walk through since it was closed on the day we went!

After we wandered around the town for a while we had a nice 

little picnic and headed back home!  We were all exhausted!

Vacation : Day 6 Part 4

The next stop was the Cap de Fermentor which was our main goal.........the northern most point of the island.  Getting there was a bit tricky with extreme winding roads but Jon is such a great driver that he made it all seem effortless.  The views were amazing and the beach was absolutely gorgeous with crystal blue water!  It was well worth the long days trek of getting there.

 

There you have it.............the northern most part of the island.

Pictures don't do this site justice.  It was gorgeous!!!

 

The beach was beautiful but we didn't plan on swimming 

in the water even though once we got there we wished

we would have brought our suits!!!

 

What a life!  I'd love to do some sail boating one day!!

Vacation : Day 6 Part 3

The next stop was the Port of Soller.  It was a beautiful port with a trolley bus down the main road.  We also ate lunch there at the super expensive Burger King!  Parking was also a nightmare but the beautiful seaside made up for it.

 

I think I'll buy a summer home up in those hills overlooking the port!

Vacation: Day 6 Part 2

After Valldemosa we continued on our little road trip.  There were 2 little cities on the way to get to the northern most part of the island but unfortunately whenever we got to the little 2 cities which were nestled in the mountains we could never find any parking spots alongside the winding road.  So, we just continued and took a couple of rest stops.

 

The road trip took us through some major winding roads.  Thankfully

the boys didn't get car sick.  

 

There were a few of these cool tunnels we drove through.

 

The boys just kicked back in the car while Jon and I took turns 

looking at the scenery at the turnouts.