these last few days

tim and silas and kai and i are off to a fun and full start this 2009. tim officially reported back to hinkson today after a 20 day break, school is in session. our break was full and wonderful and included...(in no particular order)

- celebrating american christmas, russian new years, american new years, russian christmas

- silas' first sledding experience

- ted and eddy visiting from OUR beloved motherland

- new boots, hat, tights and gloves for silas...he is officially warm outside in our below zero temps

- papa john's date for me and tim and silas...that is a very fun outing

- an early new year morning run around the ring

- ringing in the new year on red square (tim, ted, eddy)

- silas sleeping through the fireworks shaking our building on new years

- kai conquering her fear of fireworks

- lots of get-togethers at coffee houses, various apartments, and other locations throughout moscow with students and friends

- taking ted and eddy to one of our favorite uzbekistan restaurants only to find out it has been turned into a german food restaurant...still very good, and strangely similar to the the uzbekistan restaurant

- many movies...my favorite, expelled: no intelligence allowed "...questions that aren't properly answered don't go away..."

- lots of veggie tales (and dancing, courtesy of silas)

- trying new quinoa recipes

- walks outside

- the nutcracker ballet at the bolshoi

- silas turning 15 months

- lots of reading...almost done with the shack...i recommend it

- my (ally) victory with the squeaky loud dryer...just add WD40

- taking our neighbors a new year's gift (tradition) and that turning into 4 hours of us speaking russian and them speaking english (best way for all of us to meet in the middle), talking politics, religion, education, literature, and random other things...when ludmila learned that i had never made blini's (traditional russian crepes) she proceeded to teach me there in her kitchen at 10:30pm how to make them russian style...

- the banya

- jingle bell run

life is good.

welcome 2009!

christmas eve "jingle bell run!"

this morning we had the first annual "jingle bell run!" so fun. very cold. 9 of us (and one dog) met at a park and ran about 1.5 miles around the beautiful snow-covered park. it was like a fairy tale. layers, layers, layers, dog boots, warm apple juice, silas holding onto a heated field corn pack in the stroller, dog frisbee, water, camera. while 1.5 miles around the park might not sound like much, we each had to travel a distance to get to the park, which counts, too! tim and silas and kai and i live about a 2.5 miles from the park, so 6.5 miles round trip isn't bad!



getting ready to head out...



we were thrilled to find that the paths at the park had been cleared!!!



well, some of the paths had been cleared...





merry christmas ~ love the wileys

ten fruit trees for $60

world vision is an organization dedicated to changing the world through giving, and i love it. it is so relevant and creative and is meeting needs all over the world right now. you can give life-changing gifts to people all over the world in the name of someone you love...you can give donations by price, or by categories like clean water, education, emergency aid, joy for kids, where most needed, animals, food and agriculture, and more.

you can buy a goat for a village for $75, two chickens for $25, a cow for $500, ten fruit trees for $60.

there are good things happening...

6 years!

tim and i got married 6 years ago today! happy anniversary, babe!

last night we were talking about all that has happened in the last 6 years, a lot of life. 6 years ago today it was 72 degrees and sunny in tulsa, oklahoma, and as i write this now, here in moscow, russia it is very dark (3:51pm) and 19 degrees.

in the last 6 years we've walked through so many different seasons...

almost 3 months of marriage before tim left for iraq...
iraq...
coming home from iraq...
settling into a stable life for a little while...
buying a house...
getting kai...
deciding to move to russia...
selling a house...
selling, well everything...
moving to russia...
getting to know russia...
language school, students, hinkson, 3 apartments in 3 years...
being pregnant...
having silas...
getting to know silas...
growing to love moscow...

i feel like i could write a novel on each of those seasons.

its been a rich 6 years...

many more to come...

kai, the beatles and dima

just a while ago i had a moment that i know will stand out among moments in my life...

i took kai outside, and while she was running around, a little boy came up to me saying (in russian)...

"i have met this dog before! hello kai!"

kai greeted him enthusiastically like she does everyone.

this was dima, a seven year old russian boy in first grade. he has played with kai and tim before outside, but this is the first time i had met him and his grandfather. dima was practicing every bit of english he knew with me and i thought we had to be coming to the end of his repertoire when suddenly he burst (no exaggeration here) into song...and dance! it went something like this...(with the most precious seven-year-old-boy-russian accent)

"desmond has a barrow in the marketplace
molly is a singer in a band
desmond says to molly - girl i like your face
and molly says this as she takes him by the hand..."

the obladi oblada part kind of faded off, but i was so impressed! the beatles, bringing people together...

carrot, egg, coffee bean

i've often wanted to write a post about the "ashan experience" so here it is. ashan is a massive grocery store here in moscow, of which there are two. think, 3 times the size of a wal-mart super center, prices comparable to a big discount chain in the states like wal-mart or super target, therefore it's packed with people. and i don't say "packed" lightly. sometimes feel sardine-like in there. you are constantly and in the same moment running into someone with your shopping cart and being run into. and this isn't in a particular season or time of day - it is from open to close of the store. and since all the wheels on the shopping carts swivel, they can roll sideways too, which creates an added interesting dynamic. (i should say here that all wheels should swivel but that isn't always the case, like yesterday when i got a shopping cart with 2 bad wheels - now that is a work out!)
it is an extreme adventure. but the prices are such that if you can bear it, it is worth it about once a month.

a few things ashan has taught me...


1. don't wear my jeans with the buttons on the back there...they get hooked on other people's carts when i am bumped in to...
2. a smile goes a long way - the scowl on their face doesn't necessarily reflect their inside...
3. smiles usually are contagious and span languages
4. don't take yourself too seriously
5. make your grocery list according to the layout of the store because it will take you an hour to get back to the other side if you forget something
6. get in line about one hour before you want to be on the other side of the check out counters
7. be more flexible
8. an ipod makes a wonderful companion at ashan
9. take deep breaths
10. adapt

i really appreciate ashan and my experiences there.

i heard a great analogy yesterday, that i really want to carry forward with me. this takes me back to the subject of this post; carrot, egg, coffee bean.

the moral of the story is, be a coffee bean.

the rest of the analogy is this...

a carrot, when placed in hot water (the water symbolizes a stressful experience, environment, or pressure) goes from a firm state to mush.

an egg, when placed in hot water (still, that certain difficult environment) goes from a fragile place to hardened.

a coffee bean, when placed in hot water, works within its situation, becomes better, adapts, and what is inside the coffee bean changes its environment.

ashan reminds me to be a coffee bean.

thank you

today is veteran's day (and yesterday was the usmc's 233 birthday). thank you to all the veterans out there who chose to sign up and serve. i am grateful.

two of my favorite veterans...

my husband.

this picture was taken at the marine corps museum in san diego in 2005. on the tv monitor behind tim was a slide show of pictures that marines had brought back from iraq. that particular picture that is showing is a painting that some people who aren't fans of america painted on a wall...that building it was painted on became "camp" for certain battalions of marines as they cycled through that area in iraq...by the time tim got there, the marines who had been there previously "re-designed" the painting you see here, expressing what they thought about the original. tim has the "after" picture, but it was neat for us to see the "before" and know that tim had been right there.

my dad.


i have distinct sweet memories as a kid of meeting my dad at the airport, him having just arrived back from active duty. he's the best looking man in navy dress whites, ever.

tim and dad, i love you both. thank you for signing up and serving.

fall on noyvecheremushkinskaya, dom 50

we are getting to experience the most beautiful fall here that we have ever seen! sure, it's middle-of-the-night dark by 5pm these days, but the days lately have been in the high 30's, crisp, blue skies, gorgeous. the other falls we have had here have been a bit shorter, so this long fall has given the leaves a chance to change outside, and we are all loving the colorful palate!

a busy season for me and tim has ended (retreats every other weekend for 8 weeks and both or one of us leading other events on the in between weekends), and although we still have plenty going on, our pace has slowed a little bit which is a welcome change.

tim is in the midst of "no shave november" at hinkson (guys only)...10 other students and staff have joined him on this male bonding experience, and they are taking weekly group pictures to chronicle the event.

bella notte is this weekend, too. bella notte is a twice a year musical that the students at hinkson put on. this falls bella notte is a musical montage walk through the history of music in the united states...and tim is playing djembe in it!
and i have the joy of being with silas and other friends during the days lately, and with high school girls everyday after school - it's a honor to get to walk through these season of these girls lives with them.

last weekend was the hinkson fall festival, and it was a very fun time. we had to have the pumpkin patch inside this year because last year when it was outside many of the pumpkins froze and were unusable. silas was not sure what to think of the 60 pound pumpkins at first, but he warmed up to them...

now that it is getting colder, silas is out and about in his snow suit, learning to maneuver in all that insulation...it is pretty funny watching him shuffle about in it.

silas and kai and i outside our apartment...its about 4:30pm in this pic.

retreat season

we are in retreat season here in moscow! from september 18 to november 2, tim and i are involved in retreats every other weekend. it's a whirlwind for sure, but a sweet one. this last weekend was the hinkson high school retreat at a camp ground a few hours outside of moscow in the woods and country side. in spite of the non stop rain, and sometimes because of it (i.e. "mud soccer") it was rich time. our friend, james hutchenson, came up from nalchik (southern russia) last tuesday to be our spiritual emphasis week speaker and retreat speaker. spiritual emphasis week and the retreat are two things that the high schoolers look forward to every year, so james was met with much enthusiasm. the students love him and are already looking forward to the next time he can come up to moscow...

the musicians...



silas and rachel



silas and tina and the boys



trying to keep warm!!!



campfire night...



game time



small group discussion...



me and cam before a session



worship leaders getting ready to lead






another game...looks fun, huh?



the whole group



on the bus home...

this is such a special group of students who tim and i have fallen in love with. i wish you could know them all. they come from so many different backgrounds and cultures and of course each have their own unique story. i feel so fortunate to have this time with them...

and silas loved his first high school retreat!

happy birthday silas jack!

a picture walk...

october 9, 2007, silas breathed his first breath...



and then did the tulsa run two weeks later...



so happy to be sleeping!



celebrating pop's birthday...



and catching up on some emails...



then at six weeks and one day, silas' flight to moscow...



and meeting new friends...



and more new friends...



watching fireworks in moscow with noni...



one of silas' favorite spots for many many weeks!



first christmas morning...



all bundled up!



and not so bundled up...



ready to take on the world...



where to first?



more new friends...



with grandmother at starbucks in moscow...



chillin...



always learning...



playing with the camera...



getting to know emil...



always a good sleeper, even on the go...



waking up...



learning about coffee from chris and liz...



cold, sunny spring day...






silas loves to eat...



and travel...from moscow...



to tulsa...



with granny (great grandmother) this summer...



sitting in the bathtub waiting for fireworks at the park on the 4th of july...






and back to moscow...





and today, october 9, 2008...





happy birthday silas jack! what a year...