March 30, 2014 Catching Up!

I'm back!  The good news is when it takes me a few weeks to write I have more to write about than doing laundry and taking kids to and from school. :)

The Embassy family we are sponsoring arrived and Ryan was SO excited that they have a five year old.  Even though their son is already in kindergarten, Ryan has found plenty of opportunities to play with Aiden already.  He loves being able to have a friend who lives so close.



Playing with sidewalk chalk.

Once again the boys had fun building traps to try to catch a leprechaun on Saint Patrick's Day.  They were not successful, but the leprechaun(s) left them some gold rolos candy and two 1000 dram bills.  It looks like they used the money and the candy to help them get out of the traps.  The leprechaun also turned our milk green.  Ryan claims that the green milk tastes so much better.  The boys have some ideas for next year already.  They really want a leprechaun.  Justin thinks it would be a great show and tell.

This one somehow used magnets.  Not sure how that all works. 



Jake and the Never Land pirates toys helped with this trap.

One day when the boys were playing in the basement, I managed to fall down the stairs.  The Embassy puts these non-slip grips on the stairs.  They really do a number on our socks and we have holes in almost all of our socks.  Sometimes I try to avoid the stupid strips and step on the plain wooden part of the stairs.  Well, as I heard the noise of the stupid strip grabbing on to my socks, I stepped over the rest of the strips.  I ended up missing a step altogether and tumbling down about 6 stairs.  The boys were having so much fun that they didn't even notice.  My ankle hurt so I went up to grab a bag of frozen peas from the freezer.  I went back down and elevated my leg with the peas on the ankle.  Boys didn't notice that either.

Swelling wasn't too bad, but it hurt to put weight on it.  Guess this was just the reason we have been carrying crutches around the world with us.  It is kind of a pain to do things with crutches though, so Friday morning I decided to take Ryan to school before eating breakfast.  Rather than grabbing something quickly I could sit and have a leisurely breakfast while sitting in the recliner and reading my book.

Evidently my blood sugar was a bit too low for that.  I ended up passing out at Ryan's school.  Then I passed out a second time when I sat up.  As people were helping me move to a more comfortable location while Lilit got me some juice and a piece of chocolate, I passed out yet again.  For some reason people seem to think it is a bad thing to pass out, so they called Rob.  Rich and Claudia helped get me home and stayed with me until Rob arrived.

Rob made me breakfast and then I got into bed to sleep for awhile.  He made me lunch and then returned to work.  I was feeling okay with the food in me, just really sore from falling down the stairs and then passing out and not being caught the first time down.  Claudia brought Ryan home.  It was a bad day for Ryan because I fell down AND Richard didn't bring his rabbit for show and tell.  Bummer.  Rachel brought Justin home from school.  Rob came home early and I continued to rest.

Saturday was the charity sale that Ryan's school was hosting.  Since it was so close to our house, I went for a little while.  I then went home and let Rob stay to hang out with the boys.



My crutches weren't as impressive as his stilts.



I thought that the tightrope guy was cool.  Rob pointed out that
it is a slack rope though.  Does that mean it isn't cool? 

 

I realize this guy isn't super high or anything, but I still enjoyed it.
Not something you see everyday at little neighborhood events.



Ryan with the start of the apricot blossoms.

 I was able to get a picture with the start of the apricot blossoms, but unfortunately I didn't get them when they were full.  I thought I had plenty of time to get out and take a picture, but I was wrong. :(

On Wednesday I hosted the book club.  We meet once a month and it is good for me to get out and about with adults and leaving the children behind.  Only a couple more months before most of the group goes away either for summer vacation or to move on to a new place.  I have read some books I wouldn't have otherwise chosen.  It has been fun.  I hope it starts up again in the Fall even with some of the key members gone.


Rachel gave Ryan a much needed haircut.

 Ryan has been in desperate need of a haircut for awhile.  I asked Rachel if she cut her kids' hair.  I mean three young boys, she might, right?  She does!  She got Ryan taken care of and did a better job than taking him in for a "real" cut here.  He was so excited when he saw himself in the mirror.  He thinks that he looks just like Aiden.  He couldn't be happier with his new look and I am thrilled that he doesn't look like an abandoned waif anymore.


Doing some building with the Lego Education WeDo set.

 Ryan and I spent some time working with Justin's Legos.  Justin is impatient when he and I go through the activities.  Ryan and I spend much more time.  He is patient and doesn't get frustrated if he doesn't already know everything.  We spent some time working with gears and then moved on to pulleys.  Once we get through figuring out how everything works we can move on to the projects.

 On Saturday, Rob and I went to have khorovats with some people from work.  We were going to a place outside of Yerevan.  This was the day our beautiful weather turned ugly.  We hadn't gotten very far when it started hailing hard.  The wipers could barely keep up with what was falling.  Always lovely to have it hard to see when you aren't exactly sure where you are going to begin with.  We couldn't find our way there, so we backtracked to a landmark where someone met us and took us where we needed to go.  I doubt we would have found it in good weather.  Some of the roads we were on did not look like roads for anything but local traffic.

The food was good and I ate too much.  There was some really good bread (you can see it in the picture) in addition to the traditional lavash bread.  I was surprised that I liked the aveluk.  Aveluk is a kind of local sorrel, which as far as I am concerned seems to be a weed.  Prepared well though and I had more than one helping.  Also lots of greens, olives, some cheeses, pickled vegetables, and of course the khorovats, which are the local shish kabob thing.

On Sunday we awoke to SNOW!  Our biggest snow of the year.  Thought we had been in spring for awhile, but evidently winter realized we had missed out on snowfall I guess.  We went to church, which ended up being a bit of a crazy thing to do as we encountered less than ideal driving conditions.  When we got home the boys "helped" Rob shovel off half the driveway.