January 19, 2014

The boys are both back in school and things are returning to normal after a long Christmas break.  Justin was nervous about going back and it was like the first day all over again.  He was even concerned that he wouldn't know where his cubby was or who was in his class.  Since his birthday was during the Christmas break, he was able to take cupcakes in on the first day back.  That meant that I carried them and went all the way to his classroom with him.  That helped him to settle down a little bit.

Ryan was jealous that Justin got to go back a day before he did.  He was also excited to take in birthday cupcakes.  I got pretty sick of making cupcakes, but at least that is done with for awhile.

Friday the 10th I was able to finally get Ryan's hair cut.  He no longer looks like an unloved dog.  Of course with the dry air and the need for hats, his hair is still quite interesting much of the time.  We went with Jack, Charlie, and Nune (their nanny) to get their hair cut while Nune's sister watched Justin at our house.  When we were done, Charlie got to play Skylanders with the boys for awhile and of course they had fun.

This week the boys had a snow day on Tuesday!  We got 6-8 inches of snow and the roads were deemed unsafe for staff and students.  Luckily they have the teachers call in such cases because I never would have thought about a snow day.  Since we walk to school, road conditions are not a thing I think about.  I also don't know what is and is not unusual snow accumulation here. 

Rob had a two hour delay to work, so he did the driveway. 
Good exercise, but his back paid for it later.

Ryan wanted to run around the yard and look for buried toys.

This is the plow that comes around our community to do off the roads. The nice
thing is a little tractor (the one that pulls the garbage trailer) comes by later and makes
sure the driveway isn't blocked from the snow the plow has moved.

I have no idea what Justin was doing.

I made a path through the backyard so it would be easier to cut through
on the way to school on Wednesday.

The kids can sled on the hill during recess so Justin has been taking in a sled each day.  It is kind of a pain to drag it back and forth, but the kids have so much fun.  When we go to pick Justin up, I try to go a bit early so Ryan can get some sledding in. 

Justin's class was studying world religions as part of their social studies curriculum.  He made a little book about Islam with illustrations that are, in my opinion, priceless. Rob and I cracked up over the charity and the fasting pictures.

Faith: Muslims believe in Allah and love Allah.
Drawing says I love Allah!

Prayer: Muslims pray to Allah 5 times each day.

Charity: Muslims give things to poor people.
Drawing shows someone receiving a car!

Fasting: Muslims do not eat when the sun shines during Ramadan.
Drawing shows sad faced figure looking at drumstick in the day,
smiling figure looking at drumstick at night.

Pilgrimage: Muslims go to the holy city of Mecca.
 

Justin's class has students from many different countries and of many different faiths.  I like that he gets that exposure.  One day he was asking me which country is the best and I told him that people usually love the country that they are from.  During our discussion it seemed to click with him that just as he loves to visit family in the States and spend time there, his peers have other places they like to go.  He has friends from the UK, Russia, Armenia, Germany, Vietnam, Korea, India, and other countries.

Wednesday I went to my monthly book club.  I dread going out in the cold dark night, but I always have a good time when I am there.  I volunteered to host in March so I need to choose out a book soon.

Thursday was the PTO meeting.  Again, not a lot of fun to go out in the cold dark night, but it is a super short walk at least.

Friday we got my teaching supplies and some other stuff that had been in storage since Rob and I left Maryland for China.  Now I get to go through it and see what I want to keep.  I think that there will be a lot of things that I am ready to throw out or donate.  Yay!  Less stuff!  We didn't know how this overseas lifestyle was going to work for us so we pretty much put everything in storage since it was paid for.  Now all that is left in storage is our furniture.  I think a lot of that can be donated too, but we really don't want to get that all shipped out here.  Perhaps someplace we will. 

This week I also finally put up my fourth shadow box.  The nail has been waiting for it since about August.  Oops.  I have another empty one and think that in the future I will group them differently.  Two have things that belonged to my grandparents, one has things from Namibia, and the last has things from China.  I have some things from Japan to put in one and some things from Zimbabwe for another.  I have some smaller frames that I want to put some Thai things in.  Not sure how I want them displayed in our future homes, but for now I am happy to be putting small keepsakes and souvenirs somewhere besides a box.

December 15, 2013

This week Justin continued his love of creating things out of construction paper and tape.  Keeps him busy, but hard to find places for all of his creations.

 

The boys had a great time in the snow.  We were all feeling well so they had the opportunity to enjoy playing outside.  It looks pretty enough, but it gets old fast.  I hate having to put on the layers and pulling off wet boots and having my entry floor dirty and wet. :(

Sun!  Unfortunately, clear skies mean it is colder. :(

The community has someone do off our driveway.  They don't do it all the way, but they do it enough that we can get in and out.  Sure glad I don't have to shovel the snow.  Brrr!

Ryan at school.  When I went to pick him up, he couldn't figure why I was there.  He couldn't believe that it was already time to go home.  He had a lot of fun playing in the snow with the other kids.

J and R had fun playing out in the back yard.

 My book club meeting this month took me to my first Soviet era apartment building.  It was an experience!  Once buzzed in, you enter into a lobby(?) indoor courtyard (?) that reminded me of the kind of parking garage where you would be afraid to park.  It was dark until we got over near the elevator and the stairs and finally got the automatic lights to sense us and turn on.  Here is the elevator, which evidently smells really badly in the summer since it is next to the trash chute.

 This is an apartment on the ground floor.  I loved the exposed wiring, etc.  Nice, huh?  Anyway, the apartment I went to was nice.  It was a smallish size two bedroom for US standards, but cute and a fine place to live.  Definitely larger and nicer than some of the places my sister has had in New York.  No offense, Meredith.

Evidently, the apartments are redone and some are small studios while other people have taken over all of the apartments on a floor and made them into a large place.  Heating and water conditions vary according to apartment as well.  The building, as others I have seen, is really ugly on the outside.  It amazes me to think of what the apartments used to be like and what a depressing place it must have been to live.  I guess some of the places still are.

 

Ryan got to have his preschool winter performance.  He has been SO excited for it.  It was a nice little show.  The teachers are very kind and hard working.  They love and care for and about the children and it shows.  The parents are great about helping to make the preschool a good place to be.  They are generous with time and resources.  It will be sad to have Ryan leave in the Fall when he is ready for kindergarten.

 

     

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On Friday, Justin took cupcakes in to school.  His birthday is over the break so he can't take in cupcakes on his actual birthday.  It just so happens that his teacher has the same birthday as he does.  Justin took in cupcakes and a present to celebrate HER birthday and will take in cupcakes for HIS birthday after the break.  He has a great teacher and he really likes school because of her.

 

Now the boys are on winter break until January 7th.  It might be long.  They alternate between playing really nicely together and fighting like cats and dogs.

 

On Saturday, Rob and I went to a Christmas bazaar and then out to lunch.  I bought several wooden ornaments. There wasn't much else that interested me.  Lunch was fine, not great, but it was good to be out of the house without the boys.  They were at home with Skyler.  They lover he babysitting so much that they wanted to know if she could be their new mommy.  I'm glad that they are happy when we leave them.  I wish Skyler could be their mommy when they are sick or up in the middle of the night.  I doubt she wants the job though, especially since the mommy job doesn't pay.

 





There wasn't really anything to take a picture of at the Christmas bazaar, so I took a picture of a statue we walked by so I had a picture of something. :)

 

Tonight we had the missionaries over for dinner.  It was fun to have them here and they seemed to enjoy having some American food and conversation for a change.  We had Christmas cookies to give to them.  It was amazing that I hadn't eaten them all myself.