February 9, 2014

It has been a couple of weeks since I have posted.  Nothing too exciting has happened, but I realize that I really need to write.  With the start of the Olympics, I was telling Justin about some of his "gymnastic routines" that he did when we watched the Olympics on TV in Idaho with my parents.  Now Rob laughed that I didn't even know if gymnastics was a summer or a winter event. I don't think it is so hysterical because it isn't like they are outside.  Why can't they do gymnastics in the winter?  I get skiing is winter, track and field is summer, but gymnastics?  Anyway, Justin was asking questions about it including how old he was and I had no idea.  I was able to refer back to my blog and not only answer all of his questions, but show him a video clip.

Now as I was reading it, I cringed at how poorly I write on my blog.  I generally write as I am sitting watching TV before going to bed.  I don't proofread or put much effort into it.  I have realized that that doesn't matter too much, as long as I get things down.  If I really want, I can SOMEDAY edit things and do it right.  To be honest, I don't care enough to do a "good" blog.  This is for my mom primarily and, as I have learned, my failing memory.  So, here are the recent events of my life, dull as they may be.

My birthday is probably the big event of the post.  The boys were SO excited for my birthday to come.  They called many secret meetings to plan and ask questions.  The code word was "Bakugan" and they would tell Rob that they wanted to have some Bakugan time up in Justin's room and make sure that I knew I was uninvited.  Rob tried to explain that generally adults aren't as excited about birthdays as children are.  The way Justin sees it, I should be MORE excited about my birthdays than he is about his.  After all, he is a child and still has many birthdays to look forward to while I am old and don't have too many more left.  Better enjoy them while I can I guess.

The boys, especially Ryan, were a bit distraught that I was making my own cake.  I reassured them that it was fine.  I told them that I wanted a very special pineapple upside down cake and I was the only one who knew how to make it.  I had no birthday presents from them, so I found things in the closet that Rob could help them wrap for me.  It isn't like I didn't have things on the way, just not here in time.  There really isn't a place for the boys to go shopping for things I might like, so they got to give me something at least.  Rob had the day before my birthday off from work, so he made pizza with enough to have leftovers.  Pizza and pineapple upside down cake.  What else could I want?

I was also able to talk with both my brother and my sister. :)  I generally talk to my mom each week (and sometimes Dad pokes his head in to say something), but not so much with my brother and sister.

Forgot to take any birthday shots with the cake or anything,
but here is one shot of me with Ryan on my birthday.

 Justin has been working on shapes in school and the boys have become more interested in playing with the pattern blocks.  It's fun to have pattern blocks and some 3D shapes for Justin to use to teach Ryan.  They play school, though when it is time for Ryan to be the teacher things don't go well for long.  I suppose I should be glad that Justin is a good student in real school at least.

 

My birthday packages did finally arrive.  We also got a box of clothes that Nathan's boys had outgrown.  My boys love getting hand me down clothes from their cousins.  Ryan wanted me to take a picture of him wearing this hoodie.  There is one Cars hockey style shirt that the boys both claim as theirs.  Funny since neither of them like the movie.  Guess the shirt is just that cool.  It fits them both, so I just need to remember to rotate which drawer it gets placed in so they get equal opportunity with it.

Ryan continues to enjoy school.  Here he is playing outside while I wait to take him home.  He wanted just five more minutes.  Some things never change.  I think he would be happy enough to go there all day everyday.  Three mornings a week is enough for me.  Next year he will be a kindergartener and I will be home alone all day.

On the last day of January, Justin got to go to a birthday party for his friend Ani.  They live nearby so he was able to walk to her house after school with the other children from his class.  Unfortunately, I forgot to tell him that he was allowed to eat at the party.  Now I tend to think that is a given, which is why I forgot to mention it to him.  Cake was served, and he said he didn't know if he was allowed to eat it or not.  Ani's mother decided to call me to see if he had allergies.  Wouldn't you know that she called at the exact moment I was taking out the trash!  I didn't hear the phone, nor did Ryan mention that I had missed a call.  I rarely receive phone calls, so I didn't think to check.  I noticed the missed call shortly before I went to pick him up.  Justin was able to bring a piece of cake home, but he was a bit upset that he missed out on treats at the party.  Sigh.  We went over the concept that if I give permission for him to go to a birthday party, he has permission to eat food there.  He has even been to Ani's house before and it isn't like her mother is a stranger by any means.  Sigh.

Saturday was a bit better for Justin.  Charlie came over for a play date.  The three boys played nicely. Of course they really wanted to play outside since it was sunny.  They didn't seem to care that there was a biting wind.  I went to get the basketballs for them, and the garage door from the house to the garage broke.  Great.  At least the Embassy takes care of all of those issues for us, but still a pain.  The basketballs needed more air.  They decided playing kickball with me would be awesome.  I froze to death as they enjoyed making me play against the three of them.  At least I got my exercise for the day.  Usually I would love to have Charlie stay forever, but since I was outside and very cold I was happy when it was time for us to take him home.

We got in the car and dropped him off before heading to the church to help clean it.  There were plenty of us, so it didn't take very long.  We decided to go to KFC for lunch since we were already in the city.  The boys love KFC and it is easy to park nearby, something that I wanted to be able to do because of the bitter wind.

I liked this "STUFF ONLY" door.  There were much funnier signs
in China so I am not sure why this one amused me so much.

 KFC was, well KFC.  When that is your fast food choice it is amazing how great it can be.  They played KFC commercials on TVs around the restaurant.  The commercials were from different countries and advertised products that aren't available here.  Odd to see items and currencies that aren't consistent with where you are.  I also realized that KFC is a Pepsi serving restaurant in the US.  All of the commercials showed combos with Pepsi and Pepsi products, yet here I was in Armenia with my Coke Light.  Huh.

After lunch we went to Yum Yum Doughnuts so Rob and the boys could get a doughnut.  I am a Krispy Kreme person and that isn't an option, so I saved the calories for junk we had at home that I would actually enjoy.

I love Ryan's bug eyes when he is trying to do puppy dog eyes.

 That evening when Justin was getting ready to bathe, he became suddenly hysterical about the possibility of a scorpion climbing into the bath water with him.  Yeah, I think scorpions often climb up the walls of bath tubs and plop into the water so they can make it over to a small boy and sting him.  He was getting all worked up about scorpions and it wasn't like we could say that there aren't scorpions here, because there are.  We haven't found any in our house, but some people have.  We reassured him that in the unlikely event of a bath tub scorpion attack, we would be able to treat it.  He wasn't convinced that the medicine and cold pack would be good enough.  We googled to show him pictures to see what the scorpions here look like.  Wouldn't you know that one of the first hits was how a five year old Armenian girl died from a scorpion sting!  We didn't show that to him.  I wisely didn't tell him all of the things he should worry about more than scorpions.

Reading over Rob's shoulder, Justin saw an ad about credit scores.  He, of course, wanted to know what a credit score was.  That led to all sorts of financial questions including whether or not we were rich.  How much money would we need to be rich?  What are our assets?  What are we saving?  Since this is the same boy who wanted to know if he got our money when we die, I am hesitant to make him think we have any!  So glad we can add financial worries to the boy who worries about everything under the sun.

The first full week in February was also fairly routine.  Rob recorded the Super Bowl so he wouldn't have to get up in the middle of the night to watch it.  He took the Monday off and watched it.  While his Seattle Seahawks won, he said that the game wasn't very excited to watch.

Justin had a playdate with his friend, Nathan.  Nathan and his family have moved to our neighborhood so now we live closer.  He is busy though with many extracurricular activities so Justin doesn't get to play with him as often as he would probably like.  School interferes so much with his life, poor boy.

Ryan had an extra day at preschool because two students were celebrating their birthdays.  They went all out for a school celebration.  They had pizza, cake, and other treats.  There were balloons and a professional photographer.  I was even requested to pick him up later than usual that day.  I was able to make valentines cookies without any helpers.

Friday I made some valentines chocolates, but that was not quite as successful.  I learned that my spatula did not stand up to being in the microwave with melting chocolate.  It meant a whole batch of chocolate had to be thrown out. 

A storm and later a mistake meant that I got to talk to my sister twice.  I realized how much I miss her and how fun it is to get to talk to her.  One of her few faults is that she doesn't live closer.

I have included a few pictures of the things the boys have done lately.  I have not done anything with my other blog since May of last year.  I have found several pictures and will go about posting them to the blog, though they will not necessarily be in any order.  Ryan especially has done some cute things in preschool that I want to put up.  I don't know if they will be of use to others, but it will help me remember some of the cute ideas.

The boys have been into Playmobil again.  I don't even mind playing
that with them.

Ages 7 and up?  Rob begs to differ!

The boys love watching the glitter move around in
the tornado water bottle.

Paper airplane making has taken over the dining room.

January 28, 2014

A bit behind, but not too much.  Here is a recap of our last week.

On Sunday the 19th we had some of the missionaries and a marine come eat with us after church.  There were nine of us plus Justin and Ryan.  We had tacos and fajitas, which was a good choice because it helped keep the boys occupied at the table with their food as well.  We had pineapple upside down cake for dessert and there wasn't any left the next day.  I decided that I will make another one for my birthday because for some reason because I didn't get my fill.  Funny how I hadn't made one in forever and now I keep craving it.  The boys are always excited to have people come over for dinner and we had a good time eating and talking.

Monday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day so Rob didn't have to go to work.  The boys went off to school and he was able to enjoy watching some football from the previous night.  Justin came home from school anxious to go to Monika's birthday party.  Seemed like forever until it was time to go.

Monika's party was the most extravagant birthday party for a 7 year old that we have ever attended.  We got there at 6:00 (the time the party started) even though we are in Armenia.  Oops.  Not even Monika's family was there yet.  We walked up the stairs to the party room, tracking the dirty, wet snow from our boots.  So lovely on the white tile and quite obvious who is tracking it in.  Of course there was someone there ready with a mop to clean up after us.

There was a lifesize Monika cut-out over by a spring background.  Later I saw her get her picture taken next to it.  It was like she was twins.  Between the children and adult sections was an open area in front of the stage.  Balloons covered the floor and provided a fun activity for the children.

Yep, just us hanging at the party.  Already got the
funky light thing going on though.

Slowly people began to arrive.  More and more children played with the balloons until they had all been popped. Adults were shown their tables and the children theirs.  They had pizza, popcorn, sodas, and a variety of snacks at their place.  In addition, there was basically a mini candy store set up for children to choose lollipops, cake pops, chocolate, pudding, and a variety of other sweets as they wanted throughout the evening.



One of the girls in J's class.

That's the birthday treat station behind the boys. The mini sized
Monika cut out is on the right side of the picture.

 I wish that I had been able to take pictures of more of the guests without being obvious.  Many of them reminded me of a cross between models and people dressed for a theme party of some sort.  In addition to the professional photographer there were two people with video cameras capturing the event.  Evidently, Monika is on a TV show here in Armenia and part of her party will be on the show.  Some song was played and she made her way from the stage, around the room, being filmed as she walked around singing and posing.  Later we saw some home videos of her and some clips from her TV show.

Sweater dude is one of the guys taping the party.
I had to get a shot of this kid though.  I have NEVER seen
a kid in the US dressed up like this.

Short dresses like this one make me glad that I don't have daughters to dress.

While all of this was going on, we had plenty to eat being brought to our table.  There was a variety of Armenian food, but I stuck primarily to the meat, lavash (bread), and cheese since it was all something I recognized and knew that I liked.


The adult tables

One of the children's tables.

A clown, Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, and Winnie the Pooh joined the party to dance and play with the children.  Not long after two more juggling clowns arrived.  I thought they had a gypsy fortune teller hired as well, but she ended up being the parent of one of the children attending.  Oops.



 

 

We left at 8:00, though some people had just arrived.  I noticed that the children's tables were being filled with platters of chicken kabobs and French fries.  I guess that is why Ryan's pizza had been cleared away while he was asking me if he could have another treat. The treat ended up tasting like stale breakfast cereal flavored with strawberry Nestle Quick, but he didn't seem to mind.  He hadn't liked the pudding, which had a consistency that suggested quite a bit of gelatin or something in it.  I thought it might be able bounce like a bouncy ball if you shaped it right.  I couldn't quite figure out the flavor either.  Not the typical US birthday treats.  It is fun to be able to try them, even if they aren't always to my taste.

Birthday girl (in blue) with her mother and siblings

Justin with the birthday girl



That's my crazy little Ryan!

No alcohol at the children's tables, but plenty of soda.
Ryan thought he was going to throw up when he got home.

It was very interesting to get to go to Monika's party.  My children certainly have been to a variety of parties from super low key to extravagant.  It is nice that at this age they don't seem content with all of them. 

The rest of the week was pretty dull by comparison.  I wanted to place a grocery order, but gave up when I saw they were out of milk, eggs, chicken, ground beef, cheese, butter, and produce.  Nice.  They did have potatoes and onions, but not even carrots or cabbage.  I am glad that we have a fridge and a freezer in our garage so we can stock up on things.  The alternative would be to eat like the locals, but I don't know how fatty meat and heavy breads would work for us day after day.

On Friday, J's school had mother son night so he and I left Ryan with Skyler to babysit while we headed off. 

After taking a picture of us, we were able to find a table and play some games for awhile.  Justin chose to play Battleship with Noor, a new boy in his class.  I played with Noor's younger brother so that their mother could help Justin and Noor figure out the game which was new to them both.  Justin opted not to make a picture frame, but continued to play games until treasure hunt time.

I could not keep up with Justin on the treasure hunt.  He was running around quickly and we were the first to finish. He got to choose a bag filled with goodies, pencils, balloons, an eraser, and a noisemaker.

Next we gathered in a circle for dancing.  The first dance was the chicken dance.  Justin hid behind me and then wanted to sit out for the rest of the dancing.  He didn't know the chicken dance and was sure that everyone was going to laugh at him if he did it wrong.  Uh, yeah.  I don't know what professional dancers he was watching, but I he would have to do something pretty major to call attention to himself.  Perhaps if his pants ripped out or he took a nose dive.  Oh well.  We sat and watched the others dance.  Luckily it was only about 15 minutes.

Next was food and a show.  We had pizza and juice.  This was the most exciting part for me because it meant that I didn't have to cook dinner.  Ryan had a sandwich and Rob could have leftovers.  Yay!  We watched a rather horrible show about a little engine that could, but not THE little engine that could.  When it was finished, they showed clips of all of the boys who were there that night.  They each said what they like to do with their mothers.  As this started, the boys started to hide under chairs, cover their heads with their coats, or pretend in some other manner to be embarrassed.  My son asked if he could go sit by Charlie and his mom.  It was very cute, but I guess Justin was expecting some major special effects because he was disappointed in how the video turned out.

We walked home and Justin was very excited to spend some time with Skyler since Rob was working late and still not home.  I explained that since I was home they did not need to be babysat, but needed to get ready for bed.  Justin was devastated that Ryan got to spend time with a babysitter and he did not.  So unfair.

Got the boys in bed and Justin let me know what a sad day it was for him.  School "wastes" most of his time.  His teacher ALWAYS gets to decide what they are going to learn and when.  She also makes him infer a lot when his brain would like to be busy doing other things.  Rough life, huh?  Then mother son night had not lived up to his expectations.  I am sure that my birthday will be a big disappointment to him as well.

Speaking of birthdays, Justin did not understand that grown ups are not generally as excited as children are about birthdays.  The way he sees it, he still has plenty of birthdays left to celebrate, but I am getting old and don't have too many left.  Nice.

Saturday brought a fear of a tornado.  No, Justin, it was a plane flying by, not a tornado.  And no, I don't even think Armenia has tornadoes.  Then he freaked out about scorpions.  He didn't want to take a bath because maybe a scorpion would come into the bathroom and climb in with him and sting him.  Are there scorpions in Armenia?  Yes.  Have we seen any in our neighborhood or house yet?  No.  He wanted to know all about scorpions and what would happen if he were to be stung, blah, blah, blah.  Rob found a picture to show him.  I was thankful that he didn't click on the link about the five year old Armenian girl dying from a scorpion bite.  I had just assured Justin that would NOT happen.  Now I just need to hope that he doesn't worry about a tornado bringing scorpions and having them fly all around us.

Justin continued to worry.  The new boy in his class did not have a notebook for French class and the teacher told him to get one.  Could we buy Noor one?   I said that his family could take care of that.  Justin worried about the cost of notebooks and if the family could afford it.  I said they could.  How did I know?  Well, his dad works at the Embassy too and makes enough money to buy a notebook.  Of course Justin wanted to know how much people who work at the Embassy get each time they go to work.  Sigh.  Is it any wonder I get more gray hairs each day?