Archive for March, 2008

{ March 24, 2008 @ 5:15 am } · { Uncategorized }
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We survived another week!!

The ants are yet to take over, but they really are trying… I now have no idea where exactly they are coming from :-(

Last week there was an American team of men who came to work on the house that Kolya has been working on since we were married.  I know Kolya was encouraged a bit… What a difference 8 people make, rather then 2 full time!  Lots of progress made BUT still TONS of work to do :-/

Praise God that Kolya is feeling better!  Last weekend he was fighting a temperature that stayed about 100-101 even after he took meds to reduce it…  Thank the Lord that Vova and Lena got married last Saturday so we made the trip in and got some powerful stuff from dad :)   It is good to have a doctor in the family sometimes!  Sunday was the first Sunday we didn’t make it to church in our married lives… We did things on our own, hehe. Monday, Kolya was still fighting high temperatures over 101, poor guy!  I am blessed with a husband who has a desire to work!  I had told him not to go to work on Friday, but he went with tablets in his pocket for every 4-6 hours to lower the fever.  Crazy guy!  With 6 or 7 weeks until the proposed move in date, he needs to stay healthy!

In other news, we’ll be having a new house guest for a few weeks.  One of the groomsmen from our wedding!  He’ll be coming to help with work on the house with Kolya and his brother.  I think the other two people who are sometimes there will be moving to the strawberry farm.  But I really don’t know anything.  It’ll be fun to get to know Sasha more.  He’s a really nice guy.  Kolya said that he’s been interested in spiritual things before, so our prayer is that our lives and his time with us will be used!

I guess that is all for now…. trying to watch 8 and 9pm of 24 before we head off to the dentist and then back to Rzhishchev!

{ March 17, 2008 @ 12:25 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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As I was surfing the net, checking up on important things like prices on coffee per lb. around the world, I came across this interesting article about McDonald’s: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23300489/

Check out the pictures of the new interiors of some in California.  That is what McDonald’s is like in Ukraine.  Maybe not based on the Fenj Shi stuff (or however you spell it) BUT at least in Kyiv, each MD has it’s own special decor.  It’s quite nice, people are mopping 24/7, it’s ALWAYS clean.  People are friendly and raise there hand and yell ‘open cash register’ so you can move there line.  The bathrooms have real toilets and they are clean as well!  Much different then my experience in the states.  I don’t go very often… Even when I lived in Kyiv but Rzhishchev doesn’t have any fast food, that I know of.  The most that I’ve done is gone to a cafe in the summer for chips/peanuts/fish and a cold draft beer :)   Maybe one of these days I’ll ‘go out’ but I’d rather wait for a little bit warmer weather and pack up the backpack with a nice picnic spread and find a spot overlooking the river, bring my own music that I like and have a relaxing time with my husband :)   The only downside…. no freshly brewed coffee :-/

{ March 12, 2008 @ 7:17 am } · { Uncategorized }
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Day two of my killing spree was quite sucessful! I pray that they are now, all gone… and not creeping in from somewhere else :-/  Once the dampness/rain/drizzle dries up I think I’ll spray some stuff around the outside as well.  For now I’m just enjoying two very, very clean rooms (taking up rugs, etc… every square inch was cleaned and walls vacumed, again).  Urgh… as I’m typing they are coming back, sigh… only from different cracks in the floor boards.  No sweet stuff anywhere…. Why do they want to live here?  Urgh.

Other fun news, it’s been two months since the wedding!

 The police stopped by the neighbors at about 7.30am today and have driven by a few more times and it is only 9.15am.  Hmm…  We’ve been coming up with fun stories as we haven’t seen him for a long time now!

My internet time is about to run up and so I’ll post…. More this weekend :)   (and hope no more ants!!!!)

{ March 11, 2008 @ 7:10 am } · { Uncategorized }
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Well, it’s true.  Good friends Vova and Lena will be getting married this Saturday. Just a 3 days after our 2 month anniversary. I think we’ll have fun :)   No presure of the details, all of that is finished for us! We get to just sit back and relax and remember what our wedding was like. The Bachelorette party was this past weekend.  It was a zoo/jungle theme and we all dressed up as different animals.  I, of course was a pig. I am amazed at the other marrieds who were there and how nervous they had been before the big day!  I, at least I think so, was super calm. (Mumsie, correct me if I’m wrong.)  It was nice to just sit back and be in the company of old friends and new friends!  I was the only one, (besides the bride) who knew everyone!  Kind of funny as I was the only American, hehe.  Then again, 2 of them I’d only met the Sunday before when Kolya and I attened church in a meighboring town. 

Sunday was great to see friends in Kyiv at church.  There are many freshly married couples in the church!  This will be the 3rd wedding in about 6th months for Pastor Ivan! It is great to fellowship with other couples as we are all figuring out this step in our lives. 

 We were able to share pulled pork b-b-q sandwhiches with mumsie, pops, dasha and a couple who are in the process of adopting THREE brothers 6, 5 and 3.  They all got to enjoy Jamie’s concert, heh. (go to mumsie’s blog for details) and Kolya and I got home around 7.30ish.  Unpacked and I noticed that we had a few new ‘friends’ move in over the weekend.  Friends that I spent the day relocating.  Ants.  As the weather is warming up more and more (urgh… I still want more SNOW but then again, it is saving us on gas :-/)  and the house we are living in is old, the begining of the new season often brings these gets.  I spent the day ’spring cleaning’ the kitchen. Moving anything movable out and scrubbing the floor, etc.  Unfortunatly, I think they are coming through the cracks in the floor so the daily sweeping is now turning into several times a day and a RAID trap has been laid.  Last October, Kolya and I did a major cleaning, moving all furniture, vacuming walls, mopping the entire floor, beating all the rugs, taking everything off of shelves, etc…. It’s been 4-5 months now, and while everything is still ‘clean’, I really hate bugs. My mother can testify that when I see one, I empty the room and scrub it from top too bottom.  Kolya tells me it won’t help, heh, it’s an old house and it happens every year in the springtime. (Just like you have to set out mice posin in the spring and fall, YUCK) but in my little brain, it does help! 

 Tonight is Tuesday.  That means Bible Study night!  When Kolya and I first met and were ‘getting to know each other’ living 1 1/2 hours apart, we started reading the bible together and discussing it.  Matthew was the book we chose.  I figured, that would also be a good way to get to know some of the girls here :)   I talked with Cheryl about starting a study and it was agreed upon that we would meet.  We’ve met a few times now and it’s really amazing going back over the basics of the faith of things we all learned and were taught when we were new believers, how much we forget!  It’s interesting the things that we pick up on, how just mighty and great our God is!  And are we really living like we believe these things!  I’m looking forward to these evenings, going back to the bible and re-learning these truths that my faith is built upon!

It also gives Kolya an evening just to himself or spend how he wishes.  He’s building a drum.  I’ll try and remember to take some pictures. 

Sounds like the washer is finished and need to hang the sheets to dry….

John Grisham books are a great way to pass time, heh, waiting for my hubby to get home!

The Office is just amazing.  I finished the 3rd season today.  I can’t wait to see what goes on in the 4th and 5th seasons!  Even Kolya gets a laugh every now and again :)   It is definatly something I will own in the future… hmmm, Christmas money???

{ March 8, 2008 @ 6:51 am } · { Uncategorized }
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I’m back in Kyiv for the ENTIRE weekend, heh.  Yesterday (Friday) Kolya and I made a trip to Sasha, the dentist.  Kolya REALLY doesn’t like to visit because of the free trips back in the day.  They drilled, poked and filled his good teeth.  I wouldn’t like to go if I didn’t have a choice to get some pain killers!

The trip was quick, (thanks for showing us the way, mumsie!) he can save his ‘bad’ tooth and give him the million dollar smile.  We get to go back in 2 weeks with the x-ray we got!

We made our way back home, to a pot of coffee Jamie made for all of us! Had a quick nap, and early dinner before we met Maya at 6 to go to the circus!

I must say, I like the circus a lot better here then when I went to Salisbury.  You still have the smell, hehe. But, there is something about having only 1 ring and you can focus your attention on one thing instead of the 3. And there isn’t a bad seat in the house! Just 16 rows in a round building.  This circus was ‘White Bear on Skates’.  Just like anything, they waited until the end to  have the polar bears. They were really cute but I still feel sorry for them.  I have no idea what they laced the snacks with. Yikes.

They jump-roped on ice, did cart-wheels while jumping, acrobatics and hand skates.  It was all of our first circus on ice (Mumsie, Maya, Kolya and me).  Mumsie and Maya ran out to look for some refreshments and came back with beers and chips for Kolya and I (not even letting us to go get what we wanted, heh).  The only thing that was missing was some kids.  It was really fun BUT it would have been interesting to see it through a child’s eyes.

It will be interesting if we ever spend a length of time in the states (or even just a week for that matter).  Here, the movie theater tickets are bought for a seat.  Different prices for different seats.  Almost everywhere is assigned seating.

Need coffee.

For Kibbie

{ March 4, 2008 @ 9:52 am } · { Uncategorized }
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About the dead body.  It was human, an older man from what we could tell.  He was on the edge of the sidewalk on the corner of the street.  Maybe he went naturally or maybe he fell, hit is head and couldn’t get up?  It was very early in the morning.  A small crowd had formed with several on mobile phones calling we assumed was the police or ambulance.  His face was gray.  We said a little prayer as we watched from a distance and continued on.

I made a deal with Kolya before the wedding that I would be the first to go.  On the program we even had a Winnie-the-Pooh quote! (I love Winnie, but Piglet even more) the quote was, “If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live without you.”

{ March 4, 2008 @ 7:03 am } · { Uncategorized }
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It’s amazing how I can see my priorities change as I continue to grow up!  I’m hitting that 25 mark in just a little over a month.  Crazy.  I still remember ‘helping’ my mom get ready when I was 10… Mom, I’m now in double-digits!  In another 3 years I’ll be a TEENager! Then in another 3 driving! Then another 2 and I can vote! (and little did I know move to Ukraine) another 2 and I’ll finally be 20 and then 21 and can run to the store for ANY errand.   25 was still a long ways off.  The unknown.  After the big 1-6 the other birthdays didn’t seem to be any big deal… 18???  Well, I can’t ‘vote’ while I’m in Ukraine and don’t even know how to go about the absentee ballot so forget it (to today when this weekend I’ll be doing some research to be able to vote this fall!)  21, who cares!!!  I’ve been able to buy that bottle of wine since we moved, to take to dinner hosts and beer??  Nothing ’special’ about that birthday.  Now, I’m approaching 25.  The unknown.  I’m married and it’ll be exactly 3 months on my birthday.  Instead of the world’s approach to growing up and having the car, house, good job, family, kids, etc… (not at all that that is bad!)  I seem to be moving, in the world’s eyes, backwards.  I ‘can’t work’, I don’t have a home phone number/line, no car, no house that is mine to do as I please.  Material wise, I do have a super cool mobile phone, haha, who would have thought :) only because my hubby knew that I used email and wanted me to still have access :)   I have grown and being married have had a steeper up line in my knowing and knowledge of who God is.  He is HOLY and merciful for when I do start thinking about myself and poor, poor me.  He continues to provide moment by moment and it’s easier to trust Him when you continue to seek Him in everything!  Seeing as how we have different first languages, we are trying to get books in both that we can read together and both get the deepness and not just surface of different topics.  I’m looking at buying a New Genivea Study Bible so we’ll both have the same commentary at the bottom AND when studying Biblical Counseling last year, I got Paul Tripp’s War on Words in russian so we are starting to read that together :)   Next on my list is Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ because again, we’ve got it in both languages :)

Time to head back south… :)

Our first night not together in at least the same house was last night… Something I’m going to try not to repeat often :)

{ March 2, 2008 @ 7:07 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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Well, so far so good :)   I’m posting again!!!  I hope that I have correctly checked (or unchecked) the boxes which will allow comments to be viewed without approval… the good news is I’m heading to my parents tomorrow and Mumsie can show me how wordpress works AND I hope to add pictures :)

Life continues to happen. Both the good and the bad, heh.  But, we continue to trust that God is Lord over ALL and we are in His hands.  We continue to grow in our faith in Christ alone and knowledge that this life really, really is short!  Like in the sermon we heard in Kagralyk today that this life is just a breath! We don’t have time to worry about what ‘others’ think, do etc… we need to just continue to live for Christ day by day with His mercies that our new every morning and choose to believe His promises.

There is so much I could write about ‘life’ that my mom is finding interesting when we talk on the phone but to me, it’s now life and doesn’t seem  interesting to me. :)   But, I’ll try to write things down during the week to post.

Well, life is pretty slow for me these days!  I’m involved in a girl’s Bible study meeting on Tuesdays, Kolya and I are trying to have people over at least once a week (and Thursday’s seem like the only night available!)  The past 2 weeks we’ve had guests on the weekends so yesterday, we enjoyed a full day at home doing nothing.  We did end up taking a pretty good walk down by the river just enjoying eachother company.

I need to run and get back to my hubby…. more tomorrow :)