January 24th weekend

We spent most of the weekend cleaning the house and trying to fix the local economy (a.k.a. Shopping).

Kids started new swimming session on Saturday. It was quite a challenge getting all three of them to the correct instructor (since we didn't know who that would be ahead), all at the same time! Since we started going to the pool regularly, kids have less issues with class participation (ahem... Jon). I got to enjoy swimming while they are in class too, instead of sitting on a bench.

Sunday we got to see a Blue Heron having a frog snack in our backyard. We have never seen it hunting, nor did we know we have frogs in the backyard... Very interesting!

Then, Larissa and I went out for lunch. We planned on Thai food, but somehow ended up having Indian. Either way, it was delicious

Jon is acting like he is getting sick again. I fear it's another ear infection.
Gabe just wants to play Roblocks.com game all weekend long.

January 17th weekend

This weekend we mostly stayed home. I was trying to catch up on my crafting and watching movies, kids were mostly enjoying playing computer games.

Larissa and I got a "High School Musical" fleece blanket kit and finished it together. We agreed that none of the characters looked "human" on the blanket or too much like themselves, but the blanket is nice and soft, so it will do just fine.

There were a few pieces of material leftover, and Larissa didn't let them get wasted. She made an outfit for her Barbie. Very interesting use of staples and tape... talk about fast.

I also finished my wool hat. I changed my mind about half way through, on how I was going to decorate it, but I think it turned out OK. I did learn that felting wool in a washing machine is easy, but it takes longer and you have less control on the end results. Also, it takes felted wool an extremely long time to dry on it's own.

Gabe asked if I have a hat for him too, so I quickly made one more:

Funnies

My friend sent me a "Men are just happier people" joke (attached below) and even though I have seen it come across my Inbox a few times in the past, I re-read it. When I got to the BATHROOM bullet, I started laughing. You see, it's quite different in my house.
Although, may be I have just as many items as my husband, I guess I might be better at storing them out of sight.
Here are the actual pictures of my bathroom:

MY SIDE:

HIS SIDE:

THE JOKE:

"MEN ARE JUST HAPPIER PEOPLE.

NICKNAMES
If Laura, Kate and Sarah go out for lunch, they will call each other Laura, Kate and Sarah. If Mike, Dave and John go out, they will affectionately refer to each other as Fat Boy, Godzilla and four-eyes.
EATING OUT
When the bill arrives, Mike, Dave and John will each throw in $20, even though it's only for $32.50. None of them will have anything smaller and none will actually admit they want change back. When the girls get their bill, out come the pocket calculators.
MONEY
A man will pay $2 for a $1 item he needs.
A woman will pay $1 for a $2 item that she doesn't Need but it's on sale.
BATHROOMS
A man has six items in his bathroom: toothbrush and toothpaste, shaving cream, razor, a bar of soap, and a towel The average number of items in the typical woman's bathroom is 337. A man would not be able to identify more than 20 of these items.
ARGUMENTS
A woman has the last word in any argument.
Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a New argument
FUTURE
A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband. A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.
SUCCESS
A successful man is one who makes more money than His wife can spend. A successful woman is one who can Find such a man.
MARRIAGE
A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but He doesn't. A man marries a woman expecting that she won't change, but she does.
DRESSING UP
A woman will dress up to go shopping, water the plants, empty the trash, answer the phone, read a book, and get the mail. A man will dress up for weddings and funerals.
NATURAL
Men wake up as good-looking as they went to bed .
Women somehow deteriorate during the night.
OFFSPRING
Ah, children. A woman knows all about her children.
She knows about dentist appointments and romances, best friends, favorite foods, secret fears and hopes and dreams.
A man is vaguely aware of some short people living In the house.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
A married man should forget his mistakes. There's No use in two people remembering the same thing! "

and Happy New Year... again?..

This Saturday kids and I were looking through a "things to do around town" kind of magazine and I came across a post about Slavic New Year celebration at a public library. Apparently, New Year is celebrated on a different date at a Russian Orthodox church. I kind of knew that, but never could remember the correct date. We decided that we will drive the 25 miles and check it out.

When we got to the library, I was rather surprised that there was not a single parking space available, so we had to park around the corner. Place was packed with Russians (hee hee) and their families. There was a music band playing in the back and a kids' activities in the front room. We got invited to attend the latter, but were told there was only one more spot open :-( but were able to find two spots though. Jon didn't want to participate anyway, he was happy to observe.

This is where it started to unravel... Let's just say the kids now know what it feels like to be in a foreign country and not speaking the language.

Kids were read a Russian folk tale by two ladies. First in Russian by one of them, then the same thing in English by another lady. Pretty soon though, they went into instructions on drawing some characters from the book, and English translation was abandoned. Larissa got very discouraged, got up and left the table (no surprise there) and refused to behave

, but Gabe stuck with it and finished his project.

By that time, music performance was done with too. We bought a CD from the band for $5 and played it in the car on the way to a Russian food store, where we got lots of yummies.

Sunday we scored a really good deal on Christmas sale at Jo Ann's Fabrics store (90% off!!), got a few nice things for next year, then got home and put all the Christmas decorations, tree, lights, etc away in boxes.

I am just glad we only have to do this once a year!..

...and a Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!

We celebrated at home in a small family setting. A glass of champagne for grownups and a sparkling grape juice for the kids. A few party poppers and many finger foods to choose from.

Happy 2009!

Now, can someone tell me where year 2008 and all the years before that went?.. Time flies.

We are keeping up with the tradition our family started many years ago. When I was growing up in Russia, we didn't celebrate Christmas (religious holiday, not allowed...), but we did celebrate a New Year. At midnight on December 31 Father Frost would stop by and leave us presents.
Every year I make sure that kids get at least a small present each on the morning of January 1st. And what makes it even better is after-Christmas sales the week before ;-)

Now, this year Father Frost left some presents, as expected, but he also left a note "Where are my milk and cookies?". Kids had a good laugh when they saw the note.