Plumb out of Titles

Another day. No titles for blog posts left in my tired and overworked brain.

Today wore me out.

Seriously.

WE KEPT BUSY ALL DAY.

Can you believe it?!

We arose from our beds of slumber about 8:15, and Mom had breakfast ready by 8:30. This thing of having a cook is something that I could get used to in a hurry.

At 9:00 we scurried around and skyped in to Bethel (our church) to enjoy their singing. It was so pretty. Got JN to dance a little. Of course, he does that when I read a book with rhyming lines, too. It was so nice to go to church again. Seems like it's been months.

Then. We had an appointment. A family down the hall for us wanted to tag along with us into town. Francoise and his son Nikolai (his wife Marlene, and new daughter, Olga stayed at the motel) were waiting on us in the lobby at 11:25, so we actually had a schedule to keep. It was a stretch, but it did ensure that we made it to the train station well before departure time at 11:48. Yes. 11:48. There's a train at 10:28, 10:38, 11:48, 12:10, etc. Odd times, but they are always exactly on time.

Sharing gum while waiting on the train.

It was their first time to take the train downtown, and boy, was Nikolai excited. He could hardly contain himself. He's the same age as Addie....and they were a good pair. Same energy level, same sense of humor, same obnoxiousness. He was adopted from this region in 2007.

We went to a couple stores in downtown Vlad and caught the 2:10 train back to our motel.

Miscellaneous downtown shots:

We intended to stop off at the Second River station on our way back through, but missed the stop. We didn't recognize it when we got there. I'm sure you're all shocked at that. So. We just came on home. By the way...for those of you reading who are heading to Vlad sometime soon, the Second River station is the third stop after you leave our station. Just follow the crowd when you get there and you'll find the markets and whatnot. You can even walk to the baby store and to the main grocery at that stop if you don't mind walking 25-30 minutes. I could give you a pictorial and wordy guide on the walk if you would like.... :)

Back home again, the children took naps while the adults played Euchre. I should say that Addie and Will took naps while Nickolay opted out once again. The stinker. Yesterday and today both he has slept about 20 whole minutes at nap time. Don't tell his caregivers. They would have a coniption. He was used to 2 two hour naps each day. Oops. Hard to do when he just lays there and plays.

At 4:00, we went back outside to play with Nikolai. His parents bought him a little sled to help pass the time. The children had a ball!

Back in again by 5:30, we started supper. Late supper. We've gotten used to eating by 4:30-5:00. Anyway. Supper consisted of a chicken and rice glob, over-warmed, rubbery bread, California blend casserole (which was delicious), apple crisp (which was delicious, and chocolate ice cream from the restaurant (they were out of vanilla). It really was a decent supper...until the ice cream. Actually, I thought it was all good....even the ice cream. Unfortunately, the rest of them chose the wrong bowls. Their's tasted like chocolate/onion ice cream (looked like chocolate, tasted like onion). In fact, Dad said that the only way to take care of the taste left in his mouth was to rinse with the vinegar that is sitting on the counter. It was that good.

What next. First we ate prune/walnut ice cream....now we ate chocolate/onion ice cream.

The restaurant here typically has pretty good food (except the nachos and now, apparently, the chocolate ice cream), but it appears that they forget to check the expiration dates at times. No biggy.

Tonight, poor JN was in bed very shortly after supper. He was miserable. Hopefully the 'no nap' will ensure that all elbows, diapers, knees, and heads stay in the general area that is allotted him.

See? We were busy all day.

Not even a spare minute to perfect our pool skills.

Which really is a bummer as we only have two more days here. I fear that all skills we have gained will soon be lost.

And. If I happen to remember.....tomorrow I can officially show pictures of our little JN.

Sunday slumbers

Sunday. It was a good day.

Had church this morning...listened to a sermon online.

Naptime came next.

While the children napped we taught Jason how to play Euchre. I think he's hooked.

Then it was pool tournament time. Wow. Are we getting good. Mom has effectively taught us all the tricks of the trade. Jumping balls off the table, hopping them over others. She's wanting to start a class when she gets home for all interested. However, she needs a pool table first.

That was our day.

Exciting.

Guess we did just take JN down the hall to the doctor. He has what we suspicion to be very swollen lymph glands, and we wanted a little verification. There is a family here from Canada....and the husband is an ER doctor. Tomorrow he's going to try to check his throat. Tonight JN was a little stubborn...lips were clamped shut.

JN is doing well. His true colors are starting to show. He loves to babble. He follows Addie and Will around like they are really something. He can stick up for himself. He loves to snitch food off Will's plate at meals....which results in much screeching. He sleeps...some. Naps are not going well. Today he slept for a really short 20 minutes. Bed at night? It's great if you don't mind his elbow in your ribs, his rear on your head, his feet on your tummy, etc. He doesn't lie very still, in other words. He loves to eat. Loves it. He'll eat til there is no food left on the table if his mean ole mommy lets him. The change in his diet is starting to show in his diaper. (Yes, he is in diapers. He's scared to sit on our big toilet, and we don't feel like buying a potty chair.)

Overall, he's a happy little guy. He really doesn't like strangers....but if he knows you, he'll smile every time he meets your eyes.

Oh, and Amber....he does Halli's finger trick. But to him it's not a joke. He gets so frustrated when his mommy doesn't feed his face quite fast enough...and there go the hands!!!

SO....in an effort to not bore you too much, I'm going to stick in some odds & ends pictures of Russia in general. Some you may have already seen..but I'm too lazy to check...and it would just take too many of our internet minutes.

Here goes randomness......

Trans-Siberian Railway Station

Are we too close to N. Korea?

Main hallway in the Children's Hospital in Nakhodka where JN lived for the first 17 months of his life.

Hot water heat in the visitor room at the hospital....though it was too chilly in there so they didn't make us stay in there.

Bay in Nakhodka............

Miscellaneous in Nakhodka

Hot water pipes that run all over the city and the country....used for heat and hot water.

Driving back to Vlad from Nakhodka....

Back in Vlad

Court house

Garbage truck

Peeling hotdogs

Tow Truck...hook the hooks into the wheels....

and hoist it up.....

and when the lady whose vehicle was being towed shows up (we assume it was a parking violation) you take it back off, she pays the cops, and off she goes.

Cleaning the heater filters in our room...think they needed it?!

And that's it. A pictorial view of the land of our children's birth.

Blessings to you all~

PS...we hope to attend church again tomorrow morning...which would be Sunday evening at home. We have church in the morning and hope to call in to enjoy worship at 'home'. Can't wait!!!

Saturday gone...

Today was just another day.

You can quit reading now.

Really. I won't be offended. Nothing new is happening here.

We got up. Late. It was about 8:30. Oops.

Mom popped breakfast in the oven and the rest of us hung out.

Jason called his brother to see what is happening with our house. Nothing really new. A couple walls ripped off. Dirty house.

Dad & Mom headed to the White Rabbit. To nap. And play pool. And read.

It's rough over here on this side of the world.

We're all exhausted by the end of the day.

Addie, Will, Jack Nickolay, and Jason took nice long naps while I worked on labeling pictures from here and putting them into a slide show.

Hard work.

Everyone woke up and the parents came back. Snacks were eaten all around and warm clothes were donned.

Off we went. Outside. For a walk down to the bay/sea/ocean. We really don't know what it is, but we fully intend to find out while we're still here.

Unfortunately, Dad was the only one who remembered his passport and registration papers (which we must have on us every time we leave the motel), so we had to turn around to get the rest of them.

The walk there was great. The ice was nearly all chipped away which made for some easy walking.

We went past an ice skating rink where the music was blaring and the people were abundant. All ages. The ice didn't appear to be overly good. Rough. It's about too cold to be skating.

Then on to our final destination....where we nearly froze. The wind was ferocious. The coldest wind I have ever felt.

Really.

Poor JN, who was riding in the pouch (Ergo) couldn't even breathe. His reaction was screaming. For the whole 3.2 minutes that we were there.

We snapped a few pictures while we were walking on the water and zipped back up the road to our motel.

We wished for mugs of hot chocolate.

Since our great venture to the out of doors, we've been kind of lazy. I'm sure that's hard to believe.

Supper was fixed...which was actually meant to be last night's supper, but at the last minute we decided to go to the restaurant for supper instead.

Chicken noodle soup, bread, cookies, and ice cream. Mmmm. It was delicious. The ice cream was a little odd, though. We thought it looked like plum from the picture on top, but it was the color of butterscotch.

While Mom and I were doing dishes, we discovered that the label on the bottom of the container was written in English as well as in Russian. Turns out we polished off a whole container of prune and walnut ice cream.

No wonder it tasted a little odd.

The children have had their showers and we were hoping to head to the White Rabbit to play a little pool. However, a couple men missed the memo that it is our terf, and are using the table in our stead.

What do we do when we can't even play pool?

The children and Grandma are coloring. Dad just put away the clean dishes and is brewing a pot of tea. Jason is reading up on entertainment options while we are in Moscow. Due to being there on the weekend, we will have several days when we have nothing to do. That's different.

I am sitting in front of the computer.

Obviously.

JN is sitting on my lap, rubbing his eyes, sucking his thumbs, wiggling, moving my cursor, rubbing his eyes.....

Big day today.

We'll see if tomorrow is as exciting as today was.

Only five days til we leave.

The countdown is on.