Olya invited me to a party at Denis’ apartment last night, and I really wanted to go, but hadn’t spent any time really with her or Denis since camp two summers ago.  I, having the people phobia that I do, was very nervous to go.  I talked to God about this and felt like I needed to go anyway; plus, I really did want to spend some time with Denis and Olya—I remember spending quite a bit of time with them that summer and thinking how sad it was that I probably wouldn’t see them again when it was over.  So, I went to meet them at a metro stop and it turned out that Pasha and Syoma were coming to the party, too.  It is such a small world.  Anyway, I ended up having a WONDERFUL time, and hope to spend some more time with both Denis and Olya in the future.  We shared about what we have been doing this past year and what we want for the future, then we played charades, watched National Security (until the power went out), and played Mafia.  Fun times.  Here are some pics from last night….

 

Peace out.

Syoma is excited: he just told his friends about his new tongue ring...give it a couple hours and he will have a swollen tongue and a sore mouth (I don't have any pictures of that)... 

Olya's classmate and Pasha acting out the word "blackmail" during our charades game.
 

One of Olya's classmates, Syoma and Katya (from New Life) 

Me and my precious roommate :o) 

Yea! It's warm enough to leave the house.

So, in order to get out of the house for the first time in days, I went to school with Amberly.  Sarah is at an ESL conference in Russia, so it was just Amberly, me and her teacher.  Her teacher is so sweet, though.  We had fun and our brains hurt as we were leaving.  Saw a lady wearing a neon pink fur coat on our way to the metro—that was amusing…wish I would have had my camera out.  We had planned on spending the day in the city when our landlord, Vladimir, called.  We usually make Dennis talk to him because he doesn’t speak Englsih, but Dennis is at some conference this week, so Amberly decided to try and talk to him.  She answered the phone and understood enough to know that he was in Kiev and wanted to stop by our apartment around 6.  So, we hurried home to clean and waited for his arrival.  We weren’t sure what to do when he got there...on the marshootka ride home, Amberly was like “do we offer him tea?”  “should we salute?”  “what if he kicks us out?”  I reassured her that we had a contract and he wasn’t just going to kick us out, but had NO idea what we were supposed to do when he did show up.  At about 6:30 he was here…in some sort of military get up and Amberly was like “now I really feel like we should salute” which made me laugh really hard.  He just walked around and looked at things and then said that he would be in Kiev again next weekend and would come get the rugs that we had stowed away.  When he left we concluded that it felt like we were at camp and had just had bunk inspections.  I think we passed.

 

Peace out.

Last week's English Club was A LOT of fun. After class we had a snowball fight with our kids on the way to catch the marshootka. These are some of our kids who live in the building next door, this picture was taken out the window in Amberly's room. I love it...they are so precious! 

This is me, Amberly and Sarah on our way to church on Sunday...it takes about 15 extra minutes to get dressed in the morning when you have to add all the extra layers. 

Sorry, Syoma, I don't think that Amberly's Hello Kitty hat is going to fit your big head...it looks nice though, pink works for you... 

“…Look around at the nations; look and be amazed!  For I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn’t believe even if someone told you about it.”

Habakkuk 1:5

 

I really believe that.   We wouldn’t believe the stuff that God is doing right now, even if someone told us about it.  I look at things that He has done in my life, even in just the past six months and I think, if someone had told me that God was going to do all that, would I have believed them?  And the answer is most certainly not.  My faith is weak.   Luckily, our God is strong. 

It is so cold outside. Yesterday Roma had to wait for the marshootka for over an hour in the freezing cold. Then Amberly and Sarah had to wait for the same marshootka for 30 min. Amberly thought she was going to die. Pasha says "soon we will all die." opa. But, today Amberly and Sarah and I turned on our space heater and watched movies in the living room. We went to New Format tonight and tomorrow we are going to Little Andrey's chuch to see him drum! Fun times. Hope ya'll are staying warm :o)

Oh, and I ordered my mom's plane tickets last night, so it's official...she will come to me on Spring Break. I am a very happy girl.

This is Dennis and Hello Kitty. Hello Kitty was a gift from one of Amberly's sisters. She talks to you. The only problem is she won't shut up once you turn her on. Dennis just couldn't help himself...he had to pust the button. Now she calls him "momma." Way to go Dennis. 

 

This is for Erica. Thank you so much. It is freakly cold outside, and sometimes in my house too. I love my fun Erica socks!!!! 

The first use of the hot pink duct tape was to keep the battery on my phone...check it out... 

We also hot pink duct taped our windows beacuse the freakly cold wind was coming in through the cracks. Thank you Santa. 

Last week Katya spent the night on Tuesday. Dennis came over and we all played scrabble. Amberly would like everyone to know that she was the first scrabble champion. In the second round Katya kicked all our butts with like 45 points for one word. It was amazing! 

...and in our kitchen. 

Pasha and Tyoma came over after a meeting with Valera about spring conferences. It was a good night. 

This is me at my desk (as you can see). Calyn asked for me to post some pics from the office, so these are for her. Sorry, Vin, I took my camera after lunch, but a lot of people had already left. Sad day. But, here's the ones I took. I'll try to take more soon. 

Dennis is AMAZING. He always makes sure I know what's going on. 

Daniel comes to visit me in my office most days. He always has a story or something to share :o) 

Awww...Romchik. He makes me happy :o) I love to see his smiling face walk through my office door...even if it is usually 11:30 or so when he makes it in :o) 

Amberly at Magdych's desk. (he went home early...sad day :( 

Daniel...being Daniel. 

Masha and Vitalik 

Pasha and Tyoma came over the other night. Pasha says "hey girls, who can draw?" and A and I are both like "uh, no." and he says "Oh, cause I thought one of you could draw me." Well, THAT we decided we could do. So here you have it: Ode to Pasha.  

I can’t get over the unbelievably good days I have been having--God is good.Today I got up and Amberly and I planned English Club. We were so excited about seeing our kids. Then I went to the office; for lunch Roma, Andrey and Dennis came over.After lunch Andrey came back to the office with us because later he and Roma were gonna play some computer game, but he ended up hanging out in my office and we talked for a long time.He was asking questions about why I am here and stuff and it was really cool to get to share some of what God is doing in my life with him.He showed us the camp promo video that he made for Radooga and it is AMAZING.The kid is a prodigy, I swear.I can’t wait for you to see it.After work, Nikita met us at our house and went with us to interpret for English Club.We couldn’t see where we were, so we passed our stop and had to walk back quite a ways to get to where we teach and it was pretty funny.Nikita was making fun of us and we were telling him it was his fault—because we told him to tell the bus driver to stop when he saw the Fora (a grocery store).It was really cool to see all the kids again and to give them American flag buttons and teach them the letters of the alphabet and what a noun is.It was funny to watch Nikita’s face scrunch up when he would try to think of how to translate the sounds the English letters make into Russian characters.Then after English Club we went to McDonalds with him and Katya and just hung out for about 2 hours and it was a lot of fun.Now we are home and Amberly is on the phone with Marsha and I am drinking a Dr. Pepper and writing you an e-mail.Happy Times.

Peace Out.

Yea for our first night back at English Club! 

This picture is a little blury, but Amberly and Nikita are really cute anyway.