As if we don't get enough stares already when we have our 3 kids with us, tonight we had 7! The funny thing is that it is very possible that they all could belong to us as their ages would fit! They belong to our friends who are from Ireland and the Faeroe Islands. From left to right, Daniel (8), Sonya (6-twin), Timothy (6-twin), Emma (4), Karina (3), Josiah (1.5) and Hudson (.5). One lady kept looking back at us in disbelief! We were babysitting the kids so that their mom and dad could go out for dinner. Karina looks like she could be one of ours anyway. So this is what it was like eh Charlotte! :) Doable I guess. For one night anyway:) 

My first pair of Russian shoes!!!! I didn't have any dress shoes to wear with my pants or skirts so I went on a shopping trip to purchase some black shoes. I didn't want to get something "western" so I opted for a more boring kind of russian shoes. Next time I'll probably up it a notch as these little heels are a disgrace. It really is amazing to just sit and watch the shoes going by. Most are incredibly pointed at the end, especially the mens shoes....and the women have the highest heels you've ever seen. But the real crazy thing is that they walk in them all day. On to the bus, the metro, walking on broken up gravel roads.... So I wasn't ready for that, so I tried on a bunch and tried to get fancy but still pretty comfy. I'm a mom so I have a bit of a reason to be a bit sensible. I had two shoes on and walked around the store to try them out. I didn't realize that I did a big no-no. You are only allowed to try them on when you are on the bench and you must keep the shoes on the little mat in front of the bench. Ooops! I had my first language breakthrough too though. The cashier gave me the price of 2899 rubles (they used to be 3485) and I said "Nyet" She said why or something like that and I said "Joultie" which means yellow and I pointed to the sign that said all yellow tagged shoes are 1299 rubles. So I saved a bundle just from our colours lesson! By the way $1 US is about 28.6 rubles. How much were my shoes????? How about in Canadian? For all you who love math:) 

Look what I found!!! Real Milk! Fresh Milk! Well by the time the store gets it, it only has one day till it expires but boy was it good. Not cheap. But worth it for a treat. I had my first glass of milk in 2.5 months!!!!!! I found it yesterday (with the help of my friend Ekaterina Dennisovna) when I went shopping at the mega mall. Mega Mall is this huge mall which is completely unlike the usual Russian way of shopping. It has stores like Benetton, Tommy Hilfiger etc. But this one department store Stockman's has an amazing grocery store with all kinds of western foods, even peanut butter which we were told is unavailable in Russia. Of course everything is very very expensive. So once in a while I may wander there for some icing sugar, marshmallows, lettuce, sweet potatoes, crackers, maple syrup, vanilla etc. etc. which you can't find anywhere else in Russia. But anyway, I have never enjoyed a glass of milk as much as I did last night. What a blessing at the end of our first 2 weeks of language study! I think the milk comes from England. Hopefully some cold way:) 

Josiah (18 months) and his lego from Uncle Robin. He's pretty good at building towers and stuff like that now. 

And here is Hudson at 6 months at the end of July. Hudson is about 3 weeks younger than Josiah was in his picture so maybe I'll have to do it again if I remember. If he still fits the outfit that is, though he almost looks thinner than Jo. Happy 1/2 birthday Hudson! 

This is Josiah when he was 6 months at the end of July last year. 

And the best part of the circus....cotton candy! 

Juggling, Trapeze, Roller Blading Tricks, An amazing hula hoop girl, horse riding tricks, magic things and so much more. 

There was all kinds of animal tricks but the most impressive were the human ones of course. Emma can't stop talking about all the amazing things she saw, neither can david:) 

The Circus! David and Emma had another date, this time they went to the Moscow Circus. It is a year round circus and is a very popular thing to do, so they did it! 

Wouldn't you know....so the day Josiah has his dirtiest moment is the day the hot water gets shut off. We knew it was coming, we just didn't know when it would be. There will be no hot water for a couple of weeks? now. Remember the hot water pipes. Well they maintain the pipes once a year, thankfully in the summer but in order to do that Moscow must go without hot water for a couple of weeks. Even though it is 30 degrees out I still don't want a cold cold shower! So this pot is our hot water, brings us back to our jungle camp training days:) 

Ouch! Dirty! Josiah and David came back from the park today looking like this.... They looked so handsome when they left in their matching blue polo shirts but came back very dirty. It seems Josiah fell right into a muddy puddle. David said his mouth was full of muddy sand. Some of the dirt was already gone by the time the pic was taken:) 

Here he is all done. He was a great boy sitting very still for the entire cut. He has kind of a young man's hairdo with the flippy spikey bangs. How handsome, well cute. He looks soooo different. I miss his curls already but he is still handsome as Emma says. 

Well, it's hot here like it is in Thunder Bay right now and way too humid for Josiah's long haired head so tonight we cut his hair. This time David had the priviledge. I'm always a little sad on Haircut night cause I love his little blonde curls around his ears....sniff sniff.... 

Here is our class. David and I sit on one side of the table and Viola Ivanovna sits on the other. We learn through TPR (total physical response, like she is doing in the picture) and then we learn grammar and handwriting from Ekaterina Dennisovna. Can anyone figure out what the 2nd name is for. Hint I am Erin Robertovna:) David Andreivich sounds much more russian doesn't it! But that is what you go by here. We have learned an awful amount of stuff in the last few days but it is all good. I can write (handwritten and print which are very very different most of the letters.) And pronounce most of them. The SHCH and barred i are still pretty tricky. and sometimes i can roll my r's and sometimes it doesn't work. Usually when it is my turn to say it it doesn't work:) Viola and Kathy are great teachers though and we have a lot of fun. 

Here is the cat that lives in the apartment next to us... It is pretty amazing to me how brave some cats are. He jumps up there on a skinny edge on the 13th floor and hangs over looking at the birds:) I'm scared to look over and my feet are on the balcony not the ledge. Frankie, I love you anyway but you aren't as brave as this cat. or as stupid perhaps:) 

Emma wanted to model her first item of Russian clothing. I got her that shirt at a 2nd hand shop with my language helper Irina. Irina was very shocked that my basket was empty after only 1 minute of shopping. The store was similar to a Thrift Shore (Sally Ann) so you know that it takes a few minutes to find something good, depending on how picky one is:) But she was really quite upset how she already had 2 baskets full and I had nothing. After her continual prompting I grabbed some clothes for the kids and we went to the cashier. The different thing is that there aare no prices on the clothing but they simply put it on a scale and charge by the kilo. somedays it is 200 rubles/kg other days 350 or whatever. So the key is I figure to get lightweight delicate silk shirts and little kids stuff. A big pair of Jeans or a coat wouldn't be as good a deal:) So it is fun picking out little wee tops for emma and the boys cause you can get so many for one big adult shirt. So, Emma was thrilled with this one cause it is pink and girly. Emma told us yesterday that she isn't going to have kids because she is going to be a ballerina.... I told her she could do both but I'm not sure if you really can... Did any successful ballerina have kids and continue dancing?  

Emma 4 years old. Hudson 5 months old. But they have the same size arms, well... his may be a little bigger:) 

David and Josiah in their blue polo shirts. And yes, we plan on cutting Jo's hair soon:) 

First Night with Homework in a long time!

Here is some of my homework I just finished. Remember that these are the letters that are like English! They sound like English sounds anyway but the tricky thing is that they rarely sound like the English letter they look like:) the letter H is pronounced like an N. The letter P is pronounced like an R. X = H, B = V and so on. Sometimes I see a word that I think I can pronounce cause it looks like English but then it is not at all the same. Someday it will be natural to me I hope. I'm afraid I'll speak English bad then... well worse than I do now:)  

Phonetics

We are now into our two weeks of Phonetics. So far today we did the easy ones, the letters that are like the english ones in pronounciation. We had quite a bit of trouble pronouncing their barred i, with the tongue in the back and down and the lips spread out and open. It is one that makes you look rather ridiculous so that makes it harder to concentrate and get it right but we'll work on it again. Other than that it went well. But now we will move on to brand new sounds, yikes! We also started doing some Russian handwriting.
And to paula again, yes David has quite the white legs. This is true of all russian men as it is not proper or normal? to wear shorts, always long dark pants. so unless they are stripped down in the park the men never get sun. This is perhaps why the men enjoy the speedo sun time on Saturdays at the park:) The girls get sun everywhere in public. everywhere:)

Bye Bye For Now Grandma Inga

Today is the day that Grandma Inga has left us. Mom called to say that she was glad she was there with her when she died. Grandma Inga died from Cancer which came on pretty quickly. She was a woman like no other woman I know. Selfless and the hardest working woman I have ever met. She had muscle from her baking. She was always kind, always gentle, always submissive and hospitable. I loved sitting in her kitchen listening to her tell stories of the Finnish People and things she has learned. She always fed me well. She had a pantry full of baking and all sorts of sweets and good things to eat. She always peeled the skin off the apples and sliced them up for us. She would put out different kinds of breads and cheeses and always had the best tasting tea ever. She had fresh garden carrots from Grandpa Peter's garden. And she always sent me home with some cabbage rolls or perogies or pickled beets and mittens or slippers. I will miss sitting at her table and listening to her wise words. I hope that a little bit of her will be shown in my kitchen and a lot of her would be shown in my life.

David trying to fit in to the culture here. He needs to have a different kind of bottoms on for one and he is missing the bird. (see other pics) But not bad for a foreigner. 

No matter what age you are or anything else:) it is completely normal to find a spot, take off your dress or suit or whatever and sunbath for a while. I guess they know what the winter is like so they are storing up the vitamin d? they are excellent tanners making sure they get the sun everywhere. Some lay down on a blanket but most stand...  

These pics may be a little funny but I want you guys to really experience Moscow. So Paula was just asking about the weather here and here is your answer Paula! Yes, it is quite warm in Moscow at the moment. This fellow has taken off his shorts and is soaking up a little section of sun he found.  

The view of the Church Complex? from our helicopter:) 

Emma Joy looking quite thoughtful