New Paint, New Sand

 

This time of year is great at the playgrounds, now that the paint is dry (it took about 4 days for the paint to dry) as everything looks bright and relatively fresh/clean looking and there was even a new load of sand put in the sandbox. Unfortunately because it takes the paint so long to dry and because the benches etc. aren't blocked off while they dry they all have pieces of newspaper and the like stuck in them. But it still looks so much nicer! A little cooler today but still pleasant.

even warmer

Now we are just in little shoes and tshirts with a little jacket on top. It is already 17C out and I'm sure it will get warmer today. Emma and David are at class right now, then getting some groceries and then they will come home and leave again to go rockclimbing. Emma really wants to go- I hope she doesn't get scared once she is there. She did good the other time she went considering her age. She hasn't been for a long time....
The boys and I played outside. So nice now that the sand is more sandy than muddy. The trucks that we got from Char's neighbour in Chestermere are certainly well used. I thought I was being a little strange tucking them in our bags (they aren't the smallest trucks) when we came here but really, they are played with everyday.

trucks

16 C!!! And Spinach Balls!

This picture either looks really yummy to you or really yucky or somewhere between the two:) I love spinach, especially the kind that we get here that are frozen in balls. So much easier to handle then the big frozen lump we get at home....
Not only is it still nice here but it is even warmer. It was at least 16 C today as that is the temp right now at 7:30pm.
March is almost over...which is not really all that good. It means that we only have one more month with our language teacher before we need to take more responsiblilty for the lessons ourselves- we will miss the structure of classes and Viola's help:( We are a little discouraged with how much (i mean how little) russian we know at this point. We know that there were things that got in the way- herniated discs, conferences, etc. but we also know that we could have put more into our studies than we did. But we will just have to go on and do the best we can now. No point living in regret:) I don't think.
I got a call today from the European Med. Clinic again that the nerve doctor from France is able to fly in for a few days. At first I told them i didn't need the appointment anymore as I never have any neck or arm pain but 5 minutes later I decided that I would go so I called back and got an appointment with him for Sat. night. I do still have a numb thumb and I really would like an expert opinion as to whether it will start to feel again or whether the nerve is permanently damaged or something. And it isn't everyday that you have a specialist from France around. I also have one more scheduled appointment with the physiotherapist next week, I am still deciding whether or not I will go. maybe the nerve doctor will be able to give me some recovery plan for my thumb and ways of preventing another incident.

still warm

How many days has it been? How many days will it stay this nice??? Everyday has had a high of 10-13C for the last while. Perfect. Warm enough to wear just a light jacket and cool enough for Huddy to wear his cool monkey hat:) WE are really enjoying it, the mud is drying up, everything is being painted and getting cleaned up a bit... The funny thing (well not really funny thing) is that after they paint a railing or a bench or a piece of playground equipment there is no sign put up, or ribbons, or any warning of wet paint. I have put my hands on so many wet things- thankfully we haven't had any clothes ruined yet but I'm sure it will happen. David says you don't need signs cause you can smell it. I must have my nose turned off cause i just don't smell it enough before I touch them. I think having a poor sense of smell at this time of year is a definite bonus, it sure ain't nice smelling around here lately. I guess I can smell:)

More Spring Fun!

It is a bit colder today when the wind is on you so we had to bundle up a little but we still are enjoying the weather so much. The boys found this little car this morning when I took them out for a wander. They loved it, huddy didn't mind just sitting in the passenger seat- Josiah didn't like being the passenger:) I found the nearest treadmill but it didn't work as well as I had hoped. Thought I could take the kids to that playground everyday and I could run on the treadmill but that won't work....

Sorry, kind of overdose with the kids pictures, but it is just so nice outside (see the shorts!) and we can't help just wandering around and I am enjoying taking pics without my fingers freezing off:) It really is beautiful (13C), this is the third day in a row and I see it is should be the same tomorrow!

Another Spring Walk

It is so nice out, 13C I think. All of us went out together wandering around our neighbourhood. You can see in the one pic that some flowers are starting to shoot up. Almost all the snow is gone now, just a few patches that are sheltered from the sun and most of the mud is firming up.

Summer Jackets!

Today is warm again, though a little cooler than yesterday. It is soooo nice to just put on their lighter jackets and lighter hats and no mitts or snow pants! It is still pretty muddy so I purposely put on mud coloured clothes so it doesn't show up so much:)
Emma went with David to do some studying at the office so just me and the boys went wandering around this morning.
Some of the playground equipment would totally fail Uncle Robin's safety guidelines. Huddy always wants to go on the big crooked slide. I didn't let him as last time we were at that park it had tipped over on it's side and all they did was stand it up again! The teeter totter has quite the height, It is such an angle that it is hard to stay on when you are at the bottom because you slide off:) They are getting used to asking if something is safe or not:) We went to 4 playgrounds this morning. One has the safest swings, another the safe slide, another has dry ground and another has the the safer teeter totter. It is so nice to be out and have the sun shining on us, and I am so glad to be able to push the boys around in the stroller again.

Warm Day!

Ok, the picture doesn't fit the post. I haven't taken any pics in the last few days. Just threw in this week old picture to show you a typical office building around here. They are soooo long:) Couldn't fit the whole building in one picture...they take up a whole block. We pass two of these on our way to class. We have been doing a lot of walking because we accidentally lost our March Bus Pass so we tend to just walk instead of buying more bus fares which in our minds we already bought :( It is the first one we have lost during the whole two years so we aren't too upset about it.
The weather has been beautiful. All the snow is gone now I think. Today was 12-13C. My favorite type of temperature I think. I wore just a t-shirt and sweater and was very warm by the time I got to the office today. Our teacher is away this week but we have still been going just to study and practice doing this language learning thing on our own as we only have one more month with her anyway. I am feeling great, keeping up with the dancing (well I haven't yet today but I did do a few exercises, and I walked for about an hour and a half at least so that should be good:)
We received a few packages in the last week so we have had some yummy treats:) We hope that we will be able to receive packages once we move to Siberia as easily and as successfully as we have here, they are such an encouragement to us- especially to the kids. Emma told me the other day that our friends must really love us because they send us such wonderful things.

Horse Party

 

 

 

Emma's american/russian friend Katherine had her 8th birthday party on Saturday. It was a really fun day even though it was pretty cold and rainy. They had rides in the horse drawn sleigh, pony rides and then we went to Katherine's beautiful apartment and did horse crafts and had really yummy horse cake. Emma was a little shy at first as she didn't know most of the dozen girls but soon she was in with the rest of them like she was 8 too:) The girls are from all over so they mostly spoke in English. There were girls from China, Africa, Germany, USA, and England. Emma was the only one who didn't have a russian mom but like all the other girls she does have an expat father:) The girls were all from the same class at the international school in Moscow. I am glad that Katherine (the one with the silver coat/red bow) invited Emma even though Emma is only 5. The two of them get along great together. Emma is sad to be leaving Moscow and all the friends that she is starting to get close to. Unfortunately the little girl Sasha that used to come play with Emma everyday has not been around lately. We don't know if she moved or if maybe her parents told her to come straight home from school or something like that. It is hard for Emma, we don't know where Sasha lives or her number or anything so we can't find out what happened:( But we know that our time here is ending soon anyway, we will soon be finding new friends once again.

Blue Skies

 

We just got in from a great time outside, the sky was so bright blue and the sun was warming our faces...nice.

 

Just another one of Huddy's classic expressions. He walks around the house with his eyes like that- sometimes I'm sure that one of his eyes is smaller than the other but david tries to convince me that his eyes are normal. He makes me smile anyway:)

I had my last physio today, I feel good. He scheduled me to come again in 2 weeks just to see how life is without physiotherapy but I can cancel if I want to if I feel good. I think I might go in, we'll see. He'd still like to help my thumb get it's full feeling back but we aren't quite sure how to do that. I will miss the walk over and the massage and the walk back.

This is a little gross but too hard not to share:) On my walk over to the clinic today I saw a dead man. He was lying face down on the ground in a puddle of blood:( He had fallen off the wall of an old antique looking building- my guess is window cleaner as there were many others on the same building and all the buildings really on that street today. I wasn't there to see it happen thankfully but I could see that the decorative wall part that is on the outside of the concrete structure had crumbled away. I think he must have been leaning on it cleaning the window when it all collapsed. The really horrible thing to me was that the ambulance team were just standing by the ambulance chatting while he was lying there as they were waiting for the police to come- i guess they couldn't move him or clean up until the others came to see. What made it really horrible is that his pants were down. :0 I don't know why the window cleaner's pants were down, don't really want to think about it but I so much wanted to cover him up so that he wasn't disgraced so much. But I wasn't about to get involved so I just kept walking. On my way home I also was suprised that his co-workers were left there to clean up the crumbled concrete and clean up the blood etc. I would think it is hard enough to witness your co-worker's (possibly friend's) death- why do they need to be the ones to clean up the mess? And the next building which looked just as old and prone to crumble had workers still washing away leaning on the window sills and wall for balance... My latest lesson in class had the vocabulary and grammar for using words like "Careful" "That is dangerous" "You may not do this because it is dangerous" etc. I didn't use them out loud today but my lesson was sure going through my mind. I had to step in the bloody water to get by too. I now am a little more prone to walking nearer to the road than to the buildings.

Our Park

David and I both have headaches today. I haven't had one yet this year. Maybe it is because the physiotherapist told me to not use a pillow for the next two days- though in the night i grabbed one anyway:) I don't know. I think we need some fresh air, I was just clearing the camera so that it would be ready to take out to the park with us and I noticed the amount of pics with bottles and trash in them. It really is a mess outside. You can see our park has some snow left and then there is the mud. And because it is warmer there are more out drinking at night (well even in the morning) so the clean up crew can't keep up with the bottles. At home the trash is mcdonald's wrappers, pop cans and chip bags. Here is is champagne bottles, wine bottles and beer bottles. Oh and vodka bottles, cigarette packages, cigarette butts, broken glass and sunflower seeds. We don't really notice it anymore. The kids are so used to it and thankfully we haven't had any related injuries. I do watch huddy cause he is more likely to pick them up and get the last few sips:( yuck.
Anyway, i usually put the prettier park pics on but that wouldn't be giving you an accurate view of our park. I am anxious for the snow to melt and the mud to firm up. When huddy falls now it is a mess!
I may have my last physio session tomorrow! Seems strange that i won't be going in their anymore. I will miss chatting with the nurses in russian, the doctor in French and watching all the interesting folks that go in to the european clinic. It is a great place to observe cultures:) When i was walking there last time (under the road in an underpass thing) there was a guy playing a guitar and harmonica playing "let it be let it be let it be let it be" etc. very good- made me sing it for the next half hour. I also witnessed two babushkas having a fist fight. Very strange. I was about to step in and break it up but another lady beat me to it:) I wasn't quite sure what i would do or say anyway. Then on the metro I sat across from two exhausted men- one had a swollen black eye and the other a swollen bleeding nose. They were resting their bloody heads on eachother which I thought was kinda neat.
Anyway, enough of that stuff:) Almost time to get dressed for the park- I wish we had big rainsuits that zip you up from the head to the toes that only take up one quarter of the washing machine and dry in 5 minutes...

park views