Happy Halloween! They do not celebrate Halloween here but we went ahead and carved a pumpkin anyway. Huddy and Emma liked getting the gunk out of the pumpkin but Josiah didn't like the thought of getting dirty- he is our clean kid. I always enjoy getting the seeds out and then roasting them. Problem is that our electricity in part of our kitchen hasn't been working for a couple of days. We are without use of our oven which has been a little inconvenient. I've been cooking our meals in the microwave but hopefully we will be able to get an electrician in to fix the problem- I need to roast my pumpkin seeds:) It really is starting to get cold around here... our windows need to be taped up and I'm sure we will be using the little heater we bought because the heat in this place is not sufficient. I would much rather it be too cold than too hot though. Gets dark here pretty early now as we set our clocks ahead an hour on Monday. The days will get pretty short here soon....

(We didn't get to go to the psychiatric hospital today...hopefully they will be able to meet with us soon)

Back to Normal

It is so good to have the kids back to themselves- laughing, smiling, fighting :) They still all have colds but just your normal kind of cold. All three kids were back to school today- I thought the boys would cry again when we dropped them off since it has been so long but they didn't..yay! We got all the results back from Jo's tests and all seems good and normal. They suggested bringing his urine in for testing once a month so which sounds like a good idea. They also suggested giving him less fruits and veggies and milk and giving him more bread, tea and juice. I don't know about that. Josiah eats a lot of bread. Doesn't sound too healthy to me. But I'm no doctor:) I think it was because he has too much salt in his pee? Not sure but not too worried about it...

Tomorrow morning David, David and I are going to one of the hospitals to see what their needs are and to see how our org. can help them out once we get registered. I am going as the photographer:) We have the office pretty much set up now- Thanks so much to all of you who helped with that- really it is so encouraging to us. I'll have to get pics of the office too once it is all in working order. Anyway, time for bed- David and I have colds/sore throats now but we are just so thankful that our little ones are feeling better and are back to normal.

The black radish medicine seems to be a good thing, can't really tell if it works or not but the kids like the taste better than normal cough medicine... I also have been giving them honey mixed with lemon juice (equal parts). That it what is suggests for dry coughs in our medicine book. Must be the honey cause almost all home remedies for coughs have honey in them...

Old Medicines

While David was buying some honey and veggies from the ladies on the street, they got talking about winter and sicknesses. The lady told David about the first medicine for colds/coughs. Sounded kinda interesting and since we are getting low on medicines anyway he bought the big black radish (or turnip) and we are giving it a try:) Here is what you do:

Take a black radish, cut the top part off and carve a hole inside. Fill this hole with honey and cover it with the cut off part. Keep in a warm place for 4 hours. Take 1 tbsp of this juice 3 times a day. Children should take 1 tsp. We will let you know if it works:)

We still all have colds/sore throats/coughs but we are so thankful that no one seems to have anything too serious. David will take Josiah tomorrow to get his kidneys checked.

Our turnip is already oozing with juice... Ours seems bigger than normal- more like a pumpkin than a radish... maybe we should have dug it out a bit more.

In a match box! I told you three times!

(by David:)
Since school began for the kids (3.5 weeks ago) we have been at the hospital, laboratory or clinic almost every day. If we fully understood the health system and of course the language this process would be a lot simpler but… we are not quite there yet. All kids need to pass a medical to be registered at school this medical consists of: physical examination, eye examination, ECG, urine, stool and blood analysis, blood analysis from both parents (for syphilis) and an update on all immunizations. During this process we discovered that Emma has WPW syndrome and Jo had a scary episode with coca-cola colored pee but the most complicated by far was the stool analysis. Once we found out that we needed to collect a stool sample Jo got constipated and Emma got the runs not to mention our doctors (each region of the city has a doctor assigned to it; we are in section 27) did not know the address of the laboratory where we needed to take the samples. After finally collecting samples from each and using old, cleaned and stapled shut juice boxes (they do not provide sterile containers) I headed off to the lab. First try I arrived late. They only accept incoming samples from 8am until 11am and seeing as it was Friday I would have to wait till Monday and she said the samples need to be fresh. So Sunday night we get new juice boxes and do it again. Monday morning I arrive at 10:30 (plenty of time to drop off the samples). To my surprise the lady asks me where the kids are and then starts to yell at me, telling me that she explained all this to me on Friday. Two new juice boxes, fresh samples and one day later I return with the kids. “So you’ve paid already?” she asks. “I am sorry, I don’t know where the cashier is.” The cashier, of course, is in a completely different building located a five minute walk away. When I finally hand her the samples she says “what’s this?” “We don’t accept samples like this. They have to be in match boxes. I told you three times - MATCH boxes!” I told her that we cleaned the boxes well and she said “clean!? What can be dirtier than poo!?” In the end she had mercy on me and took the samples, and, with the whole waiting room looking on swabbed the kids bottoms to check for worm eggs with a re-usable swab (metal stick with cotton wrapped around the end, the cotton was new….I hope). Later that day I went to pick up the results. No worms. She asked me why I would bring my little kids to this place and we had a nice conversation.

The last step in this medical check was getting an important doctor to write up the form (which allows them to attend school). She explained that the kids are way behind in their immunizations and in order to attend they would need to get immunized for Tuberculosis. I tried to explain that we would rather stick with getting immunized in Canada. Understandably they did not want to be held responsible if our kids were to get sick. I asked if there was any way that the kids would be able to attend without getting the TB immunization, maybe by writing up a refusal. She said there was little chance of that being allowed but she would talk to the next doctor up the chain. We still might want the kids to get the shot but are just not so sure it is the best decision right now- especially when they are still sick. So we feared for a couple of days that our time at the school was coming to an end but figured if it was meant to be it would somehow work out. When I met with the doctor today she said they would be allowed if we wrote up an official document saying that we as the parents hold responsibility for the whole thing. We still have to bring in Josiah for one more check… hopefully there are no more complications. For the month of October, the doctors and nurses have been my language helpers!

We got the results back for Josiah’s urine test and it looks good- just a little salty but that is ok. We don’t know what it was exactly that caused the problem earlier this week. I am taking him to the kidney hospital to have a little check-up.

Hi All, they didn't give same day results this time for the urine test but we should find out today how it is.

While you are waiting to here about Josiah's pee:) here is some more info from David for you to keep in your thoughts about us and our org.

A couple of weeks ago our landlady (for the office apartment) sent a text message to our partner requesting an extra two months rent in advance because her brother was buying a car and he didn’t have quite enough. We thought this was a little out of line considering our contract is only for six months (which we paid for in advance) and besides we didn’t have any money to give her, so we said “no” and told her that we also didn’t have enough money for a car either because we gave it all to her for six months rent. After that incident I remembered something that she said when we first were signing the contract. She made a comment about us coming here to help people but were not willing to pay 8000 rubles a month for rent and so were not helping her (we agreed to pay 7000 rubles a month). Well, the other day she calls and says that we need to pay her another two months rent or she will kick us out! We politely tried to explain that she couldn’t do that, but after our six month contract is up, if she still wanted to, she could do it then. We haven’t heard anything from her in a week. Hope it all turns out okay...

Update: the snow is melting...it was so cold this morning but now it is sunny and 3C. Josiah is sad that he missed out playing in the snow but I tried to reassure him that there should be plenty of snow for him here in Siberia soon:)

Snow!

Just took this out our kitchen window...We got snow! We did have it once a few weeks? back but it only lasted for an hour or so.. This looks like it might stay cause it is pretty cold out. Kyzyl doesn't get a lot of snow we hear but I think what it gets it will keep as I think the warmer days are gone. For some reason - hopefully the water pipes didn't freeze- it isn't that cold! but all of Kyzyl is without cold water...David had a really hot bath this morning. I'm letting his water cool off for an hour or two and then I'll have one too. We are used to the hot water going off frequently but not the cold water. The electricity and phone line has been wonky lately too. Emma is at school, David is taking Josiah's normal looking pee in to be checked and the rest of us are just taking it easy. The boys really have bad coughs but other than that they seem to be in normal health. I'll let you know what the lab says about Josiah's pee- maybe he still has protein in it. Thanks for checking in on us.

Emma's Fall Concert

This past Friday when David dropped the kids off at school, Emma's teacher told David that they were having a little party at school (fall theme) so we could come watch a little later in the day. We brought some cookies and fruit and juice but the teacher didn't tell us that Emma needed a fancy dress- Emma forgave us though.... Only one other parent was there- maybe we weren't the only ones who didn't know about the concert:) Though all the other girls had really fancy dresses on that day. Anyway. It was so great to see Emma interacting and performing songs in Russian. She didn't know them all of course but she looked like she was at least humming the tunes throughout the whole concert. She does know one song really well- maybe she will sing it for you when we are home sometime. The best part for her was the dancing- she was sooooo thrilled to be able to dance with Daneel. He did a great job. They looked so serious and professional dancing together. We couldn't see them very good so I didn't get too good pictures but you get the idea. You can tell who the two russians in her class are- the twins. All the others (including the teacher) are tuvan. We were so proud of Emma. She wasn't feeling too good, had a canker sore and sore throat but she still sang her heart out and danced soooo good.

She is sad that we haven't been at school yet this week but hopefully the kids will be back at it soon.We have had more scary health days.....Josiah really scared us on Monday/Tuesday as his urine was like Coca-Cola, with blood clots in it too. Yuck. I looked it up in my health book and all I could find was Hepatitis. We searched and searched on the internet for what the problem was and David took Jo's pee in to the lab. The lab said it was very bad- blood and protein in his urine and that he should take Josiah into the kidney hospital right away. We really did not want to do that as we feared there would be a lot more problems after a stay in the hospital- for many reasons..it is not like at home. I was really starting to think we should bring him in to the hospital but then his urine turned yellow again and there is no more blood in it. He has a horrible cough but other than that he seems back to normal. We think the problem was or is glomerulonephritis- if you know what that means I am very impressed:) We are still figuring it all out but we think he is on the mend. His fever is gone and he is eating and playing again...We will keep you updated. Crazy week health wise! Even I am kinda sick now- feeling achy and very tired but I'm not bringing us all home yet:)!!!

Please keep us in your thoughts, we are so tired of being sick in our little apartment. David told me yesterday that I hadn't been outside in 4 days- yikes! and now it is 5!

The little boy in the blue shorts (emma says his name is Sanjay) did a great little solo- he is a great singer- maybe he'll be another famous tuvan singer when he grows up..

once in a while you see blonde hair on a tuvan- the wiki page for tuvans has another picture of a blonde tuvan girl...

I'll explain the picture in a later post- it is Emma with her favorite friend at school- Daneel. He is pretty cute eh:)

We have been at different health offices almost everyday for the last couple of weeks and not because of our colds. We are in the process of getting a health check for each of the kids so that they can officially register at their school (they have been going for free so far because technically they aren't registered yet:). There are so many steps that you need to go through (parents included in some of the tests) and because of offices being closed and such it is taking a long time. Today we need to bring in stool samples to be examined...(not an easy thing to get from little kids on demand and not an easy thing to store and carry:) They have had many tests done to them including an ECG (Elecrocardiogram) which reminded Emma and Josiah of the torture contraption that they hooked Wesley up to in the Princess Bride movie- so they were pretty frightened during it:) Emma had it done a few times as they could see something on her charts that concerned them. We assumed it was nothing as saying Emma has something wrong with her heart seems so ridiculous. Emma can walk and run around all of Kyzyl (and she could do the same in Moscow) and she never gets out of breath or tired- she is very athletic/fit. We figured the machine went wonky or it was just because she was nervous about the test. But it turns out that she has WPW (Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome). She has no symptoms at this time (as far as we know) but may develop them later. The doctor suggested medicines and furthur testings etc. but we told them we would rather wait and check in on it next time we are home in Canada. We will bring her in occasionally here to check on her heart rate as that is the main symptom- really fast heart beat. It is still hard to believe that she has this heart disease. I almost wish we didn't know...I don't think we would ever find out in Canada because they don't normally do a test like this without some symptoms but here it is just a routine test... Sometimes it would be nicer not to test so much:) Anyway, you can remember little Emma's heart though she isn't scared or worried about it and she knows all about even the worst case scenario. It is more mommy and daddy that worry... The doctor painted a pretty grim picture but after reading about it some more we aren't too concerned. Here are some links for you to read so that you can understand it better. I can't explain it good enough yet:)

really good link (thanks jessica:) just keep clicking on the next till you get to the end... http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/wolff-parkinson-white-syndrome/DS00923/DSECTION=1

and another one (in which we learn that Meat Loaf and Marilyn Manson have the same thing:) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolff-parkinson-white

All three kids are home from school this morning, Emma could have gone (her cold isn't too bad) but we didn't get organized in time to get her there. David is so good at getting the kids up and vitamized and cleaned and dressed and off to school for 8am. but David is in bed with his cold so I made it easy and kept them home:) Josiah is over the stomach flu it seems but both Huddy and Jo have pretty bad coughs. I'm so glad the stomach part is gone, hopefully it won't come to anyone else. I can handle colds and other ailments but anything that involves bowls makes me very uneasy:) Thanks for thinking of us- the theme right now seems to be health issues. Hopefully this will pass and I'll be thinking about more fun things:)

Poor Mommy...oops I mean Poor Josiah...

Poor Emma and Huddy and David too... Everyone is sick today (except me). Mostly colds but Josiah has the stomach flu too. Yuck. It is pretty discouraging..I feel like we will always be sick here though I'm sure that can't be the truth... We were basically never sick for the whole 2 years we lived in Moscow but the kids have been sick here sooo much. I am not so good at this sickness thing. I'm probably the worse off when sickness is in the house, I get scared and angry and I get pretty discouraged. Poor kids- they should be the ones that are sad and grumpy..but they are so brave and almost cheerful... Please keep us in your thoughts. I told David if I get sick too we are going home..but we would have to wait till I was better I guess:) hmmm I guess people get sick in Canada too eh?

Still waiting for someone to get the little quiz below all right.. here is one more hint... they all have the same last name and you all got Emma's name right:)

School Lunches

I really like that the kids eat breakfast and lunch at school. It is good food- stuff that they normally wouldn't like perhaps but good and because it isn't me giving it to them they are more likely to eat it. The kids don't think it is weird food- they don't know about sandwiches and hotdogs and granola bars...those things don't exist here. They have porridge or cream of wheat or millet for breakfast and then for lunch they have something like this... always some kind of soup- today it was beet soup and then some meat plate though it has little meat on it really- it was buckwheat, shredded carrots, onions and beef. And at both meals there is always tea and bread. Their teachers all say how much our kids eat- I'm glad they like it. And russians eat with a huge spoon- you never see forks and knives. I'll have to get a picture of little Huddy with his big spoon that barely fits in his mouth:)

Can you figure it out???

Can you tell what ones our kids made? (Hint- Josiah's name is in the first picture, Emma's is in the second and Hudson's is in the last one...) maybe the pictures are too small for you to read them..sorry but this is as big as I can make them now with our slow connection:(

We got our first package yesterday- thanks mom! Emma had so much fun looking at her new books/magazines and stickers... (Amy- hopefully your book will be here soon too) It was in perfect condition and didn't take too long at all so that is great news. It is so nice to get things that we can't get here and other special treats. We have our own post office box so that seems pretty safe and secure. So if you ever want to send us things (Laura- thanks for the ones that are on their way...) it seems pretty likely that we will get them in good condition and with little effort on our part:)
I just took this picture of the boys- they are in desperate need of haircuts eh:) Starting to look like hockey players- not that that is bad... Anyway, since the kids eat breakfast and lunch at school, all I need to do is give them a little snack and then put them to bed for the afternoon. Actually they don't need a snack but it is just a tool to get them to come home as they haven't really wanted to come home when I've picked them up lately. The teachers were asking me why I don't leave them there in the afternoon and for the evening too... That would be a little too much. I do want to be with them:) And Emma still has to do her English school anyway.
The kids have had colds basically since they started at school but it is just a little coughing and sniffles- not enough to keep them home from school. The teacher told us they would get sick a lot during their first year of school... Still is so great to have them there and learning so much- even if it means a lot of honey and wiping and cough medicine.
Josiah just came and asked me if we are going to stay here for a while. When I said yes he said he wished we could go on an adventure and move to a new house.. Maybe our kids are going to be the kind who like to move around….or maybe they will be determined to live in the same spot forever:) I do like moving… I’m always wondering what it would be like to live somewhere else- even if it is just down the street. Sometimes that has been a good thing- we sure have lived many places, but sometimes I need to be thankful and content and stay put:)

Our little Jo

Just a few more pictures of Josiah. David and I were talking about how much he has grown up in the last couple of weeks. He has gone from wearing pull-ups some of the day and during the night to not wearing them at all. (the hardest part about using the big potty is reaching the flusher:). He has gone from screaming and crying when we drop him off at school to asking to go to back to school when we come home. It is so nice to drop him off and have him run into the classroom, excited to play with his friends. Josiah is so encouraging to me. He always complements- you look so pretty mommy. mommy I love you. mommy I'm so glad you came (when we go to get him). mommy that was very good soup. mommy you are wonderful...etc. I think he'll make a sweet husband, plus he is kinda cute:)
vanya- whenever Josiah puts on the blue shirt (in the first two pics) he says he looks like Vanya:)

some older pictures...

more oldies

hmmm maybe I already put these on? They are old. I'm going through the pictures that I had ready to put on (when we had no internet) and trying to get them all on so I can delete the folder and clean up the computer a bit. Anyway. We sure can't dress like this anymore- getting cold...

just some old pics from when we first arrived- before we had internet:)