Happy Ressurection Sunday

This year we are celebrating Easter according to the American calendar because Easter in Russia won't be until May.........and we won't be here! Easter is one of my favorite holidays to celebrate in Russia so it's quite sad that we won't be here.

Yesterday we colored eggs. I was hoping to make some hot cross buns and also decorate sugar cookies but the day got away from me! We shall try later this week.

All ready to go! The kit is from the States even

though every year nicer kits are being sold here.

 

My boys are all ready too!

 

Such pretty and bright colors!

 

Jon takes his egg coloring seriously! He is very

meticulous about it.

 

Nathan on the other hand always ends up 

cracking an egg or two.

Meltdown

Thankfully spring has made it's way to Samara. This year the big meltdown wasn't quite as horrible. We had a few days of snow/sleet the last couple of weeks but the weather was a bit too warm for it to stick around and it all quickly melted.

 The above picture was March 2. This was the last BIG snowfall we had.

 By March 18 the meltdown was beginning.

On March 27 we can finally go outside in rain boots.

And today a couple of us made the switch from our winter coats to our lighter coats! Oh happy day!

List 1: Top 5 Questions We're Asked

 Since we are in the countdown mode of our move back to the States and since I love making lists, I thought I'd periodically do a round-up of lists. Today's list contains the top 5 questions that we have frequently been asked.


1. Which country is better, America or Russia?
This is probably the most common question I am asked. I don't ever give a solid answer. I just tell people that there are great things about Russia and there are great things about America. That's it!
 
2. Do you like Samara?
This is a tricky question. It is much like the which country do you like best question. In all honesty, most Russians would answer, no! Truth is I do like Samara, actually I love it. Sure, it is a very dirty city. There isn't a whole lot to do here. Russians who move here from other cities are constantly complaining about it. The air quality is awful. But, I do love it.  A lot of people I care about live here. There are some great stores here. The Volga River is in Samara. This city actually has some amazing history. There are some real beautiful sites and museums. I strongly believe that you must make the best out of everything. 

3. What do you miss the most?
This is an easy question to answer.......my family! There are a lot of other answers I can give but what I miss the most is my family. Target comes in a close second.
 
4. What has been the hardest thing about living here?
Another easy question with another easy answer..........the language! Russian is a very difficult language to learn. Even Russians themselves agree that the language is quite difficult.

5. Is your wife Russian?
All the times that Jon has been pulled over by the police, the officer takes one look at his passport then peeks into the car and asks Jon, "Is your wife Russian?" They assume that an American man living in Russia must be married to a Russian. I am also asked if I am from the 'stan nations.....such as Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tarjekstan, etc. I think it's because of my darker complexion and dark hair.

 

Baby Shower

My friend Irina is having her fourth baby soon so one of her friends gave her a surprise baby shower. The funny thing is that baby showers are definitely a western idea. There is not a Russian word for baby shower so they just say "baby shower"in their Russian accent.

 Irina was quite surprised. The date and time of the shower kept getting changed because either Irina couldn't come or the rest of us were not able to. Thankfully it all worked out!

 

Heather and Irina are real good friends. So much so that Irina caught up to Heather in the kid count.

 I am not a big fan of the baby food game so instead I took pictures.

Everyone having some fun!

 Heather giving Irina some words of encouragement.

SPRING

It's officially Spring here in Samara but it sure doesn't feel like it! Yesterday we met our friends at the park. Unfortunately it was to say good-bye to our friend Alex and her two kids. They will be returning to the States on Monday morning and we are going to miss them but thankfully we'll see them again when we return Stateside.

Things are really melting now. Underneath the play equipment is ice and underneath that is a ton of water. You can see little Emily in the pink coat........the water is up almost to the rim of her pink rain boots. The kids had lots of fun playing in the ice/water!

And here we all are minus Sharon and her kiddos. So thankful for these ladies and all the kids!

Samara Opera and Ballet Theatre

For Jon's birthday I bought tickets to go see a Mozart concert put on by a string orchestra from Vienna. We have never been to the Samara Opera and Ballet Theatre so we were really excited to see what the theatre was like. It was closed for several years due to remodeling and the outcome is just amazing!

This is the outside of the theatre. It is located on Kuibashev Square which is the main square of the city of Samara.

This is looking out from the theatre onto the square. The statue is of Kuibashev.......a former governor of Samara during Soviet times. The city of Samara was actually named Kuibashev during Soviet times.

 After checking in our coats I headed to the ladies' room.......wow! It is probably the prettiest bathroom in Samara. I loved it and could have spent all night in the bathroom. It's very rare to find a nice bathroom in Samara.

We then found our seats and goofed around with the binoculars we borrowed. We probably didn't need them but it was fun. I felt very classy looking through them every once in a while. They also reminded me of some movies I have seen where a certain character goes to the theatre to spy on someone.

This was the orchestra. They are dressed in period costume with white wigs and all. They were excellent. For any of you reading this post who know me very well...........you know that I am not exactly a fine arts type of gal but I have to confess that I really enjoyed the whole concert. I am sad to say that out of all the Mozart pieces they played I only recognized three! Two were real popular ones and the other one is from one of my Jane Austen movies!!!

Saturday Adventure, Part 2

After our time at the post office we headed to KFC. This is one of our favorite places to eat and thankfully there are a few located around the city. During our lunch we discussed the Colonel's secret recipe. A while ago Jon told the boys that KFC has a secret recipe and for some reason the boys are so curious about it. Today Josiah said during our lunch that no one on the earth knows the Colonel's secret recipe but that God knows it because nothing is a secret to Him.  Then Nathan said that Colonel Sanders and his mommy were the best chefs ever! The boys have been saying some pretty funny things lately.

From KFC we headed out for some dessert to a brand new Baskin Robbins. There have been several Baskin Robbins around the city but I noticed recently that several have closed down. This one has it's own store whereas the other ones were just small stands at the mall. They even had Jojo's favorite flavor..........ROCKY ROAD!!!

We then headed to the market since Jon is coming home soon I thought it would be a good idea to fill my refrigerator. I haven't been there in a couple of weeks and the vendors I regularly go to were wondering where I've been. I took a couple of pictures even though you really aren't supposed to...I'm bad.......really bad.

This is the candy kiosk.....one of my favorites of course. I love

it because you can pick what you want and in whatever amounts

you want. Plus they also sell real yummy fresh cookies.

This is as we were leaving the market and as you can see 

there is meat on those counters. I have never bought any

meat from those vendors because I am terrified. It's always

a bit shocking to me to see slabs of meat on there or a pig 

hung up on the hooks. The boys are always so wide-eyed 

as we walk through that area. I love it though and the "rinok"

or market will be one of the things I will miss the most here.

Saturday Adventure Part 1

In order to make our weekend go by faster I thought we'd get out on Saturday and run some errands. So, we headed to the city center which on a Saturday via transport is only 10-15 minutes away.

We rode our favorite mode of transport.....the tram. In Russian it's called, "tram-vy" but I would always say it wrong and call it "tram-by". After hearing me say it wrong for a long time my trusty friend Heather finally corrected me. I suppose it must have gotten on her nerves. Josiah looks so serious in this picture because there was a person inside a big yellow inflatable hippopotamus suit advertising something on the corner. Everyone on the tram was laughing and pointing at the poor person.


Our stop was right in front of my cell phone carrier's store which was very convenient since going there was on my to-do list.

Our cell phone carrier is MTC (MTS in English). There are no monthly phone plans here, it is a pay as you go system which is extremely convenient. There are kiosk machines everywhere you go where you punch in your cell phone number on the screen and insert however much money you want to give. My balance was actually negative and after a certain negative amount you can't make calls or send texts so I wanted to make sure I deposited enough money. We always try to go to a MTC store because you aren't charged an extra fee to deposit money whereas the kiosks in the malls and stores will charge you about a dollar tariff.

Then we were off to the post office to mail our thank you notes from Christmas! Yep, I'm that late. In my defense though going to the post office is a pain here. I have waited up to 1 hour just to get stamps on my mail. There are no machines to buy your stamps from. So we went to the city's main post office which has had a total makeover and is probably the nicest post office I have seen anywhere in the world. I went to a corner entrance where there was a small counter in a store and bought my mailing stamps there but after I bought them she tells me I had to go to the main entrance and get my letters stamped! I was like, what? So, we went to the main entrance and waited 25 minutes just to get my envelopes stamped with something I couldn't even make out or read. But, at least we got to see the beautiful office. As you come into the door you go to an automated kiosk and get a ticket with a number on it. Then you wait your turn. We had L179 and I noticed the workers were on L173 so I thought it would be real quick......yah right! Oh well. Thankfully the boys behaved.

I wish I could have taken more pictures but I didn't want to get yelled at. Plus I noticed there were hidden cameras above.

This post has gotten to long so I'll do a part 2 tomorrow!

March 8th - Women's Day

This past Friday it was Women's Day which is a huge celebration everywhere except the United States. My husband likes to call it Feminist Day considering that the origin of this holiday was tied to the Socialist Party to bring about awareness for the women's suffrage movement and equal rights to women. Nowadays though it is generally a day to appreciate women even though it still has definite political ties.

Of course we don't really celebrate it plus Jon is never home! If you ride the tram on Women's Day though you don't pay the fare so we made sure to do that on Friday. So, Sharon and I headed out to the park and let the kids run wild around.

Most Russians give the women in their life flowers. The yellow flowers above are called "mimosas" and you see them everywhere on this holiday. The meaning of these yellow mimosas are "secret love". The van was selling tulips which are also very popular. I asked the vendor where the tulips were from and they are actually from a warmer region in Russia whose tulips have already bloomed! I wanted to buy some but the day before I got a bouquet of them so I didn't really need them! The pictures are pretty blurry........ I couldn't stop to take them because it was so crowded around there with men buying flowers!!!

Sleepover Season

Usually we spend a whole week at my friend Heather's home while Jon and her husband are away at Shepherd's Conference but this year her husband didn't go. So.........we were on our own! The first few days Jon was gone we were all so sad that daddy was gone but then we got out of our funk and had some fun. It also helped when Sharon's kids got all better from their colds and we were able to hang out and play.  Of course this also included sleepovers..........which are a ton of fun for the kiddos but a bit tiring for me! I remember as a kid how much I loved sleepovers so I try to make the most of them.

We got some fresh snow earlier in the week so we played outside a few days.......boys doing what boys do in the snow........making forts!

Tuesday night we had Sharon's two older boys over for a sleepover while Nathan went over there. Thursday night Sharon's 3 little ones came over for a sleepover while Jojo went over there. Fun times! 

I'm so grateful for the memories the boys are making here. It breaks my heart of course to think that in a few weeks these precious kids will have to say good-bye to one another but for now we'll keep making memories!

Week 46 - Easter Pull-Apart Bread

The second I pinned this pin, I knew I just had to make it. It looked so yummy on the picture but the recipe was a bit complicated. In the past I probably wouldn't have tried it but I'm a little braver with my baking now so I thought why not! I'm so glad I tried it because it really turned out so nicely and tastes delicious.

It's also one of those recipes which I have all the ingredients for here in Russia. You can check it out on on my sweet bread board. This recipe will make two of these beauties so I am just freezing one of the big dough balls for another time. If you try this out then I recommend that you scroll through the pictures on the actual site where they show you how to cut the dough to make the rosette buns.

Thankful Thursday

1. Today I'm thankful because Jon comes home in only 4 days!!! Phew........I sure miss him and so do the boys. Which leads me to........
2. I'm also thankful for my neighbor, friend, and teammate Sharon who lives upstairs and has helped me pass time. Her kids and mine have been playing a lot together and as I write this 3 of her little ones are over for a sleepover. It sure helps having friends (both for me and the boys) to pass the time quicker.
3. And lastly, I'm so thankful for the beautiful tulips I got today from some of my friends. They cheer me up every time I look at them.

Changes

Pretty soon I will be changing the name of my blog........I will no longer be blogging from Russia with love. Actually, I am not too sure from where I'll be blogging. Our visas expire at the end of April and we have decided that it's time for our family to move back to the States. It was a hard decision to make and one that we prayed over for a long period of time. Pretty soon our family will embark on some new adventures and you can tag along and see exactly where it will all lead. I have to confess that I am a bit scared of all the unknowns yet I am trusting in the Lord to carry us through it all.

In other news, we had a beautiful snowfall today! I love it when the snowflakes are so big and fluffy.

Week 45 - Whole Wheat Pumpkin Bars

If you need to bake a quick and yummy dessert that will feed a ton of people then this one is it! I have had pumpkin puree in my freezer since last fall which I have been meaning to use and plus Thursday night I was in the mood to bake. So, I searched my Pinterest boards and found this pin to try .  I only made some minor changes. The recipe calls for 2 cups of whole wheat flour but I used 1 cup of all purpose flour and only 1 cup of whole wheat flour.........mainly because I wasn't too sure if I could trust the wheat flour I recently bought here. The recipe also calls for canned pumpkin but of course we can't get that here so I just used my puree. Thankfully, it turned out great and the boys love it. Only problem is that it makes a ton but it keeps well in the fridge so I see us eating pumpkin bars for the next several days!!!

My Workout

Well we have finally gotten a bit of snow! Seriously, this winter has been so mild. It just so happens every time Jon goes away to Shepherds' Conference we get a bunch of snow which means that snow accumulates by his garage. This means I get to shovel the snow so that when he returns he doesn't spend forever just trying to take the car out. He never tells me I need to do this but I figure I may get lucky and get a box of See's candies in return for my hard work (Jon if you're reading this.......hint, hint). So, earlier today the boys and I got outside to play in the fluffy snow and for me to do some shoveling.

 Nathan trying to help me out.

For the most part the boys played in the snow.................

while I worked like a mad woman.

My two cutie pies! They look so sweet and innocent here.

Here's the BEFORE picture................

and here's the AFTER picture! 

Let's just say I am one sore momma right now.