Friday, June 27, 2008
Bye Bye Baby House!
Right at this very moment, Jill is taking her afternoon nap right here in the hotel room! We left this morning at 8:30, met by the driver Voloya and CHI rep. Galina. From here we went to the Ministry of Ed. for Galina to pick up some paperwork and for us to pick up Elvira. After this we went to an unknown building to sign and pick up more paperwork, I believe one of these documents was her new birth certificate! We left Galina and went on to the orphanage to pick up Jill! They made us write out on a piece of 'scrap' paper that we had been given all of her medical information and had no claims against the orphanage. Their social worker told us that her mother had been putting some money in an account for her each year. They said it was minimal and that in order for her to get a hold of it she would have to come here when she was 18 and try to prove herself to be this person which would be hard to do with her name change. They asked us if we wanted to go to the hassles of doing this when she turns 18 or if we would write on another 'scrap' paper that we are aware of the account and will not make attempts to retrieve it. I just found it very nice to know that her mother has been doing this for her! She will be glad to know in the future that her mother cared enough about her to try to save at least a little something for her future! They then gave us her schedule. She gets up at 7:30am, eats breakfast at 8, has a 10am snack, plays outside from 10:30 until noon, has lunch at noon, naps from 1pm-3:30pm (which is right now!), has a four o'clock snack, goes outside again at 5, has dinner at 6, then goes to bed at 8:30pm. Sounds pretty typical to us! The boys schedules were very similar to this when they were her age. We took a few pictures of us in our shirts that say Mother, Father, and daughter in Russian. The staff there really liked the shirts! If anyone's interested I bought them online from a site called cafepress. Then...to the van! Surprisingly she didn't protest at us buckling her in! We drove back to the Ministry of Ed. where Galina was and Wade signed two things, then Elvira took us to buy our plane tickets!!! We are leaving here at 7am next Saturday (the 5th of July) for Moscow. Then, we headed one more time back to the Ministry of Ed. and picked Galina up. She and Elvira came back to the hotel with us. Galina had gotten two younger pictures of Jill on her flashdrive while at the Ministry of Ed! They're not very good ones, but at least they are from when she was probably one or two and I am so happy to have them! The hotel staff brought up a crib, Galina and Elvira stayed a little while while Jill got acclimated and then they left! We're pretty much on our own now. We can call if we need anything, but there is really nothing planned until Voloya picks us up at 5:30am next Saturday to take us to the airport!
Thursday, June 26, 2008
We're Very Close!
We leave in 10 hours to pick up Jill!!!! I can't wait to let her walk out those gates she's been hanging onto the last two days and let her get into the van. I also can't wait to see her in the outfit we brought for her to wear! I am SO tierd of the pink ruffled dress and the blue 18mo size dress that is so short that it shows her underwear!!! We're putting her in pink capris with her shirt that says 'daughter' in Russian. We'll wear our shirts that say 'Mother' and 'Father' in Russian. Hopefully Evlira will take our picture outside the orphanage together. Today we stayed outside again. We walked a lot, she stood at the gate a lot, she looked through her photo album, we sat on the steps and read books; it was a beautiful day with extra beautiful weather! Then we went to dinner, then to the grocery store where we picked up some milk and bananas for Jill and some ice cream for us, then we went back to the hotel. I unpacked our "Backpack full of Toys" that we carry back and forth every day putting the books in the side pockets of the futon, the other toys in a big plastic zippered 'toybox' we brought (it was the zippered plastic container a comforter once came in), the 'arts and crafts'stuff (crayons, coloring books, playdoh, Crayola Magic fingerpaints, stickers, and paper)in the end table drawer, the bubbles on a high shelf in the bathroom, I put her clothes in the futon drawers, and the stroller by the door! I also put her clothes for tomorrow, the baby doll, and her photo album of home that she loves, in a bag by the door to take with us in the morning. WE ARE READY!!! Now we're about to fix some ice cream and watch Russia play Spain in the semifinals of the Euro Cup! If they win they'll play Germany in the final match on Sunday. The games start so late we usually only watch the first half of each one, but tonight we're planning to watch the entire thing. And, if they play Sunday, we'll watch that one for sure! We're hoping to be able to find Euro Cup shirts for sale in Moscow too. It's been a fun time to be here!
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
One More Day!
Wow, I can hardly believe that the day is almost over, meaning we visit Jill for the last time tomorrow and bring her her with us Friday morning! Today we had an afternoon visit, so we slept in, I did a lot of laundry, we watched a movie, and I finished the book Ruby Holler (book review to follow!)We stayed inside for our visit today since it rained a little this morning. They gave us back the little photo album we left for her on the first trip and the notebook I left for caretakers to write notes of memories about Jill's time there. Unfortunately the notebook was only written in by two people; one dated the day I left it there in April, and the other just today! I was a little disappointed about that because I know she has 6 caretakers now and that she has probably had 6 others each year of her life here. I'd estimate that 24 people have worked with her and that's not including her doctor! (The building had about 6 different doctors too.) But, at this point, we'll take what we can get. They also said that they did not have any old pictures of her, that it is against the rules to take the children's pictures or something! I'm going to keep pushing that tomorrow and Friday though. I just can't imagine that they don't take a yearly photo for their records or something that we could get a hold of! They also asked for a $100 donation to the orphanage for medications. We really thought that CHI was supposed to take care of all the donations and that the orphanage donations were included in our CHI fees. So, we said we'd have to think about it. We found out earlier this week that our newest social worker has left CHI and we do not yet have the name of a new one, so I do not really know who to e-mail about that. I thought that maybe if we got some pictures and the notebook back we might, but the notebook doesn't have much in it and so far, no pictures.
When they brought the notebook and photo album out she ran for that photo album! I don't know if she's had it with her the whole time or if she was just seeing it again for the first time since I gave it to her in April. She just loves that book! She carried it to the table and flipped through it, then to the green couch to look at it, then to the black couch to look through it, then......you get the picture! But, she wouldn't let us touch it!!! It was HERS, HERS, HERS! I about held her down with it to try to point out Mama, Papa, Ty and Jake. She whined and "nyet-ed", but eventually let me do it for about a minute and a half. Earlier we practiced saying "Jill" again and WOW! She got the J down right! It sounded great! I pointed to Mama and Papa in her photo book, then pointed to Ty and told her to say "Ty" and SHE DID! Then I pointed to Jake and told here to say "Jake" and SHE DID! Well, it sounded more like "Dake", but that's what most toddlers call Jake. Even Ty called him "Dake" when Jake was born. Then she was off with her book again, taking it from place to place. Twice she sat down and very carefully flipped through each page and was saying things about them. I think she tried to say Ty and Jake again on one page, but I'm not sure. This is how she spent most of the day, but a few other things she did were... brush the doll's hair and put the headband on, actually tried to stack three blocks, but when they fell down, that was the end of that, and hugged and rocked and danced with her baby doll "Lala". Lala is the somewhat 'slang' word for baby. It's really only used by small children. Whenever Jill sees a baby outside she says "Lala" and she calls the baby doll we bring with us every day "Lala" too, so now I call it that as well.
We went to the "French Restaurant" La Vanille for dinner. I got the Ceasar Salad for the first time and it was excellent! Wade go the tuna sandwich again and we both had the famous fruit salad. For desert I got the coffee mouse covered in dark chocolate thing we shared last time, but he got two scoops of vanilla ice cream topped with honey. He loved it!!! His favorite part about it was that is was COLD! He's so tired of everything being served at room temperature, even the milkshakes we got yesterday, and the lack of ice around here. We're planning ahead and thinking if all is going well we may take Jill to this resaturant long about Wednesday. They have a little table that has toys for kids to play with while they wait, and there usually is a kid or two there whenever we go, so it's a good first restaurant to try. If that goes well we may take her to the Chocolate Cafe place sometime too.
For anyone keeping track, we're past the halfway point!!! If we do return on the 9th of July, that's exactly 30 days. Yesterday was day 15, halfway day! My parents and boys celebrated! I guess halfway sounds good to them, but Wade said, "We're only halfway?!" I do think the time will go quickly once we get her in our custody. The 10 days went by more quickly than I thought, and I think she'll keep us busy enough that it will just fly by; and then we can fly home!
Book Review #3
Ruby Holler
by Sharon Creech
This book immediately struck my intrest because it is about two orphans! The children are twins, a boy and a girl, and they are named Dallas and Florida. When they were left on the steps of the "children's home" there was no information on them, no birthdate, no names. The caretakers named them Dallas and Florida because the box was lined with travel brochures and Dallas was laying on the one for Dallas, and Florida on the one for Florida! In one part of the book Florida asked what "that" was; it was a rocking chair. The author explained that she had never been rocked. For some reason I found that to be very sad. I have a rocking chair in Jill's room. I don't know if she's ever been rocked or not, but I plan to hold her in that chair and rock her. Three is not too old for rocking! As for the plot of the book, well, there isn't much of one. There are many stories of these kids-stories while they are living with the nice older couple Tiller and Sairy in Ruby Holler, stories from their past where they were sent to live with some terrible people, all very interesting stories, but no big plot line. By reading the back of this book I was under the impression that the holler was magical and it was a fantasy book, but it is not. I suppose they used the words magical because it was peaceful, full of fresh air, an open place for kids to roam about, run, climb trees, etc. A magical place for children, especially children that had been treated as these twins had been in their past. I really enjoy realistic fiction stories like this, but I like them even better when there is something to be solved or something to really connect the little stories together, some "rising action", "climax", etc! This book, just like Bloomability by the same author, has nice stories about the characters that I enjoy, but doesn't really "go" anyhwere. The ending of Ruby Holler was a little better than the ending of Bloomability as you do know if the kids stay with Sairy and Tiller or not, which, if you call that a plot line, was the general idea of the book. So, there is an answer at the end of this book as opposed to Bloomability which just 'ended'. I would recommend this book more to girls than boys, and I would rate it 4 out of 5 stars. The lack of plotline lost it one star, but I really did enjoy the stories and wanted to keep reading! I finished this 310 page book in two days! I was a little sad when it was over, I'd like to know more of what happened with Dallas, Florida, Sairy, Tiller and they mysterious Mr. Z.
When they brought the notebook and photo album out she ran for that photo album! I don't know if she's had it with her the whole time or if she was just seeing it again for the first time since I gave it to her in April. She just loves that book! She carried it to the table and flipped through it, then to the green couch to look at it, then to the black couch to look through it, then......you get the picture! But, she wouldn't let us touch it!!! It was HERS, HERS, HERS! I about held her down with it to try to point out Mama, Papa, Ty and Jake. She whined and "nyet-ed", but eventually let me do it for about a minute and a half. Earlier we practiced saying "Jill" again and WOW! She got the J down right! It sounded great! I pointed to Mama and Papa in her photo book, then pointed to Ty and told her to say "Ty" and SHE DID! Then I pointed to Jake and told here to say "Jake" and SHE DID! Well, it sounded more like "Dake", but that's what most toddlers call Jake. Even Ty called him "Dake" when Jake was born. Then she was off with her book again, taking it from place to place. Twice she sat down and very carefully flipped through each page and was saying things about them. I think she tried to say Ty and Jake again on one page, but I'm not sure. This is how she spent most of the day, but a few other things she did were... brush the doll's hair and put the headband on, actually tried to stack three blocks, but when they fell down, that was the end of that, and hugged and rocked and danced with her baby doll "Lala". Lala is the somewhat 'slang' word for baby. It's really only used by small children. Whenever Jill sees a baby outside she says "Lala" and she calls the baby doll we bring with us every day "Lala" too, so now I call it that as well.
We went to the "French Restaurant" La Vanille for dinner. I got the Ceasar Salad for the first time and it was excellent! Wade go the tuna sandwich again and we both had the famous fruit salad. For desert I got the coffee mouse covered in dark chocolate thing we shared last time, but he got two scoops of vanilla ice cream topped with honey. He loved it!!! His favorite part about it was that is was COLD! He's so tired of everything being served at room temperature, even the milkshakes we got yesterday, and the lack of ice around here. We're planning ahead and thinking if all is going well we may take Jill to this resaturant long about Wednesday. They have a little table that has toys for kids to play with while they wait, and there usually is a kid or two there whenever we go, so it's a good first restaurant to try. If that goes well we may take her to the Chocolate Cafe place sometime too.
For anyone keeping track, we're past the halfway point!!! If we do return on the 9th of July, that's exactly 30 days. Yesterday was day 15, halfway day! My parents and boys celebrated! I guess halfway sounds good to them, but Wade said, "We're only halfway?!" I do think the time will go quickly once we get her in our custody. The 10 days went by more quickly than I thought, and I think she'll keep us busy enough that it will just fly by; and then we can fly home!
Book Review #3
Ruby Holler
by Sharon Creech
This book immediately struck my intrest because it is about two orphans! The children are twins, a boy and a girl, and they are named Dallas and Florida. When they were left on the steps of the "children's home" there was no information on them, no birthdate, no names. The caretakers named them Dallas and Florida because the box was lined with travel brochures and Dallas was laying on the one for Dallas, and Florida on the one for Florida! In one part of the book Florida asked what "that" was; it was a rocking chair. The author explained that she had never been rocked. For some reason I found that to be very sad. I have a rocking chair in Jill's room. I don't know if she's ever been rocked or not, but I plan to hold her in that chair and rock her. Three is not too old for rocking! As for the plot of the book, well, there isn't much of one. There are many stories of these kids-stories while they are living with the nice older couple Tiller and Sairy in Ruby Holler, stories from their past where they were sent to live with some terrible people, all very interesting stories, but no big plot line. By reading the back of this book I was under the impression that the holler was magical and it was a fantasy book, but it is not. I suppose they used the words magical because it was peaceful, full of fresh air, an open place for kids to roam about, run, climb trees, etc. A magical place for children, especially children that had been treated as these twins had been in their past. I really enjoy realistic fiction stories like this, but I like them even better when there is something to be solved or something to really connect the little stories together, some "rising action", "climax", etc! This book, just like Bloomability by the same author, has nice stories about the characters that I enjoy, but doesn't really "go" anyhwere. The ending of Ruby Holler was a little better than the ending of Bloomability as you do know if the kids stay with Sairy and Tiller or not, which, if you call that a plot line, was the general idea of the book. So, there is an answer at the end of this book as opposed to Bloomability which just 'ended'. I would recommend this book more to girls than boys, and I would rate it 4 out of 5 stars. The lack of plotline lost it one star, but I really did enjoy the stories and wanted to keep reading! I finished this 310 page book in two days! I was a little sad when it was over, I'd like to know more of what happened with Dallas, Florida, Sairy, Tiller and they mysterious Mr. Z.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Two Sides of Russia
We left at 10 am for our visit today, but we took a different route! I was excited in the change of scenery. I was even more excited to find that the new route took us by the 'big, nice houses' that we can see in the distance via our usual route. I did find, in seeing these houses up close, that they were not as nice as they looked from a distance. On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being a heap of wood that used to be a house and 10 being 'like the houses in our subdivision', these were probably a 7. Pretty good for around here. They were straight and upright, a few of the wooden ones slanted some, most had straight shutters and the bricks were only a little worn. This is as opposed to the homes by the hotel that would be anywhere between a 2 and maybe a 5. Shutters are either crooked or falling off, and the roofs aren't constructed in a fashion to keep the rain out. Wade mentioned one walk that just as he thought that a house must be abandoned, we heard people talking. We squinted through the gate, and sure enough, people were outside eating. Now there was one strip of housing that we passed, probably about 6 houses total, on a small river off the Volga that were BEAUTIFUL! I'd rate them over a 10! All brick, HUGE, kept up, garages, fancy fences, fancy cars out front and, as I said, on the water! WOW! Then the area got gradually more and more run down as we grew closer to the orphanage. I'll tell about our visit in a minute, but to tie in with the variety of houses we've seen, I'm going to fast forward to tonight's dinner experience. We walked to the Chocolate Cafe that we like so much (AKA The Chicken Hips Restaurant)and opened the door to find...a child's birthday party! All of the tables had been moved to one side of the room. There were balloons all over, girls in fancy dresses, some boys were there too, a teenage girl dressed as a clown and a teenage boy dressed as a pirate who were leading games, tons of fancy food on the tables, juice in champagne glasses, etc! They were having so much fun! We weren't sure if they were open to other business or not, but they motioned for us to go upstairs and sit, so we did. It was very noisy, but fun to watch. I would guess the birthday girl was turning 8 or 9 years old. The mom, in a fancy black cocktail dress with glass heels had a diamond ring on her hand that was approximately 5 carats! The dad brought the birthday girl an enormous boquet of flowers. They served hot tea and huge pieces of cake, each piece decorated with lots of different bright colors of frosting. Almost every child had a cell phone and they were calling each other on them, taking pictures with them and playing games on them. It was like nothing we've seen here before. The car parked outside was a Land Rover! So, we assume they must live in one of those 10+ houses! Then, in the very same evening, walking home, we passed the "2" houses, "3" houses, and a lady sleeping on a park bench using her purse as a pillow. I know in America we have rich, poor, and every step inbetween, but to see two so very different pictures of Russia in one short walk....
Now for the visit! It was a beautiful day today! I think the bugs have finally subsided and it's so crisp and cool in the mornings, so we chose to walk around outside. We knew she had a bath yesterday and were hoping for a new dress today, and we got it! A very cute pink dress with a nice embroidered hat. We went outside and she walked right to the gate. We told her no (well, we told her nyet)but she whined and shook her head and continued to try to get out. Galina closed the gate (It was open and I think when she saw Voloya and the van from yesterday she wanted to do it again!)so Jill grabbed the bars of the gate and shook it and shook it. She wanted out! It took a very long time to coax her away. She finally did, but had to suck her thumb then (which is what she does when she doesn't get her way). After that we had a lot of fun walking. Her group was outside and she talked to all of them every time we walked by. She gave her caretakers hugs, we got pictures of them together too! Then Wade tried to teach her her name. He would point to me and say "mama" then he'd point to himself and say "papa" then he'd point to her and say "Jill". After he did this about five times, SHE SAID JILL! The J wasn't too clear, it sounded a little like "oil" sometimes, but we praised and praised her and she kept trying. I think it got closer and closer to sounding like Jill every time she said it. We did get it on video too! Very cute! I remember that one of the first things they told me about her on our first trip was that she 'likes to learn and is proud of her accomplishments'.
I know this is very out of order today, but I wanted to mention that after dinner tonight we stopped at this park area on the way back to the hotel that has food and a children's play area. We ordered milkshakes for dessert. We were happy to find out that you sit down and they bring you menus because it's hard for us to order things on a board, which we thought might be the case with this outside BBQ type place. We looked through their menu and think we'll go back sometime and have Shaslik (shishkebobs). Whatever they're grilling out there smells fabulous, and having the children's playset there for Jill to play on while we wait will be fantastic!
Now for the visit! It was a beautiful day today! I think the bugs have finally subsided and it's so crisp and cool in the mornings, so we chose to walk around outside. We knew she had a bath yesterday and were hoping for a new dress today, and we got it! A very cute pink dress with a nice embroidered hat. We went outside and she walked right to the gate. We told her no (well, we told her nyet)but she whined and shook her head and continued to try to get out. Galina closed the gate (It was open and I think when she saw Voloya and the van from yesterday she wanted to do it again!)so Jill grabbed the bars of the gate and shook it and shook it. She wanted out! It took a very long time to coax her away. She finally did, but had to suck her thumb then (which is what she does when she doesn't get her way). After that we had a lot of fun walking. Her group was outside and she talked to all of them every time we walked by. She gave her caretakers hugs, we got pictures of them together too! Then Wade tried to teach her her name. He would point to me and say "mama" then he'd point to himself and say "papa" then he'd point to her and say "Jill". After he did this about five times, SHE SAID JILL! The J wasn't too clear, it sounded a little like "oil" sometimes, but we praised and praised her and she kept trying. I think it got closer and closer to sounding like Jill every time she said it. We did get it on video too! Very cute! I remember that one of the first things they told me about her on our first trip was that she 'likes to learn and is proud of her accomplishments'.
I know this is very out of order today, but I wanted to mention that after dinner tonight we stopped at this park area on the way back to the hotel that has food and a children's play area. We ordered milkshakes for dessert. We were happy to find out that you sit down and they bring you menus because it's hard for us to order things on a board, which we thought might be the case with this outside BBQ type place. We looked through their menu and think we'll go back sometime and have Shaslik (shishkebobs). Whatever they're grilling out there smells fabulous, and having the children's playset there for Jill to play on while we wait will be fantastic!
Monday, June 23, 2008
Passport Picture Already!
As usual, we left at 10 am for our visit with Jill. What was unusual was that when we got there, we took her off orphanage property, in the van, to a photo studio to have her passport picture taken!!! That was good news for us. I don’t think that Jennifer, Mandy or Catherine got their children’s passport pictures taken until after the 10 day wait, but I may be wrong about that. Anyway, we say, the sooner the better! Now, as soon as we have the other documents we can fill out everything we need for the passport and hope that it comes quickly! She did surprisingly well in the van. She clung very tightly to me as we walked out of the gated grounds and looked back at the orphanage, but as soon as one of her caretakers joined us, she loosened up a bit. In the van she sat on my lap and looked out the window. She didn’t seem scared, and was very calm despite the extremely bumpy ride. At the photo studio they sat her on a chair and the lady took many, many shots trying to get one where she was smiling with her mouth closed. Because of her congestion, she doesn’t close her mouth much. She does enjoy the camera though, so she was smiling in every picture, but with her mouth open. Finally she got one with a closed smile and was satisfied. I was surprised she went to so much trouble; I didn’t think you had to be smiling in a passport picture-I know Wade isn’t smiling in his! Oh, I forgot to mention the bow! I guess when the caretakers found out she was getting a picture taken, they put a big bow on her head! Wade wanted to take it off for the picture, but I think that it’s a pretty standard thing for dressing up kids here. I’m sure they put it on her just for this occasion, and with one of the caretakers there I thought that it may offend her to take it off. It really turned out to be a great picture-too small ruffled dress, big white bow and all! While waiting about 20 minutes for the pictures to be ready, we walked up and down the walkway in front of the building. She just took it all in. Planes flew overhead, she saw several kids ride by on bikes, and a girl walking a dog. She climbed in the van for awhile, so we got in too and read her her favorite book. Voloya, the driver, would peek in at her and smile, she’d laugh, then he’d move away so she couldn’t see him, then he would pop back where she could see him and smile again, and, she’d laugh again. They did this over and over. She really liked him. It was very cute to watch. We got the pictures, then went back to the orphanage and walked around and around the grounds. We were going to take a picture with her group leaders, but only one was out with about half of the kids. The other was in ‘washing children’ she said. So, hopefully we can do this another day. We found out that there are three shifts each day with two caretakers working each shift for 13 children. I think that is a pretty good ratio. Then she had to leave early because it was her turn to be ‘washed’. She really didn’t want to go. I don’t know if she doesn’t like baths, or doesn’t like the person who came to get her this time, or what. Usually she goes very willingly because they tell her it is time to eat. She didn’t throw a tantrum or anything, but needed some coaxing to go.
After the visit we walked to the Horseshoe Restaurant over by the Azimut. They don’t have an English menu, but I remembered what my dad and I ordered the two times we went. Unfortunately they didn’t have the Borscht today. Maybe they don’t carry it in the summer. But, they did have the beef goulash which is like beef stroganoff with a thinner sauce than I make when I cook beef stroganoff. It is served with mashed potatoes (homemade) too! It was excellent! Just as it was the first trip. For dessert we ordered the blinis with icecream and honey on them. They were excellent as well! Just as they were the first trip! Later we went to the open market and got more cherries. I guess the strawberry season is over because the strawberry lady was not there, and no one else seemed to have strawberries. I sure am glad we got them when we did! One interesting thing we saw was a guy with two crates full of live crayfish crawling around. They were packed full and he had to keep knocking the ones that were climbing out back in! We also bought Jill a hat. All the kids here wear stocking caps in the spring, fall, winter and ‘ball caps’ in the summer. Hers is white with bright aqua, pink, blue, and green flowers on it. It ties in a small bow in the back. I really love it and think it will go with all of the outfits we brought for her!
The kids in my last class know that I had a list of books to read this summer. I brought a few of them with me and have read two (my husband even read one-Hatchet). At school, whenever we read a book, we write a book review to share with the class. So…I have written book reviews on these two books to share with any kids out there that are interested! If you happen to be a kid who may be in my class next year, pay attention to the type of information I put in these reviews as you will have to begin doing this in about 8 short weeks!!!
Book Review #1
The Tale of Despereaux
By Kate DiCamillo
I have wanted to read The Tale of Despereaux for about two years, so I chose to read it first. I started this book on the airplane and finished it in just over one week. I could have read it faster, but, to be honest, it did not capture my interest as much as I thought it would. It did pick up the pace quite a bit when it went from “Book the First” writing about the main character, mouse, Desperaux to “Book the Second” when she introduced Chiaroscuro the rat, and picked up even more during “Book the Third” with the character Miggery Sow. I liked the Miggery Sow “book” the best, probably because it was about a person. I have never been a big fan of the fantasy genre, so the mouse and rat tales were just “OK” for me, but I became much more interested when the girl, Mig, was introduced and much of the story took place in the castle with the princess, king, servants, etc… all characters that were people. Now, I have to say “Book the Fourth” did make the overall book very good, tying everything together in an interesting and entertaining way. I hate when I read a book and the ending is for one reason or another not satisfying, and this book does, without a doubt, have a satisfying ending. Therefore, I rate this book 4 out of 5 stars. A slow start for me, but it picked up nicely and ended well.
Book Review #2
Shakespeare’s Secret
By Elise Broach
A girl soon to be in eighth grade recommended Shakespeare’s Secret to me during the book fair in January, and then a few girls in my class read it and recommended it as well, so I put it on my list of “books to read while in Russia”. I am so glad that I did!!! This is probably the best book I’ve read since reading Under the Same Sky by Cynthia DeFelice. I would put it in the realistic fiction category which is by far my favorite genre of book, but it is also a little bit of a mystery. I am not a huge mystery fan, but as I said, it is just a little bit of a mystery; in my opinion, “just enough”. The main character’s family moves to a new town, something her family does often. It never goes well for her making friends and this time is no different. But she befriends the elderly neighbor and a popular eighth grade boy. The neighbor and boy tell her that there is a secret about the house her family has moved into, and together they solve the mystery finding something the previous owner had hidden in the house. A second mystery is solved involving the families of the neighbor and the boy. I figured this “secret” out on page 148. Sometimes I figure things out too early in a book and it ruins the rest for me, but there was enough more to happen in this 243 page book that it kept me flipping page after page after page. I enjoyed it so much I stayed up half the night reading last Saturday. I finished this book in two days! I rate it 5 out of 5 stars and recommend it to everyone; boys and girls alike!
More Book Reviews Coming Soon….
Code Talker by Joseph Bruchac (A novel about the Navajo Marines of World War II)
Ruby Holler by Sharon Creech (twin orphans, taken in by an eccentric older couple who take them on mysterious, magical adventures)
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen (boy and pilot flying through Canada; pilot has heart attack, boy takes over plane, crashes, boy survives alone in the Canadian wilderness with only a hatchet)
Book I wanted to bring, but couldn’t find in my classroom: Nowhere to Call Home by Cynthia DeFelice (If you have it, please return it!!!)
After the visit we walked to the Horseshoe Restaurant over by the Azimut. They don’t have an English menu, but I remembered what my dad and I ordered the two times we went. Unfortunately they didn’t have the Borscht today. Maybe they don’t carry it in the summer. But, they did have the beef goulash which is like beef stroganoff with a thinner sauce than I make when I cook beef stroganoff. It is served with mashed potatoes (homemade) too! It was excellent! Just as it was the first trip. For dessert we ordered the blinis with icecream and honey on them. They were excellent as well! Just as they were the first trip! Later we went to the open market and got more cherries. I guess the strawberry season is over because the strawberry lady was not there, and no one else seemed to have strawberries. I sure am glad we got them when we did! One interesting thing we saw was a guy with two crates full of live crayfish crawling around. They were packed full and he had to keep knocking the ones that were climbing out back in! We also bought Jill a hat. All the kids here wear stocking caps in the spring, fall, winter and ‘ball caps’ in the summer. Hers is white with bright aqua, pink, blue, and green flowers on it. It ties in a small bow in the back. I really love it and think it will go with all of the outfits we brought for her!
The kids in my last class know that I had a list of books to read this summer. I brought a few of them with me and have read two (my husband even read one-Hatchet). At school, whenever we read a book, we write a book review to share with the class. So…I have written book reviews on these two books to share with any kids out there that are interested! If you happen to be a kid who may be in my class next year, pay attention to the type of information I put in these reviews as you will have to begin doing this in about 8 short weeks!!!
Book Review #1
The Tale of Despereaux
By Kate DiCamillo
I have wanted to read The Tale of Despereaux for about two years, so I chose to read it first. I started this book on the airplane and finished it in just over one week. I could have read it faster, but, to be honest, it did not capture my interest as much as I thought it would. It did pick up the pace quite a bit when it went from “Book the First” writing about the main character, mouse, Desperaux to “Book the Second” when she introduced Chiaroscuro the rat, and picked up even more during “Book the Third” with the character Miggery Sow. I liked the Miggery Sow “book” the best, probably because it was about a person. I have never been a big fan of the fantasy genre, so the mouse and rat tales were just “OK” for me, but I became much more interested when the girl, Mig, was introduced and much of the story took place in the castle with the princess, king, servants, etc… all characters that were people. Now, I have to say “Book the Fourth” did make the overall book very good, tying everything together in an interesting and entertaining way. I hate when I read a book and the ending is for one reason or another not satisfying, and this book does, without a doubt, have a satisfying ending. Therefore, I rate this book 4 out of 5 stars. A slow start for me, but it picked up nicely and ended well.
Book Review #2
Shakespeare’s Secret
By Elise Broach
A girl soon to be in eighth grade recommended Shakespeare’s Secret to me during the book fair in January, and then a few girls in my class read it and recommended it as well, so I put it on my list of “books to read while in Russia”. I am so glad that I did!!! This is probably the best book I’ve read since reading Under the Same Sky by Cynthia DeFelice. I would put it in the realistic fiction category which is by far my favorite genre of book, but it is also a little bit of a mystery. I am not a huge mystery fan, but as I said, it is just a little bit of a mystery; in my opinion, “just enough”. The main character’s family moves to a new town, something her family does often. It never goes well for her making friends and this time is no different. But she befriends the elderly neighbor and a popular eighth grade boy. The neighbor and boy tell her that there is a secret about the house her family has moved into, and together they solve the mystery finding something the previous owner had hidden in the house. A second mystery is solved involving the families of the neighbor and the boy. I figured this “secret” out on page 148. Sometimes I figure things out too early in a book and it ruins the rest for me, but there was enough more to happen in this 243 page book that it kept me flipping page after page after page. I enjoyed it so much I stayed up half the night reading last Saturday. I finished this book in two days! I rate it 5 out of 5 stars and recommend it to everyone; boys and girls alike!
More Book Reviews Coming Soon….
Code Talker by Joseph Bruchac (A novel about the Navajo Marines of World War II)
Ruby Holler by Sharon Creech (twin orphans, taken in by an eccentric older couple who take them on mysterious, magical adventures)
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen (boy and pilot flying through Canada; pilot has heart attack, boy takes over plane, crashes, boy survives alone in the Canadian wilderness with only a hatchet)
Book I wanted to bring, but couldn’t find in my classroom: Nowhere to Call Home by Cynthia DeFelice (If you have it, please return it!!!)
Sunday, June 22, 2008
I Missed Friday!
I just realized I did not blog about Friday, and a few important things happened that day! For starters, it was our friends from TN and AL last day here. But, we did all go to Sans Pizza for lunch with Elvira and Galina. Now, that is GOOD pizza!!! It's thin crust and their pepperoni is really pepperoni, unlike the smoked sausage 'pepperoni' we got on our pizza from the mall. After that we went to the store everyone calls Walmart here. It's not a Walmart, but like a cross between a Walmart and Sams Club. We didn't buy anything, but had fun looking. Then our American friends went for their last visit with their children. I know that was hard for them. Please pray for them to get a court date quickly and travel back here soon to pick up their children!!! It rained again that night (but nothing like Thursday) so we ate in the hotel restaurant. There we found that along with having good pork chops and chicken, they also have good fish! This is good to know, as we may not venture out as much when we have Jill with us.
Something else I haven't mentioned yet is the Euro Cup! We have been watching tons of soccer here because the Euro Cup is going on right now. Russia was not favored to beat Sweden to make the quarter finals last Wednesday, but they did!!! Everyone was so happy and excited and bars and restaurants started posting signs for watching the next game against the Netherlands at their establishments. It was on the news all the time about how the Netherlands were such a good team, and once again Russia was not favored. The friend of Elvira's last night said she couldn't bear to watch the game because she gets so nervous, and Netherland is so good; she just wanted to find out afterwards and then watch! Anyway--THEY WON!!!The score was 3 to 1 in overtime! It WAS so exciting! You should see the newscasts from Moscow! We thought Astrakhan went wild, honking horns and yelling in the streets, but the clips from Moscow were 10 times as wild! Now we wait for Spain and Italy to play tonight to find out who Russia will play in the semi-finals on the 26th (Thursday). They COULD end up winning the whole thing while we're here! That would be SO exciting!
Today was an 'off day'(no orphanage visits on Sundays)so we slept in. At about noon we headed out. We went to a small mall and looked around at the toy store, clothing stores, souvenier stuff, etc. Then went on to the 'French restaurant' to have lunch. After lunch we looked through the things the vendors outside the Kremlin were selling and bought a puzzle of their Kremlin. Then, on to the gift shop I bought souveniers from on my last trip. There we bought two sets of postcards and an Astrakhan coffee mug. One set of the postcards is really neat in that it's a current picture on one side, then if you flip it over it's the same place about a hundred years ago. Very interesting! After gift shopping, we went to the Astor, or the 'big mall' where we looked around awhile, especillay at the children's store on the top floor by the Baskin Robbins. The prices for clothing there were really high, I don't think there was anything there under $40. Then Wade noticed another store that had sale signs in the window. They had adult and children's clothing, so we went in there. It was great! We bought two skorts; one green one blue, in an eyelet pattern, (If you know me, you know I love eyelet!)a tank top that had flowers on it where the stems were made of sewn on twisted green thread and the center of each flower was a button, and an adorable dress that has little hearts cut out at the bottom, but underneath this layer of material is another one in a red gingham so it shows through the cut out hearts! Each piece was on sale for about 200 rubles ($8) so the total was less than $40 for all four pieces! (less than buying one thing from the other store!)Our last stop was the grocery store in that mall where we stocked up on some of our basics for lunch; ham, cheese, bread, pickles, chips, and this time we bought roasted chicken in the deli for dinner tonight. We just had it and it was excellent!!!
We have good news! Galina says that our passport will be here Friday, July 4th! She said we will then drop off papers to the American Embassy on Monday, July 7th which means we'll have our interview either July 8th or 9th. We MAY be able to leave on the Wednesday,the 9th, but if not, for sure Thursday the 10th! Two days earlier than we expected! I know it's only two or three days, but it feels like a lot to us!!! We can't wait to get home and see our boys and all our family and friends!
Something else I haven't mentioned yet is the Euro Cup! We have been watching tons of soccer here because the Euro Cup is going on right now. Russia was not favored to beat Sweden to make the quarter finals last Wednesday, but they did!!! Everyone was so happy and excited and bars and restaurants started posting signs for watching the next game against the Netherlands at their establishments. It was on the news all the time about how the Netherlands were such a good team, and once again Russia was not favored. The friend of Elvira's last night said she couldn't bear to watch the game because she gets so nervous, and Netherland is so good; she just wanted to find out afterwards and then watch! Anyway--THEY WON!!!The score was 3 to 1 in overtime! It WAS so exciting! You should see the newscasts from Moscow! We thought Astrakhan went wild, honking horns and yelling in the streets, but the clips from Moscow were 10 times as wild! Now we wait for Spain and Italy to play tonight to find out who Russia will play in the semi-finals on the 26th (Thursday). They COULD end up winning the whole thing while we're here! That would be SO exciting!
Today was an 'off day'(no orphanage visits on Sundays)so we slept in. At about noon we headed out. We went to a small mall and looked around at the toy store, clothing stores, souvenier stuff, etc. Then went on to the 'French restaurant' to have lunch. After lunch we looked through the things the vendors outside the Kremlin were selling and bought a puzzle of their Kremlin. Then, on to the gift shop I bought souveniers from on my last trip. There we bought two sets of postcards and an Astrakhan coffee mug. One set of the postcards is really neat in that it's a current picture on one side, then if you flip it over it's the same place about a hundred years ago. Very interesting! After gift shopping, we went to the Astor, or the 'big mall' where we looked around awhile, especillay at the children's store on the top floor by the Baskin Robbins. The prices for clothing there were really high, I don't think there was anything there under $40. Then Wade noticed another store that had sale signs in the window. They had adult and children's clothing, so we went in there. It was great! We bought two skorts; one green one blue, in an eyelet pattern, (If you know me, you know I love eyelet!)a tank top that had flowers on it where the stems were made of sewn on twisted green thread and the center of each flower was a button, and an adorable dress that has little hearts cut out at the bottom, but underneath this layer of material is another one in a red gingham so it shows through the cut out hearts! Each piece was on sale for about 200 rubles ($8) so the total was less than $40 for all four pieces! (less than buying one thing from the other store!)Our last stop was the grocery store in that mall where we stocked up on some of our basics for lunch; ham, cheese, bread, pickles, chips, and this time we bought roasted chicken in the deli for dinner tonight. We just had it and it was excellent!!!
We have good news! Galina says that our passport will be here Friday, July 4th! She said we will then drop off papers to the American Embassy on Monday, July 7th which means we'll have our interview either July 8th or 9th. We MAY be able to leave on the Wednesday,the 9th, but if not, for sure Thursday the 10th! Two days earlier than we expected! I know it's only two or three days, but it feels like a lot to us!!! We can't wait to get home and see our boys and all our family and friends!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
