Great Dismal Swamp-2

 And they did it again! Although the weather promised to be FREEZING, Robert was brave enough to still take a bunch of scouts to Dismal Swamp for a two night campout. They all survived! And here is his report that he sent out to the parents of the boys. 

Camp by the numbers 
16 – lowest temperature in Fahrenheit recorded during the campout.  That was the first night.  The second night was warmer at a balmy 25 degrees. 

37.5 – total combined service hours clearing trails and campsites.  All pitched in and did their part.

11 – total number of young men at this sub-freezing campout

 

11 – number of Boy Scouts who did their parents and leaders proud

4 – leaders who realized they are too old for camping in the cold

1 – leader who wants to do it again

6 – miles hiked over the swamp and through the woods

0 – complaints (besides the occasional “are we there yet?”)

 

100+ – the number of handwarmers used

3 – the number of 5-gallon jugs frozen overnight 

2 – campfires well-supplied and deeply appreciated

Unknown – the number of hot chocolate packets consumed
11 – number of things we now know can actually freeze: PB & J sandwiches, marshmallows, hand sanitizer, granola bars, Swedish Fish, Nutella, Ranch dressing, carrots, broccoli, starbursts and socks. 
1 – park ranger who forbade us from renting the canoes because of the cold and ice

15 – number of people initially upset but then eventually grateful for his wise call because the ice would have prevented safe passage via canoe and likely some unfortunate soul would have fallen in
3 – hatchets 
2 – saws 
1 – axe 
0 – injuries

All glad to have survived and this will be remembered for many years to come.  And hopefully a few valuable, hard-earned lessons have been learned on the side.

Thank you for coming on this campout.  I hope to return next year on a warmer day for just a day trip so we can at least do the canoe experience through the swamp. 

Your scoutmaster,

Rob Watson

Mark's 9th Birthday!

It must be nice to be the youngest kid, let me tell ya:) According to Alex and Katya, there is no question in their minds who is our favorite child. MARK. 😜

And this "favorite child" just turned NINE! Unreal! 

I frequently tell him the story of his birth and how he came so fast into this world that I wanted to call him "Speedy". He has been a blessing to us from the very first minute--easy going and sensible (as he used to be called in England).

This year, we celebrated Mark's birthday a day early with a friends party. But on his actual birthday, Robert and Alex had to leave quite early to go on a campout with the Boys Scouts so they weren't able to open all the presents with us. 

Here is Mark with ALL his presents (including the ones from the friends party). Mark is holding a tiny tennis racquet which is still coming...it's a big purchase so we had to make sure we are getting the right kind. 

That basketball arcade has been on his wishlist for a while. So has been the cream soda:)

So! For the party, Mark wanted to go to Red Robin for dinner. He thinks they have the best macaroni and cheese there-haha. It turns out it's also bottomless, so kids who wanted to have seconds could have seconds!

Then we drove to bowling. It was a lot of fun! These kids were very well behaved and followed our instructions well.




Then we came home and had cake and ice cream. Someone failed to buy candles....

And someone else was being a Boy Scout and decided that matches would do. 😏😳😲😰

After our sweet treat and opening gifts, the kids watched "Home Alone". Mark wanted so badly to stay up really late (like ten).

And he managed to be awake the whole movie and get to bed around 10:30. 

Height: 4'7''

Favorite Sport: Tennis

Favorite Book: Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life (I didn't even know he'd actually read this book)

Favorite Movie right now: Hobbit (he is definitely our child number three)

Favorite Color: Purple

Hobby: Tennis, tennis, tennis, Wii.
When I grow up I want to be: Roger Federer

Happy Birthday, Markovka!

Lyana. 

Christmas 2017

Merry Christmas!!!

So! This Christmas we had a lot of down time--it was blissful! On Christmas Eve, besides taking these pictures, we had a super yummy dinner of ham and cheesy potatoes (so that Robert had lots of ham leftovers to take camping at the Dismal Swamp:)). We also started a new tradition that comes from Iceland! It's called Jolabokaflod! And it means Christmas Book Flood.

Basically, the idea is that everyone gets new books and we all sit together, cozy and warm, and read books before we go to bed on Christmas Eve. Everyone loved it! Although Mark got a book that was a little too complex for him...so he had to grab another book. But otherwise it all worked just like I imagined it!

And yes, we took some pictures too. 

And the kids got new pajama trousers that were all Star Wars themed:)

And we also forgot to make cookies for Santa, but no one noticed...so oh well. 

Here is a Christmas Eve picture from last year!

On Christmas morning, magically, no one woke us up before 7:30! The kids had opened their stockings before we got up but were pretty quiet overall. We put our morning bake in the oven, kids grabbed some Fruit Loops (which we only buy once a year) and started opening gifts.

This one is my favorite:) Mark is the best at giving funny presents. "Sup Gnomie!"

This year we also decided to focus more on getting experiences than gifts. So although kids still got a few presents from us and presents from each other, they also received "certificates" for going to movies together (at a planned date and time we saw "Wonder") and going as a family to "Defy Gravity" which is one of their favorite places to go to and is not cheap. Stuff like that.

Katya got some money to get new clothes and lots of warm and fuzzy things like socks, scarves and hats. She loves that. 

Mark's "I am in awe" face, or so he says. He was hoping to get a bucket of green dot tennis balls and he got them!

The kids have become harder and harder to shop for as they don't have extensive lists of desired toys or whatever any more. Alex just wanted to get a phone...which he still didn't...poor child. He got lots of pajama pants though😜. He is growing like weed and I can't keep up with his trousers.



For dinner we had our traditional Christmas dinner with English sausages and mash potatoes. The sausages were hard to find but I managed to get them from a butcher's chop in Cary. Butcher shops are hard to come by around here so this one is actually called "The Butcher's Market" and if you are into meat, this is the place to shop for some good cuts. For me, it's once a year thing.

I love how Mark is using his knife and fork still (like he was taught in English school). He doesn't do it all the time at dinner, but at least he knows how:)

We even managed a Christmas dinner selfie!

It was a great peaceful Christmas and we like this way. 

Lyana. 

Busy and Joyful December

December is notoriously a busy month, in all aspects. I think this year, we didn't do so badly after all as I tried to keep the pressure of things to get done to a minimum.

We had a couple of dental parties, both of them included spouses. We love going to fancy places to eat Christmas party dinners:)



One very-VERY rainy evening in early December we ventured out to Raleigh to a "European Christmas Market" which turned out to be a huge disappointment and something that we did in 30 minutes after getting some Czech pastries and two bratwursts. I guess it's organized by a small parish, so we shouldn't have expected much. It was nothing like the European markets in Europe. And we were not the only ones disappointed, but that's ok.



One of the evenings we did something that the kids love to do but that is not my favorite Christmas tradition, and I am not sure why. Because it's more candy? Because it's messy? Don't know. We invited our friends, the Whites. And surprisingly it was a lot of fun and most importantly, the kids were grateful and so excited! Here is our Christmas village.



Our church family is busy every December with the Apex Nativity--the display of hundreds of nativity sets and Messiah sing-along plus a number of other beautiful musical numbers and choir performances. This year we sent our Ukrainian stacking doll nativity set, bought in Lviv (so it's the real deal). It's one of my favorite Ukrainian souvenirs in our house.

On the 23rd of December we had the Wests over. They have six kids in their family and our kids are good friends with their kids. After dinner we went over to ten different families from church to carol and gift them with fudge. We all had a lot of fun. The weather was in the low 70s! Crazy!



On Christmas Eve, we had church, which was perfect! It was a shortened version of our church meeting, lasting only one hour. We had a lot of time after that to do our family traditions and cook our dinner and just hang out and relax. By the way, our temple (in the background) is going to be completely leveled and rebuilt after January 8th. It's going to be closed for a year and a half.

This year we also participated in a Secret Santa mission, splitting the responsibilities with one other family. Although we all were busy with our Christmas preparations, we managed to only forget the gift once:) The kids really loved plotting a way to drop off the gift unnoticed and run super fast to the car or hide behind the building. We never revealed who we were to the family either:)

And this year once again, I let the kids choose a night when they wanted to sleep next to the Christmas tree. Mark fell asleep almost immediately next to it on the rug, near the fireplace, Katya got all comfy on the couch and slept their all night. Alex didn't really want to do that and decided to go upstairs and sleep in his bed. And I am just happy that the kids did something special that they think is cool (well, at least two thirds of them does).

This year I really felt like we were able to relax and enjoy the school/work break together. We had a lot of downtime and a lot of "nowhere to go" kind of days which were so welcome after busy rowing/tennis/theater days. Robert and I strive to help kids create memories that are precisely like that--remembering what is most important.

Lyana.

Pepper The Dog

One lovely day in May, in fact two days before Memorial Day weekend, my kind husband texted me from work and said he is bringing a dog home (and attached a picture of him and this dog). And just like that Pepper was coming to our house to be a temporary resident.

First of all I have to say, I am not a dog person. In fact, Robert is not either. We had the floors resurfaced in our new house and air ducts cleaned just so that there would be no remnant of the dog scratches or smells in the house. This is a very important detail because you know, normally people who don't like dogs don't just pick up dogs and bring them home.

So the way this rescue operation played out was unclear for days because Robert probably was too scared to tell me the full story. 😆Who knows? I guess for months Robert and his coworkers in Siler City had been hearing this dog cry outside, chained to her house with no grass or anything around it. It gets brutally hot and very cold in the winter to be outside too. So finally one morning, Robert had a guy in his patient chair who was the owner of the house where that dog lived and he was renting it out. He told him some details about the people living there and how he was probably going to evict them. That's when Robert and some of his staff decided it was time for action to rescue that dog that no one cared about. They walked over next door and asked the people if they would give them Pepper so they could find a better home for the dog. It turned out that the dog's mom is the actual house dog, but this one was too hard to train so she was kept outside. Her favorite food was pizza;) and the kids didn't really mind if she were taken.

That's when Robert texted me. I partly didn't believe him. Partly I thought he was crazy. Partly I thought that this is so unlike Robert to do something like this without my permission discussing it first. But alas, Robert and Pepper showed up at our doorstep on Wednesday evening before we had to leave for Hilton Head on Friday.

Pepper is a lab/pit mix. She is two years old, super friendly (as we found out) and totally not house trained.



It's a blessing that we have a fenced in backyard so we could just leave her outside for now with food and water. Well, we actually didn't have any food right then, so I posted on our FB neighborhood page about what my husband brought home to see if anyone had any dog things that they could let us borrow/give since this was such a sudden development.

For the night, Pepper just slept outside on a towel. We tried to give her a foam bed that one of the neighbors had but she shredded it to pieces.

The following morning I had to walk her for the first time. I am sorry, but I was very-very scared of her. I don't know what my history with dogs is but I have always been very nervous around them and didn't want to be touched or sniffed or anything. Well, now I had to put a leash on her and touch her and walk her and feed her!



Somehow I survived! And it wasn't too bad! And yes, she is a very untrained dog who only knows "Sit" and is very food motivated, but I came home in one piece.

That Friday before we had to leave on our vacation, Robert took her to a vet and got her basic vaccinations and flea meds as she had fleas (that Robert later saw in his car!!!! ewww!). This was after two days of calling and researching about what we could possibly do with her and what agency could help us. It turns out it's not as easy as we thought to get someone to help us....

Our very kind friends helped us with her feeding and walking when we went away for the Memorial Day weekend. Although it got to low 90s during the day, she had plenty of shade and water and didn't mind this new free life of a grassy backyard.

On Tuesday after the Memorial Day, Robert learned that the people who owned Pepper beforehand were evicted from their house and everything was just thrown out of their house as it was just trashed. Who knows what would have happened to Pepper too?

A couple of weeks later I took her to the vet again to get some tests done. Last minute, I'd decided to get her tested for heart worm after I heard that mosquitos infect dogs with that when they are outside... And it immediately came back positive...We were presented with a treatment that was going to cost around $1000. We went home not knowing what to do... Now no rescue agency FOR SURE would take up a dog that is heart worm positive.  We were so torn! Lots of our friends said there is no way they would ever bother and pay that much money for a dog, others said that dogs are like their family members and they would, some said to take her to an SPCA center but we all know she wasn't guaranteed a treatment there but most likely would have been put down as they don't even deal with public dogs.

The kids, although they knew that we were just fostering her before anyone could really adopt her, were not going to give up on Pepper and just let her die (and that's after just a few weeks of having her), so we kept searching. They even had plans to organize a charity concert to collect funds for her in our neighborhood.

Finally, as a complete blessing, we found one clinic very close to us that had a Samaritan Fund for cases just like that. They were willing to treat Pepper with a fast-kill method (that's injections a month apart and includes about 3 months of bed rest) if we were willing to take care of her and pay for extra things like meds and tests. We agreed!!!

And so Pepper started her medications (antibiotics) and later steroids and injections and all July-September or so she was kept off exercising and excitement. The Peak Lab Rescue let us borrow their large kennel so she could be contained and we taught her how to be in that cage for the night! She goes in at bedtime, sleeps on towels and then has NO accidents, just waits for us till 7-8 am to let her outside to do her business. This was the easiest part ever!

This is the last walk on American Tobacco Trail with Pepper before her "non-walking" period started.



She is a very active dog but somehow we managed to keep her contained and healthy and in October she was finally allowed to go on walks. She was done with her treatment!

And she is still here (as I am writing this, it's end of December!). Her profile is posted on PetFinder and no one has contacted us about her. She lives outside. She comes inside when it's cold and at night. She is still quite untrained in terms of walking and other dogs. I am always hesitant to let her play with other dogs, but that's what she would love the most. Mark is the one who has the most loving feelings towards her. During summer he would grab a book and would just go and read down on the patio next to Pepper. He always wants her to come inside but when she does she goes a bit crazy even if she just stays in the basement.




She is a very good dog and is very happy, active and grateful. One thing, if nothing else, she has done for me is to teach me be much more comfortable with dogs. I still hate the smells, shedding and clean up dogs need. And our kids hate picking up after her in the yard (which is a shame;)). We don't like that we don't feel like we have a nice clean yard to hang out in or have people over unless Pepper is in her kennel inside. Robert is actually allergic to dogs according to his tests but he's been ok with Pepper, probably because she is outside most of the time. We are hesitant to spend any extra money on her training which would definitely benefit her but this is just taking too long to adopt her out.... Heart worm and fleas medications don't come for free either. But at least she is healthy!

So for now Pepper is here. And we hope to find a better home for her with people who actually know what they are doing, can train her and kids who have more time to spend with her (she loves kids).



And that is a story of Pepper and the Watsons.

Lyana.

India: Fitting It All In

We are in our final stretch of my pictures from India! 

Going quite untraditionally according to the Indian moms, I decided to throw Lyena a baby shower. Although we held it on a Saturday afternoon, not many of her friends were able to come. A couple of Indian friends and a Ukrainian girl attended. We had lots of good food--a mixture of Indian and a bit European appetizers. I had brought our blue cutlery and plates/table cloth from the states as it was so easy to find here.

We played a few games that are so popular here (like guessing the names of baby animals that are uncommon). I even had the guests write something funny on the diapers. 

We all had a good time even in our tight circle. Most importantly, Lyena loved it:)! 

Then on Sunday I went to church. It was a VERY interesting experience. Even finding it was very interesting--hahaha.

I had emailed the branch president beforehand to find out the address and the time for the meeting. I should have noticed the red flag when he said, "We will start the meeting around 10:30". Pradnya (my sister's mother-in-law) was kind enough to give me a ride to the address that the branch president gave me. But for whatever reason, there was a mistake or something in the address and so we couldn't find it at all for the longest time! It was definitely pass 10:30 and we were still driving around looking for the building. We finally called the branch president and he said that they will come and get us by the address where we said we were. But thankfully, somehow we actually found the building on our own moments later.

A few minutes after I got dropped off and started talking to a small group of people, who were all members of this tiny branch, mostly women. They told me that the branch president and his family are on the way (this was already after 10:30). Soon, a small car pulled up and, I am serious, as in a funny movie, people started climbing out of it. It seemed impossible that so many people fit in that little car, but they did:) It was funny:) That was the branch president and his wife and a bunch of other relatives. 

Moments after we all sat down in our chapel, I was asked to give a talk during the Sacrament meeting (well, a testimony actually). They also asked another visitor, a guy from TX to give a talk. 

They didn't have a piano, so they listened to the recorded instrumental accompaniment for all the hymns. There were maybe twenty people in total in the room, MAYBE. And possibly only three men including the branch president and the visitor from TX. And the meeting was over within forty five minutes or so--after the two "talks" from the visitors. Done! No second or third hour. Short and sweet:) I kind of liked it 😳😆. Despite a funny mild smell from the pipes or the sewer, I was feeling very cozy and homey. 

Here are some of the sweet members of the Kolkata branch. They don't have missionaries in their area, so it's just them, sustaining each other with faith. 

After church, my sister's mother-in-law got me some fresh coconut water and a coconut (yum!!!) on the drive home from church. 

I don't normally like the canned kind of coconut water, but this was very delicious!

In the afternoon, we all went out to eat to a very special place for my sister--the Hilton Hotel. 

This places serves a buffet lunch and dinner with a lot of Western dishes and desserts. So no wonder she loves it. 

This is the life... Two crazy Ukrainians.

Ok...change of subject... On one of the weekdays, Pradnya, hired a driver to take us to one of the markets in Kolkata. I was looking for some authentic wooden carved plates and a table runner. Looking back now, we should have gone to a more touristy crafts bazaar to find those items as this market was more for Indian people looking for stuff for their households. 

Since I am a professional, usually unfazed bazaar shopper, it was not very difficult for me to walk around that place, but it was quite an experience. All the smells and dirt were a bit much sometimes, but overall it was ok. 

Here is a quick video:

Ummm....what a great photo bomb of a guy (you might have to zoom in).

And here is an illustration how parking is done in a "parking lot". Our hired driver parked here, but had to obviously be blocked by a few other cars. It's not a problem somehow--no one gets mad, people are patient and just work out who moves out where as a puzzle. A lot of them are hired drivers so they all work together. 

Well, here you go! This is my very brief account of the few days I got to experience in India. I actually want to go again and again but explore other parts of the country and play "tourist" for a bit. Maybe when the baby is a little bigger we could do it together with my sister:)

Lyana.