A Quick Winter Summary

Ever since we started using our phones a ton more (after we moved back here), we don't take nearly as many awesome pictures with our fancy camera. So I keep getting a bunch of pictures of various things on my phone, then gather some from Robert's phone and even Katya's phone to get an idea of what our life is like. Here are a few pictures that I had on my phone, which is good, because they remind me of what was happening in our everyday life.

Back on January 31st, I sent a package to my sister. An innocent little package with some skin care stuff inside. Well, I SHOULD HAVE bought some sort of extra insurance or paid $90 extra to get it tracked because as of May 17th there is no trace of it anywhere. I have been going to the post office for the last two months and the worst part is that they simply don't know what happened to it after it left NC. If it just said that it cleared customs here and left and got lost in India, I would just accept it and move on. But it doesn't show anywhere that it had left the states. I am being stubborn about it, and I will keep exhausting every source of information until I get an answer or...I don't know...free mailing services for a year. Just kidding. I just want the package to reappear!!!! 

Or maybe they just couldn't read the address?:) Kidding, kidding:) Do you like my scribbling?

In the rowing world, Alex had an opportunity to participate in the High Point Indoor Erg Sprints. And he won first place in his age category! He is really growing to love rowing, partly because of how much he is liking being part of the team. Competitions are a fun bonus. 

And Mark finally finished his Orange Level 1 in tennis so he is able to play with Green Dot tennis balls (the next level is the regular balls) and have a longer racquet (26 in instead of a 25 in).  These things are getting more expensive as he grows...sigh. 

We had a chance to clean out the area directly behind our back fence. It had been a year since we moved in but last year we didn't get to it while there was no ground cover and tons of leaves, so we had to do it this year. The people who lived here before us used it as a dump...It's a public area of a nice wooded buffer between us and the next neighborhood, lots of green trees and crazy plants. We found so much junk that it was unbelievable! Buried under a layer of dirt were a number of hoses, buckets, buckets, buckets, chicken wire, lots of whatever and at least fifty empty beer cans and bottles. 

Fun family Saturday project.

Alex also participated in Take Your Kid To Work Day this year. He went to visit Robert at Royal Oak in Cary and shadowed him for several hours.

Nevertheless, he doesn't think he should be a dentist.

Back to tennis. Mark spends around 5 hours a week on the court. And we are encouraged to add more. This summer I am hoping to go out and play with him early in the morning before it gets insanely hot as well as rent out a ball machine once a week since he gets it for free ten times a year with his tennis park membership. The heat never seems to bother him. He has an amazing endurance and recovers very well. Practicing for two and a half hours in the evenings sometimes makes him only want to play more...minus the blisters on his hands and fingers. This picture was taken on the day he challenged himself to serve 200 serves. Took him around an hour but he did it:)) 

Oh yeah, Katya is still coxing on our rowing team. She gets to witness these amazing winter sunsets and freeze to death at 8 am on Saturday mornings. 

She still enjoys it and hopes to continue it next year...hoping to make it work with her theater plans.

Foggy mornings are beautiful too. 

Mark participated in his first American School Spelling Bee. He practiced for weeks. When Grandpa Chuck and Grandma Linda came to visit us in January, he was so happy that Grandma Linda spent a lot of time testing him on his hardest words. He did amazingly well! Somehow he hung on and knew all the words from the hardest 9th grade word list. Then there were FOUR kids left out of 28 or so and they finished the spelling word list that they had given the kids to study, so they had to start testing random words that were way easier than some crazy ones on the 9th grade list. The girl before Mark had to spell a word "sparkle", and then someone had to spell the word "hula". Well, Mark got "HORSESHOE" and he misspelled that...unfortunately. He was the only third grader in the final four and we are super proud of him! He is aiming high for next year, never afraid of this sort of challenge. So great to see him being a self-starter (as in the case with him taking the test to skip 5th grade math...but that's another story:)).

And Alex had a great time competing in his school's Geography Bee. He gets quite competitive as well, but unfortunately there wasn't any list or facts to really study. He answered a lot of hard questions about the US and the world. He got out on a question about the river on the border of South Carolina and Georgia (a real Southern question:)). But, of course, he knew all the world questions and all the questions that were tie breakers after he got out as they pertained to the countries we had visited. 

Finally, we still have Pepper...;)

And here you go! Random facts about our winter happenings. Man...our life is all about kids...kids...kids... 😆

Lyana. 

Visiting our Florida Watsons!

Capitalizing on our three day weekend for President's Day, we decided to head down to Florida to see  the other Watsons living on the East Coast. James and Michelle and family had moved to Jacksonville, FL after their fun job assignment in England (where we got to visit them as well). We finally made plans to go see them! It was a drive of around 6-7 hours with a stop at the Florida Visitor's Center on the border of Georgia and Florida. We got to try some fresh orange juice (we hope and assume it was made of FL oranges, but who knows?) and congratulated Mark on his return to his Motherland as he was born in Ft. Walton Beach, FL! He was so proud of it, it was hilarious!

On this picture below it's really hard to convince you that we are on a road trip in February, right!!?

The night we arrived we were able to meet up with James and family at a beautiful town of St. Augustine. It is actually the oldest town in the US, settled by Spanish explorers in the 16th century! It was very quaint and cozy. Unfortunately, none of my pictures turned out well as we took a bunch at dusk. 

James had a fun idea to go to the Daytona 300 on Saturday we were visiting. Well...it's something you have to experience once in your life, right? 

We had absolutely no idea what to expect. 

Mark is just so excited--this is his "yay!" look. 

These are all BEFORE pictures as in before we were so drenched in sweat that it was crazy:) 

We found some awesome seats--none were in the shade though. People watching at this even was something else. The crowd it attracts is quite different from any other event:)

It's a good thing we had hats! It was in mid 80s by late afternoon and we were melting, taking turns who was going to go sit in the shaded area (entrance to the spectator area).

One thing for sure--it was LOUD!! Loud all the time! 

Yes, it was very similar to Cars cartoons, but I didn't see any talking cars. 

Three hundred miles is what these drivers had to conquer.  I think that the first time a car crashed and all the spectators stood up and cheered, I was a bit appalled. I couldn't understand why anyone would be excited for a car crash. And then after the fifth car crash I realized that that is pretty much the only thing that these people come to watch here--hahaha. They want more crashes! And they want the laps to go on forever:)) 

We had extra laps and restarts in the last half an hour of the race because someone constantly kept crashing. It was crazy! I think it was something like the longest Daytona 300 ever because of it! We were kind of ready for it to be over:)

Here is our whole family! It was fun and we glad we did it:) One time 😆

On Sunday we got to hang out with the kids and go to church. 

Mark, Carter and Alex.

Everett and Mark.

Katya and Mercedes, our only girls:)

On Monday morning we had some time to spare before leaving so we headed for the beach. The water was still very-very cold so only the kids were crazy enough to get wet. 

A very foggy morning indeed!

Intermission: I wanted to share some of the pictures Katya took that weekend with her phone. I know she used a filter, but these are pretty neat!

Oh! Hi, Everett!

And on this fun note we headed pout to lunch and left for NC from there. 

Our weekend was very fast but fun! Glad we made this trip!

Babushka Is Here!

February 9th was a big deal for our family! My mom, aka Babushka, arrived from Ukraine for a very-very long stay--basically moving here. It was also her birthday, so a pretty significant day for her in a different light. She had a very adventurous and light hearted attitude towards this whole flipping your life upside down move and was ready to conquer the difficulties.

Welcome, mama, to the US for the tenth time (or so).

We made her a cake and had a nice dinner to celebrate with her, despite the jet lag.

She got to meet her new friend, Pepper, who sleeps in the basement where my mom stays. It's kind of interesting that although my mom is a cat person through and through, she really started to love Pepper as her own "kid". I never would have expected that but it is amazing how it happened-haha. She feeds her and takes her out on walks and gives her massages. If only Pepper just learned not to jump at her, it would be better.



We also celebrated her birthday later the week she arrived by going to a very American restaurant (Red Robin) where they know how to celebrate birthdays with a free ice cream and a birthday song:)

Babushka and her "blinchiki" apprentice Mark, who has learned how to make those Ukrainian "crepes" and now wants to make them every day.

Who knows what the future will bring?! My mom is returning to Ukraine in May but will surely be back.

Lyana.