Announcing…

We are now, for the first time in 6 years, a dual income family! from 0 jobs to 2 jobs in a matter of days.  The fact that neither one of us know how much we will be paid is beside the point—right?  Benefits are involved somewhere because Roma will work for the state of Oregon, other than that all we know is that each day we go spend some time making the world a better place and get paid for it.

My work is really exciting because it and the place I work for is evolving and developing.  The best part is the cause seems to be touching and real in a sense that it affects each person who becomes involved with it in a heartfelt way.  I’ve mentioned CHAP and Frank before.  So that is where my official job is now—I am part of the team! I am still developing my capabilities, but I have tons of potential.  I’m trying to keep up with everything and that is a lot!  See the three hams below:Roma’s new job is big.  He just went in to the office for the first time today and spent all day with Human Resources getting all the official business sorted out.  The biggest thing is that is all the the way out on 191st street—we now need 2 cars.  So, car shopping has begun but we are halting it in its tracks because we don’t like shopping and hopefully a car will just appear for us to buy.  (does anyone have a car for us for 3-4  thousand dollars, anyone?)

So much more is going on like Alyosha as star of the week and Luka just thinking about green and Niki almost walking and Jen visiting the voodoo doctor and Roma not quite finished with his papers for university…and more and more and more, but right now. Sleep.

Russkis will save the World (why do we have to do the dirty job?!!)

After learning about Russian Space Agency's plans to build a spacecraft that will change the trajectory of meteorite Apophis coming to Earth in 2036, Alyosha created a trilogy depicting this future action. My suggestion of possibility for Alyosha to be a pilot on that spaceship also served as a good motivation to learn "all the sciences there are and work really hard".

Here is the trilogy (Earth, Sun, Apophis with rockets all around him ready to burn the bastard)

and here is the story

ROSCOSMOS – the Federal Space Agency of the Russian Federation – launches the project to save the Earth from a clash with the asteroid Apophis, which can happen in 2036 according to forecasts of some scientists.

As the ROSCOSMOS head Anatoly Perminov stated on air of the Voice of Russia, one scientist had lately told him that the trajectory of the asteroid is constantly approaching the Earth. Also the astronomer told him that the asteroid is three times bigger than the Tunguska meteorite.

“Calculations show that within the time frames we can create a special space vehicle that will allow avoiding the collision, without annihilating the asteroid or blasting any nuclear explosions” – Mr. Perminov added. “Once the decision is taken, we will promulgate it. The threat of collision can be staved off” – the ROSCOSMOS head emphasized.

It should be mentioned, that NASA specialists consider this collision as quite a remote possibility. Earlier Russian scientists also stated that Apophis is not a Threat to Our Planet.

http://www.russia-ic.com/news/show/9484/

Kid Talk Overdue

Niki the red hot chili pepper eater. I guess I have to officially admit that his first words are 'no-no'. He does hear them a lot being the 3 child and a baby who loves to explore, taste and climb everything he can touch. He's really coordinated in that he can do something he shouldn't while saying no-no and shaking his head with exaggerated side to side 'NO' movements.
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Alyosha goes to school in the morning. I (Roma) tell him to zip up his jacket because it is cold. Alyosha mumbles something while trying to zip all the way up.

"What is it that you are saying? - I ask him.

"Oh, I am just saying that my touching buddies are going to be OK with that." "What touching buddies?", - I ask casually, trying not to have any alertness in my voice.

"You know, those touching buddies."

"No, I actually, don't know who are you talking about, but what is it
that they will be OK with?"

"With me having jacket zipped up all the way!". By now I am very interested in our conversation and thinking in my head of how to approach this subject carefully.

"So, are these buddies of your, do they go to your school?", - I ask again casually. "Well of course they do! How can they not?! Look, they are right here!" - Alyosha points to his chin.

"Oh, you mean taste buds on your chin?!!" - I exclaim after a few seconds of processing the intricate logic of a 5 year old thoughts.

"Well, yeah, I am saying that the taste buds on my chin are OK with me
having jacket zipped up all the way, because sometimes jacket rubs against it,
but right now they are fine with it!"

Phew... That was close!

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Yesterday we were walking from CHAP a block away and Alyosha was running the block and circles around me. It was sprinkling/almost raining and Alyosha squeezed in between breaths while still running circles around me that he is so fast that he isn't even getting wet! When we got home he said, "look how much I ran, I am soaked from sweat!"

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Ice Skating class began last week--the boys are in snow bunnies level. It will take some time to get balance down, but they are both closer to the ground and unaware of any kind of danger so that allows them to learn much faster. We (Jen and Rome) on the other hand put the skates on and skate smooth circles around the rink. I'm sure the kids will be spinning around us in a matter of weeks.

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Grandma took us to the airport in Texas by herself when we flew back to Portland after Christmas holidays because Grandpa still had the awful stomach bug we all went through the couple of days before we were set to leave. So, Grandma dropped us at the gate, we took our 4.5 hour flight and landed in rainy Portland. When we stepped off the plane to head for our taxi, Luka said "Where's Grandma?" fully expecting her to be still at the airport waiting for us after we had a day of just flying around in the air.

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While in Texas the kids got to watch some extra PBS TV because it is so easy to just turn on PBS and it worked! (I guess that is what you get when you pay for cable, or in this case satellite TV) Anyway, Sid the science kid is about a bunch of kids who do science experiments and ask the teacher a lot of questions to figure out whatever theory or mystery they are exploring. While we were eating dinner one evening, Alyosha asked me how old I thought Sid was. I said he may be 7 or 8 years old. Alyosha's reading buddy is 8 years old in the 3rd grade and Alyosha immediately responded to my answer that it wasn't possible for Sid to be 8 because that would mean that he is in 3rd grade and Sid doesn't know everything yet. He asks too many questions. To clarify, I asked him what he meant and he said "Third graders already know everything, they don't have to ask questions anymore. Sid couldn't be in 3rd grade yet because he asked too many science questions." I used it as an opportunity to tell Alyosha that he only has two and a half years left to learn everything there is in the world so he should keep studying hard!

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Back to weekly OMSI visits (Thank you Auntie Trish for the nice Christmas present). Niki loves it, he feels like it is his own place. Luka and Niki both love the sand area. Luka was sitting filling up the garbage truck with sand to recycle when he looks at me and asks "Mama, do I have Pampers on?" I said, "No, Luka, do you need to go potty?" He replied no, and went back to work. About 10 minutes later, the same question...and I gave him the same reply, he just went back to his play. He was just making sure, I guess. On a positive note, we are out of daytime diapers!! Yeah!!! AND no accidents yet.

Luka's world is special I think. He is really smart and he is even more determined. If he knows the answer to something, then his answer is the only correct one--when he doesn't know the answer he comes up with it himself and holds fast. Alyosha mentioned something about wearing his school shoes or his new cowboy boots, I don't remember the exact conversation. But Luka jumped in, not to be left out saying that we should also include his Music School Shoes because it is important to keep them nice and clean.

One more: Luka likes his green apples (favorite color green, by the way) NOT five-and-a-half. What does that mean, you might ask? Well, if you are Mama, you had better know, because if you give him an apple five and a half in any way he will fall on the ground and have a huge fit-HUGE. Does he mean not five and a half apples? No. Does he mean not five and a half pieces of apple? No. He means he wants his apple cored but not cut in half.

New Year = New Brother-in-Law

Presenting Mr. and Mrs. Jeremy Morse. Married December 3rd, Patricia and Jeremy were wed “in a beautiful chapel, in a castle, on top of a mountain, surrounded by vineyards in the heart of the Chianti region of Italy.”

Most of us didn’t get to go to the wedding, so instead we had a marriage celebration on New Years Eve with friends of the family in Graham. We had a tent and a dance floor and even karaoke! Thankfully the tent had a heater because even though it was 65 degrees just before it started snowing the week before, it was cold on New Years Eve!

Dedicated to the Italian wedding, my Mom made the Doma in Florence for a wedding cake. The photo in the frame is one that my other sister took while they stayed in Florence from the Piazza Michelangelo. Beautiful.

While Trisha was celebrating her new life with her new love, I was burning my old ones. My Mom did a major cleaning and I got to go through my things from the attic that were stored for years and years. Part of my storage was just about every rose I received in school. A red rose or a dozen to prove their devotion…and letters and letters and letters from boyfriends and friends and even enemies-I guess I had them in high school. I thought I would share one letter from a boyfriend-I will leave him nameless so it won’t be too bad—but I didn’t have too many boyfriends, more than 2 though! Ok, here quotes “Jennifer, It’s the day before payday and I was broke. I looked everywhere for some money to come up here and get you something that shows you how I feel. I couldn’t find any so I boxed up my CD player and returned it. After all that trouble and turmoil, guess what, they had nothing that showed how much I care for you. Nothing was large enough. They could have boxed up the whole world and sold it to me and it still wouldn’t have been big enough to compare my compassion for you. I’ve got a great secret to share with you---I love you, XXX” I burned the roses, but there is no way that I am burning the words! I think they are too priceless.

Yes, Alyosha—one day, you too will box up your terabyte i-pod/videogame/mp3/hologram projector/DJ to the MAX player and sell it for the world for a pretty 14 year old girl too.

The whole clan. We are getting bigger! It is wonderful.

Getting ready for Christmas

Stringing popcorn and cranberries for the tree. We had to make a couple of extra bowls of popcorn to make enough for the tree because some little hands didn’t understand that it was for stringing and not eating.

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Look at the concentration it takes to decorate the tree. Using chocolate ornaments went well with the popcorn and cranberries, but all of the lower ones were finished off by Niki as soon as he found out what was under the shiny foil.

Christmas Eve in front of the tree with their new pajamas on. The anticipation to bed was so much that it made them stay up late, which made them sleep late in the morning!

Here we all are with our friend the snowman. It is special to have a white Christmas, the last time there was one in this area was 83 years ago; my Grandma was 1 year old!

Snow, yes Snow!

Yesterday we went to the park. We could have worn short sleeve shirts and shorts! Roma rode the bicycle and we played under the sun for a couple of hours. No hats, no jackets, no wind. That was yesterday.

As I am typing and looking out of the window, we have a blizzard! When the wind blows it swirls around the snowflakes like we are actually peering out of a window at a Swiss chalet. (I’ll have to confirm that with my sister-she just got back from her honeymoon which was at a Swiss chalet) I’m off to sit in front of the fire here in our Texas chalet. Merry Christmas!

Texas Christmas Tree

In Graham, you have to go to the gas station to get a Christmas tree. Can you believe that! The Kiwana Club used to sale trees as a fundraiser but the expense of getting the trees here and the amount they had to charge to compensate for the trees they didn’t sale ended up being about $150 for each tree so they stopped that fundraiser a few years ago. A Lowes opened for business about an hour and a half drive from here—they sale trees for $60 each so most people just stop by Lowes on their way home from Christmas shopping in Ft. Worth.

Luckily, after 10 years of adjustment, my parents/family are used to our hippie ways and are even becoming a little hippie themselves. (I, by the way, do not classify us as hippie—but have been called as much by people who will remain unnamed who have joined our family recently. Did I mention that my sister just got married? That is her husband there, he just joined our family recently. More about that later.)

Anyhoo, where was I? Oh, hippies, buy local, organic—do it yourself rather than rely on the system and the chain stores to provide, that’s right. Douglas firs don’t grow in Texas. We have cedar trees here. They grow without effort or Monsanto. So, take a look at the beauty we drove out into the country to cut down…It’s wild and Texan, so no, it isn’t triangle but trees don’t really grow as triangles anyway (except in Estonia, according to Roman – but everything is perfect in that country, so it doesn't represent the whole world). We all love the tree, it is beautiful.The snakes and scorpions are very slow in winter here, so Roma was happy to get down and cut the tree. We might think 70 is warm and perfect, but here it is so cold that reptiles have to hibernate. Grandpa is directing the action here. It should always be a whole family effort to bring home the Christmas Yule. It represents life and spirit and tradition. I’m glad we didn’t get it at the gas station. I’m also thankful my parents have friends who are gracious enough to let us come to their property and cut a tree down! If not that, we would be having a Circle K Christmas—our back up plan. It is a beautiful tree and it will be perfect to liven up our Christmas spirit. Decorated pictures to come. That doesn’t happen until Christmas Eve!