Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue!

Aleks and Papa Playing Dinosaurs:

Alyosha: RRrrrrrr Grrrrrr
Papa: Rrrrrr Gggrrrrrr

Al: Where is the spinning light man, he will get you!
Papa: What?

Alyosha: Spinning light man!

Al Runs to Mama: Where is spinning light man in the alien dress?

Mama: He's in the bathroom.

Al running and screaming: Here comes Buzzlight to get you, grrrrrrr!
Al: Papa hold the dinosaur this way and do this....Grrrrr

Papa: Who is that?
Al: it is Buzzlight.

Papa: What is Buzzlight's last name?
Al: It's Buzzlight Man!

Papa: What is your last name?
Al: I am Alyosha Kartosha and Buzzlight Man will get you, grrrrr!

Time is speedy!

I survived a week alone. A week alone with two boys--we not only successfully got through the week, but I managed to eat out only once (well, one and a half times—we treated ourselves to brunch at the Tea Zone on the way to the library) Romka also had a successful week filling his brain with how to make a good case for someone to give him money for a cause he finds important (a grant writing course). We are thinking that our children are a good cause—now if we could only find a foundation who provides funds for little boys who are adorable and energetic we would have it made.

All parents of children under 5 have conversations about poop and pee on a daily basis—so sorry for those of you who beyond this realm, but I wanted to make note of how Alyosha has found his own little how-to manual on bathroom etiquette. Well, the picture speaks for itself—every time I hear little feet running to the bathroom, soon after I hear “I’m ok Mama.” “I’m still ok Mama.” Then a jump off the potty—and the distinct sound of the little “kandoo” box opening and being spun around so Alyosha can make sure he is performing the operation properly (taught to him by Mr. Frog) I wonder if this means that when he grows old enough to put together his own boy toys, he will read the instructions before assembling?

The rest of the pictures are from different things we have been doing around town in the past few weeks. Playing at the river with Alex and Ben (and Heather too); Riding horses at the market; enjoying the summer street fairs; Enjoying Alyosha’s friend Sergi in town (to go with Romka to the grant seminar in Seattle); nature walks and visiting the old west.

Now the next three weeks will speed by and we are off on the adventure of 2007! Which, by the way, is the last year of my 20’s—I will start the year off with a camping trip at Trillium Lake on my birthday weekend, then the next Wednesday off to
Estonia.

click for more pictures

Big Developments

Congratulations to people in our family for all the crazy things that are going on!!

In no paticular order of importance....

First: Stacy got a job! A 8th grade English teacher--watch out 13 year olds!

Second: Trisha got a house! A real first house--watch out neighbors!

Third: Luka has a tooth! Just breaking through, but loudly announcing itself--watch out Mama!

Yeah to everyone!

Strawberry Pickin' 2007

It's that time of the year again, berry time! The strawberries are already ripe, and they promised raspberries next week. We picked 10 pounds (4.5kg) of strawberries. Yummy--I made some syrup to put over ice cream, we shared some of them with some friends, had some for breakfast this morning--and from the rest I will make yogert/strawberry popscicles tomorrow (thank you Anna for the idea)

click for video

Luka got his passport!

Everything came in the mail the same day. Luka is an official citizen--he has his first passport and his first international-multi layover-tickets to visit Estonia. We are leaving the 19th of July and will spend our summer relaxing on the Baltic~ it is all official and government approved.

Can you believe they didn't let this beautiful picture be in his passport? You aren't allowed to smile! Click on the picture for a little video

"Я по-русски говорит"

click for video

More on The Secret

Maybe it isn't such a good idea to watch The Secret and allow attraction to affect your everyday life like I have been talking about. Here is what happened to us this weekend:

It was supposed to be a 3 day weekend for us. Romka took off on Friday so that we could go visit a friend who moved to Yaccolt. We were going to spend a wonderful day outside in the gorgeous weather and the kids were going to play together like angels and we were going to grill our dinner over the fire--the idea was perfect. Then, I am not sure why, except for the fact, maybe, that the friend that we were going to visit has a broken hand and foot and if there was anything that she needed help doing we would of course do for her--but, Romka took a sick day instead of a vacation day.

Well, as attraction laws work, Romka attracted himself a real sick day. He got to deal with 3 sick people at home, with liquids and foods flying out of their bodies in various directions. He got to spend half his sick day cleaning up puke and the other half of the day in the Emergency Room.

We are all better now. Over our stomach virus--and Roma never got it. Let me suggest the next time you are really sick, take a vacation day -- you will be automatically better and maybe some plane tickets will just fall into your lap.

Family Tree Project

Eugene Angie Sweeney, My Great Grandfather

I am working on a huge project that will never be completed, but is very interesting. Check out the family tree page--if you are part of the family, click on your name and start looking around. If you have any more information or something to correct, or if something published is too personal--let me know and I will fix it.

This information will eventually be made into a book, so if you want to be remembered for something e-mail me! I love getting new/old pictures or stories or little pieces of history that my kids', kids' kids will look at and imagine what kind of world we lived in.

Here is a little tidbit of history about my great great....(keep repeating great 10 times) Grandfather and Grandmother Richard and Mary:

"Richard must have been an unsavory character. On several occasions he was brought to court on various charges from stealing chickens to stealing hogs. He also was fined for fighting. Richard Hudson became familiar with the courts of Virginia. In May of 1636, Richard was accused by Barbary Hill of breaking into her house and stealing her poultry. The outcome of this case was not found. In August of 1637, Richard was ordered to pay John Holloway one bushel of corn to satisfy a debt.

In 1638, Richard Hudson and wife, Mary Hayes, were given twelve lashes for slandering Sampson and Alice Robins. The Robins were also given twelve lashes each for calling Mary Hayes "badd as salt bitch."

There are some good stories too:
"James Board was a Welshman. He came from Wales with his parents in 1730 when he was ten years old. James and Jane Ann lived in Franklin Township, New Jersey. He managed his father's Iron Works. He served inthe Revolutionary War, and was Commissioner of forfeited states in Bergen County in 1778 and 1779. He signed an Article including an "Abjuration of the Papacy" May 23, 1755. His house was known as a welcome and hospitable stopping-place for officers and soldiers of the Continental Army."

My Favorite Любимая

There were reasons that I wanted to have the "Kid's Talk" blog seperate. I thought about those reasons, and decided that it is better to have it all together and just use the labels! So, here we go with the Kid's Talk--I have a feeling that this will get more and more interesting as we grow!