Surviving the Heat!

106 degrees Fahrenheit = 41.1111111 degrees Celsius

Unfortunately we have had 2 victims of heat. First, big fish didn't make it through the roughest heat. Either he just couldn't handle it or the heat made Stop and Go very hungry (we had a little cannibalism, I do believe).

We are mourning the loss of Big Fish--can you believe he lived 2 years!!

We are also mourning the loss of my cell phone--plums are the culprit and heat was the reason we were carrying the delectable snack along with. They don't mix with phone, however.
To deal with the heat in a happy way we are having blueberry smoothies in the park under the cypress trees

Watching cartoons downstairs in the air conditioned community lobby.

Sleeping in a quiet corner.

Passing out in front of the fan.

Camping at Timothy Lake

The boys are off on a journey to explore Timothy lake. These are three fossil hunters on the search for deep sea, high mountain lake, ancient sea monster fossil ekletons (skeletons in Luka language). You will not believe how much evidence of their existence in this lake there is on the shore. Did you know that there were THOUSANDS of million year old rocks to look at?

Niki is a little skeptical of the million year old rocks. He prefers sitting in my lap to going out on the expedition. Maybe he is the CEO direction all operations from shore.

Here is the stash of the million year old rocks with evidence of ancient life. Every one was carefully chosen and 'scienced out' as Alyosha puts it. Only 3 made it home, much to the fossil hunter's chagrin.

Here they are. Always looking forward to their next expedition.

Camping Trip

We went camping at Trillium Lake with our NW Portland Summer Kids Club. The kids and parents had a great time. The water was even warm enough for me, Jen, the Texan, to swim in. I gave the other Moms responsibility of my 3 sons, swam out to the center of the lake and floated on my back. I considered staying in my beautiful solitude for a few hours, but decided that chaos suited me better. But the float was great!

Father and son work together to put up our shelter for the night. Unfortunately we didn't put the extra cover over the tent--I wanted to see the tops of the trees and the stars while we slept. Well, we are not in Texas anymore Toto--it is COLD in the mountains!!! I froze my toes off. The kids were warm in their -15 sleeping bags though.

Alison has a sleeper cabin in the top of her Eurovan--The kids used it as their playhouse. A funny story, well now it is a funny story: On the way home I spotted a white Eurovan on the side of the interstate with a blanket spread on the median and a woman with 2 kids sitting on the blanket having a snack and talking on the phone. I thought "hmmm, that looked like Alison, what a strange place to have a picnic." So, I got Roma to give her a call and after a series of questions Roma concluded that they were fine and were actually having a picnic in the median of a very busy interstate-at rush hour. Maybe Alison just wanted to give her kids a lesson on traffic, interesting. So, I called back just to make sure and we come to find out that they had broken down and were waiting for a tow truck. Tow trucks don't take children, so they were indeed in a pickle. Unfortunately, we could not turn around for them because of the traffic but Daddy came to save the day on the Mommy camping trip. Well, we have to make our husbands feel important some how...

Trillium Lake Scuba Team

Hot Dogs at midnight--nothing better while on a camping trip.

NW Portland Summer Kids

We got back to Portland LAST Sunday and have been running ever since! Some friends and I are doing a summer co-op for our kids. The summer camps are just too expensive, so we thought we could all get together and give our kids even more without paying so much money. I think that the kids are loving it; it is great to be able to spend so much time with them while they are having a good time.

On soccer day we played lots of games teaching the kids fundamentals and just getting them familiar with kicking the ball an managing it with their feet.

The kids have made their own soccer jerseys and baseball caps--decorated with their own design. Alosha is Kultajev 55 and Luka is luck #7.

Possum Kingdom State Park

This is the train that we took out to Possum Kingdom Lake for our 4 days of camping out in Texas in June just before the official start of summer. It was hot and we sweated our way through the day and listened to the crickets chirp us to sleep at night.
It actually wasn't too bad. When you keep in mind that this area has been inhabited by people for the past 10,000 years, you know that the luxury we had of modern tents to keep out the flying and annoying bugs and the soft air mattress to get us up off the hard ground--it makes it easy to enjoy roughing it. We even had air conditioner to give us some reprieve from the hottest part of the day. The lake was cool and felt wonderful. I actually enjoyed sleeping outside under the blanket of stars and the quiet night. It is funny that it still feels quiet even though there are a million crickets chirping in unison.
Patricia and Jeremy joined us for the first two days. They are babysitting Harley while Stacy is off exploring the Greek Isles. They supplied us with plenty of beer and bratwurst, two necessities when you are camping out! The boys loved that Aunt Trish came to swim with them.
Niki had his first experience with the red waters of the Brazos.
Granny came and camped out with us too. Harley kept her company in her camper during the night. Luka was pretty wary of the boat at first and he stayed put right next to Granny so he wouldn't fall off of the boat.

One of my favorite parts of the trip was just riding on the boat in the lake. It seems so peaceful and the air is so fresh.

Trisha and Alyosha on the tube behind the boat. Luka didn't like it too much, but I think Aleks will be the first on the water every time. I am sure Luka will join him when he is just a couple years older.

Niki had his own life-jacket and stayed in my lap while we were speeding on the boat. He was happy most of the time even though he was in his cocoon of water protection.



It seems like Niki has found his tongue and likes to show the tip of it to anyone who is interested in watching him.
Grandpa let Alyosha drive his first boat. He did a great job and didn't run over any fish or run into any docks.

Even Roma, the man from the cold North, enjoyed the heat. It may not be something he wants to experience every day of his life, but for these 4 days, it was actually a nice change of environment--it is 50 in Portland! I will take a nice crisp 95 and a cool dip in the water anytime over that!


Luka is now king of the world by the end of the boat trip.
Possum Kingdom at sunset is probably one of the most beautiful sights in the world!

Fun time with Friends

We had a get together with some of my former high school classmates and all of our kids. I think that the kids had a blast together playing in the water and hitting the pinata. The adults all chatted together about the past 10 years and where our lives have taken us thus far. Life's paths are so varied-it is amazing that even though we start out from the same spot, basically, we end up traveling in so many different directions and ultimately we end up all back together again. I don't think I have been very good at it, but it has always been important for me to keep up with any friends I have made at different points of my life. I think it is important to have good people around you and to be a good person yourself-the only way to keep good people around you is to keep the good friends you have made along the way. Anyway, it was a fun evening!

Roma dressed up as the "Hula-Monster" to get the kids while they were searching for the pinata. Luka was really afraid and didn't join in the search-although he realized it was papa dressed up he wasn't sure about the game.

The kids made their own ice cream in ziploc bags. It was a great success! It just takes one cup of cream with 2 table spoons of sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla. Put all the ingredients in a small bag and put that in a large bag with ice and salt and viola- after 5-10 minutes of shaking you have ice cream! Add in M&M's and you have happy children!

Our table of food--we had almost 40 hot dogs and about 20 sausages along with cabbage salad and grape salad, watermelon and cantaloupe...EVERYTHING was devoured!

Jacob, Justin's son, helped cook the 'dogs. He did a wonderful job.

The swimming pool turned into a swamp after the kids jumped in and out a million times. But they enjoyed it and it survived.

Slip N' Slide fun again.

Boys and their beer!

Slip N' Slide

We are having a beautiful time in Texas, even though the heat index is 110 degrees. Yes, you read right-with the humidity and storms and heat-- 110, 43 celsius!! BUT, we are having a nice time. Tomorrow, Sunday, we are packing up to go camping for the week at Possum Kingdom State Park-so no pictures or updates for the week. Today we had a wonderful party with many friends, check back for the pictures. For now, enjoy Roma and the kids and their Slip N' Slide adventure.

Texas Flora and Fauna

We spent the today day camping in Ft. Richardson State park in Jacksboro because I heard that there are still plenty of wildflowers around in the gorgeous Texas countryside. As we were pulling up to the State park Grandma (Granny to the kids) said that when she lived in Jacksboro she would take a walk in this park every day and she would run into a road runner. As soon as we pulled in to the park we met Mr. Roadrunner--and in fact, I took a walk with him down the trail a little later. They are really fast and even better-they like to fight rattlesnakes. Did you know that the roadrunner is the American version of the Cuckoo bird? They are in the same family.

Luka is in mid air in this picture--the kids are cooling off in our spot in the shade under the old oak tree. We didn't see any snakes or scorpions but tons of beautiful red birds and ants.

These next pictures are our attempt at getting a portrait of the boys with the Texas wildflowers. Luka wanted to hold Niki every time and pouted when he didn't get to, but Niki was in danger of falling on a cactus so we had to take a quick shot.

Yet another display of brotherly love and Niki is caught in the crossfire.

The cactus were blooming with yellow flowers. The sun went behind clouds when this was taken so they all hid and closed their bloom--but it is still nice.

A day at the Lake!

Oh my! I haven't been to the water in Texas since the summer of 2003 and I have been dreaming about it for years! AND the water is just as good as I remember it! The water is warm and nice and we all just jumped right in. Well, Niki only stuck his toes in but he liked it too. Next week after Roma arrives we are camping on the lake for 4 days-right beside a nice little beach and hiking trails.

The boys are building a sand castle with the most important feature, a moat. We just happened to run into Sara McCall and her boys just as we pulled up to Sandy Beach.

Mama and Luka taking a swim. He is a little hesitant but if you take it nice and slow he likes it.

Auntie Trish is looking on while Luka fills my hair with sand--this is also a warning of the week to come. I just have to get used to being like a piece of sandpaper while we are camping.

That is our boat behind Luka--Joe Hall was great to let us just use it as much as we want while we are visiting. We will use it a lot!!! Niki rides well on it--he doesn't like his life jacket too much, but the motor of the boat puts him to sleep so he forgets about the thing around his body and head. (sorry no pictures, but it is kinda cute--next time maybe). The best thing about this boat is that next week when we have me and the 3 boys and Grandma and Grandpa and Trish like we had today, we will also be adding Jeremy, Roma Granny and maybe even Jeb and we will all fit comfortably!
Niki dipping his toes in to the lake

Literally

Literally two minutes after arriving to Grandma and Grandpa's house the clothes just fell off the two boys and they jumped in the water. That is how we are going to spend the next 4 weeks, mostly naked and wet! With this knowledge, Roma bought his tickets today and he will join us next Wednesday!! Yeah!!!

Nikolai Talking to Granny

The Secret

We watched this documentary a couple of weeks ago called “The Secret.” It is considered a self-help film and I heard so many reviews from it that I decided to see what it was all about. The book is a best seller right now. I did totally have the feeling that the type of people who would watch this film were the ones also listening to the ‘repeat after me, I am a great person’ tapes in their car. There is teacher after teacher (that is what they call them) saying you can know the secret too and attract anything you want into your life. Just imagine what it feels like to have the things that you want and you will attract them. Usually you think of what you don’t want, and that shows up; like if you have a lot of debt and fret over it, it will just pile up and up. Instead, the Secret says that you are activating the thought of exactly what you don’t want while fretting over the debt. Instead, think of being debt free, focus on being debt free and the good feelings. Forget the worries, set up an automatic payment, don’t even think about the debt you have and focus only on a debt free life. Soon that is exactly what you will be.

For the past couple of weeks I have been testing this theory with catching the street car. I always, I mean always just miss the street car. Every time I came down the elevator from our apartment and left the door, I started running and telling Alyosha to hurry up because we are going to miss the street car. And when I looked down the street, we saw the street car at the next stop-missed it by a minute! This happened time after time. Now, since The Secret, I have been imagining the street car at the previous stop and pulling around the corner just as I walk up to the stop. It is almost scary! Every single time (except once, but I will get to that in a minute) the street car has been exactly where I imagined it. I don’t hurry or think about the schedule at all anymore. As I walk up to place where I can look back and see the street car coming it is in the exact same place every time. I take the street car every day a few times a day. And every time I have not had to wait more than 2 minutes. Well, except for once. This one time it said 8 minutes until the next street car. I decided that there was a reason, so I would walk and look out for it. Low and behold, Romka called and said that he just found out that he may be going away for business a lot this summer and it looks like we (the kids and I ) are going to be able to go to Estonia. The only thing is that we need to get Luka’s passport as soon as possible, so we needed to meet him at the Rite Aid for passport photos. Look up, and I was walking right past Rite aid! If I was on the tram I wouldn’t have been there. Yes, it is coincidence. It is all coincidence. But with a positive attitude we are totally attracting positive outcomes, at least with the street car. It hasn’t worked with Roma's stocks yet, but we are not going to give up.


So, here is the deal. For years and years we have wanted the apartment next to Roman’s parents. It would be perfect for us to stay in when we visit Estonia. It would be even more perfect as a little rental for Gala to have for extra retirement and income. We want this apartment. We need this apartment! I am hereby attracting it, officially on our blog. We will be able to afford it because it will be so cheap—we looked at the price, can you believe $50,000 for a 2 room unrenovated apartment! We will get gracious help from the universe that is paying attention to our needs. So here is our first attempt. Don’t worry, we don’t expect the money to fall into our hands, that is not how the world works and we know it! But, gathering that much money before July will take the help of nations! So with our blood and sweat, and the circulation of anonymity of donations and pure positive thinking and faith that you truly are provided with what you need-we will get the apartment for our trip this summer. You can even help—and just think that you will have part of a summer house in Estonia, utopia in the summer months. Just donate to the Estonia apartment fund through Paypal with the button below. It is secure and safe and simple. Hey, positive thinking has made riding the street car much more pleasant! And I really am a good person.