At Baikal With Friends

     In July, we went to Lake Baikal with Renata, Ira and her son, Sasha, and the Thai guys.  It was a gift to get time with each of these people.  We were waiting for a new battery charger to come in the mail for our camera, so Renata took pictures and sent these to us.  Above, we ate some smoked omul (fish from Baikal).  It's funny because I didn't think I wanted any until I smelled it and tasted it, and then I think I ate more than Leif and Renata did!  It was super fresh and yummy.

     It's a good thing we went straight to the beach right after we arrived the first day!  After that afternoon, it was rainy and COLD!  Ira asked me why I didn't bring my snowsuit for Ike, and I thought she was kidding.  But she brought a snowsuit for Sasha, and after a day, I'd wished I HAD brought Ike's!

     Anneka wanted to ride in a paddle boat, and we thought it sounded fun, too.  It's so funny that the girls wore adult-sized life jackets!!

     With the super-padded girls on our laps, peddling was no small feat!

   
      We took turns and Leif took Sasha and Anneka out, too.  They loved it the most, I think. (See Ella watching them).

     Out at sea.

Anneka playing in the sand.

So fun to dig!!

   

     There's been so much rain this year, that everything is SO GREEN!  Ike loves to sleep in our arms. Looking at this picture, I feel like he's already 2 pounds larger!  We weighed him yesterday and he's basically double his birthweight... about 18.5 pounds.  He wants to do everything his sisters do and is very fast at crawling already.

     The place where we stayed had a nice little playground for the kids.  They also had a very clean, nice outhouse.  Anneka was very happy as she loves the kind of outhouse that is basically a hole in the floor.  She commented about how nice this one was, and wanted to go all by herself.  I wouldn't let her, as the whole is the width of her body.  Imagine if she fell through!

     We love this sweet little guy!

     We went for a walk in the rain on this day.  In a sad moment, the blanket on Ela's stroller blew off into the lake (when we were walking on a pier).  Anneka cried and cried, as Leif's grandmother made it for her when she was a baby.  We searched in the water, but it was so cold and windy and far from the shore.   We even went back a couple of times to see if it had washed up to shore.

     I think Ira thought our kids would surely get sick because they weren't dressed warm enough.  She called later in the week to ask if everyone was well and seemed surprised that we were.  I'm so thankful!

     We were all happy to get this special time with Renata and to know her better.  She stayed in our cabin with us.

     Picture taken by Anneka

All Smiles

 I think Leif was trying to get Anneka to go in deeper.  

Shivering after our swim

Anneka got brave with Renata

Falling Into The Fountain

     On my birthday, we had a fun family day and went downtown. There's a great fountain there that "dances" to music and has colored lights at night.  I was looking at the water with the girls while Leif was videoing us and standing by sleeping Ike in the stroller.  In an instant, Anneka fell in!  We watched the video several times after to see just how it happened.  (its still a mystery)  She was totally submerged and it scared her (hence the tears)... but after about 10 minutes, she thought it was the greatest story ever.  She kept laughing and talking about it- for days afterwards.  Lately she's been wanting to swim under water with her eyes open, after Inka told her about how to do that.  After falling into the fountain, she said, "It all happened so fast, I forgot to open my eyes!"  Ask her about it, and I'm sure she'll love to tell you the story!

Bittersweet Hellos and Goodbyes

For the last three weeks, the Kerin family has been in Ulan-Ude, packing up their things to move to Ulan-Ude.  They were a part of our team since before we moved to Russia, and we have spent almost every holiday together and enjoyed their friendship.  It was so good to see them these weeks and spend time with them, and so sad to see them go.... and yet we know God has great things ahead for them in Ukraine, too.  Bittersweet.  We've tried to help them in any way we could- making meals, helping them pack, watching kids, etc.  On this fun evening (pictured above), some of us ladies met downtown for a spontaneous dinner and walk by the fountain.  There is a much funnier picture of when I ripped my pants open, but for obvious reasons I chose not to post that one.  =)

Here's the group of us!

A few days ago, we celebrated Michael's 4th birthday at an indoor playplace and rollerblading rink.  There were SOOO many kids that came!!  Here, Anneka was LOVING blading with Naomi and Andrew!

The guys helped pack most of the Kerins' belongings into two big containers that should be delivered to them in Ukraine in 3 weeks.  

There will be a hole here in Ulan-Ude without these sweet friends!  Through the lives of Gardner, Rebecca, and their kids, many people have come to know Christ and are living with hope that they didn't have before.  The Kerin's introduced us to a family that lives in our neighborhood.  We went to their place for dinner this week and had a lovely time.  They are very warm and kind and open to talking about spiritual things.  We're excited about getting to know them more.

We will miss you, Gardner, Rebecca, Andrew, Katie, Matthew, Michael, and little Joy!!!

Sally The Hamster

Picture courtesy of Anneka Gustafson

     We got the girls a hamster for Ella's birthday, as they've been really wanting a pet.  A dog, unfortunately is out of the question, as we live in a small apartment on the seventh floor.  Taking the dog out a few times a day in the winter sounds just plain awful.  And Leif and I are both allergic to cats.  So, a hamster it is!  We all went to the pet store to choose the hamster together.  Immediately, Anneka said, "Please, please, PLEASE can we name her Lacy?  I've always wanted a pet named Lacy".  When Leif and I both said that we'd have to talk about it as a family first, Anneka was near tears, she wanted the name to be Lacy so badly.  

     After we talked about it together, we decided that, yes, our hamster could be named Lacy.  But just 30 minutes later, Anneka asked, "What's our hamster's name again?  Insy?  Sally?"  She couldn't remember!  Both Leif and I liked Sally, so we just started calling her Sally, and Anneka hasn't known the difference.

     So far we only take Sally out to clean her cage, which is once every two weeks.  Sally has already been dropped on the tile floor and squished...and her cage has been dropped a few times, too (unsupervised toddler guests)... so we have to protect her!  Today Leif and I came home after a short date out, and Anneka had convinced the babysitter to feed the hamster bologna, cheese, and a piece of plum.  Hopefully she'll be okay!

Getting Pulled Over

     Someone stole our license plate recently, so we had to get a new one.  We had it propped up on the dash when we went to Baikal, but we still got pulled over.  We get pulled over a lot more in Russia than in America.  I haven't gotten pulled over yet while I was driving, and I'm SO GLAD!  Thankfully we haven't gotten any tickets yet.

In America, you have to stay in the car if you get pulled over, but in Russia, you have to get out of the car.

Doesn't Leif look happy in this picture?  I don't know that I would be smiling if it were me!

Masha's Bridal Shower

Masha is getting married in two days!  Last week, I hosted a bridal shower with all of the ladies from our church for her.  Katia and Yulia planned the games and everyone contributed yummy foods to go with tea.    I was so happy with the turnout (I forgot to count, but I think there were over 20 people who came), and I know that Masha felt encouraged!

When these ladies (pictured above) first came, Anneka said that she didn't want the old ladies to be here... definitely a time that I was very happy they didn't understand English!  But within minutes, she was laughing with them and acting like they were her best friends. 

Ike liked the attention from all of the ladies, too... both young and old.  Three of the teenage girls from our church came early and helped me out by holding Ike and making a cake.

Masha invited a few of her friends from outside of the church, too.  Ella really liked Tuyana and sat on her lap right away (usually she is shy with new people, so I was surprised by this).   After awhile, Anneka sat on Tuyana's other knee.  I think she really liked that the girls wanted to snuggle up with her!  =)

We each wrote a story about a memory we had with Masha and then she had to guess who wrote what.  Then she opened that person's present.  I had my friend, Lena, write mine for me the day before so that my bad Russian penmanship wouldn't be a giveaway.  =)  Inka also shared a message about Deborah from the Bible and we took time to pray for Masha together.

It's really cool because one of Masha's friends told her several times after the evening that it was such a nice party and she could tell that Masha was so loved by all of us in the church.  She used to wonder why Masha went to church and implied that it was a sect and that they just wanted to take from Masha, but after the shower she saw how much we really love her and are her real friends.  She was so happy that Masha has us in her lives.  I'm so glad that her friend had such a good time and verbalized these things to Masha!

Tomorrow I'm going to make a few pizzas for Masha's wedding on Saturday... for the bridal party to snack on between the official signing of the marriage certificate and the evening banquet (during pictures).  It's funny because just this week I was thinking that I know I've lived in Russia a long time when it doesn't matter to me if I have tomato paste in the cupboard or not to make sauce.  This week I just used ketchup and mayo.  Another time I used some sour cream and spices.  Anything goes!  But for Masha, I'll make sure it's good.  =)

Thai Guys

     A couple of guys who live in Thailand visited us last week and brought us new translated copies of a great book about sharing Christ with people in this area.... in Russian!  It's so exciting to see the copies in print after the long process of getting it to this point.  Our teammate, Shannon (who passed away), started the project, and then it was passed on to Leif and then Melly... and now it's a real live book!

     When the guys first got here they called us from the train station at 11:30pm.  We didn't know they were coming then, and our place was a wreck!  (Martina and I had watched some of the Kerin's kids that day to help them out with moving, so we'd had 7 kids here to make big messes).  Leif and I ran around trying to gather sheets and blankets and pillows.  We couldn't even do dishes because there was no water (hot or cold)!  But it all worked out, and they didn't care about the mess.

     We all went to Lake Baikal together last weekend, and they enjoyed experiencing Russian culture and relaxing after coming off of a busy time of working in Thailand.  In the picture above, they were watching as some of us played ping pong.  =)  We were glad to have had this time to meet them!

A Little Post Script To The Milk Blog

Okay, so I said I was too chicken to buy milk from the side of the road.  Well... yesterday we drove by this (pictured above) and my friend, Ira, who was with us asked us to stop because she wanted to buy some milk.  

They knocked on the gate, and this lady came out and made them wait a few minutes (to go and milk the cow?) and came back with two bottles of milk.  Ira had gotten one for us, too!  (she had no idea I had recently written a blog on the subject).  How could we not drink it?  I'm happy to say that it's very delicious and that we aren't sick!!

Independence Day

We've done so much these last weeks that I'm way behind!!  And I haven't taken pictures of everything.  We spent a few days around July 4th in Zaigraeovo.  Even though Inka is German, she celebrated Independence Day with us!  We went on a nice walk (Anneka got to hold the dog), and we found watermelon!!  Leif made hamburgers for dinner and it almost felt like America...  =)

Ella, making her mama laugh!

Anneka wanted a parade, so on the day our team came out for a meeting, she rallied people for her cause.  Notice how dirty she is!!

One day, Leif took a train to a city farther away to meet with the head Russian leader of the region.  The girls helped Inka wash her car.  Ike and I happily watched.  =)

The Happy Milkman

My happy milkman

I feel like milk is a big part of our lives here.  Here are a few reasons why:

* We have a nursing baby = several feedings a day and even in the night
* Our family drinks about 3/4 gallon of milk a day.  Milk comes in 1 liter boxes, so this means we go through 3 boxes a day.
* We are always getting evaporated milk as a free present at our store when we buy a certain amount in groceries.... our cupboard is full of these cans
* When Ella turned 2 we took her bottle away, and now she is more emotional and spills milk all over.

The name of this brand of milk above is translated as the happy milkman.  I love this brand- I like to think of a happy milkman.  I call Ike our vecyoli molochnik (happy milkman) and it makes us all smile.  I feel strange asking for several boxes of milk at a time from our little store.  But to get through 2 days we need at least six boxes.  Once I had someone ask me if I was buying a cow.  But most of the lady sellers in our neighborhood are very supportive of our milk-buying and say it's very healthy.  I go to these ladies for the majority of our milk purchases.

The thing I like about Russian milk is that it doesn't need to be refrigerated until the box is opened.  So you can store it in the cupboard.  The thing I don't like about it is that it tastes funny.  (of course, people who grew up here probably think that American milk tastes funny, too).

At first when we got cans of evaporated milk as gifts from the store, I thought "what am I going to do with these?"... and also " how am I going to carry any more weight than these four bags plus the baby home?"  But then one day when we ran out of milk, I looked online and discovered that I can rehydrate the evaporated milk and we can DRINK it!!  So now it's our "emergency milk" for when we run out of the regular kind and one of the kids is sleeping and I just can't make it to the store.

And one more thing on milk boxes...  I've seen several Russian families use a milk box as their "garbage can" in the kitchen.  They cut it in half and put their food scraps and used napkins, etc in there.  Our kitchen garbage can is as tall as Ella and we empty it every couple of days.  I'm always baffled by the huge difference of waste.  Milk boxes also make great starter pots for tomatoes, herbs, flowers, and other vegetables.

You can buy milk on the street sometimes from people who sell it out of the trunks of their cars.  So far I have not been so brave.  But I'm always surprising myself!

Our Jibber-Jabberer

Ella talks a lot with real words and says a lot of 2 and 3 (and more) word sentences.  But when she's "on the phone" she likes to jabber.  We love it.  We took this clip last week when we were visiting Inka in Zaigraevo.

Fresh From The Garden

Leif's friend, Grisha, who he first met 12 years ago, invited us over last Sunday. His wife made us a feast and a really yummy dessert that I can't wait to try. It was fun to spend time with them. They have a little guy who is Ella's age. They live in their own private home, and the kids loved driving around in this little jeep. There was a whole huge room on the main floor with just toys... no furniture... so there was lots of space for the kids to play. A lot of private homes here don't have running water, but Grisha's family has a well.

They have a cat and a dog- a focal point for our girls, that's for sure! As you can see here, Anneka even got to ride their (HUGE) dog.

In my opinion the best part of having your own home is having a yard for the kids to play in. The girls loved playing in the dirt and water!

Anneka was thrilled to eat vegetables from the garden. And by saying "thrilled", I'm not at all exaggerating. She ate four cucumers and a few radishes and kept saying, "I love these vegetables fresh from the garden!".

picking radishes

and of course, Ike loves the fresh air and quickly falls asleep outside. Every day they fill up the big tank behind me with water and then they can put a hose inside and water everything.

We hope to spend more time with this great family!