M-I-N-S-K

We really loved Minsk!

We set out for Minsk, Belarus early last Sunday morning. Two and a half days of kid-less wandering were set before us. All this month Belarus is hosting the World Championship in hockey, and a simple, cheap ticket into a hockey game replaces the need for a (typically expensive) Belarusian tourist visa. So, we hopped into the good ole' minivan with Jekabs' brother, Karlis, and Mike Henry (LCC coworker) and blew out a tire within the first 30 minutes. Fortunately, considering the constant reminder of how old and "delicate" our minivan is (it spontaneously dropped it's rusted muffler two weeks ago!), we never go too far without the spare tire.

The city was so much more than we expected. Incredibly clean. Spacious. Large, grandiose buildings. Large green space along an almost never-ending riverbank, and the w i d e s t  sidewalks you could ever imagine having in an urban space. By far, that was my favorite aspect of the city.....wide sidewalks, because it gives you the impression of having personal space in an otherwise busy environment.

Strictly considering only the visual appeal of the city (no political comments or observations will be spoken), we both have a lot of admiration for the layout of the city and the functionality of Minsk.  It really was pretty and we had a great time. We give credit to Karlis for initiating such a trip and for initiating the highlights of our day on Monday.......go cart riding and attending the Latvia vs. Belarus game. Latvia did lose, but they were contending with the home team fan attendance of 12,000!

Money-Money-Money! Inflation has run rampant with this currency! For 3 days we were Belarusian millionaires. $1= 10,000 Belarusian Rubels. We carried around 1,000 - 5,000 - 10,000 - 100,000 -200,000 B. Rubel bill values. Paying for anything stretched our brains. Something as small as a cup of coffee cost 27,500 B. Rubels. So, with a wad of hundreds of thousands of bills, it was an intolerable task to count out the appropriate tender. It is quite ridiculous, really.

money and receipt for a hot tea and coke

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We celebrated Christian's 5th Birthday on May 20th!

We are off to Riga in the morning to adopt a new member of the family, it's of the "feline" sort, a siamese kitten. 

Also, we have just committed to a trip to Lviv, Ukraine at the end of June to visit our dear friends, Mac and Sergey from Dallas (they are visiting Sergey's home country with their kids). 

This summer we have lots of activity going on:

*Peteris and Naomi visit from London

*Trip to Ukraine to visit friends

*Jekabs traveling to Moscow 

*Welcoming my dear friend, Jenny, and family to Lithuania in July!

Summer is definitely in the air!

 The sun is shining bright and warm, the days are long, the work is light, and God is good to bring upon a new season.

Warm Regards,

April 

Quick Fun....

....We have a new category in our monthly budget. It is called the "Oh dear, what has he done now blooper bucks; relearning to drive in a foreign country". Sigh. My poor hubby. I just giggle (or laugh straight at him) with each new occurrence. Since entering our new land of living........in sequence.....

*Day 5........accidentally backs into a car while doing a quick reverse to avoid busy street traffic.                          *bumper of the victim car goes down: $120.....thank goodness the guy didn't call for a police
               report!

*Day 74........parks car in a downtown parking space and buys a proper parking ticket.
Who WOULD have known you HAD to park the stinkin' car in BACKWARDS! There was a sign for that???  Oops...... t-i-c-k-e-t .....Down 30 Euros.

*Day 75.....arriving in the dark to parent's house, he unloads car in complete darkness and discovers in the morning light that the minivan sliding door was left open ALL NIGHT LONG. Stray cats everywhere! A lucky strike they did not discover a comfy new "hotel" for the night.

*Day 76......our dual tank van needs a refill of natural gas. Insert gas, fight off the 30 mph winds and retreat to car. Proceed in responding to 4 year olds question of why and how our van runs off of both gasoline and natural gas........He is totally the teaching type and can devotedly enlighten the spongey mind of our 2nd child........AND drive off without detaching the gas hose. Oops..........total responsibility........never mind that they have security cameras all around......my guy has virtue that runs sky high.........Down $70 for broken parts.

Ahh, whilst he is busy giving our money away for his bloopers, I am busy smashing up the car as I am learning how to squeeze in and out of pretty tight spaces. A scrape and dent here, a door smacked into a cement planter there.......the occasional bumping of side mirrors.......or hitting a curb while taking a tight corner.......

We have determined that we are, "Just not ready to commit to any sort of upgrade."

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We have had several fun outings this past month. I just want to say, it is a CHALLENGE to do most things with 3 kids! Every trip to the park, every attempted walk thru the forest, every ferry ride to the Spit, every trip to the grocery store, every walk downtown to the pastry shop is, at some point, interrupted with the wailing, cringing sound of a child crying or complaining.

Case Point

I know it's the age of the kids. Bless their hearts. But, for every finger I want to point at them for misbehaving, there is one pointing straight back at me for a lack of patience, lack of gentleness, lack of kindness. I'm going thru some trials here. Things are not rosy-red and my spirits are downcast. You know, it is quite simple to perceive going thru trials, adjustments, severe changes, but then actually going thru them can really bite.  If you are willing to pray for my spirits to be lifted, I would greatly appreciate it. God help me in my quest to be a mother that my kids deserve. I am massively in love with my kids, even though life gets drained out of me by the monotony of serving them endless meals they fuss over, tending to their hygiene, warding off their boredom or excessive amounts of excitement, wondering if today I have contributed to any part of their future success, or failures. I do it for LOVE, the foundation of security that they will build their adult lives from. But, Oh Lord, every night I pray that I will wake up the next morning and be a mother that they deserve, yes DESERVE to have caring for and loving them. What a privilege it is to be their source of EVERYTHING, for a small time, even though it seems endless.

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Part of the "shattered dream" of coming to Lithuania and embracing the reality is that my husband traded one very demanding job for another very demanding job. The work is good, worthwhile, and he is pouring his heart and soul into it. Of course he is, he doesn't know how to work any other way. He is carrying it well, he always does. It's a greater struggle for me to accept it, as most days (because it follows him home) work is more like a 13 hour a day occurance.  It has become glaringly clear in the past 2 years that we are just in that life stage where home life (young kids) and growing career are at the heights of their demands. They each require dedicated attention, meticulous devotion.

Balance.

Balance is the goal for the non-harmonious relationship between family and work. Rarely achieved, but always desired.

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Now, a classic topic of conversation - weather. The weather here is quite interesting. Winter came and went in a mild fashion, and we enjoyed it very much. However, the induction of spring is a bit challenging (ahem....we come from the deep, wide, blue skies of Texas). Here, we experience days and days of cloudy skies. Every few days the clouds will part, often times at 6:30 in the evening, shower us with glorious sunlight, and then it either gets dark (nightfall) or cloudy again. Fog rolls in and out, sometimes lingering until the late afternoon, sometimes rolling in late afternoon. Here, summer is the glory. Two anticipated months of glory.....July and August.




Living Lithuania Outloud,

April

Goodbye February....Hello March!

Earlier this week my sister Demi messaged us about a project she was doing for school. She wanted to know some basic medical costs in a foreign country. A simple project that, at the time, I had no data for. The very next day I had first hand knowledge of "project data". We now know how much it cost to:

-be transported to the hospital in an ambulance

-have a head and neck x-ray

-have 2 abdominal ultrasounds

-and a blood and urine analysis

246 Litas = to $97

All for my little Rue Rue

On Wednesday I took the kids to Akropolis (mega mall in town) to play at the indoor play park. We've been here a few times and it is tons of fun for all the kids. The playground is a multilevel structure with slides, tunnels, climbing ramps, etc, etc, etc. Safety net surrounds the entire thing inside and out. The safety net is what creates the walls in the interior.......

...Liva was heading up to the 3rd floor on a cushioned ramp. I sat down on the ramp to take a crawling break and she went past me. Within the next few seconds there was a strange silence of not hearing my baby's movement around me and then I heard the distant sound of her cry. I turn around to see her. I don't. She was right behind me and then in a moment, behind my back, she fell thru a small gap where the safety net was not attached to the ramp. I look down, mortified to see her laying face down in a pit of plastic balls.....15 feet below......15 feet below......15 feet below.

My baby just fell 15 feet below. 

The only reason she is not laying in a hospital bed today is because she landed in a pit of plastic balls.

Thank God for a pit of plastic balls. That pit of balls completely cushioned her fall. No injuries. We wanted as much assurance as possible that she had no internal injuries, therefore we had the x-rays and ultrasound performed as recommended by the Children's Hospital. Precious baby girl. Fell 15 feet below. Landed in a pit of plastic balls. No injuries, not even a scratch. Thank you, God, for a pit of plastic balls. 

Our baby girl is OK

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In a quest to eliminate some processed sugar out of our consumption, we have started making our own applesauce as a healthy baking substitute to the sticky, icky, gooey addictive delight, sugar. 

What a delightful group of helpers I had! We were darn right proud of our warm, cinnamon flavored homemade applesauce. 

Recipe courtesy of:

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2013/10/homemade-applesauce/

Minus the brown sugar.....can't buy it here....and we are trying to get rid of the sugar anyway....

Try a batch and substitute the applesauce for the sugar in your next batch of muffins. 

Let me be a "foodie" here for another moment and also share one of our 

common main dishes we eat here.

The Cutlet

Mix ground beef, 2 eggs, diced onion, shredded sweet potatoe, a dash of oregeno and cummin, and minced garlic. 

Form into small patties and fry in a pan. 

Add a side dish of: 

Step 1. Boiled 

Step 2. Peeled and then

 Step 3. Fried potatoes 

And you have yourself a simple Eastern European meal.

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A Fresh Look at the Forest.

This is what we get when we go for a jog thru the forest. Texas, you have the almost endless sunshine year round and 70 degree days in December. We have a forest. Many days it is an excellent trade, although we do not have nearly enough sunshine peering thru the often cloudy skies. 

I am well aware that I have left out my oldest child in this posting so far! Sorry buddy! 

Here's to you darling boy:

Photos of his class party celebrating 100 days of school. 

The class hired a 2 hour disco to party the night away in the theme of 

Alice in Wonderland

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Dear, Dear, Dear Lithuanians: You really are in one word

Stoic

Walking down your streets, shopping in your stores, (although you can be quite radical on the road in your cars).....you are very stoic. Almost all of you! Visual forms of happiness are suppressed. Mostly absent. I feel myself acting in accordance to your stoicism. In a strange way it seems as though the individual self is somewhat meaningless. We walk thru, avoid and dodge thru your endless clouds of sidewalk cigarette smoke. I feel uncomfortable expressing individual bouts of joy or happiness outside on your sidewalks, or in your stores. It's feeling a bit gloomy here. I hope you are not upset with my saying so. It's observation. 

Living Lithuania Outloud,

April

The Arctic Baltic

We have some terrific pictures of the Baltic Sea that we would love for you to see!
Scroll down to the bottom of the page to see if we were brave enough to take a dip.

Giruliai Beach 
A few minutes outside of Klaipeda

It is really fantastic to see the progression of the shoreline freezing. You have waves of frozen ice/snow, then the advancement of 30 feet of water "slush"( Sea Slushie, world's biggest Slurpie) with patches of snow bergs, then the advancing of sea waves, in front of endless miles of water. 

It is a very beautiful winter sight to see. 

No frigid swim for us!
However, Jekabs right leg was brave enough to take a little dip into the frigid slush. Oops. Within minutes frostbite settled into his toes, foot and ankle. He lost all feeling in his leg and sharp pain crippled his ability to walk. We knew that in order to save his leg from amputation I, April, had to carry him on my back for the 200 yard journey back to the car in a rush to get him to the hospital. Falling on my hands and knees and crawling thru the Baltic Ice with hubby on my back, I was desperate to save my man's foot. How would he ever find happiness again if he could not return to Texas to gain the title of 4 time champion of the Prairie Lights Family Fun Run 5K? Or how could he ever frolic off at midnight on a weekday to play indoor soccer on a Spanish speaking team. Would he ever traverse the great, Rocky Mountain 14ers again?....... 

.....Or would he?
                                                                   Seems he will.

                     Because my story is....primarily a load of Honky Tonk. 

Rolling on the ground laughing at my ridiculous story!
You do expect that our life is interesting here, right?

Truth is, he did manage to step foot and leg into the very cold Sea Slush, but the excitement ended there and we carried on with our little date.

Photo Courtesy of Obnoxious Author of Ridiculous Story

Photo of Obnoxious Author of Ridiculous Story

Courtesy of Loving Husband who would never try to fool you into believing Ridiculous Story....... ............or would he? 

The next morning we took the kids to visit the sea at a beach near our church.

 Not as interesting and unique, but still fun to see. 

We finally made it down to view the port. In truth, in the winter it takes awhile to get the motivation to travel around and explore things. With that, I can make mention of my original post about praying for us in the winter and envying us in the summer.

It's winter.

 Really, life is pretty ordinary for us right now. Work, school, and a lot of home time. 

In just a few months, these streets will be buzzing around the clock. 

We are really looking forward to those months of long nights, city festivals,

 trips to the beach and souvenir shopping. 

Blessings to You!

April

 (Jekabs, Isaac Christian and Liva Rue)