the Life of Olena

I was checking my email the other night. I have an email in my inbox with no subject and it is from a sender I did not recognize . In my preview window I see that it is Russian, but there is a little ad at the bottom so I assume it is spam and I delete it. I continue on reading the rest of my mail without a second thought. Before closing down for the night I click the delete button on my trash folder but out of no where, I get this thought, DO NOT delete that email Wierd, but I trust my instint. I go into the trash folder look at it again and think this must be spam. In the process I notice that there is a photo attached too but I do not want to risk a virus so I figure I will wait until I translate some of the email first. I go to babblefish , cut and paste the typing and hit translate. Dear Christina, this is a letter from O and S....sorry it has been a long time without contact. And it goes on briefly to say thank you for the pictures, they are happy for Olena and we are well. Mi...

It's been awhile since I have gotten her into a dress, so mommy went a bit crazy with the camera this afternoon! I think I took about 30 pictures. :)

We went camping over Father's Day weekend. It was nice weather and pretty relaxing for a couple of days. Olena taught herself how to swim. I was so happy. This is a girl who just a couple of months ago was terrified of pools. Our first year home, she loved to swim. She would wear a life jacket, jump right in no problems. Next summer comes around - she is terrified. She would scream and cry when we talked about going to the pool. When we went she would stand against the wall. We would try to coax her, we tried ignoring her, we showed her steps, we offered to carry her...nothing worked. It was this way even during the beginning of this year when we were at a hotel. Then about a month ago she went in my uncle's pool after watching the kids for a few hours. Well at this camp ground, she bugged my mom all day then when Jason and I arrived I decided to take her, we walked in the door and she dropped her stuff, flung her crocks off and ran right into the pool, not a si...

The other day while Olena and I were in the car she says to me "mommy I have never seen a coconut (her version: Co-Co-Nut) before!" so on our way home, we stopped at Kroger and bought her a coconut. I punch a hole in it and she tried the milk, which she said was gross. Thankfully, because that could have been an ugly bathroom situation. We peeled the meat, and that was gross too. Then I let her try some shredded sweetened coconut. After all of the taste testing she tells me "mommy, I like to see the co-co-nuts but lets not eat them anymore ok?" After all of that she wanted to keep the coconut but was upset it was no longer whole, so when you can't fix something....duct it! Should I be worried that Co-Co-Nut is now one of her friends?? she reads him books, and they were sleeping in the same bed until I got tired of dusting hairs out of her bed every morning so now he has to sleep on the shelf. She likes to take him bowling too. Sounds a bit too much like...

It was such a beautiful day today so we took advantage of it and spent the whole morning at the Warren Civic Center which has this great water play area. The fountain spurts in beat with the music that they play over the speakers. They had a great time and can't wait to go back.

These are Delicious . Olena and I made them the other day while learning about coconuts and they are fabulous. Thought I would share! 8 ounces crushed pineapple 1/2 cup coconut milk, we did use a bit a real milk but of course you know what that can do to a person so I suggest canned milk. Small ripe banana blend until smooth, put in p opsicle molds and freeze. The are so good!! Enjoy!!

While I was reorganizing my home management binder this evening, I was shuffling through all of my "tear outs" and thought it might be nice to share of few of these wonderful things that I find with all of you. My tear outs are the pages I tear out of my magazines that have stuff I want to remember. I put them in page protectors and file them in my home management binder for later use. I have a few pages of some camping tips that I really liked and since it is that time of year, I figured this would be something perfect to share. Maybe one of you will enjoy a few of them and even use them....I know I will be. Clean up station: Simplify campsite hand/face washing. Fill an empty milk jug with water. use a small nail to make a hole on the side that can be plugged with a golf tee. bungee cord the jug to a tree in a sunny spot, and you can even tuck some soap and a towel behind that bungee cord too... the sun will warm the water and when one of the kiddos need to wash up th...

Dazed is exactly how I feel quite a bit now a days.... the summer days are flying by and it seems every morning brings tons of things to do. I apologize for the severe lack of posts but it comes but we are busy and there is not too much to talk about. All we do lately is work. Either work here or work at the new house. Remodeling, packing, painting, painting, and did I mention painting! The one thing I despise most I have been doing for 3 weeks straight and still have lots to do. I am no Picasso, and I have no shame. Thankfully my mom has a lot more motivation than I do when it comes to that project so she has been busting my butt and helping me get it done. What on earth would we do without out mothers?? :) Things are coming along nicely though and soon enough the house will be perfect and we can get settled. Our room is done. Olena's room is close, we still need to add some molding. I finally decided on a color for the living room and dining room, after sampling the entire col...