the Life of Olena

Well this was a disaster....but too long to tell the story now. This was Olena's first mischevious act! and boy did mommy freak out. It was therapy putty which was complete SMASHED into her hair. It took 2 days a total of 4.5 hours, about a gallon of olive oil, half a jar of peanut butter, a years worth of water supply. We survived though, and I don't think she will be doing that again!    

   My mom worked her usual magic and made this awesome cowgirl costume for Olena for Holloween.  She loved it!  

Well we are still alive but busy as ever!  Christmas is finally just about in full swing in this house.  We got our tree last weekend and hope to finish decorating this weekend.  Olena has been her usual Holiday obsessed self....nothing but xmas music, she sings xmas carols all day long, makes up her own and don't you dare turn on the TV unless you plan to watch a Holiday themed movie....and every persona she meets it's "Merry Christmas".  She had a great time showing off the tree we picked out too.  Working full time has been taking it's toll on me. Between that, homeschooling and the basic daily life I am running on fumes most the time these days.  I usually could get a few hours a day working from home but we are short staffed right now so I am at the office more often.  We have gone through some pretty big changes in my department and lost our darling HR rep, who is pregnant, to bed rest now which is 8 weeks sooner than we planned to have h...

 

Introducing my nephew.  Due to join us on or near April 11th 2013.  Today was a lot of fun - my BFF Rickie, had her ultrasound this afternoon and found out she is having a boy.  I will admit, I am a little bummed she has crushed my 100% dream accuracy because she was supposed to be having girl :) but I am still beside myself with excitement and I couldn't love him more. Rickie is not just any friend...she is my best friend...my other half.  Being that I haven't been successful in carrying a baby, going through it with her has been the next best thing.  She has been so great about letting me share everything right along with her.  Talking about what she learned in her books, letting me be the first to know about all the cool stuff (like the sex of the baby!), listens to my name suggestions regardless of how much she hates them, and just letting me be excited !!   It makes me smile, it...

Much to my surprise I won employee of the month!!! this is fabulous and it was a big shock.  I know I am an awesome employee ;O) but we also have several others who contribute a lot to our Company.  Yay for me! I haven't received my "prize" yet but I will let you know as soon as I get it! Our backyard is completely filled with mazes of wood stacks.  Sadly I still haven't had a chance to take a picture because I have been so busy but I really don't think you can fully understand unless you see it.  From the view out my huge dining room window you would swear my house was encased in a wood stack fortress.  We heat our house with a wood burning stove and the price of wood has skyrocketed so to help keep the cost down Jason has been collecting trees that have been cut down.  So we have this years stack, next years stack, stack of small logs and stack of big logs to be split...oh and don't forget the stumps that are lined up because they are too big to stack....

 

  As much as I wish I could say he was our new puppy...he now belongs to my parents!  Cooper is 3 months old, and a complete cutie pootie ball of wrinkles who I absolutely adore. He is a rescue from the local shelter who was scheduled to be euthanized because he contracted the parvo virus.  Thankfully the Detroit Animal Welfare Group felt he was worth saving because they amazingly took him out, got him to the vet and a now a few weeks later, here he is...happy and healthy!!

A few pictures I was able to get while visting my parents today.  

My definition of "pretty dirty" xoxo  she steals my heart with that smile.  

It is surely not my intention to go so long before posting but our life's path has taken us off roadin' a bit so I haven't had much time or energy to blog.  Now hopefully I can bring you up to date without making a novel of it... The biggest change is that I am now working full time.  Yes we are still homeschooling, and Yes I have no idea how I do it or survive it.  My typical day looks like this... 4:45a the alarm goes off 5:30a I leave the house at work by 6:00a off at 2:00 and home around 2:30p We have "lunch/dinner" as a family and J leaves for work shortly after Olena and I work on school stuff from about 4:30-6:30p We have a light dinner together. She plays, I do my chores. She showers and goes to bed by 8:00 I get stuff ready for the next day and I am in bed around 9:30. In addition to this I am "oncall" for work every night at 5p...all night through the next day so while doing all this running I am constantly taking phone calls (eve...

This is one of Olena's favorite horses, and one of only 2 mares that they have at Banbury. She is a beautiful horse...but a tad sassy! LOL

Amira  

Just a handful of her friends at Banbury.  She loves everyone there and they all equally adore her.  The girl with the ball cap and really long hair is Amber, she is one of Olena's instructors and she is AMAZING!! we love her and she brings out a lot of Olena's talents and abilities.  We are highly considering having Amber instruct her in private lessons next year.

  Showing off her riding skills.  She demonstrated 3 various styles of trotting... Posting is to rise out of the saddle seat for every other stride of the horse's forelegs, thus smoothing out the jolts you will encounter if you just sit. This makes riding the trot much more comfortable for you and your horse. Two Point   to lift your bottom out of the saddle, tense but don't grip tightly with your upper legs and stand slightly in the stirrups. Then you have to try to control the stance with your muscles, rather than by putting all your weight in the stirrups. lastly, sitting trot which is nothing more than staying in the saddle while riding, but moving your body with the horse. And to my amazement she did this all on a horse that she had never ridden before.  This just blows me away because to be able to perform as well as she did on a horse that was much wider than any other horse she ever rode, she didn't know his personality and vise versa, and it was a sad...

August 14, 2012 this earth lost a strong and wonderful woman, my grandmother Ida.  While I was extremely blessed to be by her side and say goodbye, she will forever be missed.  She was an amazing person and I can only hope that Olena will be able to hold on to even just a fraction of her memory.  My mother asked me to give a eulogy at the service on Friday, I thought I would post it here so that I never forget the words that I spoke and the feeling that I had that day.  I love her deeply and always will.  I know one day I will see her again and there she will be waiting with open arms.  ******************************************** On behalf of our family, I wanted to take a moment to share a few words in memory of Ida Mary Crocker or as some may know her, Jeep.   I think we all feel very fortunate to have been able to share in her 70 years of life.   To be honest I can’t stand here and tell you much about Jeep as a child or even...

Ok, so this is not exactly the most nutritious sandwich to eat but I have to say it is totally amazing.  I saw the recipe on TV today and decided to give it a try.  I have a few over ripe bananas I needed to get rid of anyway.  Give it a try, you'll love it too! Make a sandwich using peanut butter, bananas and marshmallow.  They used marshmallow fluff, I had a bag of whole ones so I just sliced them and layered them on top of the banana and it worked perfectly.  They will melt anyway.  Once assembled give the sandwich a smoosh! :) Coat it in flour, then egg, then panko bread crumbs. Fry in a pan with about an inch of oil.  Few minutes each side. Cut in and half and let cool.... really let it cool because I ended up with very hot gooey marshmallow stuck to my lip and that didn't feel so swell! It was delicious, not too sweet but very very filling and heavy! I was thinking it would make a great camping treat. Maybe next time I...

Sorry it has been so long since I have updated but life happens, things get busy and either I forget or I just don't have the motivation.  I have a few spare minutes tonight so I figured I would at least enlighten everyone with an Olena update! She is growing like a weed. Haven't weighed her lately but she surely is getting much much taller! I have decided once again to try and grow out her hair...hopefully this time we can make it happen.  And just so that you blogger friends know, this is not all my decision.  She, just as much, finds her hair frustrating.  She cannot stand her hair to be in her face but she has a double crown so everything on top of head naturally falls forward...into her face.  It drives her batty! In addition to that, she does not have a particular liking to rubber bands and barrettes, regardless of what I get to easy the discomfort.   Lately she has been a bit more relaxed about it so we have managed to get her in a pig ...

I have been pretty busy but I will have some free computer time in the next few days...watch for updates!!!

We just returned from a family trip - just the three of us - from Mackinac Island.  According to Olena we went to the "very tippy top of Michigan , the lower half" and then we "went over the longest bridge to the upper half of Micigan and we stayed at the bottom!"  Translation: We camped in Mackinac City and even took the Mackinac Bridge over to St Ignace for a car show. Some fun facts: The Mackinac Bridge is currently the third longest suspension bridge in the world. The Mackinac Bridge is the longest suspension bridge in the western hemisphere. The total length of the Mackinac Bridge is 26,372 feet. The length of the suspension bridge (including anchorages) is 8,614 feet. The length from cable bent pier to cable bent pier is 7,400 feet. Length of main span (between towers) is 3,800 feet. All suspension bridges are designed to move to accommodate wind, change in temperature, and weight. It is possible that the deck at center span could move as much as 35 fe...

Now missing 2 teeth! Could she be any cuter??  

 

 

 

 

Olena asked if she could use the camera the other day to take a few pictures.  She wanted to play "photographer Olena" .  She had a good time and spent about an hour running around the house snapping away.  148 pictures later here is what we have...believe it or the not the pictures I did take out were all of Gus and yes there were still this many left.  Can you tell who her favorite is? and yes, he does usually keep his tongue in his mouth but apparently being the #1 model for world famous Photographer Olena was hard work.  So thought I would share... "An hour of my day" by Olena Warchol  :)

A little accessory for her Aunt Rickie's wedding.  She kept telling us she wanted long hair like us for the wedding but we just never grew it out.  So voila! instant long hair! I do plan to make it look a lot nicer for the wedding.  Literally she walked in from playing in the sprinkler and I shoved it on her head.  Once her real hair is curled it will blend and look more uniform. I am proud at how well I matched the color, I was worried because I ordered it off line.  

Olena and Amira Spring Session 2012 

Shark teeth...which to a 7 year old, is pretty darn cool!

Things are somewhat back to normal around here.  While busy, life is not chaotic or stressful these days and I am just perfectly happy with that.  Jason has been busy with little house hold projects now that spring has sprung and we can see all the junk we have!! and all the stuff that needs repair!  I seem to finally be coming out of my winter funk and have been on an organizing kick the last couple of days.  I tackled cleaning my basement, threw away 2 garbage bags of broken, worn and or plain useless junk, cleaned my dresser and Olena's as well as my closet...all in the last 2 days! I feel accomplished, I even found time to cut the grass tonight and all my laundry is washed, cleaned and put away.  Hooray!! Updates: Olena can now ride a two wheeler with no problem.  She is a motorized scooter junkie. Her top two teeth are slightly wiggly. Her bottom two big teeth have started coming in....but the babies are still hanging on for dear ...

 

My very good friend April Brown was finally successful in starting her dream...she opened and is running a local food bank.  Open Cupboard!   A few weeks ago we called the Ronald McDonald House at our Detroit Children's Hospital to inquire about what needs they currently have.  They called her back today and said that they are in desperate need of help and they asked her if she would be able to donate all of her food to them for the Month of May which would hopefully get them through the summer! This is amazing and we are so excited! I am SO EXCITED for her.  In addition to that United Way has asked her to participate in their distribution program.  They would give her food, and she delivers it weekly to the "charity" of her choice, in this case for the month of May, it would be the RMH.  What a rewarding experience this has been and I look forward to sharing this with her! With that being said, if anyone is interested in donati...

So while weeping over the fact that my daughter is no longer my "baby" I browsed my usual sites over the weekend and begged God to help me find a way.  $30-40K! it is absurd.  I know they say it is necessary but I find that hard to believe, especially when we managed to bring Olena home at $19k.  If my prayers are ever answered, you better believe that one of these beauties (or any other ones) are coming home!! DO B: 2009/2010 HIV+/HIV- The brother "Jonah" was born June 2009. The sister "Lila" was born November 2010. The children must be adopted together. The siblings were born to an HIV-positive birthmother and we believe the brother is positive and the sister is not. Additional photos available. In-country travel is easy. Experienced agency with HIV adoptions from RU. Married couples or single women can apply. 3 trips. Trip 1, both parents travel 5-7 days. Return home for 2-3 months. Both parents travel about 7 days on trip 2 for the court hearin...