the Life of Olena

We drove over 1300 miles for a total of almost 27 hours, drove up some pretty darn big mountains, had fun racing back down them on the winding road, visited with 10 different friends, seen some spectacular scenery, and walked over 1200 steps into a big waterfall ravine (that I almost did not make it out of.) :) sounds like we had lots of fun, huh? We DID!! Home from Cloudland Canyon State Park where we camped with the Kissack's and had a wonderful and memorable trip. Then on our 13 hour journey back we split the trip into two days and stayed with some family in Corbin. Sadly it all had to come to an end and we are now back home and getting things back to normal. A few fun vacation facts... 1. It took Jason about 30 minutes to eat a 24oz cheeseburger. Yes I said 24oz!! it was huge and personally I thought it was pretty gross! The funniest part of it all is that he was determined to finish it so that he could get his picture on the wall of fame, only to find out once he was done that...

So last night I was watching the news and seen this big broadcast about Elton John. He announced he would be adopting from Ukraine! WHAT?? Jason and I just sat there laughing - though I love his intentions and think his charity work is amazing, all I could think was how the heck can they let him release this announcement when he had all odds against him. I don't care who you are and I know that money does buy you a lot in Ukraine, but by law no singles can adopt. In addition to that is he 62 years old and this little boy he was supposedly pursuing is only 14 months. That surely goes against their age limitations/laws. And what about preselection ? Traveling to a orphange for a concert and finding a child certainly sounds like preselection to me. Though my heart goes out to him and his partner and if they truly want to adopt I hope that they can help a child especially if they are willing to take on one with HIV but please do your research before you announce worldwide what...

Today's marks a memory in history...Olena told me for the first time that I was mean and that she didn't like me anymore. It was a complete shock and though I know all kids go through this and I know she didn't really mean it, it kinda hurt my feelings. She has had this bad habit of dumping water on the bathroom floor while taking a bath. She has now done it so many times that it is has now started seeping between the tub and tiles causing it to practically rain in the basement. She knows not to do it and we discuss it every time before she gets in the tub and sure enough I walked in there this afternoon to check on her and soaked my sock the second I stepped through the door. The entire floor was covered and the towel was in a ball and absolutely saturated. I was so mad!! I told her to clean up, and she was getting out. She didn't like this idea and started to scream at me, and said "I don't like you anymore - your mean and I only love my dad!" ...

I am exhausted so I am not sure how long with post will be or even how much sense it will make but I have had this on my list of things to do for way too long now. Today was my day off and we decided to put our yearly pass to use and headed over the Detroit Zoo. We had a picnic lunch and skipped around to some of our favorite exhibits. It was a beautiful day weather wise and it was an extremely wonder family time. Olena was in a great mood and we had fun. Tonight at the dinner table, she wanted to say Grace..."tank you Lord por my pamily, bless my pood and tank you for no crying today - amen - lets eat" (thank you Lord for my family, bless my food and thank you for no crying today) Though I would never think to say it during our meal time Grace I have to admit I am thankful for no crying today too :) It has been a pretty yucky couple of weeks. Olena has had a bit of an attitude problem, lots of crying fits, and potty accidents - which is absolutely out of her norm. She...

Riding the train after a great afternoon of some family fun. The entrance of the Arctic Ring of Life - this is our favorite exhibit ! Sadly to say the Polar Bears were not swimming today. We did get to see them up close grazing the hill side which was kinda neat because you get a much better sense of thier size when they are out of the water. We did get to watch the seals though which is always just as fun. What a cool zoo...we even have a few dinosaurs.

I ordered 2 pair of FuzziBunz cloth "diapers" for Olena and I LOVE THEM! She is still constantly needs a pull up for bedtime and I am sick and tired of wasting money on pull ups and I figured I'd do my part to help the environment. I am really ticked at myself for not buying them earlier. They were $15 each but well worth the investment. We have been using them at night, they don't leak, they don't smell, and they are super easy to clean. Not to mention that they are very soft :) I snapped them in place and O just pulls them on and off like the pull up and they are not any bulkier than a pull up either. I told J that I am so excited to use them that we need to have some babies so I can pad their little bums with these cute things :) Speaking of babies, yes we are still trying! My OB is not willing to hand over any fertility meds until I get my blood pressure down a little bit more so I am working on that. On the other hand I was able to go back on medi...

Yes I meant summer daze...that is the funk I feel like I am in right now. We have had some very hot and humid weather the last couple of weeks and I am sick and tired of sitting in the central air. My nose is stuffy, I am sneezing like crazy and I feel like I have been living in a cave! Please weatherman bring some relief! Home life is a bit off the beaten path. Our so called "schedule" was lost many weeks ago. Not sure where it went but it seems that the daddy/husband of the house doesn't like to follow the schedule so that leaves mommy with too many things to do in too little time! Since I have had to come home from work and straighten the house, and prep/cook dinner I haven' t had any time to work with Olena on preschool work. She has started getting up over an hour earlier than usual (a change from 7:30 to 6:30a) which means she is extra tired at night which makes for a very crabby and uncooperative preschooler. So we had to bite the bullet and make her be...

August 2007 August 2008 August 2009 Look at this girl's skin. You would swear I have been baking her in the oven! LOL! I have never seen anyone change so drastically and so quickly the way her skin does. And this is WITH SPF70 sun screen lubed from head to toe! BF is a toe head and very Russian looking. BM is very Gypsy/Romanian looking with dark olive skin and huge dark eyes and dark hair. I tend to "forget" she is adopted and I think watching her make these changes and start to resemble them is a "reminder" of who she is - it is bitter sweet I suppose.

Jason came into the kitchen to check on her while she was eating her lunch this afternoon - this is how he found her!

Mackinac/Port Huron Boat Races were a few weeks ago. We spent the day camping with my parents and watched the sailboats launch from the Port Huron Yacht Club to the starting point. It was a rainy day but a great experience. It was really neat standing there watching them all parade by while bag pipers play music. Olena loved it ! The Earth Voyager is a massive beautiful site. I believe it took a crew of 16 to sail this race! Nana and Olena aboard the ' FoxSea ' our cousin's boat.

Not too much to report. I have been happy the last few days with the fact that Olena has decided to be cooperative, kind, loving, and polite...what else could a mother ask for? I have tacked down a schedule that hasn't been followed as closely as I'd like but we are slowly getting into the routine. We have stopped giving Olena naps which means it is necessary to get her in bed by 8:00. It is great when we do manage to accomplish this because I love having the few extra hours to myself to relax and get a few things done. I have also decided to add 30 minutes of "preschool" in the evening, 4 days a week. I want her to start getting into the habit of sitting and working on something since we plan to home school. She is such a busy body so this will take some time and patience from the both of us to get her to focus. She does really well and is very eager for the first 15 minutes, after that she starts to get frustrated and gets mad before she even tries. We got some time...

Normally I do not dread Mondays, but today was an exception. If I could have crawled into bed at 9am, put the covers over my head and wait until Tuesday to come back out I would have! I can always tell first thing in the morning what mood my little angel will be in and sure enough the second she came into my room at 7am and started barking orders at me about what she wanted, I knew it was going to be a rough day. She sassed and whined all morning while I tried to get her and I ready for the day. Then when it was time to get dressed for work, I realized that I had no clean work pants! URG!!! So I frantically started yelling at the hubby and he proceeded to tell me that no laundry was done over the weekend because we ran out of laundry soap and no one bothered to make anymore. I was fuming...who was too lazy to make it? and now I know that means I have to wait at least until tomorrow to do a load because it takes a good 24 hours for the soap to solidify!! who's bright idea was it to...

I cannot believe it has been so long since I last posted. I wish I could say it was because we have been so busy with lots of wonderful things but that's not the case. It is true we have been pretty busy but just with living life! Jason was out of town for 10 days, leaving mommy with all household duties...including cutting our grass with a push mower (we have 3.5 lots). I HATE cutting grass. My parents use to make me do it as a kid and I vowed to never have to do it when I lived in my own house! and bygolly I have held true to that commitment for the most part. Occasionally when J is gone or has been really busy I pull ranks and do it but he is the full time lawn maintenance crew. He plants a beautiful garden, keeps great grass, and he grows a lot of plants himself from seeds. He enjoys it so we are both happy :) Anyway, O and I had 10 days of girl time which was a lot of fun. My lovely daughter has been quite a handful lately. Now that communication doesn't seem t...

We spent a Saturday afternoon on Lake St. Clair in the new pontoon. It was a very rough start and being it was the first time we launch this huge thing into the water it was a learing experience we will never forget. Lets see, first we argued about how close to he needed to be to the dock, then the wind blew it in the wrong direction and we were facing the wrong end of the canal, we backed into some rocks and chewed up the prop a little bit, some very rude and unGodly man in a wheel chair decided to sit on the side of the ramp and procede to scream profanity at us and harass us, my mom got left on the dock....etc etc etc. But we all lived, we all got to spend some good quality time together and now we can laugh at the whole experience :) Us girls (Rickie, Olena and I) did some tubing, which she loved - until the 3 of us went airborn and she decided she had enough.

Last weekend we were blessed with some beautiful weather so we headed downtown for some sites and some good ole' girls day of fun! Rickie's sister Addie was in town from KY and we only get to see her about 2 times a year. We decided to spend the afternoon walking along the river walk and having some lunch. It as a great day! some of the sky line from the people mover. Comerica Park - where the Detroit Tigers play. Across the river looking at Windsor. The GM building! this picture will be one of the last :( Princess! River boat tour. You can rent this for parties, weddings, etc. Or they run river tours with dinner and dancing certain days of the week.

Thank you for sharing Tonya. This was amazing, everyone should take a few minutes to watch it. What a talented and beautiful choir! Enjoy.

This is more for memory sake but I thought I would share one of the many crazy things that come out of my daughters mouth. Over the weekend she was pretending to get married. She put on her dress up clothes, and had Rickie sing "Here comes the bride" about 100 times. I asked her who she was marrying? and she so surely replied "MY SELP !" (myself) I explained to her that when she gets married she will need to marry a boy. A boy that she loves. She asks me if I am married? I said "Yes I am - I married your daddy" she got this completely puzzled look on her face, pointed her finger at her dad and blurted out... "WHO??? YOU MARRIED THIS GUY?" Rickie and I busted out laughing so hard, poor Jason just sat there with a complete look of shock. If I could have only had that one tape!!!

Finally, after 9 months of ballet class Olena preformed in her very first dance recital. We were very proud, and she proved to be the prefect ballerina! The song they danced to was Fly from the Tinkerbell movie, and all of the little fairies were absolutely adorable. Sorry but no pictures from the show, it is not permitted, but here are a few from my moms house right before. She had me in tears, she looked stunning and "wore" the ballerina look very well...very natural! practicing her pirouettes She is so over me taking pictures of her. It is a battle of the wills just to get her to look at my camera. I was very proud of this bun! The traditional ballerina hairstyle is parted on the left, all hair pulled back, and pinned up high on the head in a ballet bun (I called it a doughnut). oh and don't forget the whole bottle of hair spray that it takes to get it to stay that way!!

Welcome little Karys (sounds like Paris but with a K)!! btw Tonya...I did have to Goggle that! LOL ~ Tonya delivered the most precious baby girl last Friday. The 6 th amazing addition to their wonderful family. If you haven't already...go to my sidebar and check out their blog, she is stunning!!!! We send our loves, hugs, and good wishes to you all. We can't wait to meet her in the Fall.