Orange County dreaming!

Ok, so being from Orange County I am estatic about my results!

Orange County

You're rich, pretty, and living a charmed life. (Or you seriously wish you were.) From Disneyland to Laguna Beach, you're all about living the California dream life. Just make sure to marry rich - so you don't have to work for it!

Where Does Your Inner Californian Belong?

weighing in!

I am so excited to be getting closer to my goal!! I read an article a month ago about weight loss being connected to getting enought sleep. In addition to eating less and moving more I am also sleeping more.

Thought for Today

Now that last week's toilet crisis is behind me, I am back to meditating on various quotes... and here is my choice for this week!



A faith is that which is able to survive a mood.
G.K. Chesterton



Meditate with me on that for a bit, and ask yourself "is my faith dependent on my mood?"

not much going on...

If I were running a news desk I would have to say that today is a slow news day!

We were all moving slow today... I was in bed most of the day with fibromyalgia pain. I did get up to meet with Sasha for my language helper session. She explained the grammar I most likely missed in class today.

Tom popped popcorn for me and we watched a few movies... he and Spencer both went out for a bit to do some shopping.

Yep, I was right, it is definitely a slow news day!

Eurovision 2008

I didn't get to see this year's show and I am bummed about that. This year's winner is from Russia!!

You can read more here and watch a video! http://www.eurovision2008.org/


Back in 2006 when I did watch the whole night... Dima came in second to Lordi. From all the coverage they have done of this on the news, it seemed to be a bigger victory than Russia winning at soccer!

weighing in!

This is the second week in a row that we had birthday party food on Thursday. Yesterday, I baked four homemade pizzas and a birthday cake and today I weighed in... thankfully, I am down a pound so I didn't suffer too much!

Spencer, Happy 18th Birthday!

We are very proud of the mature young man that Spencer is. He walks with the Lord, he is a great friend, an incredible hugger, has an infectious laugh and a heart of gold!

all is well!

Yesterday I called Kolya to see if he could come by and work on the toilet... it would either not stop running or it wouldn't flush. Tom was fixing it just about every other day.

At first Kolya said that Friday was the soonest he could get here. He surprised me this morning with a phone call saying that he would be in our area today and could come over after 4 o'clock. He was able to replace the flushing mechanism and now it works like a charm. He even bargained at the market for a fairly large discount on the part!

When we paid him for his labor he told us it was too much... but we felt like the work he did was priceless!! In America we would have paid at least 100 dollars just for the service call. We paid Kolya 40$ and it was worth every penny.

plumbing woes

Our toilet is on the fritz again... this is not a fun cultural experience! Last year it was several weeks before we were able to get everything taken care of. I have calls to make this afternoon to see if we can get someone here soon. My prayer is that someone will be here tomorrow!

mondays...

It is always hard getting back into the swing of school after a weekend of working. Where did our weekend go!?

Tom started another three week Saturday session. His new topic is Optimal Relationships. We were excited to see so many young couples in attendance!

We paid for advertisements to go up on all the bus stops in two different regions here in the city. We don't know how successful that will be in bringing new people to Tom's seminars but since the cost was only 8 dollars for 2 weeks it won't hurt us if it doesn't pan out!

Sunday was the Christian Recovery meeting and that went well... the guys from the rehab center were back in attendance but the AA guys were not there! Hopefully, we can get them all together one of these Sundays!

Today there is a meeting for those interested in working with MOPS here in Krasnodar. Unfortunately, I cannot attend. I have to make finishing school and working with Tom my first priority right now!

weighing in!

This morning I was a little nervous approaching my scale... I was not sure if it was going to continue being so nice to me. I am excited that despite having birthday food yesterday, I still managed to lose 2 pounds!!

Happy Birthday to me!

Tom and Spencer took me out to dinner and to see Prince Caspian! I thought it was very kind of Walt Disney and Walden Media to have the movie open here in Russia on my 45th birthday… it was truly a treat!







I am so grateful to my friends for all the calls, emails, text messages, gifts and well wishes today. I was overwhelmed and had a few moments of happy tears and some belly laughs thrown in throughout the day!

A traditional Russian birthday greeting is to congratulate you, and then tell you all the wonderful things they can think of to wish for you in the coming year. I heard some of the most beautiful wishes today from our Russian friends. Even one of Spencer’s friends called me. He is so sweet. He had worked out what he wanted to say and did it all in English perfectly!

Thought for Today

The soul needs an intense, full bodied spiritual life
as much as and in the same way that the body needs food.
Thomas Moore


Amen!

Natural Disasters

When Sasha arrived today I had the news on TV... they were showing the devastation from the earthquake in China.

We ended up having a discussion on earthquakes in California. I explained to her what it felt like when I experienced my first one and the damage that I have seen close up. We then went on to discuss tornadoes!

I am grateful to be at a point in language acquisition where I can have these types of conversations. She taught me a few new words which I need to write down before I forget. Whenever I don't know a word I just describe it and then Sasha is great at telling me what the word is!

After that we actually had a discussion pertaining to my current lesson... we talked about the Fine Arts; theatre, ballet, music and artwork.

Earthquakes to artwork in two hours time!

Sunday's news...

Yesterday was our second Christian Recovery meeting!

We had a completely different turnout than we did last week. This time the men from the recovery house were working in another city and were not there. However, there were people in attendance from AA along with a few leaders from our church.

Tom did a magnificent job teaching on the topic of powerlessness from his series "Spiritual Kindergarten". We had a time for sharing personal experiences and/or impressions, a short break for tea followed by a time for prayer requests, and then prayer as a group.

A few of people who attended are not church goers, and at least one of them is not a believer… couple of them believe in God but, don’t know much about Jesus. We are grateful that they chose to come and take part in this meeting. One of the new guys asked if he could bring his wife next week!

We are excited about the growth and development of this group!

Victory Day

Yesterday was Victory Day here in Russia. We watched the Moscow parade on tv and saw all the soldiers, tanks and airplanes... maybe being an Air Force brat has me spoiled, but my favorite part is always the fly over!



We celebrated Friday's holiday by going to an art museum with friends and hanging out for the day.

Today Spencer went out shopping with his friend Vlad, and I spent most of the day laying down resting while Tom was getting ready for his upcoming seminar and for speaking tomorrow night at the Recovery meeting.

weighing in!

I am excited about losing 2 pounds this week! I don't have much to share about how I did it... just eating less and moving more. That is what seems to work best for me!

Who will rule?

Yesterday Russia's new president Dmitry Medvedev was inaugurated into office... one of his first acts as president was to nominate Vladimir Putin as prime minister. There is a question in the minds of some people here and abroad as to who will actually hold the power here in this country.







Please continue to pray with us for the future of Russia and her people!

Thought for Today

Cast all your cares on God; that anchor holds!
Lord Alfred Tennyson

Planting Seeds

On Sunday Tom and I were among the privileged few invited to the beginning of a recovery church here in Krasnodar... a planting of seeds.

Alexei had been thinking and planning for a long time. He decided it was time for him to start this meeting… a Christian recovery meeting. He didn’t call it that. He called it a meeting for believers looking for healing. Healing from addiction, bad habits and sin.

Tom was the one who was actually invited by Alexei. I was asked by Tom to come and translate for him. Tom, Alexei, me and 10 men from a local recovery program were in attendance.

The meeting will be held weekly.
Alexei will be the main teacher and he asked Tom to help him out as well.
Beginning next week members of AA will be invited to participate.
Alexei chose the format… he gave a 30 minute lesson that he wrote himself which included Biblical truths from Step 1 of the 12 Steps.
We took a break for tea and dessert.
Following the short break each person shared a prayer need and then the men took turns praying around the circle.

We think this was the first meeting of it’s kind here in Krasnodar… if not all of Russia