the last one...really

between 5:00 and 6:00....

I know everyone has to know.....Ray ate the soup...not only did he eat it, he ate two bowls of it.

But he also told a series of jokes in which he used the word ladle...

see ya ladle

talk to ya ladle...

you get the point!

I also had a argument with Lizzie about the soup...

She put her bowl in sink and as I was washing it out she came back in and asked for more, so I turned around and was getting ready to put more soup in her bowl when all of a sudden she started to throw a fit....

she didn't want soup in that bowl because I had just rinsed it out and it was wet...hmmm

I tried to explain to her that soup was wet so wet bowl from water wasn't a big deal...she wouldn't believe me, a few minutes later she is still arguing with me...sorry Lizzie, no soup for you!

Who would have thought that soup could take up so much of my blog time? Until next time...see ya ladle!

ughhhh.....

Okay between 4:00 and 5:00....

one of my children who shall remain nameless went #2 in the upstairs bathroom only to find out after the fact that that toilet is not working...

the toilet tank will not fill up with water unless I turn the sink on, but it has to be hot water because for some reason the cold water will not turn on....

remember the backpack from the last post...well Benjamin has been pulling it around everywhere. What makes this funny is that it is a pink princess backpack with rollers and he is putting everything in it.

For some reason my contacts are super blurry and I am having trouble writing this blog. It may be because I am wearing Rays contacts, but I have been for several weeks and today is the first day they have given me any trouble....hmmm!

Th soup I made for dinner is ready, Ray has not had any...

I am pretty sure I am ready for bed...

an hour in the life of....

Here's the thing, I think my family is funny, mostly my kids. Not funny like good sense of humor, but funny in the sense that I like to laugh at them when they are not trying to be funny. I guess you could say at their expense, but they don't know that and there is no reason to explain that to them. So I am going to recap the things that have happened in the last hour....

Lizzie tripped over a large rolling backpack as she walked out of the kitchen that she knew was on the floor because she had stepped over it while walking into the kitchen...

Parker then stepped in a plate of 7 layer dip that was in the floor because Benjamin likes to eat on the kitchen floor. The thing about this is that after Parker stepped on the dip, Benjamin continued to eat it after Parker removed his foot from his plate!

The kids then thought it would be fun to push each other down the stairs in a laundry basket, I mean while pretended not to hear them. Because if I had heard then then I obviously should tell them to stop because it is not a good idea...

I didn't tell them to stop because I needed to start the soup I am making for dinner because it takes awhile to cook, as I started to cook it Ray yells at me from the bedroom because he is concerned something is on fire....no soup for you Ray.

He has since asked me several times what is in the soup, because it doesn't smell so good. I am now wondering what Ray is going to eat for dinner.

On a side note I have spelled because wrong every time I wrote it in this blog and I had to go back and respell it....including this sentence!

I will be blogging again in an hour to recap what happens between 4:00-5:00....here's a preview, the backpack from the first part of this blog may show up again...

Life in these United States...

we have been home now for about 2 and half weeks, yet something the passport control people said to us as we were entering back into the Untied States stills rings in my ears....Were do you live?

I think that is a really good question, were do we live? We live in Yukon today and for the last few weeks, before that we thought we lived in Romania and and next month we will live somewhere else! That is a lot of places and a lot of change.

I thought coming home would be just like it sounds....coming home! And in some ways it is the same. There are days that it is like we never left in the first place and then there are days it seems like we were gone for so long. It is strange to realize life goes on with out you, here and there.

I miss my friends we made in Romania, but I am so happy to be here with my friends and family. This journey has been filled with so many mixed emotions, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. My life is different, I am different. And that is a blessing.

I think it took moving across the globe and back again to see really what is important, and what is not. So we don't have a home or very many things that belong to us, but....as cheesy as it sounds we have each other. My kids have learned that home is where we all are, not the building in which we live, and I have learned I can do so much more then I ever thought I could.

I am glad to be back in these United States, and I am super glad for Walmart, and refried beans...

Most difficult thing ever....

So this is going to be the most difficult blog post I have ever written, or probably will ever write. We are going home. We leave a week from today. We are not leaving because we hate Romania, or because we are homesick or anything like that. We are leaving because I am having some health problems that can't be addressed here in Romania. And it breaks our hearts to leave.

I don't know if anyone besides Ray understands what this is like. To go from disliking some place to calling it home all in the span of 6 months and then you pack up to leave. We have grown to love it here and we have made some wonderful friends. It truly is a bitter sweet time. I never really understood what that meant until this situation. I am so excited to go home and see my family and my friends, but at the same time how do I leave people that I love that I will probably never see again?

I have cried about this lots of times and I will cry about it lots more times. Romanians are some of the warmest people you will ever meet. We have been welcomed and loved by these people and it is so hard to go. But in the end we both think it is what is the right thing to do.

18 carolers caroling!

Tonight we got to hear something special....we had carolers at our house! I guess in Romania, this is something that people do, and this is the night they go on. My language teacher told me some stuff about it, like it is mostly children and they sing for money! But traditionally what you would give is apples and oranges and nuts. But since I am not Romanian I gave something that i think is traditional to me....baked goods!

Our wonderful babysitter Angela who I talk about all the time was the one who asked me if she could carol at our house and I said yes of course! She told me she would be coming with her family and a few other people....here is who came to my house tonight....


This is more then I was expecting, but I was so happy to see all of them! Most of these people are people I have meet before. I don't remember everyone's name, but they all go to church with Angela. And yes, there were two guys playing guitars! The one with the black guitar is Marius, and Parker loves him! He speaks wonderful English and every time we are with him he always plays with Parker. The little girl in front is one of Angela's daughters, her name is Sara. And then the couple right in the middle is Dan and Ana, they just got married! Okay there are lots more people and lots of names I don't know!

Here are some pictures of them in action..

Here is my sweet friend Angela!

This so neat, and we really enjoyed these people coming to our house and singing for us! We only understood a little of what they sang, but I enjoyed every minute of it!

reflections....

It has been awhile since last blogged and I tonight I have been thinking about our time here in Romania. We have almost been here for 6 months, some times it seems like we have been here longer and sometimes the time seems to fly by. There are days that I am surprised we are still here! When we first got here I was in such a state of shock that I just knew we were not going to make it! I remember riding in the car after we left the airport and seeing Romania for the first time and thinking okay, this is nice but we won't be here for very long! In fact when I unpacked all our boxes I put them in the attic because I thought I would need them again to re-pack to go home!

But we have made it to the almost 6 month mark. This has been such a unique experience for our family. It has changed our family in so many ways and really pushed us to our limits. I have done stuff that I never thought I could do before, and that is sometimes surprising. We have become so close as a family here that it has made it all worth it. All the ups and downs here, all the tears and wanting to go home have been worth it to see where my family is today. There are not the regular distractions here like there would be at home. We are spending so much time together, the kids have really enjoyed having us home more, especially Ray. Speaking of Ray, I have enjoyed having him here too. We are not used to being around each other so much, and I was a little worried about it in the beginning, but it has turned out to be so much fun!

We have also made some super great friends. People I would have never met before and I have been affected and changed by each one, my new American friends and my new Romanian friends! My kids have made some great friends too, and that has been wonderful.

The last 6 months have been a roller coaster of ups and downs, super highs and super lows, but life our life has changed and our family has changed for the better!