Strike One

Well, it's back to the drawing board for the Chapman crew.  After two weeks of applications, positive emails, and three stressful Skype interviews (that kept cutting out), we didn't make the cut.  We're at a quandary...do we stay here in Ukraine for a future carreer move (Ken in admin role and me as librarian)?  I thought I'd ask Rawly over our Saturday pancakes.

Here are his thoughts:
--Me, "Rawly, where do you think we should live next year?"
Him, "Boise."
--"Oh really, are you pretty sure about that?
"Yep."
--"Why's that?"
"There are cities and cars, stores, and cars and ice cream, and stores and boats and cars and meat and water and fish and tunnels and trains and church and bikes and soccer and basketball.  No France, there's no ice cream there."
--"What about staying here and having Mom work in the library?"
"Umm, no thank you."

Pretty convincing argument if I do say so myself.

The LUSH life

Here's a further glance into what we're up to...Ken and I have been swapping staying home with the kids since our nanny has been ill.  I've quite enjoyed it.  Not only have the mornings been great because we don't have to pry ourselves from the kids, but nap times are spectacular!  I haven't had two hours just for me in who knows how long.  I read, reflected, relaxed and never thought of laundry or dishes or picking up scattered toys.  That was Wednesday; Friday I snoozed for an hour with Rawly (little Z's night times haven't been full of slumber since Christmas break) and then did the same as before.  Plus I have still was able to do  the normal household "chores".  Our excitement Friday was having the "worker men" come to fix our stove.  They weren't able to fix the oven however, so we're still waiting on that.  It was out for a week, what a hassle.  Luckily we know our neighbors who were friendly enough to let us cook at their place for a few days.  As such, we've been living it up luxurious style in the mornings, let me show you!

Yes, that's right...we're eating cold cereal, I know, now you're thinking...whoa, really frivolous.  Well, in Ukraine, it is.  My cousins (the thrifty cereal shoppers claim that they never buy a box for over $2) would be appalled at the outrageous prices here, and Cheerios--we have to get the plain, non-sugary kind on the black market of sorts.  And PB too, but that's generally reserved for Saturday pancakes.

All aboard!

It was a big day, the water men also came and brought our eight five-liter jugs that are forming the train you see here.  Zoya loves doing the choo choo dance.  Rawly uses the potato masher as his handle (how they carry two at a time) to be a water man too.

And we're back!

We left the blogging world for awhile...our good friends had their blog attacked by a student and in all of the hullabaloo, I choose to disconnect.  But thanks to my cousin, always the faithful follower, I decided that I should start back up--for the kids' sake perhaps more so than yours :)  I want them to know as much about their birthplace as they can, since after all, they will always be part Ukrainian.
So the answer to the question you may now be asking is, "yes," it's official.  As of December 1 we signed our letter of intent with QSI stating that we would not be returning for the 2013-2014 school year.  As in typical Chapman fashion, of course we swing back and forth in questioning our decision.  Ken will be finished with his Administrative credentials this spring and I would like to begin my Masters in Library Science...We inquired about non-teaching jobs at KIS, since career wise, it may be good to get the experience under our belts, but after milling over it during break and then talking with our director, I feel closure in saying "paka" good-bye.
The month of December we were  I was pretty dead set on returning to the States.  I'd like to say home, but as we've been trying to instill in Rawly that home is where ever we are together as a family.  We've applied to a range of places both on American soil and abroad, who knows were we'll land.

Home again, home again lickity split

If only "home" were lickity split away.  As exciting as planes are--their novelty is starting to wear off, even for Rawly--who has now traveled on 37 flights (which is, coincidentally, how much he currently weighs, although if you ask, he will say seven-thirty.)  Well, I forgot two more flights to the All Star game in Phoenix last summer, which brings his total up to thirty nine--so sorry for the previous "mom" comment:)

With two kids in tow for our first hop over the pond, we wanted to break up our return to the States with a stopover in Boston.  Ken's sister and her boyfriend greeted us at the airport and, after registering with lost baggage, we made our way to the T and our apartment we rented in Beacon Hill.  OH!  I had almost forgotten about getting to the airport for our departure--what a ride!  Let's just say we made it there in our second fastest time yet.  Ask Ken to tell the story!

Zoya was quite the fan of Chris, here, he's entertaining her with a menu--oo la la!

We kept ourselves busy from (EARLY) morning 'til night.  Ken deserves the title of Super Dad for getting up the first morning and taking Rawly and Zoya for a walk at 4 am!  He is my hero--which I don't tell him enough!  

Our apartment was just a few blocks from the Boston Commons and we enjoyed our historical walk along the Freedom Trail.  At one point we got doused by a heavy rain storm and sought shelter under a restaurant awning.

The next day we watched a great game at 100 year old Fenway.  Ken loved taking the kids there and Rawly really enjoyed watching "men play baseball."

The day Em and Chris left Ken was an allstar yet again and got up early to go with them to the airport and pick up our rental car.  Thanks to Em's directions (via her trusty Gretchen), he made it back to our place easily and while I was out for a stroll with the very awake children, managed to load most of our luggage.  Now mind you, neither Ken nor I are too keen on computed direction givers (I love the The Office episode where Michael drives into the lake), give us a good ol' map any day and we're golden.  Let's just say that after finding a map, we realized that the directions we had were indeed correct and that there's an I-95 and a I-93, one takes you to New Hampshire and the other to Rowley, MA where Grammy Janet lives.  Upon finding the later, we spent a lovely morning catching up with Grammy--we sure love surrogate family!

Rawly still loves feeding horses, well having Dad feed horses and Zoya was quite ecstatic to be so near the big ladies.

From there we traveled north to Albion, Maine (no problem thanks to our handy dandy map).  There we enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere of life at a slower pace and the good company of my Bill and Nancy.  It's hard to believe that they left Eugene over 15 years ago, but I do suppose that I am nearly thirty now, so the math adds up!  Ken and I knew that the trip there would be well worth it, but little did we know the surprise that waited for us there (no, I'm not pregnant as one facebook friend surmised.)  Probably not quite the fanfare she was looking for, I dumbly announced, "What are you doing here?" when my mom popped out of the pantry.  Lucky for us Gigi didn't want to wait an entire month more to see us in Oregon, so she came back to her East Coast roots to see us (and was also able to catch up with some longtime friends).  In summary: good food, good conversation, good people, Maine.  Oh, and who can forget a good tractor ride?

Living up life on the farm with Cousin Bill

As shown, Z was a little cautious of the chilly water, but Rawly traversed and kept asking for more!

Gigi and grandkids splashing in the same pool that she swam in as a little kid (at her aunt and uncle's.)

Up on the rooftop

Tonight we went up for our third annual rooftop movie that Ken likes to plan.  On our way down I saw a hedgehog--my first up close since it cornered itself in the courtyard at school.  Ken and Rawly are sleeping out under the stars--we'll see if they can make it until morning.  By any means, I'm sure it will be an early one since the sun generally comes up around 5:30!  Well, it's almost one, so I'd better get some sleep myself before they get back or Zoya wakes for a feeding.
~Sweet dreams

Who's at the door?

We really love our church here--being away makes us so much more thankful for it.  But what's more is that Rawly really seems to love it too.  Here are some recent moments that I've loved...

Saturday lunch prayer..."Thank you for Gigi, Papa, Mimi, Grandpa, bubble, Jacob, store..."

Sundays a group of gals and I have Glee nights.  Generally it's at the other Alyssa's house or mine since we have the little tikes.  This week it was at our place, Holly was here playing with the kiddos while I was getting dinner ready when the door bell rang...Holly asked Rawly, "Who's here?" and he shouted, "JESUS!"  Really, who better would be coming over?

Thursday morning, after having Dad and Mom for the day (typical of a Saturday), he woke up, came into our room and shouted, "Church today!"  He was a little less than thrilled and a bit perplexed when we explained that it was a work day--the poor guy.

Ken's mainly been putting Rawly to sleep since Zoya was born.  Last night worked out for me to though.  As he was trying to fall asleep he asked, "Mom, Jesus loves me sing?"  which isn't a song that is in our usual repertoire.

Holidays and Such

In most parts of the world May 1st is Labor Day.  As nice as it is in September, I really appreciate it much more in May.  We've made it through winter--wahoo!  What better way to celebrate that basque in the beautiful sun and enjoy the sights and sounds of Spring?  The first of May fell on a Tuesday this year, here in Ukraine, Saturday was an official work day so that they could take Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday off.  Don't really get that.  We (at KIS), however did NOT work on Saturday and therefore went back to work/school. 
For what seems to be the first time since we arrived, I had a bad wave of home sickness.  I'm not sure what really brought it on, it's silly really, I made it through the dead of winter--but I think it might just be that: instead of being trapped inside, I feel trapped in the city.  A friend asked what I missed the most, among the list was friendly strangers.  The very next day, a lady on the metro shocked my socks off!  An older woman kept smiling at Zoya and started to ask me about her.  I did my best to communicate in the minimal phrases that I know.  Realizing that I wasn't Ukrainian, she asked if I was American and proceeded to tell me (in Russian) that she was getting her green card in 2-3 (weeks I think).  Later another babushka sat down next to us with her granddaughter and they too started to ask about Zoya, then the first lady explained what she knew about us--all the while she smiled and laughed.  It's really hard to express how amazing of a feat that is--(former) Soviet strangers hardly smile, let alone laugh--in public, on the metro.
Our original intent was to rent a van and go to this awesome castle city southwest(?) of here--but plans fell through, so we hope to do it at some point.  We tried our best to make up for being indoors all winter, Sunday by walking all over downtown with some friends and Tuesday by going to see the Tulip festival.  (It's so weird to see tulips, lilacs, peonies, and irises all in bloom at the same time.)  Ken is back in school (online) working toward an Ed Specialist degree, so he spent large chunks of time on Saturday and Monday working on his final paper.
The following week we had another holiday (Victory Day), this time falling on a Wednesday.  We went to the other side of the river to visit some of our friends who recently had a sweet baby boy (fittingly on Labor Day:).  They live in a datcha which is a little like a cottage outside the city.  It was so nice to play in the grass (though Rawly did chew on some sidewalk chalk, probably not the nontoxic kind--he seems to be alright.)  Walking home from the metro, I really wished that we could have had a picture--both kids had fallen asleep and we were carrying them the same way--oh how I love these moments when they are still out "little" ones!