Because of Love

Bob and I are hosting a 15 year old boy from an orphanage in the Ukraine. His name is Volodymyr, but prefers to be called Vova. He is very kind hearted and helps whenever he can without being asked. But then there is the "all boy" that comes out from time to time - he loves any kind of sport that involves a ball! He was a favorite at camp meeting when they teamed up for soccer. Vova arrived with only sandles and was trying to play soccer wearing sandles. I decided that we would head over to a department store a few miles away and buy him a pair of sneakers. We came back to camp meeting with a pair of soccer shoes and soccer socks. I didn't know there were special shoes to play soccer. Vova educated me in the different shoes needed to participate in different sports.

He loves to play games and will not only laugh at your mistakes or goof-up's, he'll laugh at his own. Bob "Papa" is doing a good job keeping up with Vova. I didn't know Bob had all those sport skills in him. I thought he only knew how to garden. Bob got out his 50 year old baseball gloves and ball and the two of them have been having a great time playing catch.

Vova also likes Bob's old bicycle he found in the barn. He rides it all over the property. Vova has helped catch several chickens that were trying to run away from home. He has so much energy. I wish he'd share some with me!

Tonight he and "Papa" put together a model car. A red corvette. He loves sports cars and whenever he sees one he points and makes sure he gets our attention to show it to us. And, if it's parked, he wants a picture of it with him in the picture if possible.

He'll eat almost anything. He especially likes fresh fruit, strawberry jam, biscuits, blini, and homemade vegetable soup. He loves to give us hugs in the morning and say, "Good morning".
He's learning English quickly and it's a good thing because I've only mastered two words in Russian - "no (nyet) and yes (da)". Those are my own spellings which probably aren't correct, but you get the idea.

Vova has stolen our heart.

I Love New York Summers

Sabbath afternoon Bob and I went down to Ryan and Lisa's house to visit for awhile. We decided it was a good day to go to the lake and also have a picnic. Lisa's sister, Karoline and her husband and children joined us and Shannon, Jeff and Madeline too! It was a perfect day and I was reminded of why I love New York summers! The kids took their scooters and Matt took his bicycle which were transported in Jeff's SUV. Kids and adults piled into vehicles and the caravan began.

The kid gang on the pier; Gracie, Hudson, Hannah, Matt, Little Ryan, Madeline, and Julia.

Gracie, Hudson, Joe, Ryan, and Jeff. The kids would ride their scooters so fast on the pier, I was afraid they were going to go off into the water. But, all was safe!

Shannon and Madeline

Picnic time!

The kids were going wild on their scooters while we were getting the food ready. And, amazingly, there was only one small accident. Madeline was going too fast as she approached the corner and went flying over the handle-bars of the scooter. She received a bloody nose, scraped shoulder and hip. All the "moms" went running to help - the "dads" just stood there watching. Joe's wife, Karoline asked him if he wasn't going to go and see if he could help and Joe's response, "I'm a trauma nurse, not a drama nurse!" We all got a good laugh. Within a few minutes Madeline had forgotten all about her tumble and was back on the scooter racing.

I have a cute video of Gracie on her scooter, but I'm having trouble uploading it.

Natalie and Baby Update

Natalie just took a shower and she and Adam are walking the halls hoping to speed up the contractions. The doctor estimates a delivery time of 1:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. It's going to be a long night.

Natalie's in the Hospital

Natalie is officially in labor and has been admitted at the hospital. Both Natalie and Adam seem to be doing quite well so far.

It's been one week . . .

It's been one week since Punkin was hit by a car. The veterinarian didn't expect Punkin to make it through the night but she did. Her leg was amputated on Monday and we brought her home on Tuesday. She is so sweet. When I got home from work on Wednesday, Punkin was resting on her bed in the back mud room. I went upstairs to change my clothes before taking Punkin outside for awhile. When I went in the back room where Punkin was, she saw that I had my sweats on and I was putting on my tennis shoes. She got up from her bed, started whining, wiggling her body, and headed for the door. She wanted to go for a walk with me. She could hardly control herself she was so excited! She wanted to go for a walk with me. (Before Punkin's accident, Punkin and I would walk 3 1/5 to 5 miles every evening and she loved it!) I told Punkin she couldn't go for a walk with me yet, she needed to get better first. I did take her outside and walk around in the yard for a little while.

At two o'clock in the morning, Bob heard Punkin barking and got up to check on her. When he got to the back room, Punkin was standing by the door wanting to go out. So Bob grabbed his coat and put his shoes on and out they went. Punkin went out on the porch and gave three loud barks and then made a bee-line for the barn. Bob followed her and Punkin was insistent that she go in the barn. So Bob opened the door and Punkin went in and checked everything out. When she finished, she went to the barn basement door and started whining wanting in so Bob opened the door and went in with her and she checked out the basement of the barn and then was satisfied that everything was in order and went back to the house and back to bed.

Checotah and Lola are being very good to Punkin and they don't bother her much at all. Checotah came over to her today and Punkin licked Checotah's ears. All three of our dogs are the sweetest animals. Bob and I worked outside today in the yard. The weather was perfect - 80 degrees. The dogs enjoyed having us out there with them. Checotah and Lola saw something over in the wooded area and took off running and to my surprise Punkin went running with them. She is doing really well. We take her back to the veterinarian in another week to have the staples removed.

We didn't finish cleaning out all of our flower beds, but we got two of them done. Tina, we planted the perennials you sent home with me in this flower bed. I'm anxious to see how they grow here. Punkin was outside all day today.

We have got to find a more attractive way of watering our dogs.

Here you can see Punkin only has three legs.

Punkin is running in this picture. She is really getting around well.

Here's the second flower bed we worked on. We ran out of mulch before we finished with this bed. The buckets on the porch is what we collect the sap for making maple syrup. The season for collecting sap was very short this year and we'll only get about nine gallons of syrup.

Old Sturbridge Village

It's been one week since I met Tina and Diane to spend the day touring Old Sturbridge Village. We had a wonderful time and learned a lot. The time went by much too quickly. We ended our day with dinner at the Publick Restaurant. Before being seated for dinner we took over the lobby and enjoyed visiting and exchanging gifts. Tina and Diane both made handmade gifts for me which I'll post about in another blog - soon. I would love to take my grandchildren to the village. I think they would love it!

Natalie's Baby Shower

Natalie received beautiful gifts for the baby. Julie and Sarah had a unique way of packaging/wrapping the gift in three baskets just the color of the baby's room. The bottom basket was filled with a clothes-line with adorable baby clothes clothes-pinned to the line. Cute sayings - "If you think I'm cute you should see my uncle David" "I love my aunt Sarah".

He even got a leather Harley jacket and cap! Soooo cute!!

The shower was a "Candy Land" theme. This is the entrance.

Balloons and suckers welcomed the guests as they walked down the path.

The tables were decorated so cute. I cut off the balloons so you'll have to imagine them in this picture. The little white take-out boxes are empty so each guest can fill them with candy from a table filled with sweets! There is a new toothbrush tucked on the side of each box.

Here's the table with all the goodies we could choose from to put in our box.

Fruit juice and water station.

Those that had a sticker on the bottom of their plate received one of these gifts that was wrapped like a piece of candy.

My five beautiful daughters. Francie, Natalie, Rachael, Lori, Shannon

I forgot to take a picture of the buffet table. It was beautiful and the food delicious! The shower was so much fun and worth every mile I drove to attend.