A Week Down, a million to go!

So I finished my first week of school. It was a bit of a crazy week. My schedule has changed everyday. But it has been such a good blessing. My relationships with my coworkers/ supervisors has been really great, my students (most of them) have been just wonderful! I am really enjoying work and my classes.

Thats another thing, so different than what I thought. My time table (Praise the Lord) decreased from 37 lessons a week to 26. I am so thankful for that. With the 37, they actually couldn't fit in all the lessons in during the times that they have lessons. They gave a few of them to Truc and just had to cut out a few.

So now I am teaching:

1st-4th English with a Native Speaker ( was conversational English last year) This is speaking, reading,writing on a low level appropriate for the age and level of English. I have 3 groups in each grade once a week.

1st-4th grade Science. This I teach with a Russian teacher. Half the lesson is in Russian and then I pretty much reteach the lesson in English. I have this in 2 groups per grade, each group once a week.

5th grade natives. This is 2 5th graders who speak English fluently as an American 5th grader would. So this class is reading, writing, spelling, vocab, comprehension, anaylsis, etc.

6th grade history! They just added this, so this week will be my first class. I will have one group once a week (thats all they could fit in) for a semester. Then the other group the next semester.

The beautiful thing is, I have some kind of book for all my English classes and History class. Then I have the science book in Russian. That doesn't help me except for translating pictures for the kids.

So now you can see why I didn't have much time to post this week. Because I have to do planning for all those classes, including take home reading and all the questions and everything! Love being a teacher! Actually I really do love it.

And to add to all that, we were supposed to move this week. Since there are only 3 girls we are all living in one apartment. We would like to move into a 3 bedroom apartment now. We had one and she sold it to someone else 2 hours before we were to sign the contract! We already had most our apartment packed in boxes and everything! It was such a huge dissapointment. But hopefullly there will be a better one that the Lord has in store for us. We are told there are 4 or 5 more they have for us to look at. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Well here are a few pics from this week:

Some more babysitting. I just love Angus' pizza covered face!

Here is one with all of them, Jude, Amy, and Angus. I just love this one because it really shows their personalities so well.

Here is story time before bed. A classic Green Eggs and Ham.

Christ the Savior Cathedral on the Moscow riverboat tour

Here is part of the Kremlin. It is part that they actually have Kremlin members working in.

Me and Kathryn on the river boat tour.

Kat, Me and Truc on the river boat tour.

One of the 7 sisters buildings built by Stalin.

Me holding a sweet iguana outside the Moscow Zoo.

Happy Birthday Moscow!

Labor Day for You Work for Me

Happy Labor Day to my American friends! Today was our kids first day back at school. Lets just say it was a crazy place today! But it was so nice to see my kids. And I won't lie, not so nice to see some. I started the day thinking I was going to be working on lesson plans all day. I was told last week that they were not having any lessons today. Well they did of course. So I was found in my office 5 minutes after a lesson was beginning. But everything went fine and it was a good day. I just hope my kids are to the challenge this year! It is going to be a lot harder, per my superiors orders. We actually have textbooks in a few classes! So we'll see...

Here is a pic and a cute little video of the opening ceremony.

Yes, that is big coats you see everyone wearing. That is because it was about 40*, windy and sprinkling!

Last weekend we helped some friends move. We watched their kids for several hours while the movers and them were packing. They are a wonderful British family from church and lead our young adult group. Emily had to do all the moving alone. Daniel works for the BBC and was down in Georgia doing some work. So we had Jude, 6, Amy, 4 and Angus, almost 2!

Here is a pic from Truc's first day here in Moscow. We did some sight seeing. It was so hot and we sweated all day! I want those days back. Or really something in the middle. It went from averaging 90-100* a day to averaging 40-50* a day. This is crazy people!

And one for fun! Praise the Lord, our landlord replaced our shower head from 1942. And that is not an exaggeration. But this one has no way to hang. So thankfully Kathryn brought some cute duct tape and it solved our problem!

Summer pics!

So these are a lot more than I thought and they are kind of in a scattered order. But even still, here are some/ a lot of pictures from my summer. I will try to explain in some.

Mom took some pics of the kids and here are some of my favorites.



I nannied for the sweetest twin babies this summer. This is Krayson taking a little nap on me.

And here is Ember doing the same.
Here is one of my last days with Krayson and Ember. They grew so much in 2 months! I miss those tiny little bodies.
Some more pics of the kiddos.
These are some pics of our little weekend trip Branson, MO. Cliff was in town so he got to come too!

While Cliff was visiting we spent my last week in the States down in the Houston area.

Here we are on our way to the Astros game.

At Cliff's first Astros game.
After the game. They won!

Another Branson pic. Bub with all the Saloon girls from the show.
My beautiful best friend and her wonderful hubby right after our lunch at Willie's

Me and Cliff on our way to NASA.

Hangin' loose at Ashley and Josh's

My favorite Ashley

My oldest and best friends in the world!
My Aunt Christi at my cousin's wedding.
Her precious son Noah was the miniture groom.
The minature bride/ groom, Hannah/ Noah dancing at the reception.
Just arriving in the States and seeing Ashley and Josh's house while it was still being built.

One of my dearest friends from OBU moved to OKC this summer so I got to see a lot of Suzi Q!

My memaw and I at Pappasitos just after flying into Houston in June. The first time I had seen her after her 8 months in the hospital. She looks so good!

One year gone

So one year has passed. Okay well not completely in all ways. It has now been over one year since I became a college graduate. I have been in Russia for about 11 months now and officially survived my first year of teaching and in a few days will have survived my first year in Russia.
I am going home on Saturday and am so happy about it but I thought before I do I will kind of reflect on things from this year.

Things I have learned:
1. Patience really is a virtue. If you can truly have patience in different situations you really are virtuous. My whole life I have been working on this, and will constantly I am sure. But I feel like I have made some huge strides this year in the realm of patience.

2. Communication is the most important factor in relationships. I was thinking about this, whether it is work, friends, family, a significant other, co-workers, whatever, when there is a lack of communication or a mis-communication big problems can occur. I have really tried really hard to fully communicate my needs, concerns, wants, desires, or anything really to everyone in all relationships I have in my life. I think this is a good thing to do.

3. Flexibility. I was once told by a professor in college, Thou shall be flexible lest ye not be bent out of shape. I think it is so true. I have seen this in over flow this year. I have really tried to be flexible. As you know this is key when living in your native country, but living in another is a whole new ball game.

4. Things don't always work out and its okay. Sometimes I think that things have to go a certain way. Some might call this anal. I don't know really. But have learned/ am still learning that when things don't always go according to plan A, its okay because I'm not the one on control anyway. So the quicker I can realized who is in control, the quicker my worries and stress with turn around.

5. Jesus really is my strength. Lets face it, people let you down. They may not mean to, or maybe they do. But people will always let you down in some way or another. You see, they are not perfect, they have flaws, they are all selfish, and they try to do right but it doesn't always happen. So when I depend on Jesus for strength, comfort, love, friendship, etc. I will not be dissapointed and will be completely filled.

6. Plan to be surprised. I actually heard this in a movie the other day and thought it is so true. I need to just plan to be surprised because its going to happen. Yes, I like to make plans, all the time. ( I can be spontaneous too) So the unexpected is going to happen, and sometimes that unexpected will completely change your life. Sometimes that unexpected is the thing you needed most and never realized till you found it. Sometimes the unexpected will completely rock your world in ways you could have never imagined and now you can't imagine you life without it.

7. People change. Yea I have always known this. But it is really beautiful to reflect on people you have known for what seems like an eternity change and grow. Of course this change can be good or bad and will probalby change your relationship. But it is a beautiful thing.

8. I really love chocolate. It is my comfort food. Russian chocolate is better than American chocolate on a good day.

9. I really NEED the sun. I never realized that my body actually needs the sunlight. I had no idea that I get really sick and don't function properly without the sun. And really if I need to live on a beach for the rest of my life then I'm okay with it.

10. Faithfulness. The Lord is so faithful. He is always faithful to fulfill each and every promise He has made and to make sure all my needs are taken care of. Today is a really great example of that!

Well that is all I can think of for now. These are in no particular order or anything.