Coming Home And Day 1

I was so excited to see my parents but when I came.out, I did not see them and good thing we talked about it before - what to do if I do not see them. Just sit down and wait which I did. I even logged into wi fi and sent a couple of messages.
My parents ran into and here we went. Right there we started laughing and teasing each other. I felt like fish in the water. Love being with them. It never ends.

We stopped at my grandma's and ate borcsh that she made for me and some pirozhki with jam. Love her so much! Always ready to give everything to everyone.

My Dad went outside and picked a few mushrooms and made the best supper he could make for me - fried mushrooms and potatoes. Yum!!! When I sent a picture of mushrooms to Brandon, he asked me if they were edible :)

Those are the guys

Daddy making special supper just for me.

We came home and relaxed. We talked to the kids on Skype and they both were so sleepy :) So cool that now I can talk to them through Skype and text, did not depend on anyone. Miss them badly.

We went to bed when I thought I would pass out from sleeping only 8,5 hours or so in the last few days.
When we got up this morning and had yummy breakfast (tvorog) and headed to the market to buy some stuff for me.

We had a chance to talk to the kids again and Brandon just kept asking if he could call me when he got home from school. (Of course!!!)  We were at home for the a little bit and then went for haircuts for me and my Mom. I am happy with it :)

Now sitting and relaxing again watching Fizruk again, hope to finish the first season by the time I leave. We drank some wine, ate pelmeni (yum) and drank pumpkin juice. Another yum!

I AM GOING HOME! Like... HOME

I am coming home,
I am coming home,
Tell the world
I am coming home.
Let the rain
Wash away
All the pain of yesterday,
And my kingdoms await
And they've forgiven my mistakes
I am coming home,
I am coming home,
Tell the world,
I am coming....

I got the tickets so long time ago that I did not count days first. When it got to a month, the count down started. It got real about a couple days before the date. I had so much to do before I leave to make sure kids are all set - who picks them up, who drops them off, etc. Busy calendar at school at the beginning of school year.

I packed a night before and slept for about 7 hours in two days. I made something for the kids to give them before I leave. I painted it in a color they like (orange for Brandon and yellow for Kyra) and wrote YOU and MINE. It meant that they rock and that they are my rocks. I asked them to keep them safe for me while I am gone.

Next - to talk about paying it forward. I helped this older gentelman on the way to the train and get him situated in the train with his luggage. When I left him, he said he hoped I would meet nice people if I needed on my trip. I kind of laughed it off, saing I would be fine. Little did I know.

When I got to Penn Station, I saw that they changed things around from last time and I could not figure out which train to take to Jamaica station. There was a woman who talked to me and said I could sit next to her on the train and she would help me out. We ended up talking about life in a city and stuff. She did helped me instead of me trying to figure out on my own. I would eventually, but it was nice just being helped.

I loved NYC part. I decided not to go out to the actual city. It will be different time. I just sat ng my sandwich and eating my eclair and watched people. I love doing it. You will see all kinds of people going about their lives.

I saw funny names like Little Neck and Great Neck as train station names. Seriously? It made me laugh!

When I got to JFK, they had to get me through their special detector because I beeped the first time. not sure what I had with me that beeped but I had to stand with my legs spread and arms behind my back. That was WEIRD.

I realized I had the lightest suitcase ever - it was 40 lbs total. What the heck? I did not have to work hard for my luggage

I was so happy that I got there in plenty of times and I just wanted to browse in all the shops. So, JFK has, I think 8 terminals? And the one I was in, Terminal 4 had 55 gates, holy cow, it was big big terminal! Very impressive!

So I stood at one of the stores looking at stuff and felt so weak all of a sudden. I sat down trying to fight it but after half hour I felt I was going numb. I got so scared. I came up to a lady and asked to call for help because I was ready to faint. They had Delta medical personal came and check me out. I thought I might just needed sugar kick in. They brought me a bottle of orange juice and this lady I asked helped and two medical ladies stayed with me and one rubbed my back and said I needed to breath. They said it must have been a combination of stress, non sleep, and excitement. All together. It went away fast after the juice but boy, was I scared to miss my flight.

I was worried it would take forever (10 hours) but it went very fast. They had sooooooo many movies for us to watch and I had so many I wanted to watch! Do you remember you mentioned Breakfast Club recently? They had it but I watched 3 other movies. I watched Rush, Bridesmaids and The Other Woman. Exactly what I needed.

Numbers were mind blowing to understand - 35.000 ft high, (10.600 km) was -71F (-52C) with speed 527 mph (848k/h). How crazy is that? Total time distance - 4679 miles from JFK to Moscow.

After 7 hours it was HARD to sit, I had to laugh because my butt hurt regardless on how I sat :)))))

It finally hit me when I realized I had only 12 minutes till landing. Wow, it was finally happening!

Real Watch For My Girl

Kyra and I went to buy a present for her Victoria's birthday and we stopped to look at the watches. Kyra begged me to buy her hand watch and I told her only after she learns how to tell time but she surprised me telling I taught her when she was in kindergarten. She definitely can tell the time so I said she could use her own birthday money to buy it. So cool she can tell the time! :)

Hawk Mountain Hiking - 2 North Lookout

Yes, North Lookout

Massive owl sitting on the pole. How come? It is middle of the day!!!

Absolutely amazing view!

Me with my paid for the trail stickers :)

Another view!

This is so beautiful!

Another view.

It is... the bathroom. No joke. They had Men and Women rooms. Very clean. We could not believe our eyes. Never else did we see full functioned bathroom.

We stopped by at South Lookout before we went back. Love this picture of Kyra.

My handsome dude. When else but not at North Lookout eat gummy bears?

We stopped at Cabelas for a little bit on the way home and here the car that we saw on the highway. I would love to own this car :)

Overall great trip, lots of walking, bonding and hiking. Beautiful views, tons of memories. Definitely will be back next year for a different hike!

Hawk Mountain Hiking - 1

Kyra and I were very excited to hike there. Brandon was kind of pouty, he just wanted to stay home and play video games. I do not blame him since he likes it so much but come on! We needed one more trip out before school starts! Here is the map. We did Lookout trail. After doing it, we could not believe that we did 2 miles total, it seemed like much more. 

First Kyra was afraid to come up to the rocks but it did not take her long to get used to them. In no time she was on the one she liked the most. 

When we first came out to the South Lookout, the view literally took my breath away. It was absolutely breathtaking!

This is the view with River of Rocks on the bottom of the alley.

Brandon ended up having fun after all :) We went the whole way to the North Lookout.

With my buddy, what a view!

She was not ready to be photographed but the picture still pretty :)

Kyra's photo. Just relaxing :)

Hi there!

Love, love this picture that Brandon took.

 

There were several outlooks and the view looked somewhat same but different as well from each distance.

With my snuggly girl at Bold Outlook

What a picture of this beautiful girl!

Brandon Bear wanted to have his pic taken

 Most of this trail was like that. It was not easy but I understand that it was the easiest trail.

 Finally just to arrilve to North Outlook. Stairs made out of rocks.

 Look at them, we made it!

First Day of School

Exciting! 2nd and 4th graders. HOW did it happen????
They both picked their outfit way before that day and they were ready on the dot for the new routine. What beautiful children we have! :)

 I want them to be that small that I can hug and keep them forever!

If it was up to Kyra, they would have hugged but Brandon had an older brother opinion so that was a close as he was comfortable standing to his sister.

 A before school lucky caterpillar :)

Ice Bucket Challenge

So those videos have been going viral for some time now. People were dumping a bucket full of ice to raise awareness of ALS. Tucker challenged Brandon and Emma challenged Kyra. We talked about what that meant and why (to let people know about this disease and to make awareness in a funny way).

Both kids were so excited to do that! I dumped water on Brandon while Kyra filmed. It was so cold, Brandon just kept saying "Oh, my gosh"!

Brandon dumped water on Kyra and it was so funny how he walked, waddled like a duck with a heavy bucket of water. Kyra took a hug breath, blew her cheeks and took it only to have put a bucket on her head after Brandon dumped all the water on her. So funny!
I am glad they did it and were part of it!

Hershey Museum With My Boy

We had free tickets to Hershey Museum from going to learn CPR with cub scounts. Kyra asked to stay home with Nan but Brandon and I wanted to go. I am glad we did! 

 Interractive play

 1969 - 1973 Hershey Department store where now Houlihan's is.

 Tea set that Mr. Hershey used at High Point. So cool! To me looks like the set from Beaty and the Beast.

 Painting Reese's Peanut Butter Cups 1960-1979.

 Mr. Hershey's passport

Liked timeline from 1800s until now. Was a good history lessons to talk about. 

 Apparently, very famous advertisement "Three friends" in 1900-1902.

 Looked like Brandon was a part of this picture with Mr. Hershey :)

What we forgot to check out was to check if they had the ticket for Titanic that Mr. Hershey and his wife had but she got sick and they ended up not going. What a relief because, obvilously, there would not be Hershey town without them.

Loved our bonding time with Brandon. It was nice to give attention just to him.

Meet And Greet in Conewago

Kids were excited to come and see their teachers and meet all their friends! Funny thing, when Brandon was getting out of the car, we saw Corey coming in. Brandon was wearing neon orage color and Corey was wearing neon yellow. And the boys' desks are next to each other. They were waaaaaay too bright for our eyes :) Brandon was laughing because Mr. Stevens put his name as Brandon Bill.

Kyra has Mrs. Langan and Kyra loved the room with buzzy new comfy chairs. We found out that Kyra will have another teacher later in the year when Mrs. Langan will have another baby boy.
Love this outfit that Kyra picked!

 What a pretty, full of life face!

Kyra's classmates for this year will be: Aubrianna, Matthew Foerster, Brady Hofsass, Victoria Irwin, Winter, Lauren King, Madison Kissinger, Dylan Lutrell, Brayden, Emma Stephens, Kellen Taggart, Isaac, Carter Burton, Deiondre.

Technology Rocks

When Brandon sleeps at Nan and Pop he always calls me on Skype to say Good night. I LOVE it! :)

Russian

I am so glad kids are getting to like watching Russian movies again. We watched Chippolinno and Luntik two days in the row. I certainly need to help but they seem to enjoy it.

Brandon is doing better with recognizing Russian letters and here and there he can read the messages that Baba sends him every day. So cool to see them communicate!

What Is He Wearing??

I thought I was strange throwing a ball with Brandon in my flip flops until he came out to do that in his slippers. Yip. Dead serious! :)

Gymnastics Decisions

We stopped by yesterday to pay for Kyra's Monday class Level 3 as Kyra was recommended. When we were paying, Ms. Lynn started talking to us with Ms. Jenn and Ms. Missy stepping in. They had almost all the classes filled but they still fit Kyra in because they know here.

Ms. Lynn recommended Kyra for pre-team based on the her skills and the fact that other coaches know what she can do. Kyra will be taking two classes a week, 1,5 hours each, Monday and Friday. 

We did talk to her about her commitment knowing how much money her classes would cost. ($164/month for right now). It is a lot of money. She understands that it is not a promise of a team as the next level and if it gets to it, that Mom and Dad would still need to talk about it. She get the idea of being rushed with going to gymnastics, eating, showing and doing homework quick on those day. Not really on Fridays but still. Her eyes sparkled when I told her she is signed up. So proud of her! 

Life Lessons

I know, I know those are all teen topics but I do believe it is important to start earlier. Even if they forget at some point, they will remember when it will come up.
Safe driving (with examples on the road), DUI and consequences, what drugs are and why they are bad for you, smoking, adoption, work ethic.

Any time it cane be a life lesson, it is. It has to be. I hope whenever the decision will have to be made, they will chose the right one because they know better.

More Of Kyra's Bloopers and Adult Thoughts

Bloopers:
- Mommy, how long did it take for you to know that you had to take puberty test? (instead of pregnancy test)

- I am so happy that I can eat a hot dog!

Kyra was putting her stuffed animals away and while doing it she exclaimed:
- Oh toys, toys of joy!

Kyra hugging me tightly:
- Mommy, you are my stuffed animal!

- Mommy, is it easier to stretch your foot this way (pointing toes) or this way (pointing to herself)?
- Well, depends. You use different muscles. For this one, you use front shin muscles and for this one you use your calf muscles.
- Mommy, I am not a cow! :)

Random. Completely random:
- I wonder what it feels like being a dog.

- No, I do not want to go take a shower. I would rather eat broccoli than take one!

- Kyra, go lay down to bed.
She climbs to bed but not to lay down but with energy of 8-year old starts jumping on the bed. I told her to settle down:
- But Mommy, it was not my idea to jump. It was Gabby's! (Her giraffe) :)

Thoughts:
- Mommy, I think the most difficult question you could ever hear is "Which out of your children do you like the most?"
Yes and no. It would be easy to say that I love you both the same. Very much!

- What was the biggest pain you have ever experienced? When you had us? Did you take medicine for it? (I explained the point of epidural with a button). But it hurts. I do not want to have kids. How would they come out through such a small hole??

My Favorite Gymnast