Christmas

Ah, one of my favorite times of the year.  Christmas has always been one of my favorite holidays and I know it's not the presents because I've had a few when presents were scarce and it's still been wonderful. :)  I love all the decorations and the music.  Though, for the record, I also love Thanksgiving so I don't do Christmas music until the day after Thanksgiving.  Just FYI.

This year the schedule was a bit out of the ordinary, but still very nice.  It was fun to watch Ira's first one.  In case you didn't know, Christmas in Ukraine is quite different.  First, it's celebrated January 7th instead. Also, since it's a religious holiday it was not as encouraged, under communist leadership, as New Year's.  Correct me if I'm wrong, any of my Ukrainian friends.  Anyway, suffice it to say that this was a whole new experience for Ira.

For me, it was quite different having to shop for two girls instead of just one.  I'm one that likes to get similar types of things (or rather, the number of things is the same) but not THE same thing.  I know it can cause problems when one child likes the other's present better, though that didn't seem to be a problem.  It sure does make shopping harder though.  It's much easier to just get the same thing and call it good.  However, it doesn't require you to actually KNOW the child.  To me, if you're going to get me something, having thought behind it is much more important than WHAT it is.  So, I try and do that with those I buy stuff for.  Especially my girls. :)

Ira with her stocking stuff.

Little One with her stocking stuff.

She'd gotten some fun sticky nails.  They didn't last long because she kept pulling them off, but she had fun for awhile.

My Aunt Susan was very kind and sent the girls something.  Ira got these pretty pearls.

And Little One got this cute watch. :)

A scripture bag

A ballet jewelry hanger. 

She wanted a picture with a bunch of the stuff.

My things. :)

The girls had gotten gift certificates in their stockings for a hair feather.  We went a couple days later to get them.

Little One, of course, picked the pink one.

Ira actually did too, but had to be different by putting it on the OTHER side. ;)

For me, it was the White Christmas we'd had with the baptism a couple weeks before as well as all the traditions that made it special.  I enjoyed reading things like A Christmas Carol to the girls.  I'd had them watch A Muppet Christmas Carol first, for Ira's benefit mostly since Little One has had this a few years now.  When English isn't your first language, Charles Dickens isn't exactly the thing to jump into without knowing the story first. ;)  I also love the extra talk about the birth of Jesus as well as introducing Ira to the concept of the people in the America's knowing about that event as well.

Being Christlike is something we should do all year, but not the decorations and traditions.  It's sad that it's over for yet another year, but then again...what would make it special if it were commonplace?

Baptism Day!

As you can tell, I'm trying to catch up on a few things.  Next on the list is Ira's baptism day.  It was on a Tuesday evening so a little out of the ordinary.  She was so excited/nervous all day long.  She looked so happy but I could tell she was scared too.

Everyone had been SO excited for her.  The girls in YW's were ecstatic and kept telling her how they'd all be there.  As Mom and I were figuring out what to do for treats I got a call from one of the YW leaders asking if they could all do the food.  It was very sweet of them and very much appreciated. :)

The program itself was amazing.  The spirit was very strong.  Ira had asked her YW president that had just gotten released to give the baptism talk, which she did great on.  Ira's cute friend, Tori, gave the talk on the Holy Ghost.  Her other cute friend, Anna, played her violin while Ira got changed.  It was just a wonderful program all the way around.  The missionaries got to witness, which was nice.  She was just glowing and so happy.  Little One even whispered to me after, "Since she got baptized, she's been nicer!"

Ira with Baby Ben (our dear friend's baby)

Dad and Ira

Elder B, Dad, Ira, Elder Co and Elder Ca

A white Christmas after all! :)

Us with the missionaries

A nice one first...

...before the silly one.  Yes, they still are 19-20 year old boys. :)

We had the best missionaries out there, I swear.  They were amazing!  Elder B was there all the way through.  He was just what a missionary should be.  You could tell he loves the gospel and love teaching people about it.  Elder Co got transfered just a couple weeks before the baptism but was really good too.  Elder Ca had been out of the MTC a whole 2 days when he first came over.  Nice to start the mission out with a baptism though!  Elder Cam was very fun and his companion, Elder Bl I didn't get to know too well, but seemed great too. :)  They were just awesome and I loved them!

What was really fun though, was watching Ira change.  She went from wanting to get baptized because all her Ukrainian friends were doing it to having it be something she wanted to do for herself.  Part of why I wanted her to wait so long before she talked to the missionaries was because I didn't feel she was ready and it wouldn't be for the right reason.  I could tell she was ready to learn more though, and as she did, it turned into the right reason.

Visiting with everyone after was great too.  Thanks so much for all who came!  We had 90 chairs set up and had to bring in a bunch more!  The support from our ward was amazing!  We had a journal set out as almost a guest book but I wish I'd gotten a picture of all who were there.  Especially my cute SAC friends that made the trip!  I really wish I'd snapped one of us all.  Drat.  I wanted to get Ira with all the YW that were there too and that didn't happen either.  Vern and Nanette (the founders of SAC) came up to the house after the baptism was over and visited for awhile.  That was very nice. :)

It was just a wonderful and amazing day!  Thanks so much again, to all who came to support her!

Missionary Lesson

We had a cool missionary lesson one day.  It was time to teach Ira about the Plan of Salvation so they did it with sidewalk chalk on our driveway. :)  Way cool.  One of the missionaries was our regular one and the other was on splits with him.  The one that was on splits ended up being the one to interview her when the time came.  Anyway, we had a very fun lesson on the driveway.  I don't think I'll ever look at the plan of salvation the same again. :)

I loved Elder C's "spirit person."  Especially the PacMan ghosts he also drew. :)

See lovely PacMan guys. :)

Little One was drawing stars.

This was in the middle of everything...of course.

The Elders by their creation!

A Little Backtracking

Here are a couple pictures I found on my camera.  I never did talk about Halloween, though there really wasn't much to talk about.  It was nice that it was pretty warm.  Not like my Halloween spent in Charlotte, NC, but not bad for here.  Little One was a bride.  She had a cute flower arrangement but not for the picture.  Ira just wore some Halloween stuff and went walking around with us.  Some people made her take candy anyway though. LOL  It was fun walking around with Terry and Patrice and the kids.  Very fun.

Justin was the white ghost and Nathan the red. :)

Then, the girls were having fun playing with things in the basement and ran across my brother's steering wheel.  They had a blast making a car to drive.  Balls were the peddles and they even used belts for seat belts.  Little One even took two and made a shoulder belt. LOL

Merry Christmas/9 Month Anniversary!

Wow.  Has it really been only 9 months since we flew back?  Holy cow!  In other ways though, I can't believe it's ONLY been 9 months. :)  And, since it's after midnight now I suppose this post will have the 26th as the date instead of the 25th.  Ah well.

These last three months I've noticed even more huge strides with Ira.  She has come SO far in these months.  She is usually kinder to Little One.  I see real bonding going on between them and not just a toleration on both parts.  Getting baptized was another huge step for her.  It's been so fun to see her transition and watch her budding testimony.  That is a post in and of itself though.

As I commemorate our latest 3-month achievement, I thought I would share some of my favorite "Ira" sayings.  Enjoy!

• This no very nice to me.
• No Mama.  This no very happy.
• She scary me. (She's scared of me.)  This also works with "I'm scary" meaning she's scared. :)
• Me: Little One?  Ira: This is Big One
• 2 nuh 2 (2x2...she's got the English names for the numbers but was adding the Russian for multiply.)  We told her that no, tuna was a fish, not a math problem.
• Please I you me? (She's got a thing with pronouns.)
• Also popular is "Can I please you for me?"
• If you no like, you say me. (If you don't like it, tell me)
• Where is my one more this?
• Allova (This is used to mean lots of something)
• Wantsta (As in "I wantsta            )
• Better I dead (If she doesn't like something like having to wear her glasses or some such horrible thing.  I haven't heard this one for a while though.)
• Can I please erase my nails? (Take nail polish off)
• And my favorite right now, "I know this, Mama."  Or Grandma.  Like with math.  She'll tell Mom, "I know this, Grandma.  Maybe." LOL  Or if I'm heaping her read something.  "I know this, Mama." :)

Fun Adventures

I've had a couple of little incidents that I've been wanting to mention.  Most of these have been awhile now, but I wanted to remember them, nonetheless.

• Ira had the option of raising her PE grade slightly last term by running 2 miles instead of the 1 they usually had to.  She needed to be at school before it started and be all done before music class.  She made the mistake of telling me this was an option.  Her grade was down (though still a B) because of a written test that she didn't do great on.  It was a hard test and I was in no way upset with the score she got on it because we'd studied and she tried.  However, if there is a chance to do some extra credit then we do it.  Therefore I insisted she run the two miles.  She cried and cried and told me she wasn't going to do it and she was fine with the B all that fun jazz.  I'm trying to teach her that we do our very best.  On the test, that meant a bad score, but in the over all class when there was a way to improve the grade, she needed to do it.  When it came time to actually arrive at school though, she did just fine and no complaining.
• Next comes shopping for a choir outfit.  She needed a black skirt and a white blouse.  Here comes my incredibly picky teenager.  Mom and Ira and I went shopping all over town looking for a skirt/shirt that would be okay with her as well as me.  We went to no less than 11 different stores.  11.  I think that counts as trying to be accommodating, don't you?  We finally went back to Walmart where we'd found an adorable skirt.  She'd tried it on and cried because it was SO ugly.  It has a slight flare and isn't skin tight, for heaven's sake.  She hated the blouse too.  I told her it was for 2 concerts and she would live.  She'd found another skirt that she liked that was knit but straight. The waistband was super high though and the blouse wouldn't work for it.  Then the little stinker wears the thing to church because (get this) it really isn't as bad as she'd thought. *rolls eyes*
• Speaking of skirts we've also had issues with a slip.  Mom made her a super cute skirt that Ira picked the fabric out for.  It has a white background though so it really needed a slip under it to be most modest.  I got her one but you'd have thought I'd asked her to jump off a cliff or something.  She cried and sobbed and said she wasn't going to wear it.  It goes UNDER the skirt.  It's not like anyone can see it!  She was in the laundry room complaining to Mom about it (she wasn't getting any sympathy) when I came in.  She made the mistake of yelling, "YOU put it on!" at me.  I just said, "Okay." and proceeded to put it on her.  Now, lest you think I was not being appropriate, I only got it around her legs.  It was quite funny though.  I'm standing there holding her leg and trying to get the slip on the other leg when she's kicking at it.  Quite entertaining, actually.  Mom and I left her in there to put it on and we heard her yelling, "Yuck!  Yuck!  Yuck!"  Then she walks out like nothing has happened and hasn't had a problem wearing it since.  Go figure.
• Kontakte.  We have a love/hate relationship.  For those of you that don't know, it's a Russian version of Facebook but it also had videos/movies/TV shows, etc...  I love that she can keep in touch with her Ukrainian friends, but I hate the site.  It's filled with filth and she isn't mature enough to handle it.  I've really struggled with what to do.  I wouldn't give an American 13 year old free reign with YouTube, and Kontakte has a lot worse stuff.  I tried saying she can get on there but NO videos.  Then I catch her watching videos.  More than once.  Nothing bad, mind you, but she still is watching when she was told no videos at all.  I also know there is a lot of porn on it.  I finally came up with a plan that was a fair as I could possibly make it.  She kept saying that if I deleted her account then she wouldn't be able to contact any of her friends when they were all grown up.  What I did was change her password on it.  I am the only person that knows it and I will give it to her when she moves out.  In the meantime, she can get on there (with me sitting with her) and post a message telling her friends to get a Facebook account (which I can monitor much better.)  I have very strict rules about her and Facebook.  After that, she is done with Kontakte until she is all grown up.  The ones that want to keep in touch with her will make the change.  She really took the news quite well.  I've been impressed.  There were only minimal tears and I haven't heard her complain about it once.  It's been weeks now.
• And last, something on the more humorous side.  I'd finally had enough of hearing, "You love Little One more!" and all versions of said jealously.  One day when she was complaining about it I told her I could show her what it would be like to have me love Little One more.  She would always get ______.  Ira never would.  I told her more than once that I really didn't love Little One more, but if I did, this is what would happen and the kinds of things that would be going on.    After I'd named a few different things that she would never get, she finally said that she didn't really think Little One was loved more.  I haven't heard a word about there being a favorite child since. :)

Next, I've been keeping track of fun saying Ira says.  It really is very much like having a small child when they are learning a new language.  I'll get that up this week sometime.

So Much to Catch Up On, But First...

Ira is looking at a date of December 13th to be baptized.  It's a Tuesday and would be in the evening.  Two weeks from today, actually.  There are a couple of other days that are being considered, but that is the one that is being leaned toward the most.  I'll put up an invitation once it's set in stone. :)