Day 16. Monday, April 30th 2007. 15 days till court

Hello everyone. Today started out as a slow lazy day. It was only in the upper 40's and has rained all day. Helena from downstairs knocked on our door at 10:00am. Natasha & I were still in bed.
After breakfast Natasha and I did some English. She sat at the table with me with her arms crossed at first. Still protesting English a little bit. Bob found two different programs on the Internet that seems to be good to use. One lets me print out English worksheets & games and is designed for English as a second language. The second one is an interactive program that Natasha can play games on. It's kind of like a computer game, but it's teaching her reading, phonics, math, etc.. at the same time. She seems to be enjoying it so far. She had a bit of help this evening though with Helena translating in Russian. LOL.
Slavik & his wife Oksana had invited us out for a picnic this afternoon. But, it rained, so we went to their apartment downstairs instead. They told us that they were first going to prepare a traditional Ukrainian dish for us, but decided to do tacos instead. It was delicious. Although their tacos are with soft flour tortillas. The ingredients were meat, cheese, tomatoes, corn, kidney beans, yellow peppers, some sort of green leafy vegetable, carrots, parsley, sour cream & pickles. The taco sauce tasted sorta like ketchup, but it wasn't ketchup. It was very, very good though. I am liking the food so far & thinking about changing some of my meals at home around. Or, making some of these Ukrainian recipes.

This is Slavik & Oksana. On the table is the dessert we had. Two kinds of rolled cake, bananas & oranges. I brought the oranges.

Natasha & Helena just chattered the laughed the whole evening. They even did some whispering, which we find so funny, because we can't understand what they are saying anyways. LOL. They said to us, through translation, that they are like Winnie the pooh & Piglet. Friends forever !! That is so sweet. Bob & I are worried that they will truly miss each other when we have to leave. But we have already talked about exchanging e-mail addresses. Natasha was shocked to find out that you can send a letter through the computer. It was cute to watch her face as Slavik explained it to her. Their family just got a kitten about 2 days ago. The girls were mugging the poor thing all evening. It drove me crazy.

The girls then took the camera and went & took pictures & pictures & pictures. Oh my word. Everything from the bedrooms, to themselves, to the house plants.

Sabrina. Natasha has enough pictures that she would probably love to have in a scrapbook. I can totally see you two doing that together.

So, Helena asked Natasha to spend the night & Natasha accepted. Actually I think it went sort of like this. Helena wanted to ask Natasha to spend the night. Her dad said to her. "Have you asked her yet." Helena said "No." Natasha chimed in and said "Well ask me then." When Slavik translated for us we all laughed. It was too funny. So Natasha is having her first sleepover and we aren't even home yet. LOL. Bob & I aren't sure weather to be happy or sad about this. LOL.

Hey Michelle. We figure it will probably be somewhere between May 19th - 21st. We will let everyone know as soon as we know. Still have to go back to Kiev & Natasha has to have an exam by a doctor. Also, we have to go to the US embassy for her Visa. We missed being at group also. Ask Steve if he thinks Shane accomplished anything on page 308? Hey "monkey". Do you miss me ??? LOL. I will Tell Natasha you said "hi".

Jerry & Katie. It's about time we heard from you. Very funny about the sedation. Ha ha.

Dad Ray. I'm your only DIL (daughter-in-law). Of course I would be the favorite. Hear that all my girls. I am a favorite also !!! Can you believe that we forgot the ice cream when we went to the grocery store, and Natasha was with us & she forgot also. We are going tomorrow again. I have it on the grocery list now. Love ya !!

Shauna. You could come over and take some English classes with Natasha and myself before you try to teach it to others. LOL. Don't tell grandpa Ray I told you, but he had to look up "chistoso" in his Spanish dictionary. LOL. Love you & miss you.

Uncle Bob. Your still alive. Thought you forgot us. No I hadn't eaten the cake yet. Thank goodness huh, I might have broke the swing. Just 1 piece so far. But I bet you have eaten more ice cream cakes than I have pieces of cake. (you said "that will do !! Your running out of time!) (I don't get it. explain).

Well, off to bed for me. I have a Circus to go to tomorrow & our driver is picking us up at 2:00pm. LOL. I love that. I'm getting me a "driver" when I get home. !!!

Love to all,

God Bless,

Gail