Halloween 2010

Jon, the team mascot, The Kozak. Me, ahhh... the pregnant cheerleader. Goooo Kozaks!! :o)

A month worth of catch-up

Movie night on the roof of the school. Everyone brought something warm to share: soup, hot chocolate, tea, etc. It was a great time!

ICA, the little church we go to.

Adam and Kris Runyan and their newest addition, Nyellie.

This is the "baby hospital", ISIDA. Alyssa and Ken Chapman pose with their, now almost-1-yr-old, in front of the hospital where they had Rawly.

Some pictures from Jon's trip to Sofia, Bulgaria

Our night out at "Swan Lake" the ballet. Jon and I in front of the Opera House.

The inside was beautiful!

Friday, October 8th

Well, so much for the weekly posts. I know that you are thinking the same thing! Now that it has been more than a month since our last post, I thought I better get to updating! A lot has been happening since September! Jon had his first Athletic Director Conference in Sofia, Bulgaria. It was a success! He had a great time and met a lot of great administrators from around Europe and Eastern Europe. He came back with a better grasp of his job here and some ideas of where he wants to move to next!

One of the past weekends we went to the “Savka House” which is about 45 minutes north of Kiev (towards Chernobyl) located in a small village “off the beaten path”. The House was a great cultural experience. A family owns the land and buildings and have restored them or brought them in to display the life before Soviet times. The Papa and son taught us how they grind their flour, make their own boots, wash their clothes, heat things, distill their own alcohol, etc. While the Mama and grandma made us dinner… and more dinner. There was a big group of about 30 teachers and admin that went and we had a great time sharing the day with each other.

The weather has changed! Fall is gone it seems and winter, or pretty close, is here! It will be a little more bearable when the city turns on the heat!! We just got a little heat pumping through the school today. So that means it should be to the rest of the apartment buildings by the end of next week, at the latest, let’s hope. It has been in the mid-30’s – 40’s most all week. It seems extremely cold compared to our tropical paradise that we left, but we are making-do with layers and layers. The sun is out today, which we are finding is a rare treat!

We went to “Swan Lake,” the ballet, last weekend. It was very nice. Jon and I had great seats on the first balcony right in the middle. I think we paid $8.00 each. It was a great price, but I don’t know if I can drag Jon to too many more ballets. There was a time towards the end when I turned to him and asked if he was enjoying it. He replied with a cringe, “I haven’t been able to get past the butt cracks and tights yet.” So, maybe I’ll get him to go to The Nutcracker with me closer to the holidays, but more than that, I may be pushing my luck.

Papa Savka showing us an old bee hive in a tree stump.
The traditional Ukrainian Christmas Tree!

Mama Savka welcoming us into her house where she will serve us dinner. Fresh out-of-the-oven bread for starters! (The news crew was also there while we were there... they may have filmed me struggling to grind grain into flour, sure hope not... it wasn't pretty)

Tim and Allison are a new couple to KIS this year. Allison gave birth to her twin girls last month in the states. Grandma Savka rocked them all afternoon while they slept and we ate!

The meal being dished up!

Most of the Savka family.