Big Almaty Lake and Beautiful Weeds

After church today, the junior high youth group packed up cook-out supplies and headed up to the Big Almaty Lake. Daniel and Josiah Savig (graduates of the group) helped to lead the expedition and provide energy and entertainment. Apparently, it was quite a bonding experience as the kids came back laughing and joking excessively. It was good to see them having that post-camp experience. I was not able to hike with them as Abby was still having some "down time" after her bug, so we watched a movie together at home instead. We are certainly hoping she is feeling better before our upcoming 24 hour train ride!
Not only did the kids roast hot dogs, but they decided to roast sugar and all kinds of other supplies as well. They became quite artistic with the sugar melting, using heated shashlik skewers to carmelize and mold the sugar cubes into various forms. Pretty soon they are going to start blowing glass!As they were sitting by the lake, Daniel took some pictures of Peak Sovietov, the mountain that they climbed together last week. It was fun to look at the picture and think that they were WAY up there on that snowy peak!

And these are some photos that I took today of weeds out on our street. . . Wow, God created some really interesting weeds!

A Scrapbooking Afternoon

Allison and Jackie went to Lake Kapchagai this morning with YLife ministries. Daniel had a group of buddies spend the night last night, went gaming with them this morning, then came home and fell promptly to sleep. Abby got sick in the night when she was at a sleepover at the Winslows on Thursday night (I am SO sorry, Scott and Lora. You will have great reward in heaven :-)!) and spent all day Friday on the couch. Today she was well enough for a little outing, so Dan took her to the new Kungfu Panda release. And, no one is coming to our house today (that I know of, anyway!). Thus, I have had a number of hours at home by myself today (an elusive treasure), and I spent them working on Rostik's one year gift album. I am now ALMOST done. A few more lay-outs and I will give it to Zhanna to peruse and use as an inspiration for the journaling that I need from her before it can be finished. But, it is close! I really like the album. . . I would almost like to keep it for myself :-). Usually a good sign (unless I actually did decide to keep it, in which that would be a bad sign. . .)

Me and My Bench. . . We are Like This!

As you refinish a piece of furniture, you get to know it really well. The form of the wood, the intricacies of construction, the SIZE of the object. Much muscle and sweat are invested in the piece. Particularly when the object is very long, much too long, and there are many, many edges to be worked over.

I spent the day with a lovely bench which I purchased at the British Embassy furniture sale last fall. There were several benches in the auction. This particular bench was not in the best condition, but it certainly had the best shape of all of them and I liked it right away. "Oh, it just needs a little work," I thought. "I will learn how to refinish it..." Hmmm. Well, although I read on the internet about the supplies necessary, I was not able to purchase them all here. And the paint remover which I did find here doesn't seem to affect the original varnish on the bench. Oh well, a little more muscle work involved. It will probably turn into my project for the week. . .

Texture in Trash

Today was a normal day filled with normal activities - exercising, scrapbooking, (NO photo editing!! wahoo!), lunching and visiting with some good friends who are celebrating their one year anniversary, running errands, getting the car washed, etc. . . Our water cut off this morning just after I got home from working out. . . I was a little worried about stinking all day (especially since we were going to meet nicely-groomed friends for lunch), but the water returned within the hour. We are thankful for small things here! I picked up our coffee maker from the repair shop (notice we didn't waste much time in getting that taken care of!) this afternoon and eagerly brought it home to perk an afternoon cup of brew. I prepared the filter, poured the water in, and pushed the button. . . POW! Huge explosion, sparks everywhere, blowing the electricity in the whole house. . . How 3000 tenge disappointing. Tomorrow we will be going back to the repair hole-in-the-wall. At least I asked about a guarantee. . .

Today's pictures feature texture from our destroyed neighborhood. Art is everywhere!!

Actually, many of our neighbors' homes are (were?) made of mud and straw. I can't help but think of the Three Little Pigs. . . The smell from the destruction sight is a very peculiar one of must/mildew. I was very aware of it when I was wandering around. For some reason, Allison loves that smell. She also loves the smell of our garage. . . (In other areas, she is quite a normal child :-). . .)
Stacks of used bricks (not ALL the houses are mud and straw)
Some kind of insulated tube. . .
The inside of a broken planter. . .

A State of Being. . .

A few days ago, I received one of the biggest compliments I have gotten in a long time. Jackie teaches English to non-native speakers in our home. Thus, we have students flowing through our house all day long. The other day, a very lovely Japanese woman was talking to Jackie about me. She said, "Your mother - she is much energy!" Wow. . . that is really great! Energy in the flesh, even as a state of being!

Okay, now for today's pictures. I didn't actually take these pictures today, but I did work on editing them and I delivered the disks to the respective parties this evening. Thus, I give myself permission to use these as the pictures of the day. . .

A few more gems from Dima and Lydia's wedding. . .

And a couple more of Christina and Arthur. . .

Did You Know. . .?

Did You Know? or Things I Might Have Forgotten to Mention. . .

-that, according to Mercer 2007 Survey results, Almaty ranks 30th in the world in cost of living, ahead of Istanbul, Munich, Brussels, and Los Angeles. . . (no wonder people in our line of work are not able to afford to live here anymore. . .)

- that is is 87 degrees F in our kitchen and climbing.

-that, after I photographed the beautiful rose outside our gate, someone did come along and take it. . .

-that, although Almaty ranks 30th in cost of living, it is NOT even on the chart for Quality of Life or Health and Sanitation. (I heard it ranked around 130th in those categories.)

- that it is possible to get hand callouses from photo editing.

-that our garbage was collected last week for the first time in almost 6 months. Remember when I celebrated in December? That was the previous time. . .

-there is no right-on-red in Kazakhstan.

-that I took a shower in absolute darkness yesterday when there was a fireworks show on our neighborhood power lines.

-that our coffee maker just blew a fuse. A definite tragedy. Were these events related? I have no idea.

Oh, yes! And my pictures of the day:

Filming Rambo and What's For Lunch?

What fun we have had at our house today! The war filming has continued in full force. I haven't quite heard the whole plot synopsis, but I have seen plenty of action sequences. Jumping, sniping, stunt double flying.. . no sleepy scenes in this movie! And our half-destroyed neighborhood has, once again, provided endless backdrops for the shooting.
Filming in progress.. . . With Daniel's acrobatics background, he tends to be more willing to jump and flip than the average youth. However, I am frequently pleased to see him making safety judgment calls. He won't do a series of back handsprings or a back flip if he can tell the ground is too uneven for safe landing, etc. . Today, when the other guys wanted him to fall flat BACKWARDS off the patio roof, I was happy to hear him say that he didn't think that was a very good idea.

I just love teen-agers. It is a lovely time of life -- Dan and I both have very fond memories of our high school years. Thus, I try to have an open home and an open mind for encouraging them in their development and creativity. And I certainly try not to be Kanga ("Don't fall too fast, dear. . .")
Here they are, reviewing their film and just loving life and themselves :-)!
Today's lunch creation --the guys took almost everything out of the fridge and made one big Dagwood sandwich. . . Subway should take notes. . .

Jack is Back; Junior High Shoot-Out

When Jackie peered through the windowed door when she came home late last night, this is what she saw in our shoe room. She jumped in alarm. Jackie was quite sure that someone was waiting for her. Then, as this unidentified person didn't move, she thought maybe someone had been trying to break into our house and had died of a heart attack! She approached Jack gingerly and probed him to see if he was still breathing. "Please, don't be real." Isn't she going to miss her brother when she leaves next fall??
After his late night activities, Jack decided to take a nap on the couch today. Something tells me that this is NOT the end of Jack's adventures. . .

The junior high group played a variation of a survivor challenge today. Everyone had a sheet of paper with three names or "lives". In order, the participants shot the targets, removing one of the "lives" if they landed within the box. After each person was killed, they were subject to the water gun firing squad. . .
I hope Ulianna's parents didn't mind that she went home soaking wet!!

Stunt Double and a Triple Photo Shoot

Daniel and his friends have been together continuously for several days running now. Today they started making a movie. Part of the plot involves a sniper who will be positioned on the telephone worker's platform on the pole in front of our house. Since the sniper does not come to a good end, Daniel needed a stunt double. "Jack" was created for such a time as this.
The guys will continue working on this movie next week. Meanwhile, Jack has been strategically positioned in our entry way, just waiting for older sister Jackie to come home for the night. . . It seems to me that we have will have another "Nazgul" in our house this week (for those who have been with us since February. . .)
This evening I met several friends for a photo shoot: Marina, Arman, and Arthur; and Olga, Yarik, Nikita, and Christina. It was fun to take pictures of all of them -- beautiful families and active children! The children (who are cousins) are all at totally different stages, however, so I was constantly needing to switch modes. Arthur (4 months) is still in the infant stage, so he needed to be posed in his parent's arms or stroller. Christina (8 months) is sitting independently, crawling when allowed, and desperate to eat flowers. Nikita (approaching 4 years old) is extraordinarily active and not wanting to sit still for very long. Thus, we all had our hands full!

Nikita was really itching to get up and run, but I did manage to get Olga and Yarik's family in one frame! Small victories!
Isn't Arthur just adorable? I love his deep blue eyes!
Sweet time with Daddy. . .
He was really trying to say something to his mom. . .
This one was taken right BEFORE the huge slobber bomb, Arman . . .

He is going to be a deep thinker! We wondered what was going on inside his head.
Nikita played with this bus all over the park. . .
He was so fast with his kisses - this was quite hard to catch!
I was so pleased when I finally got him to look up at the camera for a second! He has a gorgeous grin!
Another assignment where I got the whole family together. Just keep that boy moving! :-)

Christina ate QUITE a few flowers today. . . But she was so cute, it was hard to stop her!
Her mouth is very expressive! She frequently has an "O" expression.
And she is also constant motion! These parents have their hands full. . .
When Christina was intent on picking up and eating gravel, I finally got a clear shot at those luscious eyelashes. I have never seen eyelashes as long as those on Nikita and Christina. What a wonderful family trait!!
And, at the end, I took a quick picture of my wonderful assistant, Abby. She helped jump up and down behind me to get the little ones to periodically look up at the camera. . . It is great to have such a competent and enthusiastic helper.

Jackie's New Laptop!

Jackie's new laptop arrived this week. I can't tell you how absolutely thrilled she is to have her own computer. A dream come true for her! She has always been a tech girl -- doing the majority of her school work on-line, keeping blogs, loving to communicate with her friends through various "social utilities" - facebook, xanga, vkontakte (Russian version of facebook), Skype, etc. . . And, now, she will be beginning a very tech-heavy program at the Medill School of Journalism (Northwestern Univ). The department equipment list is quite high: requiring all students to have digital camcorders, cameras, voice recorders, very fast computers, and huge packages of Adobe software for image and film manipulation. . . As she read through the list of things that she will be learning how to use, Jackie said, "I can't believe I get to learn all of these things as part of my SCHOOL!" And, meanwhile, she is enjoying transferring files, uploading programs, and making the new laptop her very own! A very exciting summer for her. . .

More Birthday and Peak Sovietov!

These internet problems just aren't going away. Even elfin magic wasn't working last night and we ended up retrieving Jackie's work from an internet cafe. Since I had already put on my pajamas, however, I decided not to go in and post. . . I might have to switch to morning post time since the connection seems more reliable then.My birthday celebration just keeps going on and on! :-) It must be a sign of a good year! Zara and Aslan took me out for coffee this morning. We went to "Biskwit", a cafe which has a children's play area, since Aslan was enjoying the morning out as well. We had luscious coffee and got to visit for a couple of hours (until there was no more whipped cream and Aslan was ready to go outside). It was a lovely morning!
The roses that the women's group gave me were a wonderfully brilliant pink. I just loved all of the shading. It is too bad that roses aren't hardier flowers. In this heat, all of our bouquets are drooping very quickly. But, we have had a lovely kitchen full of flowers this week!

Allison and I also had a fun afternoon visiting with Mary Carol and Page Tazewell. Unfortunately, we were so busy having a good time, I forgot to take out my camera! We have really enjoyed getting to know the Tazewells this year and are sad that they are moving to Panama next week. The unfortunate reality of our nomad lifestyle -- the comings and goings of so many good friends.
This evening, I went to retrieve the guys from their Peak Sovietov Adventure. They had a great day - everyone made it up (and back) and the weather was perfect! (It was good that they post-poned the hike from Monday/Tuesday since there were big storms up in the mountains earlier this week.) I did NOT take these pictures -- from their descriptions of the hours required of scrambling over sharp boulders and crawling up loose rocks I do not think I will ever be in a position to take pictures of my own. Instead you are enjoying these scenic views with compliments of Sasha Li. . . Aren't they wonderful?

My guys!!

Daniel and his buddies: Nate Landis, James Wiley, Daniel, Brian Landis

This is the range we crossed over on our way to Issyk-kuyl last year. Fortunately/unfortunately, we don't get to see this aerial view on our way over. . . We will be back again in a month!!!



I believe this is where they scrambled up for several hours. (I need to check my sources on that one, but my sources are either running or sleeping right now.) They had plenty of gashes and bruises from large tumbling rocks - the hazards of climbing with a bigger group!
Apparently, Dan got to play photographer as well to document Sasha's arrival at the peak! I certainly appreciate Sasha carrying his camera all the way up there. Dan tried to entice me to consider the climb by his description of the gorgeous views! It was a little chilly for the overnight. Dan filled two pots of water for breakfast preparations. He let one pot sit for 10 minutes while he started to heat the other. When he returned, he found a layer of ice on the top!