Hi
Family,
Well, this was a
fun week. Perhaps because we had
Mary's birthday to plan and look forward to, and weeks with parties are just more fun!
Mary turned two on
Friday, stopped napping, and refuses to sleep in her crib, all in one day!
We're trying to get her to at least sleep on a "big girl" matress on
the floor, but since she's not contained, she has a hard time falling asleep,
and frequently waddles into our bed and spends most of the night in between mom
and dad - translation = no one has slept since Thursday night:). We had a party
for Mack-a-doodle-pants at an indoor play area we frequent called Leo-Park. We
had a couple of nice friends come to help us celebrate, and we really felt
fortunate to have made a few nice friends over the last two months - it
definitely made Mary's second birthday more fun. Though she received many
lovely gifts (people were so generous!) Mary's new Baby Dolls were the hit of
the day, and we've already spent many hours since playing "babies!"
And, just so everyone knows that the kiddos do keep track of everything ...
while I was making cupcakes (without a cupcake tin, mind you) for the party,
Anne asked, "are you going to make cupcakes for Ella's
birthday?"
Me: "Probably, if
she wants them."
Anne: "You didn't
make cupcakes for my birthday."
Called out, and guilty
as charged. I guess I'll need to take Annie-C on a special cupcake date or make
a special batch with her to make up the fact that I dropped the cupcake ball on
her fourth birthday!
Ella and Anne sang
"I am a Child of God" with the primary in sacrament meeting today. We
invited lots of friends, and a few actually came - which was wonderful. Benj
gave a great talk on covenants ... the only other speaker went on for 45
minutes (a half hour past regular closing time) on the importance of going to
the temple in mortality because it will only be more difficult in the
after-life without a body to accept saving ordinances.
Though doctrinally correct, it could have been a nice Sunday to
stick to the basics, and it made us reflect on, and miss "Invitation
Sunday" in the Crystal Springs ward. But it was great to have a
"reason" to invite friends and co-workers to worship with us, and
made us excited to create events and reasons to invite again in the
future. 
Yesterday our weekend
delivery driver stopped working with us mid-day ... which meant Benj spent 6+
hours of Saturday picking up a ton (literally) of dirty laundry from various
hotels and hostels. While business is great and we are already at maximum
capacity with our second iron (could sure use a third!), I can't help but
wonder if - on an hourly basis - we make minimum wage.
Twice he came home after
midnight this week, and he
literally gets phone calls throughout the night - some irrelevant, like
the one we got at 4 am from a worker leaving her shift, who just thought Benj
should know that this other worker was doing a really great job. Thank you -
why that valuable information couldn't wait until 9 am, we're still not sure.
And though Benj spent an extra hour with eachemployee this week going over basic
care/maintenance of the iron .... he still had to "run-in"
Saturday morning, and two other times he was at home to fix little problems
that came up (that the workers were specifically trained on how to
trouble-shoot!). Needless to say, competent help is not easy to find.
Thursday (rained all
day) we went with friends to the Lviv Children's Puppet Theater and watched a
cute Ukrainian puppet show about "Dorthea the Duck." It was
surprisingly well done, and considering that second row tickets only cost
$1.20, I'd say it was about as good a deal for live entertainment as we've
seen. Mid-way through the show Anne looks at me and implores, "Why is
this in Ukrainian!?" My response, "because we are in Ukraine."
Ella announced at dinner tonight that she is done living on
different continents, and it's time for us to buy a house with a
doorbell.
Wednesday we had dance
class ... and they demoted us to the little kids (3 year old) class ... I guess
because we don't speak Ukrainian? Ella and Anne sort of enjoyed it ... though
they didn't really dance so much as sit in a circle and do things one at a
time. Also Wednesday, a sister missionary who now serves in Lutsk was
here for a doctor appointment, so she and her companion came to
visit, which was fun.
Tuesday the
missionaries came over for dinner. I'm thinking I should keep a record of what
I serve for which set of missionaries because I tend to forget and repeat
meals. And Monday was our usual Ashan (grocery shopping), dance-class routine.
So, yeah, all in all, not that different from a normal week ... but I guess the anticipation of
a party on Friday and inviting friends to church on Sunday made
everything seem more fun than normal.
Here's a great
Ukrainian life tid-bit ... Igor (Benj's right-hand-man) went to the electrical
department to pay our bill for the apartment for the last 2 month (I guess in
Lviv you still have to do these things in person). Anyway, when they gave him
the bill they looked at it and said, "This can't be right. The meter must
be broken. Don't pay this now, and go check the meter." While we're pretty
sure we actually used that much energy (we have air-conditioning, which
most apartments don't have, and used it all summer, which most
Ukrainians don't), the energy office is convinced that our meter must be broken
because NO ONE uses that much energy!:) In full disclosure, the bill comes to
about $100 usd per month, so in the States, it's not that crazy. Needless to
say, we still haven't paid it - not because we haven't sent Igor back to try
and pay it, but because the ladies in the office are absolutely convinced there
is NO WAY we could have used that much energy and our meter must be broken.
We're still waiting to hear back from our landlord to see if we can keep the
apartment at a discounted rate while we're not all here in the winter ... it
would certainly make packing a lot easier ... and be nice for Benj to have the
same place while he commutes.
Final story regarding
the girls from today. We get home from church, eat, change ... and Ella and
Anne go into the living-room. Ella proceeds (independently) to get out the
scriptures and transcribes verses into her journal - she's amazing - who taught
her this? We ask why she's doing it and she says it seems like a good Sunday
activity ... couldn't agree more. At the same time, Anne is dumping puzzle
pieces around the room creating a mess. Different strokes, for different folks,
that's just how they roll, we guess. And then there is sweet Mary, moodily
wandering around with her baby dolls, Can't wait to see what the fourth child
brings to the table ... they certainly each have unique personalities.
We love and miss you.
Thanks for your love, support, and encouragement.
xo,
Meagan +
Face-painting at Vecelka:
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