Facelifts, Botox and Boobs

In life there are gives and takes....

Do you smart or funny?

Do you want to be Ugly Betty or dress pretty?

Do you want to be rich with an empty heart or poor with a cup filling over?

Do you want to drive a nice car and be house poor or do you want to travel?

Do you want to live in a city that keeps you busy and it takes you all day to do your grocery shopping? 

Or do you want to live in plain town USA where there is nothing to do but watchpaint dry, hop in your car and drive to the nearest Wal-mart?

(Clearly, I have struck myself a nerve here...)

Do you want a dryer that works or do you want an iron that works?

Unless you are the uncle in Jakarta who is smart, handsome, funny and good looking....not to mention rich, well traveled and debonair....(I have to say this because he is reading and will comment that he is as I have stated)....there is a give and take, an ebb and flow to thins.

Yes, I'd like my cake and eat it too please to go with the dryer that works and an iron that steams. Because i have nothing else to do with my time except wait four hours for a set of sheets to wash and come out looking like this.  

Facelifts, Botox and boobs are a credit card away. 

What I need is a dryer!

A New Normal

It's a new normal. A new kind of Sunday morning. I feel a bit lost and out of sorts. This is our first Sunday morning since arriving we haven't gotten up to go out and about. We are home. Oh boy....that was the first time I have called this home. We are home. This is our home. Just saying it brings a small tear to my eye. Home...a sadness for the home and family we left. Home...a new and exciting place filled to the brim with adventures, sights to see and new friends who are becoming family. We are...home.

A Sunday morning in our previous home would have consisted of the kids playing in their room while I sipped my coffee. The Mr would be watching the sports shows catching the highlights of Saturday's (American)college football games. Although he watched almost every game on Saturday, flipping stations, using picture in picture or recording a game, he still would watch the game show highlights. We would read the newspaper, he the front page and I the Life section. Then we would point out different articles in the Metro section of talking heads giving their political opinion on policy wondering if we lived in the same country as the author. The Mr would watch the NFL shows preparing for yet another day of (American) professional football. I prepared a hot breakfast of French toast, pancakes, eggs or something else piping hot. We ate together as a family and then disperse. Back to their rooms the kids went. The Mr watched his games and I have no idea what I did...

Today, the kids are still in their rooms. And football is on....only it is LIVE! No highlight shows and only one to see. I thought by moving I would get away from sports! This is not the case. There is no newspaper to read to get our news. We could watch one of three European news stations, but I prefer not. Watching these makes me sometimes cringe....no wonder some countries dislike America. I would too if I believed what some stories report. Sadly, not everyone was taught to believe half of what you read, half of what you see and half of what you hear. So my news consists of reading Facebook status updates...at least I get the entertainment section...LOL! No hot breakfast this morning as I prepare for Diamond Lady and the Greek to come over for a casual afternoon with good friends who have become our family.

We sit together on the couch sipping coffee and watching football. We are home and Suddenly things become familiar...yes! This IS home!

Life...

It is a unique life here, one to be cherished and looked upon favorably. For when the contract is up the time will have flown by and what will you have? Memories.  What kind if memories do you want when you look upon your days, weeks, months and years? This question is applicable to all of us, whether living overseas or in the same home for 30 years.  What kind of memories and life do I want to remember of our time here? I choose to be positive. I choose to be happy. I choose to find the good in every experience.

Take laundry for example.  Oh how I miss my oversized American washing machine and dryer! I could do a weeks load of laundry in a matter of hours...assuming I stayed on it!  Here, my machine is a combo washer/dryer. A novel concept for space saving if only the dryer worker like a dryer.  My machine is in German.  Once a cycle starts you can not stop it.  Forgot to throw in a sock or dish towel? Your stuck! Wait until next load. I set the machine to wash. Once complete, pull out the items I want to air dry and then set the dryer.  The first time I did a load of towels I washed them in hot water and set the dryer for one continuous cycle.  The display showed how long it would take...four hours and thirty minutes!  Four and a half hours to wash towels!

The above display was set for two and a half hours.  I forgot to take a picture of it once I started the cycle. Any guess as to what is inside?  I will tell you at the end of the post.  And we can't forget the ironing...almost every item that comes out of this machine needs to be ironed.  

I decided to make some banana bread tonight.  Tired of waiting for our cargo shipment of cooking and baking utensils, I improvised.  The recipe called for a cup and a half of flour.  Does this look like a cup?  The bread sure did smell yummy in the oven! We will find out in the morning...

We need water. We need milk. We need bread.  We need a car! If only it were that simple.  Shopping takes planning and forethought. Even then you still may not find everything you want or need.  Improvise!

Life...life here is about improvising. It is about making the best with what you have and what you have been given. Life here is about getting back to basics; family, friends, sunshine when it smiles and stomping in puddles when it rains.  Life is about scratch cooking. Life is about eating in season.  Life is simple yet complicated at the same time.  Life is about having a sense of humor....if you can 

do these things, you can have a life...in Moscow. But how you do these things and look at these things...that determines the kind of life you have in Moscow. 

Still wondering what is in my washing machine for two and a h alf hours? One king size sheet. That is it....

The Mr Left Me

The Mr left me.  
The Mr left me alone. 
The Mr left me alone in a strange country. 
The Mr left me alone in a strange country with two kids. 
The Mr left me alone in a strange country with two kids where I am illiterate.



He is gone for a week.
He is gone for a week with little contact.
He is gone for a week with little contact bc his phone wasn't set up properly.

I hit four supermarkets.
I hit four supermarkets bc this is life here.
I hit four supermarkets bc that is life here and I still don't have paper towels.
I hit four supermarkets, but I did not rob them...

I took the metro.
I took the metro by myself.
I took the metro by myself to a coffee.
I took the metro by myself to a coffee...and I arrived!

He is still gone.
I am still here.
The munchkins are alive.
I am proud!

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