a nice weekend

Had a lovely party this afternoon for my twins--Ksusha and Misha. It was a big 'do with all the families invited.

It had me crying in the taxi on the way home, just sad to be leaving so many friends--and so many people who have watched Lexi come home and take a vested interest in her. I had comments today about how far she's come. It's nice to have people to share that with, people who see and know.

And, I really like the twins' parents. Even my principal thanked me (of course, he's just scared that I'll lose it again) for how far they've come this year. The parents feel a part of the community and Misha and Ksusha have come SO FAR. I'm really proud of them.

Had a nice BBQ yesterday, too. I even got hugs from the German parents--and that's no mean feat.

It's nice to have SO MANY happy parents. I've had one disgruntled (this year--and she wasn't at the birthday party) in six years. Most have left not just complacent, but fondly and singing my praises. That's pretty stellar if you ask me.

I'm a little weepy. There aren't a lot of things I'll miss about Russia, but there are lots of people that I will.

too much pretty

Yesterday was our school's end-of-year BBQ. Afterward we were walking home with one of Lexi's friends. Isabel told me, thinking about a woman we just saw,

You don't want to put on too much pretty 'cause then--wowsers.

I asked what "pretty" was and she told me, "You know--make-up, necklaces, bright and shiny clothes, high heels..."

Ah, the lessons learned by an ex-pat child in Russia.

changed!

to tuesday. ;>

seriously?

remember when i said that much like living in russia, leaving russia wasn't going to be easy?

the packers have our pack-out date written down a week later. on june 20. when we're flying to the U.S.

they are very cross, blaming me--as is customary when you're caught in a mistake here, and not optimistic about a change.

it will be changed. it must be changed.

just another goblin.

Lexi's America

"In America the grocery stores have LOTS of syrup."

"In America there are biiiig libraries with lots of books in. English. And we can buy the books and take them home and bring them back when we are finished."

"In America we can play outside and you will help me to climb up a tree."

"In America will be just Lexi and Mama."

list-ish

brief update (will fix the lists later...)

taking tomorrow off. we are given "up to two" days to pack out. there is a strong, sadistic no-days-off mentality at our school. but, i decided they were mine and i was going to take them. both. one to sort (tomorrow--since the picnic is saturday and our class party is sunday) and monday to actually supervise movers.

well, am taking tomorrow MOSTLY off. two students are leaving early and tomorrow is their last day. so, we're walking in around 1:30 to say goodbye. and then will pack up the final bits to be taken home in principal's car. managed most (books. are. heavy.) by myself but still have some odds and ends.

dvd player appears to be broken. this good because it means lexi isn't watching tv (she doesn't yet know the computer will do that) and also because it broke BEFORE we packed it and brought it home. it's inconvenient because a little distraction would be a good thing, and because it's a universal dvd player. only about half of our dvd's are US region.

car has completed step one of the deregistration process. people are so glad it's going that they're actually helping. i feel a little sorry for car as it's not really its fault that it's old and needing to not live in russia where the way they treat the roads corrodes its underbelly. am a little concerned for its life in armenia. hoping it goes to a nice family...and not a psychotic mafioso or something.

passport is at consulate. it has been confirmed that i do, indeed, need to de-register.

vet has been twice. once, we paid a reasonable amount for vaccinations. the second time we paid part of an UNreasonable amount (i didn't have enough cash on hand) for mia's microchip. we still have many interactions to come.

official delta cat carriers arrived!

tentative appointment with local charity made for donation pick-up.

really just going to make sure we have our passports and whatever will fit in three suitcases and the cats. think i can finagle my way on to the plane with both. still hoping and praying. may even ask for help transferring in the worst airport on earth paris.

thanks for your prayers. leaving the apartment around 4 a.m. on 20 june 2011.

survival mode

You know that place, international AP's, where nothing really matters except getting home? You are surviving on caffeine, letting your child watch tv, throwing money around like it was confetti at a ticker-tape parade...and you just don't care. That's close to where we are now.

$200 for a pet ticket? Sure. For each cat? No problem. Maybe we'll have to pay for three to appease Air France? Great idea. No food in the house? Eat out.

I'm fighting hard to remember, in the midst of surviving, despite the drama and the boxes and the lists, to keep things simple and calm, to snuggle up and watch the dvd with her when she's allowed too much tv, but I get so antsy! Thirty minutes into American Tail and I'm up and emptying the drier, sorting through books... I am making a conscious effort to just slow down while she's awake and be as calm and as centered as possible.

A calm-and-centered Kate is made much more difficult by the unpleasantness at school, but I'm trying.

BIG week at school, the car begins its deregistration process tomorrow (I think), the vet is coming tomorrow for his second visit (had their vaccinations and now Mia needs to be microchipped), Saturday is the school bar-be-que, Sunday is a big second grade party, and the packers come next Monday.

After Monday I may only have internet access from school, so don't be surprised if we go radio silent.

Two more weeks. I can do anything for two weeks. Right?

new picture

That picture? I took it on the way to Cyprus. The plane icon is pretty close to Lexi's old orphanage (the orphanage was across the river, closer to Tula) and heading west. It seems fitting!

I *loved* the one of us in the snow together. But, I just discovered that it didn't all fit on my school monitor. Let me know if this one is too big.

bamboozled, the necklace

I was in an modern-day comedia called Bamboozled! once. When the director was trying to explain what that word meant to a group of high school students, he told them that it basically meant (note: some of you won't appreciate the language...fair warning...) screwed.

We took the show to regionals, but were a little too modern for the judges. They completely didn't get us.

And the director made us all little necklaces with a screw on them to commemorate the show.

Since then, when I've been not-cast in a part that I KNEW I should have I've worn the necklace as a silent protest. And, in our little theatre world, the people who knew me best knew, too, and smiled.

I wore my necklace today, even though no one here knew what it meant. And when the sorority princess asked about it, I told her it was because we were studying simple machines.

And I felt better.

before bed last night

"Punching goblins," replied Sprockett soothingly, "while offering short-term relief, has no long-term beneficial value."

One of Our Thursdays is Missing, Jasper Fforde

I laughed when I read that last night. And laughing is good.

lists

Maybe if I write it down I can stop trying to hold onto it in my head and it will all see easier. And, since you asked, in the next three weeks (We leave Monday, June 20)...

I need to:

1. make second grade movie
2. sort everything for packing--what stays, what goes in boxes, what goes in suitcases--and make it easy for the Russian-speaking-only packers to pack it by moving things to different rooms
3. do a "dry run" to see what will fit in how many suitcases--aiming for three large and Lexi's wheelie bag (I don't know how I'll manage all this at the airport.)
   • mac mini
   • dvd player (universal)
   • monitor?
   • keyboard/mouse
   • Mouse, Medved, George, George's clothes
   • a FEW beloved books, preferably paperback
   • a FEW comfort dvd's
   • the green throw that is both a princess dress and her swaddling when she's a baby
   • towels x 4
   • sheets x 2
   • duvet cover for Lexi?
   • clothes
   • bike helmet

4. pack up personal things in classroom
5. get things home
6. deregister car--no idea how
7. sell car--have buyer but don't know how
8. deregister self--cancel visa, turn in consulate badge and diplomatic card
9. schedule last visit with Russian sw (and Galina)
10. vet visits this week, three days before and 24 hours before
11. bathe Beazy before vet visits
12. hope carriers come
13. try to find Delta approved carriers in the city in case they don't come...at a pet store near a metro stop as car will be sold
14. school bbq
15. class party(ies) for grade 2 (and maybe Lexi's for grade 1...but leaning towards no on that one)
16. end of year testing--dra, math, cumulative spelling
17. continue medieval unit--make castles, living history museum, batering
18. report cards
19. sports day
20. research French in-transit animal requirements
21. get pillowcase for Noor, who is leaving this year, and have Sofia and Carlotta sign it before they leave early
22. ask Marina to call Meridian to schedule pick-up and Alina Nikolaievna to say good-bye since I won't make it out there before they move all the kids
23. not feel guilty about that
24. fill out all sorts of ridiculous forms detailing everything I've bought either here or in the US and brought here in the last six years that is being shipped home
25. supervise packers
26. organize gifts--and who would use American children's meds, games, and baking ingredients
27. sell my electronics to remaining and incoming staff members
28. wash everything going in boxes
29. bake banana bread with the bananas in the freezer
30. normal cooking, washing, cleaning (quit having the cleaner two weeks ago), homework, playing, bathing, etc.

get in the US within a week (hopefully sooner) of our arrival:

• car--I want a gently used CRV
• internet access
• couch
• beds
• table & chairs
• car seat until ours comes
• monitor (if I don't bring mine)
• library cards
• pool membership
• bikes
• swing?
• television?
• find out about Jenn's Blue Cross insurance plan

31. **keep life as normal as possible for a sensitive little girl who is feeling the stress despite my best efforts and who seems to be at the start of (exhausting) anniversary regressions on top of everything else and needs extra reassurances and Momma-time**

32. breathe
33. sleep
34. call Aetna AGAIN about where the reimbursement check is

I did:

1. roast a chicken today only to find, when I was cutting off a leg for Lexi, a bizarre, large... blood capsule in the joint which exploded, rendering the chicken, in my opinion, inedible
2. throw away the chicken
3. wash our linens for packing
4. put school linens on bed

   I thought that I would want our things out and about for Lexi for as long as possible, so I scheduled our packers for a week before we left. Then, yesterday, I decided that might be too big of a shock. So, I started transitioning a few things--including bed linens. We've been weeding out toys for a while--but not giving them away. There is just a big pile of things "for the orphanage" (actually going to a group who helps families in need because they will pick it up) but she can still see it all. And, she can retrieve a toy if it's more beloved than I thought--like her Elephant and Piggie stuffed animals that she never plays with

5. pack away winter clothes for us both in a trunk (it's still chilly here)
6. call the vet & scheduled appointments for rabies shots and Mia's microchipping (he'll come to our house)
7. order official Delta approved carriers
8. our last grocery shop
9. take pictures of lamps, digital clocks, humidifiers, (fans are spoken for)
10. asked Marina to call the vet to figure out how to bribe our way onto the Air France flight (there is a precedent, but that flight left from Moscow)
11. find out Cobra for our insurance is a ridiculous $2000 pcm
12. put back up the apartment's curtains in Lexi's room
13. (well, my friend Kerry did for me) got water and electricity put in my name
14. give Lexi a haircut
15. schedule a haircut for myself
    

I gave up (as in released myself of the obligation to do, not as in quit):
photos

• I was going to have a professional photographer take pictures of us out and about in the city...but there's just no time. I may be able to have a friend take some. But, it may just not happen.

aha!

Air France (SPB to Paris) has the weight limit.

On Delta (Paris to Cinci) a cat just has to fit comfortably under the seat. she will. so...will that help? possibly.

Please will you pray our sweet kitty, Beazy onto the plane and into the cabin with us? I know it's silly, but we'll all feel so much better if we're sitting together.

eta: AF website looks very inflexible. While we are booked as a cabin pet, I am afraid they won't let us on. (I told the booking agent how much she weighed, but the agent still booked us. Will they weigh her?)

I guess she could be "cargo" on the AF flight and then we could take her on board the Delta flight...but I'm not mad keen on that idea. I'm not keen on that idea AT ALL.

I feel like an idiot for making my reservation after doing research...but didn't do enough research to find out until we booked that it is an AF flight and not a Delta flight AND that their requirements were so vastly different. Everything, of course, is non-refundable.

check

i was going to title this "tick" (which just goes to show how briticized my language has become) but decided that was inappropriate in a post about the cats.

the cats have reservations on our returning flights, made today. they will fly in the cabin with us. their tickets cost $200 each.

they each have to weigh less than 13 pounds. i'm skeptical. (as well i should have been. beazy weighs about 20 pounds. now what? i'm sure she weighed 18 pounds on the way here...or it was an 18 pound limit. i could get her down to that, i think. do i just bluff? oi.)

flying in the cabin means lexi and i only get a backpack each. i think i'm going to try to have lexi bring her little wheelie suitcase instead of a backpack...so that cherished comfort items are sure to arrive.

of course, i have only 90 minutes to change flights in paris (the WORST airport in the world--ask anyone) with a seven eight year old, her wheelie suitcase, my backpack containing important electronics like my mac mini and my camera and two cats...who weigh 30 lbs. combined.

the stress of cat-flight decisions has lifted.

only to be replaced with can-we-get-beazy-on-the-plane?, get-vet-health-certificates and actual-flights-with-cats stresses.

lengthy

So, I had my good news/bad news ALL wrong.

The camera...

was actually at school. Odd, since the shopkeeper clearly remembered it...I think angels retrieved it and flew it there. Or I have early-onset Alzheimer's. (I shouldn't joke. That's actually a lingering niggling fear...)

The car, the car...

had a flat tire. You may remember that the last time I had a flat tire (also the first and only time I've had a flat tire) when it was towed I told them that I was only here x more weeks so I didn't want a new spare.

"That nice man in the orange car" came and, with the help of my friend on the other end of the phone, we had a lengthy conversation about what to do. He thought it might be too big to patch. But, he would either take it to a tire shop and see if it could be mended and then return and put it on for us *or* we could go along. It sounded long and tedious (he predicted four hours) so I opted to let him do it on his own. This is not as crazy as it might sound.

He, after talking with my friend at length hung up, told me he'd be back in a minute, and drove away. Without the tire. ???

He came back and told me to open the car. I did. I figured he'd be driving my car (he'd patched the tire already) to get it fixed. Odd, but whatever. I opened it and tried to give him the key. He told me to get in and drive, asked if I wanted him to drive, and told me again to drive.

I conveyed (apt description) that Marina said he would take the tire and take care of this. Ha, ha, ha...no. I should drive.

So I put Lexi in (she was not happy to be in the car with a stranger) and got in to drive.

It was half a block away, inside a courtyard.

Seriously. There's been a mechanic that close all this time. They patched the tire while we ate dinner at home. After dinner we walked back and picked the car up. Then, we drove the half-block home.

The next day we drove to school.

And, on the way home, it went flat again.

The mechanic doesn't have a used tire. (That was a whole 'nother series of phone calls, looking at the car, walking back and forth to and from the shop and finally finding out that he didn't have the tire he said he had. But, how much color can you take in one post? How much "color" can I take in 24 hours?) I don't want to pay $300 for a new tire. I think there is a spare at school. Or the consulate might have one.

Or the Armenian might have to pay $301 instead of $1 for the car. I wonder if he would...

These are the lengths I go to just to be able to get to the grocery store one more time and buy pet carriers. As I told my principal, Russia is going to make me fight every day right up until the end.

brrr...

I am giving blogger the cold shoulder as it lost all our birthday postings!

Okay, but two things:

good news-someone from the Armenian Consulate is going to buy my car for $1. This means I save the 2000 euros it would cost to have it towed to Finland and destroyed.

bad news-my camera is lost/stolen. It's a combination. I put it down while getting a friend some rubles. The shopkeeper says he left with it. He says he didn't. So, either the shopkeeper (a new girl) has it or some other guy who looks enough like my friend to be mistaken for him has it. And all the pictures on it since our trip. Expensive and painful. And a little scary to have pictures of Lexi in someone else's hands.

Birthday party tomorrow. Cold, disgruntled shoulder turned on blogger.

birthday eve

Presents are wrapped.

"Chocolate Ball" cereal (normally reserved for vacations), a dress for George that matches Lexi's Easter dress and a LUSH bath fizz are waiting on the table to be unwrapped before school. (I figure George can go to school tomorrow in her new finery if Lexi wants. She, George, can always hang out in second grade during the day.)

After school (and we won't mention there are more gifts after school until it is after school...though she may remember that from last year...) there is a cowgirl outfit for Molly (who has yet to be played with, though we're glad she's here) and inline skates!

Cupcakes for her classmates are made but not and frosted. But, that can be done in the morning. The frosting is made.

Birthday is well in hand. EIGHT tomorrow. Unbelievable.

*****************************************************************************

I said to Lexi a couple weeks ago, when we were talking about her birthday coming soon,
"Do you remember, Lexi? On your birthday you will get a present."
Her eyes lit up.
"What do you think you might like for a present?"

After some thought she replied, "Maybe some chocolate. That would be a nice present."

That is my sweet, sweet, precious girl.

remember that rock?

I didn't know it was Mother's Day in the US.

Happy Mother's Day!

It's Victory Day today. I am celebrating the victory over INTERNETLESSNESS. (That is a very big rock, too. My internet is not only my e-mail, but it's communication--skype and blogging--and television, too. It's birthday cake recipes, lists of the average number of teeth lost by age eight, songs via jango, banking, car searching, travel agent, doctor's appointments to make and summer recreation schedules. It's a lot to be without.)

More soon. Scads to catch up on after the latest expulsion from the virtual world.

Tad bit stressed. Just a smidge. You know, verging on panic attacks, but, no matter.

the eyes have it

eta: a more determined search led to the lost glasses! Amazing what a little fear will do. ;> But, will leave this up just for those of you interested. Medical saga is right up there in popularity with car saga here on the blog.

Lexi lost her glasses.

We went to the ophthalmologist (no optometrists here). He examined her. And then told us that to accurately prescribe new glasses she has to have atropin drops for 3 days prior to the exam. While on the drops her pupils will be dilated, she will not be able to read, write or draw and she will be very sensitive to sunlight. Extremely sensitive.

Uncomfortable with this, I contacted the eye doctor we saw in the US. He said he does use drops prior to some exams but not Atropin and never for that long. He mentioned all the side effects. And, he said Atropin will stay in her system for a week following treatment.

Wikipedia concurs.

Another "Western" clinic (are you getting the feeling that these Westerns clinics aren't very Western? Yeah.) said they could do the exam but she'd need drops for a week prior. They are different drops and only dilate the pupils while she's asleep. (??) Of course, they have to see her first. We can't just start the drops.

Lexi is farsighted, has developmentally young eyes, and an astigmatism. It's the astigmatism that is causing all this furor.

Anybody know anything?

i live under a rock

i found out yesterday that prince william was getting married to kate somebody.

home-ful

We got it!

My friend Kerry can't say enough good things about it. It's an old farmhouse in a safe, quiet village. It's four doors down from a large park and next to a soccer field. There are trees and deer. And hardwood floors and big windows. And an address for the movers.

I am so blessed to have such good friends around the country looking for a home for us. Thank you, Jen. Thank you, Kerry. Thank you, Juls.

eta pix: (in case you never clicked on the earlier link)