i am so far behind

i've kind of been in denial that i even have a blog. i've gotten so far behind that i've been avoiding it. i know i'm going to be leaving a lot out, just because things have slipped my mind. even things that at the time were hilarious or sweet or meaningful in some way...oh well.

so the last day of national red ribbon week the kids were supposed to come to school all decked out in red. max decided he wanted red hair. oh, why not?

while pavel and zoya were here, we had lots of running around to do. he was able to speak at several places besides our church. we went to max's school and were in 3 different classrooms, including max's. we were sure to warn pavel and zoya about max's red hair before we got there. he was pretty shocked anyway, though. the kids were great - asked lots of questions. weather/sports/pets/food, that kind of stuff. he taught them a few words and how to count to 5 in russian. i can only remember up to 3, and only because their 3 is pretty much like ours. i did learn how to say "shut up!" though. (not at school, of course!!) pavel was also invited to speak in blake's humanities history class, which was great! God really opened the door for us to be there and for pavel to be able to share some of the things he did.

at home, we did the best we could with conversation and really did pretty well. last time pavel was here we played jenga. he used the word "stress" quite a bit! it made him pretty nervous. we played it again this trip. zoya was pretty good at it and pavel made it through without too much wear and tear. he also learned to play the wii, which was pretty hilarious.

friday evening began our weekend mission conference. over the weekend, my nephew drew led worship, and there were Bible studies and mission outreach opportunities in our community. greg, blake and luke went with a few others to a local crisis pregnancy center. max and i went with pavel and zoya and several others to the city mission. we were all able to help in various ways, folding diapers, sorting clothes, serving lunch. it was a good experience, very humbling. saturday afternoon, lots of our church folks got together to tailgate before the marshall game. yes, pavel and zoya went along! it was their very first time at an american football game and they were not quite sure about what was going on - both on the field and off! earlier in the day i got him to say "GO HERD!" and then later he learned "WE ARE MARSHALL", so he fit right in. zoya sat quietly and i'm pretty sure she was just waiting for the madness to be over so she could go home and have some hot tea and go to bed! sunday afternoon we went to see sarah beth so pavel and zoya could visit with her a bit. they met when she went to russia on a mission trip. they seemed to have a good time catching up. they had looked forward to seeing her, and i know she'd been anxious to see them, too. monday we did a little bit of shopping and driving around huntington to show them various things and places. we were able to go to lunch together before they had to leave, which was nice. one last thing. we exchanged gifts with them through the course of the week. when they first got here they gave us several things, among them tea, lots of chocolate (yum) and a thing that looked like braided bread but turned out to be "salt cheese", which zoya said they eat at breakfast sometimes. max and luke tried it - max of course, tactful boy that he is, spit his out immediately. not to mention quite dramatically. luke chewed/swallowed his and did pretty well. later he told me he didn't like it so much but he was polite and at least didn't gag in front of them or anything. (i find it hard to believe that there's a food made that is too salty for luke.) not many takers on the salt cheese. didn't have the same response with the chocolate. it's almost all gone. it was so good to have them with us. they are both such warm and loving people. they've been through so much in their lives and have tremendous testimonies of the Lord's care for them. pavel is SO funny. and zoya has such a sweet and gently spirit. someday we hope to be able to take the 5 of us to visit them. without a local taco bell, we may be glad for the salt cheese after all. and yes, apparently blake is taller than me.