Yet Another Snow Day

Ok, I am a teacher and typically I am just as eager and excited about having a snow day as my students.  Now that I am a mom...........not so much!!  Gone are the days of sleeping in until 10 or 11.  Leeza is up by 7 am pretty much any morning in which we could sleep in.  Zhenya will linger in bed a bit longer, usually until 8.  So around 7:15, I have a little girl peeking through my door calling to me.  Another less enjoyable things about a snow day is how Leeza acts.  She is completely off when we are out of schedule.  She gets weepy and crabby on these snow days we have had lately.  This morning was no exception.   She started getting crabby and crying even before I had breakfast made.   I moved her smiley face indicating a good day to her straight face indicating just an OK day.  It was on the verge of going to the frowny face.  Of course, the moving of the face was enough to set her to screaming at the top of her lungs.  Temper fit!  She was sent from the room while I finished breakfast.  Jeff attempted to speak with her about her behavior which made her cry more.  In the end,she had to go to her room for a bit until she would calm down and eat.  I think this lasted about an hour.  Then she was all smiles and I let her move her straight face back to her smiley face.   Geeshh...I have no idea what set her off to begin with...she was just plain crabby this morning!!  Guess I am just plain crabby some days too.  She has been fine the rest of the day, but snow days are just not something she enjoys right now.   Even Zhenya is praying for no more snow!!  You know it is bad when both the kids and a teacher are praying for no more snow!!  Maybe in a few more years, I can enjoy my snow days again!!

Speaking of Zhenya,  we don't have many problems with his behavior, but he has a habit of whining.  He does it so much that he doesn't realize he does it.  After he whines, he says he is playing, so we may have to come up with a different system for him to get him to stop with the whining.  It's kinda like a grunt with a whiny sound.  Hoping he will outgrow it soon!  Though I have to say if some whining and the occasional snow day crabbiness is all I have to deal with behavior wise with my kids, I feel pretty blessed!! 

We took the kids to the circus over the weekend.  They loved it as I knew they would!  Leeza declared afterward that she wanted a baby elephant.  We told her she had to choose between a baby elephant and a puppy.  Thankfully, she decided she wanted a puppy more than an baby elephant!! 

For those that haven't heard the news, we have some changes in our lives...outside of the obvious (adopting the kids).  After spending time in Ukraine and seeing/feeling all the things you see/feel during that process, we couldn't go back to life as normal.  For some time Jeff has felt the call to go into ministry and our adoption has helped in clarifying the path.  We have moved churches to a new church in our area that is very missions minded and we feel will help us grow and learn what we need to know to prepare us for the other things God has coming up.  Our big change will occur this summer, when we pack ourselves up and move to Colorado!  Jeff is going to attend a bible school in Colorado Springs and then go into ministry in some fashion to help orphans and the people in Ukraine.  That potentially could mean living in Ukraine at some point.  We don't know yet!  We are just taking one step at a time.  We are excited about the new church and felt so at home there the last couple of weeks.  We are also excited about moving to Colorado.  The kids are excited..mostly because they get a puppy when we move!!   Between now and then, we have to sell our house, find jobs,etc...  Please pray for God's guidance for each step as we move forward to do what we feel God is calling us to do!    Also, Jeff is planning to go on a short term 10 day trip back to Ochakiv to take stuff to the kiddos there. Zhenya will go too, if we get enough money to send them both.  Please pray for that trip as well. 

Here are a few pictures from the circus!!

They were enthralled!

The baby elephant Leeza wanted to bring home.

Posing with Elvis in downtown Nashville after the circus.